My head is exploding... with anticipation!!

Screw the OnStar radio commercial rant that I was going to write. I just don't care enough to whine right now about a commercial on the radio. I've moved on. I've got bigger fish to fry. Harder bananas to dip in chocolate (ooo. Sounds... salacious).

This time tomorrow, I will be at a concert. Now, many of you know my insane passion for the Barenaked Ladies. I've blogged repeatedly about them and their shows.

Today we find ourselves in the midst of tour season and they're in my area. Tomorrow I will be in Portland Maine at the location where I first saw them back in 2001 for my birthday.

I love these guys. I cannot really express the amount of joy and happiness and excitement I feel when I see them live. Everyone has a favorite something. A big something that totally knocks them out and makes them turn into drooling fan girls or boys. I know some people who really really love Bruce Springsteen (cough, chrissy, that's you). I know some mondo U2 fans who would die if Bono ever touched them.

I long to meet the guys, someday, and not stand there slack-jawed saying "Gah. uh. Merple. Thanks!"

But I'm sure they'd understand.

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The itinerary for the next few days is as such:

Tomorrow -- go to work. Try not to be too terribly ADHD distracted about the show. Leave office, jet home, get daughter and daughter's best friend and mom. Drive to Maine. Rock out. Drive home. Get a little sleep.

Friday -- get up. Get kid out to school. Pack for us and pack for them. Take dog to kennel. Go to work. Leave early. Drive straight to hotel. Check in, dump bags, go to Mohegan Sun. Wait for Doug (if he gets to me before the show, that's cool. If not...) Rock out. Exit concert. Call Doug and K's dad. Find them. Run around casino with my sister, K's mom, Ronnie, Doug, K's Dad. Go to hotel. Crash.

Saturday -- sleep in. Call Aaron (he will be at his folks nearby) Swim in pool Go in Sauna. Say goodbye to sister and future brother in law. Return to Casino. run around some. Have tons of fun. Return to hotel. Crash.

Sunday -- Check out, go pick up kids, come home in time for football.

You may not hear from me here, but check flickr for pictures if I'm able to take care of posting some, especially Saturday. I plan on taking the laptop from the office with me, and uploading from the hotel with some downtime I hope to have during the day on Saturday.

Turkey Junior

Saturday we were able to enjoy round two of Turkey Fest 2005. Grandma hosted us with Linda and Ronnie coming up from New York. We had a nice time, and it was weird to leave. I'm used to going to Swirlie's house and sleeping over. But we only live 90 minutes away now, so it is just a tad bizarre and will take some getting used to.

I was glad to see Linda and Ronnie, and mom's stupid cat actually curled up with me to nap but I didn't sleep. I was able to steal some time with my sister, and then she was treated to the cat hissing at me and trying to bite me the way she USUALLY does when I see her. So that was fun.

We had a brief visit with Aaron. He came here on Friday and left Saturday to go to Maine and get the remainder of his belongings. I don't know if we're going to get to see him on his way South back to his parents' house. I hope so. I'll miss him once he's gone again.

Today we went Geocaching, even though there was snow yesterday and things got a bit covered up. We did three of the ones that are inside our 10 mile radius. A bunch of them have cropped up recently so we don't have to go far to get some finds. We just need to make the time.

We haven't been getting out and hiking enough. Most Saturdays or Sundays lately we get a later start and then lose the daylight. The entire month of October was rainy. I set out to have us hit 450 by New Years, but we are now at 433 and I think we'll be lucky to hit 440 by my goal date. I hate this time of year. Today we set up seven to find, and hit three. Mostly because we spent a good period of time looking around an area where we found a quick and easy cache, and we enjoyed the area more than we wanted to get body count for caching. I took a ton of pictures.

As always, they're in the flickr gallery.

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The only big news in life here is that the countdown to BNL begins in earnest. Back in October I got our tickets for Thursday and Friday night's shows in Portland Maine and Mohegan Sun (CT) respectively. Thursday after I get home from work I grab Jess, K and her mom, and we girls jet up to Portland to rock out. We have to come home that night because K's mom has a test in the morning that she has to take for her nursing school program, otherwise I would have gotten a hotel room and spent the night up there.

After work on Friday, probably around 3pm, I'll grab K's mom and dad and head down to Connecticut. Doug will join us later and we're spending 2 nights at a hotel while my now nearby parents are hosting the children. Nice!

Well -- this entry has taken me three days to write. I have another whole rant about OnStar commercials that I want to post, so I'll save that for later unless I forget to post it. Remind me, okay?

Have a great day.

Tryptophan Coma

Wow. It is 10:30. Why am I awake? It is because my kids are awake, and I somehow find it terribly difficult to turn in before them, especially the boy. I am often afraid they'll get into a fight. Or start eating more and more food until they explode like Mr. Creosote.

I actually am pleased with myself that this thanksgiving I don't feel like Mr. Creosote, nor am I really in a tryptophan coma. I'm actually feeling relaxed and joyful this evening. And it is a nice feeling. Although tomorrow morning I have to unfortunately take time to go up and get Geoff some new glasses because his prescription has changed. This means I must fight the traffic filled with all these 3am shopping extravaganza maniacs. And that is something I do not relish.

Doug has to work. Because he has a new job and is in a probationary period, he doesn't get vacation time, or holiday pay, until 180 days after the date of hire. This does not bode will with Geoff who thinks we all will be going somewhere fun for April School vacation week. We shan't. This will truly suck.

But aside from the fact I don't have my husband around to entertain me tomorrow, I have a great deal to be thankful for. I won't go into a sappy Thanksgiving what I'm thankful for thing. God and love and happiness and time to reflect and yadda yadda. Meh. You don't want to hear that. Long time readers know where I stand. After four full years of Thanksgiving blogging, I'm pretty much thankful for everything that you know I am thankful for.

I will simply say the following, that in a nutshell this year the following are gifts from God:

• I'm thankful that my mom and dad have found a new, safer place to live this year. Hallelujah. Hallefreakinlujah.
• I'm happy and thankful that Linda has a job, and has totally overcome her fear of big dogs and currently lives with one (with Ronnie, whom I am thankful for as well).
• I am totally thankful for Jessica having some really good friends and the sensibility to not want to run around with them all the time, but to quietly and of her own accord stay home with us.
• I'm thankful that she doesn't always cry when we go geocaching.
• I am insanely thankful that she has discovered a talent that she puts to amazing use, and wish nothing but fun for her in the future. I'd like her to be spared some of the social problems that come with theatre (ie: backbiting stage bitches who'll sooner rip her hair out than be nice to her face) but I know, deep down, she's the kind of kid who has the intestinal fortitude to deal with all kinds of bullshit. I raised her that way. God bless her in her walk as she develops who she is becoming.
• I'm thankful for Geoff, for even though I find him frustrating at times I also know that there isn't a boy on earth meant for me to parent more than he is.
• And I'm thankful that he loves football and learned to ride a bike.
• I am thankful for his school, and for the nice relationship I'm building with his new ass't principal. Hopefully he'll stay for longer than a year. We've had a rough go with changes on Team Geoffrey in the school, and it would be nice to pull some stability with us into fourth grade.
• I'm thankful that Amy is able to come work in our office and have fun with us. She's a good egg and she makes me laugh. And she saves my ass some serious time.
• I am thankful her brother doesn't see me as a total psycho stalker on Flickr.
• I'm thankful that my office is freaking fun, and challenging, and a good place to work and that I get along with everyone save for a few minor personality issues which are mostly problems only because I am too sensitive sometimes.
• I'm thankful for my boss G, that she understands the parenting of a special needs kid.
• I'm thankful to have money coming in, because this time two years ago I was terrified we'd lose the house.
• I'm thankful for continued bloggy friendships with many lovely and talented people, and that I met a few more interesting and wonderful people this year.
• Above all the folks I've met, I'm especially in love with him and their dog and love spending time with them, geocaching, playing, eating, talking... everything. I wish they lived next door to me instead of so far away.
• K had brain surgery this summer, and I'm thankful that she survived, that her vision so far seems to slowly be recovering, that her parents make me laugh and they're working on being strong.
• I'm very thankful that K's mom and K will join us for BNL next week (oh holy crap -- one week from tonight! SQUWEEEEEEEEEE!)
• I am very very thankful for BNL and all the joy their music brings me. Love those guys.
• I'm thankful for my tenants, that they're really cool and not heroin dealer psycho maniacs. I'm thankful for my neighbors even though once in a while (see office bit about sensitivity up there) they get on my nerves. For the most part I think they have hearts of gold and baby, that's all we need sometimes.
• I am thankful that Aaron is a strong part of our lives even as his life is changing in ways that we can't help or prevent. At least he keeps us close by phone, and talks to us, and shares with us, and it makes our relationship stronger. Love him like a brother and would trust him with my life.
• I am thankful to you, dear reader, for showing up here all the time. Thanks!

There were a few things that happened this year that I'd like to forget. There was loss and heartache. But all in all. There is a lot to be thankful for. Hopefully that wasn't too too sappy for a Thanksgiving entry. Now, it is 11pm, and my bum is asleep in this not so comfy chair, and I should head to bed.

Happy thanksgiving to all.

Statistical Inevitabilities

"Sic transit gloria Favre? That's not quite Latin, but the splendor of one of football's best-ever quarterbacks seems fading fast."
-Gregg Easterbrook, NFL dot com

I hate Monday Night Football. Actually, no. I don't. I hate what Monday Night Football brings out in my son. Geoff, as of late, has become semi-obsessed with football. Who is playing whom and where and when. What the team record is. Who the field goal kicker guy is. Who the team has to face next so they have to win this week because next week is just going to be so difficult.

His obsession borders on Rainman and Wopner. Monday night games are the hardest because they start at 9pm, when he should be winding down for bed. Instead he is running around singing along with Boceifus and yelling "Are you ready for some footbaaaaaaaallllllll! All my rowdy friends are here for Monday night! Wooooooo!" and at 11 pm I am forcing him to go to bed, and he decries the fact that he might miss something exciting.

Last night the Packers played the Vikings. I was relatively certain the Pack would win, because they usually do well at home. The added layer of historical statistics in the fact that Brett Favre always wins at home if the temperature is under 32 degrees made me feel relatively confident in their abilities against a team that always plays in a dome at home and has played warm weather or domed games most of this season so far.

Geoff heard that trivia, and I had to explain it to him a bit more clearly. In his mind that set up the lead pipe cinch on this game. The Pack was going to wih, and he thought it was awesome. When I forced him to bed the Pack were ahead, there was one quarter left, and I felt there was no need to worry.

This morning, first thing he does out of bed is jump online to get the score because they're not giving it fast enough for his liking on the radio. He is pissed beyond belief. The Pack lost by a field goal in the final minutes and couldn't come back to at least tie it and head into overtime. The score was 20-17.

"But it was under 32 degrees! Brett Favre always wins ... (cry) at home when it's (sniff, blubber) under 32."

"Honey, that's just an interesting piece of trivia. Last night was the first time he's not had that statistic work out for him. I was really upset the Monday night last year when Bill Cowher brought the Steelers to Monday Night Football and they lost, when for years and years Bill Cowher had NEVER lost a Monday Night game. Ever. There is a first time for everything. And last night was the first time in Brett's nice, long career that he's lost at home under 32 degrees."

There is indeed always a first time for almost everything, isn't there? One of my favorites is when the sports play by play guys are up in the booth and they are jabber jawing about how this particular quarterback has NEVER been intercepted on a Sunday after 2pm when the wind is from the east and the temp is over 67. And what happens on the VERY next play? Bada bing, picked off. It is almost like they KNOW this is going to happen. And last night was no different when Al Michaels was blabbing about Brett and 32 degrees and Geoff got all excited. It happens. Statistics aren't steel clad. They're just guidelines and they're interesting.

But my son doesn't get that. To him, a statistic like Brett and the temperature is brought down from the Mountain by Moses and has been sent from the mouth of the Lord. It is veritas. It is truth. It is written in stone. He just can't wrap his head around a statistical inevitability like yeah, one day -- that kicker is NOT going to make the kick from 40 yards when he has been 100% from that line for his entire career. Brett might just lose when mother nature wraps us in frosty cloak. Bill Cowher and the Chin Of Power may just get punched out on a Monday Night. At Home.

The unthinkable can happen.

So very unaccepting of the fact the Pack went down in flames, Geoff is on the couch, crushed. I worry about him when he gets like this. I don't want him to grow up and bet on games based simply on the temperature. Hell, I don't want him to grow up and do anything more than a little office pool like I do. I just want him to go to school and have a good day. And at 6:45 in the morning, it ain't starting out so good.

Another thing that he is facing is one of his favorite players, Brett Favre, simply isn't having the best season ever. He's having an incredibly bad season as a matter of fact. And to an 8 year old who has watched him pull victories like rabbits out of a hat while the lion is chomping on the magician's ass, this does not bode well.

But it is statistically inevitable. Injuries, lack of a good, strong offensive receiving line, more injuries, and to top it off age are all slowing Brett down. I don't want to watch him end his career with a crappy season. I would love to see him ride out into the sunset with guns a'blazin' and the ball hitting every receiver right in the numbers. No more sacks for a loss of yardage. No more horrible interceptions at clinch points in the game. But. That isn't happening this year.

---

I will say it is a joy to have him interested in something, especially now that he can read really well. He spends a lot of time reading player profiles and team histories. He is very interested in punters and place kickers.

Here's a gem of Geoff philosophy for you this morning: "Everyone WANTS to be the Quarterback when they are playing football, but no one realizes how important the punter and kicker guys are."

True.

I just wonder what he's going to spend his time obsessing about after the Super Bowl.

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Well, I need to get him ready and get breakfast and get showered. I worked until 7 last night and may do it again tonight. It's a short week and I have to make sure I get everything done and set for the week ahead.

Tale of Two Islands... "I see stupid people."

By far this was the best play Jessica's ever been in.

She was spectacularly magical as the Magic Fish. She stole the show in the church Christmas Pageant a few years back when she was one of the 3 blonde female kings who together broke character and gestured to the star in the back of the church in the famed ZZ Top move. As the years have passed, the girl has been a bright little star on stage. Like a thespian Zeubenelgenubi!

The flickr set of like a million pictures is here. Click and go check out their stage performance genius! The play had a huge cast, with the two islands having core story/lead parts and then a large cast of islanders who supported the story without lines. The story was written by the theatre teacher and the kids wrote the bulk of the dialog. There were incredibly keen insights into how "Utopia" and "Urbania" (the hippies and the business minded) were like on the underside. One of the funniest parts was Utopia's leader talking about how no one is a winner over the others in Utopia, we are all equal and all win. It echoed the exchange between Dash and Elastigirl in "The Incredibles" where they talk about how everyone is special, so in reality no one is special.

And the "No Sheep Left Behind" line on Utopia got a ton of laughs from the parents.

Jessica got some big laughs even though she didn't have a lot of lines. She steps forward and starts yelling into the audience "Bridge? I don't see a bridge. I just see a lot of people. Ugly people." And I told her she had to add smelly to her diatribe and she did and made a horrible face and got a lot of laughs.

The great thing about this play was the chance to totally over act the parts. Be the super crotchety grandma. The extra super flakey hippy chick. The ... silly cow. But not to over act so much that it detracts from everything else going on up on stage. There was a beauty pageant, a mall robbery, a parade of produce, a visit to Hug A Tree Day, a love story, tragic death, and a happy ending. All in 2 hours. Perfectly done.

They really did a bang-up job. I went to three performances and therefore do not qualify as "crazy" stage mom because I fell short of my final goal, ice cream...

Jessica's character spends an entire scene whining that she wants ice cream. Because I skipped the final performance but had pick-up and bring to cast party duties, I stopped at the store on the way and got her a pint of Ben & Jerry's. I wanted to slip backstage and have a cast member hand it to her for curtain call. But they did the play faster than the prior three runs, so I got there when they were already done. The gag still went over big, but I felt I'd failed in providing her a great comedic moment on stage. Sigh. I handed her the ice cream in the hallway, and a bunch of kids started yelling "OH YEAH! Grandma got her ice cream!!!" and she shared it with a few and it got big cheers. We managed to get lost on the way to the cast party (thank GOD I had the GPS with us. Meh!).

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In other news, I didn't mention it because it sometimes isn't all about me me me, my birthday was Saturday. I turned 39. My parents were here for the first Saturday performance and then we went out to dinner between shows. The waiter shared the birthday with me. He even showed me his ID to prove it. 10 years younger than I am. I had Doug leave him a nice big tip.

We had a bonfire that night too, for my birthday... because the weather was agreeable and you all know how much I just love burning crap.

We enjoyed burning the couch that we disassembled a few weeks back, and we threw on the pumpkins from Halloween just to see what would happen. They got all mushy and melty and ended up soaking the coals in the fire... that sucked, but it was fun to take pictures of them! There is a set of pictures in flickr if you have the guts to go see pumpkins burning to death. Mwah ha ha ha ha. Again I say, Mwah ha ha! Click here to go to the set of pictures. Mwah ha.

Opening Night

Tonight is the opening night of Jessica's play. Unlike two years ago when she freaked out the night of the dress rehearsal, she's handled each of the plays she's been in since then very well.

She finished all her homework. Last night she made sure to eat food, relax, finish all of her homework (even though her history teacher told her she could hand her assignment in on Friday) and get to bed early. She's a consummate professional, a veteran of four major performances. Five if you count her debut in second grade as the wish granting fish in "The Magic Fish."

We knew then that she was destined for greatness. She played the fish with a cruel hand, a steel eye, an a twist of humor. She took the very sad children's legend of a fisherman who is granted wishes by the fish but is pushed by the greedy wife, and she brought vibrant interpretation to the role. And she wore a cool fish costume.

Tonight she plays a borderline senile old grandma lady. She gets to yell "What!?" a lot and "I want some ice cream!" And then she gets to whack people with her cane. Should be amusing.

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Today in school is the preview assembly where they do a few scenes. This is the way they try to entice jaded middle-school students into coming to the performances. Last year a large group came to see Alice in Wonderland and sat in the back and snarfed through the whole performance, to the point that some parents nailed them at intermission and told them to shut up or get out. At first, I was really excited to see them.

"Hey! They showed up to support the actors and their friends! How cool is that!" I said to Jessie.

"No, actually they came to make fun of us" was her reply.

I try and go to at least two of the four performances, and Doug called me a "crazy stage mom" last night. I was somewhat surprised. I never really thought going to support my kid's ONE interest on the planet that doesn't involve being horizontal on the couch with remote in hand qualified me as crazy stage mom. I took offense to the statement. But so what if I am, really. I think of all the kids who get absolutely no support, no rides after school, nothing but grief, when it is the one thing they want to do -- be it band or drama or sports or whatever -- and it is the least I can do, to go and support what they're doing.

Plus, they're actually really good so it's worth it.

My mom always went to all my band and choir events. My mom chaperoned trips on the bus. My mom bundled up and cheered for us in field shows in November when it was starting to snow and we were competing with much smaller, better bands. I don't remember my dad going to one concert. Staying home after work (Yes, he worked hard but so did my mom) to drink himself into nightly oblivion was far more important.

If he had been honest with me the way Nance is with her boy (they have a monetary arrangement -- she pays him off to get out of going, which slays me) it would have been better. Shrugging and saying "Meh" and going back to the Meisterbrau didn't communicate a very supporting feel to me. And I really resented that.

So I go. And I will go. And now that my parents live 2 hours away you better damn well believe they're going. And I'm making my father go too. Payback for all the shows and concerts he blew off. Ha.

Anyway. This crazy stage mom has to get into work for a crazy work day. Off to shower. Have a good one yinz.

The couch and I didn't spend much time this weekend

A few weeks ago, when my parents moved, we inherited my sister's former futon for Jessica's room. It's been in our truck since. I got sick, then Doug didn't feel well, and then another week went by and the new bed my daughter has been anxiously awaiting set-up for is still in the truck. It's how our life typically goes. I have been driving the truck to work lately, so I am sick of looking in my rear view window and seeing the futon mattress scruched up and blocking my view.

It was time.

So I asked Doug if we could get the dang thing out of the truck. One stumbling block to making forward progress was the fact we had this old old old loveseat in Jess' room which has become totally trashed in the past few years. It was left over from when Clayton lived with us. And it was rotten and horrible and simply not even worth driving over to the Salvation Army.

We decided to trash it, but we couldn't put it out on the curb as a whole. The trash guys won't take couches. And we were 100% certain that no one on planet earth would want this thing. We figured it would be fun to wreak some havoc on the hapless piece of furniture, so we took it outside and literally ripped the stuffing out of it.

You can view the carnage in flickr if you like. Click here for couch potatoes' revenge.

Not only did we trash a couch, but we went Geocaching too. We set out to do more than one, ended up doing one. Because it was a "mystery" cache, we had to solve a puzzle and then go out and find the cache, only to discover there was more to the mystery than we anticipated. So we got out of the area just at sunset. There are pictures in flickr too if you want to see those. Some really good ones of Jessica for a change.

Then, Jessie and I did make good friends with the couch for several hours last night as we watched BBC America's Pythonathon. Good times, good times.

Today we were up early, did some junk around the house, observed Jessica snoozing on her futon mattress (we still need to set up the frame, but she's happy to have the mattress all set up!) and then we went canoeing. We hadn't been pretty much since we bought the thing, not for lack of desire but for lack of water and good weather.

Our choice this morning was to go out and do cache maintenance on some existing geocaches we own, or to hit the water. I am glad we hit the water but am reminded that my upper body strength has never been good, and now my arms feel like Jello.

So my butt was relatively detached from the couch for a lot of hours this weekend and it feels pretty good. But it is 1pm and there is football starting up, so I think my ass is going to become reacquainted with its groove on the cushion.

Late for the Blog

What a long week. Excuses aside, I've not been able to sit here and write. I did sit here and scan a few old pictures to post into Flickr, and I upgraded some of my earlier photos with some photoshop changes. But actual sitting and writing is something I haven't had the time to wrap my head around. To everything, there is a season.

Anyway -- Last weekend we spent a good day geocaching with him and his lovely new dog. We found 2 of 3 and I took tons of pictures (go to flickr and see them). Then ate ribs (oh yeah baby) and waited for Jon to come home so we could see him as well. Sunday we watched football. Doug took Monday-Wednesday off and started his new job on Thursday. He went in for orientation and was home by 2. Today he's off and probably won't be back until later because he's going over to the further away location he'll be covering, and it's a Friday, and traffic will suck on the way home.

Wednesday Geoff's cub scout den and another got together for a police/safety thing. It was a lot of fun and really, really loud. The boys got fingerprinted, and we got to keep the sheets. The cops don't want them until they NEED them, if you know what i mean.

And hopefully, they never will.

My kids have today off of school for veteran's day. Geoff has a doctor's appointment at 9:30 and then we're going to go hang out in my office and see how much more work I can get done. Work was busy this week and I managed to get ahead. When I go in today I'll start next week's content scheduling, so that's good. Geoff can watch Wallace & Gromit on my laptop at my desk or play at C's computer because she's on vacation. And I do believe we're having champagne today because we crossed a milestone this week. Huzzah!

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Jessica spent the night at a friend's house and when I dropped her off she told me that she started a livejournal blog.

*cringe*

gah. No. you didn't.

So she told me her username and I went and read the three entries she's posted so far. I figured it was inevitable. I emailed her some pointers (ie: remove your town name from the profile page) commended her on her salute to veterans that she wrote last night, and asked a few questions about what she'd written.

I'll leave it at that.

The one thing I have to say is that I'm glad she's honest and told me, and that I didn't have to get a call from a mom in seven months "do you know what your daughter said about MY daughter!!!" I can read it for myself now and decide if it's something she should edit to prevent that kind of mom phone call.

I'm not going to link to her, but if you want to read it, let me know and I'll send it along. Especially if you're an auntie.

My new camera rocks the freaking party. I'm so incredibly excited. Go see our flickr pictures. I took a lot more shots, but I didn't upload them all. There were a lot of the kids running around doing stuff, and not as much visual aesthetic, so I didn't include those.

These are "my" kids. I had four yesterday. Geoff, of course, the boy is J and he is reputedly a handful but he was awesome, and two lovely sweet girls, O and S. I really had fun with the four of them, and didn't lose a single one. You should be proud.

I'll write more later. It is already 7:30 and I've not yet showered. In the meantime, pictures abound, including my first awesome micro shot ever. I can see why so many flickr posters really get into their macros. Framing this and getting the focus down -- fun stuff. And the result made me smile. I may have a new flickr addiction. I'm a novice at it, obviously, but I really had fun trying it out. And... I'd like to figure out how to do really good depth of field like some of my favorite shooters do.

Right -- enough babble about cameras and shit. I've got a boy to dress, a shower to hit, and a ride to work. Tonight, Amy and I (and Jessica) are going to see some live a cappella in the form of the Bubs from Tufts University. They're performing in my neighborhood, so I figured it'd be fun to do.

More later, I promise.

Oh -- Y'all send Aaron mojo. He interviewed for a new even cooler better than ever job in Washington State. His job ends (the one he has) next week and picks up again in April. This other job is year-round, and pays a ton and a half more money.

He really wants and needs this job.

Pray for him. Pray that he has been lead to the right place and that this job is the one for him. Pray for his happiness and his safety.

If he doesn't get it, he has a plan B -- there's a ski resort near where he currently works and he can work there for the winter, go back to his current job in April. So he's not doomed. It'd just be nice to get his whole career thing nailed down, and this job, this new job that he wants, is perfect.

Right then, again- - must shut up and go.

It is Gadget-tastic!

I decided months ago that I needed a new camera. I was suffering camera envy, looking at all the Flickr postings shot with Nikon D70s and Canon EOS rebels and whatnot.

So tonight I went out with Doug and we sampled the cameras at Best Buy. I bought a Nikon Coolpix L1 with 6.2 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom. The optical zoom is what got me. All the other cameras were 3x. I wanted to be able to zoom in from afar upon things that I'm not close to. Like BNL in concert. Now I need to invent an ingenious way of getting the camera through checkpoints undiscovered. I would hate to lose my investment.

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Right now, two other people are begging to get on the computer. I just wanted to let you know that I do live, that I'm over being sick, and that tomorrow I'll be out chaperoning a field trip for 3rd grade.

Pray for me.

It is to Plymouth Plantation. Apologies to Bree in advance for my whiteness and my going along. I know it pains First Nation folk that this place exists. I'm interested in seeing the historical information that is presented. I'm sure it is a lot more sensitive to the native Americans than it was when I first went there when I was Geoff's age.

A full report will indeed follow.

In the meantime, old Sony Cybershot 1.3mpxl camera has been passed down to Jessie. I have a 512mb memory card in my new puppy and will fill it up with interesting gawkings over the next several days.

Pictures will, of course, be flickr'ed.

And now -- I'm away to curl up with an instruction manual.

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Oh -- by the way. My cell phone is very suddenly not working. It is not powering on. Any advice for me before I call tech support at T-mobile? It's a Samsung phone if that matters to your knowledge base.

Leave a comment. Feed the monkey.

Ed. Note: Well, Doug pressed a bunch of buttons mashing-style on my keypad and the phone woke up. And when it did, it was ringing. I was an old friend from back in the day and he and I were just on the phone for an hour, so I haven't read my camera manual. Such is life. I have to call him back so he can finish his epic story of heartbreak and resurrection. Good thing I had a lot of caffeine this afternoon.