Just piling on...

Everyone else is doing it so I will too...



Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent
Uploaded by dwarthy

Rock on, sister...

Am a Geek

Am such a geek. After cooking a delishus feast for my family today, I spent the remainder of the day turning this:

into this:

all while consuming copious amounts of this:

mmmmm...delicious, delicious wine...

Fun With Your Dog

Imagine growling and laughing.

Mmmm...Yummy bone-thing.

Hold still, silly bone-thing. I'm gonna eat you.

Ahhh...Is good to be dog with yummy bone-thing.

Wait. What is Human-thing doing? Get away! Is my bone-thing!

Back away, Human-thing. I can bite hands too.

Am mad at Human-thing. Took bone-thing. Won't let me eat cat fud. Still mad about haircut. Gonna barf behind bedroom door.

Science quiz

I would make my 8th grade science teacher proud...

25 Things

Found this over at Karen's. Kind of a feel-good post for the first post of the new year.

The 25 things I never get tired of (in no real particular order):

1. Watching my son sleep
2. Great music
3. Long hot bubble baths
4. Good wine
5. Good friends
6. Laughing
7. Spending time with my family
8. Finishing a project
9. Having a massage
10. Room service
11. Fresh sheets and a comfortable bed
12. An unspoiled mountain lake
13. Fresh air and sunshine (is that two??)
14. Listening to a cat purring
15. A clear night sky in the mountains
16. My dog greeting me when I come home
17. Hearing people laugh
18. Finishing a good book
19. Giving a gift to someone I love
20. Playing in the ocean
21. Watching a good movie
22. Hugs
23. Going to a craft or fabric shop (I feel close to my mother there)
24. A truly good cup of coffee
25. Holding my son in my arms

A good weekend

We had a lovely time this weekend. We spent a lot of time at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. Heard a lot of really good music (Chuck Mangione, I luuurve you), heard some guys I had never heard of before but must now spend money on their music (Chris Botti - great, great musician...and not bad to look at either - that's him over there <--) or bought a CD after the show (Greg Adams...kind of looks like a younger version of Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate fame, but whoa! what great music!!).

Anyway, it was really needed as we gear up for next week. We have a mediation scheduled to see if we can get E returned. Now they are saying they offered to place E with us (well, me, but B would have to live elsewhere) and we refused!!!! Ummm...no it was never offered. The closest thing to that was at our house with my MIL (or FIL) living here too. I must still be supervised with my son (sight and sound!!).

Well, if you get a chance to hear any of these great musicians, make time. I was duly impressed.

Other things

I do have an interest (and can write about) things other than the crap that my life has been recently. As I mentioned once before, I like to do handicrafts...sewing, knitting, crocheting, needlework, etc. Lately I have been into cross stitching.

I was first introduced to cross stitching quite a few years ago from a colleague who said she enjoyed it. So I went out and bought a cross stitch kit...one of the stamped ones wherein the pattern is stamped on the cloth and you merely follow the lines and stitch where ever there is a mark on the cloth. So I bought one.

And never finished it. Then I bought another. And didn't finish that either.

So I left cross stitching alone for quite a while.

About 10 years later, B's brothers started having children...and I wanted to make those cross stitched birth announcements. So I bought another kit only this time it was counted cross stitching (god this is boring). The difference being that in counted cross stitch you start out with a blank canvas and count the stitches (get it? Counted. Cross. Stitch).

And I finished it. And then I finished another. Hey! I can do this!

As boring as that may sound, I find it very relaxing and quite engrossing. I have stayed up very late because I just want to finish This One Section.

One of the things that I finished lately is this picture that I am going to hang in E's room (once it gets properly washed and framed). It is from the book Guess How Much I Love You. I know that some people don't like this book (i.e. "...why would a father try to 'one-up' his child?"). To those people I say, phlbbbbttt (*wipe drool from chin*). I think it is a sweet book that speaks of a parent's boundless love for a child.

And I finished this piece this past weekend. I actually started this about 5 years ago. I got it about half done and then it got put aside and then we moved and I couldn't find it for quite some time. I found it when I was unpacking all of my craft stuff. This is one of the bigger and more complex things that I have done. It has a lot of colors and a lot of outlining; I still need to add some beads to it, but I think I will wash it and iron it first. It is a bell pull so I also have to find some hardware to put at the top and the bottom. I think a trip to the craft store is in the offing...

The next thing I am going to work on is this Christmas stocking. I actually bought this last October hopefully to finish before the holiday, but only got this far when my interest was highjacked by staring at legal documents and trying to understand how the f$#% someone's life can get tweaked out of control so quickly.

It will be ready for next Christmas.

New Year's resolution

New Year's Resolution:

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Figuring out why I really need 7 e-mail addresses. Get your resolution here.

...and this is way more accurate than I like to think...

Delurking Week

Delurking Week. Yes it is. I looked it up. That means that anyone who reads this blog must leave a comment. Yes, it does. If you don't I will sell your IP address to a Nigerian prince who will then steal all your 'monees.'

I will send you a Neiman-Marcus cookie.

I will give your address to the Scientologists (this happened to my brother and we got tons of junk mail for years).

I would love to read your comments. Call me a bitch. Call me a complainer. Say I couldn't write myself out of a paper bag. Just say something.

Or else.

2006 Meme

I think I will jump on the bandwagon and do the latest meme that is going around (far be it from me to buck the trend...besides it is an easy post and one designed not to be too depressing...see how I look out after my readers...?)

This meme involves listing the first line of the first post from every month last year. See? I told you. Easy peasy.

January 2006
We are currently on the road on the way from Seattle to Florida.

February
I missed the whole blog war.

March 2006
I am going on a business trip to Philadelphia.

April 2006
I received a letter in the mail this week that stirred up some really conflicted feelings.

May 2006
A joke...since I can't think of anything else to blog about...

June 2006
So. I'll bet my legions of readers* are wondering, 'How goes the potty training?

July 2006
I have always loved the following story.

August 2006
I was reading the other day about some poor schmuck that got fired by text message.

September 2006
(Bad blogger...no posts in September...)

October 2006
The polls are open.

November 2006
Feeling kind of bummed out today but I thought I would pass on probably one of the last places in the world I would go to eat.

December 2006
This could possibly be the worst holiday season ever in my life topping even the year my mother died (3 days before Christmas, 1989).

Feel free to go back and revisit any of this scintillating reading...

(tomorrow I will update about today's court hearing...for now let's just revel in the easy...)

Personality test

Actually this came out surprisingly accurate. Found this link from Tertia.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion 53% Stability 86% Orderliness 53% Accommodation 63% Interdependence 56% Intellectual 70% Mystical 10% Artistic 36% Religious 10% Hedonism 50% Materialism 36% Narcissism 56% Adventurousness 50% Work ethic 16% Self absorbed 43% Conflict seeking 10% Need to dominate 30% Romantic 50% Avoidant 36% Anti-authority 43% Wealth 30% Dependency 10% Change averse 36% Cautiousness 30% Individuality 50% Sexuality 56% Peter pan complex 16% Physical security 90% Physical Fitness 10% Histrionic 30% Paranoia 10% Vanity 23% Hypersensitivity 30% Female cliche 36%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic (boy...is this me, or what??).

Orderliness results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun (this seems to be a bit off the mark...not really that neat...I always thought I was fairly flexible).

Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting (pretty close, I'd say).

I agree with most of the following. The ones that are most on the mark I have made bold.

trait snapshot:

clean, organized, regular (glad to know this), self reliant, tough, positive, high self control, very good at saving money, dislikes chaos, resolute, realist, trusting, hard working (how can I get this, but have low work ethic??), dislikes unpredictability, prefers a technical specialized career (hehe...yep...), not worrying (at least until 2 months ago), respects authority, enjoys leadership, finisher, normal (this is good to know), optimistic, controlling (hmmm...really?), prudent, modest, adventurous, does not like to be alone (not sure about this), intellectual, likes the unknown, very practical (that's the engineer in me), high self esteem, assertive, perfectionist, busy, altruistic

Southpark Me

This is how I am feeling today: Love this Southpark thingy; hate the thought of going to TX

Diversions

Just make sure your boss doesn't see you playing this little time-waster...