My Mom Can Kick Your Mom's Ass

Not trying to start a fight or anything.... but my mom is AWESOME. Completely. I feel almost like a clone of her.... but with pieces of my dad. like I got my dad's ability to negotiate someone's pants off them, his ability to analyze a situation and take something apart and put it together again, his ability to draw, and his research capabilities. I am just like my dad in the way that he likes to research every decision to find out what is the best route, what is the cheapest solution, is there an alternative way....

But back to my mom. I look like her. My sister and I both do, and people always make comments on how Liz and I are sisters through and through, our looks, voice, mannerisms.... Of course the is tall and thin and dark haired and I am tall and not thin and red/blonde haired, but we are a perfect mixture of mom and dad. Our mom is super super crafty. She used to be so crafty that Martha Stewart would be jealous. But then my mom got what is known as "craft burnout." So now she does some crafty things but could care less about others. But she instilled the craftiness into me. And my aunt was also super crafty, so the two of them together turned me into a super crafty child that has spawned a super crafty woman. Crochet, painting, basket weaving, beading, scrapbooking and card making, and pretty much being super handy with a glue gun. Home decorating, flower arranging, gardening.... I love them all. A gift given to me by my mom. When I was a kid, 4 years old making valentines, she helped me to cut out hearts and fold them in half, then put suckers inside with the stick as a mouse tail. I was the kid with elmers glue, paper heard doilies, felt, googley eyes, and walnut shells. Pipe cleaners? You bet. She kept me entertained constantly.... which must have been hard because I was always "bored." Poor mom.

On top of that, my mom is a hella good cook. As in she cooks for a living, and for a family, and her recipes are sought after and her ideas of what taste good are right on. So I believe I was destined to love food, although my sister counters that theory with her hate of all things animal and vegetable. And her size 2 pants. So my mom made all the food for our wedding reception, with the help of some co-workers. She makes kick ass potato salad and italian beef, so good that people go back for seconds and thirds... and ask "who made this?"

And the luckiest thing? She passed it to me. She passed me recipes. She passed me the love for food, and for baking. My favorite thing to do is make bread. If I had a week off work I would make bread for the entire town of Wyanet if I could. I love love love to make bread. Part of that has to be owed to my friend Angela and her very missed grandma Sadie. Sadie taught Angie (and Angie's mom Joan) a way with tea rings and all things baked with yeast. I always loved going to Angie's house growing up because it seemed there were ALWAYS tea rings in progress. And always dough rising in the big yellow tupperware bowl. They made tea rings constantly, and froze them. I also have Grandma Sadie's tea ring recipe.

I have to tell you, I CHERISH recipes. When people give me their good recipe, it is like the best best best gift. When selling Pampered Chef, I met my super hostess Maureen (Mo) Pasker. Mo gave me her recipe for Neiman Marcus Dip. Every function I take it to, I get comments and questions "what is IN this?" so thank you Mo for great recipe. My mom passed on her love of crafting and her love of food.

Our mom is a smart woman. You don't (almost) ever get anything past her. When we were growing up, we always said she had eyes in the back of her head. I never thought I had that, until one day Evan's friends Clint and Cody made the comment that talking to me was like talking to the cops. They said that they swore I always knew when anyone was lying. They said they don't ever want to piss me off. I heard them tell someone once that I can't be fooled and god help the person who tries. I am not saying that is entirely true, but that came from my mom. She always knew what we were going to do before we even knew it.

Plus, she is a cool mom. You can talk to her about anything. And my sister and I tell her just about everything (much to the dismay and shock of our boyfriends and husbands). She tells it like it is. Liz and I got that from her too. She can keep a secret and she knows who she can trust. And you know, there is a line where a cool mom can become a bad mom, like the mom who hired the stripper for a 16 year old son's birthday. That's over the line. And my mom completely knows where the line is. She was my sister's designated driver on her 21st birthday. And my sister is no dork. My mom went out with all Liz's friends and made sure my sister was safe. That is a cool mom.

She bought Evan and I a dishwasher for our birthdays one year. We needed it desperately. THAT is a cool mom.

She's tough. She doesn't take crap from people. She beat breast cancer. She beat my ass when I hit my sister. She made shorts for us one year when we were kids, and even though she sewed the straight pins into the elastic waist and left them there, they were cool shorts. She went without things for herself to give us what we needed and even things we wanted. She planned the coolest birthday parties for us, using creativity and craftiness. She spent hours piping little icing stars on character cakes and making invitations.

I hope that my mom knows how much she means to me, and to Liz and that she has left some gigantic shoes to fill. If I can be half a good of mom as she is, I will have done okay.

My mom turns 50 this month, so if you know her, send her an email to wish her happy birthday and remind her how cool she is.

Stampin Up and Close to my Heart Orders!

Ohhhh..... new scrapbooking supplies. You just can't go wrong. I belong to a Close to My Heart "club" where a group of 10 of us got together and we each place a $15 minimum order once a month- that way our orders make a show, and then we take turns reaping hostess benefits.

I ordered a personalized acrylix stamp with my first and last name and my email address, that way I can use staz-on ink to personalize all my stamping/scrapbooking supplies.... so when I loan them out or go to a PMS day I don't have to worry about losing them or mixing them up with someone else's.

Well, then at my last cardmaking class, I had to order my staz-on (she sells stampin up and they are $2 cheaper per pad from SU than CTMH) and I had been eyeballing the Teriffic Tags Punch Box... and I heard it was going to be no longer available so I went ahead and ordered that too. Then I got the gently falling hostess only set. My SU order came today and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the punch box. It containes a tag shaped punch, three stampin spots ink pads, and 6 rubber stamps that fit right inside the tag that you punch out. Ones for baby, holiday, birthday, thank you, and friends- and then al all occasion "for you" stamp. Awesome!

So now once my personalized stamp makes it through with my CTMH order, I can start "stamping" all my belongings. I can't wait!

Oh the small things that entertain me!

ugh

Spent 6.5 hours today working on a wireless/wired network. Now I REALLY don't want to go to work this week, especially since Our department will be half staffed due to an out of state conference.

Did I mention that I still have a 27 slide powerpoint presentation to create TONIGHT and baby shower invites for two friends' showers, AND laundry AND dishes. Hmmmm.... what to do first?

I suppose I should be sure to get in Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy and then we will see what I get done next.

Brand vs Generic

Well, it is 2am and I can NOT sleep. I thought of something to blog so instead of tossing and turning, I decided to reach over the side of the bed and grab my laptop. I will just type this in word and put it on the blog in the morning, or at this rate probably not till lunch, because if I get online now I will NEVER sleep.

I often think of blogging this and hours later it goes out of my head. Brand Versus Generic. And I don’t just mean what is your opinion, oh no no no! In my head the debate is much stronger.

First, let me lay down the scene. Growing up, we shopped at Aldi’s. Now I don’t know if Aldi’s is like Nationwide, but their headquarters is located in Batavia, Illinois, so we have them all over here in North Central Illinois. Since sometime in the late 80’s we have shopped at Aldi’s. And if we were at another store, we were starting in the aisle where everything was in plain yellow boxes and all it said was “spaghetti” in black lettering on the box, or “cola” or “Macaroni.” You know the ones. My mom was super thrifty, and she had to be. My dad got laid off from Caterpillar for 8 years straight, and he was forced to take whatever auto mechanic or other job he could find while we were growing up. We didn’t have mad cash. Not in the least.

So I have always been fine with generic. When I took lunch, I had a Twonkie for dessert or a crunchy chocolate chip cookie where the whole bag of cookies cost 78 cents. You know the ones. Or, maybe you don’t. Maybe you were the kid who I went to school with who always had coke or pepsi, and wonder bread, and lunchables… while I had “l’oven fresh” white bread and buddigs meat, or peanut butter and jelly. You had Heinz ketchup and I had “catsup.” And I loved the food I had. It was cool. But I tell you, kids can be MEAN and they all knew that my twinkie was a twonkie. OHHHH yes they did and they looked down their noses at my twonkie. Spoiled rotten little brats. I was on the special hot lunch program where I got reduced price meals. And you know what pissed me off about that? They had DIFFERENT COLOR LUNCH TICKETS for reduced price meals. SO all the kids knew. I walked through line with a green ticket while everyone else had pink. But I just figured that I was special because my lunches cost $2 for an entire week. I thought I was getting a “deal.” But WTF? Why color the tickets the same?

So I grew up never having miracle whip. Never. We had mayonnaise from Aldi. Because they don’t MAKE generic miracle whip. As a result, I despise the “tangy zip” of miracle whip. I HAVE to have mayonnaise, and I like to eat it on EVERYTHING and cook with it also. I will NOT put Miracle whip on my sandwich. I also grew up eating potato flakes instead of homemade mashed potatoes. As a result, my sister and I DISLIKE real mashed potatoes. We specifically request fake ones at holidays and we don’t eat them at other people’s houses because they are usually real.

But my mom was (and still is) an AWESOME cook. She can make anything taste great, and we never wanted for anything food wise when we were kids. We didn’t have junk food in our house. There were never potato chips, except the generic bags that went in my dad’s lunch. We didn’t have chocolate cereal. No Cocoa Puffs or Captain Crunch or Lucky Charms. We had generic chex and crispix and rice crispies. I never tasted real rice krispies until I was almost 12. No difference. Just a shitload more expensive. When my mom was in the hospital having my sister, I stayed at my cousin Mike’s house and my aunt Carol told me to pick out my cereal. They had a WHOLE CUPBOARD full of cereal. Like 5 kinds! They had CHOCOLATE RICE KRISPIES and COCOA PUFFS and Count Chocula. I said “can I have this?!” I was incredulous. She said sure, and do you want Chocolate milk on it too? I was like “um, no I’d better just have regular milk.” My cousin mike had cocoa puffs with chocolate milk. My milk turned chocolate just from the cocoa puffs alone. I was in AWE. We didn’t have pop in our house except on special occasions, and for dad’s lunches. If it was a Friday night and we were making cardboard pizza, we would ask permission to have one of dad’s pops with our pizza. Mom would count the pop that was left and count the days until dad’s next paycheck and then see if there was enough for his lunch till she could get groceries again. And if there were extras, we got a pop with our pizza. Sometimes we would have to split it because there would be one left.

So when I met Evan, I was so shocked at how he took for granted that there would always be pepsi and mountain dew in the fridge. A never-ending supply. And popsicles (the GOOD bullet pops, not the cheap Mr Freeze pops that we had) and ice cream in the freezer. And Doritos and Wonder bread. The stuff he had was AMAZING. It was like walking into a grocery store in their kitchen. They had lunchmeat and cheeses FROM the DELI! And macaroni salad and potato salad and bread that cost $3 a loaf. When we were in high school, he had a charge account at the “weenie wagon” for his lunch and he would buy and extra cheeseburger and a pop and feed me on days when I had no money to eat. We didn’t even date yet. And at school I was so broke for gas that I would ask friends for extra quarters and add up all the change I could gather so that I could put $1.00 of gas in my car to get home. One day I actually put 25 cents of gas in my car. That was when gas was 97 cents a gallon and I figured if that 25 cents got my two miles closer to home, it was a lot less that I would have to walk when I ran out. One day I ran out of gas twice in one day. I would just put my car in neutral, open the door, and push on the door jam till I got the car rolling downhill, then I would hop in the drivers seat and coast.

So we really came from completely different upbringings.

And I am not saying we were in poverty. I had shoes to wear. But they did come from Wal-Mart or were hand me downs or garage sale finds. I didn’t care too much. Until I got to Junior High and I had generic basketball shoes while everyone else had brand new nikes and reeboks. I had a pair of Nikes that someone had given me that had drywall mud and glass in the soles, and I spent Hours scraping it out so that I could wear them to volleyball practice and in games. Just so I could have nikes and not Spaulding shoes. How cruel kids are.

Even when I was in high school Jennifer Judd was the coolest chick because even though she was two years younger than me, she was a runner and she would just GIVE me all her old Adidas when her parents bought her new ones. She gave me three pair of Adidas my senior year. And I wore those shoes until I was 21.

So I am thrifty that’s for damn sure.

But you know what is interesting about brands and generics? There are these brand name things whose names become like a “staple.” For example, when you buy generic pop, do you call a cola a cola? Nope. You call it a Coke. Even though that’s just the brand name. Do you call every cotton swab a Q-Tip? I do. Most people do. Even though I never buy Qtips because they are WAY overpriced for sticking them in your ear and then straight into the garbage. I buy the generic ones, and I like them better because they fuzz doesn’t come off like a Q-Tip, and they come in purple to match my bathroom. That’s like, how many kids call any chicken nugget a “Mc Nugget?” Or how about Chapstick? I use Carmex and Blistex and I Still call it Chapstick, even though it isn’t. Or how about Kotex? How many maxi pads are known as Kotex, regardless of if they are actually stayfree or always? Isn’t that bizarre? What brand names can you think of that have just plain taken over? Band-Aid? Generic ones are often called “Steri-Strips” or “sterile bandages” – But I bet you call them Band-Aids don’t you?

Oh the things I think about at 2:52 am. Good god girl, go to SLEEP!

9 New Scrapbook Pages!!!

For those of you who don't give a shit, just pass right over this post. I got 9 scrapbook pages done tonight, all the pics from Christmas 2005. I was inspired to do these, but I still haven't done Christmas last year, or Thanksgiving this year, and I haven't finished the wedding album (haven't even gotten to the wedding part yet) but I needed a break from that album.

It was fun to do and I really enjoyed some of the pages, especially making the dog collar out of "conchos" and paper and wire. It was a very relaxing night. I should have been doing laundry. Or working on web pages. The scrapbook pages are below, and in order as they are in the album. Click to make them bigger and see detail and journaling. To see the 9 pages I accomplished last Saturday night, and the 18 pages currently in my wedding album, click HERE.

:) Meagan

RED ALERT!!!! Lurkers are everywhere.

It always fascinates me how there can be almost 200 people here yesterday alone and like ONE of them comments. It's amazing. Okay, so maybe more like 4 of them comment, but that is like a 2% comment rating. I am not sure what is up with people. I suppose that my posts must suck and be boring, or my site is visited by cyborgs with no thoughts and feelings. I know ya'll are literate, because over 45% of you stayed her for over an hour, and 20 % of you stayed her for 20 minutes. Unless it's just the purty pictures that ya'll like.

I thought maybe when I take a bath I need to think up a really great hot button issue and type about it, but generally when I blog a hot button issue, people stay away from the comments like the plague. So perhaps not everyone thinks it's a hot button issue?

So I am elevating the lurker level to RED. Literate visitors feel free to out yourselves in the comments. Just click on the little "Lasso of Truth" link below. It's easy to find cuz it will sparkle real pretty like if you just put your mouse over it.

: dazed and amused.

a totally worthless post. I dare you to read it.

Before I begin, let me mention that I am this week's tenant at A Table for One. I am thrilled. I hope that I meet some new friends this week... so welcome everyone - and especially those who surf on in via the table.

My obsession with the late 60's and early 70's has followed me from day one. My mom once told me that she thought I was accidentally born in the wrong era. I love the music, the cars, the clothes... and I will never have enough of them. Growing up, my dad listened to KUUL FM and I heard oldies after oldies after oldies. I learned every word. I remember when I was little, I used to think that CCR's bad moon on the rise was "the bathroom's on the right" and I swear my dad about died laughing. But from him, I got the amazing talent of making up new lyrics to go with any song, usually on the spot without further thought. I am always making up my own words.

But of course as you can tell from my web address, my favorite movie of all time is Dazed and Confused, from the time I saw it in Kansas City Missourri in 1994 until this day, 12 years later. And another of my favorites, is A Walk on the Moon. I love to listen to the oldies, Hendrix, ZZ Top, Head East, Foghat, Black Oak Arkansas, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Miller Band, Aerosmith (Sweet Emotions era), Led Zeppelin, CCR, Frampton, The Doors, and one of my favorite CD's is the Best of Woodstock. It's just the era that appeals to me and it isn't something I have grown out of.

Tonight I watched A Walk on the Moon again, and I have to tell you, how hot is Diane Lane? In that Movie, and in ALL her movies. She amazes me. Foxy Lady. Excellent Actress. I also loved her in Under the Tuscan Sun. She is just fabulous!

I guess I have to rank her up there with Matthew Mcconaughey- and Sandra Bullock. And to know me, you have to know that I usually don't have passion for just any celebrity. I had four, and I guess I have to add one more, just for Diane. The Matthew thing started with Wooderson in Dazed and Confused. And it wasn't that I was in love with the out of school older guy who hung out with high schoolers, no no no. I was in love with Melba Toast. And With the fact that Wooderson had the hots for Cynthia, the redhead smart girl (hello ME?!) when there were all these girls like bitchy hot Darla around. And then it just grew and grew as his movie list just grew and grew. And when he ran smack into Sandra Bullock in a Time to Kill, it was all over for me. Anyway, I am just rambling pretty much in this post. Sorry about that.

But Sandra, I have to say it was Hope Floats that sealed the deal. My husband makes silly faces at me with every single reference to that movie but I am telling you, I related to that film heavily when I first saw it. I related to that feeling like the entire bottom fell out and you had to start everything over again. I related 100% to that "I could cry in my pajamas for a month" feeling and I remember scaring the crap out of Evan when we saw that in the theatre because the tears just STREAMED down my face and I was like THIS movie KNOWS! It KNOWS exactly how it feels to have your heart broken. And he looked at me like YOU are a FREAK and I said YOU don't know because you have never HAD your heart broken, and you had better hope you never do. And I can't even listen to the soundtrack of that movie without crying. It's inevitable. I try to keep it off the ipod though, because it's totally not cool to be like walking down the sidewalk and become a bawling mess for no apparent reason. The Sandy Rogers song Fool for Love used to do the same thing to me. How strange is it to be in the middle of Reservoir Dogs and start bawling? Like that wouldn't confuse the fuck out of your boyfriend.

And of course, I have the weak in the knees thing for Vin Diesel. And I had a little Mark Wahlberg thing for a few years. But as far as serious acting skills goes.... Matt, Sandra, and Diane. I;ll make an exception on my two rule for Diane. Wouldn't you?

THUNDER SNOW!!!!

Holy Crap!

WOW. It has been snowing non stop since 3:30, and the roads are terrible, there is somewhere around 4 inches on the ground already by 6:50pm.... and now it is snowing AND thundering AND Lightening. And I don't just mean a little bit. I mean like great big flashes on all sides of you and low deep rumbles. The first thunder was so loud we thought there was a car accident or a transformer that blew.

It is freaky. I am glad that I got home before that happened, because If I was driving in snow like that and concentrating as hard as I had to in order to get home safe, I would have peed my pants and driven straight into the ditch at one of those huge flashes of lightening.

I wish I could capture it somehow for you to see here.

Here is the winter weather advisory online-

BUREAU COUNTY ILLINOIS...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM CST SATURDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM CST SATURDAY. THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

PRECIPITATION WILL RAPIDLY BREAK OUT THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE THIS EVENING. A BRIEF PERIOD OF SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN IS POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON BEFORE TURNING OVER TO ALL SNOW.

THE THREAT OF THUNDER SNOW IS QUITE HIGH WHICH WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO IN LOCALIZED AREAS. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BY MIDNIGHT.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW...
SLEET...AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Battle of the Bands in my Head.

Well, it's snowing. And I am SOOOOOO glad it is Friday. SO glad. I can't even express. Sure, I laid around in bed for two days this week, but still. I am exhausted. Sickness just sucks the energy out of you. I am feeling better today, more like myself! Still some nausea, but oh well. At least Yogurt Burst Cheerios are good to me.

This weekend, I honestly can't think of what I need to be doing. A check of my calendar shows that it's my turn at work. Ugh. Oh well. Besides that, I will probably be close to home. Picking up, doing luandry and dishes, and watching the movies I have Tivo'd, like VanHelsing and Calendar Girls, and Mr and Mrs Smith- Although I am worried that Brangelina may have ruined that movie for me.

The freaking radio is playing the "Coyote Ugly" song that Leann Rhimes sings. I am SO sick of that song. It's kind of like a bad Cher song just.... won't... die. Please note that I am not controlling the radio, or it would be my ipod, on which there is no LeAnne Rhimes or Cher. As for embarassing songs on my itunes, I would say none of them, but some of you might say that Blondie, Pat Benetar, The Bangles, Joan Jett, REO Speedwagon, and Fleetwood Mac could be considered embarassing. My current favorites are Coheed and Cambria and Tommy Janes and the Shondells. I could survive for a week on just those two. Throw in some Beastie Boys, Violent Femmes, and maybe a little Jamiroquai or Hum, or Tripping Daisy, and I could make it a month. I can not get enough of Coheed and Cambria, thanks to my husband, and Always & Never and Willing Well III (Apollo II: The Telling Truth) are two that are my very favorites.... and I find them caught in my head ALOT. And you know, take a look at the Bangles. They are totally cool chicks. They are MILFs now, by far, and I don't think anyone could deny that (that's them above) and I am totally jealous of their cool hair and cool clothes and pink guitars. Awesome.

Ohhhh Baby.... Here we go again! Happy HNT!

My life has been rated...

My life is rated PG-13!



Your life is rated PG-13!

What is your life rated? (MPAA Scale)

Take Other Caffeine Nebula Quizzes

Christine - where is she now?

Well, I felt like crap again today, but I worked anyway. Tonight after lying down I feel better. It's like sitting all cramped up in a chair all day makes my stomach worse. I did eat some soup tonight, and my stomach doesn't hurt now. Hope it stays that way!

I watched Christine for the first time ever.... It was a good movie, considering the improbability of it. Until the part where I realized that the car was driving itself, I thought- That car is badass! And I realized that it is a good thing I never saw it as a teenager or I would have wanted a red 58 Plymouth Fury for my first car, and I would have named her Christine. But once I saw that the car was all about driving itself (and being on fire) I realized that it really wasn't the car for me. My car needs to be totally under my control, and it absolutely can not go out wasting my gas money on lame episodes of chasing down school bullies, you know? And of course, I was (and am) a fan of old cars, but late 60's early 70's cars are more my style. I grew up spotting cars, because my dad can spot ANY (old) car, year, model, make, original colors, motor, you name it, it's in his brain. So he would have been halfway thrilled at an old car.... except that he has his own old cars to restore and wouldn't have time for mine.

What is really fascinating (to me at least and probably my dad if he ever had time to read my blog.) is how MANY fully restored Christines there are, and how in 5 minutes online I found three of the 20-some original movie cars, one auctioned for $167,400 to a man in England in 2004, and another owned and fully restored by a father/son duo in Oklahoma. Their car is one from the Camaro Chase scenes in the movie. How cool is that? And then the one from the scene where Moochie was chased into the loading dock, owned by a man in California... and it was used in a music video for The Offspring since then. When he got it, the windows were painted black (hence the suddenly tinted windows when Christine was "driving herself" and there was no interior, just a rollcage and bucket seat for the stunt driver. AND he found part of the original Movie license plate and the DMV sticker in the trunk. Wow. He even found out where all the cars from the movie were sent, and became friends with the owners of the junkyard. Many of the 20-25 cars were never running, but were pulled on dolly's in the movie and taken to the junkyard when the movie was finished.

Well, tonight I also managed to cram in "my name is earl", "the office", "The O.C." and now I am onto my nightly repeat of Family Guy before bed. What a productive evening. I really can't wait to feel better, so I have some energy and the ability to stand or sit upright without feeling nauseous.

Boyd is snoring on the bed next to me, and I hope to be sleeping soon too. Sorry I am so lame lately, but there isn't much excitement when you are sick.

:)

That Gay Song on Your iPod

This was a good post that I found on a fellow-bloggers site. The post is great.

Bloggin Hotties

Bloggin Hotties- now this is an interesting concept of blogging meets pornography. The owner of this blog claims to go around looking for "bloggin hotties" and then posts pictures of the blogger- some of them scantily clad, some nude, and then you of course instantly recognize what SMART Girls these must be and how INTERESTING their blogs must be, so you rush right over to be innundated with their knowledge.

LOL.

It's ALIVE!

Well, I am back in the saddle today. I am not feeling 100% but I can't afford to have more lost days of work without pay, and my QVC and putfile addictions are starting to worry me.

I am eating lots of Strawberry Yogurt Cheerios because that seems to be the only thing that I can eat without my stomach bothering me. Or at least only bothering me at a tolerable level.

That's about all the excitement that I have to share today. But I am sure more will come when the sickness vacates my body.... Or at least when I have been in the real world long enough to have something to talk about.