Anyone who has been around me in the last couple of weeks has heard my endless praise of Shawn Johnson. They have also witnessed my unceasing hope of her winning earning a gold medal. Did you catch my dig at China?
I guess the countdown is on. Donna has a quote on her whiteboard that says "I'm gonna be ready for Halloween this year" or something like that. It's a direct quote from me. I said that sometime in, oh, April? Looks like it's almost time.
I just got this in my email:
Its so me. Boobs and all. Hahhahaha.
When we redid the kitchen, we put in a tract lighting system. It is pretty cool, well, fiery hot actually - it has seven 50 watt halogen bulbs that you can aim at various work centers in the kitchen. So the stove, sink, fridge and coffee pot all get special attention - like they are in the big show. That's fine until one of them burns out. I'd say we've been through roughly 15 bulbs since last August. 15 at 3 per pack and $14 per pack works out to $70. Another two packs and we will surpass the price of the tract system. I assume that the company that manufactures the fixture ALSO owns stock in the company that makes the bulbs. (If you own a Wii, this is exactly the same synergistic relationship that Nintento has with Eveready.)
I'm still surprised, as I probably should not be at this point, with the number of bulbs we go through and the timing of them burning out. If the light pointing at the sink burns out, I replace it and within a day, the light pointing at the coffee pot goes out. If the light in the living room ceiling fan burns out, I replace it and then the one next to it goes out. Now it doesn't happen all the time - I'm not walking from room to room with my ladder and waiting. It only seems like that. I've switched to the new compact florescent bulbs where possible and they promise 11 years between changes. Ahh - 11 years. I can be blogging or something during all that free time that I'll have - but wait! I put two into the fixture in the living room and within a week, one of them was out. Dang - maybe it was a dud. At closer look, however, I found out it was the fixture itself that had failed. The bulbs will now out live the fixtures.
I had a few strings of those Christmas tree white lights on the bushes in the front yard. Originally, it was a Christmas decoration but then I left them on all year and they looked pretty nice, that is until they started going out. I could have gone through each and every bulb to see which one it was but instead I opted to just throw another complete strand overtop of those. Long story short, when the last one went out I pulled out about 300 feet of old wires from the bushes and I have yet to replace them.
My newest enemy is the photocell switch that is supposed to turn the outside lights on at dusk and off four hours later. I came home for lunch and all the outside lights were on. I can usually tell this because I can hear the electrical meter spinning out of control. I checked the switch and it looks fine - I mean, it looks like a switch, it just doesn't work anymore. I'd turn off the power going to the outside outlet but unfortunately due a twist of fate I used the same outside outlet for the pond pump so I'm going to have to get a new switch.
I think my next investment is a pair of coveralls that says "Maintenance" on the back.
Well, thanks to an unplanned sleepover, we went to see Tropic Thunder tonight.
Wow! We thought it was great. Lots of great talent and some of it was completely unexpected, which is why I LOVE seeing a movie without hearing (or reading) anything about it.
All I'll say is - I'm really glad that Robert Downey, Jr got his act together. Between this and Iron Man, he's really made my summer.
The Tournament of Roses Parade president (hereafter referred to as "The Pres") is here for a visit. Every year The Pres travels all around the country visiting all of the high school bands who have been chosen to march in the Rose Parade. He gets VIP treatment while he watches the band perform and then presents the band with the Tournament of Roses flag they will carry in the parade. He also attends some sort of fund raiser (ours is tomorrow night and is a sort of meet and greet with drinks (cash bar), finger sandwiches and a silent auction. He also gives the band director ideas on how to raise money for the trip (which for us, will cost well over $100,000).
Even though the kids have worked hard I know that this was a 'hurried up' version of what our show will be in a few weeks. It was necessary to leave out a lot of the bells and whistles and slick moves (which require a lot of practice to perfect) in order to give a clean performance for The Pres.
We had a good crowd on hand to watch this preview performance. The stadium was over 1/2 filled to capacity and there wasn't even a football game! This is just a testament to the great City of Homewood and how it supports the school programs. The band and auxillary were all on the field broken up into their sections practicing and warming up for the show when The Pres arrived (because the show was VERY GREEN I did not make any videos....they never get it good until about mid-September anyway. I did make some pictures but my camera was on the portrait setting and I didn't know it so they don't have a lot of clarity).
The Pres arrived straight from the airport and his enterage had plates of salmon and other delectable foods as they rushed up to the press box ahead of him. Mr. Pence brought him in and he spoke briefly with some folks before going up to eat his dinner (that's him in the red jacket).
Mr. Pence gave him about 5 minutes to eat before the band all got on the field in their positions (they had not rehearsed a field entrance or exit yet).
The show was great but I saw some mistakes and the Freshmen were visibly nervous but they pulled off an amazing percussion run and a big finish!
Afterwards The Pres came down to the mike to give a short speech and present us with the parade flag.
What an honor it was to be there to cheer these kids on!
You know, after my daughter's first year in band I thought that I could NEVER love another halftime show as much as that one. Then in her Sophomore year (after seeing it a few times) I fell in love again....then I felt the same way at the beginning of her Junior year...then I fell in love again....and I'm sure this year I will fall in love again....one final time.
Tomorrow morning the band has to arrive at school at 6am in full uniform to appear on our local Fox morning show called Good Day Alabama. I will be there....camera in hand.
undecisive?
Its true I am. I cant make up my mind on what I want for dinner or who I want to be when I "grow up". One things for sure. I dont want to work for the man. I want to have my own biz. But lord, knows what that will be. Some days I want to hang out with everyone I've ever met and make tons of new friends and some days I want to curl up in bed and not answer the phone. Sometimes I want to care about my body and my weight and become obsessed with them.. and some days I tell myself "curves are so in, so fuck it."
I bounce back and forth between wanting to have children someday and not. Sometimes I am a bitch, and others I am as sweet as pie.
am I bipolar? no.
If you could be featured in a magazine which one would you choose?
ELLE. It's by far my favorite magazine. Plus, maybe I'd score some free, fabulous couture!
Addiction.
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Sent from T-Mobile Sidekick®
Well, we didn't go to Boston - blah - I'm going to check out everyone's review, though - I'm sure it was a fun time.
I received an email from eWeek about Vista not getting accepted by Enterprise users (and everyone else). What caught my eye immediately were the comments. Tech people are so freaking relentless:
Here was their reply:
Hello DeWitte,
Thanks so much for writing!
We are pleased that you took the time to share your thoughts with us.
All of our advertising is created to sell Degree products in an
entertaining and informative way.Thank you so much for your interest in our advertising. Your comments
will be shared with our media department.Thanks again for your interest!
Your friends at Degree
JB
(They are my friends now!) Thanks, JB!
I had a really good customer service interaction with Amazon last week. I bought an MP3 and it did not download. They have a link on their site that says something like "Call You Now". I put in my number and the phone rang like two seconds later. The CS person reset my link so I could re-download the song. That's cool beans.
We went to see this over the weekend for Nathan's birthday:
Michael Crawford - wow!
We went fishing over the weekend. The tourists were the real show:
NJ Woman "OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! I CAUGHT A FISH!!! OMG!"
NJ Woman "GET THE CAMERA!"
I can't emphasize how loud this came out. Try envisioning that in 72 point type with a few extra "!"'s on the end.
There was also this old guy who caught a crab and made a dive for it - sadly, without even the least attempt to block his fall. I'll leave the visuals up to Jamie on that one.
We watched that McCain/Obama political forum thingy - does anyone else feel like McCain knew the questions ahead of time?
I took Friday off and we tore into the garage attached studio and took everything out of it - Clean Sweep style, tarp and all. It was quite refreshing. Nathan wants to make it into a workshop and I'm all for it. We'll get everything in place this week and I'll post a picture. I'm sure we'll start making something ridiculous and sell in on Etsy.
All this and then President Musharraf resigned.
I think that's everything (for me) so far.
