What would the end of Lost be without a Lost party? Complete with my Darma Intiative Chili (again from last year) and, now serving, Darma Intiative marshmallows. We drove out to DeKalb to watch with fellow Losties. Loads of fun.
Here's some cool "Easter Eggs" and other info from the Finale, Through the Looking Glass.
Charlie is DEAD. He didn't swim out the porthole, although I think he could have.
The funeral parlor Jack visits, Hoffs/Drawlar, is actually an anagram of Flash Forward, sneaky. (Sorry, I typed Fast the first time). I loved that it was a flash forward instead of a flashback and that I figured it out just before it was revealed.
The newpaper clipping clearly indicates a MAN died. The name is hard to make out. J----- ---antham. Not a LOST name that we know of.
The looking glass station's symbol is a white rabbit, referencing Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
And for those of you who missed it two weeks ago in The Man behind the Curtain (referencing The Wizard of Oz), here is a screen capture of invisible man, Jacob. The rumor is if you put your hand over his hair, his profile looks like John Locke.
Feburary 2008, that's how long we have to wait for the next episode. Geesh!!!!
I am so excited. After two years of missing it, I am going back to Cornersone!!! I will finally get to see Switchfoot and Trisha will finally get to experience it. I counted and even with missing two years, this will be my 9th year at Cstone. It's going to be great!!!
Random Cornerstone memories include:
Seeing a replica of the Mystery Machine van from Scooby Doo. In fact, I just saw one not too long ago in my new hometown. Bizarre.
Kids leapfrogging down a muddy hill.
Five Iron Frenzy.
The halfpipe.
Running into Jordan and Seth, friends from DeKalb, randomly at the main stage. Well, at the time I didn't really know Seth, but now I do.
Running into Jason and Barry from our High School when P.O.D. was playing late at night at the main stage with over 10,000 people, probably more.
Playing 20 questions in a tent out of the rain with random people.
Watching fireworks.
Hearing over 10,000 people eerily quiet during the P.O.D. concert when someone got hurt.
Not having to camp ever.
Stupid boyfriend Tom with a curfew making me leave early from a Five Iron show.
And finally, as tradition dictates, everyone wave to the Bushnell sign.
My brother graduates this weekend from SIU so it's road trip time to Carbondale. Plus, my college roommate Kim lives down there so my other roommate Trisha is coming with us and we all get to hang out again. Let's just say the last time the three of us were on a road trip, someone tried to stick half her body out my sunroof as we were passing a state police officer, I spilled Cherry Coke in Target, I tried to take a picture while driving of my car passing 100,000 and we have video documentation of all of this. Scary things could happen this weekend...
We spent an obscene amount of money today, however, not as obscene as I had prepared myself for and we actually came away with more than I thought we would get. When I say we, I mean Tom. He bought a huge toolbox today for work. If you would like to get an idea of what these things cost, here is a toolbox similar to what we bought. It is black however, with a nice stainless steel top. Yet we were lucky enough to buy it used (It's in GREAT condition though) and for considerably less than that price. Plus, a lot of tools to go in the nice toolbox. And I got to spend 3 hours looking at tools and toolboxes. What fun!
They promised new content in this fancy Pirate player and they finally delivered. Hence, it's back on top.
When you hear me talk about my job, it doesn't sound that fun, but I really do enjoy it. It's a little crazy, but at least I'm not bored. That has to be the worst thing. Tom is bored at his job and none to happy about it. Hopefully, it will pick up soon. Yet, next week will tell the true tale of my job. It's tax bill time. Yipee... angry citizens.. well at least I can shut my door. Apparently, I will also be getting interns soon. That should be interesting since one of them is supposed to share my small office with me. Hmm, I might have to retract this post soon...
Great little video combining Lost and Firefly. They even throw in music from Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. I wish I was that creative.
My boss is on vacation all this week, but forgot to tell me. Plus, someone just put in a big order for maps and I don't know how to charge them. Lovely...
This afternoon I am watching TV, I switch channels, the TV becomes silent and I hear.. music. It almost sounds like a cell phone ringing in another room except it's not anything that plays on our cell phones. It sounds circusy. Oh, wait, maybe it's outside, who would be playing that in their vehicle? I go to the window. I look outside. "Oh, my gosh!!! TOM!!!!!!! There's an ice cream truck outside on our street!!"
Ha, I live in a town with an ice cream truck. I could have cried, well, not really, but I was super excited. However, said spouse, shot down my giddiness by insisting we didn't need ice cream. Man...it was probably just as well. The driver would have probably thought I was insane, not to mention the neighbors. Way to save the rep honey. Ha, like that matters once they've met me anyway.
Geesh, you make two maps for the State's Attorney and you find out you will probably get subpoenaed for a trial. Like they need my "expert opinion." Ahhhh....
Another fun job task I got to do recently was order business cards. I am not really sure what I am going to do with 500 of them, but I got to pick out fun paper and ink colors. (wink, wink). Ok, maybe that's not all that exciting but it did allow me to walk outside on a gorgeous day. Yipee. On the embarrassing side, I almost took a head dive into the concrete this morning as I was getting out of my car. That was fun. Thankfully, no one was around to witness that. Stupid cuffed pants. This is seriously like the 3rd time I have tripped/fallen in these pants. One rather memorable fall occur ed outside Trisha's apartment in the parking lot. My heel got caught in the cuff and down I went, all my limbs flailing about. Ya, Trisha and Tom got to watch that lovely action. Lucky them.
Today at a meeting someone actually introduced themselves to me this way, well using their name. I really, really wanted to say "Uh, (insert said person's actual name here), was it? or is it Eric Stratton?" But I wimped out and didn't say it. It is after all only my 2nd week at my new job. He turned out to be a hoot and I think it wouldn't have mattered if I said it. (He did go to SIU after all, crazy Salukis). Plus, he took me and my boss out for lunch afterwards. But it was me and 3 guys and the conversation consisted of guns, shooting birds, shooting trap, and an occaisonal comment about our earlier meeting. Suprisingly, I was rather quiet at lunch.
Let's see, so far at work I have accidentally called other people in my office twice while trying to access my voicemail. One was the sheriff, oops. Darn, I can't think of anything else truely embarrassing I have done yet. My first week was really boring because I didn't have anything to do. Now I have some things to do, but I know there will be a lot more to do once I have been trained on some programs. I have some training next week but I don't know when the rest will be. I did help someone figure out a GIS problem. My first suggestion fixed his issues. Yeah, I helped. I also found out that I can wear jeans on Fridays. I love jeans. Happiness.
Ahh, there's nothing like a fresh boquet of stray shopping carts.
Well, here it is! As you tell, it is country-fied, at least that's what I am calling it. Yet, the layout fit our needs and the decor is actually fine because we really didn't have to do anything in terms of painting, hanging up curtains, etc. It even came with Christmas light, ok, we have to take those down. (Christmas lights in April..Ugh..Insert inside joke with Trisha here). 
Here's our backyard to the alley. Our resident squirrel resides in the tree giving off shade in the picture.
In through the front door is our living room, complete with new couch. No more glacier effect couch for us. Plus then we didn't have to move either couch. 
The living room from the opposite angle. (More blurry pictures and I can't blame it on Tom this time. We'll have to have our camera looked at).
A bedroom that I have turned into my music room. 
Another view. As you can see we have yet to hang things on the wall. All in good time.
An empty room right now. It has a dopey border with toys around the wall. That room will be one of the first to get redone. I cut off the floor from the picture because there are empty boxes all over.
The Kitchen. You head into the living room by going out the right side of the picture past the frig which you can't see. It's really messy at the moment. With the whole sewer issue, I didn't do dishes for a while. My favorite features are below.
Isn't this an awesome light fixture?
The pantry is covered by a screen door which squeaks. Plus the whole floor is hardwood. 
Our bedroom was built onto the back of the house. It is rather odd, but works. 
Here's the finished room in the basement which will house our computer and right now has all of our unpacked boxes. Yes, those are still all full and you can only really see half of them.
This is the built in workbench in the unfinished part complete with grinder. I didn't get the rest because it's not very exciting at the moment. But hopefully we'll be able to set up our ping pong table as soon as there's enough room.
And, yes, we do have a bathroom but I didn't think you would want to see a picture of it, but it does have a claw foot tub, which is neat, but small to take a shower in. So I think the first thing we are going to do is finish the bathroom in the basement that some previous owner started. They even left the tub they were going to use. The garage is only one car, but there are lots of neat built in shelves, hangers, etc. Plus, there's an air compressor. The whole house has all sorts of crazy built in storage.
How cute is she?
Check out these and others here
OK, I only picked out the weird ones. Try not to think less of me. And I love my friends and hope you think this funny and not embarassing.
To B and L from A:
Hi Buds! Happy Birthday to me. Today is my Birthday and I'm 15 yrs old! OH, I guess you already knew that. Duh to me...Guess what! I saw P in the Mall on Saturday about 4:45. (Right before me and K went to se Mr. Hollands Opus). He asked me why I wasn't with you guys. At first I thought that you all went and did something without me. Then I remembered that you were at the contest. Stupid P! Hello!.....I am scared of tornadoes...
To P from L: P, My mom saw this arm wrestling contest at the Town Tavern and asked me if I wanted to enter since I beat 3 guys. Want to come + watch?
To L from B and V: 10 Things V & B like about L 1. Very, very loyal 2. Beatles and Star Wars bud 3. Cuddly + loveable 4. Good Hugs 5. cool buffalo! 6. Manages to juggle a million things at once 7. Doesn't make fun of us for our bad singing, even though she has a fab voice 8. Great Smile 9. Movie Lover! 10. Knows the Lord (we saved the best for last!) Love, n hugs, B + V
To B and L from V: Dear B + L, (but not T) I miss you so much! My life in Spanish Will never be the same again. I am counting the seconds between our next meeting at lunch with vehemence (Not only 'cuz' I miss you but because I want food)...
To L from V: L, Wow 5 min. of silence God has heard my prayer. Everyone has been so loud in typing to day we are being punished...Some of the people in here are so annoying! B knows who. Yuck theres a combo of gum + corrections tape in my locker. eww...Bye Bye Fry Guy, V
Random scrap of paper: L- A person who doesn't wear shoes on his feet does not get corns + a person who wears shoes does not have dirty feet so all you people wear one shoe (Like this quote, V?) V- As long as there's not snow on the ground! L- That's true! Tell Ashley to ask God to do it for her. V- Okay, Ashley ask God to do it for her.
To B from L: Hey B, You are to weird you were cracking up in Biology. Right now you are flirting with JF. I sure hope not. Say it's not so! Good! P's mad. Oh well. He thinks I'm going to do something really bad to get revenge on him. We'll have to think of something good. Pretty boring over here. Test was pretty easy. Brandon looked some of them up for us. Everybody over here is nice. Erin gave me 2 gobstoppers + Becca gave me a piece of gum. Then Brandon gives me answers...Bye, L
To L from B and A: Dear L, B- We're at the Super Siter thing. It's lunch time. A-I never wrote a letter to you on a satruday before....B- Miss Holmes intitials are MH same as Mental Hospital. Coincidence I think not....
Tom, if it is possible, takes worse pictures than me. They are all blurry. Anyway, here are all my high school friends and their kiddies at Carolyn's 2nd birthday celebration. Back row: Me (with no kiddie), Brandy and Bethany, Becca and Jaydon.
Front Row: Angie and Trevor, Becca's two big kids, Micah and Chloe, and then Val and Carolyn, the birthday girl. Hopefully, one of my friends got a better picture than we did and will share although Tom took Brandy's pictures too. Sorry Brandy. Anyway, we had a blast. Even though, Tom fell asleep at one point, we still had a blast. Family updates, baby talk, reminiscing about high school, yellow legs, Steph's hair, Pierre the dummy, etc.
Anyway, we left around 11:15, took Becca and Jaydon home, grabbed a couple of things at my parents and headed home. Tom was driving. He was tired but we stopped at a rest stop on 74 so I could drive. Less than two minutes after I started driving, I get pulled over. Only, the 2nd time ever and on the same road too. Last time they "said" I was going 81 in a 65, but I know I wasn't going over 71. I didn't know at that time you could ask to see the radar gun, anyway, I just got a warning. This time, I knew I wasn't going too fast, at the most 70. They clocked me going 68, seriously, 68???? The cop was definately new, because he was more nervous than I was. I wasn't really that nervous because I knew I hadn't done anything. I usually get more nervous when I just pass a cop than I was last night. I was suprised at how relaxed I was. Apparently, they had been following us for a while, they said we were swerving a little and that it was "suspicious" that we only stopped for a short time at the rest stop. If Tom was swerving, it wasn't very much because I know we didn't hit the rumble strip. Anyway, Tom says I saved him from a ticket since they pulled me over instead of him. ;) Whatever, so a one hour drive took over two and we didn't get home until like 1:20 a.m. and then Tom had to get up 3.5 hours later and go to work. Poor husband.
The crazy ice storm this weekend knocked out our power for about 10 hours and our cable (TV and Internet) for 3 days. It stunk not have TV and internet over the weekend. I felt lost and blind and I missed the Oscars, but I heard they were boring so no loss really. Just outside on our road heading out of town there are about two dozen poles down. The road is closed. I will see if I can get a picture tomorrow. Grr. But on the bright side I am no longer unemployed. I have a temporary job back at NIU but that doesn't start until the middle of March. Right about the time we will probably be moving, good timing huh.
I really didn't think I was actually going to write this post, but then I discovered two brand new episodes today. I was quite excited, but I am unemployed and have nothing else to be excited about. A hilarious show, quite crude sometimes, but full of lovable, idiotic characters. It started in 1994 and the two episodes I just found were aired this past Christmas. However, there aren't 13 seasons of episodes out there. There are relatively few actually. I don't understand British television. Anyway, the show focuses on a female Vicar, Geraldine Granger, and her parishioners in a small country village. A great mix of religion, goofiness, and crudeness (maybe it's a British thing). The show's signature is the joke at the end of each episode (see example below, ok it took me hours to get that to come up, argh). This one is fairly tame, but mostly it is how the character of Alice reacts to the joke.
In addition, there is a new show slated for the fall season on Fox that is based on The Vicar of Dibley. It will be called The Minister of Divine and will star Kristie Alley, but I don't see how they can even come close to the original.
Isn't rather odd that both Lost and Grey's Anatomy have a Dr. Shepherd and a Dr. Burke? Lost has Jack Shepherd and Juliet Burke, while Grey's has Derek Shepherd and Preston Burke. Spoiler Alert: By the way, they totally can not kill off Meredith. The show is named after her. Although, I did enjoy Denny's and Dylan, the bomb guy's, reappearances.
I have found a new love. And soon my love will be over, well, not really over. But there is only one more disk of unseen episodes that Blockbuster can send me, and then no more.
Firefly is...well..odd, but wonderfully odd. It is a space western, which I think is what doomed it to only one season. I don't even recall seeing advertising for it, but it was apparently on when I was planning my wedding so... Anyway, what is great about it is the writing. I am a huge fan of excellent writing. Plus, the characters, I love interesting characters. So the backgroud is secondary, a show could be about baggage handlers in the year 2100, but if it has good writing, I would probably like it. (Unfortuately, they tried this, seriously, Matthew Perry was signed to this show, LAX 2100, and was almost prevented from doing Friends because of it).
The other intersting thing about this show is that the fans it did happen gather when it was on were so adament about the show, the creator made a feature film, Serenity (2005). I watched this before I watched the series. The movie is good but the series is better. And even now, almost four years after the series was on, there are still fans trying to get the show back or have another film made. Another cool thing, is that they show the series now on the SciFi channel and Firefly has now become the highest rated show ever on SciFi.
Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it. I beleive my next post will be I love The Vicar of Dibley. ;)
If I get a house,... No, no.... When I get a house, the first thing I am going to buy, furniture-wise, is a new couch. Right now, if you sit in the middle of our couch and someone else sits on either end, you are about two feet lower than them. I swear. It's ridiculous. And if you try to sit on one of the ends, it's impossible to stay there. You automatically get pulled to the vortex of terror which is the middle. My brother would call it "the Glacier Effect" as he once had a mattress with the same peculiar properties. Alas, no house, no couch, no comfort... yet.
Upcoming Movies:
Fanboys (August 2007): Four extreme "Star Wars" fans and childhood friends from the Midwest drive across America to Skywalker Ranch in order to sneak a peak at the yet unreleased "Episode 1: Phantom Menace" as one last hoorah for their dying friend. Along the way they run afoul at a Star Trek convention and have it out with the Trekkies.
OK, can this movie be anything but perfect? ;) Score, I just found the trailer as I was writing this. I seriously cried during it, because it's funny not because it's sad. Well, maybe it's a little sad.
This makes me think back to when I saw Phantom Menace for the first time. It was at the Sandburg Mall theater in Galesburg, IL. It was the midnight showing May 18, 1999. I was about to graduate high school. I remember waiting outside the theater. I think we got there around 10:30. It was myself, Tom, my brother, and my dad. I blame 8th grade Kyle for why dad had to come. ;) Nah, it wasn't bad. Plus, my friend Brandy and her 8th grade sister, Amanda. (I think she came). Also, other Star Wars geeks from school including Justin Funk, Eli and Justin Boone, that I remember. It seemed like we took up a whole row ourselves. I remember the local radio station was there and there were a few people dressed up. But, upon subsequent midnight showings, this one was rather tame or lame, take your pick. I have found that I really enjoy going to midnight or first showing because those audiences always react the best and get all the jokes and connections. I often find myself thinking in later showings "why aren't these audiences laughing in all the right places?!?" I saw Phantom Menace 3 times in total. At one showing, Tom and I afterwards got silly stringed and so did the poor old people getting in the car next to us. We still owe Brandy, Val, and Phil for that. Watch out. Later, I saw both Episodes 2 and 3 at midnight showings and at least 3 times. Episode 2 was even with Tom, my brother, Brandy and Shane at this point, and Amanda (I think, again). Episode 3, I know I saw with my friends Tina and Rachel, and Tom. I remember at this showing the people in front of us brought a laptop and were watching the previous movies on it. Ok, that's enough Star Wars nostalgia for now.
I encourage everyone reading this to go out and rent this movie. I have seen much of this information presented before, however, the movie presents it for the layman. Nothing too overly scientific here. An excellent discussion of what they call "a climate crisis." I tend to agree. Please click on the widget in the right hand content and pledge to see this movie.
I know a politician, Al Gore, made this movie. I tend to despise politics and try to stay away. However, this issue is not really political, it extends way beyond that. You owe it to yourself and your children to see this movie. Ohh, I sound so radical. ;)
courtesy of my brother
The high pitch whirring of the drill. The puff of dust emanating from my mouth with pieces of my teeth now floating about in the air. The right side of my face is drooping and I giggle with my half smile. Such was my trip to the dentist.
I have been quite anxious about this trip recalling my last and only cavity. It was the worse pain I have experienced. Now, not having undergone the miracle of childbirth yet, I won't presume to go on about the pain I experienced. Suffice it to say, I was not looking forward to today. However, it was not bad at all really. I barely felt a thing.
I am now supremely convinced that my previous dentist has never heard of a little thing called Novocaine. God bless it. And God Bless Epidurals. Amen.
Super Bowl XLI, here we come. Sweet.
My in-laws, Tom, and I went to the show last Saturday. It exceeded my expectations. It was an excellent production, a good mix of dancing, talking, video, a local dance competition, Joey McIntyre wearing John Deere suspenders, Joey McIntyre singing. Plus, the music was LIVE, oh that makes a huge difference. The only taped music they used was for the local competition pre-show. The stars danced some, the professionals danced some. They did some dance numbers from the show plus new ones. There were group dances and pair dances. From our seats we could see everything suprisingly well. It was so fun to see the dances that I remember from the TV show, Lisa Rinna's Jive, Joey Lawrence and Edyta dancing to Singing in the Rain, Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke's Paso Doble to Thriller, and of course Drew and Cheryl's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy free dance. That was awesome to see. What a fun night.
This is great!
NASA, in a housecleaning exercise, threw out their plans for the Saturn 5 rocket, the one that sent humans to the moon.
Courtney Cox was in the movie Masters of the Universe starring He-man.
The Chicago Bears started out as the Decatur Stanleys.
Gravity is actually the warping of spacetime.
Thomas Midgley, who invented tetra-ethyl lead which was added to gasoline and employed in various other ways but because of the toxicity of lead was eventually largely discontinued, also invented cloroflouocarbons (CFC's), those pesky things that punched a hole in the ozone layer. Two for two.
How cool does this look? Check it out.
Your results:
You are Superman
| You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.  |
Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz
Went to my friends house to visit. Her son Micah could not quite get my name right, so he called me Dory. Her son Micah could not quite get my name right, so he called me Dory. Hmm, seems to fit.
A new study out claims left-handers tend to think quicker than right-handers because they have better connections between their two brain hemispheres. Thus they tend to do better at computer games and sports.
Well I don't know about the sports thing. Although I was always amazed at how well I could catch fly balls in softball given that I have horrible depth perception because of my crazy eyes. (They're crossed by the way).
However the computer game thing I can attest to. My whole family is left-handed, with writing at least. And if you ever watch my brother, my mom, and I play Jeopardy on the computer, it gets dangerous. ;)
Yet the most dangerous game in our house has to be spoons. One of my mom's kitchen tables met its doom during a game of spoons. Even with plastic spoons its dangerours, they tend to have better aerodynamics than metal spoons. Use your imagination.
I have been to two weddings recently, one was my second cousin's and the other my oldest friend's. Oddly enough they were both in Iowa. My oldest friend was married in Des Moines at the Botanical Garden which made for a lovely evening wedding. It was great to see her. I rarely get to. My second cousin was married in Bettendorf but the highlight of her wedding was that they had all their special dances choregraphed. It was so cute. Plus the bride and groom danced to the same song Tom and I did at our wedding. Good times.
Given that they were both evening weddings with receptions in dark halls, my wedding picture curse lives on. I didn't even get one of my second cousin and her groom but they did give us as our favor a CD with Christmas songs. Very unique.
Arr, maties! Well, not really. I took my Mom to the see the new Broadway musical The Pirate Queen in it's World Premiere run at the Cadillac Palace in Chicago. Basically, they test it out somewhere to work out the kinks before it goes to Broadway. It was really good. It follows the story of Grace O'Malley, an Irish "pirate" and cheiftan. It was created by the same gentlemen that produced Les Miserables and Miss Siagon with the Irish dance team behind Riverdance. The music was great. There wasn't really any stand out song, maybe one love song. It was also really hard to understand them when they were singing. I hate that. I don't if it was the sound or if that's just the nature of the beast. The scenery was great, though, and the dancing. I've never been a big fan of that kind of dancing, maybe because I never really seen it live. (Remember, it scares the bejebees out of Chandlier, "His legs flail about as if independent from his body." Well, Michael Flatley anyway). However, I almost wish there was more of the dancing. It kind of came in spurts. But the story was excellent and based upon a true one apparently, kind of cool. Plus, they sing a couple of times in Gaelic. It would be so awesome to learn an almost dead language like that.
Also, in the tradition of Lauren's Tidbits over on my other Blog (Check it out), here's my random connection to the musical. The actress who played Grace O'Malley, Stephanie J. Block, starred opposite Hugh Jackman in the musical The Boy from Oz. It was directed by one of my Dad's High School classmates whose Mom lives next to my Grandparents and she and my Grandma helped me learn how to knit. Random.
My favorite fall festivity, the Spoon River Drive, was the first two weekends in October. It was so nice that I went twice (well, technically, three times, but that didn't rhyme). The first weekend was planned. Trisha came down with me that time. My Mom, myself, Trisha, and one of my Mom's teacher friends, went to London Mills and Farmington. I didn't bring any money because I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything. I think I spent more money than I haven ever spent before. ;) Grr. But I did get this really cool chest of drawers that I am going to use to hold my piano music (someday, when I have a house or more than my current two rooms). Because I bought this on Saturday, Mom and I went back to pick it up on Sunday. Then Tom and I came back the next weekend and Mom and I were bored after church and went back again, mainly for the food. Plus, it was less crowded.
Trisha and I got in the Hot Tub Friday night of the first weekend. It was so relaxing. However, a coyote started howling at one point and she didn't believe me that it was a coyote. Then Saturday night we went to the Rodeffer's and played this crazy strategy game. It was like Age of Empires in board game form. I should find out what that's called. I bet Kyle would like it and subsequently, kick my butt at it.
That second weekend we also celebrated my mom's birthday. We went to Club 41, man, I miss those onion rings. My dad got her a pony, a red 1967 Mustang. Lucky duck. My present is dicussed in Part 3.
Ah, here we are at last. My life update post.
My Grandma Beryle passed away on Septemeber 13. I have no idea how to follow that. I was in DeKalb away from Tom that Wednesday. That sucked. It was a long weekend. It was good to see all the family. Most I hadn't seen in quite a long time, so long that I don't think I could have told you who half of them were. I hadn't seen Kyle since Memorial Day, somehow I knew who he was. I even learned something. My Grandpa would pick my Grandma up in his airplane for their dates. How fun.
Things I've been thinking about that are totally Grandma and Grandpa:
*Hello, Buffalo
*Sewing with Grandma, yet I totally can't sew
*Spaghetti should be served with Pepsi
*Rotary phones are fun
*Golf Carts. Never let Kyle drive the golf cart. He ran over my mom's flowers, hit a huge willow tree, and backed into the gas pump. However, he always counters with the fact that I ran over the dog. Which I counter with I was on the road, the dog ran in front of the cart, and I was sitting on Grandpa's lap.
*My broken elbow, I fell onto an upturned stool that my Grandpa used to carry me around on
*Plane rides
*Waiting for Kyle to be born. I wanted to name him Mark.
*7 point pitch, I think Kyle and I annoyed the heck out of my Grandparent's friends.
*The gravestone in the basement, seriously
*The pump organ
*Ground level squirrel nests
*Playing school and Barbies, I so ruined collector's Barbies
*Mr. Rodgers
*The car fire
*Huge family get togethers with music,accordians, and chiclets
*Sunday school
*Pinning a glass of water to the ceiling
*Slide shows
*Lutefisk, icky
OH MY GOSH! I love 'em. They sooo should not have won that game. Zero offensive scores for Rex Grossman, Arizona Quarterback Matt Lienart did everything right and then Rackers blew the field goal that would have won it for them. CRAZY!!!! It's 11:17 and I am so not tired.
Now if only Northern would get their act together, my football universe would be complete.
Here's the baby blanket I made for my friend Erin. As you can see it turned out rather big for a baby blanket. Oh well. I love the colors.
I had only ever seen the last 42 seconds of this before. It's much better with the last five minutes. Great football fun.
The marching band refused to yield...
Maybe someday I'll write this post...
This is no ordinary tornado. This is a fire tornado. They are created when extreme heat from the fire causes such a strong updraft that the wind replacing the air at the surface creates a tornado. How awesome.
(This photo was taken by a L.A. newspaper photographer covering the wildfires).
After lunch yesterday, I witnessed a volcano. Well, a demonstration of the power of a volcano using liquid nitrogen. Hee, hee, explosions. Anyway, a geology class was getting the demostration, so I watched from the sidelines. It sounded like a gunshot and then shot this pink colored water about 30 feet in the air. I can only imagine that is was pink because they were trying to make it look like lava. I don't know. Crazy geoolgists. 
Well, here are a couple pictures of our messy/slowly but surely getting organized apartment.
Front door to living room/kitchen to hall with bathroom to bedroom. Very basic.
Complete with unfinished puzzle on our table, freshly made rice krispie treats on the counter, and Tom lazing about on the couch.
Home sweet home for 5.5 months, give or take.
Friday was a great day. A Mexican Chipotle restaurant just opened and gave away free burritos and soft drinks all day. My co-worker Rick and I walked over there and only waited about a half hour which I think is pretty good considering it's a college town. The burrito was huge and yummy. Also, a new Marathon gas station opened up and started having a price war with the BP across the street. So I filled up for $2.27 a gallon before driving back to Iowa to see Tom.
Free lunch - $0, Cheap gas - $2.27/gallon, Getting to see my husband - priceless.