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.
