Oh! Hello there.

Didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. Oops.

The Estes Park Wool Market is tomorrow! Woot. I actually did a print job for the alpaca folks yesterday, they'll have a few cria there so I'll be sure to take the kiddo to the alpaca tent :) (Like I would miss it, the alpaca tent is one of my favorite places because I love alpaca yarn, lol). I need to print out my coupon today for Bijou Basin Ranch's yak yarn. I can't wait to get some of that lovely soft stuff under my fingers :)

So. I read the new Anita Blake book. Not the worst one I've read, not the best. But I do think that LKH is trying. I got to the last third of the book before she popped any graphic carnal scenes in, and honestly, the bit of the book that everyone's been bitching about was presented as a fait accompli, rather than a detailed scene. It's still a bit icky to think about but I was waiting for a play by play and cringing at the thought of that. This book was not nearly the train wreck the last several have been, so I'll keep reading, though I'll continue to borrow them from he library.

Just finished book 3 in the Twilight series. I keep reading out of stubborness now. I do not at all see the fascination that these books have for so many people. I thought the first one okay, the second boring and the third a bit better but still not great. I honestly don't really care much for Bella. She's very unappreciative of the nice things other try to do for her and that bugs me. I find her rather self-absorbed as well. And the thought that the author has now decided that she killed off the cash cow too early and feels the need to retell things through Edward's eyes, well I find that absolutely ridiculous.

Right now I need to go shower and go get my hair cut, it's making me nuts, lol.

Bored

I'm feeling very blasé about everything lately. I've read two decent books in the last few weeks, one a non-fiction book about life in Utah during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The other was the most recent Nora Roberts book and now I'm just annoyed that I have to wait another 6 months to get the next installment, lol.

World of Warcraft is making me crazy. I think I've geared my druid about as well as I can for the moment and I am heartily sick of running the same damned instance over and over. I'd like to gear my alt, but honestly see no chance at that as death knights are so damned common now. and doing the same damned dailies all the time isn't helping either. None of the recent content is doing anything for my general boredom with the game. I hate jousting with a passion. And now I hear that they are expanding the tournament. Oh goodie.

Even the guild I'm in is making me nuts. They go on and on about gearing mains and every time I turn around someone's whinging because they want to gear an alt. And it's ever so cliquey. But the stupid thing is, if I go play on the other realm that I have a character on I get annoyed because my guild there is so small it's too quiet, lol.

I think I am just going to step back for a bit. I'm not signed up for anything until Friday, I think I'll just take a break until then. Maybe I'll knit a bit again. I actually knit on my big Booga the other night. It was nice. And Estes is coming. I can hardly expect my hubby to be happy about me spending money on wool if I never knit anymore, lol.

People make me crazy

I support freedom of speech, I really do. But for crying out loud some people just need to remember back to what mama told them, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Why do some people seem to get off on flaming? LKH's new book comes out today. And there are already nasty flames on Amazon about LKH herself and the book. Most of which come from people who haven't even read the book yet. They are basing their remarks on one person's rant. Maybe you should read the book before you make up your mind? Then again, I think most of the people that post are just determined to hate on LKH because she took Anita on a different route than they wanted.

Yes, I think that the last several books were not to my taste, I do think they've turned into erotica more than the AB books we used to know and love, but at least I'm willing to read the new book for myself before I decide about it. And really, if these people hate LKH and AB so much now, why do they waste their time on them?? Just shut up and don't buy the book.

I gots luck!

But it's all bad, lol. At least where cell phones are concerned. My first cell was a cheap little Nokia phone, it was brilliant. But when my hubby's phone was stolen out of our car (we use Net10, so this wasn't as bad as it could have been!) I decided that I wanted something new and gave him my phone and got a new LG phone. I lasted 3 months with that one. The reception was awful, if I moved at all while talking it would lose the call. I finally ordered one online and got a Motorola, which I loved.

Then came "the swim". One day at work it slid out of my pocket and into a place no phone should ever go. I rescued it, pulled it all apart and let it all dry out and a few days later it was fine again. Except the battery needed charging every night. If I forgot I would end up with a dead phone. So I bought a new battery. Unfortunately, the new battery somehow fried my phone! It still works but I have no display, which of course means no texts, and no ringer, since I last put it on vibrate at work, lol.

So today I ordered a new phone. I got another Motorola because until mine went swimming it was a great phone. This time I will make darned sure it stays where it belongs, lol.

Teachers

As the school year winds down again I think about my daughter and her teacher, and how much she will miss her dear teacher. Last year on the last day of school I picked my kiddo up and she was in tears. All of the kids were. They were a family you see, and they were being split up. For two years the kids had the exact same classmates and the same teacher. My daughter still talks about how much she misses Mrs B.

I expect some tears again this year, but not so bad. The kiddo actually had two teachers this year, so I don't know if the attachment is quite so strong. We shall see.

Anyway. It's made me a bit reflective on my old teachers, teachers who meant a lot to me or just were memorable.

There's Mrs. Mock, who was probably a nice lady, but we got off on a bad foot in third grade and never quite recovered. My fourth grade teacher was nice enough, but I've blocked a lot of that year out as my dad had recently died and it wasn't such a hot year.

Then there was Mrs. Carter in 5th grade. From her I gained a love of all things piggy. Mrs. C collected pigs and her classroom was full of them. But what made every kid want her for their teacher was that every one of her 5th grade classes had a class piglet. Yep, we had an orphan piglet that we fed and cleaned and played with all year long 'til it was strong enough to go back to the farm it was born on. To heck with hamsters and guinea pigs lol.

In 6th grade it was Mrs. Rauschenburger. She was the teacher who finally realized just how deep my love of reading was and she fostered it, recommending books and allowing me to stay in from recess and read.

After that my memory gets hazy. Starting with high school, I switched schools three times in 4 years. And you spend less time with each teacher, so while I had favorites each year they were never really special.

There was the junior high teacher who had dated my sister in high school. Weirdness.

And the first English teacher I ever had who didn't consider me his pet and yelled at me for talking all the time, lol.

And the algebra teacher who told everyone the first day of class that there was no such thing as a stupid question. Then several days later when I asked him to repeat something he gave me a death stare and told me, "I just went over that, I will not repeat myself, again!" I dropped that class that day.

The next teacher I had that made an impact on me was a college prof. He was passionate about his subject and a tough teacher. You either loved him or hated him. I loved him, his passion for the field, his ability to make us all think. The first class I had him for he terrified me at first. By the end of the semester I was hooked. I scheduled myself deliberately for his classes for the next year and a half and I did well. If I may pat myself on the back, I think he liked me as well. I was the first and only student of his to get a 100% on one of his exams and he appreciated that.

After that semester we all went off for summer break. Come fall I entered a class with follow journalism students and one of them asked if I'd heard the news. My favorite teacher in whole university had had a heart attack over the summer and died.

I never had another professor I liked quite so well. My enthusiasm for the subject waned until I was just going through the motions, ready to graduate and be done with school. By the time I walked across the stage at graduation I knew I'd likely never work in my field. (There were several other reasons for that, not just his death, but that certainly sparked the malaise that filled me back then).

I hope that my daughter is lucky enough to find some teachers who mean as much to her as some of my old teachers meant to me then, and that as she grows up she will think back kindly on some of them and smile.

Boooo :(

You might not know this, but I graduated with a degree in journalism several years ago and I'm a huge fan of the First Amendment, which is supposed to guarantee freedom of speech and expression. I'm also a big Greenday fan.

So what the fuck is up with Walmart? It's a long-standing policy of Walmart's not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker, so musical artists are given the choice of offering a cleaned up (CENSORED) version or not having their CD sold at the big box stores. It's a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.

AND Walmart still sells R rated movies, with swearing, violence and mature content. Many of these DVDs have unrated content on them that goes beyond an R rating. They also offer up video games with mature ratings. Hypocritical much? Who made Walmart the musical morality police, anyway? How about you let me decide to buy for myself and my child? It's my decision to make, not some big corporation's.

Good for Greenday for not bowing to pressure and refusing to censor their new album. From now on I will buy what little music I buy elsewhere. I don't think artists should be forced to offer dumbed down versions of their CDs, just to get in to the world's largest retailer.

Go support your local music store and buy the CD the artist meant you to have in the first place. And there's always iTunes ;)

Excellent weekend!

My bestest buddy and her son were here for two days. Too short really, but good fun. We ended up in Estes Park, playing in the snow. That would be Trail Ridge Road, btw. It's not officially open, but it's open a fair way up. We also went to Bear Lake, which is covered in snow as well, lol.

And speaking of Estes, we are less than a month away from the Estes Wool Market. I can't wait, I love the Market! And this year I think I might just have to buy some Yak yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. They were at Estes last year and it was sooooo soft but I had to choose between them and Plain and Fancy. :( But this year the owners of Bijou Basin have put up a 15% off coupon, woot! This is their year, lol. (And I have two skeins of Plain and Fancy tucked away from last year, time for something new!).

Hmmm

I needed a change for my blog design, and I love the designs from the Cutest Blog on the Block, but none of them really fit me. This one is too pink. But I'm too lazy to design my own, lol.

And busy. My bestest friend from high school is coming to visit me this weekend. Which is brilliant, but made me realize that my guest bedroom is full of plants and craft items and sans bed! So I've spent most of the morning packing up scrapbooking, knitting and soap making supplies and cleaning up the fallen leaves and blooms that accumulate near plants. The spare room now has a bed instead of a craft table and sheets (finally found a matching set of full sized sheets lol, it's amazing how much of my stuff is still in boxes after more than a year!).

Anyhoo, I'm off to get cleaned up so we can go play for a few hours today now that that's done. Have a lovely day!

Brrrr

I put my geraniums back outside because the weather has been lovely and what happens? We get wind and rain and cooler temps. Poor things were totally battered by the wind. and of course we just turned our sprinkler system back on and it poured last night, lol. I think I'm going to go turn it off for tonight, I hate watering while it's raining!

Anyhoo. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I got jewelery from my DD, a hand beaded bracelet :) I love it.

My baby

My darling daughter was born at 1:26 PM, May 9, 2009. She was a big baby, 8 lbs. 15 oz.

Today my little one turned 9 and as she's all too ready to tell me, she's not a baby anymore!

Happy birthday, dear daughter. You'll always be our baby *grin*

PS Two of the girls invited did respond, because we nagged them, lol. Both very last minute and while the kiddo is happy, I'm still peeved.

*sigh*

My daughter's birthday is coming up in less than a week now. We kept her invite list small, just 5 kids. I asked for RSVPs on the invites and would you believe I've not heard from a single person? How rude is that? No wonder kids are so screwed up now, their parents who really should know better are just as bad.

So for the education of anyone who might not know: An RSVP means let the sender know if you will be coming or not. Either way. It's just good manners.

"R.S.V.P. stands for a French phrase, "répondez, s'il vous plaît," which means "please reply." The person sending the invitation wo­uld like you to tell him or her whether you accept or decline the invitation. That is, will you be coming to the event or not? Etiquette rules followed in most Western cultures require that if you receive a formal, written invitation, you should reply promptly, perhaps that same day. For hosts who are planning a dinner party, a wedding or a reception, this is important from a practical point of view, because they need to know how many people to count on and how much food and drink to buy. More important, though, is the simple courtesy of responding to someone who was nice enough to invite you, even if it is to say that you regret that you will not be able to attend." --How Stuff Works

And really it's a child's party. It's going to break my kiddo's heart if no one shows up. At this point I am ready to make other plans for us for the day so she won't feel bad and if anyone responds at the last minute tell them to shove off :(

Broken Down

In more ways than one.

I broke down and gave in to peer pressure to read Twilight. After two of the ladies at work read it and raved about I thought about reading it, but the waiting list at my library is a mile long so I put it off. But the ladies conspired and brought in a copy for me to read, lol. I'm on chapter 4 now. I'm withholding judgment for now, Edward's back and forth like a fiddler's elbow and so am I, lol.

The other thing that was broken down was my truck this afternoon. I left work a bit early. It was really quiet, the guys had their tools out and were plotting new ways to take over all the space around them and it's lovely outside. Climbed into my truck, turned the key and nothing. Wtf? I looked to see if I'd done something stupid like leaving my iPod plugged in. Nothing obvious. The truck's light are automatic, so it couldn't be that.

I had to call the hubby to come jump start me. Luckily, that's all it took. I mean, as soon as his car started my dashboard lights came back to life, so it was pretty obvious the truck would start. He followed me home, just in case. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be ok now. I don't work 'til 3 PM tomorrow, so it leaves it a lot of time to decide to die, lol.

Edited to add: The truck did not start for work, so it goes in Friday morning. I'm hoping that we will get it back by the time I go to work again at 3. *Crossing fingers that it's something simple*

Jumped the shark

*Sigh* I used to love the tv show Ghost Hunters. I loved the way the went into an investigation with the intent to debunk and put homeowners fears to rest. To hear the "H" word from Jason was a rare thing, and usually had to be pried out of him by other team members.

But over the last several seasons the team has primarily gone into commercial locations, locations that I suspect are less interested in help getting rid of a ghost than they are in proving a haunting, purely to cash in on the additional revenue a haunting can bring in.

My first hint of things to come was when the crew went to the Moss Beach Distillery. The Moss Beach is a well known fake, with gizmos planted through out the building to "enhance" guests experiences. If I knew the place was a fake, why the hell didn't GH? They either need to boost their research or they went in with the intent of "exposing" the fakery to boost their rep.

I don't think I've seen an episode over the last two seasons that hasn't offered up some evidence of the paranormal, unless maybe a more recent epi in an old bowling alley where my hopes were falsely raised that the debunking was back.

Things like jacket collars so very obviously pulled, hangers conveniently tossed from off camera, EVPs that are just soooo damned convenient, they've all made me very skeptical of the show. And don't get me started on GHI!

But last night was the final straw. GH has jumped the shark. To investigate their own "haunted" inn was just too much! And to pull GHI into to give it an air of respectability... Whew. What's that smell? Something stinks of blatant and shameless self-promotion.

Bye - bye Ghost Hunters. I'll miss Steve and Tango's antics, but I'm so over Grant and Jason :(

I really should update my reading list

but I'm too bloody tired tonight, lol. Hubby's had a cold and starts coughing the moment he lays down, poor thing. And of course that keeps us both awake. Now my throat is starting to hurt and I am sincerely hoping that it's not strep.

Anyhoo, as usual I've read many books since my last post. The sad thing is, my waiting list at the library has dwindled to only 14 books! And 3 of those are for my daughter.

Part of the problem is, they don't seem to be ordering the books I want to read. Like the new Broken Heart Vampires book that comes out next month, and Undead and Unwelcome, which also comes out next month. And the new Laurell K Hamilton book that I can't seem to stop myself from wanting to read, if only to see the train-wreck that Anita's life has become. I mean, this sentence from chapter one sort of says it all, when Anita is talking about family pictures, "When you're sort of living with, at last count, four men, and dating another five, or six; who goes in the pictures?" Shesh.

Did I mention that my daughter is now reading some of the books I read when I was her age? And it tickles me pink that she's reading Trixie Belden and loving the BWGs! And she's doing a book report on The Great Brain. Again, I love T.D. and his brothers, lol.

Anyway. I started this post by saying how tired I am, so why in the heck am I still here? Lol. Night!

"The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down

in rushing, rising, riv'lets." --The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

That's how the last few days have been. At work we had a seriously leaking roof in several place, most notably in the print area. One leak was a pour, as opposed to a drip.

At home it appears our vent in the master bath has a drip, hopefully something as simple as just needing to reseat the cap. Mighty disconcerting when you get up in the middle of the night, more than half asleep and something cold drips on your head, lol.

And my friend Alan is now in a hotel with his family and their weekend company because the ceiling in their kitchen caved in due to the rain. Shesh!

The good news is it's sunny today, and is supposed to stay that way for a while now. And the mountains look brilliant in the distance, all snow covered.

Well, at some point I am heading to whatever hotel Alan is tucked up into to meet a fellow WoW guildie (his father in law, lol) from the small guild I belong to on Alan's server. And I desperately need to go do some dailies on Annstás to make some money to cover the repairs I've had to make thanks to a couple of painful Ulduar 10 person runs, lol. (Hint: Brand new level 80 really isn't up to Ulduar, but it was fun!)

Just when I thought it was safe...

to put away the electric blanket! I walked out of the house yesterday to a cold mist. Yuck. Didn't think to go back in and get a coat, just hustled to the car to get out of the yuck.

So by the time I left work at 3 PM, it was raining hard. And cold. By the time I ran the gauntlet (thanks go out to the ass who was turning and didn't signal so I had to stand in the rain waiting for you to drive by and then you didn't. Loved that.) and got to my truck I was soaked and peeved.

However, meeting the "girls" after work for drinks and appetizers was lovely and put me right back in a lovely mood, lol.

This morning it is still raining, which on the one hand is a good thing, it was supposed to turn to snow overnight, so I will live with the rain! But on the other hand, it's gray and wet and cold out there, lol. I try to tell myself that we are living in a drought, and that the rain is good for us. But my aching knee doesn't care about that and the thought of going to work in a bit is not a happy one.

Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. Guess I'll grab some more coffee and watch the rain for a bit before I wake the kiddo. Ciao!

All quiet

Not much happening here. Been rereading a lot of books, as you can see from my reading blog. Enjoying having three days off this week, with another to come quickly on Sunday since we are closed on Easter.

Finally got my death knight to 80 in WoW and really, just don't know what to do with myself now, lol. I started a shaman a few weeks ago, maybe I'll play her. She was actually meant as a joke. My guild has become flooded with characters that are called soandsosangel (so and so being the husband of the hubby and wife duo), and when someone suggested I make a character named after my hubby's character, I created a character called Imnoangel instead.

If I were to play any other character really, I'd rather just move one of my older chars from hubby's account to mine and continue to level that way. I've abandoned a priest, a mage and a warlock on his account, lol (I also abandoned a warrior, hubby took her and leveled her to 80 while I played my DK, so we now have a wide variety of characters to chose from). Gnorma, a gnome mage, is the most likely to be further leveled, purely because she's the highest level, at 47.

Then again, I've a gnome DK on another server that I created to help a coworker level, I may go back to playing her (I love her, just because of her name, lol. She's Abbygnormal *snicker*)

Oh! Ummm, hi!

So the blizzard wasn't really all that that much of a blizzard. We did get 9" of snow, and for a while there it was total whiteout. School was let out early Thursday and Friday was canceled completely, so the kiddo got a long weekend to play in the snow.

By Saturday most of the snow was gone again, since we warmed right back up. Typical March weather for us, lol. In fact the weather right now is much more typical than it has been all winter.

Anyhoo. Not much knitting going on, some reading. But mostly playing WoW again lately, since the hubby talked me into signing up for some raids lately. And strangely enough, I find I'm actually having fun, rather than dying of impatience every five minutes. Yes, there's a lot of standing around, but it's not as terrible as I feared, lol.

Going to grab some breakfast and play my death knight for a bit. Ciao!

In for it!

"A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MDT FRIDAY.

SNOW WILL BECOME WIDESPREAD OVER THE ENTIRE AREA BY MIDDAY...AND
BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 45
MPH WILL PRODUCE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AND CONSIDERABLE DRIFTING
SNOW ON THE PLAINS BY AFTERNOON. THE WORST CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
TO BE IN AREAS SOUTH OF A LINE FROM BOULDER TO AKRON.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS BY LATE THURSDAY NIGHT WILL RANGE FROM
6 TO 12 INCHES ACROSS THE NORTHEAST PLAINS...WITH 8 TO 16 INCHES
OF SNOW FROM THE DENVER METRO AREA TO LIMON...AND ONE TO TWO FEET
IN DOUGLAS AND WESTERN ELBERT COUNTIES. THE SNOW AND PROLONGED
WINDS WILL ALSO PRODUCE CONSIDERABLE DRIFTING OF SNOW."

We've been lucky this winter. Too lucky, 'cause Mother Nature has decided enough is enough and it's really ugly out there. In fact, I walked out into the living room (we've been tucked up into bed, reading, this morning, lol) and looked out the window and immediately pulled up the school district's web page. It's almost total white out out there, between the snow and the wind. Sure enough, the schools are all closing this afternoon. It didn't say when though, so we called the kiddo's school and they said we could come get her now. So hubby is on his way to get her and stopping for milk on the way, then we are going to hunker down for the rest of the day.

I'm supposed to go to work at 3 pm today, but I'm kind of thinking that may not happen. I hope not, because it's only supposed to get worse. I worry about my co-workers though, because both managers on duty today come from the next town over, as do the copy specialist and several others. Not a nice drive anywhere at this point, let alone along the very open highways between here and there.

Anyhoo, now I am waiting on pins and needles for the hubby and kiddo to get home. He's much better at driving in the snow than I am, thanks to safety training he was require to take at his old job, but it's still nerve-wracking, knowing how ugly it is out there.

UPDATE: Almost 8 1/2" now, with some pretty hefty drifts out there in the backyard. No school tomorrow for the kiddo. Good news is the wind died down around 1pm and the roads are just snow covered, you can at least see again. We got off fairly lightly, areas just to the south of us got a foot or more. Of course it's still snowing so who knows what we shall see tomorrow. But we are all safe and warm so it's all good :)

Home again.

Well, actually home again for several days. We got home Friday night and I went back to work Monday. Kind of a fast trip, considering all that driving.

But for the most part it was a good trip. We had absolutely wonderful weather, with only one day a little chilly, the rest of the time it was unseasonably warm. Even the day we spent in Madison was nice enough that we only needed light jackets/ sweaters.

Madison was wonderful by the way. Even if they didn't let me look for any yarn shops, lol. I could totally live there. We had a great time with friends we hadn't seen in years and got to see some of the U of Wisconsin campus. And to top it all off, our friends live only blocks away from the zoo and it's free! So we walked over there and spent some time wandering through the little zoo. Of course the kiddo loved that.

And as a little side note, the giraffes at the Henry Vilas Zoo came from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs (they let you feed them there, lol. It was way cool when we were there), so that's kind of neat too.

Anyhoo. I'm still tired from the trip, and had a bit of an emotional melt down Monday that I am still tired from as well, lol. So I think I am going to go soak in a nice hot bath and read. Ciao!