Merry Christmas!!!

My holiday greeting to you

Friggin Ladybugs!!!

I'm typing on my computer, minding my own business when I glance at my left hand and there's a @#@$% LADYBUG perched on the tip of my thumb!!! I freaked out and shook it off. I can't believe I freaked out over a stupid little beetle. 

Sew I'm sewing a dress

I'm making a dress for E for a dance. In one week. I hate chiffon. Jo-Ann's is out of boning. But even though we're trashing the chiffon and switching to lace for the over dress it will still cost less than buying a dress. I just hope it looks good when it's all done. I like to sew but this is a little stressful. At least I get Tuesday and Friday off. Here's the pattern I'm using. I'm making just like the red with black lace over dress version.

Cricket!

Back to Blogger

I'm back. I like Blogger for blogging. I like My Space for networking. Hope you had a Happy Halloween! We had a wonderful Halloween, although we celebrated it over the weekend instead of the 31st.

E had her annual Halloween party this past weekend and invited her (then) un-boyfriend, his best friend and another long-distance friend, along with all her local friends. Her (now) BF used the word pandemonium to describe what it is like when all her friends are in the house. That's rather accurate!

We decorated the garage as a tavern, I dressed up as a bar wench and we had a blast. The next morning I realized I'd never cooked breakfast for that many people before. Didn't I mention they ALL spent the night? We had 9 people in my house!

The 2 guys from KY were model house guests...very respectful and polite, and just fun to hang out with. I look forward to seeing them again.

I'm still thoroughly exhausted from the weekend and have little motivation to work. And now E wants me to sew a dress for her to wear to a school dance.

You may have noticed I don't mention names in my blog. You're online privacy is a lot like virginity. Once you give it up, there's no getting it back.

I love Search Chips!!!

Moving to myspace

Yes, I'm leaving blogger. Maybe not for good, but for now. You can find me at www.myspace.com/niteflytes

Pirates 2 - Dead Man's Chest

OMG!!! It's great!!! We went to the 12:01 AM FIRST SHOW and it was well worth staying up to see. I won't give anything away. I'll just say that Depp is awesome as usual, the movie is full of suspense and surprises and I can't wait to see it again. *Happy dances off to bed*

What kind of American English do you speak?

Your Linguistic Profile::

60% General American English

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Focus

I need a focus for this blog. It's boring. 

Just found out today that a certain X friend/roommate is filing BK. 

Our adventures in homeschooling are going quite well. It's time for me to schedule E's English final and soon after her health final. She starts her geometry class as soon as the books arrive and she's currently working on French.

Attica prom pictures are online!

Go here to view them 
http://community.webshots.com/album/550153285HiWQUe

If that link doesn't work try 
http://community.webshots.com/user/niteflytes and it will be the last album on the page (unless you sort by newest, then it will be the first)

Happy Easter!

Ok, I'm a day late but I've been having a lazy weekend at my mom's. We made potato salad and I made my first ever cheese cake...real, not instant. It would have been perfect if we'd let it chill in the fridge for the recommended 3 hours. Never try to cut a real cheese cake early. They ooze. It's not pretty. Still tasted good though. I've watched more TV and movies this weekend than I usually watch in a month. I took today off from work and I'm so bored I'm considering doing some work for something to do!!!! Sad, isn't it?

A few updates...an old friend is moving back to IN from CA. Welcome back to IN when you get here, K.S. Another friend has been trying to get together for breakfast but sadly it hasn't worked out yet...but it will. I promise!!! Don't give up, S.R...we WILL have breakfast one of these times! 

And a big thank you to one of my mom's neighbors who has made wireless internet possible for me while at my mom's house. They're lucky I'm an honest bandwith pirate and have no interest in anything beyond using their wireless connection to access the internet.

I want my travel reimbursement checks!!!

The state has not issued me ONE travel check this year. They now owe me three travel checks totaling about $800 and soon they will owe me another travel check. This is NOT good. I need that money!

Have I mentioned that I love my Mac iBook? It's awesome! It runs circles around Windows machines. I had it up and running 5 minutes after taking it out of the box. There was absolutely NO junk icons on the desktop, no junk software installed, NO AOL ads at all on the machine. Just a sleek, clean, simple install of OS X Tiger and the software that comes standard with all Macs. Simply wonderful. And it all worked out of the box. No product activation. No dire warnings of copyright infringement police showing up at the door if I don't jump through hoops and cut through red tape. The beauty of a Mac is in its simplicity and ease of use. And I don't have to worry about adware, viruses, spyware, etc. nearly as much as Windows users. I'd say my worries of such threats is down by about 90%. And I can do everything on my Mac that I did on my Windows computer and more. My only complaint is that it doesn't play well with my wireless print server. I have to plug the printer into the computer to print. But that's easily fixed after I save up some $ for a different wireless print server. 

Other than my new computer things in my life are about the same. Some things have changed. I'm disappointed in someone I thought was a friend. On the other hand, I've been a bad friend to someone else. I feel bad that I couldn't go on vacation with another friend because of my money problems, but I know she understands. I feel badly that I'm not so good at returning phone calls to both friends and family. There's no excuse. All I can say is it's not because I don't want to talk to you. I do want to talk to you. Somewhere between doing laundry, working, taking care of the dog, the car, the house, my daughter, homeschooling, sleeping, showering, eating and taking care of myself I have to find time to give each of you a bit of my attention and I'm not always so good at it. Oftentimes I choose a little quiet time for myself over returning a phone call or even answering the phone at all. My goal is to be a better friend to each of you this year.

Renaissance Soul

I've just discovered that I'm a renaissance soul! I'm the kind of person who jumps from interest to interest; hobby to hobby. I get bored doing the same thing all the time and am constantly looking for new chanllenges in life. I thought I was just scattered and unfocused. Nope. I'm a Renaissance Soul. Coolness :-)

I'm 50% evil. How evil are you?

You Are 50% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Luv My Mac

I got a Mac and I love it!!!

I went out on a date :-)

My job is keeping me very busy these days.

Yes, short post, but I will post more later because I have a cool Blogger "widget" for my Mac

WTF happened????

I re-read it less than 10 minutes ago!!! I know it was there. I can't find it. *KICKS BLOGGER*

I got asked out the other day. It was nice. In fact, that was the freaking title of the missing post!!! NICE!!! Because he's nice. Blogger is NOT nice. Blogger ate my post!

He's from Belize. I don't know if I mentioned that before so I am now. E met him and she thinks he's nice.

It's just not the same as the original post *sigh*

What the freak!?!?!?!?

Where's my post about being asked out??? It's gone!!!! It was there and now it's gone!!! ARGH!!!!

Stormy Weather

My X is a greedy troll. He has 2 other kids and still takes E as a deduction every other year. This left me with a paltry refund this year, made even less because I have to pay state taxes. But, this is the LAST year he can EVER use her as a dependent on his taxes!!!! *does happy dance*

E and I went to a storm spotter class this evening. It was interesting. I can't wait to spot my first storm :-)

People DO read my blog. At least 2 people have read it lately. I'm dying of curiosity over a voice mail I received from a friend telling me that someone had a humorous reaction to one of my blog entries. Another friend informed me that she tried to leave a comment but it wouldn't let her. Maybe that's why I don't get comments. I'll have to look into that.

For anyone following my new social life (see previous blog entry) there's no new developments at this time and don't expect a lot of details on my blog. I don't tell the world everything! And don't get any crazy ideas about my future either. I have my own plans for my life, thank you!

Mac my PC

I tried making my PC look like a Mac last night. No! Not the case, silly! The desktop. I'm sure a Mac is great to use as a Mac but trying to force a PC to look like a Mac was a horribly frustrating experience (ok, I *know* PC stands for personal computer, but I'm using it in the context of a Window's machine). I've played with Linux and I can accept that it's different because it's Linux, not Windows. But doggone it, even though I put a Mac mask on my PC it was still a Window's machine underneath and I just couldn't deal with the frustration it caused. I don't think a real Mac would be half as frustrating to get used to. I adjust quickly to the Linux environment. Anyway, if you're interested in installing a bunch of useless junk on your computer to get the Mac experience I used these sites as my references - engadget and an article at WinCustomize

Scammed? I think not...

I'm going to get a new Mac iBook for approx. $50. Some might say it's a scam but I've done my research, found a wealth of information and advice and I'm taking the plunge. I've always wanted to try something besides the mainstream PC. I've tried Linux, now it's time to try a Mac.

I'm taking another plunge in life in order to deal with my credit card debt. Right now I'm on a credit counseling program but I don't think it will work out in the long run. Unlike some bloggers I'm not about to air all my intimate dirty laundry so you'll just have to use your imagination here.

Happy birthday to my sis-in-law! Happy birthday to my co-worker S.G.! Happy birthdays coming up to S.P and L.O.

Of Gecko's, gravity & more

I've been stumbling all over the web lately and found some really bizarre links.

MyPetFat offers a unique concept in weight loss
oo I don't even know what to say about this one
Need an apology note?
Geckoplex. Games and a cute gecko host
Save our gravity before it's too late!
Organic html - just try it

Adventures in Wal-Mart

It seems like every time I go to Wal-Mart something funny happens. Here are the latest three funny Wal-Mart stories I have to share along with what happened at Barnes and Noble today.

I went to Barnes & Noble this evening and two things happened at the check-out. One was unexpected and touching. The other perfectly illustrates my random moments of stupidity. My cashier had done something on the register before I swiped my membership card and he needed his supervisor to get him out of the transaction and back to where I could swipe the card. While he was gone his co-worker at the next register said to me, "I've shown this to everyone else tonight." He pulled a gray, velvet covered box out of his pocket and opened it for me to see the very sparkly, beautiful engagement ring he'd just purchased for his girlfriend. He was so excited he was actually bouncing! During this brief glimpse into another persons happiness I idly picked at my B&N membership card and succeeded in peeling off half of the clear plastic covering on the card! duh

The other night I went to Wal-Mart, my favorite place to shop because it's so close to my house. I was wandering down the aisles, lost in my own world when a young man caught my attention. He was wearing a long, white, terry cloth bath robe!!! It looked odd enough but the contrast with his black skin made it even more startling. I should add that he had jeans on under the robe.

This next adventure happened a few weeks ago. I should mention for those who don't know it that I live in a college town. Anyway, I was at the checkout and there was a group of girls in front of me having a friendly argument. They couldn't agree on what to call soft drinks. Was it "pop" or "soda"? I've lived in Indiana all my life and always called it pop and was surprised when I discovered that it's more commonly referred to as soda. Then the girls decided to get an objective opinion and asked me what I call it! Ok, so that wasn't quite as funny as it was at the time.

My last adventure for this post is the funniest. I was with my mom and were in line at the checkout. There was a handsome young man behind us. He was kinda hopping around like he had ADD and he suddenly blurted out to us, "Could you watch my cart while I go to the restroom? I won't be long. I only have to do number one!" We nodded yes because we were laughing too hard to talk!

And if you go here and scroll down to my 1/26/04 entry you will find out what unique service they offer at the Wal-Mart beauty salon.

Pandemic Flu Tidbits

Confused about the difference between the common cold and the flu? Check out these giant plush microbes. They have a cold plush, a flu plush and many more.

Here's a site selling shirts and other items to promote bird flu awareness. There's also a lesson to be learned from one of the shirts they used to offer. Here's a shirt that advertises that the wearer is bird flu free.

This is unreal. Someone is selling an N95 mask for $148.69!!! Last summer I bought a package of 3 N95 masks at Ace Hardware for around $10.00. Talk about price gouging. Ouch! And one mask won't last throughout the course of a pandemic. One day...maybe.

Who needs antivirals with this readily available herbal remedy for avian flu. What scares me is that there are plenty of suckers out there who will buy this stuff and expect it to protect them. My next flu entry may be devoted entirely to pan flu scams.

Redesigned laziness

I did a little pre-spring redecorating to my site. Whatcha think? A comment would be nice...kinda like throwing a bone to a dog. A little encouragement...incentive...acknowledgement that anyone, someone, is out there.

I have some new things planned for this blog. Pandemic flu is a big concern and pan flu preparedness is part of my job. As a public service to all the people who do (but mostly don't) read my blog, I'll be posting pan flu news, sites of interest, etc. on my blog.

Home schooling my daughter is a big, new thing in my life so I'll be posting about that.

And I'll still impart my random wisdom, wit and news. I should start a new blog just about my adventures in Wal-Mart. Something odd always seems to happen when I shop there.

Speaking of new blogs...I now have an eBay blog. See my profile for the link to it beacuase I'm feeling too lazy right now to make it easy for you.

Adventure in home-schooling

I'm home-schooling my daughter for the 2nd semester of 10th grade due to ongoing health issues and the rufusal of her doctor to authorize homebound instruction through the educational special services in our area. It wasn't an easy decision. After all, it's been awhile since I studies geometry, health or English. But I figure, I made it to a Master's degree so I can do this. It's a monumental responsiblity to home-school. I have to make sure she learns the same things that her classmates will learn this semester because her credits from home school have to transfer back to the high school for her to stay caught up and re-enter high school as an 11th grade student.

Not everyone agrees that I made the right choice. Most people I talk to have agreed that it's pointless to send a child to school who feels nausous most of the time. But there are some who think that just because "other people" function when ill that everyone should be able to do the same. I know there are many people with cancer or HIV/AIDS who continue to work or go to school despite overwhelming nausea and other physical discomforts. Having worked with people who are HIV+ for five years I know for a fact that for all those who were able to keep working or going to school that there were just as many who couldn't. It would be a slap in the face to imply that people who are ill and can't bring themselves to lead a "normal" life are somehow weak or inadequate. I also know, from working with terminally ill people, that continuing with normal activities is extremely important to them. I think it's because giving up a job or education feels like a step closer to the end. If they stop working then they may never work again.

Now, my daughter is NOT terminally ill. She's temporarily ill. She knows she's going to get better. She knows she will go back to public school when this is over. For her this is a speed bump in the road of life. Will it make her inferior, weak, lazy or undersocialized to be home-schooled for a semester? Hardly. She has to take the initiative to learn on her own, she has to organize her time to get her assignments done, she has to do a lot more reading and problem solving. She doesn't have a handful of teachers to spoon feed her the information and answers or help her figure out what she doesn't understand. She will have to improve her problem solving skills, reading comprehension and independent thinking in order to finish the 10th grade. If anything, I think home-schooling is a peek into what it will be like to go to college. What I recall from my college days are reading reading reading, studying for hours, and doing an inordinate amount of research. The lectures were only a small part of my college education.

This is turning into a long rant. I'll stop now.

I have no social life

I have no social life. My SIMS have more friends than I do. They go out on dates, meet new people, and have fun. I sit in my living room and watch them on my computer. If I don't give them what they need they try to get my attention. I feel like I'm the SIM god of Strangetown.

When I get bored with playing The Sims 2 I Stumble the web. That's so exciting. I can really get a feel for how insignificant my life is as I browse the endless supply of web sites in cyber space.

Don't feel like Stumbling? There's always taking care of the finances online and staring at the budget. Nothing like a good long worry over money to put life into perspective.

I have books to read, TV to watch, movies, crafts but I've planted my behind in this chair and have no motivation to do anything useful. And the worst of it? I seriously doubt that anyone ever reads this crap I write.

Happy 2006!

Is it time to redecorate my blog page? Maybe...

2005 in review...my peronsal highlights and memories

* 2005 followed 2004, another holiday season filled with food, gifts, and whatnots
* I had just been hired at my present job only a few months prior to 2005
* I was determined to move out of my mobile home and into a real house...and did
* I became a slumlord...I mean landlord.
* I turned 41
* Hurricane season was particularly devastating this year
* E got sick and stayed sick with a mystery illness that turned out to be called postviral dysmotility
* I received an email from KC...my biggest shock of 2005
* Credit card debt took over my life
* I tried Weight Watchers and quit

My predictions and/or wishes for 2006

* E gets better and goes back to school
* I go out on a date
* I finally sell that stupid mobile home
* I turn 42
* I remain employed
* I paint my kitchen
* I lose at least 20 lbs
* I get control of my credit card debt
* President Bush is impeached
* A flu pandemic occurs but it's nothing like anyone expected
* A major earthquake occurs in the US with devastation far beyond that of the hurricanes of 2005
* There's another major terrorist attack in the US rivaling the destruction of 911