More of the same...

Nothing to discuss... Wanna see where all I have been in the US?




create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Blah...

I can just tell this is going to be a wasted week. I'm so out of it, so un-motivated... So do not want to be here.

No real reason... I'm just not interested in work right now. Wish I could go away for a weekend or something and do something fun.

Unfortunately stuff like that probably won't be happening for me any time in the near term. Oh well...

Just so you know...

Big Brother is watching...

The Da Vinci Code

OK... I had put off reading this book for as long as I could. For one, I'm not really into reading the "trendy" book of the day - other than John Grisham who I am like addicted to. I am more interested in reading the "classics" or finding new authors on my own. But this one seemed to be one that everyone was reading so I got the book for Christmas - started it recently and just finished it today.

It is a very good book although not as gripping as how I have heard it described. Maybe its because I have watched too many of those History Channel documentaries about it before I read it or maybe ... I don't know. It is very interesting though especially a lot of the history. I sort of wonder how much of it is exactly true and how much of it is fictional.

I will have to say though, the last chapter ... that was almost worth the read. The last chapter was something - I actually felt like I couldn't breathe when I read it so... I guess I would recommend this book and say it is worth the read but just look at it with an open mind.

Dream vacations

What would yours be? Give me some ideas to keep me warm this cold afternoon!

Yikes!

A big whoo-hoo to the working class!
-----Original Message-----
From: BreakingNews@MAIL.CNN.COM [mailto:BreakingNews@MAIL.CNN.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 10:38 AM
To: TEXTBREAKINGNEWS@CNNIMAIL12.CNN.COM
Subject: CNN Breaking News

-- Eight workers at a meat processing plant in Nebraska are the winners of a record $365 million Powerball jackpot, AP reports.

Well...

In case anyone was concerned and I know you were all just freaking out ...

I am happy to report that my phone was in my car afterall!

Thank goodness!

Ok, that is about it for now. Perhaps I will be back with more later!

Auurrgghh!!!

I'm sort of bumming right now. I have no idea where my cell phone is! Its brand new too so that totally sucks. The thing is, I think its in my car but I'm not sure. The story is that this morning I left the apartment and forgot to take it. So I made it downstairs and and realized this and went back up and got it. I don't know what I did with it after that. I'm guessing that I did not put it in my purse because it isn't there. I hope I just put it on my car seat and went off and left it - I'm parked at my friend's place so if I did that, it should be safe. But the thought is crossing my mind that I put it in my coat pocket and if I did that - well, its definitely not there so it would have fallen out of my pocket and would now be lost. So I'm totally bumming about this because its brand new and really cool. Blahh... Oh well... worst case is if I lost it, I would just buy another one because I want that phone!!!

Stuff

Well, yikes! I guess the weather was kinda bad down home last night. Mom said they had warnings when I called yesterday evening to congratulate my dad on Mike Davis resigning. I had spoken to her earlier in the day as well and she said it was 70 degrees. No wonder!

"In Indiana, an apparent tornado on Thursday blew the roof off a church in
Terre Haute, and the roof on an Ivy Tech State College building partially
collapsed. Another suspected tornado damaged nearly a dozen homes in
Vincennes, about 100 miles southwest of Indianapolis, authorities said."

In other news ... ummm.... yesterday on my way home someone told me to be careful. I should have heeded the warning cause as I'm entering the train station (and it was raining outside and everything was slick) and took one step on the escalator I proceeded to fall and slide all the way down the bottom. I am so not kidding. I guess you could say it was embarrassing but I get embarrassed by very little - at least stuff like that. Some guy basically picked me up off of the ground. I couldn't believe it - I was like sitting there in shock at the bottom of the escalator. At least it was one of those short ones. I didn't get hurt which I guess was pretty lucky although I do feel sore today and it seemed to have ripped off two of my acrylic nails - I need new ones anyway.

So I don't know if it was the achey-ness of it all of what but then I overslept this morning by 20-25 minutes so I ended up taking the later train which wasn't that big of a deal but I look like crap right now. Took a shower and barely dried my hair even though its like 20 degrees out. Threw on some clothes and ran out the door. At least I made it here in time.

Thats about all of the drama going on in my life at the moment. I may be back for more later. We shall see...

So... just how important IS it?

A nice note I got from one of our users today at the FBI after helping him write some code. Hmmm...


Melissa ...
This worked perfectly. Thank you so much for your PROMPT support and attention. You have no idea how important this is.

Quote of the Day

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Its gonna happen!

Holy crap!!!!

Birthday gift...

What would you want as a birthday gift say $200 and under?? I need some ideas!

Dr. Phil

Now who all watched the Dr. Phil special last night? The little bit on Paula Abdul was cute. The part on the other guy - what an ASSHOLE! I mean ... wow! You know, I swear my sister dated that guy a few years back. OK so not exactly him but someone who played the exact same game on her. I'm so not kidding about that. The one thing that Dr. Phil said - and believe me, I'm not into the whole "Dr. Phil" thing myself, but this was a good one - he said to the blond girl that she was in love with the man that she wanted him to be; not the man that he was. Yeah... aren't we all guilty of that one from time to time? Believe me, I know I have been!

PLEASE tell me I don't know this person!

DEAR ABBY: I am being married in May. I want to wear my wedding gown to the airport and on the plane. Is this common? Is it proper? Please let me know. -- BRIDE-TO-BE, TERRE HAUTE, IND.

DEAR BRIDE-TO-BE: There is no "law" against it, but I would recommend against wearing your bridal gown to the airport because the idea is impractical. Airport floors are dirty and could soil the gown. A trip up or down an escalator could tear the hem. The compulsory security screening could also create a problem, and so would the seating on the aircraft.
It would be much better to do what brides traditionally do: After the reception, change into comfortable traveling clothes and leave your wedding gown at home.

So.... who thinks this is true?

http://lifeandstylemag.hollywood.com/

Go Sox!

More blog fun!

	Cheer Bear You're the Care Bear cheerleader! Your spunky personality and optimisim lifts everyone's spirit. Though you want everyone to be happy, you stand your ground on issues you feel strongly about and this can bring disunity among your friends. Despite this, you are a true believer in working together.
Take the Which Care Bear Are You? Quiz!

Stuff...

I took what I like to call a "Melissa Day" yesterday which is why I wasn't around. It was just lovely doing nothing all day long.

Dos Hermanos has reopened as Tierra del Sol. I am assuming it has a new menu. I may check it out this week for a co-worker's going away party.

And in news from Hoosierland, Mike Davis is talking like this will be his last year coaching at IU and believe me, I think it will be. I expect it will be a race between him and the administration as to if he resigns first or they fire him first. I thought all of the talk about bringing Steve Alford in to coach was stupid, but now I don't think so. And would he leave Iowa? You know, I think he would - given the opportunity to coach at his alma matre, and the fact that I hear they pretty much don't like him in Iowa. Why would he not want to?

My dad's birthday this Sunday and I got him a hilarious card and added a bunch of stuff to it. He's going to flip. What a great birthday for my Dad - the Daytona 500 and everything that day. LOL!

And in news from my hometown... I received some super exciting wonderful news from my family in recent days... I can't go into here just yet but there are some great changes abrewing! I am very happy for them!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Take the quiz:
Which famous movie kiss are you?


Sixteen Candles
You are the Sixteen Candles kiss!

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

Is it just me?

Or maybe I'm getting old or something but ... are the prom styles bad this year or what?

Meow!

adopt your own virtual pet!

Stuff that freaks me out...

So... last night around 3am I am awakened by a strange noice out in the living room. I finally decided it was the cat up to something. So I decided to go out and check on her. Anyway, she has recently had her front claws clipped and she appeared to be trying to dig her claws into the top of the couch and I think she was a little freaked out that she had no claw there so she was doing it over and over and it was making this strange noise on the material. So I pet her and she was all happy to see me as usual, purring and stuff but Willow, I have to go back to bed. Talk to you in a few hours. So go back to bed. Get up this morning a little after 6. The front door to my apartment is wide open. So.... like I'm totally freaked out. (Also glad she didn't decide to venture out although I don't think she would have made it far). This is the inner door inside the apartment so its not like it was opened to the street or whatever. You go downstairs and then to the door to the outside. But yeah... anyway, completely freaking cause the door was closed when I went to bed and it was also closed when I got up to check on the cat. So I'm guessing - or more what I'm hoping - is that the door wasn't completely shut or whatever and opening another door in the place created a draft which popped the front door open. And, lets face it, that is probably what happened - I've seen it happen before - plus the door expands and contracts so much lately in this varying weather that sometimes you really have to pull hard to even get it to shut - its weird. Regardless I will now always be deadbolting but still... part of me worries that maybe someone was trying to get in or something and that was what caused the cat to start acting all weird and they bailed when I got up. I don't know... I hope that wasn't the case. The door doesn't seem damaged and the lock was still "locked" even though the door was open. Freaky freaky stuff!

Taking a break...

Just too busy to blog the last couple of days. I'm not leaving but I may be taking a break for a bit. It all depends on how busy I am at work - who knows, I could be back tomorrow.

Take care!

No more Dos Hermanos!

Dos Hermanos is the Sears Tower is closing. Its a pretty good place and great Mexican restaurant for the Loop area - good food, great margaritas. I haven't been there in forever but I'm going to miss it! My favorite trip to Dos Hermanos included me and my friend Amanda heading out together after I went thru a breakup. We proceeded to drink our own personal pitcher of margaritas each. We were TRASHED but had a great time! Definitely my best and most favorite trip to that restaurant. Sad the place is going though.

My other favorite place in the downtown Chicago area is Fernando's and I haven't been there in a year. I have to get there sometime- I miss that place.

I now have lots of favorite suburban Mexican restaurants that I go to - Amanda introduced me to one! So I think I have that food world covered!

Frisco

My sweet little kitty, Frisco, that I have had since I was 15 years old and a freshman in high school - 1989 - died this past weekend. She was almost 16 1/2 years old. She was a total sweetheart - one of the sweetest cats I have ever had (I would say its pretty close to a tie between her and little Willow). She had a great life and was just really old and had some problems - she had a tumor in her ear and had lost a good deal of weight in the last year. I'm sure that it is one of those things that it is for the best.

She had the tumor removed a few months ago and it most likely cancerous but they didn't test it. Anyway, it had grown back in recent weeks and she was very uncomfortable. Mom took her to the vet and they said they could let it go or operate but it would be like operating on an 85-90 year old person and she may not make it. My parents opted to have her put to sleep and thats fine. I would never have wanted her to suffer. She was a sweetheart though and I'm seriously going to miss her. Its going to be so weird now to walk into my parents' home and have there not be any pets of any kind. They're all gone now and I think my parents are done with that part of their lives. My dad is going to partially retire next year and then they're going to travel more so I don't blame them in the least, but its still going to be weird. I can't picture my house without a pet living there - at least a cat. At least I still have Willow and I plan to always have a cat myself.

The story of Frisco, and her brother Babe, is kind of an interesting one. It started one September afternoon in 1989 when my grandfather went down to the storage shed to look for something. He heard meowing and opened the side door and found six kittens. My grandfather always had a soft spot for cats - theirs, ours, strays that would show up on their doorstep - and went and got some cat food and milk and set it out in the shed for the mother cat. A day later, it hasn't been touched, the second day, still the same and at this point the kittens were getting very weak. One ended up dying. It was a little black one and it didn't seem quite "right" to begin with. I don't think it would have lived if the mother had been around. Six kittens is a fairly big litter anyway. They had their eyes open but I would guess them to be maybe around 11 days old. So we got eyedroppers and, milk - as we learned a day or so later, baby formula was the best to use - and started feeding them. It ended up being a little too late for one of the kittens who was a twin to our Frisco. She ate but then went to sleep on my mom's lap and didn't wake up. It was very sad - we were just a little bit too late. We saved four of them though and that is where the fun began.

We fed them, we played with them, we went down to my grandparents house every day to see them. They were our babies.

You're probably wondering now why I'm not saying we were keeping them or keeping Frisco or Babe or whatever but there is a little bit more to this story.

The cat that I had had since I was six years old had died in July of feline leukemia and it was horrible. One thing I have always said is that pets in the country tend to live very good lives but they also seem to die some bad deaths - and thats true. Anyway, I had been really torn up about it when he was sick and everything and it was a really bad time for me because I was so attached to him. My parents had raised me and my sister to believe that pets were special and they weren't to just be cast aside and replaced immediately when they were gone. But I remember my dad had told me when Puff died that I could have a kitten if I wanted one. I didn't want one - just because I didn't want one plus we still had Puff's brother Fluff (yes, I know, what names! but I was six and my sister was four when we named them!) and I wasn't sure he could deal with a kitten.

Anyway, as time went on we became more attached to the kittens and I was especially attached to Frisco. A stray had shown up at my grandparents' place before and had kittens and we had named them. We always named them fairly generic names since we wouldn't be keeping them and we did *sort of* the same with this litter. One of the black ones we called Blackie, the buff colored one was called Buffy, little Babe was originally called Bright Eyes because even as a kitten he had amazing eyes and Frisco my mom had started calling Frisky, but I didn't like it, I thought she needed a better name so I changed it *slightly* still thinking that we wouldn't be keeping any of them.

The time to give them away was approaching and I really really did not want to give her up but I really didn't know how to tell them that or ask them. They figured it out because they eventually pretty much told me we were keeping her, not asking me if I wanted to and thank goodness. So we took Frisco home with us - by this time knowing she was a girl and not a boy. Its kind of hard to tell when they're teeny tiny and I had given her a sort of masculine name thinking because she was so active and liked attacking the other kittens that she was a boy. Turned out, she was a girl... all of the others were boys - LOL! We tried "Frisca" for a while but I didn't really like it as much ... my mom sort of always ended up calling her that though. So the first night we had Frisk home we put her in a box in the laundry with this little Smurf doll that my sister had so she had something to cuddle with. She cried for the longest time - just like a baby. And I could hear her in there for the longest time and it was just breaking my heart. I wanted to go get her and bring her into my room but I knew she had to learn and eventually she must have gone to sleep. I don't think I heard her cry after that. Fluff was very good and accepting of her. He was amazing in fact. I don't think that any other cat we ever had would have accepted a kitten like he did - he was around 10 years old at the time too. Even Friso would not have been that accepting with a kitten as he was.

The other kittens ended up getting adopted out - Buffy went to a neighbor of ours and Blackie went to a little boy in town. All that was left was Bright Eyes (Babe). He was kind of a runt, real scrawny and he must not have been getting enough food because his fur was actually falling out. My grandparents decided that they would keep him. At the time, however, my grandparents were still doing a lot of travel all over the world and they were going on like a three week trip to South America. Mom knew that we would have to take care of Babe. So he came to live with us during this time - and there was no way he was going to go back after that. Mom started calling him her "baby" so his name for a while became Baby and then finally Babe which fit him oddly enough in a way I could never explain. Babe was something else - lets just say he was a unique individual for a cat.

And so we had for awhile three cats. Frisco and Fluff were really good friends. Babe just wanted to play with Fluff and Fluff just wasn't really up for it by that time. Fluff used to sit up on this stool and Babe would grab his super fluffy tail - it was hilarious. I like to think that somewhere Fluff is in heaven sitting on a cloud and Babe has him by the tail. And now Frisk is with them.

I'm doing OK, I'm just really going to miss her.

Blah...

This diet thing ain't going so well the last couple of days. Gotta get back up on that horse!!!!!!

Testing...

1-2-3...

Hey, psycho boy, how about this one!

"Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy." - Robert Anthony

There is something very sad yet oddly funny about this ...

Stephanie Tanner, how could you!!??

I think...

More than anything, she just hurts really bad. There just seems to be such an ache there in her writing that goes way beyond politics. I can't imagine how I would feel.

This would be a disaster for my social life - LOL!

Karaoke curfew imposed!