I Love Halloween

I love Halloween.  I love the spookiness and the scary stories and dressing up and being scared and scaring others.  5 years ago, when I was married to Tom, we lived in a neighborhood that had a LOT of kids.  Tom and I decided to decorate our entry way and also to dress up to hand out candy to the kids.  Tom was dressed as the guy from the movie "Scream" and I was a zombie...a really scary zombie...with a really scary mask that even *I* didn't like looking at in the mirror.  PERFECT!  So we handed out candy, scared some kids a little and even REALLY scared a little 4 year old girl, which made me sad, not happy.  I felt REALLY bad for her. 

What I loved was that down the street, you could hear some teenage girls screaming and acting silly...like 14 year old girls do.  I couldn't wait for them to get to our house.  Tom was standing by the porch outside...just standing...not moving....and I was lying (laying?) in the grass near the walkway by the porch.  I could see a little bit out my mask and as the girls came up the walkway, they saw me in the shadows and kind of jumped, then said, "Is that REAL?"  One of the girls kicked me in the side.  I just rolled a little, like a rag doll.  Then she swung her leg back to kick me again.  That's when I lifted up, outstretched my arms, and yelled, "RAAAWWWWRRRR!"  I had never seen a human fly, but these girls FLEW out of the yard, screaming.  They were so scared, they forgot the candy...and they kept running.  I laughed so hard!  Later on, after we had changed out of our costumes and had gone inside (it was getting chilly), the doorbell rang and it was a couple of the girls.  They said, "Where is the guy that was out here earlier?"  I said, "Oh, that was me." Her: "That was YOU?" Me: (grinning) "Yes...and you are the one that kicked me". She said, "Oh, gosh, sorry...um, we forgot to get candy...can we have some candy?"  I had to laugh again as I gave them some candy.  I think that was one of my favorite Halloween's. 

I hope you all get lots of treats and no tricks this Halloween. 

If I knew then what I know now

I finished reading a book called The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch a couple of days ago.  It's an easy read and was pretty interesting, even though the ending was predictable.  It got me thinking about what I would change or do differently if I could go back in time.  I don't necessarily have a lot of regrets...I mean, I wouldn't be where I am now if I hadn't lived my life the way I have lived it, but I think I could have saved myself a lot of heartache and money if I could go back some years and make some changes.  I guess if I could go back, I wouldn't want to know the future necessarily, but I would like to know the lessons I have learned over the years.  Just the knowledge that I didn't have to do certain things in my life to be happy....that I could have made different choices and had a better outcome.  But then I have to think about "the butterfly effect"...if I had NOT done this one thing, for example, would that REALLY effect where I am today? Well, one thing I know is that I would sure buy that VW EOS again...that's how I met Jim and I would really be sad if my life didn't inlcude him.  :)

My latest venture in reading is The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  So far, it's very interesting.  I have learned that there is a thing called Noetic Science that I would like to learn more about.  I guess I'll continue reading this book and start doing some research later.  Maybe I could learn how to change things using my brain power...hmm....there's a thought! 
(HA HA)

A masterpiece in the sky

Once again, I sit here wondering what to write about...feeling like I'm letting my readers down by not blogging more regularly.  I think highly of myself and my blogs, huh?  :D  I like to write about funny stuff....it keeps me from griping about the things that bug me and I think I like myself better when I'm funny and thoughtful rather than grumpy and bitchy.   And right now, I have something I want to gripe about, but I'm trying REALLY hard to just let it go, as I cannot control the issue/person/situation.  *SIGH*

*** A few minutes pass ***

Yesterday, there were some storms in the area.  Not as bad as they predicted for Nashville, but still very windy and rainy and there was some damage in areas around here.  After I picked Benjamin up from school, we were driving home.  As we got past the I-24/I-65 split north of Nashville, the sky looked so beautiful to the North.  It was pinkish purple and the clouds were very interesting looking.  Benjamin even said they looked really neat and appreciated the color.  Then, I saw in my side mirror the Southwest where the sun was setting and it was a gorgeous orange/pink.  Benjamin turned around in the car and said, "Oh, that's really pretty!  Kind of NEON!"  I love it that he can appreciate these natural masterpieces at a young age.  I hope he continues to be able to appreciate these little things in life.

Deep Thoughts with Benjamin

This past week, I watched a show on Showtime called "The Big C", which is about a woman who has terminal cancer and how she is dealing with it.  It's actually a comedy and quite funny and often thought-provoking.  In the last episode, she had taken some Ecstacy and had come to the realization she didn't need to be afraid (of anything) anymore.  She went on to say she wondered where we went when we died and had a conversation with another character on the show about his beliefs. 

This conversation reminded me of one I had with Benjamin when he was around 6 years old.  I have always thought he was an "old soul".  From the day he was born, he seemed to just "know" more about the world and beyond.  On this particular day, he and I were out by the pool in our backyard and he looked at me and said, "I wish I could die, Mom."  He said it "matter-of-factly" and it really freaked me out, but I kept my cool and said, "Well, I sure don't.  Why do you wish you could die?"  He replied, "Then I could go back up there and be born again and stay little."  Me: "So you think that when you die, you go back up there and get born again?"  B: "Yes, that's right."  I never did get him to explain why he thought that or if he had heard it somewhere - he didn't have an answer to that question. 

Reading in the attic

When I was young and we used to go to my Grandma and Grandad Tingley's house, I would often venture upstairs to the attic.  The doorway to the attic was a small door inside one of the bedrooms.  The ceiling in the attic was pitched with the roof, so even I had to duck down to move around up there.  The attic was filled with treasures.  I never ventured further than the bookshelves up there, though.  (Now I wish I had explored more)  I would sit up there and read the "Reader's Digest Condensed Books" that my grandparents had stored.  At the age of 8 or 9, these were really great books to read and I loved being able to escape to the solitude of the attic.  I wish I could paint or draw the picture that is in my mind of the bookshelves in the attic, although I think that our memories are more special to us individually than trying to share them with others.  Do you know what I mean?  You probably wouldn't feel as "warm" about this memory as I do, because you didn't experience it.  (Although my siblings and parents might have experienced it...I dunno!)   Just rambling thoughts on this nice fall day.

$270,000

Yesterday, I went to the liquor store to buy some wine that was on sale.  I decided to buy a whole case because the price was right and the wine was good and it will keep (although not for long in my house -  ha ha).  So the woman at the register is looking up the price in the computer, makes the selection, totals my cost and it is over $270,000!  She stopped, looked at it a couple of times and we started laughing, because we knew that wasn't right.  The wine she was trying to look up was Louis Martini Cabernet.  She had selected Louis XIII de Rémy Martin (a cognac), which sells for over $2,000 a bottle...and I think she had selected more than 12 bottles.  So she voided the transaction and started over, but we all got a much-needed laugh on a Friday afternoon.
CHEERS!

Fartknocker

I use the word "fartknocker" sometimes in various situations. Usually it's to describe someone who is a idiot in traffic or has done or said something stupid. I said it yesterday to describe someone who cut me off in traffic. As usual, Benjamin was with me and asked, "Mom, what's a fartknocker?" I had to laugh because I don't know if I came up with the term or if I heard it somewhere else. So I explained to him why I used that word and that it might not be one he should use in school, although it's much less vulgar than my normal "rush-hour language".

Benjamin then informed me that he had called a kid a fartknocker at Fun Company one afternoon after school. I asked him why he did that and he said that he was playing football with a counselor and some other kids. This "3rd grader" farted, so he called him a fartknocker. Pretty funny if you ask me! He said he didn't get in trouble, but I reiterated that he might want to refrain from repeating his mother's comments while driving. I have a feeling one day I will be called into the principal's office at his school to discuss something Benjamin has said. *SIGH* I really do need to clean up my language while driving. I should probably post more comments on my family's blogs so I can come up with new words.


Footnote: I looked up "fartknocker" on the web and I guess I didn't make it up. Seems it's a widely used word, coined by Beavis and Butthead.

Holiday World

Last Saturday, Jim and I took Benjamin, Hailey, and Katy (our nieces) to Holiday World. This was the last weekend of the season and there were NO lines, which was fantastic. In 4 hours, we rode all the rides we wanted to ride as many times as we wanted to ride them. Benjamin and Katy are 3 years apart in age and get along so well. They would go to one ride while Hailey, Jim and I rode a bigger ride and then we'd meet up afterwards. It was perfect. We all rode the bumper cars together and that was really fun, trying to catch up and bump into each other. While we were all getting into our cars, Benjamin looked over at Hailey and said, "What number is yours?" (the cars all had numbers on the back of them) Hailey told him the number, and Benjamin replied, "That one is broken. It doesn't work very well." The ride operator happened to be checking Benjamin's seat belt at that time and looked at him and said, "Does he know something I don't?" I cracked up! Benjamin was trying to get Hailey's goat and nearly did.

The kids rode the Pilgrim's Plunge, the world's tallest water ride at 135-feet tall with a 131-foot descent at a 45 degree angle. They rode it 4 or 5 times and really could have stayed there for hours. That's Katie and Benjamin in the front. -->

Jim, Hailey, and I rode the 3 wooden roller coasters there: The Raven, The Legend, and The Voyage. The angles of descent on The Voyage vary from 50 degress to 66 degrees. Needless to say, I was really freaked out...terrified....and loved every minute of it! I can't wait until Benjamin is ready to ride these rides with us!

This picture of The Voyage is from http://www.holidayworld.com/

Photo by Dan Feicht

One of my favorite pictures is the expression on Benjamin's and Katy's faces on the log ride:

Websites I Like

I have some favorite websites.

One of them is a recap of the soap opera "Days of our Lives" with some humorous commentary included. If you care to check it out, it can be found here: http://prevuze.blogspot.com/ .
Another site is a random password generator site. http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/ I can generate passwords for accounts on my network here and not have to think them up myself. LOVE IT!
The Oatmeal (http://theoatmeal.com/) is a site I like to go to for some fresh humor. Odd, but fresh.
Fark.com is another humorous website I visit. People contribute current events from online sources and make sarcastic or ironic comments about them. It's a good source for odd news too.

I can use this site at work: http://www.subnet-calculator.com/subnet.php?net_class=C to calculate IP subnets. Another site I frequent at work is http://egret.net/kb__mb.htm that allows me to convert bytes to kilobytes to megabytes to gigabytes to terabytes. I'm sure you'll all rush to these sites and start using them right away! :)

Woops!

Last week, I shipped a 24" monitor to our Arlington, VA location. I forgot to insure the package and it was damaged....badly! It looked like this delivery company played basketball with the monitor! So I decided to file a claim anyway.

I did that on Thursday and have not heard anything from them. So I contacted the Arlington office to see if they had heard from the delivery company. My co-worker there replied, "Well...the monitor isn't here anymore." Me: "What? Where is it?" Co-worker: "We think the cleaning crew thought it was trash and threw it out." Me: "HOLY CRAP!" and laughter ensued. I couldn't help it. It WAS trash, but we were trying to see if the delivery company would take responsibility for their actions. Maybe the building management will buy us a new monitor instead. It was just so funny to me because it started off by me making a mistake, followed by a series of laughable errors.

Singing Kittens

Some of you know that we have cats. LOTS of cats. I think we have 10 cats and 3 kittens...and more on the way. They are all outdoor cats and a lot of fun, most of the time. We have a white cat that has one blue eye and one green/yellow eye and loves to be petted. AND, if you will pick him up and start scratching his neck behind his ears, he will begin to lay back and just become so relaxed and will stay there as long as you scratch this spot or his back.

However, none of my cats sing or play horns like the cats in this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5KhP11BRj4

You don't really even need the sound (it's really annoying)...just watch the cats on the left and right "play" their horns. Cracks me up every time!