Jeff's results

He's all mine ladies!

Real post soon, I promise

The Hipster

Today I went to Erie with Jeff and my Mini-Me and finished up our Christmas shopping. We got to have lunch at Max and Erma's (and eat fresh chocolate chip cookies!) with Allison, Grey and Jessika. It was cool to get to meet Jessika, I was sorry we didn't get to meet NoJim. Maybe next time kiddo. We went to Borders, and the mall, and Best Buy. At Best Buy, I was mesmerized by the clarity of a high definition TV and the amazing sound of a surround sound system. I want.

Anyway, I'm eating DiGornio pizza and waiting to get into WoW. Waiting to get into WoW is worse than Waiting for Godot. Take the Sundance quiz, it's fun.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Twist her like a pretzel

Last night I did the first two workouts on one of my new Yoga DVDs and watched part of the third. I feel like I followed along all right, although it was a little overwhelming at first. I don't know the names of the different yoga positions, and the instructor was moving very quickly between them at first. But the nice part of a DVD is I can just stop the disc and go back. I think if I was taking a class I might get embarassed if I couldn't keep up. I felt great when I was done working out, my muscles were very warm and loose. I feel a little stiff this morning, but it's bearable. I can't wait to try out the other DVD, Yoga for the Core. It works on the abs and butt, and those are two areas I feel need a little work.

I have blogged 4 days in a row!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Busy Work

I love getting paid $11 an hour to do something a monkey could do. Right now I am going through a stack of papers and putting customer's Driver's License numbers and birthdates on their accounts. Since I am not a monkey, I am doing this while listening to The Recipe and blogging.

"Captain Crunch is telling me/to take that shit less seriously/I'll serenade the moonshine/and love you through my bones" - The Recipe, Song: Bonemeal, CD: Night of the Porch People

I've got busy work to do at home tonight too, I want to do some laundry and finish the dishes. We're planning to use the deep fryer to make supper, so I want to try my new Yoga DVD before Jeff gets home to try to off-set my greasy dinner.

On my way to work this morning, I reflected on how nice it is to be awake in the morning and get to see the sunrise on my way to work. I have a better sense of time passing, the seasons changing, the Wheel turning. Every morning on my drive, that minute or two when everything is pink and golden happens a little later, and I get to see a different hillside, or group of trees, bathed in that light. And in the spring, that time will get earlier and earlier, revealing new buds on the trees and blooming flowers along the roadside. It's nice to appreciate time once in awhile instead of cursing how there never seems to be enough of it.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Coyote Sighting

This morning on my way to work I saw a coyote to my right, on the north side of Rte 86. Since I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen a coyote in the wild (2 including this morning), it was pretty special. I'm not someone who goes around looking for omens or signs all the time, but I do try to take notice when I see something out of the ordinary. When I get home, I'll pull out Animal Speak and see what Coyote means. I know his general associations are humor, tricks, teaching wisdom with mischief.

Speaking of divination and magickal things, one of my Tarot decks has gone missing. It's my round Motherpeace deck that Janis gave me. Jeff thinks I gave it away to someone, but I don't remember doing that. If you are reading this, and I gave it to you, I don't intend to take it back, but I'd like to know if you have it, just so I can stop looking for it.

Anyway, I'm at work as always, so I need to keep this short. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Weekend Update

Jeff and I had a nice weekend off together. Saturday we went to the Lighthouse for lunch and did some shopping at Big Lots and Wal-Mart. We went to the new Bradford Subs and Pizzeria near Beefeaters for dinner. The pizza was pretty good. The bathroom had one of those waterfall pictures that makes bird noises, and I've always thought those were annoying. They had one at the Chinese Buffet in Olean that we used to go to, before they started having problems with roaches.

Yesterday I misplaced the remote control for the TV in the living room, so we watched a lot of DVDs. We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Star Wars Episode III: The Return of the Sith, and Blade III. We also had Adam, Harriet and Artie over for barbecue chicken, and to play Three Dragon Ante. It was a fun time, even though in the first game of Three Dragon Ante, Adam beat me on the last hand and one the game by 2 gold.

At work, Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday. I drove to West Hickory and spent the day with my family. I ate turkey, mashed potatoes, pie, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, baked corn and stuffing. Everything was wonderful. I am thankful for my husband, our home, our friends and our family. I am also thankful I was not in any of the marching bands in NYC yesterday. They got very wet.

I'd also like to wish a happy birthday to my sister Lacy. Her Birthday was November 21st.

I'm at work so I'll end this here. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Bird Watching

Posting from work again. We've got two little chickadees in the building. That's not a metaphor. There are little birds flying from rafter to rafter and singing. I think it's nice. My team lead is worried about getting pooped on. Muggles.

Last night, we went to see Big Love, starring Hilary Gonzales, Adam Hirt, and a bunch of people I don't know. The show was wonderful. In the show there was dancing, singing, stunts, and bloody murder. One of the stunts went a little awry. The premise of the show is that 50 brides, who are all sisters, flee from their home in Greece on their wedding day. Their 50 grooms follow them to Italy. The grooms are airlifted in and repel down to the terrace of the home where the brides are seeking refuge. One of the groom's repelling line didn't come down as far as it should have and he ended up dropping about 7 feet to the stage. He wasn't hurt and the show went on, but it made the scene even tenser than it should have been. The music in the show was wonderful, Dr. Ewert said he would burn me a copy of the soundtrack.

I liked the script Dr. Ewert chose, it was a little out here, as all of Dr. Ewert's choices are, but it had a good message about whether we accept the world as it is and live in it as best we can, or whether we reject the messed up world that is presented to us and try to change it. And how far are we ultimately willing to go to change it? And at the end of the show, love is declared to be the highest law. There were two scenes in the play where I felt like power was raised in the theater. The first is a scene where they are preparing for the wedding, bringing in the cake and presents, and one of the house guests, an Italian lothario named Leo and his friend, are encouraging the brides to embrace life and take a chance at finding love. They dance and circle around the stage, and the music is very up tempo. The energy was very raucous and joyous, and at the same time, made you feel like drinking wine in the late afternoon, with the warm sun toasting your body. It felt like energy to invoke Pan or Bacchus. During a scene just before the end of the play, the energy is darker, and distinctly female. It made you want to rise up and take vengeance. This energy felt like it would invoke, Kali, the Morrigan, Maat or the Cailleach.

I'm at work and I've already spent more time on this than I meant to. I plan to see the show again on Sunday. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Tiny Green Puppy

I dreamt I was in a house with lots of black cats. All of them were trying to rub up against me and jump in my lap. I was trying to avoid them. I didn't want my allergies to act up, and I was a little afraid of them. The cats became more and more aggressive, jumping off of furniture into my arms. Jeff was sitting in the room watching TV and he kept telling me to calm down. I ran out of the living room of the house into the kitchen. The kitchen was kind of small, the walls were of shiny wood, polished oak. There was a little green puppy on the floor, eating out of one of the cat bowls. I picked him up and he fit into my hand. He had long ears, and he was light green and his hair was very short. He crawled into my sleeve and laid down. When I pulled him out of my sleeve, I found out he'd left me a little puppy present in there. But I wasn't angry, because he was adorable.

When I woke up, I thought the puppy was a fairy puppy.

I also did a Faery Oracle reading before bed last night. It was the only card deck I could find. I think the faeries are hiding my other decks. I drew O That Gnome, Faeries of the Future, and the Topsie Turvets.

The reading indicates that something is stirring, and there's an opportunity ahead. I just need to be able to plan wisely and take it. I have to take action to take it, it isn't something that will fall into my lap. The Topsie Turvets also indicate that I need to be prepared to look at things from someone else's point of view.

Okay, at work so this ends here. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Switched to the Beta

So I switched to the beta. We'll see how this goes. I was putting it off mainly because I had to create a google account, but it wasn't too bad. Things are going well at work. I'm currently working on processing mail. We were talking about spelling tests in elementary school. I miss those, they made me feel really smart. At home, I've started doing my Yoga and Pilates DVD again. I definitely feel full of energy and at the same time very calm and centered when I'm done with it.

I had a funny dream this morning, I was on a pirate ship trying to kill a captive and he kept moving at the last second so I couldn't stab him. Then the scene changed and I was on a golf course with Jeff (I think still wearing pirate clothes) We were running to catch up with everyone at the next hole, and I yelled to Jeff to hurry and he Blinked ahead of me, as Slogdarr, his mage from World of Warcraft. When we got to the hole, there was mageroyal, a herb that you collect in WoW all around the green. And Artie's character, Arten, the gnome warlock, was there, in his little green and gold Cromatic Order tabard. It was definitely strange.

Anyway, at work so I'll end this here. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Something I learned today

If you eat M&Ms, and drink orange soda, your burps taste like a Terry's Chocolate Orange.

:-)

Things are going all right here. I promise to post a picture of the new swords soon. This weekend Jeff and I will be in Hickory on Sunday for a memorial service. My great-aunt Evie passed away this week. She was my Grandma Dot's sister. She lived next door to my parent's, in my Great Grandma Irene and Great Grandpa Basil's house for about the last 15 years. She was also very sick over the past few years, and I think she was mostly holding on for my Grandma Dot. I am glad that she has been reunited with her parents, her sister, and her husband, Chuck. I have some really nice memories of having fun visiting her. When I was in elementary school, they had a mutt named Spike, who I wrote a poem about. The poem was published by the IU6 in a compilation of works of the Gifted students that year, which always tickled her.

That's all for now, my son is here and that always makes me cheery :-)

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Pride

I've picked up Evolutionary Witchcraft and started working again. I'm in the Fire chapter, which works with the Iron Pentacle. The Iron Pentacle explores the balance and flow between sex, pride, self, power and passion. Working on Pride, it asks an interesting question. What are you proud of? I'm supposed to think about this and answer it for myself, and I'm supposed to ask others what they are proud of. It's harder to think about than you think. So often we're told not to toot our own horns. Or that being proud means being arrogant. And it doesn't, not at all. To be proud means that you feel uplifted when you accomplish something. And that is a good feeling to spread around.

I am proud of my marriage. I am proud of my faith. I am proud of my ability to find an apartment in the right location, for the right price. I am proud when I exercise. I am proud when I create ritual. I am proud of how I do my job. I am proud of how fast I can read. I am proud of everything I've learned since graduating college.

What are you proud of? You can leave a comment if you like, or you can post in your own blog, as I know my readers are mostly friends whose blogs I read. You can keep it to yourself if you want, but the purpose of this is to share those good feelings. What are you proud of? Shout it out!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Election Day!

Go out and vote today! We've got two very important races going on in Pennsylvania. We have the opportunity to oust Rick Santorum (Rep) from the Senate, and we can elect a new governor today. I'll be hitting the polls after work. I plan to stop at home and pick up Jeff so he can vote too. This is the first gubernatorial election I've been able to vote in, I think. I can't remember when Rendell was elected. I think I may not have been registered to vote in McKean County at the time, and since it wasn't an election year for Dad, I didn't have an absentee ballot from Forest. Anyway, I'm at work so this will be short, but I wanted to remind everyone about voting today. Especially, please, get rid of Rick Santorum. Republican President + Republican Congress = Bad.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Okay, 2 weeks since my last post

Happy Samhain to all! It's been a busy two weeks. On Sunday the 22nd, I went down home and saw my family. I saw my Mom and Dad and Keely, and I also went up to the farm to see Bummy, Pappap, Allison and Grey. I got to watch them split wood. It looked like hard work. I did help Bummy load the wood onto the pick up, so I wasn't a complete slacker. Then I went with Al and Grey out to Megin's house where I got to meet her beautiful baby girl and catch up. I haven't seen Megin since I was in college, and that's been a long time. We had a very nice visit, and were amused by the antics of her cats. I wonder if the kitten has told Megin its name yet. I also learned that baby + kitten = too cute for words.

I worked the next week. Then Friday the 27th was Jeff and I's second wedding anniversary. We had a nice day, and we had lunch together at Beefeaters before leaving for Lebanon. We stayed wtih Lacy and Jay. Friday night we had a great dinner. I got to have Lacy's stuffed shells, which were out of this world. She also made Jeff a yummy steak, since he's not big on Italian food. We need to keep an eye out for Lea and Perrin's steak sauce now. We have their worcestershire around here, but we didn't see the steak sauce when we went to Wal-Mart. On Saturday, we went to the PA Renaissance Faire at the Mt. Hope Winery and bought a new sword and a case of Concord. We didn't stay for the pirate auction because it was cold, and we already had what we came for. This time we bought the actual licensed replica rather than the knock-off. Then when we got home, I went on Ebay and bought the other Lord of the Rings sword I wanted, the Riders of Rohan sword. The new sword should be coming tomorrow according to UPS. I'm very excited to see it. On Monday and Tuesday night, we watched the extended releases of Two Towers (Monday) and Return of the King (last night) After seeing Eowyn kill the Witchking with my sword, I am eager to get my hands on it.

Once we have both swords, I will post a picture of them.

On Halloween, we lit our pumpkins and handed out candy. I do plan to spend some time with my tarot cards today to get a feel on the year. Having just dealt with Grandma Dot's death with the memorial service on the 15th of this month, I just didn't feel up to doing a full Samhain ritual. But I will ask for the help of the Ancestors and Mighty Ones when I do my reading later. I recently finished reading Witchcraft Today by Gerald Gardner. The concept of the Mighty Ones (Witches that have reached the point where they no longer reincarnate but stay in the Summerlands and act as guardians and guides) seems more concrete to me after reading it. I definitely think Gardner, and also Victor Anderson, who started Feri Witchcraft, could be among those powers. But I also think that Gardner had such a love of life he might have wanted to give it one more go, just to see how what he started is developing.

I think that's enough of a catch up for now. Sorry to go so long between posts. I start back to work tomorrow, so at least I can do short updates from there.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

On a lighter note

My computer, brought to you by Mutant Enemy. Yes, my computer was taken over several weeks ago by Joss Whedon. It now plays the Firefly opening theme song when it boots up, and when it shuts down it plays the "Rrr, arg" sound. I would prefer it to play the Angel theme when it boots up, as I love those violins. Perhaps I will search for it after blogging.

I'm a little tired today after staying up to watch Nip/Tuck last night. It was good episode, although I though how Christian played Kimber was harsh even for him. I was thinking about TV today. I've gotten used to the idea that there's nothing good on. But there's quite a few shows now I really like watching, even though Nip/Tuck is the only one I actually carve out a chunk of time for. There's Battlestar Galactica, American Chopper, Iron Chef America, really, most of the stuff on the Food Network, That 70s Show in syndication, all 3 Law and Order shows, etc. Sometimes I think I'd really like DVR or TiVo so I could save all my favorite episodes, or record things to watch when I'm free. I don't know if I would though. I'm just generally pleased with the though that TV is improving again.

Anyway, time for some WoW I think. Hopefully we'll be early to bed tonight. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Dorothy Huffman

This past weekend was the memorial service for my Grandma Dot. It was at the West Hickory United Methodist Church, which was packed to standing room only. My dad gave a beautiful eulogy, sharing memories of my grandmother's love of music and of her family. Dad and my Aunt Beck sang two hymns that were my grandmother's favorites, How Great Thou Art and Just a Closer Walk with Thee.

It was so strange. She died on September 27th, and I was upset when mom called to tell me. But truthfully, I was also somewhat relieved, because I had seen her in the nursing home the previous Saturday, and she clearly wasn't doing well. She was suffering from terminal brain cancer. She wasn't going to be coming home again. I thought I had already accepted her death. But then at the memorial service when my Aunt Beck and Dad were singing, I could hear Grandma Dot's voice singing with them like it always did at family gatherings. She had such a big voice, and she always sang full out, without any fear of someone judging. I think that is what I will always remember most about her. And I just cried so much and so hard during those songs. It was like I had skipped a stage in the grieving process and had to go back. Some part of me recognized that I'd never hear her sing again, and it took that for me to realize she was really gone. I wanted to share this song with everyone. Even though I am no longer Christian, I found a great deal of comfort in it, along with finding my grief.

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!


And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!


I also wanted to thank everyone who called or emailed to let me know they were thinking of me. I really appreciated it. Merry Part and Blessed Be, everyone.

Too much TNT - Dreaming of Drama

This is another dream blog entry, although I'm fairly sure this dream wasn't prophetic of significant. I dreamed I was working with the cast of Without a Trace. It was my first day of work, and I was getting ready to go out into the field with one of the other detectives. I was struggling with a big pile of books and papers. I had a hard time getting through the building and out to my car, and it was raining. I was wearing a suit, with a pencil skirt and high heeled shoes.

Later in the dream, which was skipping around a lot, I was leaving the office but I didn't see anyone I knew. The office was very quiet. There were groups of 3 or 4 people all in blue shirts getting onto elevators and going into offices. I was scared of these people, so I made my way as quickly as a I could to an open office. A group of them noticed me, but I got to the office and locked the door before they could catch me. All over the building these people were attacking people in their offices. I opened the door to the room I was holed up in and Jack McCoy from Law and Order came running in with a swollen right eye. It looked like someone hit a desk with his face. While Jack and I were talking about what was going on, a woman pounded on the door asking for help. We let her in, because she was wearing a purple jacket, not a blue shirt. Then she turned on me to start to attack me, pulling at my hair and clawing, but I pulled a gun and made her back down. She sat in the corner crying about how her jacket looked blue when she got it out of her closet that morning. All these blue shirted people were part of a group that had planned an attack on this office. Whether it was the FBI office they have on Without A Trace, or 1 Police Plaza from Law and Order was never made clear to me.

It was an interesting dream. It might make a good short story if I take out the TV references and fill in the holes.

At work, so I have to end here. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Review: Danse Macabre

Allison's comment reminded me that I never posted my thoughts here on Danse Macabre. I shouldn't have even linked it, because I don't think anyone should spend $25.95 on this book in hardcover. If we hadn't had a gift certificate, I don't think I would have done it.

Warning: if you actually intend to read this book, there are spoilers ahead.



The beginning of the book shows a lot of promise. It's why I bought it, really, I read the first two chapters sitting in Borders. Anita and Ronnie and discussing their man troubles, and Anita confides in her that her period is two weeks late. The dialogue is reminiscent of early Anita Blake novels. Ronnie is worried because she's moving in with her long-time boyfriend, Louis. They discuss the possible repercussions of adding a baby to Anita's violent life, and who the possible father could be. Despite being sexually active with half the supernaturals in St. Louis, the two most likely candidates are Nathaniel, one of the wereleopards that lives with her, and her ex-fiancee, Richard, the leader of the local werewolf pack. Ronnie and Anita begin fighting again after Ronnie makes some nasty comments about Nathaniel being a father. It comes out that Ronnie is jealous of all of Anita's men, and she's been saying very mean things to Nathaniel behind Anita's back. In all this arguing, Ronnie reveals to Micah and Nathaniel that Anita might be having a baby.

From here, the book starts to go downhill, because of the same problems I've had with previous books. Rather than dealing with the immediate problem of a possible pregnancy, Anita, Micah and Nathaniel have to head to the Circus of the Damned, the Master of the City and one of Anita's other lover's headquarters, for a vampire meet and greet. Here we get introduced to 4 more characters that Anita will have sexual encounters with, none of whom are introduced enough for me to care about, and 3 of whch are barely mentioned through the rest of the book.

Now, for anyone reading this who doesn't know me, (does anyone read this who doesn't know me?) I like sex. I like reading about sex. I have no problems with reading about sex. But this isn't supposed to be a work of supernatural erotica. It's categorized as part of the horror genre.

From this point, the book degenerates into a lot of sex and a lot of people whining about their issues. The problem is now this series has too many characters, mostly males vying for one of the top spots in Anita's feeding schedule. With so many characters, I can't seem to care about any of them. The characters I used to really like are barely seen, or have been reduced to a stereotype of one kind or another. Richard is a typical chauvinistic male who acts like everything would be all baby booties and white picket fences if Anita is pregnant. Plus, he expresses a complete double standard for sex. It's okay if he messes around looking for a replacement for Anita, but he wants her to be able to give up all the others for him at the drop of a hat. Anita loves Jean-Claude, but all we ever see him do anymore is reveal unpleasant facts about her new powers and lie to avoid doing so. The more powerful she becomes, the less he gets to have of her. I like Nathaniel, as he was becoming more of a main character before the ardeur, but I don't like Micah that much. "Just keep being perfect," Richard says to him, several times throughout the book. Everybody loves him. He never fights with Anita. He's like a blow-up doll. I might like him more if there was a little more to him. Even Nathaniel is less submissive than him now, and Nathaniel started off in the series as a pain whore who didn't know how to say no. And we also have about half a dozen pathetic vampires and shapeshifters trying desperately to be the new man in Anita's rotating door of a vagina. In this book, a very big deal is made about the pleasure of the ardeur being addictive and some people are willing to do anything to feed Jean-Claude and Anita's hunger. This just seems like an excuse for Laurell K. Hamilton to write about more sex in more combinations with more preternaturally beautiful people. I want to read a novel, not her sexual fantasies.

Do you know how many books it's been since there was more than single chapter with Dolph and Zerbrowski? Remember them? They are the police officers Anita used to work with in every book. This book had absolutely no mention of them at all. When they are talking about the problems Anita would have raising a child, they mention how busy Anita is with her job as an animator and now as a federal marshal. (all vampire executioners were given federal marshal status a couple books ago) But we haven't seen Anita actually do work for at least 6 novels. I can't remember right now if she actually did police work in Narcissus and Chains or not, which was the start of this whole ardeur debacle.

Oh, and Anita's not pregnant. She's just got 4 different kinds of lycanthropy in her blood, and next full moon she may just become a lycanthrope for real this time! They think she may be a panwere like Narcissus. So maybe next book, we'll get furry on furry action too!

The only other interesting thing mentioned in this book was that The Mother of All Darkness, the first vampire, is waking up. All the vampires are really afraid of her. And because of how powerful Anita is, she keeps having dreams and visions of her. Maybe in a 3 or 4 books after mentioning it some more, Hamilton will actually know what her big bad is going to do and give us a decent novel. I'm not holding my breath.


Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Alumni Weekend

Lacy and Jay came to visit for Alumni Weekend. The event itself was really disappointing. We didn't see any students we knew. We did get to visit with Dr. Ewert for a little while. But we had a good time visiting. We went to the Paper Factory in Olean and cooked steak, fried potatoes and salad for dinner. We discovered a leaky pipe under our kitchen sink, which then became a missing pipe while the guys were fiddling with it. It was completely rusted through and broke off in Jay's hand. But our landlord came over on Sunday afternoon and fixed it, so all is well. Lacy has been doing the LA Weight Loss program and she looks great. She looked great before, but now she has more confidence and I think she's doing great. It seems like it does take a lot of willpower. She had a LA Weight Loss beverage and fruit for breakfast while Jay, Jeff and I ate bacon and hash browns, but it does seem like they give you enough food options so you are getting what you need and you aren't hungry all the time.

The new neighbors are still ridiculously loud. I think the kid must wear cement baby shoes, because I can't imagine a 2 year old making this much noise just by running. Either that, or she throws herself off of furniture on to the floor. All day long we hear run run run run run run run run BANG! THUD THUD THUD. Last night, it had gotten quieter around 11 PM as per usual, and we were in bed. At midnight it started up again. Jeff went upstairs and said if it continued he'd be calling the landlord whenever it happened. The landlord got to hear some of the noise when he was over fixing the sink, but he didn't say anything to me. At first I thought we just got spoiled from having Troy as a neighbor, and then having the upstairs sit empty for 5 months. Now I just think these people don't care about anyone but themselves, not even their kid, who should have a bed time a lot earlier than 11 PM or midnight.

At work, so I'll end this here. Merry Part and Blessed Be, dear readers!

Dream Blogging

I had an interesting dream this morning. In my dream, I was on an island in a river. I had tasks that I had to complete. I had already completed the first one on the outside of the island. I had been avoided going further in because it was raining in the middle of the island. A voice said to me "A witch must be able to do what needs done, no matter the weather. She is not controlled by it." So I stepped across a line of small trees that were very close together, or maybe they were very tall reeds, and went into the center of the island. The stones here were all white, but there were several tall trees. One of them was a birch tree. The rain was steady but not very hard. I was told I needed to retrieve an egg from a bird's neset. At first, I couldn't find any nests as I looked at the trees. Then when I found one, I watched for a bird to leave the nest. I saw one fly away, and then I tried to get closer. But it was the male who flew away, the mother was still snuggled tightly into the nest. Every nest I found had the mother tight onto it. I was considering climbing the birch tree and getting close enough to the nest, and trying to charm the mother out of it just for a moment. I just needed to convince her that I meant no harm. At this point, the alarm went off. As I was laying in bed remembering the dream, it occurred to me that birds usually stick to their nests in the rain. So maybe I could have made the rain stop, and then gotten an egg when the mother left the nest to eat. I'm not sure why I supposed to get an egg, but I thought it was interesting.

Any thoughts, fellow Witches and Pagans?

Jeff and I went to Erie yesterday and started a little Christmas shopping, and use up the last of our gift certificates. We at at the Texas Roadhouse for lunch, and the waitress thought Jeff was very cute. She said she liked his curly hair. Then we went to the Spirit! Halloween, which is located where Dick's Sporting Goods used to be. We bought a light for our window with a spider on it. We also went to Toys-R-Us, Kirklands, the Day-By-Day Calendar store, and a couple other places. At the calendar store, I picked up next year's Witches' Calendar. We spent over an hour at Borders. I gave in and bought the new Anita Blake book because I read the first two chapters and they were good. Anita was afraid she was pregnant. More on the book later once I finish it. I also bought Witchcraft Today, by Gerald Gardner. I've been wanting to read it since I went to Pagan Pride Day and went to TJ's History of Wicca workshop. We ate dinner at Red Lobster. I don't recommend the Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Coconut Shrimp as a dinner unless you really, really like coconut. They were tasty, but they were sweet so I got tired of them after about 4. They had a good, sweet pineapply sauce that went with them. Then, we stopped at Krispy Kreme before leaving Erie. The light wasn't on, but we did get donuts that were made fresh that day.

I think that's all for this morning, I need to do some laundry, and the siren song of World of Warcraft is calling to me. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Blogging about Blogging: Meta-blogging

In response to Grey's comment about Tuesday's Post:

Grey's comment: [ ] I never understood MySpace, I see people collecting MySpace users like ringtones on their cell phones, just don't see the point. Each to their own I guess.

"Voyeurism into other people's lives", doesn't that apply to blogs too? #grin#

My response, which was a comment until I decided it was too long:

I don't know if blogging is voyeurism. To me, it seems like an easy way to keep all my friends up to date on what's happening with me, and for me to keep up to date on them (if they update regularly). I know some people read the blogs of people they don't know, but some blogs aren't personal. There are news blogs, political blogs, etc. Those aren't any different than reading someone's web page. I think the great thing about blogging is it makes it easy for those of us who aren't programmers or don't know html to have a space on the web. Anyway, rambling a bit here. I don't feel any need to read the personal blogs of people I don't know, but I'm sure some people find it interesting. It's kind of like reality TV for the literate. So I guess it can be voyeurism, but not necessarily. MySpace feels like voyeurism, and it kind of reminds me of Pokemon. The person who collects the most wins! Wins what though, I'm not sure.

Probably not their self-respect or dignity.

2 days in a row, can you stand it!?

I'm feeling inspired by Grey's prolific blogging. Today I was thinking about MySpace. I can see it is a useful tool for re-connecting with old friends, and unlike classmates.com, it's free. But you can become friends with anyone on myspace. Even people who you may never meet, or even exchange an email with. But they want to to have a bigger friends list, and so do you. For example, Morgan Webb from G4's X-Play is on my friends list. So is Antigone Rising, a band I like, and who's CD I own. I actually just moved Morgan to my top 8 (they are the most visible people on your friends list) But I do feel a little pretentious about it. After all, I don't really know Morgan. I think some people on MySpace just get caught up in "How many friends can I get on my friends list?" and don't actually try to connect with anyone. It encourages shallow relationships, and voyeurism into other people's lives.

Okay, gotta go download the WoW update.

Merry Part and Blessed Be.

So, I haven't updated in a week.

It's been a busy week. I made level 60 in World Of Warcraft. We had Artie, Harriet and Adam over for a roast on Friday, and then played some 2nd edition D&D. It was a good session. We defended the temple of Sul from an invasion of orcs and goblins. Vita's saurial cleric used a spell to great effect, it caused the grass to become razor sharp and cause damage. Waves of goblins died before even reaching us.

Jeff worked on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I went down home. I stopped in Youngsville and saw my Grandma at the Rouse Home for a few minutes. Mom, Dad and Keely were all feeling under the weather, so after eating lunch with them, I went to Tionesta to see Grandpa Harry at the Proper building. I visited with him for a couple hours, and then I stopped at my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jeff's to see the expansion they are building. It's going to be huge, it doubles the size of their 3 bedroom house.

On Sunday, I spend the day at home by myself. I watched the end of Nip/Tuck season 2, and a couple episodes of Firefly. I did my Yoga and Pilates DVD, both workouts. I played a little World Of Warcraft, but no one else was online. This week, our guild is going to run an instance on Wednesday night. We did a run of Straholme Live on Thursday of last week, which was as lot of fun. I picked up some items and made a little money. Now I only have to get 750 more gold to get my epic mount. :-)

Also coming up this week, we're roleplaying again on Friday at our house, and I think we might be starting a game of Shadowrun at Vita's on the weekend. I read all the setting information and it looks really cool. I'm just having a little trouble with the character creation. Well, I'm sure I will figure it out, veteran role-player that I am.

Anyway folks, I am at work so I should get going. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

From an IMDb message board

This was someone's signature:

God does not play dice with the universe. He does, however, hit the blackjack tables.

I just found it funny. Things are good here, Adam came over for dinner. We had ham, and it was good. I am going to try to go into work early tomorrow for a little OT. I got a speeding ticket on the way home from Pagan Pride Day, so I could use a few extra beans.

Gonna play some WoW, I think. My main character, the dwarven hunter Kharasa, is halfway to level 59.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

A few vacation pics

More later. Work has been kind of hectic this week, first week of the month and all. I'm going to Pagan Pride Day in Erie this weekend, which should be a blast.

Having our boy Adam over for dinner this evening, so I gotta go. Merry Part and Blessed Be all!

Look what I did!

Found and killed this guy in the Canals in Stormwind. There really are crocolisks in the sewers!




Anyway, just wanted to share that. I'll try to make a real post soon.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Tattoo Ideas

This is a test. I was unable to e-mail these to myself so I'm seeing if I can post them here.

Blogging from NC part 2

We got Jeff's new glasses yesterday afternoon and then played miniature golf at Jurassic Putt in Nag's Head. It was pretty fun. I won the first game of the girls, and Wendy won the second (We played in 2 groups as not to take so long. Would that others on the course would have been as considerate) Then we drove to Dirty Dick's in Avon for some seafood. I had crab cakes, Jeff had a boat of whole blue crabs. They were yummy, but seemed like a lot of work to eat. I was happy with my crab cakes. I also tried some deep fried calamari as a appetizer. Don't know what the big deal is, they tasted like onion rings. Although some of them were whole little calamaris, so it looked like you could have been eating a deep fried spider.

We spent most of the day today at the beach, as it a beautiful sunny day. Tonight we are deep frying a turkey, and having mashed potatoes and aspargus. The turkey should be ready soon. I think the plan for tomorrow is a few of us wanted to go down to Hatteras lighthouse and take some pics. I can't believe it is Wednesday already. We are having so much fun!

That's all for now, Merry Part and Blessed Be all!

Blogging from NC

Oh help. We went down to the ocean this morning and the ocean stole Jeff's glasses. He and Grant came back up and went to Wal-Mart to try to get a replacement. I'm very worried because normally, it takes his optometrist in St Marys a week to get his lenses made, because of the prescription. I feel guilty even though I know I shouldn't. I feel like he wouldn't have been in the ocean if I hadn't wanted to go. I feel like I should have known it was going to happen. Jeff doesn't blame me, but I am blaming myself. And he and Grant left before we even got back to the house, I had walked down along the beach to meet Wendy, she was asking people to keep an eye out for them. Jess walked along with us too.

I think I'm going to sit outside in the rain (without Grant's laptop, of course) and drink my tea. That suits my mood just now.

If you read this, please add your good thoughts to mine that we can replace his glasses with relative ease.

Update: Grant and Jeff called from Nag's Head. They can get his glasses for us tomorrow. So that is very very good news. Goddess Bless Optometrists in touristy places. this kind of thing must happen a lot down here.


Merry Part and Blessed Be.

Another Quiz

You scored as Healer. You are a Healer Empath. You take in
the energy of others and transmute it. You trigger transformation in
others and free trapped energy. You are capable of great healing
abilities. You walk between the worlds and bring waves of healing
energy with your presence. (from "The Book of Storms" by Jad Alexander
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Empaths/)

Healer 100%

Precog 85%

Artist 80%

Universal 65%

Traveler 60%

Judge 55%

Shaman 50%

Fallen Angel 30%



What Kind of Empath
Are You?

Blog Things

Your Aura is Red

You have a high level of emotion. This can mean passion, but it can also mean rage. Usually, you don't take these emotions out on others. You just use them as motivation - and it works! The purpose of your life: embracing all the wonders of the life, lots of travels, and tons of adventures Famous reds include: Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Jennifer Lopez Careers for you to try: Dancer, Boxer, Surgeon

What Color Is Your Aura?

You Are Snow

Magical yet potentially destructive You are well known as fun to play with People anticipate your arrival but then are quickly sick of you You are best known for: your serenity Your dominant state: reflecting

What Type of Weather Are You?

I don't think people anticipate my arrival but then are quickly sick of me? Readers?

You Are Italian Food

Comforting yet overwhelming. People love you, but sometimes you're just too much.

What Kind of Food Are You?

Blogthings is not being completely flattering to me today.

You Should Rule Venus

Venus is a mysterious, stormy planet - shrouded in a thick layer of clouds. You are perfect to rule Venus, because you are quite emotional and volatile yourself. Your emotions change as rapidly as the weather on Venus, and both you and the planet are incomprehensible to others. While you are not a logical thinker, you are quite empathetic. You can care for and understand others, but your emotions swirl too quickly to truly understand yourself.

What Planet Should You Rule?

You Are A Cypress Tree

You are strong, adaptable, and striving to be content. You're good at taking what life has to give - even if you don't like it. A passionate lover who can't be satisfied, you are quick tempered at times. You hate loneliness, want love and affection, and need to be needed. A bit of a live wire, you love to gain knowledge any cost... and you can be careless at times.

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

Okay, I think that's enough Blogthings for today.

I hope this works, it's friggin hiliarious

ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN OF ULTIMATE DESTINY (Lemon Demon)

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

Several months ago, I remember Paul and Adam sitting at a gaming table trying to remember the words to a particular part of this song. We never got around to looking it up. Browsing the web yesterday evening, I went from Lacy's MySpace page to her friend Sean's, and he had it on his site. I hope you all enjoy the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.

This weekend is the Italian Fest in Bradford. Hoping this year is better than last year. Last year the prices went up on the food and you got much smaller portions. I'm looking forward to going for dinner, eating some pizza or a meatball sub, and having fried dough for desert. Maybe I'll get to play some poppers as well.

Today I intend to do both workouts 1 and 2 on my Louise Solomon's Yoga and Pilates DVD. I ordered a few things from Amazon I hope to take on vacation, like Memoirs of a Geisha and KT Tunstall's Eye to the Telescope. Unfortunately, the tracking information is currently not available.

I think that's all for now, I'm going to eat some breakfast and maybe play a little World Of Warcraft.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Currently listening to:

Oral Fixation, Volume 2. I picked up this CD at Wal-Mart on Friday. I've been wanting it for awhile, but I was apprehensive because I only knew a couple of songs on it, Hips Don't Lie and Don't Bother. I really liked both songs, but I try to avoid spending $15 on a CD if I'm only going to listen to 2 tracks. But, I bought one of her other CDs, Laundry Service, only knowing 2 tracks on it, and I liked many of them, so I figured I'd gamble on her again. From what I've heard so far, I like it. And now I can hear Hips Don't Lie without having to hear a Yahoo Launchcast ad first, which is good.

On Saturday, Jeff and I went down to my parents' house in West Hickory for dinner. We had steak, chicken, shrimp skewers, baked potatoes. I also got to see Grey briefly and give him his birthday present. My mom said I should have invited him to stay for dinner, and after the pile of food we had left, I felt bad that I didn't, because there was more than enough. However, Grey did need to be at the farm by a certain time, and he might have been running late if he did stop to eat with us. Jeff and I finished the evening at my parents' by chipping some golf balls around the yard and stopping to say hi to my Aunt Evie, who was sitting on her porch.

On Sunday, Jeff and I went shopping in Olean. We found him a new pair of sneakers (identical to the previous pair) and I found a new swimsuit for vacation at the Bon-Ton. It's cute, it's royal blue with white flowers and it has a cover-up that matches. Good sale too, orignally the set was around $65 and I got it for about $30. Jeff also bought a new PS2 game at EB, Star Wars Battlefront II, which he is playing right now. We had lunch at Friendly's. We tried the featured sundae for dessert, something called Caramel Cone Crunch. It was Nuts over Caramel ice cream, which is caramel flavored and has nuts in it, with hot fudge and crumbled sugar cone sprinkled on it, and whipped cream on top. It was very tasty.

The week got off to a good start at work, I was very busy today, which made the time go quickly. Only 13 days until we go to North Carolina! I'm so excited!

Merry Part and Blessed Be! And aren't links fun? I can waste hours on the Internet just following links...

V for Vendetta is out on DVD now

V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

I am sure we will own this movie at some point, right now, we suspect that they will come out with a special edition DVD, so we are waiting for that. Hugo Weaving was marvelous. Watching the movie in the theater, I laughed, I cried, I thrilled to the horror of a government that had manipulated its people to rule them with fear. And the scary part was it wasn't a fantasy world, this wasn't someplace you've never heard of, it was set in England, in a time not too far from our own. It could be our time. It could happen here. Also, the cinematography is amazing, dark and harsh.

Figured it was time for an update. Things are a little slow at work, so I thought I'd work on this a bit. I'm excited because I'm going to a Reconstructionist event on the 13th in Warren. It's a Libation to Hermes, the Greek God of travel. Reconstructionists research the old pagan religions, like the religion of the Ancient Greeks, the Norse, the Druids, etc, and try to make their personal practice as close to those ways as possible. Gitana does a Greek Reconstructionist ritual every month in Warren. I went to the Libation to Poseidon back in October with Jamie. Everyone was very nice, and I've been wanting to go again, but since I started working weekends, it hasn't been possible. Also, when they are held on weekends Jeff and I are both off, I want to spend that time with him. Anyway, I am glad to get to spend some more time getting to know these people. I really like meeting other Wiccans and Pagans.

I really should try to get some work done now, so I'll end this here. Merry Part and Blessed Be everyone!

Progress

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

For some reason, I found myself struggling to remember who had said this quote as I work up this morning. Well, who originally said it. I know that MacKenzie Astin's character said it in Dream for an Insomniac, which is one of my favorite movies.

I slept a little longer than I meant to this morning, but I'm pleased with the work I got done yesterday. I emptied the heaping baskets of laundry that were in the bedroom and also started picking up the mess on my side of the bed. Today I want to straighten up the night stand on my side of the bed, try to straighten up the closet a little, and run the vacuum in there. Then hopefully, next weekend maybe, we can shop for the new mattress we've been talking about since we got our tax return.

Yesterday, I also went down to the Community Blood Bank here in Bradford on Davis St, in the same plaza as the Sports Cafe. The women there were very nice, and I was done donating in about half an hour. I'd like to donate again when I'm eligible in September, but I'm still kicking around the idea of getting a new tattoo, and if you get a tattoo or piercing you can't give for a year after. I like giving blood, it's an easy way for me to help other people, as I'm not bothered by needles and I've never (knock wood) passed out or felt more than just a touch light-headed after. Also, if you live in McKean, Elk or Warren counties and you give blood before Labor Day, you are entered into a drawing to win a snow blower!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Uplifting words

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift. That’s why it's called the present!

Shuffle Quiz

I found this on Chits' myspace blog and it sounded fun. I don't have any music downloaded to this computer though, so I'm going to use my Yahoo Launchcast station. If you want to do it, here are the "rules"

Put your iTunes/Winamp/WMP on shuffle.
Say the following questions aloud, and press play.
Use the song title as the answer to the question.
NO CHEATING (Unless you only have one album in your entire library plus the music that came with the program, then write lyrics instead.).


1. How does the world see you? - Send Me On My Way, Rusted Root. So the world wants to see me gone? I don't think I like that.

2. Will I have a happy life? - Wild West Show, Big and Rich. Well, I don't know about happy but at least that sounds interesting

3. What do my friends think of me? - Too Far This Time, Toby Keith. I'm too far away for my friend to come see me right now?

4. Do people secretly lust after me? - On A Mission, Trick Pony. I don't know how to interpret that one. Maybe I'm on a mission to have people to secretly lust after me?

5. How can I make myself happy? - Truly, Madly, Deeply, Savage Garden. So to be happy I need to live as truly, madly and deeply as possible. That I do like. Plus, it's a great song.

6. What should I do with my life? - Helena, My Chemical Romance. I should find someone named Helena, I guess, if we're just using the titles. If I can use the video, that means I should get up out of my coffin at my own funeral and do ballet. That sounds much cooler.

7. Will I ever have children? - Just Around the Eyes, Faith Hill. The song is about a woman meeting someone who reminds her of an old lover. The title on its own could indicate something about a child possibly. "You know, she looks just like you, except around the eyes, she's got her daddy's eyes."

8. What is some good advice for me? - I Fall Down, U2. I do fall down a lot. I guess the advice is to be more careful.

9. How will I be remembered? - Shut Up!, Simple Plan. Apparently, I'll be remembered as someone who talked too much.

10. What's my signature dancing song? - You Were Meant For Me, Jewel. This isn't a dancing song. I think this song was supposed to be the answer to question 15.

11. What's my current theme song? - Lonely No More, Rob Thomas. Sounds good to me. I'm never lonely with Jeff. :-)

12. What do others think is my current theme song? - Happiness, Lee Ann Womack. So I radiate happiness. Sounds right to me!

13. What shall they play at my funeral? - Going Under, Evanescense. Weird choice for a funeral.

14. What type of girl/guy do I like? - Blame It On Your Heart, Patty Loveless. So I like bad men, with a penchant for extreme flirting. Well, we knew that.

15. How's my love life? - Redneck Woman, Gretchen Wilson. Well, that's what I am, and Jeff knows it and married me anyway, so I guess my love life is pretty good.


Work's been okay. Tomorrow will be my 9th day in a row to work, and I'm definitely ready to have a couple days off. I plan to do a lot of cleaning this weekend, especially in our bedroom. I'm going to do a lot of laundry.

I discovered something at work this week. Does anyone besides me remember Surge? It was a Mountain Dew competitor Coke put out sometime in the mid-late 90's. Well, it's back! Coke's just re-packaged it as Vault. Seriously, close you eyes and drink Vault. It's Surge.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

I hate it when people litter!

I followed a litterbug on my way to work today. They threw out three pieces of garbage onto the highway between Bradford and Salamanca. It really made me mad.
I had a good day at work, I was very busy so the day went quickly. The Admin team bought lunch for us from Subway, so that was good. I had a turkey sub with some green peppers. I also got e-mail from Grey, which always brightens my day :-)

"History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men

Godzilla!"

Heard this song on the way home today, and it reminded me of the litterbug. I hope Godzilla smashes her green Chevy Cavalier.

Jeff went golfing this morning for the first time with his dad. He has returned home unscathed, and seems to have had a good time.

I'm currently looking for something to spend my $25 Amazon rewards gift certificate on. I've got some different CDs and books I'd like, but I've juet got too many to pick from, and I really don't want to go over the $25 by too much. I'm also watching Attack of the Show, live from ComicCon on G4. They were just talking to Rosario Dawson and which reminds me how much I want to see Clerks 2. I think I need to see if it's playing around here.

Ah, the Olean Carmike does have it. Maybe Jeff and I can go see it Thursday or Friday evening. Although I see My Super Ex-Girlfriend is also playing, and that also looked pretty funny. I like Uma Thurman.

Well, there you go readers. I hope the amount of links made up for the amount of real content.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

No one likes a stalker!

I was just browsing the merchandise at iLL WiLL PreSS, home of Foamy, the Lord and Master of all angry squirrels. There is a cute little spaghetti strap t-shirt that says "No One Likes a Stalker!" on the front. I also rewatched some of my favorite episodes of Foamy, like Squirrel Songs and The Amityville Toaster (making breakfast spooky)

Jeff and I had a nice day. I got to watch Molto Mario on Food Network this morning. Mario Batali is awesoe. And I'm also excited about Alton Brown's new show, Feasting on Asphalt. Food Network is just great.

We had salad, soup for Jeff and a sandwich for me for lunch. I watched my soaps and we played some World Of Warcraft. We did some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, and invited Harriet and Artie over for some chicken tomorrow.

I didn't really have much to write, I just wanted to post something so I don't go a week without any updates again. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

I like to walk!

I just got back from a long walk. I walked up to the trail that winds along the mighty Tunungwat (sp?) creek (the mighty Tuna for you UPB students and grads) to where it meets Blaisdell Hall. I walked straight from blaisdell to the parking lot over by the basketball hoops, and wrote in my notebook and communed with nature for about an hour. I probably would have stayed a little longer, but my pen ran out of ink. Then I walked home, coming straight down Campus Dr, trying to take the shortest route possible home. It still took about 25 minutes to get home. But I love seeing all the different wildflowers, and the flowers they've planted along the trail and on campus. I like seeing the different people on the trail. There was a woman on a bike pulling her son in a little trailer behind her, and he waved to me and said hello. I also saw an older woman getting onto the trail when I was on my way home. She had a bicycle with a basket, and the basket looked just like the one of my first bike. It had plastic flowers on it. I like the satisfied, sweaty feeling I have right now. I even like the blisters forming on my feet.

Plans for the evening, make dinner, we're doing porkchops on the grill with my specialty, mac and cheese, on the side. Got to get working now, those chops need to marinate for a little while.

More later, perhaps. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

We were wrong, Paul

It's not ogre-chuks or bow-chuks.

It's Beaver-chuks!

See Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth's latest strip for an explanation.

Well, an explanation of the Beaver-chuks. Explaining the origins of bow-chuks and ogre-chuks would take many hours and result in you needing therapy. I don't know why I though ogres riding giant trikes down a grassy hill with lances would be neat, but... It was my first attempt at DM'ing.

Today Jeff and I went to the Highlands Gathering at Letchworth State Park. The park is beautiful, it's set around a deep gorge on the Genesee River with 3 sets of waterfalls. The Highlands Gathering apparently wasn't as impressive as last year. There were only two merchants, although they had some nice stuff. We watched one of the games, which involved burly men trying to pitch a 20 pound bag over a 24 foot bar with a pitchfork.

I think that's all for now, WoW beckons.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

4th of July

Oh
CRASH!
my
BASH!
it's
BANG!
the
ZANG!
Fourth
WHOOSH!
of
BAROOOM!
July
Whew!

From Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein

For the 4th of July, Jeff and I went down and had dinner with my folks. My Grandpa Harry came up for dinner also. Dinner was great, we had steak, fried potatoes, Texas sheet cake, and strawberries with Cool Whip. We bought a bunch of fireworks in Bradford, at Wal-Mart and at a fireworks tent and set them off in my parent's yard around 10. We also gave a bunch of fireworks to Brandon, our old neighbor from up on Pleasant St. It's interesting, in some ways, America's 4th of July is like a big, secular Midsummer's Festival.

Grey also came down to my folks from the farm on the 4th to give me an awesome present. He made me a beautiful staff. I really, really love it and I can't wait to use it.





Grey gives me such neat witchy things. He also gave me my gorgeous chalice a few years back. Jeff also gives me neat witchy things. He got me a copper bird bath for Yule that can be used as a scrying bowl, it's also great for holding candles. Jeff also bought me my current Witchcraft journal, it's got natural recycled paper, a wooden spine, and actual leaves on the cover.

Boy, I am one lucky Witch :-)

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Expansion for WoW pushed back to October 29th

grr... It's a good thing Jeff asked the guy at EB when the World Of Warcraft expansion was coming out and not me. I might have had an aneurysm. Not really. But I'm still pretty unhappy that I have to wait until the end of October to start my new characters. Kharasa made it to level 52 yesterday. Maybe I'll make it my goal to get her to 60 and get my epic mount before the expansion. I doubt I will though. My other characters are too distracting. I'm really enjoying playing my warlock again, I can't wait til she and Jeff's mage get to level 40 and get our mounts. Mine's free, so I figure I can help him with his.

That's about all here. I worked today until almost 2 PM. I had to get on the phones 3 times. I couldn't believe we only had 12 people on the phones for the 2nd day of the month. The beginning of the month is always crazy busy.

Trying to get supper ready. Merry Part and Blessed Be all!

Something Positive

is really becoming... well, something positive. I just wanted to share these words of wisdom from Mr. MacIntire to his daughter, Delia.

"And in the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or what we did with it"

I personally find that rather uplifting.

Not too much going on today. I'd like to go to Olean and buy some new t-shirts and look at a new office chair for Jeff. His throne finally bit the dust. I cleaned my whole desk. I got all the garbage off it, and moved the computer around and cleaned the desk itself with Murphy's Oil Soap. Which has an interesting smell to it. I also reorganized the books a bit today, I'm trying to get all the Wicca/Witchcraft/Magic books together in the same area. I actually said this morning, "I think I need to get rid of some books" which of course made Jeff ask, "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?" And I'm here, and fine, but I have a lot of books that I didn't buy. I like it when people give me books, but I usually don't read any of them more than once. I should gather some up and make a donation to the Bradford Public Library. I'd take them to a used book store, but from talking to the owner of Books Galore in Erie, they need more romance novels like they need a hole in the head. And there's only a few of my witchy books I'd give away, mostly things I picked up used and haven't looked at since their first reading, anything I've discovered to be crap. I've got this big, boring tome on meditation I got from One Spirit I may keep just because it cures insomnia well.

I think that's all for now, I'm going to log on to WoW and see if I have mail or if anyone else is online.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Good weekend

I was only at work til 11 on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Which was a good thing because Lacy and Jay came up to visit! We went to the Old Library with them to celebrate their 6 year anniversary. The Old Library was good as always, my favorite parts of the meal were the baked French Onion Soup and desert. They have this cake it was a Peanut Butter Thunder cake, I think. Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, peanut butter chips on the outside, and crumbled up little Reese's peanut butter cups on top. Yummy. Today before they headed home we showed them World Of Warcraft, all the funny little jokes and then the videos on Break.com.

I think that's all I have for right now, Jeff and I are just chilling and watching some TV.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

I think I'm a masochist

I just did my Veena and Neena Slim Down tape, and it's really warm in here. I must only like to workout when it's really going to be punishing. I've been doing my dance tapes once or twice a week for a couple weeks now, but they're NOTHING compared to Slim Down.

Heart rate... finally slowing down... okay. Gotta do up a couple dishes and get ready to go to Togi's for dinner. I feel I have earned some baked French onion soup. Yummy.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Today is Emily Shea's birthday. I have been thinking about that everytime I see that the date is June 17th. Jess's birthday is next month. I think Em's email is still the same. I'm going to attempt to email her before bed.

I got out of work at 12:30 today, and then came home and played World of Warcraft. I helped Harriet kill Morbent Fel in Darkshire, which was really, really easy as my level 50 hunter. I also got Seersha caught up to Slogdarr. I made a pizza for dinner. It was warm, so I really wish I hadn't had to run the stove, but my culinary skills are quite limited.

Jeff's listening to Launchcast, and I'm just putzing around on the 'net, posting before bedtime. I reorganized my Favorites list today. I made folders for web comics, WoW, and my various friend's blogs and web pages.

That's all for now. Merry Part and Blessed Be.

Ballerina Bitch-kova

This was Frosh's answer to a Trivial Pursuit question regarding which ballerina said, when she knew she was dying "Get the swan costume ready" He came over yesterday after class and hung out til Jess got out of work. We had burgers and played Trivial Pursuit. I won, Jeff says because we ran out of time. But I had all six pie pieces and was sitting in the middle. I just had to answer one question of the guys' choosing. We also played a lot of World of Warcraft yesterday. Our Undead are now 21-22, and my hunter is level 49 now.

I had a flying dream this morning, which was great. I've kind of trained myself that when something strange happens to the car I'm in a dream , I know I'm dreaming and can get out. So when the Neon was on a roof in Pittsburgh, I just got out and watched it roll off, and disappear before hitting the street. Then I felt all light, almost like what I imagine an out-of-body experience would feel like. Then I was dipping and soaring, and running all around a city. I saw a hot dog vendor, and all kinds of stores. It was great, just to feel free of by body, to be able to move however I wanted.

I also remembering dreaming about walking up a snowy road with 2 other people. I was wearing my leopard print slippers and pajamas. I wasn't cold, except for where snow was getting into my slippers.

I also dreamed that I had rented a condo with Jeff, and I think Jess and Frosh, and all kinds of people I knew from college and high school. Lacy, Jay, Mike and Erin showed up, along with some people I was in marching band with, like Kristy Surles and my good friend Steve Reitz. It was kind of neat. I was introducing everyone around, and it was really crowded but everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Okay, I posted, now I get to play Warcraft. Merry Part and Blessed Be everyone!

But these apples are healthsome and good

I'm having an apple as a healthy evening snack rather than ice cream. Go me! Of course, I'm partially motivated by guilt, as we had waffles and bacon for dinner.

I've spent a large portion of the evening enjoying World Of Warcraft. You're all shocked, I know. I played in Arathi Battlegrounds twice, which was interesting, and Warsong Gulch once. We actually won Warsong, which was cool.

We are currently watching X-Play on G4. Apparently Adam and Morgan really hated Da Vinci Code. I thought the book was great, and the movie was pretty good. Then again, Morgan is hard to please when there aren't explosions.

We're off Thursday and Friday this week. No plans as of yet. Time to get ready for bed, I think. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

No dreams, thank to the Q

Hi all! No interesting dreams to report, as I've got a bit of the sniffles and took NyQuil before bed. Worked a short day today, not too many emails. Then I went out to lunch with Jeff and his parents, who had come up this morning to go to the casino. We went to the Lighthouse and I had a ham salad sandwich and a fruit cup, which is half a canteloupe filled with pears, peaches, pineapple and passion fruit. Really good. I had a tiny dish of rainbow sherbert for dessert.

World of Warcraft calls, so I'll cut this short here.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

201st post!

I was going to just post about the dream I had last night before work, but then I realized I made my 200th post last night! *whistles, confetti, fireworks*

A TV show is prime for syndication at 100 episodes. I wonder what happens when a blog gets 200.

Anyway, last night I dreamed about World of Warcraft. I must be jonesing. Hopefully I get out of work early enough today to play some. I only remember creating a new horde character, an orc warlock, and running around a bit. I think my dream was set after the expansion, Burning Crusade, comes out, because there were Dranei and Blood Elves in my dream.

Anyway, gotta finish my tea and head out so I can stop at the post office on my way to work.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Also appears at Myspace

Tip for happiness: See pictures in the clouds.on my way home from work on Thursday, I saw a sperm whale, a funny hat, and a cloud bank that looked like coral caves.

I had a dream Wednesday night that Jeff and I were walking in the woods and found an abandoned town. There were old railroad tracks running through it. As we were looking in the windows of abandoned houses, there was one house with really nice old antique looking furniture in it. The door was open, so we went in to check it out. Then we found people in the house. At first they were all young kids, ranging from age 4 or 5 up to age 16. There were probably a dozen of them. They were sitting at a big table, eating a meal. Once we saw the people, the house looked more poor and dingy. I wanted to hide from them and sneak out of the house, but I think Jeff wanted to observe them. We found the kitchen of the house, and there was an older woman there. The kitchen was a very small room, the appliances looked older, like they were from the 50's or 60's. The woman seemed to be in her late forties or early fifties, but she had kind of an ageless quality. She was cooking for all the kids, and working online. She sold things on E-bay, things she found, and things she made. We talked to her for a while (can't remember what about) and we were about to leave when a short, fat, dark-haired man came in. He was yelling at the woman in another language, either Spanish or Italian maybe. He seemed greasy and dirty and he was wearing a stained tank top and pants that were unbuckled. I think he was drunk. He pulled out a gun and was going to shoot the woman. We tried to stop him and he turned the gun at us, and Jeff took it away from him, quick as a flash. We started to run away, and the man had another gun. He was shooting at us, and I ran behind Jeff, trying to protect him from the bullets. The last part of the dream I remember was jumping on Jeff's back.

Definitely a strange dream, and one I think I want to examine the symbols of more. I think the woman with all the children was a Crone/Goddess symbol. She lived in an old house, in an abandoned town, with old appliances, but her livelihood was thoroughly modern. I'm not sure what the man was supposed to symbolize. I think they were the most important things in the dream, considering that even almost 12 hours after waking up, many of the details about them are fresh in my mind.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

I have discovered the exotic belly-dancer within

I spent all afternoon listening to Laundry Service by Shakira at work. There's this great song with an Eastern, belly-dance rhythm to it called Eyes Like Yours.

So I came home and put on my flowy skirt and hip scarf and did my Basic Dance video. I was going to try the Mystic Dance video, but as I thought, that one teaches veil work and I don't have a veil or anything that could be used as such. I need to get 3 yards of sheer, lightweight fabric.

I had a great dream post yesterday, but Blogger was not working, so I posted it at my MySpace page. I'll repost it here so you don't have to go over there unless you want to.

Bonus!

You Are Bart Simpson

Very misunderstood, most people just dismiss you as "trouble." Little do they know that you're wise and well accomplished beyond your years. You will be remembered for: starring in your own TV show and saving the town from a comet Your life philosophy: "I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again!"

The Simpsons Personality Test

I'm not sure why I took this one, as we all know I HATE Valentine's Day with a passion. I think it's because I like candy hearts, and they are the only part of participating in that fake, Hallmark holiday that I miss.

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

I think that's all for now, my exotic belly-dancer within wants water.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Dream Blog

This morning, in between the time Jeff got up to leave for State College and the time I had to get up for work, I had a dream that Grey and I were in a play together. Our scene had nothing to do with the rest of the play, which seemed to be Pride and Prejudice type British play. Neither of us knew our lines, so I was trying to find a way to hide the script in one of my props, but I couldn't find any copies of the script backstage. I saw Allison backstage, but she didn't see me, she was laying behind a curtain playing a GameBoy? The play was being staged in the high school gym at West Forest.

So I'm in West Hickory with Keely, mom and dad are off enjoying a mini-vacation for their 30th anniversary. Jeff is in State College getting re-certified for his holding down crazy people training (it has some official title, like the name of the system they use, but I can't remember it) Keely had a grilled cheese sandwich for supper, and she is watching the Rascal Flatts DVD she got for her birthday. Bedtime soon, we're going to pick up Jeff in Bradford tomorrow when he gets back from State College. I talked to him on the phone earlier, he sounded pretty tired. I talked to my sister Lacy on the phone for about an hour, which was great.

I think that's all for this evening. This computer is not what I would call reliable. Any comments on the new template? Anyone? Bueller?

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Back in the hip scarf

I started bellydancing again today. I did the Basic Dance video from the Discover Bellydance set. It was fun, the moves are ones I'm pretty familiar with from their other tapes. Once I got to the end and where it goes through the routine twice, once with instructions and once with just music, I rewound it and did that part again. I've got to start doing something again. I don't like the way my shirts are riding up over my tummy, or how big my thighs are. I want to be able to buy a new swimsuit I actually like the way I look in for North Carolina, dammit. So I want to start alternating Bellydancing with Pilates again. That seemed to work well, especially for my tummy.

I got out of work early today, which was nice. I had some Chinese food for lunch, and I didn't get cheese wontons, so I was proud of myself there.

I haven't had any coherent dreams since my last dream journal post, just snatches of things here and there. I had one of those dreams this morning where you're dreaming that you're already awake. Except I was awake and I couldn't seem to move. I could hear Jeff moving around in other parts of the house, and I tried to call out to him, but I couldn't make any noise, and I felt very lethargic and heavy. I rolled out of bed (in the dream) and was stuck on the floor. I really hate those dreams.

I think that's all for now. I may add more later on. Back to World Of Warcraft.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Quote From The Break-Up

Gary: There's a really big gap between getting your ass kicked and having a dancing, singing sprite fool you with trickery and then strike your throat before you know that you're even *in* a fight.

I think I need to see this movie. I love Vince Vaughn. Wedding Crashers was very funny, even though I don't care much for Owen Wilson. The best parts for me were with Vince Vaughn's character and the funny little psychotic, nymphomaniac redhead he hooks up with.


Gloria Cleary: Don't ever leave me!
Jeremy Grey: Ever.
Gloria Cleary: Good. 'Cause I'd find you!

Jeremy Grey: Gloria, I've been doing a lot of soul searching recently, and I think I'm ready to take this relationship, our relationship to the next level.
Gloria Cleary: Jeremy, I am so ready to take it to the next level.
Jeremy Grey: Really?
Gloria Cleary: Yeah. Do you want to watch me with another girl? How about those Brazilian twins we met at the ball game?
Jeremy Grey: I was thinking more along the lines of an engagement.
Gloria Cleary: Oh Jeremy, I do!
Jeremy Grey: I love you.
Gloria Cleary: I love you.

That's all for today. Only 4 more blog posts til we celebrate our 200th entry!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Dreams

I'm considering using this blog as a dream journal. It would be getting back more to the original thought behind the blog, which was to record all witchy type events. There haven't been any witchy events lately, although I've been using my quiet time on the mornings where Jeff and I both work to ground and center, and align myself. In certain traditions of the Craft (Primarily Feri and Reclaiming and their shoot-offs), it is believed that the soul and aura are made up of 3 parts. When all three parts are in alignment, it's easier to understand messages being communicated from one part to another, and it's the best state from which to do any spellwork. But I've rambled a bit here, and the Three Souls takes up entire chapters in books, which I don't want to re-write here. Maybe I'll write up my own version of it, and post it at a later date.

Anyway, back to dream blogging. Last night I had a dream that Jeff and I were at a hospital. I think we were visiting Jess and the baby. Lacy and Jay showed up for a surprise visit. I think we saw Kim Finnigan (now Gutshall) at the hospital too, I remember Lacy and I giving her a big sandwich hug. Then Jeff and I sat with Lace and Jay in a kitchen with an island and stools and ate crackers and cheese. That's all I remember of that dream. At some point early this morning. I had a dream about a cake. It was a layer cake covered in white icing, and it had bright purple violets as decoration.

Well, I'm supposed to finish this now so I can play World Of Warcraft. I hope all your dreams were pleasant ones Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Congratulations are in order!

Attention, attention! My dear friends, Jess and Frosh, are having their first child! I am so excited and happy for them!! Everyone please send out good thoughts for a easy pregnancy and delivery for Jess and a beautiful, healthy baby or two! (Twins run in both their families!)

I'm going to be an Aunt!

Oh, I am so excited!

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Weekend Plans

I worked the past two mornings and kept the emails caught up. This afternoon sometime Jeff and I are driving to West Hickory to visit my family. Tomorrow's is Keely Jo's 24th birthday, and my mom is having a party. I picked up a 3 pack of older Brooks and Dunn CD's for her from Wal-Mart for about $15. It's a bad idea to spend a lot of money of CDs for her, as she has a tendency to scratch them. So I'm pretty excited about that, I'll get to see my Aunt Ann and her family, and other relatives I haven't seen since Christmastime.

Jeff and I went to Olean yesterday, had lunch at Friendlys and went to see the new X-Men movie. Though it had some cool parts, a lot of it was disappointing. Some of our favorite characters really got the shaft in this one, story wise. I won't go into too much detail in case anyone's planning to see it. I'll just say to stay after the credits, there's another short scene, that gives us hope for maybe a better fourth movie, if they do another one. From reading on the web, the problem seems to be that this one had a different director than the first two.

Well, I should really get the house picked up and finish packing since we're going away. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend, drive safe if you're traveling.

Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Damn, almost a month between posts

Oh well, that happens sometimes. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. We've been playing a lot of World Of Warcraft recently, our friends Artie and Harriet just got hooked up too. I've been doing a lot of worrying about my sister, Lacy, but hopefully things are going better there now.

I'm blogging this morning because I'm mad at Zoo Tycoon (Tuesday mornings = WoW maintenance time) I had been working for over an hour on my Dinosaurs on the Moon zoo, when a Spinosaurus escaped. I was looking for the helicopter recovery team, who didn't seem to being doing the job that they're overpaid for. I clicked on their building, but the helicopter didn't show up. I clicked on the window for info about it, and the game crashed. If I didn't know better, I'd say this game was made by Maxis... (Oh sweet Sim Golf... so fun, so frustrating when you crash on tournament mode all the frickin' time!) And of course I hadn't saved. So the T-Rex, Plesiosaurus and Caudipetryx exhibits I had built are all gone. I think when I go in again, I'm going to start on my Ice Age area. That reminds me, Jeff and I watched Ice Age on TV last night. It was funnier than I remembered. I've also been reading through the archives of Ctrl+Alt+Delete, a very funny webcomic. Some of the first person shooter comics I skip, but they cover all kinds of video games. Mainly X-Box and PC, some GameCube.

Jeff's playing some Star Wars real-time strategy game, and I'm contemplating lunch. I'm eagerly anticipating our trip to OBX, which is in ... less than 3 months! I'd like to go see Da Vinci Code this evening, as this is our only real day off together this week. Jeff has to go in do a training at work tomorrow, when he'd normally be off. :-( So we'll see if that happens. Early showing is at 7. I hate that the Carmike in Olean doesn't show matinees during the week.

I think that's enough of an update for now. Merry Part and Blessed Be!

Thank you, Paul

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Suzanne Slaughenhaupt!

1. Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of Suzanne Slaughenhaupt, and frequently rise to the surface for air.
2. Britain's Millennium Dome is more than double the size of Suzanne Slaughenhaupt.
3. Influenza got its name because people believed the disease was caused by the evil "influence" of Suzanne Slaughenhaupt!
4. Suzanne Slaughenhaupt can be seen from space!
5. Early thermometers were filled with Suzanne Slaughenhaupt instead of mercury.
6. More people are killed by Suzanne Slaughenhaupt each year than die in aeroplane accidents.
7. Suzanne Slaughenhaupt will give a higher yield if milked when listening to music!
8. The pigment Indian Yellow was manufactured from the urine of cows fed only on Suzanne Slaughenhaupt.
9. Suzanne Slaughenhaupt is actually a vegetable, not a fruit.
10. If you toss Suzanne Slaughenhaupt 10000 times, she will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because her head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Thanks, Ben!

Ben sent me the link to this comic... If you play MMORPG's you'll laugh your ass off.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete

I also watching Memoirs of a Geisha with Jamie today. Good movie, now I feel I can read the book, which Lisa had highly recommended.

I think that's going to be all for now. The goal is to be in bed early tonight, we were up kinda late last night roleplaying and hanging out with Adam, Vita, Harriet and Artie.

Merry part and Blessed Be!

Good start to the day

My day got off to a great start today because Jeff was feeling better. He had a horrible stomachache all day yesterday. Now I just need to hope I don't catch it. I also got to see one of my all-time favorite Angel moments on TNT before work. It's the episode in Season 4 where they bring Angelus back, and he taunts Wesley about Gunn and Fred. Then Wes saves Fred from Angelus, and when she thanks him, he kisses her, and it's one of my favorite TV kisses. Way more satisfying then when Dave and Matty finally kissing on Moonlighting. God, how old am I that I remember that!

I also got to see Michelle last night for the first time since Halloween. Hopefully we will get to see each other more over the summer when she has less school work and I'm not role-playing. I'm thinking of starting a book club... my friend Danielle S. at work likes to read too, and she also lives in Bradford.

Well, since I am at work now I'll end this here. Merry Part and Blessed Be!