Hah! Mr. Warner

http://books.google.com/books?id=PeC7cRMWSroC&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=marijuana+%22mr+warner%22+slang&source=web&ots=Ndlc--zOiR&sig=Q1tXdO2kUWDnp7wMYvJAJC42aPo

Tigers or .....

This is Domata Peko, defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals. His size and impressive mane of hair immediately reminded me of.... well guess.

Woot!

This morning I woke up to the first snow of the season! Then it continued snowing until well past noon. The white, the cold was glorious, exciting, invigorating. Outings became adventures, I became a themed 'Winter Fun' doll, and personal breathing became a more public phenomenon.
To note: squirrels eat snow!! They're really cute when they do it too!
:D ciao

Monster HD

So my new favorite channel is Monster HD. They have a fascinating and fabulous collection of old and new movies and they show them without commercials.

I first watched because they seemed to be doing some sort of Alfred Hitchcock movie night and I'm always in for some good scary birds.

I have since returned to the channel though, and I love it. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys movies (hopefully all of yous).

Currently they're doing a prehistoric monster marathon and they've got some great old movies involved. They also have the weird, not nearly as good, maybe asian, Godzilla knockoff series that will be shown later (prob 3 am or something due to the quality). ;)

The movie currently on, to give a good taste of the great plot, is about creatures being affected by atomic energy and coming back to attack humans from the sea! They get close and then they beam out atomic energy and everything in range just crumples in pain and dies! Great huh? :D


Might I just add that New Yorkers do a splendid job of fleeing in terror? Running into the subways is now something I desire doing to avoid a big scary sea creature.

Have you any idea what a sweetheart my Daddy is?!

He made a cat porch so the cats could go "outside" all by themselves and not bother my parents to go outside anymore.

Details

In the lounge, when it's quiet, I can hear the mice scurrying around in the walls and ceiling....

Ohhh... meeses meeces meeses

Random Picture

For those of you who check, a small taste of the new place... plus foot!!! :D


Have faith, I will blog again some day.

Compliments of the Urban Slang Dictionary

Snow Bunny defintions

1. Urban coloquial for caucassean women.

Yo, that Snow Bunny has an ass like a sista.

2.) a white female; this expression is commonly used to describe a white female who mingles amoung black males

3.) can be used as a sign of approval

"I got a snow bunny and a black girl too, you pay da right price and they'll both do you." -Terrance Howard

- so if you're ever coming up from a subway station in the middle of Bed-Stuy, you being a white girl, just in case a gaggle of high school boys start chanting the term, you'll know what they're talking about. you're welcome ;)

You are not forgotten, just... um...

So my parents are in town for three days visiting (yay!) and my father makes me feel ...a little guilty, a little confused, a little nervous, by telling me that he looked up my blog the other day and couldn't find it. He claimed it no longer exited on the world wide web. I know such a statement to be false! Absolutely! But I found it difficult to claim it because I hadn't reviewed the evidence in... well a while, since my last post. I hereby reclaim my blog and declare it not non-existent, even if somewhat dormant.
:)

I Didn't Want to be a Weatherman....

I wanted to be a lumberjack!

Weather exists here in New York. Though I missed the ice storms that you all claimed to be "snow" in central Texas, I did get something else...

SNOW FLURRIES!!!!
followed by a light dusting of overnight snow that was all melted by noon
followed by more SNOW FLURRIES!!!
They bring me quite a special kind of happiness :)

Also, sunrises exist. Here are a few pictures from my dorm room window in Brooklyn.

Birthday time!

Funny people, good music. :)



Plus I'd like to send hugs and smiles to not one, but two birthday boys!
Cory and Peter, Have a good one!

Oooooh

So close to leaving time! New York, New York!!!
:D

Politically Correct

I really am that person. Anything non-PC kinda bothers me, in some cases annoys me. It surprises me after all this time. Many of my friends really enjoy telling racist jokes without meaning anything, just amused at the corniness, and it depends on my mood whether these bother me or not. It's really the phrases used without the joke that truly annoy me (or if the joke is lame;) ).

One of my friends used a phrase the other day that generally would slip past without much thought, except for the fact that it was reiterated many a time and annoyed me. It wasn't even a slur or anything, I'm just that much into political correctness. He was talking about his friends showing up at a party and he kept saying "guy and his baby's mama". The guy of course got a name, the girl would maybe have a name after that description, maybe not. "His baby's mama" I realize is meant to be used as a more in-depth phrase than girlfriend, but not wife.

Unfortunately, here's the deal. The individual should come first, and this phrase is one of the worst I've seen for that. I took a class in college for future teachers, so they could all be politically correct, and we were actually graded on if we put the individual first. This was especially important for people with diabilities. So it was not correct to say "the blind boy" but rather "the boy who is blind", even better if you said "Bob, the boy who is blind". So if we apply that logic to my annoying phrase "Bob, and his baby's mama Barbara" we very much fail this woman as an individual, especially as half the time no Barbara is attached. Bob is good, we see him an individual immediately. Next comes his baby, next comes the girl - not defined as herself but in relation to his baby, next maybe comes her name. Sigh.

At the time, my correspondent was very close to pissing me off, not due to this phrase but other matters so I ignored my particular annoyance with this phrase in lieu of the general annoyance of the person but it stuck with me and I revisited it. Therefore I'm not sure how much of this particularly annoying phrase is just focused annoyance from my conversation.

I know all this, but I'm unsure why it bothers me so. I asked a friend about it and his first question was if my friend was black or not. He isn't of course, but my friend went on the explain that it was a very loaded phrase, especially for black culture.

Anyway, if you have any comments, feel free to drop me a line. Or alternately, you can ignore this as a semi-rant. :) Either is good.

A Christmas Present?

So, I go off to school in New York in less than a month and I'm still totally clueless as to housing and financial aid. Hrm. My parents, being sensible people who like to plan things, have been less than carefree during this time, increasing my anxiety levels with their added anxiety. So yesterday we contacted the school (again). The financial aid counselor was out for the day - I'm supposed to hear from him today. Housing assured us that I would be assigned something and that I'd get it by December 25!!! Christmas!

I know it sounds weird coming from someone who went off to Taiwan and on a ridiculous India trip with the least amount of planning possible, not knowing where I was going or how long I'd stay, BUT this is something that is driving me nuts. If I get housing I don't like, I'll have to search for an apartment when I get there in January. The stress of that radiates through me on ocassion when I contemplate it. Ignoring things is my usual tactic, but it's pretty stupid to ignore something so major to my future life. Every time I think about packing or things I need for New York (this happens on pretty much a daily basis), a lot of it is dependant on where I'm living. Grr. (Plus I hate packing! double grrr!)

A striking difference is in the financial aid process. As an undergraduate student, they lure you to their schools with money. They accept your application to their college and tell you how much money you'll get from the school if you enroll there. My new school doesn't calculate financial aid until after you've registered. How scary is that? I don't know how I'm going to pay for these classes I've just registered for.

I've done so much waiting in this process. I'm about to go nuts. Apologies for the angsty rant.

Sad to say, this isn't even bureaucracy at its finest, it's just bad. A good bureaucracy would have me jumping through endless hoops, running all over everywhere trying to get all the needed forms and getting frustrated but at least remaining hopeful that maybe this would the last and final form I needed. Not so here. I've done every form they've sent me. I did the application, sat and waited for a month. I did the acceptance forms, doctors visits, housing deposits. Then I sat and waited. And called and re-faxed. Then sat and waited. Then filled out the registration form. Sat and waited. Got my classes. Now I sit and wait. There are no more forms until housing and financial aid tell me something. Which they will. By December 25th.



Sigh.

UPDATE: So yesterday we were mislead/lied to about the financial aid counselor being in today. He won't be in until Monday. So they say.

Would You Like that Gift-Wrapped?

No thank you.

I've been wrapping presents recently. If I had an easily readable happiness meter (say, color-coded like our homeland security alert levels), mine will have beamed out happyhappy to everyone.

Something as simple as wrapping presents brings me such joy.


I've also been in charge of taking the cats outside. Their source of joy seems to be rolling in the dirt, then coming inside and sleeping on my bed. Hmmm.

I'm Registered!

School details are progressing, if slowly, and today they registered me for my classes!

Oh boy oh boy. The excitement builds, though there is still much to do. Big things too, like loans and housing, but as everyone knows I am endowed with a good bit of luck and invincibility. :D
Huzzah!
Cheers, ~allie

This email is to confirm that you are officially registered for the following courses for Spring 2007:

LIS 651-1: Intro to Information Professions

LIS 652-1: Information Services & Sources

LIS 654-1: Information Technologies

Sunrise

This morning I watched the sunrise for the first time in a long time. The pleasure was diminished however because I was cleaning up cat vomit.

My Wiimote!!

If there were ever a time to laugh out loud at other people, at clumsy people, that time is now!

Excitable Nintendo fanboys smash TVs with flying Wiimotes

Related Entries: Gaming

It seems that some overeager Wii users have gotten a bit too worked up while playing Wii Sports, bowling so hard that the strap of their Wiimote snapped, sending the controller barreling into their TVs. Is there anything worse than bowling for a spare and ending up with a busted big screen TV? As easy as it would be to blame Nintendo for making shoddy wrist straps, let's be honest here: if you're whipping your controller around so fast that it reaches TV-smashing velocity, you're playing the game with a bit too much energy. It seems likely to me that people might have been playing without the wrist strap, got a bit too worked up, had their palmsweat send the Wiimote flying, then snipped the strap afterwards for sympathy/free TV from Nintendo points. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you, wear the strap, and simmer down. — Adam Frucci

I still love the idea of the Wiimote, the remote with the motion sensors of a sexkitten, allowing you to play the games currently off-limits to anyone who doesn't wish to expend numerous hours perfecting their thumb movements (plus, like, I have these nails? ;) . Still, when my father read a similar article to me, the laughter began! :D

Some Youtube videos :)

Awww! Cute Japanese men and smart cars spreading Wii love! I look forward to the many funny tales of injury and mayhem the wiimotes cause.

On a more serious note, I hope it doesn't kill the Wii, there have been calls of foul play and disbelief in the comments of these stories (this and many more have been spread all over the web - check out Engadget for multiple accounts), but there has also been much concern and talk of suing Nintendo. Also, because they're dorks, they started doing math formulas to see with what force the wiimote would need to be thrown to break a TV. My father firmly believes that the Wii will keep going unchecked -"They let go of the remote - not Nintendo's problem," and I hope he's right.
Hey Lawyer dude (yes that's you Matt), how would that go do you think?

Now to get back to high spirits, I want you to repeat after me :

"fanboys...wiimote...fanboys...wiimote...fanboys...wiimote"
and repeat :D

Doogal

This was a new Disney movie I had the unfortunate desire to watch recently. I was lured to the film by all the wonderful actors doing the voices, a whole long list of some of my favorite people. All that talent! Wasted! In a ten-star rating I'd be hard-pressed to give it even a whole star, I'm leaning more towards maybe a half-star, and that's really sad considering how lenient I generally am in movies. Even my mother, in a term I cannot recall her ever using before, rated the movie - "Lame" she said.

The whole movie was filled with annoying characters and jokes upon jokes upon jokes...and they were all bad. Bad, bad, bad. The only things I can go easy on are the soldier, Jon Stewart and his character (possibly because they tried to make less jokes), some of the rabbit's jokes weren't as bad as they could have been, and the ending song sequence (just because I adore that song). Mr. Blue Skies by ELO, they're probably counting on it to sell soundtracks. It's a good thing too, that the movie ended on a happy song note or I would have felt utterly desolate at my waste of two hours and the suffering of horrid jokes; as it was I was tapping my feet, vowing never to watch a British animated film again without reading the reviews first and vaguely resentful of time wasted. Tricky.

On imdb.com the trivia section states that only two characters were not re-voiced for the American release. Bret Fetzer on Peerflix.com writes that "Presumably, Doogal's target audience is the very young, yet the dialogue (rewritten for the American market) is crammed with allusions to adult fare like Saturday Night Live and Pulp Fiction. In fact--though it may have seemed differently with the original script--the entire movie comes across as an ungainly patchwork stitched together from scenes fromThe Wizard of Oz, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Matrix, Ice Age, and much more. The effect is not so much funny as inexplicable." Because I really am a nice person and hate to be so damning to a movie, I'm going to assume the British release was better, maybe even funny. Will I go find the British release and watch it? No. For those of you braves souls who are contemplating it, the title there is The Magic Roundabout.

Looking through the imdb reviews it's astonishing to see so many 1/10 star ratings, and Doogal has succesfully made it into the bottom 100 movies. There is some defense though for the movie, mostly through people who argue that it's for the under 3 age group, and randomly from some people who's first language isn't English. There were two, however, who created reviews of the movie that reminded me why I was an English major. They rated it highly, except they did it with supreme sarcasm.
Horneyman71 gave it ten stars and ended with this - "I could write for literally pages about the wonders that make up Doogal, but my hand grows weary. For people who say this movie is bad and for children under 1, i have only one thing to say: wrong. These white yuppies, living in yuppyville, do not know the real world, which in fact does consist of evil springs. This story reminds me of my childhood, when i too faced perilous danger, but with the help of my farting moose and hippie rabbit, i saved the day. Will Doogal? Things are about to get hairy!"

But my favorite review I shall publish in full, such is its brilliance.

Doogal is a magical fairy tale that will enchant kids of all ages., 27 July 2006

Author: Mythicalreviewer from Texas, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The story revolves around a legend that tells of three "magic" diamonds that can be united to create a force powerful enough to freeze the sun. It is a believable enough premise because just the other day I was sweating profusely on a hot summer day and remarked how I would like to freeze the sun for a bit. If only I had these magical diamonds myself.

Of course there is always a bad guy and he is personified in the evil sorcerer Zeebad (funny name is it not?). Well "zee bad" guy escapes from a long lost ancient prison and makes a solemn promise to exact revenge for all of the bad meals he had in prison by deep-freezing the earth forever. Not just for a day or a week but FOREVER! When Zeebad said this it just sent shivers down my spine that someone could do such as dastardly deed. It is a scene that will disturb your emotions to the point of ripping you heart out.

As the movie unfolds the audience is treated with four unlikely heroes that band together to keep the dastardly (or bastardly?) Zeebad from achieving his villainous plot. Believe me when I say that you will breathe a sigh of relief once you learn of the crusade of these heroes.

Oh did I mention that the heroes are lovable mutts? The leader of the heroes is a candy-loving mutt named Doogal who tends to lick himself just a little too much for my tastes. Then with cute lovable mutt-friends Dylan, Brian, and Ermintrude, they all embark on an epic adventure to save the world.

But in order to find the three magical diamonds before Zeebad, they must brave icy mountains, negotiate fiery pits of molten lava, chart across vast oceans and pass through a booby-trapped temple guarded by an army of ninja skeleton warriors. All these serve to bring the realism of an exciting adventure that you will be sure to play over and over in your worst nightmares.

But the most beautiful aspect of this movie is the message that syrupy friendships can be the most powerful weapon, which even the evil Zeebad's magic cannot destroy.

I give this movie 10 stars for its soul inspiring message of using and leveraging friendships to achieving meaningless goals in one's life.

Hope you enjoyed. No it's not me, just a kindred soul from somewhere in Texas.

Yummy

Pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Normally I don't live for desserts, but here I'll make an exception.

Thanksgiving with the family in Waco. There was much enjoyment. It will probably be my last one for a while.


Black Friday was taken advantage of for getting stuff for New York - warm underthings, boots, coats, etc. The 3:30 am awakening time has messed up my already erratic sleeping schedule, but it was great fun as well.

Saturday! Saturday was my grandma's birthday! I have already sent her an e-card, but I'd like to say Happy Birthday! again here because she checks and reads my blog every day! Thank you and Happy Birthday Nannie!

Video!!

I have to decided to share this video with everyone because 1) I had totally missed out on the Gay Barbie Song parody and it's something I enjoy and want to make sure nobody else misses, and 2) it's one of the very few times I've enjoyed anime!

Give Peace a Chance...

A website I was directed to recently...
They want us to direct our energy to peace...
Through very specific, high-energy actions...

:D
Check it out
Click here

Duo Video

A few captured moments of the duo. And a picture of Aaron for good measure. I don't have many of him from that day - he wasn't feeling photogenic, plus he broke my camera. :D

Duo

Amy and Andrew

Andrew

Pictures I took in early November of my favorite nephew.

Rainy Days in CS

Some days were rainier than others. Literally and metaphorically. One day we got about 5 inches. This rain was pure joy.

The Days Grow Shorter....

Or daylight hours at least. Some such reason was going to be my excuse for neglecting to update my blog. But really, the guilt is here, and here I am, and no excuse will work. I am sorry if anyone missed my silly updates.

To begin my update, I'll do official things first. I was accepted to both grad schools I applied to, and I have decided to accept my future debt and skip all the way up to New York City to attend Pratt Institute. The application has been a bit messy, faxing things all over the place, visiting the doctor multiple times and getting to pee in a cup and sucked dry of blood - even an exciting skin test for tuberculosis! No, I tested negative, no tuberculosis for me. :) I'm still waiting to do exciting things like register, sign up for health insurace, and apply for loans because I'm not yet fully into the school's system. I'm waiting on their verdict of available housing or no, an anxious endeavor,and browsing apartments online in the meantime. It all has a sneaking possiblity of disastrous outcomes and bureaucratic nightmares, but I'm still quite enjoying it all currently.

I wandered around Texas earlier while I was in that exciting stage of school applications - waiting. It started with the mc chris concert, and that was followed by two weeks in College Station. I met with some old friends (including the coolest half-asian ever!! You rock Huong!) and got to know my host much better. There was much nerdiness involved, gaming, role-plying, Cephid, a gay bar, and even a Rocky Horror showing (yep, I got the big lipstick V). My host had work and school pretty much every day, so I generally rode the bus in with him (until I later stole his key and slept in later) and amused myself in the University library. I averaged about a book a day generally, plus the newspaper and accompanying crossword and sudoku. We spent lots of time goofing around, wandering around, and just being generally good-natured. The combination of two smiley people can make any event or non-event pretty much joyous. I enjoyed my stay in College Station.

After that I make a trip to Waco for a week. The little boy is growing and going full steam ahead, and is just adorable. He now knows my name and uses it on occasion when attempting to play me for favors or in moments of clarity, just for fun. He speaks often, and about 75% is understandable. More is comprehended by his parents than me. I was there for Halloween and we went to the ZooBoo! an event at the Waco Zoo for safe family fun. It was pretty spiffy, especially with the inclusion of Inga, Richard, and their little boys (Inga's one of those smiley people). Andrew was dressed as a bug, and I have to say cute as a button, and he enjoyed the bouncy castle for the under-3 kids for about 30 minutes before we could get him out again. The zoo had turned the aquatic life displays into pirates, the spider displays into spookiness, etc, etc, and they had a trick or treat line with tons of Skittles. Amy and I had a cookie assembly line for the gift bags she was giving to the kids at Andrew's daycare, and I'm proud of the tasty frosted, sprinkled, ghost- pumpkin- and bat-shaped sugar cookies we produced. I spent my days at Amy's reading the assorted ChicLit and romance books scattered around her house until one ending was so incredibly sappy I had to suspend my reading the genre for another 6 months at the minimum.

So, after three weeks loose I came back home to do more necessary grad school stuff. Recently I've also been doing home improvement work with my daddy. It started with the front porch (now tiled, sealed, grouted, and sealed again - with possibly one more seal on the way), and progressed into the hallway (wooden tiles and glue this time). Depending on may things, this job may or may not be done. They're fun, generally messy, and driving Mum nuts because the house isn't perfectly orderly (oh yeah, and the cat ran around in the glue and tracked into and onto everything :D).

Currently I'm trying to think of what I want for Christmas and what I need for New York. Plus going through clothes, studying French and some random Chinese, dreaming craziness, and getting excited about New York!

I will soon try to post the cuteness of my nephew.

Ta!

mc chris

Friday night I went out to Austin for some good times.
A friend of mine was in town for a concert and we decided to go together. We met up in early afternoon and later went to Emo's for the start of our scheduled fun. Manager's Choice - meh. Pong - a band of aging guys in pretty dorky matching outfits (sweatbands included), handing out brightly colored glasses that make you see rainbows, blacklights, playing music with a beat but the most repetitive and stupid lyrics. Enjoyable if you didn't pay too much attention to the music.

mc chris :)

In the genre of nerdcore rap with a voice that sounds like a ten year old girl....
He's everything his website advertises him to be, talented with the tunes, and in between songs a pretty good stand-up comedian. He can really manage a crowd, plus my amusement quota was more than fulfilled and there was much giggling (yes indeed, it's important to listen to his lyrics and not ignore them).
His website is here and after you enter, you can click on some buttons at the bottom left to hear a couple of his songs. To learn about him, click here.
The after-show movie at the Alamo Drafthouse was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Oddly enough I hadn't seen this movie (though I thought I had) and it's even possible that I haven't seen the first one... but I know for damn sure I've seen Raiders of the Lost Arc. Craziness. Anyhow, mc chris was there though not really a presence. His only instruction to us was to "make "ooh" noises when they touch the statue's boobies" and to be quiet - no talking. :)
It was pretty silly, and of course most enjoyable. My friend is quite a pleasure to be around as well and made it even better.

MySpace.com

So my sister was recently lured into the vast evil of the myspace realm. Even worse, she has insisted I join. She desires to put lurid little posts in the comment spaces, she wants to add me as a friend, add me as a friend of her husband (she created and maintains his myspace account), and post various questionably humourous things on the page.
I hesitate... and I hesitate more....
I just don't think I'm quite ready for a myspace account.... perhaps I never will be.
That is all.

Do post any comments you may have about myspace and/or my readiness - positive or negative.

(**Nannie and Papa - go to www.myspace.com, click the browse button, and see some of the vast underbelly of people's connectedness online.)

Funny Haha

I read my comic strip this morning and it was so dorky that it was immeasurably funny to me. So I must share.

Hmm that's a bit small, so for those of you without superpowers, click here to see it full size.

Also in the funny charts, someone has attempted to make that silly politician Foley's IM's into something innocent. I will tease you here with just a fragment:

Editorz (7:46:42 PM): Noo because I was bitten by a radioactive reindeer the other day
Editorz (7:46:55 PM): and so im turning into a deer
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): yes its awkward
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): and my hands are starting to look like hoofs
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): and that’s a disadvantage in the hand modeling biz
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny
Editorz (7:47:23 PM): no antlers
Editorz (7:47:24 PM): people think antlers are the same as horns

It's quite amusing to read the whole thing, and it also shows how ridiculous it is to claim the IM's as non-sexual. The conversation goes on and on, with ponies, hand modelling jobs, and oh those towels! It's posted on The Poor Man Institute and I must give them kudos. Link here.

I hope you enjoyed my slice of funny for the day!

Read Any Good Books Lately?

Yes and no.
I picked out two books by the same author from my gorgeous bookshelves and happened to fortunately read them in order because they were a series.
Dorothy Cannell, The Thin Woman, The Widows Club
The first book was very cute, it had a lovely heroine and I spent a lot of time become emotionally invested in the woman. She ended up the winner at the end of the book, the challenge reached, the crime solved, the weight promblem dieted to death, the man on his knees, her life all came together like it should in the end. Happy endings.
The second book took all those happy feelings away as she fell apart emotionally as her life began to fall apart. :/ I'd spent the whole first book really liking this woman and I couldn't easily emotionally distance myself from her. Out of a weird perversion I needed to finish the book (and it got marginally better the last third of the book) so I determined to do it as quickly as possible to limit the depression and desperation that got transferred to moi.
The End

Tracking

Yes, I track everyone that visits my website. Rather I have a free program that does. So I know how many visitors I have, how often you come back, how you got to my website, etc.
Recently someone serached my blog for "ex girlfriend" O_o
I also got a visit from someone who googled "India" and "scooter" :)

For anyone interested, you can sign up at Statcounter.com

RoyCon!

The 50th Anniversary party of Connie and Roy, family friends. It was German themed with appropriate weird foods, beer, and a polka band! They hired the Bohemian Dutchmen, who did a splendid job oom-pah-pah-ing the evening away, as well as including Edelweis, the ever-present Chicken Dance, the Cotton-Eye Joe (unfortunately missing the necessary lyrics to shout out "bullshit!"), some nice waltzes, and a shaddish. It was good to touch base with most of the people there and I was surprised that I knew many of them. Connie and Roy were very happy and sweet as per usual and there were good feelings all around. I declare a successful party!

Waco Trip

Off to Waco at Friday noon (well a little later but noon was the plan). We took the cute little trailer my dad built for my parents to sleep in. An unexciting journey, I slept and read... and had a vanilla frosty. I realize my parents are randomly just as indecisive as moi - kinda good to know, kinda not. We dump the trailer and head back into town to meet A3 for dinner. We met Amy at the bank and got to chat with her co-workers and help pack up some of the Relay for Life paraphenalia. Italian at Mama Baris for dinner. Except for the kid - chicken strips and fries - children's menus are just criminal these days, nothing but unhealthy fried foods (rant on. stop.). Back to the house, kid to bed, time to help Amy color the posters she's making for decorating the tent. I thought about trying to do a color scheme but couldn't decide and so it all ended up random. Plus, because we had waterproof markers, they smeared all over the place and we decided to distract the eye from it with the clever use of dots of all colors like confetti all over the poster. Yay! To bed, to bed, and because my parents brought the trailer I got to forego the couch and sleep in the actual guest room.
Morning up, pizza for breakfast :) and the Little Mermaid (came out Tuesday, my sister is highly attuned to Disney releases and don't think she doesn't have as many Disney DVDs as she can find). Josh, Aaron's brother, came just in time for lunch. Kid to naptime, everyone else to chat and diddle away the day. 4 PM Amy begs me to come help set up, so I do. We do the easy-up tent, the other sleeping tent, pom-poms, posters, signs, tables, folding chairs, etc. We also sorted shirts and small gifts into smaller bags with names for the people at Amy's bank. Btw, it was a SNL themed event, the credit union was the Spartans, and I enjoyed the set-up and time before the event started much more than after it started.
After all our tasks were done, I quickly got bored... and hungry... and then cold... plus annoyed. For a while hunger trumped all, but it went hand in hand with annoyed. The event started and the first lap was the Survivors' Lap. It was kinda cool to see all the people who had defeated cancer walk by, but I'm not one to stand and cheer for 30 minutes...
Kids at the event outnumbered adults 3 to 1. Dislike immediately settled upon me. I'm surprised I made it 2 days as a teacher. Individual children.. mm okay, small groups of children... mm maybe, roving gangs of youth.... no. Watching children brings me no idealistic visions of a brighter tomorrow; instead I wonder at the humanity of living. I compare Bush to a child - ego-centric, selfish, lacking complexity, lacking subtlety, bleh - though for the sake of fairness on my list I do rank children above that nasty man. It made me realise something about why I enjoyed New York so very much - there are tons of people, just not all that many kids. I appreciate that it's Waco, it's a sinless place to bring your kids for a big party. It just wasn't the place for my jaded child-grumpy little self.
People started arriving - Aaron and Josh, with Andrew and my food (finally!), Mum and Dad with goldfish :) , more walkers. The time came to light the luminaries and for the speech of the night. The stadium lights went out and the candlelight was pretty nice, but when the "speech" started off with horrifically sentimental music, I decided to duck into the tent with Andrew and the portable DVD player rather than subject myself to 30 minutes of torture. I was already grumpy enough, thank you.
Shortly after all that ended, my Mum, Aaron and Josh decided it was time to go. I could either stay or go home at 4:30 so I went home, deicded I would attempt to get on a regular sleeping schedule and leave others to the inevitable fun of the big party. To bed, to bed. I actually fell asleep in the car for a short while because it was so nice and warm inside and surprising cold outside (50's - cold for Texas at least).
Breafast tacos in the morning, plus the box of free donuts my father couldn't resist the night before. We amused ourselves until we had to leave (shortly after 12) so we could get to the Byers' anniversary party back in Wimberley.
My apologies for a pretty boring post.

Out for a Movie

Today Mrs. Davidson called over and invited me to go see Flyboys with her. Always delighted to get out of the house, I said yes. She took me by the post office so I could mail my application packets (PACKETS MAILED! FINALLY! - now I get to wait.. :/ ..) and we also stopped by a gas station to get some candy (she claims they never have the Almonds Hershey bars at the movies).
Plus we got cokes and popcorn as well (though she pretty adamant that Mr. Pibbs was not nearly as good as Dr. Pepper).
The movie was decent, presentable to me because it had handsome young men and France involved. Mrs. Davidson (whose second husband, a fighter pilot in WW2 has died fairly recently) had a little more sniffling than would someone without her memories. She's not one to hide her feelings or overdo them either, and it was quite sweet and endearing.
People respond differently to Mrs. Davidson, and I'm not sure if it's her attitude or the get-up she was wearing. She had a denim jumpsuit with a scarf wrapped around it and a beige cowboy hat with a silver ring around it set with big hunks of turquoise. The people we ran into were uniformly cheerful and helpful, most going out of their way to treat this woman like a queen (except for the popcorn girl, but that can't be helped really as I'm fairly sure nothing would spark her into being more than an automaton).
All in all, good times. :)

My Daddy 3

Okay, better update. The doctor called back and they had found evidence of a baker's cyst in his knee through the sonogram pictures. Just for extra fun, my dad's had burst, making it more unpleasant - as in, now there's fluid around his ankles, etc.
For all the gooey details, I found a website - bigkneepain.com
Cute n'est pas?
And for all of you who want to know.... full details follow. Eww.

A Baker’s cyst is a membrane-lined sac of fluid that forms behind the knee.

A Baker’s cyst is formed when synovial fluid (fluid that is produced by the joint lining to lubricate and protect the joints) escapes from the knee joint capsule (also called the synovial sac or synovium) and forms a new sac outside the joint at the back of the knee.

There may be a slight bulge or noticeable lump, most visible when standing.

Baker’s Cyst is named after the British physician, Dr. William Baker (1839-1896), who published the first reports on synovial cysts of the knee joint. A Baker’s cyst is also called popliteal cyst as it occurs in the popliteal space - the area behind the knee joint.

Causes:

Conditions that cause an excessive amount of synovial fluid to be secreted, such as arthritis or torn cartilage in the knee, may lead to a Baker’s cyst. Advanced osteoarthritis is the most common cause of a Baker’s cyst in older adults.

Synovial fluid (a thick, sticky fluid that lubricates and protect the joints) is secreted by membranes lining the knee joint and is contained in the knee joint capsule. Excess synovial fluid may accumulate and the pressure may cause the knee joint capsule to herniate into the area in the back of the knee.

(Excessive fluid within the knee joint is called knee effusion and is often referred to as water on the knee)

Even if the knee is healthy, a Baker’s cyst may form if a normal bursa at the back of the knee (bursae are sacs containing synovial fluid that reduce friction in moving parts of joints) forms a tunnel that connects to the knee joint capsule and synovial fluid drains into the bursa at the back of the knee and causes it to swell. This cause is more common in children.

Symptoms:

In some cases there are no symptoms. The amount of swelling varies. Large cysts are obviously more problematic. Symptoms include discomfort or pain behind the knee and/or a feeling of fullness or tightness that worsens when standing. There may be difficulty bending the knee.

Occasionally a Baker’s cyst ruptures, causing acute pain behind the knee and pain, swelling, and redness of the calf. Since the symptoms of a ruptured Baker’s cyst are similar to those of a deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in a deep vein) in the leg, immediate medical attention is needed to rule the latter out.

Treatment:

Treating the cause of the Baker’s cyst, e.g. arthritis or torn cartilage, usually reduces the swelling. If the Baker’s cyst is caused by torn cartilage, surgery to repair the cartilage may be necessary.

Reducing inflammation in the knee, whether from arthritis or an injury, may be achieved by temporarily reducing activity, elevating the knee above heart level (placing the knee on a pillow while lying down), applying ice (wrap ice in cloth and apply 20 minutes at a time, every three or four hours), wrapping the knee in an ACE bandage to provide compression, and anti-inflammatory medication. For more information on knee osteoarthritis, click here.

If the Baker’s cyst is not causing problems, no treatment is necessary. Baker’s cysts often eventually disappear without treatment. If the cyst is extremely large or painful it may be drained or surgically removed.

Aspiration: A Baker’s cyst can be drained using a needle/syringe but usually recurs if the primary problem causing the Baker’s cyst is still present.

Injection of corticosteroids: Cortisone (a powerful anti-inflammatory) may be injected to reduce the amount of fluid being produced. Again, this may only help temporarily.

Surgery: A Baker’s cyst can be surgically removed if problems persist despite treatment of the condition that caused the Baker’s cyst. Surgery is usually not necessary.

In rare cases, a lump behind the knee may be a tumor. Always seek a proper diagnosis from a qualified physician.

My Daddy 2

Went to the doctor, who was concerned, so then we went to south Austin to check out the possiblity of a blood clot. Nope, safe from that. The most likely culprit is my father's use (abuse) of his knees/calves. The fun part? Hearing my dad relate what happens in doctor's offices. Apparently they went up close to his groin and worked down his leg, and it tickled. So he'd be giggling while a professional had their hand up his shorts. :D

In other news, people are fascinated with new vending machines that sell iPods, cell phones, headphones and other accessories. They are not in Japan :P but in San Fran, Vegas, and random airports. They're so thrilled they take video clips of themselves using the new machines and post them on YouTube. Article - Clickee! Videos - Clickee!

Also, Shaq disses the new NBA game balls. Clickee!

And finally, a Taiwanese guy named Wang made it in the States to become a New York Yankee, and people are showing the love. Kudos to Matt for finding the picture.