The Sporadic and Random Ramblings of Nikki

Sometimes I'll be listening to something and the lyrics just stick, like a piece of poetry crafted and set to music. Here are a few scatterlings from the muses that have been wandering around in my mental forest.

Between the horses of love and lust
we are trampled...underfoot.

There's a hole in my soul
You can see it in my face
It's a real big place

When we dance, angels will run and hide their wings

And all this time, the river flowed
Endlessly to the sea

It's like singing in the wind
Or writing on the surface of a lake
...
I sink like a stone that's been thrown in the ocean
My logic has drowned in a sea of emotion

Maybe you will find a love
That you discover accidentally
Who falls against you gently
As a pickpocket
Brushes your thigh
Further to fly

Experience babe, kickin' stones and cans,
Experience babe, cigarette stained hands
It's not too late, hear it in the wind
It's not too late, feel passion creepin' in
Intoxication, familiar smells of the hotels
Infatuation, of knowing who you are

I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications
Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know will be alright
It's just overkill

It's almost time to put on my suit of cool
I may be an idiot, but indeed I am no fool

(Can you tell I love Men at Work?)

Here's one I wrote while falling asleep the other night...

Now I lay me down to sleep
Thoughts in my head are kind of deep
If I die before I wake
My bed I will not have to make :P

I like hugs. They make life so good. Just sayin'. :)

A week ago I was on my way to the airport to go to Board Game Geek's annual gaming convention, BGG.con. I had the good fortune of getting to the airport early enough to not only get onto standby for an earlier flight, but to actually get on it too, and so I reached the hotel in daylight (instead of late in the evening), meeting a number of gamers on the way. Another woman (also from Denver) and I shared a hotel room at the con so lodging was convenient and affordable. :) This is all just detail, but it's how the weekend was - very good. :)

And OMG, I had the most awesome, wonderful, fun game playing weekend of my life! I got to meet tons of new people (probably in the hundreds), played with new folks, a lot of really nice folks, met some of the nicest people ever and some of the craziest folks in my life right now too.

It was also good because I got to be just me. Not me the mom or me the wife or me the daughter, but just me, just Nikki. And it was so good. I sang, and danced, and ate yummy Mediteranian food, and played games new to me and games I love, and had great conversations, and laughed and laughed until I had almost no voice.

One of the best weekends of my life. And I can't wait to do it again next year. :)

So in my musings, I have wandered into a patch of melancholia, a plant whose aroma brings to those who breathe it in feelings of apathy, emptiness and wonderings about the purpose of one's life.

I guess part of the problem is that I had expected to be somebody by now. By a "somebody" I mean someone who had accomplished something big or grand or earth changing. You know, curing cancer, or feeding starving children in foreign countries or living with gorillas for 10 years by now. And I haven't done anything grand and sweeping.

I mean, I am a mom, I've got the two kids, and they're good kids, they don't get into trouble, they're smart, they might be "somebody"s someday, but even if they aren't, I think they'll do good in the world. and being a parent isn't an easy job, I know that, and raising kids is an accomplishment. But it's not unique and it's not grand or big and it doesn't make a huge difference in the world (at least not that I know).

I've told myself in recent years that making a difference in even one person's life is life changing, and it is, but I still feel like I'm failing in some grander plan. By not being a Somebody, I feel like a Nobody.

How did I get to this? I'm not completely sure - melancholia also has the effect of clouding the brain - but here's what I know. As a kid, I somehow felt like I was meant for something big. Nothing seemed to be obvious in how that was going to happen, but as I got older, I was always the dreamer, always believing that anything was possible.

After high school I thought I would travel Europe, finding my way on an international level. The reality? I spent 2 years in a relationship that left me at the end very, very broken. Among other things I doubted everything about myself, every step I took, every dream I thought I had. But then I took it as an opportunity to rebuild myself into the mold that I wanted. I did some things well, and others were crude attempts, but I was living again. And I brought back that dream to have a big impact on the world.

After a few years of wandering, some college, some moving around, I decided to be the next big filmmaker, the next Spielberg. The reality? The University I was going to dismantled the film department, and I became a theater major. The dream was retooled into traveling Eastern Europe, creating a theater troupe that would work with local children to create a play in their native language, but the bones of the play would always be about world unity.

I also tried to incorporate my love of dance. I found out that I could do a double major, theater and dance, which would feed my desire to create a revolutionary new way to notate dance moves. The reality? I found out it would add another year onto my education, and I was concerned about being able to come up with the money (I was already maxing out on student loans).

So I graduated with a bachelors in theater, which was good, but the dreams got to be put aside by the reality of the fact that I no longer had to come up with food for one, but now also for a 4 month old baby. I no longer had the luxury of contemplating my existence and dreaming big - I fell down from the stars and infinite possibilities into the mundane details of daily living. The material side of life came into full view.

And then somewhere along the way, I fell deeper and deeper into this daily detail living. I've been places and done some interesting things, but nothing that's had a big impact on the world. It's disappointing. And I haven't been able to figure out how to live in the stars while keeping the mundane from falling apart. I'm a kite, but I'm grounded, which is probably good or I'd probably have flown away by now. But I really miss the seeming endless possibilities of the upper atmosphere.

So looking back, did I have unrealistic expectations? I don't think so. Part of me still thinks it'll happen. I'll write that great novel, sell that awesome screenplay, do something that makes a difference on a massive scale. The Grandma Moses syndrome. Blooming late in life. I keep thinking that maybe this all, everything so far, has been leading up to something. But what if it's not? How will I live with having been somebody who's not a Somebody?

Honestly I don't know, and I don't want to get to that day to find out.

A little Bob and Doug McKenzie reference for you all...

So it's been a while. Kind of forgot this place was here, and then some people on that crazy upstart Facebook started mentioning LJ and I thought, Hmm, wonder what's going on over there. Don't know the answer to that one, but I can tell you what's happening around here. Well, kind of. Too many words to fit in one processor. So first off, the brain is on high gear lately. So much I want to accomplish, and not getting it all done. Which is probably a good thing, because it would just be too much.

I am doing NaNoWriMo for the first time. Crazy to think of all the short stories I've had in my head over the years and this is the first time I've actually put anything down on paper that i plan to show anyone. There was that one other story, but don't know if that will see the light of day. Too much of a romantic/fantasy puff piece anyway. but the one I'm working on now, there's no drama, it's just following someone around really. We'll see where it goes. So far NaNo has been a good exercise, and that's good cuz I can use some exercise. :D

Been meaning to walk everyday since the temp job didn't work out, but somehow it doesn't happen. Want to get the garage cleaned out, go thru boxes, get 1600+ words down in the story each day, but not happening. Good thing is that I am getting some things done, so we're getting there.

On the home front...Jackie is now in high school, Cam's in his last year of elementary school. Graeme and I still have the 2 dogs, and we're still in the Denver area. Moved again recently, which was annoying, but I'm sure there's a good, cosmic reason for everything.

Had lunch with a friend of mine today that I don't see often enough (see, getting some things done that need done). He and his wife have a 5 month old, and her work was not cool with giving her time with the baby, so she ended up having to leave her job. She's been home a lot, so I'm giving myself the assignment to get off my butt and get over and see her more often, and by more often, well, I only just met the baby today, so it's been a needed thing for me to get over there.

Since the last entry a few keynote things have happened: discovered strategy boardgaming (drool), been to a bunch more Wizard Rock concerts, did a 2 week web development training program (recently, not sure the long term effects of it), volunteered at StarFest and NDK, been getting into some cool anime and manga, and made a host of new and interesting friends. I've also made some discoveries about myself, but this is a bit *too* public, so ask and I will share, just not here. :) Introspection is good and it's been too long since I spent time contemplating my navel, lol.

That is all for now. I'll leave you all in suspense. When will she write again? Will it be ever? :p

See you all in my dreams.

Hi all -

We're moving to Denver this week. I appologize if I was supposed to get pictures emailed over to you recently - I started working full time about 2 months ago, and just as things are starting to slow down, it's become attack of the boxes around here.

Our cell phone numbers will still be the same, and so will our email addresses, but our home phone and address will be different, so drop me an email or something and I'll get those over to you.

Have a happy holidays, everyone!

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

I got this from another friend's blog (the quiz, not the results). I would have put it in his comment section but he's forgotten to friend me (hint hint). :)

Anyway, in a major holding pattern here. We didn't move to England this summer. Our visas expired (the Americans among us), so we were going to have to get those renewed. Well, we also finally got the step-parent adoption going, so we thought, oh, this won't take long and then we'll get the visas taken care of and be gone by end of summer, Christmas at the latest. Well, we're still waiting on the bio-dad to submit his stuff to the lawyer about relinquishment, so we don't even have a court date. Holding Pattern.

So now we're looking at Denver (instead of England). More opportunities, bigger job market, I can get out there and stretch my wings. Except I still don't have a job there either. Can't move until I have a job. Holding Pattern.

Planning on selling the house, but it needs the standard home repairs done before we can put it on the market. Hubby wants to wait until the kids and I and all the stuff have moved before getting the house ready, plus it's a bad time to sell around here right now, so we're waiting to put it on the market until Spring. Holding Pattern.

Maybe I should learn to knit; got plenty of PATTERNS.

Back to job hunt.

an i still gots no jobs.

Verily, I have been applying for a number of jobs on Monster, but nothing so far. I also signed up and interviewed with an agency, and nothing there, although I haven't called them this week. Been kind of busy - went on Tuesday for a jury summons and I was picked for jury duty. I've never been on a jury before, so this has been an interesting experience. I can't tell you much more except to say that the building that we're in is really neat. It's in Cripple Creek, so I've been driving there everyday since Tuesday (we've got the weekend off). I don't know of there are any pictures of the inside of the building online, but it's the Teller County Courthouse. You can google that and get an idea of the outside of the building. It's an Historic building, and the wood and metal work on the inside is beautiful. The chairs aren't so comfortable tho, lol. It's ok, I've been taking a blanket and putting it on the back of my chair, so I'm ok. That's about all I can say, for now.

Anyway, this is cute:



I hope it comes thru. If there's something I need to do to the code, I give up. I feel like such a dummy sometimes, and then, I find that I'm the most technologically savvy person in a group, and I figure I must know more than I realize. Reminds me of something my brother said to me this summer - he recons that I'm stronger than I think I am. Food for thought.

And with that, last to be said - Go Rockies!

The subject makes sense later, trust me. But first...

I finally went to a doctor today about the back pain. It's gone from occasional sharp pain (that's really bad and was getting more and more difficult to mitigate) to more often dull pain that I can generally tell when it's coming on - my back starts to tighten up and my stomach and diaphram muscle get tight. It's triggered by eating foods with high fat content and slouching over.

So I went through all this with the doctor and she thinks it's the gall bladder. She wants me to get an ultrasound of it. So I will be calling for an appointment for that later on this week. I have also been putting off going to a local chiropractor who does a back adjustment that my regular chiro doesn't do, so I finally got that done today too. It really seemed to open things up my ribcage. I've been feeling like I can't fully get a breath lately, and today that adjustment really made a difference.

So anyway, it looks like I'm headed in the right direction in getting this sorted out. Kind of scary, the idea of surgery, but apparently it's pretty simple. Also found out today that the insurance we have - I thought it was 50/50, in that we pay 50% of whatever and they pay 50%. I know we signed up for something that's 50/50, but apparently we also have a $4000 deductible, and they don't pay ANYTHING until we meet that. Not what I thought we had, so I'm wondering how much the surgery is going to cost. I may have to take a new look at our insurance docs. Because I need more going on.

The move to England. How is that going? I told someone recently that I'm like a big ball of stress. I'm practically twitching all the time, lol. Ok, not really, but that's how it feels. I have very little sense of humor these days. I need to get things sorted out and I hate being in limbo. Besically, nothing has changed recently. We are still waiting on the paperwork that we need for Hubby to adopt Pookie, and we can't do anything until that's done. At this point, it could be tomorrow when we get it, or it could be another couple of months. Already, he's flying out to England, for a visit, at the end of this month into early next month, so we won't be doing any court stuff then, but it's doubtful we'll be all ready by then anyway.

So what does this all mean? Well, we still need to move, but we are looking at other options as well. We want the kids to be going to some of the best schools, and Cherry Creek School District in Denver (Aurora) is one of the best. I need to find a place with more job opportunities, and Denver has a much more diversified economy. Anyway, we're looking at Denver, for a bunch of reasons. I'm working on getting my resume in order. Well, technically, I forwarded it to my neighbor who is going to fix it for me. And it appears that she may have contacts in various places, so this could get interesting. Unless she's trying to sabotage the move, lol. Kind of a joke - we get along great and she doesn't want us to move. We went thru a period of time where I'd be talking about it with other folks and she and I didn't address it directly with each other. It's kind of funny.

So the plan, sort of, is for me to get a working resume and start applying for jobs. Then I'm sure there will be the interviewing phase. See, this is the part that might be hard for me. The last time I was working full time, the job market was a "workers market", lol. I pretty much picked the job I wanted, went in and told them why they wanted to hire me, and either got that job or one like it. Now, I'm one of hundreds or thousands of people applying for one job, and I've been out of the workforce for a while - just the one part time job, and I left that in July (in anticipation of the move to England). It's a bit scary, but I have faith that something will happen for us.

Anyway, if/when I get hired on in Denver, we're thinking that I might rent a small studio or some temporary accomodations, so I can work in Denver during the week and come back to Woodland Park on the weekends. Then when my income starts coming in, we can use that money to get a rental house in the CC School Dist. We'll probably move the kids up at the semester - over the Christmas break. Once we're all out of the house, me and the kids, then Hubby is going to work on getting the house ready for sale. The market is still in so much flux right now, it's not really a big deal that we're not getting it on the market yet. And contrary to some folk's advise, we would rather spend $10K to get it looking great and sell 4 months quicker than put it on the market now and let it sit for 8 months, just one of a dozen that need this, that and the other. I want buyers to walk in and say, "This is the nicest house we've looked at and I want this one". I saw a sales report for the area recently. Probably 50% sold for less than asking price, about a third for right around asking price, and there were a few that went for more than asking price. So things are selling, and for reasonable prices.

So get a job, move to Denver, sell the house. That's my to do list. Easy peasy. Lol.

Ok, onto other things.

I caught the first episode of the new Dr. Who, the 9th Doctor. Apparently it's being called the first series, although I would think the first series of the first Doctor would be the first series, but that's just me. ANYWAY, I'm enjoying it. I've missed a few episodes, and I saw the end of the 9th Doctor and the beginning of the 10th, played by Barty Crouch Jr, I mean, David Tennant. I mention all this because I just saw some news that said that David Tennant is set to play Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the summer/fall of 2008, and Picard, I mean Patrick Stewart is set to play Claudius. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to get my butt over there for that! I was reading the forum where this was announced (by a member/patron of the RSC, so they get advance notice and ability to purchase tix) and people were coming up with their dream cast lists for this. It was funny; one person mentioned that the audience is going to be all Who and Trek fans - ultimate geek audience, lol.

Ok, I've rambled on long enough. Time to take this tired body to bed. Oh, I watched the MTV awards online today. Check out the performance by Chris Brown, "Wall to Wall/Billie Jean/Unbrella/Kiss Kiss Medley". Fantastic stuff. His performance was definitely the best of the night. Way better than Brittney Spears, but hers was certainly the lowest point of the performances. It was almost sad, really. Anywho, ttfn.

With my Thither (or is she Diddy?) getting married next weekend, I've been on the hunt for affordable plane tickets. I finally snagged a pair last night, so my darling daughter and I are headed out next week. It's turning into a multi-angled-family event. I've got 4 (step) siblings around the country and I get to see almost all of them on this trip, lol.

So Pookie and I are going up to Denver to spend the night with my Sister and her son on Wednesday night, and she's going to drive us to the airport at 0'Early-hundred (flight is at 5:45 am, so we need to be there by around 4:30 - Oi!).

Then my Brother from Ohio, who is driving down with his lovely wife, is going to pick us up from the airport in Wilmington in the afternoon, and then we're all headed out to our Ohio-now-back-in-SC Sister's wedding.

Apparently there's a party Thursday night, so it's cool that we were able to get tickets that get us there in time for that. I wasn't sure if I should take Pookie out of school in her first week of school, but it all came together, so I guess she'll just have to catch up. Hopefully it won't be too bad!

Anyway, I should start getting ready for bed. I'm planning on going to do Tai Chi in the morning - they have it on Fridays at the library. I went today - it was at the local Senior Center, and it was Tai Chi for arthritis, so it was low impact. A really good place for me to start up again. It's a different style from what I did in college at OSU, but I'll get used to it. Funny enough, it's the starting move that keeps catching me up. But I'll get it. Hopefully I can go twice a week for a while, and that should help with strengthening my core, and help with my back in the long run. That and keeping the junk food at bay. I am running in the low to mid 140 pound range (wonder what that is in stones?) - higher end when I do things like tonight, eating and eating and now I feel uncomfortable. Duh. It's a learning process. :)

I found out about this song on you tube thru an article online. It's called Chocolate Rain. It's pretty heavy, if you really listen to it. This guy is pretty amazing.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA&mode=related&search=

Racism is an acid, eating through intelligence and sensibility. Every moment, every day, one person - let's end it.

"Angels cry and shake their heads in shame"
- Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday

If anyone is looking for a birthday gift for me (a few months late or many months early, lol), the Sylvan Lane Shoppe has a Goblet of Fire candle votive holder. Only $19.99, which really isn't that bad. It's currently at http://www.sylvanlaneshoppe.com/harrypotter_collectibles.htm, but don't know how long that link will work for finding the Goblet. Still cool.

Actually, I've been sleeping better. I went thru a period of time where I couldn't get to sleep for hours. It would be 3 am easily before I was out, which then left me sleeping late into the morning, and it became a vicious cycle my body had started to enjoy. Thankfully, I am sleeping better now, so less snooze to print. :)

I got a starter of the Amish Friendship Bread recipe. I've been searching online for someone to mention if Day 10, the day you bake, is the same as Day 1 for the remaining starters. It's going to be either Day 1 or Day 0, but I haven't found anyone who says specifically which way it goes. I did find this, however, http://psyopper.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/open-source-bread-from-the-amish-no-less/ which I found amusing. Still didn't answer my question, but I'm thinking that Day 10 is Day 1, and I'll go with that if I don't get an answer.

Big news, of sorts. I've been trying to really pay attention to the fat content of foods and do better about not eating junky foods. A nice side effect is that I recently weighed myself and I had dropped 5 pounds, getting back to my old top weight of 145. I just checked and I'm below that, by 1 or 2 lbs, so it's definitely good progress. Hurray!

It must be said: http://icanhascheezburger.com/ OMG, this site is so funny. I like the invisible ones quite a lot (there's an invisible bench press today), and there is an occasional Harry Potter one to delight me as well. It's in webspeak/lolspeak, so turn off your desire to correct english. kthx

But what about the move, you're asking? We're in what I'm calling paperwork limbo. It's way more tedious and boring than it sounds, so I'll let you let your imaginations take it and run. If you want details, drop me a note. Bottom line, we're hoping to have things sorted out and be on our way by the end of the year.

August isn't a great month for us, financially, so I'm waiting until the last minute to see if I can get a ticket to my sister's wedding. I don't know if I'll be able to take the kids with me or what will happen there. Just have to play it by ear I guess, and see what we can come up with. No word on a job, so nothing holding me back there. We've getting a Wal-Mart here in town and I applied for a manager job there. I haven't heard from them so I don't know if they're even interested, and there's no number to call. There was a job fair for the hospital that's coming (actually they only took applications, but anyway), they had about 300 jobs open and had something like 3000 people show up. I'm afraid that the Wal-Mart is getting bombarded too, so I'm not as likely to get a call as someone who has actually held a full time job recently.

Guess that's about all for now. Strangely, I haven't touched the Harry Potter book in a number of days now. I'll get back to it soon tho - we've got a meetup this Sunday, and we'll be discussing the book again then. :)

Oh, forgot to mention. The back is still hurting and I'm certain it's related to some organ that is none to happy about something that I eat. It seems to be related to eating junky foods, so in a multi-headed effort, I'm trying to cut back on the foods that have oodles of grams of fat in them. I'm also trying to cut back on cholesterol, but I forget about that one. You know, if you google looking for low fat foods or no fat foods, you get a whole lot of diet stuff, but all I want is a list of things, like "carrots, lettuce, tomatoes".

Anyway, my back is hurting less, and when it does, it's more of an gentle ache, not so much of the "ow, I must lie down now" ache. The biggest side effect is that I seem to have taken a few pounds off, which is great, as I've been slowly climbing upwards since having the youngest child, 8 YEARS AGO.

So some progress there, which is good. At some point I'll go get my cholesterol level checked. I don't know if it's covered under the health insurance so either I'll look into how much that's gonna cost me, or just wait and get it checked in England in a year or so. In the meantime, I'll keep trying to gently detox myself. :)

Ok, so the book is here. I've been in kind of a daze since I finished it. It's weird to think it's all over - Or Is It? Apparently, JKR told someone in an interview that's on tv tomorrow am (the Today show?) that she's going to do a HP encyclopedia that should let us know some of those unanswered questions. Hurray! Now I can sleep easier. Well, I could if it wasn't so hot.

And by hot, I mean upper 70's during the day, so it's still in the 70's at night in the house. Not getting much cross breeze, although opening the front door and door to the backyard would help, but I really don't care for chasing the husky down the road, so they stay closed. Feels a bit cooler tonight, so that's good. Yes, I'm sure those of you in Ohio or wherever are playing your violins for me. I understand that the weather here is much more preferable to what you've got there. :)

Speaking of other places, have you heard about the flooding in England? So much rain, and the rivers are flooding and things are going crazy. The water plant that services my brother-in-law and his wife is out of order for 2 weeks, so they've moved in with the folks about an hour away (maybe 2 hours). All this while they were supposed to be selling their house. Crazy.

Well, it'll probably be all dried out by the time we get there. Our paperwork is taking longer than we hoped, so it looks like September or October by the time we get there. I'm trying to decide what to do with the kids regarding schooling. I had been considering home schooling, using a British curriculum, but the more I look into it, the more it looks like a lot more trouble that it would be worth. So we're thinking of putting the kids back into school here, and I'll have to suppliment in the evenings with the missing British coursework.

Anyway, I guess the delay in moving gives me more time to work on going through the accumulation of stuff that I have here. I'm trying not to ship hundreds of pounds of papers, lol. I have to learn to let go of things. I'm doing ok right now. Going thru boxes I haven't really touched in years and getting rid of about half, so that's a good start. I'm hoping to go back through what I'm keeping and try to pare it down even more. It's a process, really. Letting go of items attached to memories.

That's all for now. :)

In less than a month we will have the final Harry Potter book in our hands. It's both exciting and sad. Ok, it's really late and I need to get to bed, but I felt the need to mark that we're less than a month away.

It's summertime, and I'm looking at my old high school and wondering who will be at the reunion. Not my reunion, mind you, but the one for the folks who graduated 2 years ahead of me. I had friends in that group and it would be a hoot to see some of them again, but since I'm not in that class, it could involve party crashing, lol. Nothing on my class's reunion yet, which is a bummer. I'll have to look again in a few years and see if there's anything out there.

Quick note: it's the summer of Harry Potter, in case you've been living under a rock. I'm getting rather excited. I'll be working at a Girl Scout day camp for the week that the movie comes out and as part of the camp we get to go see the movie as a group. It's going to be way fun. Sorry, I have a 12 year old in the house. Things like that come out of my mouth. Deal. What-ever.

I'll be at a Borders store for the book release. Helped out there last time and it was way fun too. :) Then I'll pack my darling daughter off to camp while we pack up at the house, and then we're off to England soon after, if things go well. We don't have the tickets yet, so it's going to be a bit of a last minute thing. Might have some other important stuff to do before we go and so that will require is being here until we get that done. 'Nuff said. Tired and must go to bed. Really need to keep on getting things in order before we move and getting rid of things that aren't worth keeping. But I'm not stressing about it at all, no no, not me.

You can post to your blog from your computer and your phone - I want to blog directly from my brain. I always think of things to blog when I'm not around the computer, like cooking dinner or driving, so I need a simpler way to do this. Come on, technology is all about convenience!

Small rant - I live in the mountains. Technology isn't the main attraction up here - it's living a bit away from the Big City, where there's trees, fewer people, things like that. We have been getting a herd of about 12 deer coming thru our neighborhood and yard in the last few weeks. We're out there a little bit. So I get annoyed when people complain about not being able to get cell phone coverage or super-fast internet speeds for dirt cheap. You want modern conveniences? Go to the city and leave the mountain folks alone.

Rant done.

So my HP obsession is still in full force. I've started looking at HP trading cards again - the TCG cards. They're not in print anymore, but they are still out there. I want to find the warehouse where these keep popping up, but for now I'll content myself with finding them on ebay.

Speaking of, I was wandering around ebay and found these: http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-4-Harry-Potter-Plush-Messaging-Owls_W0QQitemZ180105901978QQihZ008QQcategoryZ22726QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Yes, they are plush HP "messaging owls". I've never seen these before but I've decided they are some of the cutest things I've seen (not ever seen, maybe seen in the last week, lol). Too cute. I'm starting to expand my HP stuff interests. I've noticed that there are a lot of cool HP things in Japan, so when I run across something from there, I take a bit more notice. So I gave in and bought this pair of bags from Japan. Both very cute. One's actually Hedwig, as a bag, and the other is small, but a great size to hold about 5 decks for the HP TCG, which is what I had in mind when I got the bags. Drives the hubby nuts sometimes. Moans about living with 3 children. :)

Moving - current plan: Kids and I get settled in the UK in the fall (with Graeme's help!) then he comes back to our house here in the mountains to get it sorted and ready for sale. Plus he's got work until the end of the year, so there's no issues on leaving early there. I was kind of thinking we'd head over around the middle of the month as the Girl Scout daughter will be at camp into the first week of August. Well I just found out that my sister (currently back in Columbus) is getting married at the end of August, not October. It complicates things in that we won't be in the UK as early as I had hoped, but hubby and I are formulating a plan. It may even be a cunning plan (but no turnips are involved at this point, sorry, Baldrick). :)

Well, the final title has been announced. It's an interesting title and I'm sure there will be a lot of discussion that will keep us Potterheads going for a good few months (and beyond). Already I'm finding things that I want to print out and will perhaps put together a folder for this book to keep it all together. There's an interesting essay at the HP Lexicon (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-grail.html) - I've only scanned over it so far, but I've heard about it a few times already.

There appears to be some ancient ideas in the words in the title, and they also seem to be pointing one way at first glance, but upon further reflection, they're more likely to go another way. In that respect, the title doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure about the title itself. As titles go, I like the names of SS, COS, and OOP, and GOF is kind of a cool name too. As for the books themselves, I love them all, although I find some books and some parts much smoother to read than others.

At any rate, the book has a title and much debate will ensue.

Also this week, we got snow. Just a little bit. 2 feet or so, closed down a couple of small airports around the area - Colorado Springs and DIA (Denver). Kids got Wednesday and Thursday off school, then went in 2 hours late on Friday to have their holiday parties and get the next 2 weeks off. Now they're off school, but I'm back to work tomorrow. We're supposed to get another teeny bit of snow this week - the word blizzard has been brought up again - so it's another hit and miss week for work, I'm guessing. Given that we do a lot of satellite dish installs (we being the installers - I just schedule them to go out), well, let's just say that snow on the rooftops isn't very condusive to getting the job done. Should be another interesting week. Wouldn't mind a job that involved indoor work. :) Actually, I'm hoping to get on with HP. I've applied for a few jobs, and I will have another look and apply for more this week I hope. I really like where I work and the people and a lot of the perks (close to home, part time hours) but I am feeling the need to work full time and to put myself in a better position for the future. Plus, it's hard to fund the projects we want to do around here with part time income! I have some hesitation about working for someone else - I get along with my boss and the people I work with, which is a great thing and cannot be underestimated in importance - but I have to believe that there are other companies out there with good bosses too.

Enough about that. Need to get onto bed soon. Had a Boxing Day Potluck today. Very fun. It was nice and casual, people dropping in with food, socializing. Everyone came in small groups, so we all fit around the dining table at any time. Really enjoyed the company of all the people who came, and who can ask for anything better than that. I can only hope that all future social gatherings include people as important to my life as those from today.

OH, back pain is getting better. Perhaps the detox tea is really helping. After about 2 weeks of non-stop mild pain (going to bed and waking up in the morning, etc), it seems to be back to managable. Good stuff.

Last note - RIP President Ford. 1913 - 2006.

It's that time of year - the baking supplies come out. I currently have 4 different types of cookies boxed up and ready for individual packaging, lol. In case you wanted to know, I did lemon, chocolate mint, chocolate chip, and white chocolate macadamia nut. Makes it look impressive, seeing it typed out there, but I've got a secret...cake mixes.

Take, say, chocolate cake mix, add 1/2 c veg oil, 2 T water and 2 eggs and you've got chocolate cookies. Roll into balls and cook at 350 for around 10 minutes. I added the mint chips - people seem to like them that way, but I have to package them separately, they're so strong. Take lemon cake mix instead, roll the balls in powdered sugar, yum. Plain yellow cake with chocolate chips = chocolate chip cookies. Way too easy, lol.

I've got more to do tho, so don't you think I'm getting off easy. One year, I got a wild hair and took pretzles and dipped them in melted chocolate, & gave them to our chiropractor. Those plus some wreaths I had done in rice crispy treats (dyed green of course) with little red icing bows. Well, I can't go by Christmas wihout doing those for him now. They are good, tho, so it's ok.

Also planning on using a cookie press I have and letting the kids decorate sugar cookies with these cool decorator bottles I got from Pampered Chef. Then the cookie press is going to charity. I keep finding myself wondering what I'll be doing a year from now. We're still planning on moving to England int the summer of '07. Will I be making cookies for my kids' teachers a year from now too? I'm trying to use up all the spare ingredients I have laying around here; next year I'll need to stock up all over again. Stuff like that going thru my head.

Before I forget -


How White and Nerdy Are You?


Seriously, are you surprised? But I'm hip and trendy too, lol. I try my best to embarass that almost-12 year old in the house. :) Actually, we're pretty nice. We razz her a bit sometimes, but it helps her not take things as seriously. Man does she take things seriously sometimes. Poor baby has a nasty cold right now tho. Stayed home from school today. She should be back tomorrow. I'll be working, so hopefully she'll have a good day.

Ah, yes, I'm now one of those unfortunate souls known as the working class. It's an ok job - part time, so I was working 3-4 days a week, but they decided to drop back to 2-3 days a week. By 'they' I mean the owner and the other person in the office. Small office. It's a satellite tv and internet retailer, mainly. There's a lot of other projects that come thru the office - the other person and I sat and figured out that there's 11 things we do out of the office, from the sat stuff to home prewires. Anyway, it doesn't make financial sense to have all 3 of us in the office, so now I'm only called in on busy days. Puts a bit of a cramp in things we were trying to get done around the house, but we'll come up with something. Anyway, if anyone needs to know anything about satellite tv or satellite internet, let me know. I know more than you will ever want to. :)

Still having the back pain. Can't remember if I mentioned that before. After months of adjustments and acupuncture and adjustments again, I've come to the conclusion that it's organ based. I think something is getting agrivated (gall bladder maybe) and it's coming out in back pain. Not debilitating usually, but highly uncomfortable. One of the things I look forward to after we move - National Health Care. Bloody health care system in this country is such a mess. Nobody wins. Anyway, I've been drinking this detox tea recently and it's helping. I was going to do a full cleansing diet for 2 weeks but I didn't get the stuff from my chiropractor, so I'd rather wait until after the holidays anyway.

Guess that's about all. Let me know if any of you are coming thru Colorado, up through next summer. I'll have tons of stuff to give away. Dang, that reminds me that I need to email Casey, and that reminds me that I *Still* haven't called Jim and Bernita. Back onto the to-do list.

But, hey, got the tree and the lights up. :)