Foxy

On the way home from work today, a gray fox was on the road in front of me. What a great siting that was! I knew we had red fox in the area, but this is the first time I've seen a gray one. He didn't seem to know which way to go - I think my headlights stunned him a bit. I was really happy when the car coming from the opposite direction stopped too, so the little guy was able to get out of harm's way.

Sci Fi's Ghosthunters is at Waverly Hills Sanitorium again this year for Halloween. I like it when they go there - they always catch something good there. The Ghosthunters' International show they mentioned sounds like it's going to be pretty good.

I was reminded today that tomorrow will be the beginning of my second month at my new job. I absolutely cannot believe that it's been a month since I've changed employers. And it's funny - in some respects it feels like I've been there a lot longer than a month and in others I think, "Only a month???". What I can say for certain, is that the change was definitely good for me. Health-wise, I haven't felt this good in a long, long time. I've also made new friends. I have more time for myself... All I need now is for better working hours that don't cut into my Geocaching time when Dave is in town :) I really think that my life is heading in a new direction. It looks like things might finally start going my way. I hope.

Ugh. Ewww. Meh.

A bit of a nerve-wracking day at work today. We kind of moved up a little in our training. Having to do something new that I'm not really sure about always makes me anxious. I'm sure I'll settle down as the week goes on, but I'm still feeling a bit uptight. Ugh.

I'm really enjoying this season of Heroes, but I really wish that Nikki would just die or go away or something. Whenever she is on, she is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Ewww.

You can tell Election Day isn't too far away. Everyday I have more and more political postcards in my mailbox. I've lost count of how many I've gotten in the last week. And they don't even have any impact on who I'm going to vote for. What a waste of paper and postage. If the guys (and ladies) in office actually did something during their term that would benefit the taxpayer, they wouldn't have anything to worry about when it comes to re-election. Meh.

11

On a scale of one to ten, today was an eleven.
Yep. It was a really good day.

Rocky

...Rocky Horror Picture Show that is. I haven't seen that movie at the theater in a million years. It was a lot of fun to see it again. The only bit of advice I have for anyone going to see it at the theater and you don't have the Audience Participation Script with you: Make sure you sit close enough to someone who has one so you can understand everything that is being shouted out :)

I don't know what it is with fireworks on my street this year. Tonight another neighbor had a short but nice show. Was there a sale somewhere that I missed?

Every year, I get bunches of calendars in the mail from organizations that I donate to. For some reason, only one of the places sent out calendars this year. Today I was ready to start filling in appointments for next year, and now I can't find where I put the darn thing. Of course, if they hadn't sent it out back in July, I might remember. Meh.

Frustrated

Today was a pretty stressful day at work for me. My brain just stopped absorbing anything. It's a scary feeling not being able to keep up. Especially when you compound that with the fact that we were being prepared for another stage of our training on Monday... Frustrated is an understatement. I hate feeling that way. I know everything will be OK in the long run, but the bumps along the way just aren't fun. Not fun at all.

On a less stressful note... This morning I was working a bit on cleaning up my garden for the winter. Between my back being hurt and the whole job change, I haven't been giving it all the attention that I would have liked to. I didn't even get any broccoli or cauliflower this year because I didn't have the chance tie them up - they both ended up going to seed :(

I am already excited about my garden for next year. I've started to plan what I'm going to plant and where it's all going to go. Chances are I'll change my mind at least a hundred times before next spring, but that's OK. I'm excited about the fact that I should have the time and energy to have the best garden I've had yet.

Why?

Could someone please explain to me why the telephone book people bother to go through all the trouble of putting the phone books - and I imagine that there are millions of them - into plastic bags?

I mean why bother, when it looks like when they are delivered, they are thrown from someone's car onto the wet ground in such a way that when the phone books land, they slide right out of the bag?

Why not save the lives of the bazillion plastic plants that were killed to make all the plastic bags? Not to mention all the man-hours that were probably wasted bagging the books up. Don't bother with the bags. Just throw the telephone books onto the wet ground. Either way, the books are useless. Meh.

On a happier note - I saw my first commercial for The Amazing Race! Finally. Only nine more days to go... Wahoo!!!

Horrors

I have a lot of things going on in my head right now that I can't post about here. But at least they are good things :)

Today I went to one of the local house of horrors. Not counting the Fun House at Crystal Beach, which really isn't a haunted house, I can't remember if I've ever gone to one before. Then again, there was always the Laff-in-the-Dark that was a Crystal Beach too, but I don't think that counts either. I have a lot of fond memories of days spent there - it's a shame that it isn't around anymore, but I digress...

Anyway, I was in good company today and I had a fun time. It was amazing how large and elaborate the whole setup was. Next year I am going to have to pay attention and see how far ahead of time they start setting these things up. It must take forever. And I wonder how many of the people who dress up as the scary monsters lose their voices from all the yelling and screaming they do. And I wonder how long it's going to take to break down everything when Halloween is over... Yikes.

There were a lot of different 'houses' for you to go in, but I think my favorite was the house that you were supposed to wear 3-D glasses while walking through - that was very cool. It was kind of like walking throughout a hologram. How do people come up with that kind of stuff?

Next year I want to try one of those corn mazes :)

Favorite Week

The week before Halloween is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, weeks for TV. I can turn to just about any channel at just about any time and find a great movie playing. The Exorcist, The Omen, Poltergeist, Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street... the list just goes on and on - All the movies that are so much fun to watch in a darkened room with a big bowl of popcorn on your lap :) What other time of year are we served up with so much goosebumpy goodness on TV every night for a week or more straight? I think we should have Halloween more times a year.

Obviously I love a good scare, and I was looking forward to going to the Haunted Caves tour at the Lockport Caves this week. I called to try and get more information from them as to the particular times the tours ran and a couple of other questions I had, but was very disappointed to find that after making three phone calls at different times of the day, I could not reach a live person. All I was able to get was a recorded message. And from what I could tell, they wanted you to leave your credit card number on their answering machine to secure a reservation. There is no way I would do that, no matter how much I was looking forward to going. I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks that their public relations department needs a little work?

Good Day

Did you ever want something to happen, but figure that it never would, so you really tried hard not to think about it? And then it does happen? And it's a really good thing, but you don't want to believe that it really happened because it might un-happen? And that would be really sucky after it really did happen. I'm going to enjoy this as long as I can before the I'm-Going-To-Stick-It-To-You gods find me. But for now, today was a good day. Yeah. It was a really good day.

Busting a Gut

If you happen to be looking for something to do on a Sunday night, I would like to heartily recommend going to the ComedySportz improv show. I went to see the show tonight and it was a totally fun evening... I can't remember laughing so much in a really long time. If you like 'Whose Line is it Anyway?', you will definitely like this. The show is almost every Sunday night at the Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda, but it is all improvisation, so you would never see the same show twice. And it's not about sports, like the name implies. Think of 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' with a referee instead of Drew Carey, and the points do matter :) It's free to get into and you can make a donation after the show if you want. And one of the things I really liked was that it was all clean humor, so anyone can go. If you want to bring your grandparents or your kids, they will all enjoy it. We have some really good comedy talent in Western New York - I definitely plan on going again!

This morning, I took a quick walk along the canal. I have a soft spot for autumn leaves reflecting in water. I wish it wasn't so windy today tho'... leaves reflecting in really still water is even better :)

Birthday Pie

Today we celebrated my Dad's birthday. I was in charge of making the cake this year. I decided to break tradition, and instead of a birthday cake, I made a birthday pie. A friend of mine had given me a recipe for a chocolate pie that she swore was the best thing on the face of the earth. Contrary to the rest of the world, I am not a huge chocolate lover... However, being the nice person that I am, I thought I would make the pie and give everyone else a chocolate rush. It didn't turn out too bad - everyone seemed to like it. It was way too rich for me, tho'. And I found out that my brother-in-law doesn't like nuts in his food. He likes nuts by themselves, just not mixed into any food (but he still ate the pie!). I guess you learn something new every day...

Today was the first day the whole family has been together since my sister's baby was born. It was fun to see my Mom and Dad with their new grandson. Especially my Dad. All us kids are all grown up, so it was kind of funny seeing him hold a little baby. My sister wanted to find pictures of herself when she was a baby so she could compare what she looked like to her baby. My Mom dragged out all the old pictures. And when I say "all", we are talking about a literal mountain of photographs. We all had a lot of fun looking at them all... It's a shame that a lot of them weren't labeled. We never did find my sister's baby-hospital picture. My Mom's mission this week is to find it or else my sister will be scarred for the rest of her life :)

I finally got around to watching Thursday's episode of Survivor. This season has been really disappointing so far. With all the hype they were giving the show pre-season about it taking place in China, I really thought the we would have seen a lot more of stuff about China. From my point-of-view, this season wouldn't be any different than if it was filmed in Borneo or Panama. I've watched Survivor from the very beginning and I think that they really need to come up with something to freshen up the show. It's been getting stale for a while now. I thought this season would have been different, but it's not. I can't wait until the new season of The Amazing Race.

Ladybugs

Today my ego took a bit of a bruising. Think gym class in elementary school. 'Nuf said. I'll get over it :)

Today is the third day in a row I am kicking myself for not carrying my camera around with me. This fall has been really wonderful so far. Every morning on my way to work this week, I have driven by some absolutely fantastic photo ops. I found myself slowing down to find a place to pull over before I had to remind myself not to bother because I didn't have my camera with me. Stupid me. And you know that I'll never be able to get those shots again :(

I'm thinking that the permanent onset of cold weather can't be too far off. The ladybugs are making their move and are infiltrating everyone's house for their winter hibernation. They don't bother me too much, but they are driving my sister nuts. I've tried telling her that they don't bite or hurt anything. They are just looking for a protected place for the winter. She doesn't care - she just wants to get rid of them. I tell her that she'll be sorry when her garden is attacked by aphids and the like next year because there won't be any ladybugs around to eat them.

I have a lot of things I need to get done around the house before winter really gets here. I hope the ladybugs take a long time getting ready for their winter's nap...

Change

Training classes at work today and yesterday were sooooo painfully boring. I am really glad that I have a bunch of fun people in my class. If I didn't, I would be very tempted to gouge out my eyeballs with my pen. I hope that things will start to get interesting again. Soon. Pleeeeeeeeze!

Tomorrow will finish up my third week away from my old job. Thinking about it, it already seems like a lifetime ago. Isn't it funny how easy it is to let something that has been such a big chunk of your life slip away? To me, wherever I work kind of becomes a part of who I am - and how can it not? I mean, you really do spend most of your time there - it's like breathing: you don't think about it, you just do it. So when something that big in my life changes, it's weird when it doesn't seem to be a huge impact when it's gone. It really boggles my mind to think about it. It also kind of makes me wonder what would have happened if I had changed jobs sooner.

I also want to say that whenever I see someone doing something stupid while driving, I can almost guarantee that they are talking on a cell phone. I don't care who you are or how coordinated you think you are - people just cannot talk on a cell phone and drive at the same time. I really wish that either everyone would realize this and stop doing it or that the police could be more stricter about enforcing that law. Argh.

Lines

Today at work, one of the guys came in dressed up all dapper-like and was wearing suspenders. I love it when guys wear suspenders - I think they are very hot looking :)

On a more serious note, how does one define the fine line of prying into someone's personal life and that of being truly concerned? If you're worried about someone or want to learn more about a person, how do you know where to to draw that line? That was the dilemma I had tonight. I really hope that I didn't cross that line. I don't think I did, but when it comes to personal things, one can never be really sure. I guess I'll find out as time goes on...

Argh!

Did you ever have a really great idea to do something nice for someone and you are so excited that you can't wait to surprise that someone because you know that they would really love the idea and then it doesn't work out?

And then you have another opportunity weeks later, to do the same nice thing for the same someone and it doesn't work out again for the same reason?

Welcome to my world.

Damn rain.

Local Stuff

Today I just wanted to comment on some local stuff that either I just caught in the news or can't get away from hearing on the news...

The biggest thing everyone is talking about is the issuing of New York State driver's licenses to illegal aliens. All I can say about this is: WTF?! I cannot imagine how anyone can think that this is in any way remotely a good idea. Maybe it's because I live so close to the Canadian border... But then again, from what I've been hearing, I guess almost 75% of the people in New York think this is a bad idea. Who wants to bet that this is going to become a reality? So much for our licenses remaining a valid form of ID anymore...


I read that Tops Markets was finally sold. I was really glad to hear that. I felt really bad for everyone that I know who works there, because no one was really sure what was going to happen. The supermarket chain has been up for sale for quite a while, so it's good that it's finally done. I don't know much about the new owners, but I am pretty sure that they will do a better job with the stores than Giant did. Tops is a good supermarket chain, and in my opinion, Giant did a lot to mess things up. Although Ahold didn't do such a great job either. Tops was at it's best when it was locally owned. Ahhh... those were the days!


I saw the list of all the churches that will be merging and closing in the Western New York area. It is really a sad thing to see, but I really understand why this has to happen. The population here dropped a lot over the years and is continuing to drop. Unless each parish has at least one really a really rich person to donate a lot of money every year, I don't see how all the churches can afford to stay open. Not to mention finding enough priests for them all. Of course the biggest problem is, everyone doesn't want to see their church closed. It's not a happy situation, but I can understand it. I haven't heard anything as to what is going to happen to the empty buildings - I am really curious to see what will be done with them...


And then there is the latest talks going around about Bass Pro and the Peace Bridge. I would love to see Bass Pro come to Buffalo. I'm not crazy about using tax dollars to do it, but the deal they have now sounds a lot better than the one they had. Not to mention the fact the Bass Pro seems to get a lot of money from any city they've put a store in - so it's not like Buffalo is being singled out by any means. Bass Pro is a fun store. I don't think it will bring tourists from across the country, but I do believe that it will help whatever area they would build in. But along with the Peace Bridge and all other things in Western New York: I'll believe it when I see it.


Next week the Lockport Caves will be starting their Haunted Caves tours. I've done the regular Lockport Caves tour, but never the Halloween version. I love scary stuff, and this sounds like a lot of scary fun. Yeah, I think I'm going to go this year - especially seeing as my new job will let me :)

Patterns

Someday I want to get myself some llamas. I bought my house with that goal in mind. Not having money by any stretch of the imagination, I always have to do things in what seems to be the longest, most difficult way available. The property I have needs a lot of work before I'll be able to get my llamas, and with the way my luck goes, I have a hard road to travel before I realize my dream.

Case-in-point: I figured out that it would be cheaper in the long run to have my own tractor than to keep renting one. However, there was no way I could afford to get all the attachments I needed right away - I would have to do it in pieces. So last year I bought myself a used tractor (well, I'm still paying for it, but it's still mine :P ). There wasn't much I could do with it, as it didn't have any attachments, so I would just start it up and ride it around the property every few days to keep anything from happening to it from just sitting there doing nothing. This year I picked up a brush hog for myself. "Wahoo! I can finally put my tractor to use!" I foolishly thought. The day the brush hog was delivered, the tractor decided to stop working.

To make a long story short(er), I've been working on it off and on all summer long on trying to get darn thing going again. The big excitement today was that I finally got it running again! Everything seemed good as I was riding it around today, so hopefully I fixed the problem. The real test will be tomorrow. I figure that if it starts up again after sitting overnight, it should be OK. I'm crossing my fingers. If everything is OK, then the big project next weekend will be hooking up the brush hog and getting at least some part of the yard cleared. I hope.

The other big piece of news today is that the odometer on Jillmobile hit 123456 miles. I love looking for patterns on my odometer. I've had a lot of good ones lately: 121212, 122222, 123123... but it looks like it's going to be a while before I will get anything really good again. That's assuming the Jillmobile keeps running :) (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that too!)

Families

I spent part of my day today at a friend's house. I've known Cindy since high school, and I met her husband when they were dating. It seems like eons ago. Anyway, today we were celebrating their son's seventh birthday. I always feel warm and fuzzy inside when I get invited to their family events. Cindy and Jeff have a pretty big family. When they have events, there are always a ton of people there. The whole family is really nice and I always have fun visiting with them. Over the years, they have kind of become a second family to me.

My own family is small, so our events were never big affairs. We always (well, usually :P ) have fun, but there just isn't a lot of us. There is something different about attending a birthday party or a family reunion or any other gathering when there are a ton of bodies around. There is always someone different to talk to. You can choose any of a million different subjects to discuss - with all those people around there is bound to be someone who saw the same thing you did on TV or read the same article. Catching up on things since the last time you saw each other is a little more complicated, but still fun and entertaining.

On the other hand, there is a lot to be said for the intimate get-togethers of a small family. There are a lot more inside jokes and the relaxation that goes along with familiarity. And a lot less dishes to wash.

I wonder sometimes how I ever got to be so lucky to have two families.

Explosion

I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon with what everyone in this area has been talking about all day: The first anniversary of the October Surprise. It was definitely an event to remember. Even tho' I was in an area that affected, I didn't have it as hard as a lot of other people did. I was only without power for five days and it really didn't bother me too much. It was kind of like camping. I like to camp. And it's not like it was sub-zero temperatures outside or anything. I don't have many big trees near my house, so I didn't have to worry about my house being crushed like what had happened to so many other people.

The rest of my family in the area was coping pretty well, so my only stress was my basement flooding. I have a very wet basement normally... I have two active sump pumps down there. As the snow started to melt, my basement started to fill up as the pumps weren't working without any electricity. And even then, I was only really worried about my furnace. I was lucky in the timing of when I got my power back - the water had reached about a half-inch from the motor of my furnace right before I started to pump the water out. When I got home from work that day and saw the power was on, I started up my submersible pump right away - I couldn't use the regular sump pumps as they were both under water :) The furnace was fine, and I don't really keep anything in the basement of value, so no damage or losses for me. I wish everyone else in the area had been so lucky. I pulled out my old high school math skills after-the-fact, and figured out that I had enough water in my basement to fill a swimming pool seven feet wide by twelve feet long seven-and-a-half feet deep. Yikes - That's a lot of water!

I had a lot of trees on my property damaged, and I still haven't finished cleaning it all up yet. Once my back is better, it will get done. But until then, it can wait... I do have my own generator now, so next time - if there is a next time - I shouldn't have any stress at all.


Back to the present, I've experienced a mini disaster today. Well, maybe not a disaster, but I did have an explosion today. Well - maybe not an explosion, but a can of pineapples I had in my cupboard broke open by itself. I've never seen anything like that ever happen before. The seal on the can actually broke open and the juice inside leaked out. It made a bit of a mess, but it could have been worse.

Relief

Today I was given a script to read! How cool is that? Evidently one of the guys at work is working on writing a pilot for a sitcom. I guess he's got a ton of episodes all sketched out - I just have the first one. I've only read the first couple of pages, but so far it's pretty funny. Wouldn't it be so neat if this actually became a TV show? I could say that I read an actual script of a real TV show before it was made :) I've always heard that the chances of anyone getting an idea for a show accepted anywhere are slim, but I guess he's got some connections. Hey - you never know!

I got the news today that my good friend Dave should still have a job. Not necessarily the same job he had, but he will still be working at his company, and that is the most important thing. The icing on the cake is that he should still be coming to WNY for work on some kind of regular basis. I am so happy that we will still be able to have our Geocaching outings up here (well, at least once I get done with my training at work), but to me it is such a relief that he won't be out of work. I'm still going to keep my offerings to the Job Gods going tho', just to make sure that nothing changes for the worse :)

Packages

When I was a kid, I loved getting mail. Mail was always fun - something delivered especially to me. Usually it was just junk mail, and who knows how my name ever got on the mailing lists, but who cared back then? It was fun to open. It made me feel all grown up. Then I did grow up. And took on responsibilities. Which naturally led to bills. Mail wasn't so fun anymore :)

But packages... those are different. Packages always were and still are fun and exciting to receive in the mail (or by UPS or FedEx). You always know what is going to be in the box before you open it, because it's something that you ordered. But that doesn't matter. It's still fun bringing that box into the house and tearing into it. It always makes me feel like it's a holiday even tho' it's not.

What's even better is when I ordered something, and for whatever reason, it doesn't arrive right away. If it wasn't something really important, I totally forget about it. And when it does arrive, my heart just leaps. Who doesn't smile when they find an unexpected package on their doorstep?

Today it was almost like Christmas for me. I had one package that arrived waaay earlier than I had expected it and a second package that I had totally forgot I had coming. Two packages in one day! If I had it in me, I would have gone out and bought a lottery ticket :)

Smooth

What a relatively good day I had today. Rarely do I ever have a day that is without at least one major pothole to get through. This morning was a little rough, and I got some bad news at the end of the day, but everything in the middle was actually pretty pleasant. I was even treated to lunch! I can't remember having such a stress free day in a really long time. Barring the beginning and end of the day, I really hope this is a sign of things to come.

Magic

It seems like my first long weekend in what seems like forever, went by soooo fast. I didn't really accomplish any of the projects I need to do around the house, but I did do a lot of extracurricular activities that I never would have had the time or energy to do in such a short time before I changed jobs. I'm beginning to think that I am going to have to figure out a balance now between stuff I need to do and stuff I want to do. It's been such a long time since I've had the luxury of being able to do stuff that I want to do, I don't want to get out of control on that front :) It's only been a week so far - even tho' it feels a lot longer - so I'm sure I'll settle into some sort of routine soon.

I liked Heroes last season. I didn't love it, but it was fun to watch. I think that this season is turning out to be way better than the first.

And I guess the chickens have figured out that Sadie has gone home. Like magic, they are wandering the yard again. Yay!

Fireworks

One of the things I love about Geocaching is the fact that it brings me to so many places that are practically in my backyard that I never knew existed. Fall is my favorite time to go caching, too - I love everything about it... the temperature, the color of the leaves, no bugs, better satellite reception :P

The leaves are just beginning to change around here, and Sadie was going home today. How could I pass the chance for a little caching on the way? Sadie and I visited a few new places before she got dropped off. I was introduced to some really fantastic hiking trails that I never would have guessed existed where they are. I wish it was fall all year 'round...






































As I was unpacking and cleaning up from my day of adventure, I thought I heard gunshots. I'm not a hunter, but even I know that it's way too early for hunting season. And I'm reasonably sure that people aren't supposed to hunt when it's dark out either. When I went outside to see what was going on, I was treated to a very nice fireworks display. I never thought of Columbus Day as a fireworks weekend, but I guess my neighbors across the street do... Personal fireworks are illegal here, so I don't know how they got away with it, but it was still fun to watch!

Season Finale

I absolutely love the new Doctor Who series. When Christopher Eccleston was The Doctor in the first season, I thought he was the best. I thought for sure that I wouldn't like the "new" Doctor taking over in season two... I was sure wrong about that! David Tennant is so enjoyable to watch every week - he blows everyone else out of the water. I loved him in season two and even more in season three. And I can't believe it's over already - Argh!!! I want more!

Being a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, I couldn't help comparing The Master with Mayor Wilkins - both bad guys that were so much fun to watch. And the twist with the Face of Boe almost knocked me off my seat - too funny :)

It's interesting how TV seasons have changed so much from when I was a kid. I remember the new season starting in September, some repeats shown over the holidays and then the rest of the season began again in January and ran through to April or May. Now it seems that 'New Seasons' are constantly rotated during the year and the whole season only seems to last a month or two. It's so tough to wait seven or eight months for new episodes of a favorite show. It's no wonder that a lot of shows have a hard time keeping ratings to stay on the air. And it always seems to be the good shows that we lose. I'm still waiting to hear when the new season of Jericho is going to start.

I really hope I won't have to wait over a half year for new Doctor Who shows :(

Long Weekend!

Wahoo! This is going to be the first long weekend I can remember having in at least twenty years. Except for when I was on vacation, but that doesn't count. I've always had to work holidays. Except Christmas day.

And the weather we are having lately is unbelievable... here it is October already, and I think that they said it got up to 86 degrees today. That's crazy!

I have a lot of projects I would love to get done around the house over the next three days, but I don't know how much I will actually accomplish. I guess I'll just worry about tomorrow first. The one thing I'm excited about doing tomorrow is partaking in the 2007 Tour of Solar Homes and Green Buildings. I won't be visiting all the places, but there are a few that I am especially interested in.

A long weekend... It still doesn't seem real yet!

Kids

The big news for today is that I'm an Aunt! My sister and her hubby had their first baby this morning. Everything went well and everyone is healthy and happy. I am really so happy for the both of them. They are a perfect couple and I think that they are going to make great parents. The baby is really lucky to have them as Mom and Dad.

This is going to be a new and interesting experience for me. I've never really been around kids much at all. I'm not really sure why, but it just never seemed to work out that way. When I have been around them, all they seem to do is cry. That is something that I have a hard time dealing with. If you can tell me what is actually wrong, I'm ok... if I know what the problem is, I'll fix it. But when all you get is crying, or worse, when a kid gets a little older - whining, I don't know what to do to make it stop. That gets annoying real fast. I guess I would never make a good Mom.

One incident that sticks in my mind happened years ago. Some very good friends of mine had extended an offer to join them for a little while down in Florida and stay with them in the house they had rented. How cool is that? :) I took them up on it and had a great time - except at the very beginning. They have a son, Jonathan, who was pretty small at the time - I don't know, maybe five or six. Jonathan was really a good kid. He was pretty well behaved, but he knew how to have fun. Whenever I visited, we always had a good rapport. When I got to Florida, Jonathan's parents met me and we were going to stop off to pick up an extra house key for me. I wanted to stop off at a store to pick up some munchies for the house, which worked out good, because the store was on the way to the rental office. Jonathan's parents would go get the key while I shopped. Jonathan wanted to come with me, which was fine. Until we got into the store. I have no idea what happened, but as soon as we stepped into the store, Jonathan started screaming at the top of his lungs "I - WANT - MY - MOMMY!!!" I had no clue as to what to do. Anything I said, seemed to set him off even more. And it's not like he didn't know me or anything. To this day, I still don't get it. So anyway, here I am with this little kid in a shopping cart screaming his head off that he wants his mother... for the whole solid twenty minutes that his parents were gone. I honestly thought that I was going to get arrested or something. Fortunately I didn't. That is an experience I never want to repeat.

I am not taking my nephew shopping. Ever.

Out of the Loop

I feel like I am missing out on so much sitting in the same building all day long. At my old job, I was all over the area everyday. Talking to a bazillion people all day long and listening the radio in between stops, I was always up-to-date on everything that was pretty much going on everywhere. Now, I feel like I have no clue as to anything that is going on.

Driving in this morning, there was a huge backup on the thruway going in the opposite direction. And I am talking a miles-long backup. We usually don't get those around here - we can pretty much get just about anywhere in about twenty minutes, whether you're going from Buffalo to Niagara Falls or heading down to the Southtowns. I had no idea what caused the backup. No one in class comes from my part of town evidently, so no one saw the traffic. No one heard anything about it. When I got home, I couldn't find anything online in the news about it.

I am used to finding out just about anything after talking to one or two people. I guess this won't be the case anymore. I feel like I am going to be living in a little bubble or something. I don't think I am going to like it, but I guess I won't have much of a choice. This is going to take a lot of getting used to.

Sky

I can't believe how hungry I was when I got home today. I didn't do anything except sit in a classroom all day. I don't get it.

Google Earth is a really cool (free!) application I use often to help me plan out my Geocaching outings. I also play around with it for fun to 'visit' the Great Wall of China, the pyramids of Egypt, the Eiffel Tower and cool places like that... Anyway, the Geocaching icons have been pretty wonky since the last upgrade and it was driving me nuts. Just on a whim, I checked to see if there was another upgrade lately that may have fixed the problem. I was happy to see that there was... and not only does it appear that the icon issue has been addressed, but there is a new way-cool Sky feature. At least it's new to me.

I have always had fun trying to find the different constellations in the night sky, but some are really hard to pick out. This new Sky feature maps out all the constellations from a view point of your choosing - I use my backyard :)

It can run a four-month time loop to show how the moon and planets move through an area, it can zoom in on nebulas and clusters and dust clouds and all kinds of other cool stuff. And with a click of the mouse, you can see brilliant pictures from the Hubble with explanations of what you're looking at and are given additional links. It's pretty amazing.

It's stuff like this that continues to amaze me about the internet. When I was growing up, I never had access to such cool, interactive material. I would have been more apt to learn a lot more about a lot more different subjects if I had. Clicking a mouse for the instant gratification of information is a lot more enticing than the thought of trudging to a library full of outdated books. Don't get me wrong, I love to read. But looking up information is different. Applications like Google Earth are just so cool!

Slooooow

Well, the first day of training was very long and drawn out. I suppose that is normal at a new job... I just hope it gets more exciting.

Now that I won't be driving a lot because of work, I kind of figured that I wouldn't see so many stupid drivers... You know, that whole decrease-of-odds because I'm not on the road so much? Not. And it always seems like it's the really sloooooooooow people that are always in front of me. And I can never get around them for one reason or another.

Did you ever notice those 35 mph signs they always have on the off-ramps coming off the thruway? The signs that no one ever pays any attention to? The guy I got stuck behind today coming home actually. slowed. down. to the 35 mph on the ramp. Do you know how slow 35 mph is coming off the thruway? Why do these people always seem to find their way in front of me???

Ugh.