My Afflation

So, my hubby thought that a friend had planned a 2-night girls event when it was just one (since we're not getting a women's retreat this year). So he offered me one night in a hotel (I might actually have to do this more often) .. but I had trouble getting to sleep. Me, who can usually fall asleep anywhere, had trouble falling asleep in a strange place. And my bones hurt this morning. The same ones that my chiropractor tried to fix yesterday. Maybe next time he and the kids can have the hotel room and I'll get the house to myself :) (Oh yeah, he got kudos from my girlfriends for that.) There is kinda the sense of adventure and getting away, but damn, I need more sleep. I couldn't fall asleep till 3 and woke up around 7. Forced myself to go back to sleep till my alarm went off at 9. Called the front desk, checkout is at 11 (yay!) rather than at 10 (like the website said). So, I have the choice of sleeping for another hour, or throwing on some pants and getting a few t

WNBA Greatest Moments - AOL Sports I need to remind myself to watch Sunday's game against the Seattle Storm. Check out these videos. Vote for Lisa Leslie's dunk!!!!!!

Last one for the night. New memes posted on Alternate Reality .

Let me know what you think. What's good, what should go back to the way it was. Man, it's been so long since I played around with CSS. This took me most of the afternoon. Years ago it would have taken me just a few minutes. Talk about use it or lose it! Tim's been working on that expandable comment hack I wanted and it's not working on his template either. I'm so glad it's not just me :) Though now, in between cleaning house and job-hunting, I think I will be learning JavaScript and CSS2 . Technorati Tags: geeking out , javascript , CSS , web design

boy, I broke it big time. So now I am going to fix it one step at at a time. Thanks for your patience with me. At least the comments are back.

Since people got MySpace they quit posting on their blogs (mostly Blogger ). I use MySpace, but mainly to keep in touch with a select few people. Sigh, I hate logging into the silly system and I am not much of a commenter (as my friends there can tell you) ... and like my brother said, a lot of it seems fake. My "Unofficial Calvary Chapel" blogroll is getting fewer and fewer new posts and yet, if I take the time (copious amounts of it that I have) to log into MySpace ... grr, lost that train of thought (started writing this two days ago). Anyways, I am not fond of MySpace, the interface, the layouts (half the pages you can't even read for goodness sake!!!). It has some cute innovations, but most people don't know how to use them. Myself included. I have a Storm background, but because when I log in I see a clean interface, I rarely see what other people see. And the noise!!! MySpace has GOT to be the NOISIEST site out there. I have a song on my page too, but I have it

This state bites!!!! I'm not eligible because I didn't work for someone last year. They want you to have a minimum of 500 hours, but their quarterly system is kinda wacked. I won't be eligible until October of this year. I can't be unemployed that long!!!!! They take like all of last year and the first 3 months of this year to figure benefits, and of course, since I was self-employed for all of last year, I don't qualify. Even though I pay the damn taxes. (Well, that's another story) but still!!! (and oh yeah, just got off the phone with a guy from the Employment Department, he called about 3 minutes after I submitted my claim). Definitely need to hit the temp agencies now. Doug was right, not worth it to apply for UI. Technorati Tags: unemployment , work , Oregon

DONE!!! It took a little under an hour, but I have finally finished applying for unemployment . And now to hit all the temp agencies. I think I need more coffee. Technorati Tags: unemployment insurance , temp agencies , looking for work

"SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- The high-pressure system over California that has brought 100-degree weather wasn't budging Wednesday, promising an 11th straight day of sweltering heat, the potential of more deaths and another strain on utilities. The National Weather Service predicted temperatures around the state to fall several degrees, but the misery index would remain high as the mercury hovers well over 100 in many parts. The gradual cooling trend was expected to continue through the week. Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the power grid, said the ISO did not anticipate declaring another power emergency Wednesday. State and local authorities reported at least 56 possible heat-related deaths since the mercury first spiked upward, most in the smoldering Central Valley and deserts east of Los Angeles. " Ack! My poor mom, sis, and neice just went back to this. Though they did get a taste of our heat wave on Thu

This is downright scary "SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- The body of a 5-year-old girl missing for more than a week has been found in the basement of a neighbor's home, and the neighbor was arrested, authorities said. Craig R. Gregerson, 20, was jailed early Tuesday on suspicion of kidnapping and homicide. It was not immediately known whether he had an attorney. A probable cause statement filed in Gregerson's arrest says he saw Destiny Norton in her backyard the night of July 16 and opened a gate to lure her into his house. When she screamed, he squeezed his hand over her mouth to silence her, authorities said."

Well, on a totally unrelated note, I'm glad that I took a couple of pictures of my anniversary roses . This heat has been very bad for them, they are all wilted now :( I'm actually sad about that. 

or how to ruin a perfectly good evening Warning: this is a rant, in the classic sense. Complete with a little cussing and completely uncharitable attitude. So, the owner of that van that parked in front of our house turns out to be a bi@tch realtor named Monika ... and that's all I can say without getting sued. Let me know if you want to know what company she works for. Can I mail bomb her? Add her name and address to a [snail] mailing list? She comes back to my house to accuse me of hitting her POS van (see Monday part 2 ). (OK, so it wasn't POS, but must have something wrong with it if she's trying to tell me that I hit it). I was napping and when I got up Tim asked me if I had hit that van. I practically exploded. The tone of her note was condescending, and that pisses him off, and me being accused of something that I didn't do pisses me off. She claims she has a witness, probably the grandmotherly type and little girl that she was showing the neighborhood this a

So, I go to my eye doc appt (yay! my Rx is the same!) and then to Target to get madame a Strawberry Shortcake comforter (there's a whole 'nother story in that), and then to Binyon's to get my glasses. Thank GOD for insurance. My eyesight is so bad, that without insurance, getting my exam, contacts, and glasses would have cost close to $600. So anyways, after running errands and getting some lunch, Joy and I come home and find another minivan parked in our spot! Some freaking realtor parked in front of my house, smack dab in the middle (there's room enough for two cars if you do it right) and so, annoyingly, I had to park in front of our neighbors. At first, I thought it was my friend , the van was the right color but the wrong make. Sigh. Eventually I will go out in the heat and move my van. Despite the housework practically screaming my name, I think it's time for a nap. P.S. Today I really mind having a job in an air conditioned office. Really, I wouldn't. I

My wife calls me at work this morning and says "You won't believe what your daughter just asked for." "Do I want to know?" We had recently taken off the door to the linen closet (said door being warped by a cat who has no concept of what a litter box is for. Said cat is now living in the backyard under a tree - no she's not dead) and saw the bag her Strawberry Shortcake sheets came in. She goes into our room and asks "Where's my blanket?" Annette: "What blanket?" Joy: "My Strawberry Shortcake blanket that you guys promised me!" Good grief - that was over a year ago!!!!!!!!!!! It's not right that her memory is that good. Reminds me of the paperboy from Better Of Dead (a movie from the 80s for all you young uns out there). It's a sub-theme - the paperboy is constantly showing up chasing the main character of the story shouting "I want my two dollars!" I have this vision of my wife and I running through the

So, last night close to 9, Joy's daycare provider called to let me know that she and her kids had had a very long, hot weekend filled with sports (and Joy just woke up at yes, 9:43 am) and will be closed today. Ah well. It's going to be an interesting day. Let's see what I can find to keep the both of us cool and not cranky. Technorati Tags: kids , heat , daycare

AH CR@P!!!!!!!!!!!!! I should have kept my Comcast installation. The Verizon one only allows free stuff. So even though my personalized radio stations appear, I can't get to them. WAHH!!!!!!!! I have to pay!!!! (and frankly, $15/month for music that I listen to only occasionally is not worth it). Sigh ..... Technorati Tags: internet music , Verizon , Rhapsody

Forget Launchcast ... if it ever launches (yes, I am still waiting, and this after I tweaked my firewall settings according to the Yahoo! Help page) ... Verizon also has a deal with Rhapsody :) YAY! So now I get to install it again. It's a little space-hoggy, but I like just about all of it's features. Technorati Tags: Verizon , Rhapsody , Launchcast , music

I got rid of ( uninstalled is more precise ) Comcast Rhapsody why???? When our Comcast account finally closed I was still able to use Rhapsody, well, under another username. I loved my personalized stations (yes, plural). I am STILL waiting after about 20 minutes for Launchcast to finish tuning my station. It doesn't seemed to have timed out. The little status bar is still moving. It's really annoying that I had to "rate" artists and just couldn't pick my own and that I only get one station. They have a function called "mood" but apparently you have to pay for it. And oh yeah, it doesn't work with Firefox. I have to start IE to listen to music. *sigh* The price of entertainment. I wonder if Verizon has a music service .... (this is me, going off to prowl Verizon for music while tweaking anniversary pictures ). Technorati Tags: music , Rhapsody , Launchcast

You Are Indigo Of all the shades of blue, you are the most funky, unique, and independent. Expressing yourself and taking a leap of faith has always been easy for you. What Color Blue Are You? Technorati Tags: meme

I finally found something that does Technorati tags easily. I'm happy. Off to do dishes now. The house is at ... well, over 80 degrees, but bearable. Technorati Tags: blogging , software , housework powered by performancing firefox

Yay!

nebs66: Comic-Con: Star Wars Day : "Friday was Star Wars day at Comic-Con. A lot of Star Wars stuff was going on today, including a presentation from Hasbro about new Star Wars merchandise & toys. Check out this video from the convention featuring Star Wars & other toys to geek-out over:"[snip] Man!!! How I wish I was SD right now! Technorati tags: comics , San Diego , Star Wars

Been having server problems lately, I was getting tempted to start posting everything on my LiveJournal or even *gasp* MySpace (yeah, I got one, to catch up with people from HS I Swear!!!! It's better than Classmates that way). But I didn't. Today, I decided that I am a TV addict when I can't think of anything better to do or want to avoid work. Like right now, I really should be sleeping since Josh has to be at the airport at 5:00 AM for his flight and we (Tim and I) decided that we would ALL go to drop him off. Neither one of us relishes the idea of dealing with the heat and Joy when she hasn't gotten a chance to tell her brother goodbye. At the moment I have a headache, probably from watching too much TV, Joy is still awake as I type this 12:05 AM on Saturday morning. Maybe I will just stay up for the next 4 hours and get all my sleep in the cool of morning. *snort* We got a heavy cloud cover just at the hottest part of the day (and for you who don't live in O

WOW. Powells. On MySpace. wow. " MySpace URL: http://www.myspace.com/powellsbooks "

View topic - March 19 Sermon - God's Story of Redemption " Quote: If two people get on a plane but one has great faith in aerodynamics and the other has little faith, who is more likely to get to their destination? They will both reach the same destination regardless of their faith in aerodynamics. Sorry, I'm not seeing the point of this one.. Yeah, you did! Eternal salvation has nothing to do with the relative amount of our faith, it has to do with the 'object' of our faith. I imagine you will find a number of 'doubting Thomas's in heaven, but no confident atheists." Technorati tags: church , faith

"Westport Church. Simply Different. A relevant church near Orenco Station in Hillsboro. We are focused on the communities in the western region of Portland. Hillsboro, OR 97124" So ... I'm thinking of trying it. And soon. They're open. For goodness sake they offer coffee AND childcare AND Bibles at informational meetings. I don't need the Bible, have a few of my own, but I will take the coffee and childcare! Now that's meeting the needs of the community :) Check out the site ... who wants to come with me? Shall we mutiny? =) Technorati tags: church , coffee

Ain't I glad I use Firefox .... An online banner advertisement that ran on MySpace.com and other sites over the past week used a Windows security flaw to infect more than a million users with spyware when people merely browsed the sites with unpatched versions of Windows, according to data collected by iDefense, a Verisign company." [snip] Technorati tags: MySpace

my daughter fell asleep during a playdate. Technically, that means she got a nap in. Go figure. Sleeping. On a play date.

For those of you who have called, we're OK! Actually, this is more for those of you who haven't called, but were wondering. Yes, this is near where we live, walking distance in fact. But the area of Hillsboro that we live in is bisected by a major thoroughfare and we live on the other side of the street from where the crash happened. We do have friends in the neighborhood where it did happen though. As of 6PM the local news still hadn't stated if the pilot had died, but now we know that he did :( By WILLIAM MCCALL Associated Press Writer HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) - A 1951 British fighter jet crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near the Hillsboro Airport during an air show Sunday afternoon, exploding, destroying a home and killing the pilot. Fire officials said no residents or others on the ground were hurt." I have family visiting, so I now return you to your regularly scheduled Sunday evening entertainment. Technorati tags: airshow , Hillsboro , crash

It was apparently too hot in the house, too hot in the backyard, but ok in the front under a tree with a blanket. I didn't get a shot of her baby bear in a similar situation, but the bear was in the middle of the (hot) sidewalk.     

house! Tigerlily decided to take a piss right where Tim could see her. The amazing thing is that he caught her (she's damn fast). I was getting Joy breakfast when he yells "Open the back door!" She's out, with food and water, she might figure out how to get under the fence, but for the most part she's been on the couch crying and trying to get in through the screen. Right now she's doing her rabbit thing ... up on hind legs and trying to look into the playroom. Well, 20 minutes to clean the back room a little and then off to my chiropractor (first time in almost a year!) My back will thank me, I hope. Technorati tags: cats

For all the geeks out there, you HAVE to read the whole article. It's pretty darn funny =) "Senator Stevens Internet Forensics I got a copy of the internet that Senator Ted Stevens's staff sent to him, and which, as he told the full Commerce Committee as proof that net neutrality was bad, took almost five days to get to him because the internet's pipes were so full of traffic. I admit to a little skepticism, so I asked the Senator's office to send me a copy of the internet via Fed-Ex (to avoid internet rush hour). After signing for it this morning, I unwrapped it and set out to test it forensically to make sure the senator was telling the truth (turns out it was just an internet letter, not an entire internet). ..."

Ok, so I didn't get around to cleaning the playroom. Maybe you can watch me do it tomorrow if I don't get a sudden burst of energy and do it tonight. Right now I am working on what I call the island, trying to get it to look like it did for Thanksgiving I doubt if I will get it that clean, but I can try. Technorati tags: cleaning

So, if you get really bored today you can watch me clean the playroom. And watch whatever happens to be on the Hallmark channel. I don't have nearly the motivation or energy that I had yesterday. Technorati tags: cleaning

For all you Star Wars fans ... " When a Captain Holo at You . I am working the night shift on guard duty. Much of the garrison is off on maneuvers, so the base is quite. As my duties take me by the communication center, my com link beeps. The image of a Republic Navel Officer appears on the Holo. It is Captain Susan Lern. “I am soooo bored here to night. I wish I could see you. The base is almost deserted and I keep thinking of all the things I would love to do to you. If you were here right now I would push you back on my desk …”" Technorati tags: Star Wars

but oh so FUNNY!!!!!! Check out this blog If you get to it late, it's the July 11th blog titled "US Army Pilots vs. Star Wars' Tie Fighters" Technorati tags: Star Wars , Army

So, you may have seen that Belkin and other companies are making car adapters for iPods that look curiously like the old-school CD car adapter kits . Tim has been cleaning out the garage and found my old car adapter. I plugged it into my Creative Zen Nano and voila! playing my music on the stereo in the living room. And now, because my computer has crappy speakers -- I have the car apater plugged into the headset of my puter and playing via the cassette on the stereo. Too bad I can't find any U2 .... (I swear I used to have some, must have gotten left in SD). Music: Stacie Orrico - Security Technorati tags: tech toys , music

even though I LOVE Spidey (he's always been my fave), I can totally see myself being Hulk every now and then .... hrm, "don't make me get green on you?" You Are The Hulk Super strong and super scary, you were never meant to be a superhero. You're not really into saving the world. And the world better get out of your way. What Superhero Are You? Technorati tags: meme , superheroes

How evil are you ?

I keep trying to think of a way to make this one witty and pithy and get a laugh out of it, but I can't. I am simply too depressed. I got sacked first thing this morning. Walked in, hung up my bag, and my boss said, "Let's take a walk." "uh oh" thinks I. Going for a walk other than to her car to get supplies is never a good thing. That was a bummer and a half. I was thinking "Oh great, I've been on time, now what?" We didn't go to the usual coffee place. We went upstairs to an empty Jury Room. My boss started with "I really hate to do this" ... that's about when I got a clue. So I have been home since a little after 10 mostly puttering around and trying not to break down in tears. I actually liked this job. Not terribly challenging, not always busy, but fun, enjoyable, and easy. Taking care of kids, getting paid for it, liking my co-workers and NO PAPERWORK! Now ... Urgh, I like earning a paycheck. I guess I have plenty of t

So, my mom is coming to visit in less than a week ... and we finally get around to getting rid of the cat-pissed carpet (this is my ultimate embarrasment). We have been harboring a feline for 4 years who for some reason refuses to used the litter box for number 1. We assume that she uses it for #2 because we have never found any around the house, and she's semi-feral, not constipated (though I wonder....). I even took her to the vet and he said she had a UTI, but I swear the problems got worse after that (more than 2 years ago). Though knowing TigerLily she did it just to spite me. We have never gotten along. We have used Nature's Miracle and Petzyme. We have threatened the cat with all manner of punishments (never to be carried through of course, I can't even catch the darn cat). But the house already smells better, now to catch the cat and put her outside once and for all. Or for at least most of the day. Technorati tags: home improvements

I'm easily pleased (most of the time) -- we finally have a porch swing.

We spend one-third of our lifetime in bed and another third of our lifetime performing activities around the home. Why not be as comfortable as possible? The Big Feet Pajama Co. offers those same footed pajamas that you loved as a kid, to juniors, as well as adult men and women of nearly every shape and size. Made from the finest shirting flannel, cotton knit, micro-polar fleece and wool cashmere fabrics available, you’re sure to love Big Feet Pajamas. They’re unique, whimsical, practical, but most importantly, they’re the most comfortable sleepwear you’ll ever wear! Hrm ... should I get a pair of footsies for an upcoming slumber party?

Semper Bug! It's a Marine (supporter?) in a silver Beetle. If you look closely you can see the bumper stickers.

I'm working! We were at Fry's and Joy found the Barbie laptop. Ummm, yeah, I think Tim and I model certain behaviors all too well. Technorati tags: parenting , kids

Got in my morning run today... To the MAX =) boy I hate running, though in all honesty it was more of a trot. It's hard to jog properly when you are lugging a laptop around. Technorati tags: work , commute , exercise

ROFLMAO!!!! Annette =========== Don't know how factual this is or is not, but it was damn funny. The title of the article was "Best Comeback Line Ever." In summary, the police arrested Patrick Lawrence, a 22-year-old white male, resident of Dacula , GA , in a pumpkin patch at 11:38 p.m. on Friday. Lawrence will be charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, public indecency, and public intoxication at the Gwinnett County courthouse on Monday. The suspect explained that as he was passing a pumpkin patch he decided to stop. "You know, a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one around here for miles. At least I thought there wasn't," he stated in a phone interview. Lawrence went on to say that he pulled over to the side of the road, picked out a pumpkin that he felt was appropriate to his purposes, cut a hole in it, and proceeded to satisfy his need. "I guess I was just really into it, you kno

If it ain't one thing it's another. Apparently my IBS is back *and* my heart is doing it's little thing that leaves me breathless and fatigued. All I do is sit on my ass and wait for kids to show up! What is wrong with me?! Technorati tags: stress , IBS

Joy (at just over 4 years old) can ride a two-wheeler with minimal help from mom or dad.

for those of you who use skype and had me on your list, my connection got FUBAR'd and I had to get a new username annette.sargent go ahead and add me please. Technorati tags: skype