rollerblading in the middle of the main street which parents in the neighborhood use to take their kids to school in the morning....could you....would you....PLEASE GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE FRIGGIN' ROAD SO CARS AND SUVs DON'T HAVE TO SWERVE AROUND YOU, CAUSING MANY NEAR MISSES AND MUCH FRUSTRATION?! I mean...it's not like there's not a nice, big wide bike path/sidewalk right next to the road.

Oh, I know...you look hot in your brand new roller blades and helmet and very tight rollerblading spandex pants.....and you wanted to be sure EVERYONE got a gander at your outfit and supreme skating style....whatever.

SOME people not only THINK it's all about them....they act upon this thought to the detriment of many others. Jerk.

is that nobody seems to EVER eat or take a bio break. But they do seem to drink coffee here and there. So where does that coffee go if that is indeed what they are surviving on? And when do they shower? I mean, are these people supposed to be human, or......?

Anyway, I just think it's weird. That's all.

Oh, but they are, my friends. There I was, fully prepared to watch my favorite smut show…cheese and crackers and freshly poured glass of wine at the ready and Scytheboy sent off to work on his project…only to find….Desperate Housewives is friggin’ re-run!

Crap. Well, I’ve been taught by my Irish-Catholic family and the Air Force fighter pilot community that it is a sin to waste a perfectly good drink….so I drank…and watched my TiVo’d episode of Surface. You see…I pre-drink a little before Desperate Housewives. Always a good idea to pre-drink no matter what the circumstance. Surface was pretty good. But now….now…I have a full hour of more drinking (2nd glass poured) before I can watch a new episode of Grey’s Anatomy – and yes, Grey’s Anatomy is much better if you are a bit tipsy.

But wait…..they have an Iron Chef behind the scenes deal on Food Network. OK, I can deal with that. I’ll watch that until Grey’s Anatomy while I listen to Scytheboy who has now moved on to practicing his Sax. He’s learned the first few bars of “Soul Man” and the Pink Panther Theme by ear. He is very talented, if I do say so myself. A nice accompaniment to Iron Chef behind the scenes thingee. Love Iron Chef.

Later, I will listen to electric guitar practice while Grey’s Anatomy is on. But it’s all good. I’ll prob’ly be on by 3rd glass by then. Yeah, Grey’s Anatomy! Yeah, Patrick Dempsey! Yeah, Christina…my very honest, very loyal friend but not politically correct hero!

OK, gotta go watch the rest of the chef thingee. I may have to slice more cheese…I’m almost out. Buh-bye!

When you put on your bikini and it covers more of your rear than it did last year.

THAT (if you are a girl) is the definition of bliss, my friends.

I am very happy.

That is all.

I don't think so. But apparently many parents in the Dallas ISD area do. I was watching the local news this morning while I was waiting for Scytheboy to get ready to go, and there was a quick segment about schools in the Dallas ISD moving kids in the 6th grade to middle school. Apparently, many parents went to the Board meeting last night and were up in arms over the whole thing. One parent was on camera saying, "Kids are not ready for such a highly charged emotional environment at this age. I mean...the people that are supposed to care the most about our children are stealing their childhood." Or...something like that. But it's pretty close, trust me.

Wait...what? "Stealing their childhoods"? They're 11 and 12 for God's sake! I have never heard of 6th graders NOT being in middle school. I mean...I was. I know some areas do junior high instead of middle school and that's 7th and 8th grade...but the areas that have middle school usually start in 6th grade don't they? Or...maybe I'm wrong.

What I'm trying to say is....I have a strong suspicion that it's not the kids that aren't ready for middle school....it's the parents. These are probably the same parents that held their kids back a year before starting them in kindergarten because they "weren't ready". Whatever. They were ready. But the parents weren't. I will admit that in a few extreme cases where the kids have been highly sheltered they might not be quite ready for kindergarten, but I believe that is the fault of the parents for not getting them ready more than anything else. Just my opinion...I'm not a psychologist or anything. I'm just a parent who through the years has seen some really good parenting and also some really bad parenting on the part of my son's friends' parents.

I can say from personal experience that our son was MORE than ready for middle school. There's more freedom of choice, less coddling, and more expected of them in the way of academics, physical education and how they behave toward others and their teachers. I think sending them to middle school is a GOOD thing. Our son was miserable in elementary school, but he is thriving in middle school....in the 6th grade.

They are more than ready, my friends. More than ready. Not ready? Ridiculous.

Jack could see Freddy had already arrived at the squadron as he pulled into his marked space. Lt. Col. Jason “Jackknife” Diggs had been recently put on the pavement, and the white paint could clearly be seen by all. “Well, being a commander isn’t all bad,” he thought.

Freddy walked out the front door and down the steps. “Man, I’m so sorry about Janet telling Debra about our orders. I just assumed you had told her.”

“Oh, that’s okay. It’ll blow over. It’s just hard for all of us right now,” said Jack. They turned to walk up the steps, knowing that the plans they were about to start would rock a lot of worlds, and not in a good way. “I brought the coffee. Did you get the donuts?”

“Sure did,” said Freddy. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about that new kid, Tidwell.”

“You mean that cocky little son-of-a-bitch who took off alone with my Kate?”

Laughing, Freddy slapped Jack on the shoulder and said, “Yeah, Jack. That one. Hey listen. I was at Osan while he was at Kunsan. I never heard a bad word about the kid. In fact, he got Top Gun Dive Bomb for three months in a row. He’s a damn good stick, Jack.”

“Good to know. I still don’t want him anywhere near my daughter. And I’m serious here, Freddy.”

“You can’t keep her 17 forever, Jack. She’ll be 18 by the time we get back and then you’ll have to deal with this thing rationally if they still want to pursue a relationship.”

“Not while she’s still living under my roof, I don’t. She’ll still be in High School. Well, she should be, if we redeploy when they say we’re supposed to. But I don’t want to start talking like that now and jinx it.”

“I know what you mean. Let’s get started. We’ve got a lot to do before we spring this on the guys tomorrow.”

“No shit,” said Jack.

Here's one for you. I know whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you feel strongly that your view is correct and that others need only be educated about the facts in order for them to see the light.

But guess what? According to a new study, researchers found that test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted, no matter what the researchers had to say. Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix.

The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making. Notably absent were any increases in activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most associated with reasoning.

I...am not....surprised. Are you?

Apparently, an eight year old boy shot a seven year old girl "accidentally" at a daycare center in Maryland.

Accidentally? Come ON, people! Let me say that I live in Texas and I do believe people should be able to own guns. Unfortunately, there is that segment of the population which is so ignorant of gun safety and/or neglectful of their kids that they just leave the things laying about the place for their kids to pick up, put them into their backpacks, and take them to school.

According to the story, the boy was simply playing with the gun and it went off by mistake and injured that poor little girl. I believe the parents should be charged with criminal negligence in this matter, or something along those lines.

How many more kids have to get hurt before people realize their actions (or inaction by not putting the gun away in this case) can cause others serious injury? Some people just should not be allowed to have kids.

Sugar Mommy tagged me with this meme....five weird things about me. But I did it a while back so here's the link.

Ha. That was easy.

P.S. I still have my headache, so I don't have the energy to figure out who hasn't done this meme. So you're in luck.
I'm off to watch 24 on the TiVo. Gotta love the TiVo.

I should probably preface this post by telling you that I stayed up way too late reading last night, and as a result developed a headache behind my right eye which I still have. It's down to a dull ache after Excedrin and a trip to the gym, but nevertheless when I have a headache people in general just annoy the hell out of me. Following is a list of the people I encountered so far today which annoyed me:

1. The girl combing her hair while on a cell phone driving through the school zone at 15 mph and weaving between lanes.

2. Not sure if he counts as a person...but...THE CAT annoyed me this morning. You see, I went back to sleep after dropping Scytheboy off in an effort to get rid of the headache. And, at 10:00, for some reason the cat felt like I had slept enough and needed to be up. So he pounded on the door and meowed until I was fully awake. Damn cat.

3. The guy on the Kia commercial which runs on multiple channels at the same time in the morning. I HATE that Kia guy.

4. The person driving the truck in front of me at 30 mph in a 45 mph zone on the way to the gym. Hate slow drivers. Hate 'em.

5. The 2 yr. old girl that decided to unleash a high pitched screech while walking past me in the parking lot by the gym.

6. The screecher's mother which did absolutely nothing to stop the screeching hellion....she just simply continued to talk to her mother (the screecher's grandmother) as if nothing was happening. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to be parents.

7. The old guy walking up the stairs in front of me, taking up the whole wide staircase as he wobbled back and forth across the hand rails. Slowly. Very slowly. Hate slow walkers. Hate 'em.

8. The multiple guys with pasty white skinny legs and knobby which wore shorts to the gym. People with legs like that should wear sweats until they at least have some meat on their bones. Seriously. Nobody wants to see that.

9. The woman wearing the iPod behind me while I was doing flyes and bench presses which decided everyone needed to hear her sing along to whatever song she was litening to. Yes, I gave her the dirtiest look I have every given anyone, and yes...she stopped singing and looked away nervously. Don't mess with me when I have a headache, people.

10. The guy that arrived at the four way stop beside me at the same time on the way back from the gym, rolled through without even braking completely, and went out of turn. I HATE people who don't obey traffic laws...they are idiots and also the ones that will some day cause someone (maybe even themselves) to be seriously hurt due to their uncaring negligence.

I am going to take a shower and remain in the house for the rest of the afternoon...AWAY from other people. Tommy should be glad he's in London.

That is all.

I won't tell you his name or where he lives. But I just wanted to let you all know how proud I am of my oldest nephew. He just received a nomination to West Point, and will kick off his career in the army when he begins classes this summer.

I am so very proud of the choice he has made. He is one determined individual, and I know that he will make an excellent officer who will nobly lead his men in performing their duties as they defend our country and our freedom.

Hoo-ah!!

Let me ask you some questions....are we at war? Do you think the attack on our country in September 2001 was an act of aggression against the United States? If so.....do you think it's a good enough reason to go to war?

I would venture a guess that most of you reading this would have said yes to these questions back in 2001. And we all cheered when the Taliban fell in Afghanistan. And (whether you like to admit it or not) when Saddam had declare America his enemy and the intelligence said that he had WMD at his disposal....most of us thought the UN needed to do something about it, and when it didn't Congress overwhelmingly voted in favor of us doing whatever it took to remove the threat of Iraq using WMD on countries in the region or...God forbid...us.

Let me remind everyone that given the intelligence we had at the time, the world and Congress agreed that Saddam was a threat.

Well, guess what? He didn't have the WMD. But you know what he did have? Al Zarqawi in Baghdad recovering from the injuries he received in Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda training camps in more than one location in Iraq.

Our country has been at war before. Remember WWII? Remember the rationing, the personal sacrifices, the women going to work in factories to support the war effort, the victory gardens, etc.?

It seems to me that today not only do we try and re-write history to our liking, we also are not willing to make any sacrifices to the greater good that would aid the war effort in any way. We are at WAR, people. We can't change that. The enemy started this on 9/11 and our leadership is trying to do what it can to protect us from the evil that lurks outside (and inside) our borders.

Personally....I don't think it's a big sacrifice of personal freedom when intelligence agencies monitor calls to and from Al Qaeda made to and from our country. The ONLY people that should be worried about this attempt to track communications of the enemy are those that are aiding the enemy with intel or are directly involved with their operations. To call it domestic spying is not only inaccurate, it is an underhanded way to score political points at the cost of gaining intelligence that could save people's lives.

Just my opinion. I'm certainly not an expert and I'm sure we don't have all the facts. But really....are we at war or aren't we? If you agree that we are, you should also agree our leadership should be doing everything it can to protect us. Personally....I'd be pissed if my neighbor was talking to Al Qaeda and the government wasn't monitoring the communications. I know it's sad to say...but those same people complaining about the program now would be the first ones to blame the government if they could have stopped a plot to kill Americans but didn't because they were hesitant to do anything that would "appear" to be taking away any civil liberties from us.

Think about it....you know it's true.

I know I'll get angry lefties commenting on this post, but I do think this needed to be said.

As we all know, cats will seek warmth wherever they can. Chocolate Chip has discovered that the counter gets REALLY warm when we run the dishwasher. He was at it again the other day, so I pulled the camera out.

Oh, God. She's got the camera out again.

Maybe if I don't look at her she'll go away.

Don't forget to go visit The Friday Ark.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Chocolate Chip"
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Oh....My....God!!!! I couldn't believe what I read today in the monthly newsletter put out by our health club. They are now considering starting classes for what they call "de-conditioned kids".

What are de-conditioned kids, you ask? Well...judging from the things covered in the class...as you might have guessed....this new term is (I'm assuming) the politically correct way of referring to overweight kids. Nutrition information, weight management strategies, and beginning exercise routines are among the items the proposed class will include.

But I guess this is the center's way of recruiting kids to the class without offending them or their parents. Hey, I was a chubby kid myself and I think being referred to as "de-conditioned" would have been more offensive to me than to just call me chubby...but that's just me I guess.

"De-conditioned kids"...seriously....they have GOT to be kidding.

I've been working on a little something for a while now, so I thought I'd show you a little snippet. You won't see much of this....but this is one of the parts I thought might be worth sharing. The characters are purely fictional, but the scenario and feelings described are very, very real.

Shout out to all those pilot wives married to senior level guys who must carry the torch while their better halves are out there fighting for our freedom.

Here goes...

*********************************************************************************************************************

Debra made one more quick check in the visor mirror to be sure she’d removed all traces of the crying jag she’d just allowed herself to have. It wasn’t often that she let stuff like that get to her, but this time it was just such an unexpected shock her emotions got the better of her. “Chin up, girl. You can’t let him know you know.”

As she got out of the truck to unload her groceries, Debra did her best to not let her hurt show. But as Jack glanced up from edging the lawn, he knew something was up. Debra was moving like she did any time she had received bad news. Shoulders sort of slumped, head down. “Oh, shit. Someone told her,” he muttered. As he walked over to the driveway, Debra glanced up.

“Dammit, hold it together!” she told herself. But it was no use. As soon as Jack got close, the tears started to roll down her face. She turned toward the truck, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

Jack grabbed Debra’s shoulders and turned her around, pulling her in for a big bear hug. “I’m so sorry, Deb. I wanted to tell you last night, but there was just no good time with all the guys there.” Debra’s shoulders shook with her silent sobs. “Who told you?”

After a few minutes, Debra’s composure began to return. “I ran into Janet Kruger at the Commissary. She just assumed I knew since Freddy told her least night when he got in. Just when were you planning to tell me?”

“Oh, Geez. I’m so sorry. I had to tell Freddy because we need to meet later to begin mission planning for the deployment. I was going to tell you after lunch when we had some quiet time. What can I do? How can I make this up to you?”

“Jack, I know you can’t control when your squadron gets deployed. It just would have been nice to be the first to know so I would be prepared for questions from the wives. That’s all. I know you didn’t want to spoil dinner last night. But next time, please tell me as soon as you know, okay?”

For a long time, I've been teasing my sister and her husband because they're enthralled with the Grip 'n Flip. To be honest, I could NOT believe they had been suckered in by the commercial which claimed all things great would happen in the kitchen when using said utensil.

Then....in December Scytheboy and I visited them. During our time there, they made these really good sandwiches that had all sorts of yummy things in them....and they used the Grip 'n Flip to turn them in the pan. Oh sure, it looked like it might be a a little more convenient...but to actually pay money for the thing and pay for shipping too? In my mind, clearly it had not been worth it (the sandwiches were mighty tasty and held together, though).

Today, as I was haphazardly flipping our grilled ham and cheeses in the skillet (both sandwiches slid apart and I practically burned my fingers trying to get them back together before the cheese melted)...I suddenly realized the value of the Grip 'n Flip.

So, okay...I admit it....I WANT THE GRIP 'N FLIP!!.

Not feeling very creative lately, as you can probably tell from the lack of a post yesterday.

But I do have good news to report with regard to the gym. Today was the first day in almost a month that I did my full cardio workout....a full hour including 55 minutes on the elliptical machine and a five minute walk on the treadmill. I managed to log 5.7 miles and 670 calories. And I did 45 minutes of intervals on the stairs and my full chest and back weight routine yesterday. Yessir...I am BACK.

I still have a slight cough and a little beet of wheezing, but I have to say that ain't bad for someone that's...shall we say...a bit over the age of 35.

I promise I'll try and think of something a bit more entertaining for my next post.

Spam is definitely a ridiculous item. I had it under control for a really long time. For a while, I got no spam at all. Then, I launched this site. It started out with just a few here and there to my site email address. Then....someone got hold of the entire email list for the customers that use our ISP....and I was getting upward of 20-30 spam emails a day.

I was using Outlook for my email, contacts and calendaring because it was what I used to use at work and it was so damned convenient...didn't even have to think about it.

Tommy never has used Outlook, and he's been on Mozilla Thunderbird for quite some time. Every time I would complain about Outlook, he would tell me to use Thunderbird. But...I refused to move.....after all, Outlook is the standard, right?

Well, I got up today and was greeted with my daily dose of spam first thing in the morning (it comes all day, but I get a block of it every morning). And...I...had had....ENOUGH. The Outlook spam filters are either too hard for me to figure out or too labor intensive to keep updating constantly with all the new tricks the spammers have. Okay, so maybe I'm just too lazy to figure it out....

Anyway, I downloaded Thunderbird (by the way, when you do this it recognizes your current email program and then automatically moves everything over for you, except the calendar; all your emails, contacts and personal folders show up when you launch the program). I then whined about how it wasn't working like I wanted it to...so Tommy sighed and came down to fix my email settings and download the contacts and calendar extensions for me.

The only issue I've noticed so far is you have to manually move each calendar item over to Thunderbird as it is a new extension and doesn't automatically install with all your other items.

But the really cool thing about Thunderbird is it has spam filters that are intelligently designed so that as you give them new information they get better and better as time goes by - learning more about junk mail and filtering more of it each and every day. Way cool.

To summarize...had Outlook....with associated Spam.....got sick of it...finally caved and listened to Tommy....now have Thunderbird. Thunderbird is better - unless of course you love to get spam. That is all.

As Tommy and I have pretty much recovered from our illnesses, we agreed to let the boy have a friend sleep over as they are off for MLK Day tomorrow.

Anyway...it's been kind of interesting to observe what they're doing with their time tonight. In between watching 24 (which started late and threw the whole evening off by the way - damn NFL playoffs) and moving to another T.V. to watch my TiVo'd Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy I occasionally at least made an effort to check on things upstairs and make sure they weren't killing each other or driving Tommy crazy.

So anyway....they began the night playing electric guitars - loudly - two guitars on two amps. All the men in the house were happy.

Then they moved on to playing XBox Live for a couple hours before and after dinner. I could see they were driving Tommy crazy as he kept refilling his glass at the bar....so I suggested a break from XBox for a while.

They played pool after that. That didn't last very long since one of them wasn't having a very good night (I wont' say who).

In turn, they proceeded to play poker - Texas Hold 'em with bits of Hershey bars for chips. This lasted about 40 minutes.

Then more XBox Live.

Then they caught up on episodes of Family Guy and The Simpsons via recorded episodes on Scytheboy's computer media center technology.

A few minutes ago, I checked on them once more. They were in Scytheboy's room. There were army men laid out in strategic positions (green vs. gray) on top of the freshly made bed. They were using a Nerf gun to take out each other's men...apparently the rules are each sniper gets five shots.

I guess it goes to show you...no matter how much technology or fancy things like pool tables and foosball tables you have....they always fall back on the old standards...army men and Nerf guns.

I didn't even know he still had his army men........................

While our dog was alive, we could never give the cat his smack because the dog would chew the little mice up, eat the catnip, and then throw up all over the entry tile.

So, we had a few of the toys put up in a basket where the dog couldn't get to them and the cat forgot about them. This morning, I noticed the cat wasn't in his usual spot monitoring the pool area for squirrels, so I took a walk around and found him....with a catnip mouse.

I found my catnip.

Now go away and leave me alone.

Don't forget to go visit The Friday Ark.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Chocolate Chip"
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The following conversation took place tonight after efforts by me to find a jump drive, copy a file, and take it to Tommy's computer (which I had to reboot because the cursor was mysteriously absent) to print because Scytheboy's printer was out of ink. Needless to say, I was irritated.

Me: "Why do I always have to fix everything?"

Scytheboy: "Because you're the adult."

Me: "Hmpph."

I thought to myself, "I got nothin'." I mean, when the kid is right, he's right. Dammit.

A few months ago I did a post talking about summer homework the Lancaster, TX district had assigned to kids as a required assignment. Kids who didn't complete the assignment were disciplined by the school. Keep in mind that the kids had already completed one grade and had not yet entered another grade and school was not in session. However, due to low test scores the district decided to assign mandatory homework over the summer break.

Anyway, I was contacted by Sara Bennett, who is co-authoring a book for Random House about the impact of homework on family life. She asked me about my views on the subject and directed me to a site where they've set up a survey for parents, teachers and kids to participate in a study so they could gather as much data as possible to ensure their book accurately reflects the attitudes of all concerned on the subject.

If you are a teacher or you have kids in school, I strongly recommend you go take a look at the survey, and if you have time participate. You don't have to give any of your personal information to the authors, but you can if you'd like to. I think it's worth the few minutes it will take you to complete the survey, and I found some of the questions quite interesting.

Remember, you don't get to complain about something unless you're willing to become part of the solution.

A few months ago, I agreed to do a small contract for a neighbor down the street. Without going into too much detail about who he is or what he does, let me just say that he had a ginormous Word file containing a training manual he needed to update.

And...he doesn't know too much about Word so he figured he'd farm the edits out to a friend and get the brother-in-law discount. I was only to happy to oblige. I mean, after all...how hard could it be? Making edits to an existing file?

WRONG!!

Turns out one of his buddies who works at the consulting firm he's teaching the course for had already "worked" on the file for many hours before I got my hands on it.

Let's just say that working on that file was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done on a computer...and that includes trying to figure out how to do things in Photoshop with no training. There were many changes that needed to be made in the area of uniform structure, moving many images around, spelling errors, etc., etc. And it turns out just for fun the guy changed formatting wherever he could, including hanging indents in random paragraphs and changes to bullet formatting for no apparent reason. In many cases, it took five or six tries in different menus to figure out just what the hell the guy had done.

Clearly, the man was not an expert in Word. I don't claim to be an expert...however...I AT LEAST USE THE SAME FORMATTING THROUGHOUT ANY GIVEN WORD DOCUMENT I'VE CREATED, PERSONALLY OR PROFESSIONALLY!!.

I mean, seriously....I had a migraine for four days after completing the job.

Guess who called tonight at seven right after we finished dinner (chili and home made cornbread with fresh chocolate silk pie I put together with my new mixer...thanks for asking). Apparently, he'd had the file printed out at Kinko's and there were some formatting concerns (Kinko's is still on Office 2003).

Needless to say, our friend...being the typical guy...had waited until almost the last minute to begin printing the manual in preparation for his class this week. So he was pretty freaked out. I told him to come on down and we'd take care of it.

After a call to Kinko's to determine if RTF format would work, deleting many pages and moving some images around, we finally got it done. It took about an hour and 20 minutes. So I gave the guy a piece of pie, the file, and strict instructions for him to tell the idiot at Kinko's to set the margins correctly before he opens the file so formatting would not be an issue.

The good news is he can bill my time as a pass through expense to his client and I'll be getting a check in a few weeks.

The bad news is....he wants me to edit the PowerPoint file he has to accompany the manual with him at a later date. Well, at least I'll get paid....that's something. But really, I wish I never had to see that project again!!!

That's all. Done whining. Goodnight.

Much to Tommy's chagrin, I dragged myself back to the gym today after a two week hiatus resulting from travel and more than one illness.

Some might say that I am a glutton for punishment, and in this case I just might have to agree with them. Although....I think I did pretty well considering. After 30 minutes on the cross-training elliptical stairs (the ones with the arm thingees) I had burned 352 calories and climbed three miles.

I then walked around the track a couple times, chest rattling and lungs wheezing...don't worry, I wasn't dizzy, just a little short of breath.....I began 15 minutes of weights (today was chest and back day). In deference to my incapacitated state, I backed off one level on weights and did sets of 15 instead of 12. That seemed to work pretty well.

Then I rounded out the workout with burning 30 more calories on the treadmill to get rid of the lactic acid build-up from the minimal weight training.

But I have to say...even though it was difficult....I'm glad I went. Hopefully it won't cause any setbacks, and I did manage to do the whole 30 minutes of cardio without coughing once so that was good.

Hopefully I will be able to drag myself back to the gym for the next four days, achieving increased levels of intensity each time. Wish me luck!

This article just leaves me speechless (and you can ask Tommy - this rarely happens).

He's certainly free to say what he wants, but I can't help but think that perhaps...just maybe....he would be happier living south of our borders.

That's all I'm going to say.

It appears I've rounded the corner on the whole being sick thing. As you may recall, it started off with a bang in the wee, wee hours of New Year's Day (a sickness not caused by a hangover as I only had three drinks New Year's Eve but which I'm now convinced was directly related to drinking like absolutely no water for a week which caused sever dehydration). Then I immediately moved on to the cold that everyone in Wisconsin and on all our flights on the trip seemed to have in varying degrees.

Tommy has the cold now. He had to call in sick for his current trip.

I think the turning point for me was on Friday when I decided the house was a sty and needed to be cleaned, no matter what cost to my personal well-being. I simply could NOT stand it anymore. So I put my cleaning clothes on and off I went to "just clean the bathrooms"......four hours later the entire house was clean with the exception of mopping the bar floor and dusting our very high ceiling fan in the living room and light fixtures in the the entry.

But damn, I sure did feel better after that. I actually felt like I was sweating the sickness out of my body. Yesterday (Saturday - day after cleaning) was the first day I woke up and finally felt half way normal. Didn't even take cold meds until bed time and then it was only Sudafed and Robitussin.

And today I'm feeling better still and I'm planning on making peanut butter cookies with my new mixer. I don't eve like peanut butter cookies, but Tommy does so the goal is to try out the new mixer whilst avoiding extra calories that would result in me eating the finished product if I actually liked it.

Oh, I'm under no illusions that I won't at least try one of the cookies...but they're not my favorite so hopefully I'll be able to keep it down to just a taste.

To summarize - was really sick...then was cold sick....am now better....will be baking today.

That is all.

UPDATE: As you can see, I didn't waste any time. The second batch just came out of the oven, and I didn't even wait until the cookies had cooled before I sampled one. They are damn good. I've already scarfed my second. The mixer did excellent work for me blending all the ingredients perfectly. However, this recipe should be outlawed as it necessitates multiple tastings even for those that don't even care for peanut butter. I mean, seriously...

If you'd like the recipe, you can leave a comment on this post or send me an email. Yummy.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Just So You Know" & "Yummy"
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Man, what a game it was last night! Texas came through at the last minute to gain victory over USC. Tommy's got pictures on his site if you'd like to check it out.

We all stayed up until the end, even Scytheboy...who wore one of his Longhorn shirts to school today as he planned on exercising his bragging rights to the fullest extent possible.

Go Texas!!

Yup, it's that time again. Time for Texas to kick ass on the football field. You can read all about the upcoming game here.

Tommy and I are both proud graduates of The University of Texas, and Scytheboy aspires to be the same one day. So we will all be in the man room watching the game tonight (I'm allowed only on special occasions...). I'm not much for watching football, but I do feel that on this night it is truly required...even if I'm sick.

Hook 'em!!!

I've got this under whining because I'm sick and I really don't want to do it. But...Paula asked so I guess I have to.

1. Four jobs you've had in your life: accountant for base fuels at Del Rio AFB, TX; data entry clerk at the IRS; marketing manager; communications manager.

2. Four movies you could watch over and over: The Princess Bride, Buckaroo Banzai, XMen II, The Matrix

3. Four places you've lived: Madison, WI; Layton, UT; Austin, TX; Tampa, FL

4. Four TV shows you love to watch: Medium, ER, Deal or No Deal, Nip/Tuck

5. Four websites you visit daily: FoxNews, MSNBC, Yahoo, Google

6. Four of your favorite foods: Chocolate, Bread, Cheese, Bacon

7. Four places you'd rather be: Buenos Aires, Dublin, Hawaii, London

8. Four albums you can't live without: Sorry. Not a big music fan lately....

Too sick to have the heart to tag anyone but if you'd like to play please feel free and trackback here so we know you have your own four's we should go see.

Cough...sniff...wheeze...whine....

So anyway, you're probably sick of hearing about me being sick. But I am still sick, this time with something new. While we were visiting up in Wisconsin, the majority of my family was getting over a nasty cold. In addition, many, many, many, many of our fellow travelers at airports and on planes were hacking up a lung and sneezing and few were making any effort at all to cover their mouths and/or noses to protect those around them. The guy sitting behind us on our second to last flight coughed constantly.

So who knows why I have a cold, but I do. As I am unable to go to the gym or do anything else really except sit around and lament/whine about being sick to Tommy (who has now sequestered himself in his man room upstairs), I thought it would be interesting to pose the question - What's your cold medication mix?

Now....when I am really really sick with a cold or flu and am at the point that I cannot sit up straight without feeling faint and all I want to do is sleep, I take this. I take the citrus version because it goes down easier...but don't believe the marketing. It WILL make you drowsy and a little fuzzy around the edges which makes it hard to read or watch TV while you're laying around moaning.

But when I'm a little more ambulatory, like with this cold (but don't misunderstand me...I can't walk up the stairs without feeling winded and a little dizzy so I AM sick) I like to take a certain mix of meds that knocks out most of the symptoms. Sure, I'm a little dizzy and my ears ring a little but this works for me:

+ +

So...what works for you? I'm curious.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Questions"
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Wow. 19. That's a really, really long time. Not much longer and we'll have been married longer than how old I was when we took vows (21 but who's counting).

People always ask me how we've made it this long. And I have to be honest...sometimes separation is good. In our case, it's been many separations, some of them for many months. One of them for more than 12 months with a couple short visits thrown in.

But for me, when you have those separations it helps remind you what you like/miss about that person and in a lot of ways keeps the relationship fresh.

Enough about that.

Guess where we went tonight? Abuelo's!. The food there is SO damn good and very reasonable. I was given the choice of going out wherever I wanted, but really tonight this was the only choice for me. Low-key atmosphere (not loud like a lot of those steakhouses), excellent food, and fabulous dessert. They make a mean margarita too.

Excuse me while I go loll in my Mexican food coma. I'm sure Mr. Average and I will find some quiet time later tonight after we make Scytheboy go to bed. He's got school tomorrow. Yeah! The break's over!

I still keep thinking...wow...19 years. That's like forever, isn't it? I mean, seriously....

I think I can safely say this can be filed under "What is Good". Tommy's brother sent us this for Christmas. Now, normally a small appliance like this is something nice to have but also something that you might rarely use.

However...we have an 11 year old in the house. HE seems to think that it makes sense that with each and every meal, at least one thing should be deep fried. It's gotten so bad that I've taken to deep frying just his stuff and cooking my stuff a more healthy way. I mean, seriously...I'd weigh 300 pounds very soon if I kept eating fried food at every meal.

Two days ago, I put the deep fryer under the counter in a cabinet, hoping that the "out of sight, out of mind" theory would apply.

No such luck.

Today, I'll be deep frying a potato cut into steak fries for him and his friend at lunch.

Help.

Yeah, apparently all that drinking and stressful traveling took their toll on me. About 3:00 a.m. this morning my body decided to reject any and all contents currently residing therein...in a very expedient manner.

I won't go into details...but...ewwww.

So poor Tommy had to take a cab home from the airport this morning. Happy freakin' New Year, right?

He also had to take care of Scytheboy and cook the ham and blackeyed peas. They said they were good...I tried to sequester myself in our room for fear of getting sick again from the ham smell. Never could stand to smell meat cooking when I was sick. Today wasn't any different.

The good news is I've kept some stuff down and I'm feeling much better. Our 19th anniversary is on Tuesday so hopefully whatever it is that got me sick will be long gone by then.

I hope your day was better, whatever you did.

As Scytheboy and I were flipping channels waiting for it to be midnight in Dallas, we happened upon the top 20 countdown on our local Fox channel which had Regis' coverage of the festivities. Number 12 was a song by Madonna. All of a sudden, Scytheboy says:

"She's still alive? Hasn't she been singing since like the 40's?"

Out of the mouths of babes, by friends.

Happy New Year...again.