A Bit of Fry and Laurie - Jewelry

Video of the day. I figured out how to post videos!! I win.

Ketchup

They stinkin' blocked my ability to blog at work again. So here is the latest, written at home against my will.

• Last night Aubrey passed out and hit her head on the corner of a desk. She's ok. She's passed out several times before from standing up too quickly, but this time she had been standing for some minutes. Doctor says it's likely nothing big, maybe she's coming down with something, but going to a cardiologist again just in case.




• Aubrey went to homecoming Saturday with a bunch of friends. Here is a poor picture taken on my phone cuz I still don't own a digital camera.

• On the way home from church we had to stop for about 15 minutes at a blocked off intersection. Finally a bunch of police vehicles and a limo went by, and I swear Dick Cheney was in the back of the limo! Dick Cheney!



• Several weeks ago I gave a talk in church on coveting. I had a choice between that and keeping the Sabbath day holy. I found coveting much more interesting, so Jerry got stuck with the Sabbath. I gave a shout out to my Sunbeam class, and read The Berenstain Bears' The Green-Eyed Monster out loud and showed the pictures. Oh, man you should have seen all the eyes riveted on me. EVERYONE paid attention. Of course as soon as I finished the book, I lost everyone again. Oh well. The take home message of the talk was that we, as humans, compare ourselves to each other and measure ourselves against each other, but God does not see things like that. He does NOT compare us to each other or measure us by someone else. If we could come to think more like God, we would have no need to fear man. Sigh. Easier said than done, but it's a lovely idea to me.


• That same Sunday I played in a trio with a violin, harp, and me on flute. I must say, I have never played with a harp before, and it was divine. We rocked.


• So Dumbledore is _____!!! I won't say it because it is kind of a spoiler, but it has been in all the news. Let the record show that I totally called it when I was reading book 7. I totally knew it.
  
• Here is a pic of the Jerry's side first cousins. Clockwise from top left: Aubrey, Rebekah, Ainsley, Michael, Quinn, Evan, Courtney, Darcy, and Alex.

• Here is a pic of my sibs and me in Las Vegas. Clockwise from left: Heather, April, me, Amanda, Guy

• I am a vegetarian. Yup. A non-militant one. I have been thinking about it for a long time, and I didn't eat much meat before anyway. My reason is this: I don't like the idea of slaughtering animals that have personalities just like my cat does, draining their blood, chopping them up, and eating their muscle. If there is a choice, I choose not to eat animals. All power to you, though, if you like to eat animals, and if I ever am served meat in the future, I will eat it. And if I feel like eating meat in the future, I will eat it. See? Non-militant.
• My friend Carolyn always told me that I would love Silence of the Lambs. I would never watch it because it was rated R. But now I have seen large edited chunks (so to speak) of it on TV and absolutely love it. Carolyn was definitely right. So I am now reading the book, which is equally good in a different sort of way (not as creepy, more insight into Clarice's character), and I will get the sequel when I am done. Some darn good reading.
• Aubrey will be starting piano lessons next week. Of course the fact that we don't have a piano could have been a problem, but she will practice at the church every day between seminary and school. We want an upright piano. Our keyboard just don't cut it.
• Someone called me "Red" the other day. Love it.

pic and pet

• I found out that pictures ARE loading to my blog; they just won't display on my work computer. So I will blindly upload pics today. One pic is The Doctor, Rose, and the Tardis, from Doctor Who. I don't have a digital camera, so the only pics I have available of Las Vegas are ones people (Amanda) have sent me. Another pic is Sierra and me. The third is Rebekah, Lexi, Madison, Aubrey, and Sierra.



• Poubelle (but she goes by Kitty-Cat) and Shishkabob the parakeet had their yearly checkup yesterday. Both are well, but Kitty-Cat got two immunizations and needs to have some teeth extracted. I will have to drop her off next Friday for the whole day. They will give her general anesthesia, poor pooter. This will cost over $500 when all is said and done. Poor expensive pooter. The vet said she is likely in pain because of the teeth.

I Mind You Minding My Non-Open Mind, Mind

• I had to change offices today. No more window, alas. Still very glad to have my own office tho. Beats the heck out of a government cubicle.



• Dirty Sexy Money is good. Bionic Woman is not.



• I keep trying to watch South Park with an open mind. "People" keep telling me that it's really really good. To that I say, "Bah!" Every time I watch, all I see is crassness and vileness only for crassness's and vileness's sakes. Last night was an episode about Tourette's Syndrome. What a cliche and unoriginal theme. Perfect vehicle for crassness and vileness. If it was All That, it would have at least approached the topic in an original, creative way. I saw no sign of that whatsoever. South Park approached it in a completely predictable, vile, and crass way. Cheap. Somebody send me one shred of evidence that this show is worth more than a pile o' poo.
• Wow, I just read Stephen Fry's 27 September blog entry. Makes me highly regret my three or so approaches (letters mainly) I have made to famous people. Makes me want to stay far far away from anyone even remotely famous. Human interaction is so fraught with problems. You can't go wrong by avoiding people for the most part. Extroverts are mysteries to me.

Jubilation! She loves me again

• Yay yay yay! I had a virus or three on my laptop at work, so they wiped it clean and now I can access my blog!!! I've been keeping a list of all the things I want to say, so here goes.
  


• I just got back from Las Vegas at about 1:00 this morning. We were pretty full of ourselves since we were able to pay for a good chunk of the trip ourselves. George (Jerry's dad) did take care of our rooms, though, and he paid for us to see the show called O at the Bellagio. This show was fantastic. I thought about the Harry Potter cave scene throughout. Inferi, you know. Anyway, a person could see this show ten times and still not see everything there is to see. The main purpose of the trip was to celebrate Eila's (Jerry's mom's) 70th birthday. This went really well. Highlights for me were small cousin silliness, looking at Lela (one fine work of art this woman is), meeting the cousins from Finland, and the polenta at the Bellagio buffet.



• Also in Las Vegas I got together with my whole fam damily. All the siblings together, Dad, Grandpa Morgan, and many many more. Pics to follow. Highlights include fancy dreamy cupcakes, that stinker Lexi getting in the hot tub fully clothed, cousins in the pool, and Sierra falling asleep on my shoulder because I sang her "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". The best smell of the trip: Sierra.



• Best part of the trip: walking in the front door after getting home and picking up my soft fuzzy kitty. Then falling asleep on the couch with the TV on. I think someone might have once said, "There's no place like home."
  


• Jerry, Rebekah, and I went to the free open house at the Kennedy Center a few weeks ago. We saw these ridiculously good tumblers, a ballet, and a jazz band. It was a good trial run for when I have to go back there 16 November: Rebekah and I have tickets to see Mozart's Don Giovanni.
  


• Also at the Kennedy Center, through the Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars thingy, Aubrey was able to go to the National Symphony Orchestra's season opening concert for free. The reason: one of her fellow Scholars, Peng Peng, was a featured soloist at the concert. He is her age, and is a piano prodigy.
  


• Aubrey's 15th birthday was 23 September. She is having a sleepover this weekend. (She laughs when Jerry and I say "slumber party"; apparently this is passe.) We got her a bicycle. She had been riding around on an old rusty musty one, so she is thrilled. She likes to ride around until she gets lost, then find her way back home. And then try to make a map of the neighborhood. Silly girl. She bade her lovely fancy new lab book goodnight recently.

Her face is a map of the world

Is a map of the world

You can see she's a beautiful girl

She's a beautiful girl

And everything around her

is a silver pool of light

The people who surround her

feel the benefit of it

It makes you calm

She holds you captivated in her palm

Suddenly I see

This is what I wanna be

Suddenly I see

Why the hell it means so much to me

I feel like walking the world

Like walking the world

You can hear she's a beautiful girl

She's a beautiful girl

She fills up every corner

like she's born in black and white

Makes you feel warmer

when you're trying to remember

What you heard

She likes to leave you

hanging on a wire

Suddenly I see

And she's taller than most

And she's looking at me

I can see her eyes

looking from a page in a magazine

Oh she makes me feel

like I could be a tower

A big strong tower

She got the power to be

The power to give

The power to see

Suddenly I see

(by KT Tunstall)

• The other day Rebekah, out of nowhere, said, "I have a tummy full of blasphemy."


• Speaking of the legendary R (the ultimate nickname for Rebekah), she auditioned for, and was accepted in, the All-County Chorus and the elite Chamber Choir at her school. Also, the girl REALLY wants to go to Finland next summer. She has a standing invitation from her relatives over there. Wants to learn Finish too. Let's see what we can do about that....


• I hate mean people and cat pee.


• Every year my company SAIC rents out Six Flags for a free company party. We went again this year. Fun dat.


• Break a sweat today. Eat when hungry.


• House and Bones make Tuesdays worth living through. I also tried out Journeyman and Private Practice. Both are keepers.


• So nice to go back to eating oatmeal and string cheese and salad and such. Heavy food has its place, but enough is enough.


• Blogspot is not letting me attach pictures. I will come back and try to put some up later. Hopefully it will spontaneously regenerate. Formatting is also incredibly difficult on blogspot. Again, you get what you pay for. I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.

Non-abandoned blog

Ok, so weeks ago they blocked access to blogspot.com at work. I am so ticked; work is where I do all my blogging. Thus the lack of posts lately. Not from lack of things to say though. I have not abandoned blog. I will find a work-around if it kills me.

I, Anglophile

• I didn't end up watching "Firefly" (it wasn't available to view instantly on Netflix). However, I did watch every episode of Season One of "Doctor Who" (a.k.a. the 9th Doctor, for those who understand). I am eagerly awaiting Season Two to come in the mail from Netflix. Season One was available to view instantly, but not Season Two. I think David Tennant, who played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter, will make a nicely weird and creepy 10th Doctor. I told Jerry I want a Union Jack t-shirt like Rose, and he said why don't I just hurry up and move to England already.


• I also watched Taxi Driver (TV edited). Wow, that's some powerful stuff. Now I know where the line "You lookin' at me?" came from too.
• The weekend was good except Monday. Had a migraine all day. Caffeine helps the migraine, so I take advantage of the situation and get my caffeine in the tastiest way possible: frozen espresso drink from Starbuck's.


• ALSO watched Christopher Plummer--oops, I mean The Sound of Music. Aubrey hadn't seen it all the way through. Though that movie never really gets old, it's better if you watch with someone who hasn't seen it before.
  
• Today is the first day back to school. I like to see the excitement of going back to school, without having to go through it myself. Aubrey wouldn't pose for a picture for me because she knew I'd immediately post it here, so here is a picture of her walking toward the school after I dropped her off. HA, Aubrey. HA! You can't escape.