10:49am: What Would They Do Part 2
18-yr-old Adrienne bounces in the door last night. Very endearingly she says, "You love me, right, mommy?"

"Now what?"

Big smile. "You wouldn't mind making part of my dance recital costume--I told my teacher you'd be happy to help?"

The recital is in 10 days. She needs a one-piece tear-away shirt/vest/tie so she can do a one-minute costume change from the dad in "Mary Poppins" to a chimney sweep.

And I am positively delighted to have an assignment!

2:39pm: What Would They Do Without Me?
I get a phone call from a daughter--I shall be kind and leave her nameless--who is living in another state.

"Mom, I have been looking for the cannister set I got as a wedding present, and it's not in the closet where we put the things I wasn't going to use right away. Do you know where we put it?"

Since I had helped organize her storage closet in November 2006, of course I knew the answer.

"Dear, I don't think you ever got the cannister set from anyone."

"Really? Let me check the list of thank-you notes and see..."

Two hours later I get the call:

"You were right, Mom, I never got the cannisters."

Even by the normal standard of moms-knowing-where-everything-is I think this deserves special mention.

8:16am: Sleep is Highly Overrated
I am laughing at how things work out, which is a good thing, considering...

The kids and I went to the midnight showing of Indiana Jones and got home at 2:30 AM. I was in bed by 3:00, got up at 5:00 and got to work at 7:00. Now I don't HAVE to be at work till 9:00 but I usually arrive 30-60 minutes early to get work done without interruption. However, yesterday the housekeeping department manager said he would send a cleaning person over to our office at 7:30 this morning, so I had to get there to let her in since I live the closest. I'm sitting at my desk, industriously going through the piles of paperwork when I realize it is 7:45 and there's no cleaning person yet. So I call and find out that the housekeeping the department is short-handed this morning, and we won't get our cleaning person till 3:00 this afternoon.

I could have slept for 2 more hours...but I am laughing, at least right now. Not sure if I'll appreciate the irony quite as much at 5:00 this afternoon...

And if you are curious, the movie was good, we all gave it a B/B+. It did a good job of introducing the new character that Shia LeBeouf plays, and it had decent people scenes as well as the most amazing swordfight I have ever seen. The best part, however, may have been sitting next to Adrienne and watching her react to the movie--at one point she practically jumped in my lap. I must confess, there were a couple spots that made me jump too, though.

12:23am: Quizzical Query
You know you're having a bad Scrabble day when you have the 'Q' and 3 'U's and you end up making the world 'QI'.

I have yet to win a game agaisnt Adrienne this year! I keep telling myself that it's the mark of a good teacher when the pupil surpasses them--but come on, couldn't she just win by 10 points or something? Once in a while?

9:14pm: I Love my Job...
...even though I spent the last 45 minutes of my work day going through the trash bin for one of our senior clients. Seems that when she had one of our caregivers working at her house yesterday, between the two of them they managed to throw out her tax return which needed to be mailed.

I found it AND left the client laughing about it.

5:25am: Feeling Pleased with Myself
So yesterday our 5-person office moved across the street to a freshly renovated storefront. (I spent last weekend cleaning the bathroom after construction and straw-bossing the rest of the staff painting all the woodwork after the boss spent 2 days installing the drop ceiling panels.)

Jack had put me in charge of coordinating the move 2 weeks ago, so (naturally) the move went off like clockwork. Got my office completely packed before I went home Thursday night; got in at 7:15 Friday morning and packed up the computers, then put all the boxes in the corridor for the maintainance guys to move. Then I looked in Julie's office and she hadn't done anything about cleaning the top of her desk or file cabinet (she's only known about the move for 2 weeks--sarcasm) so I grabbed a couple of empty boxes and threw stuff in them and labeled them 'Julie's desk top' and Julie's file cabinet top.' At 8:30 they started bringing over the desks and boxes--starting with Julie's now-empty desk--and I knew exactly where everything went as it was brought in. My co-workers were quite amazed at how efficiently the whole thing went.

I had insisted that we have the guy from the phone system come out and give the entire office a training on the the new phone system, and I took notes, so that this afternoon when we started to program our voicemails and forwarding numbers; Jack tried to do it from memory, then he told me to get my notes :) And he thought I was being overly obsessive about getting the phones explained. Ha!

Turns out we're getting a new furnace installed Saturday, and since Jack lives in Naperville, and Julie showed up for moving at 8:00 around 10:30, I volunteered to come in. So while I could have had my file cabinet and the office supply cabinets completely organized by 4 PM, I didn't push so I have something to do tomorrow.

So last night I started thinking how I used to organize Summer Theater, and realized exactly why I am so good :)

8:58pm: Warm Fuzzy Story
When Sarah was here for her 36 hour visit Christmas Eve, she and Adrienne went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Star Wars exhibit while Erica and I were at work. They came home talking about having seen the Holy Grail--the real Yoda, and Princess Leia's actual costume, Han Solo's blaster, the real Millennium Falcon, etc. They were pretty funny to listen to.

They each bought a souvenir key chain--Adrienne got the Millennium Falcon, Sarah got Princess Leia's blaster. Keep in mind I said key chains--the actual pewter models are maybe 1 1/4 inches long.

Sarah left on Christmas Day to meet Ted in Toronto and spend Christmas with his family. The trouble happened when they arrived at airport security on their way home. When Sarah put all her items on the conveyor to be x-rayed, the security guard grabbed her keys and studied the blaster keychain. No guns or gun-like objects allowed. But he would ask his supervisor. Well, it is only a key chain, but still, better check with the manager. Nope, rules are rules. No blaster keychain allowed on board.

At this point they were going to miss the plane, so Sarah let them take it. When she got home she called me with the sad story.

Being a mom, I searched the web that night. Surely I could find her a replacement. But no, I could find the Millennium Falcon keychain but not the blaster. So the next morning I emailed the museum's "Contact Us". The exhibit's last day was Sunday--this was Friday. I explained the sad story and asked if there was any way I could get a replacement keychain from the museum store without having to pay for admission into the museum.

But the weekend passed without a reply, and I figured that was it. Then Tuesday I get a phone call. The fellow that received my email had managed to secure the last blaster keychain from the museum store before the merchandise was packed up, and he wanted Sarah's address so he could mail it to her. When I asked how much, he said he was sending it free of charge because that had been such a ridiculous decision by airport security!

I thanked him profusely, hung up and called Sarah, who of course was thrilled!

One of those happenings that really makes me feel good about the human race.

Oh, and why I couldn't find a replacement online? The blasters were a special order to be sold at the exhibit only!

10:37am: Adventures in Babysitting
So, last night I had a chance to babysit the little boy I'd taken care of once a week for the last year but stopped when I started working full-time. (Actually, I passed the job to Adrienne so she knew all about his quirks before she started, and I still get to hear the stories about what he's doing.)

I put him in his crib around 7:15 and he went right to sleep. About 9:45 suddenly I hear him crying over the baby monitor, seriously upset. I went upstairs to his room. By the hall light I could see he was sitting up and I went over and touched the side of his head. It was soaking wet...and slimy...and the room smelled really bad. Mom radar kicked in. When I turned on the light, sure enough, he had thrown up all over the crib and himself, and was crying hysterically.

Well, this certainly isn't the first time I've dealt with kid puke, so I scooped him up at arms' length and carried him to the bathtub. Found a washcloth, cleaned his face, turned on the tub water, peeled off his pjs, and wiped him down. Then I wrapped him in a towel and sat in the rocker with him until he calmed down, poor kid.

Clean pjs, message left on his mom's cellphone, and I sat him on the floor so I could tackle the crib cleanup. Had to take off the crib bumper, all the blankets and stuffed animals, and then the crib sheet. Of course, I couldn't figure out how to get the railing down on this newfangled crib, so I did all this leaning over it, and then threw everything in the bathtub. Then came the biggest challenge: finding crib sheets. I went through his dresser, his closet, and the hall linen closet. No sheets. Okay, time to improvise. I carried him downstairs and got a fleece blanket from the couch, folded it in half, and tucked it around the edge of the mattress as best I could.

I am almost done when I hear him make a strange coughing noise--sure enough, he's throwing up again. Fly him to the bathroom to puke on the tile floor, he's all upset again, I clean him up and put on clean pjs. Grabbed some cloth diapers I'd come across and sat in the rocker with him. This time when he started to throw up I just held the diaper under his chin and caught everything. Not exactly the most pleasant sensation but way better than the alternative.

Finally he falls asleep, I put him back in the crib, and go back downstairs. 45 minutes later I hear him start to gag over the monitor, race back up and get there in time to catch most of it in the diaper I'd cleverly left on the side of the crib. Only required a little clean up and rocking and he was back asleep.

His mom called later, not having heard her cell because she'd been in a noisy place, totally horrified at herself for not having raced home immediately, and she and her husband came right home. I assured her it really wasn't a big deal, he didn't have a fever, I figured it was just an upset tummy. She admitted she would probably have rushed to the ER because this had never happened before, and was gratefully apologetic that I'd had to deal with it.

The part that I am proudest of: 4 pukes and not a spot got on me. I'm so good. And now I have another story to add to the one about the Halloween where all 3 of my girls spent 24 hours puking. (Lined 'em up on the living room floor on sleeping bags, each with their own puke bucket. But that's another story. And you probably don't need the details.)

10:38pm: There Are Moments...
I have always viewed each of my 3 girls as individuals, appreciated each for her unique mix of qualities, and seen something in each one that is my favorite part of being her mother.

However...

Three weeks ago I started my first full-time job in 25 years, as the 'caregiver scheduler' for a nursing home that also supplies in-home help to seniors in the community. My co-workers are all empathic, good-intentioned people. However, when the caregivers' network was started several years ago it was not particularly well-thought-out, and there's no consistancy in how things are handled. That's okay, it's why I wanted the job, to create order out of chaos. (My specialty.) But Monday was especially trying because 3 different people were involved in one intake but no one was 'in charge' and it was a mess.

We are also in the process of switching to a new computer system for scheduling and tracking, and I am responsible for setting it up. I had arranged a meeting this morning to discuss some of the parameters we need to set in the program, but I sidetracked my own meeting to talk about Monday's mess and ideas on how to prevent it from happening again. I admit I got rather passionate about doing things right for our clients and the need to work as a team to get this done. Then we talked about the computer setup, and at the end of the meeting I asked if we have ever done anything special to acknowledge our caregivers at holiday time. When the answer was no, I asked if I could throw a party to show we appreciate the emotional energy that doing caregiving work takes, and my boss said go ahead.

Our meeting was in the conference room which is right next to the office I share with another woman. This afternoon she asks me what I was yelling about at the meeting.

"Yelling?" I remark with puzzlement, "I wasn't yelling."

"I could hear you over the radio, and I had it pretty loud. I could hear you yelling."

Oh dear. I know I was being very passionate about the need to fix the problem, but I didn't think I was yelling...

So I tell this story to each of my daughters. Erica and Adrienne both say promptly, "See, Mom, we always tell you you're yelling!"

Sarah says, "Wow, you must have been emphatic!"

Tonight, for the first time, I do have a favorite daughter. :P Especially since, when I added the part about the boss saying I can go ahead with the holiday party, Adrienne said, "Well, he was probably afraid if he said no you'd yell at him some more."

11:46pm: What a Surprise!

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Lord Havelock Vetinari You are Lord Vetinari! Supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork! Cool, calculated, and always in control. You graduated from the assassins guild, but failed a course on stealth and camouflage, because the professor never saw you there (even though you attended every class). You always seem to know what everyone is thinking, and after a conversation with you, people feel that they have just escaped certain death. Carrot Ironfounderson 69% Lord Havelock Vetinari 69% Cohen The Barbarian 56% Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 50% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 50% Commander Samuel Vimes 44% Death 44% The Librarian 38% Greebo 25% Rincewind 6%

9:22pm: Forgive my Boasting...
...but I rock!

I got a new job, my first full-time paycheck since 1982 (when I had Sarah.) I have been a part-time in-home senior caregiver for a Senior Network since March. 3 weeks ago my boss quit and I thought, what the hell, and applied for her job.

Well, I got it. My job is to schedule the caregivers and clients. Now, there are currently 2 people sort of splitting the ex-boss's job while doing their own full-time work, so the first day I got lots of random information with no context. Went home with lots of notes, looked at them, came up with a list of questions to fill in the gaps, and spent day 2 asking LOTS of questions.

I discovered that there is no comprehensive list ANYWHERE that shows which caregiver works with which client. There was a list of 47 caregivers--when I asked about them, the person filling in for the ex-boss only knew about 20 names. There was a list of clients--again, only about 15 were known to be using the caregiver service, the rest are question marks.

So I figured I'm going to have to make lots of phone calls, and by the end of two days of work I'd talked to 6 caregivers and made notes of their schedules and who wants more hours.

Today, day 3, we had two situations that needed fill-in caregivers on short notice. So I looked at my notes and suggested 2 names. My boss said I was brilliant and we lined them up.

It's not necessarily that I'm really that brilliant, it's just that I see how pieces can be fit together efficiently. All those years of figuring how to get 3 kids to 3 places in 3 different directions at the same time are paying off!

Actually, I am sooo excited because I already really like my coworkers and the philosophy really seems to be to meet the needs of the seniors first. There was a senior who was supposed to have been scheduled for a ride to the doctor, and he didn't get on the list. When he called asking where his driver was, the Director of Marketing jumped in her car and drove him. Now, not getting him on the list was a screw-up--but taking care of him was the priority. And I know I can set up a system that will make those kinds of mistakes not happen.

It's very hard to describe, but I am thrilled to be getting a mess to organize, because I know what I have to do to straighten it out and I know I can do it--and not only can I do it, it's what I'm especially good at and enjoy doing!

Wheeee!

7:43pm: What the Heck...
On Friday at 5 PM as I was driving home from a housecleaning job, I decided I would have a yard sale the next day.

I have had 3 garage/yard sales in the last 25 years, all meticulously prepared for and properly advertised. Now, to be truthful, ever since the great Rubbermaid tub purge of the spring I have been gathering stuff to be sold online or given to Salvation Army in 3 specific places in the apartment, so I mostly knew where the inventory was and how it was semi-organized. Plus a month ago my sister in Rockford had given me a box of her garage sale stuff--the only box that survived her basement flood.

After supper I drafted the unlucky kid that was home and she helped for an hour sticking prices on things while I stacked everything in the front stairwell in the order it would go out in the morning. Then I printed up "Yard Sale" and my address in 128 pt font and taped the paper to cardboard and sticks for the morning.

At 7:30 AM I started putting things out, using the empty tubs as my tables (a stroke of brilliance, if I may say so) and putting beach towels on the grass to hold the universally-priced things like the stuffed animals for $1 and dress-up hats for .25.

At 8:45 poor Adrienne was again 'volunteered' to man the opening of the sale while I put up signs on six neighborhood corners and do my one-hour stint for my weekend senior citizen client. (I make her breakfast on the weekends.) I left Adrienne perched on a folding chair huddled over a cup of tea and a book, very annoyed. However, when I returned an hour later, she had 3 customers making purchases and announced that we had made $6.75 so far.

I sat out till 3:00 and made just over $100 from people who just walked or drove by, and I only had one $10 item (actually belonging to my sister) and a few $3 things--everything else was $1 or less. I was very pleased! And it was fun to sell the sequin princess crown (.25) to the little boy for his baby sister, watch the frog puppet ($1) go to a new home, and sell one of the little Troll dolls (.50) to the gentleman from the nearby senior home who showed me the Troll on his keychain.

I packed up the remainder into 2 tubs and 2 boxes that fit neatly into my trunk, and, because everything went so smoothly, I decided that instead of driving everything to the Salvation Army this week, I am going to borrow my sister's driveway in Rolling Meadows and have a yard sale there this coming Saturday.

Anybody want some stuffed animals or 500 piece puzzles?

9:03pm: Kids!
So my teenage daughter comes home and says, "Guess what I did today when I was going to my dance class at Northeastern?"

I make random absurd guesses to which she says, "Nope, not even close. I rescued a chicken that was stuck in a cemetery fence!" Note that we live urban area of nearly 3 million people.

Only my kid...

12:31am: We Finished!
At 11:48 pm on Sunday July 29, I finished finished the last sentence of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows to my girls.

I know, I said we wouldn't read again until Monday, but the relatives visiting from Texas left at 8:30 and we seized the time!

It was very good but I am still digesting it. My hat is off to J. K. Rowling for intricate plotting. She must have a very devious mind. Some people may consider it heretical, but I would have to say she gives Lois McMaster Bujold a run for her money in plot complexity, though not quite in characters. (Ducks rotten vegetables heading this way.)

11:53pm: The End Is Near!
Read 159 pages over 4 1/2 hours--my reading rate has gone up a tiny bit, to 34 pages per hour. I suspect that can be attributed to the frantic pace of what's happening...more than once I had to stop because I was reading so fast my tongue got twisted...

But we had to stop 4 chapters from the end because 2 of the 3 of us have to get up early--grrrr!!!!!!!!!!!! 100 pages to go and Rowling just threw in another mystery, and there's a huge battle between the forces of good and evil going on, and based on what's happened so far I'm sure we're going to lose more favorite characters, and Harry still doesn't know how he's going to vanquish Voldemort!!!!!!!!

And the absolute worst bit is that, due to totally incompatible schedules, we won't be able to read again until Monday night!!!!!!!!

(The absolute funnest thing about reading this out loud has been Adrienne's and Erica's reactions--Yelling "shit" when a bad guy shows up at the wrong moment, clapping in glee when a good guy arrives in the nick of time, collapsing onto each other in relief when another catastrophe has been survived--they are a very rewarding audience. They were exhausted when I stopped tonight.)

12:00am: Update
Read exactly 100 pages over 3 hours tonight.

So far I have cried at 3 places (none connected to anyone dying)and read one utterly joy-inducing section. (Chapter 19.) And I am at a loss as to how on earth it is all going to come together at the end, everything is just getting more convoluted!

But it's wonderful so far!

12:32am: Reading Marathon
So, I am reading the last Harry Potter aloud to my 17 & 19 year old daughters at their request, as that is how we read the first 5 books together.

Started Saturday night (book delivered from Amazon on Saturday) after coming home from all day at the Ren Faire. Read 3 chapters.

Sunday got in 2 chapters in the morning before Adrienne had to leave for work, and 3 more chapters when we were all home again at 9 pm.

Today I read 2+ hours in the afternoon and 3 1/2 hours tonight, stopping at 12:30 am because I have to work tomorrow morning. All together I have read aloud for 9 chapters today, for close to 6 hours. I just did the math, I read 198 pages, which translates to 33 pages an hour. 475 pages to go--14 1/2 more hours.

On the one hand, it's torturous to go so slowly, having to put the book down for hours. And yet it also means that I have time to savor what I have read, instead of racing through it at breakneck speed to reach the end and then finding it has all become muddled in the middle. And surprisingly I am not, as I've done with the previous books, spending time speculating about what is going to happen next--my mind seems to have taken the position that Rowling is so far ahead of me that speculation is pointless.

We have one poor friend who finished the complete book in one day. She desparately wants to talk about it but is restraining herself admirably. I did ask her to choose between two words to describe how she felt when she had finished: satisfied or distressed. She chose satisfied, maybe that's why I've put aside speculating.

Wonder if I'll have a voice left by the end?

7:20pm:
Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

11:55pm: Harry Potter
I have just finished rereading all 6 books in a two week period in preparation for the big number 7.

I have also just returned from seeing "H.P. and the order of the Phoenix." Yesterday and today I had watched movies 1 through 3 (ran out of time for the fourth one.)

Random thoughts:
I was weirded out by how some of the movie scenes had usurped my recollection of how the book actually went. For instance in the "Prisoner of Azkahban" movie the time-traveling Hermoine throws a stone through Hagrid's window to get Ron, Harry, and herself to leave the hut before the executioner arrives. When I re-read the book I was expecting that to happen and totally surprised that it didn't occur that way at all!

I am also surprised at how my opinions have changed. Originally I didn't care for the first movie but really liked the third. Rewatching them, I had the opposite reaction this time.

Oh, and OotP was very good generally--maintained the atmosphere pretty well--but they blew Sirius Black's death scene in my opinion. The casting of new people, espcially Luna and Umbridge, was perfect, and I find it remarkable how the kids cast from the start have physically grown into character perfectly, especially how Daniel Radcliffe is now the shortest of the boys.

Just my thoughts. Can't wait for next Saturday! (Having my copy delivered on release day by Amazon.) And I am kinda tickled because when I asked my 17 & 19 year old daughters how we were going to handle sharing one copy between us, they asked if I could read it aloud like I did for the first 5 books. Aaawwww.

They must remember I read the last 360 pages of book 5 out loud in one sitting because I couldn't bear to stop.

5:45pm: Silly Test Results (not saying if the test is silly or the results are)

Link: The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

4:54pm: My Secret Pirate Life
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Your LiveJournal Pirate Crew LiveJournal Username Fifteen men on a dead man's chest! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!Ew... How unsanitary.*dances a jig on a dead man's chest* Cutlass or pistol? CutlassPistolTorpedoHeat vision What is the name of your pirate ship? Where is your secret pirate base? Jolly Pirate IslandTreasure IslandPleasure IslandIsland of DoomGilligan's IslandWindfall Island What kind of loot do you prefer? Pieces of eight!Bling!Babes!Booze!Crowns and scepters!Target giftcards! What do you and your crew prefer to be called? Freebooters!Swashbucklers!Corsairs!Seadogs!Desperados!Pirates, of course! Parrot or monkey? ParrotMonkeyUnicornKittenT-Rex Argh! Ahoy, matey!Avast!Shiver me timbers!I'll see you to Davy Jones!Argh! Ack! Gah! *thud* Your capable first mate ballestra Your bumbling cabin boy with a heart of gold dievalkyrie_99 The aloof, yet honorable, pirate with a mysterious past _defenestrated_ Is always the first one into the fray jesselinderbard Is the naval officer who ruthlessly pursues your ship le_trombone Is the comical pirate who is always drunk on grog her_wormieness Is currently in Davy Jones's locker her_wormieness The amount of money you make as a pirate $55,101 This Fun Quiz created by Lynn at BlogQuiz.Net

Scorpio Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

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5:46pm: Mother's Day
I had an especially nice Mother's Day, since my oldest daughter was able to be home for the first time in years--her band played in Minnesota the night before, and they dropped her off in Chicago on Sunday morning.

So I got to sit around and listen to my 3 girls play music together, which always makes me very happy.

And they gave me a hubcap for my present.

8:24pm: A Bizarre Trip Down Memory Lane
The landlady wants us to stop using the hallway as storage space, which means I have been spending this week (and probably the next 2 months) going through the 40+ Rubbermaid tubs that we packed up and moved 3 years ago.

Over the last 20 years I have done a LOT of theatrical stuff with my kids and their friends. We have 2 trunks of dress-up costumes which I struggled through and ended up with a pile of about 6 things I could get rid of. So I called in my 17- and 19-year-old girls and went through the trunks with them, and they ruthlessly threw 3/4 of the stuff in the 'get-rid-of' pile, which I promptly rescued and said that my oldest daughter has to sign off on anything we are giving away. (She is visiting from Nahville in a couple weeks and is thrilled to death at this prospect.)

But who's to say that I might not someday have a granddaughter (or a cross-dressing grandson) who absolutely needs a yellow and aqua crushed velvet leotard with matching leggings? They have no idea how hard it will be to find something like that in 10 years!

I haven't gotten to the tub labelled "Bad Guy Dress-Up," although I know it contains a giant rubber alligator head mask that stood in for the dragon head mask that I couldn't quite justify spending $50 for...

However I did start wading through the contents of the other 3 "Miscellaneous" tubs. A partial list of the contents of the first tub includes:

-a real coconut, halved and cleaned
-Princess Leia's belt
-a 'Dukes of Hazzard' ashtray
-2 probationary membership cards to the Thieves Guild
-5 eyepatches
-a giant size deck of playing cards (4x6 inches)
-2 pair of mangled eyeglasses
-1 rubber knife and 2 rubber knife sheaths
-4 cheerleader pom-poms, 3 red and 1 gold
-a gas mask
-a giant spider costume
-12 sets of killer rabbit ears on headbands
-a shoebox of glass potions bottles
-a broken Golden Whatsit
-a black plastic cauldron
-a styrofoam wig head stand
-a giant roach puppet
-a pillbox labelled "Magic Headache Medicine"
-a pair of elf ears

The really scary thing is, I know when and for what each of these items was used. But since I don't know which ones I will need in the future, how can I possibly get rid of any of them??? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find perfectly good mangled eyeglasses on short notice?

What to do?

7:25am: I Needed a New Obsession
So for the last 2 months or so, my youngest has been spending her life at a friend's watching all the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' dvds. Since, while my kids were growing up, the TV was only turned on for Star Trek, no one in our house had ever seen any of Buffy.

Listening to my daughter's episode recaps made me curious about what the heck she was watching, especially when our discussion degenerated to the point where I had to tell her she was not allowed to date a vampire.

So, compulsive type that I am, I sat down at midnight on Saturday and started to read all the Buffy episode summaries on Wikipedia. By 5 AM I was halfway through season 3; after a few hours of sleep, I spent the next 4 hours reading the rest of them.

Wow. Poor Buffy never catches a break, does she.

Does anyone else find it odd that there is such an incredible concentration of evil archetypes in that one little town? Oh, that's right, it's a TV show.

9:38pm: Is Nothing Sacred?!?
So I just heard the theme from the original Star Trek series used for a Hummer commercial.