SURRENDER DOROTHY

If you live anywhere around my neck of the woods, you probably had to endure some pretty hinky weather yesterday. It was grossly warm and sticky that morning, but the bad weather moved in during the afternoon and settled in for a while. Luckily, I didn't get hit with a tornado (even though they seemed to be touching down all around us) but we did get some pretty heavy rain and the sirens went off a thousand times. My dogs really, really hate that siren, and they howl along with it whenever they hear it. I never really understood why until I went outside yesterday to look at the sky and it went off. That thing hurt my ears, and I'm almost deaf from years of blasting music into my head! I did manage to get a video and some neato pictures!



If you listen closely, behind the siren sound you can hear the dogs freaking out inside the house. I had to lay in the floor and talk to them to keep them calm. Also, when it looked like I almost dropped the camera, it was because a wasp landed in my hair. *shudder*

Here are also some shots of the sky. It was doing some pretty weird stuff right before the clouds covered everything. I thought it was pretty, though!

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) First off, I'd like to apologize to anyone who might have been redirected to this blog by accident. I seem to have an unusual number of international visitors who wind up here while doing searches for other blogspot sites, and I'd just to be clear, I have no idea what is happening. Hopefully, though, you'll be so enthralled by my wit and adorableness that you'll become a regular visitor! Right? *crickets-crickets-crickets*

2) I am now, and probably always will be, about 10 years old deep down inside. There is a hymn that is fairly common "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" that we have sung for as long as I remember. If you aren't familiar with the song, the first line goes:

"All hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall."

Every single time, for years and years and years, I giggle when we sing that song because in my mind, the line becomes:

"All hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels PROSTATE fall."

I know how childish and ridiculous that is, but I can't help it. It makes me think that when Jesus is around, the angels internal workings start to prolapse. Funny, maybe, but appropriate? Never.

3) Steve and I watched the last season of "True Blood" this weekend. It isn't a show that we trouble ourselves about while it's actually on, but once the season is over we will eventually look for the episodes we missed. I like the show alright, and it has some funny parts, but I'm not a huge fan of vampires. They don't scare me or anything, they just seem overly...pretentious and moody? Like supernatural MySpace cutters. Anyways, the show is pretty good for what it is, I guess. Of course, they make Louisiana a lot more interesting than it really is. If you could believe what they say, the state is full of attractive naked people, none of which are human. Bon Temps, indeed!

4) I made some apple cheddar scones this weekend that actually turned out good enough to make you slap your momma! I mean, don't....but they are that good. I thought I had burnt them, because while they were baking I kept smelling smoke. Thankfully, it was just something on one of the registers, because they turned out fine. This reminds me that I need to clean the oven today. I hate doing that. :( I mean, it's a self cleaning oven, but it scares me to have it on that high. Oh well...gotta do it. Boo.

5) After telling you guys that the sea monkeys were doing well, I've lost 3 of them and now only have 3 left. How sad. :( There are supposed to be babies, and I occasionally see one flitting around, but they never live long enough to grow up. Who knew you could get attached to water bugs?

This bird is awesome. All of your arguments are invalid.

NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES

The other night I had another nightmare, and believe it or not, it was not caused by chocolate! I don't remember what happened except that I was trapped in a hotel with a bunch of other people and some dead bodies. I don't think the hotel was even scary. It was like a really brightly lit Marriott or something, but there was a killer on the loose and every once in a while we'd happen upon a body stuffed under a bed and stuff like that.

The one, very vivid image from the dream that refuses to go away is one where a group of people I was in the hotel with (about 7 or 8 of us) thought we had trapped the killer in one of the rooms, and we were going to keep him trapped in there. Apparently the only way we could know for sure if the man inside the room was the bad guy was to sing, and if he didn't know the words, it was him.

(Shut up, it was a dream!)

So there we were, standing in a group outside the door and we all start singing "Sweet Caroline." I started it off, and the others joined in. When we got to the chorus, the door opened and an old, fat guy in a suit walked out holding a toothbrush and starting singing with us! I suppose we weren't too concerned that we had pegged the wrong guy because we kept on singing so we could finish the song. When we were almost to the end, I looked up and the killer (wearing a creepy mask) rides by on this old bicycle. He was going really slow and looking right into my eyes. It probably doesn't sound very scary to you...but jeez, it was disturbing.

Of course, ever since then, I've had the darn song stuck in my head and because of that dream the song has become unsettling. I have no idea what the dream was supposed to mean, but I am fully aware that I am now scared to death of Neil Diamond.

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Oy, yesterday was busy. I mean, I didn't have a lot of things to do, but it seemed like everything happened all at once. We were going to have the Pastor Appreciation pot-luck for Bro. Mylon after morning services, and as you know, I work in the kitchen, so as soon as I got to church I had to run downstairs and intercept covered dishes as they trickled in. I was also going to need to run the sound system during the services since the regular guy wasn't going to be there, so with cornbread still under my fingernails, I had to run upstairs and make sure the projectors and things were on and ready to go. Don't let anyone ever tell you I'm not multifaceted. :) Everything was going swell until the minister of music stopped in the middle of our first song and told me to put the right slide up. I had no idea what he was talking about, because the screen I could see was working just fine. Everyone turned to look at me and I was non-plussed. I finally looked over my head and saw that the screen over my head (the one on the back wall) was stuck on the announcements. I have no idea how that happened (unless I somehow hit a wrong button when I was trying to center the images). With everyone looking at me and giggling, I didn't know what else to say but "Wha? OK, that is NOT my fault!" The music minister turned and saw that the screen behind him was working, so he just laughed and finished the song without his words. During the prayer, I managed to get the thing working again. I'd like to think Jesus didn't mind a bit of tech support going on while everyone else was talking to him. The rest of the service went fine, and just before it ended, Steve came to take my place at the sound board so I could run back downstairs and write the words on our pastor's cake. We were running out of time to get everything done, and so my attempt at writing "Thank You" on the cake looked like someone with a bad case of Parkinson's Disease did it, but at least it was legible. Then, of course, the meal happened and that was a lot of running about and cleaning up afterward. I only burnt myself once, so there's a silver lining! I managed to get a short nap at home before turning around and doing the sound again for the evening service. I was so tired by the time we got home.

2) I have a couple of pictures of the jewelry I am learning how to make. These aren't my favorites, but I had already taken the best ones to the lady who runs the store. Also, I apologize that the pictures are bad, but I think my sad little Easy-Share is showing its age. :)

I love making these, but it hurts my neck to hunch over the table! I still have a long way to go before I'm anywhere as good as the lady from Singapore, and the clay I'm using doesn't seem to want to cooperate a great deal of the time. Either it's too soft and gooey, or it's too stiff to stick together. These, along with my other stuff, will be taken to the NEACA Craft show and to Lobsterfest at St. Thomas' Episcopal (where Miss Donna will have a craft table), as well as being available at Lynn's Silks and More. I'm very blessed that Donna thinks these are good enough to carry with her to these events, but I am still not very convinced anyone is going to want them. Eh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

3) A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a box of the seasonal Godiva truffles. I refuse to share these, as we all know, and I was roundly punished for my selfishness. There were only six of them in the box, and every night I happened to eat one, I had terrible nightmares. I don't even remember what they were about, either, but I have no doubt that the truffles caused them. I still stand by my notion that they cause the worst nightmares out of all the chocolate that I've tried this with. Of course, I haven't tried every chocolate in the world (yet...) but I think it must be the better quality chocolate that does this because cheap chocolate never gives me nightmares. I really wish I knew why it happens! If anyone out there wants to do real scientific research on this phenomenon, I'm still completely available to be a test subject! :)

LINKIES!

OK, this is just a quick one, but I had to share. I had a pen pal named Sarah from the time I was in the 4th grade til after I graduated high school. She was from Athens, Ohio and of course, I was from Athens, Alabama (don't know if that was intentional or not because my mom signed me up for the thing...but I digress.)

We never met in person, but I always loved to get her letters, and I always felt like we knew each other well. Of course, "knowing how way leads on to way" we haven't written each other in years, and it was only by coincidence that we found each other on Facebook. Recently, she posted a link to a blog all about how she and her twin sister found out they were pregnant almost exactly at the same time and I thought it was really sweet. I mean, I'm not really crazy about babies myself, but I really enjoyed reading this.

I'm late to the party on this one, because the babies have been born, but I thought it was cute! Today I pass the cuteness on to you.

You know, I came really close to just writing:

Nothing to see here, move along.

But, I won't. I don't have a great deal of things to write about at the moment, and the minutia of my days are very probably not of any interest to you guys anyways, but I like writing about stuff and I know some of you come here to check on me and make sure I'm still alive. So, for you wonderful people, here are some

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING!

1) I drove into Athens the other day to see my sister and drop some things off for her. She is helping her mother-in-law decorate a table for a banquet and I made some votive holders for her. It's always weird when I drive back to Athens, because it changes so much each time I go back (which goes to show you that I don't go back that often). I drove the "scenic route" I used to take when I lived out there, and it was difficult for me not to honk at the house where my Agribusiness teacher used to live. He moved far away, and unless I'm in Gadsden, I won't get to honk at him anymore. :( There is also a round-about where a four way stop used to be. I know how to drive through round-abouts, usually, but when you aren't expecting one, they are scary! I screamed the whole time as I whipped around it. I'm just lucky no one needed to enter it as I was going around, because I'm fairly certain I would have killed them! I managed to find my sister's office and I hung out for a while. It was fun! I got to meet a lot of people whom I'd only heard about before. Once of Angie's bosses (I think he's her boss) is a big Sci-Fi geek too, so we talked about Star Trek Phasers for a bit. He had one in his office! I also got to meet Stanley Menefee, who is running for County Commission Chairman. He seems like a lovely man, and a consummate politician. He handed me his card, and I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't live in the county, so I'll just tell you to vote for him if you live out that way!

2) I got two books the other day that I'm enjoying so far! One is called "Images of America: Athens and Limestone County" - which is fascinating and has tons of old pictures. The other is called "Wicked North Alabama" - which is about the bad things that have happened in North Alabama through the years. I know awful things go on around here, but it's kind of startling when you hear specific stories. I wonder if any of my family members will be in there? :) One of my favorite lines from the book was something like "Her marriage was very short lived, mainly because she shot him." How can you not love a book with things like that in it?

3) Speaking of family members, when I was coming back from seeing Angie, I stopped by to see my mom for a while. We were talking, and I happened to mention the "Wicked North Alabama" book to her and Grant. Grant, who's family has lived in that area longer than my own, said I might find his grandfather (or maybe great-grandfather) in the book somewhere. Apparently, when all that area was a farm, his grandfather would just go out and shoot people who trespassed on his property. Shoot them and kill them, and no one thought anything about it! I mean, I know times were different back in the day, but jeez. Total country anarchy! I know a few people who wouldn't mind if things were still like that. :)

4) I watched the new version of "Nightmare on Elm Street" yesterday and I was waaaaay underwhelmed at the whole thing. I love horror movies, and I really love the ones that are slightly silly and campy, which is why the original "Nightmare" is one of my favorites. I had hoped the new one would be just as good, with maybe better special effects, but it was just...bleh. Whoever made the movie took out all of the fun, scary stuff, slapped a blue/green filter over the mess, and really ramped up the "pedophile" angle of Freddy. It was just depressing. They also killed the dog...and you just DON'T kill the dog. EVER! Also, at one point I could have sworn I blacked out and missed something, because one scene went into another that had nothing to do with anything. I mean, I kept expecting the main girl to wake up from a coma or something to explain it, but it didn't happen. It was dumb. If I'm going to sit through a scary movie, I at least want to feel the need to flip on an extra light or something, and this just didn't do it. Stupid remakes. :(

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) I am freezing! I've got on two shirts, a hat, and shoes! At the end of last week, I was burning up in the house, so I had to switch the thermostat from just circulating air to actually turning the air conditioner. Today I'm freezing, and I have no idea how to turn the gas on so that the heater will work! Steve didn't get back from St. Louis until 1:00 am, and he had to leave early for a meeting, so he didn't get a chance to switch it on before he left! I know I should know how to do this already, but I don't remember what to do and I don't want to blow up my house.

2) I've pulled out my polymer clay again and have learned to make some pretty little...mosaics? I don't think that is what they are, but I don't know the proper name for the technique. Imagine taking tiny (1mm or less) balls of clay, putting them on a larger, smoother piece of clay and punching them down into it with a sharp instrument to make a pattern. That doesn't really explain what I'm doing, exactly, but it's the best I can do. An artist in Singapore does this and everything she makes is gorgeous! I don't think I will ever be as good as she is, but I'm not doing too badly so far.

3) I've been sick for the past week, and that has been a lot of fun. I have just been so tired and sneezy, and yuck. I thought it was my allergies at first, but the medicine I take for the allergies didn't help any. I'd pushed myself to go run errands at first, but it got to be too much for me after awhile, so I pretty much stayed home after that. With Steve gone for the end of the week and weekend, it was very boring around here!

4) My sea monkeys are doing fine, thanks. I've only lost one of the originals thus far, which is better than I thought I'd do. One of them freaks me out, though. It's a male (I can tell by his "mustache") and if I lean down to watch the tank, he stares at me. I know that is what's going on because he'll be swimming around, playing in the algae, and when I look in, he turns his beady little eyes on me and stops what he is doing. He'll just hover there in one place. It's creepy. If any of them become self aware, it'll be him. *shudder*

5) Still no joy on the job front. There have only been a handful of openings for graphic artists, and the past few have required a secret clearance to already be in place to be considered. My application for secret clearance was stopped just short of being finished when I lost my secretarial position in 2001. Also, if HR from the sprocket has me on record as "revealing confidential information online" as the reason I was let go, it will not be easy for me to ever get secret clearance if I ever apply again! I mean, unless it is specified that the information wasn't classified or whatever. I honestly have no idea how that works, so...we'll see. I'm still looking, that's the important thing at this point, I guess.

6) I wish I were at the beach. It wouldn't even need to be warm, I just wish I were there.