An update, kinda

Crazy how much they've grown since that picture up there:

(and this is 6 months ago already)

And yet, stayed the same:

Fierce summer storm knocked out power and dropped temps from 102 to 75, plus some roofs and trees. Sitting on the front porch wishing for a good novel.

Why do pastel M&Ms taste better than regular M&Ms?

And could someone edit this picture to flip them all the same direction? I suppose that's the price I pay for jacking someone else's M&Ms, but I already ate mine.

Merry Christmas!!

My favorite person singing my favorite Christmas song:

Eleven degrees of (napster) separation

I was looking for new music last night, following recommendations on Napster, and realized that by the time I got 5-6 clicks from my original search, I could be in a totally different genre. For example, a search starting with Harry Connick Jr made it to Metallica in about 9 or 10 clicks. So, I decided to challenge myself to see how fast I could get there from something more difficult.

Max and Ruby (Nickelodeon cartoon) - slightly tricky since most of the recommendations were Canadian

The Belmonts - I picked the least Canadian sounding group

Barry Mann - I thought that would get me closer than it did

Luciano Pavarotti - I was hoping he'd link directly to Sting or, even better, Suzanne Vega, because of the "and Friends" albums, but it didn't

Josh Groban -

Sting -

Suzanne Vega - key to everything - this game could be called Six Degrees of Suzanne Vega, but it would be too easy.

Gin Blossoms

Blind Melon

Alice in Chains

Metallica

My MP3 player has a lot more variety now (yes, I did add something from every artist along the way). Anyone have another challenge for me?

Right 'round

No reason, except that I had to Napster the new version so that I can play it for HEY later. "I don't know if I've ever even heard the original version." Whatever. And guess what, I didn't know there was a new version until tonight. Ha. I'm so cool.

I'm sitting in the driveway in the van because I dropped off 2 of the kids at a rehearsal and the rest of the kids, who have been home sick all day, fell asleep on the way home. Unwilling to drag 3 sleeping kids in and back out again in an hour, I just ran in to grab my laptop and pretend to study/write a paper. And download Right Round.

School was going well. I finished all but one class I had picked for this term in the first month. But now, a research paper... I started it the beginning of October and I have a thesis statement and...some research saved in my folder in the virtual library and...a couple of articles picked out to add to the annotated bibliography I had planned to finish the first week and...that's it. I don't know why exactly I'm dragging my feet on this. It's fairly ridiculous. As soon as I finish it, I can move on to classes I like again. I really want to move on to classes I like again. Classes that I can finish and feel accomplished again. I have a new, firm goal now though - must be done by Thanksgiving Break. If it's not, I might as well shoot for my original deadline (set by my mentor because we didn't know I was going to bust out 4 classes in the first month) of January 7. I can do this.

Hmm, my left ear just went silent except for some ringing. That's a weird and unpleasant feeling. It's a good thing my job doesn't depend on being able to hear things. Oh, wait...

I am actually kind of excited for Christmas this year. Generally, Christmas is usually bittersweet for me. The last time I spent Christmas with my family (sibling, parents) was 1998. Christmas growing up was always awesome, mostly because of family and family traditions and grandparents and cousins and games and etc. etc. etc. and quirky presents from my dad (matching hairdryers x3 for me and my sisters). And so Christmas has been kind of this giant reminder that Hey!! You live so very far away from all these people that you love and what if you never get to spend another Christmas with your grandparents? I don't know if it's because we did get to see so many this summer on the Epic Road Trip or just more resolve to just do the best I can to make Christmas awesome for my kids (note, I do usually do that, the bittersweetness stays inside) or maybe that there is a glimmer of hope that we will someday, SOMEDAY move closer or that in general, maybe, there's a glimmer of hope as I maybe, maybe get out of this funk that I've been in for way tooooo long, anyway...I'm actually kind of excited for Christmas this year. Making plans and all that jazz.

And now, it's time to go fetch the girls from rehearsal.

A Little Visitor