Oh, deer...

On my way home Saturday night, I saw a deer crossing the road. Of course I slowed down, and noticed that there were more deer following the first one. LOTS more. I counted eight total. And this was right in the middle of Litchfield! Ok, granted, we're not exactly a bustling metropolis, but still, it was a residential area, complete with sidewalks and houses lined up along the street. Not exactly the spot where one is used to encountering that many deer all at once!
Since there were eight, I looked closely to see if any had collars that said Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen....
Nope.
Still, pretty impressive.
On a semi-related tangent, HERE'S a picture of an unfortunate deer that got caught in somebody's bumper.

Weird dreams

(1) I dreamed that I was the star of some spy film (like the lady version of James Bond)...(Janna Bond?)
And at the end of the movie, when the credits rolled by, the theme music played.
I remember the lyrics because they made no sense:
"The big and large and Swedish dog
Which finds a home in God...."
And the music was a combination of Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey? and the theme to My Three Sons.

(2) Then I dreamed I was in some large assembly hall in Holt, Michigan. The hall had multiple rooms and I was in one with some guy and some lady. They were both studying or reading something. I noticed to my horror that there were some weird worm-like creatures on the floor. (I have scoleciphobia and I HATE WORMS!) I froze and let the guy know I was terrified. He seemed puzzled but obliged me by picking up the phone and dialing the number for an exterminator. Then he handed the phone to me so I could make the arrangements with the exterminator. I had to let the phone-person know where we were, so I searched for an address. This was easier said than done, because the address number kept changing. In addition to the building number, there was a room number posted on the outside of the door. First it was four digits, then I noticed actually it was five digits... and a moment later it had changed to six digits. And the numbers were different every time I looked at them. Sometimes they actually looked like letters instead. I couldn't explain to the exterminator-lady exactly where we were, which was really frustrating for me. Plus, I kept freaking out, hyperventilating and making terrified noises every time I saw one of the worms. Fortunately, the phone-lady remained courteous and patient, and eventually somehow they were able to find us. I moved to another room, and after awhile the exterminator guy came in and handed ME the bill.
I don't remember what the cost was, but I took it anyway. Hey, if it gets rid of worms, it's worth just about any price.

I can dream, right?

Eight things I know I'm not getting for my birthday
(but would still be neat anyway)
1) A nice fountain pen.
2) Dinner at Clementine's in South Haven, Michigan.
3) Year's supply of Frova (prescription migraine medicine)
4) Magic wand that would fix all my friends' relationship troubles.
5) A sweet guy who loves me and all my bizarre but endearing quirks.
6) Magic litter box that makes cat poop disappear 7) Shiny new nickel-plated double French horn by Lawson.
8) Sibelius music composition software.

:)

Thursday Thirteen X 2

Thirteen Actors I Like:
1) David Hyde Pierce
2) Johnny Depp
3) Jon Cryer
4) Charlie Sheen
5) Orlando Bloom
6) Patrick Stewart
7) Armin Shimerman
8) Liam Neeson
9) Thom Bray
10) John C. McGinley
11) Sean Connery
12) Robin Williams
13) John DeLancie

And, just because I feel bloggerifically prolific today, here are thirteen more:
14) John M. Jackson
15) Tim Curry
16) Bob Newhart
17) John Cleese
18) John Lithgow
19) Dwight Schultz
20) Michael Keaton
21) Christopher Walken
22) Steven Culp
23) Jeff Goldblum
24) Will Smith
25) Brent Spiner
26) Peter MacNicol

Prison etiquette

Click here for today's news article.
Here's another article about the same thing.
Moral of the story: If you're in prison, try not to fart too much-- your cellmate might just want to beat the crap out of you.

Jalapeno Cheddar Doritos

World Premiere: Janna is about to try the new "Jalapeno Cheddar" flavor of Doritos for the very first time. Gather your loved ones around the computer and get ready!
Here we go....
(Janna opens bag and begins munching)
.... Hmmm.
Well, they're ok. Nothing too special. They're not really all that different from the regular "Nacho Cheese" flavor, and they're certainly not "HOT", by any stretch of the imagination. They'd be good layered on a platter, topped with taco meat, cheese, and hot sauce. But by themselves, ehhh. Not bad, not spectacular. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give them a 5.
Maybe a 6.

More changes

This evening I wrestled with HTML, trying to find a way to post a new banner. (One with my own text/fonts on it, instead of Blogger's limited choices).
It took awhile, and was frustrating, but I did it! :)

Changes

Everyone else seems to be changing their templates around, so I decided I might as well try something new too. This banner/background is one I made a few months ago. I'll leave it up for a few days. If I like it, I'll keep it.
Any thoughts?

Ew! Ew! Ewwww!

Morgen told me this stuff existed, and I just didn't wanna believe it...
But yes, Virginia, there is a road-kill-stew, and it's called "Burgoo".
Here's a story ALLLLL about it.

Sample paragraph:
"But unlike Brunswick stew, which has been embraced by epicures, burgoo is just a generation removed from its roots as a roadkill-and-veggie ragout. Indeed, in the late 1990s, during the scare over mad cow disease, health officials warned Kentuckians to stop eating squirrel brains, which, like squirrel meat, remains a something of a delicacy here."

It's a sad world when people actually have to be TOLD not to eat squirrel brains.

I'd like to thank the academy, and my agent, and....

Cool!
OnionBoy posted his 2006 Onion Awards, and I won his award for "Best Friend I've Never Actually Met."
Here's my story of how I discovered onionboy, and how it just happened to turn out that he grew up in a town that's just a few miles away from where I live now!

Saving Camel-Girl

Today during a chat, I mentioned to Morgen how thirsty I was, (twice), and he said "Well, why don't you get something to drink, Camelgirl?"
(Note to self: Change secret identity tomorrow).
There wasn't anything in the house to drink except tomato juice, and I really wasn't in the mood for that, though last night I broke down and had a glass anyway.
Today, finally, the stores opened back up after their holiday hiatus, and I was able to pick up some beverages.
I think I may have gone a little bit overboard, but dammit, I was really thirsty!!!
Here's what I got:
Bottle of Faygo Raspberry-Blueberry soda
Bottle of Cranberry Sierra Mist
2 bottles of Snapple Green Apple White Tea
Bottle of Snapple Nectarine White Tea
2 bottles of Lipton Citrus Green Tea
Bottle of Everfresh "Peach-Plum-Pear" juice
Bottle of Everfresh Lime Punch
This is certainly enough to keep me peeing well into 2007.
Thus Camel-Girl has been saved from imminent dehydration.

A few band-related things

The brass performance on Christmas Eve went really well. We sounded great, if I do say so myself! I had a wonderful time. We did a good job and I was proud to be part of the group.
Our Hillsdale Community Wind Ensemble rehearsals start back up again on January 9th. My birthday is on January 11th... and Jason is having a party for me on the Friday after that. (January 12th). It's been 18 years since anyone threw me a birthday party. (The last one was in college, a surprise party thrown by my friend Tracy Michalcik).
Jason is a very nice guy from band who plays absolutely every brass instrument that has ever existed on any planet in the universe. He's also the band director at Concord High School. I've mentioned him before in this blog... he's the guy who talked me into eating innocent little baby sheep, (read about that here and here), also he's the guy who accidentally forgot to let me know that one of his summer parties had been canceled. Oops! (read about that here). :)
So, if any ABC group members are reading this... (Kyle? Morgian? Kristen? Dennis?) You guys are invited! Bring a friend! Bring two! Morgen, Lee, of course you guys are invited too.... but I know Morgen has to work that evening til 6:00 (and it's a 2 and a half hour drive from Hartford to Concord), so I promise not to be offended if you don't show up. Still, it'd be cool if you were there!
In other band-related news: remember I'm going to compose a piece for the next band concert. I've decided to re-write a piece I tried last year. I'm revising the whole thing, getting out all the kinks and awkward bits. Hopefully by January 9th it will be sufficiently "fixed", and I can pass out copies at our first rehearsal of 2007!

From me to you

'Tis the night before Christmas
And all around here
Every cat in the household
Is licking its rear

The human is parked
At the keyboard with care
Hoping someone will read
What she's typing in there

The house fills with purring
As Janna types blogs
And she thinks to herself
"Cats-- much better than dogs!"

She gets up to leave
For her musical thing
Ready to play the french horn--
-- but not sing!!

You can hear her exclaim
As she drives out of sight
"I hope you all have
A peaceful good night!"

Smart or Stoopid?

Here, go take this test.
I found it at Onionboy's blog (and have shamelessly stolen it for my own personal blog-usage... oops. Hopefully he will forgive me).
I took it, and scored a 27.
(Yikes.)
It doesn't give you time to really think about the answers... if you take too long, it skips over it automatically and takes you to the next question! So I felt really rushed!

Random Things About Janna: The genealogy edition

54) Twins run on BOTH sides of my family. My dad has twin sisters, and so does my mom!
55) Part of my ancestry is Native American Potawatomi Indian.
56) Another ancestor was a privateer (pirate) for King George in the 1700's.
57) I am also related to Benjamin Franklin.

sunshine and darkness

Now that the shortest day of the year is thankfully OVER, we can start moving on to longer days!
I hate hot summers and love cold winters-- but I hate it when it gets dark so soon. I mean, c'mon, darkness at 5:30? What's up with that?
The ideal combination would be if we had 20-50 degree temperatures, with daylight until about 9:30-10:00 pm.
And if I lived in Scandinavia, I could have the "midnight sun"!

What's Janna doing?

Hello, everyone!
Sorry I didn't post yesterday.
Our 2nd rehearsal was last night, and all went well. Some of our carols will be accompanied by a huge pipe organ (it's happening in a church), and the sound is amazing. I love the loud deep rumble of the low notes. As one of the trumpeters said, "Unless you can feel the organ notes vibrating in your teeth, it's not loud enough!" :)
Tonight my folks and I are driving around in the city of Jackson to look at the Christmas lights. We really don't celebrate Christmas, but we still have this tradition every year. We go out for dinner and spend the evening admiring all the elaborate displays of lights. The Jackson County Fairgrounds has an elaborate display set up every year, all over the premises-- kind of a "drive through" display with all kinds of colorful animated stuff. It's become part of our tradition.
Normally we'd be doing this on Christmas Eve, but since my brass performance is that night, we're doing our light-tour tonight instead.
So that's what I'm up to, in case you find yourself wondering. :)

In case you were wondering how the rehearsal went...

The rehearsal last night was ok.
Other than a few high notes in one of the pieces, the music is reeeealllly easy.
We had 15 people show up:
Two tubas,
Two trombones,
Two euphoniums,
Two french horns,
Six trumpets,
and one percussion guy (doing stuff like chimes and bells).
Our next rehearsal is tomorrow, and our performance is Christmas Eve.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things That Are Incredibly Annoying:
1) Slow Internet connections
2) High gas prices
3) Having to pay more than 10 cents for a photocopy
4) Tailgaters
5) Loud Disobedient Children Whose Parents Are Ignorant About Discipline
6) Night driving with bright headlights glaring in my face
7) Slow customer service
8) Rush Limbaugh
9) Seat belt laws
10) Temperatures given in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit
11) Any sport that involves a ball of any kind
12) Marches by John Philip Sousa (especially if you play french horn)
13) Voting for John Kerry and getting George Bush instead

Music tonight!

I've been invited to play french horn in a brass ensemble on Christmas Eve.
Tonight is the first of our two rehearsals.
I got invited to the same thing last year, but didn't end up going. Really, I just don't generally get "into" the whole Christmas thing. But this year I said ok, mostly because I love playing music-- and I especially love being in brass ensembles.
I don't know how many other musicians will be there... I know of two, (Bob and Jason) but certainly there will be others. No clue either on what music we'll be playing or how easy/hard it will be.
Still, I'm looking forward to it.
I know this was a boring post but hey, some days are like that. Thanks for reading me anyway! :)

An old favorite

Yesterday (Monday) I made one of my favorite dishes-- and had it for both lunch and dinner.
I think I've mentioned it before; it's pasta coated with tabasco sauce and tossed liberally with grated parmesan cheese. (just those 3 ingredients, nothing else).
I invented this dish when I was a kid, and have loved it ever since.
I've never met anyone else who likes it! (Hey, I'm not weird, I just have "unique tastes." Yes... that's it. Unique tastes.)
It's great for those of us who love hot things. The pasta is really COATED in tabasco. Not a few measly drops, but a real generous coating on all sides. Then it's tossed with lots of parmesan cheese so each individual piece of pasta has its own coating.
With about 3 cups of pasta (lunch and dinner total), I used an entire bottle of tabasco. Yes, really! I started with a brand new bottle, and now it's completely empty.
Yum.

My entries for Bee's contest

Bee, over at the lovely blog known as Muffin53, started a contest awhile back which involved photoshopping her picture. She wanted to see how many ways we could use photoshop to hide her double chin.
Here are the pictures we got to start with:
(She looks so nice, I like her already!)

Click HERE and HERE to see the ideas that some of her other readers submitted.
What fun!
I love this kind of stuff!

So, here we go. I warned told Bee that I was excited about trying my own Photoshop experiments. She said she was excited to see what I could come up with, so hopefully she'll think these are ok!

First, just for fun, I turned her into Santa (hey, she said she wanted us to hide the chin, and Santa's beard is the perfect thing!)Then I worked at really doing what she asked for: Photoshopping out the double chin.
Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, I took the liberty of adding a new hairstyle and changing some contours here and there too. (Hope that's ok, Bee.)
Then I remembered she said she wanted to be blond, so I tried that:
Then, just for fun, I decided we needed to see the "new" Bee as Xena the Warrior Princess.
(Hopefully this won't traumatize her grandchildren too badly).
So, Bee, whaddya think? :)

Reindeer poop and Castro Claus

I'm home!
I had a nice weekend with Lee and Morgen, and there are a couple stories to share.
Last night Lee went to bed early, and Morgen & I watched the DVD of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Sure, we'd both probably seen it a thousand times already in previous years, but we wanted to see it again!!!
We were both in a sarcastic snarky mood, and had great fun making comments to/about the characters. Click here to read his review of the whole thing...
Then we watched the special extras that came with the DVD, like a trivia quiz and a song called "Fame And Fortune"... then we noticed that we had the option of watching the whole cartoon over again in SPANISH! So we did-- well, most of it, anyway... Morgen chose to skip over some parts. It was hilarious, though! The two most hilarious things are (1) In the Spanish version, the elf workshop seems more like a sweatshop, and (2) Santa sounds like Fidel Castro. We began calling him "Castro-Claus."
Since we've both seen the cartoon in English so many times, we kinda knew what each character was saying, and occasionally an amusing Spanish translation would send us into fits of laughter. (Example: Clarice the doe is referred to as a "chica", and Santa tells the reindeer to "arriba, arriba!" just like he's Speedy Gonazles.)
Earlier in the evening, when Lee was still downstairs watching stuff with us, we had these yummy homemade brownies. Good and chocolaty and soft and dense, with solid chunks of chocolate to bite into... yum. I was told there were other cookies available as well, so I made a mental note to try some later. Well, one of the christmas cookies Lee makes is a chocolate-drop thing, which looks like a miniature ball-shaped chocolate sugar cookie. Morgen calles them "reindeer poop." He mentioned it during one of his "Seven Silly Questions" with Neila a couple weeks ago. (Here's the post, scroll down to the last bit of questions). I vaguely remember trying the poop during a previous visit, back when Lee & Morgen lived in Cincinnati. They were really good, kinda like a chocolate shortbread or cocoa-infused butter cookie. And they're in little balls slightly larger than an olive.
So, later in the evening Morgen got up to fetch himself a plate of cookie varieties and a cup of eggnog. I wasn't hungry at the time, so I didn't get any for myself, but I did notice that his plate contained little chocolate drop cookies.
"Oooh," I asked, "Is that the reindeer poop?" He said yes, it was!
So, fast forward to this morning, when I'm getting ready to leave, hauling my bags out of the bedroom and toward the front door. (Morgen was still upstairs in the shower). I asked Lee if I could please have some reindeer poop to eat on the drive home.
His reply: "I have no idea what you're talking about."
But his expression and manner implied that he DID know what I meant; he just objected to someone calling the cookies "reindeer poop." He didn't look confused at my question, it was more like a "you didn't say the magic word" kind of coyness. Morgen HAS mentioned that Lee hates it when people call the cookies 'reindeer poop'.
But I didn't know the "official" name for the cookies, so I didn't know what to really call them.
After making sure I had all my belongings packed up, including any leftover munchies/beverages I'd brought, I asked again if I might please have some pieces of reindeer poop.
Again, Lee's response was "I have no idea what you're talking about." Again, the implication that I wasn't using the proper term for them.
Dammit.
He did compromise by saying there was one brownie left and that I was welcome to take that with me. I said ok. The brownies are huge, about twice the size of a deck of cards, which is bigger than the reindeer poop would've been anyway, so I guess I came out ahead.
Still, I would have liked to have tried the little reindeer poop cookies too, and it kinda bugs me that I asked twice and didn't get any.
I shoulda snatched one off Morgen's plate when he wasn't looking.

Just checking in before I dissappear for a couple days

Hi, everyone!
I made the two-hour trip to Dowagiac this morning, and here I am at The Wren's Nest with Morgen. We just ordered Chinese for lunch. (I'm having boneless spareribs and an egg roll). Not bad at all, considering at first I wasn't really all that hungry!
There's a CD of Christmas music in the background, playing a nice instrumental version of "Oh Holy Night".
Have a lovely weekend, all you guys and gals out there in blog-land. I will hopefully be having a nice time myself, enjoying the hospitality of good friends and holiday treats.
See you Monday.

'Tis The Season For Giving....

What a great idea... much more effective than ringing a bell in some storefront, standing next to a Salvation Army bucket.... (Note to self: Try this while visiting Lee and Morgen this weekend)

Finding Nemo

Wanted: Cerebral Beano

I had a brain fart today.
I was driving home from Jackson, kinda zoning out mentally, like we all do during monotonous car trips. Somehow it gradually dawned on me that I'd forgotten where my turn signal was. I knew it was on one of the thingies that sticks out from the steering column, but somehow I had zoned out so much I just couldn't remember which was which. I wasn't sleepy or anything, just momentarily inexplicably incoherent. Like there was a roadblock somewhere in my head and I just couldn't THINK.
(I swear, I was completely sober!)
Isn't that an odd thing to forget? I mean, I drive somewhere almost every day, certainly the location of the turn-signal would be adequately cemented in my brain, right?
Alas.
I didn't panic or anything; I just kept driving and sort of sat there in a fascinating moment of self-analysis, amazed at this sudden strange deficit in my memory. It was dark and there was no one else on the road at that moment, so I thought what the heck, I'll just GUESS and see if I'm right.
I flipped the thingy I thought was the turn signal...
And the windshield wipers came on.

Just to prove that I.... wait, what was I trying to prove again?

Just to prove (to no one in particular) that I can still do stupid things whenever I want, I stayed up all night long... no sleep at all. And now, at 7 in the morning, I am sooo tired I could just die. That voice you're hearing in the background is the apparition of my mother, saying "You've got no one to blame but yourself!"
(Y-A-W-N).....

Lewis And Clark.... and Janna

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. The day kinda got away from me.
There's no band rehearsal tonight, but there is a party (polite social gathering, not drunken revelry) hosted by one of the band members.
I've been to his house once, last summer, when he hosted another gathering. That was the only time I've ever been there, and I kinda forgot how to get there. But I'm going to try anyway.
He passed out maps at the concert, but at the time it didn't dawn on me that I would need one. I thought surely I'd remember... yet alas, here I am with a couple dozen question marks in my head, wondering how to NOT get lost.
So, if you don't hear from me after today, search the roadside for a dejected-looking person with a sign that says "Will Blog For Food."
And be generous.

More Random Things About Janna

46) It's been 17 years since I've been on a plane. I flew to Minnesota to visit a friend who was attending college there.
47) I don't like cream cheese on bagels. Nor am I fond of cream cheese frosting. Really, the only thing cream cheese is good for is cheesecake.
48) I love NutterButter cookies, dunked in milk. Mmmmmm.
49) I usually don't like Jasmine-scented things. The only exception I've found is this shower gel from Avon, called "Divine Time".
50) Sharks frighten AND fascinate me. I hope I never meet one face-to-face!
51) Guilty pleasure: That aerosol cheese-in-a-can stuff that squirts out onto crackers. Kinda gross when you think about it but still yummy. (I realize this probably qualifies me as white trash, but oh well. I DON'T squirt the stuff directly into my mouth like some college guys do-- so hopefully that earns me a few 'classiness' points).
52) I frequently have bouts of depression.
53) I liked everything about the movie Labyrinth--- EXCEPT Jennifer Connelly. She seems spoiled and bratty to me, regardless of what role she's playing. Even in talk-show interviews her personality annoyed the hell out of me.

Roast Beast Sandwich

Humorous story of the day.... I went to Subway for dinner-- there was a sign on the window that said something about a "6-inch sub".... At first glance I thought it said "Grinch sub."
(So THAT'S what they do with all the green meat!)

Let's see how this works

I'm gonna TRY accepting comments without word-verification.
Four reasons:
1) Word verification can be a pain-in-the-ass when it gives ya a big long string of weirdo letters like qjqjxzxvvwz.
2) Sometimes I type them in, re-check them to be positive, and it still tells me I've got the wrong word, so I have to start all over again.
3) Sometimes halfway through typing my comment, the page spontaneously reloads, giving a different word-verification thingy-- and erasing my comment before I had a chance to post it.
4) Sometimes it doesn't even SHOW a word-verification box at all. There's the space where I'm supposed to type in the letters, but there aren't any letters above it. Just blankness.
So, in a fit of annoyance, I turned the blasted thing off for awhile. We'll see how it goes. If I start getting spam or junk ads or stuff like that, I'll bring back the verification.
Till then, type freely, live free, and prosper.

OOOWWWWWW!!!

OW!
For the past two days, my neck has really hurt, and today it's worse than ever!
It hurts to rotate it to the left, or to tilt my head sideways to the left, or even to simply look downward. At this moment I can not touch my chin to my chest; it hurts WAY too much to bend my neck in that direction. Same goes for touching my left ear to my left shoulder.
If for whatever reason I need to look at something to my left, I have to stiffly turn my entire torso, which feels terribly awkward.
What the heck did I DO??
What is this evil misery-- and when will it go away??

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Yummy Things To Do With Pasta:
1) Spaghetti and meatballs
2) Vegetarian lasagna with alfredo sauce
3) Mostaccioli with spicy Italian sausage
4) Turkey tetrazzini
5) Macaroni and cheese
6) Deep-fried macaroni and cheese
7) Ravioli
8) Cheese Tortellini
9) Tuna casserole
10) Chicken gravy & noodles
11) Beef stroganoff over noodles
12) Pasta primavera
13) Lo mein noodles
Requirements for yumminess: No onions, no zucchini or any other type of icky squash bits.

Bonus Thursday Thirteen-- Junk Mail Edition:
13 Subject Lines of Actual Spam Messages In My Inbox:
1) 5 inches is not enough
2) Include Anal Promises Paying
3) How U Doing
4) Can you be hypnotized
5) No more moles, warts, or skin tags
6) Best love drugs at best store!
7) Claim your $3000 credit card today
8) There is no family like your family
9) Get your Tickle Me Elmo
10) Get Started, It's free
11) At do powder
12) Do you have PS3 yet?
13) Are you still with short weenie?

Tag, I'm it

In response to being tagged by Morgian, here are six random things about me:
1) I'm an only child.
2) My only surviving grandparent has Alzheimer's.
3) I can't sew.
4) I understand nothing about stocks/bonds/investments.
5) My very first car (back in 1986) was a silver 1976 AMC Concord.
6) I'm old enough to remember when The Waltons was still in prime time. (G'night, John-Boy!)

Next, I'll tag Morgen, Daphne, Chloe, Spooker, Jazper, and Onionboy.

The scourge of anti-fart discrimination

O-kaaayyy...
Morgen sent me a link to THIS ARTICLE, titled "Flatulence Leads To Grounding Of Plane."
(Janna puts on a completely innocent face with big-lashed 'Disney forest-creature' eyes) Why Morgen, I have no idea why this article would make you think of me....
Anyway, here's the short version of what happened: There's a lady on a plane. She farts. She strikes a match to cover up the smell. Other people smell the match, and they get all worried that it must be a bomb. So they land the plane immediately (!!), and then they discover that there was no bomb, it was just a lady farting and striking a match. They actually call the FBI.
Here's the part that infuriates me: When the plane takes off again, they won't let the lady get back on the plane! They actually LEAVE HER BEHIND. What the heck?!????!!! All she did was fart! She's NOT a terrorist, you freaky paranoid jerks! She farted and lit a match. So the hell what? Let her back on the PLANE. She might stink, but she's obviously harmless! Get a grip, people! Get some common sense!
Let's all protest by farting in the general direction of the FBI headquarters, and the aviation industry, and... oh, heck, go ahead and fart anywhere you want.
Just be sure to light a match afterward.

Another reason to hate onions

Aha!
The Taco Bell E-Coli outbreak was due to GREEN ONIONS!!
Click here for the story.
So those of us who wisely avoid such horrible things (onions, not Taco Bell) were completely safe throughout the whole thing.

Hey, it's better than I thought

You Are 40% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Ten Things That Sound Good Right Now

1) Pepperoni & Sausage Calzones
2) Shrimp Scampi
3) Hot Fudge Sundae made with orange sherbet
4) Chicken tenders with sweet & sour sauce
5) Crab Cakes
6) Roast Beef Sandwich with cheddar cheese sauce
7) Fish sticks and Tabasco sauce (I know, I'm weird)
8) A float made with strawberry ice cream and Faygo Redpop
9) Lemon bars
10) Risotto

Embrace your inner curmudgeon

Concerts and other musical things

Our concert was tonight!
I just got home.
Everything went well (Or pretty darn close to everything, at least).
We won't start rehearsing for the next concert til January, so we'll have a bit of a vacation between now and then.
Our next concert will probably be close to late February.
I've been thinking of composing something for it. I've written music for the band before (which we actually performed at one of the concerts), as well as smaller ensemble pieces which were also performed. It's a strange combination of both exhilarating and draining. Exhilaration from the creative process, but frustration from the fact that when it's performed, it never sounds quite exactly the same way it did in my head.
Anyway, I think I'm ready to go through it all again for the next concert.
One thing I did a couple months ago was give a blank page of music-manuscript paper to my friend Lee, (who doesn't read music at all) and asked him to just make a bunch of random dots on the staves. I wanted to see if I could take those dots and somehow group them together into a piece for the band. It's going to be hard, but I'm really interested in giving it a try. If I can actually pull this off, there will be some therapeutic peace in knowing I organized something out of chaos.
Now if I could just do that in the rest of my life as well....

a few hours at the hospital

This morning I took my dad to the hospital for a colonoscopy... He was scheduled for one because previous test results were suspicious, suggesting the possibility that he might have something serious like colon cancer. (He just finished having prostate cancer, getting surgery for that, and he was worried perhaps the cancer had spread).
So they did their probing scoping thing, which I'm sure wasn't pleasant, but the good news is that the results were just fine. No tumors, no polyps, no cancer.
Whew!

Santa studies gravity

Next project: find out which screaming toddlers can fly...
Hey, how do we know until we try?

Colorful Cyberpets

I figured out how to change Bruce's and Wizziker's colors!
All it takes is knowing what hexadecimal color code I want, then copying it into the existing HTML!
Cool! So now these guys may change color every time I get bored!

Small means small

This evening I went to Burger King for dinner.
At the last minute, I decided a small order of onion rings sounded good.
(Yes, surely you all remember where I explained that I hate onions but like BK onion rings).
So I got those along with my cheap little burger.
Guess how many onion rings were in the package.
No, guess.
Give up?
Six.
!!!
Yes, a "small" order of onion rings equals six rings. (It did today, at least!)
I checked the bottom of the bag, thinking surely some must have fallen out.
Nope!
Geez. Guess when they said 'small' they weren't kidding.

Saturday ramblings

I'm still here!
Friday morning the frozen rain was coating all the trees, which was really pretty when the sun shone through them. The roads weren't too bad after a few hours, but the ice and strong winds did knock down a tree or two, plus there were a few power outages. Luckily, Litchfield kept its electricity on through the whole ordeal.
Today I'm writing from The Wren's Nest in Dowagiac, Morgen's lovely haven of perfect gifts for all your loved ones. Visit today!~(Morgen, do I get a percentage of the profits now?)
We had a lovely lunch from Saylor's, which included deep-fried macaroni and cheese. YUM. Sounds freaky but it's really good. That sound you're hearing right now is my arteries slamming shut.
I've met Jazper, Morgen's new kitty here at the store. He is sweet and friendly; I like him!
While I was here, the mailman brought a shipment of "softpaws," which are little claw-covers to put on the cat. (For people who for whatever reason don't want to have the cat surgically de-clawed). These softpaws are a bright holiday red; very festive. I'm sure Morgen will update us all on whether or not Jazper actually acquiesces to wear them.
There are lovely-smelling bars of homemade soap on the desk here, made by one of Morgen's vendors. My favorite is the one called "Green Irish Tweed". As Morgen commented once, it smells sporty, like a sexy frat-boy just got out of the shower. :) Other favorite soap scents here include Green Tea, and Raspberry & Orange. The whole store smells like a terrific mix of various potpourri-esque scents. The first thing I do upon entering the store is inhale. Well, ok, I pretty much inhale wherever i go, and occasionally even exhale too, but here at the store it's delightful.
Bye for now-- I may write more when I get home.

Hello, December!

Here's what our Weather Advisory says: (I got it from the Weather Channel's website, www.weather.com.

/O.EXA.KIWX.WS.W.0002.000000T0000Z- 061201T2300Z/ HILLSDALE- INCLUDING THE CITY OF...HILLSDALE 631 AM EST FRI DEC 1 2006

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTHERN INDIANA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON.

RAIN HAS CHANGED TO FREEZING RAIN AS TEMPERATURES HAVE FALLEN TO NEAR AND JUST BELOW FREEZING. ICE ACCUMULATION OF ONE QUARTER INCH IS EXPECTED. THE FREEZING RAIN WILL ALSO MIX WITH SLEET...THEN CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW BY LATE MORNING. SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 1 TO 3 INCHES IS ALSO POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON.

IN ADDITION TO THE FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW...STRONG WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL BRING DOWN TREES AND POWER LINES THAT HAVE ACCUMULATED ICE.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET... AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THE COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS AND MIXED PRECIPITATION WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS. CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO DETERIORATE AS THE MORNING PROGRESSES.