2Flower To You

I'm moving!

2004-04-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Update: It's official! I'm officially moved. Reset your bookmarks and visit my new blog: http://2flower.mu.nu.

In case you didn't catch that from my last post, I'm moving my blog to Munuviana. Right now I have a new blog there! The kind folks there have offered to host me. Thank you, Pam, and all you other folks at Munuviana!

So anyway, go ahead and see my new blog if you want. It's in plain-vanilla mode now until I can figure out/ get help decorating it. I will probably be posting in both places for a little while until I get everything moved.

Wednesday Weird Ones

2004-04-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

1. Where do we go from here? I don't know about you, but I'm going to Munuviana!

2. Which animal makes the coolest sound? The cat. What could be better than purring?

3. When in the course of human events? Soon.

4. The tears of a clown - good or bad? Yikes.

5. If you were a kitchen utensil, what kind of utensil would you be? Why? I would be a spork, because:

You are a spork! You are a mismatched hodgepodge of a personality, and as such, utterly useless. what kitchen utensil are YOU?

Star of the Tank

2004-04-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

hangin out amongst the "roots"
of the fake plant

Here he is climbing his rope
Who would have thought it, but I find that out of the betta, guppies, snails and crab, this guy is my absolute favorite. He was a real steal for only $1.99. Legs included, he is only about an inch wide. He's very entertaining, and I could watch him for hours. At the pet store they told me he would need something to climb so he could get air. I thought the fake plant would work, but he couldn't climb it. So I used some crochet cotton and made a rope for him to climb that I tied through the treasure chest. It works great, and Gary the snail enjoys climbing it as well.

Now I just need to come up with a really great, crabby name for him.

Purple Peep-Eater

2004-04-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

I got really hooked on the whole peeps theme and got a little carried away. I think they're really cute, but I must say that I don't eat them. I think I might have in my childhood, although I think I have repressed that memory.

But I found that there are lots of peeps who play with peeps. Here they are reenacting rock & roll history, getting nuked, acting out scenes from books & movies, playing pranks on the big peeps, in perverted peeps shows, traveling the world, and as research test subjects. Peeps even have an official website with a fan club.

I wonder if anyone eats them. Do you? I've decided to try an experiment before Easter. I'm going to buy some purple peeps when I have money and try them frozen, microwaved, roasted, in s'mores and stale. I will try to become a purple peep-eater. If I don't like them, I can at least play with them and take some pictures.

Pets - gotta love 'em

2004-04-02T05:33:00.000-08:00

Scott and the boys came back this morning. They saw no sign of Obi. They left the camp set up there. ~~I will go back up there in a little while, and we'll hang around for as long as we can.~~ I just can't go right now. I can't live up there, and I have to realize that if we're meant to find him we will. At least some of us will go back up there tonight. I really hope we find him today, because we are completely broke. If we don't find him today, we will probably have to wait a week to go back up there. I wish someone would find him and catch him. I would gladly write them a (postdated) $100 reward check. I'm just so tired of this ordeal. Where is my faith? ::sigh:: I should just be grateful to know that he's alive.

With all the excitement, I didn't mention that we got our cat Gammie fixed yesterday. She is such a sweetheart. She came out of the anesthesia last night, and kind of flopped around in the laundry room a little. I went in and checked on her occasionally. She hasn't made one peep of complaint since she came home, even though she must feel terrible, and she's wearing a "lampshade" on her head. She was anxious to eat her kitty food this morning, and even liked having me pet her.

Obi!!!!

2004-04-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

Someone just called me from the camping area! They couldn't catch him, but it was him. They had to leave, but they called. I'm heading up there right now with the kids and Padi. I don't think Padi will run away, and he loves her so much. Thank you for your prayers, and some more would be great!!!

Update: The kids and I spent a few hours up there walking around with Padi and calling him. We didn't see him, and the kids hadn't had breakfst, so we had to leave. We're going to go camp up there tonight -- at least some of us. I know he must be hungry, so hopefully he'll come back to the campground again.

Late Driving Memes

2004-04-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

I know it's Thursday. Shut up.

Monday Madness
1. Describe what you believe is a "good" driver. Someone who is aware that there are drivers on the road, and not always determined to be in front of me or against my rear bumper.

2. Describe a "bad" driver (your opinion of course). Someone who tailgates me, or someone who passes me just so they can be in front -- not because they want to go faster. But I think the worst are the slow drivers who are in a hurry to pull out in front of me, but they want to go really slow. Where I live, that could mean following them for 15+ miles, as there are few passing opportunities. Then there are also those who slam on their brakes and turn. I guess they don't want anyone else to know their plans. Then there are those who either don't dim their lights, or they wait until you are thoroughly blind to dim them.

3. Which category do you fit in? Please back up your answer. Feel free to use examples! I think I am usually a good driver. I have a very good driving record -- no tickets, etc. But I do have my distracted moments. Last year I ran a red light in the middle of town. I was tired and distracted -- I had about 47 things on my mind, Brother Stevens was in the car talking to me, and I was on the cell phone with my mom. It was a very humbling experience that thankfully turned out to be accident and ticket-free, although I really ticked off another (thankfully attentive!) driver. I also got pulled over and given a warning ticket one time. I was going a little over the speed limit one night through my small town. No one else was on the road -- except a bored cop. It was another distracted moment when I was having an argument with my teenage daughter. Thankfully I can be sweet when I need to be, so I was able to weasel my way out of a ticket. I could tell he really wanted to, but I was just so darn nice, LOL.

Tuesday Twosome

Driving:
1. Rain or Snow? I don't like to drive in either, but I'd take rain.

2. Music from the radio or compact disc? The radio -- I don't like switching CD's.

3. Yellow light: "slow down" or "go faster" ? Go faster! FASTER!

4. Freeway or feeder road? It depends.

5. Road Rage: "what's that?" or "Heck yeah, and you better not get in my way!" I definitely know about road rage, but I usually only feel it if I'm in a big hurry, in a bad mood, or particularly inspired by a bad driver.

Wictory Wednesday

2004-03-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

John Kerry makes me so tired. I try not to listen, but when I do happen to hear something, it does impress me that I don't think he stands a chance in this election. I don't even want to know what he's saying about oil. According to him, everything is George W. Bush's fault, but as far as I can tell, he has no real solutions -- just complaints. And he can't make up his mind about any issue -- he just says what he thinks his present audience wants to hear. I heard something about that he wanted gasoline tax to be 50 cents a gallon -- at some point. It would only seem logical to me that he should stay away from the whole topic of gasoline prices, but I guess he thinks he can say anything and sound credible.

So anyway, look here every Wednesday. I plan to add a new John Kerry pic every week from now until he loses the election. I really think that pics are a lot more interesting than anything the man has to say, which is to say it's more fun to watch grass grow. It's incredible to me that he is the best the DIMS could come up with. Geez.

If you would like to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign, please do. Get involved. Here is where you click to find out more about Wictory Wednesday if you're interested in joining. The other Wictory Wednesday bloggers are listed over in my right column, which seems quite appropriate.

Photobucket

2004-03-31T14:53:00.000-08:00

I moved some of my pictures over to Photobucket.com because it looks like it might be a few days before my hosting is back up. They are having some serious problems -- the "RAID storage array failed" -- whatever that is, so I don't know how long it will be before my other pages are back up. So much for the blog archive photos for now, because I'm not going to upload over 6 months worth of graphics -- on my blog that's too much.

In case you haven't noticed...

2004-03-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

My image hosting is down, as well as all my other pages, so I'm not going to bother saying much. It stinks, I know. I'm especially irked because I paid for it. Anyway, I'll post again when the hosting is back -- hopefully soon. TTFN.

Just what the Dr. ordered -- NOT

2004-03-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

I took the kids to the dentist today, and 3 of them have cavities! It's incredible, because they never get cavities. One of them has 5! I'm not allowed to say who, because that kid is embarrassed. Needless to say, tooth brushing and flossing are going to go way up, and sugar is going to go way, way down for them. The first question asked by the hygenist was, "Do you drink Dr. Pepper?" And of course, it is the favorite beverage for the kids with the cavities, particularly the one who has 5 of them. The dentist confirmed this -- saying Dr. Pepper was the worst for giving people cavities. Darn. Should I sue them for all the cavities? Too bad I didn't know that -- maybe it should have a warning label. It never caused them problems before.

So, cha-ching. We have dental insurance, but it's still going to cost us 20% of 7 fillings, plus all the sealants that we're going to go ahead and do on the molars without fillings.

I'll try to do more posting tomorrow. I worked on the new layout today, and I'm working on some other pages as well.

Oh, and thank you for all the aquarium advice in the comments, Stephanie. You sound like you know a lot about them. I've already flushed one neon, but I'm not surprised. I've never been good at getting them to live. When I run out of fish, I'll take your advice and get some really cheap goldfish.

Obi Update, etc.

2004-03-29T20:20:00.000-08:00

Still no Obi, but we haven't given up hope. I called the animal shelter today and gave them information and a description of Obi -- they hadn't received any strays over the weekend. We'll take them a photo tomorrow. I also called the local radio station during their free trading show to let people know about Obi. We're offering a $100 reward, and we have flyers up everywhere we could put them between where we lost him and our home. I think that all we can really do more is keep praying and keep getting the word out. It's a hard time for us, but we haven't given up hope.

I don't think I explained how he got lost. I wasn't there, but Scott thought he'd take the kids up to the state park, and he wanted to take Padi and Obi. Well, I have never liked the idea -- I always thought the risks of losing the dogs far outweighed the benefits. But I didn't think it was worth fighting about. Well, Scott has taken Padi places before, but not Obi -- who is a lot more timid. He was terrified by the time they got him out of the Suburban. His collar wasn't on tight enough, and he backed out of his collar. He didn't run away at first -- he just went around to the other side of the car. That's when Ian decided to chase him and try to catch him, and Ian didn't listen to Scott who told him not to chase him, and he took off into the woods. And it's mostly woods and hills for most of the 25 miles to our house -- mostly a whole lot of nothing with houses here and there. It's hillbilly country. Obi is not very outgoing anyway, so I don't expect that he will go looking for other people unless it's for food. Someone may be able to catch him with food. If anyone finds him, they would shop at the local grocery store where Jason works -- it's the only one in the area. They would see the flyer there, or maybe at the post office.

My theory is that what Obi was doing when he ran away was trying to get himself back home where he feels secure. No one in the area had seen him come back to the swimming area, picnic area, the canoe rental place, or campgrounds Saturday evening or yesterday. Scott and the boys stopped at several of the houses in the area and gave people flyers. No one had seen him. I don't know why exactly, but I feel like he could very well be okay, and I have a lot of hope. While I'm out tomorrow, I will take flyers to local vets. We're going to call the radio station twice a day, and call the animal shelter as well. I need to contact the park service as well. More prayers for Obi would be greatly appreciated.

My mom and dad finally came back from Arizona. They went there in their RV back before Christmas, so they were gone quite awhile. My mom and I both had doctor's appointments today, so she took me out to lunch, and then she took me birthday shopping. I decided to get a small aquarium, and I now have 2 neons, 2 male guppies and a snail. That's about all the fish it can handle. I wanted a small aquarium so I could have it next to my computer, and I wanted it to be easy to clean. I have Little Jerry (betta) in his own bowl. He's way too aggressive with the other fish. I named the yellow, spotted guppy SpongeBob Squarefins, and the snail is Gary, of course. I'll have to think of names for the neons and the other guppy now. Why? Fish are people too. Sorta.

Obi

2004-03-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

I appreciate the kind words and prayers. It's such a blessing to have good friends. Thank you so much for the support.

Still no word on Obi. Scott and I went and looked for him until after dark last night. Scott's getting ready to go back up there with some flyers with a picture of him, and offering a reward. It's a really hard thing to have a missing pet. You feel completely helpless and wonder if they are okay, and if you will ever get them back.

But I hope I am over the worst of the awful feeling I had last night. I have to keep telling myself that it will do no good to worry, and if we're meant to find him, we will. We have prayed and will do everything we can think of, but it's out of our hands. I was thinking last night about how fortunate we are, truly, that our worst problem right now is that our dog is missing. It made me feel grateful for all the blessings we do have.

Prayers Please

2004-03-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

Scott and the kids took the dogs with them today up to the state park -- basically up in the Ozarks -- about 25 miles from our home. And they lost Obi. I am devastated. Please pray for Obi and our family. I know it sounds silly, but it hurts so bad. He is such a sweet dog.

Look on the dark side...

2004-03-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

No one ever says that -- it's as if the bright one is the only side. I will note the dark side today because:

got shatnered by the 100 Things About Me List -- at some point they dropped me without letting me know, and they aren't excepting new memberships -- no way to contact or complain that I can find

stayed up 'til 3 a.m.

have to take Brother Stevens around today, but I want to sleep

seriously overcast outside -- and has been all week

I feel bloated this morning

I've tried every thing to eliminate the tables and still get three columns with CSS -- it works for me on other pages, but Blogger WILL NOT DO IT -- at least not without putting my right column on the dark side of the moon

my page loads too slowly

So when I get back, I seriously want to see that some commentage has commenced!

P.S. I moved and updated my About Me page -- go look. Now.

Update: I'm back from a mentally exhausting trip into town with Brother Stevens, but I managed to be civil throughout the entire ordeal. Now I'm going to take a nap before I flip out. I'm just cranky. See, the deal is that last night I stayed up thinking I could sleep in this morning-- completely forgetting that I was supposed to take Brother Stevens into town. I need to remind myself next time I'm this tired that Brother Stevens -- bless his little old heart -- will be fine if I don't take him one day. He has other people to help him. Apparently, judging by what I wrote earlier, I should not be allowed out in public when I'm that tired. It's truly a miracle that I didn't crash into something -- either accidentally or intentionally. But I will be back to my usual, less psychotic self after I get some rest.

So I'm really sorry for the earlier rant, and thank you so much for the nice comments and kind words.

Misc.

2004-03-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

I'm alive.

I had to take Jason to the doctor today. Our shed is full of wasps, and he keeps his moped out there. He got stung a couple of days ago, but his hand waited to swell up. It was really big this morning, so he took off work and I drove him to the doctor. Now he's taking steroids, antibiotics, and Benedryl. Thankfully, the swelling is going down now, but he is going to have to be really careful in the future. While I was at Wal-Mart, I also bought a can of wasp killer spray for the shed.

I was feeling yucky when we got home, so I had to have a nap. I've been working on some webpage updates tonight. I'm trying to move everything I had on angelcities to 250free. I've used the free version for awhile, but now I have a Platinum account there that Scott got for my birthday. It doesn't have a lot of great features, except no ads and lots of bandwidth and storage.

Did I ever tell you how I got rid of my blog*spot ads? No, I didn't do anything I shouldn't, but I also didn't have to pay. One day about a month ago weird stuff was going on with my graphics -- bad stuff. Anyway, to make a really long story short, I wrote to Blogger and they gave me ad-free blog*spot -- at least for this blog. So if you ever notice anything scary going on with your images, especially if they are being replaced by pr0n, it's worth it to complain.

And speaking of complaining, I'm not done yet. I keep getting spam. You know the stuff. Anyway, I think it has to do with LOL's (little old ladies) that like to forward every chain message to everyone they know. I hate that. My MIL gets viruses frequently, and I'm sure she has sent my email address to everyone in the world. She means well, and I appreciate the sentiment. But I hate forwarded messages. Of course, I used to do the same thing back when I first got online -- back before I knew better. But she won't be told anything. Scott has to go fix her computer every other week and reactivate her email account. It gets suspended every time she sends out another virus. ::sigh::

Wictory Wednesday

2004-03-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

"Hey God, I'm over here!"
I'm slow again, but it's still Wednesday for almost a whole 'nother hour.

Guess what? I'm going to vote for George W. Bush. I think he has done a wonderful job, especially in light of all that has happened since he has been in office. But you know, whether you agree with John Freakin' Kerry or not, you have to be pretty impressed that he went to church. In ski clothes. 11 minutes late.

If you would like to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign, please do. Get involved. Here is where you click to find out more about Wictory Wednesday if you're interested in joining. The other Wictory Wednesday bloggers are listed over in my right column, which seems quite appropriate.

Did you know I'm a Googlewhack?

2004-03-23T21:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't either until a guy emailed me and told me. I was a little taken aback, to say the least. I wasn't sure if I was being insulted, complimented, or what. Anyway, a little googling of my own, and I was pretty sure that it wasn't a bad thing.

Here is what a Googlewhack is according to Wikipedia:

A Googlewhack is a query consisting of two words (with no quote marks) entered into Google's search page that returns a single result. Googlewhacking is the pastime of finding such a result. A person attempting to find 'Googlewhacks' is known as a Googlewhacker.

The game first appeared on the web as part of Steve White's blog in August of 2002. The first person to coin the term "Google whacking" appears to be Gary Stock. A person finding a googlewhack can log it at googlewhack.com.

There are a few rules:
No quotes in the search term.

The words must be in dictionary.com

The found page must be a real article and not a list of words.
A problem/dilemma arises when a person finds a "googlewhack" and subsequently reports it somewhere on the web, as the "googlewhack" will no longer count as a googlewhack as the page where its reported will get "indexed" by google, rendering the googlewhack obsolete.

Some fans of the craze have gone so far as create tools that will automatically find googlewhacks, though some consider the tools an example of unsportsmanly behaviour.

Example: As of March 14, 2003, the search "Hottentot Antigony" produced only one result: [1]

So I'm assuming it's a cool thing to have a site with a Googlewhack. Anyway, I didn't know it at the time, but I had noticed an unusual search for in my sitemeter referrals. ;) But if I post it, it will then cease to be a Googlewhack.

Update: I got a reply from Heath who found the Googlewhack. He wished me congratulations on being truly 1 in 3 billion. I think he deserves the praise, as he is the one who found the Googlewhack. Thank you for giving me something to blog about, Heath!

Tuesday Twosome

2004-03-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

1. "pop" or "soda"? soda, which stands for COKE.

2. chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate, please! Gimme Gimmie Gimmie!

3. potato or rice? I like potatoes a little better, but I like both.

4. coffee or tea? Neither for religious reasons, although I can drink herbal teas. I really like hot chocolate.

5. cell phone or email? Email, since I don't have a cell phone anymore -- too expensive. But I don't do a lot of emailing.

I found this meme via ~pisces peach~

Resistance is futile

2004-03-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

37.5 %

My weblog owns 37.5 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?
via drowning at 2 feet sea level

I think it may own a little bit more of me than this, but it's not quite up to 50% yet. Soon, I will be completely in its power.

Offline Journaling

2004-03-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

I started an offline journal last night. I thought that while blogging is a great idea, and I've been at it for over 6 months now, it doesn't really fill my need to keep a journal. I love to write, and I need to write more. Even if I felt I could write everything here, you would fall asleep. Scott has been keeping an offline journal since January 1st, so I thought I would start as well. Anything I think is interesting I will cut & paste in here. Here is some of what I wrote last night:

Oh yeah, a weird thing happened tonight. Piglet was in the living room gnawing on something big and brown (scary when stuff like that happens!). Ian noticed, and we were all very confused. Guess what it was? It was a hewge piece - like almost half of a king size Snickers bar -- and I know my chocolate. So we all wondered where in the heck it came from. Guess what? We still haven't figured it out. No one is missing a King-sized Snickers bar. And we don't have neighbors anywhere nearby. Life can be such a mystery. What a sad waste of chocolate.

I bought a betta fish with the money my grandma King sent for my birthday a few days ago. He is really beautiful. He was the most purple one they had at the pet store. His body is purplish, and he has blue iridescent and dark red plumage. I have been trying to think of what to name him for a few days now, and I've decided to call him Little Jerry Seinfeld. What do you think? Dumb, is what it is, but you've got to love it. I've decided that I'm always going to have a fish from now on - it's even better than a lava lamp.

Results of the Mental-O-Matic

2004-03-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

Major Depressive Narcolepsy, with Lethargia with Borderline tendencies, Chocolate-dependent with uncomplicated agoraphobia, and PTSD.
via ColoradoPsycho.com

yeah. whatever. I'm getting shrink-wrapped next Monday. I wonder if my doctor could use this.

Monday Madness

2004-03-22T06:02:00.000-08:00

1. What was your favorite TV show as a child? Little House on the Prairie, but I never got to watch it during the football season when my dad was home (he worked rotating shifts), because he had to watch Monday Night Football. It was always in the same time slot.

2. What show did you hate? Monday Night Football.

3. What show did your family gather around the TV to watch? Donny & Marie

4. What show is currently your favorite? Law & Order: Criminal Intent

5. What show do you hate now? It's hard to pick just one, because I hate game shows, talk shows, "reality shows" (except Clean Sweep), and soap operas. OK, I hate almost everything, but let's go with The Price Is Right, because the music hasn't changed -- ever. Not to mention Bob Barker -- isn't he like 200 years old now? If that show (usually at my MIL's) is on I want to run for the hills. Okay, just thinking about it gets the music stuck in my head. Great.

Wow!

2004-03-21T17:11:00.000-08:00

I lived there 3 years and loved it. Cool!

You are a Bavarian.

What's your Inner European?
brought to you by Quizilla

snagged at Pam's

Hiberating Beast

2004-03-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's me. I hibernate as often as I can. I'm getting ready to go do that right after lunch.

Nggghhaahhh!
Grrr arrr Rum and Monkey.
via Better Living Through Blogging

*2Flower* To You

I'm moving!

Wednesday Weird Ones

Star of the Tank

Purple Peep-Eater

Pets - gotta love 'em

Obi!!!!

Late Driving Memes

Wictory Wednesday

Photobucket

In case you haven't noticed...

Just what the Dr. ordered -- NOT

Obi Update, etc.

Obi

Prayers Please

Look on the dark side...

Misc.

Wictory Wednesday

Did you know I'm a Googlewhack?

Tuesday Twosome

Resistance is futile

Offline Journaling

Results of the Mental-O-Matic

Monday Madness

Wow!

Hiberating Beast

2Flower To You