Saturday, November 25, 2000

We just watched "Where The Heart Is".... horrible movie. Epinions members gave it a favorable rating. I use Epinions for every movie I rent on video or pay-per-view and this is the first time I've been steered wrong. I should write my own epinion on it but to tell you the truth, it was so boring that I barely remember what sucked about it.

Tonight was the Christmas parade. I walked up to watch it with Todd's mom and sister. I've enjoyed it in past years but this year was different. It's usually a fairly large event for a town this size. This time it was the fire department with their trucks all decorated, a couple of buggies pulled by horses/ponies, and a couple of floats. Not worth standing in the freezing cold for. I suppose that will fizzle out in the next couple of years too. We used to have an annual cardboard boat regatta every August. I'm not exactly sure how many years that lasted but it was fun while it did. The lake was new back then and people would travel long distances just to float their cardboard boats. That eventually died out and has been replaced with a car show. I just don't understand why ideas seem to fall flat around here. Is it lack of public interest? Financial reasons? There were plenty of people uptown tonight to watch the parade so it doesn't seem to be for lack of public interest. Maybe they just didn't have anyone willing to participate. It makes me feel bad for the people who work so hard to organize it.

Todd's sister was reminiscing about when they had square dances uptown when she was a kid. She is quite a bit older than me so I don't remember that but I do remember when the stores stayed open late between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now they close early on Saturdays. I am afraid my little town is dying.

posted by Lisa 11/25/2000 11:47:00 PM | link it |

Friday, November 24, 2000

Something very few people know about me... I am absolutely crazy for Van Halen. An 8x10 of Eddie sits on my table at work - compliments of a friend who took it at a concert. His milk mustache ad is taped to my bathroom door at home and people, it just does not get any cuter than that! I don't think it's too abnormal to hang on to just one teenage girl type thing as I approach mid-life, is it? Well hey!! It's been at least six months since I actually kissed the stupid picture so shuddup already! hahaha

Where was I going with this?? Oh... the perfect song for ending a work week.... Although I love classic Van Halen, and it's true that Right Now is my favorite Van Halen song, Eruption turned up full blast is simply the best way to end the week.

posted by Lisa 11/24/2000 05:11:00 PM | link it |

Go read this. Now go to eBay and think about what you'd really like to get for the people you love. Make a list and let the searching begin. Go on.. try it! It's fun and you will probably find what you are looking for without taking part in the retail madness.

posted by Lisa 11/24/2000 02:30:00 PM | link it |

Thursday, November 23, 2000

Last year at Thanksgiving I cooked for my now ex-husband, my mother and a good friend of mine. My how things can change in 365 days. This time Christopher was off with his dad celebrating with my ex-inlaws so it was just Todd and I all day. We got turkey/ham dinners from the restaurant up town, cleaned the house a little, then snuggled up in the recliner and watched "Three to Tango" on HBO. I wish he'd have went on to his family gathering but he's stubborn. I'm not complaining though.. it's rare that it's just the two of us around here. Tomorrow it's back to work for us both. Blech.

Todd's nephew is in Singapore for the Thanksgiving holiday. The lucky dog. I wish I were brave enough to travel like that. Just going to North Carolina for a week took all the courage I could muster. Once I get somewhere I am fine but I hate the actual traveling part. I would really be a mess on an airplane I'm afraid. That sucks because I have so many great friends all around the world. It would be fun to visit some or all of them. I might try out the airplane thing at the first of the year. My best friend's dad is getting married in North Carolina and I would love to be there for that. It wouldn't be a good idea to take off on a trip that long in the winter time. It took us about three days to get down there when we drove it last summer. Lots of weather between here and there. Knowing my luck, I'd get stuck in a blizzard in Cadiz, Kentucky. We stayed the night there and let me tell ya, it was awful. To be fair to any Cadiz-ians out there, I'm sure it's a lovely town. I just saw the part by the interstate but I was not impressed in the least. Anyway, to avoid getting stuck in a place such as that, I might just get brave and hop a plane. Or I might just pick up the phone and call in my congratulations...

posted by Lisa 11/23/2000 07:08:00 PM | link it |

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is a nice story to start the morning with. I have a very dedicated routine that I follow every morning. First, I read the Des Moines Register online, then I check on Kaycee and her mom. From there I head on over to Patti's place. When I finish there I go on to Faith's, Al's and Elise's. On the weekends I read about a hundred weblogs but these are my daily favorites. During my visits yesterday, I noticed a meme developing. I don't usually have the time to take part when something like this starts but hey, it's a holiday. I'm never quite sure what to do with myself when I'm not working so this will kill about five minutes.

Bernard Pivot Questionnaire
What is your favorite word?: Extraordinary - with lots of annunciation - like the British say it.
What is your least favorite word?: Borrow
What turns you on?: A man doing housework
What turns you off?: Laziness and people who say hateful things just because they can
What sound do you love?: Rushing water
What sound do you hate?: Whining
What is your favorite curse word?: Dammitalltohell
What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?: Psychiatry
What profession would you not like to participate in?: Waiting tables
If Heaven exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?: Welcome.

posted by Lisa 11/23/2000 09:41:00 AM | link it |

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

Dear Santa,

For the second year in a row I am requesting this for Christmas.

posted by Lisa 11/22/2000 09:52:00 PM | link it |

This is just plain goofy.

Will I spend my day off blogging stupid stuff? Maybe I'll do something really constructive like clean the house. I just pray I don't fall victim to the evil television.

posted by Lisa 11/22/2000 11:12:00 AM | link it |

I want to live in Buffalo!!

Instead, I live in the poorest county in the entire state of Iowa. 99 counties and we rank first in poverty. We aim high, I tell ya! Fifth poorest county in the US??? It's been this way for as far back as I can remember so why does it always make me so mad and disgusted to read it? Probably because no one wants to do a damn thing about it! When I first learned HTML, I approached our local leaders with the idea of making a web site showcasing our county. I offered to do all of the work for free and figured I could find volunteers to help me find pictures, write up content about each little town, etc. This is an incredibly long story that I won't bore you with. Let's just say I couldn't find enough support to make the idea fly. There is a website for Leon now... built and maintained by a high school kid who volunteered his time I guess. From the looks of it, he couldn't find much support either. It's almost like the bulk of our residents like being depressed... financially and otherwise. Years ago some friends and I tried to launch a Jaycees chapter here. We thought if the local young people banded together, maybe we could make a difference. Well that lasted about six months. I've become so discouraged by it all that I just concentrate on what I can control - which is keeping my family well above the poverty level.

Could whomever our next President is please put an end to these stupid studies?

posted by Lisa 11/22/2000 09:02:00 AM | link it |

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

I am going to violate my no blogging during business hours rule for a minute. I have to because from time to time I rant about my ex-hubby and how well we get along even though we have to work at it sometimes. I think Patti and her ex share a similar relationship. One where the old wounds have healed for the most part. You move on and wish them well yet you still get a little chuckle out of any misfortunes that may fall upon them. Misfortunes like this. See... now that I've blogged it, I can stop laughing my ass off and get back to work Hey Patti! Send some snow would ya? : )

posted by Lisa 11/21/2000 09:51:00 AM | link it |

Monday, November 20, 2000

Holy cow! The upgrades appear to have worked. This thing smokes now!

Now on to bloggin... A friend of mine who always asks me to do favors asked yet another one. This time I was simply supposed to go to a town five minutes away, check that her tenants hadn't torn the place to hell when they moved out, get the keys and lock it up. Sounds easy enough. Should've known better. At first glance, the house appeared to be in fine shape but one quick look into the deep freeze told a whole other story. It looked like the people hadn't used the freezer but at one time had opened the door and not shut it back tight. It was solid ice and frost from top to bottom. This wouldn't have been a big deal had they not unplugged it and dropped the cord behind it. This thing is a refridgerator sized upright freezer that is stuck back in this little alcove. No way to get behind it to just plug it back in. It was starting to thaw and running water across the floor. I did what any good {stupid} friend would do. I ran back home, grabbed some buckets, towels and ice scapers and went back to chip the ice out and clean it up. This process took 2-1/2 hours. The basket in the bottom had about two inches of ice under it and the door wouldnt open far enough to allow me to get the basket out. I ended up having to wrangle the thing out of it's cubby hole after all. (Todd will be mad as hell when he reads that... I was careful and don't think I hurt anything.) Anyway, I got it wrestled out of there which took another twenty minutes and cleaned the bottom out. I am going to have to start reconsidering before I say yes to favors I think.

On the way over to do this I drove through what was left of a horrific head on accident. Found out later that one of my friends was involved and they air lifted him out of here. Sounds like maybe he is going to be okay. I sure hope so. I hate to think of anyone getting badly injured or killed but it's always worse if it's around the holidays. Todd had to stand at this accident and direct traffic. It was such a bad accident that it took three hours to get it all cleaned up and the vehicles towed away. He is froze from that and I am froze from the deep freeze so I guess I should go fix some warm comfort food.

posted by Lisa 11/20/2000 09:00:00 PM | link it |

Test post to see if the upgrades at Blogger have fixed whatever was broken.

posted by Lisa 11/20/2000 08:47:00 PM | link it |

Sunday, November 19, 2000

I just can't say enough about DMail. I just spent a few hours playing with the mailing list features. Very cool and incredibly simple to understand. The interface is sucky from an "eye candy" perspective but it's easy to use. I like watching the administration panel as messages come through the server and are sorted. I am such a geek. Sshhhh... don't tell anyone. I don't think they allow geeks live here.

My mom called this morning and told me to look out the window. I did and reported that I saw nothing but sunshine. She said it was snowing like crazy at her house. Big deal, you say? Well it is considering she only lives three blocks away! She thought I was losing my mind and I was just sure she had lost hers. She kept saying "It's really picking up! I can see it through my lace curtains even!" I was only seeing sunshine. About three minutes into the conversation, it did start snowing. It was coming down like rain only when it hit the ground, it looked like pellets of ice melt or something. The really odd part is that it was still sunny except for one small cloud overhead. I think the weather gets more bizarre all the time.

Blogger thinks it is posting to my site but it isn't really. I am using newsblogger to post this. I just hope that when Blogger is fixed it doesn't spew out all the posts I ended up posting manual via FTP. If so, I'll have lots of repeats. The alternative is to just wait until Blogger is up and running again like someone I know. I can't do that. Blogging is the web equivalent of speaking and I just never shut up : )

posted by Lisa 11/19/2000 10:53:00 PM | link it |

I just can't say enough about DMail. I just spent a few hours playing with the mailing list features. Very cool and incredibly simple to understand. The interface is sucky from an "eye candy" perspective but it's easy to use. I like watching the administration panel as messages come through the server and are sorted. I am such a geek. Sshhhh... don't tell anyone. I don't think they allow geeks live here.

My mom called this morning and told me to look out the window. I did and reported that I saw nothing but sunshine. She said it was snowing like crazy at her house. Big deal, you say? Well it is considering she only lives three blocks away! She thought I was losing my mind and I was just sure she had lost hers. She kept saying "It's really picking up! I can see it through my lace curtains even!" I was only seeing sunshine. About three minutes into the conversation, it did start snowing. It was coming down like rain only when it hit the ground, it looked like pellets of ice melt or something. The really odd part is that it was still sunny except for one small cloud overhead. I think the weather gets more bizarre all the time.

posted by Lisa 11/19/2000 04:28:00 PM | link it |