Eww

Okay, that was a bit gross. I just got done cleaning my bathroom, and after I was done with all that, I started scraping out the old caulking that was around the toilet. It was pulling away from the base of the toilet and getting moldy. I also figured out why it never smelled completely clean down by the toilet even when I had scrubbed the toilet super-thoroughly...that caulk was nasty! Since Colin shares the bathroom with me, the floor sometimes gets a little, um, wet, and I wasn't thinking about the fact that the caulking was also getting wet, all the way through because it was cracked. Sorry, tmi perhaps! :)

Anyway, I got all the old cracked caulking pulled out and bleached around the toilet. Now I just need to get some more caulk and re-caulk it. We have a tiny bit of the stuff I used before, but not enough to do the whole thing. Maybe I'll see if I can find something that holds even better, because I don't think it was that long ago that I put down the stuff I just pulled out. It was good silicone caulk and it's working fine around the sink though. Oh well. Maybe if it sits longer it will set up better...I figured out when I did the sink that the Glad Press & Seal plastic wrap works really well to keep the water out, so I'll have to use that on the toilet.

Anyways... Blech. Back to work.

Monday news

363 acres of Sauratown mountain have burned since Thursday.

Chelsea Clinton is visiting three NC colleges...bleah, not as bad as her parents being here, but still...

It's opening day for most Major League Baseball teams...maybe the St. Louis Cardinals can do something this year...although then we stay up late watching the World Series. :)

What I did...

...this weekend and what I'm doing today.

• Shortened Colin's shorts. Poor kid, he's tall, but his height's in his torso not his legs...very annoying. Leads to stepping on the hems of your pants and not finding shirts long enough.

• Tidied the house

• Put away piles of groceries

• Sharpened the knives after Dad was trying to cut something with a dull paring knife and didn't have time to sharpen it

• Started sewing a coupon pouch (one for myself and if it works, another one for Mom)

• Ironed clothes

• Wrote bread recipes in a nice little notebook that's the perfect size for recipes...and that way I won't have recipe cards sitting all over the kitchen after I bake bread
  

And today I am:

• Blogging in the morning! Que Horror!

• Using bullet points

• Cleaning my bathroom...we had run out of bathroom cleaner, but we got some on sale at Target yesterday (lovely stuff...Scrubbing Bubbles soap scum removing stuff...smells like fake oranges.)

• Considering the fact that I think I will look for shirts on clearance in the boys department when I need more shirts. When we were at Target yesterday looking at stuff for Colin, I found a really cute brown polo shirt with pink stripes. If it hadn't been ten dollars, and I had actually needed a shirt, I would have gotten it. It was long enough and the fabric was actually thick enough...if I find a girls' shirt that's long enough, it's usually that really, really thin knit fabric. So, for polo shirts at least...boys' department.

• Looking at the registration form for the homeschool conference, and trying to figure out whether if I wanted to go it would be $20 or $80. I guess I'd have to pay the admission fee, and the $20 for teens. Ah, never mind if it's going to be that much. I saw 6-7 seminars I thought might be interesting, but not $80 worth I don't think. Homeschool Alumni get in free, but I think you still have to pay the admission...it's rather confusing. And do I count as alumni when I'm still finishing up a little bit of school? Whatever...

• Dusting and Swiffering to fight the never-ending cat hair...it's a wonder these cats have any fur on them!

• If I have time, getting some schoolwork done...I sure hope I have time, I'm really wanting to get this stuff done and I'm pretty close! I'm aiming for being done by this summer which will be really nice, I'll have time to work on all the other stuff I should be doing...like cooking, and getting my cleaning schedule arranged and such. And if I can get that all organized over the summer, it would be great, because Mom's going to be even busier with Colin's schoolwork next year, so if I can handle more stuff that would be a help to her.

• Are bullet points allowed to be this long?

• I've run out of points

• Oh, and writing a blog post in my head about logic and debating and communicating clearly...but you'll see when I get it written

• I should be working on other stuff...
  

Because...

...neither Rebecca nor I have anything to really blog about...another quiz! Sorry. :(

You're Iceland!

Most people think you're a cold and forbidding person, but
you're actually naturally warm and inviting. People just get scared off
by what other people have led them to believe about you. You keep to yourself
for the most part, and are pretty good at fending for yourself, especially if
water's involved. More people should visit you and find out the truth.


Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

What a coincidence!

So the description is really random and strange and doesn't fit me, but it's North Carolina! And I do live here... *shrug*

You're North Carolina!

A phenomenal basketball player, you enjoy soaring to great heights.
Flying is probably your favorite activity, and you're willing to board any plane at
almost any time. Physically, you're a little teapot, short and stout. And you're rather
prone to wearing capes. After a long search, you're pretty sure you've finally found
Mr. Wright. Hey, does he have a brother?


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Thursday post

I think I'm awake tonight. Yes, I should be able to make sense (well, as much as I ever do) in this post. I just can't come up with an exciting title.

Just as a note to people who knit or crochet and are trying to save money, don't try to save money by getting the very least amount of yarn that you can. Trust me, it isn't a good idea. Even if you're are being frugal and you absolutely hate buying more yarn than you might need, snap out of it. Especially if the yarn is ordered online so that you can't just run to the store to get another skein of yarn.

Why am I saying this? Experience. Good old-fashioned experience. And I'm preaching to myself here...I still make this mistake. Because I don't want to have a useless 5/8 of a skein of yarn sitting around, especially if its expensive yarn because that's just wasting it.

Buy enough yarn. Buy enough yarn. Buy enough yarn!

Okay, so the latest example of this would be the yarn I used for my shrug:









While it certainly looks alright, and it is sewn together, and I did get it done in time to wear last Sunday, I could have used more yarn. Not a lot of yarn, just a little bit more. Because the shrug is sewed together at the seams with three shades of pink embroidery floss. I carefully mixed the three shades so that they looked the same as the yarn, but it took time. And the edging is made from a little ball of pink stretchy yarn I had left over from another project. (So I guess the extra yarn came in handy there, but it wasn't much extra.)

So, I'm just saying... :)

In other news, when I go outside in the sun I get...tanned? No, of course not. That only happens if I'm out for about ten minutes a day, every day, and I don't stay out any longer than that. Because what I get otherwise is more of a, well, red color...not tan.
Anyway, I get freckles. And then they're gone by the next morning...which seems really strange! I guess if I was outside more they would end up staying? Probably, seeing as my little brother has got freckles and good tan line already this year! I just find it funny that my freckles show up and then fade that fast! :p

I figured out what to make for supper tonight. I made Jambalaya with chicken in it. It was pretty good...we usually have it with smoked sausage, but I think I like it better with the chicken.

Oh bother. I'm not figuring this out...I was thinking about opening a savings account and putting the money that I get from baking bread into savings. The problem is that Wachovia, where my checking account is, doesn't have a savings program that I like, so I was looking at BB&T instead. Well, I was trying to figure out how much the interest would be and whether it's worth it to open an account at another bank. So the savings account has an interest rate of 1.73% compounded daily. Argh, this would be the part of Consumer Math that I didn't do very well on!!! I can calculate simple interest fine...that's easy enough, but I have problems with compounded interest. And I can't seem to find a calculator online to figure it. I found a few formulas for figuring interest, but the figures I'm coming up with don't look right! Unless that adds up to a fair amount of interest, it would be easier to just designate a savings category in my budget, and deposit the money in my checking account...maybe I'll just do that.

Oh, I need to have Colin try on some shorts! Mom got him some new shorts, but they're really long. They looked like gauchos or something...so they really need to be hemmed! I need to go catch him before he goes to bed so I can figure out how long they need to be and get started on them tonight.

Wednesday

Oof. I'm tired. I feel like I could curl up and take a nap right now. But then I wouldn't be able to get to sleep tonight, so I'm blogging instead. Maybe I should listen to some music, that might keep me awake.

Anyway...we usually crash a bit on Mondays, sleep in a little, take it easy to recover from a busy weekend. Well, this Monday we got up early because the washer was being delivered, and then we ran innumerable loads of laundry, and we've been busy since then. Plus I've been staying up late. Nor have I taken my vitamins for the past week, so that may have something to do with why I'm tired as well.

So, I didn't blog about American Idol last night because, well, I don't really have a whole lot to say about it. Uh, I'd forgotten what a big voice Ramiele has, and she finally sang something that wasn't boring. Jason is getting boring. David Cook was alright, but I really hate that song. I did vote for Michael Johns though...he was definitely the best last night, and maybe all he can sing well is songs by Queen, but hey, they sang a lot of songs, so he's got quite a few to pick from! :) So that's that. To quote Simon, "I wasn't jumping out my chair" but it was alright. I'm sure David A. lost a lot of votes from little girls because his girlfriend was in the audience...not a good idea there. :)

It's warm here again. I went for a walk this afternoon and ended up wishing I was wearing shorts or capris, and any color of t-shirt but black!

I was planning on blogging when I got back from my walk, but I got started clearing off a counter in the garage, and then I started cleaning out a cabinet of old school stuff...I accomplished a lot, but by the time I was done it was time for supper.

And I don't know what I'm making for supper tomorrow...I need to get that figured out. Hmm...

I think I just ran out of things to write. Yawn.

Maybe I should go see if the washer will play music...we're not using it right now...

Uh, thanks...

So the theme for this week's American Idol is "songs from the year you were born". Hmm...should be interesting. None of the contestants are the same age I am, so we won't hear any songs from '89, but there are some cool ones from that year! Well, fairly cool, in a weird eighties sort of way. Like:

We Didn't Start the Fire ~Billy Joel
Stand ~R.E.M.
Orinoco Flow ~Enya

Free Falling ~Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Runnin' Down a Dream
I Won't Back Down

And a whole list of songs from '89, I only recognized about thirty of them.

So there...I feel younger now...after being told on Sunday that I was really old. "Wow, you're old! You're going to be nineteen in September? Man..." and then from an eight-year-old, "Yeah, because nineteen is almost twenty!" And when you're eight, twenty is just about dead I guess! :p

Uh...hmm...do I act old for my age? I can see where they're coming from, I mean once you're eighteen you're officially an adult and you can get married and stuff, and I do occasionally feel very old thinking about that, because it isn't quite the same as when you were younger. I didn't think people started going on about that until you were like thirty or forty though! :D

So, yeah, I think I'll go take a nap...I get tired so easily these days. It's just not like being thirteen...these young people you know, they just run around non-stop. I can't do that... ;)

Oh, and I smelled the magnolia flowers when I went out to get the mail, and they smell very good. Not as strong as a big magnolia, more like honeysuckle. And I'm sure it was a funny sight for anyone who saw me trying to hold onto the pile of mail and bend in half to smell the flowers, because that tree's really only about a foot and a half tall! :p And we got a bunch of slippery catalogs in the mail...

Ten Things Tuesday

Rebecca's Ten Things Tuesday is "Ten stores that I like".

In no particular order:

1. Target
2. Homegoods
3. Costco
4. A.C. Moore
5. Eddie Bauer
6. Barnes & Noble
7. T.J. Maxx
8. Shoes.com
9. Joann.com
10. Kohls

Wow, that's boring! :)

Write or link to your list in the comments!

Snowy white

It actually snowed a little bit here today. A very little bit! It was 40-something outside, but it must have been colder further up, because we got a short flurry of snowflakes.

Here are some pictures I took this weekend of our little Star Magnolia in the front yard. The past few years it's gotten frozen and the flowers have been brown, but the weather must have been just right for it this year.

New washing machine!

We've got a new washing machine! Or rather, it's being delivered right now. We ended up getting one of the Fisher & Paykel washers...the one that plays music in fact. Mom and Dad decided not to get one of the Speed Queen ones after they went and looked at one. It was the same price as the Fisher & Paykel washers, but the controls felt like they would break easily.

On Friday our old one started making this awful squealing sound when it started spinning out. We were just going to let it finish and endure the noise, but then Dad went and looked at it said that we needed to turn it off because it was smelling like hot rubber. Not good!

However, we were able to take our laundry next door and use Grandma and Grandpa's washer. It can be helpful to have relatives living next to you! :p So we were able to get some laundry done, but Grandma told us not to get the kind of washer she's got. Apparently it holds a lot of clothes, but it isn't strong enough to deal with them, because when I went back over to get the load of dark clothes (lots of pants and jeans) she said it had gone out of balance and she'd had to sit on it to keep it from bumping. (It didn't dawn on me till later that she said she'd sat on it...but anyway!)

I re-leveled it, I don't think they realized that you have to tip it forward and reset the back legs every time it goes out of balance, because they said Dad had leveled it when they first got it.

I'm not sure if we're going to be able to use the new one yet, Dad is trying to get it level, but he needs to leave for work, so it might have to wait until tonight. It doesn't seem to be cooperating...you adjust one leg and it starts wobbling, but if you compensate for that, it's off in the other direction! I think Dad's about to just leave it like it is and call it good. :) We'll see.

Easter fellowship

So, no volleyball this year, but it was really nice outside so I got some pictures of the craziness! :)

Colin has found a small tree:












Maybe I should be running:












Because the best part of the swing set is the frame!:












This was obviously the weapon of choice:










S. talks while a small battle goes on behind him:












I'm not sure who's winning:
























She's flying!:












Storming the fort...the boys had claimed the top, but the girls were going for it:









H. watches the (unsuccessful) takeover:












I don't think she knows what's coming!:











I got my photographer (my friend Zoe!) to take a picture of me...so you can see the dress...and the shrug that I finished right before bed last night!:












This is the one that actually turned out best, but I don't think I knew she was taking it, and I'm trying to get leaves out of my sandals! :p

Here's what I made for the fellowship:










It's actually fruit salad with pasta in it. And as strange as that sounds, it's really good! It has pineapple and mandarin oranges, and teeny-tiny round pasta, with cool-whip and some other stuff mixed in. Not much of it got eaten though, because I don't think most people knew what it was!

It was really fairly warm...in fact it was too warm inside at church. It was just right outside, it was cool, but the sun was shining so it wasn't cold. I really enjoyed it!

He is risen!

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Alleluia!
Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Hail, the Lord of earth and Heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to Thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail, the resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

Friday funny

I was looking through the archives on this blog the other day, and I found this which I had forgotten about...so some of you have seen this video before. I still don't know how they managed to choreograph this all and not mess it up!

Here It Goes Again ~OK Go -on treadmills

We want a...calzomboli?

For supper tonight I made calzones...or stromboli. Or a combination of the two. Apparently calzones have ricotta cheese in them (these didn't), but stromboli aren't shaped like that. It's a calzomboli! :) Whatever it's called, it's basically pizza with crust all around it!

I've gotten one half of the front of my shrug finished...which means I still have the other side, the back, and the sleeves!

You know, when I broke my finger two years ago, I wasn't even sure it was broken...I figured I'd just jammed it good. The ball hit the tip of my left pinkie, which really, really hurt, and it swelled up a lot. But I looked online and it sounded like it could just be jammed, not broken, so I just kept taping it. The looking online was not such a great idea though...I don't usually get queasy about broken bones and stuff like that, but if it's something that could be wrong with me I get to feeling bad.
So I'm looking at this stuff, and then I go to tell Mom what I've found out about it. Well, I walk into the bedroom and Mom says, "Are you alright?!!" "Uh, not exactly," I say, "I was researching swollen fingers." "You're green!" says Mom. :D

So that didn't go so well! Anyway, I had to go to the doctor later that week to get some shots, so after she's all done with the shots and stuff, I say, "Oh, by the way, this is hurting", and show her my swollen, taped finger. Well, she looks at it, and says, "Yeah. That's broken. I'll get you a splint for that." Okay then! :p

So she got me a splint that I had to wear for about a month, I think. She said there wasn't much else they could do. The second joint in my finger was broken, but as long as it wasn't fractured further down in my hand the splint would be enough. So I wore the splint for a month, and occasionally after that even, and it was stiff and hurt sometimes for about a year! It still aches occasionally...I've probably got arthritis in that finger or something! I can bend it most all the way though, I could hardly bend it that first year. I'm glad it was my left hand at least since I'm right-handed, but you don't realize how much you use even your left hand until something happens to it! :)

So that's the story of my broken finger...as you might have guessed, I haven't ever broken anything more serious! :p I've sprained a few things, and cut my head on a folding chair and had to get stitches when I was five, but never broken an arm or anything. Which is just fine with me!!

Hmm...seems like I was going to mention something else, but I've forgotten. Oh, here's this:









Um, rats...not a favorite of mine, but I liked this picture!

Calzomboli! You know, I rather like that! :)

I don't LIKE spam!!

But I've got "spam spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam and spam!"*

My main email (Earthlink) is catching almost everything in my spam filter. I use Eudora as my email program instead of doing it all online, so to get the emails out of my junk mailbox I have to log on to the web mail and rescue the messages that aren't actually spam.

I prefer not to use the web mail because it's easier to write emails in Eudora, and I have it set to check mail at regular intervals. Plus, in the web mail there's no way to reply in-line. (Does anyone else even do that anymore?...where you write your reply directly under the appropriate paragraph, as opposed to writing your whole reply above the email?) I reply above the email on my web mail and my Yahoo mail, because there's no other way, but when I use Eudora, I generally reply in-line.

Anyway, right now I've just turned off the filtering because most of my emails, and all my blog comments were going into the spam folder. So now I'm getting all my email, but I also get all the spam as well!

The filter is not supposed to catch messages from senders that are in your address book, but it was catching those even. Earthlink has fixed it before, but then I'm not sure if they get a bunch of complaints about spam and they up the filtering, or what.

It's getting annoying!

*Monty Python's Spam skit

...yep, must be wrong

I forgot about the other thing I was going to mention yesterday: the wrong number that makes you wonder where it was they were trying to call.

So yesterday the phone rings, and I answer it:

Me: "Hello?"

A male voice says: "Uhhhhh..."

Ah, that's a promising beginning! Nice, bright, cheerful greeting, very intelligent sounding...not. :p Oh, apparently he didn't want to talk to me anyway...

Male: "I guess... Do I?... Hmm... I must have the wrong..." (silence) "I think... Yeah, this must be the wrong number... uhhh..." (silence)

Me: "Yes... that's okay..." (no reply, so I hang up the phone)

So where ever he was trying to call there wouldn't have been girls answering the phone, I guess? He seemed very surprised! :D

So that's where it came from

Apparently the tradition of new clothes for Easter came from the early church.

"In the early church it was custom to administer Holy Baptism at "cockcrow." The candidates of Baptism were dressed in shiny white robes which they wore throughout the week. This led to the custom of individuals wearing new clothes on Easter Sunday, and to show them off by walking around the town and country side; thus originated the Easter promenade or Easter parade." from Easter

"Why do we wear a "New Easter Dress" on Easter Sunday?
People, who were baptized during the year, in the early church, wore white robes as a symbol of their new life the week of Easter. People who had been baptized in previous years also wore new clothes sharing in the symbolism of new life. As time passed, wearing new clothes on Easter became a symbol of the grace of Easter

Where did the parades come from?
After Easter service the people, wearing their new Easter robes, would take a long walk through the village." from Traditions of Easter

So apparently that's the origin of all this fuss. :)

Here's the pictures of my dress:






























That fabric is strangely hard to photograph!

AND, I started working on the shrug again! Once again, I think I figured out what I was doing wrong...which is no guarantee that I won't be posting tomorrow that it's not working at all. :) I thought of it just as I was going to bed last night...so maybe that big piece of brownie helped.
I much prefer knitting though...with knitting you have x number of stitches on the needle, and unless you purposely add or subtract some, there's no way to change that number!

Of course, at this point the weather on Sunday is supposed to be in the mid-fifties with a chance of rain. Figures. :)

Well, I'd rather it be cool, than that I be outside in the blazing heat playing volleyball...because that's what we did two years ago. I wasn't real fond of volleyball to begin with because I'm no good at it, but I really don't like it now since I broke my finger playing volleyball that day! Ugh.

Most of the people in our church don't have family nearby, so we have an Easter fellowship at someone's house. Which is very nice, except for volleyball being suggested as an activity for the kids that one year. :)

Beatles, take two

Okay, Idol recap, and I'm going to eat this while I type. Don't worry, chocolate doesn't keep me awake :) :









Amanda ~Back In The USSR
Um, a typical Amanda performance? Mom couldn't remember if she'd heard this one before, and she couldn't tell from this!

Kristi ~You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Oh, I have heard this before...it just didn't sound quite like this. I think it was too low for her.

David A. ~The Long And Winding Road
Okay, he did better this week, but he's still not a favorite of mine

Michael Johns ~A Day In The Life
Where have I heard this recently? It was alright...I think it was too long of a song to try to squash into the time he had, but it wasn't too bad

Brooke ~Here Comes The Sun
Ooo, not a good key for her...and she really seems most comfortable with an instrument to play (a lot of the contestants this year do)

David C. ~Day Tripper
Hmm...not as good as the original. Still pretty good though, and the voice-box was a cool touch. And speaking of touch, David seemed to be trying to keep Ryan from touching him. "No! I'm good!" as Ryan tries to help him up, and then using his guitar as a barrier between them. He finally accepted a manly hand-shake, but then went stiff when Ryan patted him on the back. :D That just cracked me up for some reason! Not that I blame him...

Carly ~Blackbird
Not bad...once again, a little bit too low. Perhaps Beatles songs are just not good for women to sing?

Jason ~Michelle
I hadn't ever heard this song before...I liked it, but it was funny how Jason sounded like he was quoting the French part! And as Paula said, it sort of turned into a polka all the sudden! What?! Paula said something that actually made sense? Wow, what just happened?

Syesha ~Yesterday
Ugh, she messed with the melody, and somehow the Beatles managed to sing that song without sounding suicidal and emo....she didn't.

Chikezie ~I've Just Seen A Face
I hadn't heard this one before either, so maybe he messed it up when it turned into a bluegrass song, but I thought it was pretty good! He seemed to be having fun with it!

Ramiele ~I Should Have Known Better
Ugh, not good.

I voted for David C., Jason, and even a couple times for Chikezie. Not bad.

The brownie is gone:









Goodnight!

Coffee and Easter

All about the meaning of coffee at Easter, and its relationship with the traditions of... No, not really. Just two of the subjects I mention in this post. Sorry, were you hoping for some sort of explanation of the theological aspects of coffee? (There aren't any that I know of, btw.)

So far this blogging in the afternoon thing is working well, although I'm finding myself reluctant to shut the computer down at night, because I'm not going to turn it on until mid-morning. But that sounds like a problem that needed to be dealt with anyway! :P

I finished sewing my dress last night, but I haven't gotten any pictures of it yet, I'll try to post one tomorrow. I'm still not sure what I'm doing about the shrug, and it may be too cold next Sunday to wear the dress anyway. One of my friends was just saying that she didn't know what she was going to wear for Easter, and maybe we were old enough that we didn't need to have "Easter dresses". :) Well, I certainly agree with her on that...and if she's "old enough" I definitely am, since I'm three years older than her! I wasn't really planning this dress to be an "Easter dress", just a new dress, that I would wear the first time on Easter. I'm wondering where this whole Easter dress thing came from anyway? I'm going to have to see what I can find about this...how this all started. Because there does seem to be this sort of assumption that at least little kids have a new dress for Easter. But more on that tomorrow...

This ear thing is really getting annoying. It doesn't seem to be a sinus thing, because the past few days I haven't had a sinus headache, just this full, stuffy feeling in my ears. And the sinus medicine hasn't done anything when I've taken it. It's really annoying today, because I'm having trouble hearing things. :( I did some research online and I can't figure out what this is, other than just stuffy ears maybe from allergies, and I'll just have to wait for it to go away. We have two doctors in our church, so maybe if either of them are at prayer meeting tomorrow night, I'll see if they have any suggestions...and if they aren't there I'll see if my ears are still full on Sunday! I don't really want to go in to the doctor's office, because I'm not sure they'll be able to do anything anyway, and I'd probably end up catching this cold, or the flu that's been going around, both of which I've managed to avoid so far.

Want a chance to maybe try some coffee? This company in Florida is giving you a chance to be picked to be a "beta tester" for their coffee. Basically you just get some free coffee and your blog gets linked on their page, but hey, free coffee! So if you're a coffee-drinking blogger, or you know one, check it out: Joffrey's Java Apparently they're only picking 1,000 blogs, so not everyone who enters will get free coffee, but it's worth a try.

Hmm...what else is going on around here this week? Nothing I guess...so that's all for today.

Oh wait, I know what's going on, American Idol is on tonight....another show of Lennon/McCartney songs. Lovely. I hope they do better this week...maybe pick some better songs? When they were doing the group medley on the results show, there were several songs that certain contestants were singing really well. I wonder if they can sing any of the songs that were part of that, or do they not want to do them again? We shall see.

I guess since I don't have a shrug pattern figure out I will cross-stitch while I watch the show tonight. Or get a pattern figured out by then!

Yum!

Mmm...yeah, we had corned beef and cabbage for supper. And let me tell you, it was GOOD! Really good! We also had potatoes, carrots, and Irish Soda bread. Mom said the bread recipe she went with sounded like it was more tasty than authentic, which was fine with us. It was something like a big scone or biscuit with raisins in it. So all of it was really good, even the cabbage wasn't too bad, cooked in the corned beef broth and eaten with the corned beef, I wasn't expecting to like it that much.

And did I mention, it was really good? :)

I'm almost finished sewing my dress. I think all I have left to do is hem it, but I need to check. And if that's all, I should be able to finish it tonight and post some pictures tomorrow.

So who had Irish food for supper? Or did you all stubbornly eat something totally not Irish? :)

Well then...

I waited till afternoon to post and read blogs, and after looking through all my bookmarked blogs I find that no one else posted this morning either! Or this afternoon... Hello??? Where is everyone? Or maybe everyone but me is busy. That's very likely...I think I'll go put away some laundry and sew. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was wearing a green polo shirt at church last night and my friend told me I should have saved it for today...I told her I had a sweater to wear today. And my green Converse...so, yeah, it's probably a little bit tacky actually. :) But hey, the sweater and the shoes are the same shade of green!

It is a very bright green sweater. When Mom saw me this morning she said "Green!" and Colin came popping out of his bedroom and said, "Wow! That's a pretty bright sweater!" I explained that since I wear green throughout the year, it has to be a very bright green to make it any different. :)

I tried to get Colin to take a picture of me, but he didn't really want to take pictures of me, so they didn't turn out very well....ah well, my camera has a timer on it. :)

I think the last time I actually remembered it was St. Patrick's Day and purposely wore green was at driver's ed...two years ago? Wow, was it only two years ago?

Ah, driver's ed...memories. Like how the fire alarm went off, twice, the first day of class. In a way that was good, because everyone relaxed in common disgust at being shuffled outside without our lunch twice, and how crazy it was that it was that day that the alarm was going off!

A guy from church went to the class too, which was nice, because that way I knew at least one person. Oh, and being unsocialized homeschoolers, we realized that neither of us knew how to pack a lunch. How lame is that? :D Although, the class was all homeschoolers and I saw some other strangely-packed lunches that week.

I think my friend ended up fitting in better than I did...he was the same age as most of the kids, 14 1/2, whereas at 16, I was the third oldest in the class. Which was fine with me....they acted hyper all week, and I just had to sit through listening to several of them waste time asking pointless questions. *shrug* He had his group of friends, and I made friends with a very nice girl who wasn't really part of the crowd either and we stuck together through the week. She and I both found the giggling, flirting girls very annoying, along with the pointless questions, and the time it was taking to get through things that were really perfectly clear if you just listened to what the teacher was saying! :)

Then for in-car, I got to drive with the oldest girl in the class, an eighteen year-old who had never driven at all! I'm thankful to God, and the good brakes in the car that I'm still here today! :P (Ford Taurus' have wonderful brakes!) Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but still... it was close. My teacher told Mom that I'd had to deal with and see things I shouldn't have had to...which sounds strange, but I think she meant the girl's driving! :D (Yeah, our teacher was a little strange too, but then I think you'd have to have an odd personality to be able to deal with teaching kids to drive!)

At some point during the class the teacher told us that before we did in-car we needed to have our parents take us to a parking lot and let us just practice stopping without slamming on the brakes, because she didn't want to be thrown through the window. Well, without thinking, I ask whether we have to do that if we've driven before? "You mean illegally?" she asks. Uh, yeah, I answer, just realizing what I've said. I felt better though when she asked who all had driven before and there were only two or three kids who hadn't! :)

We all had to take the test the last day, and when we were done the teacher sent us outside to wait for the tests to be graded. We got in trouble because some of us started throwing the little prickly balls from the Sweetgum trees (these things) at each other. The teacher wasn't real happy with us when we came back inside, and she made everyone who had thrown them go sit on the couches, and she lectured us. I'm sorry to say that I don't think most of us were very sorry, (no had gotten hurt or anything) and we were more worried that she was going to fail us because of it. But she didn't and we apologized. :( It was almost two-thirds of the class anyway, so I guess she wouldn't have made all of us redo the class, but she did succeed in scaring us good! :)

So, that, along with other random crazy stuff that I can't remember, was driver's ed. Oh, and my friend asked his mom if we could stop at Walmart on the way home the last day and get slushies because we passed the test. While we were there we saw this girl (probably in her late twenties) with a shirt that said "Skills" like from Napoleon Dynamite...and my friend said, "Sweet! ...Skills!" and high-fived her...at which point I wanted to either disappear or yell, "I'm not related to him!" because she looked very scared and obviously thought he was a little loopy. And I don't blame her, I probably would have been scared if some hyper 14 year-old had just unexpectedly high-fived me in Walmart! :p

Anyway, that last day of the class was St. Patrick's Day and I purposely wore a green shirt. One of the kids in the class put green paint stuff in his hair, (it looked, um, well, green!) and most everyone else was wearing green shirts too.

So, that was the last time I remember paying attention to when St. Patrick's Day was, and I can't believe that was only two years ago...it seems like it's been so much longer. Wow...

Okay, sorry for rambling on like that...it may be afternoon, but it's still a Monday and I've not had quite enough sleep! :p

I suppose I really should have worn orange today, since I'm certainly not Catholic, but the orange order seems rather odd in their own way. :)

Maybe tomorrow's post will make more sense...

Sunday post

Okay, a very random post for Sunday...sorry!

• I'm going to try to cut down on my computer time, mainly by switching my blogging to the afternoon. I've gotten in a habit over the past month of blogging in the morning, and I'm afraid it's really cutting into time I should be using more profitably. I know I like to find a new post on a blog in the morning, but I really need to manage my time better, and blog after I've gotten more of my work done! Of course, that means I'll have to wait and read blogs in the afternoon too, so I won't know if other people are getting posts up first thing in the morning either! :) So hopefully my next posts will be afternoon or late night posts. It's a problem because I have a habit of blogging, and then I get started looking at other stuff, and before I know it an hour has passed...or more. :(

• The shrug I'm crocheting is still not working! I was trying to get it and the dress done for Easter. I think that it's maybe supposed to be cold that weekend anyway, so maybe I'll get the dress done and wear a sweater over it. Whatever...

• Monday is St. Patrick's Day! I think Mom's making corned beef and cabbage for supper. Should be interesting...I am part Irish, but most Irish food doesn't sound very appetizing to me. Most of it seems to involve a lot of potatoes and bread...and if I ate that all the time I wouldn't have any energy to do anything! But I think corned beef should be okay...the rest of me that's German, Scottish, and English is just going to have to deal with it! :D Scottish food sounds pretty nasty too...

• Dad's been working on the flier for a conference our church is sponsoring: Families For God's Glory In fact, he's still working on it, because the registration form still has to be done...I'm surprised he's managed to get as much done as he has, what with being sick and then very busy at work!

• I'm not sick, but I'm not sure why my ears are still all stuffy. They were stuffy all yesterday, and then I got a headache in the evening just like on Friday...it's strange. It's rather disorienting, and I feel like my balance is kind of off because of it too. I need to go take some more sinus medicine and see if it helps any. At least my head's not hurting during the day...I can function while feeling foggy, but not with a headache! Oh well. On the other hand, I slept really well last night because I was in a fog! :)
  

I'm going to go get some sewing done. I've got to pick out a few seams because I sewed the facing pieces together wrong...but after I get that fixed it shouldn't take too much longer to finish. Shouldn't. :p

Current kitchen

Sorry, I should have posted a picture of what it looks like now...since Rebecca asked what we have up there now, here's a picture. There's not really enough stuff even if we did stick with the blue & white.

Kitchen decor

Edit: Mom said the paragraph about the outside of the house not going with the inside didn't make any sense. What I meant was that, we're really not going for a country look at all, even though the outside of our house is sort of that style. She also said that the color I mean is really burgundy, not red. I guess it is. That's a dispute we have often, whether something is red or burgundy. :) I guess I mean burgundy though, because otherwise it's going to end up looking patriotic with the blue and stuff. So, burgundy, not red!

Okay, so this conversation took place while I was peeling and slicing carrots, and Mom was at the computer looking at stuff on ebay.

I've got a plan for redecorating our kitchen, and it involves painting the walls a warmer shade tan/brown, and using red, beige, tan, and blue for the decor instead of the blue and white stuff we have now. The problem is that the tan color we have on the walls now looks very gray on the wall under the upper cabinets. I think painting the kitchen a warmer shade will fix that, but we also need to change the decor. So we were talking about what we could put up on top of the upper cabinets. We obviously have problems with over-cabinet decor...it has to be fairly washable, because it is going to get dusty up there, and it can't be too fussy. For example, fake plants are definitely out.

Me: "So what are we going to do for decor up above the cabinets?"

Mom: "Hmm..."

Me: "The only things I can think of is that we need to get some sort of red plate to replace the one over the stove there, and maybe one...basket."

Mom: "One...basket?"

Me: "Yeah, just one, and nothing too terribly well, baskety. Nothing that looks really country."

Mom: "Oh. Um, how about a ceramic basket?"

Me: "NO! No, no, no...definitely not a ceramic basket! A real basket, just a fairly simple one. What about those signs? What's your opinion of those?"

Mom: "The signs with "funny" sayings on them?"

Me: "No, the wood letter ones that say "Kitchen" and stuff like that."

Mom: "Yeah, those are...yeah, I guess those are okay..."

Me: "We could make our own, I mean."

Mom: "Oh yes, you could get the letters at..."

Me: "...the hardware store, probably."

Mom: "...the craft store. In the paintable wood section."

Me: "Paintable wood?"

Mom: "You know, the section of all the unpainted wood stuff."

Me: "Oh, the unfinished wood stuff!"

Mom: "Unpainted Arizona."

Me: "What's that from?"

Mom: "The name of the furniture store in "Raising Arizona"."

Me: "Oh yeah, I remember that." (I pause to think about that crazy movie.) "Uh, anyway...signs...we could make one, and it could say whatever you want it to say. 'Here's your sign'."

(Mom doesn't seem entirely convinced.)

Mom: "What about an eggplant?"

Me: "Made out of what?"

Mom: "Ceramic of course, I'm thinking washable!"

Me: "Oh. Hmm... No, an eggplant is the wrong color, plus it will show dust very fast. But that's a good idea, what else is there that would work?"

Mom: "An apple? A big apple cookie jar like this one?" (she pulls up an apple cookie jar on ebay.)

Me: "Yes! That would work! How much is that?"

Mom: "Well, there's a lot of them...some of them are pretty cheap. I mean LOTS of them... and a tomato."

Me: "Hmm...a tomato's the wrong color of red I think."

Mom: "Oh! here we go! This is what you wanted, right? Ceramic tomato basket canisters?"

(I'm speechless.)

Mom: "They are red."

Me: (After I stop laughing) "Oh boy, yeah, there we go. Fake tomatoes, fake basket... I was thinking of some beige canisters though"

Mom: "How would you arrange them?"

Me: "A cluster of maybe three. Beige canisters, tastefully clustered."

Mom: "I don't know. I'm not sure about putting stuff up where you couldn't practically use it. It's decor, but if it wasn't, you wouldn't put them up there, you couldn't reach them. Although we do have plates up there now..."

Me: "Oh, what about one of the platters that came with the dishes? Or would that seem strange to have the same pattern used as decor?"

Mom: "No, that would work. I don't actually use a platter very often anyway, so I certainly wouldn't need both of them."

So...maybe you had to have been there. :p

So all we really came up with was a plate for over the stove, an apple cookie jar, a basket, and a platter. And maybe some canisters. But we need more than that.

Does anyone have any ideas? We have medium oak cabinets, and about maybe a foot and a half of space above them. Fake plants are out, as well as...hmm...fake birds, wallpaper border, and anything so priceless that it will be devastating if the cat knocks it off. :)

Our house is a small one-story ranch house, so I suppose in not having a country decor it doesn't go with the outside of our house particularly. Although the front of our house looks more modern since the carpenter bees drilled out our porch railing and it rotted and fell down we took our porch railing off. (See edit above.)

The only decorative thing I've thought of since then is some sort of wood box sort of thing. You know, just a random sort of antique looking box, or crate maybe? But I'm not sure where one would get something like that, or if it would really work. We could put it in the corner though, and maybe put something else on top of it depending on how tall it was... I don't know, I guess I don't have a real clear picture of what I'm thinking of even.

So, if anyone has any ideas, let me know! And if you have any of the items that I said were out...I don't mean to offend anyone. I've seen all those things in other people's houses and they've looked fine...they're just not things that will work for us! :)

I had a smoothie for breakfast!

We got a blender last night! It's this one except it's red, and it was only $30 at Costco. I'm really liking red, shiny things. I think it's because I would have liked to have gotten one of those red ipod nanos, but they were going for too much even on ebay, so I ended up with the silver. But I've been wanting something red and metallic since then! :D Camera, blender, toaster...whatever. Yeah, Oster makes a red metallic toaster too. Pretty cool.

So Mom and I can have smoothies for breakfast again! Mom said this blender is quieter than our other one, but I couldn't really tell. My ears are all stuffed up again this morning so everything sounds very loud to me. :)

Well, it's Saturday, so I've got work to do!

It's Spring, or almost, isn't it?

My allergies are starting. Every time I've moved today it's felt like my head was in a cloud. Surprisingly, I didn't have a headache...that didn't catch up with me till about half-way through a hot dog at Costco tonight. Oof, nothing like a headache to make your supper taste good. Not.

So by the time we got through Costco and got home, I had a lovely sinus headache going. Thankfully, after two sinus pills, a Tylenol, and a hot shower I'm feeling much better.

I know it's allergies because we've had the windows open, and I've been outside...and they just said on the news last night that the cedar trees were the cause of most of the pollen, and cedars are what give me the most trouble.

Ah, I think I'll go find my ipod and crochet for a while. It's either that or pick out a seam I messed up on my sewing. My crafting is not going well, if you hadn't noticed. :) Yeah, seam-ripping does not go well with the remains of a headache...crochet it is.

I was going to blog about our big kitchen decor discussion, but I don't think it will make much sense if I try to write right now... case in point, I just about wrote "try to right write now". Right. Or wrong...or... Oh I abhor headaches!

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!

I just undid the piece of my shrug that I was working on, because I figured out I hadn't put enough stitches in it...then I realized why it didn't have enough, and I've been doing it wrong the whole time! So the back that I thought was all done doesn't have enough stitches either and it's not going to fit. So I have to take it ALL out and start over!!! The whole thing!!!

*Groan*

Things I accomplished today

Good:
I got seeds planted out in the garden.

Bad:
I made biscuits and sausage gravy for supper. It took me the longest time to figure out why the biscuits had gotten done so fast, and why they were so salty. I was absolutely positive that I'd measured everything correctly. Mom said that the only thing she could think of was that I had put too much baking powder in. "Baking soda," I corrected, "they have baking soda in them. But I'm sure I measured it right." Well, I puzzled over this all through supper and after we were done Mom asked me to go get the recipe...well, on the way into my bedroom to get the recipe it dawns on me what I did. I check the recipe...yep. The recipe does call for baking powder and I used baking soda. I'm usually so careful to comprehend that so that I don't use the wrong one, but I failed to do that tonight. :( Oh well, they were edible (mostly), and I won't do that again! (The gravy was good!)

Anyway, back to the good part...I got lettuce and swiss chard planted today. It was very, very nice outside today (yesterday too, for that matter) so I was glad to get outside. I always have big plans for the garden this time of year. I'm going to plant all this stuff, and we'll have tons of fresh vegetables... and then about the time it starts getting really hot outside, I regret having to go out and work in the garden, and I remember that the vegetables I really like (peas, carrots, corn) don't grow very well down here, plus they're really cheaper to get at the grocery store. And the grocery store has air-conditioning! Sooo...we'll see how it goes this year. :) And I'm only planting one cherry tomato plant (if we have to have any) because we always plant cherry tomatoes, and then we have piles of cherry tomatoes rotting on the kitchen counter (because what do you really do with them?) and I personally don't much care for tomatoes. I'll plant some sort of large tomatoes for tomato sauce.

Mom and I had a big discussion while I was peeling carrots about over-cabinet decor for the kitchen, but I'll save that for another post. I'm afraid the carrots got the worst of it. ;) BTW, if someone knows of a way to slice carrots without the little slices rolling right off the cutting board onto the floor, I'd like to hear it.

My totally awesome shoes

As Olivia and Will pointed out, Converse rock.
And good job spotting the shoes, you two, since you can only see the tops of them! :)

Anyway, I have two pairs of chucks, and I wish I had more. These are the ones I have:














Green and pink ones from Rebecca, because they were the wrong size for her, and black and white ones I got on eBay for about a third of the normal price. I end up wearing the black ones more, because they go with things better, but I like both pairs.

I wish I had these (they would match my bedroom!). They also used to make some that looked like these ones:








...but in lime green with black and white rabbits, and the black rabbits were fuzzy. I think they also had a version with sheep. I can't seem to find any pictures now, though, so I don't know if they stopped making them or what. That's too bad. They also come in tweed, and floral prints, and a fingerprint pattern...and wouldn't these crossword ones be neat? You could have your friends write their names in the spaces:







Unfortunately Converse aren't exactly cheap. But if one was going to collect a bunch of shoes, wouldn't these be the most practical shoes you could collect? :) I mean, they come in all sorts of colors, and you can throw them in the washing machine!

And speaking of practical, I have to put dorky gel insoles in mine because they are SO FLAT inside and I have picky feet that don't like to be that flat. :p

My take on it

Okay, this is my review of American Idol last night. I got two hours of crocheting done, but then realized that I did it wrong. Bother.

Last night's theme was Lennon/McCartney songs. I had a feeling this was going to be bad.

Syesha Mercado ~ "Got To Get You Into My Life"
Eh, not bad I guess, just not my thing...I rounded up my crocheting stuff while she was singing. *shrug*

Chikezie ~"She's A Woman"
I'm not a big fan of Chikezie, but I rather enjoyed this, it was fun to watch anyway! The thing that bugged me the most was the fact that his wristband and vest matched, but not his tie. Aahh! And Ryan bouncing around the stage was rather disturbing.

Ramiele Malubay ~ "In My Life"
*yawn* Oh, was she any good? I fell asleep.

Jason Castro ~"If I Fell"
And that didn't wake me up either. I like Jason, but he needs to change it up a bit.

Carly Smithson ~"Come Together"
Now that was interesting...although I think she messed up the lyrics. "Got to be good-lookin', cause he's so hard to see" comes after the last verse, not the one she sang it after.

David Cook ~"Eleanor Rigby"
Ah, now this I liked. It was a slightly strange arrangement, but it came off well. I voted for David last night. And either they have more phone lines this year, or no one else was voting for him, because I got through 60 times and it only took about 5 minutes of my time.

Brooke White ~"Let It Be"
Hmm...I like her, but that was a little boring.

David Hernandez ~"I Saw Her Standing There"
He worked in a "pizza bistro", huh? That's not what I heard.
Cheesy, very cheesy, and he looked terrified.

Amanda Overmyer ~"You Can't Do That"
I didn't understand a word she said!

Michael Johns ~"Across The Universe"
I keep expecting him to be better, but he always falls just short of being good. Strange.

Kristi Lee Cook ~"Eight Days A Week"
Ah, uh, hmm. I was laughing half the time, and shaking my head sadly the other half. Country version...country...oh dear.

David Archuleta ~"We Can Work It Out"
Aaaahhhhhhh! Okay, I take that back, Kristi wasn't too bad after all. Not compared to that. If you didn't watch the show, I'm sure you can find a video on YouTube of David A. and you can see how he licks his lips after every phrase he sings, and giggles nervously every five seconds when he's not singing. Just whatever you do, do not come back here and say that he's so adorable, and you just want to pat him on the head and give him a hug, because if you do so, I guarantee that you will hear me screaming, no matter how far away you live.

I'm just saying.

David tells us that he really likes this song. So did I. "Did" being the important word there. That was just, just....I'm speechless. *Runs to find an mp3*

Ah, much better: We Can Work It Out

It's adios reality...

I was reminded of this last night. :)

Celebrity ~Brad Paisley

Hi again

Why is this my fifth post for today? Why have the last three been short, very random posts? Why on earth am I asking myself questions? What is wrong with me?!! Ugh!

Anyway, this is some random photos, some I took, and some Colin took. It was a little chilly and gray outside, but I headed out because I desperately needed some fresh air. My head seems to be in a fog today, and I hate it when that happens!

Daffodils:









Colin...hmm, little dude could use a bit of a haircut:












Uh, me...I didn't realize he'd taken this even:









You can't really see what my hair is doing in that picture...actually in that picture the wind must be blowing because it looks like it's taking off! :p Anyway, I figured out that if I blow-dry my hair straight, the haircut I got will actually work. I did it that way a couple Sundays ago, and got several complements on it, so that's good...I think I'll just have my friend cut it for me after this. I'm sure she can get it to do what it's doing now.

The fort:









My friends and I built that fort about 4-5 years ago...that's only about a third of the height it used to be. Most of it's been taken apart to use in the garden. Wow, it used to look pretty impressive...and we worked really hard on it. It had a bench running all around the inside even. All made out of bricks. :(

There. I won't post any more today! :P

Gustatory

Gustatory: relating to or associated with eating or the sense of taste

That would be the word to go along with "visually" in describing food. Mom was saying something about if she uses beige plates, she'll have to cook food that's more exciting, and Dad wanted to know if she meant visually more exciting, or...that it would taste exciting. And we couldn't come up with the word that corresponded with the sense of taste. But we looked it up, and the word is "gustatory".

The only one we could come up with at first was olfactory, but that's smelling.
Senses

Minor rant

Ha, the Blogger time stamp is messed up...it hasn't changed to DST yet. I wonder if it will change whenever it is that DST usually starts? :D

Or maybe Blogger is just having issues. I keep having to sign in, and I don't usually have to do that. It's very annoying when you're trying to leave a comment, and suddenly find out you have to sign in...since it doesn't always keep the comment.

Does anyone else find the new Google advanced search annoying? I thought the other one worked just fine, thank you very much! Apart from the format of the form, the fact that it fills in above while you're typing is distracting. Was the other one SO terribly hard to figure out how to use??

Hmph. Rant over.

Blogging

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

Ten Things Tuesday

Rebecca's Ten Things Tuesday this week is "Ten Random Photos I Like". So, here are ten random photos I like! I tried to find some from our trip to Oregon, but I didn't take many pictures of people! :D Sorry, Rebecca!

Icy trees:

Colin being silly:


Gracie on the dryer:
Picture of my second cousins in Springfield:
Picture of Rebecca!

Gracie, in the car:

I think this picture just sums up our family visits (what do you think, Rebecca?):
Dad and Colin...and Gracie...playing with Colin's racetrack:

When we had three cats:

Plane wing on the flight back in October:

Well, wasn't that exciting! :D

Oh, I didn't label the people really, so if you can't figure it out, you can ask me.

Edit: Whoops, I forgot to say that if you want to do this, you can leave a link to your post in the comments.

Awww!

After supper last night I curled up in the chair in the living room to listen to something Mom was reading me off the computer. Since I didn't get much sleep the night before, I fell asleep while I was sitting there. I vaguely remember someone putting a blanket over me, but I didn't even wake up all the way then.

Well, Mom asked me later if I had really been cold when Colin covered me up. I didn't realize he was the one who had covered me up. He must really be getting taller if he could cover me with a blanket without having to sort of throw it over me! :) I said that, no, I hadn't been particularly cold, but it had felt good. She said that Colin saw I had fallen asleep and said, "She looks like she's cold!" and went bustling off to his bedroom to get the blanket off his bed to cover me with. That was so sweet of him! :)

He made me a name tag a couple weeks ago, too:







He can be very annoying, but he can also be awfully sweet sometimes! :)