BBC book list

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here (actually, this is the whole top 200 list that the BBC put together in 2003 because all the lists of 100 were different. :p ...and about half of these seem to be by Terry Pratchett!)

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

How many have you read? (I'm just going to bold the ones I've read and add a + to the ones I love.)

1. +The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. +Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. +Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. +The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. +Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. +Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. +The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. +Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. +Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. +Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. +A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. +Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
128. +The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. +The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. +The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. +Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

Total read= 34...wow...I don't know. The thing is a lot of those books I wouldn't call great classics, but they were voted as the favorite books. The first 100 are better than the second probably. And I didn't realize how many of these I recognize as being movies I've heard of but didn't know they were books.

Tim Hawkins video

Creative title, right? That's all I'm up for at the moment. :p

Hey There Delilah -The Samson Version- Tim Hawkins

But I do like black and white

I'm not a big art person really (sorry Amanda, I can sense you cringing), but I see stuff once in a while that I really like.

Anyway, I went to contra on Tuesday and they'd put new artwork up in the hall! Cool! There's one really, really big painting that was gone for a while and now they've put it back, but then they also put up maybe five other pieces. The only one I recognized was The Scream. But they had a really neat black and white graphics piece behind the stage. One of my friends said it looked like an Escher, at which point I said "Oh..!" because that name actually sounded familiar. I'm usually only familiar with the names of the really great classic painters, and then only recognize maybe a Monet, Renoir, or Van Gogh for sure when I see one, and I really don't know more modern art.

So anyway, I looked it up and figured out why it sounded familiar...M.C. Escher's art is a bunch of black and white stuff, so I probably saw some at one point and liked it. This is the one they had in the hall:



I like these ones that look like the illustrations in a book:























See the books in this one? I love how they're the same size as the houses:











I like the light in this one:







This makes me think of the frogs in the book "Perelandra":












My, those frogs/lizards do get around!























Wow...























...I think my head just exploded...

So anyway...I imagine the other artwork they put up in the hall is quite possibly also by great artists...I just didn't recognize any of it. :p Even the huge painting at the end of the hall...or maybe it's just some cheap painting, but either way I don't really like it. lol It's a painting of a little girl sitting by a creek or river with a fishing rod, and there's a deer sort of hovering behind her I think, and it's mostly all aqua and green and blue. But somehow the style seems all off. Like it looks like it supposed to be a sort of old painting, but the girl and the fishing rod look too modern....I don't know. It takes up way too much space for the amount of impact it gives.

Speaking of art...I played Pictionary today over at my friend's house (not that anything we came up with was great art...ha!). Her parents had a little party for her because she's going into the military and she leaves for basic training on Monday. :( But we had fun this afternoon anyway. :) One of her other friends' little brother came too; little hyper red-haired twelve year old...I think...he seemed younger. He comes bursting into the room telling them something, stops dead, looks at me and says, "Hey, I don't know her!"

"I don't know you either!!" I replied after I stopped laughing. :D

Everyone else was getting a little annoyed with him because he wouldn't calm down, but he cracked me up. I like little red-headed kids...and for some reason little boys like that don't bother me. I can't stand kids that are total brats, but if a kid's just hyper, not shy at all, and ever so slightly a show-off yet without being annoying about it, they make me laugh. (Wow, what a description! I can't figure out how else to put it though...and I think maybe it's only little boys that are like that.) On the other hand I also haven't had to live with them, so I might think differently if I was this kid's sister for instance. :p
He thought it was pretty cool that I was wearing Converse. :D Hehe...my friend's younger sister was also surprised, "Wow, you were wearing heels the other day, but you also wear Converse!" Yep...in case you hadn't figured out by now, I'm a bit unpredictable sometimes. Just to keep you guessing... Haha! ;)

I worked a half-day yesterday so I ran some errands before and after work. I stopped in at Whole Foods to look for some tea that I couldn't find at the grocery store. I haven't been there for a long time! It's a neat place, but I was wandering around the store looking for the tea aisle while feeling like a way-too-clean, non-recycling, SUV-driving, earth-killing person. Because although I recycle, don't drive an SUV, and hadn't showered since the night before, I didn't look like it. ;) At least I didn't have makeup on. lol!
Nah, there were some other more businessy-looking people, but the whole place just feels rather granola. ;) They've got some nice stuff that you can't find at the grocery store though...I found my tea and it wasn't too terribly expensive, but it took me quite a while to get through looking at the huge variety of teas! Wow...if you want tea, that would be a good place to start. And a whole bunch of health food...unfortunately the prices are a bit steep on some things. I wish we had a Trader Joe's around here. It's a health/specialty food version of Aldi! How cool is that?! But the closest ones are near either Raleigh or Charlotte, so not real convenient.

Anyway, I should probably go get some sleep so I don't fall asleep tomorrow. :/

Coming up for air

I started writing this yesterday (Sunday) but ran out of time and finished it today.

I had three things I wanted to accomplish this afternoon...I got about 1.5 of them done. So, not too bad.

I was going to sort through my clothes, vacuum out the car, and take a nap. I got the clothes done and a very short nap; thus the 1.5.

I decided to do something about my clothes after I asked a friend for a skirt I gave her a couple years ago that she never wears anymore, and my mom asked why I was asking for clothes back when my closet was about to explode with clothing! Uh-oh...I do indeed have a problem. I'm thinking knowing how to sew is sometime more of a curse than a blessing...I always think, "Oh, if I just alter this it will fit me fine!" so I save things that don't fit, and I either alter them and have way too many clothes, or never get around to it and they sit in my closet not being worn. Hmm...

So this afternoon I went through my closet and dresser and even pulled my box of summer clothes out of the attic and looked through it too. I'm not quite sure what percentage of stuff I got rid of...not more than a quarter probably, but it's a start. Now I actually have extra hangers from my closet, and my clothes are hanging straight instead of being quite so smooshed. (I have a small closet, so it'll always be crowded, but it's better now. I rather hate to think what would happen if I had a full-size walk-in closet...I'm afraid it might fill up too. Chances are the rest of my room wouldn't be so crowded though.)

I didn't end up going out for lunch on Saturday because one of the friends I was going with had to get a haircut and she didn't get back till really late. So we're going to go out tomorrow night I think, which will probably be better anyway. My other friend got us both flowers and chocolate though! So sweet of her!! :)












I won a cute t-shirt and apron set on Bloggy Giveaways. It's a really big apron too! I'm glad it shrunk when I washed it at least, because when I first got it I wrapped it around my waist and it wrapped so far I couldn't tie it. It's really nice though, and the t-shirt is American Apparel brand and very soft and comfortable.












Meet giraffe version 1.0:












He's version 1.0 because he was supposed to be a gift, but it's the first one I've ever made and I didn't think through the consequences of leaving his last hand-stitched seams in such obvious places as the back of his neck and on his rump. On the other hand, I was wanting one for myself anyway and I'm inordinately fond of Giraffe 1.0 even with his funny seams. :) And he's brown corduroy. Version 2.0 will be better planned anyway...and will possibly have a mane, tail, and bow-tie. :)

It actually snowed for a little while this morning! It was all wet when I got up this morning because it rained last night, but then later there were snowflakes coming down. But it's sunny and clear now...now if I can just get my head cleared out that would be nice. I've been trying to figure stuff out, schedules and various other things for various people, and I feel like I'm in a slightly stressed fog. Oof. I'm hoping maybe going out to dinner tonight will help me snap out of it...but first I need to look up an H&R Block coupon and some other tax-related stuff for my friend! *Reminds herself again that she can't fix everything and she needs to chill* Deep breaths...deep...urgh!!!

Oh, when we were at Costco on Sunday we met Esbee/Lucy, of local blogging fame! That was cool!!

What month is it anyway?

Because it sure feels like April or May! Well, it did anyway. I think today was the last warm day we're going to have for a while. Oh well...*sigh*...it was nice while it lasted. I went for a walk today and it was so nice to feel the sun on my arms, yet it was breezy enough to not be too hot, and I got to wear flip-flops. (Apparently my feet aren't ready for flip-flops yet though, because I got a blister on the side of my foot from the strap...ouch.)

This Saturday is Valentine's Day...wonderful, Hallmark holiday that it is...well, I blogged about my opinion of Valentine's Day last year, and it's still the same, so there you have it.
I get to work Saturday anyway, my friend wants me to babysit for her.

And I got a Valentine's/thank you card "from" the baby I take care of...and her parents, you know, since she can't really write yet. So, I discovered it on the kitchen island about lunch time and opened it, went "awww!" and promptly got all sniffly because I get that way about some things. I don't cry very much at all, but when I do it's usually when I'm trying to talk about something I feel really deeply about, or it's something like an unexpected note like this. I'm hopeless. :p *sniff*

Let's see, what else is going on? Oh, I got a chance to listen to this sermon by Alistair Begg. My cousin told me about it, and I had time at work this morning to listen. I thought it was really good. There's a summary here. To sum it up slightly, he was talking about keeping Christ crucified as the point of the gospel, which I spent some time thinking about, because although as Christians we know that, it doesn't always come out in what we would tell someone else, or even what's preached in churches. I know it's certainly preached in our church, but I've been to several where the sermon is mostly about believing in Jesus Christ, yet they never really say that there is more to it. Certainly there's believing, but as Begg put it, (I'm paraphrasing) if people are just being good because they don't want to go to hell, because that's all they've ever had shared with them, what then was the point of Christ dying on the cross?
We are hopeless sinners, and totally unable to be saved apart from His grace, and His mercy in dying on the cross. It's not just a choice of going to heaven or hell, it's realizing what wretches we are on our own and that we need forgiveness. It's so simple, and yet it's the root of the gospel. We needed Christ to pay the debt we owed, and it was through His taking our sins on the cross that that's accomplished. Anyway, Begg did a much better job of explaining all that than I did, so if you have time, listen to what he had to say. :)

Oh, hmm, I need to look for sewing patterns, because Hancock Fabrics has Simplicity patterns for a dollar each this weekend. So I think I'll run by there Saturday before I babysit. I'm also going out for lunch with a couple of my friends. Hmm...I should probably get the ironing done tomorrow because I might not have time on Saturday.

I'm crocheting a baby afghan for a friend who's expecting a baby in a couple months. They thought it was going to be a girl, but found out yesterday that it's a boy! :0
Oookay...well, luckily the afghan will work for a boy too, because they weren't going for very frilly, girly colors anyway. But...I just ordered some leopard-print ribbon yesterday morning...so I guess I'll have 5 yards of leopard-print ribbon for...something! Because I'm not going to put ribbon on a boy's afghan. But anyway, I've got it about two-thirds done, so it shouldn't take much longer. Hopefully not anyway! The baby shower is on the 28th....so I've got fifteen days to finish it.

I'm also trying to find a nice JanSport backpack on eBay...my current backpack is starting to fall apart. Oh noes!!! Not good!
I usually get one at Aldi when they have them cheap (fall), but of course that's also why they fall apart fairly fast, they're not high-quality. My dad has a JanSport backpack that he's had for years and it's still in one piece. So I'm hoping to find a nice one like that, but on eBay in case they don't last as long as they used to (because nothing does anymore) and they're slightly expensive new.

But February made me shiver...

...with every paper I (not) delivered...

So, I haven't blogged for a while, I've been too busy this week I guess. So this is going to be a bullet-point post with a bunch of random stuff.

• I know all the lyrics to the song referenced in the title: American Pie by Don McLean

• As far as papers...the Winston Salem Journal is rapidly going downhill. And they're cutting more and more people, and cutting the size of the paper, or rearranging it. It's very annoying to have to get past all the sports page to get to the rest of the second section, because there are only two very thick sections of the paper on Monday and Tuesday. And I say not delivered because they've been having so many issues getting the papers out on time, or delivered at all. We didn't get our paper before we left for church this morning, and we've had to call to get one an awful lot lately.
  

• It snowed on Tuesday...or rather, it snowed further south, so there was lots of lovely snow at work. Great big flakes and it was sticking (probably about a half-inch in an hour or something like that.) But when we got home it had hardly snowed at all! :( I'm really peeved that I forgot to take my camera to work with me on Tuesday and therefore didn't get any pictures of the snow!!! Of all days...when I usually have my camera with me all the time!

• My friends and I went dancing on Tuesday...although I thought we weren't going to be able to go because of the snow. Dad didn't want me driving with all the other crazy people on the roads who would be freaking out about the snow. But my friend's dad ended up taking her, her brother, and me, so that was awesome. :)

• I took video:

• One of the songs they played for a waltz was the tune for the hymn "Let All Things Now Living" which is set to the tune "The Ash Grove", a traditional Welsh melody.

• Watch out for those badgers in Wales...

• Speaking of medium-sized mammals...Monday was Groundhog Day. They dragged poor Phil out of his burrow and he "didn't see his shadow" or the other way around perhaps, I can't remember which is which. Anyway, six more weeks of winter. And that's one fat groundhog...all the ones I've seen around here sitting by the side of the road are rather slimmer than that. :D

• Something our pastor said this morning during the sermon... "I'm not a pacifist you know...anyone breaking into our house will be met by three people. Beasley...Smith and Wesson." That amused me. :)

• It's about 70 degrees here right now. I'm sitting outside writing this and enjoying the weather. I was planning on wearing a kinda thick sweater over an oxford shirt this morning for church, but decided against it because it was going to be warm. I wore a thin sweater over a sleeveless shirt instead...don't ask me why I thought that would be cooler, because I'm not sure myself after typing that out. I guess it was a little bit cooler, but still too hot for the weather. :D

• What I'm listening to: Wroof, wroof, arf, woof! Stupid neighborhood dogs. There was also a chicken rustling around somewhere behind me a little while ago though. It was making me a little jumpy.

• I watched the 2006 Jane Eyre movie with some of my friends yesterday...it's really good!
  

• I actually have too many books to read...this is very unusual for me. I'm generally searching for more books to read, but at the moment we actually own quite a few that I want to read, plus there are more that I would like to get from the library!

• It just dawned on me this week that I'm going to be turning twenty this year. Not till fall of course, but still it just seems a bit strange. Wow...twenty. I mean, I guess I feel that old, but I don't see how I could actually be that old. Ah well, I've got seven months to get used to the idea.

• I feel like sewing some clothes...problem is, I don't really need any more clothes. :p I've got some fabric though and a pattern in mind to use it, so I think I'll make a dress for this summer. And maybe some summer skirts...I'm thinking it might be nice to wear more skirts this summer...I don't know. It's just that my shorts and capri pants never seem to fit real well, so skirts sound like a nice option. I'll see. I'd have to wear shorts under them to make them more practical for work and such though. Urgh...don't need more clothes! And one of my friends just gave me some more clothing today. lol Note that I didn't say I didn't want more clothes...just don't need them. ;)
  

• Hmm...I've been sitting here too long. There's a robin about six feet away from me and he doesn't look frightened at all. :p

• I went to a sleepover with some of my friends at my friend Jessica's apartment a couple weeks ago...we took some funny pictures and had lots of fun. :)
  

• I think I'm going to finish this post later and go ride my bike some...it's just too nice to just sit here any longer. Would have been a nice day for a hike too....I wonder if it'll be this nice next weekend??

• When I was at Zoe's house yesterday to watch the movie and eat dinner, they gave me a bowl of fruit salad with no cantaloupe in it because they knew I don't like cantaloupe! Awww....how sweet! :)
  

Here are some pictures from the sleepover.
Jessica and Zoe:












Jessica modeling her apron:












Me...apparently lurking in the dark:












Jess asked for something crazy...I'd say this was pretty crazy, but Zoe looks sadly unfrightened; in fact, she looks pretty darned happy! lol :












Hannah and Maria....aw, that's a good picture:












Hannah and I. I guess I was starting to stand up...it looks like I'm protecting my laptop though:









Hannah with her picture frame:












This would be one of the group pictures that didn't turn out right. Jess kindly said I looked like a serial killer. :p She later amended it to muppet...either way:









Oblivious of the camera:









Eating a strawberry Twizzler:









Zoe reading something funny:












Anyway, I think that's all for now. :)

Maybe I'll actually get back to blogging more normal posts here soon. I've just been lacking in things to say, or if I had anything to say it would bore my readers to death so I just bored my friends in person instead. ;)

Cats...hrmph..

Cats...nice little critters, and personally I like them most of the time. But they seem to have very tiny brains, and they also are very good at getting sick on weekends. You know, when the regular vet isn't open, only the emergency vet that costs at least twice as much. Yeah...

So Gracie is/was/we're not sure yet, ill this weekend. Threw up a couple times (she never does that, as opposed to Petunia who has a sort of schedule as to when she throws up) and was also lying around curled up in a ball looking miserable. And not eating.

We felt her over and didn't find anything wrong with her, she hadn't been bitten or anything...so we finally figured that she ate something that disagreed with her. We had a bag of cat food that was probably rancid because it was out in the garage, so it might have been that, or she might have eaten something outside...a diseased lizard or something. So anyway, that's not a problem so much, the problem was that she got it stuck in her little tiny brain that food made her sick and therefore she couldn't eat even when she was hungry. (And yet she's so smart sometimes...)

So Dad went and got some chicken baby food last night, and I watered it down, put it in a syringe and fed the little cat. *sigh* And it seems to have helped, she's actually eaten some of her real food now, and seems to be feeling better. We'll see if it keeps up...she was seeming better yesterday morning and then started looking down again.

Oh, and Target gives out nice syringes with their liquid prescriptions! This was one left from when I had stuff after getting my wisdom teeth out...it's a 2 teaspoon syringe, and it's wide enough to be able to put fairly thick (yogurt-consistency) baby food through. Very nice. lol

Now if we can just get Petunia eating again...Gracie is top cat so Petunia won't eat until she does! I just gave her some baby food too, but I'm thinking they both should be back to normal pretty soon. While I was getting Petunia's baby food, Gracie was eating some more cat food and then came and begged for baby food. Whatever...

Oh, and here's a new song I discovered. I was listening to a Jars of Clay station on Pandora, so if you like JoC you should like this:

Matchless ~Aaron Shust


Oh, and it's February already! And tomorrow's Groundhog Day. :)