Run, Run for your life!

Ok, not really. Yes, I'm thinking and it is a dangerous endeavor, but I've taken the percautions necessary such as thinking in small doses and stopping when the smell of smoke enters the immediate area.

So Honey has been trying to make me more comfortable on his laptop since he can use the Media Center to do his surfing and tv/movie watching, etc. He's sweet and I owe him lots of naughtiness to repay him for the things he is doing in order to make me more comfortable on his laptop. Yes, mine is still in pieces. No, we haven't got time to get a good look at the issue.

I will be honest though, I will *never* buy another warranty with Circuit City ever again. After we painstakingly took apart the laptop we looked over everything, under bright lights no less, to find the 'liquid damage' they so claimed. As far as my untrained eyes could tell, there wasn't any liquid damage to find. So I honestly don't know what the heck they are thinking. Perhaps they realized that the laptop is 4 years old, so there must be a way to deny coverage and liquid damage is the easiest way to go.

So my wonderful Honey is making me as comfortable on his laptop as he can and will eventually be building me a new computer, which everything I have on my laptop hard drive will be transferred to and then we'll see what happens.

He didn't want to tell me he was going to build a new computer for me, or how little it would cost, but I sort of forced it out of him. It is going to be my early Christmas gift. I talked him out of doing what he originally planned until he did more research. He can build me a computer cheaper than buying and restoring one, so that is the way we are going. He can also get me more ram and more hard drive space than I've ever had and cheaper than what the place he had looked at was offering.

I still want a clean house for Christmas, though. Perhaps for my birthday?

Anyway, I've been thinking that 1) I need to start writing again. Yes, I know I have said this so many times over the years that it's gotten to be a joke, I'm sure. I figure since I have all this time that I need to utilize it before it's gone and I'm working full time again. 2) I need to rejoin FlyLady.Net so that I can get this place clean myself one day at a time, one zone at a time, and get it in the order I want it so that we can actually have people over and I don't feel embarrassed about the mess they have to go through just to sit down or whatever.

3) I'm going to attempt to make styles for this version of Movable Type. Yeah, the way that they have done it with the Style Contest, but better. The file names will match, the paths will match the files, etc. I have been wanting to do this for awhile, but I feel as if I am unable to because of my computer being out of commission.

4) I need to make that photo slideshow disc I've been promising to myself. I plan to give it as gifts of all the photos and videos that we have taken since being out here and on the trip itself. Again, I was waiting for my computer to be working in order to do this, but I think it would be best if I just get my arse working on it soon.

There's so much to do. Ohwell. I am off for now, perhaps I'll get to update later. Laters.

Ok, so I've been working in between doing kitchen duty and homework on a new layout the past few days. I think it's ready to be tested on the computer - yes I want to test it before I use it so that I know it's going to work. I've been attempting to do a layout the way this one was made. I may have to make a few changes due to differences regarding the way the background was done, but it shouldn't be a huge problem either way.

It is going to be primarily - you know I love making them - black background with white and a touch of crimson.

I'm not sure where I got the idea for the layout. It's nothing major, it's nothing sexy like I normally do, but I want to figure out how to make layouts for the way MT works and then I'll get more daring as I go.

Other than that, things are going well. Getting an A in class - Woot! Starting a new class Thursday and the Little Lady turns 13 on Friday. Yeah, THIRTEEN.

I'm scared, too, but you don't have to hide under your desk.....

Laters!

Welcome to the latest version of Disillusioned. There are still some things that I have to fix, mainly the buttons for comments. Yes, I reopened comments. You no longer have to sign in to have your say. Enjoy.

So I am sort of happy with this layout. For some reason the modules wouldn't work properly for me. I don't know why. I'm not sure if there is something that is over-riding the stylesheet or not. I did everything I could to figure out why they were being messed up. So I had to go through and enter the image links manually throughout the different templates. Once I figure out why the modules aren't working for me, I'll get that fixed.

So class for Database is finished. I have to fill out forms for graduation purposes soon - I graduate in March as long as I keep up the good grades.

I have kept the kitchen fairly clean for two days now. Both counters are cleaned off and the dishes were done two days in a row, yay me. The living room is starting to look a little better, but there is a lot of work yet that must be done.

So the list of things I have to do for tomorrow are: Finish the living room, vacuum the living room, re-sweep the kitchen floor and mop it, clean the bathroom so that it sparkles. Hopefully I can get these things done.

So tomorrow is thursday and I start a new class, yay. Web Development 2. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure you'll be here for the updates. Until then, Laters.

So I've been under the weather the last couple of days. The Little Lady has officially turned 13. She got to have two parties, a party with friends - two who spent the night - and a party with the family last night. Saturday I felt as though I may be getting a head cold, so I started medicating that day. My father always said that if you feel the tickle, get the medicine before it becomes worse.

So I think I prevented it from getting any worse since I am not feeling all that horrible now. Yesterday I spent most of the day in and out of bed - mainly I wanted covered in blankets after taking medication to sweat - I swear by it. I had a hot shower, frosted the Little Lady's cake and felt a lot better. Today I took some more medicine, different because we ran out of the other stuff, and it has been keeping me from doing more than coughing here and there.

I hate being sick. There's also some issue going on with my left leg lately. I think I am going to have to start using the computer at the table. I can't figure out why, but every now and then my knee and slightly above and below will simply start killing me. I get up, I walk around and all is well until I sit down again, then the pain returns. I know it's nothing serious because it doesn't happen every time I sit down, it only happens if I remain sitting for too long.

Anyway. I think I'm getting old. Or the "cold" and damp weather is getting to me.

Things I did to annoy the Little Lady on her birthday:

1) I jumped up and down repeatedly on her bed in order to wake her at 930am after she stayed up until her time of birth - 1237am. (Hey, she got plenty of sleep in my opinion!)

2) Sent the Honey in an hour after I jumped up and down on the bed to do the same - I think he was yelling earthquake or something while I had been singing horrible renditions of the birthday song.

3) During my intial visit to the bed of the Little Lady I commenced tickle torture as well. Usually the phrase "I love tickle torture" is the key to making me stop, but it was null and void this time around. She's 13 I won't get to tickle her anymore for much longer. . . .

4) Made my usual sarcastic comments when she walks into those silly traps the entire time her friends were here. I don't feel the need to be anyone other than myself when her friends are here, that makes me the cool mom.

The Little Lady made a very interesting video. I may have to talk her into letting me post it on here... mwahahaha...

Or I could post it on here without her knowing.. *evil laughter*

It will get posted. It will! Laters.

I read the new posts on Get Rich Slowly. Thank god I'm not a shopaholic or a compulsive spender. I think even if I were rich I wouldn't be like that. There are things I would like to have, but don't need. Then there are the things I need. I checked in on some other blogs I read, but other than that I've done some dishes and checked in on class.

School is going well for the first week of Website Development 2. I like the teacher, too, that's always a good thing. Sometimes I just wish the teachers would post more, though. I like feedback from the teacher. Student feedback is fine if they actually know what they are talking about. I don't like giving feedback, but I try to give feedback to the students' who are doing projects that I understand.

Today is a beautiful day. The Little Lady and I saw a rainbow this morning, which turned into a double rainbow. We only saw the bottom portions of one side, but it was still pretty and extremely clear since I could see the colors without my contacts in. I had planned to take photos, but figured by the time I got back that they would be gone.

I've been trying to make a new splash page for the site, with no avail. Looks like I will have to pull out the book. It's been too long since I used Flash and now that we've had to upgrade, the book may be useless. We'll see. Some of the tutorials aren't all that helpful either, though, and I find that aggravating.

Maybe I'll go a-hunting for some tuts. Laters.

My friend Shana is someone I've known for over 10 years, mainly online, with meetings in person over that time. She currently lives in New York and may eventually move to San Francisco, which would be closer to me and we could do stuff together. Anyway, I got to talk to her today and she linked me to her current blog and I had her other blog already. I have relinked the older blog and linked the new one. The first one listed, Shana (1) is the new blog, the older one is the 2nd.

She's given me some ideas on job hunting and I am going to take her advice and see what happens. Doing so means a quick resume update, but other than that, shouldn't be anything major.

So visit Shana and give her love, send her warmth and some energy as she has a class to go to.

So I finally got my book - a week later than I wanted it - Learning Web Design by Jennifer Niederst Robbins. I paged through the first four chapters and it seems ok, but what is it with all of these books being geard towards beginning web designers? The class is Website Development 1 and I know plenty of html to do it blindfolded.

The problem? No one else taking this course knows anything much about HTML or Cascading Style Sheets for that matter. That is why I've ended up with beginner books. If I am working a decent paying job before the courses are over - Graduation March 2008 - I am calling my advisor to see if I can get started in the next set of courses for Web Design & Interactive Media Associates Degree. After taking 12 courses for a Web Design certificate/diploma there are 9 classes that I should not have to retake. Which reminds me, I should email my academic advisor to see if that really is the case or if I would have to retake them - which would extremely piss me off.

Anyway, the book isn't bad, it's just... beginner level. I want something that gives me a challenge. This does not. Perhaps the portfolio class will. Laters.

There have been many times in the past that I thought about creating layouts for pennies in order to get my design skill up. If I were to do this, I'd need some way of making sure that not only people would be able to look at the designs I created but also buy them safely as well. I wouldn't want anyone to be cheated out of their hard earned money and I would want to use shopping cart software that was trustworthy.

One place that has great influence with me right now, and I do mean this honestly, is Ashop Commerce. You get a 10-day free trial - I'd prefer 30 but 10 works because of the demo software for both sides. You can go through their site and login to the demo software as either a store owner or a customer. By doing this you get to see the interface and figure out how it works before placing an order for the software and having the 10 day trial period.

They also have an extensive User Manual to help you out and if that isn't enough you can view their live presentation. If I do get to open up a design store, I would definitely consider using Ashop.

I've been sick the last few days which I mentioned in my last personal post not long ago. This morning after getting the Little Lady on the bus I went back to bed, wrapped myself up in the flannel sheet, two comforters on the bed and then laid Honey's two pillows on top of me to boot. I also had on pajama pants, a tank top, a tshirt over the tank top (otherwise it would look silly) and my fluffy red robe.

Obviously I was attempting to overheat myself.

I laid half-asleep in bed for about 2 more hours wrapped up like this and had a very strange dream. For some reason, there wasn't anything (no dresser, no wall, no door) on the side I was facing, yet I was laying in bed exactly how I was and some strange things were going on. Such as I knew I had put the Little Lady on the bus, yet she was off riding in a bright red golf cart with her cousin, they were both scrunched in a 'backseat' and someone I didn't see was driving. For some reason Honey was driving a green pickup truck (it didn't look familiar) to somewhere on the property (which had completely changed in appearance through the non-existant wall) to check out some form of earthquake damage done to the ground.

Yes, very strange. No, I didn't discuss this with him.

After a few moments of 'viewing' this strange dream, I threw off the covers and got up. I had had enough of that. I hadn't even taken any medicine at this time, either. I figure the effects were of being slowly dehydrated by the blankets even though I drank some water the night before bed and having this oddball headcold that won't go away.

I hope you enjoyed my dream. Perhaps I'll see you in the next one. Laters.

Today I tried installing MT-Blogroll 2.51, I never used the previous version, I didn't even know this existed until today. It installed fine and I remembered to chmod the cgi file. The problem is that when I add a link or category they do not show up on the link or category pages. The dashboard counts the number added, but they just simply don't show up. In this case there isn't any way for me to edit them let alone delete the duplicate I created (since I didn't know it was there).

I went to Movalog and combed through the message boards on the support forum to no avail. There isn't a true manual, either (at least not in my opinion). If anyone can assist me with the issue I am having or if there is further information needed (I am not receiving any errors) please let me know.

Thanks and have a beautiful evening. Laters!

I started searching into more companies that pay you to blog. I've been really interested in this recently because I see a lot of people making money on their blog. I also love to write and thought that this might give me an opportunity to start writing professionally (on some level) so that I can incorporate that into my skills.

One of places I have been looking into, and am currently affiliated with is Smorty. I did extensive research before joining with them to see what they were like and found a lot of great reviews. I made a previous post already for them but I am waiting for it to be approved. When I start making money, I will definitely let others out there know where it is coming from! So if you want to blog for money then you need to check out Smorty! They took less than 2 days to approve my blog and didn't ask me to make any changes to it at this time.

I plan to take blogging for cash more seriously in the near future, as I think it will truly help with paying the bills. If anyone has any questions regarding using Smorty or simply questions regarding blogging for cash, feel free comment here and I will answer whatever I can. If I can't answer, then I'll point you in the general direction you need to go. Have a great day! Check out Smorty!

Since I can't seem to find work, I've been trying to find ways of saving money and sometimes even the store deals don't cut it. I found this site called Coupons.com and was wondering if there is anyone out there who uses it.

If you use it, please let me know what the deal is. Do the coupons really work? I didn't finish printing anything out at this time, I'm extremely interested in learning more about what the story is behind this site. Ok, I am going to do my own internet researching and see what I can find. I'll post the findings later.

I couldn't sleep in, usually I can't anyway, so I was up at 8 am and booting the computer to start working on the new splash page and started doing some other things as well. Today has been fairly well productive because the apartment is looking good at the moment.

I did all the dishes. I hadn't been able to get up the energy to do them during the week from being sick and in and out of bed. So the dishes are all done and with few exceptions put away. Along with the dishes I got the counter, stove and sinks cleaned.

Kitchen-wise the floor still needs swept and the other counter needs cleaned off but I'm content with the kitchen at the time being.

I picked up all the magic cards that Dusty scattered (he even got a few under the couch) and put them back in the front room. I picked up the living room and cleaned it out. I ran the sweeper and even sucked the crap out of the couch cushions and off of the cat tree. After running the vacuum I tore it apart and cleaned the various pieces of the filtration system so that it can clean better the next time around. I haven't done that in at least six months and it needed cleaned badly.

In the meantime of creating the new splash page, working on the layout for a new blog and the living room I started doing laundry as well. I think I am on load 4. It's all neatly folded on the couch right now as I really don't feel like putting it all away at the moment. I'll do that in a bit. I also stripped the sheets and pillowcases from the bed so I'll have to find some to throw back on it because I think I am going to stop doing laundry, too.

I also checked into the online classroom and replied to a few posts and to doublecheck the assignments that are due Tuesday (to make sure I had done everything I needed to up to this point) and I'll work on those tomorrow as I want to spend time doing personal stuff today.

For a couple of hours now I've been digging through 1001freefonts.com for more fonts. Since I am going to be using Honey's laptop a lot longer than we figured I am making it more usable for me. This means downloading a shitload of fonts so that I can be creative in both school and personal projects.

I will be tearin apart (possibly today, I am not sure) Movable Type's templates on here because I am fed up with it. I don't feel I can be creative with such huge constraints so I am going to make an attempt at creating my own. I mean, sheesh, that's the point of doing web design on my personal site anyway, right? I don't think MT meant for us to be constrained to using their layouts and their styles and the rigid forms they introduced anyway. I think MT basically did things the way they did so that more designers could create for more blogs. Besides, in order to show the blog anyway, all I have to include are the MT tags. I don't have to have any other stuff from them but that.

Wish me luck, I may need some serious counselling afterwards. Laters.

For the past few days I've had major issues with the internet. The router has been reset numberous times, the computer rebooted, shut down, restarted, etc. and nothing seems to prevent it from acting out. I get IE Errors stating I'm not connected to the internet when trying to load pages.

I think those construction guys down the way have screwed with the connection. Perhaps they cut a wire or simply nicked it and it's screwing with me. Perhaps the Internet Deities are against me.

I don't know. I tried several times to watch season one of October road since I missed most episodes because of schedule clashes with another show. Anyway, I haven't been able to watch anything online because of the shoddy connection, then when I finally get a decent connection I don't have enough care to bother watching! Meh.

Today I've been extremely lazy. I have to put clothes away from Saturday and Sunday's laundry fest. I did most of the dishes so far, some are soaking, and I've started dinner.

I've got four loads of laundry to put away, although it doesn't look like it. I have to fold the towels that are in the dryer because the Little Lady didn't do it when asked and therefore forget as her brain reintegrated with the internet. Putting clothes away isn't much, it's just a pain.

The dishes will get done and they'll be washed, dried and put away. I'm just being lazy at the moment because I was doing some school and disillusioned stuff in between soaking sinkfuls. I don't know how we use so many dishes! I just did ALL the dishes on Saturday and today I feel as if I didn't do any at all.

For dinner today I wanted to simmer a roast in gravy (the water just started boiling so I am going to add the gravy shortly), make mashed potatoes and probably corn. I have actually wanted for a couple of days now, wanted to make beef stew with a whole roast - I prefer it that way. But I didn't buy carrots or anything else that I would need when I went grocery shopping. I had a limit on funds and did quite well - I spent 87 and change and saved 30 bucks. I have started cutting coupons recently but haven't found any yet that we can use right away.

I have been working on the new design for Disillusioned, which will be put up after I rip apart the MT templates and make my own. Don't worry, I'll back all the stuff up this time on here, I swear.

I posted a few things for school, had to upload the page I am working on (it wasn't specified so I didn't do it and neither did anyone else), plus I had to look up some information for a previous assignment that was due yesterday (I did day 2 and 3 assignments on day 1 - last Thursday). I've been attempting to do my assignments early so that I can get them done and turned in and make any changes that need to be done turned in on the due date itself. I did part one of the html foundation that isn't due until tomorrow, part 2 is also due tomorrow and I want to work on it today as well. Pain in the ass that it is!

Ok I am off. Got to add the gravy, put clothes away and then start on the other pages for the site i'm working on for school. This is what happens when you accidentally sleep in until 10 am! Laters.

Talkstar Interactive Astrology & Birthday Facts ~ Your Star sign is Pisces
Today is Monday 19th November 2007

Element: Water - Characteristic: perceptive
Polarity: Negative - Characteristic: reflective
Quality: Mutable - Characteristic: versatile
Your Birthday Facts:
Your star sign is pisces and your star symbol is the fishes
You were born on Thursday 17th March 1977 and Thursday's child has far to go
Your age is 30 years 8 months 2 days
Your birthstone is aquamarine, bloodstone which symbolizes courage
Personality Characteristics: Romantic, impressionable, emotional, artistic, hates to say no, dreamer, compassionate, amiable, idealistic.
Element Influences: Water people can be inward looking, processing their emotions. They often need other people to bring out their inner feelings.
Quality Influences: People with mutable qualities tend to change their mind frequently. They often like an unpredictable lifestyle and are very adaptable to new situations.
Polarity Influences: Your negative Yin/Yang exerts a receptive, aquiescent and self conscious side to your nature.
Female best matched with: Aquarius, Scorpio.
Male best matched with: Taurus, Libra, Sagittarius.

For those of you who know me, or have known me for a long time, know that I have a bit of interest in astrology. Basically, it scares me how accurate these things can be to some extent anyway.

True facts from this: My ex was a Taurus - we spent 5 years together before I realized he wasn't going to grow up and basically replaced his mom with me.
My Honey is a Sagittarius, I've dated Sags before, my father was a Sag.
My sister is an Aquarius and my daughter is a Scorpio.

Yeah... scary, isn't it? This was originally found browsing at: A Month of Thursdays. Being born on a thursday I find the blog interesting, too. Hahaha.. Laters.

I'm going to start ripping apart MT's templates now that homework for the week is done. No, I am not going to do this online, I'll be copying the current templates out and redesigning them offline in notepad.

The warning is basically for when I start pasting in the new templates that things may not work or appear broken for a time, please be patient and everything will be up and running as soon as possible. Laters.

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Or is that too much to ask?

I have seen online gambling sites before, and I've seen a lot of advertising regarding gambling online. I don't know anyone that does gamble online, though. After looking through the different types of information Pro360 offers, I was quite intrigued. I didn't go to any of the gambling sites they offer, I am not much for online gambling personally. There are people out there however, who would like to gamble in the privacy of their own home. So if you are one of those people who like to gamble at home, perhaps you should check out some of the gambling sites they have taken time to review.

There are several steps to review a casino online and this ensures that they are worth visiting. Pro360 tests everything from download speed to payouts to make sure that their site is top of the line and has put scores on their site to let you know what the results are. The sites are listed by score when you first enter, but you have the option of choosing the type of gambling you are looking for such as craps, roulette and more.

I took time to do some research and haven't found anything bad about Pro360, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful! Do some research before entering a gambling site. Find out who is behind running the site and make sure everything is honest. Safe gambling!

So I've been working on the new layout and I have the index page completed. I haven't tested it out yet, so I am going to do that to see what changes need to be made before I start working on the categories, date-based and individual entry archives.

I've created all new images, a new background, everything again. There will be two menus, one left, one right with the blog in the center (boring? no.) and the colors are the same as these - black background, crimson and white coloring. Some of the crimson has turned pink (gah. I know) due to filters and so forth being applied to the design.

I could always change the color, but I don't want to.

I love making layouts, perhaps a bit too much!

I have a headache, not sure why, I didn't do any drinking last night but I didn't get much sleep either. I'm off. Laters.

So I finally got to finish watching Season 1 of October Road. I've been trying to watch the episodes on ABC.com but they tend to freeze or simply stop playing altogether. So I found another place to watch them at. I have always liked Donna on That 70s Show, so when I found out she was in this show, I knew I had to watch it.

The show takes off really quick and dirty. You find out all the dirt right away and find out what these people are really made of. You know how dramas work, but this one pulls you in and introduces you to the families of the neighborhood. You learn weaknesses and strengths of everyone. You see people trying to simply live their daily life with a little happiness and it doesn't always work that way because sometimes a monkey wrench gets thrown in.

Anyway, I love this show for the twists and turns and because of a timing issue with the scheduling of another show I never got to watch more than a half an hour of it when it was on tv. I'm finally to have gotten caught up now and hope to catch it when it starts airing again.

Laters.

This has absolutely nothing to do with my education. This has nothing to do with my daughter's education. This has everything to do with taking 3 months to cash a freaking check. Can someone help me with this?

I wrote a check when school started, waited a month for the money to come out and then called the school. The lady I spoke with said it takes them 'forever' to cash the checks and it would probably be another month before they cashed it. So I took her word for it and used the money we had set aside for this particular check for things we needed (food and gas to get food).

A week later they cashed the check and subsequently put us a hell of a ways into the Red.

So I decided I didn't want to write them anymore checks because if they can't find permanant teachers (or at least subs that aren't going to change the lesson plan every time a new one comes in) then how can I expect them to cash a check in a timely manner?

Yes, I know it wasn't being held by a bank.

In September it was 6 am and the Little Lady mentioned she needed lunch money, I still don't really carry cash and I didn't want to wake Honey to find his wallet to see if he had any cash so I wrote a 10 dollar check. TEN DOLLARS. The check got cashed last week, two days before thanksgiving. I am not feeling very thrilled about this.

Is it possible to write 'void after 10 business days' on a personal check? And if I do that and they don't notice and try to cash the check, what happens? Will the bank cash it anyway? Will they actually deny it? I want to call our credit union about this and see if they have any form of policy. Honey thought about giving them 30 day cashier checks if we need to, but then I reminded him about them taking two or more months to cash them and he said yeah we should make them 90 day and if they don't cash it by then, not our fault. I figure that makes sense, right?

I want to call whoever is in charge and tell them they owe us 29 bucks!

I know it is our responsibility to keep track of our account. I had been. I had been doing so very well until it got low and I had completely forgotten about the damn check. I was sick all last week (yes, I know you know) and wasn't in my right (or left) mind when one of us used the last few bucks in there for whatever.

So I am pissed at myself but even more pissed at the school for being lazy and incompetent. There isn't a schedule to the cashing of checks it seems. They seem to do it when they need the freaking money. I don't know. I am going to find out though.

So Honey made a new treat that we have fallen in love with, and then he turned around and did it again.

We ran out of cupcake wrappers though (you know the paper cups you line the muffin/cupcake pan with to keep them from sticking) so we are trying to make them in the mini-muffin pan, hoping they don't stick.

I know, you're drooling. Ewww... not on my keyboard, please!

Anyway, one of the major treats that we kept making until we ran out of cupcake wrappers were home made peanut butter cups. You know, Reese's Cups? Yes, those, but our way. Basically we have a huge bag (15 lbs) of chocolate chips and we melt them down into chocolate gooyness. We line the bottom of the cups with a layer of chocolate and then put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. By then they are quite frozen and we then add a spoonful of peanut butter, then pour more chocolate over the top and stick them back into the freezer.

You can't eat them right out of the freezer though, so don't go make them and blame me for breaking a tooth. You've got to let them warm up a little.

If you can't have milk chocolate (semi-sweet chocolate) then you can try making them with dark chocolate, I haven't done this yet but plan to (sometime soon) buy dark chocolate Hershey bars and make some for my Honey's sister's family.

Today I made some for his mom and instead of peanut butter I put almond butter in them for her, which she provided. These are the test ones in the muffin pan, so please pray for me that these come out of the cups!

The other treat that he did was really good and again includes peanut butter and chocolate, my Honey knows me so well.

We had another pouch of peanut butter cookie mix and he decided to make those. With the leftover mix he shoved it into cups on the muffin pan and made them into a cup (sort of) - he lined the bottom and sides with the cookie mix and then put in some chocolate chips. The cookie dough baked up and the heat melted the chocolate chips about halfway through or more. Using a spoon he stirred the chocolate around and got the rest melted, once cooled they came right out of the pan and they are SO good.

So, there's two new things for you to make - four if you like dark chocolate and almond butter. Go to your closest Costco and buy a huge bag of Chocolate Chips! Tell them I sent you. Laters!

Ok, so I want to use my camera more. I'm not wasting money on film or anything so why not? Besides, I'll get more use with Photoshop this way.

Please let me introduce Dusty again, but this time perched up on our bedroom door. Yep, you read that right. He jumped from the short two drawer filing cabinet to the top of our bedroom door.

He stayed up there for about five minutes despite our belief in him to do so for that long. I was thrilled because I got to take pictures! Here is one:

Remember, click to see full size.

Ok since I didn't get to blog today I wanted to at least post the photo for today. I'll do my best to keep up with this because I know people want photos of funny or pretty things, right? Well, here is something pretty I saw last night.

Warning: This image is huge, but it's beautiful and worth the wait. Here's a thumbnail:

I hope you all enjoy this. I know it's slightly blurry, it's damned hard holding your hands still while freezing your ass off trying to take a photo of such a beautiful sight. I want a tripod someday!

The only reason I was able to upload this now is because my Honey paused all of his downloads earlier for me so I could actually have more than dialup speed. Isn't he sweet?

I've been attempting to make a baby afghan for a new addition coming into the clan out here. I think it's turning out ok, but on row 5 something went wrong. I don't know why, I did all my counting and nothing went wrong previously. With my luck I'll have screwed up row four and have it yank it out, too. I already yanked out row 5. I'll be checking row four for mistakes before I got to bed.

I've been trying to stay out of the bed for a few hours after Honey goes to sleep. I want him to be able to get up in the morning to have his coffee and read his news and then go to work. But for that to happen he needs sleep and it's apparent that I tend to toss and turn. I swear I don't know why. I get settled in a position, I do my breathing meditation type thing to help me relax and then once I do I *need* to turn over. I stop the breathing meditation when I turn over on my side. After a half an hour, if that, my side starts to hurt - the one I'm not laying on - for whatever reason and I have to turn over again onto my back. I have even tried sleeping on my stomach, but then my lower back starts to hurt.

You get the idea?

So I've been staying up from between 12 and 1 and last night I voluntarily slept on the couch - at least I think I slept - I went to bed when Honey got up and told me to go to bed, which I did and then I couldn't sleep. I know there isn't a problem with the bed, it's comfortable, it's got to be me. Alright, well I am going to go before the computer overheats on me. Laters!

Ok, so let me introduce the Little Lady Cyborg Child. Each day the Cyborg Child returns from her outings for real world education, then, because she hasn't been hooked in for several hours at a time, she starts twitching and shaking as she makes her way to the computer to start plugging in to the internet!

View the amazing Cyborg Child!

Fear the Cyborg Child!

Things this Cyborg Child likes to do on the internet: Homework (scary I know!), mySpace (um what child doesn't want a mySpace page these days?) and talking with her friends (well because they can't talk constantly in school, you know?), saying the word "Like" every other word, like you know?

It's hard to get the Cyborg to go outside. I think she caught a cold just to keep from going outside to two hours (I was going to force her to do so) and then she was sick for a whole week!
I did some laundry for her yesterday, just a couple pairs of jeans and a hoodie. I make her do her own laundry but I needed to finish off a load and I figure I mind as well use some of her clothing to do so. I don't recall the last time she did her laundry, it's VERY scary.

Remember the chocolate peanut butter cups I mentioned here?
Well, here's a photo and it's the Daily Photo!

Remember, these were the ones that I put Almond Butter in for Honey's mom. Apparently she really loved them and harrassed him on how to make them. I do not recommend making them in a muffin pan, though. We had to coax them out with a butter knife and I hate doing that. (Yes, we did put a slight amount of oil on the pan itself.)

Anyway, Honey's sister gave us some baking cups that she doesn't like - they don't peel off very well from the cupcakes or muffins. I prefer this method of making them, I don't have a pan to clean up other than the one I melted the chocolate in and that's one less dish to wash for me.

Honey made more yesterday, this time he used strawberry preserves in some of them (I am not a jam/jelly/preserves person) and they turned out like the ones with peanut butter did.

Ok, so I'm off for now! Laters.

These are things I have been doing today. My kitchen sink is shiny and clean. I'm on my third load of laundry and I got some homework done today as well. I have another critique to do but I'm going to wait and see who else posts the link to their site (doing so should mean it's ready for review, right?) because there were only two people other than myself that did and the one person I feel I can't give a good critique to.

I hate to say it, but in my opinion the site (and sorry, I won't provide a link since this is educational) is completely horrible. I don't know how else to describe it. Everything on every page is centered. The buttons, which were created using a generator from a website (I feel this is lazy) don't even match the colors that were chosen for the website.

I don't know why this person is using a button generator (perhaps the kids were bouncing off the walls and there wasn't enough sleep to take the time to create buttons) and I don't know why the text is centered or why the colors don't match. I do know however that this person doesn't care to take any suggestions either. It was suggested that one button be broken into two and the answer was a blatant no, this is the way that person wanted them and so what if it was almost twice as long as the other buttons?

This student is one of two or three that have used the button generator, two used the same site, and I can't believe that it's condoned. I could understand using a generator if you are short on time (in a professional setting), but we are supposed to be learning how to create websites and graphics on our own. There are reasons why Adobe Photoshop is the graphics program we are to use.

I don't know. Maybe it isn't condoned and they get docked points for it. I create my own buttons. I create what I can and use royalty free images otherwise. Enough ranting for the time being. Laters.

I found this silly little thing from another blog I read and since I haven't taken any silly little quizzes to annoy everyone with I thought I would do so. Basically these are really silly. How many germs are on your keyboard and mouse? A lot of people don't think about cleaning the keyboard and mouse on a regular basis. You know what I end up cleaning off all the time though? The monitor! It attracts dust like crazy and I'm always wiping it off. Yet this wouldn't trigger me to clean the keyboard or - in my case - touchpad.

The whole drinks thing was really silly. I drink Smirnoff, only two, when I go out, which is extremely rare. They didn't have the Flavors listed, so I chose my tie for second favorite, daiquiris. My other second favorite is the Fuzzy Navel, which they didn't have listed either.

My honey beat us all for the most amount of people to pass away on his birthday, which is today. You know these numbers couldn't ever be exact though, because I'm sure there are a few people who would have died that weren't counted. I also don't think I'm all that addicted to coffee. I do love my coffee though.. damn, maybe I am!

And yes, I did tell my daughter she is not allowed to kill me to sell of my body. Silly cyborg!

2,157,120How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard?

I know, I know... ewwwwww!

Here's some more silly stuff!

It would take 11 Daiquiris to kill me

136,164 People

$4690.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

Ok, yesterday was Honey's birthday and I forgot to post a daily photo. Hell, I forgot to post period! I've been working constantly on the afghan I need done for saturday's baby shower and I decided to watch tv shows last night while I was doing it - Honey left to hang with friends for his birthday so I got to watch the stuff he doesn't like!

Anyway, here we are introducing the Lonely Alpaca (his friend passed away awhile back, but he seems to follow the llamas around) and Sierra, the sweetest, most lovable cat you'll ever see. She will sit and let you pet her forever, and I have. Her one flaw, she likes to knead her lovely sharp claws into you as you pet her. The only time I've had any issues with this is when I was sitting outside reading and waiting for the UPS guy. Otherwise, the kneading isn't all that bad.

Here are the photos:

Isn't he cute? Doesn't it look like you could walk up to and just give him a big hug? He's sweet, but also skittish from what I can tell. I've stood at the gate to the pasture drinking coffee, all the animals were right in that area, and each one of them skidaddled out of there as I was simply standing and sipping and apparently making them very nervous.

Hehe, I told you she's sweet and lovable! Doesn't she kind of remind you of Nermal from the Garfield comic/cartoon? The thing is though, I never liked Nermal (if I'm even spelling the name right). She annoyed me as much as she annoyed Garfield! Way too arrogant!

I'm off for now, be back later.

I thought I had uploaded this previously but I looked through and didn't see it. If I have, please let me know! Currently it's way too cold (yeah too cold) for Hot Air Balloons to launch. By the time it warms up, I guess it's too late? I'm not sure why since I don't know all that much about going in a hot air balloon. I don't think I'd have the guts to go up in one, they just don't seem safe. I like lots and lots of protection and I doubt that the basket on a hot air balloon has any real protection at all.

Ok, so I've seen way too many movies of people having bad things happen to them when there is a hot air balloon around.

Enjoy the pic, look at the beautiful blue sky! This was a regular morning view for awhile, and then like I said it got too cold.

Yes, scary... VERY scary. Click to enlarge to 800x1200.