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[Aug. 26th, 2008|11:12 am] |
How not a morning person am I? I got up and went for a run this morning. (Gorgeous weather. I'm loving this summer.) Got home, and realized that my shirt was inside-out. And it's got piping, so it's noticeable.
Matt saw me before I left and didn't say anything, so it's not just me. But still. |
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| pictures! |
[Aug. 23rd, 2008|11:48 am] |
It's been ages since I've taken a picture of my teeth, so here we are, 15 months in. My orthodontist says we're still on track for taking them off in November, which makes me very happy.
( cut because, you know, teeth )
Note the rubber bands. I griped like crazy about them, but I have to admit, they're helping my bite get lined up properly. It's kind of strange feeling the teeth fit together the way they're supposed to.
If you check out my teeth gallery you can see how they've changed--it's pretty amazing. I'm pleased. They're not going to be perfect, but they'll be tons better than before.
![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sneezer222 made me a Dalek! Here it is, perched threateningly on the entertainment center:
EXTERMINATE!
Matt was rather nonplussed by the colors at first, but now he loves it.
On the house front, our most recent adventure was taking out the carpet in the master bedroom and replacing it with hardwood. Here's the result:
We're really pleased. Matt's now painting the closets and replacing the shelves, then we might finally be able to start moving stuff back in. We've been sleeping in the guest bedroom for six weeks now, since before the bedroom was painted, and we're really ready to be done.
And, finally, here's my self-portrait in The Bean. A bunch of people have been surprised at my longer hair lately, so I thought I'd let y'all know what I look like these days.
OK, time to go run errands. I hope everyone's having a good weekend! |
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[Aug. 18th, 2008|03:16 pm] |
Just back from lunch with ellen_fremedon--I'm *so* glad she stayed over an extra day and we were able to meet up. It was wonderful to sit and talk at a restaurant on the river. She should be on an architectural river cruise right now--I wish I could have gone along, but I've really got to get a few hours of work in this afternoon.
And that, I think, concludes the fannish portion of my summer. It's been a blast. |
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| in reverse chronological order |
[Aug. 17th, 2008|10:12 pm] |
Wow, lots of stuff to talk about. I haven't felt much like posting, but it's not for lack of material.
This afternoon was the National Criterium Championship bike race. Matt and I live less than a mile from the route, so we usually try to watch most of it. Matt was busy this afternoon, but I made it down for the last half, at least. It was fun, as usual. Christian Vandevelde was racing--he's from the next town south--but, alas, he didn't finish near the top. I was cheering for him, to no avail. Still, it was fun getting out there and yelling, and the weather was perfect for a race.
I'd been driving Matt's car this afternoon, since my designated errand was picking up a bunch of eight-foot melamine boards, and his Forester is much better for such tasks than my itty-bitty TSX. It always surprises me how different it is in subtle ways--the key goes in the ignition at a different angle, and his speedometer is oriented differently from mine, and the headrest hits my head at a funny angle. Got the boards home, anyway. Pain in the neck. Matt, however, was replacing the garbage disposal at his brother's house, and I sure wasn't volunteering for that job.
It's been kind of a rotten weekend, mostly. Friday would have been my mother's birthday, and it was the six-month anniversary of Matt's dad's death, and I pretty much spent the day in a blue funk. Then Matt's mother insisted on going out to dinner, and I really didn't want to, but it's hard to say no when it's the only way she gets out of the house. It was an odd dinner, not least because I accidentally said "fuck" in front of her. She didn't react; I'm hoping she didn't notice. I've never been so happy to get home in my life.
( stalking vividcon )
( stalking terminus )
And that's the highlights from the last 10 days. Tomorrow, photos. Yes, GH, I'll get your photo from Quark's downloaded--yell at me if I don't. |
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[Aug. 6th, 2008|05:24 pm] |
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OK, who all of ,a href="http://darththalia.insanejournal.com/friends">you</a> are going to be in Chicago this weekend? More than I thought, apparently. I'm coming down Friday evening for the Snarry meetup. I'm not registered for Terminus, but I could probably make it in Saturday or Sunday if anyone wanted to get together. Anyone want to ditch the con for a couple hours? Let me know! |
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[Jul. 19th, 2008|10:12 pm] |
Two people on my flist bought new Honda Fits today. At least they were different colors. It looks like a very cute car.
Matt and I tried to see Wall-E, but the theater was sold out, and we were too lazy to find another theater, so we went out for Thai instead. Yum!
... and that's it. |
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| Oh, Ghostie..... |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|11:11 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | bears | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  highly amused | ] |
That picture was on the front of the Tribune sports section today. I suspect Chicago had a collective heart attack.
They're arguing that the Bears should make a serious effort to get Favre. I'm not convinced, but it's going to be interesting. |
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[Jul. 14th, 2008|12:22 pm] |
At the Las Vegas airport, heading home from Con*Strict. It was a blast, as usual, but I'm looking forward to getting home.
I only got to say goodbye to wyomingnot, lauramcewan and master_chatnoir, so everyone else: Bye! It was fabulous seeing everyone.
As usual, the pool was the unofficial con suite, and this year the weather wasn't impossibly hot, so I was willing to spend some time outside. Last night I was even a little chilly after getting out of the hot tub--I don't think that's happened in Vegas before.
A bunch of us went to Quark's Bar last night--it's closing this fall, so this was the last chance. Fun drinks, decent food--it's not cheap, but I actually won $30 on a Star Wars slot machine afterwards. Whee! I got the Death Star bonus--there's a Death Star on top of the machine that spins around and determines how much the bonus is. Very entertaining. I didn't get the light saber fight, unfortunately, but I wanted to cash out while the getting was good. karitawyr also managed to win a little on an Elvis machine.
Let's see... lots of Dr Who and Torchwood talk, which was very fun. I did two Photoshop workshops that I think went OK, considering I hadn't had as much time to plan them as I'd have liked. I really need to get those notes typed up. The vid show was fun--there were two vids from a TV show called Dante's Cove that minotaurs was pimping like crazy. Some of us watched the first ep Saturday night, and it was painfully, hilariously bad. I've got the whole series and will watch as much as I can manage without sporking my eyes out. It does have semi-explicit gay porn, but it's boring semi-explicit gay porn.
Anyway, fun con. Tired now. At least I should fall asleep at a reasonable time tonight. Matt wants to go out to a French restaurant tonight, since it's Bastille Day, so I'll have one more restaurant meal, then I'm going to have to start behaving--this weekend involved a ridiculous amount of food. |
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| oh, and.... |
[Jul. 10th, 2008|10:51 am] |
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I did order that white shrug, and it looks great. Thanks for the excellent advice! |
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[Jul. 10th, 2008|10:49 am] |
I do love the Tour de France. Today was the first mountaintop finish, and it was great. Those riders are amazing.
And watching it really makes me want to visit France. We've never been there, and every year I find new places I want to see. This year the Tour spent three days in Brittany, which looked gorgeous. Yesterday's ride from Cholet to Châteauroux was beautiful. Today they got into the Massif Central. This race really is the best thing ever for French tourism.
15 more stages to go! Yay! *loves July* |
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| oh, one more thing... |
[Jun. 29th, 2008|03:52 pm] |
Which of these would look better over a yellow sundress?
 (in white), or
I'm tempted to buy them both and return one, but I hate to pay the extra shipping. |
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| good news! |
[Jun. 29th, 2008|03:49 pm] |
I have a job! I mean, a real job, not just teaching part-time! Yay!
It's not full-time, at least right now, which is just as well. I'm not even sure how to describe it, because it all really only happened Friday afternoon, but basically, I'm going to be getting a bunch of data, and I'm responsible for cleaning it up, getting it organized into a database, and coming up with statistics based on it. Right now I'm using last year's data--partly just so I can get familiar with it, although there are still things that need to be done with it--and over the next few months there will be more recent data coming in. I'm hoping it'll be about 10-20 hours a week in the near future, but it should be ramping up a bit in the fall.
I'm very excited, anyway, and I just hope I can figure out what I'm doing--I was a bit intimidated on Friday. But the person who put me in touch with the guy doing the hiring thinks I can handle it, and she knows me as well as anyone, so I'm trying to stay confident.
The best part, for me, is that I'm being paid as a contractor, so it'll work out to a pretty high hourly rate, since they don't have to worry about benefits and payroll taxes. And I can work whatever hours I want; I'm not stuck working 9-5. Hallelujah.
So, yay! Gainful employment! If it works out, we can at least start rebuilding our reserves after all the remodeling splurges.
And speaking of remodeling: We got the new drapes hung in the master bedroom, and they look great. On Tuesday someone is coming over to give us an estimate on tearing out the carpet (just in that room) and putting in a hardwood floor. We're still sleeping in the guest room, since we don't want to move the furniture back in until the floor is dealt with. And yesterday we went shopping for furniture for the guest room; this experience has convinced us that our current guest bed isn't fit for human use. We're going to have to paint the guest room before the new furniture comes in, so we'll probably wait on buying the furniture until after we're moved back into our room.
And after all that's done, I think we've run out of stuff to do. I hope.
I've been sitting here watching the Euro 2008 championship game, not because I care who won, but because one of the announcers had a Scottish accent, and I've been entranced.
And I can't even talk about last night's Dr Who. Matt even wants to re-watch it tonight; I never thought that would happen. I think luthien said it best: ( this isn't much of a spoiler )
Oh, and... Happy Birthday, Christy! (One day late; that's not too bad.) I've been completely horrible with the birthday greetings the last several months, and I need to start again, because saying happy birthday always puts me in a cheerful mood.
Anything else? Don't think so. I hope everyone's having a good weekend! (Well, except for you Aussies, who have moved on. [g]) |
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[Jun. 21st, 2008|10:25 pm] |
Re: Turn Left
Is it next Saturday yet? |
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| Happy Solstice! |
[Jun. 21st, 2008|09:21 pm] |
I had forgotten how much I love the summer solstice. Tonight I walked downtown for dinner, and on the way back, at 9 p.m., it was still light!!! Not by much, but it was a huge improvement over those nights in December when it's pitch black at 5:00. Yay, summer!
Of course, I just realized that today marks my halfway point between 40 and 45, and I'm much less cheerful about that.
Now I'm going to pour myself a beer and watch Dr Who--I had planned to wait till Matt gets home tomorrow, but I've seen enough spoilers that my curiosity is well and truly piqued. |
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[Jun. 21st, 2008|04:26 pm] |
Just heard from Matt--he tried to ride the century today, but he ended up catching the sag wagon after 78 miles. As little as he's ridden this spring, I'm impressed he made it that far. I asked if he was going to try for 75 miles tomorrow, but he wouldn't say.
Meanwhile, I haven't done a lick of house cleaning. The problem is, it's not cleaning that's needed, it's decluttering--and things are so bad that I'm too intimidated to dive in. Tomorrow. Maybe. |
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| OK, this is fun |
[Jun. 21st, 2008|01:33 pm] |
The Cubs scored 9 runs in the 4th inning. Including 4 home runs. Including 2 by Jim Edmonds.
And they're beating up playing the White Sox.
Life loves me.
*knocks on wood*--the game isn't over yet |
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[Jun. 20th, 2008|05:31 pm] |
Matt was in Houston this week--I took him to the airport on Monday and picked him up last night. He's now decided, totally at the last minute, to do the MS-150 bike ride, so he's driving out to DeKalb tonight... which means I'm on my own for two more nights. I almost feel single.
And I have *nothing* scheduled for tomorrow--there might finally be house cleaning. The weather's looking rainy, so I might not have much of an excuse not to stay in. It's pouring right now, all of a sudden; I just hope it's not this bad tomorrow so Matt's not trying to ride 100 miles in the rain for the second year in a row. |
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| Dr Who rec |
[Jun. 18th, 2008|11:00 am] |
 The Idiot's Guide to Foiling Alien Invasions, by netgirl_y2k. I read this one last night while proctoring a test, and I kept having to bite my lips to avoid snickering out loud.
Jackie and Mickey discover that a new fast-food restaurant is selling alien meat, and they have to put a stop to it. On the way they run into an investigative reporter named Sarah Jane, plus Donna Noble, Super-Temp. The Jackie-Mickey relationship is spot on--those two need their own series. The cameo appearances by the Doctor and Rose are hilarious. UNIT and Torchwood turn up, very aptly. All in all, it's a very entertaining story and well worth a couple hours.
Oh, and the art is incredible, too. tardis_bigbang did very well on the art front. |
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| Torchwood rec |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|10:34 pm] |
I hope everyone who reads Torchwood fic is aware of the Sic Transit Tempus series, by jadesfire2808. If you haven't found it yet, it's really worth reading. The main stories are divided into The Waiting Years and The Wandering Years, and they're gen, although you can certainly read them with slash glasses. Then there are a bunch of side stories; these get more obviously slashy. Well, threesome-y, but mostly slashy.
At any rate, it's a terrific series. It's mostly about Jack's journey from when the Doctor left him to the start of the Torchwood series, and Jadesfire has a wonderful grasp of his character. His voice is perfect, and she's created some wonderfully complex OC's to keep him company.
But what prompted this post was the latest addition to the series--Moonrise, which is part of the tardis_bigbang. Jadesfire sent it in before the due date, and I was very well-behaved and formatted it and posted it without reading it, but that conscientiousness didn't last. I read the whole thing a couple weeks ago, and I didn't regret it--it's fabulous.
The plot follows from "Tooth and Claw"--that's one of my least favorite Dr Who eps, but I thought this story was a huge improvement. It's got tension, it's got emotion, it's got character development--it's just incredibly well done. I'm *so* happy I got to read it early.
So, if you haven't yet discovered Sic Transit Tempus, I highly recommend settling in for a weekend and reading the whole thing. And if you have--new story! Jack and Hugh! Yay! Go read! |
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| updates galore |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|07:46 pm] |
tardis_bigbang went live! Yay! And so far there have only been a few glitches--it's running very smoothly, knock on wood.
House: Last week the painters finished in the master bath and master bedroom. The rooms look great. We've now decided that as long as all the furniture is out of the master bedroom, we might as well take out the carpet, which is in horrible shape, and put in a hardwood floor. So, in those two rooms, we still need:
( click if you're interested; this got kind of long )
Job: Potential employer asked me to sign a non-disclosure agreement and asked for two references. E-mailed info about the references and asked where to fax the agreement to. Feeling somewhat confident but trying not to get hopes up.
Other job: My Wednesday GMAT class is on session 4, and I'm starting a Tuesday class tomorrow. If I get the real job, I'm planning on quitting Kaplan--it's been fun, but it's been over five years, and I'm ready for a change.
Teeth: Still there. Still on target for November, I hope. It's been just over 13 months since I got the braces on; I haven't been feeling as enthusiastic about posting photos because they're just not moving as much now, but they're definitely looking good. Right now we're trying to get the top front teeth moving up, which is kind of weird. The threat of rubber bands is still there. Ick.
Miscellaneous: I donated platelets for the first time on Friday; it was interesting. They put a needle in just one arm--the machine takes the blood out, pulls out the platelets, and returns the corpuscles through the same arm. So you have to watch the screen and pump during the "draw" phases but not during the "return" phases; I kept messing that up, but it seemed to work. The whole thing took about an hour--next time I'm bringing a DVD. And next time I'll donate both whole blood and platelets; there wasn't enough time for both.
Anything else? If I've left out anything you want to know, feel free to ask. |
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| we've gone live!!! |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|12:02 pm] |
Thanks to hllangel (who started it all), jadesfire2808 and ladyamarra for being the best co-mods ever! This fest has been a blast, and I hope we can do it again next year. |
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[Jun. 15th, 2008|01:03 pm] |
Yesterday Matt and I had tickets to A Comedy of Errors at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. We went with some friends--Matt's parents had tickets, but his mother wasn't very enthusiastic about going, so we swapped those two and our two and got four seats together.
Anyway.
Fabulous production. They actually set it in 1940s London, during the Blitz--there was a framing story of a group of actors who were making a movie of A Comedy of Errors to show to the troops. So there was the director, who played Dromio of Syracuse in the movie; his wife (Adriana), who was having an affair with one of the stars (Antipholus of Syracuse); and the old Shakespearean actor who got stuck playing Dromio of Ephesus, because an American matinee star who was volunteering with the RAF was being brought in to play Antipholus of Ephesus.
The American star reminded me *so* much of John Barrowman/Captain Jack, except that he turned out to be a decent Shakespearean actor, and I have my doubts about JB. [g] But he was a dashing ladies' man more known for his singing than his acting, and he was volunteering as a fighter pilot with the RAF. His first lines in Comedy were a hoot--he read them like you'd expect an American actor from the '40s to read Shakespeare. Luckily for everyone they got past that and made him competent pretty quickly.
They played Comedy as a very physical farce--slapstick, almost--which worked great. I find this play rather trite--it's about a pair of twins who keep getting mistaken for each other; who would have seen that coming?--and taking it over the top was definitely the thing to do. And it was fun to see all the baggage brought in by the 1940s cast. The experienced actor playing Dromio of Ephesus was trying to make a movie of Henry V, and he was bound and determined to fit the St Crispin's Day speech in somewhere. (He did. Twice.) The guy playing Antipholus of Syracuse had bad breath, which was a running problem with the rest of the cast. The actress playing Adriana tended to abuse her assistant, who played the Abbess and who got some of her own back at the end of the play.
All in all, it was a terrific afternoon--and we had a wonderful dinner afterwards. If I can't be at Con.Txt (*is still depressed*), this wasn't a bad substitute. |
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[Jun. 9th, 2008|08:10 am] |
We're at the airport. Our flight leaves in an hour, and so far it's supposed to be on time, so things are looking good, knock on wood. Thanks for all the good travel vibes; I'm sure they're helping. Now if only it can stop raining in Chicago long enough for me to get the car....
This actually turned out to be a bad travel weekend for Matt's whole family....
- Our middle nephew's girlfriend came to the twins' graduation, but when she went to find her car afterwards, it wasn't there. Turned out it had been towed; she had parked on private property without realizing it. Her father came to get her to take her to the auto pound, but he had a flat tire on the way. They finally got her car around 1 a.m.
- The twins left for the beach on Saturday and got caught in horrible traffic--it took them eight hours for what's usually a five-hour trip.
- Matt's youngest brother drove down from Maryland, and his car broke down on the way back. Looks like the timing belt, unfortunately. We're trying to convince Matt's mother to give him her car, since she can't drive.
So, really, an extra night in Charlotte doesn't seem so bad. It was a horribly seedy hotel, though; next time we know where not to stay. |
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| could this weekend get any worse.... |
[Jun. 8th, 2008|04:09 pm] |
Actually, it's been a decent trip to South Carolina, except for having to deal with Matt's mother. Arriving at the Charlotte airport was awful--it seemed like we were waiting for wheelchairs for hours. We finally did get out, though, and get down to SC. Our nephews' graduation ceremony was brief, which is about the best I was hoping for, and we got to spend some time with both Matt's brothers.
( cut for massive whining about mother-in-law )
Everyone please send good weather vibes tomorrow morning. There are still thunderstorm warnings in Chicago, so we could easily be stuck here another day, and I really, really, really want to go home. |
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[Jun. 3rd, 2008|04:30 pm] |
Matt's mother is the most unrelentingly negative person I know. I wish I could say that she's going through a rough time and will get better eventually, but the truth is, she's been like this as long as I've known her, and it's just getting worse as she ages. I feel like I just spent three hours with Marvin the Paranoid Android.
We're leaving for South Carolina tomorrow for our nephews' high school graduation, and, yes, she's coming along. Joy. I'm looking forward to spending some time down there, but the trip itself is going to be seriously not fun. And when we get back, I need a break from her for maybe three or four days--that would help a lot.
On the plus side, tardis_bigbang continues to be ridiculously fun. It looks like we're going to be the biggest Big Bang fest so far--at least, until SGA's next round beats us out--and we've got the best bunch of participants ever.
Also, I ran four miles yesterday in under 44 minutes. That might not sound impressive, but, believe me, by my standards it's miraculous. I'm just afraid it'll never happen again.
Still no news on the job front. I'm starting to wonder whether I should give the guy a call or not. *dithers* |
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[May. 23rd, 2008|03:33 pm] |
Hey, splix, I got a lovely prayer rug in the mail today! I can't wait to try it out!
Unfortunately, I'm going to hell, because I opened the official sealed prophecy before praying on the rug and mailing it back for another family to use. Darn.
In other news, this was kind of fun...
Impossible-Quiz.com - Fun Hard Quiz |
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| life is full of surprises |
[May. 19th, 2008|10:06 pm] |
I have a friend who works for a company that does consulting in the travel industry, and she's trying to get me working for them as a business analyst. It would be perfect--I'd be a consultant, not an employee; it would probably be around 25 hours a week most of the year; and it involves getting data in order, crunching statistics, putting the results into a legible format, and setting up procedures to make the whole process run smoothly--all of which is right up my alley.
So if you wouldn't mind sending some getting-hired vibes in this direction, I wouldn't complain.
I'm actually paying a company to help me get my resumé together--I haven't updated it in a couple years, and I haven't had a job like this before, so I really need to present my work history in a way that makes it clear that I've got the skills they need. I talked to someone from that company tonight for a little over an hour. I think at first I was driving him nuts because I was going through things too quickly, but we finally got into a rhythm, and I think he at least has a good handle on what I've been doing. At the end he thanked me for an "engaging 72 minutes"--I'm choosing to take that as a compliment.
And that's that. I'm really hoping it works out, but it came up so suddenly that I'm not all that invested in it. And at least it's got me thinking about getting out there and finding something to do, if only to have an excuse not to spend so much time with Matt's mom.
( speaking of my mother-in-law... )
One of Matt's brothers is coming up this weekend with his wife, and they're staying with us Monday night, so I really need to get the house cleaned. Really. It's good to have an incentive, but... yuck. I swear, if I get this job, hiring a cleaning person is the first thing we're doing. |
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[May. 13th, 2008|09:01 pm] |
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Duran Duran are singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the Cubs' seventh-inning stretch. At least they can carry a tune.... |
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[May. 11th, 2008|10:10 am] |
I just want to say a quick Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there, but especially to the two newest mothers on my flist, cereta and emmagrant01. You both had a hard road to parenthood, and I'm happy that things have turned out so well. You rock.
We're taking Matt's mom downtown for lunch and to see the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Art Institute, and of course it's pouring buckets. |
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