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We saw March of the Penguins and it got mixed reviews from our group.

I loved it.

Spike, almost 15 and loves penguins, said he really liked it.
His friend, 14, said it was "the most awesomest movie ever."

Buffy pretty much hated it and said "it SUCKS" until the baby penguins were born. Then she said "It was fine."
Her friend fell asleep during part of it. And wasn't impressed.

I mean, keep in mind that it's a National Geographic documentary. Not really any different than what you would see for free on TV. Except that these are beautiful birds in awesome scenery, so that makes a great showing for the big screen.

If you love penguins, or you have patience to sit through a NG documentary, go see it. If it's action you want, skip it.

Still, I loved it.

Although I would never ever ever want to be a penguin after I saw what they go through every year.

Today we're leaving to pick up Buffy from camp and head on out to the beach!

See ya!

Oh my gosh, my son - who LOVES penguins - told me we need to see this movie but I didn't know it was going to be so great. Not that we've seen it yet, but I just went to the site, and then I watched the trailer, and I had tears falling down my cheeks just watching THAT. We are definitely going to see it now, and I cannot WAIT. Wow, it's great they awesome movies like this are still made.

Filed under "My bizarro referral for the Day".

Can someone tell me why this website has a link to my own personal funeral wishes??? Am I a good link for Funeral Savings because I say I don't want any money wasted on flowers? What the heck???

Go Me!!

Yes, I actually got up at 5:30 am and ran for two miles this morning.

And now my body wants to kill me.

I keep telling it that running is good for it, but it doesn't believe me and is currently plotting my death.

Let me bother you all one more time. I'm having a heck of a time trying to come up with the subject for two of my assignments. If I let you guys give me ideas, it won't be cheating because I still have to write the story myself, right? That's what I think. But anyway, here are the assignments I'm stuck on:

Right one story twice from two points of view. First from someone of a vastly different age than you, such as a child or a 90 year old. Then write the same story from the point of view of someone only ten years older or younger than yourself. 750 words each.

So, any ideas?

Second story: A married man and woman are sleeping upstairs in the morning. The woman hears a disturbance downstairs and goes down to investigate. At the end of the story, she returns upstairs. You fill in the rest, 750 words.

Now I have the most difficulty with this one. Because A) if your husband is right next to you in bed and there's a disturbance downstairs, do you really go investigate or do you wake up your husband? Especially if it really is morning. I mean, Girl Power and all, but the man has a better chance with an intruder. So the disturbance must be something the woman is expecting. Like from the children, or she's expecting a visitor. What do you all think? Any ideas for the story?

So just give me a comment if you have any ideas. I'll do the writing, you just be my muse.

Excuse me while I catch my breath

I did it!!! I ran over three miles! I can't say my body is too happy with me at the moment, but actually I feel really really great. I've already had a shower, after clambering up the quarter mile steep driveway to Scott's house, and I can still feel the blood pumping through my veins. Skin feels so fresh and alive... I just feel great.

It was warmer than I would have liked it to be. It felt great in the shade, but it was way too hot in the sun. I almost got ran over by a bus - Stupid bus. But all the bicyclists were very nice.

Now I'm supposed to run 2 miles tomorrow. That I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish because it's going to be way too hot. I may have to do it before work in the morning. Well, I guess if I'm going to commit to this schedule then that's what I'm going to have to do. Run at 5:30am. At least the sun will already be out.

And now I have Creative Writing homework to do. So see ya later.

Happy Sunday! No, a Very Very Happy Sunday!

It's so nice spending an entire weekend here in Aptos, especially when I hear it's back into the 90's in San Jose. Ahhhhhh.... Actually, it was even hot here yesterday, up in the mountains and next to the beach it was mid 80's at least - so you know it's hot in San Jose.

Buffy goes to camp today, about 2 miles from Scott's house. This was her dad's weekend though, so I thought I was going to have to drive 50 miles back to San Jose to pick her up this morning, 50 miles back to Aptos to bring her to camp, and 50 miles back home again. Not looking forward to that. But Buffy asked her dad if he could drive her, for once in their lives, and he actually said yes. We are all shocked. So I only have to drive 2 miles up the road to meet her with her sign-in papers and say goodbye to her.

And hello to a lovely quiet week without a 13 year old girl and her drama - Oh no! I must be a horrible mother, eh? Not. Whatever. Anyway, Spike and I are looking forward to a week of quiet, but we'll be very happy to see her again next Friday.

And guess what I'm gong to do now? RUN. I know, can you believe it?? But yes, as soon as this coffee finishes running through me (great visual there, eh?) I'll be off and running down Freedom Boulevard. 1.5 miles to Hiway one, 1.5 miles back. I gotta start somewhere, and it's going to be today.

Besides, did you see all the fantastically cute clothes out now? I want some.

So I'll see ya'll in a bit.

I can't use NotifyList from Scott's aol computer, so I'm just letting you know an update is there.

And Happy Five Years of writing to Me!

The entry was spurred by a guestbook entry I received today. I didn't delete it because I just don't care, so you can still read it if you want.

I will say I'm sorry if anyone out there is offended by what I write, but I have to say I can't imagine WHY someone would be offended by ME. So... Whatever.

Oh please let this day end so I can go to Aptos!!!!!

Update

Work has been soooooooooooooooooooo busy, that's why I haven't posted here much. Today I am going to Aptos for a full weekend for the first time since last January, before Swim Season and before Buffy's confirmation classes. I so need a weekend of relaxation!!!

But Scott and I have that Creative Writing class, so really we'll be writing all weekend. But at least it will be cool there, there won't be any screaming kids, etc. Just a nice cool relaxing place.

And Sunday morning I'm going to run 3 miles while Scott is in school. I'm going to start back into my running schedule from my Running For Women book that I love, and according to schedule I must run 3 miles, so I will.

Also, Scott got his surgery moved up to August 17, so that was really good news too.

And now I must work. So I will talk to ya'll later.

Again, Thank You God for the cool weather you've sent us today, even the rain you sent this morning. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

Next subject: Itsy reminded me the other day of FitDay.com which is a really great site in tracking your diet/exercise program and has always helped me in the past. So I started it a couple days ago and it's already helping me.

For instance, Day 1 I consumed over 2500 calories. I've told you how well they feed us here at my job, right? There you go. And when you don't keep track, they really add up. And I know from the non-fit of my clothes that I've gained much weight just in the six weeks I've worked here.

So the next day, more aware of what I put in my mouth, I only consumed about 1700. That's quite a difference. Even with four pieces of pizza for dinner, I still cut out 700 calories.

Go me! I'll be back in shape for JournalCon now!

Requiem for a Dream

I watched Requiem for a Dream last night. I have no idea how it ended up on my Netflix list, who knows, but I had NO idea what it was about. If I had known, I probably wouldn't have been interested in putting it on my list.

I think it was one fantastic movie. Not a happy one mind you, but one of the most accurate depictions of drug abuse that I've ever seen.

I'm just curious, have any of you seen it, and what did you think of it?

I would like to stop and take a moment to personally thank God for only letting it be 81 degrees today.

Thank You God. I surely appreciate it.

Oh I completely forgot to mention it with the heat and all, but
WE WON FINALS!!!!!
And the best part?
Was beating that stupid team.

And Spike did great too, and there's pictures over at Flickr and a journal entry up too.

Goin to California - I mean, The Gym

Oooh, "Goin to California" by Pink is playing on the radio. This brings back memories of going to my old YMCA gym - I loved that gym, and this song was ALWAYS playing there.

I miss my gym.

BUT - good news! I got my new insurance card (and two for the kids! they have medical insurance now!) so I can get my doctor's note to work out in this gym! Hurray! I'm making an appointment right away!

I just ordered these curtains for my living room! I have seen them in the store, and I really like them. I really really HATE the 1970s gold drapes that came with the house. I am really really happy right now, I can't wait to hang them up!

See Megs? I bought something for myself!

I came across this email to John Stossel on the 20/20 website, and it makes a lot of sense. I would never have a breast augmentation done myself, but then again I think my boobs are fine. And because of this, I never could understand why anyone else would do it. However, this lady makes a good point:

"Hi, John, While I was watching your segment on 20/20 about young women having their breasts augmented, I noticed that your attitude (and that of many men) is negative -- you called it "materialistic and stupid" and asked one young lady, "Why do you want to do this? You look fine." While I was watching this segment, it occurred to me that if men's penises were on display as much as women's breasts are, you men would be getting augmented left and right. If every time you got dressed up in a tuxedo 1/2 of your penis was hanging out (as women's breasts do in evening gowns) or if every time you wore a swim suit part of your "package" was on display, or if women could take a quick glance (the way men can take a quick glance at a woman's chest) to judge the size of your manhood, we women would have to wait in line for breast augmentation while all of the men were getting augmented." Nancy Storrs, Lubbock, Texas

What do you all think, men and women, what's your view on this subject?

WHEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
All signed in by the Dean!
Thank you Dean!
I'll have my English AA by May, can ya believe it???

A Buffy scorned is not to be trifled with

I forgot to put this in today's journal entry, but Buffy is still going through her little heart break, only now she's just turned to a Woman Scorned, which let me tell you... Scary.

So Timmyboy broke up with her yesterday (just as I was starting to LIKE him, too!) and she was sad, and then he IMed her and told her he didn't know what he was thinking, and that he wanted to get back together. So she was happy again. But then his friend pasted an IM conversation with him and gave it to Buffy, where Timmyboy says he only got back together because he felt bad for her...

Hooo Boy. 9.2 earthquake in the house at that moment.

This absolutely infuriated Buffy. If you can scream over Instant Messenger, that's what she was doing. And then she told him she HATED him, and then she blocked him.

"I'm erasing his MySpace," she said calmly. "I made it for him, and I'm taking it away."

I told her not to, that he wasn't trying to hurt her, but she didn't care. She just looked up at me with this very calm, evil, determined look - that I know has flashed from my very eyes at times - and said she didn't care and was going to erase it anyway. I pleaded with her, it didn't matter. Finally, I just forbid her to do it.

***I just peeked at it right now to make sure she obeyed me -- it's still there but his comments are gone and boy is it all messed up.

I hope he's looking over his shoulder today.

Buffy just called and said her little boyfriend just broke up with her because he didn't want a girlfriend any more. I didn't think she would mind too much, but she says she is sad. My heart hurts for her.
:-(

I thought it odd that the journal suddenly had almost 300 page views Sunday, so I looked at the referrers to see if there was a clue...

And oh yeah, people have been looking up the swim team name... Ugh... I'm not sure why I haven't deleted any references to that name, I certainly know better... Oh well.

Oops

Boy, leave out one little ">" and you've suddenly read quite a lot of books, hahaha!

So I was going through the english department website of San Jose State University, and I found a link to something called "The Guilt List", which lists books every English Major should read. I was actually amazed at how many of the books I had NOT read yet. I decided to copy the list here to share with you all. I put in bold the books I have read (or the author if I had read other stories) and then underlined the ones that I actually have but have not read yet. If you guys want, you can do the same - I would love to know if any of you have read more than half of these. But anyway, just thought I would share:

Guilt List
(Any English major who hasn't read most of these has no right to joy.)

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart
Aeschylus. The Oresteia
Allende, Isabelle. The House of the Spirits
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima
Aristotle. Poetics
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, Emma
Barrio, Raymond. The Plum Plum Pickers
Barth, John. The Sot Weed Factor
Baudelaire, Charles. Flowers of Evil
Bellow, Saul. The Adventures of Augie March
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron
Boswell, James. Life of Johnson
Bradbury, Ray. Dandelion Wine
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
Brooks, Gwendolyn. Blacks
Buck, Pearl. The Good Earth
Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita
Cather, Willa. My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton. The Lady with a Dog (and plays)
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim
Cooper, James Fennimore. Leatherstocking Tales
Crane, Stephen. Red Badge of Courage
Dante, Alighieri. The Divine Comedy
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times, Bleak House, David Copperfield
Doestoevski, F. M. The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie
Duras, Marguerite. The Lover
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch
Eliot, T. S. The Wasteland, The Four Quartets
Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man
Erdrich, Louise. The Beet Queen
Euripides. The Bacchae, Hippolytus
Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom!, The Hamlet, Light in August
Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Maddox. The Good Soldier
Fuentes, Carlos. The Death of Artemio Cruz, Where the Air is Clear
Garland, Hamlin. Main Travelled Roads
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl
Goethe. Faust
Grahame, Kenneth. Wind in the Willows
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key
Hardy, Thomas. Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance
Hemingway, Ernest. Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises
Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey
Howells, William Dean. A Hazard of New Fortunes
Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
James, Henry. Turn of the Screw, Ambassadors, The Portrait of a Lady
Johnson, Charles. The Oxherding Tale
Joyce, James. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Ulysses
Kafka, Franz. The Trial
Kennedy, William. Ironweed
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road
Keys, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon
Kinnell, Galway. The Past
Kingston, Maxine Hong. China Men
Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers, Women in Love
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love, Experiment in
Criticism
London, Jack. Lorde, Audre. The Black Unicorn
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies
Machiavelli, The Prince
Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley
Mailer, Norman. The Naked and the Dead
Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain
Marlow, Christopher. Dr. Faustus
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. A Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
McCullers, Carson. Short Stories
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, Typee
Jean de Meun. The Romance of the Rose
Middleton, Thomas. The Changeling
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All
My Sons
Milton, John. Paradise Lost
Momeday, N. Scott. The Way to Rainy Mountain
Morrison, Toni. The Song of Soloman
Munro, Alice K. Selected Stories
Norris, Frank. McTeague
O'Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood, A Good Man is Hard to Find
Orwell, George. 1984, Animal Farm
Ovid. Metamorphosis
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved
Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49
Plato, The Republic
Proust, Marcel. Swann's Way
Rich, Adrienne. Selected Poems
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela or Clarissa
Roethke, Theodore. Words for the Wind
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye
Saroyan, William. The Human Comedy
Scott, Walter. Waverley, Ivanhoe
Shakespeare, William. The Major Plays
Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's Profession
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony
Silone, Ignazio. Bread and Wine
Sophocles. Oedipus the King, Antigone
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queen
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Cannery Row
Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose
Stendhal (Henri Beyle). The Red and the Black
Sterne, Laurence. Tristram Shandy
Stevens, Wallace. The Palm at the End of the Mind
Styron, William. Lie Down in Darkness
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Makepace. Vanity Fair
Thurber, James. The Thurber Carnival
Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace, Anna Karenina
Trollope, Anthony. The Way We Live Now
Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn
Updike, John. Rabbit, Run; Trust Me
Virgil. The Aeneid
Wallant, Edward Lewis. The Pawnbroker
West, Nathaniel. The Day of the Locust
Wharton. Edith. The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence
White, E. B. Charlotte's Web
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Ernest
Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward Angel
Wolfe, Tom. Bonfire of the Vanities
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dolloway
Wright, A. T. Islandia
Wright, Richard. Black Boy, Native Son
Yeats, William Butler. Collected Poems
Yourcenar, Marguerite. Memoirs of Hadrian
Also, Genesis, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, The Bhagavad Gita, Qu'ran, Song of Roland, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

I think it's funny that (just like when I was mad at certain people and only the people I wasn't mad at were apologizing) when I say I'm getting presents for the people who love me they are again the first people to deny needing presents.

And that is why I consider them friends, and why it really doesn't matter what non-friends have to say, and also why they are getting presents like it or not.

There are certain people I've met here who I value very much, and who I'm really glad I've "met". We have all been through quite a bit of shit together here on the internet and out in real life. And my good friends are getting presents. Because I can do it.

So quit arguing with me.

Okay, it wasn't quite a million in the account, haha

Hah! There's $60 available in my credit union account! Saved once again by that silly forgotten little account! And now we can eat for the week. Spike will be thrilled!

We'll have to work a little harder keeping track of all our dough from now on, haha!

True to my life as a boring getting-fatter blogger...

I just got taken out to Starbucks for a Caramel Macchiatto by my supervisor. And tomorrow morning is free bagels and pastries again. And yesterday was Carne Asada in the cafeteria.

And I FINALLY got all the documents together to get my insurance card, so I can finally go get my doctor note saying that I can finally go to the gym at my work that is right on the other side of my wall right here!

So soon I will NOT be a getting-fatter blogger! I'll just be a boring blogger! hahahah...

Barbecue = Success.

PMS = Gone.

Everyone is happy again.

Vacation - Day Four

Well. I'm not at work. At least there's that.

We are having a barbecue today, and we have gobs of food. But Scott is feeling bad and went home, and Buffy woke up whining which instantly set me off again. I am trying to have a good day. Poor Spike is trying to hold the family together and I am trying not to kill his sister.

She, like most 13 year olds, is oblivious.

But I think we'll do okay today. If I can just get this house cleaned up everything will be better.

Vacation - Day Three

Oh, I know! Let's combine the third day with a RAGING case of PMS!
Fun!

Had a very very wonderful, contented, headache-free morning with Scott. But then I had to go home to spend the day with the kids, and I figured we'd have a barbeque then too. But then on the way home I called the kids and it turns out that, yeah they're home, but also they're going BACK to dads. So I left Aptos for no reason. Then when I get through the front door, they are fighting like cats and dogs.

And then the PMS. It was not a good day. The end.

Vacation - Day Two

The car got to Aptos just fine, so we'll go with the "just tired" theory for now. But I got a huge headache once I was there, so Sunday was pretty much a bust. I snapped at Scott several times, but that is so unlike me that we laughed each time - still, it wasn't a fun day.

Today may or may not be a happy day. The plan is for the kids to leave with their dad and go to Great America, and also spend the night with him, and that means I get to go back to Aptos and spend the night with Scott.

Except that yesterday, when we were driving home, the jeep was doing some wierd things with the steering, to be exact, it didn't want to turn.
It always has a hard time with sharp left turns, I can even do U-turns unless there's six lanes of traffic, but yesterday it suddenly stopped wanting to make any turn of 90 degrees going either direction.

Which isn't good.

And probably isn't good for driving back over Highway 17.

On the other hand, my rent is due, and I have to pay it at a place halfway to Scott's anyway. And the car drove over Highway 17 just fine yesterday, it wasn't until it got off the freeway that it started acting wonky. So maybe it was just tired.

Anyway, that's the plan for the day, to get over the hill to Scott's and pay the rent too. If I can get over the hill and the car is obviously acting up, I can take Scott's spare car back, so that would be okay. But first I need to get that far.

Okay ya'll, Over and out for now.

Vacation - Day 1

Drove to Aptos at 7:30am with the kids and a friend. Met Scott at the coffee shop and hung out for quite awhile because there was absolutely no sun. Not that that ever stops us from going to the beach, but we were having fun with Scott.
Drove to Play It Again Sports to get Buffy a new boogie board.
Went to the beach where it wasn't cold at all, it was pretty nice, but it wasn't WARM. So we dug holes in the sand, and read, and Spike did a sand dragon and a sand mermaid. Then around noon it started to get colder so we decided to go to the movies.

Scott met us there and we saw War of the Worlds.

That movie was well and truly terrifying. At one point I jumped so high in my seat that popcorn flew everywhere. And by halfway through I just wanted the movie to be over because I was just DONE being so scared.

So yeah, I give it five stars (except for a dumb beginning, and a too abrupt ending). Everything but that first and last five minutes was just too too fabulously terrifying.

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