Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?

I do.






(Thanks to momenem for the cool banner.)

Mansfield Park

Contrary to to his previous comment, Chuck did not take the new profile picture I'm using with a digital camera. It's actually a portion of a tinted line drawing by H.M. Brock, from an out of copyright edition of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. The pictures were posted on Molland's, a resource site for Jane Austen fans.

The illustration depicts Fanny Price, one of my favorite Jane Austen characters.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2006

when...

1.You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they
don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone
is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the
first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn
around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this
list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Okay, so it's a little hokey, but I thought it was funny. Chuck forwarded this one to me. The other mass forward I got yesterday wasn't quite as amusing.

First of all I would never forward a chain-mail type email to a list of friends. Every time I get one of those I groan. Here are some of the reasons:


1.As a former IT network professional, I know that if everyone on a network forwards an email to say, eight people, the number of emails grows exponentially and you have network traffic problems.

2. Those type of chain-mail emails usually contain an unsubstantiated "urban-myth" story. I know enough to be skeptical of these "facts".

3. What I really hate is that they almost inevitably include a threat with a curse attached if you don't mindlessly forward along this piece of trash. I don't think so.

4. The one I received yesterday wasn't the typical "forward this to sixteen friends or you will be sorry" but at the end of an unsubstantiated story was included this nice ditty: "If you don't forward this message, you have no soul." Oh please, is that supposed to motivate me? I don't think so...

Visa National Championships

Tonight we watched the 1st day of the Visa National Gymnastics Championships. The finals will be on NBC tomorrow (Sunday) night. If you want to know who won you can find the results on the USA gymnastics web site.

Aimee is gearing up for her 2nd gymnastics competitive season. She'll be competing at Level 5. The first meet of her season is September 9 in Culver City. She loves her new gym and so do I. She is working really hard and her routines are looking good. It's been twenty-two years since Chuck and I had tickets to the '84 Olympics where we watched Mary-Lou Retton and the gold-medal winning Team USA. We didn't know then that we would one day have a daughter with gold-medal dreams of her own. But God did and I'm very thankful.

New Picture

I'm tired of the 3rd grade picture so here's a new one:

State of Inelegance

“What dreadful Hot weather we have!–It keeps one in a continual state of Inelegance.” - Jane Austen from a letter to Cassandra Austen, September 18, 1796

Going to the Top of the Forest

...wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.
The House at Pooh Corner - A.A.Milne




Today the not so little boy, sans bear, checked in to the Freshman Class of 2010 at West Ranch High School. I know this would be an "Oh Mom" moment to him because somehow there is moisture in my eyes as I think of him going off to public high school. I'm confidant this is the right place for him to be but I can't help but be a bit emotional as he embarks on this new season. High School is a big step anyway, but he's been homeschooled since 3rd grade so it will really be a new experience for him. I know he's ready.

Tourne' Bed and Breakfast

Here's a place I'd like to visit someday. It's the Tourne'Bed and Breakfast in Ariège-Pyrénées, France.

Book Theft News

A librarian in Manchester, England admitted stealing very valuable rare books from the Manchester free library and placing them for sale on e-bay. The crime was discovered by an antiquarian book dealer who saw the books for sale on e-bay with their library markings. You can read about it at Grumpy Old Bookman: Bookdealer turns detective.

$798.25

The amount of our electric bill for July.

50th anniversary

This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of the US National Motto: “In God we Trust”.

On July 30, 1956, 50 years ago last Sunday, Congress passed legislation making "In God We Trust" our National Motto.

May our nation continue to live by our motto and defend it from those who would like to remove it from our money and our hearts.

You can read more about the history of our National Motto by clicking here.

Mr. Coffee Nerves

Thought I should explain the Mr. Coffee Nerves cartoon from my previous post. It's from a series of ads from the 1960s or so for a coffee-substitute drink called Postum. I found it on a website called The Institute of Official Cheer in the Orphanage of cast-off mascots section. The whole web-site is very funny and witty.

I really do enjoy my coffee. I just have to watch how much I consume and not drink coffee or any caffeinated drink after noon if I want to sleep that night.