I Love Mad Libs!!!

I love Mad Libs. They are so much fun. I was doing them last night with Jill, and I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. It wasn't THAT funny. But it was THAT fun! Know what I mean? The line that got me going was something like "...but the children say he could spin and flop just the same as Devyn and me." It was a Christmas Carol Mad Lib. That particular song was originally "Frosty the Snowman." Our version was titled "Frosty the Boyfriend-man." I'm seriously trying hard not to laugh too much as I type this because I am remembering some of the sillier lines we created. Let me make a suggestion to you all... do some Mad Libs and have a good time.

8 Random Things About Me

My lovely sister Valarie tagged me for a meme. I'm supposed to write 8 random things about myself, so here they are in no particular order:

1. I love gummy worms. I love how chewy and tough they are; I love the fruity flavor. In fact, thinking about them right now is making my mouth water. They are totally delicious!

2. My toothbrush is blue and white. I spend a lot of time choosing the toothbrushes I buy -- not because I'm obsessed with oral hygiene but because I'm convinced the color of the toothbrush affects my mood when I use it. I generally bounce back and forth between purple and blue. I once tried pink. I won't do that again.

3. My first kiss from a boy came when I was in kindergarten. His name was Chris, and he actully had a crush on my best friend. He asked if he could kiss her, and she told him only if he kissed me first. I ran, but he chased me down, tackled me, and kissed me. She kissed him, and they were happy. Meanwhile, I was lying on the ground covered in dirt.

4. I rarely make my bed in the morning. My former roommates have commented on the fact that I tend to make my bed at night before getting back into it. (If I make it at all.) Of course, since I moved to Florida I never sleep under the covers, so my bed is is always made.

5. On another household chores topic -- I hate ironing. I would rather scrub a toilet. I'm just not a neat enough person to do a good job with an iron. Although I have never left one of those gross brown iron scorch marks on the fabric, I tend to iron in as many wrinkles as I iron out. Thank goodness for permanent press! Ten minutes in a dryer to fluff.

6. I am very jumpy. When I get startled, my right arm (and right leg if I am seated) tends to fly about haphazardly. Sometimes people get punched. Once I was with Randy in NYC, and my own reflection startled me. Another time I was with my sisters at a restaurant. A little boy came running around the corner, and for some reason I thought he was a leprechaun. I jumped into the air and flung my arm out. I think I scared the little boy as much as he scared me. He looked nothing like a leprechaun, but for some odd reason that's what I thought he was when he came flying toward me.

7. I collect shopping bags. I have bags from all over the world even though I have never been outside the U.S. People find out I collect, and they donate cool bags to my collection. I had an art teacher in college who gave me several bags from European stores; I have bags my parents brought back for me from Africa. One of my favorite bags is from about 20 years ago. It's a Bloomingdale's Christmas shopping bag. It has little bears dressed like Santa on it. It seriously looks like it will fall apart if you touch it.

8. I am afraid of birds, especially geese. I run from them. Once I lived in an apartment by a lake where the geese swarmed. They were aggressive and mean, and they pooped EVERYWHERE. I was outside with Valarie and her family one day. When one of the geese approached me and Mikaily (Val's oldest), I grabbed Mikaily's hand and yelled "RUN!" We ran, and Valarie laughed. She will never let me forget the experience.

Technically, I'm supposed to tag 8 people to write random things about themselves also. I'm not going to do that. (I apologize to the meme police.) If you want to do it, go for it. It was actually pretty fun recalling memories to write about.

Jack-O-Lantern

I carved a pumpkin today! I generally avoid the activity because scraping the seeds, guts, and strings out really grosses me out. I'm pleased with the finished product though.

Warning: Dates on the Calendar are Closer Than They Appear

Yes. Time has gotten away from me. I was talking to Val the other day, and I mentioned it had been a long while since the last time I blogged anything. She, sitting at the computer, went to my blog page and informed me that my last post was on Sept. 3rd. SEPT 3RD! That was a long time ago. I guess time flies without being noticed.

Life is good. It's usual. I work alot. (Still enjoying the job.) I'm trying to think of something exciting that has happened or of an amusing anecdote to share, but I'm coming up blank.

I did fall out of my chair the other day. Those who know me, know I am prone to clumsiness due to stupidity. Case in point: Imagine me at 15 or 16. I was pretending to be Edward Scissorhands. I ended up cutting my pointer finger down to the bone on both sides. Then I passed out. That's the kind of stupid things I do that end up inflicting pain upon myself. Yesterday, I was at work. I was approaching my chair at the Information Desk. It's one of those high swivel chairs on wheels. The other woman at the desk said "Guess who's here?" It caught me off guard, and I was curious as to who was here. So, I turned toward her. The chair rolled away from me, slammed into the side of the desk and dumped me flat on my butt. (I've got some padding down there. I think I bounced once.) I must say, though, I fell as gracefully and as modestly as I could have considering I was wearing a long flowy white skirt that did not end up flying over my head and flashing my precious areas to the world. After all that, I asked from the floor, "Who's here?" It turned out to be Mr. Pants. (One of the trouble-making teens who frequents the library. He wears his pants way down below his butt, thus earning him the nickname "Mr. Pants." Or, when he is accompanied by the many girls who follow him around, we call the collective group "Panty and the Hoes.") It was not an exciting visitor -- certainly not worth the pain in my rear that I suffered. It was a good laugh, though. Actually, I think that's maybe the longest span I've gone in a while where I haven't fallen over or off of something. Go me! Now I'm back to 1 day accident free and counting.

Things you never wanted to know about me!

Okay, Val... I stole off your MySpace post. But rather than answering the questions in another post on My Space, I figured I'd answer the questions on my blog.

So, here it is... a bunch of useless information that you don't really care to know about me.

1. You have $5 and need to buy snacks at a gas station. What do you buy?
I would probably buy a Cherry Coke and some gummy worms. I love the gummies!

2. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be?
I think I would want to be a giant octopus. I watched a documentary once on sea creatures, and an octopus is one scary animal!

3. Favorite redhead?
Lucille Ball. I would have said my Mom, but she's taken to dying her hair black.

4. What do you order when you're at IHOP?
I think the last time I was there I ordered a turkey club sandwich. I'm not big on the pancakes at restaurants.

5. Last book you read?
I just finished the book The Field Guide (Book 1 of he Spiderwick Chronicles). When I finished that one, I started on The Book of Lost Things. So far it's kind of sad, but I'm only about 10 pages into it.

6. Describe your favorite pair of underwear.
All my underwear looks the same... most of yours who read this probably wear similar underwear.

7. Describe the last time you were injured.
This morning I stubbed my big toe getting into my sister's car. It hurt real bad, but I worked through the pain.

8. Of all your friends, who would you want to be stuck in a well with? I don't know. The one would be smart enough to figure out how to get us out of the dang well.

9. Rock concert or symphony?
Rock concert. As long as it's a band that I can sing along to. I don't think people appreciate it when you sing along with the symphony. I'm not refined enough to hang with that crowd.

10. What is the wallpaper of your mobile phone?
My answer to this is the same as Val's answer... it's a picture of Evan.

13. If you could only use one form of transportation for the rest of your life what would it be?
The Polar Express

14. Most recent movie you've watched at the cinema?
I saw Stardust with Valarie. It was a cute movie; the book, of course, was WAAAAYYY better.

15. Name actors/actresses you've had the hots for?
The first one I remember really liking was Christian Slater (when I was in middle school). Currently I would have to say Jude Law (a.k.a. Mr. Napkinhead).

16. What's your favorite kind of cake?
Chocolate cake with white icing. YUM!!!!

17. What did you have for dinner last night?
Pork chops with scalloped potatoes. (I did not cook.)

18. Look to your left, what do you see?
A shelf full of cookbooks and the dining room table.

19. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
No. I don't wear shoes that tie very often though. I mostly wear dress shoes, my clogs, or flip flops.

20. Favorite toy as a child?
I'm not sure if it was my absolute favorite, but I remember being really excited the Christmas I got a pair of roller skates. Our basement was unfinished, and we would skate down there all the time.

21. Do you buy your own food?
I do. If anyone else wants to buy it, be my guest.

22. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?
I'm sure they do.

23. When's the last time you had a sour gummy worm?
I do like the gummies, but I'm not a big fan of the sour variety. I can't even remember the last time I had one. I have tried one before though.

24. What's your favorite fruit?
Granny Smith apples.

25. Do you have a picture of yourself doing a cartwheel?
Not that I know of.

26. Have you ever eaten snow? Yup.

27. What color are your bedsheets?
White with orange and red stripes.

28. What's your mom's favorite flower?
I'm going with Val on this one and saying an orchid. She has several of them. She even paid a fortune to have a bunch shipped to her from Hawaii when she and my dad went there on vacation once. For those who know my mom, though, you would know that she loves all flowers. I think she would live in her garden if my Dad wouldn't get lonely without her in the house.

29.Have you ever done ballet?
Yes. I have the funny home videos to prove it. I even went through a phase when I was about 7 where I told my family I was changing my name to "Tina Ballerina."

30. Do you listen to classical music?
Occasionally. I'm partial to the "Bang Bang Song."

31. Do you have a "wacky noodle"?
I'm not sure what a "wacky noodle" is, so I'm going to say no.

32. Do you watch Spongebob?
Sometimes I do. Only with I'm with kids though. I find him pretty much annoying. Not like the Little Einsteins, who I just watch by myself sometimes.

33. Do people consider you intelligent?
Yes. I work in a library. I think people assume I'm more intelligent than I really am.

34. What time is it?
9:49 pm

35. Have you ever tried gluing your fingers together?
Yes. I love to cover my fingers in glue and then peel it off when it's dry. It makes little gluey fingerprints.

36. What curse word do you use the most?
I try not to curse, but I do use the b word on occasion. There. I admit it.

37. What time is your alarm clock set for?
9:03 am.

39. What CD is in your CD player right now?
One I burned.

40. What movie do you know every line to?
The Princess Bride

41. What is your favorite salad dressing?
Ranch

42. Would you ever date someone covered in tattoos?
Yeah.

43. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
The big 3-0! We're going to Vegas or something, right Anna?

44. Do you enjoy giving hugs?
To people I know. I don't dole them out freely, and I feel uncomfortable receiving hugs from someone I don't know that well.

45. Last time you had butterflies in your stomach?
I get butterflies in my stomach still before I do storytimes in front of a bunch of 3 year olds! They are harsh judges!

46. What's the way people most often mispronounce any part of your name?
They usually make it two syllables -- bleemus

47. If you were to become famous, would you drop your last name?
I wouldn't drop it. I might change it, though. I'd be Tracy Fairlane or something. Well, that sounds like a stripper's name. Maybe I'd just stick with Tracy Blimes.

Disney Magic

I went to Walt Disney World with Evan yesterday. We had a really good time. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about taking him. I went back and forth about whether or not to take a stroller. He's not quite 3 years old, and I didn't want to end up carrying him all the time. But at the same time, I thought he would probably not want to ride in the stroller the whole time, and then I would just have the empty stroller to deal with. In the end, I opted not to take one. He did really well! I carried him alot though. He would just stop walking sometimes, stand right in front of me, stick his arms up and say "PICK ME UP!!!!" Overall, I'm glad I didn't have a stroller.

Evan REALLY REALLY liked the Buzz Lightyear ride. It's one of my favorites also. For those who have never ridden on it... the gist of it is this: You get in a little car. There are two laser guns attached to the front of the car and two scoreboards. During the ride, there are many little targets where you are supposed to aim your gun and shoot. The scoreboard keeps score to see who gets the most. Evan, being a little guy, could not see over the gun and had to pull the trigger all the way down to reach it. That made his gun face pretty much straight up. He scored some points though, so there must have been some targets on the ceiling. After we rode it once, he asked if we could ride it again. We did. After the second time, he wanted to go again. First we made an important phone call home to Mommy so Evan could tell her how much fun he was having. I think his exact words were, "Hello, Mommy. Do you want to ride the big ride? It's so much fun!" We did not ride it a third time, though, because the line got really long while we were on the phone.

Here he is riding Buzz Lightyear. He's got the gun in one hand and the steering control for our car in the other.

To Infinity and Beyond!

A few pictures and a silly story...

Hello to everyone that reads this! I thought I would post a couple of pictures of Alaina and Devyn because I think they are cute. I love how Laney has her arms straight up in the air in the first picture. It's like "Hooray!" The second one I like because Devyn is leaning forward, which makes her look huge. Laney's just in the background chillin'. They're both so cute, and Jill and Valarie joke about how they are BFF's.

Now for a silly story...
The other morning I got up and got dressed. I lazed around a bit. (Some mornings I don't have to be at work until noon.) I decided I was hungry, so I got a jar of peanuts out of the cupboard. I wanted a glass of milk to go with them, so I got the milk out of the fridge and a clean glass. I then proceeded to pour the milk into the jar of peanuts. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't thinking. I was just too tired or something. Milk in Florida is very expensive. It's just under $5 for a gallon. It's like liquid gold. I totally wasted the last of the milk, and I had to throw out the almost full jar of peanuts. I guess I need to pay more attention!

In other news, I got a pet. It's a red betta fish that I named Boris. He swims around and around in his little fish bowl (that is also shaped like a fish). He's cool. He's real low maintenance, and I've had him for six days now and he's still alive. Boris rocks!

Long Time No Post...

Well, I have let time slip away from me again. I can't believe it's been so many weeks since I last posted anything. Not that I have any great excuse, but in my defense I must say that I have not even had a home for the past 2 months. I've just had priorities other than blogging. I'm glad to say that the homelessness is changing even as I type. My sister went and picked up the keys to our apartment yesterday. We went over there last night to kind of plan where we are going to put things and to do the checklist where you mark all the damage that already exists so you don't get blamed for it when you move out. I have to go to work today, but tomorrow I'm off. That will be my moving day. I'll take as much stuff over as I can. Jill is moving all the big stuff with the moving truck on Saturday. By the end of the weekend, I will FINALLY have my own home and can stop "living out of a suitcase" as they say. Hooray.

My Mom (those who know her know that her passion is botany) has given me several of the plants from her house, including two orchids! We had "Herbology" class last night, and she taught me how to take care of the various plants and flowers. I'm excited to cultivate my own little jungle. I've never been that great with plants in the past, but I had inherited some Christmas cacti when I began working at OSU. They had been left there by my office's previous tenant. I did okay with them, and now I'm ready to "branch out". (Look at that, I used a pun.)

I promise to add some pictures with the next post. I'll be able to get some pictures of the new apartment to show it off.

Is it a full moon or something?

Okay, so this week the wierdos have been crawling out of the woodwork at the library. I know it's not a full moon, but it sure seems like it should be. We've been getting all these strange requests at the reference desk. One that was particularly wierd. I won't get into the specifics, but it involved an old man asking for help finding an anatomically correct life-sized doll made of silicone. Plus, the teens have been extra hyper. The cops had to be called yesterday and again today. I don't know what going on. We have a handful of kids who just love to cause trouble and pick fights with other kids. They show no respect for each other or to us (the staff). Normally, we just kick them out for the day or week. This week, though, they've been worse than normal.

On a brighter note, I found a place to live. Hooray! I will be living at Sabal Palms at Boot Ranch. That's a relief. I was getting worried about finding place I liked.

For Anna...

My reaction to that car...

CREEPY!!! I can't believe all those doll heads. That is totally crazy! At first I saw it and thought, "Why would she think of me when she saw that?" I know it's not because the 3rd doll from the left looks just like me, right? Anyway, I understand why you thought of me. It's because all the weird things I look up on eBay, isn't it?

For those who don't know the story, Anna sent me a picture of this car that she saw when coming home from Red, White, and Boom. Apparenlty this is the second car this guy has "decorated." The first one was in the Doo Dah parade the next day, and then it was entered into the Kentucky crafts and hobbies museum.

Leave it to you, Anna, to strike up a friendship with the weird guy in the the creepy-mobile!

Update...

I've been in Florida for 28 days now. So far, so good. I'm really really enjoying my new job. This week is the halfway point for the summer reading club. We had a party for the teens on Monday; the party for the elementary kids was last night; and the preschool kids' party is tomorrow. It's been a long week full of long days, but it's been really fun.

I still haven't found a place to live. The original plan when I moved down here was to rent a house with Val and her family. But plans change. Now that my parents have decided not to sell their house and to, instead, rent it to Valarie, that leaves my sister Jill and niece Devyn in need of a roommate. So, I will be living with the two of them instead. We looked at some apartments last week. At some point, we will look at some "condos." (I never understood the difference between apartments and condos.) It's a tough process to find a place, and unfortunately Jill and I work schedules where it's hard to find a day when both of us can go together looking for a home. I think we may have to start going separately, or come August we'll be homeless. Anyone know of any great deals?

Blue Man Group

Last night I got to see the Blue Man Group. Holy cow, it was so much fun! I went with my Dad, Drew (brother), and Jason (brother-in-law) over to Orlando to Universal Studios, where the Blue Man Group performs daily. We were in the second row center. They gave us ponchos in case we got splashed by paint. Although none of us got splashed by paint, one of the blue men threw a marshmellow and tried to get it into my dad's mouth; the kid sitting next to my dad got hit by bananas; and I had to duck to avoid being pelted in the face by a small jello mold. We all had a really great time. It was a lot more funny than I thought it was going to be. For example, before the show even started, there were these electronic message boards that prompted the whole audience to say happy birthday to people; we all had to congratulate a guy who was there that won the gold medal in curling at the last winter olympics; and we had to walk some woman named Wendy through an exercise to get rid of her headache. The show was just as funny, and the music was really cool. I'm glad I got to go. If you every have the opportunity to see the Blue Man Group, I highly recommend it.

Oh baby!!!

Valarie had her baby yesterday morning. Alaina Rae weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz when she was born and was 19 3/4" long. She sure is a cutie. She looks so much like Kyle.

Happy Moving Day Eve!

So, the big moving day is tomorrow. I wish I could say I was already ready to go, but I'm not. I still have a lot to do before I hit the road. I'm only taking what fits in my car. I am sad about leaving some items behind (my piano and my bed -- I love them both), but I look forward to getting all new stuff.

I still have to drag my stuff out of Anna's crawl space and sort through it all to decide what to take and what to sell at a garage sale.

Today is also my last day at work here at OSU. My co-workers took me out for a big, fancy dinner last night at Cap City Diner. It was really nice, and the food was so yummy. I had this rosemary balsamic chicken that was to die for, and the pecan pie I had for dessert was even better! As a going away present, I recieved a rather large gift card to DSW (large in value, not in size). Those who know me at all know that shopping for shoes is one of my favorite activities. Hi, I'm Tracy, and I'm a shoe-aholic.

Good News!!

I went to Florida last week for a job interview as a Children's Librarian. I got the job! I'm really excited about it. It actually sounds way too good to be true; I'm waiting for some weird stipulation to be dropped on me. My main focus will be on the teen literature and programming (which was my specialty for my degree). I will supervise 2 assistant librarians, and the three of us will run the children's department. It's a great job, and I feel really blessed to have found it.

Of course, while I was in Florida, I visited all of my family which lives down there. (Except for Drew & Marquesas. They came down to Tampa the week before for Mother's Day.) I created another montage of the photos I took while I was down there. (I'm a montage-creating fool! It's just the best way to show all of the pictures rather than just a small selection of them.) There are a couple of funny stories that go along with the pictures. There are 2 or 3 pictures of Evan "dancing." These are the pictures that are really grainy and poor quality. I had my camera on the wrong setting, but his "dancing" was spontaneous and didn't last long, so I worked with what I had. Anyway, the very first day I was there, we went to Chili's for lunch. Val told Evan to put his shoes on, so he did. He put them on and then announced, "Now I can dance." That's when the dancing started, which was mostly spinning, jumping, and doing "handstands."

There are also some pictures of Kyle with a measuring tape. This is because my parents are getting their house ready to sell, so everyone has been doing lots of work like painting all the walls from their colorful hues my Mom likes back to boring white. There's new doors all over the place (that's why one of the door frames in the background is only half painted.) Also, there are no countertops in her kitchen. They got all new cabinets, and the countertops have to be ordered after the cabinets are installed. These pictures were taken in between the cabinet installation and the counter top installation. Anyway, Kyle decided to measure the walls. Then he moved on the measuring the people. (I measure "2".)

There are many pictures taken in the pool. We will definitely miss not having such a convenient pool when my parents move.

So here's the montage. I hope you enjoy! (Sorry for those of you who are not related to me. It probably gets a little boring.)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Meet Devyn

I finally got to meet Devyn. I came to Florida for a visit. I had my 2nd interview for a library job. While I was here, I got to meet my niece Devyn. Devyn is my older sister Jill's first baby. She is about 4 months old. I took this short video of her laughing. The hands you see and the voice you hear are those of my other sister Valarie, who was showing me how to get Devyn to laugh. I did manage to make her laugh at me, but it was not in this way. She laughed at me when I held her high up over my head and let her drip drool on my face. Hey, it's all worth it for the cute laugh!

Graduation

Yesterday was the big day. Karen, Anna, and I drove up to Kent, Ohio to go to my commencement ceremony. We had a fun trip. It was nice to just get away on even a short little road trip.

The plan was for me to go home after work, pick up Anna, and then head to the east side to get Karen. By the time we got to Karen's it was 5:30, and traffic was really bad. We decided to stop and eat dinner at Texas Rodehouse before we fought the traffic to get out of town. That was a good choice. It used an hour, and by that time traffic was not nearly so bad.

We stopped to get gas in some little town and decided to get a couple of scratch off lottery tickets. We ended up winning $11 (which paid for junk food for the hotel later).

We got the hotel around 9:00, and they had a hard time finding our reservation. When they did find it, they realized that they had given our room away to someone who had come earlier in the day with the same last name. At that point, they didn't have a room with 2 double beds left. So we ended up getting 2 rooms (one was free of charge, of course). That actually worked out well because it made getting ready in the morning a lot easier since we had two bathrooms. One of the rooms had a king sized bed, which Karen and Anna shared. I got my own room with a double bed. It was also a handicapped accessible room, which means it was a little bigger than the other rooms. Plus it had a cool shower!

We hung out at the hotel. We were hoping to go swimming a little, but the pool was closed for renovations. So we watched cable (a luxury that Anna and I don't usually have) and just talked for a while. We walked across the street to a gas station and bought some Twix ice cream bars. I had never had one before, and it was delicious! (This is what our $11 in winnings went for.)

The next morning, we got up and headed up to Kent State for graduation. How ironic is it that the very first time I set foot on campus is for my graduation? I was running a little late, and so I had Anna and Karen drop me off at the doors. I had to go register, which was just telling them you were here and getting your number that determined your order in the processional line. (My number was 100.) Then I had to go line up with my fellow library science graduates. I don't know if it's just because we are the librarians, but I have to say our department was by far the most organized. We also had the most graduates present (for Masters degrees).

The ceremony went well for the most part. They pronounced my name wrong when they called it, but that doesn't really bother me that much. Nobody tripped and fell down or anything. The speaker was kind of interesting too. It was some entrepreneur business guy who made A LOT of money during his career and has a building or two named after him on campus.

I created a montage of the pictures from the road trip, the ceremony, and on campus. We actually would have had more pictures, but the batteries in my camera died, and I didn't have a spare set with me.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Holy Freakin' Lost!!!

Okay, so I am a big fan of the TV show Lost. I have been watching it from pretty much the very beginning ever since one of my co-workers told me about it and how cool it was. I started watching at about the 3rd episode and have been hooked ever since. Last night's episode was totally... well, I'm not sure what the right word is to describe it. I was watching it with Anna, and we just kept looking at each other going "Huh?" First of all, Ben is crazy! I guess we already kind of knew that. What's with this invisible Jacob guy? Only Ben can see him, but Locke can hear him call for help? Why is Jacob calling for help? Ben was totally acting like he was so scared of Jacob, but then Jacob is the one saying "Help me!" What's up with that?

And what about that Richard guy! He never ages? He's found the Fountain of Youth or something? Why isn't he sharing it with anyone else? We know that he is a "native" of the island, but we also know that he leaves the island occasionally. (He was in Juliet's flashback. He recruited her to move to the island in the first place.)

Now poor Locke is lying, bleeding to death, in a pit of skeletons. (I say "poor Locke" loosely, as he has kind of been freaking out lately -- he ruined their biggest chance to get off the island when he blew up the submarine, after all.)


Some of my favorite parts from last night's episode:

Roger "Workman" the work man -- We first saw his skeleton in the episode where Hurley, Sawyer, and Jin find the van (along with all the beer). Turns out he's Ben's dad. Also, when they found the car, wasn't it tipped on its side, and the body was found outside the car. When Ben left his Dad, dying of asphyxiation, he was inside the car, which was sitting upright. Hmmm...

I also really liked when Juliet was finally confronted and accused of being a spy for the Others. She's a tough one to figure out. Is she bad or good? She sure does have Jack wrapped around her little finger. When she's doing good things, I tend to think she's got evil motives; but when she's doing bad things, I think, "Gee, her heart's just not in all this evildoing stuff."

I'd like to say we'll get the answers to the puzzlements raised by last night's episode soon, but I doubt it. Every episode just puzzles me a little more than I was the week before. I enjoy it, though.



Here he is. It's creepy old Ben. I liked all the references to The Wizard of Oz in last night's episode, which was even called "The Man Behind the Curtain." When it comes to Ben, there have been many references to The Wizard of Oz ever since he first appeared. Does that mean he's just going to be the poor guy behind the curtain, who is creating the illusion that he is more powerful than he really is?

Some Lyrical Fun

I was laying on my bed last night listening to my MP3 player, and I was thinking about some great lines in songs. Just for fun, I will list a few, and you can try to guess what songs they're from. Some lines are poignant, some are, well, not at all...

1. "Up the stairs, to her apartment. She is balled up on the couch. Her Mom and Dad went down to Charlotte. They're not home to find us out. And we drive. Now that I have found someone I'm feeling more alone than I ever have before." (Maybe that's too many words. Does that make it too easy?)

2. "How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember; some dance to forget." (Mom, if you read this, you will get this right away. One time you told me this was your favorite line from this song that has many good lines in it.)

3. "The problem's plain to see: too much technology. Machines to save our lives. Machines dehumanize."

4. "You've got your dumb friends. I know what they say. They tell you I'm difficult, but so are they." (This one's just for you, Val. Well, it's actually for Mikaily. Ha ha. "My friends aren't dumb. What do they say?" Do you remember that?)

Happy guessing!

A Short Update...

Okay. I feel bad that I have not been posting as much as I think I should on my blog here. There's not really anything new to report. Graduation is coming up this Saturday. I'm going with Karen and Anna up to Kent on Friday. We're getting a hotel room. (The only thing they had left was a smoking room, so we'll smell like ash trays by the time we leave.) Graduation starts at 10:00 on Saturday morning. Afterwards we're going to a reception held by the School of Library & Information Science for its grads. I'm glad Karen and Anna are willing to come with me. I hope they're not too bored. I'm the one graduating, and I think it sounds really boring. I imagine we will take many pictures, so I will post some of those next week. I promise.