My Single Mom Life

If my health doesn't kill me, my guilt will.

2009-07-03T20:22:45-07:00

All these last years of having to deal with all of my health and spine issues have been incredibly hard, not just on me, but on all 3 of us.
The teens were forced to grow up way too fast, they had to take care of me, help me, their life has not been easy dealing with this for sure.

There have been a few times now that we've had some conversations where I swear my heart is just going to explode on me over how all of this has affected them.
They are not angry with me at all, they place no blame on me for anything, but man, just knowing how this has been for them is enough to eat me alive.

Tonight was one of those nights and one of those talks.

Born in the wrong time, or in my DNA.

2009-07-03T13:18:58-07:00

Most of my regular readers know by now that I am an infomercial junkie, I usually can't sleep, and late at night is when the best infomercials are on.
I've seen the infomercial for The Midnight Special at least a half dozen times now, and each time I see it, I am just singing right along to every single piece of music, I know it all.
Being adopted, I know nothing at all about my birth parents, I was born in 1970, and The Midnight Special ran weekly from 1972 to 1981, but I'm fairly certain my parents didn't watch this show as it was on very late at night.
It aired every Friday night right after the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and it was definitely not the kind of music and comedy my parents liked or listened to.

Maybe it's somewhere in my ancestry dna or something, that my love of this kind of music comes from, this rock n' roll, funk, the mix of music that hit the stage on this show, but it was definitely not from my parents like I said.
Mom listened to the local radio which was mostly stuff like Streisand and Boone, Sinatra, stuff like that, Dad listened to classical and brass, my brother was into the whole college music scene, and my sister was mostly a Deep Purple, Led Zep, and Aerosmith fan, so where did I hear all this other music that I really feel like I grew up listening to?

Oh man, I see that infomercial and I'm like, 'me wants it' like Smeagol and the ring, I start not only singing along to the music, but secretly coveting the item, and now I wants this dvd set very badly.
If you go and look at youtube, you'll see some of the performances by some of the most legendary bands to ever set a stage, it's awesome.
I really feel like I was born just a bit too late sometimes, like if I had just been born a decade earlier, I would have been a teenager during the time that all of these incredible bands were on tour and I could have gone to see them, I would have gone to see them, and I know that I would have been up late every Friday night watching The Midnight Special.

Need to up my intake.

2009-07-03T10:39:08-07:00

It's no secret that I hate veggies, peas, carrots, spinach, all that stuff, can't stand it, makes me totally gag, but I like seriously need to do more to make my system stronger.
I think the only veggies I actually like are green beans, broccoli, and corn, and we all know that corn has no nutritional value whatsoever, so yeah, I need to increase my intake in order to stop getting so sick all of the time.
What happened this past week was definitely a major wake-up call that I need some serious immune system boosters, or I'm just going to keep on getting sick.
I take a daily multivitamin, a cal/mag/zinc supplement, and I even drink those Boost protein drinks, a 6 pack of them, every week, so basically one of those per day.
I don't eat a lot of junk, but I also don't get a lot of exercise, so yeah, it's like no wonder that when I get sick, I get like deathbed sick, and it appears to get worse every single time.
I have to find a way to increase my immunity to other people's germs and stuff.
I very rarely go out, and when I do, it's to a doctor's office or shopping, and I am super careful to wipe everything I have to touch down with an alcohol wipe first, I carry little wipes with me these days, but it's not enough anymore, I'm still catching what other people have, and getting super sick.
It' stopped being fun to be super lazy and in bed for days at a time a long time ago.

Amazingly, a lot got accomplished!

2009-07-03T02:40:18-07:00

I had finally started to feel better on Wednesday night, really late at night, but I still couldn't sleep, so while the teens were sleeping, I figured I should try and catch up on some of the household chores that I couldn't do while I was down for the count.
So I headed for the laundry basket and found it totally empty.
I opened the washer, nothing in it.
I opened the dryer, nothing in there either.
On top of the dryer, I found all of my clothes as neatly folded as 2 teenage boys can fold a woman's clothes, the dish and hand towels, and I found all of the bath towels hung up where they belong too.
Hrm.
I headed for the kitchen, I had to put the clean dish towels away anyway, and I found the dish strainer full of clean dishes, and not a single dirty dish in either side of the sink.
Double hrm.
I started looking around the house, everything was neat and tidy, things were picked up and put away, and the coffee table was dusted off, so was the tv and stand, all of the pictures, the wooden blinds, everything was just clean and I didn't do it.
While I was down and out of it, the teens did all of the housework.
They said they felt totally helpless to help me, so they decided to help me the only way that they could, to clean everything up.
That was wicked awesome of them to do.
Mark even went so far as to go around and wash all of the doors, door handles, door jams, and light switches.
I still thought this was kind of suspicious behavior though and asked what was wrong with their gaming systems, were they broke, was the internet down, what was the problem.
They insisted that nothing was wrong, they just really wanted to do something nice for me to help me out so that when I did get feeling better, I wouldn't have to do all of that stuff.
Way cool.
The only thing that I really have to take care of before trash day on Monday night is to get out my box cutter and cut down some shipping boxes that I stacked up in the other room from some packages I've received over the last few months, and then take them out to the bins.

Oh, I finally got Verizon to admit that they totally screwed up when they mapped this duplex for Fios.
Like 2 and a half years, maybe 3 years ago, verizon came through and mapped the street for Fios, when they did, they mapped this duplex as a single family home, not a duplex, so when my old neighbors wanted to get Fios, no problem, that side of the duplex is the address number that the Verizon mapper put down as the single family house number, so they were able to get Fios.

I went over many times and checked it out, i loved how fast the internet was, I didn't care about the tv or phone, but man that internet really was super fast, so I called and requested Fios.
I would give my phone number, thanks, then I would give my address, and the would tell me, "I'm very sorry, but Verizon Fios is not available in your area yet."
I would explain to them, it's a duplex, my neighbors in the other half have it, look up their address, they would, and they would tell me that it was a single family home, not a duplex, there was nothing they could do, they cannot change the map.

So just for fun every couple of months for the last few years every time I saw a Fios commercial, i would call them up and request Fios, they customer service rep would get all excited because they were gonna make a sale, and then they'd get to the address question and realize the map was bad and they couldn't sell me Fios.
Bing!
No Fios sales commission for you today!

Today, Mark and I were sitting here and the newest Fios commercial came on, the one where the Fios guy installs it in the whole building and Ted betrays the red-headed cable guy, and we were laughing about how Verizon is taking over the world, they have bought out Alltel, Chad is gonna be out of a job soon, and the poor red-headed cable guy is gonna end up going postal on the Fios guy one of these days, when just or the fun of it, i decided to call Verizon again, it's been at least 5 months since my last call, so why not.

I called and got connected to a rep named Mel who was really happy and helpful until we got to the good old what's your address question, and he said the whole "I'm sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" speech, and I told him nope, sorry Mel, it is, and not only is it, but the frigging box is actually attached to MY side of the duplex, it's on my side of the property, if you all don't believe me, I can go outside, cut all the wires, stuff the box in a box, and mail it to you.
Mel asked me for both of the addresses on the duplex, the one with Fios and mine again, he found that the other side is hooked up for it, they did have it for a year and a half before they moved, and that yup, the mapper placed this duplex down as a single family home with only one address number, not two.
So I asked Mel what could be done, can it be re-mapped?
I already knew it could be, a friend of mine actually lays the Fios line in the Tampa area, he is a mapper, he knows how easy it is to map and re-map if necessary, and he said it's as simple as typing the correct address into the computer system, waiting about 2 minutes for the system to acknowledge it, and bammo! it's re-mapped.

Mel told me that yes it could be re-mapped, it would take about a week and a half in total for them to re-map and then send a tech out here to run the lines into my house and hook up the router and computers etc, and did I want it.
So I said to Mel, "Mel, for 2 and a half years I have been calling and asking for Fios and been told repeatedly that I couldn't have it because it wasn't available in my area yet when it was actually hooked up right outside my bedroom window to my duplex neighbors because the mapper couldn't tell the difference between a duplex with 2 mailboxes, 2 address numbers painted on the house, and a single family home with 1 mailbox and 1 address number painted on the house. I have called approximately every 3 months for all of that time, been told the same thing every single time, and including that no, it can't be re-mapped, and yet I kept calling, so Mel, do you think I want Fios?"

He said,Well it sounds like you do, but it also sounds like you're kind of upset.
I said "Uh, yeah, I am upset. 2 and a half years of being lied to Mel, when I could see the box out my own window, when I knew how easy it was to re-map it, and no one at Verizon would actually check the addresses until you decided to do it today. So tell me Mel, what kind of deal can I get on the price of just Fios internet every month? I don't want the phone and tv, just the internet. The website says that just internet is $44.95 every month, but come on, you guys have been jerking me around for 2 and a half years, I think I deserve a price break, don't you Mel?"
He asked me to hold for just 1 minute.

When Mel came back on the line, he said that his supervisor agreed that due to all of the mess and confusion, all that I have been told for the last 2 and a half years, and that re-mapping this address was nowhere near as complicated as previous customer support persons had claimed and told me it was, that yes, I did indeed deserve a break on the price.
So for the entire first year, I will have Fios for exactly $5 more than what I pay for my DSL right now.
I am currently only paying $19.99 a month for DSL because Verizon had screwed up my DSL account so bad for like 8+ years, even they couldn't access it on the website, they could never figure out why I couldn't make debit or credit payments online through my bank or with my paypal debit card, and because of the whole "Sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" fiasco.
So for $24.99 a month for an entire year, I'll have lightening fast speeds, after that, it will go up to it's regular price of $44.95 per month, or I can just go back to DSL again.
I decided to take the offer for the price because come on, after playing the calling game every 3 months for 2 and a half years, there had to be a pay off ya know?
I would have been totally stupid to say no to that price, plus it will be fun to have really fast internet for a year, I know the teens will love it for the gaming.
The tech will be here in about a week and a half, he'll install a 4-port/wireless router, I can set everything up exactly the way I currently have it, or the tech can set it up for optimum speeds, whatever.
I'll let him hook it up his way, and if I don't like it, I'll just hook it up my way later on.

So that was my day Thursday.
A lot got accomplished, sure most of it the teens did, but things got done and that's all that matters.
Now for today, I am going to tackle cleaning out the microwave, cutting down those boxes, and I'll do the rugs if i am still feeling up to it.
I do feel better, but i don't want to push myself too hard or else I may just fall back down again.
I know that my strength is definitely not back up to where it needs to be at yet.
I need to eat more, get more fluids in me, and attempt to get some rest too.

Long time no see, no blog.

2009-07-01T23:23:43-07:00

Hey all, it's been about a week since I've posted anything here, sorry to have worried any of you, a few of you emailed and Twittered me to see if I was ok, thank you.
I have been extremely sick since my last post last Thursday, I have no clue what it was, but damn, it hit me hard.
It was a non-stop puke fest for me all week long, and no sleep, so it was pretty much hell.
I probably dropped about 10-15lbs though between all of the puking and not being able to keep anything down, not even any water or anything.
I was extremely dehydrated, hallucinating, and in horrible pain too thanks to the super crappy rainy weather we've been having.
Seriously, it's been like my own personal version of hell.
I was barely able to swallow and keep down enough liquids to take my pain meds, and then spent the entire week going from one piece of furniture to the next in vain attempts to get comfortable.
My bed, the couch, the floor, back to my bed, back to the couch, Sebastian's bed, back to my bed, rinse and repeat.

I thought about going to the ER a few times, but they always treat me like total crap.
I get there, they take me to triage, take my blood pressure, it's high, they then ask me if I take any meds, I list them out, and that's when they start treating me like crap, like I'm a drug seeker.
They completely ignore the reason I came in, my reason of complaint, the non-stop puke fest, and accuse me of being a drug seeker regardless of how many times I tell them I am not there for drugs, that I have drugs at home, or I even bring my pill bottles full of pain meds with me because I know how they're going to treat me by now, and they still treat me bad.
The last time I was really super sick and brought all of my pain and heart meds with me, it was clearly obvious I was not drug seeking, and the ER doc actually said to me, "It looks to me like you have a drug problem."
They ignore the reason I come in, they discharge me, and send me home.
So, I decided to just stay here and deal with whatever this was this time, and I was actually very scared a few times, really scared, i wanted to call 911 but I knew how bad they would treat me, so I just stayed home and hoped it would pass.
Luckily it did, but man, it sucked, it was really very scary too.
It sucks that I have to be alone and frightened instead of in the hospital being taken care of by professional doctors, but they do not act like professionals due to the amount of pain medicine that I am prescribed to take.
The way my head is stuck, it's a very bad thing to vomit at all, and so a non-stop puke fest for a whole week, yeah, very scary, and a few times I was unable to breathe, nothing but bile was coming up, it had like a pinkish color to it, I was terrified, but I refused to go to those doctors who I knew were going to treat me bad because of my other health conditions that I have explained to them a million times, they have my xrays, my medical records, letters from my surgeon, everything, and they still treat me that way.
It's not right and it's not fair.
I was very scared this time, I really wanted to be in a place that would help me, that could help me, but they never do, I really hate Sarasota Memorial Hospital for making me feel this way, for making me feel like I had to stay home and be afraid and alone, but that is how they have treated me the last 3 times that I have had to go there for any type of emergency.

Wind, rain, no boot.

2009-06-24T11:20:26-07:00

There really hasn't been much going on around here, just lazy summer days and nights.
Like last night, we were all just sitting around playing our video games, Mark on WoW, Sebastian on the xbox playing GH, and I was out here playing Sims3, when we heard something hit our door.
It freaked all of us out wicked bad, so Mark goes and grabs a big knife from the kitchen, and he and I cautiously try to look out the front window.
We had no idea what hit the door, if someone threw something, if that someone was still out there, so we were a bit scared.

Mark peaks out the window, doesn't see anything, so we decide to open the door carefully.
We see one of our trashcans laying in front of the door, but we also notice that the winds are wild, just blowing in all directions, and we realize that it was the wind that blew the can up against our door, not a person.
We felt totally stupid, but better safe than sorry I suppose.

Within a few minutes of putting the trash can back and closing the house back up, the winds picked up even more, the rain, thunder, and lightening started, and we even got some small hail.
The power started flickering off and on too, so I shut down my computer for the night and went to bed on the couch in case the power went out fully, I wanted to be able to get up and light the candles and stuff.

This morning when I got up, I came over and hit the power button to start my computer back up, and it wouldn't start, I wasn't even getting the power on lights, nothing.
I thought 'oh crap, we must have had a power surge last night and it fried my computer'.
I had to pee wicked bad, so I went to the bathroom and when I came back out I tried to get it started again.
Still nothing, no lights, no beeps, nothing.
I was starting to freak out, what if it's dead I thought?
That would be a wicked bad thing, I work on my computer, so I need it to work.
I reached around the back and pulled out the power cord and plugged it back in, maybe just maybe, it was loose or something.
Yup, that's all it was, thank goodness, as soon as I plugged it back in and hit the power button, the lights came on and it booted back up.
I have no idea how the power cord got loose, but somehow it did.
I'll have to keep an eye on that, check to make sure it's in nice and secure every now and then, I almost had a panic attack at the thought of my computer being dead.

A cut, a scratch, and a nip.

2009-06-22T20:38:35-07:00

Sebastian and I went and got his hair cut at the corner barber shop this afternoon, he said it was just far too hot for long hair, so off it came.
We got his ears lowered, the barber knew exactly what we meant when we asked for that.
He looks much better, although I think his hair looks awesome when it's long.
It's a beautiful blond color, shiny, smooth, wish it was my hair.
He said that it feels much better, he'll grow it out again now for a year like he always does, and then we'll cut it off again next summer.

Then we went out to Publix to get some more food, the teens are eating a lot again, and we found the mouse that Carmine the kitty loves to play with, way up high on a store shelf.
I had to buy another one because he tore the last one of these Scratch Rattle and Roll Scratcher Mice to shreds.
He clawed and chewed at it non-stop until he got the 2 hidden bags of catnip out, and then proceeded to rip all of the stuffing out.
Every time I tried to throw it out, he sat at the garbage can and meowed until I got it back out, so now he has a new 1.
He's currently curled up in a ball laying right next to it with a paw on it, like he's hugging it.
When I put the new 1 on the floor and took the old 1 away, he looked at me like 'hey! wait just a minute, that's my mouse!', but then he saw the new 1, smelled it, realized there were 2 new bags of nip stuffed inside, and immediately began licking and chewing at the sisal back to get at it.
The other cats love the mouse too, but he really loves it.
He will chew on it and lick at it, until he gets the bags of nip, rips them open, eats his fill, and then he lets the other kitties chow down on some nip too.
One the last mouse, he also chewed the tail until he ripped through the fabric, bit through the plastic ball, and got whatever was inside of that out.
I have no idea what made the tail rattle, we never found the insides, just the demolished plastic ball that held whatever it was.
I think he may have eaten the tail ball contents.

Tonight while eating dinner, we watched Nothing But the Truth.
This was a most excellent film.
Reporter Rachel Armstrong gets a tip that a woman is a CIA operative, she writes a story, the paper she works at prints it.
The government now wants to know her source.
She refuses, and normally, this would be protected, the right to not reveal her source, but due to a 1982 law, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, if Rachel does not reveal her source, she faces jail time.
She chooses not to reveal her source which sets things in motion for her and the person whose identity she revealed.
It is only at the very end of the film that we learn who her source is, and wow, I was so not expecting that.
You should definitely add this 1 to your Netflix queue, it's really good.

Ok, I'm gonna goof off and play Sims for awhile.
Later days.

No diploma, but we have pictures.

2009-06-22T11:33:57-07:00

After my MRI, we (Mindy wasn't feeling well, so her husband Chris and her son Jeff brought me. Thanks guys!) went to the satellite office for the school to pick up the diplomas like the school said to do.
They said that diplomas could be picked up between 10am and 2pm Monday through Friday.
So we get there and we find out that diplomas can now only be picked up on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7am to 11am.
Do you know much fun that's going to be?
The parents of some 900 students all trying to pick up diplomas on just 2 days in just 4 hours.
Ha ha ha! Oh man, that's going to be so much fun!
Not!
If they knew that the school was going to be closed due to construction, they should have set up the satellite office hours for more time.
4 hours is simply not enough time to do all of those students in just 2 days.
People have to work, they have schedules to keep, so standing in a long line is going to piss a lot of people off.
Good going RHS!
_________________________

I had posted about the graduation photography companies and the trouble I had not getting notified on time when they said, or being able to look at his pictures on their site because I didn't have the password they were supposed to email, and that they did not answer emails either, and Tim, one of the customer service guys, had Googled the company looking for public perception of the company, and found my blog.
He left a comment which turned into a series of emails between he and myself, and Tim really went above and beyond to rectify the situation and make me happy with their service.

Tim sent me a package of pictures, several different sizes, the different quality papers they use, and some of the nice picture folder frames they have too.
The pictures came by UPS while I was out this morning.
The pictures are really great quality even though it's the picture of him not looking at the camera.
There were 2 shots, 1 of him being handed his diploma and not looking, and the other of him by himself holding his diploma and looking.
I could have sworn I told Tim to send that one, but then again, their site was having issues the day I sent him the email responding to his offer of pictures, so maybe I sent him the wrong link to the picture that I wanted.
Not a big deal, I will order some of the correct pictures next month when I have more money, especially now that I know they are really good quality images.
Also, Bob Knight Photo and Grad Images, are now just 1 company, not 2, so parents in the future will only need to pre-register at 1 of the sites for their images.
Tim said that this graduation season was very chaotic, they had several Sarasota high school's graduations on the same day, over 3,000 students between the schools, and things ended up not going according to plan otherwise they would have definitely emailed within 24-48 hours like they said.
So even though things got really screwed up initially, Tim went above and beyond to make sure that their customers are happy with the pictures.
So thanks Tim, it's much appreciated.

Things to do today, gotta get moving.

2009-06-22T08:37:43-07:00

Leaving in about 20 minutes to go get the MRI that Doc still wants me to have done, and then off to the high school to pick up Mark's diploma.
Sebastian needs to get a haircut, too, I'm trying to talk him into going now, we could drop him off when we head out, but as usual, the 2 of them are coming up with a million excuses as to why they should wait and go do it with me instead of on their own.
I don't know why, but they get super embarrassed having to do things like haircuts and stuff like that without me going with them.

Ok, gotta finish getting ready.
Later days!

1 hour! I got an hour!

2009-06-21T18:12:21-07:00

Of sleep that is.
I had insomnia last night and then babysat my nieces for most of the day today, from 10:30am to 4pm, and I'm wiped out.
Sorta.
I took a quick 1 hour nap after we all ate lunch, I was passing out in my chair, but once I woke up, that was it, I'm back to being wide awake again.
I can't sleep again, but the teens?
They passed out right after the girls went home, that's how worn out they are from taking care of 2 little ones all day.

Susan and Skye are typical siblings, they fight over stuff, they instigate each other, they tattle on each other, and they love getting the other into trouble by instigating and then tattling.
I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but from watching how they were interacting most of the morning, I am pretty sure that Skye did something to set Susan off.
It's hot, everyone was hot and cranky, the intense heat makes you tired, (the temp was about 93 with a heat index of 110) and so Susan who gets upset easily anyway, kinds lost it for about 3 minutes.
She had a minor meltdown, and it really was minor compared to some of the others she's thrown, so I just kept trying to talk to her (she's 6) about why she was upset.
She did some screaming, threw some stuff which I made very clear to her that she is never allowed to do at my house, she shed a few tears, and then I asked her if she was done.
She said yes and we got back to playing and watching movies.
Minor.

Seeing as the teens are asleep and there's nothing at all worth watching on tv, I think I'm going to reboot and load up the Sims of Sunset Valley.
It's time to get their lives fully in gear, they are engaged, now it's time to get them married, make it all official, and then work on their careers and lifetime wishes a bit more.

Oh, gotta go pick up Mark's diploma tomorrow after my MRI.
Mindy has to get Jeff's, too, so she's taking me to my MRI, and then we'll go get their diplomas.
Later days!

Sims of Sunset Valley.

2009-06-21T04:24:47-07:00

I have wicked insomnia again, nothing new there, but I hate how it's always the worst insomnia on the nights before I have things to do.
Like today, I am babysitting my nieces all day, and here I am, going to be doing it on absolutely no sleep at all.
It's ok though, I'm kind of used to being dead tired and having to do stuff.
The girls will be fine though, I'm sure of it.
Kids always behave worse for their parents than they do for anyone else, so I'm sure they will be great for me, and then they go home and drive my sister crazy.

Seeing as how I couldn't sleep, I stayed up and did more with my Sims.
They live in Sunset Valley, so because I know that I'll be doing some Sims posts once their stories start going, I've added a new category for them.
I didn't get a whole lot done story-wise because the customization tools are just awesome.
I love how you can take any pattern and color from any piece of furniture, wallpaper, marble counter tops, whatever, and place it on a completely different item.
Your entire house can match perfectly because of this, so I have been messing around with the customization tool and making things match.
I found the most awesome re-color set from Parsimonious, it's called Gotharama, and so I took the patterns and colors of the chairs and coffee tables, and placed it on the dining chairs, the bar stools, the table and counter tops, because the down stairs is an open floor plan and I wanted it all to match.
The walls are a gray-violet color and the carpet is a gray color, and it looks amazing.
My Sims are so totally happy with their house, their mood icon, whenever they are downstairs, is at the highest it can be, and the message says "Kat and Tony love their exquisitely decorated home."
And speaking of home, I took a couple pictures of their house to show you.

The house came with that fence around it, but I'm going to remove it, I don't like it.
The house at night taken from the waterfall side of the property.

It's really quite amazing, the graphics are incredible, you can zoom all the way in and it doesn't get blurry or pixelated, it just looks fantastic.
I love this game because it gives me the chance to create, to decorate, to do interior design and I love doing that.
Sebastian used to get mad at me because I would spend hours and hours building and decorating a home, but now he understands why.
When your sims are totally happy in their surroundings, they are happy with every other part of their life too.
If the living room, for example, is flawless and beautiful, if they are in there flirting or being romantic in front of the fireplace, their happiness over the beautiful home helps them be happier in their relationship.
The good mood is contagious, they do everything else better if they are happy.

I guess I'm going to go back and play for awhile again.
My nieces are coming around 10:30, and if I try to sleep now, it will be impossible for me to wake up later.

For the Puppy Monster.

2009-06-21T00:40:33-07:00

We remember.

Rendering honors and a proposal.

2009-06-20T22:44:39-07:00

I love how fast the turn-around is with Netflix, I send movies back and get my new ones within 24 hours.
I sent back Gran Torino which was pretty good, not what I was expecting, certainly not the "OMG! This movie is so freaking awesome!" that many other people were saying, but it was decent.
I also sent back Friday the 13th the 2009 remake, and it was actually pretty decent.
Lots of killings, some good gore, and finally, Jason moves at a decent clip.
I always hated that about these kinds of movies, our victims are running for their lives, seriously hauling ass, and here's our killer, walking at a snails pace.
Jason moves quickly, strikes quickly, and has some serious brutal strength in him, which makes his kills all the better,

I sent those back on Thursday, so today, we got the next 2 in my queue.
We got and watched Taking Chance which was excellent, wow, seriously excellent.
Kevin Bacon plays Lt. Col. Mike Strobl in the movie based on the true story of his voluntary escort of a fallen marine, PFC. Chance Phelps.
The movie is about him escorting the body of a fallen marine home to be delivered to his family for the funeral.
It is probably one of the most moving films I have seen in a long time.
The absolute care and attention to detail that our armed forces go through to get the bodies home, is amazing and beautiful.
They clean the bodies and personal affects meticulously, they dress the marines in their uniforms flawlessly, and the journey home is verified every step of the way, and honors are rendered at every single stop.
It was really a beautiful and touching movie, even the teens were touched by this one.
I may not support the war, but I always support the brave men and women who so freely give of themselves to serve, to protect my rights, and I found all of the rituals and things they do to bring the soldiers home the perfect way to show respect and gratitude toward these fine and brave people.
You should definitely add Taking Chance to your Netflix queue, or rent it at your fave video store soon, you will not be disappointed in this movie at all.

I also got Nothing But the Truth, we haven't watched it yet though, but every review I read said that it was really good.
I'll watch it tomorrow night after my nieces go home, it'll give me a chance to rest up, I'm sure they are going to tire me out big time. ha ha

I'm finally able to get going working on a storyline for my Sims.
I was so overwhelmed when I went into CAS (create-a-sim) to start designing my sims, there is just so much to do in there, every bit of your sim is customizable, you can make them look exactly how you want, there are so many controls, but anyway, I was so overwhelmed and I needed to give her a name, so I just named her Kat so I could spend the next several hours designing her, her clothes, and getting a house, and designing and decorating it.
But now that the house is done, (well mostly, I keep changing things I don't like as I go) I can start working on her life.
Her lifetime wish is to be a world famous chef, so she's cooking a lot, getting new recipes, working at a diner, (she's now a skill level 7 cook, and she got promoted to prep cook, yeuss!) and coming up with ways to cook all of the fish she's catching in the pond right behind her house at the base of the waterfall.
I really need to take some pics of her house and property, it's amazing.
She wakes up every morning to the most incredible sunrises and the view of the waterfall.
She is at total peace and criminally happy at home.
It actually says things like that, "Kat is having so much fun it's criminal!" when you hover over her mood meter.

She met Tony Stark when he came into the diner to eat, (another Simmer created Tony Stark from Iron Man, and uploaded him for download on the Sims3 site. I downloaded him because he looks good. I'm better at designing female sims rather than male sims) and he needed a place to live where he could have a room and a place for his telescope and science experiments, and because Kat lives way up in the mountains far away from everyone, she let hm move in as her roommate.
Over the course of the next few weeks, he started flirting with her, and they spent a lot of time together, so the natural course of things happened, and they fell in love.
Last night after Kat got home from work and went to sleep for awhile, she got back up and came downstairs for a little midnight snack.
Right there in the living room while still in her sleepwear, Tony got down on bended knee.
You can click for bigger.

Now her life is really getting started, she's happy, she has a great job, she's in love, all I have to do is keep her from getting knocked up because EA still has not created birth control methods for your sims.
If you're not careful, you could end up having a dozen kids, so their woo-hooing will be kept to a minimum if I can help it, and I'll keep my fingers crossed she doesn't end up pregnant.
She has a life goal man, getting pregnant would totally screw that up right now.

Comcast can suck it.

2009-06-20T19:53:06-07:00

It absolutely amazes me just how many people still are not ready for the DTV switch, they've had over 2 years to get ready for it.
There's an article in Business Week magazine about the millions left behind, and the many reasons *cough excuses cough* that they did not get ready.
The elderly I can understand, a lot of them don't even know how to set the clock on a VCR, so setting up a converter box and getting the right antenna is a bit more confusing for them, and the cable companies know that so they wasted no time in convincing the elderly that they had to get cable or they would not be able to watch their shows.

But other people?
People like the Ortez family mentioned in the article?
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for them.
They are both on unemployment and receiving some help benefits, and they watch Law & Order, so I know because I'm a fan of the show myself, that the DTV commercials aired a minimum of 5 times per broadcast of the show.

They (the Ortez family) thought they needed to pay for cable to get digital service. "We are on public assistance and we really can't afford to get cable," says Ortez. "I didn't know, until I saw last week in the newspaper, that I could get one of those boxes."

Sorry Mr. Ortez, I'm not buying that excuse.
Not only did the DTV switch commercials air during L&O, but so did the converter box coupon program commercials.
That's how I learned about it.
The sign-up for the coupons began on January 1st 2008, so the Ortez family had plenty of time to sign up and get 1.
The Ortezs' are just full of excuses, or just plain stupid.

The couple was also confused by the delay in the transition. They thought the government decision to postpone meant they didn't need to take action. "We had heard that the whole thing got canceled back in January," says Ortez. "We didn't realize they were still going to do it until last week."

Sorry, but if they were still watching L&O last week as the article says, then they were still seeing the commercials multiple times during L&O, as well as during any other show they watched on any other channel for the last 2.5 years, and those commercials very clearly stated that the switch was being moved from February 2009 to June 2009.
And since when does postpone mean cancel?
It doesn't, they just have an excuse for everything regarding this switch, and they are claiming poverty as the main reason for not being prepared.
And maybe it's a good thing that the Ortez family can't watch tv right now.
They appear to be a bit addicted to the brain-jello box. emphasis mine.

Ortez says he hopes not to be without TV for long. He's trying to get his hands on a converter box so that he and his wife can start watching shows again soon. "Being that we are unemployed and at home so much it keeps us entertained and up with current events," said Ortez. "TV is such a big part of our lives. It's always been there for us. Now we can't even watch TV, it's really crazy."

I knew about it (the switch) for 2.5 years because I was watching tv and saw the commercials, I signed up for the coupon, got it, tried it with my antenna, realized that I needed a better antenna, and bought one.
I bought a Philips MANT950 Amplified HDTV Indoor/Outdoor Urban/Suburban Antenna, and it works perfectly now that the switch is in full swing.
Up until the switch happened, some channels worked better than others, I didn't have some channels for a long time, but now I have all of the missing channels and then some.
And they are telling us to keep re-scanning our converter boxes because approximately 10 new channels are supposed to be added in the coming months.
I paid $65.99 for it on sale, it's normally $75.99, and it's currently out of stock at every online retailer I've checked because people are realizing they are needing a much more powerful antenna than their old rabbit ears, but if you need 1 of these, and I highly recommend it if you have a converter box and not getting great reception, you can sign up to be notified when Buy.com gets them back in stock and puts them on sale.
I had a Terk low profile antenna before the switch, but it just wouldn't work well through the concrete walls we have here, so I had to get a new antenna.

We tried hooking it up inside the house first, but again, it just would not pull the digital signals through the concrete, so my sister hooked it up outside, and now it works perfect.
We do get some sun spot issues in the afternoon, but we had that with the analog too.
Other than that, I am really pleased with digital tv.
It's a very clear and crisp quality image, and the sound is great too.
When friends come over, they think that we have cable because of how perfect the picture and sound are.
I get approximately 35 channels with the antenna and converter box, so really, why pay an arm and a leg for Comcast cable when it's this good?
The coupon was for $40, so I paid $9.99 + tax for the converter box, and the antenna was $65.99, so I paid less than $100 in total to be able to watch digital tv on 35 + channels, instead of paying Comcast anywhere from $9.99 per month (only for the 1st 6 months then it goes to $19.99 per month) for their lowest basic cable package, which is nothing but the local broadcast channels, up to $199.99 per month for their cable, internet, and phone premier package.
I pay $20 per month for phone, and $19.99 for DSL, and I'm still paying less than any of Comcast's bundle packages.
I never have to pay anything for my tv again, just phone and internet, so paying about $80.00 up front for the box and antenna is a much better deal than getting cable, and the biggie, I don't have to deal with their super crappy customer service either.

Bill Ratliff to retire, WFLA sticks us with "Goofy" Gayle Guyardo.

2009-06-19T05:44:36-07:00

WFLA announced back in April that veteran news reporter Bill Ratliff would be retiring in June, next Friday will be his last day at WFLA channel 8 NBC.
Taking over as the only news desk reporter, will be the horribly annoying and goofy, Gayle Guyardo.
They used to have 2 reporters at the news desk every morning, Ratliff and Guyardo, but once he leaves, she will be at the desk for both the morning and noon news broadcasts by herself.
Weather reporter Jennifer Hill, and traffic reporter Alicia Roberts, will be doing both of these broadcasts with her, they will still be doing the weather and traffic, but Guyardo will be doing the news alone.
I won't be watching.

When we first moved here 12 years ago this month, channel 8 is the news station that we started watching and have been watching ever since.
For years now, I have been hoping that Gayle would be the reporter to leave when the rumors would start about a reporter leaving or being let go.
Nope, it's never her.
Back in March, they let go of sports anchor Dave Reynolds (and 52 other employees!) who was a very enjoyable sports anchor, and I don't even like sports!
In May 2008, they let go of weather reporter Mace Michaels, another reporter cut for economic reasons.
Michaels was only 9 months into a 3-year contract with WFLA when they decided to break the contract and cut him.
The station's news director was quoted as saying, "This is just about money; it's not about Mace."
At least there wasn't a non-compete clause in his contract, he was free to work for another station, and he's now doing the weather in Iowa for KGAN CBS 2.

But WFLA has this totally screwed up thinking when it comes to cutting the budget.
They know that they have to let people go in order to face these hard economic times, but they are also in a very competitive market for the morning news time slot.
There are quite a few really good morning news programs in the Tampa Bay area, so cutting the veteran news reporters, sports, and weather reporters, because they get paid more, may just be the stupidest thing they could have ever done.
The viewers like Bill Ratliff, we don't like Gayle Guyardo, and it's pretty evident from reading the few comments on the article about Ratliff retiring.
People said things like;
*Good luck Bill and thanks! I only wish it had been Gayle, Jennifer & Alicia!
*Will really miss Bill in the early a.m., doubt I will keep watching those silly women-too much fluff.
*I agree with MaryAnn from Pinellas -doubt I will keep watching those silly women PERIOD.
*Now that Bill is going, I'd like to see more of Alicia and less Gayle.
*Just to say that when you you let Bill walk out the door for last time, that's when I stop watching WFLA. the girls are to much. Gail is the one that need to go.
*I realize I don't know you personally but, geez, you will be missed. The women are too silly to put up with without you.
---------------
I cannot stand Gayle Guyardo, I really can't stand her.
At least she's somewhat more entertaining when she's 3 sheets to the wind shitfaced at the Gasparilla parade.
That's a youtube video of an audio recording of how drunk she was, live and on air.
She claims she had the flu and was on medication.
Oh sweetie, there's not a single rational human being on the planet who believes that line of bullshit.

Those comments that said the girls are silly, are correct, and Gayle is the silliest of all.
She's not a good reporter, she's always stumbling over her words, she giggles a lot during the news, she giggles during serious news stories.
She comes off as a bubbly airhead, and it's very distracting to try and pay attention to the news story when the reporter has this giant and stupid looking grin on her face, and she's laughing between every single story.
Then you put the 3 women together and oh my, it's like a group of young teenage girls having a sleepover, getting dressed in mommy's pearls, and pretending to be news reporters and then laughing at how silly they look and sound in the mirror.
It's just awful.
This morning, Gayle wasn't there, but Alicia and Jennifer kept up the silliness without her.
At the end of the broadcast, Alicia pulls out a couple of swim float tubes, and starts waving them around and in front of Bill Ratliff's face, and she and Hill are laughing like a couple of idiots.
They are always laughing, always giggling about something, and always saying some really stupid joke, it's annoying.
I watch the news to get the news, not to see a group of grown women who are supposed to deliver that news, act like teenagers and goofing off from 5-7am 5 days a week.

Yes, when Bill Ratliff is gone, I will be too.
I'll probably jump around and check out Fox 13's Good Day morning show, then ABC Action News's morning show, I'll give the Daily Buzz another try, and now that the DTV switch has gone through, I have a bunch of other station choices too, but nope, I will not be watching channel 8 WFLA anymore after Bill Ratliff leaves.
Gayle Guyardo makes me want to punch puppies.

I also wanted to say that Gayle must have some sort of ace in the hole, if you know what I mean, in order to not only keep her job, but be promoted to being the only reporter at the news desk for both the morning and noon broadcasts.
Media General has got to know that she is a terrible reporter, she fumbles her words, laughs way too much, makes inappropriate comments to her co-workers on air, and is really kind of just plain stupid.
And after what happened at Gasparilla last year, totally wasted on live television, so wasted that they had to cut to the parade way more than they usually do instead of showing Bill and Gayle in the booth because she was visibly drunk, slumping in her chair, hanging on Bill, and looking like she was going to pass out at any second.
Yes, Gasparilla is a good time, there are beer vendors everywhere along the parade route, people get drunk during the parade, but Bill and Gayle were on duty, they were working, they were being broadcast live during the entire parade, she should not have gotten drunk, heck, she should not have even had 1 single beer!

All of her bad behavior and shitty job as a reporter, makes a lot of people in the Tampa Bay area wonder who at Media General is protecting her job, and why.