Let's try this again...

Not much new in my neck of the woods. Getting really excited about the upcoming trip next week to New Orleans for the bowl game. Also highly interested in the upcoming basketball game Saturday night...Memphis v. Illinois. One of Illini's big scorers broke his jaw last night, and from reading some posts on their message board, they are quite scared/nervous/concerned as to whether or not they can win against us. How cool is that? At first I was more nervous than a long tailed cat in a rocking chair factory...now I'm fairly optimistic about it.

We are going to attempt once more this evening to put on the holiday attire and have our picture made. I didn't bother making an appointment this time...would have been a wasted effort. Michael is going to get off work an hour early so we can hopefully get there before the huge rush, which is of utmost importance when you have two small kids. Patience is NOT a virtue of any kid age 2 or younger.

I know I'm not keeping up with my daily topic list, but the more I think about it, I'm just no good at writing when I'm put on the spot. I don't know, it's good to trek down memory lane SOMEtimes, especially on days when there is just nada going on, but I would rather my blog be more about my daily occurences...just my honest opinion. But hey, that's the beauty of a blog. It can be about what you want it to be about when you want to write about it.

And this is really odd....

I have one more thing I want to blog about, but it involves someone that I know has read this in the past, and she's one of those people you really want to keep peace with because she's family...oh, what the heck...here goes:

Now for those of you who do not have kids, which a lot of my readers don't, you may have a hard time understanding why this bothers me, but it just does. First of all, Michael's family is great, for the most part. I really do love them, and I guess they accept me. But when it comes to my kids, they cross the line, plain and simple. I have been dealing with this ever since Travis was a baby. Once you have kids (if you don't have kids already) you will more than likely hear mothers/grandmothers/older sisters, etc., compare how they took care of their kids compared to how you take care of your kids. For example, I plan on and WILL keep my baby on formula until AT LEAST a year old, but someone in my family said "I had my baby on regular milk at 6 months." And it was just the whole TONE it was said in. Granted, her baby turned out just fine, but I am choosing to keep Jacob on formula. For one thing, regular milk is more difficult for a baby's stomach to digest. Although I am sure many babies have done just fine on it, many have NOT at that young of an age, otherwise pediatricians across America wouldn't have established this guideline of waiting until at least 1 year old before starting regular cow's milk. So why chance giving my baby a bad tummy ache? I'm just going to keep him on formula until he's at least a year old, and longer if I see fit. There is NOTHING wrong with it, it's MY baby, and it's MY choice. You feed your baby like you want, I'll feed my baby like I want. Then we come to the great debate about when to start table food. Solids shouldn't be started until 6 months of age, and even still, I don't think you should try to give them stuff straight off the table that adults eat that early. Believe it or not, I actually know of some mothers that started their baby on TABLE FOOD at 3 months old. WTF?? Poor baby!! Regular table food has too much fat, grease, salt, butter, you name it, for a baby's stomach to handle! NO WONDER my babies were NEVER fussy, while these parents have babies that cry, cry, cry all the dang time!! There is nothing worse than having a baby with a belly ache! I also believe you should start your baby on one vegetable at a time, for maybe 3 or 4 days in a row, to make sure they don't have an allergic reaction to that vegetable. I am sure some people think I am STARVING my baby, but trust me, he's getting bigger by the day...he is NOT starving! They raised their babies, now let me raise mine!!!!

Too scared to sleep, great Tiger fan quote, & the importance of basketball

I had the most horrifying dream last night I think I've ever had. Granted, I have really psychotic dreams that make no sense ALL THE TIME, but this one was so scary that when I woke up, I wanted to wake up Michael. In this dream, it was a pretty normal day, I was here at home with the kids. I kept noticing the sky was gradually getting darker, and the wind started picking up. Well before long, the sky was REALLY dark and there were some freaky looking clouds, and the wind was howling. I was trying to find the phone so I could call Michael, but couldn't find it. Jacob was in his room, in his bed, and Travis was running around the house, not really aware of what was going on. I was getting really nervous and the wind was blowing even harder, when all of the sudden I noticed one of the walls of the house was literally coming up off the foundation!! The weird thing is, the first thing that crossed my mind was "Michael is going to be so mad!" Just about that time, the phone rang and I found it, answered it, and it was Michael. He said "Hey, have you watched the weather on TV?" and I'm like "No, but I'm getting a really good view of it from here!" and I was about to tell him about that wall, when all of the sudden, the whole HOUSE started LEANING...it was being pryed away from the foundation! The entire house!!! I was screaming into the phone, and I couldn't get Travis to come to me so that I could protect him, and I couldn't get to Jacob. The house was leaning farther and farther...it was like the house was being picked up by one end and being lifted a little at a time. I could see all kinds of stuff flying outside the window. The wind was so loud I couldn't hear anything else. Then I woke up. Now the funny thing when I woke up was that I could still hear the wind, not as loud, but I could still hear it. I thought to myself "Hmm, maybe it's kind of windy outside." And then I realized it was Michael's SNORING!!!!! Needless to say, I had to lie there awake for a few minutes before I could go back to sleep. That dream really shook me! But then I was laughing at myself for dreaming about Michael's snoring being a tornadic wind.

Now, this is a quote I had to share. It's a couple days old, but I didn't put it in my blog...I only posted it on the C-USA message board:

"I don't care if it gets in my eyes, I just want it to look good."
~~Michael, while discussing his face paint with me for the bowl game.

Spoken like a true Tiger fan. Let's just say I have something up my sleeve to make this the best facepaint I've done yet.

Just to show you how important Tiger basketball is to us......

Michael told me the other day that one of his best friends and his family will be coming into town this weekend. They are evangelists and will be having a special service Saturday night at this church they've been to before in Memphis. So Michael told me he wanted to go and that we'd be going to this special service Saturday night. He already told his best friend that we'd more than likely be there. Well, we have a lot of various plans for this weekend, so I got dates and times confused, and then it dawned on me......the Memphis/Illinois basketball game will be on TV the same exact time we are supposed to be at that church!!! So immediately I called Michael and asked him what time both would be, not wanting to sound like "OMG, we HAVE to stay home and watch that game!" thinking Michael would get mad that I am putting this game before Michael getting to see his best friend that will be in town. Michael first words were "OH CRAP!! We have to stay home and watch the game!!" Once again, spoken like a true Tiger fan. Love ya, babe! GO TIGERS!!!

On the road again...

:::humming the familiar tune:::Oh, hi! Glad you could join me for yet another edition of my blog. Since I totally skipped out on yesterday's topic, it would be a really bad thing if I skip out on another one, especially two days in a row. So today's topic is "best/worst road trip". Now before I get into that, I just wanted to mention that in less than one week, we will be on the road to The Big Easy, The Crescent City, or insert your nickname of choice for New Orleans. Yes, the New Orleans Bowl is less than one week away. We are pretty much prepared:

Bowl tickets: $40 each ($85 total, including the handling charge)
Hotel room at the Hyatt: $69/night
Spending cash: $125 (hopefully enough to fill up our gas tank twice, eat cheap, and get back home with)

We are leaving 7 a.m. Tuesday, December 16, will probably arrive at our hotel around 1:30'ish, get checked in, get Michael all painted up and get geared up for the game, go to the pep rally outside the Superdome from 4 to 6 to congregate with fellow Tiger fans, go to the game at 6, be there 'til 9'ish, go back to the hotel (sorry, we're skipping out on the get-drunk-'til-you-pass-out down on Bourbon St.), get up the next morning and come back home, hopefully victorious. As always, I will have pictures when we get back.

But since that road trip has yet to take place, I will now tell about my best/worst trip. I have several that were quite memorable, but the one I remember to be the most eventful was the summer after my senior year of highschool, in 1998, my grandparents were planning a trip to Virginia to visit my aunt and her family, who happen to be my most favorite cousins in the world, Jonathan & Jared. Jonathan is a year younger than me, and Jared is 2 years younger than me, so we were best friends and spent all our summers together. Usually they came HERE for the summer, but this particular year, my grandparents were going to see them, and I asked them if I could go, and of course they said YES. Well, little did I know, my younger cousins, B.J. and Samantha, would be along for the ride, too. My grandparents are early risers, so they were at my house to pick me up at 6 a.m. and I had best be ready when they blew the horn in my driveway. So with one eye open, I lugged my stuff out to the car (a big silver Cadillac), crammed it all in the trunk, then opened the back door to get in, only to find B.J. & Samantha sprawled out across the back seat along with like a million beanie babies they had brought along. Great. Luckily they took the hint that I wasn't planning on making the trip as a hood ornament, so they shoved the beanie babies into a big garbage sack and I sat down in the driver's side of the car, B.J. sat in the middle, and Samantha sat on the passenger side. The sun is barely starting to rise at this hour, in case you've never seen 6 a.m., and we hit the road and headed for our destination. I had never been to Virginia before, so I had no idea how long the trip would be, so I was just along for the ride. Before we get to Nashville, I am ready to kill B.J. Now, imagine a 14-hour road trip in the back of a cadillac with an 8-year-old little boy with ADHD. Now get ready to feel like you want to jump out of the window with the car rolling down the interstate at 90+ mph. That is what I felt like. I was okay until he started digging through his backpack, I'm listening to my headphones/portable CD player, and OUCH!!! I get elbowed in the BOOB! B.J. was trying to tie his red bandana around his head and kept messing it up, so he kept trying to re-tie it, over and over again, to the point that I was in PAIN and so I snatched the bandana away from him and SAT on it so he couldn't have it. Then he kept begging me to let him have it back, to which I refused. Somehow or another he got interested in other stuff eventually. And then there were the frequent bathroom stops. B.J. must have had a bladder the size of a small bean. And who could have a roadtrip where kids are involved without the siblings (in this case, brother and sister) elbowing each other? I finally asked my grandpa to pull over so that I could sit between the two of them to keep them separated. One part I remember quite well though, one of the great parts about the trip...it was about the point where you are driving along I-40 and you cross into the Eastern time zone. There are lots of big hills (I think they are mountains, but I'm told they are big hills) and we all started singing "America the Beautiful", and it sounded GOOD. The song went so well with the scenery, it almost made me cry. Anyway, after 14 hours of a butt-numbing adventure, we were getting close. We were in the mountains of Virginia, the sun was setting, and I wrote this poem that described it. We were literally on the edge of our seats. I wish I'd had my digital camera at the time to take pictures of what I saw. We were on this dirt road, winding up this mountain, it was pretty steep, we were deep in the woods, and we finally made it to their house. Who cared that you couldn't breathe without getting a healthy inhalation of mosquitos and other unidentifiable insects? This was the great outdoors at its greatest. And my cousins LIVED here, right in the middle of it!! As soon as we unloaded everything, I made Jonathan and Jared take me out into the woods. We didn't stay out for long because it was getting dark, so we went back in the house and watched movies all night and laughed, and then I ended up having to spend the night in my whiney cousin Megan's room. She's a sweet girl, just whiney. I can't even tell you how many trips to Walmart we made. The nearest Walmart was about 30 miles away in Lynchburg, and my cousin Jonathan had just gotten his first car...not even sure what it was, other than he would say the radio in it cost $200 and the car came with it, lol. He would drive all slow past the house and as soon as we were out of eyesight, he would FLOOR it, and he would drive like this on a mountain road!!! It was quite the thrill ride. My aunt refused to let us go anywhere besides Walmart, so we got all mad at her, but we still had a blast just hanging out. We all loaded up in the car one day while we were up there and went to Appomatox (the place where Robert E. Lee surrendered in the Civil War). It was BEAUTIFUL out there. The grass, the sky, the mountains, the clouds, it was just a scene to remember. Almost creepy, too, to think that a Confederate ghost could tap on my shoulder at any moment. They also took me out on "the trail" while I was there. This was scary/fun/exciting/exhausting all at the same time. For one, they didn't tell me I'd have to climb this massive hill, nor did they tell me I'd be jumping creeks. I was crossing this one brook, I guess you could call it, and my foot slipped off a rock and I fell in. They got a kick out of it at least. Us city girls just weren't cut out for this country stuff. Anyway, when we finally had to leave to head home, I was really sad. I did get to visit them once more when they moved to North Carolina, and after that, I only saw them at my wedding, and then Jonathan was here right after Jacob was born, but other than that, I've not been able to hang out with them like we used to. And it's funny because when you are young like that, you think you will always keep in touch and always get to have fun times and make great memories, and then you grow up, have a family of your own, and realize there just isn't time for that kind of stuff anymore. We went from playing "army" as 6-year-olds to just goofing off, watching movies, and having heart-to-heart conversations about school and relationships. Who knew that we would move on and lose touch? But during that time I had with them, I thought it would always, always be like that. I guess it's a good thing, in a way, that no one ever told me that it wouldn't last forever, because if they had've, I don't think we would've had nearly as much fun.

The Christmas Spider

If you recall yesterday's entry about the spider, well, a friend that read my entry forwarded me a story entitled "The Christmas Spider". Now, while this story is rather heartwarming, I couldn't help but laugh at first, knowing there really is a such thing as a Christmas Spider. But then as I thought more about it, I realized, maybe that spider giving me a visit was truly a sign from God. I have been questioning some different aspects of my life, and just whenever I think I am slipping away from God and losing sight of what I am supposed to be doing with my life, something like this comes my way. Anyway, here's the story:

The Christmas Spider

One day, Jesus was speaking in a large room, and as He began, the people were milling about to find a good place to hear the Savior speak. In their midst was a small spider, who hearing Jesus' voice immediately knew who He was, and tried to find a place to hear Jesus speak.

However, since the spider was very small and there were so many people in the room rushing in Jesus' direction, the spider was in constant danger of being trampled and scurried frantically across the floor, dodging the peoples' feet in search of a safe haven when he noticed a tall fir tree in a corner of the room not far from where Jesus was. The spider scooted to the base of the tree where he was finally safe. But because of the crowd, the spider could neither hear or see Jesus clearly. Anxious to hear the Savior's message and to see His face, the spider decided to climb the tree.

Starting at the base, the spider spun his web and used it to climb from branch to branch carefully and exhaustingly pulling himself up until finally, he found a space at the top of the tree where he could clearly see and hear Jesus in complete safety and there he sat totally exhausted from having spun his way up the tree which was now covered in a lattice of the spider's web.

Aware of how much effort the spider had put forth to be able to pay attention to His words, Jesus looked directly at the spider and smiled broadly and warmly. So overjoyed was the spider at being recognised by Jesus that suddenly, all the spider's webbing on the tree turned into threads of spun silver, and there the spider sat in his perch until Jesus had finished speaking and left the room.

********************************************************

This legend of the Christmas spider has been passed down throughout the ages. In some Eastern European countries, small spiders are placed near the tops of people's Christmas trees as a symbol of the presence of Jesus. In fact the presence of any spider anywhere is viewed as a reminder that Jesus is with us everyhere just as spiders can be found anywhere from the corners of buildings in big cities to haylofts in barns on farms to stands of ferns in the deep woods.

The spider's webs being turned to silver are viewed as the origin of putting tinsel on our Christmas trees and serve as a reminder that when we put forth effort to find Jesus and hear His words, our efforts are ultimately rewarded far beyond the effort we put out.

I hope this story and the images behind it serve to add some new meaning to your holiday and that come the spring and summer when thoughts of Christmas are far from our minds, when you come upon a spider, you'll pause a moment, recall this story and remember that Jesus is with us not just during Christmastime but all through the year.

This does not change the fact that I am highly terrified of spiders, but it was definitely thought provoking and I thought this was definitely worth sharing. I am glad, though, that I didn't kill that spider yesterday.

Rant 'o the day

Actually, this was yesterday's rant, but I didn't get a chance to post it, so here goes.

Once you have kids, THIS will make you madder than anything. Michael and I had planned on getting Christmas pictures made of all 4 of us, and giving them to our parents, framed, as their Christmas present this year. So last week, I called the portrait studio at the Walmart in Olive Branch to make our appointment. We got our pictures made there last year, they turned out great, it was relatively painless and relatively inexpensive, and it was a hit with our parents, so now that we have an addition to the family since last year, we decided to do it again. Well, the first appointment we made, I had to cancel because I came down with the flu. So I called back last week to reschedule, and our appointment was then scheduled for last night at 6:30. We got all dressed up, the kids had on matching outfits (cordoroy pants and red & white plaid shirts). They looked adorable. So we made it on time (barely) and there were 3 other families there waiting, and another family getting their pictures made. So once the lady taking the pictures finished up with that family, we told her we were there for our 6:30 appointment, to which she replied "I'm really sorry, but we are pretty backed up, as you can see." Which yes, I could see that, but this is what REALLY gripes me. NONE of those people waiting had an appointment. Granted, they had been waiting for nearly an hour, but you know what? It's their OWN stinkin' fault for not calling ahead and making an appointment!! Had it been just me and Michael, we would have been able to wait, but with two little kids, they get bored/tired/hungry/you name it, and that is SUPPOSED to be the beauty of making an appointment. The photographer wannabe lady was going to let all those other folks go BEFORE us, and we are the ones that made the appointment. One of the families there, it was this scruffy looking redneck with some really nasty looking kids that looked like they hadn't had a bath in a month and their clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in 2 months. When we first got there, I casually asked him how long they'd been waiting, and whether or not they had an appointment, to which he replied he'd been waiting over an hour and then said "I didn't know nuthin' 'bout no appointment." WTF?? WHAT IS THE POINT of this place making appointments if they are going to let walk-ins go before you?? They either need to have a "By Appointment Only" policy, or a "Walk-In Only" policy, at least for peak seasons like Christmas!!! How hard is it? I was really starting to get steamed, and I don't take no crap, so Michael was like "Come on, let's go, we'll come back later," and I'm like "Later? The longer we put it off, the busier it will be and the longer we have to wait!" And then Michael asked me in the car after we left, "Why do girls start flipping their hair around when they get mad?" and my answer to that is "Because it seems to get the point across better, and BECAUSE WE CAN!" LOL. So there we were, all dressed up and no place to go, so we ended up going to Chili's because we were starving. So does ANYONE know where we can go get a family picture made where we can actually make a REAL APPOINTMENT and still get our pictures back before Christmas? ANY suggestions would be much appreciated. I AM SOOOO MAD!!!

Screamfest 2003

I bent down to plug in my Christmas Tree,
On the floor a frightful creature I did see.
A furry critter with legs of eight,
But I could not show this thing his fate.
Instead I gasped and lost my breath,
And then I screamed a scream of death.
So here I cringe on couch with feet off floor,
It stares at me; I stare back more.
Now I'm stuck here on this couch all day.
When it comes to spiders, I DO NOT PLAY!!!

Yes, the Christmas spider gave me a visit first thing this morning. This same spider visited me last year when I was putting out Christmas decorations, and I thought I put him to death, so maybe his ghost is visiting me this year, only a week or so late. :::SHIVERS::: This sucker is HUGE! (Maybe if I wasn't such a scaredy cat, I'd take a picture of it and put it on here.) I think it finally went behind the couch, which is an even scarier thing to think about. Maybe he's through terrorizing me until next Christmas. Anyway, I was truly expecting cops to show up at any moment after my scream I belted out, and poor Travis, he must've thought his crazy mama finally snapped. 1st Annual Screamfest 2002: This same spider visited me for the 1st time last year as I was getting out Christmas decorations, like I mentioned a second ago, and I was pregnant with Jacob at the time, so as you can imagine, I almost went into pre-term labor at the sight of the little 8-legged monster. There was a magazine in the floor, and as I was getting out Christmas decor, I was picking up stuff around the house, and bent down beside the couch to pick up this magazine and this enourmous thing with legs a mile long JUMPED up at me when I picked up the magazine he was hiding under. So I tossed the magazine back on top of him and repeatedly stomped the magazine. He didn't come out from under it, so that was a good sign, good sign indeed. After I composed myself, I began working on the Christmas decorations again. After an hour or so, and after mustering up much courage, I decided to pick up the magazine to see this little squished, curled-up legged arachnid, ONLY to find...............HE WAS GONE!!!!!!!!!! [Insert loud scream that requires ear plugs here.] So I planted my happy butt on the couch until Michael came home from work, and THAT was going to be AT LEAST another 2 HOURS. So today was 2nd Annual Screamfest 2003. I bent down by the window to plug in the Christmas Tree, and THERE he WAS, on the floor, by the baseboard. I screamed a scream that could shatter windows, I swear. I quickly proceeded to the chair, WITH both kids, and we sat there and sat there, and finally I saw the evil creature scurry across the floor, underneath the couch. :::chewing fingernails::: I just have two questions. 1) When did God make spiders with springs on their feet? and 2) Where can I get the best price on new windows?

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Unrelated to the topic below (LOL)...

My 2-year-old has figured out everything he needs to know about Christmas, lol. He will not stop saying "Ho! Ho! Ho! Christmas!" It is cracking me up, and it's just so CUTE! I had to share that right quick.

Foggy memory

One of my "blog buds" had this bright idea of us coming up with a list of topics for the week that we could blog about each day. So Friday afternoon, she wrote the topics down and this morning ever so kindly reminded me that today's topic is our "first kiss". Great. My only problem with this is that I am having trouble remembering WHO my first kiss was with. Before anyone that reads this gets their feathers in a ruffle, let me explain WHY I am experiencing alzheimers when it comes to my first kiss. See, I "went with" both guys TWICE (um, what guy did I NOT "go with" twice back then? Okay, save the jokes for later.) and I'm not sure if the kiss with each happened the 1st time we dated or the 2nd time, so that is why my memory is juggled up a bit. So maybe I should tell about each, and then my memory will be refreshed so that I can make a proper evaluation and determine who was really first. (Why didn't we have blogs back then to record this stuff in? I was just never one for hurting myself trying to handwrite everything in a diary.)

I was in Jr. High (and since I can't remember who was first, I can't remember if I was in 7th or 8th grade at this point...aggravating) and I was at a highschool football game. My boyfriend at the time was in the highschool band, and after half time, the band usually got a break during 3rd quarter to leave the stands and get something to eat/drink, hang out with friends, etc. So me and this guy were hanging out over by the concession stands and we were holding hands and all that good stuff. Well that whole time, I wanted to get up the courage to kiss him, and just COULD NOT do it!!! 3rd quarter was almost over, so he had to make it back to his seat, so we headed back that way. Right as he was about to walk back up to his seat, we were standing by the fence, just in front of the bleachers, right under where the band sits, and we hugged "bye" and then I kissed him!! Just completely out of nowhere! He had this goofy grin on his face. There wasn't much romantic about it because it was more or less a peck on the lips. But hey, I DID get the guts to do it! So that next Monday at school, this other guy that had a crush on me forever, I told him all about it and I am pretty sure it ruined his day because every time I would pass him in the hallway, he was moping. I was SO MEAN!!!

And the OTHER guy...I am seriously having trouble with this one because we went to the movies twice (summer after 7th, and some time during 8th), and our "first kiss" happened at one of those times, but I can't even remember which. Aren't I awful?? Now that I think about it, I am almost positive it was the time we went during 8th, because we had 2 other people with us, and I can remember feeling bad after the movie because I was trying to shove my tongue down the guy's throat and the other couple we were with didn't get past him putting his arm around her. I think after the movie, I kind of stumbled out of our row. And now that I think about it some more, my first kiss HAD to be the first guy I mentioned, because I never would've tried to play tonsil hockey on my FIRST kiss.

Okay, okay, now that we are all confused about my first kiss(es) or if anyone cares, let me recap.

There was the guy at the football game that was in the band. He HAD to be my first.

THEN there was this other guy I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT...he was also in the band and we ALSO had our first kiss at a football game, lol.

And THEN there was the guy at the movies. But then somehow I am thinking the guy at the movies happened BEFORE the first football game guy. GRRR...I am so ashamed. I can't clearly remember my first kiss. :::SNIFF::: I am just thinking now that I was a bad, bad girl, kissing too many guys! What is really, really bad is getting caught kissing by the principal, or even WORSE, by your parents. And yes, I had BOTH happen!

Just great, so now I'm even MORE confused than when I started. There are 3 guys to sit here and ponder upon who I actually kissed first. And that's sad, considering I have only kissed a grand total of 5 guys in my lifetime, one of which I am married to now. Is 5 too many? Or a drop in the bucket?

Something to blog about

Wow, it's been over 24 hours since I blogged last. No, I'm not dead, although I'm still not feeling that great. Still coughing up lungs and such. And my AC adapter power cord thingymabobber BROKE last night. Yes, it gave up the ghost. It's history. So I took all of its mangled pieces to Best Buy (where I bought the thing back in August) in a Walmart sack, and the person at the Return/Exchange desk said I'd have to go through the manufacturer to get another one. I figured that's what they'd tell me though, so I managed to keep my cool. But just wait 'til you see the picture of this thing (I'll take a picture of it and get it on here later.) It looks like it was fried or chewed or something. It was really frustrating though, and seems like such a waste, because the one I bought back in August of this year cost $110, and now I am having to go buy another one. Needless to say, I got a new one, otherwise I wouldn't be on here blogging, because once the battery power has run out, a $1,400 laptop is useless as a hubcap to a 1982 Pinto. (Actually, the hubcap is probably more useful than a laptop with no power source.) They gave me the phone number where I can contact the manufacturer, so I will call them tomorrow and explain that I had to purchase another one and see if they will reimburse me.

On the way home, you wouldn't believe what I saw while driving down Winchester. In this parking lot, I saw a reindeer and a camel...the heck? Yes, I had to do a doubletake because I wasn't sure if I was at the North Pole or in the Sahara.

Okay, enough of that nonsense, now onto more IMPORTANT things. The Ole Miss/Memphis game was a blast last night. The final score was 73-62, and after the quality game that Memphis played, I'm not AS worried about the Illinois game. Illinois is like #5 in the nation, I believe, and even still, I think we can at least give them a run for their money. The great thing about Memphis is we don't have just one or two "star" players. Every player on that team is a quality player and can come up behind another and take their place on a moment's notice...any of them could be starters. We started out at Row 29 (the seats are tickets were for) and there were only a total of 4,000-something people there, half of them were Memphis fans, and we ended up moving all the way down to Row 8. We even got on ESPN...it was a blast! The only bad thing about away games is we don't bring our band with us. Ole Miss' band SUCKED, especially their drummer...I could have drummed circles around him. Not bragging about myself or anything...that guy was just THAT BAD!! Memphis fans were louder than Ole Miss fans, too. And I was amazed at the number of Memphis fans that stuck around for the post game show. OHH, and sitting with the Tigers down on the floor, was none other than Mike Miller, one of the players for the Memphis Grizzlies! We were able to get his attention and he looked up and smiled and waved at us, and then after the game, Michael got his autograph and I got a couple pictures of him. The only bad thing is, I took a lot of good pictures yesterday, and I don't know if my flash on my camera went on strike or if it was the bad lighting in the Tad Pad, or a combination of both, most the pictures I took are too dark. Oh well, at least I can look at them and decipher who is who. And I have my memories. :::SNIFF::: Anyway, road games are a blast because there's just something cool about pouncing on someone else's territory. And then winning the game. And yes, Brian, I FINALLY broke the curse...I finally witnessed a road game win!! GO TIGERS!!!