If there was ever a woman well-named, it was my friend Grace.

We met at a book club meeting when her daughter brought Grace and her husband David one Tuesday night. I know that I attended these book meeting for years before they joined us, but my most predominant memories include them there, eating potlucks with spaghetti and mashed potatoes. We laughed, we talked, we prayed, we mourned. We became family.

Grace died this past Thursday.( Read more... )

When I started writing my original fiction, I cut way back on reading. This year, the yearning returned and I've been reading reading reading.

POC authors noted with an asterisk

Books I've read this year
January:
The Thirteenth Tale
The Art of Strategy*
Fearsome Fourteen (yes, I succumbed, aeoconnor)
Nisei Daughter*

Well, I tried. It's not the POC authors, I just forget to note my books in here.

What is it about disasters that make us want to gawk?

I was once on a trip with a friend, who passed a wreck, turned around and passed it again 2 more times. I thought he was crazy, but it appears I have my own form of craziness, but it's focused on message boards and forums.

It is driving me crazy that I can't see this pile-up. It's already deleted and two people have stomped off. I have no idea what the fight was about other than an unforgivable posting. Why am I so fascinated, other than I quietly slipped away last year from this forum because the offended party offended me so badly that I hadn't returned until this week.

Gawking for my own vindication. One more way to justify wasting time on the Internet. I'm pathetic.

D'Argo has returned from his visit out to Arizona and says that the best thing he did was climb rocks at Watson Lake and that Sparky's little brother (who needs a nickname) inspired him to climb far higher than D'Argo would have alone.

Now it's fun fun fun finding a job in 15% unemployment northeastern Ohio.

D'Argo did score another $2K scholarship at his graduation, along with yet another scholarship to be determined. Those are both 1 year scholarships, but it looks very much like we might not need much of a loan for his freshman year at all. That's very good news.

D'Argo is now a high school graduate.

As class valdictorian, he was asked to give a 3-5 minute speech. It ended up 10, but everyone told us that it was the highlight of the event.

Thanks must be given to M.L., the speech coach. She was a significant influence, not only in helping him write it, but in her influence on his high school career.

Next step, Case Western Reserve University. Oh, and a trip to Arizona to see interiorstrengt and gourmetgirl46 and more importantly, their sons, the elder I refer to on this blog as Sparky.

Tomorrow, we celebrate ED's 15th birthday (Wednesday) and TEO's 13th birthday (Sunday) with a family party at my parents' house. I have not yet gotten the burger or buns, and tomorrow is also "buy all the tomato and pepper plants and get them into the garden ASAP" day. My Librarian has asked that we visit his father's grave, and ED's friend is taking her to see Night At the Museum II in the afternoon. I think they should take me, too.

Ok, new movie.

I get it. The whole ( oops, spoilers )

Bones jumped the shark, jumped back over the shark, did a 360 and jumped it a third time last night. Without a doubt, one of the worst episodes ever. I told my younger daughters they couldn't watch it at all. I really didn't want to explain that to them just yet. Brennan would make a horrible parent; Booth's response was so far out of character that I thought we should now call him Table as he clearly isn't the same person at all.

House is not a safe man to be involved with, which is why I can totally root for Cuddy/House because this show has devolved into such a rigid fantasy that I can't even consider it close to real life. Awaiting for next week with bated breath, but it looks like a cliff-hanger ending for the seasons. Screams might possibly ensue.

Lie to Me is my new addiction (I'll confess to being highly amused by Castle too, but I don't think it has the legs). I've never seen Tim Roth before, and besides knowing he was considered for Snape in the movies, I had no idea of the power he radiates. I cannot see anyone but Rickman as Snape, but Roth would have done a respectable job with the role. As it is, Lie to Me has me hooked.

Mehki Phifer is a great new addition to the show - if they'd only dump Loker, it'd be close to perfect.

Castle is cute - very Nick and Nora. I like that Beckett is given a life outside the relationship with Castle and outside her job. She's on the line, however. This week's ep implied she's a fangirl, thus making me a bit wary of where they're going with it. I take the Nick and Nora back - it's more Tracy and Hepburn. Will it get renewed? Who knows?

Numb3rs was starting to look old to me. Charlie certainly does. His promotion to head of the department seems a bit premature and the whole duality of his life professor/FBI assistant would have to be crushed by this new position. I wonder where they're going with it, but quite honestly, the most attractive part of the show is Don's new-found interest in his religion. Charlie and Amita's situation is unclear - have the writers forgotten they live together? Did I miss something?

But have you seen this father/son dance team?

(No embedding, you'll have to click.

I'm exhausted - We got home before 4, which is probably the earliest I've ever gotten home from a Pascha meal - and was up at 10. Now it's 12:22 on the day after Pascha and I'm still up, waiting on ED to finish a school project.

( Read more... )

We went up to Case Western Reserve University's open house on Saturday, and talked money with the financial aid office. With my parents' help (help that's offered to all their grandchildren), Case wins D'Argo.

Which doesn't really explain why I was doing the OSU paperwork today, but we're calling it Plan B.

Carnegie finally came through last week - D'Argo made the wait list, no mention of potential financial aid.

I spent another hour today working through scholarships and found an interest free loan. We qualify with our extremely low estimated family contribution. Once the two monster scholarship apps on my desk are done (my half is finished, D'Argo gets to do the rest) that's next up.

I started work on my first NaNo novel, Adverse Possession (2004, I believe) again this week. I've thought for years it would make a lovely Lifetime or Oxygen made-for-tv movie, but I'm going for novel, not script right now. The first thing I did was cut the first 3 chapters of the novel and about 4 characters, but I like where it started. While I have to find a new way to introduce the two male leads and justify the lead character choosing to live in an abandoned building (that had been laid out in the cut chapters) I think this has the potential for a whimsical romance.

Why have none of you told me about this show?

D'Argo was accepted to Case Western Reserve University, and has been granted a 4 year, $22,600 scholarship.We are immensely grateful. However, as CWRU is roughly $45K annually, we need some more cash.

The Elks Clubs have awarded D'Argo a handsome (one time) scholarship of $1,500.

I missed the deadline for a huge ($5K for 4 years) scholarship, which annoys me greatly.

However, D'Argo now has in his schoolbag FIVE scholarship applications that need teacher recommendations. Most of them have deadlines in the next two weeks. None of them are under $1K, and the larger 2 are both $5K. One of those is a practical shoe-in: they didn't give away all the scholarship moneys last year for lack of candidates.

Ohio State University has also accepted him and grated a $2K annual scholarship. That's roughly 1/8 of what he'll need. I suspect that we might need to drop them a line showing them that CWRU is offering a 1/2 package. Not that D'Argo is really contemplating OSU very much right now, but nothing's off the table.

Carnegie is problematic. I can't tell what they're waiting for. We've sent them the FAFSA and I can't find out what else they require and whether or not we've missed the deadline for it.

It sounds ... non-threatening, doesn't it?

Rootkits are malicious programs that install themselves on your computer and won't go away. All the usual tools don't work. Spybot, Malwarebytes - won't install, won't run. Everytime you delete the files, they come back as soon as you reboot.

It's looking very much like my only option is going to be wiping the drive.

There are irreplaceable files on this drive. Pictures, music, stories... It looks like I'm going to have to buy an external hard drive for these things and pray that I can transfer the files without the malware infection.

[angry sigh]

Today, one of our speech coaches died. Chris was a young man, a recent college grad, looking for his first professional job. He had had cancer for many years, and died this morning. May God make his memory to be eternal.

What is saddest for us is that he died the day before we are leaving for this year's state speech and debate tournament in Cincinnati. One of his sisters is going to the tournament. I hope she can manage well all the emotions of this time. I don't think this will be easy on any of us, but most especially her.

The trip to Cinci will be roughly 4 hours from home, and we'll stop at Columbus for an early lunch at Polaris Mall. That will add another hour or so to the trip, and then we have dinner at a local restaurant that I pray has trivia games. The coach has to leave me alone with the kids for a meeting before the tournament starts - 24 kids in a building full of places to hide.

All in all, it should be fun. Crazy, but fun.

The end of the speech season is quickly coming up. I'm sorry to see it end, but then, I'm probably the only person involved with the team that feels that way. It's a tired bunch of kids and coaches. We have the state tournament in two weeks, but only about a dozen students are going. I'm a chaperone/judge this time. I'll be driving to Cinci for the tournament, not riding the bus. There are limits, and having a car down there allows us (me) some freedoms I won't otherwise enjoy.

D'Argo mentioned to me that he hasn't yet had a "successful" year in speech. I pointed out he's only had two years. Did he get his black belt so quickly? No. These skills take time.

I'll miss the speech tournaments - I learn so much from the extemp speakers about domestic and international issues.

The humorous and drama interpretations have been both appalling and delightful this year. I saw a young woman do Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech during the presidential campaign and it gave me shivers that we have allowed ourselves to lose that passion for freedom. I saw a duo covering 9/11 and trembled.

I'll miss you guys - and next year, you'll all look different and I won't remember your names and all the seniors will be gone. But I'll be back, even if D'Argo goes away to school. I enjoy this all too much.

D'Argo got accepted to Ohio State University and was granted the Provost's Scholarship - $2K per year. Not bad, not bad. We're not overly excited, it's not anyone's first choice. We still haven't looked into Purdue the way I think we should, and Case and Carnegie should be responding this month.( Mother's ramblings )

Does anyone else think that economics is simply game theory as played by the marketplace?

Probably I don't know enough about either to sound intelligent.

According to my children, I'm addicted to House M.D. because I've been watching it non-stop. I found a website that lets me watch online and have been going through the seasons.

Normally, this kind of video stalking produces fanfic in my head. It's not happening. I find that curious. I should be <3 this series, pairing off my OTPs, etc. But I don't. I barely watch the show; I spend most of the episodes playing Spider Solitaire. That's weird. Fortunately, I'm close to the end of the episodes to watch, since I'm getting some carpal tunnel symptoms from playing so much solitaire.

I don't know why House interests me. I don't like Sherlock Holmes, so the mystery isn't the attraction. The formula is so rigid that you could put a flag up on it. The snappy dialog doesn't amuse me as it's less snappy than just brutal.

Bones is the other addiction de jour. My Librarian and I are watching the series via library DVDs. He likes watching tv with me, and I'll tolerate Bones and Booth. I think the UST is shoved in our faces, but I like the fact of how the relationships isn't overtly sexual flirting. I don't like LL to watch it with us - I think it's a bit gory for her, but over all, the first two seasons haven't been too bad. (I rescind this for season 4.)

The boys are back. Both of them are significantly more tan than we are, but I've always said we are the whitest white family you've ever seen. This is not meant as a racial brag but a simple fact - most of us don't tan, we burn, so we don't go out in the sun much. Every year, we have an extended family reunion in July - all of us look the same as we do midwinter.( Blather about my family )D'Argo received two important pieces of mail while he was gone.

One was a check for $500 from the local Elks Club, with a letter saying he'll be submitted for the district scholarship award.

The other was a $10,000 per year for 4 years at the local Christian college (my alma mater).

We are proud.

If the odds are that there will only be one airplane wreck at a time, then I should have been relieved when I heard about the jet ending up in the Hudson.

D'Argo and My Librarian are safely with my parents, and spent a fine afternoon at the Edison Winter Laboratory in Ft. Myers. I've spoken with each of them several times - D'Argo needed to send his test scores to OSU and I had some financial questions for My Librarian as I have managed to clear both the pr0n and the virus off the computer's hard drive by deleting everything on there and reinstalling what we wanted to keep. Quicken files, while devious little suckers, were rounded up and put into play without incident. My Librarian told me that BSG's new season starts at 10. I will refrain from calling him.

As the arctic temps here in Midwest Swing State pushed the ambient temps down below zero today, we have tucked ourselves in and consoled D'Argo that while it's not 80 in Sanibel, it's nevertheless some 80 degrees warmer than it is here. He said it was a pleasant 65 today.

The heat wave will push us back up into the 20s tomorrow and allow us to go sledding.

My Librarian and D'Argo leave for Florida tomorrow night. ( Read more... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-FxWtjkb3I

Did you see it?