Hail, hail the gang's all here!
Mood:  cool
So I know it's been a while since I've written, but I've been busy. We had orientation here on campus (woo hoo) so I was working 11 hour days. Not to mention the fact that I had my sleep study (I don't want to talk about it - let's just say I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to sleep again. But look at all the stuff I can get done with all those extra hours!) and lots of other miscellaneous extras going on. Anyway... I have tons of things to talk about. Some of them may be out-dated, but you can deal with it!

The Olympics
So I watched the opening ceremony while on the phone with Sharon. We do this often, talk on the phone and watch tv together. It's a good thing we're local, because I can't imagine what my phone bill would be otherwise. Sharon was upset with me because she hadn't made it into my blog yet, so I'm trying to make up for lost time. Sharon, Sharon, Sharon.

Anyway, we're watching the Olympics and I came to the conclusion that I am going to rot in hell for all eternity. But at least I'll have company as you can see by the following story.

I'm going to rot in hell because as we were watching the parade of nations (read: flipping channels until the US walks through) when India comes marching through. I quip "Hey, who's running the Quickie Mart?" Sharon laughs, I comment that I am going straight to hell.

Sharon reserves her own special place in the depths of Detroit when we watch China enter the arena. The commentators were commentating? commenting? commentatoring? about the flag bearer and other athletes. I commentatored, "I have serious problems with Ping Pong being considered a sport."

Sharon's response: "No, honey, that's the name of the flag bearer."

See? Burning in hell together.

Internet
The internet is really an amazing thing. It brings people together from all over the world. For example, much like David Hasselhoff, I seem to have more popularity out of this country rather than inside. I have "met" and continued to talk to several people from overseas. Natashja lives in South Africa and we've been talking the longest. We email each other practically ever day and giggle, while over 8,000 miles from each other, about Sue and Jack on STFBE.

Cheryl Jane lives in England and we've been talking for a while, also about STFBE. And my newest contact, Mateja, is from Slovenia, which is this little country in the middle of a bunch of other countries to the right of Italy. She's also an STFBE fan.

It's been really cool talking to everybody and learning about new cultures and everything. My only question is: Why do the Germans love David Hasselhoff?

Sharon.

Addiction
So I think I have a problem. I think I'm addicted to old movies. Turner Classic Movies is having a special deal this month where each day spotlights one star. I watched Katharine Hepburn day, Debbie Reynolds day, Doris Day day (hee hee), and yesterday, which was Ginger Rogers day. My problem is I stay up watching these movies way later then I should. And then I giggle really loudly all throughout these movies and then feel like a total idiot as I sit in my apartment all alone being sung to by Fred Astaire.

What's amazing is how much these actors worked! I mean, today, you do one movie, get $5 million and don't work for two years. The "golden age" actors did 2, 3, 4, even 5 movies a year! Ginger Rogers was in 5 movies in both 1934 and 1935. Can you imagine what would happen if someone went up to Julia Roberts and said, "I'm sorry, you have to do 5 movies next year." She'd smack them in the face! Ginger Rogers did 76 movies between 1929 and 1965.

Anyway, enough ranting about Rogers. Yesterday I watched Carefree, which was all about marriage, hypnosis, an old judge, and dancing. Tell me, why don't they make movies like this anymore? Then I stayed up to watch The Major and the Minor, which is this really funny story about Susan (aka Susu aka Ginger Rogers) who poses as a 12 year old to get reduced fair on a train. In her attempt to remain undiscovered (she's really in her 20s) she runs into this guy named Kirby who's a Major in the army or something. She ends up under the care of "Uncle Philip." Well, as all those stories went, Susu falls in love with Philip, and he falls in love with her, but instead of a twisted Lolita kind of thing, hilarity ensues. God, I love these movies. There was another movie on at midnight, but I was at least smart enough to tape that one and go to bed. I need help. Seriously. Anyone know of any good doctors, preferably one who will hypnotize me into marrying Fred Astaire, let me know.


Quote of the Blog
"Why don't you get out of that wet coat and into a dry martini?" ~ The Major and the Minors

Sharon.

tuck and roll, grandma, tuck and roll!
Mood:  silly
So my sister called to tell me she read my "less than flattering blog entry." She wanted to point out that she had been to the Marble Slab before and the one she went to had people with a little better concept of helping the customer. I would like to say that my sister is actually quite intelligent and even pretty wise about some things, which is actually kind of scary.

Also scary is the hurricane that will soon be hitting my sister's home. Apparently it's gone from a level 2 (duck and cover) to a level 4 (hope you have some homeowner's insurance). I saw images from Key West and it looks pretty bad.

The name of the hurricane is Charley, which is also the name of my coworkers' baby son (spelled Charlie). I am hoping that Charley will not mean that Charlie will grow up with a temperment like a hurricane. He's such a sweet little baby - and soooooooo cute! Nothing like a baby to get the hormones flowing.

Right now I'm trying to imagine my sister, her 6'4" husband, her two dogs, and three cats crammed into her one bathroom without windows. Keep in mind this bathroom is also where the keep the litter boxes. And to appease the dogs, she'll have to bring in some "babies." These are stuffed dog toys that the pups, especially Queequeg (no space, as my sister pointed out), love to play with. There is one particular baby that at one point in time was a very cute rabbit. Now it looks like the tragic result of a farm accident. The pink bunny used to have four legs, cute whiskers, two eyes, and a little nose. Bunny now has one leg that is still attached and no face. When Liz showed me the original in the store, I laughed so hard I was concerned that I would be the one needing the litter box. My sister, being the kind soul that she is, continues to sew the bunny so the dogs can tear it apart yet again.

Quote of the Blog
"Ken, my eyes are up here."
~ me

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!
Mood:  on fire
It's about a million degrees in my office right now. Okay, maybe not a million, but our little thermostat is off the scale, registering above 90. I thought I left Florida to get away from this.

Speaking of Florida, I had such a nice time! It was really hard to leave, especially after the adventures my sister and I had. They culminated on Sunday with a loooooong shopping trip to Sawgrass, which is like Arundel Mills on crack. It's supposed to be shaped like an alligator, but apparently it's one of those modern art up to interpretation alligators because I wasn't seeing it.

We got ice cream on our way out of the mall at this place called The Marble Slab, which is like Maggie Moo's if you've ever been there. You pick an ice cream and then you pick one or more "toppings" and they mix it all together on this cold marble slab (hence the name of the store). It was just before mall closing and my magna cum laude master's degree achieving sister couldn't quite figure out how to follow the directions. However, I must say our server left much to be desired and was not much help. After taking our orders and getting started on the mixing, our server decided she was done and just walked off. Liz and I looked at each other for a minute, confused, and I was seriously concerned my ice cream was going to melt before she got back. Fortunately, another girl stepped in and got us our orders. (Mine: swiss chocolate ice cream with a peanut butter cup; Liz: swiss chocolate ice cream with peanut M&Ms.) As we left, Liz imparted that I had to write about this in my blog. Hopefully she'll approve of this entry more than she did the last.

Back to the heat in my office (sorry if I'm a little scatterbrained. I suffered a head wound in the shower this morning - don't ask). The last time it was this hot in the school, I ended up praising the porcelain gods in the bathroom because I was suffering from heat exhaustion. Yeah, it's that hot. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

For all those who care, only 17 shopping days until my birthday!!!

Ken (democrat groupie cynical chain smoker Ken) says I'll stop caring about my birthday when I get older. I don't think I will. And honestly, I hope I will always enjoy my birthday. What's not to love about gifts and cake and ice cream? And did I mention the cake and ice cream?

I'd like to give another shoutout to my buddies Sal and Gary at the sleep lab. I'll be up there Monday night for sleep study number 2 (read: sleep study where I have to wear the mask and use the machine as demonstrated by Paul Bunyan in the sleep apnea video). Can't say I'm looking forward to the mask or machine, but given how tired I've been lately, I'm willing to try just about anything. Well, anything legal.

I've finished most of the updates to my site. GH quotes and STFBE quotes are up. There's a new Kerry fact posted. I've updated Hour Follows Hour, my latest STFBE fic and my other STFBE fic - Magic Rainbow - is posted in all its glory. And don't forget to post comments to my blog! Ken (pornography I'm so lazy I need to hire a cleaning lady even though I live with two other guys Ken) has been the only one commenting so far aside from John (I also am too lazy so I hired a cleaning lady even though I live with two other guys John). Let's not let them take over my blog! :)

Au revoir!

Quote of the Blog
"When you crash a chopper in the Sahara with a woman, you get to see what she's made of. Unless she doesn't survive and the vultures get her. Then you really get to see what she's made of."
~ John Jacks, General Hospital

So apparantly I'm cheaper than a motel...
Mood:  silly
I'm in Florida visiting my sister who, just minutes ago, was describing what she thought her dogs voices sounded like. Melville, she said, had a deep slow voice, kind of like Crush from Finding Nemo. "What's happening, dude?" Quee Queg, on the other hand, being female and hyper is more like a cheerleader. "I'm so happy! Let me in! Let me in!"

Needless to say, it's been a pretty entertaining vacation so far. I arrived Thursday around 10:30 pm after a fairly (thankfully) uneventful flight. Friday we lounged around the house, relaxing, and then ran some errands. These errands including taking the two aforementioned dogs for baths. We took them to this pet store that had this room with a tub like thing and blow drier and towels and the like. Let's just say it was pretty entertaining washing these two dogs. My sister views it as an experiment for me in pet ownership. I view it as my sister taking advantage of the fact she can boss her little sister around again.

We've also decided we're like a MasterCard commercial:
plane ticket to Florida: $176
gum at the airport: $1.50
spending time with your sister taking dogs through a car wash (in the car, this wasn't a secondary bathing method): priceless

There's some things money can't buy (like family) for everything else, there's MasterCard.

I've been enjoying the fact that at everything my sister says or does she qualifies it with "this better not go in your blog." What she doesn't realize is that from some severe blow to the head that I'm sure I've suffered from at some point, my short term memory is practically nil, so by this point I've forgotten most of the things she's told me not to include. Except for the talkng dogs and motel comment.

My sister is married to a guy named Michael, whom I call Mike. He's very nice but a total cornball. Case in point: the note I am looking at right now post-it-ed to her computer: "You fill my heart with happiness." Happiness is qualified by an * which leads you to the footnote reading "* also see delight, joy, love, overwhelming desire..." and I'll just stop there.

Well, I should go before she catches on to what I'm doing. More to come soon!

Laura in FLA

Quote of the Blog
"His name is Paco and he doesn't speak much English, but that's okay with me." ~ me

living la vida loca
Mood:  not sure
They don't have an emoticon for tired, so "not sure" is the best I can do.

I'd like to give a shout out to all the guys down at Mile One who have been snooping around my website. :)

Apparently I missed the memo telling me that today is opposite day. On my drive to work today I witnessed not one, but two cars who had on their right turn signals as they proceeded into the left lane of the highway. I was tempted to join in the fun and drive in front of them really slowly - opposite to my usual 10 miles over the speed limit. However, I refrained. But perhaps it's time to re-address my suggestions for people who misuse turn signals: Driving Under the Influence of Electricity.

I'm also in the process of updating my website. So, here are some of the changes:
o New STFBE fic: it's a funny one! And you don't even have to watch the show to understand it.
o You can now post comments to my blog! And please do! They are moderated, so it may take me a day or two to approve them, but I had to do it that way to prevent crazy people (like Democrat Hippie Groupie Ken) from posting inappropriate things.
o New design: at some point I'll get a new masthead up there.
o Quotes: right now, I've added some STFBE quotes and General Hospital quotes.
o Links: are all being changed to lauradugan.com from the much longer angelfire addresses.
o Facts about John Kerry: Need I say more?

Toodles,
Laura

Quote of the Blog
?I guess you could say I was inspired by our refrigerator.? ~ Lucy in Sue Thomas Deaf Bee Eye and the Case of the Magic Rainbow also known as What Was in that Steak and Pizza?