I can draw, but everything I draw comes out looking the same, to me. (Like, I can't copy anybody else's style, not a bird looks like a bicycle.)

I realized this when I looked back at an art book my 7th grade had done, and realized without remembering it that I had allowed two students to claim my drawings as theirs. I just recognized my own work, even 15 years later.

What IS 4-H? I vaguely have the impression that it is rabbit-breeding and making jam -- is it a farm-club thing?

What IS 4-H? I vaguely have the impression that it is rabbit-breeding and making jam -- is it a farm-club thing?

Pretty much.

urban 4H clubs are just sad

Hee! Suburban ones aren't much better, even when they're close enough to farmland to have a few members with livestock to show. My sister got a sewing project chosen as first alternate to State Fair, and I got an electrical project sent to State Fair, but I don't really count that as mine, since my dad did about 60% of the work involved (when the judges questioned me on technique in Springfield, I was really thrown for a loop and lucky to get a red 2nd-place ribbon there).

Still, 4-H was more fun than Brownies for me (Kris and I stayed in the club for about 10 years).

Dude, the church I grew up in does this to CHRISTMAS CAROLS. No Lord, no "him" when referring to Jesus.

They also did it to the communion song, which was "From a Distance." Yes, by Bette Midler.

I can ride a bike and jumprope. I could never cartwheel. As a kid I was a pretty good hitter but a lousy fielder. I did a lot of ice skating as a kid. Seven years of piano lessons; two years of voice lessons. I sometimes think about getting some kind of keyboard to see if I can still play. I have a pleasant voice and I'm useful in a choir. I sing all the time around the house, but that's about it. I started refinishing furniture when I was about 11, because my dad did it. My mother still has some really ugly Christmas ornaments I made with styrofoam balls and glitter. I can't dance.

They also did it to the communion song, which was "From a Distance." Yes, by Bette Midler.

OK, that's kind of awesome.

I'm just still bitter about "O Come In Adoration."

Work has gone absolutely CRAXY. I don't think I've ever had this much work sitting on my desk before, and that's saying something. The new database system we're using belongs on Office Space.

WTF? WTFF? 2006, I thought you were gonna be good to me?

We also had Future Farmers of America in our high school.

I never belonged to any such group. No scouting, either. I was a loner.

Plei, did you get the dvds I sent you? I realized that I had not yet YSId the final episode.

D'oh! Yes. Then in the rush of holidays and colds, I forgot to mention it.

Also, the thing from msbelle arrived.

(I have a todo stack of thank you cards in the living room, yes.)

I was a suburban brownie scout. I kicked ass at cookie-selling by giving my father a copy of the order form and letting him pass it around at his law firm.