And now the song is mine, thanks!

Tough call, beth. On the one hand, you're on a roll, maybe you should keep your momentum going. On the other, you certainly deserve to sit down and watch some tv.

Happy Birthday, MiracleMan!

beth, good advice on organizing! Thanks.

Board games - anyone ever play Eurorails? That was my favorite.

In today's shopping news, I found a lovely pair of brown boots. As I was trying them on, wondering if the heels were too high, a gentleman wandered by, nodded at my feet, and said, "Now those look good!" and went on by. Of course I bought them.

at the end of the day - the loose paper will be off the floor in the office. I have boxes to go through - but they can be carried and done in the front of the tv, so I consider this a major step.

Wow, it's been a while since I've been in Bitches. How y'all be? Other than sexy, I mean. And having of cute babies.

My favorite board game is Scrabble. By far. I just bought a new phone, and strongly considered switching from the Treo line for a Blackberry, but held out with the Palm for two things: Vindigo, and, more importantly, the Palm version of Scrabble, with the full dictionary! (though it is, unfortunately, outdated as of April and does not include, among others, "Qi" or "Za." The addition of which has made getting rid of those letters MUCH easier in tournament play.)

I also quite like Risk and Go. And like reading the cards in Trivial Pursuit, though the game itself is a bit meh. There are also a multitude of strategical games that I like to play with my brother, but never play except on vacation, like Blokus.

My one true facespace game is bridge, though.

The last few of weeks have been very up-and-down for me. The last week of school was... well, we didn't want to be there. Then, there was vacation. The time since then has looked like this:

• Fly ALL DAY Saturday on 4 hours sleep.
• Drive ALL DAY Sunday to Southern Louisiana to Grandparents'.
• Spend ALL DAY Monday chatting with family (okay, this was actually nice) in Louisiana
• Find out Tuesday that maternal grandmother (who was VERY ill already, and basically unable to recognize us or move) is in hospital and not expected to last long. Cancel plans to visit other grandparents with mom, who stays. Instead, drive 4 hours with dad and siblings to visit paternal grands, while we (basically) wait for grandmother's expected passing.
• On Wednesday, drive back to maternal grandparents' area, as passing looks very imminent. Spend afternoon/evening sitting bored in hotel room, waiting to hear anything.
• Drive ALL DAY on Thursday, back home, as grandmother is doing better, if not well, and Daddy needs to work on Friday. Mom stays with her father.
• See a friend and eat fried catfish (a high point!)
• On Friday, do nothing (a high point!) and throw a party (another high point!)
• On Saturday, do nothing (a high point!) and see best friend (yay!)
• Fly out Sunday morning at 6 a.m. (a low point). Arrive back at NY in the middle of the afternoon, with 1.5 full days to be productive! Get to apartment... and have no power. For days, clearly. The smell... it is bad.
• Clean out fridge. Die of smell. Take out garbage. Forget key. Oops.
• Neighbor lets me in. Smell has drifted all the way downstairs, despite wide-open windows. Go find out that circuit breaker in basement has tripped. Fix it. Have power, but still smell.
• Call mommy to tell her fascinating story of terrible grossness. Call approximately 3 minutes after grandmother passes away. All levity... gone.
• Go to store and buy 8 boxes of baking soda, various charcoal odor remover things, lysol, air freshener, lighter to light candles.
• After using all of the above, buy ticket to go back to Louisiana the next day. Call work, say I'm missing the first two days of school.
• Spend afternoon trying to create lesson plans. Can't think for smell and sad. Play video games instead.
• New Years Eve party. See people I haven't seen since graduation! Major high point! Get home at 3:35 a.m. Get in taxi for airport at 5:35 a.m.
• Fly to Louisiana. Asleep. Aunt and cousin pick me up, drive me 2 hours to viewing. Try to keep my 10-year-old cousin from being too hyper for 4 hours. High AND Low point - he's cute, but annoying, and makes it hard to grieve.
• Lesson plan for hours, send lesson to guy covering my class. Sleep.
• Tuesday morning funeral. Meet family I've never met. Again, high ANd low point. Gorgeous day graveside.
• Lunch at the church. Food good, company nice, generally a good thing.
• Drive to city airport is in with dad/brother/sister. Eat delicious seafood with uncle/aunt/cousin that live there. High point!
• Lesson plan like mad. See above.
• Fly back to New York Wednesday morning.
• Can't think. See "Pan's Labyrinth" instead. MAJOR high point. Movie (continued...)

( continues...) = good.

• Back to school on Thursday. Good day. High point.
• Back to school on Friday. TERRIBLE day. Major low point. Also, getting sick.
• Yesterday: still teaching, Saturday school. Low point, as still sick and it's Saturday. Then spend rest of day feeling bad.
• Pizza at John's Pizzeria with friends. High point! But home to bed immediately after.
• Today: Much much grading. Still sick. Blah. Don't have a voice - how am I going to teach tomorrow? No idea.

So, yeah. Overall, a bad two weeks. But enough high points that it isn't absolutely terrible, I guess. Sorry I haven't been checking in - I should be back now. Also sorry this post is so long.

Hugs to Gris. What a hellish couple of weeks.

In cheery news, Amazon.com just recommended me this book. How did it know that a children's book about penguins would make me smile??

Oh, poor poor Gris. I'm so sorry for your loss, and for everything.

I think children's books about penguins make everything smile. Including inanimate objects.

In cheery news, Amazon.com just recommended me this book. How did it know that a children's book about penguins would make me smile??

It's in UR howse reedin UR books.

I'm so sorry for your loss, and for everything.

Thanks. I'm actually feeling quite cheerful, in spite of all. The penguin book helped, and so did just writing all that out.

My grandmother has been an invalid for about 8 years now, and the visit on Christmas was terribly sad. She hadn't moved from bed in 2 months, and only recognized us very briefly before going glassy-eyed. She clearly was ready to go. Her passing is sad, as such always is, but it was time. And now, my grandfather, who has 20/20 vision and perfect hearing, and is generally in excellent health, will be able to leave the house again. He can go to church again, which is wonderful, especially as he was on the board for nearly 40 years.