My throat hurths & my thinuthes are thtuft up ... I think I hab a cold!

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I did something today that I very rarely ever do and that was to call out sick from work. For the past couple of days I had been feeling somewhat lousy and attributed that to my fall allergies as I was experiencing itchy & watery eyes, post-nasal drip back of the throat crud, and frequent sneezing. Seemed like my standard operating procedure for autumn in New England but yesterday afternoon, shortly after I had gotten home from work, I started to feel like I had been run down by a very large truck complete with all the truck accessories any man could ever want!

By the time I went to bed last night I was feeling pretty much like Death eating a cracker ...

... and had my doubts whether work was going to be a viable option in the morning or not. After struggling to breath through first one nostril and then the other I was finally able to fall asleep around 12:30 though it seemed like I woke up every half hour or so gasping for air with a throat drier than the Sahara Desert!

We have what's called a point system where I work that is designed to keep people from calling out needlessly and whenever I entertain the idea of calling out sick (which, trust me, is not very often at all) I have to weigh the options of a) how much is this going to cost me in points and b) how much is this going to cost me in my paycheck? We only get three days a year to be used as sick time or PTO (personal time off) so you have to be very careful about how you choose to use them. If you call out with less than two hours ahead of your shift, you lose more points plus you can't request sick or PTO time so in my case I knew that if I was going to call out, it had to be before 5:00 a.m.

At 4:00 a.m. I woke up yet again and then proceeded to lie there for another 50 minutes debating the pros and cons of calling out before I finally picked up the phone at 4:50 and told the on-duty supervisor that basically I couldn't breath and wasn't coming in for my shift. I didn't request sick time as I've got an extra shift later on this week that should make up for missing today. Still, I feel guilty, guilty, guilty when I call out because it's not like there are that many other dispatchers that can take my place. There are only seven of us with a few part-timers thrown in here or there and sometimes it's not easy to get someone else in. Well, most times it's not easy to get someone in!

Anyone who has ever worked in a dispatch center or somewhere similar, though, knows that when one person is sick eventually the whole room is probably going to be sick. Matter of fact, I think I picked up my cold from a fellow dispatcher who was feeling like Death eating a cracker himself last week. We like to share things in dispatch and that especially includes germs and viruses! I figured that it would behoove everyone else I work with if I kept my germs home today rather than sniff, sneeze, and cough all over the console. No doubt they all appreciate my financial sacrifice to keep them healthy! Yeah, right ...

Anyhow, I stayed in bed until 10:30 having some of the strangest dreams ever before I finally wandered downstairs to pop some cold pills and curl up on the couch with my laptop. That was over two hours ago and I still feel weird, for lack of a better word. If I leave any strange comments on people's blogs today, please forgive me and chalk it up to my cold and the stuff I'm taking to try to combat it! Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go make some tea and see if I can soothe this sore throat of mine a bit! I sure hope everyone else in the Blogosphere is feeling better!

The State of the House Address

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I used to be such a neat person. I have used to have such a clean house. I used to never have clutter all over the place. I used to be able to easily find things. I used to live alone!

I seem to have totally lost control of my living space and, the sad thing is, I just don't seem to have the time, ambition, or inclination to do much of anything about it lately. The clutter around here is like some strange fungus that, the more I clean it, the more prolific it becomes. For every square foot that I manage to clean up, there are two more that become covered in cut pieces of felt, drawing pens, books, CDs, discarded clothing, dirty glasses & dishes, shoes, cast-aside works of art that just weren't going 'right', and other assorted teenage paraphernalia. I am most definitely fighting a losing battle and I'm just not so sure I am up to marshaling the troops anymore and continuing the battle!

Case in point, we have two office desks; one that was downstairs in the dining room and one that was upstairs in the third bedroom that I had been using as a computer room before Jamie came back for the summer and it became her bedroom. Amanda decided that she would rather have the small bedroom (the former computer room) after Jamie left because it's painted purple and that's one of her favorite colors.

It being a smaller space I thought it might not be a bad idea as maybe, just maybe, she'd keep it a little neater than she had before. In order to move her into that room, though, I had to move the desk that was in there so I decided to move it downstairs to the dining room and replace the desk that was already there. The desk in the bedroom was an actual computer desk while the one holding the computer in the dining room was more of a student desk, for lack of a better word, and it wasn't doing a very good job holding the computer (though Amanda had managed to pack-rat more crap into it then I ever thought was imaginable!).

On a Saturday over a month ago I brought the computer desk downstairs and swapped out the one in the dining room but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with that one. I ended up putting it in the kitchen (which is a fairly large room) more or less parallel to one of the other counters and before I knew it - like iron filings to a magnet - the surface had become covered with mail, newspapers, books, and Lord knows what else! And there it still sits.

In a past life that desk never would have sat there for several days, never mind several weeks (well, closer to a month at this point!). It would have either found its way to its new place in the house or it would have found its way to a new home somewhere else. But there it sits, a constant reminder of my lackadaisical attitude towards the state of my house every time I walk into the kitchen. I have friends who wouldn't believe this ... heck, I don't believe it and I'm the one living here!

So ... anybody have any ambition they want to sell? I could really use some. Better yet, does anyone need a desk??

ICE'ing Your Cell Phone

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I got an email today from a former co-worker that I hadn't heard from in ages. Every great once in awhile, though, a message will pop up from Dave letting me know that he's still alive and kicking at his new job (well, it's not new per say, he left for it years ago!). Generally the email is something that has been forwarded along and the vast majority of them I'll read and them hit the 'delete' key but ones that I feel are important or particularly funny I'll forward along.

Today's email from Dave was about the "ICE" campaign and I thought it was worth passing along. I actually programmed this into my cell phone quite some time ago and even though it's never been used (thank goodness!) I think it's a good thing for everyone to have. Please take a moment to read the following then grab your cell phone and program in your own "ICE". Someday you may be glad you did!

"We all carry our mobile phones with names and numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know whom to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?

Hence the "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) campaign. The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergencies. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" (In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE". For more than one contact name, simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. This is a great idea that will make a difference!

Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!"

Manic Monday - Crisp

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It's Monday again and that means it's time for another Manic Monday Meme hosted by the marvelously magnificent Mo from It's a Blog Eat Blog World. Mo has decreed this week's theme to be "crisp" and I'm sure that's in keeping with the advent of the fall season and that certain crispness in the air that arrives right along with all things autumnal.

As soon as I saw the topic for this week, my mind immediately went to one of my most favorite crisp things ever - apple crisp! Nothing says autumn like a warm bowl of apple crisp with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side! Maybe it's a New England thing but no matter where I have lived (and I've lived in a lot of places!) as soon as the weather has turned cooler, the days have become shorter, the nights have become longer, the air holds a certain crispness, and apples hang from their branches just begging to be picked my mouth starts watering for some homemade apple crisp.

For this week's post I thought I would share one of my very favorite recipes for apple crisp that is so easy even a no-talent hack in the kitchen like myself can make it! Give it a try and I'm sure you'll like it, too!

Apple Crisp

• 4 cups peeled and sliced apples (any kind but I prefer Cortlands myself)
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cut-up butter
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9-inch glass pie plate. Arrange apples in pie plate, mounding in center. Pour orange juice over apples .
• In bowl combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle over apples.
• Bake 45 to 55 minutes until topping is brown and apples are tender.
• Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Now doesn't that just make your mouth water? I would say it's even better than cake! Miss Bee might not say that but I would! Have a fantastic Manic Monday and don't forget to visit the other participants!

Making Music & Friends

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Despite the fact that I hadn't had the chance to pick up a RedOctane guitar-shaped controller and attempt to play a video game that is probably designed for people 30 years younger than myself in quite some time, it was nice to see that I hadn't reverted to being so bad that I got boo'd off the stage by the virtual audiences of Guitar Hero II.

I was fully expecting to hang my head in shame while I missed note after note and feebly tried to explain that at one point I really had beat the game in career mode - at least on the 'easy' level - but thankfully I not only remembered how to play but even managed to play a couple of songs on 'medium' without doing half bad. Not too shabby for an ailing dispatcher who could probably have made good use of some form of osteoarthritis relief for my left hand by the time I finished playing!

Amanda and I had a wonderful time visiting with Jason and Amy last night and in the course of the evening I think Amanda managed to make herself a new friend in the form of their daughter, Katie. The girls had met previously when we all went to the Projeckt Revolution concert together back in August but due to the circumstances they hadn't really had a chance to talk while we were at the concert. Amanda was too busy meeting some of the members of Mindless Self Indulgence and glomping me in her excitement while Katie was having a case of the nerves about going backstage to meet the members of Linkin Park. Under circumstances like that, it's no wonder they didn't have a lot of time to sit down and talk!

As soon as we got to Jason and Amy's home, Amanda couldn't wait to get her hands on the X-plorer Controller for the Xbox 360 and try out her prowess on several My Chemical Romance songs that Jason had downloaded. One of the cool things about the XBox versus the Playstation is that you can download additional songs from the internet that aren't available on the Playstation version so there were songs that Amanda had never had the chance to play. Show-off that she is she managed to fly through Dead!, Teenagers, and Famous Last Words on 'hard' while having to slow down to 'medium' for her first time through How I Disappear. In the meantime, Katie stayed in the corner of the couch and declared that she had never played, had no desire to play, and preferred to just watch and criticize her Dad while he played (truth be told, she sounds like a kid after my own heart!). Eventually though she decided to give it a go and after suffering through the tutorial she jumped right in and did quite well with her first couple of songs.

As a way of saying thank you for taking us to Projekt Revolution, I had picked up a second guitar controller to give to Jason and Amy as I knew from previous experience playing on Dan's PS2 that playing with a second person could be a lot of fun. After the girls had done a couple of songs, the adults took over the game taking turns playing in 'cooperative' mode. Amanda and Katie recessed to her room where they apparently talked about all things MSI and other things that they found they had in common including anime. The evening flew by quite quickly and before we left the girls were talking about getting together again. Amanda is hoping that Katie can come over at some point and she'll show her how to make a plushie doll amongst other things.

I've got to say that I am thrilled that Amanda has met someone her age who seems to share a lot of the same interests that she has as, frankly, I've been a bit worried that most of her friendships these days seem to be in the form of one electronic media or another. Since becoming a "couple" Dan and Nicole have virtually disappeared and Amanda very rarely even talks to either of them on the phone or via instant-message anymore. I had the rotten feeling that was going to happen when Dan and Nicole decided they liked each other as "more than friends" but I wish I had been wrong on that one. Sadly, I wasn't.

Katie lives with her mother out of town during the week but spends every weekend here so maybe the girls will be able to develop a good friendship. I can only think that it would be really good for Amanda and Amy thinks it would be good for Katie to have a friend in the area, too, as not going to school around here she doesn't know anyone else her own age. I'm definitely going to keep my fingers crossed on that one and hope that before we know it, both girls are blowing through every song on Guitar Hero II at the 'expert' level and showing us adults how it's really done!

The Return of "Mom"

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It's been awhile since I've had the chance to put down any tunes or work on my awesome guitar prowess with Guitar Hero II being that Dan took his PS2 home sometime in August (the nerve of the kid!) but tonight I'm going to get the chance to rock on again when Amanda and I go over to a friend's house to play the XBox 360 version.

I have a sneaky feeling I am going to be totally out of practice and will have reverted to my "oh wow, I really suck at this!" stage that will no doubt have the 'audience' booing me off the stage in no time flat but I'm really looking forward to it. Even if I play worse than William Hung sings, it's a night out with friends so what's not to look forward to?

Amanda is, of course, excited about the chance to try to play some My Chemical Romance tunes that aren't available on the PS2 version of the game. The only time she ever got to try an MCR tune on the XBox 360 version was over at her brother Mike's house this past summer. It was a short-lived moment of glory but she really loved trying to keep up with "Dead!" and made a valiant effort at the "hard" level. I'm sure she'll pick it right back up again, kids always do. As for me, well, it might not be as hot as the new Hannah Montana tour that everyone is talking about but tonight my band "Mom" will rock again!

Come on back later and I'll let you know how it goes! There might even be pictures if you're lucky!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - "Plastic"

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This week's Photo Hunt (hosted by TNChick) theme is plastic and initially I was pretty flummoxed on what to use for a picture. I was pretty sure there weren't any pictures of plastic in my files and I couldn't think of much around the house that was worth taking a picture of.

Then it dawned on me that perhaps I could use the picture of Amanda's broken cell phone that she had taken a couple of weeks ago because they part that was broken was made of plastic. Perfect!

How - you might ask - did her phone end up in this sorry state of disrepair? Well, let's put it this way ... when you glomp your mother at a concert and land on your phone in addition to your mother in a pile on the hard ground, this is what happens!

Happy Photo Hunting and have a fantastic weekend!

Note: For those NOT familiar with the term, Glomping is a form of greeting used mainly among Anime fans. A typical "glomp" involves bear hugging someone, tackling them, and latching on tightly, though not enough to intentionally hurt the recipient. Perhaps I should add that it's not a good idea to have your cell phone in your pocket when you land on top of the person you have glomped! This phone eventually broke in half completely, despite the best efforts of duct tape, and Amanda now has a new phone that she likes much, much better. I, on the other hand, am still stuck with my old LG phone as we used my upgrade to get her a new one!

Rainy Day Reflections

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As a 911 emergency medical dispatcher, my job is pretty varied and different most of the time as far as emergencies go - everything from difficulty breathing to chest pain to falls to not being able to get out of bed at all. Anytime 911 rings I have no idea what I'm going to hear when I answer it. I guess it makes my job interesting for the most part.

However, my job isn't just 911 emergency calls, as a commercial ambulance dispatcher a lot of my job involves what we call "routine transfers" also. These are the calls that are scheduled ahead of time and they can be trips from a skilled nursing facility to a doctor's office or hospital for an appointment, transfers from one hospital to another for a higher level of care, transfers to psych facilities and drug rehabs, transfers from a private home to a skilled nursing facility, trips to dialysis from either private homes or nursing homes, etc., etc. Prior to working at my current job I had no clue that there were so many people going to so many appointments that required either an ambulance or wheelchair van for transportation. It really was an eye-opener as to the state of people's health in this country.

It's actually rather sad that we have regular patients that we transport just about every single day to one appointment or another and most days as I look at the spreadsheet in front of me and see the same names that I saw the day before and the day before that and even the day before that, I can't help but hope that my life doesn't turn out the same way. Everyone always talks about how wonderful it is to reach retirement age and finally be able to enjoy life but there are a lot more people out there who aren't enjoying their retirement age than one might believe.

I'm sure that the people we transport regularly never thought their lives were going to end up that way either but it just goes to show that with life you just never know what turn it's going to take. Just some sobering thoughts for a rainy Saturday ...

Bearing the Shorter Days of Winter

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One of the biggest drawbacks to summer finally coming to an end and fall waiting in the wings to let loose with its glorious colors, smells, and tastes is that we are losing precious minutes of daylight on a regular basis. Not being one to be outside all that much, especially in the fall when my major allergy nemesis {{cue ominous music}} the dreaded ragweed is in full bloom, I don't mind it being dark earlier in the evenings too much but if there is one thing I hate, it's having to go to work in the mornings when it's still dark outside!

I'm not a morning person anyway as many previous posts will attest and, no matter what I do, I just can't get my mind to wrap around the fact that I need to get out of bed in the mornings regardless of whether it's light or dark outside. Nope - if it's dark out then I am wholly convinced that bed is the place to be. If the sun isn't up, why on earth should I be up? Doesn't seem quite fair, now does it? I swear, I would have made the world's worst farmer - ever!

Maybe it's because we're mammals that, as winter approaches with its shorter days and longer nights, I have an increased desire to take up hibernation and simply sleep it out until that pesky little Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of his celebrated ground hog's hole and declares spring to be close by.

Now that I think about it, hibernating away the winter might not be a bad idea! Imagine the money that could be saved on heating costs, electric bills for both indoor and outdoor lighting, grocery bills, money spent on entertainment in order to not go stir crazy for the entire winter, doctor's bills for when I throw my back out shoveling, and the cost of celebrating the holidays. Why, if I slept right through it, I wouldn't have to worry about writing out and mailing Christmas cards, eating way too many Christmas cookies, or trying to find the perfect gift! Rather than get caught-up in the Christmas crush I could simply have visions of sugarplums dancing through my head throughout my winter hibernation.

After a long winter's nap I could wake up relaxed, refreshed, and ready to start the year with a whole new attitude and probably a sizable weight loss as I certainly wouldn't be doing any of that "I can't leave the house because the weather is awful and I'm bored so therefore I'm going to graze" eating! Granted, I might miss an episode of two of Boston Legal but that's what re-runs are for!

The biggest drawback, though, would be that unless everybody else hibernated, too I shudder to think how many unread posts I'd have in my Google Reader! Just having to get caught up might be more than I could bear!

“Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake.”

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We have had three birthdays in the Dispatch/Scheduling Department at work in the past week - which just goes to prove that September babies rule! - including my dispatch partner Jen, myself, and Renee who is the Employee Scheduling Coordinator. Hopefully that's it for a little while as my diet has totally flown out the window from all of the cake we've had on hand!

Speaking of cakes, I actually made that lovely beauty pictured above for Renee's birthday yesterday and I was quite proud of myself as it's been awhile since I've made a cake and I think it came out quite well if I do say so myself! Especially considering I made it in between reading and writing blog posts!

Renee likes anything chocolate - strawberries dipped in chocolate, chocolate-covered nuts, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate, etc. - and even though I knew that one of the ladies in the Finance Department where Renee used to work before she came downstairs was making her a cheesecake, I wanted to make her a chocolate cake because when it's your birthday you should have whatever your favorites are, right?

With that in mind I decided to bake a chocolate fudge cake with a chocolate cream cheese filling and chocolate Dream Whip frosting. I had never done a chocolate cream cheese filling but it turned out to be quite easy (8 ounces softened cream cheese blended with 1-1/4 cups milk and then one 4-ounce package of instant chocolate pudding mix whipped in; refrigerate for 10 minutes; spread between layers). I even managed to expertly split my layers with sewing thread so that I had filling between three of them - I think Mags might have been proud of me! The frosting I made was a variation on one of my Dad's favorites which simply required a package of Dream Whip, milk, and sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding mix. Of course you have to keep the cake refrigerated because of the nature of the frosting but I suspect the cream cheese filling needs to be also.

Turns out the cake was quite delicious, not overly sweet but definitely chocolaty, and Renee was thrilled with it. It's nice to know that I still have some domestic abilities even though I don't use them too often these days! Now I'm thinking what might be real tasty is a lemon cake, lemon cream cheese filling, and a lemon Dream Whip frosting ... what do you think Miss Bee, how does that sound??

A Date to Look Forward To

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Behold two tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Winter Tour 2007 that I managed to get yesterday - yay!

Last year Amanda and I attended a TSO concert at The DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts on December 27th (you can read about it here if you'd like) and it was absolutely fantastic so we definitely wanted to attend another somewhere in the area this year. I signed up for email updates with the band and two weeks ago I received notification that ticket sales were starting on the 6th of September for their winter concert dates. Knowing how fast tickets to these shows go, especially when they're at the Mohegan Sun Casino which is just down the road from me, I wasn't sure whether I was going to be able to get them or not as September 6th was nowhere close to payday and finances were, as per usual, tight.

As I had gotten my recent annual evaluation at work and received a small raise retro-active to June, I knew there was going to be a little extra money in this paycheck so hoped to use it to get tickets as long as there were still some left for one of the two performances at The Sun. After checking Ticketmaster and seeing that they still had them available on-line, I talked Amanda into going down to the casino with me with the lure of dinner as an incentive. Luckily the box office had even better tickets than what were offered on-line and by buying them there I saved myself the exorbitant handling charge that Ticketmaster has. Matter of fact, I used that exorbitant charge to buy Amanda and I dinner at Johnny Rocket's!

An original Rocket burger for me, cheese fries to split, and chicken tenders for Amanda - yummy! And no, none of those are diet foods but every great once in awhile you need to treat yourself - am I right??

A Week of Lunacy Minus the Moon!

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Thank God it's my Friday and I have wrapped up another work week! This one has been a bit of a bear and I am more than thankful that it's over. To say that it was busy would be a major understatement but I can't for the life of me figure out why as we're not even close to a full moon (the next one isn't until the 26th).

Lest you think I'm just being superstitious about the the whole full moon thing please trust me - I'm not. Talk to the people who work in police departments, hospital emergency rooms, drug rehabs, psychiatric facilities, or any dispatcher anywhere and they will all tell you the same thing - it gets crazy during a full moon!

I've read several articles lately that try to debunk this particular "myth", as they like to refer to it, and chalk the erroneous belief up to five factors - media effects, folklore & tradition, misconceptions, cognitive biases, and communal reinforcement. Well, I don't care how scientific they want to be about it or what they attribute the lunacy to, I'm here to tell you it's true and no amount of scientific studies is going to convince me otherwise! People just get crazy during a full moon!

Well, no matter how you look at it and whether you believe it or not (do you??), all I can say is that as busy as this week was with one emergency after another (and off-the-wall ones at that), I can only imagine what it's going to be like in two more weeks when the moon is honest and truly full. I'm thinking hiding under a rock then might be a good idea!

Hmm, now that I think about it, I wonder if I could talk the Upper Management at work into giving us a little extra "Lunar Pay" for the times when the moon is full and it gets even more hectic than usual? What are the chances they'd tell me to "go bark at the moon" if I suggested it??

I've Got a Question, You've Got an Answer

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This week's question is going to require a little bit of heavy thinking on the part of you, dear reader, because it's a little deeper than my normal question. One of the ladies that I work with had suggested it quite some time ago and I hadn't forgotten, I just wasn't sure if I was going to put it into this type of post or something more substantial.

It has been pointed out to me by a cheeky little Brit that I tend to write long posts on a regular basis and couldn't write a short one if my life depended on it so, for Claire, I am going to try to keep this one short! Let's switch places and I shall write a short post while you all leave long comments! Sound like a deal? Good! Okay then, this week's question is:

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

Let me know what you'd do and I'll get back to you on what I'd do along with some of your best answers in a future post. I hope that works for Claire! Wink, wink!

I Knew I Felt Younger!

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Having just had my birthday - and way too much cake! - I know exactly how old I am but when I got an email the other day from my friend Trisha with a link to a "Real Age Calculator", I decided to give it a try. I answered all the questions truthfully to the best of my ability and the results were as follows:

• Biological Age: 49
• Real Age: 46.4
• Average Life Expectancy: 76
• Your Life Expectancy: 78.6

According to this, I can expect to live approximately another 10,800 more days. I guess that doesn't give me a whole lot of time to waste so I'd best quit with the procrastinating! Well, maybe later ...

How about you? What's your "real age"??

Exploring the United Kingdom

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Yesterday I was talking about visiting Australia and the wondeful things to do "Down Under". I'm sure it would be a heck of a trip but it is awfully far so maybe I should consider someplace a little closer to home ... like the United Kingdom, maybe? I've always wanted to visit England, especially London, as the history of the country fascinates me to no end. Perhaps I read too much Dickens as a child or watched "Pride and Prejudice" too many times but I have always wanted to visit London and the surrounding countryside. Of course, having a couple of blogging buddies across the pond makes me want to go even more!

I'm sure that finding a place to stay would be no problem as there are plenty of London hotels that are reasonably priced and I bet that most of them have internet access, too, so that I wouldn't miss a day of blogging! Chances are good I could find a nice one right in the middle of all the action and not too far from The Tower of London where I could meet the very first-ever woman Beefeater as well as check out the Crown Jewels! Maybe there would even be a ghost or two!

While I'm on holiday I'd also like to take in the sites in Glasgow, Scotland and maybe find a nice tartan plaid for myself! I'm pretty sure there would several very nice Glasgow hotels located near the Royal Concert Hall, the Hunterian Gallery, and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery - all places I would love to see. I'd have to be sure to send my buddy Boukie a postcard, though, as he's mad about all things Scottish!

Last stop in the United Kingdom would have to be Edinburgh, another city I've read a lot about and have always wanted to see. I'm sure I could find quite nice Edinburgh hotels for reasonable rates located near The Edinburgh Castle and the Holyrood Palace. Why, I might even be able to find some lovely accomodations close enough to the harbour to catch a nice sea breeze. Sounds grand, doesn't it?
Oh dear, this list of places I want to go is getting very long, isn't it? I think I'm going to have to win the lottery so I can take one heck of a long and exciting vacation! I'll also need a little extra cash to hire Claire on as my tour guide!

Warm the Globe Thru Friendship

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One of my blogging buddies from Pennsylvania, Jeni of Down River Drivel, recently posted about a new concept started by fellow blogger Vic Grace, from British Columbia called:

To quote Jeni's post:

"As we are all aware, blogging does give us the opportunity to reach out and yes, "touch someone" by our words, pictures, links in our blogs, and by our comments to fellow bloggers as well.

Think about this - in a world today that is too often filled with news of wars all over the world, fears about terrorism, following newspaper and TV news reports about crime, gangs, and you name it of all the bad things we hear about everyday, wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we, each of us blogging in our own little space, could actually spread the word through friendship and help, through that little bit of effort, to bring people together, united in a common goal of international friendship?

If you like this concept - and who wouldn't, really - then add this badge to your sidebar, along with the link Vic has provided there. Then copy the text below and put this into a post on your blog. Follow that by tagging other bloggers to start sending this message around the world- hopefully, in less than 80 days too!"

If you'd like to participate in Vic Grace's effort to "warm the globe through friendship" all you have to do is copy this post with the list of links below and add your link at the end. Hopefully when someone sees it on your blog, they will do the same and in that way it will reach more and more people. If you'd like to "tag" some folks then you can certainly do that, too - which is exactly what Jeni did in order to get the word out.

Now then, as Ben says on the Discovery Channel's game show Cash Cab that takes place in a New York City cab - "are you in?"

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• A Day in the Life of Sasha Stinerova
• Whitterer on Autism
• Pastorette Ponderings
• It's About Time
• Creatif
• Meloncutter's Musings
• Bleeding Espresso
• 10 Years Running Blind
• Rather Than Working
• Overthehill Boomer Chick
• Whee! All The Way Home
• Mother's Home
• A Place I Call Home
• Time With Shelby
• Any Apples
• BoggyWoggy's Cache
• Erika Jean
• My Dogs Keep Me Sane
• Rambling Shan
• Random Autumness
• The Turtle Parade
• Dottie's Place
• The Wonderful World of Nothing Worthwhile
• OzLady’s Ramblings
• Tinkerbell
• Chicken's Life
• Echos of Grace
• Tales From a Former Michigander
• KSHIPPYCHIC
• Meeyauw
• A Purple Shade of Black
• Dare to Get Organized
• And Miles to go Before We Sleep
• Beth & Cory's Mom
• The Middling Monettes
• Twist & Skewer
• A Day In The Life of Elle
• Tea Time Ramblings
• Bubba’s Sis
• Down River Drivel
• Are We There Yet??

Wordless Wednesday

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Thank you to the resident Art-Munkey for this week's drawing -
An 80's fantasy Pegasus eating vinegar fries with a rainbow ... don't ask, it's a Mindless Self Indulgence thing!!

It's a Boy!!

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A big - and I do mean big! - congratulations to Jillian, the newest scheduler to join us in the Dispatch/Scheduling Department at American Ambulance, on the birth of her son Aiden on my birthday - September 9th! Actually, I'm very surprised she didn't have the baby sooner as even though she wasn't officially due until today, for the past month poor Jillie looked like she had swallowed a watermelon sideways! I don't think I've seen anyone look that pregnant in a very, very long time!

I sincerely hope that if Jillian got any baby slings as gifts that they were big ones because they're going to need to be as her bouncing baby boy weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs, 14 ozs and 22 inches long! No wonder the poor woman looked like she could barely walk last week! Makes me cringe every time I think about having a baby that size ...

Mom, Dad, and baby are all doing fine and I wish the best to the entire family as Aiden starts out on this wonderful journey called "life"! And in my own humble opinion, I don't think he could have chosen a better birth date!

For women how are experiencing pregnancy signs and believe they might be having a baby, you may want to look for information on childbirth. There are all kinds of information on baby birth online to prepare yourself for giving birth.

Dahling, I Feel Fabulous!

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The incomparable Sandee from Comedy + gave me an award today and I am just tickled pink! The award originated with Ann from A Nice Place In The Sun and Christy from Totally Fabulous and it's called the Totally Fabulous Award for bloggers!

Isn't it just fabulous?? I love it! Thank you so much, Sandee, and thank you even more for grouping me in with such a fabulous list of other bloggers:

• Claire @ A Little Piece Of Me
• Asara @ Asara's Mental Meanderings
• Tisha @ CrAzY Working Mom
• Gracie @ Echos of Grace
• Empress Bee @ Muffin53
• Mo @ It's A Blog Eat Blog World
• Kai @ The Buzz Queen
• Mags @ Ms Maggie Moo Talks 2 U
• Callie Ann @ Scrappin...with life in this New Year of 2007

If you'd like to pass this award along to some more fabulous people then go right ahead, simply give out as many awards as you'd like and link them back to Ann and Christy so that they can see who you think is totally fabulous!

I was going to give this award to others but then I got to thinking about the fact that every single blogger who appears on my blogroll is totally fabulous or they wouldn't be there in the fist place and it just didn't seem right to single out just a few. I hope that Ann and Christy understand that as much as I'd love to pass this award along, I don't want to slight anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. I hope that makes sense and doesn't seem like I'm just being lazy and don't want to do the links as, trust me, I had an entire paragraph of links already written out when I decided to delete the whole paragraph and write this one instead.

Thank you again, Sandee, for being the fabulous blogger/friend that you are and I have no doubt that I will be seeing this award making its way through the Blogosphere like wildfire.

Building a Better "Steve", Righ?

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Amanda and I just got back from a quick trip to the local hobby shop where she needed to pick up more supplies to make a couple more of her rock-star plushie dolls. Even though she recently found out that JimJamZ was tossed into the crowd following the last Projekt Revoultion concert in Colorado (she likes to think that some devoted Mindless Self Indulgence fan has him enshrined next to all of his or her other Jimmy memorabilia) she still wants to make plushie dolls for the rest of the band. I'm not sure when she would plan on delivering said plushie dolls as MSI doesn't have any concerts in the area anytime soon but still ... it gives her another project and actually gets her off the computer for a little while!

She needed to get all orange for Steve's hair and clothing so this should be interesting, to say the least! I will be sure to post pictures once little Steev is completed so stay tuned for that!

Oh, and just a quick update on the poll results from last week - only two people voted for me to leave my blog the way it is while 14 others voted for Amanda to do some artwork for a redesign. She's working on it diligently and hopes to have it done by the end of the week at which time I can forward it on to my super-cool blog designer Se7en and see what sort of magic he can produce. I'm sure it will look great once it all gets done!