Finding the i In ipod

I have been So. Sick. I went rapidly down the hill from "functional" to "zombified" in the space of one afternoon, and although things are looking up again, I'm still not capable of intelligent blogging... so here's a meme!

I suppose I should actually entitle this, "Finding the U in Zune" rather than "Finding the i in ipod", but we don't need to get too technical here- we're all about mindless memes today. This one's been floating around Blogworld (check out Karen's and Shalee's) and it gives me a chance to play with my new pink Zune, which I totally love but which has been languishing away in a drawer during the events of the afore-mentioned last two weeks. Another blogger described this as "Mad-Libs meets the Magic 8-ball," which means that this should appeal to the third-grader which still lurks inside all of us. Here are the rules:

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
4. NO CHEATING

Here we go!

Q: What does next year have in store for you?
A: Total Eclipse of The Heart, Bonnie Tyler

Q: What does your love life look like next year?
A: Pacheco Pass, Liz Story (am not making sense of either one of these...)

Q: What do you say when life gets hard?
A: Sing to the King, Zoe

Q: Song that reminds you of good times?
A: Sweet Home Alabama, Lynrd Skynrd (true enough...)

Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning?
A: Five o'clock Five Hundred, Alabama (Eight o'clock Five Hundred just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?)

Q: What song will you dance to at your wedding?
A: Forever In Blue Jeans, Neil Diamond (I was a good CoC girl with an old-fashioned church wedding- no dancing! But this would certainly have been appropriate)

Q: Song that reminds you of your first kiss?
A: Rhythm of the Rain, Dan Fogelberg (mmmm... no. I don't think anyone has written a song called "Geeky 8th Grade Saxophone Player At Band Camp." And that's a good thing, wouldn't you agree?)

Q: Your favorite saying?
A: Kiss You All Over, Exile (no comment ;-)

Q: Favorite place?
A: Come Sail Away, Styx

Q: Most Missed Memory?
A: Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland

Q: What song describes your best friend?
A: California Dreamin', The Mama and the Papas (For my best friend? Colorado Dreamin' would be more like it, but that doesn't have quite the ring to it either...)

Q: Where would you go on a first date?
A: Love and Affection, Donna Lewis (oh, if only it were that easy...)

Q: Drug of choice?
A: Things With Wings, Liz Story (chicken? quail? Does chocolate have wings?)

Q: What song describes yourself?
A: Everything's Alright, Sarah Brightman (well, more or less. we don't need to examine that one too closely...)

Q: What is the thing you like doing most?
A: I Will Praise You, Zoe

Q: The song that best describes the president?
A: Walk Like An Egyptian, The Bangles (the mental picture is pretty funny...)

Q: Where will you be in 10 years?
A: You Are My All In All, Keith Lancaster (any ideas? anyone? anyone?)

Q: Your love life right now?
A: Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield (and that's probably a good thing ;-)

Q: What is your state of mind like at the moment?
A: Call Out To Me, Kathy Troccoli (but preferably not on the phone. I hate talking on the phone...)

Q. How Will You Die?
A. I Will Be Here, Steven Curtis Chapman (didn't ask WHERE now, did we? what a morbid question anyway... who thought this thing up?)


Ok, go ahead and play along- you know you want to!

In Which I Account For My Long Absence...

I've been a very busy gal lately, so the first thing to go is the blogging... sorry! John and I have had some really big projects around the house with a deadline, so we've been scrambling to complete them. The good news is that we were successful and the even better news is that the house is in the best shape it's been in since we moved here. Piles and piles of clutter were taken to consignment or Goodwill; loads of trash were moved out; laundry is was done; paint touched up; carpets all cleaned (except for the Silly Putty that will not come out of my Berber downstairs); garage, office and laundry room all organized; long-standing outside projects completed.

And we did it with nary a squabble, mostly thanks to the fact that John and I worked in completely different areas of the house at all times. I once had visions of the two of us happily working together a la This Old House, but after we yelled at each other for two hours had a heated debate on either side of the ceiling while trying to replace the kitchen light fixtures a few years back, I have given up on that idea. We are excellent independent workers. We did have a brief clash over the highly prized living room bookshelf space, in which he moved half of my Encyclopedia Britannicas off the shelf in favor of his ugly black set of fat Jewish Encyclopedias, which he picked up at a book sale in college for a dime a pound. We've been lugging them from house to house ever since. Our preacher did me a huge disservice by gladly offering to take them off John's hands, because then John knew he had a real find. Sigh. The kids were appalled when the Britannicas were dumped unceremoniously in a box, and John Mark cleared the top shelf of the desk in his room to accommodate them. Go figure; I guess he is his mother's child.

Whew! But it is done and we are enjoying the fruits of our labor for however long they may last, for past experience has taught me that a perfectly clean house is like a mist, a vapor- here today and gone tomorrow...

And now for the bad news: while this was all still going on, we started dropping like flies around here. John Mark was the first to go down with a really bad cold, then Nathanael got Pink Eye, then Philip got the cold, then Becca, John and I. Benjamin has a raspy voice, but he's hanging in there while everyone else hacks a lung out. Fortunately, John and I are still functional; if a kid goes down, life goes on, but if dad or mom goes down, things get really tough. (oh, who are we kidding... if MOM goes down, things get really tough! Suddenly no one has any underwear, there's nothing to eat, yada, yada, yada...) Anyway, we all figured it would be an act of goodwill towards our community to quarantine ourselves for a while. The kids are not at 100% yet but are making a diligent effort to catch up with their work for co-op, which is no easy feat for John Mark and Becca, who have a solid four days of homework each week in preparation for co-op day. Anyhow, I think (hope) we are on the mend, and will soon re-enter life as we once knew it.

Color Me Something

I've been a bad blogger, but I've had a lot on my mind. And on my head. See, I have been to the hair salon and let's just say we made some changes. For the past several months, I've been trying to get my stylist to darken highlights that were lighter than what I wanted because my ultimate goal is low maintenance and highlights are high maintenance. But at the pace we were going, it might happen by the end of the next decade. I finally told her to go for it and just get me back to my natural color... and she did. Sort of. This is a few shades darker than my "real" color. Stephanie told me that I'd like it within a week, but I'm two days in and I still startle every time I walk by a mirror. My biggest thing was that I did not want that fake-looking too-dark color some people have, but I feel like Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. My stylist promised me that this would fade to what it ought to be (my natural color is more of a golden brown), so I will be patient. After all, it will either fade out or grow out, right? I figured John would hate it, but his first reaction was "Hubba Hubba!" ;-) So that's good. And maybe Stephanie's right and I will love it in a week.

Back to Reality

Home again! Actually we've been home since about 3:30am Friday morning; John has a presentation for the church which he's been working on for forever and he wanted to get back home in time to put some more time in on it. He's been at church most of the day today too, while the kids and I put away Christmas. We had a wonderful time visiting with my parents, and our vacation was long enough to actually get to relax and forget about all the problems and other obligations waiting for us back home. Here are a few highlights from Christmas Vacation '07:

My stepbrother Casey and his family live in Tampa and they joined us on Christmas Day:

Swimming with the cousins: The guys got lots of fishing in, and once or twice they let the rest of us come along. We were treated to a show by the dolphins, who showed up to feed at our fishing spot in the harbor. Here are John and Daddy D:

Nathanael:Philip and Ben:
And me. I keep telling John that he's better off just leaving me at home. I don't fish. But naps are good.
John Mark and Becca were not along for this ride because we had already sent them off to Cuba, where they had a mahvelous time with their Uncle Dave and Aunt Stacie. They went to movies, played games, played on the beach and went Scuba Diving. Didn't miss us a bit:
While they were gone, John and I escaped to Orlando, where we stayed in a Bed & Breakfast located in a bird sanctuary just behind Disney. It was a gorgeous area which we had no idea even existed! We went to Downtown Disney the first night, and then played at Epcot the next day. Here's John after we lunched at the San Angel Inn:Oh, he's really a fun date once he wakes up.

We fast-passed our way through Future World, browsed as many countries as we could visit in the World Showcase, went to the Christmas Candlelight Processional (which was narrated by Marlee Matlin and was fabuloso!) and finished up with dinner at the Biergarten (of course). Next day, back to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up JM and Becca, with just a brief stop at Sawgrass Mills Outlets and Legal Seafoods...mmmm!

While we were gone, GranMartha and Daddy D took the boys to Ft. Myers, where they played on the beach and visited the turn-of-the-century homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, who were summer neighbors:

Just hangin' out with Henry:

Now, back to reality! But it sure was fun.