Last Post Here

Everything from now on will be at: http://allthingsriley.wordpress.com/

Hamster Town has been invaded by the ever-elusive gray tabby cat. It is no longer safe here.

A Brave New Blog

So, I think I am going to start a new blog. This one is getting poopy and depressing because I have no one to rant at. Therefore this will be my last entry and I will work on designing a new one!! Woo hoo!

Ender's Game Books 3 and 4

So I started "Children of the Mind" before "Xenocide" by Orson Scott Card in error. Now I'm almost done with "Xenocide" which surrounds the following problem: stopping the Lusitania fleet from reaching and destroying the planet, finding a way to destroy the descolada virus without killing the piggies, using faster-than-light flight, and Ender's wife has left him. So sad.

Except for the paragraphs of talking and talking just to reach a conclusion it is a good book. I guess you can't expect a fast paced book.

More TV to ignore

Now that I have 200 channels at my fingertips instead of 10 I still have nothing to watch. It is all junk and children under age 2 are not supposed to watch television anyway. None of my shows will be on until September... which all you need is some rabbit ears for.

New books I finished: "Shadow Puppets" and "Shadow of the Hegemon" were recent books I finished in my quest to complete the Ender's Game series. Very good - though the Bean and Petra subplot seems a little far-fetched. Oh well - I hope he gets the new book out soon to tie together some questions.

Attended Kindermusik with Maddox today and I wasn't that impressed. I thought that the Gateway Music teacher did a much better job and had a better program put together. Maddox just wanted to play in the kitchen with the cabinets. I certainly will not pay $60 for playing with kitchen cabinets.

Grrr....

I really should post when having a good day, huh?
Well the HOA meeting was today and it was dumb as usual. I am so tired of Lake St. Louis in general I just want to run away screaming and find a house in a GOOD school district. But the housing market stinks!
William ordered additional cable channels (even though our perfectly good antennae picks them up just fine for local) which will cost another $50 something per month. So much for college tuition! Like I'm going to have all this time to watch 200 channels while taking care of two children.

Poopy Day

So it is barely even noon and it has been a REALLY poopy day.
Maddox woke up at 6:20am. Even early for him.
Nothing around here other than Walmart and Target seems to be open before 10am. This really stinks when you have to be home by around 11:30am for naps. You can hardly get ANYthing done at all. And you can't really go after naptime because then you run into all kinds of traffic. Speaking of traffic, here are the poopy things that happened:
-Waking up early
-The car has NO stroller inside!!! Just great!
-Maddox wanders aimlessly around Christian bookstore driving me up the wall and is in a terrible mood.
-I just changed his diaper before we left and he manages to pee through EVERYthing
-I am passing Victoria's Secret where the nice lady helps me find free underwear when the Coupon is missing!! All I had in my envelope was the paper - no card. So no free underwear for me and wasted more time.
-Somehow I get caught in traffic anyway and I-70 west is in a standstill. Idiots can't drive in the rain. Oh yeah - it started raining when I left the mall. Just fabulous.
-Yeah, did I mention Maddox is in a terrible mood?

Wii Fit

Wii Fit is probably one of the neatest workouts ever! I love all the options and games. Nap time.

Mom Groups

I don't have my hair cut for $100 nor pay someone else to clean my house. So I guess I don't belong to either group. Sigh. Just need to find a group that likes discussing things other than their hair and Oprah, and doesn't care about their appearance to an extreme extent.

I have my very own dumpster!!! The dumpster will be here until Friday and my "throw away" mode can seriously go to town.

Ender's Shadow

Finally finished "Ender's Shadow" and I am onto another Shadow book. I just got it so I don't even remember what it's called. LOL Ender's Shadow was GREAT as usual. Plot, characters, style, Everything. Orson Scott Card is SUCH a talented writer. Too bad he's mormon. LOL

I am deleting my gripe with Amazon. After they stated on the account that my Wii Fit will be delivered on May 27th and won't arrive until June 3rd - they sent me a UPS Tracking number showing it will arrive on the release date!!! I LOVE Amazon!! I don't have to wait in line; I don't have to pay sales tax!! Can't get better than that. And around here I saved like over 7% in sales tax alone.

Oh, the book I couldn't remember is The Shadow of the Giant. It is kinda weird... maybe it is because so many of their books have children in them, it is difficult to think of everyone as adults now.

Ender's Game Series

So I read Ender's Game a while ago and finished just now "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. What a great book! No wonder it won best Sci-Fi of the year - and multiple other awards. It is nice to see a main character that has parents and gets married. Spiderman, Superman, even Harry Potter lack these characteristics.

Right now I'm watching CSI. It is okay. Not as good as it used to be. Ghost Whisperer and House episodes are getting better.

Best Book Club Ever

So went to the BEST book club ever - Chesterfield SAHM Group and discussed "While I Was Gone." Very fun and we actually got through all, if not most, of the questions.

Best Chocolate Dessert Ever

Out on a whim, we went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner the other day. Usually our favorite dessert is Olive Garden's Black Tie Mousse cake. But this TOPS it!! Chocolate Stampede costs the same and you get TONS more dessert and it tastes fantastic!

I really wish we had a yard now. This swing set at Walmart is the best deal I have ever seen!

The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved!

Ken Ham pushes that dinosaurs and humans lived side by side and the earth is only 6000 years old. The documentation in his book isn't very good and can only give one or two examples without going in depth. I like his enthusiasm, but not the book.

Remember to finish reading the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card. I'm not sure why I quit reading this.... perhaps it is because I didn't realize it was a series. I read Ender's Game a few years ago. Here is the list of the series to take to the library:
* Ender's Game
* A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (set during Ender's Game)
* Ender's Shadow
* Shadow of the Hegemon
* Shadow Puppets
* Shadow of the Giant
* Speaker for the Dead
* Xenocide
* Children of the Mind

The Dave Glover show has been advertising Blue Sky Creamery ice cream like it is better than sex or something. I tried it today - it was okay. I still think Cold Stone tastes much better. Blue Sky almost had a "ice milk" after-taste. Bummer. I was very disappointed. He is also advertising Gateway Credit Union's checking account which gives you 5.15% - which is true but ONLY up to $1500 balance, IF you make 15 non-pin debit transactions and do everything electronically so they don't have to spend money sending you statements. Now if I could get that rate up to $15000, I would have start thinking about it.

My Favorite Things

What I would LOVE to get:
Pottery Barn's Fiona Duvet and Sham. And get a nice king-size head board to match. We so desperately need a king size bed I think!
This rug is super cute - but also more expensive than Pottery Barn! What's up with that Target?? There is a set at Ashley's Furniture I like, but no pictures on the internet.

Funny story of the day: I walked to the park and spent about an hour there. We happened to run into my friend Julie S. Walked all the way back home and realized my car remote was missing. I didn't want to walk again, so we drove - which is actually like 4 times further than walking. And the second time we are there we run into my friend Amy!! How cool is that? Esp. since we found my car remote! Woo hoo!

While I Was Gone

Just finished "While I Was Gone" by Sue Miller. I would give it 3.5/5 stars. I'm not sure why there are tons of people giving it a 5 and raving about the book. I reserve a 5/5 for something like a classic. This was a good book. I can't recommend it to most of my friends b/c they are all Christian and some of the content is NOT Christian.

The main character Jo - I think the author had to make her a doctor/vet. Otherwise we would have all thought she was somewhat retarded. She was selfish and never thought of anyone beyond the scope of her immediate surroundings. Doesn't think of the implications of her actions - which is generally something a lower IQ would do. The plot was interesting - seemed that the "climax" came too soon, or the resolution was too long. The family life though seemed all too familiar. Their was a character named Mary Ellen in the book! Then the sisters - actually one and a set of twins - didn't get along. Well they got along a little better than mine do.

Construction on Hwy 40 behind our house continued to 5am this morning. Of course I did hear it all because William left the windows open b/c he always too hot. So I got to wake up every hour from the noise and wind, then Maddox woke up again at 4:30am.

Random Thoughts... Sorry it's been a while

For some reason that picture up there still doesn't work. It used to and then Blogspot did something. Ugh.

Well it was nice half of today and all I want is ICE CREAM. Lots of ice cream. Cookie Doughn't You Want Some in particular. But when milk is over $3/gallon and gas near $4 a gallon who is going to buy a $6 bowl of ice cream??!! I wish people would stop whining and complaining that they don't have money. If this country and its citizens were in real financial trouble, then every single Cold Stone, casino, and liquor store should be completely out of business because they are all unnecessary to existence.

Homeowners get bailed out - the Senate passed the bill to bail out these morons who got loans they claim "they didn't understand" and can't pay back. How many of these people lied on their application? Probably more than most people realize. Many loans with certain LTV and amount qualifications allow for stated income. That is right - you don't have to prove or show how much you make. So when this was compared to the IRS reports, people saw that they inflated their income by as much as 50-60%.

I am currently sord of procrastinating. I painted the entire basement with primer, except the corners. So now I need to paint the corners, wait, and paint the real stuff on. It is so exhausting that I think I'll wait it out but I'll get it done this week. Unlike those poor suckers that could have had their refund by now, but haven't even finished their taxes. Tee hee. You know who you are.

Lake Saint Louis: I live in LSL where it is illegal to have a commercial sign on your vehicle or your residential property. BUT if you don't have permits for your finished basement (which poses a fire hazard to the homeowner and those around them), then LSL doesn't seem to care. I haven't yet figured out why yet.......

Higher Prices

Yet again almost all food prices are higher. Gas is up to $3.39/gallon. Of course when I was 19 and living in Kirksville with NOwhere to drive, it cost only 90 cents or so a gallon.

Finished "The Cider House Rules"

Finally finished the lengthy "The Cider House Rules" by John Irving. How Homer became an abortionist was really saddening and the whole pro-choice slant. Maybe some of his other books have the great characters and plot without the political/moral slant. It was hard to book the book down.

How to Clean your Shower Curtain

Well last time I tried cleaning my shower curtain it wasn't pretty. This time is was great!!! So here is what I did next time I need to clean it:
throw it in with towels on HOT water with 1/2 c detergent and 1/2 c baking soda. Add vinegar to rinse. All clean!

Still working on cleaning our bathroom tub. Arm and Hammer Scrub Free worked mostly. There are still some stubborn stains on the wall and floor. Ugh. And I can't spray every day or Daisy will lick it up.

Best Playground is Lowe's

Current Book: "The Cider House Rules" by John Irving
Interesting and disturbing. I'm only on page 21.

If you eat bulgarian yogurt a lot, you could live to possibly be at least 100. But only yogurt cultures found in Bulgaria! Darn.

Maddox found a new playground.... Lowe's. All the cabinets kept him busy and could have for hours. But we had to get our life ins. medical exam done and left early to get home.

Sex and the Mother in Law

So my MIL was nice enough to buy me "Mental Floss" magazine and my first issue arrived at her house last week. They said they had a lot of problems with the magazine going to the purchaser instead of to the recipient. Well, anyway most issues are rather interesting and tame. No sex or violence. But THIS issue of course has HUGE sperm on the front with a title "The Future of Sex." It isn't really about sex sex- but the chromosomes and the technology behind future reproduction for those who can't conceive. But I think it embarrassed her more than me. Good magazine if you ever want something worth reading other than the trash that is out there on the newsstands.

Don't Believe Everything You Think

My new book is Thomas Kida's "Don't Believe Everything You Think." It was a suggested book by Amazon to compliment "Unspun". You would think that us "modern" folk would be above all this superstition and hocus pocus. However, Kida lists quite a number of commonly held beliefs that usher no physical proof: psychokinesis, UFO abductions, astrology, etc. I'm just on the first chapter so I won't get too far into it.

Well I hope Maddox lives to his 2nd birthday at least. His somewhat dirty socks caused him to slip on the floor and smack the back of his head on the hardwood. He pulled a toy onto his face, and he smooshed his face twice into wood chips. I hate wood chips! My beautiful baby boy's face scarred due to wood chips. :-( It is so sad.

My last day in 3 baby adventure babysitting service is over. A 4 mo. old, 1 year old and 2 year old get along quite well as long as the 1 year old isn't mine bent on killing the baby who is taking up your mommy's attention.

Missouri is now partly a "federal disaster" because of the flooding and we can now receive aid from the federal government to supplement our state and local. oh JOY! My hard earned tax dollars (well now my husband's) are going towards idiots that are dumb enough to build roads and buildings in a flood plain. You know WHY state farm and other companies don't offer flood insurance but the Federal government does? Because it isn't profitable. And you wonder why we're in so much national debt. Well other than the whole New Deal and all... LOL

Update on "World without End"

Finally finished "World without End" by Ken Follett which is 1016 pages - Even longer than the first!! Since it is requested at the library often I had only 2 weeks to finish and skipped quite a few paragraphs that didn't have to do with plot. Very good book! And he reduced a lot of the sex scenes... I wonder if that is because of complaints from the first book or maybe Ken is just happier now in that aspect of his life. LOL

"unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation" by Brooks Jackson. Possibly one of the BEST non-fiction reads I have. I may have to buy it since this book is also heavily requested at the library. But anyway, the premise is that companies and politicians lie to us all the time and the book explains how they do it. Makes your blood boil by how much they lie to you.

"The Perfect Stranger" is a recent Christian movie I watched and had to stop it in the middle. I just couldn't finish. The characters were one-dimensional, the dialogue mainly gradeschool Christianity, the setting was this Italian restaurant that makes you think more about the food than anything else. Oh I just couldn't take it anymore. Do not watch this movie. What a waste of time. This is why people don't watch Christian movies - they make these cheap ones that are awful so you don't even see or recognize the good ones.

Current Movies and Books

Just finished watching "Beowulf" the new movie which is an almost complete waste of time. The graphics and fantastic, however, they are clearly anti-Christian and make that plain without even knowing the original story. The movie is not true to the text more than half of the time. They show a burning cross, attribute "Christ God" to the death of "heroes" and upholding the martyrs, and state that Jesus Christ shouldn't be added to the pantheon because basically only you control your life/ destiny anyway.

Read "My Lobotomy" by Howard Tully. A sad, true story of a 12 year old boy that received this transorbital lobotomy because his stepmother thought he was too hyper. An interesting memoir.

Started reading "World without End" by Ken Follett - the sequel to "Pillars of the Earth". Very good so far with interesting characters.

Visited the Melting Pot yesterday. Very good food. Though it does make me wonder why it is MORE expensive when you even have to cook it yourself. The Bananas Foster Fondue was super yummy.

On a sad note, Patricia Thomson passed away on Monday and I was informed on Tuesday. She was 19 years old and the daughter of Bill and Cecilia.

You Need a Binky

This is my new slogan. Nobody steal it because I'm going to put it on T-shirts and make millions :-) But seriously - it needs to be on a t-shirt because it is well... much funnier than those other shirts.

The Easter Egg hunt fliers are distributed. Without a watch, I hadn't realized I had walked to every house on Flintshire Lane in 70 minutes. Yes - walking 70 minutes HURTS. I didn't realize until later I was completely drained of all energy. Next year maybe I'll just make some posters!

My laptop is now fixed. After falling down a flight of stairs the screen didn't open too well so we had to buy a new top. Mind you I couldn't find another GREEN one. Now I have a red one. The green is so pretty though - I will miss it.

And remember, you probably need a binky. :-)

WOW!

Well I am now a level 30 warlock as Gracie! woo hoo!
Also, dropping your laptop down the stairs is BAD. I'm sure most small children could fall down the stairs with less damage that is for sure!
New COOL magazine I found: "Bookmarks" - it reviews the newest books coming out. Very neat addition to my "Mental Floss" magazine which is the best magazine ever.

Easter Egg Hunt is going to happen.... We ordered so late I was not sure. But it is on March 15th. Easter just HAD to come early this year. And it has been a coooold year.

Mental note: children that had more patience and waited for more candy instead of instantly gratifying themselves with a little candy had higher SAT scores!

"the internet saves time"

I might have once bought this idea.... But now I think I had much more time to clean, work on hobbies, etc. without the internet. Too much distraction - but I know we can't get rid of it. And once we get a large TV I won't be able to keep hubby from getting cable. MTV and VH1 and all those nasty channels come with it. We get Fox movie channel and even that has some shows I don't want to be flipping through. These things are on at like 9pm at night. A lot of teenagers and pre-teens are up at that time.

Made Yummies

So I was craving IHOP pancakes and I knew I had the stuff at home - so why spend $5 on pancakes that cost $2 per box? Put some pecans in the batter, layered bananas and syrup on top - super YUMMY.

To answer my last posting, Huckabee IS for a flat tax. So he's my front runner now.

No current books - only waiting for my reserved books to come in.

Finished "Code to Zero"

It was an okay book. If you like fiction you would probably enjoy it. The characters were really interesting. Ken Follett always does good with characters I think.

Doing the taxes now and just realizing how much of my money Uncle Sam is really taking. Not a pretty picture. If anyone proposes the flat tax - you have my vote.

Currently reading "Code to Zero"

Okay well the last two postings were um... a little bitter (and you are thinking "a LITTLE??") LOL. Well back to keeping track of my books instead of ranting on random website about somethings I think little about anyway :-)

Ken Follett's "Code to Zero" I will be reading his books until I can get a hold of "World without End" which is the sequel to "Pillars of the Earth". His suspense novels are also quite good. The female characters of at least the last two books have unusual names: Elspeth (Code) and Aliena (Pillars). I have yet to find Aliena on the baby names list and not even quite sure how to pronounce it. Elspeth is actually quite interesting - a name you'd remember.

Fireplaces

Well I missed the fireplace clearance at the Hardware stores and William is happy about that. Dad said that he got his fireplace for 50% off when he went there! I COULD have gotten one, but noooooooo. That would actually make that area of the house look nice. Which no one but ME cares about because Maddox is too little to care, and since the area doesn't have a computer or toilet is of no use to William. UGH. It is much cheaper than ADDING a fireplace that is for sure. And they are all sold out online as well. So I have to wait an entire year again.

PF Chang's

Well, I ventured off to PK Chang's for the first time Friday night. Greeted by a hostess, cloth napkins and a lighting decor that rivals some museums - I assumed I was in for a real treat of the palate. Unfortunately, except for perhaps a couple dishes (lettuce wraps and calamari which are actually appetizers), everything there seemed like it was take-out Chinese food on a nice, white contemporary plate. I paid $22 for a couple of eggs rolls and a orange peel shrimp dish that the $4 First Wok joint could rival.

Conquest of Cold

Finished "Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold" - VERY interesting!!! Cold does some pretty nifty stuff!
Funny how most of the "Great" scientists were hermits kept in bed as children because of some illness or deformity.
Did you know?
-we list temperature in degrees because one of the original scales was divided up by 360?
-C' was centigrade until like 1944 or 1955 when they changed it to Celsius to honor him, but some people argue that others beat him or came up with it at the same time
-many metals become good conductors the colder they get - but gold doesn't

Read a 900 page book!

Finally finished "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett - if you skip the rape and sex scenes it is a REALLY good book. Except for one scene that has something to do with the plot, the rest seem to be just fluff. Or maybe Ken isn't getting any at home and has to write about it.

Currently reading "Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold" by Tom Shachtman. Very good non-fiction read to follow the NOVA episode of the same title. The things people didn't know back then!! But then again, maybe they will be saying that about us in 200 years.

Of importance, Maddox is now walking quite well. Right on time.

Keeping the Masses Preoccupied

Apple has done it again in keeping the masses preoccupied with entertainment so they can avoid their own lives and not involve themselves in the great world around them. Apple announced today of the world's smallest laptop and that they will have movies to download more easily to the iPhone and iPod. See article.

Finished "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven" - it was a pretty good book. Not a classic, but a fun read. The kind of "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of mentality. The recipes in the back of the book were a GREAT touch.

Hints for cleaning: Why buy 35 sheets of Clorox wipes when you can buy 500 baby wipes for $7.50 and spray a little cleaning solution on them?

Let's Dish! - is expensive!! And not that great either. Just good. Though it is much easier and has more variety than me trying to figure out what we're going to eat each night. Hubby wasn't too thrilled with the price... but meat IS expensive. Chicken not so much. So from now on I will take their ingredients, directions and description and work my way backwards and try to make the meals.

Pancake Review and Book Update

The IHOP pancakes are terribly yummy - so I went to the best place for those recipes. Top Secret Recipes. Tried the IHOP pancakes and they were good but very thin. The ones at IHOP are thick, probably twice as thick. So I haven't yet figured out why it is the best known copycat recipe on the net and the pancakes obviously don't look right.

Maddox can stack 6 blocks high!! Woo hoo!

Visited Let's Dish on Thursday. The food is good - the fish was fishy according to the hubby. A very neat concept, but also pretty expensive. At $20/dish that doesn't include sides I think it is too pricey. So I am going to make it my mission to view their ingredients, directions and explanation of the dish to work backwards an coming up with a recipe that is similar and to our liking. Hmmm... If I could just do that with my OWN recipes I could probably publish a book on it.

Books I am currently reading:
The Numbers behind Numb3rs - very interesting
Can't Wait to get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg - kinda similar to Fried Greet Tomatoes, but a fun and fast read
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - a very very lengthy book but very engaging

Another 70 degree day in January in St. Louis

The weather is fantastic. Unfortunately, it is Monday and everything seems to be closed: Butterfly House, Magic House. Other places like Grant's Farm is closed for the season. Bummer!!

Deal of the Day

Target has Purex laundry detergent on sale for $3.
They also have the holiday Coffeemate Creamers for 43 cents!!! Great bargain.

So we tried to go to church today. We hadn't been there for a while b/c of Christmas in Kirksville and people were over another weekend. But they didn't have 9am service, so we left instead of leaving the baby in the nursery for 3 hours.

I am still playing WOW - Level 18 and my imp is doing really well now that I got him some new powers.