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.

New WOW Character

My second WOW character is named "Scrumptious".

Time flies when you are playing these games!!!

Buying pizza via the internet to be delivered to your door is awesome. Thanks Papa John's!

Ahhhh...

Playing computer games in bed next to my electric fireplace/heater. Doesn't get any better than that!

Merry Christ-mass

If anyone puts "X-mas" again I will scream!!! How blatantly obvious of an attempt to take Christ out of Christmas can one get?

Christmas wasn't too bad. I think it will get more fun when kiddo realizes what is going on.

Maddox had a great first bday party. Flu and cold hitting many people hard so about half couldn't attend.

I started playing WOW on our own server and like it a lot. Contact me if you would like to join. My character's name in the game is "Luscious". It is totally hilarious b/c now everyone says "Greetings Luscious" in the game.

If attending a birthday party for someone get them a GIFT. And if you don't, then that is fine, but do not go running to the store in the middle of the party to buy yourself crap you don't need.

Books and Movies

Deception Point by Dan Brown I read this book also in two days. It is like 736pp long. He probably could have/should have made it 2-300 pp instead. The book follows the same outline Dan Brown does in all of his books: the prologue has someone die, you find out about that someone halfway through the book, the unexpected person is the guy behind everything, there is a romance, there is some conspiracy of global proportions. If this guy is such a "great" author then why can't he write a book that doesn't follow the SAME outline. It gets old and I'm not reading any more of his books. He has hundreds of chapters - many of them a page or two. Every major woman is "gorgeous". Michael Crichton has MUCH better research. His books are entertaining for the first novel or so but after that he is just Blah.

Movies I watched:
Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End: I always end up needing subtitles on this movie - it is difficult to hear all the words and figure out what they're saying. I understand the plot only halfway through the movie. Also very disappointed that Disney marketed PotC items in their stores when this movie is clearly not for small children. But I liked it much better than #2 and would watch it again.

1408: Strange movie. I'm glad I saw it but wouldn't watch it again.

Mr. Brooks: in the middle of that movie so far - so far it is really good. I think the actors, whom everyone has seen on TV, do a great job of acting like different people than they normally play.

New Book: Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Finished it in two days. A good, fast read. Not as much non-fiction as Dan Brown's more "famous" works and it works well.

Laura Igraham went off on Christmas cards yesterday on her show. It was pretty funny. How people include letters dripping with "oh, our life is so wonderful, much more than yours is". And how they compare what their paper was, gold leaf, etc. It is even difficult to find cards that actually have Jesus on them! Crazy.

Ken Jennings' Blog and the Pagans Celebrate Christmas

Even Ken Jennings has his own blog!

Also, I retract my going off on Aldi b/c of their OJ prices. Everyone else's is higher priced, too. Perhaps I have been in a time warp. I used to spend maybe $40 on groceries in a two week period. Now I can't leave the grocery store without $90 and that doesn't have to include baby items either.

PBS - St. Louis is raising money once again. I taped Celtic Woman: Christmas to see if they had any good numbers. Then I realized: the Celts were pagans... so why are they celebrating Christmas and singing happy Christmas songs? They were polytheists in fact. Oh the irony. But Celtic Woman Christmas is selling their tickets and making their money so they do not mind the contradiction.

US State Dept

Our very own State Dept has its own blog!