eye exams

We took Brandon in to have his eyes checked Wednesday. and the doctor said big expensive words like "condition" and "specialist." Yeah, this oughtta be fun.

Stars' last preseason game is tonight, then the season starts for real next week. As if anyone who reads this doesn't already know that; I've been mentioning it for weeks! I can't wait!!

Was on our alumni site last night and had mentioned something that I vaguely remembered from high school. Imagine my embarassment when I discovered it had happened about tewnty years earlier! I guess I had just heard about it and thought I remembered it. Oops.

Turco's back!

Marty Turco came back last night.

The man who's been playing under that name all preseason is gone, and the puck-handling, zone-clearing wandering third defenseman we all know and love is back. His performance last night was stellar, only allowing one goal and he was perfect in the shootout that went to sudden death. He was on top form and seemed to be trying to learn what exactly he could get away with under the new goalie puck-handling rules. It was good to see him back!

The Stars play again tonight and Friday, and that's it till the season starts October 5th. It's been a looooooong offseason.

it's hot

Hot, hot, hot. I had hoped that it would cool off because of Rita, but she didn't do anything she was supposed to! It was hot all weekend and we didn't get ONE DROP of rain. Yesterday it was 104 degrees. Hot! Thursday it's only supposed to be eighty-four, but I'll believe that when it happens...

I bought the Sims Superstar yesterday and fought with it for SIX HOURS but I can't get it to install. I've tried everything, even to the point of coping everything to the hard drive and installing from there. Nothing worked and I'm very disappointed! I'll try taking it back next weekend; maybe it was just a bad disk. Who knows?

The Stars' preseason hasn't been going great; they've only won about half the games. Let's hope regular season goes better! I've been more impressed with Mike Smith this year than the few times I saw him play last year, but Turco still needs some work. Usually he's one to depend on...

We have to take pictures this week. Yuck.

Yay! Hockey!

Who cares if it was only preseason?! I saw real hockey! With real players! On TV! Yay! And the Stars won, too, 6-4. It's hard to tell how well they played because what with the new rules, the refs were calling EVERYTHING and there were something like 20 penalties. So lots of special teams. Turco, however, didn't look good. "Rusty" doesn't describe it. He looked tense, uncomfortable, uptight, clumsy and sloppy. Here's hoping he gets that worked out before October 5th!

They had this great ad on TV. It was just a little 15-second spot that started out with this guy on a Zamboni cruising up a residential street when his phone rings. He picks it up and answers "Pizza Delivery." Then there's a pause (he's still on the phone) and then he says, "Oh, thank you God!" and he chucks a couple pizzas and a hot bag out of the Zamboni and drives on up the street. Then text comes on the screen and all it says is "Hockey's Back." I thought it was hilarious!

Catch up

I haven't been keeping up lately...

Tonight the preseason game will be broadcast on TV. Yay! I can't wait...sure, it's only preseason, but it's the first hockey I've seen in ages ! Turco has been suprisingly porous in camp this year. Let's hope he gets that fixed by opening night.

We finally got a new phone since our old one won't hold a charge anymore--and it's cheaper to buy a new phone than a battery! Anyway, I haven't been phone shopping in probably 10 years. They've changed. The one we got works like a cell phone. It's got changable face plates, musical ringtones, a fancy little display screen, graphics and animation and everything else. Now, if I could just figure out how to make a call on it...

The nice thing about getting up so early is that I can go outside when it's still nice out. The bad thing is that "nice" is a relative term. I went out at 4:45 and it was seventy-eight degrees and so humid I could hardly breathe. The weatherminds say it'll change by this weekend because of the hurricane heading for the Gulf; some rain would be nice and some cool air would be better. Yesterday it was a hundred degrees with an index of 105. Yay. Unfortunatly, the hurricane also means gas will go back up, and here it just came down...

Preseason ON THE AIR!!

They're airing four preaseason games ON TV this year!!! We never get to see preseason games. I'm incredibly delighted; I may explode! Yay!! That means in just four days, I'll be able to watch hockey! On TV! With real people!! Yay!!

I need to figure out how to delete comments. Surely there's a way to do it, I just haven't gone hunting yet. I've had two SPAM postings on my account now, how dumb is that? Gotta get rid of them.

Google your name sometime. It's fun! See?

Training Camp! YAY!

Training camp started yesterday. It's finally here! I'm almost giddy with delight. The season is only three weeks away...I can't wait!

A sign of the technological age we live in-- Brandon (who's five) came out of his room yesterday while he was dressing for school and said "I need to pause my dressing so I can go potty."

I've been cleaning up other people's messes (again). We have a room at school that we refer to as the die-cut room (cuz it's where the die-cut machine is, duh) but also we keep in there all of the stuff for bulletin boards (I don't think that's spelled right) and posters and other decorating things. Anyway, it was a horrible mess. I even took pictures that may or may not be it the photo album yet...I was having upload trouble and haven't checked yet. I've been going through and puttlng everything away -- after finding an "away" to put it -- and also throwing out stuff that's worn out. Also, I've been tossing stuff where the people are wearing Afros and bellbottoms...there's a suprising amount of stuff in there that's that old... Also, I managed to hurt my back moving the rolls of paper around...these are thousand-foot rolls of 36" paper, so I shouldn't have moved them anyway...

I was getting ready for bed the other day, and when I looked out of my bedroom window, I saw that the neighbor's dog was in my backyard--dead. That was pleasant, let me assure you. Mike had to go tell the neigbors the next day, and it seems they took it remarkably calmly...

I read the tag on the rug in the bathroom--I don't know why, I guess it just caught my attention--and it's comprised of 90% cotton and 10% silk. Now, tell me why you'd use silk in a bathroom rug? It seems that it'd be something synthetic. And how much extra did I pay for the silk?

Autumn told me over dinner last night that she'd taken a test at school. I didn't think much of it at first, but then I realised after she'd talked awhile that she'd left class to take it with just a few other kids. I asked her why, and she said she didn't know. So I don't know if it's because she'd coming from a different school system or if it's for the gifted program...once again, no communication from the school. I've been spoiled on private school, I think. A note home once in a while wouldn't hurt...

I've always wanted lasik surgery for my eyes...it'd be great not to have to worry about contacts. Anyway, last night I was watching How It's Made and they showed a laser eye surgery and let me tell you, it was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. I'm not someone easily grossed out--blood and guts and all doesn't really bother me. But this was an EYE! And they had this thing that held the lid open and it was ew. Ew! Blech!

And another thing...

I got some Chopper sunglasses Thursday that I really liked. They've got the one-piece soft rubber nose things (what are those things called?)so they don't snag on my hair. Anyway, I've had a bizarre reaction to them; my skin has gone all red and scaly right where the nose piece sits. And the really weird thing is that I'm not allergic to anything, nor do I have sensitive skin. And they're the most comfortable sunglasses I've had, too! Not fair! So I put some stuff on my nose and switched to a different pair for awhile. We'll see what happens.

Worst song currently getting airtime? It's by the Killers and it's called All These Things That I Have Done. Not only is the title WAY too long, it's got ridiculous lyrics. I've got soul but I'm not a soldier... What kind of inane nonsense is that?

I had to make a cake for Renee's sister Robyn. It was an anti-Bush cake. I should have charged her double for going against my ingrained Republican values...

I upgraded our satellite service and now we get Nicktoons (even though we USED to get it with the basic service, but that's a different story) and oh, how excited I was that I'd finally be able to watch Anamaniacs which is without a doubt the BEST THING to come out of the nineties. And for a week I've tried. You know what sucks? The onscreen guide says it comes on at 5:30. It doesn't. It's CatDog. Everyday. And this show is neither funny nor smart. It's incredibly stupid. And the whole time, the onscreen guide insists that I'm watching Anamaniacs. I remember Nicktoons doing that before to me too. It's irritating!