Is it Friday yet?

I hadn't realized it had been a few days since I last updated.  My apologies to the 4 people that read on a regular basis. 

Those that know me well, know that I love my morning newspaper.  No kidding.  I've been reading it since I was about 8.  I prefer my local paper (I even had the B-town Herald delivered to me when I lived in another town over 70 miles away) because I like to know what it going on in my town, my state, my country, my world.  After having read today's world section I just want to say I am so glad I am an American.  We really don't notice the liberties that we enjoy EVERY SINGLE DAY that many people around the world do not even know of.  While I am a Christian, I am glad that our country strives to keep church and state very separate of each other.  In Sudan, a British teacher named Gillian Gibbons has been arrested and is facing 40 lashes, 6 months in prison, and a fine.  Her crime, you ask?  She allowed her students to name the classroom stuffed bear Muhammad.  Even though the name Muhammad is quite popular across the region it is sacrilegious to give the name to an animal, even a fake one.  WOW. 

Also in the paper today...Venus has frequent bursts of lightning.  Who freakin' cares?  Do we plan on living there someday?  No.  Do they have oil?  No.  Case closed. 

Why am I perusing the newspaper for bloggy bits?  Well, there really isn't much to say about the China adoption process.  I am in the midst of doing a home study update.  While I am not required to do everything that I did last year, I was amazed that there were some additions.  My dossier required that I assign a guardian for my someday baby and my sister gladly signed.  This year the SW agency is requiring it as well.  Whatever.  Sarah was gracious enough to sign it again. 

While I still have moments of nervousness at work due to the management through the various departments (and my previous experience with them), overall, I am quite happy.  I had the realization on Tuesday evening as I was doing CI rounds throughout the hospital, I like what I am doing.  A nurse actually thanked me for trying to make charting easier.  Wow.  It's been a long time since anybody in any job has thanked me.  It feels good.  I am involved in a bazillion committees and at one such committee today I had a suggestion that really impressed them.  My suggestion (and the wording of it) is going to be plastered in every room of the hospital.  I'm not sure I will think it is so great if I'm ever the one lying in that bed, but it feels pretty cool from where I sit right now. 

I'm trying to so hard not to binge on chocolate right now.  I swear, every month it is either chocolate or salt.  This month it is chocolate and I don't have ANY in the house.  Instead, I'm bingeing on it at work.  I had bought a couple of pieces of fancy chocolate and hid them in my desk for an emergency such as this one.  After scarfing them down, I went to a colleague's office on the floor above me and helped myself to some Hershey P.B. cups (if there is anything in the world better than chocolate and peanut butter, I don't know what it is).  Then, I went up the hall to check in on another colleague and she had some Boy Scout popcorn.  It wasn't just popcorn, it was popcorn that had been dipped in caramel and then smothered in chocolate.  Mama Mia!  She was trying to give it away so I relieved her of some of her burden. 

Oh, one more good thing from work.  I alluded to some changes in my life a few weeks ago.  I couldn't go into the specifics, but some of it was concerning some changes at work.  Our hospital is considering a merger with the largest hospital system in the state.  There was concern that our IS department would be out of jobs since they use totally different applications at their hospital.  According to our CEO that spoke at our department meeting this week, we should be fine.  Whoo hoo!  Good to know.  Now back to your regular programming. 

And speaking of regular programming...the boys are on tonight!

News of the Weird

I've read two interesting/scary articles in the last 10 minutes.  The first came to me courtesy of Kristen.  A source is claiming that Britney Spears in negotiations to adopt 7 year-old twin girls from China.  At first glance it's a joke, right?  She doesn't meet the minimum age requirement, she's not married, she has a history or drug and alcohol problems (a big fat no-no with China...well, a no-no with any country), and her bio kids have actually been removed from her custody and placed with the drug addicted father.  How bad of a parent are you when your kids are placed with a drug addict?  Part of me wants to believe that she had bad legal representation, but the girl's rich--she probably had the best attorney available to her.  Any RQ's rumor board is arguing that it could be a "private" adoption.  This better be a joke or I'm really going to be upset.

The second story is actually more disturbing than the first (yeah, I know, what could be more disturbing than another generation of Britney's??).  There are several conservative states that are trying to create legislature stating that "personhood" begins at conception and as such they are entitled to all the rights and freedoms of any US citizen.  What this means is that once Miss Egg and Mr Sperm meet, they are now Mr/Miss Person.  While pro-life supporters think this is great to support there are a couple of glaring complications.  1.  Birth control pills would be made illegal because they work by preventing the embryo from adhering to the lining of the uterus.  2. This would affect parents using IVF.  Many times multiple eggs are harvested and many embryos are created.  Generally they don't plant more a couple at a time.  The rest never make it to the nest.  Either IVF would be no longer be allowed or they would only have able to create a few embryos at a time for implantation.  Think of the number of women who are on birth control as a means of keeping a regular cycle, decrease the amount of bleeding, treatment for endometriosis and/or polycystic ovary disorder.  What other treatment means are available to them? 

Chances are neither one of those things will actually happen, but it is a bit scary isn't it?

Have I mentioned that I like cute boys that sing?

Black Friday

Is it a bad thing to hide from your family when you are hosting a holiday event at your home?  Shhhh!  Don't tell anyone--I'm in the computer room. 

I'm going bonkers.  I love my family I truly do.  If it were immediate friends and family only and no pets allowed, I'd be a happy girl.  Instead I have spent the last 24 hours wheezing because my dad's beloved dog likes to sit on or near me at all times.  Today I was trying to enjoy a movie with my family, but the damn dog was sitting on my dad's lap and my dad was sitting next to me.  I started coughing so hard that I was having trouble catching my breath.  I finally left the room and hid in my computer room (the room I am staying in since g'ma took my room) for the next several hours.  It's not much better in there because my poor kitty is so freaked out by having all the strange people in the house and a dog that she likes to sit as close as she can to my face.  Yeah, that's good for my pet allergies.  I am going to have to do some serious pet hair/dander fumigation tomorrow.  I love animals, I really do, but they make me so darn sick.  I can not handle more than one animal in a residence at a time or my allergies starting going into overdrive.  I'm having trouble even wearing my contacts.

G'ma is making me nuts.  The poor lady means well, but we didn't grow up with her so when she talks about her friends and relatives I have no idea who the heck she is talking about.  And she talks incessantly.  I understand.  I truly do.  I feel bad for my co-workers if I have been shut in all weekend with no one to talk to.  I know I make them crazy with the talking and I know that it is a very real possibility that I might end up like this as well.  I guess I wouldn't mind it so much if we were actually having a conversation.  We aren't talking....she's yacking my ear off.  I'm sorry if this post sounds negative, but I am used to solitude.  At home.  At work.  There just isn't this much noise and talking going on in my life.

Let's see...let's talk about something lighter, shall we?  So far I have opened two Christmas presents and it's not even December.  This is two more than I have ever opened before so that's exciting.  Michael came over the other night with my present--a Christmas tree!  I have complained about the crappy tree I had for several years now.  The stupid tree had glued on branches that kept falling off.  It was one sneeze away from being the bald little tree on the Peanuts Christmas Special every December.  It had gotten so bad that I have actually not put up a tree just so I can avoid it.  I think I mentioned last week that a package had arrived on my doorstep from my mom.  She insisted that I open it yesterday while the whole family was present.  It's a new set of luggage!  yeah!  I have needed some new stuff for some time.  I really wanted to have a set because I didn't have a bag for MayLing when I go to China.  It has 3 suitcases (they all fit inside each other), a carry-on bag, a laptop bag, and a toiletry bag.  I'm so psyched!  This will make my Dallas travels much more tolerable.  So, what's left for Christmas?

I love that my parents still take care of me even though I am an adult.  They paid for the groceries to put on Thanksgiving Dinner and today we went to Lowe's.  I didn't expect my dad to buy anything, but I needed to get some over-the-sink lights for my kitchen and a broom to sweep my patio and walk way off with.  Well, I also got a new dish sponge and a step stool (so I don't have to continue dragging my chair all over my kitchen and my house to reach things).  So again I ask, what's left for Christmas?  Just having them around is like having Christmas.  I don't need anything.  I just like having them in my home as we begin some new holiday traditions.

Thanksgiving Mayhem at Mama's House

I volunteered to have Thanksgiving at my house this year.  Truth be told, I begged for it to be at my house because, as a nurse, I have never gotten more than one day off from work.  As such, I don't like spending the entire day traveling just so I can eat a dried out dead bird.  Although turkey is the traditional meat served, I'd much rather have a ham.  I love ham.  Actually I enjoy most parts of a dead pig and would prefer to eat that over dead bird any day.

Ok, that got off topic.  I must admit that I almost attempted to escape the screaming toddler (cute, but nerve wracking when your house occupancy goes from 1 to 7 in the matter of a few minutes), laughing, heat, bubbling potatoes, splattering noodles, and smell of whiskey.  I'm sure my other single sisters would agree, you get used to solitude and having company definitely rocks your world.  I'm not knocking it, just saying it took me some time to adjust.

It was an awesome day.  The food was awesome and everyone agreed it was the best Thanksgiving Day/Food.  There is talk of repeating it here again next year which would also be wonderful.  I think I will try to beat everyone else to the liquor next year though.  

Is the Batchelor Gay?

Ok, I realize that question might be slightly inflammatory, and I admit to never having watched an episode prior to the last 20 minutes of tonight's show, but I have to wonder, did he really feel nothing for either woman or was he simply too afraid to commit?  There is no shame in it, the shame is when you don't recognize that about yourself and start dragging innocent people into the muck with you.  I have a good friend (hope he's not reading this post) who is afraid of commitment and recognizes it in himself.  As long as the women he dates realize that this is as far as it goes, no one should get hurt, but when you go on national TV exposing your desire for marriage with everyone and their dog, that's not fair.  I'm not planning on watching tomorrow's episode.  There are only so many broken hearts I'm willing to expose myself to and I doubt he will say anything that will explain his actions. 

Neighborly Love--Part II

Sure enough, my gutters were clean when I got home tonight.  I decided to walk over to the neighbor's house and thank him for his work.  He asked how much the estimate was for to replace the rear gutters and when I told him, he said, "I bet I could probably replace at least the wood for you, if not the guttering."  WHAT!  He said he is going to check with his dad (who taught him guttering years ago) and see what kind of estimate he could come up with.  That would be awesome!  If his estimate is accurate, it will cost me less than 1/2 of what this guy is charging.  This guy is charging me an arm and a leg because I compared it to another quote I got and it was substantially less.  Unfortunately I never could get the first guy on the phone again.  I left message after message and no one ever called.  Evidently that is a common complaint in this town--the roofing and guttering people just never call you back. 

I'm going to say it one more time--I love my neighbors and my neighborhood!

Neighborly Love

I love to blog about my neighbors.  They are a constant source of joy for me.  Several of my neighbors are now attending the same church as me.  Today, Spencer, the guy with 3 little red-headed boys (neither he nor his wife are red heads--how bizarre!) asked how things were going at my house.  He asked if I needed any help with the leaves--I have to admit to feeling a bit guilty since he can plainly see my yard from his front yard and the site of my leaf strewn yard is probably an eyesore.  I told him the leaves were ok (note to self, buy a leaf rake already!), but that I had no way of cleaning my front gutters.  The rear gutters should be replaced sometime in the next week or two, but the front ones are probably pretty messy.  He said that was fine, that it wouldn't take him any time at all.  He said he'd come over tomorrow while I was at work and clean them out.  God bless him!  I have such a hard time accepting charity from others, short of baby sitting his kids, any suggestions on how to pay him back? 

Taking a Sick Day

I'm not so much taking a sick day as I am accepting the one that has been handed to me.  It seems that I really can't burn it at both ends...at least not for long.  Silly me, I thought I could get by with only 5-6 hours of sleep a night.  Evidently not.

I knew something was a bit screwy as I slept last night because each time I rolled onto my left side my head started swimming and I felt really dizzy.  Do you know how bad it is when you feel dizzy without even opening your eyes?  Most likely it is an inner ear/allergy related thing or just from sheer exhaustion.  Right now I am leaning more towards exhaustion.  I got up for about an hour--long enough to call and cancel all the plans I had today, and there were many--before falling asleep on the couch.  I finally woke up around 3 pm, but only because I was in desperate need for a toilet.  Anyway, feeling a bit better, but I am certainly not going to drive any where today. 

So what do you do when you are too dizzy to walk, bored of sleeping and have no cable TV?  Well, first you cruise all your favorite blogs.  After that is accomplished you start working on projects that don't require much head movement, such as organizing your digital photo library.  Yeah, that was a shocker.  I looked at pics from about a year ago and thought "yeah, you were looking foxy then."  Now I look like a teletubby.  I am taking steps to correct that and I certainly hope to see the evidence of that in the next few weeks.  I bought a new pair of jeans with my sister in mid-September and after I brought them back from the tailor (yes, I am a shorty and I do not hem my jeans) they didn't seem to fit.  Hmmm, what's that all about?  I'm going to try them on real quick...hold on a sec....ok, not pretty with my big girl panties hangin over the top, but they are fitting better.  I'm not going to show you my most recent photos (duh, you can just scroll peeps), but I will share a couple of older photos with you when I was still looking like a hottie. 

This photo is actually 2 years old...me and Fil in our "honeymoon photo".  Inside joke.  

For the birth of my niece...look at those nice looking arms!

Graduation Day--May 2006 Halloween 2006

Yeah, I definitely have my work cut out for me and I'm sure you'll read all about it right here.  I looked at home many miles I have logged so far this month, and I have walked/ellipticaled 29.5 miles as of yesterday.  Yippee! 

Merry Christmas?

Do you ever have one of those days that you thing "man, I've got a lot of great things to blog?"  Sometimes they are just random comments that at the time seem ultra-cool, but for me I think they usually come across as nothing more than mental diarrhea. 

Today is not a day that I am feeling particularly clever.  I'm tired.  It's Friday.  It's been a long week. 

Just sos ya know, I'm Irish.  I know it is just an excuse, but I feel like I need an excuse for why I tend to blow hot and then feel fine.  If you ever watch me get really mad, it's ok, I'm fine shortly after that.  I just need to vent and process through it.

Case in point, the chic-a-dee at work I mentioned in my last post.  She had me pretty irritated, but now my irritation has turned to feeling sorry.  There are some serious communication issues in my department.  A lot of them have to do with her and her passive-aggressive personality, but a lot has to do with our team leader.  She also does not communicate what her expectations are or the process for getting things done.  All of us analysts are nurses who are suddenly working in an IS department.  Do you have any idea what kind of chaos this creates?  I am fortunate that I have at least played on a computer before.  Most of these chickies haven't.  I am very familiar with Microsoft products and how they work (in fact I am trialing one right now.  I am not actually posting from my blogger site.  I am using Windows Live Writer today and if I like it you might see some new things on my blog).  Anyway, the chic-a-dee didn't know how to design the education tools that needed done and she was hoping that I did.  If she has approached a bit nicer, I probably would have offered to figure it out.  Anyway, I'm feeling fine about it now.

My first Christmas present arrived in the mail yesterday.  I feel sorry for the postman or whoever delivered it because it is a huge box and probably weighs 45 pounds.  I'm not supposed to know what it is, but I'm pretty sure it is luggage.  I didn't share this with my mom, but one of the wheels is kinda poking out of the cardboard.  It also has the color and quantity listed in bold black print.

Is it my imagination or have my blogger buddies all taken a vacation?  It seems everyone has slowed down lately.  I don't know if it is the ever increasing wait, boring lives, or their lives are so interesting and busy that they are just unable to slow down long enough to post.  I really hope it is the latter. 

Oy!

My ass is whipped...hehe...I almost made a funny. I'm so tired I couldn't remember how to spell it so I wrote wiped. It is whipped and wiped, but that gives you a whole different visual now doesn't it?

I'm a total addict, seriously. The cable guys came out last night to fix the modem because I had intermittent phone and internet service. By intermittent I mean, I went to bed Monday with no phone service...thank God I'm young and MayLing isn't home. I guess it's not really an emergency when you can go next door and use a neighbor's phone. What is it about our society that makes us feel helpless when we can't pick up the phone and have instant help? I would guess that most countries don't have instant help.

Anyway, back on topic. The repair people came out without calling me first so I was sitting here in my lovely "monkey" pajama bottoms looking oh so fabulous. And they were cute! Oh, well. I think I have given up on cute boys entering my life anytime in the forseeable future. They fixed the cable/internet right up and I processed to link in and mentally check out. Really, I'm a total YouTube fan. In fact, just writing the word makes me want to open the page STAT and see what groovy things are out there. Kris and I were emailing videos of our favorite boys last night well past my bedtime. Even when I tried to pull myself away, I couldn't. I have already talked to our IS people at work and asked about a 12 step program. They are working on it. Evidently I'm not alone. This happens to a lot of nerds that I suddenly get 'teched up'.

What else is new you ask? I had the sloooowwweeesssttt day ever at work. Really, no joke. the entire department was gone. They were all scoping out some new equipment at another site and I was left to my lonesome. I hope they don't check how much internet time I logged today because let me tell you, it would be huge! It was all I could do to not blog a post from my office desk today. Yowza. It was bad and to make it worse....the one colleague that I find somewhat disagreeable calls me at 4:30 pm as I am about to teach my final inservice of the day and says, "Did you do the screenshots yet?" Huh? First I had heard of it. I had volunteered a week ago to help her when she was ready to go live. I am currently the liaison between the analysts and informaticists (educators) and the key words in previous sentence were week, help, and ready. She hadn't breathed a word of it to me since then and I guess she is going live tomorrow. Wow, the end users are going to LOVE that. I didn't feel like pointing out to her that she had gone about it back assward. You are supposed to educate and then go live. Evidently she thought I had developed all the material and was ready to begin teaching the staff. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she thought that the inservice I was giving today was about her stuff. She asked if I was going to make all the cool graphics with circles and arrows. What the heck? She was being rather condescending when I said that I hadn't done that before. I told her if she could get me started I could probably figure the rest out. She tells me "I HAVEN'T HAD THE CLASS, I CAN'T HELP YOU." WHAT? She better reign her nasty self back in before I complain to the boss. I'm not the kind that likes to do that but she is already in hot water. The whole thing annoyed me. If she had at least hinted about this, I could have spent my useless day doing it. Trust me, I would have been happy to do it in between all my inservices. Grrhhh.

Happy 9 Month LID to me!

Contrary to what you are probably thinking, no, I did not forget my LIDversery. As you probably remember Mama had a high speed cable modem installed and for the first few hours I was in wedded bliss. Well, the honeymoon period ended about 3 hours later when I lost my signal. Do you know what happens when you lose your signal? You lose your phone line too. Yep, my 3 hours of passion left me feeling somewhat irritated and red faced. I messed around with it until 12:30 am hoping that I would "bump" a wire into a better position. No such luck. When I got up at 6 am it was working again. However, after coming home this evening I was only able to get on for a few minutes before losing my signal. Grrrhhh! I was forced to call the cable company not on my landline (because I had lost my signal), but on my cell phone. Cell phones cost money you know. I won't even tell you what a recent bill set me back.

Anyway, I'm back into the arms of my new lover. Have I mentioned that I love U2? Yeah, I own nearly every CD that they have put out...even their best of CDs that only have 1 or 2 new songs. Did you know that you can watch the music videos of nearly every new song on YouTube? Well, I didn't know until yesterday. Now I can watch young Bono whenever I want. Ahh, heaven. Any other cute boy suggestions?

Did I also mention that I will probably need a 12 step program soon? As soon as the guys installed it yesterday I dropped a couple bucks on downloading some new tunes. It's soooo simple now and only takes 3 seconds. iTunes is somewhat seductive because it doesn't ask for your credit card number...all you have to do is log in. Oh, sweet nectar of the digital gods, your fruit is too sweet!

"Life Comes at You Fast"

Chances are that if you own a TV and have turned it on at any time in the last 2 years you have seen the Nationwide commercial using this catch phrase "Life Comes at You Fast". My personal favorite is K Fed going from Britney's boytoy to working at a fast food joint. Right now they are running an ad show a love stricken couple driving down the highway in a convertible. Her long red scarf wraps around his head and he can't see to drive. They end up driving off the road and landing in a field. It ends with the two of them exchanging loving looks despite the fact that the car is trashed.

Life does comes at us fast and sometimes you just want to grab the oh shit bar (the handle located near the passenger's head in any automobile) and slam your feet on the floorboard and say "slow down!". I think for those of us in the adoption world, especially Chinese adoptions, things seem to move slowly but do you ever take a step back from the situation and examine it with new eyes? Recently there have been some changes in my life and in the way I view MY world. I feel like I have just recently gotten a snap shot view of my future...and it isn't anything like I planned or imagined. It doesn't make it bad. It's just different. Given the choice I would have chosen the path of least resistance...the shortest route between two points...I would have gone the same generic way everyone else has. But what would that route have taught me? Nothing, probably. This route has definitely tested my faith, tested my beliefs and made me leave my comfort zone. Maybe it is as Robert Frost said "...two roads diverged in a road, and I--I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

"Put on your big girl panties and deal with it"

That sign is hanging in the office I share with Terri. She is a feisty woman that I have grown to respect for her wisdom, but also her sense of humor. And she is right, sometimes you just need to put on your big girl panties and deal with it. And that is precisely what I have done, figuratively and literally. As I mentioned in a previous post, I needed some guidance with a decision and I think it is finally made. So tonight, I went to Target got myself some big fat briefs, just in case this girl has a hard time dealing with it. I'm not going to post what decision I have made, nor what my dilemma was so I hope the two or three out there that know will keep it to themselves. At some point I am sure I will delve into it, but not right now.

Work is going well. I've been very busy and I have learned to dread Thursday. They aren't horrible days, but it is nothing but meetings and my butt hurts! I have been very conscientious about going to the gym because I am doing so much sitting and I am snacking more than I used to at work.

Kristen, her mom, my mom and me (does that make sense?) have embarked on a "Miles to China" adventure. We are documenting the number of miles we are walking, cycling, ellipticalling, rowing...well, you get the point...that takes us to China. Our goal is to have a combined number of miles that match the distance. It is 6,787 miles from here to Beijing and 6,515 miles from Janesville to Beijing. So far I have racked up 17.5 miles since the beginning of the month. Whoo-hoo! I'm sure my mom will kick my a** though because she walks 3 miles/day 6days/week. She is a machine.

Yippee!! Congrats to the new families that were created today. I am so incredibly happy for you. It certainly is good to see China referring a larger group. They made it through 8 days this time!

On a personal note, please say a prayer for me this week. I can't really delve into the details at this time, but sometimes you feel pulled to certain places in your life that you really didn't see coming. This does not deal directly with adopting MayLing, but it could impact it so please pray that I have clarity this week. And for the wickedly curious, I am not withdrawing my dossier, so don't get too excited.

West Baden Springs Hotel

On Saturday Michael and I took a day trip to French Lick, Indiana and got to see the newly renovated West Baden Springs Hotel. It is often referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world" for it's natural mineral springs and for the incredible dome in the hotel. It is/was the largest dome in the world and was built in a year's time. This hotel is incredible. I couldn't help but gush when I saw it. It is enormous, breathtaking, and slightly eerie. Even though it was bustling with people, it was deathly quiet in the hotel and on the grounds. It gave off an eerie sort of Overlook Hotel vibe (check out "The Shining"). All the rooms circle the dome and many people had balconies facing the dome and doors that were wide open. Michael even commented that he expected to see a jumper fall from a window. The hotel was incredible, but creepy nonetheless. After the hotel we went to the casino. Evidently in order to meet criteria for having a casino in the state of Indiana you must be on water. So what did they do? The put in a tiny man-made pond and parked the casino in front of it. Yeah, a bit weird, but an ingenious way around the rules.

After that excitement we had to check out the Winery. I was impressed that it was so good for a small town. Not only did they have the winery, but they put a restaurant and a store in the warehouse as well. Overall, French Lick is well worth the gas it took to get there.

Don't forget to "Fall Behind" tonight!

China Adoption Blog Gathering Anyone?

I'm sending this in conjunction with Kristen:

Is anyone interested in getting together to celebrate our upcoming adoptions? The wait is very difficult, we all know that. So let's do something to support one another and just have some FUN! So, adoptive Mom's to be, let's do it. If you are interested in having some fun, leave me (or Kris) a comment, your e-mail, or a link to your blog and let's see if we can get something organized for January or February.

Guess what Mama's Getting for her 9 month LID?

Nine months. That's pretty significant. It's the last of the single digit numbers that I know. It is also the average length of time that a woman is pregnant. So what am I don't to mark this momentous occasion?
I'm getting a HIGH SPEED CABLE MODEM. That's right folks, I'm gettin' modern. For fear of sounding like a hillbilly, let me explain that I did have DSL until I moved into this house a year ago. I'm actually closer to work (which is in the middle of the town), but I'm not city limits. And since all my neighbors are old and no one else is squeaking about wanting DSL from AT&T, they have no reason to update the phone lines. It really irritates me because people to the north, south, east and west of us have DSL. Darn old people...they don't even own computers. I really need to have something fast because my work laptop requires a secure remote access when used off site and it takes FOREVER to load when hooked to a dial-up phone line.

More LID news...I learned that I will be in Dallas when I celebrate my 12 month LID. I'm pretty bummed about that. I really wanted to have a small party at home, celebrate Chinese New Year (not sure exactly when it falls next year, but it fell close to my LID this year), and reflect on the year behind and the year(s) coming up. Now I will be stuck in Dallas with strangers. I will also miss Valentine's Day and as my sister so gracefully pointed out, "So what? Do you think you are going to be dating anyone then?" Well, no, but I like to spend that time with my friends or soaking in the tub with a box of chocolates sitting near by. I guess I can still do the latter in Dallas.