Scott's Online Journal

It's been a while since I have wrote.  Work got busy since november and I haven't had time.  The holidays were great, lots of family and food, I love food and am trying to shed the 4 extra pounds I put on.  I probably wouldn't have gained anything but I reduced my exercise schedule quite a bit, again not enough time or too tired.  The good news is that I have not been sick at all this year, no colds, no flu no nothing and I love it, of course my hands don't.  I have been washing them religiously to avoid germs and viruses so they are extra dry but it's a nice tradeoff not to be ill.  I am currently unemployed and enjoying it for the moment.  The company that bought Steve and Barry's out of bankruptcy in August filed for bankruptcy in November so the judge ordered the liquidation of the remaining 175 stores or about 5,000 employees, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year right?  We just closed on January 13th.  I miss the employees more than anything.  They were great people to work with and not many people can say that truly about their own co-workers.  I have started a search and have a few leads thanks to my managers so I hope to get something sooner than what I am hearing the news saying.  I think they say it takes 3-4 months now to find a job on average. 

Tom and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on Jan. 9th.  He surprised me with a family gathering for dinner at Olive Garden, where our first date was.  I had thought about that possibility but I was somewhat surprised that he did it.  His mom had a heart attack on the Tuesday before New Years Day.  Then she had a couple more in the hospital, small ones.  She is to old to operate on so nothing to clear the blockage could be done.  She comes home today after some rehab at a nursing home.  She seems just like she did before but the doctors and she knows that it's only a matter of time.  Hopefully they are wrong, who would I go to Bingo with? 

So for the moment I am back at the flower shop during the day and have a little more free time so do things I have neglected.  Like play Xbox and Xbox 360.  I am really getting back into video games,  I find myself thinking about them like I did back in college.  I am finishing Star Wars:  Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox and starting Star Wars:  The Force Unleashed on Xbox 360.  I bought Lego Star Wars The Original Trilogy used yesterday at Gamestop.  I love the Star Wars games.  I am playing them on my TV I won from work.  At my store we had 42" HD LCD tvs mounted in the various departments; they played music videos etc.  Well we sold all but one and used that one for a raffle for the store employees.  Each shift that you worked extra hard, managers put a ticket with your name on it in the box.  My name was drawn so I won!  It's a ViewSonic tv and I can't believe how clear the HD stations are with it.  My eyes were on overload.  We put it in the bedroom and it's like being at a movie theater, not to mention the video games look really good on it too.

1. Your Name: Scott
Scott is wonderful and caring, he's the best thing in my life, not only does he make the best boyfriend he makes an even better best friend...and he's all mine...Scott also likes to think hes a Playa..but he's too caring to be a Playa...

2. Your Age: 29
29 is akin to, in the words of most, "Humping a Humpback whale"   The 2 from sideways looks like a whale's hump and tail, hence the whale part, and the 9 is you. 29 resembles you humping a whale. It is a strange new thing that is catching on rapidly.

3. One Of Your Friends: Anna
A girl who is generally sweet and mild mannered on the outside, but is a crazy party girl on the inside. She is also quite bi-polar. It can be used when you are extremely drunk but trying to play it cool.

4. What You Should Be Doing: Running
An obsession that only certain individuals feel compelled to partake in. The individuals may or may not be large consumers of Coca Cola, but probably are. A past time that provides some kind of euphoric feeling for obsessors who look back upon past runs. Running provides more euphoria, for some reason, when the distance that has been run is longer rather than shorter. Those who participate in running have a compulsive drive for continuous improvement.

5. Your Favorite Color: Red
 This describes the condition of the person who has been smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol--they are red, as in red in the face (from the alcohol) AND/OR red in the eyes (from the marijuana).

6. Your Birthplace:  Port Huron
A place where everyone sucks at life. Full of sluts, and jackasses only looking for sluts.  A redneck town trying to be city. Full of crazy farm girls and wild turkeys in apartment parking lots. A place where everyone knows your name, and who you've slept with. A shit hole breeding ground for scum bag losers.
All on the backdrop of a gorgeous Great Lake, PH has great potential but needs to vomit out the bullshit first! And who can forget the wonderful Blue Water Bridges??? With a beautiful view of Canada's factory's
In the summertime, mixed in with the wonderful smell of fresh cut grass and cat piss! Ah...home sweet home....

(LMAO someone really needs to get away from Port Huron)

7. Last Person You Talked To: June
In Japan, an early publication featuring male/male stories in the tanbi style. People used to refer to the category of male/male relationships targeted at the female audience as June, but since that was a trade name for a magazine, that meaning of the term has fallen into disuse. The category has evolved and changed so much and the types of stories so varied that the entire category is now called BL by the industry and most fans. In some places, including Comiket, original stories are still called 'sousaku (original) June'.

8. Last Thing You Had To Drink: Water

9. Your Nickname: Scooter
Similar to a fat chick. It is fun to ride until your friends see you with it

That site is funny, thanks for the info!
 

10 things you wish you could say to ten different people right now
--1. Do we have to engage in these pleasantries all the time?
--2. I deserve more than a fifty cent raise for the work I do.
--3. Start doing your chores this place looks like shit
--4. Shower!  It makes you feel and smell good
--5. Stop smoking because you are killing the people around you.  I know you don't care about yourself but I care about my health
--6. Why do I generally feel crappy when I get to work, you should have the vents checked for toxic mold.
--7. Is it really that hard to put stuff away in the right spot.
--8. This place needs to close
--9. Get me a long island, make that a pitcher
--10. I want to eat a whole cake and more.

09 things about yourself
--1. Sometimes I fear social situations
--2. My car is almost payed off yay! 
--3. I miss going out anywhere 
--4. My first BF was Dennis Hicks.  I tavelled to Las Vegas twice to see him and he once to Pt Huron.  We still talk and he since moved to DC working at George Mason U.
--5. 6th grade was a nightmare
--6. My first car was a Chevrolet Chevet
--7. I like all vegetables except green peppers
--8. I love country fresh dutch chocolate milk chugs
--9. I hate driving for long periods

08 ways to win your heart
--1. Do little things
--2. Surprise me, doens't have to be big
--3. Express appreciation
--4. Get along with my family
--5. Enjoy hanging out together
--6. Tell me about you day, ask me about mine
--7. Be goofy sometimes
--8. Like travelling

07 things that cross your mind a lot
--1. Am I forgetting something
--2. What do I need to do today
--3. Work
--4. What should I/we eat
--5. Money
--6. Tom
--7. Conserving gasoline

06 things you do before you fall asleep
--1. Put on Chap Stick
--2. Brush my teeth
--3. Think about tomorrow
--4. Fluff my pillow
--5. Make sure the alarm clock is on
--6. Get a glass of water

05 people who mean a lot
--1. Tom
--2. Kids
--3. Parents
--4. Siblings
--5. Friends

04 things you're wearing right now
--1. Jeans
--2. Steve and Barry's Work shirt
--3. Undershirt
--4. Shoes

03 songs that you listen to often (currently)
--1. OAR - "Turn the Car Around"
--2. David Archuleta - "Crush"
--3. Jimmy Eat World - "23"

02 things you want to do before you die
--1. Go to Germany
--2. Go to England

01 confession
--1. I want to stop working out, I am too tired to do it.

I have some thoughts about this bailout plan.  While I agree that the economy is in bad shape, I think it is worse than everyone thought now with banks and investment firms closing, I disagree that using 700+ billion dollars of our tax dollars to save banks that had adequate warning that their lending practices were too relaxed is the right solution.  For years people have lost jobs, homes, and all the while prices of goods have increased.  The government did nothing but say cut back blah blah.  Meanwhile all these investment banks were rolling in the dough of bad debt and decision making.  Well now it's time to pay up and I don't think the government should help them at all.  You can thank president Bush and the leadership in DC for this mess.  This whole administration has been dumping money into Iraq/Afganistan for years now and what have they given to the people.  A small stimulis check that obviously did nothing to stimulate anything but our gas tank.  I don't know about you but I didn't get one.  And Tom did not use his to go out and buy consumer goods, we payed bills and got gas.  No, these banks deserve to go under and help from our good old Bush is the last thing this country needs right now.

I don't know if I had posted this but Steve and Barry's the company I work for had filed for bankruptcy in July.  Luckily someone bought the company at auction that still wants to keep it open, hooray!  Although the new owners will still need to close nearly half of the 276 stores mine will not be one of them.  As a result of the news I have been working 40 hours plus overtime now for the last four weeks.  Today is my first day off in nine days.  Last Friday a co-worker and I travelled to Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights to help with that stores inventory.  We were there for 14 hours.  It was a good experience I got to network with the other store managers there to help and the district manager.  I also received a promotion to keyholder and a raise so yay more money is good.

We have been settling into our new house.  We still need to carpet the upstairs and strip wallpaper and paint the kitchen and bathroom.  We did get TV hooked up recently and it is good to know what's going on.  I did not get to watch the olympics this times as we did not have TV all of August.  I finished the novel Shavetail and started Ice Trap.  Other than that not much is currently going on.

Good Read:  Shavetail by Thomas Cobb

Set during the US expansion into the west, its focus is around a young soldier and the difficult choices and experiences he faces in the vastly unexplored west.  It is violent at times (battles with Apache) and graphic (slaughter of a herd of antelope) but it is a well told story.  I am about 30% through the book am finding that I love reading it. 

We are in the process of moving and I wish it was over because it is quite stressful.  Not to mention we are lugging a lot of junk that we really don't need but some of use are pack rats.  I think moving has affected our relationship more than any other event in our almost five years.  There is constant bickering about this and that and several silent treatments being administered on both sides, not to mention cold shoulders.  If we make it through this we should get through just about anything else I hope.

Recently Anna and I went to see Brian and Laura in Traverse City for the weekend during the Cherry Festival.  It was nice to get away for a while.  We visited CMU on the way up there to see all the changes that our money has made possible.  Since Brian would not get out of work until 8PM Friday, Anna and I checked out the cherry festival downtown.  It was hot so we ran through pretty quickly then made our way to the shade of the downtown.  Anna took me to Coldstone Creamery, I think they have the best ice cream I have ever tasted!  I had Coffee Lovers Only, awesome!  Then we met Brian and Laura at Mongolian BBQ.  Later we went back to there house and drank around the fire.

The next day we sat around and played hand and foot, and I brought my N64 so we played mario kart and james bond complete with swearing and such.  We cooked out on the grill for dinner, then watched a movie on TV then one more game of cards before bedtime.  The next day after breakfast we said goodbye to Brian and Laura and headed to an orchard to get some cherries and blueberries and decided to check out sleeping bear dunes.  We spent a few hours there before heading back home getting there around 8PM.  All in all a fun weekend, I put some pictures up from it.

 Summer had been going by fast hasn't it?  It hasn't been too hot yet either but we have been getting a lot of storms.  Usually every other day.  These aren't just garden variety thunderstorms either, they come through with high winds and lots of rain, 1.5 inches in one hour the other day, and hail.  It's been very active.  I a couple weeks Anna and I will be heading to Traverse City to visit Brian and catch the tail end of the Cherry Festival.  I have never been there during that time so it should be great.  I plan to drink a lot and have a good time.  I am sure we all will.

I met with an attorney the other day to discuss bankruptcy.  I have been thinking about this for some time now.  All my debts are debts I incurred within the first four months of opening the flowershop.  The last few years have been agonizing, I feel like I lost some of the best time of my life worrying about my debts and the constant phone calls from collection agencies.  I know that I was responsible for what happened but somehow the situation didn't seem fair, I was doing what I had to do at the time thinking I could pay it later.  I have decided to file bankruptcy after speaking with the lawyer.  I believe the benefits of it will outweigh what a bankruptcy does to my credit, which is already poor.  I already feel happier than I have been in a long time.  I feel like I am getting somewhere instead of being stuck in the same situation and worrying about the same things day after day.  If all goes well I should be able to pay the rest of the filing and attorney fees by early August.

I have learned a big lesson, never buy anything you don't now have the cash for.  I will never have a credit card again, I made that promise to myself.  I had always payed them off so I guess I had a false sense of security.  I don't think I will ever buy a new car again either.  There were some points that I thought it would be repossessed but I managed to at least get caught up again, thankfully it will be payed off soon.  I'll save up cash and use it to buy a used one.  I don't want to have the worry that I did again, it was the worst feeling in the world.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (need to finish)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I have been playing literati on Yahoo a few times a week. If anyone is online and wants to play, look for me. My user name is scott20cmu or we can pick a time to meet.

One more charge, from a military book club posted to my account before my card was cancelled. I contacted them and gamefly and the person was using my full address. He had the games and books sent to my address. They must just do this to spend peoples money, for fun and to not get caught. Anyway all the charges have been reversed, I filed a police report, and I am getting a new debit card.

Somehow somebody got access to my debit card and used it to make purchases in my name. I found this out this morning when I went online to check my banking. Two fradualent charges appeared dated Saturday March 29th. One was a $40 charge for the Girls Gone Wild website and another was a $10 charge for Gamefly. I called Girls Gone Wild and they reversed the charges for me. I was hoping the asshole who did it used his address during registration but somehow he had my address and everything. I did get an email address used for registration: james.peters@asiamail.com.

I am hoping that whoever registered for gamefly put their address in because you have to enter an address where you want the games shipped. If they used my address I hope they are good games for Wii because I will keep them. Gamefly was closed today for inventory so I have to wait until tommorrow but I work in the morning so I won't be able to find out until the afternoon. I so hope they have a different address.

What is scary is that I don't know how they got all my info. The only sites I have my information saved on are for car insurance or trading cds to pay charges. You would think if the companies computers were hacked they would let you know soon but I have not revieved anything from any company yet.
I am really puzzled by this. In the meantime my bank has cancelled my debit card and is issuing a new one.

I started my new job last week, it has been a lot of hard work. Our store is 18,000 square feet, probably the largest place I have ever worked. Last week was a lot of late nights but we opened 3/19. I was not scheduled but I was Thursday. It was wall to wall people although I think Saturday was worse. We were there until 2:30AM recovering the store. There are a lot of high school age kids working there and I don't think they quite have the time management skills built yet. I think if they do a little cleanup and help customers then it would take less time but they seem quite scatterbrained as I was at that age, sometimes still am lol.

I must be doing good because I got a raise yesterday and the store director wants me to be either stock specialist or visual specialist she is still deciding. I think I would rather be visual specialist. I have done the stock thing before and having been fired, I am wary of tackling that position again.

1. Your ex is on the side of the road, on fire. What do you do?
I would stop to help

2. Your best friend tells you she is pregnant. What is your reaction?
I'd congratulate her and ask when she was due and what she thinks she will have.

3. When is the last time you wanted to punch someone in their face?
Wednesday evening

4. What is the last thing you spent money on?
Gasoline

5. Do you think you gained or lost weight this past month?
Stayed the same

6. Crunchy or Puffy Cheetos?
Crunchy

7. The first person on your top friends list just called you a bitch. What do you have to say?
I would call them a slut.

8. Congratulations! You just had a son. What's his name?
Tyson Scott

9. Congratulations! You just had a daughter. What's her name?
Taylor Elizabeth

10. What are you craving right now?
Nothing

11. What was the last thing you cried about?
Old memories

12. When you buy something and your change is 2 cents, do you keep it or tell the cashier to keep it?
Keep it

13. What color is your tissue box?
Don't have one here at the moment

14. Do you have a ceiling fan in your room, and if so, is there dust on that fan?
No fan, but there is dust on the light fixture

15. What is the last voicemail you received about?
Tom asking why my phone was not turned on

16. Have you ever blocked someone on MySpace before?
No

17. Scariest thing you've experienced in the last year?
They were all scary, I don't want to go into it

18. Do you wear a name tag at work?
I don't know I don't start my new job until Saturday. I don't wear one at the flower shop.

19. What kind of car do you drive?
2003 Ford Focus. Red.

20. What do you order when you go to Taco Bell?
The new platter thing, it's good, with chicken in it

21. Have you ever had a garage sale?
Yes

22. What color is your ipod?
I don't have a portable music player.

23. What is the last alcoholic beverage you had?
An amaretto sour at Leaning Tree on Saturday night

24. Are you happy right now?
Yes, today.

25. Who came over last?
John

26.Do you drink beer?
Yuck.

27. Have your brothers or sisters ever told you that you were adopted?
No.

28. What is your favorite key on your key chain?
My car key

29. What was the last movie you watched at home?
The Hills Have Eyes 2

30. What is in your pocket?
Nothing.

31. Who introduced you to your bf/gf/husband/wife?
Tom's friend Tyson found me at the bar and introduced us, the rest is history

32. Where do you hurt?
My feet, I've been standing all day.

33. Has someone ever made you a Build-A-Bear?
No

34. What's something fun you did today?
Saw someone fall down on ice walking home from the high school while I was out delivering, the way he fell was funny, he was kinda running to get over this snowbank and fell sideways in slow motion, really funny, his hands were in his pockets so he could not react quickly enough to grab anything.

35. What is your favorite aisle at Wal-Mart?
The frozen food section.

36. When is your birthday?
April 10th

37. Is there anything hanging from your rear view mirror?
No

38. How many states in the US have you been to?
At least 21

39. What kind of milk do you drink?
2%

40. What are you going to do after this?
Go home and make dinner and wait for American Idol to come on

41. Who was the last person you went shopping with?
Tom

42. What is something you need to go shopping for?
Can never have enough clothes

43. Do you have the same name as one of your relatives?
My Grandma had a stillborn baby she was going to call Scott. She didn't tell anyone about the name and my mom picked Scott for my name so that is kinda creepy.

46. Is someone in love with you?
Yes, I think so

47. What color is your couch?
Medium Brown

48. What famous person do you look like?
Someone said the lead singer of green day, I don't think so.

49. Does someone like you right now?
Yes

50. Say you were given a pregnancy test right now. Would you pass or fail?
Um, seeing as guys can't get pregnant I would say negative.

51. Favorite pop-tart flavor?
Frosted cherry

52. Do you know anyone in jail/prison?
Yes, Tom's 18 year old nephew was sent to jail for 40 days

53. What are your plans for the weekend?
I start my new job on Saturday night, Sunday I have a surprise party planned for Tom's birthday.

54. Do you like the color green?
Yes

55. Who was the last person to send you a instant message?
Sarah Scurti, ages ago, maybe over a year, I don't IM much anymore

56. Last restaurant you went to?
Denny's

57. How many hours did you sleep for last night?
7.5

58. Do you swear at your parents?
Not at but sometimes around them

59. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now?
Yes

60. Have you ever changed your clothes while in a vehicle?
Yes, once on the way to florida with Tom, you have to get out of your winter clothes and put on your shorts

61. What is your ringtone?
Just a regular phone ring

62. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Sleeping

I was laying in bed the other night and I had a flashback of me leaving CMU after graduation. I remember I was at the stoplight at Broomfield and Mission, the one by the Wayside. As I was sitting there I remember cryiny thinking about all the good times we had had there. I think I cried all the way out of town before I stopped. It's funny because when I was leaving that first summer to start CMU I was crying too because I was going to miss my family and I was nervous. I don't know why that one moment out of all of them came to mind. When I started to think about the other times I realized that I couldn't remember as much as I used to and I was surprised at that and scared. I don't want to forget. I am glad I still have Brian, Sandy, Nicole, Anna, Kat, Cliff, and Tara as friends so we can help each other remember.

One of my favorite shows is in full swing again, American Idol. I do think the judges made a mistake not putting the guy that lives in his car through to the top 24. I loved his sound it was new and different. He did make a mistake on his "Stand by Me" audition though but his other efforts were great, someone give him a record deal, I'd buy it.

Four contestants were eliminated the other night. I disagreed and was quite dissapointed/upset that hottie Colton Berry was let go. He wasn't the best singer that evening but he was not the worst either. I would have sent Luke, who looks like Orlando Bloom doesn't he, home as well as the guy with the blond spot in the front of his otherwise dark hair. Their performances were boring and the vocals matched.

Of the guys still left, I think David is the best so far. Of the girls, I like Brooke, there is something about her that is really likeable and her singing is nice too.

One thing I would like to see different is the theme nights. It was the 60's last week. I think its hard to make something sound current when it's from the 60's. I would like the contestants to be able to sing current or recent hits. It would be nice to see how they change current hits to each contestants own style.

Finally, did you catch Paula's video? In my opinion she's still got it. It was a catchy clubby style sound sure to be remixed for the clubs. Great job Paula!

I haven't written here for awhile because a lot has been going on. The house is in foreclosure. It was in the paper the other day. It will be sold at auction at the county building in 30 days. After which we will have a redemption period of 6 months to try to sell it and pay the mortgage company. We knew this was coming, Tom is laid off and the adjustable rate mortgage increased twice in six months. Our interest rate is 12.5%, and the payment went from $700 to $1200 a month. We have been really depressed of late, not knowing what the future is going to hold for us and the kids. I have had some good news, after looking for any job I could find for awhile, my friend Krystal is going to be the manager of a new store opening up and she said that she would hire me. That will start in February. We have had house up for sale since October and have lowered the price down to 85000, we will be taking a big loss but at least we will get something out of it. We have one offer that we will know about more on Friday and we have a private showing on the 9th to someone who is interested. At an open house on Sunday we had four people come through the house so hopefully it sells before we have to be out on July 31st.

Thanksgiving was a bit different this year. Since Grandpa had his heart surgery earlier this fall, Grandma and he decided not to have it this year. Instead we had it at my Mom and Dads with my Sister's family. It was fun, and we could actually move around. Usually Grandmas house was filled to the brim. I did miss seeing everyone and I think they did too. They told everyone that they would be having Christmas eve this year hehe. Anyway, hope everyone had a good one.

Taken from my friend Krystals' Myspace page:


Create your own Friend Quiz here

And for a little dirtier version I used the word cock. Some of these are really funny: