So I’m walking home from the library (where I was at an alumni committee meeting) and passing through the alley between the Brethren in Christ parsonage and the United Church of Christ church and thought “this would be the ideal place to get mugged!” I mean, who would think to mug someone between a parsonage & a church?

I didn’t get mugged, thankfully… And I wonder, why is the parsonage for the BiC next to the UCC, and the parsonage for the UCC across from the BiC? That’s puzzled me for years. Why don’t they just trade? And you know, I have no idea where the parsonage for the First Brethren Church is. Actually, I don’t know exactly where the Church of the Brethren parsonage is, but I know it’s very close to the CoB. And does the Assembly of God (or whatever it’s called) church have a parsonage? If so, where is it? (When I was in kindergarten, we had class in the basement of that church. It’s right across the street from the school.)

You know, we have a LOT of churches in our small 1/4 mile x 1/4 mile town. And where do I go to church (when I don’t go to the Church of the Heavenly Fluffy Pillow)? All the way to New Madison (a 30+ minute drive away) First Universalist Church (a Unitarian Universalist church – one of two in that county.)

Today is Free Mojtaba and Arash Day

My sister’s probably the only one reading this who will get the subject of my post. No matter… I picked it ‘cuz today I bought 2 Calphalon spatulas (small & large) and a 4qt Calphalon covered saucepan. Kohl’s was having a sale (as they usually do) on their Calphalon cookware *and* you also got 15% off when you used your Kohl’s credit card. So I decided to buy the items. Mom, meanwhile, bought the 12-piece Calphalon set (nonstick hard-anodized aluminum – the only way to go IMO) and got a free 4qt Dutch oven, too. I wanted the Dutch oven as well, but it was $10 more than the saucepan, and I *really* needed the saucepan.

I had a lovely day out with the ‘rents this morning. First Curves for mom & me, then Home Depot where the folks bought the replacement bits to repair their shower stall. Then onto Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch. (In keeping with the Dutch theme, that’s how we paid…) I had steak & coconut battered shrimp. Amazing how tasty shrimp can be when you let coconut bash it to death. Finally, we finished up at our Kohl’s shopping spree.

Once I was home, Leo and I sat in the reading room and I finished a book (Weighing the Soul by Len Fisher). But then we both fell asleep in the comfy chair with the sleepytime music playing. I’m up now, however, and I think I’ll go play a bit more City of Heroin.

I love having a day off work!

On my way out to Lowe’s & Meijer this morning (with dad) I promised Leo that when I got back, we’d have a Treen & Leo day and do laundry and play with Leo’s favorite toys. So I did just that. He’s got this one toy that flies like a bird and he played with it so hard today that it was several minutes before he got his breath back. He was then too tired to play with his Gone Fishin’ toy which he got for Xmas (and subsequently got a replacement for when he tore the first to pieces). Both of these toys stay in the linen closet until we’re ready to play with ’em. If not, they’d be in little bits by now.

The best part about the laundry day is that clothes now take 1 hour to dry. Not an hour and a half. Or four hours. Nope, just 1 hour. Yay! Let’s hear it for cleaning the lint out of the vent!

BTW, I never did receive the blackmail money from judiang, so I guess I should out her as saying the following: “Well, yes, I do think there is certain puppyishness about those droopy eyes….” to the question “Do you think Sylv is cute?”

I shall miss the money, but shall enjoy the virtual fwaps when she reads the above paragraph. 🙂

BTW, the end of Treen & Leo Day is going to be some quality reading time in the Reading Room in our big green reading chair. Leo’s currently sitting on the gold chair here in the den. I love my cat. 🙂

“Cows with Guns” by Dana Lyons. Cute song, cute animation. 🙂

Yo, Judi, get yer butt on IRC or AIM… We both received your e-mail, but you can’t read our replies…

Been playing for 4 hours solid now. Sheesh! That game is EVIL! It’s Addictive! And damn, I missed Monk! (Maybe it’s about to repeat). Anyhoo, thanks to Judi and some other nice CoHers, I’ve gotten to level 9. Judi’s at level 12. Amazing!

Tonight, after the long, long night that is Parent/Teacher conferences, we had a surprise Retire-Rehire party for our superintendent. He’s been in the education biz for 30 years and we found it frugal, as a school, to let him retire and then rehire him. He gets a boatload more money in the deal too (since he’s now drawing his retirement).

So, everyone gathered in the media center before 7pm (there was to be a board meeting at 7:30) and chatted and waited. Many of the staff were present and quite a few of the super’s former colleagues were present as well. And shortly after 7pm, one of the board members got him down to the media center early so we could all shout “surprise!” as he entered. He was truly surprised, and rather speechless. He opened his gifts (nice clock, several gag gifts regarding fishing, Texas Hold’em poker, and Big Dawg, his nickname from last year), then we cut the cake and had snacks. I et some vanilla cake with lots of icing (yum) and had some lovely pond scum punch (you know, punch with frozen sherbet melting in it) and then headed on home.

Alas, we don’t have tomorrow off (I guess we’re getting Good Friday off in its stead) but it is jeans Friday AND payday, so I’m glad about that. And we have a 3 day weekend – woohoo! I’m thinking I could use some Indian Fud this weekend.

So, for Valentine’s Day, the City of Heroes folk sent e-mails around to their users (good use of the word here) telling them to invite a friend to try the game out for free for 14 days. Now, judiang is the woman who introduced me to the wonderful world of MMORPG (when I foolishly bought her Diablo II for Christmas one year). So of course, I thought that she should get the invite.

What have I done? I’ve created a monster! Or rather, a hero! It’s been loads of fun playing with her (her current hero is now level with Icy Hot Man – I expect her to be at level 10 by the time I see her tomorrow. Then she can sidekick me and I can help her along as best I can.)

City of Heroes is basically crack in electronic form. See, they get you with the cool graphics & the neat-o beat-em-up action. And then they take your money away every month. And what I’ve done to Judi is given her a free sample, but she’ll probably get hooked and will have to buy the monthly fix. Sorry, Judi! I’m a bad, bad friend!

(This just goes to prove to me that I should NEVER buy World of Warcraft! One crack addiction is bad enough, I don’t want to add heroin to the mix!)

So, the previous night I dreamt that one of my co-workers was an android on the run from the government and I was trying to help him stay one step ahead of the feds…

Last night I dreamt I was working as a go-fer on a Hollywood film (that was being shot in England or somewhere else abroad) during my summer months. They paid a lot more than I get paid for my summer work (of fixing the computers up for the next school year). And I was afraid the shooting would go into the school year, but the director (who resembled my old principal Dr. Peg McAtee) said that they’d pay me well to stay on. Ah, the dilemmas! 🙂

I don’t usually remember enough of my dreams, but when I do, the dreams are always, well, memorable. 🙂