Category: General

Dad, Jason & I drove over to Winona, Minnesota yesterday to visit my Uncle Terry (Dad’s brother) and his family. We camped last night out by the Mississippi river. What a switch from the Houston heat! Just have a secont to post – will add more later (I have been writing offline on the laptop & on my Handspring). Lots of pictures to come too – I am *so* glad Naomi let me borrow her digital camera. Give you something to look forward to! I’ll be back! Having a great time up north!

Off to the airport soon for the flight to Bismarck, North Dakota. I’ll be in and out – the laptop is going with me, along with Naomi’s camera – so maybe you will even get pictures! Off to finish the last minute packing!

First of all, many public thanks to Naomi, who has soooo generously offered to let me borrow her digital camera to take with me up to North Dakota & Minnesota when I leave tomorrow. I don’t know what I would do without her. I was going to buy one myself, but it turns out our checks don’t get deposited until Friday night (not tonight like I thought) so I won’t have the money before I leave. Public thanks too to Kymberlie, who is feeding the cats, fish and watering the few remaining plants. (my patio is cursed and only the begonias live out there! All my other flowers have died. Green plants do fine, just not flowers.) She is also loaning me the latest Jeffrey Deaver book, “The Empty Chair”, so I don’t have to go and buy a copy tonight. Yippeeeee!

Then I just called the Houston Camera Exchange because I want to take my “good” 35mm SLR camera to North Dakota too – but it needs batteries and somehow I tossed the last set without buying new ones. Oops! So I needed to know what kind of batteries to get for it. They were very helpful and answered that question for me, so I went ahead and asked about my flooded camera too. When the Honda flooded I had my camera in the car, so it got water in it. Of course it had a full roll of film in it too. I should have rewound it & taken it out, but nope. I left it in there. So he told me not to rewind the film, gave me the names of 3 custom labs with “rack” film processors, and told me to take the whole camera in so that they could use a changing box to get the film out for me. Fortunately, I took photography in high school, so I knew about some of these things and left the film all alone inside the camera. Thank goodness! Off to look for a lab so I can drop the camera off. It was a low, low end camera, auto nothing, point and shoot but it took good pictures – so hopefully the camera can be saved also.

The Honda isn’t ready yet to be picked up, and since we are leaving tomorrow I am going to have to turn in the rental before I go. My 30 days expire on July 8th and I won’t be back until the 10th. I hope it’s ready by the time I get home! They are also waiting on the check to come in for the payment, so I have to call in to Farmer’s now and hunt that down. Off to make more calls!

Yep… 3 months. Just 3 months. Better start shopping now, my birthday is coming up in 3 months. September 27, that’s the date. *grin* Sorry, one of the guys here at work gave me a drawing mannikan (sp?) today – one of those wooden figures that you can pose to learn how to draw. It is soooo cool. Someone had sent it in with their portfolio, which had an entire theme to it around this figure. Anyways, Seth told me “Now I don’t want you coming around here whining for a gift on your birthday” and I said “No way! I love it! Three months early too, to the day! Perfect!” So, I already have my first gift. Just thought it was amusing that it is 3 months away. I always seem to notice that on June 27th, I wonder why? Ironically, while I like a gift as much as the next person, I don’t get focused like that on my birthday. Not like *some* people I know (Chelsey…) who think their birthday should be celebrated at least the whole week, if not the whole month of October!

I need to update my Amazon.com wish list and link to it here. Then I need to go to Noah’s list and make a donation for using Greymatter. I could hand code all of this, but I like the archives, the comments, and other features – so Greymatter rocks!

I went back to see “Moulin Rouge” again last night. Alone. It is the first time I have ever gone to a movie by myself. Isn’t that a riot? But no one else could go and I wanted to see it before I leave on Friday, so off I went. On Saturday Naomi & I were stuck sitting up in the front row. That actually enhanced the effect of the movie I think, adding to the quality and fun. We were a *part* of the film. I would recommend the third or fourth row though, so you don’t get a neck cramp! But last night I sat in one of the “normal” upper rows, right in the middle. I have had many people ask me what the movie is about – and there is no simple summary for it. I have decided that most men would enjoy it if they gave it a chance, there is such great humor in it. It is not a musical – not in the normal sense of the word. It is like a kick-ass awesome music video (like they used to have in the ’80s) that is 2 hours long, great songs and fantastic singing, with a story line running through it and a touch of “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (my all time fav movie) for zaniness & quirks. (Or maybe a touch of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off … you know, things catch you off guard.) Noticed lots of laughs throughout the theater last night. I did not leave with that same “buzz” feeling as I did the first time, but I still loved the movie and will buy it when it comes out on DVD. I may buy the soundtrack before then. Normally I don’t care for Nicole Kidman – many films I have seen her in her acting seems stiff and forced. Not this one. I think this is her best performance ever. And Ewan… man, he could sing for me any day!

Go see “Moulin Rouge”!