I haven't seen the show, Location, Location, Location, on BBC America for a few weeks now. I know real estate is a at a premium in the UK, but surely someone out there is searching for a house.

NaNoWriMo

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a a contest of sorts on the web, called NaNoWriMo, in which people are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. The contest begins Nov. 1st. Tomorrow. I think I will try this contest, but I don't know how much I'll get done. I have limited time on the computer to actually write a novel. I have found a few blogs out there of people who are going to do this and they appear to have some interesting plot ideas. As the days pass, I may post links to their blogs on this one so you all can check them out.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!

It just wouldn't be Halloween without the movie, Dracula: Dead and Loving It. And, oh happy day, WGN is showing it tonight. Just last night I was telling Mom that they should show the movie on a channel I could actually get.

On some message board, I saw a series of messages about people's scariest movies. There are two movies that really scared me. I normally don't watch scary movies, so the list of possibilities is small. But these two I caught by accident. One, was a Brian Denehy movie where he played the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. I've been terrified of Denehy and clowns ever since. I think there were clowns in that movie. If not, it's getting the blame for it anyway. The other movie was a movie about a dead girl who couldn't be freed from here earthly spiritual bonds until some little china doll was rescued from a well or something. Still hate that movie.

Feel free to post a comment about which movies scare you.

I'm watching this show on tv about Hollywood's Creepiest Creatures, hosted by Elvira. Well, she just said something like: "In some cultures, rats are considered good luck. Or potluck." That just made me laugh.

Today at work we had our potluck lunch. It was really good this time. They had taco fixings (a first I think), pasta salad, potato soup, bunch of desserts and other foods that I didn't really notice. They made punch and it tasted ok, but it looked like the dirty water that comes from washing my car. John was there in the afternoon. It's been two whole days since I saw him last. I was beginning to miss him. LOL! Good thing I ate well at the potluck lunch since I didn't get home from house hunting until about 7pm. That is about three hours later than I normally eat supper. I think there will be some leftovers tomorrow. Yay!

House Hunting

First House - It had had flood water in the garage. Cross it off the list.

Second House - Doublewide, good condition. Back yard was cluttered and felt claustrophobic. Big Negative - the road to get there was a single wide, blacktop road, steeper than the driveway we have now. I'd never get out in the winter. Kitchen and bathroom were great though.

Third House - This one was thrown in by the agent. I hadn't asked to see it but they thought I should because it was supposed to be in really great condition. And it was. It was a 4 year old doublewide on one acre with a three car garage. The yard was again cluttered with landscaping and kids' stuff (sand boxes, toys, etc.) The bad part - They wanted $100,000 for it. I'm not paying that much for one acre and a doublewide. Kitchen was good.

Fourth House - The one I wanted to see with the 45 acres. The road to get there was barely gravel and narrow and was over two miles long. I could buy it, but I could never make the payments because I'd lose my job due to excessive absenteeism caused by not getting out to work in the winter.

So, bottom line is that I am still on the house hunt. The agent was trying to talk me into a little cottage house on a half an acre. She thinks I won't want to do all the maintenance and upkeep on a larger property. Which may or may not happen. But, I've lived on a 20 acre farm for 25 years. I can't go from 20 down to one half just like that. And we couldn't get in to see the inside of the house - the key wouldn't work in any of the doors' locks. What is ironic is that the owner of this house works for the Dept. of Highways. You'd think he would get better roads out his way with his connections.

I was driving through town this evening and I saw a sign advertising a haunted house event at the local nursing home. Two things struck me about this:

1. Considering all the old people who've died in that nursing home over the years, I wouldn't be surprised if it was haunted.
2. Is it really a good idea to have a bunch of scary stuff going on around old people with bad hearts?

Tomorrow evening I get to check out three more houses in my hunt for my future home. I'm more excited about these three than I was about the others. Two of them are real houses and one is a doublewide. I'm most anxious about one house that has 45 acres attached to it. It's also the most expensive and a bit out of my price range. But if I really like it and it's possible, I could always sell some of those 45 acres and use the money to pay down the mortgage. Tomorrow at work, we are supposed to dress up for Halloween. I will just be wearing my tiara and waving my magic wand. You know, what I do everyday. LOL!

Inspired Casting??

I should post this on my A-Team blog, and maybe I will, but I just had to post it here too. I came home from work and the store tonight to find the movie "Undercover Brother" playing on the tv. In one scene, Chris Kattan was yelling at some other guy about how a united people would be a bad thing or something and I watched it mesmerized because I realized that Chris Kattan could actually be good enough to play Murdock. There have been a lot of names thrown out on other websites about who could play the crazy pilot, but I really think Chris Kattan should be given serious consideration.

My Walmart Order

I got the two Andromeda books I ordered and the Diana Palmer book today. I think the mailman was a little miffed at us. Mom had ordered a bunch of stuff from some catalog and she got that today. The poor mailman had half of his vehicle filled with just our stuff. He's a good mailman for bringing our packages to us. Usually they will just leave a slip in the mailbox and we would have to go to the post office to pick up the packages. I plan to start reading the Andromeda books tomorrow.

I have tentatively scheduled an appointment with the real estate woman to see some more properties this week. Hopefully, I'll get to see them and find something worthwhile. I would like to save somre more money though.

Voter Fraud!!!!

Check out: Vote Watch 2004.
Here's one of the stories they had on the local news. See why I think this year's election will be hijacked, like last years'.

VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE 'MISLEADING'

Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 08/20/2004
Page: 1A
Headline: VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE 'MISLEADING'
Byline: TOM SEARLS
tomsearls@wvgazette.com

For a mother of two teens trying to finish up college, $9 an hour as a
temporary customer service representative sounded good.

"I wanted to find something that would work around my schedule and be
flexible," said St. Albans resident Lisa Bragg.

After spending more than an hour with Charleston personnel agency
Kelly Services last week, Bragg was hired. "They wouldn't tell us at
first what this job was," the 37-year-old Bragg said Thursday.

Then she found out it was registering Republican voters at One Stop
convenience stores throughout the Charleston region.

But she won't be there today, the first day she was scheduled to be on
the job.

"I'm giving up a job that I need," she said. "It's the only decent job
I've found."

While the job was to last six weeks, the $9 an hour was far above the
minimum wage of $5.15 Bragg was offered for most other temporary
employment.

Bragg feels her employers were misleading the public, even if it's not
illegal. Employees were to approach One Stop customers and ask if they
favor George Bush or John Kerry for president. If Bush was their
answer, they were then to inquire if the person was registered to vote
and offer them a voter registration card.

If the person supported Democrat Kerry, they were only to say thank
you and give them a registration card only if asked.

If asked questions, employees were instructed, "Only state you are
there to conduct a simple field poll to see what neighborhood support
is ... a nonpartisan registration drive."

They were told to quietly listen to any person who becomes angry and
to remember, "The goal is to register Republicans and to remain
positive."

"Is this the way it has to be? People have to be sneaky to make $9 an
hour?" Bragg said.

Employees were also given the number of a Kelly Services employee to
contact if there are problems. Contacted Wednesday, two different
employees said they would have someone from Sproul & Associates, the
firm paying for the survey, answer any questions.

Later, a Kelly Services employee who would identify himself only as
"Rob" initially said a message had been left with Ben Decker at
Sproul's office. He said he had no contact number for Decker, then
agreed to release a Michigan number.

A message left with Decker was not returned.

"[Kelly Services] said the less you know about the company, the better
off you are, especially if the media would come asking questions,"
said Bragg, an admitted Democrat. "That made me more curious than ever
as to who's behind this and what's going on."

Sproul & Associates appears to be operated by Nathan Sproul, former
head of the Arizona Republican Party and a wealthy GOP activist who
has been involved in petition drives. An Internet search shows Sproul
has received some financing from national Republican groups, though it
was not clear who is paying for the West Virginia work.

Bragg, and another person working for the group, said they were told
the owners of the One Stop stores had agreed to allow them to conduct
the work on the stores' lots. Patrick C. Graney III and Michael R.
Graney are listed as the principal owners of 42 One Stop stores,
according to the state Alcohol Beverage Control Administration.
Messages left at One Stop's headquarters in Belle were not returned.

For Bragg it's an economic loss, but one she carries with pride. She
asked about registering voters with another organization - a group
that treats those of all political persuasions the same - and found it
pays only $5.50 an hour.

"I just don't want to be in my hometown and mislead people," she said.

To contact staff writer Tom Searls, use e-mail or call 348-5192.

A Great Idea!!

Check out Na-No-Blog-Mo. Do you want to blog your own novel in 30 days??? Well, a lot of the people associated with this site do. Probably a lot of very good reading here on this site. I might try this. I don't know how committed I'll be to it though.

"Corruption and Cronyism"

I'm watching a debate between the three candidates for Governor of WV. The republican candidate, Monty Warner, has said the phrase "corruption and cronyism" probably once every three minutes or so since this debate started. It would appear that Warner has no real platform or ideas for leading our state for the next four years. He is just obsessed with corruption and cronyism. Something he should know about since one of his brothers is the chairman of the State's Republican party (a party, by the way, which contributed $600,000 to a group who has been accused of not turning in voters registration forms which were completed by democrats) and his other brother is a US Attorney. Monty Warner spent 25 years in the military. I think he has listened to Dick Cheney's rosy outlook of the future (the nuclear bombs exploding in our cities if the 'wrong' candidate is elected president outlook) so much that paranoia has just paralyzed him. Right now, Warner has just said that he and Joe Manchin are friends. I don't know about the rest of you, but if a friend alleges that I'm involved in criminal activities and calls for investigations against me, I don't characterize that as an act of friendship. Just goes to show you how delusional Republicans are. I think I like the Mountain party candidate Jesse Johnson. He was excluded from the other debates, which I thought was extremely unfair. I'm not too sure about his capabilities as Governor, but he sure can refer to studies and facts and statistics. And he has great hair and a good speaking voice. None of the candidates mentioned any ideas for raises for state employees, but they loved to pour it on for the teachers. Oh those poor teachers with their special retirement plans and special raises and special health care packages. Give me a break. There should not be discrimination like that in state government. In his closing statement, Monty Warner has just 'humbly' asked for our vote. Please. During the debate I ate a few too many toll house pan cookies (yummy chocolate chip delights) and now Warner's comments are nearly making me toss those cookies, so to speak.

Happy Birthday Earth!!

Old Laws in England.

Today I found a mistake by Melanie, the 'supervisor' that we had a while back. I emailed about it and she didn't seem to think she had made a mistake. So, I will email again about it tomorrow to see just when I can do the audit on the case. It looks like I can't do it right now because what she was supposed to have done should have been completed about 15 days ago. There are deadlines for that procedure. She should know that I'm going to pull out the Policy Manual and quote it.

Mom and Dad are back in Cincinatti. I have the house to myself again. Yay!

Here's a story of a real Baseball Hero. Schilling should get MVP.

Star Wars TV Show???? I personally think it's a bad idea. It would only serve to make the Star Wars saga ordinary and mundane.

Shipment Update

Two other items have just shipped! Yay! It appears the only item I will have to wait for is the Alias: Shadowed book that I've had over in the Wishlist for months. It isn't due to be released until Nov. 9th, I think.

Speaking of Walmart, I checked on the status of my order and low and behold, they are sending out a book to me that isn't supposed to be released until November. It's already been shipped. But two others that have been released for some time haven't been shipped yet.

Well, Dad was a little wrong in his explanation of the pig project. Dad bought a pig from a guy and said that he would keep the pig at the former owner's house and then take it directly to the slaughterhouse on the day of his appointment to have the pig slaughtered. I came home tonight and followed Fritz around the house down into the front yard where Dad's truck is, and guess what is in the bed of the truck. Yep, cute old Wilbur is there snorting and wanting attention. I looked at him briefly and he had this look of glee in his eyes that someone had come to pay attention to him :( How am I supposed to look at those wrapped packages of frozen pork now???

So, they sell men's sports magazines with half naked women on the cover. They sell racy lingerie. They sell guns that play a role in how many deadly accidents and non-accidents each year. But Walmart won't sell John Stewart's book. I believe Stewart's bookcover is decorated with the American flag. Hmmm.........

Tonight I got one of those gift cards from walmart and ordered some books from their online store. That gift card is a wonderful invention. I also bought the Van Helsing DVD. I'm glad I did. I almost forgot how handsome Hugh Jackman was in that movie. Almost. I've had a headache almost all day today. I took three tylenol and two generic sudafed tablets and I still had the headache hours afterward. It's finally going away now. I'll have to update my Wishlist with some new things. Particularly, the new things I just ordered from walmart.com.

Last night was the last episode of the Search for the New Partridge Family show on vh1. All of the people I would have voted for won, so that's good. However, I can't find out when the actual Partridge Family show will air. The host of the contest show said "this fall" but that could mean NEXT fall since this fall is already half over. Maybe they will do a movie for tv for this fall and then judging by the response they will decide what happens from there? Who knows, but I would like to see Leland and Emily act together. They seem like they would be pretty good on screen. And the ones who didn't win can always guest star on the show as the neighbors or the school kids. They can even do a dream show in which one of the winners dreams he or she is in a different family and have the runners' up be that family. Tons of ideas for future appearances.

April had her monthly evaluation today and we were both surprised to see that it was pretty good. We both know she is an excellent employee, but the boss always sides with the new "pampered one" over in that other county (lydia), so we really didn't believe that justice would prevail. And today at work, we had no heat for about half of the day. The thermostats did not have any readings for most of the morning - I guess they were completely turned off. It was really cold. I think when we left it had reached a balmy 64 degrees. I had covered up with my coat for most of the day. We are having a team meeting next month and it's supposed to last 5 hours. Most of that time, by the looks of the agenda, will be devoted to me talking about how to refer cases for audit correctly. Yay, more public speaking. Not.

I was going to go to Walmart today to pick up one of those shopping cards or gift cards so I could buy some stuff online without giving everyone my account information, but it was raining. I guess that's a good thing. The Hugh Jackman movie, Van Helsing, is being released tomorrow on DVD so I could possibly get that while I'm out tomorrow.

Testing.....

The post button works! As does this edit link button blogger also has. Now I will just need to hide the post button from my visitors.

I have followed some blogger directions and created a personal post link for this blog and for my Andromeda blog. This means that I will be able to post directly from my blogs without having to do to the blogger dashboard and choosing to create a post. In time I hope to make this feature invisible to all the viewers of the blog, but since blogger still doesn't want to show me my freshly published pages, I will have to wait until the new changes appear and then go from there.

Check out the "official" Majestic 12 website.

Check out: The Majestic Documents

A Change in the Blogs of Note Section

Tin Foil Hat became The TFH Files. Now it's Truth From Hell. Check out all of the changes by visiting the blog!

Jon Stewart was on Crossfire. Check out the transcript.

Update on Martha Stewart.

For the last couple of days, my sister and Jasmine have been staying with us. The house is a mess and I had to play for hours with Jasmine. Tonight, I have the house to myself since mom and dad took my sister and Jasmine back to Cincinatti. I think the dogs plan an all-night barking concert for my benefit. They don't like it when we're not all where we are supposed to be.

My sister did get rid of the Begin2Search toolbar - YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April asked Lydia to prepare a case for audit on Tuesday and Lydia actually made a face at her. Yep, we are all grown-ups at work. Especially those who've been there 30 years. And somehow, April's going to be the one lectured. I just know it.

Everyone at work has been sick. I think they gave it to me, but I'm not completely convinced. I've doubled up on the Vitamin C so maybe if I do get it, it won't be so bad. Polly got one of those coveted flu shots yesterday. She told me today that she was so sick that one of the bosses was sending her home. Hope she passed the flu along to all the mean people up there before she left.

If Bush can't keep the Green Zone secure, how will he keep America secure? Vote Kerry!

'Superman' Actor Christopher Reeve Dead at 52

Visit..........
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation

"Printing error", my foot! Someone is trying to steal another election just like Florida in 2000.

Kudos to Blogger Support

Although they have yet to email me back about the problem I reported, I just checked out the "known issues" section, or whatever it is, and it looks like they've added my problem to the list. Yay!!! I would much prefer they would take the time they would spend emailing me about my problem and just fix it anyway, so this is good. Hopefully, they will fix this problem soon. Maybe this will also fix the problem I have where I publish the blog, but the new posts don't appear on the blog when I view it. If not, I will have to report that one as well. That's really frustrating.

Today's shopping trip didn't really go as expected. I found myself unable to part with my money. I did buy a couple of christmas presents today. P-Burg has gotten so rude since I was last there. People in stores wouldn't get out of your way. They let their kids tear open products on store shelves. Drivers were rude. I had Keith Urban's Be Here cd playing in the car today, which was pretty nice. I don't get to listen to it very often. A little message to the people who put out that cd - the cd case fell apart on me. Spend a little extra money and distribute quality goods next time.

I saw on the Today show that the folks at Jibjab.com have created another Democrat/Republican cartoon video, like "This Land is Your Land", only this one, titled, "It's Good to be in DC" is done to the song, "Dixieland" (I wish I was in Dixie, hooray, hooray, blah, blah, blah - yeah, that song) You can check it out at Jibjab.com or atomfilms.com. It was pretty funny.

I changed the name of "Tin Foil Hat" over in the blogs section to "The Trenchcoat Chronicles" because that's where the link took me when I clicked on it today. He's changing some things around so I'll probably be changing the name of the link in the near future.

Another new episode of Andromeda airs tonight on the Sci Fi channel at 7pm eastern. Check it out.

Let's hear it for Government at Work! Death to Spyware!!!

Sammy's Dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BOOOOO to Marvel Comics!!! They killed little Sammy in the X-Men comic. Sammy had befriended Juggernaut and found out that Juggernaut had 'betrayed' the X-Men by joining the evil new Brotherhood. I don't think Juggernaut really did join the Brotherhood, I think he was playing them and he was going to keep them away from the school, but Sammy didn't know that. Juggernaut went after the Brotherhood when they killed Sammy but it isn't looking so good for the X-Men right now. Maybe Sammy has some weird fishy mutant power that can bring him back to life or something.

Welcome Martha

I have tomorrow off from work. I'm thinking of doing a little shopping, but I've been telling everyone that I plan to go to Alderson to hold up a Welcome Martha sign to welcome Martha Stewart to WV. I really don't intend to do that, but you can bet there will be plenty of people there who will. I hope her time here passes quickly for her. It's ridiculous that she is already on her way to prison, but Ken Lay and those alleged Enron crooks were out and about for a couple of years before anything was ever done to them. I guess it does pay to be buddies with the Current Administration. Wonder who Martha voted for in previous elections? She must not have contributed to the right campaign.

Anyway, four whole days off and I can't wait. As I said, I might do some shopping tomorrow. I might give the dogs a bath. I hate to bath Fritz since he's lost so much hair already from the other baths, but he really needs one. Sunday, Polly, Scarlett and I are planning to meet for lunch at Pizza Hut and then check out an open house that the real estate agency is having for a doublewide that Dad and I drove by last weekend. It will be good to hang out with Polly and Scarlett. Next week sometime, my sister and brother-in-law will be by to eradicate the evil begin2search toolbar and other spyware from the computer. And then Mom and Dad will be going to Cincinnatti to spend a day or two with them later next week. Yay! The house will be all mine again for a that time! Hopefully Steffi won't cry as much as she did the last time when I went to bed and didn't let her in my room. She doesn't like to be separated from people.

I've been having trouble posting and publishing this blog. It's been taking forever and then the post doesn't even appear on the webpage for I don't know how long. I sent an email to blogger support for help because last night after trying to publish for 7 whole minutes, the thing timed out and I got some kind of error message. Hopefully, Blogger can tell me what's going on. My other blogs aren't having this trouble. I guess it could be the size of my blog, but I don't know if my blog is large, extremely large, average sized or what. Hmmm.............

Tony must have had some kind of flu or fever or something today. He actually went outside with me and April and started the Harley so we could hear what it sounds like. It's not like him to show off the Harley, but like I said, he must have been feeling sick. Of course I still had to remark on the unnecessary expense of owning the bike just for its brand name. I wouldn't be the Miranda he knows and tolerates if I didn't. But it was cute to see him so proud of his little scooter :) He's had some extra detailing work done on it so April and I were going to take a look at the makeover. I'm toying with the idea of applying for supervisor when the job is posted. I don't want the job, but I think it would be really irritating to the boss if I did apply and when they asked the question, "Why do you want this position?" I could say, "There's a deficiency in the quality of work that goes into audit referrals in the Rxxxx and Cyyyyyy offices and I want the opportunity to do something to improve it since accurate audit referrals are an integral part of ensuring data reliability." Data Reliability is a buzzword for "federal funding" so it's important. Heehee. That would really get the Ram mad. She can't stand for anyone to even question the workers in Rxxxx and Cyyyyyy. I'd be in the doghouse for sure after that. LOL!

Mount St. Helens Volcano Cam.

April and I have determined that John must be Foghorn Leghorn.

John has decided that April and I are Heckle and Jeckle, respectively. I think there might be more truth here than he expected. LOL!

Scarlett gave me her violet plant before she left for P-Burg. It's planted in a little silver tin pot. Today, I got the glittler glue and proceeded to decorate the tin with it. I have the green and blue glitter glue on there now and I plan to use the other colors to cover all four sides of the pot. It already looks pretty.

Tonight is Andromeda night on the SciFi channel. Can't wait. Looks like Trance makes an appearance of some sort. I posted a link to promo pics on the "The Earth Hath Skin" blog. Check it out in the green box.

I'm not sure how I like this Mozilla Firefox browser. Some of the pages look funny. But it beats that stupid begin2search thing. One bad thing is that the Animal Rescue Site webpage always has a popup for their shop and this browser blocks it. Oh well, I never buy anything from them, but some people do.