I love the Quizilla site - they have such quick, fun little quizzes and they make great posts when I'm totally tapped!

You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be
poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and
creativity, and usually are highly intelligent.
Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet
also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.


What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
brought to you by Quizilla

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You are the Death card.

Death is a stage in the cycle of life.

Without death, there would be no room for new things to grow.

When you receive the Death card in a tarot reading, fear not; Death is only an indication that transformation is about to occur.

Death allows us all to evolve by removing that which is no longer needed. The end of one cycle makes way for a new one. Old behaviours and patterns which have tied us down are released.

Death cleans house so that we don't have needless drains on our energy.

In Death's ruthless destruction there lies compassion.

Image from: Danielle Sylvie Taylor


Which Tarot Card Are You?

brought to you by Quizilla


I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I've been reading the Terry Pratchett
books about Death so I guess He's rubbed off on me.

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A while back, Collin posted about his love for zombie movies. I remember
commenting that I was a bigger fan of vampires than zombies, although I never
rule them out; a scary movie is a scary movie. However, my last couple forays
into the zombie genre have been less than stellar: last Halloween Mom & I
rented "28 Days Later" and hated it. Hated everything about it. Collin
insists that the uncut British version would change my opinion but I'm not that
keen on even giving it another chance.

With the release of the "Resident Evil" sequel looming large a couple weekends
ago, Collin had me watch the original in preparation. Enh. It was okay. I
didn't hate it, didn't love it. I didn't get to see the sequel yet, though; I
had to work the night Collin & Trevor went. They said it was pretty good.

For about 2 months now, both those boys have been talking about a new zombie
movie coming out entitled "Shaun Of The Dead." Collin showed me a preview for
it and I admitted that I wanted to see it...it looked funny and that's always a
plus in my book. The tag line appealed to me as well: "A romantic comedy with
zombies."

Well, Friday night was the opening night and we went to see it. I haven't
laughed that hard at a movie since "Dodgeball." If you get the chance, you
have to check it out. Absolutely hilarious! There's a couple serious scenes
but the comedy is never far behind. It was put together perfectly. My faith
in zombie movies has been restored. :)

But, given the choice, I'll pick vampire flicks over the undead any day of the
week!


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I've been in a few fights in my lifetime. Derek mentioned one a while back
where I slammed my ex-boyfriend into a freezer wall at work because he called
me the "C"-word...that's probably my most memorable fight. That guy was such a
jerk and no one liked him (WHY did I go out with him, I ask myself?) so they
all applauded my actions that night.

My first fight happened when I was in 5th grade. I had a friend named Darcie.
She, however, was friends with a bully named Seneca & Seneca dictated that on
every recess, Darcie played with HER! Well, one week Seneca was out of town so
that whole time, Darcie played with me on recess. The Monday that she came
back, she was outraged to find that Darcie would rather play with me. Seneca
hunted us down in the corner of the playground and demanded to know why Darcie
was playing with me. "Because I have more fun with her," Darcie replied.

"Oh, yeah? And what are you playing that's so fun?"

"Unicorns," Darcie answered. A side note here...ALL my friends in elementary
school played Unicorns. We always tried to outdo each other with who was the
prettiest...mine unfailingly were named things like CrystalRose or
CrystalDiamond because I would make my unicorns have crystal horns with a rose
that grew inside or crystal hooves that held a diamond inside each one. Yeah,
I know...just remember I was in 5th grade, okay!!

Sooo...Seneca sneered at us and spat, "You might think you look like a unicorn
but to me you look like DIRT!!" And she started to walk away. Suddenly, my
mouth took over my brain and I yelled "Yeah, well, SO DO YOU!!!"

You know those movies or TV shows when someone says something realy stupid
that's gonna get them beat up and it suddenly goes into slow motion and
everyone's reactions of shock & disbelief are shown? Well, that's what this
was like. I guess no one had ever stood up to Seneca before and the fact that
quiet little me was threw the kids that were around, especially Darcie. I
remember her whispering, "Oh, God, you shouldn't have done that."

Seneca walked up to me and said "What did you say?" Here was my chance! I
could say that I didn't say anything or that I said "You're right, I'm
unworthy," or something that would save me. But no. I actually repeated what
I said. So she pushed me. I pushed her back. The bell rang and we pushed
each other all the way to our class rooms. Luckily, we had different teachers
so we seperated at the door.

But! It wasn't over. No, no, no...my body freaked out at the thought of the
"fight" that I'd just been involved in and I started hyperventilating right
there in class! So tough! Mrs. Horner took me out into the hall and asked
what was wrong. Once again, I could have just said that I couldn't breathe or
I was having an allergic reaction to the monkey bars and got sent home early
but nooooo! I told her that Seneca & I got into a fight.

Of course, she went into Mrs. Gerber's room and the two teachers discussed the
situation and we had to stay after school to talk everything out. I don't
recall that session other than we both had to apologize to each other. What I
do remember is that Mom was worried when I didn't come home right away and she
walked up to the school to look for me. She ran into Cindy Mitchell (Derek's
post last week about his friend Jamie? That was his sister.) told Mom that I
had to stay after cuz I got into a fight. She was shocked! I was so quiet and
sweet...I would never get into a fight!

I do believe that they were proud of me, though, for standing up to her.
Seneca never bothered me again and Darcie & I played Unicorns a lot more on
recess after that!


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Check this out...I got it from Boo's site...



You are the Secretive Mermaid.
Perpetual beauty that longs for legs to walk by the side of men.
You spend your time gazing at the stars and whispering to the moon.
You have little to no friends that breathe.
Your friends all missing.
You are sweet as syrup and kind as cake.
There are a handful of people and mermaids like you.

Would you rate my quiz I will keep it a secret?


What kind of mermaid are you? (Gorgeous Pics)

brought to you by Quizilla

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We all have days where we just don't care, where all we want to do is crawl
under the blankets and tell the world to go to hell...even my mother, the
sweetest person in the world, has days like this.

About a year or so ago she & Dad were walking out of Safeway and there was a
little boy about 7 years old standing by the candy machines, looking pathetic.
He looked up at my Mom who radiates kindness, gave her his best
Feel-Sorry-For-Me eyes and said, "Do you have a quarter?" My mom smiled and replied,

"Yes, I do...BUT NOT FOR YOU!" and walked away.

Dad said that the kid's face fell so hard it looked like it had melted. Of
course he was laughing, though. Mom's excuse? "He only wanted it for candy!
He didn't need any candy!"


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I went to Fargo's Pizza tonight with my parents for dinner. An old friend of
mine, Rhonda, was working and she came over to talk to me for a bit.
Afterwards, I got to thinking about how long I had known her and how we met.

Now, all of my friends I met either through work or school. Shanon sat next to
me in third grade. Billie Jo & I were cheerleaders together in junior high and
high school. Troy & I went to college together & worked at the same radio
station afterwards. Christina & I worked at Fargo's together. Yadda yadda
yadda and so it goes. But Rhonda...

I was in 2nd grade and she was in 3rd. It was the summer before school started
and I was walking the neighbor's dog. Suddenly, from out of nowhere comes this
crazy redheaded girl on a bike behind me. She sees me but she doesn't stop,
swerve or slow down. Nope, she simply plowed right into me, knocking me over.
Luckilly I managed to hold on to the dog.

"Hi, I'm Rhonda. Wanna play?" I actually said "okay." Maybe I was afraid of
what she would do if I said, "No, crazy girl! Leave me alone!!" But out of all
the friends I've had or will have, she's the one that will always stick out in
my mind because of the bizarre way we met!

She's still pretty crazy, by the way.


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I was a good kid in school. I never got in trouble...well, almost never.
There was the occasional lecture on how I shouldn't talk so much to my friend
Sandi but that was always her fault - the girl never shut up! But that's
neither here nor there. What I wanted to talk about was grade school.

I went to Widefield Elementary from 3rd-6th grade. I was notoriously good &
quiet. In fact one year I had to recite a poem in front of the school at an
assembly and this kid Clay made some comment about how no one would hear me cuz
I never talked and I didn't know how to be loud. I showed him - I did GOOD!
But I still digress.

I don't remember when this was implemented, maybe 4th grade, but in the lunch
room we had a giant cardboard stop light up on stage. When the "light" was
green, things were cool. That meant that the noise level was acceptable to the
teacher on duty that day. If it changed to yellow then we were getting too
rowdy and we better settle down. Red, of course, meant DEAD SILENCE! If you
talked, you lost your recess. Simple as that.

One day, the light was red and I had the misfortune of sitting on the end of
the first table. The principal himself, Mr. Wynn, was patrolling the
cafeteria that afternoon and he was on a rampage. He had already sentenced about 5
kids to the hallway for talking. Don't know what we had for lunch that day but
it was messy and I needed a napkin. I mouthed my request to whomever was
sitting across from me but they didn't understand. So I said, quietly I thought,
"Pass the napkins." In the blink of an eye, Mr. Wynn had whipped around and
in that principal-like voice shouted "NO RECESS!!!!!" Well, needless to say, I
was shocked! To plead my case would involve more talking and who knew what
kind of disciplinary action. I simply accepted my punishment and missed
recess. I found myself in the hallway, facing the wall with the loser kids, the
troublemakers. It was AWFUL!!!! Mr. Wynn mentioned afterwards that he was
surprised to see me there. I told him I had only asked for a napkin and he
actually apologized. He was a nice guy, deep down. For a principal.

That stop light tried another time to ruin my fun. Parents were allowed to
come have lunch with their kids and when they did, they were sat at the
furthest back table by the door. One day my Mom came to eat with me and we ended up
with the 6th graders. They were all loud and raucous, even after the red
light was "turned on." Mrs. Fassnacht (whom I detested) came and told the whole
table that they were missing recess and to put their heads down on the table.
Mom actually started to obey her and lay her head down and I said "No, don't
do it!" She kept telling me I had to do what the teacher said but I was
adamant! I sat up straight and pretty soon, here came Mrs. Fassnacht.

"Why don't you have your head down like I told you to," she demanded.

"Because I'm not a 6th grader! My mom came to have lunch with me today and
we were told to sit here! We weren't making any noise and we shouldn't have to
put our heads down! Are you going to make my MOTHER put her head down???"

My mom was mortified to hear me talk back to a teacher but Mrs. F realized
the error of her ways, especially since my mom was the treasurer of the PTA.
She apologized and said we could be excused.

Man, I hated school.


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Since Derek & Collin both told their sides of the poker night story, I figured it was only right that the Champion told hers.

To start with, I wasn't really invited to this poker tournament. Derek had originally wanted it held on a Saturday night that I worked so that Dad (who works the opposite shift as I do) would be able to make it. But I had my schedule all screwed up in my head and told him I wasn't off on the 11th. Turned out I was. How fortuitous!

I started off at Table 1 with Jason, Lorne, Ray & Squatchy. It was obvious that I was the only one that didn't know what the hell was going on. Burn a card? The turn? The river? What did all that mean? I had no clue. I was constantly looking to Squatchy for help. I lost a lot at the beginning but since the blinds weren't that high, I didn't lose much. Suddenly though, I won my first hand and never looked back. Squatchy went all in towards the end of the first round and ended up going against me. I could have folded and let her stay in but I didn't think of it until later. I guess I'm cutthroat by nature & never knew it!

The second round my luck seemed to have cooled. I wasn't winning anything...I folded more than I stayed in. And then just like that, it was down to Jason & I. I took him with a straight. It was so cool! The infidel had won! :) Whee! I got my shirt Tuesday night and wore it with pride the next day!

I can't wait to play again. Hopefully my luck will hold!


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And I've had it for three months now so I figure it's time to flaunt it.

I love Collin.

And what's really amazing is that he loves me back!

Somehow, I did something good and my bad luck finally ended and the most
wonderful man I've ever known says he loves me! Yay me! He's perfect.
Perfect, perfect, perfect.

I know what he'll say: "Babe, I'm not perfect," so I'll rephrase that. He's
perfect for me.

I feel just a tad guilty that I've stolen this wonderful, sexy, perfect man
from all the women out there but...when he smiles at me or holds my hand I feel
nothing but love.

That's your mush quota for the year. Enjoy!


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Seriously, I need help! I'm being turned into a gamer! Eek! Collin went & bought Burnout 3 on Wednesday and I've been playing it so much, I'm starting to dream about it at night! I'll admit it's a buttload of fun but..I've never really been a gamer. This is so bizarre.

But I'm having fun. Maybe I don't need as much help as I thought...

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It's time once again for another thrilling installment of: "MEAN THINGS
DEREK & I DID TO MOM WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER."

Mom doesn't realize when she's being funny (see "Way to go Asshole" on
Derek's blog) but she also doesn't realize when she's giving us fuel to use against
her in some way sometime in the future. She told us once that when she was
little and she was going to sleep, she used to fantasize about floating down a
river of fruit. A RIVER OF FRUIT?? When I was little I had going-to-sleep
fantasies that either Matthew Broderick or Harrison Ford would come sweep me
away! What sounds more fun? Anyway...

One of the things she mentioned in her sleeping story was that in the summer
she would have her bedroom window open and since they lived out in the country
it was very quiet at night. So quiet in fact that she could hear the bugs
buzzing. She said they made a sound like people screaming at a carnival that
was way far away in the distance. "You know, like people on a roller coaster
and they screeeeaaaam? The bugs sounded like that."

Well, of course, Derek & I thought this was funny! Weird and funny. We
immediately started teasing her about "Carnival Bugs." And plotting...we were
always plotting...

I had in my possession at the time The Lost Boys Soundtrack. There is a
song on there entitled "To the Shock of Miss Louise" by Thomas Newman. It's an
instrumental that sounds as if it's being played on a carousel and a carnival.
The perfect song for our plot. We had a duel cassette recorder so we looped
the song onto a tape then set the recorder on the dining room table behind the
pitcher & bowl set Mom had on there. When she came home from work and got
all settled in the living room, reading the paper, I went in and hit 'play,'
keeping the volume just low enough to make her wonder whether or not she was
really hearing it.

Derek and I sat in the living room, doing an Oscar-worthy performance of
keeping straight faces while the music played. Suddenly her head perked up and
she asked if we heard something. "No...hear what," we asked in all innocence.

"I don't know...it sounds like music. Carnival music."

"Carnival music? Like maybe it's coming from Carnival Bugs?" She looked
sharply at us and we couldn't do it anymore. We broke down and showed her the
radio, admitting that she's just an easy mark.

And to our great joy, she still hasn't learned to not tell us things that
cause us to tease her! She's such a great mom!


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When I was little, going out to eat was a big deal. Most of the time we
ended up at Three Thieves where we'd order steak and fried zucchini. That was
where I discovered my love for bleu cheese. Every time we went to The Three
Thieves, Dad would order house dressing with crumbly bleu cheese on the side. I
figured if Dad liked it, it must be good and I started ordering my salads that
way as well. I was right - I loved it!

Sadly, his culinary tastes did not always agree with mine.

Brunch was also a pretty big deal in our household. We would go on a Sunday
morning to brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel (It's now the Sheraton & I hear
the brunch isn't as good). We got to dress up, see the ice sculpture and EAT
DESSERT FOR BREAKFAST!!! How great is that when you're a kid? Of course, we
had to eat the requisite eggs or oatmeal or whatever first before the breakfast
pastries and cookies and yummy chocolate stuff, but still...totally worth it!
Plus Mom was always right behind us in that dessert line.

The last time we went to brunch there, we had Uncle Jim along with us. He &
my dad were getting some pretty interesting things to eat and I kept making
comments about how icky everything on their plates looked. One thing on Jim's
plate in particular stood out as seriously gross looking. "What IS that," I
asked.

"A yogurt-covered artichoke heart," he replied.

"Eeeeyeewww!!"

"I'll give you twenty bucks if you eat it," Dad chimed in.

"I can't eat that. It's Jim's." I figured that was a good way to get out of
that. Twenty bucks? Not worth it.

"I can always go get another one. There's a bunch up there," Jim answered.

"Yeah, cuz who else would eat that crap?"

"C'mon....twenty bucks..." Dad was waving the twenty in the air now. I was
in high school, without means of employment so, really, who was I to turn down
$20?

"Okay, fine." I picked it up, took a deep breath and popped in my mouth.
The first bite revealed that I was correct in my assumption - it was absolutely
the most vile thing I had ever ever EVER had in my mouth. To this day, I
believe it still holds first place. I really thought I was going to puke in the
middle of the hotel. But I got it down, kept it down and pocketed the twenty
dollars.

I bought a pair of white L.A. Gear tennis shoes that had hot pink laces with
that money. I just threw them out last year. Not a bad purchase for so
revolting a way to get the money.


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All right, Phase 1 of moving is complete! Aw, hell yeah! I feel like I
finally accomplished something. I finished up this morning at 3am. Felt grungy
as all hell so I had to come straight home and take a bath. I feel MUCH better
now.

The sad part of all this is I had to give my cats up today. [insert sad
weepy to infinity face here] My mother brought over three cardboard cat carriers
yesterday and all night I kept looking at them with the stupid logo on them
saying "I'M GOING HOME." That just made me all the more sad. So this morning
with a heavy heart, I started to round them up. I got Claude first and she was
surprisingly cooperative...she almost seemed resigned. She gave me a minimal
amount of trouble.

Her daughter, however, was a different story. Alice is now an outdoor crazy
cat, the kind that other cats veer away from....kinda like Grizella (was that
her name?) in "Cats." I tried and tried and tried and TRIED to get that girl
but I couldn't. She bit my forearm so hard and deep that it's bruising and I
look like an intravenous druggie...it's swollen and sore...anyway, enough of
my problems. Alice finally crawled into a cat apartment/scratching post and
sat there spitting so I put the whole contraption outside on the porch. The
last time I saw her she was huddles on the porch looking wild. I left her some
food & water on the porch but....even though she's violent & crazy, I'm still
worried about her - this was her first time EVER outside.

Chazz was the hardest to give up. He was my baby...my sexy kitty, the cutest
cat in all the universe in the history of cats! When I get my real computer
& scanner up and going, I'll post a pic so you can all realize that I'm not
exaggerating in the least! He's a big boy, about 10-12 pounds and strong. He
fought Mom & I every step of the way...he did not want to get into that box.
He destroyed one and almost another before we got him. He cried the whole way
out to the car. It broke my heart.

Mom took the cats for me to the Humane Society. I wanted to give them to
DreamPower but they didn't have any homes for cats then. BUT, there was a lady
at the HS from PetCo who saw Chazz and agreed with my opinion that he was the
perfect cat and she took him for her store. Now I w ant to go to all the
PetCo's in town and find him so I can cry at his cage and see him one last time.
I hope someone gives Claude a good home...she's a good girl.

What's funny is that Mom cried while she was filling out their paperwork and
she didn't really even know my cats. I think she just knew they were my
babies and now I'm catless.

OKAY! Happier subject! A big THANKS!!!!!! to all the people who helped me
move:

Dad - for driving the crappy U-Haul and helping me load everything in & out
of it on a hot day! And for your help on the garage!

Mom - for all the cleaning and cleaning supplies and for taking the cats. I
could never have survived that.

Derek- for your truck and for putting up with the cats even though you're
allergic.

Squatchy - for your help Tuesday night.

Justin - for being so eager to help and "bust things up."

Jordyn - for opening the doors for me and carrying things and comic relief.

Collin - For helping me every day of your vacation and on nights when you had
to work the next day and all the crap work you did breaking things down...not
to mention the garage & utility room from hell. I owe you BIG!!!!

I'm really sore and tired and I'm going to bed!! Bye Bye!


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So, I have two more stories to blog about but I've been busier than I thought
I would be. Please forgive me. I'm hoping that by Thursday I should be back
on track and be able to regale you all with more goofy-ass stories. In the
meantime, Mom has a new post. Check out SmarterByMyself for her story!

Cheers! Heather


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