Wandering through E-Space

D.W.Q.M.: The Fourth Doctor: "K9, why don't you bark sometimes?" K9: "I'm not programmed to bark, Master." *heheh* I watched 'Yellow Submarine' this weekend, first time in ages-I forgot just how trippy it is. I think you might need to be high on something to fully understand it, but that's just MHO. ;) First of all: HAPPY MARDIS GRAS!! Woo! Fat Tuesday! Today they had free food at Thwing from Fat Fish Blue Mmmm....Cajun foood.......... Much better than my lunch of leftover macaroni. ;) They also had Cajun music, and were giving away beads. I already had some of my own to wear (and no, I did not earn them-get your mind out of that gutter!!! ;) ) I met up with my friend Sharon, and we had fun. We got there a little late and missed out on the red beans and rice, and of course, the dessert. I enjoyed the battered catfish and the gumbo though. :) In other news-for those of you who don't already know-my sister got a...

To my friends Sarah and Jerm and your entire family, I was very sorry to hear about the passing of your mother-in-law (grandmother) on Friday. I know the passing of a loved one is hard-I don't have much to offer, but I wanted to share this poem with you. I don't know who the author is, but it was found a few days after my father passed away-it helped comfort me a little, and I hope it does the same for you. To Those I Love Who Love Me When I am gone, release me, let me go You mustn't hold me back with grief you know. You mustn't tie yourself to me with tears, But be happy that we had so many years. I gave you my love. You can only guess How much you gave me in happiness. I thank you for the love you've shown, But now it's time I traveled on alone. So grieve awhile for me, if grieve you must Then let your grief be comforted by trust. It's only for awhile that we must part, So bless the memories in your heart. I won't be f...

D.W.Q.M.: Barbara: "Perhaps it's frozen." The First Doctor: "No, impossible... not in this temperature. Besides, it's too warm." Coming in a close third after the SciFi Channel and TV Land , the Weather Channel is probably the most watched channel on my cable. Yes, I admit, sometimes I watch the Weather Channel just for the heck of it. It can be amusing at times-amusing I say? Yes, amusing. For example, my friend Jer once said he was watching the Weather channel at 4am-they were doing a live report on location during a hurricane. He said that this huge gust of wind came up and blew everything over, and the reporter shouted, "Oh, Sh--!!" No time for bleeps there. :-D ;) Then there is the local forecast. Normally, it'll give you the time, temp, current wind, and whether or not it's sunny, snowing, raining, foggy etc. Well once my local forecast reported sand. Sand?!? Yeppers, sand. Don't know how or why, but...

D.W.Q.M.: : " I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them. Silly old fusspots." -the First Doctor I just found out, after reading Wil Wheaton's blog , that Wizards of the Coast will be closing all of their retail stores-including their affiliates, the Game Keeper stores. (see this article ). Apparently they want to concentrate more on their core business of game design. (Magic: the Gathering, Dungeons& Dragons, etc.) Wizards is one of the only stores I know of that carries Settler's of Cataan and Killer Bunnies. Apparently there are some pretty good sales going on, so if you are a fan of these games, need some expansion sets, or just want to try a few new games, now would be the time to go game shopping!!! Hmmm...perhaps a trip to Great Northern and/or Great Lakes Mall (both known locations of Game Keeper stores in the Cleveland area) should be in the works? Dang-it, where's my tax refund?!?! LOL!!!!! ;)

D.W.Q.M.: Barbara Wright: "What's that awful noise?" The First Doctor: "I beg your pardon... 'Awful noise'? A good way to talk about my singing!" Barbara: "No, Doctor, not that awful noise -- the other one!" Hi all! I'm sorry my writing has been so sparce this week-at lunch I've been either been reading, knitting, or taking a nap (sometimes all three) and I've also been fighting a cold this week, so I haven't felt much like staring at a computer screen more than I have too....of course, I've still been playing lots of Mario Kart.... ;) LOL Now, if only my voice will return to normal-I sound like I'm trying out for a role that Katherine Hepburn had....or the part of Captain Janeway... Just my luck-yesterday, when my voice was at it's worst, I had to call our vendor! Ususally she responds with email...go figure. ;) Hopefully this cold will scram, and I'll be back to normal...what ever norma...

D.W.Q.M.: Sgt. Benton: "What are we going to do now?" the Second Doctor: "Keep it confused, feed it with useless information. I wonder if I have a television set handy?" You know you've been watching too much Stargate when: -you see a circular pattern on the ground and expect the rings to activate... -you're knowledge of Ancient Egyptian mythology is limited to the number of system lords that SG-1 has encountered. -you start giggling uncontrolably everytime you hear the word 'indeed'. -you know how to pronounce Goa'uld, To'kra, Teal'c, and Daniel Jackson correctly... -...you know exactly what I'm refering to when I said 'Daniel Jackson'. ;) -you're at the IHOP, hear 'O'Neill party of 2', see a man get up with an U.S. Airforce cap, and resist the urge to run up to him and say, 'Hey! Shouldn't you be saving the planet?' Heh. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go ...

D.W.Q.M.: "Why is a mouse when it spins?" - the Fourth Doctor *heehee* just a little something to amuse you on this cold, wintery Friday afternoon. :) (thanks, Jerm!) You are Kermit the Frog. You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you have a habit of waving your arms about maniacally. FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS: "Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and "Sheesh!" FAVORITE MOVIE: "How Green Was My Mother" LAST BOOK READ: "Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the Internet" HOBBIES: Sitting in the swamp playing banjo. QUOTE: "Hmm, my banjo is wet." What Muppet are you? brought to you by Quizilla

D.W.Q.M.: "Have you ever thought what it's like, to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles?" -the First Doctor Woo-hoo! Massive DWdvd release ahead for the next 2 years! I was checking out http://www.tvshowsondvd.com and came across this article . There are 2 stories/serials set to be released, with another 8 planned from now into 2005. Yay! Also, somewhere along the line, they are planning on releasing 'The Daleks' Masterplan', a William Hartnell story. It was originally thought to have been unreleasable, because episode 2 of the story was thought to have been lost. Earlier this month, the BBC reported that a 16mm film containing the story had been saved from the garbage can and sent to the restoration team. Check out the story here . This now brings the number of missing Doctor Who episodes down to 108. The other cool thing about this find is that it contains scenes with charaters that have very little visual materi...

D.W.Q.M.: "Homo sapiens. What an inventive, invincible species...They're indomitable! Indomitable!" -the Fourth Doctor My mom called me today to tell me that my cousin Janey just had a baby girl!! Yay!! :) A^2 is Janey's second child. My Uncle Johnny is really excited-he told my mom that buying baby clothes for girls is more fun than boys. (sorry, guys. ;) ) She also said that now he's caught up with my Aunt Pat-they each have the same number of grandchildren now. (apparently my cousin Robin's step daughters don't count in this contest-my mom thinks it's because they are so old- [they are between my sister and me] she thinks that Kyle and T count for her.) I asked my mom if she was feeling like she was getting behind in the grandchildren race, and if so...she better start talkin' to my sister!!! ;) Yay! Another January birthday for my family!! :) Another girl!!! Hmmm...I should really start to work on my family tree again... Cong...

D.W.Q.M.: the Fourth Doctor: "Never cared for the word impregnable. Sounds too much like 'unsinkable'." Lt. Harry Sullivan: "What's wrong with unsinkable?" Doctor: "Nothing, as the iceberg said to the Titanic ." Harry: "What?" Doctor: (while making a sinking gesture) "Glug, glug, glug..." Once, just once, I'd like there to be a "normal" day at work this year...just once, only once!! It seems that so far, 2004 has been filled with nothing but problems. I guess it has something to do with the sudden onslaught of books-we weren't getting any, complained, and now they're coming in huge waves!! As the backlog grew, we needed a place to store the trucks of books waiting to be received and the unopened boxes. Someone suggestsed the office that had just recently been vacated (after, like, 2 or 3 days) for storage. We got the approval from administration, so I put 3 trucks and 24 boxes in the ...

D.W.Q.M.: Ian Chesterton: "What are we going to see and learn next, Doctor?" The 1st Doctor: "Well, unlike the old adage, my boy, our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it..." Woo-hoo!! A middle-latitude aurora watch has been issued starting today at 4pm EDT, and will last until 7pm EDT Friday, January 23rd. According to the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch a series of complex solar events the past couple of days, including a major solar flare (M-6.1) resulted in a well-definied CME, headed toward earth, and should reach us during the wee hours of the 22nd (for North America, that would be in the evening hours tonight...) As a result, auroral activity may be observed in the northern U.S., northern Europe, southern New Zealand and extreme southeastern Australia. As with most astronomical predictions, you never really know, but if you happen to be out this evening, take a look up into the sky and see if you see anything. :)

D.W.Q.M.: "There's no point in being grownup if you can't be childish sometimes." -the Fourth Doctor Ah, Christmas time-brings out the child in all of us. ;) I always feel sad when I have to start taking down my Christmas decorations. I always start late with this task-I leave them up through Epiphany (the 12th day of Christmas), but I always decide to wait to take them down after my birthday (after all, what's another six days?) Of course, then I think I need to wait until the weekend after my birthday to start. So, here I am, the middle of January, with only a couple of boxes packed up, taking a "break" from the grueling work to tell you about our Christmas in Shafer. *warning-long post ahead.* ;) This tale actually begins on the 23rd-Al, who had to work that night, dropped off Boo on her way to work. I was just finishing up baking cookies-a batch of chocolate chips with candy trees and stockings, and a batch of chocolate and peanute butt...

D.W.Q.M.: "My memory is getting poor. 300 years ago I would have recognized this like a shot." - the Fourth Doctor Hey, just because I'm getting older, doesn't mean I still can't have a fantasy or two tucked away, right? ;) You are going to Marry orlando Bloom. He will always treat you right and is very romantic. He will do anything for you. He is very polite and has deep brown eyes and is very good looking (which is another plus!). He can make anythind cheesy look really good (like sliding down stairs on a shield shooting arrows or wearing pointy ears for example). Congrats!! Which male celebrity are you going to marry? (10 results that have pics!) brought to you by Quizilla *heehee* Just taking a short break from the seemingly neverending, ever-growing pile of books that need to be received. I really was joking when i told my supervisor he'd probably have to hide the box cutters. ;) Things are pretty crazy here at work-for six months we w...

D.W.Q.M.: Romana 2: "Oh, how I love the spring...the leaves, the colors." The Fourth Doctor: "It's October." Romana 2: "I thought you said we were coming for May Week." Fourth Doctor: "I did. May Week's in June." Romana 2: "I'm confused." Fourth Doctor: "So was the TARDIS." Earlier this week I was told that because of my latest Doctor Who and Stargate SG-1 watching trend, this was probably the third or fourth holiday season that has gone by with out the usual viewing of the entire Star Wars Trilogy. D'oh!! Can't have that!!!! So tonight I sat down and decided to watch the first, original, 1977 version of Star Wars on one of those ancient machines we call Video Cassette Recorders. ;) No new special effects added, no THX, no new scenes, no CGI characters-nothing, nada, zip, zero. Heck, this version wasn't even in widescreen, and although it is no longer reflected as such on the tape, on th...

D.W.Q.M.: "Trafalgar Square my foot! Not a pigeon in sight!" -Sarah Jane Smith Ah, the first real day of my vacation, and what do we do? Go shopping!! My mom was looking for the spice Star Anise (i think that's how it's spelled) for some Christmas ornaments she wanted to make, so we bundled up Boo and headed out to Anoka, which had a food co-op that had the right spice. Now, to get there we had to transfer buses at the Northtown Mall. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Northtown is pretty cool-it's where four cities meet-Fridley, Blaine, Spring Lake Park, and Coon Rapids. Neat, huh? ;) The bus shelters are nice-they are lighted, and can be heated during the winter for brief periods of time (it lasts about 10 minutes, but all you have to do is hit the button again to start the heat cycle over) Boo loves riding on the bus with Grandma, so she wasn't any trouble at all. Krismutt had tagged along too, so I snapped a couple of pics of the two o...

D.W.Q.M.: Sarah Jane Smith: "So, providing we don't burn up on re-entry and aren't suffocated on the way down, we'll probably be smashed to a pulp when we land." The Fourth Doctor: "Exactly. Sarah, you've put your finger on the one tiny flaw in our plan." Sarah: "Our plan? It's your plan!" Ok, I know I promised more updates this past weekend, but I got caught up in a video game I rented, plus a few tv show marathons, hanging out with friends, saw the Return of the King, and I tried to catch up on sleep, so I didn't have much time to update anything online. Good thing I havent' made any New Years resolutions regarding the status of my web page yet. ;) I seem to always have an adventure before I even get to my destination-and this Christmas was no exception. The day I left, we were under a lake effect snow warning-we had been since the night before, and it was to last until noon the next day. Nothing constant,...

D.W.Q.M.: "Are you coming or going? Or going or coming?" -the Fourth Doctor Ah-ha! Well, I made it back in one piece. Yay! :) :) I had a great time-it was so good to see everybody. Things are crazy at work though-while I was away, over 500 approval books arrived and are now waiting to be unpacked down in the mail room. 21 boxes, and only one was a small box. ;) Oh, well-at least I won't be bored and searching for things to do. Since I have a long weekend ahead of me, if I'm not using it to recover from my vacation (in other words, sleep!) I will try to post about my trip up north-got a lot of great pics-including some Krismutt pics for his page. *heehee* The only bummer is my camera fell apart the last day I was there, and I think I need to send it away to have it fixed. :p Oh, and speaking of near-future blog entries, my apologies to Jerm, who has already heard most of my stories, since he picked me up from the airport Monday night. (Thank you, Jerm...

D.W.Q.M.: "How about a trip in the TARDIS? I'm just off." -the Fourth Doctor Soon I will be on my way up North!! Yay! I can't wait to see my family and friends in MN. :) Now I just have to get through the rest of today. It doesn't help that the little Weather Bug on my desktop feels the need to keep reminding me that we are in a lake effect snow warning until noon tomorrow. As long as my plane can leave the area-it's all good. ;) My sister called me as I was getting ready for work this morning and asked me if my flight would be delayed. I stood there for a second and then said, 'I don't know! Why don't you ask me in another 12 hours?!?' Ahhh, gotta love my sister. :) Seriously though, I can't wait to see her new house!! (oh, yeah, and i can't wait to see her, too. LOL ;) ) She just recently acquired a Gamecube, so I'm bringing a couple of games up to play-I'm sure she'll love Simpson's Road Rage!!! :)...

D.W.Q.M.: "Please, do not throw hands at me." -D84 (from 'The Robots of Death') Ah, my little sister is at it again-trying to trick me into telling her what she is getting for Christmas...I think she is starting early this year... But before we get into that... As I was getting off the bus in front of the library this morning, I noticed that someone, or a group of someones (probably students, taking a break from finals which are in full swing) made a fricken' huge snowman in front of the library! this thing was so big we were wondering how the heck they managed to get the head on! I was telling Jerm that I wish I had a camera to take a picture of it before it melted or was destroyed, and he told me to draw a picture. This is what I came up with: His eyes and buttons were made of apples, his nose-an orange, and his mouth was a banana! I loved the way the branches were positioned for his arms-made it look like he was posing for a picture. I wa...

D.W.Q.M.: "The trouble with time travel is, one never seems to find the time." -the Fifth Doctor I updated my front porch for the season! Hope you enjoy it. :) Also, several of you have suggested at one time or another that I should have a link to my pages on my blog. I've finally added them, so you can access my front porch from the link on the left. :) Sorry this is such a short post, but I need to get some sleep-I have a long week ahead-lots of stuff I need to do before I head up north. (Yay, it's almost vacation time!!! I can't wait to see everyone) 'Nite all!