I seriously was thinking it was going to be something quite inappropriate and embarrassing, which I would have loved, but the monkey is so adorable! And the pig! I was surprised to see the pig as well, and what’s even cuter about it is that it makes pig noises when you click that button on top. It also gives off a super bright blinding light….which I love to point at people!

Rilla, thanks for the cute gift, I absolutely love it! I have the pig on my keychain now and I like to abuse the light it has. Jack is currently guarding my computer, although it will have to be packed away soon. I might keep him in the kitchen when I get to Virginia, so he can watch me cook.

Honestly, this may be the last update for a very, very, very long time. I’m going to be busy packing this week, and then Rob and I will be leaving for Virginia either Wednesday or Thursday. I definitely won’t have internet connection for a while, but I’ll try and keep updating my twitter and you may see me around Plurk.

The biggest news is that my husband is now home! He caught a late flight yesterday and arrived around midnight. He has leave for two weeks, and then we move to our new destination: Norfolk, Virginia. I have mixed feelings about the place. I’ve heard good things, and I’ve definitely heard some bad things about that place. I guess I won’t know for sure until I’m there. Anyway, good or bad, we’ll only be there for about a year before he gets a new assignment. I think it’ll be exciting anyway, being in a new place. Norfolk is definitely a much bigger city than my own little town, so there will be much to do there! I’m excited because they have a Borders and a Cheesecake Factory!

Anyway, I’m off to go have some more fun with my husband…or at least, the most fun you can have in a small town! It’s only been a day that he’s been here, but everything finally seems perfect again.

My family and I were very lucky to live in an area that’s not prone to flooding. The street did flood for a while, but the water found its way out once the rain stopped. We had enough sense to invest in a generator a while back, so once the power left around nine in the morning on Wednesday, we were able to plug in the generator to the refrigerator so the food wouldn’t spoil. We also plugged in the television so that we could see what was going on.

The next few days after the hurricane were just crazy. Everyone was in a frenzy, trying to get gas and supplies. My own brother had to wait in line forty-five minutes to get gas for our generator. People were filling up their vehicles, for what? To leave after the storm hit? It’s a little late for that, people.

My neighborhood is pretty messed up. Trees and branches found their way into the street, blocking the way for many people. My neighbor’s house is in shambles. It was old to begin with, and didn’t quite make it. It was like watching a movie, seeing the carport get blown away.

My brother’s house is also old, and they had a huge tree growing next to it. The tree ended up falling on top of their bedroom. Luckily they had decided to ride out the hurricane with us, so they weren’t there when it happened. Actually my brother was pretty laid back about this whole thing. He even slept through the worst part of it!

Almost everything is going back to normal, except for the north side of town. They’ll be recovering for weeks to come, I’m sure. It’s so sad, many people lost everything in this hurricane and it wasn’t even a strong category 2 storm. I can only imagine what the people went through during and after Katrina.

The cable isn’t back yet, so I’m on dial-up at the moment. I’d forgotten how slow it was. It’s so slow I’m afraid my computer might explode. Hopefully the cable will be back soon, and then I can upload the photos and video I took during the hurricane. Thanks for your prayers and good wishes!

This storm is actually pretty big, so I’m sure it won’t miss us, even if it changes direction at the last moment. Although it’s not a hurricane yet, the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico is perfect for giving it strength. Especially since there is no more land to slow it down.

I’m pretty sure gas prices will be skyrocketing today as well. Which means I’ll need to go fill up the tank in the truck before people start acting all crazy and swarm all of the gas stations. I’m sure the grocery stores are packed with people trying to buy every single can of non-perishable food on the shelves.

So, hopefully this storm doesn’t blow up into a hurricane, or cause too much damage. Keep me in your thoughts in case I’m not around for a few days. Hopefully it’ll be nothing more than rain with some heavy wind. *crosses fingers*

ORGANIZERS. I can’t even remember how I discovered this community, but I have been addicted ever since I joined. It’s a community, obviously, for organizers. People who love to organize things, and have a planner that helps them stay organized. I love going through all of the entries, and seeing how beautiful some of these planners are. How some people are both organized and creative with their planners. I have always kept an organizer, ever since my freshman year of high school. I have kept every single one, and it’s interesting to go back and look through them every now and then. I love this community so much, because it incorporates my two passions: organizing and pens!

PLURK. Obviously I had to include Plurk on this list. It consumes most of my time these days, and I only realized how much I was addicted to it when it was down for maintenance yesterday. I actually got things done around the house! Most people join and are addicted to karma, which was my case at first. Now I love plurking because of the great people I’ve met (Heather, Teddy, Rilla, and even Adrian). I’ve gotten so used to micro-blogging that it’s kind of hard to revert back to regular blogging sometimes!

SNARK. I joined this forum almost a year ago, and have met some great people because of it as well. I had been looking for a forum like this for a long time; a forum where people weren’t all “elitist” and knew how to have fun. I get my daily lulz from the people at Snark!

FAILBLOG. Oh how I adore this site! Some of the photos (and videos) on there are so hilarious, like Dental Fail and the Epic Strip Tease Fail! Some of them are stupid, for sure, but all provide with some definite lulz. I had seen this website a while back, but forgot to bookmark it. Thanks to Teddy, I was able to find this website again! It’s what I’ve been doing for the better part of the day, despite the fact that I need to go bathe the dogs today!

SKREEMR. This is a new one that I discovered today, but I have already bookmarked it. It’s a place to download mp3s! I discovered Skreemr thanks to Tracy, who plurked about it. I’ve already downloaded several songs, even ones that I couldn’t find anywhere. I can finally download some of those jrock songs I’ve been wanting! I’m a girl that loves free music, so this website just rocks my socks.

So, there you have it. My favorite websites at the moment that I visit every day or just absolutely adore. Hopefully you can share some of yours with me! Send your favorite websites my way. Now, I guess I really should try and tear myself away from the computer. The dogs really do need a bath, no matter how much they complain.

They’re going to have to knock me out completely if they’re going to do it, that’s for sure. I’m one of those people that freaks out during procedures like that. I begin to panic, and my mind starts creating false sensations. My mind can make me believe that something is really hurting me, when in fact I can barely feel it at all if I weren’t panicking so much. I’ve always been that way, though. It’s hard to get my mind in control when I’m in the middle of a panic attack.

I’m also irritated this morning because for some reason, my website is no longer valid. Seventeen errors have popped up, even though it was perfectly valid just a few days ago. It gives me an error which I know isn’t even there! But I’ll have to worry about that later. One major annoyance at a time today, and first on the list is that dentist appointment.

God, all I can think about is the pain!

EDIT: I put up a new theme….I didn’t really like the previous theme anyway, so I created my own and made sure it was valid. It was yesterday, but when I removed the Maintenance Mode plugin, it gave me 29 errors. WTF. Even when I fix them, it still marks them as errors. This thing is really starting to piss me off. Not sure why I’m so obsessed with it anyway; maybe it’s the perfectionism in me. I give up.

I did end up taking a few good shots when we went downtown on Saturday. It was really good weather, after all. It was supposed to rain and I was hesitant to even take the camera, but I’m glad I did. Otherwise, I probably would have no pictures from the entire weekend!

There were some protesters out that day, protesting Scientology of all things. I thought their signs were pretty amusing, and so I snapped a photo even though I was pretty far. I’m pretty sure the Vendetta dude knew I was taking a photo of him. It looks as though he’s posing in the first photo.

The Silver Man from my first trip to Chicago was still performing on Michigan Avenue, only this time he had a few friends with him. They’ve gotten a little adventurous now, and even had an iPod set up with music. He sure didn’t have that last time. They were being assholes about the whole thing, though. They would put up a sign that said to donate for photos right up in your face. They would turn the other way and stop performing if you didn’t. What a bunch of wankers. Anyway, you can see the video here on YouTube.

We spent the whole day downtown that Saturday, and just as I suspected, the Apple store still had a long line to get in. I took some photos of the Apple store, and you can check out those photos (as well as all the photos from the trip) here. I was able to enjoy Giordani’s famous deep dish pizza one last time, as well as a fresh strawberry cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I’m such a foodie, I swear.

In fact, food is what called out to me on Sunday at Six Flags. Rob and I rode just one measly roller coaster before the delicious smells of various kinds of food called out to us. We couldn’t resist the temptation (Rob caved in first, for the record!). It’s quite sad, really, because I was really looking forward to roller coasting the day away, but a girl’s gotta eat! Once I eat, roller coasters are out of the question. Throwing up is guaranteed.

I found out something quite outrageous this past weekend. Illinois does not have Dr. Pepper. WTF! There was nothing I wanted more than the funky taste of my Dr. Pepper, but my husband told me that Illinois doesn’t have it. I couldn’t believe it. Oh, Illinois, you have no idea what you’re missing! I believe they have some cheap substitute of it, but it’s not the same! I have no idea what is wrong with that entire state, but I will never be living there. It’s completely un-American, that’s what it is!

Eight Things I Have A Passion For:
1. Food
2. Chocolate
3. Music
4. Family & friends
5. Colorful pens
6. Japanese culture
7. Organizing
8. Naruto

Eight Things I Would Like To Do Before I Die:
1. Vacation in Japan!
2. Go skydiving.
3. Have children, preferably two (a boy and girl).
4. Meet Adam Sandler.
5. Conquer my fear of cockroaches.
6. Get my doctorate in Education.
7. Learn a third language (preferably Japanese).
8. Win the lottery (ha!).

Eight Things I Say A Lot:
1. Don’t be such a wanker. (favorite phrase of all time!)
2. Shmoopie! (go watch Seinfeld)
3. That’s totally wicked!
4. LAME!
5. I love you.
6. How are my poopies today?! (don’t ask…. )
7. What are you doing? (this is mostly directed at my husband)
8. JERK!! (again, to my husband )

Eight Books I Have Read Recently:
1. Vampire Mountain by Darren Shan
2. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
3. Tunnels of Blood by Darren Shan
4. Slawter by Darren Shan
5. The Vampire’s Assistant by Darren Shan
6. Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead Ferro
7. Demon Thief by Darren Shan
8. Lord Loss by Darren Shan

Eight Movies I Have Seen Eight Times:
1. This will not be filled out.
2. Mostly because I have
3. never seen a single
4. movie eight times.
5. Not even my beloved Harry Potter movies,
6. or the ones by my all-time
7. favorite comedian, Adam Sandler.
8.

Eight Bloggers I’ll Tag:
anyone who wants to do this….I’m not one for tagging!

I’ll probably blog about my trip to Chicago later on, with some photos perhaps. I’m just simply too tired to be bothered with that right now, but I promise a nice big entry on my trip to Chicago including juicy details (just kidding, ha).

We have most of the weekend planned out. We’ve avoiding downtown Chicago on Friday, seeing how that’s the release of the new iPhone. Although I’d love to capture a photo of everyone standing in long lines for it, I’d rather not put myself through the claustrophobia. So we’re going shopping elsewhere instead, and catching a late night movie that day. I’m thinking of Wall-E, but I know there are other great movies out there (suggestions are appreciated!). I guess we’ll just decide that day.

Saturday we’ll head over to downtown Chicago. I really want to go back to Borders! I absolutely love that store! Hopefully I can get some new books while I’m there. I’ve had my eye on Wicked, the book by Gregory Maguire. Some people have said that the book is really a good read, and the book definitely sounds interesting. I need to check and see if I have coupons I can use while I’m there (yes, I’m a coupon lady!).

Oh, and I definitely want one last taste of authentic Chicago pizza! We’ll be sure to hit up Giordano’s that day as well as maybe The Cheesecake Factory? I absolutely fell in love with their cheesecake…it was to die for.

We’re also going to Six Flags while we’re in Chicago, probably Sunday. I’ve been dying to get on some roller coasters for a while now! I also really wanted to go back to the museum, but I’m not sure if we’ll have time.

Anyway, this is my last post until next week probably. I won’t be getting back until Monday evening (unless flights are delayed, ugh). Before I bid you adieu, I really just want to ask you to go read Heather’s latest entry on dooce.com, entitled “On being more friendly to the environment”. It had me cracking up all morning, and wish I had satellite radio just to listen to the story of Napoleon’s penis.

Take care!

Our backyard is getting flooded, as well as the neighbor’s yard (see photo above). I went out back and took a photo of our backyard. I noticed something funny in the middle of all the water, so I zoomed in with my camera. It turned out to be one of the dogs’ toys! Poor little thing got left behind and is now drowning with all the rain.

I’m going to have to wash all of their toys as soon as this rain is over. Most of them got caught in the rain, I’m afraid. The only ones that are safe are the ones they keep in my room, like Jack the monkey. I’m going to have to bathe both the dogs as well. They seem to like frolicking in the mud when it’s stopped raining for a little while.

I should be happy that we’re getting so much rain, seeing as how we’ve been in a bit of a drought lately. It’s just annoying that it only slows down, but never completely stops. I’m supposed to go pay the insurance today, but I really don’t want to go out in all that rain. I took my umbrella yesterday when I went to run an errand, but the wind blew it inside out. So now I need a new umbrella as well.