Gotta love marketing companies

So I went for the "focus group" last night and after sitting in their reception room for a half hour, they took all the people except for three of us - seems we were "alternates" and they didn't need us. Woohoo so I got paid to sit there and drink their pop and eat their sandwiches. Turns out they pay you in cash and you don't have to declare it or anything - they told us it's found money. Can't beat that.

Got a call today from my friends C & A inviting me, BT and the kids for Thanksgiving dinner. It's been a tradition with them ever since Jamie was a baby. I soooo love eating there - A is Cordon Bleu chef and I think I'd crawl through broken glasst to eat there, besides the fact that they are wonderful people and I really like them. Thanksgiving is always a huge affair with anywhere from 10 to 25 people. I'm one of their OPCs (Other Peoples Children) and go there whenever I can.

Phew!

Well, I've had a busy morning. Waved BT off this morning as he was going to Toronto on some mission of his own. Three loads of laundry done and TADA that's all the laundry done. Did a huge pile of dishes - well, mostly pots and pans as the kids refuse to wash them or should I say refuse to wash them correctly. Then my super showed up with the handyman to check out my front door and see if they can repair it. I suppose I should tell the saga of the front door. Two years ago when I moved in here Jamie made some errrr inappropriate friends who broke into my house - twice. Once they came through the front window and once they kicked in my door. I repaired the door as well as I could and it's held for the past two years until this weekend. One of the rotten kids that Jamie is hanging around with decided that Jamie needed to be beaten up. Why? Who knows. This boy chased Jamie to the door and proceeded to punch him etc., the whole episode culminating with Jamie being thrown rather heavily at the door. The repairs to the door frame didn't hold - in fact the door frame exploded inwards rather spectacularly. Totally beyond my limited ability to repair soooo I can't lock my door at all. The super and the handyman are coming back tomorrow to do the repair thank god. I'm gonna have to lock up the cats though, Rascal has taken a sudden interest in the great outdoors and bolts out the door at every opportunity even though once he's out there he just cowers under the patio furniture. Stupid cat. Shadow is just as daft and he'll be out the door after Rascal if given half a chance.

Catching Up

So I guess I need to catch up on a whole week. I hate being sick -it sucks and I get cranky lol. I spent most of the week babying myself so I wouldn't get any worse. Got a phone call from my friend Angie. I always love hearing from her, we've been friends since we were 8 or 9 years old and lived around the corner from each other until I moved away from home when I was 16. It's funny how we've kept in touch all these years, sometimes we don't talk for months and have even gone years but we always seem to find one another again. We were both pregnant at the same time and our daughters are only a month apart in age. I can't wait to move back there so that I can see her more often.

Katie didn't end up going to New York, Potsie's aunt passed away a day before they were going to leave. I'm not sure why they were going in the first place as the aunt in question was in a coma and wouldn't have even known they were there. Maybe I don't get it because I have so few relatives, almost all of my extended family (2nd cousins, great uncles etc) still live in Scotland so I don't get to see them much.

While I wasn't feelin too hot, I was surfin the net and I came across a group that is tracing the origins of my family(maiden) name. It's kind of cool actually, they are going to do DNA testing to see how everyone is related. These people are serious geneology folks, they are tracing stuff back to the 1700's so far - hell, I'm lucky I've traced anything to the late 1890's lol.

Jamie has been a freakin doorknob again. Friday he came home from school, dropped his stuff in the door and buggered off. He strolled back in at MIDNIGHT! The deal we had when he moved back in was 10 o'clock no ifs ands or buts. Not only was he late, I'm totally convinced that he was high as a kite. So I tell him - grounded , seems like a reasonable resonponse doesn't it? He just shrugs and drags him ass up the stairs ( it wasn't booze - I have a nose like a bloodhound for drink - ask my ex's lol). Soooooo 12:30 my phone rings, and I'm thinking OMG who died? It's Tonya's mother ( Jamie' s little g/f is Tonya). She wants to know if Jamie is home because Tonya isn't home yet and they are freaking - seems they have been out looking for her since 11. I told her I would ask Jamie and call her back, I shake him awake with great difficulty and all he says is "She should be home, she was walking home". Then he rolled over and went back to sleep! Selfish little prick wasn't the least bit worried that his g/f wasn't home and it was the middle of the night. I called her mom and told her where they were hanging around and if she wasn't home in half an hour to call me back. One o'clock the phone rings again. Tonya's mom again, she still isn't home. BT and I got in the car and start looking for her, about 1:20 we are driving past her house and there she is walking up the driveway. So we pull into the driveway and I get out and start to talk to her. At that point, her parents come out and Tonya goes in. What a wonderful way to meet her parents, I mean I've talked to them on the phone but never in person. Grand, just grand. Very nice people that I like very much and this is the first time we've actually been able to compare notes on our monsters. It's kind of scary just how alike Jamie and Tonya are but at least now her mom and I have the beginnings of good contact becaues it doesn't look like the relationship is going to end anytime soon. *sigh* BT keeps asking if he can "kill Jamie just a little" lol.

The only other interesting thing to happen is that I'm going to be in a "focus group" tomorrow. It's probably going to be about politics but hey what the hell, they are going to pay me $75 to sit there for an hour and a half and talk lol. I think I can do that.

Jamie, Randi and Katie- Randi is Potsie's g/f's daughter and Katie' s best friend. 

Yuck

I've been obnoxiously ill this week so no posting. Back soon.

Weekend update

Well, I got to visit with some friends I hadn't seen in a long time, had a good long talk comparing rotten son stories lol. I spent some time looking for apartments out there and I may have found one that I can afford. Visited my grandma and she's doing good. The finger that she broke a few months ago didn't heal right and now she has to get it re-broken or it may affect the fingers on either side. Grandma understandibly squeemish about the breaking the finger thing, hell so am I!
Jamie was Jamie again this weekend. Saturday night when I was leaving for Oshawa his girlfriend Tonya shows up and says that Jamie borrowed her bike in the afternoon to go the store and never came back. It was 9 at night and that poor girl was standing outside my gate in the dark waiting for Jamie to come back here with her bike. Well, I got pissed off at him and to tell you the truth, tired of waiting for him - I still had an hour and a half drive ahead of me - so I went without Jamie. What I didn't know is that Jamie had lost his key again, so when I locked the door and left, he was locked out. Didn't seem to bother him when he was sleeping wherever while he had "left home" but when I got home yesterday all I heard was plaintive wailing about how I had locked him out and he had to find somewhere else to sleep. Like I'm supposed to wait twiddling my thumbs until who knows how late at night before making a long drive. *sigh* I just can't win. Oh and when I ask Jamie about Tonya's bike he says "someone else took it and I don't know who but it doesn't matter cuz it's not my bike anyways" Not his bike - my god. Makes me just wanna smack him one, not that I did mind you, but oooooo how I wanted to. I can feel new grey hair coming up as I write - that girls parents are going to be calling me again.

My little girl in a commanders uniform. 

These are my boys - Rascal and Shadow - you can probably figure out which is which lol. 

Call from Potsie

Just got a call from the ex (Potsie) - seems that they are scared of the bad weather down there in the US of A and they are postponing their trip til next weekend maybe. He also wants to talk to me about Jamie. Hmmm wonder what that is about, hope he doesn't think that his support is going to be any less because Jamie doesn't want to go to his house. Hell, he's only paying 250 a month for two kids so I think he's getting off light. Hopefully, he doesn't bring his fiance with him when he wants to have this talk with me, I HATE it when he does that. Things to do with the kids are between me and him and not me and THEM. Not that I have anything against her and I have been really really reasonable. LOL My friends say that I"m up of the Ex of the Year Award - they've had me over for dinner, I've had her daughter stay the night here a few times, I helped them pack and move. I just don't like having conversations about the kids with her there. Call me picky.

A weekend away

Well, diddly squat happening over here. Katie is packing for her weekend in New York City with her dad, his fiance and her kid. I'm sure they'll have a very good time. BT is working this weekend in my old hometown so I'm going with him and I'm going to spend the day visiting friends while he is working. Think I'll go visit my grandma while I'm there, she's 82 and I haven't seen her in a few weeks. I'm always worried about her, she's fallen a few times and I always worry when I don't hear from her.

whadya know

Woo hoo it worked. I've figured out how to post a picture so now I can bore you(all two of you lol) with pictures.

Me 

Muggy

Well yesterday was incredibly muggy and humid not that that stopped me from doing things around here. I've decided that the house was awfully manky so I've started a major clean up. First was the garbage round-up - I made the kids get all the garbage out of their room, gathered up all the boxes etc and so far I've rounded up 7 bags of trash - where was it all hiding???
Did four loads of laundry - again a result of making the kids clean their rooms. I should take pictures so that maybe I could embarass them into cleaning them somewhat more often. Potsie the Ex called and asked me two things - if he can take Katie to Florida for a week in October at Thanksgiving and if he can take her to New York this weekend to visit one of his auntie who is very ill and probably won't live much longer. I've agreed to this weekend - how can I say no really - a dying relative and if I don't let her go I'm the bad guy. I don't know about Thanksgiving though - depends on her school work I suppose. Based on last years performance, she needs all the classroom time she can.

I got a call last night from Jamie's Army Cadet Corps. He has cadets tonight and surprise surprise he's be made a section leader and he's supposed to be contacting other cadets to inform them of the dress code in the weeks to come. Surprised Jamie as well lol. Well Jamie has decided he doesn't want to ever go to Potsie's house anymore since (his words) he hates his fathers fiance. Sooooo Jamie won't have his uniform for parade tonight - that should go down well. NOT. Funny how his sister never seems to have this problem - she is in Sea Cadets and she always has her uniform and is lookin spiffy whenever required. Hell she even went and bought herself a reusable lint roller to make sure she isn't going to parade covered in cat hair (the cats LOOOOVVVVEEEE her dark uniform for some reason lol).

Well, I'm off to do another huge round of laundry lalalalalala.

Booklist

It's a huuuuugggggeeeee list but kinda fun.


Books
Instructions: Bold those you've read, italicize those started but not finished, add three of your own, and post to your blog!
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
016. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O’Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winter’s Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
262. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolve
r264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O’Brien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setter’s Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookman’s Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magic’s Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magic’s Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magic’s Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
.301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lion’s Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith’s Brood), Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magic’s Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime O’Neill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline L’Engle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
365. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
366. The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
367. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
368. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
369. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
370. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
371. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
372. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
373. Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
374. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
375. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
376. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
377. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
378. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
379. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
380. Time for Bed by David Baddie
l381. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
382. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
383. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
384. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
385. Jhereg by Steven Brust
386. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
387. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
388. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
389. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
390. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
391. Neuromancer, William Gibson
392. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
393. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
394. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
395. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
396. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
397. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
398. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman
399. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
400. The God Boy, Ian Cross
401. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King
402. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
403. Misery, Stephen King
404. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
405. Hood, Emma Donoghue
406. The Land of Spices, Kate O’Brien
407. The Diary of Anne Frank
408. Regeneration, Pat Barker
409. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
410. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia
411. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
412. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
413. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
414. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
415. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine L’Engle
416. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
417. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
418. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
419. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill
420. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
421. The Things We Carried, Tim O’Brien
422. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
423. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
424. Ender’s Shadow, Orson Scott Card
425. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card
426. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen
427.The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles
428. The Four Feathers, A.E.W. Mason
429. The Jester, James Patterson
430. Cry the beloved Country, Alan Paton
431. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
432. The Stranger, Albert Camus
433. Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
434. The Fuck-Up, Arthur Nersesian
435. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
436. Four Fires, Bryce Courtenay
437. One Door Away From Heaven, Dean Koontz
438. Blue Horizon, Wilbur Smith
439. Arrows of the Queen, Mercedes Lackey
440. By the Sword, Mercedes Lackey
441. Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs
442. Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey
443. Dragondrums, Anne McCaffrey
444. X-factor, Andre Norton

Good news

On the good news front, I finally heard from the Anxiety Treatment centre and I start their group therapy for social anxiety in October. Woo hoo, maybe I'll be actually be normal again.

Pepper spray and high drama

So Jamie is still hanging around with his loser friends - something I didn't know until I was coming home from doing a little grocery shopping. There I amin the parking lot when I hear "hey Jamie's mom, Jamie's mom! Megan just pepper sprayed Jamie in the eyes!" Greeeeeeat.
Toddle off to the house I go (loaded with a shit load of heavy groceries) and I can hear Jamie yelling in the house. I dump the groceries and go upstairs and there is Jamie wearing only a towel with his whole face beet red telling me that Megan was trying to pepper spray his shirt and hit him in the eyes instead. Megan I should mention is 18 and has bad influence written all over her - she is the one who provides the rest with their pot and has a mouth that she really needs washed out with soap. Needless to say, I am NOT amused because as far as I know pepper spray is illegal unless you are a cop. Well, armed with this information, I head over to her house because I really think that her parents need to know what the hell the little bitch is up to. When I get to the scuzzy apartment building and buzz up she tells me that she is coming down and will talk to me. She informs me that she lives alone and that spraying Jamie was an accdent so I should just let it go. Let it go - she just sprayed my son in the eyes and I should just shrug my shoulders and say oh well. Then she tells me that she came into my HOUSE - I've already warned her not to come on my property because of an incident that happened at the beginning of the summer. Megan feels she has no responsibility for the the incident and that Jamie shouldn't have been in the way of the papper spray. Like Jamie doesn't have enough problems with his eyes - cripes he's had surgery once, had an eye patched for almost 4 years and has worn glasses since he was 2. I'm so paranoid about his eyes that this just sent me over the top. Then this little bitch tells me that I don't know my own son and that I TREAT HIM LIKE A DOG!!! oooooooooooooo last straw. Stomping home I come, fuming. BT is freaking that that little bitch had been in the house, the dog is barking and Jamie is still whining. I've had enough - I call the cops and they say they will send out a car.
Time passes - three hours to be exact. Finally, the cop shows up, listens to the story and tells me that pepper spray is NOT illegal since they sell it to hunters for bear protection but he would go to the scuzzy apartment and talk to her and her father (who she lives with) and warn her about the pepper spray. BT is furious that we can't charge her with trespassing for coming into the house without permission and the fact that Jamie was protecting Megan to the cop when Jamie had tried to get ME in trouble with the cops not even two weeks ago.
I was ready to just collapse after the cop left, I was just soooo exhausted but BT wanted to rage awhile bout the cops. lol He's convinced if Megan had been a GUY then the whole thing would have gone down differently - in BT's words "it's a woman's world".
Then last night, Jamie comes flying in the door and says "Evander's father wants to talk to you." Evander? Who the hell is Evander" (and btw, who names their kid Evander??) I come to the door and there is this TROLL of a man who immediately starts threatening Jamie and probably would have been yelling at me too if BT hadn't been standing behind me at the time. I can't believe this man threatened to beat Jamie up and then throw him in his TRUNK to take him to the police station because Jamie supposedly threw a stone at his son. God I need to move.

The Zoo

I wanted to introduce my zoo. I have two short haired cats - Rascal and Shadow. I got the boys when they were just little fluff balls - I had just split up with the ex and could have a cat again. I made the mistake of taking Katie with me to pick out a kitten. I had picked out the runt of the litter - a pure black puff of fur when Katie fell in love with a little grey and white fluffball who climbed up her leg (claw over claw lol). Sooooo being the sucker that I am , I took both kittens and I'm glad I did now since they keep each other such good company. They are both big sucks and follow me all over the house, more particularly to the bathroom lol. BT says there is a parade going up the stairs after me whenever I go for a pee.

For my birthday BT took me to the Humane Society and that was where we found Toto, my little girl. She is a little black terrier cross - god only knows what the cross is but she has perky little ears and has decided beyond a doubt that I am HER person. She is such a good girl and has never had an accident in the house, hell in the beginning she wouldn't even "go" in the yard unless she had her leash on. The Humane society was wrong about how old she is, they said 5 to 7 and when I took her to the vet they said more like 8 or 9. The shelter said that she had been on the streets for a while when they got her and that she had probably been dumped because sh was sick. Ah well someone else's lose, my gain.

Toto has no use for the cats until they climb on my lap for some luvin and then she gets jealous. The cats on the other hand rub up against her and I even caught Shadow trying to clean her ears for her lol. She'll only put up with them next to her for a little while, grumbling all the while, before she'll get up and move and if ,gods forbid, I'm rubbing a pussy cat belly , she has to get right in between us and stop that belly rubbin lol.

So that's my zoo.

The Prodigal Son

Well, he's come back home. Showed up yesterday afternoon and asked if he could come home. So we went over the rules of the house, he agreed and he's home. BT is pissed at me because I didn't make the little monster sign a contract in blood to "not be a dick anymore" (his exact words lol) dunno if that would make any difference or not but I'll tell you one thing - the boy is making up for every meal that he has missed in the past couple of weeks lol. Other than that, I've done diddly... it has just been too muggy.

I've just been reading some other blogs and watching the boob tube this weekend. I found a couple of really cool blogs..Special K's shaking my fist in impotent rage and Mary Lou's Life after Nexcom. They both make me laugh and write so well that I feel like I've known them for years.

Jamie strikes again

I had a phone call this afternoon from the vice principal at the high school. Seems she wanted me to give Jamie his identification so that he can get social assistance. I then informed her that Jamie was welcome to come home anytime and then I had to have a half hour phone conversation with Jamie convincing him to come here and talk to me. He was supposed to come home on the school bus and we were going to talk about guidelines for him coming home and he never showed up. Oh and this is a good one - he actually said that BT had beaten him up!! HA The only time that BT has touched him was when he stole from him and BT sat on him on the ground to get him to sit still and listen to us. Jamie can't stand when someone else touches his stuff but he thinks he can take anyone else's stuff and that there are no consequences. I want him to come home but I'm so worried about the stress he's going to cause. He seems to think the world revolves around him and he can't get it through his head that other people have feelings too.

Men

That title is said in an exasperated tone of voice by the way. BT decided to check out some "really cool stuff" *eyes rolling*. First he got a Mac emulator to try it out on my system then for reasons known only to him he got Linux then it all went horribly wrong. We spent hours and hours yesterday reloading XP and getting the system back into running shape. Today, just for shits and giggles, the hydro company cut off all the power to my complex for three hours. No lights, no blogs arggg.

I was having the weirdest dream last night - that somehow I was incredibly wealthy and I was travelling everywhere meeting all the people who's blogs I've been reading. Funny how I''m dreaming about people who's lives I've only read about although I suppose by reading the archives I feel like I know them. Ah well, no one ever said my unconscious was normal lol.

Talked to one of my newer neighbours today and she was telling me that I need to get Jamie away from the kids he's been hanging around wtih as they were hanging around by her place the other night smoking dope and that the police are watching them. I told her there was nothing I could do as Jamie had left my house and all I could do was hope that he would come home. Katie was saying how nice it is now that Jamie isn't here - she doesn't have to lock her room, no one is stealing all her stuff and when I buy her treats for her lunch, they actually STAY in the fridge until she uses them for her lunch. Sad that to make life better for her Jamie needs to not be living here.

Loooooonnnnggggg weekend

Saturday was a do nothing day - didn't even get out of my comfy jammies all day. The best way to spend a Saturday.

Sunday I had to drive up to get Katie (potsie"oh did you want her for the weekend?") - funny how it was a surprise that I was going to go to see my mother since I do it EVERY SINGLE YEAR. I don't fancy my chances if I had shown up with no kids since my parents haven't seen them since Christmas. As it was my mother was pissed that we only stayed for the day and drove back home Sunday night. I was in a lovely mood by the time we got there. The drive there is 3 hours normally - Sunday it took 5 1/2 hours! Seems there was a shooting on the highway early Sunday morning so the police had the entire collectors lanes shut down. Let's just say that Katie got an education in foul language from a rather frazzled mom. *sigh* and I usually try soooo hard not to. We finally got home at midnight and I lost consciousness for 14 hrs.

Once I finally dragged my exhausted ass outta bed on Monday, I got to make sure that Katie had everything ready for school, drive her BACK up to her dads to pack up some stuff there and then go back again 4 hours later to pick her up so she'd be ready for school in the am.

Tuesday I got to be a hero and drove my little girl to high school for her first day of grade 9. Gods, where did the time go? She was a little girl playing dress up in my high heels only yesterday it seems. I suppose boy problems aren't far off now. Two more June24ths and she'll be 16 - it seems a long way off now lol.

Wednesday was clean up day around here, laundry, dishes, floors, bathroom. I wonder how much a maid would cost? lol

Jamie update: His girlfriend's mother called me to tell me what she knows. Seems her daughter and Jamie have been trying to get pregnant!!! Besides the fact that I'm far too young (haha) to be a grandmother, neither him or Tonya (girlfriend) are mentally capable of raising a child. Thank all the gods that Tonya's mother took her to get the contraception shot (deprivara I think) so for the next three months at least - there will be no conception. Jamie has also informed the world at large that he is not coming home because a) its boring here and b) I have been keeping him prisoner, locked in his room. So now I'm looking like some kind of evil child abuser to my neighbours until I tell them what has really been going on. *sigh* and I was wondering why I'm getting grey hairs.

Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip.

My grandmother called me last night basically to say "where the hell have you been" and to piss and moan about how no one comes to see her. Now I would go and see her if I didn't live an hour and a half away and my car wasn't giving me gyp. She was also saying how she had been talking to my mother ( who lives 3 hours away) and that I hadn't been out to see her either. Hmmm I've been in this place for 2 YEARS and not one of them has come here to visit me, it seems to just be taken as read that I will go out there. My grandma I can understand, she's 82 and she doesn't drive although I do TRY to get out there as often as I can. My god with gas prices the way they are, it's an expedition.

Yesterday, I got a call from Jamie's girlfriend's mother *say that five times fast* - seems that he told THEM that I kicked him out of the house because he wouldn't do the dishes. aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh people must think I'm some kind of nutcase. I told them that I didn't kick him out but that he left because he didn't want to follow the rules and that he could come back any time he likes as long as he is willing to follow the rules. We'll have to see what happens now - seems he thought her parents were just going to let him stay at their house - rent free too! LOL I figure as soon as the weather gets cold enough, he'll come back home.

BT is working this weekend so I'm thinking of going to visit the family and head off any more guilt trips. It should be great fun *said with a great deal of sarcasm*. It will be nice to see my dad though and check how he's doing, he had a stroke nearly two years ago and the recovery is in slow steps. Really, at this point, the worst effect is the loss of vision in his left eye - that prevents him from driving and he's not liking that. They just got back from vacation so they should either be really relaxed or ready to kill each other.

Lazy lazy lazy

Well I've been exceptionally lazy recently and haven't written a thing. Shall we go back in time? *insert weird creepy music here* lol.

Friday evening I went to the Peach Festival with Katie to serve many many many steak on a buns to the paying public. They put us in the almost the same spot as last year - two booths away from the bandstand which isn't too bad normally unless of course they let 5 or so teenage garage bands play a set of three songs. Egad there are alot of tone deaf teenagers out there. I've never heard so many heavy metal songs mutilated. When that ear torture was over the bandstand then played what I can only assume was a satellite radio station (no commercials lol) which was great for all of us old people doing the actual work in the booth. Ohhhh rant time - the reason for the cadet booth at the festival is to raise money for the cadet activities during the year. That being said, the cadets are supposed to be there helping out. There were 10 people there - only two were cadets. I was a little put out when a couple more of cadets showed up with one of the mother/volunteers and those two little princesses decided that they were above doing a damn thing (might break a nail or something you know) and the girl's mother said NOTHING, even when I oh so subtlely mentioned that I was surprised that so few cadets were helping out. She actually had the nerve to say "well they are just kids, they would only be in the way". Hmmm she didn't seem to find Katie in the way when she started ordering my daughter around.
Call me petty but at that point I decided that since we had been there for 5 hours we'd done enough and we were going home.

Turns out Jamie was there at the festival as well, and by some weird co-incidence working at the booth directly across from us. Seems one of his little girlfriends had a job there for the festival and she got him one there too. He still wouldn't talk to me but hopefully he decides that being out of his own is losing its appeal and he comes home soon.

Pretty blah weekend after that. On Monday I went to the high school to pick up Katies new timetable and they told me that she had to go the school on Tuesday morning for orientation (getting her timetable, locker assignment and paying her $30 activity fee arghhhhh). So of course I needed to go to her fathers and pick her up so she would actually be there on time. Once I got her home, she tells me that her father STILL hasn't gotten her school supplies so after the oh so interesting orientation, Katie and I went shopping for school supplies. We'll have to see how much Potsie likes having to pay me back for the money I laid out after I specifically told him he would be paying for them, plus paying for half of the activity fee.

So the weather here has been awful recently and is only bettter today - nice and sunny for a change. At least the barometric pressure has let up and that means for the first time in over a week I haven't had a booming headache.