My big brother Kevin is coming to town on business the weekend of the 23rd. I'll be in the hospital, but he's still coming to see me...and this time, after yesterday's events, I really need to see him.  Living close to St Louis is turning out to be better than I thought!

Link The Sun, one of the British tabloids, has set up an email link for people to post messages letting people know they're safe, and also for people who are worried about friends and family to post messages requesting contact. Follow the link above to go to the page. There's an email address on the page where you can post your own message/contact request if you need to. I'm lucky. Everyone I know is safe. However, there are people who are not so fortunate...and my prayers and though...

Alright, Joeusers, I need your help. I'm amassing a library of books to read during my hospital stay and subsequent recuperation.  It's going to be a long haul, according to my surgeon, so I'm trying to line up as many books as I can.  My Amazon account has seen a fair bit of activity in the past couple of weeks...but I'd like it to see more. Thus far I have in my possession: The Historian, Snow Falling Upon Cedars, The Grapes Of Wrath, and a collection of Faulkner's short storie...

I taught my kids to swim last summer, and snice we've been going to the pool every day this summer I've been teaching them different strokes and breathing patterns for those strokes. We started with a freestyle.  The eldest two had a few issues with their faces being in the water and rotating their heads to breathe, but not our Jake.  He got it right away.  He had a little problem with not breathing as he was stroking, but we fixed that in about 2 widths.  Once he fel...

If I were to say "Bob Geldof" to you, what would you think of? Chances are you'd say "Live Aid", or if you're younger "Live 8". If I were to say "Usher" to you, or "Nelly" or "Fifty Cent", what would you think of? Again, chances are you'd say "rap" or "hip hop" or "bling". Bob Geldof, a white man, a non-African American has raised millions of dollars to help African people living in poverty.  He's drawn the world's attention to the horrors that happen on a daily basis in Africa....

Recently D and I found ourselves in a unique position. We've had to deal with 2 First Sergeants instead of one.  Normally, military members only have one 'Shirt' (as they're colloquially known) - the one who's assigned to the squadron they're a member of. However, because D is deployed, we've had to deal with two.  One here, at his parent or home unit, and one at the unit he's temporarily assigned to. These two Shirts represent each end of the spectrum.  One has gone out ...

Link "> Link The Golden Palace Casino has sunk to a new low. The buyers of the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich have paid a single mom $10,000 to have their URL tattoed on her forehead. Permanently tattooed.  On her forehead.  For $10,000.  She said that $10 grand is "like a million" to her because she has no money.  She said that she's doing it to secure her son's education. I wonder if anyone has told her that a college education costs a damn sight m...

 When I was a teenager, I was bigger than average 'up top'. Everyone else was wearing A and B cups, and I was in a C.  As I got older and I stopped growing, I leveled out.  I'm not huge, but I don't have bee stings either. When I was at my skinniest, I was still a large B/small C.  At my heaviest, I was a DD, and when I was nursing I was overfilling a DD cup but never bothered to get a bigger bra so I don't know exactly how big I was...but I'll hazard a gues...

Hehehe...I'm grinning from ear to ear right now. I got my husband a gift.  Something that he's been looking at for ages.  I got him a Pentax Optio 50 digital camera.  It has 5.0 megapixels and 3X optical zoom...a 1.8" LCD display and it has Pictbridge capability so that he can get a photo printer and hook it directly to that. I happened to be walking by the digital camera display and saw that it was on sale....the list price for it is close to $300, but I got it for $189....

Is my big day.  The day that will change my life and my body forever. July 22nd is the day that I get my back fixed.  Dr Striegel (who's quite a hottie, btw) said he's going to make an incision slightly to the left of my belly button, starting at my navel and running down to my pubic bone (on me, that's about 6 or 7 inches; I have a long torso).  He's making it vertically so he won't have to cut through the muscles...he'll just move them out of the way.  July 22nd. A li...

After the discussion about why the bible uses 'let US make them in OUR image' in the book of Genesis, I went and got myself a copy of 'The Other Bible'...it's a collection of Gnostic and early Kabbalahic texts, as well as the dead sea scrolls and some gospels that were ultimately rejected by Christianity. I started to read The Secret Book Of John, and part way into the first couple of chapters I got another idea as to why that particular phrasing was used Yahweh, the God tha...