I did it!

I made the time to go through the list of other 'Moms' blogs and read at least some from each listed. They were all pretty good, I'll have to make time to do it more often.

Guilty Pleasures

When I was in grade school I loved to read. I think I'd love to now, but I don't have the time. Anyways, the series by Judy Blume was one that I read -- SuperFudge, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing...

I saw a set of Judy Blume books in the book order form that one of the kids brought home and ordered it. It included one I'd never seen - Fudge-A-Mania. So yesterday at lunch I sat down and read it. A book written for 2nd graders and I enjoyed every minute of it. I tried to bribe the kids into listening to me read, but once they saw no pictures, that was it. I'm feely pretty dorky.

Now if I could only find the series written by Lois Duncan, my other favorite author...

Games People Play

If you are a movie buff, like my husband, you'll enjoy these games that my October Moms found:

Viking Stationery Movies / Answers Here
M&M's Dark Movies / Answers Here

Google Custom Search

You may have noticed the search feature at the top of the posts. Google has a new program called Google Co-op. You can read more about it here and here. You can customize it to show results only from your site, show regular web results, or show web results while giving preference to sites you choose. You can choose to show ads to earn extra cash, or not. You can also show the results in your site or on a google page. It looked sort of neat and it was free so I'm giving it a spin. If you ever use it, let me know how handy it is. It doesn't search my posts well, but I don't write that much....yet.

New Toy

A few weeks ago I was given a mini Mac or a Mac mini or a baby Mac or WHATEVER it's called ;) Anyways the little that I've used it... It is awesome for things like slideshows, movies, and pictures. So awesome that I'll never do another home movie on my PC. It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to eject a CD. There is no button on the front as I'm used to. I was reading things online telling me to restart and hold certain buttons down (*thinking this is dumb!*). However, in case you ever get in the situation, I finally found there is a handy eject button on the keyboard. Nice. Not the most logical thing, but it worked. It also doesn't have what Apple calls a 'SuperDrive,' which means I can't burn DVDs. So, I had to burn it to an image, find something to convert it and then compress it and move it over to the PC. Luckily the file was under 300MB so it wasn't a huge problem. I have been having a hard time finding an external DVD burner compatible with Mac for under a couple hundred bucks, but I found one online today at MicroCenter.

All in all, I still use my PC, but for nice creative things, I'm going to give this little puppy some more tries. It did a picture slideshow to music in under 10 minutes for me. That's pretty good. In a dream world I could use the same friendly software on my PC and we'd all be happy!

Warm Up Ohio!

I'd like to go ride my horse! Still wishing to move to a place that skips the crappy seasons...

Family Ties

My 'real' dad has never been a part of my life. Why I call him my 'real' dad still baffles me. He's never been there for me, and he's shut the door in my face more times that I care to remember. Our birthdays are one day apart, with his being first. I usually call him on his birthday so I can gloat the next day about him forgetting mine. This year I got busy and forgot. I did receive a phone call from him a few days later. He wanted to know if I wanted some old recliners he wanted to get rid of. Why on Earth..... as if I need old junk?

A few months ago I found the myspace page of the one daughter he claims (yes, there are more of 'us' out there that he doesn't). I read it faithfully, often. It doesn't mention me. I'm no more a part of her life than she is of mine. In a way, it hurts.

If I could go back, I would take back ever meeting him, which I did finally at 18. At least then I could still have the fantasy that he was great and perfect and out saving the world. It's better than the truth: he's a selfish old man who smokes and still doesn't want me. I wish I could sever the ties for good, but I just don't have it in me.

Can I borrow your life?

I have this aunt who has this thing. It involves entitlement to every aspect of my life. She has horses too. Last year when I was just starting to get back into horses my dad took me where I needed to go. He also took her. Difference being? I paid gas money. Last winter I decided I was in it for broke and I bought my own trailer. This spring I bought a bigger truck. This fall.. a bigger horse. You get the picture. I've been slowly growing into it. She's had horses since I can remember. She's never owned a trailer. Having already worn out the other family members, I became fresh meat. Here's the deal: I get to buy the equipment, pay for the equipment, maintain the equipment, and she gets to borrow it whenever she wants - for free. Pretty sweet, huh?

I really don't mind sharing with family. My mom, aunt, and I trade things all the time. Giving without gratitude bothers me. I don't hear a thank you... in fact I'm treated like crap every other second of the day unless I'm being asked to loan something out. I feel guilty if I say no, I'm resentful if I say yes (did I mention things often come back trashed or don't come back at all?).

It isn't as if she's homeless, her family way income is much higher than mine. Seriously, if you are going to run with the big dogs, you had better be ready to pony up the dough. Nothing bothers me more than an ungrateful mooch.