What do the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association), Exxon Mobil, and "An Inconvenient Truth" have in common? This is depressing and pathetic:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400789.html

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday a very happy and special one! I especially have to thank Darryl for putting a lot of effort and thought into activities for my birthday and for his continued love. :-)

The number of gifts I received is too numerous to mention, and my family members were really too generous in their gifts (especially Dave -- crazy bum! :-). I got a lot of small, interesting items, I got a lot of books (a lot! including two sets of Arthurian tales), I got the PS2 game "Guitar Hero II" which we tried out on my birthday (I'm pretty good at it; it looks like it will be fun), another PS2 game "Karaoke Revolution 3" which I know will be good (thanks for the 3rd package, Dave... you really are extravagant, though!). I got some maternity tops, Christmas decorations, and my first cute tiny baby clothes! A little t-shirt & diaper one-piece with little pictures of dogs on it. I found that to be very meaningful. Just imagine: in just over half a year, I will have a real little baby of my own to put into those little clothes!! I got some candy, and Darryl got me two old kids' books illustrated by the same guy (Dale Maxey) who wrote & illustrated the book "Fidget" that I used to have as a child. He also made a donation on my behalf to MCC, to help youth in El Salvador build skills: http://mcc.org/givingprojects/building_skills_for_youth.html . He was afraid I wouldn't like it. The cats, especially Dennis and Pokey, were very happy to get all of the tissue paper and air pillos wrapping. They've been playing in it for the past couple of days and making quite a mess!

To celebrate my birthday, on Saturday Darryl took me to Fort Toulouse where we had a lovely nature walk. It might have become a foggy event stuck back in the recesses of memory some day, but for two things we saw: A pig. This was a large blackish pig that was rooting around in leaves and acorns. It didn't look particularly wild, but we wondered where it came from, so we asked the guy manning the museum. He said they'd raised two piglets but then had no place big enough for them, so they were turned loose on the peninsula to root around for themselves, and this one had been around for about 5 years. This was the first time we saw a pig there, though. The other thing we saw was..... something floating in the river. First we thought it was man-made debris. Then we thought it was a log. Then Darryl said it was a deer. Which it was, sort of. It was a mounted deer head, just floating along the river. How odd!

Later we were going to eat at an Indian restaurant in Montgomery, but my finicky pregnant self did not feel like I could eat Indian food, so we went to Carraba's Italian grill instead. The food there was wonderful, if a little rich and garlicful. We stopped in at Books-A-Million and bought a bunch of books, and later went home. On Sunday, Darryl made some cupcakes for me (you can see them in one of the photos), the first time he'd ever made any.

I had a very nice birthday, and again thanks and hugs to all of you who helped make it happen! :-)

Happy Birthday Kristina

My Wonderful wife Krisitina turns 29 today. Everyone take a minute to please wish her a Happy Birthday.

Kristina I Love You and I hope you have a wonderful Birthday.

Your Loving Husband
Darryl

The bookcase we bought & assembled this weekend is already filled with books! :-) Time for a new bookcase.... (and some more books)

Before & After

Darryl got his hair cut!

Try this website:

http://www.weffriddles.com

It's got levels and levels of riddles. Many of them are not at all obvious (or weren't to me!) and require maddening amounts of lateral thinking! There is a forum that can offer hints if you get stuck (and you will get stuck). These riddles are very fun and very addicting and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I am (right now I'm on level 22). Good luck!

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/chickenliverbake.html

Some light-hearted fun prior to the election melodrama of tomorrow. The link above shows photos of some old (c. 1970s) Weight Watchers recipe cards, and the individual who posted the photos makes some commentary on them as well. Definitely don't stop with just the Chicken Liver Bake--use the arrows to scroll through dozens more of these 'appetizing' meal choices. I am quite sure I would lose a LOT of weight if I had to rely solely on the recipes from these cards! Just take a look: it's funny!!!

Here are some photos from Hallowe'en! We had a nice party at Sandra & Jerry's, and the kids dressed up, played "pin the tail on the monster cat", bobbed for apples, told ghost stories around a campfire, and roasted marshmallows. It was a lot of fun! You can click on the small photos above to see larger versions of them.

As far as Hallowe'en at our house: we got 2 trick-or-treaters. A new low!

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Today was a nice day outside, so we raked leaves. Yesterday I burnt some pre-peanut brittle, so I baked an apple pie instead. yum :-9