I haven’t had too much to blog about lately. I seem to have become summer baby-sitter for the BF’s nieces and nephews. They always want to come over and play with the animals or the Wii. I also took them to the pool for swim lessons this week, fun! I actually got to sit around and read school work without too much distraction, so it worked out. I am trying convince them to go back more often, just so I can get out of the house and away from the internet . . . . But I can’t get in without them as they are part of the club and I can get in with them. However they are on the swim team, so it seems by time their practice is over, they are over the pool. I was never on swim team, but I remember we would stay at the pool all day long.

After being away last week, I finally started the PodRunner thing this week . . . after buying some decent shoes to run in as well. On Friday I’ll be officially done with week one. I could move on to week two at this point, as I did it once before leaving for vacation, but I am just going to wait and stay on a regular weekly schedule. I’ve also been finally giving the Wii Fit some decent attention, using it on the days I don’t run. I want to see what happens if you ever get to the weight loss goal you set for yourself. Hopefully it throws you a party or something. It will probably just say “Great, your no longer fat!”

The fourth is coming up, and living in the Philly area there are fireworks everywhere. We actually have two days of fireworks over in Philly, on the fourth and the fifth. Some of the townships in Jersey have already set theirs off, probably because everyone in Jersey is fleeing to the shore this week/end. I’m supposed to go to a party at Jen’s for the ones on the fifth of July. Should be fun!

Anyway, I didn’t take any photos of me last week while on vacation, except for one. It was hot and sticky and I wasn’t feeling much like being photographed. Plus I didn’t bring my tripod, so it wasn’t easy. I’m probably going back in August and my friend Keith wants to go this time, after seeing the youtube video of The Griffon I plan to take the tripod to get some good night photos in Williamsburg this time.

Because I didn’t take any photos, here are some of me rolling around on the bed. Yeah I know, I didn’t smile. Sorry. I had to adjust the color because for most of them the flash was used, and did my best to match the natural light of the first one. You can see how the hair is coming along.

I brought back all my Xena action figures and dollies and stuff to add to the Wonder Woman room, because I thought she’d be a good compliment to WW, but I didn’t realize I had so many Xena toys! I got them home and looked at the walls in the room and realized, I’m running out of space to hang these things up. I’m going to have to do some re-arranging. At some point I’ll get some photos up of all these toys and this room too.

Tonight we watched “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” which was really good. A lot cuter than I was expecting. It’s based on a series of children’s books, which I have not read. I just remember seeing the trailer and marked it in the back of my head as something to eventually checked out. The movie is about a boy who finds a book in his family’s house that allows him to see the world of magical creatures. To say much more would spoil it. If you like fantasy movies, check it out. Very cute, two thumbs up. My BF even enjoyed it a lot, and stayed awake to watch it all. That’s saying something! Because he enjoyed it so I’ve added “The Last Mimzy” to my rental queue. I watched this a year ago when it came out and fell in love with it, but never got him to see it. We’ve also had “The Golden Compass” sitting here for a month for him to watch too. I’ll pop that in tomorrow night perhaps.

So after almost 8 hours of driving, I’m home in New Jersey. I drove to my mom’s to get my dogs and then just decided I needed to go home. I have stuff to do and I didn’t want two days wasted with driving.

The ghost tour in Williamsburg was a disappointment. It wasn’t bad, it just hadn’t been updated. I will admit the guide I had didn’t do much for me either, he was far too young in my opinion and didn’t have the experience. I did this same tour (with the same company) 14-15 years ago, and what bothered me is that they told the same stories again! The stories are good, and all based on a book called “The Ghosts of Williamsburg.” The problem is the book was put together in the 60s and a lot of the accounts were from people back then. They haven’t added anything new in, which is what I would have liked to have heard.

The other issue was it ran late, which I wouldn’t normally complain about, but I had parked in the visitors center as to not have to hunt for parking downtown. So rather than enjoy the tour I started near the end looking at the time and realizing I might be doing a long walk. I missed the last bus, which I tried hard to catch, even leaving the tour early. Thus I had to walk back . . . . alone . . . . in the dark . . . . the very pitch black dark. It’s colonial Williamsburg, they don’t have much street lighting! The walk back was scarier than the ghost tour, and I ended up running part of the way as I did not enjoy the whole “path through the woods and the croaking frogs in the nearby swamp.” I kept imagine someone waiting for a stupid tourist like me to come along so they could mug.

Next time I’m going to take a competing company’s ghost tour, as I heard some of their tour earlier in the day and they gave what I wanted to hear, recent accounts from building curators and reenactors of the ghosts.

This morning I did Jamestown, which I loved. So much has been done there and gone up since I was last there because of the 400th anniversary of the settlement and the discovery of the original settlement. There is an entirely new archaeology museum there, which unfortunately I only breezed through as I was running overtime and needed to get on the road. They also had a field school there excavating and I talked to some of them about the stuff they were finding and whatnot.

I’ll upload all my Williamsburg and Jamestown photos this weekend. I have a lot, so I’ll stick them in my webshots photo album rather than on the blog itself.

So I drove to my mom’s in Virginia today, and am driving down to Williamsburg tomorrow. I really hope I do not run into (not literally) anymore people driving with those attached trailers to the back’s of their cars, cause the ones I met today couldn’t drive fer shiat! I was afraid I was going to get smacked by one, as was everyone else on the road. Everyone was afraid to pass this one car, and later a second felt the need to drive down the middle of two lanes . . . on the interstate! Where were the cops when they were needed?

I’m officially not meeting up with my friend till Wednesday, but I did not want to get up at 6am to drive 3 hours Wednesday morning, then be dead tired by afternoon and possibly end up with a migraine with my luck after being at an amusement park all day. The extra money for an extra night at the hotel was worth it to me

So tomorrow I will get up not too early, get ready and make my way down to Williamsburg. I’m hoping the hotel will have a room ready since I expect to arrive before official 3pm check in time (aiming for 1-2 pm). Then I think I will actually spend a few hours at Busch Gardens on my own. I haven’t been in years, as I’ve said before, and it’s one of those parks there is so much to do. I could spend all day in the stores there alone. You could also spend a day just taking photographs because the park is so beautiful.

On Wednesday I’m meeting Zan (and her family) and we are spending the day at the park. I figured I’d get my shopping and other stuff done on Tuesday so I don’t bore them, though they have season passes and can also come back at any time. Pictures I’ll do on Wednesday obviously, plus I’ll have people to hold the camera while Zan and I do the rides (we will be the only ones doing the big coasters).

On Thursday we are doing Jamestown and Williamsburg. Two more beautiful places, and I can’t wait to see what’s been dug up since my last trip there. I am planning to do the Williamsburg ghost tour on Thursday night.

Friday the fun ends and it’s back home . . .

Changing topics completely . . . the hair issue. I’ve actually gotten used to the blond, and am starting to like it. That’s frightening, because this isn’t something I can keep up. The comments from those who said it takes a lot of upkeep weren’t kidding. I did it Saturday night, this morning I noticed I could see my dark roots coming in. Are you serious? I’ve always had fast growing hair, but that’s ridiculous! I also got to thinking, if I ever do this again then I’m grabbing a red highlight kit and doing some red highlights for the top. I’ll look like Firestorm from the “Superfriends!”

Shocking I know! Not what you probably expected to see when you opened up the blog Yes, not having learned my lesson from the last attempt to go bleach blond, I tried it again! Fortunately it wasn’t the total disaster my last try was (I think there might be photos in this blog somewhere, unless I removed them).

This took two fricken kits to achieve, the main problem was the old blue-black dye. I got my hair cut yesterday and the sides and back got cut out, but half the top still had that old dye in it. When I used the first kit the old dye was stubborn and was a very brassy dark yellow, compared to the sides and back which took great. So I had to do a second kit.

I had planned to put a poll up in this post on what to do with my hair. The choices were going to be A) Keep it and rock the blond B) Buzz cut the top, it might look a bit better or C) Break out the brown dye!

Of course a problem has risen. Double-processing my hair has left my scalp, shall we say, a bit tender. I am afraid what another dye job at this point will do to it! It would have to be a temporary dye for sure. I’ve also been warned that in a few days when my hair begins to grow back in, I could end up with all this falling out. Just great! Pray for me

Okay so this is a post some who read my blog might be interested in. A lot of people ask and probably want to know . . . do I still watch the soaps? The answer, kinda, but not really. Sorry folks, this post might depress or upset some of you.

When I stopped doing “the page” back in March I had every intention of continuing to watch “Days” and “Passions.” I had watched “Passions” since the beginning, and “Days” since I was in 7th grade. Unfortunately in March is when “Days” started going downhill and fast, at least in my opinion. Two weeks of the whole “Locked in Crazy Ava’s room” was enough for me, I just turned the show off and honestly stopped caring if I watched every day like I used to.

Since then I’ll turn it on if I’m home when it’s one’o'clock, but if I walk out the door because I have to do something during the middle of it, or before it’s even set to come on knowing I’ll probably miss it, I don’t really care. Does that make me sad? Yup. But if the show chooses to go in a direction that doesn’t hold my interest, then I won’t beat myself up over not watching. I probably see one whole episode a week now, two if I’m lucky. Usually I end up watching the days it is the “Phillip and Chloe” show, or like Friday when it was the “Max and Stephanie” show. I don’t like these characters, and when they are the majority of the hour, I tune out even when it’s on in the background. Don’t get me started on the never-gunna-be-resolved EJ, Sami, Lucas mess. They are the new Austin, Sami, Carrie; it will never end until the actors leave the show.

Only one other time comes to mind that I have been so disinterested in “Days” as long as I’ve watched it. It was during my third year of grad school and I was swamped with classes and teaching, so I stopped watching for about six months. It was also when the whole “Austin and Greta Virtual Garden of Eden” crap was going on, and that had a lot to do with my decision to tune out for a bit.

“Passions” I tend to have the 3 hour Thursday marathon on in the background while I’m doing other work. That show ends soon and since I watched it from the start, I’d like to see how it actually ends. Plus I’m stuck paying for this DirecTV so I might as well watch it! But like “Days,” I don’t pay attention like I once did (cause I had to in order to run the page). Come August when the show ends, I will call DirecTV and cancel that service, even if they don’t want to let me out of some contract I might be in (and think I am). I’m sure I won’t be the only one doing it either!

I do not watch any other soaps on other networks. I was always an NBC soap watcher, and doubt I will pick up any others at this point. I just don’t have the time anymore, and it seems I don’t care for the ones I used to like enough to watch them regularly anymore. I like my night time shows enough as is, they are enough for me

Please note, this isn’t meant to insult the shows or the shows fans. I’m just being honest about how I feel and answering a question many people have asked or might be curious about. Like I said earlier, it makes me sad I’m not as interested in the shows as I once was, but shows change and so do people. Honestly I wonder if I would have given up or just not watched as religiously as I did a lot sooner if I hadn’t been doing “the page.” If I see a change in the shows then who knows, maybe I’ll begin to watch more regularly again.

Cross posted at The Primetime Dish

Ugh! I have so much to do before I can leave to go to Virginia on Monday. Well I don’t have to do most of it, I just want to. I don’t like leaving the house in a messy state and then coming back, as I know it will just be worse! Here’s my checklist for the weekend . . . . .

Get the car washed and cleaned - Check (1)
Get a haircut - Check (2)
Re-dye my hair - Ummmmm (3)
Comb the cats thoroughly - Check
Buy and then change all the air filters in my air cleaners - Check
Clean the downstairs guest bedroom up - Check
Clean out and organize the computer drawers - Not Gunna Happen
Do laundry - Check
Give the dogs baths - Not Gunna Happen
Vacuum the whole house - Check
Clean the kitchen and bathroom - Check
Pack

Seriously, I feel like I’ve become a housewife!

Footnotes:

(1) - Only half done. I wanted the full service which includes detailing the inside, but they had no detailer today. Grrrr!

(2) - I spent over 2 hours waiting to get my haircut thanks to the redneck family from hell. A woman, her husband and 4 kids tied up the entire salon getting their hair cut. I wanted to tell the woman off and say that the polite thing to do would have been have one person do them all, that way everyone waiting behind them wouldn’t have to wait all day. Oh and they really were rednecks. The husband has a giant hole in the back of his jeans and no underwear on, and their son’s name was in fact Bubba.

(3) - Not learning my lesson from last time, I decided to try bleach blond again! I got the right kit this time, the problem was my multi-shaded hair I started with. The sides and back were my normal blahzay brown (mostly grey) color. The top still had the blue-black dye in it, and that didn’t want to bleach out. I ended up with multi-colored blond hair. The sides and back looked great, the top not so much. I’m contemplating buzzing or just going to a brown.

So this afternoon I finally dragged my butt out to try this ‘Couch to 5K’ podcast run. Oh Ma Gawd! Half way through the man tells me “You should be feeling the affects of the running, but shouldn’t be tired or out of breath.” I was like “all of the above!” I finished it, and worked up a sweat like I’ve never done at the gym on the cardio equipment. I have to say to keep this up I will need better tennis shoes for sure. Running in sketchers doesn’t cut it, even if they are the ’sport’ variety.

The above is another local news bit with the BF. He wasn’t given as much airtime as in the last one, but he’s put together a bit better this time I also have a beef to pick with CBS for the way they edited it as you can’t distinguish between the two farms in it! All the shopping and customers are his farm, the fields are the other farm in the broadcast. Oh and thank you Cathy Gandolpho for not bothering to even say the name of the farm, when in fact you stood in the parking lot to do your live broadcast!

In the future these things will be nipped in the bud. Like it or not, I’ll probably end up working at the farm when school is over. I’ll need a job, I have no clue what my chances of getting one in my field locally are and I’ve been unofficially offered one doing their website, newsletters and other stuff which I actually can do and they can’t. I’d also be able to do educational stuff about the area too for school groups. Who knows, it’s a big farm, I could find a site on it I’m sure.

My next official video blog will be a walking tour of the farm The weather should be nice this weekend so I’ll take all the videos. Next week I’m in Virginia and specifically Williamsburg. My nights are going to be spent at the Quality Inn, not out partying, so I’ll probably be working at night on school work. I’ll edit my blog when I need a brain break. I’ll also be sure to get photos up of Williamsburg and Jamestown while I’m there!

So I did not go running on Saturday like I said I would. I woke up, walked outside and said “Ew.” It was so muggy and the air was so thick that you could see the haze. I was not about to run in that crud.

I did run tonight, but I didn’t last long at all. I soon remembered and was reminded of why I hated running the mile back in high school. I guess if I run a bit each day, or every other day, I’ll get better. But I don’t want to get shin splints either. Once all my cuts heal I’ll be able to get back to the gym.

I tried to find some new earrings in Philly when I was there Friday, but none of the stores had what I wanted. If they did they had one of the color I wanted at insane prices. I just went online and ordered a bunch of earrings from a reputable site. I ordered 3 teal for one ear and 2 green for the other. I still want 2 more piercings, and almost considered getting them done on Friday. It was so hot though and I was meeting Jen, I didn’t want to risk a migraine from sharp needles going into my ears.

Finally I introduced the BF, quickly, to Singstar tonight. He came in while I was perusing the videos online. He asked what the game was, I told him, then I showed him videos from the star of the online Singstar Scene, one Divalicious. He found it amusing. I didn’t show him the actual game part, cause he’d want to play and the Tony Awards are about to come on. Xanadu baby!

So I have decided I will start jogging on Saturday. My legs should not be as achy by then and it should be okay. They look absolutely horrific right now. I have some ugly and funky colored scabs on them!

Today is Friday the 13th, and apparently it’s the only one we get this year, so make it count! I’m headed to Philly to have dinner with my friend Jen. Then we are going to do a movie marathon at her place, watching scary movies and enjoying delicious drinks as she put it. We’ll also no doubt end up playing Mario Kart on Wii.

I am currently entertaining the idea of getting the new iPhone when it comes out next month. My iPod is now over 2 years old and needs a new battery. The cost of getting a new battery has me thinking hell, I might as well just get a new fricken iPod! Last year I was toying with the idea of a PDA, so I could do various internet things on the go. The new iPod seems to have the iPod, phone and internet capabilities all in one package. I still have a month to think this over, and I have no intention of standing in insane lines on launch day for a phone.

Finally in honor of Friday the 13th, I’m including the following image. It’s so horrific that I had to put it under the fold so it wasn’t on the main page to shock you upon entry. Go on, you know you want to look. Be warned, you won’t be able to stop looking!

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