Woooo Hooo!

Look what I got today....

shocks, kickstand, pretty light yellow color.....lucky! :) I got myself a Trek bike at the Gregg's cycle that opened up near us a few months ago. Along with the cycle, I got a trainer so I can ride in the living room and get my strength up so I can better ride on the street. I need to rehab this knee of mine and strengthen the other one so I can put off having another surgery for longer, so, I guess I had to spend some money. This was a much better option than having to purchase an indoor exercise bike that clutters up the place 24/7. This way, i can bring in the trainer, set up the bike, ride it after work during the week, then take it off the trainer and ride it out on the street on the weekend. I hope it works. I certainly spent enough money!

Oh well, just wanted to show you my bike. Now I'm gonna go out and sell my treadmill on Craig's List as well as a traimer that I don't need. Don't need it cuz I bought it off of the Craig's list and it woulnd't fit the new bike I bought at the Cycle shop. :( I'm also gonna sell my Nintendo DS. I don't really want to sit around looking at a tiny little screen.

Blessed be! Talk to ya'll soon.

Let the Good Times Roll

April 22 2007

Let them knock you around....let the good times roll....let them make you a clown....

Now, personally, I think that Rick O'Casick crapped out on that last line, copping to something that almost rhymed but didn't quite...but probably sounded preeeeetty good whilst stoned out of your gourd. But it's a cool friggin' song anyway.

I'm working on building up my third laptop in 9 months. 9 months ago my long beloved one was stolen, then I got a temp replacement from my office and had to turn it back on this last week. Now I have a new one. I've popped some more ram in and it's ready to go. I did, however, with my cowgirl ways of turning back computers wind up losing a few things. Among them a license to my ftp upload program. :( I just bought the license about six months ago and now the key is gone with the wind. I uninstalled it from the old laptop, and when I changed jobs recently, deleted about a bazillion emails from my work account. It is highly likely that the license key one was among them. oh well. Software is volitile stuff.

Of course there is all kinds of software to be reloaded. I am a member of Rhapsody music service, and I don't have that on here....I have a wonderful digital camera that I got for my birthday in December of last year that has to have software to hum on this new machine - so that's one of the things I'm gonna be doing this weekend. Getting this new box into "Asradel" shape.

Didn't have much to say - just wanted to check in on my blog. Bought another pile of shit car for my daughter last weekend. So far she has spent 250 fixing up a 500 dollar car, and there is much more to go.

Hello from Recoveryville

It's Sunday the 18th...day after St. Paddy's day. We had a quiet one at home with guests (since (I'm not in any shape to hit the town) and it was very good. I was glad that the teenager had decided to go out and do her own thing as her being home these days is like having a 140-pound porcupine with a bad attitude and a smutty mouth in the house. November, when she turns 18, is just not going to be able to get here quite fast enough as far as I'm concerned. Here's a little picture of me and the hubby yesterday. It was a good day and we were both happy.

Like my "wearin' o-the-green" hair ribbon?

The husband told me one of the most bizarre things I've heard in a long while......he told me that one of his co-workers, who is a relious man, does not believe that St. Paddy was a regal guy. I sat there in astonishment as he related that this guy said he didn't believe in St. Paddy's day because he didn't believe in fairies. Yep....didn't believe in fairies......

Well, that's it for today Lads and Lasses!

OwweeeeeeeiiiiOOgeezuzhepmesunuvabitchturdfucker!

Keeerist! Well, it's been a while since I've posted and well, I finally have something to say.....

A total knee replacement hurts like a sunnuvabitch. That is all.

lol! Well, yes, it does hurt like all nine kinds of hell but the bigger picture of pain-free knees when the trauma of the surgery subsides is what I'm focused on here. So stay with me on that. And yes...I DID go and do this voluntarily. Quality of life over time is worth putting up with a lot of pain.

I went into Swedish Hospital on Wednesday, March 7 for the procedure - so it has been a week. The photo I've uploaded here was taken on day 5. Not a lot of change in that image in two days, so you're gettin' the fresh goods here.

At any rate, this operation was done by the Rock Star orthopedic surgeon, Daniel L. Flugstad. I am hoping that his Germanness has brought precision engineering to the operating table. Was I being mean and racist there? Hardly my friend...hardly. I would still rather drive a German-made car than any other. Only problem is I couldn't afford it. I could, however, afford for my insurance to pay for Dr. Dan Flugstad to give me a new titanium and plastic knee in my right leg. And that's what I did. The surgery happened on Wednesday, March 7, and I was out of the hospital on Saturday, March 10. I can get around with some assistance ( a walker all my very own named "Gerty") and things are improving each day. Though the increments of improvement could be a bit larger. We takes what we can get, though....right? Well, I just wanted to post a pic of my surgery. Now I need to take a nap. That's how sleep is coming these days. Short bursts of one to two hours at a time - then it's time to wake up and ice the knee. I've been feeling like the Duncan Donuts guy lately. (For those of you who remember the commercials on television with the man getting up so early he meets himself coming back from work at the front door as he's leaving to go make the donuts....) Anyway, that's what this feels like, only you're not making donuts. You're taking narcotics and getting out ice packs!

Okay, sleepy now. nighty night.....

Countdown and Sweetie's Day and Various Ramblings

It's about three weeks until I get the surgery on my leg. Yay.....I'm scared and ready all at the same time. I give my next unit of blood "autologous" donation is what they call it....where if I need blood during the surgery, they will have my very own on ice and ready to go in. It was mine before, it'll be mine again if I need it. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. That's pretty cool. It was a pretty crummy holiday for me there for a couple of years, but it's getting good again. Lots of things are getting good again. I should have known when the shrink-o said "One to three years...." as an average "getting over it" time period, that I would be at the very end of that spectrum, and sure enough...here we are. The shitty days where Valentine's Day 2004. Infamous, but not worth mentioning here again - and now, Valentine's Day 2007, I feel pretty good about the whole thing and the memories of the crappiness have faded to tattered remnants not worth looking at.

Damn man....I just spent the past 10 minutes or so trying to make a little Valentine in the Paint program. No dice. I must be really tired or something. Maybe I can do one tomorrow when I'm not using a friggin' roller mouse. Ahhhhhhh....listening to "A Perfect Circle" at the moment. They are like "Tool" only different. "Passive" - it's a song from Constantine. I love the scene where it's playing. Neo, oh wait, fuck...um....Constantine is walking into Papa Midnight's bar (a haven for those who rise and fall) :) WAKE UP! AND FACE ME.......DON'T PLAY DEAD...CUZ MAYBE....ONE DAY...i WILL WALK AWAY AND SAY....You disappoint me. Maybe you're better off this way.....

Yeah.....

If you know the flick you will understand the preceding paragraph. If you don't...well...you won't.

I'm all amped up but know I need to go to bed. It's weird how the first of the week you really have to ration out your energy so you can make it all the way to Friday.

Okay....so I dug out a picture I think is fit for Valentine's Day. It's me and the man from my birthday (about 30 seconds prior to the waitress dropping my birthday camera) but we were having such a great time and the warm fuzziness was quite apparent.

Happy Valentine's Day ya'll. Go find someone to hug.

Yipppee! It's 2007

So it's Sunday, January 13, and I've been sitting around the house just enjoying all the things that life here at the house has to offer since about 9:00. Coffee....coffee and more coffee (probably not the best thing in the world for me), and working on my web pages and writing a bit. I'm going to be entering a novel writing contest on ta interweb very soon. I just discovered today that the complete novels that I had housed on my domain site are now gone. Probably as a result of a move to another server and rules that did not capture then since they were outside of the main folder where my other web pages were kept.

Oh well, one more challenge. I have to get the computer I was using at the time out of the closet and boot it up and get the data moved VIA FLOPPY DISK to a jump drive and then to this laptop. It's hard to believe that it has been 11 years since I did any creative writing....seriously....any at all. That's really strange because I spent all the years of my adult life in the south writing on SOMETHING....then, I move up here, and as though it was a price to be paid for the moving and the prosperity of the new life I had found in the Pacific Northwest, the muse dried up and there was nothing. I finalized The Invoker and The Secret Year after I arrived here, but the most creative writing I've actually DONE since we rolled into town 13 years ago are some short stories. Un-be-fuckin'-lievable....lemme tell ya.

But 2007 is gonna see me return to the pen a bit I think. At least that is the hope. I'ts gonna be a big year with the Crescent Scouts as I perform my Sabbat cycle....and I think that that is gonna give me some impetus to do some creative work. Or at least that's the hope.

Anyway, wanted to check in on the blog....it's either that or delete the damn thing. I am harshly reminded of the transient nature of digital data with the loss of my novels out on my website. Of course, this would not have been a problem had my personal laptop not been stolen in August of 2006. It was part of the data that I move around from one machine to the other as I change year after year...now that chain has been broken and I have to go back to the source machine. I wonder if I will have to burn incense and chant while I try to boot it up. It is, after all a 13 year old computer. But it was a Gateway from back in the day when Gateway meant superior components, so I have great faith.

Well, I guess I'll get to it. I gotta pull the box out of the closet in our library/computer room and send some sparks to it and see what I can get cookin.

Bright blessings to all who read this and all who touch their lives.

Az

Winter Comes to the Pacific Northwest

So I've been living here in the Pacific Northwest for about 13 years now. The winters here range from just being wet and gray to actually having some character like we've seen recently here.
However, this is the earliest I can remember that this much character showed up. The picture below was taken in my front yard on November 26 and it continued in that vein for about the next three to four hours. Of course, this little smattering of snow is meaningless to those who live in more severe climes...such as my supervisor at work who is mystified every time the city of Seattle shuts down over a little ice and snow. You see, my supervisor hails from Minnesota where the snow is considered and measured in feet, not inches!

Our office was closed on Tuesday the 28th due to all of this snow and our feeble inability to cope with same. I really enjoyed having my snow day off too....I climbed up on a ladder (a very daring feat for me these days since the ill-fated knee surgery of August) and got down the Yule decorations. The tree is now up as are several pieces of festive garland....I there are no actual decorations on the tree, however, so that is going to be a task for the near future. Maybe this weekend after my accupuncture treatment...but I digress.

What I was going to tell you is about this crazy ass manager who works in my office that went into her department on Wednesday after the office was closed on Tuesday and bawled out the people who work in there for not coming in! She's totally coo-coo....as is the rest of this place. Oh well.

So I just wanted to get a picture of yon snow day up on my blog. I don't really have anything else to say and I have another web page that I have to work on for work here.

So, ta ta for now and take care...keep warm and dry.

Well Fuck Me Runnin'.....It's the middle of November

Howdy anyone that ambles by. I just thought I would share a few thoughts on a grey work day. I have my cup of starbucks by my side and am feeling pretty good and just thought I'd share.

Halloween was a good time, but a also kind of anti-climactic like it always is. I DID wear my Billy-bad-ass booby showin' costume, but didn't get any decent pictures while I was in it. :*( Oh well. Fuck it. I have decided that to make Halloween as special as I need for it to be, I'm gonna have to get the Hell out of Dodge. So, next year, and this is the current plan anyway, I wanna go to Salem Mass for Halloween. They got a whole big festival that goes the entire month of October centered around the festivities. And that's where I'm gonna be. I have enough witch outfits to wear for at least three different days there and, of course, I'll have to make a new one for the occassion. It'll probably cost about $1,200.00 to take both me and the man to Salem. I think Andie would love it too, but, oh well....she's at a weird age. She doesn't want to go anywhere with either one of us, much less both of us at the same time. Maybe if it's really good and fun, I can take her as a young adult.

Here's a picture of me with my co-workers that dressed up. This is a pitiful showing of people getting into the spirit of Halloween in an office with 180 people in it. :(



Anyway, that's me in the pumpkin orange witch dress. That thing was a beast to make. The hat is really bad-ass but it wasn't standing up for the picture. It is a poofy one that is supposed to lean, but not be flat on my head. The whole thing cost a flippin' fortune in time and money to make. I may make the same pattern for next year now that I know what I'm doing. But this next gown will be black, I will cut more room into the pattern and I will make it quite a bit longer than this one. When I cut this dress out, I was talking to my mom and so I didn't make it any roomier and I also spaced the fact that patterns are made for an average 5'6" woman. Of course that little brain poot left the dress about 3" too short for yours truly. Oh well....I couldn't wear heels anyway because of my knee.

So....let's see....what else? Not too much. I've taken to going to accupuncture to deal with my knee and back pain. Seems to be a bit more effective than nothing. We'll see. The lady I'm seeing is a true healer and I think she's very good at what she does. All I know is I am fucked up. That's about all I know. Oh! And then to put the cherry on the cake of my knee-babying experience, I had to go and fall in the street right on the 'mergency knee.

Anyway,
I guess I'd better go to work.
Az

Vacations and Other Stuff

Well, since I last posted I've been on vacation to Oklahoma and back, been to about a billion physical therapy appointments - until I feel like I see more of those guys than I do my own husband, and lost a co-worker. I don't know what the hell else I've done since, for the past many, many years I have relied on journaling to remind me of what I'm doing with my life, and since I've given up journaling because it was too painful to go back and look over some of the stuff. Oh well. I guess I will just wander around aimlessly for a while longer until I can get back in the habit of chronicalling where I've been and what I've done with my days and nights.

I went to Oklahoma to see my mother and my sister. They are both doing well - well, my mom has pretty much immobilized herself with lack of movement, but my sister is doing quite well. She just turned fifty years old. Here she is with a picture of her two granddaughters. Yep....granddaughters. She looks pretty darn good, huh?
And here's my mommy from this trip. Compare with the picture of my mommy from previous blog post earlier this year. Not much change.

So that's the little fam. My sister had her 50th birthday and basically that was the big event. Of course it wasn't as big of an event as I would have liked it to be, but my knee being all fucked up and my back too, didn't give me much of an opportunity to do much of anything for my sister. I spent the whole time being pretty miserable, actually. Which is actually why I don't have anything interesting to say. I've come to the conclusion, and this may not be a revelation that shocks anyone else, maybe I'm just a slow learner....but pain changes your personality. Just thought I'd tell you that. My knee is slowly, ever so slowly, getting better. It still hurts like hell and I dread walking on it, but at least I CAN now....which is better than it was before. However, it hurts so much that it actually affects how much enjoyment I can get out of my life. For instance, a friend of mine stopped by my office earlier today and told me that she was going to walk down to the Pike Market to get some spices for herself. Now Pike Market, which is a big tourist attraction around here and a pretty neat place to go is only about a 15 minute walk from this office. However, I wouldn't think of walking there with my knee like this. I have been unwilling to take the bus into work for the same reason. I truly do not know how the 4-block walk will affect me by the time I get here. And Goddess forbid if I have something more to carry than just my purse for that day because it will be too much for my back with it's four herniated disks and the disk fragment that is still lodged in my spinal column. **sigh** Before all of this shit went wrong earlier this year, I basically took my good health for granted and didn't exercise or do anything to improve my lot. Now that I can't do most exercises, I long to have the ability once again. Fancying that if only I did, I would make better use of my time and get my muscles into better shape. I can only hope and pray I'll have that opportunity.

So, since I don't have anything to actually "say" - I guess I'll just show you one more picture. This one is of me at my mom's house using the sewing machine to make my Halloween costume that I have been planning for a year. We'll see if I actually get to wear it or not. I don't have anything planned for Halloween, so it may have been 20 hours at the sewing machine for basically nothing.

See what a good mood I'm in? Too much feelin' sorry for yourself isn't good. I know that. But sometimes I just get so down. I'm ready to feel good again and like I could jump up out of this chair and go get myself a cup of coffee without having to limp the first five or six steps, or without having to stand and move my leg up and down at the knee just to get warmed up enough to walk down the hall. I'd like to be able to carry a box, climb a ladder, get up on a chair to get some of my Halloween ceramics out of the cabinet.

Guess I'll write more when I'm not so poopy.

Having Teenagers is the True Hell!!

I know that there is a huge portion of the population that believes that when you die, if you haven't been a righteous person in your life, you will go to the firey pits and be burned for all eternity in punishment for not having lived up to the mark.

However, I, as you know if you have read any of my previous posts am not one of those people. There is retribution for your sins, but it is exacted here on this earth. For instance, if you have kids, you will enjoy them while they are little, but when they get to be teenagers, they bring with them the wrath of God and Goddess alike, all too willing to spill it out on our deserving heads. I can remember that I treated my mom like crap when I was a teenager, and here I am, living the role reversal some 30 years later with my own little cookie-cutter.

Oh well....today I'm downloading music and listening and playing with my computer. I may put on my jeans and go out for a walk. My teenager is starting her first job today and is in the bathroom getting ready. It's cold in the house. Church was last night....right now I'm listening to The Spinners "I'll Be Around." I'm going to Oklahoma in a few weeks. I'm narcotix free these days but my leg still hurts like hell from the surgery. Still going to physical therapy three times a week. Awfully glad that blogger is sponsoring my personal journal. Never plan to run for public office so don't give a good rat's ass who sees this. Homeland security? Come and get me motherfuckers. Noooch.



Here's my natty little MP3 player. Almost makes up for the teenager....NOT!

Music makes me terribly reminiscent. So I'm downloading more. I love to look at the big picture...the tapestry of life. My husband hasn't seen the tapestry yet. He's got a few years to go. Maybe he's seen the hem of it...it's the grandest thing to have lived through some decades of change. Too bad I didn't keep my old body - or wait...I mean, my young body. I do hope I get the opportunity to continue to work on that. Now that I've got an MP3 player, that just got a whole lot easier. I feel as though I've been starving myself for music! And why? For no good reason that's for sure....Ahh......."Iris" is on right now with all it's expansive waves. Nice. Hell yeah! I subscribed to a service! :)

I'm just rambling, but that's what I wanted to do this morning. Happy Sunday.

Some Pics from Lately

So I happen to be lying here in my living room in front of the fire and within ready reach of my handy-dandy camera. So, I thought I'd upload a few pics from some interesting stuff lately.

First, here's a picture of me with some of the administrators from my office at the ALA conference in Palm Springs. I was asked to present a seminar there and did so and had a great time in the process. ALA stands for the Association of Legal Administrators and they are a class act, lemme tell ya. Very organized, very professional and drink....lord god these people can drink. :O



We're all having a great time there. It was the first night I was at the hotel and this was a big reception around the pool. Here's a picture of the pool from my balcony. It was quite beautiful and nice to swim in. I don't think I've ever seen so many lounge chairs in one place before.


So anyway, we all had a great time drinking and eating around the pool. I picked up my speaker package and went back to my room. I hate these kinda nametags that hang around your neck, but I enjoyed having the "speaker" ribbon on there.


After I did my speaking gig the next day, I ran down to the bar and got myself a double pina colada, went upstairs and took some pain medication (my knee was brutal after standing and presenting for 90 minutes) then I went and got myself a massage. It was great, but it didn't keep me from having to go to my room and put an ice pack on my knee for the rest of the evening. It was great though.

The next day I spent the morning in the hot tub, the pool and the exercise room until it was time to go home. I was trying to upload some pics from the pool, but blogger won't let me. :( Oh well....maybe there's a limit per post.

Anyway, it was then time to go home and the day after I got home we went to a friend's house and had ourselves an old fashioned cider pressing. I'm gonna end this blog entry cuz I can't upload any more pictures, but I'll make another one shortly. Those of you living vicariously through my blog (and you know who you are over there on the penninsula) I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get you something to read. :)

Me and the Web Cam

There's a funky little eyeball sitting on top of my laptop at the moment. (Well, it isn't MY laptop....that got stolen from me last month when I had my knee surgery - but the laptop I'm using at the moment anyway). It reminds me of the eyeball in the bag on "My Stepmother is an Alien" - which, if you are ignorant of same is one of the cooler movies to come out of the late 80s. Not a John Hughes movie, but definitely worth watching (IMHO).

I'm at work at the moment and am learning to use the new Creative web cam for purposes of video meetings. So far, I'm up to getting it installed and taking a picture for my blog! Yay for me! :) I have a whole bunch more pictures of my recent training trip to Palm Springs for the ALA convention there as well as some fun snaps of a cider pressing we went to last weekend. Life has been rich of late, despite the fact that I'm really dragging ass on my recovery from knee surgery.

The daughter has joined the swim team and she got a job at Ruby's in the mall. I'm so very proud of her. I hope she can keep her grades up so I can let her keep the job. We'll see....

Okay, well, I gotta shut down soon. They didn't give me a little leatherette case in which to keep the eyeball, so I guess it's goin' into the old bag bare nekkid just like it is.

I'll put those pics of Palm Springs up real soon.

Hiiiiii-dee Ho....

I didn't mean for it to be so long in between posts. The summer got under way and well, one thing led to another and here we are at September 1. My daughter starts back to school on Tuesday, I have a huge presentation due on that day, and in less than two weeks I will be in Palm Springs presenting a seminar to a bunch of legal managers. There are no words to describe how relieved I will be when that is done. I have been both looking forward to and dreading the event since I agreed to do it. :) That's just the way I work.

Let's see....since I last wrote, my daughter went to Oklahoma for almost three weeks which gave me a chance to have a small break from her for that amount of time. I painted the living room purple...well, one wall, the kitchen red (well, two walls) and did some general decorating and spiffing up of the old place. I would take some pictures and put them up here, but, well, our house was burglarized last week and my laptop is no more. Oh well....I suppose I should also go about the business of getting my new one configured so I can upload web pages and so forth, but I do have that presentation that needs finished and there is nothing about the web pages that I maintain that could ever be considered vital.

I want some ice cream.

I had a surgery last week. A surgery on my knee to repair my lateral miniscus and take out some arthritic cartilage. Trust me when I say to you that there are few things that can make you feel older than having your knees fucked up. I will appreciate mine so much more when they are better....I promise. Physical therapy starts next week as does water aerobics. After that....I suppose I may have to go to Weight Watchers. **sigh** I've tried to avoid them like the plague, but, well, I suppose a little comeraderie in the area of making less of myself wouldn't be a bad thing.

It's hard to believe that summer is done and Indian Summer upon us. I have a couple of little fall scarecrows on the front lawn. They're pretty cute....and I am already looking forward to Halloween with the zeal of a little kid looking to score some candy. My harvest witch gown is going to be to die for this year. I got the idea for it off of a witchy Barbie I saw on Ebay last year. Great gobs! It's only two short months away. :) I wanna be sure to get the house decorated the first couple of days of October so we can make the most of the season. But, first things first.....getting through this upcoming Outlook presentation.

So that's it....I just wanted to check in and say "hi" to anyone who may be watching. :) All one of you.

See you again soon, as I will not allow this much time to lapse before my next entry.

Help is On the Way

This is great! I'm so glad to know this place is here, because many is the time I have needed to purchase some of their wares.

Well, it's been a few days since I've blogged, and I haven't yet gotten to see The Omen. Maybe tonight will be my lucky night. On "THE day", the husband and I attempted to go and see it but the movie theatre was mobbed by teenagers who were eager to get in there and see the devil at work. See, they get overly excited because they are too young to know that ALL children are the devil. Not just one. All those little fuckers. :)

So it's one of my good friends birthdays today. She's 46, but she's dividing the birthday by 2 so she's 23 again. I think that's a great idea in the even years, but what about the odd? I have a friend who was born on leap year day, February 29. She only has a birthday ever 4 years. I guess that if she's 52, that means she's only had 13 birthdays. Might be a difficult puberty if you are plagued with having to take arthritis medication. I dunno. Kinda hard to fit in the latest teen fasions when your tits are hanging down to your knees....but that's something else weird about her. Naked she could almost pass for a teenager or a 20-something. Probably because she is a lesbian and hasn't squeezed out any puppies. Who knows? All I know is that I'm so glad I found the paddle store.

Oh, and if any of you reading this want to buy Avon from me, just email me at Asradel@gmail.com and I'll send you a catalog!

Az

666....Today

Time to bust out the horns and the pitch forks. Yep, it has arrived. All you Christers out there go and hide your heads in a hole somewhere. It's the day of the Great Beast. Yes.....6/6/6 has arriv-ed.

Whatever! I think it's an atrocity and a gross oversight on the part of Hollyweird to have not put more offerings out there to watch on this most inauspicous day. The only think we have to choose from is a weak ass remake of "The Omen" - Who cares? I hope that there are at least some cool graphics in it. Hell yes, Im going to see it. It's the only game in town. And I'm gonna see it tonight TOO! How can I not? I am a student of human theology, a seeker of truth and practitioner of the Art Magickal. 666 is a cultural icon. Whether you are a holy rolling Christer who flails around on the boards of the church floor of just someone who has a vague idea that there is a religion called Christianity, chances are you know what 666 is and what it is associated with. So yeah....I'm going to see The Omen.

My young friend Matticus put a nice little article up on the Bulletin board today. He's a smart little dude. I'm glad to know him. He found a fragment of one of the new testaments that was found in the jars of the caves in Qumran (can't spell the fuckin' thing....I can say it though) - anyway, he goes on to talk about how the 666 was actually numeric code for the Emperor Caligula. Quite possibly. What I remember most about Revelations was that it said, "he who has eyes to see and discern, let him see" - and brother does THAT remark ever point to a political statement on the times.

If we were living in a time of oppression (and we are) in which we could lose our lives if we spoke out against the powers that be (not quite yet) then we would find ways to express our unhappiness with the state of things without getting our little head-balls chopped off, I'm sure.

So, while I have no doubt that the human race will self-destruct or a natural disaster or disease will eventually thin our numbers to the point that we will be building on the rubble of society and coming up from dirt-eating once again (check your history books - they all point to the fact that we've done this a few times already) I do not believe that Death Rides a Pale Horse....(no disrespect to The Man In Black intended).

But, if you haven't read the Book of Revleations, I strongly suggest that you do....read it today for the sake of the day. Read it with new eyes that see past the shackles of an angry God and through to the truth of the human heart. Read it from the perspective of a people who had been enslaved and taxed to death for generation upon generation, and I guarantee you'll get something different out of it.

Bright blessings on all who read this. I'll let you know later how I like the movie.

Now here's a cute little blog thing that I got called "what sign SHOULD you be"

This one says I should be a Cancer. Now, I'm just fine being a Saggitarius, but who am I to argue with a 4 question quiz on the Internet?

You Should Be A Cancer

What's good about you: you're incredibly kind, caring, and generous What's bad about you: you can be too moody and impossible to understand In love: you enjoy wining and dining the object of your affection In friendship, you're: likely to depend on other friends for emotional support Your ideal job: historian, marine biologist, or religious figure Your sense of fashion: you dress to match your mood You like to pig out on: classic home cooked meals, like mac and cheese

What Sign Should You Be?

Big Ass Weekend!!!!

So it's been a great Memorial Day weekend. It started off on Friday when we came home, had dinner and I filled Avon orders. I got my new Avon pin for selling over 500 dollars worth of Avon in just two campaigns. It's so fun. I can't tell you how strange it is to be an Avon lady when I can remember wanting to be one when I was a little kid and the happy recipient of those little lipstick samples my mom would get with her orders back then. In those days they were in little white tubes and you could clearly read their names on the bottom There were also fragrance samples, but what I remember most are the lipsticks. Anway, the merit pin was fun. Thank the Goddess that my husband discouraged me from wearing it to the movie we went to later! Ha ha ha! I was excited to get it and had a moment of duffessness when I thought it would look cool to wear it to the movies! WTF? A big-ass Avon pin in gold....just as an ornament! Not at a convention! Or even to deliver orders, but to a movie! Now you gotta be a dyed-in-the wool convert for something like that. Anyway, I saw the light very quickly and avoided that bit of embarrassment - and saved him as well. So we then went to see X-Men III - I have to say that I was kind of disappointed. It really wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. But I refused to read a review on it before it came out. X-Men is something I hae to judge for myself. Anyway, it was great to go to it on its opening night, even if our tickets were for the 11:30 show! We didn't even get home 'til almost 2:00

Then Saturday we got up at a decent hour and my husband went to his favoritie Toy store, the Harbor Freight Tools in Everett. I hung out with Andrea the daughter - then we did the grocery shopping - big job....and we got a movie (that sucked), but it was still a pretty good day. The husband was working on his truck most of the evening, and then my son and his wife came over for a while.

The next morning my hubby got up and went off to the autocross practice in Bremerton. Shortly after that, I took Andrea to the last session of her driving school with what must be the most dufus ass instructor I've ever encountered.....but at least she has her permit and has passed her written driving test. So .... then she came home and was sitting there all bored and stuff....and her sister-in-law came over. :) I made us some vodka crans (not the 16 year old, but me and the 25 year old) and we all three sat around and talked and had a great afternoon. We played with Avon a little....looked through the catalogs and I did my daughter-in-law's makeup. Here are some before and after pics.




Polly Before


I gave her a choice between "going out at night" make-up a and a day look. Polly chose the day look and here's what we came up with. Not that we didn't have absolutely lovely material to work with already, but she did look absolutely beautiful with some under eye concealer, some pressed powder, a light bronzer on her cheeks and some neutral colored eyeshadow with a touch of Heaven Blue on the sides. She also had berry lipliner and a color shine mauve on her lips. She looked just beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. Not to mention the fact that we had to wait until my camera batteries charged so I could take the "after" picture.




Shortly after that, my husband returned from his auto-cross practice, and I made chicken curry for everyong. My son came over to pick up the Polly, as she had had a bit to drink, but by the time they left, everything was just fine and she drove on her own.

So today I got up and went to the AutoCross (not practice) with my husband. To my great surprise, my son, Tim Allen, turned up to go with us! I couldn't have been more surprised or grateful. Surprised because he never comes to anything it seems, and grateful because he kept me excellent company while my husband was going about his autocross business. It was a wonderful day, albeit very long. From the time we left the driveway until we got home it was nine and a half hours! When we got home, my son took my husband 4-bying. They aren't home yet and it's 10:00 p.m. Great way to spend a weekend. I sure loved talking to my son for as long as I did. It was wonderful. I really have no idea when the last time was we even sat down and had a conversation that lasted ten minutes. much less roughly 7 hours. He's come out to be a great guy. I also enjoyed hanging out with Polly and Andrea. It's been a great weekend of reconnecting with my kids and I've loved it. As I type these words. Polly is sitting over in the big chair and Andrea is sitting next to me on the couch as the X Men II movie plays on the DVD player.

Well....happy Memorial Day weekend to all who read this. This one has definitely been one that I've been remembering the things that are important. Those who are here with me and living and lovin today. I know that my ancestors are important and this is a day to honor them....but what better way to honor your ancestors than to honor their progeny?

Let's see what next week brings.

Bright Blessings to all who read this.

Asradel

X-MEN III IS OUT TODAY!!!!!!

Wooo Hooo! I can't wait. I'm going to a late show this evening. I do not think I can possibly wait until tomorrow. I love the X-Men movies and this one promises to be the ever-lovin' shiz-nitz baby! Too bad I don't have some Wolverine attire to wear. It's like I told the husband, though...I'd probably just wind up lookin' like Freddy Krueger with a fucked-up hair cut. Oh well. I guess I'll leave the Wolverine'in to Hugh Jackman, that sexy hunka stuff there....and well, there are going to be many many moments of "oooooooo" and "ahhhhhh" during this movie, I just KNOW IT! I wasn't this exited about any release of any of the three LOTR movies. I just think I like the characters better, ya know? They are all fucked up in addition to being super-mutants. We got the oober-Christer dude who can teleport his ass all over the place, but has blue skin and sharp teeth....alrighty then....and we've got the chick who can kill people just by touching them, but how much would THAT suck. Geezuz! Talk about no way to please yourself but BY yourself...that's pretty sad. And then, of course, there's the dude who can armor himself like a pill-bug and walk through walls.

And of course.....well....we know that Jean Gray will be back with this 3d iteration and oooooo-la-la.....

Oh! Oh! and then there's that crazy self-absorbed teenager who can turn the Earth into a blazing inferno....and then there's the ultimate bad guy....Magneto....now THAT sum-bitch is a cool dude. I hear that in X-III, he moves the Golden Gate bridge and wraps it around something or throws it at something....Wow! I can't wait to get out of here and get into a movie line!

That's pretty much the focus of my day....waiting for the ability to go see X-III. I don't even know what else we have planned for the weekend. Not that it much matters....I DO know that I am going to go and watch my huzband drive his car around a lot of cones on Monday....but Saturday and Sunday can be spent in a lazy haze....

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to Everyone out there!

Hope it's a good one for you and whatever you want you get lots of!

Az

Big Day

Husband had his wisdom teeth removed this morning- I took him there and stayed with him - he had the easiest extraction of anyone I've ever known or heard of. He was in and out and had four of them extracted in 40 minutes. Gotta be some kinda record. Well, after that we went and got his Percocet and antibiotics prescriptions filled and then we came home. We both slept for a while then I left at 3:00 to meet my witch sister and friend, Iris at Travelers in Seattle. I had a really lovely time. She is such a wonderful person and I really miss seeing her since circmstances changed and seeing her is such a rare event. Anyway we had a wonderful time of sharing. She bought me dinner at an Indian restaurant a few blocks from Travelers and and just had the best time talking. I had to leave all too soon though so I could come home and take Kristopher to the Thesis exhibition of our friend Jaime Forero who was graduating this art photography class that has taken him six years to get done with. Then we went over to a great little bar in Ballard that we've been to several times before. I'll get some pictures of that place up here soon. My friend JenBaby takes pics all the time at places like the Last Supper Club and the other clubs she goes to. I don't see why I couldn't take a few of this place. Anyway...I'll pile the camera in the car the next time we go there.

I'm going to bed pretty soon, but I wanted to check in and officially thank the God and Goddess for such a wonderful day. I think blogging is a good way to do it too. If the Lady or Lord wants to use you as an example for someone, well, they dan do so with a website. ;)

Bright blessings, and good night,

Asradel

What's Happenin? A Revelation of Sorts....

So it's officially the middle of May and the sun is out and it's damn hard to come in to work every day. However, I am reminded of the fact that I have a cushy job where I can keep long, manicured fingernails and where I get to hang out with people who bathe regularly, etc... That is a good thing, in my estimation. Also, I am much less in debt these days thanks to a refinancing of our house - a very good move indeed.

However, last night as I was standing at the gas pump filling my 1994 Saturn's 12 gallon tank and watching the meter tick over to 33.33 (a most auspicious number in and of itself - witchy friends who are reading this should ponder that a moment), I had a sort of revelation if you will. The crux of that moment of clarity and long vision showed me that economically things in this country are going to get much much worse before they get better. It was a crazy moment of being able to see where prices were going and why. I tell you now....we are in for a helluva ride. We have only begun to see the edges of how high prices are going to get. The fuel prices are going to be echoed in every corner of the market very soon, and it's scary. The great depression of the 1930s caught people by surprise, and, though the Federal Reserve has made provisions so that there will not be a run on banks like there was during that time, they have not been able to compensate for everything. I for one am going to react to my vision in the following ways:

1) Not going to make any major purchases that obligate me for long-term payments unless it is real estate or unimproved land for at least the next 2 years.

2) Going to cut the extra spending in half and increase the amount of money that I keep in my 401K plan. While there is some risk associated with the 401K, it will have my money growing rather than sitting still, and I can take the tax break on that money.

3) Going to listen to my husband and stock up on dry goods as emergency rations for food, etc.....

Lately my husband has gotten on a jag abou emergency preparedness - now while I do not subscribe to the theory of complete governmental or political breakdown, my vision at the gas pump has me thinking that there is going to be some form of societal storm to ride out. So, I'm gonna play along with him and that way I know that if the bottom drops out, we will at least have beans and rice to live on if we need to.

For those of you who are reading this, I'm not trying to scare anyone. I fact, I only shared the vision I had with my daughter, and that only because she was in the car when I had it. It was only a moment and it wasn't concrete enough for me to describe in terms like the Book of Revelation or anything - only a tremendous feeling of certainty and brief moment of clarity. If you are reading this blog, maybe it was because you were meant to as well. So that you could prepare yourself by stopping extraneous spending and tryign to get yourself into a state of preparedness. That never hurts anyway. Did you know that I heard that the Mormons believe that if the man of the household has not provided for back-up emergency food for his family for at least one year, he is being remiss in his duty to his family and to the church? Yep. One more thing the Mormon's threw in that actually has value.

Okay then....I don't have any pictures to go with this post. I don't know what I would put up anyway unless it was a gas pump with a big Jesus streak behind it.

Bright Blessings to all who read this,
Asradel

Banks are the Axis of Pure Evil and TGIF

Okay... I'm a fairly reasonable person and normally am pretty fair-minded about businesses making their money - but right now my ass is chapped to an exponential degree because my ass-clown bank decided to rear-rape me for $280 in insufficient funds charges. Was my account deficient the money? No. Not if you count the check that I deposited that day. Not at all. Well, did they credit my account with the deposit? Hell no. They credited my account with $100 of the deposit and held the rest for 2 days while they watched 8 separate instruments come in while they were holding an artificial balance on my account that reflected only $100 of my larger deposit.

Now get this: the check that I deposited that they were holding was a check from an escrow account that was backed with US Bank funds from the refinance of my house! My head's gonna explode! WTF? I've worked in the legal support field for a very long time. Too long for me to actually wanna recall here - but I know, as do most people in the legal and financial world, that an ESCROW check is as good as cash. But not to them! No! Anyway, after going and fighting with the customer service manager and the bank branch manager, I was able to get back $210 of my dollars, but not the total amount. I will be writing a letter to the bank today in an effort to get back the additional $70, which I will promptly turn around and spend on a witch doll that I don't need but want very much.

So, I hope you all have a great weekend planned. Asradel here is going to help the husband get the truck loaded to take to the dump. Believe me...I'm totally STOKED about this. :) Not really. My life hasn't spiralled quite THAT low yet.

Oh! And by the way! I am going to start selling Avon products as of today. The district rep is coming downtown to meet me and give me my "getting started" kit. So, if any of you out there who lurke on my blog want a catalog, lemme know.

Bright blessings!