Well, the two guys who said they were interested in moving in came by last night. I would have sworn they said they'd be by at 7, but they showed up at 8 on the dot. Seemed nice, seemed to like what they saw, but decided they didn't want to move in. So I'm back to only having one roommate. :(

Things went well with the Durons (as I figured they would.) Ordered pizza for dinner, they watched Lilo and Stitch and parts of The Santa Clause. I was in and out of the living room trying to get other things done, like get started on packing.

I sure hope I got everything. I always have this feeling like I've forgotten something. Usually I haven't, but it lingers from the few times that I have. Either way, everything should be in my car, and I will be leaving in 30 minutes to drive to my parents for the weekend. Won't be back until Tuesday. I hate that Sunday after Thanksgiving traffic. Mike will leave to head back for his last couple weeks at Focus Institute on Saturday, so I'll be an only child for a couple days for the first time in 21 years. Should be interesting.

Meanwhile, I can't wait to see which gets the first reaction when I show up, my beard, or my hair. I've been growing a beard for a couple months now, but I haven't had a hair cut of any kind since August. Yes, I have to comb my hair for the first time in 3 and a half years. :) I'll let you know what they say.

They haven't done anything with the leak best I could tell. But I could also hardly hear it last night, and the musty smell seemed much less last night.

Before I leave, I need to go the word association game for the week:

1. Concert:: music
   
2. Sydney:: Bristow (how could I do anything else with how much I talk about Alias. :)
   
3. Shower:: clean
   
4. Patterns:: sewing
   
5. Market:: outdoor place with fresh produce
   
6. Chair:: table
   
7. London:: England
   
8. Reception:: wedding
   
9. Republican:: conservative
   
10. Cough:: hack
    

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

So, how did I follow up my stressful weekend? By not going to sleep until after 3 this morning. I was just lying in bed thinking about all the things that have to come together before I can leave tomorrow, and my mind kept racing. And the musty smell from the water is getting stronger in my bedroom all the time.

Am picking up the Duron kids after work today for a couple hours. Their parents both had an all day meeting, so they're coming over to my place for a last few hours. We'll order pizza and I'll let them watch a DVD or something educational like that. :) Meanwhile, I'll be packing since I'm trying to have everything in my car when I get into work tomorrow so I can leave directly from work.

And the two guys will be coming over to look at the condo, too! We'll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, everyone should be gone in time for me to watch 24. :) Guess I'll watch tonight's Angel rerun when I get back Monday night.

And, in other news, I did the unthinkable. I wrote 5 reviews today, bringing my total for November up to 30. Yep, I'll have a review a day for November. If I do this every year and a half or so, I guess my next time will be sometime early 2005.

So Friday, I'm in my bathroom and hear a weird noise. I think nothing of it, but it's still happening a few hours later, so I take a closer listen. Sounds to me like water running in the walls, but just a little bit. I debate about what to do, but then I call the HOA. Naturally, they're closed at 11 at night, and all the answering service wants to do is leave a message for them on Monday. I do get them to have a pumber call me, but since I can't find any water leaking out, they conclude the water must be running in the pipes.

Saturday, I get up and head out to a book signing. Got Rhys Bowen's latest, For the Love of Mike. Then I came back to town and watched Radio. Good movie. My parents were right in recommending it.

Got home, and it sounded like the problem was still going on. But again couldn't find any leaking water.

Sunday, after church, I asked Dave to stop by listen. He heard the noise, but couldn't decide anything either. By this time, I'm smelling a wet, musty smell.

Did little other then church and read on Sunday. Read all of the book. Very good, obviously. And Alias was awesome last night!

This morning, as I'm leaving for work, I spot the neighbor with the garage directly under condo leaving, so I stop him and ask if he has water leaking into his garage. He hadn't noticed anything, but sure enough, he's got a huge water spot and a puddle on the floor. So now I know where the water was going. I've spent most of the day waiting to hear anything about it back from the HOA. I'm just glad it's their problem and not mine.

Meanwhile, I got a call from a couple of guys looking for a place to live. They're going to stop by and take a look sometime this week. May be moving in as early as next week! But I'm trying not to get too excited since it seems like everytime I think someone's moving in, they back out on me at the last minute.

Meanwhile, I am officially insane. In spite of the fact that I said I wouldn't do it and I leave town Wednesday afternoon, I'm going for it. I'm going to try to average a review a day in November. Only need six more. Think I should head over there and make it five.

Been a few days since I posted about life, hasn't it?

Frankly, I haven't had much new going on. The guys didn't come over on Wednesday night because they had too much homework to get done. Put off a wonderful Babylon 5 as a result. They missed a truly horrid Enterprise, too. Which is better for them. I am sure I lost brain cells watching it. Had the entire thing figured out 15 minutes in. And it didn't surprise me once along the way. If you're ever around a TV and this episode is on, run to the other room. It'll be better that way.

Last night, instead of regular Bible study, we had our annual Thanksgiving feast. Everyone is supposed to bring a food to share that starts with the same letter as a first or last name. Instead of my regular Bread and Butter, I decided to bring Marshmellows. You never know for sure what you'll wind up with, but this year we had lots of deserts and lots of chips/salsa/nacho type things. Still, it's always fun.

To counteract my post from Tuesday about celebrities (from the word association), I have stopped watching all the news about Michael Jackson. He makes my skin crawl as it is! I really don't want to see any more news about him. If only that would make it so.

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, as I'm sure you're aware. What I was not aware is that two other famous men also died that day. Guess this supports Trixie's theory about bad luck and threes. Anyway, here's an interesting article on the subject.

And finally, I think I have a few quizzes to catch up on.

Your Trixie Crime by Trishek
Name
Favourite Trixie Character
Your Crime:	kidnapping
Caught By:	Diana
Prison Sentence:	12 years
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Your soul is bound to the Solitary Rose: The
Alone.

"When I wake up alone, the shades are still
drawn on the cold window pane so they cast
their lines on my bed and lines on my
face."

The Solitary Rose is associated with loneliness,
melancholy, and patience. It is governed by
the goddess Merope and its sign is The Sword,
or Unrequited Love.

As a Solitary Rose, you may be summed up as a
hopeless romantic. You desire love and have so
much love to give, but thing just never seem to
work out the way you want them to. In life,
you can be very optomistic, even when things
are gray and nothing works out to your
expectations.


What Rose Is Your Soul Bound To?
brought to you by Quizilla

No surprise there.

Have a good weekend.

Good afternoon. Better late then never with today's Thursday Threesome, brought to you by friendly neighbors and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Holiday Sweets-- What is your favorite holiday sweet? You know, the one you only really can get your hands on once a year?
Pumpkin Pie! Although, since I forgot to mention it last week, I’ll also mention a dish my mom makes for the holidays every years as well. Sweet potatoes, apples, layered with raisins, cinnamon, and a tad of lemon juice. It’s a favorite for the entire family.

Twosome: Recipe-- ...and can you get the recipe for it? ...or is this one of those closely guarded family secrets handed down mother to daughter. ...and hey? What about us guys? How are we ever supposed to figure out how to do this stuff? ...or should we even try ?
I pretty much gave you the recipe already.

Threesome: Exchange-- But if you do have that recipe and you can bear to share, why not stop over at the exchange and drop it off? Barring that: do you routinely exchange sweets at holiday time? Yeah? What kinds?
I don’t, mainly because I’m lazy and never get them made.

AUGH!!! Just lost my post. What did I say?

Weird day at work, but I did get quite a bit done. Including finding that one problem account is out the same amount this month as last month. Think the problem lies in over zealous write off's last year. We're going to look at it again next week and then talk to Phil.

Meanwhile, my rank just keeps rising at Amazon. 215 today! When I first started reviewing seriously, I was going to be happy to have a four digit rank. Then I wanted top 1000. Now? I'm looking for the top 100. Will take me a while to get there, but I think I can. Especially if jumps like this keep happening.

I can get back into my yahoo mail account after a week! Don't know what the problem was, but it was nice to see the page come up.

And Unconscious Muttering's Word Association

1. Plan B:: Failure of Plan A
   
2. Seattle:: Washington
   
3. The lady wore:: Red
   
4. Upsetting:: Sad news
   
5. Tampon:: Lady
   
6. Celebrity:: Too much news (not that I stop watching)
   
7. Baja:: Fresh
   
8. 64:: 8 squared
   
9. RGB:: Red Green Blue
   
10. Milkshake::Strawberry
    

Where to start?

Saturday, I was up and about early and went to see the first showing of Brother Bear. Let's just say that Bambi now has competition as the most sad of the Disney animated movies. And, yet, somehow I enjoyed it. Not something to see when you want to laugh (although the two moose are great). A good movie, but a two sleeve, wish I'd brought Kleenex kinda thing.

Came into the office for a while and worked on listmanias at Amazon then went home and tried to play catch up on my TV viewing. TNT rerunning Angel around their basketball schedule keeps throwing me off. I got only part of the episode Thursday because they started 30 minutes late.

Sunday, went to church in the morning and had a SNYF that night. No worship team practice since we're just having our Thanksgiving feast this Thursday. Talked to my family for almost two hours. Part of it was spent talking to Mike, which was very good. I just love modern technology. I was talking to my brother in Colorado and my parents in Northern CA at the same time. For free thanks to free weekends on celphones.

Still trying to decide what I want to do over Christmas break. I may need to be back to organize and/or do other things for the condo. And I should get in touch with Seth and Kiersten to see if they'll be in town at all or not, cause I'd love to see them, show them the new place, etc.

Have a tentative lead on a new roommate in January. Will post more if it comes together. I think it will, and I'm excited, but I'm just not sure yet.

I have nothing to say today.

I thought I did, but I really can't come up with anything.

My life is rolling along like always. Basically boring, especially after all the events of earlier in the week.

Wednesday night, the guys came over and we enjoyed an exceptional night of Babylon 5. We're just about to break away from earth, and two of them don't even know it. I love it.

Enterprise was also exceptional. What looked to be a pure racial episode turned our expectations on their head half way through and turned out to be very interesting.

Last night things went well during worship, until I stopped concentrating on the last song (the one I didn't know like the back of my hand), and we started to fall about a little. But we survived.

CSI and Without a Trace were both exceptional last night. Best of the season for CSI.

While checking out USA network's official site for Monk today, I discovered they've been reruning season one. As in the season I haven't seen all of yet. At least I found out now.

And Disney has delayed their next wave of Disney's Treasures tins. Disappointed in a way, because I can't wait to see them, but also very happy because 6 months will hopefully be easier on my budget.

Helped Phil and Jason figure out why a schedule was out of balance today by reminding them to check something Jason had mentioned needed to be checked 5 minutes earlier. It really wasn't much, but they're treating me like a hero.

This is a lot for someone who had nothing to say. :)

I do have a new project I need your help on. Amazon also have "Guides" that people can write about just about anything. I got a brilliant idea this morning on my way to work. The idea I had was have famous quotes with the originator properly noted, but have part of each quote be a link to something that Amazon sells. For example:

"To be or not to be." could link to the movie of the same name. Or

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" could have a link to a product named "What you can do for your country." Ok, so I haven't looked, but I'm sure there's something with that name.

So, what I need are a list of famous quotes you think would work for this. I promise to post the finished results when they're done. And if this goes well, I could do many of them. :)

Today, being Thursday, brings us the Thursday Threesome, brought to us this week by blenders and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Envision-- How much television do you watch each week? Are you one of those who can call up the nightly program schedules for the major networks (and a cable channel or two) in your head? ...or do you have to search the paper to find out when the Thanksgiving Day parade is? (Hint: It's on a Thursday.)
Well, I can call up the shows I watch for any given night. Not sure I could do the shows around them, however. :)

And, just in case you missed it somehow, I watch a lot of TV each week. Sunday night is Alias. Monday is 7th Heaven and CSI: Miami. Tuesday is I’m With Her and 24. Wednesday is Enterprise and Angel with an episode of Babylon 5 from my DVD’s thrown in for good measure. Thursday is my biggest night. I watch Survivor, CSI, and Without a Trace on CBS plus Friends and What I Like About You. Since I don’t get home until 8:30 most weeks, parts of this get recorded for weekend viewing. Friday brings Reba, Hope and Faith, and Life with Bonnie. Saturday, there’s an hour and a half of shows I must watch on Fox News. And right now I’m watching the Angel reruns on TNT to catch up on the back story I missed.

So basically, I have a part time job in TV viewing. If only I could figure out a way to get paid for it. I do comment on some of them over at Snarkfest.

Twosome: whirled-- Oh, my! That holiday stuff is coming up soon! Are you ready for Thanksgiving? ...or are you going to be whirling around at the last minute?
I’m heading up to my parents. Getting ready will involve packing the night before. :) I do have my traditional Monday after day off so I can drive home minus all the traffic. And I do need to find my Patrick Stuart CD’s of A Christmas Carol, which I always listen to on the way home.

Threesome: peas-- Shine on the healthy stuff; we really don't care if you eat your vegetables (okay, the mom's here on the Porch do ): what are you looking forward to eating on Thanksgiving that you just cannot get the rest of the year?
Stuffing and pumpkin pie! My mouth is watering already!

Last night was fun. Went down to downtown LA to see The Phantom of the Opera. Amoung those attending were Debbie and Josh and Bonnie and Babylon 5 Eric. Ironically enough, I hadn't seen most of them in a while, so I enjoyed seeing and hanging out with them. I also enjoyed the play itself, although I didn't like it as much as others seem to. Part of it was I was sure I knew how it would end, and I didn't want it to end that way at all. And part of it was because I couldn't feel sorry enough for the Phantom. When it comes down to it, he was a horrid person, and no amount of back story can make that right. Still, there is some stunning music, and if I saw it again, I'm sure I'd enjoy it more because I already know what's going to happen.

The bad part was that we went out for drinks afterward, and I didn't get home until 2:30 AM. See, to do something like that, it takes at least an hour of discussion before hand and then wandering around forever lost. :) Enjoyed every minute of it, but I had a hard time getting up this morning. Once I got up and out the door, I've been doing fine. Still, I think I'll probably hit the hay as soon as the guys leave tonight.

And in other news, I DID IT!!!! I wrote my 400th review today. Goal met. I plan to bask in that joy for the rest of the week, letting my reviews just sit while I read and listen and do whatever for fun. Ok, so the next book I read will get reviewed, but I won't be looking to do that until next week sometime. Beside, four reviews is a good number for a week.

Finally, I wanted to do the free association game again this week.

1. Leapfrog:: Learning pads
   
2. Co-workers:: crazy
   
3. Mustang:: my college mascott
   
4. Wafer:: this
   
5. Nicotine:: patch
   
6. Fast food:: dinner
   
7. Suffocate:: plastic bag
   
8. Myth:: legend
   
9. Lane:: country road
   
10. Unexpected::surprise
    

Have a good evening.

I have never been so thrilled to have my schedule thrown off before.

I was watching 7th Heaven last night when my parents called. Since we just talked Sunday, I figured something big was up. Was I ever right. They were calling to tell me that Grandma became a Christian last night. To say we're thrilled is an understatement. They say she seemed to track with them for the whole conversation and everything. It's a miracle!

Of course, there is the part of me that is certainly chastized today as well. I had given up on her after years of prayer. Yes, I was praying, but I'd lost my faith on this. Fortunately, God works in spite of us. But it's a great reminder that God still does the impossible.

In other news, I've found out a friend's getting married in northern CA December 20th. I could go, since that's the start of a two week break I get this year, but I really had planned to be down here for church on the 21st and leave for my parents on the 22nd. Yet I'm feeling guilty for not thinking about going. Why must life get so complicated? And why must people get married during the holidays?

Two reviews to go. And 25 pages to go in the book I plan to write my 400th review on.

My weekend just did not go as planned. At least for Saturday.

Got up and got ready for ultimate frisbee only to find out that they weren't playing because of stupid intermural football. Came over to the college and spent some time on the internet, writing reviews #9 and 10 at Amazon for the week. Yep, I've made my original November goal. Now my goal is to have 400 reviews by the end of the week. To do that, I'll need to finish my current novel by then. 150 pages. Normally I wouldn't be worried, but I don't have tomorrow off and I'm going to see Phantom of the Opera tomorrow night, so I won't have the time tomorrow I'm used to having. Of course, I'm looking forward to seeing it, so that's not the issue.

But I digress.

Thursday night, Kyle, one of my jr. highers, and our drummer for worship time, invited me to his final rollerhocky game of the season. I fully intended to go, but didn't make it because I spent so much time doing other things.

Got home in time for my new roommate to move in, only to find out his situation had changed and he might not be moving in after all. He'll let me know. In case anyone's keeping track, this is the 5th potential roommate to fall through since I started escrow in August. Anyone wonder why I thought this might be a bad idea?

Did make it to the movies Saturday night. Jeff and I went to see Matrix Revolutions. It was ok. I may be the only one, but I rather liked the ending. Either way, the parts that bothered me were from earlier in the film.

Sunday was much better. Church, watched a DVD, stuff like that.

I've been very tired recently. Last night I was about ready to call it a night at 9PM, but I couldn't do that because that's when Alias starts. :) By the time it was over, I was wired and I wound up staying up late talking to Jeff and Jenn. Right now, I feel like it's time to go to bed and sleep for hours. Which could be a big problem tomorrow night at the play. I'll be very upset if I'm too tired to really enjoy it.

Right now? I'm off to write review #397 and possibly 398 as well.

So, Wednesday night, I got home from work to discover we were having a problem with the cable. See if this makes any sense to you.

The cable in the living room was uneffected. The cable in the bedrooms was getting poor reception. However, it was only for the lower channels. The higher the channel, the greater the likelyhood we'd get good reception.

Yeah, makes no sense to me, either.

Today was Jeff's day off, so he was on call all day. A guy from the cable company came out and took a look at it. Apparently, we had a faulty splitter in the living room that was effecting the other cable outlets. But why it would suddenly start after we've been there for 7 weeks is beyond me. Either way, it's been fixed, so that's good.

Last night was interesting at youth group. We had the last ladies home volleyball game going on in the gym, plus parent teacher meetings in the classrooms all happening on campus. Needless to say, it was crowded. And different with no game time. Fortunately, I seemed to be ready for worship time to be first even though I didn't have the overheads ready to go when I showed up at 6:30. It did help that Dave already had the machine set up for me, so all I had to do was get them out and tune my guitar. Still, went well. Then we had a longer time for the lesson and small groups, which also went surprisingly well last night.

I think I want to go to a movie this weekend, but I can't figure out which one to attend. I'm leaning toward Radio because my parents raved about it last weekend when we talked. While I want to see the third Matrix film, I'm going to wait and see if I can see it with anyone else. And I still want to see Brother Bear. Next weekend brings more movies I want to see. I may honestly have to go every weekend until the end of the year to see everything I want to see.

In case you missed it, my reviewing goal for the month of November was 10. As of this moment, I've written 8, all this week. Heck, I've written more then one a day this month so far. Not that I plan to review one a day for the month of November. But this means I only need to write 6 more to hit my year long goal of 400 reviews total! I'm thrilled, needless to say.

Finally, two quizzes. The first, the political philosophy quiz every one else has done.

I am a Centrist.

Centrists favor selective government intervention and emphasize practical solutions to current problems. They tend to keep an open mind on new issues. Many centrists feel that government serves as a check on excessive liberty.

Of course, the chart shows me on the border between centrist and right conservative. Which is where I think I really belong. If they'd had more questions, I probably would have wound up there.

And now, Leslie's new Trixie quiz.


The Gatehouse Mystery


Which Trixie Belden Mystery are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ok, I threw a couple of the questions. And I thought about getting Cobbitt's Island cause I just love both of those books.

If it's Thursday, but be time to post The Thursday Threesome on my blog. This week, it's brought to us by shameless plugs and The Back Porch. (Or is that shameless plugs about The Back Porch?)

Onesome: Keep- What’s your favorite keepsake? Do you have something that has so much sentiment attached you’ll keep it forever? Tell us!
Definitely. My copy of Sandy Dengler’s Opal Fire. It won an award, and she autographed it “To Mark – Who can write as well as I.” And my copy of her unpublished 5th in a series.

Twosome: The Back Porch- We’re named for Deb’s back porch, a place where people go to relax and wind down. Where’s your relax and unwind spot?
In front of the TV or in the middle of a good book.

Threesome: Donate! Got a cause you donate to regularly?
I donate to my church regularly. And, you might say my job is in part a donation to the college.

I am just not getting anything done at work these days. I have a productive last couple hours of my day, but that's about it. I really need to get a move on again.

Meanwhile, Marcus should be gone. He was planning to move out in the early afternoon. And I have no leads on new roommates.

Posted my 390th review at Amazon today. Heck, if I review everything on my list this week, I may just about have my November quota finished by the end of the week. :) Which just means I'll have to reach 400 reviews as soon as possible.

Other thoughts? I'm sure I had some. But my brain seems to have shut down. Not that too much is going on.

Picked up Finding Nemo yesterday. Started looking for a tree topper. And realized why it's a good thing I'm not going into stores to brouse while I have no money to spend. If I do that, I'll spend money I really honestly truly don't have right now.

In fact, I'm even not buying a new book that came out this month I really want. I figure I won't read it until Januray at the earliest, so I'll wait until after Christmas. When I hopefully have more roommates. And I can always put it on my Christmas list. But it's the sequel to For Whom the Minivan Rolls, which I loved, so I'll need to get it at some point. Same with getting the Music Man remake when it comes out next week. Guess I'll be learning patience in a hurry.

Finally, a quiz, thanks to Aleta.


Golly Gee!! You are NORMAN ROCKWELL.
You are a painter of simple, everyday happenings.
You tend to avoid the outrageous and stay well
within the guidelines of society. Your friends
count on you for your loyalty and level-
headedness.


Which famous artist most reflects your personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

Like that's a surprise.

Thought I'd pop in with the free assosication game found here:

1. Taboo:: Buzzer
   
2. Poison:: Murder
   
3. 1983:: 3rd Grade
   
4. Tim:: Tiny Tim
   
5. Groovy:: Vegan
   
6. Italy:: Pasta
   
7. Think:: Hard
   
8. Penthouse:: Disgusting
   
9. Shelter:: Storm
   
10. Twinkie:: Too Sweet
    

Tell you anything new about me?

Got some trick or treaters Friday night. Maybe 20 at the most. Which is good since I only had a couple bags of fun bars to give out. Really didn't have a clue how many to expect. Turns out I was fine. Don't know if the rain kept people away or if that's about right.

Jeff and Jenn had carved some pumpkins, and they looked great.

Saturday, I decided I wasn't going to leave the condo. Washed my bedding, got caught up on TV, read quite a bit in The Ironclad Alibi, and watched some DVD's. I had invited the Convention over to catch up on Enterprise. About 45 minutes before they were supposed to come over, I got a call. The only member of the group with a car had dropped out on them. So I left to come pick them up, then when we were done, I took them home again. So much for not leaving the place.

Sunday was more lazing around bookended by church on both ends. Family Fellowship again last night, which was fun.

Rained a little tiny bit this morning, but that's about it. Nothing substantial, but every little bit will help the firefighters. The fire is out here in Santa Clarita, but there are fires still burning in the rest of Southern CA.