Thursday Threesome for March 31st

Brought to us this week by picnics, fast food, and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Hot Dogs--Spring picnics and cookouts are coming! Is it hot dogs or hamburgers you want to have on your plate as you head back to the table?
I enjoy hot dogs, but given a choice, I'll take hamburgers any day of the week.

Twosome: and-- ...and what else is on that plate that you just cannot be without as you work your way through the crowd? Potato salad? One of those huge pickles? Come on, there has to be something !
Chips or fries. :)

Threesome: French Fries-- ...and the real toughie: do you have to have "fries with that'? ...or will chips do well enough for you. Just curious...
As long as I get one or the other, I don't really care too much. I am a picky fry eater, so usually I'll go with chips at a picnic. Beside, at a picnic, they usually don't have fries.

Being a Detective is Easy

When you have clues dropped in your lap.

Last Sunday (Palm Sunday, not three days ago), Jennie, Angelique, and I dropped by The Mystery Bookstore in all our wanderings. It's been a topic of wondering for the last several months since the owner has been conspicuously abscent, even during their recent anniversary party. Rumors were flying like crazy as to what was going on.

Naturally, when I heard the clerk in the store talking about Shelly, I rudely shushed Jennie and shamelessly evasdropped.

Looks like one of the rumors is true. A former employee came back and started being the operations manager for the store. Shelly was happy with his work and decided it was time to retire. So he's sold his shared of the business and will be retiring to Oregon to start an on-line mystery magazine.

I know many will miss him. But personally, I may start shopping in that store. I avoided it on general principle most of the time because I always found the guy to be downright rude to me anytime I did try to get something from him, including at the UCLA book festival.

Time to Catch Up

It's been a while since I've posted here, hasn't it? Maybe I should catch you up a little.

I found out this week that my team did make it to the finals last weekend. We lost there. I would have loved to have been there and played, however. Of course, I had fun with Jennie and Angelique. Why can't I do everything at the same time?

Thursday night, Jared and Scott did an outstanding job leading worship. It's kinda scary to realize that you aren't needed in something. But it's nice at the same time. And, as I've said many times before, I certainly have no quams about being gone right now. They can fill in for me no problem whatsoever.

Thursday night late, I headed out to the trailer park to spend a couple nights with Mom and Dad in their trailer. We got to bed very late, probably something about them not coming until midnight. But we slept in late to make up for it. When we did finally get up, we ran a few errands and then headed up to a poppy preserved we'd heard about outside of Lancaster. There was a bitter cold wind blowing, and it didn't turn out to be nearly as nice as we were told it was. I think it's because it was too cold for the poppies. When our friends had come through, it was during our first sign of spring, but this last week was another round of winter.

Friday night, we played Rummikub. Mom won all but the last game we played, too.

Saturday morning we woke up early, but not by design. We awoke to a siren going off for about 5 minutes at 5:30 AM. It finally stopped and we were going back to sleep when it went off again about 45 minutes later. Dad called the sherrif's office to find out what was going on. It was an alarm to let people in the area know that a prisoner had escaped from the nearby prison. But we did get back to sleep after that and didn't get up until about 11.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the trailer and playing games. We played Rummikub again for several hours, and Mom didn't win once. :) We also went for a quick swim.

Sunday was church. We came back here and Dad took at look at my frig and dryer for me. Didn't find anything, so I still don't know what's going on with them. Then we went and played mini-golf. Mom won by a wide margin. At this point, we decided to get dinner, but discovered how many things were closed for Easter. And eating out with Mom and Dad is never easy since they are vegans. Finding a place they will eat is quite a challenge. We eventually did find a Subway that was open. Then we came back to my place and played games.

Now, since I regularly complain about my roommates here, I do need to shave this story as well. A latch on my parent's trailer broke, and they needed to fix it before they could leave. Dad discovered Sunday night late that he needed a drill to make the repair he wanted to make. One of my roommates loaned him his drill overnight, no questions. So they aren't always jerks. :)

Easter Sunday Word Association

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

He is Risen!

(Rest of entry taken from here.)

1. I’m waiting:: You're Late
2. Speak:: "Rough"
3. Roger...:: and Hammerstein
4. Knock knock:: Who's There
5. Hybrid:: Gas and Electric
6. Can’t believe my eyes:: Amazing
7. Hooked:: on Phonics
8. Pontificate:: Talk on and on
9. Slime:: You Can't Do That on Television
10. Unwelcome:: Get out!

Just a Quick Note

Just thought I'd drop a quick note even though I should be walking out the door to youth group.

I don't have to work at all tomorrow. Thought it would be a half day, but they're giving us all of tomorrow off. My parents will be arriving in town late, so I'll be spending time with them. Probably be off-line between now and Monday morning.

Have a blessed Resurrection Weekend.

Thursday Threesome for March 24th

Brought to us this week by Londo Morlari (Babylon 5 reference) and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Wine- or beer? Or do you prefer your beverages non-alcoholic?
Non-alcoholic thank you very much. Don't like the smell, why would I like the taste? Give me fruit juice or water, and I'll be very happy.

Twosome: Women- and men. We're entirely different creatures. What do you think makes the opposite sex tick? Or do you consider their behaviour a complete mystery?
I don't think we're that different, for all the stereotypes. We both want to be loved and appreciated. We both want to be happy. Other then that, I have no clue.

Threesome: and Song- What's your favorite song? Your favorite band/ musician?
Favorite song - "Learning to Trust" by David Meece
Favorite band/musician - Chris Rice, Ginny Owens, Nichole Noredeman, David Meece, Rich Mullins, to name a few.

Adventures in Fictious Character Stalking

Earlier this month, an author I love sent me the address where her fictious character lives. Since it's in Hollywood, I decided to check it out Wednesday night after picking Jennie up from the airport.

I'd gotten directions off Yahoo maps, and my first order of business was to figure out which way I wanted to go on the freeway. Finally, I figured out I wanted to go south. Just one problem. I thought I was on the correct onramp, but suddenly found myself going north. So I had to exit and turn back around.

When I got to my exit, I found out that I couldn't turn left, as the directions told me to.

Finally, I got turned around and headed the correct direction on the correct road. My directions said the street was on the right, so I stayed in the right lane and slowed down for every single street. It wasn't there. I made a couple more passes, then decided to check out the other side of the street. And that's where I finally found it.

Well, almost. The addresses were hard to see in the dark. I made a couple passes, but I figured that the neighbors might not appreciate me doing it again. Afraid they'd call the cops about the strange car on their little street at 11:30 at night, I left.

Still, I have a guess on which of the houses it is. It's the one that best matches the description from the books. Of course, since I got the rest of the details in the neighborhood completely wrong, who knows if I was correct or not.

Still, it's always fun to see what the reality is. It was similar to what I had pictured, but not quite right. The street was shorter, the houses packed more together, and even though it knew it was close to the freeway, I had no idea it was that close.

First Day Off

So today was my first day off for the new carpeting. I slept in until 10 AM. Got up, washed my bedding, watched The Incredibles and some TV on DVD and then hopped on the internet. Nothing too dramtic. And the rest of the week is going to be about the same.

Now my weekend, however....

Saturday was day one of St. Pat's Hat for this year. Because of the rain, it was on the beach in Venice. So I trucked down there fully intending to get my shirt, play a game, and then leave.

But something happened. I started having fun. It helped that my team was on a real winning streak. We won all five games on Saturday. Most by a large margin. The largest being 11-3. The closest game was 13-12.

It rained a little for a while, but most of the time was sprinkles. I even got hot enough to take off the shirt I was wearing underneath for warmth.

Of course, my legs were downright tired after that. But it was a blast. I scored a point in the first game, and was a part of the action every time I was in. Of course, with 5 people on the field instead of 7, I kinda had to be.

I really wanted to play again Sunday, but with Jennie in town, there was no way I could do everything I wanted to do. So, after church, I talked to my family then went down to meet Angelique and Jennie. We went to a very late lunch. Then we played miniture golf. I wound up winning. Of course, they'll clame it was because I was keeping score. But it wasn't. Honest! We headed down to Westwood, then went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. First time I've ever eaten there. Food was great, service wasn't. The kitchen was slow, which might explain why it took us over an hour to get our food. Once we got our food, we had to hurry to get Jennie to the airport on time. But we made it with time to spare. By the time I got home, it was midnight.

With all this stuff going on, can you understand why I slept in until 10 this morning? I must say, it felt wonderful. And I'll be sleeping in again tomorrow.

Of course, I got sucked back into the Amazon customer review board again today. Found a couple reviews on a product that were commenting on other reviews, especially one written by Harriet, the #1 reviewer over there. I headed over there to read the thread about it. As I figured, most of the board is supporting the jerks. Keep in mind that both of them are ex-top 100 reviewers who know the rule about commenting directly on other reviews. And the fact that their review wasn't about the product they were "reviewing." Yes, it got me to post on the board. One of them has been her normal non-civil self. Neither think they did anything wrong. I reported their reviews and their reviews only, and Amazon took them away, so I feel vindicated. Hopefully, I can leave the board again by Wednesday night.

Right now, 24 is on and my roommate is about to go to bed. So I need to post this and go.

Word Association for Palm Sunday

Man, I need to be in bed asleep right now. In stead, I'm on the internet, doing this.

1. Stink:: Me (I haven't showered after the ultimate tournament, still.)
2. Renewal:: Library books
3. I remember...:: History
4. Loneliness:: Sad
5. Ooooh:: Aaahhhh
6. For real:: Not pretend
7. Titanium:: Good
8. Get down:: Boogy
9. Rupture:: Break
10. Dramatic:: Spectacular (like some of the dramatic catches I saw today.)

A Late Update

Heck, for most of the world, it's already Saturday. But it's still Friday, my time, so I can call it a late update.

I'm off work until Thursday. They're replacing our carpet, and they decided it was just going to be too hard to try to set us up to work somewhere else while they move everything out, put the new carpet in, and then move everything back in. So I don't have to work Monday through Wednesday.

Tom says I'll get bored. Is he kidding? I already have two weeks worth of stuff I want to try to get done in these three days. There just isn't going to be enough time!

I forgot to mention that Monday my friends Steve and Karla took me out to dinner for my birthday. And they gave me a gift card to Barnes & Nobel as well! Guess which bookstore I'll buy the next two Trixie's from.

And yes, I'm finally reading Peach Cobbler Murder. So far, so good. :)

Tonight we had a game night for the youth. Fortunately, we had a lot more guys because the game was definitely a guys game. One of our high schoolers made it up with his friends. The guys seemed to have a good time. Way to violent for me, so I wound up playing Survivor: The Game with some of the staff and the jr. high girls (who would not have done well at that game at all.) It's interesting, but could take a very long time. We cut it very short. No, I wasn't the winner.

I just learned something interesting. Today is St. Patrick's Day as well. :) I have a Foxtrot daily rip-off calendar (aka a page a day calendar) sitting on my computer moniter. It says today is St. Patrick's Day. I just double checked, and it did say that for yesterday as well. Pretty funny error.

Well, I'm tired and I have to get up early tomorrow for the St. Pat's Hat ultimate frisbee tournament. We've been moved to the beach in Venice since it's raining. I really don't want to go and play in the rain. If I hadn't already paid my money for it, you'd better believe I'd sleep in and forget about it. We'll see how it goes. I might not stick around. I guess you could say I'm a fair weather ultimate player. Why do you think I live in Sunny Southern CA?