It's darn cold now. For me. I find the more time passes, the more I just hate cold and the more time I spend avoiding it and getting out of it. It just seems like my hands, feet, and nose are always cold. At work, at home, everywhere. I don't care if it's sunny, cloudy, rainy, humid, dry, day,or night. A good day is just a day in which I don't feel like jumping into a hot tub all the time. Even the whole south of the US, even Miami, has its chilly days, but not many. Most places do have a chilly time. My ideal is no jacket required at any time. It's now I'm thankful that at least I have the Caucasian hair and nose (whatever "Caucasian" is since to my knowledge none of my ancestors were from the Caucasus mountains- but you know, Aryan, or White, or whatever, you just can't put people into three or four main groups in the world, but I digress...)....my stringy hair that acts like a blanket and doesn't let the warmth escape from my head- so I rarely need a hat, at least- I know Karl complains all the time about his cold head and he has a lot of hair, but it lets heat out, here's the good old geo-anthropolgy lesson again- "black" hair lets heat out to cool down a person- Karl used to work up near the North Pole and he hated losing heat (even despite wearing lots of hats) but that was his favorite place to work. And at least my nose, while on the outside it's cold, warms up the air I breathe by having these little teeny tiny holes for nostrils. But there's a part of me somewhere that's still warm-loving...like a lizard, I just want a warm rock...

I took my pic off "Hot or Not"....LOL....maybe I will try this experiment again sometime with another photo. See if it makes my score go up or down. If nothing works, I will just have to accept I'm not hot, just minimally tepid.

OK everyone vote me hot!!!!

http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=EEGURYS&key=KYX

My hotness factor is sinking the more people vote for me....sigh....I'm in the "40 and over women" category. I was an 8.7 (I think) yesterday and now I'm a 7.3. Sadly, I'm afraid the people want major boobage...which I, sadly, just do not have...(OK, they don't either...theirs are fake.)

So if anyone wants to vote me as a majorly hot babe even without the girls-gone-wild cleavage, go right ahead! And remember, vote early and often.


What a hoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK because of my extreme insecurity I put some pictures on a really ridiculous web site called www.hotornot.com. Stupid, huh...I also put pics before on a photo skills site where you take pics of sunsets, babies, flowers, anything and they are rated. Well this one you are rated. I wanted to see what difference a photo makes. Anyway the first two I put on got pretty low ratings. Then I put on this one and for some reason this is getting high ones. I don't know why since I like the other two better. Waddup. The first two that are not this one, they rated low! I was soooo not hot. How is this one so hot? It really must have to do with photography skills. It really does. Anyway this stupid site, any woman with big fake implants gets the highest scores so it really means very little. Just wanted to see how three pics taken of me, same makeup, etc. would differ. I'm sure I've disappointed so many of you who think I'm above such things. HA HA HA!!! Hey if all of my pics had rated low in the "hotness" category, I would have started to wonder, what the heck is wrong with me? You mean I'm not "hot"? LOL Anyway who cares. I normally spend 5 min. a day doing makeup, if that. I went through an identity crisis or some psychologically wacko issue a few years ago in which I dressed sexy, maybe too slutty. I'm out of that now and now it's all business all the time, baby. Not a prim schoolmarm but sexy is not my goal. Just professional and feminine. At home it's just sweats and teeshirts and nothing matches. I'm a total slob. Speaking of which, I have to go fold the huge pile of laundry that has amassed in the middle of my bedroom floor.

Ellen I will be on Flight 1111 American Airlines coming out of Dallas, and ETA is 11:56 in Tucson. That's on the 10th. I will leave on the 17th.

It's non-refundable so I have to come now. :)

OK Ellen and Chuck- you win (lucky you)......and I mean if it's REALLY okay...I found very cheap tickets for the second week in Dec. if that is really OK and if it is really not, please tell me and I will NOT be offended!!!!!! It sure would be great to Christmas shop in Nogales. :)

I want you to know that in the previous post there are just a few people I would feel comfortable even asking questions like can I crash at your house, even in jest. Just so you know- I'm NOT that kind of moocher. Yet.

Seriously I'm really not. But I AM ready to go somewhere, somewhere reasonable and doable, very very soon, alone or not! :)

Trips on my short to long-term agenda are pretty much goals within the next year or two- they include Joe (I have never been to Portland in my life and he's lived there or near there for about 15 years), my Thelma and Louise trip with Vir (minus the T&L ending), and lots of trips to see aunts and uncles and their awesome homes. I missed visiting my great uncle Don before he died but maybe someday soon I will get out to see Vi. I am so interested in her language preservation project she's been doing for oh several decades. She's one of the foremost experts on Salishan culture and language and I want to learn a lot while she's still with us. I want to see Ellen and Chuck again in Arizona, Len and Jeanne...very much! And see lots of other people. Friends in LA/San Gabriel, Houston, St. Pete. Vir maybe someday you and I can drive to St. Pete to see the Jims.

This is for anyone who can tolerate me (and I realize you are few):

I have 5.5 days of vacation time left that I have to use BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR. If I don't use it, I lose it.

I want to go somewhere! Maybe.

I won't eat much. I won't interfere with work or hobbies. I promise to shut up when you tell me to. I will be a good houseguest and I won't leave bugs in your house. I'll pay my own way to things. I won't bring in strange men (unless you ask me to, lol).

Or if anyone wants to go with me to someplace, I'm all for it. I can drive places. I might be able to drive to warm places.

I can fly places, too, though nothing too extravagant. I take the cheapest flights. I will sit by the person with 12 carry-ons and many extra pounds hanging over the edge of the chair, just to get to your house. I can get to your house. You don't have to even come for me. You won't know I'm even there. I will just lurk around your house quietly. Or sleep in your yard.

Anyone?

Is he a gang hit man? Urban rap star? Singer for a boy band? LOLOL No, it's my son- builder of pencil buildings, spelling champion, crusader for font reform.
You also see Micah in front of his bed extraordinaire, with friend Josh there on the top bunk- I don't remember having another kid but for some reason Josh practically lives here.

Then, it's me- yes, it IS me...I do take my best pictures in very dim lighting...I don't want the fair reader to be fearful.

Then more of Nathanael and his buddies acting quite silly after the performance of "Anne of Green Gables" in which a few performed. Nathanael wants to try out for not the next play but the next after that. He didn't want to do a really chick type of play which "Anne" is.

The giant "ballerina" is one of his best friends, Aaron. Wacky kid.
A couple of the pic of 6 were in the play. I don't know all names there- but I know Nathanael (second from left). Ronak was in the play. The one on the far left played Anne's sort-of boyfriend. Ronak (third from left) played a schoolboy. The other ones, some of them were in the play. The girl playing Anne really dyed her hair red. The best actress was still Nathanael's friend Anna, who played the Sunday school teacher. She always does super.

Everyone you have to please help me with Micah, encourage him as much as you can. He's not doing well in school because he just won't do homework or schoolwork. A lot of it is because he's defensive and emotionally charged. I'm micromanaging him now, thanks to the fact that I work so close to his school. I'm really popping in every day. This has got to change. He may repeat the 7th grade. His birthday is in the summer, and it was one of those decisions- academically OK but emotionally not. He may be more successful if we repeat 7th but the stigma would be difficult for him. Gosh one more year...one more year for him to grow...it might be worth it.

I actually watched the old "Tractor Rides and Tractor Tales" (old Troxel movies) last night- despite the awful lighting and minimal color saturation (Yellowstone Park is just all cyan, right?) I decided that as a teenager I was actually really pretty. I thought I was so ugly then. But I really had a pretty face. I can't believe it. I'm only now figuring it out. Now that face is really old but the face I have and the face I think I have are two different faces. I had soft, well-proportioned features. My chin wasn't ugly like I thought it was. I didn't have horse teeth. I was actually really pretty even when I frowned for my dad's videocamera, which I did starting at about age 13. I definitely had the teenage attitude down pat. I was actually prettier than a lot of the girls I thought were pretty then.

I sat Friday night for Sierra and Hayden. Sierra slept like the princess and the pea...again...and since she won't sleep alone I got little sleep...until I cleared the snot out of her nose...LOL...and of course Hayden kept me up until after midnight anyway and they were up at 6. :) So after Rachael picked them up I slept a few more hours at my brother's house, then picked up a little, and left.

The other day when I visited Micah's school I decided to eat there. I was the first in line and behind me was a woman with a boy, I'd say about 14 there. I noticed right away he was autistic. The woman was the aide. It was a little like a window into Hayden's future, though I think Hayden alreaady says a few more words than this boy. But the behavior of the boy was now so familiar to me that it didn't surprise me at all whatever he did, like reach out and pat my hair. "Hands," said the aide. "Remember, hands," she told the boy. I knew couldn't just tell the woman, "oh that's okay" because the woman has to teach the boy, but it didn't even feel strange at all to have this kid reaching out to grab my hair. It took me a few seconds to realize it wasn't exactly the norm.
Hayden's in a stage now where he likes light switches. At night he constantly goes about turning all the lights off. Sierra complains, "I can't see! I can't see!" so I turn them on again, Hayden turns them off...and likes to wander in the dark...
He is saying "hi" to his classmates at the autism treatment center. And "car". Every time he gets out of a car he likes to circle the car twenty or thirty times just oohing and ahhing the tires, the bumpers, just the whole concept of this awesome thing that moves.
Likes to line his toys up in a row- something I think I may have introduced him to when I lined up his cars in a row once- I had read somewhere that autistic kids love to line things up- well now he lines everything up- I'll put his cars in a row and then he'll put something else in the lineup, like once it was a food wrapper, or it could be one of Sierra's dolls, anything. Sierra then says, "That doesn't belong in the line! It's not a car!"
Sierra now has more princess tiaras, more princess dolls, more princess books, more princess everything, than possible- she's SO into princesses, I took her to some websites a couple of weeks ago to show her some real princesses (well, besides HERSELF, that is). I showed her pictures of, for example, Eugenie and Beatrice, and she's become a fan of those girls. I explained they are also normal girls "just like you, Sierra! They like to run and play and they go to school and do the same things you do!" That mesmerized her to think those girls were like HER and didn't live in the clouds or something. :) I showed her William and Harry, I said they are real princes, and she likes Harry a lot. I tried to find a few other royals...I found the Jordanian princesses, too--regal and gorgeous- they were a little older than the English ones so I think she related best to Fergie's girls. She wanted to see little girls. Sierra is so cute.
I will be a bit more involved in the care of my brother's kids for a little while, since my mom's being hospitalized for sciatica and now Dave has them all nights. His schedule changes constantly so sometimes he's busy going from coast to coast to coast daily, other times he's off for a week or more.
There is some research now that indicates autism may be related to some people retaining more mercury or lead in their brains, not releasing it into the bloodstream so it doesn't show up on standardized lead tests. Steve just did a research paper about lead testing and added that as well. Would chelation of some type help autism? I wonder. If it's true will the medical community at large ever come to face it...they're in denial about so much else.
Mom is in treatment for severe sciatica. Can barely move and is on a lot of cortisone and other pain meds. Was in pain management center today. They're going to decide if therapy's next or operation, or what. Sciatica ops are sometimes successful, sometimes not. Steroid treatment in the works, too.

French-speakers, Nathanael's Voltaire riddle:

Nathanael found this online and he writes:

Back in... oh, whenever this took place, it was traditional to correspond in French. (From me: Please ignore the periods...bloggers scrunches the letters together if I don't put them in there.)
The king wrote to Voltaire from his castle Sans Souci:

p..........si
----- à -----
venez... 100

Voltaire wrote back:

G a

What in the heck were they talking about?

(Scroll down for the solution.)














The king wrote: "Venez souper à Sans Souci" (Come dine at Sans Souci).

Voltaire wrote: "J'ai grand appetit" (I'm quite hungry).



That was 2 cute? Maybe Voltaire ate pheasant at Sans Souci and returned home to find his wife had had the same feast. (Did he have a wife?) His response- OU812?

Nathanael just informs me that my pictureless rebus was not nearly as clever as his witty word play.

Big Guy went to the SPCA today. Hard to say goodbye. But one too many accidents. Sorry, Big Guy. Did he feel betrayed? Does he think I'm coming back for him? I wish I had a barn and a traffic-free neighborhood. I hope he gets a better home. He'll make a great pet- great disposition and if someone stays home with him all the time he won't have accidents. In fact, they might treat him there so he won't have them any more. They won't kill him, either.
So we're cat-free.
Micah's been praying that Oreo and Brio return. Like I did when Cotton returned as I was praying, when I was about 8 or 9. I wish I could understand or explain to him why they haven't returned. Micah thinks God doesn't answer him. I tell him He does, but in His time. I couldn't explain about the cats he wants back. God, can you help me answer him? Lord, if you don't bring those cats back, can you give me the words to explain to him?
I pray for his pain to stop when he has a headache, and God answers the prayer as I lay my hands on his head. The first time I did that, Micah was afraid to admit it worked. But I could see how amazed he was as this incredulous look came across his face as he shook his head to check if any traces of the headache were still there. I think God is telling me it's time I teach him how to really pray. Do I know enough myself? I do, even though I'm pretty simple at it, and it doesn't take lots of brains or power, just a simple heart, which I don't always have; I have to humble myself. But prayer really works. It does. I can't even begin to tell you all the big and small miracles of answered pray I have seen every day. Sometimes the answers are supernatural. Sometimes they are natural.
You don't have to know anything except being sincere in invoking the blood of Christ and God's will, praying in the name of Jesus Christ and His blood. And oh my goodness I'm only beginning, just beginning, to see the results. I guess God is opening up the door to show this to Micah. I have told him these things before, but I think I'm going to have to really pray a lot WITH him for certain things and then see the results. And that it isn't a magician that God is going to be, just ask and poof there it is. It's all part of God's timing and sometimes, sometimes the answers to our prayers are not what we want, because it isn't always for our own good...but God ALWAYS listens and there is always an answer.

More issues with Micah at school (this time with catty little girls who got him mad and HE exploded). Still discussing changing schools. Going to see what happens. Steve handled the situation unacceptably. Totally missed the mark by using good points and terrible discourse (in other words, the point was drowned in all the yelling). Something else I need to pray about. But it opened up some dialogue that Micah and I shared. Wish Steve could connect this way.

Look! It's a ....heptahexaflexagon!

Nathanael spent several hours working on this. It was quite a project. It's all one piece of paper, which he designed and printed out, and now it flips to each color of the rainbow in sequence. See what having extra IQ points is all about, boys and girls?

That building in one of the following pix is the Hillman's warehouse in Carillon Business Park, Forest Park, Ohio. Just up the street from the other Hillman location where I work. We have a warehouse, too, which mainly is used for display orders (merchandising products, you know, like little bags that you rip off at the hardware store to put your nuts and bolts in). The warehouse in that photo, the inside, think of the doors in Monsters, Inc. Thing 1 and Thing 2 might pop out of one of the constantly moving boxes, a giant Roast Beast heads toward you on the conveyor belt. You could get all the thneeds the world needs out of there. (You can see, though, by the pix I took that we don't, since our truffula trees are still intact.) Imagine about 30 roller coasters intertwined. Hatches, belts, machines, twinkling bells and lights and whistles, doors and doors which lead to trucks which take your nuts and bolts and brads and washers and screws to fortunate retailers worldwide, so YOU will be able to hang your pictures with ease!

That pretty blue wobbly rock 93 million miles from that little star, a place called Ohio, a season called autumn

MY VERY TWELVE YEAR OLD- I can't refuse this face.

Kinda corny but it was fun- I found this on Leah's blog. I'm sure it isn't at all very "scientific" but what the hey, you might learn something about yourself anyway.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8.1
Mind:	7.5
Body:	9
Spirit:	7.6
Friends/Family:	7.2
Love:	5.5
Finance:	6.3
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Micah went trick-or-treating as the skating Darth Vader. He worked on that costume until he got it right, not content with just the out of the box version. He enhanced it with a cape from another costume. He went with Brian and some other kids in Brian's neighborhood. Brian's neighborhood adjoins ours but let's face it- the houses in that neighborhood are closer together, the trees are taller, the families are younger, and it's just much more halloweenable. He brought home a metric ton of candy, while here we had a sparse showing of kids- about 30, if that.

We're down to 1 cat again now. I'm tired of cats. We still have the Big Guy- call him Theo or Reggie. I call him Who Dey. Oreo and Brio ran away. I'm sick of it. I'm not prepared to ever invest in another cat. After Big Guy, that's it. They always run away. I can no longer count on my hands the cats we have had who ran away.

I don't DO the indoor cat thing. If I were a cat, I wouldn't want to stay inside all day. A cat should be out doing what cats do, at least part of the time. When I grew up, we had indoor/outdoor cats-two of them. Blaze and Cotton. Blaze was the mom of Cotton. They each lived to about 150. I actually still dream about Blaze all the time. I dream I still have her. Desdemona and Fiona were my next two favorites. Desdemona ran away. Fiona got sick and we put her down. Besides them, we've had many. Leo, Brio, Oreo, Helen, Aurora, Diamond, Socks, Lucky. (sigh) All of those but Socks (who got old and died)- runaways.

Since I'm not prepared to do the indoor cat thing, I'm just not going to have cats anymore except Big Guy. Big Guy's a good cat and he doesn't seem to want to go anywhere. He's the last cat I'll have for the forseeable future although before I die I know at some point I am going to have an all-black male cat named Othello. And maybe another black one named Ludovico il Moro.