HAPPY BIRTHDAY nwcat!!! I hope you have a great year, Peter.

Today's selection was chosen because of a conversation yesterday about The Warriors and because Liam is very much on my mind this week. Not only was Twisted Sister one of his favorite bands but The Warriors was most likely his favorite movie of all time.

Now, won't you come out and play?

So, I'm eating chocolate frosted sugar bombs Cocoa Puffs for breakfast and listening to Abba. Sometimes at Luxe, they would play "Dancing Queen" and the three people I was with would just stand back and smile as I took the floor. I could be the only one on the dance floor and it wouldn't matter. It's still my nickname sometimes. I don't miss the drama from those days but I sure miss the dancing.

C'mon, you know you wanna:

I'm singing and dancing to this. It's going to be a great day.

So far, so good. Bree seems to like most of her teachers but not all. This year she seems to like her math teacher so hopefully that will help make that subject easier. She chose strings over chorus this year and is happy to be playing the violin again. The homework load hasn't been bad yet but her homework habits need a little work. She has Spanish this year and seems to be enjoying it so far. She seems to be spreading her wings a little socially and also becoming more independent. She goes to the store on her own after school and is getting to school on public transit. She's happy to be back in SP class with most of the same kids she had last year. Hopefully this will be a good school year for her. As a seventh grader, she seems to be hitting her stride in junior high school.

I saw this yesterday. It's still making me smile. I never watched Ally McBeal and I'm not a fan of Calista Flockhart but it's no secret I adore Robert Downey Jr. and I've always found Peter MacNichol funny. Taye Diggs is just a nice added bonus. But I love my Barry White. Enjoy.

Elder's Meditation of the Day - September 6
"
We all form self-images and much of our behavior is pretty well determined by how we feel about ourselves."
--Eunice Baumann-Nelson, Ph.D., PENOBSCOT
There is a cycle of building beliefs called the self talk cycle. Our self talk builds our self image and our self image determines our behavior, our actions, and our self worth - how we feel about ourselves. If we want to change the way we feel about ourselves we need to change our self talk. We need to build ourselves up. We need to talk to ourselves in a kind, positive, uplifting, good way. We need to talk to ourselves about the good things that are happening and know that we are worthy and expect abundance.

Oh Great Spirit, today help me to know myself. Help me to see the joy, kindness, strength and beauty that I am.

At this moment I am very unhappy with my daughter. After school each day this week, Bree has called to see if I was on the road so she could get a ride. I don't mind driving her if I am available but I think it's good for her to get used to the bus as well. Yesterday when she called, I did go get her but imagine my surprise when I found she had her friend Jonathan in tow. She didn't say anything to me on the phone about driving him home too. Now I don't mind driving him but I like to be asked first. I told her when we got home that she needed to ask me to give her friends rides home and that she should not expect me to pick her up every day.

Today, she called again. I was almost home and driving, so I told her to take the bus and she said okay. Then I realized I was at an intersection where I could double back easily and get her. I tried to call her and tell her but AT&T is having problems in my area. I can get calls but can't make them to cell phones. Plus, as I was driving I saw the Q27, her bus, coming so I figured she was on it, turned around and came home. That was at 2:45. I settled in for a bit and when she didn't come home right away, decided to meet her at the bus stop. I guessed she had missed the bus I had seen. So I walked up there and waited. When the bus came, Bree wasn't on it. That was at 3:16. In fact, looking at the schedule, five buses in total came and there was no Bree. I finally texted her and found out she was with one of the unruly children from up the block. She was hanging out at the friend's grandmother's house. I texted her and told her to come home immediately. When Bree got home she told me that first they hung out in the park by her school and then they went to the grandmother's house so her friend could get change for the bus. But when they got there, the friend sat down on the couch and started watching TV. She told Bree to stay and Bree said she had to go home and that's when she got my text. What has me angry is that Bree knows she needs to let me know where she is. If she had called to tell me she was going to the park, I would have been fine with that. Ditto for the Grandma's house. I am not okay with her coming home an hour and fifteen minutes after school without knowing where she she was. If the shoe had been on the other foot and I had come home late without calling, Bree would have been hysterical. In truth, I was very worried something had happened. Whew. I grounded her for the weekend from playing with those kids. I hope it teaches her to mind her mother.

I'm exhausted. Don't think I'll be here much for the next month or so. Work is just keeping me too damn busy.

Comic book stores should not be open on a Sunday. It's a sin. I scored "Iron Man Enter: The Mandarin" #'s 1,5 and 6 of 6,"Iron Man Hypervelocity" #'s 1-4 0f 6 and"Iron Man Legacy of Doom #'s 1-4 complete. WOOOT!!! Also at a yard sale just before that, Bree noted a box of Marvel comics and told me about them. I found "Marvel Double Feature featuring Captain America and Iron Man" #'s 1-3. They are not in mint condition so are not worth much monetarily but to a fledgling Iron Man fan they are priceless. These three are written by Stan Lee himself and penciled by Jack Kirby. I'm squeeing all over the place. I paid fifty cents a piece for them and it's like having gold in my hands.

We bought several audio cassettes today. Woot! This track is on one of them and is my daughter's absolute favorite so today's pick is a hair band:

Why yes, it is almost 1:30 am in New York. Stupid, fucking insomnia. I don't want to keep on relying on the Valerian to get to sleep so I'm here, surfing in LJ land.

Today was an interesting day. First, Bree and I went with our friends to the Bronx Zoo. My friend Laura got lost driving there and the half hour trip took three times as long. We still had a good time though. Then Howard called to let me know Yellow Bird would be ready today. WOOT! Since he was working from home, he went and got my car. Except when he got there, they hadn't finished the detailing and my antenna was missing. Cue a whole long argument of me and Joe, the asshat manager at the body shop who calls women "honey", playing he said, she said. Joe swore I said to hold off on the stripes since I might be doing bodywork soon while I remember the opposite. Joe also swore that the car came in sans antenna. I knew that was a lie since I drove there with the radio ON. Howard was able to get the adjustor's pictures from Geico and guess what? I had an antenna! So then Joe calls back apologizing profusely and says he'll order a new antenna. I finally get home from da Bronx and get ready to drive back up to the body shop and as I climb into the driver's seat, Howard finds a shiny object in the back seat. Bet you can't guess what it was? Yup, my antenna, which was removed when they did the painting. When we got there, Joe was pretty embarrassed. Considering how he spoke to me and Howard, that was good. All in all, they did a beautiful job replacing my fender and matching the paint. They even fixed a rust spot on my hood and repainted it. My baby looks spiffy. Joe took pictures of the stripes on the right side and will order them for me and put them on next week. Thank you, Geico. I'm so damn glad to have my Yellow Bird back. Hopefully, Blue Bird will be home soon, too.

In other good news, Howard has his bike back! Woot again! They told him this morning the engine was in but there was an electrical problem. Good thing Howard knows his bike well enough to now it was a fuse. So I drove him down there and he changed the fuse out and all is well.

While all this was going on, Bree completed her over the summer school assignments, without prompting. Woot the third! By the time we sorted out the vehicle issues, we decided to skip cooking and went out to dinner.

Of course, now I can't sleep. So I'm surfing a bit and printed out Bree's bus schedule for Tuesday. Saturday evening we have a church fundraiser luau. I'm looking forward to that. Sunday, Bree is reading the scripture lesson for the first time during service. :) Monday, we will have our traditional Labor Day barbecue. Somewhere in there I need to work in gardening, shopping, and a bit of preparation for a quick presentation at work. Now, if I could only sleep.

This is simply beautiful:

Elder's Meditation of the Day - August 28
"With prayer and good intentions, we make our lives sacred and so come to balance."
--Don Jose Matsua, HUICHOL SIERRA MADRE MEXICO

Only through prayer can we make spiritual changes that are permanent. You have told us that all life is sacred. Today I intend to serve you, my Creator. Allow me to overcome temptation, and if one comes along, let me see the lessons that will give balance. You have told us that all life is sacred. Let me see today with a sacred eye. Let me see beauty in all things.

My Creator, let me know what You would have me be today. Let my intentions be honest, respectful, humble and loving.

It's a breezy and almost chilly 62 degrees this morning. Wow, fall is definitely on the way.

Under-slept again; this time due to our neighbors behind the house. You know, I like parties as much as the next person. I don't like listening to parties that last until dawn on a Monday morning. They woke up Howard with their whooping and yelling at 3:30. When our alarm went off at 5:30, they were still at it. Fuckers. They have a lot of late parties but usually on the weekends. I'm hoping they just decided to wrap up their summer a little early.

Off to Bayridge, Brooklyn today. By train. Still no cars. :(

Have a good Tuesday everyone.

In honor of this very special day, I declare this Monday to be HEAVY METAL MONDAY!!!

Happy 57th birthday to my favorite Heavy Metal performer, Rob Halford!

For your viewing pleasure, I present to you Judas Priest on the Turbo tour performing Hellion/Electric Eye, complete with cheesy robot and a hair wearing, tattooless lead singer, who could still hit the high notes. :)



He may look different that he did when I first got into Priest, may strut a little slower and may not be able to get into the upper register anymore but he's still the Metal God to me. Meeting him and finding him to be gracious and friendly was one of the high points of my Heavy Metal life.

Happy Birthday Rob and many more!

What's everybody doing this weekend?

Bookmarked for later, more stupidity about New York schools. I love how numbers can be used to present a certain point of view. Feh.

Yesterday, I did a great deal of walking. Today my feet are telling me I overdid it. I've always had flat feet and had special arches put in my shoes as a kid. The left foot is just sore. The right foot? I'm pretty sure I've got plantar fasciitis. The pain is in the arch, the heel, along the inside of the foot and now is traveling up my calf. I wore my most comfortable, best fitting and most supportive sneakers and I still ended up hurting. Today, I must remember to stretch out both my feet and my calves.

Most of the walking was because I was in quest of finding something perfect for Frank's grave. I'm still without either Mustang, one is getting bodywork and the other is getting the headers replaced. I like to walk but having no car limits how far I can go. I left the house at 7:30 yesterday, Bree was still sleeping but I had told her the night before of my plans. It turns out I left a little too early because my quest of finding a live plant was thwarted several times. None of the usual places that sell plants seasonally had any fall plants yet and Garden World had changed to their fall hours so they weren't open yet. I settled on a bouquet of flowers with a mental note of going back to Garden World over the weekend to purchase some plants for him. The idea of leaving something dead on the grave of someone cut down too early in life really bothered me this year.

I still see Frank's father occasionally when I visit but his health has been declining for a while. It was no surprise to see that Frank's grave and his grandparent's grave were covered in weeds. So I cleared them both off and after talking with Frank a while, I left him a little gift and his flowers. It occurred to me yesterday that he's officially been gone longer than he lived. That hurts a lot.

Walking back home, I checked on my mother's friend's grave and found that to be in disarray so I tidied that up too. I felt a little better leaving the cemetery than I did entering it. I remember getting into a heated discussion once about cemeteries and paying respects to our loved ones because this person felt that it was a waste of time, seeing as the people I was visiting were dead. Of course, for me, it's honoring those I love that's the point. Or, in the case of my great grandparents I never met, it's honoring my family and my ancestors. I met Frank's father once in the store and he told me that when he visited his son's grave and saw flowers there, he knew it was me. He said "Of all of Frankie's friends, you are the only one that remembers." I don't think that's true but I'm the possibly the only one who visits his grave. He was a good man and I want to honor him. And I owe that little bit of sensibility to my dad. As a child, I didn't much see the point of the "cemetery run" at Christmas and Easter but as an adult, I'm proud to do it in my father's stead.

My daughter is sitting on the couch laughing hysterically. Why, you ask? She's just discovered Home Improvement.