The smoke gets in your eyes

My truck usually smells like a camp fire. Mainly because we are too damn lazy to unpack all the camping gear just to pack it back up to go camping again. It is a little enjoyable to smell the smells of camping.

unfortunately now the air smells like a camp fire. I work in Burbank and the hills above my employer burned yesterday. 13 miles to the West, the hills are charred and still burning. My truck not only smelled like a fire today, but was also covered in ash.

Friend Rose lives right across the street from the fire command station! If I think it smells bad, just look at her pictures.

I should have worn my glasses today, my contacts don't react well to massive fires.

LOST

I think I like reading the message boards about LOST almost as much as I like watching the show. It reminds me of the initial speculation about the first Survivor on the internet.

Hump Day

I am looking forward to watching LOST tonight! I am also eager to eat a yummy pork roast.

Yesterday we watched the Lords of Dogtown. I really enjoyed the movie. I'm down with the skater boys.

After 12 physical therapy appointments on my shoulder I am not progressing as they would like. Now I get to go to a specialist, for x-rays and an MRI. Call me crazy but in my line of work, we do the diagnostic testing before providing treatment. Whatever, I'm just ready to proceed and get back to my creative life, I'm starting to get depressed.

I'm trying not to post depressing things in my blog. But I really don't have too much going on that isn't depressing.

Weekend wrap up

I woke up at 6:00 yesterday and couldn't go back to sleep. 6 is still over an hour later than normal waking hours but for some reason I can't consider that "sleeping in".

Matt got up with me and we watched 5 hours of Six Feet Under, saving Season 4 finale for later in the day. Well worth the wait. I can see why people didn't enjoy it as much towards the end but we are really enjoying it. I like the character development. I assume the final season will be released just in time for Christmas.

We decided to run errands and go out for bagels. I had an everything bagel with cheese, toasted with cream cheese. It was gross, I'll never stray from my usual again. Matt had is regular salt with cream cheese and Lox.

The rest of the day was spend doing a lot of nothing.

Today I managed to sleep in, or at least until 8. I got up and put a pot roast in the crock pot. I've never made a pot roast, I'm hopefully it will taste ok. We gave the dirty dirty dog a bath. She is now super soft and shiny.

The rest of today has also been filled with a lot of nothing mixed in with bits of uneventful house keeping.

I did make some mean french toast for breakfast! French toast, bacon and mimosas.

I am super duper excited about a job possibility. More to follow.

God Bless America

School Expels Girl for Having Gay Parents
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September 23,2005 ONTARIO, Calif. -- A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter. Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday.

"Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother. Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship," The Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's edition.

Stob could not be reached for comment by the newspaper. Shay and her parents said they won't fight the ruling.

School administrators learned of the parents' relationship this week after Shay was reprimanded for talking to the crowd during a football game, Tina Clark said. Clark and her partner have been together 22 years and have two other daughters, ages 9 and 19

Deep Thoughts

Are mash ups (bits of 2+ songs molded together into one new creation) actual new songs? Or are they just edits of another's work? My DH (dear husband for you non quiverful folk) thinks they are no more than someone taking someone else's work and calling it their own. I kind of think that they are new creative songs. Is that because he is a musician and I'm just a listener?

What did that Irish guy shoot up in the opener of LOST? Does it have to do with the drug plane? Is it a heroin operation like my friends think? Personally I think that is a little far fetched, but than so are special boys who kill rare birds with their thoughts.

I'm very anxious to finish 6 Ft. Under. Will Ruth divorce her new husband? Will David die? When will Season 5 be out? I hope to wrap up 3 tonight and dig right into 4 this weekend.

I'm seriously sick and tired of going to physical therapy everyday.

I had a longer post written in my head earlier today. I can't remember anything else.

One more show

Just in case you were worried that I was skipping America's Next Top Model don't I'm catching in second run on Sundays.

I missed discussing the girls with my sister last season.

I need one more television

Tonight at 8 there are 3 shows I MUST watch.

LOST the review
So You Think You Can Dance
Martha Stewart

I can live without Marth, so I think that is what I'll skip. Unless I find a television on my way home. Which honestly, in my neighborhood, won't be difficult whether it works or not would be the problem.

I thought about making a special mysterious LOST meal for dinner, but we decided take out instead.

Bits and pieces

I know dirt regarding the "fraud" between Kenny and Renee. It is nice to know people "in the business".

We had dinner at my most very favorite Cuban place. It was delicious. We had beef and chicken empanadas, fried mashed potato balls stuffed with ground beef and a Cuban sandwich. I had a special mojito, I prefer the non special.

Tomorrow we get to meet baby Sophie. She was born last Friday to our friends Linda and Robert. She arrived nine minutes after they walked in the door of the hospital! Go Linda.

Matt is at the dentist, I hope he has as good of a review of his teeth as I did.

We are almost done watching season 3 of 6Ft Under. I had hoped we would finish all that are available before this week, but it didn't happen. I have so many wonderful tv commitments coming up in the next few weeks.

I really, really love So You Think You Can Dance. Survivor seems like it will be entertaining. I do have a thing for the Mayans. I CAN NOT WAIT for LOST. I still have been unable to get anyone at work to watch so therefore no one to discuss the plots and stuff. I do however have a number of coworkers that watch The Amazing Race!

Depending upon the dentist, we may go to the south facing beaches to watch the biggest waves in many years. There was a big storm in N.Z. two weeks ago and the waves have now reached SoCal, coupled with the full moon, they should be pretty great.

Regarding waves, when we were camping last weekend the waves were an amazing color of blue in the middle of the night. I had recently read up on why glaciers are blue, they aren't. The reflect all but the blue color because of how dense they are. I think the crashing of the waves is the same concept. I would have liked to take a picture but it was dark and I didn't want to find the camera.

Reggie 2 - Gator Hunter 0

Need I say more? Also as a side note, when the power went out and the refineries had to burn off excess fuel, the coptercaster refered to the location of the burn off as just down the street from the lake where Reggie lives! HA.

L.A. Still Hunting for Elusive Alligator
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September 13,2005 LOS ANGELES -- Authorities on Tuesday dismissed a claim that a wrangler had nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator named "Reggie" from a city lake, where he had been dumped several months ago and repeatedly avoided capture.

Earlier Tuesday, a man claiming to be wrangler Jay Young, who had been hired by the city, told several media outlets, including The Associated Press, that he had caught the alligator overnight.

That story was cast into doubt when the promised delivery of the alligator to the Los Angeles Zoo never happened. "To the best of my knowledge and all the reports I have received this morning, it was a hoax," said Ron Berkowitz, the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks superintendent, who supervises the area that includes the lake. "I called the zoo to verify and the gator is not there. I called the rangers, the city council office and my staff at the lake. There was no capture."

Reached by phone at his Colorado gator farm later Tuesday, Young said he has not been in Los Angeles recently and that he hadn't called the media earlier in the day. He said the caller apparently was someone impersonating him.

In a written statement later in the day, Young blamed "a jealous ex-employee trying to ruin my reputation." Young had been hired by the city last month and promised to capture the alligator within a few days. He left town on Aug. 18, unable to deliver on his promise.

ALASKA

There are a slew of jobs I am well qualified for in Alaska. They are also higher pay than what I make in LA.

I wonder if Matt could find a fullfilling job in the great white north.

New Job

I think it is time.

we all make mistakes

Yesterday my faux supervisor spent numerous hours looking for errors I've made. She was able to find 16. Considering that I work on about 500 accounts on the regular, 16 errors isn't that bad. Today I got this quote from my daily quote sender.

"Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to
determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself.
Otherwise, go on about your business."
*Norman Vincent Peale

I need to work on that. I've never really been good at taking criticism. It all began when I was 15 and working at Skagway, the grocery store in Grand Island, and Judy the bagger supervisor yelled at me for bagging the food wrong. She made me cry.

Tuesday Random

My Doctor's appt was fine. I'm not a big fan of things being inserted in to my nose and down my throat, just so you know. I have Acid reflux, no lump. Now to find a medication I'm not allergic to. Not one physician has mentioned a thing about diet, just pills, it is all about the pills. I'll probably opt for some diet modification and tracking to see if I can make a difference on my own.

Matt and I have been watching Six Feet Under non stop. We are half way done with Season 2.

I can't wait for all the new TV this month. Amazing Race, Survivor, LOST, and all the others I can't think of off the top of my head.

We are camping at the beach this weekend. It will be just the 2 of us, and Emma. We haven't been camping solo in ages. I'm sure we will obsess about Alaska looking at maps and books and daydreaming. It is going to be in the 60's this weekend! I cold camping trip! I can't wait to spend the day by the fire.

I'm nervous about the doctor

A while back I posted about the lump in my throat. Tomorrow I go to the MD to have my throat scoped. I guess they spray down my mouth and throat to numb me and stick a camera down there to check things out.

I'm worried that it is something bad or something that will require further exploration.

And I'm bummed out that I won't be able to talk to my mom following the appointment. Although I am delighted that my parents are on a fantastic 3.5 week vacation to Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Cross your fingers it isn't anything bad.