Thursday, October 30, 2008

Happy Halloween


Or should I say, HOWL-O-WEEN !!!

Mwaa haaa haaaaa


Thursday, October 23, 2008

Funny YouTube Video of My Dogs Flossing Their Teeth

Want to see a ridiculously funny YouTube video my kids made?
Just Click Here.

The clip features Einstein and Capone, some dental floss, filmed by some bored kids. :)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Just saw a GREAT horror movie

If you want to see a freakin' great horror flick, you have GOT to rent 'Strangers' starring Liv Tyler. It's psychological horror rather than paranormal, and the suspense/thriller action is at level 10 throughout almost the whole movie. If that's not reason enough to wet your pants watching it, it's based on a true story from an incident that happened in 2005.

I just watched it and I'm still nervous! Freakin' great movie. Loved it!

Fun Stuff

Thought I'd mention a few fun things that have my attention right now.

My writing friends from TNBW invited me to join facebook, so I did. Its a fun place to put more useless information about myself, buddies, and family. So click away if you want to see it or join.

I'm a big Shakespeare fan and my 13-year-old son is studying some his plays this year during homeschool. Since he complained that some of the wording was hard for him to understand, I found this great website, No Fear Shakespeare. You can read the plays online, with the text translated into modern English on one side of the screen. I have him read one Act at a time in his book, then let him get online to reread it, making it easier for him to get the most out of the story. So if you like Shakespeare but find reading it intimidating, this site is for you.

With NaNoWriMo time coming up in about eight days, I thought I'd make a desktop/wallpaper thingie to use during November. Plain and simple, but I like it.
Feel free to use it, if you like. Just let me know so I can brag about it!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

NaNo Count Down



I just can't wait until NaNoWriMo kicks off! I've got a bunch of writing buddies this year, mostly from 'TheNextBigWriter.com', where I spend a huge chuck of my time.

Rian invited me to joint FaceBook yesterday, which I did. Now I'm trying to figure out how to ue it!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Nearly NaNo time

It's almost NaNoWriMo time again. For those of you not familiar with the term, it's short for 'National Novel Writing Month'. Those participating try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, ending at midnight on November 30th. Grueling, yes, but also a lot of fun and rewarding, if we can get through the whole mnth without being committed to an institution for driving ourselves crazy! LOL This is my third year and I'm looking forward to it. The goal is to get the word count in and finish the rough draft of your novel, the revision and corrections are made the following month.

Let me know if any of y'all are participating!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

It's a Boy

No, I didn't just lose my mind and pop out a 4th kid! Calm down, already.
The Senegal parrot we recently bought is a Boy! After we got the results back, we named him Winston, since he looks so dignified. He has an orange vest pattern, a dark head (that could look a bit like a bowler hat, if you squint a bit), and green legs. I sorta think he resembles a little Leprechaun!

My son helped with the DNA testing kit and we're studying DNA now in homeschool. I thought some of y'all might like to see how easy it is to test the genomes today. Avian Biotech furnishes the kits free of charge, then we pay $20 when we send it back to them. It's simply a card we fill out, then we cut one of the bird's toenails just short enough to bleed a little, which we put on the card. Here's a picture of the little card lying on the form and brochure they sent.
And here is the certificate saying that he's a boy. The name/id line isn't filled out yet, since we waited on naming him until we knew for sure what gender he was. (Um, actually this pic is in Black and White, 'cuz I must have pushed some button on my new camera that made it turn out like that.)
We've only had Winston for 3-1/2 weeks, but he has came a LONG way. He lets me handle him now and carry him around. For any of you non-bird people out there who don't know, parrot bites hurt like HELL! For real! My six-foot tough-guy husband has said many times he'd rather get bit by a dog than a bird. It feels like having a strong man pinching the crap out of your finger with a sharpened pair of pliers. OUCH! Yep, it can bruise or bleed. So, you can imagine how thankful I am to have him just about over that stage. He prefers sitting on my shoulder but will step up now and is really showing his sweet side.

Oh, and he talks! It sounds sort of like an old lady talking on the phone: Hi...what?....Really?...maybe....

Plus, he's making me look a bit insane. I'm trying to get him to say 'whoop-tee-doo', 'cuz I thought that would be funny. I'm afraid someone is gonna walk in a throw a net over me, sitting there saying 'Whoop-tee-doo!!' a couple hundred times in a row. If they don't take me away, I'll post again soon!