You can scare me

If you've never watched the series, "A Haunting," on the Discovery channel, I highly recommend it. It's documentary-style episodes of actual hauntings, mostly in people's homes here in the U.S. They're pretty well done, so it feels like you're watching a scary movie instead of some dorky show like the one where the British guy is followed with a night vision camera and freaks out when he "feels" the presence. That show should be watched only for amusement and/or when drinking with others.

If I read the schedule correctly, there are 2 or 3 episodes of "A Haunting" starting around 11:00 a.m. this morning. Hopefully there will be more in the next couple of days and especially on Halloween. Do you remember when we used to have regular scary series on TV, like "Night Gallery" or "The Twilight Zone?" Of course you don't, because you're not friggin old like me. But we need something more along these lines on TV - like M. Night Shamalamalama should create a series. That would be cool.

You're probably weird, too.

I’m not an Oprah viewer, but I happened to be home the other day when it started and heard it was about OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I find this interesting because 1) the girls’ stepmother seems to have some OCD tendencies, and 2) because I think a lot of people have at least minor tendencies. I might be one of them. Nothing major, but I do find myself bothered by certain things or adhering to certain "rules." Some are probably OCD related, while others are just weird idiosyncrasies. I bet you do things like this, too:

It’s just not right for certain items in the fridge to be placed next to other items. For instance, milk does not belong near items like pickle jars, the mayonnaise, or steak sauces. I just feel my milk is going to be contaminated in some way if it sits next to those foods.

Pictures on the wall should never, EVER be crooked. Ever. Even in someone else’s house, if you can manage to straighten the picture without them noticing.

I like for miscellaneous items to be perpendicular or parallel to other items. Any other angles are somewhat annoying. I recall this being an issue when I had an office job and the papers on my desk needed to be arranged just so at various times throughout the day. The world was a better place when the edges of the papers were parallel with the edge of the desk.

I have to say that I have come a long, long way in chilling out. I used to be more bothered by mess, disorder, and dirt. I’m way more comfortable with it now, and perhaps some of that is because I’ve discovered there just isn’t enough time to worry about those imperfections anymore. And if you were to open my fridge, you would see little or no indication of OCD mannerisms. Or if you popped over to the house, it wouldn’t be free of clutter on the computer desk, messy dresser drawers, or unorganized closets. The annoyance of these things is always there, always looming over me, but I don’t often take the time to fix them.

I can’t explain to the three people I live with how much more relaxed and laid back I would be if their rooms or bathrooms or general stuff was neatly taken care of. And I think that because they don’t have issues with order like I do, that it becomes too overwhelming for me to try keeping my part as neat as I would like it. My mind tells me that if I worked hard on my stuff and no one else did on theirs, that I would simply lose my mind. So I give myself over to the dark side and try to join them, if only slightly. It doesn't mean they're sloppy or dirty people (okay, two of them definitely are sometimes), but just that they're different from me.

And now for a sudden subject change, I'm going to attempt to get some Halloween-appropriate pictures of Junior this week. You'll see what I mean when and if I capture the evilness within.

A little improvement would be nice

I guess a scary surgery on a pretty important part of the body wasn't bad enough. On top of that, Addison's been super sick for two weeks with an ear infection and soar throat. She went back to the doctor today, since a week's worth of antibiotics hasn't helped, and was told the white bumps on her throat were so bad that the culture is being sent to the hospital for analysis. She was also given a "big shot" that the nurse was not fond of giving to people. They won't know anything for 2-3 days and therefore can't change treatment until they know something. It's not helping her grades any either.

She'll get better, but it still sucks. She's also highly contagious and now Bailey's complaining of a sore throat. Bring on those freezing cold temps.

"It had two bulbous lumps like Mickey Mouse ears."

Odd that it would be breast-cancer awareness month and Addison had surgery this morning to have a breast lump removed. But before you go getting worried, three doctors have said they suspect it to be absolutely benign. And after the surgeon removed it and saw it with his own eyes today, he still suspects it to be benign. All three say it would be extremely rare for a sixteen year-old to have anything but a benign mass. The only reason it had to come out, says one doctor, is if it was bothering her and/or she was uncomfortable with the fact that IT would be there. He was willing to watch it for a few months, but we opted to get it out. It wasn't small, it would never go away, and she would notice it probably every day.

We'll know the results on or around Tuesday, but I feel certain she's fine. Funny how she found it though - she and a few friends, including one guy, were having lunch at Whataburger when one of the girls joked about how their diet cokes caused cancer. So a conversation started about breast cancer and Addison starts checking her boobs right there in Whataburger. Much to her surprise, she actually felt one - a LARGE one. Her friends didn't believe her. A few days later when she was back at our house, she had me check it. Yep, there was something there that shouldn't have been.

A fibroadenoma they call it. A harmless but nasty foreign creature.

Still around

I'm way overdue for a posting, but from the looks of some of my fellow bloggers' sites, I'm not alone. Just busy with school and lessons and stuff around the house. So instead of trying to come up with an interesting thought tonight, I'll just wait until I really have something to talk about and will instead go put my headache to bed. I have a three-day weekend ahead, so I'm sure to be in a chatty mood then...

Dynamic Duo

I love when these guys get together.

Several weeks ago I took it upon myself to destroy the appearance of the back porch. I'm fun like that. We have a semi-enclosed porch, and the previous owner had installed a bamboo wainscoting along the bottom of the walls with a bright turqoise paint above it. I hated both. I decided to rip off the bamboo because I knew there was panelling behind it, and I figured some sanding and painting of the panelling and upper part of the walls would be a huge improvement to the porch. What I discovered was that the previous owner was hiding moldy, rotting panelling behind the bamboo. So for the past several weeks I've been looking at those nasty, moldy walls.

Yesterday, Alan and Leigh tore off the rotted panelling, installed a plastic barrier, and then put up new panelling (wainscoting of a sort). They did an awesome job. Now it's off to the hardware store for new paint, and we'll have a porch that we can look forward to sitting out on again.

Just need the mosquitos to die off...

Cool planes

We had fun with Alan's dad at the air show today. It was like having our own private guru and commen-tator for the show.


The P-51 Mustang and the F-15 fighter. Click on it for a better look.















Alan's favorite, the Corsair.












The F-117 Stealth Fighter. This plane had to fly in from elsewhere and wouldn't land, since it still has a sensitive status and the common public is not allowed to see it that up close. At least we saw it close by in the air. Very cool. Click on it.

Monk E-mail

Thanks to Denise, I can't stop playing with this this morning. I have to do the junior high thing and see what all I can get the monkey to say. You have to try it.

No time to write, but here are some photos

Busy week. Here are some quick photos to share. Addison turned 16 yesterday! Check out the triple-layer cake I made.















Her very first car.
















What Junior does to mail and other items left out for his amusement.