Family Visit!

Yay, my brother and his girlfriend came to visit over the weekend--last time relatives came to Kansas was 2000. We had The. Best. Weekend. Ever. Here we are at the zoo.

A great site you just have to visit

http://www.vocaboly.com

I wish I had known about this vocbulary program site back when I was teaching English as a Second Language. They have all kinds of great products that aren't just for English language learners, but for anybody interested in improving their vocabulary. They have some cool quizzes you can take, too. One drawback may be that it only works on PCs, not Macs. What's great about this site and the programs they offer, is they have audio pronunciation. It's much easier to learn a language with audio in conjunction with written words, but without proper pronunciation, you're stuck using those weird dictionary symbols, instead of hearing the words spoken by a real person. Vocaboly has this. And you can try before you buy, so it's all good. It also looks like they have German, too.

Yay They're Back!!!!!

It has been quiet in my house for a few weeks -- just nothing.  And
then this past week on Thursday, I think I caught an EVP (a loud exhale or sigh
- it sounds kind of exasperated!) which was very close to the recorder.
The recorder  was way up high on the
kitchen cabinets and this sigh is very close to the mic.  Then, sometime between
2 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. (when I got up and came into the kitchen) on this past
Saturday morning, something/someone opened all but one of the doors on the
entertainment center.  It could be because I've been doing some kitchen
redecorating and am stripping wallpaper -- maybe they're riled up.   And one of
the kids' baggie of flashcards were on the floor close to the dining room table
-- now I can't say that once the doors to the entertainment center were opened,
one of the dogs didn't snag the baggie containing the flashcards, but the doors
were opened nonetheless.  Chuy and I were alone in the house - no kids.  I took
pictures.  Then Sunday morning (yesterday) when I got up at 6:15, the freezer
light cover (which had become dislodged from its usual place and I had put it on
top of the fridge to fix another day) was in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Now, I do have cats, but they don't try to jump to the top of the fridge because
I have a big crockpot up there.  There's nothing that would knock it off.
That's it for now. 

Good morning one and all. Pretty much one: me. Looking forward to this Friday - off to Michigan for my mom's surprise 75th birthday party. She has no idea about the party, much less than I'll be there as well. Big fun awaiting.

Well, looks like my unseen tenants are on vacation again. Absolutely nothing moving, making noise, anything. Kind of a bummer. I've gotten a digital voice recorder but haven't gotten the nerve up yet to actually do EVP sessions in my own home. I think it would be a lot easier somewhere else where I don't live. lol

I signed up on Twitter and am having a blast following all kinds of folks. I realize just how boring my life really is!

Oh my, I really am behind, aren't I? However, now's not a good time ... just checking in. :D

So, I'm sitting watching Marley & Me on Saturday night (Mr. Wonderful was working) so I was home alone with a thunderstorm going on. All of the sudden, I heard a click and the lights in the family room where I was watching the movie go out. My first thought is I lost power -- except I'm still watching the movie and the night light in the kitchen was still on. I turned on the light and said to nobody in particular not to do that again. It didn't happen again. I'm sorry, but a thunderstorm with lightning isn't going to knock out one light in the whole house! Besides, I heard the light switch click.

Then I went to bed after the movie, and I had just gotten into bed (not sleeping) and I heard a cupboard door slam shut in the kitchen. I got up to check things out and nothing was amiss. Now, I have two big cats and when they jump off the counter, there's a thud. This was no thud. This was a slam. Then it happened again about 5 minutes later.

I can't wait until my investigators come on Saturday!

Well, another event last night/this morning! This time is was the coat tree in the dining room. I got up this morning as usual at 5:30 and put the dogs out and I looked in the dining room and the coat tree was on the floor and the coats were piled up on the dining room table. I'm thinking, that's weird. If it had just gotten knocked over, like the dogs did it or something, the coats would be on the floor, too. When Chuy got up, I asked him if he had knocked the coat tree down after I went to bed and explained what I found. He said if he'd knocked it over for some reason ( which isn't easy to do since it's in a corner), he would've put it back and put the coats back on it. He asked the kids this morning if somebody had done it -- they weren't in trouble, we were just curious -- and they said no, they were sleeping. Besides, if they had snuck down for some reason and knocked over the coat tree, they would've put it back right so that we didn't know.

I'll tell ya, except for that short three week period, it's been really "busy" this spring; it hasn't been this "busy" since 2002-2003. It just gets curiouser and curiouser.

My unseen tenants are back!!!!! After they took a three week spring break vacation, I got up Saturday morning and the big screen TV had been angled to the tune of about half a foot! The thing has wheels, but it's on carpet and not easy to move. Chuy's birthday cards hadn't even fallen over. Then in the dining room, a little sterling silver cup that my mom had from when I was a baby was off its wall shelf and resting comfortably on the small table below.

Then yesterday about 12:30 p.m., I was sitting at the dining room table putting anti-allergy drops in my eye because it's running, and Chuy had gone outside for something, and I heard clear as day, although like it was from another room or outside, "Chica". He always calls me "Chica" (girl). I got up wondering if he was calling me from the front or the back of the house, and I remembered he went out the front, so I thought maybe he was bringing something in from the truck and needed me to hold the door. So I go to the front door, and he's just strolling along the sidewalk from where he'd picked up the paper, and he came up the steps and I asked him if he had called for me, and he said no, why? It's been a a long time since I've been spoken to by somebody unseen, but it has happened before. However, whatever it is called me "Chica" this time. I'd lay my whole paycheck on it ... I heard it plain as day.

Cool, huh?

Big fun at the Arena on Saturday night -- the people watching's great. Not as good as the airport, but still. And the Wichita Wild won, so that was good, too. There was decent attendance, considering is was Easter weekend, but there were tons of kids and a good time was had by all, I think.

Yes, it's Friday once again! Whoopee. Dropped the kids off at their grandmother's so we have a three-day vacation again. Tomorrow night, Judy and I will do dinner again and go to the Arena to watch the football. I personally think it's a snooze, but at least we see the menfolk.

What a great weekend! Our law firm participated in the Bowling for Kids' Sake for BBBS and a great time was had by all. I actually bowled a 158! Just a fluke. Then Saturday night, I met up with my friend Judy, we had dinner and then went over to the Arena to watch the Wichita Wild play arena football. Okay, truth be told, since we never see our men, she advised that, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, so we went. We hung out in the VIP lounge, drank vodka and cranberry juice and people watched. Fun, fun. No, really, it was!

Chuy got the new water heater installed with a minimum of problems, so all is right with the world. Except for the dishwasher. It's always something.

Okay, okay, my quasi-sister-in-law has complained to me via email that I'm not updating my little obscure blog quite often enough. I think she's probably the only one who reads it anyway lol. That's okay. As I wrote to her back, I lead an incredibly, fabulously boring life so anybody who may read this probably leads an incredibly, fabulously boring life as well.

My big deal today is my new glasses should be ready for pick-up. Yes, that is indeed the highlight of my day. At the rate I'm going, I'll be wearing Coke-bottle glasses like the elderly lady in My Cousin Vinny.

We pay-per-viewed Religulous this weekend ... what a great movie! I saw it Saturday night while Mr. Wonderful was having to work, and then we watched it again Sunday night before it expired. I just love Bill Maher -- I agree with him wholeheartedly, and that's probably while I enjoyed it so much. It's not the kind of documentary that'll change the minds of the true believers, but all he wanted to do was cast doubt and he does a great job. Talking snakes in gardens, burning bushes, the guy in the whale. Hard to believe that many, many people believe these allegories to be true. Oh well, to each his own, I guess. As long as you don't hurt anybody, I really don't give a crap what you do.

Well, rat fink! Nothing moved again this weekend. Oh well, maybe they've moved on to greener pastures. I think this weekend coming up I'm going to paint the dining room, so maybe a little "renovation" will get things moving again. It did when I tore up the carpet and when we were painting the bedrooms upstairs.

Blizzard - no. Crappy ice pellets and then snow - yes. However, yesterday was 47 and today'll be 65, so all this garbage will melt away. Good! I hate snow. I hate ice. On days like Friday and Saturday, Florida's lookin' pretty good.

Well, once again it's Friday! Yay! Unfortunately, we're waiting for a blizzard ... on March 27th. We have virtually no winter, and then this hits. I brought in the hanging baskets I planted last weekend when it was beautiful and 72 but I think they'll be just fine in the laundry room. In fact, they look pretty perky in there.

And once again, let's see if anything happens overnight tonight. No cameras and no lights left on. We'll see if we get lucky and furniture gets moved.

Relief and disappointment -- nothing happened Friday or Saturday night in the house, spirit-wise. Could be because we had the lights on for the cameras and they probably don't want to be seen! lol. Oh well, there's always this Friday night, and we're not going to have the lights/cameras going. Let's see what happens. The paranormal research group from Wichita were in contact and they think they might be able to come out in May to investigate. I can't wait to see what they find. Perhaps they'll get some evidence like the last group did five years ago.

We went to see "Knowing" yesterday at the cheap-o matinee. Loved it! The special effects were mind-blowing. I thought Nick Cage did a great job, not a lot of overacting this time out. I was kind of expecting just a disaster flick but it's sci fi. That's fine - we like sci fi.

Yay It's Friday!

We're going to set the cameras, turn down the lights and see if we can get anything on video ... in other words, will the furniture be rearranged for the fourth week in a row? Things seem to get curiouser and curiouser. Mr. Wonderful better not turn the lights off like he did last Friday!

Well, I'm hoping we can get to the movies this weekend to see "Knowing". At least the previews look good, but then again, they put all the highlights in the previews. I'll let you know.

Oh yeah, Happy Friday!

Well, saw my first robin the other day which means spring's here! The fields are turning green and will be just beautiful until around late May when the custom cutters start in the fields. But for those couple of months, it's a great drive home.

Last week I contacted a paranormal investigative group in Oklahoma to see if they'd come up to Sedgwick to see what they could find in our house. They said it might be a few weeks but that's fine. Lately, each Friday night/Saturday morning, something has been moved ... I guess they're in the mood for rearranging furniture. Four weekends ago, it was the TV in the bedroom pushed askew, three weekends ago it was plastic frame from around the big screen TV, two weekends ago it was the love seat moved into the middle of the room, and then the next morning, a cupboard and drawer were pulled out. Last weekend, the coffee table decided to rotate itself 90 degrees and push itself up against the fish tank. We'll be running the cameras tomorrow night to see what new redecorating scheme we get!

Wow, my first blog

And apparently I can rant and rave over anything I want ... within reason. I'll have to work on this more in a little while and play around with the customization. Back soon! Oh, and for what it's worth ... I think Grassley was right with his first statement regarding the AIG executives ... take the Japanese way out. Jeez, I don't want my tax dollars going to some idiot who helped sink the world's economy.