We were trapped in Kansas City over Christmas, thanks to the snow. Fortunately, there was plentiful food (we'd been expecting 25, and instead had only 6), plentiful drinks, plentiful gifts (thanks, Santa!) and plentiful absurdity. Otherwise known as fun.

Drinks consumed: 6
Movies watched: 5 (if someone reminds me I'll do a review roundup tomorrow)
Presents opened: .... I have no idea. But I did get some earrings from nataliesee made from mink jaw bones.
Cookies munched: 17
Miles driven: 90-ish.
Driveways shovelled: 3
Blisters earned: 5


On Saturday, we fled KC which looked like this:


The normally 45 minute drive home took over an hour thanks to road conditions like this:



and this:



Adam (so_narcissus and Natalie's little brother) comforted Grendel, who was inexplicably terrified of the noise icy windshield wipers made. He crawled onto Adam's lap!


We tried to be merry and calm, and I was greatly looking forward to the massage I was going to get while nataliesee and so_narcissus had their pedicures.... until we turned up our street.

And stopped.

Because the tires sank down into the completely un-plowed foot of snow.

After a minute of sitting there dully, Adam and I climbed out (leaving poor Grendel alone in the back to wonder why he was being abandoned). We pushed while Natalie drove... and got nowhere. We couldn't get any traction either.

So there we are, stuck in the middle of the street, about a hundred meters from our house at the TOP of the hill. We grabbed the shovel from the back seat (we'd borrowed an extra from Mom and Dad) and started trying to dig our way out. It sort of worked. We got back into the main road, and Natalie tried giving it more power to get up the hill... didn't work. We got stuck again further in. The only option was to park the car in a snow drift and wait for the snow to melt. Or for a plow to have mercy on us.

We did so, and slowly, over 4 trips back and forth, got all our luggage, dog, and Christmas stuff trekked up to the house. Through knee-high snow.

For real. I have proof ( under the cut! )

There has to be something wrong with my betta, Sunset Stormcloud.
I noticed he was lethargic today, either sitting at the very bottom of his 5 gallon mini-bow or sitting at the very top in his betta log or on a leaf...usually he swims around more and when I check his water everything is normal. Visual inspection doesn't show anything abnormal, but when I feed him he missed his food... He'd nip for the pellet, and it was right there, but he'd miss it, repeatedly!

I think i've only had him for 2 years, but don't recall when I got him.

Any ideas on what could be wrong? Or am I just imaging a problem?

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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Assorted-Female-Dragon-Bettas-Siamese-Fighter-X4_W0QQitemZ250545373572QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Pet_Supplies_Fish?hash=item3a55ab0184

This is a half hour drive away from me :D Gonna snap me up some of these gorgeous babies for my peaceful community tank. OBOY I feel so lucky.

( If every popular musician released their own holiday song )

Personally I don't understand the whole concept of suicide bombing at all. Still, at least with the Al·Qeda (however you spell it) version I've a bit of confusion in 2 parts:

1) What's the appeal of this reward? Supposedly they die and in the afterlife they will receive 50 to 100 (number is really not important) virgins. Personally I'd think a large number of highly skilled sluts would be more pleasurable...but what's so great about a flock (bushel?) of virgins?

2) Lots of different faiths in the world but they all pretty much seem to agree that in the afterlife things are not grounded in physicality, nothing is solid. So, you're in the Next and you've got your large number of virgins. What good does that do you if you can't actually touch them and none of you have skin?

i just had to reinstall all of the sims 2 because i got a new computer so im starting from scratch because i did not feel like using my old saved sims. Here is the beginning of a new story:) Hope you Enjoy:)


( Read more... )

My roommate and I are both bored over the holidays and would like a fun challenge to play on Sims 2?  Anybody know of any good ones that are fun and challenging?  We're both competitive with each other!  Thanks!!!!

(follow the fake cut)

Last time Connor and Jessi grew up to teens. They also went downtown to spend some time together. It didn't go as planned though. Jessi met Marla, and was turned into a witch of the dark. Then it was time for all the kids to go to college.

click to read | archive

For every year of my life (that I can remember) my dad would write up a funny letter about the state of the Gratton family to include in our Christmas cards. Recently, the littlest brother, Travis, has taken up the tradition. I just got the emailed version from him for proofing, and laughed so hard I asked him if I could share it on my blog.

The Golden Child = Sean, the middle son. Because he never left the Catholic Church, hooked up with inappropriate/crazy people, joined a fraternity, went to pagan festivals, yelled at Mom, drank in high school (that Mom knew of). All of which have been done by either Travis or I. Or both of us. Sean did listen to a lot of NIN and painted his fingers dark purple that one time in high school, but it was my polish, so I'm sure it was my fault anyway. :D

(That picture there is Travis and Dad post Thanksgiving dinner.  Yes, Travis is taking off his belt.)

Without further ado, the Gratton Family Christmas Letter:


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It’s been another exiting year for the Gratton Family in 2009, so I won’t waste anyone’s time with a long introduction. Everyone get ready as I allow my creative juices to start flowing all over the page.

Matt: Has continued to flourish as chairman of the TMC emergency department. He does this while still finding time to be loving husband and wonderful father. Amazingly he leads all of the other physicians in the ER with a 72% patient survival rate.

Joanne: has almost completed her grandmother training this year as she continues to baby-sit and organize gatherings for the neighborhood. She recently bolstered her standing as a potential grandmother by giving out communion at a local hospital. Hopefully all the hard work will pay off...I’m looking at the Golden Child. When she is not in training she continues to successfully stave off the certain disaster we all would face without her.

Tess and Natalie: If you haven’t heard by now you must not be that good of a family friend. Tessa Gratton’s first published novel, Blood Magic, is coming out in 2011 with Random House. It’s a wonderful story centered around magic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if blood was involved. With this news Tess is making a big push to be the new golden child. The main reason she will overpass my brother and I is the huge check coming her way. It doesn’t bother me though, because she is quickly becoming my favorite sibling. Natalie continues to save the world as the coordinator for some pinko-liberal-anti-red-blooded-American-save-the-environment research project at KU. I think she is recently returned from Copenhagen (wherever that is, I thought it was just chewing tobacco) where she was a major influence on Obama’s environmental policy.

Sean and Maureen: Sean continues his reign as most successful child in the family by graduating Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown’s Medical School. He began his residency in Neurology at Georgetown Hospital and it sounds like he’s working way too hard. They make him stay overnight! I believe he is happy, though, because he can finally start spending his big doctor salary which is the only reason he went to medical school in the first place. Maureen continues to plug away at her dissertation in inter-religious dialogue and is a tight race with Tess to get her work published first.

Travis: It’s hard to believe that the baby of the Gratton family has graduated from college, but sadly it’s true. After many late nights of drinking, hazing, and rarely studying the end has come for me. Luckily, some medical school with really low standards (KU) decided that they would let me in. Now all I have to do is survive the full time job I have at a Doctor’s office. My main duties revolve around performing open heart surgeries, walking on water, and nursing sick babies back to health.

Cheers,
Travis Gratton

If you don't have one, here's my gift to you:
http://community.livejournal.com/weirdfolks/1860843.html

Do you have a Christmas icon?

Do you use the same one every year?

This is utterly brilliant.:D

So, after not being able to find pygmy cories anywhere, I decided to go with two cherry barbs in my 5g with Mango.

Their meeting was uneventful. He watched them, they watched him, I netted them out of their bag and they hid. Mango didn't even notice then for a few hours, finally fish-sniffed them, and then asked me for food.

Cycle-wise (i used the new BioSpira) the tank's been good. It took me a few days to figure out how to feed the Cherry Barbs (they won't come near the surface, I have to crush flakes to sink to them) and as such, Mango might have eaten a little more than usual (and due to the extra food waste my ammonia was showing .5 - yikes! water change/prime added - should be good now)

Last night I tucked them all in, didn't feed them (Friday is my fast day, and because of the extra food happenings I barely fed them at all on Thursday either - two pellets for Mango and a flake crumbling for each barb).

Yet today, I wake up to the "OH MY GOD MOM I CAN'T SWIM LOOK" bloated betta. Is their digestive system that slow, that he'd be bloated after not eating for over 24 hours? My old fish, Treasure, would get SBD if you fed him ONE pellet too many, but that would happen within a pretty short amount of time.

If he didn't eat yesterday, should I still fast him today and give him pea tomorrow? or should I try the pea today? He's quite upset about this whole sideways deal.

:] and a new camera. enjoy! i named him Clarence, from It's a Wonderful Life.  

Check. It. Out. That to the right there is the Official Marked-By-My-Real-Editor-at-Random-House BLOOD MAGIC Draft. I don't know what it is about the rubber bands that make it look cooler than any version I've ever personally printed out. But it does, doesn't it?

My revision metaphor is Frankenstein's Monster: this is your book, a pile of dead parts. Pieces from corpses you've gathered over the last few weeks and sewn together in an attempt to give something life. To create your own monster.

I've had electronic files of my revision letter (3.5 pages!) and the first 1/3 of the novel, so I've already been working on outlines and revision plans and notecards to trick myself into thinking that I'm revision before I really dive in. BUT the electronic files are missing one crucial component: THE RED.

Every time I look at the red marks telling me what I'm doing wrong I get all excited. I admit it: I'm a revisions-addict. They turn me on. Make me all hot and bothered. Just look at the scrawling red words, the abrupt slashes, the sensual circles!

They're the physical manifestation of my book's blood spilled onto the pages. I'm about to give this book a final make-over. A nip here, new hair extensions there, lipstick, and maybe some nicer underwear. It's like the final stages of embalming. I've sucked out the blood and preserved the insides, and now it's time to wire the jaw closed and glue shut its eyelids.... I might need a less gruesome metaphor for this whole revision thing. I like this one... but I suspect I might lose people if I keep dragging it out.  So I'll pretend to be mature for a few minutes and spare you.