Well crap. lol

Hey all. Andrea here again...

Wow, I look different blonde, ne? (This is a pic from last year when I went blond for a short time.)






Well, today my brother John, his wife and baby John John came to visit. my nephew's 2nd birthday is coming up next week, so I spent the weeks before their visit searching for the right gift.

I like to buy unique gifts. Things I know no one else would think of buying. I bought both of my nephews a slide, I had their faces superimposed into DVDs of Dora the Explorer, Arthur the Aardvark and Barney where they appear in an entire episode... I did the same thing only with a book where their pictures are on every page, as the main character of the book.

Like I said, I like to get gifts I know no one else is going to buy.

I finally found some good gifts.

For John John's 2nd birthday I bought him Little Pim DVDs. Little Pim is a cartoon Panda who teaches toddlers and preschoolers different languages. I bought the Japanese volumes 1 and 2. Its never too early to teach a kid a second language. It's important as it helps with giving them an affinity for learning another language, which is beneficial for high school, college and being bilingual is great on job applications. And Japanese is just as important as any other language in my opinion, because lots of major American companies work closely with Japan.

My other sister-in-law is due to give birth to my first niece soon, so I special ordered her a Kimono styled onsee and matching kimono style newborn shoes.

I didn't want my other nephew Mikey to feel left out when his sister-to-be gets a gift, so I bought him a CD/Song book. It's Japanese toddler songs with English translations. The CD helps mom and dad learn the songs along with him. He has a real affinity for music. (if you sing a song to him once or twice, he can sing it back to you in perfect melody, in baby talk.)

he also loves music (obsessively) if you start playing a song, he'll make you play it over and over and will get mad when you turn the music off. He also has an affinity for languages (as he likes to make up his own language. For example: Music is Miika, Light is Unda, Grandma is Kangi, Money is Manga... He knows the real words, he just chooses to say his own. LOL and he's only 1.5 years old.)

So I figured I had really great unique gifts.

Well, my bro, sis-in-law and John John finally made it into town, and I was talking to my sis-in-law about my other nephew and his making up of words. I said he's going to have a real easy time learning another language.

That's when my sis-in-law said, "yeah, well, John John needs to learn English before he learns any other language. You remember when I did that book thing, were I asked for children's books instead of cards? Well, my cousin bought him the "green eggs and ham" book, only its all in Spanish."

(side note: my sis-in-law knows a little Spanish. not fluently, but enough to communicate)

"Well, that's just too hard translating it into English cause there are some parts I'm not sure of, so I just put it away. I don't even take it out... If he wants to learn another language when he's older, that's great. But I'm focusing on him learning English first."

As she's saying this, I'm thinking about the "Little Pim - Japanese" Toddler DVDs I have sitting in a gift bag. expensive DVDs too mind you.

Well crap.

So I'm going to give DVD 1 to my nephew Mikey, and the other DVD to his (soon to be born) sister. And tomorrow I'll have to run out and see if I can secretly buy John John a new birthday gift. Only problem is, the only real place I can go shopping around here is Walmart, which means, forget the unique gift idea.

I'm going to see if I can buy a baby guitar or a baby drum set. I know no one would buy him a baby drum set (for obvious reasons. lol) So fingers crossed that Walmart has one in the toy section. I mean, what are the chances really of her saying "If he wants to learn another language when he's older, that's great, but right now I want to focus on him learning English."? I mean, really?

*GAH*

Carefree day today

Hey all, Andrea here!

It was hot again today... I was going to go to the beach, but I had a small headache from the heat and I decided just to stay home and enjoy a quiet day relaxing.

I watched a little TV while playing a little Everquest II (for those who don't know, it is a mmorpg like world of warcraft.)

I play a half human, half demon/vampire character. Its a fun game.

This is my character, Andrieha

And this is my character Andrieha baring her fangs during a battle. (click the pic to see a larger version. Much cooler full size.)

lol

I ride in style on my enchanted tiger horse.  =^_^=

Playing video games is not all I did today. I also decided to shine up a few of my newest agates that I found when at the beach... like this one:

And I caught up on some reading.

I read my Black Butler Manga to the most current chapters

Black Butler is a pretty cool Manga.








I finished "Alice in the Country of Hearts". it was a pretty good manga... but I was shocked it was actually over. It was very confusing because the mangaka left so much unanswered an unexplained.

There was a message board dedicated to talking about Alice in the Country of Hearts, and a LOT of people seemed as confused as I did. If I were the mangaka, the last thing I would want to hear when a series is over, is that everyone was left confused, so that was a bit disappointing. The series had so much potential and had such an amazing start... it should have ran for a few more chapters to tie everything together neatly. However, it was still a good series. Confusing in the end, but good. I mean, you get the general idea of where the story was going... it just didn't get there as nicely as it could have had it ran longer. Still worth reading.

And I caught up on BLEACH. (The manga, not the cleaner)

*Spoiler alert* (since most of my friends read manga and watch anime. lol - us nerds stick together. hee hee)

I was pretty surprised Gin Ichimaru ended up not being a bad guy. Seriously, I thought the twist would be he would betray Aizen to rise to power himself, but instead it was all a ploy to kill Aizen and avenge what Aizen did to his true friend and the one person he truly cared about, Matsumoto Rangiku. (When they were children, he saved Rangiku from death at the hands of Aizen and his minions, and everything he did, his cold demeanor, his betrayal of the soul society, it was all to get close enough to Aizen to enact his revenge so Rangiku would hever have to cry again.)

So that was a pretty cool twist.



After reading the most recent chapters of BLEACH I decided to read a little of "Pride and Prejudice" (my third favorite book. Samurai Banners of Furin Kazan being first, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies being 2nd. lol)

So all in all, it was a relaxing day. Nothing too exciting happened.

one funny thing though, I was reading the paper, and every day they have a police blotter. Basically, it tells you who got arrested, who got in a car accident, who filed a complaint against who, so on. (On the average basis, its usually deer hitting cars, DUIs, kids smoking pot, or people getting arrested for driving on a suspended license. Sometimes the occasional dog complaint... Nothing big really happens here.) Usually if something bigger than a kid knocking over a mailbox happens, its front page news. lol.

Today though, there was one cute animal complaint in the blotter.

"Mrs. ***** of *** street, called in a complaint against one Mr. Black Bear for trespassing on her property and disturbing a bird feeder. Mr. Bear, whose last known address was listed as The deep woods, had fled the scene prior to police arriving. Mrs. ***** was advised to remove the bird feeders for the time being and contact the police if Mr. Bear was caught trespassing again."

That gave me the giggles. Someone writing the police blotter that day was bored. hee hee

anyhoo... that's it for now. I have a lot to do tomorrow.  I have my brother, sis-in-law and nephew coming to visit Tuesday, and when they leave my other bro, sis-in-law and nephew (and dog) are coming to visit. Then I have an art show I'm entering, followed by a county fair I'm entering stuff in and I have to get that all prepared. I'm a bit late getting my butt moving for the art show next week. I don't want to be last minute for the county fair since I'm entering more stuff.

So lots of work tomorrow.

Beating the Heat

Its been horribly hot here. So I decided to go to the lake and beat the heat. It was sooooo nice at the lake. The water was warmer than it's ever been. Usually its like ice even on the hottest day, and is nearly impossible to swim in, but today it was so warm I didn't even have to get use to it gradually. I just plunked myself right in and started swimming. I couldn't believe how warm it was.

Even my dogs enjoyed swimming. Dojo doesn't like water much. (probably stemming from his dislike of baths) but once they were in the water, they didn't want to get out. Especially Yoshi. every time she neared the shoreline, she'd turn around and head back out.

It was the first time they actually went swimming of their own free will. (If they are really stinky in summer I sometimes would take them out to the lake and carry them in so I can shampoo them. lol) the water was calm and crystal clear, and they were enjoying chasing the schools of fish that were near the shore, so that helped them enjoy it.

They had a fun time just like me.

Although, I did get a smidge of sunburn over my sunburn. Lol. It was worth it though. I found 3 really nice agates and a few different coral fossils. I'll have to post pictures of those later when I've had time to shine them up.

the trip home was interesting too. I had twisted my ankle a bit so I had my mom drive home. I didn't feel like driving with a sore ankle. since I wasn't driving, I was texting my sister-in-law Jamie when my mom gasped and swerved a bit. I looked up and I saw something so large, I thought it was a deer trying to jump over my car.

I thought for sure we were going to get hit until whatever it was flew up and over the car. I turned around and saw it was a baby eagle. The wingspan was as big as my Rav4's windshield. Thankfully he didn't hit us, and continued to fly after whatever it was he was chasing. Momma eagle better keep a better eye on her baby. lol

Then we passed this older lady. From a distance it looked like she was petting her dog, when she stepped out in front of us with her hand out as if asking us to stop. As we got closer, my mom slowed down and we noticed the dog she was petting was actually a young fawn. Momma made it across the street, but the baby was too afraid to follow and kept following the lady around. Finally when we stopped she made the baby follow her across the street, then shooshed it off to it's momma where they both ran off. The lady thanked us as she ran back across to where her husband was waiting. It was the cutest thing. That little baby was a bit too trusting.

I guess animal mommas have their hands full with their babies this year. ha ha.

anyway. It was so nice today. A nice break from the heat. Although, the sun seems to have disappeared behind clouds. It's not suppose to rain, but it sure looks like there's a storm out there ready to brew. Anyway. I hope the rest of you stuck in the heat find an enjoyable way to beat the heat too.

Right now I'm catching up on some of my Japanese Manga in my air conditioned room. lol. Finally caught up on all the current chapters of BLEACH and am now working on Black Butler. =^_^=

So Kawaii!

Hey all, Andrea here! (I suppose it would be since this is my blog. lol)

I had to show you a pic of this adorable little guy I found when I was tanning on my deck today.

I'm not 100% sure what he is... but after some online research I THINK he's a Viceroy Butterfly Caterpillar. Whatever he is, he's so adorable. He had like this piggy nose, and if you turned him on his back and tickled his tummy he'd flip over. I wanted to keep him sooooooo bad... but he'd have a better chance of survival in his natural habitat with plenty of fresh air and plenty of natural food.

Somehow he found his way up onto my deck, so I brought him down and put him under the deck. It's safe because there is grass and fallen leaves under the deck, it's not in the direct heat of the sun, and birds don't tend to sneak under there. So fingers crossed he'll grow into a gorgeous butterfly.

But tell me this lil' guy isn't ADORABLE!!

Here he is just hanging around. (click on the picture to see a bigger version. He's just so cutsie wootsie)

This just cries "Rub my belly"! so kawaii!

Here he is crawling around.

Man I wanted to keep him so bad he was sooooo adorable!







Anyhoo. That's it for now. Back to getting a tan.

  <-- before I got sunburned. LOL Actually, this pic is just about 2 years old. taken before I moved from my old house. I lost that bikini in the move. Made me sad, it was my second favorite bathing suit next to this cute one-piece I have now.) ANYHOO. Neither here nor there. (I'm chatty tonight cause I've had a bit too much coffee.)

coffee, Coffee, COFFEE. HA

Speaking of sunburn...

If you read the blog about my vacation, you probably saw this one already. Believe it or not, it's been almost 2 weeks and I'm still sunburned, although its slowly turning to tan. I just wish I was wearing my bathing suit cause my tan lines are weird at the moment. hard to explain. I had the start of tan lines from being at the beach in my bathing suit, but then I got sunburned while wearing this dress, which gave me different tan lines over the tan lines I started. I'm tanning to fix it, but I worry about too much sun. I should just use fake bake tanning cream. but anyway. Again, I'm rambling.

(lack of sleep last night, hot, and too much caffeine.) ha

My Awesome Vacation!!

Hey all! Andrea here!


So I spent a few days on a reportedly haunted island on my recent vacation. It was kind of cool. nothing haunted happened while I was there, but still, I've never been on an island. And to tell you the truth, this island was so beautiful, it could have been Hawaii in my opinion. It was sunny every day, it was warm with a cool night breeze coming from the lake. The grass was green, the lilacs were JUST starting to bloom and smelled so fragrant, the sky was so blue as was the water that surrounded the island. I was expecting to have a Lei put around my neck as I stepped off the boat.

My mom and I stayed at one of the most reportedly haunted resorts. It's a beautiful resort. Old fashioned, but well maintained, with a beautiful view of the Lake from our window.

No cars or are allowed on the island except for ambulances. The ONLY ways to get around is by walking, renting a bike, or horse drawn carriage. (My dogs LOVED riding in the horse drawn carriages. Especially Yoshi.) When I went to bed at night, it was to the light of a full moon. When I woke up, it was to the clippity cloppity of horse hooves. It was so relaxing.

Here's some pictures from my trip.

It was a long drive to the ferry that takes you to the island, about 10 hours or so. So my mom and I decided it may be a good idea to stop at the halfway point, do some shopping, and sleep overnight at a hotel. So I made reservations to stay at one hotel the night before we were due on the island. One stop we made was at a funny place called Da Yooper Tourist Trap. A gift shop named after (and run by) a comedy musical group called "Da Yoopers". (Yoopers are what people from the upper peninsula of Michigan call themselves.)



outside the gift shop is Big Gus, the world's largest working chainsaw, and Big Ernie, the world's largest working shotgun.

Before we did anymore shopping, my mom and I decided it would be best to head to the motel I made a reservation at, and get settled in with the dogs. When I got there to check in, I was shocked. The pictures used online must have been for another place, because this wasn't anything like what they showed it to be. It was dingy, the carpets were stained, and it smelled horrible from Chlorine. I asked to see the room and they took me to this closet of a room with two beds that looked dirtier than a patch of dirt after the rain... and it smelled horribly like cigarettes. The cleaning lady tried telling me it was a mixture of Fabreeze and Mr. Clean. Um... I know what cigarettes smell like. Unless it was tobacco scented Fabreeze, that was Cigarettes.

My mom and I left kind of upset and started driving around to look for a hotel that accepted dogs when we found this place:

It was a pretty motel with a sign in the front that announced "PET FRIENDLY!" I stopped in and explained my situation. It was then I was told they probably stated that it was Fabreeze and Mr. Clean because smoking is illegal in Michigan Hotels and they were covering themselves.








I got a room for my mom and I, went back to the other hotel and canceled our reservations stating family emergency. They let me out with no problems, and we went back to our new hotel. It was very nice, clean, smelled clean, and had a lovely view of the lake from our window.

So my mom and I were pretty happy. We spent the rest of the day shopping. There is a mall in Marquette, Mi (where we were) and a lot of small gifty shops. I didn't buy much because I wanted to save my money for the island gift shops. We decided to travel around a bit to take in the sights. Leave it to mommy to find a casino.

Of course I won. Well, not big. I came out like $20 ahead... but that's better than being $20 in the hole or just breaking even. It was pretty fun.












The next day it was off to the island. I've never been on a speed ferry before (I've only ever been on one boat in my life and that was in Lake Geneva during a lake tour. A slow moving tour boat.) so this was pretty exciting. Yoshi seemed to really love it.

(my mommy and Yoshi) Yoshi loved looking out the window as the boat flew by different places on the lake, including Mackinac Bridge. (It's pronounced Mackinaw by the way... Mackinac is a French spelling.) Dojo wasn't as trilled. He cuddled in my lap the whole time.

when we got onto the island, this is how we got to our resort. This is really the only way to get around besides walking and biking. And since it was hard to ride a bike with the dogs, we usually walked everywhere. Great exercise. although I don't think Yoshi was as thrilled. Every time we passed a horse carriage, she always tried to climb in like "no more walking! we ride now!" lol.

This was our view during the day from the window of our resort. It was so beautiful during the day. The sun shining on the lake, the horses riding up the street under our window. It was nice. It was actually even nicer at night.

The moon was full, and there was a lunar Eclipse on the other side of the world. In America it could be seen as the moon turning a reddish orange color. It was quite beautiful. Especially when it reflected in the water. Its hard to tell in the above pics since they are screencaps from the video I took. but it was gorgeous in person.

The view from a Bistro where we had dinner that first night. OMG you haven't lived until you've tasted Truffle fries! yummy!

Here's a few other pictures of our stay.

Dojo was such a brave boy when he saw the horses on the street. he barked at them, he even went up to one, stood on his hind legs and kissed a horse on the nose, but he wasn't as brave when he got on the carriage... although once he was on he calmed down enough to enjoy it. (sorry for the low quality pic. It was another video screencap. you can see that my mom is holding Dojo.)

I got a smidge too much sun while I sunbathed on the white chairs by the lake. But you have to admit, even though my face was a bit red from sunburn, I'm still looking adorable. (if you look closely, you'll see my GACKT necklace lol)

While nothing really paranormal happened while we were on the island to us personally, my mom and I took the dogs on a Ghost Hauntings of Mackinac Island tour and learned a bit about the history, legends and hauntings of the island. It was actually very interesting. And it got spooky as night fell.

I do have to admit, the spookiest part was when they got to our resort. The resort where we stayed, Mission Point Resort, is reportedly the most haunted on the island. From the theater, to the room just down the hall from where my mom and I were staying.

Room 2200 is the most haunted place in the resort. It is said to be inhabited by a spirit named Harvey who took his own life after a girl he loved rejected him. I don't believe the room is rented anymore, I believe it's used for employee use only, though ghost hunts are allowed in there occasionally.

I didn't get to do an actual ghost hunt, because my mom and I left the island the day of the midnight ghost hunt. So I know what I'm going to do when I get a chance to go back to the island.

Yoshi was exhausted from all the walking we did, while Dojo wanted to keep walking. He also loved watching the horses from the window. Believe it or not, it was a culture shock for them when we got back into town. I think they missed all of the horses, and people stopping every few feet to coo and call them cute, and the walking and sitting lake side.

we had a beautiful ride home on the boat... then it was back to reality. Over a 10 hour drive back to reality... but it was all worth it.

My mom and I have never had so much fun before. There was so much shopping, and so many sights we just never got to see. So I'm looking forward to going back.

I need a vacation from my vacation

Andrea here! hey all.

So I went to Milwaukee on Tuesday. My mom had an annual appointment with her usual doctor (who she kept even though we both moved out of state) and I had tickets to see Les Miserables with my brother and his wife. (I bought the tickets as a birthday gift to my sister-in-law since it's her favorite musical.)

We were planning on leaving Wednesday and returning on Friday.

I kept an eye on the weather situation and decided to leave on Tuesday instead of Wednesday because snow was predicted on Wednesday and I didn't want to get caught driving in snow. Tuesday was scheduled to be nice. So I rescheduled the hotel and a few appointments, and got ready for the trip.

From the moment I got in the car, EVERYTHING that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

First part of the trip was fairly okay, although I was bummed because I left a few things at home that I wanted to take with me. However, when I was just about halfway there... a massive ice/rain/wind storm hit. It was hailing pea sized hail pellets, raining hard, and turning everything to slush. The tires of my car would get stuck in the slush and pull me one way, while the strong wind pushed me the other. my car was pulled and pushed more than a few times. So I had to start driving slowly.

Of course, on top of it all, I hit construction. All the exits I wanted to take because my gas tank was nearly empty were closed. I was practically driving on vapors in the hail and rain. Finally I found an exit and was able to get off and get some gas. When I got back on the road, I passed like 13 car accidents, most of them were one car accidents caused by people driving too fast for conditions. One had smashed into a barricade, spun around and smashed the other side of her car, one fell into a deep ditch and over turned, one fell down the ditch, into the woods and hit some trees, there was one who hit another car... it was a mess. (In all there were 70 total accidents with 2 fatalities.)

yet, as I drove there were people speeding passed me at 70+ mph. Passing all those accidents not phasing them in the least. The semi drivers were the worst. So it was a very stressful trip.

When I got to the hotel, my mom and I checked in and thought we were settling in, when one of my pups vomited, then got bad diarrhea. That worried us because this pup has a condition known as Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE) which, while it is easy to treat, can be very dangerous, if not deadly for dogs. However, I felt it could also be because of the stress of the trip so I decided to wait and see what happened. He was fine the rest of the night so I started to relax a bit.

The next day I took my dogs to see the vet. I have a local vet, and a Milwaukee vet for when I'm in town visiting my baby nephews or something. they got the vaccinations they were due for, and it was time to go shopping.

Traffic was horrendous. More than a few times morons would cut me off, almost hit me, ride my tail so that if I'd have hit the breaks, they'd have hit me... and after all was said and done, we got nothing accomplished. My mom wanted to find a new coat but couldn't find one... I needed to get some new pantyhose and completely forgot. I did buy a new bra, and had a slight breakdown in the store because I had to buy one cup size up. I haven't been gaining weight so I didn't know why I had to buy a bigger bra... and I started bawling.

a few hours later... my aunt flow paid a visit. Of course now I'd have to deal with that, so much for going swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel. grr. (though that explained why I had a breakdown over a bra in the store.) My mom and I stopped for some McDonald's since we were starving. I got a large soda because I was thirsty. I then proceeded to spill the soda all down my shirt and my pants. The whole large cup's worth. (of course I started crying again.)

My mom went to her doctor's appointment, only to find out... she wasn't scheduled. She had made the appointment, but they forgot to put it into their computer. So instead of a full exam... the squeezed her in for a brief exam and she now has to come back in 3 months for a full physical. So it was a complete waste of time

Then, I bought myself a box of giant Pixy Sticks from Sam's club. when I got them back to the hotel I realized you can't open them without Scissors or something. Which of course I didn't have... so no flavored sugar for me.

the next day my dog started vomiting uncontrollably and I knew his HGE was back. So I took him to the vet, did the proper tests, found out I was right and got him treated. Now I was panicked. My mom was going to babysit my baby nephew while my brother, sister-in-law and I were at Les Mis. What if my pup got severely sick and needed to go to the Emergency Vet? She couldn't handle the two dogs, one who was sick, AND the baby.

So my brother suggested we not go. Um, yeah... I spent $400 freakin bucks on those tickets. So he suggested just me and my sister-in-law go and give away his ticket. It was starting to get all complicated and everyone was stressed out. my mom didn't know what to do, my brother and sister-in-law didn't want to go cause if something happened to my dog while I was gone because my mom couldn't get to a vet, they knew I'd never get over it. So everyone was trying to figure out what to or not to do... and I got to the point I wanted to just throw in the towel.

First the bad trip up... then I didn't get anything I needed when shopping, then my dog got sick, then I got PMS and ended up not being able to go swimming, then my dog got sick again, now the show was hanging up in the air.

well, then my brother called. He was taking my nephew down the slide when the rubber of his shoe got stuck and he twisted his leg. They rushed my baby nephew to the hospital. they couldn't find any break or fracture, but he refused to put his leg down and when they tried to get him to stand up he'd cry "uppies Uppies Uppies". So if he's not better by Monday they have to give him a cast just in case there is a hairline fracture that wasn't seen on the x-rays.

So my sister-in-law's mother (who is a nurse) ended up babysitting him. So we were once again able to go to the show and didn't have to worry about how my mom would handle a sick dog and the baby. On the way there, we hit construction. Only thing was... there was no signs that told us there was going to be construction, so we ended up taking a detour and not knowing how exactly we were going to get back around. As it was, because they took the baby to the hospital, we were cutting it REALLY close and had to skip dinner. On the way, my mom called and stated my dog was vomiting again, and had to go to the E.R. Vet. Since there was nothing I could do but sit and wait like she was, she told me to go to the show and she'd let me know what was happening.

So we got to the theater, and I realized I forgot my special parking permit that allowed us free parking. Fan freakin tastic. When we got into the theater, the lights were starting to dim off and on to let us know we had minutes to get to our seat. Didn't even have time to get a drink. If we weren't in our seats by the start of the show, we wouldn't be allowed in till the scene change.

Once seated, I was checking my phone (which I had on vibrate) every five minutes for a text update on my dog. While it was very good, I couldn't wait for intermission so I could call and get an update. Not to mention, my brother and his wife were worried about the baby. My brother felt so bad that the baby got hurt while they were going down the slide, even though it was an accident that could have happened to anyone. So all of us had our minds on other things.

When intermission hit, absolutely no word. My mom said she was still waiting herself. During the second half of the show, my mom texted and said she was on her way back to the hotel with the dogs. My sister-in-law's mom said the baby was sleeping. So we were able to enjoy the second half a little more relaxed. the second half went really well. When it was over I bought a bracelet, t-shirt and program and then called my mom to ask what the final results were. My dog was having another bout of HGE, and ended up needing a second treatment since the first didn't work, but seemed better now that the treatment was over. However... it was not advisable to travel. He needed a day of rest, so we had to extend our stay by an extra day.

I got home, completely exhausted and pretty much fell asleep the second I got home. The next day, things didn't seem to go all that bad, mostly because we stayed in almost all day. I visited my nephews... my one nephew still wasn't putting weight on his leg... but he was in good spirits.

It was freezing and rained EVERYDAY we were there.

So this morning I go to pick up my birds from the vet. (they were being boarded and needed their annual exams and wing/beak/nail trims). I went to pay... I had no money. My check cashing card was rejected. I forgot all about having to pay for my dog's vaccinations and the following emergency visit... that I went over what I had in the bank. (thank GOD for over draft protection.)

And now, after having spent 2 weeks with a bad upper respiratory infection... I have a really bad sore throat... which means I may be getting sick again... probably caught the cold my baby nephew is sick with.

oh, lets not forget I missed Good Friday Mass and blessing of the food because we couldn't make it back in town on time due to having to stay an extra day since my puppy was sick.

it was the perfect end to a less than perfect vacation. so now I need a vacation from my vacation.

on the up note... my dog seems to be in much better health today, the sun is shining, and I made it home safely. And Les Mis was pretty good in hindsight. But Cheese Whiz.

Thank God for Gackt

Andrea here again. All I wanted to say is Thank God for GACKT. GACKT is a Japanese singer I'm a big fan of. He was the first J-Rocker I ever heard, and was the main thing that turned me into a J-Rock fan. If it wasn't for Gackt, my radio station, "J-Rock us! Radio" wouldn't even exist. (http://www.live365.com/stations/aravyndra)

His music has helped me through tough times, pulled me through bad times, and celebrated good times with me.

His music transcends the language barrier. Even if you don't know how to speak Japanese, even if you don't understand the lyrics... you still "know" what he's trying to say through his music.

he is an amazing musician, talented to the point of brilliant. I was just listening to one of his songs while driving around and thought I would just say something. =^_^=