A Great Day for Mail!

I got both the O-Zone CD AND my ring today. Cool! So now I'm married again and I don't have to stick a SOLD sticker on my butt.

I got out my dictionary today and it fell open to "hypocrite." The entry was a giant picture of Madonna. Un-be-freakin'-lievable. . . Words fail me.

And she's from this neck of the woods, it appears. Oh please, please don't let it be something in the water (which tastes really bad unless filtered.) Please, please don't let my kids grow up to be like her. Fortunately, I don't think they've ever heard of her. Madonna's not the only one who doesn't do TV, but she, and everything she spawned are much of the reason we don't.

The kids have a friend over for the night. Do you think they'll ever go to sleep? Prolly not.

Last night was sparring again and I'm all beat up! (beaten up just doesn't sound right, LOL!) One of the young guys (18ish) is getting really good and he's tall, too, so he's a force to be reckoned with. I have bruises all over the back and side of my left arm. Yes - he kicks more with his right leg, LOL! No one at the pool called the cops though. ;o) I ought to post pics one of these days. . . At least I did my share of beating. But the guys don't bruise like I do for some reason.

Saw the rest of Tomb Raider 2 and didn't like the storyline that much apart from Croft's character and Hillary, the butler (still Arnie Rimmer to me.) Terry Sheridan's a great character, so why kill him off? Argh! 2 is way more violent than 1, and just an out-to-lunch premise if you KWIM. Why not just destroy the orb if you don't want Pandora's Box to be found? Cuz then there'd be no movie. Hmmm. . . And also, how come she can open the box partway, and nothing bad escapes, but throughout the movie we're told that if the box is opened, an apocalyptic plaugue will be released? Last time I checked, viruses were really teeny. . .

Is there hope for #3? Not at the rate they're going, but I'll give it a try anyway. Not sure why they had folks speaking Mandarin in Hong Kong, but the Mandarin Spongebob bit was humorous. They didn't coach the actors in their Chinesevery well (no discernible tones) which I found odd, cuz I thought Jolie's Cambodian sounded pretty convincing in #1. But my not speaking Cambodian could have a lot to do with that, LOL! I thought her Russian was OK, too. Then again, I don't know a lot of Russian, either. . . Still, if you look at it as pure entertainment, well, no even looking at just that, the Croft character, Hillary, and TS are about all it has going for it. Sheila, you should check it out anyway since the Gerard Butler-without-his shirt scenes will more than make up for lack of plot for you. ;o) (edit from the future - ok, now I know who this guy is and appreciate the movie more, ha ha!)

Did they seriously consider Colin Firth and Hugh Grant for James Bond?!?!?!? I'm sorry - much as I love those guys and their movies - James Bond?!?!?!!? I think Craig is an excellent selection from what I've seen of his work. Or myabe I'm just smitten . . . No, he's great for it.

Back to real life. Class wasn't too grueling since we were all sore from yesterday and Master Han took pity on us. The backs of my thighs - yow! Still trying to figure out what we did yesterday. There were a couple stretches we don't do often, but I didn't thing they'd affect the back of the thigh. Maybe it was because I got into the hurdler's stretch farther than ever. (laying head on the ground) We kicked paddles tonight, which is always fun, and rarely done.

Swimming was great this morning. Everyone was happy - no goggles catastrophes, plus we had new goggles so that there were plenty to go around - even for me. It's weird because I can see underwater with goggles almost as well as if I was wearing my glasses. The Prawn was starting to swim a wee bit with her head above water. She can go a nice long way with her face in the water. Fishy can float on his back better than ever. He's experimenting with the crawl. We shall see. We had the pool to ourselves again. Actually I think there may have been a couple of older folks lurking at the end of the deeper pool, but I didn't see them until they left. The locker room wasn't as bloody freezing as it usually is, but the hot shower still felt great after the trek though there. They have a great setup - family locker roms with pump soap in the showers, toilet, sink - everything you need except an outlet. I haven't needed one yet, but it'd be nice in January to be able to use a hair-dryer before going out into the arctic winter.

Got apple cider and pumpkin doughnuts for breakfast. I do love the Fall. Today was simply gorgeous - crisp and fresh this morning when we went to the pool, and balmy when we left. Ahhhh!

Fishy battled the Slug to a stalemate in chess yesterday. He's been doing really great drawings, too. Mollusc has been inventing new creatures and drawing them. She's making a lapbook about at least one of them. Sluggie continues to shine in the physical realm. She has advanced sparring tomorrow - always fun to watch. The Prawn - well other than making illegal chess moves and painting her arms brown - has been able to crank out some nice artwork lately and is getting her math (place value) figured out pretty well. Not bad for a 3 year old! She got a tip on her belt on Thursday and so did the Fishy. I'm so proud!

The kids have gotten quiet upstairs. Hope that doesn't mean something bad. . .

Guess I'll go rest me achin' bod in the tub a bit.

Bong Sewer, as Hagrid would say. :o)