Below are the most recent 18 friends' journal entries.

Friday, July 18th, 2008
catsplay	9:41p	Mamma Mia!   Who wants to see Mamma Mia!? My daughter is obsessed with it and says it is absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to see it! Update:. Here's me driving my daughter and her friend to the movie. In case you can't hear, the two things I say are, "I hope it's not sold out," and then something like, "She's kind of an awesome singer."         (7 Comments |Comment on this)
portiareigns	2:46p	Tomorrow is another special BIRTHDAY! Here is a little tour of my son's most recent years. It is his 18th birthday tomorrow. ( my sweet boy with the size 12 feet ) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
spacedlaw	6:30p	And just because I love that picture (It's the colour, you see...) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
spacedlaw	1:23p	Warning: Surrealism at work Yesterday I got fed up and skipped work to go and scale the Janiculum Hill (just above the Trastevere area). I'd never attempted the climb in the four years I have been living in Rome, so it was about time too. I found a very nice place, with a breathtaking view over the city, but also a few surrealistic details... Like the theater of absurdity: ( How absurd is this? Let me count the ways... ) Current Mood: tired (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
ar_daily [ grigorisgirl ]	4:14p	Bottle Shock New Bottle Shock Website with a behind the scenes featurette, pictures, trailer and a list of all the US cities it opens in in August HERE (21 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
ar_daily [ rubyna ]	9:43p	rickman_stills rickman_stills | challenge 151 | rules/info ( challenge 151 pictures ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
portiareigns	8:30p	A meme of sorts. All about two important days for me Today is my mother's birthday. Tomorrow is my 29th wedding anniversary. As a child I had to be reminded by my grandmother that my Mom's birthday was coming. I never remembered by myself. I teased my mother that I was being married on July 14th so that the two most important days of my life would be right next to each other and I would never forget. So, I am using some free time to think about my mother, post a picture of her and some from the wedding she insisted on borrowing money to pay for. It's long. Feel free to share some pictures of special times for you.I would love to see them. ( Ginger gets her way ) (14 Comments |Comment on this)
catsplay	3:39p	A New Day, a New Opportunity           (13 Comments |Comment on this)
grigorisgirl	6:29p	( Because I'm a sheep... ) (13 Comments |Comment on this)
portiareigns	10:19a	Done after a bunch of people did it first Any meme called Drivel has got my vote because ( all memes are drivel ) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
spacedlaw	2:18p	Discoveries of the morning... I'd never come face to claws with one of these before. I am told they can get quite big but this one was a tiny little thing. moar funny pictures (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
catsplay	4:42p	Photo Shoot Gone Bad   It seems I haven't been around much lately. I guess I tend to focus on one thing at a time. I got a new camera and have been obsessively photographing everything. Evidence can been seen in my photostream on Flickr. Every day I try and go somewhere to take some photos. Today I had the brilliant idea to take highly artistic photos of beach balls, rubber ducks, boats and swim rings on my pool. *rolls eyes* This morning I made a trip to the local dollar store and Target to stock up on the needed supplies - balls, ducks, etc. I returned home, armed with everything I needed. After lunch I headed outside to get started. As I opened the packages of balls, the first thing that should have been a clue that things weren't going to go well was that one side of most of the beach balls was imprinted with a massive warning. Paragraph upon paragraph of warnings to only use the ball when supervised. WTF! Now I'd have to wait until the balls floated to the proper position to hide the text? What do they think - that the kids are going to eat or swallow these massive beach balls? That they'll be drowned by the gargantuan weight of the 2 ounce ball?? I began to blow up the balls (5 balls, 1 swim ring). It was then that I remembered that I have a problem with 'blowing' things. Yes, that's right. It seems that as I've aged, any effort to blow up something like a balloon, or a beach ball, makes me GAG UNCONTROLLABLY to the point of almost vomiting. I don't fucking know WHY this happens to me, but I swear to God that it does. I don't even want to try and find out what kind of freakish medical condition causes 'blow up gagging'. *snort* So, after about 20 minutes of trying to sit there blowing, without vomiting, and getting nowhere, I got on our intercom system to page my kids and ask them to come down and help. After THREE DESPERATE AND EVER INCREASINGLY ANGRY PAGES my daughter finally came down, highly pissed off. My son refused to leave his video game. So we blew. Oh, and did I mention that the entire time I'm doing this my freaking husband is running a MASSIVELY LOUD AIR COMPRESSOR around the pool sidewalk and deck area? Apparently he had chosen just this time to power wash our entire property. Do you know how loud and annoying this was? Apparently it takes hours to do this as he never stopped the entire time I was working. Oh, and to top it off, I had skimmed any dirt and leaf particles off the pool surface to have nice, pristine, crystal clear water in my pictures. And his DAMNED POWER WASHING was continually blowing little pieces of shit everywhere onto the water. *breathe* Anyway, balls are now blown. So I throw a ball into the water and lift up my camera, and there's NO ball to be seen. Apparently the winds and water currents were enough that the balls instantly crept away, speeding across the water at a high rate of speed. *grumble* Bright person that I am, I went into the house and got wide clear tape and white thread. I attached thread to each ball with tape and then taped it to the pool ladder, positioning them in a nice sunny area. This actually seemed to work relatively well. After a ridiculous photo session of balls and then duckies anchored by thread, drenched in sweat (it was about 85 degrees), I decided I'd shot enough. I never even got to the boats. Anyway, after shooting a ridiculous 80 (yes EIGHTY) photos of balls and ducks, I was a bit bummed when I went in and reviewed the photos. As it ends up, I really only liked two of them, and those really aren't even that great. We went from this: Click to observe what happens when an obsessive compulsive takes posession of a camera and tries to be all artsy to this: Ah well, you know what they say... "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Oh, I forgot to mention, a mouse nearly ran over my feet while I was shooting. Apparently he was scared out of hiding by the obnoxious power washing ruckus. *sigh*         (18 Comments |Comment on this)
spacedlaw	9:14p	Carbonara di Tonno Dead easy pasta recipe. At the beginning it looks like this: ( Come hither for the recipe ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
hens_cook [ spacedlaw ]	9:08p	Fishy pasta Name: Carbonara di tonno From: spacedlaw    Country: Italy Category: Main Dishes, Main Ingredient: Pasta Serves: 2, Measurements in: english, Estimated Preparation Time: 15 minutes   Ingredients: 150 g of your favourite pasta 1 egg (as fresh as possible) a small can of tuna (about 100g drained) parsley and chives   Instructions: If you are using tuna in brine, drain. If you are using tuna in oil (olive oil preferably) drain a little. Chop the herbs Boil a large amount of salted water for the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, put oil in a pan (olive oil if the tuna was in brine or the oil left in the tin of tuna) and crumble the tuna in it. Cook slightly, adding a little of the cooking water of the pasta if it gets too dry. Keep a little of that water in a mug. Beat up the egg (thoroughly) adding a little of that water. Once the pasta is cooked, toss in the pan where the tuna is and stir for a few seconds, still cooking. Turn off the burner. Toss in the egg and give everything a good stir so the pasta gets well covered and the egg cooks a little form the residual heat. Add a little more water if you see it is getting too dry. Add the chopped herbs and mix some more. Et voilà!   (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 7th, 2008
chando	12:09p	Ommegang - follow-up Here is my footage of the Brussels Ommegang (2 vids). For details, please go back here. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
portiareigns	7:31p	Talking to myself Taken From reallyginnyf I have been challenged/asked to have a conversation with my younger self. My younger self is in second year of high school. It's three A.M. The bedroom door is shut and the bedside table light is on. James Taylor is singing Fire and Rain and she is reading The Lord of The Rings for the third or fourth time. Elder Self: Tap, Tap on the window. Psst, come on and open up. Younger self: Peers through the window. "Gramma?" ES: "Just open the window and stop being a smart alec. I'm you thirty five years from now. The grey starts coming in in college, but don't worry about it it looks cool." YS:" Wow, it does look pretty good. I didn't think it would be possible for me to be fatter than I am now." ES: "See, that's one of the things that I want to talk to you about." ES looks around and peers at YS. "First things first. Are they asleep?" YS: A knowing smirk crosses her young face. "You really are me. Nobody else knows. Yeah, they're asleep and it hasn't been too bad lately." ES: "When you are married and with kids she'll tell you how much it meant to her that you never tried to leave and go live with Gramma. Stand by her and you'll be able to see her follow your daughter around with the light of love all over her face and no body to try and spoil it for any of you." YS looks like she's going to cry. ES says "Hey, not tonight. I'm here to tell you that you only have two more years to go and this bastard will be in your rear view mirror." ES sits next to YS and wraps her arms around her. "You are going to go to college and find out that not only are you not fat, you're beautiful and the young men will follow you around likes flies on honey. They'll like the fact that you're smart. You will meet the best guy and have a wonderful life." YS: " You sound like my dreams. How is that going to happen when I can't even stand to talk to people I don't know?" She shrugs. "Boys think I'm strange and I can't invite anybody over here. It's like a ticking time bomb. Do you remember that he threw the Christmas tree out the front door this year?" ES: " Yeah." Leaning forward she picks of The Return of The King and holds it out to YS. " I remember how much solace this gave me. Hold onto this. It means so much to you because there are true things in here. Some men are evil. Some men have honor and love with all their hearts. You will find your Aragorn. Women can be shield maidens of courage and strength. I know you have strength because I have used it to support us and a lot of other people as well." ES leans back against the wall and smiles down into her lap. "You are going to learn to talk to boys. You'll be a professional woman with a great husband and two special kids. Life isn't an endless picnic, but you have a pretty stellar future ahead of you. And by the way, your family will say that no body makes Christmas like you do. You're going to be famous for it." YS: "No fights?" ES: "Nope. Mom and Gramma and you are all going to live together until you get married." YS: "James Taylor is over. Hang on." ES: "Oh yeah, Sweet Baby James is going to become Sweet Baby Doug. Your son will think you created that song for him. As a matter of fact his feelings will be a little hurt when he finds out James Taylor wrote it." ES gets up from the bed. "Hang in there. Next time you see Mom and Gramma hug them extra hard for me." ES turns away and starts climbing back through the window before YS can see the one hard truth about the next thirty years in her eyes. YS: "Hey! don't go! I need to know how I figure all of this shit out." ES calls back through the window "Follow the Isley Brothers music and go to the Science Fiction Book Club. Fight the Power sweetie and have fun." (16 Comments |Comment on this)
spacedlaw	2:51p	And there I am sitting in my living room wondering why I am feeling like I'm missing something... The answer to that is my HEAD. The brain part of it. The darn thing must be either still in bed or gone to the beach early to escape from the blistering heat. Because I am forgetting it's swweeks' birthday! I am hoping that things will become a little more stable soon. Hugs. N. The Flash Girls – Me & Dorothy Parker (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
grigorisgirl	6:52p	The Blues Band Last night at work we had The Blues Band playing. In between working I snuck on the side of the stage and took some pix and a vid: The lead singer is Paul Jones and the guitarist Tom McGuinness who were in Manfred Mann back in the Sixties. I don't know if they ever made it in the States but they were huge over here with hits like 5-4-3-2-1, Do Wah Diddy and Pretty Flamingo. They played a pure blues set but went down very well. Here's my Flickr Slideshow Whilst we were clearing up at the end of the night I spotted some lasagne in the kitchen and was looking at it hungrily when my boss passed by and said there were a load of sandwiches left in the dressing room backstage if I wanted some. I beetled off expecting an empty room but found Paul Jones in there stuffing his face with sandwiches so stood and had a chat with him and the promoter's wife. We were wondering where the last forty years had gone when I told him I'd got his autograph in 1967!! He seemed a nice guy and and remakably trim for sixty-six! (3 Comments |Comment on this)