Thursday 13

13 Toys I either had (as a child) and loved or wanted and never had 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:

I am exhausted

I'm done work at the school on Friday though. Thank GOD!

I've also decided to take a year off (at least a year, probably more) to do something else. :)

After Sunday I can relax for a bit. (kinda lol)

The post in which I taunt you about reading an ARC

I just finished reading Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu. I received the ARC in the mail on Thursday.

I can not for the life of me remember where I applied/volunteered/whatever to read it but OMG Thank GOD I did!

Marjorie M. Liu has always on my To Be BOUGHT list but I stopped NEEDING to read her books as soon as I bought them after the second in this series. It wasn't that the second book was bad, I quite enjoyed it. It was just that there are so many other books that I NEEDED to read right away that the books kept lost in my mountain of TBR books.

The characterization in this book is phenomenal. The story grabbed a hold of my imagination and wouldn't let go. I'm almost sad that my adventure with Kitala and M'cal is over. The story was just that good.

I must now dig through my TBR mountain and find any and all other books that are in the Dirk and Steele series.

Anyways ... when this is released (July 2 I believe) go out and buy it. It's worth it!

oh yeah and ... Na Na Na Na Boo Boo I got to read this book early!

(mature, yes? *g*)

Thursday 13

Thirteen comedians who pretty much always make me laugh out loud (in no particular order)

1. Eddie Izzard

2. Jane Curtin

3. Gilda Radner

4. John Candy

5. Eugene Levy

6. David Hyde Pierce

7. The Carol Burnett show Cast (I know this is more than 1 person but it's my list so it's my rules *g*)


8. Rick Moranis

9. Dave Thomas

10 - 12. Monty Python (I'm getting tired lol I'm not naming them all.)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I have a winner!!!

My niece helped me draw the name of the winner!

Maura you may now start doing the dance of joy! :)

Congratulations you won my latest draw!

I'll let Shiloh Walker know she can expect an email from you.

Happy Father's Day

My dad rocks the casbah.

An amazing dad

I posted this youtube once before (last year sometime) but I think the video and the message that was sent to me in an email are still amazing. Enjoy ...

Strongest Dad in the World

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike.

Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at
Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate.

"No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried.
"Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon?
Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters.

Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Here's the video....

*sticky post* Wanna win an ARC? **UPDATED

As many of you know, I'll be participating in The Weekend to End Breast Cancer 60 Km walk which takes place on July 27-29. The actual days of the walk are the Saturday and Sunday. The proceeds from this walk will benefit the Alberta Cancer Foundation, funding important breast cancer research, education, services and care. Help me support the people who are going to kick breast cancer in the butt by making a donation towards my fundraising efforts.

With each donation I'll put your name into a draw where you can win Hunters Salvation by Shiloh Walker! *click here for an excerpt*I can't wait until this book releases (July 3,2007) and I can read Vax's story! This character captured my imagination in the book Hunting the Hunter. I've been (not so) patiently waiting for his story since then. I'll make the draw on Monday June 25.
**The draw date has been changed to June 18! Thanks again Shi :)


**I'll also have a draw for some other books on July 2. More information about that will be coming soon!

Teenagers are weird.

Really really weird.

Seriously.

So as many of you know I work in a senior high school. Today was the last day of classes before final exams.

We were prepared for NORMAL teen aged dumbassedness but this is what happened (in addition to the normal teen aged dumbassedness) …

At the end of the day, about 15 minutes before the final bell was going to ring some idiot set loose a bunch of chickens (no I don’t know where they found some live chickens. Teenagers are weird) then that same idiot (or one of his/her fellow idiots) pulled the fire alarm, sending 750 students out of their classrooms to evacuate the building.

Do you have any idea what a bunch of chickens do when a gaggle of teenagers (or should they be called a murder of teenagers?) decend on them?

There was a whole lot of chicken crap in the hall is all I know. I’m glad I wasn’t the one who had to clean up the mess.

As the blogs turn ... a melodrama of the internet sort

While I do have to admit to being a little curious about a lot of the blog dramas and wars. I try to stay out of most of them for a few reasons.

The energy it takes to stay that pissed off for that long is just too much for me to waste on something so negative.

They get boring. Most of the time they appear to be about the same damn thing. Often repeated verbatim. (oooh impressive word, yes? *s*)

I just don't want people to think of me in the same way that I've found myself thinking of some of the respondants in these little melodramatic soap opera like moments.

So yes ... my blog is fluffy (except for the bits about the breast cancer walk). I often post youtube videos and other silly things just because they make me smile or feel good. Sometimes I'll rant ... usually about stuff that no one can really do anything about but it's better than talking to myself.

I figure as long as what I put up here helps me feel better and is hopefully not damaging others then life is good.

If I have an issue with someone I'll either sit and stew quietly to myself and maybe avoid them, or I'll have it out with them. It really depends on how much I care if I get to spend more time with that someone. If I don't care, I'll stew quietly and avoid. If I want to work things out I'll talk to them.

*rant over*

Thursday 13

Thirteen things about my week


1. My cable crapped out on me soon after I finished last weeks Thursday 13 (crossing fingers it won't happen again) and didn't get fixed until late Monday evening.

2. I found out how pathetically I'm addicted to my electronic toys. At first it was oh well...I can't go online (cable internet) I'll just go watch TV... *sigh* Of course no cable means no channels for me to watch LOL.

3. I found out I am able to walk 20 km in one day (yes I did it on purpose *s*) and I'm still able to walk the next day (with only a few aches and 1 giant knot in my calf muscle I had to work out)

4. I can quite happily entertain myself with books and music. God help me if I'd lost my music as well as the cable though!

5. Did I mention I walked 20 km? *s* Thank goodness for good running shoes!

6. I thought up a few ideas for baskets/packages to use as draw items for my Weekend to End Breast Cancer fund raiser (to go along with the books). I'll post about those tomorrow *hopefully*

7. I was given an interesting, and very tempting, job proposition that I'm considering. (Instead of going back to the school in the new school year. Which ever school that may be. The school division SUCKS when it comes to staffing the paraprofessionals. In the past there have been way too many years I didn't find out about the next years placement until the last day of work before summer holidays)

8. TWENTY KILOMETRES!!!! (I boggle my mind *g*)

9. I think I just might make it through this school year. OH. MY. GOD! It's been a challenging one. I'm exhausted.

10. I bought Michael Bublé's new CD and I've really been enjoying it. Well most of it. Who ever told him the version he did of Wonderful tonight was good should be shot. *sigh* I love Clapton's version of that song and Michael's version SUCKS. Always On My Mind is a bit of a snoozer too. The rest of the cd is great though :) I wish I'd known there was an extra song on the online/downloadable version though. I would have bought it instead.

11. I've still got fingers crossed about another job I applied for (one different from the proposition mentioned earlier *s*)

12. 20 kilometres ... in one day! I need to do that again this coming weekend. It will be more difficult though if the weather is as it's forecast. The weather dude is predicting rain.

13. I found more yummy recipies I'm going to be trying on the BBQ :) I love BBQ season lol




Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday 13

THIRTEEN MOVIES THAT ROCK THE CASBAH 1. The Princess Bride (really could it get much better than this???) 2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail 3. The Wedding Date (yes it's corny and a chick flick but it makes me happy) 4. Pirate's of the Caribbean 5. The original Star Wars trilogy (it's my list, if I want to count this as 1 I can!) 6. The Indiana Jones trilogy 7. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 8. The Muppet Movie (the first one) 9. The Wedding Singer 10. Wait Until Dark (Audrey Hepburn was amazing) 11. Grease (the first one ONLY. Grease 2 was horrid) 12. Mary Poppins 13. Robin Hood - Men In Tights (silly and irreverent and wonderful) Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Someone stole my damn links

*sigh*

Fuckers!

This was sent to a yahoo group I'm in

*snort*

I need to start swearing more *g*

It was like a party in my pants...

a surprise party at that. I'd forgot that my cell phone was in my pocket. I never hear the damn thing so it was set on high ... apparently on so high that it also vibrates with the first couple of rings.

Holy. Crap.

I'm glad I wasn't driving.

I think I'm going to have to give more people my cell phone number *g*

shut up Jaynie. LOL