Not just the convenience of them being nearby but having the owners/workers know you by name and a friendly smile on their faces. I won't kep going back to one that's unfriendly or unappreciative of my business.

I found a short Vader story I liked, A Jedi by compass_ink at http://community.livejournal.com/sw_saga_drabble/6730.html.

I have reconnected with a few lost friends that don't live nearby. I think our reltionship now is very meaningful and without some of the "guidelines" we went by as children. Now and then I run across someone I'd rather have stay in the past.:)

I still haven't gotten back into a good routine yet. All the volunteering at the Saturday football games is doing me in. I walked into the house and I swear there have been strangers messing everything up while we were gone.:)

I'm making big sandwitches with mac & cheese for dinner and will sit back and watch my taped Clone Wars episode I didn't get to see last night.

Doctor's office all morning, no swine just regular flu he thinks since my tests were inconclusive. What the heck does that mean? The office was packed with people, if I didn't have something going in I surely would have before coming out. Got over to the pharmacy, line a mile long and a very irritatated clerk. Point me to the bed NOW.......

The past few weeks have really been a bad time for me. I keep telling myself that it's just one of those low spots in life and things WILL improve. Family illnesses, job troubles, financial troubles, and marital troubles does not a happy mixture make.

I'm glad to see that theclonewars is still doing well even though I haven't been able to post recently. I just zip in now and again to make sure it's still there because the community's still dear to my heart.

I'm tired. No, I'm past tired. I did an Easter egg hunt, a cookout, shopping, housework, yardwork, cooked a ham with a bunch of other stuff, did a ton of laundry, visited with a friend who stopped by unexpectedly, read a bunch of stuff on LJ, and now I'm so tired and sleepy that I think I'll fall asleep when I get in the shower. But I don't want to go to bed early! Who wants to go to bed early on a Saturday night.

Let's see, Thursday I watched Supernatural. Twas a rerun with Dean in those gym teacher shorts and young Sammy who was cuter than older Sammy. Then there was the preview of the new one with the new Winchester brother and I'm not at all impressed with him or his looks. Afterwards, I switched channels and watched Harper's Island, an excellent new mystery show. I tried to stay up to watch CSI and another new show, Southland, but fell asleep.

Friday...what did I watch last night? Sarah Connor Chronicles, that's what. It was the season finale and if I'd gotten a bit lukewarm about the show then last night's episode fixed that. I want to know what happens next and how John will deal with meeting Allison. Then I tried to watch a horror movie with a mother and two daughters moving into an old house in nowhereland and watched by zombie children. It was weird but I really wanted to see the end but WHAT DID I DO? You got it, fell asleep. I can sleep sitting up now. I expect to progress to sleeping standing up in the near future.

Harry Potter's the Chosen One? Gosh, I thought Anakin Skywalker was. No wonder the Jedi got killed off, they picked the wrong savior.

I'm thinking about trying to write more of my "Gone" story. It's been probably almost two hours since I've worked any on it. But I'd hate to just give up on a Vader story just because life got busy for a while.

There's rain forecast for Easter Sunday. Not just rain but storms, won't that be nice to slosh around in to church and back.

I'm off work for TEN WHOLE DAYS starting tomorrow! *hyperventilates*

I don't know what I even want to do but I know it will be pleasant to get up and not have to be anywhere or dress a certain way, not counting Easter Sunday morning.

And it's a Supernatural night!

I'll be a Star Wars fangirl forever...my username comes from the character Anakin Skywalker.

I caught the last half of Supernatural tonight. I'd already seen it and though it's a little silly, I'll always watch an episode. I love the closeups of Dean, I can see his freckles.:)

I've found a new author that I like, her name's Carol O'Connell. I've just finished reading "Bone by Bone" and loved it. It's a mystery book and the characters are really intricate and quirky. I've looked her up and apparently she's the author of several books featuring the character Kathy Mallory. I'll have to look for those at the library.

Here's some information about O'Connell:

Carol O'Connell - Wikipedia

Watching Mallory Grow a Soul
The Fiction of Carol O'Connell

Mystery author Carol O'Connell drops by San Mateo

I've never read any of her Mallory books, I don't know how I missed them.

Awake between 5:30 and 6:00 am.

I drink a glass of Coke or Dr. Pepper to jump start my brain, rarely coffee unless I have a cup after getting to work.

Make sure one child's up by 6:00 and the other by 6:30.

Sometimes I cook breakfast and sometimes I suggest everyone just eat cereal.

After I get a little food on my stomach I take my medicine.

I take my shower and do my hair and face quickly.

I need to be leaving the house by 7:40 or I'll be late for work.

On Saturdays and Sundays, everything happens an hour or so later.

I did not sleep well last night, I kept waking up and I was having really strange dreams.

I watched Sarah Connor Chronicles last night though I was a bit confused at first. I still can't tell who's on who's side and I don't understand too well about all the future things.

Valentine's Day, huh. I picked up a few gifts for family, mostly chocolate, of course, but just wasn't in the mood for it this year.

Is it really Friday? I hope so because I am really banking on it being Friday today...

When I was a kid, I watched this weird made-for-TV movie where something happened...something to do with an odd flare of the sun?...and most people disappeared, literally, leaving their clothing behind. One family had been down in something while on vacation and weren't exposed so they survived except for mom who had stayed home. All the animals started going rabid and there are scenes where dogs are after them and they found a woman hiding in a car and clutching a doll or something. This movie really bugged me and I was afraid of everyone disappearing.

It's been a while since I've been home sick but that's where I am today. Hurting ears plus a sore throat plus feeling like I'm walking sideways were some of the symptoms that convinced me to stay here and not breathe on others at work. And I'm hungry and keep nibbling here and there but nothing has a taste. I don't feel like writing and don't even want to watch TV. Have you seen the junk on daytime TV? I watched it when my children were very small and I was home a couple of years with them but I find I don't want to repeat the experience.

I finished Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. I've had the book for a while and had kind of spot read it. I'm very glad I went back to read all of it. It spotlights some of the people who worked on the Death Star before it was destroyed. Just ordinary people trying to make a living...a doctor, an architect, a lady who ran the cantina, a bouncer, a librarian, etc. It makes you see things differently. Not all beings who worked for the Empire were "bad." They were just living their life and working and doing everyday things. In the film, A New Hope, we see just a little bit of the enormous space station. We don't see the crews' quarters, the medbay, the library, the park, the cantinas, the shops. It really was like a city. The only thing that bothers me are a couple of parts about Vader and how it says he's unable to be out of his suit even in his hyperbaric chamber, which completely contradicts what author Steve Perry wrote in a previous novel that had him sitting in it naked. I seem to remember there was a discussion at meditation_pod a year or so ago about it too.

Now I've started on Amanda Quick's The Third Circle. She's probably the only "romance" author I read nowadays but I like her stories, they're hilarious and usually involve a mystery. I couldn't find the latest Coruscant Nights book, I'll keep looking and hope I don't have to order it.

Earlier I read about the The Son of Suns myth at StarWars.com, where someone proved that that phrase WASN'T actually shouted at the celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi or at the celebration on Naboo at the end of The Phantom Menace, and wasn't even in the original Star Wars novel. The phrase being shouted was something in Huttese and nobody knows what it means. But I really did think it was in the original novel where Journal of the Whills was mentioned. It was actually in early scripts, of either the movie or novel, I'm not clear on which. I just thought it was a bit of a letdown. I liked the idea of the Son of Suns and it meaning either Anakin or his son, Luke.

My head is pounding now and the couch is calling softly to me...

I had one that said to stick with my mate because we were most compatible. It would be laughable to anyone who knows us since we are polar opposites and rarely manage to meet in the middle on anything.:)

Well, the weekend really started off with a bang. I won't bore you with domestic details but let's just say I had to take extreme measures not to explode and permanently sever all ties with a certain family member. So I removed myself from the situation and filled the night with a few calming activities such as dinner out and a movie. None of which I could really afford but sometimes you just have to for sanity's sake.

The movie I saw on the spur of the moment was The Uninvited. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was just the kind of creepy-but-not-overly-gory horror/mystery type movie that I like. And I DIDN'T accurately predict the end which always makes me smile. But the people who played in the film...I knew I'd seen them before but couldn't think where so I had to look them up this morning. Emily Browning played the lead character of Anna and no wonder she looked familiar, she was Violet in A Series of Unfortunate Events. The other daughter Alex was played by Arielle Kebbel and she'd been in The Grudge 2. The wicked soon-to-be stepmom Rachael was played by Elizabeth Banks who is Betty Brant in all three Spider-Man movies and also in the Commanche Moon mini-series I'd watched a year or so ago.

The Clone Wars was just getting over from it's second airing when I got home which put me in a grumpy mood. I did catch it this morning so that's okay. Anakin and Obi-wan togetherness and snow made for an interesting show. I caught the last half of a show called Lie to Me. Tim Roth from The Incredible Hulk movie plays the lead character. It was interesting enough that I'll try to catch it again...I think it airs Wednesday? I found a community for it at lietome_tv.

I have high hopes today will be a quiet and uneventful day though from what I can tell, everybody else is out of sorts too. I guess it filters down. At least the freezing temperatures have let up enough that it's almost comfortable outside.

Yes, when I was a kid and still remember it and think of it every once in a while. So, I'd say yeah, there's a bit of guilt working there.

Alas, my dear Supernatural writers, you have found the path to boredom. Three and a half years of greatness and now you're churning out mediocre that's been done countless times in other shows.

Eleventh Hour, you were wonderful but I gave in and fell asleep during a commercial. Help flist? Did anyone see the last 20 minutes of the show?

I used to depend on The Recapist when I did regrettable things like falling asleep during a favorite show but now their writers have deserted them, rightly so since they were going from being paid to volunteering.

I found it! You can find just about anything on YouTube. This is the song I remember from the original My Bloody Valentine movie. My son says it's dorky but I like it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKaYV45Klk&feature=related

I LOVE Winnie the Pooh! Milne was a genius with the characters.

I'd like to say I identify more with Tigger because he's the "cool" character, but if I'm honest then I keep thinking of poor Rabbit and how he likes everything ordered and neat and the others are always turning everything upside down and upsetting him. I like routine and everything just so too and get kind of panicky when things detour from that.:)

I went with friends to see My Bloody Valentine earlier tonight. You'll notice that neither husband nor 3-D was included in that first sentence. That's because the husband won't pay to see a movie so I had to leave him home watching some kind of documentary about how MACHINE PARTS ARE MADE, I kid you not. And my wonderful hometown did not have the 3-D version of My Bloody Valentine. I thought about not seeing it but then I thought about Jensen Ackles and found myself in the long line around the corner. I bought tickets for two teens I knew to get in...hey, I was a teen once and I remember how exciting it was to slip into an R movie. I'm a good supervisor, I told them to close their eyes during any nudity. The language, well, I'm sure they hear worse at the high school.

Anyway, it was most definitely a bloody movie. People were stabbed, sliced, gored, and dismembered in a variety of ways. But Jensen Ackles was very handsome on the big screen. This movie made all the old Friday the 13th and Halloween movies look tame. And Jensen Ackles was extremely handsome on the big screen. And there was nudity and sex of the loudest kind and some idiot running naked all over creation. But I could see the green of Jensen Ackles' eyes on the big screen. The only thing I didn't like was that it didn't have the song the 80's version had at the end..."Oh, the legend they say, of the Valentine's Day..." or something like that. I liked that song and used to hum it. Seriously.:)

I'm feeling pretty bleary-eyed this morning after trying to stay up and watch CSI when it repeated at 11 PM since I watched Supernatural when it was on the first time. And I was trying to read Order 66 during the commercials so I'm paying for it this morning with a headache. But then I haven't slept well all week, I was awake again at 4:30 this morning and never could go back to sleep. Anyway...

*Mild SPOILERS* Supernatural was a nice "normal" show, meaning no demons or angels, just a regular hunt for the boys. I had one friend call me and say "it's boring!" but I didn't think so. OK, so it did follow the old horror movie formula of the family moves from the city to the house and has the teenage girl who's not happy about it and the son who nobody believes. I never figured out what the uncle was for. I think I'll rewatch it later though since I got a call in the middle of it by someone WHO SHOULD KNOW not to call me on Thursdays between 8 and 9 PM, and I'm kind of fuzzy on some parts.

I missed Smallville, AGAIN. I'm actually not even sure it was on last night? If I missed anything, somebody tell me about it.

*Major SPOILERS! DON'T LOOK IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH THE SHOW!* I saw the very beginning of the first CSI episode and the last part of the second. My husband wanted to watch some kind of real-life depressing something and then I took the TV back to watch Supernatural. I tried to watch it again when it came on again later but was unsuccessful. That means I fell asleep during the first commercial and wasn't bright enough to record it. Anyway, from what I saw it was all sad because Grissom was leaving. There was a big storyline about a killer/kidnapper? but that's the part I'm not sure about. But they caught him and rescued some poor girl who was about to be killed. Hodges looked like he was going to come apart and there's still a BIG hole where Warwick should be. The new guy Langston was on it but not hired as part of the team yet. Then at the end we get Grissom treking his way through Costa Rica and who's at the end of the trail but Sara. When I saw her, I forgave the writers and everybody else for anything they'd ever done with the show. I have been a Grissom/Sara fan since the first time I saw them together and my little fangirl heart was just full of glee at the unexpected happy ending. Did you SEE the way he snatched her up and kissed her? Perfect.

*SPOILERS* Eleventh Hour was good, worth watching to see Jacob in the shower and then later with the wet hair and white t-shirt sticking to him. I hope somebody does some icons of the scenes cause I want them. And of course, he responded only to Rachel. They're sweet together, no major sparks, but they kind of fit somehow. I looked for communities for the show but they are scarce which is hard to believe, isn't the show fairly successful in the ratings? I joined one community but there's not much there yet, eleventhhour_us.

Don't forget to check out theclonewars, there's some good discussions going on about the last couple of episodes.

I tried to sleep late this morning and gave myself a HUGE headache. And I have that song by Beyonce stuck in my head..."if you liked it then you should'a put a ring on it"...over and over in a loop. I haven't done too much since I did get up. One load of laundry and the dishes I'd left in the sink from last night. We're headed for a big temperature change, it was in the high 60's this morning and now it's dropping to the 40's by evening and then freezing tonight. Up and down and all over, I never know how to dress. But hey, at least there's no work today.

*Mild SPOILERS* Who watched The Clone Wars last night? I laughed my way through it. Dooku, Obi-Wan, and Anakin running around in those ring things like some kind of chain gang. I'll tell you what it reminded me of, we used to watch reruns of the old Charlie's Angels series and there's one episode where they're undercover at a women's prison and make an escape. they're handcuffed to these chains and connected together. Farrah Fawcett's Jill is in the middle and Jacklyn Smith and Kate Jackson are jerking her this way and that and then they're trying to run and stumbling all over. Anyway, there's one part where they're all hanging and Anakin's saying "Drop Dooku!" I really enjoyed watching the space pirates more than anything else, some really good characterizations. I posted a link to an interview with the guy who did the lead pirate's voice over at theclonewars so check it out.

I wanted to see The Day the Earth Stood Still this weekend but I looked at the listings earlier and it's no longer playing here. There's The Unborn which is a horror movie and I don't know too much about it. I'm crossing my fingers that our theater will get My Bloody Valentine 3-D when it's out next weekend! The thought of Jensen Ackles on the big screen makes my heart thump faster. I still haven't bought The Dark Knight DVD, money's still a bit short after the holidays. I hear the movie won several awards on the People's Choice Awards that was on earlier this week.

This felt like an extremely long day. I worked half a day, then ran home to change and go to a funeral for a guy I'd worked with several years ago. Then the kids had to be at different places, and everyone was starving when we made it in. I'll be glad when we get more daylight hours instead of it being dark before 6 PM.

*Mild spoilers!* I finished Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor last night. It was a very good story which takes place a couple of years after Return of the Jedi. Luke is struggling to do everything...be a Jedi, be a general (a job he did not want), and it's obvious he's still very upset with what happened with his father. The rest of the gang is there, Han, Leia, the droids, Wedge and the other pilots, Nick Rostu, and Lando. This is a good book to read for those of you who are Lando fans. We see the other side of him, his brilliance as a military general. The plotline itself was kind of strange, Lord Shadowspawn was nothing like I thought he'd be.

*Spoilers, though it's a rerun so you've probably seen it.* I also watched Supernatural last night but missed Smallville again. Dean and Anna go well together, she's not his usual type. I reluctantly find myself getting attached to new!Ruby. It's still like she's a completely different character from Katie Cassidy's Ruby but I'm starting to like her, which means they'll probably get rid of her now. I closed my eyes through the torture part, that just squicked me so bad. Okay...Alistair injured her with that special knife. Injured the body she currently occupies. Will she still heal? I assume so, she would if it were any other injuries, but last we saw of her she still didn't look too good. The end part with Dean confessing what he did in hell after being brutally tortured by Alistair for 30 years was heartbreaking. And Sam sat there like a bump on a log and offered little comfort. I know he can't fix it and really, what words could comfort much, but a comforting hand on the shoulder, a damned brotherly hug, something. What did you think of the previews for next week's new show with Dean hanging by a rope/noose?

Tomorrow's a new episode of The Clone Wars, continuing the Dooku and space pirates story from last week. Anakin and Obi-Wan managed to get themselves captured and locked up with Dooku. These must be some super pirates, so far they've caught a Sith, a Jedi Master, and the best Jedi Knight there ever was. All without very much effort at all.:)

Hmmmm...it doesn't feel like a new year yet. It actually feels like a Saturday since I'm not at work. And I have all day to do what I want, doesn't that sound nice? Should I read? Write a little? Pack away the remaining Christmas things? I know I'll cook a bit this afternoon. Black-eyed peas and rice, cornbread, cabbage, and ham. That's what you're suppose to have for New Year's for good luck. I know some of you may cringe at the black-eyed peas and cabbage part but you wouldn't if you were here 'cause I season my stuff WELL. The peas will contain fresh peppers and other seasonings with spicy smoked sausage. I add a lot of seasonings to the cabbage too and slice it in chunks so it cooks but doesn't get mushy.

Last night I went over to my friends' house and we sat around a fire outside. None of us had bought fireworks but some of the neighbors had them. It was still early when I got home and Itried to watch the New Year's show on TV but had no company since everyone else went to bed. So as usual, I rang in the New Year alone.

There were at least 2 different Clone Wars episodes that ran on CN yesterday. I believe they've rerun the one about Unduli, Ventress, and Ahsoka more than any other one. I haven't finished Wild Space, too many happenings this week, but I'm working on it. Now I have to look for Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.

Rain and flooding and tornados and repairmen and spending too much money and misplaced children and Christmas lights that don't work. Yeah, it was THAT kind of day.:)

Anyway, we have had some bad weather here today and had a tornado scare at work. Nothing touched down in our immediate area but the radar showed a tornado passed over us and there were reports of one touching down off the highway south of town. At the time I wasn't all that worried, it was only later that I started thinking of all the bad things that could have happened. And it bugs me that my oldest child is at another school this year and I wouldn't be able to get to her easily during some kind of disaster.

My Christmas decorations are floating in the yard, literally, I'm not kidding. I'll be scared to plug anything up for a week.

I'll always love the old Battlestar Galactica:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOEgjKZAsUk&feature=related

The profile pages...are they staying this way? At first I just thought LJ was doing a little work but then I read this was the new design???...and I can't half read it. All the names just run together, especially the communities and friends. They could have just designed some new layout choices and colors, why mess up a good thing. I mean, were people complaining about the old profile look?

I had to actually hold my eyelids open to see Clone Wars tonight, not because it wasn't good, it was one of the best so far, but I was so exhausted and took my meds too early so was a walking zombie. R3 was hilarious, I wonder if he'll continue on the series. I'd like to see Obi-Wan saddled with him for a bit.:)

Finally woke up good as the show was ending and caught the last half hour of Crusoe afterwards. Uhhhh...does anyone but me think stranded Crusoe and Friday are a bit too lovey-dovey friendly with each other? And I'd swear that was Jack's boat they lost...and then there was the soon-to-be broken compass.

Life moved away to Wednesday nights, I'll never remember it there. But hubby wanted the PBR bull riding anyway so we watched the ending of that though I think it continues for the next two nights. I don't really watch anything Saturday and Sunday nights anyway.

No more Grissom and Sara, what a letdown. I waited forever for these two to get together and then was shocked out of my skin when the writers finally obliged. At least Grissom's suffering. He deserves to after all those years when lonely Sara was pining for him.

Supernatural...wishing well. A lame story idea but a hilarious episode. The teddy bear part completely freaked me out, loved the little girl though, she was so sensible. Poor Dean with all his nasty dreams. I really don't think he remembers everything like he claimed though, I think if he did his mind would blow.

I saw Smallville! The complete episode too. I liked kickass Lois, too bad she can't stay that way, she'd eat Clark for breakfast. Chloe...wow, she's one determined woman. And can Davis get any damn sexier? Only Sam Witwer could make that ugly uniform look good. I was always for Chloe and Jimmy but now I'm not sure, Davis is very appealing. Did anybody notice the tension between Tess and Oliver? Wouldn't that be a match made in hell.

I like Life on Mars too though Sam needs to tone down his WTF expressions, he's a cop and needs to control his face/behavior/big mouth more. Poor Gene, he practically creaks when he moves. I've heard there was a big slash thing going among fans of the British version, Sam/Gene. I can't imagine that in this version though, too big of an age difference.

Eleventh Hour was okay, not the best out of the episodes so far. I liked the part about Rachel being possibly exposed to the smallpox. Jacob was very unsettled at seeing her shut up instead of at his side.

I wish my head would stop HURTING. First I had the flu for almost 2 weeks, then was better for a week and then had a relapse. It's too early in the season to be sick.

Very tired...just got back...hope I didn't miss anything...going to sleep.

Supernatural...I love you.:]

I am so happy, my show was on, it was new, and Dean's not dead. Hope I didn't just spoil somebody but you know EVERYBODY knows Dean was not dead. Or if he was dead, then he's not anymore. Sam was...strange. I won't say anymore but if you saw the show then you know what I mean.

And Smallville...I'm hooked again! No Lex but it was still good, found a bit of that old magic or something. I even felt kindly towards Clark. And Sam Witwer will be on future shows playing new guy Davis who's also new villain Doomsday. I LIKE Sam Witwer, he's unusual looking but very enticing.

Thursdays are wonderful again...

Club Jade posted news of the expansion of Cartoon Network's Clone Wars site. Check it out here:

http://theclonewars.cartoonnetwork.com/

I can hardly believe The Clone Wars is out today! Must go see it, must go see it, cause I can't even think until I do.:)

I felt like crap all day and was ever so glad to get home. I needed to buy two birthday gifts plus pick up some things at the grocery store but it'll just have to wait another day. I think it's just some kind of allergy and I took some Benadryl and some ibuprofen for the headache part.

The wind's kind of blowing like it wants to rain. That would be fine with me, save my yard.

If you haven't checked out theclonewars recently then go take a look. There's more and more things to post about and membership has picked up. There are some great videos too, different trailers for the movie.

Last night a friend was asking me about all the pets I'd had in the past. The first cat I remember having was named Melinda. My father found her wandering on the road, a little scrawny black kitten. I kept her with me all the time. She never turned into a big cat and her hair was more dark brown than black on her sides and sometimes it looked kind of strange. She was a good-natured cat, she stayed inside when she wanted and wandered outside in the yard when she wanted. Back then my family never had the money for vet visits so she had a batch of kittens every year. She lived to be almost 9 years old which was old for a cat in our rough neighborhood with stray dogs everywhere, but we had a fenced-in yard so that's probably what saved her. The town still has no laws about stray animals and the animal shelter in the nearest city about 20 minutes away won't do anything either, just in their city limits. My sister still lives in the area where we grew up near my mother and says the problem is just as bad as it was, maybe worse.

Anyway, I had named Melinda after a little girl I went to school with for about half a year. We had become fast friends but then one day she said they had to move again, I think they moved around quite a bit, why they did I don't know. I was heartbroken because I knew we could have been friends forever, something just clicked between us, and I felt closer to her than the other kids I'd always been around. She didn't even know where they were moving to but I gave her my address. I never heard from her though and that was a lonely few months. I was a strange and moody child and my family was kind of weird so sometimes the other kids seemed kind of suspicious of me, but Melinda just accepted me the way I was. Isn't it strange how things like that stick with you.

Whoever keeps dropping half-grown cats off at my house PLEASE STOP IT. I can barely afford to take care of my own pets properly and just because you see that I do have pets and therefore must like animals DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT'S OKAY FOR YOU TO DROP YOUR UNWANTED ONES OFF IN MY YARD. It is not a more the merrier type thing. I lose work hours trying to catch them and take them to the local animal shelter so they don't starve, get run over, or give my pets some kind of sickness. Last year it was dogs, this summer it's been cats.

I drug out all the packs of photos that I've had developed over the past 2 to 3 years and haven't put into photo albums or anything. Then I just kind of stood there looking at it in dismay since there were so MANY of them. Once upon a time they went into an album as soon as I brought them home. Now it's a big mess. I know many people save their pictures on a disk, and I do have some that way, mostly vacation pictures or special day/holiday things, but I like having the actual photos too and being able to just pull an album out of a shelf and look through it.

The crazy dog ran off this evening and I almost didn't find him before dark. He usually doesn't do that but apparently something he saw must have been worth the scolding he got when he came dragging home. He just kind of looked at me like "Whatever" and drank over half the water in the big bowl on the porch, went into his kennel and flopped down on the blanket. I didn't shut him in for a while though, I figured he'd need to pee again after all the water-drinking.

I spent most of this evening washing dishes and doing the laundry, piles and piles of it it seemed. I re-washed a bunch of dishes, they'd just been sitting in the shelf so long they felt unclean. My kitchen looks much better, not really that different but I guess I know how much cleaner it is under the surface. I even cleaned out the fridge, even pulled the drawer out to clean the icky stuff that runs into that drain. Where does that mess come from anyway? There was nothing spilled and I'm always careful about covering things, but everytime I look there's always gunk in the drain hole. My bedroom looks better too though I'm not finished with it. All of my clothes were either dirty or hanging wrinkled on the chair, so having gotten all of them through the wash, folded and hung, it doesn't even look like the same room. Do you suppose the Grouch will notice?

I did not sleep well last night and finally got up a few minutes ago instead of rolling around another hour. The dog yapped all night, I looked out several times but didn't see whatever he saw/heard. I know we have an armodillo since there are little holes all around the oak tree in my front yard. And something keeps getting in the garbage cans, probably a raccoon, so maybe that's what's bugging the dog at night.

Last night I looked to see what new shows would be on the fall season. Of course, I know the best will be the Clone Wars series.:] But I realized that several of my other favorites won't be back, Moonlight, Journeyman, K-Ville, Cane, Bionic Woman. K-Ville was cancelled early on, it was never given a chance to catch on which was a shame as it was an excellent show with a background of what happened after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Cane wasn't given much of a chance either. I think the biggest surprise though was Moonlight being cancelled. The show seemed to have a large following and had such a wonderful cast. I think CBS made a big mistake in its cancellation.

Returning favorites would be Supernatural, CSI, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, Eli Stone, Without a Trace, Bones, Smallville, The Closer, Saving Grace, Burn Notice, Life, Flashpoint, and Ghost Whisperer. So I guess I still have something to watch after all. I used to watch One Tree Hill and CSI Miami but didn't this past year. I still intend to get the satellite guy to come and run another line to the bedroom, it's too much of a struggle to convince the Grouch to watch any of these. He'd keep it on the weather or a nature program.

New programs I ran across that I'm interested in are Life on Mars, Eleventh Hour, The Mentalist, and Fringe. That doesn't seem like too many does it but then I have a hard time already watching the others.

Hmmmm...now I think I could go back to sleep but I have to get ready for work...

Mild *SPOILERS*!

If you like Star Wars in any kind of way, The Clone Wars novel is for you. I really like the way Karen Traviss saw the characters and all the little details about them, most notably the usually gloomy Anakin who turns out to have very deep thoughts and a quirky sense of humor. The clone Captain Cody also stands out as does...surprise!...Jabba, who's much more intelligent than he looks. Ahsoka was also surprisingly likeable. There wasn't as much Obi-Wan as I thought there'd be and Padme doesn't have much of a part until closer to the end. Palpatine sniggers to himself over the Jedi's inability to detect him in their midst and I don't blame him for that.

I was disappointed when I got to the end, not in the book but that there was no more to read. Guess that means I liked it.:)

I drove almost an hour and a half to find a bookstore to get The Clone Wars book...and they didn't have it. I looked and looked, knowing it came out Saturday, and since this is a large chain bookstore, they should have it. WRONG. I finally asked for help thinking it's just under my nose and I'm not seeing it. A clerk looks it up on her handy dandy computer which says the book is in the store. She looks all over. Can't find it but she says she was new so maybe she's not looking in the right place and asks someone else. 2nd clerk says it must be in the back and not put on the shelf yet. 3rd clerk says no, don't have it since it came out on an odd day, Saturday instead of Tuesdays or whatever day they're suppose to be out, and they'd get it tomorrow and come back then. Uhhhh...no. Do you know how much gas it took to get there? Granted, I did other errands and bought things I needed but I mainly drove all that way for the book and I wasn't about to do it again tomorrow. So I zipped on over to the mall and the other major bookstore there...though small...has a whole display of the book. On sale, plus I got a whopping discount. I like them. And there were shelves of all the young reader books and everything else you could think of to do with The Clone Wars. I drooled over them and looked through some pages but only bought my hardcover. Hopefully I can gradually buy the others here and there.

I've read one chapter so far, about Jabba, but you can bet I'll be hugged up with it later tonight.:)

I watched Flashpoint, I think it was on CBS, and was impressed. Though most of the show didn't focus on the regular actors and actresses, but on a guest star portraying a young guy trying not to get caught up in drugs again and finds himself right in the middle of everything. This kid could act. And I've either seen him before or he reminds me of someone, but I didn't catch his name. He kind of looked like a younger version of Hayden Christensen in a way. I'll have to try to remember to watch the show again next week though of course that guy won't be on it.

The new Supernatural premieres September 18....just two months from now. And Dean doesn't stay dead for long and Sam meets another girl...don't you just hate it when they hunt up another one. Though I did warm up to Ruby and Bela was OK, I still want JUST DEAN AND SAM, no distractions. But both Ruby and Bela are suppose to be gone and nothing's been mentioned about Jo coming back. There's to be either a flashback or time travel show to give us John and Mary when they were younger.

And Grissom's leaving CSI. Again. Now doesn't that suck. Wait years for Grissom and Sara to get together, am shocked when the writers actually do put them together, and now they keep leaving.

I got behind on updating theclonewars. Actually my Internet service was kind of goofy for a few days, though they'd claimed this broadband doesn't do that but I can assure you it does, but I got behind and then we were gone a couple of days too. I'm not getting a whole lot of response to the posts but hopefully members are looking at them. I think we had 67 members last time I looked. I guess I need to promote the community more but I always hated to push anything on anybody. I'm thinking that when the movie comes out maybe more people will respond and find the community.

I am still stunned after seeing The Dark Knight. It was just as good as everyone said and Heath Ledger was brilliant, his best acting yet, no doubt, and he deserves any award they can think up to give him. Christian Bale was great, better and handsomer than in the other movie. Maggie Gyllanhaal I liked too. My friend thought she was ugly, I say she's beautiful but in a different way. And I love Alfred, I want him for my friend. I didn't like Harvey, cookie cutter clean cut, but then I suppose that's how he was suppose to look. But his new face squicked me big time. I think it's about 2 1/2 hours long but it didn't seem like it since the story moved along so quickly.

GO SEE IT!

Hey guys, if you haven't watched Burn Notice yet, there's a new show on tonight! Check it out, you won't be sorry you did. I had heard about this show but didn't have much interest. But then I kind of accidently watched it...meaning it was on that channel and I couldn't locate the remote which turned out to be under the blanket with the Grouch who was sleeping on the couch...and fell in love with it. Excellent and unusual characters. Watch it.