To all my friends, I wish you joy and hope and happiness and friendship and love and all good things.  I appreciate you more than I can ever manage to tell you – my life would be poor indeed without you.  May the upcoming year be the best you’ve ever had (of course, I’ll make the same wish for the following year too!). 

For which I’m grateful.  The gang took me out for dinner at my favorite restaurant to celebrate my birthday last night.  We had a lovely time (I have great friends).  After getting home and saying goodbye to everyone, I spent 45 minutes in the hot tub just relaxing and then went to bed.  I managed feeling comfortable with turning off all the lights in the house, so I guess I’ve fully recovered from my Monday morning adventures!  It’s so weird to think that we’re only a week away from Christmas and only two weeks from a new year.  Time passes so quickly!

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!! REPOST with name of high school and graduating year in the subject box.

 

1.      Did you date someone from your school?  

Once, then I went for older (jr. college) men

2.      Did you marry someone from your high school?  

No (one of those jr. college men)

3.      Did you car pool to school? 

No

4.      What kind of car did you have? 

1967 Buick Riviera, totally restored

5.      What kind of car do you have now? 

Prius

6.      Its Friday night…where were you? 

Dance

7.      It is Sat night…where are you? 

Home or at friends’ house

8.      What kind of job did you have in high school?

Babysitting

9.      What kind of job do you do now? 

Attorney

10.    Were you a party animal?  

Oh yeah

11.    Were you considered a flirt? 

By some

12.    Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?  

No, that would have been way too uncool

13.    Were you a nerd? 

No

14.    Did you get suspended or expelled? 

No

15.    Can you sing the fight song? 

No

16.    Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?  Senior Year? 

Sr. Duarte, Spanish

17.    Where did you sit during lunch? 

Generally, in the orchard across from the school, along with the rest of my “stoner” friends (yes, really)

18.    What was your school’s full name?   

Fremont High School, Sunnyvale, CA

19.    When did you graduate?  

1976

20.    What was your school mascot?

Indians

21.    If you could go back and do it again, would you? 

Only if I got to keep what I know now

22.    Did you have fun at Prom? 

As far as I can remember

23.    Would you talk to the person you went to Prom with?   

Wouldn’t recognize him if I tripped over him

24.    Are you planning on going to your next reunion?   

No, graduated a year early so didn’t really know anyone in my graduating class

25.    Do you still talk to people from school?   

No – long ago and far away

 

Bold: Done it.
Plain: Not done it.
Italics: Wanna do it.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (but not a rock band)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee-jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Got back to sleep about 4am this morning and got up about 9am.  I sent an email to my boss in the wee hours this morning, telling him what happened and asking if he minded me working from home today.  I checked when I woke up and his reply was “of course not – anything I can do to help?”  So, I’ve been working here at home, getting some good work done but not concentrating well.  It would have been worse at the office.  I’ve seen police cars cruise by at least once an hour, and I’m glad to see they weren’t just blowing smoke up my butt when they told me they’d be patrolling today.  My muscles are simply not listening to my brain and are remaining tensed up, so I think I’m going to go spend some time in my whirlpool bath.  Then, I’ll come back and see if I can finish up this license agreement I’ve been working on.   Got over being scared before I woke up, but still pissed off.

Well, all those years of paying Brinks a monthly fee seem to have paid off tonight.  I’m sitting here (at 1:45am) waiting for the police forensics team to show up and see if they can get any fingerprints off my french door and patio door.  I was awakened to the sound of my alarm blaring about half an hour ago.  I armed myself and started turning on lights throughout the back of the house.  When I got out into the living room, I found my french doors bowed inward – enough to break the seal and sound the alarm, but not yet quite open.  I could see the deadbolt still linking both halves of the door, but it was a near thing.  The patio door was closed, but I couldn’t see the gate in the fence without going outside (which I wasn’t about to do).  Brinks called about then, and I told them what I was seeing.  They told me to call 911 immediately, and then they called as well.

There have been a number of home invasion type burglaries in my neighborhood lately.  Most of them have been through doors left unlocked, and most of those have been in the wee hours, but closer to 4am than now.  Because of that, the cops were at my house within just a minute or two.  Six of them were here within the first five minutes after my call, and they’ve fanned out to cover the alleyway and the streets.  (The forensics team just showed up and are dusting the back doors.)  The first cop is upset because he said he and his partner have been patrolling the neighborhood for the past half hour, and he’s pissed that these guys are so brazen they’d try a break-in while the cops were only a couple of streets over.

It’s 2:30 now, and the cops have just left.  They told me that they’ve been answering a lot of alarms that have gone off because the wind has blown doors open tonight.  However, it looks like mine was an actual attempted break-in: the door was dead-bolted and locked at the top and the door-knob as well; with my enclosed patio, there’s just no way for the wind to gust hard enough to blow open french doors that are dead-bolted shut, and; the gate in the backyard was open.  He asked what kind of car I own and said that my Prius is one of the type of cars these guys are going for.  They break in, grab keys and take off with the cars. 

He said they’ll have constant patrols through here the rest of the night.  I don’t know when I’ll get back to sleep though.  I’m feeling shaky and pissed off and very wide awake.  Can I just say how glad I am that I’ve got an alarm system and that I’ve been using it?  And how much better I felt with a .380 in my hand than just sitting scared and alone in my bedroom?  OK, I’m starting to ramble now, so I’m going to sign off and go get a glass of wine.

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Incubus/Succubus   It’s all about feeding, isn’t it?  You pay them back from their energy, though.  You give them something (your drama) that will keep them distracted from life, which you consider a terrible joke.
Sorceror
Ghost
Cthulu Spawn
Vampire
Werewolf
Demon
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Well, after five years, it was time again.  With a family history of colon cancer, I started getting colonoscopies 10 years ago and have to have one every five years.  The procedure itself is not at all a bother – they put you under light sedation and you’re off to lala land.  When you get home, you take a nap and EAT SOLID FOOD for the first time in 48 hours, and you’re back to normal.  It’s the prep that sucks big time.  At least they’ve made it a litte easier than the last time I did this by adding flavoring and sweetener to the noxious stuff you have to drink the night before.  It was much easier to take – not yummy by any stretch of the imagination, mind you – but I didn’t feel like throwing up even once.  An evening in the bathroom just isn’t the most fun way you can spend your time though.

My Dad has to go in every other year because they almost always find and snip off a few polyps – his dad died from colon cancer.  The polyps have always been benign, but those are the ones that are likely to go bad and become a malignant cancer if they’re not caught early.  I’m really hoping that I won’t end up like that.  At any rate, I came through with flying colors.  Not a trace of any abnormality, and I don’t have to do it again for five years.  Yippee!