The Big DumpTruck

I don't have any pictures of me (yet) because my dad took them of me, and I took them of everyone else. So here are Mr. Dump and Junior, as a ghoulish guy (I need to find out what exactly he was calling himself) and a werewolf.

Much fun was had by all! (Except for one guy...see story below pictures)

Coming home down route 2 tonight this guy in an SUV was driving like a [fill in the blank] doing at least 80 or so, and we both commented on how the guy was driving, and I was just thinking "he's probably drunk". I was also thinking I'd be surprised if he made the corner in Harvard near the closed rest area but he did. A cop came flying behind us and we thought that maybe the SUV was being chased, but the cop pulled over someone else (which confused us). Then at the Shirley exit, there were two cops waiting on the side of the road, so we were thinking maybe there was a prison break or something. Another 1/3 mile down the road we see a cop in the median at the Lancaster exit....at the SUV we'd seen earlier smashed head-on into the guardrail as if he'd tried to take the exit and just never bothered to turn his wheel. I was horrified, and couldn't understand why the cop was already there unless he was waiting for something else, like the ones at the Shirley exit. Maybe this guy was taking the exit, saw him there, panicked and tried to change his mind and go back on the highway instead of the exit. I hope this one is in the paper tomorrow because it was very confusing to see 4 cops in a 3 mile stretch of road (wait, 5 if you count the one that was going the other way with his lights on.) Only bad mark on the night, and luckily, it didn't involve us.

What a wonderful day it is here in Leominster-land! It's about 65 degrees out right now, the sun is shining, and by 8pm tonight I'll have a bag of candy to steal from! What more could a gal ask for?

We picked up Mike the fish from the fishsitters, and he seems no worse for the wear. Thanks to C for taking good care of him.

I have a list of things to do a mile long, and I don't think I'll get to half of it. We have soccer at 1:30, and leave for my sister's house for trick or treating around 4:30. Between now and then we should really deal with all the leaves in the yard, put away the furniture from the deck, transfer all the movies off the movie camera onto the computer and then onto disk to share with the other families, go through the photos and send the good ones to CVS to be printed, pick up the prints, finish Junior's journal for school tomorrow...uh, ya, I don't see this all happening today, do you? Add to that I need to re-wash part of the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor, and we want to swap our mattress for the one on the bed in the spare room. It might actually be easier to just start sleeping in the spare room, to tell you the truth.

Well, enough sitting here chatting with you guys, I've got chores to do!

Read all the coverage of the parade...I would have loved to go, but I'm already reeling from the climate change and just the getting back to normal. We had to do laundry, grocery shop, and 100 other things.

The funny thing is that the minute the trip was over (i.e. this morning) I realized that my vacation planning obsession is over for yet another year or more. And I'd been kind of ignoring fall and Halloween because we were busy buying shorts and tshirts. Today we had to buy Halloween candy and costumes (ya, the day before Halloween is a great day to buy a costume. Uh huh.) and other fall stuff. We did get some GREAT costumes at Halloween Costume World in Fitchburg (have you been there? It ROCKS!) candy to give out, and the special candy for the 4 kids we trick-or-treat with (can't be giving them Bit-O-Honey, now, can we?). Oh, and we've watched a trilogy of Halloween movies on the Disney Channel. Have you seen the Halloweentown movies? Probably too scary for tiny kids, but they're actually really, really well done. We've gotten through two of them, and the third is on the Tivo. That certainly helped put us in a Halloween mood!

Here's the photo I took at the parade down at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday.

It was 85 yesterday, and last night when we got home it was 47. For cripes' sakes, that's half! And my car was covered with leaves. I want summer back!

I just realized it's almost November 1st. Which means it's Nanowrimo time again. I am going to give it a shot, but I have a severe lack of enthusiasm. So no special Nanoblog this time, I'll just fold my thoughts in over here. I doubt there will be many of them. (Is this just the post-vacation depression talking?)

Don't know if the photo will post, but Main street is decorated with
Boston ballons, and the Sox (some of them) will be here for a parade at
2pm! Wooooooooooooooooooooo!

Here's a photo from today...I'll give my report later but he was the only one in the parade. Well, his family was in it too. Actually, Mr. Dump was interviewed by the local news (channel 6) which we just watched but they didn't show the interview. And Mr. Dump had The Amazing Bob take his photo with Mrs. Schilling. It's a film camera, so no instant gratification for you, my loyal readers.

UPDATE: Oh crap, I can't upload the picture from this Macintosh - the version of IE or something isn't working well with Blogger and I don't have the link for uploading images. Let me work on it.

I'll have video and photos...if I can't post them tonight I will tomorrow night!

I tried to email a photo but it didn't work! Main Street USA is decorated with Red Sox balloons, and some of the players will be here for the 2pm parade! OMG!

I'm sure 1000s of other people have already said it, and said it better than I did, but man, am I a happy girl. I watched the 86 series in the lounge of my dorm room, just stunned when we lost. Yesterday I watched the game from our hotel room on the fifth floor of Disney's Beach Club Hotel, and I was happy. It was one of those "where did you watch the Sox break the curse" things. I was on vacation. You know what, though? Last night didn't thrill me the way beating the Yanks in 7 last week did. THAT, to me, was better than the World Series.

And now, we can look at anyone carrying around a 1918 sign as a loser, too afraid to face the truth - that curses are bunk, and we were the best team and the way we plowed through the last eight games proves that it wasn't a fluke.

Go Sox! You Rule!

Quick check in from the Sunshine State. We finally paid for the internet connection from the room, so I'm actually doing this on Mr. Dump's computer instead of my phone. Can you tell the difference? I thought not.

We've hit all the parks and then some. Today was our second hit to MGM/Disney Studios. Guess who finally went on Tower of Terror? That's right, I'm one bad mamma jamma. And yesterday I went on Mission Space. I just want to say I don't appreciate the feeling Mission Space gives you, which is something akin to having your breasts (should you have them) weigh 500 pounds each - causing your chest to compress. I hear that's the g-forces at work, and I just decided to not pursue a career in space travel. Other than that, it's pretty cool. I just never ever need to go on it again.

Gotta go, we're headed off to the Food and Wine Expo at Epcot. Epcot is a 5 or 10 minute walk from our hotel, which is amazing. I do want to say that I don't appreciate that there's a relatively high level of public intoxication during this festival. I guess that's what happens when you have a billion people sampling beer and wine every 15 feet, I guess that's bound to happen.

I can't believe how crowded it is down here. I mean, I'm just sad that it's as busy as it is. I had hoped for short lines all around, but we've had long waits at each of the parks for certain rides. 45 minutes for Peter Pan at the Magic Kingdom on Monday. In October? Why aren't these kids in school? Oh, wait, ours aren't either.

Okay, they're waiting for me. Talk later!

You know what's stinky about watching the World Series from here in Florida? No Tivo. You takes yer chances if you need a pee break. On the other hand, because we're staying on the concierge level, we have free alcoholic beverages. While some might not consider a sombrero a baseball kind of beverage, it's my drink of choice today.

Pedro, by the way, rocks.

I haven't forgotten you so much as I've been on a technology vacation. But I did want to poke my nose in and give the Red Sox a big wet Disney kiss for winning the first two games.

Mr. Dump has been wearing a Sox hat since we arrived and people just start talking to us about how much they want the Sox to win. Cast members, other vacationers, you name it. It's been weird how people will just start talking to us. I love Sox fans! And I love the Sox!

P.s. Florida is great wish you were here!

Mr. Dump ran with my idea! What do you think?




Click Here for Wallpaper-sized version

Oh what a beautiful day!

You know what's great? When your six-year-old, who spent all summer saying "not baseball again, can't we watch Spongebob?" wakes up, hears the news, and asks "so do they play the Astros or the Cardinals?" You have learned well, grasshopper.

I don't want to hear any more curse BS. Ever. It's over. If there was a curse, NY would have gotten 8 runs in the ninth. If we hadn't been swept in 4. THAT is how a curse works. A curse does not give you a record-breaking come-from-behind series at an away game.

Even the NY sports writers are saying the curse is over. People will drag it out, but it won't intimidate us any longer. I don't care if we don't win the World Series, I really don't. THIS was my World Series. Beating anyone but the Yankees would not have shut them up. Well we shut them the hell up last night

From the New York Post Online Edition, discussing A-Rod as the face of failure
"He left last night in October to Bronx boos, the symbol of the greatest Yankee failure ever because it was inflicted by the Red Sox. Rodriguez, who was supposed to be the new Babe Ruth in this rivalry, is instead the face of Yankee failure against Boston, which makes this humiliation excruciating."

They also point out:
"No Yankee team had lost both Games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium since the 1926 World Series, which ended with Ruth being thrown out trying to steal second. " Wow, Babe Ruth lost them the World Series. Imagine that.

So I'm done hearing about Babe Ruth. If we win, we win, if we lose, we lose, but it isn't because of any long-dead baseball players, that's for damned sure.

SPEECHLESS.

No I'm not. Oh my God, the World Series will happen at Fenway.

F--- YA!

We had Fenway Franks for dinner tonight.

Of course, if you think I'm eating them for every World Series game, think again.

I just got this flash that something bad has to happen any minute now. But why? Why would something bad have to happen? If there was a curse, we would have lost game 4.

(My sidekick isn't letting me edit posts. Sorry for all the new ones)

I mean, what can one say? I was ticked in the 1st when Damon didn't stop at third, bit hey, I'm a forgiving woman.

Special thanks to Sarah in Texas for making this all possible by not watching the game on TV.

P.S. Aqua Velva? "Hey honey, do you want to smell like grandpa?"

Okay, I need some sleep tonight. Can we keep this game down to three hours tonight? Oh, and can we win it? Thanks.

Tonight, I will have snacks prepared. By the 9th inning last night, I was sitting in bed with my stomach rumbling. I was wondering why I was hungry when I realized I had only eaten dinner a mere six hours before. No wonder I was grumbly.

We leave for vacation Friday, which means I don't want to go to the store and buy stuff I'll have to dispose of tomorrow. That's the hard part - buying just enough food to get through the week without having too much left over. Or without having stinky garbage to deal with. So no KFC because I'd have to store the bones in the freezer until after we get back.

This game has to end before midnight. I can't keep staying up this late. I have to work. And after the game ended last night I was so wound up it took me about an hour to fall asleep. Not good.

In other trip-preparation news, Mike the Fish was swimming kind of funny last night. I put some drops in his water, fed him a little extra, and am hoping for the best. I have to drive him across town so my mom's neighbors can watch him (they are fish people). I figure they can deal with him being sick or dying much better than my neighbor. I don't want him to die and her to feel guilty about it. We've had Mike the Fish for almost three years, and I thought that was a long time until I just went to a website that said they can live for 8-10 years. Whoa.

I put him in a bowl with clean water and the regular stuff I put in it to make the water safe for him, and tonight I'll do a good scrubbing on his regular tank. I was going to just drop him off in the big glass bowl (it has a lid for transportation) but after reading this site, it says that this kind of fish really likes to have the plants and rocks and stuff to hide around, so maybe I'll send him over in that. I don't feel like heading to the pet store to buy plants for the bowl, and the ones in his regular tank aren't removable (which, by the way, is bad. They are impossible to completely clean).

Remind me to thank my friend for giving Junior this pet for his 4th birthday, would you?

Wow, hey, Yanks fans, you know what would have been really funny? If they'd have had to call the game because they couldn't guarantee the safety of the players. How great would that have been? Then not only would we dislike you, the players themselves wouldn't like you. That would have been very sweet indeed.

I don't think I can handle another game like last night. Keith Foulke, it doesn't make it interesting, IT GIVES ME AN ULCER!

Oh my God!

New catchphrase for the Sox..."bloody up!" if your feet aren't bleeding, you aren't pulling your weight.

Oh, and is attempting to kill the Yankees fans one home run to the chest at a time really the most effective approach?

I know! Lets win tonight and tomorrow and they'll all have strokes!

Today's weather is brought to you by the letters WTF.

Rain with a high of 46? What month is this, anyway?

This sure is making Friday's Orlando high of 85 look sweet.

I watched the end of the game (hey it was only 6 hours of my life) but didn't have the Sidekick on any longer. David Ortiz, is there anything we can get you? Money? Hookers?

I went from "can't they just lose to end my suffering" to "we can win a measily two more games!"

STOP TRYING TO STEAL!

I know that technically the Sox game didn't end until today, but it was yesterday's game, so it counts in that column. The Pats get win #20 in a row, the Sox prevent a sweep (hey, the glass is half full, baby) and Junior's soccer team actually pulled off a win! Can you believe it? I don't know which of these games surprised me more, but I may have to go with Junior's soccer team, although the way the Sox have been playing, I'm surprised they showed up. I'm not a fair weather fan, I'm just saying that the Red Sox can't handle being the favorite in these things. They really do need to be the underdog. Oh, and yes, I am in a panic about tonight, because Pedro cannot handle pitching against the Yankees anymore. Thank the good Lord it's not at Yankee Stadium, though, because that is the worst.

So I'm going to do what I've been doing the past few games and not watch. After last year, I felt ill the entire playoffs. The stress was killing me. I'm much less stressed when I don't watch. I'm acutely aware of any bad plays by the rumblings from the living room, but I've found watching Daily Show reruns is good for my soul.

I know how to do it! You just be a witness to a nasty accident! Front row seats are the way to go, if you're looking to have your day ruined!

We were in the car, waiting for our light to turn green. As we sat there with our jaws in our laps, we watch a woman come SCREAMING through the intersection, where she smashed another car (who was waiting to turn left) head on. I ran out of the car to see if the woman who got hit was okay, she was kind of walking in a daze away from her car, which looks demolished. The other woman, an older one, got out of her car and was just yelling to anyone who would listen that she had a green light. Except she didn't. And she was flying, like 40-45mph, through the intersection to beat the red light. Mr. Dump had noticed their light was yellow. The poor woman who got his wasn't even moving at the time.

There's a chance the speed demon may have had to have a blood test at the hospital, if you know what I mean. We were there for 45 or so minutes, picking pieces of car out of the road at one point so that some of the backed-up traffic could start moving, and then helping to move one of the cars out of the road before stopping to make our statement to the police. When the younger woman's boyfriend drove up, he was with her as they put her in an ambulance (she may have hit her head - I don't think her airbag deployed properly, it seemed to me that it was late and it never covered her whole view, I don't think. He came over to the cop to ask what he should do, and while he waited I asked if he was okay (he looked AWFUL). He said he'd been waiting at home with their daughter to start the daughter's birthday party.

I am just so furious with the woman who caused this accident. She was going too fast for ANY intersection, never mind this one (at Watertower plaza, for those of you familiar with N. Main St. in Leominster) and she ran a yellow light. Never mind if there was a substance involved. It just makes me ill that she ruined someone else's week or even month. Grrrr.

So anyway, I just wanted to write all this down to kind of get it out of my system. I took the time to tell the kids (my step-son is visiting) that THIS is why even when your light turns green, you look both ways before you start to pull out into an intersection. If Mr. Dump had started to move out, she would have nailed our car.

There's a new Interview available in the Still Life With Interview page. This week, we interview a lawn gnome.

As much as I hate to watch our paychecks go out the window with one flick of the Enter key, it really feels good to know everything is paid and up-to-date. For a couple of years, when I was out of work and we were separated, that just wasn't the case. Thank God that's over with.

In other news, what the HELL was I on this morning? I forgot makeup (cover-up for my Frankenstein-like dark eye circles) and deodorant. I have the latter at work, but cripes, who let me out of the house this morning?

Apparently T-Mobile is having some problems with their network, cause I haven't had email since I woke up this morning. Do you know what that can do to a person like me? Getting email is like breathing. Every new email is a beat of my heart. thump-thump, thump-thump, new-mail, new-mail.

It's made me cranky, and I don't mind saying it out loud.

In other news...no, there is no other news, is there.

I thought that would be funny, cause yesterday I couldn't see, and today I'm ignoring anyone who wants to talk about the Red Sox.

I stopped watching after the 3rd inning. I had the game recording on the Tivo so I just checked in periodically. That's really all one needed to do.

I will say (and this is all I will say) that I'm impressed when ANY team can score 5 runs on two outs. Too bad they didn't score 11.

I got my eyes dialated today at my eye exam, and boy, I'm glad my eyes aren't this bad normally. Good gravy, I couldn't see a darned thing! It's finally getting a little back to normal. But at one point I had to ask my mom to look at my cell phone and scroll to my husband's work phone number in my address book. Goodness, maybe we just have that done to appreciate our sight a little more than we usually do.

Thank you eyes!

A few shots. I was doing video because I promised to send some recent stuff out to a friend of mine (wait, I've already talked about this, right?) and wanted something fall-ish. So when you do that, you don't take as many shots with the regular camera. This picture is one of the still shots from the video camera. This was our first runner-up pumpkin:



We ended up with a ten-pounder that I happened to pick out. Junior lost interest pretty early on - probaby around the time he discovered that a good 1/4 of the pumpkins still in the field were in some state of decomposing/being eaten by woodland creatures. He was a bit grossed out.

I did catch this photo, and I like it enough that I'll share it with you even though I don't normally do that. Apparently, my son is now an L.L. Bean model.

Today we go out to pick a pumpkin in the field. I am going to encourage him to pick a small one, because there is nothing less fun that walking around with 30 pounds of pumpkin, trying to get back to the place where the hay wagon is going to pick you back up.

I got some great pictures the last time we went to this place. It was two or three years ago. I'm going to try to take some more today.

I know a lot of people will be writing about Martha Stewart today, so I'm going to buck the trend just this once.

I will be writing about Jessica Simpson.

Dear Jessica,
I heard that you have a CD of holiday music coming out. That's cool. I happen to be a big collector of holiday music.

Unfortunately, I heard you decided to ONLY sell your CD at 7-11. Are you insane?

Love,

Jody

Good gravy. The things I have to do around here to help people out.

I'm wearing jeans to work today, la-la-la la-la! (okay, that was stupid. Let's see if I can bring this up a level.)

They are predicting highs in the low 60s over the weekend. So lets take a vote on how cold that's gonna feel. I say "brrrrr" but Mr. Dump thinks I'm nuts.

We will be going pumpkin picking on Sunday, so I suppose any warmer than that wouldn't feel weather-appropriate. I'm also ready for some more apples. We had frost so no more corn or tomatos or any of the good stuff. It makes me sad - I want fresh tomatos 6 months of the year, not 3.

I am so scattered this week. I apologize in advance. I've got a mental to do list that would kill a lesser man, and my ADD and thyroid brain mean that I'm paralyzed by it. The more items on the to-do list, the more freaked out I become. Today I was happy to remember to call in for a renewal on a prescription, because I never remember until after they are closed for the day. I even picked it up!

I've been trying for days to sit down and design the basic outline for the kids' vacation journal.

And I owe a friend of mine (who will read this...*sigh*) $15 and I haven't done the cd yet that I said I'd send with it, never mind package it up and mail it. (I'm going to have to do two seperate packages on that. Maybe G would like video from our upcoming vacation? I'll have the bank mail the check by friday.)

I remembered to order my camera battery and picked super saver shipping. It said the battery (and charger) were out of stock and wouldn't ship until next week. Which was fine with me. Guess what shipped the same day I ordered it, and is already waiting for me at my mom's house? Two days. I never get anything from Amazon in two days! Certainly not when I pick free shipping on an out-of-stock item!

Cripes, that messed up my checking account!

So anyway, I'll try harder tomorrow. Maybe.

Paraphrased:

Liar!

Liar!

Liar!

Liar!

If I were a Republican (I'm an independent, for the record) I'd be asking myself DAILY why we chose Bush instead of Cheney to be President.

On the other hand, I don't like his attitude, and I don't like how he is lying without a second thought. I know personally someone who had to buy body armor to send to his brother in Iraq. I KNOW SOMEONE PERSONALLY. How DARE he imply that Kerry/Edwards is lying when they say the troops weren't given enough body armor and supplies.

He is a cold, cold man. He would sell his own children if he thought it would help the administration.

I paid my $5 to be able to wear jeans to work on Friday. I'm actually not sure why we can't wear them to work on Fridays anyway, given that I work in a building full of tech weenies. But rules are rules, and we can look forward to National Denim Day each October.

I offered to throw in an extra five if I can wear sneakers too, but that's not part of the program. Don't they understand that I need to break in my new sneakers before we got to Florida? I mean really, how selfish of them!

Time for a list, wouldn't you say? Here's what's going on in dump-land

• Junior got a goal (buzzer beater last goal, actually) in his soccer game yesterday. This is a VERY GOOD THING because mommy was tearing her hair out watching him play. He certainly doesn't have a killer instinct when it comes to sports. He's more a "well, maybe the ball will eventually make it's way over to me" kind of guy. The lost 12-5, but hey, at least this week they scored 5 times!
• Where is my black sweater? I know I have one. I just can't find it.
• I am a fan of the allearsnet.com website (Disney-related) and their newsletter. I dropped them a note asking if they were looking for write-ups on anything related to our trip down there, and the editor wrote back with a couple of things they might like. It's not for pay, but I like writing credits, so I'll get started outlining those.
• Happy Birthday to my little sister. Well, my only sister. We all went to Il Forno in Fitchburg to celebrate her birthday, and indirectly her and my parents' anniversaries. 8 years and 43 years. I'll let you figure out which is which.
• I stopped at the liquor store for a bottle of wine on the way to Il Forno (they are bring-your-own) and the girl didn't card me. Bitch. Oh, and it occurred to me that this was the only place I've ever been in my life that had pork rinds as an impulse item right by the register. No, I didn't buy any, but I've never had them so part of me was tempted. The other part of me grabbed that part of me and shook REALLY hard.

I tried to stay awake for the entire Daily Show recap, but didn't make it. I'll watch the Tivo'd version tonight.

Regardless of what some people may think of those of us who have stated we are voting for Kerry, we aren't all blind, rabid Kerry supporters. I watched the debate to give W a chance to dazzle me, and convince me why I should vote for him. He blew it big time. He looked arrogant and shifty. The smarmy frat-boy smirk he wears like a badge of pride? Don't even get me started. The eye-blinking alone probably caused climate changes in his beloved China.

I actually had hoped Bush would do better, simply because he's our current President, and every time he looks like a fool, we look like fools for electing him. So many people think he's great and wonderful that I keep thinking I must be missing something. I lost all hope within about 10 minutes of watching his reaction shots when Kerry was speaking, and hearing him repeat the same 4 or 5 soundbites a few times during each answer. It must give Cheney a brain aneurysm to have to sit and watch Bush debate.

I mentioned on an email list that the reason Bush can't handle debates is that his handlers have put him in a lead-lined box and surrounded him with yes-men and women. If you don't agree to 100% of everything he says, you are removed from the inner circle. At his rallies, you have to sign a pledge to support him before they'll even let you in the door! Dear God, with that kind of insular life, no wonder he started stammering when someone within 50 feet of him called him on some of his bad decisions. He's been saying for years now that if you don't agree with him and buy into whatever the government says and does, you're an anti-American terrorist-lover. What IS anti-American, sir, is telling people they can't disagree with you. To punish people who speak out and say the President is wrong. THAT, my friends, is anti-American. It's not all-or-nothing, black and white. You can support the troops but not support the war.

And yet, I've seen some people call it a draw. I am being totally honest here, and you're going to have to trust me, that I think those people have spent too much time inhaling floor varnish. Have they really set the bar so low that as long as Bush doesn't pass out drunk on the stage it's a success? After last night, I won't be surprised if the night before the next scheduled debate they raise the terror level up and say they have to cancel.