Oh, no! I've been tagged!

Christine Smith Tagged me for a game of blogtag! These are the rules to play blogtag:List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.Tag 5 friends and list them.Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

From another blog entry, you already know how freaky I am, so now there will probably be no doubt left, ha ha! Here are my weird things-

1. I told you about my doormat obsession; well, I got caught leaving the conference room and wiping my feet last month! I was so embarrassed that someone noticed!

2. Random likes to sleep on my shoulder at night. Sometimes he will sleep right between Matt's feet and Matt will sleep all crooked so he doesn't disturb the cat! Yep—we all know who's king of the castle around here!

3. Random also likes to sleep on the clean laundry if we put it down to fold it. He was sleeping on a pair of Matt's shorts that he was getting rid of, so now they are Random's shorts! Matt puts the shorts on the couch cushion and moves it to the floor in front of the screen door every morning so Random can look out. (and he says *I* spoil the cat!)

4. I like nuts, but I can't stand nuts in my food. I pick them out of my Kung Pao Chicken. I order Almond Chicken without the almonds. No Cashews on my Cashew Chicken. I don't eat cookies with nuts. I make banana bread or anything else without the nuts. But I can eat handfuls of nuts by themselves. Except walnuts. I don't really care for them, except Black Walnut ice cream. That's one of the few nut-laden foods I'll eat, but most of the time I even pick the nuts out of that!

5. We have a nice kitchen table, but we only use it for Thanksgiving dinner! Every night we eat dinner on the couch and watch TV shows. Right now we are watching season 2 of Lost. Before that we were on season 6 of X-Files. Next in line is the final season of West Wing when it comes out. If we have breakfast on the weekends, we will usually watch a travel channel recording. This morning we watched an episode about Venice. At first I thought it was weird, but Matt enjoys it so much and it's fun to watch shows together. (and it's no fun to eat by myself at the table!)

We're Goin' to Disneyland!

For my birthday, Matt wanted to take me somewhere fun, so we decided to eat dinner at the Blue Bayou Restaurant. In case you're not sure where that is, it's the restaurant inside of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. The entrance is through New Orleans Square and you eat dinner overlooking the moss-covered trees and tranquil water that are at the beginning of the ride.

I had Mahi Mahi and Matt got the pork chops. I wasn't impressed with either meal (the menu and cooking's gone downhill since our last visit) but desert made up for everything. I ordered creme brulee', one of my favorites. It was a trio of flavors, vanilla, chocolate and passionfruit. Very tasty! And for an added bonus, there was an edible-sugar treasure chest filled with chocolate dubloons to keep as a souvenir.

We got to the park just in time to renew our passes, take a few photos and get some Mickey Mouse ears for yours truly! I've always wanted some, so Matt got me the gold anniversary ears. I know; very silly, but I never got them when I was a kid, so I figured it's time to start being a kid again now.

After dinner we had about 2 hours before the park closed, which was just enough time to ride my four favorite rides. We went on Pirates first. I was disappointed with the changes they made to add things from the movie. I'm a traditionalist and a purist, so I liked the ride better before. The effects were nice, though, and I am glad they took away the chicken platter. For those who don't know, several years ago, they added a platter of chicken to one of the wench's hands so that it looked like the pirate was chasing the chicken dinner instead of the girl. An overabundance of PC-ness, if you ask me. I mean, they're pirates, for gosh-sakes! Don't pirates chase wenches?

After Pirates, we of course had to go on the Haunted Mansion. Ah—my favorite of all-time! Love those silly ghosts! At the end of the month, they will be decorating for Halloween and it turns into Jack Skellington and the Nightmare Before Christmas. I can't wait for that, but I do love the "ordinary" mansion the best.

From there it was a quick trip over to the Indiana Jones ride—definitely a fun time there! When we got out, the fireworks had already started, so we got to see them on the way to the last ride. We missed the Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise, so we'll have to do them next time. Onward to Space Mountain; the fun ride from the 80's. Ah, I love a good roller coaster and this one's great! Fast music, darkness, and the galaxy—what more can you ask for?

Jennifer Louise Fialko

This post is to honor one of the victims of 9/11. An online friend was researching the events of September 11th and came across a project, the 2,996 project. The sponsors decided that it would be a way to remember those we lost and pay tribute to them if each person was remembered in a blog, all over the country and all over the world. I decided to look up Lisa Frost who was a crash victim from the town I lived in at the time of the tragedy . Sean Gavin has written her memorial HERE, including some photos I took of the community memorial that people left in Rancho Santa Margarita in the days after the crashes.


When I signed up for the 2,996 project, I was given the name of Jennifer Fialko. I never met Jennifer and the information below was gathered from the internet and new articles from the days after the tragedy. If you knew Jennifer and I have made any mistakes, please let me know so I can correct any errors. I do this project with utmost respect for all the victims, support personnel, and survivors of the tragedy as well as a deep sorrow for the losses felt by friends and family of the victims. Though I didn't personally know anyone who died that day, I still was so impacted by the events of that day. It was truly a tragedy for the whole nation. Sorry if my writing is somewhat stilted or awkward today. This was a difficult assignment, but one that was healing and needed to be done.

Jennifer got her BA from the University of New Hampshire in 1994. She was in the prime of her live. She was just starting over after finally winning her battle with Hodgkin's disease. She was in a new state of physical, spiritual, and emotional health. She felt that her cancer was a "gift" because it started her journey. She told her family she would live to be 120 and they believed her. She had just found the man she believed to be her soulmate, David.

Jennifer had just started a new job at Aon Corp and was working in the South Tower on the 92nd floor when the planes hit. She called David at 8:59 after the first plane hit. She realized she needed to get out of the tower. He told her to call back when she got to the bottom. The second plane hit her tower at 9:03. Nobody ever heard from her again.

You can see more about Jennifer at the links below:
http://cf.newsday.com/911/victimsearch.cfm?id=1863
http://www.legacy.com/Sept11.asp?Page=TributeStory&PersonId=145313
http://www.unitedinmemory.net/quilt.php?quilt=981
https://www.alumni.unh.edu/find/091101.html#fialko