- October 10, 2012 -

Somehow I woke up 2 minutes before my alarm went off. Hey ... early start! LOL!! Now what am I going to do with those precious 2 minutes? Enjoy them! :) I took an early shower yesterday & then went after the housework. I know, backwards, but I wasn't too worried about getting all sweaty now that we're out of the triple digit temps. I dusted the bathroom accents &  bedroom wall decor, fed the cats & dogs, pushed the dining room chairs in (how hard is that? Come on people!), dusted the living room lights, mopped the entryway, dusted my office bookshelves & & got distracted by one of my books called "Buy It, Fix It, Sell It: PROFIT!" Love that book. Would love to be able to do that,

too. It did let me know that I've REALLY got to paint this house inside & out. I would like the outside to be a nice LIGHT blue with white trim. On the inside, paint my office blue, halls white, master bedroom green, kitchen yellow, living room lavender, & dining room red. COLOR! The house is kinda tan right now. Inside & out. The previous owners got a bulk deal on paint & painted the entire house the same color inside & out. Tan/brown. The house

looks like it was dipped whole. Yep, I think my next major project (besides the fence & the swing I've been trying to build for 7 years now) will be paint. Swing 1st, fence 2nd, paint 3rd. I just went through my 370 Excel spreadsheets & can't find the one I had for the swing project. I must have moved it to a DVD years ago for storage. I'll find it later. Anyway, see what I mean by getting distracted? I finished up by sweeping the living room & changing the

bedding. After that I checked My AT&T homepage, checked eBay, & then knitted another panel for the afghan. Change in plans! I ended up breaking one of my rules yesterday & starting a new project before finishing the current one. The panel I knitted turned out to have enough yarn to complete a whole afghan! It's going to be BEAUTIFUL! That means that I have the 1st panel of a new afghan made, & next I use up my scrap yarn to finish the afghan I'm currently working on. I only have 2 panels to make using up scrap yarn & then it's finished. I'm not too worried about it, you won't see those panels anyway because they're the ones that fold over the edges of the mattress. This new afghan is going to be red & white & SO beautiful! You'll see after I finish it, I'll post pictures both here & on facebook. :) After the panel was knit, I loaded up Sims. I finished the 2nd bedroom, attached hallway, & attached outside covered walkway in Heart of Texas (shown above) & then played my part time job "Spa Specialist". His name is Aaron & he lives in Twinbrook's version of Mosquito Cove. Since he couldn't meet anyone at work (you don't have co-workers at part time jobs) & no neighbors came to welcome him to the neighborhood, he had to go online to meet someone. He met & married Alma Drill. They moved out of Mosquito Cove into her house shown above. Nice place! I think ... well, much nicer than where he WAS living. I ended the game as soon as they finished moving so I haven't even seen the inside of the place yet except for just inside the front door. For some reason, the "Try for baby" option isn't appearing. I'll try again the next game day whenever I load up this game next. Anyway, Alma is a school teacher & I think they'll get along just great. :) It was a short game because I had maintenance night at the FD. I finally got caught up on 1 thing I had been putting off for 3 months because it was just too hot to go to the station & work. It was beautiful last night though, so I spent the night catching up. Feels great to be caught up completely! Now I just have 1 more thing that I'm backed up on there. I'm going to see if I can do that from here & if not, I'll get caught up on that next maintenance night. I leave to drive Josh to work at 1 & then it's SIMS TIME until I have to go pick Kyle up from school. Chicago Fire premiers tonight at 9 central!

Arbiter:

1: A person with power to decide a dispute : judge. 2: A person or agency whose judgement or opinion is considered authoritative.

To fill the vacuum left by knowledgeable arbiters of taste, we have a flurry of mostly meaningless online reviews.

There's no disputing it - "arbiter" & "arbitrator" are synonyms. But judging by usage, "arbitrator" has been appointed the preferred term for legal situations & is the 1 more likely to be used in the sense "a person chosen by 2 parties in a dispute to decide their differences." "Arbiter" is the more literary of the 2 & is identical to the Latin arbiter (meaning "judge"), the grandparent of both terms. "Arbitrator & "arbiter" each came to us bia Anglo-French; 1st we picked up "arbiter" in the late 14th century, & "arbitrator" followed less than 4 decades later. And in case you were wondering - yes, the Latin arbiter is also an ancestor of "arbitrary" & "arbitrate."

As the winter weather is fast approaching, change the direction of ceiling fan blades so they are spinning in a clockwise direction to circulate the air without making you cold. (Doing that right NOW). (Done :))

Female attendants represent the bride; male attendants stand up for the groom.

Brides & grooms who want to honor a special person in their lives - be it a felative or friend - may choose to have an "honor attendant" rather than bridesmaids or groomsmen. A man or woman can serve as an honor attendant for the opposite sex. The duties are adapted accordingly; a man wouldn't help the bride get dressed, for example!

Hold the hand of someone you love. Skin-to-skin touching is calming.

If you collect jewelry or anything else that has value, like art, collectible guns & those kinds of things, you should check your insurance to see how much it covers. Any items with a value greater than that amount should be individually scheduled & listed. Keep the appraisal in a lockbox & in your files.

iWeather:

Get the official NOAA/National Weather Service:
- Forecasts for next week
- Current Observations
- Animated Radar maps
- Weather Warning maps
- Satellite maps
- National Weather maps
- Sunrise/sunset times
- Now with hourly forecast graphs, showing temperature, wind, rain, etc
The weather information you get is Accurate, Detailed and Up-to-date, in a very easy to use app.
Animated Radar maps are available for the last hour, showing rain fail intensity.
Warning maps also show current flood, tornado, severe thunderstorm and marine warnings.
Shows current weather and forecasts for 7 days. Unique day and night forecasts, making it easy to plan for that coming event.
- Over 30,000 locations available (Alaska not supported)
- Search by name or ZIP code
- Use your current location to get you started fast.
- Designed to be easy to use
- All information is available on one screen
- Available only for US locations

Superman Christopher Reeve dies at age 52 (2004):

On this day in 2004, the actor Christopher Reeve, who became famous for his starring role in four Superman films, dies from heart failure at the age of 52 at a hospital near his home in Westchester County, New York. Reeve, who was paralyzed in a 1995 horse-riding accident, was a leading advocate for spinal cord research.

Christopher Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City, and graduated from Cornell University and the Juilliard School. He made his Broadway debut in 1976 in A Matter of Gravity, starring Katharine Hepburn. The 6’4” actor shot to fame in 1978 when he was selected over some 200 other actors for the lead in Superman. Although he would play the action hero in three more films, Reeve was determined to “escape the cape” and avoid being typecast. As a result, he took on a variety of stage and screen roles. His film credits included Somewhere in Time (1980), Deathtrap (1983), The Remains of the Day (1993) and Village of the Damned (1995).

On May 27, 1995, Reeve, a strong athlete and avid horseman, was left paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from his horse and breaking his neck during an equestrian competition in Virginia. The actor then became a crusader for people with spinal cord injuries and also lobbied for government funding of embryonic stem-cell research. During a speech at the 1996 Academy Awards, Reeve urged the Hollywood community to make more movies about social issues. In addition to his fundraising and advocacy work, Reeve wrote two books about his life experiences and continued his acting career. In 1997, he made his directorial debut with HBO’s In the Gloaming, which was nominated for five Emmy Awards, and in 1999, he starred in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rear Window. In 2004, Reeve directed A&E’s The Brooke Ellison Story, a movie based on a true story about the first quadriplegic to graduate from Harvard University.

In 2000, Reeve, who maintained an intensive physical therapy regime since the time of his accident, was able to move his index finger. He stated publicly that he was determined to walk again. In Reeve’s New York Times obituary, one of the doctors who treated him said: “Before [Reeve] there was really no hope. If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he’s changed all that, he’s demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done.”

What 2 Baseball Hall of Fame pitchers played basketball with the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters?

What future country music star was an inmate in the San Quentin audience at Johnny Cash’s very first prison concert in 1958?

Merle Haggard, who later said Cash’s performance inspired him to pursue a singing career.

Which bicycle, popular in the late 1800s, had 1 large wheel & 1 small wheel?

A. Moped

B. Minibike

C. Scooter

D. Penny-farthing

Answer: D. Penny-farthing

Which city is the oldest, 2nd oldest, & 3rd oldest?

A. Delhi

B. Athens

C. Damascus

Which is the fastest, 2nd fastest, & 3rd fastest?

A. Hawk moth

B. Dragonfly

C. Horsefly

BAC. The dragonfly zips around bugging people at 60 mph, has multi-faceted eyes, & nearly 360° vision. Lucky us.

Which of these characters are from Charles Dickens novels?

Bumble, Pumblechook, Draco, Oliver, Jacob Marley, Hermione.

You may look like __________ & you may act like __________, but I know the truth : you really are __________.