★ April Fool's 2013 ★

Good morning! What a productive weekend we had. Saturday evening I showered & Pete took me out for a drink & a snack. It had been so long since I had a drink ... I mean an adult beverage type of drink. When we got home we went into our nighttime routine. My Sim-self spent Saturday evening w/ Sim-Pete, made French toast for breakfast & headed to bed. Sunday I got more than usual done. I took the dogs out, got the mail (Kyle never bothered to get it & I wasn't home all day Saturday), started a new bead banner until I ran out of beads, & then pulled out my knitting board & blew many years of dust off of it & started a board knitting project. Now my knitting board is apparently 1-of-a-kind. I've searched all of eBay (where I got it many years ago) & Google Images. It doesn't exist. There aren't even any "vintage" pics of it anywhere. My knitting board was made by the person I bought it from. Someone good in a wood shop. It's a wooden board about ½" thick, 1½" wide, & 5' long. It has wooden pegs the whole length of it that have knobs on the ends to keep the yarn from sliding right off. Each Peg has an indent where you use a tool to slip under the yarn & pull it up & over the yarn looped around the peg over it, creating a knit stitch. I love this thing & apparently I'd better take REALLY good care of it since it seems to be the only one like it in the world. When I bought it, I knew the person I bought it from MADE it, but I didn't know there were no others like it anywhere. All knitting boards / looms are double row, meaning they knit a tube. This one isn't a double row. It knits a 5' wide flat afghan, throw, or scarf. Somewhere over the years 1 of the very end pegs got broken off. How on earth am I going to repair that? The peg is long gone & I need someone who's really good in a wood shop to look at the loom, copy one of the other pegs, drill out what's left of the snapped off peg, & replace it. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has a wood shop & the talent to do it right. I'm so lucky it's one of the end pegs & not in the middle. All it means is that instead of a 5' wide afghan, I have a 4'-11¼" afghan. :) I also started a new lace doily yesterday. It's called Grand Star & Kyle chose Mexicana thread, so it's going to be my Grand Star Mexicana Doily. All of my current crochet & knit projects are on Ravelry. I can be found there as LizC864, same as I can be found almost everywhere on the Internet as LizC864. While I was working on the doily my Avon Lady tossed a couple of new catalogs into my driveway & texted me, so after I finished working on the doily for a bit & went out & got the Avon catalogs & placed my bi-weekly order. Then it was time to clean the house. I cleaned the bathroom mirror, dusted the bedroom walls, watered the dining room plants, cleaned the dishwasher & televisions, mopped the living room, chose a little monthly candle from my bookshelf (oooh, I can light that now), fed the pets & swept the dining room. I had gotten the Sunday paper out of the driveway when I woke up & sat it on the floor in my office next to my desk since the plastic bag it was in was soaked. We had such storms Saturday night / Sunday morning that the hail hitting the roof & windows woke us all up. The mail that Kyle forgot to get was SOAKED. The entire inside of our mailbox was soaked! The newspaper, even though double wrapped, was soaked through. I ended up throwing it in the trash ... dripping. I was there for the ads though & they were sealed in their own plastic wrapper. I opened them & THEY were soaked! WTH?! Triple wrapped in plastic, the final inside layer sealed, & they were STILL wet. Oh well, I like the ads so I'm going to go through them anyway. How disappointing! There were hardly any ads in the thing. Really, not much at all! NO ads for Michael's, NO ads for Hobby Lobby, NO ads for much of anything useful. Do you know what I ended up with? A coupon for hair coloring. Seriously? NO yarn on sale this week at all? NO crafting supplies what-so-ever on sale this week at all? I guess it doesn't matter. I'm flat broke since going to the mall Saturday. I still can't believe I ran myself to 0 within 24 hours of getting paid. I'm not usually that stupid. Now I have 2 WHOLE, LONG weeks before payday again & not enough money to go out & get a Dr Pepper. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. After I went through what was left of the Sunday paper, (not much at ALL), Pete & I headed out to Wal*Mart. I needed beads to work on my new bead banner & Michael's was closed for Easter Sunday. The poor employees of Wal*mart though had to work regular hours. I feel sorry for them, I remember hating retail for that reason. Holidays? What holidays? I hope whoever was working yesterday at least didn't observe Easter Sunday. They wouldn't mind at all. I've thought about this a lot in the past ... if I ever ran a company I would hope for a very diverse group of people. It's illegal to ask people their religion when you're hiring them because it's been used against them. I would want to use it FOR them! If I were allowed to ask their religion I could schedule people to work on holidays that they don't observe & let the people who DO observe that particular holiday be home with their families. It's a shame that so much racism & discrimination ruined the ability to know who observes what & schedule accordingly. Anyway, at Wal*Mart I picked up white beads (which is what I ran out of) & 1 bag each of every other color I needed for this particular project including a large box of 18 different colors because it was the only way to get my hands on more medium & light blues. No beads will ever go to waste though. Unfortunately, I get beads from 3 places ... Amazon, Michael's, & Wal*Mart. NONE of those beads match each other! The white beads from Amazon are just off enough from the white beads at Michael's that you CAN see the difference when they're both used in the same project. Ever shade is just a tiny bit off. How annoying! The beads from Wal*Mart are different too! While the beads from Amazon & Michael's are more flat across, the Wal*Mart beads have a tiny bit more of a curve ... again, noticeable when they're both used in the same project. I don't think I'll be buying beads from Amazon ever again & the only reason I bought from Wal*Mart was because Michael's has shorter hours even though I prefer Michael's beads. How frustrating. Why does everyone have to carry a different brand that's just slightly off from all the others? It's like none of these stores will play well with each other. They force you to choose. "It's them or me ... or your project will look screwed up!" After the pile of bead bags & box made it into the cart, Pete & I went grocery shopping for the next 2 weeks. Actually more, because I KNOW better than to shop hungry & I was starving. That cart was overflowing with everything that looked good. Regular food, frozen dinners, junk food, snack food ... we're stocked WELL now. As soon as we got home & I got all the beads & groceries put away, I made myself a fried bagel. It's a N.Y. thing. Melt 2 Tbsp. of butter in a frying pan & then put the bagel halves in there. Let them soak up all the butter from around the pan by moving them around as they're browning. You don't flip them over, only the inside half gets browned. When they're a nice golden brown, they're done. It's SO good! Pete & I finished watching the 5-6 hour DVD of Gettysburg & then I took the dogs out again, checked the eBay deals of the day & bought an 8Gb Kindle Fire for $99.99 to flip & make a profit on, then checked eBay's yarn deals & bid on some yarn that really was a great deal (let's see if anyone else figures it out & outbids me), then got on Ravelry for a while & added my most recently finished doily & the doily I just started. Then I made mozzarella sticks & mac & cheese for Kyle & I & we each had a Sara Lee cupcake for dessert (Sara Lee has taken over where Hostess left off. Their cupcakes, twinkie-look-alikes, & other items are amazing), then I got on Pinterest for a bit, checked my AOL mail, & then we did our nighttime routine. We got to bed finally just after 4 in the morning (Pete wasn't tired at all until then). My Sim-self did some gardening when she woke up, cleaned the house, made a hamburger for dinner, painted, spent time with the pets, worked on her writing skill & the book she's writing, showered, spent time with Sim-Pete, made mac & cheese for lunch, & then went to bed. Like me, she was completely upside-down too somehow. By the time she went to bed, it was already Monday (same as me), but when she woke up it was early Tuesday morning. She lost an entire day! That means that I don't play her today because it's Monday & her Monday is 

already gone. Just for grins, I'm going to load up Greenbriar & play a day in the life there. I believe I'm going to be playing Misty II (3rd gen), who loves the outdoors, is brave, a Sagittarius who likes French music, Shawarma, & the color Spiceberry. From my notes, I'm guessing she's still a baby, so I'll actually be playing her mom still, Misty Jones (2nd gen), who hates the outdoor, is good, an Aquarius who likes Indie music, autumn salad, the color Turquoise, is a loner, a great kisser, & a virtuoso. We'll see how different a day of Misty's life is compared to my Sim-self. They live in Riverview & in their world I decided to start them off in the fall since I hadn't played this game since I installed Seasons & they were currently without season. So far today the FD got toned out on 2 early morning EMS calls, I've taken the dogs out, & updated my iPad Mini apps. Misty has worked on her athletic skill but not gained even lever 1 yet, cleaned the house, made herself autumn salad for brunch & gained level 1 of the cooking skill, & spent time with the pets, 4 cats (2 adult & 2 kittens). Misty is unemployed. Her lifetime wish is skill based instead of career based & she met her husband while they were in school so she never got a job. Her days will be the same as my Sim-self. It's early in the day in the game & she's tired already, so she's going to have to have a coffee or 2 to make it through the day & reset her schedule. Yes, I did remember to enable aging again since 

I'm in a different game. I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday & happy April Fool's! When enjoying this day please be aware of other people's feelings. Don't do anything cruel to others. Fun is one thing, cruelty is another. Time to change all the calendars! :D

1st April Fool's trickery was described in Chaucer's 1392 Canterbury Tales. In it, the vain rooster Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.

2 weeks until income tax time. How many of you already finished filing? How many haven't finished? I have a great tax guy. H&R Donoff. Donoff makes this pledge: In the event you go to jail, he promises to sleep w/ your wife regularly to keep her from running around w/ strangers. -Johnny Carson 1986

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Countries w/ the most doctors top 10:

1. Cuba
2. Greece
3. Belarus
4. Russia
5. Belgium
6. Lithuania
7. Switzerland
8. Kazakhstan
9. Netherlands
10. Norway

Do nothing out of the ordinary, but look very suspicious.

Finding the perfect candidate to fill your spot if you're hiring can be a rough challenge. With tight parameters & a compact window of time, you may find yourself reaching over the lines to find someone who will just do the job & ends up spinning their wheels.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life bu conscious endeavor.

In Switzerland, "medical tourism" is popular. People travel to Switzerland from all over the world to take advantage of Swiss doctors who specialize in cosmetic surgery, obesity surgery, & other body improvement surgeries. Looking good!

It's easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.

Limit salt & sugar. It's easy to become desensitized to these 2 flavors (the more you consume, the more you need to get the same "hit" of flavor). But if you abstain from salty or sugary foods for just 1 week, your sensitivity will return.

Matrix released (1999):

On this day in 1999, the writing and directing sibling team of Andy and Larry Wachowski release their second film, the mind-blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix.

Born and raised in Chicago, the Wachowski brothers both dropped out of college and started a house-painting and construction business before they got into the film industry. They collaborated on two screenplays, the second of which was made into the action movie Assassins (1995), starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas. A year later, the Wachowskis wrote, directed and executive-produced their debut film, Bound. Critics praised the relatively low-budget crime thriller, about lesbian lovers who steal from the mob, and it became a cult hit.

The brothers’ next project, however, brought them to a whole new level. Filmed for $70 million, The Matrix was a stylish, innovative and visually spectacular take on a familiar premise--that humans are unknowing inhabitants of a world controlled by machines--central to films such as Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Matrix starred Keanu Reeves as a computer hacker who learns that human-like computers have created a fake world, the Matrix, to enslave the remaining humans while keeping them in the dark about their dire fate. Guided by the sleek, mysterious Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss), the hacker is dubbed Neo and told he alone can play the crucial role in deciding the fate of the world. Packed with slow-motion camera tricks and references from a myriad of sources--including comic books, the Bible, Lewis Carroll, Eastern philosophy and film noir--The Matrix also stunned viewers with its Hong Kong-style fight scenes, choreographed by the martial-arts master Yuen Wo Ping and performed with the help of invisible wires allowing the characters to fly through the air. Greeted with enthusiasm by computer-gaming fanatics and mainstream audiences alike, The Matrix earned a staggering $470 million worldwide and won four Academy Awards, for Best Editing, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound.

The Wachowskis had always envisioned The Matrix as a trilogy, and they shot back-to-back sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, in Australia. Released six months apart in 2003, they were generally agreed to be less successful than the original film. All in all, however, the franchise--including a best-selling video game, Enter the Matrix--earned the production company, Warner Brothers, more than $1 billion. The Wachowskis, meanwhile, became famously reclusive, refusing to promote the Matrix sequels or give interviews. The air of mystery surrounding the brothers was exacerbated by rumors that Larry Wachowski had undergone a sex change and was living as a woman, Lana Wachowski. As reported by Fox News, Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix films, emphatically denied these reports in a 2007 interview.

As a follow-up to their phenomenal success, the Wachowskis wrote and produced for Animatrix, a series of short films based on The Matrix, and wrote and produced the provocative action thriller V for Vendetta (2006). In 2008, the brothers returned to directing (as well as writing and producing) with Speed Racer, a film adaptation of the Japanese anime series by the same name.

Occasions: Birthdays & More:

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"Polish Prince" killed in plane crash (1993):

On this day in 1993, race car driver and owner Alan Kulwicki, who won the 1992 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Winston Cup championship by one of the tightest margins in series history, is killed in a plane crash near Bristol, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to compete in a race the following day. The 38-year-old Kulwicki had been the first owner-driver to collect the championship since Richard Petty did so in 1979, as well as the first NASCAR champ to hold a college degree.

Kulwicki was born on December 14, 1954, in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a fact that later marked him as an outsider among the other NASCAR drivers of his era, who typically hailed from the southern U.S. Kulwicki's father, Gerry, built race-car engines and as a teenager Alan became involved in Go-Kart racing. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in mechanical engineering, Kulwicki raced stock cars, first as a hobby then as a professional. In the mid-1980s, he relocated to North Carolina and, with no financial backing, began competing in NASCAR events. In 1986 he was named the Winston Cup Series (now known as the Sprint Cup) Rookie of the Year. Kulwicki, who earned a reputation as a hard-working perfectionist, later turned down offers to drive for other teams, opting to remain on his own.

In 1988, Kulwicki, who was nicknamed "The Polish Prince" and "Special K," won his first Winston Cup race at the Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona. Afterward, he spun his car around and took a victory lap the wrong way around the track, a move that was subsequently dubbed a "Polish Victory Lap."

One of the most exciting races of Kulwicki's career occurred on November 15, 1992, at the Hooters 500, the last race of the Winston Cup season, in front of more than 100,000 fans at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Going into the race, six drivers had a chance to win the Winston Cup championship, which is based on points accumulated over the season. Kulwicki, who considered himself an underdog, altered the lettering on the front of his Ford Thunderbird to read Underbird. He finished the race in second place, behind Bill Elliott, but scored enough points to capture the series championship title. The race was also notable because it marked the first Winston Cup start for future star driver Jeff Gordon and the last for seven-time NASCAR champ Richard Petty, who retired afterward.

Kulwicki competed in just a handful of other races before he was killed, along with three other people, aboard a private plane that crashed on April 1, 1993. In 2005, a film about his life, titled "Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story," was released.

Put all your eggs in the 1 basket & - WATCH THAT BASKET.

World's 1st parking meter, called the Park-O-Meter #1, was installed on July 16, 1935 in Oklahoma City. Business owners were in favor of the street additions, as they encouraged quick turnover of cars, which meant more customers during business hours.