HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLY GRAHAM!

YOU ROCK. have a wonderful 89th birthday. you deserve the best.

the dictionary changes for idiots???

this is news to me! there are three words that were highlighted recently that people don't know the proper spelling of (and i'm not sure which dictionary or dictionaries...) but the dictionary is adding extra spellings. so people who are confused and don't know how to spell still are right. I HATE HATE HATE THE POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD WE LIVE IN SO MUCH. hate it. our society is in the biggest downward spiral! but i don't think we'll die of stupidity like originally suspected; i think we'll finish ourselves off in world war III the way pakistan has recently been ending up. and bush is trying to say that musharraf is undermining democracy? the "president" of pakistan is a freaking dictator! he was never voted in! he just took power! our president is so full of double standards! maybe some of the dictionary "revisions" are for his benefit too.

back to the subject at hand: for example, "vocal cord" shall also now be spelled "vocal chord." some people never did apparently learn to spell the word correctly and they just imagined it as a cHord as in a tone. or a tune. or part of a song.

then there's a "shoe-in." a "shoe-in" means for example, that a candidate will have no trouble winning an election. but i suppose there are so many flies in our country that this spelling has now been added: "shoo-in."

lastly, there's "free reign." example: she has free reign of the house while her parents are away. but now we are including the spelling, "free rein" as in REINS on a horse! how does that even work? REIGN is when you dominate something. you rule. having FREE REIGN makes sense. free REIN is IDIOTIC.

is there anyone else in our english speaking country who has an issue with this? i'm telling you. we've gone from worse to worser.

4 times in less than 4 months....

bank very nearby my apartment got robbed today around 10am. in broad daylight. this mexican dude is the same dude who keeps hittin it. he never brings a gun; just hands the tellers a note. then he gets away on foot; never has a getaway car.

here's another fun twist. (read on; it's related) my place of business, the courts, has decided to see what kind of numbers a new method of marketing would bring in. we've tried placing yard signs all over the place at busy intersections. sweet. we've actually had a LOT of calls from those signs. it's been crazy. but anyhoo, we've had a few TOO many calls and our one program is full and can't accept any more registrants. so today on my day off, i decided to go ahead and take down the second of two signs i had put up near my apt. i wandered out about 10:30 and watched an unmarked cop car parusing our parking lot. i figured he had just decided to take a break. or something. but then as i approached the sign and got out of my car to uproot the sign and throw it in the back seat, i see three fbi guys and an ADORABLE bloodhound walking down the middle of route 2. (or laporte ave. whichever u wanna call it.) so i stood there and watched them. apparently the robber had run right by where i was standing cuz the little bloodhound came up to me, sniffed my jeans and my shoes, and then kept going. i knew i couldn't pet the pup--as much as i had wanted to, i knew one of the three fbi guys would have prolly shot ME cuz they were so pissed for looking so DUMB. so i just stood there and watched the floppy-eared fellow sniff my shoes and continue on with his guys.

so anyway, i am supposing that my position on this whole thing is that this little dude DESERVES the $$$ if our little law enforcement in valpo/porter county is too SLOW to catch this guy. good grief. he's making monthly withdrawals! maybe i should try making withdrawals the same way he is doing it! i mean, it IS actually my own bank, anyway!

HOW EMBARRASSING. way to get on the map, valpo. oh yes, there is one more thing...why is it the DNR showed up? was it a deer, no wait...a SQUIRREL who ran off with the money? ahhh, maybe it was a raccoon or an opossum. their eyes look sorta shifty sometimes. i can understand why the DNR would want to get involved.

i luv VAN HALEN!

never saw them before but loved their music growing up. saw them for the first time thursday night at the united center. they were AWESOME. eddie van halen makes me want to go out and buy a guitar. i just wanna learn to play it! he's so amazing. these guys are still pretty hot (despite the fact that they're in their mid FIFTIES now...)

they are clean cut and clean shaven. mostly. and michael anthony is out as bassist and eddie van halen's boy wolfgang is IN. he's a 16-year-old kid and he's pretty musically talented. wolfgang van halen is called "wolf" for short and was named after wolfgang amadeus mozart. (eddie and alex were born in amsterdam and lived there for nearly the first ten years of their lives.) they were both trained as classical pianists when they were young.

apparently when they were young, eddie wanted to learn drums so he started a paper route so that he could pay for his new drum set. alex started out playing guitar. meanwhile, alex (AS EDDIE WAS DELIVERING THE NEWSPAPERS) was practicing on eddie's new drum set and got really good REALLY fast. eddie decided to not do drums anymore and went ahead learning guitar.

i also learned a few things about the band over the past week: did you know eddie had hip replacement surgery in 1999? he also is missing half of his tongue due to cancer. but he still smokes. david lee roth is an EMT in new york. alex van halen has a son named aric who is in high school and runs cross country at oakwood high.

i love van halen!

sing it, say it, shout it. but no one believes you, larry.

anyone else watch the matt lauer interview with larry craig (and suzanne craig)? holy cow. poor idaho. they are SO the country's laughing stock. what the heck? larry craig is the biggest freaking liar i've ever watched on t.v. to my knowledge. matt lauer is asking good and fair questions. i appreciate his finesse. but i just wanna smack larry. or something.

he pleaded guilty because he knew he was wrong. he followed a very orchestrated set of movements set in place to solicit gay sex that i firmly believe he couldn't have done without knowing the movements and the order of the gestures. just come on out of the closet already. and your poor wife...she is trusting your lies and is looking like the biggest naive fool ever. put everyone out of their misery. and tell the truth. WHY IN HEAVEN'S NAME WOULD YOU PLEAD GUILTY IF YOU WERE INNOCENT? you've implicated yourself. please be truthful to yourself. and be truthful to your family. you're perceived as a punk and don't have the credibility any longer to represent your state. step down.

and for anyone who's interested...go to youtube and enter in the search box "if larry craig were gay." it's quite amusing.

but also, to be quite honest, since i've been away from all my gay friends in philly and on the east coast, i'm becoming a bit of a homophobe again. and i'm not liking that. but whatever. my issue is with larry craig LYING LIKE A RUG. for all that he stands for, he's the biggest hypocrite ever. he needs to tell the truth. and only then can he really get on with his life. because otherwise, this will haunt him until he dies.

geez. how can you even live with yourself?????

V.U. Basketball

i am so glad homer drew and his coaching staff are so organized. love that. it made my life a LOT easier when they came to run a basketball camp for kids grades 1-5 yesterday. it was from 9:30-11am and the kids loved it. i will say, however, that the V.U. team is prolly (HIGHLY LIKELY) gonna have to work on their 3-point shots at practice this week. good grief. maybe it was cuz they weren't warmed up. but anyway, good times. here's a pic of me and homer, head coach at Valparaiso University.

who's the dumb one?

well...

got a lady into the courts today who lied about the premise of her even being there. nevermind that she came with her 22-year-old son who must have been too much of a wuss to take care of himself. apparently, there's a guy out of texas who had wanted to have a men's tournament at the courts. okay, fine. he called us to see if we would rent him the building. again, fine. but these people (the 22-year-old and his mommy) were dumb enuf to wire $250 cash to this guy in texas. the tournament was cancelled. so either he's running a scam out of texas or its legit. but she wants her $250 back and expects us to coff it up.

EXCUSE ME?

we didn't take her money. and we're certainly not giving her $250 of ours. ew. so she said she's going to the papers. mark, (the owner) said fine. she asked for someone more higher-up than him. he mentioned to her that he owned the place and she was already at the top. she was befuddled and disgruntled.

about the newspaper thingy...the nwi times published an ad about the tournament that was to take place at our facility. she is trying to say that we are at fault because we are connected to them. yeah, we wrote about it on our website but clearly left the texas man's phone number so they would know he is the contact. and next, it is rather irresponsible to publish something in the newspaper about a local business without that business' approval.

THE NWI TIMES SUCKS. repeatedly for years the grammar in this so-called newspaper is such that my inner-city 5th graders could have written a better paper easily. the articles sometimes are incomplete and that is just the beginning of it all. good grief. nevermind all the incorrect information and lack of responsible reporting. ugh.

no wonder jerry davich has moved on to the post tribune. TIMES, YOU SUCK!

tired of it!

i have a gift. a SPECIAL gift. something that i'm very good at. or at least this past week, anyway. wanna know what it is? i'm good at conversing with people when they're stressed out. i've just picked random BAD times to chitchat with people and have had them blow up and freak out on me. for no apparent reason. not sure why this has been happening this week, but it's stressing me out. and pissing me off. but such is life and i will need to get over it.

this is also why i joined the most recent group that i did on facebook....

Fernando inching by

so we have a family friend attending v.u.'s law skool who is celebrating ramadan this month. ok, cool. ramadan is a month in muslim beliefs of fasting during the day, breaking the fast at sunset by eating some dates, and then eating, partying, smoking bongs, and having sex till sunup. well--not for everyone. but for some of my arab friends, this is how many celebrate ramadan. so many from the west don't understand this muslim tradition and for that, poop on us.

so we took out our friend after sunset tonight to aladdin pita, a restaurant in merrillville. they usually only have the buffet on thursday and saturday nights, i believe, but with all the hungry muslims, this entire month (in the evening) there is a buffet. seeing as how i've been to the middle east--on several occasions--i am a FAN of middle eastern food. didn't used to be that way but throughout life with a boyfriend from my past and his mother holding me down and shoving hummus and pita down my throat, i've grown to love the stuff. but never would i have tasted it cuz it LOOKS LIKE CRAP. but it's quite delicious with the perfect amount of olive oil and garlic. mmmmmmm.

but as i gorged myself (like i need to) on this awesome and quite yummy food, i noticed that the dates my mom had mentioned earlier in the night were not yet to be found--neither on her plate nor on the buffet table. on my way back up to the buffet, i saw some and i grabbed a date out of a container near the appetizers and put it on the corner of my plate for her. the place was crowded and they honestly had a hard time cooking enuf stuff and displaying the stuff in enuf time for people to scoop it all up and munch it down.

well...the date that i had put on my plate for my mom had a guest. a house guest. i noticed him scrunching up, stretching out...scrunching up, stretching out--ON MY PLATE. he had left his home (the date, i'm guessing) and had begun the long trek to familiar lands--ACROSS MY PLATE.

ahem...well, with me HATING bugs and creepy crawlies of any kind and being terrified even of the very smallest ones (but at the same time not wanting to cause a scene), i walked briskly over to where my parents were sitting with Fernando, and told them of my dilemma. i explained to my mom how i had found the replenished date container at the buffet but this little inchworm named Fernando had decided to come out and play. i told her everything. here's what she did: she immediately KILLED FERNANDO and proceeded to gulp down the date. i mean, come ON! Fernando could have been having a party! friends may have been over!

that's gross. moral of the story: if there is a little worm in your fruit, kill him instantly and GET RID OF THAT FRUIT! and don't ever eat that type of fruit again. how incredibly disgusting. my mom was proud of her feat and smiled at me as if to say, "woohoo! more protein!" well no wait...she actually may have said that.

so faretheewell to Fernando and co. hopefully he (and maybe they) will have a happy inchworm afterlife.

ta ta.

anyone else?

anyone else out there tired to death of orenthal james simpson? what a circus. what a nuisance. what a sociopath. good grief. i actually have nothing else to say about that.

but how about them cars in iceland? yeah, that's my native land. i'm excited to read about all their "green" activities and such. and how they're not gonna rely on fossil fuels too much longer. how sweet. i really need to go there.

oh and about the garlic bread episode a few days ago...we tried it again last night and it was delicious. our garlic bread did NOT catch fire and we had an enjoyable meal.

BLACKWATER! LET'S GET OUT NOW! (and a garlic bread mishap)

okay. HELLO! WAKE UP USA! here's our opportunity! if iraq wants blackwater out, and if blackwater is who protects our diplomats and certain other important people, let's go! iraq has every authority to get rid of blackwater. and yes, i believe blackwater answers to no one. i feel that at first, blackwater did a good deed. initially they kept US interests safe in iraq. but now, it's like it's gone to their heads. shooting up random taxis if they get "too close" to a convoy doesn't protect anyone. and killing civilians? what does that accomplish? if you are not judged here on earth, there will be a doozy waiting for you later on. (and even if you are held accountable in this life, you are STILL screwed later.)

let me qualify this, though. yes, i know many civilians are armed. and many taxis DO have car bombs inside their trunks. i know this. but blackwater seems to have turned into a bunch of mercenaries, and whether or not they are justified in what they're doing, this is our time to bow out. let's get out of iraq! we've screwed up their country enough. maybe we should even pay reparations. BUT LET'S GET OUT!

once again the arrogance of the west (for anyone who is confused, that's us, my american friends) has continued to turn others away from us and make yet more enemies. iraq's people (and people groups) have been around for thousands of years. who are we to try to throw a quick fix in to "help" out this country? good grief.

but on a lighter note, last night we had lasagna for dinner (parent's house) and as we waited for the garlic bread to get done, we forgot about the garlic bread. and then we had garlic bread en FLAMBE. yeah, i finally got to use the fire extinguisher that had been sitting in the hall closet for years. and we MOURNED our black garlic bread. and our smoke filled kitchen. and our smelly upstairs. (but mostly we mourned our lack of tasty garlic bread.) but as a consolation prize, my dad took us out for ice cream at oberweis. that was good.

i am so freaking tired of the whole iraq thing

okay. i maybe like the new little slogan..."general petraeus or general 'betray us.'"

i guess this depends on whether or not he is HONEST or instead is another one of our dear little president's puppets--who will say whatever bush tells him to. but first of all, has he even had enuf time to take things in? does he know enuf about the war to give such recommendations?

i just wonder (once again, SIGH) how we could be so dumb. i mean, come ON. we just had the whole balkan conflict in the early-mid-late 1990's. why can we not learn from the past? before we go to war, unsmart presidents should have to take a few high school classes on history, foreign policy, europe, and specifically, european history. for example: yugoslavia has always had three people-groups residing within its borders. muslim, croat (catholic), and serb orthodox. okay. so why do we thing throwing a democracy together will be so easy? it doesn't work for everyone! they had a tri-presidency for the longest time and who really knows how their government is working now. nevermind the mafia and all the corrupt officials who took/are taking the donations made by so many countries and individuals.

if we had done any research into the country of iraq, we would KNOW there are also three people groups. yeah, maybe all MUSLIM, but still so very different. there are the shiites, sunnis, and the kurds. how can we expect one president to unite what was only united before in a dictatorship? that's the only way it COULD operate as one country before! and saddam obviously sucked as a leader, to put it nicely. you can't just go and kill off major people groups. that's ethnic cleansing. bad choice.

does anyone see a similarity? we are STILL occupying bosnia--even if only in tuzla today--but still, AMERICANS ARE THERE. nato is to some degree still there. the EUFOR is THERE. there are "occupiers" in that country. maybe not as visible, but still existing. i believe we went into iraq with the intention of being known as the "LIBERATORS." woohoo! liberators! people that give freedom! yessssssss! but we were never seen as liberators and never will be. we have made too many mistakes. we are definitely "OCCUPIERS." and there are no good connotations with such a title.

i firmly believe if anyone had a brain, they would have advised our non-smart president to not rush into such a war and to take a few high school classes and get a bit of a background knowledge first. not try to finish what daddy-dearest couldn't do in an earlier presidency. there are high schools not far away from the d.c. schools if bush really wanted to get a high school education out of the inner-city. may i recommend, falls church, virginia? i have friends from college who went to those schools growing up and were able to get a great education.

maybe it would be silly to send an "educated" president to high school, but i'm afraid there are high schoolers in our country who could do a better job than our current and unfortunate president. at least they could make more informed decisions.

but don't get me wrong, i do pray for bush as the Lord brings him to mind. i always roll my eyes first and tell God i still don't understand how this could have been allowed to happen, but i do pray that he would make good decisions as often as possible and would LISTEN TO WELL-INFORMED ADVISORS. that's all that can be done at this point. i'm just really not a fan of having a lame duck lead our country. a canadian goose may be a better choice. but God allows things to happen for a reason. and again, i'll just have to trust Him on this one. and i pray that His will is done.

i went AWOL for labor day weekend...

but i'm back now! where i went there was no easy access to the internet. but i took a bunch of pics. here are a few now. for labor day weekend i went to canada, hung out in the U.P. of michigan at cedar campus, and went to mackinac island for a day. it was good. parts of it were sad but i am super-very-entirely glad i went. it will make what is bad not so bad later. i can get used to the idea, maybe.

but in the meantime, i'm writing a huge letter of disappointment and regret to madison--intervarsity christian fellowship's mothership. i'm incredibly surprised at IV's poor decision-making skills. one person in particular. they're (she's) gonna tear the camp apart. and in the meantime...who is gonna take care of the place? good grief. if cedar can take this blow and still be in existence 3 or 4 years from now, great. but i'll be surprised. but i'm also afraid for the staff that remain. they work so hard as it is. are they gonna be able to pick up the slack for the at least FOUR staff who are now gone? stupid stupid stupid. i am no longer a fan of IVCF. not at all. and about donations? FORGET IT. if i am able to donate, it'll be directly to my friends who remain up there. I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH INTERVARSITY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP. their fellowSHIP is sinking.

rove's ride trashed...

sweet. at least someone has a sense of humour in washington. and at least the secret service/security around the white house decided for once what is really important. only thing that would be funnier is if a security camera would've caught a lame duck being the one doing the decorating.

and as for this senator craig guy...what the heck? that's gross. i mean, he's that desperate for what, anal sex? ugh. and in a public restroom? double ugh. especially as a hard core republican AND considering that he pleaded guilty--he DEFINITELY needs to be replaced. no question about it. i think he'll suffer embarrassment for a long time, tho, considering what craziness is on youtube, the news, late night shows, letterman & leno, etc. good grief. i almost feel sorry for the guy. but not really. i'm sure he's not sorry it happened, but for as much as what most are apologitic for, he's sorry he got caught.

EMBARRASSED TO BE AN AMERICAN! (yet again)

check out this website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6964564.stm

in short, here's what's up. we've been in afghanistan for six years now and STILL haven't a clue about the culture/religion of muslims. how are we gonna reach them if we continue to be STOOPID? our beloved american soldiers dropped a bunch of soccer balls (mostly for the children) out of helicopters in the khost province of afghanistan. the soccer balls had flags all over them.

unfortunately for us, we included the saudi arabian flag which is a bit more sacred than the rest. saudi arabia's flag includes the "shahada" which is one of the 5 pillars of islam--it's actually their declaration of faith. in the exact words, the word "allah" is included. since allah's name is on it and these words are super sacred, it is totally offensive to muslims who are very sensitive about how and where they're used--to have people kick around the equivalent to the koran. what the heck.

WHY ARE AMERICANS SO IGNORANT? i know people make mistakes. but how much longer are we going to continue to offend the world around us--especially when we are a country who is trying desperately (AND FAILING MISERABLY) to play GOD.

let me further mention that none of this was in any of american's news stuff. i found it on the bbc. the britich broadcasting company. why? because it's a total embarrassment of both political parties? we can't point the finger at one and blame them? yeah. it's all of us. but while i'm on the subject, united we stand, divided we fall. we are a country more divided than EVER before. it's all republican or democrat. I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I'M NEITHER. neither neither neither.

let me go throw up now.

the cream of the crop of our country...

astronauts. yeah, they're supposedly the best and the brightest.

she wants her ankle bracelet off BUT WILL SIT IN HER OWN PEE BY CHOICE? (my, how uncomfortable, miss double standard!)

she's not really a flight risk? SHE'S A FREAKING ASTRONAUT!

makes me think it's not so much what you know but who you know. anyone could become an astronaut. especially if all they are saying about them is true. recently, the truth has come out about their trips away from our little round watery planet and how they "prepare" for those trips. i know this does not apply to all, but it sure does make the good ones look like CRAP!!!

nice job, lisa novak. think before you act next time, you psycho! and every fifteen hours, you dang well better change that battery. cuz your GPS ankle monitor had BETTER not come off.

our poor widdle twees

all around us, the weather reports from last night's insane weather cited wind speeds of between 70-84mph. and i can attest to that because i was crazy enuf (or stupid enuf) to climb up to the roof of the building i work at which is a huge building that is at the highest point in porter county. man, i could have blown right off if i had wanted to. oh yeah, then there was lightning too. AHA! so i decided toasted pop tart becky was not a good idea so i came right back down again.

anyway, our somewhat little trees in our newly landscaped parking lot fell over. so since we didn't have power all day today, we fixed our little trees and did landscaping stuff this morning. it's hard to work in a building with no windows! i ran over to our church to pee (the property next to us) but they had no power either. i walked around and said hi to everyone and saw bob had no problem working in HIS office. yeah, he has two windows and when i stopped by, he had a precious hour left on his laptop. greg carter was cleaning out his files; he has a window too.

anyway, it was an interesting-ish day. and then we were on the roof again today: 1. to see why water is coming in near or through our a/c and heating units, and 2. to hang out cuz there was nothing else to do.

so this was my day. and i know we got power back today somewhere between 7-10pm. cuz the voicemail at the building is answering our fones again.

spiritual warfare in chicago's inner-city

i don't really care to share much about this till i can post the pics that go with it. tune in a little later.

sigh, my girls are old and in college

yesterday me and kylie went up to visit christin at albion college in michigan.(and i DO NOT have to be grammatically correct ANYMORE. i am not a teacher. ANYMORE.)

i can't believe four years have gone by. i WILL say however, that it will be a refreshing thing for the profs to have freshmen in class that have perfectly capable, well-used, ready-for-a-challenge brains for a change. i have heard from my dad how new college students are getting worse and WORSE. this too says a lot about or diminishing society. but thankfully, my girls are very pro-active about lots of stuff. including bettering themselves, making the world a better place for everyone, and making the most of their education. woohoo and congratulations!

the pic is of me, kylie and christin in front of christin's dorm.

stupid ESPN guy

the show was on tonight, tuesday, august 21, 2007. anderson cooper's show on CNN.

okay. for real. michael vick done wrong. yessur. but first of all, why is hurting dogs all of a sudden more important (and seemingly worse) than all these pro athletes who physically abuse their wives/girlfriends? are they really too dumb to talk things out and be logical about their issues? oh yeah...guess you gotta have a BRAIN to be logical. but to the person with the argument that a woman can leave the situation and a dog has no choice, GROW A FREAKING BRAIN. maybe you need a petri dish to help the process. especially since most of you actually are starting unfortunately with microorganisms. let me know; i have connections. but number one: no, a woman is NOT always able to leave a troubled relationship. not with her life, anyway. and number two: the woman is still the victim. these dumb jocks with hot tempers. WHAT ever.

and to the ESPN idiot who was on my boyfriend's show on CNN tonight, (anderson cooper--what a hottie) you are shamefully stupid. there is no hypocrisy. NONE. zero. these pro athletes get paid a gazillion dollars to throw a ball, hit a ball with a stick, OR throw a ball AND hit a ball with a stick. did i confuse you? unfortunately too many little kids in our country hold these dumb jocks in high esteem and YES, THEY ARE TO BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD. and yes, michael vick is to be made an example of. (i believe you called him the "poster boy" for dogfighting.) okay, YES. michael vick sucks and ANYONE should serve some sort of a jail term for hurting defenseless animals and doing all the crap vick did to them. and SINCE michael vick is a large profile person, he needs the royal discipline--whatever that may be. so yeah, all the athletes that you "cover" and "interview" (which is another story in and of itself) are to be held to a much higher standard.

i would like to have thought higher of ESPN but i suppose you're not too much smarter than the athletes you interview. maybe getting a subject and verb to agree in your sentences is difficult. and heaven knows you'll never be able to enunciate. and TO ALL THE PRO ATHLETES IN THE WORLD: please stop uttering "know what i'm sayin" because i (thankfully) don't relate to you at all. learn to articulate. if you're not sure what "articulate" means, look it up. it's under "A" which in case that doens't help...is in the FRONT of the dictionary. and oh yeah, a dictionary is a BOOK. you might be able to find one in a library--oh forget it.

i truly feel sorry for you. it probably has something to do with your microorganism of a brain.