If she had the proper words to say,

LiveJournal is running at 1/100th the speed that it was even just 45 minutes ago. I'm sure this actually has everything to do with the announcement of Heath Ledger's death. We're all wanting to get the word out, and we're all absolutely shocked at the news.

So young. So beautiful. So much life left ahead for him and his young daughter.

So very, very sad.

I've been surprised to see about a dozen people on my flist now post the news using the same link I supplied earlier. I'll bet we're all refreshing that link often, too.

So.

Yesterday while I was working, Heather picked up and took the boys to see the third Shrek movie. I had no interest in going myself, and the boys were DYING to go (as was Heather, to be completely honest, but she wanted a viable "excuse" to see it *wink*). They had a good time, and the boys came home with Shrek toys from a lunch Heather treated them to at McDonald's before the movie. And the toys talk, too.

Mom is overjoyed at this, let me tell you.

They were all still at the theater when I got off work, so I came home to change clothes and wait for them. Chris followed me home from Runza and fixed the XBox 360 for us. (It had been "broken" - according to A.J. - for about a month, and I'd been asking Ryan to stop by and see if he could fix it sometime, but we never seemed to hit upon a time that was good for both of us.) After pulling out the entertainment center and inspecting all the cords and stuff behind the TV and whatnot, Chris decided to test the system using a different outlet. And as he was plugging the XBox in, I had a flash of (late) brilliance: the switch on the wall that controls the bottom half of the power outlets (where the XBox was plugged into)? Yeah, it was down. *facepalm* So I guess one of the boys managed to flip the switch to the OFF position while grabbing a remote from the hanging remote basket at some time, and the XBox hadn't worked since. Once I flipped the switch back to ON, everything was hunky-dory.

You may wonder why I hadn't tried to troubleshoot any of that myself in the last month, but the answer is simple: I never, ever want to be held responsible for goofing up, messing around with and/or otherwise breaking Philip's $400+ game system, so I've sworn to never, ever touch the thing. I don't even know how to turn it on - Philip taught A.J. directly instead. Therefore, when A.J. said it was broken and that he'd tried everything he knew, I had to take him at his word. And, actually, he was right, kinda. He *had* tried everything he knew, notwithstanding the power switch that would never have crossed his mind and is located across the room from the TV and XBox anyway.

Shortly after Chris left, Heather called to tell me the movie was out. She'd asked me previously to take pictures for her when she had her hair cut, and I was happy to do it. So I met her and the boys up at Great Clips, and I photographed the important occasion for her. She'd been growing her hair for well over two years in order to donate it, and she was going with a short 'do for the rest of her pregnancy. Her hair is SO beautiful, and it was SO long! I took a ton of pictures, and then I burned her a disc of them. She'll update with them in her own journal soon, I'm sure.

When I came home with the boys from that, I had missed a phone call from Annie. They now have a place, and they were able to begin moving in yesterday. I called her back and chatted for a little while, and I have been given permission to give out her address. If you would like to have it, please email me, and I will send you the info (rather than posting her new address publicly here). It was good to talk to her again, and I'm glad that they are finally able to begin the process of settling in. She feels like some of her stresses from the move can finally start to ebb, and that's a great thing.

Right after getting off the phone with her, I got a call from Kory. He needed someone to work for him, and I didn't mind going in for a couple of hours. I was washing my uniform by then, so I had to wear other stuff, but Ryan didn't mind. I was also the only girl in the crew last night, and we had a good time. The boys entertained themselves with Playdoh and their GameBoys at empty tables while I worked, and then Ryan allowed them free dinners before we left.

We came home around 7:30pm, and I did some more laundry. Jack played outside for about an hour, and then I decided to run out to Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics. I barely made it to JoAnn's before they closed, but I was able to get the things I needed. We came back home, and then just vegged for a bit before going to bed. Philip's mom had called while we were out, so I returned her call and we talked geneaology for a bit. It turns out that Philip is related to the Afflecks - this is funny because I have ALWAYS sworn that Jack has Ben Affleck's dimpled chin! (Nevermind that I could look at Bennie all day long - *swoon*!)

I organized my office some last night while my neighbor sat on my floor and chatted a bit. I've been teaching her to tat for the past two months or so, and she's basically got it now. She needs more confidence in her ring technique, but she could probably move away and still keep up the skill at this point, if necessary.

And though I didn't tat anything yesterday, I've now completed five of the six bookmarks I set out to make as gifts for the boys' teachers. A.J. gave Ms. Janovec hers on Thursday, his last day of school, and I'm still finishing up the set of bookmarks for Jack's five preschool teachers. I'm sure one of his teachers won't care at all - she might even just throw it away - and though I'd like to save myself the time making one for her, I'm sure the rumor mill will run wild if I give something to everyone but her. But I'm pleased with the progress in them, anyway. I modified one pattern a bit, so each of the bookmarks is unique in one way or another. I'm also LOVING the variegated pink thread I'm currently using. That's a shock to me, too, since I typically don't like pink much.

And that was my day in quite a large nutshell. ;-)

On this very special day - the birthday of Elvis Aaron Presley - I received something wonderful in the mail: a Christmas postcard from lotsofjoy! Yay!

Go forth and celebrate! Love me tender, and don't step on my blue suede shoes!

I had dinner guests over during the first airing of his memorial, so I was unable to watch it at that time. And I messed up my time zones when it re-aired later, and as I was sitting down to watch it, I realized it had ended the hour before.

I'm so sad that I missed it. :-(

Today is the day Elvis died. (Yes, he really did die.) Well, it's the day + 29 years. At least, I'm pretty sure it was August 16, 1977. I could be wrong, though - I wasn't yet alive.

Awww, look! My Bennie loves Harry Potter, too!

*coos*