I read this morning that Austin has gotten over 13" of rain in June! Can you believe that? I'm loving the rain - and so is the lawn - but we're all going to wash away if this keeps up!

I went and saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban again yesterday. I still loved it! And I still don't see how they're going to make the fourth book into a movie. I mean, they already had to cut a lot out of book three to make it fit and book four is *much* longer! Well, we'll see, I suppose...

For the record, I am SICK of being tired all the time. It's not that I can't sleep. In fact, some days I'm pretty sure that I could sleep for 24 hours straight. The problem is that when I wake up, no matter how little or how much I've slept, I'm still exhausted and I stay tired all day. And I: am not pregnant, do work out, do eat properly, do take vitamins, do not have thyroid problems, am not anemic, am sure that the medication I take is not causing it, get enough sleep every night, etc.

Doug and I had another fun date on Friday! Plan A went out the window thanks to *more* rain, but the backup plan came through for us. We did dinner and a movie. We tried to go to Iron Cactus downtown, but there was so much traffic that by the time we got down there we wouldn't have had time to wait and then eat and still get to the movie on time. So we wandered a little and ended up at Hut's Hamburgers where we were seated immediately.

Excellent. The movie portion of the evening was at the Paramount - we saw the original 'Shaft' (1971). It was so terrible that it was great! Doug and I have been quoting it like dorks since Friday. It was a double feature and we stuck around for about half of the second film, which was a documentary called Wattstax. I won't try to explain it because I was rather tired by that point, but it was very interesting.

It is currently pouring down rain. It's an really real thunder storm! We don't get many of those in Austin. We get lots of rain at times, but usually without any good thunder! Of course, this does put a *damper* on my date plan for this evening. Oh well, good thing I have a backup plan!

Funny kitty story (maybe i should just call my blog 'Funny Kitty Stories'): This happened while I was giving the kitties their little spoonful of canned food treat last night. I gave Charlie his, then scooted between the kitchen table and the wall to get to Cordy's bowl. In doing this, I brushed against something on the table (which shouldn't have been there anyway), which sent it and a couple of other things crashing to the floor. This happened right by Cordy and her food bowl and freaked her out so much that she flailed and took off running. Her flailing then upset her food bowl and sent little cat food pellets flying EVERYWHERE! This all happened in about half a second and it was much funnier than it sounds. Both of the cats were totally spooked and I couldn't stop laughing!

Here are some profoundly absurd bits of news (courtesy of world magazine):

Parking power trip
British parking attendants are so zealously enforcing a zero-tolerance policy that it's sparking a public backlash. The New York Times reports that Nadhim Zahawi was ticketed for illegally parking his motor scooter after it was strewn across the street after a traffic accident. As one of London's parking attendants wrote the $180 ticket, Mr. Zahawi sat in a nearby ambulance receiving treatment for a broken leg.
Another man stopped to ask directions from one attendant -- and was promptly ticketed by another. And one former traffic warden, Samson Adeyemo, says he was fired because he only gave out 12 parking tickets a day. The Times reports that parking officials now outrank telemarketers in surveys of the British public's most reviled workers.

Dead zone
Construction workers in Tokyo knew a building they were preparing for demolition was old and decrepit, but what they found must have surprised them. In a forgotten apartment, workers discovered a skeleton reclining on a futon still wearing pajamas.
The man, a former construction worker himself, died 20 years ago and was found near a newspaper dated Feb. 20, 1984. Neither his family nor his employer had inquired after he went missing. One elderly neighbor said he didn't even know the apartment existed.

Doug and I had a fun date on Friday! He tortured me by refusing to tell me where we were going until we were in the car - naughty boy! We went to Austin's Park & Pizza, which, for those of you who do not live in Austin, is a lot like Celebration Station (if that means anything to you). For one price, you get unlimited pizza from the buffet, unlimited rides on all the attractions, and unlimited video games (mostly). We ate lots of pizza (which was just *ok*), played miniature golf (on one of the two courses), rode go carts (on one of the two tracks), rode the bumper boats (and got soaked!), and played lots of video games. We didn't even get to do the other go cart course or the laser tag! It was a LOT of fun!

And furthermore, kitties are cute!

Did you know that dropping a plate on your foot really, really hurts? I found this out last night. I somehow knocked a small plate out of our drain rack in the sink (i was going for the ice cream scoop!). It landed sideways on my foot and ankle and OW! I'm shocked and somewhat disgusted that it didn't leave a bruise. Something that hurts that much should definitely leave a bruise!

So what about this new sales tax write-off that passed in the House yesterday? Being able to deduct sales taxes is fine with me and I have no opinion on the tax cuts for businesses (don't know enough about it), but what's up with giving $9.6 billion to tobacco farmers? Aren't we supposed to be *discouraging* the tobacco industry? You know, lung cancer, all that stuff?

Okay, I've wimped out the past two days with my blog changes. Today you get a real post. That is, if I can come up with something to talk about...

Did anyone read that story about the people in Fort Worth who drowned in the fountain? It was a man, his daughter and son, and another girl. So sad! And I think what was even more sad, but also really sweet, is the 8 year old brother who jumped in to save his older sister and the 14 year old boy who saw the two girls go in and jumped in to try and help. Actually, what's probably most sad is the mother who is left behind. Please join me in praying for her! :(

On a more cheerful note, you can be very excited for Mr. Doug Peeler because he is getting a massage this evening (an Angela Peeler Special)!

More getting crazy with the blog! This time I added a profile and a picture. I just get fancier all the time!

Now I'm off to play with Catherine Christine Johnson who is almost two weeks old and quite cute! :)

Me and my dashing husband! 

Decided to get funky today and change things up. What do you think? And now people can add comments to my posts! :)

Here is an amusing excerpt from an email that I got from an old friend today...

You realize, of course, that kittens grow up to be cats and cats aligned themselves with the enemy at the fall? Not like dogs? Dogs understand the need for human beings to be in charge. Dogs need to love and be loved. Cats need only be and have given over to the mistaken belief that they are autonomous--I suspect, in fact, that the reason we use white mice in laboratory experiments is because of some conspiracy perpetrated on humanity by black cats; but that's just me.

Poor deluded fellow! :o)~

I'm now on a mission to convince a neighborhood stray to adopt us. He looks rather skinny and cute, so I'm sure he needs a mommy to pet him every day!

Well, Doug and I are officially back online. At least until the next heavy rain. We finally got another service guy out here yesterday to check the connection and he said he could find no reason for why the modem wouldn't work. It just spontaneously started working on its own Wednesday evening! Man, who knows...

Odd thing - a little while ago, I saw someone drive by, then back up a bit, put a camera to his eye, and take a picture of something. It looked like he was photographing the space between our house and our neighbors'. Very suspicous! I even went across the street to look in the same direction he appeared to be looking and I saw nothing interesting. Except some limbs we cut down that are across the sidewalk. Hmm...

People are weird.

Hello all! Sorry for the *long* delay in posting. I actually haven't had internet access at home for over a week. Doug accidentally mowed over our cable connection and we're having ISSUES with Time Warner Cable and getting them to fix the problem. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that Time Warner was recently acquired by Satan, who already runs all insurance companies. Anyway, I'm making this post from the library by our house. We'll be having our 3rd service call on Thursday and hopefully I'll be back online at home after that!

Baby updates:

John and Ellen Rees had a girl! Naomi Grace was born on May 27th at 11:17 a.m. She is 20 inches long and weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. Only a 3 hour labor and this was her first child and she was induced - go Ellen!

Brian and Anne Johnson had a girl! Catherine Christine was born on June 3rd at 12:28 a.m. She is 20 inches long and weighed only 7 lbs. 9 oz.! And Anne was at the hospital for all of 22 minutes before the baby was born! 2 pushes!