I’ve been feeling out of things at breakfast while the boys talk music. So this morning I proposed a topic: top five favorite albums.

The boy’s:
U2 Boy

Beatle’s Sergeant Pepper

Pretender’s first album

Stone Temple Pilot’s Tiny Music from the Vatican Gift Shop

Queen Live at Wembley Stadium


The dh’s:
Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced?

U2’s Joshua Tree

Pretenders II

Foo Fighters

and a Yanni album to make him appreciate all the others. Their criteria was that the albums be something you'd want with you on a desert island.

Mine:
U2’s Joshua Tree

Midnight Oil’s Blue Sky Mine

Sinead O’Connor’s I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got

Peter Gabriel’s So

Paul Simon’s Graceland

(how sad is it that these were all from ten or more years ago?)

My criteria was that they be original releases that I listened to most of the songs without skipping over.

Now, if I’m going to do soundtracks, they’re going to be:
Buffy

Phantom of the Opera

Out of Africa

Harry Potter

Hope Floats .

If I’m going to do greatest hits, they’re going to be:
The Very Best of Crowded House

Squeeze Singles 45 and Under
The Cure Mixed Up

Ramones Mania

Rolling Stones 40 Licks
.

What are yours?

I don't know where I first heard about Carved in Stone, but the idea of a gargoyle book took hold in my mind and I HAD TO HAVE IT. As soon as it came, I dug in. Vickie Taylor built a wonderful world, explaining how gargoyles came to be, building in a terrific conflict (beyond the whole, "you're a girl, I'm a gargoyle, this can never work.")

Now, I'm not a big paranormal fan. Shapeshifters kind of creep me out. (Other than Damien. *sigh*) But I do like gargoyles. Anyone remember that awful movie from the 70s about the archaeologist dad and daughter who find gargoyle skeletons in the southwest? LOVVVVED that movie. Anyway, I kinda would've liked the gargoyles to be the villains and not the heroes, BUT these gargoyles were really cool. They had a close knit community, though divided at the opening of the book. The Big Bad is set up for subsequent books, which I will be buying.

I will say, I liked the gargoyle aspect more than the romance aspect. It was sexy, yes (a little too sexy for me) and Nathan was a great hero, and the conflict between them was certainly strong. I think it was the heroine who kind of left me cold. Or maybe it was the strong sexuality.

Still, I really liked the story. In fact, I was using it as an example with my class of how to do a book report, and they asked me to let them read it when I was done! All I had to say to discourage them was that it was 318 pages.

Gateway Computers - New Convertible Notebook / Laptop / Tablet PC

My husband will let me post pictures of Gerry all day, but THIS might get me divorced. It's just too cool, though.

Toni AND Bosey got me!

What were you doing ten years ago?
Teaching first grade and about to lose my mind. They are so….little. I’d also just joined SARA, I believe.

What were you doing one year ago?

Teaching fifth grade at a different school and about to lose my mind. They’re so….hormonal.

Five snacks you enjoy.
Chocolate in most varieties
Chips with ranch dip
Gummy peaches
Those Cranraisin things. Orange flavored.
Bing cherries

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics.
Uh, I was a music teacher. I know a lot of songs. A LOT.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
Take my class to dinner at the Rainforest Café.
Revamp the house.
Travel
Have a housekeeper
Have classic SUVs

Five bad habits

Not exercising enough
Too many sodas in a day
Swearing
Procrastinating
Baring my soul

Five things you like doing

Writing
Reading
Watching movies
taking naps
buying flowers

Five things you would never wear or buy again

Bikini

Mini skirts
Tapered leg jeans
Heels higher than three inches
A bustier (yeah, I was a child of the 80s)

Five favorite toys

Computer
Tetris on Gameboy
My Land Cruiser
Magna Doodle (they have a water one now, how cool is THAT?)
Uhhh….can’t think of anymore

Five people I’m tagging

Jill
Trish
Candice
Marianne
Peggy

January is a lonnnnng month, and February is even longer. We don't get a proper day off for MLK, and nothing for President's Day. Christmas only teases me about the freedom of summer to come. I know I shouldn't be wishing my life away, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, so here's a "things I'm looking forward to" blog.

January – Monday is a workday in my classroom – time to get organized! I'll be getting a preservice teacher on Wednesday, one who observes, but can also work with the kids. I can't wait! On DVD, there's Flight Plan, Lord of War and Legend of Zorro on DVD!

February – Trish is coming to San Antonio! We're going to have so much fun, she won't want to go to her conference! Then there's the Launching a Star results! First reading test will be over! Elizabethtown, Just Like Heaven and Pride and Prejudice on DVD!

March – Spring Break! Emily results, Duel results and GH calls (GULP)!

April – my birthday! Easter! Fiesta! TAKS tests over! Tutoring over!

May – Mother’s Day!

June – SUMMER!!! Dh’s birthday!

July – son’s 15th birthday (wah!), National in Atlanta! Pirates of the Caribbean!

What are you looking forward to? Do you need things to look forward to?

The word "lap" was in one of the stories on the kids' test last week, describing what a cat does to milk. Two of the 5 teachers in my unit did not know what it meant. When I expressed my incredulity that this could be so, they accused me of having a large vocabulary, and of being a bookworm. (Um, hello, that's where I GOT my large vocabulary.) This led to the discussion of Frank McCourt's book about being a teacher. (Is it Frank's book, or the brother's? I don't remember now.) Cindi asked if I'd read Angela's Ashes and I proclaimed it a horrid book. Cindi was stunned. When I went on to say that it was so depressing, she said, "Well, yeah, but it was a good book." Yeah, I guess, in that it had the power to depress me for weeks! I can't even look at the cover without a form of PTSD ;) I cannot read books like that, and when I asked her why she could, she said it made her feel better about her own life.

Yeah, well, not me. I avoid sad books and sad movies because I have a hard enough time being cheerful, ya know? I remember the second Gabaldon book, the Dragonfly one, about did me in. I am probably the only person I know who has no desire to see Brokeback Mountain.

I know I'm missing a lot with this attitude, but I have to protect myself. And that's why I read romance. There's always hope at the end.

Okay, so I didn't love the end of this movie, but I pretend it didn't happen. Remember the episode of Friends where Phoebe learned she hadn't seen all the ends of sad movies?

I wrote a book in 2004 that I never submitted. Okay, I sent it to one contest, and that was it. Why? I got the mad hare (hair?) to start Surface, and didn't want to take time to revise, esp since Surface was more in line with Hot Shot than Vanished, which is RS.

But now I have three action books ready (well, 2 waiting on my agent to read), so I've pulled out Vanished to work on. But I'm wondering if it can be saved. I like the book, I think it has good bones, but I don't LOVE it.

Gabrielle Blanchard’s best friend Tess McCartney and her young son, Noah, have been missing for months. The police have moved the case to the back burner. Her family is defeated – if the police don’t hold out hope, how can they? Only Gabrielle and Tess’s twin brother Daniel Kemp, Gabrielle’s childhood nemesis, believe Tess is alive.

Gabrielle believes only she and Daniel can find Tess and her son, since they know her best. They come to this decision after the memorial service. Although it’s her idea, Daniel steers the investigation. Gabrielle can’t stand take-charge guys; she’s seen what her father’s controlling attitude has made her mother. She fights him every step of the way to keep the upper hand. He, on the other hand, is used to being the guy that gets results. He's CEO of a company that writes software for surveillence. (I need to play this bit up.)

Tess’s husband Curt asks them to stop looking. They agree that in order to protect Curt’s feelings, they won’t tell Curt their moves.

After a series of dead ends, they find a psychic who reveals Daniel’s years-long attraction to Gabrielle, who is stunned. He’d never let on. She’s not willing to admit the attraction has been mutual. She confronts him, and to her shock, arrogant Daniel is embarrassed. She delights in playing up the incident, just to see him flustered.

With the help of the psychic and the PI Daniel hired, they locate Tess’s car in a used car lot. The sheriff’s department organizes a search and they find Tess’s clothes in an abandoned house. Daniel is grief-stricken, but Gabrielle assures him Tess is alive. This house had belonged to Gabrielle’s grandparents. Tess left her family on her own. This is stunning to them, the first time it occurred to them.

They learn Curt abused her. They never realized her marriage was a danger. How could they not have seen? Why didn’t Tess turn to either of them for help? After a fight where they blame each other for not seeing her pain, they come together. But when they think of Tess, they wonder how well one can know someone.

Things start happening once Daniel and Gabrielle learn that Tess is alive. Several events seem to keep them from finding Tess.

They realize Tess must have a new identity, and speculate how she may have gotten it. Daniel wants to question the local women’s shelter to see if Tess had gone there, perhaps found help, but Gabrielle knows he won’t get results with his attitude, so she goes to the shelter instead.

Once there, she realizes she won’t get answers from direct questions, so she leads the volunteer to believe she needs help. As she takes the role, she realizes she’s using her mother’s experience with her father, and it’s disturbing. She also realizes her relationship with Daniel parallels her parents’ relationship in some ways. She can’t allow that.

She tells Daniel she doesn’t like who she is with him; she feels like she’s a different person, one who makes too many accommodations for his happiness. She tells him she can only help him find Tess, nothing more. He’s already in love with her, with her strength, her loyalty, her determination. He’ll give her space now, but won’t let her get too far away.
After several visits to the shelter, she’s able to learn the name of someone who will help her disappear. She goes to him, cases the place and reports to Daniel, who is antsy at letting Gabrielle take on all the responsibility. He breaks into the forger’s office, and is furious when Gabrielle shows up. She ignores him and together they come up with some records, which they copy.

The excitement of the evening has them rushing back to Daniel’s apartment. Despite Gabrielle’s reservations about their relationship, she’s happy with him. She’s just not willing to admit it yet. With the help of the PI, they use the information they’ve found to narrow down Tess’s location, stake out schools with new students. When they discover her, she’s pregnant with Curt’s child.

Then Curt shows up.

Tess is betrayed. She thinks her brother and best friend have led her enemy to her home, one she sacrificed so much for.

Daniel is ready to take charge again, to find Curt, to make him pay for the pain he’s caused Tess, the rest of the family. Now that he’s found Tess, she can file charges. But she doesn’t want to. She tells Daniel that such efforts are fruitless, and she has to protect her children.

Gabrielle is torn. Tess doesn’t want this, and Tess is her best friend. Like they did as children, Tess and Gabrielle team up against Daniel, but Gabrielle does it with pleading in her eyes.

Daniel promises to keep Tess safe, begs her to come home to her family. He’ll protect her. Gabrielle confronts him with the fact that he’s taking control of his sister’s life now, even though she recognizes his pain. He doesn’t want his family to go on believing she and her son are dead.

He walks away but is unable to leave it. He confronts his brother in law, and through threats and bribery he is able to get Curt to leave the city, promise to leave Tess alone, so she and Noah can come home.

After Daniel deals with his brother in law, he tells Gabrielle he understands why she resists him taking control, and he’ll do better at it if she’ll stay with him forever. Blah blah blah.

I hope this doesn’t jinx anything….

One of my chaptermates sold to Avon last week and she’s working on a new pen name. She has one for Ellora’s Cave, but Avon didn’t want her to bring it. So she’s thinking, and she’s come up with some good ones.

I, however, have been thinking for YEARS and haven’t been able to come up with one I like. Clearly, being a third grade teacher, I can’t use my real name, though that would be cool to see on a book, and I’ve built up name recognition through contests. Also, no one EVER spells it right, so if you’re trying to buy it on amazon.com or something you’d never find it.

But I’m thinking I need to have a few options ready, you know, in case.

My maiden name is Barclay. I could use that. I would really like to use Evans, because that was my grandmother’s name, and she was always my biggest supporter. I hear advice that you should have the same first letter of your pseudonym as of your real name so you will react when someone calls out to you. With a name like Mary, I’d like something a little more exotic, ya know? But nothing’s coming to mind.

Have you got your pseudonym picked out, or are you going to use your name?

When that 7 Things Meme was going around, it asked 7 things you'd do before you die. I answered with my expiration date far in the future, but my mortality was brought home to me this weekend.

This weekend the Wet Noodle Posse lost one of our members. Maryanne Cappelletti was a finalist in the 2003 short contemporary category of the Golden Heart. She was a young mother, a wonderful writer with a big-name agent and interest from Brenda Chin, and so full of life and energy. Her disease, scleraderma, started taking its toll the summer of 2003, and her involvement with the Wet Noodle Posse, once so active, fell off as she fought for her health. She lost the battle this weekend.

On top of being heartbroken for her family and all who knew her, I have to face one of my worst fears – dying before I’m done.

Done with what, you ask? Well, done with anything I’ve started. Done loving my husband, done raising my son, done paying for the house, done writing the ideas I have (if I made that bargain with God, to let me live till I had written all my ideas, I’d be in the Guinness Book of Records), heck, done reading the book I’m reading.

I’ve played the game, you know, thinking about being given a limited time to live, what would I do. Isaac Asimov said he’d write faster. I think that would be me, too. I’d stop sleeping so much ;) I’d sit in my backyard more. If I had the resources, I’d travel.

And I’d berate myself for letting so much time pass before I waited to do these things.

So in addition to mourning Maryanne, I’m going to learn from her. I’m not going to have any regrets when my time comes.

I don't think Maryanne would mind me posting a picture of Gerry.

Preditors & Editors Poll


Check this out! I'm on here, and so is Gina and the Wet Noodle Posse!

Since I've been a member of SARA, we've met in restaurants. The first place was a restaurant that had Mexican and Chinese food. I know, weird combination. Still, the service was good, the food was good and they had a nice room away from everyone else.

When their quality declined, we tried a steak house, which moved us to a different room every time. I loved it, though, because it was a stone's throw from my then-new house.

We moved back to the first restaurant.

Then we moved to an Italian restaurant that gave us our own room, but the service and check-out were nightmares. Then we didn't meet our contract on how many meals we bought a month, so they charged us for the use of the room.

We moved to a Mexican restaurant near the Medical Center, a nightmare for traffic. Last meeting, they put us in the bar. When we weren't in the bar, we were in a joint party room, usually with a group of people on the other side of the accordian doors who were actually having a party, not trying to listen to a speaker.

Now we're going to try a buffet place in the same general area. I don't know how it will work, since people will be getting their own food, but at least you pay as you go in, and you won't have wait staff disturbing you.

I've heard Austin meets at Mr. Gatti's Pizza, and other places meet in libraries. Where does your chapter meet?

I was listening to workshops again this week during my commute. I had already listened to the PRO Retreat, where the editors and agents shredded the beginnings of manuscripts. That workshop really upset me, because there was so much glee there in tearing apart people's work.

This week I listened to RWA Idol. I should have known better. At the beginning, I cringed as the speakers ripped into the books, including some I thought were pretty good. By the end, I was tearing into them just as much, grinning to myself when the speaker matched what I was saying. :::shudder:::

Then I was brave enough to listen to Kate Duffy's query letter workshop (Grinned when I heard how excited she was about Gina's Daisy and Goliath). Wow, what a pleasant surprise! She requested most of the books, was very positive, had a running joke about married people. I could totally work with this woman.

So it got me to wondering....did the PRO Retreat panel and the RWA Idol panel feed off each other's negativity? Did that encourage them to be more blunt? If that's how they are about our work in NY, fine, but keep your professional side when you're out among us.

Also, how can I enjoy American Idol now? Sheesh, at least writing can be fixed.

I sure tip my hat to anyone who submitted to those workshops. I never will.

Don't know if I used this picture yet. My little brother drove over yesterday and we started talking about Attilla and he asked if I had it, so I loaned it to him. Fred was making fun because I called him Attilla the Hunk.

Words of a Writer

Kelly has WONDERFUL NEWS!!! Go see!!!

Does anyone watch The Office? Not only a hilarious show, but there's this romance. I didn't realize till last night that the receptionist is engaged, but she has this thing for the office prankster (I've only seen it 3 times, so I don't know their names) and he has a thing for her. The longing when they look at each other....oh. This could rival Ross and Rachel. I even dreamed about it last night, with of course myself as the receptionist, shocking my friends when I leaned into him. This could supplant Earl as my favorite comedy.

Sterf Feagan sent this to me yesterday.


Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavoured mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are runover by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

Just found out Hot Shot won Hot Prospects! Brenda Chin was the judge, but I don't know if she made comments.

Went to take a nap when I got home yesterday, brother called to say he was coming to fix the heater Friday, just need the key. It's his day off, so that's kind of him. Watched The Island, was much better than I hoped, although I didn't get the Eqan thing until the end, with the sunglasses and the accent. Am reading another good book, Carved in Stone. Was in bed before 10, slept almost till the alarm, then snoozed it, so here's a cheat and a Gerry pic.

If you remember The Original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this will bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when "Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous and clever, not scripted and (often) dull as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q. According to Cosmo, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No, wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say "I Love You"?
A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the CampFireGirls?
A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is their anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army

Q. While visiting China, your tour guide starts shouting "Poo! Poo! Poo!" What does this mean?
A. George Gobel: Cattle crossing.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and Laugh

Meg Cabot ::: Meg's Diary!

Here ya go.....I'm telling you, they're getting harder and harder to find.

Another night, no sleep. Sigh. Been up since 2:30. We went out to eat at a lovely restaurant for our anniversary, but all that rich food....

Very rarely do I read a straight romance, and even more rarely anymore do I read between commercials.

But this book



kept me reading through the commercials of Surface, and even through parts of the show, into Las Vegas, until my cousin called ;) . It was just so fun. First of all, isn’t that the cutest cover? Second of all, it’s a reunion story, which I love.

It’s the first of a trilogy (I don’t usually read series, but I will be reading this one) about 4 college roommates. One of the college roommates has written a self help book and has used the other three as illustrations of her points. The three get upset, but also figure she had a point, so they resolve to face their fears. Maddy first.

Maddy is an artist who put her art to the side to care for her dying husband. Let me say, Maddy is a wonderful heroine. I loved how she dressed, how she acted, how she talked. She was just awesome. So many of her insecurities as an artist hit a chord with me as a writer. Her friends challenge her to get back to her art and to get it into a gallery. So she spends the summer in Santa Fe, working on her art while being an arts and crafts coordinator at a summer camp run by her high school sweetheart. (His mother owns it and she asked Maddy to take the job, so it’s not as coincidental as I made it sound.) So Maddy has two fears to face.

Joe is a former Army Ranger, former bad boy who had his heart broken when Maddy turned down his proposal in high school. Okay, this bothered me a bit, that he was still so upset about it 12 years later. I mean, upset. But he’s pretty well motivated, you find out later in the story.

This story is fun and reallllllly sexy, and very insightful to the artist psyche, I think. I highly recommend!

Ugh, what a way to start the New Year! Despite TWO Tylenol PMs, I couldn't sleep, then at 2:30 the carbon monoxide alarm went off. So the heater's off, I slept past the alarm and I'm tired already!



Today is my 19th anniversary. Yes, I was a child bride (if I had a scanner, I’d show you.)

So, 19 things about my dh….

1) He’s a terrific father.
2) He didn’t ask me to marry him until I’d bugged him about it, and then he proposed in front of a Stop N Go, saying, “You want to get married or what?”
3) He did buy me an engagement ring after my mom threw a fit, saying that was the only way to prove the commitment. He gave it to me in a beautiful grotto at the art museum we used to visit all the time.
4) He was early to our wedding…the first thing he was EVER early to. And he wore a white tux with tails.
5) He’s an only child of a single mom.
6) He worked in the restaurant business for at least a dozen years before deciding it was time to get out. He went to the community college when our son was a baby long enough to get the training he needed to pester the local CBS affiliate about getting a job. He was hired as cameraman and worked his way up to Emmy winning editor.
7) He’s incredibly patient.
8) He’s not particularly sociable – most of “our” friends are “my” friends.
9) He had a great hand in molding my musical taste.
10) He’s incredibly supportive.
11) He’s been in bands since he was 14, used to play in Austin at the height of the punk scene there. We rented the last house because it had a room for the band to practice. One night we got a noise citation, which was funny because our 9 month old son was sleeping just on the other side of the wall where the band was playing.
12) He’s very creative, and I think it bothers him not to be in a band now, while I’m writing and the boy is in a band.
13) He loves coffee.
14) He loves Sci Fi, shows and books.
15) He loves his iPod. His screen name is Pi (as in the mathematical number), so he calls his iPod his PiPod.
16) He quit smoking when the boy asked him to.
17) He doesn’t drink. No reason, just his choice.
18) It was his idea to go to the Grand Canyon for our first vacation on our own. I couldn’t believe he wanted to take ME outside, but we all loved it.
19) He’s a Mac man through and through.

I was watching an INXS concert the other night after dinner on one of the digital channels. It was a concert in Nara, Japan in 1994, about 8 years after they fell off my radar and three years before lead singer Michael Hutchence committed suicide.

With the exception of Michael, this is what they looked like then.



Now, when they exploded on MTV with “The One Thing,” that really sexy orgy-esque video, this is what they looked like.



That’s Kirk, Michael, Andrew, Gary Gary, Jon and Tim. Back in those days, I was torn between Jon and Tim. Jon is very very handsome, dark haired, blue eyed, chiseled bone structure, plus those drummer arms. Mmm. Tim was more talented, but not as handsome.



Here’s a better picture of them. Kirk, Michael and Jon in the back row, Andrew, Gary Gary and Tim in the front.

But either my taste has changed, or they aged nice. Now (not NOW, what with that reality show, but looking back now) I would go for Gary Gary in the bottom left, or Michael in the center. Though Michael was always a little skinny. Gary Gary had that whole ultimate Aussie thing going, and now that’s more to my taste.



Here’s a couple more of Michael, just for fun. What a waste.





Here's what they look like now:



It took me a minute to figure it out, but it's Andrew, Jon, Tim, Kirk and Gary Gary.

So how much has your taste changed?

Happy New Year!!

I’m making this general, since you guys mostly know my personal highlights ;)

1) people helping people – starting with the tsunami and continuing with Katrina and Rita, we saw the best of people in 2005
2) Good friends got The Call (Janice, Paula, JoAnn, Colleen, Candy, Toni, Tess) or saw their books on the shelf in 2005 (Robyn, Stef, Janice and JoAnn!)
3) Spurs world championship! And the Astros were in the World Series!
4) quality TV – Lost, My Name is Earl, 24…shows that kept interest and created buzz
5) a new Peter Jackson movie – I know it wasn’t Lord of the Rings, but he made it with just as much love
6) gas prices went down after going so high
7) fuzzy slipper socks - best invention ever


Have anything to add?

This is going around the blogosphere - saw it on Elizabeth's blog.

Name Five Bad Things That Happened to You in 2005:

1. My grandfather died.
2. My cousin’s daughter was diagnosed with aplastic anemia.
3. Son sent to alternative school for a week.
4. Mother-in-law hospitalized for almost a month.
5. My principal announced she was leaving after Christmas.

Name Five Good Things That Happened to You in 2005:
1. Got an agent
2. Finished a new manuscript
3. Got a WONDERFUL class who make me love teaching again
4. Husband won an Emmy and we had a romantic weekend
5. Started this blog and made wonderful cyber friends.

Name Five People Who Have Touched You in a Special Way in 2005:
1. My students
2. My administrators
3. Jessie Ferguson
4. Mary, the teacher who used to be in my unit
5. Lorelle

Name Five Things You Achieved in 2005:
1. Finished a new manuscript.
2. Got an agent
3. Finalled in 9 contests with 4 books
4. Got the best evaluation of my career
5. Stepped out of my comfort zone and went to a writer’s retreat

Name Five Things You'd Like to Achieve in 2006:
1. Get a book contract
2. Final in the GH
3. Home improvements
4. Balance between writing, day job and life
5. Lose some weight

What is your new year's resolution/what would you like from 2006?

I would like to appreciate my house and make better use of my time. I want to write one new book and one new proposal. I want to get my kids through the state test.

Anybody have any exciting New Years plans? We're going over to a friend's, eat tamales and drink champagne. The dh's first NYE off since 2000!

Tori Scott shared this with me.

I heard about this book on Karen Templeton's blog.



It is hilarious. And suspenseful. A likeable heroine. Two possible heroes. Great supporting characters. I started it last night after midnight, stayed up till 2, woke up and read till lunchtime, finished it after my nap. It was THAT GOOD.

To summarize it would just be too much, but the tag line on the front says, "A bear ate my ex....and that's okay."

That's just the beginning of her troubles. Sooooo, soooo good.