What I love the most about blogging...

...is the adventure that it takes me on. I never seem to fail to find new websites on the internet that I didn't know about, learn how to do new things with my blog or with anything related to the internet, or find new friends or acquaintances out there that I never knew I had so much in common with. Earlier this week, I found a blogger in California that, when reading her profile, I could check off the things we have in common. Last night I discovered five new memes just from reading through the blogs of my friends down there. And Jen discovered how to make our blog template three columns! This is just so neat. I feel so connected!

I don't have much to report today, but one moment of sadness. My mother put one of her dogs to sleep this week while I was at the lake with mine. Brittney (a Brittney spaniel) was thirteen years old, and while it is not crystal clear what happened, apparently she was having respiratory and kidney failure and my mom decided to do the best thing for her and end her suffering. I really was okay during the whole conversation with my mom last night. I loved Brittney but she wasn't my dog like she was my mom's...my mom got Brit when I was a senior in high school and I went to college the next year. Now, when she had to put Scarlett to sleep a few months ago, the black Lab that we got as a puppy when I was a junior in high school, that was really upsetting. The only time during the conversation when I started to tear up was when my mom was talking about how much Brit was drawn to small girls and how her hope is that there is a small girl in Heaven waiting for Brittney to come and be her companion. Geez, I'm tearing up again just typing this. Anyway, Britty, wherever you are, I know that you will be chasing squirrels and birds forever, laying on the couch next to a warm lap, and fighting out your struggle for dominance with Scarlett for all eternity. May you rest in peace.

I was shocked today to get on the scale and see my weight down again...which isn't the way it should be happening. After all the junk I ate on vacation, I should be way up, but I'm not. Either that means that my bod is processing junk much better now OR I'm losing muscle. Neither prospect is too appealing. Today's plans...stitching, laundry, cleaning up the house, walking the dogs and researching tickets to Florida online today. I want to visit my grandma in Orlando over Thanksgiving and I really need to get on the stick and find a good rate!

Three memes today...fairly short ones. Two of them I found yesterday...the Friday Forum and the Friday Feast...and one a few days ago through another blog, the Daily Dirt. I know it's Saturday, but those Friday memes are cool, and I didn't discover them until last night, and none of the Saturday ones are posted yet.

Friday Forum:

1] Do you remember the very first time that you used the Internet and/or e-mail? What was that experience like? The first time I discovered email was in college. I signed up for a free email account in college my freshman year so I could communicate with my then-boyfriend, T, and the only way I could log in to my email account was by going downstairs to the computers in our dorm lobby or by going to the library. The experience was exciting...I never knew what email was before, and for some reason sending electronic text from my computer in Chapel Hill to my boyfriend's computer in Cullowhee was quite a thrill. I also did this thing called ISCA, which at the time was about the only chat room I could access. Things have changed so much. I didn't actually discover the real live internet until I graduated from college and got my first AOL account.
2] How many messages are in your inbox right now? Are you usually pretty good at keeping up with e-mail correspondence? Do you have multiple e-mail addresses? At the current time, I have 143 messages in my Yahoo box and about fifteen in my work email box. I have those two email addresses, one with my DSL provider, Verizon, that I use for Ebay email, and a ghost email address with Yahoo so I can have a global account on EZBoard. I am pretty horrible keeping up with email correspondence, but I'm trying to do better. My worst habit is just not deleting messages after I've replied to them or filing them away in a folder. You know that saying, "Either file it, move it, or trash it"? I need to apply that in a big way to my email accounts.
3] What kind of computers do you have? I have two. I have my Dell Latitude D600 laptop that my computer gave me for work which I absolutely adore and consider to be my best perk that I get with my job, and we have a Dell Dimension 2350 desktop that my husband uses for personal use and I use occasionally.
4] Do you shop online? Why/why not? What are some of your favorite online stores? I do sometimes...but for the most part, I prefer to go out to brick and mortar shops because when I decide I want something, I am too impatient to wait for the shipping. My favorite online cross-stitch supplier is Pawprints. I haven't bought cross-stitch supplies online in a long time, but that's probably the thing I buy online the most because my favorite local shop here closes at 5 pm during the week and is not open on Sunday, the day that I usually save free for shopping. And sometimes they don't have everything that I need.
5] Tell us about a cool/fun/interesting/unique Web site that you've discovered lately. Or, if you don't have one in mind, tell us what your browser's home page is set to. Every webpage I've discovered lately is neat...but I'll just take the easy way out. My browser's home page is set to my company's website.

Friday Feast:

Appetizer-What does the color pink make you think of? Things that are feminine and girly. Very sweet and delicate.
Soup-Name something you have lost but later found. Five years ago, when I got married, I had my sister and her then-fiance and my dad and his wife over to our apartment with my husband for breakfast the day before the wedding. My sister and W, her then-fiance, were so sweet and helpful and cleaned up the kitchen for us, but they put away the blade to our mini-chopper that we used to chop up nuts, and we could not find it for anything. And she claimed that she didn't remember seeing it. So we had a chopper with no blade. When we moved to our house two years later, we found it stuffed into a bag with a cake decorating kit. Very strange.
Salad-In 3 words, describe this past week. Relaxing, peaceful and short.
Main Course-What are you obsessed with? My weight, of course! And stitching.
Dessert-What kind of perfume or cologne do you like to wear? What perfume or cologne don't I like to wear? Ha ha. Seriously, I love just about all of them, but if I had to pick a fav, it would be Obsession by Calvin Klein. I always have a tiny bottle on my dresser, but it is saved for special occasions only or when I just need a pick-me-up. I think it smells heavenly. It is very expensive though, so I usually have to watch for it on sale.

Daily Dirt: (Theme is "As A Child".)

1. Were you happy? Absolutely.
2. What was your favorite television program? The Muppet Show.
3. What was your favorite toy(if one)? If yes, do you still have it? My favorite toy was this stuffed patchwork rabbit named Peter. It was so raggedy and disheveled. I think the ears were falling off. I am fairly sure that my mother still has it...she threatened for years to bring it out when I brought home boys on dates!
4. How far back can you remember? My earliest memory is looking back at our green house in Connecticut when it was snowing. I think I was about three years old.
5. What are some of your favorite memories? Mmm. Christmas eves, mornings and Thanksgiving dinners with my family. Playing Barbies and My Little Pony with my sister. Going rollerskating and to the water park. Trick or treating every Halloween wearing the gorgeous costumes that my mother made for us. Girl Scout camp. Living in the pool every summer. Synchronized swimming and figure skating lessons. I could go on and on!

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a lovely Saturday!