When was the last time you…

1. …sent a handwritten letter?

Do cards count? Then a week ago, for Father’s Day and my mother’s birthday.

2. …baked something from scratch or made something by hand?

I think I made cream cheese brownies a couple of months ago. Do those count, even if the base starts with a boxed mix?

3. …camped in a tent?

Oh good grief. Some time in middle school, I think.

4. …volunteered your time to church, school, or community?

I’ve never volunteered my time for church. I’ve not attended one regularly since I was a year old. I haven’t done anything for school or community in years. Gee, great Friday Five. Now I feel all selfish and guilty.

5. …helped a stranger?

I can’t think of anything specific recently, but I am the hold-doors-open-for-others type, whenever I’m out in public.

Almost as if it was an extra present, I received an email today telling me that Squishy is back! w00t!

Today begins the last day of my 20s.

I can’t say that it’s been a great year, but it hasn’t been a bad year. And I can say that I am looking forward to the next year.

I have two pieces of spam from McAffee, with the subject line, “Say Goodbye to Junk Email with McAfee.com SpamKiller…”

Dale and I were planning on going out to dinner. I had told Scott we’d be back in a couple of hours. Well, things didn’t quite work out as Dale and I had planned.

Pamela: i am back. much earlier than we planned, and a bit wetter

Scott: raining?

Pamela: yeah

Pamela: we decided to go to best buy first to buy neverwinter nights, and as we were leaving, the storm front reached us.

Scott: doh

Pamela: it was raining lightly when we first got to the store, but it started raining HARD while we were in line, and the store lost primary power.

Scott: DOH

Pamela: heh, the backup power runs the outer doors, some lights, and the registers, so we were still able to buy the game.

Pamela: we were parked 2 spaces from the doors. dale insisted on getting the car and bringing it closer for me. he got SOAKED. he drove up onto the sidewalk, and i had a hard time opening the door ’cause the wind was so strong, and i got wet too.

Pamela: we drove by tony roma’s, and the restaurant had no power at all.

Pamela: so we drove several miles the other way to KFC, dale’s A/C went out as we left the drive thru, so we just got home, to find fences down all over our neighborhood.

Scott: geesh

Pamela: we’re lucky, and fence is in tact on all sides, but we lost 2 screens off the front windows.

Scott: well there is a big orange BLOB covering a nice large part of texas

Pamela: one was in the flower bed right in front of the windows. the other was no where in sight.

Pamela: we went to check the back screens and they’re all fine. and we found the other screen. lying in the middle of our back yard.

Pamela: htf it got there, we don’t know. ’cause it was moved from a lower story window, over a 6 ft wooden fence, and into a position on the complete other side of the house.

Scott: maybe it went through the house

Pamela: heh, maybe

A little while after we had this conversation, I found out how lucky Dale and I were. A friend’s girlfriend lost a large tree in her yard, along with all the plants and pottery on her patio, and water leaked in her bedroom windows. Two screens knocked off the windows is nothing compared to that.

Dale and I are finally home. In the past week we’ve been in Houston (Texas), Northern Virginia, Niagara Falls (New York), Niagara Falls (Canada), the Thousand Island region of the St. Lawrence River, and New York City. We traveled between Houston and Northern Virginia by plane, but the rest of the traveling was done by car. And, oh boy, it was a lot of driving!

June 18th - Dale and I drove from Austin to Houston. (3 hrs)

June 19th - We flew from Houston to Dulles, Virginia. (3 hrs)

June 20th - Along with my parents and sister, Phaedra, we drove (in my dad’s Jeep Grand Cherokee) to Niagara Falls, New York. (8 hrs)

June 21st-22nd - We spent a lot of time riding back and forth between the US and Canadian sides of the falls, in the car and on tour buses.

June 22nd - We drove from Niagara Falls to Alexandria Bay, NY. (5 hrs)

June 23rd - We drove from Alexandria Bay, NY, to Staten Island, NY — via Philadelphia, Delaware, and New Jersey. (5 hrs)

June 24th - We drove from Staten Island, NY, back to Northern Virginia. (5 hrs)

June 25th - Dale and I flew from Virginia to Houston. (3 hrs)

June 26th - We drove from Houston to Austin. (3 hrs)

The trip was cool (mostly). We took over 200 pictures with our digital camera. We got to see a lot of our families. Tomorrow, we’ll finish unpacking. I’ll upload and sort the photos. And I’ll write more about the last week. But for the time being, we are just soooo happy to be home again. We’re looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight.

In the last 5 days, I’ve been in 7 states and 2 countries (mostly traveling by car). I’m not even home yet, but logged in on my sister’s computer from Virginia. Dale and I are both so homesick. We miss our kitties. We miss our beds. We miss our friends.

I won’t be home for two more days.

I’m heading out of town tonight. I’ll be back next Wednesday or Thursday. I don’t know how much internet access I’ll have, but y’all probably won’t miss me anyway. *sniff sniff*

Well, except for Aaron who’s stuck babysitting the cats and fish.

How am I supposed to hang a curtain rod, when there seems to be solid brick right on the other side of the sheetrock?

It’s a tiny rod, ’cause there isn’t that much space, but it has to be sturdily secured because of the cats. They’ve already yanked down the rod, ripping one bracket and its small screws completely out of the wall. I can’t use large screws or any of the drywall anchors I’ve found because the damn brick is in the way! I only have 1/2″ of sheetrock to work with before the brick gets in the way.

A spring-tension rod is currently being used inside the borders of the window, but that doesn’t give full coverage of the window, the cats can yank it down easily, and it’s already bent from being yanked down so many times.

Pamela: j’ai mal a la tête

Scott: ::Squeezes your tete’s:: =:o

It’s the Weblog FAQK, brought to you by the Brunching Shuttlecocks.

…she sleeps in a bed like this. [via Kathie]

Here’s where I’d like to pimp my Amazon wishlist since my birthday is now only 16 days away, but since I’ve been such a little slacker bitch about posting, I won’t. But, if you forgive me and still love me, I won’t be offended it you get me something anyway.

*cough cough*

This has always been one of my favorite ‘alien’ outfits from the original Star Trek series, and now it’s part of an auction of ST memoribilia. Alas, I don’t have the $3,000-$5,000 they anticipate that this outfit will go for. And even if I did, I don’t think I’d be spending it on this auction, however cool it may be.

Some other items that really interest me include Khan’s desert helmet and glove from ST II, one of Picard’s uniforms from Next Generation, one of Deanna Troi’s uniforms, and a couple of tribbles.

Dale to me:

Dale: http://www.ilovebacon.com/061002/c.shtml

Pamela: hahahahahahahah!

Me to Aaron:

Pamela: http://www.ilovebacon.com/061002/c.shtml

Aaron: laugh!

Aaron: that will be your kids

Pamela: yeah, probably

Pamela: well, one kid and dale holding the other piece of chalk.

Aaron: hehe

I contemplate the loss of two dear and constant companions, knowing that they found fulfillment and purpose in their lives. Yet I am saddened by their passing. They supported and comforted me for many years, asking nothing and accepting nothing in return. I knew them more intimately than anyone else. Still I wish I had known them better.

Farewell to the scariest pair of shoes I’ve ever seen. (And I have seen them in person!)

I’ve been playing Urban Terror for a little over a year now, mostly under the name Rifknai. I picked that name ’cause it was gender-neutral, and I didn’t want to get picked on for sucking just because I’m a girl. But, I’ve gotten better in the last year, and I was tired of a name that no one can pronounce or spell, so I’ve been thinking about picking a new name. One that fits me better, and one that’s more easily identifiable as being female. After all, girls kick ass, so I shouldn’t be afraid of being known as a girl. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to think of a good name. And the guys haven’t been much help.

Last night, I was talking to Dale as we brain-stormed, and this little conversation ensued:

Pamela: (half-jokingly) How about “Mona Lisa Overdrive?”

Dale: Um, I don’t know. Any movie starring Emilio Estevez is pretty lame.

Pamela: …..

Pamela: Do you mean “Maximum Overdrive?”

Dale: Uh, yeah….

Pamela: (laughing) “Mona Lisa Overdrive” is a book by William Gibson!

Dale: Oh yeah!

Pamela: (laughing and laughing)

Dale: I hate you.

Pamela: You know, I’m going to have to blog this!

Dale: Great! Your first real post in weeks, and it’s making fun of me!

At least he was right about that.

…I’d look like this:

I’ve had way too much fun playing with South Park Studio today.

Happy Birthday, Kathie!!

Only 23 shopping days left until my birthday.

Happy Birthday, Phaedra!!

She may be 20 years older now, but she’s still just as cute!