I love carnival rides!

It's been a while since I updated. I got totally sucked into this damn Name that Band excel file someone sent me. 270 pictures and you have to name the band. If you want to play and drive yourself crazy, send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you. Oh yeah, and there's no cheat sheet. You either know the band or you don't. Although I am finding the allmusic guide helpful.

And in a moment that brings tears to my eyes – there was HOCKEY news on the front page of the Freep this morning. The exhibition season has started and the latest news on the Where will Pavel Datsyuk play soap opera is that he's coming back to Detroit after all (he has supposedly two different contracts to play in Russia, but something about the second one makes the first one null and void and the second one doesn't count for some reason or other, which opened the door for him to come back – don't ask, I don't understand at all). And Thank God for his return because w/o him I have a feeling the Red Wings are going to be a tad mediocre. I can't believe I don't have the Wings schedule up yet. For the past few season I've been tracking the Wings' wins and losses on a matrix (it's not a spreadsheet, I'm not that anal, for Pete's sake) and I still have the 2003-2004 season's matrix up at my desk. I think it's going to be hard to get used to watching hockey every night.

I had an up and down weekend. Friday night and Saturday morning and most of the afternoon was spent at the funeral home/funeral for my good friend's Grandma. It had been a rough few weeks, as it always is when you're waiting for someone to die. And no matter how long you have to prepare, you're never prepared for the loss of a loved one. And I'm just glad that I was able to go and show my support. I think it's good to have friends around at times like that, especially when family can get a little crazy.

Still no word on whether Mom will be going to Mexico. I've asked her a good four times if she has figured out her vacation time, but her excuse last week was "I have to wait until I get paid on Friday." When I saw her on Saturday and asked I got, "Oh yeah, I need to check that out." It's now Tuesday and still nothing. *sigh* I know, why am I pushing this if I don't want her to go? Good question. I guess it's because I don't want to be responsible for her not getting to go, so she can't hold it over me, like I hold the fact that I didn't get a birthday cake two years ago over her head. ;-) Was it her fault? Not at all, my b-day weekend was the great Blackout and there was no power by which to make said b-day cake, but my mom is very Catholic, so guilt works well on her. And it's fun.

The absolute highlight of the weekend was going to my old parish's festival with my BAB and the three Terror Children (and of course, Mom). The Terror Children were actually being good and were quite excited to be at the fair. The two older TCs were very much into the bigger kid rides and although the middle TC is old enough to go on those, he's still young enough to enjoy the boring kid go around at a top speed of a foot a minute in those cars or boats or motorcycles on tracks rides. I went on the Paratrooper twice and relived my glory days at the St. Robert's Fair when I went on the Paratrooper 29 times in one weekend (that was when tickets were four for a dollar and each ride only took one ticket). The 26th time the guy let me ride for free. It pays to be obsessive sometimes. ;-)

I laughed like a little kid, it's been so long since I've been on a ride. We also went on the Tilt-A-Whirl (another all-time favorite) and again, I laughed as if I were ten. The Scrambler was my last ride and had been my favorite until I discovered the Paratrooper. I'm not sure the Scrambler was a good idea though as my neck has bothered me since. I have to say that I still enjoyed the hell out of it, though.