I can't stop laughing. You go Sister, give me some of that soul sister, flow sister...

Yea I'm home. I actually got home Monday night. While gone, I went deep into North Carolina traditions. First by having dinner at a fish camp. For the unsavvy, a fish camp is a restaurant that serves heepings of fish, sweetened tea, hushpuppies, and the waitresses say y'all a lot.  They used to mostly have wooden floors but not so much any more and they all have a big candy counter at checkout. After dinner, I felt like I was on crack after drinking so much tea. When I was little, at least every month or two, we'd head west out of Charlotte to a row of fish camps outside of Belmont.  It wasn't unusual to wait outside in line on Friday night for 45 minutes to get into this small supermarket sized restaurant.

The next day, we met my brother at the K&W and stayed there 2½ hours.  We got into some of the bad stuff he did when he was a kid and I think my mom was less shocked by those facts the the fact I knew about all of them. I mostly hug out with family because it was a short trip and I really didn't want to do a lot of running around.  My mom's been stressed out about my dad lately and the trip to pick me up at the airport didn't help her any.  She said go one way but he went another exclaiming, "Just let big daddy drive, I'll get you there."  They've been to the PTI Airport in Greensboro before but he continued to the Smith-Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem. From there they got lost.  I had to wait more than an hour and couldn't get her on her cell phone. I don't think I've seen her this pissed off since I was a kid.  OK, it was actually kinda funny.

FYI: The grass has returned to the front yard and the back (hopefully) will return this week. And we have guest this week, Lara arrived Monday night with me and hubby Michael will arrive tonight.

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08 March 2004

What a fast week this has been.  Michael and Lara have just left and I think we all had a great time.  Saturday we went to The Met which was my first time and it was fabulous. The Egyptian and Asian exhibits were my favorites. We saw old friends and did tons of catching up and even got to see  a couple of inches of snow on the ground before it disappeared today. Gotta go because my poor smelly seborrhea dog needs to go outside.

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10 March 2004

I never knew Meineke was based in Charlotte. It just makes me feel so much closer to George and George and George and George and George.  First the grill, now this.

Yes, it was a very nice day.  It was sunny and 47 degrees. I saw a guy in his BMW with the top down and the river is now flowing freely.  The winter was cold? Yes. That means today was warm? No.

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12 March 2004

I wasn't sure if it was a rip-off or not, but to submit a poem was free, so what the heck? I went to poetry.com and thought I might have a chance to win a few dollars. I have quite a few poems from several years ago sitting around so I submitted one.  Several weeks later, I received a letter congratulating me for becoming a semi-finalist and it notified me that I had an excellent chance of winning one of 104 prizes.  They will also print my poem in a one of the most highly regarded collections of poetry ever published. So much for you Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes. All this, still with no obligation.  What I would like to know is what percentage of entrants become semi-finalists. I also learned the way they make their money. For $49, I can purchase one of these books, for $80, I can have two.  Wow, a discount. To be continued, I'm sure...

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12 March 2004...Later

What could be better after dinner than hitting our newest and only Krispy Kreme for some delicious melt in your mouth scrumptious delights. On opening day two weeks ago, the drive-thru went around the building twice and the inside line went out the door to the street. Of course all that has settled down by now. We got there and the drive thru spilled out onto the street and the inside line went out the door.  Ya know, not even delicious melt in your mouth scrumptious delightful Krispy Kreme doughnuts are worth all that.  Maybe 1AM tonight will be better.

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The snow's coming back. Seeing the grass the last couple of weeks along with the semi-warm temps has been pretty nice but the forecast is for a white St. Patrick's Day and a lot of the white stuff is on the way. I used to like the snow...

And yea, the site is completely remade.  This is the first time everything has changed, but yes, I just couldn't get rid of the mirror pictures...or the smiley faces.

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I have personally never been opposed to the war. Don't get me wrong, I think George W. Bush is a piece of crap and lied about his reasons for going into Iraq, but I am optimistic that the final outcome will be good for the people of that country. It may take 10 years or more, but otherwise, Saddam Hussein would still be in power 10 years from now if it not for the invasion.  The UN has been powerless over the past 10 years so why would the next 10 be any different? An interesting ABC/BBC/Time survey says most of the people of Iraq think they are better off and things will keep getting better. Remember, Saddam Hussein instituted the death penalty for homosexuality, prostitution and other "sexual crimes" in 2001. Not even George W. Bush has done that...yet.

It's great to see Prince performing again.  He is awesome and I've missed him greatly over the past 10 years or so. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night and rightly so. It makes me thing of my friend Dennis who died in 2001. He was the biggest Prince fan ever.

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Top O' the morning to ya, or should I say evening? And yea, I know Lucky is a leprechaun which has nothing to do with Saint Patrick's Day but he is Irish, OK. It seems I became a victim of credit card fraud today. Glad to know the FBI was already on the case. Some loser got a hold of a batch of credit card numbers and of the three purchases made on my account, two of them were made online for merchandise to be delivered. A country western store and an ink cartridge online store. My Lord, at least buy something good. What I'm curious to know is where they got the numbers. I'd like to know if someone I make purchases with has been irresponsible. Thanks FBI.

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Two steps forward, one step back. Freaking morons.

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It seems so radical, but why can't a kid read a book about a prince loving a prince? What are some people so scared of?

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I think I'm coming out of a funk that I've been in over the past couple of weeks that I truly didn't know I was in until I came out of it Friday. Does that make sense? No? Me neither. I'm still looking for the right job, my mom is still struggling with may dad, and Kaleb doesn't seem to be getting any better. I did take her to the vet again Friday and he now thinks she has some sort of skin fungus. I still have to give her a bath every two days, just with a different shampoo that may actually do something this time, and she also gets a brand new pill to pop twice a day. I'd show you a picture of her but it's just kind of pitiful, though after just a couple of days, I think she looks better.

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I did well today because I had my state tax refund in hand and I was ready to spend it. I found this cool old leather top desk at a thrift shop and it took everything I had not to haul that thing back here. OK, so I still want it. Maybe later...  Have you ever noticed how these places attract the strangest people? One guy was talking to himself looking at old books while another was in full dance mode to the oldies station that was playing.

If Richard Simmons bitch slapped me, I would be complemented. I love him. Not like I love Matt Damon mind you, but I love him.

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Yesterday I heard a story about a guy going to the Taco Bell at the mall and trying to pay for his seven layer burrito with a two dollar bill because it was all he had besides a fifty. The cashier wouldn't take the two dollar bill because she thought it was counterfeit. "There's no such thing as a two dollar bill." She asked if he had anything else. He offered the fifty but she didn't have change for the fifty so she called the manager to the front. She wouldn't open the safe to get change because it was too late. He wanted to know why they wouldn't take the two dollar bill. She also insisted there is not such a thing. He said it was real and demanded them take it. They called security. The guard came and he also didn't understand why they wouldn't take the two dollar bill. They finally took it.

I was at Home Depot tonight and the guy in front of me was buying about a thousand dollars worth of stuff and paying with cash. He handed the cashier about 10 one hundred dollar bills and she checked them all thoroughly. She singled one out, the one that was not new. She said it didn't have a watermark on it and was very confused by that fact. She noticed the bill was a 1977 series. She called the manager to see if the old bills had watermarks. For several minutes, they handed it back and forth to each other and debated if it should have a watermark or not. Me and the guy just kept looking at each other and grinned back and forth while the thing went on. Finally, they decided not to take the old bill and the guy traded it for five twenties he had. I commend Home Depot for checking the money but why don't they employ a counterfeit bill detector like fast food restaurants use instead of handing the bill back and forth for five minutes and teach employees that in 1977, watermarks were not used on money.

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