THINK GASOLINE PRICES ARE HIGH? (we bought gas today for $1.70 per gallon...)

Compare the following with the cost of Gasoline. Do your own math.


Diet Snapple 16 oz costs $1.29 - that's $10.32 per gallon

Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz costs $1.19 - that's $9.52 per gallon

Gatorade 20 oz costs $1.59 - that's $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray 16 oz costs $1.25 - that's $10.00 per gallon

Brake Fluid 12 oz costs $3.15 - that's $33.60 per gallon

Vick's Nyquil 6 oz costs $8.35 - that's $178.13 per gallon

Pepto Bismol 4 oz costs $3.85 - that's $123.20 per gallon

White-Out 7 oz costs $1.39 - that's $25.42 per gallon

Scope 1.5 oz costs $.99 - that's $84.48 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER . . .

Evian water 9 oz costs $1.49 - that's $21.19 per gallon.

$21.19 for WATER - and the buyers don't even know the source. So, the next time
you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, White-Out, or,
God forbid, Pepto Bismal or Nyquil.

Here are the lyrics to a really cool song, that I absolutely LOVE!

It's by Gordon Lightfoot and it's called "The Pony Man"

When it's midnight on the meadow
And the cats are in the shed
And the river tells a story
At the window by my bed
If you listen very closely
Be as quiet as you can
In the yard you'll hear him
It is the pony man
We're always there to greet him
When he tumbles into town
He leads a string of ponies
Some are white and some are brown
And they never seem to kick or bite
They only want to play
And they live on candy apples
Instead of oats and hay

And when we're all assembled
He gives a soft command
And we climb aboard our ponies
As in a row they stand
Then down the road we gallop
And across the fields we fly
And soon we all go sailing off
Into the midnight sky

And as we gaily rock along
Beside a ripplin' sea
There's Tom 'n Dick 'n Sally
And Mary Joe and me
And the pony man is leading
Cause he's travelled here before
And he gives a whoop and a holler
At Mr. Moon's front door

And as we stop to rest a while
Where the soda river glides
Up to the slip comes a pirate ship
To take us for a ride
And the pony man's the captain
And the children are the crew
And we go in search of treasure
And laugh the whole night through

And when the hold is filled with gold
And the sails begin to strain
And the deck's piled high with apple pie
We head for port again
And down the whirling starcase
So swift our ponies fly
And we're safely in our beds again
When the sunbeams kiss the sky

When it's midnight on the meadow
And the cats are in the shed
And the river tells a story
At the window by my bed
If you listen very closely
Be as quiet as you can
In the yard you'll hear him
It is the pony man

I will post more later about my weekend and about Metamorphosis with church, but I will leave you with one quote from the weekend.

"I'm a yankee, and I don't understand why people in the South say all o' y'all. Doesn't y'all cover it? I mean, doesn't y'all mean you all?"

OUR response: "One person is You, Two people is Y'all, and three or more is All O' Y'all!"

I, being the klutz that I am, was running around outside the church Saturday night, and as I went from the sidewalk to the parkinglot, I missed the curb, and fell full-force, forward onto the speed bump, and slid about two feet down it before grinding to a halt. So two purple/bluish/greenish/blackish knees and a scraped elbow and hand later, I have decided not to play near speed bumps ever again! :)

I feel like I should write something substantial on my blog, since all the other blogs I read are about something worthwhile..... Hmmmm.....
Alright, well I guess I will comment on this story.

To begin, this guy robbed, raped and killed a young mother, and left her baby alone. How do I feel about this (all mental problems, addictions and life tragedies aside...)? That was a haneous thing to do, and I believe he should be punished. Now, I do not believe in the death penalty, but this guy deserves at least life. Because of him, two parents no longer have a daughter, siblings are missing their sister and a little boy, age three, is motherless. All because this guy decided to end her life long before her time.

Ok, second, I want to comment on the portrayal the defense council is making of this man. He was abused as a child; he has a low IQ and "severe mental disorders"; and he is/was addicted to cocaine and alcohol. Okay, while I don't want to sound naiive, being an abused child does not give you the right to take your anger/hurt out on some innocent woman. This may sound mean, and cruel, but I don't care how hard your life is, or how much you suffered. That's what therapy is for. You can't just up and kill someone because you were abused as a child...that is only perpetuating the vicious cycle.... Look at Dave Pelzer. I'm not saying that every abused child will turn out that way, but killing someone doesn't take away the anger.
Now, about the mental problems and low IQ. We have seen before in our state that convicted felons are pardoned and do not receive the death penalty because of their IQ. While I do not know enough about the human mind, and this man's IQ and intelligence level in particular, I want to say that I think this could keep him out of the death chamber, but hopefully not out of prison, or out of an institution. If we let him go free, with little or no consequence, what's to stop him from killing someone else? Furthermore, I would like to say that this man beat this woman to death with a thirty-pound tire rim...Okay, no offense, but no matter how low your IQ is, (assuming you are capable of normal daily functions independently), you would HAVE to know what you were doing to beat someone to death with a thirty pound tire rim...I mean, it would clearly be repeated blows, and with clear intent. (I say murder one)
Now onto the alcohol and cocaine addictions. Two words: Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous. While I am sure that seeking treatment is hard, and takes a lot of emotional and mental courage, I also have heard success stories. No one is perfect, but could you please tell me why we would excuse someone of murder because they were addicted to cocaine and alcohol. Please tell me that our justice system has not sunken so low as to excuse haneous crimes on the basis of addictions....

Ok, I'm done. Please disagree if you are so compelled. I'll try to write more substantial and intelligent things in my blog from now on--- No promises though!!

So, I am going to tell you all about my adventures in babysitting land. A not-so-new thing for me, as I have been doing it for four years, but when the job exceeds 10 hours (17 total), it becomes an entirely different world. I arrive a little before scheduled ETA, at 7:54am, with the plan being that the parents could have an entire day off without the kids. And when I say an ENTIRE day, I mean, ENTIRE!!! (8am-1am, yes my friends 17 looonnnggg hours of an unexperienced phenomena that some like to call parenthood.) By the grace of some divine force, I had only two children to watch for that long seventeen hours, Catherine Grace (dubbed Gracie), age 2 1/2, and Lily age 8 months.

Breakfast: about 8:15, the parents had gone, (to where for 17 hours, I can not imagine, but whatever), and I fixed Gracie some Froot Loops for Breakfast. Then I gave Lily her bottle, which she happily fed herself. (Yes, my friends, two weeks ago when I last watched these children, Lily couldn't grasp the bottle on her own, and now she can, an amazing feat, to be sure!)
Then I put Lily in her bouncer and let her watch Baby Einstein. Oh the joys of stimulating young minds early!!! Gracie and I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at least ten times. Repition never gets old with two year olds! Gracie then watched the Barney movie called "You Can Be Anything", and Lily and I played on her play mat/baby gym. Lily never cries, except when she has the hiccups for more than 10 minutes at a time, or when you use the nose cleaner to get the gunk out of her nose because she has a cold. Around about 10am, Gracie wanted a snack, and Lily was ready for another bottle, but this time Lily and I ran into a feeding problem. She was having trouble not choking on the milk every time she swallowed. I remembered how her mother had fed her once Lily came home from the hospital. (Lily was born three months premature, and spent the first eight weeks of her life at Wake Med in the NICU.) Using a boppy and the football hold, Lily and I successfully got her fed!!! Then I decided it was high-time to clean up the kitchen. Putting in another movie for Gracie, I then put Lily in her swing, and proceeded to clean the kitchen. Lily and Gracie and I then played Super Baby, a game I made up for Lily's enjoyment. You put her in your lap, facing outwards, and then start saying in a very dramatic voice:
"Super Baby, Strange baby from another planet who came to earth with Powers and Abilities, far beyond those of mortal babies, Super Baby. Who can Change dirty diapers, bend diaper pins in her bare hands, and who disguised as Lily, mild-mannered baby who lives in a house, fights a never ending battle for TRUTH, JUSTICE and THE BABY WAY. Super baby."
While doing this you make appropriate motions with Lily's hands and such. She absolutely thought this was a great game. Come to think of it, so did Gracie. Gracie kept telling me to do it agian, and again and again. After what was the twentieth time, both Lily and I were tiring of this game....which is no surprise....
Let's finish up the day quickly, even though it was a loonnnggg day. Both girls had some lunch, Lily isn't on solid foods yet...but she likes these Gerber cookies, which she sucks on and makes a HUGE mess.....Then Gracie went upstairs and took a nap in her bed, and Lily fell asleep in her swing. They got up, and we watched Baby Van Gogh together, adn then played on the play mat some more. Lily had another bottle, using the wondrous techniques on the Coppy, and Gracie had Spaghetti O's and cut-up apple for dinner. It was still light outside so we walked about a block up the street, Gracie in her motorized Barbie car, and Lily in the stroller. But as the sun began to set, it got cool, and so we headed back inside. Gracie had an accident, standing right next to the potty, but alas alack I suppose that is child-rearing for you. Lily, of course, lay of the baby mat three feet away from me, as I scrubbed the floor. Needless to say, she made these giggling/gargling sounds that had to have been laughter as she watched me cleaning up. She fell asleep in my arms, with little protest after a bottle and a half more. I gently put her in her crib, praying she wouldn't wake up again, (not because I don't love her to death, but because she was tired and fighting sleep wasn't doing anyone any good) and turned on her humidifier. Gracie went to bed soonafter, and I cleaned up the toys and the kitchen and checked on both a few times before their parents arrived back at the house at 1am. A long night but it definitely opened my eyes to the world of parenthood. I am pretty happy being a teenager right now.....

Hmmm, I think I will rant about the National Spanish exam for a few....

Well, let's start by saying my attention span on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest) is a 3 or 4. But that is irrelevant until you understand the layout of the test. So there is a listening section, which I don't mind, mostly because we do them in class and they are usually not too difficult. So there are three parts to the listening section:
Part 1: You hear (13) questions read, one at a time, and there are four choices for answers for each question. The question is only read once (everytime we do something similar in class, they ALWAYS read the question twice), and you have twenty seconds to find an answer. So, you must figure out what the question is asking, as it is in spanish, and then translate the answers in your head and fill in the circle. You have thirteen total.

Part 2: You hear a conversation between two native-Spanish speakers that lasts about 30-45 seconds. Then you are asked a question in Spanish and given four possible choices. Paying attention during the conversation and processing it at hte same time is very very difficult. Then you have twenty seconds to figure out the answer. Both the conversation and teh question are only read once. You have about nine of these.

Part 3: A lot like part 2, except you have a passage instead of a conversation. Teh passage is usually something random like the economics of Chile, or something. The same process still applies. It is read once, followed by a question, read once, and four answers written on paper.

So after you have suffered through an intense listening section, with no breaks, you have the written part of the test, which is basically a series of paragraphs that you read and fill in the blanks with the best answer choice. Not too hard, except that you sometimes have to figure out which of the eight or so tenses you know they want....

Oh well, it's over now!!! Hooray.

I might post more about the grades later.....

Well, let's see. I have not posted anything substantial in quite some time. I have been running around, insanely busy, with my cheer/tumble/dance class, school projects and tests, and a whole lot of other stuff. Craziness only perpetuates craziness with me. The busier I am, the more hyper I get, and thus the more frustrated I am apt to become. Oh well.

On to the dance class. I feel guilty saying I like it because my committment was to A'La Dance Magic, but I truly enjoy it. We are doing a combination of hip-hop, jazz and cheer moves, which we will compete three times. Once in Washington DC, and twice in local NC. I am excited about actually getting the opportunity to perform!!! **BIG BIG smile**

Job-- well, I have applied at five places, and am working on more applications as we speak. Some places I can't really see myself working, but a job doesn't have to be something you completely enjoy, especially if it is a part-time job. I have applied at Subway (my 2nd choice), Kidworks, Little Gym (my first choice), Morrisville Parks and Rec (yeah, I know...my mom's idea), and at Brother's Cleaners.

School-- School is crazy busy as always, and it seems the work never ever ends. We had a Kyoto Treaty Conference in APES, where I was the United States Rep. Well, the U.S. dropped out in real life and all the other countries are really ticked about it, so they were like throwing insults out about how the U.S. is selfish, and such..... It was quite humorous actually. Chemistry is always lots of fun, but I have decided something: Mr. Grunden is really, really really smart---- not in a bad way, but he just has all this knowledge about, well, everything. Lol. Spanish is probably one of my favorite classes right now, even if I am the only sophomore in my class.....I am writing two articles for the school paper for the April Fool's issue. One is "Survivor At RCHS" in which we make up a story about the teachers being on Survivor. We haven't decided who will win yet. The other article is a "Teacher Cookoff" We are going to invite all staff to cook/prepare either a dessert or an entre, and then students pay to sample the food. There will be prizes for best, worst, ugliest, oddest, etc dish. The students can also enter a raffle. It should be fun. So far, Dr. Humble, Mr. Grant, Mr. Grunden, Ms. Greenwalt, Ms. Talley, Ms. Scicinska, Mr. Slattery, Coach Jones, Mr. Stapleton, and Dr. Busonik have agreed to cook something, but I can't tell you who's cooking what!!!!! ;) So bug your teachers to enter, and come on down, and taste the food!!!! (All profits go to The Flame, the school newspaper)

In other news---- the school, our school, MY school was vandalized by two RCHS students. I cannot fully understand what pushed them to do so, but maybe it is not for me to understand. I am angry and also hurt, mostly because I didn't think something to this extent happened at RCHS. Enloe, maybe. RCHS, no.

It's time for school now. I will post more later. Today is the National Spanish Exam. Very nervous.... In order to get extra credit, you have to score above your class average. I don't think I can do that.... it's easy for people who understand the material and just don't turn in their homework and thus have a C or D, but Mr. Slattery was like "For those of you who have an A, it'll be much harder to get credit." Gee, sounds like a fun day to me.

Babysitting this weekend... 8am-1am. (I wonder why people want babysitters for soooo long!)

Here's one of the bestest country songs ever!


"Cowboy's like us, sure do have fun,
racin' the wind; chasin' the sun.
Take the long way around back to square one
Today we're just outlaws, out on the run;
There'll be no regrets, no worries and such,
Cowboys like us...."

I got this on email. Very cute, but oh so true! hehehe. Just goes to show that dogs are a million times better than cats!!! (yeah, Jenna, Finney, Max, Mysti, and Deacon), but those of you who read this, don't mention my dog preference to my cats (Hope, Casey and Ginger would absolutely hate me forever....) *wink*
Dog's diary:
8am-Oh Boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9am-Oh Boy! A car ride! My favorite
10am-Oh Boy! A walk! My favorite!
11am-Oh Boy! A car ride! My favorite!
Noon-Oh Boy! The kids! My favorite!
1pm-Oh Boy! The yard! My favorite!
3pm-Oh Boy! The kids! My favorite!
4pm-Oh Boy! Dog food! My favorite!
5pm-Oh Boy! Mom! My favorite!
7pm-Oh Boy! Playing ball! My favorite!
9pm-Oh Boy! Sleeping in master's bed! My favorite!

Cat's diary:
Day 183 of my captivity...
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another house plant.

Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded-must try this at the top of the stairs.

In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair-must try this on their bed.

Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in an attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was. This did not work according to plan.

Last night there was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary throughout the entire event. However, I could hear the noise and smell the food. More importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to MY power of "allergies." Must learn more about what this is, and how to use it to my advantage.

I am convinced the other captives are flunkies, or more likely snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit. The
bird on the other hand has got to be an informant, and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room, for now his safety is assured. But I can wait, it is only a matter of time...

Time is my friend, I can wait, I will repay them all.