Finished reading The Da Vinci Code a couple of nights ago. I LOVED the non-fiction parts of it, but hated the fiction parts. I hated the fact that "Langdon", one of the main characters, seems like a 007 type. I mean, he seemed to be able to get out, miraculously of situations that every one else would of died at. Also, what was up with the love interest at the end???? It just seemed too Hollywood. I heard they are making a movie and from the looks of it they will not need to work too hard to adapt the book in to a screenplay. I hope they do not use any hokey actors, you know, one of those pretty boys.

Anyway, I did like the non-fiction part of the book. I was glad I had read, among other books, When God was a Woman and Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everthing You Ever Wanted to Learn About the Good Book But Never Learned because they really helped me understand the background/history of what was going on in The Code. I will read the Gnostic Gospel after the current book I need to finally finish reading.

It looks like I will be heading for LA next week. I don't know how I feel about it. I am glad I am going because it has been a while since I have been there and I will get to see my cousin and my good friend Sylvia. But, I don't want to go because I will leave Olivia behind and I have so much to do at home. Plus, this is crazy, my company has gotten a stick up its A@S and we no longer have access to the internet. Before I was able to take my laptop and, with AT&T dial up, surf the internet, but now NOTHING!!! They are sucking. I sent my laptop in for and upgrade and when I got it back everything that I had downloaded had been taken out. Nazis.

Olivia had her first gymnastics class yesterday. She was too cute. I was so afraid that she was going to be afraid to go in, or make a scene, but she did not, she walked in with the other kids (the moms stay outside and look at them through a glass wall) and was all happy. I guess I was the one afraid of letting go. My little baby is growing up. I feel all sad, all this time I have been right there protecting her and, if it came to it, beat someone up in a moments notice, I was super MOM, but I guess it is time for me to realize that I will not always be around to stick up for her. That is scary, but I have to realize that she has to grow up, live her life, and eventually become a super hero just like me!

Actually, I was wrong. The yard does look a lot better with the mulch. It looks well maintained and manicured. The bad side to all this is that my back is killing me. When I woke up my back and my legs were in serious pain. I guess it was worth it. We also saved $280 dollars doing it ourselves (our yard guy was going to charge us $350 to do it). We got our mulch for $70 with free delivery. Ok, ok, enough with the mulch stories.

The Week in Review...Sun. - SuperBowl XXXVIII in Houston, Texas. Watched on TV form the comfort of my home. Mon. - Worked on my personal website some. There is still much work to get done. Tues.- Worked some. The auction I had on EBay ended, I made $150 selling my old used clothes. I am actually happy about this because I would of given the clothes to Goodwill, so making $150 excellent - Yippie for me!!! Wed. - Worked some. Thurs .- Went to see a financial advisor, scary!, all those years of denial are finally catching up with me. After the meeting I was like "I am hungry, but can I really afford to go out to eat??" They get you all scared thinking about your future and how Social Security will not even pay for rent. Scary stuff. You guys might not see me out that much, I now know why people drink at home alone - it is A LOT cheaper. Fri. - Vegged at home. Watched Anything Else. Sat. - The word for the day was MULCH. I am now a MULCH goddess. I think mulch is one of those visual guy things, just like a 60 inch widescreen TV. To me the TV looks just the same as a 32 inch, but bigger, same as with mulch, I don't see a difference, but to John it makes all the difference in the world. Tomorrow another day of MULCH. Good Night.

Now Ms. Janet has come out saying that it was ALL her idea (exposing her breast)...MTV had nothing to do with it. It all smells funky to me!! She had already said that MTV knew. Well, maybe they made a deal with her, watch her get her own MTV special promoting her new album and get extra exposure...sell out!!! Justin must of thought it was a good idea too, I mean, I did see him pulling her clothes off...where is his statement taking part of the blame???

Anyway enough of that subject. Moving on...I am reading The Da Vinci Code . I love it and hate it at the same time. I love it because it is so good and hate it because I can not go to sleep. Every time I say, ok, I will just read to the end of this chapter something happens and I must continue to read. I have been up till 3am reading. I hear they are making a movie of the book. It could be interesting, I am always weird about those book to movie deals.

Janet's titty, Janet's titty its all people are talking about now days, so it seems fitting that I give the subject my 2 cents. First of all, I am pretty open about everything, nothing really shocks me any more, but I do think that the SuperBowl is not the place to be exposing yourself (yes, it was rehearsed, no "wardrobe malfunction" here). It's a family event that has been getting raunchier and raunchier with every passing year.

I guess this has become such a big deal because everyone is tired of being bombarded by half naked people on "free" tv every time they look. Now you have the FCC getting involved, MTV is blaming Janet, Janet is saying that MTV knew, Justin is saying there was a "malfunction", but laughed it off saying that they were there to shock. The only person I have not heard from is the designer of the dress (he/she could answer some questions).

By the way, in all this turmoil I have not heard one negative thing said about Justin. Why is Janet taking all the heat?? Justin was in charge of pulling on the dress, I mean, her breast would not of been exposed without his help.

Her breast (by the way, is a piercing not a cover-up, ouuuch)....

Went to The Main Event last night...it was awesome. It was great to see so much life and so many people in downtown. I still remember going to see Duran Duran at the Coliseum, back in the 80's. Right after the concert we were walking downtown and everything was dark and there were homeless people every where.

I have been seeing the changes take place in Downtown little by little. I have been a promoter of revitalizing Downtown every since I moved back form Boston. I hang out in Downtown Houston quite often mainly because most of my friends work Downtown and it is convenient to meet them there, but yesterday, seeing Downtown so lively brought tears to my eyes, my little baby had grown up.

We got to Downtown pretty early at around 7:00pm, we were lucky that my sister has contract parking, yeah, so parking was not a problem. We walked up Main Street and joined all the people in taking photos of the fountains as the rail went over them (good for you Houston!!). We walked looking for a bar that 1. We could get in and 2. That had no cover. We walked to Warren's, no cover, but it was packed, we walked in and to our surprised we found some friends. They were there and had a table (yippie for us!). We drank, sang songs, drank, met people, drank, bugged people (those crazy Panther fans), drank, took pictures, and drank some beer. After Warren's we hit the streets again, this time there were three times the amount of people out there. It was crazy. We walked, again trying to find a place with no cover, and we ended up at the Hunan Buddah SuperBowl Bash, not Zen at all. There were good tunes and of course beer. Oh, yeah, this girl, I am hoping was drunk, started stripping. She got up on one of the chairs next to the window and pulled her pants down!! We were like, no she didn't!!! But she did it again a few minutes later!!! The manager had to intervene. The stripping was over and so was our night in the new and improved Houston.

This week has been incredibly slow. I only worked on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and had to send in my laptop on Wednesday (they are installing Windows XP). Other than work I finally put some items for sale on EBay. I am actually proud of myself for this one...I had told myself that Ebay was going to have to take second place to my personal website that I am revamping. It has not been updated since Oct. of 2002 (yeap, I suck). I am so bad, but I promise that when it is done it will way better that before.

Today we picked up a friend, Eric, that is here from Boston for the SuperBowl. The only difference between he and the million other Bostonians that are escaping the bitter nasty cold is that he actually has a ticket to the SuperBowl. The only person it seems that is here from out of town that actually has one. The airport though was not as crazy as I was imagining, but there were around 5 charter buses all with New England "Pats" fans and, of course, all dressed up ready for the game. Anyway, when we picked Eric up the first thing out of his mouth was..."what is up with the weather?". I dunno. Last weekend was awesome. I think it will clear up by tomorrow, well, I will keep my fingers crossed.

For some strange reason I found myself glued to the tv last night watching "Average Joe - Hawaii". I have never seen the full show before, on the last series I watched it for the first time while exercising in some hotel because someone was there first and I could not change the channel, well, the person exercising with me was really into the show and HE explained what was happening. The only twist I did not know was...that the Average Joe's do not know that they are going to be the average ones. I just found this out when my sister told me. My argument was "why would anyone put themselves up to that?!!" then she told me the shocking truth "because they don't know they are the (I HATE to use the word ugly because I will be contributing to the cruelty) Average Joe's". Oh, sorry, forgot to mention the plot of the show...well, after the Average Joe's get comfy with the girl (a cute girl they are supposed to conquer) the show puts a spin on things by adding (I think) 10 model looking guys. Then the battle it out for the girl. On last nights episode the Above Average guys were added. As the 10 Above Average guys are coming out (one by one and very slowly) you can see the hearts of the Average Joe's sink. I got a horrible feeling seeing all of the Average Joe's insecurities come out. That was the worst part. My heart went out to these guys. The show is horrible. I felt bad, that is so cruel. They might of had a chance if the Above Average hadn't shown up, I mean she does have to chose one. Anyway, Average Joe will be on my list of worst reality show of 2004.

Once again, I just LOVE Sex and The City. It is so sappy that I almost, almost cried again last night. I am kinda pissed of that Mr. Big has not returned, plus I thought that Carrie and Barrishnikov had broken off last week. I mean she said she wanted kids, he doesn't, she had this whole revelation that she does not know 100 % if she wants kids, but wants the option to be open, he had a vasectomy and thinks he is too old to have kids. I mean if that does not sound like break-up I don't know what does. I don't know. But, Mr. Big just HAS to come back. I will be glued to my TV every Sunday till the end of the show.

I attended my first Tiara Happy Hour yesterday. We met at the Flying Saucer, it was interesting. I did see the girls that I have met at Bad Art Night on Wednesday, Kathy and Elaine - they both seem like really sweet girls and hope to see them at other events. Before we, my sister and my friend Carmen N, made it to The Flying Saucer I hung out at Cabo waiting for them. Later, Carmen N. and I took a Bike Taxi to the happy hour. That was awesome! He only charged us $3, but I gave him $6 because he did take a lot of abuse from me. I kept yelling at him to go faster, FASTER!! and when we stopped at a red light I would told the cab next to us that we could take it...ha, ha, ha too funny. He was such a good sport. Anyway, Downtown is looking a lot more livelier now days. There were hardly any empty parking spaces when I got to town at 5:45 pm. Anyway, after The Flying Saucer we made our way to La Carafe. A really nice bar, that is forgotten a lot. Every time I go there I remember my 21st bday party. This bartender named Ted from Amarillo gave me free beer all night. Those were the days!!

There was a really interesting show on the Discovery Health Channel called The Libido last night. It had all the stuff that we already know like - Men look to mate more because they want to spread their seed vs. women that are looking for a strong male with good genetics to father their children. Of course this are very general statements, there are always men that have only a couple of partners their whole life or women in their teens that have sex to fit in and end of pregnant (what daytime talk shows are made of). Anyway, the interesting part of this show was that they had an experiment. They placed a 20 something, ok looking woman in a college campus. She would go up to a guy and say "I have seen you around campus and think you are really good looking would you like to go on a date with me?" 50% of the men asked said yes. She then said "I live just down the street, do you want to go to my apartment?" 69% of the men said yes to this one. Then she said "I think you are really good looking, so you want to have sex?" and 75% of the men said yes!! When they did the same experiment with a male asking women the same questions the percentages were: 50% for the first question, 6% for the second, and 0% for the third. The women actually sounded offended when asked about the sex part. Then a psychologist comes out saying that men are generally looking to spread their seed at a low cost. The psychologist then said that if women were asked - "Would you have sex with ______ (fill in the blank. Someone who is really good looking, I will say Johnny Depp) knowing ahead of time that you will NOT get pregnant and would get a Porsche at the end??" - most women would say YES!! The reasoning behind that was that women are gatherers (her reasoning) and are not willing to give it away for free - "Pay my bills, Pay my bills, Pay my telephone bills" song comes to mind (That is my reasoning).

I attended Bad Art Night at the Tropioca yesterday. I am so glad the event was called Bad Art because if it was called Good Art I don't think I would of been able to attend. I felt SO uninspired last night, but at least I went and now know what is all about. I will definitely be ready for the next one. Overall, it was fun, I got to meet some people, but I left feeling a little too assured that I am void of any creative talents when it comes to art - Boo Hoo, but Bad Art Night here I come. Here are some pics taken by Elaine - Bad Art Night Pics.

How about that State of the Union address. I need to send a letter to someone. I have come up with a way to cut the address in half!! Yeap, I sure did, and you guys are going to be the first ones to hear it...here it goes - Every time you go to a graduation or ceremony they always ask that you hold your applause to the end, well, if the Senators, Congress people, and all invitees would follow this rule, I promise you, the address will be cut in half. Who do I send the letter to?? Also, what is the point of handing your kid to the President? I mean when she grows up are you going to tell her..."You are special, President Bush touched you 15 years ago" Woo, hoo (sarcastic). Mothers do not do that to your children, plus how much do we really know about this guy anyway??

Just like every other Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day I woke up hearing about the two parades that would take place in Houston to commemorate this great man. I just don't understand why the powers that be do not get together and agree in having just one big parade. It seems to me that Dr. Luther would not of wanted two different groups not agreeing on something as trivial as a parade. Anyway, as with any other MLK day I think of how far we, as minorities, have come, but how it was not that long ago that there were different drinking fountains and restrooms. Well, I also think that almost 84 years ago women got the right to vote in this country and how far we still have to go. Yes, this all has a point, stick with me...Later on that day my sister and I decide to go to Sears to look at refrigerators (not just any fridge, she is looking for a steel one) and to our surprise no one asked us if we need help. We start talking about it and I tell her that when John (my husband and a white man) walks into Sears he has no less that 2 people asking him if he needs help, they even shake his hand and call him Sir!!! She gasped and tells me that the same thing happened when G@$!, her ex-fiancee (another white man - name was omitted to spare the innocent), walked into a store. Now, I say, isn't time that stores, start paying more attention to women buyers? We might not make the most money, but we are the ones that make ALL of the decisions when anything is bought. I mean, the items do have to match everything else in the house!!

I love Sex and The City. Why?, you ask...I just don't know. It go through all my emotions in one 30 minute show. This TV show is best watched alone that way I can let everything out. There are times when the show is so grossly corny that I just cry, but I love it anyway. There are only 6 shows left and I am missing it already. I dunno about you guys, but am I the only one waiting for Mr. Big to come back??

I HATE Eckerd.

Well, yesterday was interesting, went to Wings N More to pick up some wings and ended at the bar next door to the wing place. The bar, Swig, is located on a strip on 45 South (well, south to me) between 1960 and the Beltway. I must say it was a nice place to hang out and get a drink. They have pool, darts, and FREE shuffle board, what more can a girl ask for. They also had a very good cover band called Bad Boyfriend. Overall, It was a good time. The wings, well, that is another story, they were pretty much cold and sweaty by the time we got home, but hey, at least I did not have to cook. Yummy!!

We are having some crazy weather here in Houston. During the break we went to Las Vegas, it was crazy over there too. It snowed for the first time in five years - yeah, lucky me! Anyway, we get home and the temperature is 75 degrees. A couple of days ago I went out for a walk and the weather was just awesome - around 70 degrees. I was walking around talking about how great the weather was, and how awful it had been in Boston, New Mexico and Vegas, and how lucky we were lo live here in Houston, and how Boston was still under snow, when all of the sudden I hear an evil laugh. It kinda took me by surprise until I realized I was the one laughing. Yeah, Houston is awesome this time of year, I said. Well, that awesome weather did not last long, it is 30 today. Tonight, I will be crying my self to sleep thinking of warmer weather.

Woo, hoo, the superbowl will be in Houston this year. I am not at all into football, but it will be fun to go out and hang.

Reality TV - YUCK!! I am extremely tired of it. Let's leave acting to the professionals. My top 5 WORST reality TV shows (not in any order, they all just suck): The Simple Life - They can not be that stupid; Average Joe - These guys actually signed up for that!; The Bachelor - The women are funny - to be nice. I am always hoping someone cries; Star Date - You can always tell the "date" is so disappointed when they reveal the actor she/he will be going out with. I mean who did they expect??; The Osbournes - Well, maybe not the show, but the aftermath, even though I could not understand half the stuff the dad said. The boy goes to rehab, the dad "remembers" he was molested as a child, the girl looses her record contract, and the mum, even though she gets her own show which pretty much sucks, is always almost or crying for everyone. Just let it go Osbournes. Move On.

WOW, a New Year! Welcome 2004!!

Las Vegas was great!! We actually got back in town at around 10:30 PM last night. The driving was fun, and the trip was great, but it snowed in New Mexico and Las Vegas...yuck!! You all know how I feel about snow - it sucks. It was a lot colder than Houston out there, so I don't think I will be having another US vacation in the winter. Anyway, the trip was great. We saw all the hotels, went to The Improv, and drove to The Valley of Fire - pretty cool stuff.

Hope this year is as good as the last - good job, great fun, and awesome friends. What more can a person ask for.