Sorry about the lack of content lately. I was trying to write a review of the Narnia movie, but it kept getting all off track and didn't make any sense, so I finally gave up. Then I tried to post a photo of my fish tank which is trimmed with garland and has little artificial Christmas trees flanking it - don't call ME a scrooge! But something is wrong with my computer at home and I can't upload pictures. I tried to figure out, but my brain started smoking, and so I just went off to work on my scrapbook before I spontaneously combusted.

I'm almost done the summer vacation scrapbook! In time for Christmas! Acutally, it is kind of fun to look back on all those photos and realize it was only 5 months ago that we were so hot playing mini-golf we could hardly stand it. We had an ice storm here in Maryland yesterday, and before that it had been bitterly cold, in the teens...

The Hub keeps going downstairs and eyeballing the oil tank and we keep trying to think of ways to save fuel. We moved the pair-a-tweeters into the dining room where it's warmer and set the heat even lower. So far Dorothy is not sitting on the marble, nor have there been any more eggs, though I did stick a kleenex box in their cage to give her a place to lay her egss if she lays more. Now they have a view of the Christmas tree. I don't know what they think of it, but they seem a little calmer.

Monday I should have the results of my blood tests that I had done on Tuesday. That was a little bit of an ordeal. First they couldn't find my insurance information, though my doctor faxed a copy of my insurance information over to them, so I had to go home and find my insurance card. Then there was a long wait, and then there was a computer problem. Of course, I had been fasting for 12 hours - from the time that I planned to have my blood drawn. I was way over that by the time I had it drawn & also dehydrated too.

If they can figure out somebody's DNA from a single drop of blood, I'm unclear on why they needed three vials of mine just to do thyroid function and cholesteral tests. I was about to ask, when I stood up, and, unfortunately, was more or less overcome by the dry heaves. What a way to start your day! And so they stuck me on a cot for 30 minutes and kept looking at me like I was going to throw up a law suit any minute.

It was very depressing. I hope this actually results in finding out what my trouble is....though I doubt they'll be able to find the results at my doctors office, since I have somehow got into my doctors computer as a person with the first name "Stacey". There is no part of any one of my names that is anything like "Stacey", but that's who the young lady asked for when she called to confirm my Monday appointment.

Is it just me, or would you feel uncomfortable entrusting your healthcare to an office where people can't even get your name right - I've told them 3 different times they had it wrong!

Yesterday I saw the movie The March of the Penguins on DVD. It was an astonishing movie. I always thought of penguins as kind of comical, but emperor penguins have ALL my respect for what they go through to hatch an egg. In the first place, they have to walk 70 miles inland to get to a breeding ground where the ice is firm under their feet. Then they have to find a mate, which they do by singing to each other. I'm not kidding. Every penguin is really, on some level, like Frank Sinatra as bird. It doesn't sound like much to us, but clearly our hearing is not as good as theirs - because they use song to recognise both their mates and their young. Male penguins have the advantage: there are fewer males than females, so the females may fight over them. Go figure. Once they find their true love - and it can take up to two weeks, which is a long time when the antarctic winter is threatening. If they'r lucky enough to find a mate and have an egg they have to kind of balance it on the tops of their feet in order to keep it off the ice which will freeze it almost instantly. They don't eat for MONTHS! I'm telling you people, penguins are way more radical than the South Beach Diet! Then the female passes the egg to the male and he stays there with it while she goes to get something to eat....you guessed it, 70 miles away at the waters edge! Meanwhile, the wind is howling, snow is blowing, all these males have to huddle together like Roman soldiers, each one with his egg on his feet. The chicks hatch, the mothers come back to see it and feed it, then the fathers go off and get something to eat.....I mean, my goodness, humans don't even want to pay child support. Imagine if guys had balance their kids on their feet! Though The Hub did say, "You see, that's how I feel when you go off to the grocery store for hours and leave me by myself."

But I am still convinced that the Emperor Penguin has a lot tougher life than The Hub.