So - I’ve made several changes around here that I wanted to point out to those of you constantly hiding behind the feed reader (I see you! You can’t hide from me!)

1) I moved the comment leaderboard from the bottom of my sidebar to the top. These lovely people keep my blog active when I can not and I don’t thank them enough. So - I feel like they deserve a little bit more attention than being thrust below my Blingo button.

2) I add the Gravatar Plugin to my site. This means if you set up an account and an avatar to go with the email address you use here to comment, your picture will show up with your comment. I’m still not sure if I like this or not, what do you think? If more people used it I would like it for sure, but I’m not sure about the mystery shadow dude in my comments. Any thoughts?

3) I added a “Subscribe to Comments” plugin so that if you want to keep up with the conversation in the comments section (seen here), you can via email instead of having to keep coming back to my blog. No one is using this so far, but I’m hoping as I become better about responding in the comments, other people will want to check back.

4) I’m wanting to know what you all think I should change. Are there things on other sites you like and think I would find useful? Are there things you don’t like here? I’m trying to clean things up for Nablopomo. I can’t make everyone happy, but I would love to hear ideas/suggestions to see if there are ways I could improve this place. Thanks!

Jen started this rockin’ flickr group where we could all proudly show off our pre-blogging selves. I’ve had a lovely time digging through my own scanned photos to find good candidates for this group. You can see all of my contributions so far here. This picture was my favorite. For so many reasons.

First? You may not be able to tell but that awesomely blue satin dress with the one shoulder bow had a visible black crenalin under the skirt. It was itchy as hell but OH SO HOT. What you also can’t tell is that the shoes? Were black velvet. And the hair? More hairspray that was legally allowed to be sprayed onto one head. Brilliant.

I cut out my date in this picture to preserve whatever integrity he may or may not have as an adult. I have no idea where his life lead him at the moment. The last I saw him was several years ago at a club in Knoxville and he mentioned Montana. Either way - I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t want his tuxedo and tails plastered all over the internet.

So - go dig up your own photos and send them to Jen’s group. Join in on the self-deprecating fun. It’s good for the soul.

Thanks to Hollow Squirrel for this variation on the book meme I failed so miserable. It’s all about the Horror Movies this time around. I added a few in that I thought of and feel free to do the same! My husband and son love all scary movies and can guarantee you they’ve seen most of these several times. And they liked them. Their weird like that. Notice none of them are underlined, putting them on my “To Watch” list. No thank you.

Bold those you’ve seen.
Italicize movies you have started but couldn’t finish.
Add an asterisk* to those you have watched more than once.
Underline those on your To Watch list.

• The Shining* - I think this was one of my Mom’s favorites but I’ve seen it several times and it stopped freaking me out after the first 2 or 3 times.
• The Exorcist - Never seen it. The Catholic upbringing won’t let me
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Nope.
• The Silence of the Lambs* - Scary, I guess, but more thrilling to me.
• JAWS - I am NOT a fan of gore, so this movie lost me partway through
• Halloween - Nope. And my son is Michael Meyers for Halloween. (He is from that movie, right? I get them mixed up.)
• Psycho - Not that scary decades later.
• Seven - This is one of MrZ’s all-time favorite movies. It freaked me out.
• Rosemary’s Baby - Another one not that scary decades later.
• Poltergeist* - The token slumber-party rental from my childhood and I hated it with every ounce of my soul.
• A Nightmare on Elm Street - I saw it once, with MrZ and LilZ, and while they both loved it (MrZ having already seen in a million times) I hated it.
• Friday the 13th - Too scared to finish it.
• The Thing - Nope. I think that’s another one that is old enough that I wouldn’t be scared.
• The Evil Dead - I didn’t get it so I stopped watching even though every friend I had at the time swore it was the Best. Movie. Ever.
• Carrie - Read the book so I felt obligated to see the movie. Not that scary.
• Night of the Living Dead - Nope.
• The Omen - I think I started it b/c I have vague memories of it but I don’t remember any of it.
• An American Werewolf in London - Nope.
• Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - Never even heard of this one.
• The Hitcher - Or this one.
• Lost Highway - Or this one. Am I sheltered?
• The Blair Witch Project* - This movie haunted my dreams for weeks. I hated it and it scared the shit out of me.
• Pet Cemetery - Nope.
• Saw - I regretted watching this one for many reasons, but the most important being it scared the crap out of me. But also I thought the ending was lame.
• The Ring - I watched this one but was also trying to do several other things at the same time so it kinda ruined the “scary” factor. Which I appreciated because I think it would have freaked me out.
• Scream* - Yes, because everyone else saw it, but it was cheesy enough not to be scary.

• The Amazing Race TV Series - The Nine Best Episodes Ever
  If you are a fan of The Amazing Race, and especially if you are a fan of Miss Alli’s recaps (if you don’t know the name…you’re missing out) then you MUST read this article she wrote about the 9 top episodes.

My family has a membership at our local botanical gardens. We are very proud of this membership and we use it often. We even went so far this year as to purchase $100 worth of Galaxy of Lights tickets to give out as Christmas presents. Galaxy of Lights brings Christmas decorations to the botanical gardens in the form of a fantasy wonderland. It’s awesome and we love it every year.

Well - I still hadn’t gotten my tickets yet as of this weekend. When I received a large envelope with the HSVBG logo on the front, I assumed it was the tickets. But I opened it and I saw (1) An invitation to the members only walk through in two weeks that insisted we RSVP but left no number to call and (2) What I thought was another card requesting us to buy tickets. I started getting stressed because if they were asking us to buy tickets, did that mean they didn’t have record of our previous order?

So, I called them today to see what was up. The first thing they told me is that there was a big mail-out this morning and our tickets were probably en route. Then, I asked her about the Member’s Only Walk-Thru. “Um, yes. It says I’m supposed to RSVP, but it doesn’t say who to RSVP with.” She very politely said that we RSVP with her, but that we can just send the card to her and that is the easiest way. “What card?” Then, I looked at what I had thought was a card requesting that we buy tickets but in reality was an RSVP card. Which makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE. Why am I such an idiot? Why did I assume the card that came with the invitation would be anything other than a card to RSVP for the event?

In my defense, the RSVP card was about the same size as the Galaxy of Lights ticket order card. But that is the only defense I have. Which, I’m pretty sure, still makes me an idiot.