Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 5 Comments

What’s the best ’80s band of all time – or, at least, of that decade?

Wow.  This one is tough, as I listened to so much music back then, it’s difficult to remember everything … I think I have the years and songs matched pretty closely … let’s give it a try, shall we?

1980:  “The Renegade” by Styx  (I first heard this when we lived in St. Croix … my best friend and I would play backgammon, drink orange Lipton tea, and listen to “Pieces of Eight” … we were 15 and didn’t have wheels, and we were pretty good kids, so this was entertainment enough for us.)

1981:  “Red Barchetta” by Rush  (This is an incredible piece of poetry put to music that makes me FEEL the car through the stereo speakers.  I love this song, and hearing it when I’m behind the wheel is a bad, bad thing …)

1982:  “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey  (My senior class’s theme song.)

1983:   “Africa” by Toto (I workd at the community college radio station my freshman year and this was on the top ten list when I was spinning albums … YES, SPINNING albums … made of black vinyl … a few years later, when CD’s came out, we were just certain they were a fad.  SHUT UP!)

1984:  “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2  (Probably the first song by U2 that I have a conscious memory of … what incredible musicians!)

1985:  “Boys of Summer” by Don Henley  (My roomie in college was a spoiled little rich girl with a Z28 and more money than sense.  We would go riding the main drag with this song blasting, singing at the top of our lungs … I find it amusing that the lines “Yesterday I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac … a little voice inside my head said “Don’t look back, you can never go back …” from one of our favorite songs fits so perfectly.  We had fun, but it was shallow fun … we had no true friendship and while I think “that was a blast,” I’d never want to go back there again.)

1986:  “Pretty in Pink” by The Psychedelic Furs  (When my college boyfriend and I broke up and then got back together a few weeks later, we went to see this movie and I liked the song.  We ended up breaking up again and didn’t see each other for four years.  We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary this past February.  Some happy endings just have a few bumps in the road. 

1987:  “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel  (This song haunts me … the music and the words make my heart ache … and I don’t really know why.)

1988: 

1989: 

At the moment I’m drawing a blank on 1988 and 1989 …. I’ll have to think about those two years and get back to you.  I think that may have been about the time that I started listening more to talk radio and kind of lost touch with current music.  In all honesty, there’s been very little come out since the 90’s that I’ve been tempted to listen to.  I like the songs of my youth, I guess. LOL
 

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Posted on by Laura Jinkins

Which Jane Austen Character Are You?

Which Jane Austen Character are You? (For Females) Long Quiz!!!
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Marianne Dashwood

Most girls can relate with Marianne on a more personal level than some of Austen’s other characters. She represents the emotional longings and struggles that seem to attack and bless us at the same time. Loyal to a fault, passionate for experience and life, and a bit over-emotional, Marianne matures and grows (making her so beloved).

Marianne Dashwood
66%

Elizabeth Bennet
59%

Elinor Dashwood
56%

Emma Woodhouse
50%

Jane Bennet
47%

Charlotte Lucas
44%

Lady Catherine
25%

Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 4 Comments

What was your first job?

I worked in a jewelry store the summer after I graduated from high school.  I spent the days wiping down the glass jewelry cases, dusting all the gift items, and learning to engrave items like money clips and cigarette lighters, silver trays and baby cups.  It was an old family owned store that carried tons of stuff … I remember buying my mom the prettiest crystal box for her birthday in June.  Little did I know it was a cigarette box.  When you flipped the lid over, it made a little ashtray.  I felt so silly.  I don’t know what happened to that little box.

When the summer ended, a position opened up for me at a local pharmacy.  Better hours and a little more challenging than the jewelry store.  I worked behind the counter, typing prescription labels and keeping track of drug inventory.  I think they require you to have a certification to do that nowadays. 

   

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Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 7 Comments

You Gotta’ Fight For Your Right to Light …

Okay, that really stunk … but this amused me:

Did Uncle Sam rush far too fast to force Americans to screw only
“energy-efficient” light bulbs into their sockets by the year 2012?

Yes, says Rep. Michele Bachmann, the first Republican woman to
be elected to Congress from Minnesota. The recently enacted energy
bill, she explains, contains a provision to phase out incandescent
light bulbs, mandating that only the energy-efficient bulbs can be sold
in the United Stats in fewer than four years’ time.

Mrs. Bachmann notes, however, that the new “high-mercury light
bulbs chosen for them by the government received little scrutiny” and
cites studies linking the green bulbs to higher incidences of breast
cancer.

Just before the Easter recess, she introduced the Light Bulb
Freedom of Choice Act, which would repeal the mandate until the health
questions are answered.

Of course, aside from the breast cancer concerns, doesn’t it bother anyone that MERCURY is a main component in these suckers?  I was picking up some light bulbs at the store the other day and one of these boxes had been manhandled.   The box had a little cut-out on the side where the ecofanatics could ooh and aah over the beauty of the government mandated spiral.  Well, the little spiral didn’t survive the trip too well, as it was shattered in pieces.

Does Wal-Mart have a Haz-Mat team in place? 

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Crossing my fingers …

Rosetta
Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among
homeschoolers for a while — next week they are unleashing a brand new
curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a
$219 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!) and the winner
gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin
America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese,
French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language
to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates
listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many
homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with
Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they’re included!  For parents, the
new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and
allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined
lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

 

To
win this most excellent program — in the language of your choice —
copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post
— then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The
winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru
the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one
blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to
win.   Yay for free stuff!

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Checking in …

Hmmm … let me see.  Spent the day at the library with the kiddo yesterday.  Got a good bit done.  Made a quick side-trip to Tuesday Morning.  They  had Breyer model horses in their inventory and my girl had to see what they had.  $20 later there’s another addition to her ever growing herd … LOL

Today I measured windows for a possible client, went to lunch with my guy and our girl … this evening our photography class met at the college to take advantage of the light from the setting sun.  At lunch, we ran into one of my instructors and he was taken by my girl’s HUGE blue eyes.  So he told me I should bring her along to model for us.  This tickled her immensely.  She enjoyed being the focal point of 20+ budding photographers and handled it quite well, posing as our teachers asked.  Here are three photos I took of my girl, plus one of a fountain near the entry of the college.  I’m fairly pleased with the photos that I took, but I am VERY excited that my instructor is going to give me a CD of photos HE took of my daughter.  I saw some of them on the preview window of his camera and they ARE fantastic.  Someone made a crack about free photos and he quickly set them straight, saying, “They’re not free, she worked for them!”  I appreciated that HE appreciated Jami’s efforts to do what they asked.  She’s only 12 and she listened very carefully as they told her to “tilt your head this way … now move your chin a tiny bit to the left.  Good, okay now, look over this way …”

It’s not easy, and I was very proud of her.  Eddie’s photos of her are incredible.  I may post one or two of them here, with proper credit of course, for your enjoyment.

Have a good one –

Oh, and “P.S.” — I’ve decided that my instructors are actually pretty nice guys.  I don’t know what happened there at the beginning … if I just needed time to get to know them better or what, but I’m actually growing somewhat fond of them … LOL

Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 2 Comments

Hmmm … maybe …

You Are a Comma
You are open minded and extremely optimistic.
You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything.

You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests.
You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time.

Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to.
(But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.)

You excel in: Inspiring people

You get along best with: The Question Mark
What Punctuation Mark Are You?
Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 5 Comments

A little surprise blessing …

the third lady who was interested in giving our Willie-man a home felt really badly about having to back out of the arrangement.  I was trying to tell her that it was okay, not to worry about it.  I emailed her that we were going to try to figure out a way to make things work better around here with four dogs.  I planned to save enough money to get Willie neutered and purchase some chain link fencing so the dogs would have a larger area out back to run and play.

She offered to let me go through her to get him neutered.  You see, she has a deal with a vet — he takes care of all her foster animals at a discounted rate, since she has so many at any given time while she works on adopting them out.  Well, instead of having to pay $250 to our vet to have the little mister neutered (and have a couple of extra teeth removed while he’s under for the surgery), it will only cost $60 if I take her up on her offer.   Then I can apply the $190 that’s left over towards fencing.  Cool beans, huh?

I will deliver him to her house tomorrow evening and pick him up on Wednesday afternoon.  What a sweet lady.  She also gave me a tip for getting him completely housebroken.  Belly bands.  As soon as he’s healed up from this surgery, we are going to get some of those and see if that will help us get him completely trained.  I’ve always thought that people who dressed their critters were a little flaky, but if this belly band thing will work, hey, I’m all for trying it.  I think what’s so exasperating is that he doesn’t do it all the time.  Just every once in a while.  I want to get him where he doesn’t do it at all, except outside where he’s supposed to!  Wonder if we could use the little princess panties on the girlie dogs for the same purpose?

I know … too much information … 

Posted on by Laura Jinkins · 5 Comments

Additional Confirmation …

Without seeking it out, we had another “possible home” for Willie … literally 30 seconds before we planned to leave to take him to their house, they called and said they just weren’t ready for another dog.  (They have three dogs, one of whom is in the last stages of leukemia and whose age prevents medical treatment.)  We looked at each other, shook our heads and said, “Three strikes … we’re keeping you, boy!”

I may be a little slow, but I’m not stupid.  That dog is meant to stay with us.