Bills Shmills
I cancelled the last of my accounts from Tennessee today. I no longer have renters insurance. I no longer have car insurance since I don’t have a car anyway. My long distance is no longer. And I SHUT OFF MY CELLPHONE! Woot!

Yes, to the right you will see the phone I have used for the last four years. It doesn’t text message. It doesn’t take photos. It doesn’t play music. It doesn’t have cool ringtones. The display isn’t in color. I can’t play 42 different games. But I could talk on it, which was the ultimate point. Now I can throw it away, since I don’t think even CellForCash would pay me for it. Maybe some technology museum would want this relic though. Hmm…

Happiness is…
…happening to look out a window and spying my brother helping an elderly man into a vehicle. Good kid.
…catching up with a high school friend for 45 minutes, making plans for coffee on Thursday, and potential plans to spend the weekend at the lakes with her.
…getting my refund check from Bellsouth. It’s about time they send ME money for a change.

Perhaps more later…

Happy Birthday to my dear sweet nephew. If you keep having these birthdays, you’re really going to start making Auntie D feel old, okay? Just keep that in mind before you decide to become a teenager next year.

Happiness Challenge
It’s August, and that means another year of the Pretty Purple Princess Happiness Challenge. It’s pretty simple really. Just take a second each day to post something that made you happy. It’s that whole positivity thing in action. Go on and give it a try. All the cool kids are doing it. (Well, me and BigOrangeMichael anyway.)

Happiness is…
…nephews
…airfare quotes under $2000
…walking in the middle of the street
…Star Wars: A Musical Tribute

The Things They Didn’t Say
I found myself in the geneaology department of the library this afternoon. (The employee who pointed me in the right direction was a girl I used to babysit, but whatever.) Went through the files of my four greatgrandparent surnames.

I came across an article clipped out of our town’s newspaper. I recognized the name. I thought I recognized the picture. But the story was news to me. I had to ask my mom about it when I got home.

Me: Mom? Did… your Uncle Stan die?
Mom: No. They still live in California.
Me: Is there more than one Stan [K]?
Mom: [knowing that I had been at the library] Not that I know of. Why? Did you come across another one?
Me: Well, I don’t know. I saw an article saying that his parents received notification that he was missing…
Mom: Oh yes. He was captured and held prisoner for a while during the war… but he never really talks about it.

I’ll say. NOBODY really talks about it. I had no idea. She said that something happened to his feet while he was there too. She wasn’t sure but thought they were frozen or something that made it so he couldn’t wear colored socks, because of the dye. The white socks were the only way she could tell the difference between him and his twin, Uncle Orv. I never knew…

Song of the Day
Holding out for a Hero – Frou Frou
Gotta love Imogen.

Vacation: Over. Survival rate: 100%
Well, I dare say we all had a good time for the most part. The only parts I didn’t enjoy were the blister on my toe and the motion-sickness-y drive home. Other than that, it was great. Might even go so far as to say that I hope we do it again sometime.

My sister’s family drove down to Omaha on Friday night. Mom and Dad left about 9:45 Saturday morning with Greg and I to follow shortly thereafter in his car.

Let’s talk a little bit about my brother’s car for a second. Even though he is well aware that he lives in IOWA, this is the car he drives. Yes, the doors really open like that… and let me tell you that one must be a contortionist to get in there. With me in a skirt, I think it may have appeared rather unladylike. I was ready to say “screw it” and go Dukes-of-Hazzard style. But yeah, it was cute riding through the parking lot at the zoo and having all these little kids ooo-ing at the lamborghini orange car.

The zoo was fun. I was grossed out by the koi pond. Ick. Nothing like masses of white fish all swarming for a cheerio thrown in the water. I just found out there were tigers , and I fricking missed them. (Oh well, builds the anticipation for Dreamworld.) But we did see the gorillas (and saw a kid have a heart attack when one of the biggest ones smacked the glass right next to where he was sitting) and the giraffes and the sharks in the shark tunnel. The penguins were pretty darn cute too. (Check out the penguin cam. Well, in the daytime.)

Then we stuffed ourselves at the casino buffet, and I went with my folks to see Herbie… not my first choice, but it wasn’t commpletely terrible. Watched the kids swim at the hotel pool, made a Phonecall, and went to bed.

Today we went shopping around the Old Market, hit a couple other shops and headed back home. Wheee.

Only in Iowa
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… the corn cam. Now you can see if the corn is, in fact, knee-high by the fourth of July. (Well, you could have if I had found the link earlier.) I’m totally watching that. Actually, I probably won’t, since I can see a cornfield a couple blocks away from my bedroom window.

She’s Crafty
I came across some old outdoor faucet parts tonight at my dad’s shop. It makes me think I could make one of these cool ruler boxes if I really wanted to.