My Amazing Race comments probably don’t make sense without seeing the episode I am sure. But over at CBS, they will have a summary of the show, and after reading that, what I said should be a bit more clear. Summary? Team Guido (TGS!) is in 4th place. Frank & Margarita, Rob & Brennan, Drew & Kevin are all pretty much neck in neck. I think Drew & Kevin are in first place, but it may be Frank & Margarita. Nancy & Emily are still in the race, 5th place, but just minutes behind Team Guido (TGS!). Hope that helps! I must say though, the experience of reading about it on the website will NOT do justice to the look on Margarita’s face when she was going through the Temple of Rats. Eeeek. Man… she was one brave woman. When Emily & Joe did it the next day, there didn’t seem to be as many rats - which makes sense since they are more nocturnal. It was still gross.

Yes, I know that this is what everyone has been waiting for. (Yeah, well, that’s what I like to tell myself…) I just finished watching the Amazing Race. After seeing the “coming up next week” clip last week, I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be an elimination round. They made it sound like it was going to be hell. Gee, that was putting it lightly. I LOVED the fact that Team Guido didn’t make the 3pm train. They were a bit put out by that to say the least. Hopefully it knocked them down bit, but I doubt it. Anyways, that part where Drew & Kevin couldn’t find their envelope at the Taj Mahal? I was speechless. Oh my goodness. But then when they passed the bus that Team Guido (Team Guido sucks!) was on, I was hooting and yelling. I loved it. Man. But let’s get to that Roadblock. Ok, I thought it was uhhhmmm… odd when I learned as a child that Indians worship cows. Now I am - well, to be honest - grossed out that they worship RATS. EWWWWW… and how about that temple at night? The flashing lights and all, it looked like something at a cheap carnival! Emily & Team Guido had it sooooo much easier going through there during the day - but then again they are now what? Six hours behind? Well, at least Emily and her mom are not alone - Team Guido (TGS! - figured I should just abbreviate it…) is six hours behind too.

My personal favorites? Margarita & her husband. The separated parents. They generally have such a great attitude about it all. I *loved* that they got that huge lead at the beginning of this episode. Too bad they had to wait for the Taj Mahal to open 10 hours later, that sort of sucked, but at least they still had a 48 minute lead over Team Guido (TGS!) so that was a good thing.

By the way, PromoGuy has some interesting stuff over there about hearing Karyn & Lenny (oh, sorry … Leeennnnnyyyyy!) on the radio. The show was taped last spring. And, surprisingly, Lenny & Karyn are no longer dating. I am amazed, who would have ever guessed? YEAH. Right. I would have *itch slapped her right after that whole “it’s all his fault we lost” speech when they were eliminated.

I am WIRELESS right now. No cords. Laptop is free to roam. I am sooooo happy. I am also still watching the Amazing Race. I am past the point where Kevin and Drew are in the cab and they pass Team Guido (everyone say it with me, Team Guido SUCKS!) on the bus. Yes, I was cheering out loud!!!

I thought I had it all set up before, but since I am using a set DNS on the pc and not an automatic one, but had accidentally set it to find DNS automatically on the laptop, I couldn’t get to websites or my e-mail. I could however exchange ICQ messages with Jennifer, so I knew it was something minor I had to fix. Commercial break hit on the show and I couldn’t take it any more - I went to look at the DNS settings on the pc, set them on the laptop, rebooted the laptop and we are IN BUSINESS BABY!!! I am so happy. Oh, what fun!

Back to The Amazing Race. I’ll share the rest of the evening’s events later.

Looks like RoadRunner is still down, so I will be offline again tonight. May be a new skin for this site for November in the next day or too, all of this offline time.

Know what would be a great treat? If someone could e-mail me those Frank Lloyd Wright fonts. Oh, how happy I would be to open my e-mail in the morning and have those waiting for me!

Hey Tracy, did you get my e-mails? Hey, Hilary, did you get my e-mail last week asking you which treat you would like? Is my e-mail still acting insane? If anyone has written to me & I haven’t written you back, let me know.

Awhile back a friend of mine contacted me. His mom wanted to have a site set up so she could take orders for some products that she sells. The person who did the site for her … well, let’s just say it looked like HELL and screamed Front Page. With bad navigation. So he came to me and asked me what I would charge to do it. At first I thought he meant the company I work for - which we would charge about $20,000 - $30,000 for the number of products she has, a cart with the functions that she needed, etc - but her site would freakin’ rock. Oooooh, no, he meant how much would *I* charge. I was VERY hesitant about taking on the work. I do not have a lot of free time, and I knew school was about to start, etc. I reluctantly agreed that I would do it for $200 - as a favor to HIM - but the condition was that I would NOT work under pressure. I spent hours upon hours one weekend setting up a paypal cart system for her. He had said she wanted to keep costs low, and even though I recommended a different cart that would require her to process payments offline through her merchant account (which she already has, along with a phone system) he told me to go with Paypal. Why? Because when he first told me about the project he said she didn’t have a merchant account and I said that was one way to go for dirt cheap if she wanted to go that route - but that a merchant account would be MUCH better. Anyways, so we did the paypal thing. It took me HOURS to set it up. I can’t emphasize that enough. Rearranging things and adding content or fixing typos (in text copied and pasted from her catalog) took me another 2-3 hours. (Have to remember, I charge clients $100 - $160 an hour for this same work at my day job.) When she sent me my payment she only sent $125. [more]
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Go and read about the 5000 I’s project, and sign up. Please. I think it’s an awesome project (that’s why I signed up third…) and I would love to see so many more participate. Thanks!

That “whooooohoooo” is my attempt to yell like a teen-pop fan in written form. I have to agree with Melissa, O-Town Rules!

Through Mike Brown’s site (akacooties) I started poking around over at Blogdex. What does this mean? Does it mean I am in the top 1000 blogs? Which is what this page seems to imply. Hmmm. Ok, anyone know? I am really curious!

Well, nothing too exciting happened last night - except RoadRunner was down. So I went home with such big plans, lots to do … and no way to do it. Ugh. I did set up the wireless gateway, and I got the laptop to talk to it - of course I couldn’t do anything with that, and I discovered that from the patio, with the gateway where it is now, I don’t get a very good signal. But I get an “Excellent” signal in the living room when I check the monitor, and that’s what really matters. I guess if I want to head outside I may have to move the gateway. Realistically, that’s probably not going to be that often anyways. I took the lack of internet access as a sign that I should dive right into my new book, and it is SOOOOOOOO good. Already. I have to get my own hardback copies of #1-6 (I own 7 & 8). I read the first six back to back. When I would finish one I couldn’t wait to open up the next one. Number 7 was released a few months later, so I didn’t have too long to wait. It was torture waiting for number 8, and they waited even longer before they released this one, number 9 in the series, so needless to say it’s as good as Christmas!

Tonight we have a Halloween parade in my parent’s subdivision (which I live at the front of, so it’s right there) and then a pizza party at their clubhouse. After that it’s time to trick-or-treat! Jason is going as Harry Potter again. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to be (he had NO suggestions for the past 6 weeks) and then with everything going on I didn’t know if the parade and stuff would be called off. I didn’t want to spend $40+ for a costume he didn’t care about only to then not even use it. When I suggested he go as Harry Potter again he quickly agreed that that was a good idea. Chelsey sent me an e-mail yesterday to let me know that she had the “perfect thing for me to wear” that she bought for me when she was at Disneyworld last week in Florida. Of course she likes to torture me and she won’t tell me what it is, so I have no idea … She said Disney was great for her, bad for Florida - that there was no one there. No lines. There were no Americans, but a lot of British tourists. She said that they were “on holiday” right now. I guess they get a break between semesters?

Know what else is tonight? Yep, you got it … The Amazing Race!!! Yeah! Hmmmm… my prediction for this week is … hm. Not sure. I’m afraid it will be Emily and her mom, but I don’t want to see them go yet. I thought Rob & Brennan (is that his name? Did anyone else notice you never really see him that much?) would be doing worse then they have been, but last week they seemed a lot stronger. Couldn’t get so lucky for it to be Team Guido - but then again, who would we have to yell at if they were gone? I double checked the Tivo to make sure it was all set to record, just in case we are not home yet from trick-or-treating.

Want to read something truly, incredibly hysterical? Check out aka cooties’ (Mike Brown’s) Charge of the Blog Brigade. “forward the blog brigade! ignore work for which you’re paid” … oh my goodness, I can’t stop laughing! That’s too funny. WAY too funny. Oh! And he did a “Jill Matrix” picture too that simply rocked! I sent it to Tracy yesterday, I hope she got it! On with the blog brigade!

Borrowed from Nicole:

A - Age: 32

B - Best Friend: Cheesey Chelsey (also referred to as Purina, Crayola, Muffin Chop, and my Evil Twin)

C - Choice of Meat: Beef

D - Dream Date: Uh, what’s a date?

E - Exciting Adventure: Every minute spent in Europe.

F - Favorite Food: A good steak & potatoes. Gold Medal Ribbon Ice Cream from Baskin Robbins (or Bastard Robbins if you are talking to Naomi.)

G - Greatest Accomplishment: Hmmmm… Has that already passed me by? I don’t know…

H - Happiest Day of Your Life: I have had many happy moments, but it would be impossible to pick a happiest day. If I had to choose one it would be April 21, 1992 - when Jason was born.

I - Interests: “Television, internet, the lives of others.” (Those were Nicole’s answers, but I like them.) Add to that movies, reading and cross-stitching.

J - Joke: They are all over at Well, Slap Me Silly!.

K - Kool-Aid: Sugar-Free Lemonaide or Sugar-Free Cherry

L - Love: Me. (Well, that’s what the Insignificant Other said - that the only person I care about is me!) Jason. My friends. My family.

M - Most Valued possesion: Photographs of places I have been and people I have seen.

N - Name: Christine.

O - Outfit You Love: squishy plaid flannel pajama pants and my purple “Hofbrauhaus Munchen” sweatshirt from Munich, Germany.

P - Pizza Toppings: Pepperoni, Hamburger, Canadian Bacon and Extra Cheese.

Q - Question Asked To You the Most: “Are you related to Tom?” (Look at the bottom of the page. Yeah. No, I am not. Well, I am, but so distantly he doesn’t know who I am…) closely followed by “What are you thinking?” or “What’s wrong?”

R - Radio Station: 93Q, 104 KRBE, and I have to start listening now to 106.9 because PromoGuy told me to.

S - Sport: HAHAHAHAHAHA … Yeah, RIGHT.

T - Television Show: Uhm, which night of the week?

U - Umbrella in the rain?: Required here in Houston where it rains so hard it could hurt you!

V - Video: Do they still make videos? “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band. Early Madonna videos.

W - Winter: Miss it. We don’t have those in Houston.

X - X-rays recently?: Dental.

Y - Year Born: 1969

Z - Zodiac Sign: Libra. VERY Libra.

I followed d.s.hendler’s lead and did a Google Search: related:blahblahblog.com and wow … look at that. Lots of familiar people come up! J’s Junk, Publius, Nobody’s Bitch, Time for Your Meds, Snazzykat, Spitfire!, MizDos, A Fire Inside, Pie in the Sky, Greymatter (really, it says so.), Stefani Louise, Eclipsed, Ain’t Too Proud to Blog, Work in Progress, Silly Cow, The Ageless Project, Wil Wheaton, The Internet Remembrance Campaign, Banned Books Week, Flutter…Glub…Meow, Gingerblue (Bliss), and Therapy Theatre!

It also pointed out some new ones to me! Yeah! Brash & Sassy.net, Her Blog (ok, I have been there before, but it’s been a little while…), BitchBlog, Joy Unspeakable (another one I had been to before but not recently) and In a Mood. Wow, pretty cool!

Kymberlie & I went over to Costco at lunch, and they had the new Left Behind book, Desecration, for only $13.00! YEAH!!! They had a bunch of them too. I am so excited, I want to go home right now and start reading. Instead I have it here on my desk so I can think wistfully about curling up and reading it.

As I commented in my earlier post (in the comments) I respect the authors of these books for all of the research they put into them before they are written. Tim LaHaye (who had the idea of “fictionalizing an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation”) and Jerry Jenkins put a lot into these books before writing them (you can learn more over at LeftBehind.com.) I look at them as fiction though, for no man knows with certainty how the “end times” will be when they happen. Or when they will happen. But the books are very well written, not over the top in your face preaching like but rather a story that pulls you in. The characters are captivating. Yes, there are probably a lot of people that turn to them seeking answers and knowledge because reading the Bible can be confusing. (Sure you can read Revelations, but can you really understand it all? People spend years studying it and still don’t. I am not about to claim I do.) Hopefully the people that turn to the books seeking answers will learn from the very first book in the series that that’s not the right thing to do. The books do put a more current spin on the age old story of good versus evil. They are captivating books, and I am sure I will zip right through this one and then be ready for #10!

I love fonts. I really do. I want them all. It has been an addiction, seriously, since I was set up on Win95 and I discovered you could install fonts. Ohhhhh… I was in heaven. I sat there with a Corel set of disks and installed them all, so many that my machine choked on all the fonts. So if anyone can help feed my addiction, please, please … I want these fonts BAD: Frank Lloyd Wright - Eaglefeather, Frank Lloyd Wright - Exhibition, and Frank Lloyd Wright - Terracotta. Please? Anyone? I neeeeeeeeed them. Help.

Today is the day that book #9 in the “Left Behind” series hits the stores. Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne. I am so excited! I have been waiting forever for this book to come out. And, to add to my joy, Kymberlie is getting it for me as an early Christmas present! w00t! We are going shopping at lunchtime!

Now I could go into a whole long speech on the Tribulation, the “end times” and how September 11th through today has me more convinced then ever that that is where we are at. But I won’t. Because I just don’t have it in me at this moment, I wouldn’t do my “soap box rant” justice right now. For the moment I will just enjoy the fact that the next Left Behind book comes out today. Yeah!