Old Coot Azzy

I'm watching men's beach volleyball right now. Gibb/Rosenthal from the USA against Asahi/Shiratori from Japan. All I can say is…so many beautiful, talented men in one place. Be still my beating heart.

I found this entry that I wrote on one of my now defunct blogs over 4 years ago and decided to repost it here. ----------------- A Box Full of Memories I found myself walking down memory lane yesterday thanks to a big Rubbermaid container filled with notebooks of things I'd written in the past. About 21 years ago, I started writing stories that coincided with the role-playing game I was running each weekend. I guess I thought that I'd sit down one day and turn it all into another Dragonlance series. (Weiss and Hickman) Below is a brief example of something I wrote up at that time. It's a rough draft and the writing is quite laughable. I hope I've improved with age. :) *~*~*~*~* "Are you intending to sleep the entire day away while I STARVE?!!?!!" came a high pitched, glass shattering voice. The six adventurers jumped from their beds, weapons readied in their hands. They paused upon seeing the foot and a half long faerie dragon sitting on top of a small table i

I spent a couple of hours this morning updating my webpage. Added some links to other sites I frequent. I had to use Firefox again because IE keeps needing to shut down because of run time errors. What's up with that?? I've used IE for 10 years and like it a lot. Firefox is great too. I'm just not used to it yet. Having both browsers open is kind of cool. On the healthier eating/exercising front: I started keeping track of what I eat and realize I'm sticking to around 1500 calories a day. I've lost 14 pounds so far. I attribute that to moving around more while cutting out all the junk food. For example, this week I managed a 45 minute walk every morning, and a 30 minute workout on Wii Fit in the afternoon. A couple of nights this week the hubby and I were on our feet playing other games on the Wii too. We rented Wii Ski from Blockbuster and love it. What a blast. You get to ski, AND bump into things, (ouch lol). Your can import your Mii, have them talk to people

MY DECK It's TOO hot to do anything today. So I think I'll make some lemonade to sip while I laze around on my deck with the dogs underfoot. Today might be a good time to start making my way through all the "to read" books piled up on my desk. Up next is: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton. I've heard a lot about Anita Blake, her vampire hunter and think it's time I find out what all the hubbub is about. Does anyone watch "Wipeout," or "I Survived a Japanese Game?" Both are on tonight and both are hysterical.

The final 10 episodes of, Avatar: The Last Airbender air this week on Nickelodeon. Check your local listings for the time. Last night's episode was great. But then again, the entire Avatar series has been great so far. I can't wait to see the remaining episodes.

I haven't played tabletop dungeons and dragons or done any play by posts in quite some time, but the characters involved in those endeavors remain alive. We simply use them in other ways, like as avatars for the Wii game system for example. :D Below are my characters of Azzy and Marz. They are followed by my husband's characters of Erlic and Corum. I guess this proves that certain characters we breathed live into will remain in our minds and hearts forever.          

I now have a new Sony Cybershot W-120 camera that I intend to carry with me at all times. (it's small enough to stuff in my purse) Maybe I'll start posting more pictures. Whoot! Bet y'all can't wait. LOL Anyhoo, I think I'll start off with a shot of the path through my neighborhood that I walk down every morning when weather permits. I usually meet my friend, Rosa at the local restaurant. It's only a 13 minute walk from my house but I don't take a direct path. Instead I walk down this block and that block until I've pounded the pavement for about 30 minutes. The coffee and oatmeal taste extra special after that nice, long walk. :D Oh, I thought I'd mention that I downloaded Firefox and have been trying it for the last 2 days because I'm tired of IE having to shut down on me because of some stupid run time errors. So far I'm liking Firefox very much. *nods*

I've lost 8 pounds since starting my exercise/eating healthier routine last month. Whoot! Go me! *does a happy dance* I've still got a long way to go but at least I'm feeling very encouraged and that helps. Wii Fit is a blast! I love doing the hula-hoop, step, and running routines. The balance exercises are pretty cool too. Hitting soccer balls with your head and getting smacked in the face with a shoe because of failing to duck cracks me up every time. It's hard to explain. You have to play the Wii Fit to understand. Right now I can't really get into the yoga and strength stuff for some reason. Guess I'll save them for later. 30 minutes flies by on the Wii. It's a good thing when exercising is so much fun you don't realize how long you've been at it! I'm very grateful for the nice weather we've been having lately. I look forward to walking when it's not so ungodly hot. I'm still managing to get two 20-30 minutes walks in each day.

I saw these cuties sitting on my deck yesterday afternoon and rushed to get my camera. I had to take the picture through the window because I knew I'd scare them off as soon and I opened the door.

We got our rebate check last week. And, in an effort to get back into shape we bought Wii Fit AND Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii gaming system. I messed around with both games yesterday for a long time. Maybe that's why I feel so dang tired this morning. Anyhoo, I'm off to take a walk. Hopefully, that will wake me up. Until next time. :D

I haven't updated in some time because... 1. I've been spending lotza time outside, and doing things away from the computer. 2. I couldn't think of anything interesting to say. 3. My computer has been acting up...A LOT! Some days I don't even bother to turn the damn thing on because it upsets me. Guess it's time to save up for a new one. It would be nice to have it for the winter months when I don't mind sitting inside and working on graphics, etc. My husband had the walnut sized tumor removed from his left leg on the 10th of April. He was told to stay home from work for a week and I did my best to pamper him during that time. :D Now he's going to therapy twice a week because he's walking a tad funny. The tumor was growing in a nerve so it will take a while for the nerve to get back to normal. That's what his doc says. The great news is that the tumor was benign. Yay! I'm still working on getting back in shape. Thanks to the nice weather we'v

We haven't bought any anime in quite some time. I think that led us to somewhat splurge on it this weekend. We picked up Volume 1 of XXXholic by Clamp along with a Clamp double feature movie that features, "Tsubasa: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom," and "XXXholic: A Midsummer Night's Dream." We haven't watched either movie yet. Also purchased: Volumes 1 and 2 of the laugh a minute, "The Wallflower." The hubby really gets a kick out of this anime series for some reason. lol At some point in time I'd like to pick up the Death Note series too. That's one I really enjoyed. My computer is still acting up but I guess I shouldn't complain much since it's over 5 years old and hasn't given me too much trouble. I suppose it's time to start saving up for a new one. I'd like to get it with XP instead of Vista though. I think that's possible if we order it from Dell. Did anyone turn off their lights for Earth Hour on Sa

Easter was nice, especially since I didn't have to cook or anything. :D My 84 year old mom-in-law (bless her heart) did the honors, and once again she overdid it with the food. Here is her menu for 8 adults and 3 kids. (ages: 2, 6, and 10) Egg drop soup Salad Lasagna (Yum! My favorite. This with some bread is all I need.) Pork Roast Fried chicken Asparagus Brussels sprouts Mashed potatoes Sautéed mushrooms Endless bread basket I won't bother to go into all the things she set out for dessert. With so much food, it's hard to enjoy one thing because she looks disappointed if you don't sample a hearty portion of "everything." *belch* Naturally, I overate. I'll have to compensate by extending my daily workouts this week. In other news: My hubby will finally have surgery to remove a tumor growing on a nerve in his leg on April 10th. He was supposed to have the surgery done on February 15 but it was cancelled the day before. Sheesh. The doctor said he's been

...Well, not really. It's since pretty cold here in Chi town. But I had a bit of Spring erupt on my computer monitor this morning. You can experience it too by clicking on the link below. It will take you to a black screen. Click your mouse on that black screen as often as you like and enjoy. :D PS: Happy St. Patrick's Day! Click for a touch of Spring

My cats love the spare bedroom. And they love it even more when I toss extra blankets on the bed. :D Sneak playing peek a boo Sneak and Thistle enjoying a lazy Sunday

After much growling, cursing, and pulling my hair out I finally got my old PDA to sync up with my computer. I'm still not sure what I did to finally succeed so I hope I don't have to do this again. But I know that's too much to hope for because this isn't the first time the pda and the computer stopped syncing. And every time it's a pain in the arse trying to make things right again. Anyway, now I can download some stuff I want to read when I'm not in front of the computer. We're going to watch some anime later and then a movie we got from Netflix called Game Plan. It stars Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. I like him. We would've watched "Crash" too, but the disc arrived cracked so I returned it right away. Today's pizza night too. Whoot! More from my sketchbook: I drew this rose at the end of January, referencing the book "Drawing for Dummies," by B. Hoddinott. I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!

A funny tidbit from this morning's Chicago Sun Times: Every Woman's Struggle One day a housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweatshirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to her, "What setting do I use on the washing machine?" "It depends," she replied. "What does it say on your shirt?" He yelled back, "University of Illinois."

Whoa, I forgot how hard exercising could be, especially when your body hasn't done much moving in a while. I just finished doing a 15 minute aerobic routine following Gilad on Fit TV. Then I lifted 5 pound hand weights, doing 2 sets of 8 reps for biceps, triceps, back, and chest. Whew. That doesn't really sound like a lot, but it's a lot for me right now. *wipes brow* I'm trying to establish a routine of doing some form of exercise every day for at least 20 minutes. So far, so good. Getting my body to move will be much easier when the weather warms up because I love to walk and plan on doing a lot of it this year. We watched "New Amsterdam," last night. I'm not sure what to say about it except that I thought it was so, so. I didn't think there was anything spectacular about it, but I plan on watching it again. On American Idol: I thought the worst performances were by Luke Menard and Danny Noriega. I'd kind of hate to see Danny go though because h

I guess winter has me down because I'm feeling blah and bored. Inspiration is seriously lacking right now. I pushed my drawing books, pencils, and paper off to the side and grabbed hold of an old, "teach yourself css" book instead. Think I'll work with that for a while. The change of pace might do me good since I have a bad habit of sticking to one thing for far too long and then a kind of numbness sets it. I don't need any more numbness, thank you very much. This lousy weather is doing a good enough job of it. We watched "Eastern Promises," and "Across the Universe," this weekend and really enjoyed both movies. I cancelled my Netflix subscription about 7 months ago but recently decided to start it up again. In the long run it's cheaper than renting from Comcast or the neighborhood Blockbuster. Plus I've found that Netflix has a much bigger selection than Blockbuster, especially when it comes to anime. American Idol is on tonight. I don

Sometimes I feel very guilty for not blogging every day or for not posting long, well thought out entries. So you can imagine how good I felt when I found this. It made me smile. :)

More drawing and shading practice. I did this one using "Drawing Dogs and Puppies" by Nolon Stacey for reference.

I got this in an email from a friend and wanted to share. Enjoy. :D -AMAZING ADVICE 1. IF YOU'RE CHOKING ON AN ICE CUBE, SIMPLY POUR A CUP OF BOILING WATER DOWN YOUR THROAT. PRESTO! THE BLOCKAGE WILL INSTANTLY REMOVE ITSELF. 2. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP. 3. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK. 4. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER. 5. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON. 6. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH. 7. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE. 8. REMEMBER - EVE

Last night...Supernatural...Lilith... Wow, I wasn't expecting that. Very cool!

It's way too cold around here! I nearly froze my fingers off trying to snap a decent picture of last night's eclipse. Usually, whenever there happens to be something neat to see in the sky we get nothing but clouds covering it up. But for once the sky was crystal clear. Naturally, the cold put a damper on things. Even gloves didn't help. Anyhoo, below are a couple of pics. I used a tripod for these. I did try taking some pics through my telescope but they all sucked. :( The roof of my house is in the corner. I believe the star above the moon is Regulus and Saturn is to the lower left of the moon. Got rid of the roof in this one, and zoomed in a little. Now I'm off to bake crescent cookies for my son-in-law. His birthday is tomorrow. :D

I haven't updated this journal since Christmas. I felt the need for a short hiatus from the internet in order to get my act together. This hiatus enabled me to focus on a couple of goals I set down for myself for the new year. GOAL #1: Quit smoking. Like many others, I started smoking in my early teens. I enjoyed it. Cigarettes were like good friends. I often thought of quitting but kept putting it off, maybe because I didn't think I could do it after being addicted for so many years. Almost 2 years ago I found myself puffing away like a friggin' chimney while glued to my pc every evening rapidly adding posts to my now defunct yaoi role-playing board. That soon led to a horrid hacking cough that embarrassed the bejeezus out of me whenever it gripped me in a public place. I was becoming rather anti social because of it. GOOD NEWS: I have been cigarette free for 30 days now. And that nasty cough is gone. Yeah! Quitting was very hard. I did it cold turkey after preparing