The Blair Witch is Coming!

July 13, 1999

I watched the Blair Witch Project special on Sci-Fi last night and this morning I'm all creeped out. Like my neighbor was doing something in his yard that involved a lot of clanking, and I was convinced he was burying a body but I was too chicken to go check it out. Then I tried to check out the Artisan Entertainment website to see if the movie was opening here on July 30 and couldn't get it. In fact, I couldn't get any of the related websites. So either there is a massive conspiracy going on or (more likely) demand is greater than supply and the servers got overloaded.

So, I'm back from vacation, and it was a good one. We've done the same vacation for the past 3 years, but this year seemed to go faster than usual. I felt like we got up there and then turned around and came home!

Jim's family includes 5 kids, ranging in age from 7 to 2, so that's a lot of noise. They are great kids, generally, but they are kids which means there's a lot of screaming and crying and loudness. Note to self: Never again play UNO when two players are under the age of 5. The funniest part of said UNO game was when one of the little girls got caught cheating by her mom, so her mom gave her this whole speech about how we have to play by the rules or it's not fair blah blah blah and the little girl burst out crying and said, "But I want to wiiiiiinn!". Maybe you had to be there but it cracked me up.

I played more cards than ever before. Every day involved hours long sessions of hearts and/or gin. I'm all carded out.

One night, the kids had just gone to bed and we were getting ready to play cards. Jim's brother-in-law said, "You know, this weather has been just great. It started out really hot, but now it's more comfortable, and it's been sunny yet cool enough at night to sleep. I would have to give the weather an A+". No sooner had the words left his mouth than we were plunged into darkness as the power went out. On the whole lake. No streetlights, nothing. Boy, that's dark. We fumbled around and found some candles and flashlights. But if I had already seen Blair Witch, I don't know if I would've made it. Just before bedtime, we went outside and the sky was amazing. Without any lights to offset it, the stars were really bright and huge, and you could see the Milky Way and everything. We went down and stood by the lake and just stared up at the sky. I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful.

Other than that, no amusing anecdotes from vacation really. It was fun, I got to swim and hike a bit, and now I'm back. I didn't touch a computer for a week and I didn't really miss it. But I'm also glad to be back. I missed my cats a whole lot. Grendel had a checkup while we were gone and she's actually gained a little weight back and seems to be holding steady, which is awesome.

Terry is new to the world of Instant Messages, and he came up with a great solution to ending the conversation. You know how when you are done with an IM session, and you go back and forth with the person like "See you later", "Thanks, have a good night", "You too." on and on ad infinitum because no one wants to be rude and end the session if the other person has something else to say? Well, Terry just types Peace Out and you know that means "I'm done typing now and I'm leaving". So Jim and I have adopted it, and you wouldn't believe how well it works. This is probably something that millions of other people have already solved, but it works for me. Especially since Jim and I ICQ each other a few times each day to say, "Can you pick up milk on your way home?" and it allows us to let the other one know "No time to chat right now but that doesn't mean I don't love you." Thus ends today's report. Peace out.

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Randy is starting a project to know who the key grip was in every famous movie. So if you know where he can find this type of information, or know of any key grips yourself, please e-mail him.

An interesting article about how GM doesn't quite get it when it comes to car buying on the web.

Get $10 off any purchase of $25 or more at Borders.com. Thanks to Cam for this one.

Which reminds me - you can get $15 worth of free stuff at drugstore.com too.

What this person says about AOL applies to the internet as a whole, I think. Don't send me crap. Don't send me stale jokes, chain letters, petitions or other crap. I don't mind jokes that are actually funny, or interesting links. But if you're not sure if something is true, either find out or don't send it on. Thank you.

The railway killer surrendered. Jim's mom can stop worrying since she lives close to some railroad tracks.

The Buffy season finale finally airs tonight.

The Beatles might reunite to perform Yellow Submarine. After all this time, that's the song they're going to do?