Okay, local Pittsburgh TV channels, why didn't you show the 250th birthday fireworks this past Saturday night as it happened LIVE?
Only one channel bothered to cut over to it during the newscast, the others had Law and Order, A football game, and boxing on instead. Real important stuff. Yeah, I guess you don't DARE pre-empt someone's Law and Order show, right?  I never did get to see the big 'surprise' that was suppose to happen.  Maybe you showed the fireworks in its entirety later on, but by that time I was in bed.  I have to get up early on Sundays for church. 
You people:
FAIL

Edit: I have satellite TV, not cable, so maybe it was shown on a local feed, don't know.

I'm trying to buy Pittsburgh Penguin tix for my Mom and I. Yeah, right.  Cheapest tix so far, officially that is, is $105.00.  I can only take my Mom on the days I have off, so it's hard to find anything reasonable.  I tried the outlet places and the cheapest I've found is $80.00.  Oh well, I haven't given up though...
Garden tally so far:
3 cucumbers
4 tomatos

My sister and I had the carpets cleaned at my parents' house.  Cost over $300.00, but the carpets looking, you know---clean---again.
Anyway, it's a wedding anniversary gift to our parents.  They'll be married 60 years next week!  Wow.

Update!
This time my car sped up because the cruise control (which I never use) got stuck somehow.  The mechanic deativated it and is going to put a new part on it on Tuesday.  Well, he'll have to wait a bit since I'm taking my Mom to her doctor's appointment in the morning. 
Still, this is twice in two weeks that my car has tried to get out of control, though both for different reasons.
Is my car trying to kill me or is it all just bad coincidence?

Okay, it happened again.

I was out this evening and my car decides to start speeding up again, just like it did two weeks ago.  Fortunately, I was close to home and my auto repair shop and so I drove it to the repair shop.  I left a note and my key inside and so I'll see what will happen now.
I had just put in fuel-injector cleaner in the car a few days ago.   I'm also very glad this happened where there wasn't much traffic around.
I'm just really disgusted right now, but still happy I'm okay.

Well, I 'think' I've solved my computer problems.  I simply ran internet explorer with add-ons disabled.  At least I was able to update my website and check my email without having to log-in every two minutes or so.
On the other hand, Java and flashplayer are disabled too, so I can't watch youtube unless I restart IE with add-ons enabled. *sighs*
I'll have to try and manually disable add-ons but keep the Java and flashplayer.

I took two of my green tomatos inside the house.  I'm gonna let them ripen inside in the sun.  If that doesn't work, I'll wrap them in newspaper and see what happens.  It worked last time. :)

I have chapter two of my Barrelful of Troubles story done (I think).  I gotta get moving on that one. I have some interesting ideas...

So anyway, I picked the cucumber out of my garden.  It was pretty good! I think maybe two more are growing.  My tomatos are still green, but now number five.

I think my computer is starting to go.  I'm having trouble staying connected when I log into a site.  Live Journal and Yahoo hasn't been a problem since I tell them to remember me, but I can't access mycokerewards.com though. I'm having trouble with my email too.  I've wiped out the cookies and add-ons, but nothing so far. What bothers me right now is that I can't update my website! grrrr.

I feel lucky right now, and still a bit shaken.
This afternoon, I was driving in Pittsburgh and my car started to rev up and it wouldn't slow down! I jammed on the brakes and it slowed down a little.  Fortunately, I was able to stop the car, but it wanted to keep moving! So, I slammed the car into park and let the car sit.  I called a tow-truck and he came in about 35 minutes.  I shudder to think what would've happened if I had had an accident.  I could be dead right now, and I mean that. I'm not one for melodramatics.
Praise the Lord for keeping me safe.

I've been starting to save my Monkees fanfics onto a flash drive now.  Originally, they were on floppy disks, but I hear they are going the way of the VCR.  In fact, I'm hearing that new computers don't even have a space for the floppys anymore, I'm not sure. Oh well, I do notice that my stories get brought up a lot faster on the flash drive than on the floppy.  My last Christian Monkees fic and the one I'm working on now are on the flash drive.
The Cucumber in my garden is about 4 inches long now.  I think 2 more are starting to grow.

Okay, now I have one cucumber and four tomatos growing in my garden.  Go me. 

I was just wondering if anyone had seen that stupid Ponderosa Steakhouse ad on TV.  It shows a family at a fast food place ordering stuff.  Once they get their order, they rip it all apart--in front of the server--in order to grab the receipt.  They then RUN OFF, LEAVING A MESS, LEAVING THE FOOD ON THE COUNTER, AND RUN OFF TO PONDEROSA FOR A DISCOUNT WITH THE FAST-FOOD RECEIPT!!!
Okay, to sound like my catholic school teachers, there are people starving in the world and yet it seems to be okay to waste food, make a mess, just to get something.  This is soooo stupid, not to mention ignorant and inconsiderant. 
I wonder if I should post this at stupid_free .

I have four tomatos growing in my garden, but no cucumbers. No Cucumbers. 
Why? 

Here's some pics from Chicago, all taken with my el cheapo digital camera.  The lady in the first two pictures is Patti Boyd, George Harrison's first wife. Lovely woman. All in all I had a great time in Chicago...except Monday morning when the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate....AT 3:30 IN THE MORNING!!!! Fortunately, it was a false alarm. Some moron set off a fire extinquisher which set off the sensors.

( Click here... )

 

I'm back from Chicago...had a great time! I'm still tired from the trip, so I'll give more details later... 

Going to Chicago for the weekend...to the Fest for Beatles' Fans.  I can't wait! 
I shall return on Monday...be good, now! ;)

So we're in August now...this year is flying by for me for some reason.
My garden is finally growing a little.  The cucumber plants have flowers and my tomato plants are getting bigger, so much that I have to tie them to the trellis I have against the porch.

I'm going to Chicago in about a week.  I'll be attending the "Fest For Beatles Fans' once again.  It'll be fun.  My fourth time in about ten or eleven years.  I found a place for my sister to stay for that weekend.  I hope it'll be nice for her.  It's bigger with more staff to watch the people. 

Storybook Monkees now has over 140 members!  Some of them are bouncing (not getting their e-mails) but hey, I'm proud to have that many people in the group. 

Still watching that casino fiasco in Pittsburgh.  Remember what I said a before about the officials choosing Bardon because of the location? I was right!  The Pittsburgh City Controller later said the riverfront location was the ultimate factor in giving him the casino license.  Now they're all stuck with a half-completed casino and garage messing up the riverfront.  I think years ago Pittsburgh also had a bridge to nowhere causing an eyesore until it was built.

I've actually completed the first chapter of my fourth Christian Monkees fic!  I'm also on the second chapter of my other Monkees fic where the guys meet Dr. Mendoza again. Go me.

I've been playing the Subway Get Smart promotion game online and I've won several bags of potato chips.  This time around I won a movie pass to see Get Smart.  Fortunately, the certificate lets you see another movie if you want.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble getting the certificate to download.  Turns out you need to download Adobe reader first, which I did, but it still didn't get it.  Finally I downloaded it again and voila, I was able to print my certificate.
I went to see The Dark Knight.  Very dark, edgy movie.  Violent, lots of stuff getting blown up. 
 
My garden is doing so-so.  I'm getting flowers on my cucumber plants so I'll be getting the cukes soon, but my tomatos...eh. 

I've been following the fiasco known as the Majestic Star Casino these last few days.  For those not in the Pittsburgh area, I'll bring you up to date.  
It seems Don Barden didn't have enough cash to pay his contractors and now he's signed away 75% of his ownership to a Chicago billionaire in order to get the money.  The casino name is gonna change now too. 
What really gets me though is that they awarded the casino license to this clown who was financing everything through loans.  Another company bidding on the license promised to build a new hockey arena--free, no taxpayer money--if they got it, but the commision gave it to Majestic Star.
Personally, I think Pittsburgh wanted a casino on the riverfront for all to see and that's why they gave it to Barden. The other casino would've been further into town. Just my opinion.
If this whole thing wasn't so pathetic, it'd be funny.  Can't Pittsburgh do ANYTHING right?
At least the first half of the twin T tunnels under the river is completed.

My trip to Boston went pretty well.  The flight wasn't too long and we had a nice hotel.  Problem was, the T stop we were supposed to stop at was down for repairs so we had to take a shuttle to the station we wanted to go to and then take a shuttle to the hotel.  Some T Stations were good for disabled people. (I pushed my Mom in a companion chair), but others were not, but nice people helped my Mom up stairs and onto the trains.  
The first day we went to the Museum of Fine Arts.  A nice lady gave us a pass she didn't need and so my Mom and I only paid $5.00 apiece to get in instead of $17.00. Sweet. Later we went to Thaneuil Hall Marketplace, the street around it was all cobblestones and it was bumpy. :(
More details later.

Well, I'm back from Boston.  Had a good time. I'm still kinda tired from the trip so I'll give details and maybe pics later on. Ciao.