I'm back...slowly

The good stuff: Kentucky is 5-3, although only 1-3 in the SEC to date. Yes, UK can still earn a bowl game. Let's see what they do Saturday before contemplating further. Sounds like Randall Cobb earned a start at QB vs. Mississippi State. Works for me--Go Cats!

The who-knows stuff: My Blue Jackets finally put together a hockey game last night, beating Darth Foote and the Avs 4-2. Fourth win in 11 games to date. Could be worse, right?

The reason I haven't posted in weeks? My mom lost her battle with cancer on October 9, 2008 at 11:38pm. Hospice came in less than 30 minutes after I called, but since it was after midnight when they arrived the official date is 10/10/08. Some days are just bad and those are the good ones. The truly bad days are the ones where breathing hurts and going through the motions are futile. DH and I are heading back to Louisville next week to start dealing with the house. I miss her so much, I miss calling after leaving work, I miss telling her about the boys and the dogs, I even miss hearing her grumble. It's strange to be an orphan at my age and I hate everything about it.

Having typed my little rant, I can't say enough positive about Hosparus of Louisville. I wish she would have let me bring them in earlier than the last three weeks, but the assistance and care they gave was phenomenal. These men and women are truly angels on earth, and there are no words for how much I thank and appreciate everything they did for her.

Tuesday

What a day.

• While researching potential environmental education topics for work, I found the Disney Environmentality website. I *LOVE* my job!
• I finally broke down and added the Best of XM to my Sirius subscription, just for the extra sports channels. Even better, channel 208 = NHL Home Ice = included with the internet radio player!
• Was going to cook up pork chops with leftover rice for dinner, but no teriyaki sauce to be found. Grrr, I hate when that happens. Ended up doing a smorgasbord with burgers, pasta, and grilled cheese. Yes, I ate the grilled cheese!
  
• Joined Twittermoms after seeing a plug from a GC/Facebook friend. I haven't explored it that much yet, but hope to find a corner for moms of teenagers.

Lastly, I'm trying to get myself mentally prepared to head to Louisville at a moment's notice. Mom's wonderful hospice nurse is scheduled to see her tomorrow afternoon and she's to call me afterwards. I'm off to pre-pack and take a nice long Lush bath. I should be watching the debate, but tonight, it just doesn't seem to matter.

Hey! I'm a banned book reader!

I was checking out some blog links from my sorority's inCircle site, and one of my sisters blogged about the 2007 banned books list. I've read one (Huckleberry Finn) and have two in the household (good ole Huck and The Golden Compass).

Now, there's a handful of links for various "challenge" lists. I found one of my favorite books ever, A Wrinkle in Time, on the 1991 list. Then, on the 100 Most Frequently Challenged of 1990-2000 we've got just about everything Judy Blume ever wrote, a pile of my required HS reading titles including The Outsiders, Flowers for Algernon, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn; and my beloved A Wrinkle in Time (#22!) Even Howard Stern's Private Parts made the list, and yes, I own that too! I take perverse pleasure in seeing Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men on the list, however if you're going to challenge a Steinbeck book it should be Grapes of Wrath because it was torture via the written word. Okay, so I personally feel reading any Steinbeck book is sick and sadistic torture. Even so, his books still shouldn't be banned.

To further highlight just how ludicrous the book banning types are, Where's Waldo made the above list. Seriously. It was #88. I don't even want to know why someone would challenge Where's Waldo...maybe someone couldn't find Waldo so decided to mount a Ban Waldo campaign? Seriously, it baffles the mind...