6.30.2007

I Complain An Awful Lot

But that's just me. I don't think I'm completely happy unless I have something to complain about, even though I wish I didn't have anything.

Today's Complaint: Neighborhood strays. Friday morning I noticed some activity in the backyard garden. It was a family of cats. A mother and her three kittens. They were all adorable from where I was standing. And they were laying and/or frolicking in the garden. I didn't think anything of it. I told Ken about it on the way in to work and he decided that he wanted to capture them and adopt them. I told him ABSOLUTELY not. But he was determined. I think that's what he thought about all day. He came home for lunch, mainly because he wanted to see if they were still there. They weren't, but he did discover that they had more than enough fun in the garden. They destroyed a bunch of plants. This morning I went to work and when I got home, I found that he put out a bowl of food for them. I wasn't happy about it. He feels bad for them. I don't. A little while later I saw the mother (whom Ken has named Puddin') and one of the babies (he's named them Alan Tithmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Other) in the garden again. I went out with the hose to scare them off. Ken freaked out. He thought it was cruel. I told him it was water and I didn't even hit them with it. I scared them away. I have the feeling a couple of days of getting sprayed will be enough to keep them away. Scattered throughout this post are garden damage pictures.

Not A Complaint (kinda): We went out this afternoon to Target. When we left, Ken really wanted to eat, so we drove around for a little bit. We drove past Fudruckers. They just built one here and he's been dying to go. We weren't sure if it was open yet, but the parking lot looked filled. So we went. When we got to the door, we found out they don't open until Monday. Today was a training exercise/test run. Family and friends were invited to dine so that the staff could get a feel for it before opening day. Ken, being Ken, talked our way in. So not only did we get in pre-opening, the meal was free. How great is that? I'm glad it happened this way because knowing how it is around here, we weren't going to be able to get in for months. It took almost six months for us to get into Cheesecake Factory when it opened here. I do have to say that Ken built this place up to be the greatest burger place in the world. I have to say I was let down. I don't know if it was because he's been talking it up, or if they don't have the kinks worked out yet or what, but I've had better. I much prefer Red Robin. I'm such a chain restaurant whore.

I hate that I've become a human barometer. I don't know if I've talked about this before, but with all my foot and wrist issues, I've become a walking weather man. When storms come through, I can feel the neuromas in my feet act up. Same thing with the carpal tunnel thing going on in my wrists. This week the humidity was unreal and my wrists felt the worst they've felt in a long time. The weather broke on Friday and I've been fine again. Go figure. My feet are going to hurt tomorrow, though. I went out for a 3.5 mile walk this afternoon. No big whoop. After dinner, I took another 3 mile walk. That's what did me in. I can feel the neuromas tingling right now. I bet they'll tell me I overdid it tomorrow. But I wanted to walk off dinner. I usually eat better than that nowadays. It really bothers me that I can't walk as often as I have been. I have another podiatrist appointment in August. We'll discuss my options then. I think I want to have the series of alcohol injections in my feet to kill the little fuckers inside. He wants me to get inserts for my shoes, which is fine, but I need to kill the neuromas first or it's not worth it.

6.29.2007

Random Music

I want to play the random music generator game again. A fresher on the rules. Turn on your iPod or other mp3 player (or iTunes if need be), hit "next" and tell me the song. Repeat until you have 10 songs. No editing out embarrassing stuff. Here's mine for Friday night at 9:40 pm.


1) "Take Off Your Swastika" by Phranc from I Enjoy Being A Girl
2) "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman from New Beginning
3) "What's It Gonna Be" by Neil Diamond from 12 Songs
4) "Never Die Young" by James Taylor from Greatest Hits Volume 2
5) "Try" by Michael Penn from Resigned
6) "Dreaming My Dreams With You" by Alison Krauss from Forget About It
7) "What Do You Do/The Glory of Love" by Lyle Lovett from Lyle Lovett And His Large Band
8) "D.I.Y." by Peter Gabriel from Miss
9) "Music Box Dancer" by Enormous Richard from 20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions!
10) "Big Bottom" by Pansy Division from Pile Up

Tell me your ten songs.

6.26.2007

Batgirl

I thought I would post some of my favorite comic covers featuring Batgirl. For no particular reason other than Batgirl is FIERCE. Some of these I've posted before, but I don't care.

























Damn It's Hot

The temperature hit someplace around 100 here today. It was 95 degrees when I left work tonight, which is damn hot enough. When we got home, Ken took the thermometer out to the side of our house and got a reading of 106. Granted, the side of our house has heat issues. We've still got aluminum siding and it's right next to the driveway. So heat gets trapped there.

I curse Holly for introducing me to Facebook. I've spent most of this evening playing with my profile and looking at others'. I'm sure I have better things to do.

I love that I have Frappr Mapprs. Three brave souls have officially joined the map. Hi Jon! Hi Tony! Hi Gregg! Jon, you should sing the Frappr song!

Tired, Like Always

I woke up yesterday morning and it hurt. Big time. Second Sunday night in a row that I slept for shit. This week, though, I know the cause. Diet Coke. At Christine's party I behaved myself. I did have one beer, but for the rest of the party, I stuck with Diet Coke. I probably had 7 of them. Plus a Diet Doctor Pepper on the drive down. Sunday night I kept waking up in the night, completely parched. Soda is delicious, sure, but it makes you thirsty. So I was a zombie all day at work yesterday. Last night I slept hard. I feel like I caught up a little, but not enough.

Not to self: Drink More Water

6.25.2007

Watching Without Words

The one album I've been listening to over and over lately is by Alexander Schultz. He's a singer/songwriter from Norway and, as I've mentioned before, I think he's fantastic. Here's his video for Watching Without Words from IF YOU FORGIVE ME, I'LL JUST DO IT AGAIN. If you like this song, he's got three others posted on his myspace page at www.myspace.com/alexanderschultz. Or you can check out his website at alexanderschultz.com.

6.24.2007

I Can't Think Of A Title For This

Just got home a short while ago from my friend Christine's 40th birthday party. I've known Christine since the late 80s when we both worked in the mall together. She worked at the shoe store and the record store. I worked across the hall from the record store and the mall was a very social place. Everyone knew everyone. She started dating a friend of mine, though ended sort of poorly. But I always thought she was a good friend. As the years went on, as it's likely to happen, we drifted away from each other. I moved to Albany, she got married and moved to Atlanta.

A few years ago, Ken and I had a housewarming party as encouragement to get unpacked when we bought the house. I sent invitations to everyone I knew, whether they lived locally or half way across the country. Imagine my surprise when Christine rsvp'd that she'd be here. What I didn't realize is that she had just moved from Atlanta to New Jersey, but she was going to be in the area that weekend. I was so happy. I think she was a little uncomfortable when she got here and realized that none of our mutual friends made it.

At Christmas this year, I got her Christmas card and saw that the return address was back in the area. I meant to get in touch, but it didn't happen. About a month ago I got an email from her saying her husband was going to throw her a 40th birthday party so I should be on the lookout for an invitation. I have to tell you I was nervous as hell about going to the party. I really didn't know who she still knew, I had no idea about who would be at the party. I'm just not very comfortable in social situations. With Ken being in the hospital, I thought this was my opportunity to blow off the party. But he was discharged on Friday, so there went my excuse. So I bit the bullet and went. I figured that it must have been pretty nerve wracking for her at my housewarming party. So just grow up and know that's it is good to step outside of your comfort zone.

The party started at 3 o'clock today. I live about an hour or so north of her, so I figured that if I left at 2:30, I wouldn't be too early. I got there at 3:30 and was about the only one there. My heart was really beating quickly. It was just me, her husband and her in-laws. Luckily, about 10 minutes after I got there, some old friends showed up. I was THRILLED to see Lisa and Louise. It didn't occur to me until Lisa said it, but I haven't seen either of them since Lisa's 30th birthday party. She's having her 40th in September. It doesn't seem like 10 years. More like 10 months.

I was planning on staying for an hour or so, but ended up leaving nearly 5 hours later. I had such a good time. I really can't wait to see them again. Plus, Louise said I could have one of her Grammys. I'm going to make her keep her word if it kills me. :)

I tried to eat well at the party. I made a vow that once I hit the 230s, I'm going to have a shitty but fantastic meal. Maybe a huge plate of nachos or a greasy cheeseburger or something. I'm not there yet, but I was at 240 this morning. These last 10 pounds seemed to have melted off rather quickly. I know I'm about to hit a plateau and that's fine. But not before I see 239. I had 7 or 8 Diet Cokes (and 1 beer.. I figured that since I grabbed some mac & cheese, I could indulge a little bit with some booze, if 1 beer counts...) and I'm sure all the soda is going to make me retain something. I feel a little queasy after all that soda.

I'm including a picture from Ken's photoblog that he took of me while he was in the hospital. I'm sitting on his bed and I look exhausted. I was, but I think I look pretty good, too.

Oh, that reminds me. Lisa and Weez said that I looked the exact same as I did 10 years ago. I take that as a huge compliment. I only wish they got to see me a year ago, though, so they'd be even more impressed with the weight loss.

Frappr Map

I've added a Frappr Map to the side of my page. Scroll down a little and you'll see it. Please feel free to add yourself to it. Do it or I'll cry.

6.23.2007

Saturday

Man, I was tired. I slept in until almost noon today. Ken's feeling much better today, though his chest still has some discomfort. Hopefully tomorrow he'll feel even better. He's still got to have a couple more tests done and hopefully they will reveal something.

6.22.2007

What A Crazy 24 Hours

So last night I wrote that I was going right to bed after finishing up the post. And I did. I climbed into bed, read a comic, turned the light out and fell to sleep. For about an hour or so. Ken tried to gently wake me up around midnight. At first I thought I overslept and he was trying to get me up for work. Not the case. Not even close. He was having terrible heart-attacky chest pains and was so freaked that he needed me to take him to the hospital. So I got up, kept my composure (probably because I was still half asleep) and drove him to Albany Med. I dropped him off in front of the hospital and went to park the car. I was in the hospital about five minutes after him and he was gone. So I went to the waiting room and sat down. Ten minutes later a nurse came to get me to bring me to him. He was in a lot of pain by this point. A lot of pain. The left side of his chest felt like someone was sitting on it and stabbing him, at the same time. And the tests began. Luckily, heart attack was ruled out first. They ran more tests throughout the night. He was given a nitro glycerin pill to help with the pain and he had a really bad reaction to it. His blood pressure dropped through the floor (I believe it got down to 64/40. Normal blood pressure is 120/80, I believe.) But it helped with the pain. He was given morphine a little while later and had an even worse reaction to it. It's horrible watching the person you love more than anything suffer like that. Anyway, at 3:15am they were ready to give him a CT Scan and he told me to go home. The doctor had decided there was no way he was going home last night. So I went home and tried to go to sleep. I think I got almost three hours of sleep before the alarm went off. Yeah, I went to work today. There wasn't anything I could do to help, so I went in. And I managed to make it through without losing my shit or consciousness.

I got home from work, fed the cats and beelined to the hospital. I wasn't sure he was going to be coming home with me or not. He'd heard from the different doctors that he was either going home tonight or going home on Monday. They were still running tests on him when I got there and they were waiting for the results of one test in particular before they decided if he could leave or not. Those results came at 8 o'clock. His blood work was still looking normal, so he was discharged.

I'm so fucking tired right now, I hope this is making sense. As it stands right now, the doctors can't figure out what was wrong. He has a couple more tests he has to do so hopefully they will show something. And all I want to do is sleep.

6.21.2007

Off To Bed

I'm pooped. I've been whining about it all week. I'm actually going to bed right after I type this, whatever this will be.

I've been looking for some new podcasts to listen to. There's a list of the one I regularly subscribe to listed on the right of this text. But some days I don't have any to listen to, so I've been trying on some. I've been testing episodes of podcasts I've heard mentioned on some of the other shows I listen too. I tried the Nick Thomas podcast, but Nick is way too fucking intense and fucked up. At least in the few episodes I heard. I tried the Little Fatty Cast, but I found myself getting annoyed with it. I listened to a few episodes of There Are Some Who Call Me Tim and I'll probably stick with that one for a little while. I kind of liked some of DJ David J's show, so I'll stick with that for a while, too. On Tim's show, he had this guy Arthur on who has a show about being a gay American living in New Zealand. I'm going to try that tomorrow. I'm open to suggestions on some new shows to listen to. I'm not sure how many new ones I can fit in, but I'm willing to try.

I'm thinking about working this Saturday. I need the money after my car repairs of last week. And then Sunday I have a party to go to. My friend Christine is turning 40 and I haven't seen her in a couple of years. She's recently moved back to the area and it should be fun. But I'm going fetal already just thinking about it. It's taking me way out of my comfort zone. I don't know who will be there, if anyone I know is invited. I'm guessing Ed and Lisa will be there at the very least. I hope.

6.20.2007

Wednesday

I've been in a funk all week. Sunday night I could not get comfortable to save me life. I tossed and turned all night and woke up exhausted. I feel like I'm sleep deprived right now, desperately trying to catch up on what I missed on Sunday night. Add to that the fact that I've been a day off all week. Monday felt like Tuesday. Tuesday felt like Wednesday. Today, I've been convinced, was Thursday. I'm really off track and it's really bringing me down. I should go to bed early tonight, but Top Chef is on and I'll watch that before bed.

Quite by accident tonight I discovered my friend Dane has a new blog. It's called Fizzy Sweet Stuff and I think you should check it out. It's the frilly alternative to her All Eyes & Ears. Both links are to the right in my Blogs I Like section.

6.18.2007

Facebook

So I joined Facebook tonight and I've wasted the last hour playing with it and starting to set up my page. Come check it out.

6.17.2007

Young Love and Other Topics

I don't know if I've mentioned it here before, but I am obsessed with a line of comics DC published back in the 70s. It wasn't just a single comic title, but it kind of was, at least for a while. DC published a series called DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular. It was a reprint book that had a different theme each issue. One book could be a romance book, one could feature Superman, one could feature The World's Greatest Super-Heroes. After a short while, the actual title was discontinued, but the 100 page books would appear as regular issues of most of DC's line. I made it my mission a couple years ago to collect ever single 100 Page Super-Spectacular I could get. I'm still working on it right now, but I only have 6 more books to get. They're all romance titles (Young Love and Young Romance) and they are particularly hard to find at a decent price. I was able to find this issue of Young Love pretty cheap on ebay and it came this week. Damn, I love these books. I'm going to scatter this post with some of the other issues in this series.

I filled my car up with gas yesterday. I'm sick about it, too. It's the first time I've put more than $40 in my tank at one time. I remember two years ago I swore I would never put more than $30 in one filling. What kills me is I put more gas in my tank a few months ago and it didn't cost that much. I've been tracking it.

We rolled all the spare change around the house and deposited it into the vacation fund account this weekend. We had about $230 in change. We would have had more, but I've been stealing all the quarters for the last year and a half for the bus. I can only imagine how much there would have been otherwise.

I've fallen behind on Doctor Who. I have three unwatched episodes waiting for me. This week's episode I'm particularly excited for because it sort of picks up at the season finale of Torchwood. That ended with the sound of the Tardis and Captain Jack disappearing. I can't believe there are only two more episodes before the end of the season. I'm not ready for it to end. The Sci-Fi channel will start the US airings of series 3 at the beginning of July. I might have to watch the whole season all over again.

6.16.2007

Toast

I wish you could see Ollie right now. He's laying on the floor, sound asleep. Not curled up like a cat normally would be, but rather just laying there like he was walking and suddenly passed out. He's so damn cute.

6.15.2007

Friday Night Post

It's a quarter to twelve, which is usually later than I'm up. I just got home about forty-five minutes ago. My old roommate Paul was in town and we hung out most of the day today. He's a mortician in California now, but he managed to finagle a whole month off and he's come home for the duration. I left work at noon today and told him to be here by one. He got here, we went out to lunch (Cheesecake Factory... yum!) and then drove around checking out the sights. It's Albany, so there really aren't any, but we did it anyway. Then we headed over to his ex-in-laws house. We met up with his ex-wife, who I haven't seen in probably 8 years. She moved back to the area about a year ago, but I never knew. Her folks came home not that much later. Her mom cooked dinner for us, which I thought was great. It was a lot of fun hanging out tonight. I got out of the house, which I never do, and that was nice for a change. Not something I want to do too often, but it was a nice change of pace.

I'm not going in to do overtime tomorrow. Fuck it. Got home too late.

Picked up Lucy's prescription while I was out with Paul. Got a two month supply of her medicine for $82. Ouch. The expenses keep coming this week.

I was thrilled when I checked my blog today. One the entry where I did mini-album reviews, I got a comment from someone named "Alexander." I believe it was Alexander Schultz, whose album I reviewed. I like the album a lot and I'm thrilled that he took the time to tell me he was glad I liked it. Look him up. He's great.

6.13.2007

Ack!

My car has been driving funny for a while now. Whenever I hit a bump, the back end feels like it bounces all over the road. Since I needed an inspection anyway, I brought the car in and asked them to check it out. I found out today that I need a new rear stabilizer. He doesn't have the part in stock, but should have it for tomorrow. Not so bad since I usually don't need my car during the week. Bad news, though, is my warranty ran out in January and this is gonna cost about $450. So much for the overtime I've been doing. And it looks like I'm going to be doing some more.

6.12.2007

Bah

I'm feeling grumpy tonight. I don't think I've been getting enough sleep.

6.11.2007

Lost


Every once in a while I get some misdirected mail in my mailbox. It's usually for a neighbor up the street or occasionally for someone with a similar address to mine, but not the same street. On Friday I got the oddest bit of misdirected mail ever. It was mailed from Florida and is supposed to make it's way to England. How it ended up here is beyond me. The only similarities between the address on the envelope and my address are the house number and the first letter of the street name. Otherwise, there's nothing that matches. It's just odd, I tell you.

6.10.2007

F A T

Sunday weigh in showed me something scary. I was 245 today. 245. According to the body mass index site I was just at, that means I'm now overweight, not obese. At least for today. I know I'm not at a solid 245 yet, but this gives me lots of hope. And it makes me happy that I fought off the urge for McDonald's breakfast on the way in to work on Saturday.

I managed to get out for a lengthy walk today, my first in a week. I don't want to over do it again. I can still feel the neuromas in my feet, but they aren't too bad right now. As long as I can keep them happy, I'm happy.

Not ready to go back to work tomorrow. I could really use another day or two off. Ken's taking Monday and Tuesday off. I'm a little jealous. But I have a couple of events coming up that I'm going to need to take days off for. At the end of the month, Sharon asked me if Ken & I wanted to go to the Great Escape amusement park with her and Eric. Also, I got an e-mail from my old roommate Paul. He's back in NY for the month and wants to get together. Plus, his ex-girlfriend e-mailed me that her husband is giving her a 40th birthday party and I should expect an invitation in the mail soon. And since we're talking about me socializing (which is so not like me), I got another e-mail the other day from Melanie. She's going to be in Saratoga in November and wanted to know if I was close to it. The answer is yes and we're going to get together when she's in town. This is way more socializing than I do in a year. Who am I?

6.09.2007

Pictures

I've been meaning to organize all the digital pictures I have for some time now. We've got about a dozen cds full of pictures, but they aren't organized in any way, shape or form. So I uploaded them all to the computer today and began sorting. Here are a bunch of pictures of me that I found.

(By the way, Ollie jumped up on the keyboard while i was doing this and managed to delete my entire entry. Grrrrr.....)


Damn, look at how young I look. And thin. This was taken most likely in 1994. I miss that hair, too.

From the late 80s. I was so fucking drunk in this picture, I wonder how I was able to stand up. That was a fun night.

Disney, two years ago. Part of a photo essay I had Ken take of me eating a Mickey Bar. It was for my friend Will, who I worked with at the time.

Most of the group of us who met up in Illinois to attend the Celebration for our friend, The Pink Princess. I mentioned her last week. Here we are, waiting to leave for the party. We look so damn hot!

About 5 or 6 years ago. Just got home from work. Still in my work shirt. Must have been an exhausting day.

Not a morning person. Never was. Never will be. This was taken at Ken's friend Jim's house in Salem, NH probably ten years ago. I miss that shirt.

In our last apartment, in my old painting shirt. I think this is about when we were moving from there to this house. That puts it about 4 years ago, give or take.

This is on my myspace page. I wish those Emmys were mine.

Circa 1991 (maybe 1992). Me and Andrea Marcovicci. She invited me to go see her show at the Algonquin in NYC and she would seat me at her table. I still have the info she wrote for me. Never did make it to see her.

Another picture from the Illinois trip. I'm drunk again, but I don't look it. I look thinner because of the black shirt. I love the patch job on the hotel wall. This was my friend Gregg's room. We had a party there after the party for the Princess.

On the phone with either my brother or his wife.

How not to look fat. Look up and stretch out your other chins.

Last year. All dressed up. I think this was at Charlotte's party for her husband.

Look at how fucking fat I got. This is me at my absolute heaviest weight. 300 pounds. I'm sick just looking at it. But then seeing my friends Lynn and Lori makes me feel better because they are awesome.

I know I posted this before, but I needed to show again that I'm not as fat as I was.

Finally, a picture of me and my friend Dane. Again, it's an Illinois picture. I love this picture. I love Dane. She's the fucking best!

6.06.2007

Where's RuPaul?

Two of music's biggest drag queens perform together!!!!

Sam Brown

I don't know what made me search out Sam Brown on YouTube, but I found the video for "Stop", a song I absolutely adore. If I remember correctly, this album came out in late 1988 or early 1989 and I was living in Kingston, NY. I'd heard the song on WDST probably and had to have the album. I have very distinct memories of listening to this in my piece of shit Granada (which even though it was a piece of shit, when it ran, it ran good.) I finally upgraded my cassette of this album to cd about two years ago.

6.04.2007

T H I R T E E N

Today is our anniversary. We've been together for thirteen years today. It seems surreal. There's no way it feels like thirteen years. Five or six or maybe even seven, but not thirteen. But we might not make it to fourteen if he finds out I posted this picture of him online.

6.03.2007

Ramblings For Sunday June 3

I was at 250 at my weigh in today. I'm not frustrated, though. I know I had a couple of days of poor eating this week (and I do mean POOR), and I actually expected worse results. I'm back on track this week.

My feet are killing me. Last week I really went overboard with my walking. This weekend I'm paying the price. The neuromas in my feet aren't appreciating all the walking I've been doing. My feet were feeling okay this morning, so I went out for what was supposed to be a shortish walk, but turned into a super-sized one. I'm paying for it now. I have to not go walking this week, at least until the neuromas calm down.

It's only about 8 o'clock, but I could go to bed right now.

I'm having issues with Lucy right now. First, a little background. She's got a very delicate digestive system. She can only eat certain foods or she ends up with explosive diarrhea. Ollie, on the other hand, can eat whatever the fuck he wants. So at meal time, the cats need to be monitored to make sure Lucy doesn't get into Ollie's food. What's frustrating about this is Ollie is a picker. He'll eat a little and be done for now. Then he'll want a little more later. Then a little more later. Lucy, however, will eat everything put in front of her and then want more immediately. Anyway, when Ollie finishes his food, I need to take what's left and wrap it up for later. Sometimes I put a bowl over his bowl, sometimes I wrap it in aluminum foil. No matter what I do is temporary because Lucy has figured a way to get into his food no matter what I do. The aluminum foil trick is the latest. I went in the kitchen last night and found the foil around his bowl had been savagely ripped apart and the contents of his bowl were gone. She's too smart for her own good. The day that she managed to flip over a pasta bowl that was concealing Ollie's bowl made me both proud and scared.

I got these boffo Wonder Woman comics in the mail on Friday. I haven't purchased anything lately on ebay. I'm trying to fill in holes in my Wonder Woman collection. This was the last costumeless Wonder Woman I needed, I believe. I'm psyched.

6.02.2007

A Year And A Day

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the passing of a friend. Her name was Adrianne Blue Wakefield-St. George, but I knew her as the Pink Princess. She's someone I met about a decade ago in the gossip groups on Usenet. I was instantly captivated by her, though, at the time, I was sure she was actually a gay man playing this flamboyant character. No one could actually be like that in real life I would think. Flame wars ultimately chased a lot of people away from the gossip groups and that should have been the end of knowing each other, but instead, I was lucky enough to stay acquainted with on various email lists. When she started her own list, I was over the moon to be invited to be a part of it. And that's where I really got to know her. The outrageously fabulous character she played online wasn't a character. It was her. She lived in a castle overlooking the Mississippi River (or the Princessippi, as she called it.) She had a staff to run the house. She threw these amazing parties at the castle. One day, I always told myself, I would attend. How amazing it would be to meet her face to face. I finally made it to a party in her castle, but unfortunately it was too late to meet her. In September, her husband hosted a memorial service for her, on her birthday. Ken and I flew to Chicago and met up with a number of people from her online inner circle. It was such a bittersweet experience, but one I'll treasure my entire life.

Yesterday in the mail, I received a pink envelope. The Prince had a dvd produced for the guests of the Memorial. It includes a photo slideshow from the Memorial, video footage from it as well as a movie he put together that was shown at the Memorial. That movie included slideshows as well as home movies and a reel of her appearances on the Home Shopping Club. I popped the dvd in last night, climbed into bed and made it about 37 seconds into it before I started crying. Although we never met in person, she was no less of a friend because of it. There's still rarely a day that goes by when I don't think of her. Here's to you, Princess.