July 28, 2007

Historic Route 66 - Yahoo! Picks Profiles

Only on the Internet could a man from Belgium become one of the foremost authorities on an American icon. Route 66 is the definition of pure Americana and is immortalized in a tune that extols the virtues of the open road.

Swa Franzen heard the siren call of the legendary route in the early '90s and compiled information on his Route 66 site way back in 1994. Since then, the intrepid Belgian has kept the motor runnin' on this labor of love...

Hey Swa, what was the impetus behind the Route 66 site?

The site got started in 1994 while I was working at the University (KULeuven) in Leuven, Belgium. I was working for the computer science department and had to install and test web servers and web browsers for our users. Of course, I needed content to test the servers.

At the time, I was also researching where Route 66 ran. I was getting fragments of information from other early Internet users on Route 66 and where it ran in their home town.

I was sifting through the information, but I wanted to share what I had already learned in order to move things ahead.

What was the initial response?

When I announced the site on usenet's rec.travel group in June 1994, I had 600 page views the first week. Today, the site gets more than 700,000 page views a month

How have you kept up the desire to run the site since 1994?

After traveling Route 66 in the fall of 1994, my initial reason to keep the site going was an old usenet tradition€"those asking questions provide answers to those asking for the same thing after them.

I also felt I could help the struggling businesses and towns along Route 66 by sending them more and better informed tourists.

What was the Internet like back in 1994? Did you have a feeling it would be as big as its become?

In 1994 the Internet was very young and the future of the "world wide web" was far from a certain thing. The previous protocols like gopher were clearly not doing all that great.

It was also before the creation of ISPs catering to home users. Most users were academics or large corporations.

Spam was totally unheard of in those days. And that made things like usenet and email much more usable and effective than they are today.

What sparked your initial interest in Route 66?

It's hard to say where I actually picked up on the legend of Route 66. It was merely a destination I heard about and couldn't find on maps. It was hard to find even the most basic things about it like from where to where it ran. But the legend itself was enough to spark our interest to want to travel it.

Have you driven the length of Route 66?

I've driven it end-to-end two times and have driven many sections of it over the years. I drove it for the first time in the fall of 1994 and revisited that trip in 2004. Since 2004, I also visit the International Route 66 festival every year. The festival moves from city to city along Route 66 each year and it's always a good opportunity to travel a decent stretch of the mother road. I drove Route 66 from Chicago to Clinton, OK last June to attend the 2007 festival. Historic Route 66 signs have improved over the years, so it's becoming easier to travel.

What's been the most gratifying thing about running the site?

Helping people with what I struggled with back in 1993 and 1994รข€"not knowing a thing about Route 66. Helping them with the information they need to travel the old road and get their kicks is definitely number one.

Besides that, being nominated for the very first Webby Awards was probably the most prestigious award the site ever had. Seeing that ceremony on TV gave me a very special feeling. I couldn't make it to San Francisco for the ceremony.

How often do you update the site?

I normally touch the site once a day, if only to moderate the forum. I have a bunch of projects I'd love to have more time for. I'm a strong believer that a site is never "done," that there's always something to improve. I'm currently working on improving the turn-by-turn directions

What other projects occupy your time?

We have our own consulting business and I mainly do information security consulting. I'm also working as a contractor for NET2S Benelux as lead security engineer.

Since 2002, I've been one of the 40 or so volunteer handlers at SANS Internet Storm Center. We write a diary and help people with security problems as well as issue warnings and explanations on security incidents.

Swa, you're one busy dude. We'd expect nothing less from an Internet pioneer.

OICH!!!!

The worst papsmare that I've ever had.

The man didn't have clue when he heard me cry out in pain, or from the other noises I made when he was poking around down there.

If I could have avoided that, I would have.

It didn't help that I sat in there freezing by but off for I don't know how long while I waited for him. It's like there are alot of aids, but one real nurse and maybe two doctors.

I was suppose to be there at 12:30, but I got there 10 mins late. By the time I walking out it was after 4 I'm sure. I just came for a shot, but since I'm new I had to get a whole work up. Urine test, blood test, papsmare, breast exam, and then there was all the paper work to see about "floating" my fee since this wasn't a free clinic like I was told, and to start a chart for me.

To top it off I almost felt like they forgot to give me my shot. The only thing I came there for, but it turned out to be the very last thing I got. I was almost given it in my butt. I told her I always got it in my arm. So she let me get it that way, and I got another ban aid to on that arm to go with the one that I got from the blood test.

When I was leaving, I was reminded that I had to bring back a few things for the next time I came to help determine how they were going to be paid. So I have to bring back my SSN, a letter to verify my address, and my mom's pay slip.

Well I'm outside the building now, and I think that I'll see how far from Fulton Mall I was since it wasn't as far in the other direction as I thought it was. At the end of the block before I even crossed the street, I see a subway entrance. It couldn't have been that close. I walked 4 blocks to get here from the subway I found the other day to find out that I passed the stop?!?! I walked on, and what? The main subway entrance/exit was just a block away. And the block away was Dekab, and that was a block from the start of Fulton Mall. I did all that walking around for nothing. I could have had all this done yesterday.

The only good thing is that I might have found my college.

I came home, and mom told me that someone called for me. At first I wondered who it could have been, then I asked her if was Tanzi. We kind of went to school together. Either which way, she couldn't remember, and when we called back the number that she thought she called from, no one answered and we didn't leave a message.

AAAHHhhhhh..... (yawn)

I think that I'll go back to bed for a bit. I'm only up because my mom woke me up while she was getting ready, then I had to use the bathroom. Then I folded up the air bed for my brother. Yea, my brother. He showed up last night. He's staying for 10 days.

He went to get ready, and I wasn't going to church or out, so I did it. Then Mom asked me to iron her outfit for her. Then I was suppose to finish get Nika ready. Phillys was doing her hair because Jhodie wasn't feeling well and still asleep.

The girl took forever doing her hair. She said that she started at 9am, it was 10:16 when she finished. We all expected her to do a quick pony tail thing. Oh no. She had to make it fancy. I'm surprised that Nika didn't go back to sleep on her.

I did a quick wipe and get dressed of her while she ate breakfast. She didn't eat that much, and I got mom to take some crackers for her for when she gets hungry later.

Well I think I'll go back to bed now and watch a bit of tv.

See ya.

July 27, 2007

ComingSoon.net News Story - Rainmaker to Reboot ReBoot

Check out what they are trying to bring back. I loved this show.



Rainmaker to Reboot ReBoot

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=22558

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http://www.comingsoon.net

July 26, 2007

Walking, walking, walking

Let's see.

I don't remember what we did on Monday, but I think I covered that day already.

On Tuesday, we went to get our SSNs, but forgot our passports, so we just picked up a few forms and walked around. We went by a 99cent store that we had seen last week I think, and got a few things. One being a family of rubber duckies for Nika and I got some rice cakes that turned out to be sweet. Nika took one that night and Phillys walked off with a few the next morning.

That girl would knock you down if she doesn't cause you to loose your hearing first over touching her things, but she has every right to take and use anyone else's stuff. I didn't really mind that much. I got them to be eaten, and with my Metro Week Pass, I can go spend another $1.08 or what every they cost and get another one before the week is out.

The next day we went back to get our SSNs and we expected to wait forever. We had like 4 newspapers, a pile of coupons and even a coloring book for Nika. Heck, I didn't get though the first newspaper before we were allowed upstairs. We had to ditch all food. We were allowed to keep the water, but he nail clippers had to go, I hid them on the top of a bookcase in the lobby.

I don't know how much more to tell. No cams were allowed and there were other rules. I can say this. The wait wasn't that long before we were seen, the place was clean, and Jhodie took longer then I did, and we will get our SSNs in two weeks.

When we came out, it was still early, so we went to find the clinic so I could get an appointment to get my shot. I would have done it sooner, but I didn't get the week pass until Tuesday. The day after I was set to get my next shot, and I had to SSN thing to do.

Well we went the wrong way. We walked about 12 blocks in the wrong direction. The only things that came out of it was that we got Nika tired, but she she went to sleep too early and woke up at 10pm, just as Jhodie got back from the gym. We also found a nice pizza place and we looked around a thrift store.

We then tried to go to NYU and failed. We got to Manhattan and came out at China Town, but then we just walked in all the wrong directions once we left the first street we took to go towards Washington Square. When we gave up and took a bus to go home. We found out we had gotten turned around and were walking back to China Town. We took the M1 down to Bowling Green and took the D to Atlantic and then took the 4 home.

Today we were on our own. Jhodie was going to take Nika to the library and I had to find the clinic. So we left together at mins to 2 and we got to the library at about 17 past. Nika had already missed the story part of her time at the library and just did the craft part I heard later. I went and caught the B41 and stayed on it until it ended. I then walked, what could be called, east from there, and aimed for Flatbush. I had a small detour thanks to a police block aid. I ended up having to walk though Metro Tech. I stopped to read their map, but it was just making me dizzy. So I gave up and just went the way I knew would get me back to where I was going.

As I walked thought I wondered if I would be able to fit in here. Once I got back to where I should be I started to walk away from Fulton Mall thinking that down there was 1 so I had to walk this way to get to 295.

I walked past a 6 lane street and read 61, I then read 40. Ha?? Great!  Who counts like this? It didn't help that a whole bunch of other streets crossed this one and I wasn't even sure where Flatbush was until I had walked 3 blocks in the wrong direction it turned out. Great. I started to walk back but before I found out that the street does something else to me, I asked a traffic cop where 295 was. He said that it was back that way and on the other side. I said thanks and ran across a few lanes.

I think I found the building. The doors were boarded up and there was "do not enter" tape across what looked like new walkways. Then someone in a car passing by asked if I wanted to go inside. I said yes and she told me that I had to go around to the back. I went around back and there I saw 295.

They had a list of what was one each floor, but I wasn't sure about two of them, so I went by one and they said that the floor I wanted was on the 3 floor. I said thanks and went there, but I couldn't get in from the stair well, so I had to go back to the other floor and use the elevator.

Once I got to the floor things went by ok and quickly. Just one, more or less, snag. I was only suppose to be on the drug for 2 years. Ha? Heath reasons. Ok... I've been on for like 6 years now. They may try to get me go on another form of birth control. I may not take it if it doesn't stop my cycle.

Now I just have to go back with a letter saying that my mom is supporting  me and I get my shot tomorrow at 12:30pm.

When I was heading to the subway, that I didn't even know was there until I checked the map when I was leaving, I came across IDC. Institute of Design and Construction. They say that I can take single courses, but I said I was going for a degree. So it will be 2 1/2 years and I get an associate degree when I'm done. http://www.idc.edu

So far, it hasn't freak me out that I was getting in over my head like in other colleges and universities. I think I could do this and come out rather well at the other side. And it's not a whole 4 years like I thought before, and I could take courses at other college that I wanted without doing the whole degree like I thought I had to.

I know I was suppose to take English also, but I don't want to teach kids, but then who said I had to? I'll see.

They gave me a FinAid form to fill out, and the guy said that I could get approved in 1 week if I meet what ever they need me to meet. Class doesn't start until the 10th of September the guy said, and technically I could apply on the 9-10th of September and still start classes on time. I'm thinking of doing this one.

I then walked to the subway. I like the place and I helped a guy get into the subway. He had two cards, but they were empty.

I felt like going to Manhattan, but I went on a rid to Conny Island instead. There I saw the new look of the station, and went to a store to get a drink and some muffins. Then when I was leaving, one of the guys that was hanging round the place, I think he worked there, tried to talk to me. I smiled but kept on walking. I half didn't stop because of his age. Then it hit me when I was going back into the station. I'm not that young anymore. As sad as it may be. But no great loss, and I'm not looking for anyone anyway. G has to say that he doesn't want me when he sees me next year before I start looking for anyone new.

Well I got home and my thighs hurt. I should have worn pants. Oh well.

I start my two weeks trial at Ballys on Monday. I was going to start today, but I'm not going to add more pain to what I'm feeling right now. Jhodie wants me to try the sauna.

We'll see.

Dinner was left overs from yesterday. Jhodie just made come gravy to go with it. Mom cooked yesterday. We came home and she was finishing up. A lot of veggies, grilled chicken, and wheat pasta with a cheese sauce. I know, I shouldn't have eaten the cheese, but it was good. Besides, I'm fine, I guess something got balanced or it wasn't that much cheese, or it was a low fat cheese.

Night.



=======================

http://jhoye.blogspot.com


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- There I have links to what use to be my life.

- There you can find out what I might want out of life.


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July 23, 2007

Just went walking - ended up at a birthday party

We were suppose to go out and walk around today, but we left kinda late.

When we did leave, Jhodie had done some washing and we had gotten an invite from my Aunt Phillys. I have an Aunt Phillys and a sister Phillys. but I think that the names are spelled a bit different. Like the "i" and the "y" are switched.

Well we went to three super markets. One 99cents store, two eats, Prospect Park and a Merry Go-round and we went to the Prospect Park Zoo. That was the most expensive part.

We got kicked out at closing time which was just over an hour after we got there. We liked it. We have to go back so Nika could walk around the "Bran" more.

Nika then sat down to have the rest of the lunch we got her, then we walked over to our Aunt's house for the birthday party. The kid was her grandson who was having the birthday. It seems that Calvin, her son, has decided to have kids without marring the mother. Ofcourse I asked him why, and he seemed like "Ha?" Guess no had asked him, or no one has asked him in a while, and I don't think that he expected me to ask him that.

We didn't stay that long. I knew no one there other than Anuty Phillys and her two kids, and there were like 12 other people there. Most of who couldn't fit into the apt, and were hanging out, out side.

I tried to make a run for it, but we were called back to sing happy birthday, and we got out share of the food, and we caused a small verbal fight between our aunt and K, her daughter. I think I know her name, but a long time ago, I'm sure I was told to call her K.

By the time we left, it was about sun set.

Phillys wasn't in a good mood since we left on our walk earlier in the afternoon, and when she showed up at Aunty Phillys' house, I thought that she was over it. But something was bugging her when were trying to leave. I didn't know if it was something new, or the old argument that she had with Jhodie that day.

Either which way, after we got home she went to talk to mommy all private like when she didn't like something I said. Then she completely flew off her handle when I asked for something off of mommy's plate that she was going to throw away. She screamed at me and then pounded the plate into the trash can a number to times, insisting that she was told to throw it away. The girl is mad. Ofcourse it didn't end there.

Nika had to go to bed in this room because she didn't want to turn off the lights and the tv so that Nika could go to sleep. Jhodie came and got her after midnight when Phillys had fallen asleep. I was playing a game that I hadn't seen but liked because they used the same thing in a other game that they made that I liked. This game is called "The Treasures Of Montezuma". I like it. The explosion sounds and the fast chain reactions are great. I had to play it with the sound off because of Nika, but it was ok.

Now that my eyes hurt, I'm off to bed.

Oh, the other game from them that I liked and played first was "Sky Bubbles Deluxe" .

NIght.


=======================

http://jhoye.blogspot.com


- There I share my life.

- There I have links to what use to be my life.

- There you can find out what I might want out of life.


Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.

July 20, 2007

Still Tired

My mom woke me up at 5:30 this morning to help her with her baking because her neck was hurting her. I then stayed up for about 2 hours helping then I went back to sleep.

My mom isn't much better off, but this is what she does every Thursday and Friday. Bake goods to sell at he church after sunset on Saturday.

I took Nika out to the park, I messed around with the computer I found out on the curb. My torrent files aren't downloading like they should, and its killing the internet connection for other apps. I have to find and teak something I'm sure.

I just washed up some dishes in the kitchen and cleaned up a bit. We had a nice dinner. Cook-up. We did it in a rice cooker to boot. It came out great.

I'm going to have to wake up mom so she can cut the "cakes" since she knows what size they are suppose to be.

Night. ... *yawnnnnnn*

Hi ya

Aresh sent me the pic from his birthday party today. Not happy with it. I never look the way I think. I felt thinner, I felt pretty, and ... the pic didn't show any of that. Just a grinning ugly girl. How could I have been hit on twice looking like that? ... I already know that the camra hates me, so I'm not that surprised, but... it's just wrong.

Other than that, the phone was ringing off the hook again. I don't know what time I crawled out of bed, but I work up at 5am at one point, before the whole mad ringing of the phone, to use the bathroom and to turn off the lights, and to be surprised to that I fell asleep before mom left the house for work. I think. She left a note for us saying that she wanted to be woken up at 1:45am.

Oh, that reminds me. We stayed home yesterday and cleaned, then we went to the gym with Phillys. Not that Phillys came home and took us. She went there right after work, we were suppose to meet her there. Everyone got there late, we got there later than her. Jhodie forgot something and went back to get it, then she passed us where she told us to wait for her.

When we got there Nika went to "day care" that would close in less then an hour. We changed down in the locker room. I used a changing stall. I wore my new black work out pants that they got me. We didn't have much time, so I just got use to a treadmill. It was odd, I tapped it higher on the speed part until I didn't feel like I was trying to push it along with my feet. Then I started to higher so I would feel like I was kinda pushing myself. I didn't get a high a Jhodie. She has always walked faster than me to begin with. Phillys ended up using something else since there wasn't another one of the treadmills free.

I went for 30 mins then I had to go get Nika. Nika waited in the locker eating her sandwich while I took a shower. More like tried to take a shower. When I was in high school I didn't use the showers. So first I walked over to the showers dressed and with the cloths that I was going to change into. Walked back to the bench with Nika and left the cloths. Then I went back and couldn't find a place to put the cloths that already had on and had to take off. Walked back over to Nika and took my cloths off there along with my shoes, and wrapped myself in my nice big towel that I brought with me from St. Kitts and then headed to the showers. Jhodie said that they provided soap. It was this foamy thing, and the dispenser said that you could use it to wash your hair. Not my hair for sure.

When I made it out of the shower all nice and clean, I saw Phillys and Jhodie getting getting ready to go into the dry sauna room. Phillys wanted to try it out for a min. I told her no way. I don't book a fight to the Gobi desert. Which it now seems like a very wrong term to use for that.

Well Phillys gave me her card, and told me to get something from Nika from the Stop & Shop next door. Also to walk around there while they were int he sauna. We did, and had fun, and got a few thing, all for Nika. I was just looking, once again, for some cheep ginger snap/cookies. I only saw two kinds, and they were $4 and $6.

I got some box juices, some soft drinks, and some cheese puffs.

======================

Ok.... I'm tired.... I'll pick this up in the morning. Sorry.. really tired.

July 16, 2007

A few things that I forgot

Last week when I went to my friend's second birthday party, I made it there before he left. Not that I got there on time. I got there like half an hour after the party was suppose to have finished.

It seems that he was waiting for someone else and I made it before them.

He didn't think it was me when he first saw me. It wasn't until I said that he had cut off his hair he realized that it was me. I got a hug for my near running to get there in time to catch him.

He more or less introduced me to the two ladies who were there. It seems like they were packing up. I was given some water, and offered some cake. I didn't like the cake, but I had about 3 cups of water.

Getting there was heck. Most of the route had no express service, and I left the house with only one hour left before the party was set to finish. I wore my wig since my hear wasn't really fit to be seen at a time like this. I wore my new wrap shirt and the jeans with the belt ofcourse.

When I go to upper Manhattan, West Harlem really, I go hit on like twice before I walked the 4 blocks to get where the party was suppose to be. Odd.

After the gov person that he was suppose to show up came and they talked shop for a bit, he and his new girlfriend walked me to the train station, and I got a parting gift of jug of water. About 2 gals worth. I held it all the way back to Franklin Ave. That was harsh.

For most of time I was with Aresh, he would just keep saying that he hadn't seen me in 10 years and he couldn't believe that I was there. But he was running off of 4 hours sleep for the last 2 days for some reason, so he couldn't stay and talk as much as he loved too. So call later, and set up a day to meet and hang out for an hour or so.

Oh, he is still the skinny thing I left behind, but he cut off his hair like I said before, and he got a mustache. I was told that he was now bald. I don't know if that is really the truth or what. What really threw me was that he ate meat now. Raw sweet potato eating Aresh now eats meat.

His girl friend was nice, and I think she is about 5-10 years younger than him. If she older than that, she doesn't look it.

I told Aresh that Hayden didn't make it because he wasn't really told that he was having a second party and that he was sorry he missed the first one. He was surprised that I was still talking to Hayden. Ya me too. I haven't. I just got a forwarded mail from Tanzie that she had with Hayden. She was trying to give me his e-mail address along with his phone number. It only partly worked.

-------

Today I went in search of a free clinic so I could get my shot on time. I will not go though my cycle unless I have too. Nika and Jhodie went with me. We left the house late, so we didn't get there in time. It seems that they close at 2:30 or so, and it looks like they are being renovated. A lot of places are getting renovated it seems. Well I'm calling them tomorrow before I go again to make sure and ask a few questions. I should have done that today, but I didn't really think it all through.

It turned out to be across the street from Jhodie's old high school.

We also went by the Brooklyn's Children's Museum. Once again out of luck. It's not opened on Mondays. We stopped off at the park next door, and Nika had fun there. Jhodie got an Italian Ice and I didn't like it. So she and Nika had it.

We took the train back and not long after we got back, mommy came home, and I went with Nika to wash the comforter that she threw up on last night. There was nothing wrong with her, she just threw up when drinking some water. So Nika carried the bag with it and a few things that my mom threw in to get washed. I added one pair of socks to the mix.

Nika did good. She carried the bag all the way up the street, and wouldn't let me take it from her. She had fun watching the stuff spin around, and around and around. The lady there showed me how to use the machine. She was nice.

On the way back Nika held on to the bag again. Two buildings down, I saw a computer that looked like it had been put out. I looked it over and decided to take it home to have a better look at it. Nika came over and picked up the bottle of Tide I had and trudged off with the bag strings over her forehead. She looked like a very cute determined thing. I took up the cpu and walked after her with it. She walked faster when I called her. She was laughing and ok.

As we walked in, mommy told Nika to drop everything and follow her. I was left to take everything inside. It turned out that she wanted Nika to meet a lady. It seems that she will be helping Nika with school some how.

Dinner was chicken with veggies and rice and peas. It was suppose to be fish with Mac & cheese, but mommy brought home some cooked chicken.

Well other than that, Jhodie went with Phillys to the gym when she got home. I think it's going to be their thing until I get a membership, then I'll get dragged along too. Not that I don't want to go, just maybe not with them. I'll see.

I gave Nika a bath, and she fell asleep. I feel asleep while working on the laptop, and mommy fell asleep while playing "7 Wonders". They were so late in getting back that I blew up the bed, changed Nika into her pj's and did a clean up on the laptop after downloading 5 pieces of software and made some changes to my blog site. They got in at midnight.

Well mommy is up now, and is getting ready for work. I'm going to bed in like 15 mins.

I'm suppose to go out with Jhodie and Nika again tomorrow. Don't know if I'll go, I want to test out the cpu I got. I'm kinda planing on sending it back to Little Ray since I think I messed something up with the one I left behind for him.

Well I'm out of here. Night, or morning as the case my be. It's now 1:16am.

Cleaned up blog and it's now 1:40am. Bye

Not so busy today.

Let's see.

I tried to sleep in a bit after my mom woke up for work at 1:40am. But the phone wouldn't stop ringing, and one was right next to my head and up really loud and then the pest control people showed up. I didn't care as much as I should. I just made space for Nika on the bed since she was still asleep. I gave the check that mommy left for them to Phillys and pulled the covers up. Jhodie fixed up a few things before they came, but she left. She would get sick from some smell that I didn't smell back at Dominos in St.Kitts. She wasn't sticking around to find out if this made her throw up too.

I think I woke up when Mommy got back from work. She had a short one this morning. Her next shift is at 4 or so in morning. She sad that she asked for this kind of shift. Then I think I just stayed in bed some more, then somewhere around  10 or so I got up and at one point decided to start cleaning out the cupboards. Jhodie and Phillys went to do some laundry, she told me to get Nika ready so that when she got back she would take her to the park to play.

She came back and then said that she was going to shopping and then take Nika to the park. Both of us were mad her, but she said that she won't have the same shot at discount things from this store for a while, and that she was still going to take Nika, but later. Great!

She then asked me to take a break from cleaning the cupboards and take Nika to the closer park until she got back and she will take her out again when she got back. The other option was for Nika to go to the store with her and Phillys and then be taken to the park later. Nika wasn't happy. She picked out her out fit for the park and was ready to go the park, and she isn't really suppose to be running around the store. She wasn't happy. We were the ones who suggested that Jhodie take her to the park for like 30 mins, then she go shopping, then they go back to the park for an hour before coming home. She didn't want to, but I was given the job of taking her to play until she got back.

We didn't go anywhere until mins to 3. We were there for an hour. Most of the time Nika ran around for a bit, saw all the slides and such then had me come and play with her. Granted I didn't want to, but to make this outing be worth anything, I played with her so she had fun. Then we left the park at 4pm and we thought that Jhodie was already back since she said that she was going to take her to the park at 3 and she wasn't back for that time since that is when we left. Well I did, It seems that Nika was told 4 pm. Either which way, she was late. When I took Nika out I had finished up two of the three cupboards.

Well it's midnight and I said that I would wash the dishes at this time, since I went back to sleep once again when Jhodie came home and took Nika out.

Nothing much happened after that. I had dinner which was salad and some fish. and I bagged trash and it was somewhere around that time I said I would do the dishes.

See ya.


=======================

http://jhoye.blogspot.com


- There I share my life.

- There I have links to what use to be my life.

- There you can find out what I might want out of life.


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July 14, 2007

My brother has a "to-be-wife" ...

And she came over to see us today.

She just got here.

Weird.

Besides the time he came down to St. Kitts to see us, I haven't seen him since he was what? 12 years old.

And now I have to deal with the fact that he is going to get married and all that. A new person to add to this part of the family. If G ever liked me enough after we really get to spend some time for me to bring him to see my mom, I wouldn't have a clue how to go about it.

In the words of "Back To The Future Mary McFly", "The is heavy".

Got to go before she comes back in here to be nice to me.

I did not put on extra stuff when I heard she was coming. If she wants to meet me, then she will meet me. I have something on, I just didn't get all dressed up for the visit.

Oh... before I bale, I did make it out to see the farmer's market this afternoon. I passed two book stalls and something else in a small park between the museum and my old high school. I think it's call McNair Park, but don't hold me to it.

I walked around, but since I showed up so late in the day, most of them showed that they were in the sun for a while and even the living flowers needed some watering. There was some organic bread and baked goods, beets, onions, berries, greens of all kinds and one winery. I have their card. Here it is.



They have a nice name and so does their wines. "Tickle Me Pink" I was told was good for cooking with. They were out of that one by the time I came by. They all sounded nice, shame I don't drink. Darn! I just thought of some thing. I could have gotten one for Aresh for his birthday. Darn! But it couldn't be helped. I didn't have $10 for a bottle anyway. I'll get one for him when I get a job. It will be a belated gift. A very belated gift.

I then decided to walk the other way home. That took me way the other way. I ended up over at Western Beef. Just for old time shake and maybe for a bottle of water I went inside. It was ok, I ended up with the little boxes of soy milk flavored with carrot. It's not bad. It's a Grace brand named Jus Soy. Right now they are having a sale. The large one and the three pack little boxes were .99cents each.

I then walked it all the way back up Franklyn until I got home. I even passed a park that I forgot was there. It looked like it had nice set of slides and stuff for Nika.

I got home about 5:30.

Oh, I came home to find some cards all over the place. It seems one of my aunts were here. My aunt Margaret. It seems that she is a paster now, and was spreading the news. She either owns or works for Meg Ministries.

Well you are so up to date that I could not blog for like.... 12 hours. *grin*

I'm off to get ready for the party. I'm thinking of wearing my new wrap shirt, and my wig since my hair hasn't been done since Monday.

See ya.

Found this in my mail


Back again.

I really had this to share with you and just forgot when I was rehashing my week.

Either way. I signed up for this new letter a while ago, and today they sent me this. I thought it might be nice to share.

This is mostly for computer geeks. I like the idea. I would like the idea even more if I could send text messages to cell phones with it. :)

Here you go. Have a nice read.

Hi ya

Lets see.

The next day Phillys took me shopping for clothes and I got about 5 pieces and the next day found out that the pants were stretch and they were falling off of me so I got a belt yesterday so I could get some decent use out of them.

We went to big girl's shop, I forget the name of the place, but she has card for the place. We stopped off somewhere else first, and Jhodie got a get things there, and later we realized that we forgot one of our bags there and we went back and got it like 2 hours later. Then we stopped to get something to eat at this place that had a  Dunkin' Donuts and a KFC and a Pizza Hut and a Nathans all in the same room.

We got in just in time. The rain poured down. We got something from KFC, and I took out a bagel and cream that I had gotten earlier, an we tried to wait it out, but it went on for a while, then we just has to leave. It was a good thing that there was scaffolding for the length of the building and it went right up to a subway. I still needed my umbrella. Phillys didn't want to carry an umbrella, and would rather get wet than get one.

Oh, Jhodie also got a pair of shoes and Nika saw Chucky E. Cheese in the same building. Sometime this month we are suppose to go back. Phillys got a coupon for the place somehow.

The next day we were on our own, and went off the the library. We tried to go though the botanical garden, but we didn't have any money to get in, but it's free on Tuesday, so we said that we will go back then. Then we passed the museum. That is new. They had "dancing water" out front. We stood there and watched it for a while. Then there was a deck over a glass room in the front of the building, then as we walked around to the other side, there was a green part with seats and part had trees. We went inside to see about maybe getting in. They also had a fee, but they said that they would take anything if you couldn't meed the recommended fee. We said that we would have to do that another day too. We were able to check my bank account and the $110 or so that I had there turned into $46. I'm so broke.

We moved on and stopped off at the park after the other entrance to the botanical garden, which also had a major face lift. Nika ran around for a bit, then we moved on to the library. We went in the children's entrance, and Nika got some books and started looking through them right off. We then got new cards, and set up or online accounts. I don't really think I'm going to use it, but who knows, in 5 months I may really need it.

We then sat down had something to eat and looked though a few things. We then walked around an ended up in the fiction room. Then at mins to two, we heard something over the PA system about story time for kinds at two. So I asked Nika and Jhodie about it. It turns out that I seemed to have been the only one to have heard it. Jhodie was in the bathroom and Nika was just not paying any kind attention at all.

I ended up taking her over there, and then she wanted me to stay with here when I was planning to drop her off and go look though things with Jhodie. I was there for about 40 mins and I then left when she seemed like she wouldn't need me and went back to Jhodie so she could stop watching out stuff and go look at some books. I was there looking though one of the new things when Nika found me. She showed me her cut out butter fly that I left her making. She was very happy. She said that she wanted to come back.

We waited for awhile, but Jhodie took her time coming back, so I told Nika to go back to the children side and look for a book to take home. 2 mins later Jhodie showed up, then Nika showed back up like a min later.

We all sat there looking at our papers or books and eating some peanuts, then after a while we packed up and check out our books and headed over to Blockbuster and Video Edge to check out what they had to rent and see about the their Anime Collection. Blockbuster was better then Video Edge, but done in a very wrong way. Any anime that they had was mixed in with the Action section. Video Edge barely had any at all, and it was still the old stuff that was there when we first found the place 14 years before.

At this point I started to look for belt since walking over here I almost lost my pants due to it's expanding waist line. Ofcourse I couldn't find one that would fit me, but I tried anyway. We then got a subway home.

That night we went shopping with mommy. We had to meet Phillys at Target, then we were going to go to Pathmark. We were late meeting Phillys at Target, but not much fuss was caused. She even showed me little flyer about a floating pool that was being opened up on the river. I don't know when we will get to that. At least she likes play with Nika.

At Target we got two things. A lot of cereal and a dust pan and bush. They were also joining in on an argument about the price of some water. I don't see what the fuss was about. There were two sets of bottled water one sale. One was $4.95 and one was $4.50 or so. It was a difference of less then a $1. I didn't even get it until near the end. It wasn't the price for one of the bottles in a case, but for the whole case of 25 bottles. Nika get a lollipop with a fan attached. We then went across a bridge and then went down to Pathmark. It turned out that we had to go out and come back in again because the entrance that we were going to use had been closed.

Once in we went the fresh fruits and veggies. Mommy picked up a big bag of bing cherries. Jhodie got some white grapes. I don't know why. In St.Kitts, they never tasted sweet. I haven't tried any, maybe these are sweet. We then got into a verbal mess over making salad. Phillys doesn't eat at home much, so mommy had started to stop really make anything because it wasn't eaten, and said if she paid for all this for the salad, we would have to eat it. Ofcouse. Why else would be buy it. Now, there was another thing when it came to picking what to make the salad out of. ...(that went on for a bit but we got it sorted after 20 mins.)

They spray the veggies down with water. I say this for two reasons. One, they had an timed system that warned you that it was going to be sprayed, and while I was at Rams, they wouldn't me touch the water when I wanted to clean off.

We got parted a few times, and Nika ran herself out running around. I tried to get some non-dairy ice cream. I didn't find any and Jhodie got a sherbet and picked up a small soy milk drink for me. She seemed to be happier. She got down when she couldn't find the the dressing that she wanted. We all looked for the one she wanted for about 5 or so mins, and we didn't find it. She said that it was ok, but something made her down. We came out with a few more things, then got a taxi to take us home.

Mommy and I cleaned out the fridge that night so we could get some things into the fridge. The freezer we couldn't do much with. For the next 12 or so hours, we helped mommy off and on with her making of some baked goods to sell at church after sunset.

Ya, I have talk about that. I was raised as a SDA, Seventh-day-Adventist. It's like 2 levels lower then Jew. One, you choose to be SDA, and two they are trying to be vegans. There is a bit more to it. We don't do the laws of Moses, and we don't keep or milks and meats apart and a the dress code is different. But we do the Sabbath thing and the sunset is when the day starts and we almost the same "things not to eat" list.

I should be in church right now, but I don't have the cloths for it, and I just got decent shoes yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday. It was the day for some more shopping. Mostly for Nika and Jhodie. I got a belt, one pair of simple shoes and a half an hour nap. Ya, Jhodie was running around getting stuff and Nika and I napped out at 7:45pm. The store closed at 8pm, but we were there until 8:30pm. Grief!

I wanted to go to an electronic store. But by the time we got out, ofcourse they were all closed. We walked down the length of the mall then got the Nevins Street station and got the train home. Then I helped mommy put labels on her stuff. Last night I helped make them look a bit better and got her thinking of making the labels with different colours for the different ones. Right now I just changed the font for each one. But she will have to through the ones that she already printed out, unless she said that they were cheap and we could print out the newer ones.

I also had to slowly tell her than I had nothing to wear to church. I had such conviction when told Jhodie how i wasn't going to go to church to more or less just slide out of it when my mommy was talking to me about it. I really don't have anything to wear, considering I haven't been to church since I left here.

Well you have now been caught up.

I wanted to go the farmer's market over at Grand Army Plaza, today, but I haven't gone much further the breakfast and this blog. Oh, and checking my e-mail. It looks like I be headed out tonight. It seems like Aresh is having a second birthday party tonight. So I think I'm going. I think it would be a nice to surprise him.

Well, take care until time.

"grin"


=======================

http://jhoye.blogspot.com


- There I share my life.

- There I have links to what use to be my life.

- There you can find out what I might want out of life.


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July 12, 2007

I'm Here.

Ya...

I'm here. I'm on land, I'm in NY, I'm ON LINE!

I have a few things to do, but I will say this.

My uncle came for us early on Tuesday morning. We weren't the only ones at the air port like I thought we were going to be. It turned out to be a busy flight day. Our fight was early, and it was just by luck we got there in time.

We got to San Juan earlier because the fight showed up early, and then we thought that we had to check in our luggage in for or next flight despite the fact that it wasn't until 5pm that afternoon and it was just like what? 11am? Oh, we got our temp green cards before we got out luggage. It didn't take anywhere near the length of time we were told. It was maybe 30 mins?

We found a luggage storage space just before we checked in, so we could go out and check out some of the island. Our problem was that we forgot that nothing is near an airport and being in a Spanish speaking place, we couldn't get to where we wanted to go, and didn't know how easily it was going to be to get back in time to check in for or next flight.

So we didn't go anywhere, and just walked around the place. This put a strain on us after a while. Jhodie and I hadn't slept since Monday night. I walked around because I couldn't sit on the floor in my skirt, unlike Jhodie and Nika who wore pants,and I left Jhodie combing Nika's hair. When I came back they were both asleep. Nika out on the floor with her head on Jhodie's leg, and Jhodie with her fingers just at the end of one of the plats on Nika's head.

We ate something at McDonald's, and that helped to keep me awake, but at 3pm we decided to get a porter to get our stuff our stuff from storage for checking in. To get them there it was $6, to take them to check it was $9 I think. The storage was $19 or so, I'm not sure. It wasn't all for nothing, we couldn't have been walking around with them for all that time, but get this, after the whole scanning and checking in and passing though the detectors after standing in a very long line, we found more stuff on the other side for us to look at and such. Thinking back we should have checked in earlier, if for nothing more then for sitting in a chair. There are no chairs to sit in before you check in for your flight. I just took a nap, I needed it, and we got some things to snack on, and Nika got in trouble with Jhodie, near the end of our waiting time.

Jhodie and I had a lot of naps on the plane to NJ. We had a nice "dinner" and we were once again mentally upset at people who just threw away food. There was the fight that most of the passengers had with the dripping AC and the very cold temp of the aircraft. Jhodie was cold, I was cramped and Nika... was Nika. Nika didn't have many naps, and was cranky near end of the flight and when we were at the air port waiting for Phillys. That name you be seeing a lot of now. A new player.

I called the apt to tell mommy that we were here and to find out how long ago Phillys left to come get us. She was suppose to come get us with her friend who had a van. It cost me $1 to call, and she left an hour ago. She didn't show up anytime soon. It was over an hour before she found us, and without her friend and his van.

We then had to pay for a taxi to take us and our stuff to Brooklyn. If she had come for us in the van we would have found her waiting for us outside. It took maybe an hour if that long to get to the apt. I'm guessing 50 mins.

We got home around 1:20am or so and mommy had some salt fish and johnny cakes for us. We didn't eat as much as she expected. I may just have some tonight before I go to bed.

Either which way, I was told that I would be staying in the room with my mom and her friend. She is a lady from the church who is staying here while she sorts out a house that she is getting, or something like that.

Phillys is just a pain. I'm sure I made some complainants about her when she visited us in St. Kitts and it really hasn't changed, and may have even gotten worst.

Now I'm starting to feel hungry. Well we are here, and I'm letting people know that I'm here, and I'm ok, and things should be getting back to normal, at least my on line life, very soon.

I should be eating if not sleeping now. It's now 12:07 and Jhodie and Phillys just got back from the gym.

Night.


=======================

http://jhoye.blogspot.com


- There I share my life.

- There I have links to what use to be my life.

- There you can find out what I might want out of life.


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July 09, 2007

Less then 24 hours

Hi everyone.

I've been cleaning and washing and sleeping and trying to download a few things, and get a few things fixed, and saying good bye to a few people. My Uncle just had one of his last stabs at using me for computer help.

We are just about done with the cleaning up of the house. There will be small things left undone, but they will be small all but two. One, the guy never came back for the last pick up of stuff to throw out, so there are bags of trash and one old mattress out in our  cleaned up yard waiting for pick up. It's looking like we will have to leave the money with Little Ray to pay someone to come and take them out after we are gone.

He said that he will be moving in on the Saturday. The other slightly big thing that we didn't get done was washing the small carpet/rug for the living room for the baby to more or less live on. We were going to do it last night, and let it dry until we left, but we couldn't find our scrub brush, and by the time we got one, it was too late.

My mother put a request in for banana leaves yesterday to go long with the other things she wanted us to bring up for her. Jhodie doesn't think that she will be able to fine any Manseport. It's a fruit. A big one that you aren't suppose to eat at night they say.

But she is off the get the breadfruit. We have the four kinds of tea leaves. We are hoping that no one stops us at the airport thinking that the "Worm Grass" is weed. That will take up way too much time. The coconut water and jelly, seem like they don't want to completely freeze. I think that there was something else, but I can't remember what it is right now.

I do remember that Phillys wants us to bring her some $1 bread, ten cents bread and cheese. I don't know. The bread I kinda understand, but why the cheese? Either which way, we are getting her the $15 can.

We are suppose to take down our line and put the palm tree there, but I don't know if we will get to it. We are repacking, or just packing our stuff today, and doing the last bits of cleaning up, and maybe doing a pasta bake.

Last night we were up until 4:25am or so mopping and patch the living room floor with new flooring. Jhodie let me sleep a bit longer than she did, but that was because someone called and woke her up at 8am. I may have to make the pasta bake as she digs up her tree and line post.

Well, right now I'm trying to find a way to get my scanner to work again. I had a small OS crash and did and odd reinstall and I lost alot of registry information and made a few things odd.

I ran out of money on my phone as I was talking to Hema over in Nevis on Friday, and every since I've been getting text messages from the phone company filling up my inbox telling me that I have no money on my and to please add more money. Every time I empty it, they fill me up again. So I'm leaving it on full until I add on $5 so I could send Hema my phone number in NY. I would add less if I could, but they won't let you add less then $5 to your phone.

I did get one real message. I have to go see about that. It's some kind of online message. Someone doesn't know that I don't have internet anymore.

Well I have leave soon. I have to be back at the house before 4pm because the new girl at work wanted to come and plat my hair for me, and I just got around to washing my hair today, and I have to grease it.Jhodie asked me to do a few things and I want to get them done before she gets back.

I have a  things to look up before I head back over. The house turned out to be rather empty on a windy set of days, it's nice.

I still don't feel like I'm leaving, I hits me now and again when I help pack a suitcase, but it just seems unfair that little Ray gets a nicely mended floor. I hope that they don't have issues getting cable for the house.

Lynn was by the other day and "stole" something that was for uncle ray. We told her that she couldn't have it because it was for him, and she took it anyway. The only way we even knew it was missing was because Uncle ray came looking for it, and we couldn't find and we called her to ask her where she put it when we was over here. She then told us she took it. I hope she send it's back like she said she would, or Uncle ray may find himself over there taking it back himself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARESH.  You don't know him. He is having a birthday today. At first, I thought I was going to be there for it, but it turns out that I'm going to miss it by a day.

I don't think I can think of much else to say now. Well hours and counting I  guess. Best wishing and good karma sending would be nice.

See ya.



=======================

http://jhoye.blogspot.com


- There I share my life.

- There I have links to what use to be my life.

- There you can find out what I might want out of life.


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