The St. Pete Connection
More on what I posted earlier from MSNBC.com: ".....The FBI said the business-type letter bore no return address and was sent anonymously, with a Sept. 20 postmark from St. Petersburg, Fla.; it arrived in New York on Sept. 25. The woman, a longtime assistant to Brokaw, was being treated with antibiotics and was expected to make a full recovery, said Andrew Lack, NBC’s president and chief operating officer.....There was also a scare at the New York Times, where reporter Judith Miller, who has written books about germ warfare and Islamic militant movements, received a letter with a powdery substance. Miller turned the letter over to police before opening it. That powder tested negative for anthrax. The FBI said there were similarities between Miller’s letter and the NBC letter. Along with containing powdery material, both letters were postmarked from St. Petersburg, and the handwriting was similar, said Barry Mawn, head of the bureau’s New York office. The letter to the Times was postmarked Oct. 5, he said.....An FBI spokeswoman in Tampa, Fla., told NBC News that the St. Petersburg Times received a letter 'similar' to the ones mailed to NBC and The New York Times. The spokeswoman said the envelope mailed to the Florida newspaper also contained some kind of powder, but tests turned up no traces of anthrax. The St. Petersburg Times reported that columnist Howard Troxler received the letter Tuesday." Oh yeah -- I'm so glad that when we basically threw a dart at a map of the U.S. four and a half years ago, that it managed to land on the Tampa Bay area -- and also that we just decided this spring that we loved it enough here to settle down and buy a house. Greeeaaaaat! Read here and also here if you want the local news' perspective.
posted at 03:04 AM | link-

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HOLY CRAP!
NBC Nightly News is just reporting that two suspicious envelopes in the anthrax cases had St. Petersburg, FL addresses/postmarks. That's where we lived for the last three years, only moving north in the Bay area this past June. Ugh!!!!! Ok, that does it -- I want my mommy NOW!
posted at 06:36 PM | link-

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We've gotta get out of this place...
Finally...the end of the Friday workday arrived and my husband is almost home! We are so OUTTA HERE...off to Ryan and Chel's later tonight, where we plan to do anything but concentrate on "grown-up" (i.e. responsible) things... Bring on the weekend, baby!
posted at 06:30 PM | link-

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U.S.S. Cole
With everything going on lately, this story kind of got pushed to the side at most news agencies... Today is the one-year anniversary of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. I can't believe it's been a year -- but then again, it seems like a lifetime ago. Time just isn't measured the same after 9-11 for anyone, it seems like.
posted at 05:20 PM | link-

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Could I be anymore cryptic?
Our heartfelt best wishes go out to two wonderful people today (you know who you are) -- we are so happy for you both!
posted at 04:58 PM | link-

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OU/tx 2001 photos
Bob from the Tampa Bay Sooner Club just sent me photos from the OU/tx watch party. Boomer Sooner! And yes, we're wearing the same shirts you always see us in for OU games, and we hope it stays that way! Worn 'em for 18 straight (and counting) now...
posted at 03:14 PM | link-

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Mini Me
My Gma recently moved, and she just sent me a box full of stuff from my childhood that she found in the attic...a Cabbage Patch Kid, a wooden doll set my grandpa brought me from Russia in 1985, and the "mini-me" cheerleading doll wearing a replica of my old uniform. Rah rah ree, kick 'em in the knee...rah rah ruts...kick 'em in the...other knee! Such a cool Friday-treat!
posted at 01:58 PM | link-

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Stop the insanity
What a way to start the TV-day -- a live Guilliani press conference announcing an employee of NBC in New York has tested positive for anthrax. This strain of anthrax is a skin-version diagnosed by biopsy (after the powdery substance she opened tested NEGATIVE for Anthrax). Ugh! I dread hitting the "power" button when I turn it on for the news each day... [Update: Dan Rather just reported on CBS News that an employee of the New York Times just received a suspicious piece of mail with a powdery substance and has been taken to the hospital for testing, and that piece of mail is being investigated. ]
posted at 12:34 PM | link-

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No more bifocals!
I changed the font here in the entries section to "8pt" rather than "size=1" -- hopefully it will be a lot easier to read from now on! (Unless you have Netscape, and then, it really is your own fault now isn't it? Tee hee!) It's been a frustrating night with Movable Type on Todd's blog. (BIG, HUGE thanks go out to Dawn for all of her help today!) It seems like for every one thing I fixed, two would "break" in its place. We finally figured out the paragraph-tags -- it's something you have to turn off under "edit blog configuration". Did that, got the css up on his site and changed his text to "8pt", and got rid of that pesky extra line between his blog entries and the timestamps. But then...it took out all of the forced breaks in each of his previous entries...so they all just jammed up together in one big paragraph. It was at that point I feared he was going to toss my laptop out into the hot tub, and he said, "switch it ALL back". So I did. And maybe again this weekend... It's best to approach him in situations like this after a big OU win. LOL! So thanks again, Dawn -- you were a tremendous help to both of us today!
posted at 12:28 AM | link-

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Not good...
This bit o' information is just not doing anything to make me feel better about the FBI announcement today at all! (See the link posted in the comments for that entry.)
posted at 09:23 PM | link-

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That's my Bush!
Ok...honestly...no disrespect to the Presidential office (you can see by an earlier post today that I am praying for him)...but... We are seriously considering developing a drinking game for W's next press conference. 1 shot for "compassionate", 2 shots for "evil", 3 shots for "evil one" or "evil-doer", and so on. Anyone in? Hey, you gotta laugh at something these days!
posted at 08:44 PM | link-

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Blast from the past
In case you missed this blog in its "baby days", I just added a "rewind" section to the left menu-bar. If you click on it, you can see screen captures of v 1.0 - 3.0!
posted at 06:19 PM | link-

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Breaking news...
CNN and MSNBC are both reporting "breaking news" (each without a story linked yet): "FBI says there might be terrorist attacks against the U.S. and U.S. interests overseas 'in the next several days'. Details soon." [Update: Here's an updated CNN article and MSNBC article] That, and Todd just came home sick with a migraine. :-( I really want to start today over. *slowly exhales*
posted at 05:01 PM | link-

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In my own handwriting

I'm really glad I can't be graded on penmanship or writing in a true-horizontal line!
posted at 03:52 PM | link-

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Color correction
The background color and scroll-bar on the archive pages all match a little better now. I should never try to do that on a laptop LCD screen...bad Robyn, bad, bad!
posted at 01:50 PM | link-

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Presidential Prayer Team
Thanks to Tara for sending me this -- a link to the "Presidential Prayer Team". Many of you will remember that we voted for Gore -- and that Todd and I are both staunch Democrats. But once the President is elected, he is the leader of our country, and there hasn't been a day gone by since September 11th that I haven't prayed for him as both the leader of our country -- and as a man with literally the weight of the world on his shoulders. The goal of the Presidential Prayer Team is to "enlist 2.8 million people (1% of the population) to pray daily for the President". So if you're interested...
posted at 01:25 PM | link-

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Dine for America
(This is courtesy of Todd...) In case you're po' like us and Kenny, and eating at one of the fine Windows of Hope establishments would equal forking over two years income.....here's a list of "Dine for America" restaurants that are also participating in the 9-11 relief efforts. (Choices include Chili's, Olive Garden, Don Pablos, Macaroni Grill, TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesday, Red Lobster, Carrabba's, etc.) "Restaurants participating in Dine For America have made a financial pledge to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund." Check it out!
posted at 12:42 PM | link-

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Ugh -- more!
A woman that worked at American Media has just tested positive for anthrax -- that's the third victim now. More info as I can find it online... [Update: Here's an article on CNN and another on MSNBC]
posted at 11:02 PM | link-

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Ch...ch...changes...
I guess you can pretty much tell (hi Ashley!) that things around here have changed once again. My "co-stars" section has moved to the side-bar under a Prince lyric ("Baby I'm a Star"), because now that I have comments in my blog, there's not as much need to post here as a guest, although I'm certainly happy when they do! And I guess there are a couple of reasons for this latest redesign. One: Tomorrow is the one-monthiversary of 9-11 and I'm feeling more reflective than "red white and blue". Two: I'm two days shy of actually having this blog up and running for two whole months. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to blog for two days in a row, and well, I'm happy to say I've proved myself wrong! Not only that, but I've got my husband hooked as well, and he absolutely loves writing in his. Just seeing him so happy makes it all worthwhile... So I changed. You may not recognize the lyrics in the header and footer. They're from an old Ultravox song I used to listen to all the time back in high school. A lot of people had lyrics, poems, scriptures and the like stick in their thoughts after the events on September 11th -- and this is one that I kept hearing in my mind (just like the song says) "over and over"... So in case you're sitting there going "Ultravox?", click "more" for the song I'm referring to. It's called "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" -- and it's why I chose the title I did. Although we all want to move on and cling to some sort of normalcy (dancing), there will always be an infinite sadness (tears in my eyes) over all that's occurred. Thanks to everyone who stops by each day -- I've really enjoyed doing this daily -- and here's to two more months (and then some)!

Dancing With Tears In My Eyes by Ultravox

Dancing with tears in my eyes Weeping for the memory of a life gone by Dancing with tears in my eyes Living out a memory of a love that died

It's five and I'm driving home again It's hard to believe that it's my last time The man on the wireless cries again It's over, it's over

Dancing with tears in my eyes Weeping for the memory of a life gone by Dancing with tears in my eyes Living out a memory of a love that died

It's late and I'm with my love alone We drink to forget the coming storm We love to the sound of our favourite song Over and over

Dancing with tears in my eyes Weeping for the memory of a life gone by Dancing with tears in my eyes Living out a memory of a love that died

It's time and we're in each other's arms It's time but I don't think we really care

Dancing with tears in my eyes Weeping for the memory of a life gone by Dancing with tears in my eyes Living out a memory of a love that died

Dancing with tears in my eyes Weeping for the memory of a life gone by Dancing with tears in my eyes.........

posted at 10:40 PM | link-

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New Look
Beautiful! I love it!
posted at 10:06 PM | link-

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Update: the St. Pete Times scare
It appears the powdery substance found in an envelope at the St. Pete Times yesterday (which I detailed here) is one of many hoaxes that occurred in Florida and around the nation this week...which is good... But I can't help but worry if we have enough of these hoaxes, will people let their guard down to where a non-hoax slips through the proverbial cracks?
posted at 06:15 PM | link-

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Even closer to home...
Our local news is reporting that two men were detained and later arrested for taking photos and drawing diagrams at the Port of Tampa. The military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located at MacDill AFB in Tampa, and Tampa is also a port for several cruise lines. The stories didn't match up for the men detained, and immigration officials were contacted. Turns out they were in the country illegally, and that's all authorities will say for now. It's like you can't even watch the news anymore...yet can't turn it off either... Sigh.
posted at 06:09 PM | link-

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Take that...
My husband just pointed me towards the new Sports Illustrated cover. I know I promised that I wouldn't talk about it anymore, but does it count when they do it?

posted at 02:25 PM | link-

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Make the bad man go away!
The fourth sign of the apocalypse -- before I could flip the channel, my ears were just pierced by the sounds of Lionel Richie. I guess the Young and the Restless writers decided that his musical stylings would appease the lovely ladies out there in TV-land. He's appearing/singing on the show all week. Uhhhhh...yeah...now that is dissss...gustin'!
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And now a break from your regularly scheduled programming...
"On Wednesday, October 10, 2001, at approximately 1:00 PM EST" our site host will most likely make my life a living hell while attempting to move us to a "new and improved" server. "We do not anticipate any difficulties with the upgrade." I'll believe it when I see it! But in case both of our blogs suddenly vanish in T-minus 30 minutes and counting, you'll know why!
posted at 12:29 PM | link-

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Windows of Hope, Part II
Just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow night is the "Windows of Hope" fundraiser -- where a percentage of the evenings proceeds (when you dine at participating restaurants) goes towards the September 11th relief funds. For a list of participating restaurants in your area, visit the Windows of Hope site. Quite a few new ones were added in our area.
posted at 12:12 PM | link-

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Daily update
More today on the Anthrax-saga in Florida...now CNN and our local ABC news are reporting the strain of Anthrax that killed an AMI employee earlier this week (and infected one of his coworkers after spores were found in his nasal cavities) may have been manmade in an Iowa lab.
posted at 12:05 PM | link-

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It's hitting closer to home...
Breaking news from the St. Petersburg Times: "Firefighters sealed off the desk of St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler after he received a white granular substance in the mail. Some of the unidentified substance fell out of the envelope after Troxler opened it over his desk in the newsroom of the paper's offices in St. Petersburg. Troxler placed the envelope on his desk. Police and firefighters were notified. 'I'm sure it's nothing, but the fire department says that in an abundance of caution, they're going through all of their procedures,' Troxler, 42, said. 'If nothing else, it's a good test.' Police put the envelope in a plastic bag and inside a tin can and drove it to a state health lab in Tampa for analysis. St. Petersburg firefighters did not have any other reports of suspicious substances Tuesday."
posted at 06:27 PM | link-

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mom spank christian daughter???
Ok...just when I think the search engine queries that bring people here can't get any more bizarre...I get one for "mom spank christian daughter". Uhhhh, ok then.
posted at 04:44 PM | link-

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More on MT
In case you've missed them, here are the blogs of the Movable Type owners Mena and Ben.
posted at 03:35 PM | link-

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More on Anthrax
From CNN this morning: "Investigators are looking at whether a letter that came into the mailroom of a Florida tabloid publishing company could be the source of anthrax bacteria that killed an employee, a law enforcement source confirmed to CNN. Officials in Virginia reportedly are monitoring a possible case of anthrax." [Today on NBC just reported that preliminary tests in VA came up negative, however.] Another related story on CNN stated that the patient in FL who died of Anthrax earlier this week lived about a mile from an air strip where Mohamed Atta, a suspected hijacker in the September 11 terrorist attacks, rented planes. His office was several miles from the strip. Considering Atta also lived and went to flight school in the Tampa Bay area...not too comforting... And from MSNBC.com: "...The office building houses most of the country’s supermarket tabloids including The National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, News of the World and others...NEWSWEEK has learned that the FBI is aggressively trying to locate a summer intern from nearby Florida Atlantic University in connection with the investigation. The intern, who sources said came from a Middle Eastern country, had sent an e-mail to all employees that a top American Media official described as 'peculiar'. The e-mail thanked company employees for the help he gave them, but then contained language suggesting that he wasn’t saying 'goodbye'. Another company official recalled the email as having 'a sense of foreboding' and referring to a 'surprise' or 'something that he left behind'. Said the official, 'it was weird'...Several are focusing on a letter that arrived at the company about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was described by sources as a 'weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez'—similar, outwardly, to the types of mail the tabloids often get. But inside the oddly-worded letter was what was described as a 'soapy, powdery substance' and in the pile of that a cheap Star of David charm. The letter, per routine, was taken in by the joint mailroom of the company. Employees said the letter was handled both by Stevens and by Blanco.”
posted at 06:38 AM | link-

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Movable Type
For those of you that follow Todd's blog -- please note his new address! We're braving the new frontier, and downloaded Movable Type for his blog. Check it out...
posted at 12:40 AM | link-

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Southwest Eggrolls Dipping Sauce
Since we lost power for so long last night, we ended up eating the southwest eggrolls tonight instead... I'm very happy to report this copycat-recipe is an exact replica of the Bennigan's Fire-Roasted Salsa and Sweet Pineapple Pepper Cream Dipping Sauce that comes with their "Southwest Sampler". Kudos to that waitress for helping us out!
posted at 08:25 PM | link-

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This is not a drill - I repeat - this is not a drill!
I got the e-mail today that website owners housed on lousy servers dread just about as much as the general populous fears the Gerardo comeback album... "Recently, we have begun to upgrade some of our customers to either new servers, or servers that have received software upgrades.....You are receiving this email message because your account has been selected to benefit from either a site-migration or server-software upgrade. This process is virtually seamless and invisible to you and your viewers. We do not anticipate any difficulties with the upgrade. However, before we begin the process on your account, it is important that you have backed up your web site files to a source other than ADDR.com's servers (i.e.: Your own hard drive.). This is merely a safety precaution as you should always maintain a complete backup of your web site content." Everyone that believes this transition will be "virtually seamless", please raise your hand (and also see our real estate agent for a fine piece o' oceanfront property we've got for sale back in Oklahoma). If this website should vanish later this week faster than Cheesy Poofs at Eric Cartman's house -- please know we might be experiencing technical difficulties. All proper authorities have been notified, and operators are standing by! *beep*
posted at 07:23 PM | link-

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Fontaholic
Found another great font freeware site -- check it out!
posted at 03:16 PM | link-

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Anthrax isn't just a spooky band
Ok -- so Friday I asked "would you be worried, too"? Then today, I find this on CNN.com. I think it's safe to say now that I am very concerned!
posted at 12:33 PM | link-

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The Color Purple
Chel has a cool purple 'puter now! Think you could send Ryan over here now to paint letters on my laptop's keyboard keys again? LOL!
posted at 09:00 PM | link-

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What was it you said about...
Since I only keep a few days entries on the main page of my blog, I thought it might be time to add a "search" feature. It's over there to the left...no, your other left...under the calendar. Go crazy!
posted at 08:48 PM | link-

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Southwest Eggrolls
We went to eat at Bennigan's last night, so before we left, I flagged down our waitress and asked her about the "fire-roasted salsa and sweet pineapple pepper cream" dipping sauce they use on their southwest eggrolls. (We bought a big box of them from Schwan's and I've been dying to try them -- but wanted to wait until I had that recipe.) I've looked online for that sauce recipe at just about every copycat recipe site, and tried several search-engine queries, and always came up empty-handed. She went back to the kitchen to check, and came back out with the answer -- mayo, salsa, and crushed pineapple! Never in a million years would I have guessed mayo as the base-ingredient -- I was thinking more along the lines of cream cheese and condensed milk. I don't have exact measurements, so I'll have to play around tonight. If anyone's interested, e-mail me, and I'll let you know how it turned out (and how much I ended up using for each of the ingredients).
posted at 05:29 PM | link-

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Back to the here and now again
Ok...no more longhorn bashing 'til next year...I promise! You know I love you -- and reading your cool blog -- Melissa (at pie in the sky)! We even have the same middle name (but I have an extra "n")!

Today it's back to life, back to reality. Since the U.S. has launched air strikes in Afghanistan, the 2001 Emmy awards have been cancelled. Sounds like they've been cancelled for good this time. And so much for our brief glimpse of fall here in Florida. They just said on FOX that it's 102-degrees on the field at Raymond James, as the Bucs kick off against the Pack. OUCH!
posted at 04:21 PM | link-

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The Day After
From: CNNSI.com (So close, but yet so far) "On paper, they [texas] did many of the things it should take to win. They held the defending national champions to 206 yards of offense. Their star quarterback was 24-of-42 for 198 yards. And they knocked the other team's quarterback out of the game. But the fifth-ranked texas longhorns did not win their football game against No. 3 Oklahoma on Saturday, and despite what their coach would have you think, it wasn't even that close.....In year four of the much-hyped Mack Brown era of texas football, and year three for the wonderboy Simms, the longhorns have yet to find their storybook ending. And it's not likely to happen any time soon. But the 'horns themselves remain in denial.....the Sooners have won 18 consecutive games and a national championship because they know what they do with the talent, something Texas is still struggling to grasp." And from the Sooner Times Message Boards: "texas wide receiver Roy Williams conceded the Sooners are good, but not before coming up with an explanation for why OU has beaten texas the past two years - Oklahoma gets lucky. 'They’re not better than us,' he said after the game. 'They’re just not. They just get the breaks.' You're right, Roy. OU isn't better than you. Our coaching staff has decided it is better to be lucky than good. We've just beaten you two straight years by a combined score of 77-17." "Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure." -- Earl Wilson, newspaper columnist
posted at 12:54 PM | link-

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