Nano'd out

52,015. Whew.

Still need about 5000 more words to finish this off, then it's going to sit quietly and age, much like a cheese or a wine. Hopefully not so much like cheese flavored wine.

Pure Nerd

Pure Nerd
73 % Nerd, 26% Geek, 21% Dork
For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Congratulations!
The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815

I survived the 6th grade science fair

I guess that should say my son survived it, but really, he didn't seem nearly as stressed by the thing as I was. I was very firm about not doing any work. My only work would be driving him to the library (only twice as it turned out) and being his oh-so-critical audience at the end. And reminding him of his deadlines as they came and went with no actual work being done.

This past Sunday was crunchday. He had all of Thanksgiving break to finish (finish? ha! do) the project, which was assigned what seems so long ago back in September. He'd done the research, the rough draft, the experiment. Never got around to doing the visuals or writing the final draft.

With family in town I just never got around to being that fun-killer nag that I've been dubbed, until around 10am Sunday. Then I unleashed the wrath of mom on him, and told him no football until this is done!

He's become something of a Philadelphia Eagles fan this year. Sean's a Bronco's fan, but we have many Eagles fans, and they are a fun bunch - much screaming, cheering, a good amount of manly talk, beer drinking (soda drinking for the 11 year old, thank you very much), and ... no little sister for a few hours. So when I told him there would be no football, he finally took me serious and put the polish on what was a pretty solid project that had suffered a month of neglect. Finished about 30 minutes before kickoff, and was freed to go hang with the guys.

So today the project left my home. The weight of making sure the thing got done has been lifted, and I celebrated with a double latte and some yummy cheese bread left by my sister this past week.

I'm already dreading next year though. I tried to remind him, it's ok to do these things early. Even very early. How about the week it's assigned?

"Fun Killer". It's not that hard a title to uphold.

Empty houses

I'm all alone in the house today, which normally is a chance to crank up music no one else likes, talk to myself, leave my shoes in the middle of the floor (I can't do any of this when the kids are home, because then I can't fuss at them when they do it).

But today I'm still sad, because after 11 days of having someone else here all the time, it's not heaven it's lonely.

I'll get used to being alone again pretty quick - I usually love alone time. Not just because of the music and shoes and the chance to talk to myself, but because it's also time to be quiet and goofy and not have to talk to anyone else. But today I'm just going to spend one more day missing my family, and knowing I probably won't see any of them again for months and months.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I just wish that it didn't end so soon.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

I hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family, wherever you may be spending it!

Mom, Dad and Mike were here in time for dinner last night. We spent a few quiet hours before Deborah and Robert got here at 10:30, and sat up talking til well after 1.

Samantha had me up and down quite a bit during the night, and I was up to stay by 7. Three pies are made, and the stuffing as well. The giblets are simmering for the gravy. There were a few tense moments when the turkey was still frozen, but mom came thru with a tip for sink thawing and all is well. One whole turkey and one boneless breast are now roasting in the oven. If things stay on schedule (HA!) we'll be eating by 5:30ish.

Shower time, then I need to feed the gang lunch. Then more time in the kitchen!

Really having a great visit with David and his family. They got here around 10pm Wed, and we've had so much fun since they got here. I already don't want them to leave - but at least I have more family coming very soon to keep me busy.

Thursday we took the kids to the beach for about 90 minutes. It's to cool here to swim (to cool for ME to swim at least), but they had fun playing in the sand. David, Rebecca, and Ace got a bit wet - was only planned to be to the ankle I think, but a few big waves swept higher than planned.

Friday - Pablo Historical Museum. The kids loved the train - I had a million "what if"s about the caretaker's house and the people that lived in it over the years. Must go back again someday and look more - it's only $2 to tour the house and see the train. Pictures are on Flickr.

Saturday - the zoo! I hadn't been in a few years. Jacksonville has put a lot of time and money into developing a great zoo over the last 5 years, and it's really looking great. My only complaint - it is not friendly to the directionally challenged (me). No nice paw prints saying "go this way to see the exhibits", just lots of loops that are wonderfully landscaped but poorly marked. And a map that doesn't seem to match the current layout of the animals.

Today (Sunday) we had talked about heading down to St. Augustine for the day and seeing the fort - also known as Castillo de San Marcos. It's a national monument, and one of my absolute favorite places to be a tourist in my own backyard. And another place I haven't been in a few years. Unfortunately the weather didn't play nice. It started raining last night, and it's done so off and on all day. So we audible'd, and headed downtown to see The Wiggles. It was a surprisingly entertaining afternoon. Greg, main wiggle number 1, had to leave after their show in NY 2 weeks ago for double hernia surgery. He's being filled in for by Brett Clarke, who is normally the lead Wiggley Dancer - and he did a great job. One thing that hit me watching this was how old the wiggles are. Jeff is 52! As Australia's top earning entertainers ($45 million in 2004), they're not doing to bad for themselves. Again, there are some pics on Flickr, although they ended up a bit blurry.

I had one of those odd "huh" moments during the show. They performed a song where they brought out flags from various nations, and asked the audience to cheer loudly when they saw their favorite flag. The intent was to get a loud cheer when the audience saw the US flag, and it kinda worked for them. I was already feeling like they were trying to play us a bit - they are an Aussie group, so don't pull out the nationalism card thankie. Then it hit me - I didn't even feel like cheering when I saw our flag. I am not proud to be an American. I don't like the us vs them mentality, and never have - and it is downright embarrassing in light of how most of the world looks at our country today to try to hold my head high and cheer when that flag is waved in front of me.

I really don't want to get off on a rant here when I've got much better things to do, so I'm going to leave it at that. I guess I'll be thinking more about it, especially with such a big American holiday coming up this week. While there will be many things I will be thankful for, our position in the world today will not be one of them.

It's a good thing I have such a wonderful family to be thankful for instead!

Having a great time with David, Becca and Ace. Taking lots of pics - you can look at them on Flickr (link's on the left).

Yesterday we spent about 90 minutes at the beach - it was pretty warm, and not windy at all. Today, windy, not so sunny. Planning to go to the beaches museum and see the train in a it.

more later!

I love my family!

And they're coming to see me!!
My oldest brother David is coming to see me today, with my newest sister (his wife) Becca and their son Alec (Ace). You'll be seeing mostly links to pictures here the next week, I plan on Flickr'ing much while they're here. Probably not much actual blogging unless they sleep more than I think they do :)

They'll be here til next Tuesday; Wednesday Mom, Dad, youngest brother Mike, lil' sister Deborah, and newest brother Robert will be here.

We'll do lots of pictures of that too, especailly while Deb gets drafted once again to ad depth and brilliance to my Christmas tree.

I'm supposed to be chasing dust bunnies. Better get back to it.
Ciao !

Cars and husbands

Sean called me last night while he was driving home from Orlando, and asked if I'd have time to get his car serviced today. His "Check Engine" light had come on, and he was due for an oil change. Since he had another 300 miles of driving to do today, he thought it would be better not to drive his car. No big deal I told him.

I sat about 2 hours at Toyota while they ran some diagnostics, and they came back with the news that his cadilitic converter is on the way out. Luckily it's covered by warrenty, but they had to order the part - can I bring it back on Tuesday? Sure thing.

Come home, call Sean to find out if we need to do the car swap thing tomorrow or if he will have time to take care of this part himself. He sounds really upset on the phone, so I ask him what's wrong - it can't be the car thing. That's minorly inconvinient, not upsetting news.

It's *your* car, he tells me. Theresa (the very blonde woman he works with) put down my windows so she could spray perfume in my car, and now he can't get one of them back up.

Was I wrong to be more upset about the perfume spraying than the window? I don't give a rats ass if it's raining and my car is getting wet - what is another woman doing spraying perfume in my car?

This woman wears way to much cheap perfume. I've met her several times; you can't get the stench of her out of your nose for hours after she's hugged you goodbye. I knew she was going to be going with him, but it never in a million years occured to me that she would stink up my car in the process.

It doesn't even matter if it's expensive perfume rather than cheap perfume. That is not her car. Spraying perfume is the civilized woman's way of marking her territory. And my car is SO not her territory.

But that's why she put the windows down, he argued. Right. She's spraying perfume in a car. The fumes are not magically going to disipate in the 10 seconds she leaves the windows down.

If my car smells like another womans perfume when you bring it home, I told him, you're getting it detailed. Then I told him how he could get the window up. And then I hung up.

Next time he's getting his own damn oil change.

High Noon Challenge

Sean and Montgomery left early this am for a golf tourney in Orlando.  I’d been up even earlier – Samantha started stirring around 5am.  She still can’t get used to this daylight savings thing.  I’ve tried keeping her up as late as 9pm, and her little body still wants to wake up at old 6:15.  

I didn’t let her up, but since I knew I wasn’t going to get back to sleep I went on and got up myself.  Got a lot done in the hour before I sprung her from her room.  Got even more done since she has been happily playing for over 5 hours.  

So my grand total for the High Noon Challenge is 16,226 words. Not going to win me any prizes, but it was a big help to getting me back on track with NaNo!  I might  make 50k after all.

Time for a break – I did most of today’s longhand, and my fingers are a bit cramped.

What Your Name Means

Sunday random "make of this what you will" : (or, I want to write this morning but not in my journal) :

You entered: (my name, as on my birth certificate)
There are 18 letters in your name.
Those 18 letters total to 88
There are 6 vowels and 12 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 7

The characteristics of #7 are: Analysis, understanding, knowledge, awareness, studious, meditating.

The expression or destiny for #7:
Thought, analysis, introspection, and seclusiveness (there's my word I didn't know was a word for the day) are all characteristics of the expression number 7. The hallmark of the number 7 is a good mind, and especially good at searching out and finding the truth. You are so very capable of analyzing, judging and discriminating, that very little ever escapes your observation and deep understanding. You are the type of person that can really get involved in a search for wisdom or hidden truths, often becoming an authority on whatever it is your are focusing on. This can easily be of a technical or scientific nature, or it may be religious or occult, it matters very little, you pursue knowledge with the same sort of vigor. You can make a very fine teacher, or because of a natural inclination toward the spiritual, you may become deeply emerged in religious affairs or even psychic explorations. You tend to operate on a rather different wavelength, and many of your friends may not really know you very well. The positive aspects of the 7 expression are that you can be a true perfectionist in a very positive sense of the word. You are very logical, and usually employ a quite rational approach to most things you do. You can be so rational at times that you almost seem to lack emotion, and when you are faced with an emotional situation, you may have a bit of a problem coping with it. You have excellent capabilities to study and learn really deep and difficult subjects, and to search for hidden fundamentals. At full maturity you are likely to be a very peaceful and poised individual. (I think this means I've got a ways to go before hitting "full maturity".)

If there is an over supply of the number 7 in your makeup, the negative aspects of the number may be apparent. The chief negative of 7 relates to the limited degree of trust that you may have in people. A tendency to be highly introverted can make you a bit on the self-centered side, certainly very much self-contained . Because of this, you are not very adaptable, and you may tend to be overly critical and intolerant. You really like to work alone, at your own pace and in your own way. You neither show or understand emotions very well.

Your Soul Urge number is: 6

A Soul Urge number of 6 means:
With a number 6 Soul Urge, you would like to be appreciated for your ability to handle responsibility. Your home and family are likely to be a strong focus for you, perhaps the strongest focus of your life. Friendship, love, and affection are high on your list of priorities for a happy life. You have a lot of diplomatic tendencies in your makeup, as you a able to rectify and balance situations with an innate skill. You like working with people rather than by yourself. It is extremely important for you to have harmony in your environment at all times.

The positive side of the 6 Soul Urge produces a huge capacity for responsibility; you are always there and ready to assume more than your share of the load. If you possess positive 6 Soul Urges and express them, you are known for your generosity, understanding and deep sympathetic attitude. Strong 6 energy is very giving of love, affection, and emotional support. You may have the inclination to teach or serve your community in other idealistic ways. You have natural abilities to help people. You are also likely to have artistic and creative leanings.

If you have an over-supply of 6 energy in your makeup, you may express some of the negative traits common to this number. With such a strong sympathetic attitude, it is easy to become too emotional. Sometimes the desires to render help can be over done, and it can become interfering and an attitude that is too protective, rather than helpful. The person with too much 6 energy often finds that people tend to take advantage of this very giving spirit. You may tend to repress your own needs so that you can cater to the demands from others. At times, there may be a tendency in this, for becoming over-loaded with such demands, and as a result become resentful.

Your Inner Dream number is: 1

An Inner Dream number of 1 means:
You dream of being a leader and one who is in charge. You want to be known for your courage, daring, and original ideas. You seek unconquered heights. People may get a first impression that you are very aggressive and sure of yourself.


Want to learn about your name? Click here!

It's so reassuring to know that who I am can be determined not by what I've done in life, but by the name that was given me by my parents. It's all on them!

Geekly News and such

(Non Buffy fans can skip down to the next section)

Whedon: Buffy Lives In Comics
Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, told fans on the Whedonesque.com fan Web site that he will be continuing the story of the Slayer in a series of Dark Horse comics, which he will write. "Speaking of Dark Horse Comics, they are starting a new Buffy comic, and as I understand it, it will take place after the end of Buffy and Angel and be canon in the Buffy world. And I understand it that way 'cause I'M WRITING IT. I'm kicking off the book with a four-issue arc that finds Buffy—you guessed it—living in Italy with The Immortal. ...Then I'll be overseeing the book more closely, to make sure it remains true."

Whedon also said that he's still working on a TV movie featuring the character of Spike (played by James Marsters). "The infamous Spike movie. Still haven't finalized anything, but I feel that very soon I'll be able to go to James and say something a lot more interesting than 'Wouldn't it be cool if ... .' 'Course, I just hope he's free some time this decade. See how my peeps is all actifying!" Marsters currently has a recurring role in The WB's Smallville.

Whedon, an avowed fan of comics, is no stranger to that world, having authored the Buffy-related Fray series for Dark Horse and the Astonishing X-Men series for Marvel.
SciFi Online

Non Firefly fans can skip down to the next section
Wow! SciFi Channel has decided to continue showing Firefly, even though their initial run has finished. Tonight they started at the beginning again. Friday nights at 7, that's where me or my Tivo will be.

Not intrested in me writing people can stop reading my blog, why are you here anyway?
Haven't gotten much done with NaNo the last few days. Hit a plot speedbump Thursday that had me walking around going huh? about my story all day. Caved into the preasure of the Starbucks drivethru at 1:45 (and they don't do the Pumpkin Spice Latte anymore drat them. Gingerbread Latte is no substitute. My wallet can relax now, there will be money for the kiddies this xmas afterall). One venti latte later, I had it all worked out. Well mostly worked out. Came back and finished my plotting last night, although I haven't actually gotten any of that down on paper. That NaNo icon will mock me until tomorrow, I'm not changing the numbers until I've got a real reason to. I'm participating in a writing challenge group this weekend - it started at 6pm and ends at High Noon on Sunday. It's called, go figure, the High Noon Challenge.

Did get a lot of housecleaning done today - and discovered the hot tub has stopped being hot. Oy. Sean has a phone number of a guy that he plays golf with that does hot tub repairs, so he's got til Sunday night to find it or my fingers will be doing the walking. Have to have the tub functional when R is coming!

Time to go find out why the 70's Show is doing their impersonation of Grease "You're the One That I Want". Good stuff!

Samantha gets creative

Samantha gets creative
Originally uploaded by ksteele2.
Samantha gets creative
I'm not sure what she was making or thinking, but I thought it was cool that she had them lined up at the midpoint, making a stair-step pattern.

Kids are neat when they do things like this while your back is turned, instead of trying to kill the dog.

"Commander in Chief"

I keep hanging in with this show, even though it makes me want to throw my hands up and walk away every time one of the kids comes on screen. Steven Bochco, where are you??

Last nights episode had the oldest girl, a "straight A student" who doesn't drink, do drugs, or hang around with Bad People, begging her father to let her go to a party so she can be with a guy. A guy we soon see *is* a bad boy, with his video camera hidden up in his bedroom. Guess they're trying to show us even smart teenage girls act stupid around boys, but puh-leese. I can't believe a woman as smart and on top of it as Mackenzie Allen would raise such an idiot. The son forges the presidents name on a bad homework paper, and the little cute kid just mopes and whines about "people hating mommy". These kids add no interest to the show at all.

Luckily we only have a few more episodes to go before we get to the ones Bochco has developed. Episode 9 is rumored to be his first, and he's bringing in a few strong characters to beef up the series.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who has worked often with Bochco (notably on NYPD Blue) will be coming on board as a "slick, savvy media strategist". Polly Bergen will be joining in a recurring role as the President's (Geena Davis) mother.

I just hope that they are ditching the kids, or at least relegating them to the dinner table. If I want to see whiney kids doing stupid things, I don't need to turn on the TV - I can find plenty of that in my own house.

Anti-War sermons now put churches on the IRS watch list

Today's sign of the end of democracy:

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning:

"All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena risks losing its tax-exempt status because of a former rector's remarks in 2004.
By Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch, Times Staff Writers

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS." ... "On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that "a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … " The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections."


Just so we're clear. Asking church members to recruit volunteers from the ranks of their congregations = good. Actually talking about the issues = bad.

One more step taken away from a free country.

Mondays.
It's beautiful out, and I've got my window over my desk open. Beautiful sunshine, nice breeze for now (although it's supposed to get up to about 80 here at the beach today), and I've got to work. Much work.

Some days it's better to have it rain when I have this much to do. At least then, there's not really anything better to be doing.

Self-pity mode off... time to buckle down and get thru this work I let pile up on my desk.

Made my first homeade Pumpkin Spice Espresso.

If the Starbucks version is a 10, this one was about a 7. Looses 2 points because there was a gritty texture to the pumpkin, which meant the coffee itself didn't taste so smooth. And I think the espresso wasn't strong enough; will have to make it stronger next time.

I'll have to force myself to conduct further experiments.

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

These are the best coffee drink I ever had. Ever.

I had my first one at 3:30 yesterday. By 5 I was drooling thinking of another.

We left dinner at Outback at 6:15, and I had to drive right past Starbucks to pull out of the parking lot. I had to talk myself out of pulling in and buying one. Espresso at 6:15 at night is just not a good idea.

So I held out until 7:30 this morning, then decided Samantha wanted to go to the park. And on the way we could swing by Starbucks and pick up a muffin - oh, and maybe a cup of coffee.

Drool. These are awesome.
I already want another.

I want to know what they're putting in these things, because I'm evidently not the only person having this reaction.

"In the four-week period ended Oct. 31, the company's comparable-store sales grew by 11% over the same period last year -- thanks, in part, to the pumpkin drink."

I've found a recipe to make these at home - at $4.19 a pop, these things can put a serious dent in my pocket book. I'll give it a try later today, have to buy some pumpkin.

Ingredients :

3 heaping T. canned pumpkin
2 T. Vanilla syrup
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup milk
1-2 shots espresso

Recipe
In a small saucepan, stir pumpkin puree into milk. Add vanilla syrup and pumpkin pie spice. Heat gently, continuing to stirring occasionally just until steaming and foam begins to appear.

Pour pumpking flavored milk into a tall mug and pour espresso over.

Top with whip cream and a dash of pumpkin pie spice.

Serves 1.

Reading

Haven't had much time to read this week - not anything more in depth than the USA Today. Yesterday I picked up Neverwhere : a novel, by Neil Gaiman though, I've been entertained by his blog while he does his book tour. Can't even remember how I found the link, since I've never read any of his books - but, this looks like a good one to start.

And because I'm sure he'll see this - Neil, your web site sidebar menu is REALLY hard to read. Pretty, not functional. Hope that's changing with the new web design you're launching.

Bourbon

Last night was trivia night. On Thursdays Sean and I host a trivia show at Bob Marlins. It's a fun way for us to get out one night a week, have our drinks paid for, make a (very small) bit of money and hang out with some friends. Usually it's a lot of fun, even with the bad music Sean picks to play. ( Dexy's Midnight Runners anyone?)

Last night I had one of those lurking headaches. The kind that is just a dull preasure in the back of my head, not enough to keep me home or anything but the thought of drinking beer on top of that was not so pleasant.

Maybe the smart thing to do would have been to drink soda, but the fact is - Bob Marlin's soda tastes flat. The only way to make it taste good is to put bourbon in it. So that's what I did. Something like 7 times. I stopped counting after the 4th, but that was only halfway thru the show, so I'm sure there were at least 2 or 3 more.

Well, it was a fun night. Yay! It was not such a fun morning. I've been up since 5:30. Don't think I'll want any bourbon again for a while.

My sister has told me " your brain sounds a little addled". Going to go find some coffee and try to fix that problem.

Healthy food

I'm trying so hard to get this family to eat healthy. I said back in May I was going to start, and somehow we ended up eating pasta and meatballs and ... ok, I fess up, pizza... at least once a week.

So my son's pants are getting tight, my pants are getting tighter, my husbands pants always fit the same but that doesn't mean he couldn't stand to eat a bit healthier. So I'm really, really trying.

Family, you're getting healthy meals!

I want to buy a new grill (the old one fell victim to the Florida moisture and rust). I do NOT want to put a new grill together. Actually went into ACE hardware tonight, stood in front of the display for 20 minutes trying to decide ... buy it and put it together, or walk away. Finally snagged a sales person, and she told me that I can buy one already assembled at no extra cost. Except, it won't fit in my car already assembled. Foiled by the station wagon again!

Now, who do I know with a truck? /deep thoughts.

Positive start to today

From
Astrology for Writers, Editors and Filmmakers
I find out that I should "sagittarius: ch-ch-changes....sell the house, change jobs, in general bury the old and let the new ideas come rushing in. it is a spiritual fact that when a space is cleared, new things take their place. clean house in every respect. if a proposal isn't selling, time to let go."

Hmm. Don't think the husband will be to happy with me if I sell the house, or change jobs. Guess it's a month of cleaning house for me.

And I needed a horoscope to tell me this ?


And finally :

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Very popular, one of you is not enough.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

You ARE what you eat!

/yawn

That's a big happy yawn. Good day.
I'm one of the crazies that's trying to write 50,000 words in a month. Technically it's called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo (gotta have a catchy name for it you know). I think of it as a 50,000 word goal, since the end result - if I do get thru 50,000 words - will probably not be a complete novel, or a complete anything of value to anyone who doesn't love me tremendously. But I consider it the armchair version of running a marathon. You don't do it because you expect to finish first (write the best book), but because it's a pretty damn challanging goal and you just want to prove you can reach it. Or at least try your best.

And so. Today I hit 2213 words. I had a whole paragraph all typed in that I just deleted with the math of this project... I swallowed my inner geek and I'll just say I'm happy, not thrilled with that number. There's a whole bunch of days at the end of the month I won't be writing at all - that thing called Thanksgiving will have me a bit busy. But it's a happy start.

I have also found my chocolate tolerance level I think. Note to self : don't sit the bag of chocolate caramel kisses by the pc while writing. First clue it was a bad idea was when my chair made crinkly noises while it rolled over the little wrappers. Second clue was a really quesey feeling in my stomache as I saw the mound of chocolate that is still all over my kitchen counter. Damn neighbors, why couldn't they all give out tootsie rolls? I hate tootsie rolls. And no, tootsie rolls are NOT chocolate. They are the soy of candy, fake, fake, fake. They are to chocolate what non dairy creamer is to half and half. Just ... ewww.

So I'm taking my quesey self and getting some sleep. Tomorrow my willpower and I are having a long talk, and I'm introducing carrot sticks into the conversation. Or at the very least, cheese and crackers.