There were 9,122 people with my first name (Suzan - my real name) and there were 4,348 with my last name.

There was one Veronica Arch listed. Is it me or someone else? I can't really be sure because according to my first search , I don't exist under my real name.

I must admit I really like this song. It was on a mixed cd I'd made a few years ago and I was listening to it today. Funny thing, though, I'd never seen the video before. What's up with the Russian chick?

I found this on a pug blog the other day. Hilarious.

I'm feeling a little bummed today but these pictures my friend took cheered me up a bit (I actually read recently somewhere that looking at people's family albums can cheer you up if you're feeling down - even if it's not your own family album).

My friend is my old neighbor. There's a beautiful park by Lake Ontario where she lives. Swans have been nesting for a few years in the pond across the street. I wonder if it's the same swans...? I really don't know much about swans and their territories.





I like this little guy because he reminds me of spring growing up in Montreal. I know the sound of this bird (well not this individual bird - hee) so well. I like the second picture because it looks like he's breaking out into song.

I didn't mean to buy this the other day but I was in the craft store and they had a 50% sale off of anything you wanted...I saw this and thought it was so cute. I hope it doesn't matter that I'm not a great sewer and I have no idea how to embroider.



I was immediately attracted to the cover and then all was explained when I read inside that "softies" are a type of stuffed toy in Japan. I just seem to be in this Japanese cutie phase lately. Hey, there are worse things.

My only problem is I have too many craft projects on the go. I still haven't finished building my dollhouse I got for my birthday last year and recently I took up scrapbooking after a bunch of my old photo albums got ruined. Oh, well, I better cut back on other things then like doing the dishes and vacuuming.

I can't believe Michael Johns was voted off AI last night. He was one of the best singers. There were a few people I thought should go before him like Syesha and Kristy (I mean Kristy, really?!!! She should have gone a looonnng time ago). I even thought Carly should go before Michael. I didn't think he'd win but I was hoping he'd be around for a bit longer. Bum-mer.

In October 2006 I submitted a short story to a horror magazine. I'd subbed to them before so knew they took awhile to reply. This time, though, they took so long, I wrote them off until I received a rejection in July 2007.

The reason for rejection: they thought my set up was too lengthy and should have introduced a certain character right off the bat.

I figured we were done. But oh, no. I got a SECOND rejection from them this week. What's that? 9 months later?

And what's great (or not so great depending on how you look at it) is they have a completely different reason for rejecting the story. This time they (actually "he" - same editor) said they liked the lengthy set up but they said the story lacked a strong, forward moving plot.

Rejections suck but confusing rejections - two for the same story from the SAME place - really suck. But it is kind of funny. Too bad it couldn't have been 2 acceptances.

I probably shouldn't be whipping out the baby photos but I've got to share at least these three of my grand niece.

This first one cracks me up because they have about 50 feet in snow in Montreal right now. She's got to wear her snow suit!




My niece's hubbie says though this next one looks like she's yawning, she's actually belting out the Police's "Roxanne." Hmmm, good choice of song baby!




I chose this last one because her eyes are open and because she's got that funny baby expression of "I'm surprised to be alive!". Oh, and also there's a photo of our doggies in the top right corner. hee



We were supposed to meet her a couple of weeks ago but I was sooo sick with the flu, there was no way we could travel. Now that I'm better we're going to try to go up on Easter weekend as long as the weather cooperates.

Yesterday morning was bad enough because of the $%#$ hour change. I cannot tell you how much it messes me up. On top of it I also have raging PMS so my sleep was extra crappola.

But the really bad thing that I happened yesterday - well it didn't actually happen yesterday morning, I only discovered it yesterday after what had been going on for over a yeaer and thank God I did discover it now or things could have been worse.

Hubbie brought home a scanner from work and I got the idea to scan some old photos for my Facebook page. I have about 20 photo albums and I have been keeping them in the basement. I only started doing this when we moved to our house a year and a half ago. I was a bit nervous about putting them down there but I'd read you could add a desiccant to the containers to keep the moisture out.

Bad idea.

All 4 Rubbermaid containers where the albums are kept were DRIPPING with wet - I'm thinking from the stickiness and the soaking wet desiccant bundles I'd made, it was the desiccant! It seems it did its job of attracting moisture and then overflowed.

Many of the albums are ruined because they are soaking with desiccant juice and mold. Luckily most of the pictures are fine. It was just the other stuff I had in there - tickets, cut outs etc - are destroyed. I've never been a scrapbooker like people are now but I used to save a lot of stuff.

After realizing most of the pics were okay, I went to buy new albums in the afternoon and stumbled upon the scrapbook section at the craft store. I wasn't going to go the scrapbook way but there was a huge clearance. I bought a bunch of stuff and YAY, I now have a wonderful fun project. I was so excited redoing my old albums last night that I didn't want to go to bed. The only thing about scrapbooking is it could get an eensy bit expensive so I better keep an eye out for sales.

fuzzykittyhrt gave me the cutest, funniest card for my birthday this week. It has little hamsters all over it and when you open it up it plays this song. I couldn't get enough of the song. I played it like 20 times when I got home.

Curious I went online and discovered there's a WHOLE video and lo and behold my attraction to the song is explained - it's a LINE DANCING hamster song (you can see the little hamsters line dancing in it). I love me my line dancing!



What's hilarious about the video too is that this version of it was shown on Canada's Much Music - you can see the logo in the corner. Only in Canada, eh? We Canadians love our silly.

Oh, man, this flu/cold/virus thingy is knocking the stuffing out of me. I look like the living dead only worse.

I've been sick for 3 weeks now. That isn't the weird part. My immune system is kind of wonky since I started having some chronic health problems about 10 years ago. It's not unusual for me for to have a cold for a month or even longer. But usually it's this low grade thing where I just feel like crap. I don't usually have problems with my upper respiratory track.

Not this time. And what really sucks is that things are getting worse, not better.

At least I know I'm not the only one. So many people I know are sick right now and it's lasting weeks. I would just like this $%@$ cough to go away so I don't have to sleep on 10 pillows.

Here's one of the presents hubbie surprised me with yesterday for my birthday. I'd never heard of these before but I absolutely adore them. I love vinyl figurines and I think the black and white is very cool. To me, little figures like these are like art brought to life.



They come from Killer Panda Toys and this set is Series One of a monster set of figurines. My favorite is the vampire because he's just like the one from Nosferatu. Love that movie. The other two are The Invisible Man and I'm guessing Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde since his name is "London".

Now I'm on the lookout for Series 2 which consists of Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankentstein and The Mummy.

Happy Birthday to me!

I've never been a huge Simon Cowell fan. He's too caustic for my taste but I've always admired his honesty. Given this I'm not sure if I should be disturbed by what I've been observing this season.

Here's what's been happening:

Contestant finishes. I give my ever loving hubbie my impression. Then the judges give theirs.

Randy (choose one):
1) Yo dawg! That was hawt!
2) It was pitchy
3) It was just a'right for me

Paula:
Bleep blorp kwa blorg fop beep my new single belip do blee dorp

Simon:
Insert EXACTLY WHAT I SAID TO MY HUSBAND

Okay, well, no not exactly. I don't use words like "hideous" to describe performances and I don't talk about cruise ship or cabarets, but I do have the same general feeling about each contestant as he does.

I'm not sure what this says. Either we're both highly intelligent, sensitive beings or I'm turning into Simon Cowell, hedgehog hairdo and all.

I just heard that my niece has to be at the hospital at 8pm tonight to induce her baby. She's in good health and doing well but she's a week past her due date. It's weird because though we've all been expecting this now that the time is near I'm so excited I can barely breath!!

I got a message yesterday telling me my line dancing class was canceled. I wondered was the teacher sick? Did the school burn down? No. The elementary school where it takes place was closed down because of COLD!!!! WTF?! I live in Rochester, New York, you know, in the NORTH.

I'll admit it was a bit nippy out yesterday about 5F or -15C but if you put on a good toque and scarf, you're all set.

Of course, I grew up in Montreal where it's normal to have weeks and weeks of -22F (-30C) weather. With a wind chill it could get as cold as -45 (at that temp I think F and C are about the same).

Not that I miss the cold. No, I'm much happier here in the mild south.