First of all I'm not dead. Let me clear that up. :) There has been some recent concern about me because of my last post. I'm fine. As for my headache it comes and goes. I think at this point it's stress related.

This will however, probably, be my last post for a while. I've decided I need to take a break from internetting for a bit. So until further notice I will only be online to check my email daily. Thought it was fair to let people know that so no one worries. LOL

So here are a few random thoughts...

I finished and sent in my taxes the day after I got out W2's in the mail. Certainly this is a new record. ;) And that included the time it took to go to the library and print off the 'Injured Spouse' forms. Sometimes it makes me happy that I live in a community property state! :) Also I remembered to put Kathrynn's Social Security Number on it this year so that should certainly speed things along. :)

I realized just tonight that I should have put Reverend as my profession on my taxes. Double damn for not realizing that earlier. Of course if I did that then there's always the off chance that my husband would have seen it. LOL Ok, not likely since his entire contribution to our tax preparation was me sticking a pen in his hand while he was asleep and waking him enough to get him to sign the paper.

Isn't it weird that I have been a Reverend for a while now and still not told my husband. I wonder how long I will not tell him that. LOL I just don't know how he would react to it. He hasn't reacted particularly well to my confessions of not believing in God and being bisexual. I suppose someday I will have to tell him I'm a Reverend. It's just not something that comes up in conversation, ever! Weird.

Anyway, like I said. I'm going to be spending some much needed time with my kids, cleaning my house, and hopefully getting outside, instead of being on the computer. So maybe I'll see some of you in person between now and my next post! ;)

Ow ow ow ow ow!!

I have a headache! Not really a headache so much as seething sinus pain!

Here's a brief history. A while back I was starting to come down with some sort of snotty virus thing. Right before I got fullblown sick with it I noticed some alarming swelling behind my right ear. Swelling tenderness and pain when I tried to open my mouth wide for eating. Oddly, once I got all the way sick this swelling went away.

Then I got better and the swelling has started coming back. Plus the whole side of my face is in pain. Concentrated specifically on my cheekbone. It hurts most when I bend over or look down. Advil has had no effect. Neither has Allegra or Sudafed.

It seems to be less painful in the mornings and get worse and worse as the day goes on.

Dawn says it's a tumor. If so I will probably die soon.

My mom, the nurse, says it's a massive sinus infection and that I need to see a doctor and get on antibiotics. She says if I don't then it might lead to hearing loss (well, more hearing loss, as that's the side where I already have 30% hearing loss) or meningitis (death).

My other thought is that I have a top tooth in that same vicinity who's mate on the bottom was removed some time ago. Because the tooth has nothing to oppose it it's growing out at a really bad angle. Maybe that's the problem. Doubt it though.

But doctors cost money. And I have no money. Antibiotics cost money, and again NO MONEY! It's damn near impossible to get medical coverage from the state as a non-pregnant adult. I guess my only option is to get pregnant?

Actually my mom has offered to pay the $68 for me to go to the Kenia Clinic but I know in the end it will end up costing her way more money than she has. $68 is just the visit and doesn't include any tests they might have to do or the antibiotics themselves.

Stupid, stupid, stupid headache!!!!

The other evening my husband was talking online to a male friend. Well a bunch of male friends on a Mechwarrior online voice chat thing. I wasn't really listening, I've learned to tune him out when he's talking online because he's LOUD and never talking to me. But the other day I happened to hear him 'mock flirting' with some of these guys. This seems to be very common of young males his age. As if to assure everyone that they are 100% heterosexual they mock flirt with other guys. It's kinda cute in a fragile, insecure, male sexuality sort of way.

Anyway, he told one of the guys "No, I don't swing that way, but my wife wishes I did!" Okay, I heard that! LOL So I said, loud enough for him to hear, "Only if I can watch!" Which he relayed to the guys. They thought that was weird.

Why is that weird?

Why is it's so acceptable that it's a cliche, that every guys fantasy is to watch two women have sex but when a woman mentions her similar fantasies, it's weird?

Maybe, I'm just missing something. Maybe, everyone else gets it. If you get it. Please explain. Thanks.

...and Socioeconomics for the 5 year old set.

You know it's going to be a fun and educational car ride when the 5 year old pipes up from the backseat with "Mommy, where do foodstamps come from?" And my quick and easy answer "the Government" is countered by "who's that?"

Oh yeah, we talked about taxes, and government, and politics, and welfare, and unemployment, and poverty, and Washington D.C., and President George W. Bush. Short answers are hard on these topics but gratefully her eyes didn't glaze over before we segued into how Washington D.C. is on the other side of the country closer to Ohio, where her half-sister lives, than us which then naturally lead into the mandatory "I miss my sissy, I want to see her." To which I replied "Well, hopefully we'll see her this summer." "What is Summer?" and we were happily off on the topic of weather and seasons.

What? She loses two teeth and suddenly she needs to know everything about EVERYTHING?? : )

Two nights ago it was God. Inspired by watching The Sound of Music. "who are those women?" "why are they singing?" "who's God?" "What is worship?" "why?" "why?" "why?"... Today she went to church with my sister and I warned her in advance that it wouldn't be appropriate for her to say "Dammit", "God Dammit", "this sucks" or "ass" while she was there. "why?" "Because it's against the rules" "That sucks!" LOL

:)

I've been busy, busy making a new title graphic and the little 'KatGut' email button on the right. I know they don't look like much but they represent HOURS of work. So take a moment and appreciate them a little OK? ;)

I looked up a bit ago and noticed my husband sitting at the other computer playing Mechwarrior. Certainly not an unusual occurrence! But here's the thing. Kathrynn was on his lap doing the shooting while Shawn did the joystick and Aiden was standing on the chair behind Shawn yelling "Shoot, shoot!!" And he INVITED them up to do this, it wasn't them bugging him. : )

Sometimes I wish he wouldn't have to go get a new job. : (

I'm heading over to Quizilla in just a moment to take the quiz I found on Dawn and Keith's blogs. It's surprisingly accurate so far. I would like to reflect for a moment first on my recent run of personality quiz creepiness. Any one want to bet that mine will say something about being an innocent child? : (

*sigh*

Ok here I go...


You represent... naivete.
So innocent and trusting... you can be very shy at
times, but it's only because you're not sure
how to act. You give off that "I need to
be protected vibe." Remember that not all
people are good. Being too trusting will get
you easily hurt.


What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla

OMG! I am so totally not even kidding! You probably think I rigged it. I swear to god (as a woman of the cloth) I didn't. I answered truthfully and even skipped over the obvious 'innocent child' answers! : ( WHY!!!!????!!!???

On the plus side I do think that these are some ofthe best quiz pictures yet! :)

After finding a new comment host I went and created my very own Message Board. I've been a busy busy girl. Not only that but I must think a lot of myself creating my own message board!! You know it's just going to be me, talking to myself! *sigh* : )

So if anyone else would like to check out my message board feel free. You probably have to do the whole profile thing if you want to actually read it or post anything. But I know no one who reads my blog has more important things to do! : )

Oh and be forewarned it clashes terribly with my blog. So don't be alarmed! :)

THE LINK!

So it appears I have a new comment host. Although I do feel a little disloyal to the cussing guy at BlogSpeak. What can I say? It was fun while it lasted but you just can't please me anymore. It's time to move on. : ) We'll see if the guy at CommentThis can make all of my commenting dreams come true.

If you too would like to try a spin with Nik at comment this. It's easy. Just follow the links I've cleverly hidden here in this post and follow his simple directions. And as he says in his instructions, if you like what he has to offer send him $2 wrapped in plain paper in the mail!!! Ahhh, I love a man who's cheap AND easy!! :)

Since this seemed relevant I thought it was worth reposting here. I hope I don't get sued for it or anything. On my quest for answers as to why no one's comments were working I headed right to the source. Right to blogspeak and this is what I found...

"BlogSpeak is currently down because the bastards that host it decided to suspend my account. I do not know as of yet when this situation will be resolved. If you don't want any JavaScript errors on your pages, take the code off for the time being. If you're pissed off because your comments don't work, I would be too. Believe me, I'm not too happy about my account being suspended either. I do have a backup of the DB from an hour before the suspension occurred. So if the server comes back up, or I have to get a new server, of even pass the duties of maintaining BlogSpeak off to someone else, everything will be in tact.

If you'd like to donate to the cause of most likely having to move hosting to a new locale, click here. If you have tons of extra bandwidth and storage available, and would be willing to host BlogSpeak, or take over all BlogSpeak duties entirely, email me and I'll tell you what it would entail.

BlogSpeak will also soon become open source, with both personal and server editions available. Those of you with your own servers running PHP & MySQL will be able to run comments on your own server instead of relying on one controlled by a building full of douchebags. Also, those of you with the brains and braun that want to start your own commenting service will have a good start with the server edition.

Thanks for your patience during this time, and I apologize for this bullshit."

Never before have I seen such eloquence in a piece of writing meant for the public. : )

It appears O may have to go the way of Dawn and CV and host my blog on my little chunk of cyberspace that I haven't bothered to use yet. : ( Oh well.

Oh! Where do I even begin?

I imagine everyone is holding their breath to find out how this morning went. Well good and bad. On the plus side I made it on time to my appointment. Got there right as they were opening the doors. The bad part of that is that DSHS doesn't give a flying fuck about 'time'. I got there promptly at 8 so I could wait in a line for 10 minutes to tell them I was there. After which I got to sit on my ass for another hour and a half before finally hearing my name called. I went dutifully to window 7 to talk to the lady there who explained all about 'Work First'.

What is work first you ask? Let me tell you. Work first is a government conspiracy to separate mothers from their children as soon as is (quasi) morally acceptable in this country (3 months) and get said children as quickly as possible into some kind of state funded (of course it's state funded, they're paying for it) daycare. I'm sure others would disagree but that's my radical-unschooling-mom take on the thing. Work first works like this. You want money from the state they make you work for it. The first week you spend Monday-Friday in 'classes' designed to help you get a job. The classes are from 9-4 and both Shawn and I would have to go. Oh and did I mention that they would pay for our kids to be in daycare during that time. No problem. Finding a daycare provider in a week. No problem at all. Especially for two kids who have never been in daycare EVER!! And then in this program you have to make 15 job contacts per week. 15!!! To put that into perspective for unemployment you have to make 3. Not only that but you also have to accept any job offered to you. Not that that's too bad really but applying for 15 jobs a week you don't exactly get to be selective you know.

SO logistically what this means is I could end up working at McDonald's making slightly above minimum wage, Shawn could end up working at Taco Bell, our kids would be in daycare paid for by the state, and we would be no better off financially than we are now. I don't see how exactly this is working toward their goal of helping people provide for themselves financially and getting them off public assistance. It seems to me that it's just going to make them MORE dependent!

Anyway, I agreed to go on this program knowing I could quit as soon as Shawn starts getting his unemployment compensation.

And then I got to sit down and, to quote The Cat in The Hat, that is not all, OH NO that is not all! Then I got to wait some MORE!!

My sister who had given me a ride at Damn Early in the morning actually had an appointment at 11. Since she was there she asked them if they might be able to see her early. They agreed. So at 10:10 she got in to her appointment. While I waited. At about 10:35 she came out of her appointment. I was still waiting.

What you really need to understand at this point was I needed to PEE!!! So bad! But you don't dare pee before your appointment because if they call your name and you miss it they aren't very understanding. So I couldn't really hold it any more. Since my sister was back I handed her my coat and she said if they called my name she would come get me. As I reached for the bathroom door handle...they called my name!!! I kid you not! I'm cursed!!!

The lady I met with was nice. I had a whole list of documents I was supposed to bring with me. I was very stressed about them because many of them I didn't have since I got my letter for my appointment in the mail Friday evening and my appointment was first thing Monday morning. The good news is she didn't ask for ANY of it. She asked my for picture ID and called my landlady to verify my rent. That was pretty much it. After we filled out tons of stuff on her computer she disappeared for a while and returned to tell me that because Shawn has a 401K we are not eligible for cash assistance. At the same time if we withdrawal the 401K and spend it. Then we will be eligible. Apparently they want to make sure you're good and poor. None of this saving for retirement shit!

But what this also means is that I don't have to worry about the Work First program although I was assured that I could still do it if I anted to! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! It also means I have absolutely no money until Shawn's unemployment comes through someday in the supposed future. *sigh*

In the end I walked out of DSHS after 3 1/2 hours with a EBT card (food stamps) with $371 on it, two bus passes, and tons of papers. I met up with my mom later in the day who gave me a huge box of diapers (remember NO MONEY means no diapers) and a $20 gift card to Safeway, which will help buy cigarettes for Shawn and gas when the car is moving again.

My brother In law is coming to work on the car tomorrow and my parents have offered $100 towards it's repair.

Tomorrow we're hopping on the bus of a ride to Outback to spend out Christmas gift certificates and maybe we'll stop by the video place and rent a movie with our free movie coupon.

Things aren't as bad as they could be.

: )

P.S. My sister and I came up with a plan. Take all the women in the DSHS office. Train half of them to work as social workers and help half of them make an on site daycare center for all the kids who come in and all the kids of the women who work there. Everyone would have jobs and as a bonus the actual social workers would have a clue about what it is to be poor. It's not perfect but it's a plan. :)

To insure that I would be up in time for my damn early 8am appointment with DSHS I set my alarm clock for 6:51. Now when you consider that I usually get up at 11am this is DAMN DAMN early. In fact if I were able to roll out of bed already dressed and showered and magically appear at the DSHS office right at 8am it would sill be TOO DAMN EARLY!!

But I digress. I set my alarm clock for 6:51 and in the uncanny way that I do when I'm stressed about something I woke this morning at 6:45 and was able to turn off the alarm before waking up Kathrynn who was sleeping next to me.

I bounded out of bed (yes, I did) and headed to the shower. I will admit that although it was damn early it was almost worth it because I had a shower completely devoid of interruptions. That hasn't happened in 6 long years. ; ) After my shower I got dressed and came into the living room to wait for my lovely sister, who volunteered (with only a minimum of guilt involved) to give me a ride to my appointment. I take back all the bad things I've said about her lately. She's a wonderful person. I can always count on her to treat me like a child and lucky for me driving from Richland to pick me up and take me to my appointment fits that bill. : )

So in the living room I glance up at the clock and it says 6:05!!??!! Is my shower a time warp? Can I turn back time by merely stepping into my shower? More likely the battery in the clock in the living room has gotten old and the time is running slow. That seems logical. The alarm clock in the bedroom plugs into the wall so surely it's not inaccurate. Just to be sure I didn't totally misread the time I get up and go check the time in my room. 7:06. So barring a time zone change someplace in the hallway something is definitely up. But these are the only two clocks in the house.

Then an idea hits me and I sit down at my computer. The clock on the computer is never wrong. The clock on the computer magically keeps time even when it's turned off. I don't know how this works but the clock in the computer is my best friend! Well, it was until I sit down and it says 6:07!!!!

What the hell???? Apparently somehow last night while setting the alarm clock I managed to turn the clock back an hour. I don't even see how it's possible, but somehow I did it. See, in setting my clock there's only one button and time only goes FORWARD when you push the button. There's no way to turn it back. Only forward. I would have to have set it foreword 23 hours!! I think I would remember doing that!!

So now it's 7am. I've been up for over an hour. I want to go back to bed! : (

The snow gods hate me. Not only did they trap my car in the snow, but then they killed the battery.

They must know that finding a job solely over the internet is highly ineffective for my husband.

They must know I have an appointment with DSHS on monday at 8 in the freaking morning and that if I miss it it will totally screw up EVERYTHING and that I can't take the bus because I can't even get to the damn bank to withdraw my two DAMN DOLLARS!!!

They must just hate me!

*sigh*

So Kathrynn lost her very first tooth the other day. On Shawn's Birthday to be exact. It was all very exciting. Now she looks like a pumpkin. Thankfully the tooth fairy was able to find 4 quarters around the house to put under her pillow. It's an alarming thing when your daughter loses a tooth and you have no cash, to give the tooth fairy, to put under her pillow.

The funny thing is this. Back before we had kids Shawn and I agreed not to do the whole Santa/Easter bunny/Tooth fairy thing with the kids. Up until this point we've been able to do it because they were young and oblivious. They didn't care where the Christmas presents came from. But this year Kathrynn was bound and determined to believe in Santa. We tried to convince her otherwise but she will have none of it. She told us we were lying when we told her there was no Santa. It's so backwards and messed up.

Makes me wonder a little what kind of future therapy she will have to be in because if this. :) If she believes in Santa despite us and grows up to learn the truth and finds that her parents were in fact telling the truth all along... Years of therapy!!!

I always assumed it would take way more energy to convince a child that there WAS a Santa and to keep all that 'magic' going than it would to just be honest from the get go. How wrong was I? We were so tired of trying to convince her of the truth that when her tooth popped out the other night we TOTALLY became the parents we didn't want to be and went through the whole tooth fairy thing. It was a LOT easier. LOL

Ok so for as long as I've been bloggin' here, I've been spell checking the hell out of thing so you all don't know what a huge Spelling Loser I am. Sometimes it still doesn't work.

In any case some of the recommendations that the spellchecker comes up with crack me up!!

For a recent example. Mr. Spellchecker doesn't like "Salma" but would prefer "salami"! :)

Also Mr. Spellchecker would apparently prefer that my husband be a woman (well, who wouldn't!) it always wants to change "Shawn" to "Shawnee" Maybe the hair throws it off.

Mr.Spellchecker has made it clear he does not approve of the way I spell my children's names and as for My name "Katrina" he came up with "Quatrain". What the hell was he thinking? Although correcting my middle name "Aline" and making it "Alien" is something I've always suspected.

As for other names he turned "M'Ellen" into "Mellon" which makes sense but then turned "Anna's" into "Annoys"! Which is completely from left field!! LOL ; ) "Conan" is a "Cowman" and "Rodney's" is "Rednecks".

Doesn't like "fuck" but does like "Fuji".

And although I know that the spellchecke is by MSN and not by Blogger I always get a little chuckle each time he wants to change "BLOG" to "BLOC"! :)

Ok I give up! I can't have a celebrity crush on Josh, it's clear. If his mom is NOT a good midwife then what good is that? Plus he DID play a bad guy in HULK (as CV pointed out) so that's points against him. OK, lets face it, being IN HULK was points against him anyway. :)

I guess I'll go back to crushing over Drew Barrymore instead.

Oh well.

So since it's all cool to have a celebrity crush I thought I should. :)

Last night I was watching Late Night TV and someone (maybe Conan) had this guy on, Josh Lucas. (I would post a pic but my pic hosting people are sucking right now). He's pretty nice to look at. But even better than that his mom is a midwife! And he saw all of his younger siblings born at home! His dad is an ER Dr. And his mom used to drag him all over going to homebirths!

He was born in '71 so he's not WAY too old for me. And get this his family lives in Tacoma!!

It's clearly meant to be. From the website I read he's apparently dating Selma Hayek. Which would seem like an obstacle but c'mon. I was dragged to hombirths growing up too. I'm sure I have a shot against ol' Selma!

So there you go. I don't know anything else about him, but I'm sure it's destiny!

You are going to Marry Josh Hartnett. He is really
shy, but don't let that fool you. He is really
outgoing and sweet with those he loves and will
be loyal to them for the rest of his life.
Congrats!!


Which male celebrity are you going to marry? (10 results that have pics!)
brought to you by Quizilla

So apparently I'm going to marry the above celebrity. I don't know who he is, but he looks nice. : ) Of course being already married to Shawn might pose a problem. Or it might not... ; )

Here's a little more on marriage...

Kathrynn is very hung up on the marriage issue. She's bound and determined to marry Dave (Dawn's son). He is decidedly not marrying Kathrynn, so that causes contention as you can imagine. She literally cries about his refusal to marry her. I tried to explain to her that she will likely marry someone she hasn't met yet since she *is* only 5. But her response is "But I don't want to marry someone I don't KNOW!!!"

*sigh*

So the snow day doesn't effect us. NOT!!! Kathrynn's little Kindergarten friend was over all day!

At one point I overheard the following conversation.

Kathrynn: Hey what does this say?

Friend: Uhhh... I don't know. I can only read at school.

Kathrynn: I don't have a school.

Friend: I do.

Kathrynn: I just stay home with my family.

Friend: I don't have a family just a teacher.

: (

Ok, I know she didn't mean it like that. But MAN! How sad is that?

I need some input here. A consensus, perhaps.

I've gotten really good at ignoring the fact that my husband doesn't do housework. I mean, I bitch about it occasionally but it doesn't really bother me.

Even now that he's unemployed it doesn't really bother me. I haven't been doing any housework either because I've been sick.

Today I was on the phone with my sister. I was cleaning the livingroom (finally) while I talked to her. I was graphically describing the mess.

"Why did you let it get so messy?" she asks

"Well, I've been sick and I haven't really been able to clean."

"But your husband has been home, why didn't he do it?"

"Hahahahaha! Shawn doesn't clean. Ever."

"That's bullshit."

Ok, I admit it IS bullshit. At least it sure seams like bullshit doesn't it? But I know he doesn't clean, I don't expect him to clean so it's rarely an issue except from the outsider's perspective.

I got to thinking and couldn't think of another man that I know, married or single, who does less housework than Shawn. And I got a little angry. But then I realize he could easily say the same thing about me. I don't know another woman who does less housework than I do. LOL It's true. So I can't exactly get on his case when I hardly do anything myself can I?

Or maybe I'm just fatalistic.

So I'm asking for opinions here. What do YOU think? Should he do more? Is it a given in this day and age that a husband SHOULD be able to, lets say, feed himself and do laundry, if the wife is otherwise not around? Or. If it doesn't really bother the two people in the marriage should it be ok for a husband to act more like an extra 8 year old?

We rented Medallion with Jackie Chan the other day. Not a bad movie. Some of it's cheesy and dome of the comedy doesn't seam to flow right but it was a fun movie to watch anyway. The main chick (I'm sure she would love being identified that way) is cute and her accent is adorable. And Jackie was cool (is he getting old?).

While it wasn't a super excellent movie it has been playing over, and over, and over, for the last few days because KATHRYNN is in love with it!! LOL The first thing she wants in the morning is to watch Jackie Chan. That strikes me as a bit odd for a 5 year old. It probably shouldn't but it does. Aiden enjoys it too. But he tries to do all the moves while he watches which is too cute.

Kathrynn also really enjoyed Legally Blond 2. Or as she calls it 'The movie with the Pink girl'. :) I guess my little girls is growing up. Pretty soon she'll be listening to Brittany and watching Hillary Duff. *sigh*

Shawn's birthday is in 2 days. I have 17 dollars to my name and no real idea when more will be coming. :( I don't know what to do.

See the thing about Shawn's birthday is it tends to get forgotten. I mean what kind of right minded person has a birthday on January 9th? It's too close to Christmas and at the same time far enough from Christmas to not be conspicuously 'close to Christmas'. I think people who's birthdays are on say December 24th fare better because others go out of their way to make sure that birthday is not forgotten.

So this year I assured him his birthday would not go unnoticed. That we would have some sort of elaborate affair (er, I mean party, lol) and celebrate this most auspicious day. It's his 31st birthday. LOL I know number 30 is supposed to be the big one but last year he wasn't on speaking terms with ANY of my family and very few of my friends. It's hard to have a party when you're on everyone's shit lists.

I could make him something. But I have to admit that my skills at crafting Memory cards, or sound cards, or other expensive computer gadgetry are definitely lacking! LOL

So I am afraid that another birthday for Shawn is going to fall uneventfully by the wayside. Maybe he deserves it... I mean LOOK at the snow! :)

pegs me as childish. It's becoming a little disconcerting, really. Maybe it's a sign. A sign of what I'm not exactly sure.


Babie's laughter: Warm, kind and loving; a baby's
laugh represents you. You are very innocent and
enjoy the simple things in life. You are
probably very good with children and have a
positive, happy soul. (please rate my quiz)


What Sound Are You?(now w/ pics)
brought to you by Quizilla

I don't know if I've mentioned the new 'Gaming System' we got 'the kids' for Christmas. And I'm too lazy to go find out. :) It's an interesting little gadget. I'll try to describe it.

We got it at the mall at one of the little 'Sweat Shop Direct' Christmas-time mall kiosks. You know the ones that sell the things you would have only guessed you could buy on TV at 3am.

Supposedly it has 7600 games in it. Which to me seems a tad high. Especially since the games in question are the original Nintendo games. I would never have guessed Nintendo was THAT prolific! So, really, you know they're lying about the 7600 games. They have to be! Which makes me wonder why they aimed SO high. I think just as many people would buy their product if it were advertised as having a more believable number like say 1000. Really if you're going to be lying so plainly at least kick it up to 1 Million or something.

At the mall this 'Amazing' system was playing Duck Hunt. The kids fell in love.

Lets see if I can describe the thing itself. Imagine a Nintendo 64 controller with a couple extra buttons on top and no 'Z' buttons. Now make it out of cheap cheap plastic in a third world country, take special care to make all of the buttons a little 'sticky'. Since there's that funny little center joystick that isn't needed in any of the games, lets put it on there but make it so it doesn't move at all. Apparently now we have an inconvenient thumb rest. Just for kicks lets put a cartridge slot on the BOTTOM of the controller where it will completely interfere with holding the controller comfortably and cause bruises on the pointer fingers of all who dare to use it. :) (Wait why do I need a cartridge slot if there are 7600 games INSIDE? Are you trying to tell me Nintendo made 7601 NES games?)

The '7600' games are inside the controller itself. There is no 'box'. It plugs right into the TV. Out the front of the controller you can also plug in the second controller which is a Super Nintendo controller made of the same cheap plastic in the same third world country. It has a small 1 1/4 inch or so 'joystick' that you can screw into the arrowed thumbpad. I don't know if that was something you could do with the originals or if that's something new, but I haven't found it especially useful. Also into the front of the first controller you can plug the gun. Which reminds me of a water gun or perhaps a cap gun but us definitely nothing like the original Nintendo gun. It's even painted to look 'real' so in a pinch I suppose you could cut the wires and use it to rob 7-11.

As I said before we got this for the kids. Specifically for Duck Hunt. Which isn't bad because I imagine every original cartridge of that game has been played to oblivion. We paid (I think) $45 dollars for the system. But hell for 7600 games! Surely it was worth it. ;)

Oh, yeah, about that... Got it home plugged it in. 7600 games listed! Can you imagine? Of course they're listed 20 to a page and after about 6 pages they start repeating, and repeating all the way to 7600. And some of them aren't right at all. Burger Time for instance, isn't Burger Time at all! Grrrrr.....

One other thing worth mentioning is that this particular product doesn't appear to be made by anyone...anywhere. I looks all over the box it cam in and not only does it not say Made in China (Indonesia, Hong Kong, Arkansas) it doesn't even have a company NAME! No address, no Nothing! It also predictable doesn't say Nintendo anyplace on the box. LOL Surprisingly (not) it doesn't appear to be officially licensed by Nintendo.

There's the haystack, here's the needle.

So far I've paid $45 so my kids can play Duck Hunt. Possibly not the best investment ever, but not the worst either. I'm sure their well honed duck blasting skills will come in handy. If I can ever get them to stand back at least a foot from the TV. :)

But today I made a discovery, I hit gold. Maybe it's the influence of the Video Game beast, or perhaps it's just a newly born appreciation for simplicity. I found the funnest game in there. It's called Binary Land. I don't know why I never played this before. It's the awesomest game! Some of you I'm sure have played it and can attest to it's sheer awesomeness.

It's basically a maze game. There are two penguins (male and female supposedly although they could easily be a gay couple as long as one is green and one is pink with a bow, which I'm sure we all recognize can happen in male/male or female/female couples as well) the penguins start on separate sides of the maze and have to meet in the center top at the pink heart where they share an impassioned kiss thus completing the level. The catch is that you control BOTH penguins! You control one primarily (that is it does what you tell it to) and the other does sort of the opposite. Ok, if you tell the one to go right the other goes left. But if you tell the one to go up, they both go up. And there's a time limit! And spider webs and spiders and lasers and bonus prizes and bonus levels! It's totally cool!

There's drama, suspense, romance, and danger, mystery, homosexuality, it is literally a game for THIS century! So what it was doing on the original NES I will never know. It was ahead of it's time. Expect to see it soon on a cell phone near you. :)

I'm an irredeemably eejitous, liberal, tight as fuck, pathetically simple-minded, dribbling child!
See how compatible you are with me!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Honestly. I don't know what much of that means but once again I am listed as 'a child'. Hmmmm.... creepy.

Got this little bit-o-fun off of Anna's Blog.

My Mormon name is Kaltighanna Athleen!
What's yours?

Ok the oddest part of that is that it's not SO far off of my REAL name of Katrina Aline. And it didn't even ask for a middle name. Weird! Ok probably not all that weird I guess... :)

Can you believe this snow? I blame Shawn. If you need someone to blame, feel free to blame Shawn as well. It's clearly all his fault anyway.

When I was a kid I was fairly enamored with video games. Specifically Nintendo. I even remember spending all of my lunch (1/2) hour in Jr.High playing Pole Position in the cafeteria at Carmichael. :-)

In the early years of my cohabitation and marriage with Shawn we would spend many a bloody hour playing James Bond Golden Eye on our Nintendo 64. I could kick some ass on that game too.

Then Kathrynn was born. At first it didn't bother me. But I eventually realized I was too obsessive about playing the game. Freaking out when my toddler toddled in front of the TV or inadvertently pulled a controller cord from it's plug.

I had to stop and look at myself and realize that it wasn't a good thing when I played games. So for the last several years I've pretty much tried to stay game free. I would play a little bit here or there but not allow myself to get too involved emotionally because I know how addictive it can be for me.

Then the other day I was at Dawns' and we played some Nintendo Gamecube racing game. The demon has been released!

I've been playing Zapper at home now. Zapper is about the only 'fun' game we have for our (stupid) XBOX. I've played it here and there. We bought it originally thinking the kids might enjoy it. And they do somewhat. But for the last few days (being sick and not going out much) I've been playing it and playing it. Not only trying to pass the levels but to do each level PERFECTLY. It's added a whole new facet to the game. It's hard. It's addictive. It makes me growl, and stomp, and all but throw the damn controller through the TV screen. This is exactly why I stopped playing in the first place. But now I must finish the game!!

So if I never blog again because I'm too busy yelling at my TV, blame Dawn.