Lydellphoto pointed me to this really cool site where it correlates a scripture verse to your birthday. My birth verse is:

Philippians 1:21 NIV
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

To get your birth verse, to go http://www.mybirthverse.com/

I do need to learn to live by this verse more. I know that to live in Christ and die to myself is gain. It's that whole dying to myself process that is so difficult. Another blessing from Lydell's website, a portion of a prayer they have scrolling along the sidebar, "... while I know that I will never be a perfect child, I rest toda in the confidence that I am your child and you claim me." How awesome is that! I know I am not perfect. I struggle each day to die to myself. Yet even though the sinful me continues to try to raise its ugly head, God loves me and still claims me as his! Amen.

Yesterday is a blur and I am afraid today might end up being so as well. It is obvious to me, from the amount of people coming in for computer and cell phones, that people are starting to get their tax returns in already. January always is one of our better, if not our best, sales months. Combine that with doing end-of-year audits and financial reports, and you've got a combination for long days and high stress.

I got to the office at 6:30 yesterday morning and did not leave until 7:55 last night. I stepped foot outside the building only twice - once to carry out a bag of trash and the other to run something out to a customer's car that they had dropped on the floor at the counter.

The rest of the day was spent mostly behind the counter helping the sales staff with the rush, and in the office trying to finalize our new computer brochures so they will be on the floor ready for today's launch of Windows Vista. Oh, I also managed to get the bank deposit put together by the end of the day, but not in time to get it to the bank. That will be done as soon as they open this morning. I brought the final proof of the brochure home with me last night and John and I discussed it briefly while we ate a dinner I brought home from KFC. I am nearly ready to head in to the office today, and I will make the one copy edit I need on the brochure before printing it out.

I've got a butt load of work to do today, too, so I'd better get dressed and get moving. I woke up this morning before the alarm went off (it was set to go off right about now) and I've already cleaned up, so now it's just dress, pack lunches and hit the road.

I overlooked this at my sister's site earlier this week. It seems like fun, so here is mine...

The name quiz---This is fun!

1. YOUR REAL NAME:
Debra Sue Doty

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.)
Debizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal)
Purple Cat

4. YOUR SPY NAME: (middle name, and current street name)
Sue Third

5.  YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name and first 2 letters of mom's maiden name, first 3 letters of your hometown)
Dotde Anosk

Sometimes the weirdest questions come into my mind. This morning, it was "When (and why) did women start to shave their legs." I, of course, was in the process of shaving mine in the shower, and for some reason, the need to know this little bit of information seemingly overpowered me.

I did find, in my search of the Internet, which I know is not always factual, that Egyptian Pharoahs believed that any body hair was unclean, so it stands to reason that their women would have shaved as well. But when did modern women begin shaving. After all, many Europrean women (particularly Germans that I know of) do not shave, so when did we begin shaving?

In my lifetime, women have always shaved their legs, but apparently that was not the case in the 1950s, when only some women shaved.

I found this excerpt at the Safety Razor database, and it makes pretty sense enough that I can believe it to be true.

As the 1920's brought forth even more revealing clothes like the short skirts and bathing suits of the "flapper" era, one presumes that leg shaving would come into fashion. Krumholz says the big swing to leg shaving began in earnest in WWII when silk stockings were at a premium and women, used to shorter hems, turned to shaving and leg makeup. Styles since then plus the images of what's "in" have emphasized the desirability of shaving even more since. It is not surprising that different countries and cultures often differ on the shaving of armpit and leg hair. The Wilkinson Razor German web site used to have an interesting article that indicated: "The changed body consciousness among women has led to the fact that they are increasingly occupied with this theme. In countries such as the USA, France and Spain, wet-shaving has long been a part of women's daily body care. In Germany, however, the market is still small, only 27% shave at all. But the trend is strongly upwards, especially amongst young women, (53% of up to 24 years old). " I guess what that says is that the trend is continuing to grow world-wide. Sounds like German women are at about where North American women were with respect to shaving in about the 1960's (?). Its all about "fashion" I guess, the right "look" we are told we should have. Still, in many cultures shaving is taboo or ritualistic, or not an issue for both men and women. Since WWI and the 1920's we have had an increasing variety of women's razors and shavers, many designed specifically for that special task rather than being a man's razor with a pretty handle.

Well, I have been tagged via e-mail by my daughter. Rather than sending to everyone in e-mail, I thought it would be more expeditious to post it here at Xanga.

How well do you know me?? For instance, did you know...

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Waitress

2. Insurance salesman

3. Newspaper reporter

4. Graphics designer

1. Selena

2. Dirty Dancing

3. The Notebook

4. The sound of Music

1. Okinawa, Japan

2. Fayetteville, NC

3. Copperas Cove, TX

4. Nampa, ID

 

1. Survivor

2. Grey's Anatomy

3. The Amazing Race

4. NCIS

1. Sparta, WI

2. Colorado Springs, CO

 

3. Copperas Cove, TX (many times)

 

4. Portland, OR

1. weather.com

2. xanga.com

3. dandh.com

4. mchsi.com

 

1. Mexican

2. Chinese

3. Cheesecake

4. Tuna-noodle casserole

 

1. In bed

2. Texas

3. Arizona

4. At my mother's

 

1. Mom

2. Ann

3. Sunnee

 

4. Anyone who would like to

It as a long day at work today. Went in at 7:30 a.m. and left shortly after 8 p.m. Tempted as I was, I did not grab drive-thru fast food on the way home. I had bought a couple of ribeye steaks on sale and I cooked them up tonight, throwing a couple potatoes in the microwave and tossing together a fresh salad while those cooked. It was a nice dinner and didn't take a whole lot of effort to cook.

A couple of nice things did happen today amongst the hubbub at work - daughter #2 called to chat. It was short, but nice to hear her voice and just talk for no real reason. Also, my old housekeeper came in to buy something. She had quit not long after starting for me because she had to have surgery. This was months and months ago (like 9 or 10). After talking with her for a little bit, she said she just wasn't able to climb stairs for a long time (which I understand). She is going to be coming back to work for me, so there is a little relief in the stress factor there. It was so nice when she was cleaning the house before because she always did it right before the weekend and we got to have a nice clean house over the weekend. She has Friday mornings open now. I want to jump for joy over this. She'll call me next week to work out a schedule. Even if she only comes every other week, it will still be great to have someone do the stuff I never manage to find time for (like practically everything!).

The hubbub will continue tomorrow as we have employee training in the morning. One of the wireless companies is rolling out a new product that I have to train all the employees on. It's going to be fantastic and I'm really excited about it. I also have to deal with a mother who is upset that one of my employees was rude to her college-aged son who kept calling every couple of hours to see if his computer was ready. He had gigs and gigs of files he wants transferred from an old computer to a new one. My employee told him we would indeed call him when it was finished. I guess he thought that was rude. She will be in tomorrow afternoon and wishes to speak to the owner. Bah! If she thinks my employee was rude, she ain't seen nothing if she gets my backside up over something stupid - like maybe she raised her son with no manners. We'll see.

Tomorrow daughter #1 finds out the sex of their baby. They are hoping it's a boy, and I've felt all along it is a boy. We'll see. They already have a boy name picked out. Last I talked to them, they had changed their mind on the girl name. Her sister is anxious to find out what it is, too. She was telling me tonight it seems like they had Daughter #1 go much longer than she did to find out the sex. I guess Daughter #1 is currently at 24 weeks and Daughter #2 got to find out the sex of her baby at 18 weeks.

I'm off to swill some Ny-Quil and hit the bed. I already took a Mucinex to see if it will help loosen the very thick phlegm I'm getting with this one (and it's only day 2).

That sore throat I reported yesterday has turned into a cold. I am miserable this morning. I've been swabbing with Zycam every 4 hours since I woke up with the raw throat yesterday. It was difficult to tell at first because sometimes I snore pretty badly and on occassion it will be in such a way that I will awake with a dry, sore throat. But this one is a cold. I probably should have listened to John and NOT gone out to help shovel yesterday, but I felt guilty about him doing it all alone. By the time we were done, I was soaked through with sweat. We both were. His face was really red from his blood pressure being elevated, too.

My in-laws took us out to our favorite Mexcian place for dinner last night. I introduce my father-in-law to fajitas. He'd never had them and I asked him if he wanted to split an order. They always gring WAAAAY too much and I easily take half of it home for later. He and I both would rather just eat the meat and vegetables right off the plate. I wrapped in a couple of tortillas, but since they count as bread, I have to be careful. I also have a bad habit of eating too many chips with salsa before the meal comes. Luckily, no one said anything to the waiters about it being my birthday, so they spared me the embarrassment of someone sticking a sombrero on my head and singing some birthday song to me in Spanish. They bring you a free fried ice cream if you allow them to sing to you, but I don't like the fried ice cream, so I didn't care.

Today starts a really hectic day at work. I have a conference call at 9 a.m. to learn about a new feature one of the wireless phone companies will roll out on Wednesday. I'm actually impressed that they are giving us a few day's heads up on this. Normally they have the conference call the day before they start, and they don't tell you about the conference call until the business day before it happens. Tomorrow morning is employee training at our store - we do this twice a month - so I can share what I learn with the rest of the employees.

Then I have to make a trip over to the Knoxville store to check in on them. I was supposed to go Saturday but things got so crazy I never made it over. At least the highways will be nice and clean. The state does a good job with cleaning the roads, even if the city does not. The next door neighbor was out working on his walks at the same time we were yesterday. He mentioned that they had just been in Pella and their city streets were nice and clean. Of course Pella - which is famous for it's Dutch heritage and spring tulip festival, as well as Pella Windows - caters to tourists. They would want to keep their streets clean to encourage visitors. Oskaloosa doesn't seem to care. They pay a lot of lip service to making our community more visitor friendly, but they rarely do anything to attract or keep such visitors.

No church today. We got a few inches overnight, which would not normally shut everything down, but we are in a snow advisory and supposed to get a few more before noon. Many churches have cancelled services this morning. I am guessing it is because they don't think they'll have the walks cleared off when church gets out. Of course, it could also be because the road crews are less likely to be out on Sunday morning, especially before everything stops. I guarantee the city crews won't be out this morning, and most of the churches are down city streets.

It's coming down hard. We cannot see the contours of the steps out front, nor can we see the hard lines on the steps across the street. They are all rounded over. It has snowed very small flakes very hard on and off all night. Many times you could not even tell it was snowing, except that the snow kept getting deeper and deeper.

John did remember to wish me happy birthday this morning. I guess I woke him up when I got up to use the restroom at 4 a.m. It looked terribly light outside from inside the bedroom. The light coming through the edges of the blinds was like it does just before sunrise. I guess it was from all the snow reflecting back streetlights and porch lights.

I woke up with a sore throat this morning - not good when I've got tons of work to do today. I was planning on helping John shovels the walks and the driveway when it lets up, but he says I should stay inside. I was also hoping we could go see "The Pursuit of Happiness" today as a birthday treat. That movie looks so good, especially since it's a true story. I saw an interview with the real man and I had tears in my eyes. With the weather being the way it is, and me trying to come down with something again, I think we'll pass. I guess we'll just have to rent it when it comes out on DVD.

Sunday is my birthday. I put a Post-It Note on John's cell phone this morning to remind him. If you remember from last year, birthdays are not important to him, they're just another day to him. They were important in my family and while he thinks I shouldn't be worried about celebrating being another year older, I say BRING IT ON, BABY, because it means I've been given another year on this earth to celebrate.

Today is also my shut-in friend from church's birthday. I need to be sure to go by her house today and say happy birthday. She really doesn't want anything for her birthday, but I know she needs a telephone cradle (you know, the kind that makes it easier to tuck the phone between your ear and your shoulder). I think I know where I can pick one of those up to surprise her. If not, it's not big deal. She'll be happy with me spending a little time chatting with her, especially since she knows how busy we've been the past few weeks.

Hopefully, the snow will hold off long enough for me to manage to get over there to visit. I need to go to the grocery store, too. My husband is out of sugar. The rule is that when you open the last bag to put it into the canister, you are supposed to write it on the grocery list. He claims that he didn't open the last bag, but given I don't eat sugar anymore and haven't cooked with sugar since Christmas Day (when I made pumpkin pies for the family), it's highly unlikely that I opened the last bag of sugar.

When I checked whether channel this morning, I noticed that this next storm is going from Arizona all the way up to Nebraska is already getting snow or ice; most of Texas is, too. I feel sorry for the older folks, the snowbirds, who flee to the south every year to avoid the cold weather. They would have been better off to stay home this year, I think. We still have snow on the ground, though MOST of the roads are cleared up and the sidewalks that were fairly well cleaned the other day are down to the cement now. Those that were not cleaned well are sheer sheets of ice.

Did you guys down south get a chance to thaw out before the next round hit?

In 1966 (the year you were born)

Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the US As part of nationwide protest against the Vietnam War, demonstrations are staged all over the US In Miranda vs. Arizona, the Supreme Court rules that criminal suspects must be apprised of their rights before interrogation US planes begin bombing of the Hanoi area of North Vietnam Controversial American comedian Lenny Bruce is found dead of a drug overdose in his home John Lennon says, "We are more popular than Jesus" sparking controversy in the US The first black Senator is elected to the United States Senate Cindy Crawford, Janet Jackson, Mike Tyson, Halle Berry, Adam Sandler, and Kiefer Sutherland are born Baltimore Orioles win the World Series Green Bay Packers win the NFL championship Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the top grossing film Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is published Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel are released Star Trek and The Newlywed Game premiere

I about fell on my butt a few times yesterday, once when I was wearing my Yak Trax. They are supposed to give you good traction, but I was walking down a sidewalk and it was particularly bad in front of some people's houses. I also pass 4 churches in my little 3-block walk to work, and all but one of them had treacherous sidewalks in front of them yesterday morning.

People do not seem to understand that snowblowers alone do not clean a sidewalk well enough. I would rather walk on top of inches of snow than down a walk that was only snowblown a day or two ago. The little layer of snow that gets left easily turns into a sheet of ice.

The sidewalks in front of our house look pretty good, but then my husband and I put our backs into it with a couple of shovels and then we salted the entire walkway around the house (2 full bags of ice melt were used). John was talking about buying a snowblower to help with the job - at least it would move the majority of the snow - but we would still go back over it with a shovel. He likes nice clean walks and now that I've walked on solid sheets of ice even after they were supposedly cleand, I agree with him.

BTW, if anyone lives in areas that ice up regularly (and maybe some of you in the south who are getting hammered now and do so ocassionally), these things really are fantastic. I paid $10 for John's pair on clearance a few years ago after he fell on the ice, and I paid about $20 for mine this year. They slip over nearly any kind of shoe and provide traction on just about any kind of ice or snow. They remind me of my grandma's golashes (sp?) that she used to slip on over her shoes when I was little, except they are wired underneath. They also fold up easily into my coat pocket when I'm not using them.

A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted Pacific island for years. Finally one day a boat comes sailing into view, and the man frantically waves and draws the skipper's attention. The boat comes near the island, and the sailor gets out and greets the stranded man.

After awhile the sailor asks, "What are those three huts you have here?"

"Well, that's my house there."

"What's that next hut?" asks the sailor.

"I built that hut to be my church."

"What about the other hut?"

"Oh, that's where I used to go to church."