Things I Can't Live Without.

I was told that people were tired of seeing the scary Barnabas Collins of my last post and that it was time to post again. So here is a list of things I cannot live without:

1. Netflix. I don't know what I would do without it. I currently have a list of 326 items consisting of classics, foreign, PBS, old TV shows. Anything to make the treadmill more enjoyable. I think I would never exercise without Millennium or Bro. Cadfael. Thanks to my good Netflix friends -- Rachel, Emily, Gordon and the Lewis's so I can keep getting good ideas of what to watch.

2. The NY Times Crossword Puzzle online edition. Bob steals the crossword puzzle every day and then has the nerve to ask me to finish it for him when he gets stuck. With the NYT I can do a puzzle online and then toggle back & forth to wikipedia or google to look for answers when I need help. Not that I ever need much help.

3. Spoilerfix.com -- I love to see spoilers for my favorite shows -- Bones, Lost, The Closer. I check it everyday.

4. IMDB.com -- to the uninitiated that would be the Internet Movie Data Base. It has all answers to who is in what movie, etc. This is especially helpful when doing the NYT Crossword Puzzle online. Many times, Bob insists that a certain actor is in a particular movie, and since he thinks that I am a walking encyclopedia of movieness, I sometimes have to go look up something to prove him wrong. I am only the walking encyclopedia because of IMDB and sometimes Bob is right.

5. Weight Watchers -- With 50+ lbs gone, I must say that I couldn't do it without WW. It has been a lifesaver. My heel pain is gone, I am no longer short of breath, I don't pee everytime I laugh, cough, sneeze, etc. (I know, TMI). I am still a little frustrated at how tired I am but that may have something to do with not getting enough sleep or having MS. Who knows.

6. My DVR -- I love to be able to record all my favorite shows (Dancing with the Stars, Bones, Criminal Minds, and Say Yes to the Dress) and then watch them while lying in my bed. I recorded the General LDS Women's Conference on Saturday and have been able to watch it all propped up on my pillows -- my favorite way to attend church.

7. Fabric stores -- this is really the only type of shopping that I truly enjoy. When it comes to clothes, shoes, etc., I just shop online or at Fred Meyer?Smiths. But fabric -- that is another story. I love the feel of fabric; the joy that comes from coordinating designs for a quilt project; Just possessing it, I don't really even need to make anything.

If I have to give up any of these things, I'm not sure I will survive. Please don't ask.

Dark Shadows

When I was in Jr. High School, I used to rush home from school to watch a soap opera. Not just any soap opera, mind you, but a soap opera with VAMPIRES!!! You see, I was hooked on Dark Shadows, the original Vampire-love story. I don't count those hokey Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee vampire movies, because no one really loved nor felt sorry for those guys. In Dark Shadows, although not physically attractive like the luminous Edward Cullen, Barnabus Collins had an attraction that could not be denied, not by the women of Collinsport, nor teenagers. He was refined, spoke with a British accent, and was so tragic. He spent his entire life, after being turned into a vampire by an evil witch, trying to bring back to life his beloved Josette, who flung herself off the cliff at Widow's Hill after she had a vision of herself as a blood sucking corpse (all because she had been tricked into marrying someone other than her beloved Barnabus by her maid who was jealous and who was also the evil witch who tricked Barnabus into marrying her but when he found out she was a witch, he shot her and killed her but not before she cursed him as a vampire!! Now Josette Collins ghost, which looks just like Maggie Evans, warns the Collins family of impending danger by appearing to a disturbed little boy named David and his orphan Governess Victoria Winters. Doesn't this just sound like One Life to Live? - Don't judge me, but I checked out the first disc from Netflix so I could catch up on what I had not seen before the vampires entered on the scene. It was just a dark run-of-the-mill soap opera with a dark brooding mansion, maybe some ghosts, and secrets and was almost cancelled before Barnabas showed up and shot new life into the story if the undead can shoot new life into anything. After that, there was time travel, parallel universes, werewolves, phoenix-like people who could burn up and come back to life, etc.

When we moved from Seattle to Ohio, our television set died and my parents wouldn't get a new one or get it fixed. My parents thought we were obsessed/possessed. My dad used to refer to my car as the BarnyBus. Thankfully, I befriended this red-headed girl in study hall, and she would bring me up to date every day on the happenings in Collinsport. It got really odd after that, not that you can get much more odd than vampires, etc.

Anyway, after watching episodes 1-9 on Netflix, I am hooked again. Maybe I do understand what all that Vampire fuss is about.

PS: I hear that Johnny Depp is being considered to play Barnabas in a movie!! He could redeem himself for the awful "Pirates of the Carribean III"

50 Lbs!!

Compare these pictures and say to yourself, "what is different about Rebecca?" I'll tell you what's different! There is less of her. I have now lost 50 lbs!! This is my 1 year anniversary at WW -- that's Weight Watchers, not World War or World Wrestling -- though sometimes it has been a war or wrestling. Anyway, I thought it would be faster than a year -- I was sure I could lose all I needed to lose, but I am told that slow and steady wins the race, so I am plodding along, only with less carcass to drag.

Summer

Back by popular demand, Rebecca Sykes in "What I Did Last Summer"


I can’t believe that it has been over a month since I last posted. That means that my life is either a boring wasteland of housework and office work and yard work and cleaning up after dogs or I have been so busy that I can’t find the time to sit down and update. It is probably more like the former statement. My powers of concentration seem to be faulty (refer to post on menopause for a likely explanation). However, I will give a brief rundown of the summer with pictures:

**Fourth of July in Huntsville

Starring Otto:
and Daisy

Went to Kennecott w/Kathleen, Aunty Kate, James & McKay

Where we stood in front of a giant Tire

Went to Sun Valley (I didn't take this picture -- I forgot my camera)

Sent my nephew, David Gordon, on a mission to Japan. That is him on the right. The old guy on the left is his dad, Dick Gordon. We will miss him a lot.

To wrap it all up, Bob and I drove down to the Grand Canyon. I had never seen it before. We stayed at the motel right there at the park. It was like the Motel 3.5. A little rustic, but not as rustic as the cabins that looked like there were directly out of the Grapes of Wrath. It was a great drive, we spent the night, ate, took some pictures and came home.

And that is what I did last summer.