Monday, December 30, 2002 AD Smitten I've popped in one of the Parkening CDs Paulo sent. It's scrumptious! Where did I pick up on Parkening? Was it Rick S's blog? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/30/2002 01:32:00 PM
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Links to This Post Thank You! It was almost worth coming back to work today to find presents waiting for me! Paulo sent me threeChristmasgifts and Kelly sent me twopresents.
Also, I forgot to mention that both Brian and Daniel brought wine on Saturday (Note to self: buy a corkscrew!) and Joel and Laurel brought some munchies and sodas and a homemade bottle of herbed vinegar -- one of those things that's almost too pretty to use, but I think I'll get over it. ;-)
Thanks, friends, for your kind generosity! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/30/2002 11:35:00 AM
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Sunday, December 29, 2002 AD Bloggerfest 2002 What a delight to have Laurel, Joel, Claire, Sarah, Brian, Paulo and Daniel at my home yesterday. Brian and Paulo are practically old friends now, but it was my first time meeting theGarvers, the Garner and the other non-Gar*er. Sarah showed up first and pitched in with the last few minutes of my headless chicken routine so everything was fairly orderly by the time the others arrived. Thanks, Sarah! Paulo and Joel have photos, but nobody seems to have taken any of the most photogenic (well, when she wasn't spitting up her formula) person there! Thanks, y'all, for gracing my home with your company. It was a treat. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/29/2002 07:19:00 PM
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Links to This Post He's Baaaaaaack! And he didn't ask me to create his new blog design. I wonder why. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/29/2002 09:00:00 AM
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Friday, December 27, 2002 AD Wish I Knew What This Is Somebody linked to me on this page, which I can't see because it requires paid registration. Nothing like knowing somebody's talking about you behind locked doors! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/27/2002 10:51:00 PM
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Links to This Post Boxing Bowling Day Just got back from taking my niece and nephew bowling. Aunt Valerie managed to do something owie to her back (but not this owie) on the second frame of the first game. Being the wise, intelligent person she is, Aunt Valerie kept bowling. Aunt Valerie is now sitting with a heating pad, and a copy of Tolkein's letters for extra back support. Aunt Valerie is hosting a blogger get-together tomorrow and has lots of cleaning to get done. Dear Becky and darling Chip, the loving, doting creatures that they are, just jumped at the chance to come over and help their beloved Aunt Valerie with her work. Unfortunately for Aunt Valerie, they jumped backward. Even when offered cash. Wretched, spoiled ingrates! So, Laurel, Joel, Sarah, Brian, Paulo, Daniel, and anyone else who might come, please don't look to carefully in the corners! (And if there's anyone else who would like to come, please give me a holler -- valerie [at] kyriosity [dot] com!)
The good news is that, despite her injuries, Aunt Valerie still got the highest score of the day (a whopping 86!). Of course it helped that very athletic 16-year-old Chip is wearing a cast due to a couple busted right fingers, and was therefore bowling left-handed. True to character, 18-year-old Becky bowled with all the enthusiasm of a finicky child picking at a serving of brussels sprouts.
Now, where did I leave that ibuprofen? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/27/2002 03:29:00 PM
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Thursday, December 26, 2002 AD LOTR My reflections on "The Two Towers." (Very subjective.)
If Warner Bros. had produced LOTR. (19MB movie. If you're on dial-up, it's still worth downloading, but get it started, then go do the laundry, walk the dog, re-grout the bathroom and read The Silmarillion. It ought to be done by then.) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/26/2002 01:57:00 PM
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Tuesday, December 24, 2002 AD Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Monday, December 23, 2002 AD Not Out of the Woods Yet The new video driver won't stay installed. Every time I reboot, it reverts to the old one. Hoping another round of calls today can rectify that. Other problems include: my C drive is now named E and I can't seem to rename it, I need to install my Wacom tablet and the hardware isn't being found when I run the setup, still need to reinstall lots of other stuff and transfer all my files back. So it may be another day or two before I'm really back in business.
UPDATE, 12/23: THe new video driver evidently won't stay installed because it's not the right one. And it's not the right one because there isn't a right one -- the card doesn't seem to be updatable. So now I suppose I'm going to shell out more money to Dell, even though they sold me this lousy card to begin with. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/23/2002 08:12:00 AM
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Sunday, December 22, 2002 AD Back in Business It wasn't Windows after all (though I did reinstall it...three times). It was my video driver! Which I always had a sneaking suspicion was the ptoblem, but I didn't have a clue how to fix it. So after hours on the phone with Badger technical support (Thanks, Kelly and Mike! You're my heros!), Dell technical support and Microsoft technical support, I am now downloading the magic driver that should solve all my problems. Yay! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/22/2002 06:49:00 PM
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Saturday, December 21, 2002 AD Reinstalling Windows In an attempt to heal my computer, I am planning to reformat my C drive and reinstall Windows today. If it doesn't work, I will likely be incommunicado for a week, since I won't be in my office. And I wouldn't be offended if anyone were to pray for me about this -- it's a scary thing to do!!! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/21/2002 10:23:00 AM
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Friday, December 20, 2002 AD If I Weren't Such a Sanctified Person... Tim G didn't relish the idea of me calling to sing him this song. He commented, "I'd better make sure my phone # isn't anywhere on the web, public-like." Well guess what I stumbled across somewhere on the Web, public-like? It is difficult to withstand the force of so great a temptation, but I believe I shall prevail against it. Don't you agree that I'm very sanctified? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/20/2002 04:43:00 PM
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Links to This Post Anybody Else Get Anxious About Gifts? I have a gift-giving neurosis. I sometimes get stressed out about whether or not someone will appreciate something. Giving a gift can be risky. It's putting a piece of myself out there, and there's always the chance that it, and by extension I, will be rejected. Happily, the season's first risky gift was received smashingly well. The second is the one I'm fretting over now. I bought a CD of Christian music in Spanish for the two Hispanic girls who clean our office in the evening. They're sisters, but it occurred to me as I was wrapping the present, "But what if they don't live together?" Then I worried, "But what if they don't have a CD player?" Then I panicked, "Is the quiet one's name Elise or Elsie?" I worried so much that I almost decided not to give them the gift! Then I realized how stupid that was. Giving a gift is putting a piece of myself out there. In this case, my appreciation and affection for these two girls who have teasingly taught me a few words of Spanish. I want to give that piece of myself, however awkwardly, and with whatever mistakes I happen to make in the process. Love is worth the risk. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/20/2002 04:12:00 PM
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Wednesday, December 18, 2002 AD Busy Girl, Sick Girl, Sick 'Puter, Grateful Girl + I'm swamped.
+ I was sick yesterday.
+ My home computer is on the verge of a crash. (If anyone would like to offer free advice re my computer woes, you can read about them here and comment hither or yon.)
+ Thank you, Kristen! (She sent me a present for helping with her blog design!) :-)
That's about it from me for probably a couple days! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/18/2002 01:18:00 PM
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It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go --
People snarling at the clerks
And acting like total jerks
'Til you'd really like to tell 'em where to go!
It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas
As they shrilly fill the store.
You will never a sweet sound hear,
'Til your own dear home appears
And you slam the door!
Friday, December 13, 2002 AD The World's Only One-Click IQ Test! No #2 pencil needed! Just click here! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/13/2002 08:49:00 PM
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Links to This Post The Wicked Fairy at the Manger My gift for the child:
No wife, kids, home;
No money sense. Unemployable.
Friends, yes. But the wrong sort—
The workshy, woman wogs,
Petty infringers of the law, persons
With notifiable diseases,
Poll tax collectors, tarts;
The bottom rung.
His end?
I think we'll make it
Public, prolonged, painful.
Right, said the baby. That was roughly
What we had in mind.
Thursday, December 12, 2002 AD 'Tis the Season for Lemmingness I thought I'd decorate for Christmas, likesomeotherfolkshave. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/12/2002 11:33:00 PM
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Links to This Post Worship Songs We Know and Loathe Come, now is the time to worship.
Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship.
Come, just as you are before your God. Come!
Someday, ev'ry tongue will confess You are God.
One day, ev'ry knee will bow.
Still, the greatest treasure remains
For those who gladly choose you now.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. [Repeat several times]
Come. [Repeat several times]
I wonder how that one would rate on Dale Meador's PPH scale. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/12/2002 04:18:00 PM
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Links to This Post My Eschatology + "I believe...He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
+ "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."
+ "Come, Lord Jesus!"
+ I refuse to play pin the tail on the antichrist or think much of any system that does.
That's about it. I've never really felt pressed to get any more specific than that. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/12/2002 01:22:00 PM
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Tuesday, December 10, 2002 AD Is It the Transparency? The links in this table activate more slowly than in the blue temporarily green table to the left. And when I've posted animated GIFs in this table, they move too slowly, too. Anybody more technically adept than I am have a clue why this might be and how I might fix it? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/10/2002 10:37:00 PM
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Links to This Post Note to Self Just because something amuses you, doesn't mean it will amuse everyone else, so keep your trap shut more often. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/10/2002 01:03:00 AM
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Monday, December 09, 2002 AD A Cryptic Message What's the "Of5683" Part Mean? Try again. The door has been unlocked. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/09/2002 05:38:00 PM
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Links to This Post Any Lexicographers Out There Need a Dictionary Illustration for Tacky, Nauseating or Blasphemous? This oughta do the trick for any of those entries. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/09/2002 03:03:00 PM
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Links to This Post Definitely Not the Tin Man Scarecrow may not have a brain, but she sure is a sweetheart. Not only for her response to my last post, but because she I just got a packacge from Amazon containing a copy of Given for You -- a gift from Barb. Thanks, sis! Now if only we could get Keith to include some ASCII illustrations in his books. Ah, well. At least I can listen to this while I'm reading for a more complete KM experience!
(Enad Eht, if you read this, go ahead -- try to convince me that Barb, whom I have never met IRL, is not my friend.) Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/09/2002 03:01:00 PM
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Links to This Post May I Crawl Under My Desk and Go to Sleep, Please? I wonder if the dividing line between sanity and insanity is the awareness of how weird you'd look to other people if you actually did things like that. That's what keeps me from it on days like this.
I'm exhausted from yesterday, which was pretty hideous. I was printing the programs for the concert, with no time to spare for problems, when my printer decided to be uncooperative. I totally lost it and spent the next couple of hours in an out-of-control, screaming, cursing, throwing things rage. Nothing in the world can leave me feeling more defeated or hopeless than losing control like that. Especially when, at the beginning stages of it at least, I struggled to keep control and begged God to keep me from losing it. I turned into a monster anyway. Afterwards I spent the rest of the evening in tears and shame.
Time after time I hear stories of people who have been blessed with instantaneous freedom from anger problems (or other besetting sins). I can't help but ask piteously why He has never shown me that mercy. I can't help but despair that He ever will. I can't help but doubt that I am even regenerate. I can't help but think that when He gave a spirit of "power and love and self-control (or self-discipline, or a sound mind)," He skipped me, because I don't have that spirit, just this weak, ugly out-of-control one. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/09/2002 01:41:00 PM
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Saturday, December 07, 2002 AD Advent Concert Anyone in the Baltimore area is invited to join us Sunday night at 7:30! (Location)
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/07/2002 11:14:00 PM
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Links to This Post Electrode Paste I don't think I've ever come across something that's made me wish I were bald, but having electrodes pasted in my hair has, for a moment, made me wish it. Of course only temporarily.
I went for my sleep study last night. I don't know how long it'll take them to tell me anything, but I know I slept badly. Then they woke me up at about 5:30 a.m., which is much earlier than I usually get up, and made me fill out more paperwork. I probably shouldn't even have driven at that hour, but I made it home a little before 7 and crawled back into bed. I finally got up again at 9:30, but I feel like a slug. A big slug with 2 feet of hair caked with electrode paste. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/07/2002 10:05:00 AM
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Friday, December 06, 2002 AD Which Blogger…? I made up a quiz by my very own self! :)
1. Which blogger have you known longest online?
Barb H. How long has it been, Barb? At least a couple years?
2. Which blogger have you known longest IRL?
Rick S. Met him IRL last year.
3. Which blogger have you spent the most time with IRL?
Paulo O. It helps when they move to your city and start attending your church!
4. Which blogger would you most like to meet IRL (that you haven’t met IRL)?
Barb H. ’Cuz I’ve known her longest.
5. Which blogger do you think has the best blog design?
Paulo O. Is there really any contest?
6. Which blogger do you like most to argue with?
Seth H. ’Cuz he can keep his sense of humor in an argument (though I’ve been known to lose mine) and never forgets that what unites us is more important than what divides us.
7. Which blogger makes you laugh the most?
Duane G. Others amuse me, but Duane elicits the most honest-to-goodness-can’t-help-myself belly-laughs.
8. Which blogger intimidates you the most?
Mark H. Very serious. Makes me think I’d better watch my Ps and Qs.
9. Which blogger do you most wish would post more often?
Laurence W. Last post: August 20. I suspect he forgot how to turn on his computer again.
10. Which blogger do you most wish would get a comment system?
Sarah R. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/06/2002 12:13:00 PM
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Thursday, December 05, 2002 AD Get Thee Behind Me, Sora Sora has sorely tempted me, and I feel the need to publicly confess the temptation, lest I stumble. See, she noticed that Rick has a little asterisk on his blog list indicating "People I want to marry." Of course only one person's name has an asterisk. Sora had the idea of adding asterisks to other names. I still have administrative powers on Rick's blog. But I promised him I would behave myself and not pull any funny stuff. But it really is such a clever, if diabolical, idea. So you see the powerful forces at work! Pray for me, brethren and sistren, lest I stumble in my great weakness! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/05/2002 09:08:00 PM
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Links to This Post Another Reason Why Church Discipline Doesn't Work The most obvious reasons are 1) churches don't practice it and 2) if it is properly practiced, other churches don't recognize it. Here's another one that's just occurred to me: It doesn't do any good to disfellowship someone if there was never any fellowship to begin with! We have 15 minutes of coffee and cookies after the service and call that fellowship and then we forget that the church exists 'til the next Sunday. We're not in each others' lives, so an excommunicant would hardly notice if we withdrew from his life. (Of course this is a generalization. There's a continuum of community and some congregations do better than others. The 15 minutes thing is just too common in Evanjellyfishdom.)
This struck me today as I read some quotes posted by my opponent in a discussion about related matters. I didn't think the quotes served to prove his point, but they were good quotes none the less. I post them here for your edification (I hope my friend does not mind my borrowing the labors of his research!):
Calvin: "What Paul means is, that, in so far as it is in our power, we are to shun the society of those whom the Church has cut off from her communion."
Matthew Henry: "They were to avoid all familiarity with him; they were to have no commerce with him; they were to have no commerce with him: but, that they might shame him, and bring him to repentance, must disclaim and shun him."
Richard Baxter (in The Reformed Pastor): "In this exclusion or removal, the minister or governors of the church are authoritatively to charge the people, in the name of the Lord, to have no communion with him, and to pronounce him one whose communion the church is bound to avoid; and it is the people’s duty carefully to avoid him ...."
Here's a description of how Baxter handled excommunication as a practical matter with a good friend who went astray: "It appears that Pearsall did not heed this tender appeal and Baxter instructed the believers to avoid him. It must have been painful for Baxter to walk silently by Pearsall on the streets of Kidderminster and grieve for his absence at St. Mary's chapel on the Lord's Day. Imagine, however, Baxter's joy in London after three years absence from Kidderminster, when he received an affectionate and moving letter from many friends and neighbors, including the signature of John Pearsall, received back into fellowship."
Jonathan Edwards: "They are cut off from being the objects of that charity of God's people, which is due to Christian brethren. They are not indeed cut off from all the charity of God's people, for all men ought to be the objects of their love. But I speak of the brotherly charity due to visible saints. ...
"Much love and complacency is due to those whom we are obliged in charity to receive as saints, because they are visible Christians. But this complacency excommunicated persons forfeit. We should still wish well to them. and seek their good. Excommunication itself is to be performed as an act of benevolence. We should seek their good by it, and it is to be used as a means of their eternal salvation. But complacency and delight in them as visible Christians is to be withdrawn; and on the contrary they are to be the objects of displacency, as visibly and apparently wicked. We are to cast them out as an unclean thing which defiles the church of God. - In this sense the psalmist professes a hatred of those who were the visible enemies of God. Psalm 139:21, 22. 'Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee! And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.' Not that he hated them with a hatred of malice or ill will, but with displacency and abhorrence of their wickedness. In this respect we ought to he the children of our Father who is in heaven, who, though he loves many wicked men with a love of benevolence, yet cannot love them with a love of complacency. Thus excommunicated persons are cut off from the charity of the church.
"The people of God are, as much as may be, to withdraw from them as to that common society which is proper to subsist among Christians. - Not that they should avoid speaking to them on any occasion. All manner and all degrees of society are not forbidden, but all unnecessary society, or such as is wont to be among those who delight in the company of each other. We should not associate ourselves with them so as to make them our companions. Yea, there ought to be such an avoiding of their company as may show great dislike." Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/05/2002 09:39:00 AM
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Links to This Post Oh the Weather Outside's Delightful But a fire would be quite frightful
With no fireplace here, you know.
LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!
Guess which happy girl gets a day off work 'cuz of the white stuff? Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/05/2002 08:00:00 AM
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Links to This Post I'm Such a Nerd Everybody else gets cool sports cars. I get Herbie the Love Bug. Ah, well, if the tire fits....
"Women could inherit. Women could run their husbands' businesses. Women could vote regarding their minister. And as early as the 1630s, women could vote for their political representatives."
I'd always assumed that women's participation in church elections, particularly, was a much later development. I've seen the question crop up on various discussion forums over the past few years, but I've never seen it answered. It appears not to have been any sort of feminist thing, but a Puritan, i.e., a Reformed thing. And of course I had no idea that colonial women could vote for political representatives, either. The question regarding that then becomes, When did they lose that privilege? Veddy interestink schtuff. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/04/2002 07:30:00 PM
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Sunday, December 01, 2002 AD Happy New Year!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/01/2002 09:10:00 PM
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Links to This Post Countdown 8 things on your desk:
monitor
speakers
box of tissues
Wacom tablet
Volume 9 of the 1992-93 edition of Books In Print
Spence and Mason's Human Anatomy and Physiology, Second Edition (this and the former are supporting my monitor)
can of Raid (there was something scary up here the other night!)
box of envelopes
7 things you touch every day:
purse
keys
keyboard
Wacom tablet
front door knob
kitty cat
bed
6 movies you can't live without:
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
The Joy Luck Club
The Princess Bride
The Red Violin
Moulin Rouge
5 nicknames you have had in your life:
Val (just can't seem to break people of that one)
Valerie Annerie (only my mom)
Poco (short for Pocahontas, bestowed by someone in high school when I would occasionally wear my hair in two braids)
Desdemona (another one from high school -- something about being virtuous and tragic)
Bobbie (bestowed about 13 years ago by a small child who could not pronounce Valerie)
4 places you want to visit:
British Isles (never been)
West Coast (never been)
New Hampshire (mommy lives there)
Alabama (friends moved there recently)
3 things you wish you could change about yourself:
energy level
self-discipline
everything that my lack of self-discipline affects
2 phone numbers you call most:
my home number (to check messages)
my friend Joan's
1 person you plan to spend the rest of your life with:
I got to put a couple more notches on my "bloggers I've met" belt this evening as I spent a pleasant evening with Matt, Sora, Talia, Aedan, Ezekiel, Grant (Matt's brother), and Mike and Claudia (Matt's parents), who were the hosts. The children were, of course, the main entertainment of the evening: Zek'l gets rather charismatic over pumpkin pie (who can blame him?), Aedan can walk on his hands in a way that bears a striking resemblance to a face-first dive into the carpet, and Talia can use her hair as a jump rope. OK, that last one's a bit of an exaggeration, but the child's hair is looooooong! Sora read a couple chapters to the kids from The Wheel on the School. Now I'm going to have to hunt down a copy so I can read the rest of it! Matt was preparing a sermon for tomorrow. 'Twould be fun to go back and hear it, but it's a little far for two days in a row. The Colvins introduced me to a new game -- Wise and Otherwise -- which was a great deal of fun, even if I did get clobbered. (Evidently everyone tends to get clobbered when Sora's playing!)
Oh, and they're a much more attractive family than the photo would indicate, but someone doesn't know how to use her camera and by the time she actually snapped a picture her subjects' smiles had died of boredom. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 12/01/2002 12:05:00 AM
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