My other thought was that when/if I felt up to coming back, I would start anew (with a new blog). I’m at that point now. I’ve been there for a few months, but I’ve been taking an easy sort of stride in my return.

During this transition, I consolidated all of my blogs into one webhost account (as I had been paying for two and that wasn’t frugal). In so doing, my original blog (Dorannes.com), as well as my ‘Book Review’ sub domain, had to be temporarily taken out of cyberspace. Dorannes.com (the WordPress installation) was deleted by my webhost in order to process the consolidation.  I was fully aware this would be a part of the process and had exported (saved) all of my original posts, comments, and pages beforehand. I tucked the files safely away on my computer for later importing (to Dorannes.com, the archives).

Why am I sharing this utterly boring bit of detail?

Well, because I have a bit of sad news. It just so happens that I had a squatter at Dorannes.com who, unbeknownst to me (and without my permission), went through and deleted several of my original posts and edited others. He did this about a week or so ‘before‘ I exported (what I had believed to be) all of my original blog posts, pages, and comments. I didn’t think to check beforehand and make sure that everything was there. Why wouldn’t it be!? It was my blog. I hadn’t made any changes, so there were none to expect. And it had all been okay the week or so before, when I had made my decision to consolidate.

I didn’t discover the wrong that had been done to me until after my webhost made Dorannes.com go “Poof!”

I received a very angry email from the squatter directly thereafter. He wanted to know why I had taken Dorannes.com away from him. He wasn’t very polite in the asking. He also insisted that I give him DorannesPress.com and DougDorannes.com–two domains that (to the best of my knowledge and research) do not exist (nor have they ever existed — at that time, or now, as I write this post).

I was stunned, at first. Then, admittedly, outraged. I mean, really. How do you wrap your head around such absurdity? (Absurdity (n): a message whose content is at variance with reason) How do you forgive and forget?

…It takes time. I suppose.

So for those of you who have played Stacy’s Trivia Challenge over the years, I offer my condolences. Every. Single. One. Of my trivia posts, in which I congratulated winners and posted fun little ribbons and awards is lost. Every comment left on my trivia posts are gone. Every link I had to all of you (my friends), is lost. We had some fun times; we shared a lot of laughs. It saddens me greatly that all of our trivia conversations are irretrievable. Lost. Deleted without a care.

I felt violated. It was a truly awful thing to do to someone, in my opinion. But what’s done is done and now I’m moving on…

Over the coming days, weeks, months (however long it takes me), I will be replacing the posts, comments, pages, and whatnot that I DO have saved on my computer. I have some editing to do beforehand, which is part of the delay. In the process of WordPress updates and importing/exporting content, some things got a little wonky. In several posts the punctuation was turned into a string of symbols, so that needs to be fixed. Image links need to be repaired as well, and so on and so forth.

If you used to have your blog-link in the Dorannes blogroll, please post a link to your blog in comments or send me an email. I would be delighted to have you back.

In the meantime, look for my original blog content to be re-posted as time and editing allow.

Right Brain Left Brain Quiz
The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendancy will help you interact with and to understand others.
Left Brain Dominance:	(16)
Right Brain Dominance:	(16)
Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

This reminds me of the time I took the Advocates Political Quiz and wound up with “Centrist”.

On a semi-related topic… I’ve seen the cartoon “Pinky and the Brain” a time or two, and I’ve noticed that my neighbor (across the way) bears a striking resemblance to Brain. I’m not kidding. The top half of his head is HUGE, but his jaw and chin seem exceptionally tiny. I hardly ever catch sight of him, but when I do I can’t help but stare. And giggle. Quietly, of course. I wouldn’t want to offend the man who might one day take over the world.

I’m sort of fascinated by him too. I mean, how does he manage to walk without tipping over? His neck muscles must be incredibly strong.

I said “Hello” to him once. He nodded back. And while I was utterly mesmerized by the movement, in the back of my mind a little voice whispered excitedly…

_{“OMGawd! The Brain lives next door and he just acknowledged me! How totally awesome is that?!“}

That made my day. Heck. I think it made my week.

So. What side of the Brain do you use most?

Are you a middle-brained Brain-loving freak like me? ^*grins*

If I was a cat, I’d call it catnip.

Maybe it’s just me but…. Yes, yes, YES!

Ahhhhhhhh….

I’m not being paid by anyone to say this. I just so happened to pick up some of this tea at my local grocery store and fell in love. If you like tea (herbal, decaf, or caffeinated), Stash teas are exceptionally good. I like their Irish Breakfast and English Breakfast as well, but the Chai Green Tea is amazingly aromatic and divinely delicious.

Yum!

But that’s not the only reason I’m proud of her.

She has been writing too! And she’s good, very good. Her stories have excitement, drama, wit, humour, romance, and, well… lots of sharp pointy teeth. She writes about teenagers and vampires, of course. I hear it’s all the rage.

I can’t help but smile as I watch her open up her spiral notebook and start writing away. I can’t help but smile when she transfers her writings to a Word doc and adds images to boot! And I can’t help but chuckle when she frets over having her mother read the racy parts. I told her not to fret, that writers were supposed to be free with their imagination, that their allowed to write the most shocking of things because that’s what imagination is all about. Whatever is in there, let it out. Share. Your readers will gobble it up.

That seemed to ease her mind a bit.

On the same hand (in telling her to let it all out no matter how shocking), Stephen King immediately came to mind. Is it fair to say that he’s the exception to the rule? I mean, seriously. Have you seen/read “The Mist” by Stephen King? Gah. What a horrific ending. That man is seriously deranged.

Jumping back on track…

Even though my daughter has a tendency to stay up until after midnight reading, and she does the majority of her writing during school time, she still manages to keep her grades in the A-B range.

She’s a joy to be around _{(when she’s not cranky)}. She has a sharp wit and entertainingly acerbic humour. She’s smart, she’s clever, she’s fun, she’s sweet and sassy, strong-willed and adventurous, considerate and kind _{(when she’s not cranky)} and utterly adorable… she even cooks and does her own laundry. In short, she’s awesome.

I have the best daughter ever.

Miranda Abaecherli. Remember the name, look for her to hit the Best Seller list in the near future.

In the meantime, if I could just get her to clean her room…

Meet me at the jukebox, dance your way to me,
feel the magic music, set our bodies free;
On the wall at the spot, where that music plays so hot,
share the secret sequence, find out what we’ve got.

Meet me at the jukebox, our backs to the crowd,
find that magic melody, sure to play it loud;
Your head on my chest, my face in your hair,
our hearts beat together, to the rhythm in the air.

Meet me at the jukebox, we’ll rendezvous tonight,
free the magic in our souls, hear two hearts take flight;
Where heaven meets the music, we’ll sing while we fly,
with stars in our eyes, we’ll dance across the sky.

Meet me at the jukebox, we’ll dance the whole night through,
share a magic morning, just the music, me and you;
Melody and harmony, from sunset through to rise;
Meet me at the jukebox,

where the music never dies…

–Poetry by my very dear friend, Mat Larkin

“Memes don’t exist. Tell this to everybody you know.”
–anonymous

Atheism: A non-prophet organization.

When we talk to God it’s called prayer. When
God talks back it’s called schizophrenia.

Redundancy Department of Redundancy

Having a non-smoking section in a restaurant
is like having a non-peeing section in a pool.

“Deep down, I’m pretty superficial.”
– Ava Gardner

Questions:

Do employees at the Lipton company get coffee breaks?

How did man discover that cows give milk?

How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink?

How does a blind man know when he’s done wiping his butt?

If 7-11 is open 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport a “terminal”?

If man has evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

What is the speed of dark?

Why do coffins need to be nailed shut?

Why is brassiere singular and panties plural?

“Become a Christian, because your god won’t let you off the hook for infidelity. That sounds suspiciously like the whole ‘Darkside and cookie’ recruitment to me.” –Bob Dorannes

I think my husband is in for a treat tomorrow.

But me…? Hrm. I’m torn between the ol’ 8-Ball response of “Reply hazy, try again” and “Outlook not so good“.

Stacy’s cookie fortune read: “You will be showered with good luck tomorrow.”
Bob’s cookie fortune read: “Opportunity is knocking on your door, answer it tomorrow.”

So far, so good for the both of us, right? Tomorrow is our lucky day!

But then, we took this interesting little quiz that I happened across on Facebook:

Stacy’s quiz results:

Bob’s quiz results:

Something’s wrong with this picture. :/
…Maybe I should be the one to answer the door.

Heh.

Kidding, Dear.

So. Hey. How’s the New Year treatin’ ya so far?
Have you taken down your Christmas decorations yet?
Eaten all the cookies and fudge?
Is it cold where you live? Snow?
Did anyone buy you a tin of popcorn for Christmas?
Was it your mother?
Does it taste like chocolate coated Fiddle-Faddle?
…Mine does!

Yum!

Wanna know something funny?
Well, it’s funny to me, anyway.

For Christmas:
My mother gave me a bouquet of my favorite flowers.
My mother-in-law gave me a box of fine chocolates.

I think I just fell in love with them both!

3 hidden immunity Idols found by one man.

That’s impressive.

4. BEEarl (253 points, 5 wins)
5. raistlin (221 points, 2 wins)
6. PandoraWilde (215 points, 3 wins)
7. tulip (211 points, 2 wins)
8. luaren (177 points, 0 wins)
9. ~ Stacy ~ (157 points, 0 wins)
(OMG! I actually made it into the ‘Top Ten’!)
10. fireguy (156 points, 0 wins)

(Note: I’m not always certain which blogger to match to which Trivia ID. So, if your name is listed above and you would like a link to your blog or website, please let me know in comments and I’ll hook you up. Or, if you prefer, you can add your info in the Mr. Linky box below.)

Stacy’s Trivia Challenge: Game Tips

The top factors for improving your points:

• a.) Accuracy
• b.) Speed
• c.) Frequency (Play seven days a week, as opposed to four or five.)
• d.) Current Players (The more people that play, (on any given day), the higher your score will be.)
• e.) Lastly … bone up on your trivia!

If you haven’t played “Stacy’s Trivia Challenge“, what are ya waiting for? C’mon, join the fun. A new game starts on the 1st of each month. …And we love the competition!