This last week was my great uncle’s 100th birthday.  In addition to the family party that nearly drove my mom off the edge, the children’s hospital where he volunteers each week threw him a semi-surprise party.  They had a huge cake and 100 balloons and 100 Beanie Babies and a tub of 100 toys, all to give away to the kids in his honor.

It was really sweet and you could tell that all the staff there just loves him.  They even picked him up from his house and dropped him off each week before he figured out the bus system.  But they had to drop him off a few houses away because his ex-wife, who he still lives with, would get really jealous and make him miserable if she saw a couple of “young” women (as in late 40’s) hugging him goodbye.

A Channel 8 News man was there and he interviewed my great uncle briefly, so we got to see a little excerpt on the local news that evening.  I tried to get a few pictures of LB with him, but she was far too interested in the “CAKE!” and “COOKIES!” and “PUNCH!” and “CANDY!” and “TOYS!”  She operated on a total sugar high for a while and then crashed just as we were leaving.

And then she got her finger pinched pretty hard in the stroller on the way out, which led to a total freak-out session for my mom.

But that’s a story for another post.  My mom can flip out with the best of them…though I will give her kudos this time for not screaming and jumping up and down and drawing the attention of every onlooker within a 5-mile radius.  She displayed an unusual amount of self restraint, unlike the time a great dane attacked our dog and I happened to be standing within the danger radius when she started screaming and flailing.  I think I still have a dent in my head from that casualty.

So I’m one day into single motherhood and LB has come down with a fever.

Fabulous.

Darn the church nursery.

At approximately noon yesterday, I became a single mother.

At least until the end of the weekend. J is off to Minnesota to visit some friends, so it’s just the girls this weekend. Enter multiple binging sessions of pizza, cookies and Veggie Tales. Well, minus the pizza and the cookies because they are SO not on my diet. Ok, maybe some pizza and cookies. I’m not that good.

[queue random change of subject]

I hate Google Images. I get tons of hits to my site through them and it irks me because I don’t want that kind of traffic. I don’t want people getting to my site who are only here to steal my pictures. My Rome pics seem to be the most popular, but I don’t want that kind of surfer browsing through all my pictures of LB either.

So in case anyone else is having this same problem, I found and modified this bit of code, and then inserted it into my header. And voila! No more hits from Google Images.

<script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript”>
var camefrom = document.referrer;

var findit = “images.google”;
if (camefrom.indexOf(findit) > -1 )
{ window.location=”http://www.google.com”; }
</script>

It basically checks the referrer of any visitor to my site and if it’s someone coming from Google Images, they get redirected back to the Google.com home page. I would love to give credit to the creator of this spiffy little code, but I found it on some random forum site, and (as is my unfortunate habit) accidentally closed the browser window too soon.

since the last incident with the CIWIL police department, i have been a model driver. i never exceed the speed limit, stop at yellow lights and obey all traffic laws, even when nobody is around. i have done my best to avoid any possible encounter which would put me in that situation again.

apparently my best wasn’t good enough.

i was pulled over today and issued a ticket for failure to yield to a cross walk.

even though the people walking through the cross walk were clearly on the other side of the road.

at least this time i will know better than to waste my time and money trying to fight the joke that is our court system.