Alright, so it's been years since I sat in a little school desk and memorized the names of the planets....and since then, thanks to daily web browsing, I vaguely remember reading something about Pluto losing it's status as a planet....but I distinctly remembered the number NINE being the number of planets in the solar system.

Apparantly, I am wrong.  There are eleven.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris.

HUH?  I am seriously confused.  Ceres? Eris?  And Pluto is still on the list??  Whaaa?

Apparantly, today's count stands as follows:

If you're having trouble viewing the pic...try this link: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm

Well, there is today's science lesson.  We need all the help we can to stay ahead of our kids! 

I learned something new this morning.  Have you ever heard of a Widow's Walk?

I was talking with my mom, who, along with my dad, have retired to Florida.  They are going to a friends house this afternoon, and my mom is thrilled because their friend lives a block from the water and has a "widow's walk".

Never heard of this before - and what a bittersweetly romantic concept it is!

From Wikipedia:

A widow's walk (or roofwalk) is a railed rooftop platform, typically on a coastal house, originally designed to observe vessels at sea. The name comes from the wives of mariners who would watch for their spouses to return. In some instances, the ocean took the lives of the mariners, leaving the women as widows; who would often thereafter gaze out to sea wishing beyond hope that their loved ones would return home and hence the name widow's walk was born.

Now, I live in Chicago, but I don't care, I want one.  How cool is this?  I'm sure my neighbors would whisper and gossip, but I would still have the coolest house on the block.  Of course, then I think of my son as a teenager one day and the fabulous liability it would eventually become and *poof!* my romantic dreams are killed.

But wow, can you imagine a life in which you needed to build onto your home in order to long for the return of your loved one?  Now, instead of sitting on a rocker looking out to sea, we sit in front of the television and listen to them tally the count in Iraq, report murders on the news and uncover planned school shooting after shooting....

I'm not sure which one is more sad......

A recent Featured Question was, "What would you do if you only have a week to live?"...I answered it and then spent some time browsing what others said....and then it made me think....

Why do we wait to do these things until we only have a short time left to do them?  Many of the answers involved telling people we love them, spending quality time with family or friends, getting affairs in order, apologizing to people we've hurt, traveling the world....so why don't we just do this in our everyday ordinary lives?  Why aren't these things on our everyday to do list?  With the exception of spending life savings on extravagant gifts or trips, these things are not difficult to do or accomplish.  Most don't even cost any real money.  Instead, they are things that we simply push to the bottom of the importance list - when we've just proven that in the grand scheme of life - they actually are the most important, because those are the things we'd want to do in the last moments we have.

The fact is, any one of us could be gone tomorrow.  A delivery guy dropped off flowers for my neighbor at my house because they weren't home on Sunday.  I wondered if it was her birthday or anniversary.  It turns out the flowers were for condolences....her sister was struck by an Amtrak express train the day before and killed instantly.  I'm not even making this up.  One minute she's on the cellphone with her husband, saying, "Gotta run, honey, train is here! Love you!" and the next - she is gone.

My neighbor told me yesterday she spent most of the day putting together picture boards to put up at the funeral home.  She said that she found it oddly therapeutic.  Instead of crying over the loss, she found her heart swelling with memories of good times - finding that she felt very lucky to have shared so much with her sister and had her in her life - even if it was cut short long before it should have been. 

I think every Xangan who answered or thought about what they would have answered for that Featured Question should write it down on their to-do list for this week.  And if it is something you CAN do this week, or this month....do it.  Don't put it off.  None of us know how long we are here for.  And most of us won't get a heads up a week before we head for the light......so make your list....and check it off....and live life in a way that you don't have a "to do" list before you die.  

(My original answer to the question....prompting all this....)

If you knew you only had one week to live, what would you do with that time?

Well, really, too busy and supposed to be working, but instead, I bring you a moment of creative need:

The Hump Day Haiku!

Chugging Diet Coke

My foot has falled asleep!?

Obama 4 Prez!

Fell free to contribute your own.

1) Yawn

2) Forget where I left my keys

3) Open and close the refrigerator without taking anything out....

4) Wish I had more money

5) Look anxiously at my Bush Countdown Clock and wish next January was here....

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

I grew up Catholic.  16 years of Catholic school, to be exact.  Throughout those years and into my adult personal spiritual development, I have found I simply am rooted in math and sciences - and (gasp) I just don't believe in god.  Now, before I have offers to save my soul (like my recent reconnection with B, my best friend at St. Emily's Catholic Grade school - who saw our reconnection as sign from God that she was delivered to show me the true path to enlightenment....) I assure you that I have the utmost respect for religion. 

For years, I spent life as a godfearing Christian, behaving "properly" in order to earn a place beyond the pearly gates.  I like to think that these days, I behave like a Christian without expecting any reward in the great beyond.  I try to be a good person simply because it is right.  But according to my upbringing, I do believe I have earned my fair share of grace by this point in my life.

I'd like to cash in some of that grace......

I work in the homebuilding industry.  And unless you've been living under a rock the last 2 years, you know that the real estate market is a deep black empty abyss right now.  My company is in danger of filing for bankruptcy.  And that of course means that people are going to lose their jobs.

If I lose my job, I lose my house.  I'm a single mom - and other than a very small 401k, I have no savings - all that was liquidated and spent after the divorce, and I've been slowly starting from scratch since then.

More importantly, though, is that I'm in danger of losing a job I really love.  For the first time in my career, I have a job I don't want to leave.  One I don't mind getting up for in the morning.  One I can imagine still doing in 10, 15 even 20 years.  I love this company, the people - and now, it's all in jeopardy.  I got rid of the poisonous person, I have worked hard to stay afloat for me and my son, and I found a job that allows me the opportunity to make a really good life for the two of us.  In a *poof* it could change everything.

Nightmare.

So I'd like to cash in some grace, please....rain down some luck and fortune this way, even if it means I get a smaller cube up in the clouds when it's all over. 

Every morning, I have a ritual.  It's ironic actually, because really, I am very anti-structure by nature.  But yet, my initial routine rarely deviates each day:   I sit down at my desk, I open my (personal) email, I read, I delete spam, I then hit five websites:  CNN.com, ABCNEWS.com, TMZ.com, Dlisted.com and Xanga.com......

This morning, browsing the CNN main page, this headline pops out at me:

"How to take better sunset photos"

Ok, seriously?  We are in the middle of one of the most fascinating and exciting presidential elections years ever, we've got people dying overseas, half the US is freezing over solid, kids are being kidnapped, people are being shot in malls, and it also happens to be Valentine's Day, and THIS is the headline they chose to put out there today?

Now, before you think this post is going to end up being about my disgust for the media (lol, even though they are responsible for the first two sites I hit every morning) I think I've figured out why this headline was plopped into the mainstream:

It's for people like me.  The Habitual Browser.  While I have my morning routine set - I've realized I repeat this routine several times throughout the day.  I don't stop by CNN just once a day - I hit it often.  And it's because I'm looking for new news, new information, anything I've missed since the last browse.....CNN (and I'm sure all these other news-related sites) need to keep me coming back....browsing for more information.  And in order to do that, they have to cycle their stories - regardless of their rank on the "lame" meter.

Proving my point?  I just opened CNN.com again.  Sunset Photos has now been replaced with:

Troubleshooter: Marriott, where are my points?

Equally riveting and newsworthy, yes?

*sigh*

Yet, you can bet I'll be back in another hour or two....just to check in.  Why, you ask, if the stories out there seem so...bland?   Becuase every once in a while, something worthy and promising appears....like this morning's:

George Lucas expands 'Star Wars' universe

You see? Can't help it.  It's a habit.  Ok, so kinda like a drug habit, but you catch my drift....and I'd bet that the majority of you out there are just as conditioned as I have become.  The web has spun me into it's clutches permenantly.  I cannot live without.  It's like not getting your cup of coffee in the morning....if it's taken away, the entire day is off kilter.....and just not right.  It's my Virtual Cigarette Break.  I always used to be annoyed by people who took ten minutes every couple of hours to go out and smoke.  But alas, I have discovered I am just as guilty of having an addiction of my own.  In fact, while less people are taking smoking breaks these days, more and more are taking internet breaks.  Am I right?  The habit is formed.  And it's addicition properties blow nicotine out of the water.

And now, as Xanga was my last stop this morning (as it is every morning)....I'm off to do some actual work now.  Just until I check back a little later to get another fix.....

Today would have been my little black dog's 8th birthday.  The wound in my heart still bleeds for him.  I miss him every day.  May you be frolicking in the fields of a rainbow heaven, little pup.....you've left a pawprint on my soul forever.  Happy Birthday, Butkus.

Why do animals affect some of us so much while other people look at us and shake their heads, baffled?  There was an article today on one of the major network newsites, about a Marine who befriended a stray dog in Iraq, and when he moved bases, the dog fought through 70 miles of war zone to find him again.  Granted, I'm a little emotional today, but I think it's fair to say regardless of when I read the story, I'd be in tears by the end.  Even with the happy ending.  Animals (dogs in particular) stir something in me.  It's in actual physcial feeling - a pulling in my chest.  I am drawn to them, I want to surround myself with them....and I feel my life is not complete without them.  Perhaps its the innocence of dogs...the lack of ability to disappoint.  Lord knows I have more faith in dogs than in people in general.  A sad statement, but a true one.  But what is it really that causes so many of us to feel so strongly about animals?

It doesn't hit the nail on the head any more than this:

Hmmf.

What do you get when you combine the best childhood toy ever invented with the best movies ever made and wrap it up neatly into a video game format?

Simple Brilliance.

I am addicted.  I cannot stop.  The Empire must be crushed. And there is nothing I want more than a life sized Lego Chewbacca for my family room.  Life would be complete.  Those who know me well know I am dead serious.

Of course, playing this game has forced me to start using my iMac.  The iMac was purchased FOR me by my brother who leads a cult of Appleheads out to assimilated every PC user to the Dark Side.  I'm afraid it's working.  I took the bait.....Help Me Obiwan Kenobe! You're my only hope......

Check out Leia's sexy little leg pose there. Naughty! lol...

***side note:  the BEST part of this game is when the little lego characters reinact parts of the movies.  My particular favorite is when Princess Leia attempts to insert the holographic message disk into R2 to get a message to Ben....but you see,  R2 is a LEGO R2, and Princess Leia, after repeatedly trying to insert the disk into a "sticker" slot...then pulls off R2's lego head and just throws the disk into him.   BRILLIANCE!  BRILLIANCE!!!!! 

God I'm a nerd.