RTT: Mom in High Heels is back, with a mac and a stack...of randoms

Well hello my lovely readers!  I'll bet you thought I fell off the edge of the earth, didn't you?  Rest assured, I am securely on terra firma and ready to entertain any of you who might still be out there.  After James Bond left for the 'Stan (as they call it), I lost my blogging mojo.  Tell me that doesn't make you think of Austin Powers.  Yeah, baby! 

Anyway, I could have posted, but I didn't think anyone would be interested in hearing how blah we were and how much we missed James Bond, so I went on hiatus.  James Bond is okay, in case you were wondering.  He was involved in an incident, but fortunately was not hurt, though other people were.  This kept me up many, many nights, let me assure you.  We get to talk to him about once or twice a week and occasionally, if their internet isn't running at snail pace, get to Skype with him.  Bless you Skype.  I also get emails a few times a week.  He works ridiculous hours though (7pm-9am, 7 days a week, with no days off), so when he's not at work, all he really wants to do is sleep.  I can't say I blame him.  Still, he tries to contact us as much as possible.  It's really hard on Indy, but he's doing as well as can be expected.  He's a good kid, so his "acting out" is really mild and nothing I can't nip in the bud right away. I've also spent a lot of time trying to keep his mind off it (not that that's really possible, but keeping him busy helps).  One of the ways I accomplished this was by taking him and Han Solo, of course, and Gigi (my mom) on a 12 night cruise!  We got back 2 weeks ago and it was glorious! We went to Egypt.  EGYPT, people!  Unbelievable.  We also went to Israel/Palestine, Turkey (♥♥♥), Greece and Italy.  I've got approximately 8 million photos and soon (I promise), I'm going to get them on my blog.  <--See, this is how I'm going to keep you coming back!

So, now that you know what's been going on, and why I've been gone for so long, let's get on with the randoms.

*I am now the owner of a Macbook Pro.  Why, you might ask?  Well, because one morning, while Han Solo and I were eating breakfast, which is when I usually check my email, I knocked a full cup of hot tea on the keyboard of my poor PC.  She...died.  I had to take her in for a repair estimate, for our insurance company, and the guy asked me what happened.  I sheepishly told him, and he looked at me, perfectly straight faced, and said "Tea is for people, not computers."  I'm assuming it was German humor, but who knows?  He could have been serious. 
When the repair estimate came back it was "Kaput," which is German for totally effed up and not fixable.  I had to get a new computer.  I had been thinking about a mac for a long time, and decided since I had to buy a new one, I might as well take the plunge.  I'm still trying to figure it out.  It's so different from my PC is many, many ways.  It's also ridiculously easy to use in some areas and more difficult in others.  Probably because I haven't figured it all out yet.  I love her though!  I haven't decided on a name for her.  I have a theory that electronic work better when you name them.  My previous computer was Yuka.  She was Japanese, hence the name. 

*I think it's funny that Macbook is considered misspelled when I type it ON my Macbook.  Guess I'll have to add it to the dictionary.

*Misspelled is one of the most commonly misspelled words. 

*Han Solo loves music.  Loves. It.  I had my iPhone plugged in when we went to the commissary and Beyonce's Crazy in Love, which was one of Indy's absolute favorite songs when he was a toddler (along with SexyBack.  Parenting skills.  I gots 'em) ,and now it seems Han Solo likes it as well.  He was singing "Uh-oh, uh-oh" right along with her.  :)  He also likes "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas.  He says "Boom!  Boom!"

*One of Han Solo's favorite things to do is "blow it up."  He puts his fist out and when we bump it with out fist, he says "Boom!"  Probably why he likes "Boom Boom Pow."

*Back to Beyonce.  Yeah, yeah.  I'm not a religious watcher of Glee, but if there's nothing else on, I'll watch it.  I saw a repeat of the season finale and it made me cry, dammit.  If you don't watch, there is an openly gay character, Kurt, who did his own video, along with 2 other Glee members, of Beyonce's Single Ladies.  It was almost identical to her video, but with him in the starring role.  His dad was having trouble with Kurt being gay, but eventually came to terms with it, and for Kurt's graduation gift, his dad did the same dance to Single Ladies for Kurt.  It was ridiculously touching for whatever reason, and it made me cry.  How insane is that?

*In 2000, Pope John-Paul II was named an honorary Harlem Globe Trotter.

*We went to the Vatican when we were in Rome and I was honestly surprised by how much John-Paul merchandise there was compared to the current Pope.  JP was really popular.

*I can never remember the name of the current Pope (it's Benedict XVI-I had to look it up).  We always call him Not!John-Paul.  Terrible, especially since he's from Germany.  He was Cardinal Ratzinger before becoming the Pope.  BTW, did you know he was conscripted, at the age of 14, into the Hilter Youth Party?  He was a "bad" member and refused to  attend meetings or training.  He was put into the Luftwaffenhelfe (a children's section of the air force), but deserted.  When the Allies took over the area he was in, he was put into a POW camp and released at the end of the war (he was only there for a few months).  I didn't know this by heart.  I had to look some of it up, but I had the basics in my head.  Weird stuff I keep in there!

*After the cruise, we took a few days off to recover.  It is exhausting having fun!  The following Monday, we got back to school, and Indy said he was glad because he gets bored when there's nothing for him to do.  Insane.  He finds stuff to do, but I think his brain needs to be constantly worked.

*Speaking of brains being worked, Indy's learning ancient Greek this year along with Latin.  This of course means I'm learning ancient Greek.   Latin I can handle with no problems, but Greek is HARD.  It taxes my brain!  Since I don't actually know ancient Greek, I study ahead of Indy at night so I look like I have a clue when I'm teaching him.  I did find out some interesting things though. 
ἰπποϛ (pronounced hippos) means horse, while ποταμυϛ (pronounced potamus) means river, so our word hippopotamus literally means "water horse."  And now you've learned something.  You're welcome.

*The odds of being killed in a tornado are 1 in 2 million.  I read that somewhere.  It seems like it's a lot higher, doesn't it?

*While James Bond is gone, Indy has really been into things James Bond is into.  I'm assuming it's to make him feel closer to James Bond, but that's just a guess.  He listens to the Beatles ALL.THE.TIME.  James Bond is a HUGE Beatles fan.  I think I told you once before than Han Solo's real name has something to do with the Beatles.  If he'd been a girl, JB wanted to name him Penny Lane.  Um, no.  Anyway, James Bond (and I) are big, big fans of Stargate SG-1.  If you've never watched this show, you are missing out!  It ran for 10 years, from 1997-2007, and is still one of the best (IMO) scifi shows ever.  Heck, it's one of the best any kind of shows ever.  I showed Indy the movie (starring Kurt Russel and James Spader) from 1994 and then we started watching the TV show (starring Richard Dean Anderson, of MacGuyver fame).  We watch an episode every night after Han Solo goes to bed.  Indy loves it.  I have to say, I never noticed how damn good looking Richard Dean Anderson was.  I say was because he's been looking a bit rough lately.  I saw a photo of him at Comicon, and he was not looking so great.  Ah well, there's always Stargate.  :)

*Oh, oh, oh!  Castle!  Castle's back!  Halleluiah! I can never spell halleluiah, BTW.  Thank goodness my computer can.  The Castle season premier aired the day we were flying to Rome to go on our cruise and I was going to miss it.  I was freaking out (sad, but true!).  I was obsessively checking the internet to see if it was online.  It finally popped up at 12:30pm my time and the car that was to take us to the airport was due to arrive at 1pm.  Nooooo!  What did I do?  I called the car company and had them push the pick up back to 1:30pm.  Yes, I did.  I got to watch Castle and still had plenty of time to catch our plane.  The premier was so good it almost made me forgive Andrew Marlowe for the craptacular season 4.  Almost.  Still, I'm happy now, so all is right with the world.  Marlowe had better not mess it up.

Oh, dear!  I had a lot more randoms in my head than I thought!  Let me post my funny photo and I'll be done.

*Like what you see?  

 So, now that you've read (hopefully) all of my randoms, click the link at the top and link your own or read other randoms over at Stacey's place.  You can also read the free for all over on Talk To Us Tuesday (link below).  Those ladies are always good for a chuckle.  Happy Tuesday all.