Welcome Sully

We picked up our new chinny yesterday in Kansas City. His name is Sully, he's a 6 year old standard gray male chinchilla. He's kind of freaked out by his new home. After we put him in his new cage it took him a few minutes and then he started running up and down the ramps. He even checked out the leaping ledge in the cage. He's not sure about the wheel yet. He's fascinated by it, but he doesn't get how to use it yet. He kept running down and putting his paws on the wheel and then it'd start turning and he'd run back upstairs in the cage away from it.

Sully checking out the chew toys in his new cage.

Sully found the leaping ledge to be very interesting.

Finding a nice spot to sleep in his new box.

KFC ... let us build your dream home!

Quite a unique pair don't you think?
Billboard seen along hwy 70 between St. Louis and Columbia.

Motorola Pebl Pond

Check out the Motorola Pebl Pond

So I'm not one to really care much about brands, but this is a pretty cool website. The Motorola Pebl phone looks like a Pebble...it's pretty cool, we looked at it at T Mobile when we got our new phones last month. On the brand website there is a virtual pond and you can write something on a pebble and throw it into the pond. Then you can go check out what other people have written on their pebbles as well. It doesn't say, but aparently you can not use numbers on the pebbles, because I tried to write "17 days until the wedding" and it showed up as "days until the wedding."

I found out about this website in an article I just read in Ad Week (April 17 issue, rating interactive agencies). The Pebl pond was created by the interactive agency FCBi (which also does those dumb "Above the Influence" commercials - their overall rating was a B- from Ad Week, but hey...they made one good site. Besides the fact that their website homepage calls out "Breaking News" dated 2003...).

The end of 7th heaven....or is it?

***Caution major spoilers do not read if you have not seen the "last" episode of 7th Heaven***

As you all know, my favorite TV show ever is 7th Heaven. I've been watching it religously since it began back in 1996. I got the chance to watch the "final" episode of 7th Heaven last night, and I have to say, I think they did a decent job ending the show. Of course it was silly and unrealistic, but it was still my show, and I didn't leave the show thinking, I can't believe they did that like I often do when TV shows end.

Anyway, so I read this morning that 7th Heaven may have 13 more episodes. This is probably a bad idea. The actors are taking pay cuts, they won't be into the show, the plots will probably be stupid...

So for those of you who care...here is the scoop on the final episode:

• Simon and Rose decide to postpone the wedding
• Matt and Sarah surprise everyone by showing up at the wedding and with the news that Sarah is pregnant with twin boys
• Lucy and Kevin are shocked to hear this because they are also having twin boys
• Carlos shows up with out Mary, but blurts out at the end that he and Mary are back together and that Mary is also pregnant - with twin girls
• Sandy shows up at the very end with her baby (and no Martin) and tells Simon that they need to talk...
  

Review: Goodbye Alice in Wonderland

I picked up Jewel's 6th album last week (it came out May 2) and I've been listening to it non-stop. It's called Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, and I love it. I was really skeptical at first because her last album left much to be desired. This one is great. More upbeat than her much loved first album (Pieces of You), but still containing those personal songs that we've come to expect from Jewel.

I actually saw Jewel in person at the River Lounge courtsey of 101.1 the River the Friday before the album was released. She performed 3 songs, 2 from the new album (Again and again, and Goodbye Alice in Wonderland) and everyone's favorite, Foolish Games, from her first album. She has an amazing voice and is much better in person than recorded on an album. If you get a chance you should check her out!

My favorite song on the album is Goodbye Alice in Wonderland...

So goodbye Alice in Wonderland / Goodbye yellow brick road / There is a difference between dreaming and pretending / I did not find paradise / It was only a reflection of my lonely mind searching / For what was missing in my life

Dreaming is a good thing cause it brings new things to life / Pretending is an ending that perpetuates a lie / Forgetting what you are / Seeing for what you've been told / And growing up is not the absence of dreaming / It's being able to understand the difference between the ones you can hold / And the ones that you've been sold

Congratulations Hickman High School...I think

Journal lists Hickman in high school ranking

Newsweek magazine has named Hickman High School as one of the top 1,000 school in the United States.

Hickman took the 971st spot. Public schools were ranked by a formula based on the number of advanced placement tests taken by all students in 2004 divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Newsweek named Jefferson County High School in Irondale, Ala., as the nation’s top school.

Well, I feel special having gone to the 971 best high school in the country. Too bad the rating is based on AP scores, and not any of the numerous other qualities that make a school good or bad. It seems to me that such things as graduation rate, teacher quality, Average GPA, number who go onto college, rates of violence, overall student satisfaction of the school would make for a better accurate rating.

St. Louis ranked 18th 'smart place' to live

St. Louis ranked 18th among nation's 'smart places' to live

I just read that St. Louis has been ranked #18 in the Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's top 50 "Smart Places to Live." Aparently this survey ranked the cost of living, homes, crime (Funny, because just a few months ago, in a different survey, St. Louis was ranked the second most dangerous city in the country), health care, climate, environment and education.

Three other Missouri cities also made the cut: Kansas City came in sixth, Columbia 24th and Jefferson City 35th.

I wonder what cities were considered, and whether it was the "city" of St. Louis or the entire St. Louis metropolitian area that was judged to be a "smart place" to live. Also interesting is the size of St. Louis vs. the size of Columbia for example...

Sandals Grande Ocho Rios

We booked our honeymoon yesterday with Majestic Travel in St. Peters. They were very helpful in helping us pick out where we should go and finding us flights and accomodations, expecially because we are booking so close to the wedding. We attended a "Sandals Night" where they went through all of the different Sandals resorts and showed pictures and explained the atmosphere of the resorts. We ended up picking the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios Beach and Villa Resort in Jamaica. We'll be spending our honeymoon week in a private hut with swimming pool behind, and of course enjoying the ocean as well.

Wedding Flowers

On Monday night we ordered the flowers for the wedding. The picture here is the bouquet that I picked out for myself. The bridesmaids will have bouquets of white roses with some babies breath and greenery. The Groomsmen will have one white rose in their boutonnieres. We are getting a nice flower arrangement to go in front of the alter at the church. We also ordered small corsages and boutonnieres for the mothers/fathers and grandmothers/grandfathers. The flowers are from Favazza Florist, on Natural Bridge just down the street from the church.