Yes, my computer has crashed and yes I backed up some stuff (music, pictures, contacts)...and the backups failed.  And I lost everything and I SHOULD have known to get an external backup thingy and put it off.  I am now paying for it and will be busy for the next few days trying to reinstall everything I can remember that I want on my computer, and finding the discs that are supposed to be in the box clearly labeled 'computer discs' and my sons have somewhere in the warrens they call their rooms.

My father had a hemoratic stroke on Friday or Saturday and was found Saturday morning.  He was taken off life support Saturday at 3 pm.  At present he is, and will remain, unconscious and breathing.  The staff at the hospital do not expect him to live many more days.

I will not be available to play as I will be travelling to deal with whatever it is that next of kin has to do in these situations.  I'm assuming I will be back by next week and will let you know if that is not the case.

For those who thought Hallmark created Valentine's Day:

More than a Hallmark holiday, Valentine's Day, like Halloween, is rooted in pagan partying. (See "Halloween Facts: Costumes, History, Urban Legends, More.")

The lovers' holiday traces its roots to raucous annual Roman festivals where men stripped naked, grabbed goat- or dog-skin whips, and spanked young maidens in hopes of increasing their fertility, said classics professor Noel Lenski of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The annual pagan celebration, called Lupercalia, was held every year on February 15 and remained wildly popular well into the fifth century A.D.—at least 150 years after Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

"It is clearly a very popular thing, even in an environment where the Christians are trying to close it down," Lenski said. "So there's reason to think that the Christians might instead have said, OK, we'll just call this a Christian festival."

The church pegged the festival to the legend of St. Valentine.

According to the story, in the third century A.D. Roman Emperor Claudius II, seeking to bolster his army, forbade young men to marry. Valentine, it is said, flouted the ban, performing marriages in secret.

For his defiance, Valentine was executed in A.D. 270—on February 14, the story goes.

While it's not known whether the legend is true, Lenski said, "it may be a convenient explanation for a Christian version of what happened at Lupercalia."

Since we get hungry playing wow and since the people in the guild have been talking non-stop about recipes and since we have several chefs, cooks, and kitchen literate people in the guild:  Its about time to have a cookbook area to share our combined knowledge and vent our favorites for the consumption and digestion of our fellow guildies.  No implied good taste or safety measures are in effect so if you explode or puke while attempting one of these recipes its your own damn fault for exploding and puking and therefore not the fault of the recipe writers.  Use at your own disgression.

Let's see: We had planned to go to Palm Springs and Yuma to visit family for the holiday.  We left on Dec 20 went to Palm Springs had a great time at a resort and hanging around there with my brother and his wife.  This is where things started to get weird.  When we arrived at Yuma late on Dec 22 it was dark and the lights were not working properly at my In-laws.  Since my youngest son (17 yrs) was asleep we left him at the In-laws with my hubby's aunt and uncle there as well, then my hubby, older son and I went over to the house that we were staying at; it was just a couple blocks away.  At 2 am on Dec 23 my youngest son called my cell phone. 

There was a house fire at my In-laws.  My mother in law is a light sleeper and woke up smelling smoke.  The fire alarms never did go off.  Everyone got out ok but the place was destroyed.  My youngest son called 911 and the firefighters responded quickly and were very good at what they did. The structure is still standing but the inside is gutted.  We spent the rest of the vacation helping them recover from their losses.

It gave new meaning to the season of renewal for all of us.  I am very thankful for the life of my son and that of my In Laws (all jokes aside for the moment).  Nothing else matters...go hug your loved ones. I have been spending more time just enjoying my children's company this last week and we are all glad to be home safe and sound.

So we are back from the south, I had more excitement there than I was expecting and did a few things I was surprised by;

I dune buggied for a day in the desert with my family and a guide...Intense fun exploring an old abandoned mine, my first time in a dune buggy (luckily no one could hear me screaming when we were doing scary things or my sons would've made fun of me).  This was our gift from my hubby's parents for xmas.

I did not eat snake or squirrel (which were on one of the menus) but I did eat 'grits' and cornbread and I drank a milkshake made from dates.

I recieved a proposal of marriage from a guy who looked to be aprox. 90 years old...and had to turn him down.

Though we got lost on the way back to Palm Springs from Yuma and found an interesting wind farm in the process we did make our plane (cause it was delayed a couple of hrs) and no harm was done there.

All in all though the weather is dangerous here (-30C today) I prefer the safety of the north (though they sure cook ribs well in Arizona)