I loved watching Reading Rainbow when I was growing up, and I had a chance to watch it again this weekend. It was just as great as I remembered it. I watched this really short clip today, and it kind of brought tears to my eyes. Will any truly educational children's shows of today be as well regarded and loved so many years into the future as Reading Rainbow?

This is the most adorable video of Peanut and Ranj. I want to know how the kitty overcame it's natural desire to hunt rodents. So cute!

And here's another video, which is both cute and really cool! I wish that I could be around when something like this happens!

I like to watch Arthur. No, not that Arthur starring Dudley Moore, but Arthur, the one starring Arthur Read, the aardvark. It's on here at 5pm when there is nothing else on the schedule that interests me as much. This fact in itself isn't so bad. However, after last week, I've started to wonder if I'm regressing back to childhood.

One of the episodes that I watched last week, which I believe I have seen before, involved Arthur, DW, and the pursuit of PANTS, or the acronym used to describe a good experiment. Arthur and Buster bought and ant farm for their experiment, but didn't realize they needed to get ants as well. They get their ants, but the ants go missing. I stepped out of the room while this happened, but I bet DW did it! Anyway, the family finds ants all over the house in odd places, and their very lenient parents give them one week to round them up before they hire an exterminator. I personally would have said, "Pack up! We have a man on the way!" So they try lots of different ways to lure the ants out. By accident they find that sugar water is the best way to get all of the ants rounded up, and there's your happy ending. But what about mine?

This was mine: It's the middle of the night, and I'm fast asleep. Suddenly I'm dreaming that I have ants crawling out of the corners of my pillows, and then they are covering me. Tons and tons of ants. I woke myself up screaming like a banshee. I was so convinced that I was covered in ants that I ran screaming into my bathroom trying to brush them off. Once I realized I was A)awake, B) screaming at the top of my lungs, and C) probably waking up and ticking off my neighbors, I felt like such an idiot. How old am I that an Arthur episode could give me a nightmare?

I went to bed feeling stupid and bad for most likely waking up my neighbors, and I vowed that I wouldn't dream about any more ants. So that's why I dreamed that I had black beans crawling out of the corners of my pillows and covering me. Sigh.

Everything is still same old, same old around here. I'm still sick, my lungs ache, my joints ache, and I walk like a little old lady. I did get to talk with a lady from the state Dept. of Health for half an hour this afternoon about my "suspected" case of pertussis. I guess blood tests just don't say it like a grown culture does.

I went home sick Monday afternoon, and spent Tuesday at home as well. This whole up and moving around with lots of talking leads to horrible coughing spells, fevers, and not much fun. I need to call my doctor again, which I would have done had that dept. of health lady not kept me on the phone for so freakin' long this afternoon!

We had our first Knowledge Bowl meet today. It is affectionately known as KB or Kick Ball. The team did better than last year, but still have a ways to go when it comes to being aggressive on buzzer and having more confidence in saying an answer, even if you don't know if it is correct. No one is going to laugh at you, really!

I found a new home for my couch and chair, so now all I need to do is schedule the arrival of the one I purchased over Christmas break. It's a full-sized sofa bed in a moss green chenille, and I can't wait for it to arrive! I'll gain some much needed space in my living room, and I'll have a bed for guests to sleep on.

I'm homesick. There, I said it. You'd think that a 30 year old woman wouldn't be homesick. Especially one who hasn't lived in her hometown for 3 years. Perhaps it is just January talking. I got back yesterday after spending the better part of two weeks at my parents. It isn't so bad when it's just a short jaunt there and back, but when it gets to be longer, it sure is hard to leave everyone behind and head back to a town where the only people I know are the people at the dentist office, and I don't know if I would put them even in the casual acquaintance category.

Don't get me wrong, I do have friends around here, but seeing as I drive 30 miles to work, and that's how I got to know them, they don't live anywhere close. Living in a small town, which is what I want to do, can either be a blessing or a curse when it comes to friends. I would say that if you aren't from there or anywhere close, and you don't work or worship in the town, then it's definitely a curse. It also doesn't help to be shy, my particular personal curse. It gets awfully lonely around here at times. So, if you have any advice for me, please leave a comment. I'm all ears, or rather, eyes!