(you can see the actual eBay listing ).  Apparently a little boy has been scared to be anywhere in his house alone since his grandfather died there.  It's kind of a sad little story when you think about it.  He must have been very traumatized by the death and perhaps he watched a few too many scary movies on TV.

It's rather creative parenting, IMO, to 'sell' the ghost off to the highest bidder.  I mean, she must really be at her wits end with her freaked out son, don't you think?  Perhaps with the 14K she could buy her son some therapy instead of just 'something nice'.  It just goes to prove that once again, you can sell anything on eBay. 

A good friend of mine lived in her grandparents house for awhile with her husband and his sister.  The house was over a century old.  The kind that they had to add running water, bathrooms and central heating to after the fact.  It was 3 stories high, with and attic on top of that and a root cellar below the house.  A beautiful victorian style estate with a wrap around porch, a good sized lot in a neighborhood where just the land alone was now worth at least a million (a very short hop to downtown DC).  They lived there rent free.  One day they packed up and moved.  I couldn't believe they moved out of that beautiful house!

Apparently the house was haunted by her grandfather's ghost.  He had died in the house and she said they heard him and saw him in mirrors.  That he would wake them up and come to them in dreams.  That she often saw him out of the corner of her eye.  And while it wasn't a scary pressence, it was enough to freak them all out.

I don't think I would care how many ghosts were in my house.  If I was given a gigantic house like that for free, I'd live there forever. 

I've been feeling a bit like a festive flop this year.  Here it is already the weekend after Thanksgiving and I have no tree, no decorations (save for one measley strand of rope lights that looks totally ghetto) and no cookies baked.  Usually the day after Thanksgiving we put our tree up and start getting in the Christmas spirit.  This year, turkey day was taken up with entertaining my father and his girlfriend and the day after was spent cleaning up for dinner guests that evening. 

Yesterday I got a bunch of candy and made gingerbread for making little houses with the girls.  After a whole day of cooking andmessing up the house... the houses were a huge flop.  Literally. They flopped over.  It was a disppointing disaster. 

This morning my oldest daughter is in a parade and I volunteered to be a parent resource during the thing.  Meaning, I walk along and help the kids find a potty if they can't wait.  Do you know I have never experiencedoneof the local Christmas parades?  I've lived here for 15 (!) years and never been to a Christmas parade.

I have this feeling of pressure this year hanging over my head.  I want everything to be wonderful for the kids.  I have this huge sense of responsibility.  I am in charge of being Santa.  I'm in charge of making the magic happen.

No wonder I have had a migraine everyday for the last week.  Isn't this supposed to be fun?!

Hi.  I have something to confess.  I'm addicted to The O.C.  And I have been addicted since the very first episode.  Why do I care about the sometimes shallow and bratty antics of four teenagers living in high society on the beautiful, always sunny, coast of California?  Someone tell me because I don't understand it at all.

I wasn't obsessed with other prime time soaps like 90210 and Melrose Place.  Why do I care about this one?  Is it because Ryan is so dang dark and brooding or that Seth is written so funny he makes me laugh out loud?  Why do I look at the clothes Mischa wears and think "damn, if only I lost 40 pounds I could wear plaid pants and look good too". 

And why do I get so disappointed when the show ends and no one has gotten pushed in the pool or punched in the face?!

The 'Rachel' is named the most influential hair style of all time. 

I remember my friend in high school showing me a picture of Jennifer Anniston that she was taking to her hairstylist to have her hair cut that way.  I almost always try to take a picture with me to the hair dresser when I'm getting anything other than a trim. 

I took a picture of Tiffani Theisen (pictured at left) one time because she had that long hair for so long on Saved by the Bell (yes, I'm that old) and then one day she chopped it all off into a cute little bob.  Her face is very round, like mine, and I thought if she could do it, so could I.  I've also used pictures of Reese Witherspoon.

I'm like to offer an meager statement for my abandoning tblog and my fellow bloggers so many months ago.  I disappeared without a trace.  Without a goodbye.  Without any sort of anything.

I don't want to dwell on those days, for they were dark.  But everything is better and back on track.  So, I'd like to just step forward and not look back.  I hope to rekindle those wonderful blogger friendships that I have so so so missed.

You have no idea how much you've touched my life.  I am unworthy.  Please don't hate me.  :(

~DBG~

I swear after this one I'm done politic-ing for awhile.  I'm still all riled up from the election.  This two shall pass.

So the number of key cabinet members stepping down from Bush's leadership is growing, it seems, with each passing day.  What exactly did Tom Ridge's created position do for us as a country other than enact a strange rainbow of alert levels and put a figure head up there as a scape goat should something happen in the future?  I mean, really, is George W. going to take the fall if we're attacked again?  No.  The Homeland Security Department will.

Nothing against Tom Ridge personally.  I'm sure he's a very nice person.  Was he the one who said that he took the position as a favor but wanted to move into the private sector to pay for his kids college educations?  I can't remember.

I heard on the radio that Jim Gilmore is on the list of possible replacements.  For those who don't live in Virginia, you may not know that he used to be the govenor of this fine state.  He won on a platform that promised to eliminate the personal property tax we pay on our vehicles every year.  It's a ridiculous tax, to be sure.  However, he was elected years ago and we still pay part of that tax.  It's a reduced amount, but we still pay it. 

The point being that I'm not that I see what qualifies him to run the Department of Homeland Security--- but I'm sure he's a nice person too. 

I cheered when he was convicted and I'll cheer again when he is sentenced to death.  Possibly it makes me an evil person to celebrate his misfortune.

I was willing to accept that someone else could have done it.  But the defense would have you believe that Laci walked her dog before being abducted by a satanic cult, who allowed her to give birth then strangled the baby, killed Laci and threw them both in the bay just to frame Scott.   

Yeah.  Riiiight.  And flying monkey's are going to come out my bum and take me off to Oz.

Let's not even delve into Scott being an undisputed liar and adulterer who showed zero remorse for his missing wife.  I've followed this case since she went missing and even I, a stranger, cried for Laci and Connor when I read about the vigil that was held for them.  Yet, Scott called Amber, refused to sit with the family and smiled. 

Makes me fume just thinking about it.  GRRR.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine called me a liberal.  We had been having a political email discussion around the time of the election and I believe the subject of gay marriage came up.  To which I stated my opinion that I don't care if gay's marry or union up.  The discussion also encompassed education and I stated my opinion that I am so against there being any religious references within the public education system.  Now, yes, this does include the pledge.  I'm not really bothered by the 'under God' all that much... I just think that if you're drawing the line, you have to draw the line.

Anyway, I digress.  That's when my friend called me a liberal and I was highly offended.  So much so that my jaw dropped and I thought 'how dare she'?! 

And then I realized that before I got all huffy I should find out what a liberal actually is, because I really had no idea and she is very intelligent.  Meaning that she always knows what she's talking about.  I only knew that every commentator on the election was calling Edwards 'the most liberal' person in Washington like it was a horrible thing.

I looked it up.  Liberal means (according to hyperdictionary.com)  
- a person who "favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties" and "tolerant of change,... not bound by tradition."

So I ponder this and I think that it's not so bad.

I know there is more to it than that.  Perhaps I need to ponder it some more and revisit this topic again. 

It has all the makings of a classic Darwin Award:  trailer, death and perplexing stupidity.

Lava lamp left on hot stovetop explodes, killing man

KENT, Washington (AP) -- A man who placed a lava lamp on a hot stovetop was killed when it exploded and sent a shard of glass into his heart, police said.

Philip Quinn, 24, was found dead in his trailer home Sunday night by his parents.

"Why on earth he was heating a lava lamp on the stove, we don't know," Kent Police spokesman Paul Petersen said Monday.

After the lamp exploded, Quinn apparently stumbled into his bedroom, where he died Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use.