They grow up so fast

Prom Night 2006

Middle son with his prom date

Youngest step-daughter with her prom date

Youngest step-daughter is actually a junior, but Middle son is only a freshman. They are both going to their first prom tonight. Time certainly flies.

Happy Easter!

Easter Greetings from the Whaley-Cooper family!!

Have a happy and blessed Easter.

It's not really mine but. . .

it would totally suit my middle son.

Mission Statement

To control the world's supply of paperclips using nuclear powered iPods.

What's Your Mission?

His two favorite sculpting mediums: paper clips and aluminum foil.

h/t: The Wilson Tag Team Blogfest

How do you treat your waiter?

Apparently it says alot about you to the people around you.
USA TODAY - CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character
This story caught my attention because my husband was just telling me about someone whose treatment of waiters was used to describe his general personality, which is pretty nasty. And my husband and I have often commented to each other about how someone's treatment of a waiter or waitress echoed their personality.

It's definitely something to keep in mind when you are going on job interviews at restaurants.

H/T: Rob via Jay

What kind of cook are you?

You Are an Excellent Cook

You're a top cook, but you weren't born that way. It's taken a lot of practice, a lot of experimenting, and a lot of learning. It's likely that you have what it takes to be a top chef, should you have the desire...

Are You A Good Cook?

h/t: Accidental Verbosity

Cartoon Diabolical Plan of the Day

My youngest son was watching "The Xs" and one of the bad guys, Glowface, was devising a plan to ruin the world's economy. It went like this:
1. Rid the world of non-dairy creamer.
2. Coffee will become undrinkable.
3. Workers will no longer function without coffee.
4. The world's economy will grind to a halt.

Sounds reasonable, there's probably not enough black coffee drinkers out there to keep the economy afloat on their own.

Love Monkey. . .On VH1

A little good news for Love Monkey fans, according to TV Guide VH1 will be airing all 8 episodes of the cancelled CBS series. It seems that they are not commissioning any new episodes and the actors appear to have moved onto other endeavors, but at least we'll get the chance to see the rest of the episodes that already exist. If that's the best we can get, I'll gladly take it. I thought it was a good show, but probably not really a good fit for CBS's Tuesday night line-up. CBS could have given it a chance in another time slot. I think they gave up on it too soon.

Bizarre News

MSNBC - Three men charged in 'dungeon' castration

That's a headline that will get your attention (and make most men cross their legs). The details are somewhat sketchy, but still quite bizarre.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Three men accused of running a sadomasochistic "dungeon" in rural Haywood County were in custody Friday, charged with performing illegal castrations.

Investigators from the office of Sheriff Tom Alexander said the men admitted performing at least eight surgeries on six consenting clients over the past year, including castrations and testicle replacements.
. . .
Investigators said other surgeries performed at the home included urethra rerouting and penis removal.

Yikes! And it gets even stranger

victims may have come from as far away as South America.

You would think they could find someone to do that illegally a little closer to home.

They were charged with

five counts of felonious castration without malice, five counts of felonious conspiracy to commit castration without malice and eight counts of misdemeanor performing medical acts without a license.

however,

Each of the felony charges carries a maximum sentence of three years, three months, Bonfoey said.

Just bizarre.

Funny Warning Label

My youngest son won this cute little fan for selling items in a school fundraiser. The toy was made in China, but the writing on the box was, of course, in English. I got a real kick out of one of the warnings on the box. I certainly hope it wasn't too important, because it is hardly decipherable.


If you can't read the print, it says "The body keeps away the fan leaves when using!" That's clear, right?

Obviously it just wasn't meant to be

Obviously I just wasn't meant to receive instantaneous e-mail. I have a hotmail account and I began to notice that I was receiving messages that were obviously sent hours or even days before I was receiving them. A friend suggested that I should change to a gmail account, so I did. Now recently I've been getting my gmail messages hours after they were sent. The other day, I sent a message at around 5 o'clock in the evening. I checked my account before bed and did not have a reply. I checked my mail the next morning and still did not have a reply. Around 10ish that morning I finally received a reply, but the time stamp of when it was sent was only minutes after I had sent the original message. I often notice when I log onto gmail that it's instant message feature is "temporarily unavailable" so I guess they have been experiencing some technical difficulties, but still. . .

I'm not sure if the answer is that the internet hates me, or that I just wasn't meant to communicate instantaneously through computers.