Check out my shiny new Flickr badge over there on the left, underneath "Photos." Freakin' awesome, if I do say so. You can click on it to be taken to the album that contains all the pictures for a closer look.

Oh, by the way, The Baby is five months old today and those pictures were snapped this morning in honor of the occasion. She weighs 18 lbs., and is 27.5" tall which is actually half an inch taller than Madalyn (the Amazon Queen) at this age. WTH is up with that?

This just in: I've updated my entire sidebar, top to bottom. I even updated my BlogRoll. I pruned all the no-longer-active blogs and added some new ones -- friends whom I have been shamefully slow to acknowledge. I changed my Timewasters (will endeavor to do that more frequently now, so keep an eye on it) and added a link to a neat t-shirt-making website in the Other Links section. As if that weren't enough I finally figured out how to add a link to my online photo albums under the long-blank Photos header (it was not as easy as it sounds; it involved adding a module to my template and blah blah blah technical crap that I had no idea how to do but figured out all on my own). At some point I am going to start a Flickr account and put it up there but, for now, there's at least a working link there for people to check out, and the pictures on it are current.

So, not to sound insufferably self-satisfied, but I'm pretty proud of myself. Behold the awesomeness of my updated sidebar, will you?

When I found out Bret Michaels, lead singer of Poison, was doing a Bachelor-style reality dating show, I knew I had to watch. (Rock of Love on VH1, Sundays) Hey, I may be the world's biggest Beatles fan but I still have a soft spot for my 80s hair metal bands. I thought it might be fun to see so I set my TiVo, not sure what to expect but curious how it would all pan out.

Well, several episodes in I am still watching, but only for the sheer train wreck factor. First off, I expected a lot of beautiful women -- you know, real model types, like you used to see in Poison videos. Instead the producers have presented us with the motliest collection of ladies I've ever seen under one roof. There are some seriously fugly broads in that house. Several of them look like old leather pouches due to continual baking in tanning beds. As you might suspect there is not a set of natural boobs in the joint, which might explain how they got on the show in the first place despite their overall unattractiveness.

All this wouldn't be so bad if there was a single likable girl in the group. On The Bachelor there are always a few girls to whom I take a liking and who I think the guy should choose. But, in this bunch, there isn't one. They are all loud and obnoxious and bitchy. The quieter ones have already been sent home for not making asses of themselves -- oh, I mean, they "didn't know how to party". It's quite shocking how rude and disgusting these women are. They are, by and large, drunk, foul-mouthed, cigarette-smoking, morally-bankrupt skanks, for lack of a better term. They start drinking as soon as they roll out of bed. They curse like sailors. They get in catfights with each other. Watching the show I can almost see the fumes rising from those girls. I imagine they must smell something like an ashtray that's been doused in bourbon. I am sure that some of them are fairly safe but Bret should seriously consider a round of penicillin if he gets too friendly with a few of them. Yes, it seems the producers culled the finest trailer parks across the nation to find these women. It's really too bad they didn't try to think outside the box and tap some classier sources for potentials.

And, no, this is not sour grapes on my part. I am long past my teenage-crush days. I was merely interested in the show as you'd be interested in an old friend from high school -- you wonder how they're doing and wish them well. I know Bret has been unlucky in love and I was hoping he'd find someone lovely out of this whole deal. I tried to find someone to root for but I couldn't. There's not a single woman on there who hasn't struck me as trashy. The best I've been able to do is find a few to root against because they are the worst of the lot. I've been completely astonished as I've watched the show because it really seems as though they scraped the bottom of the barrel to find contestants. And I've been equally astonished that Bret seems to think they are all just wonderful. He keeps blaming rock and roll for the demise of all his previous relationships, which is probably true in a roundabout way (though not the way he's thinking). I think it's true in the sense that he keeps hooking up with these chicks you'd find backstage after a Poison concert. Perhaps if he'd find a nice girl who had something going for her other than silicone and alcoholism he'd have something that lasted.

Can't....type.....baby.....trying.....to.....kill me........

Okay, I think I can marshal enough energy to complain for a few momentitos. So. After last night's entry Miss Eliza ended up waking a total of at least 10 times for the night. Then, to drive the final nail into my coffin, she awoke at 5 a.m. and refused to go back to sleep at all after that. *sigh*

On the positive side she's still really, really cute. It's a good thing, too, because that's all that's standing between her and eBay.

Eliza has been asleep for 2.5 hours and has been up at least four times already. We may on the verge of setting a new record tonight, folks. How exciting! All those people with normal babies are missing out on the fun, by golly.

This has been me, the exhausted one, reporting to you from my bed of pain. I'd write more but my three functioning brain cells have locked up.

Huh? I have a blog?

Oh yeah. Whoops.

We made it back from California in one piece. We had a wonderful time. Since our return I've been engrossed in online drama and also Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which, OMG, fascinating! I am quite literally on the edge of my seat every time I open the book).

There is much about which to update (My little baby is 4.5 months old now! My biggest baby is starting the second grade on Friday! My middle baby.....well, he's off in his own little world, as usual!) but it is now 11:36 and I should be getting to bed. Yes, it is still early for the Incorrigible Night Owl but the Incorrigible Baby is not what you'd call a good sleeper so I'm having to cut my nights a bit shorter these days if I want to continue to function.

I promise to post several new items in the next couple of days. Also I may turn my comments back on and see if the spammers have given up on me yet. One can only hope.