Happy 103rd Birthday to Rick's Grandma!

And while I'm on the subject of birthdays (see meme below) I wanted to give a great big shout-out to Rick's Grandma (Great Nana as she is known to the girls) who is turning 103 today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GREAT NANA!!!

Can you even imagine? 103!? It's amazing to think how the world has changed in her lifetime and all the things she has experienced!

She lives out in California so we won't be able to wish her a Happy Birthday in person - so instead I put together some of the girls artwork and sent it along to her with a card I made. Check it out:

I hope she likes it (and I hope she gets it soon since I was a wee bit late in sending it out...oops)!

Another meme...

This one comes via Karyn of Vexed fame.

Here's what you do:


1. Go to wikipedia and type in your Birthday Month and day only.

Ok, done. August 28th has been entered.

2. List 3 Events that occurred that day.

1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.

1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.

(you know I had to throw that in with it's reference to my dear beloved Denmark)

1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.


(I actually did not know that that speech was given on that date!)


3. List 2 important Birth days.


1908 - Roger Tory Peterson, American ornithologist (d. 1996)

1925 - Donald O'Connor, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 2003)

...and quite a few others I recognize as well!

4. List 1 Death.

1976 - Anissa Jones, American actress (b. 1958)

Oh crap - I never knew that "Buffy" died on my 6th birthday!

5. List a Holiday or Observance.

Many Christian churches: feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

(Who? I guess I need to go click on that link...)

6. Tag 5 other bloggers.

If you are reading this and have a blog consider yourself tagged. I don't get enough traffic around here to name enough people who might happen to find me and realize they've been tagged.

So there you have it! The date of my birth in all it's glory. Now go mark your calendar!

Camera Happy

Well, after posting that new picture the other day I had decided to go out and get a new 'do for the spring.

Just because I can...I give you "the new Jeanne"...I'll let you decide whether it's 'new' or 'new and improved', but please be kind! :-)

By the way, in case you were on the edge of your seats waiting for the news...I lost four more bucks to the local lottery system. Feh. In much more exciting news I've lost a couple more pounds and am at a total of 18 pounds lost AND we've lost most of the snow in our backyard to the warming spring temperatures! Now, those are things I don't mind losing!

Meri Christmas!

We have not seen our good friend Meri for too long. So long, in fact, that we still had her Christmas presents here at our house and she still had presents (both for Christmas and Rebecca's birthday) at her house that needed to be delivered. We'd been trying to figure out a good weekend to drive into Boston to meet up with her (she lives about 30-45 minutes north of the city) and this weekend it finally all came together. We decided to meet at the Museum of Science and wander the exhibits a bit and then grab lunch. Thanks to our membership with a museum that is part of the ASTC we get free admission to this museum along with tons of others across the nation. Pretty cool!

Estimated launch time was 8:30am to get us to the museum sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 and we actually pulled out of the driveway at 8:35. Quite a feat given the logistics of getting three young children up, dressed, fed, watered and ready for a moderately lengthy car trip. And of course, you can't go on any such day-long excursion without stroller, diaper bag, cooler full of semi-healthy snacks, etc. We even have a DVD player and stash of movies in the car for such trips because without it we would probably never go anywhere that is more than a 30-minute car ride away.

Turns out Meri had some errands that needed to be taken care of that morning so she was running a bit behind but through the wonderful magic of cell phones we were able to leave messages and call each other to determine current locations and the like. I don't know how it all worked before cell phones but I am so glad they exist now. I don't use mine often but in such instances I am forever grateful that I have one. We got to the museum at about 10:30 and after the requisite bathroom trips and attempts to check-in with Meri we decided to just head on into the museum and start wandering around. Meri showed up a short while later and while we managed only a small portion of the museum in the 2.5 hours we were there the kids had fun and there will be other opportunities to return and see the rest!

After the museum visit we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch and had some time to sit and chat with Meri. I have to say that although the food there was very good the portions were absolutely ridiculous. I could not believe the platter they brought out to me with my fish tacos and assorted sides. I swear it could have practically fed our entire family - given that as a whole the girls don't eat all that much. Insane. I did not come close to finishing my lunch and Rick ate about 2/3 of his salad before claiming he was defeated. Yikes. That's just wrong. To be done in by a salad of all things. Geesh. The girls both ordered some "mini" burgers from the appetizer menu - they got a platter of four such "mini" burgers that were each about the side of a typical fast food kids burger! Again - totally insane. Had we know we would've ordered one serving and split it between the two of them and still might've had leftovers. Oh, and they had no kid's menu, by the way. What's up with that? I can't believe that printing half a page of kid-friendly choices - with appropriate portioning!!! - was out of the question when their entire menu was about 25 pages long (with copious ads, I might add. Huh?). Anyway, that's my restaurant vent for the day. We don't have a Cheesecake Factory near us and the experience did not have me excited about a return visit so I doubt we'll go back. If we do I'll likely want to split an entree with someone else to make the portions more reasonable (and the bill cheaper!).

Here are a few pics of our museum visit to share:

The girls in front of the "wave" aquarium.

Rick hamming it up with E.

Meri explaining early animation special effects to A.
R on a swing (looking a bit unhappy because I accidently bonked her on the head with that wooden crossbar when I tried to help her into the swing. Ooops.)


And for fun comparison here is R last year on the blue swing.

A on the same swing.

And again for comparison - A on the swing last year.

The whole gang in front of a satellite image map of Boston.


After the museum visit and the lunch stop we headed to Meri's car and picked up the gifts she had for the girls and then headed to our car in a different parking area to open all the gifts. The girls were thrilled with their gifts. The older girls got some awesome activity books that have been keeping them quite busy of late and a science kit and Miss E. got an activity book and a play purse with all sorts of accessories to put in it! R also got a game called Cadoo as her birthday gift. Meri is a fellow board game lover so we often find board games as gifts for each other and now the next generation is benefitting from that shared interest. Cool beans! We got Meri a Tinkerbelle snowglobe to add to her ever-growing Disney snowglobe collection and a nice-smelling gift box that had a candle, bath gel, and other assorted things with which to pamper herself. Hope you enjoy them, Meri!

It was awesome to spend some time with Meri! It would have been great if we had even MORE time but I guess that is just a great excuse for another road trip as the weather gets warmer and we can come visit her at her place of abode. Those visits usually include a trip to the beach which the girls always love (as do the rest of us!). I predict fun times in our near future!

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In other news, I figured since I've dropped a bit more than 15 pounds I'd update my profile pic. Here's a side-by-side of the old and the new. What do you think?




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Lastly, I turned in my two winning lottery tickets and decided to just go for broke. I asked for four more quick picks for tonight's draw. Wish me luck (or call me an idiot - your choice).

Maybe I'm not so stupid after all...

StupidTester.com says I'm 8% Stupid! How stupid are you? Click Here!">

Some days I really do feel like the last nearly 8 years of being pregnant and/or nursing has really sucked a lot of brain cells out of me. All that effort to grow a new person (times 3) and then nourish them - they were exclusively breastfed for the first 5-6 months of life - and let's not even mention the whole life-sapping sleep deprivation that goes along with it. But, of course, they are worth it. And I truly hope that whatever life/brains/smarts they drained out of me went directly into their own "smart bank" so they can become brilliant in whatever they choose to be in this life. But, according to that scientific test that I took online I still have a few functional brain cells left and they actually work pretty well for me. Good to know.

Now, I just hope they are still there and still working when I take that big leap back into the workforce. After such a long hiatus it's a scary proposition to think about.

And speaking of work, I need to embark in some serious home study edumacation so I can keep my standing as a licensed professional. The whole PDP (professional development points) and CEU (continuing education units) thing has me completely annoyed, but at the same time I do understand the value of the requirement. There does need to be continued learning and education at all levels of one's profession - but my main gripe is the cost. Here I am not working for the time being, but needing to maintain certification - and the cost can be quite prohibitive! Luckily, there are plenty of home study courses available because if I had to travel to take all my courses I'd have to also factor in travel, food and lodging expenses (not to mention figuring out the child care situation). But, even the home study courses can be expensive. If I am lucky I can find courses that run about $15/unit but most of the courses that I'd actually be really interested in taking end up costing way more than I can afford (up to as much as $50/unit). So, a typical course that is about 6 units would cost as much as $300 and I need at least 10 units/year for my state licensure (and let's not even talk about the hundreds I spend to maintain my level of licensure and certification while I'm on hiatus...ugh). My certifications require even more that that (but they can overlap with the licensing requirements). Due to insane prices, I end up not doing the ones that I really would like to take and instead opt for something more affordable, yet not really all that interesting. Sad, isn't it?

Right now, I have a book staring me in the face. I need to read it and then go online and take a test. The book is about ADHD and associated disorders. Something I really do need to learn more about but something not hugely a 'passion' for me so I am finding it hard to get motivated to start the book (which is essentially a moderately thick text book - read: dry and unappealing to snuggle up in bed with at night). I'm tempted to go online and take the test to see how well I do without even reading the book, but then I'd feel guilty for not reading the book. So, I just need to buckle down and do it. Oh, and this particular book/test was a pretty decent dealio as far as cost per unit goes. The company that is offering this home study course allows you to buy the book and test from them or just the test. I found a copy of the book used online and paid about $6 for it instead of the retail price of about $60. The test itself costs $59 and so for a total of $65 I'll be getting eight home study credits out of the ten that I need for the year. That works out to be approximately $8 per unit - by far the cheapest I've ever seen. But, still, having to fork out $65 (and eventually more get the additional credits for the year) is not helping the budget right about now.

I have to keep my eye on the prize, though, and realize that I will reap the rewards later when I do go back to work. It's just hard to see the forest for the trees sometimes and to think of it as an investment in the future when the checkbook is currently on the lean side.

I am speechless...

I am utterly and completely speechless. OK, well maybe not speechless but completely astonished and feelin' the love this afternoon in a big way!

I was pulling into my driveway today after getting A from preschool and the mailman pulled up to the driveway and beeped to get my attention. I parked my car in the garage and walked down to meet him and he handed me a wad of catalogues, junk mail, bills and other unwanted crap destined for the recycle bin. Then he reached into his back seat and pulled out a sizable box and told me I'd received something from France.

"France?" I asked. "I don't know anyone from France..."

"Yes, see it's stamped on the front as being from Fra-jeel." he told me, and pointed to the red ink stamp marks on the top of the package.

Um. yeah. OK. A little bit of quirky postal humor, I guess. Whatever...

Moving right along.

So, as I carry the package back to the house I look at the return address and find out it is actually from none other than the fabulous Tuxbaby! She posted on her blog recently about mailing off some packages to some friends. Little did I realize (or even imagine!) that one of those packages was destined for my home -- and I even left her a comment to the effect of "hope your friends enjoy their surprises." Ha!

Well, I'm here to say that I am absolutely BLOWN AWAY by my surprise. I mean seriously. BLOWN. AWAY.

I have known Tuxbaby for going on 8 years now - since we were both pregnant with our February 2000 bundles of joy (first baby for me, second for her). Actually, now that I think of it I know I started posting on the board from the very first day it popped up on the iVillage website (we have since moved our party to a more private locale) but I don't really know for sure when Tuxbaby started posting. But, regardless, we've been friends for a very long time and she has been a wonderful online buddy in so many, many ways. She sent me a lovely note in the package and among other things she wrote that she feels like we've met even though we haven't. And it's so true. She also said that someday we must meet in person - also very true! I know it will happen someday. Preferably sooner rather than later...

Tuxbaby started out as a "mommy" friend and we shared the common bond of like-aged children going through similar stages of development. We rejoiced in their accomplishments and we vented at their ability to bring us to the brink of insanity on certain days. But, during this time she has become so much more to me. She has been there with advice, words of comfort and commiseration, and plenty of happy congrats - whatever I've been going through she's been on the other end listening, commenting and supporting me. And I hope I've been as good a friend when she's needed a sounding board, someone to cheer her on and congratulate her, or to provide support during those tough stretches. In addition, we were some of the original members of the FFF "sister" board, which stands for the Feb Flab Fighters -- a group that started when the moms of those February babies decided they needed to shed some of those unwanted pounds. That board has seen active times and been neglected in turn. But, Tuxbaby is always there when someone posts - to lend an ear and provide support and encouragement. She is a true inspiration with her own personal 'battle of the bulge' and she has turned her flab to FAB with some rather intense workouts as well as a complete overhaul of her nutrition and daily eating habits. She's now a powerhouse of fitness and energy and she's now got a cute Hiker-guy who shares her love of being fit...as well as her love of chocolate and ice cream! They make such a wonderful couple and I am thrilled that she has such a great guy in her life. :-)

Last but certainly not least, she is a very talented crafter and we've shared our love of so many different crafts - card-making and cross-stitch in particular! Which is what brings me to the amazing gift that appeared in the mail today. I was so touched and honored to have received this gift. Words cannot adequately convey just how special it is to me and how very much it is loved and appreciated. I know how much time and energy went into such a gift and I am so blessed to have someone out there who cares for me so much that she gave of herself and her time to produce this incredible work of art! I am truly overwhelmed by the spirit of love, generosity, and friendship that is in each and every little stitch.

OK, folks...the moment you've been waiting for (if you didn't already just scroll down to take a peek!) -- you just have to check this out. Is this not the most amazingly thoughtful and spectacular gift EVER?

Yes, that *is* in fact a cross-stitch masterpiece (as much as it might look like a photograph at first glance)!

Tuxbaby said it reminded her of me and how things might be with all my "girly-girls" here at home. I love it and it will certainly serve as a reminder, as the years pass, of my sweet little girls and their special bond, but it will also be a treasured keepsake of the bond that Tuxbaby and I have created and continue to develop through sharing so much of our lives with each other with each passing year.

You are a blessing to me, Tuxbaby! Someday I will be able to meet you in person and give you the HUGE HUGS that I would love to be giving you right now. But, until then, I just want to let you know that you are the best and I love you dearly! Thank you for being my friend and for this special gift! MWAH!

Things I am NOT good at...

Per Karyn's request (sort of) here are a list of thing I am decidedly NOT good at:

1. Dancing. I ain't got rhythm. I do like to dance, mind you. I quite enjoy it when the beat is good and the mood strikes. But, it is probably not all that pretty to watch.

2. Singing. Even with a can of cooking spray (and a bucket in hand) I am not able to carry a tune. I like to belt it out in the car at times but I am quite often chastised by my offspring and asked to not sing so they can hear the "good music."

3. Cooking. Rick's actually a much better cook than I am. Give me a recipe and I can certainly follow it okay and come up with something that is usually edible, but I am not creative or adventurous when it comes to cooking. Rick rarely follows a recipe and although on occasion his creations are at worst bland, they are always edible and are quite often attractive and tasty! I think that's why I like baking. You almost always HAVE to follow the recipe when you bake and you can mix it up and then throw it in the oven and forget about it for a while. And I have a major sweet tooth which is always satisfied by the baked goods I create! So, although I've been accused of being Martha on crack (ahem.), no one can rightly call me Rachael Ray on steriods.

4. Lying. I tend to be an honest person and I come by it naturally. In part, because I do much better with honesty than with lying. I can't lie to pull a prank on anyone because I can't keep a straight face or I blush or do something that acts like a neon light across my face blinking out the words "SHE'S LYING"! Generally, this is not a bad thing, but I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to keep up the holiday charade (Easter Bunny, Santa, and the like...) with my girls. R, in particular. She's already come out and said that she has it all figured out, but luckily we've had these conversations while I'm driving and she can't actually see my face - otherwise, I'd be a goner and she'd be "in the know." Gah. I hate those conversations with my kids - they just feel so WRONG! And yet, I know that it never harmed me to believe in all that stuff when I was little (I think I was about 8 when I was finally "in the know") and there's an element of innocence to it that I don't want them to lose yet....

5. Public speaking. I get red in the face, I talk waaaay too fast and I just hate it. I'm no good at it. I think I managed to get a C- in Speech class in high school and that was being way too generous.

6. Writing. I have been working on my writing with this blog, but I don't feel like I have a special talent or knack for it. I am envious of the talents of those who can write. I could never imagine myself writing a novel or even a short story. I don't feel I have that kind of creativity in me, although I wish I did.

7. Telling jokes. In some ways, this one goes along with #4 (lying) and #5 (public speaking). I'm just not very good at keeping things straight when telling jokes (aside from corny knock, knocks). Sometimes I leave out some important information and thus the joke makes absolutely no sense or sometimes I get half-way through and forget the punch line! It's bad. My dad is a great storyteller and always had a joke or four or five to tell. And he's really good at it. I obviously did not inherit his talents...but he did teach me to play a mean game of pool!

So, there's a quick list off the top of my head. There is certainly more and maybe I'll update with additions to the list as I think of them. For now, I hope I've at least satisfied Karyn's curiosity. ;-)

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Back to add (how could I leave this off the list?) that I cannot perform the drunken bar trick of tying a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue! Check out those two links for evidence - and an actual successful attempt - of those who can.

I LOST! I LOST!

OK, so my last post was a shout-out to the fact that I won a whole four bucks in the lottery. Some lucky slobs well south of here will be splitting the big winnings (something insane, like 80 million each after taxes...)!

So today, since I can't boast to becoming a millionaire overnight, I will instead give myself a shout-out for being the big "loser" that I am!


Today's weigh-in matched yesterday's so I can now officially say that I've dropped the equivalent of three bags of flour off my bod since the start of the new year. No wonder the exercising seems to be getting easier. I'm not trying to exercise with all those bags of flour stuck to me!


My original goal is still 20 pounds away (four more bags!) but I am quite happy with my progress thus far. I've managed to fit exercise into my daily life and I can feel myself getting stronger and I feel more definition to the muscles that are there somewhere under the flab! My eating has gotten much better and I found that after the first couple of weeks my cravings dropped off significantly and I found it much easier to stick to my goal of 1500 calories. In the beginning that seemed impossible and at first I was at about 1800 calories a day but over time I managed to feel less deprived. Now there are days that I enter my food into my computer program and I have actually had less than 1500 calories and did not feel that hungry during the course of the day. I guess it's all about what your body gets used to. Those first few weeks are tough, but I guess that's how long it takes for your body to catch up with your brain.

As for the exercise, I've been mixing up my workouts so that I don't get too bored and lose interest. So far, it's a good call. I keep thinking I should get more dreadmill workouts into the mix but the thought usually doesn't excite me too much. I need that external motivation of the person on the TV making me go farther and work harder than I would on my own. I wonder if anyone has put together a treadmill workout video or than this one? Somthing like that might do the trick!

My morning walks have not been happening this week due to the extrememly cold weather and even colder windchills so it's a good thing I have the workout videos to keep me moving. I've missed seeing Lauri in the mornings, though, so I hope we can get back to our regular walks next week. Spring should be arriving soon, right?

So, that's my diet/exercise/weight update for those of you who are still actually reading and have not clicked on to greener pastures! Those of you still hanging out here deserve some sort of prize. (Especially if you leave a comment - hint, hint...)

I won! I won!

Yup - I won....twice! Now, to start thinking about what I can do with all my glorious winnings!

Hmmm.... let's see....

*I could go buy a couple of large cups of coffee at Dunkin Donuts! Cream - no sugar, please.

*I could get a medium cup of coffee and two donuts and have change to spare (but my diet would not permit such calorie-laden luxuries...)

*I could buy a pair of funky new socks to spice up my wardrobe (or even two pairs if I went to TJ Maxx or Marshall's!).

*I could go to Trader Joe's and buy 4 yummy Luna Bars - I'm really liking the Iced Oatmeal Raisin variety right now.

*Or I could just keep on paying that "Math Tax" and buy four more tickets and lose that money all over again!

I ended up with two tickets in which I had only the "bonus" number and none of the other numbers. Who knew you could win by NOT having certain numbers. Go figure. So, my "winnings" were a whopping four bucks. Of course, I bought ten tickets so if you do the math I actually lost six bucks.

Someone actually did win that big honkin' jackpot, though. Actually - at least two people had the winning combination. So, it will probably be a while before I feel compelled to pay my Math Tax again. But, maybe just for fun I'll trade in those 'winning' tickets for some instant gratification scratch tickets.

Might as well go for "broke"!

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Been busy doing a whole lot of nothing. Just the day-to-day stuff. Taking care of the kids, fitting in my workouts, daydreaming about winning the lottery, doing laundry, dishes, cleaning. You know, the usual. And actually, I did buy some tickets for the big drawing tonight. Rick would call it "a tax for people who can't do math." Well, I'm not that great at math, so I guess I'll consider that my taxes paid up for the next while - until I hear about the next BIG jackpot that has been growing because no one had the winning combination of numbers. The idea of waking up tomorrow a millionaire is a nice, big, fat daydream, I know.

But, as they say, a girl's gotta have her dreams, right?

And someone has to win that big jackpot one of these days - so why not me? You can't win if you don't play!

What would I do with all that money? Spend some, give some away, save/invest a lot. Go on vacation. Too many thoughts and ideas. Ah, the hours that could be wasted on such dreams...

Anyway. Back to reality.

I've been renting some workout videos from Netflix and testing them out for some variety in my exercise routine. Here a brief recap so far:

Billy Blanks Boot Camp - I thought this was a pretty good workout program. I worked up quite a sweat and there were parts that were more challenging than others so I have some work to do before I could make it through without modifications and rest breaks. I don't have his special "Billy Bands" that make some of the moves harder, but for now it was hard enough anyway. Update: Found a great deal on the whole Boot Camp set of DVDs and bands so that should be arriving fairly soon!

"The Firm" Series - I've tried a couple of the workouts from this series and found them to be a good workout but the women are a bit robotic. They sound so scripted and terse with no real energy or enthusiasm (especially compared to Turbo Jam where Charlene Johnson at least tries to make exercise seem like fun). So, those workouts kind of bore me. Still, they do make you work pretty hard so they are worth using again as long as it is not every day. Also, on the first run through I found their transitions a bit abrupt, but with time I'm sure it would be easier to follow.

Denise Austin - I attempted just one of her workouts recently. I say "attempted" because I got through the first 30 seconds of the warm-up and felt like chucking the DVD across the room. I COULD NOT listen to something like this for more than about thirty seconds (and that outfit in that clip! OMG - purple and yellow? And that belly cutout? At least she had on something less glaring in the one I rented - and yes, that looked like the 80's with the big hair and all, but Sweet Jesus! She looks ridiculous!). This woman is sooooo ANNOYING! That voice! And that overly cheery attitude that makes you want to just give her such a smack! She seems to just talk to hear her own voice. If that were the first workout video I tried I would have given up entirely on workout DVDs! How that woman ever made a name for herself in the fitness world is completely beyond my comprehension. She is so FAKE and did I mention how very ANNOYING she is? Good grief! Oh, and the lack of background music was another aspect of that workout that sent it right into the can. Her voice (ugh!) and nothing to drown it out? No way...moving right along.

Beach Body series - This company has a bunch of workouts on the market that are hosted by a bunch of different fitness experts. I have done some of Tony Horton's Power 90 series, Chalene Johnson's Turbo Jam series (she's a real hoot!), and Debbie Siebers Slim in 6 series. I must say that I've enjoyed all of these fitness experts and what they bring to the workouts. They seem to really enjoy what they do and they come across as real and not overly bubbly and annoying (like someone else I could mention). And the workout programs all seem to have a variety of intensity levels so you can start at a good comfort level and work your way up.

Rick commented that I'm quite opinionated about this sort of thing all of a sudden. I think he is just jealous that I'm spending time in the evenings with my new "friends" Charlene, Billy, Tony, and Debbie (but, of course, not Denise - hell no!) instead of him. Just kidding... He is actually being extremely supportive of my recent efforts and I should be thanking him publicly instead of razzing him! Thanks, Rick! I love you!

Oh! And in related news I should report that I have mostly made my way out of the Elastic Waistland! I'm wearing good old-fashioned regular waist jeans today...in black. Slimming, dontcha know. I've been wearing less and less of the elastic waisted stuff (aside from the exercise togs, of course...) and even some of the pants I bought last fall are getting a fair bit loose. Perhaps the blog will need a new title? Or perhaps it will pay homage to my workout clothes that have become a daily "habit" - both in dress and behavior.

OK, E just walked by and with her went a suspect odor...and R is due off the bus in about 10 minutes...so I must run.

I'll update with my millionaire status in the morning!