Back in the Saddle Again:  Yay!  Todd's back from his Hawaiian journey!  We fixed up the Boom Boom Room and baked chocolate chip cookies in preparation for Mr. West's arrival.  Mongo went to pick Todd up at John Wayne airport.  There was a little confusion as to which baggage claim he would be at, but with the assistance of cell phones, this was quickly rectified.  Skippy came by Area 51 after work to join the welcoming committee.  We were all super duper happy to see Todd, but no one was happier than his dog, Duke.  His excitement far surpassed any of ours because, well, face-licking wasn't something any of us were about to do... except for maybe Skippy, but Todd didn't ask.  By the time I got home on Thursday, Todd already had an interview lined up for Monday with Radisson Hotel Anaheim for a position that pays $12 more an hour than his job in Honolulu.  The Welcome Back party on Friday was fun from what I hear.  I was having a bad reaction to the Vicodin, so I passed out and missed the festivities.

Hit Count from Hell:  The word is out!  Pique's Lair is The Best Site Ever!  Okay, maybe I'm getting beyond myself, but I was really perplexed when my hit count nearly doubled last week.  I couldn't figure it out... until Tom nearly woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me I was on some ones Top Ten Referred Sites list.  So, now I have a new perplexity:  How in the world did I get on THAT list?  It wasn't even on a site that I visit.  Ah, but Tom does!  Hmmm... we're getting closer to solving this mystery.  Did Tom enter my URL in a contest or something.  No, but Tom thinks this gal tracks where people go to after they hit her site.  I'm not quite sure how this is done, but perhaps she "followed" Tom into Pique's Lair, liked it, and decided to put it on her list.  I'm still not satisfied with this scenario, mainly because just peeking in tells you that this is not a "public" website.  The website that had my URL posted was ShanMonster.com.  Luckily, I am no longer on her Top 10 list.  Whew!

Steve Shin

Tooth Trip:  My dental surgeon actually called me last Tuesday night to check up on me.  Can you believe it?  I was blown away.  The gesture reminded me of back in the day when doctors made house calls.  You know, back when professionals really cared about their patients.  The whole "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" routine.  It took fully SIX HOURS for the long- lasting Novocain to wear off, but once it did, oooh did my tooth ache!  After a day of Advil doing absolutely nothing for me, Tom and Skippy convinced me (and it took a while for them to do so) to take a Darvocet.  Considering I get high off of mere aspirin, I started to feel it taking affect almost immediately.  Except, it didn't dissolve my tooth pain completely.  An hour later, it was back in full, throbbing force.  I then took two extra-strength Tylenol.  You have to realize that I have very a high pain threshold.  I gave birth to Laura NATURALLY (that means WITHOUT PAIN KILLERS OF ANY KIND).  Yet, this sucker hurt like a mo' fo' and I couldn't sleep.  I was thinking about going back for more Novocain by this time.  On Thursday afternoon, I felt like Popeye.  "That's all I can stands - I can't stands no more!"  So I called the doctors office and had them call in a prescription of Vicodin and some Penicillin for good measure.  After passing out for approximately 10 hours straight Friday night, I was done with the Vicodin by Saturday morning.  What a ride.  Now I remember why I don't take drugs.  Tooth still aches though.

Darren Who?:  Todd went up to the mountains with Skippy, Mongo, and the McIntee's last weekend.  It was amazing to me that this was Todd's first encounter with Scottie, Jenn, Talaya and Leanne.  They had never met before last weekend!!  The funny thing was that they knew all the same stories within our circle of friends.  This fact was shadowed only by Todd's confusion when Jenn kept calling Skippy "Darren".  This was the weekend Todd realized that "Skippy" was Darren's nickname!  And to think, all this time, Todd thought that Skippy was his real name.  To avoid any future confusion, I have listed everyone's nicknames and who they belong to:

Bonzai = Jeff Pool
Coleman = Michael Coleman
Hoochie Mama = Lisa Jackson
Lenny/Meesh = Mischa Allen
Lou-Dog = Louis Villaescusa
Luigi = Louis Valencia
Mongo = Dave Snyder
Pique = Patty Stanton
Pumpkin = Laura Stanton
Skippy = Darren Sealock
Swede = Jim Swendson
T-Man/T-Bone = Tom Stanton Jr.
Thedmo = Thom Morrissey
Umba = Amber Logsdon
Yogie = Mark Jackson

...and if I missed someone, let me know.  The circle is so very wide and my mind is so very narrow.  So, we've got Todd here, and he doesn't have a nickname.  What's up with that?

Not Forgotten:  Coleman gently reminded me that he was also at the Anti-Thanksgiving party and I failed to mention that last week.  My deepest apologies go out to you, Michael, my web guru.

Who Am I?:  What?  Are you afraid to tell me what you think of me?  It just makes me that much more curious.  Check out the forum on the "Me" Page and give me your impression/opinion of who Pique is.  Your comments will be posted on that page... if you meet my standards.  <wink>  If not, well, I'll just have to subject you to really boring material.