I had a pretty bad week two weeks ago. My laptop died, and I lost EVERYTHING. I felt crippled without the internet. I went downstairs to use my Powermac G5, and to my horror, it would not boot up either.

Guess what? ALL LOST. BOTH COMPUTERS. SAME WEEK.

I can’t remember my username and password for Heiderino.com, but luckily I had it all set up to blog through Flickr.

As a result, all posts on Heiderino from now on will contain a photo.

This photo is of a lady who walks on stilts all over town. She was at Al’s Run in Milwaukee on Saturday.

Just when I thought the commercial was ending, they flashed in with an ad-within-an-ad - for the new Swiffer that is also a vacuum.

I kind of thought that they were done with that Carpet Flick thing, which I think is a big sticker at the end of the swiffer stick, to lift fuzz and crumbs off of your carpet without actually vacuuming.

I told Drue that Great-Grandma is in the hospital, and that we were going to call her.

Drue: (With excitement) “Great-Grandma’s having a BABY?”

I heard of these kidnappings almost immediately after they happened, but the identities of the victims were not immediately released. Steve and Oleg were referred to as “Two of our associates” on the breaking news, and my initial instinct was to think these people were behind-the-scenes employees of the network (Oleg is a camera man), perhaps from other countries. (Oleg is a New Zealand citizen.)

About 15 minutes ago, I saw a brief news flash about this, and found out who they are. I am in shock!

When you watch a news channel daily, as I do, you kind of start to feel like you know the regular personalities…

Positive thoughts… Positive thoughts…

At least I know that it will be on at least six more times in the coming month, and I’m guessing that the man is the enemy. Well, that, or the woman is evil and uses the man to achieve some sinister goal, like killing her husband or bamboozling him out of millions.

Yep - I think that just about covers it.

9:09: A surly redhead emerges from her room, her little towel turban (turbie twist) is falling off of her newly-showered head, and she’s not happy. She then complains that I told her after her baby brother went to bed, she could watch Annie. I forgot about this, and she doesn’t want me to forget it. She goes on to tell me about a scary movie she watched - something about a veterinarian, a dog, a cat, and I think a screwdriver.

!!??!! She never saw such a movie in my presence !!??!!

All I could do was tell her that she should think of happy things, like her brother, or Santa, to help her forget about the scary things. I also had to explain to her that the reason we forgot to put Annie on was because we were having fun playing together - she was the Mom, and I was the little girl. (Let me tell you, that was a real eye opener.)

SIGH - at 9:18, I believe (said with utter lack of confidence) she may be down for the night. I fully expect Brett to wake up in a rage at any given moment…

Brett and I read a “Bok,” and he went right into his crib with (if you can believe this) a smile on his face.

Drue was the perfect bedtime child tonight… She asked me if she could take a shower, brushed her teeth thoroughly - using toothpaste (long story…), then literally hopped into bed. She asked me to put on her music, and I did.

In an overboard effort to make her happy and stay in bed, I demonstrated some of my more obnoxious (not QUITE Elaine-like, but probably pretty close…) dance moves to “Dancing in the Streets.”

“I like your moves, Mom.”

That was the best (and funniest) thing I heard all day.

A very surreal evening indeed!

H: HYAW&T… How’s your ankle, wrist and tush… (I did need help with that one…) Well, Michelle, thank you for asking. The A and W are absolutely fine, but I still bear one hell of a bruise on the T.

H: All I know is that it’s burning in my heart. And it’s tearing us apart.