Et Tu, Milton Bradley?

Have you seen the "new" Game of Life? No longer do you need to count money or keep track of your funds! You get a card that you put in a reader that tells you how much you have and you just enter the info from each turn into the machine and it stores it on the card! Such progress! Heck, a monkey could play Life now!

I've already seen the Monopoly game that does this. Now I ask you...isn't part of the fun of Monopoly the stacks of cash in front of you? Of seeing what your competitors have--or better yet don't have--and then crushing them? Of cashing in a wad of 100's for some dark orange 500's?

I don't think I'm on board with these new moneyless board games. I think part of the fun and the challenge of the game is the money. Counting, calculating, sorting, banking, and spending money.

Some say it's a sign of the times. In a world that relies less and less on cash and more on cards that carry that info for us, this is just a logical progression. Perhaps. But for me it sure sucks some of the fun out of the game. Personally, when I bankrupt a loved one, I want him to hand me the cash, not credit my account. I need to wave the bills under his nose before I spread them out on the living room rug and roll around in them.

What kind of victory dance can you really do with a debit card?

Anyway, leaving board games behind, I snagged this meme from OLPP in the interest of making it the hottest meme this side of the Mississippi. Take it, pass it along. And let OLPP know so that she can enjoy the fruits of her labors.

1. Do you believe in ghosts?
Nope. I believe in heaven and hell and think your immortal soul goes one place or t'other. Not just hanging around here waiting for...something or other. Whatever it is ghosts wait for, I guess.

2. Have you ever seen a ghost?
No, which further cements my belief that they don't exist. That doesn't, however, keep me from being terrified of them.

When I was little I watched an episode of In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy, and it was in search of Ghosts. They had this story about a haunted house where lived two sisters. One sister wakes up in the middle of the night to see a ghost at the foot of her bed. It was believed to be the ghost of an escaped slave that had been killed. She screams, waking her sister in the next room. When sister gets to the room, she finds her dead of fright, eyes wide open and staring at the foot of the bed, mouth frozen in a scream of horror. So sister looks to the foot of the bed, sees ghosty there and proceeds to scream and die of fright as well.

To this day, I can't look at the foot of my bed in the dark for more than a few seconds at a time. If I do, I freak out and have to put my head under the covers.

But I don't believe in ghosts. So there.

3. Have you ever experienced something that is best described by the word “paranormal”?
Yes. I believe I know when people are going to die. Not any people, mind you. Specific people. When I hear that someone is sick, I will either get what I call my "black dress" feeling, or I won't feel anything. If I get the black dress feeling, they're going to die. If I feel nothing, they're not going to die. They will be fine.

Though sometimes I'll hear that someone has something like cancer and not get the black dress feeling, only to have it come on later on at some point. At which point they usually die, but not of the original cancer. Usually they're done in by pneumonia or chicken pox or something random like that. I seldom share this feeling with anyone. After all, if someone is relating to me that either they or someone they care about is sick, the last thing they need to hear is that I have a feeling that they're going to die. It's not cool. Thus, I prefer to keep the info to myself.

4. Do you watch any ghost or haunting themed shows?
No. But I do still love to watch In Search Of when it comes on in reruns. And if I ever saw the Ghost episode again, I'd probably shit twice and die.

5. If so, do you sometimes sleep with the lights on or wake up your partner because the show scared you a whole lot and you can’t sleep and don’t want to be awake alone?
No, but I will after watching true crime shows. I'm addicted to shows like Cold Case Files and American Justice, only if I watch them at night, I'm sure as soon as I go to bed and fall asleep that someone will come in and murder us all. But if I watch them during the day, I'm fine. No worries. I will wake Mr. Poops up and make him go downstairs and do a sweep for intruders. I hope his screams as he meets his demise will allow me and the girls the chance to get away safely.

6. Have you ever been to a supposedly haunted place? If so, did you experience anything spooky?
I don't think so. Though I live in New England and we have all kinds of oldish buildings here, so I suppose I must have been some places that are thought to be haunted, only perhaps no one told me they were.

Oh wait. When I was in college they used to tell stories about Carey Mansion, which was at the time a freshman boys dorm. For years, Salve students told stories about a nun who had hung herself in a certain room, and that was why it was always kept empty. They'd light candles and hold seances in there to try to call up her spirit. (My freshman year they made Mark Duphiney cry, which made me glad because he was a real douchebag to me. So there.) Of course it's probably not true since to my knowledge no nuns ever lived at Carey. So why one would chose that building to off herself is beyond me.

And my aunt used to swear that on some days she could smell baked beans cooking in her house even though no one was making them. She said it was the ghost of Mr. Currier, a previous owner of the house, making his beans on Saturday that he would then eat all week long. Aunt E. had a vivid imagination.

I've never smelled beans cooking up there unless someone was actually making beans.

7. How much do you love Halloween?
On a scale of 1-10, I give it about a 2. One point for candy and one point for the party that my friend Raz has at her house.

I have a degree in costuming and realize that I hate making Halloween costumes. I hated it when I was in school, I hated it as a professional costumer, and I hate it now. I do not dress up. You can't make me. I make the kids costumes only because I have to. And I make good ones because I cannot help myself. But I don't wanna. And please don't ask me to make a costume for you or your loved ones. I am going to give you a list of about 20 reasons why I can't, but the truth is, I don't wanna. I don't wanna with a passion. I don't even want to answer questions about what you should be for Halloween. I don't care. Be whatever you want.

I hate most Halloween parties, I hate scary things, and pseudo-scary things. I hate going trick-or-treating and I hate trick-or-treaters even more.

But I love candy. And I love Raz and her parties. So there you go.

Now Christmas, that's a holiday I can get behind.

So that's the meme. Take it. Love it. Make it your own.

Today, Bug is home sick. She's got a cold and is coughing and hacking. Such fun. Sucks to be her since it's going to be like summer here today and she'll have to spend the day on the couch. Oh well.

Actually, she'll have to fight me for the couch come afternoon. It's mama's couch time.