And purple, of course.
The official colors of Mardi Gras were chosen in 1872 by the New Orleans crew Rex, the King of Carnival:
Purple stands for justice
Green stands for faith
Gold stands for power.

I heard once that St. Louis has the best Mardi Gras outside of New Orleans. Of course, that could just be my bias speaking. Anyone going to be in town for this? It would be fun to be able to go to a MG party for once. I do have to work on MG though, which is a PitA! ah well. life sucks sometimes.

Mardi Gras Inc. 2005 - Events

Read on for a bit of bitching about the job that turned out ok.

So a couple of months ago the lab got a new postdoc, who is really nice, if hard to understand sometimes (he's japanese). He's the one who let me borrow his digital camera for the pictures of the knitted hat I made. Before he came I was usually the only one using the tissue culture hood with any sort of regularity, so I had everything where I like it and where it was most efficient to be. But he came in and started using the hood and incubator more, so things got moved around. I've realized that while I don't mind change, I absolutely HATE change that I'm unaware of until the last minute. I want to know if people have moved my stuff BEFORE I go to use it. But most of the time I could figure out where things got moved to and it was ok.
Then he started using the freezer (of the great freezer debacle you might have read about) so they needed the key, which I kept, since I was the only one using that freezer. So I gave it up, but it has a way of staying out of the drawer it was in and in the pocket of the postdoc. Which is also ok, if annoying, to realize the key is not where it's supposed to be or where it's been for the past few months.
And I guess it's not totally his fault...one of the other people in the lab had it in his head to clean out the fridge that I keep my media in. Some of it got tossed. Which, of course, I didn't realize until the moment I needed it, since it's supposed to stay in the fridge as long as possible. So I spent a good while searching out another lab that would let me borrow some of this stuff. It's no problem to order more chemicals here, but they don't appear instantaneously. We actually had some stuff that wasn't made up, but it turned out to be the free acid form versus the calcium salt form...now that probably reflects poorly on my organic chem knowledge that I don't know what the difference is, but there surely is a difference.

Regardless, I was able to get some from another lab and finish the experiment. But man, I hate it when that happens. Does it sound silly that I don't want people moving my stuff, especially when I've been there longer and have the positions set in my mind? or that I don't want people throwing things away without asking first, even if they are old? Bah. At least it worked out ok.

I really should do orgo homework tonight. Yuck.

Funny how this entry started out all happy about Mardi Gras and then I had to tell you the depressing part of my day. Oy. At least I'm happpy about the scents I'm getting.

Posted by Jen at 5:50 PM | Permalink |

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First: Happy Birthday Corey! Her birthday was yesterday, and no, I did not forget, I sent her a card and a gift certificate, but I didn't make it around to mentioning it here. Yay for being 24.

MSNBC - 'We Are the World' song celebrates 20 years and 'We Are the World' Re-Issue Set for 20th Birthday

Anybody got it and want to send it to me so I can listen in commemoration?

( CHORUS )
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day so let's start giving (Michael Jackson)
There's a choice we're making we're saving our own lives (Diana Ross)
It's true we'll make a better day just you and me (Michael Jackson/Diana Ross)

There comes a time when we heed a certain call (Lionel Richie)
When the world must come together as one (Lionel Richie & Stevie Wonder)
There are people dying (Stevie Wonder)
Oh, and it's time to lend a hand to life (Paul Simon)
The greatest gift of all (Paul Simon/Kenny Rogers)

We can't go on pretending day by day (Kenny Rogers)
That someone, somehow will soon make a change (James Ingram)
We're all a part of God's great big family (Tina Turner)
And the truth (Billy Joel)
You know love is all we need (Tina Turner/Billy Joel)

( CHORUS )
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day so let's start giving (Michael Jackson)
There's a choice we're making we're saving our own lives (Diana Ross)
It's true we'll make a better day just you and me (Michael Jackson/Diana Ross)

Well, send'em you your heart so they know that someone cares (Dionne Warwick)
And their lives will be stronger and free (Dionne Warwick/Willie Nelson)
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread (Willie Nelson)
And so we all must lend a helping hand (Al Jurreau)

( REPEAT CHORUS )
We are the world, we are the children (Bruce Springsteen)
We are the ones who make a brighter day so let's start giving (Kenny Logins)
There's a choice we're making we're saving our own lives (Steve Perry)
It's true we'll make a better day just you and me (Daryl Hall)
When you're down and out there seems no hope at all (Michael Jackson)
But if you just believe there's no way we can fall (Huey Lewis)
Well, well, well, let's realize that a change can only come (Cyndi Lauper)
When we (Kim Carnes)
stand together as one (Kim Carnes/Cyndi Lauper/Huey Lewis)

(REPEAT CHORUS AND FADE )

Posted by Jen at 1:22 PM | Permalink

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  Jars of Clay: Can't Erase It
  The Wizard, Gene Wolfe
file under: music

Well, in case you haven't heard, Johnny Carson died yesterday. I think he was the best Tonight Show host there was or will be...that's who I'll always associate with the TS. It's nice to see the retrospective stuff they've had up on the networks...boy, people must have been scrambling to get it ready so quickly. Although they said he'd been very sick for a while so maybe it was just a matter of when, rather than if. Although I have to admit...I thought he died a lot earlier, I guess since he was very private after he retired. I didn't know he was still around. Ah well. We'll miss you, Johnny.

In happier news, JK Rowling had her baby (a girl) last night, so perhaps now that she's no longer a) writing book 6 and b) pregnant we can get book 7 that much quicker. Ah well. Probably not, since they'll want to milk this year for all they can get... a book AND a movie, wow. There will be countdowns galore, just you wait.

The high school drama alumni performance went well, I think.

It was a little haphazard but that was to be expected with the amount of people we had and the (little) time we had to put it together. John Goodman showed up, though, and presented (my, but not the current) drama teacher with a plaque rededicating the auditorium in her honor. (Goodman went to Affton, in case you wondered. Yay for famous alumni.) I learned the alma mater, finally, and think I've had my fill of showtunes for a little while. I hope the Affton Centerstage company decides to do some musicals again, I would so love to be in another...

It was nice to see some alumni from my time at school. I was the only actor from '98, but the new drama teacher (and stage manager of the revue) is a girl from my year, which just seems a little odd. And another teacher (math, natch) who I interacted with quite a bit was also in the production. There was another girl who I didn't know that well since she graduated two years before me, but we had encountered each other, I'm sure, and Todd, one of the leads in Big River came back to sing a song, appropriately enough, from said musical. Yay. There was a cast party afterwards, which I could actually go to since the saturday lab class doesn't start until next week. Bah. It was at this alumnus' place, a doctor, who is obviously very well off. He had shelves and shelves of books. I mean, I have a lot of books and even I was impressed. Unfortunately we couldn't have alcohol because there were high school kids there So, the five of us older kids went over to O'Leary's, which is apparently half-owned by John Goodman, who may or may not have been there while we were. There was a private party going on, so obviously we couldn't peek in We got to the bar about 10 minutes before last call, so we drank quickly. Then we decided we were hungry and headed out to that wonderful place called Steak n Shake. Ah memories of when that was the *only* place you could go at night, since every other place was a) closed or b) for the over -21 crowd. I had fun. I'm glad I did it. But man, am I glad that it's over.

PS. Alex, I got your letter/card Silly post office, sending you your own mail

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  The Wizard, Gene Wolfe
file under: thoughts

HP Fan Trips || Where Magic Travels Together
Remember how I said I wanted to go to London? Yeah. Wouldn't this be a great way to do it? lol. Of course I'd like to do the Scotland part as well...bah. what happens to all my money? Boo. Because I am really needing a new laptop now. I've noticed that my faithful little iBook is dropping pixels on the monitor...doesn't bode well for future graphics...and I want a keyboard. The Mesnier (elementary) school music teacher wrote a song for her kids and the high school choir and us alumni in the show (tonight! Tonight is the show! eek!) and she has one of those huge concert-type keyboards with all sorts of neat synth sounds. Of course I realize I won't get one of those, but man, it's neat to hear.

I'll probably head out shortly...I'm so tired from this week and I have to get to the high school early for call. I heard that it's supposed to be a full house, so get there early if you're coming wish me luck! *shoos away sore throat*

Posted by Jen at 2:39 PM | Permalink |

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  The Knight, Gene Wolfe
file under: movies

So, yeah. I have pictures of the hat! And me in the hat! And I found out that my saturday orgo lab doesn't start until the 29th! Whee! Hah. I CAN go out partying after the AHS show!

and me in the hat...

Found this little gem of php over at Lost-dreaming and I'm very grateful for it. Yay for a quote script!

PHP: rotate your quotes

By now, you may have noticed the rotating quote I have above this content column. Previously, I achieved the effect by using Javascript, but after all, PHP is more convenient and fast.

Copy and save the following snippet of code in a file named quotes.php.

<?php

?>

Replace the example1 to example6 codes with your quotes. (One quote per line.) To accomodate more quotes copy and paste the following code after example6.

$quote[] = "example";

To include the quote paste the following code where you want it to appear.

<?php include('/quotes.php');?>


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This is mainly to promote the ever-so-quick layout change over at aspire II. No, it does not feature Legolas, Orlando, or anything Harry Potter related. It has one (one!) picture of a cougar. I love my mascot. This layout probably has the fastest turnaround from idea-design-production-upload of any that I've done. Yay simple. I hope you like it. Comment, damn you! I know you're out there!

Today is the first orgo II class, in case you didn't read about it yesterday. But it seems like the day is going by so slowly, even with the layout change. And one of these days I'll have to get around to making that Phantom layout for this ol' site. Perhaps once this sesquicentennial high school debacle is over. Not that it isn't fun. it's just difficult to coordinate so many people, most of whom haven't been on stage in years, unless you count crossing the graduation stage. Right. Which I didn't actually do, since our graduation essentially took place in the gym and we walked up on risers. Ahh, engineering. What was I thinking?

and FYI: I have pictures of me and the hat, but no way to get them from the digital camera to a computer. Tomorrow perhaps. Ooooh, I can just hear the gasps of anticipation. Right.

Posted by Jen at 5:08 PM | Permalink

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  Firethorn: Sarah Micklem
file under: thoughts

so I've finally managed to knit myself a hat. The long weekend helped it looks rather fun if I do say so myself, though you can definitely tell I did it without stitch markers. And I have to say, the pattern was very easy, so I'm glad I did it. I hope I have enough yarn to make a matching scarf. And I only went to one knitting group, the rest I learned on my own. So you too can do it!

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a picture, if a) I remember to bring the hat to work and b) my coworker, who has graciously offered his digital camera, remembers to bring said camera to work.

Tomorrow Organic Chemistry II starts. I'm not looking forward to this, but I keep telling myself it's for a greater good. I guess we'll see. The saturday lab class is gonna kill me. Who thought class at 8 am was a good idea? Sigh. I made it through four years of college with nothing earlier than a 9 am class and now that I'm not 'in school' anymore I have to take one...on saturdays. ugh.

Ah well. Better get going soon, got the first of two dress rehearsals coming up tonight before the production on Friday...

brr. stay warm.

Posted by Jen at 5:46 PM | Permalink

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  Shadow of the Lion: Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer
file under: thoughts

Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything I love Bill Amend. FoxTrot is teh funny. You have to look at the cover.

And in case you thought that Orli looked like Colin Firth like Leo did (incidentally, Orli just beat out Colin in the Hello Magazine Most Attractive Man 2004 contest) you can see a whole bunch of hi-res pictures over at the Ka-Bloom Forum. See, I'm not the only one obsessed.

I started knitting a hat last night. It was rather interesting. I suppose we'll see how it works...I like my circular needles (they're green ), but it's definitely trial and error when it comes to figuring things out. I hope I can manage to make a scarf to match the hat. Perhaps I'll finish the fall-colored hat/scarf before winter is over

Phantom and Elektra this weekend, I hope. Yay! PS. Might be a new Phantom layout coming your way sometime soon...got to get it 'just right.' I'm almost afraid it's going to be too racy to use as my homepage Yes, I'm narcissistic, my website is my homepage. Sue me.

Hi to Leo who's using her time alone to good purpose (perhaps )...stole this from her:

Posted by Jen at 1:48 PM | Permalink

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Since I didn't want to put the same title for this entry as I have for the previous two years (see "On This Day..." somewhat farther along down the page), you get a line from Orli's next movie as the title of his birthday post. Yes indeedy, it is my favorite screen hottie's birthday today, and for your pleasure (or mine, really, since I got to stare at him while making it):

I'm very excited about Kingdom of Heaven. Should be lots of fun.

It snowed today. Amazing! They said it would be light accumulation, but for a while there it was really coming down. Of course, yesterday it was about 60 deg. outside, so most of it will probably go away soon. Unless they really mean it when they say it will be in the 20s for the next few days. Sigh. I just love St. Louis winters.

Posted by Jen at 4:12 PM | Permalink |

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If you go to the official site you can get notes from the Opera Ghost and see a clip from the film I absolutely adore the opening sequence from this movie. And if I can make it to the MEGA SCREEN (Wehrenberg Theater's line, not mine) at the Chesterfield Galaxy 14, then hey, all the better. Hopefully the screensaver from the site will work on my comp at home after being transferred from a PC to a mac. Silly file exchange.

Perhaps tomorrow, I WILL KNIT! Take that, non-craftyness-persons! Er. Yeah.

(Side note: I can now embed FLASH MOVIES! *confetti*)

Posted by Jen at 4:28 PM | Permalink |

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  Phantom OST: Angel of Music

file under: movies

(That's a line from RENT, in case you didn't pick it up immediately after I gushed about it yesterday and memorized it. Sheesh. I don't think I've memorized my 'it was red and yellow and green and brown and..." Joseph's-coat-of-many-colors bit for the AHS drama thing. Ah well. More practice tonight! I guess I should go about finding my matching blacks...)

Actually, there was. I forgot to mention our interesting sledding escapade. Perhaps you had to be there, but Kate and I couldn't stop laughing about it, even though it had the potential to be very scary. Funny scary though.

Anyway, after seeing RENT on Saturday, I persuaded Kate to go sledding on what little snow remained (I hate it when snow falls, looks really nice for just a day, then melts (or is sledded over too much) for me to go sledding. Bah!) So we drove over to Art Hill to see if it was totally sledded-out, which is was, then we moved onto another hill close by that I'd had luck with in the past, which was slightly better. It was a little too warm for good sledding; you had to find packed snow because the untouched stuff would just stop you cold. No pun intended.

So, we sled a bit, and then we trek over the crest of the hill to see if we could get anything better on the other side. We're on a golf course, which is what's underneath most of the western end of Forest Park, so it's got some nicely hilly spots with putting greens and fairways and brush, etc, etc. Well, we decide to go down, and I persuade Kate to go down first (makes it sound like I have persuasion skillz, don't it?) and she goes, and then suddenly she just drops out of sight!

It was like one of those cartoons where you see Wiley E Coyote go over a cliff and hang there for a second.

I mean, of course she didn't hang there, but she literally dropped from sight so quickly it was like she disappeared. I felt bad then for making her go first when I saw her stand up. She was ok, but what we both thought was a nice bump in the hill turned out to be the upper edge of a sandtrap with a nice four or five foot drop. Needless to say I decided to avoid that bump when I went down myself.

See, even as I'm writing this I'm realizing how not-funny it sounds, but by the time I got down there (narrowly missing the pit myself, since the packed snow practically led the sled there...must have been nice when there was snow on the sand to propel you forward!) we were both laughing. Yeah. Guess you had to be there. But we kept laughing about it all the way back. And did we let it scare us? Hell no! We went back down that slope several times! Staying well away from said pit

I want more snow on weekends so I can sled more. And mom used the lovely white interlude to point out that if I had a boyfriend he would have already been at the apartment when it started snowing so I could have gotten primo sledding time. Alas. She's right though. Darn. How do moms get so smart?

Get Your New Pagan Name! Mine is Deirdre Tara Moonfire. Aww.

Posted by Jen at 6:05 PM | Permalink

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RENT rules, baby. Kate and I agree that some of the performances from the matinee on Saturday outshine those on the original broadway cast recording. Perhaps one day I'll get around to playing the music. RENT is a great soundtrack to sing along to. It was especially hard not to at the show, lol. Collins was great. I almost cried. I'm gonna have to revise that "I never cry at movies/theater/music concerts, etc" because I've almost cried at several. Perhaps I'm getting overly emotional in my old age. Eh. Perhaps I was just overly happy with getting a RENT long-sleeve tee, with NO DAY BUT TODAY across the back. *gleeful* So I was trying to explain how, as much as I love the soundtrack and have listened to it so much I know every word, even the crazy words to "La Vie Boheme," there's just something so...new/great/theatrical/different about actually seeing the show. Yes, I know, one's live and one's Memorex, but I guess listening to the soundtrack can inure you to the emotional content of the show. In both Phantom (the movie) and RENT (the musical) I noticed things that intellectually I knew were happening, since I'd seen both theatrical performances, but that you miss when you just listen to it everyday. Yeah. You should go see both of those.

Did you know you can see the first five minutes of Elektra at Yahoo? Go see. And the Troy dvd has an easter egg, which I shall go find tonight. When I'm not watching 24, of course. Anyone else peeved that the widescreen edition of Troy only features Brad Pitt on the cover? Sheesh. The whole reason I bought the thing was for Orlando. I admit it

Anyone have a vcr they'd like to let me have? The one in the living room has decided it likes the taste of tape, and thus will not do anything but sit there like a lump on top of the dvd player. Boo.

Page 7: You remember the shoebox project, right? What a bad fan I am. I didn't look to see if there was anything new over the break. Lo and behold, HUZZAH! there is! Enjoy.

Posted by Jen at 6:41 PM | Permalink |

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  Yellowcard: Empty Apartment

file under: music

A bunch of random babble while I stare outside at the really pretty snow.

When I left work I was worried about various things. Still am, actually. But this makes it all better. Anyway, when I left, it was spitting little icy balls. This was about 7 pm. So, in the course of putzing around and after watching the extras on the Troy dvd, I turned on regular tv and caught a weather report, and the lady says, "there's already a half-inch on the ground downtown..." and I was like, I'm almost downtown, and I looked out the window and lo and behold, there was snow! It's so pretty! *awww* It makes me happy when it snows and I don't have to drive in it. At least not yet. It will probably be gone by tomorrow when I have to drive to the Fox to see RENT . Yay RENT! No Day But Today, baby! And there will be Kate-Crazy-Bowls'n'Wraps-ness which will be fun and possibly Rams football. You all know how much I love football, right? *sarcasm*

What do you think about a Phantom layout? just until we get some more Kingdom of Heaven pictures And I need new layouts for LJ and blogger. There goes artistic Jen. Someday, I hope. Maybe I'll get to see Phantom again. My mom told me there's a new big screen theater out in Chesterfield that's supposed to have great sound too. Wouldn't that be a blast! And I'm sure my dad is looking forward to Elektra

I'm supposed to get a new computer at work. That will make things nice. Pablo's leaving, which is sad. But on the upside, if I ever get a chance to go to Sweden I'll have a place to stay

On a totally different note: I just found out that I passed Orgo I! Sigh. That's a relief. Now I just have to get reading for the next semester. Bah.

Posted by Jen at 9:35 PM | Permalink |

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  Medical Investigation (ok, it's not music, but it does have a cool theme song)

file under: getmoving

{ETA: This is insane. Ugh. Who thinks up these things?

My dad has to do an illustration of our new Governor, Matt Blunt, he who won because of the drug connotation of his last name, as some of my friends have mentioned. My dad is a Democrat. Unfortunately, as an artist he can't show journalistic bias for (or against, in this case) his subject. Sometimes I dread the next four years. This may be the land of the free but it certainly seems like we're losing freedoms. Sigh. Bad thoughts. Begone! /ETA}

Chantal Kreviazuk, everybody. Since I've felt that time is really rushing past me. How is it already the second weekend of January?

Time, where did you go?
Why did you leave me here alone?
Wait, don't go so fast
I'm missing the moments as they pass

Now I've looked in the mirror
And the world's getting clearer
So wait for me, this time
I'm down I'm down on my knees
I'm begging for all your sympathy
But you (I'm just an illusion)
You don't seem to care (I wish that I could)
You humble people everywhere (I don't mean to hurt you)
Now I've looked in the mirror
And the world's getting clearer
I'll take what you give me
Please know that I'm learning
So wait for me this time
I should've know better
I shouldn't have wasted those days
And afternoons and mornings
I threw them all away
Now this is my time
I'm going to make this moment mine.
(I shouldn't have wasted those days)
I'll take what you give me
please know that I'm learning
I've looked in the mirror
My world's getting clearer
So wait for me this time

...this time.

Posted by Jen at 1:28 PM | Permalink

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  Alkaemy: Nimune's Lament

file under: music

what the word "wiki" means...

read all about it.

Anyone who has not yet encountered a wiki while surfing the web will sometime soon, for wikis are proliferating quickly. In fact, the word wiki comes from a word for "quick."

A wiki is a collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone with access to it, and the word wiki is a good example of how the invention of new technologies requires the invention of new words. Wiki is an abbreviation of WikiWikiWeb, the name that American computer programmer Ward Cunningham chose in 1995 for his new code permitting the easy development of collaborative websites. Mr. Cunningham explains that a name such as quick web or the like would have been appropriate for a system that makes webpages quickly. He coined the word WikiWikiWeb from Hawai'ian wikiwiki, "fast, speedy" (a reduplication of wiki, "fast"), with the thought that WikiWikiWeb was more fun to say than quick web. Wikiwiki was the first native Hawai'ian word that Mr. Cunningham learned on his first visit to the islands, when he was instructed by the airport counter agent to take the wikiwiki bus between terminals. Since this word was new to Mr. Cunningham, the agent explained that wikiwiki meant "quick." Mr. Cunningham himself advocates the pronunciation wee-kee for the new word, since it is closer to the original Hawai'ian, rather than a pronunciation wick-ee. The word wikiwiki in Hawai'ian is akin to Tahitian viti and vitiviti, "deft, alert, well done." The Hawai'ian word has a k where the Tahitian has a t, a regular correspondence between Hawai'ian and the other Austronesian languages.

Posted by Jen at 2:11 PM | Permalink

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  Guster: Happier

file under: miscellany

Today is JRR Tolkien's 113th birthday. Amazing, isn't it, how one man could have such an effect on popular culture? I wonder if he would have been happy at how his books created such fervent obsession I hope he would have liked the movie.

I saw Phantom of the Opera this past weekend, which was nice. I liked it, and so did the parents There were definitely some off notes, but on the whole the actors really could sing. The costumes were great and it was nice seeing the sets be more realistic than they are, by necessity, on the stage. Unfortunately for me, we saw it at an independent theater that doesn't show big-name trailers, so no Kingdom of Heaven trailer for me. Alas. I just went home and watched it on my computer

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. I need to take down my tree sometime, I guess. *sniff* I like the holidays. I just wish I'd had a little bit more time off. Ah well. someday grasshopper. Troy comes out tomorrow I know it wasn't all that great of a movie, but hey. It's Orlando. That makes me happy. Random thought: anyone else notice that Kingdom of Heaven includes two actors Orli has worked with before? Marton Csokas and Brendan Gleeson also star...like you care. Random thought #2: if you like instrumental music you might like Mehdi.

Posted by Jen at 10:57 AM | Permalink |

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Best wishes for a wonderful 2005. I hope 2004 was good to you and that 2005 will be even better!

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  Top 98 Party Songs

file under: celebration