FULL DISCLOSURE: Everybody I know tells me to get over all this and let events unfold and yet I remain unable to do so. I blame the Internet and George W. Bush, as is fashionable.

I can't really put into words how I feel after watching the RNC last night.

Good thing this guy did it for me.

UPDATE: Bryan showed me this and now I feel a little better...

As evidenced by this shot from the Freestyle on the Needles Highway.

This guy took way better pictures than me. But in my defense, my card went out in the digital camera, so wherever I went I could only take 5 photos before downloading to the Macbook. What a pain in my ample ass!

It was much like the Seinfeld Spongeworthy episode ... except without all the sexual references, etc.

Want more pictures from Levitt Black Hills-o-Rama? Click on...

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TOTALLY UNRELATED: Anybody else catch Campbell Brown eviscerating a McCain spokesman on CNN tonight? Man. That guy HAS to be hating John McCain right now. I can hear his thoughts... "Freaking asshole. Coulda picked anyone. Coulda picked Leiberman! Coulda defended anybody but this chick. Anybody! Freaking asshole."

I'm hiding from them.

All 4 of them.

They're up there in the hotel room.

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Me and Tim and the kids in the car, off on another big/small adventure. This time it's to the Black Hills. The last time I went out there was the office trip to Deadwood in 2003. Or was it 2004?

I am excited to go here ... and we're thinking of going down here and of course you can't miss the big thing.

But the Katie Excite O'Meter is not so hot on here (although if we don't go there Little E will never speak to me again, so of course we will.

I'll take the new MacBook Pro on the road, so stay tuned for updates.

IMAGE 1: What I expect to see

IMAGE 2: Me and Mollie on the Paulsen bus to Mt. Rushmore on that trip way back when. (Incidentally, taken by the Blonde Monologuer - who is much missed to this day.)

MEMORY LANE: The bus never made it to Mt. Rushmore that day. Wouldn't go up the slippery road. It was January, after all. That's the closest poor Moll has been to the Big Monument. Gotta get you out there next time, girl!

RANDOM COSMETIC COMMENT: My teeth look like I'm a 2-pack a day smoker in that one. Good lord. It's just coffee.

This just in from Kristie Lou via the Nebraska State Fair:

NOTE TO SMITHER: Think I just found your '09 Fantasy Football team name. (You're welcome.)

Now my office is like one of those really cool kitchens with stainless steel appliances that look so pricey-awesome on TV or the brochures ... and totally mock me with their whole "look at me i'm so expensive and desirable and totally out of your league realtors love me you'll never own me hahahahahah" jibes.

But I digress.

My poor lil' white iBook gave up the ghost on Tuesday. Bad hard drive. Bad logic board. (Oh, don't think there weren't jokes to that effect around the office. You know who you are.)

So now I have a new/old/used MacBook Pro. It's silvery. It's WIIIIIDE. Well, specifically it's much wide-ER.

And it doesn't include at least 2 weeks of everything important in my life, since I hadn't backed up my stuff in a while. Yes. I know. YELL AT ME. Make fun. Give me the laundry list of strategies I might have used to save my calendar, contacts, iPhotos, work docs, emails, etc. It's sort of like pointing out the sidewalk to someone who just wandered into traffic and got hit by a bus.

THE GOOD NEWS: I'm up from wallowing at the bottom of the well, with a valuable life lesson to trumpet to the masses.

THE BAD NEWS: It is almost certain to happen again, as I'm already complacent and lazy and positive lightning couldn't possibly strike twice. Which is exactly why it will. So you'd think I'd just learn from that and recognize that but well hey, you'd be wrong.

ME: "Where's Colton?"

AB: "He's over at Matthew's house making a fire."

ME: "Uh, what?"

AB: "Don't freak out Mom. He just has a magnifying glass and some leaves."

ME: (incoherent spazzing)

AB: "How about I go down there and get him?"

ME: "Yes that would be very nice."

(2 minutes later the door slams)

COLTON: "Hi Mom!"

ME: (incoherent spazzing)

- On a drink break during tonight's soccer practice, Little E runs over, grabs the Gatorade, flops in my lap, and says, "Geez Mom I sure haven't spent much time with you today. Let's talk."

- At bedtime, when I ask what she's thankful for, Abbey is still thankful for me.

- On the way to soccer practice, when I ask Colton how 5th grade was, I get a cool story about a Secret Society game he and his buddies play during recess, and how it's top secret, and he knows I have a big mouth, but he's gonna tell me anyway because he's gonna trust me to not tell everybody I know. (NOTE: I didn't tell you anything except that it exists, and he said that was cool.)

- Sneaking the kids brownies when Tim told them to eat bananas before soccer practice, then acting all innocent when he gives me the shocked "Why did you do that" face.

IMAGE 1: Ab and I helping Liv make her first batch of chocolate chip cookies. Only a little mess!

IMAGE 2: Me and the kids plus Liv at some nature center in Illinois. When Moll and I announced where we'd be going that day, Little E said, "What's nature?" So yeah, I pretty much suck as a parent. But Tim makes up for it.