A dear friend gave me the chance to take her visiting 4-year-old cousin to see "A Garfield Christmas" at the Black River Coliseum last winter. I, who have no children, jumped at the chance to play auntie to a great little guy. I'll call this young friend of mine, oh, "Spanky", I suppose, for his pre-school street cred may require some discretion here, since he's already made one risky public appearance with a dork who obviously knows nothing about his kind. I myself didn't realize how little I knew about very little humans until the evening of the event---and by then of course, it was too late to secretly deposit him back on the family doorstep and flee without arousing

Last Week's Weigh-In: 135 lbs. This Week's Weigh-In: 136 lbs. Folks, I'm genuinely excited! Why? OK, I have living proof now of what should be obvious, but often isn't: Exercise truly does stave off undesirable weight gain! In my largely unsuccessful attempt to catch up in work and life after my bout with illness, I paid less attention to what was going into me than I did when I was sick. Though I didn't let The Little Wolf call the tune as much as I have in the past, I had some pretty deluxe pig-outs on some days. (BEWARE THE CHURCH SUPPER! ESPECIALLY AT CHRISTMAS AND EASTER!) I just sort of abdicated at times in favor of some other "urgent"

semo.net will be closed on Sunday, March 23rd in observance of the Easter Holiday. We will resume normal business hours on Monday, March 24th.

"I would recommend CompTIA testing for anybody that's interested in the IT field." ---Shane Barnes, Broadband Specialist, semo.net   semo.net broadband specialist Shane Barnes recently obtained "Network+" certification, a distinction conferred by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), and one increasingly in demand by employers in the information technology (IT) sector. The "Network +" exam is a rigorous 90-minute exercise designed to gauge skills with various network types; it covers everything from hardware and software issues to connections, protocols, cable specifications, and troubleshooting techniques.

Last week's weigh-in: 141 lbs. This week's weigh-in: 135 lbs.!!! YESSSS!!! You know that saying about life giving you lemons, and you, ever optimistic and resilient, going on to make lemonade with them? Well, first of all, let me just say that I can hardly claim credit for the remarkable weight loss described above (and verifiable through the Butler County Health Department). My "lemons" came in the form of that horrid viral, flu-like scourge that's been sweeping the land for the past few weeks. I was flattened for about a week myself, with bone-piercing chills, fever, cough, headache, muscle pain...not to mention those fleeting mental images of the planet's craggy surface during prehistoric times, and of the scaly, lumbering reptiles that may even currently---but secretly---be burrowing

Who's in this play, anyway? semo.net thought it might be helpful for our readers to get a sense of why community theater is called...well, community theater. Some of your friends are in this play. Some of your colleagues and classmates have found their way onto the stage in a bid to bring live theater of quality into the heart of Poplar Bluff life. Your boss may be wearing a glowing white wig, eye shadow, rouge, and control-top pantyhose on the only occasion you'll ever get to see him this way in public. Looking good, too! As you can tell, the reasons for patronizing live theater are many and varied...