BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION
JUNE 22, 2009 - Today was our designated beach day! We went to Tybee Island and just had a lazy morning. We actually went to the quiet beach in front of the big light house, so it was not crowded and we just kind of hung out. Steve actually dig a hole and made a "recliner" in the sand, so he was happy. I didn't wear the bottom half of my suit (I know what you're thinking, and I just mean I wore shorts instead. Pervert!) so I didn't swim, but I waded. There weren't any shells to speak of, but I found a couple. There was also a large horse shoe crab that someone caught, and it scared the crap out of me. It was huge! I mean, if someone took the shell off of the crab, Steve could wear it like an army helmet, that's how big it was. They saw me recoil from it and laughed. Buttheads. Let me wield a humongous prehistoric sea creature in their faces and see how they like it!
We didn't stay out there long, and we decided to go to The Crab Shack for lunch. I've heard wonderful things about the place, so I was excited about eating there! They said they weren't seating inside yet, but they sat us outside in a place surrounded by fans so it wasn't so bad. I am really not fond of seafood, but I didn't want to come to a place called The Crab Shack and eat anything other than seafood, so we ordered a big platter of stuff for two. They brought out this enormous platter with potatoes, corn, crawfish, giant spider-looking crab legs, stone crab claws, steamed mussels, and sausage, all covered in butter and spices. I'm going to be honest, I wasn't a fan. I hate to say that since I've heard nothing but good things about the place, but it was gross. The crab legs were good, which I wasn't expecting, but everything else I tried was bad. Not only that, but flies began crawling all over our food. FLIES! We couldn't keep them off, and even though I tried to look past it, I know that flies are disease carrying carrion eaters, and they were walking and licking the food on the platter and that made me gag. I gave up and just ate crackers. I also played with the crawfish. Shut up, they were cute. I was disgusted about the flied, though. Steve doesn't get disgusted as easily as I do, so he ate what he could hold. I felt bad, but at least I tried. If I ever go again, I'd like to eat inside and only order crab legs. Otherwise, I just won't go back. It was gross. Also, there were bugs flying around outside and spiderwebs all over the place. I didn't tell Steve until we were back home, but there was a giant spider in a web behind him. If he had known, he would have died. Seriously, he would have died. He would have screamed like a girl first, but his heart would have stopped. I was glad to get out of there. Look, I know I sound like a snob, and trust me, I'm not squeamish about trying new foods or eating in out of the way places, but I draw the line at eating food covered in bugs. Until I'm a missionary living in the jungle and I actually HAVE to eat food covered in flies, I'm going to pass, thanks. GROSS! BLEH.
We went back to the lighthouse to visit the gift shop, and then we headed home! We were burned, tired, and covered in crab juice. We came back to the hotel and took a shower and then slept like dead people. I don't even think we meant to sleep as long as we did, but we were so tired. After we got up, we went to World Market and bought some candy and then to dinner. We didn't go anywhere interesting, because we just didn't have the energy, so we just ate at a Mexican place across from where we were staying and came back to sleep some more.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION
JUNE 21, 2009 - This morning Steve and I went on a tour of Bonaventure (which I keep wanting to call Bonaventura for some reason) Cemetery which is a huge, old and unbelievably beautiful place. We had arranged a tour with the same people who did our ghost tour, and it turned out that Steve and I were the only ones to sign up for that day. At first we couldn't find our tour guide, but we finally located him waiting on us. I felt kind of bad for him, because it must be kind of a drag to give an elaborate tour to only two people, and I could also tell that he had the actual tour down to a patter that wasn't as effective to just the two of us. We also had a very strange vocal tic where he kind of hummed after everything he said. It was kind of weird, but he was a wonderful guide. We walked a long way and learned a LOT about the people buried there. I wish I could have spent longer looking and taking pictures, as I am an avid taphophile, but it was just too damn hot out there. I don't remember how long we were out there, and it was a LONG time, but we were hot, dirty, sweaty, and thirsty by the time we were done. That has to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries that I've ever seen, and the headstones were amazing. If I ever get a chance, I'll go back and do some grave rubbings. When we left, we tried to find a Target because we needed some essentials, but the stupid GPS must have gotten mad at me for abusing it the night before, because it took us WAY out of town. I'm not sure where we ended up, but it certainly wasn't Target. We had to find a way back into town, because we had made reservations for that night at a fancy, historical restaurant called The Olde Pink House. We heard it was (possibly) very haunted on the ghost tour last night and we wanted to eat with some dead folks.
I'm not sure how long we were actually gone, but I was in quite a state by the time we were able to rest and get ready. I apparently didn't hear Steve right when he told me what time our reservation was for, because 15 minutes before we were supposed to be there, I still wasn't ready. I still stand behind my belief that he told me 7:30, but he said he told me 6:30 (he didn't, I swear) we had to call and push our reservation back until 8:45. Luckily we were able to do that! Yay!
We did have another small problem while getting ready, and I should probably be ashamed for thinking it's funny, but I'm not! When I got out of the shower, I walked back into our room and saw Steve looking distressed. He had been ironing his dress pants before getting dressed, but now he was just standing there staring at them on the board. Bless his heart, he hadn't payed attention to the setting on the iron before he got started and he had burned an iron-shaped hole in his pants! He looked so pitiful, but I couldn't help but laugh! I've never actually known anyone to do that in real life! Poor guy, though, it was the only pair of nice pants he had brought, so he had to wear jeans. He looked handsome anyways!
After we got ready, we decided to try and find that elusive Target again!
After driving a considerable distance, and being miseld by the stupid GPS again, we finally did find a Target on our own and we bought a new GPS holder, which made me happy because I was having to hold the dumb thing up the whole time we were driving. I also had to buy a new pair of shoes because none of the many pairs of shoes I brought with me were doing my feet any good. At this point, I had blisters, wounds, and hurty spots all over my feet: in short, my feet hurt. A lot. I got a pair of Chucks and a few other things and even though it was a little early, we finally made our way to the restaurant. I'm glad we decided to go early, because it took us a LONG time to find a place to park. We finally found a spot about a block away and walked over. They were able to seat us immediately, so that was awesome! The restaurant was wonderful and the food was spectacular. I had pecan-crusted chicken with some kind of sauce on it, whipped sweet potatoes and collards. I know the food was good because I ate the collard greens and I usually HATE them. We also got dessert, which I can't exactly describe because there was a lot going on with it, but I will just call it Awesome with Fruit and Ice Cream. I could eat one of whatever it was every day for a year and still think it was good! *drool*
As for ghosts, I didn't see anything. Trust me, I looked. The Olde Pink House is supposed to be one of the 7 most haunted locations in the country, and I didn't see or feel anything. Steve, on the other hand, did! BOO, I'm jealous! He and I were talking and he kind of jumped a little and looked weird and asked if anyone was behind him. There wasn't anyone there, not a server or even a table with people at it, so he looked kind of funny when I said no one was there. His chair had slid away from the table, and he didn't do it! He even tried to do it and the chair wouldn't move like that when he pushed it! No fair! :( I got nothing.
JUNE 21, 2009 - This morning Steve and I went on a tour of Bonaventure (which I keep wanting to call Bonaventura for some reason) Cemetery which is a huge, old and unbelievably beautiful place. We had arranged a tour with the same people who did our ghost tour, and it turned out that Steve and I were the only ones to sign up for that day. At first we couldn't find our tour guide, but we finally located him waiting on us. I felt kind of bad for him, because it must be kind of a drag to give an elaborate tour to only two people, and I could also tell that he had the actual tour down to a patter that wasn't as effective to just the two of us. We also had a very strange vocal tic where he kind of hummed after everything he said. It was kind of weird, but he was a wonderful guide. We walked a long way and learned a LOT about the people buried there. I wish I could have spent longer looking and taking pictures, as I am an avid taphophile, but it was just too damn hot out there. I don't remember how long we were out there, and it was a LONG time, but we were hot, dirty, sweaty, and thirsty by the time we were done. That has to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries that I've ever seen, and the headstones were amazing. If I ever get a chance, I'll go back and do some grave rubbings. When we left, we tried to find a Target because we needed some essentials, but the stupid GPS must have gotten mad at me for abusing it the night before, because it took us WAY out of town. I'm not sure where we ended up, but it certainly wasn't Target. We had to find a way back into town, because we had made reservations for that night at a fancy, historical restaurant called The Olde Pink House. We heard it was (possibly) very haunted on the ghost tour last night and we wanted to eat with some dead folks.
I'm not sure how long we were actually gone, but I was in quite a state by the time we were able to rest and get ready. I apparently didn't hear Steve right when he told me what time our reservation was for, because 15 minutes before we were supposed to be there, I still wasn't ready. I still stand behind my belief that he told me 7:30, but he said he told me 6:30 (he didn't, I swear) we had to call and push our reservation back until 8:45. Luckily we were able to do that! Yay!
We did have another small problem while getting ready, and I should probably be ashamed for thinking it's funny, but I'm not! When I got out of the shower, I walked back into our room and saw Steve looking distressed. He had been ironing his dress pants before getting dressed, but now he was just standing there staring at them on the board. Bless his heart, he hadn't payed attention to the setting on the iron before he got started and he had burned an iron-shaped hole in his pants! He looked so pitiful, but I couldn't help but laugh! I've never actually known anyone to do that in real life! Poor guy, though, it was the only pair of nice pants he had brought, so he had to wear jeans. He looked handsome anyways!
After we got ready, we decided to try and find that elusive Target again!
After driving a considerable distance, and being miseld by the stupid GPS again, we finally did find a Target on our own and we bought a new GPS holder, which made me happy because I was having to hold the dumb thing up the whole time we were driving. I also had to buy a new pair of shoes because none of the many pairs of shoes I brought with me were doing my feet any good. At this point, I had blisters, wounds, and hurty spots all over my feet: in short, my feet hurt. A lot. I got a pair of Chucks and a few other things and even though it was a little early, we finally made our way to the restaurant. I'm glad we decided to go early, because it took us a LONG time to find a place to park. We finally found a spot about a block away and walked over. They were able to seat us immediately, so that was awesome! The restaurant was wonderful and the food was spectacular. I had pecan-crusted chicken with some kind of sauce on it, whipped sweet potatoes and collards. I know the food was good because I ate the collard greens and I usually HATE them. We also got dessert, which I can't exactly describe because there was a lot going on with it, but I will just call it Awesome with Fruit and Ice Cream. I could eat one of whatever it was every day for a year and still think it was good! *drool*
As for ghosts, I didn't see anything. Trust me, I looked. The Olde Pink House is supposed to be one of the 7 most haunted locations in the country, and I didn't see or feel anything. Steve, on the other hand, did! BOO, I'm jealous! He and I were talking and he kind of jumped a little and looked weird and asked if anyone was behind him. There wasn't anyone there, not a server or even a table with people at it, so he looked kind of funny when I said no one was there. His chair had slid away from the table, and he didn't do it! He even tried to do it and the chair wouldn't move like that when he pushed it! No fair! :( I got nothing.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION
JUNE 20, 2009 - Savannah is hot. I only say it that simply because there are few words to describe the drowning-on-dry-land feeling that I encountered today. Steve and I were woken by a shaft of light so bright that for a moment I thought that the sun had gone supernova. Apparently, we haven't quite figured out how to close the curtains all the way! Something to work on later! Our first adventure this morning was a trip to Forsyth Park. I have seen tons of pictures of the park, but none of them did it justice. The place is beautiful! I'm really falling in love with the live oaks and Spanish moss. We saw a farmer's market, which was kind of interesting. There were also lots of dogs out today, but I only got to pet one of them. :( We walked the perimeter of the park and looked at the beautiful houses all around. I would love to live in one of them! I love old houses, and a lot of these were just so interesting! We also located the famous fountain, which was just a nice in person as it is in the pictures. By the time we had gone all the way around and then some, we were both dripping sweat and kind of feeling gross, so we stopped at an antique store to get out of the heat for a few minutes, and we ended up in a place where we could afford nothing and it was housed in a crumbling, old mansion. I'm not exaggerating about that, it was really crumbling. We walked through four of it's five floors, and I think the house would be beautiful if it were restored, but it was kind of scary. We were beginning to be afraid that we might fall through the floors, so we left and went to have lunch at Clary's. It was small, and reminded me of Aunt Eunice's, and the food was great! We had some trouble getting the car out of the tiny lot, but we finally managed it and did a couple of errands before returning to the hotel.
I made sure to get back to the hotel in abundant time to get ready for Kenny and Lauren's wedding! After holding up the dinner the night before because I was late, I didn't want to take that chance again. I almost made myself late again, but I managed to get ready and use the GPS (for the first time) to successfully locate the Mansion on Forsyth Park. It was so beautiful! Since I don't understand valet parking and didn't want to embarrass myself, I found a place to park on the street (that is an important tid-bit for later, so pay attention) and went into the hotel. I immediately found a very handsome Kenny who didn't look at all nervous. :) I spoke to him and had someone take our picture, and then I got out of the way of the bustle. As the guests arrived I found that another guest, Elizabeth, and I had on the exact same dress! We have never met in person, we live in different towns and we bought them from two different places, but they were exact down to the bow on the sash! We just have very good taste! Heeheehee! The wedding was outside (gulp) but under a nice tent in the courtyard. It had a chandelier and everything! The actual ceremony went over without a hitch, and Kenny and Lauren are now married! I think my heart grew three sizes that day. :) I had a tickle in my throat at the absolute worst moment, the "does anyone have any reason to object" moment, but I managed to keep in on the DL. I didn't feel like getting beat down by the bride! The music was beautiful and everything was so lovely. While the bride and groom were off taking pictures, I got a chance to talk to more of the people whom I've only ever heard of in stories, and I found them all to be lovely people.
We moved to the restaurant next door to begin the reception, and had drinks and nibbly foods while waiting on the dining room to be prepared. I got to know a guy I've heard about for years, Stephen, an old friend of Kenny's. He's a lawyer, and in spite of that, a lot of fun to talk to! :) I also got to meet the lovely Elisabeth, Kenny's unofficial sister, who I liked a whole lot! I finally got to meet Rick, Bonita's husband and Kenny's Step dad, Lauren's parents, her god sisters, and there were so many others! They were all seriously great people. It took a little while, but as soon as the newlyweds returned, the reception dinner finally began. The dining room was very beautiful and I was afraid I was going to break something or knock something over, so I found a seat at the very end of the table and parked myself. I sat across from Wendy Brown...ahem, I mean WENNYBROWN! (exclamation point is a part of the name, not punctuation.) I'm fairly sure she is a kindred spirit of mine. She was a hoot! We were also sitting next to Lauren's God parents and one of her family's neighbors. We had so much fun with them, because they were bonafide, dyed in the wool, Connecticut Yankees! We spent the whole dinner discussing the differences between being from the north versus being from the south. It led to very, very entertaining conversation, and I'm seriously afraid that I laughed entirely too loud. Seriously, I actually laughed like my Atnip relatives, and that involves throwing the head back and pretty much shrieking. I'd like to apologize to everyone at 700 Drayton, Lauren, Kenny, their collected friends and family and the state of Georgia for my behavior. The lady who was sitting beside me kept saying "She's like this and she isn't even drinking!!" At least I kept them laughing along with me. I had way too much fun! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and everything was fancy and lovely. I didn't spill anything or knock anything over, so score a point for me! Unfortunately, I was going to have to leave before the festivities were over because Steve had gotten into the "spirit" *ahem* of things and made reservations for us to go on a ghost tour through the city! I figured out that if I left by 8:30, I'd have plenty of time to make it back to the hotel and change before we had to meet the group, so at the appointed time I stood and said goodbye and hugged a series of very wonderful people who I had spent the evening with! I even managed to hug Emo Waiter Andrew, because he looked like he needed one. Miss Bonita caught me at the door and we talked for a few minutes and she asked me if I could wait until the cake was cut, and I hated to miss that, so I agreed! I'm so glad that they didn't smush cake on each other, because I really hate when people do that! :) I stepped into the foyer, and Bryan caught me to hug me good bye and talk for a second, and at this point I completely lost track of time. I kept hearing a weird noise, but I didn't think anything about it. When he walked back into the reception, I realized that this annoying noise I kept hearing was my new phone ringing! Oh, Crap!
I looked at the time and nearly fainted! I saw that it was Steve trying to call (he didn't know how long I was going to be gone and had gotten worried about me) but by the time I figured out how to answer the damned thing he had hung up. I tried calling him back, but I couldn't figure out how to send a call! I kept looking at my phone and yelling "CALL DAMNIT!" which I'm sure the host at the desk behind me found amusing. I ran out of the building yelling at my phone and trying to find my keys. It was a disorganized mess. I had my hands full, things were falling, I was shrieking and running and trying to get the stupid phone to make a call. Oh, and I also had to pee really bad. I didn't have time to run back in, so I figured I'd just do it when I ran into the hotel to change clothes. I finally got to my car, and two cars...oh, friends and neighbors...two cars had me trapped in the space I was parked in. You wouldn't think that could happen on a curb, but these numbnuts idiots had parked within about 7 inches of each end of my car. I don't know what they were thinking when they parked where they did, but they were way too close for me to just pull out. So there I was, still yelling at my phone, trying to get things organized enough to actually drive, freaking out because I thought I was going to be late for the tour that I was looking forward to, needing to pee, and add to that I was trying to start the GPS and hook it into the holder! Of course, in about 30 seconds of trying to affix the GPS to the holder, I managed to snap the hinge off of the holder. I screamed an explicative at it as it fell apart in my hands. Then my phone rang again, and it was Steve, asking where I was. I was having a small scale come-apart, but I managed to answer the phone this time. I had to throw the GPS aside and try to pull out of my parking space without plowing into one of the cars, all while trying to give Steve directions on the clothes he needed to get out for me so that I could change when I got back to the hotel. I went in reverse, and immediately bumped into the car behind me. My only saving grace is that I was going less than 1 MPH since I had pretty much only let my foot off the brake when I rolled back. I figure that anyone who parks THAT close to another vehicle doesn't care much what happens to their car, so I didn't even get out of the car to look. I pulled forward about 6 inches, then reversed, back, forth, back, forth...ect. I was finally able to get out of the spot without hitting anyone else and began my ride back. Luckily I had at least set the GPS before I broke the holder, so it helped me get on my way. Steve was worried that we weren't going to make it, so I just told him to meet me outside with my flip-flops (I NEEDED to ditch the shoes I was wearing, because it was a walking tour) and that I would run in and go to the bathroom while he jumped into the drivers seat. I would just wear the dress I wore to the wedding.
We made it, just barely. We did end up waiting a few minutes before our group set off, but it wasn't long. I was severely overdressed, but at least my feet were comfy! I really, really enjoyed the tour! We had an awesome tour guide and she told a lot of great stories of ghoolies, ghosties and long leggedy beasties. We walked two miles, and my ankles and legs were a buffet for mosquitoes the size of seagulls. We also took a lot of pictures, as the tour guide suggested, to get "Spirit Orbs" and ghost photos. We got a lot of orbs in our pictures, but I generally follow the TAPS rule that orbs usually mean dust. Of course, I did a have a couple of orbs in my pictures that looked different than others, so maybe I got a spook after all!
By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost midnight and my feet felt like they had been beaten with switches. They were even bleeding in places! However, I wasn't worried because I'd had a wonderful day. I was also exhausted and I will soon be passed out asleep.
JUNE 20, 2009 - Savannah is hot. I only say it that simply because there are few words to describe the drowning-on-dry-land feeling that I encountered today. Steve and I were woken by a shaft of light so bright that for a moment I thought that the sun had gone supernova. Apparently, we haven't quite figured out how to close the curtains all the way! Something to work on later! Our first adventure this morning was a trip to Forsyth Park. I have seen tons of pictures of the park, but none of them did it justice. The place is beautiful! I'm really falling in love with the live oaks and Spanish moss. We saw a farmer's market, which was kind of interesting. There were also lots of dogs out today, but I only got to pet one of them. :( We walked the perimeter of the park and looked at the beautiful houses all around. I would love to live in one of them! I love old houses, and a lot of these were just so interesting! We also located the famous fountain, which was just a nice in person as it is in the pictures. By the time we had gone all the way around and then some, we were both dripping sweat and kind of feeling gross, so we stopped at an antique store to get out of the heat for a few minutes, and we ended up in a place where we could afford nothing and it was housed in a crumbling, old mansion. I'm not exaggerating about that, it was really crumbling. We walked through four of it's five floors, and I think the house would be beautiful if it were restored, but it was kind of scary. We were beginning to be afraid that we might fall through the floors, so we left and went to have lunch at Clary's. It was small, and reminded me of Aunt Eunice's, and the food was great! We had some trouble getting the car out of the tiny lot, but we finally managed it and did a couple of errands before returning to the hotel.
I made sure to get back to the hotel in abundant time to get ready for Kenny and Lauren's wedding! After holding up the dinner the night before because I was late, I didn't want to take that chance again. I almost made myself late again, but I managed to get ready and use the GPS (for the first time) to successfully locate the Mansion on Forsyth Park. It was so beautiful! Since I don't understand valet parking and didn't want to embarrass myself, I found a place to park on the street (that is an important tid-bit for later, so pay attention) and went into the hotel. I immediately found a very handsome Kenny who didn't look at all nervous. :) I spoke to him and had someone take our picture, and then I got out of the way of the bustle. As the guests arrived I found that another guest, Elizabeth, and I had on the exact same dress! We have never met in person, we live in different towns and we bought them from two different places, but they were exact down to the bow on the sash! We just have very good taste! Heeheehee! The wedding was outside (gulp) but under a nice tent in the courtyard. It had a chandelier and everything! The actual ceremony went over without a hitch, and Kenny and Lauren are now married! I think my heart grew three sizes that day. :) I had a tickle in my throat at the absolute worst moment, the "does anyone have any reason to object" moment, but I managed to keep in on the DL. I didn't feel like getting beat down by the bride! The music was beautiful and everything was so lovely. While the bride and groom were off taking pictures, I got a chance to talk to more of the people whom I've only ever heard of in stories, and I found them all to be lovely people.
We moved to the restaurant next door to begin the reception, and had drinks and nibbly foods while waiting on the dining room to be prepared. I got to know a guy I've heard about for years, Stephen, an old friend of Kenny's. He's a lawyer, and in spite of that, a lot of fun to talk to! :) I also got to meet the lovely Elisabeth, Kenny's unofficial sister, who I liked a whole lot! I finally got to meet Rick, Bonita's husband and Kenny's Step dad, Lauren's parents, her god sisters, and there were so many others! They were all seriously great people. It took a little while, but as soon as the newlyweds returned, the reception dinner finally began. The dining room was very beautiful and I was afraid I was going to break something or knock something over, so I found a seat at the very end of the table and parked myself. I sat across from Wendy Brown...ahem, I mean WENNYBROWN! (exclamation point is a part of the name, not punctuation.) I'm fairly sure she is a kindred spirit of mine. She was a hoot! We were also sitting next to Lauren's God parents and one of her family's neighbors. We had so much fun with them, because they were bonafide, dyed in the wool, Connecticut Yankees! We spent the whole dinner discussing the differences between being from the north versus being from the south. It led to very, very entertaining conversation, and I'm seriously afraid that I laughed entirely too loud. Seriously, I actually laughed like my Atnip relatives, and that involves throwing the head back and pretty much shrieking. I'd like to apologize to everyone at 700 Drayton, Lauren, Kenny, their collected friends and family and the state of Georgia for my behavior. The lady who was sitting beside me kept saying "She's like this and she isn't even drinking!!" At least I kept them laughing along with me. I had way too much fun! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and everything was fancy and lovely. I didn't spill anything or knock anything over, so score a point for me! Unfortunately, I was going to have to leave before the festivities were over because Steve had gotten into the "spirit" *ahem* of things and made reservations for us to go on a ghost tour through the city! I figured out that if I left by 8:30, I'd have plenty of time to make it back to the hotel and change before we had to meet the group, so at the appointed time I stood and said goodbye and hugged a series of very wonderful people who I had spent the evening with! I even managed to hug Emo Waiter Andrew, because he looked like he needed one. Miss Bonita caught me at the door and we talked for a few minutes and she asked me if I could wait until the cake was cut, and I hated to miss that, so I agreed! I'm so glad that they didn't smush cake on each other, because I really hate when people do that! :) I stepped into the foyer, and Bryan caught me to hug me good bye and talk for a second, and at this point I completely lost track of time. I kept hearing a weird noise, but I didn't think anything about it. When he walked back into the reception, I realized that this annoying noise I kept hearing was my new phone ringing! Oh, Crap!
I looked at the time and nearly fainted! I saw that it was Steve trying to call (he didn't know how long I was going to be gone and had gotten worried about me) but by the time I figured out how to answer the damned thing he had hung up. I tried calling him back, but I couldn't figure out how to send a call! I kept looking at my phone and yelling "CALL DAMNIT!" which I'm sure the host at the desk behind me found amusing. I ran out of the building yelling at my phone and trying to find my keys. It was a disorganized mess. I had my hands full, things were falling, I was shrieking and running and trying to get the stupid phone to make a call. Oh, and I also had to pee really bad. I didn't have time to run back in, so I figured I'd just do it when I ran into the hotel to change clothes. I finally got to my car, and two cars...oh, friends and neighbors...two cars had me trapped in the space I was parked in. You wouldn't think that could happen on a curb, but these numbnuts idiots had parked within about 7 inches of each end of my car. I don't know what they were thinking when they parked where they did, but they were way too close for me to just pull out. So there I was, still yelling at my phone, trying to get things organized enough to actually drive, freaking out because I thought I was going to be late for the tour that I was looking forward to, needing to pee, and add to that I was trying to start the GPS and hook it into the holder! Of course, in about 30 seconds of trying to affix the GPS to the holder, I managed to snap the hinge off of the holder. I screamed an explicative at it as it fell apart in my hands. Then my phone rang again, and it was Steve, asking where I was. I was having a small scale come-apart, but I managed to answer the phone this time. I had to throw the GPS aside and try to pull out of my parking space without plowing into one of the cars, all while trying to give Steve directions on the clothes he needed to get out for me so that I could change when I got back to the hotel. I went in reverse, and immediately bumped into the car behind me. My only saving grace is that I was going less than 1 MPH since I had pretty much only let my foot off the brake when I rolled back. I figure that anyone who parks THAT close to another vehicle doesn't care much what happens to their car, so I didn't even get out of the car to look. I pulled forward about 6 inches, then reversed, back, forth, back, forth...ect. I was finally able to get out of the spot without hitting anyone else and began my ride back. Luckily I had at least set the GPS before I broke the holder, so it helped me get on my way. Steve was worried that we weren't going to make it, so I just told him to meet me outside with my flip-flops (I NEEDED to ditch the shoes I was wearing, because it was a walking tour) and that I would run in and go to the bathroom while he jumped into the drivers seat. I would just wear the dress I wore to the wedding.
We made it, just barely. We did end up waiting a few minutes before our group set off, but it wasn't long. I was severely overdressed, but at least my feet were comfy! I really, really enjoyed the tour! We had an awesome tour guide and she told a lot of great stories of ghoolies, ghosties and long leggedy beasties. We walked two miles, and my ankles and legs were a buffet for mosquitoes the size of seagulls. We also took a lot of pictures, as the tour guide suggested, to get "Spirit Orbs" and ghost photos. We got a lot of orbs in our pictures, but I generally follow the TAPS rule that orbs usually mean dust. Of course, I did a have a couple of orbs in my pictures that looked different than others, so maybe I got a spook after all!
By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost midnight and my feet felt like they had been beaten with switches. They were even bleeding in places! However, I wasn't worried because I'd had a wonderful day. I was also exhausted and I will soon be passed out asleep.
Friday, June 19, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION
PROLOGUE: This is the story about our trip to Savannah and what we did there! It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. It was also very, very hot, and I believe that I finally, honestly earned the title (given to me by Greg P. in 1997) as the "Showerin'-est Taking Person" in the world. I think it's just Georgia, because I don't feel the need to shower twice a day at home. Also, forgive me for the rambling and for leaving out some details, because it was a long and busy trip, but if I remember anything later on, I'll tell you about it! Enjoy! :)
PROLOGUE: This is the story about our trip to Savannah and what we did there! It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. It was also very, very hot, and I believe that I finally, honestly earned the title (given to me by Greg P. in 1997) as the "Showerin'-est Taking Person" in the world. I think it's just Georgia, because I don't feel the need to shower twice a day at home. Also, forgive me for the rambling and for leaving out some details, because it was a long and busy trip, but if I remember anything later on, I'll tell you about it! Enjoy! :)
My phone died last night, and I couldn't find my charging cable anywhere, so in a quick Wal-Mart dash to find a new one (which didn't happen because my phone is so old and outdated that they don't carry that kind anymore) Steve got me a new phone! Shut up, we were desperate. It's a Razor phone, or something like that, and I have no idea how it works or what it sounds like yet. Also, since my old phone was completely dead, I couldn't get into my address book to copy any numbers to the new phone. Steve transferred the old SIM card to the new phone, but none of my numbers transferred over. Luckily I had gotten a text from Kenny the night before and that showed up on my phone, so at least I had HIS number. Of course, his is the most important, right? :) I played around with it for a while while we drove, but I still don't know much about it. I hope I learn before I have an emergency. I don't even know how to actually make it dial out a number, but I'm not going to worry about that yet. I'll figure it out.
Today was the day that we drove across Georgia to get to Savannah! I've been wanting to come here for a long time, but we had never gotten around to it. Now, however, we had a really good reason for the drive because Kenny and Lauren were getting married here! Driving across Georgia takes a long time and we got stuck in a TON of traffic in, you guessed it, Atlanta. I needed to be here at 7:45 pm so that I could eat dinner with the collected friends and family of the bride and groom, and we made it just in time for me to shower, change and get skanky before I had to be there. Steve drove me to The Lady & Sons, because I was too afraid to drive myself at this point, and I ended up being a little bit late and they didn't go in until I got there. I felt so bad! I got to meet a lot of people I've only heard stories about, so that was a lot of fun. The food and the company were both great, but I was beat. I don't know if it was my new allergy medicine or just the toll of the day, but I was a zombie by the time I was done with dinner. Thinking about it now, I'm kind of afraid I came across as rude or something, but I hope I didn't offend anyone, I was mainly just tired. Before I left, though, I caught Kenny for a second and got a chance to carry on the "Best Man" joke that is a tradition in our family. Since Kenny isn't having a Best Man, I got to be the one to offer him the keys to the car for the last minute dash. Of course, he didn't take me up on the offer! Good man! :) I declined joining everyone else at Savannah Smiles, a piano bar close by, and called Steve to come and pick me up. After that we came back and I changed into my jammies, and now I'm writing this post. The wedding is tomorrow, and Steve has all kinds of things planned for us to do while we are here. We've decided to stick around for a few days and make a vacation out of it, so there should be lots more stuff to come!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
I dreamed a terrible joke last night:
Q) What did Admiral Akbar say to the gastroenterologist?
A) IT'S A TRACT!
I'm sorry, but I had to share that. I can't believe my subconscious wastes its time thinking those things up. It sounds like something my high school Agriculture teacher would have come up with.*
*He was notorious for the bad jokes.
Q) What did Admiral Akbar say to the gastroenterologist?
A) IT'S A TRACT!
I'm sorry, but I had to share that. I can't believe my subconscious wastes its time thinking those things up. It sounds like something my high school Agriculture teacher would have come up with.*
*He was notorious for the bad jokes.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
WHAT I'VE LEARNED DURING MY SUMMER VACATION... (SO FAR)
1) I am completely incapable of applying self tanner! Since I'm going to go to a destination wedding this weekend, and it's going to be as hot as hell in Savannah, I didn't want to have to wear hose with my dress. My main reason for even wearing the God forsaken things is that my legs are so very, very pale and I will not risk skin cancer by going to a tanning bed! A lady at my church told me about a fake tan spray that is supposed to work really well, so I bought a bottle of it. I thought I was following the directions, but apparently I missed a step, because my legs look like I waded through a vat of Cheetos! It's quite unattractive. However, I am going to suck it up and show off my orange-streaky legs with pride! I just hope I don't clash too badly with the flowers at the wedding! :)
2) If I were a stay-at-home wifey, I'd get bored of it very quickly. I like the sleeping late and being able to do my housework in a leisurely manner, but I need regular interaction with other grown up people.
3) Laundry sucks. It sucks a lot. I may get a small sense of accomplishment when I finish folding a basket of clothes, but it's quickly displaced by the knowledge that everything is just going to get dirty again! It's a never ending cycle! Also, I've realized we don't have enough room to store all of our clothes, especially when all of them are clean at the same time.
4) I make awesome brownies!
5) Even when I don't have to go anywhere afterwords, I won't go to the gym like I will on days when I have to go to work after. Apparently I am just not waking up on time to go first thing, and the longer I'm awake, the less likely I am to go. I'm not happy with that at all, so I'm going to have to work on it! Boo!
1) I am completely incapable of applying self tanner! Since I'm going to go to a destination wedding this weekend, and it's going to be as hot as hell in Savannah, I didn't want to have to wear hose with my dress. My main reason for even wearing the God forsaken things is that my legs are so very, very pale and I will not risk skin cancer by going to a tanning bed! A lady at my church told me about a fake tan spray that is supposed to work really well, so I bought a bottle of it. I thought I was following the directions, but apparently I missed a step, because my legs look like I waded through a vat of Cheetos! It's quite unattractive. However, I am going to suck it up and show off my orange-streaky legs with pride! I just hope I don't clash too badly with the flowers at the wedding! :)
2) If I were a stay-at-home wifey, I'd get bored of it very quickly. I like the sleeping late and being able to do my housework in a leisurely manner, but I need regular interaction with other grown up people.
3) Laundry sucks. It sucks a lot. I may get a small sense of accomplishment when I finish folding a basket of clothes, but it's quickly displaced by the knowledge that everything is just going to get dirty again! It's a never ending cycle! Also, I've realized we don't have enough room to store all of our clothes, especially when all of them are clean at the same time.
4) I make awesome brownies!
5) Even when I don't have to go anywhere afterwords, I won't go to the gym like I will on days when I have to go to work after. Apparently I am just not waking up on time to go first thing, and the longer I'm awake, the less likely I am to go. I'm not happy with that at all, so I'm going to have to work on it! Boo!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I work with a guy that scares me a little.
Don't get me wrong, he is a really nice guy, but he has this quality about him that makes me nervous. Before I actually got a chance to meet him, I just saw him around and thought that he was kind of sinister. He's a really tall man who walks hunched over a little, and he has the smile of a super villain/serial killer. I nicknamed him (as I do almost everyone who's name I don't know) Flesh Coat, because he kind of made me think of the bad guy in Silence of the Lambs. I could actually imagine him throwing someone in a pit and telling them to "rub the lotion on the skin." I know that's bad, because we aren't supposed to judge someone by their appearance, but I was powerless to stop it. I actually got a chance to meet him later on and while he still looks kind of scary, at least I'm fairly sure he isn't a serial killer. He is an unusual guy though. He is one of those people who complains a lot about the younger women who talk to him or like him, but you know he's secretly thrilled that they pay attention to him. He also talks a lot about the things he's good at, as if they are kind of burdensome, but you can tell he just wants to let you know what he can do. I've also been told by other men that he works with that he's a complete pervert , but I've never heard him say anything like that. Of course, that may be because I'm WAY too old for him. Not that he's a pedo or anything, but I think I'm about 10 - 12 years too old for his tastes (BTW, he's 6 years older than I, so that makes it creepy).
Anyways, yesterday Steve had to stay at work later than usual, so I got to spend an hour with that guy. A whole hour. We talked, or rather HE talked, a lot. I never really know how to talk to this guy because sometimes he doesn't realize when I'm being silly or sarcastic, so I just spent that hour listening to him, not knowing how to respond/react to him, and praying that Steve would hurry up and get there. At one point he did something strange, and while Flesh Coat's back was turned I leaned over and whispered to the girl sitting next to me that I thought the guy was really weird. I think he heard me. :( I may think he's weird, and he may make me feel uncomfortable, but I certainly didn't want to hurt his feelings! I felt bad. I also realized, too late as it turned out, that while I was talking to him, I had leaned over to look out of the window and the neck of my shirt got pulled down. Way down. Like, super way down. I accidentally flashed Flesh Coat. I'm scared he's going to think I did it on purpose, or worse, tell people I did that on purpose.
*shudder*
Don't get me wrong, he is a really nice guy, but he has this quality about him that makes me nervous. Before I actually got a chance to meet him, I just saw him around and thought that he was kind of sinister. He's a really tall man who walks hunched over a little, and he has the smile of a super villain/serial killer. I nicknamed him (as I do almost everyone who's name I don't know) Flesh Coat, because he kind of made me think of the bad guy in Silence of the Lambs. I could actually imagine him throwing someone in a pit and telling them to "rub the lotion on the skin." I know that's bad, because we aren't supposed to judge someone by their appearance, but I was powerless to stop it. I actually got a chance to meet him later on and while he still looks kind of scary, at least I'm fairly sure he isn't a serial killer. He is an unusual guy though. He is one of those people who complains a lot about the younger women who talk to him or like him, but you know he's secretly thrilled that they pay attention to him. He also talks a lot about the things he's good at, as if they are kind of burdensome, but you can tell he just wants to let you know what he can do. I've also been told by other men that he works with that he's a complete pervert , but I've never heard him say anything like that. Of course, that may be because I'm WAY too old for him. Not that he's a pedo or anything, but I think I'm about 10 - 12 years too old for his tastes (BTW, he's 6 years older than I, so that makes it creepy).
Anyways, yesterday Steve had to stay at work later than usual, so I got to spend an hour with that guy. A whole hour. We talked, or rather HE talked, a lot. I never really know how to talk to this guy because sometimes he doesn't realize when I'm being silly or sarcastic, so I just spent that hour listening to him, not knowing how to respond/react to him, and praying that Steve would hurry up and get there. At one point he did something strange, and while Flesh Coat's back was turned I leaned over and whispered to the girl sitting next to me that I thought the guy was really weird. I think he heard me. :( I may think he's weird, and he may make me feel uncomfortable, but I certainly didn't want to hurt his feelings! I felt bad. I also realized, too late as it turned out, that while I was talking to him, I had leaned over to look out of the window and the neck of my shirt got pulled down. Way down. Like, super way down. I accidentally flashed Flesh Coat. I'm scared he's going to think I did it on purpose, or worse, tell people I did that on purpose.
*shudder*
Monday, June 08, 2009
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) I stayed with my brother Friday night while my mom and her husband went out of town for their anniversary. Things went well! I didn't burn anything down or have to call 911 at any time, so I'd say it was a success! :) Since it's a brand new house, and I have only been there a couple of times anyways, I wasn't familiar with anything or know where anything was. I felt like a burglar most of the time because I had to go through drawers and closets to find things. I like to snoop as much as the next person, but when it's not actually snooping, I feel guilty! I found almost everything I needed, though. Poor Tommy, I don't think he trusts me very much. Any time I would try and do something for him, he'd get this look in his eyes like "Oh, Lord, she's touching me again!" Granted, by the time Angie came to stay with him on Saturday, he was probably sick of me. I can't lift him by myself, so getting him in and out of his wheelchair, or into bed was a chore. I managed it, just barely, but if he could talk, he would probably have cussed me a few times! :) In the process of attempting to lift him, I managed to pull several of the muscles in my back and legs, so that was fun. I've been walking around like Quasimodo since I got back! However, he is still alive, so I didn't do too badly, I don't think!
2) I was so sore Sunday morning, that when I got to church, I needed to take something to help with the pulled muscles. All I had in my purse was Excedrin, so I took that and hoped I'd feel better. I had forgotten that because of the caffeine, Excedrin makes me really shaky, and that was bad because I was supposed to sing the special music during the morning service! Ack! I already get really nervous when I sing, and I get doubly nervous when I sing in morning services because I know the choir is sitting behind me and can see me get shaky. It was really bad this time, though, because of the Excedrin, and no matter how much I tried not to shake, it just kept getting worse! At one point, I grabbed on to the pulpit to keep my hand still, and that helped a little, but I looked over at the pulpit microphone and saw it was bouncing up and down. I almost laughed, and I had to let it go. Luckily, though, my voice didn't shake and I hit all of my notes, and people seemed to enjoy the song...so there's that! I love singing, I just wish I didn't get so nervous!
3) I helped to host a baby shower yesterday afternoon, and it turned out really well! The girl having the baby is in my Sunday school class, and she is just the cutest thing. She's a tiny person, and now she has this big belly. She's having a little girl, and so everything was pink and frilly. My main contribution was carving a watermelon into a baby carriage and filling it with fruit. It was a lot of fun to do, and it turned out really well! I wish I had taken a picture of it before anyone had eaten out of it, but I didn't get a chance. Everyone thought it was cute. :) I'm glad I can do stuff like that for people! I did have one problem with it, though, and that is I HATE melons of every kind. I like carving them, and I enjoy making melon balls (it's fun), but I cannot stand the way they smell or taste. By the time I was done with this particular carriage, I had watermelon juice and seeds and rinds all over my kitchen and all over me. Fun stuff. I like to make those, but I hope I never have to eat any of them.
4) Josh is home for a couple of weeks! He came to church with us last night wearing his white robes, but no one seemed phased except for the little kids. He's still driving his mom's BMW two-seater convertible, which I think is hilarous. Vow of poverty, indeed! :) He's lost a lot of weight, but he looks good! He's also started wearing glasses and let his hair grow out a bit, so he's starting to look a little like David Tennant. We all know how I feel about DT, so I try not to think about that when Josh is around. I will NOT let him ruin my crush on The Doctor! I won't! Hopefully we'll get to hang out a bit while he's in town. I miss Josh! :(
5) I have been listening to the audio novel of Jaws lately, and coincidentally it was also on TV this weekend. I hadn't seen it in a long time, so I decided to watch it again. The book is good, but Jaws is one of the instances where I believe the movie is actually better. There is a subplot in the book that kind of pulls down the tempo of the story. Anyways, I had forgotten how much that movie terrifys me! I know it isn't real, I know the shark looks fake, but my feet itch and my legs feel all weird and I can't breathe when I watch that movie! Sharks are really, really scary! Getting eaten by one would be decidely unplesant!
1) I stayed with my brother Friday night while my mom and her husband went out of town for their anniversary. Things went well! I didn't burn anything down or have to call 911 at any time, so I'd say it was a success! :) Since it's a brand new house, and I have only been there a couple of times anyways, I wasn't familiar with anything or know where anything was. I felt like a burglar most of the time because I had to go through drawers and closets to find things. I like to snoop as much as the next person, but when it's not actually snooping, I feel guilty! I found almost everything I needed, though. Poor Tommy, I don't think he trusts me very much. Any time I would try and do something for him, he'd get this look in his eyes like "Oh, Lord, she's touching me again!" Granted, by the time Angie came to stay with him on Saturday, he was probably sick of me. I can't lift him by myself, so getting him in and out of his wheelchair, or into bed was a chore. I managed it, just barely, but if he could talk, he would probably have cussed me a few times! :) In the process of attempting to lift him, I managed to pull several of the muscles in my back and legs, so that was fun. I've been walking around like Quasimodo since I got back! However, he is still alive, so I didn't do too badly, I don't think!
2) I was so sore Sunday morning, that when I got to church, I needed to take something to help with the pulled muscles. All I had in my purse was Excedrin, so I took that and hoped I'd feel better. I had forgotten that because of the caffeine, Excedrin makes me really shaky, and that was bad because I was supposed to sing the special music during the morning service! Ack! I already get really nervous when I sing, and I get doubly nervous when I sing in morning services because I know the choir is sitting behind me and can see me get shaky. It was really bad this time, though, because of the Excedrin, and no matter how much I tried not to shake, it just kept getting worse! At one point, I grabbed on to the pulpit to keep my hand still, and that helped a little, but I looked over at the pulpit microphone and saw it was bouncing up and down. I almost laughed, and I had to let it go. Luckily, though, my voice didn't shake and I hit all of my notes, and people seemed to enjoy the song...so there's that! I love singing, I just wish I didn't get so nervous!
3) I helped to host a baby shower yesterday afternoon, and it turned out really well! The girl having the baby is in my Sunday school class, and she is just the cutest thing. She's a tiny person, and now she has this big belly. She's having a little girl, and so everything was pink and frilly. My main contribution was carving a watermelon into a baby carriage and filling it with fruit. It was a lot of fun to do, and it turned out really well! I wish I had taken a picture of it before anyone had eaten out of it, but I didn't get a chance. Everyone thought it was cute. :) I'm glad I can do stuff like that for people! I did have one problem with it, though, and that is I HATE melons of every kind. I like carving them, and I enjoy making melon balls (it's fun), but I cannot stand the way they smell or taste. By the time I was done with this particular carriage, I had watermelon juice and seeds and rinds all over my kitchen and all over me. Fun stuff. I like to make those, but I hope I never have to eat any of them.
4) Josh is home for a couple of weeks! He came to church with us last night wearing his white robes, but no one seemed phased except for the little kids. He's still driving his mom's BMW two-seater convertible, which I think is hilarous. Vow of poverty, indeed! :) He's lost a lot of weight, but he looks good! He's also started wearing glasses and let his hair grow out a bit, so he's starting to look a little like David Tennant. We all know how I feel about DT, so I try not to think about that when Josh is around. I will NOT let him ruin my crush on The Doctor! I won't! Hopefully we'll get to hang out a bit while he's in town. I miss Josh! :(
5) I have been listening to the audio novel of Jaws lately, and coincidentally it was also on TV this weekend. I hadn't seen it in a long time, so I decided to watch it again. The book is good, but Jaws is one of the instances where I believe the movie is actually better. There is a subplot in the book that kind of pulls down the tempo of the story. Anyways, I had forgotten how much that movie terrifys me! I know it isn't real, I know the shark looks fake, but my feet itch and my legs feel all weird and I can't breathe when I watch that movie! Sharks are really, really scary! Getting eaten by one would be decidely unplesant!
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
I'm currently upset at the ultra-fabulous Le Creuset company and their fine, enamel coated cast iron pans.
About two years ago, I got a Le Creuset skillet for a birthday gift. I had a crush on that brand for a long time, and had hoped that eventually I'd be able to buy a whole set of these kinds of pans because they are supposed to be practically indestructible and last forever. Of course, I quickly realized that buying a whole set of enamel-coated cast iron pans was going to cost WAY too much and take way too long to save up for, so the fact that I had just one made me love it all the more. I've used it constantly, and I'm fairly certain that I never mistreated it in any way, but a month or two ago, I noticed that the inside of the pan had some chips of enamel gone. I was unhappy about this, and had planned to send the pan back to be replaced, but knowing how way leads on to way, I never did it. It wasn't causing me any problems and I was still able to use my pan, so I forgot about doing anything.
Monday night, I was in the process of making dinner. The pan had been heating for a few minutes while I got the porkchops ready, and when I put the first one in, it immediately started popping. That's not too weird, because food will do that when it gets hot, but then it started popping out at me and it hurt. I thought that maybe the olive oil was splattering out on me, but I didn't have that much in the pan to begin with AND the temperature wasn't up that high. So I spent the next little bit trying to keep my porkchops from burning. Normally I'm pretty good at this, but for some reason, things weren't going so hot for me at the time. Anyways, when the food was ready, I noticed that the porkchops were black around the edges. It wasn't bad, but it was enough for me to notice. I was hungry, so I didn't get picky about anything, I just dug in. At first I didn't notice anything, but soon I realized that there was something gritty in my food. At first I thought it was a seed from some blueberries I had eaten earlier that might have been stuck in my teeth, or some kind of spice in the rice I'd added as a side dish, but it got worse. I had eaten almost a whole porkchop before I realized that it was not just gritty, but it felt like I was chewing on sand. I went back into the kitchen and looked in my pan, and realized that the black stuff that had been on my food wasn't because it had been burnt, I had been eating bits of the black enamel coating that had popped off of my pan and stuck to my food. Not only that, but I realized that when the pan was popping at me earlier, it was bits of the coating that were hitting me! No wonder it hurt! I ended up having to throw away all of the food I had fixed, because even the rice had gotten the black stuff in it somehow.
Indestructible my ass.
Now I'm worried about how much of it I actually ate. It probably wasn't much honestly, but all I can think of is that I've got bits of sharp stuff floating around in my body! I hope nothing gets punctured! :( I'm going to have to go through a rigamarole trying to get the pan replaced now. I thought it was just as easy as sending it back, but apparently not. You have to call them and get their permission to send it back, and THEN they decide if you will be able to get a replacement. Normally I woldn't worry about it, but it was way too expensive to just toss away. It's also been a really good pan up until it tried to kill me.
I guess we'll just see what happens.
I'm currently upset at the ultra-fabulous Le Creuset company and their fine, enamel coated cast iron pans.
About two years ago, I got a Le Creuset skillet for a birthday gift. I had a crush on that brand for a long time, and had hoped that eventually I'd be able to buy a whole set of these kinds of pans because they are supposed to be practically indestructible and last forever. Of course, I quickly realized that buying a whole set of enamel-coated cast iron pans was going to cost WAY too much and take way too long to save up for, so the fact that I had just one made me love it all the more. I've used it constantly, and I'm fairly certain that I never mistreated it in any way, but a month or two ago, I noticed that the inside of the pan had some chips of enamel gone. I was unhappy about this, and had planned to send the pan back to be replaced, but knowing how way leads on to way, I never did it. It wasn't causing me any problems and I was still able to use my pan, so I forgot about doing anything.
Monday night, I was in the process of making dinner. The pan had been heating for a few minutes while I got the porkchops ready, and when I put the first one in, it immediately started popping. That's not too weird, because food will do that when it gets hot, but then it started popping out at me and it hurt. I thought that maybe the olive oil was splattering out on me, but I didn't have that much in the pan to begin with AND the temperature wasn't up that high. So I spent the next little bit trying to keep my porkchops from burning. Normally I'm pretty good at this, but for some reason, things weren't going so hot for me at the time. Anyways, when the food was ready, I noticed that the porkchops were black around the edges. It wasn't bad, but it was enough for me to notice. I was hungry, so I didn't get picky about anything, I just dug in. At first I didn't notice anything, but soon I realized that there was something gritty in my food. At first I thought it was a seed from some blueberries I had eaten earlier that might have been stuck in my teeth, or some kind of spice in the rice I'd added as a side dish, but it got worse. I had eaten almost a whole porkchop before I realized that it was not just gritty, but it felt like I was chewing on sand. I went back into the kitchen and looked in my pan, and realized that the black stuff that had been on my food wasn't because it had been burnt, I had been eating bits of the black enamel coating that had popped off of my pan and stuck to my food. Not only that, but I realized that when the pan was popping at me earlier, it was bits of the coating that were hitting me! No wonder it hurt! I ended up having to throw away all of the food I had fixed, because even the rice had gotten the black stuff in it somehow.
Indestructible my ass.
Now I'm worried about how much of it I actually ate. It probably wasn't much honestly, but all I can think of is that I've got bits of sharp stuff floating around in my body! I hope nothing gets punctured! :( I'm going to have to go through a rigamarole trying to get the pan replaced now. I thought it was just as easy as sending it back, but apparently not. You have to call them and get their permission to send it back, and THEN they decide if you will be able to get a replacement. Normally I woldn't worry about it, but it was way too expensive to just toss away. It's also been a really good pan up until it tried to kill me.
I guess we'll just see what happens.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Monday, June 01, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Ok, apparently I was wrong on all counts about my candy order from Japan.
Even though I specifically asked that they hold my entire order until everything was in, they sent part of my order early. That is why I have had two conformations from the company. At least it better be the case because the candy I originally wanted to order, the special, delicious candy that had to be special ordered, wasn't in the box that came today!
I will give you some advice. If you ever decide to order candy through the mail, don't order anything gummi or chocolate during warm months. I wasn't thinking about that when I placed my order, so some of my candy was completely melted when it got to me. BOO! I'm still going to eat it, damnit! I'll use a spoon if I have to! I'm not proud!
Of course, I'll be doing my regular candy reviews as soon as I can, but they will have to wait until the melty stuff solidifies again.
Even though I specifically asked that they hold my entire order until everything was in, they sent part of my order early. That is why I have had two conformations from the company. At least it better be the case because the candy I originally wanted to order, the special, delicious candy that had to be special ordered, wasn't in the box that came today!
I will give you some advice. If you ever decide to order candy through the mail, don't order anything gummi or chocolate during warm months. I wasn't thinking about that when I placed my order, so some of my candy was completely melted when it got to me. BOO! I'm still going to eat it, damnit! I'll use a spoon if I have to! I'm not proud!
Of course, I'll be doing my regular candy reviews as soon as I can, but they will have to wait until the melty stuff solidifies again.
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) I hate screws! Yesterday I had some very good intentions of fixing the signs on one of the exhibits on the museum floor. I'd been putting it off for a while, but realized I had to eventually get off the pot if I was ever going to get the thing fixed. I went downstairs and began to remove the screws from the sign frames (there are two that have to be replaced) and on each frame there is one screw that will NOT COME OFF! I stood there, hunched over the barrier, trying to unscrew the darned things, but they would not budge. I thought I was going to be able to get the things apart and upstairs in just a few minutes, but I ended up taking way longer than I needed and having to screw the stupid things back down again until I could scrounge up some tools that will allow me to hold the nut still while I turn the screw. How come Mr. Harris' shop class didn't prepare me for this frustration?! :) Meh, well, I at least learned to arc weld, so it wasn't a complete waste of time!
2) I almost passed out at my desk yesterday! Sometimes if I stretch a certain way, I think I pinch a nerve in my neck or something, because I get that "tingly face" and tunnel vision feeling that means things are about to go dark. Normally if I just sit still for a minute, I'm fine. Yesterday, however, I was dizzy and tingly for a long time after that. When things didn't get better right away, I thought maybe I was having a low blood sugar issue, so I ended up eating several of those embarrassingly-shaped Hannah Montana gummis that I had hidden in my desk, but that didn't work either. It took about two hours for me to feel normal again. I still don't know what was going on, but I hope that doesn't ever happen again! No, I'm not pregnant, so don't ask!
3) Scarlett Johannson, bless your heart. Stop singing. Seriously. I normally would never say something like that to anyone, but I'm trying to help you out.
4) I think I'm going to have a moral dilemma soon, and I need advice. I don't know what's going on at this point, so I'm not sure if I'll actually have the dilemma or not, but this is just in case. It's not serious, so don't get scared. OK, a couple of weeks ago I placed an order for some candy from a company in Japan. Shut up, it is candy you can't find anywhere in the US and even in Japan it has to be specially ordered from some region I've never heard of. I had a jones for it. Anyways, when they ran my credit card the first time, it was declined either because I had forgotten to add "SE" to the end of my billing address, or because it was an unusual transaction. They sent me a message about it, and I told them that I still wanted the order to be processed and asked what I should do to make it happen. I had already gone in and fixed the problem with my address, so I didn't think anything of it when I got another message on May 20th saying that my order had been processed and was being shipped. Me = Glad. A day later I got a message confirming that the box was being shipped and would be shipped to me (hopefully) in 7 to 10 days. Again, Me = Glad. So color me surprised when I got an identical message this morning saying that my order (same order #) is being processed and shipped. I thought maybe something from my original order had to be shipped separately from the first box, but then I remembered that the reason it's been taking so long to have it shipped in the first place is because they were waiting for part of my order to come in before they shipped in the first place. So I went to my account information on their website. In the order history, it shows the steps they take to get the package out of their hands, like, "We have packaged your order" and "We have printed a shipping label and mailed your package." I now have that same series of things entered twice on the same order history. At this point, I've got three different ideas about this: A) I don't know if I've been processed for two different orders, charged twice and am being sent two separate orders of the same things. B) I have been charged only once, but am possibly getting two separate orders of the same things. C) It's possible that the two different order conformations I got is a mistake and for some reason they sent my conformation again for the same package that they supposedly sent last week, or my original order wasn't actually shipped until today and the first set of conformation e-mails were sent by mistake.
Here is my possible dilemma: If "B" is the case and I do get the two packages, but wasn't charged for one of them, do I contact the company and see about sending one of the packages back, or do I keep it because it was not my mistake? On one hand, it's kind of a pain to deal with their customer service because we are 14 hours apart, and it can take up to two days to get any kind of answer from them if you have questions about anything. Even then, you usually get an automatic message of some kind instead of an actual reply. If "C" is the case, I'm afraid if I contact them at this point and tell them to cancel that second order, it's going to somehow screw up my original order, so I don't want to say anything until I know for sure what's going on. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll feel right keeping something that I didn't pay for. If it wasn't for the huge pain in the butt that comes with shipping a package internationally (and the almost surety that some, if not all, of the candy will ruined by the heat if they are shipped around for too long) it wouldn't even be an issue. However, who doesn't love free candy? I need some people to sit on one shoulder or another and tell me what they think I should do.
1) I hate screws! Yesterday I had some very good intentions of fixing the signs on one of the exhibits on the museum floor. I'd been putting it off for a while, but realized I had to eventually get off the pot if I was ever going to get the thing fixed. I went downstairs and began to remove the screws from the sign frames (there are two that have to be replaced) and on each frame there is one screw that will NOT COME OFF! I stood there, hunched over the barrier, trying to unscrew the darned things, but they would not budge. I thought I was going to be able to get the things apart and upstairs in just a few minutes, but I ended up taking way longer than I needed and having to screw the stupid things back down again until I could scrounge up some tools that will allow me to hold the nut still while I turn the screw. How come Mr. Harris' shop class didn't prepare me for this frustration?! :) Meh, well, I at least learned to arc weld, so it wasn't a complete waste of time!
2) I almost passed out at my desk yesterday! Sometimes if I stretch a certain way, I think I pinch a nerve in my neck or something, because I get that "tingly face" and tunnel vision feeling that means things are about to go dark. Normally if I just sit still for a minute, I'm fine. Yesterday, however, I was dizzy and tingly for a long time after that. When things didn't get better right away, I thought maybe I was having a low blood sugar issue, so I ended up eating several of those embarrassingly-shaped Hannah Montana gummis that I had hidden in my desk, but that didn't work either. It took about two hours for me to feel normal again. I still don't know what was going on, but I hope that doesn't ever happen again! No, I'm not pregnant, so don't ask!
3) Scarlett Johannson, bless your heart. Stop singing. Seriously. I normally would never say something like that to anyone, but I'm trying to help you out.
4) I think I'm going to have a moral dilemma soon, and I need advice. I don't know what's going on at this point, so I'm not sure if I'll actually have the dilemma or not, but this is just in case. It's not serious, so don't get scared. OK, a couple of weeks ago I placed an order for some candy from a company in Japan. Shut up, it is candy you can't find anywhere in the US and even in Japan it has to be specially ordered from some region I've never heard of. I had a jones for it. Anyways, when they ran my credit card the first time, it was declined either because I had forgotten to add "SE" to the end of my billing address, or because it was an unusual transaction. They sent me a message about it, and I told them that I still wanted the order to be processed and asked what I should do to make it happen. I had already gone in and fixed the problem with my address, so I didn't think anything of it when I got another message on May 20th saying that my order had been processed and was being shipped. Me = Glad. A day later I got a message confirming that the box was being shipped and would be shipped to me (hopefully) in 7 to 10 days. Again, Me = Glad. So color me surprised when I got an identical message this morning saying that my order (same order #) is being processed and shipped. I thought maybe something from my original order had to be shipped separately from the first box, but then I remembered that the reason it's been taking so long to have it shipped in the first place is because they were waiting for part of my order to come in before they shipped in the first place. So I went to my account information on their website. In the order history, it shows the steps they take to get the package out of their hands, like, "We have packaged your order" and "We have printed a shipping label and mailed your package." I now have that same series of things entered twice on the same order history. At this point, I've got three different ideas about this: A) I don't know if I've been processed for two different orders, charged twice and am being sent two separate orders of the same things. B) I have been charged only once, but am possibly getting two separate orders of the same things. C) It's possible that the two different order conformations I got is a mistake and for some reason they sent my conformation again for the same package that they supposedly sent last week, or my original order wasn't actually shipped until today and the first set of conformation e-mails were sent by mistake.
Here is my possible dilemma: If "B" is the case and I do get the two packages, but wasn't charged for one of them, do I contact the company and see about sending one of the packages back, or do I keep it because it was not my mistake? On one hand, it's kind of a pain to deal with their customer service because we are 14 hours apart, and it can take up to two days to get any kind of answer from them if you have questions about anything. Even then, you usually get an automatic message of some kind instead of an actual reply. If "C" is the case, I'm afraid if I contact them at this point and tell them to cancel that second order, it's going to somehow screw up my original order, so I don't want to say anything until I know for sure what's going on. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll feel right keeping something that I didn't pay for. If it wasn't for the huge pain in the butt that comes with shipping a package internationally (and the almost surety that some, if not all, of the candy will ruined by the heat if they are shipped around for too long) it wouldn't even be an issue. However, who doesn't love free candy? I need some people to sit on one shoulder or another and tell me what they think I should do.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Oy.
Seriously, I had the hardest time waking up this morning. I think I hit the snooze button 42 times before I had to force myself out of bed. I didn't stay up very late or anything, so it must be that I'm getting old. :( I knew it would happen one of these days.
I was *ahem* given the day off yesterday. I offered to come in, because that whole "getting paid" thing is fun for me, but my boss told me to stay home and have a holiday. I was nice, although not nearly as productive as I had hoped. Well, we did do some laundry, mowed the lawn and planted a tree (which I'm afraid I might have killed) but we spent the rest of the day watching old Dr. Who episodes and taking naps! I've also got a game of the Sims 2 going, and it had taken over my PC for a while. Quite frankly, I enjoyed the laziness of it all!
I think I actually had something to write about this morning, but I can't remember what it was at the moment. I'll be back later when I remember, or rather if I do. Maybe. This getting old thing is rough. :)
Seriously, I had the hardest time waking up this morning. I think I hit the snooze button 42 times before I had to force myself out of bed. I didn't stay up very late or anything, so it must be that I'm getting old. :( I knew it would happen one of these days.
I was *ahem* given the day off yesterday. I offered to come in, because that whole "getting paid" thing is fun for me, but my boss told me to stay home and have a holiday. I was nice, although not nearly as productive as I had hoped. Well, we did do some laundry, mowed the lawn and planted a tree (which I'm afraid I might have killed) but we spent the rest of the day watching old Dr. Who episodes and taking naps! I've also got a game of the Sims 2 going, and it had taken over my PC for a while. Quite frankly, I enjoyed the laziness of it all!
I think I actually had something to write about this morning, but I can't remember what it was at the moment. I'll be back later when I remember, or rather if I do. Maybe. This getting old thing is rough. :)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
I need a new pair of shoes.
The other day I ordered a dress online, and I didn't realize at the time that I didn't have a suitable pair of shoes to match it! Ok, well, that's not completely the truth. I do have a pair of shoes that look fine with the dress, but they don't want to stay on my feet. I literally have to tie them on, and they aren't the kind of shoes with laces! I actually have to find a ribbon or something to attach around the back of the strap and tie that around my ankle, and I STILL wobble around like a new born giraffe. It's not at all graceful.
You know, I have misshapen, Ewok feet, and trying to find decent shoes that I can wear is a nightmare. It isn't that I can't find shoes that fit exactly, but I need shoes that won't pitch me over sideways or deform my toes for life. A) I can't wear pointy toed shoes. Not only are they ugly, my toes are almost all the same length, so my actual foot stops way before the end of the shoe, and therefore I have all this extra shoe to trip over when I walk. B) I can't wear narrow shoes, because my feet are too wide for them. C) I can't have super skinny heels on my shoes because I have no balance and I have actually snapped the heels off of a pair I really liked just by standing on them. D) I can't wear really high heels, because let's face it, I'm not a dainty woman. That would be like making a hippo walk on it's tip-toes. It might be able to walk a few feet like that, but it isn't something that she'd want to do for any length of time.
So, what I was looking for was a reasonable sized heel, dark brown, relatively comfortable shoe that would not look weird with my dress. That shouldn't be that hard to find, right?
I went to DSW to look for them because I figured that in an entire "warehouse" of shoes, I'd be able to find something easily. I had never been there before, so I was actually dazzled by the number of shoes on display. However, it wasn't long before I realized that most of the shoes weren't for me. In fact, I'm not sure those shoes were really suitable for anyone. I mean, sure, there were sneakers, flip-flops and sandals, but the dress shoes were kind of ridiculous. Seriously, I think shoes can say a lot about a person, but the majority of the shoes I saw either said:
I spank people for a living!
THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't want to come across as either type of person, so I was out of luck.
I wondered through the aisles for about 45 minutes, looking and re-looking at different things until I found something that even remotely looked like something I could wear. You know what? They didn't have my size. Not only that, but I couldn't even find an employee to ask if maybe they had some in the back. BONED! So I walked out of a giant shoe store sans shoes.
I'm sure I'll find something at some point, but thus far I'm not impressed by this season's offerings of shoes. If not, I'm just going to have to find color coordinated bungee cords to strap my other shoes onto my feet. Sexy.
The other day I ordered a dress online, and I didn't realize at the time that I didn't have a suitable pair of shoes to match it! Ok, well, that's not completely the truth. I do have a pair of shoes that look fine with the dress, but they don't want to stay on my feet. I literally have to tie them on, and they aren't the kind of shoes with laces! I actually have to find a ribbon or something to attach around the back of the strap and tie that around my ankle, and I STILL wobble around like a new born giraffe. It's not at all graceful.
You know, I have misshapen, Ewok feet, and trying to find decent shoes that I can wear is a nightmare. It isn't that I can't find shoes that fit exactly, but I need shoes that won't pitch me over sideways or deform my toes for life. A) I can't wear pointy toed shoes. Not only are they ugly, my toes are almost all the same length, so my actual foot stops way before the end of the shoe, and therefore I have all this extra shoe to trip over when I walk. B) I can't wear narrow shoes, because my feet are too wide for them. C) I can't have super skinny heels on my shoes because I have no balance and I have actually snapped the heels off of a pair I really liked just by standing on them. D) I can't wear really high heels, because let's face it, I'm not a dainty woman. That would be like making a hippo walk on it's tip-toes. It might be able to walk a few feet like that, but it isn't something that she'd want to do for any length of time.
So, what I was looking for was a reasonable sized heel, dark brown, relatively comfortable shoe that would not look weird with my dress. That shouldn't be that hard to find, right?
I went to DSW to look for them because I figured that in an entire "warehouse" of shoes, I'd be able to find something easily. I had never been there before, so I was actually dazzled by the number of shoes on display. However, it wasn't long before I realized that most of the shoes weren't for me. In fact, I'm not sure those shoes were really suitable for anyone. I mean, sure, there were sneakers, flip-flops and sandals, but the dress shoes were kind of ridiculous. Seriously, I think shoes can say a lot about a person, but the majority of the shoes I saw either said:
I spank people for a living!or
THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!I didn't want to come across as either type of person, so I was out of luck.
I wondered through the aisles for about 45 minutes, looking and re-looking at different things until I found something that even remotely looked like something I could wear. You know what? They didn't have my size. Not only that, but I couldn't even find an employee to ask if maybe they had some in the back. BONED! So I walked out of a giant shoe store sans shoes.
I'm sure I'll find something at some point, but thus far I'm not impressed by this season's offerings of shoes. If not, I'm just going to have to find color coordinated bungee cords to strap my other shoes onto my feet. Sexy.
Monday, May 18, 2009
MONDAY'S RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
Note: I know that there have been a lot of the "Random Acts" lately, but my life has become less dynamic of late. I'm not just being lazy! :)
1) It's official, I'm socially retarded. Last night we had 2 Mormon guys visit our church during the evening service. I'm not exactly sure why they were there, but since I saw them give one of their Temple cards to an elderly member of our church, I doubt they were there to be converted. However, I digress. I was feeling rather welcoming, so during our shaking-hands-time, I walked over to tell them hello. The first guy shook my hand and said "How's it going?" Instead of saying "fine" or "good" I just put on my big smile and said, "HI!" I don't know why my brain decided to lock up then, but I didn't have time to say anything other than that before I got to the other guy to shake his hand. I'm sure they didn't realize I felt like an idiot, but I was embarrassed. After church, I just happened to be standing near them before I walked out of the sanctuary, and I decided to make up for my earlier gaffe. I walked over and said, "I'm really glad you could be here." and one of the guys shook my hand and said thank you. Then I said "I hope you have a good weeken... Oh, wait, I almost said weekend, but that's over. Have a good week, I mean." They just smiled and I took that opportunity to walk away. My guess is that as I walked away they were wondering why someone let the special-needs chick off of her harness. Ugh. I'm never speaking to strangers again.
2) I also embarrassed myself this morning at the gas station. When I pulled up to the pump, I realized that I had somehow parked on the wrong side of where my gas tank is. I never do that anymore. Seriously, I've had the car forever, and I think I really only had that problem when I first got the car a couple of years ago! So I got back in and pulled over to another tank, and when I got out, I was STILL parked with the wrong side of the car facing the pump. In a fit of frustration, I jumped up and down and let out a string of what I can only describe as Yosemite Sam type mumblings, and then I looked up to see a man peering at me over the pump. "Park on the wrong side?" he says. I babbled something and jumped into the car again to finally get to a pump on the right side of my car. This time I made it. So, not only did I embarrass myself in front of a random stranger, I also parked at a pump on the wrong side of my car, not once but twice. This doesn't bode well for the rest of my Monday!
3) I went to see "Star Trek" with Kenny and Lauren on Friday night! We had a great time. Well, at least I did, anyways. They are both much too polite to say they didn't have fun, so I'm going to speak for us all and assume that we did! :) Kenny and I have gone together to see all of the Star Trek movies that have come out since we met (except for Nemesis, but it sucked so neither of us count it) so we were carrying on with our tradition. Lauren had never been with us before, so she got to experience the sheer power of our combined dorkatude when we see a Trek movie together. The movie was much easier to see on a regular screen, and I didn't feel like vomiting this time due to the motion of the ships in the battle scenes. Good times!
More later. Maybe.
Note: I know that there have been a lot of the "Random Acts" lately, but my life has become less dynamic of late. I'm not just being lazy! :)
1) It's official, I'm socially retarded. Last night we had 2 Mormon guys visit our church during the evening service. I'm not exactly sure why they were there, but since I saw them give one of their Temple cards to an elderly member of our church, I doubt they were there to be converted. However, I digress. I was feeling rather welcoming, so during our shaking-hands-time, I walked over to tell them hello. The first guy shook my hand and said "How's it going?" Instead of saying "fine" or "good" I just put on my big smile and said, "HI!" I don't know why my brain decided to lock up then, but I didn't have time to say anything other than that before I got to the other guy to shake his hand. I'm sure they didn't realize I felt like an idiot, but I was embarrassed. After church, I just happened to be standing near them before I walked out of the sanctuary, and I decided to make up for my earlier gaffe. I walked over and said, "I'm really glad you could be here." and one of the guys shook my hand and said thank you. Then I said "I hope you have a good weeken... Oh, wait, I almost said weekend, but that's over. Have a good week, I mean." They just smiled and I took that opportunity to walk away. My guess is that as I walked away they were wondering why someone let the special-needs chick off of her harness. Ugh. I'm never speaking to strangers again.
2) I also embarrassed myself this morning at the gas station. When I pulled up to the pump, I realized that I had somehow parked on the wrong side of where my gas tank is. I never do that anymore. Seriously, I've had the car forever, and I think I really only had that problem when I first got the car a couple of years ago! So I got back in and pulled over to another tank, and when I got out, I was STILL parked with the wrong side of the car facing the pump. In a fit of frustration, I jumped up and down and let out a string of what I can only describe as Yosemite Sam type mumblings, and then I looked up to see a man peering at me over the pump. "Park on the wrong side?" he says. I babbled something and jumped into the car again to finally get to a pump on the right side of my car. This time I made it. So, not only did I embarrass myself in front of a random stranger, I also parked at a pump on the wrong side of my car, not once but twice. This doesn't bode well for the rest of my Monday!
3) I went to see "Star Trek" with Kenny and Lauren on Friday night! We had a great time. Well, at least I did, anyways. They are both much too polite to say they didn't have fun, so I'm going to speak for us all and assume that we did! :) Kenny and I have gone together to see all of the Star Trek movies that have come out since we met (except for Nemesis, but it sucked so neither of us count it) so we were carrying on with our tradition. Lauren had never been with us before, so she got to experience the sheer power of our combined dorkatude when we see a Trek movie together. The movie was much easier to see on a regular screen, and I didn't feel like vomiting this time due to the motion of the ships in the battle scenes. Good times!
More later. Maybe.
Friday, May 15, 2009
visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or website vertaling duits?
...and miles to go before I sleep.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
CHARMING
Prologue: I wore my old charm bracelet on Sunday for the first time in many years. I don't know if I've even worn it since I've been married, which may be why Steve asked me about one of my charms. It reminded me of this story.
When I was in the 10th grade, I was voted "Class Favorite" and also voted in as a class officer (I don't remember which one, though.) These were mainly honorary titles that didn't matter very much except that you got your picture in the yearbook on the opening page for your grade section. At the time, I was thrilled, of course, because who wouldn't want to be everyone's favorite?! I was also kind of confused. Seriously, normally I wasn't the kind of person to have been voted anything, except maybe for class weirdo. I'm not kidding. Go ask my classmates, I'll wait...
*waits patiently*
See? Told ya.
Anyways, later that year for my birthday or Christmas, my mom got me two charms for my charm bracelet that had those two uh...achievements (probably not the best word, but you get what I'm trying to say) engraved on them. I was tickled over it all, and I wore them proudly, as only an adolescent and rather naive girl could do. It's not that I flaunted the fact that I was apparently secretly loved by my classmates, but I didn't mind being reminded of that fact myself. Shut up! :)
I didn't wear my bracelet often, because I'm clumsy and I break things. Since the bracelet originally belonged to my mother when she was a teenager, I didn't want to destroy it, so I usually only wore it on special occasions. When I became a senior and began to dress up more often (can't remember why that was) the bracelet became something I wore more often.
One day while I was wearing it, and talking to one of my classmates, he took notice of the charms and we started talking about them. When we got to those two charms, I happened to mention that I had no idea how or why I was voted as a class favorite or class officer, because I didn't become "popular" and I had even heard someone once say "how did SHE get voted as THAT?" (Yeah, nice, right?) The guy I was talking to kind of looked embarrassed and admitted to me that in the 10th grade he had a crush on me, and since he was asked to help count votes he fixed the numbers so that I came out the winner.
Oof. Yeah, humble pie is incredibly bitter. :)
I have to admit that it was an incredibly sweet gesture, but it would have been nicer never to have known that the whole thing wasn't real. I mean, I appreciated his honesty, but I was left feeling kind of dumb. Even now I feel slightly guilty that, even though in reality they were stupid, meaningless titles to hold, that the person who really deserved it got cheated. For me it was an unexpected surprise, for some of those other girls it was probably way more important.
So there it is the story of the mysterious, discordant charms on my bracelet, and my one shining moment of "popularity!"
Prologue: I wore my old charm bracelet on Sunday for the first time in many years. I don't know if I've even worn it since I've been married, which may be why Steve asked me about one of my charms. It reminded me of this story.
When I was in the 10th grade, I was voted "Class Favorite" and also voted in as a class officer (I don't remember which one, though.) These were mainly honorary titles that didn't matter very much except that you got your picture in the yearbook on the opening page for your grade section. At the time, I was thrilled, of course, because who wouldn't want to be everyone's favorite?! I was also kind of confused. Seriously, normally I wasn't the kind of person to have been voted anything, except maybe for class weirdo. I'm not kidding. Go ask my classmates, I'll wait...
*waits patiently*
See? Told ya.
Anyways, later that year for my birthday or Christmas, my mom got me two charms for my charm bracelet that had those two uh...achievements (probably not the best word, but you get what I'm trying to say) engraved on them. I was tickled over it all, and I wore them proudly, as only an adolescent and rather naive girl could do. It's not that I flaunted the fact that I was apparently secretly loved by my classmates, but I didn't mind being reminded of that fact myself. Shut up! :)
I didn't wear my bracelet often, because I'm clumsy and I break things. Since the bracelet originally belonged to my mother when she was a teenager, I didn't want to destroy it, so I usually only wore it on special occasions. When I became a senior and began to dress up more often (can't remember why that was) the bracelet became something I wore more often.
One day while I was wearing it, and talking to one of my classmates, he took notice of the charms and we started talking about them. When we got to those two charms, I happened to mention that I had no idea how or why I was voted as a class favorite or class officer, because I didn't become "popular" and I had even heard someone once say "how did SHE get voted as THAT?" (Yeah, nice, right?) The guy I was talking to kind of looked embarrassed and admitted to me that in the 10th grade he had a crush on me, and since he was asked to help count votes he fixed the numbers so that I came out the winner.
Oof. Yeah, humble pie is incredibly bitter. :)
I have to admit that it was an incredibly sweet gesture, but it would have been nicer never to have known that the whole thing wasn't real. I mean, I appreciated his honesty, but I was left feeling kind of dumb. Even now I feel slightly guilty that, even though in reality they were stupid, meaningless titles to hold, that the person who really deserved it got cheated. For me it was an unexpected surprise, for some of those other girls it was probably way more important.
So there it is the story of the mysterious, discordant charms on my bracelet, and my one shining moment of "popularity!"
Monday, May 11, 2009
EVEN MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) Mother's day went well this year. I had bought her a gift that I realized too late would be hard for Mom to "get", so as a secondary gift we got her a really beautiful purple-blue hydrangea plant. Well, it was beautiful when we bought it, it was beautiful on Saturday, however, on Sunday it was all floopy. Seriously, I can't even babysit a plant for two days without harming it. I hope she's able to make it unfloopy! This was also the first time we had seen her new house since it was all finished, and it was really nice! I liked it very much, but it hasn't reached the "homey" stage yet. It's a lot smaller than the other house, but I'm sure she'll be glad not to have to clean as much.
2) I had to go have blood drawn this morning for a doctor's appointment later this month. That was lots and lots of fun, let me tell you. It wasn't that the lab visit was complicated or anything, but I hate being pierced with needles. When the nurse stuck me with the needle, it felt like it went directly into my spinal cord. How can a needle that was placed in my inner elbow reach all the way to my spine? I don't know, but that nurse managed to do it. Yipes. She also wrapped my arm so tight that it cut circulation off to my hand. When I managed to rip the bandage off (quite a chore) it left a hickey-looking thing on the inside of my arm. Very attractive! :)
3) My boss is still rearranging my office, and I still don't know why. He said it was so that I would have more room to manuver, but it's my belief that he is just a bit OCD or something. Granted, my office looks nicer, but it's a pain not to know where some of my stuff is. It's like someone coming into your bedroom and cleaning it for you. I mean, it's nice that someone else took the time to do it, but then you realize they've thrown something important away, or broken your expensive bottle of perfume and then it's not so nice. Hopefully his fever has passed for a bit.
1) Mother's day went well this year. I had bought her a gift that I realized too late would be hard for Mom to "get", so as a secondary gift we got her a really beautiful purple-blue hydrangea plant. Well, it was beautiful when we bought it, it was beautiful on Saturday, however, on Sunday it was all floopy. Seriously, I can't even babysit a plant for two days without harming it. I hope she's able to make it unfloopy! This was also the first time we had seen her new house since it was all finished, and it was really nice! I liked it very much, but it hasn't reached the "homey" stage yet. It's a lot smaller than the other house, but I'm sure she'll be glad not to have to clean as much.
2) I had to go have blood drawn this morning for a doctor's appointment later this month. That was lots and lots of fun, let me tell you. It wasn't that the lab visit was complicated or anything, but I hate being pierced with needles. When the nurse stuck me with the needle, it felt like it went directly into my spinal cord. How can a needle that was placed in my inner elbow reach all the way to my spine? I don't know, but that nurse managed to do it. Yipes. She also wrapped my arm so tight that it cut circulation off to my hand. When I managed to rip the bandage off (quite a chore) it left a hickey-looking thing on the inside of my arm. Very attractive! :)
3) My boss is still rearranging my office, and I still don't know why. He said it was so that I would have more room to manuver, but it's my belief that he is just a bit OCD or something. Granted, my office looks nicer, but it's a pain not to know where some of my stuff is. It's like someone coming into your bedroom and cleaning it for you. I mean, it's nice that someone else took the time to do it, but then you realize they've thrown something important away, or broken your expensive bottle of perfume and then it's not so nice. Hopefully his fever has passed for a bit.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Operation Low Maintenance isn't going so well for me as of yet. :)
You know I'm not a dainty person. I mean, I wish I was, but God had other plans for me in that department. However, ever since I was in the 6th grade and my parents let me start wearing makeup, I've always liked getting up in the morning and getting ready to go places. I know that sounds disgustingly girly, but it's just how I roll.
Anyways, I've been trying to streamline my getting-ready situation lately because A) who do I really have to impress up here and B) Steve and I carpool almost every day, and it sucks for him when I'm running behind. Since I've gotten my new haircut, I've realized I don't have to fuss with it as much as I did my longer hair. In fact, yesterday I didn't even blow dry it! It looked fine without the extra work! I thought that things would be much easier! By the time my hair dried completely, I realized something bad about my hair. My father had curly hair growing up, and even though I inherited stick-straight Native American hair from his side of the family, I also inherited one patch of hair that curls straight outward in what I've come to regard as a "bird." When my hair is long, no problem. However, now that it's much shorter, if I don't blow-dry or curl the bird into submission, it looks like my hair is trying to take off. *SIGH*
So, until I can figure out how to tame the bird on my head, I'm not going to be as streamlined as I had hoped. Oh well...I'll just have to muddle through being girly. :)
You know I'm not a dainty person. I mean, I wish I was, but God had other plans for me in that department. However, ever since I was in the 6th grade and my parents let me start wearing makeup, I've always liked getting up in the morning and getting ready to go places. I know that sounds disgustingly girly, but it's just how I roll.
Anyways, I've been trying to streamline my getting-ready situation lately because A) who do I really have to impress up here and B) Steve and I carpool almost every day, and it sucks for him when I'm running behind. Since I've gotten my new haircut, I've realized I don't have to fuss with it as much as I did my longer hair. In fact, yesterday I didn't even blow dry it! It looked fine without the extra work! I thought that things would be much easier! By the time my hair dried completely, I realized something bad about my hair. My father had curly hair growing up, and even though I inherited stick-straight Native American hair from his side of the family, I also inherited one patch of hair that curls straight outward in what I've come to regard as a "bird." When my hair is long, no problem. However, now that it's much shorter, if I don't blow-dry or curl the bird into submission, it looks like my hair is trying to take off. *SIGH*
So, until I can figure out how to tame the bird on my head, I'm not going to be as streamlined as I had hoped. Oh well...I'll just have to muddle through being girly. :)
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
MORE RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) I hate oysters. I hate them. They taste bad and they feel weird when your chewing them. If you ever see me out someplace, thoroughly enjoying a big platter of oysters, it's probably a pod person and you should kill it with fire!
2) I got invited to my old high school's annual FFA banquet! It'll be great to see Mr. and Mrs. Harris again. I haven't seen them in about 3 years or more. I believe he'll be retiring next year, so I'm going to try and make it out there. I just hope that I'm not expected to wear my official dress. I dare say it would be a tight squeeze! It's a shame, of course, because I look good in National Blue corduroy! Don't laugh, you know I do! :)
3) This morning I had Greek yogurt and honey for breakfast, and it was really delicious! I was a little scared I'd hate it and wind up hungry all morning, but happily I was wrong. If you like yogurt, I advise you to try it Greek style. It's far better than any other kind I've ever had!
4) I wish I was at the beach right now. I'd settle for being there even if I couldn't swim or if it were rainy. I need a change of scenery! Yeah, I know, I just went to Texas, but to be fair...every place in the south looks pretty much the same!
5) I'm currently listening to a Jodi Picoult (?) book called "19 Minutes" and it's very good. It's about a Columbine style school shooting and the events that led to it as well as the aftermath. I'm not that far into it yet, but it's really a good book. If you like to read fiction, I recommend this one.
6) Oh, and speaking of reading fiction! If you know me well at all, you know my favorite author is Stephen King. Granted, his more recent books haven't been as scary as they once were, but I'm giving the guy a pass on that because he almost died. I'm pretty sure being run over by a van is a lot scarier than a sewer monster! Anyways, I think that I have finally found the creepiest part of any book he has ever written! I can't really explain it here, because I'd basically have to write it word for word, but if you ever pick up "Pet Semetary," read the part where the old neighbor, Mr. Crandall, tells about the soldier that was killed in action and buried in the cursed ground beyond the pet cemetery. I've read almost every book by King, and that one particular story is the one that STILL scares me every time!
1) I hate oysters. I hate them. They taste bad and they feel weird when your chewing them. If you ever see me out someplace, thoroughly enjoying a big platter of oysters, it's probably a pod person and you should kill it with fire!
2) I got invited to my old high school's annual FFA banquet! It'll be great to see Mr. and Mrs. Harris again. I haven't seen them in about 3 years or more. I believe he'll be retiring next year, so I'm going to try and make it out there. I just hope that I'm not expected to wear my official dress. I dare say it would be a tight squeeze! It's a shame, of course, because I look good in National Blue corduroy! Don't laugh, you know I do! :)
3) This morning I had Greek yogurt and honey for breakfast, and it was really delicious! I was a little scared I'd hate it and wind up hungry all morning, but happily I was wrong. If you like yogurt, I advise you to try it Greek style. It's far better than any other kind I've ever had!
4) I wish I was at the beach right now. I'd settle for being there even if I couldn't swim or if it were rainy. I need a change of scenery! Yeah, I know, I just went to Texas, but to be fair...every place in the south looks pretty much the same!
5) I'm currently listening to a Jodi Picoult (?) book called "19 Minutes" and it's very good. It's about a Columbine style school shooting and the events that led to it as well as the aftermath. I'm not that far into it yet, but it's really a good book. If you like to read fiction, I recommend this one.
6) Oh, and speaking of reading fiction! If you know me well at all, you know my favorite author is Stephen King. Granted, his more recent books haven't been as scary as they once were, but I'm giving the guy a pass on that because he almost died. I'm pretty sure being run over by a van is a lot scarier than a sewer monster! Anyways, I think that I have finally found the creepiest part of any book he has ever written! I can't really explain it here, because I'd basically have to write it word for word, but if you ever pick up "Pet Semetary," read the part where the old neighbor, Mr. Crandall, tells about the soldier that was killed in action and buried in the cursed ground beyond the pet cemetery. I've read almost every book by King, and that one particular story is the one that STILL scares me every time!
Monday, May 04, 2009
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) I got to see the test run of Star Trek last night! I really, really liked it! It wasn't what I was expecting, and I'm fairly sure that a lot of the more serious Trek fans will commit seppuku when they see it, but if you can see it for what it is (a reboot of the original story) I think you'd enjoy it! I do have one word of advice, if you are going to see it in IMAX, specifically an IMAX Dome, the first 10 minutes or so are kind of vomitus, so be careful. There is a lot of J.J. Abrams trademark "shaky-cam" shots. After the initial battle scene, it gets easier to focus. It was also funny in parts, and the writing was very clever. It was really good! Two thumbs up! I'll definately see it again!
2) It rained in our offices again last night, but luckily (or unluckily if you work on the other end of the hall from me) the water stayed out of my office. It DID leak on the other side of my wall and also in my boss' office, but my supplies live to fight another day! They have a carpet dryer in front of my office door, and it's driving me insane because it's so loud. Imagine sitting behind an airplane engine and trying to work!
3) Speaking of rain, we got over 5 inches this weekend and I think our dogs are mildewed. Every time we'd let them out for even a little while, the rain would start back up again. I don't think they've been properly dry since last Thursday, even after being in the house a lot during the weekend. Butler's fur looked like Rod Stewart's hair this morning because it was all spiked up. Bear has shorter fur, so he only had spikes on his head. Poor boys. I'm hoping the rain will hold off for a while today so that they can dry off a bit and pee in peace!
4) Speaking of hair! I got my hair chopped off yesterday. I've never tried Mastercuts (shut up, they're cheap!) on a Sunday, and I don't think I'll try it again. It wasn't a terrible wait, but it was much longer than I'm used to. The poor girl who cut my hair had a migraine, and she was barely able to stand. I was scared when she told me about her headache, because I know from experience that a migraine will freak your stuff up. I kept imagining her vision blurring and me walking out with a mohawk or something (I pity the fool!). Surprisingly, my hair turned out good, or so people are telling me. It's possible they are just being nice, I guess. It's shorter than I thought it would be, but that's my own fault for the hairstyle I picked out. It's called an angled bob and the back is shorter than the front. I've had a very similar haircut before, but this one is much shorter. It feels weird in the back. Also, when I tuck the longer front bits behind my ears, I look even more like Velma from Scooby Doo than usual. Jinkies, Y'all! I'm hoping I get used to it in the next few days.
5) Mom and Grant moved into their new house this past weekend. I'm excited about seeing it with carpet, furniture and light fixtures. They picked a really lovely place to build it. I'm going to miss visiting the house I grew up in, though. Oh well. We've all got to move on at some point, right? I was just hoping I'd be in my 80's before that was necessary! :)
1) I got to see the test run of Star Trek last night! I really, really liked it! It wasn't what I was expecting, and I'm fairly sure that a lot of the more serious Trek fans will commit seppuku when they see it, but if you can see it for what it is (a reboot of the original story) I think you'd enjoy it! I do have one word of advice, if you are going to see it in IMAX, specifically an IMAX Dome, the first 10 minutes or so are kind of vomitus, so be careful. There is a lot of J.J. Abrams trademark "shaky-cam" shots. After the initial battle scene, it gets easier to focus. It was also funny in parts, and the writing was very clever. It was really good! Two thumbs up! I'll definately see it again!
2) It rained in our offices again last night, but luckily (or unluckily if you work on the other end of the hall from me) the water stayed out of my office. It DID leak on the other side of my wall and also in my boss' office, but my supplies live to fight another day! They have a carpet dryer in front of my office door, and it's driving me insane because it's so loud. Imagine sitting behind an airplane engine and trying to work!
3) Speaking of rain, we got over 5 inches this weekend and I think our dogs are mildewed. Every time we'd let them out for even a little while, the rain would start back up again. I don't think they've been properly dry since last Thursday, even after being in the house a lot during the weekend. Butler's fur looked like Rod Stewart's hair this morning because it was all spiked up. Bear has shorter fur, so he only had spikes on his head. Poor boys. I'm hoping the rain will hold off for a while today so that they can dry off a bit and pee in peace!
4) Speaking of hair! I got my hair chopped off yesterday. I've never tried Mastercuts (shut up, they're cheap!) on a Sunday, and I don't think I'll try it again. It wasn't a terrible wait, but it was much longer than I'm used to. The poor girl who cut my hair had a migraine, and she was barely able to stand. I was scared when she told me about her headache, because I know from experience that a migraine will freak your stuff up. I kept imagining her vision blurring and me walking out with a mohawk or something (I pity the fool!). Surprisingly, my hair turned out good, or so people are telling me. It's possible they are just being nice, I guess. It's shorter than I thought it would be, but that's my own fault for the hairstyle I picked out. It's called an angled bob and the back is shorter than the front. I've had a very similar haircut before, but this one is much shorter. It feels weird in the back. Also, when I tuck the longer front bits behind my ears, I look even more like Velma from Scooby Doo than usual. Jinkies, Y'all! I'm hoping I get used to it in the next few days.
5) Mom and Grant moved into their new house this past weekend. I'm excited about seeing it with carpet, furniture and light fixtures. They picked a really lovely place to build it. I'm going to miss visiting the house I grew up in, though. Oh well. We've all got to move on at some point, right? I was just hoping I'd be in my 80's before that was necessary! :)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
I had the strangest dream the other night. Lucky for you I don't remember all of the details, or you'd have to read about it in chapters! However, I do remember the couple of things about the dream that made it so strange:
A) The dream kept repeating itself, by which I mean the "story" in my dream would play out and then start again, over and over. It wasn't exactly the same every time, but it was more like I'd go through it and each time it would repeat itself, I learned something new that I used to change something the next time it started over. Groundhog Day Dream! :)
B) I was dead. Yup, I was an animated corpse. It wasn't bad at first, but each time the "story" cycled around again, I'd be in a worse state of decay. It didn't have anything to do with the actual dream, or affect it in any way, but I just remember looking at my arms and thinking "well, this is kind of gross!" I was a highly-functioning dead person.
I always wonder if my dreams mean anything, and sometimes I believe they do. I just don't like to think about what THIS kind of dream signifies! Oh, and in case you are curious, it wasn't even a "Chocolate Nightmare" like the others I've had. This time it was a "Praline Nightmare." Steve bought me one of those real, southern, cookie-sized pralines while we were in New Orleans and I didn't get around to eating it until after we got home. I'm guessing I shouldn't eat sweets before going to bed from now on!
A) The dream kept repeating itself, by which I mean the "story" in my dream would play out and then start again, over and over. It wasn't exactly the same every time, but it was more like I'd go through it and each time it would repeat itself, I learned something new that I used to change something the next time it started over. Groundhog Day Dream! :)
B) I was dead. Yup, I was an animated corpse. It wasn't bad at first, but each time the "story" cycled around again, I'd be in a worse state of decay. It didn't have anything to do with the actual dream, or affect it in any way, but I just remember looking at my arms and thinking "well, this is kind of gross!" I was a highly-functioning dead person.
I always wonder if my dreams mean anything, and sometimes I believe they do. I just don't like to think about what THIS kind of dream signifies! Oh, and in case you are curious, it wasn't even a "Chocolate Nightmare" like the others I've had. This time it was a "Praline Nightmare." Steve bought me one of those real, southern, cookie-sized pralines while we were in New Orleans and I didn't get around to eating it until after we got home. I'm guessing I shouldn't eat sweets before going to bed from now on!
Monday, April 27, 2009
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) I am sunburnt! Do you know what that means? I actually went outside! :) Saturday, Steve and I spent a great deal of the day doing outside work. We mowed the lawn, washed my car (and I had forgotten what color Lois actually is under the dirt) and pressure washed the sidewalk. I had sprayed on some sunblock before we went outside, but I apparently missed some spots because my shoulders are red. It's funny to see me with tan lines. I have that lily-white, southern belle skin and all, you know. :) It was actually a nice day. We worked outside, then we grilled some tuna and veggies on the iron giant. The one lone spot of not-so-greatness was that I apparently got very dehydrated without realizing it, and spent the evening feeling kind of yucky. However, some popsicles and gatorate took care of it after a while. My sunburn is currently in the itchy stage, so I can only thank heaven that I had the foresight to wear pants!
2) Steve got me tickled at the grocery store and in church this weekend. Saturday we went to Fresh Market (which I love, but will someday cause me to go bankrupt) and in the pork section of the meat case they have a pig sculpted out of raw sausage and it has mini tomatoes for eyes. Normally I would probably think it was cute, but the eyes follow you as you walk by, and it is kind of creepy. It's like it's staring at you, taunting you, daring you to pull of a delicious chunk and eat it. I walked past it as usual, trying not to be creeped out, when Steve stopped and pointed to it. He asked me "Do you know what that is?" I said "A pig?" Steve said "No. That's the sausage that you'd save by switching to GEICO." I'm not quite sure why that was so funny to me, but it made me laugh. At church, our pastor's sermon was titled "Pirates" and the title, along with the text, was projected onto the screen before preaching actually started. While I was looking up Colossians 2, Steve leaned over and whispered "and next week, we'll learn about Ninjas!" I snorked in church. I hope it didn't disturb too many folks. :)
3) When I came to work Friday, my boss was in my office rearranging things. Now, my office is not some kind of inner sanctum, sacred to me and me alone. However, it's still my office. I'd like to think I have veto power of someone coming in and moving stuff out and around. Sam has been in a weird mood lately and has been cleaning and rearranging like mad. He says it's because they are having to revamp the way signs are being made and I'll need more room to have the things we are using. However, I have a whole room just off of my office for storage, so I'm not sure why he feels the need to come in and restructure. Oh well, better him cleaning my office than me, I suppose. I just wish I had some kind of say on where things go. I have a system, for heaven's sake! :)
4) Anyone have a "Hawaii" quarter I can have? I mean, I'll trade you another quarter for it, so it's not like I'm just asking for money or anything. It's the only quarter I don't have in my State Quarter book, and it's driving me crazy. Normally I'm not that OCD about things like this, but I have been doing so well about collecting them that I hate to have one missing at this stage. Also, not having that one quarter is also preventing me from adding the plastic insert that protects the others and keeps them from falling out of the page. Can a sista get a quarter? :)
5) Logan, my oldest nephew, turned 15 last week. He makes me feel so old! I was 16 when he was born, and I clearly remember thinking that when he got to be my age, I would be 32 years old. I also clearly remember thinking that 32 years old was a LONG way away. He got his permit and everything. Steve and I got him a keyring with his name, and "Slow Down" engraved on it (along with his cash) as a gift, and he actually seemed really happy about it. In fact, he jumped up and hugged both Steve and I and said thank you, which is something he's never done before. I mean, he always says "thank you", but he says it from his chair. After that something got in my eye and I needed a moment to get it out, so I'm not sure what happened after that. :)
1) I am sunburnt! Do you know what that means? I actually went outside! :) Saturday, Steve and I spent a great deal of the day doing outside work. We mowed the lawn, washed my car (and I had forgotten what color Lois actually is under the dirt) and pressure washed the sidewalk. I had sprayed on some sunblock before we went outside, but I apparently missed some spots because my shoulders are red. It's funny to see me with tan lines. I have that lily-white, southern belle skin and all, you know. :) It was actually a nice day. We worked outside, then we grilled some tuna and veggies on the iron giant. The one lone spot of not-so-greatness was that I apparently got very dehydrated without realizing it, and spent the evening feeling kind of yucky. However, some popsicles and gatorate took care of it after a while. My sunburn is currently in the itchy stage, so I can only thank heaven that I had the foresight to wear pants!
2) Steve got me tickled at the grocery store and in church this weekend. Saturday we went to Fresh Market (which I love, but will someday cause me to go bankrupt) and in the pork section of the meat case they have a pig sculpted out of raw sausage and it has mini tomatoes for eyes. Normally I would probably think it was cute, but the eyes follow you as you walk by, and it is kind of creepy. It's like it's staring at you, taunting you, daring you to pull of a delicious chunk and eat it. I walked past it as usual, trying not to be creeped out, when Steve stopped and pointed to it. He asked me "Do you know what that is?" I said "A pig?" Steve said "No. That's the sausage that you'd save by switching to GEICO." I'm not quite sure why that was so funny to me, but it made me laugh. At church, our pastor's sermon was titled "Pirates" and the title, along with the text, was projected onto the screen before preaching actually started. While I was looking up Colossians 2, Steve leaned over and whispered "and next week, we'll learn about Ninjas!" I snorked in church. I hope it didn't disturb too many folks. :)
3) When I came to work Friday, my boss was in my office rearranging things. Now, my office is not some kind of inner sanctum, sacred to me and me alone. However, it's still my office. I'd like to think I have veto power of someone coming in and moving stuff out and around. Sam has been in a weird mood lately and has been cleaning and rearranging like mad. He says it's because they are having to revamp the way signs are being made and I'll need more room to have the things we are using. However, I have a whole room just off of my office for storage, so I'm not sure why he feels the need to come in and restructure. Oh well, better him cleaning my office than me, I suppose. I just wish I had some kind of say on where things go. I have a system, for heaven's sake! :)
4) Anyone have a "Hawaii" quarter I can have? I mean, I'll trade you another quarter for it, so it's not like I'm just asking for money or anything. It's the only quarter I don't have in my State Quarter book, and it's driving me crazy. Normally I'm not that OCD about things like this, but I have been doing so well about collecting them that I hate to have one missing at this stage. Also, not having that one quarter is also preventing me from adding the plastic insert that protects the others and keeps them from falling out of the page. Can a sista get a quarter? :)
5) Logan, my oldest nephew, turned 15 last week. He makes me feel so old! I was 16 when he was born, and I clearly remember thinking that when he got to be my age, I would be 32 years old. I also clearly remember thinking that 32 years old was a LONG way away. He got his permit and everything. Steve and I got him a keyring with his name, and "Slow Down" engraved on it (along with his cash) as a gift, and he actually seemed really happy about it. In fact, he jumped up and hugged both Steve and I and said thank you, which is something he's never done before. I mean, he always says "thank you", but he says it from his chair. After that something got in my eye and I needed a moment to get it out, so I'm not sure what happened after that. :)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION
MONDAY 4/20: Everyone seems to be feeling better now, so no zombie plague! It took us a while to get ready to go, but we finally got on the road. There really isn't much to say about everything because we've basically just been driving all day. We finally stopped in Hattiesburg, MS to eat and find a place to sleep. I thought we were just going to drive on through, but 18 hours is a long time to drive! I'm not feeling very safe at the hotel they picked. I have an illogical fear of staying in places where the doors open to the outside. I don't know why, but I suppose that's why it's illogical. Anyways, I've come to the conclusion that Hattiesburg makes me aggressive. That probably sounds weird, but I can remember being here once before, and I had the same weird reaction of just feeling angry for no reason. This town has a bad aura. Or something...I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired and cranky. That sounds more like it! :)
Next there will be some sleeping, and tomorrow there will be home! Huzzah!
MONDAY 4/20: Everyone seems to be feeling better now, so no zombie plague! It took us a while to get ready to go, but we finally got on the road. There really isn't much to say about everything because we've basically just been driving all day. We finally stopped in Hattiesburg, MS to eat and find a place to sleep. I thought we were just going to drive on through, but 18 hours is a long time to drive! I'm not feeling very safe at the hotel they picked. I have an illogical fear of staying in places where the doors open to the outside. I don't know why, but I suppose that's why it's illogical. Anyways, I've come to the conclusion that Hattiesburg makes me aggressive. That probably sounds weird, but I can remember being here once before, and I had the same weird reaction of just feeling angry for no reason. This town has a bad aura. Or something...I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired and cranky. That sounds more like it! :)
Next there will be some sleeping, and tomorrow there will be home! Huzzah!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION
SUNDAY 4/19: I actually had to talk Grandma out of fixing another huge breakfast for us this morning. I managed to talk her into just letting us have cereal, but she made up her mind to make toast, coffee, orange juice, and chocolate milk. I'm going to weigh a thousand pounds before I leave here tomorrow!
We were supposed to go to church with Grandma this morning, but poor Mr. Lee isn't feeling any better, and then Steve came down with whatever illness it is. We have no clue what is wrong, but it's like the stomach flu without the fever. Then, right before time to get ready, Grandma said she wasn't feeling well. I doubt we'll go to church, because everyone's laying down but me.
So far I'm OK, but I'm just waiting until it gets me. I'm afraid! I don't want whatever it is and I wish none of them had it!
Ha! I just re-read that last part and it sounds like one of those movies where there is one lone survivor of some kind of zombie plague, and that was the last entry into the journal that someone finds years later after everyone else has disappeared. :)
Ooh, I hope it's not a zombie plague.
LATER: OK, strike that. Grandma and I went to church services. It didn't matter that I said I wanted to stay with Steve and Mr. Lee, apparently I will always be a 5 year old to some people. Unless I stoop to yelling at them (and quite frankly acting 5 years old) that is going to be the way things have to be. Fun stuff. At any rate, Grandma's church is huge. Since I was a new visitor, I also got a swag bag! Nice. We stopped and got Mr. Lee and Steve some Gatorade before we came home. I hope they're better tomorrow. I'd hate to think of them feeling this bad on a long drive.
SUNDAY 4/19: I actually had to talk Grandma out of fixing another huge breakfast for us this morning. I managed to talk her into just letting us have cereal, but she made up her mind to make toast, coffee, orange juice, and chocolate milk. I'm going to weigh a thousand pounds before I leave here tomorrow!
We were supposed to go to church with Grandma this morning, but poor Mr. Lee isn't feeling any better, and then Steve came down with whatever illness it is. We have no clue what is wrong, but it's like the stomach flu without the fever. Then, right before time to get ready, Grandma said she wasn't feeling well. I doubt we'll go to church, because everyone's laying down but me.
So far I'm OK, but I'm just waiting until it gets me. I'm afraid! I don't want whatever it is and I wish none of them had it!
Ha! I just re-read that last part and it sounds like one of those movies where there is one lone survivor of some kind of zombie plague, and that was the last entry into the journal that someone finds years later after everyone else has disappeared. :)
Ooh, I hope it's not a zombie plague.
LATER: OK, strike that. Grandma and I went to church services. It didn't matter that I said I wanted to stay with Steve and Mr. Lee, apparently I will always be a 5 year old to some people. Unless I stoop to yelling at them (and quite frankly acting 5 years old) that is going to be the way things have to be. Fun stuff. At any rate, Grandma's church is huge. Since I was a new visitor, I also got a swag bag! Nice. We stopped and got Mr. Lee and Steve some Gatorade before we came home. I hope they're better tomorrow. I'd hate to think of them feeling this bad on a long drive.
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION
SATURDAY 4/18: I don't think it's normal for people to eat as much as we have since we got here last night. Granted, I was so hungry when I got here and I was fed like a prize willing sow, but Grandma just keeps feeding us. This morning Grandma made a huge breakfast: bacon, eggs, biscuits and everything and she almost literally made us eat. Mr. Lee had caught some kind of bug and wasn't hungry, so it fell to Steve and I to eat all of this food. I say it fell to us, because Grandma wouldn't let us leave the table. She kept handing us food and telling us to eat. We'd tell her no, and she'd put the food on our plates! I finally had to admit defeat and physically remove myself from the table, but I had eaten way more than I wanted so that it wouldn't hurt her feelings. I love Grandma very much, and I've learning something about her in the past couple of days. I think she really wants to take care of us and do things for us, but because she's 86 years old, she's kind of limited to what she can do. She can still cook, so cooking has become her big thing to do for us. During breakfast she talked about other places we could eat. I'm sure Mr. Lee was loving this, because even though we didn't realize until later in the day, he was really sick.
Today was the day of the actual family reunion, so we loaded up the van and set off to see the family. I've really only met Steve's family members a couple of times before, so going to his family reunion is almost more awkward that going to my own! Literally, there are just a few people that I know, and the rest are complete strangers that have no idea where I fir into the picture! Luckily the family I DO know are really nice, so I at least had someone t talk to. Steve was no help, because he just did like he always does and sits in a corner not talking to anyone. He doesn't take the burden of talking to people on his shoulders at all! Aarrrrg! However, it wasn't a bad time, because I got talked into playing a domino game called "Mexican Railroad" which took up most of the time we were there. We actually ended up having fun, so it wasn't a bad day at all. We talked with Steve's cousin Cynthia, who he grew up with, and had a nice time.
Once we left the reunion, Grandma wanted to take us out for pizza, because she knew of a place she really liked and wanted us to try it. The way she described it, I thought it was going to be like Cici's or something along those lines. It actually turned out to be more like a Chuck-E Cheese kind of place, but not a chain. It was full of kids screaming and playing games. It wasn't terrible or anything, we enjoyed the pizza and got to talk, but we were so full when we left (after eating at the reunion and everything) that we pretty much just came home and lay about for the rest of the day. Mr. Lee, who had seemed fine while at the reunion, got worse once we came home, but he lay down and we watched TV until bedtime.
SATURDAY 4/18: I don't think it's normal for people to eat as much as we have since we got here last night. Granted, I was so hungry when I got here and I was fed like a prize willing sow, but Grandma just keeps feeding us. This morning Grandma made a huge breakfast: bacon, eggs, biscuits and everything and she almost literally made us eat. Mr. Lee had caught some kind of bug and wasn't hungry, so it fell to Steve and I to eat all of this food. I say it fell to us, because Grandma wouldn't let us leave the table. She kept handing us food and telling us to eat. We'd tell her no, and she'd put the food on our plates! I finally had to admit defeat and physically remove myself from the table, but I had eaten way more than I wanted so that it wouldn't hurt her feelings. I love Grandma very much, and I've learning something about her in the past couple of days. I think she really wants to take care of us and do things for us, but because she's 86 years old, she's kind of limited to what she can do. She can still cook, so cooking has become her big thing to do for us. During breakfast she talked about other places we could eat. I'm sure Mr. Lee was loving this, because even though we didn't realize until later in the day, he was really sick.
Today was the day of the actual family reunion, so we loaded up the van and set off to see the family. I've really only met Steve's family members a couple of times before, so going to his family reunion is almost more awkward that going to my own! Literally, there are just a few people that I know, and the rest are complete strangers that have no idea where I fir into the picture! Luckily the family I DO know are really nice, so I at least had someone t talk to. Steve was no help, because he just did like he always does and sits in a corner not talking to anyone. He doesn't take the burden of talking to people on his shoulders at all! Aarrrrg! However, it wasn't a bad time, because I got talked into playing a domino game called "Mexican Railroad" which took up most of the time we were there. We actually ended up having fun, so it wasn't a bad day at all. We talked with Steve's cousin Cynthia, who he grew up with, and had a nice time.
Once we left the reunion, Grandma wanted to take us out for pizza, because she knew of a place she really liked and wanted us to try it. The way she described it, I thought it was going to be like Cici's or something along those lines. It actually turned out to be more like a Chuck-E Cheese kind of place, but not a chain. It was full of kids screaming and playing games. It wasn't terrible or anything, we enjoyed the pizza and got to talk, but we were so full when we left (after eating at the reunion and everything) that we pretty much just came home and lay about for the rest of the day. Mr. Lee, who had seemed fine while at the reunion, got worse once we came home, but he lay down and we watched TV until bedtime.
Friday, April 17, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION
FRIDAY 4/17: Today we drove. We drove and drove and drove and drove. Then we drove some more! It really was a day of almost nothing more than driving. After a fairly good continental breakfast at our hotel, we set off over the river and through the woods to grandma's house. I was listening to the novel "Psycho" and was trying to learn a new crochet pattern, so I kept myself occupied. At around noon, we stopped in a small town and had lunch at this hole-in-the-wall place that was apparently a local favorite. It was FULL of people, and we got there just ahead of the second wave. The place was a family owned restaurant in Iowa, LA called "Fausto's " and it had some really spectacular hamburgers. The people were also really nice there, and I got to talk to a nice man who accidentally bumped into me and spent a while apologizing. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside, which was small and had lots of stuffed fish on the walls, but I've come to learn that people don't really like when you take pictures inside of their stores and stuff, and I also didn't want to annoy the locals, so I kept the camera away. I WAS determined to take my traditional foot picture with the sign, but when I went outside, there was a good-ol-boy convention out there, so I had to do it ninja-style from inside of the van. I hope they didn't see me! :)
After that we got back on the road and eventually got to the Texas Welcome Station that we always stop at. It's located in Blue Elbow Swamp, and there is a long boardwalk behind the building that winds through the swamp. I've never been there in the spring, just during the summer, so I've never seen any wildlife there before. This time there were lots of reptiles around! Luckily they were all down in the water and I was safely away on the bridge! I saw turtles, a lizard, some blue colored crabs, tiny fishes and lots and lots of snakes. I'm pretty sure at least half of them were cottonmouths, but they were small and busy eating minnows. We actually came across this weird knot of snakes writhing around all knotted up together in a pile. Mr. Lee and I watched it for quite a while before realizing that they were mating. I had taken some pictures of them before I knew what was going on, so I got a picture of a snake orgy! It was not as appealing as it sounds. :)
After we got our fill of watching the animals, we left from there and drove some more. We got caught in a terrible, terrible thunderstorm in Houston that flooded the roads in just a few minutes and caused traffic to back up for a long time. We had been looking for an Ikea, since we had never been to one before, and we finally found it and got out of the storm. Dear Lord, I didn't expect the sheer size of the place! I thought an Ikea was like any kind of store that you'd see in a mall. I didn't expect it to be the size of a mall! We got lost and wandered around for a long time before finding our way out of there. It was really cool! I felt kind of like a bupkin for being slightly overwhelmed by the size of it, but to be honest, I defy anyone who's never been to one to be able to find their way around on their first visit! :P After we lest there, we stopped at a huge electronics store called "Fry's" and I was bored out of my mind, but Steve and Mr. Lee had a ball.
There are a lot of Mexican people in Houston.
We finally got to Grandma's house and I walked in to give her a hug. I expected her to tell me she was glad to see me, but all she did was tell me that she needed someone to open the pickle jar! I love that crazy old lady! She had fixed us a wonderful and huge dinner, and we snarfed like crazy people. I was so hungry, and Grandma is a good cook! Then she gave us home made chocolate pie. I think I died a little bit inside, but in a good way.
Tomorrow is our family reunion!
FRIDAY 4/17: Today we drove. We drove and drove and drove and drove. Then we drove some more! It really was a day of almost nothing more than driving. After a fairly good continental breakfast at our hotel, we set off over the river and through the woods to grandma's house. I was listening to the novel "Psycho" and was trying to learn a new crochet pattern, so I kept myself occupied. At around noon, we stopped in a small town and had lunch at this hole-in-the-wall place that was apparently a local favorite. It was FULL of people, and we got there just ahead of the second wave. The place was a family owned restaurant in Iowa, LA called "Fausto's " and it had some really spectacular hamburgers. The people were also really nice there, and I got to talk to a nice man who accidentally bumped into me and spent a while apologizing. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside, which was small and had lots of stuffed fish on the walls, but I've come to learn that people don't really like when you take pictures inside of their stores and stuff, and I also didn't want to annoy the locals, so I kept the camera away. I WAS determined to take my traditional foot picture with the sign, but when I went outside, there was a good-ol-boy convention out there, so I had to do it ninja-style from inside of the van. I hope they didn't see me! :)
After that we got back on the road and eventually got to the Texas Welcome Station that we always stop at. It's located in Blue Elbow Swamp, and there is a long boardwalk behind the building that winds through the swamp. I've never been there in the spring, just during the summer, so I've never seen any wildlife there before. This time there were lots of reptiles around! Luckily they were all down in the water and I was safely away on the bridge! I saw turtles, a lizard, some blue colored crabs, tiny fishes and lots and lots of snakes. I'm pretty sure at least half of them were cottonmouths, but they were small and busy eating minnows. We actually came across this weird knot of snakes writhing around all knotted up together in a pile. Mr. Lee and I watched it for quite a while before realizing that they were mating. I had taken some pictures of them before I knew what was going on, so I got a picture of a snake orgy! It was not as appealing as it sounds. :)
After we got our fill of watching the animals, we left from there and drove some more. We got caught in a terrible, terrible thunderstorm in Houston that flooded the roads in just a few minutes and caused traffic to back up for a long time. We had been looking for an Ikea, since we had never been to one before, and we finally found it and got out of the storm. Dear Lord, I didn't expect the sheer size of the place! I thought an Ikea was like any kind of store that you'd see in a mall. I didn't expect it to be the size of a mall! We got lost and wandered around for a long time before finding our way out of there. It was really cool! I felt kind of like a bupkin for being slightly overwhelmed by the size of it, but to be honest, I defy anyone who's never been to one to be able to find their way around on their first visit! :P After we lest there, we stopped at a huge electronics store called "Fry's" and I was bored out of my mind, but Steve and Mr. Lee had a ball.
There are a lot of Mexican people in Houston.
We finally got to Grandma's house and I walked in to give her a hug. I expected her to tell me she was glad to see me, but all she did was tell me that she needed someone to open the pickle jar! I love that crazy old lady! She had fixed us a wonderful and huge dinner, and we snarfed like crazy people. I was so hungry, and Grandma is a good cook! Then she gave us home made chocolate pie. I think I died a little bit inside, but in a good way.
Tomorrow is our family reunion!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: FAMILY REUNION EDITION
THURSDAY 4/16: Today we set off for another Pratt family reunion in Conroe, Texas. Well, we didn't get to set off right away, we first had to take care of our giant vermin, Butler and Bear. I don't know if they sensed that we were leaving them someplace or not, but they were acting terribly! It shouldn't have come as a shock to them because we told them they were going to their "special resort" but I think all that registered with them was that they had to get into the car and they weren't happy about that. Once we finally got them tied into their choke collars, we got them into the car. Of course, Bear immediately starting walking on me so that he could look out of my window. An 80 pound catahoula mix walking on a person's leg isn't comfortable! When we finally got to the vet -uh, I mean resort, Butler was having a come apart and the vet's office wasn't open yet. We sat in the car, waiting for them to open, and at some point Butler and Bear changed places, so Steve had a hold of Bear while I had Butler's leash. Once the doors opened, Steve and Bear got out, and I had to try and get Butler out of the backseat of the convertible. I had a hold of his collar and his leash, trying to get him to stay close to me so I could close the door, and he backed out of his collar! I freaked out, because I was afraid that he would run out into the busy street in front of the building, so I left the door to the car wide open and proceeded to chase him through the parking lot, screaming his name and holding his collar and leash above my head! Luckily he ran directly into the lobby of the vet, and I practically tackled him to get his leash back on. A nice man who was waiting for his own dog to be taken back helped me, so I was lucky he was there. Poor Steve couldn't do anything to help because Bear had decided to wrap himself around Steve's legs. At any rate, we finally got our spastic mutts handed over to the workers. While we were signing the paperwork, at least two other dogs who were having the same kind of excitable morning came in and I was liberally gnawed, slobbered and jumped on. It was crazy. By the time I got back into the car, I was exhausted and covered with dog hairs.
We finally got home and ready to go, and Mr. Lee came and picked us up. As I've said before, going on a trip with Steve and his dad is an experience. No one really talks, but we listen to a lot of talk radio! I'm glad I don't have strong political leanings, because I'm sure I would have been insulted at some point along the way. I actually didn't mind much this time because I found a book to read. I actually didn't pay attention to much on the way to our stopping point for the night. We actually stayed in Slidell, LA, which is right outside of New Orleans. We decided to spend the evening over there, and even though we didn't really get to see much, we had a great time! We pretty much stayed in the French Quarter and I took some pictures while Mr. Lee looked for souvenirs. I hate looking like such a tourist, but I love to take photos. I was in a catch 22, but I decided that I would take the pictures anyways! I forgot, AGAIN, to take a picture of my foot in New Orleans, but to be fair, if I had to sit on the ground or something to get a picture of my foot with some kind of recognizable landmark, then I'll pass on that. The place is nasty! There were also a lot of boobies around. Not real boobies, but plastic ones and pictures of them. I don't mind them myself, but it's embarrassing when I know Mr. Lee sees them! :) We had dinner at a pub that had fantastic creole/cajun food and ended the night at Cafe du Monde, where I was finally able to get that cafe au lait that I've been dreaming about for months. I don't know if it's the coffee, the whole milk, the real sugar, or the combination of all of them, but it was sooooooooo good. We also got some beignets to go, and except for the powdered sugar spilling all down the front of my shirt, I enjoyed them as well! There is something wrong with the water in Slidell, though. It wasn't dirty or anything, but it felt really slimy, and when I took a shower it didn't feel like I could wash the soap off. Mr. Lee said it was because the water was soft. I don't know, but I didn't like it. :(
Tomorrow is the second half of our journey and getting to Grandma's house! Whee!
THURSDAY 4/16: Today we set off for another Pratt family reunion in Conroe, Texas. Well, we didn't get to set off right away, we first had to take care of our giant vermin, Butler and Bear. I don't know if they sensed that we were leaving them someplace or not, but they were acting terribly! It shouldn't have come as a shock to them because we told them they were going to their "special resort" but I think all that registered with them was that they had to get into the car and they weren't happy about that. Once we finally got them tied into their choke collars, we got them into the car. Of course, Bear immediately starting walking on me so that he could look out of my window. An 80 pound catahoula mix walking on a person's leg isn't comfortable! When we finally got to the vet -uh, I mean resort, Butler was having a come apart and the vet's office wasn't open yet. We sat in the car, waiting for them to open, and at some point Butler and Bear changed places, so Steve had a hold of Bear while I had Butler's leash. Once the doors opened, Steve and Bear got out, and I had to try and get Butler out of the backseat of the convertible. I had a hold of his collar and his leash, trying to get him to stay close to me so I could close the door, and he backed out of his collar! I freaked out, because I was afraid that he would run out into the busy street in front of the building, so I left the door to the car wide open and proceeded to chase him through the parking lot, screaming his name and holding his collar and leash above my head! Luckily he ran directly into the lobby of the vet, and I practically tackled him to get his leash back on. A nice man who was waiting for his own dog to be taken back helped me, so I was lucky he was there. Poor Steve couldn't do anything to help because Bear had decided to wrap himself around Steve's legs. At any rate, we finally got our spastic mutts handed over to the workers. While we were signing the paperwork, at least two other dogs who were having the same kind of excitable morning came in and I was liberally gnawed, slobbered and jumped on. It was crazy. By the time I got back into the car, I was exhausted and covered with dog hairs.
We finally got home and ready to go, and Mr. Lee came and picked us up. As I've said before, going on a trip with Steve and his dad is an experience. No one really talks, but we listen to a lot of talk radio! I'm glad I don't have strong political leanings, because I'm sure I would have been insulted at some point along the way. I actually didn't mind much this time because I found a book to read. I actually didn't pay attention to much on the way to our stopping point for the night. We actually stayed in Slidell, LA, which is right outside of New Orleans. We decided to spend the evening over there, and even though we didn't really get to see much, we had a great time! We pretty much stayed in the French Quarter and I took some pictures while Mr. Lee looked for souvenirs. I hate looking like such a tourist, but I love to take photos. I was in a catch 22, but I decided that I would take the pictures anyways! I forgot, AGAIN, to take a picture of my foot in New Orleans, but to be fair, if I had to sit on the ground or something to get a picture of my foot with some kind of recognizable landmark, then I'll pass on that. The place is nasty! There were also a lot of boobies around. Not real boobies, but plastic ones and pictures of them. I don't mind them myself, but it's embarrassing when I know Mr. Lee sees them! :) We had dinner at a pub that had fantastic creole/cajun food and ended the night at Cafe du Monde, where I was finally able to get that cafe au lait that I've been dreaming about for months. I don't know if it's the coffee, the whole milk, the real sugar, or the combination of all of them, but it was sooooooooo good. We also got some beignets to go, and except for the powdered sugar spilling all down the front of my shirt, I enjoyed them as well! There is something wrong with the water in Slidell, though. It wasn't dirty or anything, but it felt really slimy, and when I took a shower it didn't feel like I could wash the soap off. Mr. Lee said it was because the water was soft. I don't know, but I didn't like it. :(
Tomorrow is the second half of our journey and getting to Grandma's house! Whee!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
I'm curious.
Say that I accidentally come across a story on the interwebs that makes me sad, and I cry at my desk for a few minutes. When this happens, my eyes and nose get a bit red and I get kind of sniffy. No big deal, right?
OK, now let's say I come across a movie based on one of Nicholas Sparks horrible, soul-wringing books and I cry right before I go to sleep. When I wake up, my eyes are terribly swollen.
Why is it that daytime tears make my eyes red, but if I cry before sleeping, I wake up looking like Admiral Akbar?
IT'S A TRAP!
Say that I accidentally come across a story on the interwebs that makes me sad, and I cry at my desk for a few minutes. When this happens, my eyes and nose get a bit red and I get kind of sniffy. No big deal, right?
OK, now let's say I come across a movie based on one of Nicholas Sparks horrible, soul-wringing books and I cry right before I go to sleep. When I wake up, my eyes are terribly swollen.
Why is it that daytime tears make my eyes red, but if I cry before sleeping, I wake up looking like Admiral Akbar?
IT'S A TRAP!
Friday, April 10, 2009
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) When I went to the *ahem* lady doctor the other day, he asked me "Are you going to have children? You ARE in your 30s now." Now, we all know I hate when people ask me that, but since he is the doctor who would really care about these things, I just gave him the standard answer I give everyone when I choose to be polite about it. After I got home and thought about it, the fact that he said "You ARE in your 30s now" began to peeve me. I know that health-wise, it isn't safe to have children after a certain age, but come on. I'm 31! It's not like my ovaries have cobwebs on them yet or anything! At any rate, I didn't want to have to explain my life and my reasoning to a person who doesn't matter, so I just told him no, I'm not planning on having any, and he left it alone. I was glad. Oh, but on a good note, he didn't ask me any weird questions during my exam this year. He must read my blog!
2) I'm finally getting to start on my graphics for the new Star Trek stuff that will go in the IMAX lobby. However, this new movie is different in a lot of annoying ways (design wise) from the old series on which it is based, so I'm never sure what stuff I should use. Mostly, I'm just sticking with the actual old school stuff, J.J. Abrams be damned! However, I did spend about an hour and half yesterday making an old Romulan symbol before fully realizing that it is so old school that most people won't have a clue what it is. Oh, well. It's fun for me, though, so I'm not going to complain too much. Yet! :)
3) The new Space Camp Podcast will probably come out soon, if it isn't out already. Our awesome web guy has been super busy with complicated web page stuff, so it has taken a bit longer than it usually does. This time I explain how a microwave was invented and how it works! It's real Masterpiece Theater stuff, I tell you!
4) I bought a whole box of cereal yesterday just for the prize in the box. If you eat Frosted Mini Wheats and you care very little for Star Trek, I wouldn't mind taking the "Beam Up Badge" off of your hands! I mean, if you happen to find one in your box. :) I have the Command emblem one right now, so I still need the Science, Engineering, Romulan Empire & Klingon Empire ones for my collection. I'm just sayin...
5) Happy Good Friday, everyone! Hope we can all keep in mind what this weekend is all about. However, I still firmly believe that Jesus doesn't have a thing against chocolate, so don't feel bad if you indulge a bit. It IS a celebration, after all.
6) I don't know how many people have seen this commercial or not, but there is a new Burger King commercial out there where Sir Mix-a-Lot has revamped the lyrics to his most memorable "song" so that he can shill for the new Spongebob Squarepants toys that come with the BK kids meals. He now likes Square Butts, rather than big ones. Oy vey. All I can do is say: Sir Mix-a-Lot, you are nobility! A knight of the realm. Have some dignity. Please.
7) I keep having dreams about people I went to high school with, but haven't seen in years. It happens almost every night, and it's starting to get weird. It's not even about the same people, but it's always someone that I was friends with back in the day, but lost touch with. I wonder if that means I'm going to hear from some of them soon?
1) When I went to the *ahem* lady doctor the other day, he asked me "Are you going to have children? You ARE in your 30s now." Now, we all know I hate when people ask me that, but since he is the doctor who would really care about these things, I just gave him the standard answer I give everyone when I choose to be polite about it. After I got home and thought about it, the fact that he said "You ARE in your 30s now" began to peeve me. I know that health-wise, it isn't safe to have children after a certain age, but come on. I'm 31! It's not like my ovaries have cobwebs on them yet or anything! At any rate, I didn't want to have to explain my life and my reasoning to a person who doesn't matter, so I just told him no, I'm not planning on having any, and he left it alone. I was glad. Oh, but on a good note, he didn't ask me any weird questions during my exam this year. He must read my blog!
2) I'm finally getting to start on my graphics for the new Star Trek stuff that will go in the IMAX lobby. However, this new movie is different in a lot of annoying ways (design wise) from the old series on which it is based, so I'm never sure what stuff I should use. Mostly, I'm just sticking with the actual old school stuff, J.J. Abrams be damned! However, I did spend about an hour and half yesterday making an old Romulan symbol before fully realizing that it is so old school that most people won't have a clue what it is. Oh, well. It's fun for me, though, so I'm not going to complain too much. Yet! :)
3) The new Space Camp Podcast will probably come out soon, if it isn't out already. Our awesome web guy has been super busy with complicated web page stuff, so it has taken a bit longer than it usually does. This time I explain how a microwave was invented and how it works! It's real Masterpiece Theater stuff, I tell you!
4) I bought a whole box of cereal yesterday just for the prize in the box. If you eat Frosted Mini Wheats and you care very little for Star Trek, I wouldn't mind taking the "Beam Up Badge" off of your hands! I mean, if you happen to find one in your box. :) I have the Command emblem one right now, so I still need the Science, Engineering, Romulan Empire & Klingon Empire ones for my collection. I'm just sayin...
5) Happy Good Friday, everyone! Hope we can all keep in mind what this weekend is all about. However, I still firmly believe that Jesus doesn't have a thing against chocolate, so don't feel bad if you indulge a bit. It IS a celebration, after all.
6) I don't know how many people have seen this commercial or not, but there is a new Burger King commercial out there where Sir Mix-a-Lot has revamped the lyrics to his most memorable "song" so that he can shill for the new Spongebob Squarepants toys that come with the BK kids meals. He now likes Square Butts, rather than big ones. Oy vey. All I can do is say: Sir Mix-a-Lot, you are nobility! A knight of the realm. Have some dignity. Please.
7) I keep having dreams about people I went to high school with, but haven't seen in years. It happens almost every night, and it's starting to get weird. It's not even about the same people, but it's always someone that I was friends with back in the day, but lost touch with. I wonder if that means I'm going to hear from some of them soon?
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) Well, the idea to build the commanding station of the Enterprise went bust, but we are still probably going to get Captain Kirk's chair built. I wish it would fit into my office when the movie leaves, but that sucker is going to be both big and heavy, as well as virtually impossible to carry up the stairs to my office. Hmmm, I wonder if I do puppy-dog eyes for the guys down at the IMAX, would the bring it up here anyways? Probably not. My puppy-dog eyes used to be so very powerful. *Sigh*
2) I made myself a mix CD that I've been listening to in the car lately, and the first song on the list is "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," a very quick bluegrass instrumental. I love the song, but it sounds like the kind of song that would be playing as the Duke Boys outrun the law. I want to look in my rear-view mirror and see Rosco P. Coletrain in the car behind me! I'll promise not to try and do any ridiculous jumps, though.
3) I've got to go to the dentist tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. On a lighter note, though, my new dentist's name is Andrew Knight. He shares a practice with his father who's name is Michael Knight! It's not as awesome as finding a Korean dentist named Dr. Hoo, but it's close.
4)Happy First Day of Passover! Uh...mozel tov? I don't know what the correct way to say that is, but there you go.
1) Well, the idea to build the commanding station of the Enterprise went bust, but we are still probably going to get Captain Kirk's chair built. I wish it would fit into my office when the movie leaves, but that sucker is going to be both big and heavy, as well as virtually impossible to carry up the stairs to my office. Hmmm, I wonder if I do puppy-dog eyes for the guys down at the IMAX, would the bring it up here anyways? Probably not. My puppy-dog eyes used to be so very powerful. *Sigh*
2) I made myself a mix CD that I've been listening to in the car lately, and the first song on the list is "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," a very quick bluegrass instrumental. I love the song, but it sounds like the kind of song that would be playing as the Duke Boys outrun the law. I want to look in my rear-view mirror and see Rosco P. Coletrain in the car behind me! I'll promise not to try and do any ridiculous jumps, though.
3) I've got to go to the dentist tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. On a lighter note, though, my new dentist's name is Andrew Knight. He shares a practice with his father who's name is Michael Knight! It's not as awesome as finding a Korean dentist named Dr. Hoo, but it's close.
4)Happy First Day of Passover! Uh...mozel tov? I don't know what the correct way to say that is, but there you go.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Saturday was such an awesome day!
Sara (Scary Spice, you know) and I went to the BJCC in Birmingham and saw a production of "Wicked!" It was SO awesome. I had read the book, and had looked into going to see this show a couple of years ago, but it never came very close to Huntsville. When Sara contacted me in January, I believe, to let me know it was coming to Birmingham, I jumped on it right away! She got us some really great seats, and we went to a matinee. After a while of climbing over people and being misdirected by the ushers, we finally found our seats and got settled.
The show was better than I imagined it would be. I'd seen clips of video taken from the Broadway show, but it wasn't enough to really tell anything about it. The lead, Elphaba, was played by a woman who had played her on Broadway and she had the greatest voice! I loved the costumes and the music and everything! Well, except for the flying monkeys, and they were just weird. They kind of freaked me out the same way that Cirque de Soleil freaks me out. I can't explain any better than that. It was just a really amazing show. If you ever get a change to see it, you definately should. The story was even changed just enough so that kids could really enjoy it, so you can take them too!
I decided that I would love to do musical theater, but I don't think I could actually pull it off. I could do the singing and the costumes, and I'm even fairly certain that I could learn to dance well enough to do the show...but I don't know how comfortable I'd be actually participating. Anyways, I'm still going to learn all of the songs from the show, just because. :) I'd actually like to see the show in a bigger venue sometime if I can. Even though everthing was great, I'm still fairly certain that a traveling show has some kinds of limitations. I can't imagine how, though.
Afterwards, after braving a crowd that almost knocked me down and after buying a show shirt from a poorly disguised transgendered man, Sara and I went to a restaurant called "Rojo" which was in a very interesting area. It was some kind of hipsters paradise, but the burgers were fantastic. I recommend it.
It was a good day.
Sara (Scary Spice, you know) and I went to the BJCC in Birmingham and saw a production of "Wicked!" It was SO awesome. I had read the book, and had looked into going to see this show a couple of years ago, but it never came very close to Huntsville. When Sara contacted me in January, I believe, to let me know it was coming to Birmingham, I jumped on it right away! She got us some really great seats, and we went to a matinee. After a while of climbing over people and being misdirected by the ushers, we finally found our seats and got settled.
The show was better than I imagined it would be. I'd seen clips of video taken from the Broadway show, but it wasn't enough to really tell anything about it. The lead, Elphaba, was played by a woman who had played her on Broadway and she had the greatest voice! I loved the costumes and the music and everything! Well, except for the flying monkeys, and they were just weird. They kind of freaked me out the same way that Cirque de Soleil freaks me out. I can't explain any better than that. It was just a really amazing show. If you ever get a change to see it, you definately should. The story was even changed just enough so that kids could really enjoy it, so you can take them too!
I decided that I would love to do musical theater, but I don't think I could actually pull it off. I could do the singing and the costumes, and I'm even fairly certain that I could learn to dance well enough to do the show...but I don't know how comfortable I'd be actually participating. Anyways, I'm still going to learn all of the songs from the show, just because. :) I'd actually like to see the show in a bigger venue sometime if I can. Even though everthing was great, I'm still fairly certain that a traveling show has some kinds of limitations. I can't imagine how, though.
Afterwards, after braving a crowd that almost knocked me down and after buying a show shirt from a poorly disguised transgendered man, Sara and I went to a restaurant called "Rojo" which was in a very interesting area. It was some kind of hipsters paradise, but the burgers were fantastic. I recommend it.
It was a good day.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING
1) I keep hearing about some McDonald's commercial for Filet-o-Fish that has a catchy song on it, but I don't think I've seen it yet. It may be for the best, if the song is of the brainworm variety. Am I just not watching the right channel?
2) Tuesday I had a brief come-apart after finding out that I had to, once again, stop everything I was doing and start a whole new project for another inconsiderate nit who our administration sucks up to because she's married to someone with money. Trust me, it's not the work that bothered me, it was more the fact that she asks for ridiculous things at the last minute and we always have to roll over and do it because no one wants her to complain to hubby. It's infuriating. What made it worse was the fact that she knew she needed these things that she asked for 3 weeks ago, but she didn't ask for them until two days before she needed them. She actually asked for something much more complicated, but my co-worker talked her down from that and we managed to make her something much more manageable. Had she asked for them a week before she needed them, I wouldn't have gotten angry. I just hate having to kiss ass around here, but if I want to keep my job, I have to. It's asinine.
3) I'm finally going to get to talk to the COO about getting part of the Enterprise built in time for the movie opening! He's the man who tells everyone what to do, so I'm going in armed and ready. I hope we have time to do what I've been thinking about, but it may end up that we just paint the windows of the booth again. Oh well, if we don't get to fancy with Star Trek, at least I can put in my efforts on getting ready for Harry Potter! Yay!
4) I've been busy lately doing a rather tedious job. I mentioned last week, I think, about my boss bringing me a ripped up diagram of some sort and wanting me to make a new one. He said that I could just pop it into Photoshop and clean it up and add in the bits that were missing, but I realized that when it was scanned, he either accidentally moved it or something glitched, because it's not aligned properly in some places. I'm actually trying to recreate it in Illustrator, and I think I'm doing a fairly competent job at it so far. I just hope that I don't go through all of this trouble and the image get slapped on the backside of the thing where no one can see it!
5)The moonbuggy races are today and tomorrow, and I hate the fact that the entire place is taken over. I mean, it doesn't affect me very much, since I'm in the ghetto penthouse up here, but it's just so LOUD. :(
6) My sister's house was broken into last Sunday, and the wretched souls who robbed them took a lot of the boys electronics and my sister's jewelry box. She's really upset about everything else, but especially because my father's topaz ring (the one that was as much a part of him as his wedding band was and it was what my mother gave to Logan because he loved Papa so much) was in there. She is just sick about it. I wish that it would somehow turn up, but I'm fairly sure it's been sold or sent to one of those "cash for gold" places and melted down. It makes me so angry that people do things like that and have absolutely no concern for anyone but themselves. I miss my dad so much, and now something of his was stolen and either sold to someone who has no idea how it important it was or destroyed. It hurts my heart. I wish I could get my hands on whomever did it and just beat the snot out of them. Seriously. I wish I could hurt them in a way that they wouldn't ever do something like that again to anyone else. It's just too bad that vigilante justice isn't legal because I'd certainly learn ways to make people cry. I have been fairly intolerant of people's bull shit over the past year, and I hope I can get that under control before I really do snap on someone. I don't want to go to jail!
7) I've been listening to the book "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier (?) lately and I had forgotten how much I liked it. I had read it before, but I guess I wasn't paying close attention or something because I'm enjoying a great deal more than I did the last time. The one thing that irks me, and it's the same thing that irks me about most movies or TV shows, is that if the people would just talk to each other and be honest about stuff, most problems would be avoided. Oh well, if they did that, most books and movies would be very short!
1) I keep hearing about some McDonald's commercial for Filet-o-Fish that has a catchy song on it, but I don't think I've seen it yet. It may be for the best, if the song is of the brainworm variety. Am I just not watching the right channel?
2) Tuesday I had a brief come-apart after finding out that I had to, once again, stop everything I was doing and start a whole new project for another inconsiderate nit who our administration sucks up to because she's married to someone with money. Trust me, it's not the work that bothered me, it was more the fact that she asks for ridiculous things at the last minute and we always have to roll over and do it because no one wants her to complain to hubby. It's infuriating. What made it worse was the fact that she knew she needed these things that she asked for 3 weeks ago, but she didn't ask for them until two days before she needed them. She actually asked for something much more complicated, but my co-worker talked her down from that and we managed to make her something much more manageable. Had she asked for them a week before she needed them, I wouldn't have gotten angry. I just hate having to kiss ass around here, but if I want to keep my job, I have to. It's asinine.
3) I'm finally going to get to talk to the COO about getting part of the Enterprise built in time for the movie opening! He's the man who tells everyone what to do, so I'm going in armed and ready. I hope we have time to do what I've been thinking about, but it may end up that we just paint the windows of the booth again. Oh well, if we don't get to fancy with Star Trek, at least I can put in my efforts on getting ready for Harry Potter! Yay!
4) I've been busy lately doing a rather tedious job. I mentioned last week, I think, about my boss bringing me a ripped up diagram of some sort and wanting me to make a new one. He said that I could just pop it into Photoshop and clean it up and add in the bits that were missing, but I realized that when it was scanned, he either accidentally moved it or something glitched, because it's not aligned properly in some places. I'm actually trying to recreate it in Illustrator, and I think I'm doing a fairly competent job at it so far. I just hope that I don't go through all of this trouble and the image get slapped on the backside of the thing where no one can see it!
5)The moonbuggy races are today and tomorrow, and I hate the fact that the entire place is taken over. I mean, it doesn't affect me very much, since I'm in the ghetto penthouse up here, but it's just so LOUD. :(
6) My sister's house was broken into last Sunday, and the wretched souls who robbed them took a lot of the boys electronics and my sister's jewelry box. She's really upset about everything else, but especially because my father's topaz ring (the one that was as much a part of him as his wedding band was and it was what my mother gave to Logan because he loved Papa so much) was in there. She is just sick about it. I wish that it would somehow turn up, but I'm fairly sure it's been sold or sent to one of those "cash for gold" places and melted down. It makes me so angry that people do things like that and have absolutely no concern for anyone but themselves. I miss my dad so much, and now something of his was stolen and either sold to someone who has no idea how it important it was or destroyed. It hurts my heart. I wish I could get my hands on whomever did it and just beat the snot out of them. Seriously. I wish I could hurt them in a way that they wouldn't ever do something like that again to anyone else. It's just too bad that vigilante justice isn't legal because I'd certainly learn ways to make people cry. I have been fairly intolerant of people's bull shit over the past year, and I hope I can get that under control before I really do snap on someone. I don't want to go to jail!
7) I've been listening to the book "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier (?) lately and I had forgotten how much I liked it. I had read it before, but I guess I wasn't paying close attention or something because I'm enjoying a great deal more than I did the last time. The one thing that irks me, and it's the same thing that irks me about most movies or TV shows, is that if the people would just talk to each other and be honest about stuff, most problems would be avoided. Oh well, if they did that, most books and movies would be very short!
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