What day is it?

Hi all! Sorry to say, this week has been a blur!! I’ve had this stomach thing all week, and have felt pretty yucky. I started Monday afternoon, puking my guts out. I had to have the Dr. call something in, as I couldn’t keep anything down. Yesterday was the first day I actually worked a full day!

Haven’t watched any of the new season shows yet, I’ve been going to bed before 8:30-9:00 this week. My TIVO is getting mightily full, looks like I have a lot to catch up on this weekend.

One thing I have been watching is this documentary on PBS. Very poignant, very graphic, and very, very real. Personally, I think it should be every history teacher should be showing it to his/her class.

Nice Weekend.

Ah, Monday. Hard to get into my groove today. I am getting some work done, making up for being out on Friday. But that’s okay. It ended up being a really great weekend, all things considering.

Friday, I went to Target. Look at these cute shoes!!! Aren’t they cool? I love them. They’ll look great in sweater weather!

And I found this cool martini shaker. It looks like this. But, the outside is black, with this silver glitter in it, it is too cool! I found it in the Halloween section, if you can believe that!

I went over to Shirley’s Friday night, and had a few (okay, five) quality adult beverages, and some munchies. That was fun! I needed to let loose a little.

I spent Saturday all day at Linda’s, cropping. What a blast. I love hanging out at her house, it was very back to the basics crop. She made sure we were well fed, of course, and for dinner, we walked down to Luptons. I love them. They have the best mashed potatoes! Made DH very jealous!!!! He loves them, too.

I got a lot done too. Worked on my CE projects. Did my go-ahead tags, painted my purse album, and put it all together, and did my Rhonna album. That took me almost all night, but it is completely finished. I had to ad-lib a few spots, and re-did the cover, but it came out really good, I think. When I get it out of my bag, I’ll show you a picture.

We sang Happy Birthday to Taylor at midnite, he turned 13. What a great kid. Not many 13 year olds would hang out with us old ladies, but he did. He really is a neat kid, and his mama and daddy have done a great job. Very sweet.

The Gators won, the Bulls won, and man, did the Bucs ever win!!! Yeehaw!! Yesterday, I ran up to Michael’s, got a little soldering iron with my coupon, and a few bottles of paint and ribbon (mostly from the dollar section). Rest of the day, I spent finishing the laundry, and putting dinner in a crockpot. I took a nap, too.

Song of the Day: I’m on a Red Hot Chili Peppers kick today, and the song currently playing is Suck My Kiss.

My New Girl Crush...

is Jamie the insurance adjuster. Remember the girl with the manatees? Well picture her with longer hair and less tattoos. Well, she might have had the same number of tattoos, she had pants on, so who knows.

Well, anyway, I met with Jamie this morning. She looked everything over, explained the process. The big issue was over the rear quarter panel. It needed to be replaced and there was a question as to whether a used one could be located or not. If not, and a new one had to be ordered, they were going to total out the car, as it had too many miles and would cost too much at that point. Well, that did not make me a happy camper. It took everything not to break down in tears when I thought my beloved car might be put out to pasture.

Well, then I had to go round and round with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. When I spoke to the Geico agent last night, she said I would get something similar to a Dodge Stratus or a Pontiac G6. So, I was not at all pleased when they showed up with a Nissan Sentra. Now, you tell me, how is a 6'4' 285 lb. guy going to squeeze into a Sentra. So, I went round and round with Geico, and then round and round with Enterprise because they kept telling me they had no other cars available. You mean to tell me in all the gazillion Enterprise offices in the bay area, NO ONE had a mid-size sedan???? Well, I made it to International Mall by this time, and the one across the street found a Dodge Avenger for me. It will cost me an extra $3 a day out of pocket, but it's worth it not to feel like I'm in a tin can.

So, just a little bit ago, Jamie called. They found a quarter panel. Hooray!!! It will take them approx. 12 days to fix, and will cost $3600+, but I only owe the $500 deductible, of course, and then I get my car back. That makes me happy!!!

I'm actually hoping they can stretch it out just a few more days, so I can drive the rental to Ft. Lauderdale. It would save me extra mileage on the truck, and possibly be cheaper to fill up. But I'll be happy either way. At least life isn't on hold right now.

Well, off to Target. YAY!!!

My car!!! My beautiful car!!!!

Yep, that's my car alright. Nice, isn't it. And it was my own damn fault, too!!!

I was near the clusterfuck, er, intersection of Kennedy and Westshore in front of the mall last night. Anyone who has been in that area during rush hour can attest to how bad it can be, the light cycles are completely messed up, cars from all four directions in the intersections at the same time, because of the insane light timing, among other things.

I was in the center lane, behind a big lawn trailer, in the intersection in front of Sears, when the light changed to red. I looked to my left, and it was clear, and went to go around the trailer. I thought I had enough room to clear him, but I obviously misjudged it. I tore off my mirror, dented in the door and rear quarter panel to where I don't know if the door will open, there's a huge scrape on the whole side of the car, and the power window won't go done smoothly.

There was no damage at all to the trailer, and the guy was fine with it, so we didn't see a need to exchange information, and he went on his way.

Yep, I fucked it up good this time! I'm fine physically, just beating myself up, that's all. Oh, well, that's what insurance is for. Wave bye-bye to my $500 deductible and my good driver discount. I actually have an appointment this morning at the Geico Rapid Claims Center, where they will look everything over and hook me up with a rental car. Oh, joy.

Well, hopefully, this will be a much better day, right?

So much to do, so little time.

Busy, busy, busy. Got lots of running around to do today and tonight. I was trying to print out pictures last nite, for Stephan and Zavier’s first birthday. I’m making them mini-albums. Of course, half way through, my printer runs out of ink. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s the one color I don’t have. So, I’m off to Office Depot at lunch to pick up those. I’d like to work on it at Hilltop on Saturday, if I can get the paper picked out and matched up, but I don’t see that happening. I may just work on my CE projects instead. We’ll see.

I’ll make a trip to the mall on the way home to get my nails and eyebrows done. Both are long overdue. I also have a Yankee Candle coupon that’s burning a hole in my pocket. Speaking of candles, someone here is having a Partylite show. I’m such a sucker for them. They are so danged expensive, too!!! Southern Living, too. I always think, we’ll I’m buying something I’ll keep forever, which is true. I should have a party. At least I can get some sort of a discount, right? Which one should I have?

I also have to run to Target. Need snacks and little things, you know. I’m out of spray starch. Hell, I never finished the laundry I started on Sunday. It will probably get finished THIS Sunday. Ahhh!!! Not enough hours in the day I tell ya. This work thing really gets in the way.

I was thinking of a new feature: What’s playing on Ipod right now? The only flaw I see is, what if it’s early in the day and I’m still listening to MJ? Or it’s on the weekend, when I have the TV on? Oh, well, we’ll give it a try:

The song that just came up? It’s an oldie, from the R&B category: Soulful Strut by Young Hold Unlimited. Okay, your turn. What are YOU listening too.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Tiny Explorer

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Cookies-N-Cream Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) MBul

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Purple Kitty

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Elisabeth Cincinatti

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Bulma

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Blue Daiquiri

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) John Charles

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Safari Snickers

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Ellen A. (mine was only a middle initial, no name)

Buccaneers, Buddy!!!!

How about them Bucs??? Was that a great game or what? Our D really played their butts off!!!

Have you checked out 2P’s new format? I have. It stinks. The messages seem all jumbled and scrunched together and the type is way too small. I think my posting time over there will be at a minimum. Ah well.

Happy Birthday shout out to Miami Dawn. Hope it’s the bestest to you. YAY!!!!

Now, I’ll finish my CE account, because I’m sure you are at the edge of your seats. (Okay, maybe not).

The day started out just like the first with breakfast. Our first class was Cris’s soldering class. I really didn’t know what to expect out of this. It turned out to be a lot of fun. We actually learned something new, a shocker I know!!! Cris is very talented, and was a great teacher, and she had slides and videos playing in the background the whole time. We really liked it.

Next was Jennifer. I liked the project, it was a Creative Imaginations purse and album. It was somewhat simple, but not overly so, like Heidi-Lyn’s class. The biggest problem was they cut the die-cuts wrong and there was too much white showing. The pages did not fit properly. I will have to add some paint or something to make it look presentable. Bummer.

We had the same lunch as yesterday, and then went to our last class which was Heidi’s. I gotta admit, she really pulled it all together in this class. It was a memory board to hang up and display items on, using canvas. It was a really neat project, and Heidi’s husband walked around and made sure everyone was doing okay. I really enjoyed the project, and can’t wait to finish it. My only drawback was I should have done what Jules did and made it another color, instead of green, but I’m sure I’ll do something with it, maybe even make a gift out of it, and then make myself another one in more pastel colors.

After class, I headed up to the pool and Kip, Jules and Janet joined me for a drink. Kip, Jules and I floated down the lazy river, which was fun, but unfortunately, the inner tubes were not plus-size, LOL! So went back to the pool by their room and hung out until it was time for dinner.

Let me say, I was a purple girl in a pink world. Pink, pink and more pink everywhere. All the Heidi wannabes (The Pink Posse, I called them) were covered head to toe to look just like her. They even gave everyone little polka-dot scarves to wear...JUST LIKE HEIDI!!!! OY!! I actually wore my scarf to rib on Kip some, and Jules said “You look like fuckin’ Mickey Mouse”. ROFL!!!! That was the funny moment of the weekend.

Dinner was very nice. Baked chicken, vegetables, salad, mashed potatoes. But the best part was they served dessert first. How funny was that? It was based on the theme of the weekend to live life at its fullest.

The evening ended with door prizes, a slide show and then the key-note speaker, Alison Tyler-Jones. She was awesome. A great speaker, very motivational, and funny. I loved it. Her pictures were awesome as well. It was a great way to wrap up the weekend. Afterwards, our gang took pictures in the fountain, and laughed and hugged. We then went up to the room, I finished my packing and read for a little while, the other girls worked on some projects. I tried to stay up all nite, but could only stay up until around 1am, and then woke up at 4am to get ready to leave.

On a scale of 1-10, I would give the weekend a 7.5. There were some disappointments with some of the classes, and other issues, but the best part was being there with my girlfriends. They were the bestest, and the made it a great time. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Daah, di da duh da da...

Go Gators!!! What a great game, wasn't it? An even better game? The FSU game. Yes, I'm mean, hahaha!!!

Ah, well, I promised to give you more about CE and here is my next day run down.

We got over to have breakfast (Yummy Breakfast Burritos and Muffins) and then off to our first class. The first class was Lesli's card class. It was okay, I learned some new folds and the cards were pretty. But as the others said, it was nothing that couldn't be learned at, say, a Stampin' Up or CTMH class. And Lesli's voice was a little grating at 8 am, and she seemed very scatter brained. At the time, I chocked it up to early morning jitters. Now, not so much.

Next was Rhonna's class. This class was highly anticipated. We all love her stamps and thought for sure we'd learn some new techniques. We stamped. And we stamped. And we stamped some more. And that was it the class was over. That's it???? Seriously??? Yeah, seriously. Rhonna just talked about her 21 day challenge and all we did was listen and stamp. What a huge disappointment.

So, off to lunch we went. They gave us boxed lunches, tea and lemonade. They were pretty good. I got to give them props for one thing, we had sodas in every class, which really came in handy for a caffeine fix. Well, at this point, the afternoon had to get better, right? Wrong!!!!

Next came, Heidi Lyn's class. Mr. Bazzill's daughter. To say that this was a beginner's class was an understatement. For a high class event that touted the best of the best, this class was a joke, pure and simple. And to add insult to injury this was a calendar class. You know, 12 months in a year. We were given 5 months in class and the opportunity to BUY the other 7 months at around $7.00 a piece. Isn't that great? NO, it's not great. It's nickel and diming at it's best. At this point, Creative Escape had left a very bad taste in our mouths.

Thank goodness for Traci's class. It was awesome. We made an album out of a poly-pocket-file thing that you can buy at any Office Depot. It was different, it was unique. It was what EVERY class should have been like. Traci was low-key, patient, and explained everything to us. She was fabulous. We loved it.

At dinner, we had a Mexican buffet. Now, you know I can eat Mexican every day if I could. So, they made sure we had plenty of it. Yum!!! Then we had the Friday Extravaganza. We basically took Heidi's playing card set, and a different teacher came in for 15 minutes and showed us how to make a card out of it. Very cool project. The cards were based on questions about ourselves that Heidi found in a book she had read. (Said book can be purchased from the store, btw. More nickeling and diming!) We liked this very much, but unfortunately had to leave early, as the room a/c was not working properly.

Afterwards, we went back to the Hole in the Wall for some drinks and some snacks and to debrief about the day. We shut the place down. (Okay, so it was only 11, but hey!) We went back to our room, laughed and hung out a little more, and then off to bed, to get ready for the next full day.

In Memoriam

Farewell to a dear man. You're family, especially your granddaughters will miss you dearly.

Link

CE Review - Day 1

Hey, well as promised here is a first day review of Creative Escape:

We arrived in Phoenix around 5pm and shuttled over to the hotel. It took us a while to get there, as we had a few other drop-offs, and the driver seemed a little confused, but it was a nice ride up. I loved seeing all the mountains and the cacti and all the other scenery. Then we met up with the rest of the gang.

Once we met Jules and Janet in their room, the lot of us went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, Lantana Grille. Food was okay, a little pricey, but we were just glad to be there. We also met Karen and Pam there and they joined us for dinner as well. We had a great time. After that, we checked into our room (which was an ordeal, the desk clerks were not the friendliest!) and just chilled the rest of the night. We knew we had to get up early for our Desert Tour.

So at 6am local time, we were up and at them. I tried to take a shower, but my ineptitude got in the way. We won’t discuss that. LOL!!! From there we grabbed breakfast at Lantana again, and met up with our tour. Jill, Janet, Jules and Kip decided to their own tour of Arizona by traveling to all the different scrapbook stores in the area. They also were very successful.

So, off on our Hummer tour. Man, what beautiful scenery. Oh, yeah, the desert was pretty too. Seriously, though, our tour guides were awesome. That they were easy on the eyes was an added bonus. They did a top notch job. We saw mountains, climbed an Indian fort, and got to dig around in an old Turquoise mine. Very cool.

After the tour we were very hot and sweaty. I wanted nothing more than just take a shower. Linda had to find a nail salon, and we found them right across the street in a little strip center. She got over there, and then I went and grabbed a sandwich from the place next door. It was pretty tasty, and the best part was that it was less than $10! When I was done, I walked back and got my shower. It felt good to get all the grime and dust and sweat from the morning off. Next stop: Registration and Technique Boutique!

Registration was easy-peasy. Technique Boutique? Ehhhh... Well, first of all, really long lines. You’d think they would learn something after seeing all the lines at CKU? Nope. There was a cute project making tags that say Escape. And then we had to stand in three different lines, to stamp out a gazillion flowers for Rhonna’s class tomorrow. More on that tomorrow! Once we were done, Dawn and Linda were hungry, and you know me, I can always eat, so we went to the Hole in the Wall, which was over by the pool area.

The Hole in the Wall was a vast improvement over Lantana Grille. Great food, reasonable, and our waitress was really cute. Linda and Dawn both had quesadillas, and I had the enchiladas. Dawn even had a cosmo!!! How about that? Later on, we met up with the rest of the girls and went to the opening ceremonies, where Heidi Swapp and Mr. Bazzill gave us a little pep talk.

The girls were going back to the Hole in the Wall for another round of drinks, but I was too beat. I hit the hay pretty early, probably because I hadn’t gotten used to the time change yet. And tomorrow was going to be a full day of classes.

I'm back!!!!!!!!!

Hey folks, how’s it going? I just cannot seem to shake this jet lag or whatever it is I have. I am so stinkin’ tired. But it was well, well worth it. I love the southwest; I’d live out there, if I ever had the chance. And it was great just to be with my girlfriends and chill.

I know you’ve read a lot of takes of the classes and such from the other blogs. And I will give more details to that later this week (although I’m sure you’ve read enough already, LOL!)

Today, I did want to tell you about something I observed traveling last week. While we were sitting waiting on our plane in Tampa, we observed a young couple behind us, noodling, hugging, being sweet, the whole nine yards. The man had an Army uniform on. As our flight to Atlanta was being boarded the couple stood up. They gave each other hugs and kisses. And the woman was crying. At that point it was obvious where he was going. And that he may not come back.

According to this article in the AJC, Hartsfield is the last stop on American soil for service members returning to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. We saw many of them in our terminal. Some had family members with them. And you knew. Some might not come home.

While eating lunch at Chili’s, a young man sat across from us, checking his laptop. He too, was on his way somewhere. I heard the waitress come up to him and say, your lunch has been taken care of; someone in the back had already paid the bill. You could tell he was kind of shy, sheepish, maybe not used to the attention. Linda was bugged that she didn’t get to do it first. I was proud. Proud of all of them that day.

I’m not one to get political on here. I admit my political knowledge is novice at best. But I don’t want them to go. I don’t want to see the sad faces or the families torn apart. The bottom line is they need to come home. The truth is the area is more unstable than it ever was, and it may never be stable. We need to worry about our own stability, here on our own soil.

But right now, these guys (and gals) have a job to do. A tough one. One I don’t envy them for. But they know what they have to do now and so do I. And I am proud of that. Proud to support them as well as I can.

Yesterday, of course, was 9/11. A day of remembrance. It seems like maybe some people have forgotten what 9/11 was all about. I know I haven’t. But if I did, I got a stark reminder of it last week at the airport.

Well, this is it, Folks...

"Oh, Simon, I'm so excited"
"First time?"
"No, I've been excited before" (Airplane II, the Sequel)

Yep, my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. In about 20 minutes, my ride will be here and we will be Phoenix bound. Hooray. I've been waiting for this for a long long time.

Had a little scare this morning when I typed in my reservation number, and it was gone!!! But I called Delta (another lovely Indian agent, uggg, don't get me started) found it, and gave me the new number. Whew, what a relief!!!

A big birthday shout out to Michele!!!!! We'll miss you. I soooo wish things would have worked out better so you could go. But have a very special birthday, and do lots of fun things today, okay? Love ya!

I also won one of the Ruban Rouge drawings from the Monday sale. I got a $25 Gift Certificate. I'm so happy!!!

Well, gotta go give the kitties some extra lovings before I leave. Talk to you soon!!!

Happy Birthday Papa!!!

We had a big party last night for DH's grandfather's 80th birthday. It was a huge success. Lots of family came, including a surprise visit from some family members in So. Fla. We had Olive Garden catered in, and ate Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan and Meatballs. Salad, of course, DH's grandmother made a big antipasto plate, and his great-aunt made this custard dessert. It's not flan, it's more of a pudding. I don't know what it's called, but it had fruit on top and it had a Spanish name. Oh, well, whatever it was, it was yummy!!!

DH gave a speech and everyone was teary-eyed. We honestly did not think we would celebrate this day 3 months ago. I guess this shows you that miracles do happen.

Well, I'm trying to get my computer time in. The fantasy football draft starts in a half hour. Which means I'll have a house full of testosterone. And food. Yes, always food. Pizza, fried chicken, two kinds of chicken wings, egg rolls. They won't go hungry, will they?

So, I'm here. Hiding out. At home. (Yes, that's a hint, Michele!!!) Watching movies and cleaning up my room. AKA the disaster area. I need to find all my CE stuff and get it packed, that's my goal tonite. Yippee!!!