One more day...

'til we hit the beach. I've been busy getting every thing together, and getting my desk cleaned off over here. (some things fall low on the totem pole when you work 40+ hours a week, with a 2-hour commute on top of that).

I'm bummed about the weather, I think it's going to be a crap shoot, rain wise. Oh well, at least we're away, that's the most important part, right?

I got to spend some time with the girls on Saturday at Kathy L.'s house. We cooked out, had some snacks, and margarita's, and just had fun. Really loved that. Thanks to Kathy for having us.

Gotta show you this pirate ship thing I bought for the kitties. It was on sale at Target. I got it home, and it was in about 50 million pieces! I almost returned it, but I persavered! haha! The thing turned out to be huge, I had no idea. As you can see, Miles is doing his best Jack Sparrow imitation.

DH brought out his duffle bag last nite, and Miles has been laying next to it. He knows were leaving. I think he gets separation anxiety when we are gone.

So, DH got his Bucs season tickets in the mail this week. You've got to check out the packaging they put it in. (They could have saved the increase in ticket prices and just sent them in a plain envelope, but I digress). It is pretty cool packaging, we plan on keeping it:

It's this box, it almost looks like a game box. Then you open it up:

It looks like a game board, or something. Then you lift up the field, and theres a little well, where the tickets go. It's pretty darn neat. I don't know where we're going to put it, but hey, who cares, it's just cool, that's all.

Well, hopefully my day will go quick, but it never does when it's the last one before vacation. Let's hope I can get everything done today. (I'm on the right track, so far!) And pray for no more rain! :)

Wednesday

Hump Day Hump Day Hump Day!

It’s been a crappy week I must say. Not a lot of good news around here.

To start to week, one of our Hilltop Girls, Karen lost her husband over the weekend. He was the same age as me, 37, so that was really heart breaking. I’ve known Karen a long time, from back in the old Florida Scrapper days, and we’ve been table mates several times. I wish there was something I could say to her and her family to make the pain go away, but I know it can’t. I can only keep her in my thoughts, and I hope she knows that all of her Hilltop family is there is she needs it.

I also found out that someone I knows husband has Pancreatic Cancer. I don’t want to say who, because I found out through 3rd hand information, and I’m not sure if it’s something that’s public knowledge right now. I just know that the outlook is grim. Another young life...(He’s in his early 40’s).

And lastly, my cubicle mate, Camille’s husband goes in for surgery tomorrow for spots on his lungs. He had Colon Cancer a few years ago, and they are not sure if this is a reoccurrence or something different. Afterwards, he will go through Chemo, and hopefully that will be the end of it. We will find out tomorrow.

I really do hope things come in threes, as they say. I don’t know if we can hear any more bad news. What do they say; whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger? Yeah, we’ll see about that.

What do you make of this Caylee Anthony story? How do you just lose your kid for 5 weeks and not tell anyone? I have a bad feeling mom killed her. What a lovely piece of work she is, let me tell you. So, so sad. Why do people like this have children in the first place?

And Estelle Getty died yesterday. I love the Golden Girls, and Sophia was my favorite. I watched it all the time when it was on, and I still catch a rerun now and then. Well, enough sadness for the day, let’s hope this week gets better.

Saturday Morning...

Well, here we are again, it's the weekend! YAY! My weekend will be pretty low key.

Yesterday, I went to the doctor and had three moles removed off my back. What fun, right? NOT! The doc tells me they are pretty mild, and I shouldn't lose sleep over them. It's more precautionary. He thinks they should just come off now before they develop into something, and of course, they were sent off to be biopsied, to make sure.

I also have two on my stomach that I have to go back for in a few weeks. He said one of those looked 50/50. Those aren't reassuring odds, are they? Again, he wasn't overly concerned, especially since I don't have any family history. (Well, at least as far as I know).

What's aggravating, is those two on my stomach I showed the NP when I was there last year. I told the dr. that, but he didn't seem concerned. "Sonya (the NP) is very thorough, and I sign off on all her charts, so I'm sure she didn't miss anything". SIGH! He also said that these things change in a year, so it's no surprise. (Well to you maybe, but it is to me! Esp. when I've been coming in for my yearly check like I'm supposed to!)

Oh well, that's what you get for being pasty and growing up in Florida, and being a water lover, to boot.

We're back to square one on our tile project for the house. The estimate from Flooring America came in way over budget. DH wants to go to Lowes, since they did our bathrooms, and get an estimate from them, so they will probably do that on Sunday. In the meantime, he's going to the Rays game tonite with his buddy Patrick (Simo's dh), and I'm chilling at home, doing laundry, and probably cleaning up the scrap room. (It looks like a bomb went off in there, since I got back from the birthday crop. Poor Angie!) So, I'll have enough to keep occupied, this weekend.

It's a Really Big Day, Today!!!

For two of my favorite people. (Yes, you are all MY people, LOL!)

Big Birthday wishes to Miss Linda, the glue that holds us all together in Hilltop Land!!! You are the awesome-ist! We love you! I hope you get spoiled rotten!!!

And another Big Birthday wish to my "special" people, Barb, who is probably in a plane somewhere headed to Chicago and CHA. I know the girls will make sure you have a wonderful day!

As promised here are just a few pics from Saturday...

Here's me just getting to the dressing room, and getting started. Yes, I look like hell there, but I was comfortable, LOL!

Here's Mike our vocal coach, and Gloria, our pianist for the show. Gloria is a great musician, she could make a funeral march sound good. And Mike is just an overall good guy. He really worked with us, and we came so far with him. In addition to Music Manager, he's also the head man in charge at the church where we are rehearsing, until they get a permanent pastor, so he works hard 24/7.

Here's John, our director, with Heidi, one of the soloists. Heidi is my new girl crush, btw. Haha! And she's a suishi person like me, gotta love that. John is the man who put this whole thing together. Not only did he have a dream and a vision of what he wanted this to be, he believed in us, and inspired us to see it in ourselves. He is an amazing person, and he and his partner Linda worked so hard for this to become reality, and we love them for it.

And here are some backstage pics, getting ready. We're all ready to go and shine at this point:

A Really Big Shooooeeee...

I am so tired, but in a good way. This was an exhausting weekend, but it was well, well worth it.

The concert was a huge success! Everything went off without a hitch, and John, our director, and Mike our vocal coach, were so proud of us. It was a standing ovation at the end, and apparently that’s the first time that had ever happened with any of the other groups’ premiere. John said “if you want to know how well you did, well, just look at the audience, that says it all!”

The day started off early, at around 12:30, where we got all our stuff, and got our dressing rooms and everything. Then it was more of “hurry up and wait” as the crew decided that was a good time for them to take a break. So, we all sat around and chatted with each other, and the time did go by fast, as did the whole day.

At 2:00, we did a run through with the band. That was the first time we had played with the band, and boy did it sound different. It really livened everyone up, and we were ready to go. After a dinner break, and time to get into our uniforms, we took the stage at 7:00.

Everyone sounded awesome. The crowd was great, you couldn’t have asked for a better audience. DH was there, with his mom and a friend. Elle and Bob were there too. It was a great turnout.

Of course, with everything, it can’t go off without a little drama. My MIL’s ex apparently showed up and sat about 3 rows behind them. Unbeknownst to me, his sister is in our group, and the whole family had turned out. So, MIL and her friend left a little bit after the half. Oh, well, their loss, for the finale was wonderful!!!

BIG THANKS to Bob and Elle for making the trip out, it meant a lot to me that you guys were there, and I am so glad you guys enjoyed yourselves.

I know Dianne took alot of pictures, and she's going to send me the link, so as soon as I get it, I will post some here. Tonight is the cast party, and then a break until September, where we start rehearsing for Candlelight at Epcot over Thanksgiving weekend. Then we’re back at TBPAC on March 15th. (BTW, tickets for Phantom went on sale yesterday for November, anyone interested?)

I’ll be busy the next few months, though, the tile guy comes today to measure out our kitchen. Then I plan on going by Sherwin Williams the next few days to get paint for the kitchen and laundry room. Our beach trip starts on the 31st (plus our anniversary!) and then we’ll be in Savannah in August for Jeff’s wedding. I may do some painting this weekend, but I think for the most part, I’ll be catching up on sleep, LOL!

How was your weekend?

Hope everyone had a great 3-day weekend. We had an interesting weekend. Wish it were longer, that’s for sure.

4th of July was nice. We bbq’d, had ribs and chicken, and other things. There is a family down the street that came over, basically handed DH some raw chicken and said, here, cook this. Okaayyyyy.... They also made this taco dip thing that I think was not cooked right, or left out too long or something, because it tore up my tummy. That put me out for a little while, but I came back to watch some fireworks.

That was interesting, too, to say the least. Our neighbor bought over $500 worth of fireworks, and DH commented that he must have connections, because this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill stuff that you get from the tent on the corner.

Well, bright boy decided to stack one of the mortar round boxes on top of an empty one. So, when they lighted the box turned over, and fired right into the crowd. Luckily, he was able to kick the box away before there was more damage. No one was hurt seriously, just one little boy freaked out, as the thing went right under his chair. The guy felt bad, for sure, and I’ll bet he’ll never do something like that again. Never a dull moment around here, isn’t there?

We went to the Rays game with our neighbor Steve and his son, Daniel. That was pretty good. We won, of course. 9-2. YAY!!!! We sat in right field next to the Rays tank, and that was cool, as you could see them all swim by. Not bad seats, but it’s a little bit of a tight squeeze, (esp. when the guy next to you probably weighs close to 300 lbs!) So, I got out for a while and just wandered around the dome, soaking it all in. I took a couple of pics, but not very many, because dummy me forgot my memory card. Darn!

And Steve is, well, how do I say it, obsessed with his car. (And it’s only a Nissan.) We had to park at the very far end of the parking lot, next to the entrance, so we didn’t have to wait in traffic (read: we walked a mile!) And the car had to be parked next to a curve, as close to the curve as possible, so the car in the next stall doesn’t cause any dings. Uh, yeah, okay, whatever you say. I was so tired when I got home yesterday, and just collapsed. I will probably do more of the same tonite.

It’s going to be a big week, as our big show is Saturday. Can’t wait. (Still lots of tickets available, if you’re interested, just let me know.) But we have rehearsal both Tuesday and Thursday this week, and Saturday will be a long day, as we start at noon with all the staging and everything.

So, I’ll be a busy beaver once again.

Recovering...

Another week is going by. You’d think it would be a quick one, what with being off on Friday and all. But it’s not. It’s just dragging by.

I’m still recovering from the weekend. It takes me a few days to catch up on sleep and a few more days to get my stuff put away.

I must say that the Birthday Crop was a huge success!! Linda did her usual great job as always. Lots of fun and laughs and food. And as always I did lots of laughing and eating and not much cropping. I did get my Cupcake book finished, from Jules’s class, got a few pages in the boys’ album done, and started my clock, but that was about it. But, it was well, well worth it.

Got to catch up with the Ft. Lauderdale crew. Always a trip, they are. And Barb and Gerri-Anne. Barb does tell some heckuva stories. And Jill came in from NC, that’s always fun. Stacey and Michelle came up from Sarasota.

Let me tell you about Stacey, that girl can cook!!!! She made: Texas Sheet Cake, Brownies, Lemon Poundcake and these Key Lime bars which were to die for!!! All from scratch and enough to feed an army. Well done, Stacey!

And then my table buddies, Di, Kathy, Michele, Elle and Chalupa (who is recovering nicely from her spaying, I hear!) Ah, Chalupa, what a spoiled little thing she is. Gotta love it. But then Sunday, it was back home to reality. Sigh!

Ran by Ruban last nite, after much urging from DH who wanted pizza from the Q. If you didn’t know, they are doing their 40% off sale this week. I got a few stock up things. Got some of the new Heidi Grace, I love her. So cute. Oh, and so you guys know, who are going, I paid for the Think Pink crop in September, so I’m all set there.

But poor DH, no Q’s pizza for him. They are closed for now. One of the girls told me that the old owners bought it back and they will reopen soon. I know they said it wasn’t as good with the new couple who had it, but I still thought it was really good. So, I’m a little bummed, but it will be back soon, better than ever, I hope. So, I tried Gino’s on the other side of the street, the girls recommended.

The pizza was pretty good. Not as thick as Q’s, but still pretty tasty. The steak sandwich was only so/so. But the service was kind of sucky. I was obviously keeping the girl behind the counter from her important text messaging. And the one guy, who seemed to be the manager, just handed the pizza and turned around. No “Thank You”, No “Have a Nice Day”, not even a “Hey, it’s hot, be careful”. At least the Q’s couple were very sweet, and always so nice to people. Oh, well, welcome to the 21st century I guess.

Any big plans for the 4th? We’re heading over to Sam’s tonight to get some stuff for our BBQ. Here’s hoping it’s not too crowded.