Monday, August 25, 2008

Olympic musings

Well, the Olympics came to a close last nite. I am proud to say that I watched quite a bit of it. I figured I’d share with you my observations.

1) Is the Canadian Synchronized Swimming duo trying to channel Queen Elizabeth I? You be the judge.
2) Memo to the Croatian Water Polo team: Those porno moustaches, just make you look like Ron Jeremy. (link)
3) Oh, yeah, those Chinese gymnasts are 16. Uh, and I’m turning 21!!!!
4) And I think I see some boobies on the Chinese “men’s” diving team. Egads! It’s East Germany, but in reverse!
5) What’s up with Brazil and nobody having any last names? Pele was one thing, he was a legend, there’s only one of him. But I think there are more than 1 Sheilla, Paula and Mari in the world. How does the IOC let them get away with that? And the Norwegian Beach Volleyball team wanted to use first names only too, but the IOC nixed it. Uh, yeah, there’s only one Inge and Ingrid in all of Norway.
6) Everyone loves Michael Phelps. And I do, too, don’t get me wrong. But my boy is Ryan Lochte. Dude, he’s a Gator, what’s not to love.
7) And three cheers for all of the “old-timers” who showed those kids whose boss. In addition to Dara Torres who’s 41 (another former Gator, I might add), how about Ian Millar the 61 year old Equestrian who won a medal for Canada or 32 year old Laura Wilkinson diving against girls half her age. If it not had been for her injury she probably would have beaten them too. But my favorite was the 33 year-old Romanian who medaled on the vault for Germany. She went to Germany to help fight her son’s Leukemia. A great story.
8) Speaking of gymnastics, since when did they stop having ties in gymnastics? What a gyp that was!!!
9) And speaking of ties, does anyone know why there were all these ties for Bronze in wrestling? It seems like there were two bronzes in several events, but I don’t know why.
10) And lastly, the poor sport award goes to...Well, there’s a tie (again!): The Swedish wrestler who threw his bronze medal on the floor in a temper tantrum OR the Cuban judo participant who got mad and (along with his coach) beat up the official. They both are now banned for life. Gee, ya think?

Friday, August 22, 2008

some Savannah pics...

First, I found pics of the house that the wedding party was using. This was such a cool party house. The website is here, if you want to check it out.







Well here's where we were "supposed" to eat lunch at on Sunday. Boo...hiss...That's a major dissapointment, so who know's when we'll ever be back there. Oh well, moving on.









Here is the view from River Street, and the bridge. Lots of neat little places there, some pubs, some shops etc. Definately a place to waste time in.



This is the famous waving lady statute. Legend has it her husband sailed off and never returned. But every day for 40 years she stood and waved the flag so he could see her when he came back, but he never did. (Our tour bus driver said this was pretty much a story and it wasn't really 40 years. But it sounded good.)


I'll leave you with some of the architecture in the downtown near all the squares. Just lovely. Savannah is the oldest city in GA, btw, founded in the 1700's and some of these places date back to there.


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Gorgeous...



We stayed on Tybee Island in GA this weekend, and it was a great place. Here is the historic lighthouse that is on the island (at sunset). Isn't it beautiful. I definately would go there again.

We stayed down near the pier. (BTW, I would NOT recommend staying at the Howard Johnson's. Ick!) As you can see they are real serious about hurricane preparation.
We ate at this place here, right across from the Lighthouse, Friday nite. I think it was called North Beach Club, or North Beach Bar or something. Cool place. They had a really rockin' band playing. They were good. DH had a burger, and I had the crabcake sandwich. Very tasty.
The wedding went off without a hitch, despite the best efforts of the bride and groom, LOL! Knowing them like we do, we did not know what to expect. And there was even a brief time on Friday where we wondered if there would be a wedding. But it was beautiful, as you can see here.


And here is the lovely couple, Jeff and Jennifer. They were (somewhat) well behaved, LOL!


Much drinking and debauchery was had by all. haha! Some of the bridal party and their girlfriends/wives/etc, all rented a big house to stay in. 7 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, about 100 yards from the beach. Would make a nice scrapbooking retreat if anyone is so inclined.
Sunday, we were supposed to eat at The Lady and Sons (Paula Deen's place). I must have the rottenest luck. There was a gas explosion in Downtown Savannah on Friday, and it cut the power to that section of town, so it was closed!!! What a huge disappointment that was.
Well, I'll post some Savannah pictures tomorrow. Back to work.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Another week begins

Kind of a sad weekend around the B. household, unfortunately. We found out yesterday that DH’s Aunt Violet passed away Sunday morning. She is dh’s grandfather’s sister-in-law. A nice, sweet lady. She was in an assisted living facility, and they put her to bed on Saturday nite. When they went to check on her Sunday morning, she was gone. So she passed in her sleep. I guess if you are going to go, that’s the way to do it.

Of course, DH’s uncle is so full of tact. We’re in the middle of a kid’s birthday party, when he blurts out, “Hey, did you hear about Aunt Violet?” Um...no? “Well, she’s dead.” Well, isn’t that special. :eyeroll:

Sometimes, I can be so over this bunch. Take my MIL. Yesterday was his grandmother’s birthday. When he talked to her a few weeks ago, it was assumed we were going to do something together. Then, when the kids’ party invitation came in the mail, DH is all freaked out, because it’s the same day as Ama’s birthday. I said, hey don’t worry about, just call your mom, and see if she can schedule something another day. Oh, no, can’t do that, it has to be Sunday. Okay, fine, just tell them to do it a little later on Sunday. Oh, no, can’t do that, we’ll just have to leave the party. Okay, fine, do what you want.

So, we don’t hear anything from MIL all week. DH tries to call her on Friday. Can’t get through to her. (Their voice mail is not set-up for some reason). Come to find out yesterday, that MIL and her DH took Ama out...ON SATURDAY. Didn’t ask us, didn’t invite us, DIDN”T EVEN TELL US! (And they took her to LeeRoy Selmon’s, which made DH even more upset!) So, we just did our own thing, and went by Ama’s on Sunday after the party, and brought her, her gift and visited for a while. What can you do? There are just some things that are out of our control. You just shrug it off and move on.

Then on Sunday, Isaac Hayes died. Now that was a bummer. Probably one of the best soul artists of our time. We got to see him about 10 years ago at Ruth Eckerd Hall. It was a great show, albeit short. (Only an hour and a half and no encores). But he was an awesome entertainer.

And then, with Bernie Mac dying on Saturday, another great talent, cut way too short. But here’s something I bet you didn’t know...Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes and Samuel L. Jackson just finished filming a movie that is due for release later this year, called Soul Men. I don’t know about you, but I sure wouldn’t want to be Samuel L. Jackson this weekend. Holy crap!

Friday, August 8, 2008

The weekend is here


Good Morning! Hey, I got this from Kip. My blog is Brilliant, LOL! So, I award this to all my blogger friends, if you don’t have one already. Whee!

Got to tell you a funny story from my nephew. Out of the mouths of babes. First, some background. When DH was little, his grandparents took him up to Louisiana to visit family. According to DH’s grandparents, they were driving across the Panhandle up near Perry, late at nite, when some huge creature crawled across the road. DH’s grandparents swear it was some sort of Bigfoot. (DH has no recollection of this, and swears it didn’t happen.)

Well, Faxon goes up to DH’s grandfather and says “Papa, my dad says you saw a Bigfoot.”
Papa: “Well, yes, I did”
Faxon: “Yeah, Dad says it was because you were drinking beer too much.”

Oh my gosh, the things that kid comes up with. He made me a cute little Sponge Bob picture, too, but it accidently got thrown away. Oh well. The girls are having their birthday party Saturday at the skating rink, so I’ll see if he’ll draw me another one then.

Skating rink? Do people still do that anymore? I had no idea. This one’s on Armenia. Trust me, I will not be skating. I’ve only skated a few times in my whole life, and at my age, and er, um, stature, I’m not about to try again now. Haha!

Anyone watching the Olympics starting tonite. I will be, it should be fun. I just hope everything goes okay, no trouble. I’m just pulling for our guys to win big.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Back to reality...

Well, time to get back to the salt mines. Oh, it’s so hard. But, here I am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

The weekend wasn’t too bad. By Saturday afternoon, the sun was out and shining. And we had a whole day of sun on Sunday. The rest of the time we just ate and sat out on our balcony watching the waves.

Thursday we tried to go to the new Bubba Gump’s that opened up at John’s Pass. When we got there, at around 5:30, it was already a 90 minute wait. As we’ve already paid $5(!) to park, we decided instead to try the Friendly Fisherman next door. We got in fairly quickly, but then it took forever to get served. And then the food was horrible. Mine was over-cooked, dh’s steak was grizzly and the “surf” of his surf and turf was four little shrimp that wouldn’t even feed my cats.

We walked around John’s Pass for a while. It has become such a tourist trap, not the little kitschy place that it used to be. DH found some frozen custard for $6(!), and then we went back home.

Friday we met up with Ryan and had dinner at LeeRoy Selmon’s. Way better than Thursday nite!!! I had some fried green tomatoes for an appetizer, (in honor of Linda and the crew), and some Sweet Heat fried chicken. That stuff is so good, I love the sauce. I need to find the recipe, somewhere. Afterwards, we went Green Iguana to catch the Rays game, and had a few drinks, and then back home.

We spend the rest of the weekend just chilling. I read a lot. I think I read about 15 magazines. I’m almost caught up, but I have to leave some for Savannah next weekend. All in all, it was very relaxing. DH still has his cold though. He says he feels better today, but he’s still coughing a lot.

I wish we could just chill out this weekend, but we’ve got the girls’ birthday party on Sunday. I’m thinking they must be having it early, as school starts next week, but it’s putting crimp on my budget, that’s for sure. Too many birthdays all at once, right after vacation, and then the wedding on top of that. OY! Ah, well, we’ll survive, we always do.

Well, back to getting some work done. My email box was pretty light, believe it or not. So hopefully, the rest of the week will go smooth.