A Walk in the Park

We had a very busy weekend. Mike did buy a bike this weekend. He wised up and did not purchase a full-faced helmet. Sorry to disappoint you Susan, but no picture will be forth coming. Actually, Mike said he does not want a picture of him on his bike posted on my blog. He rode 4 miles on Saturday and 6 miles on Sunday. I was impressed.

On Sunday he rode to the Lake Norman State Park and I went with the dogs and picked him up. We took the dogs for a walk while we were there. Foggy and Yana love going to the park. Foggy runs around with endless energy. Yana...well, she tries her best to keep up. Today was a perfect day for her weather wise. It was overcast and about 50 degrees...perfect Yana weather. She did have one stumbling block though..

"Hmmm, this could be trouble."

"How the heck did Foggy do this?"

"Maybe I should just take a breather"

"Lady, are you just gonna take pictures all day or are you gonna give me a hand?"

I did eventually have to pick her up and carry her over the logs. She has low ground clearance.

Here's Foggy taking a short water break.

Cheater, Cheater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqIsnIp5uc

Check out my new favorite song!

Scary!!

Charles Barkley was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk. When I first saw his mug shot, I had to quickly avert my eyes. My first thought was "Damn!!". No TV makeup and being drunk can make a person look like they just crawled out from under a rock!!

He'brew

Just had to share...

Mike got a gift certificate from a client to Wine Maestro, a local store in Statesville. Instead of buying wine, he bought 5 different kinds of obscure beer. The funniest one was a beer called He'brew, The Chosen Beer.

As the label says:

Why is this beer different than other beers? As commanded, we at He'brew have been fruitful and multiplied our offerings. Tradition teaches that the Messiah's name is Shalom-Peace. With your first sip of this rich, dark, and delicious libation, we hope to offer a momentary taste of microbrewed bliss. If you feel the sudden urge to beat your swords into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4) or to picnic with the lion and the lamb (Is. 11:6)...Rejoice!!! Now our award winning brewers can't claim supernatural powers - simply a fanatical commitment to brewing world class beers: A truly scrumptious mitzvah (good deed)! Through the new millennium and beyond, may your cups runneth over with the blessing of great beer and great shtick. To the Future! To a Bold Life! L'Chaim!

I thought this was just hilarious!!

Straight From Texas

Well, meet the newest member of the family. We are now the proud owners of THREE cars.Why we need three cars you may ask...I really don't know, ask Mike!

It all started last Sunday when Mike started reading on some online forum about a Chrysler dealership in Dallas, Texas that was practically 'giving away' Crossfires. Well, the deal was just something that 'we' couldn't pass up. He was giddy!!! He made some calls on Monday and he got the last manual transmission they had. He flew to Texas on Saturday morning. Yes, that's right, he flew to Texas to get a car. He drove half way back Saturday and got home Sunday at 7pm.

It is definitely a sports car. It is very low to the ground and I can't see out of the back window. There are only two seat, no back seat at all. But it is fun to drive and we've always liked the Crossfires. We're excited to have it and now, all I have to do is learn how to drive it!!!

Update

Thanks for everyone's concern about Foggy. This is him this past Saturday as we were on the way to the vet. They pulled out his drainage tubes and cleaned him up. He still has his 10 stitches, they will come out on Saturday. He's been having to wear the cone because he keeps trying to lick at the stitches. He's been a good patient, but I think he's getting anxious to get back out in the yard.

As for the two legged member's of the family, we're doing good. I've got the house decorated for Christmas. I love putting the decorations out. I wish I had some nicer decorations and ornaments, but in the end, I'm just too cheap to splurge! We went to Rob and Carla's on Saturday and we played their new Wii. I had a sore right arm on Sunday and my back was a bit tight. Sad, I know. But the Wii was a lot of fun and we were pretty funny playing it. The tennis is my favorite. I have a habit of moving and lunging for the ball, like I'm actually physically playing.

Well, I don't have much to blog about, I guess that's a good thing considering the contents of my most recent posts.

Complete and Total Domination!

I know I've been blogging a lot lately. However, I could not pass up the opportunity to brag on myself and diss on Mike. See above - I killed him when we went shooting on Saturday. Not only did I beat him (45 to 29), but I beat him with his own gun!!! I used his 12 gauge instead of my 28 gauge. I think I'm going to buy a 12 gauge for myself.

I really think I could have had an even better score. I look to shoot over 50% for the first time the next time we go!!! That is if Mike isn't too embarrassed to go shooting with me again.

A Fate Worse Than Death

This morning was utter chaos!! First, I put my sweater on this morning and it had a huge hole on the shoulder. Weird! I was running late and had to get gas, of course. Then, 77 south was backed up at Exit 36 and it was already 6:50. I have to be at work by 7am. Oh well, no one's there by 7am anyway, no one will know if I'm late. Then, the hammer drops...Mike calls and I have both sets of car keys to the Lexus. Now, to the uninformed reader, one may think this is solely my fault. While yes, I do take partial blame, Mike needs to shoulder some of the blame too. The Lexus has one of those smart keys. You don't have to get it out of your purse, it senses the key and unlocks the door and you can start the motor without inserting the key. Well, the battery in Mike's remote is dead...sorry, has been dead for at least a month. Therefore, we have to switch keys out whenever we need to drive the Lexus. Well, I drove it yesterday and forgot to put his keys back. So, I say it's partly his fault.

So, at 6:50, I have to turn around and head back to Troutman. Here's where the 'Fate Worse Than Death' part comes in...I had to drive 77S with all the other mindless losers trying to get to work by 8am. It was bumper to bumper traffic from Exit 28 all the way to work (Exit 10). I seriously contemplated ramming my car into the truck in front of me and ending it all. I would be even less stable if I had to do that everyday. You can't pick a fast lane. You get in the left lane, the right lane is faster and visa versa. It must be the devil at work!!! Now, lucky me, since I got here late, I have to stay until 5pm and experience torture even Jack Bauer couldn't endure twice in one day!!!!

Election Day

Today's the big day. Today we find out who our next president will be. As Dan Ramirez (Charlotte City Council Member) told me at the Edifice Fall Festival, "Vote early and vote often!" If you're unsure of who to vote for, I have a few suggestions:

Edifice Fall Festival

Last Saturday was our annual Fall Festival at work. It is held in our parking lot. This year's festival was much more enjoyable than last year's. For starters, I'd only been working here for about a month last year and really didn't know anyone that well. This year we had a Ferris Wheel (Eric, the owner was giddy about that). I'm not a fan of the Ferris Wheel in general, much less one that is toted from place to place on the back of a truck. However, Mike wore me down and we rode it and I lived to blog about it. It did have a nice view of uptown at night.

All the employees and many owners and subs came along with their kids. The kids had a bouncy slide thing and there was face and pumpkin painting. There were two video game consoles set up. The kids (and many uncoordinated adults) played Guitar Hero and the Wii Sports games. There was a cake walk for prizes and a best beard contest. The fellas at the office grew beards for about a month in preparation. There were clowns, magicians, and a bluegrass band. It had all the Fall Festival 'musts'. This is a picture of my co-worker, Candace, and her adorable little boy, Lance:

And finally, there, of course, was food. Eric and a co-worker stay the night in Eric's RV in the parking lot tending to two whole pigs on the BBQ. There was BBQ, thanks to the two pigs, chicken and all the fixings. Mike loves the grilled corn-on-the-cob...yuck!! There were lots of hungry guests. This is all that was left of the pigs...warning...not for the vegetarian reader...

New Fall TV Schedule

Well, some new shows and some returning shows have premiered in the recent weeks. Since I am a fairly big TV watcher, I thought I give you my opinion on the shows I'm watching.

Fringe
This is a new show on Fox from the creators of Lost. I am really loving this show. The storyline is a continuing mystery with a different mini mystery to solve each week. The characters are enjoyable and easily likable. It only makes since that I'd like this show since I love Lost. My only complaint so far is that the over-riding mystery of the show is still a little vague and is very slow to be explained.

The Mentalist
I have only watched one episode and I'd say it was only so-so. I really like Simon Baker's character, but I really don't like the female lead detective. She was on the first season of Prison Break, she was a lawyer. Anyway, her voice is too whiny and she seems to be too frail to be a tough, hard core detective. So, she isn't very believable. The Mentalist's 'talents' seems to be a bit lame right now too. He is supposed to be very observant and can thus pass as a psychic, but so far, that hasn't been too convincing. I taped last night's episode, so I'll give it another shot.

Prison Break
I am no longer a die hard fan. Last season was the beginning of the end. I really thought the storyline was lame and the way they broke out of prison #2 was just too corny. The start of this season put the nail in the coffin. When Scofield had all the tattoos on his chest and arms removed in one sitting without anesthesia, that was the end for me. Come on, how stupid can you get?!?!? The whole first episode was just dumb in my opinion, not to mention that I thought the acting was just terrible. I'm really tired of the 'whisper talking' that Scofield does. So, although Mike still watches, I no longer pay it any attention.

Finally, my tried and true reality shows are back, The Amazing Race and Survivor. Although I swore off 24 toward the end of last season (I didn't even watch the last couple of episodes), I may have to give it another shot. The commercials look intriguing and the storyline appears to be very different from the 24 standard. Jack doesn't appear to be running around L.A. in record time saving America from impending doom.

Breast Cancer Awareness Walk

Saturday was the three mile walk. Edifice, my employer, was a sponsor of the walk and we also formed a team to raise money and awareness. Thanks to all my friends and family that were kind enough to donate to the cause. There were a few employees from work that made it to the walk on Saturday. I took my dog, Yana. I know, many of you who know Yana may be wondering why I took her and not Foggy. Well, it's simple, Foggy would have tried to kill any other four legged creature he came across. Yana loves attention and I figured with all the other people that she'd be able to make it 3 miles. Plus, it was overcast and a little rainy that morning. Well, she did beautifully, at first. There were a lot of pink balloons around and she desperately wanted a balloon. We started the walk and she immediately had to 'lighten her load', if you get my drift. Luckily, I had thought ahead and brought a plastic bag to scoop the poop. But then I had to carry said poop for about a mile and a half. Yana continued to be a trooper. At about the two mile mark she started to fade. I stopped and let my group go on so that Yana could have a little break and I gave her some much appreciated water. The next half mile she was slow but we were making progress. Then, with about a half mile left, she just refused to walk. We were on the sidewalk out of peoples way at least. So, I'd go squat beside her and tell her how great she was doing and we'd start walking again. She'd walk for a few more blocks and then stop again and the whole cycle would repeat. She did get a lot of encouragement from passing walkers (that wasn't embarrassing!)! Then we came upon a big hill and Yana does not like hills. So, about half way up she stopped and there was no restarting her this time. So, yes, I had to carry my fifty pound dog up the hill (again, not embarrassing at all)! But after that I could see the end and she must have sensed it too because she didn't stop again and we made it, thank goodness we made it!!!!! I was super proud of her. Here she is at the end, recuperating...


On a more serious note, it was inspiring to see all the many breast cancer survivors and all the people that came out to support them. I saw a former client of mine, and breast cancer survivor, as well. It was great to see her again. Also, Rose, our office manager, walked with her sister, who is a two time survivor. Those two had the best time together and boy do they look alike.

It was a fun time and Yana has gotten her walking in for the rest of the year!!

CPE at the Grove Park Inn

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I had CPE at The Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. I had never been there before and it is very nice. However, I did not get to enjoy all that the Grove Park has to offer. I couldn't afford any of the luxurious spa treatments offered. I couldn't even afford to use the pool!

The CPE classes were painfully boring, as always. There were two former client's of mine there, so I had a few people to buddy up to.

One of my former clients, Chris Hyder, wanted to go to dinner on Thursday night. I was cool with that. I thought maybe we'd splurge on dinner at the Inn or eat at a nice restaurant in town. But no, Chris wanted to get pizza. I eat pizza once a week at home, so that would not have been my first choice. But, fine. So we ate pizza and Chris had two beers. Well, Chris drove and he couldn't find his way back to the Inn. He, for whatever reason, didn't go back the way he came. He finally stopped at a convenience store to ask directions and freaked out because a cop was in there and he'd had two whole beers!! He ended up having to talk to the cop to get directions. We finally get headed in the right direction and make it back to the hotel. Then, brilliant Chris, decides that he needs to find the closest possible parking spot. This entails driving the wrong way up a one lane bridge. And of course, there are no parking spots any closer. So, we drove around the parking lot for an additional 5 minutes. I was so irritated by then. Luckily I was able to avoid Chris for the entire day on Friday!! Now, it's back to work today.

It's Tough Being Me

So far this is how the week has gone:

Sunday: I took the dogs for their weekly walk. Of course, Yana had to relieve herself in a neighbors yard. Luckily, I was prepared (this time, sshh!!) and had a plastic bag to scoop the poop. But I was not feeling too hip about carrying the bag of poop around the rest of the walk. Lucky for me, I spotted a trashcan that had already been pushed to the curb for the next day's garbage pick up. I thought...Score!! It's early, I took a quick look over the right shoulder, then the left shoulder...looked like the coast was clear, so I went for it. Real quick, 1, 2, 3...lift lid, deposit poop, close lid. We're off scott and poop free...or so I thought. I took 2 more steps and looked to the left and right across the street from the now poop filled trashcan was a neighbor sitting on his front porch looking right at me...oh well, busted!!

Monday: I found out that I am NOT the favorite daughter!! Yeah, that's right...My mom and dad were supposed to come up and check out the progress of the house. But Mom called early Sunday to blow me off. She said she was just too busy after a long weekend of partying. However, I found out, from an anonymous source, that while she was too busy to make time for me, she wasn't too busy to fix lunch for my sister Susan and her husband Joe. Mmmhmm...that's right...I found out!!! At least I know where I stand now...second favorite, sorry Kathy!!!

Tuesday: It was just one of those days. Everything I touched was just going to pot. I was having a breakdown and I yelled across to my co-worker "I think I'm going to start taking my dog's crazy pills". Just as the words were out of my mouth, a Project Manager appears. He said, "I didn't hear a thing". So, he now thinks that I'm a nut job that takes my dog's crazy pills!! Perfect!!!

Boring Weekend

I wasn't feeling much like blogging today but I just got some good news. I mailed a very important package certified priority mail last Saturday. As of today, I still had not received a confirmation of delivery. I just thought to check on-line and it was delivered and signed for on Sept. 3rd!!! Yippee!! So, I figured I'd do some blogging, but then I realized I really don't have anything to blog about.

It was a pretty uneventful weekend. We, of course, went by the house. Oh I must tell you, we purchased a coupon on Ebay that was issued by Home Depot to their employees for 20% off any purchase up to $3,000. Well, since we're not employees of HD, we were told that Lowe's would accept the coupon. Well, they did. We paid about $15 bucks for the coupon and saved about $100 bucks on our purchase at Lowe's. We've already purchased another coupon!! That was neat!! If you are going to have any big purchases, I'd look into buying a coupon. The ones we've seen expire on 12/31/08.

Anyway, we dropped some stuff off at the house and spent about an hour picking up construction trash from around the house. Man it was hot!! We had to, or Mike had to, push the wheel barrow from the backyard to the construction dumpster in the front yard. It is a slight up hill climb from back to front. After that little bit of work, we were wiped out!!

Sunday was pretty unproductive as well. However, I was extremely excited to purchase a pair of jeans at Kohl's. I have the worst time finding jeans that don't have a big gap in the back or that aren't so low that I can hardly keep them up. I tried on two pairs and both pairs fit tight around my waist and minimized the size of my butt (bonus!). Man, that was so exciting. I hate trying on 10 pairs of jeans and having none fit right. That was about the most exciting thing that happened this weekend.

Now, I'm just waiting until we leave for L.A. on Thursday!!

Home Sweet Home

I went to my parents house after work yesterday. They recently had hardwood floors installed so I went to check them out. They really looked nice! I think it really makes the house look great. Dad is having the installers come back to replace one board. I looked at the board pretty closely and didn't see a dang thing the matter with it. But, it's his money and if he doesn't like it then he should have it replaced.

They also just got back from a trip to Niagara Falls so I got the low down on the trip and checked out the pictures. I'm really glad they took the trip. Now that everyone is out of the house, I hope they continue to take more and more trips. They had some really nice pictures and it seemed like they had a good time.

Talking about the Niagara trip got us talking about other family trips. We couldn't decide if Dad drove the big van to Florida for our Disney trip or if we took the station wagon. Then I was struck by a memory of sitting in traffic in the station wagon in Florida and Susan, my sister, farting and blaming it on the Big Mac she'd just eaten. So, that solved that mystery. Let that serve as a warning...Big Mac's will cause 8 year old girls to fart!!

Mom took pity on me and let me eat a nice home cooked meal. It was much better than the dinner for one I had planned for myself. I left at about 6:30 and traffic was terrible on 77 north. The reason for the delay was my personal favorite...a wreck on the other side of the interstate!!!! UGH!! But because of the delay I did get to hear one of my favorite songs from the 80's, the theme for the TV show Greatest American Hero (look it up)!

It's always good to visit with Mom and Dad...love ya Mom and Dad!!!

Family, Friends, & Fish

Last weekend, Mike and I spent all of Saturday running errands for the house. We picked out a few lights, paint, and moldings. Then we met Mike's parents (sitting behind Mike) and Ray and Marie Sipe (sitting behind me) out at the new house. Ray Sipe is one of the founding owners of Sipe Lumber Company. Mike's mom has worked there for over 50 years!! Mike worked there during high school and college. Ray is over 80 now and he still goes to work every day!! We have purchased all of our building material for the house from Sipe. Everyone at Sipe is super nice and have been very helpful during the whole process.

Well, Ray had called Mike's parents and said he wanted to go to see the house. So, we met them there and showed them around. Ray and Marie are very sweet people. We then went to a fish camp in Statesville for dinner. Mike always speaks very highly of the Sipe family and he has fond memories of his time at the lumber company. We really enjoyed spending time with everyone on Saturday and we really appreciated Ray and Marie showing interest in our house!!

Random...

I was going to blog about something else today but this has kind of been bugging me and then I read Lisa Stone's (Harland's) blog today and I couldn't hold back any more. She has got this girl that always posts comments to her blog, Kim. I figure, OK, they must be friends. Then I read a comment this Kim girl posted about Lisa moving to LA and she refers to the fact that she's NEVER met Lisa. Well, I can't say that Lisa and I are close friends. She is my sister Kathy's best friend since forever. So, I have at least laid eyes on and spoken to Lisa face to face over the years.

Ok, now I'm thinking that Lisa has a stalker. Kim appeared to be very upset that Lisa was moving. I don't know who this Kim is, but I'm worried. But, I push that thought aside. I don't want to voice my opinion out loud, hence someone think I'm nuts. The next significant post I remember is by Lisa's husband. It has a video of Lisa bowling at the end of the post. I've heard from Kathy that Lisa bowls funny, she does this hop before she releases the ball. Anyway, he posted a video of this. It was cute. But guess who also bowls like that...KIM!!! Yeah right, like she also does a little hop before she throws the ball. Well, that was the last straw, I think Lisa needs to take out a blog restraining order against this chick!!! Lisa, I hope you read this and take all the necessary precautions!!!! If you're not worried, maybe you need to rent the movie, Single White Female!!!

Yummy...Sushi!!

I know, I'm a bit behind the times. But I had sushi for the first time today at lunch. I was skeptical, and a bit scared, but it was really good. I couldn't use the chopsticks. I had to find a fork. I don't know if it was the sushi I liked or the soy sauce flavor. And I really don't know what I ate. I do know that I didn't eat anything that really looked like raw fish. I had those rolls...you know, a small amount of actual fish with a lot of other stuff.

I must say, I'm getting to be pretty damn hip. First the blog, then sushi...who knows what's next!!

A Little Something Fun

This is for you baseball fans out there. Mike and I are participating in the Major League Baseball challenge called Beat the Streak. You have to try and beat Ted Williams hit streak. It's free and if you can do it, you win $1 million dollars. You pick one hitter a day that you think will get a hit. You can pick the same hitter as many times as you like. The website is pretty user friendly. (As an aside and a pat on the back: I'm getting so dang good at this blog stuff that I added a link to the website. You just have to click on the title of the blog and it'll take you to the site. I know, you're impressed!!) It has all the games for that day along with the scheduled starter and their ERA. Then you can click on the game for more details about the opposing teams batting average against that pitcher and for the year.

I started yesterday and I must say I got off to a rousing start...my guy went 0 for!!

All well, at least I didn't have a long streak going. Mike has like a 4 game hit streak going. The longest to date by anyone has been 48 games (I think).

Gotta run, I'm supposed to be working!