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.

Trip to L.A.

Well, Mike and I left for sunny California last Thursday. We flew back on Sunday. The main point of the trip was to see two Angel's games. We saw the Thursday and Friday games. The Angels won both, Friday's by a walk-off home run. Thursday, we saw K-Rod tie the all-time saves record. So, that was definitely fun!!

Now, as for the rest of the visit...just so, so. If you ask Mike, he'd say that the highlight of the trip was bacon. Yes, that's right, bacon. He was so in love with the bacon served by the Doubletree at breakfast I thought he'd never shut up about it. He gorged himself on it both mornings we were there and went on and on about how he'd never had such good bacon in all his life. He's easily entertained!! (This blog is really pissing me off, I can't get it to put a blank line between these two paragraphs. I've tried like a hundred times!!! What the heck!!!!!)

Other than the baseball games, we did some sightseeing. L.A. proper wasn't much to see if you ask me. Hollywood was very dirty and quite frankly, a little scary. Beverly Hills is overrated. L.A. is surrounded by some beautiful mountains though. We explored the Angeles National Forest on Friday afternoon. There were some really nice, twisty roads (better suited for our bike than the rental car). And let me just say, California should really consider investing in bathrooms with running water. A toilet that flushes is all I ask for. Anyway...these are some pictures from Friday...

I thought this was one of the most amazing sights I'd ever seen. From the lookout from the mountains, all you could see were clouds!

More mountain pictures (see above).

On Saturday the plan was to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway and stay outside of Santa Barbara. Well, the coastline along the highway was nice, what we could see of it. There was so much haze, or smog, I'm not sure, that the view was very limited. Once we got to Goleta, we drove through the Santa Ynez Mountains (I think, I can't really remember). Anyway, it was actually very pretty. Again, may I suggest that California invest in a few more rest stops. These are a few pictures...

Notice there are no pictures of Mike and I. That's because the pictures were less than flattering. The camera and I are not friends. I don't think I'll be going back to L.A. for anything other than baseball games anytime soon.

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!!

Yana...What Can I Say?

Yana is just the strangest/cutest dog at times. Most times though, she's the biggest pain in the rump. She has a unique way of doing most things in life. Some of her quirkiness is out of necessity, but most is out of laziness. For instance, the way she drinks water...

The funny, butt in the air drinking style (as evidenced above), is out of necessity...she has a bad overbite and we just haven't invested in braces yet!! But this on the other hand (2 seconds later)...

Is just plain laziness!!!

Happy Birthday Betty!!

Today is Mike's mom's birthday. Happy Birthday!!! We went to Taylorsville to see her on Sunday and to wish her a happy birthday. Of course I made her have her picture taken for the blog. Pay no attention to the helmet hair Mike and I are both sporting.

Betty is just so adorable. I couldn't have been blessed with a better mother-in-law. Betty, you make sure Wayne is good to you today!! We love you!!!

Baby Virginia's Shower

Saturday my sister Susan and I hosted a baby shower for our younger sister Kathy. Mom was gracious enough to let us borrow her house for the shower since neither of us have a descent home of our own (sad, I know!). Kathy is due in about 4 weeks...so this shower was not a moment too soon. I have to take a moment to brag on Susan and myself. Above is the baby shower cake (adorable!) and the table of food offered to the guests. Susan did a lot, OK, most of, the cooking and she did a great job.

Mom to be, Kathy, with Great Grandma to be!! My Grandma is very worried about Kathy and Susan having what they need as they become first-time mothers. She is just too sweet!!! We all love her and Grandpa so much!

Here are the three Ford girls!! Mom didn't get us centered in the picture and I couldn't figure out how to edit it to fix it...so, yes, I know it is not centered. But that doesn't take away from how cute we look. Well, at least they do...notice Susan's ever growing baby bump. I think she looks just adorable. Everyone was amazed at how good Kathy looked. She really hasn't gotten too big and she has really looked great throughout her pregnancy!

Here is Kathy with all her loot. Everyone was very generous and she got lots of cute stuff. All the ladies love the baby clothes. There were lots of "oohs and aahs"!

The shower guests were Ford family members, except for our Aunt Annette (we missed you!), Mom's friends, and a few of Kathy's friends. I think the shower went well and everyone had a good time. I think that for our first attempt at hosting a baby shower, we did a pretty good job. Now, I've got to start planning for Susan's shower!!