Updates

So, my computer is now officially broken. The cost of fixing it is not worth it according to my computer guy and myself. That computer was about 5 years old. Which, in computer terms, is ancient. So I will soon be getting a new computer. More credit card debt here I come!

I have yet to update my photos from Chicago when I went to the trade show or my pictures from the trip to see the New England Patriots. I'm hoping to get my camera & cord in one place to upload pictures.

Right now I am babysitting. I am not however babysitting a human. I'm babysitting the newest member of T's family. The registered name is still up in the air I think, however she's been called Scout since she got to the house. I flew home on Monday from NE and then got in my car and drove down to Friendswood, TX. Scout howled for about 25 minutes cause she was in her carrier. She does NOT like her carrier. She eventually cried herself to sleep. Poor thing...

She's absolutely adorable. She runs and plays and then falls over and passes out.

Golden Saturday

Yesterday I went down to Friendswood, TX (3 hours away) to meet the puppies that T & the Kids may get. They were absolutely adorable. They had sharp little teeth that were around everything they could get around. They dug in the sandbox, ate the plants, chewed on sticks and any shoe near them. They will find out next week if they get a puppy. There are more people than puppies at this point. Fingers are crossed...

Their mother's name is Mocha. It's a "coffee litter" so their given names must have some kind of relation to coffee. Which is more difficult than originally thought...

Typing Test

I hit 400 points, position 3420 on the ranking list. I typed 525 characters per minute with 94 correct and only 1 wrong!

Click Here for the Typing Test

Halloween 2007

This past Saturday was the annual Halloween party at Tam's. It was three days of set up and will take weeks to tear down. There were fog machines, a cemetary, inflatable haunted house, spooky trail, a tunnel of terror and more. One of my friends' kids said that it was the best party she has ever been to, except her own birthday. It was a great time. Here are some pictures...

-The cupcakes that I made-

-The cemetary-

-The cemetary close up-

-The Haunted House-

-Mummy in Casket-

-Gigantic Scary Spider-

-Tunnel of Terror-

-Ghost Graveyard-

I forgot to get a picture of the mummy hot dogs and the wonderful smokey punch. I was BUSY doin' stuff. There may be more pictures of that stuff on the other "party cam".

Pumpkin Carving

I don't remember carving my own pumpkin at any point of my life. This doesn't mean much though, I don't remember many details. The sister, however, can remember how many times we ran errands in a day when she was two. Last week I was given the task of carving. M & G drew what they wanted and I got started. I didn't empty out the middle or clean it. My job was strictly creating a masterpiece.



Unfortuantely, I also learned a lesson. The "RIP" carving has wilted a tremendous amount and therefore, the letters have sunk backwards into the pumpkin. I guess some before and after pictures would be appropriate. I'll work on that...

I think it may be time to go back to work. I was supervising the electrician at Tam's so she could go work. Fine by me!

New Book

I got a new book this weekend. It's "Blink". It's about thoughts and thinking. I'm on page nineteen. So far, it's pretty interesting. It's basis is that behind every decision, we really knew the answer in the first two seconds that we were presented with the problem/question. Instincts & subconsciousness. More to come.

Tagged by Crazy Better

I got this off Heather's blog.

7 weird things about myself:

1. I love the smell of a new car & new tires.

2. I have to go to sleep with Sportscenter on.

3. My little toe on my left foot bends in instead of down.

4. I brush my teeth in the shower.

5. I haven't owned a brush in 7 years.

6. I've only had one dentist in my life.

7. I'm pretty sure i've broken between 8 to 10 fingers playing softball. Some more than once.

Guest Bathroom

This was my first room to "decorate". I painted, Jill and I picked a shower curtain and it was a surprise for Jill because she has claimed the guest room/ bathroom as her own. She was the first one to sleep in there, so she can pick. She wanted a green bathroom. I thought it turned out pretty good.

Before

In Progress

After

ACl Pics

Here are some of the pictures Jill and I took while at ACL this year.


Sunny & Hot

Entrance

City View

Artsy Guitars

Empty Stage

Hook Em' Horns? I Love You? Hang Loose? "I have a wayward thumb...." - Lisa and Jill

Sunset

Jill's birthday present makes a good hat too!

Jill Visits

The little sister came to visit on Friday. She was, of course, delayed and didn't get in until around 8:30p on Friday. She had to sit in the airport for her birthday. How crappy is that!? But she made it. We had a weekend of the Austin City Limits Music Festival to prepare for. Saturday I woke up, went to coach a softball game and then came home. We headed out to Zilker Park and had a great time. It was hot, but some friends had a blanket in the shade, so we sat there in the mid day heat...it was so much cooler! At least 20 degrees. We saw lots of bands, lots of people and had Kettle Korn worth the 30 minutes standing in line waiting for.

Sunday was more music and fun. We tried to anchor a spot in the shade and put our blanket down on the edge of the shade, expecting it to inch it's way over our blanket and keep us cool. It moved the opposite direction. I should've listened in school when they told us all about that Sun moving, Earth rotating stuff. Eventually we had shade. Three hours later. There's so much more, but right now I can't even start to remember.

Jill left on Monday evening and she left me with one very important thing...sickness. There are two possible sources of my sickness, but I want to blame her because that's what sisters are for! I'm feeling better now that I'm on my cold/sinus medication.

Lots is happening. Coaching softball, ACL updates and my own softball games last night were interesting, but like I said, I can't focus on too much right now.

More to come...

Laundry Day

What would a bunch of pictures be without the cats???? This was what they did on laundry day...

Zoey



Luna finds a cave in the comforter

Trip #2

Mom called me a couple weeks ago and asked me if I could take a day or two off to go to New York with her for Day 1 of the US Open. Of COURSE! I'm the biggest sports fanatic ever. A major tennis tournament, i'll be there! I flew out on Saturday the 25th and met Mom in Atlanta. We flew to NY and found our hotel. I had gotten some recommendations for food from a friend and we headed out to find one of them. By the time we got there it was 5p and the place didn't open until 6p...so we found plan B. Some little bar and grill in the Village. It was descent. Although, later I found out that Cameron Diaz ate at the place we were supposed to be going a week earlier. Oh well... So we went back to the hotel to make our plan for Sunday. Get up early, go see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, hit a pizza place (John's Pizzeria, good) and head up to FAO Schwartz and Central Park. We walked around Central Park until we were tired and headed back to the hotel. We sat for 45 minutes, got on our shoes and headed to Grand Central to catch the 7 train to Queens to see the Mets game. I felt like a traitor the entire time. The Mets are in the same division as the Braves (my favorite team of all time). They are, now, 6.5 games ahead of the Braves. So they needed to lose. How on earth is a person supposed to cheer for the opposing team to the Mets? I could've been killed. I was sneaky and the Dodgers (didn't want them to win either because they're ahead of the Braves in the Wild Card race) ended up winning.

Monday we got up and headed back out to Queens on the 7. The tennis center is directly across the street from Shea Stadium, where the Mets play. It was hot. The sun was out and we took a beating. I saw Baghdatis, Federer, Bartoli, and more players I can't remember. That was the morning session. The night session was the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. Aretha Franklin sang "Respect" and there were many women there that were the firsts in their field of specialty. It was pretty cool. The Williams sisters ended up winning their matches and we got back on the train to go home.

I got up at 5a to catch my flight home to get to work...needless to say, I was wiped. I had a great time with my mom and it was the very first time since i've been a grown up that we spent any time alone together. I was glad that I took the time off and was able to go with her. She's a trooper and i'm pretty sure she outlasted me. She did, afterall, stay until Friday with her friends that flew in the day I left...

On the boat to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. This pose became a popular one...

This was try #3. It was difficult to get the Statue in the background.

Skyline from the boat

Chrysler Bldg from Cab

Central Park Pond

We were pretty close!

Yes, another one...Mets game.

I forget the players' name, but liked the shot

Afternoon at the US Open

The World

The End...

One of My Favorite Places

At the beginning of August I took a week and went to Disney World. Since I grew up going to Disneyland, just seeing the castle makes me happy. I've never realized how much I love that place. Yes, it's expensive and yes it typically doesn't change much. But the smells, the sounds, the way the rides hurt your neck and back as you get older are things I absolutely love.

We arrived on a Sunday, hung out in the hotel and swam in the pool Sunday Night. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge on the Disney property. Having jammed the Disney experience into one single day my entire life, this was a new experience. I had a week. There were 4 parks that were on the plans and the Magic Kingdom was going to be hit twice.

Day One:
We woke up ready to go. We boarded the boat that conveniently took us from our resort to the Magic Kingdom entrance and headed out for the 8a opening. I NEVER knew there was a little show at the entrance before the park opened! All those years. We rushed to Space Mountain and got our first Fast Pass. We did so much on Day 1. Around 4 we went back to the hotel to regroup and calm our sensory organs. We headed back out around 7 for the parade and fireworks.

Day Two:
We went to MGM on Day 2. MGM never used to be fun. The best ride they had was the backlot tour. Then they got the Tower of Terror and put themselves on the map. I LOVE the Tower of Terror. The kids were nervous. In line G wrapped her arms around me and I could feel her little heart beating against my leg. She LOVED it. We did that 3 more times. We went to ride the Star Wars Tour because M can't get enough Star Wars. He was so excited. I had to opt out because of my mother's wonderful gene pass of motion sickness. They were walking out of the ride with these passes around their neck. Everyone had one. This is the "Year of a Million Dollar Giveaways" or something like that. They had given away a Dream Fast Pass. It had six fast passes on it. You could use them all day long at any time. They give these passes to 40 people a day at each park. It was fantastic. We did everything. The kids did the Rock 'n Rollercoaster. It goes 0-60 in 3 seconds or something ridiculous like that. There was an extreme stunt show too. Motorcycles, fast cars, jet skis flying all over the place. It was my favorite thing at MGM, besides the Tower of Terror. We were seated for the Fantasmic show that night and the rain started. We ran to our bus stop, drenched and cold and came home. It was a full, fun, wonderful day.

Day Three:
I think we went to Typhoon Lagoon (edit...oops, forgot the 'n' the first time around) on Day 3. It was crowded. That's really all there is to say about that. There were so many people there. We were able to do their little swim with the sharks pool. It was 68 degree water and about 20 feet of swimming. That was it. Kinda cool, unless you've been able to snorkel elsewhere in this world. Then it was puny and kind of lame. They have the largest wave, wave pool in the country (I think). There was a thunderous boom and then this wave came. It wasn't so much a wave but a wall of water. It had to have been a 10 foot wave. We weren't in the right place for this wave. If you didn't know, you can't outrun water. It swallowed all of us up and spit us out near the concrete shore. Needless to say, we scooted back and learned our lesson. G lost her goggles on the first wave. Miraculously they floated up and hit my foot a little bit later. We waited for one slide, M got a belly ache and we headed home. The kids were done. We went to the hotel and rented little mini Sea Ray boats. We coasted about the lake around the Magic Kingdom and had a great time.

Day Four:
Animal Kingdom had lots of hype when it opened. It was very cool. We got there early for the Disney Magic Hours. If you were staying on Disney property some parks had extra hours. Either an hour early or a couple hours late. So we got there at 8a instead of 9a when they let the commoners in. We headed for the talked about safari. We saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, monkeys, antelope and more. Then we saw a Lion walking around. It was early. I think it was the hour that it was awake for the day. Which was pretty cool. It was very similar to the Jungle Cruise, but with real animals and in the Savannah, not the river. There is also a new ride called Everest. It was huge. I didn't do it because i'm a pansy and thought there would be loops. I can't do 360s on roller coasters. The neck and back gets all out of whack. T and the Kids loved it though.

The last day we were there was at Magic Kindgom again. We had a lunch reservation with Cinderella at her castle with her princess friends. If I were younger it would've been my worst nightmare. People in costume freaks me out; always has. We met Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Mary Poppins, Snow White and Belle. It was also the best food i've eated at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom. It was a grilled Salmon with some sort of rice. Tasty stuff. Worth having to small talk with the princesses.

I was sad to leave. It was such a great time. There is so much more but I can't remember it all to write it down. Hopefully in time little snippets of the trip will pop into my head for more posts.

At the airport, ready to go! M didn't want to take the picture...can you tell?

This is the Wilderness Lodge. It is as huge as it looks.

The MGM hat.

My Favorite ride.

The parade at Magic Kingdom. Pays to have someone taller than the crowd with you!

Going to the airport...no one wanted to leave.

Clean???

I haven't been much in the mood to blog lately. I had a great time at Disney World and will be posting pictures soon enough, but right now, I just got home about 30 minutes ago. Today was the day that the cleaning crew came to clean up after the development company "finished" their job. I got a called this afternoon that they were going to be returning the key to me because they were done. Oh and the following pictures are right when I walked in after the "cleaning" crew had been here. Let me know if this looks clean to you.

Picture #1 - There's a water ring on the counter. Probably my water ring from months ago when they started working, but if they just cleaned, wouldn't it be gone?

Picture #2 - I had to write "dust" in the dust because it just made sense. This is the coffee table in the living room.

Pictures #3 - This is the "finished" job. They didn't even screw the plate covers to the wall...COME ON!

Picture #4 - This is the 1/2 bath toilet. Where i'm assuming every worker and their mother used the bathroom. The sink was dirty too, but the pictures didn't show it.

Picture #5 - The kitchen sink. Dust, dirt & dust bunnies...did they not use water to clean?

As you can probably tell, i'm over this. I'm beyond upset. It's probably not good that I didn't sleep on this before I posted, but this is ridiculous. And it's just the surface....I have no idea what's behind that sheetrock that they "fixed".