New York New York it's a Beautiful Site...

I went to NY to visit Andrew over the weekend and figured we would site see the typical touristy stuff. There is the usual site seeing of the Statue of Liberty, Central park, Empire State Bldg, an art museum, etc.
Here is where the Twin Towers use to be, now at Ground Zero. A nice part to this was an artful cross made out of some of the remaining steal beams. It looked so empty there and to see the tall building next to where it once was is hard to imagine it is smaller than the size of the Twin Towers. Does this make sence? If the towers were here today the "tall" building in the photo would be seen as "short" in comparison to the towers. This just boggles my mind.



Instead of the usual touristy spots, we went to all of the non-traditional spots of New York. It was fun and we just played it by ear as to where to go next. We started by taking the subway down to the docks to buy tickets for a show at half price; we bought 2 tickets to see The Producers for Sunday.

The play was hilarious! The Producers was a play inside a play, too funny.






While we were on Fulton Street getting the tickets, we came across the Bodies Exhibit. This was truly modern, educational, and emotional. The Bodies Exhibit displayed deceased bodies preserved to show the human muscles, bone structure, blood vessels and even some very intricate details of the human body, like the lungs, or hands.

{***I warn you to stop reading if your just ate lunch, this part may be a little morbid, or uncomfortable to read, skip to the next paragraph where I talk about the rest of NY ***} There was one section where the fetuses were displayed to show the progression of growth starting at 2 weeks to 8 months stages of a pregnancy. This section I was most impressed by, and at the same time deeply saddened by it. I thought about how these babies didn't get a chance to live, and at the same time it was interesting to see their tiny toes, fingers and little back bone all formed at such an early stage, I believe was at 6 weeks. It really hit me when another girl gasped out loud at the next display I had not seen yet; I looked over to see a Mother body showing the 6 month stage of a baby inside the tummy still. This meant that the mother died during her pregnancy and so did the baby. This was the most disturbing to see, in the fact that this display was real and not a mock up model, it was once an expecting mother with family and friends. I don't know her story, she may have had complications with the pregnancy or died some other way, but she has now been donated to this museum for people to learn and scientifically examine. This whole exhibit was an experience of its own. I cried after seeing the baby section. Then there was a part displaying organs, like the heart, and lungs. The display showed a "healthy lung" all beige with some black specs on it. Then a “smoker’s lung” displayed with grey and black markings all around the lungs, no beige areas. I think if smokers saw this and ever thought about quitting they might quit immediately after seeing the smokers lung. I have only smoked about 4 cigars in my whole life time and NO Cigarettes, so my lungs are hopefully more like the beige lung with just a little black spot from those 4 cigars. I will defiantly not smoke after seeing that. The cigars I smoked were shared with Andrew here and there when we are in Vegas or more recently on the 4th of July in KY we shared a cherry flavored cigar; even then I was discussed by the after taste and decided it wasn't for me. I am glad I never got hooked on smoking. It would have been interesting to see a liver displayed showing the effects of alcohol. I do casually drink, and love my Apple martinis. I didn't see a ‘damaged’ liver on display.

This may all sound morbid to you, reading this. I guess it sounds worse than it really was. The exhibit was tastefully pieced together and thought out. The exhibit was not really gory or morbid at all. It was an experience to see and really educational. If you are at all interested to see it, the exhibit is located on Fulton Street, NY in Manhattan.

Next subject, we also went down to where the Statue of Liberty is and had a nice walk along the water front. I found my knockoff purses! Street venders were selling “Prada”, “LV”, “Coach”, you name it; they had them all there on the sidewalk for $20 bucks! You bet your bottom dollar I bought one! I of course had to get the matching wallet too. The guy tried selling me the wallet for $2o and I said, “Not when I bought the purse for 2o, I’ll give you 10 dollars.” He said 15, I said NO, 10, we settled at 12 dollars for the knockoff Prada wallet. I probably could have bought it for the ten, but was happy at 12. So I went to NY and found the knock offs which is exactly what I wanted. I don’t care if it is “Praduh” why pay $600 or more for a Prada if I can get a Praduh for $20! (The purse reads Prada on it, with the little triangle). I sort of wish I also bought a “Coach” one too. Oh well. If you are feeling sorry for me and want me to have the real Prada version, I accept gifts, and my birthday is coming up in August. (Wink, wink Mom).

We also went to the Museum Of Sex. There is a sign in the window reads, “Please no touching, licking, or mounting of our displays” LOL! It starts off with some history of sex shown through the Japanese and their comic strips and information about Geisha girls verses the brothel house women. Geisha girls only danced and looked pretty they didn’t do the sexual favors, as the women did in brothels. An interesting tid- bit of information is the married women shave their eye brows, so if a “call girl” worked there and didn’t have eye brows you should know she is married and unfaithful. The women with eye brows are not married. So in the comic strips there were drawing of some women working and they didn’t have eyebrows, they were the unfaithful ones in the story line. The museum went on to show DVDs playing cartoon porn, in Anime style. These DVDs and videos are now replacing the art of the comic books; and are now known as a lost art. Proceeding into the next section showed some footage of some of the first silent stag films made back in 1914 and were the start of Stag films, known today as Porn. I think the word Stag sounds more pleasant than Porn. “Porn” sounds so naughty, I would rather admit to watching a Stag film. ;^)

The last part of the museum was the toy inventions and 3-D art. Some of the displays had a red button to push and it would activate the toy, in order to see what it did. There were some wild ones there, one was a toy attached to the end of a power saw! (eek!) Andrew took a picture of my pushing the red button to one, and I jumped not knowing what the brief case did. (photo below)

The brief case has a toy that pops out and then spins around at the end of a pole. Strange and funny, to imagine someone holding this brief case in a crowded elevator some where downtown New York. I could just picture it. LOL
DON'T PUSH THE RED BUTTON!




Another part to New York that we saw was Wall Street. We came across the famous copper bull statue. I wanted to get a photo opp next to it; but everyone else was up near the front of the bull taking photos by its head, so I thought to go to the back of the bull and grab life by the balls!


Another tid-bit of information is this Trump building was originally built to be the tallest building in New York! Little did Trump know that today in 2006 buildings since then have been built taller than this "tall" building. Sorry Mr. Trump, you can put all the gold detail you want on it, but it isn't the tallest building in New York. Funny how we can't predict the future and at the moment in time we think we have the best of the best.

Andrew and I had a lot of fun in New York, even if it wasn’t the traditional touristy stuff we ended up seeing.

I didn't get lost; I just took the scenic route.

I am not going to call it lost; it was more like exploring my surroundings. This is something good to do when new to an area and I don't know where anything is.

I have just spent the last 2 hours driving around and introducing myself to Missouri. The main road that I live off of apparently has TWO Sonic fast foods located on this verrrrry looooong street. For the past week I have used the Sonic fast food place as my land mark to know when I am near my apartment complex. Today, when I was on my 2 hour scenic drive home, I finally came across "the" Sonic fast food and proceeded to where I thought my apartment would be at. (Only to realize that this was a different Sonic and I was headed in the wrong direction!)

UMMMM? Where is my apartment complex?!

Still not lost, just finding a new route to get home. On my new way home, I drove through a cute, little, touristy part of town. There was a crowd of people hanging outside with a live band playing music, it looked like fun. I opted to keep on driving home, instead of getting sidetracked by the touristy part of town. I'll check it out again on a day I have more time to explore, at the moment of discovery all I really wanted to do was find my apartment complex.

I am now safe at home, sitting here at my desk, writing in my Blog, with not much more to say.

Leave me a comment on what scenic routes you have found going somewhere. :)

Welcome back internet! I missed you!

Internet is hooked up again. I have been technology deprived for a whole week! I was going out of my mind not having internet or my Blog to write on, and to have no email or MySpace to check in on...

I didn't realize how much I used the internet, until I did not have access for a whole weeeeeek!

Tip to moving, call the cable company from the old house and set-up an appointment for hook up on the day you move into the new place. Don't make the mistake to wait to arrive at the new place to call someone out. Because then they will be booked and there may even be a "severe thunder storm" causing a power outage in the whole da*n area of St. Louis, causing a delay in internet connection to the rest of the world!

I thank my wonderful Andrew for helping me connect to the internet. I have my very own computer geek! I do not thank the tech-support people; they were not helpful at all. I called 3 different times wanting my internet connection to work. The tech-support gang had me going in circles doing the same "wrong" things, talking me through it all over the phone and not being helpful at all. Andrew saved the day and knew exactly how to fix it.

We are moving to MO Sunday and I have to run over to the cable place to return our cable box, AND modem. SOOOO that means I will not have internet access until I get over to MO and unpack the computer and set it up with internet again. This will be a final post in Ohio, the next post will be the start of "life in Missouri" as I have already changed the Blogs Title to that.

Bye bye for a few days. I'll find a way to survive with out internet or TV...I know! - unpacking will keep me preoccupied when I get there. FUN! Who needs modern technology when I have boxed up memories to reminiss and unpack. The 6 hour road trip will be fun, I get to do this for the 5th time. The two prior trips out there count for driving 6 hrs there and 6 hours back, 4 + 1 is 5 road trips. Each an adventure in their own.

when I get my internet back I will post some photos, stay tuned.

As Hillary Duffs Character in the Mr. Perfect Movie says, "Same me, just a different zipcode."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moving tip #1 Zip lock bags are the best! How else can I pack up my Zen garden? I just poured the sand into a zip lock along with the tiny rake and it was packed.

I also used a zip lock for my spare change, which was not enough to coin-roll.

Moving tip #2 Set aside a frying pan ~out of the box until the last minute to be able to cook stuff.

Moving tip #3 Eat up all the frozen food first, then the fridge food. To not have to pack it up for a 6 hour drive, the food may either thaw out or spoil.

*DO NOT buy an 18 pack of frozen hamburger patties just 4 days before moving (Andrew!) :)

car update!

All is well; my car will be stinky for about a week and gradually go away. It is caused from the new parts put in my car and is burning off grease or gunk that remains on there which results into stinky car after driving it on the freeway; the humid summer doesn't help either, making it hot and stinky.

There is nothing to worry about with my car. I can go forward as planned and move on Sunday to Missouri, and drive the 6 hour road trip. I am going to bring my cds and snack foods and be sure not to fill up for gas at funky run down Shell stations found on the 50 HWY!


;^)

It all started from bad gas...now there is an oder, when will this end?!

UGH! MY CAR IS DRIVING MY INSANE! (No pun intended) I was driving back from Missouri to Ohio on Sunday, got lost a bit and pulled into a gas station for directions and a 1/2 tank of gas. The gas was strange from the get go, I should have known better. But oh well, my car had bad gas and started falling apart ever since. The Shell gas station somewhere on the 50 HWY heading to Chicago, IL (wrong direction) had plastic bags on the pumps for regular gas, and a second pump labeled with a piece of paper taped to it hand written, "Regular" ~ OK so I guess I'll use this pump for my gas!! (Bad idea) About ten miles down the road we are driving and the CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON! NOT NOW! In the middle of a small town, with a Wal-Mart and AutoZone to choose from. We went to AutoZone and they did a diagnostic on my car, guessing it was BAD GAS.

So the result from bad gas is it can affect the catalytic converter, and would need to be looked at.
Tuesday I drop the car off at the dealership service center. They said I needed a new Catalytic converter, (tongue twister ~ I keep on wanting to say Cadillac converter) covered by warranty and my front breaks needed replacing (which I had a feeling that was coming up soon in the 60,000 mile mark) so instead I told them to replace them now while they have my car in the shop.

So the car is done and I am driving home after stopping by Kohl’s Dept. store. I parked my car and smelled a faul oder coming from the hood of my car. LIKE BURNING RUBBER OR GREASE?

First off, I knew not to open the hood in case there was a small fire or something, so I call AAA club, and was on hold for a bit, dropped the call, had to call back, and the operator said she would send out a tow truck, I was telling her it is too late tonight to have it towed anywhere and really just need a fire man to come out and look at it instead, but thought to call AAA first because it didn't seem as important as calling for a fire truck crew to come out because I didn't think it was on fire. I asked for a small car to come out instead with a fire man to check on it. A few minutes later (10:25 PM!) I hear sirens’ going off from a near by fire truck and police car. These flashing lights and loud sirens were headed down the street and into my apartment complex (embarrassing!) disturbing the neighbors, causing curiosity, all arriving for little old me and my stinky car. When I saw an ambulance drive up afterwards I was trying to tell them all to go, it is not this serious, I just wanted "a-one-discreet" fireman to come out and check under my hood, and not a whole, dramatized, rescue crew! (I didn't say it in those words exactly, but thought it)


I was so embarrassed! It was after 10 o'clock at night and there is all of the craziness with lights flashing, fire men, a police man, the damn tow truck guy, and curious neighbors standing around. SORRY! I didn't want this to get the way it turned out. The fire man told me to take my car back to the dealership in the morning to have it looked over and he wasn't able to see anything wrong, plus the stinky oder had dissipated by the time they got there to really see what I was talking about (an hour or so later).

In the end the bad gas was the root to all of this, and the odor may be from the newness of the front breaks or from the Cadillac converter. ,^) I will find out more tomorrow when I go back to the service center! UGH!

All this is happening in my final days here in Ohio, right before I move on Sunday to Missouri! I hope to get this squared away before Sunday.

* On a side note, I rented a Chevy Malibu 2007, and was only the 2nd driver of the rental. I had a fun time driving it to work for the day, while my car was getting fixed.

Vegas photos

Vegas June 2006

CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL TO ACCESS THE PHOTO ALBUM! :)
click on the bottom corners to turn the pages of the album!

We went to Vegas with some friends of ours, a few weekends ago. We had a blast!
Andrew and I arrived at the Mirage where we were staying at, earlier than the rest of our group. We decided to play some roulett in the casino while we waited. The game was fun and we were up $10 so we cashed out. Waiting to cash out, Andrew pointed out to the guy infront of us that he had dropped a yellow chip. The man looked down and instantly thanked us, by handing Andrew money! "oh, no sir, we couldn't" -andrew said. "oh, yes, here, I insist, you take this as a thank you." - the high roller man said. Andrew took the money, not really sure how much was given, put it in his shirt pocket. We walked up to the register booth, to cash out our $10 winnings and I asked the cashier how much was a yellow chip worth? and the cashier showed us a yellow chip, reading $1,000 on it! Andrew reached into his shirt pocket to see how much he was given and it was $300! The man gave Andrew three 100 dollar bills! So we started out our Vegas weekend up $310. It was exciting the whole time we were there.

Our friend, Noushig had the best luck on the dollar slot machines. She kept on playing the Spin&Win machines. One time she ended up winning $900 after she was done playing. Then another time we were all standing around in the casino trying to figure out what to eat for dinner, so Noushig walks over to the Spin&Win close by, hit max bet ($3), and on the second try she won $200! I couldn't believe it, she has the magic touch.

A funny thing our friend Nick told us, "You don't loose money in Vegas, you are just donating the money to the casinos."

Check out the photo album to see the rest of our Vegas trip.
leave a comment about some of your Vegas luck.

WOW so much has happened...where do I begin?

First of all Andrew passed his last of the four CPA tests! Yeah Andrew~MR. CPA!

For the past year we have lived here in Ohio because Andrew got the IRS job here in Cincinnati. We moved to Ohio last year, June of 2005. Well now he has been offered a promotion in St. Louis, Missouri area! This means we are moving once again, in July of 2006 (a year and one month later). This is exciting, but bitter sweet to have to leave Ohio, just as it was growing on us and we came to love it here.

To our friends we made here in Ohio, we will definitely stay in touch, being that we are only 6 hours away! We will have to visit one another here and there making it a weekend visit. As for our West Coast friends and family, with us moving to MO is not really any different from us living out here in Ohio. Living in Missouri, we WILL be THREE states closer to CA! But it is still not quite close enough, and we will have to stick to plane trips to visit. Open invitation, come out to St. Louis, Missouri and visit us! *Come see the giant arch! The St. Louis Arch is 630' tall and wide, and it is the tallest national monument in the USA! It is taller than Morro Rock! :)

On Saturday we drove to MO. and found a two bedroom apartment, signed a 3 month lease. We figured a 3 month lease would be enough time to get to know our surroundings and find a home to buy. If we need extra time, we could just renew a month to month with the apartment. This will be our first house! We are long time renters, tired with renting and ready to buy a home. The only change is the state. Now it is in Missouri and not Ohio or California.

His new job entails a 7 week training period in New York, so while he is in training I will be moving to the new apartment in MO. We drove by Andrew’s future work place at the IRS in Missouri. His work will be 10 minutes away from our apartment and also potential neighborhoods, when we look at homes.

We are content with where life takes us; it always seems to work out and fall into place for us. Andrew and I are blessed to have each other and the life we live. It is an adventure from state to state. Hopefully Missouri will be for a while, long enough to settle down, buy a home, start a family, live life with happiness and friends.

OOOH, I guess I will have to rename my BLOG to "My Random Thoughts & Life in Missouri"

*photo was provided by the internet, searched on MySpace.

Comment back with any tidbits of MO information you know of...

Blinds Plus Part two

Back to the Blinds Plus store, they now have a banner up for Father's Day. FUNNY. In a previouse posting I greeted a Happy Mother's Day brought to us by Blinds Plus. That was when the banner read, "Forget flowers, Mom wants blinds!" (blog post to refer to)... http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=16915800&postID=114763024831284280

Now, the banner is set for Father's Day weekend, and reads, "Your Father called...he wants US to hang your new blinds." I busted out laughing when I read the new banner, as I waited for the light to turn green. I then drove past it and turned around to take a photo, thinking ahead about blogging this for your own laughter. (if you are to find this at all humorous as I have?)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD. Since I did not buy mom the blinds, I guess I do not have to hang them!

University of Phoenix Graduation June 4, 2006

Martiel and Shelisa, the graduates! :)

My Hubby, Andrew and I at the graduation.
Two thumbs up to graduating with a BSBM!


refreshing watermellon


Our friends: Carly, April, and William

They came over to our apartment for a graduation after- party.

The Taste of Cincinnati

I am behind on my Blogging...

Last weekend, for Memorial Day, I went to the Taste of Cincinnati, with my friends Janie and Michael. This was the first out door event of the season of summer heat. Wear short sleeves, sunscreen, and drink plenty of frozen lemonade! We had a fun time; there were booths set up of local restaurants serving sample size portions of their delicious foods. One of my favorites was the Strawberry and shortcake chocolate fondue, from the Melting Pot booth. Another favorite was the Meatballs on a stick from the Bella Luna booth. Then to end our hot day there we enjoyed some Greater's Ice cream to cool off.

While the three of us were enjoying the Taste of Cincinnati, we ran into Mr. Peanut! There were also booths that had instant win wheels, where we spun the wheel to win a prize. One was for Career Builder.com and I won a free T-shirt. Another was pie brand to spin their wheel, Janie and I won a T-shirt and Michael won a sun visor. We also saw people with cameras taking group photos and we had them take our photo, then the photographer would give us a coupon to go to a website and type in the photo code to reveal the photo of us taken at the event. I have two photos which I can not retrieve from these sites. UGH! If and when I do, I will post the photos here. I do have the photos of us with Mr. Peanut (below).

Micheal, Mr. Peanut, and Janie
Martiel and Mr. Peanut (and the best frozen lemonade booth in the background)

This was a fun day overall. When we were done "tasting Cincinnati" it was only 2 o'clock, so we then went to the movies for a matinee of "Over the Hedge." By that time my money flow ran short and I borrowed $2 from Janie, (Thanks Janie).

Friday Night Movie

It is a Friday evening after a long week at work...Yeah I know, I only worked 4 out of the 5 days being I had Monday off. For some reason the week still seemed long.

I am home now at the start of my weekend. :) A great way to start off is with my all time favorite movie, The Princess Bride (1987). I love this movie! The movie is playing on the AMC channel. Each time I watch it I get nervous watching the Fire Swamp part! Those overgrown rats are scary and the close calls! My favorite is when Wesley does his trickery with the "poison drink" switch, very funny. I also like the couple who live in a tree. The lady is played by Carol Kane, who is my mom’s favorite actress. I first saw this movie at the theater, when I was 9 years old, almost 20 years later I am still easily entertained. If you have not seen The Princess Bride before, rent the movie and enjoy a bowl of popcorn curled up on the sofa, with a loved one.

The old couple who live in the tree is played by Carol Kane and Billy Crystal. The late Andre the Giant is also in this movie. See more information on the web. Photos provided by http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/movies/movie.html?id=1800108021&template=pd&photoindx=6

Comment back, how great this movie is!

Happy Memorial Day!

It was so nice to have today off of work, only to spend it doing homework for tonights class! but the weekend overall was fun, aside from the time spend on homework.
I went to the Taste of Cincinnati on Sunday, I will blog on that later when I have more time.

Have you ever had one of those lazy mornings? I woke up this morning with no need for the alarm clock, about 8:40am fell back to sleep for a "few minutes" and all of the sudden it was 10:40am when I woke up. I was so confused waking up, thinking I had slept only a few minutes longer, when it was really 2 hours longer! So I hopped in the shower and spent the rest of my day doing homework, I am off to class tonight. My day is almost done! Tomorrow will then be Tuesday and it is back to work.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday off, what is left of it!

Leave a comment telling me what you did for the memorial weekend.

frog maiting season agian!

The frogs are at it again! Moaning real load, and sound like a vacume cleaner! If I could insert a sound bite to this blog-post recording how noticable this is, I would. The frogs moaning is loader at night when we are trying to go to sleep. They sit on the rocks boardering the pond outside ( see photo above) moaning a load hummm to each other. Did I mention they are load? :)

Andrew and I moved here last year, in June, and noticed the frogs back then, coming to a conclusion that it was probably mating season for the frogs. I can confirm this, now that we are days away from June, and the frog moaning has started once again. The rest of the year the frogs are quiet and go with out notice. I need to get some sleep, "BE QUIET FROGS!"

Photo taken by: Martiel
leave a comment of the night noise you have at your home...

2 hrs too long for American Idol

This is an ongoing drawn out, drag on, guest appearances, marathon of beating around the bush to announcing the next American Idol! I have a half hour more to find out that Taylor is the A.I. He is my vote we will see. But first let's watch the overly done 2 hour A.I. special finale!

I loved the part where they had a nerdy, reject sing a song live on stage and ended up singing with Clay Aikon! It was hilarious. There is a contestant who was let go during the first part of the season was a huge fan of Aikon and sort resembled him in a strange way. The reject guy became hysterical when Aikon walked out on stage.

OOOh! Prince is on to make his big appearance. Tell me who won not Prince it is 9:48! the show is over at 10!

Tonights Fox News report

First of all, I hope the guy is all right, and wish him a full recovery.

The news was on tonight and started with a "mystery". The news-woman reported that a man walking along the train tracks was hit by a train! (gasp!)

My word! He was hit by train?! how?

The way the reporter said this, sounded surprising...a person gets hit by a train while walking along the train tracks. (No way!)

(photo from clipart program)

Farwell to the show Will and Grace, it was a fun 8 years of watching. I will catch the reruns here and there, but it can not be compared to watching a new episode on a weekly basis. I hope to see new shows created in the similar style of sitcom. One that connects like this show and even the Friends or Sex in the City shows also. I love each show that are all in the past now! What will be next for my viewing pleasure? I need something that will last me another 8 years.

Note the website for Will&Grace, for more information and photos posted there.
http://www.nbc.com/Will_&_Grace_Finale/

Leave a comment with what your favorite shows are.

Shabby Chic project

Not To Shabby! Project created by: Janie and Martiel on a Crafty Saturday Afternoon.

Before...What once was an ugly outdated lamp, salvaged for a dollar, hideous in avocado green with gold bands, is now the AFTER...


A lamp of pure elegance looks like $50. Look out Pier One! Cover the base in pewter spray paint, snazz up the shade with some beaded fringe, and Vwallah! Beautiful lamp that once was an ugly duckling...


(before photo, was edited to try to show what it looked like) we didn't think to take a "before photo" untill afterwards...oops!

Leave a comment and tell me what you think!

OK, so according to the sign I saw (photo below) I am suppose to get my mom new blinds and not flowers for Mother's Day. Sorry Mom I got you some flowers, and not the blinds. The sign reads, " Forget the flowers Mom wants blinds!" I drove past this and couldn't resist taking a picture of it, the camption is so funny.

I got both of my moms flowers, and niether are going to get blinds for Mother's Day. LOL. I have two moms now, one being my mother-in-law of course, so both get a lovely boquet of flowers sent from us.

Was this Blinds Plus store really going to thinks they would get alot of mother's day sales??? How many of 'you' out there actually bought blinds for your mother on Mother's Day?

Leave a comment and tell me what you did for your mother/s.

Don't Let Thier Cuteness Con You!

This morning on my way home from the dentist cleaning, I drove up to a "huge garage sale” as the sign says... The garage sale has all baby/toddler stuff for sale. I didn't fall into their target market apparently because I don't have any kids yet. At the foot of the drive way there is a Kool-Aid Stand ~ 25 cents for a cup of grape Kool-Aid. I couldn't pass this up, the brother and sister team were selling their Kool-Aid but I didn't have a quarter on me, so I pull out a dollar. I ask the girl if she had change, she responds back with this blank look on her face like she doesn't know why I would want change, grabs a cup and pours me some grape Kool-Aid, and I ask again, "how about I give you a dollar and you give me 50 cents?" So I was even throwing in an extra quarter for the drink...again she just looked cute and innocent. I gave up, gave her my entire dollar for the cup of Kool-Aid, and walked back to my car.

As I was getting into the car, I heard her run to her mom and say, "Mom look we got a whole dollar!"

She conned me with their cuteness! I paid $1 for a 25 cent cup of grape Kool-Aid. She will be rich by the end of the day!

(Leave a comment)

Parking in Germany

(This is a posting of an email I recieved) This is pretty modern and amazing!

EMAIL:
This is is pretty amazing! Can you imagine how all this operates? How do they lock each car in its cubicle for safety. WHO CARES. NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND COULD GET IN THERE.Talk about German efficiency! The two photos were taken at a new parking garage in Munich. The actual space that the facility occupies is approximately only 20% of a comparable facility with the traditional design that is used primarily in the US. Not only is the German structure less expensive to build, but vehicles are also "retrieved" in less time and without the potential of being damaged by an attendant.

My thoughts:
Hope there is not an earthquake! I vaguely remember this being thought of years ago, and now it is a reality! Wow.This is in Germany, I wonder how long it will take to have one of these in the USA, and which state will build one first?

leave a comment.

MMM...Panera!

Panera Bread is the best sandwich/cafe`/pastry/everything place. My favorite sandwich so far is the bacon turkey bravo. This is so flavorful. The sandwich is made with fecacio bread, Gouda cheese, bacon, turkey, leafy lettuce, and tomato, and some kind of secret spread. It is to die for, very delicious! The beverages to choose from are freshly made lemonade, or Ice green-tea, an assortment of coffee, and soda. Panera bread a wide selection on their menu to choose from, but I always end up ordering the bacon turkey bravo. I see other customers order soups, which also look good.

I first found out about Panera back in the summer time when I first moved here. I had a temp job with a phone company, and on every Wednesday morning the office would have Panera bagels for all of us. These were not just bagels, they came with flavored spreads. Panera is good any time of day. We do not have a Panera back home, so I have been missing out and now it is time to make up for all of my lost years with Panera Bread! LOL Yum.

Totally gross!

I was at my retail job tonight and a customer comes in with her boyfriend, looking for a necklace to go with a dress she has for prom. The guy is shadowing her around the store holding a bottle of "tea" almost empty, about a 1/3 full. Then the guy puts the bottle up towards his mouth and spits into the bottle! He was chewing tabacco and that was not tea! The brown liquid was spit! DISCUSTING! He had about a 1/2 cup of spit carried around in a clear bottle. GROSS!

My first redneck encounter here in Ohio. ;)

I did not expect him to do this. He was walking around the store spitting in his bottle, full of brown tabacco juice. MMMM makes me thirsty!

Kisses

Last Tuesday I was at work and my coworker gave me a Kiss. I enjoyed the kiss so much I wanted more. This was not like any ordinary kiss. This kiss put other kisses off the chart! The kiss was new and so sweet. I haven't had a kiss quite like this before.


Hersheys made a new flavor called chery cordial kisses. I bit into the cherry cordial kiss as it oozed with cherry filling; my mouth was so happy with flavor. I want to have more of these kisses so sweetly filled with cherry.

I love the new Chery Cordial Kisses. BUT! these morrsils of cherry flavor are only for a limited time. Hersheys is so cruel to give us a delisouse treat and then take the kisses back!

I went to the Hersheys site and came upon a petition people are signing to keep the new cherry cordial flavor in circulation. Don't deprive us of the new kiss. Fans of Cherry Cordial Kiss have signed the petion and left a plead by their names. I am fan #1849 to sign the petition. These tiny chocolate covered cherry cordial filled bits of heaven can't be here for a limited time! The kiss needs to be available year around. The link to the petition is below to click on, and the sweet new kiss is avialable at the store for a limited time for your enjoyment. Give one to your coworker, it will be the best kiss they ever get!


http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?candyad&1

Drivers can be so obliviouse to their surroundings!

Friday after work I am heading home on the freeway with many more cars at the same time. It is about 5pm, trafic will exsist, be sure to drive with caution!

SIDE NOTE> Ohio freeways use the giant "Amber Alert" signs as a use to update traffic reports when the sign is not in use for Amber Alerts.

As I drive past the giant sign, it reads "Accident at exit 6, Left lane BLOCKED"

OK lets start merging over to clear away the left lane, and slow down with traffic going around an accident we should be comeing up to in about 2 exits from now. Fine and dandy all cars are clearing the left lane...

IDIOT/OBLIVIOUSE DRIVERS:
OH look! there is traffic, OOOH! the left lane is all clear, let's speed up and drive in the left lane and pass up the traffic! ...

HMMM? looks like there is an accident on the freeway in the left lane...I need to merge back into the lanes of traffic! (morrons!)

All cars are finally passing the accident and quickly speed back up agian perceding their destinations.

The accident involved 8 cars in the fast lane of the freeway. I pray for the people involved in the 8 car pile up, for their safety, quick healing, and hope the victoms of this accident are all OK.

For the rest of the drivers on the freeway this evening, please pay more attention to the giant sign, and don't drive in the left lane when the giant signs says the lane is blocked by an accident!

Time to spring forward!

Happy daylight saving time!Today is the one day a year you can be an hour late somewhere with a valid excuse, blame it on daylight savings time!

With technology these days it is hard to use the time change as an excue any longer. My cable box time, cell phone, and lap top all switched times automatically. I only had to maually switch the microwave, stove clock, alarm clocks (2) and two watches, oh and my car clock when I head to work later. This is my job twice a year going through the house changing all of the clocks...Oooh! I just remembered there is a clock on the wall in the bathroom I need to change! UGH!

Have a good time today!

Second day of spring?

Happy Spring...I missed the Ground Hog Days results but I am guessing he saw his shadow? a couple more days to winter wont hurt.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kiss me I'm Irish! Enjoy your St. Patty's Day! May this week be filled with good luck for you all!

I have family visiting this weekend from out of state. My mom, dad, and Family friend - Denise! I can't wait. There will be fun things for us to do while they are here. There is an Irish Pub near by to have dinner at. We could eat sour crought and drink green beer! Or take them down to New Port, KY to hang out there and maybe spot some Leppricons. It will be fun what ever we do. Just having them visit is exciting! We have not seen them since Thanks Giving, and it will be our first visiters to OH, since we have moved here.

My Critique of the Oscars 2006

The Oscar Ceromony once again, for the 78th time! As I watched the oscars I thought it is like watching a bad movie...I want to keep watching with the intent that it will get more interesting. I am waiting to catch the overly excited oscar winner give their memorable speach, and to watch the humorous opening to the oscar show is always entertaining; but here and there inbetween the whole three hour long ceromony I wonder what I could be doing to better my time.

Posted on Yahoo are photos of what Celebrities wore to the Oscars tonight. I decided to vote on what I think are the DOs and DON'Ts with their Oscar Atire. See photos below:
DO wear black on black, nice texture mix with the velvet jacket and the matt finish black shirt with tie. Sharp and handsome.
DON'T do your own make up and hair when going to the Oscars! DO wear this choice in color! Beautiful marroon/brown color tafetta! DON'T dress up like a giant bow and what color is that? Charcoal Green?DO wear a classic tux and bow tie as Classic Jack so handsomely does.

I Love Kermy!

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know.You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems.Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green.Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

Tax Season

Get your taxes in by April 15th!
I got this in an email, from my CPA Father-in-law, passing along the humor. $~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$

As income tax time approaches, did you ever notice: When you put the two words "The" and "IRS" together it spells "THEIRS"?

$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$~$
Sometimes the IRS is nice and gives a money back. I would like to thank THE IRS!

I am a late bloomer to Starbucks

OK so Starbucks is on every corner and in every hidden location on earth! I can't go to the local Kroger Grocery Store with out seeing a Starbucks inside waiting for me to swing by and order something. I guess I never was big on Starbucks, when I had other cafes to shop from. Mainly their competitor Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf! I like them more than Starbucks. Now that I live here away from the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Starbucks is more readily available. I slowly turned to Starbucks, back when I was doing temp work at the Disney Studio back home. There is a Starbucks in the court yard which included sandwiches there, for lunch. This Starbucks location has the best turkey sandwiches with pesto sauce. But the sandwiches were only at select locations. Not all Starbucks are the same, some are just coffee, and sweet Danishes, and others are more elaborate adding on yogurts, sandwiches, and fruit cups. After loosing the sandwich connection to Starbucks I lost a need to go there.

Now I am here in Ohio, with no Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf near by. I have Panera Bread for their Caramel Lattes or Starbucks all around to get coffee. I thought I would grab a Tall, White Chocolate, Mocha, Frapucino while I was at my local Kroger. The gal there asks me the magic marketing phrase, "what else would you like to get?" I then think about a sweet treat in the display case. I choose the Chocolate-chip Toffee Bar. My new favorite Starbucks item, YUMMMY in my tummy! The Chocolate Toffee Bar is similar to a giant chocolate chip cookie, but with Toffee chunks added in and it is shaped like a bar, instead of a cookie shape. I took a photo of this Starbucks delight, for you to drool over.

This Chocolate chip toffee bar is so rich and definitely not a healthy choice for my mid-day snack, this is more of a pig out and enjoy Starbucks moment for a mid day snack. Once again-Yummy in my tummy!

Please leave a comment on what your favorite Starbucks item is; maybe I will try it out. I am giving Starbucks a double shot. No pun intended really, I mean as in trying it once more to win me over. I liked Starbucks when there were sandwiches to order from and now I like the Chocolate chip toffee bar mid-day snack idea.

I guess Congratulations are in order?

I have a long lost friend I have lost touch with her after she has treated me with little respect, long story, I dislike her. So years later I am contacted through www.classmates.com she signs up and leaves an announcement of her giving birth to her second child. Nice I didn't even know of her first child we lost touch in that amount of time. So ok she now has two children, congrats to her. But then I read on to find that her first child was born just last year Jan 2005, and the second one this year on February 2006! I do the math and it means she must have become pregnant with her second child just 4 1/2 months after the first born, and I read that she is single. Wow, way to go old pal, a single mom of two babies, what are you going to do, my manners say congratulations with a smile, and my conscience is saying f*cked up as usual, sorry to hear that. She bothers me so much. After not hearing from her in so long, it has been nice with out any drama and attention drawn to her. Now, she has me all annoyed again!

I am sorry if this blog post is so rudely typed out, I am ranting my dislike for this old friend of mine. She bugs me so. I do hope she is OK raising the two little ones; just don't bother me with it. Our friendship is over and has been over for sometime!

May our friendship rest in peace and her new motherhood be kind and natural to bring up two children as a single parent, it may be hard but it is all in her own doing.

Pet Cemetery

About 10 + years ago my family had a garage sale and at the end of the garage sale my little brother and I split up the earnings, which was a lot of money for us. Later we went to Albertsons to go grocery shopping with dad, out in front of the store was adopt-a-pet day. There were cats to adopt and my brother and I saw this one calico cat we both liked so much, and dad said we could adopt the kitty if we paid for it with the garage sale money. We talked it over and both put our money together to adopt the kitty. My brother was about 9 and I was 15 years old when we did this. When we got home we showed my mom the new kitty and had to name her and Robert came up with an insanely long name for it, which then became shortened to Taby. Its full name was (by sounding it out) Tabi-theana-mahasa-pina-pedalon! Taby was a cute kitty which my dad grew to liking the most, it would sleep by his feet at night and sit in his lap to be petted. Taby would chase the blue jays in the trees by our house, and was so fun to watch.

I was just informed through email by my dad that Taby is "sleeping" in the front yard under a rock, up by our other old cat, Puna, who died years ago. So now my parents don't have any pets left. I was so sad to read that email. I will miss my Taby cat, may she be happy in kitty heaven, with all the other cats we have lost over the years. I have gone through allot of pets now that I look back on it.

My family has had over the last 20+ years:
2 ducks (Daffy and Donald)
4 Cats (Ophelia, Puna, Lucy, Taby)
3 birds (parakeets yellow, blue, and white forget names)
Tad poles that turned into frogs, and then let them go
4 different snakes one ate mice, others gold fish (speedy,?,?,?)
2 cats that were my grandmas (Daisy and Mickey)
1 cat with Andrew (Rainy)
2 fighter fish (Cloey, Mr. Fish)
Some Gold fish here and there over the years
20 pets all together, wild! Each one unique, all fun pets to have.

Tomato Halves Recipe

I am posting this recipe for a fellow blogger, ( http://houseofbabes.blogspot.com/ ), who tried making Stuffed tomatos from a recipe found in an old 1970s cook book she had. Her recipe includes mini hotdogs stuffed in there (YUK!) and so I have a recipe that is similar and tastes good. I call it Tomato Halves, something my dad makes that I have always liked.
The photo of this includes the rest of the dinner I had made that night, of Salmon, and Potato pancakes along with the tomato half.

Tomato Halves:

Two large, round, tomatos (serving size 4) cut in half
Place on cookie sheet close together to not roll around,
*a muffin tin works well holding each tomato half in place*
drizzle some olive oil over the cut tomatoes
sprinkle garlic salt
top with bread crumbs
and shredded cheese (optional)

bake in oven 375 until golden brown on top or cheese melts, 3-5 minutes.
You can peak through the window of the oven door to keep an eye on them.

There you have it! A lovely side dish to make with dinner.

Night and Day Super Bowls

I grew up on the west coast, so in California the super bowl always started around 3 o'clock, & here in Ohio it started at 6pm! So after so many years of super bowl in the after noon it was strange being a night event this year for the first time. Back home super bowl became an all day event; starting with a Bar B.Q. in the backyard, hot dogs or hamburgers, head inside about 2:30 with it starting at 3pm, huttle around the TV, bets are made, and everyone is cheering on thier teams. The game would end around 6:30 or 7pm and then it is dinner time. Depending on the victory, if the rooting team wins we would all hang out for dinner also and celebrate. People hang out all day celebrating Super Bowl in CA.

Steelers vs. Seahalks Super Bowl 40 ~ 2006!

Hines Ward ~ Most Valuable Player for the Steelers

This year, we are in Ohio, a 3 hour difference from CA. and the game doesn't start until 6pm! So we went to church this morning, we were invited with a group of people to meet at Katie's house for Super Bowl at 5:30 that night. I felt like I had a whole day ahead of me to still do other things before the game and not have to be there untill 5:30. Rock on! We got there at 5:30, and the game started at 6pm and went on till 10pm! We went home about 8:45 and watched the rest here at home, Andrew has work in the morning.

With the Super Bowl being an evening event, and in OH, it was a totally different experience. No one was hanging out outside, because of the snow and cold. We were all inside. Instead of a Bar BQ we all pitched in $5 per couple for pizzas, along with the usual snacky foods of chips, dip, veggi platter, and some home-made cookies (yum). Bets were still made before the game, and the majority of the group were rooting for the Seahalks. Three of us rooted for the Steelers! Who won? THE STEELERS! GO TEAM! 21 to 10 score.

The Half time show had the Rolling Stones play three songs. At first I thought "Cool the Rolling Stones are playing the half time show!" As I was watching them play I just saw a group of old men on a stage. WoW how they have aged!? The drummer with bolding, grey, hair, and Mick Jagger was jumping around on stage sort of out of breath, and looked too skinny, dancing around like he was still in his 20's on stage. The songs are still good though. Here is a recent photo of them, provided by the Rolling Stones web site. They are in there 60s or older, still rockin away on stage.

Recap:
Ohio celebrates an evening game, and California celbrates an all day - afternoon game, OH is indoors with it snowing outside, and in CA the party starts outside with the bar-BQ, in Ohio we go home about 10:30 at night, CA. head home for dinner at 6:30 after the game is over. Total opposites on the Super Bowl event. CA. the game is ending around 6:30, Ohio the game is just starting about 6 O'clock. Time zone differs on a live event, it is night and day with the different states. Oh...and the Rolling Stones are OLD!