The adventures of being me

The Voice

2011-06-28T17:25:00.025-04:00

Tonight I live blog my new obsession, The Voice. I originally decided to check it out because I enjoyed the premise and due to the judges and the contestants I was instantly hooked.

Since I actually really enjoy all of the singers and can see each of them being The Voice I decided to live blog during the show to share my opinions and of course, if anyone is checking in during the show, I'd love to hear yours.

I can tell you that the judges will be performing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones, I hope it's better then their Queen medley was. Miranda Lambert (Blake's wife) will be performing with Dia (correction she will perform tomorrow). I don't know her music but will be looking forward to checking it out. Brad Paisley, Ne-Yo and Pitbull will also be performing. I don't know any of their music so not really excited about them. More excited to see the judgers performing with their artists.

I'm looking forward to a great night of music! I'd rather someone win because they killed it versus someone winning because the others sucked.

8:57pm
Almost showtime!

9:04pm
The judges opened the show with Queen's Under Pressure. Brave of them to tackle a Queen song again. I know they were scheduled to sing the Stones, I wonder if they decided to try and reclaim their Queen dignity. The only one who didn't work for me was Christina. Her voice didn't work with this song for me. Adam is really a rock star. That man knows how to move on stage, even just standing at the mic. Blake has a great voice but look at him standing on stage versus Adam.

Adam is as gorgeous as ever. When they were close up on him I wondered if those were his teeth, they are perfect. CeeLo has his red outfit (at least it's not a track suit) and sunglasses on. Blake looks good. I think Christina's make up looks good, especially her lipstick I just wish her hair didn't look so fried and she wore clothes that flattered her body more. She's not fat she just wears clothes that are too small. I loved her embellished mic stand though!

9:09
Dia looks beautiful in her long red dress. I like the versatility she has with her looks yet still her. Beverly rocking the leather pants. I love Vicci's glittery eye makeup but miss the big badass warrior hair she had last week (anyone know what color eye shadow she had on last week? I loved that bluegreen!). Javier has a hat on again? Ugh!

They all say they love and support area and I may be a big softie but I believe it.

9:22
I have to say, I wasn't really excited to hear that the musicians were going to sing original tunes. I prefer to hear songs that I already know (same thing when Glee did original songs, how can Nancy sing along?).

First up is Javier. He sings "Stitch by Stitch." I was hoping he would do something a little different but it's still a slow song. That being said, I loved the song, the chorus is catchy and I could listen to this song many times. He sang it beautiful (was there any doubt?). The judges raved more about the person he is since it's a given that he has a great voice. Christina can barely bring herself to say anything it seemed like. She is only really effusive with her girls. I must say, her hair does look better here then in the opening number.

One thing I've noticed is the singers like to stop playing the guitar halfway through the song so that they can connect with the audience. To me, it just proves that the guitar playing by the singer was unnecessary.

9:29
Just teared up watching Dia's package talking about Blake.

9:33
Absolutely LOVED the duet between Blake and Dia! They sang "I won't back down" by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. I've loved that song since he sang it after 9/11 when he stared into the camera as he sang it. They had a very Men in Black look (or Blues Brothers, LOL) to them and you could tell how much fun they were having on stage. This was the most carefree I've seen Dia. She was all over the stage rocking her cute pink guitar. I hated that they cut away from them when they were turning their heads left, right and front in sync. Poor decision by the director. We don't want to see the guitarists at that point! I think I might be buying this song on itunes!

9:42
I love Vicci's voice but I don't think her song was enough to beat Javier. I liked the song but didn't love it. I think I would need to hear it a few more times. It didn't have the wow factor like when she sang "The Dog Days of Summer."

9:49
What the what?!?! Pitbull and NeYo aren't singing with the contestants? Why are we wasting our precious showtime with this? This show doesn't need filler! They have plenty of talent on the show!

10:00
Beveryl and Xtina's duet is "Beautiful" by Xtina. She does love to promote herself, LOL. I will admit it's my face song of hers. Loved Xtina's makeup in the clip package, she looked great. I couldn't decide how I felt about the duet but as the song progressed I enjoyed it more and more. I think Beverly really was able to hold her own which is saying a lot.

10:04
What have they done to my show? Now they're hawking a new show for NBC. Boo!

10:10
The commercial for the new show the chick was singing Beautiful. I hope they didn't make Bev sing this song to promote their show instead of a song that was the best for her and Xtina!

10:15
Another one I couldn't decide how I felt about. Dia was singing her original song "Inventing Shadows". At first I didn't like it very much and was disappointed but the more she sang the more I liked the song. Very rarely do I like a song the first time I hear it. I have to agree with the judges that the shadow dancers behind her while she was singing was unnecessary but I'm irritated that that's what they spent their critique time talking about. Really? That's not something she has any say in. How about talking about her performance? So far I think it's a race between Javier and Dia.

10:26
OMG, I think I've just been pulled back to Team Adam! The duet between Adam and Javier was "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. I wasn't too excited when I heard they were singing that but they sang the song to perfection! They sounded fantastic together and looked wonderful on stage! Not only that, Javier wasn't wearing a hat! He is definitely the man to beat now. Color me impressed!

10:31
Song by Brad Paisley. I was ticked for another show intrusion until Blake started singing with him. Feel better now.

10:48
Wow, Beverly just stole the show with her original song "Love Sick." She might come in as the underdog and win. Her song was catchy and everyone was rocking and Beverly killed it. Everyone but Blake were on their feet after she got done performing. Add in Xtina's die hard fan base and we have a down to the wire competition. I love Beverly and wouldn't be upset if she won. She's someone who's paid her dues. I'm so happy for her.

10:57
Damn, just when I think Vicci is out of her and CeeLo perform an amazing duet! Pat Benatar is perfect for Vicci and they did "Love is a Battlefield" so her war dance works here. I love how Vicci just embraced CeeLo's theatrics. The background dancers were kids which is perfect since V and C are so short. I absolutely loved this performance! All of the judges were on their feet after this.

Final Thoughts:
I think they all did wonderfully. Just watching the recap of the performances made me appreciate all of their songs even more (I told you I need to listen to songs more then once, LOL). It is actually pretty tough to call. I won't be a wuss and not make a decision. Right at this moment I would say Javier will win but I think my opinion could change in 5 minutes. I can't say I would be sad to see any of them crowned as winners. What did you think of tonight's show? Who do you think will win?

I have finally recovered!

2009-05-04T00:00:00.006-04:00

I meant to blog as soon as I got back from Vegas but I was pooped. I wasn't hung over, just tired. I am just not used to that much activity on top of not taking a nap!

The trip started out so fun. The guy sitting in the seat next to Nancy took off his jacket and pulled out guns that don't need bullets! Of course we started chatting him up. Turns out he's a back up dancer for Cher! Nancy said as soon as she saw his arms she knew he was a dancer. I was too busy drooling to figure that out, LOL. He's not really much of a gossiper but he would answer any questions we had. We grilled him the entire flight, LOL. He was also a dancer for Madonna and has met Oprah and Whoopie. He's totally not a name dropper we were the ones asking all of the questions. Jamal worked on Cher's farewell tour also and blogged all about it. Here is his blog. He says you need to search the archives for it. It has been a few years. Like me, he's not a big updater. It was interesting learning the behind the scenes stuff about a world we don't know about. He was in the original broadway production of The Color Purple and is now working on putting together a production of The Harlem Nutcracker. I knew I was going to pay the price for not napping but it was too much fun talking to Jamal. I also told him he must check out Yogurtland while he's in town.

Nancy and I felt like we hit the ground running in Vegas. Well, our version of running, LOL. We decided to try a rental car this year since I didn't really want to drink and we were split between two hotels. I think it worked out nice. Of course they didn't tell us it would cost $10 a day for an extra driver. We'll need to read the fine print next time. Getting the rental car took longer then I thought it would so then we were rushing to Red Rock Hotel and Casino to meet up with the girls and to make our spa appointments. We almost had a heart attack because my gps wasn't getting a signal and I didn't mapquest the drive since I had a gps. Luckily we were able to get it working, after a panicked call to Rosie, LOL. We were so tight on time we couldn't go to Yogurtland, darn it!

We got to the spa with minutes to spare before our treatment. We had time to say hi to some of the ladies who were lounging by the pool and that was pretty much it. My masseuse was wonderful. Linda T has been telling me for years about the hot stone massage and I loved it but I think I prefer the swedish more. I like more contact, LOL. Nancy has the body scrub and I assume she loved it, I didn't ask, LOL. After our treatments we went out to gather with the girls at the pool for a few before it was time to rush off to the hotel since we were all ravenous beasts by then. I had downed an apple after my massage but it wasn't cutting it. Everyone was starving. Unfortunately we were driving during rush hour and we had to stop and pick up Bo so it took us a little while to get to the hotel. We had to forget checking in and go directly to the burger place where Lina was meeting us. Unfortunately the fries were not as fantastic as I remembered them. They go light on the ranch flavoring now. I was sad. The burgers were great though. Hmmm, I didn't take a pic of our first meal together. That's a bummer. They have 2 for 1 happy hour at the burger place, that was taken advantage of many times during our time there, LOL.

Then it was off to check in and then change and get ready to go back out. Like I said, we hit the ground running. We decided on Cleopatra's Barge. It's tradition after all, LOL. I don't have any pics of us on the dance floor, maybe because we were too sober, or at least I was, LOL but here are some of the pics of the gals and I.

For some reason Nancy didn't like the self portraits because I was centered. I thought they looked great, LOL.Nancy has fond memories of the Seahorse saloon in Daytona so we had to stop and have a drink at the Seahorse bar in Caesar's. And while walking to breakfast I saw this Budha and wanted my pic taken. Breakfast is a wonderful was to end the night, especially when a ribeye breakfast is $5.50! It was cheaper then the bacon and eggs. The meat was really thinly cut but it was fabulous as you can see by the after plate.

I'm back!

2009-04-09T02:16:00.005-04:00

Did you miss me? Of course you did! The plan was to check in while I was traveling. Did I even tell you I was leaving? I figured I would have plenty of time at the airport to blog but that is not what happened as you can see. I flew out Sat afternoon, got there as they were getting ready to board. I factored in picking up my sister so she could have my car, I didn't factor her deciding to take her car and then stopping to get gas and coffee. Since my trip was so last minute I didn't have time to buy a book so I popped in to one of the airport shops to see what they had. Nothing in the romance department so I bought a Vanity Fair instead. It's always great for flights because they actually have articles. Course, that means I now know more about Bernie Madoff then I ever wanted to, LOL.

I had an aisle seat which is good because I sat next to 2 very large ladies. They were very sweet though. I didn't really talk to them until the last hour of the flight since I slept most of the way. We were flying during my normal nap time, not that the time of day really affects my sleeping on a plane. The layover in Chicago was the perfect amount of time, just a little over an hour. I had time to get a Chicago style hot dog and only had 20 minutes to wait before we loaded. I don't like it less then an hour because if the previous flight is running late, it's too stressful. I read for the quick jaunt to Atlanta and Dao picked me up, yay! It was midnight so we went straight to the hotel. She had a Vietnamese sub waiting for me, woo hoo!

We chit chatted in the room, I wouldn't say we caught up since we try to talk at least every other week but it's fun to talk in person! There was a vent in our room that wouldn't shut off so it was cold and of course, no extra blankets. Most people who room with me know I always turn off the A/C or at least turn the thermostat off. The room was cold. Good thing I packed my flannels. So Dao went to sleep but I was still wide awake. I tried to go to sleep after surfing the web but my body wasn't co-operating. I normally go to bed around 1am. That would be 4am in ATL. Guess who was up til after 4am? Then of course due to the cold and worry about over sleeping I didn't sleep too well.

Dao and I wandered down after I woke up to check out the continental breakfast. Not too impressive. Then it was time to get ready for lunch. I needed to run some errands before hand so no time to lolly gag. The lunch with Karen was scheduled for 12:30pm and we got there a little after noon and I would say over half of the 70 people who were going to show were already there, LOL. So much for getting there early.

The lunch was wonderful! Unfortunately Dao couldn't stay too long since she couldn't get Monday off and had to drive home but she did get a chance to see Brenda, Brian and Charlie again who came back from FL early to be at the lunch. How wonderful is that? I love them! Karen was also tickled to meet Brian since Brenda had posted a pic awhile back of him reading one of Karen's books. There were so many people to meet that I didn't have a chance to be tired. I barely had a chance to take a drink of water. As soon as I walked in there were friends to meet. Just because we hadn't met in person doesn't mean they're not friends as most of you know since most of my friends were met online first.

Karen and I hadn't done anything like this before and considering this was pulled together in a little over a week it was a tremendous success. People flew in as well as drove for hours to meet with Karen. That's a lot of pressure. It was pretty exciting and exhilarating. I thought the lunch would be 2 or 3 hours, it lasted 5 hours! Karen took her time talking to everyone and of course I was running around talking to everyone. One of the gals brought her daughter and niece along. She was so excited about the lunch that she forgot it was her daughter's birthday, LOL. So I picked her up a pink cake and we sang happy birthday to her and told her that she could dig right in to the cake with her fork. Who wouldn't love that? Of course I then went and got myself a fork so I could have a bite of the cake also, LOL. There are so many wonderful moments. The hardest part is there are so many people I want to talk to that you don't get a chance to have long conversations with anyone.

Karen and I are usually too busy talking to get pics taken so I was determined to get a Thelma and Louise shot. The group shot was taken after few people left which is a bummer but this will give you an idea about the crowd. Some people brought husbands, mothers, sisters, daughters and children. It was fun for everyone.
Brenda's teenage daughter Charlie even said, it wasn't as boring as she thought it was going to be. There you go!

Once the event was over is when I realized how exhausted I was. Back to the hotel and a nap for me. I honestly would have been happy staying in all night but I couldn't. I had plans to meet up with Franklin and go see dancing boys, I couldn't cancel those plans! So after my much needed nap I dragged myself up to get ready to meet my #1 gay. We went to BJ's. Our friendly neighborhood gay bar with dancing boys. What more could a girl ask for? Excellent company and men in their undies. Perfect! Franklin and I had a wonderful time catching up with each other with wonderful scenery around. His friend Scott was with us and he's a chef! He says the next time I come to town to give him warning and he'll make a meal for me. How fab would that be?

Franklin says hi to the gals. He misses you. We also spent time together on Monday before I flew out. We were originally going to do lunch but we changed that to lunch in the morning, LOL. I wanted to go to the Collonade Room for fried chicken but they don't open for lunch, gasp! So we ended up going to a local fast food joint. Their chicken was ok but no Collonade room, LOL. Then we wandered over to Borders and spent some time wandering around there. The nice day of the day before was gone. When we went from the car to the bookstore it was like running thru a tornado it was so windy. It was hilarious the look on his face when I stepped out of the car and my hair started flying everywhere. He did not want to get out of that car. There went my plan for us to get ice cream. Instead we went to the cafe and had a hot chocolate. Did you know SBC had a triple chocolate drink which means hot chocolate with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, white chocolate shavings and a chocolate stick? How decadent!

And with that my whirlwind trip to Atlanta was over. It was great to see Brenda, Franklin and Dao with one week's notice and two of them out of town. I have wonderful friends and it was a wonderful trip.

Happy Birthday to me...

2009-04-01T03:07:00.002-04:00

Well happy fake birthday to me! I almost missed it. This working from home stuff makes it more difficult for me to keep track of dates but I had birthday greetings in my inbox which confused me for a sec, LOL. I need to remind Nancy so she can get me a present. Hey, just because I almost forgot doesn't mean she should. Especially where a present is concerned.

I really should make this day work for me since it's what's on my driver's license. You know there are places you can eat free on your birthday or I can get me some drinks. I might need to do some research. OK I just did. This link has a bunch of places you can sign up to get freebies on your bday. I signed up for Duke's Chowder House. I'm excited! Now I just have to make it to Seattle, LOL.

I will make it to Atlanta this weekend though. Karen is doing a lunch there and you know how I hate missing out on the fun. Dao is going to try to make it to town and I already let Franklin know I was coming. Its a quickie trip. I emailed Brenda but she's out of town this week and is going to try and make the signing. I told her when Karen was going but haven't heard from her since I added the bonus of me being there! If Dao and I hang out we will go eat. If Brenda and I hang out we will go eat. If Franklin and I hang out we will go look at boys. I hope I get to hang out with my friends, LOL.

chili spiced mangoes

2009-03-27T03:37:00.002-04:00

Did I mention Rachael was a foodie (her birthday is today so wish her a happy birthday, happy birhday Rachael!). So while I was staying with her it was fun to see all the different little goodies she would pull out. One night when our friend Desiree came over she put out little bowls of snack foods and one of the things she put out was chili flavored mango. I loved it! I was a total pig and couldn't stop eating them. It's the sweet and spicy combo. Oh, I should mention the mangoes are dried (but I know Mexicans and Filipinos love to throw hot spices on their fresh mango).

For me most fruit doesn't need anything else. I'll throw some salt on a watermelon if it's not sweet enough but if it's a great watermelon it doesn't need anything else. The same with mango (although with a green mango it's different, it's not sweet, we use shrimp sauce on it, a bit much for my white friends, LOL). But dried sweet mango is a whole nother story. Now I've had dried mango before and really enjoyed it. You can find it in most asian stores. My filipino friend turned me on to it, it's like eating candy. But Rachael is the one who turned me on to chili spiced mango.

She says she bought it at Whole Foods which sucks because the closest Whole Foods is in Seattle and I rarely ever go to Seattle. So today I was in Trader Joe's and lo and behold they had a huge display featuring their chili spiced mangoes and for less then $2 a bag! I bought 2! I should have bought more but I was practicing restraint, LOL. Apparently they've had them for years but since I hadn't tried them til a couple of months ago I never noticed them.

I opened a pack in the car and it was as wonderful as I remember. You really do have to take a couple of bites to fully enjoy the yumminess of it. Nancy couldn't get past her first bite. Oh well, that just means more for me, LOL. I am so happy to have found these. I think I may have mentioned a time or two how much I love Trader Joe's but really, I can never stress it enough, LOL.

Back to the gym I go

2009-03-23T03:02:00.002-04:00

I couldn't really make a New Year's resolution to go to the gym considering I was heading to California for 5 weeks soon after but I was determined to get my butt back to the gym once I go back and so far I've been doing pretty good. I need to start incorporating classes in my workout because I always do better in a class environment. I will push myself more. Mostly I've been doing interval training on the elliptical, which consists of going as fast as you can for 30 seconds and at a normal speed for 90 seconds. I've read that because of the intensity you don't have to work out as long so that works for me. I've also been doing crunches and light weights. I wanted to go 5 times a week but it's been averaging about 3.

I did make it to a couple of kickboxing classes. It's more of a cardio kickboxing which isn't really my style because I prefer to work on form but the instructor seems to be trying to work more kickboxing into the class. I definitely don't have the speed to keep up with all of the reps as fast as he goes but I do have the form. The good news is the second class I went to I felt better already. It totally fired me up and invigorated me and if I didn't have dinner plans with my sister I would have stayed and worked out a little longer after class. It's been awhile since I've been that motivated.

The first class I wanted to check out before I brought my gear. I didn't want to walk in trying to look like a badass with my IKEA bag full of kickboxing toys but I decided I wanted to wear my wraps in class and my kickboxing shoes so I was going to start bringing my stuff. Plus, there's some other chick who goes in there and she wears bag gloves and during the class will go over and punch on the one bag that is in the class. If she can do that I can most certainly bring my stuff but I won't wear my muay thai shorts, that might be pushing it a bit, LOL.

So on Tuesday I drag my suitcase that has been in the laundry room out to the shed. I need to dig to get to my kickboxing stuff, I know where it is, I just have to shift things around to get to it. Did I mention that Nancy's shed door doesn't shut all the way? So as I walk in I hear a noise but I think it's because I had the suitcase so I go still and I still hear a noise. I look inside and am face to face with a raccoon! Now raccoons are mean SOBs so I take off running to get into the house. The funny thing is for some reason I brought the suitcase back in with me even though we were in the shed and I could have left it. Jake, Nancy's cat also went sprinting inside when I did and yes, it was a funny picture me lugging the suitcase and running because you all know I don't run! I text my brother who was on his way over. His car was in the shop so I let him use mine and we were going to go pick up my car. He was already on his way when he got my text so I sent him into the shed armed with a shovel to scare out the raccoon. Turns out the raccoon is injured so he's not moving. He's hissing like crazy (Adam told me this while my head peaked out the door. He finally told me to shut the door because I was terrified and no help, LOL). Adam tried for 20 minutes to get the raccoon out even trying to lure him out with food but his legs look broken. We gave up and decided to pass the problem along to Nancy since I had to be back in time for my kb class.

Adam, the great white hunter said he couldn't hurt an injured animal and I totally understood. I wanted the raccoon gone but not dead. By the time Nancy got home, about an hour later the raccoon had left. Apparently they have a strong sense of survival and there have been many times where animal control has been called and the raccoon has been gone before they get there. My dad thinks it went off to die somewhere else which is fine with me, I don't want it dying in the shed, ewwww.

I was not brave enough to go into the shed to get my stuff when it looked like the raccoon was gone. I think I need to get someone to come over and check out the shed one more time before I go in there and get my stuff. I can barely handle tame animals, let alone wild ones, LOL.

Some funny videos...

2009-03-11T01:18:00.002-04:00

I love Flight of the Conchords which is about a folk band from New Zealand trying to make it in the states. Unfortunately it's on HBO so I only get to watch it when I'm at a friends and they have on demand. This is one of my favorite songs by them. I just saw this video today. It stars Nathan Fillion who I love and just starred on a new show called Castles which I really enjoyed. I loved the deliberately bad acting. And here is my favorite song from Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog, just for the line where they say they do the weird stuff LOL. You can watch the entire musical online. I downloaded the soundtrack and now have a musical in my head that's constantly playing, LOL.

Chicks with Knives

2009-03-09T02:03:00.003-04:00

Now there is one specific meal I wanted to talk about. You know my friend and fellow blogger Rachael. She's been linked to my blog for years, Fresh Approach Cooking. Well she has started another venture called Chicks with Knives (love the name), which is a sustainable supper club. What exactly is that you ask?

7 principles of sustainable food based on a website link Rachael has posted:
In our opinion, people and businesses adopting a sustainable approach to food should:
1. Use local, seasonally available ingredients as standard, to minimise energy used in food production, transport and storage.
2. Specify food from farming systems that minimise harm to the environment, such as certified organic produce.
3. Limit foods of animal origin (meat, dairy products and eggs) served, as livestock farming is one of the most significant contributors to climate change, and promote meals rich in fruit, vegetables, pulses, wholegrains and nuts. Ensure that meat, dairy products and eggs are produced to high environmental and animal welfare standards.
4. Exclude fish species identified as most 'at risk' by the Marine Conservation Society, and choose fish only from sustainable sources - such as those accredited by the Marine Stewardship Council.
5. Choose Fairtrade-certified products for foods and drinks imported from poorer countries, to ensure a fair deal for disadvantaged producers.
6. Avoid bottled water and instead serve plain or filtered tap water in reusable jugs or bottles, to minimise transport and packaging waste.
7. Promote health and well-being by cooking with generous portions of vegetables, fruit and starchy staples like wholegrains, cutting down on salt, fats and oils, and cutting out artificial additives.

But the chicks take it a step further and practice S.O.L.E. food. Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical.

Remember the grapefruits Rachael and I picked? Someone had emailed her offering them up for one of her dinners of which I got to participate in while I was there. Normally their suppers are hosted in homes and average about 20 or 25 people. They were doing a special dinner in a gallery for 75 people, keep in mind, the chicks are 2 women and there was no kitchen there! Needless to say, Rachael was crazy busy that week. They used the grapefruit to make a grapefruit gelet (sp?) with flecks of gold to go on top of the raw oysters that were their first course. I wish I could tell you all of the love and ingredients that went into this dinner. They had so many ingredients and the process was amazing and yes, Rachael has her own garden that she also gets ingredients from. They also made their sausage by hand as well as 2 kinds of mustards, someone said the tart cherry mustard was smack your mother good, LOL. I'll have to get Rachael to tell you the menu because it was super fantastic and super impressive.

Unfortunately I was not sitting at a table enjoying the meal. I was in the back helping with the meal. They also had 2 volunteers and the cool thing was, we had people coming in to help serve each course because they saw that there were so few people serving. How cool was that? It was pretty exhausting work and Rachael and Suzie had been there longer then I was and left after I did.

It was so cool to see her in action. This is something she's talked to me about but I didn't really grasp it. It was wonderful to see all of Rachael's hard work come to fruition and I was so proud of her and proud to be a part of it. If you are ever in LA and lucky enough to be there when she has a dinner planned I really hope you check it out.

My trip via food...

2009-03-02T02:39:00.006-05:00

As my sister Kim has correctly pointed out, my memories all revolve around food. I find as I get older I don't remember as much as I used to but I do remember a lot of the meals I've eaten, LOL. So that is how I will recap the rest of my LA adventure because my two goals were to see as many friends as I could and to eat at all of my favorite places or if I can, get my friends to cook for me, LOL.

I drove to Santa Monica to visit with my friend Carmen who I hadn't talked to in a long time, we struck up a friendship at our gym It was like we talked yesterday. We went to the seafood market for fresh fish for dinner and she shucked a dozen oysters for me. I love raw oysters! What a treat to have them while not at a restaurant, I have to have them at home more often! Yes, we were also drinking mimosas while sitting around the kitchen catching up. She made a white fish and scallops to go with a simple salad. She's Italian and she whips up the most delicious simple salads.

Bernadette is a former co-worker of mine so I've known her almost since I moved to LA. I was even in her wedding and caught the bouquet. That pic that I used of someone taking off the garter with their tongue is from that wedding, LOL. She now is the mom of two young beautiful kids. She used to always share her Filipino food with me so I wanted some good home cooking. Unfortunately when I got there she hadn't started cooking yet and I didn't have a lot of patience, I was hungry so I ate leftovers her mom brought over. Hey, I love leftovers! And even better while the kids laid down for a nap, so did I.

I wanted to eat at my favorite Korean place which just happens to be a buffet also. What could be better? Why going with Rachael and Bernadette could make it better! Bernadette hadn't been there since I left and Rachael had never been and they both loved it, yay! You know I loved it but I did practice some restraint and not eat myself to pain although I could have easily done that, LOL.

Stephanie and I went to the Tofu house after going to kickboxing class. I laughed at her suggestion that we go but got talked into it. The good news is I didn't have to be carried out, LOL. Joe says he took it easy on me. I don't believe him. Mmm I love hot tofu soup. I got the seafood tofu soup.

Steph and I also went to Absolutely Pho-bulous a couple of days later which used to be a favorite after kickboxing spot. We were both disappointed in our meal. I tried the seafood version since there are so many pho places here I wanted something different. I should not have walked off of the beaten path. Steph said her egg roll was cold. Party foul! Good thing I introduced Steph to the gloriousness that is Yogurtland before we went there, yes, dessert first, we didn't want it to close on us.

Rachael went with me to Lala's, which was an Argentinean restaurant down the street from where I used on live. I love their chimichurri sauce. I think Rach may have gotten one piece of bread, I had already used the rest to sop up the sauce and wipe it all over my body. I ordered the garlic skirt steak thinking that's what I always ordered but I was wrong. I should have ordered the mushroom skirt steak! It was still good but not the same even tho I ordered a side of mushrooms. D'oh! Got too excited there. The mushroom version has a cream sauce while the garlic had a red wine one. Was so full on the bread I had to take half of my food home, that and the portions are healthy, LOL. My friend Julie, another kickboxing bud lives in San Fran now but we knew each other in LA. She was down for her engagement party with her LA friends so I stopped by there and her friend's mom made the most divine cake! The piping was like a taffy, you could just chew on it, it was so good. Here is Julie and her fiance Adam.And this is Dave who showed up at the party with his future ex girlfriend Karla. He says it's my fault because I liked her, LOL. Dave and I go way back. I'm sure I've mentioned him on here before.

I stopped by Rossi and Michelle's house and she made a home made chili. We sat around eating comfort food and catching up. I knew them both before they got married, we had all worked at the museum together and I used to be Rossi's boss. I was the best boss he ever had, LOL. He was actually in class most of the night so Michelle had a lot of girl time together which was fun and we watched the first ep of Survivor together LOL.

I know there were other meals while I was there but this was a quick overview of my trip, overall wonderful food and even better friends!

The days are flying by...

2009-02-27T02:16:00.005-05:00

Which means the days I don't blog are flying by, LOL. Seriously I had the best of intentions when I went on this road trip. I was going to update every day and if not every day at least every other day. As you can see, that didn't happen. The reality is, now that I have more to blog about I have less time to blog, that and it's so much easier and quicker to do a 2 sentence update on facebook, LOL.

So I woke up bright and early Sun morning after going to bed after 4am. Unfortunately due to that fact I was practically a zombie. Not good for a road trip. On the days I hit the road I like to hop into the shower and leave. Not this morning. With only 4 hours of sleep I was dragging ass. So I didn't get out the door til after 1pm. I almost took a nap before I hit the road but decided since the trip was only 5 hours I could make it. Since it was Sunday I knew the best way to make the trip as pain free and quick as possible was to talk on the phone and that's what I did for 4 hours. Before you know it I was in Los Angeles.

I admit, it took me a little bit to get oriented but I had my gps so there were no worries. I showed up at Rachael's exhausted as you can imagine, LOL. We lugged my things in and I got comfortable on the couch. Luckily she has a super comf couch. On this trip I brought my own pillow and it really made a difference. I do believe this was super bowl Sunday so instead of watching it we sat around catching up and then turned on the tv to watch the Office, LOL. She also fixed me a kick ass salad to enjoy with my tv viewing.

On Monday she needed to go pick some grapefruit and I was totally game for that. I love picking fruit. So we get to the house where we're supposed to pick grapefruit and the chick isn't there. Luckily Rachael brought her own ladder and there was a stick lying around so we still picked grapefruit. It was fun. I love the fact it was winter time and I was picking fruit.
After our fun adventure there Rachael turned me on to the beauty that is Yogurtland. Oh Yogurtland, how I miss you so. It's a self serve yogurt place with 12 or 14 flavors to choose from. The serving sizes are monstrous. My favorite flavor is actually the plain tart yogurt. I loved that and the tart pineaple and tey were both nonfat flavors. The tart lychee was fun but the tart mango was just ok. What's even better is you have full access to their toppings bar! One section was all candies, cereals and nuts and the other was all mostly fresh cut fruit with some canned thrown in. I would always get the fresh cut mango. The best thing is the price! Since you're charged by weight and not per topping my yogurts were always under $2! Score!!! I went there 5 times in two weeks since it's a new franchise and it hasn't reached the pac northwest. I talked to a chick who went there 30 times in the past month, she had only missed one day. She was skinny as a rail of course! For those thinking of franchise opportunities, open a yogurtland in WA. You'll make a fortune on me alone.

OK more will have to wait for another day. I don't want to blow my wad all at once.

Pull up a chair and get comfortable

2009-02-14T22:32:00.002-05:00

because I have a lot of catching up to do, LOL. Nancy and Brenda have been getting on me for slacking. What happens is, I have so much to talk about I end up just avoiding everything. Sorry. I do think of you. If you want to follow me with a little less detail I'm pretty good about updating my facebook, that takes one or two sentences, LOL.

I spent a lot of my first visit with Barb driving around and visiting people. I was meeting up with RBLs and with Moning Maniacs. I drove into Sacramento on a Fri. to see Linda W. I had planned on getting there for an early lunch since I was meeting with some MM at 4:30pm but that didn't happen. I left later then planned (imagine that) and the trip was longer then I thought, oops! Instead Linda and I ran some errands and split a salad and had soup. We tried to eat light but I wasn't very hungry come dinner time.

We met up with Gina and Sarah in downtown Sac and had a wonderful time talking books and everything else. I say it all the time but I mean it every time, I just have so much fun meeting Karen's fans! I always feel like I'm meeting friends. We took some awesome pics with the MacHalo outside and had some interesting conversations with some people while we were in the bar, LOL. I'm kicking myself for not bringing some of Karen's books to give away to people on this trip!

I met up with another MM on Sun, Alice and she was so sweet. I felt bad that I only had an hour to spend with her and just when we were getting into in depth convos with her about books we had to go (Barb was with me). Korean dinner was calling my name, along with meeting Halia and Madie of course. We had so much fun at the restaurant. Everyone there was korean and they got a total kick out of the MacHalo. We tried to get the waiters to take a pic with it but they got busy so I let them off of the hook, LOL.

I drove to meet Bobbi from RBL. I've known her online for years so it was great to meet her in person. On facebook I learned what a Martha Stewart she was and she brought me oranges from her tree as well as a delicious orange cake and some candied orange peel she made, all of which I ate. Surprising I know, LOL.

On my last night in town I went out with Barb and her friends Dan and Anthony, who I know and also consider friends and her niece Leanne who I met at Barb's birthday. We had a fabulous dinner in the Castro district. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but the host/co-owner was very cute. Just eye candy since the Castro district is the gay part of town, LOL. The drinks there were wonderful. There was a grapefruit one I really enjoyed.

Afterwards we went to Nob Hill which is a gay movie theater/strip club. I had high expectations, this is San Fran after all. Boy was I in for a disappointment. They only had a handful of guys who didn't really dance as much as flex and they were only on stage one at a time. The guys weren't good looking, couldn't dance and except for one guy had no personality. I got $20 worth of ones when I went in and left with most of it, LOL. Dan did warn me I would be disappointed but I needed to experience for myself. It's hard to top Atlanta. They definitely set the bar, LOL. Barb and Leanne left the theater early, they had no interest. I was hoping for a diamond in the rough, there was none, LOL.

We met up with them at Martunis, a piano bar and had a wonderful time! We stayed until they closed and were eventually able to work our way up to the piano. On our way to breakfast Dan asked Barb if we were staying overnight since Bart had stopped running. The plan was, we parked Barb's car at the Bart station and Dan and Anthony picked us up and they were staying in town for the night but we were going to take Bart back to Barb's car. Barb didn't realize Bart closed at midnight. Oops!

Over breakfast we decided to borrow Leanne's car to get home. I hadn't had a drink in a few hours so was good to drive and neither of us wanted to stay in town even tho we could have stayed at Leanne's. I was tired tho and driving on roads I didn't know in a car I didn't know so it was a stressful drive home but by 4am we were home safe and sound.

Then the next day I was getting up to drive to Los Angeles. I didn't leave quite as early as planned, LOL.

checking in...

2009-01-28T23:49:00.003-05:00

Remember the dips I told you Linda was going to make? Well I tasted them and they were divine (of course!). She made a smoked salmon dip and an artichoke crab dip which was a warm dip, mmmm. I even used some for my road food the next day, I spread the salmon on a pita for my breakfast, LOL. We then went to happy hour at Jake's Famous Crawfish because I was in the mood for oyster shooters. The mussels and spring rolls were awesome. The mac and cheese was made with gorgonzola and bacon but was just ok. The tempura sushi roll wasn't very good but we didn't realize we needed to eat it hot and it was the last thing we tried.
After that we headed next door to take Linda's picture for the MacHalo tour. It's my favorite picture so far. I was going to show it to you but decided to wait until we launch the new page that we have for the tour. FYI, next door is Spartacus, an adult store LOL.

Neighbor Jim got called into work so he couldn't join us for happy hour so while Linda went to yoga I went to dinner with Neighbor jim. I know, I just ate! I had an app of some riblets. They were tasty. The owner brought us by a free dessert. It was a decadent chocolate putting with whipped cream, mmmm. It was fun catching up with Neighbor Jim.

So Wed Linda left for skiing before I even woke up. Once I woke I quickly got cleaned up and headed on to the road. The gps system I got at Xmas has been a god send during this trip. I put in Barb's address and off I went. Nancy kept you updated on that part of my trip.

Since I let Barb know what time I would get in she had dinner ready for me, a delicious chicken salad! Then we watched Lost and Top Chef, felt like I was at home, which I was, Barb's home is my home, LOL.

A funny song...

2009-01-28T02:09:00.000-05:00

Barb played this song for me and I knew it was something that my Mannions would enjoy, especially Su and Nancy, LOL.

The Roadwarrior Checks In

2009-01-21T19:03:00.002-05:00

After her nap and lunch of course!

Lunch was at Linda's Soup Cafe - they make it fresh so even though the sandwich was to go it slowed her down a little bit more than expected. She said it was delicious and worth the wait.

Naptime was a bit later, hey, she waited till she had been on the road for 6 1/2 hours before she had to snooze!

She is now in Cottonwood CA - zooming the remaining 193 miles!

She stopped in Medford Or for gas, not a great deal like before (2.01) but she had to stop there for two reasons -
1) They pump the gas for you - Duh!
2) She likes to stop and have a walk down memory lane because she lived there during 8th and 9th grade there. That is where she met her oldest friend Kirsting (I know shocking it is not me!)

She was 4 minutes ahead of schedule... but due to well deserved breaks she is now 24 minutes behind. She says she is not speeding the rest of the way because she got her only speeding ticket in Northern California (they must be wise to her "I am but a dumb girl act") and she does not want another!

Barb has confirmed dinner with Leiha - Chicken Salad with lots of fresh veggies will be waiting for her.

Gotta run - here is the map - point C is Cottonwood.

View Larger Map

Checking in from the road

2009-01-21T13:32:00.003-05:00

2 hours in to the trip and Leiha is checking in. She just stopped in the lovely town of Saginaw (no she is not in Michigan!) and is back on the road again. She started out on a high note by downing a bottle of 5 hour energy drink, and about an hour after she was yawning up a storm.

The weather has been overcast but just now the sun is peaking out... good news you ask - NO! That means squinting and a warm car; that will only make her more sleepy - keep your fingers crossed for more and more clouds - but no rain!

According to the GPS the trip should take 10 hours, so far she has knocked off 4 minutes - after stopping two times! She is not a speed demon but the GPS gives her a goal to try to beat. Of course we havent factored in nap or lunch time yet lol.

A reason to visit Saginaw? Leiha paid 1.85 a gallon for gas, and they pump it for you!

View Larger Map

A map of the whole trip - Whith her firs stop marked as B.

View Larger Map

More updates later...

The road trip has begun...

2009-01-20T13:46:00.003-05:00

While I was in Cali for Barb's birthday last Oct I decided I wanted to go to her house for a month since I can work from anywhere, why not work where it was warmer? Plus, the weekend was great but so action packed. I wanted to just spend some time lounging with Barb as well as visiting with friends in the area who I didn't get to see the last time I was there. Since I was going to the SF area I might as well go to LA right?

Turns out my friend Julie is having an engagement party in LA the first weekend in Feb (which is funny cause she lives in SF now so I was planning on seeing her when I went there) so I planned my LA visit around that. I also decided to take the MacHalo with me while I'm driving everywhere and now I have even more plans to meet up with people and what was once a lazy trip to Cali, just going at my own speed (which you all know is slow) has suddenly become so scheduled I can't remember who I'm meeting when. I brought it upon myself, LOL.

Of course, if I'm driving south I'm stopping in Portland. I had lunch plans with some of Karen's fans so they could get a pic with the Machalo and to meet them. I planned on waking up at 7am and leaving at 8:30am. Instead I woke up at 8:30! I set my alarm on my phone but apparently didn't have the volume up, it didn't even phase me, and I'm not someone who oversleeps. I guess that means I need to pull my alarm clock out of my trunk. I haven't had much use for it since my move, LOL.

Did I mention I hadn't packed yet? So I was throwing all kinds of things in my suitcase, including my swim suit hoping it's really warm in LA. I want my sister to be jealous of my tan, LOL. I know I forgot some things but so far haven't thought of anything big. My major thing was to remember the MacHalo and my camera. I figure if I need some clothes I can always buy it, LOL. It's hard to pack for 4 or 5 weeks. I have problems packing for a weekend, LOL.

I made it to Portland at 12:30, thank goodness it was a holiday yesterday! I hung out with Linda for a few minutes and checked my email since I didn't have much time when I woke up LOL. The sun was shining so much I think my face was tanning. I had to turn off the heat and crack the window.

Lunch was fabulous. We were a little late, Linda and I were so busy talking we missed a turn, LOL. We'll soon have a website up with pics of the Machalo Tour but of course I'll show you a pic of moi! Linda made her homemade guacamole for me last night, mmmm.

Tonight we're off to happy hour and then staying mellow since I'm leaving early in the morning for Barb's and Linda is going skiiing. I'm a little sad that I won't be here tomorrow night to watch Lost with Linda and her gang, she's making apps for it. Good thing she's making them today since she will be out all day tomorrow. Lucky me, I get to be the taste tester!

Happy New Year Part 2

2009-01-15T13:13:00.004-05:00

So for New Years I usually go low key. There's just too much pressure to go out and party and have the time of your life. It's always anti-climatic when you have those kinds of expectations, well unless you're my brother Adam who went to Las Vegas for NYE and had a ball. They partied all night long. I was in bed by 1am, LOL.

Since none of my sisters had plans we (as in me) decided to have a get together at Kathy's house. I decided to bring a cheese plate. You know I love me some cheese. My new fave is cambozola. It's like a spreadable blue cheese. The others weren't as wowed by it but that's why I also got a brie and a cheddar, a little something for everyone. My brother David also stopped by which is always a treat. We just sat around stuffing ourselves (big surprise) on finger foods and drinking awful cheap champagne which is my fault. I was going to buy 2 bottles of Chandon but once I found out more people were going to be there I bought 4 bottles of cheaper champagne. I stuck to the sparkling cider, LOL.

I wish I would have brought my karaoke, that would have made the night perfect! Well maybe not for my sisters but for me it would have, LOL. Here's a pic of Jordan that I love. He usually has a goofy look on his face when he smiles or he doesn't show teeth. My sister had a friend over who has kids. The 9 year old used Jordan's bb gun and he shot a bb thru a window. Luckily no one was hurt. That was the excitement of the night LOL.

How did you all ring in the new year? Any resolutions you want to share? I'm not doing too well on getting to the gym on a regular basis but my eating is much better. I've even started eating oatmeal for breakfast. The hard part is I'm going to go to California for a month. I need to try and keep my eating under control both on the road and while I'm off socializing, LOL. Barb and I are going to try and keep each other on track. That's right people, a road trip is coming soon.

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-08T00:46:00.006-05:00

OK, I'm a week late, but it's the thought that counts, LOL. Christmas was wonderful. Sorry Chez, I didn't take pics of the food. I was in the kitchen a lot less. Our dining room table was almost bowing it had so many sweets on it. I brought a platter of home made candies, a platter of home made cookies (not made by me) and also a box of candy that had been given to Nancy. Kim made a rice krispie like dessert called a scotcharoo and my sister in law Myrna brought more home made candy! We had to put the platters in the one of the bedrooms because the kitchen was full when it was time to put dinner on the table.

I can't believe we didn't get a family picture! My brother and his family didn't make it to Thanksgiving and it's so rare for all of us to be together I'm totally bummed we didn't get one but it was a madhouse there. The kids were having fun with all of that sugar. Did I mention Kim and I stuffed the stockings with chocolates also? Here are a couple of pics that Kim took.
We didn't end up taking many pics which is a bummer because its always funny to see all of the presents under the tree. We had 17 stockings up this year, which is why they wrapped around into the dining room, LOL.

The opening of the presents was a mad house! My brother's kids are 3 and 4 and they were awful, just ripping thru presents and throwing them down to open new ones. Since I was living here and have so much fun shopping for kids I bought them 2 and 3 presents but they really took the fun out of it for me and I won't put so much thought and effort next year. At least Jordan has learned to be better. He wouldn't open his next present until he thanked whoever he received the present the present he had just opened from. I know the other two are little but Kathy, who has a close relationship with them said she was appalled by it so I don't think I'm being too harsh.

Dinner was wonderful even though the prime rib was a little over cooked. Not enough medium rare for everyone but the taste was wonderful. My potatoes were a hit. Our ambrosia salad was delightful but not many people ate it. It's more dessert like so people waited to eat it and by then were too full. I've decided I'm not making any more desserts because by the time people have room for it, they're on to the next house. My dad had some pie a couple of hours after dinner but he was the only one.

Since we celebrated Xmas eve for Xmas day I went to Nancy's for Xmas brunch. I don't like to drive in the snow and when I woke up it was coming down like crazy. Nancy stayed the night at her parent's so she couldn't drive. Originally I was going to go to their house then leave early to let my dad use my car. Instead I had him drive me out there and I could come home with Nancy. My dad is from Michigan, he knows how to drive in the snow. Or so I thought LOL. Nancy's parents live down a steep incline. I told my dad that Nancy's dad would come and get me in his truck at the top of the hill but my dad said he could make it. Which he could. Too bad he couldn't make it back up the hill! Nancy's dad, Larry (might as well give him a name, LOL) and her brother Edgar ran out to help him which was too cute. I didn't have my camera out quick enough to catch them pushing the hyundai. Unfortunately there was too much slush so the tires couldn't get traction so they gave my dad alternate directions and followed him in the truck to make sure he got out. How cool is that?

Nancy's cousins came over for brunch and their 3 little munchkins who are just adorable and they love me. Well the boys love me, the little girl is more reserved, sometimes she hugs me, most times she doesn't. The boys run right to me which I love. They call me Nancy's friend, LOL. Brunch was fabulous! We had a sausage souffle, a frittata, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad and bacon! So yummy! To top it off I had Edgar make me a bloody mary since I wasn't there the night before to get drunk with the clan. It was the best bloody mary I'd ever had so I had him make me another one. Big mistake, LOL. I had a headache ALL day. I thought it was dehydration but even after drinking a ton of water I still didn't feel better. So I did blame it on the booze but maybe it wasn't. I'll have to have another one to be sure, LOL.

Nancy had the brilliant idea to pull out the toboggan. It was a total blast. Since I went over in my pj's I put on some of Nancy's mom's (Pat) clothes. Here is my fave pic from the tobogganing, can you believe no one took my pic? Then that would be my fave pic, LOL. The little girl never left her spot so the front seat meant you were behind her, LOL. They decided to trek up a big hill but after a few steps I decided to go in, LOL. Nancy says they only did the hill once since they had to lug the kids.

I had some cool gifts this year, including a pic frame full of pics of me (my fam knows me well, LOL) but my favorite was a gift from Nancy's parents. They had made a cook book for each of us full of their recipes and their family recipes. It is awesome! I show it to everyone who comes by, LOL. I received my own cook book because Pat has hopes Nancy and I won't always live together. We have that same hope, LOL. I loved being included in the family but hey, as if there was any doubt, LOL. I get in the family pictures, just like Nancy does at my home. We have known each other and each other's families for over 20 years.

All of the excitement of Xmas got to me, ok it was the 2 bloody marys (I don't drink much anymore) and I needed a nap. I can't usually sleep with noise around me but had no problem this time. I only woke up because I could hear the kids getting ready to leave and they wanted to give me a hug. I never turn down a hug! Once Nancy and I got home we had our own Xmas. I know, it's like I had 3 Christmases! We decided to do stocking stuffers and had fun opening our little gifts to each other. Of course with being snowed in for a week I told Nancy a couple of the things she will be getting, LOL.

All in all a fabulous Xmas. I hope that you all had as wonderful a time as I did. I had planned on catching up to New Years but this is quite a long post as it is. So what was your favorite present this year? Any gag gifts? The sweat bands I bought for the boys wrists were a hit as were the Star Trek pez dispensers, LOL. Dang, what did I do with my pez?

Eating is the reason for the season...

2008-12-23T18:57:00.007-05:00

Seasons greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Festivus to the rest of us! I know the holidays are for love, family, religion and gifts but you know for me it's about the food, LOL. For the first time we are celebrating Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning. I haven't been home for very many Christmases in my adult life and celebrating the holidays was spotty when I was a kid so it doesn't make a difference to me. A few years ago my dad had to work so they all went to his house at 5am to open presents. Well this year he has to work during the day and wanted to move it to Xmas Eve. My family has very few traditions but Xmas morning is one of them. The family was resistant but you know a Xmas Eve dinner would be so much more wonderful then a Xmas morning breakfast so I made the command decision that we're doing the Eve and let everyone know and told them what they were bringing, LOL.

We had to juggle some with the significant others since there suddenly was a conflict with two of them so we're celebrating earlier in the day then planned but this way we can spend more time with each other and Nancy can also join us (she has plans that night). My dad bought a Christmas Story for us to watch, apparently when we watched Tropic Thunder for Thanksgiving it didn't have the right tone LOL. Too bad Kim already bought Stepbrothers for us to watch and I haven't seen that yet.

Adam will be cooking the prime rib.
Kim will put together the salad David paid for.
Andy alcoholic drinks.
Kim bought dessert and sodas.
Kathy is doing a veggie side dish.
I'm making a potatoes au gratin using velveeta and cream of mushroom soup and a sherbert punch!

Now Nancy and I were watching tv in my room because it was warmer the other night and surfing different recipes online. We came across Alton Brown's recipe for Ambrosia on foodnetwork.com and decided that would be fun to make. Especially when we read the glowing reviews. But all of the reviews said it's so much better with homemade marshmallows so guess what we're making tonight? That's right, homemade marshmallows! We're also using all fresh fruit, including fresh coconut and adding red and green jello per Kim's request. For as much as we spent on ingredients it better be the best damn ambrosia ever! We'll let you know how it turns out, LOL.

I hope that you all have a fantastic holiday season with family and friends. I know it's been a tough year for everyone. Remember, it's not about what gifts you receive or even give. It's about the love you share, the memories you make and of course, the food you eat!

Holiday baking

2008-12-19T14:50:00.005-05:00

I haven't done much in the way of holiday the last couple of years but now that I'm home that changed this year. Kim and her bf Jeff came over to do candy coated pretzels. So easy and so tasty. You buy almond bark, melt it in the microwave and drop pretzels in and use a chopstick to fish them out and shake off the excess candy and set it on a cookie sheet to dry. This year I bought sprinkles to put on top so they're much prettier. A wonderful combination of salty and sweet.

Nancy and I went to her mom's house a couple of times to make holiday fudge and peanut butter junk. Sorry I don't have those recipes. The peanut butter tastes like a better peanut butter cup!

A few years ago I went to Barb's in December and she turned me on to soda cracker candy aka fake almond rocca. It is so good! The bottom tastes like toffee and basically the cracker holds together the chocolate and the toffee and gives it a nice texture.

1/2 lb unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
saltines (aka soda cracker)
chocolate chips
chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Different recipes call for different amounts of crackers or chocolate but it all depends on the ... Read Moresize of the pan. Line a cookie sheet (the kind with an edge) with aluminum foil and either butter or use cooking spray. Line cookie sheet with crackers edge to edge (break some crackers to make crackers go to the edge). Melt butter and brown sugar in a pot until it boils. Boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Pour over crackers and use spatula to spread out evenly.

Put in the oven and boil for 6 to 7 minutes until you see the mixture bubble. Take out of the oven and pour a layer of chocolate chips over the top. Does not need to be entirely covered because you will put it in the oven for one more minute to soften the chocolate and pull out and use spatula to spread evenly. You can spread chopped nuts over the top if you wish. I prefer without the nuts. You can cool countertop or in the fridge. Once cooled break it into pieces and eat! Delish!

I saw this recipe on allrecipes.com. It's for a peppermint meringue. I love that website because there are a bunch of revews on the different recipes.

2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 peppermint candy canes, crushed
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with foil.

In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until whites form stiff peaks. It takes awhile to get to the proper consistency, you want it white and creamy. At the very end I added the peppermint extract as recommended by others. Fold it in gently. Drop by spoonfuls 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candy over the cookies. I actually put the meringue mixture in a ziploc bag and cut out a tiny bit of the corner and squeezed out the meringue.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours in preheated oven. Meringues should be completely dry on the inside. Do not allow them to brown. Turn off oven. Keep oven door ajar, and let meringues sit in the oven until completely cool. Loosen from foil with metal spatula. Store loosely covered in cool dry place for up to 2 months.

Nancy didn't really want me to make this, she doesn't like the consistency of meringues saying they have the consistency of cardboard but she said they were the best she's ever had and today they taste even better and are more chewy so the consistency doesn't bother her. Someone posted the following pic on the allrecipes site. She used a styrofoam cone and toothpicks to make an edible centerpiece. What a wonderful idea!

Eat, drink and see Maggie!

2008-12-17T23:52:00.003-05:00

Monday I had an appointment at the VA which is a wonderful excuse to see Maggie who lives in West Seattle. We decided to do happy hour because it makes us oh so happy, LOL. After a little back and forth on where we were going we decided on Jaks, a local bar/restaurant with a wonderful happy hour.

It had snowed the day before so I was a little nervous about the drive because it would be dark driving home but the roads had been cleared which is wonderful. The only problem was the parking lot hadn't been cleared and it was on a hill. I parked at the top of the hill and took the sidewalk. For some reason Nancy parked in the middle which would be an ordeal when it was time to leave, LOL.

Maggie was at the bar when I got there and Nancy was close behind. I decided we should order without her since I was hungry, LOL. I knew she would appreciate having food already on its way. We ordered chipotle shrimp, scampi style shrimp, a cheeseburger and teriyaki steak tips. To drink I had a lemon drop, Maggie a cosmo and Nancy a hot buttered rum. She had never had one before and wanted to try it. We really enjoyed it. We decided there were 2 more things on the happy hour menu so might as well order them also. So ordered the chicken caesar salad which the lady next to us raved about and the pulled pork. The steak tips were too salty and the caesar was boring but I really enjoyed everything else. Nancy thought the pulled pork was mushy. The guy next to us had a bacon cheeseburger. Ahhh, if only we had known, LOL. While we weren't impressed with the recommended salad she did turn us on to pouring tons of pepper into the ketchup. It reminded me of pepper potato chips. They also do it to their mustard but the ketchup was better.

After we ate we went to the cupcake store next door. I couldn't help but notice it on the way there, LOL. Turns out it was cupcake happy hour which means 6 cupcakes for $7.50. Score! I also got a hot cocoa with whipped cream. Did I mention it was butt ass cold outside? The hot cocoa was like ambrosia. Nancy and I were full so while we bought 6 cupcakes we split one and saved ours for later. I forgot my camera (I know! How could I?) but Maggie had her cool new iphone and that is what this pic was taken with.

We said our goodbyes in the cupcake shop since it was so cold and Nancy and I headed to the parking lot. Since Nancy's car was further down the parking lot I offered to drive her there from my car. Not very far but it was very icy. Once my car started sliding sideways we nixed that idea and Nancy had to take her shoes off (she had on heals) and make a run for it. Luckily she made it to her car without breaking her coccyx which I totally thought would happen (and told her would LOL) and we made it home in one piece. The roads were great.

It was a wonderful evening with Mags and something we totally planning on doing in the not too distant future!

Why did I leave Florida?

2008-12-15T00:07:00.005-05:00

Luckily I have someone around to help clear off my car.

While I waited in the car, LOL.

Could my outfit be anymore colorful and mismatched? The funny thing is I actually got a compliment from someone about my outfit while at the mall today. Nancy and I both laughed about it later. I told her I couldn't believe she was walking around with me looking like that but she loved the hat. I wasn't going to leave the house due to the snow but Nancy volunteered to drive. I hate driving in the snow. So off we went to do Xmas shopping which I desperately needed to do and we had a wonderfully productive day. The sales were incredible. I am a happy camper. Now I need to find boxes to pack everything in, LOL.

Tv talk!

2008-12-11T15:42:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile since I chatted about what I've been watching so I thought I'd dedicate a post to it. That and I have a new show that I must rave about. Warning, there will be spoilers if you haven't seen the show.

You all know I love the reality shows. Sometimes I go off the reality bandwagon but they always end up pulling me back in. I wasn't going to watch The Biggest Loser this time around because I'm sick of all of the product placements and how they stretch a 1 hour show into 2 but there was nothing else on so a couple of weeks in I started watching. I am a die hard Bob fan, I love him dearly but sorry to say, his team sucks this year! I am so rooting for Michelle in the finals. I cried when her mom got sent home. How beautiful are both of them? if Vicki wins I will gag. I won't say I won't watch the show again, I already tried that, LOL.

My new fave sitcom even though it's not a new show is the Big Bang Theory. It makes me laugh every week so I have stopped watching Chuck, another show which I love in order to watch BBT. I catch up on Chuck online. Still a very fun show.

Heroes has been a disappointment. It's been a disappointment after the first season but I continually hold out hope that it will get better. Yes, I still watch but if the next installment doesn't get better I will be bidding adios to Heroes and Hiro. I did love watching Hiro with his mom. How beautiful was she?

The bad thing about watching Heroes, well other then the fact it's not wowing me is I'm missing John and Kate Plus 8. Su turned me on to them and I still love and adore the family. I missed their wedding episode but this being TLC I know I'll be able to see it again in the future.

Last year I absolutely loved Dirty Sexy Money. It doesn't have that wow factor for me anymore. Plus it's on at the same time as Top Chef so that's what I've been watching. I love Eugene, good thing he didn't go home last night. That was close. I don't really like Jamie too much. Everyone knew she was going to win last night? Apparently not the judges, LOL. Stefan is a cocky ass but I like him and I also really enjoy Fabio! He has charm oozing out of his pores.

Survivor is a show I watch one season and not the next. This season I'm watching. Crystal does not represent Olympic gold medal winners well. Could she be any worse in challenges? I'm hoping for Matty, Sugar and Bob to pull a coupe and oust Crystal. I did like Kenny but he's becoming too cocky. Sugar has played the game wonderfully even though it was a bit much when they were laughing their asses off when they voted out Randy (even though it was funny LOL).

Still loving the Office.

Wow, not a lot of shows I must watch anymore. That sucks! Luckily Scrubs and Lost are coming back soon.

I do have a new show that I love. It's called Secret Millionaire and it has been airing on Wed nights but the regular time slot is Thur night at 8pm. Real life millionaires go undercover in poverty ridden areas for a week with a $100 to $150 spending money for the week and at the end of the week they give away at least $100,000 of their own money. The most moving was the first ep where it was a father and son. The son was 23 years old and they had to rent a place by the day, had to go get work for a day just to pay rent and they were so moved by everything they saw and you could really see the change. I cried the whole time. The second episode the couple gave away $300,000 of their own money! It was awesome. I say this show is the show Extreme Home Makeover meant to be before it became a big hamfest for the designers and an hour long ad for Sears. It really is a feel good show that you can see changes the lives of not only the people who receive the money but the people who give it. It's funny how embarrassed the millionaires are when they tell people that they've been lying and that they're really millionaires. I do have to say, I do think the producers set up some of the situations that they end up in (what a coincidence you're in line at the grocery store with a woman who feeds the homeless) but it doesn't ruin the message of the show for me. I hope if you get a chance you check out the show.

So what shows are you watching? Any big disappointments? Who are you rooting for on the reality shows? Anything I should be watching but am not?

Lin's visit at Casa de Leiha

2008-12-08T14:17:00.012-05:00

So I was chatting with Lin, a regular blog poster and a friend from Karen's board who I've known online for awhile last month and she needed to take some vacation because she had so much of it (I have never had that problem, LOL). She had no plans for her vacation other then hanging around the house so I threw out there that she was welcome to come visit here. I offered her all the comforts of my home, such as a cat who bites and scratches, a hostess who insists on abandoning you for hours while she naps and Nancy's bed. Plus, I would expect her to try food she has never tried and had no inclination to try, what more could a person ask for? With an offer like that how could she turn it down?

I did tell her that if she wanted to do anything touristy things she needed to let me know because I'm not really a touristy person but Nancy was willing to take her places. Nancy is a wonderful hostess and has stories about everything in the area (and if you drive by where she works she will always point it out to you, just in case she didn't tell you the other 20 times you went by, LOL). Lin wanted to see the Boeing tour. Guess what we didn't do while she was here? To be fair, I did mention it a couple of times but Lin decided it wasn't high on her priority list and let's be real, it definitely wasn't high on mine, LOL.

So basically all Lin did while here was eat. Now that's my kind of vacation! I was shocked and appalled when I found out she had never tried crab. Are the people in England savages? That had to be changed. It was funny because everywhere we went, my family's Thanksgiving, Nancy's family's Thanksgiving, Nancy's second cousin's morning after Thanksiving breakfast I told everyone she hadn't tried crab before and they all were as horrified as I was. So after the after Thanksgiving breakfast we headed to Seattle and wandered briefly around Pike Place Market and some other shops then headed to the Crab Pot. One of Nancy's favorite places to eat and mine too when you look at the pics.

At the Crab Pot you can order meals where they pour the food on the table and you take your mallet and eat away. Now that's my kind of eating. Nancy looked at the menu and suggested one of the options on the menu, I pointed out the fact that her choice had NO crab in it! Instead we picked one that had king crab, dungeness and alaskan crab as well as mussels, clams, shrimp, corn and potatoes. We were excited and ravenous (well I don't know how excited Lin was, LOL).

Mallets and bibs to eat our meal with, how exciting! The only thing that would have made it better would be eating it off of a hot 6 pack of male abs!Of course, once our food was dished up who had time to think about men?
OK, maybe Lin doesn't look as excited as I am but that's because she hadn't yet tried the crab! She did give it her thumbs up afterwards. Both her and I got full and couldn't finish but so we forced Nancy to eat all of the mussels and clams we couldn't. What a trooper! Nancy with the remains of our meal. She did the happy dance a few times while eating, LOL. We didn't waste precious stomach room on potatoes but the corn was pretty good also.

We also went and had Korean food which she enjoyed. She even tried some of the kimchees. Her deep dark secret, so glad I didn't know this before I invited her over was she had never had RICE! How can we be friends? She got the Kalbi and it was delish of course. Nancy's brother Edgar joined us as well as 2 of his friends, one of which was having a birthday so we had beef and cake, just what I was dreaming about beefcake!

The Vietnamese didn't go over as well. Since she had never had a Chinese egg roll she wasn't aware of how far superior the Vietnamese one was. She didn't finish her bun though which is the rice vermicelli noodle dish with pork and shrimp. She liked the pork, shrimp and noodles, just not all of the other things that came in the dish, LOL. But she tried and that made me happy.

For our last night we went to dinner at Anthony's for some good seafood and had some champagne with our meal.
It was a wonderful visit and I look forward to her next one. I found out the day she was going to the airport she has never had prime rib! Oh the horror!

A Mann family Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T16:03:00.008-05:00

Adam fried the turkey and I think it turned out wonderfully. My roasted brussel sprouts were awesome but my gravy was not. I have given up ever making gravy again, LOL.
Kimberly and my dad. As soon as he got home I put him in charge of the gravy, trying to fix what I did, it was edible but that's about it. Good thing I also bought backup gravy, LOL.
No Thanksgiving would be complete without Harry Potter! Adam, Kimberly and her bf Jeff.
So they're putting in a new deck but when Adam dropped in our second turkey (leftovers) there was a little oil splatter. They could be re-doing some of that deck work, LOL.
Kathy and her bf Jeff. I'm looking for a bf named Jeff, LOL.
Jordan and Adam. I think they called each other ahead of time to discuss what they were going to wear, LOL.
Andy and his gf Christina and they're dog Duke. They're dog really is their baby as you can see.
I'm making my world famous stove top! Hey, it's what they wanted. That would be sparkling cider in my glass, not so sure about what's in David's.
Most of the Mann clan. It really is impossible to get us all in one spot. Jordan says he wasn't smiling because he was trying to swallow the food he was chewing, LOL. It was a lovely Thanksgiving with absolutely no drama.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-11-26T13:59:00.003-05:00

OK, I know I'm a day early but we all know I will spend tomorrow in a blissful food coma, LOL. This year my dad is working until 2pm. I wanted to host but Nancy's house cannot handle the entire Mann family and their significant others. There will be 15 of us this year. I can't remember the last time I was home for Thanksgiving. We decided to do a potluck and have dinner ready when dad got home. We as in Kim and I decided and told everyone what they would be doing, LOL.

Me:
roasted brussel sprouts with garlic and pistachios
cucumber salad
gravy (my dad will probably end up making this, LOL)
stove top (my family love it)
cranberry sauce
whipped pumpkin pie (making this tonight, wish me luck)
3 bottle martinellis sparkling cider

Kim:
veggie tray
clam dip
spinach dip
onion dip
chips
crackers
2 bottles martinellis sparkling cider

Kathy:
green bean casserole
mashed potatoes
2 bottles martinellis sparkling cider

Adam:
frying turkey

Andy:
pumpkin pie
dutch apple pie
cool whip
ice cream
wine

David:
5 bottles martinelli sparkling cider
case of water
soda

Kim and I love martinelli's so we wanted to make sure there was enough, LOL. This will the first time I've had fried turkey and I am quite excited. I'm actually bringing another turkey so we can all have leftovers. We do love the leftovers and Adam says with frying a turkey it takes about 3 minutes a pound.

Su sent me her Thanksiving menu and I thought I would share that with you. Her and her hubby are staying home for Turkey day but just because there are 2 of them doesn't mean they should skimp.

Starter
Butternut squash maple soup

Entree
Fried turkey with giblet gravy
Cranberry-citrus sauce

Sides
Mustard greens
Buttered carrots
Green bean casserole
Roasted brussels sprouts
Grilled asparagus
Mashed potatoes
Cornbread dressing

Dessert
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie

She is my hero! I'd love to hear your Thanksgiving menus. What is a must for you. For me it's all about the gravy. I need it to drown my mashed potatoes and turkey in. I've actually been to Thanksgiving dinners where they don't do gravy. Those were sad times. Now I always ask so I can bring some if they don't have it, LOL.

Lin, is actually visiting. She had to take vacation so I invited her to come experience an American Thanksgiving. Lucky her, she will be able to experience 2 of them! After I leave my dad's we're heading to Nancy's parents house. They are also having a full house. Nancy made her green jello for the holiday. You'll have to ask her what all goes in it, one of the ingredients is horseradish. Yup, you read that right, LOL.

2008-11-23T16:19:00.005-05:00

Su-hura here again, hijacking Leiha’s blog. I had the pleasure of attending the Readers ‘n’ Ritas conference and the Buns & Roses tea last month. Both were absolutely amazing! Romance readers are some of the friendliest people EVER. I was a tad worried about going because I didn’t really know anybody there. I knew a few of the authors, but I didn’t want to make a pest of myself by following them around everywhere. I’m enough of a pest from a distance. I needn’t have worried. The readers and authors were absolutely wonderful!

Readers ‘n’ Ritas

My weekend started early. I had to be on the road by 5am to get to Dallas in time for Reader ‘n’ Ritas registration. I didn’t drink any caffeine that morning because I didn’t want to have to pull over to pee. Not a great decision. I think I was hallucinating while I was driving. I thought I saw Santa driving a big rig. I’m still trying to figure out why he honked at me. Maybe it’s because I was having trouble deciding which lane to drive in so I just straddled the line. My bad.

Once I got to the hotel, I swung by the conference registration desk to pick up my goodie bag and badge. They weren’t quite ready yet, but there was delicious Seattle’s Best coffee ready and waiting for us. I sat and chit chatted with some other convention goers who lived in the area. We talked and guzzled coffee until registration was ready for us early birds.

Lucky for us, we got to look through the goodie bags to see which ones had the books we wanted. After grabbing our treasures, we had some time to kill before the morning sessions started. I had the pleasure of meeting Lauren Willig while drinking my third cup of coffee on an empty stomach. We had a lively discussion about our romance likes and dislikes. I have to say, I only remembered bits and pieces of our conversation because my brain was buzzing from all the caffeine.

I eventually stopped shaking enough to gird my loins and work my way toward the workshop rooms. The first workshop session I attended was “Covers Tell the Story.” I had no idea there were so many steps in designing and choosing a cover. Next, I attended “Books and Their Movies.” This was quite a lively workshop. Everyone had different preferences – should you see the movie first or read the book first? Some loved the movies but hated the books; some loved the books but hated the movies.

After the sessions were over, I decided I needed a break and more coffee. While refilling my cup, I ran into the uber-fabulous Dianna Love in the reception area. We found a quiet corner and chewed the fat. We talked hubbies, books, traveling, work, etc. I missed my third workshop session of the morning, but it was worth it to get to chat with Dianna.

We caught up with Sherrilyn after a while, and I got a chance to visit with the amazing author Goddess. She was wearing a lovely lightweight coat/duster that looked like something Goth royalty would wear. Very chic. We talked about her crazy schedule, KCon, “Phantom of the Night”, and FOOD! She was telling me about her dinner the night before, and I almost drooled on her coat. Unfortunately, we had to cut our conversation short because other adoring fans were waiting to speak with Sherrilyn.

After a while, it was time for lunch. Yeah!! I was lucky enough to be seated with Dianna who regaled us with stories of her wild exploits, and Jodi Thomas who won me over completely when she said she’d come and watch me compete with my idiot Golden child. I also met some very sweet dog-loving gals from Oklahoma. Our lunch entrée was mediocre, but dessert was freakin’ awesome. It was a triple layer dark chocolate cake.

After lunch, I finally got to check into my room. It was lovely and clean. Too bad I didn’t have time to play with the Sleep Number bed. After freshening up a bit, I was off to my afternoon workshops. I went to “Do You Miss the Euphemisms?” So funny!! I had no idea there were so many euphemisms for winky and vajayjay. My favorite “less offensive synonym” for cock was Wyatt Earp. Please allow me to use it in a sentence for you:

As Colt crushed Sierra to his hard body, he heard his little filly sigh breathily, “Your Wyatt Earp’s more than OK in my corral.”

I rushed back to my room after the session to fix my hair a bit and make some phone calls. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring hairspray. For a gal raised in Texas, this is an absolute catastrophe. I was in Dallas for goodness sake, home of the big hair. I had to get some hairspray.

There was no gift and sundries shop in the hotel so I had to walk a mile to the closest 7-Eleven to pick up hairspray and cigs. By the time I got back, I only got to sit in on the last bit of the Koffee Klatch session. However, I did make it in time for the book swap. I wound up getting fifteen books. Not a bad haul.

It was now time for margaritas!! Yeeee ha!!! The margaritas were definitely flowing, because by the time I made it to the booze, there was only one pitcher of margaritas left. It was only twenty percent full. Since there were no glasses handy, I just found a straw, stuck it in the pitcher, and sucked away! Sure I got some weird looks, but nothing was going to come between me and the tequila. They eventually brought out another pitcher.

The margarita chat was a riot. Turns out Rosemary Clement-Moore was going to be in Austin on the following Wednesday, so I promised her I’d swing by her signing. She is such a sweetheart. Dakota Cassidy entertained us with funny stories about her alcoholic editor who likes to participate in orgies. Candace Havens shared some of her celebrity tales with us. I asked her about my Navy SEAL husband, Christian Butler-Owen (cross between Christian Bale, Gerard Butler, and Clive Owen). She said they were all very sweet gentlemen, and that Christian is very intense. Swoon!!

After happy hour, I decided to get dressed up for dinner. Seemed like no one else was getting spruced up for the event, but I brought a cute top, so by golly I was going to wear it. I even fixed my hair and make-up. I felt refreshed by the time I made it down for dinner and was definitely ready for some chow.

During dinner, we had little slips of paper we were supposed to write funny stories or things we learned about books/authors/readers during the conference. I couldn’t come up with a damn thing. My mind went blank. Not enough tequila to lube up my brain.

After dessert, Candace read the entries for the funniest stories that people turned in during dinner. There were plenty of laughs and raunchy stories. The funniest moment was when she read aloud, “Dakota Cassidy is really a man.” You could hear a collective gasp echoing through the room. Then she said, “Oh, Dakota turned that one in,” and everyone started laughing.

After dinner was over, I went upstairs to freshen up again and get ready for post dinner drinks. I always come prepared, of course, and had mini-bottles of flavored vodka in my room. I snagged a couple, then went downstairs to order my mixers. Dianna and I sat at the bar and chatted with some conference attendees and organizers for a few hours. She had to head for bed around ten or so. I hung around and talked to some gals from the San Antonio area who were aspiring writers.

I was exhausted by midnight, and was ready for bed. After a quick shower, I was ready to play with my Sleep Number bed. I had so much fun jacking around with the controls. Turns out I am a 40. I like my mattress soft! I slept right in the middle of my king sized bed and felt like a princess. Too bad the bed didn’t vibrate too!

Buns & Roses Tea

I woke up refreshed and ready for more author action. I finally made it downstairs to breakfast around 10am. Lucky me!! Turns out, I made it in time for brunch with Sherrilyn, Dianna, Candace, some readers, and the Reyes (the organizers). What a treat!

We talked books, cowboys, family, celebrities, and just about anything else that popped into our heads over breakfast. After an hour or so, it was time for me to check out and get ready for the tea. I changed into a frilly margarita-green top, put on some boots, fluffed my hair, and was ready to rock.

Since I couldn’t decide whom to sit next to during the tea, I asked one of the organizers for her opinion. She said I should sit with Adele Ashworth because she doesn’t come out very often. Adele is one of Leiha’s favorite authors, so that clinched it for me. I would sit at Adele’s table come hell or high water.

This was one of the most colorful events I have ever been to. Many of the attendees dressed up in beautiful dresses and extravagant hats. There were even ladies there from the Red Hat Society. I felt underdressed in my silly top.

Once they opened the doors, I rushed to find Adele’s table. Her table was almost at the very front of the room. Awesome! I was the first one there. After a few minutes, more people showed up to sit at her table. We only had one seat open at our table by the time everyone arrived.

Adele was fabulous. She brought us copies of her book “Someone Irresistible” and some wonderful candles from Neiman Marcus. We talked about her books and her family for a while before opening ceremonies began. Candace emceed again, and it turns out the proceeds from the tea benefit the Richardson Adult Literacy Center. The RALC actually had a beneficiary of the center lined up to speak, but she went into labor so she couldn’t make it. Slacker!! Just kidding!!

Sherrilyn was the keynote speaker. She was amazing. She talked about her writer’s journey. She talked about her childhood and her family. She talked about many of the obstacles she had to overcome. She talked about how important her readers are to her and about how much she appreciates our support. She was so incredibly moving, I was in tears! Adele was right there with me. We were both worried our mascara was running.

After the tea was over, the authors had to high tail it to the back of the room for the book fair and signing. I wound up spending around eighty bucks on books. By the time I bought my books, some of the authors had already left their stations, so I didn’t get all of my new books signed. Drat! Sherrilyn and Dianna’s line was very, very long of course. Unfortunately, I had a lengthy drive home, so I couldn’t wait for them. Waahhhh!!!

Final Thoughts

This turned out to be a wonderful weekend. The authors and readers were just fantastic. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. It was much more intimate than RWA or RT. While I really enjoy attending those conferences, you don’t get as much face time with the authors as you do here. Of course, throwing in a few topless men couldn’t hurt. *EG* I definitely hope to attend next year.

Here’s a little something one of my gal pals sent me:

APPLES and WINE

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the very top. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along. The one who is smart and brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

As for men...men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the @#$&% out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Share this with all the good apples you know.

Barb's 60th birthday celebration!

2008-11-11T22:47:00.012-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Nancy and I flew to San Francisco to help celebrate Barb's big day. We knew it just wouldn't have been the same without us, LOL. She also has been planning for awhile so we RSVP'd a year prior. Also joining the party were Su, Linda T, Linda W and Kandi! The party was in the Sonoma Valley and we had a hotel close to the venue. I would say there were about 50 or 60 of Barb's closest friend there. If you know Barb, you know she is well loved, deservedly so.

We had all come into town on Friday (well Linda T a little earlier to visit some other friends). Su came in first so of course I got a call from Barb and her while they were sucking down drinks at lunch, LOL. It was hard to understand Barb with that straw in her mouth! Nancy and I finally left to go join the party. I slept the entire flight and Nancy talked the entire flight. I don't know why people think I'm the loud one, LOL. Once the gals picked us up we went to join Linda W and Kandi for dinner. The food was decent, the service was awful but the company more then made up for it. After dinner we headed to Barb's where we were met by one of Barb's oldest friends Goose. I had heard her name for years and she just recently moved back to the area. I'm sure being descended upon by us was overwhelming but she held her own even when I was walking around making people feel my boobs and butt. Hey, there's a story behind that! Barb had some bust enhancing gel which she didn't know if it worked or not. She didn't have it for herself, her company used to sell it but they were discontinuing. I felt it was my duty to test out the product and let me tell you, I thought I had perky boobs, well the gel made me look like I had a boob job! It was awesome! My nipple was pointed up, it was cool! We tried it on Nancy but it didn't work as well so then we tried it on my butt. I could feel a little tightening and made everyone touch but they couldn't tell the difference so the boob cream doesn't lift butts (then again, I don't need much help in the butt department, LOL).

Saturday Barb had breakfast for us, bagels and cream cheese with fresh fruit! She even went and got coffee for those who drink it. We needed to be ready by noon, we had to re-pack for our overnight trip which is always stressful. I hate leaving clothes behind, I may need them! We were all ready on time and Linda T joined us and off we went to lunch. I can't remember the name of the pace but it was really cute and we sat outside and the weather was glorious and I was sad that I no longer live in California, LOL. The food was wonderful! Well except the pumpkin soup which a bunch of the girls got. The sandwiches were huge! I got a cobb salad. I do love me some cobb salad.

After lunch it was time to head to the hotel. It was a little over an hour to get there. I chose to nap. Are you surprised? As soon as we got checked in Barb, Su and Nancy were off to the bar to have drinks with some friends. Linda and I popped in to say hi but chose to start getting ready. Well Nancy did help bring our bags up so when we were going back down she was pushing me in the luggage rack down the hallway and then we switched. For some reason Linda didn't want to be pushed in the luggage rack, LOL.

The party started at 6, we were a little late. We'll blame it on the birthday girl, LOL. We all had our own table and I like to call our table the booby table. As you can see, cleavage galore, apparently most of the other party goers didn't get the memo, LOL. Here's a pic with the birthday girl and her posse. Barb can't resist herself and who can blame her?So a little over a month ago Barb called me about something she wanted to do during her party but I couldn't tell anyone. My response was, "not even Nancy?!?!" Not even Nancy. I agreed because you know I'm totally curious. Barb loved the movies Mama Mia and Priscilla Queen of the Desert and she wanted a Mama Mia moment at her party. Now who does Barb know who is willing to break into song? That would be moi LOL. She had already talked to Goose and her niece Erica. They were the only other ones in on it. The plan came together.

So at the end of dinner after people told Barb stories which was fun. I would have talked more during that time but I knew my time was coming, LOL. Her niece gave her herself as a birthday present. She will be moving in in the fall and told her at the party and said happy birthday. I wanted Nancy to get on the mic and say she was moving in but she wouldn't, LOL. Wuss! So Barb stands up to give her speech and my heart starts pounding. I was so nervous. I was hoping Barb would talk for hours. I thought, is this what a heart attack feels like? Will I even be able to talk, let alone sing? I don't know. Barb only knows the first verse of her song so I am supposed to interrupt immediately but you so know I waited til the last possible second to torture her, LOL. I know, I'm a good friend.

So finally I jump up and stop her. I tell her Barb, I can't believe you're singing! You said you were going to take singing lessons but it's obvious you hadn't. Su says she knew something was up when I wouldn't make eye contact and then sealed it when I was so mean. I had told Barb I was going to dis her. I honestly can't remember what else I said. All I know is, you could hear a pin drop, LOL. People were horrified. Well, they were horrified that Barb sang, then here I am interrupting her and then I grab the mic and start singing the first few lines of Dancing Queen.

You can dance, you can jive,
having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene,
dig in the dancing queen
At this point the music kicks in with the next part of the song. Goose and Erica were supposed to start singing at that point, they did not, LOL. But Goose started dancing and Erica started giving everyone boas and exactly what Barb wanted to happen happened. Practically everyone got up to dance and this begins the dancing part of the evening. I walked around the room singing the rest of the song and getting people to sing into the mic. Nancy was so shocked, both her and Linda thought I was trying to hog the spotlight making the night about me. What would ever give them that idea? Hmph!

I went to the hotel and changed so I would have to worry about keeping the sisters in all night. I also grabbed everyone's flip flops so we could dance up a storm. Barb was promised an asian sammich so she got one. Su was showing off her splits so I showed off mine. Notice how far away I was from the ground, LOL. Hey, at least I protected you all from the site of her crotch!

As you can imagine there was much mayhem on the dance floor. The DJ was awesome and played whatever song we requested. Which is why we did the time warp! So fun! Of course this being Barb's party there were shots (the pic I wanted to use I haven't seen). I only had a couple, Nancy and Su I'm not so sure, LOL. Barb was also serenaded. Maybe some spanking on the dance floor, not naming names, LOL. It was a fabulous party and everyone had a great time, most especially the wonderful birthday girl!

So much for relaxing!

2008-11-07T14:45:00.004-05:00

I’m taking over Leiha’s blog today to share with you folks one of the most horrific experiences of my life – Thai Massage. Some of you may already know this about me, but for those of you who don’t, I’m a huge germaphobe. Think “Monk” and “Mr. Clean” adopt an Asian baby. That would be me. I spend more money on wet wipes than I do on jewelry. I wipe down all the non-porous surface areas of my seat and the seat in front of me when I fly. Get the picture? I know, I know, I’m a huge freak show.

My Thai Massage Experience

As I walk into the massage room, I see a thin mattress on the floor and slowly realize that I will be getting my massage on the floor (where all the stinky toe-jam germs live) instead of on a massage table. Perhaps I should have suspected things weren’t going to go well at this point. However, I’m trying to be brave and keep telling myself, “It’s okay, I’m not going to freak out. I can handle this.”

But then, I see my practitioner slipping out of his leather loafers. You know, the ones he’s been wearing all day long. My germ radar is starting to get a bit twitchy. I try to convince myself that he needs to take his shoes off so that he doesn’t get the mattress on the floor dirty. Nothing to get excited about.

The actual massage part starts out fine. The practitioner begins by working on my shoulders and upper arms. He’s a bit on the crunchy side, and he’s got a tiny bit of b.o., but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I live in the South after all, and b.o. is a constant during the summer months. So far so good. I’m even starting to relax a bit.

And that’s when it happens. The practitioner pulls both my arms behind me, then puts both his hot, sweaty feet on my lower back. I am moments away from a full on panic attack. I can feel his toes digging into my spine. Just when I think it can’t get any worse, he walks his feet up my back, and I can feel him stepping on my clean hair and neck. Ewwwww!!

The whole time, I’m chanting in my head, “Don’t freak out, don’t freak out, don’t freak out.” I actually have to suppress a shudder. By now, I’m just trying to breath normally because I’d been holding my breath for the last several minutes. I’m also pretending that the body I’m in is just on loan. My real body is safely tucked away in a decontamination room somewhere at NASA.

After a few excruciating minutes, he lets go of my arms and begins working on my legs and feet. It feels great. He’s loosening up my hips, knees and ankles, and I’m loving it. I’m just so relieved that he’s not using his feet on me anymore that I don’t care what he does to me. Unfortunately, he makes another germaphobe faux pas.

After finishing up with my feet, the practitioner comes around behind me and begins to massage my scalp with the same fingers that were between my toes just moments before. Did he wash his hands? No. Did he use a wet wipe before digging his fingers into my scalp? No. Great, now I have toe-jam hair.

At least I have some protection. I grew up in Texas, which means I need hairspray like I need air. It’s a very humid day, so I have my hair sprayed down on my head like a helmet. Hopefully the alcohol from my heavy duty hairspray will kill some of the cooties on his fingers. Yuck!

Are y’all ready for the worst part? So I’m lying on my back trying to remain calm when the practitioner moves to my left side and sits. He begins to pull steadily on my left arm. It actually feels pretty good. I can feel my shoulder loosening up a bit. I suddenly hear the practitioner shifting around, and the next thing you know, I feel his sweaty foot in my armpit. How many other armpits have his feet been in today?

I immediately begin to create an alternate personality for myself. I simply cannot deal with the fact that I can feel his dirty toes on my pristine boob as he starts exerting pressure on my pit. Yup, I’m losing it. As he moves to my right side, I feel like I’m in the scene in “Misery” where Kathy Bates is breaking James Caan’s ankles. “Almost done, just one more.” Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

I can’t remember anything after the armpit incident. My alternate personality must have taken over at some point. All I know is that I have an overwhelming urge to go home and shower like crazy. As I get into my car, I can smell some funk. I think the practitioner’s feet must have been sweatier than I thought. I’m more grossed out than ever and have to work hard to keep from hurling.

Thus ends my first Thai massage experience. Believe it or not, I would definitely get another Thai massage again. However, I will come bearing my own socks for the practitioner to wear as well as some Purell and wet wipes for him to use during my massage. Fool me once…

Su-hura

Obama is right!

2008-11-05T04:22:00.002-05:00

It's time for change! So voila, I chopped off all of my hair! Too bad I forgot how much work short hair takes LOL. I'm ready to grow it out! Next profile pic I'll try to find a background my hair doesn't blend into, LOL.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T15:33:00.015-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Nancy and I hosted her 2nd annual BYOP party! That's right, bring your own pumpkin! Of course Nancy and I waited til the last minute to do everything including buying our pumpkin but by the time people started rolling in we were all ready. Luckily it wasn't raining since all of the carving was happening outside. It was cold though.

We kept the menu simple, chicken taco chili, cornbread, rolls and cake. The chili is awesome and not very fattening. Everyone loved it, even people who don't normally like chili. We had onions, cheese and sour cream as toppings and made a meat and a vegetarian version. Here is Nancy's chili recipe:

Chicken Taco Chili:
Drain and Rinse: (I like mine a little soupy so I don't drain out the beans, if you are not going to cook it very long definitely drain)
1 16 (or 15) oz can each of
Kidney Beans
Black Beans
Pinto Beans

Put in a crock pot and add:
1-16 oz can of Corn
2-16 oz or 1 32 oz can of diced Tomatoes
1 package of taco seasoning (hot is best if kids aren't eating it)
2 - 4 oz skinless chicken Breasts diced up (you can leave out to make vegetarian)

Cook on low until it smells great and the chicken is done - Usually 4 to 6 hours for me. You can also cook this in a pot on the stove top over medium heat (5 or 6) for between an hour or two and have the same results. We did stove top and it was great!
Tons of family and friends showed up and it was hard to pick fave pics so there will be a lot of them so you can enjoy the party also.

And some of the final products! In case you're wondering which one is mine, well, I did mention the cold so Kim said she would do mine for me. Then the wench decided since she did all of the work that she wanted to take it home with her also. The nerve! Here is mine, its the clown.

Portland part 2

2008-10-24T04:16:00.006-04:00

So I woke up bright and early and decided to delve into one of the books that Linda the librarian has in the guest bedroom, LOL. It was the first book in Christina Dodd's Darkness series (I ended up reading all 4 books in 4 days, I think the 1st was the best of the series but they were fun books). While I decided to stay in bed and read Nancy and Linda went and ran some errands.

For lunch we ate our leftovers from the night before as well as some pasta salad that Linda had whipped up the day before (I love her pasta salads) and some sliced cukes. I also made some chimichurri sauce to go with our steak, it was a bit garlicky, no vampires would be biting us that night, LOL.

To celebrate the birth of Nancy and I, Linda took us to get massages. Did I mention what a wonderful friend she is? I should do that more often, LOL. It was a totally decadent massage and the only thing that would have made it better was if the masseuse had been a hot man barely clothed! My favorite part was when she massaged my hands, who knew?

It would have been nice to just luxuriate in our robes and sit on the chairs and relax we could not. We were going to meet Nancy's cousin Michelle for her bachelorette party dinner. So off we went to get ready. We went to a cool restaurant called Belly Timber. They had a bacon infused drink which Linda tried, it does have a lingering taste of bacon but I think the alcohol was whiskey so a no go for me. My favorite thing was the bone marrow aioli. You would think it was gross but the bone marrow really added a richness to the aioli and it was fab! They serve it to dip your fries in. Linda and Nancy looked fabulous! I didn't put on any makeup so no pics of me, I know, you're disappointed. Michelle was positively glowing! She had her makeup done like it was going to be done for the wedding. Nancy went to the wedding in South Carolina and she says that Michelle was gorgeous! Looking at her here, I can believe it!

Since we needed to get up early we skipped out on the bar hopping. Michelle's friends are a bit younger then us, LOL.

Sunday we went to Linda's parents house for brunch. I love Linda's parents. That Marie is a trouble maker, LOL. While Dale was giving Nancy a tour of the house and cars I just hung out chatting with Marie. I did get on them for going to pick grapes without me but I forgave them LOL. Linda made brunch with help from Nancy and I (she never lets us get away with sitting on our butts while she cooks, LOL). She made a dutch apple waffle in the oven and these fabulous club soda belgian waffles while Nancy and I did the bacon and sausage. The club soda waffles were fantastic. They were so light and airy. It's the only way to go.

Club Soda Waffles
Ingredients:
2 cups good quality biscuit mix
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups club soda
Directions:
Combine ingredients and blend with a large spoon, being careful not to overmix. Spoon onto a HOT waffle iron and when done, you will have a delicious, fluffy waffle. These also freeze well and can be heated up in the toaster. Prep, servings and cooking time is approximate.

Voila! Try it, you'll love it! I didn't even put syrup on my seconds and they have home made syrup!

As we left they loaded us up with a bag of apples from their tree and string cheese, LOL. After we dropped Linda off it was time to head home, thus ending another whirlwind trip to Portland!

This weekend we three along with Su and Linda W will be outside of San Francisco to celebrate Barb's 60th birthday party! I will take pics and blog about the party eventually. OK, I won't make you wait too long. That would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Call off the search party...

2008-10-20T03:44:00.013-04:00

I'm sorry if I worried you. I've been getting emails and phone calls lately from worried Mannions because I haven't updated my blog in awhile. There is nothing wrong, I promise. I don't have any excuse for not blogging, I have tons of things to blog about! I'd just gotten out of the habit of blogging. I will try and not let it go so long before my next update.

A couple of weeks ago Nancy and I went to Portland to visit with Linda who is back in town and also Nancy's cousin was having her bachelorette party that weekend but before I left I opened the door to start to carry things into the car and was greeted at the door with this!I saw the words king cake and had to stop packing up the car and grab some scissors so I can rip open the box. For those who don't know, king cake is currently used to celebrate mardi gras and to me like a giant cinnamon roll, only better! My friend Debbie who lives outside New Orleans and has been trying to get me back there sent the king cake. Now all of my friends know, the way to my heart is food, glorious food! So I look and drool but decide to wait til we get on the road to eat. I head out the door and go pick up Nancy at work. I scoot over to the passenger side and she immediately sees the cake in my lap. ROAD FOOD!

See how pretty and how big the king cake is? Well, I was very hungry, I hadn't eaten anything and Nancy was very hungry and she hadn't eaten anything so we ate a lot of king cake and a couple of hours later when we were hungry again we ate even more king cake. I got the baby so I'm responsible next year for the king cake. BTW, the king cake stayed soft for days, it was awesome! You know what we had for breakfast and snacks LOL.

So once we finally got thru traffic and made it to Portland we went to Linda's to grab her and neighbor Jim and we were off to Morton's to celebrate Nancy and mine's birthday since Linda was out of town for them. Now Linda wanted us to behave since Morton's is one of her favorite haunts. You know that can be hard for me but I tried, LOL. I did turn pink though when I mentioned something to our waiter about my birthday spanking *G*.

The food was fabulous. We had a cold seafood appetizer which we all shared. Do you see the size of the shrimp! The lump crab meat was awesome as was the lobster. The only thing not fabu was the oysters but they were still good. We all ordered steaks and had some wonderful sides to go with it, mushrooms and spinach, asparagus, garlic potatoes and roasted potatoes. It is hard to figure out which I enjoyed the most. Unfortunately, the drinks I had gave me a little bit of a stomach ache so I couldn't eat a lot of my steak (don't worry I ate the rest of that monster the next day for lunch, LOL). We also shared a dessert. It was a souffle (I can't remember the flavor) and Nancy made a comment about wanting extra whipped cream. So he gives her more but she wants all that was left. She was so excited. She wasn't so excited when we made her eat every bite of it. You saw all of the food we had. That was a mountain of whipped cream. Maybe if she didn't make him give her ever more whipped creme we wouldn't have made her eat it all. She says she doesn't know if she can ever eat whipped cream again. Don't worry, that only lasted a day!

After our meal we went into the bar to have a drink of champagne and Linda's friend and my old tango dance partner Bruce joined us. While there the people sitting next to us were buying cigars and offered us one. We all declined but they still bought one for neighbor Jim. Nancy and I were intrigued since we had never smoked a cigar before. We both tried a couple of puffs, mainly for the picture opportunity.
The problem was, you couldn't see the smoke! So of course we had to do a video!

It's late so I'll have to share the rest of our weekend with you on my next post.

Has it really been 20 years?

2008-09-22T02:59:00.011-04:00

I remember when I was 20 and in the army, a fellow soldier told me that the years would begin to fly by and he was correct. I am still adjusting to the year 2008 and it's almost Oct! Each year really does go by faster then the year before which sort of scares me.

This past Sat night Nancy and I were celebrating our 20 year high school reunion. Hard to believe. I wish I had a hs pic to share with you but all of my old pics are still in Los Angeles. One day I'll send for them. I didn't go to my 10 year one because I don't really remember most people and they don't remember me. I moved to my h.s. 6 months before graduation. The only reason I was going was 1. it was an excuse to dress up and 2. I was in town. I would never fly in to go.

Nancy and I looked fabulous! We went shopping last weekend for a combo reunion/Barb birthday party dress. I was successful, Nancy was not. Luckily she had a dress that would fit the occasion. She said I was overdressed but I didn't care. Little did I know I would see people in cargo shorts there (Nancy knew, LOL).

We took some pics before we headed out while we looked our best (it was pouring down rain, bye bye summer, boo hoo). Little did I realize that my dress was so boobalicious! Good thing I'm not shy *G*.

Then we rushed out the door because we were running late (surprise). Nancy got bitter and irritated when she found out our party had moved. Apparently we were going somewhere that didn't have parking. By the time we paid to park and walked to the event center we were grouchy, wet and our feet hurt.

Really there's only a couple of people I wanted to see and for the most part, I only really talked to people I knew. At times I hung out with the wives, LOL. I had no problem talking to people but quite honestly, I was unimpressed with the whole situation. The most exciting part of the night for me was seeing candy strewn all over our table and in our centerpieces. I literally squealed, LOL. It was nostalgia candy which was fun. I made the girls try the wax soda pop candy. I knew it was going to be gross but I still made us all do it, LOL. It was the kitsch factor. I tried to get Nancy excited about the wax lips but it was a no go.

Here is a pic with our friend Vicki, one of Nancy's oldest friends. She moved to LA after school so when I moved down there Nancy had us hang out together. My fave memory with her was going roller blading. I thought it would be cool to finally roller blade. Turns out I can't. I got really bad shin splints from when I used to run in the army and roller blading was so painful on my shins. We went 30 seconds and then sat down for 30 minutes before I returned my rental blades, LOL.Steve is another of Nancy's oldest friends also. He's always wanted to be in politics and when we were in our early 20s and I moved back to WA Nancy and I used to go to town meetings and such to support Steve. It would be all of these older people and then Steve's Mafia as we were known. Nancy and I had zero interest in politics but we wanted to support Steve. He is now a state senator and we're both ecstatic for him. I promised not to take any pics with him that would prevent him from getting re-elected, LOL.And Aaron is yet another of Nancy's oldest friends. They all grew up together. Aaron also lived in LA during my stretch of time there and we used to hang out. We lost contact over the years so it was wonderful seeing him.I have to admit, the food was a big disappointment which is prolly why I wasn't thrilled with the evening, LOL. We had caesar salad, choice of 2 pastas, bread and roast beef. The tickets cost a $100 and we had to pay for our drinks! I would have much rather called up the handful of people I knew and go have a fabulous meal.

It was funny how people thought they remembered me. Nancy didn't remember half the people there and she went to elementary school with them but yet they remember me? Well, I am a memorable person, LOL.

They tried to get dancing going but it wasn't really successful so Nancy and I decided to go home early. We weren't tired, just not that excited to be there, LOL. I was also sad we took the small purse because you so know I took as much candy home as I could. Let's just say, Halloween came early to the Mann/Buchanan household.

Yes, I'm alive!

2008-09-18T03:20:00.007-04:00

Actually, I've been in hermit mode, well as hermitty as I can be with my family dropping in for free meals, LOL. OK that would be my brothers but I love seeing them. I don't see my brothers anywhere near as much as I see my sisters.

Last week David called and wanted to know if I had food because he was working in the area and he was poor and yesterday Adam was in the area working on my dad's deck so I invited him to come over for dinner since he had taken me to dinner a month ago and he invited his friend Ray (who I know) and Ray's GH (which he didn't tell me about her, another mouth!) and Kimberly called and wanted to know why she wasn't invited, uh, she has been living here (but I think she's moving back to dad's) so why would I invite someone who lives here? So her and her BF Jeff were coming also so suddenly the meat I was defrosting wouldn't be enough so a trip to the asian market which was a half an hour away was necessary. I went from lounging around to running around trying to get everything done before everyone came over and oh yeah, Faefever was released yesterday also (Bo, I'm waiting for your email) so I was crazy busy on the board but luckily have a couple of people helping me since I was busy shopping and cooking. I also called Nancy to warn her and then once she got home she started cleaning. Not by choice, she was on her way to the gym but I knew I wouldn't have time and since Kim had been at my dad's it needed to be picked up. She's the cleaner, I'm the cook and Nancy provides a roof over our head (and takes out the garbage, LOL).

Anyway, the boys showed up on time, damn them! I hadn't had a chance to shower yet so while they went to the store to get beer, I hopped in quickly. So I was cooking kalbi on the foreman grill and trying to check Karen's board at the same time. I went asian with my meal since Adam and Kim love it and don't eat it often at home. So besides the kalbi (which I had to make a marinade for since I didn't have the marinade like I thought), we had rice (do not have Nancy cook rice), a filipino soup, sinagang, which is a tamrind based sour soup that I put in shrimp, bamboo, broccoli, yucca root, onion, zucchini and bok choy. I change the veggies and protein everytime I make this soup which is made with a 50 cent soup packet, LOL. Kim doesn't like a lot of beef and she wasn't into the soup so she fried up some chinese sausage also and we had kimchee and bamboo in chili oil. The white boys were game for most of it. Adam was in heaven which was who the meal was made for. He loved the soup and I sent him home with tons of food.

We sat out on the porch with Nancy's string of lights on and ate and chit chatted. It was fun and after the boys left, Kim and Jeff stayed and she made us watch the Ring. Not as scary as I thought it was going to be but that could be because I was on the computer for half of the movie, LOL Kim had a good laugh watching Nancy jump at everything. If you ever get a chance to sit next to Nancy at a movie, you should do it, it'll make you laugh, LOL.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the fair. One of the main reason we go is for the corn! Nothing beats fair corn drenched in butter. We headed straight for that stand.Nancy and Kim like to look at the animals, you know all I cared about was the food, LOL. It threatened to rain the whole time the fair was here so the crowds weren't bad. Since there were 3 of us we were able to try a lot of different foods. Here's some of what we had: ice cream, corn, caramel apple, elephant ear, loaded baked potato, polish sausage, bbq pork and a roast beef sandwhich. I could be forgetting something but you got the gist. Once we finished eating then we wandered the animal booths.

I did have fun with the pigmy goats, we wanted to take one home, they were so cute and the chickens. I had to show you guys this funky chicken. I tried to take a vid of the goats because they were bouncing around and just adorable but my battery was dying.

I have to admit, I looked at all of the animals as food. What can I say? I'm a carnivore!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

2008-09-08T01:39:00.011-04:00

OK, I'm a few days late but since I celebrate all month long, not really. My plans kept changing. My friend was coming into town this weekend so we had plans but then she couldn't make it and that left me trying to decide what to do. I wanted to go dancing for my birthday but then Nancy found out about a club that played 80s music but it was on Saturday night so then I decided to do game night for my birthday! Woo hoo!

Since I didn't call my family til late on Wed to leave messages I was pretty surprised at the turnout. The day was spent shopping, cleaning and cooking. You would think for my birthday there would have been less work involved by me. I didn't even get a nap! Luckily Nancy called in sick (shhhh) that day and Kim also was a big help. We made egg rolls, bun bao, chicken salad, caprese skewers, vegetable tray, cream cheese with chili sauce and homemade cheese sticks. We also had sangria de cava, you know how I love it.

We were still cooking when people started showing up which is good. My brother Adam volunteered to fry the egg rolls since I don't like to deep fry and Kathy got roped into finishing with rollin the egg rolls.

Kimberly and her friend surprised me with a homemade cake. Lori Anne and her sister Crystal were outside so I went out to welcome them and there was my cake. I felt bad I ruined the surprise. I had a quick glance at the cake and I thought they had brought me a penis cake! Not that I would mind but there would be kids at this party, including the two they brought, LOL. Once they brought in the cake with decorations I saw it was a mic. What can I say, it was being held sideways. The cake was one of the most fabulous cakes I've ever had and it was a box mix! She said the key is to follow the directions exactly and the frosting was a home made cream cheese one. It's a good thing it was so good since they didn't think about ice cream (knowing how much I love ice cream!).

Jeff gave my most favorite birthday present this year, wait, that could be a toss up with Kathy's gift. Kathy got me eyelash extensions! A couple of weeks ago Kat and I were out to lunch and she pointed out the fact that she just got eyelash extensions. Her friend had just graduated as an esthetician and her specialty was eyelash extensions. I have short eyelashes and would love to have long ones so I told her that's what I wanted for my birthday. Normally it costs $250 to get this done. So Thursday I went over to her house and laid on a table for a little over an hour with my eyes closed. I didn't think I was sleeping until I heard a snort and I was pretty positive that it didn't come from Melissa. I was so embarrassed. She said don't worry, it happens a lot, LOL. After that, I was awake. I was worried that my lashes would hit my glasses but I haven't had a problem. It gets inconvenient in the shower with water dripping off of them but other then that, I love them! I'll have to do a before and after picture to show you later.

Now Jeffrey brought me my other favorite gift, a sing star CD 80s edition! Yes I have my own karaoke system which I love but the sing star hooks up to the playstation and you sing with the band. The cd has my signature karaoke song, long time readers should know it, I touch myself. I rocked it, naturally.

People who swear up and down they don't want to do karaoke get hooked once they have the mic in their hands. First was my brother David and next was Jordan. He has been saying no to karaoke since FL! But once he started you couldn't pry the mic from his hands. I loved it!At first he said he wasn't going to sing. Then I whispered would he sing when it's just us, he said yes but then when David was singing he was singing along and the next thing you know...

Here's a family pic. It's always hard to get all of us in one place but I love this one and will frame it and those who didn't make it to the party don't get to be in the pic, that will show them! Just like I am a part of Nancy's family, she is a part of mine. A family picture wouldn't be complete without her in it. And a pic with just the girls!

More people wanted to sing then play games so we only did a couple of rounds of Taboo. David was a trouper because he kept trying to leave but I wouldn't let him, LOL. Adam had plans in Seattle so he left, then David and his friend left and Kathy and her bf took my dad home. Lori Ann had two young children but still wanted to play so we went to their house where we played Rockband. They had the full set up with drums, bass, guitar and lead singer. I am destined to be a lead singer. I kept getting booed off of the stage when I played an instrument but I rocked the singing. It was loads of fun. I didn't take pics during Rockstar but we re-inacted one of the versions of the band just for my blog. Crystal did a much better job jumping then I did. I did more of a bunny hop so I landed before the pic was even taken. The look on Jordan's face totally cracks me up. He looked like that in all of the band pics we took. Guess he's not big on re-enactments, LOL. Yes, I put my pjs on before we headed over but I kept my tiara on!

All in all it was a fabulous beginning to my birthday month!

Well...

2008-09-02T16:25:00.017-04:00

I haven't posted in awhile because I was waiting for more Olympic memories. I guess not everyone was as enthralled as I was.

Lin's memories:
Britain got a few gold's in the cycling, Chris Hoy taking gold Men's Sprint, Men's Keirin, and Men's Team Sprint. Britain won quite a few medals on the water , including silver in the Women's Quadruple Sculls. They were really hoping for the gold and had lead for most of the race but lost out to China in the final quarter. They particularly disappointed as won silver in 2000 and 2004.Germaine mason took a surprise Silver in the high jump. The Russian Andrey Silnov was only included in the squad at the last minute due to good form and cleared every height on first attempt. Louis Smith won a bronze, Britain's first gymnastics medal for 80 years.Christine Ohuruogu become the first British woman to win the 400mts and Britain's first gold medal winning athlete on the track, ensured that Britain enjoyed their best games since 1908.19-year-old Rebecca Adlington won gold in the 400m freestyle. She became the first British woman to win a swimming gold in 48 years Adlington went on to break to world record in the 800m freestyle five days later picking up her second gold of the Games. Usain Bolt. Golds and world records, what more could you ask for? For some reason I kept thinking of Cool Runnings when watching them. I think I watched that film too many times!! LOL. Matthew Mitcham Men's 10m Platform final round was a near perfect dive and shocked the other competitors by making up the 32.50-point gap and took him into first place and gold.I really felt the disappointment of Lolo Jones. She was leading and hit the last but one hurdle in the 100mtr hurdles because was going too fast and ended up seventh. All that training and coming so close must be heartbreaking.and Phelps well I figure will get covered by others.

Note from me: Thanks for sharing moments that meant a lot to the Brits and for including pics, lol.

Sarah's fave moments:
Mine had to be the NZ rower Mahé Drysdale. After getting a terrible bug during the week of his competing and loosing 4 kilos - he gave it everything he had and got bronze. It was a valiant performance. You see in the race where he looses it. Incredible.
Also, the mens volleyball. What the hell! Why are the women in next to nothing and the men have loads more on. I am feel so jipped. :)

Note from me: Apparently the men had to wear shirts as part of their team uniform because their numbers were on it. Why they couldn't put it on their shorts I have no idea. Here's how they normally play.

Karen's fave moments:
We had a lot of fun watching the women's beach volleyball. They are incredibly fit and they're women, not little girls! Both my kids want to learn how to play now. And my almost 9 year old son thinks they're hot and look good in their bikinis. Note from me: I had a blast watching beach volleyball. I used to watch it on the weekends all of the time and watching it again made me fall in love with the sport again. I love Misty May and Kerri Walsh. Did you know Misty is going to be on Dancing with the Stars with Maxism? I know who I'm voting for!

As for me, my favorite had to be watching Michael Phelps drive for 8. Every night I was glued to my tv watching him go for it. OK, I totally cheated and would read the news before hand but that didn't lesson the thrill of watching it. The last one I was at dinner so I got home just in time and didn't know who won but saw it posted on Karen's board. I was none too happy, LOL. The ultimate was the 4 by 100 relay. Even knowing they won before I watched it didn't change the excitement. I watched it again the next day online to show my sister. Since I knew ahead of time how it was going to end I made Nancy stay up to watch even though she really wanted to go to bed but I wouldn't let her and she was so happy she got to watch it herself. It really was a relay race for the ages. Normally I love the underdog but I was rooting for Michael all the way. I just think he is not only one of the best most competitive athletes ever, he seems to have a good head on his shoulders. He made swimming exciting to watch and I felt the rest of the Olympics was anti-climatic after he finished racing.

Prologue and CH 1 of Faefever

2008-08-26T12:24:00.002-04:00

with more to come, so make sure you bookmark it.

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The Olympics are over...

2008-08-24T21:23:00.002-04:00

And I for one am sad. It's made me realize there really isn't anything on tv right now other then Project Runway. Sure, there were events I wasn't interested in but more often then not it was the Olympics I was tuning in to.

I was going to do a blog about some of my favorite moments of the Olympics but instead, I'd like to do a blog on everyone's favorite moments. My mannions are an international lot so I know there are many wonderful Olympic stories out there I don't know. So I'd like for you to email me your favorite moments or stories from the Olympics, Leihaha@gmail.com. What made you cheer? Who made you cry? Were you as sucked into it as I was?

The story you've been waiting for...

2008-08-23T02:55:00.015-04:00

Yes, the day that Leiha went hiking. Su has been clamoring for this story since I mentioned it to her but I told her she had to wait for my blog LOL. I can't blow my wad ahead of time. Kathy and my dad try to go hiking a lot during the year. Try being the operative word. Kim and I decided we need to exercise more so when Kathy asked us if we wanted to go hiking we agreed. I did tell her she couldn't sleep in (she sleeps way more then I do, I know! Shocking!). We were supposed to leave at 10am but didn't leave til noon. She's lucky I still agreed to go. I told her I wanted to be back in time for my nap LOL.

We went to pick up Jordan after we got my dad and he was with Kelsey who is my brother's stepdaughter so we crammed into the car and piled her in with us. Kathy and my dad picked the trail. What do I know about it. My only question was how long was it. My sis said 2.7 miles. I thought I can do that. Well we didn't hike up a hill we hiked up a mountain and she didn't tell me 2.7 miles was ONE WAY!

Luckily for you I brought my camera so you could experience the hike with me. Dad said to make sure people traveled at least in pairs. I was leading the end of the pack, LOL. That's right I was rolling with the 58 year old! This was where the others waited for us a little ways up. Since they waited for us as soon as we took pics off we were again. Groan! I wanted to rest but it was still early in to the hike. We stopped at this cute little bridge. Of course I wanted more pics.
If you look closely at the pic below you'll see that I'm just starting to glisten. I am a sweater after all. Luckily there was a lot of trees for shade and it wasn't too hot. Temp wise it was perfect. OK, the trek continues. Here's the next place they stop for us This is my fave pic from the day. Of course it would have been perfect if I was in it but then would the photog have taken such a fab pic if it was someone else? I doubt it. Now I'm starting to get tired. I am, after all, quite out of shape plus this is a pic from the last time I went hiking. Yes, that's Jordan so as you can see, it was many years ago. At our next stop (keep in mind, basically a stop is them stopping for us so when I catch up we continue on) I needed to sit down and catch my breath. We see some people come dow and I ask them how much further. They say a half an hour. A half an hour! Shoot! I've been walking forever or so it seems, LOL. I am not happy to hear there is still so much to go.

Now it's Jordan and I at the rear but we chug along. He doesn't like to talk when he hikes, I think that's why he went forward, LOL. I kept trying to talk to him. I should have brought my ipod. The others were racing up. Kathy wanted to make it to the top and because we left late we had to be back by a certain time. 10 minutes later I ask these other people who are coming down how much further and they say we're halfway there. WTF!?!?!?!? I've been walking forever!

I did have to take a pic of my dad cause his outfit cracked me up. He's been wearing suspenders for 20 years at least! I need a walking stick also. OK, more hiking. The next guy I see says 45 minutes. OK, he broke me. Mentally I was done. The hike was getting longer the more I hiked! I kept going on but my heart was no longer in it, LOL. I started taking more and longer breaks. Finally I told my dad I was done and to keep going without me. But I got bored so I got up and kept going. Well I had to, I was being stalked! There was this bug that kept flying around me. I couldn't tell if it was a bee or a giant fly. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if Jeff Goldbloom's head was on top of it's body. Because I didn't know if it was a bee or not I couldn't swat it. When I stopped and sat he and his friend kept flying faster and faster around me. It was terrorizing me! I had to keep walking just to get away. The higher I got the less shade there was and the trip started getting rocky.

As I was crawling along I saw a garter snake and then could hear it go thru the brush. That made me think of wild animals. As it was, I felt like I had saw more of mother nature then I wanted with that snake sighting. I told them if they want me to go hiking again I want a combat knife. I can't deal with that kind of wild life without being protected.

The next people I saw told me 20 minutes which made me happy. At least the time finally went down instead of up. Apparently they said the same thing to Kim and Kathy who were way ahead of me. When Kim heard that she was done, LOL. So as soon as she came my way I was done too, I wouldn't want her to walk down alone, LOL. Apparently Kat says she turned around 5 minutes before they got to the top. Oops! Where are the kids? Kathy bribed them to get them to the top. If they made it ahead of her she would give them $10. Even though Jordan was exhausted he kept going. Me, I wasn't getting paid. Here's a pic shortly before I turned around.Kim and her light feet were bouncing down the mountain. Me, not so much. So she would walk aways, wait for me then walk some more. I really needed my ipod, LOL. We were able to chat for a lot of though. The trip down wasn't quite as long as the one up but it wasn't a breeze either. We'd been hiking awhile so it took awhile to get down. Since I've had a ton of dental work I live in fear of falling on my face. Don't worry, I fell on my ass instead, LOL. I was walking down some rocks and they were wet and my foot slipped. Luckily, because I was stepping down it wasn't a far fall although it wasn't pleasant plopping down on my ass, it didn't hurt too much. Luckily, no one was around to see.

I passed some girls giggling on their way up. Their friend was peeing in behind the rocks which kept her hidden if you were going up but not so much on the way down. I told her don't worry, I'm not going to look, LOL. As I was walking my ankle kept rolling but I kept catching it. Well one time I didn't and down I went. This time I fell to my hands and knees and that sucker hurt! Of course my first thought was for my camera. Luckily I protected it as I went down, LOL. My next thought was shit, that hurt! I slowly got up and hobbled down. I was able to work out the soreness from my ankle. Again, no one saw, whew! Of course I told Kim all about it, LOL. The good news is the knee I landed on was the one I had my brace on (can't find my other brace). I've decided I also need to wear my ankle braces and Kim had a brilliant suggestion, why not wear an inflatable sumo wrestler suit and she can roll me down. Since I felt like I rolled down already, why not do it with some protection?

Remember what I looked like going up? This is what I looked like coming down. I keep telling you I'm a sweater, LOL. Nancy says people who sweat are healthy. I'm the healthiest girl you know then!Finally we made it down the mountain! It made me think of the movie The Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain, except it was a mountain going up also! Kim and I sat in the car waiting for the others to show up. First Kathy who ran down which my dad says wasn't smart cause cougars like to attack people who run. F*ck, where is my combat knife!!! I should at least unpack my swiss army knife, LOL. Next were the kids and finally dad. Yes, the old man made it to the top and I didn't but hey, he has a stick, LOL. As it was, I had hiked for almost 3 hours. I was exhausted and sore!

The next day my dad called to see how I was. Then he started going on saying Kim and I should start carrying a backpack. I told him I couldn't carry myself and you want me to carry a backpack? That's why we have you, LOL. Then he mentioned at least carrying my 10 essentials (does that include a combat knife?). I told him I did carry my essentials. My lip balm!

And thus my beginning adventures in hiking. Yes, I'll go again but I'll have to lay down some guidelines. Let's go on a trail that's a little less of an incline. There was snow at the top of this hike! No I didn't see it but just knowing that should state that's not an appropriate hike for me, LOL. Did I mention Kim saw a mouse on the way down? I'd also prefer a hike with no killer mosquitos or wildlife of any kind. Alright, that's pretty harsh, butterflies are acceptable! Kathy says it there's no mountains it's not a hike, it's a walk. I'm ok with that!

Nancy's white trash birthday party...

2008-08-20T23:06:00.015-04:00

Now that Nancy is on a healthy kick there's a bunch of foods that she enjoys that she no longer eat so her birthday she wanted to have spodi (cut up fruit and clear alcohol made into a punch, she had it last year and wanted it again) and roasted hot dogs and bologna sandwiches. Yes, you read that correctly. Once she told me the menu I told her she was having a white trash party and she might as well embrace it. I wanted everyone to dress the part but she wouldn't tell people that so I was the only one embracing my inner white trash. I didn't wear a white tank because I couldn't find a black bra to wear underneath it. I know I own one but I think it's in the shed packed up. So I wore a jean skirt with leggings and my gold digger tank, LOL.

For my contribution to the white trash party I wanted to make fluffernutters. I had had them before at a different WT party and really enjoyed them. What is it you are asking yourself? It's a marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwich.

It doesn't sound fabulous but the taste is dare I say it? Tasty! If you plan on making this at home (and really, why wouldn't you?) I recommend a really thin layer of peanut butter or else it will overwhelm the fluff. Since it was a WT party of course i had to use the butt ends of the bread, LOL.

I was only going to bring that but then my friend told me about this super easy recipe and I was curious enough to try it. It was equal parts concord grape jelly and yellow mustard. You slowly heat them up and then you add little smokies.

I love me some little smokies.I think the last time I had them was in OR when Su and the gals came to town and her and Nancy made pigs in a blanket for breakfast. Kim talked me into getting the ones with cheese and we mixed those in with the plain ones and it was delish! I liked the cheese version but I'm a cheese kind of gal, LOL. Apparently, WT food is ugly but good.

Nancy's party was hosted at her friend Alicia's house because it's bigger. There was a ton of finger foods and I was in heaven. Some other goodies were meatballs, a meat and cheese tray, shrimp cocktail, fresh fruit, pot stickers and sushi. Not only that but there was a twinkie trifle (my fave) and a german chocolate turtle cake (Nancy and Kim's fave).

We played games and of course, the kids wanted to be on my team. Actually Christopher decided to be on the birthday girl's team. Hist mistake, LOL. We played catchphrase and cranium in the dining room while others watched the fight. After the games they hooked up guitar hero and Kimberly has found her new calling in life, LOL. In fact when the party ended we took the guitar hero home with us and Kim and the gang continued rocking thruout the night. My first round on guitar hero let me know that singing is my calling.

Changes here, changes there...

2008-08-20T03:35:00.010-04:00

...changes changes everywhere. First off, instead of doing a mega long blog of all I've been up to I decided to mess around with my blog, LOL. The changes aren't huge but I still spent hours tweaking. I really liked the layout the Badass warrior princess had so I changed mine. The one thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to get rid of the dashed line going down the left side of the side bar. I searched all over online to try and figure this out. How irritating! Anyone with any tips (Lin) feel free to share them LOL.

So I guess I haven't posted about the fact that I'm no longer house sitting for Linda. No, she's not home yet. After the gals left I was planning on being in Everett for a few more days and then head back to Portland but never ended up going. As many of you know, I'm the surrogate mom in my family and after being away for so long they really need me here so I decided to stay and be with my family.

Luckily, Nancy and I have been friends for 20 years (I know, I don't even look 20 years old, LOL) and she's like a sister to everyone because there are Manns galore hanging around the house when she gets home. Hence, the lack of blogging on my part. I intend to blog and then someone comes over or someone wants to do something and let's not forget the Olympics!

I have been having a grand old time watching them. You know I'm a total spoiler slut so I've been peaking before hand but not telling everyone else. I made Nancy stay up to watch that awesome 4x100 come from behind relay even though she wanted to go to bed and didn't care. She was happy she stayed up.
I was really rooting for Michael Phelps, I just thought he was a class act all the way and I loved how he cheered on his teammates. When he won he was pretty low key but you can see what a great time he had on the relays. Of course, it's scary pinning your hopes on other people so I'm sure a part of it was relief but I do think most of it was he loved the relays and being there with his teammates.

We kept praying for a wardrobe malfunction but I guess those suits are painted on because no matter how much they jumped up and down the suit didn't move. I know, we were bummed also, LOL.

Other faves have been the women's gymnastics and beach volleyball. I'm not much of a track and field kind of gal. Maybe because the men wear shirts, LOL.

Nancy and I did make a quick trip to Portland to pick up the things I had there. We times it so we could have lunch with her parents who were down there for work and her cousin Michelle. Lunch was fun but the highlight was taking them to the Super H Mart which turns out wasn't super, it was just an H Mart. I wonder where the Super went? Nancy's dad has been to Korea and he loves cooking all kinds of asian foods so I was excited to take him there. We had fun sampling all of the foods that were on display even though we wer stuffed from lunch. They also opened a frozen yogurt stand there which Nancy and I totally planned on having but then I found they had the red bean fish ice cream which I enjoy. It's vanilla ice cream with a red bean paste on top and encased in a fish shaped cone, LOL. Doesn't sound yummy but it is. I bought a 5 pack which was perfect for all of us. I didn't think her mom would enjoy it but she totally did. I was turned on to these by my friend Stef when I lived in LA.

I know I have more catching up to do. I promise to get on soon to talk about the white trash party and my adventures in hiking! Yes, I know, I can't believe it either.

Sherrilyn Kenyon booksigning

2008-08-13T03:31:00.007-04:00

Last week Debbie and I went to Sherri's signing for Acheron. I planned on meeting Debbie there since she had to work in the morning and I wanted to stay and chit chat (shocking, I know, LOL). I wrote down the directions quickly before I left. I normally write down the phone number of where I'm going to but I didn't this time. You can see where this is going can't you?

Once I get in the car I notice that my phone is dying. I call Nancy who is between jobs to see if I could meet her to get my car charger which was in her car from our drive to Portland last week. She didn't get my message until after I passed where she was. I was cruising along and about 5 miles from my exit when I see a sign about an accident, right where my exit was. Debbie calls me to find out where I am. I let her know I'm stuck but I'll be there soon. It took me about 40 minutes to get to my exit. I'm doing ok time wise since I planned to get there early. I was shooting for 5:30pm but now it was a quarter after 6. Oh well, Debbie was grabbing my number for me so no worries. I get off and follow the roads. I lived in Everett for 4 year about 10 years ago. I barely can get around Everett and this was not in Everett, I was in Renton.

I was in a residential area and as I was driving I was driving more into homes, I was totally lost! I called Debbie and her phone went to voicemail. I called information to get the number for Borders in Renton but there is no Borders in Renton ruh roh. I asked for the Borders in Everett so I could talk to Nancy when my phone died!

I stopped at a gas station and got gas while trying to find the Borders (I like to multi-task my stops). The attendant didn't know the area so he was no help and they didn't have a phone book so I asked this guy pumping his gas. He told me about the Borders in Southcenter. Well it couldn't hurt to go there. Another 20 minutes on the freeway and several wrong turns (I swear, every time I should go right I went left and vice versa) I made it to the store and the parking lot was empty. Turns out they changed locations. Thank goodness the other one was close but crap, this is becoming a comedy of errors. Of course the store had moved, LOL.

I find parking (it's now at the mall) and rush in, dang I should have wore flip flops. They have no idea about any signing. They tried the Borders website but couldn't find the info so they started calling around. They were so helpful. They found the signing in the Redmond store. D'oh! Renton/Redmond, they sound so alike, LOL. They give me directions but luckily another worker came over cause the chick had me going in the wrong direction on the freeway, like I needed another wrong turn.

It was 7:30 at this point. They were worried cause the signing started at 6:30 but I told them, this is Sherri, that signing is still going on, LOL. This is when I started playing the soundtrack from Hairspray. You can't listen to that and be in a bad mood. I had to listen to a couple of songs to calm down but it did the trick, thank goodness because the directions were given under the assumption that I knew were the Redmond Town Center was! There was no sign for it on the road I had to turn into it. Yes, a few more wrong turns there but finally, 8:15 I made it to the signing!

Debbie was # 97 and they were on #30 or something so she was still there, LOL. I rushed to buy my 4 books (weight training for the day, or it would have been if I hadn't set them on the floor the whole wait, LOL). Dianna saw me thru a sea of people while I was at the register so she starts calling my name on the mic LOL. I told her to call #110 since that was my # LOL. Which she did later but it wasn't rigged, if it was, I would have won a t-shirt, LOL. I won a button and a bookplate.

Debbie and I sat and chatted while waiting for our turn to get our books signed and Dianna would come over and chat when she could. She was telling me about the adventures of the signing in Nashville. I don't know how Sherri's hand stays attached she signs so many books LOL.

Dianna was telling some stories about me to the crowd but I was talking to Sherri when she was doing it so I'm not sure what she was saying, LOL. Unfortunately, I'm sure I couldn't deny anything she said. Sherri was telling me about the eye candy at her Literacy signing in RWA, I told her I was disappointed there was no candy here and Dianna needed to show some cleavage, LOL.

I did talk to Sherri about RBL and that was before I read the acknowledgments in Acheron. I love the fact she mentions she was at RBL before she had her board.

Dianna was telling people about me being the queen of self portraits so of course, I had to display my talent LOL. And since I had handed the camera to Dianna to take the pic of Sherri and I she took a pic of my shoes, the ones I chose instead of my flip flops, LOL. The evening wouldn't be complete without a pic of Debbie and I. Thank goodness she was there! It's great to have a friend to keep you company. Sure, I could and did talk to those of us around us but it was nice to sit there and just chatter away with Debbie.

the rest of my time with the girls...

2008-08-08T13:17:00.010-04:00

Sorry, there aren't many pics, I don't like to take pics when I'm stuffing myself, I'm too busy eating, LOL. Plus, I was cooking this weekend (and by that I mean I did a lot of chopping, LOL) so that took up my time when I wasn't eating or talking, LOL.

Linda and Sandra are the early birds. They were up long before the rest of us. Aimee and I lounged in bed chatting before we finally decided to get up both days. It was our time LOL. Nancy had to work that day. We had thought about going up to visit her at the bookstore and lounge around and harass her but really, we ran out of time, you know how it is. We had Ronwyn, Maggie and Debbie coming over at 3 so by the time we would have been able to go to the store it would have been cutting it too close.

We were doing mexican for dinner so I wanted to set the flavors on the black bean salsa as well as the guac so that meant an early trip to the store (an early for me LOL). Here is the recipe I found online for the salsa but I changed it up some:

INGREDIENTS
1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (I used fresh corn that I cut off the cob and lightly sauteed)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers (I used fresh serranos, this was during the jalapeno ban)
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained (again, fresh)
1 cup Italian-style salad dressing (used some lime and salt and pepper instead)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (didn't use)

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, combine black-eyed peas, black beans, corn, onion, green bell pepper, jalapeno peppers and tomatoes. Season with Italian-style salad dressing and garlic salt; mix well. Cover, and refrigerate overnight to blend flavors.

I also added some cilantro chopped up. As you can see, you can adjust this recipe quite easily to your own taste and Nancy loved it!

We sat around chatting all day, surprise, surprise, LOL. Ronlyn brought her 2 adorable little kiddies. Her youngest totally ran to me when I put my arms out and once I picked him up, he promptly burst into tears, LOL. It may have had something to do with the fact everyone was staring at him. I didn't take it personally, I know I'm fab and kids love me dang it! Jordan took her oldest, who was 4 under his wing which was great, the kiddies played while the adults (hah) talked.

For dinner we did a taco bar with all kinds of dips and meat. Aimee chopped up a rotisserie and I browned ground beef and Nancy's parents had donated pulled pork. It was a feast. I used all 3 meats in my burrito, LOL. I couldn't choose, it would have been like Sophie's choice! I should have put the guac and bean salsa out sooner for dip, we had a ton left over, LOL.

Kimberly stopped by to eat and then promptly took a nap on my bed, what can I say, she's related to me. Ronlyn took the kiddies home once they got fussy. They were fab as was she. Linda was great about making sure we got a group pic. It's hard to get a group pic with everyone looking good so I'm posting the one I look best in, are you surprised?L-R is Sandra, Debbie, Maggie, Ronlyn, Nancy, Aimee, Linda and moi!

Nancy had a game she's been dying to try. I think it was a playstation game but I don't know. They all blend to me. It was a jeopardy like game with buzzers so 4 people could play at a time. Christopher came over during this time since Jordan was here. The first round was Jordan, me, Nancy and Linda. The rounds are different. Some things have speed elements, some don't. They have a round where you can steal money and another round where you can throw pie at someone. They were ganging up stealing my money, the punks. Of course, they wanted my money because I was in the lead, LOL. The pie throwing round was fun because people would sometimes end up pieing themselves. The final round is incredibly stressful but I won, as it should be.

I sat out the second game so Kim could play. Instead I helped Jordan. He did much better that game *G*. The final round is all speed and by the time I told Jordan the answer it would be too late. It ended up being between Kim and Nancy. Christopher was playing that round also and he didn't make it far on the final round either. Nancy beat Kim but the funny part is Nancy remembers it as Kim beating her since Kim was in the lead most of it, LOL.

Final round was Nancy, Kim, me and Christopher. I called it battle of the titans. They ALL took my money so I was going into the final round not in the lead. That's ok, I'm good, LOL. It ended up being Kim and I and it was going back and forth the whole time with big sis coming out victorious. Did you doubt it?

I suggested dvd trivia pursuit so more people could play but Sandra and Aimee were off reading or sleeping. Jordan and Christian both called my team. Who can blame them? I said sure, so it was us against Kim, Nancy and Linda. We had a slow start while the other gals were off to a quick one. They got 2 pie right away. They were high fiving each other, blah blah blah. I told the boys not to worry, it's a long game. We kept our cool. I loved how into it Jordan and Christopher were. They had a blast playing and were helpful on several questions. It was really a team effort and with our team, we kicked their asses!

This is the point where Kim and Nancy usually reminisce about the one time they beat me in spades, LOL. Nope, we're not competitive at all.

Sunday was Nancy's day off we put her to work cooking. Since we had so many fresh blueberries she wanted to do a brunch. Her parents came over and since it was raining they brought a canopy to put up on the porch. Jordan helped Larry put it together. And here is Nancy and her mom making pancakes and french toast.
The pancakes were divine. She also made sausage topped donuts (I threw some bacon on some also) so everyone could feel the voodoo donut love. Her parents also brought a fresh fruit salad. Arturo, Christopher and Sara came by for brunch and Maggie and Debbie came. My dad and Kathy came by later. With the canopy out on the porch it never got too cramped. People were rotating around. It was a fabulous brunch with Nancy doing a wonderful job.

Linda and Sandra headed out in the early afternoon for Portland and Nancy and I being the fabulous hostesses we are took a nap before taking Aimee to the airport. I felt bad, I planned on napping for an hour but it was more like two hours. Thank goodness there were books around Aimee wanted to read.

All in all, while a quick visit it was fabulous. It's great re-connecting with my west coast peeps!

The girls are back in town...

2008-08-05T03:14:00.003-04:00

So Linda W drives her parents up every year to see family and while her parents are visiting so is Linda. Originally we were going to do Portland but Nancy couldn't get Sat off of work so we decided to meet in WA. I left Portland Fri morning and timed it so that I could get to Sea-Tac in time to pick up Aimee who was flying in from Eastern WA and if I hadn't left 10 minutes late it would have been perfect, LOL.

Once I picked Aimee up we drove to Nancy's work to pick her and her co-worker up for lunch. Aimee has been a faithful reader for years and knows of my love of Korean food so she wanted to go eat Korean and since Nancy also loves Korean that's where we went for lunch. We found a different Korean restaurant then the one Nancy mapquested. They had a $7 lunch special, we were sold LOL. Korean food is not cheap like Vietnamese food is.

I ordered what I always order, the kalbi. Nancy was wondering if we should also order bulgogi and I told her she can order bulgogi but I'm ordering kalbi, LOL. Everyone ordered the kalbi and I do believe Aimee is now as much of a fan of korean food as I am. Looking at Nancy's plate do you think she enjoyed her meal? To be fair, they brought out our plates first and there was a huge wait for the next two plates. It was weird. Luckily there was all of the side dishes to keep the gals happy.

After lunch we dropped off Nancy and headed home. I was tired so I crawled into bed to take care of some things on the puter and Aimee crawled into bed next to me to read while we waited for Linda and Sandra to show up. They got caught in rush hour traffic so we lounged a bit more then planned but you know I have no problem lounging. Once the gals showed up we chatted for a few and then Aimee and I went to the grocery store to stock up. Sure we could have done this while lounging but we were too busy lounging, LOL. Linda came up with the salad idea so we got tons of fixings for salad and had a salad bar. My sis had dropped my nephew off for the weekend. He's used to being around people of all ages and there was food everywhere so he was happy, LOL.

Nancy came home while we were eating and then her friends Arturo and Sarah stopped in with ice cream (gotta love that!) for dessert. We were all having a nice normal conversation until Nancy said she preferred Richard over Jean Claude in the Anita Blake series and we all went off. That's when Arturo and Sarah realized how passionately we love our books, LOL. Did I mention they also brought cones that had a chocolate layer on the inside? Delish!

I can't even remember how late we all stayed up talking or what all we talked about. It was just wonderful to be around each other.

Blueberry picking with the 'rents

2008-08-01T03:15:00.006-04:00

Yes, I'm woefully behind, nothing new there. I've decided to stay in WA for awhile and have been spending a lot of time with the family. I've been enjoying my time with them.

Before I left OR I went blueberry picking with Linda's parents. They are a hoot! I am proud to say I made it to their house with only one wrong turn. We drove a little south to go pick the blueberries and they gave me a tour of where they used to live. Back in the day they used to farm. Actually, the place where we were going to pick wasn't one of those u-pick places, it's actually a commercial blueberry farm and they're friends of the family. We were getting to pick a few days before the machines were going thru.

While talking to the owners of the farm a falcon went thru. Apparently, they had such a problem with starlings that they hired a falconer to come in during berry season to patrol the fields and keep the birds away. I thought that was pretty cool. I guess wineries do that a lot.

They took us out to the fields that had the most berries ready to pick. Since they knew I was a novice (as dad T would say, a berry picker in training) their words of advice was to handle the berries like I was milking a cow (he qualified that with, not that you have ever milked a cow, does it show?). You grab the berries by a bunch and just sort of twist them around in your hand. They literally just fall into the buckets that we carried around. Look at the beautiful berries. There were just rows and rows of them. I was proud at how fast I was going until dad T had a full bucket way before me. Then when I went to dump my bucket I saw why he was so fast, there were green berries in there as well as leaves whereas mine and mom T's were beautifully picked buckets. We chitchatted the whole time we were picking. It was a lot of fun. Since I was a woman on a mission I only stopped to eat the berries when I was walking back to the car to dump my blueberries. I'd munch on a handful then (not ones from the bucket, saved those for later). We all picked about 3 buckets worth. I think we were probably out there an hour and a half. I actually got my hands dirty! I had to take a pic of that momentous occasion, LOL. I used my water bottle to rinse off one hand. I needed to apply lip balm *G*.

Afterwards we went to a mongolian grill. Mom loves it, I wasn't blown away. The highlight was the soft serve ice cream at the end. Both mom and I are fans.

You'd think the work would be done by now but that's when it really began. Because the majority of the berries would be used for syrup we had to go thru and clean out all the berries. Remember the leaves and green berries? Yep! We went thru sinkfuls cleaning them out. And by we, I mean not dad. He was "working" in the other room. I was still planning on trying to leave for WA that night so I left around 5pm. There were still more blueberries to sort but I had to hit the road, plus I was pooped! I felt bad because mom was still full of energy. She's in her 80s and has a bad hip! She could probably out run me, LOL.

Once I hit the road I realized by the time I got home and had my nap it would be too late to head out and since I was too tired to nap, it was a good call. Of course I took home with me several large ziplock bags full of blueberries of which I took some to WA with me. Talk about yummie goodness. Of course I let everyone know I worked the fields for those blueberries, LOL.

I hear grape picking is much easier. I'll try and keep up!

Hola chicas!

2008-07-24T02:35:00.004-04:00

Today is the only day this week I didn't have anything planned so here I am. Nancy was in Vancouver WA for work the last couple of days so we got together yesterday for happy hour along with Jennifer and Nancy's co-worker Christy. We went to Silk for happy hour, where Linda and I went in May. They have the best carmalized chicken wings! The sugar clings to your teeth, mmmmm.

For dessert we wanted gelato. The waiter said it was 8 blocks away. I wanted to drive but Jennifer being a native said lets walk so I agreed with the condition that she give me a piggy back ride if I got tired, after all, these feet were not meant for walking. Luckily A, the gelato place was not 8 blocks away and B and even more exciting, we ran into a cupcake shop on the way to gelato. This wasn't going to divert us from our original plan for gelato, this was in addition to. Luckily, they had cupcake minis. In the pic, we're all holding a mini but in actualality only Nancy and I had cupcakes. We both ordered two because we couldn't decide. I got the strawberry lemon and the blueberry and Nancy got the banana split and all vanilla. We each took a bite of each of them. I think the strawberry lemon was my fave. Left to right: Jennifer, Christy, Nancy and of course, moi! BTW, I'm the only one wearing flip flops, they're all in heals, LOL.

As we were walking and eating it was pretty quiet, Jennifer pointed out who the talkers of the group were, the two girls with cupcakes stuffed in their mouths, LOL. Once we hit the gelato place we spent several minute tasting the various flavors. I went with the chocolate chip and my new favorite flavor the yogg, which is a yogurt based gelato, it has a nice tang to it.

After our gelato we stopped in Anthropolgie and the first thing they did was say they were closed. The door was unlocked which means they were still open they just wanted us out. I took my time looking around. I was irritated, LOL. If they were closed, the door would have been locked. There were plenty of people still inside shopping. Don't let us in if you're closed, otherwise, I'm shopping.

Nancy and Christy went back to their hotel, they were pooped having worked all day after driving down, Jennifer and I came back and watched tv. I turned Jennifer on to Coupling. I love that show! Then we watched Carson Kressley's How to Look Good Naked. I never had any interest but they showed a clip on in demand so I was like, let's check it out and it was really heart warming. It's such a wonderful message. It was fantastic watching this woman blossom before our eyes and her body was the same body she started with. She just leaned to love and appreciate it. I think so many times what we see in the mirror is not reality. They had a roomful of women of similar body type all in underwear and they told her to pick the body that most resembled hers and she picked a body that was 2 inches bigger at the waist then she was. The one who had her body she thought was beautiful. It's so much easier to see the good in someone else rather then yourself. This is a lifetime show, if you have a chance to watch it, I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick blueberries with Nancy's parents and then driving up to WA if I get back at a decent time and the girls are coming into town this weekend so I'll try to check in but no guarantees!

A hermit I'm not...

2008-07-22T03:27:00.003-04:00

So Linda's big thing for me while I was house sitting is she didn't want me to become a hermit. You know I'm totally comfortable staying in for days at a time. Well such is not happening here and when my life gets busy my blogging suffers, LOL. I know, I finally have things to talk about but no time to post. Sure, I could have posted during the day when I'm lounging around but I'm too busy watching One Life to Live, LOL.

Last Thursday Linda's cousin Ann called me, she wanted to go out for happy hour. You know that's my kind of hour! I had met Ann a couple of years ago and then saw her again in May. We went to MacAdams bar and grill and sat in the bar area and ordered calamari and jalapeno artichoke dip. The dip was good but the calamari was fantastic. Totally light and tasty. I had ordered a pomegranate mojito. It didn't bode well when it showed up with a brownish color instead of the red I was expecting. I tried it and it didn't taste right and Ann didn't think it did either. We sent it back and the waitress came back with one and she says the juice for their pom mixer isn't red but she made it a little sweeter. It still tasted crappy so I ordered a rasberry drink. Honestly, it tasted like cough syrup but at this point, I wasn't sending it back. I should have had a vodka tonic, LOL. I would go back again though just for the calamari and of course, the company! I swear, Ann and I could have sat there talking all night but hey, happy hour was over and it was time to get home.

I had made plans with neighbor Jim to go hiking on Friday but he ended up having too much work to do so instead of going hiking during the day we went to happy hour at night. Well, mr responsibility had to finish his work first so we missed happy hour! I know! We had to pay full price! Oh the horror! We ate at The Buffalo Gap which used to be a bordello. No wonder I felt at home LOL. I don't like tomato juice but I do enjoy a bloody mary every now and again. Mainly because I love all of the fixings that come with it so that's what I ordered along with home made bbq flavored potato chips and hummus. It was all wonderful. The hummus didn't look like much but I wasn't able to finish it. It came with kalamata olives, some fresh pita, peppercinis, feta cheese, cucumber slices, celery and carrots. It was great.

Sat morning neighbor Jim and I went to the Ross Island Market for breakfast and by morning I mean noon and by breakfast I mean a vegetarian wrap with bacon, LOL. I love their veggie wraps, they load all kinds of goodies in it, the only thing missing is the meat. NJ totally agreed. He enjoyed his wrap.

That night Ann came over to help me organize Linda's books. I told you she had a library, I didn't tell you it was spread throughout 3 floors so I told Linda I would help get them organized. Plus it was a great way for me to see what books I wanted to read, LOL. We went out to a local mexican restaurant for dinner. I can't remember the name of it but it was fantastic.

Sunday I stayed in but I spend the day working on the books and today I went out with Linda's friend Deb. I had met her back in my tango days. I love her, she's shorter then I am! She thought she was taller, pshaw! LOL! We went and had sushi. They had great sushi, reasonably priced with huge pieces. I couldn't finish my california rolls but that's because I had some of my friends.

Oh, I did spend the day working on Vito's myspace page. Rosie emailed me last week and she wanted help so I asked what his fave team was. He's a die hard hockey fan and she told me he loves the Penquins (don't tell Lina). So Sunday night I'm working on his page til 1am so he could be surprised with his new page when he woke up. He loved it! One catch, he wanted a Phoenix Coyotes page, not a Penguins page. I'm kicking that Rosie's ass! But I adore V and he was so cute. He called me a couple of times today, he was so excited. And of course, other then his mother, I'm the coolest chick he knows, LOL. His new page rocks! Unfortunately you have to be his friend to see my awesome handy work but just take my word for it it's awesome, LOL.

He's the reason I didn't blog last night but I'm sure you'll agree, pleasing a 10 year old is a wonderful excuse as is, my eating and drinking, LOL. I was so tired last night I didn't get to sleep til 3am, it was one of those, so tired you can't sleep nights and I only had a 10 minute nap today. I should be sleeping yet here I am, showing my love to my Mannions. I swear, I'm a giver!

What up?

2008-07-18T02:57:00.003-04:00

Hmm, let's see, what's been happening with me? Not much! Nes asked me what have I been doing with myself and I said, nothing, yet the days are flying by! I swear! It could have something to do with me not doing anything until after my nap LOL.

I wanted to share this public service announcement. Joss Whedon has an online show called DR. Horrible's Sing Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathon Fillion. He's got a degree in Horribleness! Parts one and two are up and the final part will be up on Sat. It's currently free but I think next week it's going to cost to watch, they want to pay their cast, oh the nerve, LOL. I hear they have about a 1000 hits a second. The cool thing about this is it was done without a studio so they had total creative freedom and it rocks! Plus, you know I love me the musicals. Spring Awakening is going to be in Seattle in Oct and I already told Nancy we're going and Rent will be there next year! It's not til next June which is a bummer but I can't wait to see it!

My brother climbed the summit of Mt Rainier this past weekend. The crazy thing about it is he didn't train and doesn't normally hike or climb. The only way I could hike the summit is if a helicopter dropped me off there! I haven't had a chance to talk in depth with him about the hike but he says it was amazing. The tour guide is a friend of Adam's friend so they only had to pay for the cost of the rental equipment. Here's a link to the video that was put together. I had to double click on the image of the mountain to get it to play and the first time the audio didn't come thru. Adam looks like a midget compared to everyone else and he's pretty normal height. I guess one of the guys was 6'8".

Adam's climb up Mt Rainier

Su and Nancy Day Two

2008-07-15T02:12:00.010-04:00

She said/She said

Day Two

SU: I just knew I was being punished for having too much fun. After about two and a half hours of sleep, it was time for me to get up and get ready to head out to the pier where the Victoria Clipper was awaiting us. Soooo not pretty. I was still hungry and very dehydrated. I don’t think Nancy and I said more than a handful of words to each other as we got ready to head out. Mostly we grunted and pointed.

NANCY: What Su seems to have forgotten is that I think she had about 45 minutes of sleep total. Somebody was worried we wouldn’t wake up on time, so even as drunk as she was she couldn’t sleep because she was taking care of us. That girl is an angel! Oh, and grunting and pointing is my main form of communication before noon most of the time anyway, it is always so nice to communicate in my native language.

SU: We had to check in at the pier at 6:30. Do people really get up that early? On the drive to the pier, Nancy was doing her best to try to make me puke by constantly applying the breaks repeatedly or surging ahead without any warning. So not good for my vulnerable constitution. We made it to the pier on time with absolutely no hurling. Woo hoo! We picked up our tickets at the pier and went into a holding room to wait for our boarding number to be called.

NANCY: All I have to say in my defense is it was 6:15 in the morning and perhaps I was still a tiny bit tipsy, in a hilly city I don’t drive in. I think it is lucky we found the pier without falling in the water.

SU: I would like to take a moment to talk to you folks about an important life lesson that I learned while preparing to board our clipper. The lesson is – Nancy cannot be trusted to do the right thing. She will do anything to get what she wants, leaving in her wake nothing but anguish and misery. Bet ya’ll didn’t know that about our sweet little Nancy.

NANCY: Who me? (Picture fluttering eyelashes and a sweet sweet smile).

SU: Let me explain. Our boarding number was #1. When our number was called, Nancy jumped up and started pushing her way to the front of the line. Thank goodness the elderly lady she knocked over wasn’t seriously injured. Nancy’s only comment was, “Get a better walker next time, crypt keeper hag.” All around me I could hear people grunting from pain as Nancy elbowed them aside.

NANCY: I am happy to wait my turn, but if I am boarding first get out of my way! I only warned the woman to get a better walker after Su kicked the old woman while she was down while laughing with just a touch of hysteria. I guess she needs more than 45 minutes of sleep to be the sweet Su we know and love.

SU: What Nancy didn’t know, was that everyone’s boarding number was #1. So she was basically cutting in front of people who were legitimately waiting to board. Did she once try to apologize? No. Did she suggest we should go to the back of the line? No. Did she try to help any of the people she injured? No. Instead, she said, “You snooze, you lose.” I was actually okay with that, but I had to draw the line when she turned around and yelled at the people waiting behind us, “Kiss my grits, suckaaas!” I was mortified. Didn’t she realize we would be stuck on a ferry with these people for three hours? I didn’t want to be fish bait, so I turned around and hollered, “I’m so sorry. They just let her out of the loony bin yesterday.”

NANCY: Truth, I did feel a little guilty after I realized I had cut in front of all those people (but if they really wanted to be in front they should have fought more!) but by the time I realized what I had done it would have made a bigger mess to turn around and go back to the rear of the line. It was just meant to be.

SU: I was relieved when we finally boarded. We fought to get window seats on the boat. I’m not sure why since we knew we’d be sleeping off our hangovers. We were so hungry and thirsty, we immediately went to the concession desk to get our free continental breakfast. It was pooptacular. However, we were so hungry, we choked down as much of the stuff as possible. We’re in the clear, I thought to myself. Not so. While still docked at the pier, the ferry started to sway. My stomach lurched, and I had to close my eyes to battle the waves of dizziness that threatened to overrule my “no hurling” policy.

NANCY: I think Su and I had a little too high of expectations for our free continental breakfast. I was thinking a lovely buffet, maybe some bacon or sausage. We got boxes of squishy bagels (although half of that bagel sopped up a bunch of alcohol in my tummy), sliced apples, yogurt, and assorted other pre-packaged items.

SU: I looked over at Nancy. She wasn’t doing much better. I just started laughing. I told Nancy we were dumb and dumber. Who the hell drinks like a fish when they know they have to be on a boat at the crack of dawn the next day? We do!! The first five to ten minutes on the ferry were absolute misery, but once we got moving, we both felt fine.

NANCY: Everybody kept asking me if I had ever been seasick before when I told them about our great plans to stay out drinking all night and then take the clipper to Victoria. I happily chirped no, but the joke was on me! Imagine being hung over while you bounce up and down and back and forth with jolting jerks… and all that while having no coffee! Sheer torture!

SU: I was curious about our vacation package since Nancy hadn’t sent me any information at all about our trip. Nancy told me we were staying at the Delta Victoria Hotel, but when she booked our package, she put us in the Queen Victoria Hotel. Now, I was in charge of our itinerary once we got to Victoria, so I had planned our “excursions” around the Delta instead of the Queen Victoria. That wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that she booked us into a single instead of a double! I need extra space when I’m gorging!!!

NANCY: I am still not sure how this happened. I booked the hotel I meant to, the same one that I was looking at when Su and I were talking over the phone. I am going to take the responsibility for this one though because come on, you all know me LOL. I had to book a single bed though, there were not many reasonably price hotels left because somebody who’s name starts with N put off making the reservations til just a little late.

SU: When I gently confronted Nancy about our f’d up reservations, she said I heard her wrong about the hotel. I didn’t. When I asked her why she put us in a single, she said she figured the couch was good enough for me. No need to waste money on a double. Thank goodness I was too hung over to really care.

NANCY: Can you imagine the fright I had being “gently” confronted by a hung over Su who had just found out the itinerary she spent days working on is totally backwards because someone told her the wrong hotel and then tells her they had to share a bed? I am still having nightmares and trouble sleeping from that episode.

SU: We slept most of the way to Victoria. By the time we got there, the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. All we had to do was collect our luggage and get through customs. I have to tell you, every time I’ve been through customs, it’s been a total breeze. I had no idea Nancy had customs anxiety. Every time our customs agent would ask Nancy a question, she’d freeze up.

NANCY: That was the most beautiful picture window I have ever slept next to! Every time the captain would come on the loudspeaker I would rise to consciousness to see if there were whales but (luckily) there were none so there was no need to rouse myself to look.

SU: She couldn’t remember the name of our hotel, what city we were staying in, or how long we were going to be there. I was so distracted by the GORGEOUS customs agents to our left, I wasn’t much help. These boys had dark hair and blue eyes. They looked like they could model for International Male magazine. I knew I was just going to love it here!! Thank goodness they let us through, even though Nancy was acting like a paranoid druggy.

NANCY: I can't help myself, going through customs always makes me freeze up. And really the scary looking lady I got was asking stupid questions, where were we going… well um we just took the clipper to VICTORIA, where could we be going? I thought it was a trick question. And let's be honest, I was still traumatized from the “gentle” confrontation about the little hotel mix up so how was I supposed to remember where we were staying? I really am surprised they let me in without a strip search because every time she asked me a question I had to look at Su for the answer.

SU: We were going to take a taxi to the hotel, but decided to hoof it instead. A nice lady at the taxi stand hooked us up with some awesome maps and directions to our new diggs. Once we made it to the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. The people there were soooooo polite and helpful!!!

NANCY: The walk to the hotel was lovely, I loved giving Su a tour of the city that I had only been to once… for example when I pointed out the beautiful building that was the Empress Hotel… that was actually the City Hall. Whoops!

SU: We ran into the concierge/driver in the lobby. He was a dark haired cutie named Thomas. I think he was 17 years old or so. He said he could make reservations for us and drive us around town if we needed. The front desk people rocked. They were able to switch us to a double room that was already cleaned, so we were able to get settled in right away.

NANCY: Thomas was great! We really saved him from an afternoon of boredom by having him make us dinner reservations and toting us all over town.
SU: The room was lovely. We had a private balcony and a nice bathroom. We quickly freshened up and went downstairs to track down Thomas. I was RAHVENOUS. Thomas drove us to Chinatown where our culinary adventures began. We walked to the sushi place I wanted to try, but it didn’t open for another thirty minutes. Time is money, so we went to Don Mee for some dim sum. I was so proud of our Nancy for trying everything. We had so much food we started giving it away to other people seated around us. We boxed up everything that was left and “donated” it to whoever was residing in the particular doorway we left our food at.

NANCY: Su has introduced me to a whole new world! A world where you sit at a table and they bring the food to you in carts… and the food just keeps coming… and coming. My favorite item was the baked tapioca pudding, when I need to go to a happy place that is what I think of from now on. I tried one of Su’s favorite items, a fried turnip patty (or something close to that) and I have to say after my second bite, it is an acquired taste! I either have to go back soon or find a dim sum place here. To recap, carts of warm food, delivered directly to your table that just keep coming! Yum!
SU: Then off we went to sushi. I was soooooo full, but sometimes you just have to power through. Nancy and I shared three handrolls, and I had a piece of hamachi and something else. I can’t remember because I was suffering from a food coma at the time! Nancy will have to fill you in on the details of our rolls. The sushi was quite good. Too bad we were too full to eat anymore!
NANCY: I did not realize the true extent of Su’s suffering until later in the evening when I hit the food wall. She was a trouper and ate everything at the sushi place. The hand rolls were a California roll (and it had crab with a C, have you ever had a California roll with real crab?), a spicy tuna roll, and I think a spider roll. You know they had to be delicious if we were both full from dim sum and it still tasted divine.

SU: We decided to wander through Chinatown and a few of the squares to walk off our lunches. We found Fan Tan alley, the narrowest street in Canada. I decided we needed a picture. We had to be quick about it because people kept coming in and out of the alley, and I wanted to climb up the wall a little bit. Nancy took a quick pic of me, then it was her turn to climb the walls. Hmmm…Let’s just say she’s no Spiderwoman, but she sure gave it her best shot!!
NANCY: Well my feet might have been on the ground but my friends will agree that my head is always in the clouds.
SU: We wandered around a square a bit until Nancy found some ice cream. Nancy had only had a few licks of her ice cream when she spotted a place selling gelato as we were making our way to another square. She decided she wanted gelato more than she wanted ice cream so she ditched her ice cream. Big mistake. Once she walked into to gelato shop, she found out it was almost five dollars for a scoop and felt that that was WAY too much to pay, even for gelato. So ice cream and gelato-less, we walked to the second square and then wandered onto the main street. I suddenly remembered I needed boots!!

NANCY: Really, five dollars for one scoop of gelato? It is truly one of my favorite things but I had seen lots of gelato places so I was hopeful to find a better priced place later, sigh… it was not to be so I was gelato and icecreamless for this leg of our trip.

SU: Nancy is the best when it comes to taking care of her friends. She asked scores of people for recommendations on where to go to buy relatively inexpensive shoes. We wound up going to the Shoe Warehouse in a downtown Victoria mall. I bought a cute pair of boots and Nancy bought some chic sunglasses.

NANCY: The lady at the purse store that I asked for help was a hoot. When she asked our price range was 50 dollars she said perhaps that is why my friends previous boots had broken was because she had bought cheap boots in the first place and proceeded to recommend many very expensive places. (In Su’s defense her broken boots were Nine West and not cheap!) Really who wants to spend a ton of money on boots you have to buy until you find a new pair you really want?

SU: Nancy’s got this huge bear fetish so we had to take some pictures with a couple of huge brown bears. One was wearing a sign hocking his wares, and the other was dressed in a Mounties costume. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to stop since I’ve got a pig fetish myself.
NANCY: It is not a bear fetish – first of all I think they are badgers, and second of all I will pose with any large stuffed animal hocking wears outside of a store, I can't help myself. Besides, look how cute we are!
SU: We finally wandered back to the hotel and collapsed. Jon and Kate Plus Eight was on the telly so we watched that for a little while. I was on the verge of sleep when Nancy jumped up off her bed and screamed, “Crap! I forgot to shave!” While she was tending to her bristly pits, legs, and nether regions, I took a nap. By the time we were ready to head out to tea, I was actually getting hungry again!

NANCY: And you wonder why Su didn’t want to share a bed with me? LOL.

SU: Thomas took us to the Fairmont Empress for high tea. At fifty dollars per person, I was going to eat the sh*t out of some finger sandwiches. Nancy was in charge of the sweets, of which there were plenty. The tea was a very special hundred-year-old blend. We started off with some fresh strawberries topped with Chantilly cream. Absolutely delightful. There were a variety of sandwiches - cucumber with light horseradish, smoked salmon pinwheels, mango and curried chicken, carrot and ginger, and a multigrain crostini topped with a mixed mushroom pate. Nancy’ll give you the details on the sweets and scones.
NANCY: I feel like we got our moneys worth out of that tea, the atmosphere was wonderful and all the food was delicious. My only regret was that I tied my belt to tight, I really feel like I could have done a better job with my assignment, the sweets! Note my good posture in the tea pictures, it is because I couldn’t slouch I was tied into the dress so tight. The scones were cute petite things. I have to say I don’t normally like scones but these came with a cute little jar of strawberry jelly and clotted cream (think whipped cream). I ate the crap out of those little guys. There were yummy lemon tarts with a strawberry on top, a black and white checkered cake, a confection of chocolate mouse in a chocolate cup, and a sugar cookie with chocolate on half.
SU: We took a cab back to the Queen Victoria to change our clothes and rest a bit before leaving for Nautical Nellies for dinner. Felt good to get out of our nice dresses. After a brief respite, we were ready to continue on our culinary adventure. We decided to walk to Nautical Nellies to work off our high tea.

NANCY: As we left for Nautical Nellies I realized that this was the third wardrobe change of the day. Every time we saw our sweet Thomas we had on new outfits, that tickled me. Thank goodness for the walk because I had hit food coma and was not sure one more thing could fit in me, even without that tight belt. Well until I started looking at the plates on the way to our table…

SU: Nellies turned out to be a fabulous restaurant. Nancy and I ordered these 22oz. fruity drinks. She had one with tequila in it, and I had one with tons of rum. Dinner was amazing. I had steak and scallops. The steak was cooked perfectly and the scallops were scrumptious. Nancy ordered the bacon-wrapped stuffed chicken. It was really tasty too.
NANCY: I was so full I could barely breath… but Su says lets order these drinks that are bigger than our heads and I was all in baby! My chicken was very good but if I had ordered the steak I would have licked my plate, it was divine!
SU: We decided to walk to our next destination – Prism, Victoria’s only gay bar! We were supposed to go there for a drag show at 11pm, but we were about an hour early. The place was deserted, so we decided to go to the last restaurant on our schedule for our final meal instead. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it. Probably because I got the address wrong. I’m sure the restaurant didn’t just up and disappear. I was disappointed we couldn’t find the place and relieved at the same time. Disappointed because I wanted to try some new things, relieved because I was so full I thought I was going to burst.

NANCY: What Su seems to have forgotten is that the club was not in the best area of town either. I know I lead a sheltered life but I have never seen as many homeless people in one place before. They left us alone but it is a little daunting wondering around a strange town on dark unfamiliar streets with all those men watching you.

SU: Neither one of us felt like waiting around for the drag show, so we decided to walk back to the hotel. The sea gulls went crazy that night. There was bird shi*t falling all around us like hail. They were soooo noisy, like screeching poop bombers. We saw a little British sweet shop, and went in for some gelato. Didn’t you know the Brits are famous for their delicious gelato? I got green tea, and I don’t remember what Nancy got. All I know is that it was pretty gross and very expensive. Six whole bucks for icky gelato.
NANCY: Yeah! Instead of paying 5 dollars for gelato I paid six dollars for crappy gelato. Bad karma I guess. I had black forest and mango. I had two bites of the black forest and one of the mango, it was so bad I couldn’t eat any more (well except for a bite of Su’s green tea).

SU: We made it back to the room around 11pm, and I was actually okay with that since I didn’t want a repeat of the night before. I got some ice and a diet coke and was perfectly content! I was totally exhausted and was in desperate need of some beauty sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day!

NANCY: I am fairly certain I was a zombie at this point. Su was worried the TV was bothering me when I let out a loud sigh, but it was because I was so happy to be snuggled in bed about ten seconds from a dreamless refreshing sleep. I needed all my energy for tomorrow!

Not a lot happening...

2008-07-14T02:29:00.002-04:00

But I'm going to try to get into the habit of blogging more, yay for you, lol. Yesterday I had my first burger at Bergerville. It was ok, but didn't blow me away. I did enjoy the walla walla onion rings. I ordered 3 of them and I could only eat 2, they were jumbo sized. Apparently they are known for their fresh OR strawberries so we had strawberry smoothies. I went with one of Linda's oldest friends Lori. Linda is worried I'll be lonely so I must go out with her friends, LOL.

Other then that I spent the day in bed reading (now you see why Linda is making me go out LOL) Phantom of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love. I must say, I didn't really enjoy the BAD stories previously. I read a few of them and had no intention to read anymore until Joe and T's story but the addition of Dianna has really helped the series and now I find myself looking forward to the next installment.

Today I went to the neighborhood market, the same one I used to work at for breakfast with neighbor Jim. Course we called it breakfast but it was at noon, LOL. The market is really the heart of the neighborhood. Jim was wondering if Jennifer had hit me up to work there again but I told him it was too much work!

Afterwards I went to the Super H to stock up on my groceries. Tomorrow I'm going to get my eating on track which means I actually need to start eating more. A lot of times I don't get around to eating til noon or 1 and I need to get my metabolism going much sooner. Yes, I'm too lazy to eat in the mornings, LOL. Nancy eats oatmeal for breakfast. I'll save that treat for when I move in with her, for now I'll stick with cereal.

One thing have been enjoying in my new hood is On Demand. I'm watching all kinds of movies and tv shows. One of my favorite is Coupling from BBC America. I've already watched this series but I have to say it is one of my favorite comedies. I am currently watching BBC's Robin Hood and want to watch The Tudors and Mad Men. I'm very excited. The movies I've caught up on are Ocean's 13, The Waitress and We Are Marshall. I'm sure there's more but I can't remember, LOL. On Demand is awesome when there's nothing on tv and more often then not, there isn't, LOL.

So what shows are you watching this summer? Project Runway starts this week, I'm quite excited!

David's birthday!

2008-07-12T01:06:00.007-04:00

Originally I had planned on leaving Wed but David's bday was Tue and since we had a miscommunication (very normal in my family) and ended up doing the birthday dinner on Wed. Even though I woke up early (not by choice) and had a ton of things to do I stayed in bed til 11 and made Jordan get up at noon. I had let him stay up as late a he wanted for being such a good helper. I also told him once we got everything done we needed to get done that day we were going to go get ice cream.

It was late afternoon by the time we got everything done I wanted (cleaning the kitchen, moving more stuff into the shed, etc). I texted Kim and told her we were going to go get ice cream and did she want to join us? She wanted us to go to my dad's and hang out (she lives there). I don't spend a lot of time at my dad's. There are too many dogs and it's always messy there. It's been overrun by men for a long time. Kim's room is her haven though and it's clean so she talked me into it. Jordan and I swung by Baskin and Robbins and since I was going there I decided on an ice cream cake instead of ice cream. That was torture for Jordan because he wanted his ice cream now but that freaking cake cost $35 so I told him he could either wait for the cake or have ice cream now but no cake later, LOL. He decided to wait.

Kim and I had fun lounging around in her room. She showed me a bunch of clothes, I went thru her pile of clothes she was selling. I found 2 items that stretched enough to fit LMAO. I also grabbed some of her old makeup and accessories. We were being very girly. My brother Gramer came home with his two kids and he was anxious for some ice cream cake too, LOL.

Everyone was happy when David got home. Turns out he's not much of a sweets eater so we all had cake but him! He wanted to rest for a bit before we headed out. He works in siding with my brother Andy so he was pooped. Luckily I had the cake to tide me over cause I was hungry. David wanted to eat at My Vietnam which the good thing was, it was going to be inexpensive, the bad thing is, I'd had Vietnamese twice in the past week. Good thing I love it.

Kim's bf also joined us for dinner. I hadn't met him yet. Dinner was a lot of fun. David is pretty mellow. The owner was giving me grief and called me so LA because I kept asking for things. You know like more water! I was so demanding, LOL. Oh well, I know what I want, especially when it comes to my food, LOL. Kim had fun calling me that all night. Here are some pics of us.
After dinner we wanted to go bowling. David had other plans so I dropped off the birthday boy and picked up Chistopher, my handy helper from the day before.

Bowling was fun. We put up a bumper for Jordan and I. We're much better bowlers that way, LOL. Kim and I were being goofy and work on our rockstar poses. We need a lot more practice, LOL. The gang after bowling. We were goofing around. Jordan had given Kim a piggy back ride so then I wanted one but he's like you're too heavy so I made him hop on my back, LOL. After I proved to him I could lift him then he needed to prove he could lift me. He did say afterwards that I was easier then Kim. Of course, I knew that's because I got a good jump.

I have to say, I do enjoy being closer to my family. The summer will be great, it's the winters that worry me, LOL.

Greetings from Portland...

2008-07-11T01:59:00.002-04:00

Yes, I'm back. I'll be hopping back and forth between my two homes for awhile. It's nice spending time with Nancy and my family again.

Tuesday was crazy. Not only was my stuff getting delivered that day but I had planned Karen's anniversary party on the same day. To be fair, the anniversary party was planned first, LOL. I thought I was getting my stuff on Sat but turns out they don't deliver on the weekends or Monday! I was a bit perturbed to say the least. Anyway, I digress. For help I had Jordan who is becoming an old pro, Christopher, the 15 year old son of Nancy's friend and Edgar, Nancy's brother. Pretty sad that Jordan was the rep for my family considering how much Mann power is located within a close distance. They were forgiven though because they were working. Kathy was going to come but she was sick. I guess that's forgivable also. Just barely though. C and J got on like gang busters. C got there early so I had them play video games cause I was frantically working, trying to get everything set up for the party.

When E showed up we got to working. The truck had been there since 9. The boys were all fabulous workers. I would hand stuff down from the truck and would tell them where to put things. A lot of my things are going into the shed until we can integrate them into Nancy's small house. She's mentally preparing for Hurricane Leiha. It's already started, LOL. I would keep disappearing to go onto the computer to do some things and my helpers were wonderful and didn't complain once. I ordered pizzas and soda and kept them working til the food came. It's a great motivator, LOL. We actually got the truck unloaded pretty quickly and then we loaded up the shed. While we were working on that the food came and work came to a standstill. After that I sent E on his way since he had to go work. It was so sweet of him to come help me before work. He did say that I didn't need to order food and we could scrounge in the kitchen, I reminded him, this is Nancy's kitchen we're talking about. Order pizza it was, LOL.

I let the other two take a break for a few hours because I was on the board partying away and I felt guilty making them work while I played so they played too, til C's ride got there. Eventually it was back to work for J and I. I did warn Nancy it was a disaster before she got home but not as bad as she thought. We actually got a lot done. Of course, I AM a master mover. Her living room will be very familiar to my bloggers since it has my furniture in it but it's all laid out differently and she has painted walls. We still had some big pieces to get out of the room like her old armoire/entertainment center and by we I mean her and whoever she can recruit, LOL. We also re-arranged her shed cause while I loved my little helpers, they weren't the best at space management, LOL. I was so busy that day I didn't get to take my shower until about 11pm and I was disgusting! But it was oh so nice to crawl into my own bed at the end of the day. My new room is so small that basically all I can do is crawl onto my bed, LOL. The sucky thing is I need to flip the mattress around when I go back. I'm sleeping on the side that has my indentions from Atlanta. I spent so much time in bed it molded to my body and since no one slept on the other side I need to balance it out, LOL.

I was so tired and ready for bed but I couldn't get to sleep. Don't you hate when that happens? I was also going to include on this post my birthday dinner with my brother David but I don't want to blow my wad all at once. I'll save that for tomorrow and as a bonus, there will be lots of pics! Yay!

Oh, speaking of pics, snapfish.com is having a special. It only lasts until July 12th so if you're going to take advantage of it it has to be soon. Yes, I should have told you sooner but I've been busy! You can get the first 50 prints for 1 cent each! You know what I'll be doing tomorrow. Uploading pics of me to their site, LOL. The code you need to use is JUL4PENNY08 .

It was a bad bangs night...

2008-07-06T14:01:00.007-04:00

but other then that last night was pretty fun. I came into town on the Fourth because I heard my brother Andy was having a BBQ on Sat and you know I love me some food! Well since Adam is the one who told me about it I called Andy to get the deets on Fri and of course, Andy being Andy he never called me back. He says it's because he didn't have my number programmed in, that excuse would have worked better if there weren't 10 other family members he could have called to get my number.

So I made alternate plans to go out with Nancy and her friends. Nancy worked during the day and I spent a lot of it working on the Moning Maniacs video for our one year anniversary this Tuesday. If you would like to be included in the video today (Sunday) is the deadline. Hey, I can't help it if you don't check Karen's board all the time, LOL. I know a bunch of you are signed up for Karen's board so if you want to be included let me know. I have pics of many of you, some of them blackmail worthy *G*.

Anyway, I went to meet Nancy for lunch, I brought her Vietnamese food. I'm ok with the basics of getting around here. I did almost miss the mall exit but it was almost. I was able to ride the median over, LOL. After lunch we did a little shopping. I bought this fabulous long red dress for only $21! You'll be seeing it in the future I'm sure. Did I mention it was long? It'll need to be hemmed. I decided I'll just tie up the bottom until I get around to getting it hemmed. You know how lazy I am.

I had plans to meet up with my sis Kathy and Jordan but for some reason I didn't get her phone call til a couple of hours later. I'm not happy about that. She did invite me to go hiking with her this morning. I don't have my tennis shoes which is good, they're planning a 4 hour hike! I told her I couldn't do that if it was a flat hike let alone climbing over rocks.

Just when I was getting ready to lay down for my nap Adam calls and wants to know what's up. I tell him since Andy never called me back I made alternate plans. Well Andy was right there with him with his excuses. Whatever, I had other plans. I'm not driving an hour away at this late a time. The Adam tells me they have a cooler full of dungeness crab caught that morning. What were the directions again?

I thought it was at 1pm because that's what Adam told me the night before but they called at about 5pm. Turns out it was an evening thing. I was going to go while Nancy was at work. She had no interest in driving out that way after work. I understood but since she was getting off in an hour I planned on changing her mind, LOL.

I decided to head to the grocery store to get the fixings for the world famous in my mind guacamole. It was also the most expensive guacamole around. The avocados were 2 for $6 and I bought 5 of them! I wish I would have bought more peppers cause I don't think it was hot enough. I needed to increase the peppers for as much avocado as I had but Nancy said it got hotter as the night progressed and it was a hit.

So as I was leaving Nancy's house to go to the store these girls from across the street start yelling at me. There's a guy sleeping in the yard! He's off to the side under Nancy's parent's camper. I thank them, get in my car and call Adam to see what to do. I didn't want to bother Nancy and I didn't have her parents number. He says call the police but first call dad. So I call my dad who has a tendency to ramble and he goes on about the fact he could be on drugs, probably strung out on meth, on and on and on before he agrees to calling the cops. I say what's the #? He says 911. I thought that was only for emergencies but apparently that's where all calls are routed through. The 911 operator asked me if I asked him to leave. I said NO! I'm not talking to him! Crazy! He also asked if he was white but from the angle I was I couldn't tell and I wasn't planning on getting closer. It took about a half an hour before the cops came. I was talking to Nancy at this point and she was bummed she missed the festivities. So the cops talk to him for awhile, put him in handcuffs to walk him off of the property and then uncuff him and he walks off and they drive off! They never knocked on the door to let me know what the guy said! The good news is they did drive around the neighborhood for awhile but I couldn't believe they didn't bother knocking on the door to let me know it had been handled. Nancy's parents wanted her to call and complain but no point in getting on the cops bad side, LOL.

On the phone I had told her on the phone about the change in plans. She wasn't happy. I mentioned the crab. She was happy. So when I got back from the store she was home, we quickly put together the guac and headed out the door. My brother had bought a house out in the boonies. He didn't know his address so the directions were turn on the fresh paved road it's a little white house. Luckily there were about 10 cars in the driveway, which was a good indication we were at the right spot.

The boys were nowhere around, turns out there were playing WII bowling. They paused long enough to give us a hug and tell us where the food was and really that's all we needed. We could have sat outside but it was cooling off and I'm one for creature comforts so we hung out with the boys in the living room stuffing ourselves with crab, chicken wings, grilled corn, meatblalls, guac of course and various other foods. I didn't take a pic because everyone else had eaten so it didn't look at pretty.

The boys were doing beer bongs betting on the bowling. Nancy was bummed she was driving because she was very curious. Me, I have zero interest, especially listening to the sounds of the beer coming back up, LOL. They promised Nancy next time we'd stay the night so she could experience the beer bong love. People were taking pics of this but I didn't feel the need. These were my brothers, LOL. As you can tell, they are younger brothers.

Adam happened to mention they had oysters and did we want some? Hell yeah! I had never eaten them off of a grill before but I could only imagine the yummy goodness. So once the game Adam was playing was over I was like ok I want oysters. He's a good host at Andy's party, LOL. Adam is the comedian of the family. I keep telling everyone I'm funnier but no one agrees. Looking at these pics you can see why.

Adam would grill the oysters and shuck them and Nancy and I were eagerly awaiting each oyster and would pop them in our mouths. I wanted a bunch of oysters but Nancy said she could only eat a few so I said ok, I'll only have 6. Later on she regretted it. We should have eaten more, they were tasty, LOL. The only reason I didn't have him pop more on the grill was the bugs were starting to eat us alive.

While on a scouting mission to find the beer bong Nancy heard some interesting convos going on outside so off she went to join them but I stayed inside. It was cold, wet and the bugs were out, LOL. After awhile the boys decided they wanted to hit the redneck bar. Only Nancy and I were fit to drive having spent the night drinking water. Andy crawled into bed, having done the most beer bongs while I gathered up Nancy. She was way at the other end of the yard where they had a bonfire going. I yelled to her cause there was no way I was walking out there, LOL. Once she heard redneck bar, she was in.

The bar was anti-climatic to the boys. They were ready to see guys in shit kickers waiting to kick the shit out of them because they didn't belong. I was excited at the thought of going into a bar where everyone stares at you when you walk in, reminds me of Daytona, LOL. How disappointing when we get in and everyone is middle aged and harmless. It looked like they had their teeth and not a wife beater shirt to be seen. So instead of getting beat up, we drank. I think I had 3 shots in about 15 minutes as well as a vodka tonic. I will tell you now, a washington apple shot is disgusting! Crown royal! UGH! I don't think I had much of a buzz, I had eaten a lot of food prior to the drinking, LOL. Nancy and I had fun taking pics of ourselves. I think this was one of the ones she liked of herself. I remember liking how I looked in all of them *G*. The boys. When Adam turned away I told the other two boys to take their shirts off for the next pic, the look on their faces was priceless. They had been seeing a toned down me all night, LOL. The boys were talking up the bartender, inviting her to the house for a pool party afterwards. Too bad no one knew the names of the streets. The good news is we got free shots. Nancy took a pic with hers and then gave it to Adam, it had served it's purpose, LOL. BTW, the pool is an above ground pool in the middle of the field that is their yard and is probably ice cold and filled with bugs, LOL.

After we went back to the house, it was after 1am and we had an hour drive ahead of us. So we took off. Nancy says she knows I'm back in town when she has experiences like last night, LOL. Just think of what the future holds for her, EG!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

2008-07-04T15:44:00.008-04:00

I hope that you're having a wonderful day no matter where in the world you're living.

Sorry it's taken me so long to blog again. I thought after I moved I'd be much more regular and turns out, such is not the case, LOL. Actually I do plan on checking in a bit more. Keep in mind, that's the plan we'll see how well it goes, LOL.

The visit with Aunt was fun. She's a spitfire and had me cracking up. We had fun hanging out with her and going to lunch. I love this pic of Jordan, he looks so sweet! As you can see, my Aunt Lona is from my dad's side, LOL. We used to be really close when I was younger. I used to spend summers with my grandpa and she lived close and over the years we totally lost touch. The last time I saw her was in 2002. We've talked a little in the last couple of years and I'm hoping she can make it out to WA next year. She is a really cool chick.

After we left my Aunt's it was time to hit the road. Jordan was wonderful for the whole trip. He was the naviator. Kim had the back seat set to where she could lay down so she spent a lot of time back there, LOL. Jordan and I would go over what our next turns were and how long til then and we'd zero out the mileage to keep track. When it was night Jordan said to wake him up if I needed him, he took his duties very seriously.

Kim was actually pretty great on the trip also. She drove for about 3 hours at a time, much more then I thought she'd be good for, LOL. We did stop for ice cream a lot. That helps keep the spirits high. The plan was to drive all night but stop at any place that looked interesting. The problem was, there wasn't anything interesting, LOL. I never even saw signs for interesting places to eat so it was pretty much fast food the whole route. I was actually disappointed that we didn't see a sign for the world's biggest ball of yarn, LOL.

We left Missouri Sunday about 5pm and hit Portland Monday about 10pm. We would have been there sooner but we had a couple of stops for food. The early morning was rough but once I got past that the rest went pretty good. I listened to Kiss of the Highlander while Jordan played his PSP and Kim listened to her ipod.

Kim and Jordan wanted to get to WA while I wanted to get settled in here so Kathy came down on Tue to pick them up. Which worked out because I could chill out and not have them bouncing around wanting me to do things with them, LOL. It took me a couple of days to even get my suitcase unpacked. That drive took a lot more out of me then I thought but I'm starting to get a bit more mobile.

I went to the grocery store yesterday. One of the worst things about moving is figuring out what to eat when you get settled. It seems my meal of choice is spaghetti. I made it when I went to Daytona and it's what I made last night. i just want something to fill me up that is easy and tasty. I also stocked up on cereal, LOL.

I was originally going to go to WA on Wed and my stuff was supposed to be delivered on Sat. Well turns out they don't deliver on Sat, today is a holiday and they don't deliver on Mondays so I have to wait til Tue! I'm going to drive up tonight. I wasn't going to go til tomorrow but my brother is having a BBQ and you know I love me a BBQ. Plus, they went crabbing yesterday and I need to try to get me some, LOL.

I'm here!

2008-07-01T02:44:00.002-04:00

I'm exhausted but I wanted to let everyone know we arrived safe and sound. Sorry there were not a lot of check-ins. I hadn't been online since I last posted and Nancy was sick today. You didn't miss much, LOL.

On the road again...

2008-06-29T09:39:00.003-04:00

Well almost. We had a nice time in Arkansas visiting my friend and today we're taking a little detour to see my aunt. It takes us a couple of hours out of the way but she is so excited to see us, and I think I was in the Army the last time I saw her so it was many many moons ago. She really wants us to stay the night but she owns many many many cats. Way too many for my comfortability and so I don't think we're going to stay. I can't remember he exact number of cats she owns but the number is more then 10! She also has several cats she feeds that she doesn't let inside, yep, she's the crazy cat lady, LOL. Actually she's not crazy but that's just way too many cats. I won't let Nancy own more then 1.

The fam is still sleeping. I'm going to hop into the shower then make their butts get up so we can get on the road. We still need to pack up, get some breakfast, get gas, stop at Starbucks (for Kim) so it'll be over an hour before we get on the road. I told my Aunt she'd get a 3 hour notice which is how long it'll take us to get there, LOL.

So tonight we're going to try and drive all night. Kim doesn't have a lot of hope but I think we can do it. I only need a break for a little while. Oh, I should buy some energy drinks today too! Guess, I better hit the shower!

PS: My aunt is anti-internet so I won't be checking in from her house, LOL. Yes we are very different!

12:30 PM (pacfic time)

2008-06-27T15:32:00.002-04:00

Since Leiha left Alabama this morning at 7:00 pacific time she has driven through Alabama, Mississippi, and is now 6 miles from Tennessee. The gang is hanging out at the Flying J getting snacks and gas. (keep your fingers crossed that the car doesn't break again).

The highlight of this leg of the trip? Well driving on the Jim Neighbors Highway of course! We all love a little Gomer Pile :)

While Leiha slept she put Kim and Jordan in charge... So Kim had Jordan watch for cops while she sped to make up for Leiha's careful drivin style LOL. I think she cut an hour off her time.

I finally figured out how to put a map of the trip in the blog... so here it is.
A= Daytona Beach FL
B= Opelika AL (the unplaned overnight trip)
C= Van Buren AR (Sat overnight stay)
D= Forsyth MO (Aunt Lona's house)
E= Portland!
I will update stops as the gang makes stops across the country!

View Larger Map

It's a quarter til 8am...

2008-06-27T07:47:00.006-04:00

and there is no sign of life at the Hyundai dealership. I did call to find the hours out and the service dept is supposed to be open at 7:30am but apparently that is a flexible start time LOL. I slept like crap in the hotel no-tell. When we pulled in the clerk was asleep in the back. I think he lives there and is the owner. The room was sweltering when we got in and the a/c sounded like a helicopter was in the room all night. I only brought my toothbrush in, didn't feel like unloading. Beginning at 5am I woked up every half an hour and checked the time. I tried to do a wakeup call but the room phone didn't work, LOL. So I had Kim and my phone set. I wanted up and out as soon as possible. Finally at 7 I got up, brushed my teeth and headed out. No reason for the others to get up.

The roads are not major highways so I drove for awhile until I felt comfortable giving the reins to Kim and I chatted with Nancy. 10 minutes later Kim asks why my check engine light came on. It was about 1am. I thought maybe Jordan didn't tighten the gas cap enough even though I told him to. I'm teaching that boy to pump gas, never too soon to learn, LOL. So I get out and tighten it but we notice the idle is really rough which has never happened before when I didn't tighten the gas cap enough so we went across the street tot he gas station. Kimberly called my brother while I talked to Nancy. My brother was trying to talk us thru some things but I am not a car person. I checked what I thought was the oil but turns out was the transmission fluid. Hey, it had a dipstick LOL. I had gotten my oil changed at the dealership last week. Got my tires taken care of and thought my car was road ready. After an hour of fiddling around and not knowing what we were doing, with some help from a kind stranger we decided to get a hotel and go to the dealer. I didn't want to chance it since it also ran rough. I don't think it's anything major and it's still under warranty, I just hate the waste of time. We had planned on being in Arkansas this afternoon. Now we'll be driving!

The loading of the truck wasn't too bad. Both Kim and Jordan were rockstars and we had some construction workers help us load the heavy stuff since the truck didn't have a ramp. It took awhile and once we got the truck loaded we had to wait for te driver to come back 3 hours later but eventually we hit the road after eating a final meal at the Brickyard. The Cincinnati Kid hooked us up with food for the road. Too bad it was all fried so about midnight we threw it out. It was taking up room and we didn't think it would travel well, too bad, it had chicken tenders, fried shrimp, poppers, shrimp jammers and friend mushrooms. Su would have been in heaven.

Alright it's 8am, where is everybody? The good news is I was able to connect to the net while waiting in my car. Thank goodness for wireless internet! Will be back later with more info.

Update
Oops, turns out I’m now currently in the central time zone so technically I’ve been outside the dealership since 6:30am! Oh the horror, LOL. Not like I was sleeping well anyway. Kim better be ready to do some driving this afternoon! She’s sleeping like a baby. Actually I felt bad for her because shortly before the car went kaput she took an energy drink since it was her shift to drive, LOL. I have no worries though, I'm sure that chick got to sleep right away, she has a gift.

Update 2It was a bad coil, whatever that is, LOL. The good news is it's covered warranty and I'm fixed and ready to go. Got to hit the road now. Look for updates via Nancy.

2:35 Friday Morning

2008-06-27T02:36:00.004-04:00

Well... no need to wonder where Leiha will be in the morning after I wake up. Shortly after our update and the last gas station that was not for peeing Leihas check engine light came on and the car was running rough.

They are spending the night in the lovely town (at least we think it is lovely, it is hard to tell in the dark) of Aubun AL.

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They are staying at the University Inn - and are going to be at the Hyundai dealership bright and early at 7:30 am.

Here is the gorgeous room you get in Auburn AL for the cheap cheap price of 65.00. I will get up early and check in to keep everyone posted.

12:30 am Friday Morning

2008-06-27T00:47:00.002-04:00

Leiha just passed into Alabama on the Corn, Elk and Cow Parkway... what was that? Oh, the Collin L Powell Parkway LOL! So far they have been through three states, one Dairy Queen and three gas stations (one gas station was just to pee though). Not bad.

Kim is at the wheel, Jordan is navigating and Leiha is just telling everyone what to do.

I am going to bed now... and when I wake up they will still be driving, how weird is that? Where do you think they will be when I check on them at 6:30 my time - 9:30 their time? Stay tuned.

She is on her way home! Kind of...

2008-06-26T16:39:00.002-04:00

Well I am now posting for Leiah because the mean internet company came and took her modem! The truck arrive bright and early at 9am, Kim and Jordan rocked and they had the truck packed and ready to go by 1.

They called and found out the truck people wont be back until 5 so the dream team went to the Brickhouse for a goodbye lunch. Now they are waiting around for one more hour before they can leave.

I (hopefully - technical problems you know...) have posted a map of their proposed route and I will keep everyone posted on their route.

OK - No map for now till I figure out how to post it... but the total trip is 3230 miles with a total time of 49 hours and 36 minutes. Their first stop is 17 hours from when they take off tonight at 5:30 - thank goodness for energy drinks!

Nancy B

Sorry

2008-06-26T00:25:00.003-04:00

That I haven't been around to post. My nephew and sister came in last week and we had the band stay with us this weekend, talk about a packed house, LOL. We also did Disney on Tue and on top of all that I needed to get the house packed up. Kim and Jordan are already in bed and I'm heading that way soon. I will have to play catch up when I get to OR. I will have my trust companion Nancy check in for me while I'm road warrioring it. I will be making a couple of stops, my aunt wants us to stop and I have a friend who I want to see. I wish I had time to visit more people but I need to get to WA in time for my stuff. My things are going to Nancy's so after I get to OR I'll be heading to WA. The drunk who I was going to have help load didn't call back, imagine that so we'll be loading ourselves tomorrow and then heading out. It's going to be a long long day. The good news is, we've already bought some road food. The bad news is, we've already gone thru our bag of funions, LOL.

another farewell...

2008-06-21T03:05:00.005-04:00

Monday I gave Jenna (in case you don't know is world famous roofer author Gennita Low) a call because I wanted to see her before I left. Luckily she was able to re-schedule her plans for Tue nightso we could meet for some sushi! She had a place that she wanted me to try out. We met at her house since it was closer to her place but we did switch cars and rode the Low-mobile, a convertible Lexus, shwing! I was worried my hair would fly all over but that didn't happen at all. It was a wonderful ride.

Dinner was wonderful. We got a couple of apps, the crab rangoon and the chicken yakatori, which is basically chicken skewers. Very tasty. Then we split the dragon boat which was the perfect amount of sushi for the both of us.We're very happy, our food is here. Don't worry, I also got a closeup of the sushi, LOL. The dragon roll was fantastic. They use smoked salmon on it, tasty!

We spent the dinner talking about any and everything. Jenna always gives me the scoop on what's happening in the romance world. This woman has her finger on the pulse of everything. Dinner went by much too fast and before you know it it was time to say goodbye but not before we took one last picture together.

Su and Nancy Do Seattle

2008-06-18T22:55:00.012-04:00

she said/she said

Day One
SU: My hubby and his in-laws drove me up to Alki in West Seattle to meet up with Nancy at Salty’s restaurant. This fabulous joint has a buffet brunch on the weekends. I was seized with panic when I saw how much food was available. Would I be able to take it all in? Would my stomach be able to stretch enough to accommodate all the bulging plates of food I was about to stuff into it?

NANCY: You have to agree that Su and I showed great restraint at our measly four plates when presented with the obscene gobs of food goodness. It was so great to see Su's family, her hubby is just about the greatest guy ever!

SU: I think Nancy and I had only four plates each. We decided not to go too crazy. After our light snack, we decided to explore a cute little park that Nancy had spied earlier as she was driving in circles trying to find the restaurant. As I was taking in nature and all its wonders, Nancy snuck up behind me and pushed me down. Unfortunately, I was at the top of a hill and couldn’t keep myself from rolling down it at great speed. All I could hear above my own screams were Nancy’s maniacal cackles. That horrible sound still haunts me when I close my eyes at night.

NANCY: Hummm, I think Su must have hit her head somewhere during her tumble down that hill. We had just asked a nice couple to take our picture when she yelled HILL at the top of her lungs and threw herself off the hill and she started rolling down the hill at breakneck speed. She frightened away the nice couple with her maniacal screaming descent.
SU: In a fiendish attempt to knock me down again, she rolled down the hill herself and tried to head butt me. I was barely able to dodge her considerable noggin. I was so dizzy that I could barely stand. It took us a while, but we eventually made it back to the car, covered in grass stains.

NANCY: Being the good friend I am I threw myself down the hill risking life, limb and dog poo to save my good friend Su from an unfortunate collision with the blackberry bushes. Yes - that is how I show how much I care - roll down a big steep hill and eat grass for my friends!

SU: Nancy decided Jake (her little angel cat) needed a new scratching post. We stopped at a cute pet shop and found the perfect one for little Jake. The ladies at the front counter sprayed the whole thing with catnip essence. Guess the catnip made Nancy feel pretty cocky, so she decided to share her mojo with the rest of the world. Namely, this meant holding out the scratching post from her hips like a penis and running around the neighborhood touching people with the tip of it. Ewwww!!

NANCY: The best part of this story is me being "sneaky". I was carrying the scratching post out of the store and noticed it might look a little phallic. I turned to Su and in the quietest voice ever called her to look. Turns out I was not as sneaky or quiet as I thought and the two gals working at the store had a good laugh. They were the first victims of the pole tip touching.
SU: Once we got back to Nancy’s place, we started getting ready for the weekend. I played around on the computer while Nancy scrambled around packing. We made a quick dash to Borders so I could pick up a few books and off we went to our lovely 0.5 star mot-hell. The female employee who checked us in was surly and wore too much make-up. She couldn’t wait to get rid of us. I’m surprised she didn’t try to spit on us. She was in desperate need of a BOB that attaches to a car battery.

NANCY: Scrambled around getting ready does not properly describe the three trips I had to make back in the house because I had forgotten stuff that we had to have for our trip starting on day two. Little things like our tickets and my birth certificate to go across the border, just small little things. Yeah - that girl at the hotel counter was a cow!! When I asked to move to a room with two beds there was no way to help me because I made my reservations on-line, but when I asked about their fancy suite suddenly she could move me. Then she decided she was done helping me and asked the person behind me if she could help them, Really? Come on, I get riled up when I think about it GRRRR. Su was there with her calm demeanor (she hadn't started drinking at this point) to keep me from climbing over the desk and choking her.

SU: On the bright side, our room was perfectly fine. Not the best, not the worst. When I called down for extra towels, housekeeping presented them to me within five minutes. Not bad! While we were getting ready to go out, Sarah, one of Nancy’s awesome friends was at the hotel bar eating a snack. It took us a while to get ready because I’m always slow, and Nancy was curling her hair. I swear, that girl is a goddess when she does her hair. She looked amazing.

NANCY: The hair police have been issuing citations so I bought some hot rollers and curled my hair for the first time in YEARS. Poor Sarah was stuck waiting while I ran around asking Su, "Do the rollers go in like this?", "Are they done yet?", "Do I look like a freak?". Once we picked all the grass off us from rolling down the hill we decided I wouldn't scare children so we headed out for the evening.

SU: We were finally ready to head out around 7ish and decided to hit the Pink Door. Twist and Purple were the other two places we considered, but we were short on time and didn’t know exactly where they were located, so we opted for a sure thing. Thank goodness Sarah offered to drive, she new exactly where to go. She’s got brains, looks, and great taste!! Did I mention she is the proud momma of two dachshunds?

NANCY: Not only was Sarah nice enough to drive but she apparently has Linda T's parking karma because we found a free parking spot just a half a block from the fabulous Pink Door (where she told me they have a pink mojito that will change your life). Someday we might let the angel-cat Jake meet the two sweet dachshunds but I worry for their safety.
SU: There was a 45 minute wait at the Pink Door, so we put our names on the wait list and went over to Kell’s for a couple of pints. Walking into Kells’s was like walking into a cave, dark and damp. Yup, a dark and damp cave filled with cute boys. No hardship here! After our beers and a little boy talk, we went back to the Pink Door to wait some more. One of the hosts there bought us a round of Pink Mojitos. Verra delish!

NANCY: Kells was yummy - Beer and men, what else is there to say? And then to get free drinks - OK anyone that knows me knows after my beer and free drink I was happy, happy, happy!

SU: Once we were seated, Nancy abandoned me and Sarah to look for Arturo. Her timing couldn’t be better because we got a chance to talk behind her back!! By the time Arturo and Nancy came back, we were digging into our garlic and cheese appetizer. Nancy and I split a salad with beets and the house special risotto. Sarah had pasta with meat sauce that was totally divine.
NANCY: Yeah, I went out to help Arturo find a parking spot because I knew a parking garage really close that would be perfect! Turns out the parking garage was right where I remembered, but it was closed! After driving around for far to long (ok like three minutes) I yelled pull in here - the first pay parking I could see. I said I would pay anything to get parked and back in the restaurant because there was no telling what those two were saying about me!
SU: Tragically, as I was exiting the ladies room at the Pink Door, the heel of my left boot broke. How totally craptastic! I said to myself, “Screw it! What would Vivica do?” Party on of course!! So, after touring Seattle by car with Arturo, our most fabulous designated driver, the three of us were off a great bar and dance club. We tinkled, drank, danced, drank, talked, drank, wandered around some alleys, drank, etc. By the time we left, I was a tiny bit blitzed!!

NANCY: Thank Goodness Vivi joined us! It is a shame it took a broken heel for her to come out but you know a night out is not the same without her. My friends loved meeting Su and Vivi, and it is so nice they believe my friends are real now. Su is right - we danced and drank and danced and drank - but only tinkled once! She was a good leader and had us leave early 12:20 so we could get sleep for our trip the next morning... and that would have been great if we hadn't had that last drink and gotten thirsty and hungry.

SU: Next thing I know, we are at a café of questionable reputation eating breakfast and laughing our asses off. Nancy had to fill me in on a few details which I had forgotten due to ass-kicking my brain cells were getting from all the alcohol. She said I wouldn’t stop banging on the front door of our hotel even though it wasn’t locked, and the front desk clerk was waving us in. I’ll eventually get the whole push/pull thing down. I also didn’t remember taking pictures of ourselves in bed. Not pretty when you can barely hold the camera. I didn’t remember changing out of my boots into sandals until halfway through breakfast when I noticed I didn’t have my boots on. Yup, I was sharp as a dull plastic spoon.

NANCY: Well the front door was locked when we got there, but as I was digging for my key Vivi decided we needed in ASAP and proceeded to bang on the door like a fiend. It is a good thing the the front desk guy (who is way cooler than the skank that checked us in) was used to dealing with drunks and buzzed us in. I love that Su cant remember taking off her boots - the ones that had a broken heel all night so she had to walk on her tippy toes. And notice how she is so blitzed she cant remember taking the picture but she looks so fabulous!?! It is a good thing I love her or I would hate her!

SU: I vaguely remember talking to the front desk guy about where to go for breakfast. When Nancy asked him if there was a place we could walk to, he said there was a diner nearby, but that it was a little dodgy. When Nancy asked him to clarify, he said that there weren’t fights there every night. We said “Great! We’re going!”

NANCY: The desk guy said there were not fights every night we asked what kind of food they had, come on, even drunk Su and I know what is important. When he told us cafe food that is when we yelled in tandem "Great! We're Going!"

SU: As I recall, I could barely read the menu or sit upright. I know we were loud and loved ourselves. Apparently, we were the best looking, coolest rock stars in the place. Everyone wanted to be like us in our drunken little minds. The food was greasy and good, so I had no complaints. Sometime during our meal, Nancy suggested that we call some of our friends to let them know how much fun we were having. I said, “No, Nancy. That just wouldn’t be right. What if our friends are sleeping? It would be wrong and dishonorable for us to wake them for our own enjoyment.” Nancy told me to shut my pancake hole and started drunk dialing away.

NANCY: The waiter had come to our table three times to take our order so I took control and just ordered what I wanted for both of us - Yummy! It really didn't seem like a rough place, it was just a bunch of rock and goth people hanging out. If it had been rough they would have beat the crap out of us for telling each other how cool we were and that we were the coolest people in the place.

SU: Only one brave soul answered. She was soooo sweet about it too. She was so understanding and loving. She told us to “have a blast”…or was it “I’ll kick your ass?” Hard to tell through all our devious snickering.

NANCY: Remember how Su has already admitted how parts of the night are spotty? Well SHE is the person who decided we should drunk dial a few people. It was when we were getting a ride home so I have backup on this by the way... She said "Let's call Leiha!" I said OH NO, she will kick my ass if we call her drunk, it makes her mad!" Somehow after that my phone was out and Leiha was wishing us well on our big night of fun. Since that call went so well we decided to call lots of other people... If you didn't get a call from us just be glad you have a spouse that we were frightened would kill us if we called at 5am. I finally sobered up in the middle of our last call... at 2:30 to my cousin in Portland.

SU: We eventually left after our 2 hour mutual admiration society breakfast meeting came to an end, and we walked/stumbled back to the hotel. I took a shower while Nancy took some z’s. I knew the next day was going to be rough, but damn, the fun was totally worth it.

NANCY: Yep - Su and I knew how great we were and really hoped we would make it up for the 6:30 am check in time the next day!

I got this em from Debbie D

2008-06-17T10:13:00.005-04:00

and I thought I'd spread the word. It only took a sec.

If you're not already voting for one of the other lighthouses, please vote for this one. We're in desperate need of funds to repair it. Thanks, Debbie D

New Orleans Lakefront Lighthouse
I'm hoping ya'll will take a sec, (and it only takes a sec) to help out. Our lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans was destroyed by Katrina. Built in the 1890s, the lighthouse has been a lakefront landmark for years, guiding boats in and out of the Orleans Marina and the Municipal Yacht Harbor . Some of the original materials were salvaged and they're trying to rebuild it but of course it takes money the city doesn't have right now.

There is a company that restores lighthouses and has a contest going on right now to donate new windows and doors for a lighthouse in need of restoration, and the Canal lighthouse is on the list! PLEASE help out and vote for New Orleans !! Thanks ya'll!

Click the following link www.jeld-wen.com/lighthouse and then go to Vote Now and select Canal lighthouse/Louisiana.

The beginnings of the goodbyes...

2008-06-16T19:35:00.010-04:00

Last week I told the girls at the lunch I'd try to do a pool party before we left. Even though our place is a mess and we have a ton of things to do (you know I have to start early for all of my breaks, LOL) I invited the girls to come up last Sat. Unfortunately only Elizabeth could make it. It was last minute. Lina made a greek salad which I always love and a spinach and cheese boreck which is like a hot pocket and picked up pastries at the middle east. We greeted E with a strawberry margarita, gabbed some in the house then headed to the pool. It was such a wonderful day we ended up spending at least 2 hours at the pool, if not more. We tried to talk her into staying to go out to see Disposable Heroes that night but she had a long drive ahead of her and had to work on Sunday.

After my much needed nap (isn't every nap much needed?) Lina and I got ready to go out to see the boys for one final time *sob*. They knew it was our last time seeing them and of course they were devastated. They may not have used that exact word but I'm sure that's what they felt, LOL.

Here is our evening in pics. It was so freaking hot Kenny changes shirts between sets and Mikey and Jeff don't bother with them. I was sweating up a storm, dancing the night away, unfortunately I didn't have a shirt to change into and even worse, I forgot my hair clip!

After the boys broke down we went to IHOP. Let me tell you, it takes awhile to break down. The good news is it gave me plenty of time to go home and change. They didn't even flinch at me wanting a pic at IHOP, LOL.

We had the boys crash at our place. I've been trying to sing karaoke with them for ages! I love this pic even though it's not me at my most flattering. It was about 5am at the time this was taken. I'd had a couple of shots over the course of the night, factor in my tiredness and my singing abilities did not blow them away, LOL.

It was fun having the boys to ourselves and of course Lina made a breakfast for them that had them drooling. It was a wonderful last night with them, except for the fact I found out about 3am that they're in town next weekend. Oops! So much for the last hurrah! It was the next to the last hurrah, LOL.

Moning Maniacs

2008-06-14T21:38:00.004-04:00

OK so Sunday morning arrives and JK and Nes are supposed to head out to Tampa. JK has a cold and isn't feeling too well so we take that opportunity to pounce. He had an itinerary that he wanted to stick to but hey, he's the one who changed it originally. They were packed and ready to go. Nes was saying how much she wanted to say but JK was saying we were ready for them to leave. As if! Lina was saying how it would be fun to go to the beach bar that night and I was saying how close St Augustine was and it was originally on one of his itineraries so he wanted to go there. He got the hint and decided they could stay one more day. Jubilation all around.

Now Lina and I had plans that day to meet with a bunch of Karen's fans for lunch in Orlando. I would have loved Nes to join us fellow readers but I thought that would be pushing it so they were going to spend the day at St Augustine and we could all take our time.

At Ross I tried on a dress that Nes thought was too sweet for me, which of course meant it was perfect for my lunch and Lina already had the perfect dress and shoes to wear. I think my dress was under $20 and I'm actually wearing a bra! Othersied the dress flattens them and we can't have that happen, LOL. We all left at the same time. Marlene, a moning maniac who helped me with the set up f the luncheon also was able to hook Lina up with a mini-massage and me with a pedicure. I almost traded for the massage but I really needed the pedi. This was a hotel spa, so different then my normal loud rushed asian nail salons. I changed into a robe and slippers, not cause I really needed to but because I wanted to. There were cookies and tea in the changing area also. I wish I had more time to shove some cookies in my mouth but we were running late. I was the only person getting a pedi, it was so relaxing. She put a towel on my lap and a pillow behind my head and offered to recline my chair but I told her I'd be drooling if I did that. Of course, after I stopped yammering I eventually reclined and just enjoyed the process.

We rushed out of there to meet up with the gals. A couple didn't show up that I expected but Ana and Nally showed up to fill in the ranks so that was fun. It's always fantastic to meet up with other readers. When you can talk the books you love there's no awkward silences. Of course with me around, there very rarely is, LOL. One of the gals flew in from VA. She was telling her hubby about it and he made fun of her so she booked her ticket and flew down as a big FU to him. She'd never flown by herself before. How awesome is that? I think we were at the lunch for 4 hours which totally flew by. I think the internet is an amazing thing, bringing people who would have never met together. Some of them are already making plans to go to a Sherrilyn Kenyon signing together in Aug. I need to see when she's coming to the Pac Northwest and get my own group together. Nope, I'm not jealous, LOL.

After we said our goodbyes I drove Lina and I home. She had a waitor who was very generous with the wine so she slept the whole time and I tried like hell to stay awake. I was too tired to even talk on the phone cause I tried that too, LOL. Shortly after we got home Nes and JK came in. They had a wonderful time, they went canoeing and wandering around and ended up at the beach. I'm sure she'll blog about it, eventually. JK wasn't feeling well so he went to bed early. I wanted to take Nes to the Brickyard so she could complete her eating tour of my favorite spots in Daytona but they were closed so we ended up at Sonic again, LOL. Hey, the girl knows what she likes. We then went to Walgreens so she could buy medicine for her hubby and stock up in lip balm. You think I'm addicted! I can't count how many she bought. Then again, they don't sell what she likes in Europe so I don't blame her.

Monday morning JK held strong and they ended up leaving. I was quite proud of Nes, she held the waterworks til the very end. I just told her today I see her more then I see most of my family. Nes and JK are both like family to me and I was so happy that they were able to come this way and to fall in love with FL and Lina got to meet my #1 fan. It's definitely a mutual admiration society. He and I see eye to eye! Oh he taught us something also. I will never look at the Waffle House the same. Yes, they had to go eat there after reading about it in my blogs. In Dutch there's a term called Swaffle. A swaffle is when a guy takes his semi-erect penis and slaps it back and forth on a woman's face. Swaffle anyone? That's why I love my #1 aka Mr Swaffle.

more adventures with my #1 and his wife...

2008-06-11T10:20:00.006-04:00

Lina had to work on Sat so she woke up early to drive home. I was out of it and didn't hear a thing. Apparently we were all out of it because she said there was a symphony of snores going on, LOL. All 3 of us were singing to the angels with our noses. If she had more time she could have been the conductor.

Eventually the rest of us got moving. Our hotel had a free breakfast so that was the motivating factor for finally moving. Jan Kees and I wandered over to get breakfast and he was so sweet getting food for his lady love. We then went back cause I wanted more juice (the walk was short otherwise forget about it LOL) and he wanted to make a waffle. He was very excited about the make your own waffle feature. I was just excited about the free food LOL.

Checkout was at 11am so 11am is when we were finally ready to leave. Since in the original itinerary they were driving to Tampa on this day they decided to shop instead. OK, Nes decided to shop instead. There was an outlet store close to the hotel, how perfect. On the way there I noticed a Ross and pulled in so they could experience the joy that is Ross. They didn't get anything but I found two dresses, LOL. Nes wanted to spend more money on name brand things so off to the outlet store we go.

We walked by White House Black Market and Nes loved the dress that was in the window. I said let's go in since I knew this was one of Lina's fave stores so they must have great clothes. The dress in the window was almost $200 so forget that but we went to the sale rack and I bought a $20 black dress and Nes bought that dress as well as 3 or 4 other dresses, LOL. She was on a high after her purchases. We spent a couple more hours wandering around. I didn't find anything else but they did.

After that I wanted to take them to Korean food. The problem was, we got to the mall via surface streets and coming out there were no markings for how to get to the freeway. We eventually made it to the Koreand restaurant, only one wrong turn on my part, I was pretty happy about that LOL. By that time Nes was just ready to pull over to a Popeye's, she was hungry and you don't want to see her when she is hungry. It's not a pretty sight. Of course she was happy we made it to the restaurant once she walked around and saw all of the food on the table.

I do what I always do to new to korean people. I tell them what I'm ordering and say they can order something different but I strongly recommend what I get, LOL. Nes wanted to try the bulgogi which is something else I said was good, just not as good as my kalbi but I didn't want to split, I knew what I wanted so her and JK got one of each. Our panchan (the side dishes) came out really quickly and we started eating. They both really enjoyed their meal at the Korean restaurant and would totally do Korean again.

The drive home was horrible. I was so tired. We were taking 2 cars so they were in theirs and I was in mine. That's why I don't go to Orlando too often. The drive there isn't a problem, it's the drive home, even if it's the next day, LOL. Oh, they wanted to stop at the mall in Daytona because it had a couple of stores they wanted to go in. I went in and waited and waited for them to shop and then realized I was very close to home and they know how to get there so just when I'm telling them I'm going home, they suggest I go home, ahhh, great minds, LOL.

Lina got home just before me. Literally! I pulled in right behind her. I really wanted a nap but knew the Dutch would be home soon but I did take a little 10 minute nap. I needed it, those shopping fools wore me out. After they got home we all headed to the pool. Lina and I were doing synchronized swimming. My floatie made spinning me really easy, LOL. and then we played with the self timer. The pics didn't turn out great but it was a lot of fun. After playing in the pool we were hungry again. We decided this night would be the fast food places Nes hadn't had a chance to try yet.

Off to Sonic we went. JK didn't really like the food but he really enjoyed the experience. Nes loved her chili cheese dog, which is what I always order. They also enjoyed the cherry limeade. After that we headed to Popeye's. Yup, back to back. Not a good call on our part, we were pretty full even though we tried to eat lightly at Sonic. Lina waited in the car at this point, LOL. The chicken took forever and while Nes did say it was better then KFC which is what I told her, it was anti-climatic for her since it had been built up for a year. Having a full stomach didn't help, LOL. This is JK and I playing with the cam while Nes smoked. Afterwards we rolled home and just chilled out. We were exhausted and full! What an action packed day!

The eagles have left...

2008-06-09T22:18:00.008-04:00

I know I've been slacking, I've been too tired to post much at the end of the night, plus, my mannions haven't been very active so that's less motivation for me to get on.

Orginally Nes and JK were going to leave Sat morning but they had so much fun (and with a lot of pressure from Lina, Nes and I JK caved, LOL) they stayed until this morning.

On Thursday they went to Cape Canaveral. I thought about going with them but it's not really my thing and was going just to spend time with them but then I found out it cost money and since I wasn't really interested in it I decided to skip it. That night when they came home Nes said I made the right call. She enjoyed the first couple of hours but then it went on and on. I'm sure she'll be blogging about it when she gets home, whew, bullet dodged!

Nes was exhausted when she got home but JK was exhilarated. He said it was a dream come true. Since the previous day was shopping it was JK's day. Since it was still daylight out I suggested we go down to the pool which they loved. I wanted to try out my floatie, LOL. The water was so warm. It was a lovely way to unwind. JK decided to head over to the hot tub. I told him we'd get in if he took his shorts off and the next thing you know he's waving them in the air, LOL. It was made even funnier because while he was trying to get them back on one of the kids came down to the pool! Luckily he stayed pool side. He just spent his time shooting us with is water gun. Obnoxious punk! Nes and I finally joined JK in the hot tub, that sucker was hot but relaxing.

Where was Lina you ask? Why she was making dinner, score! I'll leave that post for Nes since she took the pics but JK had never had chicken parmesan and that is one of Lina's specialties. Needless to say, dinner was a wonderful affair. Afterwards they ran to Target to buy electronic catchphrase. Lina and I were watching password last week and she thought that would be fun to play with them. We broke up the teams into Lina and Nes and JK and me. JK and I rocked. I am an excellent guesser after all. Then we decided to put Nes and JK together and they didn't do so well against team #1. They did have a disadvantage in the fact that they think in Dutch first and then English but the truth is, I'm just an excellent guesser, LOL. After all, I was the only undefeated person of the night. I do believe Nes was the only one to not win a game but let's not point that out to her, LOL.

On Friday they were doing Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Since Jordan will be here next week I had no interest. The plan was to meet at Citywalk for dinner and drinks after their day of playing. We had gotten a hotel thanks to a hookup I had for a great price so we didn't have to worry about driving home. You know me, I love to invite tons of people so Ana and her hubby Jack joined us as well as some of the gals from Karen's board, Marlene and her hubby Charles, Sue and her mom and luckily Nally was in town with her kids so she was able to join us too, yay!The dress totally makes me look preggo but the color is great! We had dinner at Margaritaville and then went to Rising Star to sing karaoke with the band. Too bad it was packed and we wouldn't be able to sing if at all until 1am. It's a cool place, you get to sing with a live band and backup singers. Now we know, get there early, LOL.

We headed over to the british pub hoping there was some karaoke going on but alas, there was not. So the ones of us who made the jaunt there just hung out and took pics of course!

Ana and I, look at my glorious tan!Nes and I, ok guess the tan is not so glorious, LOL. The boys, Jack and Jan Kees. The girls! Can you believe Nes did the bunny ears? I think I'm going to cut her out of the pic, LOL.

The eagles have landed...

2008-06-06T00:24:00.002-04:00

And you know with Jan Kees it's a party, LOL. Alright alright, Nes is the party, she's louder then I am! You know she's going to kick my ass when she reads this, well she can try and kick my ass, you know I would win, LOL. Before you get excited, I don't have pics to post. We've been lounging in the house so I haven't been taking any but Nes has some to share when she updates her blog and I'll make sure and take some pics tomorrow night.

Nes and JK got here Wed night, just a tad behind schedule. They were shopping at one of the biggest outlet stores in the state and called to let us know they were on their way at the time they were supposed to be here. Too bad that meant that they were going to be 4 hours late LOL. They went a little crazy with the shopping. JK loves the brand Clearance! He sees their stuff everywhere, LOL. The good news about them being late is I could watch Top Chef without feeling guilty, unfortunately it didn't take them a full 4 hours to get here so I didn't get to watch the whole show. Thank goodness this is Bravo and it repeats a million times. That meant I could give our company part of my attention, LOL.

Lina made dinner, natch. We went Mexican and had chips with queso dip, pico de gallo and guacamole, all home made by the wife and then we had a shrimp salad followed by a black bean quesadilla and topped with a cool whip fruit pastry concoction that I loved. Nes and JK thought they had died and gone to heaven and decided to eat in tonight also instead of going out to eat, LOL. JK was trying to get Lina to come live with them in Holland. He didn't ask me because he knows I'll just invite myself, no invite needed.

Nes brought her song chips so JK was once again able to hear the dulcet sound of my voice, he was oh so happy *G*. I'm sure my neighbors weren't so happy either considering they didn't get here til 10:30pm so who knows what time we started singing. With Nes and JK there is a lot of just sitting around and laughing. When we're together it feels like we just saw each other yesterday. There's no need to catch up. It really does feel like just the other day when I was spending my summer in Holland and it makes me want to go back. Then I remember how weak the dollar is.

About 2:30am we began to wind down for the night. The morning comes much too early.

Sale Alert!!!

2008-06-05T18:50:00.004-04:00

Nancy sent this to me and it is true because I just ordered 18 items (not that I needed more make-up but $1, hello!) and entered the code so basically it's free shipping. I'd hurry up if I were you.

Hello Everyone,
Just thought I'd pass along the good deal. Nordstrom is changing the logo on their makeup, so they're selling everything that says "e.l.f." for $1!!! (You still may have to pay shipping, but it's SO worth it!!)

ELF Website

The make-up line E.L.F. (Eyes, Lips, and Face) has been bought out by Nordstrom and will be re-packaged with the Nordstrom name on it. They are getting rid of all the make-up in ELF packaging. They are selling everything for $1. YES ONE DOLLAR. You do have to pay shipping, however, even with that charge it's cheaper than buying make-up anywhere else and it is fun to try things when you don't have to worry about the cost! They have powder, mascara, eye shadow, concealer, brushes, nail polish, you name it...

****Also, if you use the coupon code: CAROLINA you will get $7.50 off your first purchase of $15***

I got lip glosses (I can never have too many), bronzers, I'm still looking for the one I like and makeup brushes, yep, they were on sale too, woo hoo!

Just got back from Baskin & Robbins...

2008-06-03T23:54:00.002-04:00

and I'm a little sad. I love B&R! Or rather I should say, I loved B&R but I haven't been there in awhile because it's not exactly health food LOL. Not that I'm a health nut but I try not to go too tempt myself unnecessarily. B&R has had some changes since I've last been in. They no longer do the pre-packed pints, you have to get pre-packed quarts if you want pre-packed ice cream which I like to get because it's so much cheaper overall. They also do soft serve now. I had no idea. One of my favorite flavors used to be daiquiri ice well they now have lime daiquiri ice and it is too limey! I am so sad. Then I get home and have a scoop of chocolate chip and a scoop of chocolate chip mint and it's too sweet for me! Of course I know they didn't change their ice cream menu so it must be my palate that changed but that doesn't mean I'm any less bummed LOL.

Today Ana and little J came to hang by the pool. He loves the water so I've been wanting them to come play at the pool for awhile. I bought a pool floatie for myself awhile ago but hadn't used it yet so thought today would be perfect. Too bad little J wanted to use it the whole time. Yes, I let the 2 year old use the floatie but I didn't want to, LOL. We also went to the UBS and I picked up Lover Enshrined. No, it wasn't used but she sells new books too at a discount. Gotta love that. I picked up Blood Noir from her for less then Nancy paid with her employee discount. I also took in a box of my TBRs. I decided I hadn't read them yet and I didn't see myself reading them in the not too distant future, especially since I'll be perusing Linda's library that I should take them in instead of lugging them around. The woman who runs the store has made comments about bringing books in, that's how they survive. I got $80 in credit. I don't see myself using most of it before I leave if at all, guess I'll be giving it to Jenna, LOL. She's the one who introduced me to that store to begin with. The main reason I've been going lately was to find books for Nes. There's not a lot out there I can think of I want.

Tomorrow night Nes and JK arrive. You know that that means don't you? Time to clean, LOL.

I'm getting too old for this...

2008-06-01T23:59:00.003-04:00

Lina and I went out to see the boys aka Disposable Heroes Sat night. We hadn't seen them in awhile and it's true, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Plus, the bar at Frank's Front Row where they normally play is too smoky for us so we decided to wait til they played the Mai Tai bar before we went to see them again. You know I'm always tickled when they wave to me when I come in. It's about the little things. Kenny the lead singer, I realized I didn't have a pic with him. And we did a roommate sandwich with Jeff, the drummer.

I wasn't drinking. I had an icy mai tai because it was so flippin hot and it was only $4 but it gave me a tummy ache, rum does that to me so I just had water the rest of the night. Yet I still woke up feeling like I had a hangover. The boys were going to Frank's after their show to see another band so we joined them (so much for avoiding the smoke) after we detoured to IHOP, we were hungry! Anyway, I digress. Spending time in a smoky bar combined with getting home at close to 3:30am and waking up at 9am made me feel like I'd spent the night drinking. Imagine how Lina felt who actually was drinking and had to be at work by 9am? She made an SOS call for some red bull which took me about 4 hours to do. I was awake but not functional. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't so I just laid in bed playing with my photoshop, something brainless.

After I took Lina her red bull I was finally able to get some more sleep and then felt somewhat human and by 5pm was ready to leave my room. So much for me having a productive day. I still have a few more days before Nes gets here. The cleaning can wait. I need more sleep!

Random bits...

2008-05-30T01:08:00.002-04:00

Turns out flying on the red eye is key. I slept all the way on both legs even though I requested window seats and didn't get them for any of the legs of my journey. Plus now that my body clock adjusted to west coast time I've been sleeping in until 9:30 - 10am and loving it! Sure I've been getting to bed late but before I went west it didn't matter what time I went to bed I'd still wake up around 8am.

I don't know if you've heard but American airline will now be charging for the first piece of checked luggage. I wasn't happy about not being able to bring a 2nd piece without paying and now they want to charge for the first piece! I would rather have it tacked on to the hundred dollar taxes I pay for that ticket! Now that I know the extra cost I won't be flying American if I can help it. To charge for checked luggage is crazy and you know that just means people who were bringing on 2 carry ons will now bring 3!

Now that I'm moving to Portland I have started surfing the Portland food blogs. There are so many and I am loving it. I found out from one that they are opening a Super H Mart in a couple of weeks outside of Portland. Insert choir of angels here.

Nes wants to go to Universal next week and I looked up and they have a karaoke bar there. Not just a karaoke bar but one where you sing with a live band and back up singers! Both of us will be practicing this weekend. I have experience with a band so Nes will need some more practice then I. Lina is already planning on drinking a lot of alcohol that night.

Have you been following Top Chef? I was ticked that Dale got voted off. Sure, he could be an ass but that's cause he couldn't stand Lisa. When he works with people he respects he's kick ass. Lisa is so sour when she's standing there I can't believe they don't kick her out for that. I read Chef Tom's blog about that ep, he wasn't the judge that night and you can totally tell, if he would have been there, Lisa would have been the one gone. Which sucks even more!

I'm excited about Richard who was my pick from day 1 (he's an Atlanta chef so I was rooting for him), Stephanie and Atonia who I didn't notice early on but she's come on strong. I would be happy with any of them because they all rock but I'm rooting for Richard still even though everyone wants a female winner. I hope Lisa is the first to go next week.

Ohhh Lost was so good. Now the long wait begins...