Friday, June 29, 2007

Live Strong!!

Video: Inspiration - LIVESTRONG. My favorite Cycling video of all time. Lyrics to the song are posted at the end of this blog entry.

After TWENY NINE days straight of work I AM FINALLY ON VACATION!!!



It has been a LONG month. I feel like I have been on auto-pilot at home forever. All I can think about is what I still have to do at work and I am putting all of my energy into completing everything. 14+ hour days for a month will take all the energy out of you. I feel completely braindead. *lol*



My Exec’s took me for lunch yesterday to thank me for not sleeping for the past 29 days *lol* There were 12 of us there and the bill came to $587.61 BEFORE tip!! Yea, it was a REALLY good lunch *grinz* I had a braised shank of Lamb with a crazy mushroom risotto, steamed green beans and this amazing chocolate cup full of fruit and fresh cream thing for desert. It was soooooooooo good!!! 2 hour “power lunches” on the corporate credit card are HIGHLY recommended *lol* The 4 bottles of wine we polished off during our 2 hour lunch made the rest of the day really entertaining too *lmao*


Video: Tour de France Highlights. Its Awesome.


As you can see, I’ve gone a little Tour crazy on my page. I am SOOOOOOO freekin pumped for July 7th. Talking with some of this years Tour Riders on Facebook and MSN Messenger, they all seem to think that Alejandro Valverde is gonna be the winner. My money is still on Oscar Pereiro though. We’ll see how it all rolls out.


Video: Discovery Team. They are the greatest.


Video: Amazing mountain climb. Armstrong Falls. Ulrich demonstrates class.


Lance and I are heading to the lake for this Canada Day long weekend. We are packed, the coolers are ready…I wanna GOOOOOOOOO but I gotta wait till Lance gets home from work (yea, he had to work today…neener neener neener *lol*) I don’t have to be back at work until Wednesday of next week so I think we are planning to stay until Tuesday, but it all depends on the weather.



Things in my exhausted world should start slowing down soon. I hope ya’ll have a GREAT weekend!!



Wideawake – Maybe Tonight, Maybe Tomorrow



I heard the news today.

It came out of nowhere.

I wish I could run away,

but where would I go?

Is this my destiny?

Something so unfair...

What will become of me?

God only knows.



And they say the road to heaven might lead us back through hell.

Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow,

we will win this fight and bury this sorrow.

We're so alive, still holding on, not ready to die,

so we LIVESTRONG.



My pride is left for dead,

as my world gets shaken.

The thoughts inside my head

are so hard to control.

I am staring down the unknown,

but one thing is certain.

You could break my body,

but you will never break my soul.



And they say the road to heaven might leads us back through hell,

but we're holding on for more than stories to tell.

Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow,

we will win this fight and bury this sorrow.

We're so alive, still holding on, not ready to die,

so we LIVESTRONG.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Moon Dance

Michael Buble - Moondance.

Howdy Everyone
Things in my little world have been INSANE.

I’ve worked 23 days in a row now. I am completely mentally exhausted. The only plus is that I got another raise and I am making double time for all the overtime I am putting in. That money is being spent faster than I can make it *lol*

Lance and I have done a lot around the house so to add to the mental exhaustion we can add physically exhausted too *lol*. We’ve decorated, landscaped, painted, bought appliances, changed the lighting in most of the rooms, found “accessories” (I love IKEA!!!! *lol*) and have completely made our house our HOME. I am also still organizing our junk for a Garage sale. Lance is annoyed because he wants his garage back *lol*

We’ve spent the nights in front of the fire in our back yard surrounded by friends and family. We had one amazing night outside *weg* and that’s all the detail I’m gonna share, but the video above should give you a better idea *grinz*

I’ve recently found a new addiction too. Facebook. Good gawd…I’m a total Facebook addict. I’ve connected with people I forgot I even knew courtesy of that website. We had a BBQ/Fire Pit last Friday night and invited some of my “Facebook Friends” over and we had a BLAST!!! Everyone brought their photo albums and we sat around getting wasted and laughing our butts off at the old memories…we even did our LypSync version of “Walk Like an Egyptian”, much to the neighbors amusement *lol*…My best friend from PLAYSCHOOL showed up. The water works weren’t far behind.

After I lost My Boyz, I shut out the remaining friends we had all shared. I REFUSED to get close to anyone remaining to me. I am learning how truly stupid that was. I am grateful to my friends for their patience and for their ability to understand that I am a moody bitch and love me dearly anyway *lol*

I am gearing up for July 7th. The Tour de France starts on the 7th and continues until July 23rd. anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE that bike race. I worship at the throne of Lance Armstrong and I am heartbroken at the plague of doping scandals that have rocked the sport. I’ve even managed to become “friends” with some of the bigger names in the sport through Facebook. I’ve been in conversations with Jan Ulrich, Ivan Basso, Yaroslav Popovich & Christophe Moreau now for almost a month. I am getting to know the men behind the bikes on a more personal level and it is really quite intriguing. My biggest dream is to spend the month of July in France and follow every stage of the Tour. One day…I wonder how Lance would feel about that as a honey moon. *lol*

My health is still status quo. I am taking 2 oxycontin a day now to enable me to work the 12+ hours a day that is required of me at the moment. I can’t drive a car, walk a straight line, or remember with any clarity things that happened last week, but HEY! I can sit up straight for more than an hour at a time *lol* Lance and I are still in separate bedrooms *sighs* I still can’t sleep lying down flat so I have to be in the spare bedroom because it has a headboard that I can prop pillows up against so I can lean at a 45 degree angle. It REALLY sucks. The animals have drawn sides. Pandora sleeps with me, Ringo sleeps with Lance. On the bright side, I had an X-ray and it shows that the clots are clearing somewhat and that they aren’t moving. My INR level has somewhat stabilized at a whopping 2.2 so I only have to go get my blood tested every 5 days now. The Warfarin is working and the oxycontin keeps me functioning. I cannot wait for this to be over.

I started swimming again too. I missed it, alot more than I thought I would. I am swimming 3 nights a week again and my body feels happier. I cant go flat out like I used to before these stupid blood clots, but it still feels great to MOVE and just float along.

I am reconnecting with my life and while at times I miss being online a lot, I am ultimately happy with the choices I am making. I hope you are all doing well. I miss you guys.
*hugs*

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Overtime Insanity

It's been awhile since I blogged much of anything.
Ever since I got promoted I've been working SO freekin much I dont have time to do anything but work and take care of the house.

Since Friday I've managed to put in 39 hours of Over Time. The powers that be decided on FRIDAY that they wanted a complete restructure for June 17th. Well. The powers that be are bloomin braindead if they think that a re-org of 300+ people can happen in 5 business days. Needless to say, I am over half way there. Everyone has been re-org'd and a new financial forecast has been presented, along with my time statment of 39 double time hours *smiles sweetly*

In a way its a good thing working this much. I was able to replace my shreiking banshee of a dryer with a new washer/dryer front load set. The double time paid for them. They get delivered tommorrow and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

*sighs* ya know you are officially an adult when you get excited about appliances *lmao*

We are hosting our first "multi" family dinner on thursday night. Lance's local sister and boyfriend are going to meet my mom & step dad for the first time. It should be interesting.

Otherwise, it's situation normal around here. I am still neurotically checking my flower beds for ANY sign of blooms...and so far they are ALL doing well!!! *looks all proud and quite shocked*

I hope ya'll are doin well.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

A Few More New Authors

I’ve continued on my “search and find” mission for new Author’s to read and I’ve found a few gems…and a few not so memorable.

Author: Barbara Colley – Charlotte La Rue series. There are six books in this ongoing series. They are set in New Orleans, the garden district. The characters in the books are well developed. I would recommend reading this series in order as the plots pick up where the last book left off and if you haven’t read that book yet, you won’t have a clue what is going on, which makes for a painful read.
My Personal Rating: ***
List of books available: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/barbara-colley/

Author: Kate Collins – Flower Shop Mysteries. There are six books in this ongoing series. The plots and characters remind me a lot of Janet Evanovich and her character Stephanie Plum. The characters and plots are well developed and get themselves into all sorts of hysterical chaos. The books are faced paced and laugh out loud funny. Reading them in order isn’t totally necessary, but it does help for the steamy character developments.
My Personal Rating: ****
List of books available: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/kate-collins/

Author: Anne George – Southern Sisters series. There are 8 books in this ongoing series. They are set in the south and they rotate around 2 very odd sisters. The characters in the books are well developed and you do not need to read the books in exact order, which helps when trying to secure them from a library. Sometimes they dawdle and get a little pedantic, but over all they are fun reads.
My Personal Rating: ***
List of books available: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/anne-george/

Author: Dorothy Cannel – Ellie Haskell series. There are 12 books in this series and I read 8 of them. I simply couldn’t read another sniveling driveling annoying word that the characters said. I am personally proud that I read 8 of them. I was waiting for other books that I had on hold to come in and they were the only thing I had to read. I HATED these books. The characters have no depth. In true British form they seem to have no emotions either. The story lines are weak and they seem to go absolutely no where until the last 15 pages of the book. If you really want to read these books, save yourself some time and read the first 2 chapters and the last 2 chapters. The rest of the books are filled with babble that has absolutely no meaning to anything other than the author had a word count to hit per book in order to be published.
My personal rating: 0 *’s
List of books available: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/dorothy-cannell/

Author: Sophie Kinsella – Shopaholic series. I have read all 5 books in this ongoing series. I just finished Shopaholic & Baby. I was on the waiting list for it from the library for almost 5 months. This author is a gift. At one point while reading her latest book I was laughing so hard I was crying. Lance has officially banned me from reading these at night. *lol* The books are fast paced, action packed, and completely hysterical. Sophie Kinsella also has 3 other novels and though they aren’t a series, they are must reads too. I would recommend reading the shopaholic series in order because the plot picks up where the last book left off and then the characters are off and running.
My Personal Rating: ****
List of books available: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/sophie-kinsella/

I am now reading the Aunt Dimity series written by Nancy Atherton and I have a series on request from the library from Sparkle Hayter. I've read 29 books in just over 2 months, that's not too bad *lol* I’ll keep ya’ll posted.
Have fun reading!

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

A Gift of Thistle

Click Play and then read below. This is Beautiful.

The best kind of friend


Is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,


Never say a word, and then walk away


Feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.



It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it,


But it's also true that we don't know


What we've been missing until it arrives.



Giving someone all your love


Is never an assurance that they'll love you back!


Don't expect love in return;


Just wait for it to grow in their heart


But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.


It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone,


An hour to like someone,


And a day to love someone,


But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.



Don't go for looks; they can deceive.


Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.


Go for someone who makes you smile


Because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.


Find the one that makes your heart smile.



May you have


Enough happiness to make you sweet,


Enough trials to make you strong,


Enough sorrow to keep you human,


Enough hope to make you happy.



Always put yourself in others' shoes.


If you feel that it hurts you,


It probably hurts the other person, too



The happiest of people


Don't necessarily have the best of everything;


They just make the most of everything that comes along their way.



Happiness lies for those who cry,


Those who hurt, those who have searched,


And those who have tried,


For only they can appreciate the importance of people


Who have touched their lives.



When you were born, you were crying


And everyone around you was smiling.


Live your life so that when you die,


You're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.



I am writing this message


Because you mean something to me,


Because you have touched my life in one way or another,


Because you make me smile when I really need it,


Because you make me see the brighter side of things


When I am really down,


Because I want to let you know


That I appreciate your friendship.



myspace layouts, myspace codes, glitter graphics

Monday, June 4, 2007

Updates on My Life

Things in my little world have been crazy. Lance and I are settling into being home owners with all the joys *insert sarcasm* that go along with it.

This weekend we woke up early on Saturday morning to clean the house and do the yard work before it got too hot…yea…too hot…its only June and we are already in 30’C temperatures…someone kill me…that’s about 86’F for my US pals who cant be on a normal temperature scale like the rest of the world …I dunno if I can handle 3 more months of this. I am already longing for winter *lol*

Anyway…as I was saying…we woke up early and decided to do the yard work – mow the grass, edge trim, weed whack, fertilize, weed the flower beds, water the flower beds…all that lovely stuff…and then we decided to clean the house and do laundry.

It was as I started to do laundry that I came to an important realization. My dryer is possessed. I swear to god. It is possessed. The stupid machine suddenly hates me. Whenever I put a load in the dryer it squeaks so badly and vibrates so roughly that it sounds like it’s trying to ram through the wall. Whenever Lance puts a load in the dryer it is calm and happy until I go anywhere near it and then it goes off its rockers and starts to scream again.

Just a tip…when you call an appliance repair man and ask them if dryers can become possessed expect to get laughed at and hung up on. *sighs* I called a different repair place and explained to them what the dryer was doing and the noises it was making – being very careful not to make any reference to it being possessed – and the repair guy said it sounded like a broken drum bearing or something…anyway, this guy figures it’ll probably cost more to fix than if we just replaced the dryer so the hunt is on this week for a new appliance. Why couldn’t the stupid thing break 2 months ago when it would’ve been someone else’s expensive problem?!!? *sighs*

Lance and I decided to have friends over for a BBQ and fire pit on Saturday night so we went out and finally replaced the cushions for our patio deck furniture and bought a new umbrella (the old one got snapped in half during a wind storm…it was lovely *sighs*)

After going to SIX different places for matching patio chair cushions we FINALLY found them. We rushed home and got our backyard all set up and had friends over and drank and BBQ’d and sat outside in the gorgeous 33’C weather in front of a ginormous fire that Lance (aka Paul Bunyan the Mountain Man) created…yea, I know it’s kind of ironic, its 30’C and we have a bon fire…everyone enjoyed themselves though. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to a driving range. Yes…GOLF. Lance’s Golf Staff Texas Scramble Party thing at his work is coming up soon and he really wants to play in it and he really wants me to play with him because the person he wants to play with (Rob) is bringing his girlfriend (Nicole) and she’ll only come if I go... So…I learned something on Sunday. I learned that I CANNOT hit a bloody golf ball. It really wasn’t for lack of trying. I even busted out the Happy Gilmore moves. I couldn’t hit the stupid freekin ball of the top of the little stick thing. Lance laughed his ass off…hell, everyone at the driving range laughed their asses off. I was having flash back visions of me trying to learn how to roller blade and ice skate and then I finally gave up and started using the golf club like a baseball and HOLY BIBLE! That ball FLEW!!! *lmao*

oO(if any of you missed the truly hysterical though thoroughly embarrassing story of me trying to learn how to skate on roller blades and ice skates, click September 2006 on the right hand side and look for the entry called "Skating Anyone?" )

After the humbling, embarrassing, and outright ridiculous 2 hours at the golf range I decided that Lance and I should stop at Home Depot and get some paint for the fence, trim and decks of our house - *smirks* Just a tip Men…NEVER laugh at your woman, she WILL get EVEN!!!! *smiles sweetly*

The fence, trim and decks were in DESPERATE need of paint. We came home, changed into ratty clothes and proceeded to spend the rest of the day painting our house. It was too damn hot out to even pretend we were happy. We sniped at each other all afternoon until I made the decision that only one of us can be on one side of the house at a time *lol* After 8 hours and too many arguments to consider we finished and the house looks AMAZING now. It is all fresh and clean. I cannot believe how much work owning a home is. I really want to paint the guest bedroom but Lance hates the color I want…we are still negotiating *smirks* Next weekend we are going camping at the lake just so we can get away from this house and do nothing. If I am at home I KNOW I will find something else to fix up *lol*

I’ve decided that I am having a garage sale this summer. Lance and I have so many duplicates of stuff. We each had a full house full of things when we moved in together and most of the duplicate crap was just put back into boxes and has lived in storage in various parts of our house for almost 2 years now. Enough is enough. So as I am not able to do laundry because my dryer screeches like that thing from the Grudge every time I go near it, I am starting to go through all the crap in storage and moving what I want to sell into the garage. Lance is not so thrilled with my latest adventure. I told him to kindly shut up or I would sell his Golf clubs *lol*

My health is the same as it was the last time I updated ya’ll. The clots are still in my lungs. The pain meds are still being offered though I am not taking them. I am reliant upon an herbal tea that I got from my Chinese herbalist for pain management. It SMELLS so freekin funky and you have to boil it in 16 cups of water until it reduces to 8 cups and then you strain the …ick…and continue boiling until it gets down to 4 cups and then you can drink it and you have to drink it ALL in 1 hour…really, the preparation has too many rules, and I don’t follow them all to the letter, but it seems to be working. Please don’t ask me what is in the tea. I lost my herbalist when he started talking about tree barks *lol* he was just tossing random bits of dried brown clumps into a bag and I was just following him around nodding like I had a clue what he was talking about *lol*

Life is pretty good. It’s totally crazy but it’s good.
I’ve gotta rock on outta here, Lance is dragging me back to the driving range tonight…oh joy oh bliss…what did I ever do to deserve this?! *lol*
Hope ya’ll are doing good!!!
Ciao

Friday, June 1, 2007

Two Years

wow...Today is TWO years for Lance and I.

What romantic gesture of love did I give him you wonder? ahh yes....the first mortgage payment that came out today...the first payment of 40 years worth has been made *lolol*

What romantic gesture of love did he give me you wonder? ahhh yes...the 40 year commitment and the excuse that he is still not ready to get married *lolol*

He did buy me Josh Groban tickets earlier in the week- he's coming in August!!! wheee!!

I did buy him his next season of hockey earlier in the week - he's not even finished playing the playoffs in this season yet *lol*

I dunno...the whole love gesture spoil each other thing kinda loses something when the money is YOURS rather than "his" or "mine"...I can check the bank account and see what he bought and it kills the suprise *lol*

I cant believe that it has been over TWO years that we have been together (if you count from our first date its been 2 years and 2 months). If someone wouldve told me on the day he picked me up for our first date that he would be IT for me, I wouldnt of believed them.

We have made so many memories and we have so many plans. I am truly looking forward to spending my life with this man. I am thankful that he loves me as madly as I do him.
Happy Anniversary Baby