Chillin' In the Keys

We are in Key Largo, Florida tonight. We arrived yesterday in Miami via the big bird, rental a really ugly car and took our time cruising southbound towards the Keys... stopped at some dive seafood place on Highway 1 and ate awesome raw oysters, peel-n-eat shrimp, lobster bisque soup and some of the best sweet tea ever! Made it to Tavanier, checked into our island paradise hotel on the sea in the early afternoon and then spent the rest of the day and evening chilling with old and new friends by the pool and the bay. Watched the most beautiful sky at sunset EVER... took lots of pics of the sunset- will post them when we get back. Rehearsal dinner was tonight on Islamorada island complete with yummy key lime pie and tomorrow is the beach casual wedding between the palms here behind the hotel on the bay... gotta go get another drink... until the next post...

Huh??!!?

I am deeply saddened today after receiving the news last night that a couple of my dearest friends are divorcing…. I arrived home to find a letter in the mailbox written by the wife informing me that they were parting ways… So sad! You see this is not just another failed marriage of a couple of “young folks” in their 20’s or 30’s. This special couple was an “older couple” who both have lifelong successful careers, had previous successful marriages, have grown children, grand children, etc., etc. The list of accomplishments goes on and on… they married just 7 years ago… they were so in love… or so it seemed… I got to know them at our Church in Atlanta… I formed a special bond with them… and so reading that letter last night just crushed me. Hubby was out of town last night so I had no one to vent to… besides, he never really got to know them in these past few short years. I have a million thoughts passing through my mind today and I have not yet out how to simply “process” this turn of events.
I suppose I can ponder the situation while we are on our last short vacation of this year… we leave tomorrow for Key Largo… hopefully, this wedding and reunion with old friends will take my mind of it. This too shall pass…

Early Bird Gets The Vote?

I could not believe my eyes this morning at 5:15am when the little old white haired lady showed up at the park where we were getting ready to start boot camp… she was there to get in line TO VOTE. Huh???!!! At 5:15am? Come on! Seriously! Who in their right mind would show up just short of two hours before they open the early polls (and in 35 degree temps no less) to wait to vote? Call me crazy but that is just a tad on the kooky side of thinking… By the time we finished our workout the parking lot was PACKED with vehicles… folks practically running to get into line! I am really start to worry that Election Day will be one huge headache for those of us who did not have the opportunity to early vote… All I can do is just hope that the masses get all voted up before November 4th so the remaining few of us won’t be waiting for hours on the big day… Fingers crossed!

Meet Joe the Plumber

Even the most liberal leftie has to laugh at this political cartoon! Come on, people! It IS funny!!! Smile, the political season is almost over...;-D

Made It Thru!

I am happy to report that I made it through my medical procedure this morning without dying of starvation up to it... Hubby took me for a scrumptious cajun seafood lunch since I went to bed last night talking about my craving for seafood. I must have fell asleep today under the spell of anesthesia while telling the doctor that I was leading the Sprints workout tomorrow morning at Boot Camp... because when I woke up he made I sure I knew that he understood how important it was for me to be at Boot Camp tomorrow to lead!
And also how I made sure he know how much those 5:30am campers were depending on me! TOO Funny!
So Hubby and I spent today together... taking it easy... and I will definitely be at Boot Camp tomorrow...

Life In The Fasting Lane...

I finally made it back from my work trip to Albuquerque late Friday night…only after my flight was delayed twice for a total of three hours getting me home well after 10pm vs. the 6pm I should have been home. And that was hardly enough time to get home and de-stress from my nine hour ordeal between both airports! That flight back was a bit hairy too… Atlanta had so much fog and was so overcast that the visibility factor was troubling. I was sweating the entire time the pilot had the landing gear down and the plane seemed so close to the ground… yet, I could not anything but clouds from my window! And then all of a sudden we were below the cloud cover and practically hitting the runway almost instantly… very scary experience!
On Saturday we made our way to my old alma mater Georgia Tech to meet up with some old college friends at a tailgate and then on to the Homecoming game.

We enjoyed catching up with some folks I have not seen in a long time, ate some really good food and then watched the Jackets unfortunately get beat by the Cavaliers. It was so great to see campus again and the weather was perfect! And then to end a great day, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a nice restaurant on the way home.
Well, today has been a totally different experience for me all the way around… today is the first day EVER in my life that I have not eaten a single bite of solid food. I am scheduled for a medical procedure tomorrow that requires me not to eat at all today… and I swear I am dying of starvation! Hubby busted me watching shows on the Food Network today and after he promised to fast WITH ME all day today, I busted him eating peanut butter crackers in the early afternoon! We had coffee for breakfast, Starbucks drinks at the grocery store, broth for lunch, soda and Gatorade all day long and the prescription drinks for supper tonight. The broth seriously tasted like liquid sodium… and I think I hit the starvation wall of terror around 5pm… the headache, the dizziness and gnawing insides have driven me mad all evening… and then the sick feeling in my gut from drinking all that nasty medical solution has not helped matters… And I am just now 25 hours into the no-food zone… and the saddest part is that I will not eat for another 14 hours!! I have moved around slowly all day trying not to generate much energy for fear of getting hungry too soon. I did help Hubby in the yard some to get my mind off the food factor. I just hope I can fall asleep tonight… I am sure I will feel even worse in the morning when I get up… the dizzy headaches has to be the worse part of all! Hubby is promising a wonderful lunch out after this is all over… that has to be my only inspiration at this point… This too shall pass…

The Sign Of The Times

Someone sent me this photo on email yesterday and I think it sums up how most of us "righties" feel these days... Could it possibly be the sign of the times?

The Dry South West

I flew into Albuquerque for work yesterday and will leave tomorrow to go home. I really love coming out here to visit. I was here in July and now I am here in October and will be back in December the weekend before Christmas. The best part about this part of the country is the colder yet drier climate. My hair has never been straighter! The downer about it is the affects of the dry air on me... my hands and lips are so dry and chapped. I already broke three finger nails and do not get me started about the inside of my nostrils! Let's just say that lotion must be packed as well as chapstick. I forgot a nail file... so shaping up those jagged nails is out of the question. And the static electricity is unbelievalbe... especially if you are wearing a fleece jacket! All in all, I really do love it... but, with any love comes suffering I suppose.

Coyote Hunting Anyone?

I blogged a while back about doing some coyote hunting here in our neighborhood... all the while the same type animal is torturing the good folks back home... well one bully met his match. My brother shot this guy night before last around the midnight hour in their yard after running him off twice already before that in the same night!
Yikes!

Now That Is Funny!

Are The Lefties Now Promoting Bear Hunting?

Now here an interesting headline I came across this morning on Yahoo! "Dead Bear Covered With Obama Signs Found at School"... Is this possibly an interesting take on a possible scary Halloween twist? Maybe?
My question is: are they Obama supporters or not? I mean first of all, most left wing folks on the Obama side don't have it in them to a) operate a gun or b) shoot a bear... but, I would agree that they DO have the audacity to drag a bear carcass onto a school campus and display it to the world with their false idol's campaign signs draped on it as a promotion of their party!!! Crazy things do tend to happen less than two weeks before the election... I am just waiting to see what else the lefties have up their sleeve between now and November 4th...

Austin's First Deer

My 9-year old nephew, Austin, bagged his first deer this past weekend which was Opening Weekend for gun season. What a great achievement for our young hunter in the family! Congrats, Austin!

Our Camping Trip

Every one of our weekends for the past several weekends and every weekend for the next few weekends are reserved and scheduled for some activity or trip… again, busy little bees we are (see Blog from October 14)… so Hubby and I decided to take a little camping trip up to north Georgia this weekend- just the two of us. We got up early Saturday morning, packed up the SUV with camping gear, the hotdogs, the s’mores fixings and the dog and took off for a scenic trip through the beautiful autumn landscape. The traffic up was pretty heavy but the views were wonderful. When we finally found our campground near Hiawassee, the gate was locked with a big Closed sign on it! We couldn’t believe it! The guidebook said they were open until late October… Grudgingly, we referenced our tent camping guidebook and took off east bound toward the town of Clayton. We finally found the campground (which was way down about 5 miles of eerie one-lane dirt roads… I kept whistling the Deliverance tune the entire way)… and lucked up and snagged a nice lot for our camp… and just in the nick of time because a bunch of folks came through after us looking for a place and all were full!





We set up camp as the temperature steadily dropped… we cooked hotdogs on my “telescoping weenie roasters” as Hubby kept calling them and enjoyed the dogs with chili that Hubby found at the store up the road.


When we finally retired to the tent we realized that we had packed two mummy sleeping bags so resorted to sleeping in our own bags each on top of the air mattress… Sampson slept on a makeshift doggie bed on the floor next to us… Well, around midnight we woke up to Sampson pacing the floor at the foot of the air mattress by the front door… now keep in mind that it is freezing in the tent (even though I am warm and snug as a bug in my Mtn Hardware mummy bag)…so Hubby gets up and gets dressed to take him out to do his business… Hubby opens the door (mind you it feels frigid with the door zipped open) and calls for the dog. And do you know what the dog does? He runs up onto our bed and jumps on top of Hubby’s sleeping bag! I think we were both in shock! He just lay down and has the look that says I am staying right here and you cannot make me go outside! So we would up spending the next 10 minutes trying to get Sampson off the bag and maneuvered onto his sheet in between us in our bags and him in the middle… Hubby even covers him with his hooded sweatshirt and his fleece jacket. Well, needless to say, the next 8 hours is spent with me waking up every hour or so with Sampson’s butt in my face or Sampson staring at me or Sampson’s head laying on me or Sampson’s paw on my face! And in between the dogs antics and his shivering and Hubby’s going outside to pee, I could not sleep to save my life! My nose froze all night long too… and being constricted into a cocoon position in that mummy bag did not help matters either… By the time we got up around 8am it was so darn cold in that tent! Yet, we get up and dressed (in layers) and proceed to cook some of the best camp bacon and omelets I have ever eaten… Waffle House has nothing on a Coleman stove and me!

When we start packing up, I notice a strange brown nut on the ground just under the tent footprint… and it is what I thought it was- a buckeye! So I start looking in the leaves and such around our campsite and find a bunch more! We slept under a buckeye tree- how cool!

When we finally got into the truck after packing it all up, the temperature said that it was 37 degrees outside! Yikes, no wonder Sampson shivered all night… poor doggy…

More Challenges With Dementia

For some reason my Grandmother has not been having a very good week this week and I for the life of me do not know how to help her. Her level of confusion seems to be at a really high level, therefore, she keeps doing crazy things that she would not normally do... For instance, my Mom spent the day with her yesterday. She took her to the dentist and when asked about her pains she would answer regarding her feet. The whole disassociation issue is another troublesome part of her life too- the disassociation coupled with her severe case of glaucoma is a recipe for diaster! Her limited vocabulary does not help matters either. Basically, she cannot see, she cannot talk well and she mixes up everything! In one conversation she will stammer through an explanation trying to tell you that her stomach hurts and later on you find out (only by seeing it with your own eyes) that she actually has a form of diaper rash! Her losing her shoes might actually mean that she cannot find the cordless phone... and so on... and her limited vocabulary makes conversation with her so darn challenging! I like to refer to it as "Memaw ebonics"... I have actually gotten pretty good about deciphering what she is trying to say over these past few months but, she gets so frustrated and lashes out about her inability to put a sentence together and I just keep playing the neverending guessing game until I finally figure out what she is talking about. Last night was a really bad night for her... I was on the phone with the assisted living staff several times before I went to bed being enlightened as to how she has destroyed her apartment and how everything is all over the floor and furniture. She supposedly keeps looking for something, but when asked what she is looking for, she does not know. I guess all I can do is pray that she gets through this current "cycle"... and moves on to the next one...

Dropping Fuel Prices

One thing I forgot to write about in my post yesterday was the dropping costs of gas this week... on my trip to Villa Rica yesterday I passed a QT with gas for $2.97 per gallon! I would have stopped and taken a photo of the sign, but I was very, very late for my meeting. In the meantime, Hubby said he saw a gas station off I-20 Eastbound today on his way back from Alabama with gas for $2.85 per gallon! How wild is it that just two weeks ago I filled up my ride with $4.39 per gallon gas????

Busy Little Bees...

Let me apologize for not posting since last Friday… we are just so darn busy! Busy, busy little bees we are…
We made the trip home this past weekend to celebrate my Mom’s 60th birthday. The cookout we had for her was fun and we had a great time seeing family and friends. We drove back Sunday morning and enjoyed a lazy day hanging around the house. When I finally finished preparations for the work week, I jumped into the shower only to discover that we had no hot water! Hubby finally went to the water heater and discovered a leak… along with several inches of water in the crawlspace… So off to work we go on Monday with no showers. Hubby managed to line up the same guy that installed our HVAC system, but their schedule had them only committed to replace the water heater by Wednesday morning… and with Hubby going out of town this morning, leaving me here alone with NO hot water was NOT going to work! I was really bummed out about the whole situation when I came home last night, but Hubby turned those sad thoughts around when I got home and discovered him replacing the unit himself! God Bless my having such a Handy-man Hubby! He said that we were saving loads of money by replacing the unit ourselves but, he has no idea how much I appreciate having the hot water so soon! The most frustrating part of this whole deal is that we just had to pay several hundred dollars a couple of weeks ago to have one of the sink drain pipes unclogged. It just seems that one thing after another keeps having to be replaced or repaired week after week… very frustrating!
Anyhoo, today I attended a pre-bid conference for an upcoming project that our company is going to bid next month. It was almost a day of déjà-vu for me because the project is in Villa Rica and just so happens to be across the railroad tracks from the manufacturing plant that I built with my previous employer back in 2002. The trip out to Villa Rica from our home was the same drive I drove everyday for an entire year…. Very odd to drive it over 6 years later and see all the changes along the way. After going to the conference and seeing all those other 18 contractors there… (Yes, 18!) It just reminded me again how times are tough right now and any project less than $40 million brings out every contractor under the sun! I really do not think our price will be competitive at all but, we are still going to bid it… at least we trying I suppose.
My little project in Texas is about to get off the ground running the last week of this month so I will be traveling again next week back to Albuquerque. I am actually a little excited about the trip since Albuquerque is such a nice city and the weather there is wonderful this time of the year. We shall see…

My First Gig

This morning I led the 5:30am boot camp class as the lead instructor for the first time EVER. I had it all mapped out in my head... and it was perfect...in my head... Once the workout started- (which was my favorite- Sprints!!) time just FLEW by... It is a very cardio intensive workout to say the least... but, what a great way to start off the weekend!! We took a group photo before everyone left... notice the sweat...

Yes, I am a slave driver... and I love it!

More Than A Dollar Less??

I passed a gas station on the way home tonight from my CPR training class that had Regular for $3.39/gallon! That is more than a dollar less per gallon than I paid to fill up my tank LAST WEEK!!! Unbelievable. The economy and the stock market are going down the tubes and the price of oil drops... wouldn't you know?

The Old Warrior Still Has It!

This is what greeted us at the back door this past Sunday morning... Sampson and his catch of the day... Yummy squirrel... The old Warrior still has it! Even though he is almost 10 years old, he is still the mighty hunter of Barbara Lane. Go Sampson Go.

You Just Gotta Love Old Folks

My Grandmother had an early eye appointment this morning, so I cut my weekend with Hubby short to make the drive down to her place yesterday afternoon. As I predicted she was ecstatic that I came down to spend the night with her… she was so was excited that I think she worked herself into almost a slight state of confusion. At least more confused than her normal level of daily confusion. Taking her to supper at the cracker barrel was not too bad but, the simple act of walking to, through and from the restaurant proved to be a task. You see she has this mental block about walking in unfamiliar territory. She just automatically assumes that the surface is uneven; therefore, she keeps tripping over invisible obstacles and walking in little baby steps in a really, really slow pace. I feel like I am practically dragging her around the parking lot! Of course, assuring her all along that I will not let her fall… After the ordeal of getting her in the place and seated, she ate everything on her plate and did not even make too big of a mess! She would have licked the remaining honey mustard off her plate if I had let her! I just kept thinking back to when I was a child and she was the adult and how she used to fuss at me for my manners… boy, have times changed! Although, I do not fuss at her… as a matter of fact, I welcome her using her fingers to pick up her food to eat it… since her use of utensils is practically gone… anything to help her eat more food.
When, we made it back to her apartment, I opened up my nail salon and went to work on her finger and toe nails… I will not even go there on trying to describe what that awful experience was like…
And then I discovered the bathroom… after a wild goose chase for cleaning products, I spent the next hour mopping her bathroom floor three times and cleaning the toilet, sink and all other horizontal surfaces in there.
Next, I spent over an hour trying to get her to change into her pajamas… she just could not pull it together mentally to complete the task. I finally wound up helping her…
All night was spent either burning up or freezing to death in her apartment… it was awful. I do not think I ever fell into a deep sleep the entire night. I kept getting up to turn the AC on… and then she would wake up and start asking me what was wrong… I finally tried to just sleep on the couch next to the AC unit… and then froze! Needless to say, I was very ready to rise when the waking hour happened upon us.
After a trip to the eye doctor that included a 2-hour wait in the waiting room, I was very ready to head back to the metropolis late this morning… but, not until after I overheard a conversation between two elderly ladies in the waiting room watching one of those cable news networks on the waiting room television. One lady said to the other (after watching a report titled “Palin is the newest TV star”, “She isn’t no TV star, she is a god-fearing normal person with good values and good judgment who just wants to represent the rest of good folks”. Amen, sister. You just gotta love old folks…

My Favorite Season...

I just love this time of year...it is that simple. The season is finally changing... there is a crisp feeling in the air... The leaves are about to start changing colors...October means Halloween is around the corner... football season is in full swing... boot camp is much cooler and less sweaty...I am pulling out my large collection of fleeces one by one... the days are getting shorter...bonfires... camping... smores... fall festivals...haunted houses... fall decorations... burning leaves...wool socks and hiking boots...tailgating...school homecomings...life just cannot be better than this, right??!! I absolutely adore autumn and all it has to offer. We have so much stuff planned between now and Christmas- it is unbelievable how busy we are!
This week has been a good week so far too... I managed to get gas yesterday just down the street from my office and with NO wait! This was the last week of my first month as a boot camp instructor and I had a blast! We found out this month that our mother company is merging with a much larger construction company out west and they finally announced who our Division Manager will be here in the SE division. I thankfully found someone to repair my Grandmother's house that was damaged when Hurricane Faye came through in August- they start this upcoming Monday! Looks like I will be taking another trip to Albuquerque later this month to kick off my little project in Texas... we are finally mobilizing on site and getting started with construction. Now if the mavericks would just win the election next month...life would not just be good, it would be awesome!

7 Layers of Food Fun

I prepared a few dishes this past weekend in honor of our trip to Athens for the tailgate. On Friday night I made Paula Deen's Shore is Good Seafood Dip (Hubby's fave from our meal at her restaurant in Savannah)... needless to say, the recipe made enough for an army of 50 so Hubby has been warming up seafood dip all week (not that he is complaining!)... Unfortunately, because it has to be served warm out of the oven, we could not take it to the tailgate- which just means Hubby got to hoard it all to himself...
I did make two batches of brownies and I prepared my first ever 7-Layer Taco Dip for the tailgate. At first, I was a little worried that I would not get all of my layers into the dish... but, I managed to in the end and I have to say that the dip was a hit! At one point during the tailgate I turned around and the dip was GONE! Definitely a repeat recipe... and so easy to make too! Email me if you want the recipe.