Think Spring, Think Spring, Think Spring

As I type it is a balmy 6 degrees out.

Just keeping thinking that it is only 19 days and a little over 13 hours until Brewer's pitchers and catchers report for spring training. And only one month till their first game.

That must mean that warmer weather is right around the corner... right?? They aren't called the Boys of Summer for nothing??

Redneck Carnival Ride

This kinda looks fun. I thought that it would end a bit differently.

Shameless Plug

One of our fellow bloggers, Kris, of Stitch's Playground fame, is once again participating in the Leukemia & Lymphoma's Team in Training triathlon. This year she is running in the Capital of Texas Olympic distance triathlon on May 25, 2009.

Yes, she may be crazy to do this in the Texas heat. At least it is not in the middle of summer. She is swimming 1.5 k (almost a mile!), 40 k (25 miles) bike ride and followed by a 10 k (6.3 miles) run.

Please help support her in reaching her goal. You can click here to reach her triathlon home page. I know that she will appreciate your support.

WTF??

Nothing beats the 4:52 am page from work after you get home from an evening out drinking with friends at 2:00 am.

I ended up being up until about 9:30 am, still half drunk... Slept for a few more hours

Missed lunch with friends and now my body is all out whack. ggrrrrrr....

Ice Fishing Blonde

A blonde wanted to go ice fishing. She'd seen many books on the subject, and finally getting all the necessary tools together, she made for the ice. After positioning her comfy footstool, she started to make a circular cut in the ice.

Suddenly, from the sky, a voice boomed, "THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE!"

Startled, the blonde moved further down the ice, poured a thermos of cappuccino, and began to cut yet another hole.

Again from the heavens the voice bellowed, "THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE!"

The blonde, now worried, moved away, clear down to the opposite end of the ice. She set up her stool once more and tried again to cut her hole.

The voice came once more, "THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE!"

She stopped, looked skyward! and said, "IS THAT YOU LORD?"

The voice replied, "NO, THIS IS THE MANAGER OF THE HOCKEY RINK!"

Rockin' Out

Went to the Metallica concert last night. It was really good. I liked it more than I thought I would. You can read StB's review here. It was a good time had by all. I thought for sure that M was going to hit the guy in front of us with his air drum playing.

My neck, thighs and feet are still sore. My thighs and feet are sore from the boots I had on. So get your mind outta the gutter..... While they looked good, not always practical to wear 3"+ heels when trying to rock out. Neck is just sore from the head banging.

It was fun to people watch. The crowd was a mix of young people, older people and parents who brought their pre-teen kids. When I stopped at the place where I take my truck, this morning, one of the mechanics was at the show and he said he had a great time. He was in his 50's. He and his wife went with their 26 year old son and girlfriend. He said that it took them almost an hour to get out of the parking structure. Good thinking on StB's part got us street parking a few blocks away. Easy in...easy out.

I should have brought my regular camera as pictures on my BlackBerry did not turn out as well as I hoped. Enjoy the pics.

The laser show to start the concert.






















The coffins had lights on them and they moved up and down during the show.




















A close up of the coffins as they were moving around.

Claude

It was entertainment night at the Senior Center and over 300 seniors came to see the show.

Claude the hypnotist exclaimed: 'I'm here to put you into a trance; I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience.'

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat 'I want you each to keep your eye on this antique watch. It's a very special watch. It's been in my family for six generations'

He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, 'Watch the watch, watch the watch, and watch the watch...'

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until, suddenly, it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the floor, breaking into a hundred pieces.

'SHIT!' said the Hypnotist.

It took three days to clean up the Senior Center.

Back in the Saddle

Today was the first day for most people to be back at work. I went back to the office last week but didn't really work too hard as there was no one around.

Today that changed. Everyone who needed stuff done today bombarded our inbox. I got busy and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. Back to work and the day was done.

it was a bit awkward for people to see me who I literally have not seen in more than a month. Some knew that hubby had passed away and others not. They just knew I had been gone a long time. Everyone was really nice and offered kind words. It made going back easier.

I did find out that the guy who sits across from me had his own scary time for the past month. He and his wife adopted a little boy about 2 months ago. The first part of Dec, they got a letter saying that the birth mom (BM) now wanted the baby back. They were devastated. Turns out BM is a bit psycho and birth dad (BD) had dumped BM and she thought that she could get BD back if the baby was back in the picture. They found out last Friday that the adoption was all good and that the BM can not get the baby back. I was happy for them. He did say that they will no longer have any contact with her after she pulled that. I don't blame him. That is just pure psycho bitch....

I have been trying to spend the last couple of days just getting things organized in the house. The mess is making me crazy. I do not like clutter. It drives me up a wall. Tonight, I got most of my desk cleaned off. Filed stuff away for taxes, insurance papers, receipts... all that fun stuff. I ended up with a full paper bag of shredded bits for recycling. Damn near burned the shredder out. I will feel more settled once I can get the basement and spare room cleaned up. It just takes time. I have some stuff I want to sell on either ebay or Craigslist. If you know someone who can use a good set of Oneida flatware or a set of Chicago Cutlery knives, let me know.

Have a good week all. Peace out.

Philly Sun

Thanks to a girl I work with, I am now hooked on the show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It is freaking hilarious.

I have just finished watching season 1. It is too funny. I love how every episode Charlie, Dennis and Mac get into some calamity. One of the funniest is when Dennis runs over Charlie and Charlie is in a wheelchair. Charlie figures out that it is a good way to get chicks until Frank goes over the top of him and the rest of the gang pretends to be cripples as well. Mac and Dennis go to the mall in wheelchairs and then end up in fight. Way too funny.

Danny DeVito is just a riot. The music reminds me of Leave it to Beaver.

I really have to make a point to watch this when the new season starts.

Ringing in the New Year

I'm glad that 2008 is over with. Time to put the year that was not very good behind me and move forward.

2008 seen alot of changes in my life. Some I planned for and many I did not. I don't want to reflect on the past year. You can read the archives if you want to see what has gone on.

I have learned that I am stronger than I ever knew I was. It has been a difficult path to learn (and I am still learning) this but in the end I will come out stronger.

I have learned that my friends mean the world to me. They have been there with the comforting word, the shoulder to lean on and hugs to keep me going. The occasional beer or ten also helped. Thank you for everything. I could not have gotten thru this past month without you guys.

Last evening was spent with afore mentioned good friends. Wine was drunk, food (no one will ever accuse this group of running out of food) eaten and good times were remembered. We had fun playing Scattergories and Farkle. Who knew that the word Farkle could be used in so many ways.

I look forward to the new year bringing many more wonderful camping trips, poker playing parties and spending time with good friends.

I hope that 2009 brings all of you, my friends, everything you desire and more.

Peace out.

Seething

Why would Seether tour with Nickelback?? I love Seether... hate Nickelback, with a passion!!!!

A girl I work with had asked a while ago if I wanted to go, I said only if I can leave after Seether is over. She didn't think it was as funny as I did.

Seether is touring with Staind for some shows in Jan and with 3 Doors Down for a few shows in Feb.... Why, oh why could they not come to Milwaukee with either one of those bands???

Mom Update

I talked to my mom awhile ago. She came home from the hospital. They told her she could go home early this afternoon but by time they got all the paperwork and stuff together it was after 6:00pm.

She is feeling good. They sent her home with like 8 new meds and has to go back for bloodwork every couple of days due to one of the meds.

They did tell her that she needed to stop smoking, get more exercise and eat a low fat diet. She is going to have to go thru some cardiac rehab stuff.

One thing I am learning is that the body is a very delicate machine. If you upset the balance of one thing it can impact other areas. Take hubby... they listed the cause of his death as hypertension. One of the leading causes of hypertension is sleep apnea, which is triggered by him being overweight. If you lose weight, it puts less strain on the heart which in turn helps with the sleep apnea. I have started to be more careful with my eating choices lately. I have lost like 10 lbs in the past month. I need to get my ass in gear and start exercising more.

What Else??

Merry Christmas to all my friends. I wish you peace and love.

It has been an interesting couple of days. Some good, some bad, and lots of it sad.

I continued a Christmas Eve tradition and went to dinner with P&K. Ever since they sold the bar, Hubby and I would go to dinner with them. It was always a nice time. We continued that last evening and went to Outback. Food was good and should have passed on the dessert, even tho' the raspberry cheesecake was yummy.

After dinner, I (and a bottle of Riesling) walked across the street to my neighbor's and some old friends. We played a couple of games. I had a really good time. It felt good to get out and talk and laugh again. Even if for a little while. It was such a nice evening spent with friends. I have not felt that good in a the past month.

Then came the phone call about 5:30 am. It is never good news when the phone rings at that time. My mom was having chest pains. She went into the ER right away. I got up and got the dogs moving and outside. Was at the hospital by about 7:00. She was in alot of discomfort. Her right arm felt funny and her jaw was really sore.

By about 10:30 am she was stable and sleeping so I took my two youngest nieces back to my house. I had to wrap presents yet and the kids were getting antsy. Around noon we went back to the farm. We ate a bit and opened presents. Somehow it just wasn't the same. I was tired and with the smoke in the house and it being so damn hot in there, I took the boys home about 4:30 pm.

Dad and sis went back up to the hospital later. Some of the test results had come back and her cardiac enzymes were all out of whack so they did a cardiac cath on her about 6:30 or so. The doctors put in two stents in where they did the bypass a few years ago. She also has another valve that is leaking. She is resting now and will be out of it most of the night.

Tomorrow she will be having a echo cardiogram done and some other tests that my sister couldn't remember the name of. Depending on the results, she may have more surgery tomorrow again.

My dad is taking this pretty hard. He is still weak from his chemo and radiation and the past few weeks have not been easy on him as well. I worry about him.

I am exhausted both physically and mentally. I have to go into work tomorrow to take care of some insurance stuff. I really just want to crawl into bed under the covers and come out in about 3 months.

Can't Stop the Crappy Christmas Decorations

Even two feet of snow over the past week can't keep that damn blow up musical piece of crap Christmas decoration down. They dug the damn thing out of the snow today. I swear, even tho' it is 4 houses away I can hear the music in the house.

I really have no need to hear freakin' Christmas music at 11:00pm or 5:00am when I take the dogs outside. Have these people never heard of a timer?? I would so be calling the cops if I lived next door to them.

How Not To Get Rid Of All The Snow

Yes, we have had alot of snow in the past few weeks. Here is a story of how NOT to get rid of the snow.

Let this be a lesson to all of you....

Fire officials in New Bedford, Mass., say a man using a blowtorch to melt ice on his back porch ended up setting his house on fire, causing up to $30,000 in damage.

Fire Capt. Scott Kruger tells The Standard-Times of New Bedford that no on was injured during Monday's incident at the three-story home.

Kruger says the man was using a torch hooked up to a 20-pound propane cylinder. He got too close to the building's wood frame and ignited the vinyl siding. The fire quickly spread into the building's second- and third-floor apartments.

It took 25 firefighters to subdue the blaze that damaged bedrooms in the upstairs units, and caused damage to the structure and wiring.

The homeowner will not be charged.

Snorkeling in Wisconsin

In Lake Michigan in January.....

Prison Break

I think this would be something Boomer would do. I am just glad the little guy didn't get hurt when jumping out. I also love the looks on the other dogs faces when they realize he escaped.

How??

Randy, how do I go on? Knowing that you are gone. Things may not have been the best between us lately but I never stopped loving you. I never got to say that one more time. This wasn't supposed to work out this way. My heart is breaking and I don't know if it will ever heal.

You went doing something that you loved. Playing poker. I never did go back online to see how you finished in that game.

I'm only 39. I'm not supposed to be burying my husband. That wasn't in the plan. Not now.

I know that you are now watching over me. With Teddy and Muggy. With your mom and dad. With Big Dave, Pat, Scott, Randy and so many others.

I'll be ok. Our friends and family are helping me get thru this. I willl never forget that. They have no idea what this means to me.

Rufus, Riley and Boomer miss you so much. Where will Boomer get his crumbs to eat? Riley just seems sad. Rufus keeps sitting on the rug by the door. Waiting for you to walk thru that door. Instead, you can be there waiting for him at the rainbow bridge. The boys are also helping keep me from losing it. I hug them and feel better.

I love you. I will miss you.

A Christmas Story for People Having a Bad Day

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor.

In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree . . . .

Mumbai Attacks

To preface the following....

I received the following email from a co-worker who is friends with the author. I have removed some of the identifying pieces of the email to protect his privacy. I think that would have been just terrifying. Thank goodness they were all ok. Here is his story.....


For those of you who don't know, I was on a layover at the Oberoi Trident hotel in Mumbai when the attacks occurred there last Wednesday night. Some of my memory of some of this is sketchy but here's what I remember.

Had a great, uneventful layover...the usual, massage, lunch at Trishna etc. Napped from about six pm to 9 pm. I received my 9:50 pm wakeup call from reception, reminding me of my 10:50 pm pickup time. I left my room for the lobby about 10:35 and saw one of my flight attendants standing at the elevator bank. He said the elevators for some reason weren't working and that his calls from the house phone adjacent to them was going unanswered. My initial reaction was "Oh God, am I going to have to carry all my bags down stairs???".

I was heading back to my room to try calling from my room's phone when we heard a tremendous explosion that shook the building. We were on the 18th floor, and unaware of what was happening in the lobby and outside the hotel. I ran to my room and dialed reception, and again, no answer. I went back out into the hallway to see what we were going to decide to do when we heard another huge explosion followed by very loud screams. At first I thought that an elevator had fallen as the screams seemed to come from the elevator shafts.

Suddenly doors in the hallway were opening and heads were sticking out wondering what was going on. All of a sudden a young woman comes out and starts banging on other doors in the hallway screaming that the hotel was being attacked. Apparently she saw it on TV. My coworker and I ran into my room and turned on the television and on one of the local channels it was being reported that there were "firings" outside of some hotels. It was running across the bottom of the screen but the TV still had regular programming on. I wasn't sure what they meant by firings, but I couldn't help but wonder if that is what the explosions were. Everyone was confused about what to do, but my coworker said he was going to go down the stairway adjacent to the elevators to see if it was safe to get out. He was turned back by hotel staff several flights down.

By this time I had that hall crowd of people in my room watching the news on TV that attacks were being carried out at several locations in the city. All of a sudden one of the women who was a flight attendant got a call on her PDA and screamed that the hotel was on fire and we had to get out. Although we didn't know it at the time, it was actually the Taj Hotel on fire. But we decided to head down the stairs.

Instinctively, I grabbed my passport, crew badge, wallet, and cash, and locked my luggage in my room. Some of the women were crying but it was orderly going down. Strangely nobody from above followed the 16 of us. We made it to the pool level which is on the rooftop of the third floor, but the all the glass doors to the outside areas were locked. That floor also has banquet and meeting rooms and we found all the doors locked.

Inside the ladies room the towels are cloth, so we grabbed a bunch of them and wet them in case we had to breathe through smoke. But we hadn't smelled any if the hotel was indeed on fire. We were trying to figure out where to go at that point when we encountered a hotel security guard.

He WHISPERED (which began to scare me even more) for us to stay there as there was an "incident" in the lobby. We cut through a linen tied to the insides of large bronze handles of the doors to one of the banquet rooms. He told us to be very very quiet, and to stay there until someone came to get us. He also told us to stay on the floor. We were in that room for over an hour, and several of the crewmembers with us had PDA's, and were getting information from outside sources, so we learned the situation was not good.

Eventually hiding in the dark there, we barricaded the door with a large table and waited.....then we heard voices. My heart I swear stopped for a few seconds. We were all on the floor holding hands, praying, some were crying softly etc... . Turned out to be that same security man. He was like he was sent from heaven. He said there were men here to help us evacuate. There were about a half dozen guys in camo with large automatic rifles. We were then led through a long set of offices, storage areas etc, until eventually we came out into a mezzanine level in the lobby through the hotel's business center.

There was a Van Cleef and Arpels store and a Brioni men's clothing store and all the windows were shattered, as were all the windows to the outside. Apparently grenades had been thrown in some lobby areas. There was glass EVERYWHERE! They told us to stay closely together, and QUIETLY but quickly follow them. But every time we encountered a turn in the hallway, or an open area, they halted us and the military guys aimed their rifles in all directions. We had to descend a large staircase into the open main lobby of the hotel, and RUN past the front desk, the concierge, and out the main doors. There was not ONE window intact, there was blood everywhere, and the restaurant called Opium Den next to the elevators had at least a dozen bullet holes in the glass. Apparently several people were killed there.

Everywhere we stepped there was glass.....on the furniture, the carpeting, the marble floors...everywhere. There were also NO people....anywhere. The huge glass doors to the main entrance were reduced to about six inches deep of glass pieces similar to a windshield break. It wasn't like sheet glass. It was weird. So we didn't have to open any doors to get out. We were halted in the entrance area and the rifle men repositioned.

That was perhaps the most terrifying part. Not knowing where the bad guys with guns and grenades were, or if we were going to get shot from someplace or somebody that was hiding. We ran across the street and up about three blocks to a movie theater complex's parking ramp where we were in! the company of several hundred people....guests and hotel staff both. We got there at around 12:30-1:00 am. We found our two first officers, and one of them had an international use cell phone that ended up being our lifeline. We were on the phone with the state department, headquarters in MSP, and several others so our exact location could be known and monitored.

Since the whole area had been cordoned off, there was no traffic movement so we ended up there until dawn, when after a very confusing and chaotic shifting of groups, we finally got a private bus company to shuttle us from outside the locked-down area to a destination which changed three times enroute. It was to a hotel near the airport where we eventually met up with the crew that brought our outbound plane "in". It was pretty much carte blanche with meals, expenses, and phone calls to family, etc.

Exhaustion was setting in, as were emotions, and I didn't sleep that whole day but a shower made all the difference. EVERY sound outside my room sent the adrenaline pumping. At that point we were missing flight attendant, D, and our captain, T.

The state dept. assured us they were in contact with them every half hour even though they were still trapped inside the Oberoi. About 5:30 pm, we got calls saying they were evacuating us out of India, and to be in the lobby at 6:05 pm. We finally took off without T and D at 8 pm, and landed in Amsterdam at around 3:30 am. It is about a nine hour flight, but I slept the whole way.

We supposedly had 15 people in coach and only WE were seated in first class. Thank God those seats lie flat. We were met in Amsterdam by several managers, grief counselors, and clergy of about six different faiths.

That was good, as it turned out, one of our flight attendants was in the lobby when the shootings took place and saw several people killed. Another had actually called an elevator to her floor and found it empty, but with a pool of blood on the floor, so she ran back to her room.

We were all given emergency clothing kits of underwear, socks, and sweatshirt and sweatpants, along with amenity kits of basic sundries, at least to get us home. Since we were given the option of staying in Amsterdam to rest, counsel, have clothing purchased for us, or whatever, and fly home the next day, or to continue on to our home cities.

Out of the nine of MY crewmembers, and the 11 crewmembers who landed in Mumbai about the time this started, only two chose to stay. They also said a large group of reporters was waiting for us to exit, so we were sent off the property a different way, to a hotel nearby for a four hour layover until the first flight to Detroit departed, thank God. I was OUT that entire flight as well. A glass of wine and a xanax works wonders!

We were then met in Detroit by several senior management personnel and Employee Assistance Program psychologists. We were quickly and quietly expedited through customs and immigration and offered the chance to talk to anybody we wished, but my flight was leaving for Milwaukee in 40 minutes so I had to decline. Turns out that crew to Milwaukee had been told of my presence and they went out of their way to make me comfortable, as did the crews of every flight that got me home.

As a matter of fact, I have never seen such kindness and compassion extended to us, like it was by everybody we encountered, from hotel staffs to Airport and airline personnel. It was truly extraordinary. Some processed it differently, and at different times, but I finally broke when I learned that D and T had finally been released unharmed and were preparing to board a flight to Frankfurt before catching the flight to Detroit from there.

We left Mumbai with little more than the clothes on our backs, but Detroit inflight has been in touch, and they said they will replace EVERYTHING we lost, and at full monetary value, no questions asked, or receipts required. They have also dropped most of my December schedule with pay. I lost my TravelPro luggage, garment bag, laptop, cell phone, ipod, Nikon camera, skype phone. clothing, leather coat, uniform pieces etc, but I came out of there unharmed, and with my LIFE, which is what mattered most.

Since I sat in row 1 on my flight to Milwaukee, I was first off the plane. J met me at the end of the jetway and burst into tears, which turned on the water for me too. Then the gate agent started in, and I think everybody in the gate area waiting to depart was wondering what the hell had just happened. lol It was only when J offered up "let me help you with your bags" (I had ONE small plastic bag with a handle), did the laughter emerge through the tears.

Outside of security in Milwaukee we were met by P and L, and V and B. I wanted to get home and up to the farm to be with K, but I agreed, thankfully to stop over at Amelia's by the airport for a bloody mary. MAN, that tasted good! Special thanks go out to you guys......that small gesture did NOT go unappreciated! So tonight I'm able to finally sit here at my desktop PC and finally get back to you. Thanks for understanding.