Go State

I promised you a pic and here it is:






The weather was beautiful (actually maybe a bit too hot), the game outcome was great (we beat Baylor!), and best of all, I had no hangover on Sunday as I only drank 2 beers. Ahh, the joys of a 30+ year old.

Hey Ya'll

Sorry for the August and September hiatus. I started a new job and was unable to figure out how to post during work hours. I probably should technically not be doing this during work hours, but let's just say I am on a smoke break. At one of my old jobs, I would literally take "smoke breaks" just so I could get out of the building. You can say that I was pretty miserable if I was desperate enough to inhale smoke for 10 minutes.

I was in Arkansas this past weekend for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary. Get this - I DO NOT HAVE ONE PICTURE FROM IT!! I am very disappointed with myself that I was a let down in this area. We had a great turnout and after Mom was over the intial shock, I think she enjoyed it. Luke and Kenni loved the idea of helping throw a party, but once they realized that it is not all fun and decorating, that you actually have to pick up everything you put out, they were not so enamored with the idea.

I also need to point out that I get Aunt of the year award (not that I had much competition) as I went swimming with the kids in rather nippy water. I was actually the last one standing in the water - six year olds even thought it was cold. If Dad had the boat in the water I would have taken a last ski for the year, but no luck. In addition to the swimming, I bought Goonies and Gremlins for the kids. They loved them. Goonies was a little scary, but the Gremlins was a giggle fest for them. That is, until they dropped the laptop (they had no idea what happened!) and I had to take it away from them. Uggh, it really sucks to be mean sometimes.

My roommie was in North Carolina working last month and he is home now, so life will get back to our crazy normal. Ya know, our calendar revolving around KSU. We are heading to our 1st football game of the season, against Baylor. Let's hope we can keep the momentum from last weekend going!! I promise to provide some pics in the next post. I realize that reading is much less entertaining when there are no pics.

Patti the Co- Pilot

A few weekends ago, I went to an air show. I was not thrilled about this excursion, but it was mostly because it was so darn hot. Truth be told, I really enjoyed it. I have this secret desire to have an airplane (not so secret anymore!), but I know since I am directionally challenged, the best I could ever do was co-pilot. My roommie bought me a ride on a PT-19 - it was a open cockpit plane that was used for training back in the day (I won't embarrass myself and try to give a date, I think the plane dates back to the 30's, but again, I really don't know).



My roommie expected me to be a little scared, but I wasn't at all. The thing I was most scared about was me getting in the plane in a dress. Good news all, no undies display occurred. The flight was a 20 minute flight, but felt like 5 since I had so much fun. We even did a touch down (touched down on the strip and zoomed back up).

Born to be Wild

Some people just are, and well, others aren't. However, some things are mind over matter and this guy proves this point:


This guy is happily scooting along but yet feels the wind in his hair and the roar of the engine, the flutter in his heart as all of the ladies are whistling at his sexy ride. He is so damn happy on his Harley, I mean scooter. How do I know this?

His license plate, of course!!

Sort of hard to read, but it says Harley Davidson at the top and "Live to Ride"

Flaunt it if you got it!

July!!

Hi all!!

Sorry for the lag in posts this month. For the 4th of July holiday, roommie and I went to my parent's lake house. I forgot my camera but I prefer to not have my bikini pics on my page. The blog simply couldn't handle that kind of traffic. ha!

This past weekend, we spent our traditional anniversary and birthday weekend at the Plaza relaxing by the pool. Yes, it is a few weeks early, but we had to fit it in when we could. I would rather do it early than not at all!! No pics from this either. I know, I suck.

Today I am working from home, as trusty Charley is still having problems. I am currently sitting at the desk in the kitchen listening to Willie snore as he is sleeping on the kitchen table. Rough life he has!!


We bought this bowl in Charleston at a really cool store - SOM. I planned to put something in the bowl, but since I put it on table, Willie has practically lived in it. He likes his new bed!!

The big excitement of the day is this!! The first pics of my lil garden!! :)

Funny thing is, I am scared of hot stuff, but I will enjoy making salsa with my own japs. Oh yeah, I realized that green thumb is true! I was in my little garden picking weeds and proping up my tomatoes and when I came inside my fingers were green. I also realized that cucumbers are prickly. Just let them be.

Strawberry (finally!!), hay and my bike

I know you are tired of hearing about this damn strawberry. Don't worry, I won't write about each strawberry I produce. Here is the strawberry all ripe and ready to eat.

I must say it tasted soooo good. She was not a big strawberry, but enough for a few bites. Didn't require any sweetener at all.

We had a party this weekend, it was a hoe down. You can't have a hoe down without hay! Well, it was technically straw as straw was much cheaper than hay. We don't have a truck, so I had to use the Tahoe as my truck....It was a mess!!!!! Pic from the drivers seat.



In preparing for the hoe down, I went to the Goodwill looking for just the right outfit. I found my first 10 speed bike for sale (actually, one like it)! I loved this bike - the pink and grey....so lovely. I got this bike for Xmas one year and I believed it snowed that x-mas. I didn't care. I rode my bike on the front porch.

Strawberry Update

My strawberry is growing!! I think I may only have one strawberry to harvest this season, let's hope it tastes good!! I will not be sharing this with my roommie either.



I also planted a few tomato plants, cucumber, bell pepper and jalapeno plant. I only allowed myself a little room for my plants, behind some grasses, so it is hard to get a good picture. They are thriving from what I can tell. I am very excited about this. I hated the garden when I was a child (I actually remember telling my parents the only reason they had kids was so we could pick the beans), but I am loving this. I do not ever plan on having more than a few plants, but next year I do plan on extending out my garden to give me a little more growing room. More digging. Ugghhhhhh.


I did not plant watermelon, but I do have watermelon cookies to show you!! No, they are not watermelon flavored, they just are iced to look like watermelons (hopefully!!). I also tried to make strawberries .I didn't have a cookie cutter for a strawberry so I was trying to cut a strawberry shape, so as you can image, those flopped. That is what I am letting the other half eat. He is more than happy to eat the flops, in fact he came to bed with two in hand!! Sexy.

AT&T commercial

I like commercials. I REALLY like to sing the commercial songs. Lately there is one commercial that I just laugh every time I hear it - the AT&T commercial. There is a family that is talking around the dinner table (this is from memory, not word for word):

Mom to son: What are you reading?
Son: My sister's diary
Sister: OOOH, I would love some feed back when you are done.
Dad: Your Mom and I were reading it and we would like to know more about this Chad fellow.
Mom: Is he still in school?
Daughter: He would be, but he dropped out.
Dad: oooh, an entrepreneur
Mom: honey, do you mind if I mow the lawn this weekend?
Dad: only if I get to paint your toenails.

This just cracks me up. Have a good one!! It is eighty degrees, you gotta be happy!

Antiquing finds and a little gardening

I mentioned we went antiquing on Sunday. Some days are a bust, some days I find things I can't afford and pout, and other days are perfect. This Sunday was just that, perfect. We like stuff that no one else probably wants, so we can usually get a good deal. Our treasures:

A yellow gas can
A red lantern


And a green lunch box.



I know, random!!
I also got a new print for our wall in the living room. When I saw this, I just had to have it. It screamed summer and made me smile. Yes, I know, I need to take off the corner protectors, but I was waiting for "approval" (ha!) before I made it non-returnable.

On a different note, I have planted a strawberry plant and I have the cutest little strawberry!! I may be making a fool of myself here, I saw this little bud this AM and I THINK it is a baby strawberry. If it isn't, oh well, it gave me great excitement this morning.

Green Beans + DP

Last night was the end to a very busy weekend. I worked until 8:30 pm Friday night, worked another 8 on Saturday, had a few hours of retail therapy Saturday afternoon and met a sweet little baby girl Saturday evening. My roommie and I went antiquing Sunday afternoon and then my yard work called my name since it was a cool 81 degrees yesterday!! Yeah!!

Apparently I was tired during dinner, b/c I knocked over several things (no major spills), handed my eating partner a hot pot expecting him to hold it with his hands, and to top it off, poured my pop in my green beans instead of in my glass. I ate the green beans still, but didn't drink the pop! I can be such a ditz.

I remember when I was tired as a little girl I would walk around stubbing my toes, which would lead to crying, and after a few of these spills, my Mom would put me to bed. Aaahh, the good ol days.

UPDATES

My car situation ended up being MINOR. $350 fix v. $3000. Yes, it was only a filter that was acting up not the transmission itself.

My roommie and I went to see the Diana exhibit at Union Station this weekend. It was very cool, but ticked me off that there was not a portion devoted to her being a mother. Nothing about William or Harry. I guess that was a family decision and I am sure the Princes were involved in that decision, but I was disappointed. Her wedding dress is on display and it was so interesting to see the bows. A big bow on the front, bows on the sleeves. Not good. Also, her dress and all of her bridesmaid dresses together cost only $1900. Very affordable!!

One thing that I took away was how thoughtful Di was. She wrote a lot of personal letters, often thanking them for something. I do write thank-you notes, but this just was a reminder of how important a hand-written note is. It is a dying tradition, but one I want to keep around.

While at Union Station we came across a model roller coaster display. I had no clue how in love with coasters my other half is. The display was a history of Worlds of Fun coasters. It was pretty cool and a great walk down memory lane for roommie. It is so interesting how certain things just trigger us back to childhood.



Part of the sadness surrounding my car was that I had to miss Mickey and Minnie's kindergarten graduation. It was recorded, so I am sure they will be delighted to show off their video. They are very fond of themselves in photographs and videos. Hmmm....maybe they take after their Mom or Aunt???

WTH?

I have not had anything remotely humorous to discuss this week. I found out on Wednesday that my car may need a new transmission and it has just taken the wind out of my sails. The car has 92 thousand miles on it and I have driven this car waaaaaayyy nicer than any other car I have owned. In fact, I kinda putter around in it b/c it is a gas guzzler!! I am beyond annoyed. She goes into the hospital on Monday, hopefully I have good news to report.

Baby Arm

I have been away at college for 8 days. I do miss my college days, however, my recent college experience was not as near as much fun as KSU days. I was attending trial college in Boulder, CO. 8 days with 50+ attorneys, interesting....

We were divided up into groups of 9 - 10 attorneys. My group was group 2 (that is what we called ourselves at least). One girl in the group knew everyone's name before we even got there. She later admitted that she did some internet searching to learn about us. I thought it was more on the funny side of the scale than creepy. Anyway, the social chair decided that we should all go out to dinner on Tuesday as class had late start on Wednesday. We all went to dinner, then out for "a" drink. "A" drink turned into a lot of pitchers.

Highlight of the evening was when our cute Texas girl goes up to the bar to order beer. She asks: What do ya'll have on tap?
Answer: PBR
Response: OK! I will take three pitchers of Baby Arm.

She comes back to the table and tells us she got Baby Arm. We are all baffled, then look around and see all of the PBR posters. Apparently she has never heard of Pabst Blue Ribbon and if you say it outloud quickly, I guess you can see where you can get Baby Arm.

Baby Arm was the continued joke all week and thank goodness b/c the serious environment of trial college was tough for Red to handle.

He's Back!!

I woke up to a clunk - this is my water bottle being pushed off my night stand. A few minutes later, tap, tap...tap, tap, this is Willie tapping at my shoulder attempting to get me up. Next a fight ensues on my legs, Willie wants to wake me up and he doesn't want Jordy's assistance. After the fight, he climbs all the way up my body then jumps on the headboard, walking his way to the nightstand, proceeding to knock off magazines, pens and anything else that will make noise. He watches me for a few minutes from his perch on the nightstand and moves back to the bed. There is then a wet nose in my face, purring followed by meows.

I am just waiting for the morning when he yells, "b!tch, get up and get me my milk!"

Anyway, Willie is magically healed of whatever was wrong with him and is back in full force, better than ever :)

Is Willie Sick??

I realize Willie hacked into my account and wrote a post about my smarts (or lack thereof), however, I think he deserves the spotlight once again. I took him to the vet yesterday because he "wasn't himself". Here were my examples:

1. He isn't stealing his sister's food
2. He isn't jumping up on the table begging for food during dinner.
3. He hasn't been getting on the counter looking for food.
4. He isn't begging to go outside.
5. He doesn't wake me up in the morning for his milk.
6. He isn't eating his daily food supply before 8 a.m. (he gets fed at 6 am).
7. He isn't fighting with his sister.

The vet is looking at me perplexed, as it sounds like maybe Willie has just decided to be a good kitty!! In all honesty though, he is lethargic and has no excitement for life right now. I sure hope it is nothing major, I will feel bad about joking about him :(

I'll get it myself

Guest post from Willie

My owners claim to be educated people, but I outsmart them every time, especially my Mother. I fool her with my desperate meows and she caves in giving me milk, letting me lick her plate or even giving me little morsels of people food. Of course, she gives me more table scraps when the big guy (Daddy) isn't around as he for some odd reason has an issue with me maintaining my svelte 14 lb figure. For some reason parents do their best to restrict MY food (1 measly cup of food a day), however, I do not notice they have the same restraint for their own diet....

I was HUNGRY this weekend as my Mom often forgets to feed me timely. I am left to savage for my own meal, whether this be stealing from my sister or finding food sources in other places. I lucked up this weekend as my brilliant Mother left a bag of food in a shelf on the garage....

My meal was just as simple as knocking it down from the shelf and using the garbage can as my tray.

AND the fool left her car windows open with her lunch bag fully accesible to me. Sargento is quite tasty. I really did nothing wrong here, as she was going to throw it away since it was not safe for human consumption after being in the car for 2 days. It was just fine for me though!!

Country Girl!!

Yes, I am from a small town, but I am definitely not a country girl. Of course, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with being a country girl, I just am not one. For instance, I borrowed boots from my sister in law to start my outfit, and it took me about 2 hours of trying on clothes to find my perfect cowgirl outfit. I found myself googling Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift to get ideas. Admittedly, one problem was a belt that I just had to wear, but I wanted to wear a dress, not jeans. AHHHHH fashion dilemmas!!

Why was I dressing up as a cowgirl on an occasion other than Halloween you ask?? Well, there was a KSU fundraiser called the Powercat Auction and it had a cowboy theme. I really had no clue if people would be dressing up or not, but considering the fact that we are an "agricultural" school, I figured there would be a lot of real cowboys and girls there looking great in their boots and hats.

Here is what I came up with (hat courtesy of KSU):



I found my cowboy!!



Uh-oh!! I found a famous cowboy!!

Truth be told, my roommie wanted me to get a picture with him and I didn't want to. I get nervous around famous people. This is Jordy Nelson, a KSU alum, who plays for the Green Bay Packers (watch the 2011 Superbowl and you may be impressed). The reason I get nervous around famous people is b/c I tend to say silly things:
Me: Hi Jordy, will you sign my hat (cowboy hat)?
Jordy: Sure:
Me: This is probably silly to tell you, but I named my cat after you.
Jordy throws his head back in laughter and probably embarrassment
Me (as roommie has the camera): Can I take a picture with you?
Jordy: Sure
Me: You don't have to stand up, I will just squat down beside you.

I play this brief convo back in my head and just am reminded what a total geek I am. I am 100% confident Jordy remembers that some crazy girl named a feline after him, and is probably thinking can't you at least name a dog after me???

What I really needed:

These were auctioned off for the low price of $5,000!

Che

I went to try on some clothes this weekend, and the dressing room attendant asked me my name. I told her, but didn't spell it out for her. Here is her interpretation: Che

I have seen a lot of different spellings, but this was a new one!! I couldn't get a picture of this, so you will just have to trust me on this one. How could I make that up??

The tail end of our vacation: Charleston. We did not enjoy Charleston. Nothing against the city, just a bad experience due to a little stomach bug (no, it wasn't a hangover) and the fact that our hotel was called Best Western Downtown but was about 2 miles from downtown (buzz kill - AND it was $125 a night for a Best Western!!!).

We arrived in Charleston Sunday afternoon and after getting over the fact that we couldn't switch hotels, we decided to make the best of it. We went on a boat cruise down the river that gave us a good view of Fort Sumter, an air craft carrier and general history. After that, we took a really cute carriage ride through the town of Charleston that gave us history on the buildings, houses, restaurants and shopping districts. Very enjoyable and a must do if you go to Charleston. Just make sure you don't get on a tour with a bunch of drunks unless you are drunk yourself. (we had that unfortunate experience - nothing against drinking, it was just not a drinking type of event).

I was sick from Sunday evening until late Monday night. I was so sick I called two good friends in the healthcare field inquiring if I needed to go to the hospital as I just kept getting worse. To top it off, we were in a very small hotel room, so my roommie had a wonderful time dealing with me being sick. Good thing is that I didn't have to go to the hospital and the other half didn't end up getting as sick as I was.

Here are some pics of Charleston:

Entrance to Boone Plantation - the most photographed plantation. I was told it was on some movie, but I can't remember, maybe you recognize it.


Boone Plantation House


Slave Quarters




GO USA!!! This is from the aircraft carrier, but in light of the most recent events in history, I thought this was a perfect picture. The American Flag is a beautiful piece of art, isn't it?


And to end on a funny note -

This sign gave me the giggles. I obviously took it in a totally inappropriate direction. Ha!

Savannah Recap

Days 3 & 4 - these were the best two days of our trip. The weather was great, hotel was awesome and we enjoyed a very fun wedding. We stayed at the Westin hotel and if you are going to Savannah, splurge a little bit and stay here. It is one of the best resort hotels I have stayed at. They don't price gouge you on parking, resort fee was reasonable and they provided entertainment and activities that you were actually interested in (Jazz festival and oyster fest were the Friday and Saturday activities while we were there).

When I think about Savannah I think about the trees with moss hanging on them, lots of old, well kept homes and cute shops. The town is built upon squares (learned this on our tour), but I obviously didn't listen past that b/c I don't know how many squares there are or why it was started by squares. Anyway, all of the historic squares have beautiful greenery, usually a statue and some benches (like mini parks).



Hotel view from across the river:


View from our hotel room. I wanna go back!!!


The little ferry that would take us across the river to get to Savannah's shops.


A tugboat pic!! I just LOVE them!! I would squeal like a little kid every time I saw them. So amazing that the baby boat guides in the big boat. I will dedicate a post to them separately. I have lots of pictures to share.



Pic of the Kansas gals at the wedding:

Hilton Head

My roommie and I went on a vacation to South Carolina and Georgia to attend a friend's wedding. While I did enjoy parts of our trip, it was certainly not a vacation you dream of. Days 1 & 2, we were in Hilton Head, SC. I would happily go back to Hilton Head to actually ENJOY the beach b/c the two days we were there it rained, rained, rained. I wanted to get out and do something so my brilliant idea was bike riding. Fun on the way down the beach, horrible on the way back as we are fighting the wind and rain.

Here are some memorable pics:

Our rental car - Dodge Challenger. Admittedly, I was initially upset about the "surprise upgrade" however, at the end of the day, it was fun to cruise around in a fun car. However, I quickly realized, I like 4 doors (can you say old!)


Jellyfish. We went for a romantic (ha!) walk on the beach the night before and I was scared to death b/c I did not want to set on a jellyfish. I was assured that I would see one before I stepped on it, however, flashlight and all, I did not enjoy the night walk on the beach.


Birds!! I did not take this - but I do like the picture.


Why can't I have sexy beach hair like Sports Illustrated models??



Rain, rain go away!!

Horse Racing

I want to the horse races this weekend with my Mom at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas. If you don't like horses, just go for the people watching!! I enjoyed both obviously!! I gambled with $100 and walked away with $73. Not bad considering I ate and drank off of that money too. Great company, entertainment and experience!

They're off..


Racing.... (obviously my pictures were not consecutive (see clouds v. blue sky)



The finish (the one person I could catch at the finish!)


Rolaids are sold at the bar - not sure if this is to try and cure your hangover or your sick stomach after losing too much money! (probably a bit of both)



The hats were great entertainment!! Apparently you can wear a hat with anything and it will still look awful!




Saved the best for last. This lady needs to fire her stylist or her family, whoever told her that this looks good. Not only does she need a bigger dress or more appropriate undergarments, this hat just adds pounds.


This guy looks like he is straight off the My Fair Lady set. Not sure if he will ever get a girlfriend at this rate.

Present to Myself

I drove up in the driveway to find this yesterday:


No, it is not a trash cart, it is my GRASS cart. I have wanted this for over a year now. My roommie told me that I could get one when our paper bags ran out, and this is right after he had bought them in bulk at Sam's. I HATE the paper lawn bags and apparently they HATE me to. My neighbors probably love them as they watch me out their windows laughing as I am wrestling with the paper sack, lawn bag and the clippings I try to get in the bag. UGGGH. It is really the worst part about mowing.

I fixed this problem for myself. By the way, I have also wanted one of those cute lawn wheelbarrows so now I can just wheel my cart around as I need it. In fact, right when I got home last night, I wheeled her up to my courtyard and began to fill it up.

The lawn cart has special air vents so it won't smell too bad, and it is picked up weekly along with my trash.


My roommie is expecting this to be a very bad idea, but I disagree. I expect to be a very happy consumer. :)

Mulching

I drive a car. She is a Dodge Charger named Charley. It is a large car, but it is not meant to be a work-truck. You might thing, well, duh. However, sometimes I am forced to use Charley as a work truck b/c Charley's brother, Junior is at work with his owner.

On Sunday I was working on landscaping projects. In doing so, I made 4 trips to Wal-Mart. I can fit about 10 bags of mulch - the big 2 cubic feet ones and 10 bags of soil (40 lb bags). Now, I could probably fit a bit more if I put some up front, but I was just using the trunk and my back seat. All the way to and from work yesterday, I kept thinking to myself it smelled like mulch in my car. I made a mental note that I need to vacuum the trunk and then laughed b/c that will probably not get accomplished any time soon.

Last night I opened the door to my backseat to look for something and guess what I found?? 2 bags of mulch!!! Guess that explains the smell!! Gave myself a good laugh at least, and I guess I don't need car freshner for a while, I have bark scent.

Elephant and Shark

Sorry for the hiatus, I was on vacation for a week, then had to play catch up for a week. Sometimes it is hard to justify going on vacation considering how hard you have to work before and after. When I think about this, I just think about how my Mom would pack all 5 of us up for a week at the lake in the RV. I bet she just wanted to watch us all drive away and she stay at home to rest instead of getting in Luther and going to the lake with us. I always say to my friends now, "so this is why Mom was in a bad mood sometimes". Yup, I get it.

Anyway, let's look into goofy crap I do while traveling. First off, I usually fly Southwest. They publish this magazine called Spirit. It is a good read, and yes, I realize it is probably germ infested so I shouldn't read it.....anyway, I was entertained for a goof 45 minutes with an origami project. I turned a dollar into an elephant!!

Instructions:



Finished project:


Yes, his front leg is a little off, but jeez, pretty good I must say.



The first let of our vacation was Hilton Head. I will give HH its own post, but I have to laugh at these pics I found on my phone. I have about 45 more pics just like these. First off, you can't tell its a dolphin, it looks like a shark to me, and second, the pics do nothing to share the beauty of dolphins.





The dolphin tour we went on "guaranteed" a dolphin sighting. I thought this sounded pretty good, considering my Dad can't catch a fish somedays when he is out on the lake all day. Well.....we saw some dolphins alright, BUT in all honesty, the tour was a bit of a bust b/c we found out that there are 3 dolphins that lived in this harbor so it wasn't like we went and found dolphins out in the ocean by chance. I really can't bitch too much, I wanted to see a dolphin and darn it, I saw 3 dolphins.