Happy Birthday...

to ME!!!!! I turn 27 today!! Woohoo! My most wonderful birthday gift was to have my dad back in Atlanta!

I'm busy...

My dad is in the hospital after having an auto accident.

Assinine

So last Sunday I was driving a friend to the airport so she could return home to Germany. We get caught at the railroad crossing and counted 83 cars and 3 engines go by. There was a cop sitting perpendicular to us on our side of the tracks. After the train passed, he immediately pulled us over. I hadn't done anything illegal in just crossing the tracks, but I noticed my friend had tucked the shoulder strap of her seatbelt under her arm so it may have appeared to the cop that she wasn't wearing the seatbelt. We pull over, and he walks up to her side of the car. She rolls down the window.

I didn't know this, did you? He tells us that he saw she had her seatbelt on incorrectly and warned me that I could get a ticket for merely wearing the seatbelt incorrectly, but he wouldn't give me one. I had figured that as long as the seatbelt is on, it's on. I said thanks and continued on my way.

So much for Natural Selection!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my brother, Mike! Mike is actually my brother-in-law, but he's been in the family long enough he's more of a brother now. Love you, Mike! Hope you have a good one!

Go Cubbies!!

To be or not to be...

My friend and I went to Six Flags Over Georgia a few weekends ago. I got a bit of a headache from the ride Deja Vu, and ended up needing some time to sit, so we decided to go to one of the shows. We went to the Honky Tonk show. They sang and danced/acted to current country hits, occasionally interacting with the audience.

My friend and I are sitting there, front row, minding our business when one of the 'cowboys' comes up and sits next to me and puts his arm around me while singing a song. Now normally I would be totally flattered by this, but the song he's singing kinda influences my reaction..."I like my women on the trashy side"

Or maybe I am flattered after all...

Bad joke

All last night I dreamed I was a tailpipe...

...wait for it...

...and this morning I was exhausted!


Another bad joke thanks to Rose from Golden Girls.

Gee...thanks, lawmakers.

I receive a monthly newsletter from my town. There was an article on page 9 of 12, "New state laws may impact you"... so I read.

The one I choose to write about is the first listed: Right to self defense. I didn't know I needed permission to defend myself from a bad guy! It says I don't have a duty to retreat. Well...duh! If I'm being attacked, is there actually a law out there that assinine enough to say that I can't defend myself? This new law says that I would have immunity from criminal prosecution for defending myself or property with deadly force, unless I use a weapon I'm not allowed to carry or possess, which I have my CCL, so I don't worry about that.

Anyway, I thought it was very generous of the State of Georgia to allow me to defend myself with every means possible.

One year ago

One year ago I brought home my motorcycle. I love it even more now than I did then. Hard to believe. I'm riding well, and enjoying it more and more.

Catholic Gasoline

This one's for you, EP...

Sister Mary, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, a gas station was just a block away.

She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The attendant told her that the only gas can that he owned had been loanded out, but she could wait until it was returned.

Since the nun was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walk back to her car. She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient.

Always resourceful, she carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gas, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.

As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two men watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "If it starts, I'm turning Catholic."

More truth than fiction

I got this in an email...enjoy...

A Somali arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States. He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr. American for letting me in this Country, and giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care and free education!"

But the passerby says, "You are mistaken, I am Mexican."

The man goes on and encounters another passerby. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America!"

The person says, "I no American, I Vietnamese."

The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand and says, "Thank you for the wonderful America!"

That person puts up his hand and says, "I am from the Middle East; I am not an American!"

He finally sees a nice lady and asks suspiciously, "Are you an American?"

She says, "Now, I am from Russia!"

So he is puzzled, and asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"

The Russian lady looks at her watch, and says..."Probably at work...."

well, well...

I wish I had more of a life to post about right now, but alas, I do not. There have been two things that have usurped my time the last few months, and will continue to do so for the next couple months.

We are still in the middle of revisions for the books. That means that sometimes, usually once a week, I work until midnight to meet a deadline, but I usually get to sleep in the next day. That's one thing that consumes time right now: work. I'm currently in negotiations with my boss, aka Mom, about my hours, and I think we'll get this beast under control soon.

The other thing that consumes my time, which is work related, and family related, is babysitting. It's a perk of the job. I get to babysit my two wonderful nieces at least once a week for a day. It's wonderful. I LOVE getting to be a regular part of their lives. I didn't know that as a child, having involved extended family. However it is time consuming, but it's one I'm glad to be able to provide. This is one of the blessings I count for still being single. If I was married, or even involved with someone, I wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to travelling to see Dr. Who, Nate and their sons, Mentsh, her husband and daughters, my dad and stepmom, or Whiskey Girl. It's important to me to cultivate these relationships while I have the time in singlehood to devote because they are SO WORTH IT!

Anyhow, this has been a brief update in the life of JOY!

Too good to be true...

This picture happened upon me. It seems appropriate that Nate's new love is cohorting with Peeps!, his other love...

Saturday's Ride...

Ok, so Nate says I have to write up something. First off, this is a pic of me on Little Red. All in all it was an excellent day. First, Nate showed me how to change the oil in LR in the morning. Then he and I hit the road with no destination other than North for the afternoon. That evening we went to the pool with the family. At night I stayed home with 4 sleeping kids while the rest of the adults went to see X-men 3.

Ok, for the ride... Well, I did pretty good. Nate seems to think that I can ride; I'm not so certain, but I have fun while trying to be safe. I only stalled a couple times. Both times were towards the first of the trip. The second was kinda embarrassing. I forgot to downshift at a red left turn light. When it turned green I didn't move. I ended up costing all the cars behind me the entire green turn light. Oops. Oh, and I finally learned how to smoothly downshift.

We rode around Lake Lanier some. Saw pretty sailboats. You'll notice one picture of Nate by the water. There was a little peninsula right in front of him. I tried to get him to go out there so I could get a pic of him there on his dirt bike, but he was too chicken... He said it was too uncivilized!!

And one more story on Nate. If you read over at his place, you'll notice a reference to "blowing past" a guy on a Harley. Well, what he didn't mention is that as soon as he passed him, he ran out of gas! Yep! He switched to reserve, and we found a gas station to fuel up again. It's just good that he didn't run out of gas while he was trying to blow past the other biker, that would've been too embarrassing.

Anyway...It was a blast. I can't wait to go again. Riding with someone is a ton more fun.

Saturday's Ride...

Nate is the storyteller, so if you want the stories, you need to visit his site: www.bloggerblaster.blogspot.com.

Saturday's Ride...

Nate is the storyteller, so if you want the stories, you need to visit his site: www.bloggerblaster.blogspot.com.

Flower and Leaf

Here's a sampling of my amateur photography...

Yuppyville

I'm getting a bit too close to being a yuppie than I'm comfortable with. I recently got an iPod nano to listen to music while I'm riding my Ninja. I also decided that I need to get my body condition into better shape, so I researched and found a gym that I love. When I go to the gym, I take my iPod, just like EVERYONE else! As I was walking back to my car today, I just had a hard time accepting what a yuppie I've become.

Let me tell you about this gym...it rocks. It's got like a hundred weight machines and another hundred cardio machines. It's got 4 raquetball courts, basketball court, various exercise classes (I took the Pilates class last Monday, and I'm STILL sore), really nice and clean locker rooms with a sauna inside each locker room, heated indoor pool, hot tub, and more! I love it. Even though I'm not in good shape, I still feel comfortable there because people keep to themselves, so I don't feel pressure, and there are a lot of average people that go.

All in all, I'm having fun. I hope y'all are, too.

Happy Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WHISKEY GIRL!!!

Today is my sister's birthday!! I love her!!!!

Okay, here are the pictures as requested. 3 sections and 2 other sections are the same size, so that the shelves can be moved around among them. I also ordered extra poles so I can convert more sections into hanging because this closet was pretty much designed with just me in mind.

Progress has been made.

Well, I've finished painting my closet. I chose Slate blue. It's really pretty. It's a tad darker than I imagined, but with white trim, ceiling, and shelving, I don't think it'll be a problem. It'll also look good with the brushed nickel hardware I chose to match the faucets in the bathroom. As far as the boxes go, I got 11 of th 13 up by myself. The last two are these long vertical panels that have to be carried up one at a time. For the moment, I'm just bringing one up with me everytime I go up the stairs. I only have 5 more trips to make! I'm looking forward to having all this done.

UPDATE: I've finished!!! Woohoo!!! I started putting all my clothes back in my closet, and I feel as though I have a brand new room!