For your viewing enjoyment...

Having fun with the old gang back together again!

That's my Leelee!!

Trail at Sumter Forest.

TGIF just gained bunches of points in my book!

New blogger onboard!

Hey people! I'd like to introduce you to Leelee. We went to college together and we love to hang out together. Go check out her new blog at http://gonetofindmyself.blogspot.com.

So close....

Yesterday my dad and I set off on a trip together, and I made arrangements to have Titan kenneled while I was gone. We walked out to the car and I immediately smelled smoke. I thought it was interesting. I load up Titan to take him to the kennel to drop him off before heading to the airport, and when we pull up to the Vet/kennel, I see yellow CAUTION tape around the parking lot and a fire engine and several dogs on leashes being held by vet assistants in the parking lot. Apparently the building had been on fire. I found out today from the front page of the newspaper (my sister called to tell me) that 12 pets died in that fire. I praise God that I had not dropped Titan off the night before, or one of those pets could have been him! Here is the story from the local paper...

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&url_article_id=28079&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

Such a good week already!

It's only Wednesday and I'm already having a wonderful week. My laptop went bad a couple weeks ago and the cost of replacing the parts was almost the value of the computer, so I decided to get a new one. Well, mom and I went shopping for it on Monday, found the one we wanted, but the salesmen were so harrassing, we went home to mull it over. We went back yesterday and found the only chick that works in that department at Fry's and she was great. We really appreciated her. Anyhow, I ended up with an awesome Fujitsu. Windows Vista is taking a bit to get used to, but I like it. The laptop has a fingerprint scanner! It's so cool. All I gotta do to sign on is swipe my finger! Okay, this is only half of the good news for the week...

Monday Mom must have been in a really good mood because after checking out the computers we went to check out the digital cameras. Let me preface this with I received an early inheritance from my dad, a Nikon F5, which is a professional film camera. I also have a Nikon N60, film camera, and a total of three lenses to use on both. So as you might know, Nate and Dr. Who picked up a Nikon D80 a couple months ago that I have been lusting after ever since. In Mom's line of work, a textbook author, she provides her own figures. I'm the photographer for her book. I love doing the photography, and they even used two of my photos for the covers of the books. So, Mom sees the awesome quality of Nate and Dr. Who's camera and decides she needs one as well for her book. Monday she bought one!! And she said I can hold onto it as long as it's available for her purposes while she's writing her books. I've only taken a handful of pictures on it so far, and have definitly not seen it's full potential. I'm very much looking forward to exploring the uses of this camera. I'm excited about it because I can use the lenses I have from the other cameras on this one! I'm posting 2 pics I took this evening.

AWESOME weekend!

I just had an awesome weekend up in the North Georgia mountains with my friend, LeAnn. We got in Friday night, in time to make TWO Walmart runs. Saturday we got up, fixed breakfast, then went to a local dog show. It wasn't the real kind, it was a community deal with classes for "Waggiest Tail" and "Looks most like owner". I brought Titan, but I didn't get there early enough to enter him into any of the competitions. Even so, Titan got plenty of compliments for being such a beautiful dog and having a VERY waggily tail. After that, we went to my all time favorite restaurant, Isabelle's. It's an old white house that has been converted into a restaurant. Their sweet tea is the best, I almost dare say better than mine. After dinner, we decided we needed waterwheel churned ice cream from up by NC. And since we had been in NC, we decided it would only be fair to see SC, too. So we took off in the direction of SC. Twenty minutes later, we were there! The excursion was totally worth it because we happened upon an awesome trailhead down to the river. We also went to the gorge and took pics of the waterfalls. You can see the fog at the top of the pic of the waterfall I posted here. It had to have been the best time of year to do this because all the mountain laurels were blooming. All the pics were taken on my cell phone, so sorry about the quality. After our hiking we went to a drive-in theater...my first time! We saw Spider-Man 3. It was pretty good. I really enjoyed the drive-in atmosphere. The place was really full, I was a little surprised to see it that busy. So that was my fun-filled weekend.

Spring has sprung!

My Confederate Jasmine is in full bloom! It's so beautiful. And it smells even better than it looks. This is my third year with this plant. I love it. It's my favorite plant on the deck, with the Bloodgood Japanese Maple with Creeping Jenny in a close second . I love this time of year, though not as much as Fall.

A first!

This is my niece at her very first piano recital! She was adorable on stage. She played Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Camping!!

Whiskey Girl and I took our niece on her first camping trip! It was just a one-nighter, and we were there for less than 24 hours, but still, she got to sleep "outside". The campsite was awesome. WG found it in a book that I'm thinking I'm gonna have to steal from her. I've posted a picture of the campsite with the awesome view of Lake Lanier. There was a Georgia Red Clay beach and when the weather is a bit warmer and we have more time to be there, swimming would be in order. The niece has already stated she wants to go back with her Daddy some day. Thanks, WG, for gettin' me to come with you. I'm glad I did.

Just for fun...

This picture is a year old, but I like it.

Grrr...

I am SO mad!! I was watching Lost tonight and there was a part where the spoken language was Korean with captions in English. I was all intensely watching it when suddenly Channel 2 Action News pops up with this announcement about news to follow the show that COVERED UP THE CAPTIONS!!! I missed what was said!! I was so mad and yelling at the TV "NOOOO!!!" like that would help remove the popup, which of course it did not! But it did help me feel better!

I wonder how accurate this is...

Men See You As Playful

Men want a challenge and you are the perfect playmate. You know how to push men's buttons and attract a wide range of guys. You enjoy living and loving - it's one of your most attractive qualities. Men are often consumed with desire for you, and you love that!

http://www.blogthings.com/howdomenseeyouquiz

finally...

I'm very much looking forward to the next four weeks. I have no plans for travel so I get to stay home. In honor of this I decided to finally get back to the gym last night. I attended a Pilates class. I'm a bit sore today, but not the bad kind of sore I had expected. I'm excited about being able to settle into a routine again for a while. It will be nice to have time to myself again and not living out of a suitcase. Hopefully those books that have been collecting dust on my bedside table will get read.

been busy, folks...

I spent the entire first week of April up in Tennessee with Dr. Who and family. We went to a Preds game the first Saturday I was there. Dude, that was awesome! First we went to Big River Grill then to the game where we had some awesome seats. (Thanks again, Nate and Dr. Who, for that!) Even though the Preds didn't win, I had a blast. The spectators were so entertaining. They never stopped cheering, and they were constantly yelling to the Refs they "sucked!" Oh, and Tomas Vokoun was awesome once he decided to play after the first period. I gotta say...I love hockey! When I have a little boy, he's gonna learn to play. Maybe even a little girl if she's interested.

Jeb and Eli both loved their presents. Everything turned out well in that area. I was pleased with how much they liked it. And even though that gift said ages 5+, Eli was practially a master at it! It was this electronic cowboy gun that uses an infrared beam to shoot bottles and cans off a log. They pop off, and the bottles even "break" in half.

I had two days to rest when I got back. And then my two nieces arrived. I've got them all to myself for 2 and half days! Their dad is coming in to take over this Friday. I'll still get to hang around and help out over the weekend though. Today we flew a kite because it was very windy. And then we went to Chick-fil-e where there is a playground and had lunch. Now they're having their naptime. When they get up we're going to plant flowers in the backyard! Diggin' in the dirt!! Woohoo!!

With the success of the first 4 nieces and nephews, I'm VERY excited about having 2 more in the family! A growing family is a beautiful thing.

Ok, I hear the girls talking over the monitors. I best go get them ready for gettin' dirty!

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my nephew's 2nd birthday!! I can't believe he's already TWO YEARS OLD! Wow. Happy Birthday!

Ho hum...

Titan is fully recovered. We had some issues for a few days, but he's all better now.

I'm heading up to Tennessee on Friday for a week. Nate is taking off to visit his brother, and I'm coming in for back up while Dr. Who goes off to work. I bought my nephew's 2nd birthday present today! It's awesome! It's labeled for ages 5+, but I have no doubt that he'll be able to handle it just fine. I also got him a book, just in case he doesn't like it as much as I think he will. I am very much looking forward to being with this part of my family. I'll have both Titan, and WG's German Shepherd, Wendy.

Saturday Nate, Dr. Who, and I are all going to a Predators' game!! I'm SO STOKED! I've not seen a Preds game before. Mom told me I saw a hockey game once when I was young, but I don't remember it, so even though it's not technically my first hockey game, it will seem like it. I love hockey 'cause they get to FIGHT!! Woohoo!

I bought bubble bath in the new Bath & Body Works scent, Wild Honeysuckle. I love it! I'm hoping to get to use it tonight if I don't get too distracted watching Lost. Maybe I just need to have a TV installed in the bathroom above the tub like Dr. Who has. Brilliant idea!

Ok, I have 45 minutes before Lost starts, I'm gonna go see about that bubble bath!

I did something mechanical!!

I'm so proud of myself because I did something mechanical!!

My battery on my motorcycle died over the winter because it got booted out of my garage into my mom's. So I kept forgetting to start it up and let it run a while to keep it in shape.

So...I go to Walmart and buy a battery charger.

I remove the battery from my Ninja.

I charge the battery over night.

I reinstalled the battery...and here comes the best part...

THE MOTORCYCLE ACTUALLY STARTED!!! Yay!!

I'm so proud! Anyhow, I got my bike back in shape and ready for a new year of riding!

Happy 1st Day of Spring!!

Spring has sprung! It arrived while we were at the beach. We came home to leaves showing up and the cherry trees started budding. It's so nice. I just hate the Bermuda grass that is still brown! ugh! But the plants on my deck are starting to be revived from the winter. And my camelia FINALLY bloomed! woohoo!

My trip to the beach was not what I had expected. First our flights got cancelled just 3 hours before we were supposed to board, and we were already on the other side of Atlanta by the airport! So I was on the phone with the airline for about an hour, as well as the rental car company. We weren't able to find a new flight that would get us there in time to pick up the rental car before they closed, and the airport was an hour from our destination, so we needed the car when we arrived. So, we just said, "Screw it," and we had our flights refunded and just started driving. This turned out to be a good thing because we got to surprise Whiskey Girl with a visit on our way through for her birthday.

The weather was what they said, though with the wind chill, it was considerably cooler than I expected, but that did not deter me from walking on the beach!! It was fun to see how Mom was so celebrated by her publishing company. They had a Margaritaville party one night. It was funny. Karaoke, limbo, lais, margarita glasses that light up, and good food and margaritas. The second night, mom's contact person at the publisher took us out to eat at an awesome restaurant by the wharf. I had the night's special, which was by far the best meal of the trip. I had filet mignon with cranberry mushroom sauce, sauteed red onion, grilled asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes. Yum!

After we finished our obligations with the publisher, we took off for the Outer Banks. The island hopping was fun, especially with the ferries. The first ferry was 2 and a half hours! It rained most of that ride, so we just napped in the car. The second ferry was only 40 minutes, and it was clear weather, so we got to watch the waters. Boats are such fun!

We went all the way up to Kitty Hawk and started heading home. We got to see the Wilbur and Orville Wright museum there. It was so interesting to see how far we have come in flight in just 100 years!

On the way home, we had planned to go through Raleigh and see Flannel Avenger, but my sister called and begged and pleaded for us to go the long way home through her town and visit again. So we gave in, and changed our plans. (Sorry about that, FA! After your help on the book, Mom was interested in meeting you.) It was a good visit again. My older sister, Mentsh, and her family were there for the weekend celebrating Whiskey Girl's birthday, too, so we had a limited family reunion, though Nate and Dr. Who and kids were missing! We missed all y'all!

So...that was my week. It was great. I hope yours was, too!

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my sister's, Whiskey Girl's, birthday! She's not old yet, still just under 30!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WHISKEY GIRL!!! I love you lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!!

Feel sorry for me...

Tuesday I am being forced to go to Atlantic Beach, NC, to be lazy and do nothing! Woe is me! Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain while we are there, so I guess I'll just have to have fun walking the beach in the rain! I'll love it! We, my mom and I, will be there for about 5 days, and we plan on driving the coast a bit after obligations are met. So as I said before, feel sorry for me; I know I'll be miserable all next week!

Today I feel a little sad...

It always feels weird to walk into a place with my dog and walk out with just a leash and collar. Titan is having a minor surgery today to remove a growth from his paw. Officially, it's a tumor, but nothing serious. The vet said that if it wasn't in such place that it was aggitating to Titan, he would probably just recommend ignoring it.

I know he'll be fine, but I've gotten used to having Titan with me at work and home, and it feels lonely without him here begging to go out and play. Thankfully, I'll be able to go pick him up at 3pm. Though at that time he won't be up for playing much because he'll have a bandaged paw and probably still will be a little drugged.

UPDATE:
Titan has returned to me! He is currently sleeping peacefully here in my office with me. He was such a good patient.