A little bronco busting

Here’s a little fun from my Dallas trip.

Go to http://www.cowgirl.net/
Go to Retrieve Your Movie
Login: ftworth154589
Password YXWYFW

You have to save the video and open in QuickTime, a free download if you don’t already have it. It’s from Apple so it’s ok to download.

Hoekstra for Governor

Pete Hoekstra, current congressional representative from West Michigan and ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, came to HMI today as part of his tour across Michigan today to announce his candidacy for governor. He was a marketing executive with HMI before he began his political career. I think he will be good for Michigan as governor.

I enjoyed being at his rally. Notice the HMI equa chairs in the background that are now sold at Costco.

Poll

This week on a morning local news program they gave the results of a poll of people in Michigan.

Who would rather eat dinner with?

MI Governor Jennifer Granholm--24.2%
AK Governor Sarah Palin--75.8%

Interesting.

Thankful Thursday

1. Getting to celebrate Mother's birthday together.
2. Mom
3. No issues flying. (But that also means no voucher money for future trips!)
4. Beautiful, warm weather while on vacation, and sunny weather although cooler to return to.
5. My teeth are fixed!!!
6. I've had time over the last week to do some just fun reading--four books in 5 days!!!

Vacation Reading

I did a little “beach” reading while on vacation. I bought the first book in Beverly Lewis’ The Heritage of Lancaster County series on Friday in AL. She does a lot of writing about the Amish and it was an easy reading book. On Monday I went to the library with Mom’s card to get book 2. I finished it before I left on Tuesday, and then yesterday before going to the dentist I stopped at the library here and got book 3. I finished it before going to handbells last night which says something about the difficulty of reading although I admit I’m not a read every word kind of person.

And on the plane coming back I read another short quick read about Adoniram Judson, first American missionary. In high school I read a much more detailed biography of his life and have always perked up at the mention of Adoniram Judson. This book was written in the 1920s so it was interesting to read a different style of writing.

Very Quick Update

1. Made it back on time although both flights were delayed.
2. Had a great time in AL and Atlanta.
3. I love creamed chicken and biscuits. Thanks, Mom, for being willing to make it for lunch on Tuesday rather than going out for lunch.
4. Had a great picnic lunch with Mary and Jaimie on Monday.
5. Basement floor was dry when I got home.
6. The dentist recemented my crown on today. My mouth feels so good!!! She was surprised it hadn't broken and that she could just glue it on.
7. Busy day at work catching up and getting ready for month end.
8. Can't believe my Lady Vols lost in the first round of the tournament ever!!! They were 42-0 in first and second round games.
9. Love it that Pat Summitt had the Lady Vols in the gym for a full practice the day after their loss. She said, "Losing in the first round means we're not very good and have work to do."

Vacation Day 3 and it's only 10:41

1. I woke up often during the night. The neighbor's dogs were barking, the bed squeaked, and I kept thinking about Mark and Molly's dear friend whose 38-year old husband died yesterday of a heart attack.
2. At 7:25 Jeffrey came in to tell me he was ready for big pancakes.
3. While eating one of Grandma's Good Rolls I felt something crunchy. The top half of my tooth came off. I called the dentist's office and she called back about 20 minutes later. She said this time it is the crown which is actually good because it's still under warranty. The problem is I will have to wait until Thursday afternoon to have anything done about it. It's a shooting pain occasionally, but I think as long as I'm careful about food and drink touching it, I should be ok. I think I'll go take some Alleve.
4. The boys are off for baseball's opening day parade and games, and I'm off to Costco and watch the game later.

Vacation Day 2

1. Slept until 8:00 CDT!!!
2. Did some shopping for the weekend.
3. Drove to ATL with Dad and Mom.
4. It was great to see the ATL family.
5. Molly and I put together 8 gifts for each decade of Mom's life with things that she likes. Ex. Snickers, Dollar Tree (to take the grandkids when they are in AL), plastic spatula for all her cooking, book about AL unique things since I couldn't find a book about the Civil War in Decatur, calendar of their family, Fresca, a book mark, and one other thing.
6. Lauren drove me to Target for a couple of things and a Starbucks.
7. Funny comment of the night comes from Jeffrey when asked if he wanted big pancakes in the morning, "Yes. And I get up early."

Guess I better get to bed so that I can get up to make those pancakes.

Vacation Day 1

Went to work early to leave early.
At lunch I chipped a filling but I thought it was my crown.
Thankfully the dentist's office fit me in since I was going out of town.
The dentist fixed the filling. It was pretty minor so she didn't deaden anything.
To smooth things so my bite was right she decided to smooth off a point on the upper tooth.
They had to peel me off the ceiling it hurt so badly. That lasted about .1 second.
Flight out of GR was 20 minutes late.
Cincinnati's concourse C is closed except for a few flights. The gates are all in A.
In the 25 minutes I had between flights I literally got off the plane, boarded a bus, waited for it to fill, rode to concourse A, got off the bus, went up an escalator to where the gate was for my flight at the top of the escalator, did a U turn, checked in for the flight, boarded the bus to go back to Concourse C, got on the plane. Stupid. I'm pretty sure the drunk engineer who thought up Michigan lefts is involved in this remodel at Cincinnati airport.
Got into Huntsville on time, and Dad was waiting for me with Mother in the car.
I don't have to wear a coat here. I like it.
Time for bed.

AIG

I don't know the name but I heard on the radio a senator saying the AIG stands for arrogant, incompetent, and greedy.

This wasn't even an original comment, but does a senator who voted for TARP really have the right to call AIG arrogant, incompetent, and greedy.

The AIG fiasco show the gross incompetence of the government who quickly passed TARP without due diligence to know about the bonuses in the contact.

And now the talk is taxing the bonuses at 98% so the government gets the money back. So, do we really want the government to quickly pass a tax at 98%? I mean as nice as it may be in this case, I don't want them doing that to any money I get. And a retroactive tax is unconstitutional.

Haircut

I got a haircut recently? Why? Here are some of the comments I've had about my hair that made me get my current style:

1. You need more layers.
2. You need more of a bang.
3. I like your hair out of your face.
4. You need something that takes less time.
5. You need a hairstyle and not just a hairstyle.

OK, a couple of those comments came from me, but I needed something new.

Spring

Who can complain about a high of 69 with lots of sunshine? I suppose the only complaining is having to be inside working. Good thing we have a Captain Sundae run planned for this afternoon!

Eye Issue

The eye issue was contact related. I opened a new pair of contacts yesterday and apparently the right one is bad. I went ahead and opened another new right one this morning, and it is feeling fine. Now my contact inventory is uneven between left and right.

If that’s the worst thing that happens to me today, this week, or this month, I’m ok.

An Early Thankful Thursday

Just in case I forget this on Thursday. I rarely if ever carry a contact case with me. I put my contacts in first thing in the morning and take them out just before going to bed at night, and rarely, rarely, rarely have a problem.

This morning I put in new contacts after being warned by the optometrist on Friday about how long I wear my contacts. The right one was uncomfortable, but I thought it would get better. It kept getting worse and worse as we went through rehearsal, and then I remembered that I got a case with solution in it on Friday at the eye doctor's office and it was still in my coat pocket. On Saturday I thought about taking it out, but for some reason I didn't.

I was thankful that God had me keep the case in my pocket so that I could rinse the contact lens this morning before church.

In the interest of full disclosure I must say that rinsing it didn't help and it got only worse and worse as the morning went on. I actually took it out after church and drove home with only the left contact in. (Couldn't have driven if I'd done the opposite.) I took it out as soon as I got home, took off all my eye makeup, and rinsed my eye thoroughly. It's still irritated which makes me think either there's something in there, I have an eye infection, or I have pink eye. Thankfully it's not red just itchy and irritated.

Jayne from Handbells, the encourager

This morning was my time to play the piano at church. There weren't a lot of songs to learn, but one especially was difficult. All Creatures of Our God and King has a lot of notes and a lot of stuff going on it. I felt ok after my last practice last night, but it was pretty rough this morning I thought. My consolation is that the piano is usually pretty soft so most people don't hear it much or even know anyone is on the piano. After the first set (sounds like a band!) I sat down beside Jayne from Handbells. I kind of shuddered and said that it had never been worse. She vehemently disagreed--"Nuh-huh! It's been worse before!"

Oh yes, that was a real encouragement.

Then for the song of response after we were supposed to sing four verses of a song with a key change before verse 4. When we have several verses I sometimes lose what verse we are on. I thought we had sung two verses, but the organist went into the key change. It rather threw me, but I played on. She plays for the choir number and asked me to turn pages for her. During the prayer while we sat at the piano I asked her how many verses of the last song we sang. She said three. Then she looked at the Order of Worship and said, "Oh no!" This may sound bad, but I really like it better when others mess up!

Friday Shutdown

It's 8:00 a.m. on a Friday and I typically would be at work, but today is the first of our every other week Friday shutdown.

The alternative is worse. I'd rather live on 90% of salary than 0%.

I Fought the Water and the Water Won

I'm calling Uncle on the water in the basement. I've decided to take down paneling and find the crack. Hopefully they will find it with one sheet of paneling down and not have to pull up carpet. I really like the carpet that is there, and even more so than the cost I just don't want to have to pick out something else.

I'm tired of getting up early to suck up water, suck up more water when I get home, and then suck up water as the last thing I do at night before heading to bed. Even though it's not raining and I'm not getting much water as soon as it rains again there will be more, and I need to keep as much water sucked up to prevent mold.

Who said home ownership is a great thing?

Thankful Thursday

1. I got to meet people from two dealerships in the past week. It's really interesting to put a face with a name. Two of them have really surprised me as not being anything I had pictured with e-mail and some phone communication.

2. Vacation was great.

3. Next week brings more vacation!!! and family!!!

4. The sun has shone a lot yesterday and today. Cold weather is always better (better not good) when the sun is shining. Somewhere I heard that we had more sun in the first two days of March than we did in all of December.

5. Cold canned pears. It may sound silly, but I really like eating the pears and salsa that we canned last summer as well as the freezer jam.

I think this should be the last of the vacation posts, but I said I'd post some pictures so here they are.

This is me at the Mary Kay Museum. I was hoping for a cardboard cutout of Mary Kay Ash so we could look like best buds, but I had to settle for a mannequin in the red jacket--my current MK status. I had to take the picture myself and I had a terrible time getting the mannequin and me in the same picture. She never would smile any more than this.

This is the street where JFK was shot. There are actually two "x"s painted on the street for the exact spots where he was shot. That was a little creepy to me to see and then to drive over.

This is me at the Ballpark at Arlington. I've now added that to my list of major league ballparks. The glass in the outfield on the second and third floors are offices that anyone can rent. Wouldn't it be cool to go to work and be able to look out over the game? I'm sure the offices aren't cheap, and the guy who was on the tour just laughed and said he'd never get any work done.

This is me at the cowgirl memorial outside the cowgirl hall of fame. I guess I've just never been a real cowgirl/boy fan as it's good to say I've been to Dallas/Fort Worth, seen the rodeo, etc. but I can't say I really get into the western scene.

Vacation Observations

A few observations from the trip:

1. I think more people smoke in Dallas than in West Michigan based on my non-scientific observation.
2. Dallas roads are crazy!!! There are so many that cross over each other, merge and then separate in different directions. I think I'm pretty good with directions, but I don't think I could tell you how to get anywhere in Dallas except from our hotel to the dealership.
3. I think I feel about GPSs the way I feel about flying. I'm not afraid of flying, but I don't really like to because I don't like being out of control. I get in a tube, we take off, I don't know where we are, and then later we land at what hopefully is our destination. I like it when there's a screen that shows where the plane is. With the GPS, I put in an address and hope it leads me there; I'm out of control.
4. I realized that I may be more of a natural blonde than I thought while I was in Dallas, but more on that later.

A Dallas Recap

So here's a quick recap of the past four days. Maybe some pictures will come later.

1. Visited the MK Museum
2. GPS went out and phone service is spotty here so I couldn't call anyone for help to get to the hotel.
3. The Geek Squad showed me the reset button on the back under the antenna in my Garmin so I was good to go.
4. Dinner twice at BJ's--it's close to the hotel and we went with some dealer personnel on Thursday and then last night again with just the two of us.
5. Went to the Sixth Floor Museum. It was a really poignant time to think of what happened there. It reminded me of taking Rebecca Hauter to the Metamora Courthouse. She said, "Now let me get this straight. Abraham Lincoln was in this room?" Me: "Yes." Her after a pause. "Wow!"
6. Toured the Ballpark at Arlington. That adds another ballpark to my list of ballparks visited. One item on my bucket list is to go to every major league ballpark. I thought the tour guide may not make it through the tour as she was extremely old. She's a baseball purist and numerous times expressed her displeasure that the team was covering up the Ranger bullpen with siding for advertising so you could no longer see the pitchers warming up.
7. Got to sit out by the pool in the sun. Wow!!!
8. In Fort Worth we went to the Cowgirl Museum (I have something to post later about that) and the Stockyards. We ate at the Cattlemen's Steakhouse and had the best sirloin ever! We saw the cattle drive--Those longhorns are so conditioned to it that they don't need the cowboys riding beside them.
9. Went to my first rodeo that night. It was rather entertaining. That night Renae said we could cross off going to a rodeo on our bucket list.
10. After worshipping with the Oak Ridge Boys on tv yesterday morning we went to Six Flags. Renae loves roller coasters and I'm ok with them. I won't ride wooden ones though. If I count correctly we rode at least 10 times yesterday. It was a perfect day--the weather and the crowd size--big enough for most things to be open yet small enough that the wait for rides was maybe 5 minutes.
11. Last night the weather showed random cities--Grand Rapids 32 with rain/snow. I looked at Renae and said, "I' m moving to Dallas!" However, we both commented several times that even though it is really, really nice now it must just be terribly miserable in July and August.
12. In typical fashion my flight out of Dallas is delayed making me miss the connection to GR. Thankfully I could get moved over to Renae's flights so we will be flying together. Now we both can be late getting in!

I love vacation.

Dallas

I love 85 degree weather and sunny! The weather has been great in Dallas!

Things I've done so far:
1. Mary Kay Museum
2. Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Wow, very sombering and a weird feeling driving down Elm St exactlyl where Kennedy was shot.
3. The Ballpark at Arlington. This adds another ballpark to my list.
4. Sat outside at the pool and read. Wouldn't be doing this in Michigan on March 6.

It's much better to get around with a GPS than without! On Thursday my GPS stopped working so I drove and drove and drove trying to get back to the hotel or dealership without any directions. Thankfully the Geek Squad at Best Buy showed me a reset button on the GPS so I'm good to go again, and I"m going!

Today we're off to Ft. Worth.

Thankful Thursday

1. I'm on vacation.

Enough said.

Water Update

Several have asked about the water situation. The maintenance guy came yesterday and said the best solution is to wait until it gets warmer and drier. They will dig externally, find the crack, and patch it. I'm glad that's what he wants to do instead of internal repairs. 1. I'd be responsible to repair the paneling, carpet, drop ceiling, etc. if they worked internally and 2. If the crack is repaired inside I may not get any water inside, but there would still be water getting into the crack. With Michigan winters that water would freeze and thaw numerous times and would only make the crack worse. As he said, "We'd be back at this in 3-4 years."

So for now I'll keep an eye on water in the basement, keep it sucked up, and pray for warm, dry weather SOON!

It Finally Happened

Repeat after me: Always take your name badge when you run an errand at lunch so that you can get back into the building without having to call a co-worker to open the door for you.

Water Woes

Yesterday I talked with a couple of board members regarding my water problem in the basement. One asked what was decided after I got water in the basement just after Christmas. Since the power had been out and there had been a huge rain with a 2 foot snow melt, the maintenance guy, board president, and I agreed that hopefully this was a one-time event and we’d wait before ripping off paneling, etc. to look for a crack.

The board member’s reply: “Well, since we had a big rain Thursday night, this is probably another one-time event.”

Isn’t another one-time event an oxymoron?

Is there something wrong when all of my family in AL, GA, and SC had more snow on the ground than I did in MI yesterday?