I Love Summer Gift Exchange Reveal

I took part in a I Love Summer Gift Exchange

over at Our Crazy Bunch

My partner was Heather, who sent the me the cutest stuff!

 First was this cute tote, that has since traveled to Tampa and Boston with me!

Inside the tote was this adorable hat, even adorable on the goof ball wearing it...

There was all of this cute stuff too!

I'm not sure who told Heather that I needed a new pot holder, and it matches the plates that are perfect for an impromptu summer picnic.

Also included were drink stirrers, chap stick, a foot balm to keep your feet nice and smooth, nail polish, gum, a good read, super cute flip flop key chain, green tea raspberry drink mix, and a necklace.

Heather, you did an amazing job.  Thank you for all these goodies that were so cleverly packaged.  You are much more creative than I am, but I hope that you loved your summer package too!

Wordless Wednesday

Linky here:  Heartfelt Balance Handmade Life

Monday Hops

Weekend Hops and Todays wrap up

So, today we decided to go to IKEA.  The closest one for me is 4 hours away in Atlanta.  Here it is 45 minutes away, which is the time frame I'm used to if I have to go to Wal-Mart, or the doc, or Target or Outback.  In other words, how long it takes me to get to a bigger town.  I live in a small town.  So it wasn't like a crazy thing to hop in the car to go 45 min to shop.  Of course we found a Wal-Mart, so I can say that anywhere I've gone in the US in the last 10 years, I've shopped at Wal-Mart.  Gotta support the retirement fund for my hubs. :)  Coming back to Hanscom, the traffic was crazy busy!  Like stop and go!  At 3 in the afternoon!  Later we went to a carnival thing the base was putting on which was nice.  It was actually called something other than carnival thing, lol.  Then to the mall which was huge!  AND got to eat some great chicken curry with nan bread (not Coco's Ichibanaya Curry) but good. At 5am getting up in the morning to go watch my son in law run a 3K, obstacle course run, then we are all headed to Salem, MA.  Hopefully, I won't be accused, tried, and convicted of being a witch.  I do have reddish hair ya know!

Here are the weekend hops I've linked up to.

Boston

I am finally at Kristen's in Boston.  

She picked me up curbside at the airport, apparently it costs a crazy amount to park for even a short period of time!

I'm excited because it has been 6 months since I've seen the grands.

So here they are, plus my typical tourist pictures from the drive home (mainly of downtown)  Boston!

Wordless Wednesday

At the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa.  Two different days, two different ponds. Beautiful!

A bazinga-worthy Wednesday

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A bazinga-worthy Wednesday

1) It seems like a ton of restaurants have started having savory salads that include fruit (strawberries, mandarin oranges, grapes, apples, etc.) along with lettuce or some other leafy veggie. Frankly, I don't think fruit and veggies should mix on my plate, but apparently not everyone agrees with me. What is your take on salads with fruit?  I think they are actually pretty good, like this Apple Pecan Chicken Salad from Wendy's.

2) I like to play this little game with myself (and sometimes friends) where I make up stories in my head about someone's secret sexual fetishes based on the way they look and my initial opinion of them. I once made the assumption that a certain female coworker was into dominatrix stuff and my theory just recently got confirmed, much to my disgust. If I were to meet you in person, what kind of fetish do you think I'd assume you'd be into? Exhibitionism.

3) A former coworker recently told me that he always wished he had the ability to stop time so he could do it during a company wide meeting and arrange all the bosses into a crazy orgy and when he un-stopped time they'd be caught in compromising positions. What would you do if you could stop time?  I have no good answer for this one.  I have no idea.

4) On an episode of "The Big Bang Theory," the character of Sheldon breaks into an arcade and plays in the ball pit for a while, which looks like a ton of fun to me. (Click here if you want to watch the scene.) If you were locked in an arcade for a night and could act like a carefree child, what games would you play or what activities would you do?  My favorite arcade game is Skee Ball followed by air hockey.

5) If someone gave you an insider trading secret, would you risk getting caught and use the information to invest money in a business and rake in the cash? Heck yeah!

6) I came home from work last Friday night to find a massive crime scene at the drug dealer's house across the street. As I was trying to drive into my driveway, I saw two police officers throw a very tall, large man onto the ground, put handcuffs on him, and drag him to a police car. It was like an episode of "COPS" in front of me. Have you ever witnessed someone getting arrested? (Or, have you ever been arrested yourself?)
No & No.

7) Food-eating challenges intrigue me (and apparently fans of the TV shows "Man vs. Food" and "Outrageous Food"). A local hot dog place will give you free hot dogs if you can eat 25 or more in an hour. I so think I could do it. Have you ever taken part in some sort of food eating contest or challenge? No, I'd embarrass myself by puking way before the winner was finished eating.

8) Flash mobs seem to be happening everywhere all the time. What do you think is the appeal of being in a flash mob? This is a phenomenon I simply do not understand. To satisfy a secretly harbored desire to be an actor/actress.

9) My younger brother disturbingly nicknamed my breasts "Pedro" and "Sanchez" one day; why they're named after Mexican men I don't know. Have you ever nicknamed a body part, of your own or someone else's? Yes, I've named my breasts Mamie and Mammy. 

10) Since I started my current job, I've met a lot of women who are shoe-obsessed. Apparently there's a difference between wearing shoes and loving shoes. Why do you think some women feel the need to own up to 100 or more pairs of shoes? Why do you think they will pay hundreds of dollars on a single pair? First, because you can never have too many pair of shoes, and secondly, because they are more comfortable.

11) Would you pose completely naked for a magazine for $10,000?  Sure, It'd be BBW probably.  If I had a rocking bod and Playboy or Penthouse were interested, then I would need more $$.

12) If I walked into your home at this exact moment, what would I see? Is it neat and clean, is it mostly clean with just a few things out of place, or is it like my house which always looks like a tornado went through?  Usually, it looks well lived in.  Right now, like a tornado went through, between traveling and having the master bath redone, definitely like a tornado went through.

Tuesday Hops!

Tuesday Hops!

Parent Palace: Taming Tuesday Blog Hop

Love bites when it's Wednesday

Love bites when it's Wednesday

I linked up to this last week, then planned on finishing it while on our trip.  So it's late, but I do try to honor my link committments!

W.T.F. meme: random questions from my totally random mind.

1) My neighbor once asked me if I was pregnant after I had just gained some weight. She was so embarrassed about her mistake that she didn't speak to me for a year. Have you ever accidentally asked if a woman was pregnant when she wasn't?  Yes, and I was terribly embarrassed by it also.

2) Several parents' organizations have spoken out about teenage "sexting." Do you think the members of the parents' organizations do it themselves? Do you think they text sexy messages or photos to their significant others? Are they just concerned parents or do you think they're hypocrites? Hypocrites!  And how dumb are those teenagers to get caught?

3) Your phone rings, and it's your local newspaper calling to get an exclusive interview with you. What happened (or what did you do) to get them to want to interview you? HAHA, this has actually happened to me, but it wasn't because I did something, it was because a meth lab was busted about a block from my house!  Literally, across the road and 3 houses down!  (Yes, that's a block, we have big lots.)

4) Do you follow recipes when you cook or are you an improviser in the kitchen? My boyfriend likes to throw random things into dishes, like the time he was cooking steak for us and put several packets of Taco Bell sauce into the marinade.  I find a recipe I like, look at several for the same dish, then combine or improvise as I see fit.  Nothing has been thrown to the dogs or in the trash yet.

5) Self-serve frozen yogurt places (Orange Leaf, Peach Wave, and Fresh Berry, just to name a few) have completely overtaken my area. They normally have about 10 types of frozen yogurt and up to 50 types of toppings. Pretend you're eating at one. What types of frozen yogurt and toppings do you get? Chocolate, no toppings.  And while we are on the subject....frozen yogurt is supposed to be healthy right?  So why offer all those topping choices?  Kind of ruins the healthiness factor.

6) June is National Accordion Awareness Month. How crazy is it that they have an awareness month for accordions? What do you want people to be aware of? Yes it is seriously crazy.  That the government spends way too much money on stupid things like National Accordian Awareness Month, but downsizes the military.

7) I live across the street from drug dealers who scare the living hell out of me. If you were to decide you suddenly want to try an illegal drug, do you know where you would go to purchase the drug? Yes, I do.  Hey, see the answer to #3 (for one) and I live in a small town.

8) You've won a $500 gift card to Walmart, Target, KMart, or any other megastore of your choosing. What is the first thing you purchase? A new laptop.

9) NBC's new show "Love Bites" talked about "the list" in its premiere episode. "The list" is a list of celebrities you're allowed to sleep with if you ever get a chance, and it does not count as cheating toward your significant other. Who would be your top 5 celebrities on your list? There aren't 5 celebrities I'd want to sleep with.  haha believe that if you want to.

10) OK, let's switch that around. Say you and your significant other have created lists of celebrities you're allowed to sleep with if you get the chance. Your partner spots the #1 person on his/her list and sleeps with the person, which is totally OK by the rules of "the list." Do you think you could actually handle it? If I knew about it, nope. Wait, could I participate? :-P

Blogger DT's and Our Weekend In Tampa

We left to start our trip to Tampa last Wednesday evening.  I took the laptop, thinking I could plug into the hotel wireless and complete a blog I was working on and blog during the trip.  

HA.  So did not happen!

My laptop has a firewall on it, that prevents any but my home wireless to connect with the internet.

Nope, let me rephrase that.  It connects, it just won't let any websites load.

Arrrgh!

So needless to say, I have not had access and even though we had a great time, I did have some downtime that I could have been on the computer.

So. Not. Happy.  About that!

We went to Tampa for the Florida State ATA (American Trucking Association) Truck Driving  Rodeo Championship.  My husband placed 2nd in his local rodeo.  He always gets nervous and has never placed even close to the top, so this was a really BIG deal for him.  Not only for him, but for every driver that gets to go to state.  Only the BEST of the best get to go and participate in the State Championship!

The reason we left Wednesday evening was because my husband, Kenneth was asked to drive his truck and pull one of the Wal-Mart billboard trailers that they were taking. Pulling the "billboard" meant he had to be down there by noon on Thursday, instead of 3pm like everyone else.  He drives out of the Alachua, FL distribution center.  Once he hooked up to the trailer Thursday morning, I followed him the rest of the way into Tampa. They have to take a test on the first night there, on rules of the road. Almost like the test they have to take to for their CDL license, but harder.

The rodeo is a road course set up with cones and takes them through a series of six problems.  Hopefully the pictures will give you a better idea of how difficult this course is.

So prepare for picture overload!

This is the billboard trailer.

See above where it says, 1 Million Accident Free Miles? That's my honey drove those 1 Million Miles!

This is Kenneth on the course.  He was 5th from the last driver to drive on Saturday! Tell me he didn't have plenty of time to work up a good case of nerves!

There were several classes of competition.  He drove in the 5 axle class.  He normally drives a 5 axle, but with a sleeper tractor as you can see from the picture above where he is in his truck.  They try to put you in a truck that does not belong to the company you work for.  Occasionally, you'll end up with a trailer that belongs to the company you work for. But that is how he is in a Winn Dixie truck and Fed Ex trailer.

 Whew!  Finished!

Our friend Jimmy, on the course.  (He is from the same town we are, and they transferred to the Alachua DC with another friend at the same time.)

Spectating:  myself, Charlotte & Regan (Jimmy's wife & daughter)

All of the truck drivers from the Alachua, FL DC that participated

The WalMart drivers and management that placed in State were all from Alachua

They have an executive challenge where each participating company picks one executive, that has never held a CDL to run the same course as the drivers.

The drivers, in order to place, have a combined score of the test, a pre-trip (a safety check that drivers perform on their truck and trailer prior to leaving, every time they start a trip.), and the road course.

And last, me goofing off in the car leaving the awards dinner and ceremony.

So that is where I've been this weekend, and why I've been absent from blogging.

IT is off my front porch!

And back in the bathroom where it belongs!

Here is today's progress!

Hop I've linked up to today!

Bathroom progress and Tuesday hops

It's been a while since I posted pics of the bathroom remodel.  

Mainly because it was hard to tell what the progress was.

The toilet is still on the front porch however.  It should be back in the bathroom tomorrow, but then the second bath toilet will be out there. We are having tile put down in there also, but luckily, for just a day or two.  Then I can get back to having a nice front porch that I don't have to cover up with a trailer full of stuff needing to go to the dump.

Here are the pics I took this evening:
The floor has grout! As do the tiles above the shower.

This is the new color, which looks like the old in this picture, but it was in shadow here.

This is a much better depiction of the color.

These are the Tuesday hops I'm linking up with: