Ho hum.....

Who turned the thermostat to HELL?????  It is so freaking hot here, in some areas of the US this week, it has actually been hotter than Saudi Arabia.  Amazing.  So much for a mild winter, we're paying for that shit now.

It's too hot to go to the pool - I think I would burn to a crisp in about 10 minutes flat. Not to mention I think the water is probably so warm it wouldn't be refreshing and cooling to get into.

I've dropped my car off to get new tires and perhaps brakes, damn I hate automotive maintenance stuff.  Nothing ever comes cheap, and it all seems to hit at once.  But, it's a necessity, so we'll deal with it.

No plans this weekend, other than going to see "Magic Mike" tomorrow.  Major eye candy.....love me some Matthew McEverhowyouspellhislastname, Channing Tatum's not too bad, the hispanic guy from CSI Miami, Joe Mantagniello (that's probably spelled wrong but woot woot he's hot).  And Kevin Nash is in it.  Not exactly my cup of tea, Nash, but hey....it takes all kinds.

Went to look at some houses the other night - first one was nice, move-in ready, but the bedrooms were a little small, the closets were way too small, and it was on a road that was just way too busy.  The 2nd one was quite lovely, but would have taken a lot of elbow grease to get the paint right and I wanted something with a little more room inside, as in an extra bedroom, a basement, or a den area, any of those as an extra would have been great.  The third one - you could tell it probably was once a very nice place, but it was in what I would consider a "white trash" area.  It shared a driveway with 2 other homes, and the driveway was actually red clay with gravel, and filled with gullies (no offense meant to anyone that lives on a dirt road or doesn't have a paved driveway - this was the total atmosphere of the area, not one specific thing).  The other 2 homes on the driveway were kinda junky looking and not well kept.  It also would have needed a lot of work on the inside and out to make it liveable, but it had an awesome floor plan.

Times like now would be great to win the lottery - then I could just pick a house, or go have one built exactly like I want.  Guess I need to head to the store soon and buy me some lottery tickets.  :-)

Y'all stay cool, and try to find something fun to do this weekend.  Movies is it for me.

Yay, it's Friday!

I live for the weekends.  Peace from the days of the week, and the knowledge that I will stay busy with searching for deals at farmers market to fix up to fill our freezers.  The past 2 weekends, we've been to the Farmers Market in Forest Park, and have put up purple hull peas, green snap beans, butterbeans, white acre peas, peaches, corn, turnips, and collards.  We are going to the local farmers market in Jonesboro tomorrow for it's opening day of the year, and if we don't find much, then we'll head to the one in Forest Park.

We're looking for Roma tomatoes, perhaps a different kind of bean or pea, and maybe some squash and sweet potatoes.  I think we're gonna can some salsa and pickled peppers tomorrow, too.  :-D

I try to stay busy at work these days, things are getting tougher, but that's the work environment for you.  Things are settling down some, but there are still some issues.  That's life!

Finally got Momma Clydie's aneurysm fixed this past week.  She has done very well, and Michael has been gracious enough to come hang out with her so that I could work. 

I think I'm still fighting the effects of being in a different time zone for 2 weeks and coming back.  I stay exhausted all the time, usually falling asleep right after dinner.  Yet, I wake up around 4am or so, and usually fall right back asleep after a quick bathroom run.  Then I usually get up the first time the alarm goes off, without hitting the snooze, so at least that's good.  I just don't like falling asleep so early in the afternoon.

We ate at Olympia Pizza last week, and I dearly love the Greek salads.  Especially the pepperoncinis.  To the point that I have craved them all week!  I actually went to the grocery store this afternoon, got the stuff to make the salad, and also got a Mediterranean pizza.  I think I ate half the jar of pepperoncinis!  They were sooooo good!!!!

Well I'm getting sleepy, so I suppose it's time to wind things down for the night.  I hope you've all had a great night, and will have a great weekend!

Frustrated......

Just one of those days. 

I'm glad to be home, but I'm not. 

I miss my husband.  Badly.

I'm having trouble getting motivated to go to the gym and really get into working out hard, unless there is a class that I really like going to, and those don't always happen every day, at a time that fits into my schedule.  Not going to the gym, and not working hard, is effecting my emotions and my thoughts about stuff.

There's a lot of stuff I need to be doing around the house, and I'm just not feeling it.

I need to win the lottery.  Dammit!!!!  That would solve some of my problems (as in no longer having to work :-) )

Apparently something in my sports bra was tasty to the dogs, or at least one of them (Gabriel, I'm assuming) - got home this afternoon and it was wet.  No damage, so it wasn't chewed on, but apparently whichever dog sucked it or licked it til it was soaked.  Reminds me now that I need to wash it and let it dry before I go to bed. 

So, there's something I need to go do now.  I know, this is a screwed up, jumbled around post, but that's the way my mind has been working lately. 

Tomorrow's Hump Day - I hope it's a better one than the last Hump Day.

Glad to be home!

Got home this past Tuesday afternoon.  While I am glad to be back in the US, I already miss my husband terribly, and have had to deal with some other stuff that has about driven me out of my mind.  But here's to my trip home:

Uneventful, for the most part, at the airport in Manchester.  I got flagged for "additional screening" as I was preparing to board the plane, so I got the "pat-down/grope-fest" by a British female security officer, had to remove my shoes (something you don't normally have to do when flying in the UK), and had my carry-on stuff plundered. 

I was seated in an aisle seat next to a young British woman who seemed pleasant enough.  Until we started to take off and she started barfing in the air sickness bag.  Bless her heart - she was trying to be discrete, and did do a pretty good job of that, as I didn't realize she was sick until she'd been "coughing" for several minutes. 

Before take-off, there was a screaming toddler behind me, constantly whining and crying.  Thank God that stopped after take off, I would have lost my mind had that kid screamed throughout the flight - never heard a peep from him after take-off.

I managed to finish reading one book - "He is Legend" - a collection of new short stories written to honor Richard Matheson.  Stephen King and his son collaborated to write one of the stories, and it was good, as were most of the other stories in the collection.

I also worked on a cross-stitch project I had started in England, and almost finished it.  Damn needle broke when I was doing the last of the finishing touches.  I had to get a new set of needles, and I finished the project on Wednesday night.

Apparently when I fly, I'm a fart magnet.  I don't know why, but both on the flight over, and the flight back, I noticed an unpleasant odor would pop up every now and then.  And no, it wasn't me!  And it couldn't have been Steven, as he wasn't with me for the return home (he's staying in England until July 2).

Of course my seat-mate got sit again on the descent, and apparently attracted a LOT of attention from a flight attendant, who kept bringing her bags and wet towels and stuff.  I had tuned her out, literally, by plugging in my headphones and cranking the sound up really loud to the movie that was still playing.  I did NOT want to hear puke sounds as we landed!

Once we landed, I made a bee-line to the ladies room to put my contacts in, and then I headed towards customs and baggage claim.  It seemed like I had walked a mile, then I realized - OH SHIT I LEFT MY CARRY-ON IN THE LADIES ROOM!!!!  I went back and was taken to the customs area for passengers who are catching connecting flights, and security was checking my bag.  I was so embarassed, and I got a lecture from once of the guards about how much trouble this could have caused, but all-in-all, they were both very nice to me. 

Had to go through additional screening at customs by the agriculture department, apparently just a routine, random screening, then I was done.  Went to eat at our mexican restaurant, and then picked up my boys from the kennel.  Boy were they glad to see me and me them!  Took them to the dog park for a run then settled in at home.

Been a hellish week back for reasons I'm not going to discuss, but suffice it to say that I wish I was still in England, or that I would win a mega-lottery and be able to do whatever I want with certain aspects of my life. 

I've also managed to hurt both big toes now, one at work on Wednesday morning, the other one just a little while ago this afternoon.  Oh well, I've got to be more careful with what I'm doing I suppose. 

Anyways, I'm practicing my grill skills right now, and trying to get ready to start a fresh week at work.  I hope you've all had a great time living vicariously through me, with the blogs and photos on Facebook from my travels these past few weeks, but now it's time to get back to the daily monotony that is my life.  Hope you all had a great weekend, and here's to a happy Monday.

Coming to an end....

Today is my last day in Southport.....Marion and I took my husband to the airport this morning so he can fly back to his deployment station in Kosovo.  Damn, I hated seeing him go.  We have had such a wonderful time together these past 12 days - sure the traveling and sightseeing was great, but it was even better just to be able to spend time with him.  But, he is more than half-way finished with this deployment, so we are on the short side of the whole deal before he gets home, and I can't wait!!!!!

The weather here has been wonderful, up until Thursday.  It was rainy and drizzly a good bit of the past 4 days.  Rainy all day yesterday, so we stayed in, surfed the net, and watched the Robin Hood movie with Russell Crowe.  And of course today, it is beautiful again, sunshiny and will be a little on the warm side (nothing like Georgia has been lately, but quite comfortably warm). 

The food  here - I have had nothing bad, but then again I only ate one traditional English food - fish and chips, and that was quite good.  Experienced 2 different Italian restaurants, an Argentina steak house, some other type of steak house in Liverpool, and a few other local places.  Everything wasa beautiful, itsa mah favorite (inside joke with Salvatorre).


Friday I cooked my damn enchildas for dinner for everyone.  They don't sell Velveeta cheese here, so I had to improvise with monterrey jack sliced cheese and some grated "mature" cheese (aged cheddar), nor do they sell Ro*Tel tomatoes (had to use tomatoes with chillies and peppers) and it was actually quite good, better than the usual recipe.  Mom bought some Cadbury cake rolls (like Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls) and some type of snowball treat - Marion bit into a snowball and wow - he was excited at how good they were (Mom said he musta had an orgasm lol).

Oh I almost forgot - our trip to York Thursday - we went to the York Minster, which was very nice, and the Jorvik Viking Museum.  That was quite interesting - it was actually a ride that went through part of the exhibit, showing what a viking community may have been like, and then of course various artifacts, drawings, and skeletons.  At one point, there was a display of an actual human fecal specimen (yep, a turd), and an explanation of how it was found and what their diet would have been like.

So at dinner that evening (we ate at El Gaucho, I believe was the name, it was an Argentina steakhouse), Mom says "did you all see the babe ruth that was stuck up on the wall at the viking place?"  We were all like "huh?"  Took us a minute, then Marion starts laughing and says "of all the things for you to remember and to strike you as interesting, you had to bring up the turd on display".  Talk about loud, raucous laughter!  I laughed until I cried! 

I managed to laugh to the point of tears 3 different times over the past 12 days.  I haven't done that in quite a long time, and it was good to get that kind of release.  This has been a wonderful vacation, one that was busy yet relaxed, with plenty of things to do and see,  yet plenty of down time for relaxing and just doing nothing. 

And of course the nightmares are starting up, the ones about going back to work.  I had one last night, not sure what to make of it, but I've already decided today that I'm not going to let it bother me, or taint my thoughts about returning to work on Wednesday.  Work is what it is, and I will make the best of it, regardless of the circumstances.

I hope you all have had a great weekend, and will have a wonderful week.  I head back to the USA tomorrow, and back to my "normal" life, at least as normal as it can be with a deployed husband, and a son I'm leaving in England for another month.  Gonna get home, get me some mexican food for dinner, and pick up my furbabies and let them have a nice run and play at the park. 

Thank you Mom and Marion for a wonderful experience in England, thank you to my dear husband for taking his R&R in England, and I thank God for save travels for all of us.

Saturday in Southport

It's been a busy week.  Since my last post last weekend, about going to Liverpool, we've been to London for 2 days, spent Wednesday as a boys day/girls day out (Mom and I went into town shopping and had lunch, and Brian and Steven went with Marion to look at properties for his business), and we spent the night in York with Mom and Marion.

Monday, Brian, Steven and I left for London via the rail system.  I'd never traveled by train before, and it was quite interesting.  We got to see a lot of countryside, and city areas, as we traveled the 2+ hr ride to London via Liverpool.  Our hotel was interesting, too - very small room with 3 twin beds, and a bathroom "closet" whose size rivaled that of a cruise ship bathroom (very tiny, for those of you that have never seen or heard of the size of bathrooms on cruise ships).  We took a cab over to the Westminster Abbey area, and took a lot of photos of various things there. 

We ended up going on the bus tour through London, stopping to see lots of different sites, and taking a ton of pictures, all of which are posted on my Facebook.  On Tuesday, we did the tour at St Paul's Cathedral.  Let me tell you - that was an absolutely breathtaking experience that nearly brought me to tears from the beauty and the magnitude of what I was seeing.  Unfortunately, photographs inside aren't permitted, so I wasn't able to take photos of the things that moved me in such a way I just really can't explain my feelings about it. 

At the Cathedral, you have the opportunity to climb to a point that is at the top of the rotunda, which is very close to the very top of the actual cathedral.  This climb involves approximately 530 steps, mostly on spiral staircases.  See - the cathedral is 365 feet high to the highest point at the top of the cross.  It's 257 steps to the first level, called the Whispering Gallery, then another 99 steps to the Stone Gallery, then another 174 steps to the Golden Gallery. 

We (well, Brian and I) had not planned to walk to the top, but Steven did, and we didn't want him alone in a foreign country, and he darted ahead of us.  So.....here we go, up the stairs.  The first 257 weren't bad - they were solid wooden stairs like you'd have at home, except they were in a sprial staircase.  The Whispering Gallery is interesting, but my fear of heights got me moving onto the next level (the gallery is basically a ring around the cathedral dome, with a railing to keep you from falling, but I have my weirdness about stuff like that and just couldn't stay far enough away from the edge). 

The next set of steps was mostly spiral metal stairs, the kind that you can see through and that was out in the open, which sparks my fear of heights.  And you had to climb through this really narrow stone set of stairs (only about 10 or so steps), that  had no handrails to hold onto, and I ended up sort of crawling up those and out into the Stone Gallery.  This area is basically a circle around the outside of the dome, so we got to get a good view of the city from there.

The last set of steps was also the spiral metal ones, out in the open inside the building, and just before you got outside, there was a hole in the floor (covered by glass of course), that showed how high you were - you could see all the way down to the cathedral floor through this window in the floor.  When you went out to the Golden Gallery, it was another ring outside the dome, at the very top, probably about 300 feet from the ground.  Yep, I was terrified being up there, but it was so neat to be able to see all that we saw from there.  Of course, Steven had the camera, and he had already passed this point and started his descent, so I wasn't sure what photos he had taken.  (he only took about 5 photos, one of course a self-portrait).

We also did the tour through the Tower of London on Tuesday, then headed back to Southport.  I also discovered at the drug store, that you can buy a codeine/tylenol product over the counter with no prescription.  I needed this, as I was having some pains from my back due to all the walking, and other assorted pains.  But codeine, over the counter?

Wednesday Mom and I window shopped and had lunch at Sal's (the Italian restaurant they frequent), and just had a lazy day all around.  Thursday we left for York for an overnight trip with Mom and Marion, and I'll blog about that later.  I'm about blogged out at the moment, plus I need to get ready to go into town here in a bit.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, and will have a wonderful weekend.