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Enough with the fuzzy already!

As a boot lover, I’m so happy that it’s now Fall and almost Winter. It’s BOOT SEASON!!!!

Ok, yeah … not that I don’t wear boots year ’round, but hey …

I’d decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed a new pair of “work boots” (presentable enough for work but rugged enough to last longer than 3 months). With Black Friday just a couple of weeks away, I’ve been scanning my favorite shoe maker sites looking for ideas. Jessie was looking with me this morning and pointed to a pair of UGG Boots. Not my cup of tea, but I have noticed a LOT of “fuzzy boots” in stores last year and this year.

What’s the appeal there? I just don’t get it. Keep the fuzzy stuff, gimme a nice pair of knee-high leather boots with reinforced heals and toes — preferably steel!

Jessie’s DS, and I has a LOL…

Jessie’s birthday was Saturday, but because her mother had her that day, we celebrated the night before by taking her out to a “very grown up” birthday dinner — at Logan’s Roadhouse.

We had a great time. Our waitress was a real sweetheart and hooked her up with a couple small goodies because it was her birthday. Towards the end of our meal, all the servers came around and clapped and hollered for her. She ate it up!

She opened our gifts after we ate. We gave her a crimson Nintendo DS with a Legend of Zelda game bundle. She freaked! LOL! She kept hugging the box saying “I knew it! I knew it! I knew I was getting this! I knew it!” She was so cute.

Of course now she’s got a lengthy game “wish list” going. Both Jim’s mom and my parents gave her money for her birthday, so now she’s DYING to go shopping! LOL! But at least she’s happy … she finally got her DS.

What’s that about a LOL?

While looking for a stock image for this post, I ran across a very cute image and was inspired to publish my first (PUBLIC!) LOLcat:

Wanna vote for my LOL? Clicky!!!

I’ll stick to my pilates, thanks

I’ve started working out again, and even though it’s helping as far as my overall health goes, my appetite is still out of control and my metabolism seems unchanged (I know it takes a while!). While out running errands earlier this week, I stopped by a display for the newest “fat burner” pills in Wal-mart (Fentraphen).

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I know it’s a waste of my time looking at that garbage.

So I’m reading the pamphlet and thinking “Oh yeah sure” to myself, and then I started reading the “Do not take if” section…

WARNING: Do not use if you are pregnant or nursing or at risk of or are being treated for high blood pressure, heart disease, renal disease, hyperthyroidism, spasms, psychiatric medication, suffer from migraines, …

Well, that strikes me out.

Fine. Screw you pill makers, I’ll stick to my pilates and steps, thank you very much.

Time for a new monitor?

I worked from home yesterday and ran into a bit of aggravation. My 19″ LCD has started flickering off and on sporadically recently, but for the most part it would stop if I changed the refresh rate. Last night it wouldn’t stay on and so I had to unhook it from my laptop. Jim thinks perhaps it’s a bad cable. I haven’t had a chance yet to test it out on one of our other machines, but it’s about 2 years old now … if it is going bad, it’s just one more thing that I will have to put off replacing until after the Disney trip.

*sigh*

In a way though, I guess this could be a good thing. I had actually been thinking on getting a widescreen LCD and maybe putting it up on the wall behind my desk using one of those flat panel mounts I see all the time in Best Buy. Or maybe a dual monitor set … either way, it’s the waiting part that sucks. ;P

Book pimpage

A blog I’ve been following for quite some time is White Trash Mom. It’s definitely a funny-bone tickler and is usually one of my “first reads” every day. It’s chocked full of amusing stories and advice for those of us who would most likely not appear on the cover of “Model Parent” magazine. Oh, and let’s not forget the encounters with those pretentious Muffias!

Anyways, there’s a book due out next week and I wanted to throw out a little book pimpage for WTM:

If the book is even half as good as the blog, it’ll be a real stitch!

Back in the Heart of Dixie

Well, things are slowly returning back to “normal” … I was greeted this morning with 600+ emails in my work Inbox, 100+ in my personal, and ~3000 feed entries waiting to be read.

LOL! Miss me much did they?

I see that WordPress has released 2.6 finally. The blogosphere is all a-buzz with the news. Suggested reading: Doug Campbell, Keith Dsouza, and Ryan Boren. So now I’ll have to update all my blogs, themes, and plugins.

Yay … I’ll get around to it (hopefully!) this week …

We had a great time in NOLA. The drive down and back was pretty pleasant. We took the “scenic route” passing through Montgomery, stopping by Jim’s mom’s both ways (she kept Jessie for us). I was reminded why I love living in Alabama. I remember thinking to myself, “My God, we live in a beautiful state!”

We stopped briefly in Waveland, Mississippi, and in upper Louisiana. It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve been down there … everything I remember is gone. Katrina and Rita really kicked the collective asses of coastal cities in lower AL, MS, and LA.

Otherwise the drive down to New Orleans was nice. We had great weather (outside of the heat and OPPRESSIVE humidity!) I took the time while in New Orleans to see some sights, have some great food, partake in local (and interesting) spirits, and just enjoy myself in general. The reunion was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see the people Jim grew up with.

I was lucky enough to meet up and have lunch with two of my Cotillion sisters: Greta Perry and Conservative Belle. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but the heat royally kicked my butt and Jim and I had so much planned, LOL!

Hopefully I’ll be making another trip down that way pretty soon!

We stopped by so many shops in the French Quarters that I loved! Many had beautiful clothing and jewelry that I could have easily gone “ga-ga” over. We stopped in one vampire shoppe that had many cute novelties and some interesting books covering local and Southern folklore. The shop owner had a BEAUTIFUL German Sheppard (the “head of security” LOL!) that was just as sweet as he could be!

I want another dog!

We also stopped by a local mall to pick up a few amenities that were forgotten in the hurried packing process. It was pretty much like what we have here back at home. I checked out one store that sold a lot of cell gear, drooled over some bluetooth cell phone headsets and considered getting another micro sd card for my Helio Ocean. (nah, will wait and get them cheaper online! LOL)

One thing that really sticks out in my memory is how “available” alcohol is down there. I kid you not, we walked into a Wal-mart and there was a HUGE section with every type of liquor and beer I could ever want! And you can’t walk 50 feet without coming across a daiquiri shop!

There’s so much more to tell, but we’ll leave it at this for now …

It’s good to be home!

Weekend and upcoming NOLA trip

We’ll be heading down to Montgomery this weekend. Jim’s brother is on leave from Afghanistan and flew in sometime last night. We’ll be visiting with him a while and will be bringing Jessie back home with us. In a way I feel sorry for her mother … she’s been really lonely without her. She depends on Jessie for companionship and entertainment, and has no idea how to function without her. (Honestly makes me wonder how she lived BEFORE Jessie was born!)

Jim and I have enjoyed our “quiet time” together. Both of us recently have been stressed from work and other matters and needed some time to reconnect … these two weeks have given us just that. I’m indebted to Jim’s mom for allowing Jessie to stay down there with her and her cousins.

I know Jessie enjoys staying with them, so that’s always a bonus!

I came home one night this week and Jim had already prepared dinner and bought a gallon of my favorite brew. What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man. :mrgreen:

Our trip to New Orleans will be coming up soon. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Big Easy again and seeing where Jim grew up. I’m also looking forward to meeting up with my Cotillion sisters who live down that way. (OMG, which reminds me … I still need to order my tiara! LOL!!)

I see a shopping trip in the near future!

Jim’s really been looking forward to this trip and has been working out to try to lose some weight before the reunion. Exercising, taking bodybuilding supplements and vitamin supplements, I’m proud of him he’s done really well. Me … not so much. I haven’t been able to get my weight quite down as low as I’d like … being on the amitriptyline is setting me back. I’m hesitant to ask my doctor about being switched to another migraine preventive. This work is working the best out of all I’ve tried so far, but the gain in appetite has been a real bitch to deal with. ;P

Oh well, I’m still relatively healthy so I can’t complain too much … right?

Stop this rollercoaster, I want off!

The past month has been an emotional rollercoaster from Hell. I finally got my car back this weekend. Jim and I rode over to Perfect Reflections, who did the body work. The car looks great, and as far as I can see you can’t tell that it was ever damaged! I’m very pleased with their work, and highly recommend them to anyone who needs body or restoration work!

We still haven’t settled with the other insurance company. We’ve had some disagreements over the paperwork, then lawyers were involved, so right now we’re kind of in a holding pattern until we can see a new set of paperwork.

Oh the joy … :roll:

Jim and I have been on each other’s nerves a lot lately and decided to get out for a bit yesterday. We finally saw Ironman — I liked this movie VERY much! Seemed a bit short though, am hoping the DVD release has extras, you know, deleted scenes, and the like. Downey Jr. looked great and I enjoyed the soundtrack. (I’ll probably be buying a copy of it too!)

We also trekked around various parts of Birmingham over the weekend. We had dinner Friday night at Cajun Steamer, and dinner last night at El Carreton. (If you’re ever in the north Jefferson area, look ‘em up! VERY tasty Mexican food!!!) We stopped by Best Buy, Jim needed an HDMI cable for the tv upstairs. I perused the Asian films for an old kung fu movie I’ve been trying to find. Having no luck, I decided to check the music aisles … and a good thing too, seeing the small section of Lordi CDs reminded me that I accidentally cracked mine and so I picked up a new copy of The Arockalypse. Even better — it was a special edition! 3 extra tracks (one which is my FAVE Lordi song!) and a DVD of goodies.

Bonus! :mrgreen:

Jim’s watching the race and I’m sitting here looking at the folder full of stuff I bookmarked to post on or about … I think I’ll put ‘em off until tomorrow. I’ve been enjoying my “time off” and Jim and I have needed the “together time” to work out various things.

Mental note: I *so* owe Jim’s mom big time for keeping Jessie all this time … we’ve badly needed a “break”!

Cell goodie…

I’m already done downloading all my wallpapers, ringtones, video rings, and am now re-installing my apps (and discovering a few new ones, courtesy of Heliocity!).

One thing I’m missing is my Helio screen cleaner charm. My existing one has taken a beating and is pretty frayed and barely held together by a thread or two … so I went looking for a new one. Called Helio Sales, they don’t sell their charms separately. (dammit!)

I’ve looked in various shops off and on for the last 8-10 months, looking at charms (I knew then that I was soon to be needing a new one!). Never saw anything I liked. It was always too “girlie” (God, how I HATE PINK!), or the same junk over and over, and I never DID see any locally that doubled as screen cleaners. So tonight I decided to hit the web … struck out on eBay and Amazon, so I hit Google. Their Product Search didn’t do squat for me, but a curious hit on their web search caught my attention … “Strapya.”

It turns out it’s a Japanese shop of various device accessories, and had THE most unique selection I’ve ever seen. In fact, I found something I hadn’t seen anywhere else AND it doubled as a cleaner!

I can’t say ‘no’ to DBZ!

Home instead

Our weekend plans changed abruptly this morning. Jim’s mom isn’t feeling well, so we decided to stay in B’ham and go down to Montgomery next weekend instead. Jessie was crushed — she’s been looking forward to this trip for the last month plus. BUT, a trip to Target’s toy aisles helped ease the blow a little. (along with a couple pieces of designer jewelry, or “fake bling” as she called it, LOL!) Now she’s content playing XBox.

This actually works out to my favor because I got to finish up my newest theme and update a couple others that I had wanted to submit to the LP design contest.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!

This also allows me to finish up some Soldiers’ Angels business that I thought I was going to have to put off until next week. (ya gotta email comin’, Angels!) Plus, we’ll be hitting the gun show tomorrow — Jessie’s never been, and hopefully she’ll go with us.

I think she’ll really enjoy it, I always have!

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