Taming of the Shoes: Grey or Gray...tomayto, tomahto

Fell in love with these things, and when I bought them, I had nothing to wear them with. (Yeah, sometimes I can be such a girl.)

Comfy, spiky, sexy.....what more could a girl want?

Our Kentucky Vacation, Day 3: Massages and Bourbon, it doesn't get much better than this!

We got up bright an early again Friday morning. Well, maybe not so early. All the martinis from the night before had me sleeping until our alarm went off at 8 am. I would have slept longer had it not gone off. :-)

Mot and I were scheduled for massages at the hotel spa. Yeah!!! Three cheers for massages!!!

Hip hip hooray, hip hip.......ah, you get the point.

I was assigned a very small lady masseuse, with little pokey fingers. Mot was given a woman of larger stature, who beat the crap out of him. He threw his back out a week or so ago catching some lady at work....so the massage worked wonders on those tense and tight muscles.

I must say, the hot stone massage I received was much better than the tortures that fell upon me at the bath house in Korea. Ouch!!!

When the appointments were over, we met the boys and headed off for breakfast.


Mmmmmm.....waffle house. :-)

From there, we took off in search of the Bourbon Trail.

Neither Mot or I are bourbon drinkers (although, I do fancy myself a glass of tequila that's been aged in a bourbon barrel....yummmmyyy)...but the boys are. And who am I to turn down the opportunity to tour some distilleries??

When we pulled into the drive taking us to the first place, I knew it was going to be a good day. Some of the autumn leaves were still hanging on....the road was gorgeous.....and the sky was bright blue.



The first distillery we visited was Buffalo Trace. And, I must say, it was by far the best distillery we visited all weekend!!!















This is our tour guide, Freddie. He made the trip even more enjoyable!!!!!

"Say it with me.....I solemnly swear to only drink half."

After we drank half, he added root beer to the rest. Heaven!!

We bought a bottle.

Of the liquor...not to the root beer.

After the official tour, we wandered the grounds a little.


Yes, they still move the barrels around by rolling them.



(to be cont)

Our Kentucky Vacation, Day 2: A St. Louis driveby, and pub crawling in Lexington.

We got up bright and early Thursday morning, ate breakfast at Waffle House (ummmm....Waaffffflllleeee Hooouuuusssee), then hit the road.

On our way through St. Louis, Danny pulled off the interstate (suddenly) to check out some towers he sees every time he makes the trip through town, but has never stopped before.





They were pretty cool...but the boys kept getting after me when I'd have them stop in the middle of the road so I could take a picture. The neighborhood was deserted, buildings and houses boarded up...there was no traffic. Geesh! :-)


There goes the Arch. I love St. Louis!!!!!


Rest area stop.


I was acting like I was a spy, or a member of an undercover stakeout. You should see all the pics I have of the guys walking back to the car. :-)


Yep...he's skipping. And, I believe he was singing "We're on vacation. We're on vacation." I could completely relate!!!!!


This is what happens when Mot takes my camera away. Closeup shots of my nose! :-)

We arrived in Lexington later that evening.


When you show up to a hotel lobby, and there's a lady serving free drinks of bourbon and Ale8...then you know you're going to have a good trip!

We moved our luggage to the rooms, then walked around the grounds to check the place out. Our hotel for the next two nights was the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort.

On one side of the property is a mansion turned restaurant...aptly named The Mansion. :-)




It wasn't open. :-(

From the hotel, we headed into downtown Lexington to check the place out. It had grown dark by then, so we decided to settle in at an Irish pub we happened upon by accident.



From the Irish pub, we drove to an English pub for dinner.



The pot roast was to die for. The Shepard's pie had mozzarella cheese on it....is this an English thing I'd never heard of before?


I'm not sure what I said before this shot was taken...but Mot was obviously perplexed by something. :-)


Mixed berry crepes for dessert.

(to be cont.)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Steve, look away...there's nothing to see here. Or.....Our Kentucky Vacation, Day 1

Last Wednesday, my three boys (Tom, Steve and Danny) and I embarked on a long weekend, cross country trip.

Well, OK.....maybe not totally across country. We started in the Midwest and ended in the South....but I think 12 hours or so one way counts as cross-country. Don't you??

Anyway....we left Wednesday night as soon as I could escape from work.

I'm not sure where we were...but we hadn't hit Kansas City yet when Mot pulled the vehicle over.

Flashing red and blue lights were reflecting around us.

A state patrolman taps on the window.

"Did you know that you're tail lights aren't on?"

Mot fiddled around, got them turned on. We then talked to the nice police man for a couple of minutes before he sent us on our way. :-)

At about 9:00 we arrived at our hotel in Columbia, MO.

From my dad......

OK...about a million years ago I posted a Waaaayyy Back Wednesday post about some of the vehicles I've driven and owned.

My family has recently discovered my blog, and I got this email from dad today. :-)

DAUGHTERS!! They eat food, grow up, pack up and move away and forget all the important details. I just read your blog entry about the pick up being T boned (65 or 69 pickup). It was a 1969 Ford F350. With a 391 cubic inch engine with 4 barrel carb and a very rare 9 inch low gear rear end. It was the great granddaddy of the super duty ford now sells and its performance is what gave Ford pick ups the sales edge the last few years (40 or so). The pick up was a deluxe model that had factory a/c. Most pickups sold in the Midwest at that time did not have a a/c and the few that did were mostly added by the dealer. It also featured the New (at that time) 4 way hazard flashers. The convenience group included a 2nd fuel tank. To switch tanks you turned the valve by the drivers seat and then threw a switch for the gas gauge to read the other tank. Prior to this the 2nd tank was not hooked to the gauge at all. You simply switched tanks when the motor started to sputter. Yes we had raw gasoline plumbed directly to the passenger compartment but this was indeed a safety improvement because your great grandfathers pickup had the gas tank located conveniently behind the passenger seat.
They just don't build them like they use to. (Thank God)

Also, he had a little tidbit of information regarding the post I did about my buddy's new car, Nurple.

The Galaxy 500 of April's is significant in automotive history as it was a very reliable car that helped Ford gain back market share in the 1960's. The Ford full size cars of the late 1950's caused Ford to lose sales due to the electrical systems being very unreliable, and left allot of people walking home (no AAA road club back then and cell phones were not even mentioned in science fiction). The 1950's Fords also needed a specially trained rocket scientist with a minor in Voodoo to properly adjust the transmission. Since that combination was in very short supply the world can thank Ford for the birth of AMMCO transmission franchise's.
The Galaxy 500 has always been one of my favorite cars.

Now, I have to say, this post makes me feel better for a number of reasons. 1) At one time I remembered my truck as a F350, but once, while talking about it, someone said they didn't make 350's in 1969. Now I know I was right. If only I know who told me otherwise!!! 2) My dad rocks!!!!

Taming of the Shoes: Rock it out Amelia

Not the most historically accurate boots for Amelia Earhart....but they worked for the costume quite nicely. :-)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Into the wild blue yonder....

I can't help but be fascinated with the view out of the window of a plane. No matter what the weather on the ground, it's sunny and happy up above those clouds. Can't help but smile!!!


On the plane back from Mexico a few weeks ago.

I'm on the road again, starting tonight. So my posts the rest of the week might be a bit scattered. :-)

Weekend Update #37: And....cue the ducks!

This weekend snuck up on me pretty quickly. One second it was Monday, I was sitting at work trying to get caught up from being gone the week before....then the next second it was Friday. While I would normally LOVE for a week of work to pass so quickly, this weekend was testing my Capricorn sense of order and structure.

You see, we have hockey season tickets...and this was going to be the first weekend I'd get to go to a game. But, at the same time, the litter of black labs (from which our new puppy will be selected) was born on Tuesday night, and we had an opportunity to travel to North Platte, NE to see them.

Puppies, hockey....puppies, hockey.....

And, to add even more temptation, the ducks should be flying. Thanksgiving dinner, here we come.

So, this was the plan...come home Friday and pack, go to the game Friday night, then drive west on Saturday morning.

This is what actually happened....Thursday night, Mot bats his long eyelashes at me, and hockey is but a breeze.

I rushed home after work Friday, packed my bag (Mot had packed the Jeep with all of our hunting gear earlier that day)...and we left town.

We were geared for (as Mot put it) a small gang war. We were loaded for bear. Every caliber of handgun, shotgun, and rifle.....ammo....and camo as far as the eye could see.

Why all the gear? Well...because it was gorgeous weather here in Omaha...raining, but still nice.

In North Platte, it looked like this......



18 inches of snow had fallen Thursday night.

We arrived about 10 pm Friday. Mot's brother and sister-in-law (who I will call his sister from now on, because typing sister-in-law out each time is annoying) were hosting a small get together with a group of friends.

We were met with hugs, hellos, and booze.

After revisiting (in my head) my Halloween party antics the weekend before, I politely declined the tequila.

For about ten minutes.

(shaking my head)

Not sure what time we all got to bed.....midnight, maybe a little before. Not too bad.

Until we had to get up at 5 am the next morning to go duck hunting.

Since we'd spent Friday night hanging out and talking with friends, we didn't spend Friday night getting our gear set out and ready for the morning....so Saturday am started a bit rough.

(I was literally pulling the tags off my new waders as we were loading into the truck to head out.)

The drive across their hunting land was....well.....interesting. Not only did they get 18 inches of snow....it was quite possibly the wettest snow I've ever experienced.

We made it through the mud and muck better than any of us expected.

The temps were in the upper 30's, lower 40's.....we were all toasty warm in our gear....and drinking black coffee.

Yep, Nej drank black coffee. I just normally can't stomach it....but it was pretty good that morning!!!

Once we got the decoys laid, guns loaded and dog kenneled, we sat back to listen to the land wake up.

Turkeys and coyotes EVERYWHERE!!!!

When the sun started peaking over the horizon, the ducks started coming in.

It was a good morning!!

In between flights of ducks, the three of us sat in the blind and talked. I haven't ever really had much chance to sit and talk to Mot's oldest brother. It was nice finally getting to.

Hunting ducks this early in the season is usually a pretty quick thing. So we packed up about 10 am or so and headed home.



We took some time that afternoon to drive out to see the puppies!!!! Dottie (the female) is such an awesome dog. I've wanted one of her pups since I first laid eyes on her, and then got to spend some time with her and see her personality.

I've never seen such a driven hunting lab, that is so darned mellow when she's not hunting. It's like someone flips a switch when she takes to the field. And I LOVE THAT! It's very suited to our personalities.

When we pulled up to the house, I was expecting to get to peak into a room and see the pups. Little did I know I was going to be able to hold them all, and practically climb into the whelping box so mom could have some attention too.

There's nothing like the smell of a new little puppy. Holding them in your hands and having them try to pry milk from your fingers....then eventually getting warm in your palms and falling back to sleep.

I have puppy fever.

When we got back, the two brothers finished cleaning our birds, while the girls found the NE football game on TV.

I (not being a huge Cornhusker fan - but being outnumbered by a house full of alumni) found a big comfy chair and took a nap. :-)

That evening, a group of people (those that were there the night before) started showing up one by one. It was Halloween, so Erin (Mot's niece) took to the streets with her friends.

Bob and Deb (Mot sister and brother) made some food, Mot made some margaritas...and we all sat down to talk and hang out.



Mot and I snuck away to go to bed fairly early...while the rest of the group sat up talking about their large motorcycle trip they took last summer.

Plus.....Sunday morning, bright and early - more duck hunting.


Cup of coffee, check.
Sweetie (yellow lab), check.
30 degree temps, check.
Waders (quite the fashion statement), check.


The sun starting to come up behind Bob.









It was a bluebird day. Warm temps, no wind, and no ducks. We'd been lucky and caught some flights of ducks the day before, still being pushed by the 18 inches of snow...but by Sunday, allot of it had melted, and the ducks were nowhere to be seen.

So, we packed up the decoys and gear at about 9:30 am, and headed over to the west side of the property. Bob wanted to hike through and check out his deer stands.





It was quite the walk....with snow earlier had completely swamped it in. Good thing we were all wearing waders.

When we got back to the house, Mot and I packed up the Jeep and headed home. The rest of the group (from the night before) were loading up their ATV's and heading into their canyonland property to get muddy.

Neither of us had an ATV, and we didn't want to take someone else's and leave people sitting and waiting to take turns, so we politely declined to go along. Maybe next time we'll take Mot's folk's ATVs with us when we go out.

Weekend Update : 36 It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite holiday...love it to tears!!!! :-)

Last weekend (Oct 24th to be exact) I was invited to a Halloween party. The theme - dead celebrities.

Hmmmmm.......

I had a ton of ideas in my head.....I asked for suggestions from friends....I was swimming in awesome choices......

But...due to time constraints, and traveling for work, I opted for one of the easier celebrities....Amelia Earhart.

I borrowed my mom's leather bomber jacket (thanks mom!!)....some knee high brown leather boots from my closet....some brown plaid knickers (knickers, what a fun word! *giggle*) from my closet....a white shirt from my closet....and then a white scarf, brown bomber hat, and goggles from Amazon. (thank you Amazon!)

At about 8:00 or so, the boys.....oh, I mean Steve Erwin and Mister Rogers stopped by to give me a ride to the party.


(Steve Erwin's gecko kept changing colors all night. He'd found a bunch of them at the dollar store, and people kept doing double takes as he switched them out.)

(Mister Rogers shaved his beard. I didn't recognize him when he came to pick me up.)

The three of us walked up to the party house (awesome party Val and Dee...thanks!!!) with our coolers in hand....where we were plied with alcohol and food all night long.

Between the Scooby Snack shots (Don't ask me what's in those things, I can't remember) and the margaritas I'd brought along with me, I was soon feeling no pain.

Heck, I was soon unable to walk up the TWO stairs from their patio to their deck.

Pain was the least of my worries. :-)

I was forced on "stage" during the talent show part of the evening. I don't know what I did. I think I just yelled "Amelia....wooooooooooooo"...or something similar.

That's me...oh so quick on my feet.

(shaking my head in shame)

After that, the details get a little fuzzy. Supposedly (or so I'm told) I did some tequila shots, which I'm sure didn't help my memory any.

You see, I'm a happy drunk. Actually, happy doesn't quite describe it, from what I've been told. Uber happy. Goofy happy. And loud about it.

(sigh)


Mister Rogers, Carmen Miranda, John Denver and Steve Erwin


John Denver smashing his guitar after singing a song for the group, while Ceasar watches.


Johnny and June cash singing for the group.


I don't remember what Bob Ross did for his talent....but his costume was awesome!!


Our two Marilyn's got up to sing us a song as well.


Lone Ranger and Tonto.


Nobody puts baby in a corner.


Kurt Cobain and Billy Mays stopped by.


Steve Erwin stole Carmen's hat.


Then he put his orange gecko on the fire.


Mister Rogers tried to take it off the fire, but soon gave up. The toxic fumes chased us all from the area. :-)

I don't remember going home. Actually, the last thing I DO remember is standing in the doorway to their kitchen....staring out into the living room at a couch I really wanted to sit on.

But it was waaaaaaayyyyyyyy over there.

I eventually made it to that couch. Was probably a source of entertainment for any lucky enough to watch.

Then I remember the boys helping me outside and to the car. Well, I remember them helping me off the couch and out the front door....not so much getting to the car.

Then I remember walking to my front door (with help).

(argh)

After I got the door open, and the boys left...I walked straight to the bedroom and fell asleep. I woke up the next morning wearing my whole costume...boots, hats, aviator goggles...the works.

When Tom got home, he asked if he needed to put the dogs out. I told him that I didn't put them away when I got home. But a few hours later, he walked out to the garage to find them in their kennels.

Oh yes, I walked straight to the bedroom when I got home. But at some point in the night, I'd gotten up....walked through the bedroom, through the kitchen, down 4 really steep steps (older house), through 2 doors (without locking myself out), through the garage, opened the door for the dogs, put them away in their kennels...then navigated myself back into bed.

I have no recollection of these events.

I took 154 pictures that night. 20 or so of them were in focus.

Post-It Note Therapy: Paper Cut Suicide

The doctor is in. Post-It Note Therapy, session 3.

(if you've missed the first couple, you can see them here....and here)

Have you ever noticed how working in a paperless society has actually created MORE use of paper? Email means we can send even more information to each other...and in an office, that information usually gets printed out on the other end. I'm not sure how many trees a year I kill....but I'm confident my carbon footprint is Paul Bunyan sized by now. :-)

One of those sheets of paper bit back today. The smallest of cuts hurt the worst.

And, with the stress-induced mood I've been in all week, my mind immediately went to this burning question......Could I actually paper cut myself to death? If anything, the attempt would land me in the loony bin.

Anything to get an afternoon off. :-) :-)



I know, I know...two post it posts in one week?? It's been a bad week. :-)

For those of you who may have noticed my comments to your posts have been lacking....well...you're right. I haven't had a chance to log on and read one blog entry all week. I've got some catching up to do!! :-)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Flag on the Play

Sitting on a hotel patio, drinking chardonnay and watching the surf come in. Gulf side of South Padre Island last Tuesday evening.

Post-It Note Therapy: Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

It's time for another session of post-it note therapy. Brought to you by your friendly insane (workman's comp claim anyone?) blogger, Nej.

If you've missed any of my other artwork, you can see it here.

It's nice outside in Omaha today. And when it's nice out, it's horrible inside. I'm sure, at some point last week, someone was cold and wussed out. They cranked up the heat when no one was looking.....and now, we're all suffering.

I was out of the office all last week, in Mexico, for work. The ugly Mexico. Kidnap central Mexico. While driving a red Ford Mustang.

Have you ever seen the movie The Mexican, with James Gandolfini, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts??

You see, in the movie, the cast continues to visit Mexico (for reasons I won't say here - although, the movie is 8 years old - go see it already!!)....and every time they rent a car, they trade it in for something "more authentic." And, the trade in they are given is always an El Camino. Tricked out, chrome, fringe, the works.

When we all walked out to the rental car parking lot last Tuesday....and saw, parked in spot #46, our rental....a bright (arrest my law breakin' ass) red Ford Mustang.

The three of us just stood there and looked at each other.

We had to drive across the border and through Reynosa in this??

I started giggling. I couldn't help it.

Well, anyway, we made it...alive and well, and back in Omaha.

But, this week is hell. The week after being gone a week is always hell.....and now it's hotter than Hades in here on top of it all.

(mjenks - tell me, is Hades really hot, or is that just an assumption made because it's the Greek underworld?)

I turned my fan on.....and then had a vision of what would happen if the blades started spinning the wrong way.



Is this a cry for help? Yeah, I think so!! :-) :-) :-)

Taming of the Shoes: Boot weather is back!!

That's right....after having our first snow this weekend (to the tune of 5-6 inches), it's time to get the boots out from the back of the closet. I love wearing them but, as most of you know, I hate hot weather. And there's nothing hotter (temperature-wise) than wearing boots in the summer.



Now folks, I'm a pale skinned as the next person....but my legs look to be emitting their own light in this picture! I wonder if I can harness that power, and sell it to the local power company?

Maybe he has some kind of mind control powers??

So...I'm on the road traveling for work this week. We left Tuesday morning, and boarded a plane...final destination - McAllen, TX and Reynosa, Mexico.

The first leg of the trip to Houston was pretty anti-climactic. A two hour flight in this tiny little plane that seats 3 people across. Hell on earth for claustrophobic such as myself...but I muddle through.

At the Houston airport we stop to eat at a small wine bar. Food was pretty good actually.

As we're walking to our gate for the second flight I notice 2 things.

#1 Starbucks, green tea frappicino, it does a body good
#2 Strawberry blond (not her real color), tight black tanktop (not her real boobs), lowcut bootcut bluejeans, Brighton jewelry from head to toe.....and high heels shoes she CAN'T walk in.

The poor thing was almost running in the opposite direction we were going. She was frazzled, stressed, and about to sprain her ankle, at any second. (some people should NOT wear heels higher than 1 inch...ever!!)

Anyway, we stand in line at the gate, and eventually board the plane. I'd taken the time to switch our assigned seats around...and was excited about getting to sit in the emergency exit row, without another seat directly in front of me.

I get to my row, and there's a large man sitting in the aisle seat. I told him that I needed to get through, and he gave me the look of death. He finally pulled his overly large body from the seat to let me pass, but he wasn't happy about it. Oh no, not one little bit.

I sat down, settled in for the flight and noticed his carry on bag was sitting on the seat in between us. At the time, I didn't think much of it.

The flight attendants walked up and down the aisle at least 6 times each (between the two of them) just before we took off. I notice his bag is still sitting in the seat between us.

The flight attendants passed by checking that everyone was wearing their seatbelts. They were telling people to put away they electronic devices, they were telling people to return their tray table to it's upright position, they were telling people to stow their carryon baggage.

But not my fellow row mate. His bag still sat in the empty seat between us.

And, the strangest part was how he was hugging it to his side. Like it was his teddy bear, or like it contained plutonium. Transplant organ? Genie in a bottle? The secret of life?

Nope, just as the plane was taxiing to the runway, he pulled out a yamaka (yamika?) and plopped it on his head. So...he was hugging his bag, because he's afraid to fly and his he needed his hat handy? Did he tell the attendants he needed his bag for religious reasons?

Why does everyone else have to put their bags away, but not this guy?

Just as we start speeding down the runway, he reaches into his bag again.

He pulls out a book, written in Hebrew (I'm guessing on the language), and with a pencil, starts underlining things, drawing arrows, and scribbling small notes.

All the while, still hugging that bag. And when I say hugging, I mean hugging. Every once and a while, he'd even pat it on it's side. Like he had to make sure it was still there.

Then my attention shifted to the seats in the row ahead of me. Ms. Strawberry blond, who I'd last seen rushing in the opposite direction from us in the airport is sitting there. Looking haggard, sweating and fanning herself with the emergency procedure pamphlet. Her shirt has ridden up (it was 3 sizes too small anyway) and her black thong whale tail is there for all to see. Then she starts tapping her ridiculously long fake fingernails on her armrest.

tap, tap, tap, tap.......

The dude sitting next to her takes off his sportcoat, wraps a scarf around his neck, puts on a bright blue ball cap (who is this guy - Mr. Rogers?) clears his throat and starts hitting on her.

Badly.

Very, very badly.

At one time, I giggled, and he turned around to look at me.

Rabbi man, sitting next to me, takes this moment to notice I'm reading one of the Sookie Stackhouse books (HBO TrueBlood is based on them)....and gives me a "you're going to hell, and you're going to take us all with you" look....and starts scribbling furiously in his book.

I love flying.