Week 72

It has been well over a month and I fear that I have neglected updating the blog. Things just start piling up this time of year in the house. That being said, I have been doing stuff.

#8 Read Murder at the Brown Palace. This is a true account of two affairs and murder at the infamous Brown Palace in Denver in the 1920's. Isabel Springer is a socialite that lives the high life courtesy of her wealthy husband. She has an affair with Tony Von Phul, the hot head, and Frank Henwood, the ticking time bomb. Isabel wants to dump Tony and enlists the help of Henwood to break the news and get back love letters that she wrote to Von Phul. Tensions arise between the two men and threats are made. Henwood, the physical weaker of the two, gets pushed by Henwood and comes back firing with a gun in a crowded bar. He kills Henwood and another bystander. He is convicted of murder and sent to jail. He maintained his innocence, claiming self-defense. He was granted Executive Clemency only to return to jail one year later for a parole violation. He dies in jail. What happened to Isabel? She was divorced by her husband, shunned by the socialite group, and died penniless. There are loads of details that I am leaving out. You should read the book to get the complete scoop.

#29 Had lunch with lunch/coffee with lots of friends.
Coffee with Cathy. Bluebird Cafe has the best scones. For the record, they also make the best cupcakes ever!!
Lunch with Michelle. Got her before the rush of holiday. Might not see her for a while, so the time together was good. Stupid holiday season takes my retail friends away.
Lunch with Rita. Introduced her to Pom's. She loved it.
Lunch with Melissa. Graffiti Junction for burgers and beer. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside. I am the only person in Florida who gets a sunburn from sitting on a patio for an hour. Stupid sun!

#72 Gave $5.00 to a gentlemen in the Fedex parking lot. He did try to wash my window. I just gave him the money. His rag looked dirtier than my windshield.

#74 Listened to 2 CD's.
Guns N Roses--The Spaghetti Incident. Really, Axl? Can you say trying to fulfill the record contract??
Heart-Greatest Hits. Good Album. Great band. Kudos to the lady rockers. We need more of them.

#11 While technically this was not a dinner party, I cooked enough food to feed an army at our Halloween party. Cook it and they will come. This is very true. There was not a crumb of food left on the table at the end of the night. Made hummus(Pureed brain matter), pulled pork(Dragon toes), veggie trays(Mark's worst nightmare), bruchette(Attack of the killer tomatoes), black bean and corn salsa(Rotting troll teeth), roasted whole garlic(Vampire's Bane), brownies(Death by chocolate), vanilla cake with raspberry/white chocolate filling(Painting the roses red) and spicy peanuts(El Diablo). As you can see, I also had fun with the names.

#36 Gave Mark a foot rub after the Orlando Open Disc Golf Tournament. He loves playing tournaments. He knows when he comes home he will have drink waiting for him, a steak on the table and hands ready to rub his barking dogs.

#93 Made a drum key necklace from a . . . drum key. It was Mark's first drum key. It is not usable in its original capacity because it has cracked, but it works just dandy on a chain around my neck.

#99 The unhung artwork is up on the walls as best we can. Living in a 1940's bungalow in downtown Orlando lacks two things--wall space and closet space.

#3 Wrote thank you notes to Grandma for her anniversary gift. Thank you Grandma!
Wrote thank you note to Michele for all of her support during Halloween Hell Week. Thank you Easter Bunny!
Wrote a thank you note to Alan for his generous donation of homemade pumpkin ice cream into our freezer. My taste buds say thank you, my waistline says more yoga. So good.

#35 Wrote lots of love notes to my honey. I will have to paraphrase because I gave him a lot.

Made Sunday morning breakfast as usual. I used the pancake batter to write " I ((heart)) U". Everyone knows that pancakes taste better when they are in shapes and letters.

Basic post-it note on the computer screen. Yes, I know. No creativity, but sometimes you just need to say it and not be frilly.

Wrote him a "classroom" note complete with check boxes. I was slightly giddy wondering what answer he would pick. At least he did not dip my pigtails in the inkwell.

Slicing cucumbers for the veggie tray at the party. I used the end of the cucumber and carved out an I, a heart and a U. Thank goodness I did not lose a finger over this one.

Mark started his new job and complained about the quality of the TP and compared tit to tree bark. After he went to bed, I grabbed a roll of our uber soft Cottenelle and told him that I loved all of him, including his tush. He should take softer care of it. The roll is still sitting on his desk where it is doing the most good.

Went to Cocoa with Michele for a weekend. Mark and I are not beach people, so we were slightly out of our element. We like the cover of night and dingy bars. Anywho, I wrote a love note to him in the sand. It lasted for 1 minute when the surf came in and washed it away. Stupid wave!

Wrote I love you on his crammed calendar. Not sure how I found an empty spot. Wrote it in yellow highlighter. He did not see it for a week until I said something about. How did that work out for me?

Week 64

My completion list this post is really long. Yeah!!

#3 Wrote thank you notes to K and P, and B and K for covering our trip to West Virginia earlier this year. For the record, we did not expect it, but we took the generosity and said thank you. Sometimes you have to do that.

#8 Read Twisted. This was a compilation book that contained interesting facts and tidbits about unusual things in history. It was OK. It was a little manic for me.

#11 Hosted poker teach night at the house. B and S came over and we taught them Hold-em poker. Made some yummy apps and served drinks. Rousing success.

#29 Had a great lunch with S at Pom's. Is there any place else to have lunch with a good friend? I think not!

#35 Gave Mark two love notes. First one was the first phone call made and received on our new, shiny phones. Just a quick RAWR (dinosaur for I Love You) and I hung up. The second one was made in my latest issue of Budget Travel Magazine. I picked three pages and drew an illustration of "I" filled with all of the things that he and I do together. The "Love" was a big heart filled with various synonyms for love. The "You" was actually a ewe that looked a little like a fat poodle. Hey, I never said I was an artist, but I do really well at Pictionary.

#40 Watched Raging Bull. I always like seeing Pesci and DeNiro together in a movie and this was no exception. The dialog was realistic and did not sound written. It was like watching two guys hanging out and a camera happened to be there. DeNiro is a boxer. Pesci is his brother/ringman. As a boxer, DeNiro has ups and downs. He battles opponents both in the ring and out. Personal demons in the form of drinking, paranoia and jealousy overpower him and he eventually succumbs to life's TKO. He loses his title, brother, wife, kids, post-ring bar business, and his freedom. Eventually, he comes out the other end. He becomes a stand-up comedian. Great flick. Definite rewatch!

#58 Made a new 101 List. It will be tweaked here and there, but the core is done and ready to implement next year.

#61 Fixed the issue in the hallway. Okay, I'll say it. We had a mold issue. Not sure if it was the deadly black mold, but it sure looked bad. I went down to HD and bought some mold killer that is supposed to take out the mold and make sure it does not come back. I thought it was going to be a huge hassle of spraying, scrubbing, coughing, and back-bending. Actually, all I did was spray and do a quick wipedown. It took 10 minutes. Who knew? If I knew it could be this simple, I would have done this a long time ago.

#74 Listened to a lot of CD's this time:

Labrador--Rantings of a Lunatic. The title of the album says it all. This album sounded like it was written by a lunatic. It went from rock to jazz to reggae to salsa. Not to mention, it was badly produced. Icky.

David Gilmour--About Face. Very good. I liked that this album did not scream Pink Floyd.

John Fogerty--Premonition. Didn't expect it to be so pop-y. But, it did not suck!

Incubus--Morning View. I was expecting a little more rock. It was more soft then what I remember.

Guns N Roses--Appetite for Destruction. Not my favorite band, but this is one of my favorite albums. For me, this album turned rock on its ears and said F%$# You. Great music. Unfortunately, the rest of GNR's albums were subpar in comparison.

Guns N Roses--Use your Illusion I & II. See last line in above comment

Guns N Roses--GNR Lies. Not as bad as UYI I&II, but not Appetite for Destruction either.

Green Jello--Cereal Killer Soundtrack. I dug this album for the creativity. Little Pig is the song that people will recognize, but the whole album was very good.

Gin Blossoms--New Miserable Experience. Never been a big GB fan.

Flow--All of a Sudden. I can't talk about this one. Mark thinks this CD is from a band that wanted him to play with them in Austin. Thank God he didn't.

Dream Theater--A Change of Season. Great album. The only original song is a 23 minute opus filled with stirring lyrics and face-melting guitar solos. The rest of the album are covers of Elton John, Led Zepplin, Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, Pink Floyd, Kansas, Journey, and Queen. What else do you need?

#81 Ding dong Bright House is gone! Which old House? Crap Bright House.
I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am to be out from under the Bright House Cable thumb. They suck. I can't get into it here, because I am trying to release and move on. I will say if you have U-Verse in your area, get it immediately. They are cheaper, have BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE, and you get more for your buck.

Week 61

OMG! I am on time this week. I got a lot done so I feel very motivated to write it down.

#40--I watched three movies this week.

The first was The Apartment. Great flick. The movie showcases Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine as co-workers in an insurance firm. She is the elevator attendant and he works on the 19th floor. They casually flirt and make small talk, but it never goes anywhere until Fred MacMillian starts to complicate things. The movie also stars the apartment that Jack lives in. Normally, I would not call an inanimate object a star, but the pad plays a huge role. Jack wants to move up in the firm, so he allows the execs to "spend an evening" with their mistresses in his apartment. Things are copacetic until Fred brings Shirley to the place. Drama ensues involving some sleeping pills, a nosy neighbor and a rummy game. In the end Jack gets the girl, loses his job, moves to a new place and finishes the rummy game.

Mark and I watched The Graduate. So, I had no idea what to expect from this flick. I kept singing "Here's to you Mrs. Robinson" in anticipation of watching it. I was not disappointed. This movie was slightly manic so the best way to describe it is as follows: Boy graduates. Boy gets seduced by his older neighbor. Boy is nervous, but eventually "graduates". Affair continues. Boy meets seductress' daughter. Boys falls for daughter. Seductress gets uber, crazy jealous. Girl almost marries a dolt. Boy stops the wedding. Seductress screams that it is too late, but we know it is not. Boy and girl make a mad dash out of the chapel and ride the public bus off into the sunset. Whew! So that scene in Wayne's World 2 makes way more sense now.

I watched American Graffiti. Great insight into the 60's. There was great music, sexy cars, sock hops, car hops, drag racing, girl chasing, car stealing, water balloon throwing, and Wolfman Jack. What else do you need?

#47 With the advice from my cousin, I went vegetarian last week. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I had some great dinners and, everyone hold on to something, Mark ate the veggie dishes I made. He only relented one night when he had chicken soup. I made vegetarian chili with corn masa stacks, spicy veggie wraps with chickpeas and spinach, and enchiladas made with tofu. Mark and I could be persuaded to eat like this more often. Of course, I do like my steak and pork, but a veggie night every so often is good too.

#74 Listened to the following cd's.

Extreme--3 Sides to Every Story. Sucked. I am concerned that Mark has this.

Genghis Angus--12 Days. Sucked. Christian Rock. This was a local band that asked Mark to play with them. He said no, but we still have the CD.

Gathering Field--Lost in America. See above description of Genghis Angus.

KISS--Revenge. This was the album they took their makeup off for. It was weird and not KISS. It was way over-produced and clean for them. KISS, take my advice. Keep the Starchild!

The Dead Weather. This is Jack White's newest incarnation. This was the only saving grace of music yesterday. This band is great. They get very organic and juicy with their music. If you have not heard them, you need to put down what you are doing, get off the computer, and immediately get a cd. It will change you. At least go to ITunes. We saw them live at Jazz Fest in New Orleans this year. Great show!

#73 I learned to shuffle poker chips. I am up to 12 chips total. It only took me 2 months and a couple of hand cramps, but now I will be feared at the poker table. The power is in my hands!!
I will distract my opponents with the quickness and accuracy of my shuffle. The rhythmic sound will put any player into a trance, after which I will take all their chips. Fear me! Muwahahahaha muhahahaha muwahahaha! Sorry, I got carried away. I am sure my ability to shuffle chips will have no affect on the tables. Or will it......?

Week 60

So, I barely made it in under the gun for posting at least every month. I have been traveling and working, so extra time has been a luxury.

Anywho, let's get this going.

#1 Finished my traveling. California, Portland, Virginia and West Virginia. I have lots of space taken up in my travel journal. I am trying to write down as many details as possible, but let's face it, writing every detail gets tedious. I keep telling myself in 50 years, I will be thankful that I did the extra mile.

#8 Read The Girls Who Went Away. The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe V. Wade. It was a long read, but it was very good. The title says it all. It chronicles the stories of women who were forced to give up their babies because they were unwed and young. They would get sent to a "home" where they stayed until term. The babies were taken after a week and sometimes immediately. Young moms were told all kinds of lies about their children--where they ended up, the contact they could have, the repercussions of a forced adoption for both the mom and their child. Roe v. Wade not only gave a woman a choice to mature the pregnancy, it also made these kind of "adoptions" illegal. Again, excellent read.

#29 Had lunch with J. McGrath at Pom's. Yum. Also celebrated Bill's birthday at Dexter's. Since I have now joined the Book, I reconnected with my NY&Co girls. We had a great happy hour at Dexter's . Honestly, we probably had enough for 3 happy hours. I met up with the Disc Golf Widows Club for happy hour. Happy hour is my favorite two-word phrase where both words begin with H. It's fun.

#35 Gave Mark two love notes this month. The first came about when we were looking at wedding photos for the album, yes I know this is way late! Anywho, I printed two pics on the laser printer for mom to check the size. On one of them, I wrote Love Ya and sent it across the desk. It is now taped to the back of my computer monitor and Mark looks at it every day. AWWW! Ok, stop. The second happened when Mark was doing a work marathon for his new client and he said he need quiet, which is almost impossible. So I wrote him a note that said "I am trying to be quiet. Just wanted to say I love you. The only noise that I will make is when I crinkle up this paper and throw it at you" He laughed and all was right with the world.

#36 Gave Mark a foot rub as we watched M*A*S*H

#40 Watched M*A*S*H. It was funny, but in a dry satirical way. It ended fast. I mean the climax of the movie was a football game. Now, I am not a shoot-em-up kind of girl, but this was a war movie dealing with the surgical side of the war. I guess I was expecting a Saving Private Ryan moment that never came. I will say that Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould were perfect in their roles of BJ and Hawkeye. Loved them. I never watched the show, so I was a virgin to the whole experience.

Also watched Easy Rider. Slow burn, but the last 15 minutes of the movie makes it awesome. The whole trippy scene in New Orleans and the asses in the truck. I was not expecting the ending at all. It threw me for a loop, but that is what made this movie great. Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson were yummy to watch. As for my friend, Dennis Hopper, rest in peace.

Week 55

Got some big things off the list this week.



#52 Mark and I went to the top of the Washington Monument. If you have never done this and will be visiting the DC area, you need to plan ahead and do this. It was amazing. The view of our nation's capital is stunning. Trust when I tell you to plan ahead. I overheard the security guard tell a tourist that the tickets were out until the end of September. They are free, with the exception of shipping.



#15 Ran a 5K while in Berkeley Springs. We were there for a family vacation. We stayed just outside of the state park that sponsored a 5K charity run/walk for Alzheimer's Research. Karl sponsored my entry fee and Brian, my brother-in-law, ran with me. He finished in just over 30 minutes and I finished in 40. Not a stellar performance, but I finished. Since it was a spur of the moment decision on vacation, I did not have my uber-expensive running shoes. Let me tell you, I paid for that severely for the next three days. Ouch!



#87, 19, 65--Still commited to these things every day. It has actually gotten easier as the months have gone on.



#36 Gave Mark an impromptu foot rub in our room in Reedville while Brian worked on the laptop and we discussed chemical procurement, vacations and conference call attendance. Good times.



#35 Gave Mark two more love notes. One was a renote that made its way back to me and then found its way back to Mark. I love travelling love notes. The second was a sloppy note quickly scrawled on Mark's work list for his logos. It was messy, but that is what made it beautiful.

Week 53

Getting ready to hit the road, so this will be short and sweet.

#8: Read Service Included. I got this one as a throw back to my restaurant days. I was expecting all these sordid tales about the inner goings on between the staff and the crazy things that tables ask for that I remembered from my years of waiting tables. It was not like that at all. It was more like a love story. The love between a 5-star place just opening and a waitress who landed a job. It was an interesting read. I will be passing it on to my friend, Michele because I know she will appreciate it as I did.

#35 Two loves to Mark this week. The first one was sent to him on the bottom of the weekly "honey-do" list. Of course, that one got marked off as done. The second got sent in an email. He had a full plate doing some free-lance things and he looked a little frazzled. Let's just say the note got send in the nick of time.

#36 Mark got lots of lovin' this week. Along with his love notes, he also got a foot rub. His dogs were tired after taking first place in his disc golf tourney. He asked, no begged, for a little rub down. Knowing he has sweaty feet, ICK, I hesitated for a minute. Then he gave me the kitten eyes. I sucked it up. He is not making the transition from hating feet to liking feet an easy one.

#40 Watched The Searchers. John Wayne. This is my favorite western so far. It was the only one that I got through in one sitting. John is a crotchety veteran of the Civil War. He doesn't like anybody. He doesn't like his family. He doesn't like the North. He doesn't like the Indians. He doesn't like the town Preacher and Sheriff. He doesn't like the adopted nephew. He doesn't like anybody. Then he gets roped into a search party that tries to locate his niece from the local Comanche Tribe. In the end, he gets his man, Scar. He gets the girl back safe. He gets his adopted nephew back to his love. He gets to tell the sheriff off. He doesn't get his own girl, but he is John Wayne. He is so bad-ass, he doesn't need one.

#75 Booked two non-soccer tournaments this week. We got a baseball tournament, which was a nice surprise because baseball usually doesn't follow a round robin schedule. He saw our boards a Midland and thought they would work. Also booked a lacrosse tournament. This is a sport we want to break into because they do use the same format as soccer. This tournament is put on by a league that does two other tournaments with us. Before we could contact him to offer, he placed the order. We are going in the right direction, which is up!

Up to Week 52

So, I have been traveling over the last couple of weeks. I am back, but not too much is going on.

Let's see here--

Watched Rocky last week. I have nothing to say about this flick. If you have not seen it, then you should come out from under the rock as I did. It was awesome, even for a Sly Stallone movie. Interesting tidbit, it was written by Rocky himself. Who knew??

I wrote Mark two love notes. One was on the back of a vintage valentine I printed from online. I was working on the outfit for Halloween and came across this great image of two chubby, naked cherubs holding hearts and ribbons. I printed it and cut it out and called it my own. Mark loved it. It was the naked cherubs.

The other note I gave him was written on a postie note that I stapled to a rubber band. I shot the rubber band over to his part of the office. I almost took his eye out, but he got my message none the less. Later, he shot the rubber band back at me, but he hit the blinds instead. The love note is still there.

Read two books--

Beyond the Body Farm is about the first leaps in forensic science. It centers around a pathologist who bought land behind the University of Tennessee. He would place donated cadavers on the land and document all phases of decomp for science. The book doesn't center on the body farm, but more about some of the pivotal cases that he was a part of over the years. In some cases, he determined time of death and cause solely from findings at the body farm. He was also involved in some of the first cases that used teeth and DNA to determine identity. It was a great, but grusome, read.

Love is a Mix Tape. You know you had them. Any respectable kid growing up in the 80's had a full collection of mixed tapes for all kinds of situations--making out, driving, studying, hanging out with friends. Love is a Mix Tape tells the true tale of a young man and his obsession with the almighty mix tape. He tells his story of discovering lust, young love, serious love, lost love, and rediscovering love too the background of seemingly unrelated songs on a grainy TDK. If you grew up in the 80's and 90's and you honor the mixtape, you have to read this book.

Man, I suck. I am out and about over the next couple of weeks, but I am bound and determined to get this blog thing regular.