Emergency

I don't think I've had one customer in the past 6 months that was not in state of freakish panic over the near death experience one might have if they don't have someone's name sewn on something RIGHT THIS MINUTE OH MY GOD!!!!

What is wrong with people? Is it so very hard to plan ahead, even every once in a while? I guess I am to blame for continuing to enable these boneheads. I honestly can not see the dire need to have something embroidered STAT, but whateva...

As we were driving home from softball practice last night we passed a house with outrageous amounts of black smoke coming from the chimney. It was gigantic - I wondered if they were having an emergency, but I was also driving 50 mph. What is the civic duty here? Turn around and go check? Call 911 and say someone's chimney has smoke coming out? I didn't know what to do and given the traffic kept on moving along. But in my gut I felt like I should call or do SOMETHING. The first thought is that there are hundreds of cars zipping by, one of them will call. That sort of thinking is what is wrong with the world today, and sadly it is exactly what went through my head. Then we were passed by a firetruck, likely on it's way to the scene. The house is still standing today, so I'm assuming that the fire was taken care of - if there was a fire at all. The firetruck could have been purely coincidental and headed somewhere else. In essence I did NOTHING, even though I felt in my gut I should do something. I'm becoming a part of the problem...sigh.

Home

Home at last! Spent the better part of last week in Costa Rica. A truly beautiful place, and now returning to reality is hard. I've had 24/6 with Kevin and now it is back to the grind, something that is more difficult than I imagined.

We had no kids with us on this trip and it was purely self indulgence at every turn, but a well deserved reward for the hard work Kevin has put in for the past year to support our family. He really does his job well and he gives 110% effort to the company he works for. The best part is that he really does enjoy his work. This trip was giving back to him. I, of course, have done basically nothing all year except to spend his earnings, so I feel kinda like a mooch. I did my part to service the king's every desire and we had a very romantic and smoochy trip. Now I miss him like crazy all day long.

We went to a beautiful resort near a small town called Jaco. As resorts go it was amazing, and lush and full of iguanas, running under our feet by the pool, on the rooftops - tons of them. The food was incredible and the service was great. When we left the resort to see the "real" Costa Rica it was much different. No one is in a hurry anywhere - such a difference from home! Most meals ended up taking over an hour due to service. The atmosphere is very laid back in the entire town and there were no worries. While there were some areas which seemed they could be a little shady, we never felt unsafe.

The beaches in this area are black sand, something I was not expecting at all. It really looks dirty and is hard to get past after being exposed to such white sand beaches as we have. There were also no seashells along the shore, but only rocks. The rocks were smooth and rounded from the constant tumbling in the ocean. There are 121 volcanoes in Costa Rica so the black sand is a product of volcanoes I'm pretty sure. We did not get very educated on Costa Rica and unlike most of our travels we did very touristy things. We did the adventure tours advertised by the resort (zip line the rainforest, ATV the mountains and forest, surf, etc.). And while we had a lot of fun the day we were leaving I realized that we missed an opportunity to go to a National Forest and see tons of wildlife. I would have enjoyed it immensely and this is what we would have NORMALLY done. And now, I feel sad that I missed a great opportunity and I have nothing really poetic to share. And I did not see ONE, not even ONE poop throwing monkey!!!

I did, however, drink tons of fruity concoctions and feel like a queen, so that must be good for something, right??? I suppose now I'll have to go back and do it right...

MacLove

I *heart* my iPhone...

I know it looks like I'm smelling it (Mary Catherine Gallagher style), but I'm not. I just love it. I hope it loves me, too.

I am sad that a new phone is supposedly sporting a TERABYTE for only $499??!! WTF?? If it is, that is amazing, but I'll be pissed as well because that is huge. It also means that there may be plans for some big upgrades for the phone and my measley 8g won't be able to touch it. I mean really, a TERABYTE?? You don't just pull that out of your ass. There must be plans, plans which will COST ME. shit, shit, shitty, shit....

Halloweenie Roast

My kids decided to have a Halloweenie Roast - and yet they don't like hotdogs. But we invited only the best behaved friends over and had a fun time roasting weenies and igniting marshmallows over a fire. Here is my Miss Behaved Prisoner and my little Red Pirate who should be Anakin....

My little one wanted to be Anakin Skywalker, had to be Anakin, could not live if not Anakin and I gave in and purchased an expensive Anakin costume. Then we went to a yard sale on Saturday and she saw this red pirate outfit which was $5 and had to have it. I talked the lady down to $3 and now Anakin is no more. And I can't return it. This frustrates me so much that I may just turn to the dark side...

On another note, can I just say that I love my husband, because I do and I know that I am very lucky to have him. I'll elaborate on that later...

Happy Halloween! Did anyone even miss me?

Surprise!

Now this is something that says a butt-load about our society....

A random bag of crap which has SOLD OUT! My husband changed my homepage to woot.com which he finds amusing and useful at times and one day they were just selling crap. And it sold out. I took a screen shot, but now can't find it, so I borrowed this photo, but still. This borrowed photo is from last year and I took a screen shot just a few weeks ago. So not only do people buy random crap, they do it continually. Oh yeah, and you can't just buy one, you have to buy three at a time. Really, people, do we not already have enough random crap in our lives. I'm just saying.....

I'm trying to declutter and scale back so this, to me, is mind blowing that someone would buy three of something and have no clue whatsoever what they are getting. I guess it is like the lottery, only it comes with clutter. Or a big screen TV...

I left my heart and some Triscuits...

in San Francisco..... WOW, I had a GREAT time in San Francisco. I loved, loved, loved it. The weather was perfect, it could not have been better. After living in HOTlanta and suffering through the 95-100 degree days it was a lovely feeling to be in the upper 60's for the better part of the week.

I live north of Atlanta, so seeing the homeless daily is not something that I am exposed to. I do go to the city quite often and so I know they are there, but in San Francisco there seemed to be almost as many homeless (or begging) as there were regular people. It was interesting to say the least, and in some cases heartbreaking. I got a good laugh at the lady asking for spare change who was holding a kitten - oh wait, it wasn't a kitten - it was a rat. She also had dyed her hair blue, so I assumed that she probably wasn't too hard up for change if she can use it to buy blue hair dye and feed a nasty pet rat.

We ended up having an extra rolling backpack when it came time to go home. Kevin got a new one while there and so we did not want to carry the old one home. It was a great bag, but he needed something better to carry his laptop in. So we loaded it up with our extra soaps, shampoos and a box of Triscuits that we did not eat. I took it out to the nearest corner and found a guy asking for change - "Do you need a bag?" - and he happily took it from me. We then got all our stuff and waited for our driver. As we sat in the airport shuttle waiting for some other people I saw the guy I gave the bag to. He pulled out the box of Triscuits and I watched him crumble them all up and feed them to the pigeons. Ha - I guess you aren't that hungry after all. It is hard to want to help people when there are so many taking advantage of it, it is obvious that homelessness is a choice for many of these people and it is a shame that those who truly do need help will get overlooked.

I found Chinatown to be the most interesting - I actually almost forgot I was in the US. I stopped in a restaurant for Kung Pao and I was thisclose to asking if they accept US dollars. Thankfully I caught myself before I looked like a total idiot, but if you spend a better part of the day there and realize that no one around you is speaking English, you can get lost in it all.

I had an entire week, but when the end came, I still felt like I had not seen enough. I hope to go back again, I hope to take my kids. It was one of my favorite trips of lately.

I could write a book on all that I saw, but for now it's back to reality, and a ton of work...

Piggies

I want to touch it, I want to play with it, I want to rub my fingers across it, I want to hold it in my hand...

I'm talking about the new IPod ITouch, get your mind out of the gutter!!

It's an IPhone for someone like me who doesn't need an IPhone. I'm not a mac whore or anything close to it, but this thing looks super cool and I think I need one. Of course, I think I'll not rush out and get the first batch and see if they do a crafty little price drop like the IPhone. I doubt it, but no big rush. Which is odd for me because I'm generally very impatient once I decide I want something, I must get it right away for fear that there won't be any left. So ITouch you are on my list. It's the Wi-Fi abilities that get me since when I'm at a hotel I don't generally need my entire laptop, I just need to check email. It would be fantastic to be able to do just that with my IPod. Genius I tell you!! As if someone were reading my mind!!

I'm trying to get ready to leave for San Francisco for an entire week. I can't wait, but there's much work to be done before I go. Today I am sewing little piggies onto red shirts. Ugly little piggies they are, but I just do what I'm told. I do think that I must have some BBQ for lunch now.