May 31, 2011

Catching up

I can't belive I haven't posted anything in a week! It'd be understandable if I was busy, busy, busy ... but I really wasn't :(

I did read everybody's blogs though; however, I wasn't able to post any comments on anybody's blog. That made me kind of frustrated. On almost all comments I tried to post it'd ask for my google id, take me to a sign in page - then I would sign in and it would take me back to the comment post page only to preview it as an anonymous comment o.O

It seems to be a common problem among other bloggers, I just hope it gets resolved soon.

This is gonna be one of those "dump posts".

Nothing excited happened last week, except our brisket BBQ at work which turned out really well! I contributed dessert, which I was really excited to do. I made 4 rum cakes just to make sure that there was plenty for all of our 43+ employees. They turned out fabulous and everybody loved them. One guy even asked if he could buy one from me later this week :) He caught me off guard, so I told him I'd sell him one for $10.00

I took some picutres while I baked:

^^ My baby in action! lol.

^^ 2 down, 2 to go!

^^ Danny was out gigging with the band one night, and I needed to make sure he or anybody else wouldn't eat the 2 that were ready by Thursday! - You know, to ensure their survival for Friday's BBQ

^^ The Smokester, mommy's little helper ;)
Well, no not really but he did keep me company.


The weekend was pretty chill - we didn't do much of anything. We did a BBQ on Sunday with the band, that was pretty fun. But I fail, as I did not take any pictures :( Not a single one.

I had Memorial Day off, which was ok on Sunday but then I felt kinda bad that I wasn't able to work ... that's like 9 hours I'm gonna miss off next weeks paycheck :( I rested up a lot, more than I needed to I think because I feel really tired right now ... lol. I'm sure it'll even itself out later this week.

May 24, 2011

Unintentional Date Night :)

Last night we had an unintended date night. Aren't those just the best? lol.

We didn't have dinner plans, which seems to happen often these days. So we figured we'd go to Cheddars and see my brother-in-law in action at his new job. I finally tried the Chicken Pot Pie and thought it was pretty good. I've never had anything but the pre-made frozen ones you get at the grocery store.

After dinner we went for some blizzards at Dairy Queen :-) So yummy!

Then we headed back to the apartment and played some Call of Duty. Yes, that's right -call of duty. hahaha. I'm in "training", and Danny actually says I"m getting better everyday. I die just almost as often as I kill ... for the most part.



I'll leave you all with a funny picture of Smokey. haha.




May 19, 2011

Weekend in Dallas - Monday

Monday [5/16]:
We woke up pretty early considering how tired we were from the previous day's walking around. We were awake by 8, however we weren't ready till after 9 so we missed the complimentary breakfast from the hotel :(

No worries! We ventured off to a "Corner Bakery"




The Farmer's Scrambler - DELICIOUS!!

After breakfast we headed off to the Galleria for some shopping! :D We found our way over there without missing any exits :) And we even walked around each floor a couple of times, at least! Man were we pooped! We were there for a few hours but headed back towards the hotel around 2 to avoid being stuck in any kind of traffic that would make us late to the concert.

We stopped for a little lunch at La Madeleine ...


MMmmm - love that pesto pasta salad!

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the concert!


The countdown I had on my phone :)

We arrived at the American Airlines Center right around 5:30PM
.... Then we parked the car ....

... to get in line and wait to get our tickets, for what seemed like forever!

We had to wait in this line for the package[d] tickets. You see, my little sister didn't just buy regular seats :)


After about 40 minutes [give or take a few], we finally got our tickets!!

Audrey bought the tickets in the Gold Package, which entitled us to a few "perks".
First, after we got the tickets we got to shop at the merchandise booth, crowd free! Litterally, it was just our little group able to buy things before the main doors opened and the table would be open to everybody! I thought that was pretty cool .. then we were escorted to a private lounge for some free snackage where we also received a complimentary tote with a VIP tag and a resuable water bottle.


I'm not sure about the drinks, I made it a point to stay away from that so I wouldn't have to run to the restroom in the middle of the concert. Boy, would that stink!

After the free food we were able to go to our seats! We were so stinking excited!

^^ In line to make our way to the floor seats!


We were so close to the stage - our seats were unbelievably awesome!

JOSH GROBAN is amazing! I think everyone should make it a point in their life to see him in concert That man is charming, and freaking talented!! I loved it! I was so sad when it was over :( But I am so happy, and appreciative for the opportunity to have seen him live!

Thank you Audrey!!!

Here are some pictures I took:

Audrey and I before the concert!






Weekend in Dallas - Sunday

Wow! So we just had a HUGE explosion happen here in the yard! We think a propane tank went into the shredder for an explosion that big. Luckily, there wasn't a fire and nobody was hurt. Items that were hung on the walls fell, other objects fell off shelves, and the sink in the women's restroom completely came off the wall and ended up on the floor. I didn't have my phone with me so I don't have a picture of that, but we are all ok :)



So Dallas was fun! I'd only been there once before and that was about .... almost 8 years ago! And it was on a school "trip" so I didn't remember much about it except the ginormous mall!! :D

Sunday:
We left to the Harlingen airport from my apartment about 10 minutes later than we'd originally planned, but me made it with time. The weather out was really nice and fresh, which is quite unusal for the Valley this time of the year. But I'll take it over 100% humidity any day! From Harlingen we flew to Houston-Hobby where we had a layover for about an hour before the next plane to Dallas departed. I love flying :)

So we land in Dallas and the pilot comes on the intercom and alerts us that we've arrived, blah blah blah, weather and all that. lol. He told us it was 64 degrees out! Man was it chilly!! We picked up the rental car and were off to find the hotel! So there we are: 2 valley girls driving in a city we'd never really been in. Funny stuff! The next hour or so was spent locating the hotel, which ended up being maybe 15 min. from the airport! I'd be driving waiting on directions from my sister [who was getting the directions from her iPhone maps app] and I would pass an exit or a turn and she'd tell me "you just passed it" (a little late, lol ;) ) But we eventually found it!

It was then time for lunch, which ended up being at T.G.I.Friday's before we went to Buffalo Exchange, a thrift store. Audrey found a couple of things she liked, I unfortunately found a few but then talked myself out of actually buying them. Buyer's remorse before the fact. lol. We also wanted to watch "Something Borrowed" and there happened to be an AMC theater at Northpark Mall. We found our way there pretty easily. We must've walked around that mall at least 5 or 6 times before the movie was set to start! It's huge! We were in William's Sonoma the longest, I think, than all the other stores!

Here some random pictures I took:
We saw this cute little dress right when we walked in through Macy's. I picture messaged it to Danny, for our imaginary future baby girl. LOL.

Pink, orange and yellow Cactus!

Modern art ...

I thought these were pretty cool.

I think this was my favorite

We saw this in a window at Tiffany's. It says: "Come and go as you please, but stay with me always"


This is a little trinket I told Danny I needed for pies .. he replied to me that "I don't make pies :( "

May 18, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - The Smokester


He reminded me of Danny in this picture.

Danny is still in healing from his bells palsey - almost completely recovered, but not fully. His left eye is almost always just slightly closed more than the right ... kinda like Smokey in this picture. lol.

May 13, 2011

Friday, the 13th ..... OOOoooohhh!! o.O

Hahaha. Creepy?? Nah, not unless you're superstitious.




Well here I am! I haven't really gone anywhere, yet.

This post is going to be a little random and all over the place, so I apologize in advance :)

1. So where have I been?? Well, my computer at work totally crapped out on me. Not in the sense that it crashed and everything on it was lost, but rather it just became extremely, and frustratingly [<-- is that even a word?? lol.] SLOW!!

My boss tried everything he could to make it run faster, but had no luck. Then we did the next best thing and called in a computer technician. Did it help? Heck no! For some weird reason there was 8GB of memory on the computer, and only 3GB's were available. He thinks that the chip must've been ruined which in turn made it run really slow, and it would be really expensive to fix - it would be cheaper to just buy me a new tower.

So did I get a new computer?? NO! The software I use to run payroll will only run on a 32 bit tower.... And all the new, off-the-shelf towers at the stores come in 64-bit. Yes they're better, and probably faster [can you tell I don't know much about computers?? lol. all this technical mumbo jumbo stuck in my head after some repitition of hearing it over, and over .... ] I did get a replacement tower, just not a brand spanking new one. It is way better than the one I had, I noticed a drastic difference from the old one when I began to use it yesterday. A new tower is not going to make me better at my job, and not getting a new one isn't going to make me be a bad employee either. I can rock this job, even if I had to use the old one!! :D

2. I've been feeling under the weather for the past several days. It's not a cold, or the flu .. .I think it's some kind of throat infection. My throat is just irritated. I'm not coughing, not a lot anyway just every once in awhile something I breathe in will rub it the wrong way and I'll cough as a result of that. My sense of taste has gone - everything tastes bland :( and when I salt something, the salt really comes out and then it's all I can taste. I've been feeling really drained of energy, and have had no urge to cook or clean at all.

3. This week flew by really quickly! It seems like just yesterday was Monday. Maybe it's because every, other day I was the county court house trying to renew a registration sticker ... I've had to go back repeatedly because of bumps that have come up. Finally, though we made a break only to go in today and find that the clerk/notary that was on our case wasn't going to make it in to work today :( There's always next week ...

4.


It's almost time for the concert! I just saw a clip his page uploaded on Facebook, and now I'm even more anxious!!!


5. I've stayed late at work everyday. Right now, I'm still here. I'm completely caught up on my work for the week and I'm just waiting on 2 trucks to make it into the yard. One is to be unloaded, the other is going to be loaded up with shredded aluminum.

***EDIT - 5:50PM : Both trucks just showed up - at the same time!! lol. Score! :D



6. I think it's time for some Netflix while I wait!


Tonight is banda night. ...... Mission - "Video Clip" is on! I hope I get a good one :)

I hope everyone has a great Friday Night!!

May 9, 2011

My Weekend & Conversations with Jack

Friday went down as usual - go to work, go home and cook dinner, get ready to go to JAAS [night club] for "Banda night". My Danny is in this group, they're pretty great and I'm totally not being biased here. Personally, before - I couldn't really care less about this type of music, but hearing it on the speakers from a recording and watching it live is pretty different. I actually kind of like it now, although I am still learning the songs. One of these days I'll get a video recording to share on here.

Saturday, we slept in. And I mean it we slept in! We didn't get up from bed till almost 2 PM. And then we just relocated to the living room and watched tv. What couch potatoes, huh?! Close to 4 PM we took our car to a mechanic to get a radiator flush and while that was going on we went to Target to go buy a present for our nephew Jadon, for his 3rd Birthday! We then returned to the apartment where we continued to bum some more. Danny had 2 gigs lined up with the banda later that night, and then had a series of little gigs lined up with a little group to do "Mother's Day Serenades" throught the wee hours of the morning through Mother's Day. Danny got back from his banda gigs at about 3AM and then we loaded up the car and drove to the mid-valley so he could go off and do the serenades. I got to my dad's house just after 4AM.

Sunday Audrey [younger sister] and I got to see Christina[older sister] and Jack [nephew]! They'd driven down to go see her Grandmother for Mother's Day. Our mom was unavailable for Mother's Day; she's off on some month long road trip with her husband, and she also does not have a cell phone. So we went to breakfast :)



Conversation on the way to Breakfast:
Jack: "Where are we going??"
[Sister's]: "Jose's Cafecito"
Jack: [PAUSE] ... "I don't know Spanish!"


Christina then began to tell us how Jack knows a little bit of Spanish, he just forgets that he knows. One time she'd asked him to bring her something, and she said "Gracias", which means Thank you - and Jack replied "De nada", which means Your Welcome. Basic stuff, yes - but he knows. I remember he was counting 1-10 in Spanish when he was maybe 4 years old, he'd learned in day care. Now he can count to 15, and I told him that was great!

During breakfast:

Jack: [to me] "How old are you?"
Me: "How old do you think I am? - WAIT! Don't answer that!" [I didn't want to hear some outrageous number, lol] "I'm twenty-three"
Jack: [to Audrey] "So you're twenty-...."
Audrey: [interupting Jack] "Twenty-one"
Jack: [to Audrey] "So then you have 2 more years before you have to be married!"

Christina then began to tell Jack that Audrey didn't have to get married if she didn't want to, she was still very young. I was just sitting there laughing my face off, this kid throws me sometimes with the stuff he says!

Jack: "But then she will be single. And a lonely, loner - all alone."

O.o

All this from my 8 + 3/4 year old nephew!


After breakfast we continued talking about words in Spanish, and on the ride back to my dad's Jack wanted to eat a mint he had in the car but Christina told him he could have it later after they ate lunch. Of course he wanted it right then and there, so Audrey then proceeded to tell him that he could eat it - if he could say breakfast in Spanish. [it's "desayuno"]

I helped him as much I could. I told him the first 2 letters were "de", a couple letters in the middle were "ay" and the last two were "no". Of course he never answered, but then some time goes by and he then asks me how to spell "Audrey", so I tell him. And curiously, I looked over to see what he was doing. He was messing around on his iTouch, with his notepad app.

He wrote: "Today Audrey made me say breakfast in Spanish."

Seriously, he blows my mind away sometimes!!

May 5, 2011

Smokey ...

"Pet me Mom"
"No pictures!"


"Fine. I will just lay here next to you."


He always throws in the towel .... eventually. LOL.

May 4, 2011

I miss the 30 day blog challenge!

Just another day here at the port:

This is a small ship compared to some of the other ones I've seen.

I really do miss the 30 day Blog Challenge. I haven't posted anything since Saturday! For shame.