Tuesday night fights

I got to see a *real* fight tonight at the Griffins hockey game! Apparently the ones I have seen before were not the *real* hockey game fights. The game was pretty charged anyway and then I saw gloves and helmets get thrown down and next thing you know 2 guys are circling each other and getting ready to take their shots.

I'm used to seeing the ref's break up the fights so I was very surprised when they didn't and this fight went on for at least 2 minutes until it was broken up.

It was an exciting hockey night for me :)

These aren't the fights we saw tonight but here's an idea of what went on tonight.

This first one involves the player that was in the fight tonight (Adam Keefe) but this was before he came to the Griffins:


Adam Keefe

This player is actually up with the Detroit RedWings right now but he's usually leading the charge to fight and I've watched many a fight he's started:

Darryl Bootland

Kenny Chesney

It's been awhile since I posted about Kenny so I figured it's time to talk about it.

I scored Kenny Chesney tickets! He'll be here May 10th and 11th at the VanAndel Arena here in town. There was a pre sale on Friday and Jim was able to get a pair of tickets. They went on sale to the public on Saturday so we decided to see if we couldn't get better seats then.

We got a *little* better seats than the ones we got Friday were for the second show. So now the dilemma ... what show to go to? First, second, or both?! =)

Total Money Makeover Live

I was waiting to blog about this until I had some pictures, then saw the pictures and can't believe I am going to share them. Please pretend that I am photo-shopped so I look decent!

Anyhow, Jim, Dawnn and I volunteered at the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Live Event on Sat. Feb 17th here in town.

Jim and I got there just before volunteer orientation at 9 and met up with Dawnn. They gave us a brief overview of what we'd be doing that day and were assigned out to our areas for "table training" Jim was picked to do security and Dawnn and I were assigned to work a product table before and after the show and during the breaks.

We were all given these bright bright yellow t shirts (no way you can miss us volunteers in those! Only thing I wish I could have changed besides the color was the size! Some of us prefer our tshirts large!)

After table training we were turned loose to get situated and meet our neighboring tables. There was a couple to the right of us that were smart and brought their cameras, I wanted to bring mine but since this was my first year volunteering I wasn't sure if I'd have a safe place to keep it so I left it at home. They were kind enough to take a picture of us at our table:



And clowning around with the large poster next to us:



Dawnn and I were heading to take one last bathroom break and stop at the vending machine so I could get some water and on our way we almost walked into Dave Ramsey! He had just come in and was coming to meet the volunteers. We stopped to chit chat for a second and he shook our hands and thanked us for coming out.

After we got back we were telling our "neighbors" that we met him and then saw that he was walking around to all the tables to meet the volunteers so we offered to take pictures for them if they'd take some for us.

Dawnn and I ran over to meet Dave again and decided to strike the same post as the poster picture and he was cracking up at us and seemed amused when we explained we were scrapbookers and this was going in our album :)



It was a loooonnnnggg day but so worth it, I had a blast and I couldn't even begin to tell how you much product we sold, each time we'd sell out of something one of us would run to another table to get more and I was even selling the stuff as I was walking back to my table!

Because it was so busy I didn't get to listen to the entire thing but I heard pieces of it and I have the books and a few DVDs.

Overall it was a great day and I was so glad I volunteered to go. If any of ya'll get a chance to volunteer or go hear Dave live, go for it! You won't regret it!

Please come to Boston

and she said yes!

I'm going to Boston! One of the girls on Scrapshare, Christina, is getting married and several of the girls decided to throw her a bachelorette party weekend near the end of June in Boston and I wanted to go but didn't know if I'd be able to find a good flight.

I have airline miles saved up and I've been hunting for a flight for about a month and finally on Sunday I found one that I could cash miles in for and I got it, only cost me $10!

I'm going to be there for a week and I am so excited. I'm already starting my "must see" list and I'm hoping I can get to a Red Sox game too!

I'm so excited to get to meet the east coast gals, they are such wonderful friends and it'll be great to finall meet them in person!

I.hate.Comcast.

It's been what a week since I mentioned them? I cannot stand them. I was sitting down paying bills last night and I pay my Comcast bill online because they were never sending me payments. I've had a love/hate with them for years and the last 24 hours is no exception.

About a week or week and a half ago I got an email from them that my account was changing and I would have a new account number and because of this I would be sent a paper bill. Cool. I wait for the paper bill. Well I'm still waiting.

I go to log in last night and it said to sign up again but it won't take the "old" account number. I tried again today and still nothing so I went to their online chat tonight.

I was told that there was a "snafu" in the billing and that my payment was due on 2/2. Ummm no, I didn't change my billing dates. I am then told that the system they need to get into to get my bill and account was down and they had just switched over, etc etc etc blah blah blah.

So I was a little irate and told her that I wanted my account noted that I've been trying to pay the last 24 hours but their system will not let me (I can pay via phone but there's a service fee and I refuse to pay because they messed up!) and that I will not be charged a late fee.

So ... I am going to try and get Dish again ... it's been a couple weeks so maybe they can now get a signal. I want to be done with Comcast but it'll be after tomorrow since I have to "chat back" to get my account number. Ugh.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had an enjoyable day if you celebrate or not, and didn't OD on chocolates!

I had a great Valentine's Day in spite of the fact I was working *lol*

I got in this morning and found a cute valentine bag on my chair and it was from Jim! I got a funny, cute card, some Dove milk chocolates, a Tinkerbell wallet (you know the plastic velro ones little kids have?) and a beautiful silver necklace with a heart. It is so pretty. I can't wait to wear it tomorrow :)

Then after I got settled in I had a voice mail from the front desk letting me know I had a delivery!

I ran out to the lobby and I had roses from Jim! Total surprise, I was smiling all day each time I looked at them or thought about it. A beautiful arrangement of roses and ferns and baby breath in a beautiful vase. He totally spoiled me! This was first time I ever had a flower delivery at work that was not from my mom or aunt!

I gave Jim his card and heart shaped candy box first thing this morning and told him I had the rest of his gift but I didn't want to give it to him at work, I'd give it to him in the parking lot after work *lol*

The men in our department also got together and collected some money and got each of us girls in the department a rose and passed them out. It was really sweet and thoughtful of them!

I got him some Conversation hearts since that is tradition in my family, and I gave him a box for each of his boys too just 'cuz and his main gift from me was an album I made. I used the Trisha Yearwood song, What I like About You, as the basis for the album and left some pages blank to fill in as we go since we've just begun. I think he really liked it and I was so happy that I could make it for him. I love giving gifts!

Hopefully my Scrapshare Secret Valentine got her package today, I haven't seen a post yet today but I hope she likes what I got. I haven't gotten mine yet, but I was a procrastinator in mailing mine and I know many other ladies were too so I'm not worried it will be just as fun to find it tomorrow when I get home!

Here's hoping your day was a good one!

Slave to the Habit

Friday night after stopping at Culver's for dinner, Jim and I went to Barnes and Noble. I love B&N and I love that they have a used book section. I was perusing through and picking up several books when I got to the used CD section and I found a CD of an artist that you hardly ever hear of or from, Shane Minor.

The CD was $2 so I couldn't resist. I loaded it into my iPod and was pleasantly surprised to get one of my favorite songs of his on it today in the rotation, Slave to the Habit.

It was just what I needed for a good pick me up today! I'd link to a page of his but the CMT page I am trying to link to is not responding! Guess you'll have to Google it.

Just another regular day

So I was feeling peer pressured into updating my blog. I don't know if I'm the only one but sometimes when I don't feel I have anything to say I don't blog. Not that I ever really have anything *great* to talk about on here but I hope ya'll know what I mean.

This past week was busy, hung out with Jim, went to a hockey game Wed. night, finished my swaps for Scrapshare and mailed them! and caught up on sleep over the weekend.

I've decided I really need to get myself on a sleep schedule. I've said this before and I have yet to do it, I start out with good intentions but after a few days or a week I'm back in my old habits. I've decided I need a DVR, that way I could record shows I don't want to miss and then get to bed earlier.

Since that won't happen anytime soon I'm just stuck in the same ol' same ol' staying up late, sleeping and waking up feeling tired. Then using the weekends to catch up.

Yeah... it's still cold

That about sums my week up so far :)

Oh, and those that love their Tastefully Simple goodies the new spring/summer line comes out in March. If you need to stock up on the winter goods before it goes away I'm happy to help.

Also, I do know that 3 of the products are going away. Stock up before it's too late:

Creamy Wild Rice Soup - this will return Fall '07
Howlin' Horseradish - once it's gone it is gone!
Sweet and Sassy Mustard Sauce - same as the Horseradish, once it's gone it is gone for good!

Hope everyone else is staying warm!

Blizzard '07

This week winter arrived full force. It's been really cold, temps down to below zero and worse with the wind chill factored in, lots of snow, and just all around yuck.

I guess that's one nice thing about being home sick all week, I hadn't left my place since Wednesday when I went to the doctor. Today I went out to find my car and dig it out. I must have brushed and scraped off a foot of snow off my car. The drifts around my car were up to me knees and it took a few minutes to find the rear of the car. We had that much snow.

We were under blizzard warnings Saturday and alot of wind causing blowing and drifting of snow. Today I realized I still had Jim's digital camera and took some pictures from my deck.



Yes that is snow hanging over the roof and just stuck there. Even the ducks seem to have disappeared into their nests and hiding spots under the trees to wait this out.



I don't like driving in snow, but looking out the slider it is rather peaceful and serene.

Slide Show

The blog challenge for this week was to create a slide show. I chose some of the pictures from my vacation to Ohio this past summer where we went to a couple of zoo's, Jacobs Field for a Cleveland Indians baseball game and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Enjoy!

One Wild Night

As mentioned in prior blog entries several of us went out Friday night to celebrate Paul's birthday. It's become tradition to go and do something for our birthdays of whatever the birthday person chooses. Friday night started out with going bowling. Jean, Paul, Jim, and I left from work Friday and went to Jim's place so he could change into jeans and then to my apartment so I could put my jeans on and then ended up at Mr. Burger for dinner. Jeff was going to join us also when he got out of work at 8. We were still at Mr. Burger when he called us so we said we'd wait there for him to meet us there that way he could have dinner before we headed out to bowl.

We never bowled. We went to 2 alley's and at the first one they weren't going to do open bowl until midnight so we went to another that had open bowl at 10 but there was a line out of the door of teenagers. We felt old so we left and started aimlessly driving around until finally it was decided we'd go to Village Inn for karaoke ... which was 3 minutes from where we started the night at! We drove around aimlessly for a couple hours but had a blast all piled into Jim's van. He keeps threatening that his next vehicle will be a 2 seater which means we'll have to find a new party van :)

Anyhow, here are some pictures from the night. Jean ordered a round of shots of something with Crown Royal and then she and I were drinking $2.50 Tequila Sunrises while the others had beer.

The shots:


Yeah ... I dunno. :)


The birthday boy:



More Tequila!



A Mad German (story behind this, his screen name is amadgerman and for the longest time I tried to figure out what a "A madge man" was. Now we just tease him.


and a few more...

Down for the count

Day 3 and I'm home sick. Talk about hitting fast! I was fine Friday, several of us went out to celebrate Paul's birthday (I'll try and blog and post pictures after my nap) and I had a little tickle in my throat, attributed it to the cigarette smoke around me at the karaoke bar and didn't give it a second thought. By Sunday I was coughing and by Monday morning I felt like I was run over by a bus.

Today is Wednesday and I finally mustered enough energy to get into the doctor. Turns out I have a viral infection. Since it's not bacterial there isn't an antibiotic that can clear it up but she did give me a prescription for cough syrup with some codeine to give me a break and wants me to stay home for the rest of the week.

I'm home camping out on the couch and realizing there is nothing good on TV during the day.

Kinder Chocolate

I ate it. Finally. I thought Melissa may have gotten on a plane to fly here to force feed me if I didn't eat it :)

As mentioned in a prior blog entry it's been insanely busy this week so I haven't had a chance to post about it. I borrowed Jim's camera so I could document it and tonight had a chance to upload the pictures.

Rewind to last Saturday night. After doing some housework I decided to put Melissa out of her misery and reward myself by eating the Kinder Chocolate.

For those that don't know, Kinder Chcolate is available in Canada in bars or in eggs called Kinder Surprises. The eggs are banned in the U.S. because of the small toy surprise inside. At the Scrapshare Michigan retreat a Kinder Surprise egg magically found it's way across the border and into my goody bag!



The egg unwrapped:


And the opened up egg ... still have not eaten any yet, just cracking the egg.




NOTE: No cats were harmed in the taking of these photos and the uploading to this blog. Merely a curious bystander, not a chocoholic cat.


I thought that the toy would have just fallen out when I opened the egg, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in its own egg. Took me a few minutes to get that toy open though, the egg it's in is a soft plastic and it was strange and hard to open.




I ate the chocolate before I put the toy together. It is very good. It was soft and sweet, almost like a mix between white and milk chocolate. I thought it was very smooth, didn't scream chocolate-y which was good. While I enjoy chocolate as much as the next guy or gal sometimes it's too much for me, it's too sweet. I thought this was the right balance of sweet without being too sweet. Definitely a 2 thumbs up.

The next challenge was putting the toy together. I got a chuckle out of the fact that it comes with instructions!







The finished product:



Now if they'd just make Cherry Cordial Kinder Chocolate my life would be complete! :)

I've not forgotten

I've been insanely busy with work this week that I just haven't had the time or effort or energy to blog.

I've not forgotten, just trying to get caught up. I can sum up the week pretty quick:

Very cold out.Busy at work.Tired.Addicted to Hershey Cherry Cordial Kisses.

Oh ... and I ate my Kinder Chocolate ... I have pictures, just need to upload them and blog and post about it.

More later ...