Today was Susan’s turn at the MI-5:

1.What was the last book you read & what are you reading currently? The last book I read was Shelf Life a collection of short stories for young adults edited by Gary Paulson. I read it to see if it was grammar school library appropriate. Currently I am reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.

2.What are you wearing right now? Turquoise ribbed v-neck tshirt with three quarter sleeves…jeans and a pair of sketchers.

3.What was the last phone call you made? To a customer at work.

4.To whom did you last send a letter or card (snail mail & email)? Snail mail? I sent a letter to BFM earlier this week. Email…probably ETS.

5.What was the last restaurant you ate at (can be eat in or take out)? Take out would be Taco Bell…sit down restaurant would be Monterey Coast Brewing Company with my mom…did I have a beer? Of course…I had a Hefe Weissen. Too much of a beer for me…strong…much like those English Ales. Of course, then again you are getting this from a person who rarely drinks beer…so…Anyway…the food was good…but a tad expensive…and I had to battle pirates to get to my car. Seriously. It is right next to a movie theater and there were pirates around my car…which I, not thinking, had parked RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE THEATER on thursday night and the Pirates were all lined up…and I was trying to pull out. I had to bite my tongue not to say something like “Avaste ye…get thee outta my way before ye find thee asses flattened” but I didn’t. They eventually got out of my way.

It’s Friday Fill-in time people…

Janet says: This week, we’re going to have a theme–fictional characters So fill in the blanks with them; please do refrain from using your husband/ wife/other non-fictional character!

1. I wouldn’t toss McDreamy out of bed!
2. McSteamy has no appeal for me whatsoever.
3. A good dream would involve me and Captain Jack Sparrow; we would sail away together into the sunset.
4. The sexiest man or woman in the movies is Captain Jack Sparrow; the sexiest man or woman on tv is McDreamy.
5. Alan Rickman portrays a wicked villian.
6. Jack and Janet would make a great couple.
7. TGIF! Tonight I’m cleaning, tomorrow my plans include shopping and Sunday, I’ll start packing!

So my latest experiment in baking was a White Chocolate Sweet Potato cake from Martha Stewart.

Pictures in the extended entry.
(more…)

You may or may not know…On June 9th Keith Urban (referred to from here on out as KU)  is playing at the Mandalay in Vegas. I have had tickets (and pretty damn good ones I might add) to this show…for months and months as they were purchased on presale. BFM lives in Vegas…and LOVES her some KU so we are going to this concert.

Initial plan was for me to drive down on Thursday June 7th. No biggie right? I do it all the time…500 miles one way alone…I know the route like the back of my hand. Well…all this was thwarted when Doris the Rav decided to display her intermittent starting problem.  So I didn’t really want to drive a car with a possible problem through the desert alone during the heat of summer because I had visions of me walking down a lonely highway towards a call box…while buzzards circled overhead just waiting to pick out my eyeballs. That freaked me out a little.

So then I decided I would rent a car. Until I found that most places will not rent to you for the advertised price if you are driving out of state…not to mention the fact that I wanted a biggish car not a Kia Rio type car…and by the time I rented the car then paid for gas for the trip I would be spending a hell of a lot of money to get to Vegas.

I can’t drive my mom’s xterra because…well I find driving her car uncomfortable for 10 miles…I can’t imagine trying to drive it for 500. I just don’t fit well in the seats…and I refuse to drive my dad’s silverado anywhere…even though I love it to death. The last time I borrowed his truck the advertisement on the side of a transit bus flew off and hit the front grill causing $1600 worth of damage and that wasn’t even my fault!!! So …

I ended up with a ticket to Vegas on Southwest Airlines…which ended up being just slightly cheaper than renting the car…plus I don’t have to pay for gas with the plane. Anyway…I don’t know if I mentioned it here or not…but I am PETRIFIED of flying. PETRIFIED. The last time I flew alone I decided to upgrade to firstclass…mostly for the free booze. Of course this didn’t work out so well because I had just a tad too much of the margarita and ended up scared to death that the plane was crashing because I bent over to get something out from under my seat and the whole damn plane felt like it was coming with me.  Luckily I didn’t go with my first instinct when I thought the plane was crashing which was to scream something to the effect of “DEAR GOD WE ARE GOING DOWN” because I am sure that would have gone over well.

So I have been ignoring the fact that I have to fly but today…is the 1 week mark…as I leave Wednesday evening from San Jose International…(now called Mineta or something like that)….and I am totally freaking out. I hate flying. I hate heights. A little part of me wants to call off the whole damn thing and email BFM the tickets and say here you go..have a blast.  I mean I won’t because I already paid for my flight…but …ACK! And I mean ACK!!! I am freaked out.

(yes I even checked busses and trains…busses take 18 hours to make it- which is about 10 longer than it takes me and trains? Forget about trains because out here passenger train service sucks big time).

What you are seeing are Monkey Parts. I am currently trying to crochet a stuffed monkey. We will see how it comes out…but I just had the parts spread out over the table and thought it would make an interesting picture…the actual picture from flickr has notes on it if you are interested click the picture.

I finally won something on blingo:

You should totally try this….I know Janet even won an iPod using blingo! So sign up and use blingo as your search engine. Funny thing was when I won? I was on the phone with a customer and had to put them on hold so I could launch a backup browser to finish my search so I could finish talking to them. Anyway click the link below to join blingo!

Roxy and I are a lot a like I realized today. We both like routines. She is a task master when it comes to routines. And she is just a beagle. At 5:00 she wants up and out. At breakfast time she sits by the door and waits for her “cookie”. She goes outside for the bulk of the day and plays (read tries to dig to china) and sleeps and chases birds. At 3:15ish she comes back in when my mom lets her in the house. She patrols the house…checks out the garbages for treasures (even though she never finds any) and settles in for a nap. At 5:15ish she is ready for me to come home. She fusses over me for  a minute and does her patented happy dance…and sits by the fridge and stares at me…waiting for me to take her out for the walk (she stands by the fridge because the basket with her leash and baggies resides up there).  Then we go for our walk. She comes home and starts loving on whoever is free….but there is a motive…she really wants her dinner.  Then she is her own little beagle for awhile and then when she is ready for bed she comes and lays on my feet or near me…to let me know she is ready and is not pleased that I am not ready. Then she goes out for “peepee time” and into bed she goes (but not before a bedtime liversnap or something).

This is her routine and she demands we stick to it!!!

• Indy 500 was watched….I rooted for Danica Patrick and for Marco Andretti…neither won…and poor Marco Andretti ended up on his lid!
• During the rain delay I made a cake (more on that next week)
• Coca-Cola 600 watched…which because of the rain delay of the indy 500 was sporting because for awhile I was running back and forth betwix televisions…
• Big Orange was rooted for enthusiastically…and had a pretty good run but didn’t win.
• Am beginning to think maybe I shant cheer so enthusiastically for my favorites…maybe I am bad luck?
• If I am bad luck maybe I should start rooting for Jeff Gordon…although he had bad enough luck on his own today…just a thought.
• Devoured a whole book today- it’s been while since I sat down and read a whole paperback cover to cover.
• Spent quality time listening to tunes on Black Betty (my big iPod). Last ten songs played:
• Pickup Man – Joe Diffie
• Little Moments – Brad Paisley
• Jackson – Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line Soundtrack)
• Problems At Home – Blake Shelton
• Country By The Grace of God – Chris Cagle
• I like it, I love it – Tim McGraw
• How Do You Like Me Now? – Toby Keith
• Boondocks – Little Big Tree
• Freak On A Leash – Korn
• Home Sweet Home – Reverend Run