And It's Wednesday!

Hi ho neighbors, Stalker Angie here and happy to be back from the land of "Oh dear sweet deity on a pogo stick I swear if you whisper that loud again I will rip your throat out." Thank you to everyone for the well wishes. Yes, migraines suck the big one and I haven't had one in over 4 years, so of course I have no migraine meds at home. Go figure, huh. It must have been pretty bad. T said he opened the door to the bedroom Saturday,causing the dog to bark, causing me to scream, writhe on the bed, fall off the bed, throw up and reach in the night stand for my gun. Somebody was gonna die so it would be quiet, by God. Then I passed out. I think he lies.

Have you had these things? People, you hair hurts. I don't mean moving your hair causes pain in the scalp. If someone touches your hair without moving it, it is still agony. Ag-O-Knee! Yes, we're all so very glad it's over. Now to get past the "Who in the hell beat me up" stage. Cuz y'all, your body hurts after the migraine goes away. It leaves little presents of muscle cramps and such. Bastard.

So, anyway I had a post for Friday. Said post is now being absorbed/assimilated by this post and we shall now all move on past the pain and yurking. Yay! So in the absence of blogging, I have been making new and exciting travel plans. See, what had happened was, I was over at Skitter's blog home one day and she had said something witty and I had commented with something to the effect of "you should give me a tour of Dallas yarn stores." As in "Oh haha yeah like I'll get off the couch long enough to go somewhere. Not!" Skitter said, "Yay!" I laid low.

Another time I was on the Skitter's blog and she went and decided to get herself a new spinning wheel to learn to use. I, being a smartass (Gasp! Can it be? Alas, 'tis true), did respond to Skitter with "You better learn it so when I come to Dallas you can teach me." (Meaning, remember when you thought I was coming to Dallas? Haha! Aren't you cute?) Skitter, being the darling that she is, replied with something to the effect of "Omg omg omg wtf bbq stfu lol when are you coming to Dallas???" (Some creative license taken by blogger.) Yes, I am sure Skitter speaks with multiple question marks. She just seems the type.

Anywho, after reading that e-mail a couple (dozen) times, I thought to myself, "Well why the hell not? Why shouldn't I go to Dallas and meet Skitter? Chris seems like a lovely person and it would be fun to meet someone new and see new yarn stores and such. She can tell me why my knitting sucks ass so bad, and I can ummm.....learn. Or corrupt her with crochet. Woohoo!"

So I asks the hubby and we had us a conversation in which he did much blinking and ticking points off on his fingers:

T: "Let me get this straight. You wanna drive to Dallas. *tick* To see a bunch of people you have never met. *tick* Except on the internet. *tick* Because you all love yarn. Sorry lurv the 'fibery goodness.' *tick* And these people knit. *tick* You crochet. *tick* But you are all bonded by the fiber goddess." *Blink blink*

Me: "Yep!" *grin*

T: "You wanna drive to Dallas. *tick* To see a bunch of people you have never met. *tick* Except on the internet. *tick* Because you all love yarn. Sorry lurv the 'fibery goodness.' *tick* And these people knit. *tick* You crochet. *tick* But you are all bonded by the fiber goddess."

Me: "Ummm.....yes?"

T: "Sweetie, you hate Dallas."

Me: "Do not."

T: "Yes. Yes you do."

Me: "Nooooo, I hate Dallas traffic and the drivers."

T: "But you do plan to drive there."

Me: "Yes. What is your point?"

T: "By yourself *tick* in a city you hate driving in *tick* to a location you've never been to *tick* to stay in a hotel you haven't even booked? *tick*

Me: "Stop doing the finger thing. I hate the finger thing." *pout*

T: "Baby, you don't know these people except on the internet."

Me: "We met on the internet. Look how well that turned out."

T: "That was different."

Me: "You're right, it is different. Me meeting you for coffee at 3 am across town after meeting on the internet was really stupid and dangerous. This will be fine."

T: ...................

Me: "Yay!"

So the weekend of July 1st and 2nd, I am heading for Dallas, folks! I'm definitely meeting Skitter and NanC and hopefully I get to meet Good Girl Purl and the Purling Pirate P-) of the Purling Ps fame and if I am uber lucky, I might even get to meet the Squid! (Happy birthday, little stalkee dude!) Anyone else in the Dallas area wanna get in on the meet n' greet? If nothing else, I am always willing to meet in the lobby for social time. No strangers in my hotel room. Just, no. Weird. Who are you people again? For those of you not in the Dallas area, I should tour. Or something. I know that for next year I am planning a trip to Seattle, Washington for a few days to meet some of the lovely folks up that ways (You know who you are. You're lovely and you live there. I'm coming to see you.)

I am awfully excited about the Dallas trip and I would love to meet as many folk as possible. If ya wanna meet up, let me know and I will get with Skitter and see what we can come up with. Or something. I can't just invite total strangers to crash her 4th of July barbeque just cuz I'm in town. Seriously, people.

Until then, a couple of random pics of what I see when I step out my back door and look to the left. The sunflowers are in the neighbors yard but I love the layering effect of the tress, sunflowers and the ivy taking over our fence.

And a close up of the flowers.


Hope everyone has a great day!

Hell I don't know what I am doing.

I don't know if this will actually work, but here goes nothing. This is T, Angie's husband. Angie said she's sorry for the lack of updates but works was hard on her last week and she's had migraines since Friday evening. She's getting better and should be back you ladies as soon as possible. She said she'd be checking emails tonight so leave her a comment (?) and she'll answer. She said to also tell you she hit me for the title.

-T

Friday Randomness

Happy Friday all! Not much going on at Casa de la Stalker, so I thought I'd throw in some random picks for you to peruse. Below is 3 pictures of the field outside of where I work. I see this field every morning and then every evening because I park facing it. I always take a moment and just look before I head in to start my day or head home to end the day. I love Texas wildflowers.

Also, totally random, is one of my wedding pictures! Yay! Happy day! It also gives you a chance to see the height difference between the hubby and I. Yes, I am the shortest one in my family. My nephew is shorter in the pic, but he's 13 now and taller than me already. I don't stand a chance. Nothing wrong with the photo. The left bottom corner is just a reflection of light because it's a picture of a picture. Did I mention I don't have a scanner? I don't know why. We had one once. Guess I should pay closer attention, huh. Click as always for a larger image.)

Anywho, from the left is my oldest brother, my too tall hubby, my nephew in front of him, me in the big white thing, my mom, my dad, my grandmother who used to knit and crochet and my older brother. Yes, I am the youngest of three, the only girl and a total daddy's girl. Hee!

I am off to spend the weekend with Mom (of the didn't really give birth to me variety) and recharge the old batteries with some fun, family, laughter and some promised kick-ass BBQ.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Road To Hell Is Paved With.....

So this morning I got up relatively on time (for me anyway), grabbed my coffee and headed for my computer. Groggy and, so far, caffeine deprived, I was felling rather proud as I wrote a post for today. It was a good post. It was of decent length. There was a picture even of the Mother's Day basket I put together for T's mom with wine, chocolates, champagne, cappuccino, green teas and truffles. Yummy!

I set the photo to upload while I got dressed, again proud after one cup of coffee to be able to muti-task so early. I got ready for work, hubby got ready for work, I headed in to save the post to write more later and my hubby had thoughtfully turned off my computer for me. The picture had finished uploading. He made sure of that. He didn't know I still had to hit Publish Post or Save as Draft to save the post. *Poof* No more post. Gone bye-bye. No picture. Picture at home. His intentions were good. Bless his heart.

I don't have the heart to re-write that particular post and I wanted the damn picture in it. So, instead, here's a lovely sunset taken as we were leaving Cozumel on the cruise. Click for a bigger image.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Bad Blogger! No Comment!

Yeah this is a total cop out on a blog. I know. I'm sorry. My brain has melted and nothing is coming to me. I have stared at this screen since 9:30 am this morning and NOTHING, people. Nothing.

Ok, see that couple of sentences up there? That was written Monday. MONDAY, people! That was as far as I got before my brain leaked out of my ears. It was written about 3 pm. All day and that's what I had. Granted, it's been a weird week. Seriously weird. This is where this post goes once again into the land of TMI (too much info) also known as Sweet Jeebus Did She Really Mean To Blog THAT?? If personal info makes you uncomfortable, stop now. Turn back. Come back later to see if I have regained my senses. I won't have, but you can always try and optimism is so cute.

Ok, those of you who are regulars to Casa de la Stalker, know I have something called PCOS and that nothing about my body (female wise) functions normally. Until lately. March, then April (on my cruise no less. MY. CRUISE!) and now May, have all been...normal. I haven't been this regular since Junior High y'all. I haven't had cramps since Junior High. I don't have a clue as to what is going on.

So yeah, blogging this week just didn't happen. I was crampy and bitchy and totally weirded out by the betrayal of my uterus. Also, I have lost enough weight eating decently and walking at work on breaks, that I stood up earlier this week to stretch and had to make a grab for my skirt. It was headed flat for the floor. I don't care at home, work is a little inappropriate for losing your clothing. All of my under garments are loose and droopy. Not cute. Also, some of my skorts can now be removed/put on without the benefits of opening buttons and zippers. Time to find my previous clothes and see if I can get into them yet. Although, in a way, it kinda makes me sad cuz y'all, skorts. Comfy as shorts, look like skirts, I can wear them to work and nobody is the wiser. Yeah, the fat chick is whining about losing weight. Piss off.

So to top off all the weirdness, T is excited (excited y'all) that my body is trying to be normal. (He cheers when I bleed. Something wrong here.) He's ticking off days and times for optimal baby making opportunities. Shouldn't that be discussed with me? I really don't wanna be standing there washing dishes and be attacked by the baby maker. Ok, that's a bit of a lie, but you get my drift. Don't go buy the baby patterns just yet folks. I'll let ya know when the baby booty/bonnet/blanket marathon can commence. Yes, I'm trying to get into the breeder ranks. I promise (if it should happen) not to be the stroller in the shin lady at the LYS.

So, yeah, I think that's enough personal info rambling for one day. Besides, I'm leaving early from work today to go make a gift basket for the T's mom for Mother's Day.

Hope everyone has a great day!

I Can Seeeee!!!

This post is brought to you by the word Vision. So my birthday was a couple of weeks ago and as usual I got some sort of expensive toy because I'm spoiled that way. For the past year I've had a laptop that I did everything on, including gaming. Laptops are so not meant for gaming. They lag out, they stutter, they can't process fast enough, blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong. I love my laptop. I love being able to take it anywhere. The graphics suck ass though.

So for my birthday, we went off and purchased me a new PC for my birthday. Hooray for income tax refunds in April! We also got a brand new graphics card for it that's awesome. It's a Radeon X1300 that gives beautiful game play. Umm..for non gamers, patterns are crystal clear and easy to read! Hee. To top it off, I splurged more than I normally would because I wanted this.

This is a 19" LCD monitor. It weighs like all of 5 lbs MAYBE and it's freakin huge! I love this monitor but at times it can be like sitting too close to the TV. I had to get used to playing on it because I would be getting attacked and not see what was attacking me cuz it was all the way in the top left hand corner and I had to move my head to see it. You can compare the size with the coffee cup full of pens on the bottom left of the screen.

Speaking of vision, yesterday was a very interesting day. most of you have seen my picture and will recognize these beauties.

Those are my glasses. Well, those are the frames of my glasses because when I went to take them off yesterday morning to clean them, they became this.

Those of you with glasses just went pale, swooned and said "Oh sweet jeebus no! Not that!" Luckily, I kept my old pair and was able to throw them on. Then I threw them right the fuck back off. See, I got the new glasses last year because the old glasses were already 7 years old and so damn scratched that looking through them gave everything a soft halo-like-headache-causing glow. So I called work, T called work and I started calling around town. No place in town had the same frame and it would be Monday or Tuesday before they got them in. Not happening Kemosabe. So I widened my search and just after noon we headed for Houston. They had the frames and could mount the lenses that day.

They didn't mention it would take 5 hours to mount them. I didn't tell them my lenses are hard to mount because I need prisms in my lenses. Hee. So, $125 later, we were headed home and I can see again! I could really use a little less adventure right now.

Random Acts of Kindness

This morning on the way to work I wanted a donut. I've done well with continuing to lose weight and walking but dammit I wanted a donut. So, I went to Shipley's (my fav!) and I tried to decide what kind of donut to get. I also decided on a sausage and cheese kolache cuz it's better than JUST a donut for breakfast. Or so I tell myself. Then I realized I'd be walking into our office with a warn kolache and a fresh donut. I bought donuts for our office. It just seemed like a nice thing to do this morning. I still only had one donut, but everybody got to have donuts this morning. It was an appreciated gesture and we all had the warm fuzzies today. I didn't do it to get the "praise" of being thoughtful. I did it because I know how good it feels to get random acts of kindness. When someone does something nice and out of the ordinary that just brightens you day. I wanted to give someone else that feeling this morning.

Last night I sat on the sofa watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (one of the best musicals of all time, in my opinion) and crocheting a bit. I was missing my grandmother because a.) crocheting and b.) watching one of her favorite musicals of all time. (She always danced during "Goin' Courtin'" and she always laughed like an idiot at the barn raising. Now I laugh remembering her laughing.) So I decided to have lunch at one of our old family haunts in town today to celebrate her memory again.

When I was growing up, we spent several years in this town and every Sunday, without fail, our family went to Luby's Cafeteria for lunch. Luby's is a southern restaurant, and it's one of the old grab-a-tray-tell-them-what-you-want-and-get-your-food-right-then types of cafeterias. Kinda like school, with better food. We visited this place enough that the line ladies knew us by name. They'd ask how our choir/band/orchestra concerts went. How that spelling test came out. Did we bring up our History grade? When our family moved away, my grandparents continued to go every Sunday and they always took pictures and lists of accomplishments to share. When my grandparents moved back to Oklahoma, the waitstaff and line ladies had a going away party for them.

So back to the story, I decide to go to Luby's for lunch. Great memories and I can get a salad and fresh veggies to balance out the donut I had for breakfast. When I get there, the guy in front of me was waiting for them to cut up a tomato for his salad (cuz salads come first, ya know) so he told me to go on ahead. I said "Oh no, you're fine. I'm not in any hurry." We smiled at one another and went on to get our foods. When we got to the ticket lady (you pay after you eat but you get your ticket at the end of the line.) he turned to me and we had us a weird conversation:

Him: She put your lunch on my ticket.

Me: Oh, well we need to fix that. *chuckle*

Him: Yeah *laugh* Merry Christmas (haha funny funny I'm gonna buy your lunch. NOT!)

Me: (thinking) Just hurry up and fix the tickets so I can eat. Damn.

She prints out his ticket, hands it to him, he looks it over, turns to me smiling and says "Perfect." and folds the ticket into his pocket and walks off to find a table.

I get to the ticket lady:

Ticket Lady: Thank you.

Me: I need my ticket.

TL: It's on his ticket. He bought your lunch.

Me: He was serious??

TL: Yeah. Enjoy your lunch.

Me: Guh.

I felt weird for most of lunch y'all. Some random dude just bought me lunch. He didn't say why, or flirt or anything. He just....bought my lunch. He was just nice. Another random act of kindness in the day. Wonder who I can buy coffee for in the morning.

Cruise Day 5, Grand Cayman

This was the most fun port we landed in. Key West was all about looking. Cozumel was all about buying jewelry and such. Grand Cayman, was aallllll about the fun stuffs. We got up at 5 am (arg!) to get showered, and eat breakfast. Room service is free on cruises y'all. You can get coffee, tea and danishes without getting out of your robe. Sweet! So we had room service bring our breakfast since it was so early and we were able to have a leisurely morning before having to rush off to our excursions.

Update: I suppose a link would be nice to all of the Grand Cayman photos. Here ya go. :)

7:30 am. We're dressed and ready to go because we're supposed to be in one of the lounges to meet up for our passes and stuff. We get there and it's empty. Well crap. So we head down to where they are letting people tender off. Everyone is already down there and just about everyone has made it to shore already. We're one of the last ones off. What the hell?? Seems we missed an announcement somehow. Anyway, we got off the boat and were met by pirates. Again. I am sensing a theme here. Here is a picture of the pirate and I. I don't know what he is doing to my belly. I do know it's creepy. I think they tried to hide it. *Shudder*



Moving past the creepy dude, from there we went to a herding area where they matched us up with our tours. Our driver's name was Karl Sanchez. Karl was a black man from Germany who mostly grew up in Grand Cayman. Karl spent most of our tour discussing island politics between pointing out things of interest. Karl was sweet, but Karl needs to lighten up, y'all. I don't have a clue as to where he got Sanchez. It's not German. It's not even Grand Caymanese.

Our first stop was in Hell, Grand Cayman for a quit restroom stop and the purchasing of postcards and stamps to fill out on the rest of the tour. We later went back for the sending of said cards and for picture taking opportunities. On the way from Hell to the dock where we would shove off to see the stingrays, we stopped at the Governor's house. It's not a mansion there. Seems their politicians don't get treated like royalty. We should take notice of this. Anyway, no politics allowed.

So we arrive at the dock and board our lovely boat for the nice little trip out to see the stingrays. We opted to see them from a glass bottom boat because neither mom and I are much for the whole swimming thing. Nothing would suck more than to get in the water, see a stingray, get a major leg cramp and have to get out of the water. The glass bottom boat stays tethered out in what they call Stingray City. They aren't sure why the stingrays gather there. I think it's because they know they're gonna get fed. I know I tend to stick around when I get fed.

The stingrays were amazing y'all. bigger then I imagined and so beautiful. They aren't dangerous to be around. They don't have teeth, so if they do bite looking for food, there's no cutting. Don't get me wrong. It'll still hurt. Our captain said it feels like getting your finger slammed in a door. Pass! They will however pass over you doing this little sucking action they do to scoop up food and leave a hickey on ya. Yeah, I'm gonna be able to 'splain THAT when I get home. "It meant nothing, sweetheart! He was just looking for food. I didn't even get his name!" They do have stingers on their tails, but they don't attack with then. It's a reflex action that happens if you step on their backs. No steppy, no problem.

From there we headed off to the turtle farm. The government there raises sea turtles, breeds them and every year they release 1/3 of their turtle population into the wild. They are so covetous of these creatures that they have a ceremony for the release. Grade school age girls are chosen every year to line up on 7 mile island. They have a ceremony handing the turtles out to the girls, then they all step forward as one to release them into the sea. I would love to see it one day.

At the farm they have turtles the size of dining room tables. They have hundreds of turtles there. Unfortunately, they lost a large portion of their population in the hurricanes last year, including their oldest one that was 45 years old. They have baby turtles you can see, but they keep the water so low in the tank you'd have to be 10 ft. tall to reach them. They allow you to look but their immune systems can't handle being touched yet. They really take care of these beautiful animals. I did get to hold one! It was about a year old and will be one of the ones released this year in the ceremony.

From the farm we headed back to Hell for pictures and such, then it was back to the boat. By this time it was 3:00 pm and we had all of 15 minutes to get back on the boat. No shopping this stop! We headed up to the top deck for fruit from the salad bar since we hadn't eaten since breakfast and dinner was still 3 hours away. Then we headed up to our room to get ready for dinner since it was a formal night. Dinner was at 6 but we were ready by 5 so off we headed to the Schooner Bar for Name That Tune (Broadway). We ruled, y'all. We got 2nd place cuz the ship singers were there playing too. I think that's cheating. Most of them have sung on Broadway. Cheaters! I'm not bitter. Much. Grrr. They bought us drinks though and told me I have a good voice. Liars. Hee!

Dinner that night was a spinach dip that ruled, ceasar salad, lobster tail and red potatoes, and desert was creme brulee. Yum! Here is us with the rest of our dinner table. Mom hates having her picture taken but she looks smashing in red!

After dinner we did some gambling then mom hit the sack. We were exhausted! But I had one more thing to do. They put together a Gal Buffet at midnight that was stunning. Pictures here. Go see. It's soooo worth it. The next day was Cuzumel and potential for damage to our bank accounts. Next time, how much advantage we took of that potential. Hehe.