vacations are great!

This year, we've gone from zero to sixty in 7 seconds. For years, we never went anywhere. Well, Mom and I used to go to Cali every year. But Bill and I never did anything. Then we had a family reunion and a couple weddings and bam! This year has been chock full of vacations and we aren't done yet!

First there was Vegas.
Then there was our anniversary.
Then Bill had the guy ride.
Then we had Ryan out for 5 days.
Next is Laughlin.
Whew!

Ryan went home last night. It sure was great to have him here. He's so easy going and we learned some new things about him! Neat. Bill was a little sad this morning, but the girls didn't look for him! Funny.

Oh, and that movie? District 9? Yuck. Bill and Ryan liked it. Not really my cup o tea. Well, there are a couple nice things I can say...the special fx were awesome, the cinematography was very cool, and for an alien movie it was quite the social commentary. That was pretty interesting. But the story as a whole was fairly predictable and it was like any other 'slasher' kind of movie ~ too much gore. Bill said he liked that it took place somewhere other than the USA. That didn't occur to me until he said it.

Now it's back to the grind stone and regular life :-)
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vrooooom

Moto GP was a huge success this past weekend. They said on the news that there were over 75,000 in attendance at the race yesterday. Bill said there were A LOT more motorcyclist this year than last. He and Ryan had a fantastic time all weekend. Woohoo! But the extra testosterone in the house is a little funny! Men just have an altogether different sense of humor than women. It's very entertaining at times. And at other times...well, not so much.

I didn't have as much fun as I thought I would, without them. Saturday, I spent 1/2 the day waiting for the plumber and the other 1/2 hangin' out while the plumber did his work. Phooey.
Sunday, I read some, watched West World and Future World and took a nap.

Today, after I get home, we're going to go see District 9. My vote was for Inglorious Bastards, but the testosterone group won. Then take Ryan to the airport :-( It sure has been great to have him!!

And the girls have been crackin' us up!!! They just don't know what to make of Ryan. It's sooooo funny. I don't think they've ever been around someone so tall. And his voice is much deeper than Bills. Really, they'll run up to him and then run away. Sometimes Pepper barks at him. You would think after a few days they would get used to him. It's crazy!

Oh, and the Women's Health conference was kind of bust this year. It was so condensed and they didn't have ANY national sponsors this year. But the lunch was good and the morning keynote speaker was exceptional.

for sale...

Oh really...now I've seen everything...

http://shop.ebay.com/great-ca-garage-sale/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25

But hey, if you ever wanted to just have an extra car for emergencies, or maybe when you decide you really do want a car that you can let that tailgater slam into, here's the perfect opportunity. And just think, you'll be helping out our beloved, starving for positive attention, west coast!

I guess if Sarah can sell a jet on eBay, Arnold can get rid of California's junk.

Go Arnold, go Arnold, go, go, go Arnold!

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What a busy month!

Lets see, the 1st weekend was Brad Paisley, the 2nd weekend was the fair, last weekend was catching up, and this weekend is Speaking of Women's Health and Moto GP. The son will be home tomorrow morning and will stay until Monday afternoon! Woohoo! I'm pretty excited.
He and Bill are going to have the best time at the race. And I don't have to go!!!!! :-) I liked it okay, but it will be so much nicer for the man to have someone to talk to that understands and cares about what he's saying, vs someone who can only pretend to understand!

Tomorrow and Monday I'm only going to work a half day and I'm taking Friday off. It'll seem a little strange to only have 3 gals in our group this year, but it will be much easier to coordinate!

Pilots n Paws

What a neat thing this is! You know I'm a sucker for dogs :-)

http://www.pilotsnpaws.org/

PILOTS N PAWS 5000

The Pilots N Paws 5000 will take place during the week of September 12th through the 20th. This event was conceived as a means to draw public attention to three issues. The first and most important message that needs to be conveyed is that we have a serious problem in this country and as a result about 4,000,000 animals or more are euthanized annually. This would not be the case if there were more and better spay and neuter programs and laws regarding owners’ responsibility for their animals.

The second issue is that because the problem is primarily regional a lot of these innocent animals could find permanent “forever” homes if they could be transported from high kill regions to areas with homes available. To accomplish this we desperately need more pilots to help with transports.

The final issue is that while aviation has proven to be a successful way to transport animals to safety, general aviation in this country is threatened. The threats range from onerous Homeland Security directives to crippling and expensive fees imposed on general aviation. We want to see general aviation perceived by the public accurately as a driving force in our economy, and one that contributes far more than its $150 economic impact would suggest. We want to see general aviation free of these threats.

To transport 5000 animals to safety in one week is a large undertaking, and it involves shelters, rescues, foster homes for animals and pilots. Each will play a role in the success of the Pilots N Paws 5000 and each must commit to its success.
There are at least three parties that will make up each “team” participating in the rescue week. The starting point is the sending shelter or rescue. These folks will dedicate themselves to making one or more animals available to be transported to safety. They will pair up with the receiving rescue or shelter. These two parts of the team will be central to the event. The final part of the three part team will be the pilot(s). Once the sending and receiving rescues have joined, pilots will be able to identify that transport as one they will volunteer to do.

Cars really can be cool!

Okay, so I'm not a car person. I don't look at a Ferrari and dream, I don't see a Lamborghini and drool. I've only seen one Porche I ever thought was neat and generally speaking, BMW's don't float my boat either. As a matter of fact, the only car I ever got positively excited about, is mine :-)

Really, nothing looks better to me than a PT Cruiser.

However, occasionally I will see a car that makes me go, "ooooo, pretty" or "man that's cute". But today...I saw a truly beautiful car. Honestly, I was taken aback! It had the most pleasing shape. Uh huh, I could dream about this car. I would give up dinner with Alan Jackson for this car! You MUST be dying to know what it is....

It's a Mercedes Benz, CLS 550

Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Yup, once Bill stopped laughing at me for falling in love with a $100K car, he said I have good taste. Realistically I guess I'll stick with the Ford Edge or Honda CRV. *sigh*

Going to the dogs!

What an interesting list!

The most ticketed cars in the US?

10. Toyota Matrix
9. Audi A4
8. Subaru Outback
7. Toyota Scion xA
6. Mercedes CLS63 AMG
5. Toyota Camry Solara
4. Mercedes CLK63 AMG
3. Toyota Scion xB
2. Toyota Scion tC

and the number one most ticketed car in America? Go ahead and take a guess...

1. Hummer H2/H3
(drag your mouse over the space above to see the answer)

concert goer

The other day, a woman here at work and I were talking about concerts we've attended and ones we wish we had. That got me to thinking...I've been to A LOT of concerts! And looking at my list, it's funny to me how diverse my taste in music is. Even when I was in high school and listening to rock, I loved Neil Diamond.

Bobby Sherman - My very first concert. Thanks Mom
The Guess Who - My first concert without any grownups!
Edgar Winter Peter Frampton - Coliseum
Golden Earring
Led Zeppelin - I paid a scalper $20 to see them
Yes - twice
Doobie Brothers
Cat Stevens
Elton John
Neil Diamond - twice
Jethro Tull
Sonny and Cher - yeah, don't laugh. They were very popular in the 70's
Mac Davis - ditto

This next group was all courtesy of my Aunt and I was a tween.
Andy Williams
Debbie Reynolds
Rod McKuen - he was a poet and a song writer
Paul Anka
Liberace - in the front row! And now that I'm older, I'll admit it...I LOVED him!! He was so blingy!!

Sammy Davis Jr. - I have the best story about this concert...when he sang "Candy Man", he was standing on stage passing out chocolate candy kisses. So I ran up and got one. I don't know, maybe I was about 13. Anyway, I put that candy kiss in my jewelry box for safe keeping. It was a treasure to me. Fast forward 3/4 years...my little brother, for some reason, looked in my jewelry box. Oh, I know you know where this is going...HE ATE IT! I was angry with him for years.

Hall and Oats
Black Sabbath - I don't actually remember this show but I do remember that I forgot most of it because of a bottle of Seagram 7.
Black Oak Arkansas
Kansas
Blue Oyster Cult
BTO
Deep Purple
Aero Smith - 3 times
REO Speedwagon - 3 times
Charlie Daniels
Marshall Tucker
The Pretenders
The Bee Gees at Dodger Stadium
The Eagles - twice
Chicago
Pink Floyd
Foreigner
J. Geils
Kenny Loggins
3 Dog Night
America
Shawn Phillips
Harry Connick Jr.

Then, sometime in the 80's, I became a fan of country music…
Kenny Rogers
Sawyer Brown
Alabama
Brooks and Dunn - 5 times
Alan Jackson - 3 times
Brad Paisley - twice
Big and Rich
Toby Keith
Keith Urban
Montgomery Gentry
Lone Star
Garth Brooks - dream come true for a true country fan!
Trisha Yearwood
Neal McCoy

I wish I could have seen;
Alice Cooper
Billy Joel
Earth Wind and Fire
Journey - when Steve Perry was w/them
Bob Seger
Donna Summer
I was never a fan of the Stones or The Who, in case you're wondering why they aren't on the list anywhere.

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I love the fair

mmmmmmmmm, elephant ears!!!
Woohoo!!
Yippee!!
The one time every year I actually get to eat an elephant ear. Ahhhhh. Oh, the fair? Yes, it was okay too ;-)

We went early on Saturday, so we could do the 2 mile "heart health" walk with Indiana's First Lady. ugh, it was so stinkin' humid! blech. After the walk, we checked out pioneer village. That was neat. We didn't really go in too many of the animal barns though. We were only there for about 3 hours. It was just too icky out. Oh, and the other totally yummy fair food? Pit-tatoes. Have you ever heard of those? Wow were they delicious! Yeah, yeah, I know, it was kind of counter productive to walk for heart health and then eat fair food. Hey, at least it wasn't a sausage sandwich! Maybe we should try again this Saturday? It's only going to be 77. That sounds a lot nicer doesn't it?

I could have another elephant ear!! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sugar. I love sugar. The best line in a movie...was John Travolta in Michael when he said to the dog, "remember Sparky, no matter what they tell you, you can never have too much sugar"

Farout!!!!

Watch out: According to Style.com, hippies still exist. Except now they're just called "free spirits" and they're not really rebelling against anything, just being shaggy and dressing in flowy fabrics. (Style.com)

Woohoo!!! And Bill will be extra happy that he can say I'm a "free spirit" instead of a hippie wannabe. He'll love that ;-)

Beer

Did you know that a can of Guinness beer has a plastic ball in it? That's the weirdest thing I ever heard of!

The reason is kind of complicated too. But if you're interested, check it out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget_(beer)

And isn't it funny how things just sort of disappear? Oh, I don't mean your keys or that one sock that got lost in the dryer. I mean products...products that you used to like, that just aren't there anymore.

Like

I love weddings!

What's better than watching two people you care about, make a life long commitment to each other? All that love...good stuff man!

Things are moving right along. Got our airline tickets, hotel reservations for one night in Vegas ($25 at The Tropicana!!) , car reservation and the kennel lined up for the dogs. Just need to book the reservation in Laughlin now. I'm SO excited!!!

hey Jeff!!! you're gettin' married, you're gettin' married :-)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BooHoo
sniff sniff sniff
I'm SO sad :-(

"To our fans,

After 20 years of making music and riding this trail together, we have agreed as a duo that it's time to call it a day. This ride has been everything and more than we could ever have dreamed...we owe it all to you, the fans. If you hear rumors, don't believe them, it's just time.

We will release our "# 1's and then some" on September 8th and bid you farewell one last time in 2010, with The Last Rodeo tour.

Brooks and Dunn

I've seen them 5 times in concert. I love their music. Waaaaaaaaaah!!!

Brad Paisley

Well that was fun. But man was it steamy out last night. Thank heavens for the breeze!
He used 9 different guitars, that I counted. Bill says he's an excellent guitar player so that didn't surprise him.

Dierks Bentley was good. He has a lot of enthusiasm :-) bouncy like a puppy! And see that shirt he's got on? He had to tell us that he got it across the street at JC Pennys, along with new underwear and socks...he was happy. silly

Here's some pix;

He said, in regard to how much he appreciates his fans, that he's always so grateful, especially in today's economy, that "you would spend your money on a ticket to my show".

I'm sure he tells every crowd the same thing, but it was a great touch and why his fans think so much of him.

It was a good night out. It always surprises me how many country fans there are. I mean, this amphitheater holds about 22 thousand people and I'll bet it was filled!