Pictures

This was a station-wagon style Mini we thot was interesting - mostly for Kt. :-)




Jackie at Hard Rock Cafe























Jackie and I at the Mountie statue - notice the matching jackets?? Yeah, we came to the falls for the fireworks and promptly started whimpering that we were cold! So we had to shop and find something to keep us warm!























Jackie and I.

Just out of mild curiosity...

How long does it take when you're spending time with me before you learn I'm an "early to bed" type? I mean really, calling at 10:45 on a Monday night for an emergency - totally fine. To pick something up tomorrow....not so much. And don't act all shocked and offended when I answer "Yes!" to the "Oh, did I wake you up?" question. Yes you did and until I pull my brain out of whatever I was dreaming about and am coherent I am not resposible for what I say! (I did manange to add "but it's ok, what's wrong" to the "Yes".) Grrrr.

Assorted pics

These are the new earrings I bought when Kt was here. I got them at a Japanese store at Niagara-on-the-Lake. They're oragami that's then shellacked (sp?) to be more durable.
















This is my hydrangea bush this week. It went from no flowers to full on gorgeous in just a week or so! To me it's odd to see different colored balls of flowers all on the same bush!

HALLELUJAH

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad to be done w/ that job. I swear, I was working in a LOONY BIN!!!!!!! Theresa never even said "thanks" or "Good job" or even "Well, bye" when I tt her on the phone. Oh well. I got criticized for not organizing things more while I was there (I think they underestimated how bad it was) but they understood that I couldn't take much away from Teresa, she didn't "share well" with others. :-) I bought bad-for-me pizza, berry pie, and the icecream that IS on my diet for dinner tonite. WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I had people to party with tho. Poor Josh has to wk tomorrow morning, then he has golf in the afternoon so I'll probably head to the hospital to see Teresa. I also have to get my ring inspected and I want to ck out Ulta for hair products (why does my hair have to be SO hard to style???) I think we're hitting a drive-in in Canada this weekend to see the new Transformer movie - yay!!!! Too many movies out I want to see! The new Xmen, Night at the Museum II, Transformer, then HARRY POTTER is in a couple of weeks - YAY!!! I love how they put them out for my bday - just for me I'm sure, haha. Well that's enough rambling, I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm just a bit HAPPY and WIRED etc. :-)
YAY FOR BRENDA, ERIC & JACKIE next week! I am sooooooo excited to show you around! Must hit the Hershey store, Coke store, falls, stairs, fireworks at night, Niagara on the Lake, outlet mall --- goodness, thank heaven I'm not wking after all that! :-)

More day 3 pics

Before the boat left ... it was VERY hot under the plastic!













American Falls









Bridal Veil section of American Falls
During the ride - very wet and hot!

Kt's trip Day 3

Shot from the observation deck before descending 200+ feet to do Maid of the Mist. (American Falls)











Canadian Falls eh? (little joke there)













My highlighted hair (thanks to Kt)










Kt in her smurf coat for the boat.

Kt's visit - Day 2

We got up - straightened my hair (Ok, Kt straightened my hair while I sat purrrrrring from the stress relief effect of someone playing w/ my hair.) Then we attempted to go to church. However apparently the church we were going to either forgot it was Sunday or cancelled services or...I'm not sure what. We got there 10 mins early, a lady was playing piano. At 10 (when services were to start) another lady came in, got the piano player and they left. us. in the dark sanctuary. So we left and went to the bfast cafe around the corner and had another bfast. Then we walked home and drove to Niagara on the Lake in CA to shop at all the funny little stores. I got some japanese oragami tiny little oragami fish earrings. They're laquered so they last and are so light and pretty! I also found heaven --- I mean another place that makes REAL pb and choc icecream. Previously I had found that heaven only existed at Baskin Robbins. Yay for another place to find it! :-)
We came home and took naps, then went for a nice little 7 mile bike ride which apparently has exhausted Kt. I keep doing that! :-) We may highlight my hair tonite, then tomorrow is my wkout in the morning and we still need to do the Devil's Hole stairs and the maid in the mist.

P.S. PLEASE sign your name to your postings - otherwise how do I know who you are??? :-) TY!

Katie's visit - DAY 1

Kt w/ the Mountie - carved from a single tree trunk (and yes he seems to be missing part of his right foot - that wasn't our fault).





















Kt getting wet at the Canadian falls. At least she's getting wet cheerfully!


















The glass blower heating a blue vase he was wking on.




















Kt at the Hershey store -- "everyone needs a kiss!"

Several "yay's"

1. Chip and Dip moved back to the hill (after they put that awful smelling mulch in the front where they had made a hole they left for several weeks.) I have also learned that the piercing chirp that I hear....is Chip and Dip. Oops. :-) Oh well, not a problem until I have a migraine.

2. 9 days till Kt comes!!!!!!! I am SOOOOOO excited. I can't wait to drag her all over the walks, down to the falls, on the Maid of the Mist boat etc.

3. 29 days till Brenda, Eric and Jackie come! More people to drag all over creation! Tennis shoes are required to visit me! :-)

4. I DON"T HAVE TO WORK TODAY!!!!! I love my new schedule and hope it will make my head behave as it should instead of being such a pain in the .... head.

Off to training, everyone have a good Wednesday and ck back after my visits for pics!

I learned something today....

Doing pullups on the machine at the gym makes me motion sick! (Finally figured out why I feel like throwing up and dizzy after doing a few...watching the machine go up and down, up and down in front of me apparently does not cooperate w/ my brain!) Now if I had just figured that out BEFORE it made me so sick I had to leave my training session early! Oh well, my trainer is going to credit me 1/2 an hour and I had mom w/ me to drive home once the world quit spinning. My trainer thot I was kidding at first I think....bless mom's heart, she had to back me up that yes, I really do get motion sick THAT easily! I always just chalked the dizziness etc up to the muscle work even tho it didn't feel like I was working THAT hard! Now I know!

I feel a bit sheepish that it took me this long to figure it out... :-) Like I needed another weird symptom! :-)

P. S. I am having a WONDERFUL day off and day w/ mom. I got a new shirt at Dress Barn, mom got a trench coat w/ hood and we went out and ate pizza for dinner.

2 quick thots...

First of all - the older I get the more I agree with Dad. Most people are stupid....and those that aren't are probably morons. (Those who read my blog excepted of course).

Secondly --- YOU SHOULD SEE MY HUSBAND! He went to play golf yesterday - put sunscreen on his nose and ears (pat on the head for the good boy) and then smeared what was left across his forehead.....in a straight line. As the night went on the burn that followed his hairline got more and more prominent while the white "unburnt" straight section of his forehead exactly 2 fingers wide got more and more noticable. LOLOLOL it was HILARIOUS! He is SO going to have to wear a hat all day!

Things I learned today...

1. No my bosses husband has not figured out that I do not want to psychoanalyze him yet. Darnit. Must be more blatent next time.....

2. The chimunks have NOT deserted me, they simply moved! They now have a new home out front under the hydrangea bush. YAY!

3. Must stop yelling "STOP SMOKING" and slamming the sliding glass door. The new neighbor below me mentioned it to me this evening. Oops. I assured him it wasn't him - we did have this problem last summer (not a lie) but I really should be more tolerant. I did pass along the info that the reason it irritates me is because both my husband and I are allergic to it and if I don't notice it soon enough it saturates my apt. He apologized (kind of) and said he intends to now smoke at the little park area out front - yay!!!!! (He also offered me a free pair of designer womens sunglasses that he sells online.)

4. I am now officially homesick. In no particular order I miss: Mom, Dad, Kt, Brenda, Moni, Gpa, OTB, Amy and Grace. Especially OTB - Just Kidding!!! (No seriously --- can someone mail me one of their Loaded Queso's to go?) sniff sniff. Yes I know most of you are coming to visit me this summer but I miss the midwest too. Altho I must admit we are having beeeutiful weather. 50-70 and mostly sunny w/ a few days of rain. Flowers are blooming, and there's a dogwood or redwood (forgot which) across from my work that is gorgeous!

You know it's spring when....

the bird that sounds like a baby kitty squalling is back. Darn it.

Cat post from the zoo

This tiger was quite happy in his cave....his eyes were the first thing you noticed glowing - even in the daytime.


















These are the 2 jaguars they had. They were sharing a "siesta" until the first one woke up. We got such a good picture of him...but I admit the black one is my favorite! He's so gorgeous and I just wanted to pet him....his paws were bigger than my HANDS!

Animals from the zoo.....

I thot all of these were hilarious. The rhino just made my poor husband goggle - he couldn't BELIEVE how much extra skin he had!





















Then there's the poor tortise (who was huge) and we thot, stuck on the log. Nope, he just plodded along slowly and finally made it over the other side. (I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere about plodding along at work - but it's much more fun to consider beating someone w/ the big stick!) :-)



















Then there was the pygmy hippo (for you Kt since he was small.) Aaron just had NO EARTHLY IDEA how anything could get THAT FAT eating celery. He muttered about it for quite some time. Especially as he had to chase the floating celery all over his enclosure.

Zoo - Mom's post

Your very nice SIL took these pics for you....I think he might have been shaking slightly with the first one but he got better as we went along......








































Is he not the CUTEST thing?!? He was "standing guard" while the rest napped and ate and he was VERY intent on what we were doing out there. Once we politely assured him we were no danger he went back to his guard duties and ignored us "peasants."

Update...

So work is still moving along. I think I'm settling in better. I'm letting the "craziness" roll of my back better and trying to not be sucked into the "alternate world" I would swear they live in. :-) Yay for me. I keep hearing my dad in my head "Be a duck, be a duck, just let it rollll right off your back!" Yes dad!
SO I'm VERY excited about my summer company. My sister is FINALLY coming, she'll be here the same week my husband is gone for work so that'll be nice to have someone to talk to for half the week at least. Then my friend and her family are coming for the 4th. My job has agreed to give me time off for everyone YAY! So something to look forward to!
Also on the "exciting list" we got a bike rack to fit my husbands car so we can go over to Canada and ride around - yay again! Hope everyone's enjoying spring - I am TOTALLY over winter. We got 100.2 inches of snow this winter. (NO I am not kidding - a hundred stinking cold frozen tundra inches of snow. And I still have another winter to get thru here.......the summer had better be darn good!)

All hail the power of migraines...

They're a great negotiating tool. I mentioned to my bosses that my migs are directly related to the hrs I work. They are so petrified I'll quit that they agreed to let me leave an hour early 3 days/wk to meet my trainer at the gym, plus take a day off when needed (like if my sister ever comes to visit). YAY!!!!!!!

Conversation with my boss ...

Names changed to protect the ditzy....

Boss: "Hey Mandy, is John (husband) down there?"
Me: "No, he left already, I saw coworker wave at him as he left."
Boss: "So he's already left??"
Me: ".....yes, he's gone, sorry...."
Boss: "Oh, well I wanted him to do something, but he's not there?"
Me: bash head on desk "No, he already left."
Boss: 30 seconds of silence..... (what was I supposed to say - April fools???) "Oh, ok bye."


SERIOUSLY!!!!!! EVERY CONVERSATION RUNS THIS WAY!!!!!!!!

Prayer Request.....

Well I know I've already told most of you, but my new job has a couple of people that need some prayer. One just found out she has metastised cancer, the other is going thru a very stressful trmt for a neurological issues that is causing her bp to SKYROCKET so that they can't give her the trmt she needs. Very bad timing (of course) for the business since we're being inspected soon, but these people really need prayers and hope.

Thanks!

Yay

So we got our vacation booked - one week on the Daytona Beach, FL in late August. So I have 5 months to lose enough weight to look acceptable in a swimsuit. I won't hold my breath on that one. My poor husband wants to lay on a beach and bake for a week - he's so tired of being cold. It's spring - why is it still in the 30's??? These temps are just wrong! So the other couple have made their announcement about leaving the end of April/first of May...sniff sniff.
My job is going good, I'm picking up the horrible computer system more every day. (I think a man must have written that program, it's totally illogical!)

Hope everyone has a good week!

Job

Yay - so I got a job if you haven't heard. A medical supply company. I have to go buy new unscented lotion and not use my good hairspray b/c of the smells but that's doable. Next town over - so no tolls or 30+ min commute. 9-5 M-F. So - if you need me during that time you can call but my cell will be on vibrate. If it's an emergency - keep calling. Otherwise I'll call you back on lunch or after wk. No idea how long it will take me to train but it sounds like a job I won't get bored in b/c it's a small office so I'll help handle almost every aspect of it. Thanks for all the encouragement and such ya'll have given me. Hopefully this works out!

No job. 2 day migraine - before I found out about the no job. Who wants to bet tomorrow will be day 3??

When it rains.....it pours

Ok, so it's supposed to snow again this weekend and I simply must admit ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!

Sorry. So I apparently needed to threaten this area of NY w/ my mom coming to keep me company while I job hunt. The next day I get a 2 day temp assignment, who now wants to try to hire me part time. I have two interviews tomorrow - one at a neurologist doing exactly (from the website description of the job) what I did before, one at a vet office (TOTALLY want this one) and one on Monday w/ a staffing agency for a clerical job. I can't decide if I really want a full-time job or not, my husband isn't in favor of it unless they pay well so we'll see. :-) All are a good 40 mins from home but honestly there's not a DARN THING here in this town. Awesome for walking/riding in, bad for job-hunting.

Updates to follow!

Random pics to start your day...

So Holly and I got another tour of the jobsite - it's a mess! Goes from several inch thick mud to 6 inches of snow -- ick. But lots of big impressive equipment - transformers bigger than my fridge and 500 pound batteries!























I love the black and white pics! The whole river was frozen except for a tiny area where the horseshoe falls (canadian side) pound down.





















Hi Holly! Quit hiding! :-)

Beautiful

It was really cold w/ the mist blowing off the falls but so pretty w/ the ice just caked inches thick on everything in sight.

More pics from the Frozen North

Well we made a trip up to take some pics for ya'll of the frozen falls and river....makes me shiver again just to look at them!

Yay!

Happy Cheat Day to me, Happy Cheat Day to me...Oh sorry. Enjoying my cranberry orange scone I made this morning! :-) Have to have something to get me over my jealousy of my sister's ski trip! Hopefully my protein powder will come in today so I can make my bannana bread and then some homemade bread this weekend, since my husband is supposed to work all weekend. :-(

Cold.

I hate cold. Cold air, most specifically, obviously I prefer my ice cream cold etc. A week ago it's nice and warm, I get to go for a run w/ my husband and really work my body without bothering my lungs. Today I had to quit every 1/2 mile or so to wheeze. And I do mean wheeze - I sounded like I was sucking air thru a kazoo. (I haven't seen a kazoo in a long time. Do they not make those anymore?) Anyway, so here's hoping our next job is somewhere warm......

Animals....

So my honey got bored after his homework was done yesterday.... He hadn't had a full day off in quite awhile and didn't know what to do w/ all his extra time! So, he played w/ one of his Christmas presents (thanks mom!). So far I have in my zoo, a giraffe (I love the tiny tail) and a lion. Name suggestions?

One Word (idea snitched from Brenda)

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers.
1. Where is your cell phone? table
2. Your significant other? work
3. Your hair? messy
4. Your mother? food!
5. Your father? security
6. Your favorite? bagels
7. Your dream last night? no
8. Your favorite drink? disaronno
9. Your dream/goal? success
10. What room you are in? couch
11. Your hobby? reading
12. Your fear? failure
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? peaceful
14. Where were you last night? home
15. Something that you aren't? warm
16. Muffins? blueberry
17. Wish list item? cat
18. Where you grew up? Mo
19. Last thing you did? tv
20. What are you wearing? pj's
21. Your TV? lions!
22. Your pets? none (sniff sniff)
23. Friends? unending
24. Your life? calm
25. Your mood? cranky
26. Missing someone? absolutely
27. Car? unreliable (apparently the noise has reappeared)
28. Something you're not wearing? shoes
29. Your favorite store? panera!
30. Your favorite color? yellow
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? monday
35. Who will resend this? noone
36. One place that I go to over and over? parents
37. One person who emails me regularly? Brenda
38. My favorite place to eat? OTB

Sniff sniff

So, before my migraine pills kick in I'll try to get this typed. If I start rambling I have a good excuse.
We just got back from our job conference, it was better than previous years. Hands-on workshops for the guys, and lots of free time for me to see family (yay!). My husband got lots of compliments on his new suit, particularly the orange paisley tie, however his neck is again raw from wearing a collared shirt for 2 days straight. Poor thing.
We still have monster icicles on our back porch. It was to get up to 36 today so they're fatter and shorter (odd, kind of how I feel after 2 days in 4 inch heels!) Ouch!
I met an interesting individual on my trip. Her name (for now) shall be "Gray Cat" (yes Kt I know I'm copying). She is at the Gardner Humane Society, and wants to move to NY. She loves to purr, be held, stand on your shoulder and talk to you. She is not solid gray but very pretty and only about 6m old. Unfortunately the standard answer applied and so when GC asked where I was today Kt had to tell her I'd gone back to NY w/o her. Kt said a tiny tear slid down her furry little cheek. I'd believe it more if Kt said GC whacked her with her paw but since I'm not there I'll take Kt's word for it.