Father's Day 2011

Summer Meeting

The Corkscrew Girls had their summer meeting last night!! Great food, wine and conversation were on!!!

Love the Rules

Going to the movies is a favorite pastime. I love to see a good film on a big screen with larger than life sound. Summer is an especially great time because all the big, action blockbusters happen. What makes it all go to crap is the people.

I have huge respect/kudos to a theater in Austin, Texas where the rules are the rules and if you don't like it...don't go!

My favorite rule is not allowing kids under 6 years old. I get so pissed off and annoyed when I am watching an adult movie and people who are too cheap to get a sitter drag their kids to the movie. We got sitters when ours was small. What makes these newer parents think that we want to hear their toddler yapping/crying etc. during the movie we just paid top dollar to see.

ANY talking/texting they will throw you out!! YES!! I am so tired of still seeing/hearing cell phones light up in a dark theater! Even after the sign tells you to turn them off you can still see the glow as they answer them. Are they such total assholes that they believe that they are exempt from the rules? I would applaud if I ever got to see one of them tossed on their ass. It seems that there is someone in every movie I got to. At least one jerk.

More people/businesses need to get on this bandwagon and start putting their foot down and maybe people will either stay home or get a clue.

My Plate for Dummies

I guess we are just too dumb to know how/what to eat. Yes, the food pyramid has been around forever and not too many gave it much attention. I saw it all through school, but it was not anything I used when cooking or food shopping. Now, it seems that the government has spent two million making a picture that any dummy can read who doesn't know how to eat!

Ever since daycare or elementary school we are told about healthy eating etc. If we choose to do it or not I don't think some group of idiots needs to make a ton of money coming up with some picture that they think we are all going to follow.

Next they might just as make little plates with compartments for us so we can just drop our food where it tells us to put it.

Just Funny

Beer and a BallGame

I am not a beer drinker, but when they don't sell it at the ball park one must do what one must do! Yesterday was an AWESOME day to go to a day game. It was sunny and almost hot. Glad I took a visor. We had third row right field seats. I have an odd sunburn from my elbow to my wrist. Boston v Cleveland. Sadly it was a blowout! Boston had eight runs in the first inning, but....we were having beer, hot dogs and friendship.

Moving

Two years ago I ran my first 5K. Then I developed pre-patella bursitis and it was terrible pain and caused me to stop running. Once I stopped and let my knee heal I just got lazy, as is so easy to do, and now two years have passed.

I finally got to a place where I didn't want to be AND after hitting that "milestone" birthday I knew that I had to get back in the game. A friend told me about a program that she was using and it was all I needed for motivation! It is the "Couch to 5 K Program".

I looked it up online and found it to be quite simple. I am into my third week and getting back in the groove. I take Cady with me and since she is still so young I hope to get her into a running with me routine.

The race that I ran, two years ago, will be this October and I plan to be ready.

The Lamp Story

While hubby was in China we would talk on Skype. He usually sat in the same spot and in his room/suite there was always this crazy clock/lamp in the background. He even sent me some pictures of it after he first moved into the room.

It was the craziest/coolest thing. Garish and loud, but it was also unique. I loved it! They were buying him so many gifts that I joked that he should tell them that his wife loved the lamp and maybe they would buy me one. More and more we joked about getting the lamp.

I finally told him that if he could find one to try and get it.

His last day, in China, he asked someone to take him out to find the lamp. They went to a small mall that just sold lamps. There were about 11 shops and everyone sold nothing but varieties of lighting. He went to eight shops before finding out that the lamp in his hotel was a three year old style and that there was a "newer" version. He called me at 3:00AM, our time, to see if I still wanted it and naturally I said yes.

So, the lamp make sit back to the States, but I never thought about how it would make the 23 hour flight and get through luggage checking etc. Not only did he have three large pieces of luggage, but he came home with two VERY large boxes! He had put twine through the tops so he could wrangle them through the airports. The lampshade was so large that it had its own box!

Amazingly the shade made it here unscathed, but we will have to get a new table top. The glass was broken into many pieces. United may reimburse hubby. I think we are going to get Plexiglas. Safer. More so than the crazy Chinese wiring! Since there are no regulations there they just all hang out the bottom of the lamp. It is cheaper than even anything sent here.

Of course the directions were only in Chinese, but hubby knows how that kind of stuff works. After we both had cocktails and bought a transformer it was ready to light! I never even thought about the electricity difference!! Not only did I have to buy a transformer, but another plug to plug the lamp in to and then plug in to the transformer!!

I never thought about all the differences and problems we would come across, but I do love it and love the effort that the hubby put forth to make it all possible! I adore my tacky, kitschy Chinese lamp.

Chowder House

Check out the Chowder House!

Road Trip

I hate to drive long distances. That being said I did drive my mom to Indiana over Mother's Day weekend. We went to our hometown of Michigan City which is just an hour and 20 minutes from Chicago and right on Lake Michigan. Cold and nasty in the winter!

Only a five hour drive, but I have trouble staying awake driving long distances. My mom sold her car last year and doesn't have insurance, so I had to do all the driving. Getting there was not bad, but it rained all the way home and my mom kept drifting off to sleep!

We had beautiful weather, as you can see from our trip to the lake, and spent a good deal of time outside. Aside from the lake we also went to an awesome outdoor shopping place called Lighthouse Place also on the Lake. Outlet stores, great deals! That night we went to the F.O.P for a fish fry. My cousin is a Michigan City cop and his daughter works there. I had an all - you - can eat Walleye in a delicious beer batter. Best fish I have had in ages.

My Uncle Mike has been a model, almost all of his life, and he came over to see us from Chicago. As did his best friend and our family friend Trevor. It was a good trip. Ate food, played cards and slept late. Wish I would have had more time off.

Corkscrew Girls Meet at The Melting Pot

The Corkscrew Girls went to Ladies Night/Spa Night at the Melting Pot last night!

Happy Birthday Mom

My mom turned 76 last week. She is in such good health that her doctors tell her she is not her age. Most people can not believe how old she is. I am lucky. Lucky that she is still around, doesn't take a single medication, and still dances and has an active life. She volunteers at the local elementary school every week. Doing office work, grades for teachers and all their copying. Does all sorts of word puzzles and games as well as plying euchre on a regular basis. When the two of us get together we play Scrabble for hours!

So for someone who has all they need there is really nothing to buy them for a birthday, so we will often go out to dinner. I like to take her to places that she would never go to or spend the money on.

There is a city nearby that has a wonderful restaurant that I love. Crave.

Crave is the name. It is also what I do! I look for any celebration to get there. The atmosphere and menu are wonderful. Mom loves good food and unusual combinations as much as I do. It was hard to make a choice because I also knew that I wanted desert. Oh the decisions!!

I ended up having the BLT. Applewood smoked bacon, lobster, fried green tomato, avocado, arugula on Texas toast. OMG!!!!!!! Sensational. Mom had a blackened catfish po'boy. It was huge.

Mothers Day is coming soon......where do I want to eat?

By the way, I am drinking a blueberry cheesecake martini and mom is having a spice-tini. Hers has jalapeno stuffed olives!

Facebook & Jesus

I just found out that there is something repugnant to Jesus about Facebook. I know there are many who are not fond of the social web site, but I had no idea how high it went.

I heard on the news that many people were doing this and then someone I work with jumped on the bandwagon. I guess I am just furthering my quick passage to hell and eternal damnation.

Where the hell is the connection???? When did the "powers that be" send the declaration down that they were displeased with our social networking? That they care about what we "like" and "dislike"? That if we "LOL" at the wrong joke we will be damned?

It just makes me shake my head. I can't understand how it could be further from what the original intent might have have been.

A Fat Lip & Exhaustion

I went back to work this week, after six weeks of a medical disability, and I am exhausted!! I was never so happy to have a day off. First it was mental. Having to listen to so many people talking to me at once after so much time of just me & the pup! Then a day later came the physical exhaustion. The feet and legs. Twice this week I came home and fell asleep for 10 hours! Barely a single sip of wine.

Last night I ordered two pizzas and was going to have some pizza, wine and relax. I got my favorite spinach alfredo pizza with onions, fresh tomatoes and bacon. YUM! Hubby had picked me up and we were coming home together. The kid was home ahead of us and the puppy was already out of the kennel. She heard us arrive and was quite excited.

She was running around us. I bent down to untangle her runner and at the same time she was trying to jump. Her hard ass head hit me solid in the mouth. Luckily no teeth were loose, but I have one hell of a fat lip! I had to sit, for an hour, with an ice pack. All before my first glass of wine!! Sheer insanity!! I was ready to cry. Not sure if it was the lip, the exhaustion or the fact that I really wanted that wine. Probably a bit of all three.

Corkscrew Girls Gather

The girls got together last night for another round of food, laughs and cocktails. Seems that everyone was in the mood for salad. Rockne's does have a good salad and you can leave off the pita bread and add hard boiled egg. Yum.

Two of us had their Gyro Salad, which is my fave, that is made with gyro meat,
Greek olives and Feta cheese. Served with a delicious cucumber dressing. The other gals were in a chicken kinda mood. One had the Buffalo chicken salad and the other the chicken with raspberry dressing.

To finish it off, those of us not following Lent, had a mini dessert. I had the mini peanut butter pie and someone else had a mini cheesecake. Mmmmmm it was just enough!

Ahhh, another successful meeting down and the next one already planned and maybe even a future weekend at a gambling resort!! That would be fun.