Well, hello there good looking.

I have talked before in previous posts about my facination with eyes and especially their color.

Like here and here (check out the blue eyes on this one!!!) Just to share a few.

I don't know what it is with green/hazel/blue eyes on a man but gosh darn it why can't I ever meet someone with eyes like that?

Wait....I take that back. I have. When I was in high school, I went to summer camp and my summer camp boyfriend had black hair and the bluest of the blue eyes. Sigh.

But you know......I think I really like the green/hazel the most. The lighter the better. Oh and if that awesome color changes depending on mood or clothing makes it even better.

There was another guy in high school that had lovely hazel/green eyes. I LOVED taking pictures of him! Hmmmmm I wonder if I should post pictures? I wonder if he would mind?

I always seem to end up with the plain brown-eyed guys. Not that they don't have lovely eyes (B has wonderful brown eyes) but I always wonder why I always end up with the opposite of what I am attracted to?

Am I late for homeroom?

Today is weird.

Am I back in High School and no one told me?

No one seems to be talking to each other in the office and yet they all say they are not mad at each other. You would think I was back in high school and not in a corporate environment. Seriously. All I did was miss work on Friday and I am so totally out of the loop.

If the rest of the week continues like it is going today, I should have tons of music running thru my head this week. I didn't listen to much last week but what I did end up listening to seems to have been an 80's flashback. Weren't the 80's awesome???? Maybe that is why it feels like I am back in high school? I really do need convert all my albums and cassettes over to CD's though so I have more to listen to. I miss all the old songs.

Not so good

This weekend that is.

I woke up Friday, sick, so I stayed home.

Saturday started out okay but then B got on a tirade and told me, I could not do anything that day (of course, now he denies it). I had made plans to scrap with some friends starting at noon. So, I planned to go to my morning appointment, come home and do the things B wanted done and then go scrap with my friends later in the afternoon (around 3 or 4) since that is when the other gals were going to get there. Well instead, the scrap-together was cancelled and that made me feel really bad as Saturday was chosen because I could not make it on Friday. I did not mean for it to be cancelled and now I feel everyone hates me.

So, I just came home. I did some laundry and then tried to put up with my headache. I went to buy me some medicine at what I thought was a 24-hour pharmacy but they were closed. Now that it is illegal to buy stupid Sudafed off the shelf, I am out of luck. I guess I am only allowed to be sick during business hours and I cannot even buy extra in case I run out, as the law limits how much you can buy. Stupid drug addicts!!!! They make it worse for the rest of us!

So now, it is Sunday. B is pissed because we have no money and that I check the balance online and tell him about it. He does not like to know and says that normal people don't check the balance. He is an idiot. So now, thanks to him, I will not be able to afford anything for this headache until my payday on Friday. I also don't know how I will get to work this week as there is no gas in the car and I don't even know if it will make it to the gas station as it is totally empty and B never puts gas in it. My cell phone does not work and other bills are due. B does not feel they are important enough to pay. I am so glad that his comics are so important because we would not want him to go a week without buying the stupid things.

It didn’t work :(

The backlinks will not show on my blog. :( They show up on other blogs, just not mine.

I used the Blogger default info and even tried some of the template hacks out there but I am still not showing any links. I even created a new blog and used a default template and still....nothing. I wonder if it is my account that is messed up?

If any of you Blogger template gurus know what I did wrong please help.


****edited****** oh and if you could help me figure out why my posts don't show on sites like Technorati or BlogSearch even though I ping them....that would be nice too. ********

Showing the blogging love

I have been blogging for quite a few years. I have noticed some changes over the years now that everyone seems to be blogging. I remember when I first started my blog, I was told that if you wanted people to visit your blog then you needed to comment on other blogs. I remember old time bloggers always returning the favor by stopping by my blog to say hello. Bloggers now-a-days don’t seem to do this – well not that often. Sadly, I too have been guilty of not commenting when stopping by a blog or visiting those that comment on my blog as often as I used to.

Another thing I remember was trackbacks (or backlinks as they are called in Blogger). Trackbacks are another way to show other bloggers the blogging love. I love leaving trackbacks. I used to do it more often but lately I am lucky if I even have time to post on my own blog.

Trackbacks is when you post to your blog and someone else posts to their blog about your post (and includes the link). This other person’s post will appear (title and summary) on your original post by the comments, if you have trackbacks/backlinks enabled (I love when people have them enabled). It is so cool to see other people talking about you and it makes me feel good letting people know I am talking about them too. :) And heck it is cool if people visit your blog because of a trackback you left on someone else’s page.

Since Blogger never had the trackback ability in the past, I was never able to see if anyone actually liked me enough to write about me. Now isn’t that sad? But now that Blogger has backlinks it is so cool to see.

For an example of how a trackback/backlink looks on a post go here. Look down at the bottom under the comments. See the links? Click on the arrow. See the summary? How cool is that?

Oh and if I edited my template right you should see a trackback link on this post as well.

If your blogging software does not allow you to leave a trackback you can use online trackback forms like this one.

****edited****** Oh and I forgot to tell you all about Technorati. Do you know about it? It is not just a blog search but you can also enter your blog address and see everyone who is linking to you. You may be surprised who is advertising your blog. *****edited******

Mojo, I have found thee.....I think

I think my mojo may have found its way back home. I am not quite sure yet but I am just saying.

It is amazing how just a little bit of organization makes me want to scrap. I am very surprised. Really. I am. Just don’t tell B that. I am surprised at how much stuff I actually have. I had hoped though that with having all my stuff together I would know exactly what I have. Not so. I went to the scrapbook store the other day and wanted to buy some large Bazzill brads but could not remember if I already had that particular color. Now I can understand this happening but the sad thing is that I only own 2 colors of these particular brads and could remember the colors, but for some reason I thought I had another one. So I put the brads back (last pack on the shelf) and went home. Yep. I don’t have that color. So I hope they are still there whenever I get a chance to go back.

I did this layout last night for this week’s Scrappay Divas challenge. I am so happy I got it done. I may have stayed up past 1am but I finished it. It is rare for me to actually start AND finish a layout in one sitting. Don’t believe me? Just ask those that scrap with me.

I made a pocket

I scrapped this weekend. Even amidst all the cleaning and organizing I managed to scrap. Well not really scrap per se but I did make this pocket. It is kind of boring actually but it is part of a progressive contest that I thought I would attempt to try. Each week we get a different item and at the end everything gets put together. Thing is you don’t know what the final result will be and you cannot alter anything once it is completed. So this pocket……yeah it stays the way it is. Hopefully it will all come together in the end. Tuesday (tomorrow) we find out what week #2 will be.

If today is any indication of anything I sure do hope that the rest of the week goes much smoother.

This has been a real Monday for me. I got to work and immediately had something thrown at me that should not have come to me and should have warned me of the day ahead. I do not like people calling me and then when I don’t tell them what they want to hear they then have their supervisor call me.

Then an hour later I had to go to a baby shower for a co-worker. Well I did not HAVE to but wanted to. After the baby shower it was back to my desk to deal a bit more with the situation from the morning and to help out another co-worker.

Every Monday morning the first thing I do is run reports of the work done the previous week. Well I did not finish that until 2pm!!!! I actually did not do any of my ‘real’ work until after 2pm!! I cannot believe how fast the day goes when you don’t do actual ‘real’ work. I did not even turn on my music until after 2pm. I have a feeling that I will be music-less this week.

Speaking of music…..last week was another week of not listening to that much. I get so busy at work lately that I never seem to have time to listen. We have to wear our earphones so if I am needed I have to keep one ear open. That is one of the reasons I like working late. Everyone leaves, I am all alone and I can then put in the earphones and go to town. I get tons of work done when I can listen to my tunes which makes me one happy camper!

(photo brought to you courtesy of Photobucket - cause Blogger sucks!!!!)

iScrap

Even though I don’t scrap as often as I like or as fast as I would like, I do consider myself to be a scrapbooker. I hope to one day be less of a collector and actually use all the stuff I buy. I was surprised to see how many layouts I have done so far this year. I don’t know how many I have completed. The picture is just a few of them. I used to count how many pages I would do and even set goals for myself. I stopped doing that. I did not like feeling like I was failing when it came to doing something I enjoy. So now, iScrap when the mood hits me. I just need to figure out how to make that mood stay awhile. :)

Today is better

Tuesday ended up not being a very good day for me. It was another day of very little sleep. I think I only got 2-3 hours. Work was actually very productive but I found that I had both sets of keys with me and since B was going to run some errands for me, I took an hour lunch and drove home to drop off the keys. Because of the long lunch that meant I had to stay late so I did not leave work until 7pm. So I call B to let him know I was on my way home and found out he did not do the errands that he offered to do for me. Yeah, I was ticked. So instead of driving home I had to stop by Target to pick up a few things. Oh yeah and I also picked up some extra things just for me, like shoes on sale for $3.64 and something for my hair and a new bra. Yep! I guess when I am ticked I shop. Then on my way home from Target I stopped to get us something to eat. I totally forgot that there are some TV shows I like to watch on Tuesday (I kept thinking it was Wednesday) and I got home at 8:45pm!!!! I was tired, cranky, hungry and had a terrible headache!

Oh but here is a funny. I caught the end of the show ‘Dead like Me.’ The main gal on the show is working in an office and they all scrapbook. The end of the show had all these people around a table with scrapbook stuff. They told the main gal to show them her book and she just had photos in it like a photo album. Her boss tells her ‘that is a mistake that many beginners make, they try to make a scrapbook look like a photo album.’ Now I find that funny cause isn’t that what a scrapbook is?

So now it is Wednesday. I actually slept last night – FINALLY! Of course I did not want to wake up this morning. I am also finding it hard to get motivated at work to. So much so that I did not even get to my Weight Watcher meeting today. I just did not feel like driving over to the other building.

It’s a bit wet

{click photo to make larger}

I could not sleep last night. I have way too much going on inside my head. One good thing about not sleeping is I think I have figured out how I want to organize my scrap stuff. The only problem is it will cost a lot of money. Maybe I need to cash in on the $5,080.86 my blog is worth.

It also did not help that while I was tossing and turning last night that a major storm blew thru town. The wind was blowing the rain right at the windows and when it does that the windows leak. So I was running around putting towels in the windows and unplugging the computer since the water just happens to drip right next to the computer and onto the power strip. Of course DH slept right thru it all. There is a major leak (or drip) in the bathroom from the fan. Luckily it is right above the toilet and all I have to do is leave the seat up and the water drips right into the toilet – no bucket needed. The only downside to this – well there are a couple, is that the cats can now get into the toilet and when sitting on the toilet your head gets dripped on. This morning the carpet downstairs by the sliding glass window was soaked. Now the house will start to smell all icky as it slowly dries. That is IF it dries.

Last time it rained this much was in 1983. If you are not familiar with the desert, our washes are normally empty and dry. You only get water in the wash when it rains. The news said today that one particular wash is 15 feet deep and the water is going at 12-17 mph. You can watch video by going here.

Oh and can you tell who bought a new record last week? I really did not listen to much music last week but I guess I found a way to fit in the new stuff. Well actually 24 listens is not that much. That is basically listening to the CD twice. So I guess I didn't really over do it.

I scrapped!!

It was about time too! This layout has been sitting on my desk for maybe a month now. It was supposed to be a layout for a contest but I did not get to do the hand journaling on time. In fact as you can see I had so much journaling I could not handwrite it. The scan is a bit blurry due to it being a super bumpy layout. I got to use my new Heidi Swapp chipboard letters and I think this is the first time I have ever used different elements for a title. Yeah, I don't get out much when it comes to experimenting with new scrapping ideas. I am a very slow learner.

Not only did I finish this page but I also started another one. Go ME! LOL! I would have probably finished it on Saturday night but realized I needed some new stamps to make the title. Yes I said Needed. So today I stopped by the scrapbook store for a $10.00 pack of stamps......well $30.00 later I left the store and came home (oh and we will not discuss the $11.00 I spent just on paper on Saturday). The layout is not finished yet but the title is. Even if the layout was finished I would not be able to share it with you all just yet as it is for the Scrappay Divas challenge for this Tuesday's challenge.

I'm Rich

Well I think I should just go ahead and sell ‘cause I need the money. LOL! I guess people must really like me. But do they comment? (hint hint)

C'mon....show me some comment love!

My blog is worth $5,080.86.
How much is your blog worth?

Batten down the hatches!

Well ummm....this looks to be a bit scary.

Much different than what the radar showed yesterday. No angel here.

Good thing I am driving the good car that actually has wiper blades. I sure do hope dh will be okay driving home tonight.

Yeah...I have no life

Anyone watch Hell’s Kitchen?

B & I do. It is a great show. We don’t think it is as good as the first season though. I just don’t see anyone that really deserves to have their own restaurant. The one snooty girl is driving us crazy too. I think her name is Sarah? She is the one in the picture. That sneer she constantly has on her face is just too much. She has GOT. TO. GO!

So did you see Hell's Kitchen last night? What do you think about what the chef said to the customer that came up to complain. You know...the one with the boobs.

It is interesting to see the differences in English TV and American TV. On this show Chef Ramsay is all loud and obnoxious. On his English show, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, he is a totally different person. Now he still cusses and says some of the same things but he is not blowing his top all the time either.

Now tonight will be some good television. It will be an entire night of the Sci-Fi channel. First ‘Dead Like Me’ and then ‘Eureka.’ I think B & I will just be couch potatoes tonight. Although I have a feeling that B's friend may come over and it might end up being pool night. Which is okay because I then have the place to myself.

I had hoped to scrap some last night but the new photos I ordered last week still have not arrived. They should have been here last Saturday. I hope they show up today so maybe I can get some ideas on how to scrap them. I really need my scrapping mojo back. If you have some extra scrapping mojo just laying around please send some my way.

Just stuff...

I have never seen a radar report like this one. Usually it is in clumps. I don’t know what to make of this as it is not raining outside cause I ran outside to roll up my windows and didn't have to.

Don’t you think it almost looks like an angel? Well I sure do.

I see that my Arctic Monkeys obsession from the previous week has kind of cooled. The numbers look a lot more normal for last week. Now I don't look like an obsessive fan. LOL!

I really didn’t listen to very much music last week. Hopefully this week will be better. I really want to buy the new Boy Kill Boy CD and it is a good thing I did not go and look for it this weekend as it does not come out until tomorrow. If you go to the site you can listen to some of the songs. So far I love the songs that I have heard and I think I may have a new obsession come next week.


This past weekend I got none of the scrapping done that I wanted to do. I also did not get any of the cleaning I needed to do. So very unproductive was I.

My Saturday seemed to be spent just driving places. I drove to the huge JoAnn’s that is far away from my house and looked at all the new scrapbook things they had for sale. Okay, I didn’t just look, I also bought. I was then going to go to the Ulta store on that side of town but after driving down many different aisles in the mall parking lot (behind many other cars) for about 10 minutes I said ‘forget it’ and drove to the entire OTHER side of town to the other location – where I parked in one of the first spots and only saw a handful of customers in the store. Whew! That sure is a long sentence. I bought this pretty pink shadow and it sure is PINK. I cannot wait to actually try it on my eye and not just on my hand.

p.s. ~ I sure wish Blogger would let me post all the pictures I wanted to. I don't know why it never seems to work for me. I get the screen saying the photo is uploaded but nothing is there. So again I say....Blogger sucks! Please don't ask how long it took to post this entry today........I am thinking I should have given up after an hour but sadly it took longer than that. I started this post at 4:25. It is now 6pm and I can finally upload. Unbelievable!

Yellow NOT White!

I need help.

Help with my shoes.

See those over there <---- They are supposed to be WHITE. They are not WHITE. I need help getting them WHITE.

When I was younger I used to wear KEDS all the time. I learned back then to NEVER wash them with bleach because the glue gets all yellow… And to never put them in the dryer…And to always use stain remover like Shout.

Well I washed these shoes and did not use bleach and they still turned yellow. Now granted I have worn them since I last washed them so they are dirty as well as being yellow.

Please help. How do you keep your canvas shoes nice and WHITE?

Arctic Monkeys it is

I seem to have found a new obsession. Wow! 53 listens to Arctic Monkeys last week! And that does not include what I listened to on my iPod this weekend. I think that is a record for me. Muse is not that far behind either, but they always seem to be in the top 3 lately.

Now for some updates on me. Yay!

Online scrapping contests - I did not make it in time to submit for the online contests. Having to work all day makes it hard to meet some of the deadlines especially when they are midnight EST and for me it is only 9pm. I usually get home after 7pm on some nights so that did not give me that much time to create anything. I also did not have any enlargements on hand so that left me out of the second contest I wanted to enter. Maybe next time I will have more time and more needed items in order to participate.

Scrapbooking - I have not really scrapped. I have a contest page almost finished sitting on my desk waiting for some journaling. I was supposed to hand write the journaling for the contest but I had TOO much journaling and instead I will type it up. Since I made that decision, I could not enter the page into the contest.

Work meeting - Well the meeting went well. As we expected, the people the meeting was directed towards just did not get it. Hopefully we will see some changes around here anyways.

Knitting/Crochet - I have not been doing either. It is so hard to work with yarn when it is so hot outside.

I'm beat

It has been a long day and I am ready to call it a night.

Normally I get to work between 9-10 (depends on when I can get myself out the door). Well today I had to be at work at 5am. Well let me tell you.....it sure is different at 5am. It sure is not normal to wake up at 4am either. I even woke up before B today and that is just not normal!

Over the weekend one of the main software programs that everyone uses was updated. So today I was a 'floor-walker.' My main job today was to walk around my section and make sure that everything was working fine. I was lucky that my section did not use any parts of the program that had issues, but it also made for a bit of a boring day.

I got to work at the main building today so I was away from my computer and my work but it was great to see everyone that I used to see everyday. I sure do miss all the chatting that I used to do with all my old co-workers. It was great to get caught up with some of them. It sure was an exhausting day. I am beat! On Sunday we took our nieces up to the mountain for a picnic so I think my legs and feet were still recovering. I have pretty much been on the go all weekend. I think I need a weekend to recover.

What have I done?

I have just agreed to come into work at 5am!!!! I will tell you now that I am NOT a morning person. I normally get to work between 9-10am. On Monday, I will be helping out with the roll-out of a program update and will be out on the floor with the agents making sure all is well. One of the gals in the room this morning laughed when they told me 5am. She told them that they needed to pick another time. I cannot complain because I did tell them I would come in whenever they needed me and then I DID agree to the 5am. Oh man! B is going to laugh big time at me! That means I have to leave for work at 4:30am!!! Wow! What time does that mean I have to wake up? I will tell you now….Monday will NOT be pretty!!

Darn! I just realized I will miss watching The 4400 on Sunday night! Argh!

Today was just weird

Today was the beginning of what I think will be a very long week. It is hard getting back to work after having so much time off.

Between 2 days off for the holiday and one day off for vacation and one sick day, I only worked one day last week. I have SO much work to get caught up on. I had hoped to get a good chunk of work done today but forgot that I had a 2 hour class to go to. I also wore my contacts today and I don't get even half as much work done when I do because my eyes get so tired.

Today was just weird.

Tomorrow will be even weirder. My boss has scheduled a meeting. A meeting where the invite says that he will be the only one talking so that it does not turn into a debate or something where everyone starts yelling and getting all upset. I sure do hope this meeting will take care of the situation with the gossipy and not so nice co-worker. I just hope that nothing bad is said about me because since I take everything WAY too personally I probably will just lose it. I admit it, I am a big crybaby. But....considering I never leave my cube and people have to pull me away from my work, I don't think the meeting should involve me too much.

I know I have mentioned that I am in a couple of scrapping contests this summer. Since I am a slow scrapper this is something new for me. I really want to do well and what I mean by well is just to actually submit something by the deadline. That is my main goal. So far so good with one of the challenges. I 'think' I submitted it by the deadline but there is no way to tell if it was accepted. I sure hope it was.

I have 3 layouts I need to complete before Friday and two of the layouts must be 2-pagers (12x12). One of the challenges also involves using my own handwriting. I used to like my handwriting but I have never thought it was anything special. I think I compare myself to others way too much and that is why I don't like it.

Really, the only good thing about today were my new pink & brown shoes. LOL! Not to be confused with my pink & brown chucks. What is it with me and pink & brown shoes?

A day of Heidi...Swapp that is

Today I met my first scrapping celebrity. Heidi Swapp came to our local store to show her wonderful ideas and how to use her products.

My friend Amber and I were the first people to get to the store this morning. This was great because we got to look at all the HS stuff first and made our purchases. Being first also meant we had front row seats (although we stood the entire time). It was awesome. I got so many great ideas. It was great watching Heidi work on a scrapbook page.

Each person that spent $10 got their name in the prize bucket. When we first got there I managed to spend $30. (not all on HS either - I just had to get a BG ribbon pack). Then after watching Heidi use some of her products (such as her paint), Amber and I went shopping again. I wanted the blue and white paint but one gal grabbed the last white right when we walked to the display so I just HAD to get blue, green and a dark pink (not the official names). LOL! I managed to spend another $10.

There were not that many people at this store so for some prizes they had to call at least 10 names or more (you had to be present to win). Amber was lucky and got her name pulled. She got some cool stuff. I cannot wait to see how she uses it.

Then....just because I did not win anything and I did have my name in the drawing at the other local store which just happens to be about 2 miles from my house........I went to the other store to see if my luck was any better (Whew! That was a long sentence). Yeah....just call me a stalker. This store really went all out and decorated (lots of pink) and had about triple the amount of people that were at the first store. Well my luck ended up being as bad as I thought. I did not win anything and I left with another $20+ spent. Hey! In my defense, they had only one bottle of HS white paint and that was a sign that I NEEDED to get it.

Before today, I was not really a Heidi Swapp fan (had only used some chipboard). Well I sure am a fan now. I am loving all this Heidi Swapp stuff and bought tons. I cannot wait to play with it all.

Happy 4th of July!

Today (well actually Monday cause this post is after midnight) was a wonderful day. It was so awesome to have a vacation day and also have B home from work at the same time. We just had a great lazy day. There was some talk of maybe leaving the house but at least for me it did not happen. I was a slacker the entire day and only peeked outside and never actually went outside.

I did manage to get some scrapping done today and for that I am very proud of myself. It was my turn to choose the Scrappay Divas Tuesday challenge and I am happy to say I actually did it too. I have been such a slacker with these challenges. Thanks to my Diva gals for putting up with me. Here is a sneak peak of the layout. Shhhh don't tell anyone. The layout should post once the sun comes up on Tuesday morning.

That is if Blogger will let me post pictures.

Thanks goodness for Photobucket!

I also finally found my scanner hiding under all my 12x12 paper and was able to scan and upload last week's Diva challenge too. It only took me a week to scan it. Bummer is....I thought I was being all clever with the title "Goodbye 2005" cause it rhymed and now that I look at it I realize that this should actually be "Goodbye 2004" I am going to need to change that sticker. Argh! I don't know what year I am scrapping anymore. LOL!

I am looking forward to going to the in-laws for our 4th of July. There will probably not be any pictures to scrap but it should be nice to get out of the house and do something. Hopefully I can either wake up early and scrap some more (yeah right!) or maybe scrap when I get home.

Want to hear something weird? It is after 2am and there are birds chirping outside. It is dark. Why are they there? This isn't the first time either. Is there some bird party that is going on that I am not aware of?

I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day!

A good day

After an early morning appointment I stopped by Michael's to check out what they had. I was surprised to see that they carry Wild Asparagus and Chatterbox paper. They even had some Basic Grey. The price was much better than at the scrapbook store that is for sure. I managed to pick up a couple of pages of Chatterbox (although I don't know what I am going to do with them) and also found some Lil Davis embelishments in their dollar section. I was really good and did NOT buy any ribbon. I still have not opened the ribbon I bought the last time I went to Michael's nor the ribbon I bought the last time I was at the scrapbook store (nor the ribbon I bought from QVC on National Scrapbook day). I think I have a ribbon problem.

After running a couple more errands (like stopping by DQ and picking up a salad for lunch) I headed home.

One of the movies we got from Netflix this week was one that was just for me. The movie was Elizabethtown. It was nice to spend a couple of hours this afternoon watching a movie just for me and by myself without husband interuption. Basically no annoying comments that usually ruin a movie for me. I really liked this movie. I am not a big Orlando Bloom fan but I really liked how he came thru as a great man in this movie. Well he seemed like a great man to me. Even though he did not seem to say much.

Well it is officially monsoon season. I love it! I love the stormy weather but it does put a limit in my online time since I freak and never like to have the computer on when there is a ton of lightning. Right outside our window is a huge radio tower. So far (knock on wood) it has never been hit the entire time we have lived here (about 5/6 years now). I have been loving all the clouds in the sky and have been going crazy taking tons of photos. The sunsets have been amazing!

This weekend starts of a couple of online scrapping contests. I hope to enter them and get tons of things scrapped. The first challenge is a card. I have not made a card in awhile so this should be interesting. The one thing I wonder about is what do I do with the card once it is finished?

Back to normal?

So it looks like things may be getting back to normal around here. You know....the normal where no one visits my blog. LOL! Either that or no one is synching their PDA's cause of the holiday weekend.

I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Blackberry?

Could all this drama be because someone is viewing my site using a Blackberry?

Really.....my site is not all that interesting.

It was not the template!

It is still happening. The visits are still coming. Could these visits really be someone that is just like the people on these websites linked below? The IP addresses are from the same place and why would someone be on my blog for 5,6 or even more hours?

I know that you all probably think that someone is leaving a page of my blog open and closing it hours later but that does not appear to be the case (as you can see in prior post picture). These hits are happening every few minutes. These hits are not hitting a particular page and they do not show up on my list of referred links. I had to search the tools of my blog counter to find the information on these hits. I am concerned as I normally average 10 hits per day on my blog. So far I am over 195 hits just from this morning. My blog is NOT so interesting as to have these many hits in one day.

I even have some of the tech guys here at work checking it out. Makes me glad I work for a software company.

So much for trying something new

I had to change the template back. Something is up with the template I used. I got 145 visits to my site just today and that freaks me out. I see where the visits are coming from and the visit length and IPP address are different each time. But they are coming from the same place. I have been thru that template and I don’t find any links at all so until I figure out what is up, it is back to the old template. I am so bummed.

Well?

So tell me.

What do you think of the new template?

Is it too busy?

I think I need to get used to not having a white background. Do I need to go back to a white background?

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.

Whoa Doggie!

Yesterday was a cool day to have a camera with me. We got to see a cool ring around the Sun (Sun Dog). It was huge! Here are a few pictures I took.



sun·dog (s n dôg , -d g )

n.

1. A parhelion.
2. A small halo or rainbow near the horizon just off the parhelic circle.

sundog

n : a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals; "two or more parhelia are usually seen at once"

You can see a really awesome picture by visiting Happay’s blog. So go there now!

Dirty Rain

Yesterday morning I walked out to find super dirty windows on the car from the storm that rolled by on Sunday afternoon. I cleaned the windows and headed to work. When I left for the day I again had dusty dirty windows. Why can’t it just rain here. Why does the very little rain we get have to mix with dust? I could NOT see at all when it started to rain on the way home so I had to stop and clean my windows in the middle of the rain storm. Even after cleaning them I almost pulled over to the side of the road because the visibility was so bad. I really do need new wipers on this car. Each time we buy them though the sales person insists we need 2 different sizes even when I tell them no. The sales person always insists that the book is right and that I am wrong. We never come home with the right size. The only time I have been able to get the right size of wiper for this car is when I go by myself and play dumb.

B told me when I got home that he bought new wipers for the good car. This is a good thing, especially since I am driving the good car today. The wipers were so bad in that car that they scratched a line in the window from the metal rubbing against the glass. Now maybe B will be nice and take the icky car in for new blades.

Driving home...

Driving home should be interesting. I can hear the thunder over the music playing thru my earphones.

Driving home should be interesting. I have no wiper blades.

Driving home should be interesting. I have the icky car and have to drive with the windows down.

Driving home should be interesting. I think the breaks are going on the car (the axle is already gone).

Driving home should be interesting.

better

I spoke to my boss on Thursday and I feel really good about it. I did not really think he would do anything as it was just me complaining but he did seem concerned when I told him how my other co-workers are acting different as well. No one talks anymore. I hope that something good comes from this.

No scrapping or knitting or anything creative happened this weekend. I did stop by the scrapbook store to buy Heidi Swapp chipboard letters but they only had them in black and not white. I did not go home empty handed though. I still managed to buy sticker letters (I love those American Crafts stickers) and a package of Basic Grey ribbons (the silly line - cannot remember the real name). It was hard deciding which package of BG to buy. They also had 'Oh Baby and Urban Couture which has the most wonderful colors. Since I have more of the silly line I got that package. They only had one of the Urban Couture so I hope it is still there when I get back to the store. They were also selling American Craft ribbon for $1 a roll. There were a few decent ones that I selected. So I went in for just chipboard and left with stickers and ribbon. I sure do hope it jump starts me back into the creative zone.

Bitch-fest!

I have just about had it with work. Not the work I do, cause I like that. Not the company I work for, cause I like them too. It is because of some of the people that I work with that will make me give up my current position or leave. I have had it. There is just too much negativity and when I ask my boss if we could have a meeting, I am told that he does not work that way because it will get out of control. Okay. I can understand that. In a way, I WANT to have a meeting like that. I don’t like individual meetings because I then sound like I am whining and am told that I am the only one that feels the way I do.

If I do NOT want to decorate cookies, I should NOT have to! If I need to get work done (because I have no backup like they do), then I should NOT be forced to work the bake sale or decorate stupid cookies. What gets me is that I offered to work a session at our bake sale (if no one else chose it as I had to be at my desk for a meeting) and come to find out today (after I worked TWO sessions) that the troublemakers were bitching that I had told them that I had to attend a meeting. I am STILL trying to get caught up from that stupid bake sale! I WANT to go on vacation. Vacation is more important to me than fundraisers and motivational activities. WE are ADULTS people! We do not need to have motivation time in order to do our jobs!

I am SO tired of bitchy back-stabbing women! I miss the time when all my co-workers were guys.

eh

Today I am lazy.

I do not feel like doing anything today.

Last night I had plans to upload photos (to share of course) and maybe scrap. I have nothing creative in me at the moment.

I left work close to 6:30 and B wanted me to stop by the grocery store for a couple of things. On the way home one of the major intersections by my house was completely closed (all four ways) due to an accident. So we were all detoured to a side street. So in other words I took the long way to the grocery store. I really don’t like this particular grocery store and I had to deal with the not so friendly gal at the register. B made an awesome dinner (grilled Tilapia) so that made up for it all. I told him that he will have to remember what he did (he had made up the recipe as he went along) so that we can have it again.

After dinner we watched Windfall. I think this may be a show we will watch this summer. Last night was only the 2nd episode but so far we like it.

So what is good on TV on Friday nights?

An update

On Saturday I rode up with my parents to visit my Uncle up in Scottsdale. My cousin rented them a really nice condo just a few miles from the hospital. We really did have a great time just hanging out. I love that my family spends so much time laughing. This particular Uncle is always the life of the party. Poor thing was all alone when he had his surgery as both my mom and aunt (his sisters) and my cousin (his son) were on cruises. LOL! He almost went on the cruise himself. It is a good thing that he decided not to go.

I lived in Phoenix for my first year of college. I don’t remember Phoenix just being a bunch of freeways. I pretty much just stayed on the Interstate and there was only one express way when I lived there. Now there are loops and express ways galore. It was terrible. Between all the traffic and my dad’s crazy driving (oh and having to listen to the Hank Williams XML satellite station) I was totally exhausted when I got home.

So now it is Thursday. I cannot remember this past week at all. It is pretty much a blur. I have been getting to work later in the morning and staying late so by the time I get home it is already 7pm if not after. I have not logged into my computer at home since Saturday and I have not scrapped for more than 2 weeks. Well the last time I scrapped is when I met up with Happay Scrappay at the lss on June 3rd and I did not even finish the page I was working on. My scrap crap is still downstairs right by the door. So sad.

There are so many things that I am getting behind on and I think I am starting to stress but I don’t know I am stressing. Is that weird? I try not to think of stuff I need to do (or even want to do) and therefore I kind of forget all about it. I need to get out of this funk and quick. At least I am starting to feel a little better and I usually can smell a few things during certain parts of the day.

Two are two

Why is it when I actually have something to post that Blogger will not allow me to do that? Each time I have tried the system has been down and now that I can post all those old posts are kind of irrelevant.

So look who turned two. On Thursday the twins celebrated their 2nd birthday. Of course I found out about the party on Thursday morning so needless to say I was not to happy about the late notice and having to leave work early. I got to my brother's and the get together was in full swing and all I can say is it was kind of chaotic. When I got there I was greeted by my brother's friends who were all sitting outside. The older folks (like my parents) were inside. The kids were all over the backyard and most of them were jumping on the trampoline. I saw Ducky (twin #1) and picked him up right away and held him for a bit. Then I tried to go inside. I say try because in my way was a lady I did not know holding Anna (twin #2). The lady was trying to take Anna inside to her mom and Anna did NOT want that. My s-i-l said that it was okay for the kids to be outside and as soon as Anna saw me she reached for me and needless to say I had her attached to my hip for about 30 minutes and I still did not make it inside. LOL! We went outside and watched the kids jumping until Anna points and says 'Ducky'. I turned around and there was Ducky on top of a ladder. I never knew I could move so fast while already holding someone. As I was reaching for him, my brother was just getting there as well. I cannot believe the only people that saw him were his little sister and my brother. My brother was stressing until he saw that I was already taking care of it. I finally got to put them both down but as soon as Anna saw me paying attention to another (hugging the oldest) back into my arms she went. LOL!

I finally got inside when they had the kid blow out the candles on the cake. After that was kind of a blur. I went outside and did not know they were opening presents inside. I guess during the cake two of my brother's dogs got into it and my brother had to pull them apart. This is the 3rd time I was told and again one of the dogs bit my brother in the forearm. All I know is that there was only one dog in the kennel and my brother and the other dog in the garage. I did not know the state of the dog and did not even ask. My s-i-l said that they were taking both dogs in the next morning to be put down. What a sad ending to the day.

The one great thing about the night was that for that one hour I was there (yep I was only there one hour), I was able to smell a bit. I could smell the oldest's cologne and I did not want to let him go. He wears the Axe cologne and I think it is cause he wants girls to act just like the commercial but he will never admit to that.

Barely Wednesday

Thank you to all who commented about my uncle and his transplant surgery. I really do appreciate it. He is doing well and is up and walking. He will have to stay there for about a month as he will have to have a check up every day. Hopefully I can catch a ride to go up to see him this weekend or next weekend when my mom goes.

Today is another afternoon of super-dooper storm activity. It is so out of the ordinary that everyone goes outside just to look at the rain falling. I don't have any wipers - well not any that work well so I am hoping that when I go home in 15 minutes or so the rain will have died down a bit. The thunder is extraordinary. I can hear it thru my earphones and the music is up pretty loud. It is louder than some of the jets that fly overhead and let me tell ya these are some super loud jets as we are under the flight path to the airforce base and the incoming airplanes landing at the airport which is a mile away.

I really am sad about this rain. The one smell I love in the entire world is the smell of rain in the desert. I miss it. I miss it because I have lost my sense of smell over the course of the last few weeks. I honestly cannot smell a thing. Then because of this I cannot taste anything I eat. There are a few things that the taste comes thru on but they are pretty spicy things. Have you ever lost your sense of smell? What did you do to make it come back?

I am thinking I want to go home and maybe scrap a bit or even knit but B is in a bad mood and mad at me so I will probably not be in the mood to do anything. Plus I have been getting home so late that I never seem to have time to do anything before it is time to go to bed.

You know....it sounds like there is a leak in the roof. We have a really high roof in this building with ceiling panels. It sounds like just right above my cubicle there is a leak on one of the panels but it has not broken thru yet. I think I need to go home before the flood happens.

The storm is coming! The storm is coming!

Considering it hardly ever rains this is pretty exciting. Lots of thunder and lightning going on right now. I wonder if I should go home now cause look.....something even bigger is coming our way.

Good thing the vending machine had something for me to eat - oh and that I had cash. I was just about to head out to get something for lunch when the storm hit.

I am just happy I have the good car today so I don't have to drive with my windows down.

I guess I had better take cover!

...shoot I just realized something. I do NOT have wiper blades.

LO: Cherish (Grandma)

This is a layout I did back in May for a Scrappay Divas challenge. As is typical Stefani fashion I even procrastinate putting the layout up on my own blog which is surprising as this was the fastest layout I ever completed. The challenge was to use a sketch. Click here to see the challenge and the layouts posted by the other Divas.

Supplies used:

* Cardstock
* Black ink
* Really big brad – Bazzill
* Flower – Doodlebug
* Rub-on – Heidi Swapp

Thanks for looking.

He got it!

Today is a good day.

I just got a surprise call from my mom (They came back from their trip a day early).

She called to tell me that my uncle finally got his liver! The transplant was done yesterday (Sunday). If only he were at a local hospital so that I could go and see him but the only hospital that could do the surgery is 2 hours away. Not a bad drive (in fact my parents are driving up there for the 2nd time today) but with work and a car I cannot really trust I doubt I will be able to make the trip. Plus I am thinking that I may have more than just allergies and I cannot see him if I am sick.

Yes. Today is a good day.

Today feels like a Thursday

Yeah you did not want to be there when I realized that it was only Wednesday.

I had a wonderful surprise today. My "Sweet Girl" layout was picked as layout of the day at CreateMyKeepsake. I am so excited about that. I am not used to girly layouts and I am proud that one of my first girly layouts is liked by so many people.

Can you believe today is the first time I have turned on the computer at home in about a week? I am finally downloading and reading email. I am so behind. While waiting for it all to download (yes I still have dial-up) I worked a bit on a layout that has been sitting here for about maybe a month. All I did was punch brads thru the page but at least that part is done. Now I just need to figure out what to put in the large empty space in the middle of the page and it will be all done. Simple right? Not if you are me. It takes me forever to figure out what I want to do. Sadly I cannot blame this on being sick either.

It feels like a Monday

So how is everyone today on this beautiful Tuesday? I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It was nice to have 3 days off in a row (not just from work but also the computer). It would have been even nicer if I was feeling well. At least I am feeling a little better and I hope that it continues. The coughing (yep still there) is not so bad but now I am stuffy and the one thing I hate over anything else is being stuffy. I think I panic when I cannot breathe.

Basically this weekend we just watched movies (Grandma’s Boy is hilarious!) and I watched episodes of LOST (season 1). I did run out for a bit to catch my parents before they caught the airport shuttle to leave on their cruise. I sure wish I was going. Even though we were only all together for about 10 minutes or so it was nice. My brother dropped my parents off so I got to see all the kids and one of my cousins. It was a nice visit before sending them on their way. They caught the shuttle with a bunch of college guys and wouldn’t you know it each guy took one row so the old people were made to sit in the back and not together. I did notice my dad took up residence in the front row (Way to go Dad!) and I am sure if they let someone sit in the front seat of the van he was the first to move up there. LOL!

So since there was no family get together this Memorial Day – there were no pictures to be taken. I am a bit bummed as my pictures of my family for this year is extremely lacking but I am sure I will get all caught up soon as the twins will have their 2nd birthday next week (WOW! Next week! Just realized it will already be June!) and I hope to get all caught up with photos then. So until then I leave you with my Easter photos as I got NO kid photos and the teenager was not cooperating.

Don't you just love family?

I think this is probably my favorite video ever. I have never laughed so hard. Enjoy!

I have been sucked in……

Well I did it. I signed up for a MySpace account. I think the deciding moment was the fact that when I searched for people this time instead of the usual two results of people I knew, I came up with a butt-load! Not that people from my past are a load of butt ~ but you get the idea. I got excited to see people that I knew (including my sister and my cousin!).

So far everyone that I have run into says that I have not changed. Is that good or bad? Some I have not seen in over 20 years! So have I really stayed the same all these years?

top row (lft to rt) - 19 yrs old, 20ish

bottom row (lft to rt) - 28 yrs old, NOW (but I will not tell ya how old I am ~ LOL)

Very Dishonest Mechanic – Part II

So I receive a phone call from the owner of Tucson Towing (Frank). This guy was rude! He did not even give me a chance to speak. He told me that they were supposed to drop the car off at the address for Marvin’s garage and that is what they did. He even mentioned the two garages in the same parking lot. I told him that his driver dropped off the car at the wrong garage. He then tells me he called his buddy Isaac at Apache Tire and that Isaac told him we approved all repairs and that he spoke to my husband before doing any work. WHAT?!?! My husband did not even know where the car had been taken. I told Frank that I was going to report Tucson Towing to the BBB and his response “You go right ahead. Our reputation is so squeaky clean that your complaint will not matter”.

So being as ticked off as I am I decided to call Isaac back to find out why he told this guy that we approved all repairs. Get this……all the numbers I have for Apache Tire have been disconnected! I love it!!!!!

Very Dishonest Mechanic

I am sure that the title speaks for itself and that everyone has a horror story or two with a mechanic. My horror story was not even my fault but the fault of the tow truck driver and the manager (and soon to be owner) – Isaac at Apache Tire Center at 3939 n 1st Ave. Tucson, AZ.

Last week the new car died. We were thinking it was the starter as whenever it gets hot outside we always have to hit the starter to get the car to start. This time no matter how much we hit the poor car, it would not start. So I called the roadside assistance and made arrangements for them to tow my car to a mechanic that is a friend of the family. Marvin is a nice really old man (think almost 90’s) that likes to tinker on cars. He may be slow but he is inexpensive and if the problem is something that would be cheaper if we fixed it ourselves he would let us know. I had called Marvin earlier in the day to tell him that my car was headed his way and verified the correct address and phone number. I then called for the tow. I made sure that they would only leave the car with Marvin and no one else (since Marvin’s garage is in the back of a complex). I should have known that this was going to be a hassle from the start. I never received a call telling me when they would arrive. I sat outside in the sun for about 90 minutes.

After the car was picked up I took Bryon some lunch and then went back home (over 3 hours outside with no A/C – Ick). At 3pm I get a phone call from Isaac from Apache Tire. He left a message stating that he had my car. Surprised, I called him back and apologized that my car was dropped off there, and that it was supposed to be dropped off at Marvin’s. Isaac then tells me that that Marvin told him (Isaac) that he did not know us and that we were not his customer. That really upset me as Marvin has known me since I was a baby and he would not say anything like that. Plus he knew my car was coming into the shop. I told Isaac that I would be picking up my car as soon as possible when Isaac then tells me that he has already fixed my car. WHAT?!?! I did not even get a phone call asking me if it was okay for them to work on my vehicle. I had no idea that they even had it. I was upset to find that to replace a battery it cost over $100.00 when we could have changed it ourselves. He then tells me another story saying that Marvin told him to work on the car. I told him this is different than what he first told me. So the only way to get our car back was to pay this thief.

When I got home I called my mom to tell her what happened. She agreed that the story did not sound right and called Marvin. Poor Marvin. He told my mom that he was still waiting for my car to arrive. My mom told him that his neighbors had fixed the car. Marvin did not even know it was there. So I call Isaac back. I tell him that I did not appreciate his dishonesty. That he told me two different stories and that I did not appreciate him taking money from an old man. His response? Well if I don’t like it I could just bring the parts back and then he hung up. He did not even apologize or admit to any wrong doing. I would love to take the parts back but I would still have to pay for labor.

I called Apache Tire this morning asking for the name of the owner. Isaac (the only one that answers the phone) tells me that Robert is the owner but he is no longer in business. I told him that his response was confusing. How could someone be the owner but no longer in business? He told me that he was thinking of buying the place. So I am here to tell you that this dishonesty goes all the way to the top. The owner of the shop is the one that did it.

Then I call the towing company (Tucson Towing). I had called them on Friday and the nice dispatcher told me I needed to call today (Monday) to speak to the owner. So I called. The person that answered the phone told me I would receive a phone call from the owner this afternoon. I told the person on the phone that I just wanted to know what was told to the driver that made him leave the car at the wrong garage. A few hours later I get a phone call from Woody. Woody tells me that they looked up the incorrect garage in the phone book and it did not exist. So he told me that they did not leave it at this incorrect garage. He went on to say that it did not matter about the name of the garage and that the driver just left the car there. I asked him if he honestly felt that it was okay to just leave a car because they could not find an address in the phone book. This man was very condescending and kept saying ‘Yeah. Whatever’. Come to find out he was not even the owner! I told him that I was expecting a call from the owner and that he led me to believe he was the owner. I told him I wanted to speak to the owner and this Woody guy basically said no. So off I go to the Better Business Bureau for this towing company.

I would love to contact the BBB for Apache Tire but I don’t think you can report someone for dishonestly can you?

See how I have the address up at the top. Guess where I found that? In the yellow pages. Yep! The yellow pages that the tow truck company says does not have this mechanic shop listed. I told them they needed a new set of yellow pages.

....to be continued

Code: Heir Apparent

Do you love LOST?

Did you notice how many times they played the Hanso Foundation (fake) commercial last night on ABC? I saw it a few times and noticed they had a different link.

http://www.subLYMONal.com/

Click the squares. Notice the amount of times you need to click? Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Okay. So now I have the code. I end up going to the Bios at the Hanso Foundation. The only difference I notice is that when I click on the bio for Dr. Thomas Werner Mittelwerk there is an empty box there that I can type into. Nothing I type works. So I Google "Dr. Thomas Werner Mittelwerk" and low and behold I come across this site.

So I start reading and I see that they talk about the bubble under this guy's bio and they typed in what I did but they actually got something. At least I was on the right track. I so smart! LOL!

Reading further....Okay...According to this site my clock should say Obey. My clock does not say obey. Oh wait....I just read the info on that COMPLETELY this time. Duh. LOL! I need to change the numbers on my clock. Okay...I so NOT smart. LOL!

I don’t think I am smart enough to figure out all the weirdness but this site is giving me interesting info so I guess I better get started reading.

I also find that Wikepedia has awesome information for getting me up to date on all the weirdness.

Check out the moves on this guy!

How many of these moves can you do? This guy can dance better than I can. LOL! Thanks to i am a coconut for sharing this on her blog.

Things are looking up

I saw a tiny blurb on the tele last night that the new season of The 4400 will be starting in June. All I can say is IT. IS. ABOUT. TIME. The 4400 is one of my favorites so I am very happy they brought it back. I just hope this new season does not turn corny.

Just spoke with our group manager…..overtime approved. I am one happy girl!

lonely

Hi.

It’s me.

Welcome to my boring blog.

It seems that all I have to talk about lately is my declining health and since I am sure no one wants to read about it I have basically stopped blogging. Then of course when I want to post something and I decide not to copy it first, Blogger gives an error and eats my post.

B and I were talking about Bird Flu and I told him I would probably be the first to get it. His response…..”You already have it.” So between the Bird Flu and the ticking off of my friends this blog has become a lonely place.

I remembered I have a blog

It seems that I am averaging about one post a week now. When I am not up to par I just don’t feel like posting. Heck I just plain forget I have a blog when I don’t get turn on the computer at home.

I am still sick. This cough is terrible and won’t go away. It is mostly the cough but it takes so much out of me. I stayed home on Monday and each day I have tried to get my work done to make up for it but I don’t seem to be very productive.

LO: Superheros

This is the layout I completed for my Scrappay Divas Tuesday Challenge. Click HERE to see the rules of the challenge and what everyone else came up with. If you like to scrap and do challenges we would LOVE to have you join us.

Supplies used:

* Cardstock
* Patterned paper – Basic Grey "Color Me Silly" line
* Ribbon – SEI "Kaboom"
* Chipboard – undressed Basic Grey
* Paint – Making Memories "Poppy"
* Brads – American Crafts "Elements"
* Rub-ons – All the Reasons
* Computer font – "Comics"