People Who Can't Drive

Better them than me!!! This is why I opted to Work From HOME. Taken by a coworker the other day outside his condo. Oh and I just read a report today that said Seattle uses rubber blades to plow - genius!!!!

SNOW DAYS

We got over 10 inches of snow in Seattle!!!! Don't believe me? Take a look. This is our back deck railing.



And here is me measuring the snow on our back deck. Yes that says 10 inches.



Here is the front area. Notice the walk and drive had been cleared a little bit before the snow stopped?



And then do you see the round bushes to the left. Now look to the right - can't tell there is any type of landscaping beneath that snow eh?



I have to tell you - it has been crazy how a city of several million has just shut down completely!!! And because of it - I have had the pleasure of working from home. I feel like I am back in school I have been home for so long and I'm not "taking days off". Tomorrow I believe I will try to brave the roads and get into work though. Wish me luck!!

Santa Kitty

Here is the adorable hat I bought for my kitty.



And this is what she thinks of the hat...



I'll see if I can get a picture or video of her in the hat.

Put Your Man in the Doghouse

LMAO This is just priceless.......

See What Life is Like in the Doghouse

Luckily - I won't be putting my guy in the doghouse.

So this is what it will be like to be a parent.....

How was your Turkey Day? I hope it went well. Let's just say that mine will definitely be one to remember.

You know how you just know the behaviors of your pet or child and when something is amiss? Well that is how it all started for me on Thanksgiving Day. I was sleeping in. Bambi decided for whatever reasons to start messing with the blinds in the bedroom, causing me to get a little annoyed. Typically she only ever wakes Tony up, not mommy. But then, I hear a noise that my little ears perk up at and register in my little brain that says - that is odd. So I sit up, only to see my fluffy bunny sitting in our big black chair......staring at me. What is odd is that she doesn't EVER get in that chair. The second odd thing was she was giving me...the stare down.

The stare down is an intentional stare she gives me where she refuses to look away (admitting that she might be guilty of something) and where she holds her ground on the stare. Like the stare is the most important thing she is communicating with me at that moment. It kind of is like a belligerent teenager giving you the stare down of "oh yeah? watcha gonne do to me?" And you may think I am a bit weird, but the reality is Bambi is an attention whore. YEAH I SAID IT! (Thank you Chris Rock) Truly she is though. If she catches you looking at her, it is an open invitation for her to come over and try to find a way for you to give her some love and attention. But by purposefully giving you the stare down and NOT coming over, is how mommy can deduce that something isn't right here. So realizing very quickly that I am indeed getting the stare down......I look at her squatty little legs and realize......they are just a bit farther apart than her normal sit.

OMG.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At that point I throw the covers off of me and start for the chair and Bambi.

She holds her ground - another ominous indication that she is indeed doing what I think she is doing. Grabbing my big fat cat (who apparently is a healthy 17 pounds)I pull her off the chair and throw her outside the door of the bedroom. Then, I do the mommy test. Yeah you know what I am talking about. I turn the light on, walk over to the chair, don't see anything right away, bend down and take a good whiff.

Hmmmm........I don't smell anything. I pick up the shirt that she was sitting on and find......a nice new wet stain. But something isn't right. The stain is not exactly that perfect urine color. Instead, it almost looks a bit red. At this point I start walking outside and down the stairs calling Tony. As I am doing so, I realize that there are cherry koolaid looking spots and puddles......down the stairs.......and into the hallway.

WTF?

After a short conversation with my husband in which he tells me she was in and out of the cat box 5 times over the course of the night - which is very odd, we then look at Bambi's rear, only to find it nice and bloody. Yummy huh? And then, I do the mommy freak out.

WHY oh WHY is my Bambi bleeding from her tata????? And on Thanksgiving day of all days. Luckily, nobody was coming over, so it was just Tony and I's disruption.

So among the next 20 minutes of dressing, grabbing the kitty, cleaning up blood stains, calling the vet who of course is CLOSED - but giving us an emergency Vet to go to.....we finally get in the car and are on our merry way.

Two hours later of waiting for our kitty to be taken back to be seen......I have seen other animals come in and get taken back while I am there waiting. Now there was a sign that said I could wait for up to 2 hours if there are more important animal emergencies that come through the door. But please tell me how a dog that has arthritis and is in pain is more important than MY Bambi who is bleeding from her TATA?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! So I cried. Of course. And then my husband did the good husband thing and went up to the front desk people and got them to tell us how much longer we were going to have to wait. After a phone call and two minutes of waiting, someone showed us back. We waited for about another 30-45 minutes in the room - but that was ok because at least I felt progress.

Finally the vet came in and examined her and deduced that she had a urinary tract infection. So we got some kitty dope and antibiotics (that tasted like banana cause apparently cats like banana flavor - who knew?). So over 3 hours and $300 later we finally came home to put the turkey in the oven.

We of course spent the next 3 days dealing with the flufster and all of her not feeling good woe which resulted in us holing her up in the master bathroom - which she trashed. But last night it seemed she was over the worst of it and so we gave her a good bath, cleaned the bathroom and finally got a decent night's sleep. I guess Bambi prepped us for things to come when we have a kid. How nice of her eh?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well Duh...McFly

It's official: US is in recession

"WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday.

The White House commented on the news that a second downturn has officially begun on President George W. Bush's watch without ever actually using the word "recession," a term the president and his aides have repeatedly avoided. The decision on the recession means that during the eight years that Bush has been in office, the country has seen two recessions. The first downturn lasted from March 2001 until November of that year.

Many economists believe the current downturn will last until the middle of 2009, and will be the most severe slump since the 1981-82 recession."

Hmmmmmmm......from what I have been hearing, we aren't going to start seeing the light of day until mid 2010 to 2011. Of course we wouldn't want to spark any more fear into the public y being honest or anything. And people wonder why other people lie......

Happy Halloween

Of course I did not disappoint this year. I was the ONLY person on the block that actually decorated my house. It was actually quite funny as all the little kids wanted to know if the INSIDE of the house was as scary as the outside. At any rate it was definitely a hit - and with the parents as well - cause people were actually taking pictures of my house! LOL Here are some pics to show you my Halloween decorating. Oh and I got about 30 kids btw. They have to walk up a long hill to get to my place - so I always want to make sure they have a cool house and good candy when they get here. What unfortunately doesn't show up real well is that we also had orange lights in our patio light fixtures so there was an extra special glow. - So you will just have to imagine that part of the scary factor.

No it's not Bagheera! But I do wish my black cat would be a good Halloween kitty for me.



Here is my cemetary - it's not nearly as cool as Momma Lori's cemetary - but Tony did take a really good picture.



Last year my leaves were already off the tree - but since they were late in dropping this year - I was able to stick a skeleton hand in the tree grabbing for the graveyard sign - I know.....I'm creative, what can I say?



And because it really is about the nuances..... mice on skeletons, snakes crawling around at you, the glowing hanging cauldron hidden behind spider webs, spider webbing on the shrubs......















And here is the crazy doctor at the morgue waiting to cut up more people. :)

The 411

I don't know if any of this is true or not....but it sure sounds interesting and as if it could be - so I thought I would share. It's about 5 minutes long.

What Does it All Mean?

Atlas Shrugged

And so the shift begins......

3 Black Mondays in 3 Weeks
- September 15
- September 29
- October 8

AIG Wants More Billions

State Unemployment Funds Drying up

600,000 + Jobs Losses in 2008 alone

The Global Recession

Food and gas prices go up


We are already in a full blown recession, the question is, will we go through the second great depression....I sure didn't see it happening in my lifetime - but our economy is on the verge of collapsing - and the end is not over.

It Took Awhile BUT

FINALLY KARMA CAME BACK ROUND! 13 years to the day he was acquitted

OJ - GO ROT YOU POS - GUILTY ON ALL 12 COUNTS!!!!!!!

I still love Mr Goldman's response of what his wish would be - that OJ got a jail cell that was a 3x3x6 cell that had a small window that faced a golf course - so he could stare at that course every day knowing he would NEVER get to Golf scot free again!

15 year minimum on one count of kidnapping- he's 60 years old - he is going to die in that cell and that is a very good thing. I will sleep better tonight.

My Kitties are Good to Go!

Bagheera was first in mastering the box - as I thought he would be. He is the smarter of the two of them. And Bambi has now finally come along. She did the hold it thing for awhile - but I think she realized mommy wasn't messing around. And of course my stubbornness that she WILL master the box - worked. It's just like kids. Sometimes it is so easy to want to just cater to what they want to do or what you think is easier for them - but in the end it is better if you don't. And I can honestly tell you how happy I am that I did NOT cave for her. And she has finally figured out how to NOT get her tail stuck in the flap as she exits.

Now This is Just Retarded

I swear I did not get this from The Onion.

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Breast Milk

Sick, sick, sick

Don't they have better things to do?

And you thought I was kidding...

Here is the pet door we cut from the house to the garage...



Here is what the box looks like in the garage....



And here is the inside of the box....



Yes I know....... cat owners aroudn the world are jealous of my contraption. And I know it will be one of those "add ons" for when people build their homes - would you like a cat box in the garage with that?

I Spy.......

cat shit.........on my couch.

Yes, that would be my little spiteful Bambarelli that left that treat for mommy to find. Thanks Bambs. I love you too.

Follow Up Post

An excerpt from a blog entry by Jay Demerit - a back up central defender for our Mens National Team.

Guatemala was a true test for us, considering we hadn't won there in over 20 years. The Guatemalans tried everything to disrupt us. From messing up our training schedules, to the fans throwing beer bottles at the bus on the way to the stadium, and also not letting us through the entrance gate. Even two hours before the game, the stadium was packed with fans booing and whistling at us. When we checked the field to see what studs we would wear for game time, they even launched coins and other projectiles. They also had Gatorade girls positioned right next to our benches for distraction. I know I was distracted! They tried everything, but to be honest, no one was fazed and we weathered the storm as a team, seeing off a 1-0 win, and a great start to our bid for 2010.

US Beats T & T

Ok so this is a bit late in posting - but I have been a bit busy. US ended the first half of their CONCACAF qualifying run by beating Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 in Chicago. My boy drew first blood in the 9th minute with a superb game winning goal indicative of his season with Heerenveen. He once again was outstanding in the match. The US look to take on the Guatemalans and Cuba on home soil and T&T at home in the second half of qualifying over the next couple of months so I will keep you posted of their success. The reality of it is though they currently sit atop the group with 9 points and really only need to win one more match to secure their spot to the semi final round of qualifying.

GO USA!

My Boy Rocks!

As a typical fan would do - I troll through the internet reading stuff about how people felt about our MNT performances. And not surprisingly there is a lot of retards out there that spew a whole bunch of crap. For example: I don't know why Bob Bradley continues to put Michael out there as he sucks. His passing is awful and he isn't displaying any of the attacking abilities he did in Holland.

Oh yeah. How about this you haters -> from US Soccer

Not only did midfielder Michael Bradley attempt the most passes with 89 (not surprising for a center mid), he also completed 97% of them. Impressive stuff from the 21-year-old. Brian Ching also completed 97% of his 38 attempts.

And to see more data on the match and how our boys did from a stats perspective

US vs Cuba

So take that!

On the Road

I have mentioned previously when our US MNT goes on the road that they don't exactly experience shangra-la. Here is an exerpt from US Soccer and former players that will help give you some perspective.

"There are a lot of issues that complicate World Cup qualifying,” said Arena. “From short preparation time, travel for players from different continents, the different levels of fitness in your group and the climate, all these factors add up. When you put that all together, it's never easy.”

Defender Marcelo Balboa, who played in 10 qualifiers during his career from 1989-1997, has plenty of experience with road games that often present a tougher match up on the field than they do on paper.

“You have to get on a plane, play in a hostile environment and deal with the fans,” said Balboa. “This is for the World Cup. It means a lot to the federations and to the players, and the bottom line is that they find energy and ways to make games hard.”


TRAVEL

Many different factors present a challenge to a road team, but add in the fact that a large portion of the U.S. National Team is based in Europe and therefore have to make the long journey back to the Western hemisphere and a difficult task becomes even more tough. Long-time U.S. defender Tony Sanneh, who has 16 qualifying caps to his name, realizes the difficulties of traveling across the globe.

“We have a much bigger European base now and a large portion of our team is flying all the way in from Europe while a lot of the teams we play are based domestically,” said Sanneh. “The standard of living isn’t what we’re used to, neither is the food or the quality of the fields. Adding all those things together can honestly be a recipe for failure.”


SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

Guatemala has long been considered one of the most difficult places in the region to play, and the U.S. has not fared well in the Central American country, holding a 1-4-3 record there leading into the August 20 matchup.

Sanneh was part of the squad that earned a 1-1 draw in Mazatenango, Guatemala on July 16, 2000 during the qualifying rounds leading up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He knows the challenges of playing there first hand.

“When we played in Guatemala, they put us very far away from Guatemala City in a smaller stadium, so it was in the mountains where it was very hot,” said Sanneh. “There were cars driving around at night making noise and keeping us awake throughout the night.”

“One time before a game, we got stuck in an elevator because they turned off the power, said Balboa. “Another time they had horns and radios blaring outside our hotel all night. Sometimes the fire alarm goes off at 3 a.m. and keeps going off all night.”


GAME DAY

When arriving at a visiting stadium, the Americans don’t always receive a warm welcome. Some adversity is environmental – unfamiliar weather, tiny locker rooms and bumpy fields.

“It was over 100 degrees,” said Sanneh, recalling his experience in Guatemala. “The game started off okay, but then we got a little overheated and they scored a goal on a rebound. We were probably a better team that day, but the conditions were very difficult.”

Other game-day factors include the fans, whether they’re loud, offensive, throwing objects onto the field or all of the above.

“It’s hard to describe what it’s like to step on that field,” said Balboa. “What you have to realize is that countries like Cuba have only one shot every four years to try to qualify, and if they do that just one time it would mean everything to their country and their people.”

With stadium renovations in Havana, Cuba, being completed as game day approached, the lights at Estadio Pedro Marrero went out completely during the teams’ warm up. Both teams also dealt with a less-than-ideal surface that took some time to adjust to, especially with heavy rains pouring down throughout the game.

“It was a tough game,” said forward Clint Dempsey. “Obviously both teams had to play with (the field conditions), but it wasn’t a flat surface. Even if you hit a good pass, the ball can bounce up on you and when it’s slick, too, that just adds on top of it. I thought in the first half neither team did too well with the conditions.”
“You can’t go somewhere and try to play pretty soccer when the ball doesn’t take a true bounce, or you’re playing in two feet of water,” said Sanneh. “Your job is to go there and win the game. It has to be workmanlike and businesslike. You have to be willing to walk away from these games at 1-0.”

Kitty Box Update

SO I am sure you are wondering - how are the cats doing with their trendy new cat box eh? Well let's see, since I last informed you, it appears that Baggy has figured out how to escape the box without getting his tail slammed in it - which has helped him in going in the box. He originally was meowing to us (what a good boy) when he had to go - thereby leading us to stuffing him in the box. As of last night - we made the decision to have the door down full time and deal with whatever .....accidents....... might occur.

Then there is Bambi. My beautiful fluffy bunny who is a little shit. Bagheera is the older and smarter cat. He has no problem saying - HEY PEOPLE I need to GO and you have BLOCKED ME. He also is much more intuitive as to - I know that is where I need to go, now how do I go about doing it. Bambi on the other hand, well she is not the sharpest tool in the shed. SO Sunday morning as I was sitting on the couch doing some work, I hear my fluffball leap up on the black leather couch to the left of me. My first inclination is that she doesn't normally jump up there - but I shrugged it off and paid attention to my computer as it looked like she was just circling the seat to find a comfortable spot to sit. And then I heard an all too familiar sound after she found her spot........you know the one........the paw, paw, paw, pawing of a cat foot on something. As my ears perk up, knowing the signals, my rational brain is contradicting my inner voice. But I look anyway. As I am staring at her - once again my senses are contradicting themselves as I see her look at me, spread her short fat little legs, squat her but down and then comes the sound that overrides anything,

Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Like a flash I am up out of my chair and on that little furball. Grabbing her and running toward the cat box - meanwhile screaming at her like I have lost my mind. She of course is growling at me the whole time. Like I care at that point. So I stuff her in that box. She comes out. I stuff her in it again. She comes out again. I stuff her in that box again! She finally gives me her grumpy stare down from the other side of the door and turns and goes in one of the boxes.

I return to then be irked about the mess I have to clean up. The reality of it is - she was being spiteful. And in some ways - I was lucky she did it on the couch instead of the microfiber couch or the floor. It was easy to clean up and I made sure to add some pine sol to make her never want to go there again! But it still was frustrating - because she knows where she is supposed to go.

Needless to say - we are struggling a little bit with the door. They now both get out just fine. Getting them to go in on their own however is the tough part. So we have reverted to a familiar exercise we all learned in psych class in high school - a little Pavlov's Dog routine. So now - if they do their business in the box - even if we had to shove them through, they get the one thing they both crave.........the hair brush. And of course lots of positive reinforcement. Bambi still has not mastered the cat door not slamming her tail at the end when she comes out - but I think after it happens enough times - she will figure out what she needs to do. I can't baby her forever on this.

So we shall see if I have any fun surprises when I come home tonight. Here is to hoping they did what they are supposed to do.

FM squared

Couple good videos on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The first one gives a good recap of their roles. The second is the plan.

Video 1

The Plan

History Being Made Part 2

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been seized.

The Government Takes over Two Pillars of Our Economy

Why is this history? Well, because this has not only never been done before, but these two companies were established so this would hopefully never have to happen. But as typical corporate America will play out, when you have people that get a little too money hungry and not acting in the public best interest - you have these things happen. If you don't remember, Fannie Mae had a massive accounting scandal about 5 years ago. And they have been a government sponsored (chartered) enterprise, yet they are also a public company. Get your head around that concept. I personally don't think a government chartered entity should also be allowed to be a public entity but that is my own personal opinion. However, this has major impacts to our economy and of course my industry.

As I sit back and watch my industry implode, it amazes me that I still have a job. I am thankful that I have my house and can still make my payments when so many people out there are losing their jobs and losing their homes. And when you lose your home, you lose any of the equity in it you had stored up, you lose the ability to step into a home for two years, and now in order to get into a home - we have reverted to pre 2000 when you had to bring some money to the table (thousands) in order to get into a home. In some ways it is a good thing - it helps ensure that people don't just walk away since they have some of their money they had to save tied into the house. But how is this for a circle of events (Staci - feel free to tell Bill if you are trying to Bush bash :) ).

When Bush took office - he stood up on a campaign of everyone gets a home. Now 8 years later with our industry that has spiraled out of control as a result of that mandate, now .................everyone loses their home (and their job).

Scary times ahead as this is not the end of it.

History Being Made Part 1

In an Historic event - the US Beats Cuba 1-0 on Cuban soil in the semi final round of world cup qualifying. (My boy is # 12)



Why is this such a big deal? Because this is the first time the US MNT has been on Cuban soil in 60+ years. Only a U23 team played in Cuba back in 1991 (I think) for the Pan American games and then the Orioles played a couple games back in 1995 (I think). Other than that, it has been that long since ANY American sports team has played Cuba on Cuban soil due to trade embargoes and such.

Good job to the boys for enduring tough situations and getting the job done! In situations like this, one of the things that central American/Caribbean and south American fans will do is to camp outside the hotel of the opposing team and play music and make noise all night long - trying to ensure the boys don't get sleep in order to affect the match. They throw things at the bus the boys are transported to the hotel and the stadium among other things. How's that for sportsmanship! Apparently the stadium was in such disrepair that concrete pieces were falling down, a permanent residue of dust sits on the seats, the grass is super bumpy causing all sorts of fun possibilities to occur on the pitch, and lighting was only just recently added to the stadium per FIFA mandate when the match was scheduled to be at 8PM. Before the match and in the last 10 minutes of the match yesterday, about half of the lights went out in the stadium and it was raining cats and dogs. Quite the fun affair eh? Now the rain was because the tip of Hurricane Ike was just starting to hit the eastern edge of the island. But our boys got out of dodge before they could get marooned on the island due to weather.

You may say that that isn't quite fair - but the reality of it is this. That is fine you know why? Because when we play Cuba in another month on our soil - we are doing it in NY - making the Caribbean players play in the colder weather. And when we play those dirty Guats on our soil in mid November - welcome to Dicks! A mile high and in the cold. So we have our own advantages. On the other hand, one of the issues that was a bit underhanded was that the Cubans apparently train and live in rooms at the stadium when they go to compete. When our boys went to have their closed door practice the day before the game, apparently the Cubans decided they wanted to watch - causing some tension between the team.s Not only is this unsporting - but they aren't allowed to do so - however, there was no FIFA official around so therefore there was no way to enforce the Cubans to go away.

As is the US sit atop of our group with 6 points. They play again against T & T in Chicago on Wednesday. I'll keep you posted.

My Big Shit Box

So one of my more brilliant ideas was to create a big cat box in the garage of our house that our precious kitties could go into from the house - effectively keeping the litter boxes out of the house and instead contained in the garage. Yes I know it is brilliant. So it took me a loooong time to convince my husband this was a great idea (mainly because it entailed curbing our garage storage space as well as cutting a hole in our house), but he finally caved after a couple years and agreed with me once it became apparent that it was a pain with company to have the boxes in our house (especially company with children that might be staying), the thought of us having a baby and the extra room we need and also he got tired of smelling cat litter and the like.

So a friend of ours came out and did the work for us. Essentially we have a 3 and a half foot long by two feet deep by 2 and a half feet tall box with a lid that opens up so I can get to the litter boxes from inside the garage. Yes I know my cats are a little spoiled - but really, it is more out of sheer laziness by their momma. The kitties however enter through the house - right behind the front door via a pet door.

Getting the cats to go in and and of the new litter box I didn't think was going to be too hard as long as the pet door was open. But I was concerned about the cats understanding to use their head to go through the door. We originally thought that Bambi would be the slow to catch on one and Bagheera would get it figured out pretty quick since he likes to head butt us all the time to get attention and love. As it turns out - Bambi caught on much quicker than Baggy. Baggy I presume felt like he was in a big kennel and just kept staring at us from the other side of the see through pet door. We finally helped them both out a little and as soon as Bambi realized she could MOVE the door - she was on it and out. Now, I don't know that she is fully advanced on the door thing - but since Baggy can't figure it out, we rigged the pet door to stay open so they can at least get used to going in and out and that being the new place for them to poop.

Luckily for us - we had no surprises in the house during the first 24 hours of the new box and we had success with kitties going in the box. Step 2 however will be the door. I think we will wait until tomorrow to try the torture chamber routine again. However, the kitties better figure it out pretty quick cause my niece and nephew are coming in a few days and little Gavin doesn't need to be exploring and finding a new toy box and discoverng what kitty treats are. EWWWWW That is something I would like to avoid.

My Boy Makes the Move

For months now I have endured the rumors of Michael moving to England and playing for an EPL team. How I wish that was true so I could see him every week. However, in the big picture of the game - it was best he didn't seeing he is so young and the EPL has a way of making or breaking careers - no matter if you are not ready or not. I once again doubt I will get to see anything more than highlights but here is to hoping!

Bradley Moves to Borrussia Moenchengladbach

And yes - that really is the name of the club. Luckily my husband knows how to say it so we had lessons earlier last night. LOL

Close Call

Do you ever have those moments where something major and traumatic almost happens and you realize how lucky you were that you are ok? Well that happens to me several times a year. My latest issue coming last night as I was on the interstate about a mile from my exit going into downtown Seattle. And it truly was a freak of nature. I was in the middle lane about a mile from my exit when I decided I need to get into the right lane. There was nothing odd about the day - it wasn't raining, the pavement wasn't wet. Nothing like that. But as I was easing my way into the right lane, all of a sudden my car's tires lost their grip and flew me toward the concrete wall. Now I was going about 65 miles an hours in my pathfinder with no weight in the back. Luckily I keep my head a bit in these situations and was able to jerk the wheel to try and correct but the road was so slick it had trouble getting a hold of the road to right itself. It did finally catch though and of course sent me careening back into the bad line where I fishtailed another two seconds and got my car righted. I came about a foot from slamming into the wall and having a major accident. And the reality of it was, if i had hit the wall, the angle of approach most likely at that speed would have sent me spinning and then flipped my car. Thank god I wear my seat belt.

As my heart is pounding and my head is spinning and I look in my rear view mirror to see all the traffic behind me sloooooooooowing down, I look over in the middle lane to see what possibly could have caused my car to slip like that seeing as my tires are not in bad condition at all. Turns out there was an major oil slick that lasted for at least 200 yards or so. One of those that are fine enough that you don't notice it as you are driving, but upon further inspection you notice one lane is not like the others. It's an oil slick that you typically have to deal with on the first 15 minutes of the road when it starts raining. Yeah - scary business!

But hey! I am OK! :) Luckily for me I didn't even scratch the wall, but I find myself wondering at times.....how do I get myself in these predicaments? And does everyone go through these types of scares and as often as me? I know my brother does, but for some reason he attracts that kind of weird stuff.

Redemption Day

Do you want to win? Yes

EXACTLY! That's what Pia Sundhage asked those poor of character US teammates.

Congrats Hope! You deserved it!

This is Sooo Me

Click on the image - it should give you a big picture you can read.

I pulled an all nighter

So Sunday morning, we were trying to figure out when the US men were playing according to the newspaper and other guides. Well we started with midnight then it was 2:45 and then we saw on the ticker it was 5:45 AM showing live. Tony ended up crashing and I?

Well, My Michael Bradley was playing in this game and I already missed his first game and wasn't sure if I could get the third game so....I stayed up baby!!! That's right. All for My Michael Bradley. And here is part of the reason why. Click on the link and then watch the video - it's pretty short.

Michael's Fortitude

Where have I been?

Well I haven't really been anywhere - I just haven't had anything really to talk about in a while. Yes I know - shocking. At least anything worth posting about. And seeing how my NFL and footy seasons are not quite up yet and have been on hiatus - well that has contributed. But NOW I DO have something to post! This is good stuff.

My Michael Bradley & the Crossbar Game w/ Freddy Adu



And in case anyone cares - the US Women bombed to Norway (2-0) in the first Olympic Games and the US Men on the other hand won their game (1-0) over Japan. If the men can get one more win from either the Netherlands (most likely not) or Nigeria (let's hope) then we advance to the next round. The US women will most likely advance out of their group since they have a weak group and Norway was their toughest opponent. But we shall see - it's why we play the game!

Whew! That was close!

So a couple months ago I had an issue with my car. We don't really know what happened, just that the car didn't want to work and there was something going on that sounded like a chunk of metal clunking metal somewhere under the hood. We took it in to get serviced and.......they can't figure it out of course. So time goes by................and then last week we are on our way to our game and, the car has no power. I mean it started and you could drive it......going like 30 - but we had to take the highway. So once again - car goes back to the shop. This time we think it has something to do with the transmission. So the car guy tells us that the coolant was a bit overfilled and that they want to do a coolant flush for $250. Of course my husband tells the car guy that he is concerned about paying the $250 for doing the flush and not fixing the problem. The car guy tells us that if it doesn't fix the problem, we will start over.

So a couple days go by and.....the same problem occurs. Go figure. So car goes back to the garage and I have to sit with the car tech guy while he drives it around and I yap at him about what the car is doing. Now - I made sure they gave me a loaner car cause I am not about ready to do the one car thing. So guess what they gave me? A 2008 Nissan Armada. And really, this car is a beast. In fact, I feel a little obscene driving it around. I truly am the little chick in a big truck. And I'm not even towing anything! Nor do I have 4 kids! Nor am I hauling anything. But who cares - i get to drive a pimp car around for a week. Now for the bad news.....they found the problem with the car - metal shavings in the transmission. Hmmm sound familiar?

So that would be an estimated cost of between $3-4 THOUSAND dollars to fix. Holy crap batman are you for real? I almost went into epileptic shock. At this point in the conversation I start emphatically saying to the car guy - my husband swears we have the extended warranty - which apparently is accurate. Of course my husband laughed at me when he found out how much I paid for that warranty - but hey! Who cares! Nissan is paying for my brand new transmission not me! So I SAVE MONEY!!!!!!! AND I get my $250 for that coolant flush back! :) Holy cow that was close. I guess the salesman 4 years ago must have sold me on some story like this for me to nod my head and go - yeah that sounds like a great idea. So I bought the 5 year or 100,000 miles warranty and man am I so glad that I did. The next time we buy a new car - I have a feeling we will go the same route simply because of this close call.

The irony is......I never buy warranties. Go figure.....

Life is Tough

You know I am all for the man taking home as much moolah as possible. And I feel that way about all my family and friends. I want them to be as successful as possible and lead as good a quality of life as they possible can attain.I really do. But when a person has no concept of of how the world works and doesn't understand their place in it, that is where I have a fundamental issue.

Here one of my beloved soccer hotties is being quite the chump. And of course trying to desert my beloved United - how dare he! He has a contract signed for 5 years that was done a year ago. And he is getting paid something outrageous like $250K a week. And yet it isn't good enough. Yet he just came out announcing that he is being treated like a slave by not getting to go where he wants to (when he wants to I might add). Of course he stopped going to school at 14 so that might have something to do with his intelligence and arrogance level. If you enter into a contract, then you should honor the contract.

Greedy Footballers

The Life of a Slave Oh the Woe

The Weather

Today's Weather forecast which aside from the hail is pretty spot on. It also is a rarity up here.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning
- Large hail, damaging wind, and / or frequent lightning are possible with this storm.

Now I am not one to report on the weather. But I can honestly say that my time in Washington has seen very few thunder or lightening storms. In fact, I can count them on one hand and the thunder has occurred less than the lightening. The crazy part is - the sky isn't even that dark. But that thunder and lightning are pretty fierce. I'm just glad I have shelter. :)

Pot Meet Kettle

With the conclusion of the EuroCup now behind us - go Spain and the yummy Spanish boys! Torres, Fabregas and Ramos - mmmmmmmm.....sorry I digress.....

Statement from Germany's Keeper now retiring (and good riddance you whiny arrogant tantrum induced athlete)

"Lehmann, who tried to speak to Rosetti (the match official) after the final whistle, said: 'He was very arrogant and in my opinion he was biased. "

Uh yeah, cause your whole career has your character up on a white pedestal......

Life as a Youth Soccer Coach

I find myself many times wondering lots of things with respect to parents and players and also other former players that coach or did coach and their reasons for no longer coaching and you know what the reason always is for quitting as a youth coach?

The Parents

Yes I know, I am telling you this so that all of my beloved friends and family who have young children, don't get caught up in the crap that you so desperately want to for your spawn.

Last night as I was taking off my cleats after my women's game, two women were chatting about coaching and this is how the discussion went.

Amy, are you still coaching?
No, I don't coach anymore.
Did you stop coaching after your daughter graduated high school?
No, I only coached for 5 years. Won State, went to Regionals, but it was the parents that I had had enough of.
Oh I know what you mean, I could only do it for a year and the parents were too much for me.
Yeah, I I had enough when after we went to Regionals the parents thought we should bring in paid trainers to coach the team. Like everything I had done now all of a sudden wasn't good enough. And they were just average players - yet the parents thought they were amazing.

Now let me tell you something - these two players - they could ball. And if the one lady got them to Regionals - then she knew something about how to coach as well. Yet another example of parents sabotaging the soccer regime. And it is harder for women, cause you got to take an attitude even with grown men of "I don't care what you think." And then be able to move on. I remember several times in my first couple years in dealing with the bullshit, that I thought I was done. I had had enough. I was done with the lying by the players, the misinformation to the parents, the wrong assumptions by parents, the temper tantrums and back stabbing. Oh yeah - I got some fun stories. And yet in the end, I have endured. The irony is, since moving to Washington, I haven't had to be the one dealing with the full pressure - T has. Yet the fact we are able to team up and be a united front and discuss things - has helped the two of us. For example, let me tell you one of our latest interesting stories. And I hope you all learn from this....

One of our players (who has a great disposition btw) has a bad knee. A year ago she had surgery on it to repair a torn meniscus. Well I guess the knee didn't heal as hoped and now she has quite a bit of pain. In the end, the doctor basically advised her that she should just play through the pain and really, just tear the damn thing all the way through so they can do a clean repair. Interesting advice for a 14 year old but whatever. Well so the pain started a few weeks ago. She didn't practice one week, and then the next week leading up to our weekend tournament, she practiced sporadically and was not able to finish a training session. As it turns out, we had a keeper situation for this tournament. Our primary keeper was gone, the backup had a hand injury, and we tried to get a couple guest keepers but no dice. So the Thursday before our tournament, we advise our player that she is going to be the keeper part time, but that she is NOT going to play on the field. We discuss her knee with her and that we want to see her playing in full training sessions before we throw her into the mixer. But that she was good enough to at least be the keeper for the weekend. Another girl whose knee was iffy was also going to share the duties, but it appears that she was ok come tournament time. So after the first game, the player did really well in the goal. So we decided to continue playing her there since we were short players for the tournament, and that she could fill this void for us. We explain this to her - and she is good to go. We also explained to her that we are not looking to make her the keeper for the team and that we do look at her as a field player and that is what the focus for her will be after the tournament.

So we leave thinking - everything is ok. The player was totally fine, totally understood and we went our separate ways. Well then we get the email on Monday from mommy. Now let me tell you - we actually have had a pretty good relationship with the family for the past several years, so we found this to be a little interesting. So the mom states she is writing on behalf of her family. Remember that line because it is key. Then she goes on to express how bummed out her daughter was about playing keeper and that of course she wants to be a team player but then goes on about not understanding why she had to play there the whole time and that she thought she would be sharing keeper responsibilities and that we should do a better job of explaining the expectations and possibilities to her.

Absorb that in now.

Ok good, well so what do we do? We of course sent an email back to the parents explaining everything and that the information was communicated to her daughter and that her daughter was only ever going to play Keeper in the tournament, the question was simply half time and then sit on the bench or full time and someone else can play in the field. We have a rule that you have to be match fit in order to play and you have to be able to play through training sessions in order to play. This is not Rec soccer. We talk to the player at practice yesterday as remember, the mother said she was writing on behalf of her family - which includes her daughter. And you don't really think we are going to allow a pink elephant between the player and the coach like that do you? It turns out to begin with, the player did not know her mother even wrote the email, turns out the player was notably embarrassed that her mother did write an email and when informed of what was stated in the email. Even further was that the response we shared with the parent - was not communicated to the player. So we threw the mom under the bus with her kid and told her to go home and tell her mom to show her both the email she sent to us and also our response. To which the player said she would. Now remember these girls are now 14 and entering their freshman year of high school. Some of which will be 15 very soon. So the whole - mom you are now embarrassing me movement is starting to be in full force and will only increase substantially this year. Trust me - I not only remember from my youth, but I have seen this in a couple coaching cycles now.

So the beautiful thing about this was, momma and daddy bear were pissed caused they didn't get to see baby bear where she normally plays and they got freaked out that we were going to turn her into the goalie for the team and thus the email.

A lesson to you all, it is not necessary for you to fight your children's battles. If they do not learn how to navigate the waters of adversity, they will not learn to deal with it on their own. And the irony is,in this situation, the mother got her hands burnt by the coaches, made to feel dumb by illustrating that we had communicated expectations to the player (the player simply hadn't communicated that to the parents and quite honestly - the player doesn't have to) and then got her hands burnt by her daughter once the unknown secret was out. If that is the outcome that you are willing to incur as a parent - then by all means, go fight your kids battles. But parents need to take a step back and realize that this is their kids path and their kids choice and their kids decision on how to deal with things. And no, they aren't going to always make the right decision or know how to deal with things, but then the role of the parent is not to step in on behalf of the child, the role of the parent is to discuss with the child how they should deal with the situation. And then let the child go down their path and learn how to be strong and independent.

My parents did not fight my battles for me going back to as young as I can remember. And what I realized in my adult hood is that they were preparing me for life. They were preparing me for the realization that things are not always fair or just. People get away with things they shouldn't and it is how you deal with it that matters the most. In looking back, I am just fine that my parents didn't fight my battles for me. Could they have on a couple of things - yes and as a kid I may have wanted them to, but in the end, I also realized something very important - I never told them I wanted them to fight my battles, and it is a toss up over whether they would have stepped in or not anyway if I had. I have found too many times in my adult life - that I have had to stand up on my own two feet against the world. And if my parents had stepped in and tried to fight my battles for me as a child, I would not have the strength nor the courage to have stood up for myself in the adult world - when I so desperately needed to in order to defend my character and integrity.

In two years these children will be driving cars - operating what some could perceive as a deadly weapon and required to make wise choices. In 4 years they will be considered adults and held accountable for their actions by the world. By this age they have already passed 2/3 of their youth years. So how are you going to prep your child for their adult life? We hear stories of parents calling collegiate coaches to complain about things regarding their adult children and we think - wow, what gives you the right to think you even have a voice now? It is these moments that parents have to cut the umbilical cord. One that should have been cut a long long time ago.

Proud of the Fam

Here is a paper written by my younger sis who is currently getting her Master's in Ag Science - I am sure she has a specific major but I just don't remember at the moment. I know it isn't an exciting topic - but I sure am proud regardless...

Bekah's Paper Here

My Life as a Customer Service Rep

Due to the absence of my coworker for maternity leave, I have had to step in and fill her role which is handling all of my company's customer service functions. Let's just say that I hate doing Customer Service.

So far in the past couple of weeks, to name a few things.... I have been:

- yelled at (via email) - because they expected me to jump to a task for them like I was a slave
- spoke down to (because of their lack of understanding)
- been threatened with legal action - he was a judge who couldn't remember he gave his credit card info to someone for an $8.25 transaction,
- and called a liar when it was she who was lying to me and I could prove it.....and of course I did prove it because I am a right fighter. However I gave her a credit because my boss didn't want bad press regardless.

I find it so hard sometimes in these situation to keep my cool and find a way to tactfully dissect the situation to find a resolution. The great thing is though - I am sending almost everything through email. I can resolve a situation in at least half the time it takes when I have to get on the phone with a customer. And it lets me know what I am dealing with before I deal with it. So far I think people are getting the hint. :)

Little do they know they are dealing with the A train...............

Smackdown: Mortgage Lesson 102

You have heard me rant and rave about my industry: mortgage.

And I think I have even told you how I made sure we were good with the mortgage on our house and we got a HELOC (home equity line of credit) in order to supplement and grow our business. Well I received notification from Chase (our lender) yesterday that they have shut down our HELOC due to making sure "homeowners are not borrowing more than their home is worth."

Now I agree with that principle - but what I don't agree with is how they came to determine that I am upside down and borrowing more than my home is worth. Well they used funny math. You know....the kind only used by financial institutions that the rest of us say - well that does not make sense. So here is what happened. They deemed that I was $30K in the hole already due to my current LTV (Loan to Value which is 80% of the home value)for both my first and second mortgage and therefore shut me down. But here is the kicker. Based on their automated valuation - I actually am $42 THOUSAND in the CLEAR!!!

1. What I mean by that is, if you take the amount of my first mortgage, add the LOC to that for a total.
2. Then take that total and subtract it against the value of the home - that means I have $42K in EQUITY before anyone needs to start panicking!!!!

And yet I am $30K in the hole according to their math. So how they arrived at their math was this:

1. They took the value of my home, multiplied it by 80% to equal my LTV. Then they said - well you are already in the red.
2. Then they took my LOC and added that to my 80% - making me more in the red.

I hate them. I hate them all. This basically has temporarily shut down my CSS business until we can figure out what our next move is. I can not tell you how pissed off I am at all this.

So lesson to you - know how they do the funny math. And you wonder why I hate this industry so much.

And this is why I love it so...

Tomorrow the US begins World Cup Qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. A long time to go and a lot of results needed to get to compete in one of the world's most impressive tournaments. The magnitude this game has - known as the people's game - brings with it an innate sense of pride and joy in one's country. One that many times we as Americans have funnelled our views simply to our domestic sports leagues.

But there is a whole crop of men from our country that seek to represent us on a stage packed with fierce competition. Often not being victorious as our European or South American counterparts. Our men weather adversity that we aren't familiar with in our day to day lives. And while we can feel confident of safe passage and enjoyment at a sporting event here, that is not the case in the rest of the world. Eleven men are picked to battle it out among the best in the world. Team, confidence, trust and pride mean everything in overcoming these challenges. And with that - I leave you a really good video - GO USA!

Every once in awhile.....

You come across advertising that is sheer brilliance.

Exhibit A


Exhibit B

Jumping Up and Down

So the most exciting news of my week is that my husband just walked by Michael Bradley at the Home Depot Center. He was 6 feet away from him. And because my husband is so cool what did he do for his wife? He took a picture of him (albeit from behind but who cares) and then he called me to tell me about it. Need a reminder of my perfect young honey?



And it looks like young Michael is headed to the English Premier League for next season with a supposed $6 million transfer fee to Middlesborough. Now, that isn't quite confirmed yet but they are the highest bidder. This means that in theory - I could watch every one of his games next year since I get the EPL games. I had to suffer through waiting for the Dutch highlights every week this last year to see 5 minutes of play. That was a bit torturous but I learned about the Dutch League in the process. The only question I have is, how many matches will I have to wait before I see him play.....until then, I get all summer long to watch him in international friendlies, world cup qualifiers, and the Olympics. Ohhh it is a good summer for me.

Bad Bad Mommy

While all around me people are either having babies or have babies or toddlers, I am only a mom to my two kitties. Thank goodness too - I'm doing good with the very low key game plan we have going on here. And it is in these moments that I find myself going - that wasn't very smart. Then I say - I'm glad it was only my cat and not my child I oopsed!

What was I doing you ask?

Having an Athena moment is what I was doing. It is the other half of my sauvant side. LOL

So my precious Bambarelli is a beautiful (I'm not biased or anything btw) and fluffy like a bunny cat. Her hair is long and fine so it easily matts up and it becomes a problem for her. So I am a little tenacious with her and these matts and especially since I hate the matts...... but she hates the scissors. So I have to entice her with petting in order to sucker her into cutting her hair off. So as I was focusing on distracting her, I cut a matt off the side of her cheek. I had to do it at a pretty funny angle though cause I was multi tasking. Now I didn't think much of it until I pulled the glob of hair away and her head turned and the light behind her showed me something funny.......well....it's kind of funny now.....

I cut off all the whiskers on her right side. :/

You can barely tell in the picture - but those stubs you see - its not the angle - look at the other side. I cut 4 inches of all her whiskers off. And when you look at her now - she looks lopsided - and she just looks at me like, "aren't you going to pet me mommy?"

Love Thy Self

So one of the goals I set for myself this year was to go through a bunch of storage boxes in my garage. Basically stuff going back to my years as a wee tot. After cleaning that area I will then be able to clean up our third bedroom- which has simply been named "the storage room" - by moving stuff from that room into the garage. So I tackled step one this weekend, and I got to tell you - some funny stuff I pulled out. And since I was laughing my ass off at my younger self, I felt the need to share some moments with you, so you can have a chuckle as well. I guess it seems I have stayed true to myself all these years. :) Rebecca - I suggest not having any liquid in your mouth for fear you might choke with laughter.

Memory #1 - Letter to Santa

December 12, 1998

Dear Santa Claus,

My name is Athena. I am eleven. I am fine. How are you? Are your reindeer fat?

I want only a few presents this year. I guess I can't think of any. Well I have to do more work.

Merry Christmas

First off - I cannot believe I still believed in Santa Clause at 11.....secondly, who else but my eleven year old self would have asked Santa Claus if his reindeer were fat? And then I can't even think of any presents!!! That is amazingly a rare moment.


Memory #2 - Letter to my mom - somewhere between 3rd grade and 6th grade.

Dear Mommy,

You pray and follow our religion just like you should. You are very religious. You do these things as Mary would. You pray. You also don't stick exactly to our religion and I'm grateful for that, because then we couldn't have fun.

Love,
Your daughter

LMFAO - I can't even imagine what my mom must have thought when she read this!! And I was probably just grinning from ear to ear innocently when I gave it to her! OMG that is good stuff. I only wish I could remember how mommy wasn't sticking to her religion and what it was we did that was so fun! LOL

Aren't kids just little miracles.........

Au natural

After St Lucia, I cut my hair short again . Tony had said he wanted to see my natural hair color so here it is. My mom said she wanted to see too since she wasn't sure what it was either. :) To see a comparison - just look at my picture to the right.

Notice my support for my beloved Manchester United!!! Who happened to win the English Premier League this season!



The tips are a little blonde cause I didn't want to cut it that short. But they will be gone in the next hair cut.

The CSS Shirts

I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of the shirts for our soccer business. The tshirts are for the athletes and the polos are for coaches. Here they are:

Tshirt & Polo front - with our black and white logo



Logo detail on the polo



Back of t-shirt, which has a cool design image. I figured it would go over well with the teenagers.

St Lucia Part III

Sorry I have taken a few more days to post - I had some things pop up. But some good news before I relive more vacation time - our soccer site for player profiles and coaches to search is almost done! And it looks awesome!! I am excited to grow our business and really see what we can do with the last pieces in place. Our shirts have come in as well. I will post soon a pic showing what our shirts look like so you can share in our excitedness!

Back to St Lucia. So you saw the pictures of around the place, and I mentioned the places to eat. So we had several choices of restaurant to eat at - all in the resort. The food was good - it wasn't great - just because you do all inclusive doesn't mean 5 star - but it means you most likely aren't getting Taco Bell either. :) But one of the things I love the most about the food - was the serving sizes. I felt like it was perfect for me! It was very small servings - but the great thing was - you got to have some bread, a salad, an appetizer, the entree and even a desert. And because you didn't have the American Supersize meal - you could actually eat all of it. It was awesome because I love to sample like that!

So we ate at the Pavilion 2 nights - the first and last, then we had Italian one night - and the irony about the Italian place was, you got yourself a wine list - but only the Beringer wines were part of the "all-inclusive". So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the wine list to see prices of $100 bottles. Then of course came the awkward moment of - excuse me sir - can you explain the wine prices please? Yeah - so note to you, if you ever do all inclusive and you see a price tag - be suspicious and make sure to ask - cause otherwise they just charge that right to your room and it's too easy to pay for it. I of course stuck with the free wine and champagne. :)

We also went to a Japanese Steakhouse which was fun and you got a great view out glass windows over the water. It was a 10 people sit down style and we had a lot of fun. We had the best waiter - Kennedy who was so polite that everything you said was responded to with a "No Pressure No Problem" in an island voice. This is us at the Steakhouse I believe after 3 glasses of champagne and a saki bomb:



Then there was the "5 star" French Restaurant. So we show up all dressed up, get seated and proceed to go through our courses. The tables were pretty tight so we were only 2 feet away from the next group of couples. We were finishing up with our entree and then a waitress came over to fill up my champagne. But as she turned the corner I saw her stop, get a surprised look on her face, recoil and then back away. And I think to myself - now what would make a person do that? Well I of course just had to look......what did I find?

This would be Larry the Lizard. Actually he is Leonard the Lizards cousin. We didn't have our camera on us that night so we snapped a picture of Larry by our patio so I could of course come home and tell this fabulous story on my blog.



Yes that is correct - there was a lizard eating dinner with us. However, Leonard's tail was broken - we think Tony stepped on him under our table and that is why he scurried from under it to hang out between our table and the next couple. As soon as they saw the lizard - they were like - ok we are done. So I of course think this waitress has told someone (which she had) and that someone is going to come over and remove Leonard. Hmmmm.....as the minutes passed and no one came, I finally motioned to a waiter to come over. I then politely asked if he could remove our friend. Me thinking he was a native, thought he would just pick it up by the tail and go take it somewhere. Yeah that would be a big fat negative ghostrider! What does he do instead? he shuffle kicks the lizard with his shoe - at one point turning it upside down so it starts doing his little leg wiggle that just creeps me out. And then he kicks it underneath the table behind Tony - AND THEN HE JUST WALKS OFF and says - he's gone!!!! ARE YOU FOR REAL?? So that was our interesting island story.

Other than that we ate at the bistro cafe for lunch most of the days - and we took a picture:



We then took some pictures of a few things:

Cruise ship sailing out of the Port of Castries right around the corner from us:



There was a pirate ship too and that I posted on flickr.

A cool picture of a Native on the pier.....


The catamaran that I really wanted to go on - but Tony got flambeed so that didn't happen.



The paddle bike that looked like a really fun idea until we thought about just how much peddling one must do to get out and back in. We decided that was probably going to be a little too much work for vacation!



And then comes the last oddity. Have you ever gotten those emails that show you pictures of odd nature things??? Well right in front of the Gazebo was this tree. And Tony made the statement that his ancestors believed that this tree would have been a fertility tree. Now I can understand why - it looks like it has a great big VAGINA on it! You can't tell me you don't agree - cause I know you would be lying to yourself. It's ok - you can laugh - I sure did! but it isn't too many times you get to see something with your own eyes that you normally see in those email forwards you wonder if they are photoshopped.



So that was pretty much our vacation in a nutshell. I got to lay out a lot, drink a lot, rest a lot and not prepare any of my meals - that was a pretty highlight. In the end, we got back home only to have most of our luggage not come out since it didn't make the flight from Atlanta - so they delivered it the next day. But we waked out to see.............

SNOW

Yes we came home to snow in Seattle in April. Odd. And then a few days later I cut off all my braids and hair - because I have been trying to grow out my natural color for Tony. I don't have a picture of it yet - but I will get one and post it up - Momma Susan said she wanted a picture cause she doesn't know what my hair color is either! So I figure, I'll take a picture and then we can all see. I think some of you might be surprised at what it is. :)

St Lucia Part II

So we get to our room and I have to confess. I was ruing a little bit before we got there about not being able to get the room with the private plunge pool attached. It basically was like a mini pool for two people. But it was $4K....so there was just no way we were doing that. The good news is when we got there, I was actually much happier with the room we got than if we had been in one of those rooms that has a private pool. And let me now illustrate why. This was our room. And yes, that is my passed out self lying on the beach chair. We are the bottom one in the middle.



As you can tell, it resembles an apartment or condo patio. Not real big but semi private. And easy access to the outside. Within 50 feet of us we have these things:

The Spa that I had my full head braided. Tony kept calling me a Caribbean Princess. :) You will see the braids in a bit. I also got a hot rock massage. That was needed and I have to say - it fixed my back until the flight back.



And this lovely Gazebo that we spent many an hour sitting in and enjoying the ocean and the surf hitting the beach.



I will discuss the tree in another post.



And then there was the hammock right next to it that had my creative writing juices flowing. I love hammocks. You can sit in one near the ocean, close your eyes, feel the breeze and you can actually feel yourself moving even when you aren't. It's awesome. I have always wanted a hammock. And check out my braids!



Don't forget the beach access to the left of the Gazebo.



And then 100 feet away there was the Pavilion and Pool with the Swim Up Bar. The pool was awesome cause it was like one big giant wading pool that you could swim if you wanted but could walk around it and with your drink. Or you could just sit on a tiled stool at the swim up bar. That was quite fun especially since you didn't need any money nor worrying about tipping the bartender. The pool also had a grotto style waterfall and enclosure and wrapped around a couple different ways. What I can tell you I loved was not hearing any screaming children. Not getting kicked in the gut by a little kid that swam underneath you in the water. Not worrying about the trace amounts of urine in the pool. No cannonballs next to you. And you want to know something great? There was no NO DIVING sign. Why? Because we were all adults and can figure out that one on our own thank you very much.



So the Pavilion is where we ate our breakfast which I loved! I got omelets every day. They had some great banana bread, coffee cake, and some type of custard bread that was like a bread pudding. It was awesome and if I can figure out exactly what they did - which I have an idea, then I am going to make sure and make it for you when you come out and see us. :) The Pavilion was an open air eating place where the roof was vaulted about 30 feet with pillars that supported the roof. You could also eat a buffet lunch if you wanted as well as dinner. The funny thing about the Pavilion was the birds. Since it was open air, there were these pigeons and black birds that would hang out and do these diving raids to scarf up food bits from the plates waiting to be bused. I kept waiting to be shat upon by one of these birds overhead - but I never did experience or see it so it must not be a problem. One of the ladies actually said when the birds get desperate usually off feeding hours, they will swoop down and grab the sugar packets and peck at those. Crazy man.

I digressed on the birds. So the whole point I was illustrating above was how close all the things that I enjoyed (including the ping pong table but I didn't think you needed a picture of that), was so much closer and easily accessible than the rooms with the private plunge pools as illustrated in the picture below.



Are you squinting trying to see what I am talking about? That's how I felt too.

Yes that is correct - those houses up on the bluff where your beach access is cliff diving. And you have to take a van for a little ride down a crazy inclined hill to get to brunch. Yes I am lazy and the walk would have done me good - but I wasn't at fitness camp! And this is a good illustration on when going to the beach - identify how close you want your beach access in your room selection. There were some people who only got a sliding door that opened - no patio. And the slew of patios facing the pool. So the room turned out great. It had a four king poster bed which was decently comfortable and get this - we had a 48 inch flat screen TV in our room that ALSO came with satellite that made it possible for this footy girl to see her monstrous United Arsenal game that she thought she was going to miss on vacation. Tony and I were pretty stoked about that!

To be continued...