Happy Birthday Jim!!!

I am one day late but I still wanted to wish my Jimmy a happy birthday!

Okay everybody, let's sing to Jim!

Happy Birthday to you,,,,, Happy Birthday to you,,,,, Happy Birthday dear Jim, Happy Birthday to you!!!!

This and That

In nuclear engineering and physics, the shake (from "two shakes of a lamb's tail") equals 10 nanoseconds..............

In computing, the jiffy is typically measured at 0.01 seconds..............

Amount 17-year-old Daniel Radcliffe has earned playing Harry Potter in the movies: $35 million.............

Natural blondes will become extinct within 200 years..............

Number of species of bacteria living on human skin: Between 182 and 250.............

The Dutch have surpassed Americans as the tallest people on earth.

Pictures in Indianapolis







Hello! Well as you know, I spent last week in Indianapolis for work training. I took my camera along hoping to get some good pictures. I didn't get a lot of free time and we stayed near a mall, so my opportunities were limited. Here are some of the pictures:

Cute statue that was out front of the hotel. I took this the first morning we were there, and if I remember correctly it was around 17 degrees, so I didn't take the time to get a good picture :)

I was walking around a man made lake near the hotel taking pictures. This is just a picture of my shadow in the snow. A few minutes after this picture I sunk about 3 feet in the snow, trying to get out of the snow :) It was quite the work out.

The view from the top floor of the hotel. I guess they just pushed the snow off of the side of the garage. If I had a sled, I might have tried to ride down that tower of snow :)

One of the mornings, we woke up to intense fog, a freezing fog, as the weather man called it. I guess it was so cold that the condensation from the fog would freeze, turning it into ice. The visibility was less than 100 feet, as you can see in the picture.

My biggest obstacle taking pictures was keeping the buildings out of the picture. I was knee deep in the snow bank taking this picture, and I still got part of the building in it. Pooh.

One night after dinner, we were parking in the hotel garage, when I spyed a cop car, without the cop! Soooooo, I convinced Stacey and Tiffany to take pictures with me to make it look like we were being frisked. I sent these to my area manager. I haven't heard back so I'm not sure if he was amused or not! :)

On our way home!!! That is Indianapolis below, right after take off. The sunset was beautiful, and I could have had some great shots if the airplane would have stayed in one spot!

One last view of Indy from the plane!!!!

We made it Indy safe and sound. I had one little issue, my luggage didn't arrive with me :( but the airline did deliver it 6 or so hours after I arrived. They said that it didn't make my connecting flight in Dallas. I'm just happy that they didn't lose it!!

I finished my first day of training and it went well. I learned a few things but I'm sure I'll learn more as the week goes on.

I brought my camera bag with me so I headed out after we got back from training to take some pictures. I stayed around the hotel, so I didn't have a ton of opportunites to take good pictures. I did learn that it isn't the smartest thing to try to walk through snow for a better angle :). There were a couple of steps that left me knee deep in snow. I thought it was packed snow, but it wasn't ;).

We are heading to dinner soon, so I need to go get ready!! :)

Hello, me again :). Well we made it to Dallas, got on the connecting flight but now we are sitting on the plane because an engine light came on. I thought that only happened in cars. :). Hopefully it won't take to long! I got stuck in a middle seat which I totally hate. I like the window seat because you can look out the window and if you wanted to rest your head on the side of the plane. I have taken some pretty decent pictures from the window seat.

Dallas listed the weather in Indy, and it was a whopping 13 degrees.hmmmmm.... Sounds cold :) I brought my camera thinking I would wander around during our free time but I won't be doing much wandering at 13 degrees :).

I can't remember if I mentioned that I am going to training with two other people from Austin. They are cool girls and I'm glad to be going with people I know and like. Going alone to Indy would have sucked.

Okay, still waiting on the maintance crew to check out the engine. Ick. At least I'm not stressed about catching a connecting flight!!

Okay, the pilot has said that the problem has been fixed. We'll be taking aff about 25 minutes late, not to bad!!

Hello all! I am writing to you on an airplane waiting to take off to Indianapolis. Why are you going to Indianapolis you ask??? For work, a 5 day training. I don't really want to go but it should be a good experience. The weather has been chilly in Indy (the low is 10 degrees today) but it should warm up to 30-40. Hopefully!!

I won't have a lot of access to the internet but I'll try to keep you updated on my adventures in Indy :).

Valentines Day Birthday!!!

We have another birthday people!! Ms. Courtney is a Valentines day baby and she is celebrating her 21st birthday!!!! Ready....... set........ go....."Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you....Happy Birthday dear Courtney....Happy Birthday to Yooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu!!

I hope you have a great day!!!

Weekend Pictures

We had a pretty relaxed Sunday. We ran some errands, cleaned up the house and raked the million leaves that has fallen on our yard. We filled up all of our leaf bags (11 total) and still had over half of our yard covered with leaves. Damn leaves. We decided that Jim will just mow over the leaves and turn them into mulch, so we don't have to pick them up :) Later that night, Jim and the dogs were wrestling. They get so hyper that they forget Jim is on the floor and just start wrestling with each other.






I love the look on Taylors face. She is a little blurry, but I only had a second to take this picture. It is almost like she was saying "Mom, can I sit on the couch with you? Dad is taking up my space on the floor".

My first protest

This morning was the protest against Wal-mart at the proposed sight for the ginormous Wal-mart. The goal was to have enough people to wrap around the retail center and to all wear red to protest the building of Wal-mart. The goal was to have 5000 people, but about 2000 showed up. Which, I think getting about 2000 people out on a chilly morning was a success. There were all of the news vans driving around and and photographers so I'll have to keep an eye on the news to see if we get on there :) And of course I took pictures, so take a gander!! We were on the far side of the retail center, so there aren't as many as on the larger streets (but there were still a bunch of people!)

This little girl was playing the bag pipes while we were in our line, and she was so good! We heard it while in line but didn't know who was playing it until the protest was over. I am amazed that this little girl was so good!!

Awwwhhh, the husband. He was so happy I wrapped the red ribbon around him for a picture :) (NOT!!)

The Bro's visit

We had a good time with Lee on his visit! We spent most of our time with our Dad in the hospital but we did head out for dinner and drinks a couple of times! Here are some pictures:

After dinner on his first night here we headed over to an Irish bar. He introduced me to a "Black Velvet" or also known as "Black Velveteen", which is half Guiness and half of a cider like Aces Pear Cider. I have to say it was a tasty drink! I don't think it is something I could drink all of the time, but it would be a nice change.

Lee's Black Velvet....see Mom, you son drinks!! :)

My dad is in the hospital because he had his left leg amputated a month ago due to infection that was made worse by his diabetes. We hung out at the hospital for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Look at the boys pose!

Lee enjoying his Irish coffee and me fiddling with my camera. That is what I look like 80% of the time :) Trying to figure out how to take a better picture.

At Cheesecake Factory, eating dinner with Jim's family for his mom's birthday.

Super Bowl

Our Super Bowl was pretty uneventful. We went over to a friends house to grill, drink and watch the game. I didn't have a team that I was routing for, but I ended up cheering for the Bears because a couple of the players went to my high school and a couple players from the Longhorns play for them. The first half of the game was entertaining, but it was hard to watch in the second half after Rex Grossman (Bears QB) kept making heinous mistakes. So, we concentrated on eating, drinking, and talking with friends. I have to say I was pretty disappointed in the commercials also. There wasn't really any that blew me away. The Snickers candy bar, where the two mechanics eat the candy bar until their lips met, was pretty funny, and the Doritos commercial where the goofy guy and girl kept trying to meet but ran into different obstacles was funny. After the Super Bowl, Tic made a bon fire in his back yard and we stood around the fire to keep warm while we talked. Here are some pictures:

Wally World is invading

There is a ginormous Wal-mart moving to a location that is on the other side of my neighborhood. By ginormous I mean over 200,000 sq feet, which is the largest Wal-mart in Central Texas. This type of store is typically near a freeway so traffic won't get so snarled on the local roads, but according to the Austin city council Wal-mart gave them skewed numbers that were a lot lower than a third party company found. SOOOOO... there is a group called "Smart Growth for Northcross" that is at the core of stopping Wal-Mart from building such a massive store in the neighborhood. We have a little sign in our yard (I'll post a picture later) opposing Wal-Mart and will go to the event I mentioned below. I'm not sure how much we can sway Wal-Mart or the company who owns the land, but I want to try. The traffic on our street is already busy, and I don't want to see that traffic double or triple due to a crappy ass big box store. Not to mention all of the reports on how having a Wal-Mart in your neighborhood can raise crime and lower your property values. ICK!!!
I'll keep you posted!

*~*~*~* Public Notice *~*~*~*~*

Arms Around Northcross

Start: 02/10/2007 - 9:30am
End: 02/10/2007 - 10:10am

Together, we could save our neighborhoods in just 10 minutes.

Meet at Northcross Mall wearing red. Bring your family. Bring 10 friends. For 10 minutes, we'll link arms in a human circle of solidarity against the proposed Northcross Development. We'll encircle the entire site!


Stand with your friends, neighbors, and loved ones and send the most powerful message to Lincoln Property Company, Wal-mart, and the City Council that we will never back down.

In just 10 minutes, we can turn up the heat so much that we could save our neighborhoods, and become a part of Austin history.

Let’s lock arms and show Lincoln how united we are against their plan to build a 225,085 sq. ft. 24 hour Wal-Mart Supercenter and a 300,000 sq. ft. parking garage at Northcross Mall.

So Excited!!

See that little kid in the picture? Seems like a sweet kid, right? Well that is my little brother and he is coming to visit! :) We haven't seen him in about a year so we are pretty excited that he is coming for the weekend! When Lee and Jim get together it is such a sarcastic fest. These two are so sarcastic that they feed off of each other, and I'm usually the recipient of their sarcasm. Now, I can hold my own so I'm not really worried, but I realize what will go down this weekend :)

Funny Stuff

I found this on a blog called "Daily Nooz", and had to share with you!!!

Actual conversations as recounted at Overheardintheoffice.com:

IT guy: What do you mean you've never shot a gun? You never made your friends dance by shooting at their feet?

915 BroadwayNew York, New York.............

White Girl: So, what do you mean you guys don't have stockings on Christmas?
Hispanic girl: Spanish people's Christmas is more about expensive electronic gifts.
White girl: I just don't understand -- you also use all new decorations every year.
Hispanic girl: Yeah, we don't really do tradition well.
White girl: Spanish people are weird.
Black girl: Yeah, well, white girls smell like potato chips.

789 Howard AvenueNew Haven, Connecticut.............

Teacher on phone with parent: Mrs. Jones*, I'm not saying Billy* cheated. All I'm saying is he had a sheet of paper with the answers to the test on the floor under his desk, and every few minutes he leaned over and looked at it. And I don't allow that kind of studying.

Bayport, New York.............


Designer: You shot the Rubik's Cube contest?
Photographer: Yeah. It was like watching fat, naked men greased up in butter sumo wrestling. You don't want to watch, but you can't look away.
Designer: ... You know, most people use the metaphor, 'It was like watching a train wreck,' but you took it to a really dark place.

323 E Grand River AvenueHowell, Michigan............


Call center rep: Well, what do you do when a random person at a call center says, 'I love you'?

1440 BroadwayNew York, New York