Scaring myself...

I'm creeping myself out right now. The girls from work and I went to see 1408 at the cheap shows, then I went back into work. No problem, right? Well... not exactly. Between my rather fertile imagination and the fact that I was there all by myself, it was kind of interesting... Anyway, all of this is compounded by the fact that Brian is roofing at his uncle's house this weekend, which is about 45 minutes away, so he's spending the night out at his dad's house tonight. So... I came home to an empty house. I'm going to watch some CSI and call it a night, but I'll probably creep myself out some more before I fall asleep. Tomorrow Shelly and I are going to the Renaissance Festival. I can't wait - I haven't been for two years, and I've missed it. Watch for the pics - it's all about the pics...

Sleepless in Saginaw

Yuck!! I think I got about one hour of sleep last night. I didn't really think I was going to make it through work today, but I did it. Yay! Go me! Anyway, today was Michelle's birthday, so we got to go to Genji's for lunch, which is totally worth it any day! Can you say "Yum"?

So anyway, I've been thinking about how summer is very nearly gone. The days are still warm, but the nights get pretty cool right now (except for last night - I walked out the door this morning and the muggy heat pretty much slapped me in the face, daring me to say it's been cool lately). I actually think we may have set some records for heat the past couple of days - it's been close to 90 degrees, which is just crazy for Michigan this time of year - but, since it's Michigan, it's not totally outside the realm of possibility. We had what will probably be our last campfire of the year out at Brian's dad's house this weekend, and I had to wear jeans! I've been so used to capris or shorts this summer it was a difficult transition, to say the least.

Introspective moment: I'm listening to my iPod (which I love!), and the song currently playing is Andy Partridge - "Aren't You Glad You Did Something Good With Your Life". So here's the question: What good have you done with your life? I try to be a decent person, and a good friend, but I don't know that I've done any acts of great good for anyone. Would you necessarily know if you had? What if just by doing something you would do anyway, you make someone's life just a bit better, and that spurs them to do something nice for someone else, and it snowballs from there? The theme of the song is more about just doing something with your life, not sitting at home waiting for that nebulous someday, but it got me thinking... Hmmm.... And we cut from that song to "Bring on the Men" from Jekyll and Hyde. Interesting...

A Long Day's Night

After driving for what seemed like three and a half days, and nearly leaving the transmission somewhere in Ohio (I still don't do well with stick shifts...), we arrived in Alexandria, VA around 5:00. Since our room was provided by the Fairfield Resorts as a gift for listening to a timeshare presentation on our last big trip, we had to check in with them and resist being convinced to go to another presentation (read: high-pressure sales opportunity) in exchange for more freebies. After a short time where we said we might attend the following evening's presentation, we got our hotel information and directions and headed uptown to check in. We were at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Alexandria, and our room was very nice. I don't know what our original room would have been like - they had a king-size reserved for us, but it was a smoking room, so we opted for the non-smoking, two double room instead. The beds were very comfortable, and everyone at the hotel was extremely helpful and friendly. After getting our stuff to the room, we planned to go into Washington to see some of the monuments at night. When we inquired at the desk for the nearest Metro station, we were informed that the hotel had a shuttle that would drop us at Ronald Reagan National Airport, where we could catch the Metro into DC proper. Since we thought that sounded like a plan, away we went. The Metro ride was fairly short (about 15 minutes), and after disembarking at the Smithsonian stop (our home sweet home for three days), we were on our way.


The first thing I learned about Washington is that even though everything is relatively
close to everything else, it's still quite a hike. We started at the Washington Monument (the first picture), and made our way around it to the World War II memorial (the fountains were beautiful) and the Lincoln Memorial (good ol' Abe down there). The walk down the Mall to the Washington Monument wasn't too bad, and the WWII memorial is pretty close to it, but between the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial is the reflecting pool (immortalized in Forrest Gump), which is very nearly half a mile long. All together, I think we must have walked about four miles that night. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were tired and hungry. We scrambled around looking for someplace to eat dinner, and ended up at a restaurant around the corner called Stardust. We ate our dinners and went back to the hotel and crashed.

Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some...

Vacation, part one:
We left Saginaw on Tuesday, 9/11/07 for our vacation. Since we had passes for four tickets to weekday Tigers games (long story), we decided to go to the day/night double-header that the Tigers were playing against the Texas Rangers, then stay with Kate in Detroit before heading off to Washington on Wednesday. The first game was... how do I put this nicely... a debacle, a fiasco, a disaster... all of the above. In the sixth inning, the Tigers were down 10 to 0, and we knew this wasn't going anywhere good, so we headed to Greektown for dinner and some gambling before the next game. Hey - at least that way we had a chance to see someone win who wasn't a Ranger...


As we started to ride the People Mover back to the stadium, it was raining. Not really hard, but steadily, and enough to make us think that maybe there wasn't going to be a game after all. However, by the time we got to Comerica Park, the rain had cleared up, and as we got to our seats, there was a beautiful rainbow. The second game was much better, too, as the Tigers ended up winning it 4 to 1. This was also the first game in which I got to see my favorite Tiger, Pudge Rodriguez play.




After the games, we headed to Kate's house to admire her engagement ring, catch up on all the news, and get some sleep before our long drive to Washington.

I've been tagged!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Mimi Kia
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Triple Chocolate Overload Chocolate Chip
3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) J Lou
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Blue Cat
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)Lynn Saginaw
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) LouJe
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") Purple the Martini
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Eddie Clarence
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Lovespell Special Dark
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Rose Clarence

Ok, J Fab - that's for you... Now tagging - Nancy

Woo hoo!! (At last)

I'm so excited - after the better part of two years, my best friend of 26 years and her boyfriend got
engaged. Congratulations, you two crazy kids... :)

We've arrived back from our vacation - lots to share, but not right now, since it's after midnight and
I'm pooped! All the scoopage (and pictures) will follow soon.

Here we go again...

Ok, here we go again. I'm going to make an effort to post here more often and get the creative juices flowing. I'm inspired by my friend Jayne, who just started blogging, which made me think that since I have the blog, I may as well use the blog. I'm really excited - we're getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. I've never been there, and I can't wait to visit. We'll also be hitting two Tigers games on our way there, and Williamsburg, VA, and Gettysburg, PA after Washington. It should be a blast! Pictures will follow (of course).

Anyway, since my last post a lot has happened. On November 25th, 2005 Brian and I got married and have been happily coexisting for almost two years. We've had four or five weddings in the time since my last post (one of them ours, of course), several babies, and some sad parts as well as happy times. My little old lady, Aunt Rose, turned 87 on August 25th, and we took her to the Tigers - Yankees game on her birthday and had her name put on the scoreboard during the birthday listings. She was very surprised, to say the least. After we got back, I took some of the best pictures from that day and had them made into a photo book for her, which she absolutely loved. She was showing it off at the family reunion this weekend. I'm glad she enjoyed her birthday and the book - I was a little worried that it would be too much for her and she would get tired and/or crabby, but she hung in there and we all had a good time. I'll throw some pictures at this post later, but for now, have a great day!