WOW...Has it been almost a month already?

So can you believe it has been almost a month since I updated this crazy blog of mine? I can't!!! I caught a cold the day after Christmas and it has been hanging on and hanging on and hanging on. I went to bed at 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Missed the ball dropping and everything. So sad...so very sad.

Anyway, at some point I am going to take you back to a happier time and post some pictures from California. But right now I am posting a picture of a little burro. I have an affection for burros. Don't ask me why. They are just so stinkin' cute. If I had the time for one, I would probably have one myself. Some day I want to go to Oatman,AZ, and mingle with the wild burros. Wouldn't that be a blast? If any of you have done that, please post a comment to my blog and let me know how much fun it was.

Work is going okay, although we took a cut in pay to "save" the company. Personally, I think they should probably cut the "saviors" and that might help save the company. But at least I have a job in this tough economy. I don't have to find a refrigerator box to live in just yet. Which is a good thing right now because we are getting a bitter cold Artic blast in our region. They predicted a blizzard for the lakeshore today but I guess that might be rescheduled for tomorrow. Although as the temps drop the wind has picked up too. While I am rambling about cold weather, one of my friends at work made jackets for my girls so they can go outside to go to the bathroom without freezing. They are just adorable in their new coats!!! When I get pictures transferred to my computer I will post a picture or two of my babies. Polly, my little model, posed so nice for me. Mabel, my shy girl, really was kind of freaked out by the camera. But I finally got a half way decent picture of her in her jacket.

Well I have probably bored the crap out of you. I will post one more picture for you...from one of my favorite movies.

Have fun and enjoy the pictures!!!

WOW...Did you miss me?

Okay...I cannot believe that my last post was on November 30th. I have so much to do with the Christmas season and have not gotten anything done. I haven't been on my computer at home in a long time. I come home exhausted, eat dinner, watch The Young and the Restless, play with the dogs and watch some more TV for about an hour and go to bed. I'm usually sleeping by 9:10. I think I have some kind of post-vacation funk going on. No ambition or interest in anything. No Christmas tree yet and the house is a mess. I have to make our "food day" treat for work tomorrow, but I have already warned people that if we get the snow they are predicting for us that I won't be in tomorrow. They are saying we are supposed to be getting 6-12 inches after midnight tonight with the possibility of 1-2 inches an hour. YIPPEE!!! I hate frickin' winter and I hate driving around in this frickin' snow. So there, the crabby side of my has come out on my blog. Sorry about that. It sucks driving 45 miles one way in this crap. I stopped by my friend Cindy's house on my way home last night and visited with her and her boyfriend and his Boxer for about an hour last night. Since I was late getting home to let my girls outside, I was driving a little faster than usual and hit a slick spot and almost went into the ditch on one of the country roads by my house. My asshole puckered up and my whole body got white hot instantly. So anyway, since I don't have a tree up yet, I thought I would post a picture of a Christmas tree from Christmas past. We had a tree like this for many years. Yeah baby...those are some good memories.

Back Home

I know that those of you that followed my blog about my trip to California are crazy sad that my trip is over. I know that I am crazy sad about it. This also means that I have to go back to work tomorrow. (BOO!!!) I just spent the last two hours clearing out 837 emails on my work email. It probably would have taken me all day to do it at work tomorrow. So at least I have that done. Whew!!!

I picked up my girls at the kennel last Tuesday and they look amazing. Polly must have lost 10 pounds. She looks like the model and spokesdog that she is meant to be. Mabel had some ear issues before I took her to the kennel and I changed her food a week and a half before to see if maybe she had some allergy thing going on. All the sores on her ears are gone and she even lost a few pounds. I am so glad to have my girlies home with me.

I am ready to go back to Disneyland (yes it is "the happiest place on earth"). I also thought that perhaps all y'all would like my opinion of the rides that I rode at Disneyland. Here goes:

Space Mountain--roller coaster in the dark--not as scary as I remembered it.
Autopia--cool little car ride--check out the crazy road signs
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience--great little film--good special effects (and I do mean special)
Star Trek--great ride--very fun simulator ride through space
Finding Nemo--this is an okay submarine ride--would not recommend it for tall or heavy people
Peter Pan--hands down one of the best flights I have ever had. We took this ride about 5 times.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride--not as good as Peter Pan
Spinning Teacups--HELL YES, great ride!!!
Snow White--not as good as Peter Pan. Watch for the Evil Witch to appear in the upstairs window when you are in Fantasyland.
Alice in Wonderland--not as good as Peter Pan
Storybook Land--take this enchanting ride at night
Dumbo--hell yes, another great flight
Pirates of the Caribbean--too cool--took this ride over and over again
Haunted Mansion--another cool one--took this ride over and over again too. With Christmas upon us, it was decorated in the movie theme of "The Nightmare before Christmas". I would have probably enjoyed it more if it was the regular theme.
Splash Mountain--splashy all right
Matterhorn--cool rollercoaster...think I lost my phone there
Train ride--can't miss this classic--great ride at night
Toon Town--this was a charming cartoon village. Don't miss it, especially if you want to see characters.
Monorail--classic ride around the park
Theatre and Museum on Main Street--definitely check this out. Short film with Steve Martin is great.
Indiana Jones--cool ride--kind of a roller coaster in a big old jeep
Jungle Cruise--animals are getting a little old but this is definitely a classic. Fun ride at night.
Mark Twain Steamboat ride--another classic ride. The animals are getting a little ragged on this ride too.

We also went to California Adventure. Not a place I would have to go back to except for one ride. A lot of the park looks like an old Hollywood set and that is hella cool.

Soaring over California--this is probably one of the coolest rides ever. It is a simulator that makes you feel like you are in a hang glider flying over California. Definitely a must.

Tower of Terror--okay so Cindy talked me into going on this one. You get an awesome view of Disneyland at night (if you have your eyes open). But there is a lot of up and downs on this ride. Scared the crap out of me.

Grizzly Peak Raft Ride--pretty much like a lot of raft rides but fun

Bug's Life movie--very fun and fun special effects


I know I have probably left some rides off my list but as I think of them, I will try to update you. Hope you all enjoyed my journey through Disneyland as much as I did. TTYL.

California...Last Day!!!

Yikes!!! Vacation in California is almost over!!! It seemed to take forever for the time to come and now it is almost over.

We had our Fake Thanksgiving dinner last night. Both of Tom's kids, John and Jenna and Jenna's boyfriend, Cory, were here and Cindy's son, Cody, came down from Sacramento with a buddy of his. Cindy put on this massive feast that was yummy good. Today is Tom's 52nd birthday and Jenna will be coming back for dinner tonight. Poor Johnny got the flu that we have been dragging all over California with us last night. Poor kid. I think he was up most of the night and we had his electric heater in our room. I gave Tom hell for not waking us up and getting it for him. I think we need to buy him a case of beer or something for letting us hog the heater the last few days. California can be really chilly at night and a lot of the houses are on slabs so they don't install furnaces in the homes like we do. They really don't work very efficiently. Their furnace people and contractors really need to come to Michigan and see how it is done right.

We started packing yesterday and I think we are going to be able to get everything in our suitcases without a problem. Although Dianne seemed to pack way more than she needed. We have decided to check a second bag on the way back just so we have one less to deal with on the plane. I guess it is only a $25 charge because we bought the plane tickets in March.

I guess we are going to hit a few places today. Then we are going to have a birthday dinner for Tom and then heading back to the airport for our trip home. Dianne and I are anxious to see our pups and give them hugs and kisses.

So anyway, that is the rest of our trip. Hope you enjoyed the journey with me. I'll still be doing my crazy blog with my usual ramblings and musing so feel free to follow along if you like. Bye, bye for now.

Napa, Alcatraz, Etc!!!

On Tuesday we headed up to Napa. This was about an 8 hour trip so we got to see a lot of scenery. The hills are a beautiful golden brown and I never get tired of looking at them. It was a gorgeous ride.

Tom and Cindy belong to the Shell Vacation Club and they had booked us at a gorgeous resort call Vino Bello. We had a suite. Dianne and I had a cozy room with a king size bed, a kitchenette, sofa, a huge bathroom, and a washer and dryer and a LCD TV. Tom and Cindy had a full kitchen, dining room, living room, a huge, huge bathroom, and a master bedroom. It was beautiful. We just ordered pizza (yummy) and had it delivered to the room. So while we ate, we watched an great Disney video explaining about building the park. We just were not ready to let go of Disney yet.

Wednesday morning, we got up and us girls went to the spa for a passion fruit scrub, a cave mud wrap, followed by an hour massage. It was awesome. Part of the package included a cheese and fruit plate with a glass of wine. It was a great way to relax and it felt very decadent.

After the spa, we headed to the vineyards for some wine tasting. We stopped at V. Sattui Winery first and tasted 8 different wines and I decided that I like Port. I never knew this before, but Port is part wine and part brandy. The guy pouring the wine also clarified the term of wino and I decided I am not a wino. He said that the only thing a wino worries about is running out of wine. I guess that is not me after all. We did send some wine home from this winery as they only sell their wine at the winery. After getting a buzz on there we headed over to Sutter Home Vineyards as Dianne works with a guy whose wife works for Sutter Home in the Chicago area. She got us in for free wine tasting and the employee discount for anything we bought. At Sutter Home we learned something else...Port wine is great with pretzels and chocolate. YUM-O!!!

We decided we would just eat back at the room so we stopped at the grocery store to get something to eat and the fixings for Zippy Dip. Tom and Cindy were anxious to try "crack in a jar." So we ate at the room and played Disney Trivia. The wine took it's toll on Dianne and I and we had to crash fairly early.

Unfortunately, Dianne got a touch of the flu or something and was up most of the night. As we were leaving in the morning, Tom and I got everything loaded in the car and waited until the last minute to leave. We loaded Dianne up in the car and headed for Tom and Cindy's house which just happens to be my Uncle Jake's house. They are renting it from our cousin Nan's son. They had to have it almost gutted and redone and now it is gorgeous. Anyway, we put Dianne to bed and Cindy and I went off to the Disney outlet. We found some great bargains and we got back, we waited until Tom's son, Johnny, got home and then we headed off to the Pie Hole (Baker's Square) for dinner. After I went to bed I ended up getting the touch of the flu too. I was up most of the night with rocket powered butt pee. Because Dianne and I had been sick we totally screwed up our day at San Francisco. Tom and Cindy had a whole day planned but we only ended up going to our tour of Alcatraz at night.

If any of you have been to Alcatraz, you have not experienced until you go at night. It was awesome!!! They give you a personal audio system to wear and former guards and inmates narrate your journey through the prison. There is an area where you can walk outside and just take in the lights of San Francisco at night. It was breath taking. I highly recommend the night tour. On the way back to Tom's we stopped at the recording studio his band practices at. He played us some tunes. It was pretty cool. A brand new experience for me. He also gave us some band CDs, T-shirts and a poster. The band is called "3 in the Same". Their website is www.3inthesame.com. Check it out.

Saturday, Tom, Cindy and I went shopping for our Fake Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. So we ripped through Wal-mart and Safeway and headed home so we could go to our cousin Nancy's for dinner. We got to Nancy's about 3 p.m. She lives in Livermore which is kind of out in a valley and we took the scenic route through the hills. She cooked a very healthy dinner and I filled up on the yummy veggies. I know that is hard to believe, but everything was so good. So we sat around and yakked for a while and then came back to Tom's house.

Well I know this has been kind of lengthy but I feel really, really bad about not keeping up on my blog like I promised. Har, har, har (pirate laugh). I have to go now as we are getting ready for Fake Thanksgiving dinner. TTYS.

Disney Day 3

Okay so on day 3 we could not get into Disney until 9 a.m. so we kind of slept in a little later than usual and then went to PoFolks restaurant for breakfast. It was tons of food for the price and very good. It was kind of like a Cracker Barrel. So we ate and headed back to Disney. Because we didn't get there until about 10 we parked in the Chip and Dale parking area and took the tram to the park. We headed right over to California Adventure. This is a part of the Disney park that is okay but not something you need to go to. We did go on a few great rides but all the time I was thinking "it's not Disneyland."

The first ride we hit was Soaring over California which was friggin' awesome. It is almost like you are hang gliding over the best parts of the state of California. The Golden Gate Bridge, Napa Valley, Pacific Ocean, golf courses, and you end your trip at Disneyland. We got off the ride and went immediately to get a Fastpass ticket to ride it again without standing in line again. From there we went over to Grizzly Peak and rode the river rapids ride. We checked our gear in a locker and put on our ponchos and rode the rapids. It was hella fun, but as soon as we changed we went back and Soared over California again. In my opinion, this is the best ride over at California Adventure. We walked through the rest of the park and went to the Bug's Life Theatre which was really cool and in 3D. As we were walking around High School Musical 3 was doing a street performance which was pretty good. We had a giant corndog for lunch and headed back over to Disneyland. On the way over we checked again on my cell phone. I told the girl at lost and found that I lost it on the Matterhorn and she said very little is recovered from the Matterhorn. Good thing I only have 6 weeks left on my contract. LOL!!!

So back at Disney we headed over to Toontown. It was really cool because all the Toon houses looked like they came out of a cartoon. We were walking around and who do we see again but Minnie Mouse. I was hella excited because I had just fallen in love with her the night before. So Tom and I had our picture taken together with Minnie. She was really in awe of Tom's tallness. She was so cute. I just love her. It was great to feel like I was 12 again. From there we went to her house and Mickey's house and we went past Goofy's gas station. When we left Toontown we rode Peter Pan again and Tom and I rode the Teacups again and he did the spinning. The colors around us were blurring we were going so fast. Dianne said she didn't think we were going all that fast, but I think we were. When we came out of Peter Pan's ride, Cindy looked up and saw the Evil Witch in the upstairs window of Snow White's castle. So we caught a glimpse of her but only for a moment before she left the window. It was cool as we had read that she sometimes appears in that window.

Since A Small World was closed we didn't get to ride that but we did hit the Monorail ride, and hit Pirates and the Haunted Mansion again. By this time, the park was getting ready to close as the park closes at 8 on Mondays. There were a couple of shops we wanted to check out before we left, because there was just an awesome photo album that I decided I had to have. It is stinkin' cute. It is a 12x12 scrapbook with Tinkerbell on the cover and when you open it, you hear Tink's wand noise. It is frickin' cuter than shit. So we hit a few more shops in the park and then headed to the gate as we were planning on hitting Downtown Disney for dinner and more shopping. So we loaded up on the tram and headed back to the Chip and Dale parking lot to get the van and head back to Downtown Disney.

When we got to Downtown Disney we went in search for something for dinner. We stopped at the Jazz Kitchen and Tom and Cindy got gumbo and jambalaya and some popcorn chicken. Dianne and I opted for beinets (little donuts) and coffee. Then off to the Disney store. It seemed like we were there for hours but I guess we weren't. Tom, bless his heart, found Disney Crocs in my size. However, that is also Cindy's size and we both wanted a pair because they were 40% off. I told Tom that if they didn't fit Cindy I would buy them. They didn't so now I have Disney Crocs. So Dianne and I decided we were tired of shopping and went to get in line to check out. Here's the thing, Disney is great at moving people until it gets to the cashiers at Downtown Disney. The cashiers there were slower than shit. There were a couple of Japanese girls in line ahead of us that were taking forever.

I don't know if any of you have plumbing trouble when you travel, but I seem to. And while I was shopping I started getting cramps and knew I would have to find a restroom soon. Dianne was in line ahead of me when we were checking out. I asked if I could take cuts, which I did, and pinched my cheeks as best I could. Luckily Dianne noticed a restroom to the left of the cashier. So I paid for my stuff and left a toxic cloud of gas as I fled to the toilets. I feared the dreaded rocket powered butt pee but I was lucky.

After that we all dragged our tired asses back to the van and back to the room we went. Dianne was out shortly after hitting the bed, but Tom and Cindy and I stayed up talking. Before we knew it was 2 a.m.

Well I have probably bored the crap out of you if you read this far. Tomorrow I will fill you in our trip to Napa. Bye

California Adventures

Greetings from California!!!

Well here I was telling everyone that I was going to update this blog on a daily basis and then I didn't. That is just too bad because I have so much to tell everyone.

We had an amazing time at Disney!!! It truly is "the happiest place on earth." Tom and Cindy are natives so they have been to Disneyland numerous times and know all the ins and outs of navigating around the park. On day 2 we were able to take advantage of the one early entry that we had on our 3 day park hopper pass. So we got up early and got to the park and rented the carts and rode some rides (Teacups and Peter Pan, of course) and then had breakfast at Riverbelle Terrace. From there we hit one of my favorite places...Frontierland. We took the Mark Twain riverboat cruise and soaked up the atmosphere of the old west. Tom and Cindy rode on Thunder Mountain and Dianne and I did a little shopping. We just kind of bummed around on day two until about 2pm and then headed back to the room to rest up and get ready to eat at Medieval Times.

We had a 5pm reservation at the restaurant and we were able to walk right in and enjoy a drink at the bar. When we were seated for dinner we were in the blue knight's section which was directly across from the knight's entrance into the arena. For those of you that have not been to Medieval Times,it is a dinner theatre with horses and knights, jousting and sword fighting. The only food you are served is food you don't need utensils for as you don't get any knives or forks. We had garlic bread, 1/2 a roasted chicken, a beef rib, and half a roasted potato. We were also served tomato bisque soup but I passed on that as I just don't like tomato soup. But back to the show. The blue and yellow knights really knew how to play to the crowd. These guys have to be really athletic as they are falling off their horses and sword fighting and those swords are heavy. The horses were gorgeous and there was even a little horse show where they showed some battle moves that they used to teach the horses. Kind of like a mini Lipizzaner Stallion show. We all agreed that the show was excellent but the food sucked. If you go, don't plan on getting a great meal but the show is definitely worth it. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this...one of Tom's friends hooked us up with 2 for 1 tickets to the show. That made it even better!!!)

After dinner we headed back over to Disney. We thought that they were going to have a parade and fireworks and one of the cast members lied to me and told me that the Christmas lights were supposed to be turned on at 5pm. The lights were not on and there was not a parade scheduled and because of the winds and wildfires in the area, the fireworks show was cancelled too. The fireworks were not cancelled until right at 9:30 so we had waited around for a while waiting for them. The closer the time got, the more crowded Mainstreet became. Dianne and Cindy were sitting in their carts and I was sitting on the fence behind them. There was a couple with a little girl right next to us. I wasn't paying particular attention to them, until the mom used the phrase that sends me into orbit whenever I hear it. I'll try to set up the scene for you as best I can. So where we were seated, we could kind of see a little bit of the fireworks that were going off from the Fantasmic show on the Rivers of America where the Mark Twain is docked. These fireworks do not go up very high, but you can catch a glimpses of them in other parts of the park because there is not any wasted space at Disneyland. So anyway, the little girl got super excited because she saw a couple of fireworks through the tree limbs and thought they were standing in the wrong place for the show. Her mom bends down and says to her "Honey, we are not waiting for THOSE ONES, we are going to see THESE ONES." Then she kind of made a motion towards the castle. I was like in shock because I often don't get a double whammy on poor grammar in one sentence. Dianne looked up at me immediately because she knew I was going to have some kind of a reaction. She was not disappointed. We laughed our asses off and I made some comment about the mom making sure her daughter grew up with bad grammar. For those of you that know me, you know that this was like a nails on the chalkboard moment for me.

After the fireworks were cancelled, we decided to make our way back to the entrance of the park and head back to the room. We did take our time and Tom and I kind of strolled back while Dianne and Cindy went ahead on their motorized transportation. When we got up to the town square, Dianne was very excited. She said "Look Bev, it's Mickey." Mickey had come out to mingle with the crowd but was posing with kids to have take pictures. I had to have my picture taken with Mickey!!! But while we were waiting out comes Minnie. OMG!!! She is gorgeous!!! Dianne saw her first and said she stuck her shoe out of the door and kind of waved before she came out. She said it was hella cute. So anyway, Dianne and I got to have our picture taken with Mickey and Minnie. And now we have become huge Minnie fans too. She is so nice!!! Both of them blew little kisses to us. It was great being 12 again for a few minutes. After the highlight of my night, we dragged our asses back to the room and got ready for bed so we could do it all again on Monday.

So anyway, I know this is a lot of reading so I will sign off for now. Dianne, Cindy and I have to get ready for our spa treatment this morning. (We got into Napa last night and we are staying at the most amazing place. But I will tell you about that later.) Bye for now.