Sometimes coming up with titles for these things just gets to be a pain in the ass.

Sorry I skipped out on Sunday Quote Blogging this week. Maybe I'll feel inspired later to get a mid-week quote together. Hmmm...what to tell. My life really isn't that exciting these days. I get to see Randy tonight for the first time in a week...I think. Something like that. Last week he had a program mid-week at work, then the next night it was D&D night, then he left Friday to go to David's for the weekend & by the time he got home last night, I was tired and in the mood to crash on the couch for the night (which I did & it was awesome!). Hmm...Randy just must be not that into me anymore. (I joke...how could he not be into me? I'm too cute not to love!...Joking again.) So anyways, I finally get to hang out with the boyfriend again tonight. No idea what our plans will be but I'm good with whatever makes it's way into our evening.

I had a nice weekend to myself....kind of. Friday night I hung out with my friend Matt. We went to an early dinner then back to my place & played a trivia game (which he slaughtered me at by the way), & watched a little TV.

*break for Chicken Wings with Randy & Neil*

Saturday I got up really damn early - way too early for a weekend (6:30am) and drove to Findlay with the company car for a training for work. The training rocked - the guy who presented was awesome! And I got to drive the company car - a Dodge Intrepid...my realistic dream car. I'm not too keen on the way they look, but they drive like heaven! Thank goodness for cruise control; without it I would have been at 90 mph the entire trip! After the training I stopped by the Finders in Findlay and bought a few used CDs for fairly cheap.

I finally broke down and bought a long over due early Bob Dylan album. Highway 61 Revisited. How have I lived so long without this album?! Damn. I started with a much more recent and much older Dylan and I love his new stuff. But geez, where has his early stuff been my entire life?! I also bought some early Tracey Chapman and some more recent Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Sunday I spent the majority of the afternoon cleaning portions of my disastrous apartment. I managed to do a top to bottom clean of the bathroom & the bedroom & closet. And I did a reorganization of my bookshelf too...that took a while. I've added a lot of books since the last time I reorgananized, so it took some doing to get everything in the right spot again.

I went to work Monday (one of my normal days off) and got a lot accomplished thanks to being the only one in the office & the phones being fairly quiet. Life as usual I guess. This month at work will be insane. I can't wait until the middle of May or June when things settle into a routine & calm down.

Oh. Last night was the return of a new season of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdian on the Travel Channel. 2 back to back episodes. I loved every minute of it! He used to have pretty much the same show on the Food Network (A Cook's Tour) and it was pretty awesome. If you haven't seen No Reservations and you're into food and weird locations, check it out. Something that kind of weirds me out about Anthony Bourdian is that he looks exactly like a friend of mine from college whose name was also (drumroll please) - Tony! So Anthony Bourdian looks exactly like my friend Tony, only 20 years older. But it's a really strong resemblance. It's weird!

Anyways, another long winded blog from me. That's how they come these days...not more than once a week, and really long when I get the urge to blog. More picture coming in upcoming editions.

Picture Time!

I haven't posted any pictures in a while, so I figure it's about time for some. Here's a handful of pics from my time away at the conference last week. I have lots more to post, but this is enough for now. The beginning few are from the dinner/dance at the conference. The rest are from my visit to the host site (Slate Run Living History Farm Metropark). Beware - this is where my country girl roots come out. Enjoy!.

Randy & I at the dinner/dance. 

Reconnected with an old friend! Me & Mandy at the dinner & dance! 

Plow, plow, plow all day long...plow, plow, plow while I sing this song. 

Awesome Draft Horses plowing the field for planing. 

A new calf! He was really cute, but he wasn't happy with learning to be lead around. I pet him...he was great! 

An awesome team of Oxen! These guys were great! Friendly too! They let me pet them for 10 minutes or so. 

A cool shot of the main barn & the windmill. 

Here Piggy piggy piggy! I got to pet this big guy! He was really friendly...& really dirty too. 

A sweet sheep at the Slate Run Living History Farm! 

A Weekend Away!

Later on today I'm off to another conference! Work isn't paying my way to this one because their paying my way to a bigger conference in June that's in Baton Rouge. But my boss had no objections to giving me the time off when I expressed interest in paying my own way.

I'm leaving around 5:30ish tonight. Angela & George (previous & maybe future co-workers from the park) are also going on their own budget, so I'm car pooling down with them to save us all on gas costs. It's a MOMCC conference. This will be the 3rd MOMCC conference I've attended. I'm looking forward to a great time! I'm starting to get to know some of the people enough to not feel the pressure of having to mingle with strangers...most of them don't feel like strangers anymore. (Don't get me wrong, living history people are plenty strange, but at least I'm getting to know them & can finally start attaching faces with names.)

I'm running way behind...I did laundry last night and it took longer than expected. (I had 4 double loader washers & 6 dryers! Phew!) When I finally got home & ate dinner I was too pooped to pack or clean. This morning I went shopping for a new bathing suit (the pool & hot tub are great places to make those professional connections at these things). Urg! Why is buying a new bathing suit such a pain in the ass?!?!?! I went to Target first & everything was too flashy & not me & the 2 suits I actually likes didn't fit regardless of trying on all available sizes. Urg!!! So I finally gave up there & went to Kohl's & had much better luck. Still frustrating in the changing room, but I actually found one that I like & that fit better than any of my other options. And it was on sale! Bonus!

Anywho, I'll be out of town until Saturday night sometime. So I won't be blogging until Sunday at the earliest! Have a great few days!

Sunday Quote Blogging & Other Stuff

"What they don't teach you in art school is how your whole life is about discovering who you already were."
~ Chuck Palahniuk from his novel "Diary"

Last night a group of us got to hang out at Sal's & see an awesome slideshow of all his pictures from his 6 weeks in India. Good times. Friday night was hanging out at Anne & Neil's & we got to see Joel...he's gotten big...geez, baby's grow so fast!

The shooting guns thing I mentioned in my last blog didn't happen. Well, it did happen, but it happened without me. I get up, get ready for work, get to my car and shazam - my battery is dead! How cool is that?! Just for the record - Honda's are not easy to deal with in such situations. Things as simple as putting the car in neutral to push it to someplace we try a jumpstart are far too involved & silly. Grrr. But it eventually got taken care of & the battery was replaced $120 green ones later. Being an adult sucks sometimes.

Had an icky doctors appointment that same day. But it went well & it gave me a reason to be in Ann Arbor, which meant I got eat lunch at a really awesome sandwich shop called "Potbelly Sandwich Works". The food was awesome & cheap! I think it'll now be added to my list of places to go to when I'm in Ann Arbor. As they call themselves, it was indeed a "first class dive!"

And I also got to shop at Trader Joe's for lots of yummy healthish foods. I love that place! I miss having them close like I did out west. Good stuff for fairly cheap. And I did something fairly momentous: I bought Half Caff coffee! Damn - how unexpected is that?! I think I've finally gained some sort of control over my caffeine addiction!

For now, off to Randy's dad's for the day.

Sunday Quote Blogging - A Few Days Late

"I had no worries when I had no doubts,
Courage was something I could live without"
~ Bedhead
from their 1996 album "Behead'd"
Song title: "What's Missing"

Hmmmm...where to start? Well it's been a rather strange week filled with lots of stress from work that was complicated with stress from my personal life over the weekend. An emotional weekend to say the least, but I did end up getting a lot done in effort to distract myself from stuff I'd just rather not think about.

Work stress is just work stress, & will hopefully only last until the end of the month or so. Friday at work, after a long, annoying meeting that took me away from doing huge projects that are far more important than anything discussed in the meeting, I found out my best friend from High School Grandmother died. I knew her and even though I hadn't seen her since High School, I can know how much she did for Juanita & what a huge gap she helped fill in her life. My boss ordered me to take Saturday off work as a "mental health day" and I must say that I needed it.

Friday night I had dinner with my friend Matt, which was good because it lightened my mood & forced me to eat something. (My stomach doesn't react well to mass amounts of emotion & stress). I returned home after dinner in a much healthier mindset.

Saturday went bye in a blur. I had to stop into work to turn in my time sheet, but socialized with everybody rather than working. Spent the afternoon lounging around writing a couple letters. And I rented & watched Deliverance in the evening.

Sunday I spent the morning relaxing with coffee & the late afternoon & evening at the viewing. Yesterday was the funeral. I hate getting emotional in front of people, but I didn't have much of a fight in me.

Got to talk to my good friend B last night on the phone. Always good conversation right when I need it.

Today work was far more productive than it has been the past 2 weeks combined because I had no meetings & removed myself from the distractions of the office to finish a project. It's done at last...now for the bigger project that follows. Randy & I had a great evening Ice Skating outside at Ottawa Park. Weather was perfect & the ice was nearly empty!

Tomorrow I get to shoot guns at work (nervous) & then go to an icky doctors appointment. Fun stuff. Anyways, sorry this is so long. But it has been a while...& it might just be a while before the next one, so enjoy the silence while it lasts.