R3

Contest. WINNER!

I listen to the Q Morning Crew on 94.7 every day during my hour long commute to work in the mornings. Each day of the week they play a different game. Tuesday is "Battle of the Sexes" day. I have tried every single Tuesday for at least 6 straight weeks to get in on this contest. I actually get anxious and excited when Tuesday gets close. I'm serious about this game. So today, I called as I usually do, and when they answered the phone I expected them to tell me they were looking for a guy to play (that's what I've heard about 4 other times), but they didn't! I got through and got to PLAY!

So here's how it works. The guy radio personality (Marty) asks the girl contestant trivia questions about "guy" stuff and the girl radio personality (Janie) asks the guy contestant questions about "girl" stuff. The girl contestant goes first and they alternate questions, best of three wins. If there is a tie, there is a tiebreaker question. If the score remains tied at the end of that, they flip a coin to determine the winner. The questions are all multiple choice and generally fairly easy in my opinion (I can usually get the questions without the multiple choice offerings ).

This is a reader's digest version of today's game.

My question: How many NFL games were played on Thanksgiving day?
My Answer: 2
The Answer: 3
(I answered 2, remembering Detroit and Dallas. That was wrong. It was a trick question in my opinion. This was the first year they decided to play 3 games. I told them no one has time to watch 3 games on Thanksgiving, that they should have left it at two.)

Guy's Question: On the TV show FRIENDS who said the wrong name during their wedding vows?
His Answer: Chandler
The Answer: Ross

SCORE: 0-0

My Question: What was the name of Patrick Swayze's character in the movie, ROAD HOUSE?
My Answer: Dalton
The Answer: Dalton

Guy's Question: When a baby is born feet first it is called what?
His Answer: Breech
The Answer: Breech

SCORE: 1-1

My Question: Shawn Michaels and Triple H are the founders of what wrestling team?
My Answer: D-Generation X
The Answer: D-Generation X

Guy's Question: Butterhead, iceberg and romaine are all types of what?
His Answer: Lettuce
The Answer: Lettuce

TIE SCORE 2-2

TIE BREAKER
My Question: Who is the host of MTV's "Yo Mamma"?
My Answer: Wilmer Val....
The Answer: Wilmer Val...

Guy's Question: On the show Grey's Anatomy, what is McSteamy's character's real name?
His Answer: Derrick Shepherd
The Answer: Mark Sloan

WAHOOO!! I WIN!!

And boy did it feel good. I felt accomplished. I had been trying at this for quite some time. The questions weren't as easy as they are when I'm not playing, but I managed. I won a $45 gift certificate to Carrabba's. I love that restuarant. I love that radio station. It was the first time I can remember winning a contest and definitely the first time I was on the radio!! It was a good way to start the day.

Roundtrip.

This time I got to fly in the morning rather than at night. We were up at 5:30am in order to get me to the airport for my morning flight. Once again my flights were on time, but no one was arrested. They were offering $200 and two meals to 3 people that were willing to take the 8:30pm flight to Raleigh. I coudn't get to the counter soon enough. Five other people beat me to the lady holding their prize for getting home later than scheduled. It was fine with me, I was excited to get home to my boys. Once I was home we spent the day watching football followed by a shopping trip to buy Christmas decorations, then it was home to rest and get ready for the week. I did a lot of flying over the past few days but it was all worth it. I took a lot of pictures at the airport and on the airplane, this one was my favorite.

Family.

I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of "quiet" or even anything to represent the absence of noise after everyone left today. I would have liked to get a picture of everyone together, but that didn't happen either. So instead I took this picture, because to me, it represented family. Little things about being home make me happy, and shoes by the front door is one of them. Especially when there are a lot of shoes of various shapes ans sizes. That means the whole family is together in one house, and that is why I go home. Today was a quiet day full of shopping and resting and eating, of course. It was great to see everyone during this trip. Its back to my North Carolina family tomorrow.

Ice Skating.

Dad had a brilliant idea today. The kids were bored. They love hockey. We live in Michigan. We all used to ice skate.

Dad: Let's take the big kids ice skating. It's something different. As long as we have one skating adult for each kid, I think they'd do alright.

I looked around, counted big kids: Grace, Nathan, Jacob. One, two, three. Then I took another look and counted "skating adults". Dad, obviously was one, since it was his bright idea. Robyn with her giddy smile meant she was two, and was excited about it. Doug busted his knee a while back, and was holding the "not big kids" which meant he had a job and it didn't involve ice skates. Renee just came out and said it, "I'm not going." That settled that. Mom was waiting for Grandma to come over and needed to man the fort, she wasn't going. Turns out Dad's requirement for one skating adult for each kid was ultimately my way of volunteering even though I never said a word. I just owned a pair of iceskates. I made number three.

So, we loaded up the kids and went to the rink. The "skating adults" quickly realized that just because you used to do something, does not in any way mean that you still can. After a few warm-up/practice laps around the ice to "brush up" on our old skills, we encouraged the kids to join our shaky feet on the ice. I think Grace is the only one with some sense, thinking back on it. She didn't want to come out on the ice, and I can't say I blame her. I mean she just watched us wobble our way around the ice and then we told her to come out there with us while we held her hand. She must have thought we were crazy! We all ended up having a great time when it was all said and done. The boys used some makeshift "walkers" to help them around and Grace held our unsteady hands. Everyone had a good time and at the end of the 50 minute session we were all ready for some lunch. There was only one casualty all day. It will remain anonymous. Thanks for the idea, Dad. I was glad we went.

Thanksgiving.

Apparently the green bowl holds guts for every holiday. (Refer back to blog titled "Guts" in October) Can't wait to see what I'll find in the green bowl at Christmas.

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful and I'm looking forward to the turkey sandwiches to come.

Firsts.

Tonight I flew home to Michigan from Raleigh to be with my family for Thanksgiving. Over the course of the day I experienced a lot of "firsts".

1. It was the first time I left work on a Wednesday to go home for the rest of the week and knew I was still being paid for Thursday and Friday even though there would be no working involved.

2. It was the first time I took a cab to the airport, and paid just as much for the ride there as I did for my one-way flight. (practically)

3. It was the first time my plane left ON TIME and I landed in my layover city (Chicago) earlier than scheduled.

4. It was the first time I have had a cop come onto my airplane to arrest a drunk man after wrestling him to the ground and having this conversation:

Cop: Sir, please get up. You need to exit the plane.

Drunk Guy: I don't want to, I'm staying right here.

Cop: Move, NOW!

Drunk Guy: No need to get physical with me, I need my luggage, stop pushing me, I'm not leaving!

Cop: Let's go.

(Drunk Guy stands up and tries to fight the Cop. Cop then gains control of him somewhere on the floor of the aisle of the aircraft. They are out of sight at this point)

Drunk Guy: Ahh, SHIT! He's gonna shoot me!!

(Many gasps and various other worried noises made by Detroit-bound travelers like myself.)

Cop: I ain't gonna shoot ya, buddy. I'm just gonna taser your ass! C'mon!

(They exit with Cop forcefully encouraging Drunk Guy while holding his hands behind his back)

5. It was the first time I swore in front of a Pastor, twice, as I told my brother-in-law the story about the arrest when he and my sister and all 5 kids picked me up from the airport at midnight.

I guess there is a first time for everything. And I'm serious, I can't make this stuff up. I was glad to get home.

The Flood.

There are only a few people that you might expect to be knocking on your door at 12:30am. The maintenance man is not one of them.

There are only a few reasons you would want a maintenance man to come to your door at 12:30am. A flooded house is not one of them.

There are only a few reasons your house should be flooded at 12:30am. A broken toilet is not one of them.

There are only a few ways to repair flood damage caused by aforementioned broken toilet. New carpet is not one of them.

But what do we get?

Our never ending luck has won us a 4 day, 3 night stay with 2 wonderfully noisy fans, one out of order bathroom and a nonfunctional living room with furniture piled in the corner!

Saturday October 18, 2006

Hockey.

Josh got to watch his very first live NHL game tonight. We went to the RBC center to watch the Hurricanes play the Stars. It was Josh's first live game and from where we were sitting, two rows from the top, it appeared to be many other people's first game, ever. I quickly realized that hockey in the South is very different.

Top 5 ways to know you are at a hockey game south of the Mason Dixon:

5. They play Shania Twain's "That don't impress me much" when the other team scores a goal.

4. Ric Flair appears on the jumbotron when the home team scores and yells "Whoo, Whoo Whoo!" (prefessional wrestler from the south)

3. Groups of fans are sitting around "explaining" the rules of the game to one another, except they aren't right.

2. For every 5 barbecue and sweet tea vendors there might be one hotdog stand. (Josh had a barbecue sandwich (eastern carolina sauce) while I searched for a hotdog.)

And the number one way to know you are watching a hockey game in the south:

1. The zamboni.

The Hurricanes won, 5-4. It was a great game and we had a lot of fun. No matter where you are, hockey is a great sport. Go Wings!

Raining. Cats. and Dogs.

I can honestly say I have never seen so much rain in my entire life. My drive to work this morning was hellacious. I was forced to pull over to the side of the road twice and I saw approximately 10 cars wrecked in about 30 miles. It was horrible. There was a time during the day between the tornado warnings and flash flood warnings that I was afraid I would not be able to get home tonight. It rained all the way up until 4 o'clock. I got ready to leave around 4:30 today and walked out into the parking lot to find this. The sun was shining in a beautiful blue sky with picture perfect puffy clouds. I thought the sky looked best in the puddles in the parking lot. I was thankful for the gorgeous ride home.

We live in fear at work that we will find a cat hiding in some random place, especially the office or the gym. They run around outside and someone feeds them leftovers from the kitchen. Somehow they sneak into the building to pee in the conference room, and we can smell it. We had a discussion about animals at work today.

There was a tie for best animal admission:

Jaime: My cat is the best cat, except that he pees all over my house.

Kelly: My animals never really lived that long. They all got hit by cars and whatnot.

My doggies got to go on a playdate today. Our friends Loren and Jennings have two puppies. One of them is actually Brooks' real brother. They adopted Cameron and told us that he had a few liter mates still looking for a home. The very next day Brooks joined our family. Josh took Palmer and Brooks to play with their dogs this afternoon. Everyone was tired when I got home from work today. But the sun was out.

Driving.

From select rooms in the nursing home, there is a pretty decent view of a golf course. While helping a patient today, Kelly and I looked out the window to notice a golf cart parked with two golfers preparing to putt. Driving past them, most likely breaking their consentration, was a guy driving a rather large tractor down the fairway. This led to our discussion about golf and driving.

Me: I wish I liked golf. It looks like fun.

Kelly: I like driving the carts around.

Me: I'm bad at driving golf carts.

Kelly: I'm not, I'm really good at it. Well except for the time I ran into a house.


Later today I found Kelly attempting to drive a motorized wheelchair. She was concerned that the "turtle" setting was relatively fast and the "rabbit" setting was extremely slow. Backwards, apparently. I thought she just made up cute nicknames for the speeds, but no, there are really pictures of the two animals near the switch in order to choose the speed you prefer. What ever happened to fast/slow or high/low? Rabbit/Turtle????

This made me wonder what animal speed the golf cart was going when Kelly drove into the house.

Kelly and I went to Bojangles for lunch today and she drove. She did a fine job. We may not go golfing together.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. I called her on the way home from work, as usual. She reports she is not going out to dinner for her birthday tonight because it is cold and it took her a few hours to get warm from the last time she went out today. Instead, she is cooking tortilla crusted talapia for dinner, a dish I believe she was introduced to when she came down to visit me in Florida. This picture was taken that weekend at the old fort in St. Augustine. It was a particularly cold day when we decided to see the sights. I remember trying all day to get warm so we could move on to the next tourist trap and eventually make it to dinner. Good thing we managed to warm up enough that night to go out to dinner or she would have never found the talapia dish, and subsequently would not have anything to eat tonight on her birthday. I love you Mom. Stay warm.

Weird.

It is the middle of November. The leaves are changing colors. Christmas decorations are emerging in department stores. Tickets are being purchased for Holiday travel. The temperature was 79 degrees today...

Today we went shopping. It's weird to wear flip flops while shopping for winter coats. Its weird to shop for winter coats when it's not cold outside. It's weird to have warm weather in the middle of November. I love the south.

The ER

Our night in the Emergency Room by the numbers. (in chronological order)

18: Dollars spent at the gas station on supplies for our long night including snacks, drinks, magazines, newspaper and advil.

2: Bouncers at the door making us empty our pockets and walk through a metal detector.

7: People in front of us in line, just to register, when we walked through the doors.

20: Minutes spent in line behind those people just to give the lady our name and get our buzzer.

3: Wounded individuals with homemade bandages wrapped around appendages that they were trying to save.

2: Visits to the waiting room nurse just checking to make sure our condition was not worsening.

6: Magazines read.

3: Times our buzzer went off before it was actually time to go back to a room.

12: Times Josh claimed, "You did this to me".

5: Tubes of blood taken from Josh's right arm.

3: Extremely dumb statements made by our blonde nurse.

4: Prescriptions written to help with pain and swelling.

1: Referral to a rheumatologist.

10: Total hours spent at the hospital.


It was a long night. As we were leaving...

Josh: I've left hotel rooms like this before, covers all messed up with a cup of pee in the corner.

Big Foot.

So Josh is suffering from something that is causing weird arthritis like symptoms. It's sort of a long story, so I will avoid details at this time, but the biggest problem right now is his right foot. We have been to the doctor a few times and all we got was a bunch of wrong answers.
The doctor's diagnosis of the sore foot: (post X-ray): See this small thing here? It's the sesamoid bone. Not everyone has one, but its a small bone in the foot. Looks like you probably broke that bone from being on your feet a lot.

Hmmmm...

We have since learned that none of that was true, among other things that we were told. After about a month of limping and increasing symptoms we have decided that we will take a trip to the ER.

Me: Just tell 'em to cut your foot off.

Josh: Seriously. If they could just cut off my feet and my arms. Then I'd have 4 nubs, and be like a starfish. But I could cut a mean cartwheel.

To be sure I will provide more accurate reasonings just as soon as we get them.

Shoe Toys.

Since the addition of Brooks to the family, nothing has been quite the same. Palmer eats ALL of his food in fear of his lil brother eating a single kibble, there are twice as many half-chewed up bones around the living room, the smell of carpet cleaner once again fills the air, I wake up in time to see the sunrise, and employees of the rehab department only wear one shoe. I have brought Brooks with me to work the past few days. He is obsessed with shoes and EXTREMELY spoiled. His Aunt Tammy spoils him best. This picture explains it all, but the one of him asleep on the missing shoe across the room would have been good, too.

Yedam!

This is my friend, Yedam. His real name is Adam, but when I moved to NC from Michigan my sophomore year of college, my yankee accent was still pretty obvious and that northern "A" brought a lot of attention. My new southern friends accused me of calling him "Yedam", and I guess I probably did. Well, it stuck. (sorry yedam) Yedam and I hung out quite a bit in college and had some really great times together. He moved from Florida to go to Appalachian, and was gracious enough to invite me to vacation in is homeland a few times. We had a blast on the beach of Siesta Key. We also went to a wedding together once and showed up fashionably late just in time to get a good spot in the buffet line and miss the ceremony completely. He was there while I opened my acceptance letter to grad school and took me out to celebrate with a beer immediately even though it was really late. Neither of us like sweet tea or had any idea what bar-b-que (the noun) was prior to college. Yedam is a fellow blogger and I have added his blog to my page: "Witty City". He used to blog long before this and I was a very deicated reader of his talented writings. He recently started it up again (proabably to shut me up since I bugged him every day to start blogging again). Check his page out if you get a chance. Yedam and I have always been there for one another, and here's just one more example.

Tonight on IM.

Yedam: You need to update your blog missy.

Me: I know, I just can't think of anything to write about. I've had a long day at work and my puppies keep me pretty busy when I'm home.

Yedam: Yeah, it's tough to get motivated to sit down and write after a day like that.

Me: Ok, I'm gonna go do it.

Yedam: atta girl, it's like we're work out buddies...we've got to keep each other on task.

Me: I love it.

Yedam: You could even write about that if you wanted.

It's like he read my mind.