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It was my turn to get sick. I started running a fever on Saturday and got a little freaked when it was 102.3 on Sunday. Now I'm left with a horrible cough, chest congestion and a voice that will startle anyone. I'm about to go to the dr and hopefully get some stronger cough syrup. I do feel a little better today, that is when my abs aren't aching from the coughing.
My dermatologist called back today and after 2 years, I finally know what I'm allergic to that makes my eyes swell up. Lanolin and FD&C Yellow Dye #6. Now I'm on a hunt to figure out what products contain those. And I'll write to Clinique and see if they'll give me a list of products I can use. It's been so long since I've worn eye makeup.

Jeff is sick right now so I've been following him with the lysol :) He's not complaining of body aches, so hopefully it's just a cold. He's had a bad cough so I slept in the guest bedroom last night. Man, is that weird. It just seemed odd to be sleeping apart when we haven't been fighting or anything.
I'm still keeping busy with freelance work. oh, and I need to get tax stuff together. I have my fingers crossed for a decent refund this year.

Work sent me to set up and man a tradeshow booth in Albuquerque this past week. Overall the days were long but I had good company and plenty of laughs. The conference was at a hotel on the edge of Old Town which was full of cute shops and restaurants. Monday night I had food poisoning of some sort but I was good for the rest of the trip, though scared to try more of the red chili sauce :) They gave the exhibitors a 2 hour break for lunch, so after going to lunch with the group I usually walked around old town where I got some more silver jewelry and did buy a small piece of pottery. Exhibitor hours went till 7pm, so by Wednesday we started tearing down at 3pm, so I could hopefully see a sunset. We were on the tram going up the Sandia Mountains at 5:40 but it was really cloudy so I was a bit worried. We lucked out and it was gorgeous. Just freezing and windy - but worth it. We actually had to wait on standby for about 35 minutes while they added extra weights to the cable cars since winds had picked up (probably over 40mph). Then we headed out to a local restaurant recommended by a newspaper lady and that was definitely the best meal of the trip. Jim and Ken's stuff sopapilla was the size of their head! I stuck with soft tacos that had wonderful guacamole. Then we headed home yesterday before the snowstorm struck :)

It's been a while since I drove down Holmes Ave and I saw a whole street of houses missing and the ground torn up. I'll have to go back and examine more. I'm glad to see UAH expanding. Maybe they can eliminate the rest of the small subdivision and build there, so kids won't have to walk across Sparkman Dr. Five minutes searching the university's website yielded no results to what is going across from the fitness center, so if you know please email me.

So I've been reading follow up about the noro virus that affected the cruise I was on a few weeks ago. Seems that people were sick on the cruise before ours, the one I was on, and sure enough the one right after. We arrived on the 28th and it was set to go out again, but this time people were given written notice of the outbreak, what it was and how to minimize it. One person wrote in, that they chose to still take the cruise and sure enough later on you could smell vomit in the halls.
We are booked for an Alaskan cruise this summer and I wonder if they would tell me the truth if sick people were on the cruise right before ours. I'll definitely ask. How do they plan to stay in business if they can't disinfect the ship between cruises???

The thunderstorms woke me up at 3:42 am, but my bladder kept me awake, so when I got up and went in the bathroom, away from our noisy box fan, thats when I heard the tornado sirens flaring. I woke up Jeff and we both ofcourse go look out the window :) (what you are not supposed to do). I turned on the TV as the weather guy was saying street names about 4 miles to the west of us and a second rotation about 3 miles due north of us. That woke me up. Luckily no major activity in our vicinity. And while I tease the weathermen for adding drama to every passing storm, I'm glad they gave us warning days ahead of time about the possibility, because I might not have gotten up and heard the sirens. Last time I looked news was reporting 4 deaths in Alabama. Tennessee and Arkansas faired much worse.

I voted for Obama this morning. My parents would be so disappointed :) While I'm not thrilled with our candidate choices, I am proud that we have a black man and a woman this far in the election. Amazing stuff for history! I really hope people are not voting for Hilary just b/c she's a woman. I really don't trust her at all. A friend just sent me a link to a news article about her raising $800k from lobbyists while Obama only has $86k from employees of lobbyist firms. And that whole crying thing, I think she's pulled it twice now, was a crock of bs in my opinion. I could go on, but I'll stop. I have my fingers crossed that Jeff will vote tonight. Everyone should vote - if you don't vote you can't complain later :)

Even though we are not having a Mardi Gras party this year I still wanted a king cake. So while at Publix today I picked one up. Then I got to talking with a friend I ran into and looked down and saw a black baby with my king cake. For some reason this cracked me up - you can choose whether you want a black or white baby for your cake.

We just returned from our second cruise to Cozumel. Last Thursday we left Mobile on the Carnival Holiday ship. The seas were a bit rough but I had the behind the ear patch that worked great. There were 19 people in our party, so it was fun to have people to hang with whenever. Some of the group was Angie's family that may have tested her nerves but hopefully her friends evened out the fun part. The adults got several breaks from the kids since they loved the kids camp activities. I managed to keep Jeff out of the hairy chest competition that involves cheesy dancing which would make me cringe. Our day in Cozumel was split between some shopping, lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, and lounging on the beach. The kids got in the ocean but it was still a bit cold so we stayed out. No snorkeling this time unfortunately.
We were on the ship by 4:30 and the ship started to leave at 5pm. We were all on the deck waiting to get far enough out to see the sunset that was blocked by the larger Royal Caribbean ship. As soon as we got far enough out to see the sunset we started moving backwards and heading back to the pier. The announcement said that medical help was coming to take one of the passengers away, and sure enough an ambulance was driving down the pier. I'm still not sure what that was about. We were aware that the Norovirus had already affected 145 people on our ship. (Thats the stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea) Yuck. We only knew about this because one friend went to the infirmory to get a seasick pill and saw people laying all of the floor. Carnival never made any announcements over the intercom -only on the TV, and that was dated 2005, so it was not clear there was an outbreak ongoing. I just learned that 2 of the kids and one mom have gotten sick today. Now the paranoia starts for me.
Overall it was a fun trip, and I'm definitely glad we had many friends to share it with. My photos are in the usual place on picasaweb.

I will never go on network solutions website again! Every time you do a search to see if a domain name is available it locks it for 4 days, then when it releases it, it's on a list that people are waiting to purchase and try to sell to you for crazy dollar amounts. So in the meantime during those 4 days people are scared into purchasing through Netsol for $35 instead of the going rate of $8 everywhere else. Netsol posted a response but I still think it's a crock of shit. In the meantime I may have just screwed a freelance client. I hope the .com version of their domain is available in a few days. I am so pissed right now. There is alot of talk on several websites about the legality of this and how it's just a matter of time before a class action law suit is started. I hope Network Solutions goes out of business.

UAH is hosting Yale this weekend. Jeff's parents, one brother, and 2 family friends will be at our house in a few hours. For Saturday night's game there will also be a 10 year reunion for the '98 UAH Chargers team that won the national championship. I'm not sure what all is planned for that, but it should be fun. I've also been told that tonight will be the first time they sell alcohol at the hockey game. The next piece of drama may be the snow. You just never know how much to believe the weather guys around here.

The drive home was pretty - snow flakes flying almost horizontal onto the windshield. Unfortuneately we only got a small dusting that is already melted. Doubt I'll be getting out of work tomorrow.

So last week was a bit crazier than normal. I'm not used to being on the phone much, but lots of family calls were exchanged. After several revisions, we got the obituary written and I posted it in the Houston Chronicle. You can read it here. We were all shocked to find out how much they charge to run an obit ad - almost $12 a line (with a line being 3 or 5 words). so this was almost $200. I've heard other cities are free.
I don't want to get into it too much here, but there are some truly kind people my mom made friends with in CR that helped take of her. Words can't express my gratitude and I'll always be thankful there are people in this world that can love a friend so much. One of her friends fw'd some pics from the memorial they had at the house. This one is clickable to a larger version in a new window.

Friday night we went out to eat with some of my work buddies since Philip is leaving town. Afterward 4 friends came back to our house and we played pool and ping pong. Overall, nice fun night.

Since I'm a planner, work is a bit stressing right now. I'm trying to plan a booth for a tradeshow and I'm still waiting to hear what all we're bringing and if I'm going. Shipping has to get done before my cruise on the 24th. I haven't had time to enjoy the planning part of the cruise yet. It will be a very nice break - no phones or email for me to hear the latest family drama. I'm not used to family drama! :)

Have you ever seen a fire in a cemetery? It's pretty creepy. Yesterday driving home I passed a small cemetery near our house and I saw the smoke from far away and when I came up on it there was a guy stirring pine needle brush into a couple small fires - right on top of graves. My first thoughts were isn't that sacrilegious or something? Or maybe he was driving away evil spirits with some kind of fire or smoke ritual. My mind was racing! When I got home I asked Jeff if he saw it and he said 'yeah, I thought the guy was just clearing brush'. It was no big deal to him. Even with all the fantasy books he reads, he said an evil spirit thought didn't enter his head. go figure!

For New Years Eve we partied with Keith and Angie and friends at their house. Now days I'd rather a fun house party than a smokey bar so we had a great time.

Friday we flew into Austin to visit with my family. My step brother and his wife came with us to the Salt Lick for BBQ. Definitely the best BBQ I've ever had, well maybe Rendezvous Ribs are better, just for ribs though. The weekend continued with eating red meat everyday including market wienies, homemade tamales and finishing off with Akaushi beef. There was an article in Texas Monthly about this HeartBrand beef started by Japanese cows brought to a ranch near Yoakum, Tx. The going rate is about $95 for one steak in a restaurant. Dad took us to a place in Moulton, Tx where it was only $35. He got a ribeye and Jeff got a sirloin. Both said it was good but not worth $95, but they were still glad they could say they've tried it.
In the morning we had to have calaches for breakfast, later We had cake for Alan's 12th birthday and ofcourse had Blue Bell ice cream with it. Elise got a really cool handmade firepit for Christmas, so we made smores one night. Looking back now I think we just ate meat and sweets :) We had great weather and did spend some more time going through my Grandma's stuff. I came home with lots of buttons, some costume jewelry and more photos from my childhood.

Saturday night my aunt called to say my mom passed away. I'm glad my brother and I were together to get the news. A couple hours later Courtnay got a call about her dad in the hospital, but word today was he was doing much better, so hopefully that scare is over. Overall it was a good trip interrupted by that bad news.

We flew Northwest airlines who started enforcing a 1 carry on bag rule. And one small bag, not an over stuffed backpack as we had. So that resulted in one of my Christmas presents breaking. Luckily that one is replaceable and it wasn't the fostoria glass platter I brought back from my grandma's stuff.

4 days seemed longer than it was. Back to the routine...

We celebrated Christmas with Jeff's family this past weekend. Everyone came in Friday night and we had our wine and cheese tasting again. Well Greg spiced it up a bit with a shrimp baguette appetizer that was yummy. Presents were exchanged and Jim cracked us up (and scared Karen) with his homemade drawings on gift tags. Claire's dad did an amazing job on a wedding photo album; the parents got a big version and we got a smaller flip book. Bruce has 2 books on digital photography how-to, so he better be an expert by the time we all travel for the Alaskan cruise. Saturday's weather was beautiful, so the guys went out early to play disc golf and then later played croquet in the backyard. That night we had a nice dinner, beef tenderloin. Karen went to bed early since she was still in alot of pain but she's having her second back surgery this morning, so hopefully they'll fix her up for good. The guys were watching football and nearly passed out, so Claire and I took off to go to a friends house. It was a mini highschool reunion with some girls I haven't seen for 3 years or so. The last 2 weekends have been good for seeing several old friends and catching up. Now I'm looking forward to seeing some of my family this weekend.

Does Christmas feel like Christmas when you don't see any family or have big gatherings and kids around creating chaos? To me, not really. So I'm trying to stay in the Christmas spirit through the next 2 weekends, when we will see family. Our 4 day weekend started off fun when 2 of my highschool friends came over Friday night. We just talked, caught up on things, drank 2 bottles of wine, ate Dancing Deer cookies (yum!) and played some ping pong. The rest of the weekend consisted of a lot of laziness in PJs and movie watching. We did go out to see the Golden Compass. Then it was back to the comfort of our couch. I did make some sugar cookies from scratch and I think I'll just buy some Pillsbury dough next year - much easier and probably tastier. Overall it was a nice calm weekend with just the husband and kitties. I had to wonder how many people have this stress-free a Christmas. We'll see some chaos in a couple weekends when we go to Texas and hang around some hyper nephews :)

I have been holding out trying to find a good weekend to visit my dad in Texas. My brother will be on call for work xmas weekend, so they are planning on going to dad's Jan 4th weekend. So last night I purchased tickets for me and Jeff to fly on Jan 4th and back that Monday. So we'll just celebrate Christmas a little late with my family. Either Friday or Saturday we'll take Jeff to experience Salt Lick BBQ - he can feast on real Texas BBQ! I have my fingers crossed for mild/warm weather :)

Tis the season for giving and caring which makes me think of those less fortunate, which then gets me to thinking of all that I have. So I've been trying to be more conscious and thankful for so many good things in my life. I'm not sure what order they would go in but the top of list would be my health, family and happy marriage. Though I'd like to be closer to my family (in physical location) I always know I can call them or get on a plane and see them unlike so many people with loved ones serving this country for a war that seems to be dragging on forever. I'm also thankful for a job and having money in the bank, which makes me think back to how I got it all. There have been a lot of influential people in my life both good and bad - penny-pinching grandma and hardworking father to teach the value of a dollar, and then the other extreme of extended family members collecting welfare money and living in poverty. They all help guide paths I've chosen in life and I'm so grateful to have a nice house filled with probably too many materialistic gadgets and women's shoes. In trying to think of non-materialistic things, I thought how I'm pretty darn happy to be able to do or go most anywhere I want. There have been some scary news articles lately out of other countries, about women threatened for leaving their house without a husband, one for example, got raped and put in jail for allowing herself to get raped since she was alone. So while we do have crime in the U.S., I do usually feel secure in my daily life and I don't want to imagine having to live without the freedom and securities I probably take for granted too often. And on a lighter note, for those rough days I feel like complaining about petty stuff, I'm so thankful for my girlfriends lending their ear and sharing a margarita!

My sister called me Monday to tell me her 13 year old was going to have his appendix taken out. Poor kid, that sounds like so much pain. Luckily they did get it out before it burst, and he just has 3 tiny incisions, so hopefully he'll heal up fast. Between 4 kids (3 boys), she is in the hospital pretty frequently. I need to ask her what the record is for most in one year.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store and got a good laugh walking up. In between Publix (grocery store) and the Marble Slab Creamery (ice cream) is GUNS, selling guns and ammunition. I've never paid attention to where gun stores are, but certainly would not have guessed someone would place it in a major strip center where kids need to walk by it to get to an ice cream shop. Wonder how long it'll stay around.