October FCC Luncheon

I am still catching up on posts. Here are some great pics from our FCC lunch at Emerald Coast in October. It was our Halloween party, hence all the great pics of the costumed kiddies. I was so glad to "get away" from the office for just a couple hours and spend time with our FCC Family and actually celebrate Halloween a little bit. If there is anything I miss about our retail costume store, it is getting to see all the kids dress up.

The Loser Test Results . . .

Geek: You're smart, like a nerd, but you focus your energy primarily on technology: your computer, the latest gadgets, random trivia, movie quotes, every detail of your favorite characters lives, etc. You have some social life (like clubs that focus around your obsessions, with other like-minded Geeks), but you're not exactly popular. Not to worry, though you may get made fun of in high school, those "jocks and popular kids" will be working for you when you're an adult.

Take the Loser Quiz at QuizRocket.com!

Make Your Own Quiz

Merry Christmas 2007!

Exclusive Cloverfield Video

Grab the video and help me win a special hometown viewing!

Family Photos Sent with our Dossier

Here are the family photos we sent in with our dossier.





Daddy & Aku:


Mommy & Yogi:


And there was one other of us swimming with the dolphins, but I don't have that online yet . . .

Harry Potter Personality Quiz

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

How Do You Spell Relief?

I spell relief:

D-O-S-S-I-E-R- T-O- V-I-E-T-N-A-M!!!!

Whooo Hoooooo!

So happy that I finally got it sent out. Of course, I had one more delay this morning when I got to Kinkos and was unsure how to fill in the Vietnamese address I had into the Fed Ex form for Address, City, State and all of those unrelated fields. But, lucky for my sanity, I was able to find out before the Fed Ex express pick up today. I had a minor [well, no a major] break down in the middle of Kinkos this morning when I thought it would be one more day delay until sending it off. I am so happy and relieved. I would say "Oh, you have no idea!" But most of you know exactly what I mean!!!

And now the waiting begins . . . .

Another Day, Another Delay.

Similar to being nickel and dimed to death, I am being "one more day" delayed to death. I can't tell you how many times I have planned to get something out or get something done and had to wait "one more day". Ughhh. I forgot my checkbook today, so I could not send the check with the dossier paperwork. In hindsight, I could have got a money order from the bank, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. FedEx/ Kinkos is open 24 hrs/day, but we are leaving for NYC early tomorrow morning, so a late night Kinkos trip is not advisable.

So, instead of being more depressed about (hopefully) our last delay, I will be excited about our long weekend in NYC! I planned this trip in the middle of the stress and hustle and bustle of the Halloween season. Until about an hour ago, Myke only new we were going "somewhere", but had no idea where. I finally spilled the beans after almost three months - wow, that was a hard secret to keep.

So why all the mystery, you ask? Back in Sept., I found out that Jennifer Garner is on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac! AHHHH!! Myke still does not know that we are going to see his "TV Girlfriend" live and in the flesh! We are both huge fans of her, mostly from Alias, but we also loved her in 13 Going on 30. I know there won't be any spin kicks, spy missions, or ass kickings going on in Cyrano, but we'll get to see our special girl live - what a thrill!

As you can imagine, I was totally sweating it out up until a couple of weeks ago with the whole Broadway strike thing. Going to see this play is pretty much the whole reason for the trip. Risky, I know, but I HAD to take this risk! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, let her be there this Saturday night. If the understudy shows, I will be devasted!

Myke has never been to NYC. We were supposed to make a short appearance there this past August when we went to NY on a business trip. We were not staying in The City, but we were supposed to go to Manhattan the first day when our plane was delayed for about 8 hours. (Dang Jet Blue) So, Myke never got to see the city and was thoroughly unimpressed with Long Island. So, in the midst of the Halloween chaos and stress, I thought this would be a fun opportunity for Myke to get to see Times Square, Broadway, Rockafeller Center all lit up with the Christmas lights and decor and cold weather. It might even snow this weekend!

I know, I just got back on the blog, but I am actually NOT taking my computer with me this weekend. That is right! I will actually be computer-less for three whole days! Imagine that! It is a stretch for me, but we both need a vacation, and for me, a vacation is just not possible if I bring my little silver and black buddy along with me. ; )

I think the internet will survive without me for a few days and I may just survive without it. [Temporarily.]

I will be back on Monday with pics.

Mystere 10 Year Anniversary

I have two blogs so I have two sides of the story to my bloggers night out in Vegas. I was given the opportunity to see a few different shows while in Vegas in exchange for posting a review about it on my blog. I already posted my review - see my review of Mystere.

So on to my story. . .

As I said, the first time I saw Mystere was 10 years ago in July of 1997. It was my first trip to Vegas and we were there for a NCA convention (National Costumers Association). A bunch of us went to see Mystere and it was my introduction into the wonderful world of Cirque du Soleil.

Our seats were very close to the last row, if not IN the last row - but no matter, every seat in the house is a good one. My mom was with us and as we were sitting down, one of the "clowns" came and prompted her to move, he proceeded to take her all the way to the front, kick some poor guy out of his front row seat and put my mom in his seat. Her laughter ensued. My mom had this amazing giggle, it was pretty loud and usually embarrassed her, which made her laugh even more. The clown then came up to our friend Duane and took his popcorn, ate some and tossed the rest over the near by audience. He then realized that my mom had returned to her seat with us, gave her a look and the giggling started over again. Her laughter was contagious. This memory is so awesome and still so strong - I can hear her laughter and still see her smile. I pray I never forget. Me and dad and our friends often talk about this memory and smile.

So Mystere has such a special place in my heart, not only for the awesome show that it is, but for the special time we had there. I can't recount this day without also paying respects to our dear friend David, who was there with us then and is no longer here now. He was sitting next to me and we were both so amazed by the two men who balance one each other and lift each other in such an amazing display of grace & strength. I wish for him that he is in the big Cirque du Soleil in the sky somewhere being suspended and balanced by those hunky men!

I have since seen "O" twice, La Nouba in Orlando twice, Zumanity and two of the traveling shows here in Miami. I love them! I love how Cirque du Soleil transports you into another world. The show happens all around you. I had no idea what I was getting into and had no idea how truly amazing a live show could possibly be. If you have ever seen a Cirque show, you know what I am talking about and if you have not seen one, you truly do not know what you are missing! Only Disney captures magic like this. I am not saying that Cirque shows are anything like Disney World, just that they both transport you to an amazing fantasy place.

I have to close my post with a big THANK YOU to the performers of Cirque du Soleil. You have no idea what joy you bring to humanity. I thank you for your entertainment and for making the world a better place with your positivity.

OK, OK! - I AM BACK! (FINALLY)

I have so much to catch you up on - I don't even know where to start!

Dossier Completed - CHECK!

Dossier to Tallhassee - CHECK!

Dossier back from Tallhassee - CHECK!

Dossier to VN - TOMORROW!!!

I am fresh back from an awesome business trip to Vegas. I went to PubCon, which is a conference put on by Webmaster World. I learned so much, met so many cool people (aka other computer geeks) and had a blast in Vegas all at the same time. So, for anyone with a web based business that wants to learn about SEO, website design, social media, and more - check them out.

Halloween was such a busy, crazy time for us, I have just ignored my poor blog here and I have missed it so much. I love to post on here and plan to get you all caught up asap. So stay tuned and I will keep writing.

Checkout Our Cute New Couples Costume Video

For more information on any of the couples costumes featured in this funny video, see The Funny Couples Costume Page on AnniesCostumes.com.

For more costume videos, visit The Extreme Halloween Channel on You Tube.

INS Approval!!!

Hi All!

Just a real quick note amid all the craziness of our Halloween season.

We finally received our INS approval letter and are preparing to send in our dossier!

So that is our bit of good news amongst the Halloween Chaos that is Extreme Halloween in October. I will update as I can. Things are nuts (as usual), we are working late into the nights to make sure all of our orders get to our customers in time for their Halloween festivities.

To give you a quick idea of "a day in the life", the other day, the highlight of my day was that I did not have to wait around in the bathroom at work to re-flush the broken toilet a second time like I usually do. I found it amusing that I had so much joy in only having to flush the toilet once! Ugghhh!

Think Pink Costumes for the Cure

Hi All - I am still here, just a bit insane and insanely busy - as usual this time of year. I wanted to share with my blog readers one of the many projects I have been working on for my business:

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and we are honoring all women who have battled or are in the battle against breast cancer. We have put together a great line of pink costumes and costume accessories for our Think Pink Costumes for the Cure promotion. For each of our think pink costumes sold in the month of October, 10% of the sale will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. You can help us and celebrate Halloween all at the same time. Visit: www.anniescostumes.com/thinkpinkcostumes.htm

Thank you for your help and support!

My Niece is a You Tube Star!

Announcing the new "Halloween is Awesome" video for my business website. It features 10 of the Top Halloween Costumes for 2007; and stars my niece, Dee Dee, and my friend's son Alex. Aren't they adorable? Make sure you have your sound on so that you can hear the "Halloween is Awesome" funny song!



Ok, short commercial:

To see Extreme Halloween's entire list of the Top Halloween Costumes, visit ExtremeHalloween.com. You will see the best selling and most popular costumes in all sizes and categories.

Ghost Adventures - Non Believers Beware!

This post has been in draft since I saw the Ghost Adventures show in the Sci Fi Channel, I think, back in July. So, I am finally getting around to finishing it publishing it.

My middle name is procrastination! As punishment, I should be forced to re-do the middle name game meme with PROCRASTINATION as the name! lol and j/k

Did anyone else see this show on Sci Fi Channel called Ghost Adventures? It was so freaky! Myke and I are frequent watchers and fans of Ghost Hunters. On Ghost Hunters, every once in a while, you see something cool or hear something spooky, but they are usually de-bunking ghosts, which is what makes them so credible, to us, anyway. Myke has a tradition every time we watch Ghost Hunters, when the announcer comes on and say "tonight on TAPS", Myke finishes the sentence in the same voice: "nothing happens! But we will put a clip in the beginning here to make you think something happens, but really, nothing happens!" It is quite funny. And in case you don't know, Myke is the master of voices and accents.

Ok, but now back to this Ghost Adventures show. They totally caught an apparition on camera! It was goosebumps freaky! Myke and I were amazed that something actually happened. Then, at the end of the documentary, after they caught the apparition on film, they were invited to The Gold Rush Hotel, reportedly one of the most haunted placed on the planet because it is built on land where lay lines cross. (Lay lines fascinate me!) Two of the documenters planned on spending the night locked inside this hotel. They saw some shadows and a few paranormal things early in the night, but when they went into the basement, as they were about to enter a room reported to have a lot of paranormal activity, a lot of noise started up and just as they were in the threshold of the door to this room, a cinder block flew up off the floor across the room - AND they totally caught this on camera. It freaked these two men out so badly, that they ended up screaming and running through the hotel, losing each other, cameras rolling and then later reported that they were both so freaked out when they finally did find each other, they jumped out the second story window to escape the hotel!

Crazy, huh? What do ya'll think about that?

Oh and I forgot to mention that all of their footage was confirmed authentic by independent sources and they even had a physics professor analyze the footage of the cinder block flying across the room; he determined that it was not rigged or faked in anyway.

Adoption Paper Trail Update

Ok, sorry I have been away from the blog for so long. I have been so swamped with work stuff lately, it is getting really hard to keep up with everything as Halloween gets closer. The 6 day headache really put be behind schedule. Plus, I started a FaceBook profile - that is a really fun thing too, so I was playing around on that - infringing on my blog addiction!

And now on to the update:
Our passports came in the mail on August 30th - another important document crossed off the list.

We also received a paper from INS with contact information for a lady in the office. She needed copies of our tax info (not sure why?) and I had missed answering a question on my previous marriages (zero), which I told her over the phone.

So, I faxed the tax documents last week and she was just waiting on the home study report, which came in the mail on Wednesday - yeah! So, I mailed the home study off to INS today. She told me to expect to hear from her 10 days after she receives the home study. I wonder if that means I17h in 10 days?

I also received a packet from ADOPPT Wednesday in the mail. It contains our dossier check list and our travel packet! So exciting to look through that! I think we pretty much have all the paper work that we need for our dossier. Except for the 5 extra passport pics - we are going to go to CVS to get them done sometime in the next week. I also need to confirm that our marriage certificate is in the format, with the proper seal that they need.

So, depending on the I17h, I'm thinkin' we could be DTV by maybe October 15th? A referral with picture would sure be a nice Christmas Present!!!!!

I know that is cutting it close, and involves a great deal of wishful thinking! But come on, Santa, I haven't asked for much lately, and you never came through with "the new colon" that I asked you for many years. And never mind, that I grew up Jewish either, I have always believed in you!

I was really hoping it would be a little earlier time line, and I pretty much blame myself for not keeping on top of things. If I remember correctly, we were supposed to receive our home study report about a week after our home study visit, which was June 29th. I am in no way blaming our social worker, she has been awesome, the delay is really my fault. In the beginning of July we were away for a week and I expected to see it when we came back, but it wasn't here. I was so busy trying to catch up after traveling, I kept forgetting to call about it. Every day was something else and before I knew it, it was always late at night. (The burden of a night owl combined with a busy business owner. I get into work and its non stop for me all day long.) Then at some point, I had a memory lapse, brain fart, or whatever you call it, and started thinking that I only needed the home study for the dossier, not for the I17h, so I wasn't in a rush for it and didn't call to inquire where it was. I don't know when, why or how my thought process went down the wrong path, its just so much paperwork and filing, etc. I think I prematurely started trying to cross things off the dossier list. I just started a wrong thought process, and it finally dawned on me when I received the INS paper. DOH!

So, my delay might have cost us two or three weeks with INS. If the INS lady had the home study before August 30th , I would have faxed her the tax info on September 4th and 10 days from then, would have been this Friday! Maybe it makes a difference in the grand scheme of things, maybe it doesn't. Either way, everything happens for a reason. And in this case, that reason is a specific little girl out there in Vietnam who is meant to be in our family! So, our dossier HAS to get there at a specific time that fate has intended. That is my belief. And this is the end of my update!

Hilarious Magic Trick

Ok, more like hilarious brother and cool trick - [better description]

This trick is called

The Magic Color Changing Chinese Coin of DOOM!

Please Click Every Day!

Your clicks on this website link give free mammograms and cost you nothing but a click!

The Headache Update

I have been away from the computer for a few days because my headache got worse and was prolonged too. I went through a series of self diagnoses in between the headache easing up and getting to different levels of "worse".

First thought I was dehydrated - WRONG

Then I thought it was the patch and posted my first headache post - UNCONFIRMED - COULD HAVE BEEN THE HORMONES OR MY PERIOD IN GENERAL

Then thought it was my teeth because my jaws were hurting (as well as my temples)- I am deathly afraid of the dentist! - WRONG

Then I thought I had a sinus infection since my nose has been mildly stuffed up for a while. So I started pumping antibiotics and nose spray, which could have made it worse, cause it sure didn't make it better! - WRONG

Then Myke came up with the idea that it is a tension headache. - MOST LIKELY CULPRIT!

I waited out the weekend pumping in me just about any [perscription] drug I could get my hands on. Then realizing Sunday night that Monday was Labor Day and the doctor's office would be closed - ughh. One more [sleepless] night and Tuesday morning arrives, I call to find out that my doctor is not in on Tuesday! ughh. I am so distraught at this point, I wake Myke up and tell him to take me to the hospital. Since I had not slept at all, he told me to try and lay down and take a nap, because we all no once you get to the hospital, there is no sleeping! So, I ended up actually falling asleep until about noon. I woke up and felt a lot better, but I still went to the hospital. Luckily, the ER at the Cleveland Clinic was empty and we were seen almost immediately. The doctor there was so nice. They ran a Cat Scan, which was negative (whew!)and gave me some anti nauseau medicine and some pain medicine, which helped a little bit. They ran my blood work, which came back negative for infection, so he was unsure what was causing my headache and said the birth control, my period or stress were the likely culprits. I declined the spinal tap - no need for more pain! > : /
He checked the back of myneck and my shoulders and CRACKED the hell out of my neck (like a chiropracter) and I have pretty much felt better since. So, I think we are done with the headache and it was most likely stress and tension.

But I still do dread my next period, which comes every 3 weeks. Sorry for the TMI. But, that means its only about 2 weeks away now - ughhh. Maybe I should go on the birth control? Not the patch, but a pill? A period 3 times a year sounds much more agreeable.

Today's Quote from my Chocolate Calendar

"If you can't finish all your chocolate it will keep in the freezer. But, what is wrong with you that you can't finish all your chocolate?"

Some other favorite chocolate calendar quotes:

"I'm not fat, I'm chocolate enriched!"

and

"Store your chocolate on top of the refrigerator. The calories are scared of heights and they will all jump out."

Headaches and The Birth Control Patch

Is anyone else aware of this issue? I went back on the birth control patch (Ortho Evra) this month. My monthly "friend" came on Monday and yesterday night, I got a really bad headache, with naseua and the chills. This came in cycles all night long. At first I thought I was dehydrated, but with the amount of fluids I pushed, that is unlikely now and I still feel awful. I seemed to remember something about the patch causing headaches. So, I look it up online and there is all kinds of reports about increased chances of blood clots. The first thing I clicked on was this story about a lady who died after several days of agonizing headaches from the hormones released into her body. Ummm, HELLO, should I be panicking now? That's not something you want to see when you have a splitting headache for two days now. Vicodin didn't even get rid of it. I feel a little better now, but it still hurts.

Why are doctors still prescribing the patch then? I used the patch before and didn't have any major problems. Under side effects it does list headache and chills, so it could be nothing, or it could be bad. If it doesn't get any better, I guess I'll be heading off to the Emergency Room. Beter to be safe than sorry.

Needless to say, I took the patch off and I'm not gonna fill any more perscriptions for it. And at this point, I don't think I want to put any more hormones in my body. So, I'll just have to deal with the cramps. That was the only reason I was going back on birth control anyway, and as bad as my cramps are, I'll take them over this headache any day.

Sprint Sucks Part 2

So here I am two weeks later and Sprint has still not fixed my billing issue. (See the original post here.) So I am currently on minute 23 of my phone call into Sprint. And they are telling me some kind of bull crap was notated in the account after a supervisor told me he would fix the billing issue last time that they are unable to fulfill my request. ????? Why is this so hard? Why did I sign another two year contract with this stupid company? I swear I am out when my contract is up this time. Now I am on hold (again) after speaking to another supervisor who is trying to fix this for me. How hard can it be for this company to credit one payment and charge it to another card? OMG! My head is splitting and I am in no mood for this today. So this supervisor says there isn't anyway to fix this since my account is a zero balance. HUH? So supervisor #1 puts me on hold for supervisor #2. And I have to explain my story yet again. 33 minutes now. Supervisor #2 confirms that there is no way for them to credit the charge and switch cards. I tell her I don't understand how in this day and age of technology, with a big company like Sprint that this is impossible for them to do. I have been a customer for 8 years and they are going to lose me as a customer over this. She checks again with accounting who confirms that this is an impossible feat for the genius minds over at Sprint. So, I will head over to the Verizon store today and port my number over there. I don't care if I get charged for breaking the contract, its worth it. Oh, and I disputed the charge with my bank. TTHHHHHTTHH : )-
Sprint sucks, Sprint's phones suck, I wanted to switch to Verizon anyway, they have much cooler phones.

Magic Tricks Performed by "The Wizard"

For all of you magic enthusiasts, The Wizard (a.k.a. my brother, Jack Maxwell) at The Wizard's Apprentice Magic Shop has rolled out some great magic trick videos showing off the magic tricks as well as his awesome talent. Check it out:

Ring Case Magic Trick


The Vanishing Deck


Ball thru Glass

Survivor Alert!

Survivor will be in China this season. I am a huge fan of the show and this new season looks really intriguing. Check out the video on Official Survivor webpage at CBS

You Know You're a Blogaholic When . . .

Its only been two days since my last blog and it seems like I have been away for an eternity!

Beautiful Vietnam

I found this beautful, scenic video on Ange's Blog. The images on her blog have really increased my interest in Vietnam and made me even more aware of what a beautiful country we are honored to have permanent ties to.

A Little Adoption Humor

I got this from Jenn's Blog.

Now We Finally Know Where All The Socks Disappeared To!

Astronomers Find Huge Hole in Universe

Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's a giant expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday. See the HOLE story.

Blog Tag, I'm It Again!

Yeah for blog tag. I love to play, since it is yet another reason that I MUST BLOG. My friend Tammie tagged me with this Name Game MeMe. {{{{And here are the rules}}}}:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged & to read your blog!

Ok, this may not be easy because my parents decided to get creative with the spelling of my middle name, so hear goes:

S - SLOW. I am slow. I walk slow, I eat slow, I drink slow, I make decisions slowly, I do everything slow. The only thing I do fast is type.

U - University of Miami - Go Canes - It's Football Season again! Are U Ready for Some Football? I am! And my husband . . . . Is NOT. We have a complete role reversal. He hates football and he hates when I take up time on a Saturday and/or a Sunday to sit in front of the TV and yell at it. He would rather go shopping or decorate the house or similar. Sound strangely familiar?

Z - Not just one Z, two Zs and what words start with Z? ZEBRA Ok, I have a funny story about my mom and Zebras. When she was a little girl, my grandpa took her to the ZOO (Oh look, two Z words already!) So young little Hilda is at the zoo with her dad and the zebras are, ummm . . . . procreating right there in front of them. "What are they doing, Daddy?" she asked. And my grandpa's now classic answer, "One is sick and the other one is pushing her to the hospital."

Z - Ok, I won't cheat you with Zebra and Zoo, I'll also mention ZERO - the number of cigarettes I have smoked in my life.

A - AnniesCostumes.com I cannot resist how easy that one is! Time to buy your Halloween costumes! {{{{Shameless Plug}}}}

N - NOT a morning person, never was, never will be. PERIOD.

N - New Mommy-to-Be!

E - ExtremeHalloween.com {{{{Shameless Plug #2}}}} Couldn't help myself. If it weren't almost Halloween, I would have probably said something ELSE, but I couldn't think of any other clever E words. I guess you could say my brain was otherwise EMPTY. Or I just have Halloween on the brain. What else would I be thinking of?

Ok, now the hard part, who can I tag . . .

1. Anne
2. Jenn
3. Joanne
4. Ange
5. Stacy

Ok, that's all I got.

Have fun, kids!

ROFLMDO

How funny is this? I had to copy it, when I saw it on my new blogger friend, Ange's blog. This and many other cute adoption items can be found at CafePress. I saw one that I think I might get. It says, " Forgive Me, I'm Paper Pregnant". Couldn't get the image from their site though. How do you do that?

BTW, ROFLMDO is another cute onsie that I saw on CafePress. If you can't figure it out, it stands for Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Diaper Off.

Image for My Profile

Here's Your Proof

87%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle²

"Those Who Seek Shall Find"

That is the latest mysterious fortune cookie fortune I have cracked open up this year. I suppose one could say that fortunes, fall into the same category as horoscopes, psychic readings, etc., and a person internalizes and personalizes a general statement that can be taken and/or applied in many different ways. I tend to fall in the skeptics category when it comes to these types of things. Yeah, a few wierd things happen, but I think it is more coincidence, inference and observation more than actual psychic phenomenon.

But, maybe that's just me. Remember, I grew up in not only a costume shop, but a magic shop too. I try not to learn the secrets to the magic tricks (which include mentalism) because it ruins the entertainment for me, but I know it's not real. My brother is our resident magician, and he happens to be one of the best slight of hand magicians in the world. (WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Sibling compliment alert!!! They are few and far between!, but in this case, very well deserved.) So, I know that being a good magician takes years and years and hours and hours of practice, practice, practice. And I'm not just saying that cuz he's my little bro; more like in spite of it. : )

So then, what's with all the weird adoption related fortunes from the fortune cookies? I don't know. I don't believe in psychics, but I do believe in the magic of that red thread, so I would say our red thread is tugging hard between Florida and Vietnam. I don't know who she is; she may not even be born yet. Ahhh, the unknown, it sucks. But, regardless, we love her and we are building up her story already!

In the mean time, I have all of my fortune cook fortunes saved and waiting for thier permanent home in Chianna's baby book. I'm sure I will have some more before we have Chianna.

BTW, the fortune cookie fortune came along with a great lunch at Pei Wei, an Asian Fusion Diner in Plantation. If you haven't been yet, you've got to check it out - it's really good! meals are between $6.50 and $8.95 and always feed me twice. We've been there a number of times and each time, the food is awesome and the staff is friendly. You order your meal at the counter and then sit down and they serve you. It's an awesome concept and is evidently owned by P.F. Changs, but don't let that discourage you! I would say that Pei Wei is one of my fave restaurants!

I am currently bowling on Pogo and blogging in between frames! How is that for multi-tasking / A.D.D. / just plain addicted to the Internet in general!?!

I Have a Corporate Bone to Picka.k.a. Ship High In Transit

Currently on the Corporate
Ship High In Transit List:

Sprint

Comcast

Pepboys

The entire time I am typing this blog, I am on hold with Sprint's customer [NON] service. It's a wonder I have any hair left. I have been a Sprint wireless customer for over 8 years now. so, you would think, in a world where it is so easy to switch cell phone providers, that they would honor a loyal customer. But, no, instead I have to sit on hold forever and ever. Last week, I went online and changed my autopay from my checking account to my business credit card. I almost only use my phone for business, so I wanted to be able to take it as a business expense.


Oh Yipeee - someone finally picked up the phone!


Ok back to the conclusion of my rant:


So, of course, they still billed my checking account instead of the Am Ex card. SO, I figure, I'm gonna' call them and ask them to switch the payment. Simple enough, right? Is everyone following me up to this point? Well, this is evidently a feat in India that rivals moving the Taj Majal one piece at a time. I spent a total of about 50 minutes (yes, five, zero) on the phone with this guy who just kept repeating the info that my payment went through on August 13th. "Yes, I know it went through on August 13th, I would like a refund to my checking account and it billed to my Am Ex card." Believe it or not, this is the short explanation. This guy just did not get it until a was screaming. And, I don't scream very often! Then, when it finally clicked for him, he's like, "Oooohhhhh, we cannot do that." WTF????? I should have got the hint when it took this guy about 10 minutes to verify my account information. So, I ask to speak to a supervisor - obviously the curse of death over at Sprint, especially to some guy who is probably sitting in his living room in India with no supervisor in sight. I get "disconnected" (a.k.a. hung up on).


I call back, and while on hold for 29 more minutes waiting to speak to a supervisor, I file the email complaint online, answer my emails, and start the rant here. I finally get to talk to a supervisor, who, hopefully has fixed it for me. For my reference, I have my case ID 4035203 here. Why does that have to take two hours of my life?


Now, before anyone gets their panties in a bunch over the India thing, I hope you understand how racially diverse of a person I am, I love all nice people, I just hate bad customer service, no matter what country you are in. : )-


Also, for anyone who is wondering, ship high in transit, is evidently the acronym for how the word got started (take the first letter of each word). Back in the day, when they used to ship manure overseas, they originally started by putting it down in the bottom of the ships (ewww) and would incur a problem when it would get too hot and expand (double ewww). So manure was then labeled "ship high in transit". Not sure how the abbreviation happened, or how it runed into a curse word, but this is just a story I heard. Makes sense, but you don't have to believe everything you read on the Internet.

Ok, now on to a long overdue bitch session about Comcast Cable. GRRRRRRRRRRR. . .

I was planing on complaining about them a while ago; for the purpose of (1.) getting things off my chest, (2.) alerting anyone else who will read to how much they suck and (3.) putting some bad press about them on the Internet. My ultimate goal would be for a Comcast executive or marketing level person to read this blog post and see what a customer has to put up with. And actually, now yet another reason: for Dani. : )
So, since I am already in rant mode about my issues with Sprint and because my friend and HR manager at my office, Dani had such an issue with trying to get her cable installed yesterday.

I'm not even sure what the outcome was yesterday, I just know that she was having a huge issue with Comcast. The installation guy was scheduled to come between 5:00 and 8:00 pm. He called her during her lunch wanting to know if he could come now because he wanted to leave work early. So, he wanted her to leave her job so that he could be done sooner. What professionalism and work ethic they possess over there at Comcast! At least Dani's work ethic is higher, so she didn't leave me hanging. : ) Then, he arrived at her house at around 5pm, and her daughter was home (we were still at work) and I hear her yelling at her daughter to tell the guy that he better install the cable! Evidently, he was trying to tell them that they can't get cable or something, even though everyone else in her apt. building has it. Dani was so mad, she left work and went home to talk to him, I wonder if he is still alive? If he made it, I am sure his ear drums did not. : )


So now on to my Comcast Horror Story. . . Over the years, I had quite a few issues with Comcast's technical service - not their actual cable service or their high speed internet access (which is actually quite good and fast). The problem always arrises when you need a technician to come out for something. AND, I use the word "technician" very lightly. A couple years ago we got a new cable box with the DVR in it and that was the beginning of the end of Comcast cable in our house. The issues started then, with the installation guys (we had several because no one could install it properly) not hooking it up right.
Q:Umm, isn't that the sole purpose of their job?
A: YES.
I also remember them bringing in a cable box that was not working properly - probably had something to do with the rings of coffee stains on top of the box - just a hunch?!? After that was resolved and I spent a long time on hold getting them to remove the "installation" charges from my account since Myke had to go down to the Comcast store and switch out the box and install the damn thing himself. He should be on their payroll, because he has done more cable work than all of their employees put together.

So, that incident blows over until January 2006. I bought Myke a new HD TV for Christmas 2005 and by the time it was delivered in January, I scheduled Comcast to come out and switch us to a hi def cable box and DVR. Well, they didn't do it right and pretty much screwed up everything again. I don't even remember the details at this point. I think it has something to do with memory loss associated with post traumatic stress. Eventually, we got everything ironed out with our living room TV and the whole frustration of the event cause by Comcast employees' eneptness completely overshadowed the joy my husband would have had over finally getting a big screen HD TV.

When we put in the new TV in the living room, we moved our 35 inch TV into the bedroom. It shared the cable connection with the hi def TV, and the reception was pretty bad. I watch a lot of TV in the bedroom since I record a lot of reality tv that Myke hates to see. Late last year, fed up with the bad signal, I called Comcast to put in a second cable DVR box. I had also complained about some issues we were having with the DVR recording repeats of shows, even though we select "new shows only", etc. And they told me to talk to the "technician" that comes out to install the box. So, the guy comes to install the box and says that the reason why I was getting such a lousy signal was because the last guy who hooked it up did not use the right type of cable. OMG! Grrrrr! I am glad that my head didn't explode by now! So, I end up getting the new cable box anyways, because I was using our very old Tivo which only could record a few hours. And I ask the guy to help me with the recording issues I am having and his response to me, I quote, "They don't pay me enough, so I can't afford that at home so I don't know how to use it." If you could only imagine my blank stare response. ????? Whatever! Maybe television was invented by the devil??? If I didn't love watching it so much, I wouldn't have to worry about this crap. Since the last issue, Myke has been bugging me about switching to satellite, which I don't really want to do, because I am happy with the Comcast channels and reception in general, we are almost never down.

So now fast forward to a few months ago. I see that Comcast has finally come out with their phone service and it is only $33 per month with a special that reduces both the cable and the internet bill too, so I am wanting to get this service even though I probably shouldn't be since their tech installers suck so bad. But, I almost never use our house phone - I don't really talk on any phone much at all other than for work stuff, so I am wasting the $50 per month on Bellsouth and it is going to save me an additional $50/month by reducing the Internet and cable bill too. So, the "technician" comes out to install the cable phone service, I take the day off work to let him in. He moves our phone with the answring machine into our office where the cable connection is, plugs the phone into the new cable modem he brought and says, ok its done. I say ok. Then, Myke comes home and first, is upset because why should the phone with our answering machine have to be all the way in the office? It's inconvenient in there. I say I don't know and I figured you would look at it and be able to move it. (Myke is so handy!) But, he can't move it and he checks the other regular phone in our bedroom that is plugged into the phone jack in the wall and it doesn't work.

So, I start this long three week process of trying to get Comcast customer [non] service on the phone. For a communications company, they are not very good at communicating, that's for sure. When I would finally get through to somebody in tech support, they would tell me they had to transfer me to the phone department and I would get disconnected. Several times, Myke or I called and kept getting disconnected. We would call back and wait on hold, finally get someone, and say, "please call me back if we get disconnected", because I keep calling, waiting on hold, finally getting somebody, explaining the problem and getting cut off. They would say, "Oh, I know, the phones are overloaded and randomly hanging up on people but we cannot call anyone back." Huh? Does anyone there care about their job or the company at all? Obviously not! One night, after not being able to get through, I go online to see if I can email them, I see they have online chat. Myke took over the chat after I got so fed up with the guy who was very nice, but very unhelpful. I was ready to reach my hand right through the computer and choke him. The total time we spent in online chat was about an hour and half, trying to get this guy to have someone at customer service call us so that we could set up an appointment for someone else to come out to fix the problem. He kept saying, we have to call in ourselves and he could not schedule it or have someone call us. Ughhh. the epitomy of frustration!

After about two weeks of futile trying, I finally got through to someone on the phone after midnight. At this point, I was so fed up, I ended up having them, not come and fix the phone service, but cancelled the whole thing, because after everything, they would not refund me the set up costs and the charge for [not] installing a new jack in the first place, they would not take into consideration that I now had to take another day off of work to be home for someone to show up during the "window" of time they give you instead of an actual appointment, etc.

Not only did we cancel the phone service, we now have Dish Satellite TV too. We ended up having to go down to the Comcast store in person, turn in the modem and turn in the cable boxes. Now the lady at the Comcast store was very nice and apologetic, but it was already too late for anyone to fix anything, satellite was already up and installed. She was kind enough to tell me that since we are keeping the Internet service, if we reduced down to basic cable, it would end up less than if we discontinued it all, so that's what I did. She told me that someone would be out to the house to adjust the box outside and downgrade the service to basic cable. She assured me that we did not have to be home or anything. Fine, right?

Wrong! As if all this that already happened was not enough, yet another brilliant "technician" shows up one morning a couple weeks later just as we are about to leave for work. He doesn't speak any English! OMG! He doesn't even speak Spanish, because then I could get by; unfortunately though, those are the two languages that I could tell this guy to take his cable and shove it up his culo. I answer the door and tell him he is supposed to downgrade the cable outside and I am not supposed to even be here, I have to leave or I will be late for work. He is shoving papers in my face and saying "box". I tell him we already turned in the box, he doesn't understand me. I slam the front door in his face. (BTW, I am not a morning person on top of everything else!) So, he knocks on the door again, this time, I answer it and he shoves his cell phone at me, because he had to call someone to translate. At least he got the message and we went to work. The next month, I see the bill to be even further enraged (if possible) that they charged my $13.00 for this visit. Luckily for Comcast, they removed this charge and it only took me one phone call. >: )


So, that is my long, sordid Comcast tale. If you have made it this far, you deserve a cookie!

And now, on to PepBoys . . .

I will make it very short:

They don't know what they are doing at PepBoys.

Do not take your car to PepBoys, or you will suffer.

They only escape a full rant because they did replace the bad air compressor they originally installed with one that has actually worked for a little over a month now, so I will end it here, for now anyway.

So You Think You Can Dance?

This is just an awesome show. I have been watching it for the past two years now and I just love it. The talent is amazing and watching it brings me great joy. So, I wanted to post about it here and post some of my fave dance videos here on my blog:

My all time favorite dance is Wade Robson's Ramalama routine from last year:


This year, I really enjoyed so many routines, I cannot pick a favorite, so I will post a few:

This is Sabra and Neil's Jazz routine to Sweet Dreams:


This is Danny and Neil's Mia Michaels routine from the finale:


And here is Neil and Lacey performing an extremely touching Mia Michaels number:


Big congrats to Sabra for winning this year - all of the dancers were so great! I have to admit that I hardly voted at all this season because I could not choose!
Enjoy the videos and the dancing!

One Step Closer

Well, this blog is supposed to be about our adoption info and since I haven't had any lately, I have been just rambling about everything else on earth that I can think of.

So, it is due time to post a paper chase update.

We are just finishing up some of the last papers that our social worker needs to complete her home study report and I hope to have the last one any day now so that we can mail them off to her.

Yesterday, we went to the bank to get our ADOPPT contract and all their official papers (referral request, letter stating we meet the requirements, and the promise to report to Vietnam every year) notarized and we sent them via UPS next day air to our agency. Tracking says they received them today, so that is crossed off the list.

We haven't heard anything about our passports; we applied for them in June and I am hoping that I won't regret the fact that I chose to save a little dough and did not expedite them. I knew they could always be expedited later and yes, I know I still have time before we will need them, but I just want to have them in my hot little hands as they say.
Although, my hands are almost never hot. My Nana always said, "cold hands, warm heart" and I like to think that's the way I am. At least, I definitely have the cold hands part down and aspire to the warm heart part! : )

We submitted our I600A to INS back in June and they received it on June 19th. The website, which was last update July 16, 2007 says they are currently processing petitions received by April 02. I am hoping that in 2 days the website updates and that they have made up some considerable ground on the April date. The day I received the letter for Homeland Security stating that they received the application form, I spoke with a lady who told me the processing time is 60 to 90 days. We are currently at 57 days, if my quick count was correct.

Myke and I had both agreed that we would not be purchasing anything or setting up Chianna's room until we get the referral, BUT that is MUCH easier said than done! Last week Myke came home from running errands at Lowes and announces, "I did something!" in a very cautious tone. He then pulled out a Baby Love bag and carefully shows me its contents: a cute turtle interactive toy, a package of sippy cups and fuzzy pink, little tiny socks. It all made me smile, but especially the socks. I not only have cold hands, but I have ICE cold feet. I wear socks all the time and for Chirstmas last year, Myke bought be the best fuzzy socks ever - in just about every color of the rainbow. So, I especially liked the socks because it made me think about how maybe (hopefully) she will like some of the same things as me.

Last night, we decided to go to the BabysRUs store near our house. I wonder if couples often walk around that place crying. We sure did! It was a very surreal experience and I have to say I am proud that I kept it together better than Myke did! He said to me, with tears in his eyes, "I love this little girl and we don't even know her yet". And, this brought me so much relief because I thought I was crazy in feeling the same thing. WOW, what an experience this whole journey is - really amazing! So, here are the first things I have ever bought for Chianna:
A light blue dog head with a little blanket bottom. Its very soft.
A set of 3 purple bibs: 1. has a butterfly and says "huggable" 2. has a flower and says "so pretty" and 3. has a butterfly and says, "Daddy's Girl" and "Butterfly Kisses". I also bought a matching blanket purple blanket that has a butterfly and is soft and fuzzy on one size and cool and shiny on the other.

Myke also picked out one more thing: a hooded baby towel with a cute duckie on it. This one was for my mom. She ended up with a very quirky duck collection all because duck rhymes with a well known expletive and we would always buy her more and more ducks just to hear her say it. I guess it was just one of those weird family inside joke things, not sure how it really started, but she had lots of F 'IN ducks!

Ok, so if you made it through this long post, consider yourself F 'IN updated! Oohh, I hope I'm not too vulgar for mommy blog land! : )-

Creature of Habit or Dodo Brain?

My friend Mary posted to our FCC group the other day about how most Publix stores in Florida are offering free antibiotics with a prescription. I thought this was a great bit of news to pass around, so I forwarded the email to all my friends, printed out the article and passed it around work for all of my staff to see, and raved about how cool it was for Publix to be doing this. That was on this past Tuesday or Wednesday. (I never know what day it is!). So here comes Friday (today) and Myke goes to the dentist. He had to have gum surgery (ewww, blah) and then was still a trooper and went to work. By the time we left work, he was starting to feel it since the numbness was waring off, so we went straight home. I offered to take his prescriptions to get them filled and (full well knowing that it was for antibiotics) headed straight over to CVS as usual. UGHHH! It didn't even dawn on me til I got home and opened them to give Myke his first dose and I read the name of the meds. I immediately start kicking myself and stomping around the house thinking I wasted $15 for nothing. But luckily, a quick look up told me that his antibiotic was not one f the 7 listed. Luckily? Luckily? Yes, ridiculously I am now happy that it is not on the list. Luckily my $15 co-pay was not spent in vain! If I had remembered ahead of time, I would have probably been pissed that it wasn't on the list, so I guess its just as well. Life is strange, indeed and I decided that I am a dodo brain anyway!

New Poll on Baby Names

Internet Casino Names Newborn GoldenPalace.com TRENTON, NJ - May 25 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- With their latest eBay purchase, Internet casino GoldenPalace.com is well on their way to overtaking the name "Smith" in the telephone book. The headline-grabbing casino spent $15,000 to name another child GoldenPalace.com.

The bouncing baby boy's official name is GoldenPalaceDotCom Silverman, and he was born a healthy seven pounds, ten ounces at 2:28 PM on May 19, 2005. GoldenPalaceDotCom Silverman is the latest in a series of eccentric advertising campaigns by the Internet casino. Other babies also share the casino's name, as well as Tennessee resident Terri Illigan, 33, who sold her naming rights on eBay for $15,199, and subsequently changed her name to GoldenPalace.com to help support her five children.

So what do you all think? It would almost completely finance the adoption!?! Post comments and please answer the polls!

Scroll Down Please

To go along with my newly accepted blogaholic lifestyle, I started quite a few posts but saved them and left them unfinished and unposted, so I have gone through and edited them and filled them in, so if you scroll down, you might find some new things. : )
I'm always full of surprises!

Blogaholics Anonymous

Ok, I have to admit it:

My name is Shari and I'm a blogaholic.

This is really becoming a time consuming habit here. Not only do I spend time almost everyday on my blog, I am also reading all of my friend's blogs too. Not to mention, that I have a blog for my business that I post on several times per week. And I also keep up with several industry blogs on Internet marketing. So, I am definitely stuck in the blogosphere, but I'm not sure I want to get out. I just need some more time in the day. Too bad the blogosphere doesn't create a rift in the time continuum, that would really help me. Halloween is closer than you think!

So, I am starting a list of "You Know You're a Blogaholic IF . . ."

You know you're a blogaholic IF several times per day everyday an event happens and you think "I'm gonna blog this later".

My fellow blogaholics, add your saying now!

So Cute . . . .

You have to check out this cute little doggie, he is trained to do tricks! You can ask him to roll over, play dead, jump, fetch and my favorite, give kisses!

http://www.idodogtricks.com/index_flash.html

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Ok, this is a hilarious "Out of the Mouth of Babes" incident. My niece, Dee Dee at 4 and 1/2 years old, says some pretty funny things (as most all little ones do). Sometimes you just have to wonder where she gets these things from!?! Dee Dee (which is short for Dynasty, BTW) spends lots of time with my dad, her Papa. Yesterday he went through a bit of an ordeal with her since she is not feeling well. My brother has to be at his store and my sister in law has school and works too, so Papa gets the task of taking Dee Dee to the doctor, where she is diagnosed with strep throat. [AWWWW!!!] Next stop is the pharmacy, where they don't have one of the medicines, so they head off to pharmacy #2, who has them, but its going to take a while, so he takes her to eat some lunch while they wait and then head back to the pharmacy to finally get the meds and then they are back in the car on the way to Vo Vo's (grandma's and grandpa's in Portuguese). At this point, after all this running around, my dad says to Dee Dee, "boy that was hard." To which Dee Dee replies, you just have to say, "A Man's Gotta' Do What a Man's Gotta' Do!" And insisted that my dad repeat this phrase, but then went on to amend it to "A Papa's gotta' do what a Papa's gotta' do."

Just crazy hilarious!


I am seriously lacking some recent photos of Dee Dee. I have a few recent ones that are not scanned into my computer yet, but my brother is supposed to be emailing me some more - hint hint, Jack!! So, this is a pic of Dee Dee last April at our wedding.

Fortune Cookie Fortunes

So this is getting weird . . .

Normally, I do not give any weight or meaning to fortunes in fortune cookies, BUT shortly after we started the adoption process, I got a fortune that says, "You will have success with whatever you adopt." I kept it and plan on putting it in her baby book. I know, it is probably just a coincidence and can also mean adopting an idea or philosophy, but to us, it means a baby girl waiting for us in Vietnam.

On Sunday, Myke and I ordered Chinese & Japanese food from our fave delivery called Asahi. I was so full I didn't even eat the fortune cookies. Myke doesn't really like them, so I usually end up with them anyways. Yesterday, I opened one and my fortune says, "Your infinite capacity for patience will be rewarded sooner or later." I know I am reading into it, but it can so be read into!! This fortune could possibly be the anthem for international adoption!

Plus, you have to understand, we eat a lot of Chinese food and I get lots of fortunes and most of them do not apply.

SO. . . The fortune cookies (we got 4 on Monday) are sitting on the coffee table and tonight, I get another relevant fortune, "The smart thing is to prepare for the unexpected." Oh!?! What could tht mean? At least with my past health issues and running a seasonal business has definitely made me learn to prepare for the unexpected, so I hope I'm ready. Myke always tells me hope for the best and prepare for the worst - and that usually helps and can be applied to just about anything.

Is the Confucius of Fortune cookies trying to tell me something here?

:::: I feel my red thread tugging and tightening! ::::

Myke's Pirate Name

Myke's pirate name is:

Red Tom Rackham

Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

We're Simpsonized!

If you haven't seen all the advertising hype for th Simpsons Movie and Burger King, then please remove your head from wherever it has been for the last several weeks. They are just plain marketing geniuses - those marketers over at the Simpsons and Burger King. I want to be them when I grow up! LOL So, I finally got pics of Myke and I online so that I could play with the Simpsonize Me machine (http://www.simpsonizeme.com/) and here are the before and after results. I picked the regular skin tone and yellow Simpsons trademark coloring too. So whatcha think?

Goo Goo Dolls in Concert

The Goo Goo Dolls were in town Friday night (well in West Palm Beach). Myke and I love the Goo Goo Dolls and we were so psyched to get to see them perform live. We rented a hotel room near the Amphitheater so that we wouldn't have an hour long drive home after the concert was over. It was a nice little 24 hour getaway!

The Goo Goo Dolls sounded awesome and the concert was a blast. We really need to get out more often. Lifehouse opened for the Goo Goo Dolls and the concert was at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre, which is outside. Probably not the best idea in August in South Florida. It was hot and rainy - luckily our seats were covered. There was another singer that opened before Lifehouse and everyone was sitting in the seats, relaxing and trying not to be hot.

As soon as Lifehouse came on, we were excited - they sounded awesome too and just then, a large group shows up two rows in front of us and four of the girls directly in front of our seats decide that they are going to stand up - even though no one else is standing. Of course, they instantly peeved off everyone sitting behind them. Several people asked them to sit down and security even came over. They didn't want to sit down and, security can't make them sit, since it's their seats and it's their perogative, but come on, people! You have to know what's coming up when you have such a bitchy attitude. Sure enough, people started throwing papers and wrappers at them after first asking nicely and then yelling in between songs didn't work. So Myke says, "as soon as it gets a little darker, those girls are gonna get drenched with drinks". About 3 minutes later, a guy behind them throws his drink, one of the guys sitting next to them saw him and threw his drink back in retaliation and an all out brawl nearly ensued. Security was on it and broke it up right away. A couple people got thrown out, some people moved seats (I Guess??) and overall it was a bunch of drama that was unnecessary and I was doing my best to ignore it and listen to the concert going on, after all, I don't get to listen to live music everyday, so I was annoyed. Luckily the seat on the other side of Myke was open, so I moved to that seat because I did not want to have to stand and I did not pay to have these girls' butts in my face either, so I was annoyed with them too.

So Myke and I were having this conversation / debate about it and we both agreed that although annoying, it is totally their perogative to want to stand up and dance. However, I maintain that they were still bitches [or at least some of them were - and yes I said bitches!] because of the attitude. For most people, if they are asked to sit down and realize that 20 or 30 people have a problem with them, they would sit down, right? Now, I say that they came in with the attitude of "we are going to stand up and if it pisses off all the people behind us that don't want to stand up - to bad, so sad - what-ev-er". I maintain that these are the type of girls that drama follows them - and they probably wonder "why?" It's just the attitude that some people get it in their heads that they are better than anyone else that pisses me off. So, thanks for trying to bring drama to my concert experience, nice try, please get a life and lose the drama.

Once the Goo Goo Dolls took the stage, everyone was on their feet dance and jumping and having a blast, so there was just no need to the issues and drama - it just goes to show you that when you put so many people in one crowded place where they have to share the same space, they are going to argue and have conflict. It is human nature, too bad.

I welcome any comments or opinions on the subject and would like to know what anyone else thinks . . .

My pirate name is:

Mad Mary Flint

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.

part of the fidius.org network

Jet Lagged - Stuck on Jet Blue

NYC or BUST!!!

Here we go on my first trip by myself. Am I a big girl now or a big baby? ; )

Ughhh . . . .


So, I get to the Orlando airport at 3:30 for my 5:30 flight and get through check in and security in all of 10 minutes to find that the flight is delayed and will not leave until 6:30. Oh yeah! So, I set myself up in a seat and plug in my computer to the wall. This way, at least I pass the time catching up on email, writing blogs, playing pogo - all the usual things. After about an hour, I check on my flight to see that it is now scheduled to leave at 7:30 - yipee. Waiting around in an airport alone is just so much fun!

Then at about 5:30pm, they announce a gate change; and of course it is not a nearby gate, it is on the other side of the terminal. So I am there all plugged in and online, etc when they make the announcement and all these people get up and they are hauling ass over to the new gate. Um, hello, people??!! The flight is not supposed to be leaving for like 2 hours, why are you running? Great, by the time, I get over to the new gate, I just know I will not have a place to plug in, but I don't want to sit around at the old gate. It would be just my luck that they would then move up the flight and leave without me. So, off I go to the new gate. Made a potty stop and a coffee break along the way. And I get to the gate and, of course, as predicted there are no plugs near any open seats, so I plop myself on the floor next to a plug and power up. After about 45 minutes of sitting on the hard floor, my legs are asleep and I am so over the kid with the whoopie cushion sitting next to me and the family giving a play by play of the luggage being loaded onto the plane (which finally arrived) my low battery warning comes on, so not only am I sitting on the floor for no reason since the plug didn't work, now I have no computer for the rest of the wait or the flight. At least that's not a big deal since Jet Blue has TVs, which can keep me occupied during these boring flights.

So, the flight finally boards around 7:45pm or so. I am in row 21 of 25 and the flight attendant asked me if I could switch seats or else a four year old girl will have to sit by herself. So, I gladly moved to the very back row, which I hate, but I am sure that is not nearly as bad as a four year old having to sit by herself. Who does these seating assignments anyways? Probably the same genius who comes up with how they load the passengers on the planes.

So, there I am in the back of the plane, directly in front of the bathroom. YUM-O (NOT)! And at 8pm they announce that there is another weather delay and they will not be updating the captain again until 8:45 at which time they will inform him whether or not we can even leave then or not. Oh Boy - just what I wanted, 45 minutes more time on the plane in front of the bathroom, which now had a line in front of it and did continuously the entire 45 minutes. Evidently, not a single one of these passengers went to the bathroom in the airport during the 2 hour delay for fear that the plane would suddenly board and leave without them if they dare step into the bathroom to pee. UGHHH!!! Use your brains, people!

The only saving grace is Jet Blue's TVs and a bonus was a cool guy named Lou Lou that I sat next to - he was very friendly and nice to sit next to on a plane.

I finally arrived in NYC a little after midnight. It was a 3 hour weather delay. I stayed at the Hampton Inn near Madison Square Garden and this was an awesome hotel, especially for NYC standards. The room was very spacious with a nice bathroom and a flat screen TV on the wall. I was upset that I was not able to stay at the hotel where the conference was until I found out that those rooms were more money and were so cramped that "you could flush the toilet while lying in the bed", as my friend Joe described it.

I learned so much at the conference, I am really glad I went - it was totally worth every penny. Thanks JOE!! And thanks for dinner in Chinatown - that was cool!

Now I just need time to implement all the stuff I learned and get the website in order before the Halloween rush starts. I am also really glad to be home now and exhausted still.

Is it November yet?