Skinner Mountain

"On a clear day you can see forever".. Today.. not so much!



A room with a view!

New Discoveries...

We had quite the interesting Sunday drive today... from Skinner Mountain.. to the center of Northampton.. with a quick stop for breakfast in Morocco... that's right.. Morocco.. by way of the Amanouz Cafe.. I discovered lots of things today, perhaps the one thing that will stay with me the longest is that I don't like Moroccan food...

now.. I can't say Moroccan food sucks cause Mr. 9 2 Bay certainly loved it and it was a good thing, he not only ate his own Pasha Omelet but he ate my Mediteranian French Toast and my sausage... me.. I couldn't get past the smell... I can STILL smell it... stinky feet... I'm not sure what that spice was that they so liberally sprinkled on EVERYTHING...cumin?? curry?? I'll just refer to it as 'powdered toe jam'... and it was on everything... the french toast and especially the sausage.. and my husbands breath.. (stop talking to me.. NOW.. I can't breathe!) The stench was horrible... My stomach still isn't back to normal... I may be stuck with bland oatmeal and boiled chicken for the next week cause that's about all I can stomach right now.. hours later... no spices.. no sauces.. and please NO aromas!

So anyway... unless Morocco has sprouted a Wendy's or KFC on every street corner, I don't think I'll be visiting there anytime soon - unless of course I decide I need a really quick way to lose weight, but of course I'd need to pick up a gas mask first as well.. OH THE STENCH!! Powdered Toe Jam... indeed!

Later...

Quickies for Friday...

They recovered a couple of those poor dog-napped pooches... stellar! They guess that when the nappers discovered that the dogs weren't pure breds they dumped them in the woods, where they were rescued by a good doggie samaritan... Luckily the bad guys were biggoted uneducated snobs! IMHO you can't beat a mutt - all the fun of the different breeds in the dogs makeup without all the inbreeding problems... Some of the rarer breeds really can say "I'm my own grandpa"... and unfortunately they also got great-grandma's blindness, deafness, hip problems and siezures... gimme a mutt anyday - just not today, thanks!

HOT>> HOT>> HOT>>> Killer heating bills thru the winter.. and now killer electric bills for the AC... stop already!

Construction on Rt 9 Hadley... so.. I thought I'd beat it outta the office early yesterday... so in my wisdom I packed up the laptop and hit the road at 3:30 yesterday afternoon... thanks to the backup on the backside of that darn bridge I lost a half hour of my 'stolen time'... so much for bright ideas...

Missing men... this time it's a 20 year old and a 57 year old... and again.. Masslive.com hasn't featured any of the stories... they did do a quick mention on one of the sections of their site of the 20 year old but you really had to dig for the story.. HELLO... you feature a story on missing dogs but this makes 3 people now that you've done nothing to get the word out on... Masslive... I love ya.. but DAMN!!! Ya'll should be ashamed of yourselves!!! So much for Community Service! Shame.. Shame.. SHAME!

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Case in point...

Dognappings...

According to Masslive (and the giant graffiti type sign on Bay Rd. in B'town) there has been a rash of dognappings in the area of late... My heart goes out to the poor owners, having a pet can really be like having a child.. you baby them, and love them, and they love you back.. it must be really horrible to find your beloved Pookie missing... me on the other hand... I'd be amazed if:

a. Anyone actually WANTED to steal my beloved Gretchen (have you seen her pics on here?)

b. Anyone could actually CATCH Gretchen, so they could haul her away (see the post "It's F'in Thursday!")

c. Anyone other than Mr. 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10 could find her so charming as to be irresistible (When we met Gretchen at the Puny Paws Pound she ran in circles about 50 times, jumped 8 feet in the air, and then promptly shit on the floor... yeah.. charming.. let's take her home and not the fully trained, extremely well behaved collie over there!)

d. All of the above.

So.. everyone that has had their little FooFoo taken from them, I'm so sorry... as for my Gretchen, may you all feel sorry for me!

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Plant life from another planet...

We found these wierd looking plants on a lovely Sunday drive thru the Quabbin - I have no idea what they are but they look like they could be from another planet, and perhaps, be featured in the next big summer blockbuster...

"Killer Plants from Outer Space" - The Roots of all Evil!

Barn window...

Bloomin' Wet...

Tiger, Cosmo, Mornin' Glory!

Jonesin'....

Jonesin' for a turkey sandwich!

Quabbin photos

One of my favorite Quabbin pics! This was actually taken this past fall. There is just something nice about the browns and greens playing off the blue of the water and sky that I really like. I've always wanted to go and explore that island in the middle of the reservoir but it's not allowed... you know that would be a great fund raiser type thing for the state - a couple of times a year they should offer tours of the islands of the Quabbin for a small fee... I'd sign up!

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Happy Blogiversary!

Hey.. it's our first Anniversary here on 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10! For one full year I've been posting stories about whatever happens to be on my mind, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.. I hope you, Dear Readers, have enjoyed it as well!

What can you expect over the coming year? I'm not really sure, as I said earlier I don't plan my posts, but just the nature of a Blogiversary makes you want to take a look at where things are going and maybe putting some semblance of a plan in place. More rants? More raves? Pet Peeves? Oh.. Word of the Day, we haven't had one of those in a while... More Politics and/or "in the news" type stories? Quickies? Silver Toilet Paper Awards? I guess we'll just have to wait and see... In the meantime, thanks for reading along, I appreciate it!

Happy Blogiversary to us all!

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Tough week!

Yeah.. it's been a tough week... Dad is home now, so that's something anyway.. I think I'm as happy to have him home as he is to be home! Enuf stress already! There are only so many beers in the fridge! :)

So anyway.. here's some quickies...

The little girl Shasta from Idaho..
FOUND ALIVE!! Woohoo... I'd say 'alive and well' but we can only hope that she will be 'well' after having spent 6 weeks with that monster! Hopefully they will invent a new way to die just for that man! I also wouldn't mind if they came up with some kind of punishment for that idiot judge that let this guy back out on the street!

Bush Crashes into Cops
Seems Bush was out mountain biking while at the G8 Conference and managed to collide with a cop sent to secure the area. Bandaged hands and arms later you can bet that cop won't be on a bike anytime soon.. or carrying a gun... or wearing a badge.. at the very least he's gonna get a heck of a lotta ribbing back at the police station.. comments like "Come on.. it's as easy as riding a bike.. ooops.. that's right.. never mind!"...

Masslive.com off the air
Seems my favorite news site is having a power outage problem that's effecting their hosting company... it's been over 24 hours that they have been dark.. HELLO.. can you say NEW hosting company... Hey guys! Give me a call.. I'd be happy to host your site for you and I can guarentee you wouldn't be dark for 24 hours ever again!

Dancing with the Stars...
Yeah.. I'll admit I've been watching that bit of fluff... you gotta admit John Hurley is a hoot! Love those soundbites... like.. "anyone can sweat but right now I could knock the buzzards off a dung heap!" and "Oh Mommy.. make it stop!" Anyway, we can just ALL be thankful that the new season of Stargate starts soon... frankly.. NOT soon enough!

And that's about it for now... I'm gonna try and get back on track here.. I was doing pretty well with the posting till this latest bump in the road.. a little catchup and hopefully we can all get back to normal...

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Even worse...

Perhaps the only thing worse than the cops showing up at your door at midnite with an "emergency message" is the message itself: Dad has had a heart attack!

HORRORS!

Several days later - spent in the ICU - his Doctor's are calling his recovery the quickest recovery they have ever seen! He has no heart damage at all and although he's due for some rehab and some MAJOR life changes (read NO MORE BACON!)he should make a complete recovery! He was lucky!! EXTREMELY LUCKY!! Thanks to the quick action of brother Eddie... not one to mess around... as soon as Dad uttered the words "My chest hurts" Ed was on the phone with 911... no questions asked.. no time wasted... and each moment was critical... So HURRAH for Eddie... I'm not so sure I would have been so quick to act as he was... so Ed moving in with Dad, yeah, freakin' BEST thing that ever could have happened... I've always thought so, but I know Ed has always felt a little guilty, laboring under the delusion that he was somehow 'mooching off Dad', but the rest of us knew better... Having him there with Dad has always been a comfort to the rest of us.. we knew Ed would take good care of Dad, and even without the quick phone call in this emergency, he has taken extremely good care of Dad... mowing his lawn... cooking dinner... and perhaps even more important - being there for him!!

So yeah and hurrah for Eddie - he saved Dad's life as surely as the EMT that revived Dad in the ambulance did! (Dad doesn't know that he coded in the ambulance - he thinks he 'fell asleep' - so if your reading this and you know my Dad - please don't tell him - we've decided it's just one bit of information that he doesn't need the stress of knowing right now - thanks!)

So.. the point of this post... if you don't feel good... get some HELP!!! IMMEDIATELY... Besides Dad's horrendous bacon addiction, it turns out he has had pneumonia for weeks now... he had a cold, and he did do the right thing and go the Doc's and got some antibiotics - which he took and finished as directed - but he never went back to the Doctors when he still wasn't feeling any better - the breathing difficulties put tremendous strain on an already over-taxed heart... so people.. if your chest hurts and your thinking "maybe it's just indigestion", as your standing there debating between taking a Pepcid and calling 911... just call... let the pro's handle it... what's the worse that can happen?? They give you an antacid - you let out a huge burp in the Emergency Room - and you walk out of there feeling so much better... but if it's not indigestion... if it's NOT... you'll be in exactly the right place at the right time... and time is OH so important...

Thanks to the quick actions of Eddie, we now have more time with Dad... time that we came so horribly close to losing forever! Thanks Ed... we love you!

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Crazy Bad!

Wow.. those were some crazy bad storms that just blew through! Bad enough where you start wishing that the office building actually had a basement! At the same time it was one of those wierd "it hurts when I do that, let me try that again.. yup.. still hurts" moments... The storm was so dark that we ended up shutting off the lights and closing the office door to enhance the lightening flashes and opening the window so we could hear the boom of the thunder. It was spectacular... in a "I'm really scared and I want my Mommy!" kinda way!

It's funny how weather can effect you. I found myself stopping at the grocery store on the way home to pick up the ingredients for one of my 'comfort foods' - Onion Soup Spaghetti! YUM! Nothing calms you down like a belly full of warm "I grew up on this stuff" type food! (if you want the recipe - shoot me a comment)... unless it's a big glass of really cheap Wally-mart wine! But of course... what else would you drink with a big plate o' pasta? So basically I should be comatose by 7:30! WOOHOO!

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Wrong... again

So Dear Readers, it's just shy of a year that I've been writing 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10! We'll have to plan something special for the Bloggy Birthday! Oh, but what? See the problem here is the word "plan"... I don't think I've ever planned a single one of the posts that you've read here! Oh a couple of times I've sketched out my post in my head on that long trip up 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10, but to say that I actually plan my posts.. nope.. and now it turns out that that is all wrong!

Lately I've been reading a couple of those articles "How to Blog" and "How do you Blog?" and well... ok.. so I've been doing it all wrong... Turns out I'm supposed to use a Word Processer to sketch out a rough draft, tweak it for days, correct my spelling and grammar, and good Lord, my PUNCTUATION... ... ... Then I'm supposed to save the finished document in case something ever goes horribly wrong with Blogger and they lose my posts so that I'll have a backup that I can restore from. After all this is done, then, and only then, do I copy and paste my perfectly edited copy into the Blogger interface! OH.. and then there's the "idea document", yup it seems that on those days when the ideas just flow like the wind, I'm supposed to write them all down for future use. You know for those days when I just can't come up with something to write about... YEAH RIGHT! Where's the fun in that I ask you!

If I had followed all those rules you would never have seen such great posts on here as the great "Paul McCartney Sucks" post... That post actually got me more comments than anything else I've written in here... So much for following those pesky "research your topic BEFORE you write" rules! Again... what fun would that be?

No... thanks anyway... I'll keep typing from the seat of my pants thank you... complete with spelling errors and improper grammar... and ... naturally... lots... of... elipses.... ok... so I'll be a LITTLE more careful with my facts... but hey... gettin' stuff wrong is how we learn right? Why spend all that time making sure I've got stuff right when there are so many people out there willing to point out my errors? I'll just let you guys spot me and maybe we'll ALL learn somethin'! I'll type and you guys can be my editors and research department, after all, aren't blogs supposed to be interactive? I'll post the corrections to my entries, I promise, and we'll all have a good laugh at my expense, cause that's just how I am... Someone in their right mind might just go in and hit the delete key next to their stupidity and hope it all just goes away, but no.. not me... here you will get the FULL story... complete with tons of ellipses for emphasis!

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Rust

The add photo in the blogger interface... yup.. pretty cool.. We still get the 'click to enlarge' with the added benefit of aligning the text around the picture! Nice! It even adds a nice alt tag to the pics!

So here's the latest pic - this one might be headed for a greeting card - nothing says "Thinking of You!" like a rusty old lantern!

Charming...

Wow... photos!

Well... so it turns out you can now add pics to the blog directly in your blogger interface. Cool... Of course the coolness factor remains to be seen. There really is no documentation as to how small is small, how medium is medium and yeah, how large is large. I'm used to using hello which allows you to select your size by using pixel counts, and then there's that handy "click to go to the original size" feature.

So here's the first use of the new blogger photo adder. This is the non-photoshopped version of the funky dragon-fly I posted a couple of days ago. This is actually the last known photo of our friend here as is little body was found broken and lifeless a couple of days later on the bumper of my husbands truck. We'll always have Photoshop!

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When EXACTLY do I get to "know better"?

We've all heard it... "You should know better!"... For a while there in my teens I thought that was my new middle name "Laura Youshouldknowbetter"... so... I'm still waiting... when EXACTLY do I get to know better? Huh?? Answer me that one... Is there a certain age? A level of maturity? Well... me and my orange ankles would like to know when that is thank you very much! Yes... Orange freakin' ankles... OH.. it all started harmlessly enough.. just a little dry skin on my legs.. that's all.. so it was off to Wally-mart for the cure.

Standing in front of the moisturizer aisle I was presented with what seemed like billions of choices.. creams.. sprays... with aloe.. with vitamin e... alpha hydroxy.. oh.. what to choose! And then I spotted it... the Jergens Natural Glow daily moisterizer... Well, hello there! It's 2 birds in one creamy bottle! You mean I can cure my dry skin and get a natural healthy glow all in one? Awesome... imagine... soft silky glowing skin on my legs, and all for less than 5 bucks! Well howdy do and sign me up!

So.. here I sit - three applications of this wonder product later when I notice that gee... my legs do feel smoother.. the stuff must be working... OH MY.. and my thighs are a little 'glowy' looking... nice! And then I spot it... the orange dirty looking ring around my ankle... OH GOD!! It's on both legs! I look positively diseased... or at least like I hadn't scrubbed my ankles since the first George exclaimed "Read my lips!".. *sigh...

Apparently "youshouldknowbetter" occurs sometime after the age of 42!

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It's F'in Thursday!

I hate the F word... I mean really hate it... in my opinion the only people that use the F word are ignorant or crude or worse yet, trying to 'sound cool'... ummm NO! NOT cool! So... okay... as I'm sure my neighbors will attest, why then did they hear the words "you F'in this".. and "F'in that" being screamed in my front yard this morning? I hate to admit it, but yeah.. that was my foul-mouthed rant that the whole neighborhood heard this mornin'... For 40 minutes straight they were entertained by a stream of profanity so loud and colorful it would have made a Quentin Tarrentino movie sound like Disney had gotten their hands in on the editing process! And what caused this uncharacteristic rant? A little 17 pound dog that JUST WON'T GET HER F'IN ASS IN THE F'IN HOUSE! GGGGRRR!!!

For 40 minutes I tried to capture the little shit... all I wanted to do was leave for work... that's all... is that too much to ask?? Apparently yes... it is... I tried treats... I tried milk.. I tried sneaking up on her... and when all that failed I resorted to screaming "F U" at the top of my lungs! It finally took starting my truck and sitting there for 4 minutes and finally the stupid little shit decided she would come along... HA... GOTCHA! Of course that was followed by me carrying her to the house to throw her in while screaming.. "What the F is the matter with you!"

*sigh... yes.. I am throughly ashamed... but you know what... I also somehow feel cleansed... renewed even.. I guess everyone needs a good screaming fit every now and then and I certainly had mine this morning... so okay... we're back to normal now... hopefully it'll be another 10 years before I sink to that crude and ignorant level again... at least I'm sure the F'in neighbors are hoping so!

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*sigh...
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Groovy!

Check out the quickie excersize in family below... At a family Graduation bbq the first photo was making the rounds... that's my sis-in-law, third from the left, heading out to her senior prom 27 years ago! NICE FRO! Then.. working my way thru the crowd of family I captured the 2nd pic posted below, of my big bro, the husband of the sis-in-law.. and third pic.. naturally... a combo of the two! HA! Pure evil!

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Never let someone
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who has Photoshop
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take your picture!
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Where did that come from?

If you've been reading along here on 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10 you know that a few months ago I added the little "Ads by Goooogle" to the side of my blog... this is a little bit of 'smart technology' where it scans your text and displays ads that are pertinent to whatever you've blogged about... all and all it's been pretty clever... when my Caribbean vacation was the topic of the month it displayed various ads for cruises and cruise lines.. My 'new prison program' entry prompted Prison Pen Pals ads... and right now - in response to my Pet Peeve #3 entry we have "Nose Filters" ads... I've never even heard of a nose filter!

So today I went in to my own blog - intent on blogging about those little ads - to see exactly what was displaying on my page... What did I find? An ad for "Sexy Girls & Sexy Guys"! HUH??? Where did that come from?? Was it my entry about "Release the Hairs"? eewww! Maybe it was the use of the phrase "frankly some of them lose something to the shrinkage... " double eewww! But no.. I think I figured it out.. it was the one quick reference to "Do you think Wacko Jacko is 'hot'"?? Now that's a HUGE EEEWWWW!! It's almost enough to make one watch what they type or contemplate removal of the ads... one reference to someone being 'hot' and we have potential porn ads... great.. just great... but... then again... maybe we should see if we can influence what kind of ads we get... maybe if I put some ambigous words in bold type we can have a little fun with the Google engine... words like... oh... how about BOOGIE? Will that score us more nose filters or dancing references? How about... PEANUTS.. will we get comics or nuts? ok.. one more.. JAM... will we get fruit spread or music? I guess only time will tell..

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A little little..

It's a little frustrating... naturally I've got to go with a smaller version of my pics here on the blog and frankly some of them lose something to the shrinkage... remember you can click on the pics and get the full version of them! Almost all of them will open to 1024 pixels across (provided I haven't cropped them, which usually I don't do, I just try to take the best picture I can so it doesn't need any touching up!).. perfect for desktop wallpaper.. just please shoot me a comment if you intend to use any of them in any way... I'd appreciate your courtesy... and be tickled to boot!

I've been having some of my favorites printed up and made into blank greeting cards.. if you'd like some yourself, again, comment me and I can have some made up from my originals for you too at a reasonable cost... (Take that Hallmark! You can keep your canned 5 dollar greetings!) I've got a batch of 'em on their way right now.. can't wait to see them.. of course they would have gotten here sooner if I had used the correct shipping address! Good thing their coming thru the good ole' US Post Office so my forwarding request should get them to me!

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Have a Happy Photoshop Day!
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Watch out for the dragons!
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Photoshopped Johnny Jump-Ups - fresh from my garden (and pc) to you!
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Dogwood - prettius in pinkus
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Quickies...

Missing woman!

On Tuesday there was a "news flash" on Masslive about a missing 45 year old woman in Belchertown. No description - just 'missing' and that the cops were searching Cold Spring Road area for 2 days. Then nothing.. no articles.. no alerts.. nothing.. Then on Friday a quick article (cause that's all they ever have is a paragraph) on wwlp.com about an unidentified woman's body being found on Cold Spring Road.. Today however, there appears to be several smaller 'news flash' type articles on Masslive about this, funny, even tho I looked repeatedly for more info on this missing person I never found anything till today! So.. what's up with this? As you know I drive thru Belchertown almost daily, my husband is in town every weekend... we would have been happy to keep an eye out for her.. to help anyway we could... but it's kind of tough to help when they won't release any details... being a 40 something woman, I can only hope I don't have the misfortune of going missing in Belchertown if this is the kind of search effort they put forth! Now.. there may be extenuating circumstances in this case to explain the lack of information released to the public, but I would still hope that even if I just lost it and decided to disappear that there would be more of an effort to locate me...

Wacko Walks

Not Guilty on all counts... I still haven't sorted out the Jackson trial... of course I didn't pay all that much attention to it so I'm not all that familiar with what happened in court... One thing I can say, it seems that the Jury did a great job of sorting out their personal opinions from what they heard in court... Frankly, if they hadn't, they would have convicted him just on the Bashir interview alone... so... is Jacko a pedophile or just so maturity deficient that he has the mentality of an 8 year old boy complete with the desire for pajama parties? And what about those financial difficulties they've been reporting... I think I may have the answer... perhaps Wacko Jacko could become the posterchild for the National Mental Health Association! Their posters could read something like this:
- Did you release white doves and cry hysterically with joy at his acquittal?
- Do you think it's 'sweet' that he shares his bed with children?
- Would you allow your child to be alone with this man?
- Do you think he looks 'hot' and have requested your surgeon give you a nose like Michael?
- Do you think having an official 'umbrella holder' is really cool?
- Have you ever appeared in public in pajama bottoms?
- Do you have thousands of hours of video of you grabbing your own crotch but none of you kissing another person?
- Have you ever had a best friend named 'Bubbles'?
- Have you ever sung a love song to a rat?
- Are you a black male that could make a vampire look like they just spent 2 weeks in the Aruban sunshine?
- Have news reporters ever done a 10 minute rant stating "If being a freak was a crime he would be jailed immediately!"?

IF YOU HAVE ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THE ABOVE QUESTIONS - PLEASE SEEK HELP IMMEDIATELY! BECAUSE NO-ONE SHOULD HAVE TO BE LIKE MIKE!

Release the Hairs!

Thankfully the humidity is now gone! I can now release my hair... if you have been 'blessed' with the same kinky curly hair as me, you know exactly what I mean! A couple more days of this humidity and my head would have become a public danger! "I swear I didn't see the stop sign officer, there was this woman in front of me with the biggest afro I've seen since 1972, and strangly enough, she was whiter than Michael Jackson!"

Later....

Snot Balls & Pet Peeves

Did you see that new breakthru they've made in Oceanography? Snot Balls... yup.. no kidding! Snot Balls! Something to the effect of Snot Ball houses bringing food to the ocean's floor and that's why there's more fish down there... brilliant! Which leads me to something that I haven't done in quite some time... Pet Peeves... that's right folks... this one is such a HUGE peeve of mine that I swear I blogged it before, but apparently not.. I just looked thru my archives and no where did this one pop up... so, here you go...

Pet Peeve #3

Nose blowers... oh, but not just any Nose Blower! PUBLIC Nose Blowers! You know.. just about nothing makes me crazier (note that this is peeve number THREE!) than sitting in a restaurant, enjoying a lovely meal, and having the person at the next table whip out a hanky, or napkin and blow a huge wad of snot out of their nose! Wonderful.. thanks so much... my dining experience just wouldn't be the same without the sound of your juicy snots flying from your nostrils! I swear I'm going to make up a business card or a little note of some kind saying:

"Thanks so much for enhancing my dining experience with your public nose blowing. My meal just wouldn't have been the same without the sound of your wad of snot hitting your napkin! Maybe next you could remove your shoes and use your spoon to remove the jam from between your toes! Next time, please use the rest room for your snot removal - this will ensure your privacy, you can check for any wayward boogers in the mirror afterwards, and the rest of us can eat without being completely grossed out! OH.. and you could freakin' WASH YOUR HANDS as well!"

I really think that would get my point across with the minimum amount of "making a scene". The snot-blower could just discreetly read the note, be properly corrected, and quietly go back to their meal. What do you think? OK.. so maybe we're back to the "trying to right the world" issue..

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Got a secret?

I found this blog on a blog from blogger.. say that 5 times fast... then go to this address: http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ but be warned - some of the secrets sent on these amazing postcards are pretty extreme... but all are RIVETING!!! A MUST read for anyone that is a student of the human race!

Then get out your box of 96 Crayola's, your scissors, the Elmer's glue, and dig those skeletons out of the closet! I just might stick a stamp on a few bones myself!

Therapy on a 4x6 chunk of cardboard and the only bill is the cost of a stamp... priceless!

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Ever worry about yourself?

Sometimes I do... you may be surprised to hear this, but I have my faults... yes that's right.. me... I have faults... one of them (but certainly not the least of them) is I tend to be judgemental... and of course I struggle with passing along my judgements to those that I have judged... Sometimes you just feel like you can see where someone is going wrong and you just get the overwhelming urge to scream it from the rooftops, call 'em up and "inform" them, shoot them an email, or at the very least blog it and hope they read it and see themselves in the nuggets of "wisdom" posted there...

Now I could put these judgemental urges down to "trying to save them"... or even "trying to help them with their various issues"... and the ever popular "been there, done that, here's how I got past it".. but frankly I worry that it may have more to do with "I think your screwing up and here's how I think you should change." note the plethora of "I think"s in that little statement... Why does what I think about your issues matter? What makes me think I know best? Maybe your happy... Maybe the only way you can work thru your 'issues' is to recognize them yourself... Maybe just the act of my pointing out what "I think" your issue is, is actually THE issue... Maybe there isn't an issue at all... When exactly does concern for someone turn to 'judging them'... and when does passing along concerns and possible solutions turn into meddling?

Huh... now we move into "helping people with their issues is the job of Therapists"... Does that mean that all Therapists are judgemental? but wait... therapists are supposed to remain impartial... right? So how can they treat you for something if they aren't allowed to make a judgement? Doesn't it all start with the Therapist deciding you have an issue that requires treatment? Or is the difference the fact that you have contacted the Therapist so therefor you think that you have an issue that you need help with - even if that help turns out to be realizing that it is really a non-issue that you shouldn't be worried about at all... OH.. and here we go.. back to.. who decides that it's a 'non-issue'.. the Therapist? but they aren't supposed to judge... DOH! Abbott & Costello "Who's on first?"

And that's exactly why I worry about myself sometimes... I can debate myself for hours on end... oh... but then maybe I'm missing the whole point... maybe there's an issue that I can't even see that makes me want to 'right the world'... or.. Maybe I'm judging myself too harshly and I actually may know a thing or two that could help someone else out.. is NOT saying anything when you may have an answer wrong as well? Does your reason for expressing an opinion or offering advice play a part in all of this? Does having the 'best intentions' justify meddling? Is it 'meddling' if you have the best intentions?

OK... so... now that you've all read this... which of you is worried about me too? and are ya' gonna tell me about it, or will you feel that you'd be meddling? ;)

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Where did that darn cat go?
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Missing... again...

Just another crazy week... those darn Holidays... their great while they last but then it's back to work with a one day deficit! No rest for the wicked!

All week long I've been jonesing for some new music... Warren Haynes is awesome but even I need a little variety now and then. *Gasp.. imagine that... different music... I have a 6 disc cd player in my truck and currently 3 of those slots are occupied by Warren... Gov't Mule and Warren... Acoustic Warren... and Live Warren... slot 1 is empty (the manchild has been borrowing my truck and this slot has been designated for him)... slot 3 is occupied by Elvis Costello... and slot 5 is a compilation of some of my other favorites (ranging from Mellencamp, to local group Almost Speechless, and well... more Warren Haynes!)

So.. finally.. yesterday evening I found the time to login to my new emusic.com account! OH... the selection.. but what to select... now.. just to warn you if your looking to score some cheap mp3's yourself, your not gonna find any Brittany Spears (thank GOD!)... no Nine Inch Nails... no U2... safe to say if it's top 40 you won't find it here... but what you will find is some awesome Ray Charles... some CCR.. some John Lee Hooker... BB King... Otis Redding... Muddy Waters... Leadbelly... T. Bone Walker... yes.. can you say "I got the Blues!" and their awesome... I downloaded 2 full cd's worth of some of the best old-school "Mama killed a chicken but thought it was a duck" and served it up with "One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer" Blues! Awesome...

Maybe today I'll see what they've got in the R&B section... oh.. or maybe classical.. poor Warren.. I think he's gonna end up in the little black holder hanging off my sun visor...

Later...

Strange Dreams...

I very seldom dream... or at least I very seldom remember my dreams.. but I gotta tell ya' last nites was a doozy... I dreamt I was getting married... funny cause I've been married for almost 21 years now.. even funnier was who the groom-to-be was... Clint Eastwood... yup.. grizzled old Clint... hhhmmm... old... and I think that's the key right there... old... yes, we've had a birthday this week here on 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10... so that could explain grizzled old Clint...

so.. anyway... while I ran around in my dream.. Oh my god.. I need invitations... oh man.. flowers... with each new item I realized I needed I had to do another trip up and down Bay Road... back and forth I drove.. all nite long... until I reached the realization that I hadn't tried on my wedding dress...crap.. I've gained weight and now my old wedding dress doesn't fit... (yup.. it seems I was recycling my OLD wedding dress from my first wedding for the nuptials with Dirty Old Harry, nice huh?) in pops Cheech Marin... yup.. Cheech to the rescue to help me alter my wedding dress... as I held up the see-thru lace over-dress and said "Maybe I should just wear this" Cheech took one look and almost choked on the bag of circus peanuts that he was eating... and that's where I woke up... and that was that...

Actually I've had this kind of dream before... yeah.. believe it or not.. only that time it wasn't Clint I was marrying.. it was Bob Uecker.. yup.. another old guy.. and a really wierd one at that... I'm thinking it's a good thing my office building is full of therapists.. now I just have to figure out which one deals in dreams... but if anyone out there has any ideas... let me know... who knows... you could help me save the hourly fee!

Later

Finales'

So it was finale nite on tv last nite for 2 of my favorite shows.. doh... which to watch? Well, I think I made the right choice, I opted for "Lost" with the occassional peak at "American Idol"... We'll take Idol first...

I managed to hit it just right, I flipped over to it just as "Seacrest Out" was announcing "and the winner IS... Carrie Underwood"... damn... I'm disappointed but I can't say I'm surprised... Carrie, aka Kelly-two, is just so Idol... a little blonde carbon copy.. a dime a dozen... the cute little girl next door with the decent singing voice... now Bo... he was something different... unfortunately too different for Idol... oh well.. not a problem, he'll go far and probably with a better deal than Carrie... the one thing I do know is not once did I say "I'd buy that" to one of Carrie's twangy songs, but several of Bo's got the "money nod"...

and now..."Lost"... a 2 hour adventure... and I mean adventure... very VERY rarely does a television show manage to surprise me... I'm convinced that my husband won't watch CSI with me not because he finds it too gross and dark but because within the first 15 minutes I can usually not only tell him "who did it" but "why"... Lost on the other hand even got a little 'jump and squeal' out of me when they blew up Arzt with the dynamite... I knew he was gonna be one of the "red shirts" - you know the sacraficial character like in the old Star Treks... the main crew would go into a situation with a couple of spare red-shirted characters who would subsequently get blown up, shot, tazered.. whatever... but I digress... I knew Arzt was wearing a red-shirt but yet they still managed to surprise me with the big boom... AWESOME! now that's good TV! So anyway... the finale ended with still more mysteries and no answers, but that's ok... that's the fun of it.. trying to figure out what's what and who's who... although one thing did fit with my theory of the show... what's that you say? Walt's kidnapping by the "others".... so... my theory...

The numbers - yes, I think there is a reason for the numbers and that particular combination... somewhat designed to give you what you want but then make you pay for it..

The island - the hatch and the tunnels and the holes that seems to explode - some kind of underground tunnel system left over from the war or nuclear testing... which would explain...

The others - and the french woman... driven slowly insane from the leftover radiation from the nuclear testing... and now Walt...

Walt - I'm thinking he's the 'key' here.. the kid exhibited some esp or mind control type voodoo stuff... he's doing a report on a particular bird - gets upset - and lo and behold the bird crashes into the window... then he's upset after reading a polar bear comic and then gets chased by none other than a polar bear... and this is exactly why "the others" take him... they either

a. are sick of the island playing tricks on them (which it isn't - see the 'insane' part) so they think if they control the boy they can control the bad things on the island

or

b. they are really insane and want to do more evil things and they think the kid can help them reach new heights of evilness...

OH.. and back to the numbers... 4 8 15 16 23 42.. I'd be willing to bet the "others" will be a group of SIX men... who were part of some government experiment on the effects of radiation (and possibly mind control)... experiments where names were replaced by numbers... and these are men numbers 4... 8... 15... you get the idea...

hhmm... sound plausible?? you know... after having typed this all out... I'm kind of Lost now myself... any other theories out there?

Later...

Lost an elephant?

ok.. so who lost their elephant and why is it in my head and trying to kick it's way out? Ahhh... allergy season in Western Massachusetts.. such great fun... we get to all walk around with a thumping beat playing in our heads - no iPod required!

And lets make things even more fun.. their working on the widening of Route 9 in Hadley again and diverting all the traffic to a portion of Bay Road.. from what I understand they will be doing this every day this week... lovely... 10 bucks worth of gas and no where to go, at least not very quickly!

Now let's throw in grey and rainy for 8 freakin' days straight and February temperatures and have ourselves a really awesome spring! I'm so thrilled I could jump for joy... right off the freakin' Coolidge! Oh.. but then I would have to be able to drive to it and we all know that's not happening this week!

Later...

Yeah, pics are working!

Alrighty... so the picture posting program "Hello" is once again accepting my images for upload... yeah! Oh.. I could have posted them the old fashioned way, put them up on a website somewhere and link them into the blog but that just seemed too much like work... Oh wait.. posting pics to websites IS alot of my work... huh.. no wonder it seems like... never mind..

Later

Home Sweet Home... and the front garden is looking pretty good, although I think we're gonna need to do a little pruning soon...
Later

Hello??

Well.. you would have gotten a new pic here today but "Hello" the program I use to upload the images doesn't seem to be working... so I guess I'm gonna have to come up with some text for you poor deprived readers... yes.. it's been a week since I posted, although I'm feeling pretty deprived myself.. the 'other' weblogs that I read (yes, there are other weblogs out there besides yours trulys!) seem to be suffering from a lack of postage this week as well.. Maybe it's the weather, which frankly has been soso lately.. pretty cold out there really..

So... what to write about... well.. considering I haven't been anywhere in the real world all week it's gonna have to be computer related or television related.. hhmm.. well.. we've already covered the weather... *sigh... yup... pretty cold out there... uummm.... well... ok.. so lets see if Hello comes back online anytime soon...

Later...
ok.. ok... give me a minute and I'll be back!

Friday the 13th...

Friday quickies:

Need mp3's? Check out the 50 free downloads from Relix Magazine and emusic! That'll give you a good head start on filling up that fancy musical cell phone...

Here's a thought: If you can have a debit card tied to your bank account, make a purchase online, and then instantly fire up your online banking and see the withdrawal is already been posted to your account... how come it still takes FIVE business days for a deposited check to clear? HELLO... your slowing down the business world here people!!!

Real-time online?? So.. I was looking at wwlp.com and their 'live' temperature gauge on the upper right said "46 degrees" as I was thinking.. huh.. that's not too bad for 6:30am... Rick from the storm team came on the tv and reported "the temperature is in the upper 20's out there this morning"... okie doke.. whatever... I should know better.. there's nothing like a news site that goes dark on the weekends...

The guy that killed his 8 year old daughter and her friend... uummm.. fire up the wood chipper... nuf said! One limb at a time...

Another frost this morning... I've had a giant jar of flower seeds for 3 weeks now and I'm just dying to get them in the ground and get them started... at this rate I'll be planting them in JUNE! I suppose it could be worse, No. Dakota got 8 inches of snow yesterday... ok.. I'll stop complaining...

Later...

Just another tough day at work!
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She's only a foot tall.. but when she stands on the back of the couch and towers over you with that "I'm gonna get you!" look in her eye she can be quite intimidating!
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It's apple blossom time at Atkins... I took these photos on my way down 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10 this morning... yes.. I asked permission to take the photos and frankly they looked at me like I was slightly nuts.. I'll have to let them know on my next trip thru what the pics were used for...
Later

Azalea's... LOVE that pink!
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Hey.. if anyone knows what kind of shrub this is.. lemmeno... I want one!
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5 Days & 6 Newsletters later...

Wow.. 5 days since I've posted.... bad.. bad... bad... but pulling 13 - 14 hour days all week will do that to you.. and that isn't even including drive-time, cause frankly I haven't been driving... I've just been holed-up in my home office - tied to my wireless keyboard.. which is a neat trick considering it has no wires to tie with... I shudder to think how far behind I'd be in my work if I was actually taking that lovely leisurely drive along 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10 every day... OH.. but I do miss it.. I'm sure the apple trees are in full bloom by now at Atkins... and I had such high hopes to stop alongside the road and snap some images and breathe in their lovely sweet scent... but it's just not gonna happen this week... I'll just have to take an extra-curricula ride out there this weekend and take the camera along with me..

Anyway... so whats been going on lately..

OH.. thanks to another of Masslives blogs I was treated to this pic. Really cool.. someone had a Fisher Cat up a tree in their back yard in Florence... Frankly I'll take my hawk... Fisher's are mean - nasty - agressive creatures.. although it would be really cool to spot one... guess this pic will have to do.. They are also very secretive - hard to find animals...

The Runaway Bride - so.. are you as sick of hearing about this narcisistic idiot as I am? I don't even know this woman and I'm pissed at her... I was actually worried about her... watched the newscasts about her disappearance... wondered where she could be and what may have happened to her... She wasted my time and I want it back!!! She's a 32 year old grown woman for pete's sake... a 12 year old might pull something like that and I'd say.. "Oh.. I'm just glad she's safe.. kids make mistakes.." but come on!! You know... I wanna be the City Clerk in her home town... NOPE... sorry... no marraige license for you... we don't allow people with the common sense of a 12 year old to get married... go GROW UP you idiot..and then come back and see me! HA!

And speaking of being out of touch with reality... working here in my home office I've been running the tv in the background as I work... I've actually (gasp) become quite a fan of Regis and Kelly.. Kelly really is quite the comedian... but Regis... my god... what rock does he live under... Everyday Regis pulls a couple of stories out of the news and does a few minutes rant about it... well... one of them he pulled was how the iPod has increased Subway crime... first he starts out with... how the crime rate has gone up on the RAILROAD... railroad??? huh??? what's a railroad? Kelly was able to translate that one thankfully.. you mean Subway? Oh.. yeah.. subway... then he proceeded to state that cell phones are the cause of the crime wave... cell phones??? I read that article and it's iPods that are the hot new item on the theives list... he then proceeded to discuss how he never uses his cell phone.. yadda yadda yadda... so.. Reg.. in his hepcat brilliance read iPod and thought it was some type of hot new cell phone... *sheesh... one of the few people that could actually afford an iPod and the 10 grand worth of tunes to fill it up with and he ain't got a clue... maybe I could write him a letter and convince him that I'm a disadvantage person that really needs an iPod so my sick mother will have a way to call me if she needs me and get him to spring for one of those spiffy new musical phones! double HA!

Well.. that's more than enough for today I think...

Later....

Baby Lilacs... Sensing a theme?
Later

Oh.. and it's raining too!
Later

Visitor - this guy was in my yard just 10 minutes ago (love the speed of the results with Digital!)... yeah.. it's grainy... yeah it's blurry... but it's also really cool and actually not too bad of a quality considering they were taken thru a window at 40times magnification...
Later

Kitty - ok.. so I admit it... this photo needed some 'touch ups'... black animals are notoriously hard to photograph they just suck up all the light and refuse to let it go... so this one got a little lightening and little scewing to get the steps straight... but other than the inverted Daffodils... what you see is what I saw.. see... saw... saw... see! Whatever....
Later

Unfortunately it isn't all Daffodils and Tulips out there...
Later

It's not all Daffodils in the yard... here is one of my two tulips! Considering at one time I had around 70 of them and now have all of 2 I had to take a pic before this one disappears too!
Later

Inverted fun with Daff's
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Silver TP redemption...

So our Silver Toilet Paper Award winner has made an attempt at redeeming themselves.. If you scroll down you'll see that US Airways was awarded the latest STPA for our horrendous flight down to San Juan and I quote "Will be hearing from me." Well they did hear from me in the form of a letter to their customer service... We received a very nice letter the other day from US Air apologizing for the bad experience... Our biggest beef was the lack of information (customer service)that was offered by the airlines as we stood in line for 3 hours and not one person took the time to explain what they were doing to help us!! I can understand delays but it shouldn't take 13 hours of traveling and 3 different flights to get from Connecticut to Puerto Rico!

So anyway, in fairness to US Air, I thought I'd let you know what they did to 'make up' for the bad experience... we got the nice letter and inside there were 2 vouchers for future travel with them for $150 each. Now we just have to use them within a year and before this airline goes belly up (they are already in Chapter 11)oh.. and not to mention if we want to take the chance of having another vacation start out badly at their hands... I'm thinking....

VEGAS, BABY! :)

Later....

It's all in your perspective!
Later

My Salmon colored Daff's... aahhh.. Spring!
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Signs of spring from around the yard... the grape hyacinth are blooming.. oh and the frogs are out!
Later

Side-trip - their doing a release of some of the overflow of the Quabbin... it's beautiful, exciting and seems a little wasteful all at the same time... all that lovely clear water pouring out of the reservoir!
Later

Docking in Barbados... that's another Royal Caribbean ship, one of their barefoot cruises where you can help hoist the sails if you want... notice the flying bridge on the side of the ship with our crew on it... very cool...
Later

When we finally got back to our cabin (that's me collapsed on the bed on the left of the pic.. happy but exhausted!) we had a really cool elephant towel animal awaiting us.. almost everyday we had a different animal awaiting us although one of them caused me and my husband to place bets on whether Alvaro our room steward had made us a swan or a sea serpent... He won... it was a swan... I still say it looked more like a sea serpent but hey... it was cute...
Later

A wood carving shop in St. Lucia (see story below)... check out the awesome flowers on the left of the pic... absolutely beautiful!
Later

St. Lucia w/ Mr. Ricky!

This port was one of the coolest and travel intensive that we did... starting with a 'water taxi' ride across the bay from the ship to the center of the town we docked in.. we were supposed to do the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ship sailing to a deserted island but our tour was canceled due to 'lack of participation'.. *sigh... that's what happens when the avg. age of your fellow cruisers is EIGHTY!... So we decided to wing it.. entering the center of town we were met by dozens of "take you on a tour nice lady?" people that offered taxi rides around the island... no thanks... no thanks.. no thanks.. the further we went into the island the cheaper the tours became... eventually we came across Vincent who offered us a 2 hour tour for 30 dollars each.. we managed to get him down to 15 each and off we went to get his taxi... upon arriving at his van we were introduced to "Mr. Ricky" our driver for the day... Mr. Ricky didn't speak any English as Vincent explained "I am the business man, Mr. Ricky is our driver".. seems Mr. Ricky doesn't speak english but he's got a taste for American cigarettes.. so I shared my smokes with him as he and Vincent took us on a LOVELY tour of their home...

We started up this HUGE mountain via many.. many.. switchbacks... very scary... as higher and higher we climbed... eventually the cruise ship in the harbor looked like it was an inch long!! About 3/4's of the way up this mountain Mr. Ricky quickly pulled over to the left and stopped in front of a little shanty type 'house'... as he jumped from the vehicle Vincent explained that this was not part of the tour but was Mr. Ricky's house and he needed to drop off a chicken for dinner.. as he walked to his little house with a mulit-million dollar view I glanced at the bag in his hand - that was no bucket of KFC in there!

Well our tour ended up more like three hours... with trips to a banana plantation.. overlooks at Marigot Bay (very gorgeous!).. a really cool and talented wood carving shop (look for pics of it to be posted above) with some of the most beautiful wood carvings that were only usurped by the beautiful flowers growing around the shop... a fort... and the governor's mansion.. our tour concluded not in the center of town where they had picked us up but right back at the pier in front of our ship... now that was SERVICE (not to mention saving us the cost of the water taxi ride back to the ship!) So needless to say Vincent (who turned out to be a GREAT tour guide - including our discussion of the national weed Ganji! ;) although he swore he only partakes once a day AFTER the work day is done! yeah.. ok... ) and Mr. Ricky got themselves a sizeable tip for the wonderful day they created for us... wonderful memories!!

Later....

St. Lucia - HUGE mountains - if you look in the lower left of this pic you can see the Empress! BTW.. if you click on these pics you'll get a nice BIG version of them!
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The top pool deck of the Empress.
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Day 3 - Here is lovely St. Kitts, imho, the loveliest island of them all, unfortunately we didn't see much of the island, my husband did a scuba dive and I did just the pier. Oh well, we'll just HAVE to go back and check it out more thoroughly!
Later

No takers?

So.. no takers on the "Baby Carraige, Plum, Sweet Alice" question? hurumph* Their the names of brooks that cross under Bay Road... I think we need a quickie post here.. lots of things have happened since the last posting...

The rogue wave - uummm.. scary... we'll be on the sister ship to the Dawn in October for our trip to Bermuda... and by comparison, the Empress is pretty much the same size as the Dawn... we were on Deck 9 (the wave hit as high as deck 10!)... sleeping with the sliding glass doors open... hanging out on our deck... even when we hit the rough stuff... OH.. but I haven't mentioned our 2 days of Rock and Roll yet... really scary...

Popedom... so there's a new pope... frankly I found the whole process very interesting... a real quick peek into the 'old boys club' mentality that the Catholic Church does so very well.. my favorite part was when it was reported that the cardinals sent for "20 nuns to cook and serve us our meals"... yah... 20 chefs and wiaters? no... 20 priests and nuns? no... Pizza delivery? no.... send us 20 nuns to serve us... bravo... and the church races ahead once again... maybe in another hundred years they'll start to see the light at the end of the tunnel of the Dark Ages...

I'd like to propose a new prison program... sleep over parties... yeah.. that's right.. Sleep overs... basically how it would work is any prisoner could request a sleep over with any one of a 'select' list of other prisoners. The specially selected prisoner would then be sent to the requesters cell for the nite for an evening of uninterrupted 'togetherness'.... I'd really like to see this put into place for that waste of space that took that little 9 year old girl down in Florida.. yup... make him President of the Sleep Over Party!

Anyway... now that I've creeped you all out... that's it for today..

Later

Me.. on vacation! (note the clear blue in the upper right corner... that's right... that's me.. out on my private balcony on the lovely Empress of the Seas... OH.. how I miss it!)
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A break from the Vacation...

with the week I've had it certainly has been a 'break from Vacation'... sad to say that nice calm "I'm on vaaccaaatttiioonnn" feeling is long gone and been replaced by "Oh man... I gotta get this done!!"... between server malfunctions (NOT my servers... thanks so much Purehost.com!) and client requests it's back to work with a vengenance!

Anyway... here's a little quiz for you Bay Roaders... What is the connection between these three things?
Baby Carraige
Plum
Sweet Alice
If you know the answer drop me a comment... unlike the last comment that some Porn Spammer decided to leave, I promise I'll leave it posted to the blog!

Later....

Lovely St. Barts
Later

Hold that ship!

Ok.. so I got ahead of myself... I started with the port-reporting before I mentioned our adventures in air travel before our arrival at the ship... so we'll take a step back a couple of days in time (fitting - spring ahead an hour and jump back a couple of days!)

OH.. and while we're at it... This our "Silver Toilet Paper Award" winner as well...



We haven't had one of those in awhile... (here's the scoop on the STP Award in case you missed it!)

So which airline is our winner?

US Airways!

We took our flight out of Bradley Airport into Philiadelphia - as scheduled - arrived in Philly for our 1 hour layover before our flight on to San Juan, PR - stopped in the airport bar for a quick beer and something that was supposed to be potato skins.... Then proceeded to our gate for our flight into Puerto Rico... only to find that our next plane had "hydrolics problems" (not good considering that's what makes the wheels go up and down - we may have needed those!) Now.. keep in mind here that the Empress was set to sail at 8pm with everyone needing to be on board by 7pm... Our original flight was scheduled to arrive in PR at 2:21pm - plenty of time for the 20 minute ride to the dock and to check in to the ship...

On our flight from Hartford we began talking with some of the others on board the plane and realized that a good deal of our fellow flyers were also all booked on the Empress... there were 61 of us on that flight to be exact!

So anyway... standing in the airport in Philly they had our plane on 'hold' until at least 3PM and even then they couldn't be sure if it would be fixed... now... 3pm (maybe) plus a 4 hour flight to San Juan, equals 7PM!!! So we wouldn't be arriving at the ship till 7:30pm - a half hour after the last "all aboard" call!! DAMN!! So US Air started scrambling... first we had 3 people helping us... then 2... then 1 guy that admitted "this isn't his job - and I don't know what I'm doing"... great! We were left standing in the Philly airport for 3 HOURS!! With no word of what was happening... Eventually they took 10 people and put them onboard a flight to St. Thomas with a further flight into San Juan... Finally at almost 3pm they announced they had gotten us all booked on an American Airlines flight into Miami and then on to San Juan... and we have 5 minutes to get to the AA gate... somehow... with our luck we ended up the last in line to get our tickets for the AA flight... and of course we got a 'new' guy that seemed like he entered our info into the computer at least 5 times! Finally he hands us our tickets and sends us off to gate A1... running down the concourse we watched the signs... A19.. A18... A17... damn... run!! Finally arriving at gate A3.. A2.. B1... B??? B1?? Where's A1?? Seems.. there is no A1 in Philly Airport!! A security guard suggested we try A11... back we go... A9.. A10.. aahh.. A11!! yup.. ok.. right place... but hey wait.. these are flight COUPONS.. not boarding passes... get your butts in that line and get your boarding pass! GGRRR!! ok.. so finally we're on board and it's off to Miami...

Arrival Miami... disembark the plane and begin to look for our connection to San Juan.. which leaves in TEN MINUTES!! Hello Security Guard - which way to gate B22? Oh.. it's a TWENTY MINUTE WALK - that way! DAMN... We ran a mile and half thru Miami airport wheeling our bags behind us... we began to notice our fellow cruisers along the way.. first a 75 year old Toronto woman - traveling alone.. poor thing.. so Mr. 9 2 Bay gallently took her bag from her to lighten her load... then a little further we came across an elderly couple who had no wheels on their carry on they were desperately trying to get to the gate with their heavy bags slung over the husbands shoulders - one on each side.. well.. let's help them as well.. I took one bag on top of my wheelie and Mr. took the other.. so we did a mile and half dragging 5 bags behind us!! Amazingly we just made it!!

Arrival San Juan... AA was kind enough to announce to the plane passengers that there were 50 of us trying to catch our cruise ship and could everyone let us off the plane first.. very nice of them.. unfortunately no one listened and we had to fight our way off the plane.. nice try tho! Upon arriving at San Juan terminal we were greeted by our Royal Caribbean representative who resembled a prison gaurd at a woman's hi-security facility! Now.. I'm a smoker... and I hadn't had a smoke since Philly.. so I'm pretty desperate about now - and so are a couple of our fellow travelers... so I approach Betty the prison gaurd for info on where we can go grab a quick smoke... only to be told "we going to gather here and then all go down to baggage" and then on to the ship - it seems Royal Caribbean decided to delay the sailing of the ship for us... smart move considering we all had the insurance and they would have had to pay to catch us all up to the ship in St. Maarten! "There is no place to smoke"... so I give it another try... "you don't understand.. is there somewhere we can go smoke?" So Betty.. in her infinite wisdom replies "We are ALL meeting here, and then going on to baggage... there is no smoking... anyway.. it's a good time for you to quit!" That was it.... as I got an inch from her face I began with "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!! I've been pushed around... thrown on planes.. ran thru Miami airport... etc.. etc.. etc... and finished with NOW WHERE CAN WE GO SMOKE?!" all the while my poor husband was whispering in my ear "Their gonna call security!"

Anyway.. long story-short version... We arrived at the ship at 8:30pm - a far cry from the 2:21pm arrival that we were supposed to have... ate a quick buffet dinner and went to bed! Our original plane arrived 5 minutes behind us in PR so we got our luggage (unlike the 10 people that were sent to St. Thomas.. they received their luggage 5 DAYS into the cruise!!)

Not the best way to start a vacation... and US Airways is hearing from ME!... whew... so... the Silver Toilet Paper Award.. yes.. definitely a worthy recipient...

and next we'll go on to Day 3 of our lovely Caribbean holiday!

Later....

Day 2!

Day 2 was lovely St. Barts! Playground of the rich and famous - and the occasional cruise ship! From what I understand even El Diablo Senor Bill Gates keeps a home and yacht on this island.. I also heard several stories about shop keepers closing up for the day when they see the cruise ship pull in to the bay, so very friendly!



I didn't make it in to this island - for a couple of reasons...

1. no dock - this one was just a tender, which means that the ship just drops anchor in the bay and these little boats come alongside and pick you up and take you to shore.. not quite ready for THAT adventure! and

2. Mr. 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10 had that look in his eye.. the one that says "I'm gonna see as much of this place as possible in the time alotted!" and did he ever! He met up with a Professor from a Japanese University "Sanoo" and the 2 of them did a power walk of 5 miles around the island - in 90 degree heat... By the time they got back they looked like they had been dumped in the ocean - pulled out - and wrung out till dry.. well almost dry!

So what did I do while they were off adventuring? Schooner Bar for what became known as "my breakfast"... Strawberry Daquiris... yummy!! It was a great mornin'... thanks to Delano my breakfast bartender from Costa Rica (I learned alot about his country)... I even participated in the "Geography Trivia Game" that was being held.. which was pretty funny considering I couldn't find my way around the ship... add 2 servings of "breakfast" before 11am.. and the fact that I was playing alone while the others were all playing in teams and of course the inevitable was bound to happen... I WON!!! Even with answers like "Tryptophan is the country to the east of France"... So what was the grand prize that I won you ask?? Well.. considering how much people spend to be on the ship you'd think the prizes would be awesome... you know value for value... so what did I win... a shiney Royal Caribbean PEN!!! That's right... a pen... I'll treasure it always!!


Later....

Miss me?

So... I'm finally catching up a bit after my lovely 11 nite cruise of the Southern Caribbean! Sorry for the extended delay, but you know how it goes... take 2 weeks off and return to 4 weeks worth of work! OH... but it was so worth it! I'll give you a little taste of the caribbean blue water, white sand, and blazing sunshine that we encountered in our travels over the next week or so... We're just now getting an opportunity to go thru the 500 or so photo's we took on our trip and I'll put some of the better ones up on here...

Here was our first stop... Lovely St. Maarten!



I can't speak for the town, but we took a wonderful catamaran ride during which we spotted a Mother hump back whale and her calf! Awesome... and once in a lifetime... the 2 floated on the surface of the clear blue for 10 minutes while we circled around and got a really good closeup look... we then beached at Tintamare Island - a nature preserve - for some snorkling - sun bathing - and swimming... it's a lovely unspoiled island with high mineral content sand that is used in spa treatments... OH.. and did I mention "clothing optional"... yup... only one question remains after this lovely outing... Why is it that the people that should never appear naked in public are the only ones that actually do? YIKES!!

Later....

Take me back....

To St. Kitts

Vacation state of mind....

So it's getting really hard to concentrate here on 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10... getting SO close to vacay now I can taste that salty sea air.. or maybe I just went a little nuts with the saline solution when I put the contact lenses in this morning! Either way, the countdown has begun...

I've been doing alot of research here.. on cruises.. cruising.. and the various islands we'll be visiting.. only problem is.. during my vacation investigations I've come across several 'deals' that well... ya' just can't pass up... namely..

BERMUDA!!! I was able to find a cruise that leaves Boston.. yes... that's right BOSTON... The Norwegian Majesty... it does a roundtrip Boston - 7 nights - with 4 days docked in lovely St. George Bermuda... an inside cabin for 2... 1400 bucks! People.. that's $200 a night!! You can't get a freakin hotel room in Bermuda for that... never mind that you not only have an ocean view (if you go up on deck).. your IN THE FREAKIN' OCEAN!!! The view doesn't get any better than that... OH... and did I mention... they FEED you too! And very very well I might add... so... nope.. no extra cost for food... ok.. so your bar bill will be extra (but there's ways around that!) but $200 a night for a room and food for 2 people!! OH... and did I further mention... NO AIRFARE!!! That's right... drive on in to Boston.. park for $12/day and hop on board... Don't ya' just love a bargain!! I know I do.... that's why I booked us for the October sailing!!

Man.. I'm starting to sound like a travel agent here... but hey... when I find a bargain I like to pass it along... and for 7 nights in Bermuda at $100 per night per person WITH room and board... it doesn't get any better than that! At least now too when we take that long sad flight back from Puerto Rico at the end of this vacation - it may not be so sad... it'll be one vacation down and another one coming up to look forward to... I may just have to do this all the time... make sure I've always got a vacation in the hopper... hey.. everyone needs something to look forward to now don't they... :)

Later