I have been waiting all week for the chance to say this...

TGIF FRIDAY HAPPY DANCE!!

This has been one insanely long, stress filled, annoying week and I am so blissfully HAPPY that I just have one more shift (Friday night) to get through and my weekend begins!!

On wednesday I decided to work on my pictures a little. When I started the Kodak Easyshare program I was offered a chance to upgrade which I accepted. Shortly after the whole program went to hell in a handbasket. *Sigh* Im pretty sure I lost some of my pictures. The program refused to run and I had to uninstall the whole thing. The next day I decided to buy System Mechanic and upgrade the memory to a full 2 GB. I wish I could say that helped. When I got home from Staples I tried to start the laptop only to have it crash no less than 10 times! *Blood boils* Its really goes without saying that I will be paying a visit to Staples as soon as I get off work in the morning. I am so sick of computer problems.

When I got into work tonight I confronted my co-worker whose soon to be husband (yes, this is the couple that I have agreed to take wedding pictures for... *double sigh*) worked on our laptop a couple times and then PROMISED he would have it all fixed about a month and a half ago. He has made no attempt to contact us, nothing. She apologized for him and said I should have spoke to her and she would have sorted this out. I forgot to mention the agreement they BOTH made was that I photographed their wedding at no cost and he repairs our laptop at no cost. *Sigh* She said he sometimes forgets things. I told her that it would be best if he not make promises he cannot keep! (God help that marriage!)

I wanted to post something Thursday about a special baby girl but with all the computer drama did not get the chance. Better late than never, eh? On August 14, 1994 one of my classmates/former friends gave birth to a baby girl in her home, alone. What happened during and after the birth has never actually been agreed upon. One fact is certain, that baby girl was wrapped up, placed in a trash bag and then placed in the trash can. My classmate/former friend did serve time in prison for this. She has maintained that the baby, which her parents did not know she was pregant with, was stillborn. I saw my classmate/former friend the day she gave birth. I know that she had spent all summer long working with the high school marching band for daily practices as well as at band camp. I know that it was incredibly hot that summer and their practices could sometimes last 8 hours. I dont know what happened but I do like to remember this child every year and hope that her soul is at peace.

My one small slice of heaven/saving grace this week has been the promise of the hot air balloon festival this weekend. I am hoping the rain stops and we have a bright, sunny weekend. Hubby and I got up last year before sunrise and headed out to the main field to find the perfect spot for pictures. We plan to do the same this year. I hope this becomes a traditon with us. I cant remember who runs the breakfast tent, its one of the groups like the boosters, but they make pancakes (regular and Maine blueberry) and have sausage and fresh maple syrup! Yum!! I am really looking forward to seeing the Oggy balloon. This balloon is 138 ft tall, 80 ft wide (the equivalent to a 14 story building!!) Here is a picture of him I found online...

I think I have probably made this post long enough LOL Hopefully I will have a working laptop and some balloon festival pictures to post after this weekend! Ya'll have a good one and of course I will end with a song. This one seems fitting to my mood, here is Cher with, "Turn Back Time."

Cell phone etiquette

1. If you truly must take/make a call while driving please do the rest of us a favor and pull off the road.

2. If you truly must make a private phone call in a public place please understand that others around you CAN hear that information and not everyone is honest nor does everyone want to hear your private information.

3. If you find yourself on the phone while in line at the grocery, at the gas station, checking into your hotel or other similar situations be courteous enough to put the phone down to complete your transaction.

4. If you must have your phone with you while in a restaurant, at the movies, at a sporting event or other similar situations be courteous enough to turn the phone on vibrate and also to leave the area if you must take/make a call.

5. If you find yourself in a public bathroom please have enough respect for those around you not to take/make a phone call.

 

That's right folks, it's time for the...

Friday Happy Dance!!

I just have to get through one more shift (Friday night). I know, I know... I just came back from vacation. But gosh darnit I wanna 'nother one!!

Actually, I will get another one in October! Hubby and I are going back to another convention. This one is a little different. Its kinda hard to explain. Lets just say it more Halloween style than anime. Halloween is my most favorite of all holidays. Its more of a three way tie between Halloween, St Patty's day and Christmas.

Oh and the Great Falls Balloon Festival is just a couple weeks away!

I am like a little kid at these festivals! I love the balloons. Last year I chickened out and didnt enter the photo contest (the picture above is courtesy of photo bucket... not mine) and the winning photo was identical to mine! So, this year if the weather improves (right now its just rain, rain and more rain!) I am entering the contest.

Oh, that reminds me! Guess what happened while I was on vacation? The hotel pool was struck by lightening! Yep! I actually think its kinda funny that it happened (I know, I know... Im bad! lol). No one was injured, it happened on the overnight shift. Yep, my shift! I guess it caused some of the systems to malfunction.

I think its time for me to post another song. Lets see... hmmm... how about this one? Yeah this one works. Have a GREAT weekend ya'll!!

CT took me away!

 

It was so great to get away… even if it was only 4 days!

 

After dropping off our furbabies at my manager’s house we headed out last Thursday for CT. We left a little later than we had hoped. Traffic was mild, thank goodness! But the sun was not! Neither one of us remembered to put sun block on so by the time we pulled into the hotel the arm we had hanging out the window was burnt! We had to make a trip to Wal-Mart for aloe vera.

 

Our room was AMAZING! We had a king bed Jacuzzi suite and with hubby’s hotel discount it was only $25/night! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! Probably the best perk of the job! The room was huge and very nicely decorated. I thought for sure the Jacuzzi tub would be really small… nope! The hotel is only 9 months old so everything still looks and feels very new. I had to laugh at the bed. I am just a little over 6’ feet tall and that bed came up to my tummy!

 

We met up with our friend Bree who had traveled from NYC to spend time with us. We booked the same room for her… boy was she surprised to see that room! Since we arrived so late there wasn’t much time to do anything so we just had dinner and tucked in for the evening.

 

Bree remembered that we have a Maine Moose (stuffed animal) that we take with us on vacation so she brought one her stuffed animals, Catherine the cat J We have pictures of them all over the place J

 

Friday morning we headed over to Bristol, CT to visit the New England Carousel Museum. We didn’t realize we would have a tour guide and he was not really the best guide but we did learn more than if we had walked through by ourselves. The sad part of it all was the mother and daughter “know it all” that joined us. They belong to some sort of Carousel society and were quick to answer all of the guide’s question and point out that they had 2 of their own carousel horses at home. Which they just had to explain were very, very expensive. *eye roll*

 

After the museum we headed up to Hartford for the first day of the anime convention. I think hubby and I both expected it to be like the one we attended in NYC and it wasn’t. We had fun and hubby learned some great tips/tricks in the workshops but there were a few downsides. The layout was kinda crazy. I did get some really cool pictures of some of the people who dressed in costume. (I will try to post these asap)

 

The next morning we drove back into Hartford for a ride on the Bushnell Park Carousel. That was so much fun! I cannot remember the last time I rode a carousel! And I even got some cotton candy! YUMMY!! We followed that up with a visit to the XL Center to see the Titanic exhibit. We weren’t allowed to take pictures as this was a display of items recovered from the Titanic. Each glass case had an alarm and I somehow managed to set one of the alarms off as I walked by *blush* A friend of mine quoted one of the lines of the movie Titanic to me when I was very depressed and actually suicidal. He said, “If you jump, I jump.” Walking through that exhibit opened my eyes to the real people who lost their lives that and the survivors whose lives were never the same again. We each took a boarding pass with an actual passengers name as we entered and at the end we found out whether that person lived or died. Hubby’s passenger was the only one to die L

 

After the exhibit hubby and I went back to the anime convention and Bree headed back to the hotel. Hubby wanted to attend this workshop about drawing for anime. We arrived a little late, the class had already started and we quickly realized we needed to leave that class asap! The class was basically about drawing anime PORN! The guy teaching it had this really bad comb over and looked as if he lived in his mother’s basement. When we walked in he was drawing the nipple on the breast of one of his characters and the way he was doing it was so darn creepy! He was talking very slowly and I leaned over and asked hubby if he was getting off on the whole subject… yeah, I went there! LOL I got up to leave and was out of the room before hubby was. When he came out he had this odd grin. I bought a Family Guy bottle opener key chain for him and he has it on his key ring. It’s a recording of 5 different lines from Baby Stewie. Well, as he was walking out something triggered it and everyone turned as Stewie’s voice comes out of his pocket saying, “Stop mocking me!,” Who the hell do you think you are?!” LOL!!

 

We rounded out the evening with pizza and playing the board game, “Smart Ass.” I LOVE that game!

 

The next morning we had breakfast with Bree before she headed back to NYC and we headed out to Mohegan Sun Casino. Wow, that place is huge!! It’s the 2^nd largest casino in the world. I had never been to a casino and have to say I’m not really impressed. I only played the slots but was disappointed to find out they don’t use coins anymore. Instead you get a printed ticket to take from machine to machine. Sheesh! Half the fun is in hearing all the coins hit the tray! LOL I did get some pictures of the waterfalls which were really cool! And hubby was able to get some of his favorite Krispe Kreme donuts! He is seriously addicted and we don’t have them in Maine.

 

It kinda sucked to come back home Sunday night but we get to go back in October!! Wootage! LOL I found a flyer at the convention center announcing an Halloween anime convention and we are going!

 

Well… I need to get some rest for work tonight. Hopefully I will catch up on reading everyone’s blog soon. I’m considering switching over to Live Journal in the next couple weeks but I will still visit here every now and then.

 

Have a great rest of the day and weekend if I don’t stop by before then!

 

Huggles!

Ghost Bride

                  

So, hubby's manager tells him the other day that his driver's license expired on his bday. (the hotel keeps track of anyone's license that is at anytime responsible for driving the hotel shuttle) So, he calls me at work and I go online immediately to renew his license. Nope, no can do. Maine recently adopted the Real ID policy. Both of us have our PO Box listed on our ID's rather than our physical address and because of that we can no longer renew online    

So, after running a few errands we headed to the DMV this morning. But, no, it just could not be THAT easy could it? Nope! We were within 1 mile of the DMV when this "Opps, I forgot to wear my sunglasses" moron rear ended us!!   We were stopped at a read light and even though she intended to turn right into the parking lot beside us she did not see the red light, nor our car!   The more likely reason would be the cell phone that was in her hand! I swear those things were created by Satan himself!

Anyway There is no damage to our car thankfully. My neck/head hurt afterwards but I refused an ambulance. Im not in any great pain right now. BUT... here is the clincher. Hubby decided to be honest and tell the cop he knew his license expired and was enroute to the DMV. What did he get in return? A summons with a nice little $137 fine attached!     Which he, of course, plans on contesting. If not for the damn Real ID program (and of course this moron who shouldnt have a license if she cannot see to drive at 9 am!)  this would not have happened.

Calgon take me away to CT now!