Some fun in the sun....

After spending winter thus far at home, it is nice to finally be in the great sunshine state of Florida. We left Baltimore on Saturday and it was 37. We landed about 2.5 hours later and it was 87!!! How sweet is that!! On Sunday Tracey, her Mom, and I went to the Daytona 500. Now I have to say it is pretty funny to take someone who isn't a big racing fan to the biggest race of the season. We got a cute picture of her wearing scanner headsets surrounded by a few hundred dieheard NASCAR fans.

Three Daytona 500 tickets - $300

Snacks and Suveniors = $200

Hearing "The Mom" go "They're nuts!!!" when the cars go racing by at 187 mph.....Priceless

Today we are off to Orlando and Universal Studios to see the Blue Man Group and have dinner at Margarittaville. Tommorrow thru Thursday we are staying at Disney for a work conference for me. I am a little nervous leaving Tracey unattended for over 8 hours on Wednesday while I am busy with work stuff. When she looks at me and goes "Now how much trouble can I really get into", it can't be good. I am sure there will be at least one good story to tell when we get back.

Super Bowl.....Super Snacks!!!

What's not to love about Super Bowl Sunday.....a little pigskin and a whole lotta snacks. I mean isn't that the whole point of watching the game....well accept for the commercials and a half-way decent halftime show. Personally I am hoping for an upset..GO GIANTS!!!

I am now off to partake of some corn dogs, cheeseball and crackers, chocolate chip cookie bars, popcorn, nachos, and whatever else I can find around the kitchen. Good thing I can spend the rest of the week running around work like crazy to burn off the calories!!!

Duct tape....a must have in any home

I have come to the conclusion that duct tape is a must have in any home...and the new cool colors are sweet too. Last weekend we decided to install that window shrink wrap stuff on the downstairs windows to help with a little draft problem we were having. So Tracey and I get the stuff installed and were really proud of ourselves. Considering neither of us got stuck to the double sided tape, we thought we done good. Now Dozer, our youngest, really likes to lounge in the window sills downstairs. Apparently he got a little ticked off that we blocked his access and decided to show us once again who is really the boss in our house. While we were off at work one day last week, he decided to try and gain access into his window through the shrink wrap leaving about three holes in it. Well I got home and was told about what happend. I realized that I wasn't in the mood to redo the whole window that night so I decided to make a quick fix. Three small pieces of duct tape over the wholes and the draft was gone again. Good as new right? WRONG!!!

After Tracey discovered my quick fix to the problem, she laughed hysterically and then proceeed to tell me I need to fix it the right way over the weekend. My response..."Yes dear." So after a little repair job, the window has been redone and all is well again. At least until Dozer decides he wants to sit in the window again and we play this cat and mouse game all over again. Moral of the story...even if you think it is cool to use duct tape and a pocket knife like MaGyver to fix something around the house...be prepared to find out that your partner doesn't think it is so cool.

Reasons why I should not be left home alone....

So I have had the pleasure of a few days of R&R...which I might add were much needed....this week. I had a few things on my to-do list to accomplish and the rest of my itinerary was pretty much free time. But after being left alone to my own self for a few days, I have discovered my Top 3 reasons why this shouldn't happen again any time soon.

1. One of the cats mysteriously gets out and I have to go wondering through the yard following paw tracks in the snow. I swear that cat is Houdini. Tracey's response..."Shut the door next time genius". Who knew.

2. Left to peruse the internet, I decide that I should get Tracey a special t-shirt for her upcoming birthday...a rainbow colored palm tree shirt. She likes the beach and purdy palm trees so I thought why not. She proceeds to tell me that she will only wear it to my family functions. Smartarse.

3. Left alone during the day with only the animals causes me to start talking in their language and when I go to the mailbox talking to myself, the neighbors get the weirdest looks on their faces. As if the two chicks living together who wear cargo shorts and muscle shirts to mow the yard didn't cause them some alarm to begin with.

Needless to say, it is a good thing I am back in the office tomorrow.

I hope this is not a prelude to the rest of the year.....

So I am sitting in my recliner having just watched the ball drop and having just shared a New Year's toast with Tracey when I happen to notice an area of blood on the living room carpet. Now with 5 animals in the house, I automatically conclude that it has to be one of them. Rascal...nope, Dozer....nope, Pudo....nope, Bristol....nope....and lastly....Morgan....yeap that's the one. So I get Morgan onto the kitchen tile and soon realize that this is more blood than my queazy little tummy can handle. Next step....holler for Tracey to come help. She grabs some dish towels and paper towels, then heads for the rubber gloves. More blood....but where in her mouth is it coming from. By now I am in a mild panic and head for the phone to call the vet. At this point roughly 15 minutes have passed. I get the vet's answering service attendant who asks the usual stuff...name, pet's name, age, medical issue...etc. Finally she says she is going to page the vet on call and have her call us. Less than two minutes pass and the phone rings.....ahhhhh as luck would have it, our vet is the one on call this late night...lucky us!!! So I proceed to explain what is happening, time lapse since it started, all that good stuff. Now remember, my tummy is queazy. Dr. Malec suggests that we wait another 15 minutes to see if it clots. Ummm...I don't thinks so. Finally she relents and says she will meet us at the vet hospital...whewwww. Ok, grab blankets, prep car, do a headcount to ensure we haven't lost any of the others in this excitement...finally at 1:30 AM this morning we are off to see the vet.

We arrive 25 minutes later....after Tracey telling me several times not to speed as the cops will be out in full force. I figure....If they decide to chase me, they are gonna follow me all the way to the vet's cause I ain't stoppin'!! We get Morgan out of the car (now mind you, Tracey has doggy blood on her shirt, pants, rubber gloves....not a pretty sight I must say) and the Dr. Malec meets us at the door. Back through the hall we go to the surgery area....a blood trail the whole way. At this point, we definitely know it ain't gonna stop without the vet's help.

Finally we have found the source. Apparently while chewing on her bone at home, Morgan bit her tongue. Next step...stitches. Tracey and the vet put me on a stool and tell me not to look while they stitch up my sweet baby Morgan. Who knew Tracey could fill is as a vet tech!!! A little sedative, a few stitches, a shot of IV fluids, and Morgan is good as new and the blood has stopped flowing. Whoohoooo!! The funniest part after that....Tracey repeatedly asking Dr. Malec if she can mop up the blood off of the floors...how precious is she. Now me being the numbers cruncher knows that the cleanup fee is gonna be on the bill and at this point it is a little before 3 AM and I just want to take my dog home and get some sleep.

All I got to say is....

1. I love our vet!!!
2. I am thinking we should really look into pet insurance.
3. I can pooper scoop the yard, but the sight of blood does me in.

and last but not least...

I hope the rest of the year is less eventful!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

So it appears that we survived our first (and possibly annual) Christmas Party for my employees. Good food, good drinks and yes even an appearance by the jolly old man himself!! There was some smack talk around the pool table, some busted knuckles thanks to the air hockey pucks, and lots of laughter. We have been wanting to install hardwood floors in the dining room and now thanks to some spilled cocktail sauce, it looks like that will be a reality in 2008 (apparently Rascal is not a fan of the cocktail sauce because our little hoover vac declined the open invitation to clean it up). What's not to love about this time of year!!

Christmas Shopping....oye

So Christmas is only 15 days away which means that it is time for me to really start shopping for that perfect gift for that special loved one. Now normally I am Wal-Mart's biggest fan...but when it gets this close to Christmas...that is the last place I want to be. So my solution to this little late shopping predicament....gift cards!! You can buy one of those things for practically anywhere. Now my personal favorite this year is the one that you can get that can be used anywhere. Let's face it...not everyone loves Wal-Mart and Lowes. So for those special family members, I have elected the "use it where ever the heck you want" gift card. Gotta love Visa!!

Right before Thanksgiving, my Mom asked me for my list. So I emailed it to her before I went to her house for a big turkey dinner..lol. Yeah she rolled her eyes when she asked for my list after dinner and I told her to check her inbox. But low and behold it appears that she did retrieve it and she actually called to ask about one idea in particular today while she was out fighting the masses at the stores. Looks like my attempt to bring Mom into the techno age is working. HA!

Here's hoping that each of you find that perfect gift for that special someone in your life!! Now I must go figure out what the heck a Nintendo DS is and where to get a game for it....here I come Amazon.com.