Blog Laziness

If you couldn't tell, I haven't felt like blogging much these last couple months of 2009. I'll be better in a week or so. Stick with me. . .I'll be back. Promise.

Contest Prize

Congrats again to Slick!! Prize has been delivered to the front door just this morning.

It's a crazy martial arts double feature cd!!! And, no, that's not a tennis racquet, but an bad-ass insect killa (electronic fly-swatter of sorts). Now Slick can go ape-shit crazy and try some new, mad karate moves a la Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan while he's killing the pesky bugs! Have fun, my friend!

And the WINNER is. . . .

Drumroll please.

SLICK

Congratulations, Slick!!! You are the winner of the very first JAKL blog contest with 2 correct answers! Woo Hoo for you!!! Prize will be delivered to your doorstep sometime before the weekend is over (try to contain your excitement! ;) Prize contents will be posted on JAKL after delivery to Slick.

Correct Answers:

1. A Giant Doughnut

2. An Out of Order phone booth

3. The Queen Mary

4. A Boat Cleverly Named Vitamin Sea

5. Baby Stingray

6. A turtle

7. P!nk

8. Emmy Red Carpet

9. Deer in a front yard

10. Polo Match

Thank you all so much for playing. I know this was a difficult contest and required more chance than knowledge, but it was the best I could do for our inital game. I promise the contests will get better! Thanks again! I hope you all had fun.

CONTEST. . .play here:

Okay, I'm going to try my hand at a blog contest. There will be a small but lovely prize for the winner so I need all of you who play to identify yourself and how I can get the prize to you. Okay?! Okay.

The contest rules:

Using the descriptions of 10 photos posted in my September 27, 2009, entry entitled "Things I saw in La-La Land", list the photos from 1 to 10 in chronological order of how I saw them once I landed at LAX. #1 being the first thing of interest that I saw #10 being the last. You get the drift.

The winner will be the person who gets the most correct. Your list must be posted as a comment to this link no later than 0900, Saturday October 3rd. Winner will be notified via post on JAKL immediately following deadline. In case of a tie, there will be a sudden-death type tie breaker (prepare yourself now).

So, have at it, Readers!! Make me proud!!

Slacker City Blues

Hello everyone! I have been a mucho slacker on our little blog here as of late. So, I thought I'd just post a butt-load of pictures in multiple posts with minimal captions and call it good for a couple days. I hope you all bear with me here until I get back on a regular schedule. Until then, let the picture madness begin. . .

A Mileagestone

We noticed Leon turned 26,000 on the dot!

Happy Mileagestone, Leon!

Here's to a couple dozen (ha!) more of those and never letting us down!

If I hear the phrase. . .

"We need the moiture bad." one more time I am going to scream!!!

Just warning everyone.

Alcohol Abuse

I work across the street from a certain beverage distribution company that shall remain nameless. Anyhooooo, around quittin' time yesterday, we saw much commotion out in the middle of the street involving the roofing company employees (Roofing Co. is next door and also across the street from said distribution company) who were busily scooping up debris and boxes with shovels/fork lifts and such working around pools of golden liquid. Apparently, some tasty beer took a nasty fall out of one of the trucks and the roofers were kind enough to help clean the mess up for the driver. This was quite a site and my coworkers & I sat enthralled watching the action. I grabbed my phone and shot this crappy picture. The scene looked a lot worse than this shot makes it seem. As for the roofers, I wonder if they were paid with the remaining partially damaged 12-paks. They sure were working their tails off! :) One can only wonder.

So long, Rockwood!

A bittersweet feeling . . .we just sold our Rockwood Freedom pop-up camper and the new owners just pulled away hauling the trailer off into the sunset (not really as they were driving East not West, but whatever, it makes for a good scene). The pop-up went to a good, outdoorsey family with a couple of boys and we feel she's in good hands and will get good use.

This was the the first camper for both J and me and the first thing we'd ever bought together. We had lots of good times and adventures in that camper. It was good to us. We hauled the Rockwood to the Miracle Mile (or in our case at the time the Not-So-Miracle Mile). The camper was our safe-haven when we were attacked by that gigantic swarm of gnats. We spent many a nights in Rob Roy on fishing trips and in the Snowies listening to the rain tap a little tune on the aluminium roof of the good ol' Rockwood.

This is the only picture I could find with the camper. We were car camping up off Happy Jack on the other side of Vedauwoo.

J & Ehoo hammin' it up.

Rockwood in background.

Since we now have our cabin, we bid adieu to the camper!

So long, Rockwood, and thanks for all the fish!

I *am* handsome & valuable! And doggone it, people like me!

We bought new work clothes for J recently. Apparently they don't use straight pins any longer and there were clips holding the button-up Docker's shirt to the cardboard packing instead. Being good to the Mother Earth, I was reducing/reusing/recycling by using them as paperclips when I noticed the minuscule words.

I guess even men need some positive reinforcement for their state of mind no matter how tiny or subliminal. I found this strange & funny. Who at Docker's thought this up? Did they get a raise? Do they feel good about themselves? What is the explanation?

Curious, I say.

2nd Annual Shoe Shopping Extravaganza

Last year on January 1, 2008, while out seeking to spend a Dillard's Christmas gift card, my sister (Toni Baloni) and I stumbled upon the greatest of all sales . . .a SHOE SALE! After we each scored around 5 pair for under $100, we vowed to make January 1st from here on out our annual day for shoe shopping no matter what! Neither rain, sleet nor snow would keep us from this awesome event and a pinky swear sealed the deal.

Fast forward 1 year later, January 1, 2009, we honored our pinky-sweared vow and set forth on the 2nd Annual Shoe Shopping Event. The major surgery had by Toni Baloni on Monday December 29th might have slowed her down but even that couldn't stop her from going! What a trooper! So with credit/gift cards in hand and hope in our hearts, we entered the shoe department at Dillard's and had ourselves one heck of a heyday.

The 50% off sales of already slashed priced shoes were hiding from us at first. However, once we spotted those wheeling-dealing Rocket Dogs, you could barely see us through the frenzy of boxes, soxes and tissue paper flying around as we tried on many a pair, style & brand.

I finally settled for leaving with three pair. 1 pair of brown Rocket Dogs, 1 pair of black rocket dogs and 1 pair of brilliantly blue Ecco low-top hikers as seen here: Purdy, aren't they. The Rocket Dogs were originally $49 bucks, I scored 'em for $15. Ecco's originally $125. . .mine for just $37!!! SCORE! I love shoes. These three round out my collection to close to 50. Yes, yes, I know that 47 pair of shoes are ridiculous for one person to own; however, in my defense, Imelda Marcos I am not as I wear each pair at least a couple times a year. Some pair, obviously, I wear more than others. One thing I love about shoes and why I can't get enough of them is that no matter how many years pass or how much weight I gain over the holidays, I can "usually" fit into my shoes. Thus explains my love affair for the Shoe, Queen of the Accessories. ~sigh~ This rule applies to the Ladies in Waiting of Accessories as well - jewelry, scarves, handbags & sunglasses - but those are all stories in and of themselves that I shall leave for another post.

Back to the task at hand . . this year's shopping spree was a little different than last year's as we also scored some smokin' deals on clothes. I purchased each of these shirts for under $10 each. Two were Columbia brand and the colorful one in the middle was such a fru-fru brand that it was $75 at regular price!!! YIKES $75 for a fricken T-Shirt?!?! WTF?! Get outta town!

I also scored this blouse & vest. The vest was 8 bucks and change and the blouse was the most expensive at just under $17. I love the detail on the white blouse. Can't see much of the detail on the vest in this picture, but trust me, it's lovely.

All in all the day was a success. Regular price total added up to $480 and I got the lot all for around $135. Toni's spoils at regular price was close to $300 & her actual cost $60-something. Next year, praying we're both happy & healthy, we will attack the day with even more vigor! I can't wait.

Luck 'O the Irish?

We are in the process of painting and redecorating our offices at work. Just yesterday, I was helping my vertically challenged co-worker hang up a mirror that has this elaborate decorative frame. The wall I was hanging the piece on was a little cove wall that contains 3 four-drawer file cabinets that are at least four feet tall. This cove provides little to no room between the cabinets and about an inch and a half of gap between the back of the cabinets and the wall.

Just so we’re clear the far wall is the wall I was hanging the mirror:


Hokay, so I am just tall enough to barely reach the hook on the wall. Believing that I connected with the hanging teeth on the back of the mirror and the hook . . . I gingerly let go. The mirror slid right down the wall quicker than my reflexes could react and with a THUNDEROUS crash landed on the floor behind the cabinets. CRAP!!!!!! My co-worker and I just looked at the wall, then at each other, then back to the wall not yet fully absorbing the severity of the moment.

The file cabinets are so heavy and tightly fitted into the cove that we had to get Dino to use a dolly to move them out of the way for us to assess just how many years of bad luck was in store for me. Fearing the worst, I peeked around when one of the cabinets was far enough out and was surprised and elated to report that ONLY the frame broke and the mirror was completely in tact!!!

Now, I’m not a superstitious person (except when it comes to watching hockey), but I am sooooo happy about how my little story ended. Wow!! Whew!!! Do I get seven years of good luck now? Maybe fourteen . . . double points since I didn’t break the darned thing? Should I go buy a lotto ticket, perhaps? Maybe I shall. Maybe I shall.

I don't get out much

You can tell I don't get out much when small things. . .oh, say, such things as a hand dryer in a public restroom. . .highly impress me. But this dryer was absolutely AMAZING!!!! Upon first sight of the contraption when first entering the little girls' room, I thought it was some weird thing that mothers put their babies in to be able to free their hands to wash up or maybe it was some new fangled changing table of some sort.

When I came out of the stall to wash my own hands and looked for towels, I *finally* figured out what the heck the thing was for and was instantly mesmerized. It's called an air blade!! So COOOOOL!!! Made by dyson, the people who make that kick a** vacuum cleaner.

Well, J for sure thought I probably fell in because I spent the next 1/2 hour washing my hands just so I could dry them. Wash, dry, wash, dry, wet, dry, dry, dry, dry -- I was an "air blade runner"!!! Such fun!! And the air blade does the job so thoroughly, not like the old hand "blow" driers did. This one dries the paws in mere seconds with just a blade. . . of air.

Here is the machine in action:

This was the coolest thing I'd seen in a while. I want to install one in our bathroom. It's so "Jetsons"!

Been Caught Pimpin'

One of our favorite Websites is Pimp That Snack the premise of which is quite simple: readers of the site, if they choose to complete a mission, can make, photograph, document and submit a super-sized version of their favorite snack. Go poke around the site for awhile, it’s tres cool.

J decided he wanted to pimp a Rice Krispies Treat. Original pictured here: There are many versions of this tasty snack on the Pimp site, but J insisted on doing his own version. Since the hospital cafeteria makes the snack everyday anyway to cut up in individual pieces to sell; J thought that pimping this snack not only would be fun, but would be very practical for work. Now that’s thinking!!

To start this Pimp-event, first, start with the ingredients. Of course, the items must be more than quadrupled in amount for the pimp-o-fied version.

3 - 96-oz bags of Rice Krispies cereal
2 - 1 lb portions of margarine
6 - 1 lb bags of marshmallows

Swimming in a sea of cereal :
Melt the marshmallows & margarine in a gigantic vat:
Mix the two thoroughly:
Mold and voila! A pimped out, tricked out version of an old favorite for one very gigantic person or lots of regular sized people.

Dimensions: 2 feet long, 16 inches wide, 4 inches thick.

The end.

Poll CLOSED!

I ain't talkin' 'bout no Presidential poll either. I'm speaking of a more important poll. . .the JAKL blog poll. You voters decided & the favorite holiday by popular vote is:

!Halloween!

Welcome to my nightmare! We will see what tomorrow brings us!

To Be Exact

For all you geeks and geocachers out there, here is the EXACT location of our cabin:

41° 26.372 N
106° 21.249 W

Told ya I'd give you more detail. :)

HoliDAZE?!?!?

Okay, we made a trip to Home Depot today for some home improvement-y items. I know I shouldn't be shocked, but they already had the flippin' Christmas section fully displayed with rows of tannenbaums pre-decorated with those cutesy little lights. I am already sick of Christmas before Halloween. Sheesh!

All this thought of decking the halls while simultaneously watching the Slasher Movie Marathon for Fright Week has led me to decide to poll you readers out there to see what your favorite holiday is. Please see poll to the right of the blog screen. I am fickle and my favorite holiday changes from year to year sometimes even from month to month. So, don't wait. . .cast your vote now! ROCK the vote! Be a voter! Love to Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Polls close on Nov 4th! So do the RIGHT thing! ;)