My favorite quote of the day

"If you're going to be out there swimming in the lakes, or your pets (do), make sure you're not ingesting slimy blue green water," Carlson said. *

Consider yourself forewarned!




* (From a Madison, Wisconsin news station website.)

Onion

Cursing Mama did an Onion Meme on Friday. I've never done a meme. I thought I'd swipe it and now you will all know me more than you would ever want to, lol.

To anyone who is reading: Swipe the meme and put it on your answers on your blog. Then let me know so I can come read it. :)

THE ONION MEME

LAYER ONE:
Name: Mel
Birth date: May 6
Birthplace: Iowa
Current Location: Not Iowa
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown and blond
Height: 5’ 5”
Righty or Lefty: I'm right handed, but left on politics ;)
Zodiac Sign: Taurus (me stubborn?)

LAYER TWO:
Your heritage: Irish, Norweigan, and German. (That explains a lot, no?)
The shoes you wore today: So far, barefoot.
Your weakness: Chocolate
Your fears: Heights
Your perfect pizza: At Pizzeria Unos - deep dish with sauce, artichoke hearts, black olives, and tomatoes topped with mozzarella. Mmmmm.
Goal you'd like to achieve: To finish things I start.

LAYER THREE:
Your most overused phrase on Text messaging: I don't text message.
Your first waking thoughts: "Is it time for the alarm to go off already?" or "Hubby's CPAP mask is leaking and it's LOUD!" or "Effin Cat! What the hell is she meowing about?"
Your best physical feature: My eyes.
Your most missed memory: My Maternal Grandparents

LAYER FOUR:
Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi.
McDonald's or Burger King: Neither. I'll take Culver's anyday.
Single or group dates: I'm married. There's no more dates, lol.
Adidas or Nike: I prefer Asics best.
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Is there a difference?
Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or coffee: Both. Caffeinated please.

LAYER FIVE:
Smoke: Only if I'm on fire
Cuss: Sometimes.
Sing: Not very well.
Take a shower everyday: Yep.
Do you think you've been in love: Definitely
Want to go to college: Been there, done that, would like to finish my bachelor's someday just so I can say I finished it.
Liked high school: Parts of it.
Want to get married: Have been married for 12½ years now.
Believe in yourself: Some days more than others
Get motion sickness: Sometimes
Think you're attractive: Depends on my perspective for the day.
Think you're a health freak: Nope
Get along with your parent(s): I do with my mom, didn't with my dad.
Like thunderstorms: LOVE thunderstorms!
Play an instrument: I used to play an oboe.

LAYER SIX:
In the past month…
Drank alcohol: Yep.
Smoked: Nope.
Done a drug: Only legal stuff such as Aleve and those meds prescribed to me by my doctor
Made Out: Sure. I'm married, not buried
Gone on a date: Once again, I'm married. Dates just don't happen anymore.
Gone to the mall?: Sigh. Yes.
Eaten an entire box of Oreos?: No.
Eaten sushi: No. I don't like cooked fish, why would I eat it RAW? Bleck.
Been on stage: No
Been dumped: No
Gone skating: No.
Made homemade cookies: No
Gone skinny dipping: No
Dyed your hair: No, but I have an appt for next week
Stolen Anything: No

LAYER SEVEN:
Ever…
Played a game that required removal of clothing: Yes, but we were wearing 3 layers of clothing except for the poor sap we didn't tell ahead of time. ;)
If so, was it mixed company: yes
Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: Yeah
Been caught "doing something": "something"? When dh and I were dating, we "parked" one night and got busted by the cops.... LOL
Been called a tease: Not seriously
Gotten beaten up: No
Shoplifted: Once when I was 11. I still feel bad about it. It was just an eyeshadow.
Changed who you were to fit in: No

LAYER EIGHT:
Age you hope to be married: I got married at 24 and hope to stay married until we're both goners.
Numbers and Names of Children: One child - I call him "Frodo" here. He's 9.
Describe your Dream Wedding: BTDT
How do you want to die: Painlessly
Where you want to go to college: BTDT, but if I did it again, I'd make sure to live on campus and NOT be a commuter student.
What do you want to be when you grow up: I don't plan on growing up.
What country would you most like to visit: Australia or New Zealand

LAYER NINE:
Number of drugs taken illegally: None.
Number of people I could trust with my life: Fortunately, that number is big enough that I'm not going to bother counting. :)
Number of CDs that I own: I dunno.... I'm not much of a CD person - most of what we own is dh's.
Number of piercings: Two in each ear
Number of tattoos: None. I'm working on finding the perfect picture for the one I want though.
Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper?: I have no idea.Not that I'm some felon that is in the paper all the time - its' just that between birth, death, and wedding announcements, and school related stuff, my name was in the paper a few times.
Number of scars on my body: There's the surgical scars from last fall.... Other than that, the rest are ones I can see, but arent' really noticeable by a passerby.
Number of things in my past that I regret: Nothing. Everything in my past is part of who I am today and overall, I'm ok with who I am today.

EXTRA STUFF
Lived: 4 states. 14 different addresses. Three schools in two states just during third grade.
Current addiction: Finding *me* time.
Music: I'll listen to anything except opera and really twangy country music.
Favorite TV shows: I don't watch tv much at all.
Favorite Movies: My absolute favorite of all time is "It's a Wonderful Life".
Favorite Actors: I dunno. I don't remember names of songs, movies, or actors very well.
Favorite Actresses: See answer just above.
Favorite Sport: Baseball

Honey I'm home!

I'm still in vacation mode - staying up late, sleeping in, eating junk food, drinking beer.... That will all come to an end VERY quickly though as I have to go back to work on Thursday. So at least the sleep schedule will change back to normal. And I MUST get the eating thing under control because in 3½ weeks, I'm to squeeze this body into a bridesmaid dress.... YIKES!

As usual, vacation was good. The first day of our trip was a halfway drive. We drove 4 hours to the big cities where our friends with the new baby live. We got to meet the baby, see the friends' home, and have dinner together. It was a very nice evening. And a pleasant reminder as to why I don't have more babies. ;)

We stayed at a hotel that night then drove the last 4 hours to the lake. It was so very nice to break the trip in parts like that. It made it feel like we had an extra day of vacation. I think we'll keep doing that in the future.

We caught some fish and threw them back since two-thirds of our family of three don't eat fish, and a full three-thirds don't clean them. The other family that goes with us, Medicine Man, Nurse in Space, and Princess*, two-thirds of them would eat fish (MM and NiS), and two-thirds of them would actually clean the fish (MM and Princess - yes, 8 year old princess wanted to learn how to clean a fish last year!) but the fishing wasn't all that hot, so it wouldn't have been a go anyhow. I'm not crushed whatsoever.

The weather was ok - cool at the beginning of the week then hot and humid at the end. One sorta yukky weather day Frodo and I went to the science museum in town. VERY cool place. Frodo held a tarantula there. YUK. He turned down holding a snake though. I would've done it the other way around. I'd hold a snake over a tarantula ANY DAY.

The best part though? No deer flies. Those little horrible.... THINGS are the scourge of the earth. I'll take the mosquitos instead. We had plenty of those by the way.

And being so close to the summer solstice, the sunset was sooooo late! I have a photo with a timestamp of 10:33pm on 6/13/06:



I think it looks almost fake. I was sitting on the dock to take the picture. We'd be out fishing in the evening and not get back to the dock until almost 10pm because there was enough light. Then we'd make some supper. (See why I'm on a weird sleeping schedule now??)

I had my church time. It was good.

And as always - I wish vacation was longer, but it's also nice to be back home.


*my best friend for 18 years(Medicine Man), his wife(Nurse in Space), and their daughter(Princess) live down the street. Our kids are interchangeable in either family. (But not the parents. We're not THAT twisted!) We all have refrigerator rights in each other's houses.

Getting ready...

...to go fishing! Doing errands and packing the next couple days, then off we go! Hooray for vacations! It's the same place we go every year.

I have a wonderful quote written on a scrap of paper in my wallet. I got it off a calendar my sister in law had. It really fits me well:

"It is better to go fishing and think about god, than to go to church and think about fishing." -Anonymous

That describes it completely for me. This is my healing place. My well of spirituality where I quench my thirst. It is my church.

I hope you all have such a peaceful place in your lives as well.