Last day of a very long week!

Today is the last day of a very long busy week. Driven by deadlines that all will be met I've pushed to the end and can fly off to sun and fun without a work care in the world...

On another note, a friend of my good friend Colleen has just discovered a lump in her breast and you can read more at Colleen's blog.

These are times when prayers are required and I would ask anyone that passes through this blog this week to say a little prayer for Michelle. My daughter Aimee and her friends Anita and Victoria are walking in this years "Weekend to End Breast Cancer", I encourage you to visit their site and give a little or a lot! Every dime you donate goes directly to research and as soon as you donate...it gets sent to them for immediate use.

So this is Linda out....for a week of fun in the sun! I'll take pictures and post them when I get back!
TTYL!

Play on Words

I love words! Especially when they have hidden meaning and when i found this over at "Are we there yet" I just knew I had to borrow it! My friends that visit but won't fricking comment will appreciate most of these....in fact we may very well have used most of these in one discussion or another!

My favorite is Ignoranus!! I smile everytime I read that one!

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon: The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Glibido: All talk and no action.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an assh@le.

I truly do love a good play on words! Any one have any favorites they'd like to share??

4 Sleeps and counting!

Woke up this morning to freezing rain and snow! Makes it that much more exciting to be leaving on Friday morning.

For those of you experiencing this awful winter weather.....PLEASE BE SAFE!

TTYL

Would it kill ya to comment?

Apparently it is common knowledge that this week is Delurking week. I read about this in my travels through the Blogosphere...actually over at Dad Gone Mad

Well, I'm all about finding out who ventures by! I rarely get any comments and it would be interesting to know who's stopping by, don't you think?

So leave me a comment and I'll come check you out as well to say "Hi"

TTYL!

More on being Mindful

I'm not big on making New Year resolutions, mostly because I hate to fail!

This year I am making an exception after a very trying 2006.

Last year I made the mistake of thinking that everyone that reads my blog, that I joke with in emails, comment on their blogs etc really knew me. Boy, was I wrong! I inadvertantly hurt some people and relationships that I would have preferred to keep! I can't change the past but I'm going to change my viewpoint going forward.

I have, in the past, taken the view that what I post in my blog is purely ranting and should be taken as such. It's not that I intentionally set out to hurt people...I was just venting, voicing my opinion, dealing with my self-realisations, hurt feelings....whatever! Apparently, a personal journal that no one will ever read is the only safe way.

My daughter Aimee wrote a great blog on just this over at Random Thoughts

Aimee offers Challenges to all to think carefully, think even more carefully before you put things on paper, in your blogs etc....this is mostly because she knows how upset I am about the relationships I've jeopardized or destroyed just by opening my big mouth and she knows me well enough to know that I really didn't mean it....I'm just an idiot!!

So, I accept Challenge #4 and all the other ones as well but this one is important to me!!

So here's an especially warm wish of a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you! If I've hurt you someway by my words, written or vocalized...I'm very sorry!!

No, not at all!

Last night we booked our trip and I've been kind of planning things in my head ever since, you know, lists and shit! What to bring, what not to bring (but I bought him a ticket so I guess he's gotta come...teehee!) that kind of thing.

Anyway, shortly after booking the trip I had to leave for my annual visit to the sleep clinic, where they determine if I'm gonna continue breathing another night. When you book the appointment with this private sleep clinic they give you an arrival time so that you don't sit around waiting for too long. In the past there have never been more than one person waiting at the same time as me. Last night....5! Two fricking people working and 6 people to be processed! My initial thought was...not a problem, not like I'm going anywhere, but after about 40 minutes I was pissed! My arrival time was booked for 9:45 pm. This was planned this way because I normally go to bed around 10 pm on a work night and I figured I would need the extra 15 minutes to get wired up etc.. So upon arrival I took my medication (the medication for epilepsy that I don't have, that makes me soooo sleepy inside of 15 minutes) When the clock chimed 11 pm and I still wasn't in the spa like room with warm and toasty blankets all around me, I kind of had a meltdown! I was tired and cranky and not at all happy with the way things were going. I was quickly taken into my little spa room and the nice lady explained that they were a little busy and that some of the nice people hadn't arrived at their scheduled times and this had therefore delayed my appointment. Fine, Let's get on with it so I can go to sleep was all I had to say!

They start off by asking a survey of questions on your general health and well being since the last visit and the first question to which I answered "No, not at all!" was....

Do you find yourself irritable at times?

After I answered, she kind of giggled and when I thought about my answer...I laughed out loud and changed my answer to "okay maybe, but only when other dumbasses mess with my bedtime!"

Off to fun in the sun.....oowww weee!

Hubby and I are booked for a fabulous 7 days of fun in the sun!
We leave in 15 days and it can't come fast enough!
We've been talking about this since we came back from Venezuela 6 years ago!

Our first trip together off continent was booked on a shoe string budget and this one was too, just a little better quality shoe string!

We're going here

in beautiful Varadero, Cuba....with beaches that look just like this (or so I'm told!)

We'll be doing this trip with our good friends Mark and Dawn. They had originally planned to try and get married down there but there is mucho paperwork that needs to be done before you can do this and according to Dawn's little brother...her Mom would have been very upset to not be involved in her baby girls wedding and therefore this is just gonna be what it is....FUN IN THE SUN.

We've already spent some time checking out fun and exciting day trips to do and we've decided to spend two days in Havana checking out the wonderful architecture and historical sites. We've also been told that there are some fantastic caves that you can visit somewhere in the vicinity, so we'll check that out further. We'd welcome anyone's advice on excursions that would make this a memorable vacation! ....just leave a comment!

I can't tell you how excited I am and just how jealous my daughters are!!! (teehee!!)

Well off to the sleep clinic for a fabulous fun night of wires and monitoring!
Night night!
TTYL!

Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007

Let me start off this post by saying this:

I hope your holidays were lovely. I hope you had an amazing Christmas and a fabulous New Years celebration with your friends and family!

My holiday season was absolutely wonderful, spent with my family and good friends! It was another year of excessiveness in the gift arena...but OMG such fun! We were all spoiled!!


I'm very glad the holiday season is over and we are getting back to some semblance of normalcy. All right, not a productive normalcy, but normalcy all the same. I've been back to work for 6 hours now and have managed to delete/respond to over 200 emails, checked out the new site for my meeting tomorrow and planned 2 meetings for this week...ya, not so productive!

I have, on the other hand, done the following:

1) caught up on everyone's blogs and noticed that everyone either had a wonderful holiday season or has been busy like myself and not updated since well before the holiday season.

2) booked an appointment for a manicure for this evening so that I have nice nails for my meeting tomorrow with a new client

3) surfed the net for interesting and fun things to do while on vacation this month in Varadero! (more on that later!)

4) payed bills online

5) spoken with everyone here that I care to speak with about their past holidays

6) had leftovers for lunch (feeling very sluggish now)

7) created a new Avatar (isn't she pretty!) and added her to my blog

8) made a list of things I need to remember to bring on vacation

9) made a list of things I need to remember to leave for the girls while on vacation

PRODUCTIVE in a totally unwork related kind of way,don't ya think! I'm sure my boss would think so, but I don't think he came into work today and if he did...well he's decided that he doesn't need to talk to me!

I'm not even feeling guilty about this! Lately, I've been feeling very unrewarded by my employment! Clearly, for me a regular paycheck just isn't cutting it anymore. I think I need to take a good hard look at how I can get further monetary satisfaction from my current position as I'm feeling old and uninspired to look for something else. I have tried over the last number of weeks to "win the lottery", to no avail! In fact, the $10 I did win, got spent on something so minor that I can't remember where it actually went!

(minor work interruption, but I'm back now)

On my way to work this morning, I decided that I couldn't be a stay at home type of person unless I had ALOT of MONEY! I was so bored at home when there weren't a million gifts to open, huge dinners to prepare, unclean house to get back in order or numerous guests to entertain...which was in fact most of the time! I loved spending time with my family but frankly I think they were all glad to wave me off to bed last night knowing I'd be heading out to work this morning and they wouldn't have to entertain me one more minute! Ahhh, the joys of being truly loved! They did entertain me for a whole week with little complaint and even less downtime and for that I'm grateful! So, the loads of money I would need would be to keep me in somewhat costly activities that would keep me busy and don't include blowing my brains (or those of the ones I love) out, all over the new dining room chairs!

Any ideas on how to supplement the old pocket book without requiring me to sell burgers at the local fast food place or sell drugs/my body to young strangers in my spare time would be welcomed! This would seem way to much like another job that I would just HATE!!!

This is just another form of Early Retirement Planning and all are welcome to offer up suggestions that could be used in the VERY near future!

I'll post pictures of Christmas and New Years activities if Aimee sends them to me so that I can use them! hint hint....or maybe you could all just go over and bug her to upload them to her website for all to see! That's an even better idea!