Squash update...

see below the picture.

go get a name already...

I was thinking about doing this for a long time and today I finally went over and checked out the list.

Did you know they only have 35% of the names covered for the 9/11 tribute??? That means that everyone who has a name needs to get two more people to get a name in order for every name to have a tribute.

come on folks, it only takes a minute to sign up and the tribute part itself will be pretty easy too.

Wouldn't it be great if every hero of 9/11 had some blogger out here giving them a tribute? If your answer was yes and you don't have a name...go get one now. And they have the cool code link you can put in your sidebar for your hero.

Wordless Wednesday

Update: This is a squash that is growing in my garden right now. I've never seen anything like this happen before and I've had my own garden for years. I should go and pick this thing, but I'm not ready to cook it up yet. Maybe I'll pick it tonight to eat tomorrow. I've also got pumpkins, zucchini, other mixed squash (came in a seed packet), green beans, tomatoes, carrots & strawberries. There's a chance that I've also got cucumbers, but I'm not sure yet.

Update #2: I picked the squash and from the back and all sides it appeared to be just somehow fused together. Well today I sliced it up to eat it and yup, just as I figured it was just connected by the one side. It looked totally normal on the inside and tasted just like all the other squash that I've grown & picked from my garden. I guess we'll never know why this happens. Darly says "God did it!" That's my girl!

Putting things into perspective...

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky
If you click on the pictures you can see them better.

Drop Everything... I'm doin another Thursday Thirteen!

Thirteen ways to explain My Black Eye 1. The truth! Last night DH, Darly & I were playing wiffle ball in the back yard. Darly was at bat, I was playing catcher. DH threw the ball, Darly missed the ball, I went to get the ball, Darly continued to swing and WACK! 2. I walked into a door... Does anyone believe that any more? 3. I fell. Hummm on my face, I'm not buying it. 4. The ball bounced off my glove and hit me in the face. Plausible 5. DH hit me. Not plausible...especially if you met my DH. He wouldn't hurt a fly. 6. Darly hit me. Not plausible either, at least not on purpose. 7. Lilly jumped up to lick my face and rammed her nose into my eye. Plausible but not likely as I don't allow the dog to lick faces and she knows it. She still tries, but only half heartedly. 8. The rabbits... Nah! No one is gonna believe that. 9. I was having a blonde moment while putting the dishes away and hit myself with the cabinet door...ouch! 10. Computer blogging eye strain...in just the right eye... yeah, that's the ticket. 11. Runaway battery operated massager. =o 12. I was breaking up that ice chunk in my freezer's icemaker with an ice pick and a chunk of ice went flying and hit me right in the eye! 13. I don't think that anyone's going to believe any of that garbage... When was the last time you had a black eye? And what would you tell folks who asked? Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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What happens in Vegas...

gets posted on my blog








Tuesday morning we got up and packed up the car. Lilly was getting nervous because we were packing up her things as well...this couldn't be good as far as she was concerned. But she loves to go riding in the car and went to the car willingly.

We get about 1/2 the way to MIL's house when DH asks if I remembered to pack his tennis shoes...."ummm I packed the dog, the kid and myself and now I'm supposed to remember to pack for you as well?"
So we stop at a Kohl's on the way to get him new shoes and apparently for the dog to embarrass me too because she decided to defecate on the sidewalk outside the Kohls store...two feet from a nice patch of grass! So I got to go find something in which to clean up her mess with.

At MIL's we get Darly & Lilly settled and then head for the airport. I started feeling weird about leaving Darly behind. This was our first ever trip without her. I got over it by the time we landed in Vegas. The flight was uneventful.

1st lesson learned in Vegas... Never use the ODS shuttle service! The AC doesn't work on the van and it was a very hot ride to our hotel... more about them later.

We arrived at our hotel after 6pm and DH leads me to the VIP check in. Woo Hoo! We then learn that the room we had been booked in was not yet clean. WHAT? Check out is at 11am. But they booked in another room asking DH which room he preferred...we really didn't care, but later learned that we should not have chose that room. It faced the pool (would have rather had strip view) and it had the access to the pool in the same location as our elevators...so it was always crowded.

When we checked in, DH got a VIP pass that entitled us to a lot of free stuff and allowed us to cut in line at any place with a line. cool! So we decided to have dinner at Sir Galahad's. We are small people and usually share a meal when we go out because most places serve way too much. So we ordered one of the queen cut prime rib dinners. It was an extreemly nice dinner. They roll up this huge cart that has a ton of prime rib in it...carve the meat off and serve it with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and Yorkshire pudding. YUMMY! We had more than enough food to eat. Oh and our waiter was kind enough to explain how our VIP pass worked. He didn't do much of the work that evening...I felt that the gal Nadia should have gotten our tip...she brought the drinks & the bread and made sure we were happy... maybe they split it.

I was kinda tired and overwhelmed by our trip so I went up to our room to plan out the rest of our stay while DH went to try to win some money. I had one of those What's On Magazines to help me plan everything. So I went threw and found all the shows that I was interested in and found a lot of coupons too.

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at Sherwood Forest Cafe. There was a line to get in, but with our line pass we zipped right up to the front. I'm sure that folks in the regular line were upset, but it couldn't be helped.

Lesson #2 learned in Vegas...It is good to be a VIP! :D

After breakfast, which wasn't all that great, we went to get DH registered for his tournament. They gave him his gifts, a shirt and two watches with motorcycles on all of it. The shirt is way too big so we'll be giving that to BIL who loves motorcycles. Then we headed down the strip to see some stuff.

We walked over to the half priced tickets stand to see what they had. I noticed pretty quickly that they were quoting the most expensive seats for what the regular price was and figured they must actually be giving you the cheaper seats. So like for one show they said the regular price was $182...so if they sold you the ticket for $91, you felt like you were getting a deal... but if you looked at the magazine, it said that the tickets start at $90... and they didn't even have tickets for what we wanted to see... Penn and Teller.

So we had lunch at Wienerschnitzel because I wasn't that hungry and DH really loves their chili dogs...again we shared.

Next we headed over to the Bellagio to see the inside & shopps. We also went by the Monte Carlo and finally the Venetian...where we caught the Deuce for our trip to Fremont Street and we heard the guy you hear singing on that website. He's a really good sax player and he wrote the theme song for the Fremont Street Experience.

We had dinner at Vic & Anthony's , which was nice...but I'm soooooo glad that we had a coupon for dinner. OUWCH! Again we shared and the waiter thought that we were cheap...ha! It was still too much food for us to eat.

Thursday was the first day of DH's tournament. The hotel provided us breakfast that day...WHAT A SPREAD! It was very very very nice and yummy too. DH had scheduled himself for the first round, so after we ate he played & I looked around the shops. The rounds are only 15 minutes, so I didn't get much time to spend money. But after his round he went to play in the casino and I went over to the Tropicana to see the Titanic exhibit. Click on the image galery (go ahead, I'll wait). When you first enter the exhibit you are given a boarding pass that has the name of a passenger who was actually on the Titanic. You learn the name and what class they were in. You get to see the accomidations they stayed in (recreations of 1st, & 3rd class rooms a picture of a 2nd class room) and you get to see items recovered from the wreckage. At the end you can touch an "iceberg"... sheet of real ice in the shape of an iceberg and finally you see a master list of all the passengers to see if your passenger survived. Seeing how my passenger was in 3rd class, I didn't hold out hope for her and I learned that she and her two children perished.

I returned to our hotel to have lunch with DH...we had Quiznos at the food court. It was good, but I was shocked at the price. Vegas sure hikes things up. We later learned that we could have had our lunch for free at the tournament. They didn't tell us that when we registered.

I think that we went back to our room after that.

We had tickets for the Tournament of Kings for dinner. Here, that doesn't do the show justice. Let me see if I can find a better link...Ah, much better! I didn't know I was drinking Dragon's Blood! It was quite tasty. They served us way too much food! I couldn't share unless I sat in DH's lap which would have made it hard to see the show.

After dinner we went over to the Bellagio to see the fountain show. We stayed for an hour and saw 5 shows (they go off every 15 min after 8pm). DH was hoping that they would do a fast song, but we saw mostly ballads. The second one was really cool with mist on the water. A great show.

Friday we had the tournament breakfast & lunch. I bought a bunch of stuff and got one of those Aquamassages...just the massage, I didn't buy the machine. :) It was quite nice, but I think I prefer a human massage.

Friday night's dinner was a buffet provided for the tournament players. Since the theme was a biker theme, that was also the theme of the food. They served, buffalo wings, quesadillas, collard greens, yams, blackened corn on the cob, potato salad, sausage, barbecued chicken, ribs & brisket. Not their best work. They then started the entertainment...which was 3 gals dressed in skimpy biker gear dancing like show girls...the one stripped down to her bikini. I was not impressed. Dh & I speculated that if the show had been after the awards that no one would have stayed for it.

And of course they had the awards for the winners of the tournament. Dh did not place in the top 4, who got $1,777; $2,777; $4,777 & $20,777. However, this tournament had a lucky 7 to it and everyone who's place ended in a 7 won $777. DH placed 17th! and yes the IRS already knows this.

We returned home on Saturday. Oh, I said I would have more to say about ODS shuttle service... the receptionist told us to meet the shuttle at the front door of the casino. But we were supposed to be at the back door and missed our shuttle. But the bellman called us another shuttle who was there before I could bother to sit down.

I had Slots of fun in Vegas. Darly & Lilly had a good time at MIL's house. I learned that MIL had not given my child a balanced diet while we were gone...so I'll have to try extra hard to make up for that.

DH mentioned at on point during our stay that we should find someplace to go dancing with some good music. So when I got home I started asking my friends where I should go. When I told DH Monday night that one had suggested that we check in a newspaper that he reads at work, he was confused about what I was talking about... I explained and then learned that what he meant was that we should find a place to go dancing while we were in Vegas. Silly me! I thought that he wanted for us to have date nights... I may try for it anyway, it just means that I'll have to figure out where to go and arrange the child care... wish me luck!

New Me!

I got my hair colored & cut today. The pictures don't really do the color justice...but you can kinda see what I look like.

Thanks to my professional photographer...Darly! :D

I missed my anniversary!

No, not my wedding anniversary. This one is somewhat more important to you. It was my blogging anniversary. I started this baby up on June 8th, 2005. I've gone threw a few template changes and I had two blogs there for a while. But now I've settled down to just this one. And here's a flash back for you...

hello world...

Well, first I should say that since my monitor is dying on me and my screen is permanently pink (well permanent until it dies) I have no idea what color this text is. Please let me know if it's revolting... k?

Second, my good friend Jen talked me into this... so I can blame most of this on her... right? ;o)

I don't know when I'll actually have the time to do anything here, but keep checking who knows... anything is possible. right?

The struggle continues...

This past weekend Darly & I went camping. (see post below) And when we got to our campground on Friday around 1pm we found that we had some "squatters" on our campsite. 3 cottontail bunnies. 2 were under the car in the next campsite and one was under the tree on our site. On Friday night I was startled by one running from our tent to the car as we were heading to bed and then on Saturday, just out of curiousity I picked up the corners of our tent and found that one we dubbed "Tenty" had camped out under our tent. The picture above was NOT taken by me...it's one I grabbed from the 'net. There was NO green grass at our campsite.

I had to explain to our neighbors in the next campsite that there was no need to give the rabbits a bowl of water...they were so worried that they wanted to take the rabbits home to care for them. And then I had to explain to them how I know so much about rabbits. Pretty funny since they probably didn't remember much of what I told them.

I came home from my camping trip and checked out my garden...only to find that my hard work at securing my fence had not kept the rabbits out of my garden...they had dug a hole under the back fence! But I still cannot find any evidence of them munching on my garden...just holes dug in the garden. It's so weird. DH found that one had tried to dig a way out of our yard by our second gate (the gate we actually use) it has brick pavers under the gate and sand in the gaps...the rabbit had dug the sand out of the gap trying to fit under the gate...I do not think that it was sucessfull, which is probably why there is the hole under the back fence... but now I have to patrol the yard and find all the breeches to repair and secure. I also have to find out what wormwood is so that I can get some to run off the rabbits. As my lazy dog doesn't seem to be enough of a deterant.

Update: I haven't seen any evidence of rabbit intrusion for the past 3 days. I don't know if this is from my stellar rabbit proofing abilities or if the rain has kept them away. Either way, the veggies are fine and I'm contemplating planting more as some of my seeds didn't come up...I think the birds got them!
I did learn that radishes that go to seed are not edible...so they went on the compost heap.

Camping with the "Hippies"

Well as Jen posted on her blog we went camping over at Bear Creek Lake Park this weekend.

We were originally scheduled to go camping over at Chatfield Reservoir, however the state has decided to have a state wide fire ban and Bear Creek is somehow exempt. So we went to Bear Creek instead instead.

When our Girl Scout Leader called to check out conditions at the Park she was told that there was a concert over at Red Rocks and the campground expected to be full of "Hippies" attending the concert. So instead of our trip being for just Friday & Saturday nights we decided to pay for Thursday night as well to reserve our spots...however in order to do that we had to go and physically have our tent up on Thursday night...even though we had no intention of staying Thursday night.

So after I got the call on Thursday (after a very busy Vacation Bible School where I wanted to take a nap) I drove over to the campground with my tent to get it set up. We were not able to get 3 spots together as the campground was filling up quickly, but we managed to get 3 nice spots. Since Jen's site was closer to the playground and bathroom it was decided that her spot would be where we had our fire and spent most of our time...this way the kids could go play and go to the bathroom without having to cross the street.

After setting up my tent I headed back home for a night of rest in my own bed before our trip. Friday morning I got up and started rounding up all of our camping gear. I printed out a checklist to make sure that I did not forget anything (even if I had there's a WalMart very nearby for emergencies...so no worries.) Darly and I tried to go shopping that morning to pick up a hatchet for splitting fire wood...the only ones that we could find were $20+ and I wasn't paying that much when I was hesitant to buy the ones at WalMart & BigLots for only $6.99 (they were sold out on Friday morning)...I really wanted one for only $3 but apparently that wasn't an option.
So we went to buy our groceries. I got some good stuff and we had to check out another store to get the fire wood.

We headed out after lunch. I decided on Thursday to leave Lilly at home for this camping trip as she tends to drive me over the edge and after you hear the rest of this story you'll see that I made the best decision there. I'm not sure why, but traffic was bad going to the campground both on Thursday and Friday...totally weird. By the time we got to the campground on Friday the sign indicated that the campground was full.

I got back to our campsite and was relieved to see that our tent was still there...as were all of our friends (Jen & her family along with our GS Leader M & her family). M and her family left soon after we got there to go get their groceries. So I began to set up our other stuff. I tried to set up our shade tent, but the wind decided to pick up...so I put the parts back into the box and kicked it under the car.

During the day even though it was very hot we had a nice time...doing crafts, playing and going over to the beach. Evenings were good too, except for our daily wind storms that ended up breaking the sun shades and all the tents that were over 4 foot high with shock polls (the fiberglass kind). We had to patch M's tent by duct taping a butter knife to her tent poll...which was very effective. Darly & I had our dinner in our tent every night so that we were not eating too much dead grass & dirt. Campfire smores were great!

But sundown was when the trouble began. Friday night the "hippies" began blasting the campground with their music and very loud announcements of drugs available or in need of. There were quite a lot of reminders to these folks that there were small children in the campground and that they needed to watch their language. I'm no longer sure when it began but at some point someone began playing drums very loudly...all night. I don't know how these folks were able to function, because they were up ALL NIGHT! There were fights, and lots of drinking.

Saturday morning I woke up because (although I have no idea when I was able to get to sleep any) I heard the man next to Jen's campsight telling someone that there were girl scouts camped there. I opened my tent window to witness a woman with dread locks standing in Jen's campsite complaining very loudly about girl scouts. ???
I got up and went to the bathroom.

It turns out that ms dreadlocks was in search of cigarettes and had rummaged through Jen's entire campsite (except for the tent) and was then complaining because she didn't have any cigarettes for her. Jen had poked her head out and asked the woman to leave because the kids were sleeping. We later learned from M that ms dreadlocks had been having an argument with herself and later could not find her way back to her tent. Later I observed her "sans pants" acting weird...she would look into her tent, then turn around and walk about 3 steps, then turn around again and look into her tent...she did this for a good 20 minutes.

Jen & Mr Jen complained to the park rangers about all the noise and were told to call the police if it happened again, but they were not given the non emergency phone number. M heard from her neighbors that the "Rangers were really cool and stopped hastling us after we passed them a couple of doobies." But in reality the rangers went off duty at 10pm.

Saturday was the day of the concert so the "hippies" were gone for a good chunk of the day...but they returned at 2:30AM and brought more friends with them. I'm guessing that I was able to get back to sleep around 4AM or so, but I woke up at around 5:30 to two men standing behind my car talking. I unzipped my window and informed them that I was trying to sleep. They moved on...but later after another nap two more men were walking back and forth in front of my campsite on the gravel road talking and using a lot of profanity...I asked them to watch their language...but they did not acknowledge that they had heard me...but they did move on. I got up at that point. My campsite was near an area with no more sites on it...there were 10 cars parked there on Sunday morning. There were also lots of people who were sleeping under the stars. Two on M's campsite so she got the ranger to run them off.

The Rangers appologized for all the noise and said they would try harder to make sure it didn't happen again...but I was upset because we were leaving (too little too late) and I knew that since the concert was over that the "hippies" would be leaving as well.

You'll notice that I have been referring to these people as "hippies." The reason for this is that none of them were what I would consider true hippies...ya know, folks from the sixties/seventies. They were all younger than us and while they looked the part...they didn't act very much like hippies. There were a lot of them that were stonned, but they were not very mellow. Maybe they were angry hippies. Had I known they were going to be like this, I would have not gone on this camping trip.

Oh, I was supposed to tell you why it was a good idea that Lilly stayed home. First of all there were quite a few other dogs there. Which would have been fine, but I would have had to keep Lilly on leash the entire time and she would have been whining and pulling to go see the other dogs. Second many of the dogs there were not on a leash and that would have been driving Lilly crazy...as it did to poor Gizmo (he was a very nice dog with good manners who was on his leash the entire time.) This one dog spent a good hour or so teasing Gizmo by coming close and then running out of Gizmo's leash range. The Second night the family camping on the other side of Gizmo brought their dog Lady and did not put her on a leash...then she teased Gizmo and barked at everyone who walked anywhere near her...her owner should have left her at home. And finally Third many of the hippy dogs were pit bulls...I woke up at one point to two of them trying to create more.

We've gotta find a better campground. :o)

Oh! I forgot the best part of the trip. When I came back to camp on Friday I noticed that I had some "squatters" on my campsite. 3 cotton tail rabbit bunnies. One even decided to hang out under my tent all day Saturday..."he" might have been the same one that startled me on Friday night when were going to bed by running away from the tent. =:3