Inspiration Alley

Pick the State Song

For those that live in Florida, there are three songs that are finalists for our state song.  You can go to this site and click the link to hear the songs, view the lyrics, and vote.  Amazingly only about 5000 people have voted out of our 18 million residents.  I myself didn't even know this was going on until I read about it in the newspaper.  Voting ends January 10th, so do it now while you're thinking about it.  The winner of the competition will be announced on Jan. 11, 2008, at the FMEA convention in Tampa.

I listened to them several times until one kindof grew on me.  So I've voted.  Go have a listen.

Christmas Tradition

It's all over but the wrapping!  I was actually done with my shopping Saturday, but today was going to do some grocery shopping since I had the time.  However, when I arrived at Publix there was no parking - cars were parked out near the street, so I said forget it and headed for home.

For me, it's a tradition ... wrapping presents all night long while watching "A Christmas Story" repeat over and over again.  Tonight, I was a little farther ahead than usual, but I still left all of hubbys things to wrap.  My house even smells like Christmas since I've been burning a Balsam and Cedar Yankee Candle.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!  I check in later and let you know what Santa brought me.

Christmas Shopping and Lottery Tickets

There's really just two people left on my Christmas list - and they are the hardest to know what to get for them. 

One of them is my mother ... what do you get a women who has enough discretionary funds to buy what she wants when she wants it, says "I can't think of anything I want" when you ask what to get, and in the next breath says "don't get me any gift cards, I still have some left from last year."  Sheesh!  I do have one idea (sorry, can't post it here, since mom checks the blog occaisionally), so I'm heading out to do a little more shopping tonight.

On the upside ... all the gifts I have to ship have been sent out - so that's an improvement for me.  In years past, I'm shipping Priority on Dec 23rd so it arrives on Christmas eve.  Since Christmas and New Years fall on a Tuesday, I'm taking Christmas Eve, and New Years Eve off from work.  I hate when a holiday falls in the middle of the week like that (work a day, off a day, work the rest of the week sort of thing).  I'm really looking forward to it.

I bought some TX lottery tickets when I was there since the jackpot was 163 million - guess what - 2 people won ... but they weren't me.  I didn't even have 1 number.  I bought for multiple draws, so I'm still playing, but the pot has started over at 12 Million.  One can dream!  I've also bought some of the Florida Millionaire Raffle tickets, and because Florida's lottery is high right now (47 million), I'm in a pool with 9 others from work - we each put in $20.00 so that's 200 chances.  You can't win if you don't play is what I always say. 

Travel Woes

So ... last time I went to Texas, I had about 20 minutes between flights.  I arrived in Miami and wasn't expecting my luggage but it made it.  This time ... I had an hour and a half layover in Dallas and when I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale my luggage didn't.

I was tired and frustrated and had been on the road since about 7AM and the last thing I wanted to hear was that I had no luggage.  They did finally find it around midnight, and they wanted to deliver it within the next 4 hours (yeah right ... like I was going to stay up for that).  I arranged for them to deliver it to work on Monday, so all is right with the world again.

Now ... it's not that there was anything special in the suitcase - mainly clothes - but it was almost all of the warm clothes I own, since we don't see many cold days down here.

The trip to Texas was good and we accomplished much - still some problems to address, so I expect that I'll be traveling back again.  I'm not sure if I'll be heading out there in January, but it is a definate for the beginning of February, after my trip to Phoenix.

Now ... I'm just plain ol' tired, and stressed because there aren't too many Christmas shopping days left and I still have lots to do.

Texas Food and Weather

So my boss (who used to live in Texas) and the employees at the Texas facility, have been taking me out to different restaurants here.  The first night we went to Antonios and had authentic homemade tamales.  They were delicious. 

The next afternoon we went to Rudy's which is a BBQ joint.  This is BBQ like I've never had before.  You order by the portion of the pound - beef, pork, chicken, turkey.  I had turkey and brisket.  They weight it up and serve it on butcher paper in a basket/tray like thing with some sliced white bread.  You take it to the eating area (picnic benches) and enjoy.  Very delicious - I would have to say it was the best BBQ I'd ever had.  I almost forgot two things ... Rudy's is at a gas station, and the other cool thing is they have a hand washing machine.  You stick your hands in the holes of the machine and it sprays perfect temperature warm soapy water, then plain water and then you dry with a paper towel.  It was fun.  I told the boss he needed to get one of those contraptions for our shop.

The next interesting place we ate at was called SpringHill which is in Pflugerville and is reported to have the best fried catfish - now ... since I've never had fried catfish I had nothing to compare it to, but it was pretty good.  I actually had a burger (which was also excellent) and then swiped a piece of catfish from my bosses plate (OK, not swiped, he ordered enough to give me a piece so I could experience it.)

The next day we went to Chuys for lunch which is a Tex-Mex place with it's roots in Austin.  The food was good there too, but more interesting we the eclectic decor.  Some areas were car related (hub caps on the ceiling, car pictures on the walls) and other areas were devoted to Elvis.  The even had an elvis memorial, complete with candles you could light.  I haven't quite figured out the Elvis attraction because I always equate Elvis with Memphis, rather than Austin, TX but oh well.  Another cool thing was the outside wall which was totally done in beer bottle caps, very cool, and looked pretty time consuming.

Now for the weather ... it's been weird.  It's fluctuating quite a bit.  We arrived with temps in the upper 40s, Tuesday highs of 80s, then Wednesday was highs of 40s, and Thursday it was back in the 70s.  They call what they are having here rain, but by Florida standards, it's not rain -- it's more like mist.

Dental Woes

So I started the day out with a visit to my dentist - just wanting him to do a look/see because I'm having some sensitivity. I'm thinking cavity - but noooo ... no cavities for me ... I have to have a cracked tooth. So now that means ... a crown at the very least and a root canal and crown at the most. Either way ... it is expensive, and we don't have dental insurance. It always happens that way ... just when I'm thinking I'm getting caught up on bills, some significant and unavoidable expense crops up to set me back again. So now ... I will be his last appointment of the new year and he will set in the temporary crown - if it solves the problem and I don't have pain, then the nerve has not been compromised and I'll just need the permanent crown, but if I have pain, then it's a root canal before they set the permanent crown. I've been through this too many time before. After the dentist appointment, I headed to work and cleaned up my desk a little since I'm flying out to Texas on Monday. It always amazes me how much more I can get accomplished when there is no one else at the office to interrupt me. If on a regular day, I could close and lock the door and turn off my phone, for one day out of the week, I don't think I would ever be behind.

Shopping like a Crazy Women

Christmas is one of my most favorite holidays, and I love Christmas shopping. This year, I've been doing most of my shopping online, and am loving it. My perspective is ... the added cost of shipping is offset by the cost I would have incurred in time - time standing in lines, time trying to find a parking place. I can't wait to see what my office looks like when I return from my Texas trip. I think all my orders will be coming in during that week. Lets see, I've got Target, Bealls, Amazon, Hay House, Camping Outlet, Women Within, Macy's all on order and all will be here next week. I even ordered for my Christmas Pick at work from online, so it would be here in time. Speaking of Christmas picks ... my husbands pick was one of the guys in the shop, and on his wishlist (we fill out a little list of ideas for small gifts) was underwear - knit tight trunk briefs to be exact. My husband was like "I am not buying underwear for another guy" and "this is just wrong". I didn't want to switch but I found one of the other guys in the shop who really wanted that person in the pick. He's going to buy him a gag gift pair of underwear - something from a sex shop, or with a raunchy saying on it - so it all works out. This same guy once before really wanted a particular person in the shop, and made up another gag gift where he took the DVD cover from Brokeback Mountain and superimposed photos of two guys from the shop on the cover - they were pretty pissed, but after they opened it and found a regular gift card they got the joke. That's all I have for now.

Texas on My Mind

Well it's confirmed, I'll be heading back to Texas on the 10th of December. This time I'll be there for a week, plus stay the Saturday for their Holiday Party, and return on Sunday. This time I'll be traveling with my boss. I'm sortof looking forward to it, especially since I'm staying the extra day to attend their party. The party is at a pool hall (not one of those dark and seedy ones, I'm told, but a more yuppie one) so it should be fun. Well ... I've got to start making my travel arrangements. So I'll talk to you later.

Holiday Party

Yesterday was our holiday party for work.

This is a picture of a dance train (or conga line) where they were getting everyone up on the dance floor.

and here's one of me that my husband took...

Challenge Blog

The new challenge is up on the Outlaw Paper Artists Blog.  Go check it out.