Final Project

Ok, so most of you guys know that I had to take a computer class at school on programs I have been banging away on for 20 years or so. My option was to CLEP out for roughly the cost of the class so I decided to take it as a brush up refresher course. Well, I continually forgot that I had the class (note to self: no more online classes for you) until about 10pm every Friday when the homework would be due by midnight. So tonight between packing for my trip, doing laundry, paying bills, making lists etc, I finished my final project. The instructions were to prepare a presentation presenting any type of meaninful information (so no "blah, blah, blah, vs. blah blah blah!) using the various and sundry techniques taught in the class. I am not sure that I have solved World Hunger and I don't think I will win a Pulitzer, but if my teacher has a sense of humor, I'm pretty sure I have earned an A! I'd share it with you but you can't (I can't) upload a PP presentation to this site. Off to pack...next post...Spain!

Man am I going to miss my kid....

Happy Birthday Granny!! 85 today! Good thing she doesn't get online, she would totally kick my ass if she knew I put her age on the internet. She made me call her Annie nearly until I had Nicky so no one would suspect she was capable of a grandchild my age!



Trying to get Granny and Nicky to blow out the candles? Granny forgot whose birthday it was and Nicky blew spit all over the whole house...cake anyone?? Now they are having an intense debate over who will tackle the last candle.




Granny won and Nicky is so very proud of her.



Happy Birthday Granny, may you spend the rest of your days in your favorite memories, with all your loved ones and your Henry calling you Honey and telling everyone he knows, "THAT'S for ME!!"

Scent: The Magical Time Machine

I was talking to a friend today about New Orleans coffee today and as soon as I typed the word "chicory" my brain had me sitting at my favorite table at Cafe Du Monde with Nicky at dawn, watching the folks who were just getting off work and the people in the Quarter who are always walking around carrying insanely random items they found somewhere. The Quarter is always under renovation. It must be fun to get new window casings, put the old ones to the curb and show up at a friend's house a month later to find your old windows painted, turned into picture frames and hanging on someone's walls! There seems to be a very fluid definition of "trash" in New Orleans. Nicky loves it as much as I do, we ride the trolley cars, explore the Garden District and Magazine street, play in the parks and walk the city for hours. He loves the warehouse district, the Children's Museum (cheap, air conditioned and free wi-fi for mommy, what's not to love???), Crawfish Etouffee, and wants to go to Tulane when he's a big boy. I love shotgun houses, the WWII museum, the Mint, Jackson Square and the French Market. Last time we were there we got to see my favorite C.A.Cajuns at the Convention Center and I met...well, with Nicky along for the ride, I met nearly everyone in New Orleans. It was quite a switch, usually I just meet the bartenders!! We toured a plantation with Tomkat and Mark and Nicky and I had more that a few amazing nights hanging out being a family. We are saving the Cemeteries and all the other wonderful things I haven't shown Nicky yet for future visits, but we can usually swing one or two trips a year. Now I have to go search out my soundtrack to "Love Song for Bobby Long" which derserves a post of it's very own but since I will probably forget...It is amazing, the movie the soundtrack, the whole thing. Incredible songs, Travolta is wonderful, "My heart was a lonely Hunter" will make you cry. If you love Faulkner, love New Orleans or love the Delta music, it's a must see/listen. All this just from the memory of a whiff of chicory...has anyone read Swann's Way with the madelaines? Hahaha. So true, nothing takes you away into memory quite like scent.

PS Nicky asked what I was typing and heard the music and has now packed his suitcase for a New Orleans trip that is only in his head...The kid is a riot



Oh yeah, this one is for Georgie Girl, thanks for the concert, love ya sweets!

The Mundane Bane

Always in the car.....Hi!

I really hate the drive to the airport. Why didn't I speak up louder when we were choosing a place to live? Why did I let the guy who is NEVER here pick the spot?? In my next life, the one where I get to be Queen, I am going to live a LOT closer to the airport! Mark has about 8 trips this months, I am leaving Friday and My Mother in Law in going to Poland for a while so I am looking at many many trips to Hartsfield this month and it is a very long and boring way away. The good news? Look how utterly mundane the bane of my existence is! Really, my biggest problem today is just that lame! That makes me one lucky duck!



This picture is apropos of...nothing! I love this qictures of my "twins".

Oopsie!

Yup, it got past me again. I keep meaning to update this thing then I forget until someone reminds me. So, since March...I am no longer with Zenith (after 12 years I miss everyone tremendously and what WILL I do without my "Office" stories of the crazy and unusual??). I have started back to school and will hopefully be entering the Nursing program on the next submission group I qualify for in Jan 2012. Seems like forever away but I am constantly amazed at how quickly time passes. I am doing my pre-requisites now so I doubt I willl be bored in the meantime! Nicky started preK 4 and is having fun, look how old he looks in the picture! He had a big party for his birthday and had so much fun he decided he should have a bunch of parties throughout the year. It really was fun, although in the pictures all the kids look like they are waiting for the dentist. Kind of funny, kids do NOT LIKE watching another kid open presents. Mark is staying busy as ever and we will be leaving for Spain in a week - I am sooo excited! Not only a fun trip to another country but grown up time like we are married?? This should be great!

On the home front, I am actually


staying home

as in, staying put in the town I live in...and I am enjoying the hell out of it! I joined a new "club" out here, hahahaha. I have met the greatest people and I am finally having fun out here in the boonies. I even found a hairdresses I love that is not a hotel/per diem trip away! For those of you familiar with my sad tale of woe this is really really big.

Mom is doing great, Granny is okay, plodding along and we are still covered up in Horses, Dogs, Cats and People and my new pet Porch Possum. His name is GIT!!
More later, and if I love you, you know it and I love you! If I don't love you yet, I am sure I just haven't met you yet and you are just a really nifty person.
Alli

When I grow up....

I want to be as good a mother as my friend and I would be overjoyed to have a kid as good as hers. The stupidest thing in the world happened at my favorite kid's school (favorite outside of Nicky of course). It was one of those things that our parents would have just smacked the hell out of us as kids but now requires police involvement, expulsion and long therapeutic discussions. I am just so damned proud of C for not being an idiot I can't stand it!! Would that I made as intelligent decisions as my fav 12 year old.....

The most boring person in the world.

I was wondering the other day why I so rarely spoke to my friends on the phone. We used to all update daily like it was our jobs. We actually did most of our talking while AT our jobs. Maybe that explains why I am the only one still at the same job...my coworkers thought we were all interesting and tried to listen in: but most jobs frown on employees being on personal calls more often than a tweener with boyfriend troubles. Since then, I have had a child, two friends moved away, a couple got day jobs, a couple of us (ME Included!!!)have decided to have our midlife breakdowns and depressive episodes to celebrate our new President and our economy and all of their kids have joined the ranks of FULL TIME sports and activities right when mine became a very active toddler. Now I spend all of my time either at work or playing with Nicky or cleaning / running errands and suddenly realize that I have become The Most Boring Person in the World to talk to on the phone. Unless you want to hear me carry on about my new Shark floor steamcleaner (Do you? Do you? Because this thing is the best invention to come along since Gmail! No kidding, I really have an inappropriate passion for the thing)or my new washer and dryer (Don't EVEN get me started on the front loaders, it sounds like porn when I talk about them) or my big day at the office or my kid...I got nuttin'. No stories about my fabulous dinner or my wild night of dancing or my evening at the theater. Now my idea of a great big time is going to sleep at 8pm and actually staying asleep until at least 6am, if I am lucky....No wonder I am so boring on the phone. Sorry kids, you know I still love you...right???