pics
More about lately, and today
What a gorgeous morning. For that matter, yesterday was gorgeous as well. It’s weird how clearer everything appears when the haze of summer lifts. It’s like I’m wearing glasses and seeing clearly for the first time.
It’s funny how the slightly shorter days are already affecting me. In the summer, I’m ready to bounce out of bed as early as 5:30… now, I’m happy to lounge in bed until 7:30! This morning I was enjoying the distant sound of thunder and the cool temperature… so cosy! Although rain was nowhere in the weather outlook, the thunder and lightening became super intense – then I had to drag my butt out of bed – to shut windows – it was pouring – out of nowhere! Weird! Here’s a low tech view of the lightening strikes… guess where I live? Smack in the middle (and the only) of this storm!
That’s a lot of lightening! Now, it’s perfectly clear and beautiful – good thing, I’ve got golf this afternoon, and amazingly, I haven’t had to cancel golf once this season because of the weather – weird again!
Yesterday I took the dogs to my favourite place to walk them; the Chrysler Greenway near Wildwood golf course (of course!). The dogs had a great time running, walking, sniffing, playing
and lounging.
So that was good.
I finally cleaned out the garage, and wow, it feels so good to have that off my do to list! I’ve been meaning to clean it since June! Bout time! I might clean the car today, but the is significantly less satisfying than cleaning the garage, as it gets crapped up way faster. We’ll see.
When the boss is away… my boss has only been in town for 7 of the last 30 days… and not 7 days in row! So my job is essentially on auto-pilot right now. It’s super easy to just keep the wheels turning. There are a few things I need to do, but it’s not time consuming, and involves a lot of emailing back and forth, and is not urgent – so…
I’ve been reading the same book for a week now. How annoying is that? Very! It’s a biggie, and not as awesome as I expected. I’m just past halfway through, so I hope to get it done and onto something new by the week-end. I’ve been adding my books that I’ve listed in WordPress (and Vox for that matter!) for the last few years into Goodreads. I really like Goodreads, and have only started using it this year, and I look like a rookie reader only have a few dozen books in there… like c’mon! I’ve read hundreds in the last few years… so I’ve been working on that. I’m kicking myself for not recording the books I read in 2011 (and I accidentally added all my 2010 books as 2011!). 2011 was the year I started working again, and had a huge learning curve and no time to read… but I know that I read at least 20… annoying!
I can’t believe that Augusta National invited 2 women to join! Am I celebrating this major milestone for women in golf. Nope. I think of it like this… it’s a private club, they have the right to include or exclude anyone they want. I don’t know the reasoning behind it, but I hope it’s not due to pressure from women’s groups – that’s annoying. I have a club that doesn’t allow boys and never will. It’s called the Liz Professional Golf Association (LPGA). There’s only 2 members (me and Kikipants) and we’ll never compromise our club due to pressure!
Well, I should start to be productive now… life’s good.
Pond – ugh
Here is the before…
It actually doesn’t look that bad… but the pond has sunk about 5 inches – so the surrounding area is sitting higher – that’s why it was full of mud last year! The hosta is waaaay too big. There are weeds growing through the rocks. Shank dug in any place not covered by a rock…
During…. 
Oh good God, what did I get myself into? I now realize I have to create small retaining walls to prevent more erosion. I also have to scavenge for more field stones, I won’t have nearly enough for what I need to do.
I wish I could just skip ahead to the ‘after’ pictures… but I have to actually finish it first… might not be done until I get back from TN.
Just so random
Yesterday I finally finished a small work project I was working on. No big deal really, but it bothered me all the time! When I wasn’t working on it, I was thinking about it. I finally sat down and got it done. I thought I would feel great having this thing done, but I don’t. Maybe it’s because William was away, the weather, who knows.
I feel so behind on everything (well, now actually I’m caught up on work). Each day I work on the computer, then take the dogs for at least an hour walk (if it’s just Shank I walk for 2 hours). Sometimes I’m so beat when I get home I can’t function! It may have something to do with the dogs getting frisky around 5am – however, they sleep most afternoons!
Speaking of taking the dogs for a walk, yesterday we went to a crappy dog park, and I decided it wasn’t enough stimulation for them, so I went to a nearby beach. The dogs had a great time despite the swarms of flies (at least the flies weren’t biting!). Shank and even Halia (who doesn’t usually like to get any part of her body wet) ran through the low surf, having a grand time.
Then Shank saw a goose in the water.
Shank has never swam before.
Poor guy – I hope he’s not scared of the water now. He came out and was like W-T-F! He coughed and shook a bit, and never went deep again!
So anyways, the weather has improved in the last couple of days and I feel like I should be outside working – but yesterday afternoon I was too tired, and I’m gone from Sunday until Wednesday this week – making me feel even further behind! Ack!
William is home from TN. He had a great time. Apparently when they were in Nashville the other day, John Rich jumped in with the band at Legends and played a few songs. Sweet. That’s pretty cool. I know he’s happy to be home, and I’m happy to have him home.
Tomorrow is our season opener at the club – it’s going to be great! Sunday I leave for PA for a work thing. It’s my first work road trip ever!
Life’s good.
Oh yeah – GOM, Shank likes your local prairie dogs!
What kind of crazy place do you live in? Missing women, crazy prairie dogs, near a dangerous town? Lol!
Recent
Normally I start my day on the computer around 7:30am. Then I venture next door with the dogs for coffee (they don’t have coffee). At 8:30, I’m back on the computer, floating around social media, starting on my do-to lists (like today I’m sending out a press release, adding some edits to a new eBook, check in on Twitter, send out a few emails, read some business articles, etc.).
It’s hard for me to skip this step and blog instead. Seriously everyday I have the intention to blog, but after spending the entire morning on the computer, I lose my ambition. Also, I like to read all my unread blogs in Google Reader before blogging – but I think ignoring my to-do list is the only way I can get back to regular blogging!
So, anyway… I flew to Florida last Monday, arriving at the airport 2.5 hours before my flight out of Detroit (you never know what’s going to happen at the border, as it happens, William and I were the first in line and the border guard sent us right through). Checking in (I couldn’t get the pass on my phone) I discovered my flight was delayed by 2 hours (the delay was announced between the time I left for and arrived at the airport – ugh!). Super.
Around 5:30 the next morning I left Fort Myers heading home. I hoped to stop just inside KY – as it turns out, when I booked my hotel on Priceline, I was well inside KY. It turned out to be a 14 hour drive as I came into huge storms, construction and bad car accidents. Super! I had a crappy dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, and a king can of Bud in my room.
I dropped off the car and was picked up by William, finally arriving home around 2pm Wednesday. I had a quick nap (very necessary) and did some work around the house.
Thursday, TOL, Nic and a few others and myself went to the Tigers home opener. I am so not a baseball fan, but I do like a good party – and the home opener did not disappoint!
Downtown D was crazy, (as was my smile!) TOL, Nic and I finished the cold day (afternoon and part of the evening!) in our hot tub… ahhh.
Friday I busted my butt cleaning the house in preparation for our Essex County Masters Champions Dinner (4 guys plus me). Our first golf tournament participants arrived at our house at 8:30 am Saturday, for Bloody Mary cocktail hour – then golf. Then party back at our house.
It was a pretty good party – lots of laughs, and some good memories! I hope to update the Essex County Masters website soon. It’s kind of funny because it’s a small tourney, but we go all out being ‘serious’ about certain aspects of it. I think everyone had a good time.
Like this: 
William and Nick laughing at Kikipants… 
Who did a full header into the corn hole board, and yes, she’s wearing a tail.
Yeah, that kind of thing makes life good.
This post is about that, but not what you think
Whitney Houston – but please keep reading!
I don’t know if I’ve ever shared in my blog my experiences with A) Whitney Houston and B) Hypnotism – and yes, they are absolutely, completely, utterly connected. A quick search confirms my thought, that no, I’ve never discussed it.
In the early spring of 2003 (I started this blog in 2006, so maybe that’s why I’ve never mentioned my experience) William and I were on a Hawaiian cruise. Early in the trip and like most cruisers, we found ourselves one evening looking for something to do (mostly to keep us away from the casino – although on that trip, I was definitely ‘up’). We saw an ‘adults only’ show featuring a hypnotist.
I had never seen a real life hypnotist, and I was probably the biggest non-believer in the audience. I knew a guy who in college was paid to act in a hypnotist’s show.
When the guy started to instruct the audience on how to relax, I willingly participated, being such a skeptic. Well, before I knew it I was on stage, sitting in front of hundreds of people.
I could go on and on about my experiences that night – but I won’t. Suffice to say, time passed quickly. Two hours felt like 5 minutes. Looking back at my time on stage is like trying to remember a dream. I was aware of the hypnotist’s suggestions – all I can say is that everything he said sounded like a great idea and completely logical. I did things in front of hundreds of people that I would never do in front of my best friends.
For that particular show (I learned later, having seen and talked to the hypnotist several times on the cruise) he had a singer friend who was preforming on the ship as well. They decided to combine acts this once, and that is where my Whitney Houston – hypnotism story really starts.
Near the end of the show, I was told/convinced/believed with every fibre of my being that I was Whitney Houston’s greatest fan (which I am certainly not. I never really cared for her music, style, life, etc.). I was ‘glued to my chair’ – but in the ‘act’ I would do anything to be near/touch/talk to/ ‘Whitney Houston’.
So the woman (who looked nothing like Whitney Houston, save her skin colour) was introduced as Whitney Houston and started singing. I started flaying around in my chair, trying to reach her. I was crying. No, actually I was bawling. Tears streaming down my face. Apparently my behaviour was really distracting to her, as she stopped singing a few times, and was quite entertained by my adorations (she later told me how incredibly flattering it was to be shown such love by a fan!). When in her performance she reached out and touched my hand, I went into hysterics. Seriously. When I would see this woman later on the cruise, tears would immediately spring to my eyes. I would laugh and apologize to her.
From that performance, many people came up to me during the two week cruise, joking/commenting/teasing about my behaviour. Several said they didn’t believe in hypnotism until they saw what appeared to be a completely normal, rational person transformed into a raving lunatic.
That cruise was nearly 10 years ago, and strangely, I’ve had 2 fairly significant side effects of the hypnotism (I knew a woman who had such terrible side effects that she had to see doctors and take medications!).
– The first is that I find myself VERY susceptible to being hypnotized. If someone is on TV ‘doing’ hypnotism I literally have to distract myself, and make a point to stay focused!
– The second and most disturbing is that until just around 2 years ago, I could not see a picture of Whitney Houston, hear a song sung by Whitney Houston, or have someone bring up Whitney Houston’s name in conversation, without becoming completely overwhelmed with emotion. Tears would come from nowhere. My heart would well up. I knew/know this was completely irrational behaviour, but honestly I couldn’t control it. A few times, just to be funny, William would start talking of Whitney Houston in front of friends just to show off my reaction. I would become flustered, throat sore, tears in my eyes, while laughing because I knew I looked like an idiot! Even now, it’s incredibly embarrassing to admit, but I have glassy eyes, and I feel a bit emotional. Ridiculous!
Suffice to say, I’m quite relieved that Whitney Houston died in 2012 and not in 2004 – as I would not have been able to function!
This is a pic of me hypnotized. It was not during the Whitney Houston part – but you can see how dazed I looked, despite being completely sober. A guy in the audience took the pictures for me and mailed me the CD – because he’d never seen anything like my behaviour.
Yes, I’m wearing a head-dress and conspiring to murder a fellow stage-mate, who was a cowboy.
Good times.
Recent
I woke up this morning at the ungodly hour of 4am and could not fall back asleep, suffering from an undeserved hangover due to lack of sleep. I only had 5 beers last night – c’mon! Not fair! I tried Kikipants trick and I gagged down a banana – no help! I was cured by puppy breath when my oldest brother popped by with his 8 week old puppy – I thought it was a British Bulldog, but looking at pictures online I’ve realized it’s not. Suffice to say the puppy is so cute, and now I feel better. Who knew?
Tonight William and I are having a date night and are even venturing outside the house to do so! We were going to go indoor golfing, but the place it booked, so we’re going to see a movie then have prime rib at home. Nice! Tomorrow is poochy’s 6th birthday, so we’re having dinner at MomG’s (which we do almost every Sunday anyways) and Halia will rip open gifts (which are actually her own toys re-wrapped – she’s still appreciative!) and will have a few extra treats that day.
This month, although during ‘the yawn’ is flying by! Thank God!
I’ve joined ancestry.com on a two week trial (the membership is $300 a year, too rich for my blood) and have had great success finding the ancestors of my maternal great grandfather (the Major General). I discovered that his grandfather, at the age of 23 was a lawyer in Ontario and was living at the same address as his future wife and her family when she was 11! Creepy! Rather pervy really. On my other side, I found my paternal great grandmother lived in miliary barracks (her husband was a sergeant) and she and her 2 oldest daughters were all born in India… she had her first child when she was 17! Hey! Oh well, it was like 1870… so that’s pretty neat, but incredibly addictive and frustrating! I’m planning on moving all the new information onto geni.com – although not nearly as good, but free.
The bitter cold is almost gone. Seriously, -8*F is just to freaking cold! It’s actually supposed to be in the 40’s this coming week – we haven’t seen temperatures in the 40’s since November! Break out the flip flop and tanning oil! With these temperatures it’s nearly impossible to believe that we’ll be golfing in less than 2 months. This was William shovelling again last week…
That’s a lot of snow!
Ain’t no party like a mourning dove party!
These dang birds hang out on the trellis around the hot tub and often on the hot tub. I feel sorry for them so I throw out bird seed once in a while.
So that’s about it… life’s good!
Some pics
Big old snow drift in the backyard… it isn’t really as big as it looks though, as part of it is actually our septic hump. Sexy eh? Don’t you wish you had a septic hump?
William carving a path to our front door.
Possibly the saddest looking poochy in the world…
Poor thing!
Today I’m taking Halia to the vet for a little rehab, as I do at least 2 days a week… then I’m heading to Kingsville for groceries (mostly stuff for Superbowl) and making William his favorite dinner.
Of and about Saturday
Saturday Kiki and I had tickets for the BROWNS in Detroit.
The game was at 5 and we ventured over the border with no issue around noon. The plan was to park, walk around a bit, hit a bar or two and eventually end up at the game.
I remembered there being a few small lots on Brush and immediately came upon some friendly Browns fans, so obviously I swung into that lot without checking out any others – good thing too, as they were the only gaggle of fans we saw.
Of course they were super nice – the Brown Backers club of South East Michigan – which I joined. Although I have been a Backer for a few years, I did not have a club affiliation, and this is a very active club. Perfect!
Kiki and I took off with our very well disguised drinks. Kiki had not been in that area in a long time so we wandered past Ford Field, Comerica Park (they're next to each other), near Fox Theatre and Hockeytown, and only 1 block away from Campus Martius where we could hear Jesse Jackson speak in a UAW/Democratic Party rally. We ended up at the Detroit Bar, where we had a few weird experiences, but ended up chatting with a group of guys who were at the rally.
We tossed around the idea of eating at the Detroit Fish Market, or Tom's Oyster Bar, but settled on a more 'fun' venue of Cheli's Chile – where we of course had Coney dogs.
We parked our butts on the near empty patio (it was pre-season and about 90*F) and watched the people pass.
(That's Comerica Park in the background)
We were hassled a bit by Lions' fans, but nothing that wasn't all in fun. Our seats were great – first row upper deck, located luckily near a bar, as Kiki doesn't drink beer.
It was a good game, but then the Browns fell apart after some turnovers. I hope that Suh gets some type of punishment for trying to rip Delhomme's head off…
Anyway, there were very few Browns fans around, and after cheering wildly I would look about realizing that we were the only Browns fans (except for a guy about 20 rows up) in the entire area!
At the end of the game we were for no reason viciously screamed at by some Lions' fans, 'BROWNS suck! You suck!' etc… but they were really hostile and Kiki and I were rather shocked at their aggressiveness. Fun. Ah well… I was so bummed about the loss! ARG! I've only seen the Browns win once in person – and that was the second loss I've seen against Detroit – Detroit! Ah well, that is the life of a football fan…
Despite the loss, it was a very enjoyable day. I'm so not a city girl and rarely venture beyond my small town (and golf course) so it's always fun to spend the day in a big city.
Good times
Of course Cleveland was a great time!
We arrived early at the hotel, but we were allowed to check in, so that was fantastic. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Cleveland Arcade. It was built in 1890, and was the site of the first indoor 'mall' in America. It's a very cool building, shmancy railings, unique floors, grand staircases, high ceilings in our rooms, and a 300 foot long skylight – tiny elevators though. When we got into our room, I noticed that there were windows on two walls – how nice – one looked directly onto a huge A/C until, and the other a brick wall… ah well, we hung out in Kiks and Jim's room anyways – it was larger with a nice view.
Because we immediately checked in, we relaxed in the room and had a few drinks, then meandered down to the Team Shop (I love Team Shop) then over to Bob Golic's for some lunch (and drinks).
I love it when people do what I tell them to…
There was a better, although slightly obscene pic that I decided not post…
This is my dream golf cart!
At the Team Shop I bought a couple of shirts and Billy insisted we get this gnome. He is not an outside gnome, but rather an inside gnome. He obviously likes to party…
When we were leaving the team shop, we stopped to retrieve our G2 and vodkas from Kiki's purse/cooler bag. There were three cops standing there and the one asked if we had regular or flavored vodka in our G2's. We all acted shocked at the suggestion of vodka in our drinks, and joked around with the cops for a bit. Totally funny. I mean really, we weren't hurting anyone or publically being a-holes, so it was nice not to be hassled – and funny.
Sweet helmut.
Because it was pre-season, Cleveland wasn't nearly as crazy as we've seen it. I think a lot of the downtown bars were hoping for crowds, but it seemed pretty mellow, and the lots under the bridge were fairly empty.
The original plan was to head back to the hotel, change, drop off the gnome and pack some disposable coolers and head to the Muni Lots to see the crazy fans and tailgate, then get to the game nice and early. This plan was thwarted by rain. Rain, rain, steady pouring rain. Rats! Foiled again! We just hung out in the room, and close to game time, when the rain let up a bit we headed out. We headed out in the wrong direction! Damn Hyatt Regency Cleveland Arcade with identical front and rear entrances! We walked about 4 blocks in the wrong direction (probably mostly my fault – why people would follow or listen to me I have no idea…)… so now it's really coming down… I don't want to stop to pull out my rain poncho, so we continue on. We are all soaked. My orthodic sandals (yes, I know, I'm so cool) were drenched and the insoles were slipping out making me trip, so I walked the streets of Cleveland and even into the stadium barefoot. Ew. Kiki did too because rain made her sandals rub painfully.
A cop came up to Billy telling him he can't drink alcohol in public (he had rye and Pepsi in a platic cup – the rest of us had vodka cleverly contained and mixed with G2), he told the cop it was just Pepsi, so obviously the cop was cool with that. I laughed my ass off.
So in the stadium (we were late, of course damn it) I pulled on my rain poncho, we grabbed some drinks and discovered that our seats were actually nicely sheltered. Off came the poncho…. soon I realized that I need new glasses. I couldn't see anything going on in the field. I had to keep asking Billy what just happened. I'm making an eye doctors appointment today.
What I could see of the game, it was quite exciting, and me being at the Stadium is just so awesome. It was a close game, but in the end Cleveland lost… I've only seen Cleveland win once in person…
We had a fab time. I did miss staying the extra night – love going out for a nice dinner and having more time to see the city. The rain really hurt our plans, but it was certainly a night I won't forget – a great time, tons of laughs, silly circumstances…
Kiks and I have tickets for Saturday afternoons Browns at Lions game – it's gonna be great!
Around the house
After living here for 5 years (we built it…) I still love our house, inside and out. The out is kind of a challenge because of the size of our yard, and lack of mature trees, but I think we've done fairly well, and I'll forever appreciate grass in any form after not having any one summer…
I took some pics yesterday a couple hours before another storm rolled through – before last week our grass looked like a wheat field… When I came outside with my camera, I heard the dogs playing in the pool next door.
This is how Mike (the dog) gets in the pool… notice that there is no ball in the pool – he jumps the gun, it hasn't been thrown yet.
This is how gentle Lilly enters the pool… she prefers not to get her ears wet.
Our raised garden beds, the composter and the corn field.
This is the flagstone patio – I removed and replaced the grout a couple of weeks ago – it was a ton of work, but looks so much better!
Our small, frogless pond… I know the lighthouse is cheesy… that's why it's there…
This is Sarabi's tree (our pooch that died in 2005) – we planted it last year and it has doubled in size! I love it's location - I pass it everyday heading out to the garden.
This is the pink rock garden (it only really looks pink when it's wet) – I gathered nearly all those stones in the field behind our house. It's not an area that anyone sees, but I really like the looks of it.
The corn is so high – it looks like the grain bins are being swallowed… they're not…
So how high is the corn? Well, I'm 5'6, so it's pretty dang high!
This is the hydrangea in the front – love the colour!
Well, that's the summer tour!
LG 
