My brother may be coming into town tomorrow. He is having some health issues and just wants to be sure nothing is wrong. I am a little worried about him.

Today was Josh's granny's birthday. 85. Wow. She can still walk around very well. She is pretty agile for a woman her age. The party was good. We got there towards the end of it, but at least we were able to see her and wish her the best.

The Chiefs won today. WooHoo. I am going to Kansas City next week to watch them play against Jacksonville. Should be a great game.

Fun Day

Sundays are usually great work days. It's never a full day. That's why I always like working them. Josh's grandma is having her birthday party at the private school my son went to when he was in elementary. They are having it in the gymnasium. She has many grandchildren and great grandchildren. I think she is just the sweetest little thing.

So, work for about six hours today and I am off to a birthday bash for Grannie. This should be an outright FUN day.

Following Up

Okay, so I came home early today. Still having some stomach problems. I thought I would update on some of the comments and questions that were left from the previous posts.

1. What happened to your best friend turned love?
- Well, he is no longer in my life on my terms. He has a girlfriend and only emails me maybe once every three weeks. It's sad.
2. Is there anyone in your life now?
- Yes, my boyfriend, Josh. He's super.
3. Won't your husband get jealous if he finds out you still have butterflies in your stomach when you think about past lovers?!!
- David, no he won't. He's not my husband and my best friend was not a lover. He was someone I cared and loved for deeply. My boyfriend is not the jealous type. He's almost too laid back sometimes.

Okay, hope that clears it up some. If not, feel free to ask away. My boyfriend has free range of my blog and reads it every day. He hasn't said anything yet about what I have talked about. He's not likely to either. Becky may know where I am going with this one.

Anyway, just thought I would check in. My tummy is swirling and I cooked a roast today. Dang It!

Skipping

Good morning. I am suppose to be at the east side of town getting ready for the Susan G. Komen race for the cure, but I just didn't feel well this morning. I kind of feel bad about it because I usually either volunteer or walk the race every year. I won't be doing that this year.

I am still going to my stores though. I need to get a lot done in the next three weeks before I leave for NYC again. Did I tell you I am going back? Yes, for cheese training. This should be a lot of fun.

Well, no rest for the wicked (or sick, for that matter).

Ramblings of a Plain Jane Girl

Wow, I actually have some time this evening to post something. So here is a touchy subject I will get into.

Any of you have old loves you ever think of? I do. You may have read in my past posts how I fell for my guy best friend once upon a time. I still think of him often and wonder what he is doing. I still get the butterflies in my stomach every time I think about the time we used to spend together. Just like a little school girl. I know, I'm pathetic. What about you? Anyone still crushin' on a past love?

Okay, so I totally slacked off at work today. I only worked seven hours instead of the average 10-11. So sue me. :)

I am starting to get that nesting feeling. You know, when you want to stay inside and get things in order for the fall and winter. I have some rearranging to do in several rooms, including the kitchen. I am getting the crock pot and roaster out, as well as all of my baking equipment. It's just about that time to start all of that.

I can't wait for it to get colder. I know some of you don't like fall or winter, but I love it. Snow means Christmas here in Kansas. I just love Thanksgiving and Christmas. The sights, smells, love and laughter are the best during this time of year. Wouldn't you agree?

Okay, so I am done with my rambling of all these different subjects. I'll talk at all of you tomorrow. Till then.

Good morning. I sit before you drinking coffee from the gigantic mug I got from New York City. It is a wide mug that says I Love NY. It's white with black letters. It's huge, just like the city.

I know many of you are waiting for pictures. I should have them up by this weekend. My computer is acting a little strange, so it may take a couple of days.

Well, work certainly hasn't changed much. I am getting out to the rest of my stores instead of having to park my rear at just one. We had a merchandisers meeting this past week that was a total waste of time. On and On....

Okay. So I'm off to read about you. Good day!

There's No Place Like Home - Final Chapter

Okay, so let me finish already. We take a food tasting tour in Greenwich Village with our tour guide, Kurt. He reminds me of Carrot Top and Conan O'Brien. He was awesome. We toured all of the local shops and restaurants, learned about the community. We ended our tour around 2. We headed back to the hotel and changed for the Yankees game. We hopped on the #4 and headed for the Bronx. We went a little early to avoid all of the game traffic. I noticed as we got closer to out exit, we became the minority on the subway. There were many black, hispanic, and asian people and not many caucs. I wasn't worried a bit. There was another couple by us who was. They kept clutching their bags and looking around nervously. I just looked at Josh and shook my head.

The Yankees won against the Baltimore Orioles that Tuesday evening. We headed back to the hotel and ordered Chinese. I had the scallops with snow peas. It was okay.

Here is where the story gets a little interesting. Josh happened to get poison ivy before we left, but it didn't start showing up until Monday. It was getting worse, and soon it was infected. Ugh. Anyway, we had to go to the emergency room. We went and found Bellevue Hospital. Not the famous "crazy" hospital, but the regular one. Wednesday morning found me sitting in a waiting room with four outspoken men, just coming from their "program". They were in there to detox. Lovely. Talk about an experience. My boyfriend has to go to the hospital on our vacation and I get to be entertained by these guys in the waiting room. We waited for quite awhile, but he was finally seen. We were in the hospital for about five hours. We had to finally break down and take a taxi to our hotel so we wouldn't be late for our show.

We saw Mamma Mia on Broadway. I got us great seats. We were in the second row, center stage. This is my favorite musical and I have now seen it seven times. After the show, we were walking back to the hotel and decided to eat at Mortons Steakhouse. Everything here is a la carte. My steak alone was $40. It was delicious. I had a rib eye, baked potato, and a salad wedge that I shared with Josh. Yum!

We walked back to the hotel and called it an early night. Thursday we headed for Chinatown and Little Italy. I think it is sad that Little Italy has been reduced down to a four square block. The Chinese are taking over. It was actually sad. I was amazed by all of the fish markets in Chinatown. It almost reminded me of Seattle, but dirtier. Every time we walked by a certain shop, there would be an Asian man or woman trying to sell us something. I did get to see an actual cooked boar's head under hot lights in one of the shop window. In Little Italy, we went to a corner deli and shared a grilled prosciutto and provolone sandwich. Then we made our way back to Greenwich Village. We fell in love with one of the restaurants on the food tasting tour and decided to go back and have lunch there. The Palmas was such a quaint little restaurant with a garden in the back. I had a vegetarian panini and roasted fingerling potatoes. It was sincerely the best damn panini I have ever had. We finished, stopped off at Rocco's Pastry shop and picked up a half dozen cookies for dinner :)

Friday morning found us at one of the many Starbucks in the city where I got a pumpkin spice latte, extra hot. We hopped on the tour bus in Times Square and decided to do the tour. It was well worth the money. We saw everything. The Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, The Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn, and Central Park, just to name a few. We had lunch in Little Korea, which is about one block long, and Josh got to experience authentic Korean food restaurant style. It was so much fun and so good, I had to call my mom and tell her all about it.

We went back to the hotel and rested and then proceeded to take the night bus tour to see the city lights. We had dinner at this wonderful little Italian place on 9th street and I was in heaven. I had the Cornish game hen and Josh decided on the seafood portofino. Delicious.

Again, we walked back to the hotel and called it a night. We wanted to get up early on Saturday to pack and have time to get to the airport. We took a black car to the airport, ready for our flight to leave at 9:30. We get on the plane (Midwest) and start heading to the runway. The plane stops and turns around. We had engine problems and had to get off the plane. They cancelled our flight and had us flying with other airlines. We were suppose to arrive in Kansas City at one, but had to detour to Detroit and then to Kansas City. We arrived at 9 pm. I was mad. This was the only bad part of the trip.

We headed to Josh's brother's house and I crashed as soon as we got there. We hit the Chief's game on Sunday, got burned to a crisp, and then drove the 2 1/2 hours home. It was a wonderful vacation.

Now it's back to the daily grind at work. woo hoo....

There's No Place Like Home Vol. 2

So the next part of the vacation starts us off on Tuesday. This is the day we are taking the food tour throughout Greenwich Village. We started off by having breakfast in the Grand Central Terminal. We got coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I can't remember the place, but they also sell these amazing chocolate cigars. I big puff pastry stuffed and rolled in chocolate. Yummy! So, we grab our delicious morning nibbles and proceed to sit down and people watch. I saw a man on a bench with many newspapers around him. He acted like he was talking on the phone, but had no phone or earpiece. He was talking to himself, saying the same thing over and over again. I do believe he had a mental illness. I thought of Andrew.

We finish our breakfast, our people watching (although I could do that for hours), and proceeded on the #6 to Bleeker street. When we arrived on Bleeker street we started walking opposite of traffic and headed to Greenwich Village. When we arrived, we sat in a little park area with benches and a fountain. We waited until 10:15 and walked to Rocco's, this little Italian Pastry shop.

This is where I have to stop. I have to head back to work, but I will tell you about the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday when I return this evening. Have an awesome day!

There's No Place Like Home Vol. 1

I'm Baaaaaack!

The vacation to NYC was awesome. So much to do, so much to tell. Let's start off with when we left Saturday. We drove to Kansas City and stayed with Josh's brother. Our flight was scheduled to leave around 9 am, so we got to the airport around 7:45. Our direct flight landed us at LaGuardia around 1 pm. We then took a shuttle to our hotel. It was packed in that van! Crowded! We got to our hotel in about 15 minutes, tipped the nice driver and checked in. We stayed at the Roosevelt. It was okay. The room was very small, not your average hotel room in the rest of the country, but for NYC, I guess it was okay, considering space is pretty valuable there.

The first thing we noticed getting out of that van was the noise. It was sooooo loud there! Black cars and cabby's driving like freakin' maniacs and the buses coming and going down the busy streets. Whew! I felt like I needed earplugs.

So, we check in. We are literally a block away from Grand Central Station. I instantly thought of Rich and wondered which building was his. Perhaps he was in the MetLife Building? Who knows. Anyway, it was pretty exciting. We threw our luggage down and left hurriedly to go down and start exploring. We walked around our block and down some streets. We found a little pub called McAnn's and headed in for a little appetizer and something to drink so we could catch the football game. I loved that little bar. We had an appetizer plate and Josh had a couple of beers. The bartender sounded Irish, but I could be mistaken. It was nice listening to him talk though. We then headed over to Lexington and took a right and ran into the Grand Central entrance. Walked around there, looked at the little market. We found the trains, but couldn't figure out where the subway was. We ate at Juniors for dinner (Big pickles, huge burgers, and yummy steak fries) and then went back outside and walked up and down several streets near our hotel. With our tummies full and our bodies and minds completely overwhelmed, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

On Monday we decided to try our luck with the subway. I looked out of the window of our hotel room and was amazed at how many people I saw at 7 am walking the streets. Many suits walking in and out of doors, coming in and out of cars. Everyone looked like black ants on a big ant hill. Cool. First, we headed over to Times Square and Rockefeller Center. That was okay. We ate breakfast on the corner of Broadway and 49th? It was a diner that had singing wait staff. And sing they did! We headed over Central Park and walked around there for awhile. We then got on the subway and headed for Bleeker street. We got off and looked around. This was close to Greenwich Village, which we were going to see on Tuesday. We got back on the subway, headed back to the hotel and arrived around 3:30, just in time for a nap. I was exhausted!

Got up and had dinner at Naples in the MetLife Building. Had an awesome Vegetarian pizza there. We sat outside and people watched for about an hour. Headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Well, this is all for now. I need to read up on every one's week to see how you all are doing. I will write about Tuesday and Wednesday tomorrow.

Count Down!

Well, it's almost time to leave. Everything has been packed. The family will be here soon to house sit. All we have to do is drive to our destination, stay the night, catch a flight the next afternoon, and arrive in New York. I am so excited. I know I keep saying that, but I have had this ridiculous smile on my face for three days now.

The city is going to be so busy. I know some of my blogging friends would be in hog heaven with me, while others could do without all of the people. Shopping, sights to see, people to watch, shows to see, it will all be so wonderful. And seven whole days of it!!!!

Okay, so I won't be blogging a whole lot. I will try and check in with all of you once I get to the hotel tomorrow evening. If not, I plan to keep a daily journal so I won't forget everything when I do update.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

NYC Here I Come!!!

I can't wait for NYC!!! We have family staying at the house while we are gone. I am so excited. I plan on taking a bunch of pictures, so I will have something to share. I don't know how much I will be able to blog while I am gone. I leave Sunday and won't be home until late Sunday night following. Oh, I just can't sit still!

My computer is acting up again. For some reason it says that my protection services are not installed and they don't expire until 01/08. It's mcafee, of course. What the hell? Perhaps I have contracted a worm or virus? Sometimes I can log in, sometimes I can't. It's being temperamental. Any help out there?

I have just posted questions for Becky, Crusty, and Lizzie. I will let you know when they have updated their blogs and you can stop by to read their answers. I couldn't really think of anything profound to ask.

Well, I have a towel around my head and need to get ready for work. Later!

Answers for Annabel

Okay, so here are the answers to Annabel's questions. The answers are a bit dry, but from the heart. I couldn't think of something dramatic, just truth. Read and let me know what you think. If you have any more questions to the answers below, just let me know in the comments section, and I will reply back there as well.

Here goes...

1.If you could choose any future career for your son, what would you choose for him to do? (No cheating and saying you’ll let him decide)

If I had to choose a future career for my son, I would choose a job that has a good balance between work and home. I would choose a job that he would love, a job that pays the bills and then some, a job he wouldn't want to quit. I would choose a job that would involve making a difference in people's lives, because I know that my kid loves to help people. I would choose a job in which he could make changes that could change the world. I would choose for him to be just like Annabel, a teacher. :)


2. If you could live in another time period in past history, when and where would it be?

I would love to live when my parents were just growing up. During the mid 60's to early 70's is the time I would most like to live and in Ohio/Korea. I think it would be awesome to see what they had to go through as teenagers into adults, meeting each other, getting married, living in the world when so much was changing around them.

3. All the ABBA songs have disappeared from earth. What are you going to listen to now?

Nothing, because I have just gone deaf.

4. If you could immediately speak another language, what would you speak and why?

If I could immediately speak another language, I would choose Korean because it is the language of my mother's home country and the half of my culture I yearn to know more about.


5. What is your biggest pet peeve?

This one is a hard question to answer, as I have so many. One of the biggest, I suppose, are when people are lazy. Lazy meaning if they are loafing around when others are clearly working their rear ends off around them.

Here's the rules.............

Interview Rules: 1) Leave me a comment saying "interview me" along with your email address. 2) I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. 3) You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions. 4) You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. 5) When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them five questions.

I will interview the first three to ask.

Good morning. Just wanted to wish all of you a good day. It's Monday again. Back to the daily grind. Oh, wait. The daily grind is 7 days a week for me. That's okay, four more days of work hell and then I am on vacation for 10 days!!! WooHoo!

Cheese... Passion?

Have I ever told any of you about my passion for cheese? Not cutting cheese (sorry Meloncutter), but eating cheese. I love cheese. Cheese has so much history and culture behind it. I love learning about it and pairing it with some of my favorite fruits, bread, and crackers. I wish I wasn't allergic to alcohol because I would love trying cheese with wine. One day, I must tell you about some of my favorites and how I like to eat them.

Well, work has been just that. Monotonous, long, and boring work with the same people every day. The customers all look the same, the store associates all look the same. I am so sick of being in this store! I am branching out after this weekend. I can't wait to get back into my other stores.

The grand opening at this particular store was a huge success. We had competition from miles away checking us out. Good. Maybe they will stay away.

Okay, so I am off to read about your day!

Good Morning

Good morning. Here's to a great day!

1. Drop the kid off at school - half day.
2. Go to work.
3. Pick the kid up at 12:30.
4. Go to orthodontist at 1:00.
5. Head home at 2:00.
6. Go back to work???

Great Day

It was a great day. I did three loads of laundry, went to conferences, came home and relaxed, took a mini nap, watched Big Brother 8 and had dinner.

It's back to the daily grind tomorrow. The kid has an orthodontist appointment tomorrow. Should be an interesting day.

Well, I am tired. I will be turning in shortly. Good night.

Good morning! I have the day off and plan on spending most of it catching up with all of you. The kid also has conferences today, so I have to go and meet with his first hour teacher at 1:30. Not only that, I have about 10 loads of laundry to do. I think we own too many clothes.

I have been working my ass off with the grand opening of our new store. I have been living there for the past two months. Some of the other zonies came today to relieve us for one day. I was thankful. I was on day 35 of working straight through - 10 to 15 hour days. Ugh. I was hitting a brick wall the day before yesterday, I was so tired.

Well, I am going to be off to NYC in about 10 days. I can't wait. I have so much planned. Not sure if I will be meeting anyone, but I know I am taking full advantage of every day. I plan on only sleeping when I have to. This 35 day work stretch has sort of prepared me for NYC. If I can do that, I can go 7 days straight in the city.

Okay, I am off to start a load of laundry and to get to reading. Talk at you later!

Stay Tuned

Looks like today will only be a half day and I am off tomorrow. Stay tuned...