Heart of Dixie

Greetings from Texas!

I'm in Arlington, TX, visiting my friend Deb. We've been hanging out here and doing a little shopping. Well, I went shopping while Deb had to go to a business meeting. Deb has temporary custody of a cutie French bulldog named Winston. Winston will be moving to Chicago in a month or so, and Deb was afraid that Winston would be cold, so she bought him a sweater yesterday. He looked so handsome that we just had to have our pictures made with him.

Me and Winston:

Deb and Winston:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Memo to the aliens who took my old husband and left me this one: Can you keep the old one? I kinda' like the new one!

A few posts ago I mentioned how he gave me these uber-compliments. Then, last week he had a chance to buy some jewelry at a RREEAAAAALLLY good price and he bought me......tanzanite ring, earrings, and pendant; spessertite garnet ring, earrings, and pendant; an emerald and diamond ring; and an alexandrite and diamond ring.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!

I don't have photos of them yet and the photos from the on-line store are already down. He got them from Marsh Jewelers, if you wanna' take a peak at what they have. Some of their stones are of "fair" quality, but many are good. Hey, if you can't tell by looking with the naked eye and it saves you mucho bucks, then why not? I will say that the stuff the hubs got for me was the "good" stuff :-)

I'm leaving in the morning to go visit Texas Deb until Saturday and then I'm heading back. She has a fun few days planned for us! Nothing like spending time with girlfriends, huh? The new and improved hubs is driving me to the Atlanta airport and will be picking me up on Saturday.

I'm still rather speechless by all this attention. Please, Mr. Alien, let me keep the new one, okay?

There are a lot of things I care about

I care about my family and friends, about their happiness, safety, and well-being. I care about Dixie and try to be a good doggie parent. I care about my appearance and try to not look like a total slob when I walk out the door.

Now, there are some things I don't care about. I don't give a hoot how Jennifer Aniston feels about Brad and Angelina or with whom she is dating or living. I find the whole subject of Britney Spears and anything to do with her totally obnoxious. I don't care what Reese Witherspoon is up to or what Gwynneth Paltrow wears when she goes to the drugstore.

Are there really people out there who are so absorbed in the lives of celebrities that they visually inhale every word written about and every photo take of them? I'm sure there are but SHEESH!

Awwwwww, wasn't that sweet?

I don't know what's gotten into the hubs, but recently he's said two really nice things about me. At his retirement cookout, he said I was the nicest looking wife there. Wow :D Then, this weekend, he and a buddy were talking while I was helping a customer (more on that below), and I don't think he knew I could hear them. His buddy was kidding him about stealing me away because I looked nice. The hubs kinda' laughed and said, "No, you'd better not. I don't know what I'd do without her." AWWWWWWWWW.

From last Tuesday until late yesterday afternoon, we were helping a friend, who is executive director of an international hunting organization, put on their annual convention. It was a lot of hard work with long hours but it was fun. We already knew that we were going to be responsible for collecting payments for all four auctions (we handled close to a million dollars in checks and credit card payments!). In addition, through osmosis, being in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time, we some how got the responsibility of running the merchandise center! Probably because when we got there on Tuesday, the staff member responsible for it had many other responsibilities and had done very little to set it up. I offered to set it up.....he said WONDERFUL and left...and basically never came back! Well, he did, but just to see how things were going! I suppose he knew we'd take care of it.

For most days, we arrived at the convention center somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30 in the morning and worked until midnight, and then back at it again the next morning. By the time we got home last night, we were pooped puppies!

The convention was in Tunica, MS, just south of Memphis. We got lots of snow on Friday, enough to where someone industrious made a nice-sized snowman! I'll post pix of the snow later.

TTFN, y'all!

Winterish weather here

After weeks of unseasonably mild weather, yesterday and today were chilly willy! Highs in the upper 40's and windy.

It was supposed to rain Friday night, which we were dreading because one of John's buddies was having an outside fish fry/barbeque for John. We anxiously watched the Weather Channel, both on TV and on-line. It showed that there was a 60-70% chance of rain starting at 5:00 (the party was due to start at 6:00) and continuing on until about 9:00. His buddy does have a huge workshop where they were planning on having the party, but the only bathroom was inside the house...their brand new, they just moved in the Saturday before, and the carpets are off-white house. I was a nervous wreck and I can just imagine what his buddy's wife was going through! Fortunately, somehow we didn't get a drop of rain! The party was a huge success. Almost 50 people were there.

Dixie's upset with us. We went to DD's house tonight for supper and both of us had Sassy the Beagle in our laps and petted her. Oh yeah, Dixie took one sniff of us and she went off in the huff. She hardly came out for her nightly Pop-Tart with the hubs. eegads - it's bad when the dog is mad at you.

I blew my one wish!

To say that the hubs doesn't put much emphasis on his clothes is the understatement of the last 5,000 years or so. Some of the things he'd wear to work were just heinous, especially since he was head of a 50-person section. Worn-out, faded pants, some of the ugliest shirts you've ever seen. Yesterday he straighted up part of his closet. I asked him would he throw away just one thing for me. Mr. All-Time-Pack-Rat gave me "the look" and asked what. I said, "Those horrible, faded out brown jeans you'd wear to work." He smirked and said, "I already did." He led me out to the garbage can and I saw where they were lying at the bottom. I thought it only right that I should get one more wish since he had already done it, not really granting my wish. Nope, he didn't see it that way. Darn it! I shoulda' asked for the brown-striped shirt to be tossed!

Now on the whiney side....

I am totally fighting the blues. I have no reason to feel this way. Life is really good. It honestly has nothing to do with John's retirement. It's just one of those things that comes around every now and then. I've got friends who are trying to boost me but nothing they say has even brought a smile to my face. I'll pop out of this at some unexpected time or place, but until then, forgive me if I burst into tears or have several "poor me" days.