The hotness has arrived in the Rio Grande Valley

Well... not only did I get to the southernmost tip of Texas today, the heat also arrived. It was a record high 95 degrees in McAllen, Tx (where I flew into). I about died when I walked out of the airport.

I was also still a bit hot-headed from a near confrontation with a total bitch at the baggage carosel. She made me crazy mad and said something to me that would normally cause a confrontation... but... my dear readers will be surprised to hear that I just walked away from it. It was a total snap decision where I did snap my head & chicken neck for a split second, but once I turned around, I said to myself... walk away... so I did. She was lucky.

In typical Casey style, I got a bit turned around despite having a Hertz Never Lost navigation system, but I eventually made it. It wasnt my fault that the exit was closed & the GPS didnt know that!

I decided to wait on the trip to Mexico though until later this week. I was exhausted after a day that started at 6:15am. I was delighted to read a fabulous magazine on the way to McAllen though... If you are a country music fan, pick up the special Country edition of People magazine with Carrie Underwood on the cover. A fabulous friend and spouse of the 11 blog author is the associate editor. I'm so jealous of the people she gets to interview!

P.S... regarding weather... a cold front is coming in tonight and temperatures are going to only reach the low 70's the next two days... lol... that's ideal in my mind!

Where is that?

When I checked my schedule for February, I noticed a 2 day training in Brownsville, TX. I had never heard of it before. A quick google search explained that it is pretty much on the Mexican border.

Yep... I'll be traveling to the southernmost city in Texas (according to Wikipedia) tomorrow. It's five miles from the border, so I'm going to make the quick journey over to Matamoros, Mexico. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do over there, but it's a city of 400,000 people, so I'm sure I'll find something to get into.

The good thing is that my training session is only on Tuesday & Wednesday (as opposed to the usual Monday-Friday). The logisitics of getting a flight out on Wednesday are impossible, so I'll have some time on Monday & Wednesday evening to explore. It's going to be 80 degrees pretty much while I am there, so that is definitely exciting.

I'll try to take some photos for you, my fabulous readers. If there's anything interesting, I'll try to do a video clip, but I'm not making any promises!

Stay tuned!!!

Lifestyles of the rich & the famous

I've become addicted to a website I stumbled on recently. If you enjoy looking at things that are probably waaaay out of the price range of any WofC reader that I know, but still enjoy taking a peek, check it out.

They usually have quite a few posts each day and always have an estate of the day. Sometimes, they are tacky as heck. I guess it just proves that money cant buy taste.

If you enjoy the website like I do, let me know!

Achy-Breaky Heart

Last night, we went a Predators game. They got beat in OT :( On the brightside though, they did earn a point and that is very important since the playoff race is so tight.

Enough of that though.

During the second intermission, Hal & I went downstairs to get tickets for a game we want to see (Detroit) but his company tix are already spoken for.

Anywho, on the way back upstairs, we heard these crazy, ear-piercing shrieks. I then noticed a bunch of security type guys around a man with familiar long hair and a trail of tween girls running after him screaming like something crazy.

It was Billy Ray Cyrus... currently best known as Hannah Montana's dad. No sight of her though. I cant even begin to imagine how much those little girls would've just lost their mind had they spotted her. It would surely be chaos.

I just think it is funny that those little girls probably dont have a clue that Billy Ray was a somewhat one hit wonder in his own right.

Bless her heart.

Despite her singing ability (or lack thereof), at least Roseanne Barr knew the words.

Watch this clip to the very end... I actually feel sorry for the girl.

Like it, Love it... want some more of it

I'm happy to report that the Predators won against the Edmonton Oilers last night. It was a pretty nerve wracking game. They looked good in the beginning, but all of a sudden, the Oilers scored 3 goals in less than 3 minutes.

After being tied at 4 all for most of the final period, we scored with less than two minutes remaining. Phew!

Oh... and I forgot to mention this last week... the game on Valentines Day... the national anthem was sung by Melinda Doolittle. She did a fantastic job!

Gotta love a holiday weekend

I was so thrilled to have a long weekend due to Presidents Day!!! It wasnt terribly productive, but it was relaxing.

Friday night, several of us went on a fun excursion. Someone planned a Gay Dive Bar tour of 3 bars I had never been to. I'll just say that I'm not really the target demographic for any of these places, but it was nice to cross over the other side of the tracks for a night (coincidentally, one place was called Trax). It was also refreshing not really having to worry about getting too " cutesy/trendied" up. The downside was that these places are 21&up only (meaning they allow smoking). I had to go straight home and shower before bed. Every fiber of clothing I had on (underclothes included) was dreadful. I'd totally be up for it again sometime (after my lungs have had a chance to recover).

I really dont have anything else to share about the weekend. We didnt really do anything--unless you count a really intense Saturday cleaning session...and who doesnt enjoy cleaning house, right? It would be dreamy to have a maid.

I did catch up on some shows I had recorded. I watched a VH1 Crossroads show with Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. (Sorry, Nathan, no sighting of the 11 staff). I really love Allison Krauss but confess that Robert Plant is not really my thing.

I also watched an hour long CMT studio concert with LeeAnn Womack. I really like her & wish she was more popular.

Finally, I watched a show that Amy Winehouse recorded in London (I think) a while back. This is before she sought the most recent round of drug/alcohol treatment. I really think she has a special voice, but girlfriend is a bit out in orbit. If you are a fan & get the MHD (Music High Def, I think) channel, check it out.

I hope you all had a good weekend as well!

I'm currently excited about going to a hockey game tonight, hopefully I'll have some good news to report about that!

Cupid Smupid

Well... as we did last year... Hal & I went to the Valentines Day hockey game. A last minute thing led to us having all 4 of Hal's company tix... so we were able to take our friends Casey & Shane.

Unfortunately, the game freaking sucked. We lost to a seemingly inferior team (Chicago Blackhawks) in the league by 5 goals... ouch!!! Better luck next time. At any rate, we had a blast.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day though. If you're into gifts with your significant other, (which I'm not), I hope you got what you wanted!

A side note... I randomnly ran into the sister of my best friends growing up in East TN at the hockey game... We lived about 2 miles apart for many years back in the day, but it's always nice to run into a familar face from home.

Better Luck to the Preds on Saturday!!!

Have you ever heard of this song?

Hal thought I was crazy when I occasionally broke into a song about Johnny Rebeck & his sausage machine.

It's a really silly "kiddie song" that I first heard about when I went to a non- denominational Bible camp when I was in 6th or 7th grade. Nearly 20 years later, it's still pops into my mind from time to time for no good reason.

Here are the lyrics

Did you sing this as a child too?

Spoiler Update (read previous post 1st)

The Predators defeated the #1 team in the NHL tonight! There were 3 Predator goals in the first 9 minutes. It was crazy.

The Red Wings switched their goalie. We gave up two goals... but finished it off in the end and scored another goal.

Go Predators! (In all honesty, I paid off the refs for Hal's b-day).

Another Super Tuesday???

Well, it might not be Super Tuesday like it was last week, but there's still a lot of exciting stuff going on today.

One of my favorite tv shows is coming back tonight. Yes, I confess that I'm a Big Brother fan. It sounds like the stupiest tv show to get hooked on, but it gets me every darn time. Luckily, the writers strike has bumped the series start up a few months.

Another big deal is that the Predators play the Detroit Red Wings tonight. It's a big rivalry, and the Preds need every win they can get if they want to make it to the post season. Unfortunately, the Red Wings are leading the entire league in several categories, so it'll be a tough night.

Last but not least, 38 years ago, in a manger in a galaxy far-far away, Hal was born! Yep, today is his birthday. We celebrated with his family Sunday night (his dad's bday). We really dont do 'gifts' for each other, but I'm going to take him out to a super-fabulous dinner if he will ever decide on a restaurant.

If he doesnt decide soon, I'm just going to take him to Shoney's. If we pick the right night, it might even be all you can eat catfish! That's super-duper fabulous, right???

Rocking the Grammys

I was pretty excited to watch the Grammy Awards last night. I was particularly interested to find out how many awards Amy Winehouse would get.

I love love love her "Back to Black" album and have been sad to see all the personal drama she's been involved with recently. I was happy she won so many awards and thought her performance was ok... maybe a bit odd, but I'm guessing she's trying to figure out life without heroin or whatever else she did.

Stay in Rehab & work it out, girl!

P.S... what about Tina Turner?! Girlfriend gave Beyonce a lesson on how to perform even when you are almost 70 years old! I totally wish she would go on tour again. I'd be there in a hot second!!

And You & You & You... You're goina' love me!

Confession: I'm often behind the times when it comes to watching movies.

I tend to have a short attention span and investing in 2 hours in a movie is hard for me. I do better with 30 minute/1 hour tv shows.

With that said, I finally watched Dreamgirls today. I've had it on the DVR for a while and decided that today was viewing day.

I really enjoyed the movie. You all know I'm a big fan of musicals, so this movie was made for me. Jennifer Hudson (J-Hud if you're cool) rocked it out. She totally deserved the Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance (although I would argue that she was actually the Lead Actress). I was a big fan of her when she was an American Idol contestant.

If you're into musicals, definitely watch the movie... if you arent into musicals, you'll probably not enjoy the 2 hours of singing.

Super Tuesday

Well... after all the talk, Primary Election day in TN finally arrived.

I think I went back & forth on my decision 10 times a day over the past few weeks, but I was confident today and happy to touch the button.

A fun sidefact is that I went to vote around 1pm (I left work around noon today...woo hoo) and just happened to run into my friend, Casey... so we got to vote together. Call it "C squared" if you want.

Anyway, I'm anxious to see how the results play out tonight. Hal & I are going to a hockey game, so that'll keep me from being glued to the television until around 10pm. Either way, I'm excited about the prospects for the party I voted for.

I think this is the first time that I've been excited about either one of the major candidates I could choose from.

(By the way, if you are into TN politics, especially Nashville, I suggest you bookmark this website. I read it several times a day and learn a lot of things that dont get picked up by print or tv. It's basically an aggregator of other blogs, but the author keeps his comments non-partisan. The comments are a different issue, but I digress.)

Super Saturday

It's Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, y'all, and I have just turned out a Super Saturday too!!!

I had some car maintenance stuff to do today, so while I was waiting for them to finish up, I popped over to the used book/cd/dvd store.

I've been wanting the original Matchbox 20 cd for a long time. It's one of my favorite albums (Push, 3am, etc). I found it still in the plastic for $3!!!

I also got a 2 disc collection of #1 hits by Reba McEntire--also still in the plastic for $10.

But that's not all!!!! I found a treasure. I stumbled on the box set of The Judds 1983-1990!!!! How exciting is that??? I freaking love it. It was a bargain at $12.95 so I snatched it up. I dont think it has been listened to before... there arent any scratches. If you're interested, click here to see the songs in this collection.