Blogging is my specialty

It's crazy how I just leave this blog alone for months at a time. I'm really not even that busy of a person.

What's happened since August? Well, a couple things. On Labor Day, we took a few days off and headed to a beach-house with Hal's family. It was a great time. Having 2little boys around never leaves you with a boring situation. We had a great time.

In October, we went to Chicago for vacation. The main purpose was to attend a hockey game, but I'd never been to Chicago and definitely enjoyed it. The Chicago pizza was fabulous at Gino's East. We had a great time on the architectural river tour in the Chicago River. We hit up Willis Tower (the Sears Tower) and the John Hancock building (2 times). I'm VERY afraid of heights, and both places gave me a heart attack, but it was a great view. It would be embarrassing to see me on video in situations like that. I stay so far away from the glass and my heart is racing the whole time. My body is in panic mode, but I got through it.

We also explored Wrigleyville (kind of snooze) and Boys Town for a drink, but it was a little too far for me via train to spend too much time in. If I'm going to be drinking, a couple of train transfers make me impatient. Apparently I'm getting too old for bars anyway. Can I get a second wind on that?

It was a great trip though, and we won the hockey game. We had great seats and people were nice to us.

I've been back in the typical work/relax Nashville land since then, but it's Thanksgiving weekend. I'm going to see my grandmother on Thursday, and I'm looking forward to it. I havent' seen her since May. She's a gem.

This is where I'll wrap it up. I still exist, y'all. I'm just too boring for a lot of blog updates.

==Casey

Can I get a summer break?

Hey there. I'm not even sure this thing is still on sometimes. It's been about 3 months since my last post, and the only comments that I've had since then are from the billion spammers who've somehow found a couple of years old post and decided they wanted to comment on it. I'm not giving up on this thing though.

I've pretty much just been rockin' & rollin' this summer without a lot of exciting stuff to report. My most favorite thing about summer comes on the weekends. Hal & I can sit outside on the porch on Friday & Saturday nights (with the ceiling fan on of course) and have some drinks, listen to music, and chit chat and just enjoy a southern summer night.

We haven't been on a vacation since February, so I'm looking forward to going somewhere and having some time off work. My birthday is coming up on 8/26, so that's kind of close...and a bonus is I get a day off work. I'm taking it on that Friday (8/27) for a long weekend. I wish we could travel for my birthday, but my boo has a job that requires him to be around at the end of the month. blah

We are going somewhere for Labor Day weekend though. Hal's family always goes to the beach that weekend (usually Gulf Shores, Alabama). I like it down there on the Redneck Riviera, but I haven't gone on their family trips before for a variety of reasons (nothing bad), but I've decided to do it this year. We'll rent a big house on the beach and just chill out for a few days. Hal has young nephews, so it will be 'interesting.' They're adorable, but they're still wild & crazy little boys sometimes.

I'm anxious about getting down to the gulf. Hal's mom loves Gulf Shores, but it was up in the air about if we would really go there or not due to the oil leak. They decided that whatever the situation is, she wanted to go and support the local businesses anyway. I think that's awesome! And, it doesn't seem like it's as crazy there as we may have though (with oil on the beach). I can't wait to go!!!

In other exciting trip news, we're going to Chicago in October! I've never been there and love big cities, so I'm really antsy to get there. We've planned it so we can see our beloved Predators play the Blackhawks (hockey, Josh). Chicago won the Stanley Cup (best team last year), so it will be interesting to see how the game unfolds. We'll be there for 4 nights, and I can't wait to explore the city.

I love traveling with Hal. Neither of us make a 'have to do' list, we just let things play themselves out however we feel that day. That's one of my favorite things. It is vacation after all...time to relax.

That's about all I have for now. I hope someone other than the spammers from India read this. :)

Hey, yo. Here I am again.

Since I last blogged, Easter happened. My great aunt from Detroit came down to East TN to visit, so I also made a brief weekend visit to see her family *and my ladies--my gram and great-gram*. I had a great time seeing them and two sets of twin cousins. Twins are adorable. It's so nice to leave them with someone else though.

Moving on to something totally different, Hal's father was diagnosed with terminal cancer several years ago. We lost him a few weeks ago. He outlived the doctors expectations by about 4 years, so don't ever believe those crazy expiration dates. I'm so lucky to have known such a special--and well known man. It was amazing the support and recognition the family received. The Nashville newspaper even reported it, but I think his sister's post is well said.

I lost my mom 20 years ago from the day of Hal's dad's visitation, but I now realize that it's really not easier if you expect it or if it's sudden. It's a blessing though to know that someone has moved on to something so much better..and Cancer sucks.

Am I a negative Nancy or what? Also, umm, Nashville flooded this weekend. It's UNREAL what happened here. Here's a link to our newspaper if you haven't seen the pictures. Our mayor estimates $1 Billion dollars in damage. WHAT? Crazy.

On a positive note, our part of the neighborhood is fine. Our driveway sucked after the fact, but my boo fixed the important part. Our utility basement barely had any water. We know we're set for... oh, another hundred years--unless it decides to rain more than 25% or our annual rainfall in--two or three days.

Stay dry!

An Avatar kind of weekend.

Wow, is it true that I am posting twice in a week? Yep.

The weekend is over unfortunately, but another one is on the way. This past one was so much fun. Some weekends are very chill for us, but we got out a little more this time.

We had dinner with some friends on Friday night at Korea House. It was my first time eating Korean here in Nashville. It was pretty darn good and we had a great time there and hanging out later with friends, some vino--and my favorite dog, Molly the Boston.

Saturday was fun in my opinion, but really, all we did was go bowling. I bowled like shit--only broke 100 in 1 of 3 games, but it's always fun anyway. Sadly, I was still sore on Monday. Tragic and embarrassing.

Sunday was a highlight. I had put up a brick wall against seeing Avatar. It's totally not the style of movie that typically drives me to the theater. Well, I bucked up on Sunday and went with Hal to the IMAX theater. THE MOVIE WAS AMAZING! It was so beautiful with the animation, 3D and IMAX effects. If you haven't seen it, you should DO IT--at the theater. IMAX would be ideal. It didn't bother me a bit that it was so long. It went by so quickly for this short attention span person. I can't wait to see the sequels.

Sadly I came home and watched the USA/Canada gold medal hockey game. The USA as you well know lost, but on the upside, one of Nashville's players got a silver medal and one of our players got a gold medal--and I freaking love him.

That's about all I've got for you, but GO SEE AVATAR! I mean it.

Why did it have to end?

Ahh, NYC. It's still my favorite American city. Even after finally experiencing it in a darn cold & snowy week, I LOVE IT!

We headed there a couple of weeks ago for my boo's milestone bday. (yes, I am street). We got there on a Tuesday evening just in time before 'blizzard conditions' set it. Oh, umm, nevermind that two members of the Kings of Leon were on the plane with us. I'm not sure I've mentioned our obsession with them before. Umm, yes I have.

We had a freaking-fantastic view from our room right across from the Empire State Building. A planned late dinner at the somewhat well-known Spotted Pig was in order that night. We were lucky to get to a table overlooking the snow falling in Greenwich Village. nice!

Wednesday was really the 'blizzard.' I won't say how late we woke up, but when we did, it was really snowy. We got out to shop in our neighborhood (Herald Square). Well, uh, it took stepping into one or two slush puddles before I realized I wasn't prepared for wet socks & shoes. I was over it. I had to buy some boots. Walking around was miserable. BUT, there was a silver lining! Our NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden was that night! The Predators won & we were thrilled!

We were ready to trek out on Thursday. We headed up to MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. Crazy stuff we saw there, from Jackson Pollack, Monet, Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, DeKooning, we saw it. A bonus was a special exhibit of works by Tim Burton! Who knew he had so many artistic things to show off?! Fabulous.

We weren't finished with Thursday though. We regrouped at the hotel, went out to Koreatown for a fabulous dinner and then to the Christoper Street area. We went to the actual Stonewall instead of just driving by as we had done before. It was an emotional feeling for me. We hit up 2 other places in the same area which were a blast, but it's hard to forget Stonewall. It's amazing it even had to happen.

Friday was getting closer to the end, blerg. We chilled, had a great pizza at THE Lombardi's and then headed to Lower Manhattan to see what had changed with the WTC site and Wall Street. Actually, you couldn't really tell much had happened aside from more fencing, but the experience was still very emotional. I actually felt worse about it than I had after seeing it soon after 9/11.

Sadly, we were kind of exhausted that night and didn't do anything very exciting for my boo's actual bday dinner. I don't even remember the name of the blah restaurant we picked that night.

I'm going to shut up with this. I LOVE NYC! The first time I went, it was perfect May weather. This time, it totally sucked and was typical of what you think about for February. I don't even care though!

So, umm, we have some pictures, I haven't even looked at them though (3 weeks later). I'm sure we'll post them online at some point though. Seriously!

What? I have a blog???

Wow, wow, wow. It's been 4 months since I've blogged. Surprisingly, some of you still have checked in on here to see if I've posted, and I thank you!!!

I'm not sure I can even recall some events of the last few months, but I'll do my best.

I love musicals / Broadway and had the opportunity to see 'Little House on the Prairie: The Musical' starring Melissa Gilbert as 'Ma.' I couldn't convince the other half to go with me, so I took one of my best girl friends and we had a great time. I thought the musical basically sucked... Melissa can't really sing and they did a bad job casting 'Pa,' but I wouldn't trade the fun that Dusty & I had for nothing. The bottom line is that I saw THE real life 'Half-Pint.' YES!!!

Hal and I took a week off in early November. Our Las Vegas plans didn't pan out b/c we were stupid basically, but we had a great time. We chilled out a lot & made a 5 hour road trip to St. Louis to see our beloved Nashville Predators (professional hockey, Josh) play the St. Louis Blues. It was our first road game and the Preds won. AWESOME!!! We also went up in the famous St. Louis Arch. I'm a freak about heights, and it was crazy but also neat...despite the older lady in our pod/elevator asking if we were going up. Really? No, we are going in the basement of the Alamo.

I had a great Thanksgiving with my family in East TN. It was sadly the last time some of us would be together. My dad's sister came to Vanderbilt for cancer surgery the next week. Fortunately, I was able to see her when she was here. She was on the mend, but I left and told her "I Love You" as I left, she nodded b/c she couldn't talk. She went home, but sadly passed away a few days later unexpectedly. I'm so glad I had that last loving experience with her. She was an awesome lady.

Christmas was fantastic. I saw my nieces and nephews again. I can't believe how big they are--well, aside from my 2 y/o newest niece. She is growing too, but wow, I have a nephew in the 7th grade, one in the 6th, and a niece who is in the 3rd or 4th grade? who sometimes chats me up on Facebook!

Hal & I got bad news on New Years Day. A dear, dear friend of ours passed away unexpectedly. He & Hal worked together somewhere, left... then Hal worked for him & his brother, he sold his interest (Hal stayed) and went to work for Hal's family's real estate company. He was our realtor when we bought this house (my first house). 45 y/o is way too young to leave, but we'll always remember him fondly. It makes me appreciate yet again the fragility of life.

On a more positive note, 2010 is going to be fun! My boo is having a milestone birthday in February. The stars aligned for us to make a long anticipated trip to see our Predators play the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden 2 days before his birthday. We're going to hang out in NYC for a few days and just have fun. I've never been to MoMA, so that and the hockey game are our only real concrete plans. Please, please, please have a freakishly warm streak that week, NYC--or at least a time without weather delays. It is, after all, my favorite US city!!!

I'm going to shut up for now, and hope to be more timely with my posts. We'll see :)

No one mourns the Wicked

Hey, y'all! Yay, yay, yah... It's finally Friday.

What's been going on in my world? Well, I mentioned a few months ago that I got my tickets to see Wicked. Well, last Thursday, it was finally show time. We went went a couple of friends and had fabulous seats up close--yet far enough back to easily see the whole stage. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I had been tempted to get the soundtrack prior to the show, but then thought that it might spoil some of the show's suspense. Everything was awesome in my opinion. The stage sets, the singing, the script, the cast and the songs. If it comes to your town or you're somewhere it is playing, you should go see it.

We took the next day off work to relax and b/c we were up late. The Titans opened the NFL season that same Thursday night, so we recorded it and watched when we got home. It was a great game that went into overtime, but, boo... we lost in the end. Here's hoping that this Sunday is better.

We mostly just chilled the rest of the weekend aside from picking up our favorite canine guest, Molly the Boston Terrier. She's been staying with us this week. She's adorable.

Guess what else is back besides the NFL season??? Yep, my beloved Predators. It's hockey time again. The Preds opened up their preseason here in Nashville last night. We were happy to get back in that groove again. We're also going to another game on Saturday night. The preseason is kind of pointless from the standpoint that it doesn't count, but it's nice for us fans to get our fix--and more importantly, for the team to evaluate their younger players performance.

I'm so glad it is the weekend! After a 3 day work week last week, 5 days this week was kind of a snap back to reality. Now it's time for fun. I love this time of year because of sports weekends. I know you're excited too, Josh. :)

I'm going to wrap this up for now. I hope you have all been having fun too. Go Preds! Go Titans!!!

When you say nothing at all.

Hola.

Yay, we've made it to Wednesday. I'm not sure that I'll ever get over living for the weekend.

I don't have too much to say today. We've been doing a lot of quiet weekends. The highlight was an infinitely better celebrity sighting than the last one I mentioned. We were at the grocery store one Saturday afternoon. Walking down an aisle, I passed a lady who looked familiar. I got butterflies in my stomach and was nervous. I told Hal, "OMG, I think that is Alison Krauss!" He confirmed my suspicion. I'll admit we stalked her around the store a little (it wasn't busy and she didn't even notice us). I have been a big fan of hers for a long time. Like, since back in the days when I belonged to BMG and got a bunch of tapes in the mail that I didn't really order. Well, I rarely liked any of them, but I loved hers. She has such a unique voice. The funny thing is, she was with a man who she was talking to in a funny voice (like baby talk--you know you do it too sometimes). It's fun to see someone famous in a casual situation like that. We've seen her perform the national anthem at a hockey game before, but wow, she was so close I could touch her. I resisted though and didn't even say anything to her. Definitely a highlight of my celeb sightings.

Other than that, I've had fun at a wine party, finally took a day off work and we even went to a minor league baseball game game Monday night for an outing for my company. I usually talk so much at baseball games, that I don't really even know what is going on. Good times though.

Hope you're doing well. I'll leave by mentioning that if you don't see the connection between my post & the title (don't even tell me you don't follow her music), it was Alison's cover of a Keith Whitley song--the song that started my affection for her. Thanks for ripping me off BMG with most of the tapes, but thanks for that one!

Checkin' In...

Hey there! Happy August!

July in Nashville was kick-ass. It rained a lot, but the upside is that the temperatures were way lower than normal. I think it didn't even top 80 degrees for several days in a row. That's a big change from what we usually get.

We'll see what happens in August. It sounds like we are getting back to reality with the hotness--not me--later this week.

Not much has really been going on since I blogged last. We went to an art gallery a week or so again, but no luck (in a reasonable price range). No rush though. I went to two going away parties this week. One on Wednesday for my manager (who's just leaving to go to our Portland, OR office) and another on Saturday for a friend that is moving to the ATL. Good times.

Yesterday, was kinda chill aside from lunch and a grocery visit. Oh, I guess I can mention that we saw this guy at a totally dive-y Mexican restaurant. Meow!

That's about all that is shakin right now. I've got a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. We're thinking about taking a November trip this year. I just want to get away and not be too busy with checking out all the sites. A lazy kind of trip. We're thinking Las Vegas. I actually don't care about gambling, but Hal does, and I've never been to Vegas. It's really cheap right now--thanks, shitty economy. Shout if you know of any must sees or must avoids there.

Later, y'all!

The 4th is fun!

Hey, hey there!

Thought I'd drop in and chit chat a bit about my holiday weekend. I wish every weekend was like the last. I had a lot of fun.

I got home a little early on Thursday afternoon and was excited that Hal had bought a Death Cab for Cutie cd and Kings of Leon. Yeah, they've been around a while and we are behind the curve, but I love both groups. Nice start, but we also went to a dinner gathering with some friends in our neighborhood that evening. We had a great time with food, drinks and friends.

Friday was a fun day to sleep late and bum around out to a late lunch. Realizing that the weather was perfect and Hal's parents were out of town, we capitalized on the opportunity to borrow their Mercedes convertible. Such a great idea! Naturally, we drove around for a while. We even hit up the bowling alley. I bowled what may have been my best game ever, a 136! That's awesome for me, y'all. A great dinner at home capped off the evening.

Saturday was a brand new opportunity. With his sister also out of town, we took over her house and pool (right up the street from us, convenience, yay!) and had some friends over to have some Fourth of July fun. The day was great weather for swimming. Luckily, the rain downpour held off until just in time for dinner on the screened-in porch. It was a bit of a shock to learn that Steve McNair (to fill in most of you reading this, the NFL quarterback who led the Titans to the Super Bowl a few years ago) was found murdered in an apparent murder-suicide by his 'mistress.' I'm super sad that 4 young boys are going to grow up without a father. Steve was a big deal in Nashville.

Sunday brought the dread that the convertible had to be returned. Boo. And we couldn't bum around leisurely for the new few days. Boo hoo. Oh well, I'm still thrilled to be employed in a job I enjoy.

I'll wrap this up here, but can't not say how touched I was on Tuesday seeing the clip of Michael Jackson's daughter speaking at his memorial. It's easy to forget that his kids lost something so much more than just the icon we mostly only saw on tv. Very sad to lose a parent at any age.

I'll change the tone here and leave you thinking about happy things--whatever makes you happy. Enjoying life makes me happy. I'm so glad I get to do that every day.

Enough rambling. Later!

Another weekend down

Well, it's Monday again. The good thing is that we are that much closer to Friday.

I hope you had a fun weekend. I did!

We kinda chilled out mostly on Friday. We walked down the street for dinner at The Local Taco. I'd link to their website, but they just opened in May and apparently haven't updated their site. They do have some interesting taco selections (Korean BBQ for one--which is really good) and you can't beat the convenience.

On Saturday, we headed out for lunch at Five Guys. I know it's a burger chain in most cities, but that shiz is delicious, and I'm not scared to admit it. Since I'm already doing sailor talk, I'll just say that summer has definitely arrived. It's flicking hot as hades. The temp was around 95 on Saturday. I hate to say we skipped the Gay Pride festival downtown b/c there's really not much shade unless you are under a vendor's tent. After lunch, we did stop by Centennial Park to check out the American Artisan Festival. I was hoping we would find something cool to put in the house that was unique, but alas, we left empty handed. I'm a freak about stained glass stuff and could buy out an entire booth of that, but I resisted. We need to be focused on bigger art pieces than little accent things.

Sunday was another day of fun. We relaxed for a few hours before meetings Hal's parents and sister for a Father's Day dinner at Finezza. To cap off the fun evening, we joined Hal's sister to see "The Hangover." I'd been anxious to see it and was not disappointed at all. Very funny movie in my opinion.

Nothing much planned this week. I am gearing up for a holiday weekend though. We both have July 3rd off, and even though we dont have specific plans for that either, I'm READY already!

In case I don't update until then, fireworks and sparkler fun wishes to all of you!

Tuesday Time

So, I'm still not posting as frequently as I once did, but here I am again.

I don't have a ton of interesting things to blog about, but I'll do it.

I was so happy for the weekend to roll around last week. Hell, I'm happy for any weekend. It's not that I don't enjoy having a job, I just love my personal weekend time.

We had a mostly low-key weekend and stayed in on Friday night (a few drinks were enjoyed of course). We headed to Green Hills Mall on Saturday. We never really got around to getting anything for our walls since we moved in--a freaking year ago. We still need to paint walls also, but that's a different story. One reason we aren't so quick to decorate is because it's hard for us to just settle on something, and we probably don't focus on it enough. At any rate, we ran across some artwork we liked. It's still sitting on the floor unhung (yep, I went there), but I love it. They are the same print, but reverse colors--one is heavy red with white, the other is heavy white with red. We'll get around to putting them up on our own time--probably when we have someone over next. That seems to be our motivation.

We did get some new porch furniture this weekend too. I bought a wicker chair on craigslist last year that I loved, but it isn't made for the outdoors, and even after a winter inside, it just couldnt stay outside. I'm happy to say we now have matching outdoor approved wicker chairs with adorable cushions. I think we sat out there for hours on Sunday night before we came in to watch the Tony's (without commercials of course, thanks DVR!) Hal's not a big fan, but I am, and that means a lot around here :) He hasn't accepted it yet, but he IS going to go with me to see Melissa Gilbert in the broadway production of Little House on the Prairie this year. How can you NOT be interested?

That's about it for now. Is it the weekend yet???

Memorial Day Weekend scoop

Well, I guess you know the weekend is over by now. I had a great one and hope you did too.

Hal & I chilled out on Friday night(aside from going out to dinner) and I had a chance to do one of my favorite things--sleep late on Saturday. Then I got myself up and headed to East TN. I always go over Memorial Day weekend b/c it is Homecoming/Decoration Day at the church I grew up in. My mom & paternal grandparents are buried there and it's a time to put new flowers on their graves and visit with a lot of people you don't normally see. It may sound odd to some of you, but I guess it's just an old southern tradition.

Since I was just there 2 weeks ago, I didn't stay around long and headed hom on Sunday to enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend. We chilled out again that night and headed to Whole Foods on Monday to pick out some food for a grill out. I haven't been there too many times (it's still kinda new to Nashville), but they have some awesome stuff. I think I could eat 80 of those little cakes in their dessert counter. I heart cake, but stayed away from them.

Sadly, Tuesday rolled around and it was time to get back get back to work. I do like my job, but also enjoy my time off. I was ecstatic to check my personal emails and see an email about presales to 'Wicked.' I've been wanting to see this show for a couple of years. I'm so excited it's coming here!!! I got our tickets tonight. Why wait?

Back to the purpose of the holiday weekend though, it was nice to reflect on our troops--past & present. I think we should think about them everyday, but I know a lot of us take it for granted. I don't personally know anyone in the service currently. Some of my friend's parents and grandparents were in the service. My great-grandfather was in WWII, but he died when my mom was a baby. I was very happy to get some of his military papers recently though. It was interesting to get a peek into his life that I didn't really know about. Salute to anyone who serves our country in tough times!

Weekend Wrap

Hey, hey, hey. I hope you're all enjoying some nice May weather. I'm glad we're past that point of all the cold stuff.

I also hope you all had a good Mother's Day weekend. I know a few people who are new moms, and I'm sure that must be a great feeling.

I did enjoy my weekend. I headed to the hills of East TN to visit family. My cousin, who I spent a lot of time with growing up,has two adorable twin girls. They had their 2nd bday party on Saturday. I don't think they cared about the party much, they'd rather run around, but it's fun to see them. I also took my ladies (my grandmother & great-grandmother) out for lunch on Sunday. It's always fun spending time with them. Even though it's been 19 years since I lost my mom, I'm so thankful I can spend time with them. They make me laugh.

It's back to work as normal though this week. I'm looking forward to a weekend at home before I get back to East TN over Memorial Day weekend. It's kind of unusual for me to be there 3 times in such a short time frame, but so be it.

I'm going to wrap this up now. Keep it cool!

Checkin' In

Happy Friday! As if everyone who reads this doesn't share my sentiment, I'm happy the weekend has rolled around again. I've had a good week at work. I actually started talking to a few clients on the phone. Woo hoo. It makes me a nervous wreck being new, but it's all part of the learning process. I had a couple of "oh shit" moments, but also some "aww, I actually helped" times. Good times!!!


I don't have anything too noteworthy to say about weekend plans, but it's going to be a warm one. It's still 80 something now at 6:30 and will be the same for a couple of days. I'm not complaining! I'm ready for it.

Since I blogged last, I had a quick visit with family in East TN and had a good time with family. I can't even remember anything exciting about last weekend, so it must have been pretty low key.

I'm looking forward to next week already! My company has an annual 'talent night' event and another night is 'Dining out for Life.' I mentioned this last year on the blog, but it's an event that happens at different times in a lot of cities where you go out to dinner and the restaurant donates a portion of the food money to AIDS related charities. We're going to hit up Germantown Cafe. They're donating 100%!!! That's awesome of them and I happen to really like eating there.

I'll wrap up my rambling and just add, wow, I feel like a lazy P-O-S right now. Hal has been trimming hedges and is now weedeating while I sit here on the porch chilling and drinking a beer. Just watching makes me tired! ha

Hope you all havce a good weekend!

It's a Good Friday!!

Happy Good Friday, y'all!

It's a super-duper happy day for me. Today was the end of my 'trial' period at the new job. I'm officially on board for good. It's definitely been a fun month getting back into the swing of the work routine. I'm loving the new & different culture. It's amazing being away from a more corporate type of environment. Good stuff.

I've been a little busy since I last blogged keeping up with hockey. They dont have any more regular season home games, and it's still up in the air whether the Preds make it to the playoffs, but we'll see. Que sera sera! I'm not as uptight about it this year as I have been over the last few years.

Sadly, there was a deadly tornado in Middle TN today, but Nashville really wasn't affected. I've mentioned before that this type of weather freaks me out. I hate it and hate the devestation it causes.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to a good weekend. I think we are going to hang out with some friends tonight. I'm heading to East TN to visit family tomorrow. I've got some relatives in from Michigan, so it's always fun to see them.

I hope you all have a hip-hoppity Easter weekend, too!

Go find some eggs!

Finally Friday!

Hey, y'all! Hope all is well. I'm so excited that the weekend is here. I look forward to a relaxing weekend.

Let's see what I can catch you up on.

Two weeks ago, our friends Josh & Alan came to our house for the weekend while they were in the area visiting family. Josh and I have been friends for over 10 years and he's lived in something like 800 cities. After not seeing each other for about 5 years, we've made it a point to have at least one visit a year. They also brought their adorable mini-yorkie, Galileo. Sooo cute! It was a beautiful weather weekend and we walked to Cafe Nonna for dinner. After brunch on Sunday, we checked out the Country Music Hall of Fame. Josh & I are big fans of classic country females, so we had a good time. As usual, we had a great time together. ***Click this link to see Josh's pics.

On the Wednesday after their visit, I actually started my first day at Emma! It's so nice to be back in the workforce especially with the continued news of job losses. It's a different type of place than I've ever worked really. It took a couple of days to get adjusted, but I'm loving it so far.

Last Saturday, some of my relatives were in Murfreesboro for their annual visit. They come to see basketball games. It's not really my thing, so I met them before the games for lunch. It's always nice to see them. I havent been to East TN since Christmas.

I just got home an hour ago from my first full week of work at Emma. Woo-hoo. I cant wait to sleep in. I dont have any specific plans this weekend and that's perfect.

I dont have anything else to bore you with right now, so I'm out!!

Holla!

The wait is OVER!!!

This is one of my most exciting blog posts in months!!!

I am pleased to report that after 7 months of being unemployed, I accepted a job offer today at Emma. I'm going to be back in a customer support role. I'm super excited about the company. They only have about 100 employees right now compared to thousands at the last 2 companies I was with. The culture there is also neat... it's the opposite of the more corporate cultures I've been involved with.

It was quite the process getting in there. We started this back around Thanksgiving. Three interviews & two writing assignments later, the wait paid off!! I've gotta give major thanks to my gal Casey for her help. It's going to be exciting working at the same company again.

I start on Wednesday and although I'll miss sleeping in, I'm so excited to be back around people. 7 months of a lot of alone time gets boring.

To top things off, it's going to be a beautiful weekend weather-wise AND my friend Josh & his partner Alan are coming in for a visit. Luckily we have another thing to celebrate now.

Woo-Hoo!!!

March is here...

Hard to believe that March is already here. March & April are usually interesting weather months in Tennessee. It might snow one day and be 70 degrees a couple of days later. We're kicking the month off that way now. We had snow on Sunday and it will be around 70 by week's end. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather, but I like seeing snow sometimes too. We dont get enough in Nashville.

I do get panicky about tornado weather this time of year though. It might sound silly, but that's just me. This year is even crazier b/c we dont really have an interior room or hallway in this house. I guess our somewhat basementy area would be the safest. I can assure you I've never been shy about popping into the closet during a storm at our old house. Bottom line is that I'm a big baby about stormy/windy weather.

We had a great week & weekend. On Saturday, we ran around town looking at rugs for our living room. I hate looking for stuff like that, but I was relieved to head to the hockey game against Detroit that night. The game was U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E!!! Detroit is always one of the top teams in the league. We're struggling this year but whipped their behind. It was 5-0 at the end of the first period!! We wound up with an 8-0 victory. Crazy, crazy, crazy!!!! We capped the night off back in our neighborhood at a wine party at our friends house. Good times.

We slept in a little on Sunday before going to lunch with friends. We came home and then checked out a going out of business sale... it sucked. I got back in better spirits after that when we met a friend to go bowling. I'm a very inconsistent bowler. I did well the first game and then sucked at the next. True form for Casey.

Tomorrow is a new day on the job search. I'm meeting with a new recruiting company. We'll see what kind of opportunities they have. I'll be glad for the process to be over though. I need a winning lottery ticket.

Hope y'all had a great weekend and have a great week. I'm looking forward to having some company this weekend!!!

Yay, Slumdog!

Hola. Checking in with ya again.

Hope you had a fab weekend. I did and of course it goes by so quickly.

We had dinner at home on Friday night and just chilled. After some landlord chores at Hal's duplex on Saturday, we headed to a late lunch and realized that we hadnt seen any of the Oscar nominated films. So, we changed that. I was torn between Milk and Slumdog Millionaire. After checking the showtimes, it was an easy decision considering Milk wasnt being shown at the only theater I can think of for that type of movie.

We got there about 15 minutes before showtime, but it was still hard to find 2 seats. A fun random thing was that we ended up sitting only 2 seats away from some friends.
The movie was awesome and it deserved to win some Oscars. I obviously cant compare it to the other nominees in each category, but you should check it out if you havent already. I loved the flashback storytelling aspect. I really loved the ending but wont spoil it for those who havent seen it.

I'll wrap this up with something that excites very few of you except me... we came home & caught a Preds game on TV... and we won in overtime. Every win is crucial at this point. I was a little ticked that neither of us won a trip to see the Preds on the road in Chicago but C'est la vie!!!

Hope you have a great week. There are 3 Preds games. Not sure I'm going to any but send positive thoughts their way.