Picture-rific

Despite my husband's food poisoning Monday night, his sore back all week, my allergies (I was just happy it wasn't a cold, like I originally thought) and the more than slightly chilly weather Wednesday morning; Asheville, North Carolina was a good vacation. Relaxing, romantic, waterfally and mountainy. Arriving at the beautiful Albemarle Inn on Sunday afternoon gave us an evening to explore town and hang out.

The staff was friendly, the Inn was beautiful, and the few other guests were polite. Pretentious, but polite.

Beautiful picture of the lobby area. Behind me is the dining room leading into a beautiful yellow sun room where breakfast was served.

This is the door leading out to the front of the house shown in the first two pictures.


This is the cute little reading area found halfway up to the second floor. We were on the third floor.


We went to the Biltmore estate on Monday, which was amazing. I can't help but to think that there must have been some bitterness amongst the servants after viewing both their living area and the main house. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but it was amazing. Especially the library! It's also interesting how utilitarian the bathrooms were. Purely a necessity. Elaborate in the day they were built, I am sure, but our bathroom is almost nicer than these.

The rest of our trip involved touring the downtown area, similar to Madison as far as the stores lining the main streets, though not quite as collegey and... eccentric... as Madison.

We also visited several antique shops.

And waterfalls.
These two were in the same mountainous area, and although the drive was a bit different than what the book suggested, we were glad we took the trip.


Play me.


After finding the "parking lot", which was actually a dirt-packed area wider than the one lane two-way road we drove up, we hiked about 15 minutes to the next, 80 foot waterfall

Play me, too.


On Thursday, we decided to take one more "waterfall viewing" trip before stopping in Black Mountain to visit more antique shops. This last waterfall was on Mount Mitchell, and could only be viewed from the Blue Ridge Parkway. In case you haven't heard of the BRP, it is a long stretch of scenic roadway winding through and up the mountains. As we started toward the Parkway, we ran into a detour and followed the interstate about an hour North East before we were able to enter and had to head back South to get to our destination. Mile 361.1 on the Parkway. As we traveled South on the Parkway, stopping at all of the lookouts to view the amazing scenery, we both grew excited at the prospect of the waterfall we were headed to see. This wasn't just a waterfall. This was an estimated 800 foot waterfall winding down Mt. Mitchell. 800 feet! The waterfall above-only 80 feet. Yeah. The word spectacular was running through my mind.
Onward we traveled on this very thin, two lane road. Onward toward the Mt. Mitchell turnoff, at mile 153. Onward toward the sign that read "Road Closure, 1000 ft.; Mt. Mitchell turnoff, 500 ft." Wait. That means the road closes 500 ft after the turnoff to head to the top of Mt. Mitchell. But we're at mile 153! Only 8.1 miles left to go to view the spectacular waterfall!


As we both sat staring at the barricades willing them to not be there, we decided to take the turnoff and travel the rest of the way up the mountain. The tallest mountain in the U.S. East of the Mississippi. The view was amazing. The wind was cold. And now we had to drive an hour North to get off the Parkway, then an hour South to get back to where we needed to be, instead of the 20 minutes South on the closed Parkway to get back to the Interstate. Good thing we had a full tank of gas when we started. And good thing the drive was scenic and beautiful or we might have been more than just frustrated.


I leave you with two last pictures. This one is from the garden on the Biltmore estate: And this one is Dena's tree. Which was also on the Biltmore estate:



Also, whose the genius that let me get a digital camera? These things should not be allowed in my hands. I get carried away.

Country Roads

I-40 South East from Knoxville to Asheville is one of the most beautiful stretches of road I have seen. Right up there with Albuquerque, NM. But, I don't have pictures of either to post right now.
Instead:
Today we went to the Biltmore Estate.
George Vanderbilt's 250 room home.


We saw a Japanese Lantern plant.



And a waterfall. On the estate. Because when you're that rich, you can own a waterfall.




Hooray for insane amounts of money.



P.S. I LOVE my digital camera!

Feliz Dias De Las Madres

Or something like that.

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Almost Vacation day.
The countdown begins. And I would like to say thanx to Jim for staying at the house whilst we are away. And to our guard cat who has bitten several people and is not likely to stop any time soon. And to our friends who own an alarm company and gave us a great deal on a rockin' alarm system.

That about does it for the generalities...

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. Who Rocks, and, not only can she change a light bulb, but she can also handle a shot gun. And make homemade noodles, and knit a blanket enormous enough for the entire family to use at the same time while sitting on different furniture in the living room.

It's not too late!!!

Happy Birthday to Grandma (on the 7th) Who is wonderful for many reasons, not the least of which is that she is 81 years old and can send text messages!! You Rock!

Happy Birthday to Dena (on the 8th) Who is wonderful for many reasons, not the least of which is because she is my sister and that makes anyone cool! Also, she's a great mom. And person. And maybe even an elf.

I love you both!

Hello, my name is "No! No! Bad Dog!"

Our Office Manager found employment elsewhere. Her position has not been filled, though we did hire a part-timer to help out a little bit. I was using that computer the other afternoon, as it is the only one with a scanner, and fell in love with the keyboard. It was new and had all sorts of extra buttons; volume control and cd player buttons, as well as quick internet buttons. There are two other computers located in the vicinity and as I was working I indicated to the other two ladies that "I love this keybaord! I want this keyboard!" Of course, I was not planning on switching keyboards, as I assumed the part timer enjoyed the newness and useful buttons as well. I went on about my business and never thought more of it... until the next morning when one of the two aforementioned ladies (whom, by the way, has worked in the office little more than a week) came to me and said exactly this: "You know that keyboard you wanted? Well she doesn't want it 'cause it doesn't fit in her drawer, but I tried to hook it up and I don't think you can. It's not a regular plug, it's a weird rectangle thing."

When I informed her that it was probably a usb, she asked if I could help her hook it up. On her computer. Which I did, politely even.

GRRRRRRR

I post like I sleep

I have been taking melatonin pills for about a week now. I don't think I know how to use them correctly. I still feel like I am falling apart and I still find myself doing and saying things that are neither cohesive, nor anything like me. And I still have yet to break 3.5 hours of sleep in one night.

It's pretty bad when I listen to the neighbors dog bark incessantly for 45 minutes and don't care that it is 2:35 a.m.

On the other hand, last week was Administrative Assistants Day and I got a 10 minute massage from a nice lady who told me I had 'hair-comercial beautiful hair' (and she didn't mind that I was totally uncomfortable...stranger giving me a back massage=awkward), then had lunch at.... that restaurant on Riverside and Main (no sleep=no memory), which was pretty good minus the waitress who kicked me and my chair two inches forward, spilled soda all over the table and some of the food, and came within an inch of elbowing me in the nose. We also received a basket of chocolate. Yum. Chocolate.

Hooray to finally finding a decent job with decent people. (I thought that before the luncheon... anyway...)

Next up vacation!
We head to Asheville, N.C. to stay at Albemarle Inn. The reservations are from May 18th through the 23rd, but if you know us at all, you know I cannot say exactly when we will leave and when we will get back. Especially since our return trip is during a holiday weekend (unknown to us at the time of our planning.) We do enjoy the 3:00 am start and driving in one straight shot, but check in and check out times mean we may do things differently this year.

Insomnia and wet-mop

In an attempt to be clever (don't look for it, I failed miserably), I looked up the word insomniac in a thesaurus. The word insomniac is actually listed in the list of synonyms. And my brain is too tired to make something funny out of that...

My lack of sleep is making this post difficult. I reread my sentence and found half of it missing. (sigh)

Not having the vast knowledge of herbs and vitamins and their uses as both of my sisters-in-law, I consulted the internet (or interweb, to some people-another story for another time.) only to learn from the 6 websites that I did visit before I angrily threw the pillow and unplugged the laptop, that I am either too stressed, or too mental.

Well, isn't that just peachy. I don't feel stressed. Work is fine. Not work is fine. So according to everything I just read, I'm a mental case!?!? Of course!

I think some guy, possibly named Bob, was sitting around one day, completely bored. He looked over at his friend, Joe, and said "Hey, let's mess with idiots who can't sleep and are already irritable, grumpy, and exhausted. We could put up a bunch of websites telling them they're mental. It'll be great!"

Thanks, Bob. You're freaking swell.

Insanity

My husband bought 216 Cadbury Eggs.

A moment for that to sink in.

216.

There's really nothing more to say about that.

On top of that, his boss introduced us to U-Bake. They have a location on Perryville just north of Riverside in Rockford. My husband has been raving about this cookie dough since his boss brought them in to work for everyone to try. So, we finally went. We stayed at the first freezer, which was cookie dough with stuff in the middle. We purchased two of the chocolate chip with a chocolate middle, a chocolate cookie with peanut butter in the middle, and the "turtle"- a chocolate cookie with carmel and some nuts in the middle. There is 1 dozen per bag. I cannot say enough about this stuff. We ate the first chocolate chip dough without cooking it. We decided to bake 6 of the turtles, which we didn't think cookies could get any better, then decided to try the dough for the turtles and realized that it did get better. Then we ate the peanut butter dough. We have one dozen left and I would be worried about getting back to the store before we run out were it not for the 216 cadbury eggs.

216.

Statement of the week...

"She just called me. I forgot to answer the phone, or something."

And on that note...

Check out the Tailored To Hire Blog!

Happy Spring

My secret santa got me a picture frame for Christmas. I decided to seasonalize it.

Funness

Thank you to everyone who helped me get started with my nonprofit Job Search Assistance Program.

I have a laptop nicer and newer than I expected, which I cannot seem to put down, I have clothes in my basement that I need to finish cataloging, I have the prayers and support of my family and friends, and I have THREE PARTICIPANTs.

WOOHOO!!!!

My brother made the announcement at the last food pantry (I'll leave the public speaking to him) and I met briefly with those interested. I was also chased into the pantry room by one who did not want to do the whole program, but wanted help with his resume, which of course I will do.

This week has been busy. Aside from doing a lot of research (I know nothing about plastic mold machine operators and what they should list on their resumes), work has been insanely busy... but good. I just had my review, received a great raise, wonderful feedback, and am now eligible for their amazing benefits. There is constant assessment of the workload of the staff and monthly individual meetings, which is good, because as I mentioned, the workload is insanely high. But I like it. I really can't complain.

Also, Kohl's is having a sale and these are my new shoes (those are not my feet):


It's been a pretty great week.

Think Springish thoughts

My husband sent me flowers at work the other day. Just because.

Hi.

I am still in need of a laptop. Nothing fancy, just need to run MSWord and hook a printer up to it. If anybody knows of anyone who is getting rid of an old one, or who has a cheap one, or who is looking at making a donation to write off on their taxes, please let me know. It will be used for a program to help people without jobs learn how to do a job search, fill out applications, prepare a resume, and prepare for interviews. This program will also be donating interview clothing to those who need it, as well as approximately a week's worth of work-appropriate clothing, if necessary.

Thank you.

Bye.

Dear Blogger,

You Suck.

I accidentally posted this pretty sparkly ribbon in the wrong place and your "easy to use layout click and drag" won't let me take it out. I tried editing your HTML/XML page and received error after error. I know I need to close tags, but there are so many freaking tags that I have to take out to remove this stupid image that a half hour later I am giving up and going to bed.

In short, You Suck.

Sincerely,
Wanda

New Business

Today I reaffirmed that I am not a public speaker. However, I do get to start my not-for-profit job search coach position under the church. This makes me very happy. So, thanks to my brother for all of his advice and opinions and allowing me to take this opportunity to the church meeting. Thanks to the church for voting it in. Thanks to my brother-in-law for his opinions, advice and ideas. There are a lot of people who are helping this to work, and I appreciate it all.

Anybody need a job?

My Blog, My Values...

The other night I was telling my husband that the only reason I would want to be famous was to promote my own set of values.
I guess a blog could be used for the same. And I have been given ammunition! I was at a small get-together of sorts and the topic of discussion had, once again, swung around to the Transformers movie. I have not seen the movie. I do not wish to see the movie. I hope I never have to watch the movie. Anyway, a member of the group asked a male member of the group if he had seen it; he had. Apparently, he didn't like the movie too much. His response was something very close to "I think it's only redeeming quality was that the lead girl was really sexy." At which time both his wife and I stared at him, dumbfounded at how openly he said it.

Now I impart my values and wisdom.

Seriously, that was just inconsiderate. For all of you out there thinking "Hey, he thought some chick was hot. So what? He's human.”; it was inconsiderate. Let me put it this way. Say you are an attorney and you are defending some guy on a criminal case. You lose. You're standing in the courtroom when the judge announces a life sentence. You turn to your client, who is now going to rot in jail and say, with a stoners laugh "Oh man, I lost so bad! You are so going to jail!"

Yes, that is my comparison, and I stand by it. That comment really brought nothing to the conversation. We already knew he wasn't impressed with it. So, the comment was really nothing more than saying he more than remembered how much he enjoyed the leading lady; and that would have made any woman unhappy, whether or not they'd admit it (I find that in these situations, most won't readily admit it... not to the guy, anyway.)

Next time, try something like "I thought the movie was awful, but they picked good actors, and those robot guys must have been in Cirque Du Soleil when they were young to be able to do all that transforming."

My brother says "If you want to be happy with what you have, stop focusing on everything else. Focus on what you have." (Yeah, I know, other people have said it too, but he's the one that I listened to.) It's more than a nice saying, it's true; I speak from experience.

Enough ranting. Off to finish cleaning!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Please, sir, I'd like some more.

I'm taking up a collection.
Please help save the freezing bunnies... no. Ummm... Please help fund Basenji dog vocal cord operations... no. That won't work either. Ummm... Nevermind, it's for me.

We bought land, and now we're poor. Not really. But I am trying to spend less money. Of course, merely days after closing on said land I found a software program I really, really want. For $45.00. So if any of you happen to have any $45.00 checks lying around that you don't want, you just let me know.

It's this cold outside...

You know you're getting old when you don't care who sees you like this





My legs were numb, but my head was warm.

MmmMm... Hippo

1.) Experiments

Out of curiosity, I decided to see if my cat could learn the difference in the type of food we feed him. We usually buy a case of his cat food, which comes in assorted flavors, so I began to wonder if he would be able to learn the difference between the three choices, and perhaps express in some way which one he might prefer. I've heard of crazier things. To begin this experiment I simply repeated the name of whatever I was feeding him; beef, chicken, etc. My husband, of course, couldn't let it go at just that. He decided he'd make it more interesting. Every time he fed him, he would repeat Hippo. He was also more loyal to the cause, and while I would occasionally forget, he rarely did. So, the other night while feeding the cat, he was wandering around aimlessly, waiting for me to set the food down while I repeated whatever I had randomly pulled out of the box. I think it was beef. After repeating this several times I had a sudden urge. I cannot explain why I had this urge, but I did. So I said it. "Hippo." The cat stopped wandering, looked up at me, and meowed.

2.) "Paris Needs No Embellishment"
While walking through our local mega-groceteria the other night, I witnessed a sight so horrifingly disgusting that it needs no embellishment. Having just grabbed a half dozen eggs, my mind wandering to the next item on our list: an ice-scraper for the newest car, as apparently the two we have are forever lost in the other car and I had to borrow my brothers earlier that week (thanks!), I turned toward my husband and froze halfway. There, about 5 freezers down, was a young boy, perhaps 6 or so, doing something so disgusting that can't even be excused by the fact that he was a 6 year old boy. For there he was, walking toward me, tongue out, and up against the glass freezer doors. Sliding from freezer door to freezer door as he walked, never once lifting. Not even to pass over the frame. I have no idea where his parents were, and didn't hesitate to loudly and openly mention how gross that was and loudly and openly ponder where his parents were and that obviously they should be keeping a better watch over their child.

3.) Did He Just Say That?
We have a couple of spanish speaking employees at work. The other day, we had a vocational expert in the office and while waiting for his meeting to begin, was wandering around. I am located in a fairly busy area and I overhear a great many conversations, for which I can't complain as the entertainment value is far worth the distraction. This particular expert stopped to chat with one of the spanish speaking employees who has been with the company for over 4 years. He said "Hey (girl), how are you doing? Are you still speaking spanish?"
Yes, I laughed. Yes, he realized what he said quickly and tried to laugh it off.

4.) "Late To The Story That Had Been..."
Happy Birthday, Cyndy!
Happy Birthday, Alyssa!
Happy Birthday, Kathy!

Moving

Our website has moved. We are now located at heathnwanda.com. Hooray.
I took this opportunity to partially update my neglected page. I didn't do much. Changed the color, added the link to Souls Harbor Church's official page. That's just about it for the noticeable stuff.

I finally got to see Lydia today. All cute and babyish. That's about it. What else can be said about a 9-day-old?

Now I leave you with more keyword wacky-ness:

Ferret Names: I don't suggest listening to my family on this one. Drut is not a good ferret name.

Unintelligent employee: Bahahahahaha. I have a blog for you to read...

I Don't Have Issues I Have a Subscription: Want to be my friend?

Is It Legal For My Boss To Go Through My Desk When I Am Not There: Short Answer without the ability to ask follow up questions, Yes. What were you hiding in there, anyway?

And of course, the never-endingly popular:
Shut Up Baby, I Know It: Are there really that many people who know what that line is from, and are there really that many people typing this in to search engines?