Okay I am sorry I couldn't decide which one was worse. The top I was about 9 the bottom 14. Both are bad. So I had to do the post below which features many of my cute photos. I think one of these days I may have to do a photo blog.
P.S. I am going AWOL until Thursday so I wont find out who wins until then.
Trying to evade the camera!
look at me helping out in the yard. My mom was convinced I was a boy so she never even had a name for me!!!!! She never considered the option of me being a girl. You'd think as a OBGYN she'd known there were no guarantees back then, its not like they had DNA tests. 
As you can see she still dressed me as a boy and I always had short hair and 
was mistaken as a boy quiet often which pissed me off. Mhh looking at these pictures now I can see how they could have thought that.
I miss snow. There is no snow in Virgina
Okay so in this one I actually look like a girl. You have to admit cute as a button!
Yes that's me inside the bear cage. My mom was well known in the community and i grew up playing and feeding the bear cubs at the local zoo. 
They didn't used to have the enclose until after my "attack" See one day I went where the bear cubs where. It was warm and I was wearing my lederhosen.
One of the cubs came up behind me wanting to play and put his paws on my butt. Well he slipped and his claws left marks on my naked legs. For the rest of the day people were talking about how a bear attacked a kid. Which wasn't true and he did not get me bad just enough to draw blood but no scars. Anyhow since then all the cubs had to be in the enclose and I had to feed them through the fence.
hey look I am wearing a skirt.
well I am a wild child and this must have been where I developed my liking for sour apple snaps and apfel korn.
The twins!!! They were there when I got drunk for the first time. It was actually their fault. They switched the adult punch out with the kids punch. We watched Planet of the Apes and I had hallucinations for the rest of the night. My mom thought it was funny. The picture above may actually be from that night since I was 6 at the time.
here are my Mom and I goofing off outside. We would go out to the lake every weekend I loved it there.
check it out we always had some type of small pet.
my 16th birthday. God I can't believe how skinny I was.
My first time in the US. This was taken a month after my 16th birthday. My mom, sister and best friend came along with some German athletes to NYC for the marathon. My mom and sister went on to Florida and my friend and I stayed in NYC for a couple of days before heading back to Germany since it was in the middle of the semester.
I was 20 in this picture. This is at the hotel in Austria where I worked after my year here as an au pair. Can you believe that I thought I was fat????
After getting of work yesterday I had to drive to Virginia Beach and then from there to Williamsburg. The pictures above are from my drive. I drove over 130 miles and after grabbing dinner and a drink with my friend from England I finally got home after 10pm. I was exhausted and did not get a chance to find the hidden goodies. (However I will look for them tonight after working at the restaurant.!!!!!!!)
So I was trying to make sure I finish everything I have to by tomorrow and made a list.
Office:
1. finish charts
2. send out lab work
3. get pt chart ready for Monday
4. get pt charts ready for Thursday
5. check emails
6. respond and do what emails request
7. clean desks
8. file (at least organize paper by study
9. get to be signed stuff ready
10. empty fridge
Home:
1. Find Jin's sweetbox
2. go pet store get long leashes/chains/toys/snacks for pups
3. do laundary & doggie blankies
4. clean downstairs
5. make potato salad
6. make meatballs
7. make bruschetta
8. get french bread from Panera
9. pack foods and soda in coolers
10. pack waffle iron and mixer
11. pack clothes
12. pack doggie stuff
13. pack entertainment stuff
14. watch taped shows
15. clean up front porch
16. pack up truck
17. set vacation response on email
18. find grade school picture, scan and post for contest
19. call host families for monthly contact
20. fax au pair reports
Okay most of you know from reading comments in Jins and my blog that my b-day is coming up and that Miss Jin promised me a goodie box. Well IT CAME TODAY!!!!!!!
Knowing that not all my readers are as fortunate as me to have such a good friend I went ahead and picture chronicled the arrival. So this way you can open the box with me.
I had asked Jin last minute to ship it to my work knowing there would be someone to sign for it and it would not sit on the steps outside the house - where the bunny may have thought it got lucky (or Grumpy for that matter). Look at the cool label it has the Shops name and address in the top part and mine in the bottom part. To cool.
I didn't realize the box would come today or as early as it did (our mail has been coming later in the day) so I was eating breakfast (Garlic bread and dressing for dipping) when the mail man came. Darn now I have to go and buy a toothbrush so I can try the goodies. Darn Garlic bread!!!!
Thoughtful as always Miss Jin placed a b-day card in with all the sweets. It had a kitty and a bunny sticker on it :). And Mr. Jin signed it too I am so touched! *yes I am glad we met too:)* .
She also labeled all the goodies with what's in it so I am going to take some close ups for you all.
Caramel Apple Crowns
Vanilla Sugar Bliss
Nutty Chocolate Chunks
Peanut Butter Chunks
(I think these are meant for Grumpy but they are not labeled "Grumpy" so they are fair game right?)
... and the infamous Mint Brownies
Now If you are wondering why there no actual picture of the sweets - well I am afraid I will eat it all if I unpack it. See I was planning on taking these with me when Grumpy and I go out of town. I am starting to think that having them delivered to the office was a bad idea. I can hear them calling out from next to my desk *Katy - eat us, just try us, just one bite* But I am trying to be strong because I know once I have given in than I will be over taken by the yummyness and wont be able to stop. See when I went to see Miss Jin she served me this cake (among many other yummy goodies)
and I was full and told her just a small piece as I can not eat anymore. But then I tasted it and all of a sudden I had eaten it all (check out Jins July 13 archive for more pictures of the visit). Its like an addiction once you try it you can't stop. Ask Real and Leslie or Jewels they'll confirm this.
Thank you Miss Jin
puppy love
All these dishes are strictly vegetarian. I love the peas and cheese in the milder curry sauce (right) and the veggies with potatoes in spicy curry. Yuummmm!!!! Friday night was uneventfull, we were not to busy but all my tables were nice. We had a rehearsal dinner out on the patio and they had orders Sangria. Since there was lots of it left we sat around and had a few glasses. I think I got home around midnight. Saturday I had to do a repeat family interview. The family picked that day so I would have to take the au pair with me to the meeting. They picked 11:30am as the time which would have been fine since the meeting was not until 1pm. So I am driving up the road near their house when my cell rang. The Host mom is like "where are you?" (it's 11:20am) I said right down the street from you. And she is like oh boy I forgot J. had his camp today we will be about 10 min late. I am thinking great now lets hope that is true. So there happens to be a Target right there and yours truly decides to go and get a magazine or something. Well to get to the magazines I had to walk past the shelves with the purses and since my b-day is almost here I decided to get myself a little present. 
Isn't it cute? It looks more adult like than my other one and I can still fit my book in it which is very important. 
Most of the girls where there. The police officer told the girls about do's and don'ts and then went to let them pose in his car. 
I am pretty sure he had more fun in this than the girls. One of the host moms was there and she noticed several squad cars circling the area. She was sure that the dispatch alerted all the units to the presence of the au pairs. Most of the girls want to do the ride along where you accompany a officer for their shift. I have a feeling there will be no shortage of volunteers.
Here is my lunch, vegetable Pakora - I call them crispies. Some cabbage dish with peas and curry and then mixed veggies with potatoes and cheese. I can actually make a meal out of the crispies. I miss the spinach I hope all that gets sorted out soon.
After lunch it was off home for some exercise :) (got to work of those crispies) and then Busch Gardens called. There I was bored out of my mind for 6hours.
Monday started on a sad note. One of my former patients died Sunday. So my first call of the day was to his partner to tell him how sorry I was for his loss. They both where quiet the pair with his partner being what you can only describe as a character. I told him I'd stop by the celebration of life on Wednesday. He was telling me that his partner inadvertently ended up catering his own funeral. They had a AIDS benefit a few days ago that he had made the spaghetti sauce for and there where left overs which will now be served at the celebration. His partner thought at least that way he knew it was prepared right.
So I am sure you recognized the photo. Yes it is Tony Bennett. He did a show at the Ferguson Center for the Arts here in Newport News. The restaurant gets super busy every time they have a show there as we are only 5 min away and there are really no other good and nice restaurants close by. We knew with Tony coming it would be the same and added a waitress and bussboy to the normal schedule as well as the day time manager came in to help out. I broke $100 before it was 7:30pm (with my first table being at 5:30pm. While we were in the midst of the rush of people waiting for their dinner, getting antsy as the curtain call got closer, we got a big (13 meals) to go order. For who you ask? Well for non other than Tony and his band. Yes my dear readers His truly ordered dinner from Al Fresco Ristorante. Can you blame him after all the yummy food porn I have shown you????? The girl that came to pick it up also let slip the when Andrea Bocelli had his only US concert here at out center. She was out when he asked about where to get dinner from and asked the light technicians who told them Anna's Pizza. He hated it, well he should have come to us - the girl said had she been there she would have told him to eat at Al Fresco!
Anyhow last night was pretty good. I had nice tables and even the once that got antsy didn't take it out of my tip ensuring a nice paycheck next week. Which is good as I will be missing some days of work while up in the mountains. I had to stay and vacuum but still didn't get out to terribly late. I surfed you.tube a bit to find you all a nice Tony Bennett song.
Oh man where to start. The weekend was pretty crazy. Friday night my friend Danielle came but the Restaurant and after eating we headed out to Phillys. Well its actually called the Sandbar now (stupid name since there is no Sand anywhere!). Grumpy used to work there and that's how we met, Danielle and I would go there almost every night. I like it, its one of those hole in the wall places where locals hang vs the meat markets. Here I can go in my work cloths and don't need to get all dressed up and no one hits on me which is something I can not stand. Flirt with me fine but get your damn hands off me. Anyhow that's why I like Phillys. We played a little bit of pool and then just hung out. As we are getting older we need more sleep so we left a little after midnight to go on home. I stayed up a bit longer reading my latest Sookie Stackhouse book (thanks Phos I needed another series!!!!!) and then hopped in the sack. Sleeping in wasn't an option as I had to do an orientation with a new au pair arrival at 10am. After that it was of the office so I could try to get squared away for Monday. After making lunch at home I finished my book and got ready for work. I worked 4 shifts last night and made less money than the week before it was soooooo slow. I didn't have any really nice or really strange people to serve and the only drama Saturday night came from the waitstaff. We have this new girl that is making her self a lot of enemies with her gossiping and lies. She even lies about her lies!!!! She walked up to B. and tells her they need to work out their problems?!!??!? B. is Scottish and has a temper but is nice. She wont tolerate lies though and this waitress has told quit a few involving B. SO I decided I better get out of dodge since that wasn't gonna be pretty. See B. is the type of person that laughs with you if you call her a Bitch to her face but if you do it behind her back your dead meat. That is one of the reasons we are best friends we both do not like bullshit. Anyhow I left to go to get my next book just to find out that the latest one is not out in paperback yet. The hardcover is to hard to move around with so I shopped around for another and found "Every which way but dead" by Kim Harrison. Its funny with weres, pixies, witches and of course vampires. Oh I just wanted to point out I read the Sookie books (all except the last one) within 2 weeks that's how good they are. I am not sure where with 4 jobs and school I found the time but I did read all 5 of them!!!!!
Sunday was pretty low key. Cleaned a bit, watched the soap I tape, did homework and I had to work at Busch at night where I was bored out of my mind. Called security twice, once for a lot valet someone gave me and then for a 12 yr old boy that lost his friends. We couldn't reach his friends so called his dad. After seeing how the parents were with him I can see why he'd wanted to get lost. Some people should not have kids!!!! The night eventually ended and I fell into bed knowing I wanted to get to work early.
Monday sucked. I wasn't out of the bathroom yet when my cell started to ring. It was one of the au pairs and I called her on the way to the office to tell her to email me since I didn't have time to be on the phone all morning. When I got in 1 of my patient was already waiting. I needed some more results but couldn't get through to the lab, the 2 more show up to be seen by me. I am already spinning my wheels.
This is the office parking lot at about 8:45am on Monday. One of the patients tripped outside and most likely broke his leg - the one we were treating for infection - trying to prevent it from being amputated.
Of course all that puts us behind on the schedule. I also had a monitor from one of the Pharmaceutical Company here not being able to do much she needed as I get two more patients and then my doc calls me in a room to screen a patient for my naive study. That was about 1pm and I had not had breakfast or even a cup of water. So I take the patient back, who just found out that he is HIV+ so he is understandably upset. I do my "the world is not over speech" try to calm him to the point where he can read and understand the consent form. Get him signed up to get his blood drawn. After I give him his return appointment I go see what I can do for the monitor. She was nice enough to get me a bagel with egg salad which I devour while doing the corrections she needs. By now it is after 3pm and I need to process the labs from the 5 people I saw which came for 5 different studies which translates into 4 different labs that I am going to have to send the blood to after I process it. I didn't finish the processing part until after 4pm (which is my normal time to leave even thou that rarely happens). I still had not sat down to catch my breath and still calls kept coming. The jail needed some stuff on one of my patients because they were getting audited and needed paperwork showing he was on the study when he went in and had to stay on it because he needed the meds which were not commercially available. I clocked out at 5:20pm with a migraine in process. I got home hoping for a nap and got comfy on grumpys lap. 
As you can see Cleo demanded attention from a tired 
me. Misty came by later but Grumpy was cooking dinner so he couldn't take pictures of her laying on my legs trying to make me feel better. 
and then that damn cell phone rang again. Grumpy got up to make dinner while I took a cat nap. I tried to do the case study but just gave up at midnight and went to bed. I am hoping to get out of the restaurant Early tonight so I can finish it then. Well today has been really low key with the doc out of town and me just catching up on stuff.
I woke up about 4am when I heard Mac bark outside. So it took me a minute to realize that Grumpy must have fallen asleep on the couch with the pups still outside. So I woke him up and told him to let the pups in and go to bed. He told me that when he went outside last night our bunny was there. *happy grin*. He was nice enough to take pictures of it as he knew I'd want to put them on the blog to reassure all of you!!!! So here is the Bunny taken last night.
I had to go to the office early today because one of my patients had to do a 4h glucose tolerance test. As I am stumbling downstairs half asleep this is what I saw entering the livingroom! (thank god for camera phones!!!!!)
Normally Mac sleeps in her crate but I guess she figured she'd deserve the couch. She put up one ear and opened one eye to see who was there and then went back to sleep figuring it was just Mom and I'd let her stay on the couch (she has me trained well). Misty was right there to keep her company. Well I am off to the Restaurant, who knows if the night gets crazy enough I may post again.
