Party part II and answers

Alrighty, it did take me a bit longer but here are the party photos.

First off Happy Halloween.

The party was held at a friends house (actually he introduced Grumpy and I and became a Justice of the Peace so he could marry us) not to far from the house.

Grumpy and our Host

Costumes were a requirement. Initially Grumpy and I were going to go as Catholic Priest and me a catholic school girl however when my costume arrived I found that the skirt would not be suitable outside the bedroom. So I dug up my old (9 years) medieval dress and cape and Grumpy was going to go as a pirate. He couldn't find a hat or bandanna so he went as the ghost of a Pirate instead.

Aren't we spooky?????

I have to say there were some really good costumes at this party and I am sorry I have not gotten more pictures. There was a Willy Wonka and an Umpalumpa (I am sure I misspelled that one).

Mark Anthony and Cleopatra gave us to honor of their presence.

So did King Arthur here with my English friend Paula.

They realized they both have the same birthday and where trying to count that with their fingers.

As you can see Paula went as a Naughty school girl but she didn't have to buy a costume for it as she really did go to Catholic school.

She even found a priest to forgive her sins (20+ years since her last confession was just the start). In additions to saying several Hail Mary's she was also sentenced to be the Morality patrol for the party and to spank any guests that were misbehaving.

As it was a Halloween party and everyone there did misbehave at some point she was rather busy all night long and her ruler had a worn look to it by the end.

Of course no party is a full success until there is at least one person so drunk the he/she passes out. This lad ended up sleeping it off for a while just to wake up in time to puke all over the sun room.

But our hosts were gracious and arranged for him to get home safe while cleaning up his mess.

Great party guys.

The next one is December 16 wanna come?

I know you (all 3 of you) have been waiting patiently for the answers to the Fun Facts so here it goes.

1. I enjoy sleeping naked (well semi naked I usually wear panties)

2. This one should have been easy as I just wrote about it. I've been attacked by a cub.

3. I have to say Grumpy is really good about putting the lid down (actually both lids since I don't

want the kitties and pups drinking out of the toilet)

4. Yeah I don't know to many people that would eat Grasshoppers they creep me out.

5. This is a trick question. I wear my hear long mainly because it grows very fast and I can not be bothered to run to the hair dresser once a month. That and the emotional scars from looking like a boy with my short hair cut when I was young. I do generally cut it once every 2 years and then donate it to Locks of Love. I tend not to tell Grumpy when I do it and he is shocked when its all gone - it takes about 2 years to grow to my waist and I refuse to have to worry about it when I go to the bathroom so that's when I cut it.

6. That one is another trick questions. I was and will always be a goth so I used to spend a lot of time at night in cemeteries in Germany. But those are huge parks and not like here. These days in lack of big park cemeteries I go to the park on a nice day and play with the pups

7. I was a "Baywatch" babe. Is the correct answer. I used to lifeguard at the Baltic sea and I loved watching the show. Go on snicker but I am standing my ground I liked watching the show and not just because of the half naked cute guys but there where a couple of episodes where I actually learned things.

saturday night "live"

Just a teaser I will post more later.

Fun facts

Okay I found these on this blog and thought they were fun questions to ask (I adjusted some).

Which is the true statement?

1. I enjoy sleeping naked --OR-- I hate sleeping naked.

2. I've been attacked by a cub. --OR-- I used to be a cheerleader.

3. I fall into the toilet every night. --OR-- I've convinced my husband to put the lid down.

4. Grasshoppers creep me out. --OR-- I like to bake them with a little brown sugar and cinnamon.

5. I keep my hair long. --OR-- I cut and donate it.

6. I like going to the park when its sunny. -- OR-- I enjoy grave yards at night.

7. I was a "Baywatch" babe. -- OR -- I don't go in the oceans/lakes in fear of sharks, snakes and others.

Now if you read my blog(s) these should be pretty easy. I'll post the answers in a few days. First I got to go to a Halloween party tomorrow. Grumpy will be a Pirate and I'll be the wench (gives me an excuse to wear a variation of my profile pic outfit.)

so sorry

I know its been a while that I posted and I haven't been able to keep up with all my blog reading. Be assured I did glance at some and things will be better starting next weekend. This Sunday is my last day at Busch Gardens for the season so that means I will have a day off again. I am very much looking forward to that. I am regaining my strength [and weight :( ] these days and am almost 100%. Things have been pretty busy around here with school and work. I took of Tuesday from the office to get some rest but with schools and the au pairs and all I really didn't get much of it. Right now I am watching my taped shows and catch up on school work.

I think the other reason I have not posted is that I finally talked to my mother last week. She hadn't spoken to me in several weeks. Supposedly I didn't sent her something (but I did) and now she says I cost her a few hundred dollar. She also says she doesn't want anything to do with me while I am this egotistical person I turned into according to her. Anyhow obviously the conversation didn't go all that well so I was surprised to find a missed call from her the next day. I called her back also to let her know that the office was going to be closed for 5 days over X-mas and to explore the idea of going down to see her in Florida. Her response to that was "why would you?". The conversation when south after that and at some point she mentioned my estranged sister was going to be there for a few months. I haven't talked to my sister in years and my mom only talks to her through email and more to her boyfriend then my sister so I was taken aback at this and made a comment along the lines - well then you don't need me to come-. Well that's when my mom told me to be ashamed of myself, how dare do I say that while my sister is terminal ill. She let me run into the open knife with that one. The thing that makes me wonder is why I don't feel bad about my sister. Now we have been estranged for 12 years now and we never got along which I partly contribute to the fact that she was to old when my mom adopted her from an orphanage (she and her brother were taken away from their parents after those were deemed unfit). So anyhow I guess not feeling sorry for my sister and the why, has been on my mind. Maybe my Mom is right and I am egotistical you decide.

I had fun

Grumpy and I just got back from a wedding. I had a really good times and it is so rare that we get to go and have fun on a Saturday night. One of Grumpy's fraternity brothers got married and a lot of the guys from the fraternity were there. We were running late for the ceremony and the ceremony wasn't all that. The bride is the preachers daughter so a lot of the service was the father/preacher telling the groom how he should be. It was (or just felt like it) a long ceremony and the fun didn't start until the reception. The guys were talking about old days and I really liked most of them and their spouses. We laughed, ate and just had fun. Now I have to hit the books and finish homework and tomorrow its back to cleaning and then off to freeze my butt off while working at Busch Gardens.

I knew it!!!!!!!

So I have been saying for years that there is something in the food here that makes you fat and most people look at me skeptical. Well when I got into work today my manager told me about a conversation her husband had with the major diet and gastric bypass surgeon during surgery yesterday. The surgeon was on vacation in Italy and notice what the people ate there and the fact that they were not as fat as people here. He started to look at some of the ingredients and it hit him - corn syrup

(if you read this you knew that already from Leslie's blog).

He remembered that in the 70's during Nixon all the farmers had a lot of corn left over and were taking a financial hit and no one really wanted to buy sugar from south America so they came up with the idea to put corn syrup in all the food. Well guess what corn syrup does not get metabolized it is also addicting and causes you to be hungry!!!! So when my managers husband told my manager that, she told him that I had been saying there was something in the food all along!!! Ha I was vindicated by a renowned Doctor that knows all about diet and foods.

Also here is the recipe for how I made the fake mash potatoes (P.S. I lost 15 pounds so far!!!!)

Take frozen or fresh cauliflower cook it until it is very,very soft

Mash it add butter, heavy cream and nutmeg to taste and enjoy.

If nutmeg is not your thing here is a recipe with salt and pepper

P.S. (its 11:30pm now) here are 2 pics of the mutts - they laid behind my computer chair watching me work.

nothin to say

well I spent most of the weekend in bed feeling lousy. Cleo liked it

I hope everyone elses weekend was better

doing good

So Grumpy and I decided a couple of weeks ago after I found a vegetarian version of the South Beach Diet to give it our best. We both could stand to lose a few pounds and our life style needs a bit of improving. Coincidently Cherry launched the The Bloggest loser Launch which we went and joined. So we have been pretty good the past view days. Like today I made cauliflower mash potatoes and green beans for dinner and I went to the community center which has a olympic size pool to get a punch card. I went ahead and tested the water, I did 24 laps (25yards as they had the pool converted) in a little under 20 min so that wasn't to terrible since I am out of shape and the swimsuit was to big. I'll go back tomorrow now that I dug out my speedo swimsuit. Being at the restaurant last night was pretty hard. It was dead and that garlic bread looked and smelled sooooo good. I didn't give it in but it was hard. I snacked on some cucumbers. As it got time to close I went to ask the cooks if I could have a veggie soup. They had made pasta but went ahead and made me some soup, unfortunately the owner was in a pissy mood and I got chewed out for getting something extra made. Well one more week and 4 days to go with no carbs then we get to reintroduce them in small amounts. Even thou I have to say the cauliflower mash potatoes where really really good.

I am loved Part II

Okay so now that I had a few hours of sleep let me start on the post. I will try to upload the photos otherwise I'll link them.

So Friday ended up being a crappy day all around. My cell phone took a bath and with that I had to go by my THIRD Razr this year. Yes number 3!!!!! The first on got stolen while I was waiting to go through customs in Germany. The second one is the one that took a bath on Friday, I hoping number three will be around a bit longer.

After getting the phone I went to the restaurant. We were not very busy but considering the weather - rain, rain and more rain - that was kind of expected. I did get the owners okay to get what I wanted since it had just been my birthday. So here it is.

Bruschetta, with Garlic bread (I like that better than the toasted french bread) and a Campari Orange as my appetizer.

Then Penne ala Vodka with Broccoli and lots of Romano Cheese (sorry new phone, pic is kinda blurry).

And here is dessert. The exotic bombe. OMG it was soooooo good.


After that I went home and was asleep before I knew it. Saturday the weather kept being crappy translating into me not getting out of bed until lunch. Since Grumpy and I are starting our diet today (Monday) we decided to go Nawab for some yummy Indian food as we are not going to have any for a while. Work was pretty slow again that night. I got home and went to sleep totally forgetting to take Jins cake out of the freezer like she told me to.

I woke up at 9 am Sunday with that thought in my head. Raced downstairs got it out and just set it out in the dining room. I had to interview a new family for the au pair program prior to the au pair meeting so I loaded up the car put the cake on the front seat and hoped it would be defrosted on time. Apparently the weather was trying to make up for the last few days and the sun came out warming the truck while I was in with the new family. The interview took a bit longer than planned and I still had to go to Walmart get a pumpkin, soda and some paint and cutting tools.

So I was about 15min late to the meeting. Most of the girls were already there and when I walked in they all sang Happy Birthday to me *sniffle*.

It was so cute, there I am in the living room, holding the cake and all and they are singing to me.
And they even got me a present. I could believe it. Check this out.

Knowing my love for Italian they got me a Italian Basket with Chianti, Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Sesame bread sticks, Penne ala Vodka sauce (mhh wonder how they got the idea I like that), Anti pasta salad, Pasta and Gnocchi, Red peppers, Hot Chocolate, Pesto and even a flower. It was so nice they took time to get all the things I like. I can't wait to get to the point of my diet where I can actually eat most of this.

So now it was time for cake

See October is Birthday month where we celebrate the each others birthday. So I asked Miss Jin to make us a cake. Knowing that she loves to be creative I just told her it would be for 18-20 people and left the rest up to her. Wanna see whats under the thick layer of Belgian Chocolate Icing????? Really are you sure - you may drool

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Okay we have chocolate, red velvet and butter cream. To die for!!!!!! My German au pairs were in heaven they couldn't get over the fact that there was someone in the US that knew who to bake. One of the Germans looked at me with this expression of wonder and disbelief and said "This is the best cake I have had in this country". Now that is a huge compliment coming from her (she's kinda picky about her desserts). I didn't hear a word out of my Latina girls when I looked to why, they where all more of less licking their forks and plates.

I had to fight to get to keep one piece of the cake so I could take it home to Grumpy. (He polished off his plate in record time to!!!!!)

After eating cake, painting and carving Pumpkins I went and met Grumpy to go to Busch Gardens.

We had a ball. We watched some cool shows, the best being the Magic show.

I tried the video but with the stage lights you can't see much but you can here the songs. We met Grumpy's brother and his family there too. It was funny we kept running into them after we split up as his nieces where to young for the haunted houses and mazes. Honestly I think I wasn't old enough either. I would walk behind Grumpy one hand holding his hand the other holding onto his shirt.

We got home pretty late so after some cooking (the diet thing requires preparations and stuff) I fell into bed.

I am loved

I have some really cool pictures and a pretty long post about this weekend but I can't upload them and I am to tired for the post.

Today after the Birthday party with the au pairs (hence the b-day cake from Jin) I met Grumpy at Busch Gardens. Check out the videos for one of the shows. I will see if I can upload and write the full post tomorrow so come back and check for it.

one more video

Here is the video I took on top of one of the mountains with my camera. Sorry its an older model so no sound

need to vent

ARG some people I tell you!!!! So I have this really nice Au pair that has spend the last 10 month (i think) with this family that moved into my region a couple of months ago. She is nice quiet, from Panama. The first time I met here she was in tears after a few minutes telling me who she couldn't wait to get home because all American were mean. I had met the host mother a few minutes prior to us leaving the house and my first impression was that they are not the warm and fuzzy type of host family.
Anyhow for awhile she thought about just going home but then she decided to stick out the rest of the time as it was only a couple more months. So next week is when she leaves and she is soooo excited about going home. I had to go meet the family the other day and the host mom (who works from home in her own time) said she couldn't take her to the airport. I told her about the shuttle services in the area and then went on with my business. This week I get an email from the Au pair saying the host mom refuses to pay for the shuttle??? WTF this poor girl lived in your house, took care of your kid and you can't be bothered to get her to the airport or pay for the shuttle????? So now I have to take of from my day job, drive 200+ miles round trip to get her there. I am sure the next au pair is not going to last long and I do not care what corporate wants me to do I will not lift a finger to help that family find another poor girl to make miserable!!!!!

On happier news

*I need your alls help with this game.
*I finally got to caught up on all my blog readings and the pageant.
*polished of Jin's sweet box and have a new favorite.
* Grumpy made the mistake and took the

to work where he was promptly mobbed by coworkers. One who said she was going to check out Jins blog and order goodies for herself.


So now I am ready for my regular schedule - well maybe not ready ...

luv the mountains

Okay Blogger is being a pain I tried uploading pictures both in the URL option and with the upload picture option but I seem to be limited on how many I can upload. The post below has a link to the gallery for all the pictures we took.

We left at about quarter to five on Sunday morning.

By the time we got into the mountains the sun started to come out and the Fog looked like a Blanket. There was no traffic out and except for stopping for gas and breakfast we made excellent time and got to the cabin about 10am. The cabin is located on the West Virginia side of the Potomac River very isolated from everything. We took a nap and then set off to find a store to get some items we had forgotten. Of course in an area where there are no stop lights there are no grocery stores. We settled for a gas station/market type of thing. Monday we set out to explore the area, well after taking our time getting up and ready. We had to go to over the the only privately owned toll bridge in the US to get to Maryland. The bridge does not look like they use the tolls to keep it up. The ladies working there use a can attached to a stick to collect the toll.
We set out to explore Old Town and then decided to drive to Cumberland, MD. On our way there we passed through Spring Gap and here is there post office. I didn't realize they have post offices that small.

One of the cool looking churches in Cumberland, MD. That one reminded me of the ones you'll find in Europe.

On the way back from Cumberland we stopped at the C&O canal so the puppies could stretch their legs. Grumpy said the Canal took about 20 more years than planned so it was never used for its indented purpose.

From Cumberland we drove to Paw- Paw West Virginia and stopped at Grandmas Kitchen for a very late lunch. The food was nothing like Grandma makes unless she had instant mash potatoes and a microwave to heat the corn. The puppies liked the meatloaf.

Here is me walking the puppies (or they walking me depending on your view) on the way to the cabin. I had Grumpy let us out about half a mile away to get some exercise and help digest that icky food. Grumpy built a fire for us but he kept telling me how there are Black Bears around and the dogs kept looking in the woods and were nervous. I am not sure who freaked out who the dogs me or I am them but we ended up inside on the couch after about braving the outdoors for 30min. I know I know the bears don't come while there is a fire but has anyone told the bears that that's the rule????? Tuesday we went on a scenic drive to Deep Creek Lake. The leaves where turning and it was so gorgeous. We drove through a town with the name of Accident but didn't get a chance to find out how the town got the name. The dogs loved the trip as we took them with us everywhere we went. It was so relaxing to just get up when ever and do what ever.

On our way back we saw the sign above. Wonder what FEMA did(n't) do there to prompt this sign.

Wednesday we got our stuff together and headed back. We stopped to take a picture of the drive thru convenience store. Now I have seen drive thru bars in New Orleans and some drive thru Liquor stores in North Carolina but never a whole convenience store. Too cool. We took out time on the way home and took the scenic route stopping at a nice park for lunch.

Here are some things that had us giggling/shaking our heads.

City of Accident
Savage Mountain
Flying Circus Airport
Mexican Farms Airport
Negro Mountain
the local landfill charged us $8,- for 2 trash bags
We also noted a lack of imagination in town names, there were a lot of Top of the Hill, Top of the Mountain



Our hosts have compiled a list of local catch phrases.

Local Language
“UP and DOWN”
Local custom says that when you're out traveling around, if you're going "up" to Smalltown, that means you're going up in altitude (as in "up the creek"), regardless of which way it appears on a map. From Keyser, you go "down" to Cumberland, although Cumberland is 25 miles straight north of Keyser, you should just know that it's "downstream" on the Potomac River. Conversely, from Cumberland, you go "up" to Keyser. In the city, up usually means north, which is "up" on a typical map. Who knows whether it's actually up or down in altitude (get out your GPS thingy)? You'll need to be more knowledgeable in the country. Probably a carry-over from not too long ago when you really knew whether it was up or down because you did it by horse or on foot. By the way, if your trip takes you up then down, or down then up, that would be "over", as in goin' "over" to Mathias from Moorefield. (Borrowed from http://www.mtnhome4u.cominthecountry.html)

FLY MAD - Get angry suddenly. "I didn't expect her to fly mad over that." Maybe this expression is related to "madder than a wet hen." A mad hen tends to fly around and flap her wings.

SPLITTING THE MUD - Running fast.

CUTTING A RUSTY -- Getting angry and throwing a fit.

LICK YOUR CALF OVER - It is commonly used by small businessmen to mean having to go back on a job again. A warranty. Usually it is just said "I'll have to lick my calf on this one". It is assumed that it meant a disagreeable task required by honor or duty – e.g. a cow licking its calf
after giving birth.

NEVER SAID DOG - If someone leaves without saying goodbye or doesn't have anything to say on a subject, the expressions are: "He left and never said dog." or "She got back from her trip and never said dog."

Here are a couple videos I had taken with my cell - I have one on the camera too but still have to upload it to youtube.com

That was all we heard, just nature.

just got back

Hi everyone

we just got back and the blogger wont let me upload any pictures. We had a ton anyway. For all of them click here (Just click on the photo unless you want to save them you don't have to sign in). I will do the official post tomorrow and hopefully the blogger will let me upload some pictures then.