Happy New Years

Happy New Years
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

We are out at a bar watching a friend work having a good time spending too much money. We wish you a safe and happy new years. May all your hopes and wishes come true.

Last roadtrip for the year

Last roadtrip for the year
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Well at least for work since we are going out of town for new years eve. I am back in charlottesville till tomorrow.

Frohe Weihnachten - Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to wish you all a very merry Christmas. Here are the pups in front of our tree. As you can see they can't wait for their presents. Lucky for them we are celebrating the German traditions and Santa comes Christmas eve so they do not have to wait much longer.Misty decided that her new favorite place is under the tree with all the blinking lights above.

Transsiberian orchestra

Transsiberian orchestra
Originally uploaded by dino0477

Keep your fingers crossed

I have a little but very important request - please keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow (Dec11) - someone very dear to me is having brain surgery which will determine if she can have the surgery that would "cure" her epilepsy and allow her to live a normal life. Erin was the youngest of the kids whose Au pair I used to be many years ago.If you want to read her story got to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/eringard you will have to register but its free. Erin does read the messages in the guestbook too.

Stupid criminals

Stupid criminals
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Two morons held up grumpys store this am. The idiots committed robbery getting them in jail for 25yrs once caught for less than 70bucks. Luckily noone got hurt. Of course I will not be able to sleep now whenever Grumpy works 3rd shift. I hope those guys are caught soon and someone throws away the key. I feel bad for the peeps that were in the store when it happened.

December 1st

Well its that time of the year again - when you hear about HIV/AIDS again. To bad this does not happen throughout the year. There are still people being infected every year in a disease that we know how to prevent infection. That is very disturbing to me. I have lost a lot of people to this disease in the early years. These days with the medication out people can live long lives - if they can afford the meds and tolerate the side effects. I find it sad that these days people accuate HIV with having diabetes and so do not take the precautions they should as they dont see at as an automatic death sentence anymore. While I think its great we can treat the infection I still think preventing it in the first place is more important. So lets remember those that died and are still dying all over the world.

Happy Turkey day

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was quiet. Grumpy keeps have to go into work for a few hours here and there. I made a ton of food and am nibbling on the leftovers now while watching TV. As for things to be thankful for there are lots so I wont bore anyone with naming them all.

Driving yet again

Driving yet again
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

On my way to charlottesville ... Again. Its cold

IMAGE_085.jpg

IMAGE_085.jpg
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

My view of the strip

Driving to DC

Driving to DC
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Driving home

Driving home
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

At least the weather is better than on the way up.

how cool

I think its totally cool that my first time voting for president is done and the one i voted for won. I hope he does well. To me it was an easy decision - having grown up liberal in a socialism culture I am all for spreading the wealth. Now I did consider the other one for a minute but when he chose her and I saw what she stood for it was all done. I am sorry I will never understand how a woman can stand against legal abortions - how can you want to loose the right to decide what you do with your body!!!!!!!!!!!! And to be stupid enough to think that if you make it illegal it would stop it from happening -NEWSFLASH people would still have them - but in back alleys and the deaths from complication and infections would skyrocket. Don't get me wrong I am not for abortions to be used as birth control and I would never have one but I think every woman should have the right to decide themselves. There should be counseling and it should not be an easy fix but it should be available.

Enough politics - I don't usual go on about politics and will not start now. I am traveling as usual - as for the trying to get pregnant issues - still no luck its been 3 months of meds - injections in the stomach. No worries we are not giving up but it seems we will need to take the next step.

Belated Halloween post

just a quick post about last night. One of my coworkers was hosting this fun party. Costumes were a must and it was interesting to see what peeps came up with. Grumpy and I weren't very creative - he went as GI and I as Fraeulein. Here are two of my coworkers - one was a parrot (her daughter was the pirate) and the one in the middle - our host - was one of two Chic-fil-a cows.

done

done
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

All done, our votes are cast and now its off to lunch.

voting

voting
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Grumpy and I are voting.

Bellagio

Bellagio
Originally uploaded by dino0477

Nothing more fun than dancing water. We went to the Freemont Experience tonight. Saw the Chippendales and those guys riding motorcycles in the metal ball. Tomorrow its time to go home nothing against mom but Vegas is more fun with Grumpy

Vegas baby

Vegas baby
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I am back in Sin city. This weekend was really short. I had AP stuff to do saturday and the we went to a friends house for dinner and a movie. Grumpy snapped this pic on the way over. Today I woke up to find a text message from my mom saying her 10 month old pup is dead. She is pretty crushed

A cold, a mouse and lots of work

Those are the reasons why I haven't been around the blog sphere. The cold came on last weekend and I have been miserable all week. I am slowly feeling better still coughing. It didn't help that I had been gone since Monday and just got back last night. I didn't even bother to unpack my bag - my room in vegas is more of an appartment and has a washer/dryer so I am going to do my laundry there on Sunday after I get in. Yes you read right I am leaving again Sunday till Friday. Poor Grumpy he has to be by himself again for a week. I do think he doesn't mind it too much because he can have the control of the remote control and eat seafood while I am gone.As for the mouse - well Cleo killed one a couple of weeks ago and Grumpy went ahead and set a trap behind the faucet since he saw a mouse runing along the wall there. So I walk into the kitchen today to fix some lunch when I see this blur - I look and there is a tail hanging out of the trap - twichting. Well that killed my appetite. Called Grumpy so he could come home and get rid of the dead mouse as I was not going back in there with the tail still hanging out. The good thing about his new store is that its right around the corner so he actually did come by quickly and got rid of the thing. My appetite didnt come back until dinner time.

Well I better get some stuff done around the house. I have Au pair things to deal with all afternoon tomorrow and 9am Friday is when I head toward the airport.

I am kind of pissed that I dont get to enjoy my pretty roses. I realized half way to Charlottesville that I should have taken them with me so I can enjoy them in the hotel - maybe my cold would have been better had I got to look at them. But no and by the time I get back from Vegas they will have passed on :(

Speaking of Grumpy - he got to go and see his Steelers play the other week - took a bunch of pics. So look for a post with him being the ghostwriter.

dinner

dinner
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

On our way to the Monastery for dinner. Have been spoiled today red roses, Jewelery and chocolates.

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Grumpy and I are at a local bar starting my bday celebration. He even brought my present along. Haven't seen it yet as we are still listening to the band.

Out around town

Out around town
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Grumpy and I are out tonight seeing one of his fraternity brothers band play. The bands name D.A.M. (drunk ass monkeys) says it all. They sound pretty good and are fun to watch. We are having fun other fraternity brothers are here too. Oh and Grumpy just found out he is going to have his own store in 2weeks. He will be the boss yippee that means he makes his schedule ;)

Highway Patrol

Highway Patrol
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

He did look like the ones in the show CHiPS. Back in Vegas till Thursday night. Got food from the Hofbrau hause again. If you are ever here I encourage you to stop in its pretty good.

Kittie shots

Nothing much new here. Grumpy and I had a nice lazy day at home. I am heading to Vegas on Monday. We just hung out which is always good. The kitties loved it. Here are some pictures

Misty playing Footsie with Grumpy

Cleo cuddled up with us on the couch This picture I took a while ago as you can see Misty watches over Grumpy when he naps. So I made my first homemade pizza from scratch today. I have been graving pizza a lot lately but have been using the dough you can get in the store. We had bought some pesto mix which tastes so yummy on pizza with cheese sprinkled over (I do not like sauce on my pizza). Then I realized I could make my own dough in the bread maker my mom had given me for Christmas (Which I had yet to use). So here it is.
I think I will have to pre-bake the dough before putting cheese on the next time as it was not really done. I think I will also experiment with the dough some more - maybe mix basil and garlic into it.

Sookie on TV

So I have been awaiting the new HBO series True Blood with mixed feelings. See forever ago Phos wrote about the Sookie Stackhouse series and I decided I check it out. I totally loved the books so I was sort of excited when I heard it was going to be made into a series. Last night the first episode aired and it wasn't as bad as I feared. While Sookie in my mind didn't quiet match the actress they chose the others came pretty close as did the story line. Granted the accents were killing me and I don't remember Tara being such an angry obnoxius woman but Jason and Sam are pretty hot and Lafayette made me laugh. Some of the scenes/talk seem more X-rated than I remember but oh well its HBO I guess.
Now I am awaiting next weeks episode :)

Vegas and back

Vegas and back
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Vegas was fun we saw the Hoover Dam from jetskis we rented, saw part of the Grand Canyon, went and saw a show (Bite @ the Stratosphere) and of course gambled.
On other news looks like the Clomid isn't working. I had my ultrasound today and while have two folicals one is much to small- the other they hope will grow enough. I have to go back to see if it did or if the dose has to be increased.

Home and gone again

Yes we made it home after 53HOURS!!!! I ended up having to leave again less than 36 hours after getting home - got this sweet rental car - the new Mustang convertible. Sweet ride I didn't want to give it back. I had hoped I could get another one when I got to Vegas the next day but no such luck - they gave me a Hyundai Santa Fe.
Grumpy should land soon. I am still busy so the poor guy may have to take the shuttle to the hotel. We hope to go Jet skiing on Lake Mead tomorrow afternoon. And then maybe catch a show and see if we can make it to the Grand Canyon. We head back Sunday afternoon.

England

Hadn't planned on visiting England but here we are. Of course our connecting flight is delayed by 4 hours why wouldn't it be so now we wont arrive home until past midnight - if we are lucky and all goes according to schedule. I am not sure but I think we may have been faster had we gone by boat!!! At least we are first class today so we get to hang out in the fancy lounge with free food and booze.

I will keep you all posted on my little travel adventure :)

so much for dinner

until 3 hours ago it looked like everything was going well we boarded the plane we taxied I fell asleep. I wake when the engine rev up and notice we don't take off. the captain announces a light in the cockpit went off and it needs to be checked. after a while he states we need to go to a gate so a mechanic can check it. a bit over an hour passes we are still on the plane its hot ... then the announcement more tests needed but it looks like it was a false alarm. more time passes - yes it was a false alarm but now we need to refuel. tic toc ... now we are refueled but can't get a take off slot until another 1 1/2 hs. so here we are on the plane hot as hell. at least I brought food since I hate plane food. they finally handed out water. there is no way we'll make the connection and my back of chocolate I bought is melting in this heat.

UPDATE (9:35pm)

So after being trapped in the plane for 5hours they finally let us go - the flight was canceled. We had to go back into the terminal and wait for 3 hours to be rescheduled. Now we are in a hotel they put us in until we leave early AM tomorrow to try again to get back this time with a layover in Manchester England. What sucks is that I am supposed to work tomorrow never mind the fact that I had planned on floating the in pool right about now after hugging Grumpy and the little monsters - nope instead I am in a airport hotel. My shoulders are killing me from handling our heavy luggage and I am not looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. Wish me luck that all will go well and I'll be home tomorrow night

wedding and reunion

The wedding was great. The bride looked beautiful the groom looked dashing and the flower girls were adorable. After the ceremony we went to the reception were yummy food and cake was served and lots of alcohol was consumed. I even danced. I did go the entire reception barefoot because my shoes were to high and uncomfortable. The only damper on the evening was when the next morning the couple realized that someone stole 500 euros from them. Since it was held in a type of community center with only the closest friends and family present it has been heart wrenching to think who could do this. The only stranger was the DJ.

After helping cleaning up the next morning ( I knew having been a dish washer for a month would come in handy some day!) I headed out to meet up with the peeps from my middle school of who I haven't seen many since 1992 when those of us attending high school split. It was wonderful. We met our old teacher at the school did a walk through, sat in our old classroom (still the same curtains and all) and walked down memory lane before heading out to a restaurant which we ended up closing some time after 1am (we met at 3:30pm!) we didn't realized how late it was until we got hungry again and found out the kitchen had closed some time ago. It was such a great night we laughed so hard and talked so much.

I still can't get flickr to work the way I want to so here is the link for the picasa album for both events. My time here is almost over and while I am looking forward to Grumpy the pets AC and my pool I am very sad when thinking about leaving once again.

wedding_reunion

Photos

For some reason I am unable to add a slide show via Picasa or a badge via flickr for the photos - so here is the link if you'd like to see them

Germany - wedding August 2008

Hi from Germany

Sorry I have been scarce just got busy. So Monday we landed (Mom and I) in Germany. The flight was not as bad as the one Grumpy and I were on in december but it wasn't what I'd call a good flight. Once we got into my hometown we had to get a wireless modem as my broadband card did not work despite that I had called Verizon and they assured me it would! Last night was the Polterabend for the wedding. The happy couple decided to have the party a couple days before the wedding so noone would have a hangover on Friday - and yes I am sure many suffer a hangover today. I am dizzy but since I stopped drinking hours before I left at midnight I do not think this is a hangover. Today I am heading out to meet up with my friends - the parents of my favorite twins. Tomorrow its workday - cleaning out the basement and storage room. Then Friday is the wedding - I am to be at the brides house at 10am to get ready and be moral support. I am also crashing there since I wont be able to drive home. Saturday is my middle school reunion and Sunday its of to see Oma. Monday is full of appointments, Tuesday is shopping and packing, Wednesday we are to go see my aunt and uncle and Thursday so 3am we have to head out to the airport. Busy little bee. I doubt I'll have time to post much so I will upload all my photos to click and post one of those modules that will rotate them - when you click on it you can see all of the pics from this trip = so far there are only the once from last nights party.

Illinois trip

I am sure you can tell by the countdown above I am getting ready to head back home. I am excited and kind of bummed. Grumpy has to stay home which sucks.

Anyhow I know a little late but here is out Chicago trip recap.

We flew out Thursday night (17th) got into Midway. After getting the rental car we got to drive through the lovely area. Tell you what had I been alone I'd have been scared shitless. There were lots of those police cameras ....
Friday we went up for a fabulous lunch with Ms Jin. We got in a bit early and were left alone with scones and cookies - obviously we snacked to our hearts desire. The pizza served was amazing. Sadly the visit was short. Ms Jin was very busy as there are many people aware of her amazing talents and we head to go back to Illinois for a BBQ at my former host moms house (mother of the bride) We got there late pretty late thinking we missed it but it turned out they hadn't even started. We hung out and ate (again) and then went to crash at the motel from hell.
Saturday was busy too as I wanted to go to Renfair - rain or shine. I had tried to talk in Ms Jin and the Bubs clan but had no luck. It was drizzling when we got there but cleared up nicely. I love renfair if I still lived close enough I would probably be there every weekend. And while I know not all the people there are "normal", nice or sober - Bubs did point out some incidents - I still like it there. After the fair we headed to the rehearsal BBQ. Met up with the rest of my former host family.
Sunday was jam packed full too. We were to meet the Bub's at their house which of course was cut short since we had to run and go get changed to the wedding. It was fun meeting them in person and hopefully if paths cross again it can be a longer visit as we had lots of things to talk about.
The wedding was in a beautiful country club. Bride looked gorgeous and the groom very dashing in his Marine dress uniform. It was very sunny and hot so everyone was getting warm - to the point that one of the bridesmaids fainted during the ceremony. The buffet was great it was a German Mexican buffet as he is of Mexican decent and she is of German decent. Grumpy and I even danced :)
Monday we checked out dropped the car of at the airport (at 7am) and headed with our luggage in the city. The brides mom works next to Sears tower so we stashed our things in her office and went to do some sightseeing. We met up with my swiss friends who were in town for the wedding too and had lunch. The bride and groom tried to meet up with us before we left but got stuck in traffic so we hoped on the L and headed back to Midway. The flight was uneventful and we were happy to be home and get some rest after such a hectic weekend.

When I get a chance i will upload some pics and add some links to this too

Working hard

Working hard
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Sorry I still need to finish our midwest post. Working had cleo is helping

New toy

Grumpy got himself a new toy - we went car shopping on July 4th and he found a 2006 Trailblazer he liked. Since the car had been on the lot for 6 month we got it really cheap it only has 35000 miles on it.

I am in Charlottesville this week and then head to Vegas Sunday just to get back Wednesday midnight and turn around 19hours later to fly to Chicago .... I will post pics from the car later

Also I updated the other blog with what's been going on and some back story to the whole mess. I hope the guy goes to hell - Karma has got to kick his ass. Go here for the post - again I am sorry its a private blog.

On happier notes I lost 13lbs since starting to work out - its been slow going but at least its going. I almost fit back into my favorite jeans - almost

I hate her

You know it's hard enough to deal with those people you like and they get pregnant while you have to slowly deal with the fact that you may never able to be. But to find out that someone you know, dislike and think should never be allowed to reproduce is pregnant is a blow below the belt. I just got an email from my mother with the sonogram pic of her first grandchild. She even wrote I know you don't want to know this ... THEN WHY THE FUCK IS SHE TELLING ME???????????

soccer

soccer
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Sorry can read blogs got to watch germany beat spain in the euro cup

OMFG I can't believe people

I really wish I could tell you here what I went through today it involved AP's and a HF that is now in big shit. I will post detailed over here sorry but that one is private.

To much to do

I know I know its been a while. I am in Charlottesville this week. Its been busy since I have a new coworker with me that I am training. I think its kind of cool that I have only been doing this 4 months and I am training people already. My boss okay'd it which I take as a big compliment. My trainee is doing okay. I had her watch me today and yesterday and then I had her do stuff tonight when we got back to the hotel.

She also got to see some AP drama today. Grumpy is waiting as we speak for the AP who will be crashing with us. Poor Grumpy I don't know he knew what he signed up for when he married me ;) I had tried to see if the girl can crash with her boyfriend for the night but HQ veto'd it. Poor thing to top things off she is allergic to cats so she'll be miserable in my house.

Well back to work - I was so busy I didn't even get go to the gym today. I actually forgot my gym shoes and ended up working out barefoot yesterday.

My view

My view
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I am on the top floor overlooking the pool and the strip. After hitting the gym I went swimming under the stars lots of fun I just wish Grumpy was here

Things you see while waiting for a plane

Things you see while waiting for a plane
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I guess there are all kinds of jobs out there. Saw this while waiting for my plane in Philadelphia the city of brotherly love

My ride

My ride
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

This is what I will spend my sunday on

My weekend

My weekend
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I am out in nowhere with the au pairs for the weekend. There are about 30 people. One of the other LCCs family has a river house here. I spent the afternoon out in the river riding a jetski. One of the families came out so there are 3 jetskies and a boat. I will be one of the chaufeurs again tomorrow taking kids and APs out.

Finally

Finally go to play in the pool it's still a few inches short of what the water table will be in the end ... but I couldn't resist. Grumpy told me I had to go clean it so I decided I wanted to do it from inside the pool. Once in it was nice and refreshing. We dumped the salt and will run the filters tomorrow so starting Friday's I will make this my new office.

Bummer

I am so bummed out. I finally got the word that I'll be in Vegas next week but when I looked for flights to get Grumpy out there too - no luck unless we want to pay $400+ dollars (for a little more than 36h in Vegas)! We couldn't use the stupid companion ticket because it requires 14 days advance purchase and while I could use my miles there was no flight that could get him back on Friday to one of 3 fricken airports???? I am so mad his b-day is Friday and it would have been fun to celebrate into it in Vegas. I mean I'll be there every 4 weeks so he can come on one of the other trips but still.... I was looking forward to spend some time away with him and now I'll be bymyself in the big fancy vacation hotel vs the normal business hotel I would stay in.