florida

florida
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Getting ready to head back home

Katy

Thing seen out n bout

Thing seen out n bout
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I saw this at moms friends business today and thought it was pretty funny. Florida seems pretty cold right now only 60 some degrees and the sun is hiding. Hopefully it will clear up soon.

Sunsets and holiday's

Well I have a 4h layover in Miami so I thought i get some of the pictures I have been taking up here. First off I hope everyone has a great christmas. While I am spending a large chunk of Christmas day traveling - sometimes it feels like I spend more time in airports and planes than at home - I still had a good holiday. Hubby and I had a great time at the movie yesterday and then dinner and presents. He really liked the Steelers Jacket I got him and I loved my earrings and the book he gave me. I was a bit suspicious at first - getting a book about how to make a marriage last - made we wonder but he said that he sought it was appropriate since we'd be married at least that long. I thought it was sweet and I liked that some thinking went into my gift. I like gifts better that mean something and dont care about what they cost. So this was perfect. This morning I got up and found him making breakfast for us. He had to go into work real early and after getting back thought to surprise me with food.

No on to the sunsets. I am a sucker for them (like most girls I am sure) and can't help but take pictures of them.

This one I took on the way back from West Virginia the other day this was in Maryland outside of DC. Unfortunately I couldn't pull over so its a bit blurry.

This I saw this week coming home from Ohio on Wednesday. This is on the Hampton Roads bridge tunnel on the Norfolk side. Lucky for me the traffic was slow and I got plenty of time to take pictures. I uploaded the rest to Flickr. I think the cool part about these were that the sun looked like it was plunging into the Navy base and the ships docked there right now.

Ohio

Ohio
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Nothin much to see just gray clouds, snow flakes and part of the Ohio State University campus. Hoping I get to go home tomorrow without delays and cancelations

Snow dogs

It's funny our dogs love the snow as much as I do. They couldn't wait to get out and play in the snow. I took them for walk around the block last night and they were so excited. My flights today did get canceled so I am trying again tomorrow. If it wasn't for the deadline on Thursday I wouldn't mind staying home this week.

SNOWWWWW

I am so thrilled its snowing and it looks like its staying. Snow makes everything look so pretty. Unfortunately I am to fly out to Columbus, OH tomorrow and the said snow may be a problem. With this storm I may not make it there which means I wont make the Dec 24 deadline and that sucks big time. However my boss did just call to tell me not to kill myself over trying to make the deadline so I will do my best and if that does not get me there then oh well.

Trying to stay warm

Trying to stay warm
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Its cold so i have Sassy warming my feet. Cleo is still debating where to sit

I want snow

I want snow
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Still in west virginia where its cold enough to freeze my waterbottle and still no snow. So annoyed I mean are a fee snowflakes really to much to ask for? Waiting at Olive Garden for my to go stuff right now the picture is taken right outside the restaurant as the sun is setting over what the locals call the highlands.

West Virginia

West Virginia
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Here is the view from the hospital I am at this week in Wheeling, WV. I drove this time since it takes me as long to drive as it does to fly actually with delays due to weather and such its sometimes faster driving. Since I didn't leave till after dinner there was not much traffic so even with rain, fog and snow I still made good time getting in at 2am. Well need to get some more work done then its off to bed this cold I've had for a week now is killing me.

Texas

Here are some more pics of the Texas trip - the rest of story is over at the private blog. It was fun seeing were hubby was born and lived a few years after he finished highschool. He showed me the apartment he lived in and the place he used to work at. We had lots of tex mex and I even had a breakfast taco (veggie version of course). We went out to see his grandma twice which was fun she is such a great character I really liked her. She is one of those that do not take any bullshit. I hope she recovers and gets out of the nursing home like she wants too. She told us to go to this little cafe down the street from her nursing home and so we did. It was Mexican food mainly I liked mine but even more did I like the old building it was in with all the stuff on the walls.

We told grandma hubby (and maybe me) will be back next year and she liked that idea. I did overhear her tell hubby's mom that I could stay she liked me and thought I fit right in :) good to know I got her approval ;)

Home sweet home

Home sweet home
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

We just got back. As always the pups where thrilled but the cats are still mad at us. Misty didn't want anything to do with me :(. And Cleo is no where to be found. Guess graveling will be on this weeks schedule.

True love texas style.

True love texas style.
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

We pass this cross on the way to grandma. A man had it built to imortalize his wife after she passed away. It has lights that shine upon it when its dark illuminating it to be seen from far away. So the saying seems true everything is bigger in texas including memorials for loved ones.

Just missing a horse

Just missing a horse
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

We went out to Barringer, Tx today to see hubby's grandma. The town is more or less out in nowwhere. We passed countless cattle ranches and open Prairie. All I could think off was how fun it would be to go horseback riding here.

Old fashion dinner

Old fashion dinner
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

We are having lunch at the 410 diner in San Antonio. It looks like the diner in the 50's did.

vacation

vacation
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Hubby and I came to Texas to meet up with some of his family he had not seen for 20+ years. On our way to add some more Hard Rock Cafe glasses to our collection and to goof off on the riverwalk and meet up with one of his fraternity brothers.

Philly

Philly
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Here is my view from my hotel this am. Today was nuts & breaking the heel on my boots didn't improve it. I had not realized that we dont have a store from where i bought them in our area. So i found one on the way to the airport & after some discussion i was able to exchange them. I am trying to get on an erlier flight home with the bad weather coming in ... . Hubby & I leave early tomorrow and i still got lots to do.

World AIDS day

World AIDS day
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Here is a pic of downtown Richmond. I was there for the day and am flying out of here to Philly today.
I have to say I was disappointed that one of my sites who works with HIV + patients not only not knew that World AIDS day is today but that there is such a thing. It just shows that awareness is sorely lacking which is sad. I mean this disease is still spreading despite that it can be prevented. If you haven't yet check online for the companies that participate in the 12 days of giving. So get your starbucks and contribute

Katy

Errands

Errands
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Went out to get some new tags for the pups and all the stuff to stack the house with for our niece while she house/pup sits for us.

Quality time

Quality time
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Spending some quality time with the "kids" and being lazy. Heading out later to see friends play at one of the local bars.

Calm after the storm

Calm after the storm
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Sun and rain have been alternating today. On the way to the gym (to work of the pie and other goodies) it rained like there was no tomorrow and then an hour later blue sky and the sun was out.

Happy Turkeyday to all

Happy Turkeyday to all
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Cleo was the only Turkey I coud find for todays picture. I hope everyone had a great day.

Just chillin

Just chillin
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Mac loves the new heater my mom got us for xmas

November gray

November gray
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

View from my DC hotel room. Wish the sun was out

New blog idea for me

New blog idea for me
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

So i had this idea ... I dont really have time to blog these days but I dont want the blog to disappear so from now on I will (try to anyways) post a picture daily of whatever I see that day. Todays is from my drive to DC this is Connetticut Ave right after turning of Dupont Circle. Its a very rainy very Novembery day. The pics will usually be take with my HTC Touch Pro 2 since I always have my cell with me.

Star Wars in concert

Star Wars in concert
Originally uploaded by dino0477

The concert was great we went and checked out the exhibition afterward which was pretty cool. They had a couple people in costumes so you could have your picture taken with them. Check out my photo stream on flickr to see those pics. Well I need to finish packing heading out early to West Virginia for the week.

I am so excited I just can't hide it ....

.... can't get that song out of my head. When I checked in for my flight for tomorrow I noticed I had gone up another frequent flier level with US AIR and I decided to see if that would give me better options to cash in some miles and go home to Germany. And it did. So I booked my flight for May next year. I am so beyond thrilled I just can't wait. I will be over there a little over 2 weeks. I can't wait to see all my friends. 223 days lets hope they go by fast.

Well better finish up laundry and pack I am heading out at 6am tomorrow.

Another year gone by

So my birthday is almost over so another year older not sure that I'd say I'm wiser. We had a great time camping it was very peaceful. Lots of stuff going on these days. I am heading out early tomorrow to West Virginia so I better go and get my stuff together.

Private

Actual managed to blog today but I had to do it one the private blog. While I lost a lot of visitors during my summer hiatius its not worth having more stress.

Still waiting for my plane :( If you don't have access to the post email me

Mountains, tears, horses and bears

It is really annoying how fast time goes by. We are getting ready to pack up our things as we will head home tomorrow. Hard to believe its been a week. I warn you this will be a longer post but there are going to be pretty pictures to look at if you want to skip the rambling.

We got to the Westgate resort Saturday and checked out Gatlinburg Sunday. Had lunch at Hardrock Cafe,

went up one of the mountains on the ski lift and just walked the town
Monday we left the pup with Grandma and got back in the car to go to Kentucky - Hopkinsville to be exact. This is were hubbys mom is from and he spent some time there growing up. We went to see his aunt and managed to meet up with 2 of this cousins there who he hadn't seen in over a decade.

Cousin Danny and his wife with us - No question if those boys are related right????? We had dinner with them and Danny's sister and her daughter and new grand baby. Now I still have major baby issues and its hard to be happy for people that had babies while we cant but i can usually pretend to be happy. However you put that baby in Hubby's arms and that's it. Of course it didn't help that they all kept saying we needed to get cracking on having kids - and then pointed out how good hubby was looking holding the baby. Long story short I ended up in tears and hiding in the restaurant bathroom till i was able to stop crying. Now you have to realize I hate showing weakness in public and even more crying in front of others. I don't know what I will do if the surgery later this months shows for sure we'll never get to have kids.

After getting back Tuesday night Hubby and I finally got to go horseback riding Wednesday. We have been looking forever whenever we go somewhere but its rare that places have horses strong enough to carry us. But not this time the first place we called said they'd take us on a guided ride as long as we can get on the horse without help.

So off we went - 2 hours. Hubby's horse was Diesel a stubborn Belgian/Quarter horse mix that weight 1600lbs and decided a few times to go off the path!!!! He had no problem carrying hubs for 2 hours up and down the muddy paths. My horse was named Pepper and she was a sweetie but kept stopping to snack - which we had been told they are not to do. The trails were in the woods and we saw plenty of tracks including bears. I have to say i am glad we didn't run into any wildlife since I wouldn't want the horses get to upset.

After the 2 hours horseback we decided to cool while tubing on the river. It was fun too but I could have done without the sunburn and cuts i managed to get. The river was cool enough to be refreshing so it was great after the hot ride. We got a waterproof disposable camera - if any pics turned out I will be sure to post them :) Hubby's other cousin was also vacationing in Gatlinburg (now they have not seen/spoken in years yet we managed to be in the same place at the same time) so we met up with them too.

Thursday was going to be hiking time but we ended up chilling since it was raining and just doing a 1 hour guided nature hike (walk) which was fun.

Friday we had to listen to the timeshare spiel - and while hubby finished signing the papers I headed back hoping to go for a hike with Mom and the pups on the only trail where pups were allowed. As we are getting ready my mom was on the balcony and all of a sudden saw the bears under us. Yes right there. Mama Bear and her cups. All the pics are on flickr if you want to check them out there.
Here is the video - neither mom nor i thought about videotaping it till the end.

Wow its been a week already and I haven't finished the post - darn. So the drive home ended up taking 2hs longer than anticipated since I decided on a short cut. I hate it when short cuts end up making trips longer.

Sunday we just chilled getting ready for the week asking Mac and the kitties for forgiveness since we had left them behind.

Right now I am in West Virginia - heading home tomorrow. Next week is Ohio - Cincinnati and Columbus.

wow I haven't blogged in over a month

That's like a personal record for me. Guess you can call it a summer break in blogging. It's not like there wasn't enough to blog about more to the contrary but I just didn't have a chance to actually come on here and write it all down. I guess that means this could be a long post - we'll see.

Mhh where to start its been busy. I had to close down a lot of my sites as studies ended. No more week in Vegas for me. I opened up new sites in WV, OH, NY and PA and I am so excited that there is a ski resort near at least one of them so for the first time since moving to the states I will get to go skiing. I can't tell you how thrilled I am, I already bought some ski pants, I got gloves, sweater and coat to suit the weather already. I am no big fan of snow suetes and I doubt it will get cold enough for it. I already checked out the fees for the lift and ski rentals. I may need to check what it would cost to just buy a pair of skis and take them with me. I need to get my cross country skiis from Germany. Its pathetic I have 2 pair of them over there and none here.
Work keeps my busy and traveling but I am glad - I don't mind the travel and I am glad to have a job with the way the economy is going.

Our guest have come and gone - i hope they enjoyed at least some of their trip. It was definatly an experience. They saw a lot from DC to NYC and the outer banks plus the unplanned ER visit. Of course they went to Busch Gardens - here is my god child with my niece. Those two became fast friends and we realized they are the same age just 3 days apart. From what we heard they liked NYC the best except for my friends dad who liked the beach best. I also took my friend along with me to my weekly sessions with my trainer. She kept up pretty good but ended up in pain for days after since she is a runner and doesn't go to the gyms in the summer over in Germany. She says they are to hot and smelly since none of them have AC. During their vacation I had to head to court for this - remember (the first 2 posts - sorry the blog is private email me if you need an invite)? Well the good news is the judge found the girl credible and didn't believe a word the family said. She didn't get as much as she had asked for but what the family is to pay is near what it would cost to appeal so I hope they'll just pay and this is over with. I was so nervous on the witness stand I know it had nothing to do with me I was just their to bear witness but still facing the judge and lawyers is something I'd rather not do again.

We dropped them off at the airport in DC at the end of their two weeks and had barely a night to get the guest room ready for the next guest. One of the au pairs needed a place to stay till she found a new family. She found a nice one outside of Chicago and I put her on the plane Friday and then left myself on Saturday to meet up with my mom and head to WV. I had to go there for work and she wanted to see a new area of the US.

So that's about it. This is the first weekend I am home in over a month and I am enjoying it. Relaxing, watching, TV reading and of course blogging. The girl from the court case is getting married today so hubby and I will head there in a little while till then I believe I will take a nap.

This and that heard at the airport

Popculture?
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Wow what a day. This morning I head f. Fawcett passed and now while waiting at the airport I hear Michael Jackson died. What was amazing is that the entire airport was buzzing with people talking about ja ckson dying. Mobil websites were down and even blogger locked up. I haven't seen people interacting like this since that day in September 8 years ago.
RIP to both as they did have a effect on our (pop) culture no matter if you feel that was positive or negative.

Looks like my plane will be delayed - 30min to take of and no plane in sight. So i guess it will be a long night. But at least I get to go home. The weekend will be busy getting ready for our visitors that are arriving next weekend. I will be in Philly on Monday and then DC on Thursday for work. I will just stay in DC till Saturday as it doesn't make much sense to go home for a day and then drive back.

Just another weekend

It's kind of weird to have the house to myself for the weekend. Grumpy went fishing with some friends of his for his birthday so its just me and the pets. I played in the pool then went to the gym (i know its was silly should have played in the pool after the gym) then went by the German Restaurant to check with the cook. Her Granddaughters are graduating tomorrow so she had asked if I could cook for her. It has been like 9 years since I worked in their kitchen full time. I had helped out a couple of weeks ago when their kitchen help was out but the cook was there so tonight should be interesting. I don't worry about the night part but the prep work stuff. Since I don't want the food to taste any different. After stopping at the German place I went by the Italian restaurant that I used to work at. Saw the owners new baby and hung out for a while as I waited for my bruschetta. Its always fun to hang out there and I miss working there but I just dont have the time anymore. He did ask if I would help out if people are on vacation which i said I would if i was in town. Speaking of being in town it was nice to just be gone one night this week. I am gone 2 nights next week and then all week the following week. I am so glad things will slow down once June is over.

I can't wait for July when my friends from Germany are coming while it will be interesting trying to fit 8 people in my little house - plus 2 big dogs.

So if you saw the twitter/facebook update yesterday you know that the meds are not working so all that money pretty much went down the drain never mind the black and blue belly from all the injections. Now they are talking about drilling my overies and while they are in there they are using a camera to look around and also flush out the tubes again to make sure they are open. I have to say I am pretty nervous I have never been hospitalized never mind had ansestishia. Besides even the doctor even said she didn't know if this would help me since I haven't reacted normal to any of the treatments. I mean I only had 2 cycles on this latest medication and I am already resistant to it. I wish someone would explained to me why all those people that don't want/shouldn't have kids can and there are so many that want to have kids/would make good parents aren't able to. Guess its fair to say the universe has a cruel sense of humor.

Autch

I am such a baby - licking my wounds right now. I had a fun afternoon tubing. See I have to do water safety meetings for the au pairs and find they are more fun at the beach with water sport activity. The tubing part was awesome everyone had fun. Since I am not a light person I couldn't back on the pier since it was still low tide and there was no ladder - so I decided to walk up the boats ramp. I knew it was slippery but figured if I hold onto the pier I'd be okay - Yeah not really. I got halfway up when I slipped and slid down the ramp - barnacles and all. So I get up with cuts on my arm, leg and feet and now had to walk 500yards to the beach - thank goodness we were at a private beach. By the time I get out of the water my arm and leg had blood running down. And once I left the water my feet were bloody too. None of the cuts are very deep but they still hurt. Especially on the feet and its not like I can stop walking on them :(. So I will be misserable tomorrow as I have to fly to Pittsburg to get to Wheeling, WV for a site visit on Monday. But everyone had fun. We are babysitting Grumpy's niece again and she had a blast she even tried waterskiing but as you can see that did not go well. In all fairness the boat was to small and did not have enough speed to get her up. She did love tubing so and just playing in the water I finally got her out after 6pm.

Great weekend

Grumpy and I had a wonderful weekend in the Outer Banks. We stayed at the KOA campground on Cape Hatteras. The weather was perfect it was sunny but windy enough to where you could be outside. We took a nice walk on the beach. Mac was fine until some wave snuck up on herIt was funny everyone stopped to look at the pups - see the weather was nice so we had them on their leashes attached to the picnic table - I guess people just never see Great Danes. Saturday night we walked over to the sound site to watch a beautiful sunset. It was so great to just sit there and watch the sun go down.

All in all the weekend was very relaxing I can't wait to go down there again in July when my friends from Germany are in town.

So far my week wasn't to bad either Sunday night I got an email from where I was to be Monday stating they had to cancel the visit so I got a day at home to catch up on reports and stuff. Today I had doctor appointments - things look good this cycle and they added another injection - this one in the AM - got to go back Friday. Tomorrow its off to Ohio State University but its a short trip I will be back Thursday night.

time flies when your having fun ...

... well wouldn't say i had much fun the past two weeks (except the night at Disney of course) but time sure has been flying- work has been killing me with deadlines and people wanting stuff done without giving time to complete things.

I spend this weekend cooking at Das Waldcafe. While I loved doing it and have fun doing it - those were long days and not easy work since all is made fresh. That means beating all the veal cutlets and making the dough for the Spaetzle (german noddles) by hand. The dough has the consistency of bread dough so its hard to beat it all till is smooth and since the dough is so thick you can't do it with a mixer nevermind that i am not used to stand for 9-10hs at a time anymore - I must be getting old ;)

My friends from Germany are going to be here in 5 weeks and i am way behind in getting the house ready for visitors (6 of them)

I haven't blogged much either. I stopped the import to facebook since there are two many people that can see it now and that was one of the reasons i haven't said much. I am debating on using on the private blogs more since the address on this one is out. We'll see.

I am looking forward to the weekend Grumpy and I are taking the camper down to Rodanthe NC for a weekend trip with pups. Since i have been gone so much we haven't seen much of eachother so it will be good to get to hang out - have nice walks on the beach with the pups.

We just did another p-test and of course it was negative as always. I am so frustrated we have spend thousands of dollars on these medications/tests the last 10 months and have NOTHING to show for it and noone seems to be able to tell me why its not working. So I guess I get to call them tomorrow and find out when to start the injections again (in the belly no less :(). There goes more money - the injections at the last dose they had me on run at about $130 a day and last month I was on them for 24 days! Yes you read right that is a day for one medication - the medication is not covered by my insurance. Luckily with the program I got some of it for free and friends of ours that went thru the same treatment donated what they had left to us so we only had to pay for some of it.

Well enough wining I need to go crab some dinner and get to bed my flight out to NYC is at 5:45 am so the alarm will go off at 3am. But its just a day trip to Norwalk, CT - I fly back tomorrow night so I get to sleep in my own bed.

I hope everyone had a nice day off and remembered those that the day is meant for.