Oh jetlag,you're obscuring the beauty....

I’m home!

Wow does this place look beautiful! I had the best flights EVER too. Unfortunately for you guys, they were also the most uneventful. On my long haul flight. I had 2 seats all to myself, the bathroom was just 2 rows ahead of me and the stewardess winked at me and gave me two free drinks and said “ it’s on me.”

The (only) good thing about being a little shrimp is you’re able to curl up like a fetus and actually fit on 2 airplane seats for a nice, real sleep. I read some, watched “ The proposal “ which I had seen before, but it was still good. The only bad thing about my entire flight was …..naturally ,I chose the wrong food. They said “Pasta or beef stroganoff” I thought beef stroganoff, you know with noodles. mmmm. Nope. I got rice with some sliced beef gristle. I wound up making myself a lettuce sandwich.

Then ,an hour and a half before landing we got a “snack” . I was starving by then and what do we get ? A nice little tiny pizza covered with one of my most hated things, mushrooms. Of course I picked the mushrooms off the damn thing and ate it. Not to mention the entire bag of cashews I had eaten during the flight.

Once I got to Chicago, my youngest son was there to meet me for a 2 hour visit. I was shocked to see that it was only 47 degrees in Chicago. BRRR!! My next flight was from Chicago to Little rock. One of those dinky 3 seats across planes. We had a male steward and he also gave me a free drink. LOL I must have looked broke or something.

I finished the book I was reading and was landing in Little Rock before I knew it.

By the time I got my luggage my girlfriends were there to pick me up.

I jokingly told them “I’ve been drinking since noon ,your time.”

Then of course we had to happy hour together once we got to my house. They stayed until about 8:30 and I immediately went to bed. I was afraid I would sleep half the day after being up for about 26 hours (less my fetus nap) but nope, I was wide awake at 4:00 this morning.

I managed to scrounge up some coffee and sweet and low ,but no creamer any where in the house .I had to use a frozen diet chocolate pop for creamer. I had given away all the food before I left .It was sooooo nice to see my house. Everything looks so huge . LOL the dishwasher, the sinks ,just everything.

I had to go cancel our mail forwarding, go to jiffy lube and the grocery store. I was afraid I would have forgotten how to drive after not driving for 7 months. Luckily ,that wasn’t the case. Boy was it nice to see my truck too!

The cable man was here when I returned from those errands. That took forever and my vonage phone is still not working. But I have the internets and cable. So I’m good right now. I’ll worry about the phone when I’m not so tired.

My house has mouse poop all over the place ! It looks like they’ve been having a field day in here while I was gone.

I have a million things to do …..and I’m tired. Soooooo tired…….

I honestly can’t even think straight because I’m so tired. Hope I can get regulated back to normal time before I have to drive to Dallas.

Happy whatever day it is :)

To be continued.......

see ya'

Hubby's home. Finally , cat's are cute . Life is a boring list.
I'll be back home soon.

See ya'll on the flip side.


Luv me

Beam us out Scotty........

What a bunch of hooey.


My husband left here last Wednesday for a one day trip. He packed clothing for a one day trip. He did not bring a coat.






As of right now, he remains trapped in Sweden. The news keeps saying ferries and trains are running extra trips ect... What they don't say is, it's impossible to get through to any of them by phone or their websites.


I have no idea when or how he is going to get home.


I am supposed to leave for the US in 6 days. No idea if I'll be going anywhere either.


On the bright side ,at least he's not trapped in an airport with no luggage and a bunch of little kids. Some people are really suffering .

The whole thing is just maddening.







Yesterday I was going absolutely stir crazy so I took the bus to Fareham. Glad I did because I hit the jackpot at the thrift shop.





I got 6 new shirts .......




















and a 45 pound pair of River Island jeans .......



















and I paid a whopping 24 pounds for all of it. SCORE!
****************************************************************************

Comments to comments :



Jamie said...

I loved every second of this video..I want to visit there, someday.

Hope this week is great! Hugs.. :)

Thanks Jamie. Due to the damn ash cloud this week has not gone as planned :(





Anonymous said...

Loved the video! I'm surprised hubby let you post his pictures! You look absolutely beautiful! Coat looks very nice! I liked the dog. The picture of bikes all grouped up, how could a person ever get his own out of that jumble! Aj



Thanks. Naturally, I think I look hideous. I had to force myself not to delete the pics of me. They pass bikes down through generations. Some of those bikes are 50 years old. I don’t know how anyone would find theirs in that mess.






Golden To Silver Val said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you for these beautiful pictures. I feel almost like I was there! I agree, you look amazing....but I still love you as a blonde. LOL, I'm still shaking my head over the sidewalk urinals!! Is there something to wash hands with afterwards? Hmmmmm, I thought not. LOL

Ditto the blonde thing. LOL Actually ,NO there is no where to wash hands after using the urinals. I guess men were just going right out in the street (obviously not washing hands then either) so they put urinals right out in public. Very odd.





Vicki says said...

again dahlink you must post me the you tube site so i can go see the video.. but it sounded like you had a great time....yea! glad to hear it.....dave said they even have hash bars....or something like that....love me

I believe you mean the “coffee shops” which are pot smoking bars. No alcohol in them OR cigarette smoking .





Mary said...

Thanks for sharing your trip. The pictures are wonderful. Sidewalk urnials would be shocking in the states. Like Val, I wonder about washing hands.

I'm happy that you had a weekend with compatable real live people. Everyone looks happy. That makes me feel good for you.


Thanks Mary. It was a really nice trip. We need to do things like that more often !






Corie said...

LOVEing the chocolate penis's on display. What great pictures all around. Thanks for sharing! I want to go now too!!! I'm so glad you got out of the house and had an adventure.

ps....you look fab!

Thanks. You can not tell in the pictures but they also had chocolate boobs ,butts and vaginas.





Anonymous said...

Great pics! Thanks for all of em. I meant to tell you about the coffee houses. Go in and have a cup, breathe deeply, you don't even need a joint. The air is thick with it. Chocolate penises? What do you do with it if you buy one - suck on it like a popsicle? On the street? Dutch horses look amazingly like American horses. You didn't stay in Amster love enuf to do it justice - so you will just have to go back. G5



LoL G5 . I did not see anyone eating them out in the streets. Yeah, I wish we could have stayed longer.







SOUL said...

ok. admittedly, i am jealous. how often do i say that? phft.
i am happy for you tho-- it does look like y'all had a really good time, and it would have been great to have an extra day or two.

i must say tho-- a few of those pix are quite disturbing. i don't think i need to tell you which of them i find to be such?


I know exactly which pics you are referring to. Isn’t that the grossest thing you’ve ever seen? Those were postcards. Can you imagine getting THAT in the mail?







Tina... said...

Tell me you got me a chocolate penis. And you didn't take photos of the skanky girls? Omg, out of that giant post all I got was penises and skanky girls...I need some love.



They won’t allow you to take pics of the hookers. I wish now that I had bought some of those damn penis’s .LOL I just don’t know how I would have got them home without melting .






HubbleSpacePaws said...

I've been following Skelly's progress for a while and saw your post. I just popped over to tell you that you raised a terrific son! Wesley's kind heart is an inspiration!

Now, off to read your post and meet you... looks like a wonderful trip!


Thank you! He is terrific , if I do say so myself :)







Anonymous said...

I agree with Hubblespacepaws! Aj


Thanks. Be sure and check out the latest on Skeletor .






Just unbelievable what bad shape he was in.





http://helpskeletor.blogspot.com/











Sandy said...

Nice job on the video!! Love the photos. Holland is on my to visit list....not this year but maybe next. Wish I could drive there!


I would go in the spring time !






Golden To Silver Val said...

Boy I bet you'll be glad to bring the kitties home!! (not to mention bringing YOU home too). Planes, Trains and Automobiles is my very favorite movie of all time. I bet I've watched it 20 times and it always makes me laugh out loud. The part where he's driving on the expressway at night and almost wrecks....their fingers making dents in the dashboard ...OMG...that whole scenario...I'm laughing right now thinking about it. Why can't they make good comedies like that nowadays. Good stuff!! I'm so glad you finally got to see it. LOLOLOLOL (THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS).

At this point ,no telling if MY flight will even be going. Ack! That was a great movie. I don’t usually buy dvd’s but I’m gonna buy that one . Hysterical :)






Anonymous said...

When will you get deposit back? Will hubby not keep apartment? Talking about funny movies, Cousin Vinny is my all time favorite.... the attorney that stutters cracks me up every time I watch it! You're coming back to beautiful weather! Aj

I was just meaning when ever it is that we move to a city. Because I refuse to spend another winter out in the flippen’ suburbs!






Wesley said...

"Planes, trains and automobiles"

That is a great movie. I miss john candy!

So do I . What a tragedy.

************************************************************************

Hope you're all having a great week and aren't stranded some place :)
If you are stranded by the ash please ...tell us your story .

Lovin' those red raybans...

Hi ya'll,

Forgive me for being soooo behind. I'm in frazzle mode.
I go home in a week or so and I'm trying to spring clean the house before I go .It only takes my husband about 2 days to trash the place ,so if it's clean when I leave we may still get our deposit back .

I made myself a 5 page list of work to do and talk about timing....what happens? My husband gets stuck in Copenhagen because Iceland had a damn volcano erupt. Several of the guys he works with are also trapped in Spain, Belgium, and Denmark. My man was supposed to come home Friday, then he would have had to fly to Sweden on Sunday. Well he couldn't come home, but he did manage to get a slow boat to Sweden. He will now be gone long enough for me to probably finish my entire list.

Let me see ...what else has been going on around here?

Oh, believe it or not ......I have become addicted to a night time soap about freakin' bikers. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit it but "Sons of anarchy" has sucked me into its biker-y clutches.
If you like crime stuff, this show is riveting. The young bikers are cute, (bad guys) yet loveable and you just thank God they're not YOUR son.

I'm stuck here with no car, obviously. Today the highlight of the day was doing my 3 loads of laundry.....which is an all day affair, me and my 3 hour washer and drying rack. yee haw!

Yesterday I got the kitchen, living room and downstairs bathroom spring cleaned. Part of that entailed taking the damn freezer apart because we have some kind of leak. Water leaks out the front onto the floor and then ice builds up so the bottom drawer gets stuck. It's a frost free fridge. Something is very wrong, but when I consulted Mr. Google it said it was probably a clogged drain hose. Well...no drain hose in sight. I give up. I just hope hubby fixes it before we get our asses sued off because the floor gets ruined.

I also had to unplug the phone (in the bathroom) to spring clean the bathroom. (What, you don't have a phone sitting on your damn bathroom floor?) Only the glamour of England. :)
Anyhow, It took me 2 days to figure out how to plug the phone back in. Naturally they had some secret safety shield that came down and hid the plug.
I myself am a total safety freak, but man, England takes the cake. lol
You can not even have an outlet in your bathroom here.

Tonight I watched "Planes, trains and automobiles" what a delightful movie. I just loved John Candy. If I ever saw the movie back in the day, I had no recollection of it. I was sitting there with 2 cats on my lap, laughing my ass off.

The other day I took the bus to Fareham just to hit all the thrift shops and didn’t find one single thing. :(
That's a lot of walking to do for nothing. It is funny though to see everyone out there in their summer clothes. I was wearing a coat and freezing. It might have been 50 degrees if not for the wind chill factor.

When I originally scheduled to go home for the summer, the plan was for the cats to stay here. Somehow, by the grace of God, the cats are getting to go home. Woo Hoo!
They'll be flying home the week after I do. This means I also get to go spend a few days with my sister. Usually when I go there, I’m driving a one way rental car at robbery prices. This time I will be able to go a couple days before the cats arrive, in my own truck. I can already taste the Texas Mexican food :)

Well, sorry that was so exciting. Wake up! wake up!

It is what it is. :)

Here's a couple of British commercials to reward you for your stamina.

This one reminds me of the time my oldest son wanted some RED rayban frames for his coke bottle glasses, he was 8 years old and he was stylin' .







Have a great weekend peeps!





Oh, P.S.

I'll do my comments to comments tomorrow :)

Fun with Amsterdam

We’re back.

We had a fabulous time.

We left about 8 A.M. on Friday morning; first we drove to Dover to catch the car ferry. The drive was fine as long as I didn’t look at the speedometer and see how fast we were going. On the way we saw rolling green hills, pine trees and in Dover, white cliffs. It looked a lot different than our part of England.

We had no idea what to expect on the ferry. I’ve been on the ferry in Seattle. This was a huge ferry .Busses and semi trucks even got on there. We had paid extra for priority loading. Meaning we were one of the first cars on and off the ferry. So we park and go up the stairs. You could tell it was a pretty old boat. The life boats were probably rusted into place. I think the ferry was 9 stories high. It had bars, restaurants, a duty free shop, a food court and a smoking area (woot!) We were starving by the time we got to the food court and I was hoping for something good. But what do we see?

Fish and chips, curry, baked beans and baked potatoes. Gah! I wound up with some crappy frozen French fries errr. .chips.

Once we got to Calais, France that’s where we continued our journey, I was hoping to see some exciting picture worthy sights on the rest of our drive. What did I see? Plowed fields and farm country. Hours worth .The roadside trees mostly blocked the view of the fields. I also saw plenty of graffiti; it was on nearly every over pass.

It was still light out when we arrived in Amsterdam. The second you hit the city, there are bikes every where .More bikes than you could imagine. No one wears bike helmets either, not even the little kids. The city is just packed with people .It seemed so “alive” .

Thanks to our good ole Garmen we had no trouble finding K and C’s apartment. And what an apartment it was. They had an awesome patio with glass doors that folded open, accordion style, transforming it to either an open balcony or a conservatory (glass room) Their apartment was right in the city, one could sit and watch people all day and never get bored. We were greeted with cocktails and a delicious dinner of lasagne and salad .K and C are just lovely people. K, like my husband travels all the time for work. C is in the same boat as I am. We all sat around talking and laughing until it was nearly 2 in the morning.

They had a list already prepared full of things to see and do the next day. I could barely drag my spouse out of bed the next morning. (old people ) lol

The first thing we did was walk down to the market. It’s a street market going on for blocks and blocks. I could have bought some clog shaped slippers, raw chicken feet, a giant wheel of cheese, or some chocolate penis’s.

Next we hopped on the tram (cable car) down to where the canal cruises start. Once we got on the canal boat my spouse informs me that he did not bring his camera. The tour was cool but I was wishing it was more into spring time, the trees were still naked and very few flowers were blooming. We cruised down several canals and even past Anne Franks house. Every where you looked were bikes, bikes and more bikes. The city was just teaming with life.

After the canal cruise we set off to find a place for lunch. We found a little restaurant, with a little menu. There is no danger of being over fed here. I ordered the filet. It came with a bowl of chips and about a teaspoon of salad. (we would have thought it was a garnish) When I stepped outside to smoke I saw a Mexican place right across the street .Gah! How I would loved to have found that place first.

Next we walked through a pedestrian shopping area. There are just miles and miles of pedestrian streets and little ally ways full of shops. There were so many people walking in one big crowd, at times you could not take a full step forward .This is why it really would be very easy for pick pockets to be successful. I was trying to find a cute (yet cheap) pair of boots so the only stores I went into were shoe stores. No luck though. However there were lots of cowboy boots in the shops. Oddly, I did not see any one wearing them on the streets.

We saw these big urinals right out in public. Also saw girls riding side saddle on the backs of bikes. C and I went to the coffee shop. It was packed with mostly young people, just sitting there rolling joints on the tables and at the bar. Apparently this was the coffee shop that was on the movie Oceans 12 .they had a picture of George Clooney on the wall. We did not stick around, nor did we buy anything. I just wanted to see what it looked like.

By this time my camera batteries were dying and hubby did not bring his camera. Ack! We took a break and had some coffee alfresco. The coffee was delicious but they serve you a little tiny cup of coffee. No refills either.

Off we went to the Van Gogh museum. The man was obviously nuts. My guess is schizophrenic .Some of his art was so dark and depressing I wouldn’t even want it on my walls.

Next we walked to the red light district. I really did not know what to expect .You walk by these windows and there are girls in skimpy bikinis .Most of them were sitting on some ratty barstool, bored to death, talking on their cell phones. It was broad daylight and none of it looked too pretty. The girls were nothing special, One looked about 12, One had stretch marks shining in the sunlight. The window settings themselves made me think that if I were to go inside, I would find shag carpeting and a waterbed. All in all, it was pathetic and I pity those poor girls.

We had dinner reservations for later that night. We had time to go back to their apartment for happy hour. I had over packed like crazy because I had no idea if we’d be getting dressed up to go out or what. Luckily we stayed casual. No miserable dress clothes for me. Lol

We walked over to the restaurant, and oh how I wish WE lived in a city. Again, no danger of being over fed. Since I had eaten a steak for lunch, I ordered a chicken salad. It was really a bowl of greens with a couple bites of chicken and 3 shavings of cheese. I was so hungry I think I ate 3 pieces of buttered bread. I was still starving. Everyone else’s food was piled up gourmet style .Huge plate, very little food. :)

I was all excited about what we would see the next day, until Hubby reminded me that we had to leave at 9 A.M. to get to our ferry in France.

Damn. I had totally forgotten about that. I wish we could have stayed longer.

We really had a wonderful time. Thank you again K and C !!

Oh no he didn't .....

Well we're off to Amsterdam.

Remember me saying that I've never met the people we're going to see?

I just asked my husband " Do I look ok? "

What do you think he said ?




Ready for it?





"You look the same as always."



Now that my ego is all stoked up .....I'm out'a here.



Wish me luck :)


Se ya'll on the flipside.

A heat wave and a fashion show....

We had a heat wave today .Woot!

It must have been 60 degrees. The people on the street were out in droves, dressed like it was the height of summer.

We leave for Amsterdam in the morning and I have a million things to do (besides cook dinner) ALSO..... if you were expecting me to call you, our vonage phone is out of order. Sorry. My spouse is still working (it's nearly 7 p.m. so I doubt if he'll be fixing it until we get back from our trip.

so with out further ado.......presenting Fashions from the streets of Fareham, England

(remember click on the pics to make them big)

Pink shirt, pink hair and skinney jeans....Yes, it's a dude.

























































Busy town

















Look at the cute helmet on the cop


































































































Spikes are cool man



















Spring Is slowly a' springin'


Have a great weekend ya'll !


I hope our trip is good. I've already overpacked beacuse I have no idea what clothes to bring.

I shall return with tons of pics.


luv me