Interviews

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Concert, Sushi, and Driveways

Been busy.

Kurt's brother, scott, and his two chihuahuas, got into town on Friday morning. We all went to dinner at Vaquero's on Friday night and chilled at the house. Got to show Scott the new floor, my new car, the pond and some other changes to the house.

Saturday afternoon, had lunch with my friend, Hollie, at Mexican Gardens in Taylor. It's always nice to sit and relax and chat with her.......While I was gone, the boys started working on a driveway, which is exciting. They rented a piece of machinery to level it and started putting the boards up which is where the cement goes.

Last night, went to a concert with Rebecca. H an absolute blast. We met in greektown and ate at Fishbones first. Each of us had a cup of soup and then split a really good sushi roll with shrimp. Yum. The bread there is amazing.......Took the "people mover" to Joe Louis Arena and walked into to the opening act already started. Styx. Followed by REO Speedwagon, who I loved. And then, Def Leppard! The entire concert was about 4 hours and was incredible. Annoyingly, I started feeling a migraine coming on during the concert and by the time I got home that night, it was in full force. Which was annoying, because we were supposed to meet up with Lisa and Adam for a drink (they were in town to see the Lions game that night). I would have been zero fun with my headache though. Lots of stuff was fun at the concert. The people watching was incredible, LOL. Two girls behing put on an amazing dancing, makeout session. Pretty much everyone was watching then, which was their point. And Def Leppard really brings out the white trash population of the Detroit area. Super fun. We had awesome seats too, in row one on the side. So, we were not forced to stand the entire concert. The people behind us were hilarious too. They dressed up with wigs and everything like 80s hair band groupies. Loved it.

Today, Kurt and I worked. Fun, fun, but necessary since we are going to be leaving soon for our Osa adventure. Came home and chilled, got a workout in, caught up on my magazines and did some laundry. Finally booked out hotel for night one of the trip, which is basically just a place to sleep until our Osa flight leaves the next morning.

You Just Get Me

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Overwhelmed......

Click here to read about the latest drama....

Mr. Turtle

**we found Mr. Turtle in the middle of a path on our hike on Sunday. Super cute little guy. He totally posed for the camera, although he does not look overly thrilled about it. :)

Katie and Rebecca

Soooo, let's start off with some pics of the new flooring that I uploaded. Please excuse that it is not *clean*, but we had just finished the project and had not swept, mopped yet. I really love it thus far. So much easier to clean than carpet and just makes me happy. :). The pic of the boys I have entitled "Flooring Gangstas." It was taken after the floor was about complete.







Today, we went into the office for a short time this morning to catch up on some stuff. Kurt was really exhausted from the flooring yesterday, so we did not stay long which allowed me to spend time with Rebecca and Katie. Katie is a friend of ours from Toronto, and she was visiting at Rebecca's for the weekend. She got here yesterday, but I had family plans all day and could not hang that day. so, they came over and we went hiking at Sterling state Park, went shopping and went to dinner with Kurt and Kory at Vaquero's. It was a lot of fun and awesome to finally meet Katie. She is adorable, intelligent, super fun, and really nice overall.


**Nick, at the shower.



**Butterfly, at sterling state park


**katie and I, near the pond in the yard

Leaving the House

I should leave the house more often....I went to a baby shower today and wasa gone the majority of the day. When I came home, I came home to new flooring in my great room, almost done. About an hour later, it was totally done. Yay. I love it. Click here to see the color and type (I took pics, but have not uploaded them yet). It looks amazing. I have hated the carpet in the great room for a while, mostly because I would have to vacuum several times a day to keep in perfect, and yea, that is not happening with my schedule.

Headed to Farmington Hills this morning to pick up my Mom and sister and Nick for the baby shower. We headed to Milford for the shower, which was at a restaurant there. Super nice shower. I think Michelle got more gifts than I have ever seen at a shower. Craziness. There were a lot of people there though, like about 80 I think. Largest shower I have ever attended. I had veggie lasagna. After the shower, headed back to Farmington Hills and hung out for a while with family before heading home.

Britton, Kory, Kurt and I had dinner at Pete's and watched the end of the Olympics marathon. it was pretty kewl.

I have been researching some for our December trip, but have no idea where I want to go. The Galapagos Islands are on the top of my list, but Peru is up there as well........

Secrets Not Kept

So.....we told Kory about the trip. Mostly because he needs to pack a certain way (under 30 pounds, backpack, etc.) and we just kinda want him to know in general what he needs to bring so he is not forgetting important stuff he might need. Plus, I dont think he even has a backpack that he can use, so he needs to go buy that and all. He has a backpack, but not a hiking/good one.

At least this means I can talk about the trip on the non-secret blog now! Whoot!

Almost forgot! My new lens arrived at the office today! I am going to be playing with it very shortly at home and taking it out to the baby shower I am going to this weekend. Not that I really need image stabilization at a shower, but I can still use it!

Went to the Middle Eastern place for lunch and I am stuffed. All i had was lentil soup with hummous and bread. I need a nap, seriously......

Early Mornings and Late Nights

Had to get up SUPER early today. We had to draft three Judgments prior to leaving for court, and had to be at court at 8:30 a.m. Nice. So, we were up at like 530 a.m. Ugh. At the office around 6:45 a.m. Double ugh. On a positive note, we did get all the Judgments done and out. Had court today, which took forever. Got back to the office and ran the rest of the day.

Left to go to a board meeting. Constructions and/or an accident on the highway caused it to take me WAY longer than usual to get to the school. Gotta love sitting in traffic on the highway. On a positive note, I got to talk to my Mom while doing so, so it was not quite as annoying as it could be.

Found this kewl new site online today. They custom make jeans for you. I have not ordered anything and most likely won't since the jeans are pricey, but I thought the site was kewl. click here to see it. Forgot to post that I bought a bathing suit for our trip online recently. I got this $20 gift card online from Victoria's Secret for use on anything, no min purchase necessary. So I bought this suit with a black top and the bottom in black groove. We will see if i like it. I am super picky with suits, but since this top I could order in my bra size, I am hoping it fits well.

Had a massage last night and my therapist was like "What the heck have you been stressing yourself out with lately?" Yea, that would be the office. We are insanely busy, so I have been running nonstop and working a lot of extra hours. Meh. don't like it, but it is what it is, ;).

Love=Hummus

A client of ours just stopped in. She works at a local middle eastern restaurant down the street. She brought in some hummus and bread, as well as a menu and gift certificate, with a note thanking me for all we do for her. Totally not necessary, but totally made my day. And seriously, it may be the best hummus I have ever had. We are totally doing lunch there soon.

I wish people would just be nice though, you know? The client I posted about in the Secret Blog is so UNappreciative. This girl is super appreciative, and I love that. She does not need to bring me anything at all, but I just appreciate that she is so nice and realizes the work I put into her case and file.

Anyway, back to work.....

Published!

I had the day from hell today, which you can read more about on my Secret Blog. Besides the secret blog, we were slammed and I had to go to court unexpectedly which put me even more behind on what I was working on in office. So, after working until 730 PM, we headed home.

I had a package with the mail and was wondering what it was. Opened it, and immediately remembered something I had forgotten about. I am published! My photography that is. I have been published in the paper and online before, but never in a hard copy book! Super psyched. What makes me even more psyched is that I dont seek this stuff out. People see my pics on Flickr and will ask if they can use it, and I always just say yes. Anyway, this book is a travel book on Panama, called Open Roads Best of Panama and TEN of my pics appear in this book, including floral shots, landscape shots, shots of hotels, etc. All the shots are from this series on Flickr. Anyway, I am given credit in the book for my pics, and am just thrilled. It makes me think that if I actually tried to market my pics, I could do something with them. Have no interest in that, but it's nice to know that something I do for relaxation and fun is actually good! :).

Forgot to post that my t-shirt came yesterday, the Obama one, and it is super cute and probably the highest quality t-shirt i have bought from Cafepress. I think the darker colors come out better for some reason. I wore it to dinner last night nad have decided against wearing it to work, heh. I dont want to lose crazy republicans as clients......

lack of respect--stupid clients

Click here to read about the stupid people.

Vaccines and Val

Busy day today....Oh wait, every Monday is freaking insane.......We had to go to the travel doc in the afternoon to get some more vaccines. We had to get the second dose of the Hepatitis A shot, and we started the first of a series of three of Hepatitis B. My arms are a little bit sore right now, but the shots did not hurt while receiving them, which is good. We were asking the nurse which extra shots we would need if we take an African trip, and she said at least a polio booster, and she would have to check into anything else. I have been talking with this really nice guy on Flickr who travels to a lot of great places and has similar interests in travel as me and Kurt. Him and his wife have been all over the world (now retired). He suggested this awesome safari outfitter that I have been looking into a lot. The flight there is SOOO long though, so I think that is what keeps me away, since the Galapagos are so much closer. Choices, choices.

Val came over tonight with her boyfriend, and we all went to Applebee's and hung out, then came home and watched Intervention. It was a fun night. :). Good night for hanging out, since I was not supposed to work out too hard because of the shots. So, I just took the night off.

Ordered my new lens online from a site called Beach Camera, a site I have not used yet, so hopefully, it's OK. Also, ordered Kurt's new binoculars from Amazon, as I had a gift card to use on the site. Ended up getting him a slightly better version of the ones he had before. Hope everything comes in before our trip.......................

Sports and Babies

Friday night, I went to the Tigers game with Rebecca. She came to the office so we could head down together to have dinner beforehand. Places are crazy busy before Tigers' games, so we ended up at this place called Small Plates. It was OK. My fish tacos were yummy, but the service was slow, Rebecca did not like her food, and the prices were kinda high. But, we did get free dessert because of this! :). Dr. John, Rebecca's client, gave her the tickets, so those were free too! And great seats. The weather was perfect, and I had a great time, even though the Tigs lost. The fireworks after the game were fab. As always. Got home and was super tired.....

Saturday, we worked and got a ton done. That was about it though. We did stop at Adray Camera afterwards to look at camera lenses and binoculars. Kurt broke his and needs new ones and I am looking for a lens with image stabilization, similar to what I have now (that won't break the bank). Anyway, I looked online, but it's hard online to really see how large the lens is, etc. Anyway, Kurt found binoculars he likes and I found a new lens I want. I wanted to pay cash for the stuff though, which we did not have with us, so I have to go back. In the meantime, I found the lens online cheaper and some binoculars online that are similar but nicer. Stopped at Lowe's after that to pick up some fill dirt and grass seed and came home for the night. I had to run to Target to buy gifts for a baby shower too.

Today, had that baby shower for Char in Wyandotte at Portofino's. Really nice shower. Char looked adorable and the party was very classy and nice. Good food too, I had a fish sandwich. After that, came home and got ready for Tim's retirement party at the Mud Hens game in Toledo. I got to go on the field with him, as he threw out the first pitch. Took pics of that, and his granddaughter said "play ball" so I got pics of that as well. Really fun time. While there, we ran into Steve and Marilyn, our friends from Kurt's IRS days. They were in another Suite, so we hung out in both places. Came home and am chillin now before bed. Busy day!

Anyway, hope everyone had a nice weekend......I took more pics at the games, but I am too tired to put them up now. Will post later.

Lies, Fires and Storage

I bid on a huge storage unit on eBay today. My Aunt sent me the link. It was an item you could only pick up, in a town near the office. Really nice, new unit, with a starting bid of 99 cents. I bid that. I ended up winning, and this unit was prob worth $150 plus (this was their buy it now price).

Once I won, I emailed the guy about pickup and payment and got the following response: "I am really sorry. The person who had this unit had a fire last night and lost EVERYTHING, including this unit."

Yea, I am buying THAT. As soon as you made a horrible deal on eBay, the items was destroyed in a FIRE. Lame. Wrote him back, calling BS, and also left him negative feedback on ebay. What a crock. I don't really care about it, I was not pining over this item or anything, but I do think it's lame when people like that are on eBay and take advantage of the system. I took his rating from 100% to 90% though, so that made me feel slightly better. :).

Went grocery shopping after work today, which we desperately needed. Was happy to get some stuff in my freezer and pantry and frig. Made Kurt a Mexican layer dip, and I had some leftover pasta which I have been eating all week since I made way too much on Monday.

I am going to the Tigers game with Rebecca on Friday! We have great seats, thanks to a client of hers, Dr. John. Thanks, doc! :). We are going to hang out downtown beforehand, doing something yet to be determined. Spontaneous girls on the town, WHOOT. Can't wait to take pics at the game.

Congrats to my friend, Shannon, for putting a bid in on her first house! Yay! I can't wait to see what she does to the place.

Congrats to Julia for getting a raise and possible promotion to another department!

Congrats to me for getting my ass in bed! :).

Local Celebs

click here to hang with the pretty important peeps. You know you wanna.

Barack's How I Roll

So, I have ordered my presidential year t-shirt. I did this last election and wore the shirt quite a bit (it said *Let's Kerry Bush Back to Texas*) and still wear it so workout in. My wearing the t-shirt did not make Kerry win (boo-hoo), but even I can't make the Republicans stop cheating...... Of course, me being me, I cannot order something *normal*. So, click here to see what I will be wearing in the near future. I think it will be super cute under a suit jacket for work purposes (not court, obviously). And it will be cute for every day as well, of course.

McCain in Town

Yea, let me tell you, I was SOOOO excited. Not. LOL. Apparently, John McCain was in town today, right by my house. In fact, Britton texted me today and said my house was on TV! A helicopter was flying over following the McCain parade of cars, and my house and pond were very obvious on TV. Hilarious. I'm famous! hehe.

I so need to go grocery shopping. The lack of food in this house is becoming kinda obvious. I am running out of meals to make Kurt and running low for myself too. I am ALL out of Boca burgers. My life is not complete without Boca burgers.....

Went and exercised my right to vote today. I always vote. My thought is I am not allowed to complain if I don't vote. Although, I was not really voting on much today. I think there were three whole primaries that were contested on the Democrats' side. I was very against one sheriff because one of his interests in Ducks Limited. After our previous issues (twice) with hunters on our land attempting to shoot birds and the police acting like we were stupid for not wanting others to hunt on my land, I have NO interest in the sheriff being involved in hunting avidly

Working Sunday

We worked today. It was annoying, yet good because we got a LOT of stuff done. We really needed today. Got a text from Kory that he will be home tonight as well, which thrills me because he has a huge pile of work to do at the office and I was hoping it would not get put off more time. Plus, Mondays are horrendous at the office, and I will be super duper happy for him to answer most of the phone calls so I can work and do more paperwork. Yay.

Still trying to finalize everything for the secret trip. It is so slow dealing with these lodges. They do not have stable internet connection, so they check their emails every once in a while. Ugh. hopefully, I can get things firmed up with reserving our lodge. Then all I have to do is reserve a hotel room for our first night, and I am set. Whoot.

I am bummed! I am going to a wedding shower on Sunday, for a friend of mine, Char. I met Char through a really close friend of mine, Heidi, from high school. I was really hoping to see Heidi and her baby, Lanessa, at the shower, and I just found out she can't make it....boo. That's OK though, it will be nice to see Char all pregnant, and I am thinking I will be able to find someone to talk to, even though I don't know anyone, LOL. It is at Portofino's in Wyandotte, and I love that place. it's really nice and on the water.

Anyway, since I worked all day, don't have much else to post! Hope everyone had a nice, non-working weekend! :).

Blog Layout Change

I redid my blog! Check it out (for those of you who only use Google Reader....).

Leisure

Friday night, I was craving sushi, so Kurt and I went to Dolce Vita for dinner in Monroe. We each got miso soup, then split a king california roll, shrimp tempura roll, and another roll I can't recall, then we each had dessert--me, tiramisu and him, key lime pie. Everything was superbly yummy. It was a nice dinner out.

Today, I woke up feeling really, really weird and out of it. Super tired, lazy, etc. I think sometimes, I just need some rest. We were supposed to work today, but I really could not do it. So, we just kinda stayed around the house. Did run a couple errands, and I think it was good for me to be in the sun and just take a ride....Went and picked up bird seed and stopped at the pond store too. I ended up buying a lotus plant for the pond, which is gorgeous. Love it. We also bought some floral floater plants, 4 catfish, 5 frogs, and fish food. Love all the new additions to the pond, especially the little froggies. We had bought some previously, but have not seen them in forever, and I *think* that maybe the herons ate them. :(. Hopefully these survive. Tried to do some laundry and cleaning, but just did not feel like doing much. Did get some stuff done though......

Kurt was laughing hysterically at Oscar earlier today. He took them out to the pond, and Oscar notices anything new. Well, he noticed the lotus plant right away, and started barking and howling at it. He tried to *get* it, but we put it pretty far out, and he would have had to swim, and he was not doing that......He practically had to tear Oscar away from the pond. I think Oscar thinks new things in the pond are *alive* and he is trying to protect us from the intruders....LOL.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a nice weekend! :).

Update on Lame People

Come and see if you wanna.