After all these years, I finally turned in my old Minimed 508 for their new Paradigm 515 pump. It is so much fancier than the old one, and I love the new rigs and new tester, too. Just check it out! Just in time for Thanksgiving!

I am currently in Pennsylvania, where the fall colors are so beautiful. Here are some pics as well as one from a giant pile of pumpkins outside Whole Foods in Atlanta.

I like to bring something small home from my trips for Shawn. I know that he enjoys dreaming of winning the lottery, so I bought him a ticket in Dallas. Believe it or not, he won! He had four numbers, and the ticket was worth $101. Awesome! To top it all off, he promised to take me to dinner with the winnings! YEEHAW!

Bert had a great idea for the sofa...SPOT REMOVER! This must be more than twenty years old and has been traveling with him in his travel bag since an unexpected layover back then. AMAZING!

My second week in Plano was disturbing...well actually only the hotel. It was a Towne Place Suites by Marriott. Just check out the sofa, full of enough forensic evidence for all the CSIs!!! I have labeled it for them! ;P

I finally succumbed to vanity. Everyone knows that I have a 'thing' about teeth, and JB and Mona's wedding provided the excuse for me to finally take the plunge! It was an uncomfortable, two hour process, but I think it was worth it. The worst part was that I could not eat any food other than white or clear foods for the subsequent 48 hours. So, I have been living off of milk, water, Diet Sprite, apples (no peel), white bread (no crust), plain yogurt, white cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, boiled potatoes (no skin), plain pasta with white sauce...yawn! The reason for this is that the protective layer of the teeth - the acquired pellicle - contains the dental stains and is removed during a regular dental cleaning or the whitening process. It takes 24 to 48 hours for the barrier to fully develop again. I will post some before and after pictures, but I warn you that it is very difficult to pose for a picture of one's teeth.

With Minus' mysterious illness and the culmination of my project at work, I have definitely been out of sorts. In fact, I had even forgotten to book my travel to Pittsburgh until Sunday! Luckily, Hertz found me a car, and the Holiday Inn found me a 'special' room. What a lucky girl I am! Now I know why Snoop is chillin' at the Holiday Inn!

Last weekend, Atlanta shut down as a result of a big winter storm. (I was on the last flight to leave Pittsburgh; the ones afterwards and all Saturday had already been cancelled!) Shawn and I woke up that Saturday to an icy wonderland. We lit the rotten log technology and watched DVDs from Shawn's collection. We never got out of our pyjamas all day! :) I did, however, put on my Northern snow boots and trench coat so that I could go outside and take these pictures and cook some wieners for us. If you live somewhere cold, you won't be impressed, but it is a big deal for us Southerners! Mercy! ;P

Would someone tell Shawn that Christmas is over? Boxes keep arriving from Amazon, and they are simply going straight into the closet - although he did tempt me into opening two! ;)

I left the house a little after 6:30 AM to make my way to my local poll to cast my vote in the general election. Of course, Murphy's Law came into play, and I ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere in the two blocks and getting lost until 7:00 AM. I blame the lack of coffee, but I have no idea what caused me to turn the wrong direction on a street that I drive almost every day. Anyway, I parked three blocks away from the church and walked back to stand in the tediously long line that wrapped around the parking lot. I took a couple of quick pictures when I got to the middle of the line (below). The manager of the poll came around and was chatting with people in the line. I heard him mention that they expected 2,500 people at their poll, but that they had not expected so many to show up at the start of the day.

I waited in line for a hour and fifteen minutes until I was finally inside the building, and we split into two lines: A-K and L-Z. Although almost half of the voting machines were available, there was only one person at the head of each line to check our identification and mark us as having voted. [A chance for process improvement!] I did not have to show my voter registration card, which I had spent fifteen minutes chasing down this morning, just my driver's license. Then, I was directed to proceed to the next person, who gave me a yellow card with a chip on it. It looked a lot like a hotel room card key. Another person then directed me to select any of the open voting machines. The machines themselves were unimpressive. They were large black plastic suitcases, which were lying open. That was the extent of your privacy. What ever happened to closing a curtain and standing in a booth? I inserted my card, which the machine ate, and made my selections on the touchscreen. It was very easy to operate, and there was even a chance to review your selections before casting your ballot. I spent less than three minutes entering my vote, and the card was then spat out to me. I returned it to the clerk and went into the kitchen of the church, where a lot of ladies had baked brownies and cookies for the voters! I was back in my car by 8:30 AM and off to work!

It seems that most everyone else is voting as well, because very few people are at work yet, but I was glad that I had done it. Now to wait for the results! :)

I knew that I was about to take my 3000th photo on this digital camera, so I was already thinking about what I would capture on this momentous occasion. Perhaps Shawn or Winston or even the three of us? Maybe a delicious recipe or a beautiful sunset? Forget it! How about a pic of me with Gas Guy from Georgia Natural Gas! What a hoot! Check it out! :)

Shawn and I have finally posted our photos of beautiful Arizona here. Our base of operations was the Marriott Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, where we enjoyed golf, the spa, and the pool. We went horseback riding through the Sonoran Desert one day, and we even took a drive to Sedona on the last day of our visit. The pictures are magnificent, but they really do not do justice to how enormous and stark the beauty was in Arizona.

I was very saddened to here of Julia Child's passing on Friday, August 13, 2004. In this age of low-carb and no-carb lifestyles, Julia Child would have balked at people, who were afraid of their food. She promoted the enjoyment of food – both in preparation and in consumption – and she was perfectly imperfect. Things caught on fire or fell to the floor. Measurements were suggestions. I simply think she was fabulous and will be missed.

The coolest thing in sharing digital photographs is finally available! At Stamps.com, you can upload your own digital photograph and make real U.S. postage stamps out of it! The cost is $16.99 for a sheet of 20 $0.37 stamps. OK, it is expensive, but isn't it worth it? Just imagine pimping your company or your web site on a stamp or even putting pictures of the cat or your friends on an everyday stamp! The idea is so exciting! It even makes snail mail cool! It is just so difficult to pick out which images to turn into stamps... ;P

Whenever and wherever I travel, or Whenever it is not raining in Atlanta, I am very grateful that Shawn introduced me to Jala Neti. Jala Neti is a practice of cleansing the sinus passages with warm saline water. In other words, a special neti pot is filled with warm, slightly salted water, and the spout of the pot is inserted into one nostril. The position of the head and pot are adjusted to allow the water to flow out of the other nostril. This procedure is then alternated with the other nostril. That's it! It may sound weird or gross, but what is worse: neti or filthy bats in the caves and green slime in hidden places? Shawn is on a mission to make sure that everyone with allergies or sinus problems knows about the neti, and he has many disciples. I am happy to announce that Paul is my first neti disciple! I showed him how to jala neti while we were in Austria for Oma's 90th birthday party, and he liked the results so much that he asked me to send him a pot and some salt. Now, we are both fresh and clean! :)

The burning question on my mind on Friday night in Linz, Austria was: Why does every Irish pub in the entire world have a "Players Please" sign? It made me think of my posse back in Atlanta, and the words of wisdom that we found in our favorite Irish pub... 'Don't hate the player, hate the game!'

Disclaimer:

The views expressed here are solely mine and not my employer's. This blog may contain language, images, subject matter, opinions and even recipes that some consider offensive. Wanna make something of it?