Awwwwwww

How much do I love my husband?

Enough that during a shopping trip to Costco today, I took a picture of him with an enormous spider with my iPhone for him to put on his Facebook page. Evidently he thought it was funny. I didn't. Had to copy the stupid thing to my computer to get it over to his Mac. When I deleted it, Vista had the nerve to ask me if I was sure. Of course I am. It was a freaking huge spider. I'm getting cold chills just typing this.

The past week has been pretty quiet. Nothing as exciting as a trip to the speedway, for sure! For the most part just working and trying to get insurance straightened out. For those of you who don't know, Richard's company was bought out by Oracle on August 1. We allegedly had insurance benefits starting on that date, but we've yet to see any cards. And we have appointments coming up this week, and I'm not sure that the doctor's office (or at least the huge clinic my doc belongs to) is going to "take my word for it." I think we've got it worked out, but we'll see. The next huge hurdle was the paycheck; payday was the 15th, and the first check had to be mailed. It didn't arrive on the 15th (it came today after the banks were closed), so there was considerable shuffling of funds to insure a few automatic payments didn't go bouncy bouncy come Monday. At least I don't have that much hair left that isn't already grey.

On a happier note, I got my package from my swap partner in the Purple Rules! summer swap:Included in the package was some Plymouth Sinsation, a kind of chenille-like yarn that is very soft and will make a very nice scarf, two skeins of Koigu for some socks, a bamboo "stitch fixer", some darning needles, a button and some sticky notes, and a box of Tazo teas. All very nice and very much appreciated. Thank you Pam!!!

I have a couple of swap packages to mail out myself next week... so tomorrow will be spent boxing them up and getting them ready to go. :)

Other than that we plan to have a relaxing Sunday... maybe do a little more cleaning out of cabinets in the kitchen with Richard mocking my unfortunate weakness for gadgets on infomercials. At least I'm providing him with some amusement!

Anniversary Weekend!!!

It's hard to believe that on Monday the 11th, Richard and I will have been married for 24 years. Considering I was 50 this year, I've been married just about half my life. Wowsa. Kind of mind-boggling when you put it in terms like that.

Usually for our anniversary we take a trip to Highlands, NC and stay at the Skyline Lodge, mine gemstones, eat too much, and generally enjoy the cooler weather for a few days. Unfortunately, the trip to West Virginia was pretty hard on Oscar, so we've made the decision not to travel further than my mom's house in Rome with His Royal Lowness anymore. We knew this day would come, and we've been pretty lucky with him in his 15 years. It's time to let him have some peace and quiet in his old age. Now, we're not ruling out the occasional shopping trip in his stroller (or Royal Carriage, as DF Jill says), but for the most part, he'll be home at night sleeping in his own king-sized bed, letting us have a little room to sleep as he sees fit.

So since we weren't going to Highlands, Richard made alternate plans for us on our Anniversary Weekend. Today we went to Atlanta Motor Speedway for a pilgrimage. This is the third track we've been to; the others are Bristol and Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. While some may think it's boring to visit the tracks when races aren't going on, we think it's interesting, because you can go in and really see the speedway and go places you'd never get to go if there were a race going on .As you might expect, the speedway's a big place. Atlanta's one of the 1.5 mile tracks, but it's not really a "cookie cutter" because it's one of the older tracks on the circuit (dating from 1960) and it has significant banking in the corners, making for some fast racing. As an interesting bit of trivia, in November 1992 it was the site of both Richard Petty's last race and Jeff Gordon's first one in the season ender.This statue of Richard Petty signing an autograph for a child is right outside the ticket office of the speedway to commemorate the event.

We took a tour of the speedway; it wasn't a busy day, so Richard and I were the only ones on it, and it consisted of getting in a van and driving around the inside of the speedway and the grounds, with the driver giving some history as we drove. A lot of it I already knew, but there were some interesting tidbits, like the fact that there are some condos around the track for sale, ranging in price from $300K to a cool million. No real estate crisis there.The condos overlook the track and are evidently quite posh. Unfortunately we don't have a down payment right now.

The tour normally includes a ride in the van on the track, but we couldn't do that since there was a driving school going on. But... it ended up working in our favor, because after the tour, we drove over to the infield tunnel......signed a release, and were able to drive the Hummer right into the infield of the track where the driving school was taking place -- which was right on pit road and right next to the Cup garages and Victory Lane!Here I am inside the Cup garage!!! (In the back, you can see a restroom that no doubt many a driver has used over the years. I restrained myself from going into it. Really.) What always amazes me about the conditions around the race teams and the garage like this is how clean it is. No oil stains; no dirt; I'm not saying you want to eat off the floor, but it's certainly not like other car shops I've seen.

Richard hamming it up in Victory Lane:I thought briefly about trying to drive the Hummer up there, but I decided I wouldn't push my luck.

We were down on pit road, right where the Cup cars would be pitting during the race. Here I am on the pit road wall:I found it amazing to see that there are power outlets and water spigots on the other side of the wall. I haven't visited pit road at the other tracks to compare, so I don't know if other tracks have similar accommodations for the teams.

Also on pit road were the cars for the driving school. They weren't Cup cars; they were more like modified Nationwide series cars:We were able to get up close and get a good look at the inside of them as well:Maybe one day I'll save up my pennies and at least go for a ride-along in one of these cars. Since I don't know how to drive a stick, it would be kind of hard for me to actually drive one of them (even though that would be waaaaaay kewl). Maybe I'll just get a firesuit and a helmet. :)

From there we drove around to see the Legends cars (which are smaller cars that kidlets drive to learn to race). The track hosts races for these cars every Thursday night:If you look carefully, there's one for sale there in the back of the picture, so you can have your very own Legends car you can park outside your condo at the track if you've got the money...

After a stop at the gift shop (more Dale Jr. swag!), we headed north and shopped at Ikea for a bit. (Whoever said that "Ikea" translated to "Cheap Swedish Furniture" evidently never shopped there with me. Dang, I can drop some money at that place.)

So... that's the beginning of our weekend. The rest will be pretty tame. Some errands and a run to Micro Center tomorrow (and maybe the Apple Store), dinner at The Melting Pot tomorrow night, and church on Sunday.

It's been a very short and a very fantastic 24 years. I'm married to my best friend in the world, and I'm the most blessed person ever. I love my husband more now than I did the day I married him, and I realize how very special that is. If you haven't found that yet, I pray that one day you will.

In which I am outsmarted by a 14 lb dachshund

Oscar, being a 15 year old gentleman, has developed a touch of arthritis, and the vet has given him some medicine for it. Tramadol, to be specific. Turns out this is a pretty good medicine for dogs because it's supposed to relieve his discomfort but it doesn't have all the side effects that Rimadyl and some of the other drugs have. Plus, it's cheap, which my pocketbook loves.

The major drawback of Tramadol, however, is that it is incredibly bitter. As such, Oscar doesn't like to take it. Can't blame him really, but there's no reasoning with him as you would a child, and no promising him a toy (as my parents used to do when I got dragged to the allergist in Atlanta every few months... and I always knew that was going to involve needles and lots of them).

So the trick has been to hide the quarter pills in something yummy and hope he gets it down before he tastes the pill. Unfortunately this has been easier said than done.

Our usual weapon of choice in this has been Velveeta cheese. Nope. We went to peanut butter, cream cheese, yogurt, ice cream, even the terribly expensive Greenies Pill Pockets, which Vicky's shih tzus gobble up like Doggie Crack. Nope.

While Judy was here, she held him and I tried to force the pills into his mouth for him to swallow. This only resulted in me getting bitten several times and Oscar literally frothing at the mouth.

Later that weekend we hit on Omaha Steaks hamburgers. If we cooked one, then carefully sliced it so that we could put the quarter pills into an end piece; he would snarf them down before he realized it.

Until this morning. The jig is up.

I went to Chick-Fil-A to get his favorite chicken nuggets, concealed the pill quarters in two pieces of nugget, then nonchalantly put them down for him to eat. This was the result:Note the carnage of chicken nugget pieces above the plate, where he has deftly de-pilled the nuggets.
See the close-up of the small white quarter of a pill that's causing this problem??? Seriously, I'm only trying to get two of those down the dog in the morning and in the evening. You'd think this wouldn't be that hard.

I have a B.A, a B.S, an M.B.A. and a CPA license, and evidently I'm being outsmarted by a 14 lb dachshund. Anybody else got any ideas?? I'm open to suggestions.

Annoying defined

Annoying: Stitching along on antlers on a Nora Corbett reindeer and discovering you're one stitch off and there's no way you can fudge it.

It's a huge reminder that I'm not the great stitcher I think I am. Either that or a reminder that I can't count. One of the two.

Happy Birthday, Oscar!!!

Our little man is 15 today!(Really, isn't this just the sweetest face you ever saw??)

It's hard to believe he's been with us all but 3 months of his life. He's slowed down a bit, but he's still just an incredible joy in our lives. We've all grown up together.

Tonight he dined on filet mignon, suitable for His Royal Lowness. Of course, he also ate half of my steak and part of Richard's steak too. How can we say no?

Happy Birthday, Oscar. We love you, and we thank you for putting up with us. I promise we'll take care of you as long as you're here on earth, and we know you'll be waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge if you get there before we do.

Home Again

We're home again, which may come as a surprise to some of you who didn't know we were gone. :) We traveled to West Virginia to see Richard's siblings and do some work at the family business.

Richard's from a little town in southwest WV named Man. It's a small place nestled in coal mining country. When the mines are working, life is good. When they're not, well, the economy suffers. The latest thing to hit the area is the advent of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail, which attracts four-wheelers from all over to ride amongst the flora and fauna of the mountains. As it turns out, Richard's family has a history with the Hatfields: his grandfather on his mother's side was a doctor who took care of Devil Anse Hatfield, and descendants of the Hatfields took care of Richard's mother during her illness before she passed (wonderful ladies... I can't tell you how grateful we were for them! I guess there's some sort of symmetry there, eh?). During our last evening there, Richard and his siblings got into a discussion of family history; they can trace their family back to the Revolutionary War. I think they thought I was bored, but I found it fascinating. I have no such idea of my family roots except that I know two of my great-grandmothers were full Cherokee Indians. I guess one day I really need to track that down.

May I say that as a Georgia girl, born and bred looking at Georgia red clay everywhere, it's fascinating to drive down the roads through eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia , where they've cut through mountains to make the roads, and see the strata of coal on either side. It's kinda freaky to me.

We made it there safely despite a GPS system with a death wish. Evidently the GPS couldn't handle the mountains on the Kentucky/WV line. It would freak out and lose its way, then tell me to turn left. Problem was, it kept wanting me to turn left off a bridge over a valley between two mountains. So it would say "Turn left" and I would yell "The hell I am!" at the thing. It became quite amusing for about 30 or so miles before it got its little electronic brain back.

Anyhow, the family business is a store that sells clothing, jewelry, appliances, furniture, giftware... a little bit of everything... and has been in business since dinosaurs roamed the earth. The challenge since Richard's mom passed is the four kids now owning the business, and none of them ever planning to be running it, but yet finding themselves in the business of retail. While we were there, I installed Peachtree Accounting with the idea that they could bring some of the accounting work that's currently being outsourced in house. Richard spent his time photographing merchandise that will be listed for sale on eBay. It's a case of taking decades old manual systems and converting them to the 21st century. It's going to be a challenge for all of them, but I think that with some work it will be successful. With the current energy crunch, the mines are going back to work, and that's good for the area. Plus, the higher gas prices mean more people are shopping locally instead of driving to the next larger town which is also good news. :)

Business aside, it was great to visit with Richard's sisters and brother. Oscar was indifferent to the whole thing, I think, but as usual, he was a good sport about the trip. He functioned in a supervisory role while we were working at the store, of course.

Oh, and one of the perks of marrying into a family that owns a store is being able to shop at cost. Sweet!!! Needless to say I scored major amounts of clothing to see me through the rest of the summer and got a dress to wear to a wedding next weekend. It looks like nothing else in my closet. Richard likes it. :)

No real pictures from the trip yet -- I'm waiting on the sibs to email me pics they took of the four of them together and one with me and Oscar in it, but while we were on the road, we did see this:Spotted a hauler for Juan Pablo Montoya's show car on the road!!! Altho there's a lot of people who don't like Juan Pablo, he's my new hero since he took out the Shrub (aka Kyle Busch) in a race a couple of weeks ago and **admitted he did it**. Usually NASCAR drivers will blame a wreck on "just racing" or a mechanical issue, but Juan Pablo stood up and said that Kyle ticked him off, he'd had enough, and he wrecked him. Plus I actually think Juan Pablo's kinda hot -- Richard knows about this, and thinks Juan Pablo's wife is kinda hot, and we decided if we had the Montoyas over for dinner the only thing that could come of it is a restraining order. :)

Oh, you came here to see knitting or stitching?? Yeah... that got put on hold for the trip. Light was bad where we were staying, and besides, we had no time. Check back later for pictures of ornaments for the ornament exchange tho!! :)