Fennboree Day Two

This post is a hard one to write, not because it's painful, but because James and I realized just how CLOSE we were on our last search on this trip. That would be on Day 4, so I'm safe to post about Day 2, which was just as awesome as Day 4, but not so revelational. Lol. I want to post the info we've discovered, but I realize now is truly the time to keep my mouth shut.

Okay, so Day Two was the potluck at Fennboree in Hyde Park. There was SOOO much food. I didn't have the time to make mac n cheese and cookies, so I made two pans of the good ole standby--rice krispy treats.

Upon arrival, I saw WiseOne carrying some heavy loads (a cooler and something else) up the hill, so I jogged up and took the cooler from her, and that thing was heavy. It might have been filled with bricks. Lol.

After I set down the treats, I helped myself to a hot dog and spotted Spallies and went to chat with her. James took longer to get his food--I guess cause he's a man and can eat like a horse. He joined us with a plate full of fried chicken. Like maybe ten pieces. He must've built up quite an appetite that morning.

It was a really fun day. There was a little boy who ran up to me as I was setting down the rice krispies to show me a little golden treasure box and a prize box that held a cool little telescope in it. I showed him how to use the telescope, and he wanted me to open the little plastic gold chest, which didn't open, although I pretended to try and he liked that. I later saw him standing under a tree peering through the telescope. I wish I had a picture of that.

Later, I found out Sacha had hidden the treasure chests in an area around the pavilion for the kids to find. If they returned a treasure chest, they got a prize. When the kids were done searching, Forrest and I were going to go search for one of the few that were left, but as we were walking up to do that, Sacha announced the trivia contest. So I had a dilemma...search for treasure with Forrest, or play the trivia game? I noticed Forrest was getting distracted with attention, so I joined the trivia contest. The first round was easy. I knew almost all the answers, except the ones with numbers for answers. I'm not good at math. At all. Or remembering numbers.

Here I am sitting in the blue sweatshirt as Sacha conducted the contest.

I was the first in the second round to answer a question, and it was a number question. "When did Forrest sell his gallery?" Immediately, a couple dates came to mind--1979 and 1986. But both were wrong...it was 1988. So, I was out of the competition. I got a nice coffee cup consolation prize, but I made the mistake of setting it down, and when I returned for it, it was gone. Lol.

So, I went to search for the little treasure chests, but couldn't find any. Heck, if I couldn't find a treasure chest hidden for kids, how could I find the treasure chest? Lol...

I also got a chance to hand out some beautiful bracelets that NTMI from ChaseChat made. They represent the turquoise bracelet that's in the bronze chest. I gave one to Cynthia and Sacha and a few other people that made an impression on me. I also brought one to Forrest, but it was too small.

James was kind enough to give his bracelet to Forrest.

Then, James and I went on the short hike to the waterfall. It was a nice hike, very private and peaceful and you could hear the water trickling down the stream, and the wind whispering through the trees.

Forrest also spent a lot of time autographing things, like Spallie's tee shirt:

And mine, too:

After that, I remembered an old video Dal did a long time ago about an old pueblo where pottery shards littered the ground. We talked to him about it, and decided to go check it out.

So, we were on our way to Ojo Caliente. When we got to the resort where we were supposed to park, we noticed it was about to storm. The sky was dark in the distance, the wind was picking up, and the thunder was getting unnervingly louder. I don't think James really understands the danger of lightning, since he's from Seattle, since he was like "La la la, let's go on a hike!"

Thankfully, the storm passed without killing us. We weren't sure which way to go, so we just started up the path, then decided to take a short cut by climbing up the side of the rocky mountain. It was a little strenuous, but I'm glad we did, because we found a cool medicine wheel at the top made with chunks of quartz. People had left little offerings of pottery shards and beads and other stuff. You can also see this medicine wheel from Google Earth.

Shortly after that, we were scanning the ground for anything cool, and I stooped down and got a butt full of cactus. And when I tried to pull them out, they got stuck in my thumb, index finger, palm, and wrist. So, the remainder of the four hour hike, I had to be careful of how I bent over or picked anything up. Lol. I'm thankful the cactus thorns were more like wiry hairs than like this one.

Anyway, we finally arrived at the Posi Pueblo ruins, and had so much fun looking at all the painted pottery littered among the ground. We had collected a few pieces prior to entering the fenced area.

Anyway, we finally were getting tired, so we headed back to the car, then back to our "Wonderland Villa." It was a great day, and the ride home was amazing. The storms kept brewing, but then there was a break, and we saw a couple rainbows, and this spectacular sunset:

Anyway, I can honestly say that was one of the best days of my life. I love creating new memories with James, who is just the most awesome guy I've ever met. We truly found the enchantment in the Land of Enchantment. :)

Heading to 'Boree TOMORROW!

Well, this week so far has been absolutely the BEST EVER, and holy cow, the next week can only be better, although it's hard to see how it could be any better than the last several days.

James arrived safely and on time Saturday, and we had a great, very busy week, even though I had to work Tuesday. Saturday, we had lunch at Outback, then went to visit my mom and James got to meet my mom, brother and sister-in-law. He passed inspection with flying colors because he is awesome. Then we went to Tampa and won some money. We made the mistake of staying overnight at the Hard Rock and losing what we won the next day. Lol. Oh well. SO much fun, though!

We came home Monday and took Joe, Aidan, and Joe's friend, Jackson, to Escapeology. We played Arizona shootout and it was so much fun. Aidan very much impressed me with her clue solving ability. We escaped the room with 10 minutes to spare. Then, most of us wanted to eat at Dennys, but Aidan the Tattooed Diva said, "I don't eat at Denny's."

So we ate at iHop, which seemed grosser than Denny's to me at first, until I saw they had Swedish crepes, which were delicious and yummy and I ate every bite. Lol.

Tuesday, I had to work, but James dropped me off, then came to get me for lunch. It was a slow day, so my boss said to take our time, so we went to McKenna's, and afterward, browsed a thrift shop/antique store next door. I found a very old book that I want to really inspect. It's called Rocky Mountain Tales and was printed in 1885, and has notes written inside it by someone that appears to have some kind of first hand knowledge of the story. I think James and I will read it on the plane tomorrow maybe.

Then James dropped me back at work and proceeded to fix all my doorknobs and change all the burnt out light bulbs. He's so awesome. Then he picked me up at work, and we just relaxed that night and watched TV.

I took yesterday off so I could show James some local attractions, and we really wanted to see Captain America. So, we got up early and went and explored Turtle Mound for a while, then went to the beach to metal detect, and tackle each other in the ocean for a while. I taught James how to body surf. Then, we came home and jumped in the pool and I beat James in an impromptu game of pool basketball.

But, I have to say, James can kick my butt in Othello. Lol. Not for long, though, cause I'm learning fast.

Then we to see Captain America and I think it was good. :)

Oh yeah, we also baked cookies together! Everything was delicious...

And tomorrow we head to Santa Fe and 'boree. We should be at the campground in time for S'mores. Oh man, it's gonna be so much fun. James rented us a little (well, it's really pretty big on seven private acres) wonderland villa, and it'll be amazing. While in NM, we'll probably search a spot I've been looking at for a while, and attend the 'boree in between searches and other fun.

Anyway, we're engaged now in theory because there's no formal proposal or ring yet, but that's coming soon enough, I have a feeling. I've never met anyone so compatible with me. He's generous, kind, and hilarious. We laugh ALL THE TIME and it's just so nice to have such an adorable and huggable robot. And he's so lifelike I can't even feel his robot parts whirring when I snuggle him.

We're looking forward to meeting our friends at 'boree, so look for us tomorrow at the campfire!

Whupstupikins

I didn't have a quick enough title for this post, so I just decided to title it the first thing that came to mind, and that was when Monet jumped on the couch and put her paw on my paper plate that had some toast crumbs on it, and I said "Oh, Whupstupikins!"(pronounced whup-stup-ikins) and gave her my plate to lick clean.

I don't know...I just have this thing for crazy dumb nicknames...

This is Monet right now, going to town on some kind of bone treat thing:

Today is the dreaded "purple scrubs" day. We have two days a week where we all have to wear the same color scrubs, and today is purple. I think purple is an okay color for eyes and hearts and some other things, but not scrubs. I feel totally weird in these scrubs, and no, I won't post a picture because they're that terrible. Actually, here's a pic from right now, looking down, with the key to my heart for all to see. The scrubs in the pic look more blue than purple, but trust me, they are really, really purple.

And throw that on top of a Tuesday, which is usually the most busy and chaotic day of the week, and it's double dread. And Dr. K is on call today, which means I'll be keeping track of the ER remotely from our office on top of doing my other job duties, and that's triple dread, although I do like the excitement of viewing what comes in the ER, even remotely. Last week we had a guy who somehow ended up with pieces of a saw blade embedded deep in his arm. I'll see if I can take a pic of his x-ray later and show you tomorrow.

I just love radiology and x-rays. Sometimes I tell myself I should've went into the college nursing program instead of radiology because it's the same amount of school, and we learn many of the same things, plus even more technical knowledge, but get paid less due to the oversaturation of x-ray techs in the market. Then I kick my own butt to remind myself that I love x-rays, and I should always be doing what I love.

I may not be rich...yet...but I have no regrets, and my family's needs always seem to get met one way or another, and I believe if you do what you love, you're not really "working," but enjoying each day as it comes. I can think of only a few things worse than to be stuck in a job where you hate to wake up each day. I'm so thankful I can go to work and be excited for the day ahead, and when I make someone who is hurting smile, it's just icing on the cake.

And in the office where I work, I am so much more than an x-ray tech. I've been trained in all aspects of orthopedics, and I just love every part of it, from the x-rays to helping the doctors with injections, to casting, to patient education, and even the physical therapy part, although we've recently started sending the e-stim patients to offsite physical therapy because I'm just too busy with my other duties to keep up with e-stims/horizontal therapy, which typically takes up at least 20 minutes an hour during a typical day. With the new PA and all of the new patients we took from an orthopedist who retired, we are slammed, and everyone had to take on new duties, including me. I love it, though, and love being busy during the day. But I also love the rare days like last Wednesday, when my boss and I were able to take a breather and look at an old newspaper.

I still need to make some money for 'boree and for the time I lost at work with my mom's broken hip, so I'm going to be relisting some things on eBay at cheaper prices, and listing some new things that aren't so expensive. I also have some large items I'm going to list on my neighborhood's "For Sale" Facebook page. I've sold more than I expected to, and I'm thankful for that! I still have three almost done paintings, and Joe and Aidan said they'd donate one of their paintings to the cause. So keep an eye out...

Anyway, have a great day!

My Lazy Weekend

I was incredibly lazy this weekend, and it felt good.

Well, Saturday, I wasn't quite as lazy. I took Monet to visit my mom at rehab. It's pretty cool that they allow pets to visit. There's a giant orange cat that roams wherever it wants there, and it just happened to be right in the foyer as Monet, on her leash, came trotting in. 

I've never seen a cat hiss like that thing did. Cats are secretly demons, but I saw through this one's magic. Monet did too, because she tucked her tail between her legs and tried to flee, with only the leash preventing mach speed. I was a little unnerved by that hiss; to me it sounded like the last exhale of a person destined to Hell.

Once we were safely in my mom's room, Monet wanted to sniff everything and explore more than she wanted to stay in my mom's lap. That disconcerted my mom a little, because she thinks of Monet as her favorite child, and her favorite child wasn't showing her as much attention as she thought. She started to complain that Monet had forgotten her, and basically spent the time fretting that Monet was dying for water and finally said I should take her home so she could have clean water, as opposed to the water at the rehab, which was "dirty."

Needless to say, my mom doesn't like rehab. I don't really blame her, even though this is the poshest rehab around. She hates everything there, especially their coffee, so she asked me to bring a couple venti coffees from Starbucks, and I think that will be her daily demand for her visit. Aidan gets to fulfill that request today.

Speaking of Aidan...she actually got off work early enough yesterday for us to have a few minutes to chat. She wants yet another tattoo, one that says "little fire," which is the Welsh meaning of her name. She also wants the Montgomery Clan crest like the one my brother showed her while visiting my mom in the hospital. You can vaguely see it in this picture. Our motto is "Garde Bien," which means "Watch Well." The woman in our crest is holding an anchor in one hand, and a severed head in the other. Of course, for my brother's tattoo, the woman is, as he says, "sexed up."

Here's our crest close up with our tartan in the background. I would love to find a cozy flannel shirt with those colors.

Here's another family crest, which seems to have been created by someone with a foreknowledge that some future Montgomerys would end up in Florida:

Anyway, Aidan found a postcard from James on my nightstand and said, "What the heck does 'puh' mean?"

She laughed when I told her it means "precious," and possibly has some other meanings as well. I'll tell you all the cute story of that one day...

So Saturday, I cleaned the house a little, did some laundry, then retired to my room to play some Dragon Age. Monet decided to join me, and kept giving me looks like she blamed me for exposing her to the demon cat.

Then Saturday night, James and I watched a Netflix movie long distance, and texted each other comments about it as we watched. We decided on a movie called Thale. It's a Norwegian film, all subtitled, about two guys (Elvis and Leo) from a crime scene cleaning company who are cleaning some disgusting mess of a liquid human body from some guy's cabin in the woods. 

However, it doesn't seem like a good job for poor Elvis, because he pukes for about five minutes in the opening scene while Leo chews gum and watches him in sociopathic silence. When Leo isn't saying "Elvis," which is probably the most often used word in the whole movie, he's stoically chewing gum and scrutinizing things with almost a bored look. 

Then they find a woman (Thale) in a bathtub of milk, and she nearly chokes Elvis to death. Leo talks Thale down, and goes about his work, calling in to HQ for some backup and saying he thought they found a "hulder." I thought that was sorta funny for a cleaning company to have an "HQ." While he's doing this, we get a glimpse of something else in the forest, at which James texted an adorable, "wtf." 

I replied, "That was her brother." And it turns out I was close. It was her sister, and she had many more, as we found out later. 

Thale immediately goes and hides under the bed, and Elvis, despite nearly being killed by her, goes and lies down next to her as she stares at him with wide, confused eyes. Thale is mute, but she starts to hum a little tune, and Elvis responds by humming back, and then Thale reaches out and grabs his face, not to rip the skin off it, but to share her memories. It freaks Elvis out a little, but then he understands. Thale looks like she's about 24 or so, but she's really only five. The now dead old guy mad scientist or whoever has documented her care on cassette tapes, which Elvis plays throughout the movie. 

Then they find a severed tail in a little rusty refrigerator. Why the old guy kept it, I don't know. 

Then, out of the blue, we learn that Leo has lung cancer, and at points he starts to act ill. 

Then all of a sudden, some team in decontamination suits and carrying machine guns show up. For some reason, they tie the two cleaning boys to chairs and put hoods over their heads in the forest. Some older guy talks to them, and seems to know a lot about Thale. Leo is unconscious, presumably from an attack of cancer. 

Then Thale kills some of the decon crew, rising up from the milk bath and shoving a machine gun through some guy's body. 

Then we see a flashback where Thale is a young girl and takes a handful of dead white flowers and closes her hand. When she opens it, the flowers are alive. I knew then that Leo would be healed, and sure enough, he was. 

But before that, Thale's sisters arrive on the scene, looking all hideous and CGI, and murder all the bad guys. 

And Leo and Elvis live happily ever after, and Thale goes and wanders the forest without her tail.

So, after the movie, we looked up hulder and found out they're beings from Norwegian folklore, typically super beautiful and seductive mermaid-type women (but they also have tails) who live in the forests. Pretty interesting stuff. 

So we had a fun movie night, despite being on opposite ends of the country. 

Sunday, I was very lazy, alternately texting with James and playing Dragon Age. This is my DA character. I'm playing a mage this time...

I love my Par Vollen armor. If I can get into this kind of shape by October, it's going to be my Halloween costume. 

Anyway, I'm late getting Joe to school. Happy Monday! 

I love...Air Conditioning!

Ah, the blessed rainbow happiness of AC! As Florida decided to taunt me with it's wicked rising heat and no threat of thunderstorms or even a cloud, Phil the AC guy struggled through the mess in my garage and finally got the part replaced. So, I cranked that new AC all night long and slept like a baby.

Thank you, God, thank you, Phil the AC guy, and thank you, Guy-Who-Thought-of-Air-Conditioning-in-Florida-Way-Back-When! This guy, John Gorrie:

I was happy to see that people are taking an interest in my really terrible painting of the princess staring off into...somewhere. There's a little bidding war going on for that one, which I think is just the best.

Someone else has bid on Junior Aviation Science. Other items are being watched, so I don't know what will happen to them, This ebay thing is very new to me. Thank you to everyone who is bidding and/or watching.

The second I woke up this morning, my mom was up, and complaining about the ghost again. She said last night it was saying "BOOM.....BOOM." I honestly don't know what to think about it, except that she knows the 'boree is coming up and I'll be going out of town, and she's preparing the guilt part of the trip.

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to whoever sent me the new Fennboree map. I got #55 out of 250. That was a very generous and awesome thing to do, and I appreciate it and am very thankful and grateful. I hope you're reading this right now, and wanted you to know I love it. It is a very nice map!

So here's a fun thing...Ramona posted this on her Facebook page, and I thought I'd steal it and use it here, too. If you want to play, feel free to copy and paste in the comments and put your answers!

The Bucket List--Place an X by the things you have done:

Fired a Gun X (All kinds...I like to shoot guns and am pretty good at it...was a marksman in the AF)
Gone on a blind date X (too many bad ones to count)
Skipped school X (who wants to go to school when the surf is good?)
Watched someone give birth (I don't think seeing on TV counts, so I didn't mark it)
Watched someone die X (saddest was in x-ray school in OK when a young woman with kids died in the ER from a tragic car accident)
Visited Texas X (Drove through a couple times, and "visited" Lackland when I joined the AF)
Visited Canada X (Harrison Hot Springs is the BEST!) Here are some pics from one of our trips there:

Visited Hawaii (you would think with my ex-husband co-owning a house in Kauai with his mom and sister, we would have gone to Hawaii at least once--NOPE.)
Visited Europe X (England, France, does the Bahamas count?)
Visited Las Vegas X

Visited Washington DC X (I used to live and work there--Bolling AFB)
Visited Asia
Visited Africa
Visited Florida X (LOL)
Visited Mexico
Visited Australia
Seen the Grand Canyon in person X (very pretty and awe inspiring--the Canyon of all Canyons)

Flown in a HELICOPTER
Been on a cruise X
Served on a jury (Asperger's gets mentioned and I'm immediately out of there...lol)
Been in a movie X (I was an extra in Parenthood)
Visited L.A.
Been to New York City
Cried yourself to sleep X
Played in a band X (high school and college)
Recently colored with pencils X
Sang karaoke X (Most recently Drag Me Down by One Direction with friends. First ever was Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer at Rising Star on Universal CityWalk.) Here's me and my friend Jeananne at Rising Star. I look like a way too excited dork:

Swam in the ocean X
Paid for a meal with coins only X (at Denny's while in college)
Made prank phone calls X (with goofy friends calling boys we had crushes on)
Laughed so much you cried X (SOOO many times...like watching Riding a Buffalo)

Caught a snowflake on your tongue X
Had children X (Three amazing wonders of the world)

Had a pet X (Most recently Monet. My first  pet was a black lab named Sam before we moved from West Palm Beach to Merritt Island)

Been skinny dipping X (a couple times...not often)
Repelled down a building/tower
Gone zip lining X (I went on the Sky Coaster, the worlds second biggest sky coaster, which combines zip lining with bungee jumping and gives you the feeling of jumping out of a plane) Here's me and my ex sister-in-law getting ready for the plunge:

Been bungee jumping X (see above)
Been downhill skiing X (more like downhill falling)
Been water skiing X (I've wiped out on water skis, too...lol) Here's the first time I ever water skied:

Been camping in a tent X (Don't especially enjoy it)
Driven a motorcycle X
Jumped out of a plane
Gone to a drive-in movie X
Done something that could have killed you X (Way too many times)
Done something that you will regret for the rest of your life X (Unfortunately)
Rode an elephant X (at a zoo)
Rode a camel (at a zoo)
Eaten just cookies or cake or ice cream for dinner X (Ha! All the time)
Been on TV
Been in newspaper X
Stolen any traffic signs
Been in a car accident X (two or three, none my fault)
Stayed in Hospital X
Donated blood X (O Negative)
Had to pay a fine in the past 12 months
Eaten snails (Never ever will I ever eat a snail)
Gotten a piercing X (I had my belly button pierced when I was in the AF, then removed it when I had Callie...my ears are pierced) Here's my belly button:

Gotten a tattoo (not yet, but maybe a small one like the following pic...it represents peace in my heart) Here's my design:

Driven a standard car X (I learned how to drive in my dad's Datsun 280ZX)
Ever owned your dream car (laughable...I'm thankful to even have a car)
Been Married X (twice)
Been divorced X (twice)
Fell in love X (not entirely sure on this one...maybe?)
Paid for a strangers meal X
Driven over 100mph X

Worked in a pub
Been scuba diving X (I think SNUBA counts)

Found a dead body (almost...once I rode my bike past a guy that committed suicide on our street on Shady Lane,,,twice as I rode home from my friend's house in the early AM, and back to her house with my swimsuit because her dad was taking us sailing...I think somehow God shielded my eyes so I wouldn't see)
Lived on your own X
Rode in the back of a police car (hopefully never)
Written or published a book/story/poem/song (Lots--and edited them too...I still get measly little royalty checks ten years later...lol) Here's my most recent check (certain stuff blurred out)

Well, this post took longer than I thought...gotta hurry!