Anyone want some snow? I'll have enough to pass around to several people by Wednesday morning:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY EVENING THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

SNOW WILL BEGIN TUESDAY NIGHT AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY. THERE MAY BE SNOW DEPTH OF 6 INCHES OR MORE ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL... NORTHEAST ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA. THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL WILL PROBABLY BE NORTH OF INTERSTATE 80 AND TO THE WISCONSIN BORDER. THE TRACK OF THE LOW MAY DETERMINE SNOW FALL ACROSS THE REGION. AREAS SOUTH OF THE KANKAKEE RIVER MAY HAVE LESS SNOW BECAUSE THE SNOW MIXED WITH RAIN AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS EVENT.

Is it spring yet?

From the National Weather Service:

"A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM CST MONDAY.

SNOW WILL RAPIDLY OVERSPREAD THE AREA EARLY THIS EVENING...WITH SNOW POSSIBLY BECOMING HEAVY AT TIMES. THERE IS A CHANCE FOR SOME THUNDER SNOW...WITH VISIBILITIES LIKELY FALLING BELOW A HALF MILE DURING THE PERIODS OF HEAVIEST SNOW. SNOWFALL RATES OF UP TO AN INCH PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE AT TIMES THIS EVENING...WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF ONE TO THREE INCHES LIKELY BY MIDNIGHT.

THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL WILL LIKELY OCCUR OVER NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS BETWEEN 6 AND 9 PM...AND OVER NORTHEAST ILLINOIS INCLUDING THE CHICAGO METROPOLITAN AREA BETWEEN 7 PM AND 10 PM. SNOW WILL END LATE THIS EVENING OR SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT."

Is it Spring yet?

Whew! Figured it out. Working with HTML is so picky, the slightest little thing will make it not work! Just had to go away from it for awhile, then when I came back, I was able to figure it out. Now I'm all set for this month.

Not much going on here, so I loaded a few pictures.

A couple geese walking through the fresh snow Sunday morning.

This is a new shotglass case I got for Christmas. The three bottome shooters are Mazatlan, Mexico, BB Kings Blues Club Memphis, and Cancun, Mexico. There are four shotglasses along the top, although you can't see one of them because it's dark blue. They are: Key West, Florida, Great Platte River Road, Kearney, Nebraska, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California, and Amelia Island, Florida.

Here's the top, it says "Denise's Shots"

This was my bedroom window last night. We had a wicked storm go through. Not a lot of snow, at least I don't think there was a lot of snow. Most of it was blown all over the place, due to wind gusts of up to almost 50 miles per hour. Along with the wind, the temperatures dropped from almost 50F late morning to 0F overnight.

Kerry suggested I get some mistletoe so that Cupid might want to "jump my bones" when he is around next month. Now tell me...who wants to get jumped by someone wearing a diaper?

Day 6 and 7:

Because Saturday was supposed to be the worst day of the storms passing through California, we didn't do much. We did go to the hospital to see Bob, since he was now in a room. We didn't stay long, as he was sleepy due to the antibiotics. They had him on a wide-spectrum drug, until the urologist verified it was a U.T. infection, then they started him on one specifically targeted to that. We parked in the Red Cross parking lot, she showed me sorta where her office is. We couldn't go in, because it wasn't open, and her key to the office was in her purse when it was stolen a few weeks ago. She is too embarassed to ask for a new one, so someone has to let her in each time she goes there. From there, we walked over to the hospital. Fortunately, it wasn't raining right then.

She took me for a longer tour of downtown Glendale, showing me all the places she goes, runs errands, gets gas, all those exciting things. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store so she could pick up a few things.

We hung out at the house for a few hours, playing 221b Baker Street again, and watching a little television. About 6pm, we got into the car to go eat out. There's a nice Mexican restaurant in Glendale that she likes to go to, so despite the rain (and since we needed to go back there anyway) we went out to eat. We both ordered margaritas, I had taquitos and something else that I forgot, lol. Very yummy! It was pouring rain outside, so we got quite wet running back to the car. From there we drove a couple blocks to the Glendale Centre Theatre to see their production of The Foreigner. The theatre is in-the-round, and there are NO bad seats. It was quite hilarious, and a most enjoyable way to spend the evening. The drive home was pretty scary though. I've driven in hard rain before, but in Chicago we know how to make the roads so the water drains off them. In California, they let the water sit on the freeway, which you have to try to drive through. Hydroplaning is a big threat when driving in torrential downpours in CA, and I was lucky to go 40mph going home. Several times, I felt like the tires were no longer touching the road. I was VERY glad when we arrived safely back at my aunt's house.

Sunday dawned cloudy and rainy again. We had plans to drive up to Santa Barbara to visit my other nephew Doug, his wife, Margie, and their two children, Alycia and Aaron. They live in Grover Beach, so meeting in Santa Barbara was about halfway for both of us.

Aaron has Muscular Dystrophy, and is in a motorized chair. They also have a special van that was custom fit for his chair, with a ramp and everything. The chair is amazing! I think they said it cost about $20,000, but it has four-wheel drive, and raises and lowers, so he can be at chair level, or can be eye level to his dad who is over 6 feet tall. It even goes down stairs, as shown in the pictures below.

All he needs is a little help from behind to navigate down stairs.

Once he's all the way down, one set of wheels lifts up, and he will only use one set of the larger wheels, and the smaller set of wheels. He can go through grass, some sand depending on how packed it is, over curbs, it's amazing how well he can get around. None of this has stopped the family from taking trips, and doing things together. We met them for lunch at the Doubletree Resort, then walked a few blocks to the Santa Barbara Pier. Because it was off-season, not much was going on, but it was nice to walk out to the end and see the ocean. That was as close as I was going to get on this trip. Just as we were getting back to our car, it started raining lightly. The weather couldn't have co-operated more. It rained until we arrived, then quit until we were ready to leave.

I drove us back to my aunt's house, we had dinner, and she fell asleep watching television. She had already started feeling sick by that time, and it wasn't two days later that I started feeling it myself. My trip home the next day was an adventure in itself, so I'll save that for my next post, lol.

Days 4 and 5 in California:

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Pardon that temporary interruption, but the cold weather took over my primary brain functions. Now that it has warmed up a bit, I'm feeling more normal.

On Thursday morning, my aunt and I packed up our stuff and checked out of our hotel rooms. We went and paid a quick visit over to my sister and her hubby to say goodbye to him and the cats. (Darn, I should have taken pictures of them, they're gorgeous.) We followed my sister in her car over to the lady that takes care of her mother-in-law, Katherine. She's 101 years old, God bless her. She has short term memory problems, but in the past has always remembered me. She has good days and bad days, but I think this was not one of her better days. Unfortunately, she didn't remember me, so the visit wasn't very long. Plus she does tire out easily.

Her son, my BIL got tired of answering the same questions over and over, so he made a card file. On each card, he wrote down her most common questions on one side, and the answer on the other. And he used some of her more common phrases in the answers. One of our most favorite phrases of hers is, "Don't TELL ME!" One of the cards asks about her house, which was sold years ago. His answer to the question is that the house was sold and the money's in the bank. Another question asks about where her money is. The answer is, "In the bank, earning interest." Then below that it says "That's nice," another of her frequent sayings. So now when he goes to visit her, and she asks him one of these questions, he just opens up the card file, pulls out the card and has her read both sides, that way he isn't repeating himself 50 times, lol.

It's amazing that she is 101 years old, after the life she has had, but she is a terrific lady, and I consider it an honor to know her. We stayed about 15 minutes or so then were directed back out to the freeway so we could head north to Los Angeles and my aunt's house.

We stopped at this cute little place for lunch. I don't remember the name of it, or even exactly where it's located, so looking on a map doesn't help much. There were a few shops, and some activities for kids during the summer months. Most of it was closed for winter. If I really did some digging I could find it, maybe another day I'll look into it more fully.

We stopped in Glendale so I could see the nursing home my uncle is at. He was sleeping when we got there, and was not real aware of things, so I'm not sure if he knew me or not. He's suffering from Parkinson's, and being unable to swallow on his own, he has a feeding tube and needs constant care. They are taking very good care of him there, and he's close to the Red Cross where my aunt volunteers, and a hospital.

She took me on a quick tour of Glendale (where the Tournament of Roses Parade is held each year.) We then went to relax at her house and get settled in. After she showed me around telling me about all the improvements she's had done to the house, I went out to her patio and saw the following sunset.

This was to be the last sunset during my stay in California. The next day dawned overcast and rainy. Because of the rainstorms approaching California, we changed our plans a bit for the last few days of my stay. We agreed to drive up to Lancaster to see my nephew Dennis on Friday instead of Saturday, since it looked like Friday would be less rainy than Saturday. Unfortunately, that meant his new wife was working, and when we attempted to go meet her at her work, she couldn't spare any time because she her boss was there. Maybe next trip I'll get to meet her.

Dennis' son lives with him, along with his wife's son and daughter. Dennis also has two daughters, they are currently living with their mother. I'm not sure why he didn't ask to have them there when we came to visit, and we didn't want to ask, thinking it might be a touchy subject. The mother seems to think that all her children are sick (she's a hypochondriac) and wants them all medicated. The girls are about 9 months apart. From what I was told, the younger one is no longer medicated, but unfortunately is her mother's daughter. The older one is still medicated (I believe) but has other issues too. They are both teenagers, but the older one has no female hormones, so she is not going through puberty like all the other girls at school. I believe she is taking medicine for that, not sure how well it's working, or if it's working.

Our visit was relatively short, we saw the son (my great-nephew, he's 15 I think) for about two minutes, then Dennis, my aunt Val and I went to lunch at Panera. While there, my cell phone rang, and checking the number I said to Val, "Who would be calling me from the 818 area code?" She had no idea, so I didn't answer, and no message was left. We dropped Dennis back at his house, and Val and I left to come back to her house. On the way back through the mountains, it started raining harder, and we saw an accident on the other side of the road, involving a couple cars, that had traffic backed up for several miles. We were glad to not be in that mess.

Once back at my aunt's house, she checked her messages and it turned out the nursing home had been trying to reach us (hence the call to my cell phone from the 818 area code.) My uncle had been transferred to the hospital, they thought he might have pneumonia. Val had thought he felt warm when we saw him on Thursday, but never mentioned it to the nurse at the home. We drove in the rain to the emergency room, and I sat with all the walk ins while she went to go see Bob and talk to a doctor. Turns out it was only a urinary tract infection, so he was going to be admitted. She gave them the information for his urologist, due to his repetitive infections in the past. He was kept there for a few days, and then returned back to the home.

After the jaunt to the hospital, and the lousy weather, my aunt and I just relaxed Friday night with a glass of wine and a board game. She had several suggestions: Monopoly, Scrabble, and two different Sherlock Holmes board games. We decided on one of the Sherlock Holmes games, called appropriately enough 221b Baker St. We had a lot of fun going around trying to get clues to solve the mystery. Before we knew it, it was near midnight, and we needed sleep.

I was sitting here debating whether I wanted to post anything to blogger tonight. After getting caught up on new comments and new posts at the other blogs I regularly check, I had signed out and was sitting at the blogger start page.

As I was messaging a friend in msn, one little part of the start page was still visible. It says, "Post thoughts." Hmmmm, do I have any thoughts to post tonight? All I could think of was....

I want to be WARM!!!

So there you have it, my thought for the day.

Brrrrrrrrr!

I just finished streaming, put on The Weather Channel, it says it's 8F outside with a windchill of -10F (-13C wind chill of -23C).

Tomorrow's high temp is supposed to be 6F.

On that note, I'm going to go bury myself under a couple blankets.

"Midway Magic"

Since I don't have a lot more pictures left of my vacation due to the lousy weather the entire second half of my trip, I will post some interesting facts about the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier.

- The USS Midway was in service for 47 years, from the end of WWII to the liberation of Kuwait in 1991

- The USS Midway was the first ship that was too large for the Panama Canal

- It was the first carrier to operate extensively in the sub-Arctic

- Pilots from the Midway shot down the first and last MiGs of the Vietnam War

- Midway led the evacuation of Saigon, rescuing 3,073 refugees in two days

- Rescued 1,800 Americans fleeing the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Phillipines in 1991

- 225,000 sailors served on the Midway, average age was 20

- No other aircraft carrier has served America as long as the USS Midway

- Surpassed 2.5 million visitors since opening in San Diego in 2004


Here are some additional numbers about USS Midway, that might be interesting:

- It only cost $90 million to build in 1945, but cost $260 million to overhaul it from 1966-1970

- 69,000 tons total weight (average car is about 2 tons)

- 2,000 compartments

- 2,000 electric motors

- 1,500 telephones

- 1,001 feet long (305 metres)

- Set all-time record for days at sea, 327

- 258 feet wide (78.6 metres)

- 18 decks

- 12 boilers

- 3.4 million gallon fuel capacity

- 100,000 gallons fuel used daily

- 260 gallons fuel used per mile (glad my car doesn't get that kind of mileage!)

- 2 physicians were on board, and 1 dentist (for 4,500 man crew)

- 10 tons of food daily

- 13, 500 meals served daily

- 2,000 potatoes daily

- 1,000 loaves of bread daily

- 4,500 lbs of beef when served

- 500 pies when served

It's track record of humanitarian missions, establishment of new naval aviation standards, and dedication to the American ideals of liberty, freedom, and peace was unmatched. The called it "Midway Magic."

Day 3: With not a lot planned for today, my sister mentioned that we could go back to where she attended the New Year's Eve party, because they have daily tours. That place was the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier, currently docked in San Diego Harbor. I'm not sure if it's permanent, but it's possible, since it's right next to The Maritime Museum along the waterfront.

This was where you paid to get in for the tour. My sister paid and kept the ticket, so I have no idea how much it cost, lol.

This is a shot looking up at the antennae or whatever those things are that stick up from the top of the carrier, lol.

Here's the entrance where you go inside to the hangar deck, where they hand out headsets and a hand-held audio player. There are many numbered spots throughout the carrier, you just press the button for that spot and you get a recording of information about it. You can do them out of order, as many as you want, etc. It's suggested, that you should allow 3-1/2 hours if you want to do the full complete tour. There are a total of 60 areas to see on three levels.

This is up on the flight deck. I believe that's the Island Superstructure, and includes Flight Deck Control, radio rooms, Captain's Cabin, and Admiral's Quarters.

Here's a shot looking back from the forward end of the carrier. That's part of the skyline of San Diego behind it. It's kind of hard to see, but I believe that's an F-8 Crusader in the foreground.

Here's a shot of some of the helicopters on deck, once we finished the tour and were down on the ground again. This is from the opposite side of where we entered. I believe the chopper on the left is a Huey Gunship, the white one in the middle is an SH-3 Seaking, and the grey one on the right is an SH-2 Seasprite.

This is what we came around the carrier to see. We could see it clearly from the flight deck, and had to see how tall it actually was up close. You can see me standing in front of his leg, and as I'm almost 5' 5", the statue is over 20 feet high. (25 feet tall to be exact.) For those of you not familiar with this very famous image, it's from the end of WWII, in NY. When the end to WW II was announced, thousands of people ran out to Times Square, and a Life photographer was there recording it. He saw a sailor running around grabbing every girl in sight. As the photographer ran on ahead, he turned around and snapped the picture just as the sailor grabbed a nurse, bent her back, and kissed her. It's one of the most recognized images from WW II. This statue was on loan the city of San Diego. It was previously displayed in New York and Sarasota, FL. It was only in San Diego through 2007 (so how come it was still there on Jan 2, 2008?)

Here's another shot of the statue showing how close to the carrier it is. I don't know what the sign read, I didn't get a chance to read it because my aunt was parked illegally, and we didn't want to dawdle.

My sister also took many pictures of our day on the Midway. Once she sends them to me, I'll post them, she took some cute ones. The whole day was beautiful, about 70F.

Day 2: We didn't do much on New Years Day, except watch football. I missed the Rose Parade completely. I should have taken pictures of my hotel room, it was probably as big as Styx's apartment, lol. And we got a deal on the price because my sister Sue knows someone who knows an employee (or something like that) so we got the rooms for $75 a night instead of at least $120. You enter the room, and there's a kitchen to your left, with a stove and dishwasher and refridgerator. Straight ahead is a couch (with a hide-a-bed) and a desk, and a television set. Just past the kitchen is the bedroom, that has a door for privacy. There's a vanity sink and mirror, another tv, a chair and ottoman, a king sized bed, and a nice big bathroom. Plus a closet, and an ironing board. It's almost more of an extended stay type places. It was called American Inns or something like that.

This is my great-niece Leah. She's six years old and already a drama queen. She started calling me "auntie Denisey neesy neesy" and of course her younger brother picked up on it and started it too. Her mother tried to stop them, but it still would slip out every once in awhile. Note the red hair? It's prevalent in my family, lol.

Here's Bob working his daily Sudoku puzzle, with Sam working his puzzles next to him. Sam is only three, but is VERY into construction. The box of puzzles has 4 puzzles in them, and he knows each one by it's proper name. One is an excavator, and he can actually say the word, lol. Note the red hair? LOL

This is my aunt Val. She's 30 years older than me, and still looks WONDERFUL for her age. For those that know how old I am, you can figure out how old she is, lol.

Side story about my trip that I didn't mention in my Day 1 post. When I got to the airport Monday morning, I was thinking that it was New Year's Eve, the flight wouldn't be full, there'd be plenty of room on the plane, etc. Since I was flying out of Midway, it was quicker than O'Hare, and I was able to use the skycap service to check my bag and avoid the ticket line, which was very long. Since I had my boarding pass, I went straight to security and then to my gate. As I was walking to my gate (only a few gates past security) I noticed there were a lot of people walking around in orange shirts, sweatshirts, hats, jackets, and they all said Illinois on them.

I thought for a second and then realized I'd hit the mother of all plane trips. University of Illinois fans flying to LA for the Rose Bowl football game against USC. I was afraid the flight would be rowdy, certainly knew it would be packed. I think at least half my flight were U of I fans going to the game, many were families with multiple children, all wearing orange and blue, lol. Who knew when I made my flight arrangements back in November that I'd have to deal with this, lol. Fortunately this flight went off without any hitches and I arrived safely and on-time in LA. My aunt certainly knew she was in the right area when she saw all the Illinois shirts of people coming down to baggage claim, lol.

Day 1 in California, New Year's Eve. My sister, Sue, and her husband, Bob, were headed out to a party on the USS Midway aircraft carrier. They left my aunt Val, my niece Tina, her two kids, and me, all alone.

We drank some wine, we watched t.v., we played dominoes and hearts, and at about 12:15 AM, my aunt and I left to go to our hotel. It was a nice quiet way to spend New Year's Eve.

I'm home from sunny (and not so sunny) southern California. I have a cold, to go with all the rain we're getting right now. I'm pretty sure I got it from my aunt, but there's some disagreement between us where she got her cold from. It didn't stop us from enjoying our time together. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, due to the inclement weather, but I'll transfer what I do have and give you all the exciting details of my week, hopefully tomorrow.

Until then, stay warm and stay dry, where ever you are.

I'm off to sunny southern California! My flight leaves at 8:40 AM tomorrow. I'm parking at the airport, in the long-term parking, so I'll want to get there by 7AM. Hopefully, traffic will be light, with most people off work for the holiday. I'm also hoping not a lot of people will actually be flying on New Year's Eve, lol.

Most of my stuff is packed. I have one pair of jeans to pack (waiting for them to finish drying), and a few items I'll need tonight and in the morning. Everything else is packed, I think. I sure hope I haven't forgotten anything. I'm taking my camera, so I can get pictures of my family. Some of them I haven't seen in several years, so pictures are warranted. And I don't know how many more years we'll have with my great-nephew Aaron who has Muscular Dystrophy.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, stays safe, and most importantly, spends it with family or friends. They are the most important things we have, beyond anything else. For those of you that have had rough times in 2007, may 2008 be full of prosperity and happiness. For those that had a good 2007, may 2008 be even better and enriched by love from those around you.

I hope everyone who's putting up a tree has theirs up. This picture is one from November 18, 4 days before Thanksgiving in the U.S. Someone had actually bought their Christmas tree THAT early. I wonder how long it lasted before all the needles fell off? LOL

It's been a quiet weekend. I am in the middle of my Christmas cards, I have them all signed, I have them all addressed, I have stamps on most of them but need to buy more stamps tomorrow. I now need to decide who will also get my "letter." For the friends and relatives that I don't talk to often, I put in a letter that I type up, so they know what I've been up to this past year and will be up to early next year. Once Survivor is over with, I'll sort through the cards and decide who gets a letter this year, lol.

I'm also working on laundry tonight. One load is done, another is in the dryer, and a third is in the washer. The dryer shut off, so at the next commercial I need to take that out and move the load over from the washer.

I can't believe we have one more week until Christmas. Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday it was Thanksgiving. I still have all my presents to wrap, I'm even still waiting for some to be delivered that I ordered. Some presents that haven't arrived are ones I need to send, but the recipient has been advised the package will be late, same as last year. I think I need to start shopping for her in October, lmao.

Well, still no pictures to be loaded, so I guess I'll end it here, since it's a commercial and I can go move laundry.

Hugs!

Ahhh, parties. Everyone loves parties, don't they? Well, usually they do, if they can remember them. Friday night was my Christmas party for work, oh sorry "Holiday party." I did not attend last year's party, because 1) It was too far away, 2) If I did go, I'd not be able to drink because I had to drive myself home, and 3) I was bored stiff the previous year, why put myself through that again. This year, however, I had some incentive to go.

The party was to be held at the Embassy Suites a couple blocks down the road from our office. My company offered to reimburse anyone wanting to book at room at the hotel, or they would cover cab fare home. Their reason for this was to keep a bunch of drunks off the road. They also decided to have a DJ this year, with dancing, and they were giving away ruffle prizes. Naturally, with everything they offered, I decided to attend the party and stay at the hotel afterwards, allowing me to get drunk if I chose to do so.

Those attending the party were allowed to leave work at 3:00 PM, to allow time to go home or wherever before cocktails started at 6:00 PM. I decided to drive to a KMart store nearby, looking for shoes. I don't like heels, and the black flats I've had for years were looking pretty ratty. I thought I might be able to find a relatively cheap pair at KMart. Unfortunately, the only ones they had were wide widths, which I don't need. So I left KMart empty-handed, heading back by our office building to the hotel to relax a bit before getting ready for the party.

The Embassy Suites is one of three hotels crammed next to each other with very little in between. There's a parking garage behind them, which they all share. Part of the parking garage is also general parking for the Convention Center that's across the street. The signs are not real clear (or at least not to me) regarding where to park for the Embassy Suites. I circled three times, and finally saw a co-worker that was on the party committee, so I asked her where to park. She directed me to the one section where the sign says $18, but that the hotel would pay for the parking. I turned around, for the third time, and went to park. There are signs all throughout the garage, indicating which spots are for which hotel, so I had to keep my eye open for open spots for Embassy Suites guests. I made my way to the second level and found a spot near the elevator and stairs.

I pushed the down button, waited, pushed it again, no light, pushed it again, gave up and decided to walk down the one flight of stairs. I checked into the hotel, they marked my parking stub as paid, and I went up to my room on the 5th floor. It was a suite, with a couch, a chair, two television sets, a king sized bed and of course a bathroom. I wandered around a bit, to see what was where, then at 5:00 PM I started getting ready for the party.

Just after 6:00 PM I made my way downstairs to the salon where our party was being held. I was one of the first few people there. I think maybe six people were there when I walked in. I spoke with a few, then made my way to the bar for a glass of wine. Slowly more people started showing up, I met the spouses of our salesmen, it was nice meeting these women that they talk about.

About 7:00 PM our president gave a brief speech, then we were allowed to go up to the buffet for dinner. Our choices were: Chicken breast, roast beef, and salmon, mashed potatoes (the lumpy kind made from real potatoes), salad, some vegetable that I don't remember, buns, some type of chowder soup and dessert. I was seated at a table with my boss, John, my co-worker Karen and her husband, Katie from our international dept and her husband, and my co-worker Mike and his wife. We had two empty seats, and there were two men sitting at the table next to us all alone, so I got up, walked over to them, and invited them to sit at our table. Their names were Tim, a salesman from our Detroit office, and Doug, a newer salesman who lives in Maryland and attended without his wife. By this time, I was working on my second glass of wine.

After dinner was over, the 10 year awards were handed out to a couple salesmen, I believe they get a whopping $250. Then they did the ruffle. Ever since the email first came out with the details of the party, we've been laughing over the ruffle. You see, all the members of the committee were foreigners to the US. Three were Japanese, and the other two were from South America. The person who sent out the email mistyped the word "raffle" and instead called it a "ruffle." So we were calling it a ruffle all week and all night, and correcting anyone who accidentally called it a raffle. During the ruffle, I got my third glass of wine. Naturally, I didn't win anything. However, every single member of the committee won something, lmao. Two other people at my table won something, but not me. I never win anything.

Next, the DJ started playing music and we were treated to a tango performance. I'm no expert, but in my opinion, they weren't very good. I won't try to go into details here, but I was less than impressed. After a few dances, they offered to give a lesson if anyone was interested. The response was less than enthusiastic. No one was interested. Even after I had been drinking, you couldn't get me up on the dance floor in front of all those people to try to tango!

With that out of the way, the last organized activity of the evening was a game of bingo to give away the last few prizes. Needless to say, I didn't win anything then either. It was quite comical, the person reading the letters/numbers off, was only saying the numbers, not the letters, and there were a couple people who decided they HAD to have the letters said too, since everyone knows the numbers can be duplicated in more than one column! Actually, it was more to help us understand him. The man reading the numbers was Japanese, and some of his numbers could have been letters. For example, when he said 55, did he say 55, or did he say B5? We couldn't tell. So then we sat there while he went back through the first 8 numbers giving us the letters too. Talk about confusion!

With that finally over with, it was time to do some dancing. I was talking with people, I don't really remember who; I was drinking, a couple more glasses of wine; And I was watching people dance. Then the DJ played The Electric Slide. That is one dance, I can't refuse to dance to. I HAVE to get up and dance to it. And I must say, I did quite well for being quite buzzed at the time. When that was all done with, I sat down and rested, talked some more, drank some more, then the party broke up at midnight. There were about five of us that decided to have a nightcap in the bar. One of them bought us margaritas, and we almost literally bumped into Doug there. I sat at a table with him, while the others sat at the table next to us, and the rest of might night is a blur or blank.

I remember talking to Doug, but I don't remember what I talked about. I remember us leaving, and the bartender telling me I could take my margarita to my room if I wanted, which I politely declined. But I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in my room at 7:00 AM. I don't remember getting into the elevator, I don't remember finding my room, I don't remember getting undressed, none of it. Despite being wasted, I was aware of certain things. Like the fact that I was wearing a ring on my finger, I removed it. I was wearing a pear necklace, I removed that too. I was wearing a pin on my blouse, I removed that as well before getting undressed. I found them neatly laying on the vanity by the bed. I was wearing my nightshirt, which I had put on the bed when I had unpacked everything earlier. But I wasn't all the way under the covers. I apparently crawled under the bedspread, but not under the sheet and blanket.

When I woke up at 7:00 AM with a hangover from hell (I needed some hair of the dog that bit me), I set the alarm clock for 10:00 AM so I could get up and get dressed and out of there before the noon checkout. I woke later at 10:00 AM, but not to the alarm. Good thing too, because I realized that although I set the alarm correctly, the clock itself was off by 12 hours. I very easily could have missed checkout, lol.

The other thing about my stay was the temperature control in my room. Each room has an individual thermostat to control the temperature. When I first checked in, I adjusted the thermostat down to 68, because I didn't want the room to be too warm later when I came back up to crash after the party. When I woke up at 10:00 AM to get dressed, I noticed it was very warm in the room. The thermostat said the room temperature was at least 74. My adjusting it down to 68 did nothing. So I turned the heat off. By the time I walked out at 11:00 AM to check out (and get something to drink so I could swallow a couple Advil) it was still 74 in that room. There were no windows to open, and I couldn't very well open the room door while I was showering and getting dressed. The heat was doing nothing for my hangover, it was nearly making me sick to my stomach.

I took the elevator down one floor to get to a pop machine, downed half a bottle of Pepsi in one gulp, along with a couple Advil, then staggered back to the elevator to go to the lobby to check out. I met a couple salesmen and their wives there, waiting for the car to pick them up so they could go to the airport. I told them my story of getting to my room last night, and we had a nice chuckle over it. My drive home was only 30 minutes or so, nice drive when there's no traffic. It took me several hours before I was feeling better, although food did help a bit.

I think I can safely say, I won't want any wine until new years, when I'm in CA. And only in moderation!!!!

Quick post tonight, I need to get to bed, since I'll have an early start tomorrow. We're supposed to have more freezing rain tonight, which will make for a bad commute to work in the morning.

My Christmas party was Friday night. I was SOOOO drunk!!!!! Hopefully, tomorrow night, I'll have a few minutes to tell you what I remember, lmao.

Big "Thank You" to Lainie for sending me her snow. It started snowing lightly around 3:30pm today. By 6:00pm they were BIG FAT flakes everywhere! I was able to get home tonight before it started sticking to the roads, thankfully. I have a nice close parking space too, since they're "first come first serve."

I was chatting with Styx on msn after Kerry went to bed, and knew I would have to get up early for work, because of the snow. So after signing off with her about, oh 10pm I think, I went into the other room and decided before I go to bed, I really should go outside and see how much snow we have, see if it's still snowing, and maybe brush off what has already accumulated on my car. That will make it that much easier tomorrow morning when I'm leaving for work.

My car was completely covered. I would say we have at LEAST 4 inches of snow, thank you very much Lainie! LMAO. It's STILL snowing...at least the flakes are smaller now, lol. It's started as a very light snow earlier, but now it's a wet packing kind of snow, perfect for snowballs. But it's STILL snowing! When I brush my car off, I have a sort of pattern I try to follow, lol. (imagine that) I start on the roof, brushing snow back and forth off each side to clear the entire roof, then I do the driver side window, then I move to the rear window and trunk area, then to the windshield, then around to the passenger side windows, and finally the hood and front lights/grill area. Well, when I was coming around to the front of the car from the passenger side, I had to step up on the curb, and with the snow, I couldn't see where the edge of the curb was, so after I'd stepped up on it and then was stepping closer to the car to brush it off, my left foot slipped off the curb, and I sat on my ass in the snow, lmao. Good thing it isn't frigid cold outside.

I wonder how much more snow I'll have by morning? My car was already showing a new dusting of snow where I'd cleaned it, as I was walking back inside. My gloves are in the dryer, drying since one was engulfed in snow when I sat down. Now it's time for me to go bury myself in blankets in bed and sleep the night away, dreaming of palm trees and 75F temperatures.

Yes, I'm alive. The weather was supposed to be a rain and snow mix this afternoon, so I decided not to go see my aunt. Turns out all we got was rain, and now wind. Oh well. Tomorrow is supposed to be all of 29F, when the normal high is around 42F, lol.

Tonight I watched The Amazing Race. I still haven't figured out which team I'm rooting for, but I know which ones I'm not rooting for, lol. Then at 8pm I watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. I love when those come on, they always make me cry, and I love seeing all the Hallmark commercials. They actually had a couple new ones this year, which was nice. I was hoping for some new ones, since I've seen all the others many times. Tonight's movie was called Pictures of Hollis Woods, about a little orphan girl who finds a family to call her own. It stared Sissy Spacek as a woman with Alzheimers. It was scary to see her portrayal of it, since my uncle suffers from it, and I know there will come a time when my aunt won't be able to take care of him anymore.

Well, I'm off to figure out what I'm wearing for work tomorrow, then going to bed. Have a great week everyone.