Remembering Michael Jackson...

For whatever happened in the later years... I really did like MJ back in the Thriller days... his music was great and he was a superstar.

I'm watching the memorial.

I hope his kids grow up to be happy and healthy adults, with a somewhat normal life ahead of them. If that's even possible...

Happy Birthday To Me!

I bought myself a present yesterday... an Acer Aspire One netbook. It's pretty awesome... It's light enough that I can bring it to work and it's small enough to fit in my locker.

Airports are going to be a breeze now... I can't wait for my next trip! I always hated dragging the full size laptop around on a vacation but just didn't want to leave home without it.

I'm sure I'll have lots more to say about it later, but right now I'm having a coffee break before work. I'm enjoying an iced latte at Pasion Coffee in Coral Gables.

Bloody Mary's in the Quarter...

I spent the weekend in New Orleans on a mission to try some of the best Bloody Mary's around. I'd done some reading before I left and made notes of a few places people were talking about. I ended up trying them at 5 different bars...

1. Pat O's on St. Peter: Mostly tomato, very little spice... paired very well with the super spicy Jambalaya I had for dinner though. Garnished with pickled green beans... no celery. :(

2. Johnny White's Bar on St. Peter, across the street from Preservation Hall: My favorite of the 5... spicy, but not too much. Garnished with olives... no celery. :(

3. Coop's Place, 1109 Decatur St., across the street from Margaritaville: Very interesting to watch this one being made. Spices, vodka, brown stuff, and a splash of bloody mary mix "for color" she said... definitely not my favorite because it had hardly any tomato flavor at all, but seriously not my least favorite either. It was at least drinkable unlike my next stop... more green beans and again, no celery.

4. Yo Mama's on St. Peter, next door to Johnny White's bar: Vera went in to get this one for me so I didn't see how it was made. She said it had about 8 or 9 steps to it, and she couldn't even tell what most of the stuff in it was. Not a good sign... it was WAY too spicy and just not good. At this point I have given up on finding a Bloody Mary garnished with celery. Sadly I couldn't finish this drink... it just was not good. Too much spice, lots of "stuff" in the bottom of it... it was quite chunky. Bleh...

5. The Gazebo Cafe, 1016 Decatur St.: This one was just ok... definitely not as bad as the one from Yo Mama's, but not as good as Johnny White's or Coop's. Serious chunks in it... looked almost like pickle relish. Just a bit strange... no way of knowing what was in it because it was a gallon sized jug of pre-mixed stuff.

Even after all those drinks, I didn't have a hangover or headache, and surprisingly no heartburn either. :)

I can't wait to go back next year... I'll make Johnny White's Bar on St. Peter my first stop!

Website Update

I have uploaded pictures from the Miami Dolphins vs San Francisco 49rs game from December 2008.

I'm looking forward to football season this year... hopefully it will be just as exciting as the last one!

Roll Tide and Go Fins!

:)

Website update

Work is progressing slowly on MelissasTrips.com, but it is starting to come together.

I've been sick for 3 days but forced myself to work on it a little this afternoon. I worked out a color scheme for the main page and then figured out how to make Coppermine match it.

The next step will be to get back to editing and uploading photos.

I'd been looking forward to walking down the Mile to see the Hot 8 Brass Band tonight but I just don't have the energy...

I feel like poop.

Ok...

So when I said "this" weekend I didn't actually MEAN "that" weekend.

:)

Updates!

There has been a bit of progress on the websites.

AerosmithIsland.com is almost back to normal, though there are quite a few areas I wanted to remove and have misplaced the original "map" files so I can't actually remove them from the main page. Now those links just point to "under construction" pages... which I hate!

At the moment, MelissasTrips.com just links to here until I get time to redesign everything this weekend. I've got the new Coppermine photo album thing installed and am currently adding pictures and trying to decide how I want the thing to look. I don't like any of the pre-installed templates and need to get with Tom about making some adjustments.

Email is working now at least!

My websites...

are currently under construction...

they are completely blank slates...

and...

my email isn't working...

grrr!

No...

I haven't been locked in my room playing X Box since November.

I really just haven't thought much about updating the blog since my last post last year.

Soon I'll be giving my website an overhaul... a total redesign... and I started with the look of the blog. This might also be changing again after I start working on the website. I did this with one of the pre-made templates, and if I do something different to the site, I'll want to make the blog match it.

Let's see... 2008 ended pretty good. I got tickets to the last Dolphins home game, which they won against the San Francisco 49'ers. It was fun, and I stayed far away from the frozen Sangria this time. I limited myself to 2 cocktails (my new love, Crown and Pepsi) and we had a great time.

Christmas was good. Tom got me a Nintendo DS Lite and I became immediately addicted to it. I've got Animal Crossing: Wild World, Nintendogs: Lab and Friends, New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age 2.

February 4 & 5 marked the coldest temperatures in Miami in a year... we reached an overnight low of 36 degrees, and finally got my kitty to start coming back in the house again after more than a month of her acting as if she was terrified at the though of crossing the threshold. Now she comes and goes pretty much as she pleases, which is fine with me. Though I would prefer her being a 100% indoor cat, I'll take what I can get, and know that having her in part of the time is better than none at all. I knew winter wouldn't be too much for her, let's face it, it only lasts 3 or 4 days at a time... but hurricane season will be here before we know it and I hated the thought of her hiding under the car during the next tropical storm or worse. Now at least I'm pretty confident she'll hop on the couch at the first sign of bad weather... just like last year. :)

Work still mostly sucks, but at least 1 person that was stressing me out is gone now... too bad the rest aren't going anywhere, but I try my best to just do my job and ignore them. It's easier now that I'm working a later shift...

Oh yeah... I'm working a later shift now because I was followed to work by some weirdo on a bicycle a few weeks back which made me very uncomfortable about walking to work before daylight. Now I don't have to be at work until 8:00 4 days a week. It's working out very well so far.

Wednesday night I'll be staying overnight for inventory... I hate it, but I do love that inventory bonus. At least this year we're only doing it twice... previous years we had 4 of them! We do still get the 4 bonuses though. Yay!

I guess that's about it... hopefully I'll get the changes started on the website this weekend and then start doing regular updates to both the site and the blog. No promises though because sometimes I just don't have much to say.

I got an XBox 360!

Happy Turkey Day

Stop the remake!

How not to discover an allergy...

Yesterday at work I ate about 4 cashews and within 5 minutes my throat was getting itchy and I told my boss "I think I'm allergic to cashews". He thought I was kidding around, it was just a little itchy so I didn't really do anything about it.

About 5 minutes later it felt as if my throat was closing up so I ran out to the medicine aisle and grabbed a box of Benedryl, took 2 tablets and drank a bottle of water and said to my boss "No shit... I really think I'm allergic to cashews!"

About 5 minutes later when I couldn't swallow anything my boss took off down the street with me headed to the Fire Department... it's only a block or two from the store so we figured we could be over there quicker than if we called them to come to me.

I got a shot of epinephrine, they hooked me up to a BP monitor, heart monitor and some oxygen and made me sit there for about 30 minutes. I had about 10 of the fire-rescue guys hovering over me. Which was a bit embarrassing... did it really take that many guys to do what they were doing?

They wanted me to go to the hospital, but by then I was already feeling MUCH better. The throat was opening up some and I was getting really sleepy from the Benedryl. So I promised them if there was a secondary reaction later I'd head straight for the emergency room.

I called Tom on my way back to the store and asked him to come pick me up...

The rest of the evening was miserable... when we got back to the house my entire body was covered in hives... I was itching like I've never itched before... like I was itching in my bones! I couldn't stand for anything to touch me... it was like my skin was on fire. Like a really bad itchy sunburn.

I went to bed, but was afraid to go to sleep. I had some serious chills... chattery teeth and all. Not fun.

I didn't get out of bed again until it was time to go to work this morning... I have been fine since, except for a bit of a sore throat.

This was the first time I have had an allergy reaction that has had an effect on my breathing... scary stuff! Usually I just break out in a rash or sneeze alot...

I'm going to be making an appointment with an allergist soon and have some tests. I don't want to discover another allergy this way ever again.

---

Today at work my assistant manager told me that he had let our Store Manager know what happened after I went home because the Fire-Rescue guys said they'd be sending him a letter. His response...


"Did she pay for the cashews?"

Bills vs. Dolphins

On Friday, my boss gave me tickets to Sunday's Dolphins game...

It was fun... though I drank a little too much. If I get tickets to another game someday, I think I'll pass on the frozen sangria...

:)

HHN 2008

Halloween Horror Nights was not at all boring. It was great! I'm already planning for next year, and this time Vera's going with me... with or without Steven, or so she says.

I had a lot of fun, and a great 2 days at Universal and Islands... there were hardly any crowds... I hardly had to wait in any lines at all.

The trip was over before I knew it, and I was back in Miami... back at work... putting up with the same old bullshit I'd left behind 10 days earlier...

New Orleans 10/10/08

We had lots of fun during our weekend trip to New Orleans.

I flew there from Ft. Lauderdale on Friday afternoon, got to the Hotel Villa Convento at around 5:00 and after checking in, went to Margaritaville for dinner.

Vera, Steven and Lauren hadn't arrived yet so after dinner I walked around a little and then went to the Tropical Isle for a Hand Grenade.

The sun was beginning to set when they arrived, and after circling the block a few times they finally found a spot to park, right out front... which we thought was the 10 minute hotel drop-off parking.

After getting them settled in, we went back to Margaritaville so they could eat dinner. When they were just about finished I remembered that in our rush to get out and do something we forgot to move the car to the hotel's parking garage. Thinking for sure her car would be towed, we paid the bill and ran back to the hotel... when we got there the guy working the front desk said we didn't have to move the car at all, we were in a legal spot and could stay there as long as we wanted. Whew!

So we went back out and walked around for a while, and even saw a movie being filmed... starring James Gandolfini. Kinda cool, actually! After getting back to the hotel Vera couldn't find her credit card. We were in such a rush to get back to the car earlier that she had left it on the table at Margaritaville. I called, told them we'd pick it up in the morning, and went to bed.

I got an early start the next morning, my first stop was Cafe du Monde for coffee and beignets. I spent a couple hours walking around the French Quarter waiting for the rest of the group to wake up. Around 11:00 they were out and wanted to go to Cafe du Monde too... so more coffee, and more beignets! We had an early dinner at the House of Blues, and then took a buggy ride through the French Quarter. We had reservations for a ghost tour at 8:00, and went back to the hotel to get ready.

Steven and Lauren went for a walk, and I didn't want to sit around so I went out for a drink... then I got a call from Steven, he wanted crawfish and wanted me to go with him to get them... we had NO time to spare, but we took off to the restaurant, so he could eat... finished up and got back to the hotel as quickly as we could to pick up Vera and Lauren and meet our tour.

After the ghost tour we were hungry... they had gelato, and then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for appetizers. Our waiter looked like Nikki Sixx Jr... Vera tipped him 10.00 because "he's pretty".

We went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Another early start for me on Sunday... back to Cafe du Monde and one last walk through the Quarter... I watched the Raiders fans meet up on Bourbon Street and start their march to the Superdome. I looked around in a few stores and snapped a few more pictures before going back to the hotel to load up the car.

After checking out of the hotel we went to the French Market (where they had breakfast) and Riverwalk Marketplace (where I had lunch). Back to the Quarter for one last walk through... Vera, Steven and Lauren went to St. Louis Cathedral. I was thirsty and went to Pat O's for a Hurricane... didn't taste like it had any alcohol in it... suppose they water down the drinks during football games? They are usually pretty strong...

It's 5:00 and we're still shopping... why can't we ever leave New Orleans?

Our adventure was not quite over yet... we got back to Vera's house before midnight... Steven couldn't find his phone anywhere... earlier in the day it had been put in a shopping bag... along the way home we had stopped for gas and that bag had been thrown away. Uh-oh... we Googled the gas station, called the store, called Steven's phone and sure enough the cashier could hear it ringing in the dumpster. She told him she couldn't get it out... she wasn't climbing in the dumpster... (can you blame her?).

I went to bed thinking we'd be going to the mall to buy a new phone the next day... and when I woke up Vera said we'd be leaving in about an hour. So I got ready, got in the car and after heading down the road I found out that we were going to get his phone... the cashier had gotten it out of the dumpster. 136 miles later, he had his phone back.

I got a short concert from part of Steven's band last night... :)

I spent most of the day today curled up with Miss Kitty... she's asleep at my feet as I type this. :)

I leave tomorrow evening... heading to Orlando and Halloween Horror Nights. I wish they could go with me... I think it might be a bit boring going alone... but I wanted something fun to do in between leaving here and going back to Miami.

Avast!

Drink up me hearties... and be talkin' like a pirate!

Arrrr!

My kitty can be LOLcat too...

I can has 5 moar minitz?

Another day, another storm...

another of my favorite cities in it's path.

This time Key West is looking pretty good to get hit by Hurricane Ike.

Good luck y'all!

Get out and stay safe...

I love New Orleans.

And I am very sad today because of what is headed their way again... just 3 years after Katrina devastated my favorite city.

Hurricane Gustav is expected to make landfall near New Orleans tomorrow morning. The city is being evacuated, and I really hope more people leave this time.

I don't want them on their rooftops begging to be rescued.. I don't want them lying dead in the streets...

I have a ticket to New Orleans on October 10th. I want everyone to be OK... I want New Orleans to be OK... I want to see her again soon...

I love New Orleans.