Massage Parlor

I need a neck, shoulder and upper back massage really bad. I noticed this after sitting in massage chair waiting for Rick's prescriptions to be filled at Walgreens. It took about 15 minutes to wait but in that small amount of time, I could feel the heat and rolling circular motion of the chair massage work its way to loosen me up.
My friend's husband is in school to be a massage therapist. He has to practice on volunteers so I have signed up for massage. I think I prefer man hands on me for two reasons 1) they are meaty and can grab-manipulate tight muscles better than little petite hands and 2)Mom has Man- hands so I never really was "touched" by woman.
I have had only one massage my whole life and it was given to me as a gift from ex-husband for Valentine's Day 1995. It was good for a year and he left me in Jan 96' so had to use the massage before it expired. That was my personal way of getting over him.

Weird but vivid dream

Here is my future invention that if I was not technologically challenged I would create this future TV. It was a dream but I woke up thinking to myself, "This is possible". I was "watching" a TV show about a bar, called O'Malley's of course. You were watching a TV episode but within that episode you could stop and touch the TV screen and it would give you more information and temporarily pause the TV show. For instance, a group of "characters" were sitting at a table talking about waterskiing. You could touch the TV and something you tell you more about waterskiing. One of the characters was drinking a SAM ADAMS Summer Ale and you could click on the beer and it would give you a commercial and info about SAM ADAMS. Some of the "characters" who were in the background, you could click on and off they were actual "E HARMONY" dating folks. Everything on the screen was "researchable" within the plot of the episode. I woke and said...that is the future of TV when you can "Google" anything you are watching by touching a screen. Gil Grissom and what his favorite bug is to how to cook whatever Alton Brown is making. This is my offical "un-official" post that if this happens in the future, I want the rights to it!!

How Tacky!

Maybe it is more rude than tacky but I just really find it offensive when someone is on a cell phone in the ladies room. They talk up a storm about their kids, medical issues, how fat their cat is getting to how much work they have to do. How come they can't wait to tell this person from their desk phone? Is it really that important that it can't wait?

Is it that I am just too much of a prude? I take "pottie spray" (thanks Christen Dellorco) into the work bathroom with me. I spray if I have #2 because I am too embarrased by my own bodily functions. Do guys care like women do? Claudia and Neasha on my team would love to have a private stall because it isn't just the offensive smell that we are embarrased about, but also the sounds that happen.
At home is one thing, and out in public with strangers is another. But when you have to work with the same people every day, you want to show some type of privicy.
Do you agree?

Just a dream

I wear a CPAP at night because of my sleep apnea. Last night I had a dream someone was breaking into "my house", which actually was a white house I was visiting. While I was sleeping I must have tried to scream but the owners couldn't hear me. Rick woke me up to ask if I needed my CPAP since it was laying on his pillow. I realize I must have taken it off thinking I could scream better without it!
I put it back on and told him to sleep close to me for protection...I was still dreaming.
Weird dreams.....

Luther Vandross

Just listening to Luther Vandross on IMEEM and have to say he is one of my favorite's. I remember driving up to AT&T Brockton in mid 80's while listening/singing each of these songs.

It was the last night of our adidas bowling league yesterday and my average is a 106 which I feel isn't too shabby. It gets me out of the house one night a week and I got to exercise and hang out with co-workers.

I was bowling like I normally do and in the first string got a 77. Not yet warmed up...

The second string I bowled a 180! Yes I said a 180! If you could of seen my frames I had four strikes in a row with six strikes total game and a few spares. I circled it in red above. Yes they spelled my name wrong (DOTYE) as I mentioned in post dated, ( February 12, 2009) I hate that. But I got a 180!!! YIPPPEEEEEE

The last string I bowled my normal 99.

Until next season ...or I can head to Village Tavern I and do video bowling next Tuesday.

Styrofoam

If you ever wondered where all the Styrofoam in landfills come from, it is South Carolina. I admit I am into Recycling, Reducing, and Reusing to help save waste. I have a hard time with a couple of things done different down here.
1. There is no curbside recycling where I live. My apartment complex has three dumpsters. If they could just put one general recycle bin for paper, plastics and glass that would cut down on quite a bit of waste.
2. When you go to a restaurant down here, (any waitress service restaurant) before you leave the waitress will ask you if you want a To Go Cup. That is a Styrofoam cup filled with whatever you were drinking for the road. Only soda/tea no alcoholic beverages.
3. ALL of the fast food restaurants still use Styrofoam cups. Unless you get a huge size and then it is the recycled plastic ones.

I am surprised McDonalds does not have the old Big Mac Styrofoam containers. I remember there was such a big stink about how much Styrofoam McDonalds was contributing to landfills. Now Big Macs are wrapped in waxed covered paper.

I think To Go cups should be outlawed and if you still want something to drink after your meal…sit there and drink it.

5th Year Anniversary

My 5th year anniversary with company was last November 3 but there was no recognition from the company. Then I heard from friend Dena who got a crystal globe and a nice framed plaque. Well I went to HR to ask if they have my start date in computer correctly. They showed 11-3-03 and explained that HR was previously handled in Portland so there might of been a mix up. I didn't really care about the globe or the plaque, but wanted to make sure my FTO (time off) was accumulating correctly. Plus you get an extra day off for being a 5 year employee.

So today during our team meeting, Tracy, my manager, got up and handed me my 5 year award. April said, "Do you want to take a picture?" and I said "yes". So the picture of me is getting my 5 year award. You can see me in red hat for valentines day but look closely to see my sunburn from Sunday.

I also updated my profile picture to my company ID photo. I wanted to make it more recent, even though that was taken a year ago when I moved down here.

http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/basketball2008/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=us#/highlights/

My sales rep told me that he got invited to go to the NBA All Stars this weekend by Footlocker (my account). I said, "where is my invitation?" He laughed, but seriously I would have liked to seen the Footlocker Three Point Shootout.

I have a pet peeve. It is my last name and how people mis-pronounce it or misspell it. For those Doty's who are reading this, you feel my pain right?

Today I had to get a new IT software system and they put me down as Dotty. I don't want the work I do to be credited under the wrong name. So I emailed the guy to let him know my name was spelled wrong. He replied back (copied and pasted from my email)

From: Belger, John
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 9:01 AM
To: Doty, Christine
Subject: RE: Information from Todays training as well as Webex info

Sotty about that. I completely understadn and will have it corrected.

So he likes to mis type things and use the letter T a lot. Sotty Dotty just made me laugh out loud (LOL). I never replied back because I wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic by me asking to change my name or if he is an idiot. Well as it turns out IT guy responded with "I am really sorry about all these spelling errors. I really wasn't trying to be funny below. ' I can accept his apology since he has a lot of people to work with on the new SAP project. But DUDE!!!! that is what spellcheck is for.

So when the telemarketing people call and ask for Mrs. DOT-ee, I always correct people and say it is DOE-TEA like "DOE a deer a female deer, TEA a drink with jam and bread" (Name that Musical)
I knew I should of kept O'Malley!!

Can I really of gotten a sunburn on February 8th? Well yes I did. We went to Gun & Knife show in Greenville and had to wait in line a good hour. Yes the sun was not at strongest, since it was about 10am, but I felt the 60 degree warmth on my face. By the time we finished the daggum Gun and Knife show, which I totally went just to please the husband, it was about 1pm. After a quick fast food bite (which I haven't had fast food in a long time and it tasted funny) we took a drive a hour past Spartanburg to a town called Blacksburg. That is where the rodeo was in August that I wanted to go to but it had a bad thunderstorm that night. So right off the highway was Ironcity Motorsports. He said, "do you hear the bees buzzing"? and me in my redhead moment thought I heard bees. We pulled up to this large motorcross track where they were practicing for upcoming race season. It was amazing to see, watch, smell, and hear. We sat in the bleachers for a couple hours and I came home pink. We went back yesterday and I did put sun block #30 on, but still got a sunburn. R just called to say he was out on his motorcylce and he saw a sign that said 71 degrees. Nice spring like day for February 9th!
S-T.com says it is 34 degrees back home. Don't miss that at all....

I was having such a "emotional" crappy day and then the phone rings. It his him. His voice saying "Howdy" which is always what he says when I say hello. His voice just letting me know he was thinking of me. His voice letting me know he misses me and it is just at the exact moment that I needed to hear this. How does he know? He has this hidden psychic ability to tune into my emotions and know when I need him. He is the bestest husband in the whole wide world.
He made my day!

Children

The crazy lady in the news who is single, lives at home with her parents and had six children, just gave birth to another 8 children is pissing me off.
Here I am for years trying to have a baby, and this yah-woo goes and has 14 children? After growing up in a family of seven, I would of loved to have my own big family but in today's world, feeding, clothing and taking care of more than three children is tough. Forget three, just two is tough sometimes. My cube neighbor Claudia for instance, has been fighting with her pediatricians office to get her 2 yr old daughter diagnosed correctly. It is a fight she has to fight because she is a great Mom.
I was given the name of a infertility clinic and told that my insurance covers up to 10,000 dollars but I am still fat.
Even if I go that route, how much of my overweight, fat, out of shape body can handle carrying a baby. I would rather drop 60 pounds and then try to conceive. Then again, I think if God really wanted me to be a Mom, he would have made it happen by now. I put it all in His Hands. No extra doctor appointments poking and probing me to see what condition my tubes, uterus and eggs are in. I just have given up hope. That doesn't mean I don't love children, it just means it hurts even more looking at others children.

Happy Birthday brother MPOM. Which still sounds like a gangsta name to me, but for the sake of anyone I don't know looking at this blog, he remains anonymous.
Dude I forgot to send Birthday cards which stinks to high heaven knowing that I have started the year off procrastinating (again). Not to mention I have no stamps and that would require me to either a) walk to the adidas mail room and purchase them or b) find the flipping PO in Spartanburg. I am lazy and don't want to do either. Plus I never carry cash on me so mailroom doesn't take debit card.
Art is on his way home today after a nice visit with us. He probably was bored to death seeing how there was not much going on to do with him. He did say he'll be back so I guess he still had a good time. If only we had more money then we could of really entertained him. Not by going to the Men's Club down on 290 but movies, auto show, elegant dinner etc...
I am still working at my diet and did have cardio bowling last night. Only two out of four on my team showed up so once you finished bowling in one lane, you moved over and bowled in next lane. Never had time to stop to sip my drink. I didn't do too badly seeing how if I break 100, I think I am doing okay.
I remember going bowling with Mom and Roberta at Wonder Bowl. I remember Mom was pretty good too. Can't remember if they had the bowling shirts like Laverne & Shirley. We were adidas polo shirts since it is adidas bowling league. (9 bucks a week for a night out and some exercise is worth it)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANET!

So I am a little early but it is because the card did not get put in the mail yet and wanted to let you know that I remembered ahead of time and might possibly beat JOMIII to wishing you a Happy Birthday!

Since I don't have any recent pictures of you, I had to post this picture taken on my wedding day (6-26-04) Look how big Clln got in 4 years!

I found out that American Chop Suey is a Northern thing. I guess it Wikepedia says it is normally called Mac & Beef. Also found out that the word "Flickah" or "clickah" for the remote might be a Northern thing too. I guess down here they would yell at their husbands, "give me the remote"! I would love to watch a whole tv show in its entirety. Especially something like "HOUSE" or "CSI" so I would know what the case is all about.
I haven't been watching too much TV since I am now addicted to FACEBOOK. I found the cool way of saying it is just by initials FB. Someone asked if I was on FB. I was thinking of what drugs are called FB?
Dinner tonight at Copper River. Guess what R is ordering? PRIME RIB!!! Our friend Art is visiting from Seekonk. He wanted to leave Seekonk before the next 10 inches of snow arrives. Great time to visit since R is not working. He'll just sleep on the blow up mattress in spare bedroom again.
Anyone else want to come visit to avoid snow shoveling?

Everyone on Diets

Okay so I am fat and I need to lose weight. What else is new? But after being fat 99% of my life, I have tried to go on a "diet" umph amount of time sand have not been successful. The girls on my team are all on diets. Great, I am all for counting calories, cutting back and watching what you eat. After going a month without money, I realise that cutting back my portions and taking less food (so meal goes further) is more helpful.
I always eat double or triple the amount of food WW says to eat. I have begun using the salad plate instead of dinner plate to put my food on. We had American Chop last night and I normally would have eaten about two dinner platefuls. But before I left work yesterday, I used the fitness center and did the treadmill for 10 minutes & 5minutes of some other machine. So needless to say, I grabbed the salad plate and actually felt full after the amount I ate. Like Mom says, I need to slow down and chew my food.

APPROVED UNEMPLOYMENT!!!1

WOOOO HOOOOO the check is in the mail and we are on our way to getting out of credit hold.

R tried yesterday to call unemployment and it was busy. I tried from my work phone and it went through so I hit conference and called him and conferenced him in. He waited over an hour and still no one answered (being Monday I bet they were swamped). He called today and only waited 15 minutes for someone to answer.
He was transferred to a lady named Sherry who helped him immensely with what he needed to get accomplished. After talking to her, he found out he was suppose to be calling in every week to get TeleCert filed. He never even received something in the mail to tell him what number to call and he needed a pin number. She also helped him with setting up direct deposit and told him that claim is approved, after faxing over paystubs and that it is being processed. So hopefully by this weekend, we should have a check.
I have to make a resolution to save more money. I know Suze Orman tells you to save three months worth of income to cover you for emergencies. Now I know why.

We still have not taken down the tree and although I want to, it really is too pretty to take down yet. Plus my overall decorations are all snowmen, which is not really Christmas but more Winter-related. So a few snowmen have come down but not all of them.
R has been busy trying to get a hold of Mass. Unemployment. He still has not received any money from being laid off on November 11. That's right coming up to two months!! The rent is paid for January and that in our eyes is the number one bill. As long as we have a roof over our heads.
Mom made a comment about us having to cut back and not eat Prime Rib. When have we eaten Prime Rib? She is the one who got a nice piece of meat from David & JoAnn New Year's Day. Mrs. Doty also said we need to cut back. What else can we cutback? I am eating Banquet dollar meals for lunch and Mac & Cheese for supper. I have lost weight due to not eating full meals so if that is the price I have to pay, so be it. I would rather eat two little meals and lose weight than gore myself on Prime Rib hahahahahaha

It is so Hot outside...yes I said Hot. Claudia (my cube neighbor) said it is "turn your air on in your car" kinda hot. That being how hot it is...just had to rub it in your face kinda hot.
Maybe close to 65 out there for December 30.

So back to work and feels good to get back in the groove of things. I was in my pajamas for two days straight. Thank God Mr. Allain (R's friend from NC and no relation) showed up and gave me a reason to get dressed and out of the house. We had a nice little visit but he didn't realize that his town in NC is four hours away from SC and he was tired after spending the day with us. He is a good friend to R. and it was nice to have someone visit. He told us about the new store and how much more space for fishing tackle. If you want to check it out, here is the website:
http://www.castawayfishingsupply.com/

The picture to the far left is J.

I think R. got the fishing bug after talking to J. but then again he always loved fishing.

Christmas is for Children

I love to see children react to Christmas things around them. The awe in which they stare at the Christmas lights. The little eyes so wide with excitement at seeing Santa at the mall or live donkey's at the live Nativity.
I love how even the older ones who seem they might know Santa personally, keep the spirit alive by pretending to know Santa came. I love Christmas because of the children and seeing how these memories will be with them a lifetime.

D-MD said the picture from Mt. Tom was in October of 1978!

My memory of Mt. Tom is the way they made poor teenager D take the lift all the way to the top and he hadn't even taken a lesson yet. By the end of the day, that kid was doing jumps! I also have a great picture of Dad pointing to the back of my jeans that show all the "wax" from the alpine slide where I slid off. The lasting physically memory I have of Mt. Tom is the way my freckles got removed from my right arm and have slowly filled back in again. Oh one more memory from 1997. I took my little person friend from AT&T to Mt. Tom. Doreen had to have them shut the lift off every time so she could get lifted on to the seat. She had them laughing by the end of the day, that she got to show them that size didn't matter. She skied better than anyone on that mountain. I just got a Christmas card from her and to think that she could have babies and go through all the labor and delivery and only be 4feet 2inches tall still amazes me. You have to watch that show, "Little People, Big World" so see that little people are just like everyone else.
I will miss skiing and snowshoeing and hope that Loon gets lots of snow for everyone to visit the condo this year.

Christmas 1990

The Christmas picture I just posted to the blog is of MPOM with Molly and TJ when they were probably 3 & 4 yrs old. I love the way TJ has a little cowboy outfit on. If his EOD unit could see him now!
I also love how MPOM had a Christmas sweatshirt on! These are the type of things that I remember about Christmas' past. I also loved having Christmas at Mom's house. It always felt so warm and comfy and like Christmas is suppose to feel.
I will miss that this year!

So I received a subscription to a magazine called "Reminisce" from my mother-in-law. It has stories from people about the past and this month is all about Christmas. It has picture of ladies in the 70's with the teased hair and short skirts dancing with their husbands in basement for New Year's Eve. It reminded me of Mom's redheaded hairpiece she wore with the Go-Go boots to make her look like one Hot Mama. When I went home this year for her 75th birthday, everyone got to say to her one of the memories. I think it was John who told her he rememberd the white Go-Go boots she wore and then Moe chimed in about the hairpiece and teasing her hair in buffount.
Just brings back memories of their home parties and how Mom went all out with matching dishes for each entree. R still laughs at the "relish tray". He never knew there was such a thing.

Why? I often wonder why certain people have such good luck and others are always facing the worst luck you wouldn't wish on your enemies. Take my best friend Judy...why does she have to go through so much? She lost Tony when he was 40 by trying to revive him after massive heart attack. How many 40 year old widows are there? Not only to have the lasting mental image of him during this, but to have to plan a funeral and deal with not having your husband there to help raise your daughter?
Then she gets a double whammy with the ovarian cancer. To think that she didn't have enough emotional crap with losing Tony but now she has to worry about herself passing away if cancer spreads. She calls to tell me, "want to hear the latest" and I admit I want to shout "NO!" What else could go wrong?
She went to gastroentrologist and finds out that during Gastric bypass, they did not make the opening to her stomach big enough. She still had the solid food from the day before in her stomach during the endoscopy (?spell) That is why she kept vomiting and that is why her first round of chemo pills did not work and the tumor is still the same size in her ovary. She had to make a decision to either keep going with chemo or have radical hysterectomy. She walked in ready to tell the doctor to go with hysterectomy and he told her he would rather her try the chemo again. Now that they figured out why, maybe the chemo pills will help.
I know she has had enough pain in her life. When will God give her some good luck and grant that girl a happy life? I see/hear her pain and from a distance I want to reach out and hug her and tell her everything will be okay...but how do I know?
Please pray for my friend Judy. She needs all the prayers she can get.

R and I were at a meat market the other day and all of a sudden I was craving Gorton. Yes there probably should be some kind of accent a goo (how do you spell that little thingy you put above a guy name Claude name?)
So I called Mom to get her Gorton recipe. She gave it over the phone from memorization of course, but said she would check her recipe and just to make sure. She called back today and said she couldn't find her recipe but that I should make it to taste. I long for some Gorton so will be making some next weekend from how Mom told me. For those of you interested in knowing what Gorton is, it is a French spread kind of like pate (again where is that accent a goo thingy).
Take your 1 pound of ground pork butt and put it in a skillet with salt, pepper and finely chopped onions. Add water so the meat is covered. Do not cover pan. Leave on low and slow for 1 hour. Keep adding water if needed so meat is always covered. You can skim off fat if you like. The meat should resemble hamburg with a gray color. Remove from heat and add 1/8 tsp of ground clove and 1/2 tsp of allspice. This is where Mom wasn't sure of measurements so said add to taste.
If anyone has Mom's recipe, let me know. Until then, I will try my best to keep the French in me fed.
Au Revoir

So they always say bad things happen in three's. I would have to say I have reached my limit when it come to bad things right about now. First R gets laid off, then his truck gets vandalized, then my car wouldn't start. Someone tried to get in to his truck by putting a screwdriver in his lock and wasn't successful but made his handle come away from frame. He said to me, "go see if the camper is okay". So I get in my car, chug-chug-chug then nothing. Electric works but has rained out and I know Pat always sprayed my wires with dryer and it would start. Tried that..chug, chug, chug...nothing. Went to Wal-Mart to look for distributor cap. R's boss is walking towards us and seemed to be very unpleasant moment. They asked if we were Christmas shopping, I said, "No my car died and looking for distributor cap". I wanted them to know we weren't in mood for Christmas. R said he should have told them, "I can't afford Christmas shopping this year because you laid me OFF!!!!" Always think of things to say after the person walks away. So the new distributor cap didn't work and neither did my car. It finally started the next day when it was sunny out and has worked all week long.
This morning it was mild out so I walked out with just a festive snowman sweater on. It is now pouring buckets out and my mind is whether or not my car will start. At least I have a ride home. Thank the Lord I am not stuck in Bok' needing a ride to NB.
So R called police to report the vandalism and female sherrif with pink handcuffs ("yes they work", she said) jokes to R, "You hope those are the three bad things that have happened". UH? What? SHUT UP!

Sausage Day

We pulled out the meat grinder and tubs to get ready to make our Christmas sausages for this year. R had bought two Boston Butts yesterday and we mixed in lean hamburg this year also. We mix up a batch of Bratwurst and were getting ready to stuff the casings. Both of our backs started to hurt so we took a break. R is snoring on the couch right now listening to Burl Ives sing "Holly Jolly Christmas". Brier is snoring behind me on his bed too.
Getting ready to go out on a Christmas hayride with The Endres Family, who will be heading back to Germany in a two weeks. We wanted to show them a little Christmas spirit before they leave. Mini Miracles Farm has hayrides, live Nativity, lights and Christmas Carols while we are there. Looks cold enough to wear my snowman sweater from Moe.

Dicken's Christmas

We went to R's supervisor house last night to give them a invite to Christmas Hayride on Saturday. We thought they would be going to the Dickens Christmas downtown. They were told from their friends that it was postponed until Friday. We showed them online where it wasn't and they ran around getting ready. We followed them there and had a nice time walking around, listening to the music by children's orchestra, carols sung by people dressed in Dickens era clothing, Nutcracker Ballet in storefront window, Hand Bell choir was in shoe store and we sung along, Santa lending his lap to kids who wanted to tell him what they wanted, carriage rides and final tree lighting ceremony. It was a nice chilly night that got us all in the spirit.

Southern Drawl Accent needed

Joke from your crazy southern country friend Dena, not just kiddin.



Did you know that the 3 wisemen were firemen?

They came from a far.