I Just Can't Be Trusted With WHITE

It's official - I am 8 years old. For years and years, I have not bought more than about 5 white items of outer clothing and the reason for that is because I'm apparently a klutz and I spill, rub up against something dirty, etc. and I end up either throwing the item of clothing away or trying about a hundred different ways to get the stain out. ANNOYING.

So, recently when Jamie was visiting in March, she had on a white zip-up hoodie sweatshirt thing that was really cute. I thought it looked great, so when I saw one on sale at Old Navy, I wanted to buy it for myself (only $13!).....but then I stopped myself and acted as my own voice-of-reason and decided not to, because I will just ruin it after wearing it 1-2 times. UGH.

However......I somehow talked myself into buying it before leaving the store. I think my argument to myself was that I am 31 years old and I should be able to handle a few white things, right?! Weeeeeellllllllllll.......I have officially now worn said white sweatshirt 2 times and officially I have gotten it dirty 2 times! I guess it was my mistake to wear it to the Canton flea market - kind of dusty there - got a little dirt on it.....but I washed it regularly and it was good as new. WHEW! But I wore it last week and I went out to lunch with a friend from work and when I got back to my desk......I realized that I STILL, after 31 years, cannot be trusted with white.

Now I have to go home and whip out the bleach.......UGH! Am I the only one who has this problem????

Jack Bauer VS. NYC

I just saw this info on Facebook (because I am in a 'group' about the TV show '24'): I guess next season is going to be set in New York City with a return of CTU! I'm not sure if this will be a good change or a bad one, but I'm game!

After six seasons in Los Angeles and one in D.C., Jack Bauer is taking his one-man show to Broadway!

Sources confirm to me exclusively that 24 will be relocating to New York next season -- at least on screen. (The show will still be primarily shot in Los Angeles, with some NY location footage mixed in.)

Production on Day 8 gets underway next month, but already details are emerging. In addition to the move to the Big Apple, CTU will make a comeback under the leadership of a new, yet-to-be-cast male character by the name of Brian Hastings. Described as an MBA type with a razor sharp intellect, Hastings will be joined by two new twentysomething agents (one male, one female), as well as Mary Lynn Rajskub's returning Chloe.

As previously reported, Slumdog Millionaire's smarmy game show host, Anil Kapoor, is joining the cast as Arman Hashemi, a Middle Eastern leader on a peacemaking mission in the U.S. Casting is underway for the roles of his brother and wife.

Kitchen Makeover (and NO, this time it doesn't involve paint!)

In about a week, if everything goes according to plan.....I will have new countertops, kitchen sink, faucet and dishwasher! It's going to be a juggling act as far as the timing, but I think I can pull it off.

I chose to go with granite tile countertops (the color will be 'black galaxy' - a black granite with silver specks in it) because as much as granite slabs cost, I would never get my money out of them when I sell this house. I don't plan to be in this house forever - maybe 5 years or so, so I'm not putting my 'dream' stuff into it, but I want it to be nice and marketable. I will have a double stainless steel sink and a pretty new faucet that I still need to pick out. The dishwasher will be black (to match my other black appliances), and I have to go buy that too.

The trick is that I need the tile guy (who is doing the countertops) to tear out several floor tiles in order to get access to the dishwasher for when the Lowe's people come to switch out my old dishwasher for the new one. Then when that's done, the countertop guy needs to re-install the floor tiles at the end of the job. I also need the countertop guy to get the new sink in right away on the first day, so that the plumbers who are installing the dishwasher at the end of the first day can also hook up the water to my sink/garbage disposal. WHEW!!! I hope it all happens in the right order!!

WISH ME LUCK - I WILL NEED IT!!

Half & Half - in late April!

I got an email from my Mom last week when she arrived back in the Great White North (northern Minnesota) after spending the last 5-6 months in south Texas.....she said that everything was pretty much in working order (no frozen pipes over the winter - YAY!), which is always good news after having your house shut down for the winter up there. She even puts RV antifreeze in the toilets to 'winterize' everything before she leaves for Texas in October/November.

However.......in her email she said that her lake is "half-open", meaning that it's half liquid, half ice still! I know I have only been down here in Texas for a year, but that just seems insane to me! It's already been up past 90 degrees here in the Dallas area and she still has ice covering part of the lake?! And the crazy part is that it was normal news to her!

So much for global warming!! HAHAHA!

Sorority Celebration - 111 years and still kicking!

Last Saturday, I attended the Founder's Day celebration of my collegiate sorority (Sigma Sigma Sigma) in downtown Dallas. The luncheon was held at Children's Medical Center, which has special significance to the sorority. The philanthropy of the national sorority is childrens' play therapy in hospitals, and there are two hospitals in particular that receive large sums of money each year from the sorority contributions from member dues.

As the chapter Treasurer during my college years, I remember sending in that portion of our individual dues to Nationals in order to fund the philanthropy and not thinking too much about it, but now, 9 years after graduating from college, I got to see the recipients of those donations. Children's Medical Center in Dallas is one of those two hospitals that receives our money!

Founder's Day is the 'birthday' of our sorority and this year celebrates 111 years and going strong. We had a luncheon, program and then a tour of the hospital (the parts that involve play therapy - which we sponsor). Our funds also sponsor a fellowship each year. One fellow gets paid a salary/stipend each year from Tri Sigma's donations.

Here is a huge train set (the largest operational model train display in the country!) that has a pathway for the kids to walk through and watch the trains going in tunnels. There are all climates represented somewhere in the train model - it was so cool!!

And here are some shots of one of the play therapy rooms that Tri Sigma sponsors:

This is the decoration on the wall in the Sigma playrooms - a sailboat (one of our symbols):

Here are a few shots from the luncheon:

Here's a pic of the women that were there from the Dallas Alumnae Chapter (there were also lots of collegiate girls from Texas Womens University from nearby Denton, TX). There were women that are "Golden Violets" (Tri Sigmas that have been initiated for 50 or more years) all the way down to women who are just out of college.

Doggy Access: DENIED!

Since I have been spending a good portion of my free time painting my house and working on house projects, Maggie's entertainment has taken a backseat on the weekends. So this past Sunday, it was beautiful weather and I thought I would take her over to the dog park in Arlington. No brainer, right??

........But lo and behold, the dog park was closed on a perfectly beautiful sunny day! WHAT?!

Here's Maggie waiting at the gate, anxious to get in and play......but there are no other dogs in there today....

I really like that they have small dog and big dog areas - then Maggie can play with her peers!

And this is such a good park! There are poo-bags, benches, and water fountains for both people and the pups!

Hopefully the next time we go there it will be open again....a lady that I talked to in the parking lot thought that it was closed because we got a bunch of rain on Friday and they are trying to grow grass in the park....they probably thought the doggies would tear up their grass and make a bunch of mud. Dang!

Basketball on April Fool's Day

I guess I forgot to blog about this earlier, but on April Fool's Day, my friend Colleen and I went to a Mavericks basketball game at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. I'm not really a basketball fan, but Colleen really likes the Mavs and I wanted to go for the experience!

She got some pretty good tickets and we met in Arlington and headed into downtown with time to spare.

Even though the American Airlines Center hosts both Dallas Stars hockey and Dallas Mavericks basketball, the feel at the two games is very different, in my opinion. I have been to 4 Stars games and I absolutely loved them. The Mavericks game was a different atmostphere, but it was still fun.

The music they play is more classic rock during the hockey games and hip-hop during the basketball games. Both are fun at a big event, so a good time can be had at each game!

Here is a pic of Mark Cuban - the billionaire-owner of the Mavericks (courtside - the guy who is standing up in a blue t-shirt and black jeans). Just a few nights before this game, Cuban got a $25,000 fine from the NBA because he Twittered about the bad officiating. I didn't see him on his phone at all during the game, so maybe he toned it down a little bit....although a $25K fine is like fining us $5 for something - not really a deterrent!

Here's a timeout team meeting!

People In Your Life

I got an email from an acquaintence recently that had a very interesting quote. I had to read it over and over - I guess I was just drawn to it...

Here it is:

God doesn't give you the people you want, He gives you the people you NEED - To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be.

I know that I have done a lot of thinking about the people in my life and why I had to go through some bad times and betrayals, and also some amazing people that have come into my life who taught (and are currently teaching) me so many wonderful things. I guess I just never saw it in print in front of my face that the people who hurt or leave you are just as important as those that nurture you, love you and support you - as far as the 'molding' process is concerned.

God wants to make us better and I think that trials in life are meant to ultimately refine us and teach us things that we couldn't have learned any other way...kind of like an oyster being polished by the rough abrasion of the sea until it shines!

I Love Me Some Beck

Has anyone/everyone been watching Glenn Beck's show now that he's on Fox News (since January)??? I have been watching him every day (he's on at 4pm CST - I DVR it) and he has been SO GOOD lately!

He has been starting each show with the Top 5 stories that the "mainstream media" are covering that day. Then he goes into all of the things that are going on that the mainstream media are NOT covering that are WAY more important. Basically, he's saying that the media picks certain things to cover heavily...in order to divert attention from what's really going on that they don't want people to notice.

For example: On one particular day recently, the AIG bonuses were a big deal and how the government was going to force them to give the money back by taxing the bonuses at a very high rate. Glenn said that they were covering that like crazy for like the 4th day in a row....in order to downplay the fact that the government just printed $1 trillion dollars, further devaluing our dollar and pulling out the last stop, the last ditch effort to save the economy (basically an indication of government panicking).

Anyway, no matter which side of politics or social issues you are on, Glenn is SOOOO thought provoking! Check him out!!!

The Office (Where's Dwight Schrute??)

When my Mom was in town over Easter weekend, I decided to tackle painting another room in my house - the office! It's a small room, so it would seem easy, but there is a weird architectural challenge in this one. I figured it would be good to have another person in the house while I try and balance on the ladder to accomplish it! I told Mom that she didn't have to help me paint.....she just had to be there to call 911 when I fell off the ladder! She didn't like that too much. In the end, she was a fabulous painting assistant and kept filling up the roller or brush when I was up on the ladder - greatly speeding up the process!

Here are a couple BEFORE pics from this last year:



I LOVE the color, but when I went to take pictures, the camera never could get the 'true' color! Half of these pics were taken in the morning (the lighter version of the yellow) and half were taken at night with overhead lighting. What a difference lighting makes! The REAL color is somewhere in between these two extremes....I guess you'll have to visit to see it! :)

I promise these next pics aren't capturing the REAL color - it's not that bright! And this first picture is the 'architectural' problem that I was dealing with - the top of the closet has a ledge/ceiling on it and I had to use a long pole to get to the top of that vaulted ceiling behind that flat closet ceiling. It was interesting to say the least - Mom was nervous!

Next up: The master bathroom!