Tonight I went to see Papa & Gigi and Momo. Papa & Gigi are going to be out of town this weekend and I wanted to give Papa his father’s day present. A few years ago I started making photo books for Papa each Father’s Day. I filled them with photos from the previous year. I make them on my Mac through iPhoto and he loves them. The whole family does. I love making them. I love having a family yearbook of sorts. This year was going to be a toughie though. Our old, beloved eMac had died and trapped within its body are all the photos I took up to October 2009. I still have to take the eMac to the Apple store to get them to pull all the data & photos off it and put it onto the new MacBook Pro. The Apple store just isn’t convenient and the last few months have been chaotic to say the least. Anyway, for this year’s book I decided to focus the entire book on Papa’s 60th birthday. He had a very special dinner with his oldest and dearest friends in attendance. My Mom orchestrated the whole thing. All the boys golfed that day while Mom entertained the wives, then dinner was that night. I gave Momo my purse camera and had her be my second shooter and we documented the evening. I sorted through all the pictures and edited them then compiled the book. That night I had taken notes as the boys gave toasts and whatnot so I had some pretty funny quotes from the guys to complement the photos. Papa was so tickled at the book. Once I gave him the book then I published the photos online so his friends could have access to them. 
After we perused the book we had a wonderful dinner that Gigi had cheffed up. It was a lovely evening. I’m so very lucky to have my Papa. He’s the best dad I’ve ever had.
Bless Your Heart
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I’m working on getting better. That has involved being housebound. Thankfully I have a new tv love. True Blood. I’ve been reading the books (finished with book #2) and am almost finished with Season 1 on DVD. I was worried about how the actors would be able to pull off the Southern accent, but they do a great job! Especially considering that most of the main cast are from other countries! Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Sweden! Amazing how they can get our accent right way better than the other way around. Now, if only I can talk CSP into getting HBO. -
I picked up a nasty cold while I was in the hospital and it just won’t seem to go away. Especially the cough. I started to get worried when I could hear this death rattle in my chest. So today I went to the doctor and it turns out I have a nasty case of bacterial pneumonia. Jeez. Can’t catch a break! My doctor thinks I picked up the pneumonia in the hospital. My first thought was OMG I spent the weekend with so many people! I called/texted Momo, Shannon, & Christina to make sure no one picked up anything from me. So far so good. Whew. So now I’m on an inhaler, cough suppressant, and a mega antibiotics. I have orders to rest for the next 3-4 weeks. Good thing I have a bunch of books and Netflix!
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Yesterday I spent the afternoon with 2 of my favorite girls, Shannon & Emily. We met for soup & salad at Olive Garden. I can’t remember the last time I ordered anything other than Zuppa Toscana, salad, and breadsticks. Emily lit up as soon as I walked in. She climbed right in my last and stayed attached to me for the rest of the afternoon. I couldn’t love that girl more if she were my own. She’s so sweet and SO funny ! She was so good at lunch and allowed Shannon & I to visit for an hour and a half without a single meltdown. That’s a lot to say about a 3 year old !
After lunch we went over to the Great Wolf Lodge for ice cream and for Shannon & Emily to get a sense of the place. Because it was on a weekend
the place was super crowded. We enjoyed some ice cream, toured around a bit then went back over to the mall and shopped for a wee bit at Children’s Place for things for Em. Little girl stuff is just SO cute. I feel sorry for our budget when we get our girl.All throughout the day Emily would say just the cutest things. I would think I better remember this so I can blog about it later. But there were just too many little zingers! I couldn’t keep up! One thing I loved was when she told her Mom to “Just relax”. SO funny. In that tiny little voice. She constantly tells Shannon “Shanny silly, Mommy” and I loved when she was sitting on my lap examining my head. She found a mole on my neck and looked up at her mom with big eyes “WHAT’S THIS Mommy?”. Like she had found an alien growing out of me. Cracks me up, that girl does.
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Last night my friend Christina and I went out for a bite of dinner. She had suggested TGIFridays so we went in and put our name down. We knew something was up right away. There was a white, residential floor fan out in the waiting area. On. And it wasn’t doing much good. When we put our name down I asked what the deal was and the A/C was out. In June. In Charlotte. It was over 90* that day. We thought maybe it would be better once we were seated. It wasn’t better. We didn’t know what to do but we knew we couldn’t stay there. We left a note and skeedaddled!
We went across the street to a new restaurant called Tavern at the Mills. The space was nice and the menu was extensive and looked good. Our waitress was sweet as pie and gushed over just about every item on the menu so we were excited when we placed our order. Christina ordered a pulled pork barbeque sandwich and a side of the much heralded mac and cheese. I ordered a chicken cheese steak sandwich with a side of mac and cheese. Now, we are Southern and we expect mac and cheese to look like this when ordered in a restaurant.
Note the browned cheese on top. We were told the mac and cheese would arrive in its own little ramekin. We were very excited! What arrived at our table looked more like this: 
But worse. Bright, safety orange cheese sauce and overcooked, mushy noodles. Horrible. And for $4! The waitress came over and noticed we weren’t eating it so she said she would remove it from our ticket. A little while later the owner came over and asked about the mac and cheese. We explained what we had expected vs what we received. You won’t believe it, but he started arguing with us! Made it seem like we were picky divas or something when I wouldn’t serve that mac and cheese to 2nd graders! While he was there he asked about the rest of our food. Since he was ever so accommodating about the mac and cheese I let him know I was disappointed with my cheese steak. I had expected a chicked cheese steak that looked like this: 
or something close to it. What came out was a chicken, cheese sauce, mushroom mixture (that was actually quite tasty) served on toasted white bread like you have at breakfast! Pitiful white bread can’t handle chicken cheese steak! I couldn’t pick it up! The bread just couldn’t handle it. So I very politely conveyed that information to the owner who ARGUED WITH ME AGAIN!!! I couldn’t believe it! He’s only been open a month! Shouldn’t he be a bit more gracious? He said “Well, the cheese steak is listed under the Melts section like the patty melt so that’s why it comes on Texas toast.” Ok, see, I’ve had Texas toast. It’s like an inch thick. This was kitchen white bread. And I don’t care if you list a taco salad under the Melts section, it should still slightly resemble a taco salad! I’m all for culinary imagination, but do your customers a favor and describe what you’re serving me on your menu. AND he didn’t even offer us a free dessert or anything! On the way out he tried to give us these pitiful 15% off coupons FOR NEXT TIME. Yeah, don’t hold your breath. -
Last night against the violent protestations of my sore chest and horrible cough, I met up with Momo for dinner and a movie. Armed with a bag of Hall’s cough drops I made the drive down. I left early (don’t be shocked, I am trying to be better with my time management) and stopped off for pug food and gas first. Thten I met Momo at Charanda, our favorite Mexican restaurant. I had chicken tortilla soup and it was wonderful. It was like having dinner with a movie star. I can’t count all the boys who stopped by our table for Momo hugs. Then I got hugs when she introduced me as “mi hermana”.
After dinner we went to see Get Him to The Greek. I don’t know what it is about Russell Brand. He looks like he may be crawling with STDs but there is just something about him that is quite appealing. Hmmm. The movie has some really funny parts. I had a fabulous time as usual with Momo. She is just so grown up now. I can barely stand it. I love that she’s grown up into this gorgeous young woman, but I want her to be 3 years old again!
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- Night by Elie Weisel…..EVERYONE should read this book. Around 100 pages, but the hardest 100 pages to get through.
- Exposure by Brandilyn Collins…..via Kindle for iPhone. With the exception of the main character’s lame first name (Kaycee, ugh)…it was good! Esp for a free Kindle book!
- 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs…..love her.
- Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson….very cute book. Also a Kindle free read. There’s a sequel I can’t wait to read.
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson. Currently working on this one.
- Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot….very cute book. Funny.
- Big Boned by Meg Cabot…see above.
- The Shack by William P. Young….thought provoking
- Look Again by Lisa Scottoline…tense. Good.
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett…Should be required reading. Fantastic.
6-10 are my most recent. I’m embarrassed that I’m only up to 10 and it’s June. Maybe I’ve missed something. Of course I have been busy and I’m STILL not finished with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The library ladies are annoyed with me. I’ve checked that book out like 3 times and I’m back on the list! Oh wait! I just remembered one!
11. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris… Love! It’s book 1 of the Sookie Stackhouse books. The books that they have based True Blood on. The show on HBO. It’s like Twilight for grown ups. And without annoying lip biter Kristen Stewart. Hooray!
I bet there are more books I need to add to my list. And here I thought I was organized! Must do better from here on out because my list of books to read is loooong!
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No, not those belly shots. I forgot to tell you about the belly shots they gave me every day in the hospital last month. In order to prevent blood clots they gave me a shot every day. In the belly. Not fun. By the time I left the hospital I looked like some sort of junkie! Well, if junkies shoot up in their bellies. Not sure where they shoot up anymore. Man, I had so many needles in me I swear I don’t see how people could be a shoot up junkie! Needles hurt!
I also forgot to tell you about the ice pack. One of the places they took blood was from the inside of my wrist. Man did that hurt. I’ve had a TON of blood taken and have never shed a tear, til then. It burned. Like a hot poker burn. So my nurse made me an ice pack. Well then I had to be wheeled down for a CT scan. Every hospital worker I came in contact with during my CT scan outing commented on my ice pack. No one mentioned my IV pole or my bruises or asked why was I in the hospital in the first place. But they ALL wanted to know what was up with the ice pack. Really? Cracked me up.
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To Papa & Gigi! Happy 4 years! Here’s to many more!
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So ever since I was released from the hospital my life has just been all about recovering and building up my strength again. Climbing the stairs has not been easy. I’m still dealing with lots of nausea and I have very little appetite, which isn’t really a bad thing. I have my follow up doctor visit tomorrow and he’ll be taking some blood so we’ll see how my levels are.
In the meantime I’ve reactivated my Netflix account and it has helped keep me sane. I LOVE being able to watch Netflix via the Wii! It’s like we’re the Jetsons! It’s so cool. I add something to my queue from the laptop and it appears on my tv. Amazing! Now I’m all caught up on Weeds. Every time I watch that show I think “I could totally sell weed”. But who am I kidding? I don’t have street skills. I’d set up a roadside stand for my weed and be in jail by 4:20.
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Bless Your Heart 