Derby Day.... there's nothing like being there!

Many years ago I had the opportunity to go to the Kentucky Derby.

My boyfriend, Jim, and I along with another couple (Daryl & Jody) decided to go to the Derby just a couple of days before... We had hoped to take a camper belonging to the mother of the other girl but on Friday that fell thru. So we took Daryl's car instead. All of us worked on Friday so after work, we started our journey. Naturally, we didn't have motel rooms so we had to just drive until we found something. Finally, about 2 a.m. we found a "cheap" motel room.... in Elizabethtown, KY. Yeah, we had driven thru Louisville and headed south in order to find something. We did have ulterior motives though. On Sunday we planned to visit Mammoth Caves and that wasn't that far from E-town.

We got a few hours of sleep then got back in the car to head back to Louisville. We were able to find a place to park that didn't cost that much. We were there.... at the Kentucky Derby.... 1980 version.

We went into the infield and found a place to hang out in the sun all day. Naturally, Jodie and I being shorter, didn't really see a whole lot. We did some betting on some of the pre-race races... well, the other 3 did, I saved my money for the big one! I pretended to know what I was doing and picked my bet.

I picked 2 horses to bet on.... Genuine Risk, a filly to place and Jaklin Klugman to show. Now, Jim and Daryl were making fun of my choices.... According to them there was no freakin' way Genuine Risk was going to win, place or show and I was wasting my couple of dollars (yeah, I bet real big!). And, Jaklin Klugman to them was a nonentity. Just because this horse was owned by Jack Klugman, the star of "Quincy, M.D." didn't mean the horse was any good. All I know is I wanted those horses so Jim did place my bet.

Who got the last laugh????

Winner - Genuine Risk
3rd - Jaklin Klugman

Jim begrudgingly stood in line to collect my money. Here's me while he was away :)





















And, yes, that is a Mint Julep in my hand..... Just a little strong for me, but I wanted the glass!


The Kentucky Derby is not what you see on TV. To see the race, you are better off watching it on TV, unless you have the bucks or the name to get in the grandstand. But, the experience in the infield.... as one website describes it "Part Woodstock, part family reunion, this is the gathering place to exercise the first rites of spring Louisville style!" Here it is, 1980 version...














And, here's the crowd at the ticket window.

















A once in a lifetime experience.

Special memories.

What a great day that was!

I need to get away more....

create your own visited states map

Now I did not include Arizona.... I saw the runway at Phoenix airport on my way to CA in 1997.... And, I might have been thru PA once but I'm not sure!

SS Blog Challenge: Laugh

This week, write about the last time you had a really good laugh. A belly laugh. A laugh that took your breath away. A laugh that starved you of oxygen and gave you a headache. A laugh where you tossed your head back and really let 'er rip.

If you can't recall a time when you've laughed that hard, then figure out WHY NOT, and write about that.

Laughter.
It's good for the soul.
If only it burned more calories.

Daily occurrence in my house :)

That will happen when you've got 2 clowns dressed as Havanese living with you. I will walk into a room and look at them and just start laughing.... Sometimes so hard I have to lean against the wall or sit down. Even just watching them play with each other will do it... especially those times when they are trying to run on the laminate flooring, they slip and slide all over the place!

Actually a previous blog entry was one of those moments. I was home from work because of a blizzard and sitting on the couch watching TV and surfing the web. The dogs were playing in another room and started chasing each other. They ran into the living room. When I looked over at them, there was Paige, sitting (in a perfect sit, of course!) on the other side of the coffee table just looking at me. Thank goodness I had a camera right there but it sure was hard to stop laughing long enough to take the pic. In fact, every time I look at that pic, I start laughing again :) Here's the link to that entry: Bad Hair Day.

Laughter.... It's been a very good medicine for me thanks to 2 less than 15 pound pooches. I love my life!

Winter of Flooding

We've had quite a winter in my area of Ohio.

I live in a town with a river running thru it. I actually live very close to the river and drive past and across it everyday to go to work.

We had quite a rainstorm yesterday and some reports are that we had over 3 inches of rain. So it figures that we would have some high water today.... Well, it was a little higher than I thought so at lunch time I got my camera then spent some time getting pictures after work (you know, the scrapbooker in me :) )
















This is the river behind downtown. Just past the gazebo and tree is a retaining wall. The water is normally 6 to 8 feet below the top of this wall.















Here's another view of the retaining wall. The river curves at this point and you can see the wall continue on in the background of the pic.














Here's the parking lot..... Now there are usually parking spaces filled with cars along the retaining wall. Not today!















We've got a boat ramp and a little park too..... Well, that is when the park isn't flooded. See the big rock on the right? That's where the boat ramp starts!















A little ways down the river (that's downtown off to the right in the background of this pic), we have another larger park. There's a couple of ball diamonds along the river here. The one ball diamond outfield also doubles as the football practice field. During the winter, there is an "ice rink". That wasn't used much this winter. As you can see, the practice field is mostly under water!















More football equipment. This is actually on the little road beside the ball diamond (the football uprights would be just to the left of where this picture is taken). The houses in the background are across the river. They are located on the main street in town. I have to say, they are pretty used to flooding but since most have extremely large (long) backyards, they don't have too many problems.















A little farther west of the park we've got another road. This is the bridge I cross every day. Underneath it is the damn. Normally you can see the damn because the water on the west side of it is usually 6 to 8 feet below the damn. Not today. See the rough waters? That's where the water is going "over" the damn. And, those trees.... They are usually on grassy land, not in the middle of the river!















And, the final picture to share. This is the cornfield along the road I take every single day. It is a good thing the developers of the subdivision I live in never developed this piece of land.....

I took more pictures but these were the interesting ones and showed quite a bit of the flooding. This is the 4th time this winter we've had flooding like this. Early December, early January, mid-February (after the blizzard snows melted), and today. I don't remember this much flooding in one winter in a long time!

Except for the February flood, I've got pictures of all of it! And, yep, I'm going to scrap 'em!!!

Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus

I was coming home from working out tonight and had to stop for a train. Luckily it was near the end so I didn't have to wait long.

Most of the cars at the end of the train were the flat bed type and on them were trucks and trailers with the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus logo on them. There were also cars, pick-up trucks, and 4-wheelers on some of the train cars. I even think I saw several cars that had cages on them. Couldn't tell if there were animals in them since it was dark but I'd speculate it was a definite possibility.

I know the circus spends time in Florida during the winter and I was surprised to see this equipment, etc this far north when it is still winter. But as I thought about it, considering the amount of stuff I saw, it would definitely make sense for it to travel by train. It would get there a heck of a lot faster than if every truck and vehicle were to be driven this long a distance.

For the record, the train was heading north....

OK, I'm doing an edit here. I got curious so looked up the circus on the internet. And, what do I find but a blurb about the "city without a zip code"....

The dream is as much a part of the American culture as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® itself: to run away and join the circus. For the human performers, animal stars, and crewmembers of the two unique editions of The Greatest Show On Earth®, life on the road is the best life you could imagine!
The Red Unit and Blue Unit trains criss-cross the country 11 months out of the year, logging more than 25,000 miles as they bring America's Living National Treasure® to millions of families in more than 90 cities! More than a mile long, each of the privately owned Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey trains is an international melting pot of cultures and skills.

I also looked up the schedule and found that they will be doing shows in New York on March 7. The train could easily make its "turn" towards the east a little north of where I am. There are a couple of pictures on the website that show the passenger cars of the train. More than likely I missed seeing those cars because they were probably at the front of the train.

I learned something today!!!!

Cancer again....

Just about a year ago I wrote about my father being diagnosed with prostate cancer. I am relieved that I can say he is cancer-free. After his PSA rose again last summer, he chose to have radiation treatments and in November was declared cancer-free.

About the time he got his all-clear, his brother had a very high PSA. The doctor felt it could be an infection and treated him for that to begin with. Unfortunately that was not the case and my uncle has now been diagnosed with cancer. This is the brother that he is closest to... both age wise and as friends. Mike is 15 months older than Dad and they are like "2 peas in a pod".

Mike and his wife have 4 children. 2 girls and 2 boys (not to mention the grandkids and great-grandkids!). The oldest girl is 9 months older than me and the next girl is 9 months younger.... We were close growing up and I still spend a lot of holidays with their family. They consider me a part of their family and have for many years. When I heard about his diagnosis, I was floored. Not only does he have prostate cancer, he also has bone cancer. And from what I have learned the bone cancer is not only in his back but also small spots on his one hip, a rib and a lymph node. And, the prostate cancer is Stage 4.... He is having treatment for both cancers so we can only hope for the best.

I am again raising money for our county Relay for Life. But, you know what.... Mike's 2nd daughter has raised money for Relay for several years also. Last year, our efforts were for my Dad. This year they will be for her Dad.....

I.hate.the.word.Cancer.

I'm such a procrastinator!

Yup.

Tax time.

I said last year that I would keep up with my Quicken program to make tax time easier in 2007. I lied. Well, I did good until April but let things go after that.

So this weekend I sat down and got all the papers in that Longaberger basket (at least it was a smaller basket this year!) together and started the process. Amazingly, all the data input was done in less than 8 hours. Then it was time to double check everything and do the bank recs. Got that done this morning.

Next I installed my tax program and started the process. Getting rid of Schedule C sure makes it go faster! I then e-filed my federal return thru the tax program. Also, love the state of Ohio tax website where I can file both the state and school district returns for free. All 3 done by 5:00.

Now to get back the refunds :)

Bad Hair Day

Need I say more....

Even dogs have bad hair days....

LOL!

Blizzard - Day 2

Woke up this morning to hear that my employer canceled 1st shift :) Made me a happy camper especially after I looked outside.

The drifts at the garage door were close to 2 feet in places. Not sure the 4-wheel drive would have made it thru since I would have had to back out.

As the day went on, I was getting more and more upset since the guy I hired to clear the drive never showed up and he had told me yesterday he would do it again today! Not to mention the 3 closest neighbors to me are all guys in their 30's. Of course, one is the guy who flaked on me. One used to do it but stopped several years ago (when flake took over). And, in a dire situation a couple of years ago I asked #3 to help and offered payment but he refused. Today all 3 of them looked at my drive, saw that I was home but did any of them ask if I needed it done.... NO.

I tried shoveling an area for the dogs and had to quit after 5 minutes. Went back out later and just tried to knock some of the snow in the deep areas down so it wouldn't go up the exhaust pipe in the morning. Didn't get very far with that either.

But, about 5:30 the dogs started going crazy so I thought my friend might be out there. Nope. It was some guy in a pickup and I didn't recognize him. He was plowing my driveway. When done he just drove away.

For once, somebody did something nice for me without me asking....

Thank you whoever you are.

Today's pics:

7:30 a.m.















10:00 a.m.















10:00 a.m.

BLIZZARD!!!

Ohio version that is.

On Sunday, it was a winter storm warning.
On Monday, it was changed to a heavy snow warning. Tuesday 1 a.m. to Wednesday 7 a.m.

Today at 1:15 p.m. it was changed again.

Blizzard Warning until 7:00 Wednesday a.m.

My employer decided that we could leave early once any necessary work was done. Several left before lunch and the rest of us stayed a little longer. The IT guy and I left at 2:15. I wasn't worried about getting home since I have 4-wheel drive. The drive wasn't too bad since it was all in town driving. Days like this I'm super glad I live and work in the same town. The wind had really kicked up by this time so there was lots of snow blowing across the roads.

I was actually more worried about my driveway. The guy I had arranged to clear my driveway this winter (lives across the street) hasn't done it yet! Sunday I saw a friend and asked if he would do it for me. He also lives in the neighborhood so he wouldn't have to go far. He said he would. He knows what time I get off work so I was afraid that since I was early, it wouldn't be done. At first it looked like it wasn't but then I realized that there were piles along the edge of the driveway that weren't there before. He called after I had been home a couple of hours and told me he had done it late morning-early afternoon. When he called we were having very high winds and it was still snowing. I couldn't even see my tracks from 2 hours earlier! He wondered if he needed to do it again before I go to work in the morning. Luckily my employer has no problem with us waiting to come in during daylight hours so I told him that. I also said I'd just put it in 4-wheel drive and barrel my way out if needed!

Here's my driveway at 7:15 this morning....















Here it is at 2:45 this afternoon....















And, here it is at 6:00 this evening....















These 2 pictures show the bush in the front flower bed at 2:45 and 6:00.
































And this is how far the snow has drifted against the garage door a little over 3 hours.














Now I have to admit, it is pretty to look at now that I am home and I don't have to go back out. But, even with that, can I say how much I hate winter?!?!?!?

Artic cold weather...... I HATE IT!

I.hate.cold.

I.should.really.live.in.Florida.or.Hawaii.

But.I.live.in.Ohio.....

We've had the very cold temperatures here the last couple of days with wind chills below zero. I don't function well in cold weather. Heck, even my dogs don't like it outside. They go out and do their thing and come right back in. Pepper usually likes to check things out when he's outside. He is very content to spend time outside, sometimes I can't get him to come in but not these days.

Now for the point of this blog. I've got a garage and I put the garden hoses in the garage during the cold months. In October, I brought them in and for a few days there was water dripping out of them that had been in the hoses. But, I haven't seen dripping water since early November.

The scene today.....
















Dang if it ain't cold!

SS Blog Challenge - Slide Show

I haven't done an SS blog challenge for awhile but this week's peaked my interest.

Here's your challenge: choose a group of photos and make a slide show! Choose key photos from a single event, or showcase a collage of photos from all over the place. It doesn't matter! But choose a grouping of photos and tie them together somehow with a story or an essay or a letter.

Since this blog is supposed to be about my Havanese, what better subject to do a slide show on. Pepper is almost 7 and Paige just turned 5. So I do have lots and lots of pictures of them. These are just a few of my favorites that also depict their lives. And, yes, they do LOVE to pose for pictures!

So here it is, my slide show on my Havanese babies....

SS MI Winter Retreat

Here we are, the ScrapShare MI Retreat attendees....

Front - SharonJordan5, tsbegley
Middle - momtomaxandaaron, Mary (a friend of Sharon), buckIscrapper, InkyFingers, ReneInOH
Back - bdren, bonnenuit, aimless, GoldieP, CMCEmmyLou, Betty Cropper

A Buckeye in Spartan Country

I'm here.

In Michigan.

East Lansing.

On the campus of Michigan State University......


wearing my Buckeye clothing!!!

I will say this. The facilities for this retreat are great! The price was right and I'm having a fantastic time with my SS friends.

Although I'm not the only Buckeye here :) There's Benita, a Buckeye fan from Columbus, and Susan, a Buckeye fan from Rochester Hills, MI. Although she's not a Buckeye fan, we've also got Beth from Girard, OH.

We've come from all over. Christy from Ontario. Judy from Wisconsin. Amy, Sharon, Mary, Jody, Diane and Tiffany from Michigan.

But, the best moment so far was the serenading of the Buckeyes by Tiffany's 4-year old daughter via cell phone.... Had to love her rendition of Hail To The Victors!

Everyone is having a great time laughing, talking and scrapping....

That alone makes it worth being a Buckeye visiting Michigan :)

Scrap Share Retreats

I love scrapbooking. I have found a home at ScrapShare, a message board community devoted to scrapbooking.

So what am I doing this weekend?

I'm driving 3 1/2 hours to meet up with 11 other people from SS and spend the weekend scrapbooking!!!

Am I crazy or what? We've all heard and read the horror stories about internet meetings.....

I'm still going to do it. I have met one of these girls already, so it is really only 10 I don't know. But, yet, I feel that I do know them. I read their posts every day. I've read about their good times, their bad times and their opinions on anything and everything. I've shared with them also. Some of them I feel I know better than some of my blood relatives.....

I'm excited! So excited that I probably won't be able to sleep. Heck, I haven't slept well all week thinking about everything I need to do for this weekend and the weekend itself!

This time tomorrow I will be scrapbooking, laughing and having a heck of a time with my new-old friends from SS.

I'm ready.....


well, except for the pesky thing called packing......

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Apprentice. You've got the basics down pat and you might just be falling in love with this hobby. Big needles, funky yarns and simple shapes are the name of the game, but it doesn't mean you don't experiment a bit, here and there. As an apprentice, you probably fall back on other people to get you through those rough spots, and if you don't know anyone who knits, you probably have a few books or online sources to tap. http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!








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Another Silly Blog Question.....

You Are Most Like George H. W. Bush

You're considered boring by people that don't know you well. But like Bush senior, you do crazy things. Maybe you'll end up banning broccoli in your house, or puking on the Prime Minster of Japan!

What Modern US President Are You Most Like?

Remarkable Life?

Week 2 of the Scrapshare Blogging Challenge:

Write about your less than remarkable life. Write about your routines,
your habits, your schedule. Find the unremarkable things about your
life and CELEBRATE them.

I live a very ordinary life. Small town America. I've never lived outside the state of Ohio and 40 of my 50 years have been in this small town. But, it is my life and I love it!

I love the simple things in life and will leave the glitz and glamour to others. I love my home and prefer to spend my time there. I absolutely love my furkids and hate to leave them. I don't mind being alone, actually prefer it many times. I have my friends but if we don't talk every day that is not a problem. I am a creature of habit. Go to work and come home 5 days a week. I grew up as an only child so have always had to entertain myself. Because of that I am not afraid to be alone.

I have/had wonderful parents. They taught me that I can be happy no matter what and that my happiness is not based on other people being/not being in my life. I'm so thankful that they were my parents.

My life. Not so remarkable compared to others.

But to me, ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE!

Color Me Beautiful....

Many, many years ago I found out about a service called Color Me Beautiful. A "color consultant" worked with you to determine the colors best for you. I figured what the heck, might as well find out.

I must say it was a very enlightening experience. I learned that I was wearing colors that were all wrong for my skin tone and hair color. The whole concept of Color Me Beautiful is based on a book written by Carole Jackson and she uses the categories of spring, summer, fall (autumn) and winter to describe the colors.

I learned by reading the book before my appointment that your skin tone, hair & eye colors help to determine what colors look best on you. And, that these either have a blue or golden tone. The color palettes used are divided by "cool" or "warm" with the cool being the blue undertones and the warm based on the yellow. Cool are summer & winter. Warm are spring & autumn. I figured I had blue undertones and by looking at the colors I figured I was a summer.

I go for my appointment and being the smart-aleck 20-something I was at that time I figured I knew it all. With the consultant's first comment, I woke up and shut up!

First she determined that I had blue undertones (at least I was right on that!) and then draped me in swatches from all the groups. Right away I could tell that the spring and autumn colors were completely wrong. Then she did the summer swatches. I thought that I looked pretty good in some of those colors and she agreed but she wasn't done yet. She pulled out the winter swatches and started going thru them individually. WOW! Was I amazed at what some of those colors did for me! Some looked OK, others were pretty good and some were absolutely gorgeous.

In the 4 seasonal palettes, only 1 season has the colors of black & white. The other 3 palettes have less harsh versions of these colors such as ivory, soft white or oyster white and shades of gray. Winter has the black & white and amazingly, black is one of my best colors with white being pretty close. She told me that some winters cannot wear these as their main colors but only as accent colors but I could wear them both as a main color. Of course, she suggested to always have a "little black dress" in my closet because it would look terrific on me. They also pick one color out of the palette that would be the perfect color for a bathrobe. Amazingly, for me that was "icy aqua". They also tell you whether silver or gold jewelry looks better on you. Silver is my color! But when I asked her about all the gold jewelry I had, she said I could wear it but consider mixing gold and silver possibly by wearing a silver watch. To this day, I always buy silver watches or silver/gold watches. Even the ring I had made of my mother and grandmother's engagement rings is gold with silver and it looks very nice on my hand. I haven't entirely given up the gold jewelry because a lot of it was inherited but I always wear silver earrings and my silver watch.

Now there are some colors in the winter palette that don't look good on me and those are very good for accent pieces. That lemon yellow.... put it with navy blue or black or charcoal gray. Then I asked her about colors not in my palette, especially since I wore suits to work and I had several that weren't in the palette... namely that chocolate brown one. She said to go ahead and wear it but put one of my best colors with it... brown suit, blue-red blouse. Amazing look! Much better than the orange print blouse I usually wore. Know what I did with the orange blouse... I wore it with a black sweater every Halloween (and my black cat earrings).

They gave you a nice little color swatch book with notes as to which colors looked best as main or accessory colors and I carried that with me for years whenever I went shopping. She also went into what color shoes, handbags, hosiery, makeup, and hair color (if coloring) are best for a winter. To this day, I try to stick with those main colors in my wardrobe. Don't get me wrong, I will wear a color that isn't good for me, but it is usually a casual outfit that I only wear around the house. For work and dress-up occasions, I always wear a good color. That's one reason you see me in a lot of black :)

The colors of the winter palette rated 2-check excellent for me:

Light true gray, black, navy blue, emerald green, magenta, fuchsia, blue-red, icy aqua and icy pink.

My 1-check excellents are:

Pure white, medium true gray, charoal gray, true blue, royal blue, chinese blue, shocking pink, royal purple, true red and icy violet.

Good colors for me: True green, deep hot pink, bright burgundy, icy yellow and icy blue.

Colors that should only be used as accents or mixed with excellents or away from my face: Taupe, hot turquoise, lemon yellow, light true green, pine green and icy green.

Anyways, if you ever meet me, I'll be the one in black :)

Big Brother 6 - Which housemate are you?

You scored as Rachel. You're Rachel. You're very strong and love your life and you never let people take advantage of you. You're smart and cunning.

Which Big Brother 6 Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.


Big Brother All-Stars coming soon! Are YOU ready?