Tag Archives: vacation

rainy days and the ocean

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I’m blogging over at Fictionistas today about my rainy day at the beach. Pop over and give me some ideas of things I can do today while I’m stuck inside…

Oh, and Sockmonkey… spent the morning in the storm. She’s drying out. Poor thing just didn’t handle the first night of drinking very well…she even did a little drunk dialing last night. I hope she didn’t say anything too bad to Gnomeboy when she called.

I, on the other hand, know when to say when. It took me a long time to learn it…but it does seem that the lesson has finally kicked in.

More tomorrow…or maybe even later today.

we have landed!

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Sockmonkey and I made it to Florida with barely an incident.

Sure, I had one guy cut in front of me this morning as I was checking in. Then he had the balls to turn around and give me a look and I said, “You must be in such a hurry your forgot your manners. I forgive you.” Then I checked in and still finished before he did.

Maria picked me up and we immediately headed to find something to nosh on. She took me to the Red Elephant where I enjoyed a 22 oz beer, a salad and some artichoke dip. Yes, I made a glutton out of myself, so sue me.

We have pedicures scheduled for 5:00 today. Perfect timing since I stubbed my toe this morning and pulled half my big toenail off. Yum.

Tomorrow, Fay is supposed to come roaring in, but that’s okay, cuz we’re headed west and daring that bitch to catch us if she can. We’re picking Louisa up in Pensacola, headed to lunch, then digging in for some major CP work. I can’t wait.

T-minus 21 hours

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My flight leaves bright and early tomorrow morning. Of course, I checked the weather and it looks like it’s supposed to rain every day I’m in FL…but as long as it only rains for a little bit, I’ll be good.

Sockmonkey and I packed last night. I’m trying to do carry-on only, which is a difficulty for me. I am bad about over packing. Very bad. But I know that I really don’t need anything but a couple of bathing suits a cover up and something to wear if we go out to eat. But once I start packing, it’s hard for me to remember that. I only packed 2 pair of shoes. Proud? I’ll wear my Adidas flipflops on the plane. I packed my sneakers to walk in, and I packed my nice fliplops for goin’ out. These will dress up any outfit, don’t you agree?
I managed one suitcase. It wasn’t easy, which is why Sockmonkey looks so spent here:


Packing lightly is hard work. She deserved that beer.

The moment I pulled out the suitcase, the animals realized something was afoot. Well, Gizzard and Ruby did. Pete could care less because it’s me. If it were Fishdog, Pete would be panting and pacing and going all kinds of crazy.

Pete: Whatever Mom. I like Dad better. Begone, already.

Gizzard: Are we going somewhere? Cuz I wanna go. Please take me!

Ruby: You’re leaving me, aren’t you? Abandoning me. You’re going to take that damn monkey on a trip and leave me with the boys. I thought you loved me. I can see now I was wrong.

And then she pouted the rest of the night and went downstairs to hang out in the Penis Cave with the boys to punish me.

I plan to blog while I’m there. Not sure if they’ll be full blown blogs, but there will be content. And some pictures. Maybe. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post those. Depends on how incriminating they are…

meet sockmonkey and the new digs

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Sockmonkey is my BFF. (okay, she’s my only QUIET BFF)

Fishdog bought me Sockmonkey on a date night. We were living in Oxtopia (aka Oxford, MS) and it was one of the first real date nights we’d had since we’d moved there.

So we’re walking around after dinner and go into on of our favorite weird little stores, AS SEEN ON TV. It was a video rental store that also has loads of toys and gadgets from the 60s and 70s. And then some other fun stuff that you can also find at Archie McPhee. You could also buy beer there and they had a great selection. (No Bud Light to be found…)

Anyway, that’s where I saw her. Sockmonkey called to me and I had to beg Fishdog to buy her for me.

He did. And she’s been watching me work ever since.

Well, Sockmonkey has saved all her hard earned money and is getting ready to go on her first girl’s getaway. I have decided to document her trip and plan to blog about it while we’re gone. She’s asked me if her good ‘friend’ Gnomeboy can come along…but I’m not sure. This is a girl’s getaway. There might will be excessive drinking. What if Sockmonkey lets loose? What if she and Gnomeboy take their friendship to a whole nubba lebel? I’m not sure if she’s ready for that…and I know I’m not.

What do you think? Should Gnomeboy be allowed to go?

And on another topic all together–welcome to my new site! What do you think?

the countdown begins

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This time next week, I’ll be packing for my trip to Tallahassee. Maria, Louisa, and I are getting together for our yearly critique partner gathering. We’re picking Louisa up in Pensacola and heading to Destin for a few days, then on to another fabulous destination where we’ll be able to soak up lots of sun, sand, and surf.

a pic from last year’s trip

I can’t wait.

I’ll try blogging next week, but I’m afraid I’ll be having too much fun. We’ll be plotting out our next books, writing, and generally having a really good time. This will be especially awesome since Maria and I missed RWA this year.

I’m head down in my revisions right now. Trying to perfect this story and send it off by the weekend. I need this vacation. I’m sad that Fishdog and I didn’t get to do our San Francisco/Sonoma trip like we had planned. But we’ll get a vacay together. Maybe in October.

In other news…my interim website is almost complete…so stay tuned for a really cool change very soon. Thanks to the lovely Chrissy Olinger at Websong Designs for all her hard work. She designed a gorgeous template (that of course, my webby hubby had to tweak, cuz God love him, that’s in his nature). I can’t wait to unveil the new site. I think you’ll love it.

Okay, done for now. I’ll leave you with the final picture from last year’s beach extravaganza…

we are family!

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Had a great dinner last night. I fixed one of my favorite new dishes…and I spiced it up with some Tiger sauce. It was almost too spicy for a few folks. My bad.

The wine and conversation flowed and I finally had to call it a night about 11:00. I didn’t wanna wake up cranky for work today, so I headed to bed.

Where I promptly had a nightmare.

Don’t you hate it when you have bad dreams? This was so real that I woke up in a panic. My heart and mind were racing. It took me a few minutes to calm down and realize it was all a dream. Unfortunately, it took me even longer to get back to sleep.

It’s all good now.

I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging or not the rest of the weekend. Who knows? Sometimes I surprise myself. If you don’t see me around, I’ll be the sungoddess on Lake Ouachita.

tales from beaver lake

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Yeah. That’s where I was last week. Beaver Lake. Seriously, how appropriate is it that we had a girls’ week at Beaver Lake? If I wrote that in a book, I’d have to change it cuz nobody would believe it possible.

This is the sight I had every morning from the back deck.

I would wake up about 7:30, sometimes slightly hung-over, with my coffee, my laptop, and my blackberry. I couldn’t quite give up all forms of outer communication…No real internet connection though, so I got loads of writing done. (notice the fishdog did NOT blog for me while I was away. Bad doggie. No bone for you)

The first night there, D and I shared a bottle (or two) of champagne. We toasted each other…and we toasted a bit of good (GREAT) news a friend of mine recently received. (a piece of news I’d love to cheer via the internets but am unable to do so at this time…stay tuned)

It didn’t take long for the first dragonfly to show up. My friend D was shocked the little dude was up around the cabin. She said they usually stay by the lake. I had to tell her he was there for me. They follow me. Louisa, Maria and Marley can tell you. It’s kinda weird. Even Deidre has seen it before. Dragonflies are my totem. If they search me out, does that make me some kind of Queen Dragonfly?
The dragonfly was the first of many critters I saw while hanging out at Beaver Lake. First there was the lake kitty who loved me. We call him smiley. We don’t like his “real” name. It’s stupid. Smiley fit. Smiley liked my lap. A lot.
And then we saw a snake…
and the next day, we saw him with his girlfriend having frenzied serpent sex. I ran in to get my camera and they took it under a rock. Guess they didn’t want their jungle love to be on the internets.

I also saw a bobcat and several deer. Again, I was without my camera. Of course, I see deer all the time, but I would’ve loved to have captured the pretty wild kitty on camera.

During the day, we’d go down to the dock and layout. We had intended to take the boat to the waterfalls, but it was so freaking windy, it wouldn’t have been very fun. So, we just enjoyed our books and the sun.

Oh. And I got to drive a mule, which was pretty much made of awesome.
And for the record, we honestly did NOT mean to spy on the naked people camping across the lake. It was a total accident.
tomorrow: BEAVER LAKE GHOST STORY…Stay tuned.

dodged a bullet…

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Boy The Bachelorette was a hoot last night. Some of these boys are in so much denial that it’s down right pitiful.

Like last week when Hair-dresser Ron was sent home and he said, “DeAnna didn’t reject me, she just chose other people.” Um. dude. That’s rejection. Accept it and move on.

Then this week, Chef Robert acted like a pouty toddler. Wah! They teased me in front of my girlfriend and wrote “Bobbie” on a place card, and tried to sit my big, tall, ass at a kiddie table. Wah! So he ran off from the cookout and pouted and DeAnna was pissed. Don’t blame her really. They invited her down to hang out and then Chef Robert and Selfish Graham went away to pout together. Boohoo.

Chef Robert was in total denial throughout the entire show last night. He and Chicago Fred were picked to go on a 2-on-1 date with DeAnna. (In theory, this would be a dream date for a girl…if it were two different guys) Anyway, Chef Robert “counseled” Chicago Fred that whoever gets the kiss on the double date will get the rose.

Fast Forward to the date…Chef Robert gets some alone time with DeAnna. He tells her that his theory that the first kiss will tell them all they need to know…he goes in for the kill…and she says, “Um, Okay… Right here.” and turns her cheek. She says later she had to “give him the dodge” and that’s exactly what it was.

So given Chef Robert’s on theory that the first kiss would tell all…you would think he’d be well aware that she was about to kiss his ass goodbye. But no. He talked about their “sparks” and “chemistry” (what is she, a lab experiement?) and he was totally shocked when she said, buh-bye Chef Robert.

Chicago Fred thought he was going to get the rose…but he was sadly mistaken, too. She sent him packing. I think her ears were bleeding from his obnoxious accent. I’m sure he’s a really nice guy, he honestly seemed like it. But Fishdog and I decided she sent him home because she couldn’t imagine having sex with him. We had a whole conversation about what it would be like if he talked during sex. We decided that was the reason she sent him home.

DeAnna’s one-on-one date with Jesse was great. He’s so cute. I really like him. He’s going to go far.

The other guy to be let go last night was Brian. He seemed like a good guy but was more worried about hanging with his buddies than hanging with DeAnna.

It’s been a fun season so far. I’m ready for the nitty-gritty good stuff. Next week, Twilley and douchebag The Karate Kid will be sent home and we’ll be down to the final four. My predictions: Graham, Jeremy, Jason, and Jesse. I think Jason will win in the end, but I really like Jesse…maybe he could be the next Bachelor?

In other news, I’m off for a retreat for the next few days and I’ll be without the internet…I’ve asked Fishdog to take over my blogging duties while I’m gone.

I apologize in advance…

the spring breaks

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Last year, we went to Orlando via Tallahassee for Spring Break. I got to hang out with my best friend and CP, Maria Geraci before I headed off to the World of Disney and the Studios of Universal. We had a tiring but fantastic time.

This year, we’re at home. The boys have soccer camp in the mornings, but their afternoons are fairly free. Ian’s girlfriend is out of town, so he spends much of his day texting her. He has come down with a cold, so yesterday, he slept the day away. Rader is spending his days catching up on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne show. My boys LOVE LOVE LOVE Madea and she makes guest appearances on the show, so they eat it up.

Spring Break is only fun when you go somewhere. So, I took Rader and his cousins to the Little Rock Zoo yesterday. It was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, the entire population of Little Rock joined us there. Crowded as shit. Oh well.

I’ve exercised everyday this week. It helps when I have a good book downloaded to my iPod and right now, I’m listening to Jennifer Weiner’s Goodnight Nobody. I’m enjoying it. I really like her style. I think I’ll download Sophie Kinsella’s latest “un” shopaholic book next.

I’m off to the salon to get my hairs cut and colored. I need a pedicure badly. Maybe if I wear sandals, they’ll take pity on me and offer one for free….

Anything special happening this week?