The Texas Renaissance Festival

We went on the Highland themed weekend on the 11th (I know this post is late...but better late than NEVER!!!) and we had a great time.

When we first arrived I couldn't believe my eyes!  It was Lorenzo Lamas!

Well maybe not - but he kinda looked like him.  Nice chest though huh?

We walked a bit more and saw a centaur.  Who knew the people who go to these events have such awesome costumes?!  I'm not joking either.  This guy had the BEST costume it was really well made.  I didn't get a good photo - which was disappointing.

He was a very, very large man.  He's to the right of the woman with the wings and in front of the guy looking at me taking the photo.

This photo kinda got his face and you can see he's much taller than everyone else.

 Here's a photo of a wizard - his staff was pretty cool

There were even people not dressed up in the period - these two above were dressed up as Stargate people (not sure of the proper name for them...).

This guy was a little creepy - he had claws on his fingers and was caressing his girlfriend / wife's neck with them.

This guy was a little cutie - I felt a bit stalkerish when I took the photo - but hey - he had a nice body and he was showing it off...

Barbarian Horde!

I couldn't figure out if this guy was passed out or just taking a nap.  As I walked past him I saw this in the distance....

I thought Yum!  They must be like the elephant ears you get at the fair.  WRONG!

This is where you actually get elf ears applied to your own ears.  Disappointed doesn't even cover how I felt.  Betrayed maybe?

We walked a bit further and saw these guys above...Pagans.  They went to a lot of trouble with their costumes - just like the centaur did.

This guy - he was a bit scary.  He had like NO body fat.  Let me just say I don't find that very attractive - although he did have a nice body.

Barbarian weekend was the next one - so I think some of these guys were practicing for "their" weekend.

And then as we left the park we saw this...

Plage Victim - begging for money. We gave her a quarter.

That's a lot for the Renaissance time period right?

Texas Renaissance Festival

Oh yeah baby!

I'm going to the "RenFest" this weekend~! 

http://www.texrenfest.com/

See how I use the lingo?

And they have THEMED WEEKENDS people!

And this weekend is....

Highland Fling!

And guess what the weekend is when my sister is in town~?

Celtic Christmas!!!

Here is the menu for that weekend:

Breakfast

Quiche Cinnamon Rolls

Lunch

Fried Turkey Breast (on a stick)

Sweet Potatoes

Dinner

Tameales with Aguas Frescas

Prime Rib Trencher

Dessert

The King’s Kettle Corn

O.K. I'm not so into Tamales or Kettle Corn but I'm defiantly into QUICHE CINNAMON ROLLS!!!

I love Quiche and I FRICKEN adore cinnamon rolls.

The menu for this weekend is not quite so exciting:

Breakfast

Scotch Egg

Lunch

Shepherd’s Pie

Peasant’s Pocket

Dinner

Seafood Boat

Peasant Potatoes

Red Rooster Trencher

Dessert

Banana, Chocolate, Strawberry Pudding in a Cone

To be quite honest none of that sounds really good to me.  Maybe peasant pocket?  If it's like an empanada I'll like it...maybe.

Anyway it looks like a good time - stay tuned for the photos! 

Gross, Gross, Gross!

I started watching this show:  Tera Nova.

It's o.k. - I like it.

But on the show today they had a 30 foot parasite being pulled out of a guys intestine.

YUCK!

Need I say more????

I'm still here! I'm still here!

We are still unpacking and painting and getting settled in!

It's taking a lot longer than before...because we care more because it's OURS!!!!

Anyway I haven't been feeling well - but still went to work because one of my co-workers was leaving...WAH!!!

So I had to learn how to do his reports.

And my illness - upset stomach - got worse.

So I didn't go to work today.

I spent it at home with this:

And this:

And later on this:

You can't really tell from this photo - but to give you an idea how big they are...the "little" one is 80lbs and the big one is about 120lbs.

The Interweb

Well I'm back!

We moved into our new house the first weekend of October and the internet didn't get set up until last night.

I don't blog from work, because well...it's work.

So I've been offline because I've been really stressed out, and here's why:

I've been:

Dealing with crappy new neighbors.

Can you believe I moved next door to psycho hippies?!  We wanted to replace the wrought iron fence because we have dogs and the neighbors beside us have kids they babysit, and the ones behind have grandkids.

Kids poke at dogs.

Dogs get pissed and bite.

I don't want to be sued - even though the little bastards would deserve it.

So I thought I was being a good neighbor - informing and getting buy in from them.

She said o.k. - replace the fence, but let's double check with my husband.

Reasonable.

I checked - he said go ahead.

Then I get the fence guy out and she comes over and says - I changed my mind.

Why did she change her mind do you ask?

1.  She was attached to the wisteria growing on the fence that encroached into my yard about 3 feet.
2.  She said she liked to see into my yard so she could pretend that it was part of hers because she was - and I quote - "a country girl".
3.  She thought being able to see straight into my house would ensure our home's security because she could report anything unusual.

Can you say really nosey neighbor?!

I said, hmmm - well I need to tell you the fence is going up.  Regardless.

Because:

1.  I have very large dogs and you have kids over.
2.  I find it really creepy that you want to see into my home (at which point she said if we didn't want her to see anything we could just pull the blinds - WTF?!  Really?!)
3.  When I walk around the house nude she didn't need to see.
4.  When I have sex with my husband - she didn't need to watch.

She responded - well let me talk to my husband...

You do that honey...

So I went back a few days later - The husband said yes go ahead and replace the fence (btw we were doing this at our cost - NOT asking them to split it).

And I told him the Jasmine on the fence was dying so we were going to cut it back.  He said OK.

Our landscaper - who also put in our fence was there for the conversation.

So he cuts back the Jasmine, and I leave to go out with my husband.

Then I get a phone call - the husband was freaking out about the Jasmine...because his wife flipped her lid over it.

Really?!  Seriously?!  It's a fucking weed.  The shit is growing back as I speak.

But not for long I'm killing that shit.

The next day (Monday) the fence guy meets me at the house so I can pay him and he's going to start the fence job.  I pay him, discuss the fence and leave.

No sooner do I leave then he calls me and tells me the neighbors came out telling them to stop.  Seriously?!  ARGH!!!

So I calle a lawyer.  Fuck being nice.  Look where it got me.

He said if I went ahead I would win in a lawsuit because they said yes, I relied on it, paid the contractor, and he had started work when they stopped him.

So...They took down the fence - the neighbor yelled at me.  And we don't talk to them.

Simple.

I'm still waiting for papers to be served to me since she was so pissed about the fence and the removal of her weeds.

I guess she'll think twice before giving permission again.

Packing:

I had to pack in 5 days because I decided to move sooner than originally planned - because going back and forth between houses was making me freak out.

Packing really is a pain when you do it yourself.  Really it is.

Home Chores:

Dealing with foundation guy.
Dealing with the electrician - who by the way still isn't finished.  We have light fixtures hanging by wires, rooms with no working outlets etc...
Fencing - need I say more.
Painting - the ceiling is finished in the middle of the house, one wall is painted, two are partially painted, and one room is fully prepped.

Painting is a pain - but expensive to have someone else do so I'm doing it myself.

The actual move.  It's painful no matter how you do it.  Unless of course you have more money than God and you can hire someone to both pack and unpack everything for you so you just have to go on holiday and come back to a perfectly unpacked home.

Wouldn't that be nice?

The unpacking.

Which is not even close to being finished.

I've also been dealing with:

Katie - she's off to boarding school because I decided I didn't have enough experience to deal with her leash aggression.  According to the trainer she's making good progress.

YEAH!!!

And as far as dealing with stress, here's something good...

I've been...

Jogging!!!

Can you believe it?!

A friend and I started walking Memorial Park about 2 months ago and our time has gone from:

1 hour - at a very leisurely pace to 42 minutes where we are jogging and briskly walking.

The loop is 3 miles which means I've been doing less than 15 minute miles.

I'm pretty impressed with myself.

Go me!  According to Joel...I, or rather we, are GODDESSES!!!

I can roll with that.

Well now that I've kinda caught you up on my life - future posts should me more prolific.

And S.  If you read this send me your story.

I want to read it!

Ciao!

Melancholy

mel·an·chol·y

noun, plural -chol·ies, adjective

noun

1. a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged; depression.

2. sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.

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3. Archaic .

a. the condition of having too much black bile, considered in ancient and medieval medicine to cause gloominess and depression.

b. black bile.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
adjective

4. affected with, characterized by, or showing melancholy; mournful; depressed: a melancholy mood.

5. causing melancholy or sadness; saddening: a melancholy occasion.

6. soberly thoughtful; pensive.

==============================================

I feel Melancholy.

I'm not depressed, but I am in a gloomy state of mind.

I do NOT have black bile.

Whatever that is.

Do you ever doubt yourself?

Your likableness? (is that even a word?)

Wonder why people like you?

Just feel like lying in bed - with some beautiful, very large, in shape man, cuddling me, rubbing my back and hair - maybe humming (in tune of course) until I feel better?

- hey it's my melancholy and if someone is going to rub my back to lift it I want a big, buff, gentle man to do it.

But I ONLY want him to hum - no talking please.

And no sex. In my Melancholy state I only want comfort.

Back rubbing.

Hair petting.

Silence.

Except the humming - I think it's soothing.

Because you know that my big buff man is going to have a voice that has perfect pitch.

Not like mine - I can't hold a tune with a bucket.

He is my fantasy.

And I already feel better, thinking of him rubbing my back.

I wonder if I'm low on Vitamin D again...

I need to take my vitamins... I'm going to take my vitamins....

Barak Apologizes to Bush

Just in case you can't find it online...
http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2011/03/31/president_obama_apologizes_to_president_bush/page/full/

President Barack H. Obama

The White House
Dear George,
The Gulf oil spill opened my eyes.
As with Hurricane Katrina, it happened suddenly. I barked out orders. I pounded my desk. But the oil kept flowing. Worse, the nation watched it all on television and said: "Why doesn't the President do something? Doesn't he care?" From then on, I fully understood both the expectations and the limitations of this job.
I ran on "hope and change." I said I would bring the sides together. The American people, I told Republicans who opposed my stimulus plan, have spoken. And "I won."
So without any of the bipartisan support you received for your tax cuts, my stimulus passed, and I confidently predicted it would prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent. It climbed to 10.2 percent.
Without a single Republican vote, we passed "ObamaCare." But half of the states' attorneys general filed suit to stop it. And a year after its passage, most Americans want it repealed.
My party lost its House majority and its Senate supermajority. Voters wanted smaller government. Turns out voters wanted to retain the "Bush tax rates" -- even for the rich -- which I campaigned against. Again, the American people had spoken.
The morning starts, as you know, with an intelligence briefing. My goodness, does America have enemies -- hateful, violent, vicious enemies all over the world who are determined to destroy this nation! Our job is to prevent them from succeeding -- all of them, all of the time.
I labeled you a cowboy, promised humility and offered enemy countries an "outstretched hand" for their "unclenched fist." But calling the Global War on Terror an "overseas contingency operation" not only failed to deter the Islamofascists from wanting to kill us, it suggested a weakness that only strengthened their resolve.
Al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas and the mullahs who run Iran, I learned, couldn't care less that I'm a person of color, born to a Muslim father from Kenya, and who lived in Indonesia. They hate us still.
Guantanamo Bay exists for a reason. It imprisons the worst of the worst. No other country will take these terrorists, and many former detainees have returned to the fight.
Gitmo is among many of your "Bush era" terror-fighting policies that I not only retained but, in some cases, even expanded. What once seemed reckless and wrongheaded, I now see as prudent attempts to strike that difficult balance between safety and freedom.
I came into this job eight years after September 11, 2001. I cannot imagine 3,000 Americans killed on my watch. I cannot imagine polls showing that 90 percent of us anticipated another attack within 12 months of the first, perhaps with chemical or biological weapons. I can imagine how you must have blamed yourself during those long, dark days, and spent every waking hour asking, "What can I do so this never happens again?"
This brings me to the Iraq War, a mission I once called "dumb."
Seventy-six percent of Americans, at the time, supported your decision. You obtained approval from Congress. By contrast, 47 percent support my actions in Libya, less support than for any military action taken in the last 40 years. Unlike you, I did not seek approval from Congress even though I once said the Constitution requires it.
Thanks to the Iraq War, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi surrendered his WMD. He poses no direct threat to America and cannot use these terrible weapons on his own people. Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, invaded his neighbors, used chemical weapons on his own people and shot at our planes patrolling the no-fly zones. All 16 of our intelligence agencies thought he possessed stockpiles of WMD, a prospect that threatened to make the 9/11 carnage look small.
I even opposed the "surge" in Iraq and predicted its failure. I now see this unpopular decision for what it was -- one of the most courageous decisions ever made by any of the 43 Americans who have sat behind this desk.
I vividly recall shaking my head during the speech you made to make the case for the "dumb" war. A disapproving New York Times wrote: "President Bush sketched an expansive vision. ... Mr. Bush talked about establishing a 'free and peaceful Iraq' that would serve as a 'dramatic and inspiring example' to the entire Arab and Muslim world ..."
Now I understand why, in 2008, you signed National Security Presidential Directive-58, Advancing the Freedom Agenda: "To protect America, we must defeat the ideology of hatred by spreading the hope of freedom. Over the past seven years, this is exactly what the administration has done."
It began with newly liberated Afghans and Iraqis who risked their lives by leaving their homes to vote for the first time. Your Freedom Agenda ignited the promising, historic "hope and change" we are now witnessing all throughout the Arab and Muslim world.
You were right. I was wrong. The nation -- and the world -- owes you a huge debt of gratitude.
Let's do lunch and then sneak in a round of golf. The "near beer" is on me.
With respect and appreciation,
Barack