B&B Eve

It's that time of year again. This year is marking the special 10th year anniversary edition of the B&B Party. By this time, if you haven't found yourself a costume, you may want to check out websites like this one for those last minute costume ideas.

I am proud to announce that my costume is about 95% done. The finishing touches will be add after I arrive at my destination. Some of it is lack of time to ensure things dry, some is due to the nature of how it will be put together and making it more likely to break in route.

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on this costume and I am hoping that it looks every bit of awesome as I think it does it my head. I have pricked myself several times with the pins. Some of those being in the last few hours. Yay last minute work!

I am looking forward to the party and seeing how other people are dressed. For those of you dying to know what my costume is, you need more to do with your time. I will have pictures hopefully up for viewing by Monday evening. That's being optimistic, but, there are many people who want to see it, so it may happen.

Shecky's Girls Night Out

This past Thursday I was invited to do this Shecky's Girls Night Out. In an effort to just get out and do things, I said sure why not. It sounds like fun anyway. The idea is, they take over the lobby of a hotel and pour in vendors of things woman love to shop for like purses, jewelry, clothes, and other random stuff. Then they offer you free drinks while you are there, some wine, beer, and chambord. They also give you a goodie bag full of free stuff with your ticket. So we paid $13 to get in and do all of this. I didn't think it was a bad deal.

To be honest, there was a lot of tacky stuff (and people) there. It was entertaining just looking around. Some tables were hard to get a look at so we just made the rounds. We meandered a bit, stopped to grip about work while nice people brought us refills. Then went back shopping. I did find something I really liked for a reasonable price. It's pictured below. It reminds me of the necklace from Lord of the Rings.


We headed for a bar to get some munchies and then onward to home not to long after. Well I spilled out my goodie bag to see what I hauled in. I got some active hair rubber bands and head bands, a free compact brush, a pair of underwear, a trail size Lara Bar, a fill size skin milk hand wash, a free beauty magazine, and a free book. Overall a decent haul. Then I look closer at the magazine and the book.

The magazine has on it "New products and procedures that really work, from wrinkle creams to liposuctions, lasers to botox, experts reveal their secrets". Nice. The book is called "Change Your Looks, Change Your Life - Quick fixes and cosmetic surgery solutions for looking younger, feeling healthier, and living better" So much for being happy with who you are.

Overall, it was a fun night and I really do like my new necklace, just poor choice in reading materials.

The Great Pumpkin

Last weekend the Amanda, Mike, Rob and I climbed into my car and made a trip out the the east side of town. We were in search of The Great Pumpkin at the good old pumpkin patch. The rule was we had to go to a place that you actually got to cut the pumpkin from the vine. So Rob grabbed the hedge clippers, Amanda grabbed the wheel barrow and off we went.

I have never actually picked out pumpkins this way, so I was not dressed properly in my shorts and sandals, so Rob had to fetch my pumpkin for me. What a nice guy. :) I would like to mention however, that I was dressed for the weather. At 80 degrees it felt a little too warm to be out picking pumpkins, but that's how it is.

I did find it funny and completely in line with the location of this pumpkin patch, to find that off the back corner of the patch was a shooting range. It's where the white trailer is in the photo above. I don't know what they were shooting, nor did I want to get close enough to find out. It was just an ironic setting with families picking out pumpkins, the cow train for little kids going around, hay rides, and then the firing range. Only in Georgia.

Grandma's Chicken and Rice

My sister gave me this recipe of my grandmother's to have in my collection. I guess it's one of her favorites and it is really delicious. And after making it, there is no argument there. It has in fact been voted hands down a favorite by Rob and myself and now a new comfort food to me.

Sadly, my grandmother passed when I was only 9 from cancer. I never really got to know her like my older siblings did so I rely on them to help fill me in. They tell me all kinds of stories about her and pass down things like this recipe.

I do have memories of her, like when she was teaching me how to sew. I learned to make a white with tiny blue poky dots pocket. I was so proud of myself. I also remember playing old maid with her. She had the Old Maid and the last match so she changed the cards around so much that when I picked the card, it was the Old Maid, but she was laughing and smiling while doing it.

She also taught me how to play cribbage which is a pretty fun game that Rob reintroduced into my life. He didn't know it at the time he bought the board that the last time I played was with my grandmother, so it was kind of special.

I wish that I could have had a grandmother to grow up with, but I have older siblings and that's pretty cool too. Thankfully I had a cool grandfather to grow up around, but there is no replacing a grandmother. :)

We Are The Champions!

Last week was sadly, my last softball game of the season. I mean have only been playing since the sometime in April. Somehow, I don't think the sarcasm is really translated that well. It was fun, but seriously way too long of a season. If you will all remember the post that documented the start of it and note the date.

We had playoffs the week before last to determine who would go to the sudden death match, I mean the championship game the following week. Well we managed to pull that together and win so we got to play the last game.

To be fair, it was a really close game, they scored 3 runs, we scored 3 runs kind of deal. So it was neck and neck until the 6th inning where we scored plenty, leaving the score at 15-11 to start the 7th and final inning. They tried their hardest, but with 2 outs and a guy at bat that couldn't hit a fair ball to save his life, the championship was at hand! (Otherwise my title for this blog entry would be highly misleading.) At his last strike, I had ball in hand and we were declared Division C League Champions for 2007! *Enter Queen Music*

I guess the deal is we get plaques or something stating how awesome we are to put in our cube. That's a plus, I will have proof of it as soon as they are made. I had a pretty good team and I guess since I survived softball season I am allowed to go out to lunch with them now. Neat. I must have scored some amount of cool points to manage that status. It was probably when the dude stepped on my foot with his cleat at home plate while I tagged him out that did it.

I honestly don't know what I am going to do on Wednesday nights anymore. I have been bowling or playing softball since February. I think I might just put my feet up and watch TV. Who am I kidding? I have a costume to make!!

Yoga Does a Body Good

Last weekend Amanda invited me to attend a yoga class taught by a lady she has it with during the week courtesy of the county. She has been talking about it for a while now and I have kind of wanted to try it but don't know the first thing about it. This instructor teaches a Sunday at 4pm class so it's at a pretty good time when nothing else is going on.

I got there and met the bubbly instructor. She's got a good personality and didn't make me feel like an idgit for not having a clue about what I was doing. I liked that. She also didn't push to get into that "perfect pose". She said, whatever you can get to is perfect for you. Kind of like an A for trying. I am sorry, but I can not make a V with my butt on the ground and torso and legs in the air. For those that think yoga is just about stretching ought to try that pose and hold it for a minute.

At the end of the session I felt pretty good. It's weird, you get an exercise and actually break a sweat, but at the same time it's relaxing. There is soothing music playing the background, she talks in a low, encouraging voice, and it's slow controlled movements. It kind of calms and centers you. If you have never experience yoga, I would say, go for at least one session just to see what it's like.

This neat article explains some of the health benefits to yoga which I have heard mentioned time and time again. This instructor for the Sunday class is a walking example of how yoga can help. She had arthritis and scoliosis and since starting yoga, she has no pain from either and has not been sick, even a head cold. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Can't hurt to give it a whirl and if I feel better physically and mentally after each session, I think it's worth doing.

Sarah vs. Goliath

Last Friday evening was Georgia Tech day at Six Flags over Georgia. Now I generally think of this park as "ghetto" from all the reported violence from that area. However, if you put a bunch of college kids from a reputable campus there, it cleans up fairly nice.

I am not a hop on all the rides kind of person. A co-worker of mine had mentioned some for me to look out for that might be more up my alley. Well the gang, Rob, Mike, Amanda, and I all head into the park. Mike is set on full speed ahead to Goliath! I follow suit. For those of you who are unaware of what Goliath is, you can read about it in detail here. It basically states that it's a 200 foot tall steel juggernaut with a top speed of 70mph. ... So not a ride I would get on.

So I wait in line with the gang and think about if I want to get on or not. About half way through the hour long wait I decide I am going to go for it. Mostly to try and get over that fear I had the last time I faced this kind of ride. The Ride of Steel at Darien lake looked a lot worse in my memory than Goliath. I waited in that line for almost 2 hours for that ride and was in tears and close to hysterics before I got to the cars and just walked through. I honestly thought Goliath wasn't as bad as the Ride of Steel until I got home and looked up that stats and found them to be the same in height and speed.

So when the time to load up came, I climbed in with heart pumping, but with the "I can do this!" attitude. So we begin our 200 foot ascension and close to the top I say, "Holy crap, I am really really scared" which is pretty much pointless at that point because its not like they stop the ride and let you out there. So away I went! I thought I was going to die. If there had been cameras on that first drop and not the last, I would have had the sheer look of terror on my face. It was only when Rob said, "Ok I am done now" at about half way through the ride that I started to ease up and have fun. Well that lasted for all of a minute. The ride stopped and I tried to stand up but only to find myself rather dizzy. Then I started to walk down the exit ramp slowly saying, "Uh oh... I don't think I am going to make it." Needless to say, I tossed my cookies over the railing before ever exiting the attraction. We have been in the park a whopping hour and thirty minutes. I spent the rest of the evening sitting very still and sipping coke while they got on other rides.

Mike told me I should have phrased it like, "Goliath was so much fun I knew no other ride was going to top it, so I stopped at the best", but I thought that was too obvious. I will never get on that ride again, but at least I can say I did it. He also was curious if it was going to be the negative G's that make you feel like you are coming out of the chair or the drop that would scare me more. It's still the drop. The good news is that all other coasters will feel tame next to the Big G. Sarah rode Goliath and Goliath won. Doh!