More Beale Street Photos

Beale Street

Bill and I went to Beale Street in Memphis for the 4th of July. I think it's the first time we have spent the night anywhere except Kimmie's in the last 9 years, so I guess it was time. We had a great time but man, people sure are strange. Obviously, teeth are not a requirement for admittance to Beale St because a whole lot of people seemed to be missing theirs. And I saw some of the shortest dresses EVER on some of the young ladies. I could never figure out how they kept their you-know-what from showing because there was only about a half inch between the hem and their you-know-what. These same young women were wearing stilettos and they looked like they were going to fall off their shoes. But by the end of the night you could tell which ladies had been wearing the stilettos because they were the ones hobbling down the street. haha
We ate at BB King's Blues Club and the food was great. I had a bar-b-que the southern way, with slaw. Bill, who doesn't really like pork, went crazy over the ribs. I'll make a southern boy out of him yet!
We stayed at the Hampton Inn right off of Beale and we had a balcony room that overlooked Third St and Peabody Place so we went back to the room at 10 p.m. (what can I say, we are boring) and were entertained by all of the Memphis police trying to control the traffic and get the minors off the street at the 11 p.m. curfew. The traffic was awful and there were thousands of people milling about so I am so glad we didn't have to worry about driving.

I Reached My Goal

I lost the 35 lbs that was my goal. I am not finished yet, but I'm a lot closer. I plan to extend my goal for 10 more lbs so that will be a total of 45 lbs.
Bill and I went shopping and he bought me a swimsuit since I haven't picked out anything for my birthday yesterday (the BIG 5-oh). I picked it out and said, "You can buy this for me" and Bill took it from me. A lady was standing there, we had been discussing the different styles. She said, "Oh, that is so sweet" and I told her he was buying it for me for my birthday present. She was very nice and when I told her that I turned 50 yesterday she said, "You certainly don't look like you are 50. I thought maybe 39 or 40." I REALLY like that nice woman. LOL
When you are a teenager you want to look older. You hit 30 and then you wish you could look younger. Never happy, are we?

Still Losing Weight

I lost another couple of pounds while I was in Colorado so I'm down to the same weight I was three years ago, I've lost a total of 33 lbs and it looks like I'm going to beat that weight loss goal of 2006. I didn't even get breathless the first week in Colorado like I did every other time when I was heavier. I never did get altitude sickness this last trip. I definitely feel much more healthy and it's a good thing since I'll be so OLD soon. Kimmie is really rubbing it in but I'm not ready for a senior citizen's discount just yet!

At the Zoo - May 20th

Aiden and Nana. He didn't feed the giraffes but he liked looking at them.


Reece and I feeding the giraffes. That tongue is looooong.

I stole these photos from Kimmie's blog. She owes me for that last shopping trip we took anyway. LOL

Nana's Been Babysitting

Nana has been in Colorado for almost a week. Kimmie and Michael went to Vegas for 3 days and came back Sunday. But she worked yesterday and today so I'm still enjoying my quality time with the boys... Who would think that 2 little boys could be so busy and run Nana ragged... Aiden doesn't want to just be held, he wants to be entertained at all times. It's a good thing he's so cute! Reece has been in a couple of "time outs" for not listening, but he is really very easy to keep entertained.
I'm getting lots more kisses than any of my other visits. I'm not sure if he is beginning to remember me or if the 3 days he was thrown together with me kinda forced the issue.

Shopping

Bill and I went shopping after church and he was nice enough to buy 3 blouses and a nightie. I bought them all in a size Large because I don't want them to be too tight. Well, I got home and tried them on and the nightgown and one of the blouses was too big! I had to exchange them for a size Medium. Might not seem like a big deal to some people, but I've gone from an XL to a Large, and now a Medium.
Pants are now down to a size 10 and I've lost 27 lbs and still counting. I'm hoping for about 35 lbs weight loss and size 8 pants.

Health Numbers

Normally, April 15 is not a good day when you work at the post office, and this morning was proof, but the afternoon was so much better. I called the doctor to get my test results from my appt last Thursday. They did my yearly blood work. Here are my numbers versus last year's numbers.


Blood Pressure
2009 - 110/70
2008 - 120/74

Cholesterol
2009 - 159
2008 - 197
Normal is 100-200

Triglycerides
2009 - 74
2008 - 147
Normal is under 200

Glucose
2009 - 96
Normal is 60-120
I don't have a number for last year's glucose level because the lab made a mistake and didn't run that test.
Amazing what losing 25 lbs will do for your health. DUH.

Look What I've Been Doing

I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it.
It will be 4 wks on Monday so I'm happy with the progress. Some people only seem to loose 1/2 lb to 1 lb a week so averaging 3 1/2 lbs a week is better than I expected.
I can wear my black jeans that I couldn't squeeze my fat butt into a month ago. Next goal is my white jeans, that are a size smaller.

Winter Ice Storm 2009

This is my front yard and house.


This is the view from my front porch.


This is a view of my side yard. I'm the lucky owner of all those limbs, right up to within about 10 ft of my neighbor's yard.


Things around here have been a little too exciting for us lately. On January 27 we had a major ice storm come through. In fact, the worst ice storm in the U.S. in 70 years is what I heard. I certainly believe it. Our electricity, cable TV, telephone, and internet went down on the 27th. We were lucky and they got our elec back up in one week (some other people in the country had to wait almost 3 wks to get their electricity back). We got the cable, internet, and telephone service back today so we've been without for 3 wks. But to tell you the truth, I was so happy to get electricity back on that being without the rest didn't seem so bad. We ended up buying a generator after 3 days because it was freezing cold. I had to work in the cold all day at the post office (the mail must go through and all that) and then come home to the cold and let me tell you, it sucked! Bill, the 3 dogs, 2 cats, and I were all in a 10 x 12 ft bedroom, trying to keep warm. It got down to 9° one night. Luckily, we still had water and since we have a gas hot water heater, I could take a hot bath. Some people didn't even have that. The Jaycee's club was set up as an emergency warming center so we could go there and eat hot meals. I was wearing a sleeveless tank shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a shirt, sweater, and a coat. I wore sweat pants over my jeans and I had these furry boots that kept my feet warm. Oh, and I cut two fingers out of my gloves so I could keep my gloves on and work. I was a wide as I was tall! LOL
We are still cleaning up the mess. Not one of my trees was undamaged. It brought down so many branches and some trees. We've worked for over 2 wks on the clean up in our yard and we now have the front fairly clean but we still have a long way to go in the back yard. The city has picked up several big piles of branches and we have another 6 piles by the curb right now but we are finally over half done. I heard on the news that there were 7000 utility poles that snapped and had to be replaced.
Let me tell you, it's no fun to sit in the dark and the cold, listening to big limbs fall on your house. The trees were snapping and cracking all night long, taking our electric and cable lines with them.

A Great Book

I read a new book several days ago. The book is Eternal Seduction, a dark, paranormal, vampire story and the first in a series of related paranormals. The author, Jennifer Turner, self published this book and after reading the first few chapters on her website, I was hooked. If you are interested, her website is The Darkness Within
I enjoyed Eternal Seduction as well as any book I've read lately. The "heroine", Logan, starts out as a homeless drug addict. Definitely not heroine material, and from what I understand, this is the reason the book was self-published by Jen. No agent wanted a lead character like Logan and Jen stuck to her guns and kept Logan at the cost of an agent. I have to say, having a character/love interest who wasn't practically a virgin, or one who's only flaw seemed to be stubbornness was refreshing. I actually liked Logan from the beginning, even with her less-than-perfect life.
Our hunky, brooding vampire is Kerestyan, the Lord of New York, and he is faced with the problem of what to do with Logan who has been aware of vampires for several months. And that's a definite problem when you are trying to keep vamps a secret from the human population.
You can also read a great interview with Jen at Bitten By Books and learn a little bit about Jen and her wonderful book.

Saturday After Thanksgiving

I took the day off yesterday. As in "Black Friday". I did do some shopping but I didn't step one foot out of the house. I'm not crazy, after all. There is nothing I wanted enough to fight those crazy people. I'm just not a "stand in line at 4 a.m. to get the widget for $40 less". I don't know that I would stand in line, in the cold, at that time of the morning to get a FREE $40 widget. I guess I just don't have the fighter/shopper gene or something. On-line shopping is more my speed.
After all, I try to get Bill to go to the grocery store for me because he likes to go shopping and I hate it. Which reminds me. I have to buy some groceries today. Yuck. I also need to go to Hobby Lobby and buy some gift bags (because I'm too lazy to do a lot of Christmas present wrapping) and a few boxes (because I do have to wrap a few presents that won't work in a gift bag).
I usually put up my Christmas tree on Thanksgiving Day or that weekend. Well, I'm not the least bit interested in putting up the tree this year. If Kimmie and the family weren't going to be here the day after Christmas, I would probably go with the little fiber optic tree. Maybe I will anyway. I guess I need to start watching all the Christmas shows to get out of "Scrooge mode".

Debbie's Dream

Since I have a government job, I get to take a day off on holidays and today is Veteran's Day so I'm home. I did go to work this morning but we didn't get any mail like I though we would. So after a few minutes I came back home. Not that I mind not working, but twice as much work tomorrow morning won't be fun. But I guess I'll live.
I did a little bit of online Christmas shopping today that consisted mainly of buying Transformers. I have 2 grandsons and 3 great-nephews. So no Barbies and hairbows on those Christmas lists.
A few days ago, my friend Debbie stopped me to tell me about this dream she had that I was in. She dreamed that I set us up with two young, hunky men. She said they were really hot and had buff bodies. It seems that we were on a bus with our hunky young men... so I asked Debbie, "We have two young hunks and we were on a bus??? What, you couldn't have us in a Porsche or something?" Debbie said that we were on some sort of chartered bus with a group so I guess we can forgo the Porsche for now. Debbie's man gave her a kiss that "made her toes curl" (that's a direct quote from Deb). I told her that she had been reading waaaaay too many romance novels. She said those two hunky guys were really in to us but unfortunately, she woke up and this dream was cut short. I looked at her and said, "Gee, you couldn't have slept a little bit longer? Because I know that two middle-aged, overweight women are what all young, hunky men want." I suppose some people would call me sarcastic. Imagine.

Reece's Pic

This is a great photo of Reece and Dad's legs. LOL
Jennifer is a wonderful photographer.
Here is her blog site, Framing Memories
The photo is about half way down the page. A few photos under the one of Mike (aka Dad) and a VERY pregnant Kimmie (aka Mom). The wedding (not Kim's and Mike's LOL) was less than a week before Aiden was born by C-section.

Marjorie M. Liu

I can't mention books without mentioning the website of one of my favorite authors, Marjorie M Liu. The only thing is that I've read all of her books except the Marvel Comics NYX and I expect to buy those soon. Her Dirk and Steele series is fantastic. You can find the books on her "Books" page, and you can also check out Roland's Desk and learn about the characters (primary and secondary) in the books. I hope that more Dirk and Steele books come along although I do understand that it takes the author slightly more time than the 4-5 hours it takes me to read those books.
I think what I enjoy the most about Marjorie's novels is that you don't have the graphic sex that is in the majority of paranormal reads. I'm not a prude by any means, but heck, you can only read about so many people having fantastic sex (in detail) and to be told that you will never come close to experiencing that kind of mind-blowing sex unless you are a vampire's life mate. And I never knew there were so many women and men that were screamers. Anyway, these books are fantastic and half the pages are not porn.

Aiden - Boo at the Zoo

Deputy Aiden, trying to eat his hands through his blanket while we try to keep him warm. But a deputy is tough! I love this black and white photo. His mom took this one.

Reece - Boo at the Zoo

Sheriff Reece at Boo at the Zoo. His hand is on his gun and he's ready for the bad guys. Or the candy. He's such an independent little man. I think his Mom took this photo, too. Obviously, Mom takes better pictures than Nana.

Crimson City

I don't seem to pass by a paranormal paperback book without buying it, and I can't seem to read a book that I enjoy that is part of a series without reading the entire series. Well, I just finished the Crimson City book series and I thought it was great. I actually read them out of order just a tiny bit. I was devouring the books by Marjorie M. Liu and I read "A Taste of Crimson" and that's what made me want to read the entire series. Marjorie Liu and Liz Maverick were my favorite authors in the series and like everyone else, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Liz gives us the final story (Jill and Marius). It looks like I'll be reading all of Liz Maverick's books now.
Who knew that there were so many paranormal authors? Since I gave up eBay (because it has become such a pain in the rear) I've read hundreds of books, mainly paranormals.