Wednesday, June 17, 2009

FORE! Watch out for my new addiction

There is a Sheetz gas station and convenience store just over the hill from where I work. I visit there often. They are my friends and they know me well. They supply me with what I need to fill my latest addiction. It's THIS:

Arnold Palmer Half &Half Iced Tea Pomegranate Lemonade. Yum o. I can't get enough of this stuff. I like tea, I like lemonade and I'm over the moon about pomegranate these days.

An Arnold Palmer is half tea, half lemonade; a drink made famous by Arnold himself after completing some famous round of golf.

And the thoughtful folks at Arizona Tea put this on the bottle:

"AriZona uses new amber bottles to protect the natural antioxidant properties of our beverages from the light. Here's to your health"

Thank you for being so concerned, AriZona Tea. It's so kind of you. Especially when I'm shelling out $1.49 every single day for the crack in a bottle shaped like a golf ball.

If you don't have a local dealer, I mean a Sheetz station near you, visit the AriZona Website. You can get 12- 20 oz. bottles for $9.99 and shipping.(Shipping to me is $13.21) It comes in regular half and half, and a green tea version or you can buy mix stix that are only 5 calories.

http://www.drinkarizona.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=313&idcategory=2

Monday, June 15, 2009

Roller Coasters

I am taking a road trip this weekend with my niece Jes, her brother Andy and Andy's lovely wife, Robyn. (It was their wedding I was in last July.) We are going to Cedar Point, an amusement park on Lake Erie. This is going to be an interesting trip. It's always an interesting trip. Here's a backstory....

The last time I was there, a lady of middle eastern descent shang haied me on a ride and force me to sit with her child, who spoke little to no English. I tried to refuse but she stuck him in the seat and walked away. I couldn't make the child understand how to fasten the seatbelt and I was not about to fasten it for him and have some crazed parent scream that I was molesting him. When the ride was over, the little boy didn't know where to go and his mother was no where to be found. I turned him over to the person in charge of the ride and skedaddled right on out of there.

Here are some reasons why this trip is going to be interesting.

#1. Sweetie and I are not huge fans of roller coasters. I'm afraid of heights and he'd much rather stay on the ground.

#2. Part of this trip is to the water park part of the park. Sweetie and I will not be participating in this little jaunt because we are not huge fans of water parks. He doesn't even own swim trunks and we won't even discuss putting my size 16 behind in lycra and spandex.

#3. A brother, a sister and a wife all together in one car, for a four hour drive.

#4. I got online this morning to get driving directions to our hotel. (The hotel was picked by Andy and Robyn) I made the mistake of reading the "guest reviews" on a hotel reservation website. Holy Smokes were they ever bad! There were approx. 50 reviews and they were all terrible. They were so bad that it made me want to stay there just to see if it really is THAT bad. What made it so funny is that they all sounded the same. Dirty, cockroaches, poor location, inattentive staff, soiled linens...you get the idea.
These were some of my favorite comments:
"Run as far and as fast as you can away from this hotel"
"I've traveled and stayed in hotels for more than 25 years and this is by far the wors I have ever seen."
"There was something dead floating in the pool"
"There was a dead thing in the pool and it stunk!"
"There was a white stain on the chair and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what it was"
"My bed linens had blood on them. Not stains, real actual BLOOD."
"When I asked to see the hotel manager he came out wearing sweatpants that had obviously been slept in. It was also obvious that he didn't feel the need to launder anything."
And this was my very favorite:
"The pimps and the ho's were fighting in the parking lot all night long. We piled a dresser and a table against the door to keep them out of our room!"

So, come Monday, I'm sure to have some entertaining stories about my trip to Cedar Point. Don't worry, though, I cancelled my reservation and Club Dread and booked at Hotel Breakers. It's well worth the extra cost!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Some wedding DEETS

See how cool I am? I used a new hip word "Deets" short for details. How old are you when you have to start acting your age? Oh, wait. I think I'm over the limit. Oh well.


Anyway, since I've been posting about the wedding, I thought I'd share some of the planning stuff. It's only 89 days away! ACK!


9-9-09 was selected as a date for many reasons. 9s are lucky numbers. Wednesday is supposedly the best day of the week to get married on. I wanted something different. Sweetie says the day is easy to remember so he won't be forgetting our anniversary.

Our colors are black white and baby pink.

Our invitations are hand made, by me, and they still aren't finished. Once I've got them ready to go I'll post some pictures.

Our reception has a strawberry theme to it. Strawberry cupcakes, strawberry jam, strawberry fruit salad. It's the berry best!

I like non traditional things so our ceremony will be very non traditional.

I will be walking down the aisle to A River Flows in you by Yiruma. If you are a Twilight fan, you will recognize this as Bella's Lullaby- the song Edward played on the piano for her.

After the wedding we will leave the church to My Sweet Love by John Mellencamp.

And, I ordered these for toasting:

Thursday, June 4, 2009

97 days and counting

In 97 days I'm going to the chapel and I'm gonna get married. Woo Hoo! Sweetie proposed on Christmas Day and I said yes. On 9-9-09 we're gonna do the damn thing. I've filled my hard drive with tons of wedding "porn" (that would be bridal pictures) and I have about 10 bridal blogs bookmarked. I have visions of a beautiful pink and black Martha-esque wedding. I love my hardworking man and can't wait to be his Mrs.

In 97 more days I go from being a widow to being a wife again. It feels strange and it scares the hell out of me, to be truthful. This will be #3. Yes, that's me, Three Time Loser. I joke about it and say that I'm like the Pittsburgh Steelers and won't quit till I have "one for the thumb" but in truth, it keeps me awake at night and give me great anxiety. I'm worried that I won't be a good wife and a good step mother. I'm worried that this relationship will fail. I'm worried that something bad will happen to my Sweetie and I'll be left alone again. I realize that I just need to have faith in him and me and in the situation and be confident that everything will work out the way it's supposed to. When I start to worry too much, I put in a CD with songs that will be played at our reception. This is one of my favorites. I prefer Jewel's version over John Hiatt's or Mandy Moore's.

When the road gets dark, And you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark, baby
Have a little faith in me
When the tears you cryAre all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try, baby
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
When your secret heart, Cannot speak so easily
Come here darlin, From a whisper start
Have a little faith in me
When your back's against the wall Just turn around, you will see
I will catch ya, I will catch your fall
Just have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Well, I've been loving you forsuch a long, long time baby
Expecting nothing in return Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is ourf riend *for you and me*
Cause for us there is no end All you gotta do is have alittle faith in me
I said I will catch you ,I will catch your fall
Have a little faith in me
Hey baby, oh, baby
All ya gotta do is have a little faith in me