Oven Thingy

My Dad enjoys woodworking.  He's very creative and handy.  He's made picnic tables, Adirondack chairs (and a really cute mini one for my sweet niece), picture frames and a ton of other things.  I'm not sure when he made his first "Oven Thingy" but it's a very useful thing to have. 

What's an Oven Thingy?  Here's what it looks like:

From the side angle it looks somewhat like some sort of deer or antelope or something.  You're probably asking yourself, what does it do? 

The mouth area is where you "grab" by hooking it onto the hot oven wire rack to pull it out.  The "antlers" are used to push the oven rack back in. 

As you can probably see from the picture this is the one that I use the most.  Nick helped his Papa (my Dad) to make it.  He even autographed it.

My Dad also makes novelty ones.  This one was for M who is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. 

 

Isn't that cool?  They make great stocking stuffers, housewarming gift etc.  ;)

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Darth Vader Bathrooms

....and things I reaffirm about myself when using public restrooms. 

What is a Darth Vader bathroom you might ask?  It's one where you walk in and the smell is overwhelming that you have to put your hands over your mouth and nose.  You have to breathe through your mouth and if you have to speak you sound like Darth Vader.  You know what I'm talking about. 

Because I travel often and even when I'm just out and about I have the necessity to visit restrooms on a regular basis.  I have reaffirmed a couple of things about myself.

I do not like auto flush toilets.  Quite frankly they scare me because I have a slight fear of being sucked in.  Trust me, I know it's an irrational and subconscious fear but hey, it crosses my mind.  I prefer to be in control of the flushing process so I can open the door and flush with my foot.  It's just how I like it.

I also don't like wearing capri pants when using a public restroom.  That may seem random but stay with me on this one.  When you go to the restroom you lower your pants and the bottom of my capris nearly touch the floor.  When you're finished and you pull up your pants the bottoms of those said pants are now mid-calf.  Touching my exposed leg.  After it's touched the ground.  And who knows what nastiness is on that ground.  And don't even mention if the floor is wet or even moist looking.  Kind of grosses me out and I'm not even a germ-a-phobic.  But I still wear my capris. 

But most of all I dislike Darth Vader bathrooms.  How about you?  Ever been in a Darth Vader bathroom?  Ever been scared by the auto flush toilets?  Ever been grossed out because your capris touched the floor?

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A Liquid High Five

Grab a cup of coffee and take a break while you read my post. 

I came across this opportunity to buy a cup of coffee for a soldier.  Now I myself am not a coffee drinker but I have a lot of friends who are and I thought I'd do my part to get the word out in case others wanted to participate. 

It's very simple really.  Just click this link - A Cup of Joe for a Joe.

Step 1 - Choose your gift.  You can provide a different soldier with a cup of coffee with each $2 you spend.  Pretty reasonable I'd say.

Step 2 - Write a message.  There's a simple form provided to be able to write a message of support to the lucky troops that receive your gift. 

Step 3 - Enter your payment information.  It's safe, simple and secure so no worries!

Step 4 - They'll deliver your gift.  Green Beans Coffee will deliver your gift and message.  They also give the soldier a chance to respond and the awesome news is most of them do!

Step 5 - Okay there's no official Step 5 but I thought I'd add that this is a cool and easy way to show your support.  All it takes is a small donation and you'll put a smile on someone's face.  Kind of like a liquid H!GH 5!  Haha!!  How awesome is that?!?!

Because my favorite # is 5 (and if you want to know why CLICK HERE) I chose to buy 5 cups of coffee.  Even though I was not expecting any responses....okay I was hoping but not expecting....I've already received a thank you from two soldiers!  How cool is that? 

Many of you reading this LOVE your coffee.  You can't get your day started without it.  Puts some pep in your step and gets your day off to a great start.  Wouldn't you like to share that feeling with a soldier?  You can you know....you just need to click the link.  :)  I'll even make it easy for you - click here to send a Cup of Joe for a Joe and give a soldier a liquid high 5!

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I have fat feet and I cannot lie...

And I love shoes.  All kinds of shoes.  I mean ask any girl if she loves shoes and she'll say yes.  If she says she doesn't challenge her and ask her how many pairs she owns.  Don't allow any excuses to explain the reasons why she has so many.  Simple answer is - she loves shoes.

I have what I consider small fat feet.  I typically wear a 5 or a 5 1/2 wide.  I often blame this on my Mom because she also has wide feet.  Instead of blaming I should thank her for passing down the legacy of fat feet.  So thanks Mom!  I would probably have more shoes if I didn't have a fat foot but I do so I don't.

Anyway Payless Shoe Source had a BOGO 1/2 off sale and they're about the only place that sells my size shoe.  I wear black shoes to work and there were several cute styles so I went crazy ~ haha!

Here's what I got...

Pair #1  Jadore

Pair #2  Frannie

Pair #3  Interet

Pair #4  Juge

and finally....Pair #5 (I LOVE the #5) Feebe

Oh wait.....you thought I stopped with pair #5?  Did you forget it was a BOGO 1/2 off sale?  I told you I went CRAZY!  I bought pair #6.  A classic timeless pump that never goes out of style.  High heels tend to give an illusion of longer, more slender and toned legs.  Not sure if that's working for me but the shoe is really sweet.

And now...Pair #6  Karma

So ladies ~ how many pairs of shoes do you own?

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The "What's In The Seat Pocket In Front Of You" Game

I am always looking for new games to invent.  I will play a game when I'm in traffic where I "read" the license plates of the cars around me using the military alphabet.  You can do it too, it's pretty easy. 

So a new game I invented is called the "What's In The Seat Pocket In Front Of You" Game or the "Airplane" Game for short.  For those of you that choose to play please be on the lookout for my precious Nancy Drew book that I placed in the seat pocket in front of me and forgot to retrieve.  You can read all about that mishap here. 

So in our game today folks in seat pocket #1 I found a battery.  It was not the kind I use or needed so that treasure will remain for another lucky contestant.

I get to play two times because M was with me.  :)  In seat pocket #2 we found some candy wrapper remnants, a pen (which I ummm "borrowed" to write the notes for this blog) and lo and behold the mother of all treasures.  Two, yes TWO lovingly decorated barf bags.  I'm thinking there may be a definite market for that.

Treasure #1 is an ode to Mom as it's clearly labeled, "Mom's Barf Bag".  Everyone will know who this gem (and perhaps it's contents) belongs to.

Treasure #2 is a bounty of hidden pictures and meanings.  We weren't able to decipher all of it but my favorite part was the poem.  It said:

daddy I am so so sorry yeah

we just like to party party party

yeah

hmmmm....I'm not expert but that's got a lot of potential. 

As you notice from the other pics there are various doodlings on there and several one-liners.  I thought it was the most creative use of a barf bag that I had ever seen.  I'm thinking of auctioning it off on ebay....any takers?

So there you have it folks - the most awesome find in the history of "What's in the seat pocket in front of you" game!!

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Weekend in San Antonio recap

We left on Thursday night on my favorite airline - Southwest Airlines.  Oh how I do LUV to fly!

It was an evening flight but I still managed to capture my in-flight snack. 

We stayed at the O'Brien Hotel Historic Boutique on Navarro.  It's the same hotel we stayed in back in May and oddly enough we were in the same room, awesome #107.

The O'Brien is another Choice Hotel and I love staying at one because they have awesome waffles for breakfast.

After waiting a sufficient time after breakfast we headed to our favorite restaurant, Mi Tierra. 

We of course had some awesome margaritas and delicious homemade flour tortillas. 

My dinner was delicious and M enjoyed his as well.  We of course had the mariachis play two songs for us.  If you know me you know which ones I chose.  Volver, Volver and Rancho Grande.

Walking on the streets of San Antonio M could not resist the H!GH 5.

The next day we got up to go out to eat breakfast.  Isn't M cute?

On a recommendation from a friend we chose to try out The Guenther House.

The breakfast was quite yummy!

After breakfast we went to the gift shop.  It's small but it's loaded with lots of goodies.  We bought some more jalapeno cornbread mix and some other things.  I could not and would not pass up these wonderful cookie cutters.

We walked around a bit (to see what we saw click HERE!) and then headed towards the mall.  Everytime I passed an Airman I congratulated him/her on their graduation.  I still can remember what Nick's BMT graduation weekend was like.  :)

For all my Farmville friends - you may have noticed on my farm I "collect" the gnomes.  How cute is this one?

My son Nick and I LOVE coke and when I saw this I had to send a pic to Nick.

We had to find somewhere to watch the TX ~ OU game as we didn't want to just stay in our room so we settled on Tex's Sports bar.

We were a little hungry so we ordered their nachos.

M does this little thing with his napkin.  He makes a little bandana for his beer.  Isn't he cute?

Here's my meager attempt at artistic photos in a bar.

The Longhorns lost ::boo hoo:: so we headed back to the hotel.  We got up the next morning and decided to eat breakfast at the airport at Famiglia.  And yes at 9 in the morning they were serving pizza.  We chose to get potatoes, bacon and eggs for our breakfast.

We boarded our flight and prepared to enjoy our snack.  We got our drink first and that was delicious.

Sadly, the snacks didn't come until after I had finished my beverage.

We got these cool baby pretzels.  At least I thought they were miniature until I compared them to the State of Texas.

Practically covers the entire state!

All in all a very fun trip.  Tune in again for our next edition of "A Happy Couple Travels".  Until then - best wishes.  :)

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