I am currently working on my next contest. It’s going to target females only, sorry to all of you male readers. The prize will be a handbag I recently purchased, which is brand new and absolutely gorgeous. I will showcase the handbag when I actually post the requirements (sometime next week).

Crissy inspired me, though my contest will be nothing like hers. Just that she is running a contest and I realized I hadn’t started a new one.

That being said. I need to take something for my knees. They are still giving me trouble, with slight swelling (always happens). I am going to have it checked out when I get back to Georgia, it’s been awhile since I’ve done that.

I’ve just started making my rounds to various news websites, to catch up on what’s going on in the world (locally, nationally and internationally as always). I decided to hop over to Calgary.ctv.ca first. The first article is about the construction of a new high rise downtown, which will be causing some traffic headaches. I heard this on the radio today (yes, I even listen to the news on the radio), so I skipped that one. The next article is talking about a shooting at a NE Calgary movie theater. My jaw hit the floor when I read it was the theater that me and Jo go to on our “dates” - at Sunridge.

A man, aged 24 was shot twice in the head outside, in the parking lot. Scary. There are so many popular places in that area besides the theater too - East Side Marios (where we eat occasionally), Chapters, Montana’s Steakhouse and not to mention the Sunridge mall. This is a pretty large theater too. I think it holds 14 (if my memory is correct) theaters inside, which are pretty huge.

The article can be found here - Shooting.

Now I know things like this happen everywhere and no community or city is immune, but at the same time it really makes me want the comfort of the smaller, tight knit communities that I’m used to.

It looks like Jo’s getting another “vacation” from work. He stayed home today with horrible back pain. I took him to the doctor, again, who’s referred him to physiotherapy (thank goodness). They have asked him to rest until Sunday, which is when they will allow him to go back to work. It must be nice to only have 1 day work-weeks, huh? lol

I feel awful that he’s still having back trouble. I really hope the physiotherapy is going to relieve it because if not, the next step will be a few tests and eventually could lead to surgery. Surgery would be the last resort, I’m sure but it’s scary to think that’s a possibility. My mom has suffered from two ruptured discs in her back, both requiring surgery. It was months before she was back into the swing of things. The thought of this happening to my husband is so scary. His work is, as he puts it “grunt” work. He works in a distribution center, where he’s also a trainer. He’s on his feet all day, pulling and moving heavy loads. I’m sure they could limit him to light duties or even permanently placing him in some type of loss prevention position but I doubt they’d pay anything close to what he’s earning now.

Anywho. Let’s not think of that. I’m going to remain positive because at this point, it appears to be a nerve problem or possibly muscle.

I’m so disappointed in the lack of stylish ceiling fans with lighting around here. We enjoy feeling cool all year long, even in the middle of winter. I guess it’s something we’ve grown accustomed to coming from the deep south. Every time we go to one of the local stores, we head over to the home lighting department to check them out. We always leave disappointed because the blades are either too short, not the right color or the light fixtures on them are not the style we’re looking for. The lighting in our apartment is more on the modern side, so we figured we should be looking for something similar so that things coordinate together. I’m pretty sure that’s out of the question at this point. We’ve been looking since April and we browse around at least once a week. I think it’s safe to say we’re just going to give up at this point and wait until we find another place. Then the quest will just start all over again and hopefully we’ll have a little more luck the second time around.

My youngest sister asked if I’d help her come up with ideas for her 3 boys Halloween costumes. She always manages to piddle around until the last minute. By then, all of the fun costumes are picked over, so she’s left trying to convince the boys that wearing a sheet is much cooler than dressing up like their favorite characters. All 3 love animals, so I think I’m going to suggest that she looks into getting them an animal costume. I think they’d all enjoy costumes like that, especially Tyler who loves Scooby Doo.

I’m really going to miss not being there with them for Halloween. I’ve always enjoyed hopping from house to house with them, sort of makes me feel like a kid again myself. There have been a few occasions that it took a lot for me to not dress up and do the whole “Trick or Treat” thing with them, hehe.

Who wouldn’t want a chance at winning $50? Especially when the requirements to make you eligible are easy as pie. You see, this super cool, artist chic I know is running a 50 for $50 contest. What does this mean? Well as explained here, basically you write an entry containing at least 50 words and linking to 1) her domain/blog and 2) the contest entry. Participants can choose their own anchor text. The deadline is August 31st, with the winner being announced on September 2nd after she gathers the referrals and draws one randomly.

Why in the heck are you still here? Head on over to DearCrissy.com and join in. Fifty bucks is fifty bucks.

For the record, I’m not participating. I’m merely helping to spread the word!

My right knee has been bothering me something fierce today. I think my arthritis is acting up. I developed arthritis in that leg when I was 13 years old, after shredding the cartilage in it during gym. It actually doesn’t flare up too often but when it does, it’s really painful and nothing seems to relieve that pain. I took an Aleve, which normally eases it a bit but it hasn’t kicked in yet. I think this is a sign that I should call it an early night.

I’ve just made myself a pot of soup. I think I’ll go enjoy it and relax before bed!

It is absolutely no secret that I am trying to lose a few pounds. I am one of those people who has tried many of the diets out there, and on most occasions, have had no success in keeping the weight off. I am willing to try different things, so I am always browsing around “in search of”. I have been reading about this magnetic diet. The magnetic diet weight loss program, which is authored by a gentlemen who has also struggled with finding a diet that works. In a way, that is comforting because seeing/hearing/reading that another person who experienced the same failures as me with dieting has found something that works - that is awesome. Many diets lure you in with their claims of rapid weight loss but many fail to provide any type of health management. The magnetic diet does.

You can get your own copy for $39.00, or find more information regarding the magnetic diet at their website - Magnetic-diet.com.

Nearly every day I read the online news from my hometown back in Georgia. There’s usually something interesting to read everyday and I enjoy keeping up with what’s going on around there. I have missed the last couple of days though, so I decided to head over and start playing catch up. As I scroll down past the entry about enrollment for school and another about a rattlesnake that was found downtown, I find myself reading about a school counselor from the county next to where I’m from. This counselor, a female, has been charged with “allegedly” having a relationship with a 16 year old student. Yes, that kind of relationship.

What is it with adults thinking that this kind of thing is “OK”? What really disgusts me the most about this particular case - her mother is the county’s school superintendent and is trying to make the school board allow her daughter, the counselor, to come back to work. I’m happy the school board shot her down with that though. I know there’s that whole “innocent until proven guilty” but could you imagine the parents that would be in an uproar over this, the example it would be setting for other adults that might wind up in the same situation? This is not OK.

You should also know that the mother, aka county’s school superintendent, is also under investigation for allegedly violating the Code of Ethics - something about the use of school funds to pay for cell phones for various family members.

While we were out running some errands and paying some bills today, we noticed a few funny things.

First - Security from one of the malls escorted a couple all the way to the bus stop across the street from the mall. I’m not sure what the reasoning for that was - if they’d stolen something, surely they would’ve been arrested or something. Either way though, it had to be embarrassing to be escorted out there during rush hour.

Second - After seeing that couple escorted, the light turned red. Shortly after the light turned red, the train was coming, so the lights were flashing the warnings. About the time the warnings started, a lady pulled up beside me in a fancy Mercedes. Someone pulled up right behind her and I happened to notice that the crossing barriers were coming down right on top of that Mercedes. It bounced on the roof of her car for a bit before the person behind her backed up, allowing her to back up. I wouldn’t have laughed if it had been me but sometimes you can’t help but laugh.

Third - After paying our monthly payment at The Brick (furniture store), we noticed a sign for the furniture store next to it, which read - “Buy a queen or king mattress set, get 2 free pillows”. I thought to myself, staring at the empty lot “I bet they’ve got folks standing in line for those..”

Some days I think back to when I worked in finance and wonder “Should I dive back into that” but after pondering for a moment, the answer is no. Not that it was bad at all, my experience with the staff is what really turns me off from it (I think Lori can relate to this). Overall, I actually enjoyed what I did with that particular company. The one thing I didn’t enjoy was having to do so many reports. I guess that would have been a lot easier if they would have implemented easier financial reporting software.

I check in with my ex-coworkers from time to time - the ones that are actually still working for the company. They company is still struggling with generating and distributing reports. Sad to say, my last day working for them was in May 2004. You’d think 3 years later they would have improved at least a bit, huh?

Remember the troubles I’ve been talking about, with my host for herbrokentoy? Well, they responded to my ticket (BEFORE CLOSING, might I add) telling me to log into my control panel, delete the old FTP account and issue a new one, with a new password. Are you kidding me?? Did they not read the entire ticket, where I stated I cannot log into either of these things? The same username/password assigned for FTP is assigned for the control panel. ARGH.

Now they’d like for me to tell them the last 4 digits of my credit card that’s on file. I never had a credit card on file, I had a debit card and that debit card expired in 2006, so it’s no longer in my hands. The last time I paid for my hosting (I pay yearly) was October of last year. I paid via PayPal because the cards on file had expired and were no longer being used. How would I know this information if I wasn’t the owner of the domain? Please tell me that? And please explain to me how I’m able to log into the support ticket area, using the same email address there, that’s on file for their billing records??? My husband seems to think they’re under the impression my account has been hacked. It has not. If my account was hacked, surely the “hacker” would’ve done something to my site, right? Surely they would’ve replaced my blog with some other index page, like what happens when most people are hacked. You know, so that the owner KNOWS they’ve been hacked?

They also refuse to explain WHY I’m having this issue. I’ve not changed my password in over a year. No one else seems to be complaining about this.

ARGH.

I can’t do anything but blog from there at this point. I can’t upload files or anything.

Macro shots = fun. As I’ve stated before, one of my favorite types of macros are those involving water - dew drops, water drops or rain drops. One of the biggest reasons why I’m such a fan of this type of macro work is because not only are you getting a “story” with the primary subject (be it the water drop itself or the object it’s on) but you’re also getting another story from the reflection in those dew, water or rain drops.

This photo is a bad example because the rain drop is rather small. Here, I’ll post a better example of what I’m referring to.

Story 1 = Rain drop on a leaf
Story 2 = Self portrait in the rain drop.

Back in 2001 my cousin Angie took a missionary trip to Thailand. While there, like most people would do, she took hundreds of photos so that she could not only have for the memories but also to share these places with family and friends that may never travel to that area. I’m sure the photos aren’t even close to doing this area justice but they were beautiful never the less.

Over the years my husband and I have talked of various places we’d like to travel to (pending I’m able to conquer my fear of flying) and Asia, specifically Thailand is always near the top of that list. He’s been a fan of the Asian culture for years, long before he and I ever met.

Since I’m online several hours a day, I spend a lot of time surfing the web and daydreaming about potential “getaways”. One of the things I really enjoy when doing this is finding and reading travel blogs of people who’ve traveled to these areas or live in those areas, and share their own stories. It’s especially nice when the author shares images of those places and provides details of various places to see and/or things to do.

I recently found myself browsing an Asia travel blog which shares such stories. I really appreciate that this blog has such a clean and simple design, which is still very pleasing to my eye - the colors compliment one another perfectly. I love it when a blog is presented in this way because it keeps the content such as stories, images and other information about locations in Asia, as it’s main focus.

Right away I’m drawn to an entry called “Three cheapest cities for shopaholics”. I wouldn’t call myself a “shopaholic” but when traveling, I certainly appreciate bargains when I’m usually required to bring back absurd amounts of souvenirs. One of the cities my cousin visited while in Thailand, was Bangkok. My husband and I have seriously considered traveling to Bangkok (again, pending the fear of flying is ever conquered), so I’m sure my husband will be thrilled that it heads this list of “Three cheapest cities for shopaholics”. I think the only thing “I” won’t like will be the crows mentioned.

Further on down you’ll find an entry called “guide to Taj Mahal” which gives you a brief history, along with a very detailed and vivid description of the grounds surrounding it. Even without the added images, I’d be able to close my eyes and picture it. There’s also a mention of Trident Hilton Agra hotel, which is located only minutes away from the Taj Mahal, which makes it a convenient for those planning to do some sight seeing in that area. When you return from the Taj Mahal (which is on many lists for the 7 wonders of the world), you can enjoy what the Trident Hotel has to offer - jogging track, playground for children, fitness center, a 65 foot outdoor pool, and of course room features like - marble bathrooms and garden views.

This a nice resource for those who are planning to travel to Asia and are unfamiliar with what it has to offer, like my husband and I. Not only are you provided with valuable information and detailed descriptions of the cities in and around Asia, but you also get the bonus feature of the images - which to you means, I’ve bookmarked it!

I really miss photography. Have I mentioned that much lately? I’m sure I have because I think about it 234239486234 hours a day (lol). I feel like I’m getting rusty along the edges and I really need to pick it back up, and fast.

I miss going on photo “adventures”, as Stacey and I called it. I miss taking portraits, I miss taking landscapes. I miss taking macros. Especially my water/raindrop shots - those are my favorites, along with flower macros.

I keep telling myself to be patient - good things come to those who wait. I’m tired of waiting.