The Bahamas!

That's right folks! Rob and I went to the Bahamas! Rob had a work thing and I somehow convinced him to let me tag along. Sunny got to stay with Cousin Paulie- Thanks P! We left early last Sunday and began our long journey to Nassau. 9 hours later (with the time change) we saw this out the airplane window:

Gorgeous from the air! (Rob was embarrassed that I took pictures on the plane.)We got off the plane in Nassau and rode a shuttle to Paradise Island. We stayed at a resort called Atlantis. http://www.atlantis.com/ Its probably the largest resort I've ever been to. I mean this place is downright HUGE. There are 6 different towers you can stay in. The resort pretty much takes up the entire island. We stayed in The Reef tower. We walked in and the lobby was really pretty. We got our room keys and took the elevator up, walked down the hallway to the room on the end. We stepped into our room and this was the view from our balcony:



OMG! It was so beautiful! The great part was we had a wrap around balcony that gave us a view of the entire resort- the beach, the Royal Towers, The Dolphin Cay, and the Lazy River. The Dolphin Cay is where you can pay to swim with Dolphins, so everyday we got to watch them frolic in the water.

The Royal Towers

The Dolphin Cay

After settling in we had an awesome dinner at Nobu. It was absolutely delicious. The black cod with miso glaze melted in my mouth. Mmmmm. Rob actually had a little cold Saki. That was enough alcohol to get him to take a picture with me in this chair after dinner:


Don't we look cute? We stopped and had a drink on our walk back to our room. Its a big resort and we got thirsty on the long journey back! We had 2 drinks- a martini and a rum and coke. With gratuity, our bill was $25. Atlantis is beautiful, but it is equally expensive!!!

I'll post more tomorrow about our Bahamian Adventure! Stay tuned!

Gates are up!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'd like to wish my parents a Happy 51st Anniversary!! That's right- 51! And thank you to my hubby for being my Valentine.

And Thank You to everyone who had warm wishes for Sunny. He is pretty much back to his old self, with the exception of some "cha-cha-cha's".

Remember the Christmas present I got from Nick? The Gate? Well, this week the gates went up on the new fence! They are not painted yet, but they look good:

I think we're going to paint them the same color as the fence.

We also had the fascia board on the house replaced in a few areas and its looks much better than before. The house looks clean and refreshed.

Rob is putting up new curtain rods and curtains today. Here's a sneak peak:

I'll post some pictures when its all done. I'm very lucky that my Valentine is handy around the house!

Poor Sunny.

Last night I came home from work and I opened the door from the garage to the house expecting Sunny the dog to greet me with a wagging tail, anxious for his dinner. Instead there was NO Sunny. I called his name and around the corner came a slow moving Sunny. His ears were down. I figured he either did something bad, or he was sick.

It turned out to be sick. He managed to eat his dinner last night, but it took him 15 minutes and it usually takes about 50 seconds. He drank some water and I expected him to throw up, but he went to bed and slept until 7am. That is also unusual, because he usually wakes me up around 5am for breakfast. So I called the vet this morning and got an appointment for 8am.

I brushed my teeth and threw on some sweats. I took Sunny out and he has an episode of the "cha-cha-cha's". Poor guy. I put a towel down on my backseat because Sunny sheds like crazy. I get him in the car and off we go. I'm cruising down the freeway with Sunny lying in the backseat. All of the sudden I hear a Gwwasshh! Sunny projectile vomits all over the back seat. I can't stop the car, cause I'm on the freeway! Poor Sunny is covered in vomit, as is my backseat. Thank God I put down a towel. He sat there looking at me like "Fix this mama!", and I just kept driving to the vet. The smell was awful and I had to roll down the windows. I called the vet and asked if they'd like to meet me outside the office with some towels. They said to just bring him in and they'd clean him up. I park the car and walk around to let Sunny out of the backseat. Sunny hops out of the car and I notice a rather large object in his emesis. I took Sunny inside and the vet tech and I clean him up a bit. He, of course, gave a big shake a soon as we got into the treatment room, splattering the walls. Nice.

I got a specimen bag from the vet tech and go back out to the car. I find a big glob of something about the length and width of a hamster on the towel. I scoop it up with the bag. I picked up the towel and threw it away. Yuck! I brought the bag into the office and tried to figure out what the heck it was. I think it was one of Sunny's stuffed toys at some point, but I'm not sure.

So Sunny got an xray to make sure he didn't have anything else stuck in his stomach. He got a bath when we got home because the smell was unbearable. Poor Sunny- Puking, The Vet and A Bath all in one day. His worst nightmare! Lets hope he's back to normal tomorrow!

The fence is finished! Hooray!

I left for work on Tuesday morning and this is what the backyard looked like:

I came home on Tuesday afternoon and this is what it looked like:

And by Wednesday, the fence was finished! Its great and much more private than the chain link! They fixed the portion of the wall that was damaged and added a layer to the existing wall. Very nice:

Now we need our gates put up! Nick was nice enough to bring them down:

And then we'll need a little landscaping....

Farewell Aunt Gen

I got some sad news this week. My Great Aunt Gen has died. Aunt Gen was 93 and in recent years she suffered from Alzheimer's dementia, but I will always remember her as part of a duo. She and my Great Aunt Jessie spent their entire lives together. Neither married, and they lived and worked together for most of their lives. Aunt Jessie passed away several years ago and I think that Aunt Gen wasn't the same without her.

When I was young they lived fairly close and came to visit for holidays with my Grandpa and Uncle Ted. I remember the big hugs and how they doted on me and my brothers. I also remember when we all went out for pizza one night, but we had to rush home so Jessie and Gen could watch an important episode of Dallas! And the Christmas they sat giggling on our couch reading "Real Men don't Eat Quiche" and drinking wine.

I fondly remember spending two weeks with them one summer when my parents and my brothers went on a trip to look at colleges in the west. My aunts took me to see the musical Peter Pan and to a Fourth of July parade. I realize now what a change it was for them to have a 10 year old living with them for two weeks. They taught me to knit those two weeks. I made a small blanket to use for my dolls. It was pink and my aunts really made most of it, but its a nice memento of that stay. I still have it.

The first picture is of Jessie and Gen with my parents at my wedding. I always appreciated that fact that they and Uncle Ted made the trip to see me get married. Jessie is in the ivory and Gen is in the blue. Its a big trip from Illinois to Arizona when you're in your 80's. The second picture is of Aunt Gen a few years ago. I'm a little ashamed that its the last time I saw her. It was so hard that she didn't really remember who I was.

Rest in peace Aunt Gen. and Aunt Jessie. I miss you. I hope you're both on a couch in heaven watching Dallas, or drinking wine and giggling!

Our new Fence! Finally!

We are so very excited that they started putting in our new block fence today!! The chain link will soon be gone and we will have a lovely (and private) wall in its place. Check out the pictures Rob took today:
I know it doesn't look like much, but it will be soon! I'll keep you posted!

Happy New Year! (and a little ranting)

Happy New Year!!!! I can't believe its 2010!

I took a little break from the blogging, but I'm back! I've been working quite a bit these past few weeks. I have a new job and I'm trying to wrap my head around all the new stuff on my plate.

Anyway- Here's an interesting story. I've always been a Target shopper. I like Target better than Walmart. When the time came to order some gifts for my nephews for Christmas I turned to Target on-line. I selected and paid for two toys and had them gift wrapped and shipped to my nephews. The packages arrived and my sister in law placed the wrapped presents under the tree for the boys. Chrsitmas morning arrived and my first nephew opened his present and was delighted with his toy. My second nephew opens up his present, says "Oh." and tosses it aside. He was already on to the next gift when my brother said- "Hey- what was that gift?" My nephew says "I don't know. It has a bug on it."

Turns out Target wrapped and sent my nephew a screen cover for a garage door!!! My nephew handled it pretty well. Thank goodness! I could have been responsible for long lasting Christmas morning trauma!

So I called Target customer service. They were the most unhelpful people. Their 'solution' to the problem was to give me my money back. I didn't really care about the money- I wanted my nephew to get his gift. All I got was "Sorry. That item is out of stock. Can we help you place another order?"

No! I want you to FIX the order! I barely even got an apology.

It ended up that my brother and my nephew went to Target and returned the garage door screen. They were given a credit for the amount of the gift. (Turns out the bar code sticker stuck on the garage door screen was actually for the toy I ordered.) So my nephew will get to pick out his own toy.

But I will not be ordering from Target on-line again!! Buyer beware!!!