Tales of the Traveling Tourbook

I have to confess that I did a bad thing...a very very bad thing. I listened to my husband. You'll see where this has gotten me.

Two weeks ago I had paid my monthly American Express bill and I noticed that all the while I'd been accumulating points with my card that I'd done nothing with. I looked to see just what goodies I could get, if any. I was hoping for an upgrade to First Class on my plane tickets (Yeah, right! If only I had a million points to spare. LOL!). Anyhow, I realized that I had just enough to order a tour book on Ireland. I thought it would be fun to read up on some of the places I'm planning to visit in April and maybe find a few new ones as well. I went ahead and placed the order.

**Here's where things went wrong.*** Phil had mentioned to me that he had seen on the news that a lot of people in Contra Costa County had packages stolen from their doorsteps around Christmas time. He thought the smart thing for me to do would be to have the book delivered to my work address. Fair enough. I did just that. A couple days later I received a notice that the package should be delivered in about 7-9 business days and I was given a tracking number. Ok, everything seemed fine.

Wednesday this week, I decided to check the tracking online, since I had not gotten my book yet. The tracking showed an attempt had been made to deliver the package on Tuesday, but the address was undeliverable. I double checked and realized that the address was correct, but the suite number for the office had been left off. I contacted the post office and asked if a 2nd attempt could be made with the provided suite number. I was told that I would receive an email in a day or two from the postmaster confirming redelivery.

I checked today, and the package is on its way back to the shipper. I never received any email from the post office at all. The book is currently in some place called Bell, California. I'm most likely going to have to contact the shipper and have them resend the package again. I'm guessing they'll probably make me pay for the 2nd shipping attempt.

A tour book should not be the one taking a trip! This book is doing more traveling than me!

High Maintenance or Just High??

I've been feeling a little down this weekend. Call it a bad case of a midlife crisis coming on or vitamin D deficiency from these gloomy days, but it's still not pleasant either way. I tried to cheer myself up a little by curling up under a blanket on the couch and watching some old movies. I watched about an hour of "Big Fat Liar" and then later saw "School of Rock". School of Rock was the better of the two. I didn't think I'd like it, but it did turn out to be really cute.

I've been having a bit of an internal struggle with something lately. I just wonder which is worse...to be high maintenance or not "feminine" enough. I think I fall right in the middle, which is just damning either way. I'm definitely not a full-fledged girly girl. I don't have my hair done every couple weeks by a stylist. I've never had a facial or a manicure. I don't exfoliate, moisturize or pluck every stay eyebrow on a daily basis. I do however wear makeup, insist on a shower every day (unless I'm really sick), and occasionally wear a skirt if the weather is over 60 degrees. Does this make me a girly-girl, or not enough of one? If I'm too girly to be a football fan or know how to change a tire, does that make me a wimp? If I don't care if my hair blows free when the window is down in a car or wear a sweat shirt in public, does that make me trashy or butch? Just how much of a lady do you have to be to be a woman in a man's eyes? Do most women try too much or not enough? If we're comfortable in our own skin, is that plenty or are we somehow disappointing the ones we care most about unintentionally?

Answers anyone? I'm curious.

Irish Weather

I haven't had much to blog about, so rather than bore everyone with "today I woke up, ate, and went to bed", I've left the blogging to those with lives.

I've felt a little hungry for writing, so I thought I'd give it a go today again. We're gearing up for our first major storm of 2010. We got some rain last night and this morning, but right now it's just overcast. The weather man is predicting rain on and off over the week, sometimes heavy with lots of wind. We may get anywhere from 4 to 8 inches in the next few days. That really doesn't sound like a lot, but since we've been in a drought for so long, the ground won't take much of a soaking. That means the potential of flooding. I'm glad we got new rain gutters put on last year.

This weather is making me anxious for our trip in April, even though Ireland is notorious for rain. The picture above was taken in Enis, Ireland. Yes, it was raing on that day too, as you can see from the wet ground. It can make for a pretty soggy and uncomfortable vacation if you're not prepared. If you plan ahead, it can be beautiful though. A hat or umbrella is a must as well as non-slip shoes and a jacket. If the weather is just too miserable, the pubs are warm and welcoming, usually with a live band and plenty of good food.

I was thinking a lot about the food I miss from Ireland. I'd love to bring back some of the garlic chips (fries to us Americans). They're not like the kind you get at the ball park. They're thick cut steak fries with a creamy sauce over them. They're probably about 1,000 calories, but nothing tastes as good. I also miss the Subways over there. (the food place, not the underground). They had a "Sweet Chili Thai chicken" sandwich that was incredible! I've never seen it here. Phil is convinced that their salami is better too. I think that it's because in America, most of our bacon and sausage comes from the belly of the animal,but Ireland uses the leaner back meat. If you want fatty American bacon, you have to ask for "rashers" rather than "bacon."

There are some things that I can't bring myself to eating though. I won't try Black Pudding. It might be good, but the thought of a sausage made out of grains and pig blood sounds discusting! I'm also not fond of colcannon (basically mashed potatoes mixed with cooked cabbage and onions).

Luckily, most parts of Ireland have enough varieties of food, that practically nobody (even us picky people) could go hungry. I always laugh thinking about the times Phil and I ate Mexican food in Limerick, Chinese Food in Belfast (ok, that's actually in Northern Ireland, but still...), and Thai food in Cork. Like everywhere else in the world, there's plenty of McDonald's and Burger Kings too. The funny thing is how different they really can be. Once in Dublin, we had lunch at a McDonald's that brought the food to our table. It felt weird being "served" fast food. In Limerick, the McDonalds there was 3 stories. I've never seen one that huge. Is it really necessary to have a multi-story fast food restaurant?

Repeat Performance

Seelinkfor earthquake info.

We had another earthquake today around noon. I was the only one at work who felt it. This one was a little smaller than yesterday.

Shaken, Not Stirred

I haven't posted anything in a few days, because really there hasn't been much to talk about. We did have a little excitement this morning though. We had a 4.1 earthquake around 10am. It was centered near Milpitas. I was sitting at my desk at work and felt one pretty hard jolt. Then it seemed to be over as fast as it had started. I could see the blinds moving back and forth on the window in front of me. I don't recall anything falling. I keep expecting to feel aftershocks, but so far there's been nothing.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but Phil's company will be moving in February or March. The Concord and San Jose shops will be consolidating. They will be moving into one big warehouse in Dublin (Dublin, California that is). Phil's commute will go from about 3 minutes to 20 or so. I guess that's still not bad.

So far, I'm still at the same place on Burnett. There's only about ten of us now, so it's kind of scary. I keep thinking that sooner or later they'll close our department. I just take it day by day. Lately work has at least been steady, so that's a plus.

Well nothing left to say but happy 16th birthday to Alexander and have a good night all!

Back to the Grind

Well, I made it through a day back to work. It actually was pretty nice and quiet. Kathy was out, which made it nice. You don't know how much I begin to cringe when I hear her coming up behind me saying, "Yo!". First of all, that's not my name. Secondly, I know that it's just her way of starting to tell me that something, no, make that EVERYTHING that I just did is wrong. I'm grateful to have someone proofread my work, but picking out every little petty detail is not only annoying but time consuming as well. For example, does it really matter if I spelled Michael DeVall's last name as Devall without capitalizing the V? His name was spelled in all caps on the deed, so how would I know if the V should really be capitalized or not? Kathy said it's standard spelling. Uh, yeah, ok and we know how standard people's names are spelled especially nowdays. I've seen the name Derick spelled "Derick", "Derek", "Derich", and "Derik." You get the picture. Enough rambling about that!

Baby fish has survived another day. I wonder if we should name it. I have no clue if it's a boy or a girl. I'm still surprised that Phil spotted the little thing. It's the size of a crumb. When Phil fed the fish tonight, he advised that the baby fish not only was eating but pooping too. Well...I guess that's good.

Speaking of animals, I read an article in the paper today that said that parts of Contra Costa county are going to now have posts installed as roosts for raptors. This is being done to encourage the local birds of prey to feed on an over-population of ground squirrels that are invading people's homes. It sounds like a good alternative. I know they've tried poisoning the squirrels in the past, but that didn't seem to work well. There were a lot of fears of pets being poisoned as well, though I don't think any actually were.

I'm hoping I sleep well tonight. I'm still kind of shaken over a weird nightmare I had over the weekend. I dreamt I was in a hospital with headless people. Where their necks should be, they had plastic tubes. It was freaky! If it was supposed to mean something, I'm not sure I want to know what.

The New Arrival

Last night Phil found a baby fish in our aquarium. I've been looking around today, but so far, I've only seen the one lone fish. I'm hoping that it doesn't get eaten by its tank mates, but I'm not expecting miracles here. From the look of it, it seems that the Electric Blue Johanni is the father and one of our Lombardis is the mother.

Today was pretty slow. The highlight of the day was getting the truck washed. I don't know why Phil thought it had to be done. It looks like rain. We did get a break though. Normally it's around $20.00 or so for the "Works", but the supervisor Steve was there and he said that he'd charge us $10.00 if we gave $5.00 to him and the other $5.00 to the car washer. I wonder how many people he offers this to and how long until he gets in trouble for it. Oh well...if it saves us money, I'm going for it.

Tomorrow is back to work again after the New Year's holiday weekend. I'm not ready to get up early again. I'm thankful for a job, but waking up at 5am in the Winter is cruel and unusual punishment!

Jan. 2, 2010 (A Day Late)

Ok, so I promised myself that I would start a daily blog for the New Year. Already I am breaking my resolution, since it's Jan. 2nd today.

Yesterday wasn't really much to talk about anyway though. Phil woke up late (and by "late" I mean 4pm). The day was pretty much shot, so all we did is go out to dinner in Walnut Creek. On the way home, we decided to stop for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. I think everyone in there was PMSing, including the men. First there was some guy that was upset at the way his sundae was made. It was made in a tall glass, but he insisted that the last time he bought one it was made in a cup and was a lot cheaper. The person behind the counter told him that they only have one size and one price for the particular sundae that he ordered. He continued to argue, until finally he just gave up and walked out. Then there was "Miss Princess" who decided that she really had to be served before anyone else. She started waving her arms and saying "Hello! Excuse Me!!" to the workers. When she did get served, she asked for a scoop of ice cream. The lady working started to put it in a cone. Princess threw a fit and said that she wanted it in a cup. Good Lord! It's the same price woman!!

Today was a little less dramatic. LOL! Phil went with his friend Ryan to the shooting range, so I stayed home and took down the Christmas decorations. It looks kind of bare now. :( We're meeting Deborah and Robert for dinner at El Torito in about an hour. I'm hoping that the nasty people at Baskin Robbins don't decide to get Mexican food tonight.