Quest for the Pefect Mattress

Vowing on Saturday to never again wake up with back pain, G and I went mattress shopping. I did not realize how damn expensive these things are !! Damn. Damn expensive.

We shopped at two different stores and tested them all. Then, went home and researched reviews on the internet. G's an analyst after all... boy's gotta analyze.

Deciding on Stearns and Foster we headed back to the store. They thought we were nuts when we said we didn't want it delivered until Friday. But, I wanted to have time to gather the appropriate linens before the bed showed up. Delivery was definitely worth the 50 bucks it costs. We live on the third floor of a condo complex with a spiral staircase (and no elevator). yes, delivery please. Thanks.

The linen shopping was the most fun for me. Let me first use this as a plug for Overstock.com. I found 450 thread count egyptian cotton sheets for 40 bucks (yes, I know I sound like a commercial.. but damn!) Have y'all priced sheets lately? the ones I liked at pottery barn were 130 dollars and didn't have half the thread count and definitely weren't egyptian cotton. I also got a goose down duvet, a headboard, and luxury hotel mattress pad. All for less than the headboard cost at the store where we originally saw it. I'm very excited! I did get the duvet cover at crate and barrel becuase I found one I just loved.

I'll post pics once it's all put together.

The sun sets over St. Petersburg, Florida 

Kayaks on the Key 

Pirate ship pulls into the Intercoastal waterway for Tampa's annual Guavaween celebration. (we could see the fireworks on the row back) 

Kayaking Adventures

The same group that sponsered Girls Night Out also offered a kayaking trip. Our group was going to meet up with another group who did club sporting events to go on a kayaking trip. It sounded like great fun to G and I so we signed up. And, put down a sizeable deposit. (gulp)

Saturday late afternoon rolls around and we pack up a travel bag to take with us: bottled water, camera in plastic baggie (of course), windbreakers, etc. The dog is walked and off we go! The drive from Tampa to Bay Pines Point in St. Peterburg takes way longer than the 30 minutes I'd planned on so we get there about ten minutes before boat launch. The parking for cars without boats is already full .. so after much 'almost' heated discussion with G we park in a "car with boat-tow" slot. My thoughts were .. it's almost dark and there really aren't going to be any more cars showing up with boats to put in. So, we parked.

Anyway..we get assigned kayaks and before I can barely hand over my backpack to the sponser they're handing me oars and a life vest and they're sizing me up for a kayak. Damn, these things are LONG !! You're sitting practically in the water in one of these things. In an unfortunate choice of clothing I was a dumbass and wore jeans not thinking that if I get soaking wet I'm going to be wet for a very long time. (even though there will be a fire)

We were told the kayak trip would be from the bay point across in the intercoastal waterway to a barrier key to watch the sunset. What ended up happening, is we rowed less than a mile down the intercoastal waterway to a key IN THE MIDDLE of the intercoastal waterway. We didn't have a clear view of the gulf like we all thought. G and I were rather bummed. I would have much rather rowed the extra time to get out to a real key. But, unfortunately from where we launched the boats that would have been more than a 10 miles paddle (ack!)

The food spread was less than lavish. The sangria was in jugs from Gallo and really crappy and there was no fruit. How do you have sangria without fruit!!? They brought out cracker appetizers with a not-so-appetizing looking "fish spread". I had no clue what kind of fish or when it was purchased so I just munched on the crackers. I like fish.. this just looked... fishy. Meh. Normally, I'm not a picky eater but this just really didn't look tasty. Then came the main course: brats and hot dogs. There was only enough for one per person. Fine by me, but it left G wanting more. most guys I know want more than one hot dog and this trip was 70% male. The saving grace was that one of the other kayakers brought s'mores !! yay s'mores !! She happily shared with everyone who wanted them and it made me smile. So, we roasted s'mores as we watched the sun set over the water (well, over the land but it made cool reflections on the water.. see pics)

After dinner the men adjoured to build a "bigger" bonfire. These men were clearly not boy scouts. There was a ton of scrub brush around and they piled up HUGE logs and poured lighter fluid on them.. then wondered why their fire wouldn't stay lit. genius. G and I had a good laugh watching them. It was a very good sociology experiment watching a bunch of men building fire. There were the guys happy to observe, the guy who was MANIACAL about the lighter fluid, and the one guy who clearly had actually BEEN camping who put in scrub brush when the lighter fluid burnt out for the eighth time.

Another exciting venture was the trek to the center of the key (it's very VERY small) to pee. I honestly, could care less if passing boats saw me I just had to pee. Other girls were trying to hold it all night until they got back to plumbing. This led to quite some amusement later on in the evening when one girl.. (way too many sangrias in) started demanding the whole group leave NOW! cuz SHE had to pee... ! Drama queen. The sucky part about peeing on the key was the freaking mosquitos ! I got eaten alive and I peed SO quickly. I've counted over ten bites today in less than 20 seconds of pants downage-time. Fast little fuckers.

Only one couple wiped out on the way out to the island. They had the only kayak for two out of the bunch. the guy running it called it "the divorce kayak". We soon found out why when they both got soaked. G and I paddle out on our own. The interesting part was the row back. On the row out we were fighting the tide and the current and I was constantly having to pull on the left of the kayak to stay straight. My arm muscles (or lack thereof) were very very not happy with me. Must.work.out.more! The row back was in the dark after quite a few glasses of sangria. Even though it was crappy it was the only thing to drink. They put glow sticks on the front and back of my kayak to mark it and shoved us in the water. G and I tried to stay together but he has so much more upper body strength he managed to get ahead. The row back was peaceful and calm, the tide was up, and the rowing was SO much easier. I really enjoyed the quiet row back to the boat dock. G was there to meet me and help me out of the boat. Especially since the guy who took G's oars walked off and left him while G thought he was holding the kayak. So, G capsized on the boat dock and soaked himself totally right before I pulled into the slip. I hadn't realized it at the time but that's why he was extra attentive of me while I was getting out of my kayak. He made sure the same loser didn't pull that crap with me. (thanks honey)

Overall the trip was mildly disappointing, but we did manage to have some fun. I just dont think we'd do the trip again.

Girls Night Out

Friday night was girls night out. I'm not sure if I blogged about this before, but a few months ago when I first moved to Tampa I signed up for a group to help people new to the area meet other people (who area also new to the area). The catch to this group is that it's NOT a singles group so those that are looking to troll for mates need not apply. For a few months nothing happened, then a few weeks ago one website merged with another and BANG lots of events and new friends for me to make.

The first event G and I attended together. It was a meet up at a sports bar for the red sox/yankees playoffs series. I made a few friends, took my neighbor with me and had a good time.

Eventually, this group planned a girls night out. They picked a local spot in Channelside for Tapas and bowling. About 11 girls showed up and we had a GREAT time! We drank, we talked, we ate, and then we got to the alley about 11. now, this bowling alley is like nothing you've ever seen. (except if you happen to be one of the few that live near a Lucky Strike in CA) This is a classy bowling alley. they have only 12 lanes, two HUGE bars, a swanky restaurant, and more pool tables in one place that I've seen in some place other than a pool hall. And like I said, done very upscale. So, we tried to get reservations and they were booked but told us to walk in after we checked in before dinner. By the time we got there after dinner there was a two hour wait (of course). So, we sat at the bar and talk and drank some more. Of course, being a group of (at this point) 8 women we got some attention. We were quickly zeroed in on by a bachelor party who assumed we were a bachelorette party. No such luck guys. They were very bummed when they found out I was taken and the pretty jessica alba-looking girl I was talking to was married.

The girls are great and all around my age.. so much fun was had by all. I even got some phone numbers to chat with people outside of scheduled events.

I think my quest for friends in Tampa might finally be working out.

Wilma a non-event in Tampa

Wilma came and went on Monday. I sat around all day Sunday waiting for them to cancel work for me, and they never did. I was actually rather bitter, since every other place I could think of was closed (including all the schools, universities, and malls). Sunday night I stayed up late to watch the hurricane projections and as we thought Wilma stayed significantly south of us (about 250 miles south). We did get lots of rain and some fairly heavy rains over night, but overall wilma was a non-event here in Tampa.

G's flight still took off Monday morning at 7am despite heavy rain and wind. I was very nervous that he was in the air during this and made sure he called me when he landed safely in Houston. As G was leaving at 530am we heard a strange popping sound which to me sounded like a transformer. Ten seconds later we saw a shower of sparks across the street along with a very loud zapping noise. Immediately following the noise... our power went out. It took only 10 seconds for them to get the power back on. (damn it, I thought that was my for-sure out on getting to work -- no power = no getting the car out of the parking garage) I guess they had men standing by in case of power outages at the main facility here in the bay area.

By 930 the rain was lightening up and I was ready for work. Doggie daycare was closed so I was somewhat nervous about leaving Tiger in the storm, but like I said, it was already clearing up. I passed only ten cars on the freeway on the way to work and I was cursing my boss the entire way. The first hour and a half of work was soooooo slow. No one was coming into the building. By 11 o'clock people started showing up, by noon I was PACKED !! (like I said, I was the ONLY thing open) There were so many walk-ins. All the other eye doc places on Fowler were closed (including the ones in the mall across the street) In six hours I had 18 patients. That's nuts for a hurricane day. Go home and enjoy your day off people !! i guess the husbands and wives that came in together figured they could get that done and out of the way while they were off work. I saw quite a few truck drivers with no where to go that day.

The boss of the Fowler office lives in W. Palm. He had no power and ended up driving up here to work for a few weeks since they said it would take three weeks for him to get his power back. He offered to work for me on Saturday so I could have a day off and he could have something to do. I happily accepted so I could stay home for the weekend with G. I'll post details of our weekend later.

Sorry i've been lax on blogging lately, I just really haven't been in the mood. But, I guess I am now :) Pics of our kayak trip to come !

Hurricane Wilma

Well, it's still five days out, but I'm in the cone of probability for Hurricane Wilma. Joy.. another hurricane. Like Florida wasn't abused enough last year.

I do have to work Saturday so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I am again good friends with the NOAA webpage. I should probably have it bookmarked by now. *sigh*

My Sheep

Which flock do you follow?

this quiz was made by alanna

Funny Search Hit

My first funny blog hit in a long time..... most of them are about optometry (go figure)

This one : SEXY BOOTIES!!

Yes, I blogged about sexy booties... when I bought booties to put on my dog to keep him from scratching himself during flea season. there were even sexy bootie pictures. Apparently someone had to google search sexy booties. Makes me wonder what they were really looking for.. I'm sure it wasn't pictures of my dog. Heh.

Movie Review: Crash

Today's Netflix Movie : Crash

Now, i had a really long, in-depth snyopsis of this movie.. but I was a dumbass and hit close on the wrong tab just as I was finishing up my review. I HATE CRAP LIKE THIS .. there should be a "are you really sure you want to be a dumbass and lose your blog post" exit out option.

Crash was a movie I really hadn't heard about before I put it on my netflix list. But, the reviews were good and the cast list is AMAZING (Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Phillipe, Tony Danza, Brendan Fraser, the girl from season 1 24 (who played Jamie), and many many more. So, I had high hopes.

This movie could not have been more formulaic. The movie is supposed to be about racism in post-911 LA spread out over three days. Somehow in a town of 8 million people our 10 main characters keep running into each other. what? The statements on racism are made with a sledgehammer... cuz in case you're dense.. racism is bad. It's contrived scenario on top of contrived scenario to beat into your little brain that racism is bad.

I almost didn't finish the movie, but I stuck it out. There are some really great scenes. There's on in particular between the hispanic male character and the persian male character that will have your heart in your throat. But it all feels like it's done to get an emotional response out of you.. and in the end I didn't care about the characters. I was actually pausing the movie to call people, make dinner, and answer emails. I really wasn't drawn to this movie. It was all staged to get you to feel something.. but it didn't.. and I got what it was trying to say in the first ten seconds of film.. racism is bad. If you're a racist something bad will happen to you and karma's coming for you my friend. I get it... I didn't need to sit through 2 hours of it. I had higher hopes for this cast. I was disappointed. I give Crash 2/5 stars.



Otherwise, my day today was uneventful. I went to work.. tiger went to doggie daycare to play.. and now we're watching the Astros go to the world series !!! Yay !!

Short Weekend

My weekend was really only one day. I did have Thursday off, but I spent most of the day running errands and cleaning the house. (joy) So, it doesn't really count as a weekend. I did get some new shoes at Target though, which is always fun. I heart Target. I'm so glad we have one now (close to my house and large I mean).

I worked all day Friday and Saturday. So, no major fun events going on there. I did go for a very very nice dinner with G Friday night at Bonefish Grill. Yummy! I had swordfish and a few glasses of wine. We ended up spending WAY more than we should have, but it was nice to get out and be together and talk.

Saturday night was movie night. We saw "Prozac Nation" with Christina Ricci. A very powerful film.. definitely not inspirational or uplifting, but very very good. Christina Ricci and Jessica Lange were phenominal. There were also cameos by Jason Biggs and Michelle Williams. I'd recommend it.. just don't rent it when you're already depressed.

Today we actually ventured out of the house to the sports bar. Watched the first half of the Buccs/Dolphins game. Run Ricky Run !! G and I played fantasy football and I was doing really well in the points until Griese got injured. (damn it!) I did however have a HUGE laugh when the put in Chris Simms (and he immediately got sacked.. so it was just like old times!)

The weather here has been PHENOMINAL this weekend. It's been in the low 80s and the humidity has lowered. A San Diego day to be sure. G and I took Tiger for a nice long four mile run today and it was just wonderful. I'd wished I'd gotten up earlier to take Tiger to the doggie park on Davis Island to play in the water, but it was my only day all week to sleep in.. so I did.

G is packing up to leave for Houston (again). He always gets the Monday morning flight to Houston at 7am. (ugh) And it'll be another day of work for me and doggie daycare for Tiger (Monday and Tuesdays). He LOVES doggie daycare and their kiddy pool!! They say he never gets out of the kiddy pool.

Tampa Drivers

The drivers in the Tampa Bay area are some of the slowest driving mo-fos I have EVER run across. (almost literally) The speed limit through the downtown section of Tampa (all 2 miles of it) is 55mph. People actually GO 55 or even 50 !!! FIFTY!! Here's my little Houston driving self going 65-70 and nearly rear ending people cuz they're going 50 miles an hour. I don't think my car CAN go that slow. Even in the open freeway of I75 where the speed limit is 70mph people are STILL going 55. The funniest part is when they're going 55 (BELOW the speed limit) and there's a cop. OH NO A COP!! I'm going 55 !! I must SLOW DOWN !!... and they screech down to 35 miles an hour to crawl by the cop before speeding up again. HELLO DUMBASSES! The speed limit is 65 mph the cop is PASSING YOU!! MOOOOOVE!

And, before you say it.. it's NOT the old people. The old people know better than to be on the freeway during rush hour. They're all eating dinner by then.

It's the weirdest phenominon I've ever seen... people going BELOW the speed limit. Do y'all know of other cities where this happens. In Houston I'd be KILLED if I drove this slowly. I still choose not to.

Infomercials and Hockey... an odd combination

Yesterday, G and I decided to venture out to the Home Remodeling show at Tropicana Field. One, cuz we're looking for ways to work on our condo and two, cuz it was something to do. So, we pay for parking and 7 bucks to get in. And... we're in. Tropicana Field is rather ugly by the way.. maybe I'm spoiled by all the shiney new ballparks in Houston and San Francisco, but damn it's ugly. Anyway, back on topic. We start meandering through the aisles on stuff on display. One or two flooring guys.. we stop and look at wood. Then, hot tubs, cell phone covers, books... what the hell do these have to do with remodeling? swiffers, knives, and pots... still not remodeling. We did get a good laugh at the expense of the pots and pans sales guy.. for some reason while walking down the aisle G and I thought of the "kitchen guillatine" from Dead Like Me at the same time. We both looked at the guy, looked at each other, said "Dead Like Me", and died laughing. The salesman was less than amused and continued glaring at us.. so we left him to sell more pots. Overall, very lame.. we left after only 45 minutes. Lame lame lame. And a waste of 7 bucks plus parking.

Tonight about 3pm I got a voicemail from the office I work at in Brandon. Thinking it was a patient problem I promptly returned the call. Turns out it was the front desk clerk I go running with. her boyfriend works for the Tampa Bay Lightning and had extra tickets to tonight's hockey game. She wanted to know if Dr M and I wanted to go. yay !! hockey!! I havent gotten to go to a hockey game since San Diego. I also, wanted to meet Dr M. We work together, but don't actually work together at the same time. She also just moved here (about a year ago). She's around G and my age and also doesn't know very many people. So, once she got done working off we went. I think we ended up annoying the people sitting behind us cuz we spent more time talking than we did watching the game. (since we didnt know anything about each other) We actually had a great time, watched some hockey, and after the Lightning was losing by 4 goals decided it was time to go home. But, we're definitely going out again.. maybe sushi or a movie. (maybe both) Lots of fun meeting Dr M.

We had great seats for the game. First level right behind the goal. We could see the entire rink which was really nice. I was very much entertained by the score keepers sitting behind the goal. Each goal had one guy in a plexiglass case sitting behind the goal... honest to god, he looked like he was sitting in the pope-mobile. I know it's for their protection, but they're sitting BEHIND a plexiglass wall with mesh netting INSIDE a plexiglass box. Seems kinda overkill if you ask me.

Liz Phair

Well, Liz came to St. Pete last night. I had never been to this venue before and it was only my second time to see Liz in concert. The first time I saw her was her tour for her third albumn while I was living in San Diego. I had no idea who she was and my friend from work, Rob, dragged me to see her at San Diego State. I'm SO glad he did!!

I met up with a friend at the venue (Jannus Landing), if you could call it that. The place was a small courtyard in downtown St. Pete with three building surrounding it. It could "maybe" hold 2,000 people. There were probably only a few hundred there. It didn't even sell out.

Since it was an open courtyard it was hot as hell. yes, it was dark and probably only in the 80s, but it had just rained and there was no breeze. The humidity was insufferable and even Liz commented on it. I'm sure it was even hotter under the lights on stage.

I set up camp about 10 feet from the stage on stage left. Liz took requests and even switched up her play list. Since it was a small venue it was a very intimate situation and made it that much more fun to watch her joke around with us and the band. she seemed like she's be a great person to talk to and get a beer with. :)

She played an hour and a half in all and I had a GREAT time. She played just the right mix of old and new songs. The audience sang along to all the older stuff.. since her new albumn just dropped Tuesday no one knew the new stuff yet. I did get the new CD at the concert. I figured if I bought it there she might actually see more of the money than if I bought it from Target or Amazon. So, there ya go.

For those that care, Liz was casual in a glittery tank top, cut off jeans, and flip flops. She got so hot at one point she asked the audience for pony tail holders to put up her hair.. then started her next song.. during the song she got pelted (sometimes in the face) with about 15 ponytail holders. she was laughing by the end of it.

I had a great time and would definitely go back and see her again!

And, in the best news of the day.. Texas BEAT OU !!! I had to watch the first half at a sports bar since ABC Regional decided NOT to show our game!! losers. So, I came home at half time to watch the game and then the cut off in the third quarter to show Michigan and Minnesota !! DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE ABOUT MICHIGAN AND MINNESOTA !!???? I think not. I was very mad at ABC yesterday.

100th Red River Shootout

It's that magical time of year, folks. The leaves change, it cools off at night (supposedly), and 80,000 fans stream into Dallas' State Fairgrounds to watch a rivalry of epic proportions. It's time again.. for Texas / OU weekend.

This is our year. If it's not.. I'm going postal on someone. Starting with Mac Brown.

And tonight, hopefully to celebrate, a friend and I are going to the Liz Phair concert. For free !! (even better)

Tickets

I finally get a few days off. I worked the last six days in a row. I'm exhausted, but know I've made a lot of money. Which, when you're in as much debt as I am is good!

I signed my S-Corp paperwork yesterday with the lawer so I am now officially a businesss. Whoo! I've heard it's good for my tax and legal purposes so here I am. wow, my life is so exciting recently. heh.

In happy news one of the opticians I work with got me tickets to see Liz Phair. So, I LOVE him right now. He also works promotions for the mix station here in Tampa Bay and is an all round nice guy. One of those fun at parties kind of people. (in a good way, not the creepy drunk way)

Tiger and I are happily awaiting G's return. He's landing right now on the way back from Houston. G's had a really rough week. Yesterday his laptop because psychotic and decided it didn't like files labeled from A-H. He lost over 48,000 files and spent the whole day with IT doing data retrieval on his laptop. Fun fun fun. Fortunately he has understanding clients who forgave him not having his work that was due today done. Poor G. He was able to recover 75% of his files. Maybe the computer was posessed with the same thing that eats socks out of the driers in the world. I can't wait for him to be home. I love Thursday nights.

Being pro-active

So, today on my way to work I called Dr F to discuss the disaster that was Saturday. He understood my points, was also upset at the front desk for not charging one of my patients (SO not their call), and should be in town tomorrow to discuss. Apparently Dr C had called a few weeks ago to register similiar complaints. Now we will work together to change the saturday scheduling. Thank GOD. I couldn't take a few more weeks of that and it would have driven me to quit.

I saw Serenity last night and was pleasantly suprised. A very good popcorn flick with humor! I figured it would though, since it was Joss Whedon. I'd recommend it even if you never got the chance to see Firefly. i could follow it and I think I only watched the pilot.

I only worked 3.5 hours today. Sundays are relaxed, easy, and fun. Just me and one tech. The patients appreciate me being there, so I guess that's all that matters.

Tonight has been catching up with Tivo and all the shows it recorded during the week.

Thoughts today are with my friend Jess as she anxiously awaits hearing if her husband is being deployed to Iraq. (leaving her and her new 6 month old in Okinawa) here's to hoping he underachieved and is in the lower 80% hon. All my thoughts with you today. Love ya !!!

And in other news.. it's that infamous week again.. Texas/OU week.

BEAT THE HELL OUTTA OU !!!

Too many patients

They scheduled me for too many patients today. I got no lunch and the patients were getting grumpy since I was running so far behind. The main problem is they put in too many appointed patients and then started taking LOTS of walk-in patients. The final total was 23 patients in 6 hours. And, these were ALL full exams, no Cl checks, no short office visits. I was very grumpy by the time I left work.. .but I DID make a LOT of money. Which I guess kind of makes up for it.

G and I had a great time at the meet last night. I got to meet about 10 people. Two or three of them I can see turning into great friends. We'll see how it all works out at future events. Phone numbers were exhanged though, so we don't have to wait for another event.

I had a lovely sushi dinner, early tonight since I had no lunch. I love "Water" it's the best place. Usually uncrowded and nice service doesn't hurt either.

So now, G and I are getting ready to go see Serenity. i have no idea what to expect sicne I never saw Firefly. But, G used to be a HUGE Buffy fan (up until season 4). So, hopefully the writing will be along the same witty banter line.