Just Finished Reading: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Well that certainly was a bit of a letdown. Halloween ended at around 8:00. That's the last time anyone knocked on the door trick or treating. Worse, we hardly had anyone come all night. I know we're on the third floor and all but still.
I even made sure not to buy as much candy as last year because we had so much left over. Well, we STILL have a lot left over because hardly anyone came. Clearly it's not the holiday it used to be. Somewhere along the way Halloween lost its thrill. Even the movies on TV tonight were pretty bad. Used to be horror movies on just about every channel. Now, hardly any.
I wonder if this sort of thing happened everywhere or just here in our apartment complex.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Halloween
Just Finished Reading: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Well here we are, Halloween. Time to kick off the Christmas season. Actually, judging by the stores, it's already Christmas. We were out food shopping yesterday and they already had the Halloween stuff pushed to the "seasonal clearance" area and were pulling out the Christmas stuff.
Remember when you didn't see much Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving? When I was working at Kmart, we started putting SOME stuff out 10 weeks before Christmas so people could take advantage of the Layaway program but we never had the decorations and lights and stuff out that early. In fact, they were always looking for volunteers to work on Thanksgiving day. Keep in mind this was in the days when stores weren't open 24-7. Anyway, whoever worked on Thanksgiving had to take down all the Thanksgiving stuff and box it up and drag out all the Christmas stuff so it would be ready first thing day after Thanksgiving. And even then we didn't have most of the displays up until a few days later.
Pretty soon every store will have their Christmas tree forest set up and the pre-Holiday sales will begin. I like it better the old way when you didnt' even THINK about Christmas until well after you'd recovered from your turkey-coma.
Not sure what the holidays are like at work. I know we'll be busy. Everyone will want to get their dog all cleaned up for parties and travel. Other than that, I have no idea. I started work the last week of December so the only holiday I was actually there for was New Years. We were pretty damn crowded before New Years. We were totally dead on New Years Day and things tapered off a bit until the spring.
Back to work for me tomorrow. I've had so much time off lately I've been getting a little stir crazy. I'm just not used to having this much free time on my hands. Not that it's been entirely FREE mind you. I've had plenty of things to keep me busy. It's just odd spending this much time away from the salon.
I was talking with one of the guys on Friday when I picked up my check. I said, "You know, it's like I'm either ALWAYS here or NEVER here." That's how my schedule has been. I'm either there almost every day or I've got a long string of days off. That will change now. The schedule has settled in and I'll go back to working the 4-day week.
Tomorrow I'll be pulling down the Halloween decorations and cleaning up the salon again. Everything back to normal, more or less :-)
Well here we are, Halloween. Time to kick off the Christmas season. Actually, judging by the stores, it's already Christmas. We were out food shopping yesterday and they already had the Halloween stuff pushed to the "seasonal clearance" area and were pulling out the Christmas stuff.
Remember when you didn't see much Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving? When I was working at Kmart, we started putting SOME stuff out 10 weeks before Christmas so people could take advantage of the Layaway program but we never had the decorations and lights and stuff out that early. In fact, they were always looking for volunteers to work on Thanksgiving day. Keep in mind this was in the days when stores weren't open 24-7. Anyway, whoever worked on Thanksgiving had to take down all the Thanksgiving stuff and box it up and drag out all the Christmas stuff so it would be ready first thing day after Thanksgiving. And even then we didn't have most of the displays up until a few days later.
Pretty soon every store will have their Christmas tree forest set up and the pre-Holiday sales will begin. I like it better the old way when you didnt' even THINK about Christmas until well after you'd recovered from your turkey-coma.
Not sure what the holidays are like at work. I know we'll be busy. Everyone will want to get their dog all cleaned up for parties and travel. Other than that, I have no idea. I started work the last week of December so the only holiday I was actually there for was New Years. We were pretty damn crowded before New Years. We were totally dead on New Years Day and things tapered off a bit until the spring.
***
Back to work for me tomorrow. I've had so much time off lately I've been getting a little stir crazy. I'm just not used to having this much free time on my hands. Not that it's been entirely FREE mind you. I've had plenty of things to keep me busy. It's just odd spending this much time away from the salon.
I was talking with one of the guys on Friday when I picked up my check. I said, "You know, it's like I'm either ALWAYS here or NEVER here." That's how my schedule has been. I'm either there almost every day or I've got a long string of days off. That will change now. The schedule has settled in and I'll go back to working the 4-day week.
Tomorrow I'll be pulling down the Halloween decorations and cleaning up the salon again. Everything back to normal, more or less :-)
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Last of the Vacation Blog
Currently Reading: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Wednesday 10:00 PM EST
Well, here we are. Last day of our vacation here. Tomorrow morning we head back to Memphis and back to work. CC has the rest of the week off so she doesn't go back until Monday. Unfortunately, I'm needed back at the salon to help with the weekend rush. It was a short break for me but that's better than none at all plus we both had a great time.
Today was spent tieing up loose ends. CC wanted to go back to Boyd's Bears to build a bear herself so that's where we started the day. On our first trip it was closed so we were sure to get there early.
Their version of bear building is a little different than Build-a-Bear. For starters, they have it set up like a factory or construction zone. The builder, CC, gets a yellow hard hat and a lanyard with a name tag and time card. As you progress down through each stage, you punch a time clock.
These bears are beanie bears so there's no need for a fluff-shooting machine. They give you a measuring cup that you fill with beads from a set of vats. Each vat has a different chracteristic for your bear. CC filled her bear with extra patience beads because she often gets too excited and hates waiting :-)
Next you sew yor bear shut and go pick out clothes. CC chose a nice Chinese set for hers. It's pretty cute too. It even comes with little bear slippers. As a bonus, we got a free bear bathrobe and slippers, also very cute.
Next stop was the As Seen On TV store. As the name implies, they sell all those things you see in commercials. They certainly had a wide selection but nothing jumped out at us so we left.
Final stop was Applewood's again. It's a good place to pick up souvenirs for people and that's what we got.
At that point we'd done everything we'd planned on doing this trip so we headed back to the hotel. After a bit of rest we hit a Chinese buffet for dinner and that was that.
Now we have to shift gears and head on home. It's been nice having so much time and so little to worry about. Been a whil since we both were able to enjoy some stress-free days.
Not sure when we'll get another vacation with travel. Not sure where we'd travel to either. There are still lots of places we'd like to see. But you can be sure we'll document all our adventures for better or worse.
1. You can tell what type of people usually come here by what cable stations they have. Mostly we get sports, religion, and shopping. Oh we get a few of the other big name networks like USA and TBS but not much else.
2. There are a lot of dog people here. Quite a few hotels here are pet friendly.
3. Up and down the main strip you see signs for all the live shows. Unfortunately most of them are either hillbilly or gospel shows. They even have a theater that does the passion play twice a night. Has camel rides in the parking lot too.
4. Vacations are nice but only if you have a home to return to.
Wednesday 10:00 PM EST
Well, here we are. Last day of our vacation here. Tomorrow morning we head back to Memphis and back to work. CC has the rest of the week off so she doesn't go back until Monday. Unfortunately, I'm needed back at the salon to help with the weekend rush. It was a short break for me but that's better than none at all plus we both had a great time.
Today was spent tieing up loose ends. CC wanted to go back to Boyd's Bears to build a bear herself so that's where we started the day. On our first trip it was closed so we were sure to get there early.
Their version of bear building is a little different than Build-a-Bear. For starters, they have it set up like a factory or construction zone. The builder, CC, gets a yellow hard hat and a lanyard with a name tag and time card. As you progress down through each stage, you punch a time clock.
These bears are beanie bears so there's no need for a fluff-shooting machine. They give you a measuring cup that you fill with beads from a set of vats. Each vat has a different chracteristic for your bear. CC filled her bear with extra patience beads because she often gets too excited and hates waiting :-)
Next you sew yor bear shut and go pick out clothes. CC chose a nice Chinese set for hers. It's pretty cute too. It even comes with little bear slippers. As a bonus, we got a free bear bathrobe and slippers, also very cute.
Next stop was the As Seen On TV store. As the name implies, they sell all those things you see in commercials. They certainly had a wide selection but nothing jumped out at us so we left.
Final stop was Applewood's again. It's a good place to pick up souvenirs for people and that's what we got.
At that point we'd done everything we'd planned on doing this trip so we headed back to the hotel. After a bit of rest we hit a Chinese buffet for dinner and that was that.
Now we have to shift gears and head on home. It's been nice having so much time and so little to worry about. Been a whil since we both were able to enjoy some stress-free days.
Not sure when we'll get another vacation with travel. Not sure where we'd travel to either. There are still lots of places we'd like to see. But you can be sure we'll document all our adventures for better or worse.
1. You can tell what type of people usually come here by what cable stations they have. Mostly we get sports, religion, and shopping. Oh we get a few of the other big name networks like USA and TBS but not much else.
2. There are a lot of dog people here. Quite a few hotels here are pet friendly.
3. Up and down the main strip you see signs for all the live shows. Unfortunately most of them are either hillbilly or gospel shows. They even have a theater that does the passion play twice a night. Has camel rides in the parking lot too.
4. Vacations are nice but only if you have a home to return to.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Vacation Blog Part 3
Currently Reading: Nothing. I'm between Books
Tuesday 9:30 PM EST
GREAT NEWS! I woke up feeling much better after a restless night's sleep. I'm not sure what it was that did the job. Maybe it was a combination of things. I wasn't 100% but I was more than well enough.
Today we went to the Biltmore Estate which is about an hour and a half from here over in North Carolina. That may seem like a long drive to some but it is totally worth the drive.
For starters, this isn't some trip through boring farm land or prarie scrub. The Biltmore is on the other side of the Smokey Mountains so you drive though some gorgeous scenery.
The estate itself belongs to the Vanderbilt family. Yes, THAT Vanderbilt family. One of the richest families in the world from way back. Unlike a lot of the super rich though, they were pretty generous with their money. There's a reason why so many schools, hospitals and libraries have buildings named after one Vanderbilt or another.
The first impression you get is that this is one huge chunk of property. Sure is. It's so big you really can't grasp it. Then you see the model of it in the welcoming area. They've made a scale model of the entire estate grounds showing you where the various buildings are.
We went to the main house which looks like the kind of manor houses you see in Europe. It's more like a small castle. As you walk into the entrance hall, right away it's hard to imagine someone actually living there. It's just o HUGE!
We took the audio tour. That's one of those self-paced tours where you get an MP3 player and punch in the number of the room you're in. You walk the whole house, four floors and a basement and it take two hour or so. Actually you skip two big sections but given the layout of the house, the missed rooms are just more guest bedrooms and servant quarters.
Walking through you see quite a bit of history and not just from the US. Remember, these people have serious money so they've acquired quite a collection of items from Europe. They have a chess set that belonged to Napoleon. Some of the tapestries were woven in the 1500's. Two tapestries belonged to Cardinal Richelieu.
They have a wonderful library as well. George Vanderbilt had over 10,000 volumes in different languages. The room itself only housed part of it but it's two stories high. It even has secret doors so guests could sneak in and borrow a book without bothering everyone.
We went through the house and the gardens. There are several other buildings including a winery but we'd already run out of energy. It's the kind of place that really takes more than one visit to see everything.
Drove back to the hotel, had some dinner, and that was it. We'd set the day aside for just that trip and it took up the whole day.
Tomorrow is our last day here. It's sort of an open day. No real plans. We'll hit some of the smaller stores we've been driving by the past two days. We may go back to Gatlinburg or to the park. Not sure yet.
1. Wouldn't you know it, cold on Monday so we dress warm. Today it's all rain. Weather forecasts aren't very accurate here.
2. Not as many old people at the Biltmore. We were only out-numbered 7 to 1.
3. Saw lots of bored husbands and kids. The Biltmore, to kids, must be really dull stuff.
4. The trees in NC had more color.
5. CC fell asleep on the way back. She just slowly leaned over to her left until she was hanging from the seat belt. It was funny and cute but I couldn't get a picture because I was driving obviously, and the roads were too twisty.
6. Folks in Memphis rave about Graceland and the tour there but after what I saw today Graceland sucks. :-)
Tuesday 9:30 PM EST
GREAT NEWS! I woke up feeling much better after a restless night's sleep. I'm not sure what it was that did the job. Maybe it was a combination of things. I wasn't 100% but I was more than well enough.
Today we went to the Biltmore Estate which is about an hour and a half from here over in North Carolina. That may seem like a long drive to some but it is totally worth the drive.
For starters, this isn't some trip through boring farm land or prarie scrub. The Biltmore is on the other side of the Smokey Mountains so you drive though some gorgeous scenery.
The estate itself belongs to the Vanderbilt family. Yes, THAT Vanderbilt family. One of the richest families in the world from way back. Unlike a lot of the super rich though, they were pretty generous with their money. There's a reason why so many schools, hospitals and libraries have buildings named after one Vanderbilt or another.
The first impression you get is that this is one huge chunk of property. Sure is. It's so big you really can't grasp it. Then you see the model of it in the welcoming area. They've made a scale model of the entire estate grounds showing you where the various buildings are.
We went to the main house which looks like the kind of manor houses you see in Europe. It's more like a small castle. As you walk into the entrance hall, right away it's hard to imagine someone actually living there. It's just o HUGE!
We took the audio tour. That's one of those self-paced tours where you get an MP3 player and punch in the number of the room you're in. You walk the whole house, four floors and a basement and it take two hour or so. Actually you skip two big sections but given the layout of the house, the missed rooms are just more guest bedrooms and servant quarters.
Walking through you see quite a bit of history and not just from the US. Remember, these people have serious money so they've acquired quite a collection of items from Europe. They have a chess set that belonged to Napoleon. Some of the tapestries were woven in the 1500's. Two tapestries belonged to Cardinal Richelieu.
They have a wonderful library as well. George Vanderbilt had over 10,000 volumes in different languages. The room itself only housed part of it but it's two stories high. It even has secret doors so guests could sneak in and borrow a book without bothering everyone.
We went through the house and the gardens. There are several other buildings including a winery but we'd already run out of energy. It's the kind of place that really takes more than one visit to see everything.
Drove back to the hotel, had some dinner, and that was it. We'd set the day aside for just that trip and it took up the whole day.
Tomorrow is our last day here. It's sort of an open day. No real plans. We'll hit some of the smaller stores we've been driving by the past two days. We may go back to Gatlinburg or to the park. Not sure yet.
1. Wouldn't you know it, cold on Monday so we dress warm. Today it's all rain. Weather forecasts aren't very accurate here.
2. Not as many old people at the Biltmore. We were only out-numbered 7 to 1.
3. Saw lots of bored husbands and kids. The Biltmore, to kids, must be really dull stuff.
4. The trees in NC had more color.
5. CC fell asleep on the way back. She just slowly leaned over to her left until she was hanging from the seat belt. It was funny and cute but I couldn't get a picture because I was driving obviously, and the roads were too twisty.
6. Folks in Memphis rave about Graceland and the tour there but after what I saw today Graceland sucks. :-)
Monday, October 23, 2006
Vacation Blog Part 2
Currently Reading: Nothing. I'm between books
Monday 10:00 PM EST
I am sick. No, not in the sense that I'm twisted . . . although. I mean I am ill. Before we left Memphis I was coming down with something. Now I've got something. To be more specific, I have a pretty good fever going here. But I'll get to that in a bit.
Today started off with free breakfast with the old folks. There was a tour group staying here and they left this morning.
After a shower we went to the big craft show. Big. Very big. Also very convenient. All the big locals were there so it saved us lots of driving and walking. CC went nuts over the candles and I picked up some really cool miniature flowers. We chatted with the guy selling them about bar-b-que.
After the fair we went to the aquarium. Along the way we ordered a wood sign that says The Slish Family. CC wanted one to hang outside the apartment.
The aquarium was great! Ok pretty much the same as two years ago but it was cool then too!
On the way back we stopped at a little store that sells pet things and picked up some cute figurines. One type features a dog dressed like an angel. The other like a devil. We got one each for Katya and Jack. Very appropriate in fact.
We picked up our sign and by then I was feeling pretty blah. We stopped at a grocery store for a few things then came back to the hotel so I could rest.
After a nap and some sinus meds I felt fine again so we went to the Boyd's Bears store. It's HUGE! They have everything too or at least they did. They got bought out and some moron decided to close the big place here and concentrate on wholesale. We did buy lots of stuff though. T-shirts, a hat, a bear or two of course.
Came back and took CC to Long John Silvers. She'd never been and I hadn't been since Texas. Still the same. Everything is deep fried.
When we got back, that's when I took a turn for the worse. Got the chills and didn't shake them for a few hours. Then I got real hot. Now I'm in between. What really sucks is that I can't sleep and we're supposed to go to The Biltmore Estate tomorrow. We've really been looking forward to it so I better get better damn it!
Time for some rest . . .
1. Spent a lot of time chatting with vendors today. They have cool stories about what goes on here.
2. Right now CC and I are out-numbered by old people 10 to 1
3. People have a morbid fascination with sting rays now that the Croc Hunter is gone. The sting ray tank at the aquarium was packed.
4. Some guy at Long John Silvers really liked my Mickey Mouse jacket.
5. Being sick on vacation sucks.
6. Having CC fuss over me when I'm sick really helps. So does my new teddy bear :-)
Monday 10:00 PM EST
I am sick. No, not in the sense that I'm twisted . . . although. I mean I am ill. Before we left Memphis I was coming down with something. Now I've got something. To be more specific, I have a pretty good fever going here. But I'll get to that in a bit.
Today started off with free breakfast with the old folks. There was a tour group staying here and they left this morning.
After a shower we went to the big craft show. Big. Very big. Also very convenient. All the big locals were there so it saved us lots of driving and walking. CC went nuts over the candles and I picked up some really cool miniature flowers. We chatted with the guy selling them about bar-b-que.
After the fair we went to the aquarium. Along the way we ordered a wood sign that says The Slish Family. CC wanted one to hang outside the apartment.
The aquarium was great! Ok pretty much the same as two years ago but it was cool then too!
On the way back we stopped at a little store that sells pet things and picked up some cute figurines. One type features a dog dressed like an angel. The other like a devil. We got one each for Katya and Jack. Very appropriate in fact.
We picked up our sign and by then I was feeling pretty blah. We stopped at a grocery store for a few things then came back to the hotel so I could rest.
After a nap and some sinus meds I felt fine again so we went to the Boyd's Bears store. It's HUGE! They have everything too or at least they did. They got bought out and some moron decided to close the big place here and concentrate on wholesale. We did buy lots of stuff though. T-shirts, a hat, a bear or two of course.
Came back and took CC to Long John Silvers. She'd never been and I hadn't been since Texas. Still the same. Everything is deep fried.
When we got back, that's when I took a turn for the worse. Got the chills and didn't shake them for a few hours. Then I got real hot. Now I'm in between. What really sucks is that I can't sleep and we're supposed to go to The Biltmore Estate tomorrow. We've really been looking forward to it so I better get better damn it!
Time for some rest . . .
1. Spent a lot of time chatting with vendors today. They have cool stories about what goes on here.
2. Right now CC and I are out-numbered by old people 10 to 1
3. People have a morbid fascination with sting rays now that the Croc Hunter is gone. The sting ray tank at the aquarium was packed.
4. Some guy at Long John Silvers really liked my Mickey Mouse jacket.
5. Being sick on vacation sucks.
6. Having CC fuss over me when I'm sick really helps. So does my new teddy bear :-)
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