12/9 Oprah and me

Published an article tonight on Oprah and me and what we have in common. Hope you read it and enjoy it.

The class today was good, but I've been teaching this course since 1984, so it's a little boring. No fault of the instructor. She's great. It's just redundant as hell. But I have to take the course in order to be able to teach again.

My back did fine until the last part of the day. Told my instructor I'd have to sit out part of the class tomorrow--the part that requires being restrained.

The room is fantastic though. This hotel has thousands of rooms and only 47 of them occupied. So I have a mini-suite. Absolutely gorgeous.

12/8/08 Travel

Drove to St. Louis today. Will begin a CPI recertification class tomorrow. It will be weird. I worked for the company for 10 years, until 10/06 and I taught this class since 1984 where I worked, so it will be odd to have a "young whippersnapper" teach me. :)

And I'm so grateful my back is good. I'm getting off the pain pills, so I have to be careful of what I do, but that's okay. I'm in a real good mood about my back.

Went to my doc yesterday because I have a sinus infection. What a horrible time to be away from home, huh? But the hotel offers me sleep without having to take care of my animals, or without laundry, dishes, etc. So it's kind of nice being somewhere where people take care of you (for a price). Room service guy, Willie, brought me soup and grilled cheese, but threw in tea and lemon at no charge. What a sweetie!

Time for the shower, and then to training.

Oh, what I discovered about my column on examiner.com? If you don't post every day your ratings don't stay high. So I hurried up and posted last night. We have to post four times a week, but I'm going to try for more. I want to earn a little bit of money.

8/13 Hot tomatoes, thunderstorms, and the best dog in the world

Jan gave me wonderful fresh tomatoes and they keep popping open in the heat (yes, I do take them into the hotel room with me). So I've been eating the ones that won't last the trip. Not a bad deal. They are delicious, Jan.

The trip TO St. Louis was easy, the hotel was beautiful, the kids had fun, Quincy was well-behaved, Jill and Todd got there on time, both of them loved Quincy. All was perfect---UNTIL, the perfect storm appeared at 2 AM. Cut out power to more than 50,000 customers, including our hotel. The lightning and thunder woke me up, and Q just raised her head and went back to sleep. But I knew that if the power didn't come back on it would get awful hot in there. Plus we were on the 4th floor.

I didn't go back to sleep and it got hotter and hotter. Took a bath by the light of the computer. Packed by the light of my phone. Woke up Todd to help me carry my stuff down. When I looked in their room everyone was covered up, and I was sweating. Those damn Californians.

Anyway, I made it out of there and am now in Jackson, MS. Q is in a kennel because I have to work, but I'll pick her up after the meeting tomorrow and we'll finally make it home and to our "normal" routine. Can't wait. More later.

8/12 Fresh tomatoes and hot weather

It is absolutely miserable outside. So hot that I can't even enjoy walking my dog.

The good news is that Jan picked a ton of fresh tomatoes for me to take back to Biloxi. I'm thrilled about that. Have been eating fresh tomatoes practically every meal and now I have a lot more to continue that tradition. :)

Today the kids rode the tractor with Jan and a four wheeler with their neighbor Randy. So they had a great time. I picked up Quincy and she indeed did run around crazily for a few hours.

The kids didn't want to say good-bye to Jan and Tim. They loved their time visiting, and can't wait to go back.

Our trip to St. Louis was uneventful. All three of the kids (Kayla, Hunter, and Quincy) slept for the whole trip, and woke up three miles from the hotel. This hotel is nice. It's across the street from the airport, which is nice and handy.

Q just ate a half bar of soap. Can anyone say "more diarrhea"?

Jill and Todd landed in Orlando and we spoke to them. They should arrive a little after 9 tonight. The kids are thrilled. We have adjoining rooms which is very nice. In a few minutes we're going down for "cocktail hour" where the kids will have free soda and appetizers. We had such a HUGE lunch at Jan's that I believe the appetizers will be enough for dinner.

I have a new GPS. It is absolutely awesome. It also functions as my phone, so that is handy. My new toy is giving me tons of fun. Hope to figure out how to use all the functions. Blame Tim for me buying it. He let me use theirs to go to the vet, and I was hooked.

Thanks, Jan and Tim. I had a wonderful vacation. Now I just need to sleep.