This is what..

Being fat, pushing 40 on 5 hours sleep, that ended 23 hours ago looks like. Mama is tired and waiting for her connection in Milwaukee.

To my lovely chauffeur for this morning, this is the best I could do on the bb.

Arrival Information Airport: New York, NY (LGA) Scheduled Time: 10 :50  AM, Jul 16 Estimated Time: 10 :50  AM, Jul 16 Terminal-Gate: B1

Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone

The Phoenix is finished!!

This part hurt so very very much!  But in the end it was worth it.

I want to thank Jodi at Accent Tattoo in Ukiah!  Jodi got to put up with my whining, crying, postponing, poking, and prodding.  This odyssey started months ago and now we are done and he did an AWESOME job.  He hugged me at the end of this session, I like to think it was because we entertained him so very much whenever we were there, but I am sure it was a "Thank God this bitch is done" sort of hug.  The kind of hug you give a kidnapper who was nice to you, but was still a kidnapper. 

People have asked me why I do this since I hate it so very much.  The response is, I love the end result.  Its art that means something to me and I get to carry it everywhere and show it to the world.  I absolutely HATE being tattooed, but when you get something this beautiful from it, well, in the end its worth it to me.

The phoenix holds so much meaning for me and this phoenix in particular, will live on in my heart and now on my body forever.  For those who don't know I will give you the reason for this phoenix. 

His name is A'lar, he is a boss inside of Tempest Keep in the World of Warcraft.  Now if the story stopped there I would expect to be called a super nerd for the rest of my life, but, it does not.  Let me explain.  In 2006 I was holding on to the last shreds of my marriage trying desperately to think of something that could save it.  In the end I realized that I just didn't love him any more and nothing I could do was going to change that.  At the same time I had been really wanting to get another tattoo and decided that I would get a phoenix.  The idea of the life you had burning to so much ash only for you to reappear stronger and more beautiful from it, really hit the nail on the head for me.  I started looking for phoenix art.  Later that year I started playing World of Warcraft.  In the following year, yep I was a slow leveller back then, I met so many wonderful people who helped me gain the strength I needed to light the fire to burn my old life to cinders and the strength to believe I could emerge from it more beautiful and stronger than ever.  In June of 2007, I was finally ready to raid with the big boys, and a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to come with his guild to raid Karazhan.  Off I went in all my face melting glory to raid for the first time.  Being the fantastic, wonderful, generous person I am, I asked if anyone needed anything from the city before they summoned me to the dungeon.  A player named Idaslapter asked me for some arcane powder.  No problem, I said and I skipped of to get it before requesting the summon.

When I got to the dungeon, there was Idaslapter, a female human mage with awful hair.  I traded with her and went into the dungeon.  Little did I know that I had just met D.  The man I was destined to be with.  The future father of my children and my reason for getting up every day no matter how shitty I feel.  Through typical MMO guild/clan drama I ended up in another guild a few months later and that guild was way more advanced than the one I came from.  A week after joining them they took me to Tempest Keep.  It was there that I saw A'lar for the first time and it was after I saw that you could get him as a mount (which I NEVER did see drop, freaking .0001% drop rate) that I decided that was the one for me.  In the last 2 years so much had been going on that there never seemed to be time or money to get it done.  It seemed appropriate to me that D gave me this as my Valentine's Day gift.  I love them both so very much.

So there it is, there is my story about my awesome A'lar tattoo!  Enjoy!

Forget Starbucks!!

Here is a shot of my own perfect oatmeal. Doesn't it look delicious? Sweetened with a few spoonfuls of brown sugar, there is nothing but pure awesome about this. Now if you work in a place that doesn't have easy access to a microwave I will give you some super tips.

I bought Great Value Quick Oats from Walmart.  I also picked up some fresh bananas, a bag of Emerald Glazed Walnuts Original flavor, and an $0.85 bag of Sensible Foods Organic Dried Apples. One serving of oatmeal is 1/2 cup of oatmeal, a dash of salt and 1 cup of water.  You then microwave it for 1.5 - 2 minutes.  Well i decided to try to use the hot water from my office water cooler since the microwave is in another building here.  Yesterday I used all the water the recipe called for and then placed my bowl inside a sealed gallon size zip top freezer bag for about 5 minutes or so.  The bag acts like a steamer and will help the hot water cook the oatmeal removing the need for the microwave!  Plus you can dry out the bag and use it to store all your add ins so that the pesky plague that is the sugar ant, cant get to it! The oatmeal was very soupy.  Today I decided to use about 3/4 of a cup of hot water and it was just perfect!  So I will list the recipe below with all the goodies I put in there.

1/2 cup Quick Oats
3/4 cup hot water
2 spoonfuls dark brown sugar
small handful of Glazed Walnuts
sprinkling of dried Apple Snacks
1/2 a banana

I would venture a guess that the whole thing comes in somewhere around 300 calories.  The oatmeal sits at 150 and between the banana, walnuts, apples and sugar I figure we added about 150 calories to it.  Here is the nutritional information for Starbucks:
Perfect Oatmeal (which is far less than what I am eating)

140 Cal

Brown Sugar Packet

50 Cal

Dried Fruit Packet 

100 Cal

Mixed Nut Packet

100 Cal

So all together the Perfect Oatmeal at Starbucks is about 390 calories for about 3/4 as much as what I am eating.  Also that oatmeal costs me about $3 everytime I go there.  My homemade version is about $1.50.  I am so excited about this that I think I am going to pack all these items for our cross country road trip!  You can get hot water at about any gas station in the country but a microwave, or at least one that doesnt look like someone murdered Rosemary's baby in it, can sometimes be hard to find.  This makes it a great on the road snack.

Until next time, happiness is a AWESOME bowl of your OWN PERFECT oatmeal!!

Its Been A Long Time Coming...

Well my darling Three I am sorry I have been away so long.  As the title of this blog foretells, there has been quite a lot of change going on.  Since I am not feeling overly verbose today I will just list them off to catch everyone up and then I will promise to pop in more than once every 15 days!  Also be sure to check out the Random Cool Shit page for my July 4th tribute.

1. Never let a boy determine a movie time.
1. Saturday our roommate MK, his girlfriend M, D and I went to Santa Rosa because Superstar MK's super duper awesome iPhone locked up while trying to install the new update.  He needed to take the phone all the way there so someone could fix it for him.  We went to the mall and I got a huge bottle of Satsuma Body Wash at The Body Shop I smell so orangey and delicious, for like 5 minutes but still!  I got a fantastic Vintage Grumpy 1937 t-shirt from The Disney Store for $6!  So MK has a problem with one of his eyes and we were going to try to see a 3D movie since we were in Santa Rosa.  So we went to the mall and the Apple store and then set about finding the movie theater so we could determine if he would be able to see it.  So we find the theater and the boys go in and talk to the manager but never actually check the movie time themselves.  They come back to the car saying that it was OK he should be able to see it and that the movie is at 7:55PM.  So off we go in search of Johnny Garlic's in Windsor.  We had a great meal!  I had a Asian Chicken Crunch salad that was ENORMOUS and D and MK had the America Kobe beef 1/2 lb burgers that were juicy and out of this world.  M had the Volcano Chicken which was great and not nearly as spicy as the name would imply apparently, though my delicate belly wasn't taking any chances.  We arrive back at the theater at 7:45 to get our tickets, only to find out that the 3D version of Airbender started at 7:15 and the 7:55 was for the regular showing.  D'OH!  So since M really didn't want to see Airbender but was out voted 3 to 1, she got her revenge in the end because we saw her movie instead.  That's right, I paid money to see Twilight. /sigh  Although it wasn't as God awful as the last one and there were some sick Vamp on Vamp fight sequences which were really cool.  I would like to petition the directors for more of that and less of Bella screaming in her sleep for the next two movies... PLEASE!
2. Scooter remains a California dog. 
1. There have been so many discussions about how we were going to transport both the dogs to SXM.  Scooter hates his crate and none of the airlines were allowing for 2 dogs older than like 8 weeks to be in the same crate together.  Never mind that both dogs together only weigh like 30lbs and that the crate is big enough.  After much consideration and discussion, D and I have decided that since Jeyenah can go on board with him in the cabin, then she will come to SXM with us and Scooter will remain in CA with Mike for at least the first 6 months.  This allows us much more freedom when making the drive across the US (more on that in a moment) and will save D from having to go to NY for 3 days before he comes to SXM to get the dogs all their certificates and what not.  Now he can just board the plane with Jeyenah as his carry on.  I am going to miss Scooter and I hope he forgives us and knows Mommy and Daddy are coming back for him.
3. The route to NY has changed AGAIN.
1. Redwood Valley to Flagstaff (14 hour pull that would not have been possible with the doggies)
2. Flagstaff to Moore OK - Where I will eat the face of a certain baby boy Asher!
3. Moore OK to Memphis - Yes we WILL be going to Graceland.  D must see all his cool stuff!
4. Memphis to Roanoke VA - Just a logical place to stop 4.5 hours out of DC
5. Washington DC - We will get to spend a whole day here!  D is very excited.
6. Philadelphia - Looks like only 2 days here and then we are off to NY.
4. My exciting new doctor turned out to be the same as all the rest.
1. Got my results and am less than satisfied that they continue to cling to the nearly decade old chart that shows thyroid function.  Suffice it to say I was WELL in the zone of warranting treatment but according to them I am still borderline, aka, fat and lazy go have a salad and an aerobic class fatty.  That's all I can say about that really.
5. We have started trying to get pregnant!
1. Do you really need details on this you cheeky monkeys? The possible due date if we struck gold this time is April 10th, regardless of what any Doctor tries to tell me.  I feel so sorry for the doctor that gets me as their patient.  I have done way too much research and am way to defensive about being a "big" mother that they are going to have their hands full.  I will not allow a pushed birth unless there is real evidence of fetal distress and not some OB who wants to schedule my birth so he doesn't have to be on call.  I want to labor AND deliver on my side for maximum spread of the pelvis.  Heaven help anyone who gets in the way of my birth plan and that includes family members :)

Well for the moment at least, that's about it.  I am sure I am forgetting something but I think I covered all the major bases.  Hope you enjoyed the update and until next time dear readers I leave you with this.  Take some time to think about the people who have touched you in your lives.  Reach out to them and say thank you, you never know how long you will have with them in this plane of existence and there is no regret greater than love never told.