"THE FIVE THINGS" TAG

I was tagged a while back by my friend Lara, so here goes since I just need I quick blog idea until I am creative enough to come up with something on my own.

9 Things (that was changed to 5, that I changed to whatever I had enough material for - in no particular order)

8 Favorite TV Shows (I love TV, and probably watch way too much).

1. Gilmore Girls (only on re-runs now), but I still love it and watch it every night that I am home!
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Law & Order
4. CSI (Miami, Vegas, New York) Doesn't really matter - Does that make me a bad person if I enjoy watching murders being recreated, investigated, etc.?
5. Numb3rs (more crime investigation....I am sensing a patter here).
6. NCIS.....well, you get the idea. You probably could have guessed that one. And, Mark Harmon is actually pretty good looking for an older man.
7. Raising the Bar - a new show on TNT that just happens to star Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack from "Saved by the Bell"). But he needs a hair cut.
8. My Own Worst Enemy - The new show where Christian Slater leads a double-life.

5 Favorite Restaurants

1. Anything Chinese (Absolute favorite)....Asian Star, PF Changs, Pei Wei, or whatever.
2. El Mexicano (Salina, UT)
3. Macaroni Grill
4. Market Street Grill
5. Tucanos

5 Things That Happened to me Yesterday (or that I did)

1. Went to lunch at Subway with a big group from the office to celebrate a co-workers birthday.
2. Washed my car
3. Went Visiting Teaching
4. Changed the template on my blog.
5. Read my book in bed before falling asleep. I am STILL trying to finish "Breaking Dawn."

5 Things That I am Looking Forward To

1. The Election to be over
2. My sister Debra coming home to visit for a friend's wedding in 1 1/2 weeks.
3. Getting paid tomorrow.
4. Visiting my sister Angela and her family in Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving with my parents.
5. Going to bed tonight (Sleeping is my favorite.....I look forward to that ever night).

6 Things on my Wish List

1. A boyfriend/husband. (I ask Santa every year and nothin', but I still have hope that one of these days (years) he will pull through for me).
2. My family to all live within 30 minutes of each other.
3. A BMW - I can't complain. I have a nice car, but one day I would love to drive a black Beemer.
4. A "newer" house. Nothing too elaborate. I love the condo thing as a single. I enjoy the ammenities without worrying about yard work, snow removal, etc., but I would love a newer condo with a little more space, updated features and a connected garage.
5. The Perfect Body. Still being able to eat whatever I want. See previous post on this. Click here.
6. Free Airfare for Life - It is a wish list right. Most of you know that I love to travel....especially cruises....in many cases that airfare is just as much as the cruise itself. I could travel ALOT more if I never had to pay for airfare. While we're at it. Let's make it "First Class."

THE LITTLE GRASS HUT

I just received this email from a wonderful friend and loved it so much I wanted to post it here in my blog.
Also, I am way overdue for a new post and won't be finding time to post in the next day or two, so I am taking the easy (lazy) way out.

The Little Grass Hut

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for GOD to rescue him, and everyday he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements and to store his few possessions.
One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames with smoke rolling up to the sky.
The worst had happened! Everything was lost!
He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. "GOD, how could you do this to me?" he cried.
Early the next day he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was
approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.
"How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

Moral of the story:
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because GOD is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain, and suffering.
Remember that, the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of GOD.

"All things work together for the good to them that love God"
Romans 8:28

I MIGHT NOT BE STUPID AFTER ALL!!!

Sorry for all of the updates.....this is just me thinking out loud.

I have received a couple of messages from people that are actually having the same problem with slide.com and today my 2 posts are working. I can't figure it out??? Enjoy the pics while you can, I don't know when they might disappear. Maybe.....and let me stress the MAYBE, I might try to post the remaining ports this weekend.

Check below for posts from my trip.

OKAY, I GIVE UP!!

I have spent probably 4 or 5 more hours tonight trying to fix my blog and just when I thought it was working.........I was actually viewing the working slide show on my blog and next thing I know it is showing that the slide show is empty.
I logged back onto slide.com and all of my pictures are there so I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how the slide show is empty????

It is now 12:49 am and if I plan up waking up to go to work in 5 1/2 hours from now and being at all productive, I HAVE to go to bed.

I have some great pictures that most of you will never see because I don't know if I can bring myself to spend another 5 hours on something that I am too stupid to figure out. Maybe I am just a complete idiot, but Blogger and I aren't not friends right now. Nor am I friends right now with slide.com. I am hoping that one day we will be friends again, but I am going to need some time.
Sorry, but I needed to vent. This is NOT how I wanted to spend my birthday, so I am just going to go to bed now.

UPDATE ON POSTING FOR MY EUROPEAN CRUISE

The only conclusion that I have come to is that maybe my pictures were too large and there was too many of them for one post.
I have compressed all of my pictures and have decided to do one post per port city. Maybe I will even get them in order, but you probably won't know if I don't. (Give me a couple of days to get everything re-posted).

I think after two weeks back at work I have finally found my desk underneath all the piles that accumulated while I was gone, but it was all worth it.

GREAT FOOD

Among the prime rib, filet mignon, and king crab legs, there was a fantastic fettucini alfredo that they would top with whatever. I opted for the grilled chicken. It was served in a parmesean baked bowl.....Oh, I am hungry just thinking about it.
However, sad to say, but my favorite part of the cruise might possibly have been the "LOVE BOAT PRINCESS DREAM" dessert. It was to die for. It just happened to be on the "always available" menu and I believe that I ordered it all bu 3 of the nights on the cruise. I have to get that recipe! You will see my glass of milk that our waiter's knew they had to bring me each night with my dessert.

GREAT PEOPLE

(Left): My friend Sheri and I (Right): Jackie and her mom Mayumi from Hawaii shared our table with us

GREAT FUN

They had late night "Movies Under the Stars" on the Lido deck on this big screen. They covered the deck chairs with a cotton chair cover, passed out blankets and popcorn and also brought around a warm cookies and milk cart.
It doesn't get much better than that!
They also played movies during the day. We caught a few of them on our days at sea.

FLORENCE, ITALY

We docked in Livorno and took a bus 1 1/2 hours into Florence, or as the Italians call it, Firenze. Originially we were going to go to Pisa & Florence, but we ended up deciding to skip Pisa so that we would have more time in Florence. It was about $100 less and we decided we could use that to shop. We had a tour guide on the bus that talked to us the whole way about the things we were passing as well as explaining points of interest on the map for once we arrived in Florence. Her name was Patrizia. She was fantastic. We got to pet the Boar's nose that is supposed to bring good luck, see the Statue of David, Ponto Vecchio (the old bridge), visit the Duomo as well as many of the other cathedrals/basilicas, and last but certainly not least......we sat on the steps at Santa Croce Square to enjoy some gelato while listening to the music of 4 Italians in the piazza.

ROME, ITALY

Once again we had about an 1 1/2 bus ride into Rome. Our tour guide on the bus was Francesca. We were doing Rome on our own, like we did in Florence. The bus dropped us off at St. Peter's square. When we got there the Pope was out speaking to a large group. From there we took off towards the Spanish Steps, then to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and then back to St. Peters Square. At St. Peter's square we got in line for tickets to the Vatican museum/Sistine Chapel/St. Peter's Basilica. It was neat to see, but I felt like a cow in a cattle shoot trying to move through narrow corridors surrounded by thousands of others. Good thing I am not clautrophobic. I even got a picture of me by what I thought was the "Mouth of Truth." Rome was fun because I love the movie "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck.

NAPLES, ITALY

In Naples, we had signed up for a shore excursion to go and see the ruins of Pompeii. Our tour guide was Louisa. We had radios with earphones that we could hear her commentary while walking around. I learned alot on this trip.....you are probably smarter than I am and probably already knew all of this.
Pompeii was an ancient city that was burried in 7 meters (22 feet) of ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and then discovered in 1748. I think there are 66 acres of which 44 acres have been uncovered, or something like that. I loved that the busiest part of the ancient city was the Brothel that had erotic paintings on the walls. Most people could not read and so they had pictures drawn to show the patrons what services were available. Hmmmm??? And we wonder why the city was destroyed. Maybe not a coincidence??

MYKONOS, GREECE

After some pretty busy days we knew we would be needing a down day, so in Mykons we just signed up for a day at the Platis Yialos beach. We were on the Agean Sea and apparently the water was really cold. I didn't even test it. We only had about 3 hours and the weather wasn't real warm, but I got caught up on some reading and it was nice to get some R&R in.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Not only was our weather in Instanbul crappy, but so was our tour guide. He knew his stuff, but he was not a very good tour guide. He didn't seem to care if the whole group was keeping up with him or not.

KUSADASI (EPHESUS), TURKEY

ATHENS, GREECE

Amongst some shopping and seeing parts of modern-day Athens, including the Olympic stadium from 2004 we were able to go to the ACROPOLIS. I think it is amazing to see the massive structures that were builts centuries ago without the help of modern machines, etc.

DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES......

....The posting of my trip will have to be postponed.
I am soooo frustrated with that fact that I am not tech savvy. I spent hours yesterday uploading my pictures with my "dial-up" internet thinking that even with all the time that it was taking it would be worth it because I would finally have my post up.
I was using slide.com to create a mini slide show for each of the ports we visited. (I figured that would be easier than trying to fight with the blogger picture formatting for some many pictures). I created my slide shows and copied the "code" into my blog only to hit post and get all of these href & other error messages.
I will try it again tonight, but if anyone uses slide.com and has any tech support advice on how to resolve this issue, let me know.

Sorry for the delay.

LONG TIME, NO POST

I know, I know........ I need to update my blog.
Being out of the country is a pretty good excuse I think, but I will try REALLY, REALLY hard to get something up in the next couple of days, or at least by Sunday night.
Work has been crazy since I got back and I have been working late to try and find my desk through all the papers that piled up while I was gone. Then there is the laundry and getting my house put back together, luggage put away etc. that I have be working on.
Excuses, excuses.... I know, but that's all I have.

Stay tuned............