Secretariat

This afternoon, I went to see the movie "Secretariat." I have been so excited about this movie since I first heard about it back in May. Being a huge horse lover and fan of horse racing since I was a little girl, I was happy to see Disney take on this story. Secretariat was and always has been my favorite race horse ever - never mind the fact that his amazing Triple Crown run came a full ten years before I was even born.


The movie was very good. The acting was great, the camera work was really awesome and the horses were just beautiful. I learned a few things about the story I didn't know before, though I was a bit disappointed that never once did they mention the fact that Secretariat's connections also had Riva Ridge, who won the Derby in 1972. I guess it made for a more dramatic story to leave that part out. Either way, I highly recommend it whether or not you are a horse fan or have ever watched a race. It's more about the people than the horse, and still a great story.


Yesterday was a good day as I went to Retiree Appreciation Day in the morning and hung out for about an hour and a half talking with lots of the people I work with and taking a few pictures. I then ran a couple errands and headed home to relax and clean up the house.


I started reading the newest Nicholas Sparks book a while back so today spent most of the morning lounging and reading that before it was time to go to the movie. The book is good - it's so far pretty typical of his writings, but seems to be a little bit of a darker twist coming on the horizon. I'll let you know.


Tonight, Vikings vs. Cowboys. I don't think anyone will believe me, but I'm going to say go Cowboys in this one. I have my reasons! Since the Twins' season is sadly over (sniff, sniff) I have begun putting all my backing toward the Rangers to stomp out those stupid Yankees. My trip to the States is rapidly approaching, though it seems Carl will be here at some point soon too, so the trip is now up in the air pending his arrival. 


Thanks for reading!

Catching up

This week has been BUSY as I've been playing catch-up at work. Most nights it's been at least 6-ish before I leave to head home. I felt so good coming back to work though as so many people have stopped by all week to say they missed me and see how my trip was. I definitely can't stress enough how blessed I am - I love my job and my co-workers and my command!


Today was probably my most productive day all week. The rest of the week I've been scatterbrained while working on about 18 different things at once. Today I was able to buckle down and really knock a lot of stuff out before the weekend.


Tomorrow though I do have to work a little as our garrison is hosting Retiree Appreciation Day and I'll need to go take pictures of our folks working at the event. It shouldn't be too difficult; I hope anyway. 


I got my new work camera today! I'm excited. It has video capabilities too so I'm hopeful to start using that somehow. 


I've had a little bit of trouble falling asleep this week. I think I'm stuck on the cruise schedule still - I'm hungry all the time (thanks to the non-stop eating I did while on board) and I can't fall asleep till about 1 a.m. each night (thanks to our late-night partying -- lol ok not really).


Oh yeah, I did get most of my pictures loaded onto my Flickr photo site so please check them out! Right now, I do not have pics from the first and last days because I used my parents' camera and I don't have copies of those yet. 


Other than that tonight I think I'll do some tidying around the house. I am still cleaning up the mess from my washing machine explosion the other night.... did I forget to mention that? Yeah, Tuesday night my washing machine decided to stop working. It somehow collected about 50 gallons of water inside itself so when I opened the door it went everywhere. My basement floor was covered with water. I somehow have actually managed to fix it though by fiddling around, opening a door and letting out a bunch more water and fiddling some more. Next thing I knew it was working again and has so far the rest of the week. Fingers crossed it stays that way! 


My grass needs cutting, I need to hang pictures on the wall, my suitcase needs to be unpacked, and the floors have dog hair balls floating by again. Guess I ought to get started so I can spread it out over the weekend.


Thanks for reading!

Amazing Mediterranean!

I'm back from vacation! An amazing cruise through the Mediterranean with my parents and aunt. Oh, it was so unbelievably beautiful that I can't even begin to put it into words. We had a blast. So much fun. We were on the go pretty much the entire time. 


The cruise started in Barcelona, then went to Naples (we went to Pompeii and Sorrento); Rome; Livorno (we went to Cinque Terre); Nice, France (we went to Monte Carlo, Monaco); and Toulon, France (it was too windy so we couldn't go to port!); and back to Barcelona.


I just really can't describe the amazing fun we had. Laughing so much!! Eating and laughing some more; touring; walking; getting lost; taking pictures; meeting funny and interesting people from all over and from right down the road. 


I am currently in the process of uploading pictures to Flickr. Getting back to work today was definitely an adventure. I had 120 emails waiting for me and many people stopping by to see how the trip was but also discuss work stuff. It was busy, to put it mildly.


Tonight, my washing machine broke. Let's just say there was water gushing out of it all over the floor and lots of wet clothes everywhere. More to follow. I am just too tired to write more tonight. I'll post more about the trip and pictures tomorrow!!


Thanks for reading!