MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We are having a White Christmas here today! But it's snuggly and warm inside. Hope you are all having a magical, beautiful, wonderful Holiday!

Love- from The Truan Family

Back To Harrah's

Hello all! Trying to play catch up again, I am so far behind on blogging it's ridiculous. James had to work tonight so I decided to post really quickly.

We went back to Harrah's at the first of the month, and the hotel was decorated beautifully for Christmas. We also caught a great concert there, Blake Shelton, who just won the Country Music Academy's 2010 male vocalist of the year. Harrah's has a wonderful theater there, it's brand new. And it was a great concert by a very handsome and talented young man (I say young because he's a whole decade younger than me). And he sang my mom's favorite song, "Some Beach".



We also got a good bit of snow during our visit- photo taken from our hotel room window. In the photo is the new tower of the hotel- it's not finished yet, but this will be the third tower now. Harrah's is expanding by leaps and bounds right now, I barely recognize it. I remember when there was NO Harrah's at all in Cherokee! This will be our last trip for at least a few months. We are like everyone else, super busy with the holiday rush, and of course at work we are both still drowning. Nice to have a lifeline to grab onto on the weekends!

First Snow Of The Year...Sorta

It's been really cold here lately, with hard frosts down in the 20's and 30's that have killed a lot of my plants already. So what better way to enjoy the cold than go even farther north. Saturday morning we got up and got on the road, first making a pit stop at one of our shuttle sites so James could do a surprise inspection of the tractors and trailers. It was in the 30's so I stayed in the truck this time and just watched. We headed to the North Carolina mountains, where it had snowed Friday night. We got to see some of the snow still left on the ground. So, technically, we did get to see snow!!

We had tickets to a show at Harrah's on Saturday night, and no this isn't a country music singer, it's Larry the Cable Guy! He just ended his show with a very brief guitar-picking session. He was extremely funny, more funny than I expected, and we had really great seats right down front. Harrah's has recently undergone a massive expansion, which is still in progress. They built a new theater (the old theater is now part of the casino), and now that they serve alcohol, they are bringing in big names. Mostly country singers, but current hot singers, not just old has-beens!!

Sunday morning it was up early and back on the road south, to get to the Falcons/Buccaneers game. This is the one game of the year where I don't cheer for Atlanta, but instead throw on my Tampa Bay gear and scream for my homeboys. You can take me out of Florida, but you can't take the Florida out of me. It makes it hard, with both Atlanta and TB being in the same division, but I am okay being a Falcons fan for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, my Bucs lost 27-21, after blowing a chance on the 1 yard line to score on a 4th down with just a few minutes left in the game. They should have won 28-27!!

James and I ended the afternoon with coffee and people-watching at the CNN center, which I still find very cool no matter how many times we go there. As the football game was letting out, the Hawks (basketball team) were getting ready to play an hour later so fans were showing up for that game. We waited awhile before heading down to the train, to let the crowds die down. Thank goodness for the Starbucks kiosk!!

How We Spend Halloween In The South

I promised myself I was going to start back on the blog regularly, so what better way than to talk about the weekend. James and I always buck the norm and do our own thing, and Halloween was no different. Instead of hanging ghosts in the trees and setting up fake headstones in the front yard, we hopped in the car Sunday morning and headed across the state line to Talladega Superspeedway for the NASCAR race! I didn't realize we lived so close by, but it was only 90 miles away.



We love NASCAR, but usually don't get to the races very often. Our main man is Tony Stewart! I am not sure why James pulls for him, but I do because he's so sexy. We had to stop by the trailer and load up on Tony Stewart gear.



James scored free tickets for us, down on the 5th or 6th row. While that might be the best seats at a Justin Bieber concert, at a NASCAR race you really want to sit up high so you can see the whole track. We could only see the cars heading out of the last turn and coming down the straightaway right in front of us- and then they were a complete blur. And we were sitting right in front of Tony's pit stall! But, it was actually pretty awesome to sit down there, and when the cars would go by at almost 200 miles an hour, the "breeze" was so strong it was knocking baseball caps off everyone. Not to mention we ended up covered in black tire dust. I opted not to wear earplugs, and if you have never heard one of these vehicles up close and personal, it is louder than a jet engine!



Unfortunately for Tony, he had a tire go down in the very early moments of the race, and stayed 1 to 2 laps behind for almost the entire race. It made it a bit less exciting for us, since he was never able to catch up. James, who rented headsets and a scanner (below), was able to listen to the pit crews and drivers talking to each other, as well as the PRN broadcast. Tony finally got back on the lead lap at the end of the race, only to get caught up in a big wreck on the last lap.



And of course, we can never go anywhere without being reminded of work! We had a number of trailers dropped at Talladega, with food for the race track. No complaints, as "work" is the only reason we can enjoy the lifestyle that we do!

I will blog more very soon!

Still Alive!!

Oh my gosh, yes I'm still alive! Just SUPER busy working 12+ hours a day, and it is going to continue on into next year while we go through our system conversion at work. I hope to get back to blogging as soon as I can, I miss it a great deal, and I have lots of vacation photos to share because I am SO behind. Catch up with you SOON!

(Photo from Cozumel on our cruise two weeks ago.)

Happy Birthday Granny!

Well it is Labor Day, and I am off from work today, so I am going to make a great effort to get caught up on the blog for the 3-4 of you who actually still read it (I think just family members at this point). I am going to work my way backwards on all our trips, starting with this weekend. We were in Knoxville Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we met James' sisters and their families, where we visited one of our customers' newest locations, in Knoxville (Newk's). We all had a nice dinner of pizzas, salads, and sandwiches, and then all bowled for a few hours. Everyone had a lot of fun hopefully.

James and I were staying out in West Knoxville, and our hotel was surprisingly quiet that Saturday evening. That's because everyone staying there was at the University of Tennessee's home opener. UT won 50-0 against UT-Martin. Smooth sailing for the first game of the year for the Vols. Sadly it was not on TV, so we weren't able to watch any of it. The next morning we ate at the cute little place below, Mimi's Cafe, which was decorated inside as though it were an establishment in New Orleans. Very cute. The food was good as well, and we brought home a free package of their gigantic homemade muffins, because James did a phone survey while we were still sitting in the restaurant.

But Sunday afternoon was the real purpose of the visit with the family, to celebrate the 93rd birthday of James' grandmother Juanita. I put James to work right away once we got to his parents' house, digging up bulbs which his mom said I could have. I brought home iris, daffodils, peonies, and day lilies, as well as tomatoes and green peppers from their garden. We brought home a few antiques from their shed as well, which we plan to clean up and display in our own home. Then it was time to eat!! James' mom Carol fixed a wonderful dinner for all 12 of us, which included chicken casserole, baked pasta, okra, beans, and lots of great food which we all enjoyed.

Granny received a lot of nice gifts, including gift cards, candles, CD's, and a spinner for her garden. We all indulged in coconut cream pie, red velvet cake, and ice cream while we sang Happy Birthday and of course, MANY MORE for Granny! After that, everyone went outside to pick pears from the trees in the yard (I plan to make pear sauce with mine like I did the last time I brought home my bounty.) The weather was gorgeous, in fact they had a record low in Knoxville that morning, 52. Fall is definitely coming soon. And the Truan house is a perfect place to enjoy it with everyone.

Comments

I'm at work right now, so this is a quick note. I have put the comments back on my blog, I got reports from others that when I locked it down, they could not leave comments at all. So I will just accept the fact that I am going to get spam comments, and I will just delete them, for the waste of space that they are!!

Working about 15 hours of OT this week, hope to blog "for real" over the weekend!! Take care all!

Where Did July Go??

Oh my goodness, time is just zipping by, and I haven't blogged "for real" in it seems like a million years. I have trips from May and June I haven't even posted about, and now July is about gone! I continue to work at the office about 10-15 extra hours every week, and I promise I only sit down at the home computer for about five minutes a week, enough to delete all the 300 junk emails from my inbox. I continue to neglect the homefront in all areas- my vegetable plants have withered away, and I am looking out the window now to see a sadly disappointed hummingbird hovering around the empty feeder. I'm surprised we have any clean underwear, I stay so far behind on the housework.

But I do not complain about work, I simply apologize for both of my blogs drying up like my flowers out front are doing. I love my job, and I work at it with much enthusiasm and pride, and in the back of my mind I am just happy to know that with every hour of overtime worked, my 401K grows by that much more. James and I are devoted to our company, as you can see from the photo above- an afternoon on the Florida trip briefly interrupted by very important business. At least it was a scenic background.

Perhaps I will find a quiet few hours on Sunday to catch up, because in no time at all, we will be heading off to the Caribbean for our (mostly) yearly cruise, and I will have tons of photos from that I'm sure.

And I am going to have to lock down my comments to only those who are members of the blog, I am tired of coming on here and erasing dozens of spam comments. So sorry for the inconvenience, for the 3 or 4 of you who still read the blog.

Cheers, and I will catch up on here as soon as I can!!!!!!!!!

Stop It!!

Oh my crap, does anyone know how to stop these crazy spam comments on the blog? These people are making me nuts, I am spending more time deleting their stupid wasteful comments than I am reading actual ones from friends and family. I do not want to put restrictions on here, but come on people, stop leaving comments that are junk!!

In other more pleasant news, please see the photo below from our trip to Florida last month. Here is proof that yes, there is still beautiful crystal clear water and beaches on the Gulf! Please visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the Who?

No, I haven't blogged yet about our trip to Florida, but here is just one photo I wanted to share today, because it makes me laugh. From our family outing to Tarpon Springs on our last day there. James pointed it out, we are always on the look out for crazy signs.

I've never met a public sponge. Or have I? Hhhmmm.

Go here to learn about Tarpon Springs.

Jessica and Justin

We had a lot of fun on Monday, our day off from work for the holiday. James' niece Jessica, and her fiance Justin came to visit us for the day. Although they both live in Knoxville, with a menagerie almost as large as ours, Justin is currently in Atlanta. He's interning with a large accounting firm in downtown, and staying at the dorms at Emory University. Jessica is on break from her massage therapy school right now, and was down to visit with him.

They made the hour trek south to Newnan to see us, and we had a great day with them. We gave them a "quick" tour of downtown Newnan. Quick because downtown is a one-block square wrapped around the old courthouse. We had lunch at our favorite destination where we take all of our guests- The Redneck Gourmet.



Then we all went bowling, where we managed to squeeze in four games in two hours. Jessica and Justin both bowled their personal high scores, while James put us all to shame, and then showed off his famous between-the-legs shots. James and I used to bowl a lot when we were dating, and in fact James bowled in a league when we were first married. Now we bowl here and there, but not regularly. But we had so much fun with Jessica and Justin on Monday, James and I went bowling again last night! And this morning I bought my own pair of bowling shoes online! After all, my hubby the semi-pro has his own shoes and ball, I'm going to have to start keeping up with him if we go more often.

We hope that Jessica and Justin will come visit us again. They are getting married next summer, and they have been together for a few years now. We enjoyed being with them and they were great to hang out with! We just hope they enjoyed hanging out with old farts like us!

(Apologies for my bare feet, I didn't realize they would show when I took this photo!!!)

Happy 4th!

Just a quick Happy 4th of July to everyone! We are enjoying our three day weekend at home. James has been busy both yesterday and today, painting the garage with his famous black and white racing flag design. I have had a completely lazy weekend of shopping, working on my tan, and coloring my hair almost black- my natural color that I haven't seen in decades! Not sure it's very flattering, but eh, I wanted to do something different.

Tomorrow James' niece Jessica and her husband-to-be Justin will be here for the day to visit. Justin is interning this summer with a company in Atlanta, and Jessica is down for the week to spend time with him. We will probably drive them around Newnan, take them by the place of business, and settle in for lunch or dinner at a local restaurant. We should have fun and anticipate seeing them and spending the day with them.

No fireworks in the plans for us tonight, except what we can see off our back deck that our neighbors are shooting off. In Atlanta they have the biggest fireworks show in the Southeast, but also the biggest crowds as well. Not for us.

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday and has a great time tonight!

Back In Business!

Hi all! I'm back on the blog after some technical difficulties. I am way behind on posts, but hope to catch up this week. I was in the middle of posting from Memorial Weekend when I got sidetracked, that's how badly I'm behind!

I was having issues on the blog, you may or may not have noticed. My fun pictures and links on my sidebar had all disappeared. I finally have figured out the problem and fixed it, so everything is back in place again. Apparently over on my Google account, in my photo albums, several weeks ago I "locked" my albums to make them private and require permission to view them. I guess that is where Blogger is pulling the photos from, because when I locked the albums, Blogger didn't have access to the photos and removed them all from my blog. Who knew! But, I figured it out tonight and unlocked everything.

James and I just got back from a week in Florida (above) and a nice visit with my folks, so I will post photos from there shortly, as soon as I finish up my backlog of other posts.

Chat with you all soon!

Priorities

So here is how our Sunday went. First we stopped at the farm and feed store, where we got five bags of deer corn, five bags of bird seed, and a new cat toy. Then next it was the pet store, where we bought two bags of cat food, and a new bird feeder. Then, finally, we got to Publix to buy our groceries for the week.....

Tuscany In Atlanta

Today we were back up in Atlanta, in the Dunwoody and Sandy Springs area, where we had to pick up our wedding rings from a jeweler (more later). It was lunch time when we got up there, so we stopped at Brio. Yes, Brio is a chain restaurant, but for Italian food just a step above the very average Olive Garden or Carrabba's, give this "Tuscan grille" a try.





This particular location, in the Perimeter area, features outdoor seating looking out over a small pond. Lots of Canada geese with their young ones all gliding across the water, and a huge heron flew overhead at one point. But the highlight for me was the family of ducks- mom, dad, and these oh-so-cute fuzzy babies (not my cutely manicured feet), who were all waddling up and down the patio, hoping for crumbs. I'm not sure James, who is always thinking about food safety, really enjoyed having the wildlife so close to his brunch. But I loved them.





We had a wonderful meal, with the beautiful scenery and perfect weather to enjoy. The restaurant even had several bocce ball courts outside. I confess, I'm Italian, but I don't know how to play. I'm sure my grandfather, who came over here through Ellis Island, probably played.





And so, here is proof of how the other half lives, and how I knew we were in the hoity-toity section of ATL. Below, I thought this was perhaps an enormous financial institution like a swanky bank or insurance company, or at least some very fancy offices. No, it's self storage. If you don't believe me, see the photo below this. I have never seen a "self storage" center that looked like this! We have the long row of concrete barracks with pull down garage doors in our neck of the woods.





And we came home to find our first lily of the season has bloomed. If you read my blog last year, you know I planted A LOT of bulbs, and I had a dozen variety and different colors of lilies in our front yard. I can't wait to have more blooming soon.



And so to the reason for our trip way up to that part of the city. Yesterday we had to take my engagement ring to get it repaired, as the part of the ring that holds the diamond to the band had broken in three different places a few weeks ago. Well, as the commercial goes, "He went to Jared". When James got my engagement ring, and we got our wedding rings, we got them at Jared. I just want to brag on the company, because not only did they fix my engagement ring in just a few hours for free, they also fixed a break in James' wedding band, and they kept my wedding ring as well- and they put a new coat of rhodium on all three- all of this for free. All three rings look as shiny and brand new as the day we got them back in 2005.

I wanted to share this top quality service we received, and to show how Jared stands by their product and their customers. I can't ever see us going to a "mall" jewelry store. This is just one story I have to praise Jared; I could tell you the one about how hard they worked to call every store across the country just to get this particular wedding band for me- and how they let me "borrow" another ring until mine came in. Customer service, A++ from me!

Take Me Out...

To the ballgame of course! Saturday we went to our first Braves game for 2010. We took the train up into the city and our friend David picked us up, where we headed to Midtown to our favorite hamburger joint the Vortex. Then David did some superb driving on some back roads to get us over to Turner Field, where James had already scored us a discounted parking pass.



The guys were hoping to catch some foul balls, but nothing ever came our way. The Braves were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks all weekend. At the entrance to the ballpark, there were about 100 people there protesting with signs and handouts. They were protesting the new immigration policies in Arizona. I was actually sort of surprised. I didn't know if they were local people in support of the protest, or people who had travelled from Arizona in order to stand out there all weekend while the Dbacks were in town.





The Braves did well last year, almost making it into the post season. This year they've started off horribly, and Saturday night they got stomped 11-1. We stayed until the end though. David is a huge Braves fan, and I don't think we could have pried him out of his seat, even though the outcome was hopelessly not in the Braves' favor.





It was a long night, and I got tired. David dropped us off at a train station, then by the time we got to the truck and got home, it was after midnight. I was whooped. But we had a great time. The baseball season is long, and I'm sure we'll go to another game later this year. We had good seats and it was a good time to share with a friend. Come on Braves, get your act together and let's have a winning send off for longtime coach Bobby Cox's last season! Okay, yeah sorry, baseball they call the "coach" a manager. Why is that? Why can't he be a coach just like in all other sports.....??