So roadtrip number three was on Thursday of our week of fun. On my last trip to Vegas, I drove from South Carolina to Vegas in a van with "the jerk ex", one labrador, and three rats (you read that right). We never went beyond Vegas, and so, I have never been to California!!! I told James I wanted to go, just to put it on my list of states I've visited, even if all we did was cross over the state line and drive back again. But James planned for a better outing for us. THIS trip was the highlight of our vacation. We went to Death Valley National Park, and I'm not sure either one of us knew what to expect. No arguing, we both thought Death Valley was more beautiful than the Grand Canyon, hands down. Scenery more spectacular than any I've ever seen- you folks who live out there are SO lucky to be near such an amazing landscape. I was taking dozens of photos of the mountains as we drove by. We stopped everywhere, including Scotty's Castle, Furnace Creek Ranch, and Stovepipe Wells. Our day in the park started with an absolutely delicious lunch at the charming Furnace Creek Inn. Only the views outside the window were better than the fig and prosciutto pizza. It was a fantastic day with unbelievable weather, and although I probably never will have the chance again to visit, I would drop everything in a heartbeat to go there again. And if you live in that area and you've never been, wow, what are you waiting for?! (misc photos from Death Valley, photo of the Inn courtesy their website)
On Tuesday of our Vegas week, we got up super early and hit the road to the Grand Canyon. We had both been there back on our previous individual trips, but my first time there was miserable (read: ex-husband) so I was able to enjoy it this time. We took our time getting there and rode along famous Route 66 for as long as we could. We stopped in Williams for lunch at a diner that served pieces of pie as big as my head (we did not have any, just gazed longingly at them in the display counter). James and I spent a few relaxing hours at the Canyon, going to different lookout points to get several views. I do not want to sound disrespectful to Mother Nature, because although the Grand Canyon is beautiful, it wasn't the highlight of our trip. I do think it's a visit everyone should make at least once in their life, just to feel inspired and in awe of the planet we live on. Many many of the onlookers and photographers were foreign visitors, and I hope they enjoyed their visit. We looked at it, took photos, drove around the park, then headed back to the city. It was more the time we spent together on the adventure that made an impression on me. We were tired when we arrived back at the hotel at 10PM, but the day was worth it. (misc Grand Canyon photos, including one great nature shot of a deer peeing!)
Our first trip away from Vegas was to the Hoover Dam, and this was on
Monday the 13th. James was there back in 1991, and I was there in 1997. On my visit, I only stopped to take photos and stroll about, as did James on his visit. But my husband is all about discovering all the details, so we signed up for two tours, one of the power plant and another
behind the scenes tour of the dam. I have to say, it was very interesting, and our guide Frank Rivera was outstanding and very
comical. Apparently since 9/11, the tours of the dam are now very limited in the areas where civilians are allowed. Our guide said the Hoover Dam is number four on "the hit list" for terrorists as a target. I can't imagine the calamity it would cause, not only with flooding but with power outages for several states. Anyhow, that aside, our visit was wonderful and it was a beautiful day as you can see from the photos. We rented a convertible and even though the Dam is very close to Vegas, we made a day of it, with a side trip to Boulder City where we had a late breakfast at a local diner (forgot to get the name). We've included photos of the bridge they are constructing for a new bypass road around the dam. We were mesmerized watching the workers up there, and I could feel my toes curl at the thought of being up so high. (misc photos of our visit)
Here are a few photos of our hotel in Vegas. The Rio is an older hotel, but it was still fairly nice and as you can see, we had a large room. I've included a few photos of the room, as well as the hotel itself, and the view from out our window. We were up on the 36th floor, and of course instead of just a window, we had one entire wall of glass. I don't have a fear of heights, but I do get vertigo when I look down from way up high. We had a lot of opportunities for my vertigo to kick in at the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, and in Vegas I had issues with it not only at the top of the Stratosphere, but in the hotel room as well. The first few times I walked over to look out the window, I couldn't help looking down and then that slight dizzy feeling came over me. You would think I would just simply stay away from the window, but I couldn't pass up the chance to stare out over Las Vegas as often as possible. I just stared straight ahead! (our room is near the corner of the building, right where the red windows start)
Well here we are, back home again after our trip to Vegas. I am going to keep this post short, I am trying to catch up on so many things now that we are back home. I will post about the trip later this week. I will just say that we had a great time. I am going to spend today reading up on all of your blogs to see what I missed last week. That is, in between doing the mountain of laundry we brought home. Glad to be back, I will check in with you all tomorrow!! (photo of us at the Grand Canyon)
Well this will be my last post for awhile, as we leave at 6am tomorrow morning to catch our flight to Vegas. I just got home from my weekly Weight Watchers meeting, and running miscellaneous errands. I am frankly exhausted as I did not get any sleep last night- a combination of back pain, my husband snoring, and making mental check lists for everything I need to do today to get ready to go (instead of trying to relax and get some sleep!). I will say so long to the treadmill for awhile, as I do not have time to do it today or tomorrow morning. I plan to keep track of our walks while in Vegas, I've got detailed hiking maps as well as distances from hotel to hotel mapped out. I will record it on my chart when I get home. I have my trusty WW Dining Out guidebook already packed in my purse, so I pledge to stick to a healthy diet while out there (I lost 2.6lbs this week and got my 5% star, so motivating!!). I don't want to blow all the hard work in one week on vacation, that would suck. But, it's all in MY control- what I eat, how much I exercise, the choices I make. Most of all, it's in my control to have a fun and enjoyable time with my husband, which is my number one priority. I hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful Easter, and a great week ahead. Take care and I will be back on here sometime during the week of the 20th. (photo of Romeo on my treadmill)
Normally my Type A personality kicks in whenever we are getting ready to go on vacation (and oh boy is my husband a Type B!!). I start packing two weeks in advance sometimes. This time I haven't even started, and we leave in less than 48 hours. I've got my daily to-do lists going, and have been crossing items off left and right (cancel the paper, buy film, pick up dry cleaning...) all week. But I haven't started to pack clothes yet. I am having a hard time deciding what to take on this trip. We plan to do some sightseeing around Vegas, but also some walking around town during the day and the night, of course we will be in casinos, maybe take in a show, we'll go out to eat dinner in a nice restaurant or two, plan day trips to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon, a road trip to Death Valley, and a hike at Valley of Fire. Our choices our endless, and I'm certain we won't get to everything on the list, but I have to bring clothes to be prepared. The weather in Vegas next week is going to be in the 70's during the day, 50's at night. Shorts or jeans? Sandals or sneakers? Long sleeves or short? Do I bring a coat?? I don't normally have this much trouble, because we almost always go to the Caribbean or Florida for vacations. It's all shorts, shorts, shorts the whole time. This trip needs a little more thought put into it. But I haven't even made an attempt yet, and James hasn't either. Tuesday night we spent forever at Wal-Mart, last night we played basketball most of the evening, tonight James goes to play his weekly poker at a local bar, and tomorrow night is our last opportunity. Today I am sitting on my patootie reading, in between doing housework and trying to get everything in order for my petsitter. I suppose it is going to hit me in a short while that I have very very little time left to pack a week's worth of clothes. I think I work best under pressure, anyhow. (photo of our basketball goal in our driveway)
I love to read, and always have. I have sold, donated, and given away countless books, but I still have a small library. James told me the only reason we got a house with a basement was to accommodate my books (he was kidding). Since paperbacks are so expensive, and I don't always have luck at the used bookstore, I am very picky about what I read. Subject matter-wise, I will read just about anything from true crime to biographies to light-hearted romances to science fiction. When I stroll through the aisles of a store, I look for one thing and one thing only. The width of the spine. I like super long books, the longer the better, and the smaller print the better. More "book" for my buck, so to speak. Don't get me wrong, I've read books that took me one afternoon to blow through, but they aren't as satisfying as something that takes a week or more. I am just now finishing up The Executioner's Song, which is 1000 pages, and I started it maybe a bit less than two weeks ago. If I pick up a book, and it has large print, I usually put it back down because I know I will read it in one evening and feel cheated because it was such a quick thrill for the night. I recently decided that I wanted to read some of the classics, books I should have been reading in school but never did. I was SO bad about using CliffsNotes for book reports, I confess! Even though English was my favorite class. Last year before we moved, I bought Vanity Fair, War and Peace, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, and almost everything by Ernest Hemingway, but haven't gotten around to finding them in all the chaos in the basement since we moved. So this morning, knowing that I will finish my current read probably while we are on vacation (oh, I just never travel without a book!), I went to our Barnes & Noble in Newnan (see photo from their website) and bought The Brothers Karamazov, The Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables, and An American Tragedy. If you go to a bookstore and look at all of these books, you will notice they are NOT very small, in fact they are some of the biggest books on the shelf. The last book especially strikes a chord with me, as I was assigned to read it my senior year (1984!!!) of high school, but never even cracked it open, and instead relied on a classmate and good ol' Cliff to get me through the report. But now I'm a different person, and I actually want to read it, believe it or not. There are a lot more classics on my list, but for now I think these books will carry me through summer and maybe beyond. I will still sneak in a creepy but fascinating murder mystery in between, but my plan is to read all of these (including the ones hiding in the basement) this year, and to keep reading the classics.
I just want to apologize that my blog seems pretty boring. I originally set it up so that friends back in SC and family in FL could keep up with me, look at photos, etc. I tried MySpace and Snapfish, and I got bored with both very quickly. But now that I've become hooked on reading other folks' blogs, I know that people who don't "know me" are potentially reading mine. I know my posts are boring, because I stay at home all day long with five cats and no human contact. I hope it's a temporary situation, because in all honesty I do love working, and am suited to an office environment with a bunch of other cackling hens like myself. :) I love to spend all afternoon hitting the Next Blog button at the top of the page, and randomly looking at blogs. Even the ones that aren't in English, I can look at the photos and sort of figure out the content. I love looking at the blogs for both Lisa and Marie, and seeing all the art they are creating, and remembering a time when I was employed and would BUY art from them, ha ha. It was actually Lisa's blog that inspired me to start mine, I used to go on there to check out her latest paintings. I decided it was a good format for me, because I love sharing photos, and I enjoy reading and writing, both of which this blog site allows me to do. I'm inspired by the weight loss blogs, and even though my blog doesn't focus on my own endeavors, I do find that when I read others' daily ups and downs, it makes me feel like I am not alone even when I'm sitting at home- alone.
Other people have blogs about what they are doing. My posts seem to be more about my thoughts than my actual real life.
My life right now consists of passing the time every day until my husband gets home from work. Most days I spend reading paperbacks, painting, doing housework, gardening, and browsing the internet. I am not complaining, there is nothing wrong with my life, but it doesn't make for an interesting read for strangers who accidentally stumble across my blog! My husband says it doesn't matter if I go back to work right now, which currently with the economy is not much in my control, because I definitely have been looking. As long as I am happy with whatever it is I'm doing every day (okay, as long as it's not shopping!) and as long as I am not just sleeping all day and watching TV and being miserable. My point to this post is, I guess, that nothing interesting is going on in my life these days, so I don't blame anyone for passing on by my blog to find something a little more worthy of their time. I may one day start a daily weight loss blog, but even that wouldn't be interesting. Until I decide what I want my blog to really be about, I will just post about me and my life in general. Hope that is enough! (I don't know what photo to use for this, so I am using a photo of the new house in GA, where I spend my days now.)
Here are a few photos of the hotel we're staying at next week, I found them online. Anyone who watches poker on ESPN knows the Rio is famous for hosting the big WSOP tournament every year. I've been online all morning trying to find a website giving me the walking distances around Las Vegas. Our hotel is one of the few big ones not right on The Strip, but we would like to walk around Vegas as much as possible while we are there. We will have a rental car, but the traffic in Vegas is awful, at least it was the last time I was there. And walking The Strip is a lot of fun, especially at night with all the blinking neon everywhere. But I've also read that walking in Las Vegas is very deceptive- you think you are just walking down to the next hotel but it ends up taking a half hour because the hotels are SO enormous they use up a lot of real estate. We are taking our GPS with us, so I suppose we can just look up distances once we get out there. The only one I've found so far of any interest, is the distance from our hotel to the fountains at the Bellagio, a long 1.2 miles away, and it's the nearest hotel! I don't know that we can walk from one end of The Strip to the other, at least all not in one day. But we plan to incorporate as much exercise into our vacation as possible, and walking from casino to casino seems the most logical, and most fun way to do it!
One of the things I am doing differently for this upcoming vacation is thinking ahead of how and what I'm going to eat. I can do as I always do and say "Eh, it's vacation, I'm going to eat whatever I want" and come back home ten pounds heavier. Or I can commit to eating light and healthy while I'm out in Las Vegas. That's not to say I won't be zipping into fast food joints- we can't afford to eat all of our meals out in fancy restaurants- and that's also not saying I won't sample a legendary Vegas buffet here and there. For the last week or so, I've been making notes in my Weight Watchers eating out guide, which has over 100 restaurants listed. And I've been onto one of my favorite websites which has almost 600 restaurants listed. I've even looked up all the restaurants and food kiosks at both the Atlanta and Las Vegas airports, so I will know what to expect. My plan is to carry my notes with me while we travel, so that I will have the information I need to make wise choices, no matter where we may end up. We plan to spend our first afternoon in town at a grocery store, stocking up on healthy snacks, bottled water, and breakfast items like yogurt and fruit to keep in our room. If not, I would be at the hotel restaurant devouring bacon and pancakes every morning. Our hotel (the Rio) supposedly has one of the best buffets in town, and I always overeat at buffets because I want to have a little taste of everything, and before I know it, I've had three full plates! I've got to put it into my mind that if the food available in Las Vegas is something I can get anywhere, anytime- like a burger or mac & cheese or pizza- then I am just going to have to remind myself I don't have to pig out just because I'm on vacation. (photo of the Colonel from our visit to St.Maarten, 2005)
Last night I sat down and tried to decide what my goals were going to be for this year as far as my health goes. The most obvious places to start are my weight and my activity level. I have a serious problem with lack of energy, and it in turn negatively affects my mood and how I feel about myself and life. I've never been diagnosed with depression, but I have what I call "blue" days where I just can't get out of a "funk". On those days, my energy levels are low to zero, and I can't help but to think that feeling good physically equals feeling good emotionally. I've always loved to walk, either in my neighborhood or hiking at local parks or using my treadmill. My problem is I do it so sporadically that it doesn't make a difference in either my weight or my general health. Since joining back up with Weight Watchers, I know that if I don't exercise on a more regular, if not daily, basis I will never fully grow into the healthy individual I hope to become. I will be 43 this year, and my husband next year. Neither of us is at a healthy weight, and neither of us gets nearly enough exercise. We are couch potatoes every night. I've been reading the blogs by Jared (12 Million Steps) and Stephen (Who Ate My Blog?) and they are inspirations to me. Although I don't count steps as they do, I do have my treadmill to keep track of my mileage. At the bottom of my page I've set my goals for this year. Starting now until the end of the year, I hope to walk 900 miles. If I've calculated it correctly, it's a bit over 3 miles per day. I think I can manage that. I've set my weight goal as well, and although I will shoot for it as my ultimate goal, I'm not sure if I can reach that by the end of this year. But I'm going to keep my eye on it!! (I've included this very unflattering photo of me from just a few weeks ago, to keep me motivated!)
I wanted to write a small bit about my dog Garth. My first husband and I got Garth for Christmas in 1993. He was only a few weeks old, and we found him through a classified ad, "Free to a Good Home". He was just a mutt, a Lab mix more than likely, but it was a love at first sight sort of feeling when we met him. We named him Garth because my ex's name is Wayne and I'm Cassandra. Anyone who has seen the Wayne's World movies will get that joke. Garth was the center of my world. I have a lot of print photos of him, but only one or two digital pics, as back then I didn't have a digital camera. He was a wonderful dog, and I was like a proud mom who thought her kid was the cutest, smartest, most talented one on the block. He went everywhere I did, slept beside me in bed. When he was about nine or ten, he developed prostate cancer (my ex refused to neuter him) which we had treated and felt hopeful about. A year later it returned, with a vengeance as they say. It was a difficult time, this was early in 2004, and my ex and I had already separated and I, frankly, did not want to even look at my ex's face back then (still don't!!). But Garth still bound us. It didn't last long, and after doing everything we could for him, even taking him up to North Carolina State's vet school, we had to put him to sleep in the summer of 2004. After that, I decided I could never ever have another dog. Garth was one in TEN million, and I knew then and still know now that I will never be able to find another dog quite as special as he was. So, now I am the crazy cat lady instead.....
This is a photo that a friend sent in a recent email. It is so precious and beautiful, I just had to share it. I don't have much to write about it, I think the image says it all. (Click to enlarge so you can see it better.)
We're back in Newnan now, after a quick visit to South Carolina to check on our old house. We were surprised to find that a house 3 doors down from ours, that just went on the market last month, has already sold. It was a very discouraging sight. It tempts us to lower our price once again, which would make it the third reduction in just five months. While we were there, we drove up to Charlotte to have lunch at one of our favorite haunts, The Penguin. It made me happy with thoughts of all our other visits there. The Penguin is unique, and I don't know how to describe it other than it's a funky-dumpy but incredible-eats burger joint, with a tattooed and pierced and hip waitstaff who are dressed like they are headed to the nearest skateboard park, but are always in a fantastic mood, even when the place is packed. We got there at 10:45, and they open at 11:00. By 11:00 the parking lot was full with folks standing at the front door. Fifteen minutes after we got in, the entire restaurant was full, not one table or seat was available. Normally we used to go later in the afternoon, and there were days we waited over an hour to get in there, just milling around outside on the sidewalk with everyone else, reading the latest issue of Creative Loafing. But it was worth the wait every single time. James got a huge burger, "southern style", which means with chili and cole slaw on it. I got a Winky-Dinky, a big fat hot dog with chili and pimento cheese. We shared an enormous basket of hot and crispy sweet potato fries with blue cheese dip. Normally we usually get a basket of the fried pickles, but passed this time. I've had fried pickles in a lot of places (they are common here in the South, do they serve them elsewhere in the country??), but the fried pickles at The Penguin are a runaway for first place. By the time the jukebox started blasting KISS and White Zombie, I was in a state of ecstasy. I had trouble eating because my head was bopping up and down to the music. Lots of folks in there were drinking beer already at 11:00, it's just that kind of place, and I haven't found anywhere yet that rivals the coolness and vibe of The Penguin. Need to get out of Newnan and get to Atlanta more often!!!
Not much for me to post today, I am in the middle of packing up my SUV. I am waiting for my husband to call me and let me know it's time for me to come and get him. Then we are headed back to South Carolina to check on our old house, see if it needs cleaning since we have so many people coming to look at it. We haven't been to the house in about 5-6 weeks, so I'm sure there is dirt tracked in there. We are driving part of the way today, by the time James calls me and I get to his place of employment (half hour away), it will probably be 5:30 or so when we get onto I-85. And that time of day, on a Friday, in downtown Atlanta, oh my god if you have never experienced that before, well, it's a nightmare of red tail lights and a lot of sitting in one spot. Thankfully Atlanta is a beautiful city so I usually don't mind enjoying the sights while we are just cruising along at 5 MPH. We will probably spend the night in Greenville, or thereabouts. I filled the car with gas, I have a cooler full of water and diet soda, and a bag of snacks. So hopefully we won't need to stop until we are ready to crash at a hotel for the night. It's only a 4-5 hour drive over there to Rock Hill, but the last time we did it all in one day- over & back again- and James said that was too much for him. So we will split it up this time. I always offer to drive (when we take my car, he has a stick shift which I can't drive), but he says riding with me when I'm behind the wheel is more stressful for him! (photo of my husband's car that I don't know how to drive)
I don't really want my blog to be all about weight loss, but anyone who knows me has seen me struggle with my weight for a very long time. So, to be authentic and honest, I'm including two truly awful photos of me that are from very recent vacations (bottom- September 2008 at Cape Lookout, top- November 2008 in Dominica). This is why I use my cat Spider's photo for all of my avatars. A few of my friends know I started going back to Weight Watchers back in February, a place where I've known great success in the past. I'm making steady headway this time. My closet is full of clothes from sizes 12 to 24. Let's just say right now I am somewhere in between. My heaviest weight was 240, back in 2001. I've not gotten back up to that number again, but these photos show me pretty darned close to it. In 2003, I was wearing skinny size 12 jeans when I started dating James. And let's just say again, I'm nowhere near that size now but certainly aiming for it. James loves to take my picture, and being the size I am, of course I hate it. But I tolerate it because my husband does it out of his love for me. James struggles with his weight too, and this week we both vowed that once we get back from our vacation this month, we are going to make it a priority to start eating better (and less!) and start exercising more. We live in a beautiful neighborhood with little traffic, and I have more cookbooks than the local Barnes & Noble. We both know how to lose weight, so there are no excuses. I've watched James drop 40 pounds in just a few months simply by cutting out alcohol and meat. And I lost 80 pounds in one year by following Weight Watchers and walking 4 miles a day on my treadmill. So intellectually we both know we can do it. Putting it into practice is the true test. I don't plan to ignore this subject, so I will update whenever I have some positive words to post. I have weigh-in tomorrow morning, so I suppose this is why I am thinking about my weight tonight.
For those who personally know me, they know that I am deeply in love with my husband, and he with me. James came into my life at the most perfect time, a time when I was able to reach towards the hand he was holding out for me. My first marriage was so bad, and my first husband was such a slug, meeting James was like finding out there really IS a Prince Charming and guess what, he wanted to go out with me! James is an amazing man, who loves me no matter what size I am or what mood I'm in, loves me even though I'm a terrible cook and hate housework, loves me whether I succeed or fail at something, loves me even though I can't drive a stick shift or shoot pool well, loves me when I pout or smile or frown. He loves me even when I have trouble loving myself. I have no good memories left of my first marriage, and that's for the best. This time around is a thousand million light years difference on the happiness scale. James is friend, husband, lover, support staff, protector, caregiver, good luck charm, provider, cheering section all wrapped up in a handsome, kind, caring, sexy, funny, huggable package. I can't believe I was blessed enough to find this four leaf clover of a man! (photo of our rental car from our honeymoon in Key West)
You can tell when it's salad for dinner around our house (which is not often enough). I have
two very strange cats who love salad. I know that cats like to eat grass outside, but I suppose my indoor cats don't have that luxury. So Spider and General both have adopted the habit of eating lettuce. Their uncanny hearing abilities draw them into the kitchen whenever I am ripping leaves apart to wash. Spider has been doing this all of her life, General just started recently. Does anyone else's cats do this?? I have to pretty much fight them off to get to the lettuce, and I don't dare leave an unattended salad out on the kitchen counter because they will dig right in, grab a piece of lettuce, and run off joyfully with it. Of course, later that night, I find scattered shreds of green all over the living room. So, I'm not sure if they are actually eating the lettuce, or just playing with it?! (photo of General helping himself)
