You Can Call Me Nanner Puss

This is simply genius. There are too many remixes out there for me to even go down that road. Best Super Bowl Commerical ever. Ever.

But not Shuffleboad!

Annual cruise time came upon us quickly this year. The fab hub & I have been working long and hard hours. It was time for a break were cell phones did not work and computers were banished. We flew into Tampa and hopped on the ship and we were off to Belize City. We got to go on a zip line through the canopies of trees in the rain forest. I was really expecting to be scared and maybe scream. Nope, it was a nice easy zip through the trees. We floated on inter tubes through a cave also. The water was cold and I got gravel in my bikini.
I hit the pharmacia for mom and hooked her up with some needed meds since she does not have health care.
I had a drink of the day or three everyday. We hit Costa Maya and has beers on the beach. In Guatemala I got a cool little beaded chicken. When the ship was leaving many of the cab drivers and vendors sang and played music and danced as we set sail. That was really neat. That is the city's way of saying thank you for the tourist that are brought in.
We hit Key West and toured the Hemingway house. I have been to Mile 0. Key West is wonderful. I like how family unfriendly they are. No apologies and no desire to suddenly become a family destination. The people are great. You can get around on a bike and be fine. As the ship sailed we watched the sun set over the square.

London Calling

I really love London. I wish I had a magical red telephone booth to transport me there whenever needed. There is so much to say. The fab hub had a business engagement that got us across the pond. We had to take separate flights since I am a cheap skate and it was the difference of a couple hundred bucks but only two hours. Once we flew into Heathrow we took the Gatwick Express into the city where we met up with Jeff's boss. Boss loves to try new food. I love him for this. I love learning people through their food and community around it. Since I could not sleep on the flight over first things first was to get a power nap. Once I was up we ventured out for some of the best Thai food ever. The sauces were amazing. Light and tasty, not thick and goopy. The vegatables were so fresh. It was just what I needed to be off to a good start.
London knows about transportation. They have this down to a science. The Tube simply works. The buses are everywhere and they work. Traffic is a nightmare. The city is old, there are not intersections or round abouts--there are a mish mash of street converging on one another that you must navigate quickly and with care.
Jeff was off to work at the booth OpenNMS had at the Linux World show. I played. I saw Big Ben, the London Eye, Harrod's, Tower Bridge, and my favorite was going to St. Paul's Cathedral. I am still in awe. Something stirred and moved in me while climbing the steps all the way to the top in Prada shoes. Not the best climbing footwear choice, but hey, they looked great! When I got to the top of the crazy winding stairs and finally outside to view all of London I asked a lady to snap my picture. She said sure with an accent I knew too well. Yeah, she was from Marietta.
We went to an English pub for dinner. They were serving Mexican food. You know I had some. Indeed the enchiladas were super. FYI Guinness is served cold and they have no damn clue what a Tom Collins is but the made me one anyways and it was good too.
Whoever told you the English cannot cook lied to you.
We had some yummy fusion inspired food at a place called I Love Vodka. A great eclectic mix that was not forced together to make the description sound good. I had some wonderful Chinese food. I was enchanted by the food halls in Harrod's.
We stayed in one of the nicest hotels I have ever encountered. The Sofetel was amazing. One of the neatest features I hope to see more places adopt is that if you want the power in your room to work the key must be placed in a slot in the wall. Thus when you are gone you take the key and the power is out. They have Hermes soap. Seriously.
I love London. Fast city, amazing fashion, wonderful food, nice people, cute cabs and an intriguing mix of old and new.
I will visit again!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

After almost one year to the day it happened: The Pine Sol lady and her fried chicken have moved out.

When did it become okay to email in a resignation? It has happened twice in the last month.

At least I will not have urgent runs to the ladies' room due to the water fountain that used to run all day for soothing sounds. I will no longer be up to date on the latest gospel music. Join my euphoria and raise a glass.

Nuttin' But Strings was so robbed

Jerry Springer has become America's sweetheart in his role announcing soon to be has beens and sweet old tap dancing ladies. There was the young & sexy Elvis, the freaky twins from Russia, a whiny 3 year old that should have been booted long ago, the fire breather that could have been so much more, the opera singer, Sinatra and then there was Nuttin' But Strings. Amazing raw talent that was polished. Something that has not been done before in front of a large audience. Violins gone hip hop and rock and roll. Seriously. They were the only talent I would have paid to see. I would have laid down good money to see these guys in Vegas. America, you robbed them. Robbed. They should have won.

Work Stuff

I seldom discuss the thing I do 8 to 12 hours a day Monday through Friday. This week has been a week of anomalies. Monday I find out that a co worker who was off all last week sent an email at midnight Sunday and was off all this week as well. Great more work for me. Thanks.
I get a new lawsuit on my desk Wednesday that the incident occurred in 2001. The suit was filed and our insured was served while he was in jail in 2003. So 5 years later...I am investigating this loss. Incident: A guy sitting in his car with his girlfriend. The car is parked at an apartment complex and the girl friend indicates that she was seeing a guy outside the car on the side and pointed him out. The guy in the car shot the player outside the car. Fully resolved GSW to the jaw. I was cranky that plaintiff's counsel sent this crap to me. We insure cars, not drive bys. I called the policy holder and explained that his son's actions may not be covered by the policy and I was sending a reservation of rights out. He wanted to know why it was not cover and I explained the spirit of the policy is for motor vehicle accidents. I explained that gun violence is not covered and nor is there a policy rider for drive by shootings.
I started the coverage write up. Yeah, the policy defines "occupying" but it does not define "motor vehicle accident". I will not be happy if I have coverage cousel and defense counsel involved. Something that seemed like a fishing letter......

I have another one where a guy was driving a hearse at 4:30 am drunk and hit a car. There was a guy on the other side or the car trying to service the disabled car. He was dragged about a quarter mile before the hearse fled the scene. Six months later the guy died. He never left the hospital. The driver was served in jail in January. Can you say punitive? What about policy limit?

The deer hit from hell has finally settled. Amen.

It has been a long week. I hope next week is better.

Atlanta Gas: There is None

Last Tuesday I needed gas in my car. I waited until later in the evening and checked gasbuddy.com and found that the QT near my house has some gas. I figured the good people of Marietta would be at home making lunches for kids and looking over homework or watching the latest reality TV show. I rolled up to the QT. I sat in line for an hour and a half. The line took me behind the building, through the next door Bojangles parking lot and then back all the way across the front of the QT. Unreal. It is finally my turn and I go to the pump as directed. Here comes this stupid white Hyundai with middle aged white man in it. He tried to steal my pump! Go wait in line! He got close enough in his swoop in that I could not get close enough to get the nozzle to my car. The gas diva directing me told the guy to move on. He did not and made a fuss. I may have been yelling like a crazy woman back at him. Then the Marietta police officer stepped in and threw the guy out of the gas station. Another crazy driver was yelling at the gas diva that people were breaking in line and had ideas of how to better direct the pandemonium. She yells back at the guy, "Sir, I work at a gas station---if you do not like the way I am doing this move on to another station!". I love her.
You see, truly here in the Metro Atlanta area we have not had any gas. It slowed due to the last 2 hurricanes. There is also the smog situation here so we use "Atlanta Blend" gas. Sorta like a fancy regional coffee. Our gas blend is lower in sulfur to help combat our growing smog problem. Our hill billy Governor has temporarily lifted the call for only low sulfur gas so we are using whatever we can get to get the stations back to normal levels to get the motorists back to normal levels.
I filled up my car. As in 2 seats and very little trunk. Yeah, I need to pick the fab hub up from the airport.....since he packed like a girl I cannot fit him and the large bag in the TT. Back to the gas station in the FJ. This time I waited until 12am on Friday night. Who the hell gets gas then? Yeah, everybody. I waited in a quarter mile line, if not longer, another hour and a half. No altercation this time. No kidding that more stations are closed than open. I am so thankful I have a six mile commute and the fab hub works from home so this mess will likely be over by the next time we need gas.

A List for the D List

I love Kathy Griffin. She was at the Fabulous Fox for a stand up show.
The fab hub's schedule has been unpredictable so when the tickets went on sale I was not sure if he was going to be here so I did not buy any. It ended up that he was here on the night of the show. I searched craigslist.org, eBay, StubHub and a few others. Finally, I found a broker in Arizona that had a local guy here on the street. Dude, we got 2nd row center stage. The crazy redhead was insane and 10 feet from us. We had awesome gays in front of us. She railed all over Palin and I loved it. Did I mention the guy that we met for the tickets was named Smooth? Yeah.

Thank You Senator McCain

Dear Senator McCain,

I wanted to personally thank you in the wonderful selection for your running mate. Sarah Palin is perfect. I love how conservative she is. Never mind her 17 year old daughter is unwed and pregnant. Forget that her husband has a string of DUI charges in his history. Forget she has 5 kids, one of which she learned prenatally has downs syndrome but kept as God's blessing to birth at age 44. I can look past that she has no foreign policy experience and just got her passport in 2007. I understand that being a member of city counsel, mayor of 5,000 people and a Governor for almost 2 years is great experience. God forbid you die in office, but I think she is ready to take over should you have an untimely demise. I like the fact that she will take all the confusion out of my life by allowing the government to make decisions regarding my body given she is against abortion for horrible acts such as incest or even rape. Since her husband works for BP Oil it comes as no surprise she is a pro-drill woman.
Obama says that the personal life and children of your running mate are off limits. I don't really think the Democrats need to comment on it.
It is like Christmas has come early. Thank you so very much for this gift. I cannot wait to see Tina Fey play her in a spoof.

With change I can believe in,

Mandy