Inspiration Alley

My Kind of Traffic Jam

I've been stuck in traffic for many things, but I would have loved this one ... I hope the driver was alright though.

updated 9:07 a.m. ET, Mon., May. 19, 2008

MORRIS, Ill. - You'd need a lot of milk to dunk all the cookies that spilled on an interstate highway in Illinois this morning.

A trailer loaded with 14 tons of double-stuffed Oreos overturned, dumping boxes of cookies all over the road and the median about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.

It shut down the highway and backed up traffic.

Word Clounds on SnapShirts

I saw this on Diana's blog - a link to where you can get a shirt done at Snapshirts with a word cloud from recurring words on your blog. 

This is what mine would look like.  Interesting -- it pulled a lot from my book lists.

If you have a blog it's fun just to see what your recurring topics/themes are.

Travel Day

Uneventful travel day.  Flew Southwest which has a pit stop in Houston, then onward to Austin.  No problems, and on-time.  First time I've flown SW since they changed how they did the boarding, and I really liked it better.  You have an actual place in line rather than people sitting in line as soon as they arrive. 

Had some worries about the hotel because of comments left on some of the hotel review sites, but all is well on that account. Room is clean, front desk efficient, plus free hi-speed internet, lots of cable channels, free hot breakfast, and an exercise room.  Internet is not wi-fi, but still a very fast connection speed.  Haven't had much time to play, but did have time to check email and update the blog.  Tomorrow I'll be better rested and will spend some more time playing online.

Got the final date for my uncle's memorial service at Arlington Nat'l Cemetary.  He will have a full service w/gun salute, etc.  My sisters are going and I really want to go too.  Will have to see if I can make it work out as it is later this month. 

Roof Update

The roof is progressing along.  They've removed all the tiles and paper, they've put down the new paper and "dryed it in", and they've completed the wood repairs.  Apparently we had some termite damage in one area of the house.  We didn't realize there was damage, but we knew we had termites and tented about 2 years ago.  So now the wood has been replaced and the job boss said that there was no live termites (that's a relief).  After the wood the "mopped it in" with the tar (Thursday), so if all goes well, they should start with laying the tile sometime next week.

This roofing stuff is a whole other world with how it's done, and inspections needed, and the permitting.  I've been true to my normal inquisitive self and asking questions along the way, so I now can at least have a semi intelligent conversation when the roofing company calls to tell us something.

My cat's are freaked out with all the banging, and weird tar smells, so both they and I can't wait until it's all over.  Mother nature has really been behaving as we've had no rain (ok ... maybe a few light showers, but nothing major).  I'm just glad it's been moving along pretty quickly.

Diners DriveIns and Dives

Do you watch it on the Food Network ?

I've watched Guy since he was a contestant on the Next Food Network Star competition.  I was glad he won, and love both his shows.

OK ... so they did a piece on a Miami place called Skully's Tavern.  This happens to be pretty close to my house and we have never been there.  I didn't even know they served food, I just thought it was a bar and billiards place.

So anyway, after the show aired, I've been dying to go just to check it out, so we went Wednesday.  I had the dolphin sandwich and hubby had the dolphin dinner.  This was done just like in the show with the potato chip crust.  It was great!  There is a picture here at their website.  The owner stopped by the table and we told her that we came by because of Guy's show and she said that since the airing it's been like a 2 hour wait on Saturday evenings.  Since we went mid week there was no wait at all. 

The menu is standard pub food - burgers, wings, sandwiches, salads, etc, but then every day they have specials at both lunch and dinner.  Besides a soup of the day (which is pretty common for most restaurants) they have  potato of the day (which is how the potato is made) and a desert of the day.  The night we were there the potato of the day was done with a sort of horseradish sauce which was great - not overpowering, but definately horseradishy and definately delicious.

We'll be going back for sure, and I took a paper menu because it's close enough to the house to call in an order and pick it up.  I was checking out each thing that passed by my table, and I definately want to try the Fried Green Tomatoes next time, and I hear they have all you can eat ribs on Mondays, so that would work too.

Overall Great Food at a Great Price but then I knew Guy wouldn't lead me astray - now ... I need to find a reason to go to Sarasota so I can try the Turducken (stuffed Turkey, Duck, and Chicken) at the Alpine Steak House that he profiled last year.  Mmmm!

Ahhhh, some breathing room

now that the month is over, I can breathe for a few days. 

Right now, I'm sort of focusing my energies on the MSCrop4Hope that Jackie hosts.  It's going to be in November this year, at my favorite place Sebring, but we're starting early with the donation and sponsorship process.  We'll be in the Plantation Room at the Kennilworth which is the big room.  We once did a Sebring Fling in that room and had like 75 attend and we still had plenty of room, so if anyone is worried about space it'll be just fine this year.

I do some of the behind the scenes work with Jackie (because I don't really like all the upfront, in the limelight, talking to people sort of stuff).  We've been working on donations for the raffles and auction items and we've already received some fabulous emails promising some VERY cool donations.  I'm sworn to secrecy right now though.

This year is going to be fantastic and I'll tell you now ... you DO NOT want to miss this.  Visit the blog to keep up to date and pass the word to all your friends.

Brought to you by the letter T

as in Travel and Texas.

Yep ... you probably figured it out.  I'm heading back to Texas next week.  I'll be there for Cinco de Mayo, so maybe I'll fit in some fun too.  I really don't mind the traveling part, it's just the boredom part after I get back to the hotel from work.  The workday ends, we eat dinner, and I'm back to my room by 8:30.  This is a problem for a girl who normally doesn't get to bed until 2AM.  I'll have my laptop, but a girl can only surf the net for so long - LOL.

I think I might pack up some stamping stuff - maybe a few sets of acrylic stamps, some cards, and coloring implements.  I think that would be light and easy to pack.  Hmmm, now I'm thinking.

Posting a little early today since it's the end of the month ... and you know what that means for me - work work work and more work.

I'd go to this ...

If only I had the discretionary income.

Authors Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen and John Grisham will be attending a coctail reception in Bangor Maine to raise funds for Maine Congressman Tom Allen.

http://www.tomallen.org/free_details.asp?id=103

This is the first time I've heard of authors participating in a fundraiser like this and I think it is a fantastic idea - alright, so maybe it's been done before but it's new to me.  I know celebrities do fundraisers all the time, but I've never seen where the "common folk" could attend.  I always thought these types of events are usually by invitation only to people with deep pockets.  Anyway, the notice came out in the Stephen King news email.  I love seeing things like this where the fundraising effort is reaching regular people and they have an opportunity to attend events and hear more about a candidate.

If I lived in Maine, I would definately be there. 

Reading

I'm found some of old romance paperbacks by Tami Hoag this weekend when I went to the used bookstore.  Not my normal genre, but interesting.  I find it funny that many of the writers I enjoy started out doing romance - Tess Gerritsen, Tami Hoag, Janet Evanovich, Lisa Gardner, and my new find Julie Garwood.

Well, even though I've put off many fun things lately, I still get to read because of my commute and the car shows.  I've also kept up with the major reality shows especially Big Brother - I think Adam is going to get the votes, but I guess we'll know on Sunday.  This has pretty much been a season of twists and turns where you never knew who was going to come out on top, and this season other than James I really didn't have a favorite to root for - I still don't.  I thought seriously about going to the casting call when it was in Miami earlier in the month, but I figured it would be a waste of time since I'm not wacky, nor a fashion plate.  I do think I'd be able to do it though ahhh, maybe in another life - LOL.

The roofers have already had a delay and they haven't even started yet - imagine that - so tomorrow is supposed to be the big day.  I hope so, I want to get it off and done so it doesn't run into hurricane season.  I'll keep you posted, and I expect that I'll be taking pictures along the way too.

New Author

I found a new author to read.  This is Julie Garwood.  I read her book Killjoy over the weekend and it was great - similar style like what I enjoy - murder/thrillers but with a touch of romance - I'd say most like Iris Johansen or Tami Hoag books.  I dropped by the used bookstore this weekend and picked up several books to read and I expect I'll be heading back again this weekend to find some by Julie Garwood.  Apparently Killjoy is part of a series of books with connecting characters so I want to go back and read the others.