February 3, 2009 – graciefabulous

Dear town of Punxatawney,
Yep, I said it, I’ve had it with your beloved rodent and his handlers with their top hats and tuxes? Really?
I can not, will not, handle 6 more weeks of winter. I want and need spring to be just around the corner.
Although I know either way, it’s really the same thing but still, this BS about seeing the shadow or not – it’s a sham I say.
I’ll take a sunny, warm patio please!
Get it right next year.

Thanks,
gt

Dear town of Punxatawney,

Yep, I said it, I’ve had it with your beloved rodent and his handlers with their top hats and tuxes? Really?

I can not, will not, handle 6 more weeks of winter. I want and need spring to be just around the corner.

Although I know either way, it’s really the same thing but still, this BS about seeing the shadow or not – it’s a sham I say.

I’ll take a sunny, warm patio please!

Get it right next year.

Thanks,

Saturday I sadly watched as ALL the trees in the yard were cut down. It was absolutely WILD to watch. With all the destruction, there were tree “specialists” literally trolling the streets in their big trucks with chainsaws and ropes in the back ready to work, and for a very high cost for sure.

It had to be done though… some of the trees could not stay up in their precarious position and there was no way any person without super human tree scaling capabilities could get on top of them with out go-go gadget extensions!

These guys just hopped up in the trees and started cutting away. They were more careful with the ones that could be saved but the ones that had to come all the way down – they just chopped away. It almost looked like they were cutting the trees out from under them and jumping down till they got back on the ground.

Also on Saturday afternoon, I went with my mom to bring food to some of her students families. She teaches ESL (English as a second language) and knows that most of her children and their families are very poor. So we went to Walmart and got some milk and cereal and sandwich stuff and some fruit and canned vegetables and took it around to their neighborhoods. It was amazing to meet the kids and their families. Some of the kids had suggestions of who else might need some food and they offered to share what was being given to them with others and hopped in the car with us and led us to where they knew there were people in need. It was very humbling and amazing to see the compassion of these 6th and 7th graders even in their own time of their families need. Even though I still didn’t have power back at my house, I instantly became very grateful for the wood burning stove and gas range and the ability to cook and heat up water if I wanted, and took away all the boredom that I had felt for the past few days…

The remainder of the day light hours were spent learning the true origin of the game pick up sticks, as that is what we did… for a very long time! The city will be picking up all the debris but first it has to be stacked up on the side of the road. Here’s the fort I made… it’s super tall, taller than me for sure and as wide as the entire property line. And this is JUST the from the front yard.

It seems as if most people have their power back, about 30,000 people in Northwest Arkansas still do not have power. MZ’s parents are in that #. They are at his house, it works out well because he’s in Kansas City for the Sam’s Club Year Beginning Meeting for most of the week. I know they are very ready to get back in their house and their routine. I pretty much hit my thresh hold of powerlessness after day 4… I would be freaking out right now without power. I finally had to give up and take a shower over at Zack and Lauren’s house. I had had enough with boiling water to wash my hair and then sitting in front of the fire place to dry out…

MZ and I went to one of the best Super Bowl Parties yesterday and it was one of the best Super Bowls I can remember as well.
Danielle and Randall had a couple of groups at their house, Tailgating folk and Work folk… Such a great crowd all around.
Nothing could beat the great food either – Randall is a superb cook, he made yummy grilled chicken, chicken wings, pork loin sandwiches with a super tasty oniony peachy something sauce and appropriately coined “heart attack” potatoes – they have cheese and bacon and all kinds of other artery clogging additives – YUMMMMMM! There were about 6 kinds of dips and chips, etc. AND AB made “Death by Chocolate” which brought all the goodness together!

I didn’t really care who won and didn’t have any loyalty to either team so I wore my Bears shirt and my Cowboy boots with the rationale that neither Arizona nor Pittsburgh played the Bears, so of course the Bears would have won it all, and well I have to support the Cowboys, why not? There were some pretty passionate Steelers fans and then some pretty passionate fans who would have cheered for anyone but the Steelers, I can’t say that anyone there REALLY REALLY wanted the Cardinals to win because they cheered for them all season long, they just wanted to see the Steelers get crushed. Oh well…

And really, everyone knows I really only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials! I was a bit underwhelmed this year. There were some good ones, but nothing I was super excited about. I did LOVE the Miller High Life 1 second ad and the Careerbuilder.com ad with the screaming woman and the Koala bear. Budweiser had some good ads as well, a fetching Clydesdale and then the circus pony one… the 3D ads were pretty cool too!

What was YOUR favorite ad?

All in all, no matter who won, after the week our community has had, it was so nice to all be together, warm and with electricity!
Thanks to R and D for hosting a great gathering!!!

Two weeks ago, MZ and I went to Paint the Town Red, a local fund raiser for the American Heart Association. It’s a great fundraiser for a great cause and I personally like it because they have vowed to never move the event to Benton County! I will always go to anything that makes that type of promise to me!
Zack and Lauren joined us at Paint the Town Red as well…

One thing MZ and I have decided to this year is to go to more fund raiser events rather than just going to a bar, this is good for a few reasons:

We would spend just as much money going to a bar, so it might as well be going to a good cause – especially if they are “open bar.”
I get to play dress up which is ALWAYS fun!!!!!!!!!!
Neither of us smell like lung cancer at the end of the night.
It’s a good networking …. uh network.
Most of the local fundraisers also showcase local restaurants so we get to try all kinds of local food!

So, I’m planning out the rest of the year and trying to find some good fund raisers to attend!

Even more exciting, almost $120,000 was raised which is 30% more than last year. That’s quite an accomplishment considering the state of our economy.

Day: February 3, 2009

I hate you Punxatawney Phil

Timbbbbbbbbbbbberrrrrrrrrr………

Super Bowl XLIII ~ 2009

Paint the Town Red ’09