Woohoo!! Finally got a new baby :)

After tons of research, I got a new baby last night!



And, y'all, look how clean my desktop is. LOL.

It's Done, It's Done!!!

Holy crap, I thought it would never be done. The web site rewrite I've been working on for the last... 8, no, 9 months? It's in production! And without too many major glitches (those that we had necessitated a 2nd release, but no rollback, thank the good lord). I think I can cut my hours down from about 70 to about 60. Maybe even 50 if I get really daring and dangerous. W0ot!! Yippee Skippy, and any other silly expression you can think of, LOL!!

Lord have mercy. Let's celebrate! I'll extend the contest. You now have until this Saturday at midnight to comment either here or on the original post about your favorite Olympic event, and I'll throw in Jane Grave's 2 latest as well as the Hoyts.

Side note: Can you tell that Bob's latest comment to me was "Get all these books the hell out of here!" (and I don't believe hell was the actual word used, LOL) end side note

second side note: JB and Anne - your stuff went in the mail TODAY! see superlatives above :) end second side note

So... Added Blurb(s) From Amazon

You say you like Judith McNaught's Paradise? Weeeeeeelllll... I found a book in JoAnn Ross's backlist that reminds me of that. It's phenomenal! The title is Private Pleasures. It was published in 1992, but I got it from my library and it was fan-freaking-tastic! It's one of those books that you just don't want to put down, and if you end up having to, you want to hiss and growl. Yeah, that good.

I picked this one up by chance from the library as the storyline looked good. Holy crap! This book rocked my socks off! It isn't a suspense, but rather a contemporary, one that spans about 15-20 years, but dude, it's awesome. My Grade: A+. It's a keeper for me. It'll go right next to Sandra Brown's Mirror Image and Judith McNaught's Paradise. (NOTE: I'm not sure if this part of a trilogy or connecting stories or not, but I will be looking Ms. Ross's earlier books for sure!)

Blurbs from Amazon...
From Publishers Weekly
The struggles of a driven, appealing heroine shape this readable but formulaic novel. When young Cassie McBride begins working for the powerful Gallagher family, she hopes for a path away from her alcoholic mother and their poverty in Gallagher City, Okla. Miss Lillian Gallagher takes Cassie under her wing, teaching her about the art world and bringing her to auctions in Manhattan. But Cassie falls in love with the black sheep of the family, Roarke, and becomes pregnant with his baby. Thrown out of Gallagher City, Cassie escapes to New York, where she is rescued by Nina Grace, head of a modeling agency. Cassie becomes Jade, a famous model, but, fearing the wrath of the Gallagher clan, manages to hide her deaf daughter, Amy, from the world. Circumstances conspire to keep her and Roarke apart for 10 years, by which point she is a grieving widow and the wealthy owner of a San Francisco auction house specializing in Asian art. Despite an often predictable narrative, murky logic and a didactic approach to its art subplots, Ross's ( Secret Sins ) latest entertains, and her heroine invites the reader's empathy.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Pregnant, teenage Cassie finds herself destitute when her lover Roarke's father forces him to abandon her. She uses her beauty and a driving ambition to pull herself out of poverty and support her deaf daughter. When Roarke reenters her life several years later, she has been transformed into Jade, a top model. After his father manages to part them again, each marries someone else, but in spite of these unions, Jade's closely guarded secret, and even a murder, the lovers are eventually reunited. Although the final scenes seem a bit rushed, Ross competently handles the romance of lovers kept apart by misunderstandings and a vindictive family. Her second novel (after Secret Sins , St. Martin's, 1990) makes for light, enjoyable summer reading.
- Barbara E. Kemp, formerly with Columbia Univ. Lib.

Hey Bob!

HEY BOB!!!!

Guess what?

Merriam-Webster has declared "Woot!” the 2007 word of the year.

What say you to that? I say... WOOT! LOL




Source: Dear Author.com

Genius!

This is blatantly stolen from Shiloh Walker's blog. (Shi, you are so not Elementary Level... there must have been a glitch in the system *G*)




Look at that! We're Genius level!

I have officially lost my mind... aka A money tree grows in Simi Valley

It is, after all, the holiday season, and isn't that the name of the movie? Forget Brooklyn, the tree grows in Simi, and it's definitely a money tree. And I just chopped it down. In one fell swoop. We heard on the radio today that James Taylor and Carole King are playing together at the Troubador in Hollywood for the Troub's 50th anniversary. With JT's original band. James Taylor and Carole King, people. To. Gether. In a tiny room. It's this Thursday - in two days!! And we managed to get tickets! How could we pass it up? Ho-ly shit. This is why I work 60 hour weeks.

"Holy spend all your holiday money on yourselves and leave nothing for your children, Batman!"

No kiddies for this one, no way - no how. Grownups only. (The kiddies just rolled their eyes anyway. Idjuts.)

Have I said how much I love my credit card?

and how broke I'm gonna be? *whimper*

The Van Halen concert

Just sayin... frickin' awesome. It's like the last 20 years never existed. I wondered how they would handle the "Sammy years". They didn't. They just ignored them.

So, we got to Staples Center, and pulled into the shiny new underground parking garage. We paid our *choke* $25 for parking, and were inside on the floor, in our seats in less than 10 minutes. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Especially considering Mary J Blige was also playing at the adjoining Nokia Theater on the same night.


The show? Fan-frickin-fabulous. And can I say? Dave and Eddie? Both pretty ripped for old farts. (Whaaaat? I can say that, being as I'm an old fart, too!). The guys looked like they were having the time of their lives, and it was so fun. We couldn't help but wonder if Eddie had that kind of fun with Sammy onstage. Dave is still as vaudevillian as ever. And Eddie still rocks like anything on the guitar. Steve was completely enthralled with Alex's drumming, especially the drum solo. He dug it. Jeff just stared at Eddie's hands the whole night with this bemused look on his face. Kind of a matched set of bookends with his dad, LOL.

Here's the lineup of songs - not a Sammy Hagar song among them:
You Really Got Me
I'm the One
Runnin' With the Devil
Romeo Delight
Somebody Get Me a Doctor
Beautiful Girls
Dance the Night Away
Atomic Punk
Everybody Wants Some
So This Is Love?
Mean Street
Pretty Woman
Drum Solo
Unchained
I'll Wait
And the Cradle Will Rock
Hot for Teacher
Little Dreamer
Little Guitars
Jamie's Cryin'
Ice Cream Man
Panama
Guitar Solo (incl. "Women in Love" intro, "Cathedral", "Eruption")
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Encore:
1984
Jump

So, the boys knew about half the songs. Bob & I never thought we'd hear Somebody Get Me a Doctor in concert ever again, or Atomic Punk. We were stoked!

Poor Steve, though. About halfway through, he started complaining of feeling nauseous. We think it had something to do with the aroma in the air, if you get my drift. Then he laid down and promptly fell asleep (read: passed out). Luckily, he had gotten his souvenier T-Shirt before the show began. We felt so badly for him. At least he got to see the drum solo, but he completely missed Eruption. Poor baby. Jeff, of course, looked disdainfully down at him and said "What a child. Who could fall asleep at a concert?" Ummm....me? I raised my hand. (Side note: I didn't tell him it was because I was in the middle of 3 people and the joint was being passed back and forth, so for each hit the end folks took, I got 2. Needless to say, I missed about half of the Boston concert. Luckily, it was the entire 3rd album start to finish I slept through. Who's to say I wouldn't have slept anyway? What a snoozer that album was!... End side note). The concert was well worth the $150 per ticket we paid. God love MasterCard.

One last note about Wolfie. He totally rocked. He's really a fabulous bassist. And he did beautifully on the backup vocals. We hardly missed Michael Anthony. And Eddie obviously loved having him up there. But he's 16 years old. And in a very awkward stage. Eddie and Dave are looking very studly. He's ... a bit... chunky? Definitely taking after Valerie. Don't get me wrong - I love her! I always identified with her in One Day at a Time. But still. Poor kid.

Van Halen is tonight!!

It's tonight!!! OK, not the date that we won tickets for, but the night that we bought 4 seats for.

On. The. Floor.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Christmahannakwaanza to my children. Talk about an expensive gift! Youch!

I'll let you all know how it was. And if I don't get around to posting about it before Thursday, I hope you all have an absolutely fabulous Thanksgiving!

Lookie!!!

Look what came today!! Color me completely excited!! As TMTDF would say... WOOT!!!


And if that wasn't enough....

Guess what I'm doing this weekend? Neener, neener, neener!!!

Woot! Van Halen!

I just won Van Halen tix on the radio! SCORE! The boys were in the car with me, and we were on the way home from Yom Kippur services. They got to hear my name announced on the radio and everything. Now they think I'm the coolest mom evah (at least for today). Oh yeah.

Although, we still have to buy tickets, because I only won 2, and we were planning to buy tickets as the boys' bigh Hanukkah/Christmas gift this year.

I've seen Van Halen several times over the years, but only once before with Diamond Dave, and he hasn't been with them in 22 years. Woot!

And does anybody else think that Wolfie looks just like Valerie Bertinelli? Wow.

The Big Haircut!

Yesterday was the big day! We chopped out hair to donate to Locks of Love and Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. Pics are behind the cut!

My sister went first!

Then hubby's little sister!

And finally it was my turn!

And here we are!

OMG... I WON!!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE I WON AND NOBODY TOLD ME! I'm sitting here all weekend, bummed out because I thought I lost for sure, but here I won!!! WOOT! I still can't believe nobody told me, though. LOL


STROKE OF MIDNIGHT Finalists

Contemporary:
1st - When Petals Fall Anne Rigoulot
2nd - BIG Trouble Robin L. Rotham
3rd - Secret Reflection Jennifer Brassel
Honorable Mention - The Amazing Sex Race Julie Hurwitz
Honorable Mention - Liar, Liar Julie MenschWellons

Paranormal/TT:
1st - Burn for You Evie Byrne
2nd - Not that Innocent Susan Meier
3rd - Crime of Passion Holly Youngquist
Honorable Mention - Spell Bound Stephanie Mowery
Honorable Mention - To Find A Queen Nancy Liedel

Futuristic/Fantasy/Sci-Fi:
1st - The Captured Rose Shelli Stevens
2nd - Something More Than Sex Sher LeScott
3rd - Dream Traveler Adele Dubois
Honorable Mention - Eternally Three: Touching Perfection Lee Swift

Historical:

1st - A LORD’S OBLIGATIONS Elaine M. Powell
2nd - DANTE’S INFERNO Evie Byrne
3rd - THE VOYAGE Lori Schaefer
Honorable Mention - WHERE THE WOLF LIES Jennifer Begley
Honorable Mention - FOSSA’S DARE Sandy Storm

WOOT! and the art of Colloquialisms

So I'll begin this by saying that I love my hubby. I do. He cracks me up. This one was too funny not to share. First a little background. One of the benefits of my company is that after a certain number of years, they give you a free trip to London (where we have an office, so they write the whole thing off as long as you "visit" the London office for half a day to say hi to your colleagues).

So in August, Bob and I are going to the UK for a quick 10 day vacation. Then I found out that I have to go back to the UK at the end of August for work. My boss, being the cost conscious person she is, wasn't sure if the second trip was going to happen (it wasn't in the original budget - and if it's not in the budget, usually it doesn't happen). So... now the email exchange with hubby that started it all, then the rest of the evening so far...

From: Me
To: Bob
Subject: FW: London meeting

OK, I'm cleared for both the anniversary trip and the London
meeting. Woot!

From: Bob
To: Me
Subject: Re: London meeting

Woot?
BOB

From: Me
To: Anne, Jen
Subject: FW: London meeting

Had to share this. I was laughing my butt off. Love my hubby. He's so clueless. I was explaining to him that I'll be heading off to London twice in August.

From: Anne
To: Me
Cc: Jen
Subject: Re: FW: London meeting

LMAO! Men are so totally clueless. That is
PRICELESS. I can just see it...
Woot? huh?
*scratching head*
WTF does that mean?
Long pause.
Woot? shorter pause.
Woot. It's starting to click now.
Woot. Ooooooh. Woot! = woo hoo only different.
Got it.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! LOL

From: Me
To: Anne, Jen
Subject: Re: London meeting

Nope. Bob said it was a 1 step process. "WTF is that?" That was all.
LMAO.

So I get home. I share with hubby that I have made fun of him with my good friends Anne and Jen. All he says is "Woot!" Every fricken word out of his mouth is now Woot. I swear I was rolling. He sounds like an owl. Out of the blue... "Woot!" "Woot!"



Then came the best part. Trying to use it in a sentence. "Hey baby, wanna see my Woot?"

At dinner... "Dinner was really good. Steve, let's give 3 cheers for your mother. Hip, hip, WOOT!"

Says Steve, "Huh?"

Says Bob, "I'm Wooting for your Mom."

OK, see Bob is on vacation this week. That usually means lots of sex. Cause he's not tired. I, on the other hand, am NOT on vacation. But I'm usually up for lots of sex anyway. Last night, apparently, he tried to get it on, but I was just not into his... WOOT.