Saturday - July 29th, 2006

I know it's been awhile. Since right before vacation. I must express my disappointment. The vacation was just too damn short. It came and went so fast. I almost feel like it didn't happen. I made a huge mistake in including my sister and my niece. It changed the whole mood and I just feel totally cheated. My time with my best friend was great but I know it could have been so much better had I left my sister and niece at home. A hard lesson learned. The place we stayed at was great. The condo building itself was beach front. But our condo was street side. I thought I would be totally disappointed about that but I wasn't. The place was nice. And we only had to walk down the hall to the back of the building to the pool and the beach. I would stay there again. The draw backs were the weather. We had some long periods of rain. There was some construction just down from our building affecting the flow of traffic. And then my sister and my niece. Other than that I loved the time spent with my best friend. I just wish It had been longer and it would have been just her and I. We didn't have as much time to relax like last year because of trying to please the other two people. Big mistake. Ok enough dwelling on that we can't go back and redo. But I learned my lesson. And I do have some good memories from the trip.

My best friend gets married in less than a month. I am not sure what is going through her head right now. I am nervous for her. She is so much in love. It is going to be a big change for her. A change she didn't expect to be making at this time in her life. With her own two kids grown now and on their own. She is gaining a young stepson and a new way of life. But this is what she wants and I am happy for her. And she has basically been living with her man and his son for awhile now so she knows what is ahead. I can tell she has changed over the last year and is totally committed to her new life. I think this next year will be a total awakening for her in a lot of ways. And she is ready. I just don't want her to compromise herself for her new life. This is also her time in life to go for what she truly wants. Because she has a supportive man. She just needs to remember that she can now truly go for what she wants and still have a good life with J and C. I want the best of everything for her.

The wedding is going to be exciting. I think she is truly getting the wedding of her dreams. From the dress to the location ( aside from not being in Florida ) It will be beach front ( Lake front to be exact.) And I pray for a beautiful day weather wise. And I will be there standing beside her when she makes her new life commitment.

Change of subject. I didn't get my summer leave from work. Or haven't yet anyway. I had to go right back to work when I got back from vacation. It has not made me happy. I have been working my butt off on a new contract we were awarded. It is a two part deal. We are just about finished with the first part of it. That part is Due Friday August 4th. And I think we are going to finish it ahead of time. It's looking like maybe Wednesday at the latest. We have had a lot of good help from other departments. We are very grateful. The second part was due to start the middle to end of August. But the boss said they might push that up to start right after the delivery of the first part. Which would be GREAT for a couple reasons. We could finish it up long before the second due date and then we might be able to take some much needed time off the last few weeks of August. Before the next contract is due to start the first or second week of September. The second part isn't as big as the first part so should take much less time. We did the first part in around 16 or 17 working days. So I am praying the customer wants us to start right away so we can get it done and I can have some time off. And it will fall right before the wedding weekend. That will make it even better. And I might be able to go up there sooner than I have planned. OH wouldn't that be GREAT.

We have been fighting really extreme Heat here in Iowa. I know most of the country is having unusual heat waves. But this really sucks. You can't walk outside without it taking your breath away. The humidity is so high the heat index was 109 today. Temps were in the high 90's. It sucks. Florida was much cooler than here.

I am going to stop here I need to fix some dinner and then I can relax either in front of the TV or with my book after a cool shower. So ....

Ciao for now.
Diva in Iowa'

3 Days ... July 8th - 15th Vacation

Beach Time right around the corner. I can hardly stand it.

Monday - July 03, 2006

The Purple Hat ladies:

lft to rgt. TG, Sb, Me, and JK

Ok I am back... believe it or not and it hasn't even been a week. I am going to share a photo here. I didn't think I would ever do this - share a personal photo of myself here but somehow I feel ok doing it. This is a photo that was taken on Saturday. At my girlfriend Tammy's house. We relaxed in her pool after the movie at the IMAX. Crazy as we all are we decided to form a new group. We are going to call ourselves "The Purple Hat Ladies". I will tell you more about our little group in my future posts. We had a great time on Saturday. It was a gathering we had been talking about for a long time. So it was finally great to actually do it. We had a blast.

Countdown to Florida ... 5 Days. Excitement is mounting for all of us. Maybe I will get brave and add more personal photos when we get back. You never know. I don't think I have an abundance of readers here if I do they are hiding in the shadows.

I have to run and get some thing done around here. Is anyone that is reading this and posting in their own blogs here having trouble posting? It takes forever to get the post to go through. Let alone a photo attachment. What's up with that?

'Diva in Iowa'

Sunday -July 2nd, 2006

Next week at this time we will be on the beach in Florida. I am so excited. I did a trial run on packing yesterday. I am pretty sure I am going to get away with just 1 big suitcase for this trip. Other years I have taken 2 and come home with 3. Not this year. I vowed to not have to carry that much this time. Our condo has a washer and dryer so I am really not going to need that much for a weeks stay. I am taking 3 swim suits. I have 6 I found out yesterday. I didn't realize that. But I tried them all on and only 2 possibly 3 really look ok to wear since I have lost weight. I bought a new one just recently, a 2 piece. My very first ever 2 piece suit.

This will be a short week at work. We have Monday and Tuesday off for the 4th of July holiday. So I will be working Wed, Thurs., and half a day on Friday. I hope it goes fast. There will only be 3 out of 9 of us in the office so I hope we aren't overloaded. I am sure it will be quiet but busy. Busy will be good.

Yesterday was a great day. I spent the day with 3 girlfriends. We first went to the IMAX theater to see "Posiden" with Kurt Russell. It was awesome on that huge theater. Then we went back my girlfriend Tammy's house. We just hung around the pool and had fun talking and laughing for hours. And then about 7pm. Tammy's hubby went and got us some pizza and we ate that all up and laughed and talked some more. It was a great day. And the being in the pool felt great. I was very tired when I got home.

I don't really have any plans for today. I need to do housework. I have movies from Netflix to watch. I have a list of things I need to pick up for the trip. But I think I am going to wait until Thursday or Friday to do that. That might keep me from spending unnecessary money. I am going to try to stay on budget while on vacation. But I won't be extremely strict about it. I will just be careful. NO unnecessary purchases. And we can have food at the condo so that will cut the expense of eating out a lot. This is a vacation for relaxation.

I hope to be on Sanibel Island next week at this time looking for shells. I will update again before I leave if I have time.

Ciao for now.