Wowing them at Wimbledon

Melanie Oudin upsets the 6th seed Jelena Jankovic in the 3rd round.

She lost today 6-4, 7-5.

J3 knows her twin sister. It's hard to imagine she's the same age as J3! Her parents weren't there until today's match, and she and her coach actually had a flight home scheduled for Saturday afternoon....obviously they had to make alternate arrangements!

How exciting for her. And it's only the beginning.

Summer Sammies

Forgive my little Rachel Rayism, there, but I could resist. I promise I won't start talking about EVOO and saying yum-o.

Last week I got my latest issue of Cooking Light and they had a whole section on sandwiches. DOTR will eat anything as long as it is between two slices of bread, and I've been getting much grief from J4 about how I never cook dinner anymore. The sandwich article really got my creative juices flowing and I did some major refrigerator/pantry cleanout this weekend putting together sandwiches.

Here are some of our yummies:

Whole wheat bread
Grainy dijon mustard
Smoked turkey breast
Brie
Thinly sliced pears (we have hundreds of pears from our Fruit Guys boxes)

Toasted Hoagie Bun
Horseradish Mustard
Horseradish (for DOTR only)
Thinly sliced red onion
Thinly sliced white radishes
Sliced tomato
Curly lettuce
Swiss Cheese
Roast beef

100 Calorie Bagel, toasted
Fried egg (I have these cute little rings from W-S and they fry up perfectly round)
Roasted Tomato
Grilled ham steak
Sharp Cheddar Cheese and Mustard (for DOTR)
Cream Cheese and Muenster (for J4)

Whole Wheat Flatbread
Durkee's sandwich spread
Grilled chicken
Thinly sliced cucumber
Thinly sliced red pepper
Thinly sliced red onion
Curly lettuce
Broccoli Slaw
Roll up and slice in half

White Italian Bread, toasted
Bacon
Tomato
Curly Lettuce
Mayo
Avocado

Now, folks, my fridge is clean and the bread drawer is empty.

Ghosts

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. 145 years ago today in my backyard.

Close Encounters

I've mentioned in the past that my brother and sister in law are both in the newspaper business. My SIL has always been an editor, but my brother spent many years as a reporter before taking over as online editor.....and he recently left that job because he was burned out. And they decided it might not be too wise having all their eggs in one basket with rampant layoffs at newspapers. So, good choice. He's now working in academia.

Anyway, I'm pea green with envy of his trip this week to Washington DC. He had a conference in Baltimore for work for a couple of days, and then he and SIL went on for a few in DC. They visited the Newseum, which wasn't open yet the last time I was there, but the best part of their trip was meeting up with an old J school friend who just happens to be a reporter in DC. At the White House, no less. Enchanting, if you catch my drift. So they got a private tour of the WH press briefing room, and just missed seeing the President himself. After that, they had a few drinks with WH correspondents too famous to name here. (I'm sure they were just as excited to have drinks last week with DOTR and me. Or not.)

So, instead of calling on my neighbor down the street who happens to be a member of Congress, on my next trip to the Capital, I'm getting digits for the private backroom tours from my brother.

He's got the scoop.

Hot Hot Hot

The a/c is out at our office so I'm going to be scarce around here. In fact, I think I hear the pool calling me now.......

Have a good one!

The Champs

Take me out to the ballgame

We have returned from our trip to the motherland. I spent a lot of time hanging with my sister, which was good since we have been at odds with each other recently (let's just say vodka and politics don't mix and leave it at that). The tournament was held in parks all over Omaha, Council Bluffs and Lincoln, but our team played twice at a park right next to my sister's house and one other time a mere ten minutes from her house. She hosted a cookout on Sunday for my entire extended family, then toted anyone who was brave enough to venture out to every game. My parents stayed for two days and my dad is ready to call Nebraska's baseball coach to get him going on recruiting J3! I saw more baseball last week than I've seen in three or four years (I quit going when we started playing on teams with psycho parents in the stands). J3's team, by the way, won the tournament and never lost a game. They came from behind in the elimination game in the bottom of the last inning to get into the championship game, then blew away the next team. It was a lot of fun. A bunch of the players are old friends from our early rec teams, all stars and younger age travel teams, so it was great spending time with them again.

After the tournament, DOTR, J3 and I headed to Lincoln. J3 took his first college tour ("this place is SO LAME") but I think when he starts touring the schools down here that he might be able to get into, he will really see what lame is all about. My brother now works for the university in the communications office (he got burned out at his online editor job at the newspaper) so we had a great time sitting in one of the ten billion coffee joints in town chatting for a long time. Fridays on a college campus in the summer....slow is an understatement. After appeasing J3 with a trip to the mall, we gave him money for a movie and met my brother and his wife at the bar where I worked when I was in college--yes, believe it or not, it's still there as are quite a few other favorites.

We will have to go on a bread and water diet just to get back into clothes that don't have an elastic waistband after the neverending beef tour. Even the burgers at the ballpark are half pounders. The highlight for some of our team members was seeing Warren Buffet at dinner at Piccolo Pete's in downtown Omaha, where he also got the $16.95 special with iced tea.

Good to go home, good to be home again.

Be back soon!

I'm in Lincoln until tomorrow. J3 went on a tour of Dear Old Nebraska U this morning. More soon when I can get to a real keyboard!

-- Post From My iPhone

Omaha

Two worlds collide--we'll be in Omaha with our friends from Georgia. Weirdness.

College World Series, here we come.

Lunch Bunch

The past few months have been crazy here. Crazy good (J1's graduation and a trip to Hawaii) and crazy bad (death of my friend and crap at the office). Most days I feel like I'm just treading water. I know there are people out there who are social butterflies who spend a lot of time arranging friendly get togethers. I wish I could say the same, but lately I feel like I've been in a self imposed exile. I'm no fun to be around, so I think I should just stay home. Catching up on all the NCIS reruns keeps me plopped in front of the tv for hours.....so quit bugging me, thank you very much.

Time to get back on the saddle in preparation for spending a week with J3's baseball team and parents in a hotel (luckily, most are from way back in our all star and early travel team days when it was still FUN) and dealing with my entire extended family at a cookout at my sister's house (the sister, I might add, that I don't ever talk to because she's.......well, long story. Very long.) Can't wait. Oh wait, I can wait. The promise of all my favorite Nebraska foods (Runzas, Valentino's Pizza, Godfather's Pizza, Wimmer's weiners and polish sausage, and prime rib) is really the only thing standing between me staying here or actually getting on the plane to Omaha on Saturday.

I'm going to lunch today with someone who is a friend but I don't really know her that well. We'll do the tearoom on the second floor of an antique store on the square. Might as well go all the way with that ladies lunch theme.

Big toe in the water.

Mail Call

There was something really cool in our mailbox today. J1's diploma from The Georgia Institute of Technology.

It's official.

Away

J1 is off on her new adventure. DOTR took her to the airport this morning at 6 am and she arrived in Houston before lunch and was quickly on her way to explore her new home. She's staying in a hotel at the Galleria for the week and that's also where her new office is located. She's impressed by "the biggest mall I have ever seen" and has already told me that I'm going to love it.

There's a little more room in my nest today.

Tweet Tweet

Well, thanks to Pattie, I signed up for Twitter. Now I get to see pictures of Lance Armstrong's new baby right from the hospital room--how cool is that?

He's now the dad of 4 kids, same as our 2 boys and 2 girls combo, although I'm not sure how they count it with two different mothers. I found out recently that the 2/2 is the rarest combo for families with 4 kids. The 3/1 is most common, I think they told me it was more than 65%. Who knew? (I really need to look this up--it could be total hearsay, but then again when I think about it, most 4 kid families I know are 3/1's......hmmmm).

Anyway, back to Lance. Because he had testicular cancer, his son and twin daughters were conceived from frozen sperm. This one was reportedly conceived the old fashioned way, which is great news for survivors of this cancer. J2's discipleship group leader's husband found out he had it a few weeks before their wedding (how scary!). It's good to know there is hope.

I'm still trying to figure out how to twitter on my phone. It keeps saying I have a number that is not allowed. Anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

How's that for a rambling Saturday? I think I'm channeling my mom.

Babble babble babble.

I Love the Mall

I'm kidding. Especially my mall, you remember, the lamest mall in the world.

I wandered around for a long time today, just enjoying being alone and having no agenda other than some new makeup. Shouldn't be so hard. I'm sick of everything I have and wanted to be inspired.

The guy at the Prescriptives counter was coloring. I am not kidding. When I asked for my concealer, he asked if I needed anything else and was relieved when I said no. Stopped by Aveda but they were slammed, so I moved on.

I tried on some adorable Sperrys--pink and blue plaid--but I thought my feet looked like boats (no pun intended). On my way out the door I saw a family that apparently came down from the hills for a shopping day. They (mother and daughter) were both wearing stretchy knit dresses and cowboy boots. And one of them had a really nice tramp stamp on the middle of her upper back where her dress dipped down. It was HUGE.

Time to go.

Shopping, Again

This time it's by myself. For myself. What a concept.

Hope I remember how.

Last Week

J1 is getting her stuff packed up and ready to go. She leaves early Sunday morning to begin her new adventure. A week in Houston, then on to Connecticut for training.

We booked a moving truck and airline tickets home from Houston for the end of July. We'll be in Bermuda when she starts her month in Houston, so we'll get home and spend a day catching up here before we load up her big stuff and car and drive it there. DOTR is leaving Sunday and I'm staying a few days to help her get settled so she can start her job without worrying about unpacking and decorating (since those are two of her least favorite things to do!)

She has plans already. She's been researching the Junior League, Panhellenic Association and her sorority alumni groups. She's checked into the Houston Ballet (already has a ticket to a performance next weekend before she leaves town) and has spent time looking at and booking appointments for an apartment to lease. It's good to see how little she needs our help.

I hope we've done our job well. I guess now we find out.

Suck it up

I'm going to suck it up, take the blame for the whole work mess. Although the question remains why would you fixate on an email from an account manager who talked to a customer service rep and said "hopefully they'll pay it" and take it as gospel when you didn't get any information from the insurance company? Like I have any control over what they pay.

So beat me down. My ass is not covered. There's nothing I can do. Just pay your freakin' bill and get off my back.

Thank you.

Gut Feeling

Ever get that feeling that something is not quite right?

I get it all the time and have been feeling that way all weekend. I thought I knew what it was (something work related) and thought I had figured out what it was. This morning I told DOTR about it and thought it was something he needed to check on.....his problem.

Well, it wasn't that. But it was something and this something was probably my fault.

The bad part of having a small business is that a lot of times you are helping out friends who also have small businesses. In other words, you spend a lot more time on something you make very little money on because they're friends. Without going into particulars, something I put in an email was understood by them that something was approved when all I had done was file the request (because that's all I could do....and btw, this is something they should've done themselves to begin with, as I really had no business messing around with this). So, with one sentence I typed in an email--"let us know if they don't pay it correctly"--I've spent countless hours backtracking who I talked to, sent my notes that I doodled on while I sat on the telephone for four days, and generally felt sick to my stomach because he's mad at me, personally, that a claim isn't getting paid the way he wants it to and it's costing him more than he wants to pay.

I'm pretty sure I just said that to be nice. You know, like "give me a call when you're in town!" I was just trying to get it done before we left for Hawaii for Thanksgiving.

Sigh.

Evidently, the appeal was denied because we got another email today. That's what the bad feeling was all about. Funny thing is that I was just thinking about it the other day and hoping they got it resolved since we hadn't heard from them.

I really do have ESP. Don't mess with my gut.