Numb

I've been watching the local new through streaming video from Tampa. Decided that national coverage didn't cover the "real" things I wanted to know - like what freeways flooded, who couldn't get out of their areas, etc. The national coverage on the weather channel would give me general information. Streaming video of local new stations is one of the most innovative things to come out of the electronic age.

Luckily, most of my family is well and accounted for. My bro is alive and well, but dealing with the losses of his apartment. It looks like the roof pulled off of the second story which caused them to take in water all in the second floor. This has caused eventually flooding onto my brother's 1st floor apartment soaking everything. I think he was able to save electronics, but his home is no longer habitable. Decisions, decision.

The sister and kiddos are fine and are at higher ground. THANK GOD!

Then there is me.... I am fin since I am in Tampa, but it pains me to watch all this nonstop storm coverage. I think it is making me 10x's more neurotic.

Single Girl/Mandy called me back after my texts to check on her. Sadly, she is still unable to surnvey the damage to her apartment or her mother's home, but she and her family are alive and well. Another THANK GOD moment!!!

I hope you are all safe that are in the Houston metro area that read this. Sublime, I know you are further north, but it would be nice to know that you are a live and kicking as soon as you get online again. So everyone take care!!!

The kiddos

Here are the Niece and Nephew at Chuck-E-Cheese about a week ago. She will be a whopping 4-years-old next month, and he is a little over 14 months. It's not the best picture seeing as for whatever reason Niece looks constipated and Nephew looks like I just caught him shoplifting. They remind me every time I am with them for extended periods of time why some animals eat their young, but I still love them dearly.

You gotta love internet ads!

After I sent someone a quick comment on MySpace today, I had this bizarre ad above on the sidebar of the page that confirms that my comment was completed. I thought I would share it with all of you because....well...why not? I mean, seriously, who WOULDN'T want to be a "Sexy Mom," right????? What I love is that whatever this product is, it helped women in China lose weight. China! You know...because there are so many overweight people in China. Now if they would have said it helped people in Houston (the fattest city in the US) lose weight, they may have more clout. But China? Almost every Chinese person I've met was a twig in clothes. I think the only big Chinese person I've seen is Buddha, but seeing he's a deity and all, he doesn't count. Just thought I would share my eye-rolling, head-shaking moment of the day.

The Swing Vote

I have been trying really hard to avoid a political post, but...eh! It's election time, so it's pretty hard to NOT formulate an opinion. I am not one to force mine on anyone, so feel free to read my ramblings...but in no way do you have to agree.

The "swing vote", by definition in the Collins English Dictionary, is described as what "...is used talk about the vote of a person or group which is difficult to predict and which will be important in deciding the result." Yep, that's me. The good ol' swing voter. It pains Boyfriend to even discuss my liberal views on politics as he is a straight-ticket Republican aka Blind Faith Republican, as I like to call them. But...that's just me.

However, I am not going to dismiss Republican policy altogether. I'm actually more conservative politically than people think. Which I find entertaining how quickly people judge my foreign-born, gay best friend-having self. The other day, a girlfriend of mine said she didn't believe that I had one thing right-of-the-middle about me, and knew I was nothing more than a complete liberal Democrat. That she could never see me voting Republican. Interesting. It was like crickets chirpping in the background when I told her that I voted for Bush...BOTH TERMS. I know. Shocker, right? Don't get me wrong though... Prior to Bush I was a HUGE HUGE HUGE Clinton supporter...did I mention huge? By far, the best President in my lifetime in my opinion. I vote for the best person for the job, not the best polictical party. I never said I was right every time I voted (case in point with Bush's second term), but I voted with what I believed in at the time.

I voted for Bush for the first term because I agreed with a lot of what he represented and what his visions were. Although, I started second-guessing my decision not long after he took office. After 9/11, I was like many other Americans who had an awakening reminder of what I believed our 43rd President could be. He was exercising his ability to be a strong, compassionate leader, one who brought a nation together in a time of need. A fierce protector of our country under a malicious, violent attack. As November 2004 rolled around, I decided to vote for him again simply because I saw THAT man after the Towers fell and felt he could grow to be even better. It also didn't help that we were in the midst of the beginning stages of war - a time that I believe a change in leadership would not be wise. Whether I agreed with war in Iraq or not, I couldn't imagine that replacing our leader not long after we sent troops to Iraq represented a unified nation strong enough to fulfill what it set out to do in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Dubya's charisma, poise, and effect on the nation post-9/11 was the high-point of his career and everything else was a downward spiral - housing market crashes, the Katrina debacle, sky-rocketing fuel...should I go on?

I am the epitome of the notorious "Swing Vote." That person who can fall on either side of the party lines. A conservative on foreign policy and energy reform. A liberal on moral values and personal beliefs. In my opinion, not being loyal to a specific party makes me a much more critical voter. A much more educated voter...but again, that is my opinion. I tend to read everything I can about the candidates and their running mates. I like comparing their opinions on hot topics today to what they were over the last ten years. You'd be surprised how ALL of the candidates have flip-flopped on some issues - some small, some not so small. I will tell you where all my information gathering has gotten me - pretty much still in the middle.

I completely admire John McCain. Not only for his valor and his courage having fought and suffered for our country, but also for his abrasive ability to confront the right-wingers he feels are either not doing their job or have no right being in politics at all. I am impressed with the fact that he doesn't let party involvement muddy the waters in what he feels is the "right thing to do." However, I'm not at all happy with his opinion that Roe v. Wade should be overturned nor do I think he may physically be up for being the leader of the Free World at 72 years of age. Not that I am discriminating his age in the least, but being President has aged even the youngest of men before him in a short 4 year period of time. Check out George W. Bush...

Then you have Barrack Obama. What's not to admire about this man and his achievements? His aggressiveness for ethics reform, his demand for tax dollar accountability, how he's fought as a member of the Veteran Affairs Committee to ensure veterans receive the disability pay they deserve, and much more. On the other hand, his understanding for energy and drilling, pulling troops so quickly out of the Middle East, and healthcare reform are a bit overzealous and somewhat unrealistic to me.

So of course, I started to investigate their running mates to see if either one of them could help me make my decision. Sadly, I'm not fond of either one of them. You would think that being such an avid supporter of women's rights that I would be completely gung-ho for Sarah Palin. Au contraire! For whatever reason, there was something about Palin that I couldn't warm up to. I could care less that her 17-year-old, unmarried daughter is knocked up. I can even deal with her MAKING her daughter marry her "baby daddy". I can even embrace her extremely conservative views of anti-abortion because that's typical of the Republican ticket (even though I personally think no one should ever have control over a woman's right to choose). There was just...something.

As I was flying home from Tampa early this morning (4:30am EST / 3:30am CST wake-up call SUCKS by the way), I bought a couple of magazines at the airport since I had forgotten my book to read and started reading them inflight. In an article giving general background on Palin - painting her as both a strong woman but also having some hometown controversy - I was appalled at something I read about her. It was mentioned in passing, but I took it as a huge red flag. While serving as mayor of her town, she tried to get books banned at the library that she felt had language that was offensive. WTF? Hold up. Let me ask that again. WTF?!?!?

Banning books is such a limitation of knowledge and the freedom of accessing information that I cannot support in the least. Books are a way of expression, a way to encourage creativity, and most of all to learn. I don't even care if a book is about radical Muslim beliefs and how they hate Americans. It's still a way for us to understand the people who are so against us. We may never agree with what is in those books, but we can learn from them and maybe use it to our advantage. If the books are sexually explicit, put them in a section for 18-year-olds and up if you're THAT concerned. Some teens may even learn from those books if they have parents that refuse to discuss the issues with them personally.

All I know is that when I read that about Palin, I lost complete respect for her as a leader. How can you have a leader who wants to ban books SHE deems offensive? Wow.

Don't get me wrong. Biden isn't on the top of my list either. Although I have found him to be extremely experienced and a strong fighter for stem cell research, but I can't help but feel like they only brought him in to be the experience that Obama is lacking. I guess I need to dig a little deeper into Biden's political history and personal beliefs to formulate a better opinion. As of right now, he's just blah to me.

I guess I'll just have to pay extra attention at the debates to help me get closer to a decision. Two months to go and this swing vote is still swinging...

1 hour 47 minutes

The duration the flight between Houston and Tampa. Also the length of time a little Indian man spoke loudly to the girl behind me. Sheesh! I think I know everything about this man, his wife, and their three sons - the two youngest love soccer, the oldest is more into playing his violin. Yea, why do I know this??? He totally interrupted my snooze time, and I could barely concentrate on my book. Oh well...thank goodness we've landed. Although he hasn't stopped talking, at least the line to get off this bird has started moving.

Have a great weekend!

It is done...

Today I announced to my office that I am leaving them at the end of Septemeber. I am experiencing mixed emotions at this very moment. Part of me feels a weight is lifted from my shoulders and that I've gotten it out of the way. The other part of me wants to throw up! I've officially put an end date to my time of employment...the one last thing still holding me here in Houston. There's pretty much no turning back now.

To put it bluntly, I'm freaking the eff out!!!! I still haven't found a job in Florida and can't imagine not having a paycheck when I get there. What do I do????? Ok, I'm calming down. I know that Boyfriend can take care of things, and I shouldn't be freaking out right now, but I have not been in a position where I don't have SOMETHING lined up. I guess I'm going to have to work overtime in finding a job now.

Wish me luck!!!!

Almost done with the Tampa house

So this weekend got us another HUGE step closer to finishing with the house. We finally got the Bose surround sound system up in the living room. OMG! That was such a friggin' chore!!! Our living room is pre-wired for surround sound, but the places where they have the wires aren't exactly where we wanted our speakers...go figure, right? We needed to shift a total of three speaker wires about two feet to the left to balance out the room. So there we were on ladders reaching up our 14-foot ceilings, drilling holes, and using wire clothes hangers and tape to pull the wires over. It was so hard catching the wires through the new hole with a makeshift hook we created with another wire hanger. Sounds a bit ghetto, but it was worth the hundereds of dollars we saved in paying someone to come in and rewire the house. After four full hours of completing the installation of four of the six speakers, we decided to call it quits Saturday afternoon. We ended up buying a steamer to steam our drapes and then watching more of the Olympic Games before falling asleep.

We finally finished the last of the two speakers on Sunday in just over an hour - record time! Boyfriend spackled the old holes in no time at all. You can't even tell that they were there at this point. He was overjoyed when he turned everything on and got it all to work...just in time for football season! And to think it only took about five hours over two days and one "Fuck You!" (from me, of course) for us to get it all up and running! Yes, we are one of those couples that are "teamwork-challenged"...but by God, we get the job done!!!

Here is a picture of Boyfriend installing the hardest of all the speakers to relocate. This is just after he griped at me for not bringing a screwdriver to him fast enough and prior to me seriously considering yanking the ladder out from under him.

I will try to take pictures of the house as soon as we get things finished. The plantation shutters for the rest of the house (minus all the sliding doors we fashioned with drapes), should be arriving today. I can't wait to see how it all looks when I go back there on Friday!

Mama's still got it!

It's Friday, and you guessed it. I'm back on a plane to Tampa for the weekend again. On another note, it's been a while since your very own Rice Spice has been hit on by a guy she deemed remotely worthy. Not that I'm at all interested in leaving my wonderful Boyfriend. But as all you ladies will agree...and men, single or attached, we'd like to feel like we still interest the opposite sex. For a while, I had accepted that Boyfriend has completely covered me in his phermonal scent to ward off any man on the planet Earth - somewhat similar when cats pee on things to mark their territory. Fortunately, Boyfriend has refrained from actually relieving himself on me...thank God for small favors. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I was hit one apart from the occassional homeless person downtown or people who barely come across as human. I'm talking quality men the old Rice Spice would've created interesting stories with. However, today was a good day in the Rice Spice world. Not only did she get elevator eyes (oh how I love that new term I learned in a recent sexual harrassment seminar at work) from a one-in-a-million-not-homosexual cute flight attendant, I also got a free alcoholic beverage out of it...and he gave me a piece of Hershey's chocolate when he walked by me at some point through the flight. I don't even like chocolate, but whatever.

No worries though. No numbers were exchanged. No inductions to the Mile High Club. But it was nice to get the attention. I guess the new highlights in my hair and hitting the gym regularly again are starting to pay off ;-) In the end, the young flight attendant could be half-blind, have a fetish for near-midgets, or really gay after all and is just drawn to my typical "moth to a flame" effect on gay men, but my ego will drink it up for now. I can't wait to tell Boyfriend when he picks me up at the Tampa airport how he has a hot girlfriend...hehe. Yay, me!

Lurking

From what I understand, a week in January is designated to be Delurk Week. For those not aware, let me explain...for as much as I can from what I recall. The term "lurking" is when you regularly read blogs and their comments without actually commenting yourself. The blogging event in January allows people to "delurk" or make themselves known as a reader to someone's blog. For example, you simply comment "I love your blog!" and leave it at that or comment "I've been reading your blog. Stop by mine anytime." Some stay anonymous, some don't have blogger accounts but still say hey, and some sign in if they have a blogger account to allow you the option to see their profile. You get the gist. Basically, I feel like it's a simple way for bloggers to get comments and feel...loved? Maybe not loved...just that we have a captive audience and am not blogging into the wind for no one else but ourselves. I just like knowing that besides my occassionally "woe as me" moments, that I'm actually entertaining someone. It's hard to wear a bellhop costume, hold a tin cup, and tap dance while someone plays the accordian in the background for you via the internet to make you smile, so all you get are my ramblings.

For those of us who use stat counters, we see IP addresses reading our blogs, but often times don't know who they are. Unless you go all Sherlock Holmes like I do and match IP addresses to those who comment - thank you, date and time stamp. Most of the time, I know if it's someone in say Denver, it is more than likely Pocahontas reading. If I see Tokyo, I know it's Weenie. If I see Burbank, I know it's Miss Bathrobe Blogger. Now and again, I see random places where I don't really think I know anyone. Although I don't mind strangers knowing the inner workings of my bizarre mind (hello, I DID start the blog, right?), my interest is extremely piqued. Ok, call me plain nosey. I'm sure they found me through other blogs I read/comment on or links of which I've been honored to be added on to as something they regularly read. I'm flattered.

So although this is not the designated week to delurk, I encourage you all to delurk anyway!!! Come out, come out wherever you are and say hi! Even if you want to remain mysterious and anonymous, a simple "Wuddup?" would suffice ;-)

Maybe just maybe I'll delurk on your blog in return...

If worldwide spread of idiocracy was a sign of Armageddon, we'd be f'ed

They say humans have higher reasoning skills than any other animal in the animal kingdom. I beg to differ sometimes. Case in point:



I love how his parents are not commenting at this time other than to say that their son "is an experienced kiteboarder and a great guy." I think they should've have said, "Although we love our son and are glad that he is doing better at the hospital, we know that he is an absolute moron. Experienced kiteboarder or not, no idiot should be trying to ride tropical storm force winds strapped into a sheath of nylon. Somewhere along the way, we forgot to teach him common sense."

So yesterday we had a 16-year old quitting school to become a professional videogamer, Weenie posted about people passing out from extended play of a videogame, there was that guy who left his girlfriend on the toilet for two years, there are those 17 girls in Massachusets who are all under 17 years old that made a pregnancy pact that are probably about to give birth right now (don't even get me started on that one!), and now this idiot!

Higher reasoning skills my ass!

There's a new blogger in town

Everyone race over to read the ramblings of a woman who is probably a key character in some of my craziest high school endeavors!!! Laura now has a blog at this LINK. Check her out!

When you really need to serve someone a tall glass of Shut the Hell Up!

I'm not sure if you've heard of this story. This kid to left is 16-year old Blake Peebles from Raleigh, NC. Here is the link to a news article on what I'm about to rant about. I caught wind of this story through my favorite gossip blog. So get this load of caca...

Blakey here has decided that he's too cool for school. Literally. He has convinced his parents to allow him to drop out of school to...wait for it... focus on becoming a professional Guitar Hero player. Whu? Yeah, exactly. It's a friggin' video game! Can you believe his parents took the bait and allowed him to do so?!?!? Jeez! This is a classic case of the parents losing sight of being parents. There is definitely something about supporting a child's dreams, aspirations, and God-given skills...but Guitar Hero? It sounds like Blake calls the shots and his parents just go with it so he'll stop his whining. Let him whine, I say! That's a part of being a kid is thinking that you know better than your parents who are trying to keep you down from what you know is your destiny. Dramatic, right? But totally how we were at the age of 16. The kid has maybe two more years in high school. Let the twerp suck it up! His parents need their parenting license taken away.

~*~

Let me give you an idea of how that conversation would go if it had happened in my house...

~*~

*SCENE-- The Spice Family living room circa 1993

-

RICE SPICE: Mom, Dad - I want to quit school to focus my skills on being a professional videogamer.

-

MAMA and PAPA SPICE (in unison): Shut the hell up!!! Now go back to your dungeon, peasant!

-

(Ok, maybe I didn't live in a dungeon, but I sense some form of "Shut the hell up" would be in there somewhere).

~*~

Seriously though, my parents would never had even let me entertain that idea. Let alone let me do it. I guess this kid's parents are willing to support him for the rest of their lives because I don't know how well "No Education" and "Guitar Hero Specialist" will look on a resume, but I have a feeling finding a job in his later years is going to be a slow moving process.

~*~

--Btw, I wonder if Blake is related to Mario Van Peebles, famed actor of the '80s and ''90s.

What a night...

Initially, I was sitting here at Blondie's house in the dark living room enjoying the rain. The only bad thing is that it appears her dish network system has zonked out due to the storm...boooooo! I've done the whole resetting thing, so it now says it could take up to 30 minutes. WTF? Oh, well...I figured I can take this time to blog.

Last night Boyfriend flew in from Tampa. Poor thing...his flight was about 2 hours late due to storms in both Houston and Tampa. I was so excited when he finally got here though! The good thing about his flight being late was that I was able to pick him up myself. I had a car scheduled to pick him up because he was getting in about 1.5 hours before I got off work and didn't see any way that I could break away. Although after sitting in rush hour to get him and just about that long back into to town after I got him in the car, I seriously regretted not just paying for the car service to have done it for me...sheesh!

Anyway, we ended up eating at Gigi's last night with Grove, Blondie, and Blondie's new date-type person. I don't think they are quite at some label point in their dating, so I shall continue to just call him "date-type person." We all had a great time. The food was excellent! It doesn't hurt that I know the General Manager, and we were given complimentary appetizers that were oh so good! You guys should try this place if you like Chinese food.

Afterwards, Grove, Boyfriend and I went for drinks at Mugsy's. I've realized we're getting old. Not so much that the place had younger people there because there were people our age there, too. We recall Mugsy being this dark, smoky bar with NO ONE...I mean NO ONE... in it. It was usually our gang and maybe some random drunk guy drinking solo at the end of the bar. This place was crazy packed with the shishi Midtown crowd last night. How and when did that happen?!?! Strange. Not that it was a bad thing, just so not what it use to be. We hit a few other places and eventually made it home into the wee hours of the morning.

As were going to bed, Boyfriend told me how much he loved me. He tells me he loves me all the time, but every once in a while it hits me just how luck I am to have him. This morning as the dusk became dawn, I couldn't believe that I could love the man any more that I already did...but I do. Cheesey...I know.

Is this guy for real?!?!

I'm not sure how many of you have been following the Olympics, but if you have or if you haven't, it would be virtually impossible that you haven't heard of the phenomenon that is Michael Phelps. This kid is 23...23!!! He has been unstoppable at the Olympics pool. I know this kid has to have all the pressures of the world on his shoulders with the media constantly talking about him earning gold in EVERY one of his events. I wish him all the luck because he deserves it with all the training he has done throughout his short lifetime and his dedication.


The Olympic coverage did some bit on him talking about how his build helps him swim. They say he has both the tall man and short man's strengths. He has the average/shorter legs of a man who is 6'0", and the upper body of a guy who would be 6'8". Crazy. He stands 6'4" but has a wingspan of 6'7". I forgot what they said his shoulders measured, but I recall them saying he had a 32 inch waist. Wtf?!? That's tiny! When I actually watched him when he got out of the pool after the 200IM race, I noticed for the first time just how friggin' thin his waist was. He's got to seriously look like an upside-down triangle in person. He's also so flexible and double-jointed that when you watch him stretch his arms backwards it just looks so bizarre.

Good luck, Michael Phelps!!!! Boyfriend and I are cheering you on nightly...along with millions of your other supporters!

*on a side note - I'm crossing fingers that Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin do well. The US Women's Gymanstics team has been making simple mistakes from the get-go on the team events. It already looks like Shawn has already botched her landing off the vault, but at least the girl from China that went after her literally fell on her ass.

Ok....gotta pay attention. Phelps is back on to swim the 100M Butterfly...

Sadness

Not sure if you remember, but I mentioned some time in March that my dear friend Pocahontas was going through some tough times. His brother was having complications with his diabetes and was gravely ill. He managed to get through that bout of medical complications and got a little better. Sadly, Pocahontas' younger brother passed away over the weekend, and the funeral is this afternoon. Very sad. Boyfriend and I sent flowers for the service since we can't be there in person. Hopefully, they will make it on such short notice. My heart goes out to Pocahontas and his family.

Did I ever tell you I loved my Boyfriend?

Seeing as I was on a plane en route to Tampa when the Olympic Games' Opening Ceremony started, I was saddened that I wouldn't get to see it. Guess who recorded it on DVR so that we could watch it together when we got back to the house????

Boyfriend picked me up from the airport, we had a mediocre dinner, and now we are submerging ourselves in watching the awesome performances from the opening ceremony. WOW! These performances are amazing!!! If you didn't watch, you need to YouTube this stuff...

Gotta go now...I need to give my full attention back to history in the making :)

Movie Reviews: El Orfanato (The Orphanage) & National Treasure 2

Yesterday, my office decided to close early at 11am as a preventative measure for possible flooding in the downtown area due to the incoming storm Edouard. The storm ended up not being as bad as anticipated, but I still got to enjoy a day of nothingness. Really. Can you believe I did absolutely nothing but watch movies and back to back episodes of Law and Order???? Completely unheard of in the world of Rice Spice lately. On my way home, I stopped at Blockbuster and rented 3 movies: The Orphanage, National Treasure 2, and Definitely, Maybe. Once I got home, I grabbed a comfy blankie and got cozy on the couch.

I've always wanted to see The Orphanage, but have been somewhat hesitant because it is in Spanish. My Spanish is a bit spotty, so I would have to utilize the subtitles. Subtitled movies require thought, and I usually am wanting a mindless movie to scare me when I think of horror movies. Seeing as I had the time and I felt it was now or never, I started the DVD.

The movie is very good! Not ohmygodthatwassoawesome good, but good enough to think it wasn't a waste of my time. It wasn't in your face scary...more like creepy when you think about it scary. Definitely a more thought-provoking scary movie than the typical gory movies they put out there nowadays. If you've ever seen the movie The Others, it is on the lines of that. Not the same story plot at all, but the same type of unexpected ending.

The story starts off about a group of children who lived in an orphanage. One of the girls, Laura, is eventually adopted. Thirty years later, she buys the orphanage to turn it into a school for children with disabilities and special illnesses. All kinds of weird stuff starts happening to Laura and her family...particularly her young son Simon. That's about all I can tell you so that I don't give it away...just in case you ever decide to watch it.

After that, I watched National Treasure 2. Did I ever tell you how much I LOVE Nicholas Cage? I think he's that weird sexy. Not that I would ever see him on the street and think he was hot stuff, but I think I find the characters he plays endearing. Although lately, his teeth are a bit too much like chicklets - overboard on the veneers if you ask me. His weaves are looking a tad beat down lately, too. I suppose he's getting older, so I won't hold it against him.

If you ever saw the first National Treasure movie, it's the same concept. Treasure hunt, avoid the bad guys who are after the same treasure, interesting history references, completely impossible implications about current historical landmarks, witty comedy ensues. You'll love this movie if you loved the first one or simply love Nic Cage. Angelina's daddy Jon Voight was pretty good in it, too.

I didn't get to Definitely, Maybe because I started watching nonstop Law and Order episodes. Man, I love that show! Anywho... I plan to attempt to watch Definitely, Maybe later tonight if I can't sleep or tomorrow. I figure it is a good chick flick that just so happens to star the hotness that is Ryan Reynolds. Oh the things I could do to that man.

Seriously. Look at that perfection!

I love Boyfriend, but he understands my deep almost stalker-like hankering for a Van Wilder spankering...hehe.

That is all for now. I'm off to the gym to try to get rid of my fat ass :)

Spinning around in circles

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I've been flying out to Tampa on Fridays and flying back into town on Sundays. It's been pretty tough, but Boyfriend and I have made a lot of progress on the house.

As of this weekend, the master bedroom is about 85% complete. We went to a fabric store to pick out a fabric for drapes, got a little Vietnamese woman to make the 10.5' tall and 6' wide flat panel drapes (yes, the window in the master bedroom is gargantuan), and got very nice clips and and a nice decorative curtain rod. On top of that, we were able to clean and somewhat organize the room as a whole. The closets need some organizing work, artwork needs to be hung, and we're missing my flatscreen lcd tv that won't be there until I drive out with it...but other than those few things, we're all set there with our master bedroom.

Overall, there's just a bunch of little things that need to be done throughout the house. The big things we're waiting for are the delivery of our living room's plasma screen, the delivery of our entertainment unit, and the arrival of our plantation shutters for the rest of the house. I'm guessing we'll be able to get the house in order in the next two weeks.

As for the Rice Spice front, let me update. I just got scheduled for a job interview this upcoming Monday for a company in St. Pete. That's just over a big bridge by my house...about 20 minutes. Looks like it would be a great opportunity, but again, it's just my first interview. I'm not sure what I'm going to tell my current job. I really hate lying to them, but it's inevitable to keeping the paychecks flowing for right now. Regardless, I've decided to tell them next Friday that Boyfriend was offered an opportunity he couldn't refuse and that I will be joining him. I will give them an entire month to find my replacement(s)...unless I get a great job offer that requires me to start a bit earlier.

So for right now, I'm still living a double life. It SUCKS! I miss having Boyfriend around when I come home at night. Don't get me wrong. Blondie is fantastic, but still...she's no Boyfriend :)


On a lighter note, I was able to check some of the local activities with Boyfriend this past weekend. When I landed at around 8pm Friday, Boyfriend and I directly met Biggsy for dinner....can't remember the restaurant. It was nice enough, but their lobster bisque sucked big donkey you know whats. We even found time to check out a nearby fresh market and squeeze in some pool time at some point over the weekend. We decided that nonstop house work was going to kill us if we didn't sprinkle in a little fun here and there. Plus, we needed a distraction from thinking about all the money we've been dropping on the house...ugh!



Saturday night, we made our way to Indian Rocks Beach for dinner. It was kind of far from our house (about 40 minutes), but a guy at a furniture place we had gone to highly suggested Salt Rock Grill out in that area. Unfortunately, the restaurant was packed, and we couldn't get in without a reservation. We ended up at Guppy's on the Beach. It's not really on the beach, but it was awesome. It definitely warranted it's ranking #1 on Tripadvisor.com.


Well, that's it for now. It's getting late, and I should really try to go to bed.

I've found my cash cow! Or, at least my cash calf...

You know when you see items at the store on tv and think, "Man! I should've thought of that!" I do that almost everyday. So many products that are sold are such simple concepts. Make you wonder why you haven't already thought of something that could drop some extra dinero your way. Think about the soda can dispenser for you refrigerator, the PedEgg for your feet, the hard plastic sandwich box to keep your sandwich from getting smooshed, or the briefcase with wheels. Granted some of the products sell extremely inexpensively, but even if you had a product that costs the consumer $3 0r $4, that's still quite a bit once you add the millions of consumers that will buy it because it's "nifty". Or imagine if you had a product you could sell for about $30...hmmmm...the possibilities. Of course, you also have to keep in mind the initial cost of producing your product.

So here's the deal. Tonight, I had an epiphany. I won't say what the epiphany was or what exactly that I was doing when it came to me, but I've been scouring the internet to see if something like it even exists since it happened. After Google-ing and using other search engines for derivatives of what this product could be called and not coming up with an existing product or similar image of a product to my idea, I think this could very well be something innovative. I got so excited that I called Boyfriend about it even though I had just gotten off the phone with him about an hour earlier to say our good nights. Although he initially giggled at the fact that I got so excited about coming up with something and how I couldn't wait until morning to tell him, he also thought it was a great concept.

I suppose I should research this more and possibly create a rough prototype. Wish me luck that this product does not exist! Maybe one day, I'll blog about a new product that was created by your very own Rice Spice :)

Update

I know, I know... you feel neglected. I promise you that it is not because I don't want to blog, but I have been absolutely slammed at work lately (which is when I normally squeeze in some slacker time to post) and my life in general has been nothing short of chaotic.

First off, the Houston home is SOLD! We no longer have official residence in Texas...sadness. We are now owners of a beautiful little townhome at the Westshore Yacht Club (photo is of one of the pools at the yacht club...nice, huh?). Currently, I am living with my friend Blondie as I continue to get myself better positioned to move and be with Boyfriend permanently. Many thanks to Blondie for taking in a vagabond!!!

Our stuff was suppose to arrive via Mayflower moving truck Wednesday, but the guy had a death in the family and informed Boyfriend that he will be there tomorrow instead. Grrr!!! I feel bad for the mover guy, but my life is on a very strict schedule and he threw it all off! I planned to take Wednesday and Thursday off from Job #1 so that I can be there when the movers arrived and have an additional day to unpack a few things. That way, I can tell them exactly where to put furniture so that if I don't like it the way I envisioned it, they can rearrange it or take it to a different floor of the house rather than us doing it on our own after they leave. NOW... Boyfriend will have to do all the furniture placement with the movers by himself. Not that he is incapable of such a feat, but if I don't like where he has something placed, he and I may be moving a big screen tv from one floor to another...and that is just not happy times. So being the control freak that I am, I have printed out the floor plan of the new house, and started drawing where I want everything. I know...anal much? Anyway, I plan to scan and email it to Boyfriend so that he has explicit directions as to where things will go. I told him to use his best judgement because if it looks bad or I misjudged space size, he will have to figure out how to make things work. So I will arrive Wednesday and just spend time unpacking and determining what we need or are lacking for the new house.

So as of right now, my travel schedule is as follows:

• Wednesday - 7am flight to Tampa arriving at 10:30am, survey the layout of our furniture and determine neccesities to purchase, go shopping for the house, unpack a few things
• Thursday - unpack more stuff then take a flight at 9pm arriving back to Houston at 10:10pm.
• Friday - Work Job #1 since I couldn't take off (toooooo much going on at the office that I couldn't be away for 3 days) and then depart on a flight after work back to Tampa for the weekend

My nickname is "Headless Chicken" at this point! Anyone wonder why I've been having bouts of insomnia lately????

Anyhoodle, the job hunt in Tampa is still going at a snail's pace. On a positive note, I now officially have a Tampa cell phone number and address to replace all my Houston contact info on my resume. This should help me get a little more attention since they will consider that my resume is from someone local rather than out of state - let's hope, right? I need you all to send me your lucky mojo because this sista needs it!

In the meantime, I am continuing to enjoy the company of my close friends in Houston while I'm still here. I am always reminded...and even more so right now in the midst of all this craziness... that my friends ROCK! Of course, I look forward to meeting new people in Tampa, but those new people have quite a tough act to follow...