Dear Mom,

It's 13 years today that you left us. Sometimes it seems like that was a lifetime ago, and sometimes it seems just like yesterday.

A lot has happened in those years, but I know you've seen it all. I remember you saying that you weren't afraid of what would happen if you died, because you knew where you were going. You only said that in passing once, but it's brought me comfort more times than I can count.

Wes misses you too, although he doesn't talk about it as much as I do. Steven is completely lost without you. I wish he could find strength from your memory like we do, and someday maybe he will.

And Dad, with all his many faults, loved you very much, and when you died, it broke his heart. Sometimes he's still hard to take, but your death made him realize that he doesn't get unlimited chances with everyone. Believe it or not, he visits me every day every time I'm in the hospital. Yeah, I know, it still shocks me, too.

I wish you'd been able to meet Jackie, because, after some of the really bad people I dated, you'd have really liked him. He reminds me a lot of you sometimes: a really sweet person who'd do anything for someone, even if maybe they don't deserve it. And he takes really good care of me, and I know you worried about that.

This Christmas has been kinda rough for me, but I'm doing the best I can. You always said that doing your best is what matters, so I hope you know I try.

Most of all, I hope you know how much we loved you and still love you. You may not be here physically, but spiritually you are a presence in our lives every day. I'm so glad you are my mother.

Love,
Kerry

Thank you secret Santa!

My secret Santa sent me Alton Brown's book 'I'm Just Here for the Food' - thank you secret Santa! We all know how much we love Alton around here at webgrits! :)

Speaking of Alton, my boyfriend found out (on digg, I'm sure) that Alton has revamped his website, and the front page promises a podcast in the near future!

What, me quirky?

TW tagged me, so now I must come up with five quirky things about myself. Hmm....

1. I'm afraid of water (not drinking or baths, but lakes, rivers, oceans, etc.), so bridges freak me out. It's worse if I'm not the one driving. This is especially bad since I have to drive over a bridge to get between home and work every day.
2. I hate it when my boyfriend leaves his copy of 'Mens Health' in the bathroom face up and some strange muscle-bound cover boy is staring at me when I take a seat, if you know what I mean.
3. I hate everything about bananas: taste, texture, and smell. I can't even bring myself to make banana pudding, which is my boyfriend's favorite dessert, and I won't let him kiss me if he's eaten a banana in the previous hour or so.
4. I couldn't ride in elevators for years because I'm claustrophobic. I still can't get on a plane, and sometimes I have to drive with my windows down.
5. I usually cry once per episode of 'Extreme Makeover Home Edition,' and I totally lost it when Rose and Bernard reunited on 'Lost.'

I think I'll tag Deb, GrammyZ, Bone, and FTS.

Checking in

Thankfully, I am finally over the crud. It was nothing 10 days of antibiotics couldn't cure :)

I still haven't found much Christmas spirit, although I have managed to do some shopping. I'm trying to do most, if not all, of my shopping online. My one trip to a store last weekend was enough to keep me home until well after New Year's.

While you're blogging reading this weekend, make sure to go by and congratulate Deb on the birth of her new granddaughter!

Down with the sickness

I have been sick since Sunday, and, finally, yesterday my sinuses became officially infected. The antibiotics have started kicking in, but I still feel like death on a cracker.

In the midst of this, I had an appointment with my gastro at UAB. It went really well, and, barring any problems, I don't have to go back for 9 months. I'm still on the methotrexate, but, oh well.

Maybe it's because I've been sick, but I don't have the least little bit of Christmas spirit. I've done zero shopping, online or otherwise, and I haven't sent out our cards...because I don't have any cards yet. I don't know where our Christmas tree is, and I don't care. I hope the recovery of my spirit is directly proportional to the recovery of my sinuses.

And it doesn't help that there won't be another new episode of 'Lost' until January 11th! :)

On a good note: my boyfriend passed his first Microsoft exam! I'm SO proud of him - I knew he could do it all along!

Our Nashville Trip (a quick wrapup)

Yes, I know, this trip was a week ago. In retrospect, going out of town the weekend before Thanksgiving was not the best timing, because I was crazy busy the first half of the week getting ready to cook my part of dinner. Then, since Thursday, either my boyfriend or I or both have been sick. I'm feeling better today, so maybe I can finally tell you about our trip.

The Loveless Cafe

The Google Maps route to the Loveless Cafe from our house is one of the most convoluted trips I've ever taken. Somewhere, probably about the time we realized we had to go over that REALLY TALL overpass on the Natchez Trace Parkway (which was beautiful, btw), we wondered if Google had us lost.

But finally, we saw the sign, and we are so glad TW recommended this place to us. It was awesome! I had the fried chicken, and my boyfriend had a country ham breakfast. He also had a blueberry pancake with syrup. And the biscuits there were the heaviest I've ever seen, but so good! I would definitely recommend this restaurant to everyone.

The rest of the evening

Unfortunately, the pancake and syrup did a number on my boyfriend's blood sugar, so we spent the rest of the evening at the hotel. The hotel was really nice, and we liked it a lot. We didn't get to use our reservations at the seafood buffet to end all seafood buffets, but we did relax and eventually had a hamburger from room service. We didn't get to the hotel in time to see the Alabama/Auburn game, but we're kinda glad we didn't.

The Game

First off, the parking situation is CRAZY! I'm used to going to see the Braves play, and, last time I did, anyone who had a ticket could park in the lots around the stadium. We didn't know that the Titans lots required a parking pass! A nice police officer explained that we could drive over the river bridge and park several blocks past it. Are you kidding me?! We paid the Ramada Inn $35 to park in their lot right across from the stadium entrance, and it was the best $35 I spent all weekend :)

It was the first time I'd seen tailgating up close, and I was amazed how all-out some people went. I was also amazed at the amount of alcohol consumption at 9am. We had some soda and a bag of Doritos, and that was fine with us.

One lesson I learned: never buy tickets in the 300 sections. To get to the 300 sections, you walk up a series of ramps. When you see the ramps, you are lulled into a false sense of relief that you aren't going up stairs. After you walk up the mile of ramps, you wish you'd walked two flights of stairs instead. Then you have to walk up the stairs to your seat, which is probably another mile. Once I got to my seat, it took several minutes to get over the 'I will fall to my death if a make a move' feeling. I didn't move again until we left just to avoid walking up those damn stairs again.

The game, on the other hand, was awesome! We could pretty well see what was going on down on the field (it was kinda like watching Oompa Loompas play), and, because we were in the sun, it wasn't that cold. The Titans played well, but, as they've done all season, they couldn't get those last few points to win. They're still my boys, though, and they were well worth watching.

My Nashville pics are posted

I finally posted my pictures from Nashville in a new Flickr set. I'll tell y'all more about the trip tonight.

I'm back and uploading pictures

We're back from our great Nashville trip, but, before I can upload my pictures from the weekend, I have to upload the pictures I've taken the last few weeks.

I created a set for pictures I took in Speake, Alabama.

I uploaded pictures of our Halloween pumpkins, including my cool wolf pumpkin.

And, of course, there are two new Jackson pictures: reclining and in profile.

Now I'm going to work on my Nashville pictures :)

Nashville, here we come! :)

I'm so excited about our weekend trip! We're leaving here around noon tomorrow and stopping to have lunch at the Loveless Cafe (thanks, TW!). Then it's on to the hotel to watch the Alabama/Auburn game.

We did some research on the web and found an interesting sounding seafood restaurant called New Orleans Manor. We've decided to give it a try; I'll let you know how it is.

Sunday is the game. The Titans have lost a lot of close games, and, even though we don't think they can beat the Jaguars, we hope for a good game. I've never been to an NFL game, and I wonder if it's a neat as going to an MLB game.

I do know one thing: we're going to freeze to death. My boss told me to make sure to take my glove because, as a developer, my fingers are my money :)

Comments not being emailed

For some reason today, comments are being emailed to me. I've contacted hosting support, so hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Update: My comment emails are working again. Thank you, nice SmarterLinux support guy! :)

48 days in fast forward

We just finished watching tonight's episode of 'Lost,' which showed what the other survivors went through their first 48 days on the island. Was I the only one that immediately knew the guy running out of the jungle at the beginning of the episode was one of the Others?

They don't take the ones who aren't good people, huh. And the children are fine; they're better off. Interesting. I guess I can see how Walt is better off running around the jungle, wet and speaking backwards...not.

On a non-Lost note, it is freakin' cold here! Yesterday, the high was in the 70s. Today, it was in the 40s. Yes, I know it's not as cold as it is other places, but it's pretty chilly for an Alabama November. I bet it will be cold in Nashville this weekend, too. Good thing I bought a stadium throw to take with us.

Guess how we're spending Saturday afternoon once we get to Nashville. If you guessed sitting at the hotel watching the Alabama/Auburn game, you'd be right :)

What geeks do when they can't sleep

I woke up at midnight with a severely upset tummy, and my anti-nausea medicine that usually knocks me out didn't. So why put off my return to the land of the blog-living if I'm not going to be able to sleep anyway?

My new job is going well, and I had my first application release today. It took a week or so, but I've finally got my head wrapped around the applications for which I'm responsible. And everyone seems pretty nice. Of course, as usual, I'm the only girl geek there.

November is going to be a super busy month for us. My boyfriend and I are going to Nashville this weekend to watch the Titans play. Anyone have a recommendation for a nice but not terribly expensive restaurant that won't require us to dress up?

Am I the only one that isn't even close to being prepared for the holidays?

I got a flu shot!

Yesterday, I found out that, yet again, my doctor was unable to get any flu vaccine for the season. I was very, very disappointed, and I tried in vain several times to call the local health department to see if they had any vaccine.

Today, while driving to my brother's house, I see the following sign on the neighborhood drug store:

FLU SHOTS TODAY
2:...

The rest of the sign had flipped over. I called my brother in a panic.

'Call Propst. Flu shots. Any left?'

Turns out that they had plenty of flu shots available, and they were giving shots until 6pm. Only one problem: it was 5:45pm!

I rushed to turn around, and a nice truck decided to leave the store, which left me with a primo parking place right in front of the door.

Although there was a bit of a line, the workers were incredibly fast. Five minutes later, I had my flu shot.

Of course, this might all be for naught. My GI tells me that sometimes the medicine I'm on renders the vaccine ineffective. But at least I have a shot at not getting the flu this year.

Get it? A shot... ;)

The World Series, 'Lost', and my new job

The World Series

The only thing better than the Yankees losing in the first round would have been the Braves making it past it. Ah, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, huh boys? Maybe next year.

I still think it will be White Sox vs. Cardinals, even though the Angels bet the Sox last night. We'll see...

'Lost'

Told ya' ;) And, between Bernard asking about Rose, and Rose saving a candy bar for him, I totally lost it. Damn, I can't believe how many times this show has made me cry.

Questions for next week: where did the rest of their group go? Eaten by polar bears? Dead from the mysterious illness the French woman warned about?

My New Job

I have a HUGE cubicle! I'll never be able to decorate all that space ;)

Everyone there has been nice so far, and things are good. I haven't really gotten into much because I didn't have a computer and network account until today. But I'm ready to hit the ground running tomorrow.

Did I mention that my cubicle is HUGE?

Also, I know we haven't done a podcast lately, but I've been super tired. Turns out my B12 has bottomed out again, which is probably due to the fact that I never filled my prescription for the nose gel. Yes, I know...bad patient! I started it this week, though, so I'm hoping I feel better soon.

Hope everyone's doing well!

The World Series, 'Lost', and my last day at work

The World Series

Ah, I love October. Nothing's better than the baseball playoffs and cool weather! Unless it's Roger Clemens getting spanked by the Braves last night :) Now if the Angels will just spank some more Yankee butt, I can be happy.

My World Series predictions are:

What will happen: White Sox and Cardinals, White Sox in 7
What I want to happen: Red Sox and Braves, Braves in 7

'Lost'

You know, I should really stop letting them sucker me with, 'Tonight, you'll find out why...' Yeah, you do, but it still doesn't make any damn sense! Oh, and I have a theory - quit reading if you don't want spoiler information:

They're not the Others - they think Sawyer, etc., are the Others. Of course, Sawyer, etc. think these people are the Others. Remember, the Others on the boat had a gun and a bomb. All these guys had to beat Sawyer with was a stick. Plus, it's just too damn soon to see the Others, I think.

My last day at work

My last day is today; I outprocess at 10:30am. Extra special surprise: since Monday is a federal holiday, I got my paycheck today...when I wasn't even expecting it. Bonus! :)