Been super busy lately

So the day after my wonderful surprise party, I headed off to Kansas City, MO for work. Not only was I flying (not my favorite thing in the world) but there were tornado warnings out all over the place...awesome. Our flight was supposed to take off at 7:55 p.m. but at that time, we were still sitting in the airport. We had a plane but no crew. The weather that day really screwed everything up. So we're finally sitting on the plane and the pilot comes on to say there's a hydraulic leak and it will take at least 30 minutes to fix it...awesome. Needless to say, we ended up getting to KC about an hour and a half late. Oh well. It was Sunday night so we didn't have anything planned that night anyway.

I was in KC Mon-Thurs. Monday I was fine. Went to some meetings, ate lunch, went out to dinner that night, all good. Tuesday rolls around and in the morning I bought a bagel but wasn't super hungry...I sort of forced it down. So now its lunchtime and I have absolutely no appetite. I think I took two bites out of my sandwich and couldn't eat the rest. I continue my day, go to some more meetings, try to force some food down at around 4:00 since I knew dinner would be late. So I'm back in my room, brushing my teeth and I throw up. Score. I decided I felt OK though and headed on down to dinner. We get to the restaurant (which thankfully was in the hotel) and it just hit me. I don't feel good AT ALL! I decide to skip out on dinner, buy some water and pretzels at the drugstore and retire to my room for the night. I think I was able to eat like 3 pretzels.

Wednesday morning rolls around (my actual birthday) and I feel like complete crap! I had some meetings in the morning, but was always going back to my room in between meetings to rest a little. At lunch I ordered a bowl of minestrone soup and could barely get the broth down. I went to a 4:00 meeting and after an hour, finally went back to my room. I took a two hour nap, nice! It sucks though because I was all excited to go out and get some tasty BBQ and celebrate my birthday with some nice folks we had met. Nope. Went out to dinner at like 9:00 and while I did actually order some fish & chips, I only ate half of it. That was a start though.

Thursday we left. I was feeling better but not 100%. Oh and on the plane I had a window seat with no window. Seriously? That sucked! I may not be a huge fan of flying but I at least like to look out the window. So all in all, for work it was a pretty good trip. Too bad I felt like crap most of the time.

The Friday after we got back, Jim, my brother and I headed up to our cottage for the 4th of July weekend. I was pretty blah all weekend. Too much go-go-going, being sick and not enough sleep caught up with me I guess. We went to the fireworks in town and it was pretty sweet! There really isn't a huge body of water in town so they essentially set the fireworks off over a pond, which is pretty much the entire town. Yeah, flaming pieces of fireworks were falling around us lol.

This week at work has been super busy, but that's good. I also put together my application to go back to school (Master's in Engineering Management) so now I'm just waiting to hear if I've been accepted. I NEVER thought I'd go back to school but I figure if I'm not going to have kids any time soon I might as well accomplish something within the next few years lol.

So tonight we have to do some hardcore packing and cleaning since we're leaving tomorrow to go up to our cottage for a week. I'm so ready for this vacation!

ships, monkey jockeys, birthdays, fireworks and more

So it's been a pretty busy couple weeks. June 23-26th I was in Norfolk, VA for work with Jill. We had a few meetings to attend but we also got to do some of the touristy stuff. One night we ate at Todd Jurich's Bistro, had lunch at Kincaid's and then another dinner at Snappers. All of them were very good! We didn't get over to Virginia Beach but we checked out some ships.

...this one is in dry dock for repairs...very cool...

...this is the Battleship Wisconsin...

...here she is at night...

...and here's Jill and I atop the large vessel...

So we flew back to Michigan on Friday the 26th and on our way home, swung by a gem and jewelry show in Novi. I got some really cool glass rings and some bracelet watches for like $5/each. Can't beat that!

That night were the fireworks and Stars and Stripes Festival in Mount Clemens, so Jim and I and my brother headed down there. We met up with my sister and her friend Doug and just sort of walked around, checking out the goings on. So we're walking down a street on the way to the bar and came across the Banana Derby. Have you ever seen anything so ridiculous??

...yes...that's a monkey in a little jockey suit on a dog.

Moving on...

We stopped in at Orleans and had a few drinks and played some darts

...me and my boy...

...my sis and her pal...


Once we left the bar, we headed down towards the water to watch the fireworks. And that pretty much sums up that night.

Now my birthday was actually June 30th, but we celebrated on June 27th. A bunch of us got together to hang out at Fishbones for some drinks, music and pool. It was a good night!

...here's me and Melanie...

...Jill and Ken...

...me and Rachel...

...Rachel and her husband Fred...

...of course one of Jim and I...

...and my brother striking a pose for the camera...


Sunday (June 28th) we headed over to my parents house for a birthday dinner and some cake. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, cake.

Tuesday was my actual birthday. I got some cards, a bunch of birthday wishes on Facebook, Jim brought me flowers and we went out to dinner at Brio. All in all, it was a good birthday.

So this past weekend we headed to our cottage for the weekend. My parents were already up there and then Jim, my brother and I headed up there Friday. Saturday night we went into town to the beach for the big show. We got there around 8:00 so we had some time to kill.

...here's my sexy man...

...and Jim and my brother lookin' like badasses...

FINALLY at 11:00 the fireworks started and I was happy to get some good shots

I posted more on my photo blog.

And I think that's about it for now. I took a bunch of pictures at our cottage so I'm sure I'll be posting some of those in the near future.