50 completely honest things about me: Part 1 of 50

I have decided to do a little get to know me project. I will post 50 completely honest, completely uncensored, completely random things about myself for you to ponder. Some of you may think I'm nucking futs, some of you may want to make arrangements at the psych ward but then again some of you might have the same thoughts in your crazy heads!

Some will have in depth explanations and theories and others my just be a sentence- depends on how the mood is striking at the time!

And so it starts.....

Part 1 of 50: I Hate Feet














Yes, it’s true, I hate feet. I don’t know when or why this dislike started, and it may actually be men’s feet that I truly despise, but for the sake of this post it is feet in general.

It could have all started in college with my Art 104 class. The class where I had to draw hands and feet for 2 weeks straight (and eventually nude models). Some of you may even remember me following you around begging to draw one of your appendages but I actually think the fear & distaste for them started long before that.

I can't grasp that fact that a person can like feet, let alone like them enough to have a fetish. I have a purse fetish...I can not fathom a foot fetish! I saw a youtube video once where a girl was biting her toenails... I almost lost my lunch.

There is an array of reasons really: they are ugly with their weird shapes & sizes and bony features, they are hairy (sometimes), stinky, and dirty. They have toenails and toenails can have fungus.

Yet even though I hate feet, I admit I love to paint my toenails, throw on a toe ring or wear flip flops in the summer and I love to have my feet rubbed by J. But I will forever cringe at the thought of actually giving a foot massage. Are you serious? Actually touch them? I don't think so. Well, maybe, if I had gloves on.

To Grandma's house I go...

My Grandma- Marge- turned 80 years old last week and my parents and I packed up the truck to make the long drive to Grand Portage, MN to visit and celebrate. We left Dunbar at 7 am on Friday morning to make the cross-state trek. The nine hour drive was pretty uneventful- a lot of napping and reading was done on my part. (Grand Portage is in the Northeast corner of Minnesota between Grand Marais, MN and Thunder Bay, Canada)

We stopped in Grand Marais- along the North shore of Lake Superior and I took some great pictures. We arrived at grandmas house about 4:30 pm and spent the rest of the night visiting and getting settled.

Saturday was Grandma's Day. We went out to lunch, relaxed at her house and then planned on taking her out for dinner and a little casino time.

After being cooped up in the truck with my parents and 2 dogs I was definitely ready for a

We ate prime rib at the supper club in the Lodge, played a few slots (I was ahead $16.84 when we finished) and went to grab our seats for

The show- musical celebrity impersonations- was fabulous. My favorites were Cher, Tim McGraw, Elton John and Abba. Grandma even let loose a little and had a Coors Light. We had a great visit and I'm looking forward to J and I visiting this summer some time.

Happy Birthday Grandma- thanks for the great time!

I'm home

Well, Daisy and I have made it back safely from the Northpole-Grand Portage, MN- from a relaxing visit with Grandma J. Since I just returned last night at about 8 pm I have yet to upload or photoshop any pictures but didn't want to go without posting today.

Below you can enjoy some of the pictures I took on my Newfoundland hunting trip in September/October of 2007. I never have and never will claim to be good at photography but the land up there was just screaming to have it's picture taken and I'm sure my pictures would have turned out just as nice had I used a 110 film camera!!!

Enjoy!

This was taken while we were waiting for the float plane to arrive& fly us into camp. It was such a foggy, rainy day but I thought this was one of the most beautiful pictures I was able to get

I love the contrast of the monochromatic background with the bright yellow of the plane wing and the reflection of the sun on the lake (don't mind the dirt on the plane window)

This was taken the morning we were packing up and flying out of camp. It was also the nicest day of our entire trip (go figure). I love the contrast of the land and the soft, fluffyness of the sky

Are you serious....

I understand that the economy is in the toilet and we might just be in the worst recession since WWII but I have a huge problem with all of the "bail outs" that have been happening. As a Realtor for the past 6 years, I was an eye witness to a lot of people obtaining mortgages they should not have gotten. I can think of quite a few transactions that I was involved in where I said to myself- 'no way are these people going to be able to get financing for this place'- and they did AND 2 years later I received the listing as a foreclosure through the bank. The market was unbelieveable back then, a lot of people were making a lot of money and finanicial institutions were handing out funds like candy. I personally do not believe that there should have been a real estate bail out- especially with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. They caused the problems themselves- they were way up the creek but in the end it was their own fault they had no paddle. I don't agree with the automaker bail out either- but that's another post entirely!

I found this posting on TopNew.com today and let me tell you I am actually speechless... enjoy!



Submitted by Arun Gupta on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 07:21

Sounds absurd, but even the porn industry is hit by the ongoing recession - at least, that's what porn titans, `Girls Gone Wild' creator Joe Francis and Hustler's founder Larry Flynt have to say!
According to TMZ reports, Francis and Flynt are seeking a $5 billion stimulus package for bailing out adult entertainment, saying that "the economy has made America's appetite for sex go limp." Where and how exactly they want to spend the money is, however, another question!
Though essentially considered recession-proof, porn is actually not so. Flynt has been quoted as saying on TMZ: "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America."
TMZ says that that the two porn advocates, especially Francis, considers the porn `industry' - which reportedly generated nearly $12 billion in 2007 - similar to "the big three automakers, only BIGGER!"
The Web site too claims that adult DVD sales have fallen by nearly 22 percent during the year - and these numbers would definitely puncture the expectations at AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas this weekend.
Nevertheless, contradictory to claims of porn industry being smacked by recession, a Tom Johansmeyer article in `the Atlantic', though admits that porn video sales are down, also talks of Francis Koenig's fund AdultVest - which invests in porn-related assets - having increased by 50% in 2008!

So what are your thoughts???

Busy Bee

After only working 4 days over the weeks of Christmas and New Year's, I am again taking a couple days off! My grandma Jamison (mom's mom) turned 80 on Monday and my parents, the dogs and I will be making the 9 hour (one way) drive to Grand Portage, MN early Friday morning and coming home on Monday. However, I have to leave Appleton tomorrow right after work to drive to Dunbar. With business pretty slow and not much going on at work I find it a little disturbing that I am sitting here blogging (and getting paid) when I could be at home preparing to leave tomorrow. I still have to:
1. Pack my suitcase and toiletry bag
2. Finish packing Daisy's bag
3. Balance the checkbook & pay bills
4. Don't forget to pack the camera, my passport (she only lives 5 miles from Canada), the portable DVD player & DVD's, my book (The Host by Stephanie Meyer), Grandma's Birthday card, my ipod, my pillow and a throw blanket, my mom's dishes from Christmas that were left here
5. Volleyball tonight at 8pm
6. Trim the dog's eyebrows and give her a brushing & a bath
7. Clean out the Blazer
8. Check with insurance as to when the Blazer can be taken in to get fixed.
9. Call Kristen to find out how I download music to my ipod now that she switched it to manual management so she could give me the Twilight soundtrack

So does anyone have some free time to stop at my house today and do these things for me?

Are you all ready?

J and I had a fabulous wedding on April 17th, 2004. I was concerned about having an April wedding because the weather in Wisconsin is so "iffy". But the day turned out absolutely beautiful- mid 70's and sunny all day.

We had purchased our house up north exactly 1 year prior and in buying the house and having wedding expenses we did not have the funds to go on a honeymoon. For a wedding present my parents gave us a 3 night stay in a hot tub suite at a casino/resort in the Upper Peninsula, so we were able to have a little get away time.

In the almost 5 years that we have been married we still have not been able to go on a real "honeymoon", mostly because from 2005 to 2007 I was saving to go on the hunting trip of a lifetime with my dad.

Now that the hunting trip is long done and over with, the house in Dunbar is sold and the majority of our debt is paid off we are ready to save and go on a vacation together.

HERE WE COME!

Just a long weekend- 4 days. But here is the really cool part- we are going April 15-18, 2010 with the 17th- our 6 year anniversary- being on Saturday. We have decided to renew our vows and J wants to have the ceremony performed by.....

We both feel that after nearly 5 years of marriage (and 8 years of being together) our relationship grows stronger every day and what better way to mark that than to get married all over again!


We also know that we always have a great time with friends and family and Vegas is the perfect place for that- SO HERE IS YOUR FORMAL INVITATION. Start saving your pennies because the more the merrier! Come and celebrate with us!

More details will follow at a later date!

Not what I expected

When you're younger New Years Eve is a night to get all dolled up and "let'er snap". Ring in the new year with a terrible hang over and a few less bucks in your wallet (usually even a few less than you planned on spending)! A lot of people consider New Year's Eve "amature" night- a night for all the barley legals to get wasted, get in trouble and make stupid decisions. I will admit New Year's was all that and more for me when I was in my early 20's. But as you get older it does change.


New Years Eve this year was going to be a quiet one no matter what we decided to do. J and I had already agreed that we did not want to go out to the bars and spend wads of cash just to feel like crap the next day. We had a few options: go to my friend Melanie's house party in Green Bay, go to our friends Tom & Roxanne's for drinks and board games or stay home.


New Years Eve day was spent lumping around and watching episodes of CSI from seasons 7-9. At about 2 pm I decided to see if Melanie wanted to go to lunch before her big party started. I had decided to stay home with J and Parker that night- just something about spending New Year's Eve away from my honey felt wrong. Instead of going out for a late lunch Melanie had plans with her parents to cook out steaks and eat at her house. I showered quick, picked up a small tenderloin and 6 pack of Blue Moon at Festival and was on my way to Green Bay. I'm glad I decided to go -even for dinner- and the beers started to taste like I may have been spending the night! A few people started showing up around 7 pm- most I didn't know, a few I did and it was nice to see them. After eating steak, potatoes & garlic bread the beers certainly weren't going down as well or as fast and I think I only ended up having 3 the entire time I was there! At about 8:30 I was getting ready to go when there was a knock on the door. There was a neighbor of Mel's asking if anyone in the party had the green Blazer- my green blazer- parked on the street across the road. We all thought maybe it needed to be moved and Mel asked. The neighbor informed her that no it did not need to be moved..... his son had just hit it coming around (sliding around) the corner. Not what I was expecting to hear and definitely not what I was wanting to hear. I don't think I mentioned that Melanie is a Police Officer in Ashwaubenon and the majority of the party were Police Officers! She immediately called in the accident and the police where there within a matter of minutes. I also called J to tell him not to drink anymore in case the truck wasn't drivable and he would need to come and get me. It ended up being okay to drive with just a flat tire and a portion of the bumper and back driver-side quarter panel damaged. I drove to the gas station to fill the tire with air and waited at the house for 45 minutes to see if it would leak. It was fine and by 10:30 I was on the road heading home. I should have stayed but needless to say was not in too much of a mood to party all night long. I think I also forgot to mention that the kid was only 16 and had only had it drivers license for 2 weeks. I actually almost felt bad for him when I saw the look in dad's eyes- I would much rather have been in my situation than his! And yes they did have insurance!


So needless to say even though it was supposed to be a quiet, non-eventful night- the drama still found me a half hour from home!


I promise to attach some pictures of the damage if you promise NOT to notice how bad the Blazer needs a washing!









Thank goodness this was the last day of 2008 and not the start of my 2009!