Happy Halloween!

To carve a virtual pumkin,
click HERE.
(Come on! You know you wanna!)

An Earthquake? Really?

Well, that explains why I kept jolting awake last night. I kept thinking I felt someone walking around in my living room late last night (Note: I live in an older home, so the floors creak).

And you thought YOUR week was bad...

I was talking with a work-related contact of mine this afternoon. For the sake of anonymity, let’s call her “Sandy”.

I hadn’t heard from Sandy in awhile (which was odd), and asked her where she had been for the past couple of weeks.

I wasn’t quite prepared for her answer.

Apparently, Sandy had been hospitalized for nearly a week because of blood clots in both her legs and her lungs (i.e. she almost died). She was released from the hospital late last week, and her friend drove her from the hospital to the local CVS near Sandy’s house to fill her prescriptions.

While waiting for the prescriptions to be filled at the counter, a man with a gun came into the store and held it up. Despite being heavily medicated (not to mention scared to death!), Sandy not only notified the manager in the back of the store of the situation up front, but also managed to memorize the license plate of the getaway car parked NEXT TO Sandy’s friend's car in the parking lot. The result of this was that the suspects were apprehended not long after the hold up and Sandy gets to go ID them in an upcoming police line up (something she’s VERY excited about).

But that’s not where Sandy’s story ends, though (oh, no, no).

Sandy needed to give herself daily injections to keep the blood clots from returning over the weekend. The problem was that she didn’t know how to inject herself, and didn’t have any syringes to inject herself with, either. This sent her into a panic on Saturday night, as she didn’t know what to do and wasn’t allowed to drive anywhere thanks to all the medication she was taking.

Having nowhere else to turn, Sandy ended up calling her vet down the street in hysterics (since their office is within walking distance of her house and Sandy has been a loyal costumer for years), and her dog’s doctor has been graciously administering all of her shots for the past three or four days.

Tragically, all of this hasn’t had the intended effect on Sandy’s blood clots, though, and the poor thing might need to be readmitted to the hospital as soon as tomorrow morning.

Despite all of this, Sandy remains in good spirits and actually laughed (LAUGHED!) as she told me about the events of the past five days. I’m pretty sure I’d be a useless, emotional puddle if it had all happened to me. How’s she’s still standing (with a sense of humor to boot!) is beyond me.

Say a prayer for her, okay?

Why animals attack...

My brother took this picture in Argentina in late August/early September, and I would like everyone to know that I have never stooped to this level of dog mortification. True, I have been known to dress my dogs up for Halloween and the occasional football game, but neither of my puppies have ever worn pants, shoes, man-bags OR keys.

Yes, that's right: Even I have an animal costume line I won't cross.

Quick Update From My Brother:

"Actually, now that I think about it the pants were more chaps than pants...full access for the pooping and peeing dogs. Really quite well thought out.

I should also note, Deals, that this guy sells the clothes. AND he makes dog dresses and tuxedos...hint, hint...you could have Gypsy and Alley wear bride's maids' dresses and Haskell wear a tux in your wedding!!

...you know, if you're the sort of crazy lady that has dogs in her wedding."

Campfires, Machine Guns and just a little bit of Sexual Chocolate...

One of my coworkers just came into my office and started a story with:

“The other night, a bunch of my buddies and I were sitting around the campfire holding machine guns, when my friend from high school got up and recited the entire Sexual Chocolate intro AND song from the movie, Coming to America…”

Honestly, I’m not sure which part of that statement I find more bizarre.

Hula Pammy!

Sorry, Mom! It was too funny not to share!
(Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me...)

Happy Birthday, Trevor!

This is your last birthday as a bachelor.
Enjoy it, old man.

I LOVE YOU, TWINKIE!
~ XOXO ~

Why does crazy follow me?

“The trouble with talking nicely is that, unfortunately, some people don’t hear you until you scream.”

- Stefanie Powers

Or, in my case, they don’t hear you until you finally start to cry out of frustration in front of them. Then, they blame you for your poor communication skills and ask if you are under the influence of drugs.

This is definitely NOT my day.

The Express...

Today, the movie THE EXPRESS opens in theaters. Weeeeeeeeeee!

Why am I SO excited?

Because I am an ORANGEMAN, baby! And Hollywood has made a movie about MY alma mater! That’s right, Trevor! They made a movie about Syracuse football! When was the last time they made a movie about Texas Tech football? Oh, that’s right: NEVER!

Hahahahahaha!

Granted, the last time Syracuse had a decent football team was back in 1998 when Donovan McNabb was the Quarterback. We went to the Orange Bowl that year (and lost badly, but that’s another story). I was a bright-eyed freshman at the time, and honestly believed that the Orange Bowl was so named because the Orangemen were in attendance. Sigh, I know better now.



But the movie, THE EXPRESS, has additional significance for me. See, my dad was a sophomore in college at the University of Texas in 1959. The same year that Ernie Davis, also a sophomore, led Syracuse to the NCAA Division I-A national football championship, capping an undefeated season with a 23-14 win over The University of Texas in the Cotton Bowl.



Because of this, when I told my father that I planned to attend Syracuse University, he responded with the following:

“Well, that figures. In 1959, we played Syracuse in the Cotton Bowl. They had a bigger cannon, a brighter orange and they came down to Texas and stomped us. It makes sense that my own daughter would want to go Syracuse almost 40 years later.”

Of course, my dad was being sarcastic, which made it even more humorous four years later when he just happened to sit above the banner glorifying Syracuse’s victory over UT at my college graduation. What are the odds?! The Carrier Dome, although not the largest college stadium out there, isn’t necessarily tiny, either.

Combine all this with the fact that I can see the Cotton Bowl from my office window, and you have one excited movie-going Deals!

Well, except that I probably won’t be able to go to see the movie until next week (I have house guests this weekend), but still: T-H-R-I-L-L-E-D!

Down, down the field goes
old Syracuse,
Just see those backs hit the line
and go thro'
Down, down the field they go
marching, Fighting for the Orange
staunch and true.
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Vict'ry's in sight for old Syracuse,
Each loyal son knows she
ne'er more will lose,
For We'll fight, yes. we'll fight,
and with all our might
For the glory of Syracuse.

Lucy likes eggplant? Who knew!

From: Melissa
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:28 PM
To: Deals
Subject: Gary. . .

Has his feelings hurt since you have not responded to his invitation to the wine tasting.

I explained to him your issues. He said it sounded like a very lame excuse.

________________________________________
From: Deals
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:26 PM
To: Melissa
Subject: RE: Gary. . .

Technically, you invited me first. And Gary’s looked to be one of those mass email thingies (is “thingies” really a word? Spell check isn’t reacting so I guess it is).

Was I supposed to respond? I thought all RSVP went to Matt or Mike or whatever?

Plus, I only communicate with Lucy. Everyone knows that.

________________________________________
From: Melissa
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 4:39 PM
To: Deals
Subject: RE: Gary. . .

Just saw Lucy (and fed her an eggplant). She would like you to come. She misses her number 1 fan!

________________________________________
From: Deals
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 4:52 PM
To: Melissa
Subject: RE: Gary. . .

Is eggplant a preapproved bovine treat?

________________________________________
From: Melissa
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 5:03 PM
To: Deals
Subject: RE: Gary. . .

Well, since she’s been known to steal eggplant off the golf cart, I think she at least approves of it.

The necessary pre proposal story…

(I know, I know. I’ve been engaged for over two months, and I’m just now getting around to telling the story of the pre proposal. Better late than never, right?)

On August 3rd, 2008, Trevor, Scott (Trevor’s friend from high school) and I climbed our very first fourteener.

What’s a fourteener, you ask?

A fourteener is a mountain whose summit exceeds 14,000 feet above sea level. In Colorado, there are 50+ mountains that qualify as such, and it was only a matter of time before Trevor and I got around to climbing one.

Anyway, Trevor, Scott and I set out to climb Handies Peak very early in the morning on August 3rd. To get there, we had to drive north passed Silverton on a gravel road towards the ghost town of Animas Crossing. Then, we were supposed to take the four wheel drive road up through Cinnamon Pass, park and start the three mile hike up to top of Handies. Easy enough, right?

Well, sort of. Both Trevor and Scott were afraid of the four wheel drive road up through Cinnamon Pass. We had heard that the road was “a bit sketchy in places”, which pretty much spelled D-A-N-G-E-R-! for three lowlanders from Texas. So, it was decided that we’d park and take an alternate hike to the base of Handies via Grizzly Pass. True, this added a couple of miles to the trip, but we figured it wouldn’t be all that bad.

And we were right. It was worse.

To give you a better idea, we left the jeep at 10,400 feet, hiked all the way through Grizzly Pass to 13,000 feet, descended down to the base of Handies at about 11,000 feet, before summiting at just over 14,000 feet. Then, we had to do it all again in reverse just to get back to the d*mn car. It took just over eight hours AND we gained over a mile in altitude alone. And there were thunderstorms all around us making us near contenders for the Darwin Award.

Trevor and I had an especially hard time climbing the last 500 or so feet to the top of Handies. After all, we had only been in the altitude for eight days at this point. Scott, on the other hand, literately RAN to the top of the mountain. He lives in Denver and regularly runs marathons and competes in Iron Man competitions. Obviously, the altitude wasn’t a problem for him. I’ve never wanted to push somebody off a mountain so badly in my life. That is, if I could catch him (which I couldn’t).

I could barely SEE him!

All in all, the trip was totally worth it despite all the pain and blisters. I’d do it again – assuming we could DRIVE to the base of Handies instead of hiking there. The hardest part was the hike back to the jeep at 10,400 feet. In places, the trail was so steep that you had to carefully sidestep down in a zigzag pattern. I’ve never had a problem with my IT bands in my life, but *boy* were they talking to me THAT afternoon.

Some pictures from the hike:

Jump, Scott! Jump!

Incase you didn't believe me about the thunderstorms...

The actual summit (cleverly marked with a flag)...

We made it!

Requisite picture of the three successful hikers...

Hiking back up to 13,000 feet from the base of Handies was a low point on the trip.

The long, wet AND cold trip from 13,000 feet back down to the car.

Rescue a Chihuahua...

The following was sent in an email by Best Friends Animal Society:

Beverly Hills Chihuahua, a new Disney movie opens today, October 3rd.

We all know what happens when a new “dog movie” comes out—lots of people decide they must have a dog just like the one in the movie. But what people might not realize is that shelters and groups across the country have plenty of Chihuahuas, for ADOPTION. In fact, Chihuahuas are the 5th most-posted breed of dog for adoption on Petfinder (after Labs, Shepherds, Pit bulls and mixes of those breeds).

Check out our star-studded PSA video (with actors from the movie) that encourages adoption instead of buying. Watch on the Best Friends website (higher quality) or on YouTube.

We wanted to share a poster made by Best Friends that can be easily printed and hung up around your town to let people know that they can rescue a Chihuahua on Petfinder instead of buying one from a pet store, newspaper ad or the Internet. In fact, the star Chihuahua of the movie, Papi, was rescued from a Moreno Valley shelter, outside of L.A. just days before his “time was up.”

For more information visit our web page. Feel free to use link to the video on your own websites as well.

On behalf of the ‘Puppies Aren’t Products’ Campaign Team, thank you for helping us spread word!

Yeah. No Idea. But it's still funny...

"Swim away, FooGoo Fish! Swim away!"

"It's the Choo-Choo Shoe, Charlie! The Choo-Choo Shoe!"

The funniest forward I've received in a looooooong time...

According to the email, these two churches face each other across a busy street.

A special thanks to Melissa (and Melissa's mom) for making my day!!