Ice Balls and Other Mysterious Diseases

I am finally getting myselft back up to some symblance of normal after a bizarre encounter with the most unpleasant of diseases.  The headaches, sore throat and fevers seem to have subsided and now I am left with a voice that sounds akin to a horse/ bullfrog hybrid and some nagging exhaustion.  I have no doubt that I will be back to practically perfect by Easter.  My Nikki however seems to have caught a much worse and longer lasting version of this disease and it needs to be gone!  Good news is it's not mono or strep but danged it we know what it is. :(
In other knews from the weekend, yesterday evening I got caught out in the Spartanburg County hail storm of 2010.  It was crazy!  After much phone conversation between Cynthia, Donna and myself about how to cover our cars on our respective ways home I ducked into the Ingles gas mart in Peach Valley to givve my paint job some respite from the onslaught.  I then talked to Robin, who likes to fancy himself as some sort of meteorologist apprentice and he gave me the scoop on how long I needed to stay put and such.  He then began exclaiming that there were ice balls in his floor and after careful examination further exclamined that he had "ice balls in his chimney."  Now I am not completely certain as to why this struck me so funny, but I am pretty sure I haven't laughed about anything that hard in a really long time! 
The pelting subsided and I made the rest of my way home.  Everyone had pretty dinged up paint jobs this morning but as far as I know all of my friends and family made it out of the storm with no more incident than that.

Friendships

I have been sick this week so my apologies for the lack of post.  I did have a little surge of fever induced inspiration so I did a little playing on the Picnik and here are the fruits of the labor.
Just a few photos of the people I don't see enough, but can't live without.

And to the girls I see whenever I need to but never want to be found taking them for granted...

"Up" movie night

"Up" is amazing!!!

For the semi-annual Calvary movie night we watched Up Saturday night.  First and foremost this movie is incredible.  I don't care how old you are, this animated film is brilliant!

The Calvary crowd of course had a blast, not only with the movie but with the chili dogs and fixin's before the movie and of course the rec and fellowship clean up crew which disolved into Robin, Donnie, Paul and Donna singing songs from Hee Haw and Oh Brother Where Art Thou. 

Here are a few photos of the fun and frivolity :)

The grillmaster dethroned!

Brenda told Robin to move over and she showed him how to clean a grill when you leave the brush at home.

Hysterical!

The food line!!

Me with my church "daughter" Brittany.

I love her!

Oh, Nikki....

I loves her too :)

That's about it for the pictures because Donna and Tammy threatened to take my camera away...

I didn't find myself annoying at all.

Kitty Condos....

This as you can imagine is another bank project.  I love these fabulously whacky things I get to do where I work.  One of our bosses at the bank is a huge supporter of the Spartanburg Humane Society and so we had a little project this week for them.  Our mission was to take standard super thick cardboard boxes and thurn them into chic little hideaways for the shelters cats and kittens.  We picked up our supplies on Tuesday morning and then we dove into Operation Kitty Condo.

I was, as usual, slightly more jacked up about playing with magic markers than my coworkers, but gradually we began to find the children buried deep within their hardened adult exteriors.

Here is a sampling of our creative endeavors :)

Donna went for it with her bright colorful rainbow, which Debra adorned with her St. Patty's Day inspired pot of gold.  Harriett topped it off with a myriad of stars and the result is this colorful number that for me is somewhat remenisent of my childhood days watching Rainbow Bright.

June took home a box to her grandson and he did a great job decorating!

I am sure all the kitties will love having these friendly puppies around to look at.

Meredith is our ever trusty artist, who may have left us in the banking world but is always there to lend us a hand.  Debra handed off a box to her and she made this great town house box with charming hanging baskets and little fence.

Debra and I decided to top it off with a somewhat spanish inspired roof.

We aren't quitting our day jobs but I think we make pretty good roofers!

I, still entranced with Wonderland, went for a Red Queen's castle theme and I think Iracibeth would have been pleased!  I personally am thrilled with my White Rabbit and think his huge scale should be enough for me to keep my head!

I did my top with a completely transformed Absolem.

This may be the only time I am ever able to draw an Alan Rickman movie character biut I'm all good with that!

Suzanne's box will be complete in the morning, but here is what we have so far.

June's grandson wanted some Clemson love on his box, so I helped him out a little.  My Gamecock blood runs deep, but ya got to help a kid out where you can!

Tomorrow our boxes compete against the downtown competition and after Polly's win last week I am hoping for another creative win for the Reidville crew!

Nikki, Cynthia, Donna and Jessica in Wonderland (and Alice too!)

Well here it is the Alice and Wonderland redo.  Finally saw it last weekend with my girls on our mommy daughter date and had a great time.  Monterrey's first followed by the film!
Ok, well a little goofing off and then the film...
3D glasses are cool, just ask me and Nikki.  We had great fun with them...although I think it would be hilarious to be a theater employee to look up and see a gaggle of folk with their funky black glasses on.

And yes I am a super geek who is blind without her glasses so she must wear 3D glasses over the normal glasses and end up looking like some sort of bizzarre 6 eyed alien :)

While we had this incredible photo shoot the mommies were getting their Raisinette and Coca Cola what nots...then the film started!

And down the rabbit hole we fell!!

Seriously, after I saw it the first time I was like "huh? that was it?"

then I saw it the second time and was like "yep that was it."

But then I kept finding quotes and images floating up in my mind and it has quite grown on me.  I think in time this will become a favorite.  That being said this is the first movie of Tim Burton's with his company of Death Eaters that I have felt this way about.  Everytime they put out a flick I get really excited and then I am disapointed, ala the Sweeney Todd Christmas Day excustion of 2007.  This time, by golly I think they might have actually done it!  Ok, so Helena Bonham Carter still scares the poo out of me, but I think that is all apart of her charm.

All in all an amazingly wonderful experience but it seriously might have had a whole lot more to do with the company of the Mrs. Edge and Paxton and the Miss Paxton than the sound of Alan Rickman's incredible voice coming out of a drugged up caterpillar ;)

Junior Achievement BizBowl 2010

The bowling tournament was a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!
The first game I managed a 42...I started and ended with strikes and pretty much everything else was gutter balls.  Second game was a little better...3 strikes and a few extra pins here and there and still a whole bunch of gutter balls.  Seriously, I suck at bowling, but I had so much fun!!!!
I played with girls from the main office, but spent time running down to check on my Reidville peeps.
Here are pictures.....

I think I'm so artsy LOL

Harriett and Jeff...so cute!

Ted and Debra...my camera flashed a gazillion times in the dark bowling alley and Debra was not feeling the patience!

The newlyweds, Joe and Suzanne...after I got them to quit making out and smile for a picture.  DORKS!

Donna and Larry left before I took the camera out :(

And last but not least....

DRUMROLL...

POLLY WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me with the representative of Reidville Road, Miss Polly Palmetto

She won the bowling pin beauty pageant and on this auspicious occasion she would like to thank Cynthia Edge for helping to bring her into being and all those who donated to JA by voting for her!!

Here is some of her worthy competition!

The Village People on the left were quite cute!

My cohort Elizabeth's fish Lilly.  Definitely the most stylish fish I've ever met!

Ok, so obviously the pin pageant is my new favorite aspect of BizBowl.  Can't wait until next year!!!

Blackberries, Bowling Pins, and Palmetto Trees

As this week is completely bananas, here is the quick and dirty recap of the last few days.
First of all, we bid Chase farewell this past Saturday.  For those of you in my inner sanctum of friends you know that Chase has been my purple motorola W755 cell phone for the last 2 years.  She was a huge upgrade in my cell phone life and I absolutely loved her.  A great phone!!  However time flies and I used her almost to death.  The backlighting on her keypad went out, and she developed a strange need to shut herself off and sleep a while at random, so when my new every two came due I went shopping.

Enter Alice!  My new purple (all good cellphones are purple and have names)Blackberry Curve who does more things that I actually have comprehension of how to learn to do, but I love her!!!  Everyday I learn something new and amazing about her and she isjust soooooo pretty.  This is a Blackberry for girly boys and girls; macho women and men need not to apply.  NOt to mention that the lovely gentleman who sold me to her recommended a dark lavender protective case that looks like a dark frame around her face.  Beautiful!!
Currently mine has the blue catterpillar from Alice and Wonderland, Absolem as my wallpaper.  Yes, I did see the movie, but I saw it at the wrong time without the right people and when that happens then I will blog.  Sometimes a movie is about the people you experience it with as much as the characters you experience, and I need a redo on this one to capture to right experience to document.

Now onto bowling pins and palmetto trees....this is a convoluted little tale.
I work at a bank, and banks are required by law to do alot of community and public service (actually I think it is a shame that we have to have laws to make us be decent people, but I digress.)  This is the time of year that we in banking like to refer to as the fundraising season.  The precedeing month has been full of fundrasing for Junior Achievement of Spartanburg that will all culminate Friday night in a big old fashioned bowl-a-thon.  As apart of this event we were given a beaten and highly battered bowling pin to decorate for the event.  Now keep in mind, this is a season of fundraising.  This particular push will be followed by the March of Dimes and my personal favorite Relay for Life....so, I decided our bowling pin should be a mascot for the season, not just JA.  The Relay theme for this year is "Nothing Could Be Finer, Than a Cure in Carolina."  The t-shirts are navy with the Carolina palmetto moon and a pink ribbon inside the palmetto.  This a blue and pink and white color scheme...March of Dimes is for babies...a blue and pink color scheme...so.....(did I mention my heart was in Relay????)

Meet Polly!!

Cynthia spent her Monday evening helping me with this one!  She painted the pin for me and drilled the hole for the fronds and moon...not to mention cutting the fronds, making the moon and painting the face.  She is brilliant!!  I had a blast working on this with her and I seriously hope that our branch wins in the bowling pin beauty pageant that will go down on Friday night in conjuction with my horendous bowling.

For now, howeverCynthia and I are both pretty proud of our masterpiece!

Cold Cold Cold....

oh and did I say cold??
I am so ready for spring to come once again to the city of sparkles.  I simply cannot get warm even with flannel sheets, two quilts, an electric matress pad and my snuggly Gamecock flannel pjs.  This is pathetic, but I am a southern girl through and through and I don't do well with this sort of thing.  The fact that I drove Blanche around for a few winters with no heat is completely astonishing to me with my new found cold blooded issues.
In other news, my circle of companions seem to have all atracted the Norovirus.  Cynthia and Harriett have come down with it and although they both seem to now be somewhat on the mend, I do not enjoy hearing Paul Edge tell me that Cynthia cannot come to the phone because she is busy being treated in the ER.  This stuff is seriously nasty and for once I am grateful for the fact that I deal with everyone's filthy money everyday and have an icredible immune system because if it.
Due to Cynthia's illness, we still have not decorated the bowling pin riding around in my back seat.  At work we are raising money for Junior Acheivement of Spartanburg through a bowl-a-thon, and therefore were given a bowling pin to decorate.  As we also have the March of Dimes and Relay for Life fundraisers coming up I want to do it on a theme that will work for all of our money raising endeavors.  If Cynthia will get better then we will make an amazing bowling pin...but for now a very beaten and battered pin is rolling around in my already overcrowded back seat full of crap.
That's about it for the news around here!

Pictures...

I have had the camera out a couple times lately and thought that I would share some shots.

This first one is from my front yard.  My grandfather put up an American flag with lights shining up on it a while back.  The other night I came in and it looked amazing with the wind blowing and the full moon.  The moon looks a little funny, but I still really like this picture.

These next ones are from work yesterday during the snow...the very strange snow that fell, accumulated, melted, fell some more, accumulated some more and then melted again.  Weird.

Lots of flakes...not much on the ground though :(

Today it is supposed to be up to 50 degrees so we shall see where the crazy weather leads us next!