So Very High - And Cold

Laszlo Next to the Mile-High Bridge -Freezing!



Sign by Mile-High Bridge

Ok. So today was cold. There are no other words I can use except to say that it is cold. And of course it was the day that we choose to go to Grandfather Mountain, home of the mile-high bridge. The temperature shown on the weather station inthe gift shop showed 42 - and that doesn't include the wind-chill - with winds gusting to more than 40 miles per hour. Walking across the swinging bridge was a challenge, the wind burned any skin that happened to be exposed.

But, we had a great time. The fall foliage is lovely. The peak of the leaves up here at Beech Mountain and also at Grandfather is about to happen. And there is lots of harvest and Halloween decorations around.

Anyways, tonight is the last night and I have an audience behind me. Greg, Karen, Laura and Joe are all sitting on the bed behind me chatting away. Next to me there is a glass of wine. So I am officially relaxed and enjoying vacation. Too bad it's ending. But I have been privaleged to spend the time with my sisters and their husbands.

Next - back to Florida, where I hear Fall has arrived.

Up another mountain or two, and then some

Laszlo at the falls


In front of The Biltmore




Greetings from chilly Beech Mountain. Where this morning we woke to a temperature of 30 degrees. In the sun the weather was glorious, in the shade we shivered in the cold wind.

We've been keeping very busy. Yesterday we took a trip down the road to the Linville Caverns and Linville Falls. Both very cool. The caverns are 52 all year round and more than 2,000 feet below the ground. Without a light source you are in complete darkness - which is freaky when the demonstrate this.

And then to the falls. We hiked up a mountain again to see some more lovely scenery. It would have been better if Laura didn't wake up with a cold the day before and by yesterday it had progressed to a nasty bug. She earned the nickname one-lung Laura because she said that's what it felt like for her to climb to the falls.

Today, we went South to the Biltmore estate. Whew. That place is huge. And that's only the house. That doesn't include the grounds, which we thought we drove around and saw a lot, really we didn't, only a fraction. I am awed that the amount of land and home-space was for one family. But the weather was lovely. We walked the grounds, Joe and Greg entertained themselves by rolling down the back lawn, and we went to the winery and tasted some yummy wines.

We all agree that there's no need for a gym up here. Mother Nature is your gym. If I walked up and down mountains daily, my butt would be MUCH thinner.

Tomorrow there's one more mountain to conquer, Grandfather Mountain. We plan to take a picnic lunch and enjoy the cool weather and some of us plan to cross the mile-high swinging bridge, not including Joe. He said there's no way he's doing that. But that's OK.

Off to a late dinner. Greg's crock pot beef stew smells yummy!

A Two Hour Drive??!

A rest stop on the Blueridge Parkway


A rest stop for us on the climb to Clingman's Dome


The trees that are dying


We decided to take a drive down the road to the Smokey Mountain National Park. According to Mapquest it would take about 2-hours. Well, after driving down the lovely Blue Ridge Parkway (which my poor sister Karen was close to hurling more than once from the curvy road), a sidetrack to the west of Ashville, through the Cherokee Reservation and finally into the park it was 1:30 in the afternoon. We left about 9.

So we had to make the best of our time in the park. So we found a lovely set of picnic tables where we dined on the best peanut butter and for those who partake in the jelly sandwiches. We planned our attack. We would make our way towards Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park. According to the parks literature we picked up, we would make a "steep" 1/2-mile walk to an observation tower where we could see 360 views of the surrounding mountains.

Wow, steep was being kind. I told Laszlo that it was the longest 1/2-mile walk I've ever done. Comments from the group on the way up:

I surrender! I'm a flat lander. - Laura

Oh my God, we're not even half way there. - Sarah

If the woman with the walking cast can do this, I better be able to. -Laura

I don't want to walk back down, it's too hard. - Karen

What was really sad was all the dead and dying trees. How sobering. The majority of the ferns growing on the mountains are being killed by insects "accidentally" brought from Europe. And the trees not dying from that are being finished off by the acid rain. And to read that the view is obscured 80 percent in the Summer from pollution was scary. And all of this happened within 100 years.

So we left the park in search of gas and a quicker way home. We went north through Gatlinberg and around the park on a quick moving highway. We got home at 10. We cut off more than and hour off our time. Thank goodness for the 16-bean soup waiting for us in the crock pot. All we wanted to do was eat a little and fall into bed.

Today the gents are off playing a round of golf and the ladies are sitting around the house relaxing. Which we are fine with. We think we might venture down to town later, with hopes that the gentleman on the way back up can pick us up.

No matter what though, vacation is good for the mind and the soul. I can get used to this. Although I'm happy NOT to be in the car right now.

Welcome to the Beech

Yesterday we arrived in Beech Mountain, N.C. for a week of R&R. My husband and my two sisters and their husbands are sharing a home. We are very high up to say the least. Over 5,000 feet. But it is lovely. The weather is nice about 80 or so in the sunshine and in the shade cooler. In the evenings into the low to mid-50s at this point. And at the end of the week it is supposed to cool down significantly.

The picture above is the view from my bedroom at 7:45 this morning. It was one of the few days recently I woke up and said to myself, I need to go out and see what the view is! And it was fantastic. I hope to see the sunrise one of these days.

We hiked two trails today, climbed up the the very top of the mountain to watch the sunset and just finished a fantastic dinner. Tomorrow we are off to Smokey Mountian National Park.

I am relaxed (and no it's not the wine from dinner). Vacation feels good.

Welcome home Laura and Greg K.C., Welcome Home!

So this evening husband and mom and dad spend the evening lugging sister Laura and brother-in-law Greg's stuff into a new apartment over in Seminole - about 10 minutes from my house. This is a huge improvement since they used to live four hours away in Jacksonville. Greg recently graduated college and now is the proud owner of a new job.

We are all very excited to have them home, they've been gone for more than six years. There will be much fun to be had. Although part of our hearts are still in J-Ville as sister Karen and bro-in-law Joe live there. Just another reason for a road trip to North Florida.

But as for Laura and Greg, in the words of the guy from Extreme Home Makeover -

Welcome Home Laura and Greg K.C., welcome home!

A Drive-By Photoing..

I'm going through some photos and I thought I'd post a few. First we start with my good buddy Kathy - yes that's her a coconut bra. She knows she's hot can't you tell by the come-hither look in her eyes?



And next there is my parents. They celebrated 38 years of wedded bliss this summer, and as a gift the kids bought them, what else, Super Scrabble! Quadruple word scores, what's not to like about this game?? One day I will win!


And Kathy makes another appearance. Here she is with her husband Dave. They renewed their marriage vows at Rainbow River State Park last month. This time she was sure Dave wasn't going to hurl or runaway. She wore a dress to mark the occasion. There were many pictures taken, we don't know if we'll ever see another dress again on her!



Finally, this is my husband Laszlo. He took a trip out west in May to see his friend Mike in Vegas. They took a trip up to Lake Tahoe. It's almost June in this picture and he's wearing a sweatshirt. To me this picture is funny because it looks like he is in a photo studio where they have all those backgrounds they can pull down. Pretty funny.

U-S-F!

It's bedlam baby here in the Tampa area here in west central Florida. There's green and gold everywhere. For what you may ask? It's all about the University of South Florida Bulls football team that has crashed the NCAA football party by beating Auburn IN Auburn and then spanked a pathetic North Carolina team last week. And now, in the biggest game of the 11 year-young football team, they are less then 30 minutes away from playing #5 ranked West Virginia.

I know - it's only football you may say. But it's fun. Especially for a school that has been in the shadow of UF, FSU and even Miami. For a school that most people around the country had no idea what school USF is - even though it has almost 45,000 students in attendance. This school is starting to get a little respect. And with all the bad things we hear about every day on the news, it's nice to have a little fun frenzy to take your mind off the other stuff.

So with that said all I have to say is GO BULLS!

Heerreee's Sarah!

So I thought I would borrow Dave Simanoff's Four Questions format to jump-start my posting here again. It seems a simple way to answer some of the questions that everyone has been asking me. I just manipulated the questions to fit what I need to say.

Question 1: Where has Sarah been since August?
Well, at home and work. Sarah wasn't out traveling the world. Sarah's computer went into menopause (it just started overheating one day) and it kept shutting down. She didn't feel comfy writing blog entries on the work computer. The blog would have to wait.

Question 2: What's-up in Sarah's World?
Let's see. Work, play some and some more work. In between Sarah celebrated her husbands 33rd birthday, her parents their 38th wedding anniversary, her friends Kathy and Dave's second wedding (she wore a dress!), Sarah's 33rd birthday and is preparing for a week in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her two sisters and brother-in-laws. She also found out her sister Laura and bro-in-law Greg are moving home after 6 years in Jacksonville. She is excited.

Question 3: Has Sarah Read Any Good Books or Seen Any Good DVDs Lately?
Sarah has. Right now Sarah and Laszlo are on a Kevin Smith film binge, and she wants people to know that yes Dogma was funny. Also - The Alphabet Sisters was a great book.


Question 4: How is Sarah Feeling Today and Why?
Excited! The USF Bulls play #5 ranked West Virginia tomorrow night and she is extremely pumped. Go Bulls! She will be wearing her new Bulls shirt to work tomorrow in support of her team.

Blechh!

I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted. My computer had an issue with overheating, thus it wouldn't work.

Today I can't breath, my ears are clogged and my head is killing me, along with some overheating so I am staying home from work for the second day in a row. When I feel human again, I have lots to share. But since I don't and it's before 7 in the morning, I'm going back to bed.

I Can't Get No...Satisfaction?

I was reading through one of the magazines my Mom passed off to me the other day. Most often I skim through them without finding a gem or much useful. I found a great column by Rick Warren titled: The Secret to Soul Satisfaction. Usually that would turn me off just the title alone. But for some reason I started to read it. This line caught me and propelled me to the end: "But discontent becomes unhealthy when your desire to acquire becomes your life focus." The column is about examining what you have and to remember to take the time to remember all that already have. It can be summed up by one of the headlines in the story The key is real gratitude. He sums it all up by asking you to look at what you have in your life and ask "what will last forever? and what will last a few months, days or even hours?" And to focus more on the things that have the greatest impact such as your family or giving back to others.

This article helped me remember, those really important items in life are worth investing your heart and soul in. A new car, TV or a new pair of black pants is nice - but not worth splitting hairs over.

And it reminds me to wish one of those important people in my life, my hubby, a Happy Belated birthday.

I Love the Rain

I work on the 16th floor of with a window to my back. So it makes for some cool views at times. And when we get the great Florida thunderstorm rolling through I find myself having trouble working because all I want to do is stare out the windows at the weather. Today was a great example. The huge gray clouds rushed in time after time and then the waves of rain blew sideways. Next thing I knew, they were gone and the sun was shining. Crazy.
If my computer faced the window I would be screwed. I'd never get any work done. I'd just stare out the window all day.

You're Healthy ... But...

Today I participated in my company's new health program. You get a basic physical (blood, blood pressure and a height/weight assessment. It's pretty cool. In fact, just by taking this test you get PAID $50.

I was surprised by how good all my levels are. I am in the normal range for cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides and my HDL (Healthy!)/LDL (Lousy!) levels. Although they insist that I am 5 feet 5 and 1/2 rather than 5 feet 6. They have to be wrong! If it wasn't for my weight issues, I would have no risk for heart disease according to my assessment.

In fact, when you factor everything but weight, as one of the worksheets did, I have a below average chance of heart disease. I'll take what I can get I suppose. At least I didn't have sky high levels. I am proud of that fact. And now I have another reason to lose some weight, minus just all the obvious ones. I make my goals, I get paid $400 next year. Now to the easy part (yeah right) that whole losing weight thing.

Guys, You Might Want to Skip This One

I want to know who the moron is who came up with the newer packaging for Always. You know the folks who make feminine products?
As you open them up they proclaim "Have a Happy Period!" Yes, with the exclamation marks and all. That's the last thing I need to hear at that time of the month.
Some chump telling me to be happy must never have had bad menstrual cramps, or the desire to bite the head off of a loved one because your hormones are raging, the urge to cry because - well - cause you just do, back aches, nausea and other wonderful things. What it should say is, take some ibuprofin and have some chocolate and you might feel a little better.

I can't believe I just wrote something about my period, but that little phrase just really pissed me off.

It's Been Swell Harry

So Saturday morning I was up bright an early to procure my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I thought I'd leave the crowds of the night before and get in and out of Target first thing. Unfortunately Target isn't opened at 7 like I thought. So I snuck in and out of Wal-Mart and was well into reading the book by 8:30 with my mug of coffee and bowl of cereal. I thought I'd finish it by days end by some interruptions got in the way and by midnight I was pooped and I wanted to be more fresh for the final 100 pages. I new it would be heavy.

And it was. For the most part I was pleased with the book. It answered the questions I had. I have to say JK, the epilogue, I could have done without. But the epic battles, imagery, twists and turns were great. I know I'll have to go back and read it again to really get the intricacies of the book.

Now my only question is...what am I going to read now?

On Fish, Two Fish, 17 Fish??!!

So this was a part of my husbands fish haul on Sunday. Why a part? He reached his bag limit on Spanish Mackerel and he had to start throwing some back. He accidentally brought 2 extra home (thus the 17 fish).

And as my sister Laura said "they are delicious!" Or as I said "Mackerelishious!"

Because of his luck, Hubby is convinced I must come and sit in the 90 degree + weather and join him for a round of fishing. Well, if I actually caught one I might be convinced, but I have a rep. to uphold - I'm the one who just doesn't catch any.

Oh, and don't even ask what our garbage can smelled like after being in 90+ degree heat all day yesterday. One word for it, NASTY!

In the Wilds of Pinellas

Who says there's no wildlife in the midst of suburbia?

Take for instance this soft-shelled turtle I will nick-name One-Eyed Wonder for his one good eye that I found this evening in my neighbors side yard. I would have never even noticed him if it wasn't for the fact I locked myself out of the house unknowingly this morning. While petting the neighbors cat, the cat suddenly got up and ran over to the turtle to investigate. I didn't want the cat to hurt the turtle to so I shooed her away. Hubby came home to let me in the house, but became a part of helping O.E.W. back to a lake. He seemed very pleased when he plopped into Lake Allen.

God does work in mysterious ways eh?

Whew, what a week!

I'm pooped.

This week has been a doosie to say the least. I went t bed at 9 last night, I know I'm heading that way after I finish this.

First there was a late night last Saturday night in Orlando. We hung out with some old friends from high school and caught up. Was so pleased to see my old buddy Patti, we were almost inseparable back then. Either we were on the phone or spending the night at her house or her spending the night at mine. I'm glad she bumped into Joe and found her way back to us.

Then there was a wedding on Tuesday. Yeah, Tuesday. Glen and Samantha congratulations! The wedding was great. I would have loved to stay for cake, but I started to get a migraine and I had to go.

Off to Thursday, a killer event for work. Nothing like an outdoor event in Florida at the end of June to make you thank God for air conditioning.

And today, just lots at work again, and migraine number 3 for the week.

So to summarize: Pooped, headache, friends, headache, wedding, work, headache, pooped.

I have some fun pictures..but I have to figure out where I put my card reader or a USB cord. Until then you'll have to picture this:

Friends in tacky Hawaiian garb and me and a hot dude dressed like a CFL that we nicknamed "Hottie Wattie."

Harry Potter Mania

So the other night I finished my re-reading of all the Harry Potter books. It is amazing how much I had forgotten. And you would think it would be the first ones that I had forgotten the most. But it wasn't. It was the year 4-6 that I was just amazed how much I missed the first time through. I think it was that I wanted to know so badly how they ended that I glanced over many parts. And now that year 7 - Deathly Hallows is what, 29 days, away (I didn't know that number off the top of my head, I had to head to MuggleNet, a premier Harry Potter fan site to look at the clocks at the top ticking off time till the movie and the book release) I had to come into the final book with a clear understanding of the many plot lines. It's not just about who dies at the end, but why so many things happened. But I feel like I have to give up reading the Internet for the next month. I don't want to read about people posting hacked endings to the book. I don't want someone else to tell me how it ends. I want to find out. So I think I will have to carefully tread through the Internet, a slowly open certain parts of the paper to make sure I don't find out.

I know it's a children's series, but it's solid reading that's a lot of fun. And I am here to admit that at the moment I am caught up in the hype. I'm ready to see Order of the Phoenix (in Imax of course!) and shortly after, to buy my copy of Harry Potter first thing in the morning so I can take it work and read it at lunchtime. People may laugh...but I don't care. I'm ready!

Happy Belated Birthday Babies....

So the Quads turned 1 a few weeks ago. I don't know if you remembered my mention of my cousin's wife gave birth to twins less than two years ago and followed them up with quads. These lovelies above are the Motter Quads. I wish I knew which was which (I haven't had the chance to meet them personally) but they are: Connor, Elizabeth, Grace, and Dylan.

So happy birthday Motters!

Tropical Storm Barry

So we were took a direct hit from Tropical Storm Barry today. And were we ever pleased. Rain has been in very short supply here in Florida. It was more than a month since we had any rain. Even the stinking weeds were shriveling up. I wasn't even going to try to plant anything - I've learned that working against Mother Nature just does NOT work. The eye came directly over my county. It was very strange. It was raining and then suddenly there was blue sky. It was lovely.

Barry is the kind of storm we'd take here any day. But I know I don't want to tempt fate. The experts keep saying we are going to have a very active season and that Central Florida's time is coming. I hope Barry was our tropical brush of the year. I really do. Thinking about something worse gets my stomach all out of shape. It's just scary stuff.

On another topic, I'm writing this blog entry from my buddy Aaron's laptop. He was reading this blog early on and often gave me grief when the space wasn't changing much. So I think it's pretty cool that I'm working from here. I'm not going to try to add a picture. I'm not too good without a mouse since I rarely use a laptop. Hi Aaron! :-)