Now some years the list of deals I wanted was fairly small, other years like 2 years ago it was massive and I was 5 stores in at 3 minutes to eleven running to the checkout with the last huge deal on my list, I made it, and that year I saved well over five hundred dollars.

This year, well what can I say, the deals sucked and if they didn’t then they didn’t even come close to what I was looking for. So I had a very small list, 3 items as a matter of fact and I got one, and a lousy Mickey Mouse snowglobe I didn’t even want. Here’s just a little of the day I will call “The Worst Black Friday Ever!”

4am JC Penny- received snowglobe, looking for one item seen in ad, looking, still looking, rubbing bleery tired eyes, spot sales woman, ask “I saw a (censored til Christmas) in your ad, now I see you have (censored) but I can’t seem to find the (censored) one you show.”
Sales woman- “Oh we don’t actually carry those in the store, you would need to order that off line.” Me *looking baffled I’m sure* - ” Are you serious? I just drove like 60 miles and I could have just ordered it? And you don’t carry them?”
Sales woman- “Nope we don’t but if you order it online today you will get the same deal as the ad.” Me-*walking away, confused, tired, grumbling incoherantly.*

4:30am-6am Sitting outside of (censored store) waiting for them to open

6am Enter (censored store) instant success, duh theres knowone here.

7am Hook up with Markus at Office Depot?Max? find him at back of store waiting in a checkout line, dump his sister off with him and run to Target for last item I would like to get.

7:15am Battling insane amounts of people just talking and looking confused in the isles of Target, get to area of (censored item) and start looking, and looking, getting pushed and slammed into, still looking, getting pissed,….find sales…kid, ask “Where are the 60 dollar (censored)”
Kid- *points to area I’ve been looking at for ten minutes* ” They should be there.”
Me- “They are not.”
Kid- “Well they should be right there.” *pointing again*
Me- “But there not.”
Kid- “Oh they should be.”
Me “Yep, but there not.”
Kid- “Did you see them in the ad?”
Me- (thinking- No I made them up) “Yes, they were on the page with the (censored) right by the (censored).”
Kid- *looking smart*- “Oh well we don’t carry everything in the ad.”
Me- *WHAAA!?!?* (thinking- you are so lucky the crowd is pulling you away from me because I’m ready to throttle someone!!!)

8am-8:30am Waiting at IHOP for Markus,Larry and Sara,… and waiting and waiting.

8:30am Go to Office Depot?Max? arrive just as they are coming out the door crabbing about there own horrible Black Friday.

8:30-10am Waiting to eat a crappy, slow, coldish breakfast at a over stuffed resturant.

What if you were moving to another state, or country? Sure you can hire movers, but who’s good? What if you have multiple vehicles to move? It can just get to be a bigger and bigger headache…unless you have some great new services to help you out. Say you had the one problem I mentioned, you are moving but have a vehicle that needs to get to your new home. Well now theres a one stop site that can handle your car transport while you tend to other things, like that giant truck containing your worldly posessions.

Thats only one small portion of this new service I found, Relocation.com is a fantastic site full of some of the most vital moving resources, like Real Estate, Apartment Hunting, Insurance, Careers, and Home Improvement. If you are wanting to move they have guides and information on everything you need to find a new location thats comfortable, or say you have to relocate for ‘personal’ reasons, they can help find you a city with a large population where you can hide…er…I mean live quietly. Know matter what your needs I am sure Relocation.com will have what your looking for.

I hope you all have

Lately it seems I have been at a shortage for ideas, I’m really struggling to find things I want to talk about that don’t bore me, and if the idea bores me it will surely bore you reading it. My favorite time of year is here now, and I am moved into the new house, and almost totally unpacked, so I have been letting my mind wander and brew some new ideas. I have a good feeling that with the new year there will be plenty of things wanting to burst right outta my head, so be prepared.

I am so glad we went it was the most fantastic show I have ever seen, far better than even I had imagined. The effects and costumes and dancing and even the Santa Claus and the minor story line running through it all were so good.

My photos don’t do it real justice because my camera is not that fancy so I have limited zoom and in a dark auditorium Markus taught me not to use flash but its so very hard to get a clear picture like that so I am posting some of the best shots but you really just have to experience this show for yourself.

The little bit of the Nutcracker that they did was danced flawlessly by a very young ballerina playing Clara.

The whole New York at Christmas segment was unreal, with a full size tour bus on stage that turned and the wheels spun, after the Rockettes boarded it the scene in the background became streets and it truly felt as if you were seeing them drive through the lit up streets of downtown New York.

I taped a whole video before the end where two figure skaters put on a stunning little skating show on a small rink in front of the main stage, once that was done fireworks blasted in front of the New York backdrop.

I literally watched my daughters jaw drop as Santa and two little boys took flight over the audience during a story section of the show. It took a few minutes then she leaned over and said “Oh they have strings, see Momma.”

Even though are seats weren’t bad (Thanks to a free upgrade gift from the Rockettes!) Katrein still enjoyed using the binoculars for some real close ups, on this particular dance the Rockettes wear beautiful costumes that are flesh tone leotards adorned with a reported 3,000 Swarovski crystals each. As Katrein peered through her binoculars she leans towards me and says “Momma I think they are only wearing glitter.”

The last thing I wanted in this post was an amazing video I got of the living Nativity which gave me goosebumps, but regretfully the video was far to large so I will end it with this final photo.

I said before “What a great day to be alive” because a very amazing thing could be happening tomorrow, the only sadness I feel about this is Obama’s Grandmother passed away today. How very sad, after all the things she must have seen through the years this day had to be so tremendous.

Ten films that I think anyone who likes to get scared should see, and believe me I am impossible to scare so if a movie gives me the creeps its gotta be good. Well here goes starting with number ten and of course ending with number one, which I deem the most frightening movie.

# 10- I Am Legend- Okay so maybe you’re into hard core horror like me and you’re like, hmmm not that scary, but that’s why I put it at 10. It was cast really well, and the idea behind it, the loneliness, the solitude that’s what got me, and then those damn ‘people?’ were so freakishly fast!

#9- Friday The 13th – There is something nostalgic about the first movie that scared the crap out of you. Well this may not have been the first but this is the first scare I remember clearly. I also remember watching it a second time with my brother who is five years older and seeing it scare him and thinking that was just awesome and hilarious. (He was such a meany then )

#8- The Devil’s Rejects- I am a huge Rob Zombie fan, loved White Zombie music, loved him on his own and his movies well his Halloween remix not bad, House Of A Thousand Corpses..eh, it was a time waster if you are bored, but Devil’s Rejects is well a shining light (hehe inside joke) no it’s really good, you got your creepy rednecks, your sexy girl psychopath, its a great make you jump kinda film.

#7- The Shining- Ah yes, of course a couple of Stephen King stories had to make the list, but this one is truly made special in the original by a phenomenal part played by Jack Nicholson.

#6- Resident Evil- I would say all of these because I am just a sucker for zombie movies and because I looooved the first Resident Evil video game! It was awesome, but to be fair although they were all good. The first one has its charm and each sequel was just not as good, and this list is about scary, so number one is the scariest.

#5- Saw- Okay there is truly a difference between scary and gory, I thought the first Saw was scary, psychologically creepy even, but even though I have watched all four and will watch Saw V on DVD, in my opinion they went from scary to gory after the first one, so the first is all I recommend for a good scare.

#4- Dawn of the Dead -2004- Yep back to the zombie movies, I love zombie movies, ever since the old black and whites. This one is particularly special to me because its done in a mall, which is very cool, it’s very modern, and it has a zombie baby birth that is just freakin’ awesome!! Zombie baby And now with the Dead Rising video game it’s like playing in the movie, I love it!

#3- Silent Hill- Oooo another video game became a movie, I have to say so far so good. I have never been a huge fan of movies becoming games but the other way around seems to be working. This movie is uber creepy, just like the game and the creatures are very scary, the story line is a little iffy but hey we are talking fright value here.

#2- The Mist- Yes another Stephen King made it, this one is amazing, I actually received the audio story over a year before the film came out and the film was very close not a disapointment at all. Fog, isolation, giant bugs and the ending OMG scared me, and made me sick……fantastic!

Okay, so we find ourselves at my number one pick, now I’m sure I missed a couple great scary films, and I do recommend all of the After Dark Film Festival movies because they are all worth seeing and many are very scary, but this is my list and I worked hard to give you my best. Without further stalling…..

#1- 30 Days Of Night- This film still has the ability to make me look over my shoulder and turn on more lights then necessary, it is in my opinion by far the best vampire movie ever made, and I am a huge vampire nut! If they would have had Boris Karloff posters I’d have one on my wall! So the pale faces, black soulless eyes, the little girl “I’m done playing with this one.” as blood drips from her shark tooth like mouth……oh man this is it.

I can honestly say that this film is the only one that truly scared me since I was a child and I keep re-watching it trying to get that same feeling but sadly it only creeps me out now.

So there it is, in my opinion some of the best movies to rent for a good scary night, enjoy! Oh and Happy Halloween!

Poor Jones cola, so easily swayed by catchy gimmicks and names has foolishly come out with a Pure McCain (made with pure cane sugar) cola, I am no longer a drinker of these delicious beverages because if a company can back a man that will only further damage this country like his predesessor I am no longer a purchaser of their wares. Rachel Ray made a concious choice as I see it, a choice wiser women, with bigger audiences were not publicly making. In other words Rachel invited McBush…er I mean McCain on to her show to make his ‘famous’ Bar BQ Ribs (yeah right!) and failed to invite Barack Obama on, only showing her support for McCain, where a smarter woman like Oprah fully supports Barack but has said she will have neither candidate on her show because she doesn’t use her show as a political soap box.

The funny thing about all this, or maybe its ironic is that in boycotting Rachel Ray I started watching other shows and Ellen Degeneres was one I flipped on and it happened to be the day that Ozzy Osbourne’s wife Sharon was on and instead of talking about her current show Americas Got Talent she was in the midst of a tirade about how McCain’s choice of running mate just goes to show how stupid he believes the population of American women to be, that he had no interest in choosing her for any great deal of knowledge or ability he just needed some gimmik to gain him a minority voting populus so since blacks were obviously taken he grabbed the first free women he could find in hopes of gaining the woman minority. Like we are stupid drones that will see a women and instantly go “oh I better vote for him now…a….duh.” And lets just put this into perspective, this incredibly intelligent tirade was issuing from the mouth of a woman who was the manager and then became the wife of a man who once was known for biting the heads off bats on stage.

It doesn’t take a genius, a rock star, or a cola company ad exec. to see whats simply fact though and that’s what and who are good for our future, our countries future, I mean things are really in the crapper, financially this country is screwed and its going to take a long time to fix it, a helluva lot longer than it took Bush to screw it up, but first we have to get the right guy in office to at least start. This is not an ad for Barack Obama but just an informed opinion about a man that wants to help the little guy (or gal) and fix this country, he needs no gimmicks, no kissing, or hauling around Autistic babies, he just knows what will work, and that is change. And if given the opportunity I bet he knows how to make some tasty ribs!

About 45 miles out of Denver my breath was literally taken away by my first clear site of the Rockies, all I can say is wow. They are an awesome site but when you have spent most of your life on flat land and suddenly threats of falling rock, runaway trucks (they have special ramps everywhere for these!!) and Rams and or Mountain Goats loom around every corner you start to question the sanity behind the trip.

Las Vegas, Nevada, somehow everything I imagined it to be but totally warrants a return trip. I will definitely be taking an extended vacation back, we saw some sites, some casinos and the Treasure Island Siren show, but that was only a taste, I want to really spend some time there, do some gambling, that sort of thing.

Markus did a great job planning though, the stay at the Stratosphere was great and the view from the top of the tower was unbelievable. They have three rides up on top, 980 some feet above the ground, I wish my mother would have come.

New Mexico was the culmination of our trip, we were supposed to see the Balloon Fiesta with around 600 balloons taking off it sounded amazing, well due to high winds there was a death and injuries the previous days so it was canceled the whole time we were there. Sad but not a total loss, I ate at my first Sonic, enjoyed many Slurpee’s (love them, I would move for Slurpee’s!) and danced with the Indians, yes you heard me right. I took Katrein to the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center because as a child my parents took me to a similar place and I loved it. (I cried because they said I couldn’t be an Indian when I grew up.) Well little did they know that besides watching dances and looking at beautiful artwork we were invited to do a Pueblo Indian friendship dance, and thanks to my little girl I did it, or rather we did and it was fantastic, really something I will never forget.

So even though the trip had its glitches and we didn’t see some things we wanted it was amazing and I would do it all again, even as tired as we were it was worth it, really a once in a lifetime thing and I got to do something really special with both my kids which made it the best trip I will ever take.

For those of you down south and in certain regions this is whats called a split level home.

See its called a split level because when you walk in the front door half your house is up a small flight of stairs and half is down a small flight. Lets start upstairs shall we.

As you come up the stairs you see the living room and dining area.

Swing to the left for the living room.

Or turn more right and you have dining area and kitchen. If you take a hard right you have a hallway that leads to the master bedroom with bathroom ahead, my daughters room to the left.

Also off the dining area is a nice deck and the backyard which can only be described as amazing. The whole yard is at least an acre with half of it fenced, for my business this is absolutely fantastic.



Now lets venture downstairs.

The first thing you come to is the wonderfully large rec. room, which will be my new business area.

Adjacent to the rec. room is the office.

And like upstairs if you take a hard right you enter a hall that leads to Markus’ room, a decent size bathroom and a large laundry/utility room. So there you go you have had a brief but I’m sure fulfilling tour of my new home, hope your all sufficiently jealous. ;P