Blog Entry from my husband.... His first....hopefully his last!

This email was sent from my husband's blackberry last night, I just couldn't help but share it with all of you.... Enjoy!

Amtrack - What a way to travel!!! NOT!!!

As my admin asst and portfolio mgr already read in a previous email sent approximately 90 minutes ago, my wife and I have had another travel adventure today. For those of you that haven't heard about our return trip from disney a few weeks ago it can be summarized as such "10 hours in the orlando and atlanta airports with 3 kids". Enough said.

My wife has a blog where she typically details her day to day adventures as the mother of three daughters. This email is my lame attempt to get an entry into her blog and help all of you remember that your days could always be worse than what you think they are.How lucky each of you are to have your email addresses included in my contact list.

This email is also my way to try and keep from going insane as we sit on some railroad track in the middle of the night in central illinois. For those of you not included in my previous email, our trip to chicago started with an invite from one of my commercial customers. They have a showroom at the merchandise mart in chicago and this week is the annual neocon show.

Its like the worlds fair of office furnitue. 18-20 stories of showrooms with everything you can imagine when it comes to furniture for offices, hospitals and schools. As the CEO told me at lunch today, anyone that's anyone in the world of commercial furniture is at the neocon show. The merchandise mart is one of the largest real estate holdings owned by the kennedy family and really a great place to see.

We came up yesterday on the amtrack train from effingham. Stayed at the westin on michigan ave next to the hancock bldg. Couldn't get my wife to go to the observatory deck on the 94th floor but we did have a good time. Walked up and down the miracle mile. Shopped at water tower place. Had some drinks last night at mike ditkas's place. Had a great lunch at the chicago chop house and up until we got back to union station to come home, everything was going good.

Here is where the adventure begins. Our train was 45 min late leaving chicago. Not much you can do when someone on the train has a seizure. Things went pretty smooth after that until we got about 20 minutes south of champaign. The train slowly came to a stop at which time the conductor announced that a freight train in front of us was on fire. No kidding. You can't make this stuff up.

So for the last 2 hours we have been sitting on a train track in the middle of central illinois. They are currently sending buses to get us in case we can't finish our trip as planned. If that happens, I will have spent parts of my last two trips on planes, trains, automobiles and buses. Somebody should make a movie about that. I've got some obnoxious folks behind me and I'm thinking about reinacting a scene from "Throw mama from the train".

This email should have been entitled "my monday night dinner adventure". As we sit here on the tracks at midnight eastern time they have just provided us with free snack packs and bottled water. Now keep in mind that these snack packs were most likely sold to amtrack whenever pan american airlines went out of business in the 1980's. My "snack pack" consisted of crackers and cream cheese, dried friut and something that was labeled as a cookie but looked and tasted like corrugated cardboard. The dried fruit tasted like it was dried in one of my customers wood kilns (should a dried bananna taste like an oak tree? Not that I know what an oak tree tastes like although I used to smoke clove cigarrettes when I was in high school. Sorry to have digressed. Now back to the story. ) Based on the taste of the cream cheese, it was most likely manufactured before the advent of pasteurization. (Sorry if I just misspelled that word - its now 12:45 EST, its likely another 2-3 hours before my head will hit the pillow and I don't know how to work my damn spellcheck).

Amtrack is now teasing us - we moved a couple of miles and now we've stopped again. Great idea. Let's put some more distance between us and those buses they sent from champaign to pick us up.

I could probably go on more but That's enough for now as my thumbs are cramping up. As I sit on these railroad tracks in the middle of no where all I ask of you are for your thoughts and prayers. This trip is starting to feel like the one from the movie "Deliverance". And we all know how that little camping trip ended up.

Feel free to share this little story with all of your friends in your distribution list. Although if you send it on to 10 people I can promise that you won't get anything back in return. No secret msgs. No free giveaways. Nothing more than the enjoyment of sharing one mans misery with thousands of people across this great country.

Later.

Craig "the conductor" Kirk

...a Dream is a Wish your heart makes......

We just returned from the happiest place on Earth! It truly was so much fun! We stayed 7 nights and we still didn't make to all the places we wanted to visit! There is so much to do from early morning till late night! Being honest, we are more Night people than early morning people! Our first night in Orlando, we went to the Magic Kingdom and attended the 'Pirate and Princess' Party! There were only a set number of people in the park, which meant there were fewer people in line. We waited NO time to get on all the rides. The girls rode Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and various other rides over and over again! The girls were also given a bag to travel throughout the park to gather 'loot' or beaded necklaces. They also were able to meet several of the Disney princesses. Hallie rode Space Mountain three times! She didn't love it, but she endured it! I was so proud of her. The girls loved getting dad on the spinning TeaCups!

Our second night was my favorite night because we rented a car and drove to Universal Studios to eat at Margaritaville Cafe! Our friend, John Frinzi was playing! It was awesome seeing and hearing him play with our family! The girls loved it, because a balloon artist walked through the restaurant on stilts and created amazing balloons. Each girl received a cool balloon. Hallie choose a sword, Carly a cute 'cherry' hat and Lauren wasn't sure. The artist decided to create one for her as a surprise. It was perfect!!!! She wore a lovely tiera and a HUGE star surrounding it.....as a SuperStar Princess. I loved the whole idea of eating out on a beautiful patio listening to a GREAT musician, drinking Landshark Beer! We even bought some new Margaritaville Hot sauce for my Sausage Shimp Gumbo recipe. I can't wait to try it!

The next few days included a trip to Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Blizzard Beach was an awesome water park in the scenery of a Winter Skiing Lodge. Everything looked as though it were ice or snow. It was 95 degrees and looked frosty! The girls had a blast running, sliding, and swimming in the winter wonderland! We spent two days at Hollywood Studios! Our absolutely favorite ride was Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster! You blast from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds. Immediately you are flipped upside down and shot into several corkscrews, Amazing... absolutely amazing. The girls LOVED it! Hallie was too short for the coaster but she did face the Tower of Terror! She hated it, but at least she rode it once! We loved the new ride in Hollywood Studios, it was the Toy Story, Media Mania ride. It was kinda mix of an arcade game and a ride. It was also 3-D. Awesome!

Animal Kingdom is home of the Yeti! Everest Expedition is the coaster ride that screams up a huge mountain to find the Yeti has torn the tracks, you then fly backwards in the coaster only to face the Yeti!!! Once again you return forward on the track. We rode this ride several times! I even think it stole my cell phone.! I am not sure where I missed placed the phone, but it came up missing at Animal Kingdom. Maybe the Yeti did take it!

,,,,, oops gotta run, we have three softball games tonight. I will add more later!!

This guy is a bad, bad man on Mother's Day!

referring to her dad, my youngest has said this sentence more than once today.

Here is why......

Today is Mother's Day, a day set aside to celebrate the joy of motherhood! My mother-in-law invited us to lunch at her house (no, she didn't serve chicken....that is another story). After lunch I brought strawberries and cheesecake. Carly wanted Cool Whip on her strawberries. My mother-in-law had a container of Cool Whip; however, it expired in March. Carly was not taking NO for an answer, she wanted the Cool Whip. After much discussion, Craig handed me the container and asked if I should smell it. Wanting to help my daughter, I did. Guess what Craig did,.....YEP, the smashed the container into my face!!!!!!!!!!!! I was covered in Cool Whip!

Happy Mother's Day,

I agree, "This guy is a bad, bad man on Mother's Day!"

okay... stop laughing, not that funny!

Nothing better to do on a rainy day!

After many years of driving,,,,, I experienced my first 'flat tire'. On my way to volunteer at our school, I heard this grinding loud sound. After stopping to assess the sound, I found a very very flat tire! Debating on weather to drive an half mile to the little gas station or just stop, (relax guys, I didn't drive on the rim, I waited) I called my husband. Who as you know, works an hour from my house. My exact words, "I have a flat tire, you need to get it fixed." After a discussion involving exactly where I was, (my words, .... on the way to school, that one road, um.. you know by the stop sign... okay not that bad, but close) Triple A, and something about one of his clients owning a tire company. I sat in the rain, waiting for the big truck to come to my rescue.

The good news, there are many willing to stop in the pouring rain to help change a tire. It warmed my heart to see old ladies, young men in their huge "world of wheels" pickup trucks, businessmen, the local dr, etc... all stopping to ask if they could help.

Somewhere in this world there is goodness. It was nice to experience it today!

It's 8:00pm, my husband still isn't home!

A mess of updates:

Time Zones:
I live in the middle of two time zones! Indiana is CRAZY!!! I live in the Eastern Time zone and my husband travels to another city 50 miles away and works in the Central Time Zone. As a banker, you never leave work at 5. Basically, if he is home at 7:30 or 8pm my time, its a good night. Tonight it was closer to 8:30. *sighs* Sometimes I feel like a single mom!

Crazy Schedule:
There are times in my life when I look back and wonder......"What the hell was I thinking??" Am I the only person who does this? As I said, I often feel like a single mother, but on top of that I signed up to help run the Vincennes Girls Softball League. Ideally, I was going to help with the scheduling, however that turned into a 24/7 commitment. It is absolutely chaos! Craig and I receive anywhere from 5 -10 phone calls and sometimes over 25 emails regarding softball. I have spent up to 6 hours a day on softball. Seriously, I love the sport, but this might cause a change in my attitude. Oh did I mention that I have 3 daughters playing this year on 3 different divisions! UGH! 33 games total, not including Lauren's travel team schedule.

I also chose to be in charge of the 6th grade "end of the year" party. This party is next week the last week of school. Games, tshirts, volunteers, food, karaoke, basketball tourney, ...... on and on..... Don't get me wrong, I love a good party, however, it usually involved cocktails!

Oh yeah, I have a job. I have been working around 3 days a week. Preparing for each day takes time too.

Why do I say YES?????

umm.. I think forgot to mention that the day after the big 6th Grade party, we leave at 4am for Disney World! 7 glorious days of fun in sun! Bring on the Mouse!

Ring Update:
*Dancing* After much much grief and a couple of "used car salesman" insurance guys, My awesome agent came through for me and I have the Most Beautiful wedding ring. Next time you see me ask me about, I will love to show you!

softball, graduation, and EARTHQUAKES!!!

This is my rambling of updates from the past month or so. With the demise of my work computer, I am slowly rebuilding three years of presentations and rather busy with my daughter's activities.

The summer is quickly approaching, that means softball season is gearing up. Craig and I have rather stupidly accepted the responsibility to 'help' run the Girls softball league here in town. My job simply involves being on the Rules Committee, creating the website, collecting the player application and putting the information into an Excel spreadsheet (currently at 290 players), help with the draft, find 27 businesses to sponsor teams, encourage other businesses to buy a banner for the fields, ...Oh don't forget that our names are on the applications so anyone who has a question, suggestions or the most popular a complaint, they call us!! Those jobs are primarily finished, now I am trying to schedule the teams games. However, several teams have players that participate on school teams and have asked that I avoid those games. This is CRAZY!!! All I can say, "Im doing my best!" I spend anywhere from 2 to 6 hours or more on softball each day! Is it over yet???

My second update is that Lauren is graduating!!

Relax..... It is only from 6th grade! She came home the other day with this picture. It literally left me speechless. (.... ok ok.... enough with the comments on me being speechless...it doesn't happen often. I can't help it that I like to talk!) I doesn't seem she should be old enough to go to jr. high. This breaks my heart. She is literally growing before my eyes. I think she has grown 4 inches since December. ...... impossible!

Finally, EARTHQUAKE!! This morning around 5:30, I woke to my house beginning to shake. I was confused for awhile thinking it might be a vibration from the train. But it got stronger and faster. Craig sits up and says, ''''whoa..Whoaaa.." All three girls jumped up and stood in the hallway, one was crying. For 60 seconds our house was shaking!!!! It was the eeriest, weirdest minute of my life. The center was not far from where we live. It measured 5.4. What a week!
This is a video from the yahoo website on the earthquake: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=7455661&ch=4226713&src=news

Ok... I gotta finish the scheduling for softball.

Dont forget to leave a comment!

Computer crashed....... again!

After taking a new job three years ago, my consultant firm gave me a laptop to use for work. In the three years, the laptop has crashed twice. The second being just this week.

Somewhere in my heart, I am trying to explain to myself it was some metal and plastic, yet it feels like a pet or a family member.

I stored all my 'important' stuff on it. All my work accounts, presentations, personal informaton....etc.. you get the picture.

How do you explain to your five year old why you have been crying all day over a computer?



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