I Want A New Blog (Design)

I want to redesign my blog.  New colors.  Some kind of cool design. I like looking at all your cool blogs.  They ROCK.  And though if I did research, and read up on it, and played around, I could probably do it myself, I really don’t have time to do it myself (I know, I should quit my freaking whining, right?  Maybe get a life or something?).  

Yeah, well, follow me, bloggers.  Walk a mile in my shoes.   Or, better yet, just enjoy it vicariously...you’ll sleep better and have a lot less stress in your life, I promise!

So...ideas?  Referrals?  I’ll pay.  Hell, why not?  We pay for everything!  Our lives are so non-stop right now it’s the only way we can function with any sanity. Want to walk my dogs? Train my dogs? Take my dogs hunting while I take customers somewhere else, hunting? (Yeah - this is how crazy it gets sometimes! ) House sit? Do laundry? Run errands? Clean the house? Wash the vehicles? Mow the lawn? Today, I could have paid someone to talk for me, because.my.voice.is.gone. Gone.  History.

I could go on.  Bottom line, I need to clone myself so I can get everything done!  

I’m open to blog design ideas.  My perfect world would be a design was simple, beautiful, that incorporated mi vida loca, oilpatch, hunting and included ThatManILove, our sons and the wonderdogs, but, yeah...someday I’ll walk on the moon.  I said simple, didn’t I?  Oh, yeah.

Show me what ya got. Or tell me where to go.  

I walked right into that one, didn’t I?

Travis Erwin House Fire

I’m about a week behind finding this out, but my friend Travis Erwin (founder of My Town Monday) and his family suffered a huge loss on January 4 when their home in Amarillo, Texas burned to the ground. Travis, his wife and young sons are alive and well, thank God. They lost all of their possessions as well as their home.

Erica Orloff and friends started a Habitat for Travis blog, and you can donate there by buying a brick at a time, if you’ve a mind to do so.

Bloggers are givers – and I know that if you’re able, you will give.

That Janie Girl

One day, I got a call from a consultant. I’ll call him Lonnie.

Lonnie: Hey, Janie, I want to work for ABC Oil Company through your firm.

Janie: Lonnie! That’s great! (I went through our list of benefits. He was excited.) Okay, who do I need to call?

Lonnie: You need to call James at ABC and tell him I’m going to be working under your banner.

Janie: Consider it done.

I called James and left a message. Not once, not twice, but three times. Two days later, I get another call from Lonnie.

Lonnie: Hey, Janie. I’m going to work for ABC Oil Company, but I have to work through my old firm. James is making me.

Janie: What the HELL?I understand, Lonnie, don’t worry, we’ll get it all fixed sometime.

Lonnie: Thanks for understanding. Another thing – James said for me to “Tell that Janie girl to quit calling me.”

Janie: Gotcha, Lonnie. No problem. (In 23 years, this.is.a.first. I'm freaking out. He seriously doesn't want me to call him? I can't believe that! I've never met him!).

In my old job, if someone had a problem getting through a door, or establishing a relationship, they would send me in to "pave the way" as it were. And I enjoyed a near-perfect success rate.

Three days later, I’m in the offices of ABC Oil Company, delivering breakfast. I happen to notice James’ office is open, so I step in the door, thinking I’ll leave a business card on his desk. Only one thing’s wrong – he’s there! What do I do now?

Only one thing to do…roooooooollllllllllllll with it!

Janie: Hey, James! I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m "that Janie girl" that was calling you all the time about Lonnie.

James: Hey, Janie! (He cracks up laughing, thank God!) It’s nice to meet you. Actually, I’ve met you before, just didn’t put two and two together. I worked at the last shoot and you were competing.

Janie: Oh, yeah! I knew you looked familiar!

He then explains to me why Lonnie had to stay under his former firm – that he had taken medical leave, and needed to come back to work under that same firm. I totally understood his thinking.

The next morning, I went to breakfast with several of his coworkers, and told them all the “Tell that Janie girl to quit calling me” story. They got a big kick out of that, went back to the office, and harrassed James mightily. Poor guy, he'll probably never live over that.

It's a small oilfield out here. And needless to say, my new name has spread all over the patch - they're all calling me...

Woe Despair and Agony on Me

I feel like I've been run over by a Mack truck.

I had a little relapse, and the wonder doc says I’m knocking on the pneumonia door. Lovely. Absolutely lovely.

So my bohiney has some injection marks in it, and it’s sore. The Hello Kitty bandaids did nothing to help the pain. My chest is sore from all the coughing. I’m taking major antibiotics and super duper prescription cough medicine. Downing vitamin C like there’s no tomorrow. The only good thing is that, when I’m not asleep or in some drug-induced stupor, I’m able to catch up on all your blogs.

I’ll leave you with this picture that one of my consultants sent me from his and his girlfriend’s vacation in Belize. And no, I didn’t even ask. Because this inquiring mind Does. Not. Want. To. Know.

I'm Baaaaaaaaack!

Sorry I've not been posting, but we've been catching up on sleep in Fort Worth. Met up with Pam and Mike for movies and supper, then packed up to head back to the Midland this morning.

Had a little drama when ThatManILove discovered he'd not had his crackberry on his person (as he remembered it) since we arrived at 2 a.m. a couple of nights prior.

We turned that hotel room upside down. Valet'd up both vehicles, and searched them from here to yon. No phone.

Decided to go check the movie theatre, and the restaurants that we had frequented. Finally, he found it at the Billy Minor Tavern.

Thank God.

Now, we're at Eastland, at the Starbucks, heading back to the West Texas. It's raining and sleeting and 32 degrees. I feel like I'm still in the PA, but it's warmer here! What beautiful weather in which to pick up Zack the Wonder Dog!

Yahoo!

I'll be back commenting on all your blogs before you know it!

And, yeah, I know, ThatManILove still owes you a post! But wasn't his virgin post great? Thanks for all your comments!

XOXOXOXOXO

There goes Janie, humming "Happy Trails to You", taking her last drink of Venti Tazo Chai, no water...braving the cold...getting in LaToya the Sequoia...and heading west, young man.

We May Need to Call That 1-800 Number

Janie asked me to do a guest post. So, hello, readers, this is ThatManSheLoves typing here!

As many of you know, I have been working up in the Northeast for the past 3 ½ months. Wasn’t sure I was even going to see my Brown Eyed Girl, much less Elder Son and Younger Son or the Wonder Dogs (the ZZ Crew) for Christmas. But, miraculously, after a 6 hr (120 miles @ less than 30 mph av. speed) drive to Pittsburgh, 14 hrs in the Hades of Crapenental Airlines, I arrived - better late than never - in Midland, 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. All of this to turn right around and fly back to Pittsburgh, the Sunday (our 7th Anniversary) following Christmas w/ my darling Brown Eyed Girl.

I finally wrapped up my NE project on Tuesday and the Brown Eyed Girl and I commenced our trek back to Texas on Wednesday (New Years Eve) with great intentions of driving straight through to Nashville, spend a few days Eating, Drinking and being Married.

Well, it’s now Saturday night, and after four days on the road (and yes we did eventually pass (emphasis added) through Nashville), we are a mile or so outside of Hope Arkansas and by the time I finish this intro we will cross into the Lone Star State. I finally got my Brown Eyed Girl out of her Tylenol Sinus Daytime drug induced coma (an Intervention of sorts) and finally have her driving and I am going to read a bit and sleep a bit before I finish this travel log of our adventures and misadventures since Brown Eyed Girl’s last Blog. Brown Eyed Girl’s ready to hit the Blogosphere again and is missing you all. However, it’s her turn to drive, my time to sleep - finally.

So stay tuned for the rest of the story – I will be back.

Crackin' Crab in Kentucky!

Okay. We made it to Louisville, Kentucky. We are now eating at Joe’s Crab Shack on the Ohio River.

And we’re about to head to the Hollywood Casino. Yes, we are. Stupid, huh?

Only if you know (and now, you do) that we’re going to compound our stupidity from last night, when we went to the casino at Wheeling Island, West Virginia. Might I say that Indian Casinos S.U.C.K.??? (Except for that one at Tulsa, where I won some big bucks last year.)

And then, we’re headed to Nashville. From there, Dallas. We’ve extended our trip a couple of days since we’ve not been together in forever and a day, going to take a little mini-vacation. And unfortunately, ThatManILove does love him some blackjack.

But to tell you how good he is about it…last night, when we got in from the smoky casino, he took all of our clothes to the hotel Laundromat and washed and dried them. Is that amazing?
And, as you see in this picture, he’s been busy cracking crab legs for his favorite woman in the whole wide world. Me!!

Oh, yeah. I’m spoiled.

And the world is as it should be.