Maintenance! What? No!

Yesterday, I ran some errands in Santa Fe. Wearing sandals that had black rubber foot beds resulted in the bottoms of my feet being…black. I decided to hop into the shower to clean them up, did my pedicure foot scrub, then soaked in the tub afterwards.



I’m “Kindled” up, reading a good story. ThatManILove is sleep on the bed, trying to catch up from late nights of solid customer meetings and entertainment. 


I hear something over and above the movie on the television. I think it’s TMIL talking to me, so I say, “What? Did you say something?”


And then I hear, “Maintenance!”


And then, “NO!”


I’m all, “WHAT?


“MAINTENANCE!”


“NOOO!”


“WHAT?”


And then I hear TMIL talking…supposedly to the maintenance man. Who had, by the way, transgressed into our hotel room.


Without our permission.  The bathroom door was open, but all he could possibly see is my feet.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)


It seems someone’s tub was flooding the Old House restaurant downstairs. They were trying to Sherlock it out. Still not sure if it was ours.


But the manager came up, full of apologies, and comped us wine and cheese.


I would have been happy with a full-out mani/pedi; not to mention a new pair of sandals that don’t turn your feet black.


Just sayin’.


It’s never boring around here.

Paddywhack, Give a Dog A Bone...

Another week, another fundraiser - actually, two!  My event season is nearly over, and I’m so very glad.  Looking forward to breathing for a bit.

Yesterday, I kenneled Zanna in the house for the afternoon.  Zack’s pretty trustworthy, so I let him have the run of the house.  When I came home, Zack had gone to the bone box, retrieved several bones, and placed them at the door of Zanna’s kennel.

Isn’t that sweet?

Y’all have a blessed day!

(Screeching to a stop!) Here I Am!

It’s been two weeks since I’ve written anything?  That’s crazy, but so is mi vida loca.  

ThatManILove is pretty much staying non-stop out in the field.  He’ll start to complete a well, then get to the end of the completion, which calls for 24-7 out there.  It’s not unusual for him to leave on Monday, and not come home until Saturday night.  When he does get home, it’s sleep, sleep, sleep.  But it’s sure good to see him when he does come home!  

Life is hard in the oilpatch.  You have to work when you can, and I’m glad for the work.  ThatManILove loves what he does, but it’s very intense, high profile work at times.  And it plays hell on our social lives.  We can’t plan anything ahead, nor have we been able to for a long time.  Sometimes our friends don’t understand, unless they are in the oilfield. Those understand full well.  It’s a miracle if ThatManILove and I get to go catch a 1 1/2 hr movie, much less a meal together.  I never know when he’s going to get to come home - I just know when he does get home, he needs to rest.  I bet he’s averaging less than 20 hours home per week.

And then you add in the ups and downs of my life.  Meetings.  Travel.  Events.  As part of my job, I entertain quite frequently, oftentimes at restaurants for dinner dates.  And lots of times, my customers and their spouses drink.  I’m good with that, because I rarely drink.  Don’t like the taste of alcohol, as a whole.  Every once in a while, maybe a peach bellini.  And that makes for one good designated driver!  We do have fun, though, while getting business accomplished.  I love my job.

I do miss ThatManILove going on dinner dates with my customers and I.  He’s so much fun, and so knowledgeable.  And my customers miss him as well.  One night a couple of years ago, ThatManILove and I picked up one of my customers at his hotel.  I've known this customer for about 4 years, see him weekly, and consider him a friend.  He got in the back seat,  I introduced him to TMIL, and we trucked on to the restaurant.  We were almost at the restaurant when my customer actually realized that TMIL was my husband and not just one of my coworkers.  He said, “Oh!  You really DO exist!”  We all laughed...that’s just the way it is in this season of our lives.

Just spent the week in San Antonio, on the Riverwalk, no less.  In meetings.  It was fun, got to meet new people, and got a lot of things accomplished.  Hot.  Humid.  But fun.

Flying back, my plane was delayed.  That’s the first time in a long time good ol’ Southwest has made me late, so I certainly cannot whine about that.  I love me some SWA.

Aside:  (My husband’s alarm just went off, and it’s 4:00 a.m. His morning report is due by 5:30 a.m.  What does that say about his vida loca? )

I think I’ll try to catch a couple more hours sleep - I have to go help with a fundraiser event on this beautiful Saturday morning.    Y’all have a blessed weekend!

Kids Rock

This past weekend was crazy, but so much fun.

On Saturday, I ran to Big Spring to attend my grand-niece’s 4th birthday. It was SO much fun! She’s off the wall smart, and so much fun to be around! She’s definitely a girly-girl at heart, so her presents consisted of many different things…but her favorite? A remote controlled…..wait for it…yup, tarantula. Check out the picture. This girly cracks me up.

And then, I took "almost 1 year old" pix for a friend of a friend.  Isn't this one too sweet?

Saturday afternoon, our friend and godchild flew in from DFW, and surprised ThatManILove. He was so excited when he opened the car door, ostensibly to “help me haul things in”, and saw baby Ada Jael and her mom, True! (We had the window shades up so he couldn’t see them as he approached the vehicle.)

We have had the best time hanging with these two little ladies. True was raised in this area, so we just opened our house up, and friends filled the house. It was a joy to see everyone, and some even brought their own babies and little ones, making the weekend even more of a blessing!  Everybody fell in love with Baby Ada, and all of the little munchkins visiting.  Like this one...gorgeous!

And Zack?  Well, Zack fell in love with Baby Ada, too.

Genghis Grill Review...

ThatManILove and I tried Genghis Grill tonight. It was crowded, and loud, and we arrived at a later hour. We waited about 15 minutes for a table, but used the wait to visit with some friends.


We were shown to a table, and introduced to our waitress, Miravelle. She explained the drill to us, and escorted us to the food line, where we picked our veggies, meat, and starch, then dropped it off at the grill for cooking.

When the bowls arrived at our table, with our cooked food, the taste was delightful. Meanwhile, the clamor had subsided, and we were able to enjoy a great supper.  TMIL ordered the white fish, and I stuck with mostly veggies.  Good stuff, maynard.  Good stuff.

It wasn’t as quick and efficient as say, PeiWei, or one of those larger chains, but it will do.

If you go visit, ask for server Miravelle. She’s awesome. And we will return.

Vamos Por La Casa!

Wanna know what love is?



Love is stopping at a hotel for the night when you’re less than 2 hours away from your house, but you’re too tired to stay awake driving at midnight. And besides that, you know ThatManILove wants you to be safe. Even if you get the last room at the hotel, there is no parking, and the cowboys, their women and their munchkins are still partying in the breakfast room.


And your eldest son is coming through the same town and wants to see you.


At midnight-thirty.


And his truck trailer loaded with horses is too big to go around the hotel parking lot, so you have to get in your truck and go meet he and his girlfriend at the closest "big enough to turn that honking sucker around" parking lot.


And then you have so much fun visiting with them for thirty minutes that when you get back to the hotel, you’re wide awake.


Awake enough to check out and drive the two hours home at 1:30 a.m.


But you...don’t. You go back to your hotel room and go to sleep.


Yup.  That, people, is love.

Foxy Foxy Foxy....

Once last week, and twice this week, I’ve spotted a male gray fox in our neighborhood.  He’s a sneaky boy, and crosses the street about three doors down (surely you didn't think he'd hang around my house with the Hunter Wonderdogs, did ya?) around 6:40 a.m. each morning.  And I'm curious.  I want to see where he lives, what he’s doing, and who he’s helping to feed.  I know there has to be a mommy fox and some babies around.  I know, because this is a yearly saga at the house of the Snooty Primadona where  the foxes Fernando and Felicia hang out. With all their cute babies, I must say. 

I guess I could get one of those infrared body heat cameras that hunters post at their deer feeders.

But then again, no.  I really don’t wanna know what goes on in my neighborhood after a certain hour.  Just bury my head in the sand, baby.  And call me Ostrich.