July 15, 2006

Travel Guard

Many of you know that I work for Travel Guard International as an insurance sales agent. Recently CBS news featured our company and explained some of the products and services offered by travel insurance companies. If you’d like to know more about what we do click on the link and play the video on the lower right part of the screen.

I’m proud to work for such an amazing company. Since summer is the time for travel and vacations, don’t forget to purchase your insurance!

July 14, 2006

Wisconsin News

The last few days, I’ve been watching local news stations and reading our area newspapers’ online articles. Many things have been happening in the Land of Cheese and not all of it is good.

• Donald Hawks of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was sentenced to three years probation for having sexual intercourse with a woman and not disclosing that he has HIV. This is the second time he’s been convicted for this crime. He served a prison sentence in the 90s for this same action. It baffles me that the courts merely gave him probation this time around. The reason? “The risk that he was going to spread HIV to her was a lot less than when he did this before, but the risk was still there,” said Doran Viste of the Winnebago County district attorney’s office. Gee, that’s comforting.
• The Judy Garland collector’s stamp has been released and the production is being done by Stevens Point’s (the city I live in) very own Stora Enso paper mill. They supplied the face paper and the release liner. “There’s only a couple mills in the world that can probably make both these papers.. a really fine group that can do this.” I’m excited to purchase my Dorothy stamps! There’s no place like home.
• The Catholic Church in the Central Wisconsin area is sponsoring Theology on Tap, a combination of religious discussion over a few beers. It’s an attempt to draw a younger crowd back to the Catholic faith. As many of you know, I’m a practicing Catholic. I’m not certain the benefit of religion and alcohol, but at least the church leaders aren’t hypocrites. (You know they sell a few brewskies at the church picnics.)
• The explosion at Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, that left 2 dead and 7 injured may have been related to a gas leak. Investigators are still determining what caused the blast, but have determined the area is still littered with debris and is unsafe (no, really?) and have relocated about 70 people from the area so far. This is a tragedy in the worst form. Patrick M. Higdon, 49, and his wife, Margaret Brooks Higdon, 45, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., died when their cottage exploded and burned down about 2:30 a.m., authorities said. (Courtesy AP)
• And in more local Stevens Point news, our city police made an arrest in the drug overdose case of Adam Weizenicker of Thomahawk. Salah Ali Almoosawi was arrested in Marathon County on charges of selling cocaine to Weizenicker the day before his death. It sickens me to think about the availability of drugs in my city. Not so long ago, I lost friends Wade and Kerry to a drug overdose. What ever happened to just saying “No!” ?

So that’s what’s going on in my world. Have you gone over to visit Laci yet? Please visit my renter. You’ll love her just as much as I do!

July 13, 2006

Dinner & A Movie

“Hey! After dinner, I have a surprise for you.” My husband said as he walked out the door. He was going fishing with his friend Dan and left me alone with the Terrible Toddler.

“A surprise? For me?” I asked. He gave me a devilish smile. The kind that tells me I will like whatever it is he has planned, and he knows the suspense will kill me the entire 3 hours he is gone.

“Yes, for you. I’ll see you around 7-ish.” And with that he left.

I pondered what exactly it could be that he was going to surprise me with. Flowers? No. That’s not it. Where would he have hidden them? Chocolate champagne candies? Nah. Too exquisite for my tastes. Hmmm. I didn’t have a clue.

I kept myself occupied by playing with Dawson. He insisted on throwing, crashing and banging his matchbox cars on the floor. Memories of playing Dukes of Hazzard with my brother flashed through my mind. I always had to have the General Lee and he had no problem playing Boss Hoggs.

In between car crashes, I marinated a pork roast. My recipe was straight out of Rachel Ray’s cookbook (not the 30 minute meals) with fresh garlic cloves inserted into the meat. I then slathered on McCormick’s GrillMates Pork Rub. Mmm. Oh, so Delicioso™!! (Yes, I have trademarked that phrase. I say it so often I am actually having T-shirts made. Stay tuned for details.) Earlier in the day, Doug had cut some fresh broccoli, zucchini and onions from our garden. He diced them up so nicely and had them drowning in vegetable marinade. The plan was that after his fishing time, he’d grill both the veggies and the roast. My mouth was watering all evening; so much so that I forgot all about the “surprise”. In all honesty, I thought this was a euphemism for sex and he just didn’t want to say it. Silly husbands. I obviously did not train this man properly.

Since we were feeling better from our flu-ishness (I don’t know if this is a word, but I just made it up), Dawson and I were very, very hungry. I kept staring at the clock wondering when the fishermen would return. At 7 p.m. on the button (Holy Cow?) Doug arrived home. He cleaned the catfish he caught, proceded to properly store it in the freezer and started on grilling!

Our dinner was excellent. Delicious. Even Dawson liked the veggies. After we put the Doodlebug to bed, we sat on our deck and watched the sprinklers rhythmically water our garden.

“The zucchini was excellent.” I said.

“Yeah, our garden will be wonderful. I can’t wait for the cherry tomatoes and beans.”

” Yum. Tomatoes!”

“Okay, let’s go inside. You go downstairs and bring up some soda from the fridge.”

“Alright.”

When I got back upstairs, Doug had made popcorn and had a DVD ready to play. He handed me a bowl of popcorn and a glass of ice for my Sprite. He even had my favorite blanket spread out on the floor of our living room. I was astonished.

“Awww! You rented a movie? Oh no. It’s not porn is it?” I asked.

“No! Sit down and watch.” he said.

As I sat down and he pushed play on the remote, Failure to Launch was on the screen. I was stunned. This was a movie I had begged him to see in the theatre with me and he never agreed to go. I adore Sarah-Jessica Parker and all her films thus far since the end of SATC have been clever and funny. Doug normally does not like “chick flicks” but he’ll suffer through one on occasion. When this movie left the theatre I lectured him about not getting to see it and he promised the day it was released on DVD he’d rent it. That was June 27th to be exact.

“Oh my gosh! You rented it?” I stood up and hugged him. “I can’t believe it!”

“See? Now you can go and tell all your blogging buddies that your husband does think about more than fishing and that romance is still alive in our house.”

“There’s gonna be romance? Other than in the movie? This is getting better by the minute!”

July 12, 2006

Blog Renter & Swimming Lessons

I have a new renter! You must check her out. She’s beautiful, funny, witty and clever. I’ve been reading her blog for a few weeks and I can honestly tell you she makes me smile with her great sense of humor and amazing way with words. Laci deserves a visit. So please head that way, now! On a lighter note, the flu bug seems to be easing up on us. Dawson was so hot and sweaty that I insisted that Doug fill the kiddy pool for him to cool off in. This is how that turned out:

He decided to get completely wet and splash his ill mother. I admit the water was so cooling. I was tempted to get my bathing suit on. That is if I hadn’t been so goddamned lazy.