Oh My......

Hope you have a cup of coffee or tea....this is gonna take a while:)

Last time I wrote I was sitting on Peter's sofa waiting to go to his friend Coulter's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Was marvelous BTW - over 15 people for dinner, was good to meet some of his friends. The rest of our weekend was great - Friday the plan was to go ski-ing, but there was no snow. Instead we went to a bar - Harpo's - and watched the Colorado game all afternoon. they lost.

Saturday we got up late and then went into Denver. The plan was to visit the ESPN Zone and then meet up with my friends Sanya and Jeff. And that's what we did....have a fabulous time with lunch at The Market, an afternoon at ESPN Zone and then dinner at the Samba Room. It was great.

Our Pics http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=fb46ui1.4bl3on3l&x=0&y=-uds9x5

Then Sunday came...and the fun started. We set of OK before 9am for our 12 hour trek home. The first two hours were fine driving through Colorado - I managed to get behind a guy with a radar detector and drove at 90 through a lot of the state. Then.....

We noticed there was some blowing snow.....then we noticed it was a bit more than that......then we had to slow down to 20 miles an hour....then we really realized that things were mighty serious. We drove about 30 miles in 2 hours....and drove past cars and cars sliding off the road. Check out the link above to see the snow....very very scary.

Thankfully we had the forethought to call our friends Paul and BJ and have them call ahead and book us a hotel room. A good job we did - by the time we got to Goodland, Kansas (translation: middle of flipping nowhere) there were rows and rows and rows of cars and people with nowhere to sleep. The weather was horrendous - Trev and I split the crappy driving and Rach didn't even want to sit in the front seat. I went into the reception to check in...and there was probably 150 people all queued up. The reason was that the power was off and they couldn't get into the reservation system.

Luckily, the power came on within about 20 mins - and then they let the people with reservations queue separately. YIPPEE! so, we managed to get into our hotel room - we ventured out a mile to Pizza Hut - so scary i wish we'd never gone. However, glad we did - it tasted so good. That was last (Sunday) night. We went to sleep......ith the plan to leave in the morning.......

.....and woke up with icicles on our noses...the power had gone out again. Not only that the department of transport closed the Interstate highway.

The power didn't come on again ALL FREAKING DAY. It was soooooo cold. Imagine - twin room, 3 of us stuck in a single bed all with 3 layers of clothes on just to stay warm. We slept the morning away.....then Trev and I ventured out in the car to Walmart down the street. The power wasn't on so all they could offer was hot chocolate and donuts....nothing to sniff at - it was so welcome. After about an hour the power came on long enough for us to run round the store and pick up some fruit, ham, bread, peanut butter, jam, lemon curd, crisps, mayo, tea etc (yeah yeah, we got a LOT of food). We got back and ate a sarni and then Trev and I disappeared to the car for a couple of hours - we had borrowed a DVD player from our friends, Pete and Diane, so we sat and watched (with the engine running) Batman Begins. Good movie. And we had the heat on...with the hot seats. Very very welcome.

Bear in mind that someone had to be in the hotel room at all times as the room keys needed electricity to work:)

By about 7 we were going stir crazy so Trev and Rach decided to head out to find some food. They found that the reception guys would let us into the room if we left so we all headed out to the only restaurant in town with food left (did I say this was the middle of nowhere). Trev and I both ordered steak..........it was fabulous. I have never loved food so much as then....

The best thing - we got back to the hotel and the power is on. So we're wide awake as we had nothing to do all day other than sleep and i can write this update.

We're still 606 miles from home....not able to work....Rach has school stuff to do....Trev and I have work etc. But hey - the I70 still has 435 miles closed between Denver and east of Kansas. We're watching the news and hoping that they'll open the highway tomorrow.

if not....then we're stuck in Goodland, Kansas for a 3rd day.

Will keep you posted. We will only travel if safe. We're thankful we got here in one piece - and ever thankful to Paul and BJ for getting us a place to stay.

Love you all!

Colorado is amazing....

OK, so we survived the 13 hour drive to Colorado - and it was sooooo worth it. Can't say it was fun, but we did survive. We met Bethany, Peter's girlfriend, had a tour around campus in Boulder, saw Peter's office and had breakfast at the Burnt Toast (very good). That afternoon we had to take a nap as we didn't arrive until 2am the day before....but then we went out. We ate at MED - a european restaurant and ate tappas etc. Today (actual Thanksgiving), we took a drive and hike into the mountains....amazing views let me tell you.

Right now.... we're hanging around before going out later today to Peter's friend for dinner.......watch this space for more news.

When it couldn't get any worse...........

Ok, so my organization change happened at work (which sucks) - and the people who work for me are all miserable and looking for new jobs, I've put my name forward for a job in New York, I had my stitches out for the dental surgery.....you wouldn't think anything else could happen.

Well it did!

Backing the Lexus out of the garage this morning I complete forgot that Rachel's car was in the drive so I backed into her wing mirror. BIG DENT AT THE BACK OF CAR....and scratches. I can't believe I did that...... i wiped off the paint and I think they'll be able to pull the dent out easily (phew!)....and I have some British T-CUT at home somewhere that should take out the paint....will try that before we leave for Denver. I still can't believe it.... I'm going to blame it on the wing mirrors....then take a dive every single time you reverse - which is very annoying coz you can't see what you want to see (ie a car.....) but instead you're looking at tarmac. Oh my....and you can imagine that Trev's doing the "if it was me you'd be yelling and screaming....blah blah blah"....I did remind him that I haven't yelled at him for all the dings and dents on the Grand Prix (because when it was solely my car it was in pristine condition!!) but that didn't work. Oh well, best I can do is arrange to have it fixed when we get back from Denver.

Different topic....

I was at home last night thinking I can't believe that we may have to move again....and maybe this job isn't so bad; but then I woke up and realized that I really don't want this job if I'm not working for John. Oh well....a change is as good as a rest. And you can fly anywhere from NYC - cheaper than St Louis or even Cedar Rapids. We'll see - got to get an offer first....so will ponder more while we're on the drive to Denver.

Anyway...may post more this week if I can but will depend on internet access.

Happy holidays everyone....

Just when you think it's stable....

OK, so I've had my new job since April and I really really really enjoy it! Ever since I've had it there's been talk that perhaps the people I report to would change. That really sucks....because those people are the people I just came from.... oh well - I guess nothing stays stable for long, especially when happy:)

So I put my name in the hat for a job in New York with the people that I currently work for - and want to stay working for....not sure if you're keeping up - but let's hope so. This is how the instant msg between my boss (John) and my boss' boss (Deb) went...

John - Reuters:
btw Phil is interested in the FGA-NY mgr job
Debra - Reuters:
ohmygod
Debra - Reuters:
she would be great
Debra - Reuters:
would she move?
John - Reuters:
yes
Debra - Reuters:
ok, let's move on this
Debra - Reuters:
speak with tom
John - Reuters:
will do

It's nice to feel wanted......so now I've just got to make sure I get the deal of a lifetime (impossible working for Reuters, but I'll try at least).

If anyone's worried about Trev, he's on the active look out for a new job anyway as he's bored with what he's got. Hopefully it'll be something like last time when he could travel from wherever to wherever....that way it won't matter where we live.

So now....just when I thought I was getting used to ST Louis it may be up in the air once again.... we'll see. We always knew the long term goal was to get to the East Coast so i was a single plane ride away from the UK, just wasn't expecting to have that happen in 2005 or 2006 for that matter.

On top of that the person we thought we'd found to lease the house in Iowa fell through so it's now completely possible that we'll end up with 2 houses and no one living in them. We'll go broke at this rate.

My evening and the rest of the week will be spent looking up salaries and apartments in New York to make sure i don't get hosed on the offer if it ever arrives. We'll see.

This afternoon at 3.30 I have to tell my team the news that our reporting line changes.............NOT looking forward to it as I can't think of 1 positive thing to say about the whole thing.

Life goes on.....off to Denver tomorrow. Think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts:)

Joining the world of blogging

My friend Penny put me onto the world of blogging....I've been watching her stories for the past few weeks and had a blast. I figured that if I enjoyed reading regular news of a friend then family and friends that I know would probably enjoy it too. So, here goes.

I can't promise that I'll post every day - if i do that I'll probably break the promise within a week:)

What a great time to start posting - it's the weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday. We're off to Boulder (near Denver and the Rockies) with Rachel to meet up with Peter. Carrieanne has to work over the holidays which is a shame...but we'll have a drink for her (well, several probably). We're driving to Denver on Tuesday - we leave about 3pm. Apparently it's about a 12 hour drive......yeah!!!! NOT! I'm am so not looking forward to the drive - never in my life have I travelled 12 hours in a car. i think the max I've ever done is 7 or 8 - that was London to Stranraer (to get to Belfast). I guess i've done Cedar Rapids to Chicago in a day (to pick up Mum and Dad) but it just seems worse than that..... I'm sure it won't be as bad as I think. there's 3 of us driving and we're taking the Lexus so we've got the GPS system to make sure we don't get lost.

Apart from the drive, I'm really looking forward to going to Denver. Peter's cooking Thanksgiving dinner (think English Christmas dinner...) and we get to meet the love of his life - Bethany. He sounds so happy and smitten......how cute:) It's a shame she won't be there for Thanksgiving but it's great we get to meet. Being near the Rockies we plan on ski-ing at least one day - and I know that I'll definitely be on the lookout for outlet shopping malls. Can't wait. The other thing is that our friends Sanya and Jeff live in Denver so we'll be able to meet up at least once or twice. It'll be a great break from work.

This weekend has been pretty lazy - we did a bit of shopping, got massages (fabulous) and went to a comedy club last night. Had a great time. Today (Sunday) had my butt kicked in the gym by my trainer, Jim. For those that are not aware, a year ago i decided to make exercise a priority so I hit the gym at least 4 times a week, sometimes more....so expect a lot of complaints and moaning about what body parts hurt. Today, my butt hurts- have to say that one legged squats hurt like hell....and 4 weeks later they still hurt!! Oh well, I'm sure it's doing me some good..... I'm certainly healthier than I was a year ago - although the magical cure for slimming down never happened. Oh well, at least I could run a mile if i needed to.

The other thing that happened this week is that the tooth that has been giving me grief since July finally bit the dust. For some history, I went for a check up in July, got a filling, it hurt, complained, changed dentist in September, told I need a root canal, referred to a specialist (dentist #3) who tried twice to numb my face for the root canal and failed, referred to a 4th dentist for sedation for the root canal. A month ago this dentist (who is fabulous!) knocked me out and removed the infection and nerve of the tooth. I was letting it settle down before returning last week to have the root filled. Sooooo, I was knocked out AGAIN but half way through have avague recollection of need to remove the tooth. That was Weds last week - it's been a bit sore but I think it's on the mend. We found a bruise on my face today.....so it must be getting better!! hey ho....

Ok, so that's my news for now.....watch this space for more news.