Fall Is In The Air...

While I sit here and procrastinate on my packing for a business trip that I'm leaving for tomorrow, I can't help but think how nice it is that we can sit here with all the windows open in the house. I love the smell of a nice breeze and not have to worry about melting from the humidity. In addition, the putties are all beside themselves with excitement in response to the open windows.

Have I mentioned how much I love Autumn? I think it is the best of all the seasons.

1. The Pumpkin candles are available again! I looooove the smell of Pumpkin candles!





2. The fall colors are amazing! I can't wait to get out there when things start changing with my new Nikon.





3. Best of all it contains the greatest holiday ever!


Halloween!!!




I love Halloween so much that one of my bridal showers was Halloween themed. My favorite animal... besides my putties... Spiders! I think they are very cool and interesting. I keep some of my more intricate Spider decor out all year. Just about everyone does their Christmas shopping for me around this time of year due to all the rockin' spider stuff that is out!

~AKO

Dear So and So... Must You Be So Difficult?

Dear Hurricane Danny,

If you're going to hit the East Coast, do it already! Our weekend is pretty much ruined because you may or may not dump a monsoon on us.

Regards,
New York

~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Citibank,

You suck! Closing an account because we supposedly "violated" one of your many rules without a phone call is rude and not very customer friendly. How about a phone call to discuss the issue when you noticed the violation?? Sending a letter to our old address after mail forwarding has expired is not the correct response! And lets not get started the the random fees that just started popping up!

Sincerely,
Soon to be Members of a Different Bank

~~~~~~~~~~

Dear People of Cypress Hills,

I'm not sure why you all feel that everyone needs to experience your choice in music, but is it really necessary that my house should vibrate as well? I really should not have to close my windows because I cannot even hear my own TV above your music. Please keep in mind that, just because you don't have anywhere to be, some of us do have to get up before noon for our jobs. Let's keep an eye on the clock and consider your neighbors after 10pm!

Thank You,
Sleepless in Cypress Hills

~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Harley,

Thank you for NOT being difficult and only asking for the simple things in life... your spider, milk ring, love, attention and (of course) wet kitty food...

Love,
Mommy





~AKO

Wordless Wednesday

What I like to see... a man in the kitchen!!!








~AKO

Not Enough Hours in the Day... And a New Toy

Almost a week since I last left a post... The past week was just one of those weeks where there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. We had sales people in town for production training, which, as one of the managers, I was involved in. This meant that I was going to be in training sessions all day Tuesday, Wednesday and the first half of Thursday. It also meant that I was going to fall a little behind in my regular day to day tasks. In addition, one of my employees had a huge upgrade Wednesday evening that had issues, which meant I spent all day Thursday and a large portion of Friday working on that. Basically, it means I have to do some work this weekend to catch up :(

In other news... I finally got my new toy!




Hello Friend!!!


Yes, I finally got my new camera! My old one, a Kodak Easy Share, had served its purpose well and, after 5 years, started to fail. After staring at the picture for two hours two weeks ago, I made the plunge to spend a decent amount of money on a high quality camera. In addition, no tax and no shipping from the online PX (AAFES) store was also an incentive. I love my Military Star Card!!! One of my employees jokingly calls the PX the "special club" :)

On Wednesday, my new Nikon D60 SLR camera arrived! I can tell you it is a little intimidating with all the buttons and menu options, but yesterday I read that user's manual cover to cover. Of course Freddy tried to start playing with the camera right away and, since he didn't read the manual, couldn't even figure out how to turn off the flash! Boys... when are they going to learn...

And, the victims...er... subjects of my first round of professional photography. I'm sure I looked rediculous crawling around on the ground trying to get candid shots of my putties. They were not as excited about my new toy as I was!


Miss C-Lo, none too happy that I kept following her around this morning.



Thoughtful Hadley... he was really just watching the lens move back and forth.



Sweet-faced Harley... not quite sure why he was just awoken with a flash.




Now the dilemma... continue to play with my new toy or break down and get my work done...

~AKO

Wordless Wednesday

~AKO

Is There Ever Enough Closet Space?

So, I've always had a love/hate relationship with our closet. Between my clothes, Freddy's civilian clothes and his military gear, we never seem to have enough closet space. As a matter of fact, his military gear takes up an entire closet in our second bedroom. I'm almost inclined to look for a home with a fourth bedroom that we can use as a walk-in closet!

Anyway, I've seen this little item on TV a number of times. It is called "The Wonder Hanger" and is supposed to triple your closet space.





Of course I'm always skeptical of gadgets that are supposed solve all of my problems. However, the other night we happen to see them in the mall and decided to pick up a couple boxes. Each box contained 8 hangers, each of which has room for 5 hangers.

Tonight I thought I would give it a go and try to organize our bedroom closet with these magical hangers that were going to make my life better. Our closet started out looking like this:





Yes... yes... we have a bad habit of hanging a lot on the door rather than actually IN the closet. Not to mention my shoes all over the floor :( However, two hours and 16 wonder hangers later, our closet looked like this:





Not bad, if I do say so myself. Granted, these little miracle workers didn't solve all of my closet problems, but they definitely made a small dent. I would highly recommend them if you are facing similar closet space issues. We only paid $9.99 per box at the store we found them in so the price wasn't too bad. I may buy some more and overhaul our coat closet :)

~AKO

The Best Invention Ever!

Tonight I thanked the gods again for the best invention ever! I visited a friend in New Jersey today for a girl shopping day. The day started around noon and we finally finished up around 10:30pm this evening. My friend lives in Jersey City and my normal route home is to take the Holland Tunnel to get into Manhattan. Currently, the Holland Tunnel will set you back $8.00 to cross into Manhattan.

As I was approaching the toll booths, the cash lanes were the outermost booths. The line to pay by cash had to be a good 30 minute back-up. Not me! I was in possession of the best invention ever!


The EZ Pass!!!



As a result, the lane I moved into looked like this!




No traffic and smooth sailing through the tunnel! Without it, I would probably still be waiting to get through the cash lane. I often wonder why it took us so long to get one in the first place!

~AKO

SHOW US YOUR LIFE - Favorite Vacation Spots

This week's Show Us Your Life is favorite vacation spots. Now I have not had much of a chance to travel abroad. As a matter of fact, I've never been out of the country :( So, all of my vacations are domestic. The funnest vacation I've been on recently was the family trip we took out to Las Vegas this past May. Because of the wedding in October, most of us were broke come Christmas time. So, my mom, sister, brother, brother's fiancee, Freddy, and I decided to take a trip somewhere rather than buy each other gifts. The decision was made to spend a week in Las Vegas. Of the six of us, only my mom and I had been there before so there were lots of new things to explore for everyone!




Freddy and I on the bus on our way to the strip.



New York, New York and MGM Grand on the Strip.



Excalibur on the Strip.



My sister, Andrea, and I enjoying our drinks at Kahunaville in Treasure Island.



Our appetizer at Khunaville, which amused me greatly :)



Freddy's winnings!



The gang in front of the Mirage: Andrea, Heidi, Tony, Freddy, and me.



My mommy in front of Caesar's Palace.




On the last day, we had the opportunity to take a bus tour over to the Hoover Dam. Our bus driver was a riot and we had a lot of fun!







Since I don't get to see my family much it was great to be able to spend the time with them. We may even do the trip in lieu of Christmas gifts again next year!

~AKO

Wordless Wednesday

Not sure why, but I found this very amusing yesterday :) Freddy in his uniform looking at GI Joe toys...





~AKO

Not Necessary!

Is it really necessary for people to feel the need to be all over each other on the subway? Seriously... I'm just sitting there, riding the J train into work, music blasting in my ear, reading FaceBook from my phone, minding my own business, when I look up and these two people are having one serious make-out session right up against the pole. It was not pretty! The sad thing is this is a regular occurrence in the transit system. Do they not realize that we really do not want to see them "swapping spit" as my grandpa used to say??? In many cases there are kids on the train and they definitely do not need to see that. In addition, the subway is filthy! I wouldn't be doing anything up against that pole! I guarantee if you separate from each other you won't explode.

~AKO

Just When You Think it is Safe...

...to leave your fur-babies unattended for just one night


The brand new bath mat...



A box of Military coins...



My flip flops...



A potpourri ball...



A brand new bag of cat food...



My yoga mat...



All courtesy of...



Isn't he precious???


~AKO

SHOW US YOUR LIFE - Wedding Receptions/Honeymoon

This week's Show Us Your Life from Kelly's Korner is the Wedding Reception and Honeymoon.

Our Wedding Reception was at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Elmhust, NY across from LaGuardia Airport.





We heard the compliment that all couples want to hear - "This was the best reception we've been too in a long time!" There was definitely a lot of mixing of the cultures. The music was a mixture of oldies, country, and latin.

Our first dance was to Tracy Byrd's "Keeper of the Stars".





My dad and I danced to Trace Adkins' "Then They Do".





Because we had so many different people with different tastes, we opted to go with a buffet rather than a plated dinner. From what I've been told the food was good. I didn't really get to eat much :)





Our cake was a three tier cake with one layer each of Chocolate, Yellow, and Red Velvet. You can't see it, but on the back we had three paw prints to represent our three fur-babies with their initials "HHC". Freddy designed the cake.





The Groom's cake just added to everyone's confirmation that we're dorks :) I had it designed as a surprise for Freddy.





Once dinner was done and the music started, no one was afraid to hit the dance floor. My mom and cousin were the first one's out there!









We even had a couple people provide live entertainment for our guests. Freddy's Aunt Judy is an accomplished traditional Latin singer.





My friend, Jaymes, who was also one of the ushers, is a Broadway and theatre performer. He sang "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks, which was a big hit with the guests!





We have not yet been on our honeymoon. There were a number of factors contributing to this... finances, family in town, Freddy's new job... We do still plan to go on our honeymoon in the next year so I may have to post a Part II :)

Next week is Show Us Your Favorite Vacation Spot!

~AKO