Gnorm the Gnome's Adventures in Charlotte

Yes, you read it right.....he has a name! Gnorm. My good friend Megan gets the glory for that one.

Gnorm and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina this week for two nights. He was TOTALLY ready for some warm Southern weather. I must say...Gnorm's a bit of a sissy when it comes to Winter.

We arrived Monday afternoon and had a couple of hours to explore before our first meeting, so Gnorm and I jumped in the rental car (a kickass Jeep) and went for a drive in search of gnome-worthy spots.

I don't know my way around Charlotte, so didn't really know how to get downtown. I just drove toward the tall buildings :) He and I found a very colorful and interesting area on the way. A friend who is a local, who you will meet later in this journey) informed me later that I was in the hood.

I found this awesome spot at the "The Phat Burrito"





























































After causing some commotion in the hood...a freckle-faced redhead taking pictures of a gnome in the hood.... we took off and found our next spot, downtown.
































































Gnorm and I wanted to give a statue a cheap thrill. We got some interesting comments from businessmen standing nearby.























Gnorm was pretty tired from traveling and wanted to lay down and enjoy the weather.


















It was off to our meeting after that....and then for all of the next day. After a short but extremely dramatic panic when I thought that Gnorm was gone I found him in the bottom of my bag. My friend Chris, the afore mentioned local, took Gnorm and I out for a tour of the most 'charlottey' spots in Charlotte.
We found the Bobcat stadium and the Panther stadium.....











































Next we went out to this amazing Charlotte spot that was built to be the US Olympic Training Center for whitewater sports. This is a huge whitewater park where you can change the rapids in innumerable ways...it's incredible. It is open to the public when not in use by the Olympic teams. I was blown away by this place. Gnorm liked it, too, but was scared to get too close to the edge.


















Gnorm asked Chris, our tour guide, to join him for a photo.



















Towards the end of our tour we came across a string of circus trucks.......






















and last, but CERTAINLY not least..... a place I drove by during my jaunt in the hood the day before. I had told Chris about it and he thought that we needed to go back for the shot.

drumroll, please.........
Smack dab in the middle of the hood.......

A Turd!

Monkey has been telling us all of the time lately that she wants to go potty...but when we get her diaper off and get her on her potty she just hangs out and pretends to go. It has gotten a little tiring, because she does it all of the time and she never produces. We don't want to take her because we seriously doubt she will really go, but we have to take her just in case, right?
Well, as she's finishing her dinner she says that she has to go potty... so I get all of the catsup off of her, get her out of her highchair, and we go get her in there. She didn't want to sit on her potty and insisted she sit on the toilet. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got her up there she started pushing and pushing and we celebrated as a big ol' turd plopped into the water!

Pink pink pink

I took Valentine's photos of the girls this morning. Here are a few, and there are more on the Soul Reflection blog.

Hot Like Wasabi...

My two year old is standing next to me CHOWING down wasabi green peas. I mean devouring them. Every so often her eyes will get big and full of water and she'll cover her mouth...then grab another. She's been eating them for about 20 minutes and has only taken one drink. She will occasionally say, "hot...good" but that's about all she'll take the time for. These things are delicious, but they are extremely hot....and filled with horseraddish!
that's my girl.
thank God I'll be out of town tomorrow so Chris will get the wasabi poop.


And that means that we'll have a traveling gnome report soon.

Didn't make it until morning

I ended up going to the ER in the middle of the night. I couldn't take it anymore.
I'm on antibiotics and Vicoden.

holy crap

my face hurts so bad I'm seriously holding back screams.
Major. Sinus. Infection.
I'm calling the ENT tomorrow morning... I'm in agony.

but got lots of proofing done today on my day off in observance of MLK Jr day....lots and lots of it. Check out the Soul Reflection blog to see them.

Winter Wonderland

It is beautiful here today. We have about five inches of fresh snow and it's the great packing kind! We haven't really had a lot of good snowman-building snow this year, so this was a treat. Libby and I headed out this afternoon while Monkey was napping. Had a good snowball fight and made a big snowman. Libby had the idea to make a 'hat' out of sticks...which I think looks awesome, but he totally looks like Wilson from Castaway with Tom Hanks :)

Also, I bribed Monkey with an Oreo this morning and got some cute ones of her (the evidence of the Oreo is on her lip....)

Some photos from our Sunday...

The Grand Adventures of the Traveling Gnome

I was given a gnome to accompany me on my work trips and keep me company. He will be coming with me on all of my trips from now on and I will document his travels in photographs.

The inaugural trip was to Cleveland. It was not a smooth trip and not a good way for him to start his life of travel.

The weather was very foggy and wet in Appleton, our starting point.




















We got word that our flight was delayed.....by about three hours. Or was it four?





















We passed the time working in the business center. Managed to finish all of my work.










































We figured that we would miss our connection, that is if the flight was not canceled. Fortunately, after O'hare (our connection) was opened up again (yes, it had grounded all flights due to weather) we did take off.... and saw some of the most incredible cloud to ground lightning ever.




















The flight in Chicago was also delayed about three hours, so we had plenty of time to spare. When we finally made it to Cleveland and got to our hotel it was nearly 1:00 am. And when I turned down the covers to crawl into bed I found a nice long black hair on one pillow and the other had a big hole with the stuffing coming out. I called the front desk and asked for new pillows. He instead changed my room. This one was much bigger, not that it mattered since I was only going to sleep there for a few hours and then leave for my meeting.

On the way to the airport we enjoyed our trip through Cleveland and had deep conversation with our driver
























Being the dork I am, I asked the driver to stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so I could get a few photos of my gnome (I need to name him...any suggestions? If so, leave them in a comment on this post, please). Although he thought we were nuts, he obliged.






































We got back to the Cleveland airport merely 12 hours after arriving, to find that our flight was delayed.....again, for about two hours. We passed the time talking and taking a few photos...






































Both of us were just wrecked by this time....hadn't eaten much of anything since the morning before, and we were sooooo tired.
























After boarding the plane (finally) we parked on the tarmac for 45 minutes, because Chicago was having air traffic control issues.
Eventually we took off for O'hare thinking we'd miss our connection.
In the air the captain informed us that we were being re-routed again due to severe weather and our flight would be 15 minutes longer than planned.
When we landed (again) we discovered......yep, you guessed it......delayed. about three hours.
























Exhausted, we finally made it home about 8:30.

Our next trip is to Charlotte on the 28th....

It's benign!!!!

Wahooooooooooo!!!!!!

Chumley's tests came back fine!!!

Thank you for all of you who sent prayers his way :)

While we're waiting for results....some photos

I need some prayers

My Golden Retriever, Chumley, has been with me for nearly 11 years. He is the first love of my life :) There are four little girls and one hottie husband who have since earned that title as well....
He has been growing big yucky bumps for a few years...some big, some tiny, mostly round. They've been checked out repeatedly and are just fatty tumors.
Last night I was petting him and felt a very large growth on his side. It was very different from all of the others....different shape, different feel, and very large. I took him into the vet this morning and she checked it out. She agreed that it was something to be quite concerned about....it is the size of your palm and feels like it is actually attached to his last couple of ribs.
The vet took a couple of samples to send in for testing and also did a quick smear in the office to see if she could see anything. Well, some of the sample was fatty tissue, but this time there were some abnormal cells that didn't look good. She talked at length about cancer and what treatment she is recommending if the tests come back bad.
There is a possibility that it will come back okay, but she is thinking that it could come back as cancer or 'inconclusive' with a recommendation of removing the tumor.

So, I'm a mess. I am hoping that if you are one who believes in the power of prayer you will say a few for my Chumley. I am not at all ready to lose him yet. He's an incredible dog.

His 11th birthday is on Tuesday.