Wednesday Joke

I heard this today from Jeff Foxworthy:

Why are Redneck murders so hard to solve?

















Because all of the DNA is the same and there are no dental records!

Snow-Cones

The dogs have a new favorite snack - snow-cones. They bring them in from outside and fight over who gets to eat them. Luckily, it's clean snow (not yellow!) so it only makes the carpet a little wet. They won't come in until they have a chunk of snow to chew on! It's so funny!

I am dreading this weekend though because it's going to get really cold and they won't want to go outside. It's funny, they'll act like they want to go out, but as soon as the cold air hits them, they back up and won't go out. Such babies! I guess that's a problem when they don't have much hair on their bellies!

This next picture is a paper-piecing that my friend Marni did last weekend at our scrapbook retreat. She's really creative. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a part of Jolee's new line!! Such detail!

It was just too funny not to share!!

Bus Answers

Nancy_Scraps asks: "OK...how many school buses in the twin cities (what %) are sold by the Hoglund Bus Company of Monticello MN. I was behind 3 different school buses yesterday, and they were all from Hoglund!And how does one go about purchasing a school bus. Is there a showroom? A catalog? Do I get a discount for buying 10 or more at once? "

Answer: I don't know about the Cities for percentage-wise, but I do know that we have 60% market share in MN and about 30% in IA. Those are the only two states our dealership sells in. I'd say that most major school districts in the Cities purchase from us. We do very well there and in northern MN. We sold around 300 new school buses last year. That wouldn't include any trade-ins (used) that we sold.

ETA: There are only 3 manufacturers that sell school buses.

How does one go about purchasing a bus? I was surprised at this answer when I started my job. There isn't a catalog, and you can come and check out a bus, but it's not a showroom, just in the field behind our buildings. (You can see them all on 94 to the south when you drive past Monticello) When you order a bus (which is part of my job), there is an option for everything, from the size of the bus, type of motor, type of seat - 2 leg (one side bolts to the wall) or 4 leg, number of rubrails (the black stripes on the bus - MN requires 4) to anything else you can think of. Even the driver's mirror is an option, you can get 6x30 or 10x30. There are requirements, both legally and practically - i.e. tires, School Bus Yellow paint. So, what a school does is make specs for what they want, and we create a bus to their specs. After someone is a customer for awhile and continues to purchase the same type of bus, we order "stock" buses that are the way they want them. Then the next year, they say they want a bus, and we have one for them. There's a bunch of ways to purchase a bus, but I'd rather not put everyone to sleep. There's a lot more to getting your kids to school than anyone would ever know! Even me - and I work there!!

Another Answer

Anonymous asks: "What would you do if you won the lottery? "

Answer - Well, if I won a small lotto (like $10,000), I'd buy some clothes or scrapping stuff and then finish our basement. If I won a large lotto (like $250 million dollars), there's a bigger list:

1. Quit my job
2. Buy a house with some land
3. Get an apartment in the Cities (so I could have a place to crash when I scrapped with the bitches)
4. Buy all new furniture for the new house
5. Purchase a thin body
6. Get a couple more Weims
7. Buy anything I wanted for scrapping stuff
8. Make sure my loved ones were taken care of
9. Give DH a couple bucks
10. Hire a belly-rubber for the dogs (they love getting their belly rubbed!)
11. Oh, and a dog walker too
12. Go to Europe, Australia and Hawaii
13. Probably file for bankruptcy about now

Funny this question should come up today, I got my W2 from work. It really makes me wonder why I work if that's all they pay me. So sad!!

Anyone else?

More Answers....

Linda Lou asks: "Who is tracy and why are you scrapbooking with her? What about your bitches?"

Answer - Jealous much? Tracy has been my friend since the first couple of weeks of my freshman year at UMD. She actually introduced me to DH. We lived together two different times and I was even in her wedding! I will be scrapping with her because she is fun and cool. My bitches would be more than welcome to join us.

Nancy_Scraps asks: "What do you like about Weimarainers as a breed of dog?If you couldn't have a Weimarainer or a Viszla, what kind of dogs would you have. "

Answer - We originally decided on the Weimaraner because my DH wanted a pair of beagles and I said no. We checked out a couple of different breeds (German Shorthair Pointer, Viszla) and decided on the Weim. I like that they are very personable, super smart (almost to a fault!), they LOVE being with their humans, they have short hair and they hunt (which DH likes). All of my family has Labs or Springer Spaniels. When we get together at our cabin, it's a Lab-fest. So we wanted something different so we could actually tell which one was our dog. If we were to have another type of dog - that's a good question. I'd probably only get Weims from now on, but I'd probably want a GSP or Viszla. I really like the short hair.

Keep em coming!

Answers

Tracy asks: "I want to know - When are we going to scrapbook? "

Answer - Hopefully soon. Let's try for the end of February or March. Let me know what days work for you.

Bonnie asks: "here's one.... u thinking of having kids in the future? or just your puppies?"

Answer - Probably some day. Kids are a hard thing for me. I don't know if I could handle it or if I want to give up my current lifestyle. I think about it a lot, but I don't know if that's just because of my age or if I really want them. It's a complicated question with complicated answers. But we will definitely continue to have dogs. That I do know.

Keep them coming!!

Go ahead and ask me!

I was reading Cathy Zielske's blog today and thought about not having a "this is what I had for lunch" blog. That's so what I've been doing. So, I thought that I'd let you, my glorious readers, help me out. My friend Linda did this at one time, so this is not a new idea. Ask me questions. Anything. I'll answer. This will go on until there are no more questions or until I'm bored with it. Anonymously if you must. So, go ahead and ask! I'm waiting...

Really? No one? Come on!! :)

Bath and Body Works Sale!

I had to return a couple of things to Bath and Body Works today, and I ended up hitting their Up to 75% off sale! I got everything you see here for less than $30! The soaps were all $1, so I grabbed those for dollar gifts for next Christmas. The poof and small blue lotion were 2 for $5. The best deal? Pumpkin Pie Paradise! I found this last fall and LOVED it! It smells super awesome! You almost want to take a couple of bites out of your arm when you use it! This HUGE bottle was - wait for it- $4!!!! Can't beat that! The Spicy Gingerbread smelled great too, so at that price, I had to try it out too.

Just had to share my exciting purchases!

Four Things

SIL sent this to me today by email. Thought I'd post my answers on here. Anyone else want to take the challenge and answer them too?

Four Things About Me You May Not Have Known.....

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Subway Sandwich Artist
2. Menards Cashier
3. Camp Counselor
4. Case Aide for Probation Office

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Dazed and Confused
2. Mean Girls
3. Center Stage
4. Singles

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. The Office
3. America's Next Top Model
4. CSI

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Boston
2. Cancun
3. New Orleans
4. Montana

Four favorite foods:
1. Cream Cheese Wontons
2. Ice Cream
3. Sweet and Sour Chicken
4. Cherry Pie

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Scrapbooking
2. On Vacation with DH
3. With my friends
4. Somewhere warmer

That's What She Said

I love The Office. It is one of my favorite shows. The best part about it? It's not in-your-face funny, it's subtle and SO hilarious. I never got into it before this year because I had watched some of the British Office on BBC America, saw one of the first episodes of the American version, and saw that they had just ripped off jokes from the other show. Then, a couple of months ago, I posted on here about the shows I watch, and everyone was commenting on how I should watch The Office. I went to YouTube and watched all these clips one night and laughed my ASS off for about 2 hours.

If you're a fan, you should check out these MySpace pages.

Pam/Jenna

Angela

One of the Crew from The Office

Tonight's episode rocked! I can't wait until next week!!

You take the Good, you take the Bad...

Today has been a good/bad day. Good because I finally am feeling somewhat better. I think I'm beating this cold now! Also, I felt good enough to go to Target after work and get this:

iHome. Isn't is cool? Now I can play my iPod anywhere! And it matches!! You gotta love that.

Now for the bad. My Mom called me a little bit ago and told me that my Great Aunt Lillian died yesterday. She had just turned 98 on New Years Day. What a life. 98 - can you imagine? I didn't know her very well, but she was a very nice lady and my Grandma liked her very much. Here's a picture of Lillian and my Grandma at our reunion in 2004 for my Dad's family.

We all were on teams for the Olympics my parent's had planned. I told my Grandma that she and Lillian were on their own team. My Grandma said that they wouldn't be playing games - but I told her that their game was to talk and have fun. She laughed and said they could manage that. They sat in the garage for most of the afternoon just talking and talking. By the way, that's Lillian on the left and my Grandma on the right.

There's another angel in heaven now.

Let's Play Hockey!

Last night, DH, his parents and I went to a Wild Hockey Game. It was my birthday gift to him. The Wild played the Colorado Avalance. Even though they lost, it was a blast. I forgot how much I miss watching hockey live. We used to go to games at UMD all the time. I loved it. Excel is such a great arena that there isn't a bad seat in the place. I wish we could go all the time, but I think we're going to try to go a couple times a year now.

Today we cleaned the house because our families were coming over to celebrate DH's birthday. He made lasagna, which was really good. After my family went home (they had an hour drive), the rest of us played cards. It was fun. The only bad part is that I didn't get to watch Desperate Housewives yet. That's on the agenda for tomorrow night.

Oh, and Linda's party on Friday night was an F-ING BLAST! I felt like shit (I probably would have stayed home from work if I didn't have Linda's party), but it really didn't matter. We laughed so hard I almost had an asthma attack! I won Linda trivia and got some cool chipboard swirls. Alli won the Linda-isms. It's crazy how many phrases she uses!! FTF man! Now I'm think that is what I want to do for my 30th in April. If it's half as fun, it would be worth it. Oh, Linda loved the Disney Crocs I got for her. Check out the picture on Bonnie's blog with her opening her present! It's the middle one in the group of pictures.

Birthdays Galore!

Tomorrow is DH's 32nd birthday. I wish he didn't have to work tomorrow night, but we're celebrating all this weekend. Saturday we're going to a MN Wild game (my present to him) and Sunday we're having both of our families over to celebrate. I'm so lucky to have him. He's such a great hubby!

Five random things I love about him:

1. He lets me go and scrapbook as much as I want.

2. We have the same sense of humor - He's always making me laugh.

3. He gets along great with my family and my nephew just loves him!

4. He's a really hard worker and has a great work ethic.

5. He loves the dogs as much as I do (see photo below), even though he won't admit it.

Happy birthday, T! I love you!!

It is also my friend Linda's birthday tomorrow. She's having a scrap birthday party tomorrow night. Luckily, DH has to work, so I'll be there! It's an all about me theme, and she's going to have prizes and everything! I'm super pumped.

5 random things I love about Linda:

1. She has more scrapbook supplies than I do.
2. She's funny - even though she doesn't have any gall bladder jokes.
3. She loves to shop as much as I do.
4. We can discuss important shows like Biggest Loser together.
5. She gets simple saying and phrases mixed up - which is hilarious! FTF man!
6. Okay, so this is #6 - but I thought of another one - she's bitchy!!