All girls weekend day 1

Welcome to the 20th anniversary of this event!!

Our trip started out rainy for Liz and I. 

This was her first AGW!

So day one was meeting up in the bar with the Aviano crew, having a few drinks then bed by midnight. Arrivals straggled in from 2pm with the Utah crew to 1am with Amy. 

Day 1 proper. 

Mom, Linda and I roomed together so we got up and met everyone downstairs for a quick ride to The Omelet House

Local joint off of Charleston 

The grunions were not running for item 33 1/2. Ha!

The one WITH food

The staff was funny and our photographer took 13 (literally) photos of us for me to use ONE (ok maybe two)

The one without food!   And so you can see all of Wendy’s face!  Around the table left front to me: Peggy, Amy, Wendy, Marilyn (mom), Linda, Elizabeth, Caroline, Gail and me!  Good group of women!

From here we took Lyfts to the container er park. It is NOT what I thought it would be, however it was interesting!

I need to load Gail’s pictures and photoshop one for us as well with everyone in the shot!

We took mom home, got her settled and went out to Seven Magic Mountains in the outskirts of town. More details here https://sevenmagicmountains.com/

Pretty sunset coming back into town. We ran a few errands for family while out and about. 

Dinner was Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris overlooking the fountains of the Bellagio.  Wendy hit a HUGE jackpot on slots winning over $350 that night while waiting for the table!  Yay Wendy!!!  

We put all the newcomers to AGW and Vegas on the side overlooking the fountains so they could see how pretty they are!

Liz comes here all the time and eats in the patio for the view. I don’t come here to eat but have seen the fountains quite a few times. Mom opted to not join us on this dinner. 

Liz and the Aviano crew continued on to Fremont and beyond while the rest of us hung out in the hotel and watched a movie. Can you tell we have been to Vegas lots?

Saturday night fun with Elizabeth

Lots of concentration!!  There are two glass gathers and cooling before this step. Gathering color onto the raw glass to make the pumpkin. It goes back I. The oven to make it meld, then back out and roll on the counter to roll it all in. Then back onto the oven and when we take it out then it goes into the form…

Making the pumpkin shape using an aluminum form to put the ridges into the glass. You can fee the glass solidifying. It goes BACK into the oven and then he takes it to shape the bottom….

He is constantly twirling the glass and then lets us know when we can flatten the bottom. Now this was shocking as the glass is SO soft it flattens quickly. Shockingly fast!!



From there he worked in it a bit more to get the top thin enough to break off cooling it with some water at the neck then over to this startup. Where we whack the pole to break it off. This took a bit more effort than anticipated. Funny how the shaping was easier and this was harder. Just the opposite of what you would think. 1 out of 4 did it in one whack and it wasn’t me!!!

Next was the stem. More glass gathers, more color, more twirling BUT he did this one as it was time sensitive and being newbies we would not be fast enough. Once it was gathered, colored and shaped he would bring it over and place it on the pumpkin and pull. We determined the shape of the stem. Liz wanted a newly picked pumpkin stem. I wanted a curly one!!


After the snip of the glass a blowtorch was used to smooth out the end of the stem. Awesome. It was fun and them being young they had NO idea about making pipets in chemistry class. I now question why we were required to learn to make them. 

So my “fun with glass” was relived a bit here ;)

Weekend adventures

It was super foggy on Saturday when I got up. I was up at 7:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep so I decided to go to breakfast while others slept as there was no coffee in the house. Seriously. Zero coffee. So off I went. After breakfast I headed to Krogers to get some coffee and other things in the list. Then thinking o had tried to go to an estate sale the day prior but it wasn’t open so I swung by there as well

I found a few treasures. :)

LE Smith moon and star toothpick holder (came with the other three little amber plates)

Gorgeous Murano dish

These are all the rage right now - they are lucite/acrylic candlesticks. 

Honduras duck. 

These are small nut, jelly, dishes. 

This is tiny. It’s about 3.5” wide

I was enamored with this one. I will NOT be sad

It it takes a bit to sell! I may have to use them ;)

All that for $28. I should double my money on it all of things go well. They are all primed and photographed and ready to list within the week.  

After I got home I had to package a sale and take it to the PO before it closed. 

What does one do when she has to take packages to the post office?  She dumpster dives. Yup. You read that right. I went literal dumpster diving. I found the following

I fessed up to Butch what I had been up to and he was appalled - BUT when I said I would be selling the hand truck he changed his tune. Ha!  So the hand truck stays. 

Love the gnome. The hot chocolate bombs are well within expiration. Fully sealed.  

THIS is my favorite find for sure. 

As is par for the course for my funds. Angela is eyeing this one and wants it. She’s moving right now anyway so maybe she’ll get it at Christmas. It is pretty neat in that it folds to a single tube shape. 

So I’ll be going diving more at that store for sure at season changes!!

So what brought this on?  Who knows. I saw a group on Facebook and joined for grins. Turns out it’s right up my alley for sure. I love to dig through trash and estate sales to look for treasures. Speaking of that earlier in the day I did that as well. 

Weekday adventure

https://www.americasmart.com/

Why am I starting this post with Americasmart?  Because this is where I went for three days to help a friend gather goodies for her online shop. Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday was cash and carry sample sales. These are the stores that other boutique come to order and shop from so all the items in this place are samples of what the boutiques can order at wholesale prices. So cash and carry is half off of wholesale or more. So killer deals!

It was so fun!!  I was the helper but still got to shop for stuff for Christmas while there. There are 18 floors in building 2 where we started. Goods didn’t really start until floor 6… we walked 5 miles in circle’s from 10am to 5pm. We made it through 1/2 the stores in building 2 on day 1.

This was not cash and carry but OH so cute. Yea, spring may have this display on sale!!  We did see folks walking out with large displays items too. Fun if you have a store, right??

 After we finished the day we went back to the hotel and went through our loot and decided to DRIVE the next day and park at the venue!!  

going through our loot at the hotel:

We had two wagons on the trip. Both were full. We then had to schelp them home. 

. 

Stuff on the shelf, stuff on the counter. Stuff on the beds. Stuff everywhere. Day one was actually light compared to day two. I was surprised when Barbara said this was light on the shopping haul. 🤯

Day two. 

A considerable amount more. This time I had a box partially full as well with Christmas presents. Big old load today. Walked 5 more miles on this day as well and went to all the remaining stores in building 2!

A few of the things I saw when I was waiting and failing my job as helper (sitting in a rarely found chair!)

So cute!!  The stick was padded and fairly firm with one flaming marshmallow, one scorched and one without marks. Sooooo cute. 

A great pair of Audrey stuffies!!

Some AWEAOME lawn furniture that was very high end for $4,000. They were comfy for sure!  Honestly we were just taking a break!  Ha!!

The view from our hotel. I jokes with Butch it was a man’s heart healthy hotel with the boobs across the way!  

What boobs?  These

Day three and I look like an old man!  And honestly so stiff and sore I didn’t care!

No picture of the haul but an embarrassing picture of my footwear. I wore these HeyDude shoes the first day with pants but I was sooo hot. I switched to capris and wore my tennis shoes with socks. They gave me a blister. Sooo last day, back to these shoes with socks just in case the blister popped. Soooo sexy - not!!

Last day was only 3 miles walked as we only shopped the temporary items. Most were jewelry and clothes. Things Barbara wasn’t looking to buy and nothing I would fit in on a good day. AND only one showroom so we did that, debated about revisiting some shops in building two but opted to just call it a day and headed home with the back of her big SUV full. not to the ceiling but quite full :)

That’s what I did this week!  I worked Monday and Friday and played through the middle. And now it’s the weekend. Tomorrow I am in a glass pumpkin blowing class. I’m not sure we really blow or of we just shape. We shall see. 

I am a complex woman - results such that they are

I am a complex woman - results such that they are, are in.

The visit goes like this… “the lung nodules you have are staying consistent, no changes. The one near your rectum is the same as well” (this one got a “that’s a new one to me, but good that it’s the same size”). Then NOTHING. I reacted in shock with “ok the two I’m concerned about are the two peritoneal ones”. The discussion continues with the history from January to now. Then come my comments and questions of are they winging this or comparing to prior?  Are they (the nodes) just gone? Are we all good?  

Doc did mention well you are at five years. Well yeah, but after all these scares what do we do?  Do we just say “ok, you’re at 5 years, last scan was grand you’re done see ya?” 

What he DID mention was Signatera came back as negative. I thought it was over ruled by insurance. Guess not as I haven’t gotten a bill for it!

He asked me what I felt about it all. This is always met with “I’m not a doctor!”  So I proposed PET scan to determine if that same area still had high uptake or if that was a fluke or infection. He agreed. So there we are:  six months, repeat PET to see what is there/not there..  

Would YOU press for 2nd opinion?  Would you just ride this out because PET scans are notorious for being something other than cancer?  How on earth do you move on from this at 5 years and not still think every twinge is cancer??

Guess we shall find out. 

Three month CTs

My first scheduled was Monday. Yeah. Today is Wednesday and I’m just getting in to get the test. The CT machine is broken in Macon. Sooooo I found this out RIGHT before I started to drink the drink. We had to get approved to move locations and such for insurance. So I’m having it done today instead. Sigh. 

Plus side  - the drink is raspberry. And it really is good. Shocking!!  I think because I teased the tech he hooked a girl up ;)

And now we wait. Results next Wednesday late. Then the debate will happen for 2nd opinion. If something surgical is needed it’s not on my oncologist anyway so we should see someone else for a second opinion anyway. I’m procrastinating on it. Not too smart on some levels… 

Columbus Day weekend

We made a trip to Fort Walton. It was mostly to clean the house of personal goods as we are putting the house up with a rental management company for weekly type rentals. Yes we are transitioning to letting the house be rented to strangers.  what drives this?  When you break something and you say “meh, ok, it’s broken “ you know you’re good with moving on. 

What MAY have to happen is moving from a bunk room to a two twin room as beds fail, which I’m sure they will as they are NOT super sturdy beds. The rental company will address the bed situation as best they can as I warned them the bunks are NOT for adults. Period. We shall see. It’s been 7 years and so far they are doing OK. The rental company should rent as less beds I think to ensure less weight. I will review the rental listing before it goes out and update it.

The photographer was out on Saturday and took pictures. It’s  ready to roll. Now we sit back and wait to see if it’s worth it. 

We went to the obligatory Stewbys for dinner one night and  we DID make it to the beach this time on my insistence. 

Love the beach. 

HATE biting flies. They called them dog flies. They were smaller than horse flies but the same bite capabilities. Ouch! We lasted two hours before I gave up!!

We tried a new restaurant - Don Cha. Very good. Peruvian foods 

And we saw a huge red harvest moon in the way home. It was gorgeous and I miss having a really good camera on me for those times!  Guess it’s time to find my little cannon and charge up the batteries for car rides!!




We got home VERY late for me. 10:00. I came home dumped laundry in the basket and went right to bed 💤 

All in all a good weekend.