Travel.

I am glad to have found someone who loves to travel as much as I do.  Once our wedding takes place next August, we'll be randomly traveling as well as traveling on our planned schedule.  In 2011, we don't be doing much traveling since we're getting married. 

Really, the only traveling we will be doing will be the one week on our mini-honeymoon in August/September.  The real travel starts in 2012 (hope the world doesn't end by then.)  In 2012, we plan on taking a mini road trip up to New York (driving.)  Also in 2012, as a one year anniversary/real honeymoon trip, we're going to be taking an Alaskan cruise (well....Canada and Alaska, that is) based out of Seattle, Washington.  We really have no desire to take a tropical cruise nor a Mexico cruise (especially after the trouble Mexico has been having lately with tourtists winding up shot, etc.)

In 2013, our travel will consist of going to Scotland and Amsterdam for our two year anniversary.  We'll fly out of Atlanta via KLM to Amsterdam and Edinburgh.  The first part of our trip will be Scotland followed up by Amsterdam.  I love Scotland's CityLink bus system, and we'll be using that quite a bit.  I'm already looking into passes.  While I spent a lot of time in Edinburgh, my experience with Amsterdam is very limited (one night) before we flew back to Atlanta the following day.  I know that Amsterdam is pretty small, but we plan on spending two days there. Possibly sometime in 2013, we'll also head to Montana to visit my Uncle and Aunt.

In 2014, we don't really have any travel plans, but that's only because...................

In 2015, we plan on going to Africa (Kenya/Tanzania.) 

All of this is possible by budgeting ourselves.  Rather than spending money going out to eat or on video games, etc. we're going to save for our travels.  I'd rather travel than have frivolous things anyways.  I already save money by getting my hair done at Paul Mitchell The School in Atlanta :)

Our Sunday Drive

Yesterday, we headed up to North Georgia for our "Sunday Drive." We knew full well that there would be congestion with everyone else driving up there, too, but we went anyways. We decided to hit Ellijay and the orchards first in the morning before church let out.

Our drive started off with something funny happening.  As we were sitting at an intersection in Jasper, we saw that a Sheriff's Deputy had a truck pulled over in a lot nearby, but when the light turned green for the other traffic, this asshat in a ragged out primer-black 240 Z floored it, lighting up the road with a loud squeal, sharp turn, and flooring it up 515.  We both said, "what an idiot!" since the deputy was right there.  It wasn't long when a few miles up the road, we were at a traffic light.  I didn't even notice who was in front of us when this car comes flying around me and butts its front right fender in front of my car.  It was the sheriff's deputy, and then it clicked.  The car in front of us was none other than the 240 Z who had made an idiot out of himself.  As the light turned green, the 240 Z sat there and kept looking in his side mirror.  Finally the deputy got on the horn and said, "Pull forward." The driver of the 240 Z pointed his finger to the left.  The deputy said, "no, forward and onto the side of the road.  You're holding up traffic."  The 240 Z slowly pulled forward, and as he did, the deputy threw on his blue lights and escorted him to the side of the road.  We laughed as we drove by.  He knew he'd been caught.

We pulled up to BJ Reece Orchards off Highway 52. They were a little bit busy but nothing too serious. We paid for our "pick ur own apples," and then we saw a sign that said, "apple cannon - $5/bucket." What? An apple cannon? Of course we paid the $5 and headed on the dirt and gravel road up into the orchard. As we walked the path, admiring the mountain views, fall foliage and smell of apples, we heard the sound of compressed air shooting through tubes....apple cannon.

As we came down the hill, we saw two cannons and targets out in the field. If you hit a target, you got a prize.

We waited to shoot the cannons.  There was a group in front of us from out of town that bought five buckets of apples, and instead of being polite and letting others go, they sat there and fired all five buckets.  So here Andrew was...getting ready to fire.  I think we were one of the few sets of adults firing the cannons.  Out in the field were various plywood targets.

At the bottom were two targets as well.  These were worth a "free candy stick" each time you hit the target. Andrew hit it twice.

After the apple cannon, we went through the orchard and picked some Arkansas Black apples.  Andrew got to act out the "shakey shakey" Allstate insurance guy commercial as he climbed up in the tree and lightly shook the boughs. 

When we came out of the orchard, the number of visitors had multiplied exponentially so that the line to buy tickets for picking and the apple cannons were twenty deep.  After buying fried apple pies and having our fill of crowds, we hopped in the car and headed into Dahlonega.  When we got into Dahlonega (the scenic route,)  we decided to drive through the very busy Dahlonega and up to the 9s to take some pictures but not before stopping at the reservoir.  We were on a mission from my mom to "get a good picture of you two."  So we did. 

A nice couple decided to help us out with the picture since we had taken about six with the timer - haha.  After the reservoir we headed up 19N and then onto the 9s towards Suches.  I've always called it "The 9s" due to a large exposed rock face off to the right that was used for climbing and rappelling in college.  We stopped at two overlooks, and we took some more pictures....

After heading down the mountain towards Suches and taking yet some more pictures, we headed back to Dahlonega for a late lunch at Wylie's.  Sadly, Wylie's is no longer :(  As we walked up to the Conner House, we noticed that it looked dead.  I told Andrew, "I wonder if they're closed between lunch and dinner?"  But the stark reality hit us when we didn't see a sign that said, "Wylie's."  We walked over to Piazza for lunch where our waitress told us that she heard they went bankrupt.  So sad.  We had so many good memories of Wylie's from college and then Andrew and I. 

After Piazza, we drove out to Chestatee Wildlife Preserve whose gates closed twenty minutes prior, and we headed to Cavender's Creek to see our cabin for the day before the wedding and our wedding night before heading up to Sky Valley for a week.  We met Paul Hanson, the owner of Cavender's Creek, who was kind enough to allow us to drive around the cabin loop and find our cabin.  Deep in the woods, beside the creek is our cabin, and in a little less than a year, we will be staying there as husband and wife. 

By that time, it was close to five, and we headed back to Powder Springs.  Even though one of our favorite lunch spots had closed, it was a great day.

Fall: The Little Things.

I'm looking forward to this Sunday.

My fiancé is off from work on Sundays. We enjoy the simplest little things together. On Sunday morning, we'll wake up and have coffee (me with pumpkin spice creamer, he with peppermint mocha) and breakfast, and then we'll set off to Northwest Georgia. It's supposed to be beautiful this weekend with the highs near 78 degrees Fahrenheit and clear skies.

We'll pop "The Cars" or "Depeche Mode" into my CD player and ride, with the windows down, taking the back way up to Northwest Georgia along Highway 52 and stop in at one of the orchards for apple picking and goodie-buying (cider, pie, and more!)

We'll snap some pictures of the Fall foliage as well as there are several spots along the way to stop.

I love my fiancé and how we both love "the little things."

Headed to the hospital tonight...

The past couple of days, Andrew hasn't been feeling right. He's had generalized abdominal pain, and although he isn't vomitting or any other classic signs, I'm pretty sure he has appendicitis. It looks like we'll be heading to the hospital tonight. "yay."


*** Update ***
It turned out not to be appendicitis, but he did have an inflammation of his colon/colitis of which the cause has not yet been determined.

Bill Collector: Just a hat I wear.

One of the many hats I wear at work is AR...aka..."bill collector." I am a nice person. I am a polite person. I know the economy is in the crapper. I am more than willing to work with a company as long as they're willing to work with us and treat us with the same amount of respect.

That being said, fabricating absurd lies that can easily be disproven ("we ain't never got it!" = UPS Detail Tracking Page showing when it was delivered, where it was delivered, and who signed for it,) will not win over my "I'm willing to help you" offer. Being rude and disrespectful will not either.

I am here to help you. I will offer payment plans. I will listen to you. I just need to have something to tell our accountant when we have our weekly AR meetings.

I am not a Collections Company. I am a representative of a supplier from whom you purchase products.

Without trying to sound too lame...help me help you.

Ugh - Breeder has dogs seized....AGAIN

Remember this post not too terribly long ago?

You are a disgrace

Well, guess what? They're back again. There are NINE new dogs sitting in Athens-Clarke County Animal Shelter to RESCUES only...all of them are German Shepherds, and all of them were seized by the same "breeder" as earlier this year!

Here is a link to some of the dogs: (active as of Oct. 4th, 2010)
http://www.athenspets.net/?cat=22

Let's read what the shelter has written, shall we? I bolded some very important tidbits...

These dogs need to go to experienced German Shepherd rescues, or with rescues that have experienced trainers that could rehabilitate the dogs. They are not well socialized and are exhibiting fear-avoidance behavior. They have not shown ANY aggression, even when pushed and stressed. They are all extremely smart and once their trust has been earned, will make excellent companions. They will need patience and consistent training. These dogs were confiscated from a breeder that kept the dogs in terrible conditions. A few of these dogs have been confiscated before, but hopefully this time the breeder will lose the dogs in court. All of the dogs are available to rescues, but don’t pull them just because your heart aches for them. They need proper socialization through an experienced handler. They shut down when people come near them. They don’t have a clue what a leash or even a collar is. They’ve rarely had human contact. They are gorgeous dogs and “somewhat healthy". None of them are on the edge of starvation, or have serious injuries. Several have been bred numerous times. Their time will be up soon and they are taking up a lot of space at the shelter.

Yet, it wasn't a month ago this "breeder" had a new litter(s) advertised for sale in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as user Bauernhoffen.

Here's wishful thinking the judge won't turn a blind eye this time.

Another year, another birthday.

Yesterday was my birthday. It started out with Andrew wishing me "Happy Birthday" at midnight. The next morning, I ran through my standard Monday through Friday routine to get ready for work. I noticed Andrew was waiting around. I asked him, "aren't you normally gone by now?" He said, "yeah...it's okay."

When I went down to my car in the garage with Andrew following, I noticed a birthday present on the top of my car from Andrew :) It had a card, and in it was a t-shirt that said, "I got game." The t-shirt, however, was wrapped around Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 that I had mentioned I wanted several weeks ago. Andrew wrote me a nice note in my card, and that was the start to my day.

I received numerous well wishing on Facebook and through e-mail, and I was excited to see that our new digital cable box had been delivered via UPS to our house.

After dodging the kids, pre-teens, and teens that shot me a nasty look as they huddled around our mailbox, I came home, and I went upstairs to the front door. Smiling, I opened it...and no cable box...no box at all. I thought, "well it was raining earlier. Maybe the UPS person put the box under the porch." Nope. Nowhere. Not in the front yard. Not in the backyard. Now I was pissed. Someone had stolen our cable box.

It wasn't the fact that they had stolen the box that annoyed me as much as one of two things:

1. Someone had to have seen the UPS truck drive up and leave something
2. Someone had to have walked up our hill into our front yard or onto our porch in order to see there was a package there.

Neither one of those scenarios are positive.

Luckily, I called Comcast, and they are allowing me to pick up a new box at a local store (wish they had told me that before.)

Last night, Andrew and I met Laura and Gray (Shelby #2 was tutoring) at The Irish Bred Pub in Douglasville for a birthday dinner and drinks outside on the patio. It was nice to have dinner with friends, and I was grateful that Gray drove all the way down from Kennesaw JUST to come have dinner with us.

All-in-all, it was a good birthday. Andrew and I are headed down to my parents' house tonight for the weekend.