and

Robin

We TequilaCon-ers have pooled together our pics on Flickr.  There were a lot of talented photographers at TC, so you should definitely check them out.  

I had so much fun getting to see bloggers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting before at other blogger fun-fests:

 Dave2, Dustin, Jenny, Karl, NYC Watchdog, Poppy, Rachel, Robin, Sarah, and Vahid.

and meeting bloggers I’ve read a while as well as bloggers I will be adding to my blogroll:

Brandon, Carrington, Colleen, Jason, Marty, Ren, Scott, and Wayne

If you ever have the opportunity for a blogger meet-up, do it!  You’ll have a wonderful time.  I promise

Anyway, I’m sitting in this stinky room, awake too soon because one of the drapery hooks is off the rod.  Sunlight hit my eyes at around 6:30 this morning.  I tried to turn over to avoid the light, but then I had to pee.  I tried to keep my eyes half-shut and stumble into the bathroom, but they opened on me.  I am awake.  Too early.

I got some breakfast and lots of coffee.  I’m on a carb overload as of now.  I will regret that too, later on today.  

So, as I was Twittering my friends about meeting up in Sante Fe for TequilaCon ‘09 , I began thinking about last year’s big bash in Philadelphia (home of Hall and Oates) and Lisa’s neck of the woods.  Michael and I arrived in NY from Singapore May 1, stayed the night in NY, then drove down to Philly.  TequilaCon ‘08 was the first thing we did as repatriated Americans.  

We’ve been repatriated almost a year, and the year has flown by!  The opportunity to actually meet these on-line friends IRL (in real life) is so cool!  I am a very lucky lady, I know that and am very grateful.  I am missing Lisa right now, but I know she’s with us and wanting us to have a blast.

I will Twitter about stuff that I think is cool, and I’ll try to post here before the big BeerHer bash tonight.

Right now, I need a shower, but I will wait to wash my hair until I get to Sante Fe. This room stinks.  I am an idiot.

 honey-dos.  We decided that since his birthday is Friday and his friends are throwing him a not-so-surprise surprise party that night, we would celebrate his birthday.  Our tradition has always been that the birthday honoree gets to pick the meal, and he chose one of his favorites, Texas Hash.

My mom got the first recipe from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.  She gave me a new Betty Crocker cookbook when I got married, but Stupid Betty changed the recipe to something completely different (although it tasted ok).

I was tweeting about it, and one of my new Twitter friends asked for the recipe.  I was going to post then, but Petro and I were having too much fun talking, sippin’ on some Stellas, and taking goofy pictures of each other in the garage!  We were up until 2 a.m.

Geeky’s Texas Hash

This towel smells so good — my winnings from DutchBitch’s  blog contest when she was working in Schiermonnikoog.

Thirty-one years ago, Michael and I were married with about 75 guests in a beautiful contemporary church in Indianapolis.  The church was famous for its pipe-organ that accompanied my grandfather’s gorgeous baritone voice.  Oh, how he could sing!  I was so proud of him.

Yes, the tuxedoes look tacky now (it was the 70’s what can I say?), but still Michael was so handsome with his beautiful blue eyes gazing into mine when we said our vows. *swoon*

My sister, Tracie, who was in high school at the time, made my gown from a very complicated Vogue pattern.  It was satin and lace, and all of the hand-sewing was done by Mom.  It was the kind of gown I’d always dreamed of wearing.

I think the ceremony was only about 10 minutes, just long enough to get the job done!  We had cake and punch in the church basement.  After that, we were off to the clubhouse where my sister and brother-in-law lived for a reception/beer party, though, not until I got three of my fingers slammed in the car door!  My fingers hurt for weeks after that!  I wanted to cry like a baby, but I didn’t.

Michael and I had been buying LP’s especially for the party.  I remember a couple of them now, “The Commodores” (with the songs, “Brick House” and “Easy”) and Billy Joel’s “The Stranger”.  Of course we had our favorites The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.  We had a keg of beer, sodas, and a 6 foot long submarine sandwich.  Mom made a bunch of salads, aunts and uncles brought dishes to serve too.  It was windy, but warm and sunny so we could go outside and enjoy the weather.  Just the weekend before, most of the Midwest had been hit by a horrible ice storm. 

Most of our guests had driven over from Carlinville, Illinois and were staying at The Red Roof Inn on the south side of Indy.  When the party was over, we all headed down there for more partying!  Michael and I didn’t stay that long, but we could tell there were going to be some wild times at The Red Roof Inn because Busch beer-bottle labels were already being papered on the walls of one room.  We found out later that the manager came to my father-in-laws room and asked him to stop the partying going on in room 135.  He responded by saying “Hey, they are 21 years old, you  go tell them…”  Needless to say he went back to the front desk and didn’t say another word.  

Michael and I then headed to our room for “our”night at the airport Hilton.  He’d bought us the “Honeymoon” deal.  We checked in, got to our room, and waited for the dude to bring us our champagne and roses.  We waited… and waited…, and after about 40 minutes it was just too much!  It was “business time”.

We got busy snuggling, and just as things were getting really fun, there was a knock on the door.   Then the door was opening!  

Michael scrambled from the bed.   I got under the covers with only my eyes peering out!  He sprinted to the door  to keep the dumbass out of the room, grabbed a towel, and told the guy, “Uh, I’m kinda buck-ass naked here.  What do you want?”  Dumbass Dude says, “I’m here to deliver the champagne and roses that you ordered.”  and therefore let the dude in to deliver the champagne while he hid behind the door!!!  

There was my new husband, standing behind the door while the idiot bell boy brings in the good stuff.  Suffice it to say the only one that got a “tip” that night was me…

And thus it began.  And what a wonderful and warm ride it has been !

Clusterfook

My friend, Slobokan, wrote a beautiful post about “internet” friendships.  You need to go over there and read it because he says it better than I can.

I used iMovie 08 to edit this video. Let me just tell you, that it’s a pain in the butt! My blogging friend, Marty, has recommended that I use iMovie 06. I’m going to download it later today since it’s free. I like free stuff.  

Delmer, one of my favorite bloggers, played the Google Game today.  While Delmer is a fine name indeed (though not as fine as the man himself), it’s not much fun when it comes to playing the Google Game.  Still, I thought it would be fun to give it a try.  When I Googled my awesomely hot and sexy name (thanks Mom) ”Diana likes to” led to the following hits:

1. Diana likes to block her head with gelato.  WTH???
2. Diana likes to wake up early and run on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Obviously, that is NOT from one of my blog posts!
3. Diana likes to go to the pet shop.  Hmmm…
4. Diana likes to get jiggy.  I’m not sure what ‘jiggy’ is, but it sounds like fun to me.
5. Diana likes to contribute to The North Carolina Journal for Women in support of a women’s Ezine.  I’m sure that The North Carolina Journal for Women would prefer I keep my “writings” to this blog.
6. Diana likes to give me the challenge of creating a new design.  I’m all about creating challenges.
7. Diana likes to be needed and to care for others, and she often worries about the people she loves.  Doesn’t everybody?
   
8. Diana likes to shop and what modern lady doesn’t?   Uh, duh, ME!
9. It is this magic that Diana likes to capture in her own cooking by drawing on tastes and fragrances from around the world.  My cooking is magical!  Just ask my sons, they love my “blue box” macaroni and cheese.
   
10. Diana likes to chat online.  No kidding!  I wonder why she’s not on one of my friend lists?

OK, now I need to get busy Googling the definitions of “blocking heads with gelato” and “jiggy”.

My five-year old Toshiba laptop decided to crap out on me.  It’d been acting strangely the last couple of months, but then the last week it would shut down each time I tried to connect any USB device or even just touch it.  Fortunately, I had sense enough to back-up my hard-drive before she gave up the ghost.

I know you’ve all heard this before, but it really is important it to back-up all of your data on a regular basis.  It’s not as difficult as it used to be in the days of floppy-disks and CD-ROMs, or the real floppy disks!  I also use Norton’s online back-up for my Quicken files and Flickr for my photos.  By the way, Flickr is free (now owned by Yahoo), but I upgraded to a Pro account so that I could create sets and collections.  

When I was shopping for my new laptop Saturday, I saw 4GB flash-drives for $13 and 500GB USB mass-storage devices for $80.  I realize that we’re in tough economic times, but do you really want to risk losing all of your data because your computer decides to do the nasty and crap all over you?  Back-um-up, baby, back-um-up!

In other news…

My nephew, Eric, has started a blog, “Eric’s Blog: a look at life through color-blind eyes…”, and plans to attend TequilaCon ‘09 in Sante Fe, NM April 25!  Please head on over there and welcome him to the blogosphere because I know you’re gonna love him — because he’s way-hotter than Tom Cruise, has a brain that Tom Cruise could only wish for, and he’s funny as hell! 

Another of my nephews, Andrew, has also started a blog, “The Wayward Hoover”.  He won’t be attending TequilaCon since he’s busy living on the other side of the world in New Zealand.  Of course, he’s handsome, talented, and very funny too because, well, these are genetic traits that run in the family!