Something's wrong with this picture...

I've been meaning to share these for some time. Notice anything wrong?

This picture was shown on an episode of Dateline, I think it was. (I'm a true crime junkie!!) But this was on the outside of an interview room at a police station in Austin during a story they were covering. I swear I need a job as a detail person on some TV show. Details like someone's hair being different two seconds later and hubcaps being missing in a car chase drive me crazy!

And this one is at a store down the street from me. Sorry I couldn't get a better angle for you. The day I wanted to take the picture some idiot decided to park right in front of it! But anyway... These people not only paid for this wonderful banner, they've had it hanging outside for QUITE some time now.

Now, if someone can explain to me why I had to put that picture in rotated for it to get loaded on this post straight, I'll be much less confused than the people who made and hung up these two signs!

It's Friday... Glad Facebook is back!

So for once I wasn't caught up in an issue with Facebook being down. What the hell? I actually wasn't on it yesterday because I had some other issues which I won't bore you with. They have a movie coming out (or it is out... who knows when you don't have a theater in the town you live in), and they help promotions of it by screwing up? Typical! I'm glad it's back up today, and it better be okay tonight. How most of my friends survived without it yesterday is beyond me. The horror!

So how do you like my new look? I HAD to use that bull when I found it. I guess I need to harrass someone about how to design this thing better. If you haven't ever seen her blog before, you should check out Kristine at Wait in the Van. She is hilarious! She has an "ask the van" section that I guess I'm going to have to raid for help with this sucker. If you all know of some other humorous type blogs, let me know about them.

I have been reading blogs more lately than I've been writing in this one because I've been getting ideas and seeing what people are following. Of course, mostly it's all about me, so come to terms with that and you'll be fine. If not, just suffer in silence please.

Football season is here so prepare to hear me vent and/or brag on my teams on occasion. I am a huge Steelers fan, and in college it's pretty much Penn State and THE USC. Let's be clear from the start that anytime I mention USC, it is the first USC. The one that has been in this country the longest and is not named after a condom. The real USC would be the University of South Carolina, no matter what those crazy people in Cali think. Just so you know... Now let's hope my boys don't get slaughtered by Auburn tomorrow after I just set them up on that pedestal. But if you see me ranting about the Gamecocks or hear me hollering GO COCKS, you know I'm not talking dirty to ya.

I found out this week that my great-nephew received some "Aunt" clothing from an Aunt on the other side of his family. I was not thrilled with that. Don't they all know I'm the professional aunt, and now have the title of Great Aunt?! If there is "Aunt" merchandise to be purchased, that is my job dammit! At least I can still say I bought him his first one.

To clarify something I mentioned earlier, no I don't have a movie theater in my town, just like I don't have a Walmart. See why the internet is my link to the outside world? Mom jokes that I have to "come to the big city" on occasion just to go shopping. The town they live in is 45 minutes from me, so I am usually making the trip with a list in hand. Try seeing how easy it is to only go to the grocery store and Dollar General for things and see how long you last. It's peachy, I'm telling you.

Change is good

Okay, so I was a bit depressing when I first started this thing. I think I'm going to take it into a different direction now, but first I must get my visuals together. Let me figure out how to make this all pretty for ya, and then I'll get back to blogging.

Getting out...

Sherry and I went to the bar today to watch the Steelers game, and we talked my nephew into joining us. See, I'm getting out! Normally, I would have watched it online when the game isn't broadcast here, but we had a lot of fun. I think we're definitely going to have to do that more often. It was great talking to other fans during the game.

Dropbox

If any of you want to scan and keep documents, or want to save things somewhere that can be accessed no matter where you are, this Dropbox is really cool! If you click on my link, then we both get more storage space, too!

http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTExMjgyNzg5OQ

Also, if you want to be able to scan and save things as PDF's, then you can go to this website to download the free software instead of having to buy Adobe Acrobat.

http://cutepdf.com/ (Thanks for that one, Squish! That really comes in handy.)

Ways to make life easier...

Have a created a blogging monster by starting this? Hey, at least the stuff I'm searching for are ways to make my life easier. I found this guy's website while looking at Google Reader. He has a lot of helpful hints about organizing your life and things to make it easier. I scan almost everything at work because I hate having piles of papers if I can avoid it. So why don't I do that at home? A friend of mine gave me the website to use to make PDF's at home, but I'll have to check and let you know what that is if you need it so you don't have to buy Adobe Acrobat. But this guy has some great ideas here and on links coming from this page.

http://simpleorganizedlife.com/using-dropbox-to-manage-files-on-multiple-computers/

Anyway, you know all of those cards you have to carry around to save money at stores. There's an app for that! The only thing I can see that this won't help me with is that I have to use the actual card at the gas station when I redeem my gas perks from Bi-Lo. But other than that, I love the idea!

http://keyringapp.com/

Here are some other ideas he had for iPhone things to help you get organized, too.

http://simpleorganizedlife.com/iphone-apps-that-help-you-get-and-stay-organized/

But you might want to check out his site. He's got a lot of great ideas, and not just about organizing your things.

P.S. See my post from this evening for the link for us to both get more storage space on Dropbox and the link for the website for free PDF software.

Learning Spanish for my retirement

My sisters and I have been kicking around the idea of retiring in Panama. I was born there (as the child of a military family), and after recently reading that it's one of the top 10 places for Americans to retire, I am all about it! Hey, what's better than living in a place where the weather is always warm and there are no hurricanes? One sister (Pam) is worried I'll find a man and get married and not do it, because she is determined. I told her if that were to happen, he'd just have to move with us. But I'm not holding my breath that that will happen. Sherry wants to go, but her boyfriend is not thrilled with the idea.

Do you know how many perks they have for Americans to move down there? For one thing, you don't have to pay property taxes for 20 years if you buy a house there. So we figure Pam will buy a house first, and then I'll buy it from her later if we're both still alive by then. You can import a car tax-free every so many years, I think it was 4 or 5. You don't have to worry about the exchange rate because they use American currency. They say Panama City is more American than Miami. There are daily flights back to the States, the closest flight to home being Atlanta which works for me! As far as I can tell, our biggest worry would be if Pam tells me she's going to the beach, she'll have to specify whether it's the Atlantic or Pacific today. :) They even have groups of Americans down there who meet and do things together, including helping each other find homes, etc.

My only concern is that I need to check with the State Department to make sure there won't be any issues with my citizenship. Since I was born there, I don't know if I would be subject to the same rules as my sister. I sure don't want to go there and not be able to come home.

Anyway, Sherry has been learning Spanish (or re-learning) to be able to communicate with her boyfriend so he can speak Spanish to more than just his family back home in California. I decided to sign up to the same website (livemocha.com) to learn it with her. I figure it can't hurt to be able to communicate in Spanish when I move to Panama, right? And then I'll know when the natives are bad-mouthing the crazy Americans. It's been so long since I had Spanish in high school that I am basically starting over with the basics. So you might see us commenting to each other on here in Spanish like I did to her on Facebook on her birthday. It's just us trying to practice and not us trying to hide anything.

Some realizations

Have you ever watched someone learn a life lesson in a movie, and thought, "Holy crap, that's me!"? Well, welcome to my world. The man I considered the love of my life left me many years ago. I pined for him for so long that I really didn't give many others a chance. I even had one guy I dated for a while tell me he couldn't live with the ghost anymore because I would only let him so close before he could feel me pulling away.

Well, while watching a movie, I saw an overweight woman discover that she had slowly put on the weight to keep herself from being attractive to others so she couldn't be hurt again. I don't think that's why I put on the weight, but I know it was a bit of a defense mechanism. I am a comfort eater, and when I'm not happy I eat. Now it has become just plain habit! I have so far to go that I get frustrated along the way. I'm hoping this blog will help keep me honest so that I feel like I have someone to answer to, even if no one ever reads it.

Now, am I doing this to find a man? No! I am doing this because somewhere along the way I have lost Krissy. I used to be this outgoing person who did all kinds of activities and had all kinds of friends. Granted, some of my friends have moved away, but that never stopped me from making new friends before. I just want to get healthy and active again and be able to feel good about myself. My dog, Bailey, has even become a bit overweight, and that is just unacceptable. She is young, and I want her sweet face alive and healthy for many years to come.

Do you feel like you have lost yourself, too? Do you find yourself making excuses for reasons not to do things with friends and family? My doing that started when I first got a place of my own with no roommates or anyone around to worry about my every activity. I was also living in the country, so it wasn't like people were popping in on occasion. Now I live in town, but I live in a very small town, and I live about 45 minutes from family.

I have been saying for a while that there are things I'd love to get out and do in this state, but I always put it off. I hope this will be the start of me moving on and moving out of my shell! Who the hell crammed me into that shell anyway? When I turned the dreaded 40, I started having really depressing thoughts about what my mark on this world would be. Well, if I can break out of this shell and help someone else do the same, then I think that's progress. I know I have to start with getting off of my butt to do things, and I need to eat much more healthy foods. I just have to keep reminding myself that my life and body didn't get this way overnight, and it's going to take small steps to get back on track.

I have a lot of friends on Facebook who I think are in the same type of rut. I hope some of them and others will come join me in keeping each other encouraged and moving forward. We can do this if we lean on each other and figure out that it's okay to vent. We all make mistakes, but we just need to pick ourselves up and move on.