Rave:

Life in general.

Rant:

The arctic cold air that won't leave. It's been almost 20 degrees below average for a week now. No end in sight.

Crap.

I have to keep this short, didn't have time for my notes today! But my best wishes to everyone! And thanks for all the good wishes for our trip!

Statia, I lost track. I knew it was around this time but I didn't realize you'd already come and gone. Welcome back! And I'm so glad the trip went well. I know how much you were looking forward to it.

Just had to post two more quick raves:
We finally got the car rental confirmation! And my husband was able to take today off (after working until 3AM Wednesday and leaving to go back to work 6 and a half hours later!) so he'll have a chance to decompress a little bit before we leave!

STW, I hope you're feeling better both because of and despite the penicillin!

Hope all of you who are taking trips have a wonderful time!

Happy Friday!

I'm glad to see more happy raves and less serious rants these days too.

Rave: This weekend I finally get to install the wood wainscot in DH's pool room that I've been making on the sneak for a few weeks now. Minor rant is that he's going to FL for four days...and I'll miss him.

Rave: Nothing much to rant about.

LoveItaly, your rave about friend's upcoming adoption made me "misty"...that is truly awesome news!

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Scarlett! Somehow I'm sure she's still celebrating today!

Have a great weekend everyone! Trish

Rave: Spending the weekend with my boyfriend.

Rave: Getting to Denver early enough on Tue to do some exploring.

Rant: Have to work the rest of the week-but glad I have such a great job!

Nice thread and I'm so happy that all in all life is good for our Fodorites this week

Klr, the citronella collars didn't work for our sweet Maggie either. She has what we think is a cute basset 'arroooo' but am sure the neighbors don't agree. Kongs do help and she LOVES cow hooves (hoofs??). I just try not to think about the whole hoof thing when purchasing but honestly, Maggie thinks a $.79 hoof is puppy heaven and it will keep her occupied for a long time. We can't trust her home alone for more than an hour at a time (if it's more than that, in the kennel she goes) so she goes to doggy day care 1 1/2 days a week. I can't believe we've come to this--Princess Maggie is way spoiled and our kids say we like her better than we do them Anyhow, daycare is fairly cheap and Maggie comes home exhausted from playing with her friends. They even give one other doggy treat bags for birthdays! <so ashamed of myself for becoming a 'pet mother'>

Rant/Rave: We had 14 inches of snow this week. Kids even had school cancelled on Monday. We love the moisture but gosh, it's SPRING! My son had one soccer game cancelled this week and tomorrow's is still in question. Bring on the 60 degree temps!

Rave: My son asked a girl to prom this week--he's a junior so it's his first 'formal' dance. Can't wait to see him in a tux in April--it's so much fun watching our kids pass all of these milestones.

Happy travels to all this week!

well it looks like everyones travels are underway!

rave: closer yet to ireland trip!

rave: my best friend who just came back from a recovery effort with youth group in new orleans.

rave: bought 2 very pretty, different, and affordable dresses for 2 of 3 weddings in the fall. i'm a great shopper!

rant: in new jersey, a stable with 24 horses burnt to the ground over night. no horses survived. how terrible.

jorr...that's not to be tolerated. good for you.

caph...i hope your 38 hours go quickly...it'll be a wonderful trip.

worktowander...thats just people excersizing their aggression. thats too bad it's your boss. am i correct in saying your going to ireland in may as well?

bennnie...i must comment...my ultra liberal mother (no curfew, etc...) was steadfast on the makeup thing. would practically block the door...i was only able to think about makeup after a certain age, and she and my sister shopped with me. in fact...the first of rare compliments on my appearance she ever gave me was after a school concert...when she said i was the prettiest, because everyone else had too much make up and hairspray. ;-)

RAVE: Spring has come 78 yesterday and off to Santa Barbara for a long week-end

RANT (?). Statia, there are bike clubs around here with 30-40 riders who ignore stop lights and stop signs.

Have a good week-end all regardless of what you are doing.

Rant-- Being told what to ask and not ask on a public forum.

Rave-- Good coffee. Yum! And the knowledge that the more info I have, the better my trip will be! Yay!

Rant-- Co-workers annoying music and gum popping.

Rave-- Knowing that I can go home in about 8 hours and have a nice glass of wine.

Not much time so I couldn't really read everyone's posts thoroughly but...

JJ5--I'm so sorry you are going through such tough times. My heart goes out to you.

Tiff--I am sending HUGE HOPE your way.

Caph--Woo Hoo! Have a great trip!

Rave: It's going to be in the 40's for the next few days. Hip Hip Hooray!
Rave: Having dinner with my fiance and my brother and his girlfriend to celebrate my bro's b-day. I love hanging out with him. We have some of the most interesting conversations after a few cocktails. Anyone else have a little brother who knows EVERYTHING!?

Rant: Sorry to bring the mood down, but...my coworker had surgery yesterday to remove the tumor on her brain stem. Until this point, they didn't know if it was benign or malignant. Well, it's malignant and they are pretty sure that it's somewhere else. Apparently, the first sets of tests to check that were misread Man, I prayed so hard for her and sometimes I just feel like I'm not being listened to.

I'll end on a tiny, tiny rave...I lost 1 more pound this week. I know it's so minor in the scope of things, but it's a positive and we need that now.

Hope everyone's travels are safe and those who aren't traveling will still enjoy the weekend!

As for the bike issue, I hear ya. Living in the Adirondacks and a town that holds the Ironman we suffer through them all the time. I get so frustrated. The only reason I don't honk the horn is because I'm afraid the get startled and fall off in front of me causing me to run over them. Wait, that doesn't sound like a bad idea....

Evab = congratulations on winning the tournament - great job. yeah I was one of the few parents there. Within our group there is a joke about me and another mom being so overprotective. My daughter's friends all tell her " Well at least you know *****'s Mom will be there too!"

Otto - I guess every mom has her limits.

Rave: On Monday a friend called the Red Sox box office on a whim to see if he could get tickets. Its futile to try to get them online and supposedly 99.9% of the season is sold out. But he's an optimist ... and guess what ... it worked. He got 2 tickets to a Red Sox Yankees game no less. So after hearing the story I called the box office too. I scored 4 tickets to a Red Sox Yankees game on a Sunday afternoon in August. So I called my brother and he got 2 tickets to a Red Sox Yankees game in May. And he called a friend who also got tickets. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Rant-- Passive agressive people.

Rave -- the fact that I can ignore them and their issues.

Well, I hope my White Sox never, ever get to the point where you can't walk up to the window on a summer weekday night and get a ticket.

They can keep the Dan Ryan closed under reconstruction for 5 years as far as I'm concerned- but keep bleachers and furthest outfield upper decks seats for box office of day purchase. They say now that they will.

Tiff, I am hoping, and hoping, and hoping. You deserve to have your dreams fulfilled.

why is everybody happy the daylight savings time is coming? doesn't it mean to get up a whole hour earlier to drag your sorry self to work?

(for me: one less hour of the jetlag to fight )

Rave: Gorgeous, gorgeous weather this week!

Rant: Daylight savings time--not a big fan of springing ahead but falling back I'm all over it!

Rant or Rave? We're remodeling our master bath and thought it a good idea to preserve the oversize wall mirror that resided over the double sink. Today it broke into three large chunks when I tried to move it--oops! Now that it's gone I actually think the room looks bigger / better but DH is not going to be happy and will remind me that two weeks ago he predicted I would break it. I'm not even sure what happened it just sort of broke all on it's own!

Rave: On Tuesday I will take my first figure skating test as an adult skater. I'm nervous but looking forward to it.

Rave: Party in the park tomorrow afternoon for a friend of ours who returned recently from Iraq.

We here in Chicago look forward to daylight savings time switches in March because of the increased light in the evenings. We are at the edge of the time zone and have the unlucky occurence of being dark before 5pm from Thanksgiving to beginning of March.

Indiana has counties that have opposing sides fighting to legislate this issue. They DO NOT do the DST switches despite kids leaving for school in the dark. Their slogan is "You thought you were depressed in winter now, go to IL and see how depressing it can REALLY be."

I've seen the signs twice and I really laugh, but it is true that dark at 4:30pm is the pits.

Rant: My friend at work has been crying all day. I think one of her parents or in-laws got severely sick overnight. She's like me and won't talk in times of sadness, so I've left her alone, but told her to call me if she ever needs someone to talk to.

Rant: My boss volunteered me for a meeting with some people, and I had no clue until they called to confirm today.

Rant: Jorr being told to shut up

Rant: Too many rants from me!

Rave: Caph52's well deserved trip!

Rave: I got my friend at work crack a smile in between her tears.

Rave: I have a new toy to play with at work! I Nikon CoolPix. I'll take what I can get.

Rave: Going to the circus this weekend. Haven't been to the circus in a LONG time.

Gotta have enough raves to balance the rants. Even if I was reaching hard for it.

divingaggie, sorry..........it was spent by Thursday......
8-)