10 minute storm

      Well folks, I missed a day on the blog.  In Kansas City we had a 10 minute storm that ripped through town and knocked out power all over the Northland.  My yard/trees held up solid however the same can't be said for all of my neighbors or my parents' neighbors.  During the storm I saw two decent sized limbs fall in the street in front of my house.  Right about 2:30 I realized a storm was moving in, walking through my house I had to turn lights on in the middle of the day.  That's unusual.  Here came the thunder, lightening, rain, and hail.  Whew.  I thought it was going to last a while so I went to the garage to move some stuff around.  I saw a giant spider and quickly looked around for something to kill it with.  I knew I only had one chance at killing it or the spider would be gone and possibly on me somewhere, creepy.  I couldn't handle that so I found a shoe.  I quickly debated between, smacking it or throwing it. Throw, but how?  I decided to throw the shoe like a tomahawk.  The spider sat on a cement board against a wall.  I positioned myself, jumping at a leaf that brushed my scantily covered feet.  Wind up and.... Direct Hit! Sweet!  So I'm cleaning, moving etc.  Tripper leaves the garage and I keep working.  CRASH!  A huge strike of lightening and thunder. Lights out!  Something about being in the pitch dark garage freaked me out so I practically jumped out of the garage.  Maybe I actually jumped because I tripped and lost my footing and ended up on my butt on the floor just outside the garage with my ankle shut in the the door, ouch.  I got up and hopped to the couch where I sulked for a while.  That was around 3pm.  It got hot in my house rather quickly and I didn't want to open the fridge or freezer for fear of losing the food.  I took about an hour long nap and when I woke up it was sunny as if it the sky hadn't turned black an hour and a half ago.  Well, I quickly realized how technology dependent I am.

In my folks' neighborhood

      I couldn't do laundry, dishes (thank you storm) I couldn't watch tv.  No big deal, I'll just play on the computer, it's all charged up.  Shoot, I forgot I don't have Internet.  This playing on the computer won't last long.  I was bored far too quickly.  I didn't want to sit around and didn't want to go anywhere because I'd be tempted to buy things I don't need.  Well, what now?  So, I went to Mom and Dad's, they had power but no cable.  On the way there a tree torn in half, half of the tree is bigger than most trees I've ever seen.  I kept driving a huge limb down, split across the street. Further still, an entire tree, uprooted and laying against a house.  Ouch!  I hung out with my mom for a while and left again, hoping the power at my house would be better.  No luck, still bored.  I found out I suck at Chess.  Played on super easy against a computer... lost, badly.  Finally, I reluctantly packed a bag.  I was going to have to sleep at my parents' house for the first time since 2007.  Weird.  I watched The Great Outdoors on a 10 inch tv, ten feet away from me.  I decided to go swimming late and swing back by my house... still dark.  Went back to the rents house and crawled in to a made for a hotel bed.  It was great!  I had to plug my phone in across the room so I was nervous I was going to miss my alarm so I didn't sleep great but laid super comfy.  Spa like shower and I was ready for my first golf practice of the year.  My mom was so cute!  She set out all of my cereal options, a bowl, spoon, bananas, and a cup for juice.  I felt bad that I passed on it all but loved the effort.  It was so so sweet!
      I went to golf practice, met the head coach, followed him around a bit.  Met the girls, took a online rules test, passed out gear, and took off.  Back home and YES!  POWER!  I had to go through the fridge and toss stuff out but I think the things in the freezer made it.  Which is great news!

My first piece of NKC swag, brand new, old, golf bag.

Tomorrow I pick up my minivan, which I get to drive for the whole golf season (Suh-Weet!)  I am nervous about the golf thing still.  Turns out the coaches all golf during the season while the kids golf.  That could prove to be embarrassing.  Maybe not.   

Anyway, trash day tomorrow so I have to do some round up.  I hope everyone has a great week! 
Talk soon!

****UPDATE****
       Went up to school today, organized piles you would not believe into file folders by unit for world history with a maximum of 2 copies of each different thing.  That is HUGE for me!  And should really help me feel more organized instead of stuffing things into drawers and never knowing where anything is.
      Met up with a favorite friend of mine from my year at MNU.  I absolutely love her!  She's hilarious and is still an athletic stud like never missing a beat!  Her daughter is so funny, with a great laugh, and is just gorgeous. I'm so glad I got to hang out with her.

Tax Free

      I have decided that a running list of what I did in a day will likely not keep any one's attention but I also realize I have nothing else to say at this point.  Once work starts I'm sure I will rant and rave in a much more interesting fashion (perhaps that is just a dream of mine, I mean I am the Lame Lady, and these are my adventures).
      Sleep in, Top Shot marathon, Shower, Shop (stop.)
In Missouri it is Tax Free weekend.  Anything that could be considered a school supply is tax free.  That is really sweet and could save a family a large amount of money.  I like it.  I think I bought a computer during tax free once, it's really nice.  So I decided to venture out to Zona Rosa in search of Khaki's, shorts and pants.  It's a business expense, right?  For my golf job.  I go to my favorite store and have a little luck, I think I'm set.  Go two shorts 50% off.  1 Pant, full price, 1 pant 1/2 off then 60% on top of that.  Plus a pair of jeans 40% off.  Nice all but that full priced pair, oh well, gotta have 'em.

One lady carrying a white elephant and the other a white giraffe, you don't see that every day.

      I'm making plans to visit my grand parents this upcoming weekend and visit Tornado torn Joplin, Missouri.
      I got a phone call from a good friend today.  She's my first ever friend to be in jail.  I won't go in to the story of why she got in there but I can say everyone I know will be happy when she's out.  Game plan?  Buffalo Wild Wings. Ha!  Can't blame her although I think her stomach is going to be torn up after wards.  I'm hoping she's not crazy enough to try the Blazin' Challenge on the first night. Who knows?  

Dinner!  Yum!

     Made myself a nice dinner of crunchy chicken and mac and cheese.  Cleaned a hall closet that was full of gift bags and wrapping paper.  Things were out of control in there!  The closet still has a those things in it but at least now it's organized chaos.  The hall in front of that closet is a little different story but I'll deal with it tonight before bed.

Organized closet.  It might not look it, but it's way better!

    I hate doing dishes, partly because I don't feel I have enough storage space to put the dishes away neatly when they are done so it ends up being a source of great frustration for me.  Oh well.  Necessary evil.  So are laundry and vacuuming. 
      I can feel that this school year is going to be the best yet!  I'm not ready for it yet but I am excited for what the new adventures bring.  I do need to go up to school, round up all of my stuff and get it all to MY ROOM!  I've never had my own room! Last semester of last school year I had 5 class rooms for 6.5 classes that I taught!  That's unreal!  My life was on a cart.  It was tough!  I know this stationary status will allow my life to be more controlled and less stressed.  My biggest task before school starts will be to get all my paperwork organized.  I have piles of papers in no particular order stuffed in drawers, why do I do that to myself?  If I get that figured out I know it will reduce stress even more.  It's just a matter of sucking it up and going up there to do it.  I would take volunteers for assistance.   It'll be a process for sure.
      Upcoming event for this lame lady?  Dentist appt. next week.  Hopefully a visit to Carthage.  Susan G. Komen Race for the cure. First time ever but a great cause.  Lots of Breast Cancer in my family so worth the fight both for my family and everyone in the world.  The current stats?  1 in 4 will get breast cancer 10/10 will be effected by it (know someone, etc).  If you want to donate to me or the girls I coach visit http://kansascity.info-komen.org/goto/ladygriffins
Thanks in advance for your support and prayers that I make it in the heat.

I think I'll take it easy tonight, hang some clothes, clean that hall out.  Lame Lady Saturday Night!  Gotta love it!  See ya'll!
Wishing I had a picture of me in curlers or something super Old Lady like.  I think I'll have to make one. :)
Done!  Thank you faceinhole.com

Curlers

Jazzy Scooter

First Friday

"Ello fellas, here I am"  --Bride's Maids
      A very dirty albeit quotable, laugh out loud, movie!  I love to quote movies!  Sometimes I quote movies that others are not familiar with and get awkward stares or slightly inappropriate comments where I would prefer for the other person to name the movie or just laugh.  Case and point, tonight.  I was at Buffalo Wild Wings with some friends and one of the guys took off his hat and ruffled up his hair.  It was standing WAY up and was crazy looking.  I, without missing a beat quote one of my all time favorite movies Tommy Boy.  "I can't believe that guy called me psycho in there!" the hatless guy looks at me stunned, mouth open, in silence for a moment and then makes a quick noise/part laugh "hu" followed by "Seriously?" Then I had to explain it was Tommy Boy without insulting him.  Oh well, the quotes in my head do not turn off, I will continue to quote even if others don't think it's funny or don't know the reference.
  
      Now, before the B Dub adventure, (where I dominated at BuzzTime trivia) I got to sleep in again today.  I woke up and thought, okay, I'm going to clean my bed room.  I walked out of my room and began cleaning the dining room.  I'm not really sure how those wires got crossed but i actually chuckled at myself and said "Well, it looks like I'm cleaning the dining room today."  I had better turn on the tunes.  (Do other people actually speak out loud to themselves when no one is around?  If not, I'll just say I was speaking to Tyson, my cat, because that's socially acceptable, right?) Music? Check.  Trash bag? Check. Let's clean.

Picture of a picture but this is Tyson playing under some Bubble Wrap, while I cleaned.  Big help!

      Most people's dining room are not like mine.  I have two very large cabinet things that came with my house as well as a large table with too many chairs in the room.  (Most of which are of questionable quality and probably need servicing or tossed out.)  I also have a buffet cabinet thingy that came with the house (I'll have to explain the 'things that came with the house' story some time, not tonight).  There is also a coffee table poorly hidden under the dining room table.  Now, the coffee table is obviously misplaced and we are aware of the aforementioned chair overcrowding issues.  The coffee table is in there because I got new carpet in my TV room and a new couch thing and it just doesn't have it's place in that room anymore even though I want it in there.  Yes, I know It does not belong in the dining room but despite the cleaning today, it is still in there.  So, cleaned off the table, went through the 2 giant cabinets, organized the tops, shelves, etc. Went through bags, and boxes, etc.  I took the printer to the office where it belongs.  It was good stuff.  I also had a TON of stuff in a corner, like bags full of papers and what not, I'm sure it was intended to be a quick fix, a year or so later and there I was going through it.  The most interesting things I found were letters my STAR class of 2008 had written to themselves as seniors, c/o 2012.  That's a good find.  I'm excited to send those out this year, I bet those kids forgot about them.  I found a lot of things that I will still use and was able to create two bags full of trash and a nice size stash for the good will.  I do have a four foot tall stack of games on the buffet cabinet thingy to deal with but it was a good clean overall.
  

Picture of a picture again but it hurts.

      Ate some leftovers, watched Ancient Aliens and Shark Week (not sure what will fill my TV time when shark week is over).  At some point I showered and decided to go to the driving range to recap my lesson from yesterday.  I had a hard time leaving Shark Week (Thank the Lord for DVR).  I went to the range, did okay, still need to work on it as I totally whiff about 1 out of every 7 shots.  I got a medium bucket of balls and used about half of them before a blister appeared and broke on the most used finger in my club grip.
I was in a lot of pain, time to call it quits for the day.  I gave my remaining bucket to a guy next to me who didn't really want them, You'll take them and you'll like it.  Ha!  Anyway, I left and decided to stop by Wal-Mart for a golf glove, some tees, and golf balls.

      Well, I forgot it was tax free weekend and the isles were PACKED!  It really was crazy.  I checked out in the electronics section to avoid the lines.  No big deal.  Made me think about the shopping I need to do.  Might attempt that tomorrow.  Who knows, Saturday is probably worse.  After wally world I went to my parents house to pick up Tripper and swim.  I love swimming, used to be a fish.  It just feels so good, and freeing.  Took Tripper home, and decided to go to the Wing with Molly and company.  That story you know.
 
      After I left there I got some Gasoline and decided to head to the darkest streets I could find in the Northland.  Why you might ask?  A guy I used to work with said that the Northern Lights, Aurora Borelalis (sp?),  would be visible around Midnight.  I've always wanted to see the northern lights.  I drove for about 15 minutes until I found a place to pull over.  I love being outside the city lights.  Listening to the crickets chirp and the locusts sing.  Looking up and seeing stars.  There's nothing like it.  My first stop I found out was in a driveway and I couldn't see the lights so I headed out farther.  I got kind of turned around and saw 3 deer along my way.  Finally I got to a good spot, a new street ready to have houses built up all around it so shouldn't have much traffic.  I got out of the car and looked for the lights in the sky.  I downloaded a compass app so I knew I was facing North.  There I was resting on the front of my car and I thought, I saw them.  I blinked repeatedly, I squinted, I walked a few steps blinked some more.  I still don't know if I was actually seeing them but I think I did.  I expected more after seeing the movie 8 below.  It was a good time with me, nature, and God.  I spent that time in prayer, enjoying sights and sounds and thanking God for all he's done for me.  It was nice.  I've been making a conscious effort to pray more, in informal ways.  I don't always talk about my faith, I mean it's no one's business or burden but my own but when I feel compelled to say something I'm going to say it.  So love it or leave it there it is. 
    After the lights, or tricks of the eyes, I went back to Walmart, I am not sure why.  After midnight is the right time to go though.  I picked up some supplies and some no sugar added ice cream sandwiches, you know, just the essentials. Ha.

      Back home and writing this, I can't believe I'm up this late.  I miss my friend Sam who is currently out of town, we spend a lot of time together and I don't like when she's gone for long periods of time mostly because I can't talk to her whenever I want.  That was sappy.

I'm headed to bed now so good night Lame Lady readers all 0.01 of you. We'll talk again tomorrow, I'd imagine.

***** Today, I realize I likely did not see the real Northern Lights, this is what the friend got to see in Minnesota, color me jealous!