Best Commercial Ever!

My brother sent me this link as soon as the commercial came out (and I suppose this was because I had gone through a no shaving period a few years ago).  Either way, it is still an awesome commercial.

Bling bling

Soooo, I received in the mail a few days ago a pamphlet-type-thing from Hunter Automotive (a dealer in Asheville) that had written on the back If you're scratch off number matches the number inside, you're a winner!  Well, being myself, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to scratch off and see. 

So I scratched and I was a winner!!  Now, my stepdad (Roger), in his infinite wisdom said "Wait, this has to be a gimmick--they wouldn't send out all these pamphlets to get people to come to their dealership if nobody won anything".  Common sense slap in the face.  I didn't care--I've never won anything like this and decided to take the chance anyway--so we went to the dealership Saturday morning.

Well, it was a HUGE sales event.  And yes, the "flier/pamphlet" thing had successfully brought hundreds of people to the car lot.  After I registered my name (so I could get some free food and be entered for a drawing they did daily for a prize) we walked over to the guy who looked at your number and sure enough, we won...$3 in gold coins.  You see, one of the prizes said Up to $500 in gold coins (the others were a new Hyundai or $30,000, 60" 3D TV, or $1000).  Son of a!  We were so mad (mostly at ourselves)!  Gaaahhh!  But at least we got a free lunch out of it.

So Sunday morning I checked my email and I had one from Hunter Automotive...and this is what it said:  

Randi, it is my pleasure to tell you that we drew your name from all the registrations yesterday at Hunter Auto Group.  Please call me or stop by to pick up your check for $1,000.

--
Thanks,

-Tom

Tom Hunter

President

Hunter Auto Group

I'm pretty sure I exclaimed some words that aren't appropriate for the blog.  I called and sure enough, my name (that I had entered into the registration) was selected out of the hundreds of people to win $1000!!!  So I gladly drove all the way back to the dealership to pick up the check.  Handsome Taylor tried to get me to purchase some lottery tickets on my luck, but I forgot in all of my excitement...maybe tomorrow.  All in all, it was a very good day. 

Denver dog

If you haven't seen this video of Denver, the lab, who sneaked into the kitty treats, please watch it!

Beaches!

Handsome Taylor and I just got back from a trip to the beach.  And it was awesome.  The first couple of days we stayed with T's wonderful twin brother (Garrett) and his wife (Emily) at their townhouse in Wilmington, NC.  


Oh, and the new addition to their family, Walter; the amazingly cute and deer-like weimaraner that hasn't yet grown into his legs yet...and the poor thing had to wear a cone to keep from nipping at his stitches where his "man-parts" used to have been.  He destroyed the cone, though...while he was wearing it (we haven't figured how he managed to do that).  

We went to Carolina Beach (and this time we were stocked up on important necessities).  And yes, the beach was fantastic.  I didn't melt into my chair like I did a few years ago and not once did I get burned!  I give thanks to my Neutrogena sheer SPF 55 sunscreen.

The pickles were the highlight!

Taylor, Garrett, and Walter...Emily and I were scratching our heads as to why they were so tired, but at least they didn't mind the photo op :)  

Thanks Em and Garrett!!  We will come again soonly!!

We left Wilmington and drove up the coast to Emerald Isle, and let me just say that there will never be a shortage of rent-able beach houses.  It was a ghost town beach, but our hotel was right on the water and in prime location to the pool and hot tub.

Tee-hee!

Oh, and there was a crabshack down the road...and we took full advantage of 3 lbs of crablegs.   And in case you were wondering just what 3 lbs. of crab legs look like...

And for your reference, this is what 3 lbs of crablegs look like once two hungry people stuff themselves.

Our next stop up the coast was the quaint, little town of  New Bern.  And I successfully persuaded Handsome Taylor to stay in a B&B, the Hanna House, whichI highly recommend it to everyone.  We had by far the most amazing breakfast I think I've ever had--I'll indulge you for a minute: stuffed sourdough french toast with cream cheese, walnuts and blueberries, herbed eggs in croute with red pepper sauce, fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh fruit.  Drool.  

We did take a ghost tour of New Bern, but I'll save that for a later blog since there is a lot of pictures--and feel free to look for ghosts!  Here are the rest of the pictures of quaint, little New Bern: 

I knew I liked New Bern whose city "animal" is the bear :)

Even though I am a Coka-cola person, Pepsi-cola was founded in this store!!  We had to have a Pepsi to celebrate the rich history of the town.

Frazier is what they meant.

The most delicious martini I have ever had...key lime pie, complete with graham cracker! 

I took a picture of the ducks because the duck on the left is a monster duck!  It was HUGE!!

Woot Woot!!

My fabulous new find: WOOT!!  Yay! 

Science

Science

So I've decided that I'm going to post fabulously funny pictures of science stuff.  Here is my first one!

What I think about at work

• That blood sample is mixed in with th....nope that's urine...red urine

• Why, why, why does this smell so bad

• I think I just inhaled poop particles

• Really need to make sure I wash the poo off my hand before lunch

• Watch out, I'm taking the poop out of the freeze dryer

• So glad this lab has a hood

• Crap

• How did I spill that on me

• I can't believe I'm still thinking about food right now

• I just...wiped my face with my dirty glove...

• Stink eye=pink eye

• What did this person eat

• Am I dirty enough to shower tonight

I work with poop...

As many of you may know, I recently took a new job at Genova Diagnostics in the chromatography department (CLICK ME).  My official title is Chromatography Lab Assistant and my duties (although I really want to say dooties) are to perform bial-acid assays.  Or poop studies.

Now, for those of you who don't know what chromatography is, well, I won't go into extreme detail because it's a lot of technical chemistry that is blah for me to explain.  But I will tell you that it basically separates compounds in a column to figure out what stuff is.

Apparently, a lot of people want their poop analyzed...a lot.  So I sit down in my lab coat, gloves, and goggles (don't want to come home with anything extra residing on me) and prepare samples in a very organized and neat manner for chromatography.  After I learn the ropes for a little bit, I'll probably move on to actually analyzing the data collected.

And yes, I have heard plenty of poop jokes, but if you have a really good one, let me know!  Oh, and I'll get a couple pictures if I can!

My Grandma

Dear reader,

I apologize for the extremely long delay in writing.  A lot has happened in the past few weeks.  But in this particular blog, I would like pay tribute to my wonderful grandmother, who passed away last Thursday morning.

I won't go into any detail, but I just wanted to say how much I loved her, and how much she radiated her love to all around.  She never got the chance to retire, but instead, helped raise four of her grandkids, my cousins to be responsible and caring adults.

Thank you Grandma, for everything.  I love you more than you will ever know.