Well, things are slowly returning back to “normal” … I was greeted this morning with 600+ emails in my work Inbox, 100+ in my personal, and ~3000 feed entries waiting to be read.

LOL! Miss me much did they?

I see that WordPress has released 2.6 finally. The blogosphere is all a-buzz with the news. Suggested reading: Doug Campbell, Keith Dsouza, and Ryan Boren. So now I’ll have to update all my blogs, themes, and plugins.

Yay … I’ll get around to it (hopefully!) this week …

We had a great time in NOLA. The drive down and back was pretty pleasant. We took the “scenic route” passing through Montgomery, stopping by Jim’s mom’s both ways (she kept Jessie for us). I was reminded why I love living in Alabama. I remember thinking to myself, “My God, we live in a beautiful state!”

We stopped briefly in Waveland, Mississippi, and in upper Louisiana. It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve been down there … everything I remember is gone. Katrina and Rita really kicked the collective asses of coastal cities in lower AL, MS, and LA.

Otherwise the drive down to New Orleans was nice. We had great weather (outside of the heat and OPPRESSIVE humidity!) I took the time while in New Orleans to see some sights, have some great food, partake in local (and interesting) spirits, and just enjoy myself in general. The reunion was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see the people Jim grew up with.

I was lucky enough to meet up and have lunch with two of my Cotillion sisters: Greta Perry and Conservative Belle. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but the heat royally kicked my butt and Jim and I had so much planned, LOL!

Hopefully I’ll be making another trip down that way pretty soon!

We stopped by so many shops in the French Quarters that I loved! Many had beautiful clothing and jewelry that I could have easily gone “ga-ga” over. We stopped in one vampire shoppe that had many cute novelties and some interesting books covering local and Southern folklore. The shop owner had a BEAUTIFUL German Sheppard (the “head of security” LOL!) that was just as sweet as he could be!

I want another dog!

We also stopped by a local mall to pick up a few amenities that were forgotten in the hurried packing process. It was pretty much like what we have here back at home. I checked out one store that sold a lot of cell gear, drooled over some bluetooth cell phone headsets and considered getting another micro sd card for my Helio Ocean. (nah, will wait and get them cheaper online! LOL)

One thing that really sticks out in my memory is how “available” alcohol is down there. I kid you not, we walked into a Wal-mart and there was a HUGE section with every type of liquor and beer I could ever want! And you can’t walk 50 feet without coming across a daiquiri shop!

There’s so much more to tell, but we’ll leave it at this for now …

It’s good to be home!

One of the things I hadn’t thought of looking into backing up on my Helio Ocean was my bookmarks. Sure, I have my custom bookmarks for Opera Mini stored on their server, but the ones to my native Helio browser are gone. I had quite a few that I can’t seem to find at the moment. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d pop a few in a post so I can surf back here and recover them later.

Note: feel free to add your own via the Comments box below!

• 30 Boxes: http://m.30boxes.com/
• ABC News: http://wireless.go.com/wireless/abcnews/index
• CNN: http://m.cnn.com/
• eBay: http://wap2.bonfiremedia.com/
• ESPN: http://mobileapp.espn.go.com/wireless/espn/redesign/index
• Facebook: http://m.facebook.com/
• FedEx: https://www.fedex.com/mobi/
• Fox News: http://foxnews.mobi/
• Foxmarks: http://my.foxmarks.com/mobile/
• Google Mobile Apps: http://www.google.com/m/products?hl=en
• Google Search: (”soft” mobile gateway) http://google.com/gwt/n
• Helio Magazine: http://www.heliomag.com/mobile/
• Heliocity: (mobile downloads & more) https://downloads.heliocity.net/
• HelloTxt: http://m.hellotxt.com/
• Live Search: http://m.live.com/
• MapQuest: http://wap.mapquest.com/
• MSN: http://home.mobile.msn.com/en-us/default.aspx
• MySpace: http://mobile.myspace.com/
• National Weather Service: (set your location) http://cell.weather.gov/ and http://mobile.srh.weather.gov/
• Remember the Milk: http://m.rememberthemilk.com/
• The Washington Post: http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/
• The Weather Channel: (change location for yours!) http://weather.mobi/xhtml/cc/BHM
• USA Today: http://m.usatoday.com/
• Wunderground: (beware of ads!!!!) http://mobile.wunderground.com/
• Yahoo!: http://wap.oa.yahoo.com/
• YouTube: http://m.youtube.com/
• Animal Planet: http://m.animalplanet.com/

Also: you can view the mobile version of any Tumblr blog by adding /mobile to the end of the the URL.

Example: http://nitallica.tumblr.com/mobile

Sources: MyOpera, Heliocity & Heliocity Forums, Great Mobile Sites Directory

Had a full weekend. Jessie’s karate school had a “Kick-a-thon” benefit for St. Jude’s early Saturday. She did pretty well for her first time. She made 300 kicks, but then had to drop out because she had gotten overheated and was about to be sick. (that room was SO HOT!) It’s a wonder nobody passed out. The winner was a little girl about Jessie’s age who had been taking karate since she could walk; she won with 3400 kicks.

That’s impressive, I don’t care who you are!

Afterwards, there was a potluck breakfast. We had a good time hanging out with the senseis and other parents. We left directly from there to head to Montgomery to see Jim’s mom and his brother’s family. The ride down was a bit of a pain — the out-of-town traffic was IMMENSE! Seriously, I haven’t seen traffic like that since Jim and I were stuck in the Hurricane Ivan evacuation.

Otherwise the ride down was nice. Jessie and I pointed out the state tags on cars that we passed and giggled at funny exit signs. There was one exit sign that was particularly funny (and not very work friendly, LOL!) … if Jim’s snapshot came out, I’ll share on here.

We went out to lunch at a nice Chinese place once we were down there and stopped by a farmer’s market on the way back. I LOVE going to places like that. Just smelling all the fresh fruit and veggies brings back memories. I told Jim’s mother, “This smells like home.” Or rather, it reminds me of Corner (the way it was when I was little).

Once we were back at the house, Jim’s mom showed me several art projects that she’s been working on. We sat and caught each other up on work and general family gossip. Jim helped my sister-in-law put together a plasma tv mount in the guest room. All in all, it was a very good time. We left early that evening because some pretty heavy storms were coming through that area. I had a horrible headache Saturday night because of it, and woke up with another yesterday.

I hated having to leave so soon, but we’ll be back down there in a couple of weeks. Jessie is staying down there this week and next week — though her mother is none too happy about it. She showed her ass a bit Saturday, especially when it came time for us to leave to head to Montgomery. She wouldn’t speak to any of us, and said not a word to Jessie.

One of these days, that woman is going to realize that the world does not revolve around HER.

So today it’s back to work. I’m waiting to call my insurance company to chew them out for delaying my migraine medicine’s refill AGAIN. They do this about every 6 months or so, and I’m getting pretty sick of it. They will be lucky if I don’t just reach through the phone and choke them!

Considering the way the weather has been the past couple of weekends (hello, tornado season!), this weekend is looking a LOT better. I can remember last weekend my co-workers laughing at the local meteorologists suggesting people gear up with bicycle helmets and medical ids “just in case” … personally, I thought it was good advice! I never go anywhere without my license and EPI (emergency patient info) card.

But I digress … we’re heading down to Montgomery to see Jim’s mom. We had originally planned for Jessie to skip the last week of school and stay down there for a couple of weeks; but because she’s missed so many days, she HAS to attend next week. (which sucks for her, I remember what that was like!) There’s a gun show this weekend as well, so we’ll probably hit that on the way back to B’ham.

Sweeeeeet.

I swear, I think our weekends are getting to be busier than our weekdays! ;P Friday was pretty hectic, and add the bad weather on top of that, it made for an interesting start to the weekend. Jessie’s karate test was Saturday — she’s now moved up from orange belt to a purple belt! Jim and I took pictures and filmed, so hopefully those will be up soon. We had a chance to talk to Jessie’s senseis for a bit, and both had nothing but good things to say about our little ray of sunshine. I noted that ever since beginning taking karate, she’s shown so much improvement … both in the dojo and outside of it!

Jessie left after the test with her mother. Jim and I went over to see my folks and saw my brother Jeremy and his wife Christy. They had Ryland with them, so I got to spend a little time with my favorite niece.

Isn’t she precious?

Stupidity knows no bounds

Today Jim and Jessie took me to brunch for Mother’s Day. I got a little aggravated earlier because I specifically told her mother that I was picking her up early and that we were going out to eat. Originally it was supposed to be breakfast … I pick Jessie up and find out that her mother had her EAT BREAKFAST right before I was to pick her up!

*beats head into wall repeatedly*

I swear, one of these days I’m bound to say something to this woman that I know I will regret, but that she also fully DESERVES.

So we waited a bit and went for ‘brunch’ … Jessie was hungry enough and Jim and I were starving! There was a slight ‘incident’ with a group that cut in line infront of us and another family. When I said something to one of the party members, she muttered something about us being ‘racists’ — the party members were black.

They moved on before I could say anything else, but I was fully ready to retort with, “It has nothing to do with race. The color of one’s skin does NOT exempt one from using common courtesy and manners!”

So I fumed a bit, but got over it. We were at Ryan’s and the food and service were great, which fully made up for the inconvenience before being seated. In their defense, it WAS packed, which made it a bit hard for the staff at the front to keep track of who should be where. However, that being said, I find it hard NOT to notice the general lack of manners by people I run across in public nowadays.

To most of these people, I am dying to say, “I *KNOW* your mother taught you better!”

A heart-felt and belated “Thanks!”

If all goes well, it looks like I’ll win this round in the Lunarpages’ WordPress theme design contest. I am completely overwhelmed by the response and surge in votes from family, friends, and extended community. I emailed a few close to me, and just about every one of them emailed their friends and family, and so on and so forth; and I posted on here and you each voted and responded in kind. (thank you!!) My Cotillion sisters rose to the occasion offering support and votes (thank you, girls! I love y’all!). Jim reached out to his guild and the guys have been very supportive with votes and feedback. (thank you!!) And last but certainly not least, the gargantuan legion of members over at the Soldiers’ Angels forums were a tremendous help in attaining and keeping the lead. (thank you very very much, Angels!!!)