Shameless promotion wrapped into a funny story

I have admittedly not been as diligent about posting up here as I once was. One of the reasons causes is that I head up the social media efforts at work, so while I am blogging and Facebooking and Tweeting an awful lot, half the time it's not personally related.

And while this post is for my work blog, and while it does have some shameless promotion of association membership, the whole experience was pretty funny.

The post is about Mike getting stung by a bee. Well, really, the post is about using an NASE benefit to help with the bee sting. But you all will be more interested in the bee sting than the solution.

Left out of the post were my continuous feelings for three days of, "really? really?". Here's the thing -- I never doubted for a second that he was in a lot of discomfort, that the leg and foot were swollen, that it was giving him the "foot is asleep" sensation, and that all of that was generally consuming him.

The "really?" came in when you stepped back and thought, only my husband would get stung by a bee just walking out of the house and have an allergic reaction to it. How does this stuff happen to him? When was the last time YOU were stung by a bee? Didn't we all learn when we were 10 that if you left them alone, they'd leave you alone?

But I truly believe he was minding his own business and this bee had an ax to grind and *BAM* it just stung him! Then it swelled up and it hurt and it was the one in a thousand case where the site of the sting actually got a skin infection and .... come on, you gotta shake your head.

Lest you think I'm ragging on him here (I'm trying to make clear that I'm not -- poor guy really was in pain, and none of it was his fault), I will give him props for all the activity he did Saturday. When we went to bed Friday night, I wrote his participation in our planned bike ride and 5k off. Thought there was no way he'd do it. But he did!

And that attitude helped the bee sting, too, I think! All the blood flowing helped with the pressure of the swelling and then add in the antibiotics and he was on his way to recovery.

From a bee sting, people.

I'm a bad thief

I would be a very, very bad identity thief. Because evidently, I can't even hack into my own credit card account.

It started last night when I received an updated expiration date joint American Express credit card. I activated it, and destroyed the old card.

Only I didn't destroy the old card. I destroyed my personal American Express card. You know, the one in perfect working order, without an expired date drawing near? Yah, that one.

No big deal, I'll just call and get a new one. So that's what I did tonight. I pulled out an old statement so I'd have the account number and I called AmEx.

And I proceeded to fail about 6 security questions ... about myself.

I didn't know my PIN. (Although I want to dispute that. I think I had it right and she typed it in wrong.)

She asked for a previous address ZIP code and I gave her Sunset Drive, my last address at college, and my two most recent work ZIP codes, and she said, "no go."

Then she wanted to know how long I'd owned my home for. Easy!

But she said I was wrong.

At this point I enlisted Mike's help, but evidently he doesn't know me any better.

So she gave me another number to call, which I did, entered some numbers on the phone (SEE, I TOLD YOU I knew my PIN!!), and got connected to another person to order a replacement card.

This guy was much more willing to help. Evidently I aced his questions. He also asked me a very important one, in my book, which was, "Was your card lost, stolen, or damaged?"

"Damaged!" I didn't know that was an option with the first lady.

"Water damage, is the magnetic strip scratched, what's the problem with it?"

"Um, well, I sort of cut it up."

"Cut it up?"

Then I told him what happened, and he laughed and said, "Miss (ok, ok, he said "ma'am" but I'd rather not tell you that), that happens waaaay more than you'd think."

So now a new card is on it's way.

Can you spot me in the meantime?

Going, going, and still going!

What a week! It had everything: family, exercise, work, more family, more exercise, lots of visiting and lots of friends.

I was in Salem, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Monday, then flew to Philly and stayed there until Thursday night. I was in Philly for a conference, manning an exhibit booth for work. Fortunately, there were three others from work there, so I wasn't tied to the booth the entire time. Instead, I got to have dinner with Aunt Jo and Aunt Rita on Tuesday and to the Please Touch Museum and dinner with Patricia and Samantha on Wednesday!

I can't believe I didn't bring my camera, especially for some shots of Samantha at the museum. Of course, Patricia did, so I'm not-so-patiently waiting for her to post them on Facebook. Hint. Hint.

A quick day at the office on Friday, and then lots of entertaining for the weekend!

Some more of my Texas work/ friends came into town and we had a carbo-loading dinner on Friday at my place. Carbo-loading because we rented bikes on Saturday morning and biked from Old Town to Mount Vernon, walked around Mount Vernon for a few hours, and then biked back to Old Town.

And because that wasn't quite exhausting enough, we ran in the Crystal City Twilight 5k on Saturday night.

The run started at 8 p.m., and it had begun to rain around 7:40 p.m. Just some drizzle for most of the race, but on the home stretch of the last mile, the thunder and lightning picked up. It really was quite amazing to see, because by that time it was getting really dark out.

Soaked from head to toe in sweat and rain drops, we all gathered back at the Ritz for post-race cocktails and snacks! (yes, I did say "the Ritz." Jealous? Then get friends like the Halls. :-) )

Needless to say, I think I was asleep last night before my head hit the pillow.

Deer on the golf course

Mike and I went to Old Hickory yesterday afternoon for a 3 p.m. tee time. (I wanted to sleep in Saturday morning!)

It was the best day ever for an afternoon tee time -- it was 81 degrees, slight breeze, just gorgeous.

So gorgeous, even the deer wanted to be out in it. See these three? They were on the 17th hole, and there were actually NINE of them! Just walking around! We didn't have a group playing behind us, so we sat for about 10 minutes and just watched them.

Deer crossing

The botton of this photo is our golf cart plexi-glass. Check out how close he is!!

Can you count all nine?

The start

These two were the first deer we saw -- on the drive between the 4th and 5th holes. Again, check out how close to our cart!

Mike Brings Home the... Fish?

Invotex annual fishing trip today! Mike brought home two filets of rockfish. On 15 minutes notice, this shaped up. Not bad if I do say so myself!

Tubing

Eeeek! I don't like this habit of only posting once a week! I'll try to get out of it!

This past seven days was an extremely busy one. If you're following me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I was in Southern California to present a college scholarship for work. (and if you're not following me, well, why not?)

I was actively traveling for 21 hours, and I was in LA for 22 hours, including sleeping. Part of the long travel was that I flew in and out of Dulles (never again. I don't care that it's cheaper. I don't bill by the hour, but I'm positive the extra three - four hours that Dulles adds to a trip is NOT worth my time). I had a direct flight out to LA, but then connected on the way back, and of course had a delay on the last flight.

But even with all that, LA was a blast. I mean, when you arrive with a big check (literally), people tend to be really, really nice to you. We had a lllllllooooooonnnnnnggggg photo shoot with the scholarship recipient and his family. So long that an impromptu block party broke out while we were shooting in the street!

Not much recovery and I was off to tubing on the James River in Southern Virginia yesterday. Went with Kristin of the Sidley vacation club, and a bunch of her friends. There were six of us girls in all. It was a complete blast. A 3 hour drive down, with chatting all the way. Six girls, three coolers filled with yummy food and snacks and drinks (pina colada's anyone? No? How about a white cosmo?), floating lazily down a river for 3 more hours. Kinda takes you out of reality for a bit.

Some clean up and dinner in Charlottesville near UVa. then the long drive home. Not quite as chatty as on the way down, but we hung in there.

I've been scrambling today to get ready for more travel. These next two weeks are crazy ones. Off to Dallas tonight, Eugene, Oregon, tomorrow, then Chicago on Tuesday. I get back home Wednesday night, and fly back out on Sunday to Boston.

I'll try to squeeze some posts in there... !!!

July 4th

Spent the 4th of July with Terry, Sara and my nieces and nephews. They were on their annual trip north, and were in Fulton, MD, spending two days with Sara's aunt.

We went up, brought Goldie, and had an incredible time.

Except for breaking two of the kids. But more on that later.

Here's Elizabeth, who's growing up gorgeous. A bit of drama, but what 7 year old isn't?

And Patrick, the jokster, trying desperately to get Goldie to play with him.

Sara's aunt has a tremendous back yard, lots of trees, a creek, a gazebo... add that to the 81 degree, no humidity weather, and it was just heaven. Goldie didn't complain much.

Late in the afternoon, we decided to play kickball. Teams kept changing, mostly because Francis wanted to always be kicking, and wasn't so much interested in playing the field.

Notice the size of the ball. It's about half the size of the kids. The first time Elizabeth was up to kick, Mike got the ball and threw it (underhand!) to get her out at first. It rams into her side, knocks her flat out. Lots of tears, and we were down one player.

Another time Francis was up to kick, Mike again caught the ball, and threw it to get him out. It hits him in the stomach and Francis rolls over the front of the ball, letting his chin take the blunt of the fall onto the ground.

There was the start of tears on that one, but with shouts from Mike and Terry to shake it off, he was back in the game.

Not for long. After that fall, we created a new rule that Mike wasn't allowed to throw the ball to get the kids out. He had to tap them. So Francis kicks, Mike gets the ball, and they are both running to second. Francis decides to slide into second...

... and breaks his toe.

Evidently, kids are kinda breakable.

After an exhausting day outside, and the biggest meal ever, courtesy of the Amish Market, we were zonked.

While we laid watching a movie, Elizabeth was hard at work on a loose tooth. She was sure she could get it to come out.

[Warning: this next picture, if looked at closely, is kinda graphic.]

And, indeed, she broke it loose after about an hour of wiggling it, just a little bit. She was really proud of herself, and was formulating the plan for the evening.

Me: "What do you think the Tooth Fairy is going to bring you?"

Elizabeth: "I'm not sure. But at least a note."

Me: "A note? What's the note going to say?"

Elizabeth: "I don't know yet. I don't know yet what I'm going to ask her."

Me: quizzical look

Elizabeth: "Last time I lost a tooth, I asked the Tooth Fairy about her castle. And she wrote me back. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to ask her, but I think it'll be about the cycle."

Me: "The cycle?"

Elizabeth: "Yeah, the cycle of tooth fairies. How long each gets to be tooth fairy before there's another one. And how long this one has been Tooth Fairy, so how long she has left."

Like, duh.

There was a little bit more snuggling:

And then we hit the road. We wanted to be back across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge before the DC fireworks were over. But as we crossed the brand, spankin' new bridge, we thought a lot people had a fantastic idea. We pulled off of Route 1, parked in Old Town, and walked up on the bridge. From there, not only could you see the DC fireworks, straight down the Potomac to the Washington Monument, but you had a 360 degree view of numerous Maryland and Virginia cities all setting off fireworks at the same time!

I don't think these pictures do it any justice, but here ya go:

Quite a Fourth!