Feeling as tired as I am???

Last week, most days I worked anywhere from almost 12 hours a day to almost 15 hours (including business dinners). I really have just been so tired. My normal day starts out with the alarm going off at 5am. I'm at my desk by 7am. I eat lunch at my desk while working... and then head home between 6:30 and 7pm. I get home and eat, relax for about an hour and then hit the sheets. So needless to say, I felt pretty wiped out. All of this extra work is just because I'm having to train with the current manager and do my own job. This next week is the last week she'll be here. I've had some interviews and some possibilities, but no one has blown us away just yet... argh!!

So anyway, someone sent me these pics and instead of forwarding them on through email, I thought I would just post here. I've been tired, but maybe not quite as tired as this! Enjoy!

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Part II

Yes, for the dinner meeting on Wednesday night we went back to Ruth's Chris. This time I ordered the regular sized filet and a salad. I figured I would eat an appetizer and would be fairly full by the time the steak arrived. That did end up being the case, however, this time the steak was a little too pink for my tastes. So the plan ended up working out. I brought the leftovers home to Doyle and he had it the next night. Okay, that's enough red meat for me for awhile!

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Well, last night I had a business dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Ponte Vedra. We met at 6pm and talked business until 8pm, then we ordered! I was pretty hungry by then. I ordered the petite filet cooked medium and had creamed spinach, mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes. It was really good. I didn’t get home until 9:30pm and was pretty wired. So I ended up staying up until 11pm, which is really late for me. Especially these days because my alarm has been going off at 5am in order to be at work by 7am.

This morning though my stomach didn’t feel too hot. I’m not sure if it’s because I ate really rich tasting food last night, ate late, or what. I normally eat my steak cooked medium well, so I’m not sure if my stomach liked the fact that it was more pink than I normally eat. Or… it could be the fact that I’m sitting most of the day getting cross-trained for the insurance department reports that I’m going to have to do from now on until I replace the manager. Really, it could be a combination of all of that stuff.

Tonight I had to work late to learn a software upload from external financial sources. Each section takes a while before you can click on the next one. And you couldn’t start any of it until everyone logged out of the system at 5pm. I’m actually writing this blog update from work while I wait to start the next update on the software. Then I’ll only have to cut and paste it online when I finally get home.

I have another business dinner scheduled for Wednesday night as well. I’m fairly certain we will be heading to Ruth’s Chris again. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good steak every now and then, but I don’t necessarily need to eat it twice in one week! Especially since I’m still not feeling too well from what I may have eaten last night. Doyle would love for me to order another steak tomorrow night though. What I should have done last night was to order the regular filet and eaten half, then given Doyle the rest of it. He would have loved that. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow night. I’m thinking I’m going to end up ordering fish instead though. We'll see!

Orlando

We headed down to Orlando this weekend. We had fun! We got to Steve & Erica's house Saturday afternoon. Then met up with JT & Maryann for dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. That was fun! That was the first time Doyle and I had been there. They give you SO MUCH food! It was really good too. I got the scallops and shrimp and Doyle got the steak and shrimp.

Almost everyone knew how to use the chopsticks well but me. I really was giving it my all and because I was so hungry and getting no where, I decided to just stab the food with the chopstick and get it into my mouth. So anyway, on one of my stabs, I accidentally lost control the chopstick and flipped one of my onions onto Erica's sleeve!! She was startled and wasn't sure who did it. She looked at the chef and he apologized, not knowing if it was him or not. I was laughing so hard, I really had no idea if it was me or not either. Then Doyle said he saw the whole thing and said yes, that it was me! That was so funny! Poor Erica though, that was the first time she had worn that shirt and here I got it dirty! We read the tag and saw that it could be machine washed so that was good. Otherwise I definitely would have paid for her dry cleaning!!

After dinner we headed to the City Walk. I had heard Erica talk about going there before but I really had no idea what it was like. It was really cool. It was very similar to Pleasure Island at Disney, only you didn't have to pay to get in. You could walk around and see the different bars and restaurants and things they had. We went to Pat O'Briens and had an after dinner drink. Poor Erica again, she asked for a "lemonade". When they brought it to her, I noticed it was in the same glass as an alcoholic version in the drink menu. Well, she took one sip and thought it tasted really good but didn't think it was just lemonade. We hailed the waiter and asked and he confirmed, it did have alcohol in it! You would have thought the waiter would have noticed that she was pregant, not to mention she did ask him if she could get any of the featured drinks virgin style and he had said no. So anyway, he did bring out a regular lemonade.

Doyle and I were just saying that we wished Jacksonville had a place either like City Walk or Pleasure Island. That would be really fun. Okay, so here are a couple of pictures we took at Pat O'Briens. I liked the place because it reminded me of Cedar Street in Austin. :)

Steve & Erica McCowan

Maryann & JT Thomas

And us!

And of course we can't forget about the pets. We left Snickers at home, which he was fine with. We left him more than enough food for the time we were gone. And when we got home, we found he had eaten every last bite! I swear that cat would gain so much more weight if we let him! Kit on the other hand, we couldn't just leave at home. So on the way down to Orlando, we called Pet Paradise in Palm Coast. Kit's been to that location several times. I took a couple of cute pictures of him on the way down too.

Here he is... all smiles because he's going "bye-bye"

And here he is giving his momma kisses

He did a very good job sitting in the back seat and enjoying the ride.

On the way back home today, we took some back roads and saw some amazing "deep south" as Doyle called it. Yes, some of it was a little scary but other parts of it was just beatiful. We saw one house on the edge of the lake with these huge gorgeous oak trees all around it. I think that's my dream house! It reminded me so much of Texas I couldn't believe it. I had no idea there were places like that in Florida! Of course that statement started a whole conversation about the various places we think we would like to live. The road did take us through Deland and although I had been there years and years ago, when we drove through it I thought it was the cutest little town. It definitely felt very homey.

Okay, I think I'm going to wrap this up. I'm planning on getting up early every day this week for work. I've got two business dinners this week so I wanted to get these pictures on here tonight or it probably would have been till next weekend before I got around to it. We hope you all had wonderful weekends as well!

Job Fair

Well, Doyle went to the job fair in Dulles today. He said nothing too fascinating happend. He handed out some resumes and that was about it. He's trying to come home tonight. Air Tran is letting the pilots fly standby through the of this month. He's not having much luck getting home tonight though. The flights got delayed and they filled up with people from the last flight of the night. I think he should be boarding the flight to Atlanta anytime now. Only once he makes it to Atlanta, the last flight to Jax will probably have already left. You never know though, when flights get delayed, they tend to delay more than just the one. So maybe he'll be lucky and still make it here tonight. He wasn't going to hold his breath though.

Okay, so the pets are all over me because I got home late from work tonight. So I should just get off of here and spend time with them or they'll never let me sleep tonight. Have a good night all!

Doyle's birthday!

I didn't mean for another week to go by without me making a post. Doyle has been home a week now since he worked his last day at Independence Air. Actually, today he is traveling up to Dulles for a job fair that is next week. He's been busy researching various outfits and applying to a couple of them. So we'll see!

Doyle's birthday was this past Friday the 13th! We went to Dave & Buster's and had fun. I beat him the first round of shooting hoops and he beat me the 2nd round. Then we decided to ride this harley game. It was horrible, I couldn't figure out how to drive the thing straight! It also didn't help that there was this guy behind me that kept yelling out about how bad I was and how he was glad he wasn't on the ride with me. I got so aggigated and mad at the game and that guy, that I just gave up and got off of it. I turned to look at the guy that was heckling me and it some boso with his two little kids! He looked at me all surprised and asked if the game was still running. I said it was and by all means, he could get on it. So he put one of his little boys on it until the time ran out. Doyle wasn't too good on it either but he was by far better than me. Then they finally called our name for dinner. It was good. I brought half of my dinner home and ate it for lunch today since I had to go in to work.

Here is a picture of Doyle with the pets. It was actually taken New Year's Eve before he had to leave to go to work. They knew he would have rather have stayed home so they were giving their attention to him while they could. Isn't this picture just adorable!

I think our pets don't favor ME anymore! ha! :) And yes, it was a nice day here on Dec. 31st. I think it got up to 80 degrees!

Independence Air

Well, unfortunately, it's official... January 5th is the last day Independence Air will be in business. Tonight was Doyle's last flight in the Airbus. We are very sad that this is what become of a great idea. They received such high ratings... everything from being rated 2nd best in customer satisfaction (behind Aloha Airlines) to the least amount of lost baggage and many other accomplishments. The only thing they couldn't attain was financial stability.

After the news was made public, there has been an outporing of other Regional and Fractional airlines offering to help out employees find new jobs. Independence Air obviously got the reputation as being the best.

I am so proud of my husband for sticking it out until the end... for a company that he truly cared about. Even though there were a ton of other pilots not showing up for work, many of the pilots that had those days off... showed up to help out. It really was amazing to see. Doyle could have easily called in sick so that he and I could be together for New Year's Eve, but he knew he had a duty. It wasn't the customer's fault that the company folded. He and I both knew that if we had purchased tickets to fly somewhere, that we wouldn't want our flight delayed or cancelled. That and Doyle and other committed pilots didn't want Independence Air to go out on a bad note, but rather with their heads held high and the company's mission in place. It's that kind of attitude that gets a person far in life. And that attitude is just one of the many reasons why I married my husband.

And until Doyle finds his next job, which may be bigger and better than we could have hoped for, he'll be at home spending quality time with his favorite person... me! :) Okay, so maybe that was a little much! Anyway, we are going to enjoy this break and having him home all the time. He's already sent out resumes and will be sending out more when he gets back. We've heard of all kinds of outfits looking for pilots, so it will just take time finding the right one for him. I'll certainly keep you updated!

Love, Aimee