Boys and girls it's CCOOOOLLLDD out there!

I know I sound like a ninnie to complain that it's 30 degrees outside, but hey that's why I came back to Texas. Well, one reason of several... but on days like this that's the one I remember best.

"Back" means from Kansas City... we lived there for 2 years and came back to Texas after 21 straight days of temperatures around -5 to 20 degrees, and it snowed a good 6 feet during that time. Okay, so it's not THAT cold here, but the freezing rain, and sleet, and snow sure seem to make it worse.

Therefore, I called work and told them I wasn't risking my neck to drive in. They actually seemed surprised. I asked them "Are you going to come pay the towtruck driver to pull me out of the ditch?" Mind you I did learn to drive on snow during that time in KC, however:

#1. We don't really have snow on the roads- we have ICE.

#2. Texans don't know how to drive on ICE.

#3. It's more fun to stay home and watch the news to see Texans on ICE.

Only thing is, if it has to be cold and wet it may as well give us a "pretty" picturesque snow to make it worth while... if I'm not going out in it I like to look at a nice snow-covered landscape. But alas no, it seems only the sleet stuck to the cars and base of the tree trunks, not the snow. What a gyp.

How much did you folks in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois get? Get slammed? Hope you're all okay.

Artwork portfolio put together...

I finally put some of my artwork back online. Here's link:

http://awhite718.photosite.com/Album1/

Click on the slideshow button or click on each individual photo to see a larger view and descriptions underneath.

I'm not thrilled with the album template used by the site, I can't edit the size of the photos. I had taken the time and trouble to make them exactly the size I wanted, just to find out the template controls the size. It's hard to see the detail of the artworks. Oh well, at a later date I'll find another place to put them but this will do for now.

I done got myself in deep this time...

That may be an understatement.

This morning I finally went to Tarrant County College and filled out the admissions form for Spring 2007.

After checking their database they said I'm actually a "returning student" since I had a couple credits from 1991. I can still hear the words I told my mother when I quit school... "Mom I'm just taking a break, I can go back at any time!" I just didn't know it would be a 15 year break.

So I stepped onto the campus today unsure what to do to get started and feeling lost. Luckily the first thing I see on the sidewalk is one of those campus maps that said "You are HERE ------X" It seemed like just the sign I needed not just for campus navigation but for life. Before you can go in the right direction you have to know where you're AT, right? That's the point I've been at; all this time I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, and it's time to get this party started. Hubby wants me to wait, but I told him I've been waiting too long, I'm doing it and doing it now.

After the admissions was finished I went to the Financial Aid office. They simply gave me a booklet on how to do everything online. Boy times have changed! They told me to go fill in the forms on the website and they'll inform me of what aid I qualify for. That's the biggest deciding factor in this whole endeavor, is can I afford it. County college doesn't cost near as much as trade schools or universities, but it ain't free!

So in all, I left saying "Well THAT was easy!" It'll probably be the easiest step of the next 2 years.

By the way, I'm planning on getting an Associates Degree in Graphic Communication. But beyond that I need to figure out exactly which direction I want to go with it- illustration, graphic design, textile design... I'm not sure. I'm thinking either illustration or textile design, you know, designing patterns for wallpapers and rugs and bed sheets. When I was younger Mom would take me with her on her Interior Designing pursuits, I enjoyed thumbing through the oversized books of pattern samples, the designs all had their even, mathmatical regularity and yet were artistic. Plus I looked up the income of textile artists, the goverment site says the median income is $58,000 a year. I can live on that, haha.

So I took the first step. Now everybody PRAY FOR ME!

And up goes the tree...

I dedicated today to putting up the ole Christmas tree. After shuffling everything around in the garage just to get the closet door open, I'm worn out already! But I finally got all the holiday boxes drug out, and without any spider bites. Now here's what I don't understand- I remember last year what a hassle it was untangling all the wires of lights.... so when I took the lights down last year I recall how CAREFULLY I rolled them up, very neatly, very orderly, so this year it wouldn't take half the day to untangle. I clearly remember doing that. I swear. I was there, I remember doing it. And yet obviously the Christmas Light Gremlin struck again. I opened the box only to find the same tangled, wadded mess I find year after year. Why does he do that? When I catch that little bastard I'm going to wring his little neck... or better yet make HIM take the time to unwad and untangle and spread the wires all across the livingroom in neat lines. Jerk.

So anyway, hopefully I'll have a purdy little sparkling tree in the front windows by oh, maybe midnight tonight.

Fair Grounds picks for Sun 11/26

1. 5-1-4-7
2. 1-3-4-2
3. 1-2-6-4
4. 1-6-2-4
5. 6-8-2-5
6. 5-9-11-2
7. 2-4-3-7
8. 2-3-4-1
9. 3-5-1-6
10. 9-4-10-1

Yesterday: 1 win ($3.60), exacta box ($27.80) and trifecta box ($83.20).
That's it. Yep, I still suck. That's what I get for not following the races for the last couple months... now I need to watch what happens for a few weeks to get back up to speed. Good thing I'm not actually spending any money on these picks! I'll just watch for a while, and maybe bet later in the meet if I have the cash available to lose, or just wait until Oaklawn opens up.

Hey Longshot you were right, that Talamo kid is doing pretty good, he got a couple wins and several 2nds in the first few days of racing. Nice call.

It was a good one...

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I was pretty proud of myself yesterday, the whole meal came out PERFECT... turkey perfect, mashed taters perfect, GRAVY perfect, which in our household is the most important feat to accomplish. Scott seems to be a gravy connoisseur, so it's always too salty, too thin, too "funny tasting". But yesterday even gained his approval.

I had one of those "birdzillas", a nice 23lb turkey. Don't ask why I got one so big, it was just the two of us and a friend who's divorcing so we invited him over. From the size of the bird I figure we'll have enough to last until Christmas. I kept hearing BUBBA from Forrest Gump in my head- "... turkey sandwiches... turkey salad... turkey tettrazinni... turkey & rice... turkey soup... turkey pudding... turkey cupcakes..."

Cowboys had a great game, and Broncos sucked. Of all teams, how could they let KC win? Grrr. Plummer still doesn't know which color of uniform to throw to... pleeeeeease put Cutler in.

Speaking of football uniforms- at work we had "jersey week", where we could all wear our pro/college team jerseys. Sure enough I found a coworker wearing a Cowboys jersey with "Owens" on the back. I couldn't help but ask him, "When you wear that T.O. jersey do you find that you tend to DROP THINGS more often?" Hehehe, sorry, my little mean streak was showing.

Fair Grounds picks for Fri 11/24

1. 5-2-1-3
2. 6-7-2-10
3. 1-5-4-3
4. 2-3-6-5
5. 8-6-3-5
6. 4-1-6-9
7. 4-7-6-2
8. 4-1-3-7
9. 1-8-4-9
10. 7-6-5-10

It's official... I suck.
One lousy win on my picks yesterday, and even that one was just a favorite paying $4.80. But, my second choice pick in the 3rd race won and paid a whopping $89.60.
I see a lot of horses won from the #1 spot, wonder if there's some bias there.

Let's try this again...
On Wednesday I wrote a nice little "happy thankgiving" type post, but for some reason it didn't post right. I don't know if it was a problem on my end or on the server side since this blog site upgraded to beta. Kinda aggrevating though to write something and have it disappear...

Fair Grounds picks for Thur 11/23

http://www.drf.com/entries/23/eFG23.html?rn=289640
1. 1-3-4-6
2. 9-2-1-11
3. 9-4-2-6
4. 2-6-4-3
5. 1e-4-2-3
6. 12-11-3-8
7. 5-4-3-9
8. 8-10-5-3
9. 7-6-3-9
10. 6-10-12

Buyers Beware!
These are just my picks from scanning the free entries at Daily Racing Form (link above), not from actually reading the past performances, so any handicapping is just from off the top of my head. Plus, it's the first day of the meet so anything can happen!

Notes:
race 2- Andy Leggio with a 2yo colt kin to Warren's Classic? I'll bet he has high hopes for this one. Andy's pretty good with babies, he doesn't push them too hard early, he takes them slow and gives them time to grow. Not like Troy Young, whose colts are lucky if they live long enough to be 3 years old! lol

Something else I noticed... where's Cole Norman??? Any of you that still have connections to the track, what's up with him? Has he reduced his stable due to his accident? I was surprised he didn't have any entries listed for opening day.

Yesterday I was messing with the HTML for this blog template and screwed it up a bit, the left sidebar was down underneath the main entries. I believe I got it fixed, but if the page doesn't load right or if it looks funny will you all please let me know? Just because it looks right on my computer doesn't mean it's right on everyone else's...

I stuck that one piece of artwork (the blue horse) as my profile photo, but still need to put together a page with the rest of my art.

On the Fairgrounds meet~
You know what bums me out even more about our site disappearing? The FAIRGROUNDS race meet is finally starting Thanksgiving! I've had to wait 2 years for this track to open up again since the hurricane destroyed it, but now I won't be able to post my picks on Hottalkers for it! (Yes, I know they had their so-called Fairgrounds meet last year at Louisiana Downs, but let's face it, it just wasn't the same. To me it was just an extended LaD meet.) So, I may post my picks here on my blog, if I have time to do it daily. Heck, maybe Hoosier Carol will even show up every once in a while to score me and then send me a t-shirt or hat or something, hahaha. (Just kidding Carol, don't go mailing me anything)

Plus that brings up another question- What's Fairgrounds going to be like this year? Sure, the track may be renovated, but the area SURROUNDING the track is the problem. It's a part of New Orleans that is still a mess from the reports I've seen... so are the trainers that typically take their horses there going to show up this year? I know some of the smaller LA trainers will be there, but what about the larger trainers? They like their upper-class living outside of the track. I'm curious to see who shows up down there this year.

And then there's the question of what the wager handle will be like at Fairgrounds. Even with Internet wagering it won't make up for the actual attendence at the track being down. We'll see what happens.

Also another point on that subject... I know the racetrack casino laws have pros and cons to what it's doing to the main attraction to the tracks (people spending more money in the casino instead of on the horses), but I have to wonder what effect the hurricane would have had on Fairgrounds if it didn't have state racino money helping out... would the track even be able to keep its doors open? Heck, Churchill is having to pay for repairs at what, 3 tracks under their ownership that were damaged by natural forces last year? They're probably thankful that the state of Louisiana can help pay the bill for at least one track...

To my Hottalkers buddies~
As I said on the message board, due to the demise of our website I decided to put one of these blogs together. It'll give me a place to post my artwork (when I get around to it), and also help any of you that want to keep track of where I'm at on the Net (for those of you that don't already trade e-mails with me.) I haven't quite found where I want my new 'home' to be on the Internet as far as which message board I'll join you folks at, since everyone's dispersing to all kinds of other boards. I know a lot of you weren't just on Hottalkers but also on other boards too; however I'm more of a one-board type of person. Everyone has suggested numerous boards for folks to join, so please don't be offended if I don't join each one. Not to mention I've been busy lately, so just keeping up with this blog-thing might be a task!

Anyway, keep in touch people, and check back occassionally.
Sincerely,
Angela
WalkerTalker

Now if only I had something to SAY...
Okay, here's my first attempt at this blogging thing. I've built websites from scratch before, I should be able to figure out this "user friendly" template stuff that even blondes can navigate. And no, I'm not a blonde, what I mean is even REAL blondes can use this!