Heather Foeh

Yes, that’s right folks - today I’m 39…my last year in my thirties — eek! I’ve had a wonderful day with some great phone calls, text messages, emails, ecards, packages from Amazon, gift certificates…you name it. My wonderful family took me to dinner and then we returned home and I opened my gifts. What a great day!!

My parents will be arriving back in the States this weekend and my Mom has promised to make me a Red Velvet Cake (my standard birthday cake since my first birthday) and I’m very excited about that.

Each year my Dad sends me a bouquet and this year’s arrangement is amazing (click to see a larger version):

During the month of February I traveled to Madison, WI and Cincinnati, OH for work. Now in March I have the opportunity to travel somewhere a bit more exotic: Paris, France. I’ll be teaching two days of Eloqua 101 training for a client, but before that starts I’ll have a day and a half of sightseeing! I just went to Amazon.com and bought something that’s been on my Wish List for a while: “Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot“. It’s a little card deck that features different guided walks around the city. I like the idea that I can just put a few cards in my bag and head out for hours without needing to lug along a guide book.

Now for the extra exciting news: We’re taking a family trip to Paris this summer! We just settled all of our details this week, including the complicated airline tickets for our kids (who will be visiting my parents in Kuwait and then meeting us in Paris). We’ve found a wonderful 2-bedroom apartment to rent (only a block from Notre-Dame) which will be our home for the week.

So, it’s definitely my lucky year — two trips to Paris within a few months of each other! I’ve been listening to French podcasts today to brush up on my language skills, as well as doing some vocabulary and grammar exercises in my French review book. Yes, I’m a nerd.

Watch this space for pictures beginning on March 16th…

Sheesh - I’ve been absent for ages! What has kept me away? Hmmm….let’s see….

Knitting: I’ve learned to knit in the round and am now in the process of making my 3rd stocking hat. A whole new world has opened up to me! Yay!

Reading: A bit of retro Nora Roberts, the new Sarah Mayberry (Burning Up), Persuasion by Jane Austen, and No Apologies by my fellow ARWA member Tracy Wolff.

Listening: I was having a blast-from-the-past moment and downloaded DC Talk’s greatest hits album to my iPod. It’s fun to be able to sing along with songs I haven’t heard in ages. I also downloaded an audiobook to my iPod and listened to that on some recent business travels.

Traveling:  I’ve made several trips to Austin to meet with clients and teach an Eloqua 101 class. Next week I’m headed to Madison, WI and the week after that I’ll be in Cincinnati, OH. Brrrrr.

Writing: I’ve submitted my first manuscript to two new agents. One has already rejected my query (drat!) and I’m waiting to hear back from the other one. Unfortunately, I haven’t worked very steadily on my current manuscript. However, I just started a daily writing challenge with my fellow Austin RWA chaptermates and am getting on the bandwagon again. My goal is to be finished with my second manuscript by my birthday at the end of April. I think my problem is that I’m in revisions and that’s not nearly as fun as fresh writing.

This last week I was in Toronto for my work. It’s a lovely city, but I had to get there — and that meant stepping on to an airplane. Unfortunately, it was one of those little “regional” airplanes that have 13 rows, and yes, I was in row 13. I’m not superstitious, but my experiences on this trip could turn me that way.

First of all, a gentleman four rows away would NOT stop talking to his seatmate. He shared his entire life story, and not just with the poor schmuck next to him, but basically with all of us because he was a Loud Talker.

Then the real fun began as we descended into Toronto. Apparently, many planes had been delayed that morning because the winds were around 100 miles per hour that morning. For some reason, we were not delayed and boy do I wish we would have been. The final 20 minutes of the descent were the bumpiest I’ve ever been on. It wasn’t just the up and down bumpiness of turbulence. Think of a leaf floating down from a tree and tilting left and right, dropping down, floating back up a bit, tilting again, all the way until it reaches the ground. We were that leaf. I gave myself mental pep talks (after verifying that I did indeed have an airsick bag in the seat pocket in front of me) and consoled myself with the fact that I could visit the “washroom” (as the Canadians call it) as soon as I de-planed. But it was not to be.

We climbed down the little airplane steps and headed for a bus which would take us to the main terminal. Unfortunately, we had to wait for another plane to land and all of those people to get on our bus too — so it was about 20 minutes of standing on the bus waiting. Thank goodness I’d mentally gotten my nausea under control by then. What would I have done?! Here’s how hard the wind was blowing at this point… the ground crew had taken the gate check bags and placed them on a 3-tier trolley so people could grab them as they came off the plane. The suitcases on the top two tiers were blowing off onto the ground!

As a final little bit of icing on the cake, my taxi driver from the airport to my hotel (about 25 minutes) apparently did not believe in bathing regularly. It was extra special.

Wow - it’s been ages since I posted. Interesting - I’m not really sure why. Maybe December is just a busy time. Maybe my day job was too busy. Maybe I used up all of my creative juices in November for NaNoWriMo. Heck, who knows?

But now I’m relaxing (”chillaxin” as my kids like to say - I have no idea how to spell that!) and it’s definitely time to post again. We’re in Red River, NM for Christmas week and what a wonderful little town this is! We’re staying in a little cabin nestled right up against the mountain and there’s over a foot of snow everywhere - it’s perfect. It even snowed on Christmas Day - how perfect is that?

Today the boys are off skiing while my daughter and I are hanging out in front of the warm fire with our dog. I think we’re the smart ones. On the agenda today: reading, Sudoku, knitting, and laundry. Since we packed everything on the top of our car, we had limited space. That meant that we couldn’t bring 7 days worth of clothes for all of us. So, I’ll be parked at the laundromat for a few hours today with a good book and lots of quarters.

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

It seems that almost every year someone in our family is sick or under the weather on Thanksgiving. This year it was my turn. I don’t have a fever, but I’ve been achy like the flu. My throat is sore and swollen and I have zero energy. Yesterday (Turkey Day) I barely moved from the couch. I covered up with a quilt I’d tossed in the dryer for a few minutes (ahhhh) and propped myself on a couple of pillows and read on and off all day, took a four-hour nap, and watched “The Lake House.” Nothing like a little Keanu to make a girl feel better.

Today I’m on the road to recovery and plan to get back to working on my NaNo manuscript. Only one week left — eeeeeek! But I may have a nap first…

My friend Lexi blogged yesterday about the things she is thankful for and that prompted me to do the same:

• My family: my wonderful, supportive husband, our two talented and funny teenagers, and our big ol’ Collie.
• My original family: my Mom and Dad (who served a homemade Thanksgiving meal to 25 soldiers in Kuwait - bravo!) and my little sister who is four inches taller than I am
• My friends: too many to name - how lucky am I?!
• Freedom: to express ourselves without censorship, to walk freely on the streets without curfew, to pursue the American dream

I have a good life. Slowing down and being stuck on the couch gave me plenty of time to think about how truly great it is. Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!

Hallelujah - we’re finally getting some chilly weather! It’s 41 at my house this morning…woohoo!  Yes, I know it’s going to climb into the 80’s again later this week, but this first dose of cold is fantastic. I checked the weather forecast on my Blackberry and according to the application that I use, it’s going to be “nippy”. I’m not kidding - that’s the word they used. Which is not to be confused with “chilly” tonight. Tomorrow is “refreshingly cool.”  Who writes this stuff?!

It’s funny - I never really thought about it…but it makes sense now… J.K. Rowling just announced that Dumbledore was gay, and not only that, but Grindelwald was his tragic love. Now it all fits into place, but it’s odd that it didn’t dawn on me before.

Okay - this isn’t original content from me, I’m just spreading the love… The Smart Bitches posted this about 10 days ago — it’s an MP3 of Alan Rickman reading Sonnet 130. Holy Moly. Alan is welcome to come on over and read my grocery list aloud if he’d like.

Right click this link and save it to your computer for your future listening pleasure.

We all have our little secret dreams and a few “what-ifs” from our past. Well, here’s one of mine… I wish I could have been an FBI agent. Doesn’t “Special Agent Foeh” have a nice ring to it? I really don’t remember how or when (or even why) this started, but there you have it. Am I happy with my current life? Absolutely! But I also still have this little fantasy about bringing down the bad guys — maybe cyber terrorists? — and I’ll tell you, seeing The Kingdom this week didn’t help. Jennifer Garner was one tough FBI chick in that movie. She now comes in second place in my ass-kicking women hall of fame, just below Trinity from The Matrix series.