A Day in the Life of a Would-Be Bambi

I'll show you mine if you show me yours...

2010-06-13T14:31:00.000-05:00

Yep that's right, I'm ready for a little show-n-tell. Anyone in?

Here's the deal. I've tweeted, texted, commented, whined, begged, and cajoled. I really need some new songs for my work-out play list. Julochka (thanks lady!) was the only one that answered, and she only gave me one suggestion. So I thought maybe I'd show you what I have on my work-out iTunes list and you could give me some more suggestions.

Walk This Way    Aerosmith
Just Push Play     Aerosmith
21 Things I Want In A Lover   Alanis Morissette
dirty litte secret   The All american rejects
Potential Breakup Song    Aly & AJ
Girlfriend    Avril Lavigne
Dancing With Myself    Billy Idol
3    Britney Spears
Womanizer    Britney Spears
Pour Some Sugar On Me    Def Leppard
Move Your Body    Eiffel 65
Sugar, We're Goin Down    Fall Out Boy
Fergalicious    Fergie
Paralyzer    Finger Eleven
I Ran (So Far Away)    A Flock of Seagulls
American Idiot    Green Day
SexyBack     Justin Timberlake
I Kissed a Girl    Katy Perry
Bad Romance    Lady GaGa
Shake It    Metro Station
So What P!nk
Hotel Room Service    Pit Bull
SOS   Rihanna
Panama    Van Halen
Don't Trust Me    3Oh!3

So there ya have it. That's what I run to. I like it loud with a good, fast beat that will make me forget I'm sweating my a$$ off.

Thoughts? Ideas? Inspiration??

Tuesday again

2010-06-01T13:29:00.001-05:00

Go see Keely at The Un-Mom and link up for some random tuesday goodness.

********************************************************************

Today started out on an interesting note. I got up early and went to work only to have another pharmacist show up. If you recall, I'm a temp pharmacist so I only work when people need me. It's a pretty good gig, and I set my own schedule, etc. Well, what happened today is a long story, but I'll see if I can put it in a nutshell.

:: I sometimes work for a temp agengy

:: Sometimes the people at the pharmacies I go to want to hire me as their own temp pharmacist rather than go thru the agency

:: That's fine, but then they owe the agency a finders fee (I don't see a dime of that money)

:: I *think* that the pharmacy I went to today does not want to pay the finders fee
:: I *think* they wanted me to keep my employment with them on the hush-hush, in essence screwing over the temp agency and my contacts there

:: I did not keep it on the hush-hush

:: which is *I think* why they had the other pharmacist show up

So, you want me to work for you because I am a good, honest, responsible pharmacist, yet you want me to lie for you and be your bitch? Hmmm. I don't get it. Sorry.

*********************************************************************

Okay, enough badness. Here's some goodness. Do you know Goosey? She got married over the weekend! It was a great party. Slasher Norm was there, and Bamboo too. That was fun because I never met her before this weekend. Goosey looked beautiful, the food was great, and the wine was awesome! Today she and her new hubby are jetting off to Jamaica. Hopefully they will stay clear of all the drug lords and enjoy the beautiful white sandy beaches. I'm jealous!

**********************************************************************

How was your Memorial Day? We had a nice weekend, the weather was beautiful and I am thankful that I'm an American. That reminds me. While I was cleaning the pool I was thinking about PRIDE. Pride is a funny thing. It is one of the Seven Deadly Sins according to the Catholic religion. And yes, I suppose it could be sinful sometimes. But when I say I'm proud to be an American, that doesn't mean that I don't love and respect other countries. London is one of my most favoritest cities in the world. I love all of England. And Scotland. And France. And Italy. And I could go on and on. Oh and Greece. And Canada (sorry michele, it's a beautiful country). Anyway, you get my point, don't you? Also there are times when I'll tell 17yo daughter to have some pride in herself, that she's a great person. Is that a sin? I don't think so. I think that pride and respect go hand in hand. How can I respect your culture, your country, food, religion, looks, etc without respecting my own? None are better than the other, just different. Although in a pinch, I'd have to say that we are the greatest country in the world. Not without our problems, sure, but a pretty darn good place to be. Especially today sitting by the pool, kids and dogs around me. All I need is a glass of wine and life would be good. What do you think of pride? Is it wrong to be proud of yourself? Your accomplishments? Your country? Your kids???

*****************************************************************

Wow. those were some deep thoughts. Okay. I was *going* to add one of Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts here because I thought that'd be funny. Well, Mr Handey doesn't let you post them on your web site without permission. Plus I couldn't figure out how to ask him for permission. So go here if you want to see the Deep Thought for the day. Although now I'm annoyed that I can't just post the thought. Mr Handey must be PROUD of his thoughts, huh? Grrr.

***********************************************************************

Agenda for the evening: not a damn thing cuz mr bambi is outta town. Oh, okay I'll have a glass of wine or 3. But that's it. Re-runs of Grey's? Well, if you're going to twist my arm, then sure. Cook dinner? Surely you jest. Finish and just post the damn thing? I'm on it.

Link up and get random peeps.

Oh and ps, I finally got my Skype to work. Email me with your name and we can chat! Woot!

Six Word Saturday Plus

2010-05-29T17:11:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Cate at Show my Face for bringing us Six Word Saturday. Go see her and link up. All the cool kids are doing it, shouldn't you?

CAN'T GET OUT OF THE GUTTER

While some people (can anyone say Coffeypot?) might find this a plus in a woman, I find it rather annoying. Seriously, I'm a grown-up, completely over-educated, a lady, and I like to think I have a modicum of class. And yet.

I can't look at clouds without seeing penises everywhere. Seriously. I have to consciously try to find different shapes while cloud gazing. I'll see a great big stiffy in the sky and laugh - of course - at The Big Guy's sense of humor, then remember how grown-up and mature I am and come up with something more sensible. A mushroom cloud? nah. A tree and two boulders? nope. A couple of tea bags at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower? that's just silly.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or should I have saved it for a TMI Thursday??

This photo isn't even the most suggestive. I did most of my cloud gazing today while in the pool with the camera tucked safely away inside. I think the penises just follow me...

2010-05-24T14:57:00.000-05:00

As I was reading thru my google reader this afternoon I came across the Blue Zoo and her Monday Minute (brought to us by the Daily Dose of Reality). Having never done a monday minute I had to give it a shot. Plus, it all is for our friend Daffy (I mentioned over the weekend about her losing her sister). If you want to give Daffy some love you can get to her site by clicking on the photo.

1 - Do you *snort*?
I'd love to say no, but I'd be lying. I actually do snort, but only if I'm really laughing hard. I think it may stem from the fact that I'm usually concentrating on not peeing my pants at the time, I can't think about not snorting.

2 - Our friend, has a nickname and it's Daffy. What's your nickname?
Well believe it or not, Bambi isn't actually my real name. I bet you didn't get that. So, yes, Bambi is one of my nicknames. It goes back a long time ago from when I was in college and my bff was also named Susan. One of our profs said we needed nicknames so I said I wanted to be Natasha (you have to say it with a russian accent of course). Well the other Susan didn't want to be Boris, so we agreed on Bambi and Thumper. I'd say I still got the better end of the deal, although now in my professional life people tend to think I am a former stripper or something.
Other nicknames I have would be sue, susie, mom, mother, satan's whore, and wifey. I think that about sums it up.

3 - Do you know sign language?
well of course I know the universal signal to go fok yourself, but I actually learned how to say 'penis' in sign language by the master herself - Daffy - at TAR last month.

Here are Travis and I practicing saying penis. Thanks Daffy! I'm sure this will come in very handy at the pharmacy. and thanks to Barb for taking the picture.

4 - What's a sample convo from your hood?
"'scuse me. can I talk to the pharmacist?"
"I'm a pharmacist, can I help you?"
"No, where's the other guy that's usually here? You know, he got dark hair."
"He's off today, can I help you with something?"
"Are you his wife?"
"No, I'm just a pharmacist. I fill in when he's gone"
"Well, he was supposed to leave some vicodin for me. Did he leave it?"
"Ummm. NO. He sure didn't. Why don't you come back tomorrow..."

I could go on but really I think that's the gist of it. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the pharmacists that I fill in for *never* leave vicodin laying around for people... darn it.

5 - Do you sleep with electronic devices - i.e. laptop, Blackberry, iPhone, etc?
I can think of many ways to answer this... however since it's my first Monday Minute I'm gonna keep it all clean and say... YES. Actually I do. My mattress pad is electric and when it's cold and snowy outside I like to turn it on high and get my bed all toasty. Then I turn it down to 4 and settle in for a warm sleep.

Well that's it for Monday Minute. Go see Daffy. Go see Ian at Dose. Go see all the other people I bothered to take the time to link up. I'm going to GO to starbucks. Ciao!

a little bit of everything

2010-05-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

first of all, thanks so much to karebear for being a new follower. sorry I can't thank each of you personally, but I do thank you. the name, karebear, took me off guard for a minute and I had to take a closer look because I used to call one of my bff's in high school karebear. I thought maybe it was her. it's not, and that's okay of course, but just for a minute I was elated. well, not true. I'm still elated to have a new follower (it does so so much for my self esteem) but I thought maybe it was her.

anywhoodles... on to the postage. I want to take just a quick minute and mention my bloggy friend Daffy. in case you don't know, daffy lost her sister yesterday. let's just take a moment and send her and her family a cyber hug. {{{HUGS}}}

this post started out (yesterday) as a Happy Hour/ Friday Fragments post (a la mrs 4444s) but since it's now actually saturday I guess I won't link up. if ya snooze ya lose I guess, and I snoozed on this baby. so then I thought I'd do a Six Word Saturday post but this is umm slightly more than six words. You know what? screw it. I have six good words.

THREE BAD DOGS, ONE WET BATHROOM

oh yeah, that's what I'm saying. juneau, jenny, and kodi are all monster dogs today. mr bambi got up early and went golfing, so I decided I'd haul my cookies outta bed and take the ~~little shits~~ dogs out for their walk. sometimes on saturdays and sundays I don't always get to it early so usually on the weekends they don't get to run amok on the golf course (of course then we usually go across the street to the cemetery so they can run amok thru the headstones). anyhow, since we were early today they got to go on the golf course. on one of the tee boxes 'something' must have smelled good because all 3 ~~little shits~~ dogs decided they needed to roll in it. oh. my. gawd. my sweet little white dogs were brown. and stinky. it was gross. needless to say I was not a happy camper. sound familiar? on monday it was just kodi that decided he needed to get dirty (and then it was mainly just sand) but today it was all three fuckers. so when we got home they all got a bath. and my bathroom got soaked. it still smells like wet dog.

Juneau

Jenny

Kodi

Fuckers. all three of them. remind me again why I do this to myself.

that 'za' up there is from kodi. he thought he needed to help me type. I thought I'd leave it so you can see how smart he is. or not. he's the dumb one. but at least he wants to be a blogger. you have to appreciate that.

ummm... I thought I had more to say but I guess not. have a great weekend!

monday musings and maybe a little random tuesday too

2010-05-17T20:13:00.000-05:00

yeah, it's only monday but I'm feeling a little random. plus I like keely and want to be a part of her randomness. don't you? if you link up then you get to use this little gem too:

okay I don't know how much rain you've been getting but I think we've had something like 102 straight days of rain. well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. the problem with so much rain is that the pool fills up. I mean way up. I mean like it's over the skimmer and then it doesn't skim right. which really doesn't matter because it's too cold and ~~shitty~~ rainy to swim anyway. but the issue is that now the pool is all cloudy. and has visitors. uninvited visitors. and they are doin it froggy style. in my pool.

speaking of doin it, did you know that I'm a milf? yep. apparently I am. my 15yo daughter came home from school today and informed me that a couple of her guy friends told her so. here's to you mrs robinson. or maybe stiflers mom.

do you have any idea how long it takes for white fluffy dogs to dry after a bath? let me tell you, it's a long time. today kodi was running around the golf course and, naturally, in and out of the sand traps and got filthy. I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. I didn't take an after picture either, so it's fine. my point is, I gave him a bath at approximately 8am. it's now 7:30pm and he's still slightly damp. during our afternoon nap (what? I didn't have to work today) he got my shirt damp.

juneau and jenny were good dogs today so they didn't have to get a bath. I don't think kodi liked the fact that he had to get bath and they didn't. he's a cute little ~~fucker~~ ~~monster~~ dog tho huh?

I'm really looking forward to wednesday cuz mr bambi and I and barb and mr barb are all going to the fox theater and seeing young frankenstein. oh speaking of barb, it's almost her birthday so be sure to go see her soon. jealous? you should be. or maybe not. but I'm still planning on having a good time. and wine.

source

okay well I guess that's about it for me. go see keely. go see barb. just go. no wait. leave me a little something to make my day, then go.

a little randomness never hurt anyone...

2010-05-11T16:33:00.000-05:00

and it's a good thing too because I'm at work so I'm sure the post will be a little disjointed anyway.

speaking of disjointed, have you read Barb's post yet about poor little Chili? Go read... I'll wait...

oh, speaking of waiting, I guess I should tell you that today's post is due in part to the awesome Keeley. Go see her and link up dammit.

and don't forget to read her too, she's funny as hell.

when you eat a banana in public do you feel a little bit dirty? a little risque? do you bat your eyes at the man walking by and take a big bite and go 'ummmm.... so so good...'?

how come when I go on a diet I end up gaining weight? does that happen to you?

do you play Words with Friends? I know you can play on the iphone and itouch, not sure where else. you should play with me. just search rxbams. they also have Chess with Friends, but I'm not very good at it so if you want an easy opponent then search for me there too.

do you remember a while back we talked about thoughts that we couldn't get out of our heads? I'd look for the post, but I don't know where it is and honestly, well, I'm just too damn lazy to go hunting for it. the point is tho, that I still have these 2 thoughts that are plaguing me and I can't freaking stand it. one of the thoughts is a mean and nasty one that I don't want to waste any energy on. the other is just annoying because it's 20 years old and won't go away. I was thinking what I'd like to do is be Fat Bastard and tell those thoughts to get outta my head and into my belly then I'd eat them and they won't bother me anymore. what do you think? anyone know how to do that?

okay well I suppose I should go and do some real work while I'm here. hope your tuesday has been full of fun random facts that you want to share.

go see Keeley!

musings on a college graduation

2010-05-08T21:16:00.000-05:00

One down, five to go. We just returned from Louisville where daughter #1 graduated from college. During the 4 hour drive there, the 4 hour ceremony, and the 4 hour drive back, I've have plenty of time to ponder life's little mysteries.

A priest, a rabbi, and a democrat walked into a church... literally. The college ~~where we have been sending our paychecks for the last 4 years~~ daughter graduated from is a small Jesuit college in the heart of Louisville. It's a great school and known for it's education and nursing schools, and it was a good fit for #1. However, there wasn't much in the way of diversity, at least not that I could see. Yes, there were minorities of course, but I think 99% were your basic upper-middle class catholic-irish white american teenager. There was a mass before the actual distribution of diplomas, and at the end of the mass there were 3 students that gave talks on their "reflections" of the last 4 years. Those students? You guessed it. A future priest, a future rabbi, and a raging democrat. I say "raging" because she was so naive and full of hope (much like I was at that age until I kept having to give that FICA person a huge chunk of my money, then got even more disillusioned by seeing the abuse the public aid system gets on a daily basis by those it is trying to serve) anyway she was so full of hope that it was almost comical. She was the epitome of what you think of with new graduates out to change the world and make it a better place... and yet we all know what happens. Reality sets in, the true uglies of the world reveal themselves, and soon those naive young graduates are the wizened old fogies that wish they knew what the world had to offer while they were still young enough to go get it.

If you are the president of a college and know that there are families out there in the audience waiting to see their child (or sibling, parent, grandkid etc) walk across the stage, don't be a windbag and drone on and on. Seriously. Did you not see all the people walking around during your talk? IT'S CUZ YOU ARE A PRETENTIOUS BLOWHARD AND NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOU TALK ANYMORE. GET ON WITH IT.

Also, if you are an alum of said college and have all sorts of fancy degrees and sure you may have done great things for the embarrassingly low standards of kentucky's education back in the 80s, but if you have nothing to say THEN DON'T AGREE TO BE THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER. YOU ARE MIND-NUMBINGLY YAWN INDUCING.

Okay, that was my rant on the day. The actual diploma distribution was quick and easy. Oh, and the best speaker of the entire day? The future rabbi. I don't remember his name, but he was smart, funny, self-effacing, and a joy to listen to. He should have been keynote. I'm just saying.

When deciding whether to walk your dogs or pack before your trip you might as well know that neither choice will be the right one. You should have packed the night before, then you would have had time to remember all the things you forgot. Like

your Kindle
your phone charger
your socks
your underwear

Yes. Underwear. Although it turned out to be a good thing. I went shopping. I bought more than socks and underwear. Sneaky little devil, aren't I?

It was just one night...

2010-05-03T16:57:00.000-05:00

but it was a good one. Welcome to the latest edition of Memoir Monday hosted by Travis at I Like to Fish.

Last weekend we had a great time at the very first ever Tornado Ally Round-Up (TAR).

Barb and I could only hang out with them on Friday night, but we had a great time. Well, there was ~~crappy~~ free wine so of course we had fun. When we got to the hotel we couldn't find anyone that looked like they were with TAR, and no one was wearing t-shirts, and we didn't know what anyone looked liked except for Travis, and he had the nerve to not be there yet (thanks a lot). There was one group that had a priest with them, I thought it could be our boys... okay not really but I didn't know! Finally we called Travis and he called Ed and told him to look for 2 naked women with cameras (thank goodness someone gave us some clothes...)

We finally found Ed and Coffeypot

Travis, Kid Funk (my new BFF) and Travis' wifey finally decided to make an appearance

We got our TAR shirts (which actually came in REALLY handy when it was pouring down rain and we didn't have umbrellas). Here is Barb modeling hers...

Yeah he may look sweet, but he has got a mouth on him! Ha! John I have no idea how your wife puts up with you, but you sure are funny!

Moseying along to the Hard Rock Cafe before the tornado...

Oh yes, Travis got a bit toasty and was up dancing to YMCA... he'd have made a great member of the Village People

More dancing with some random chick...

~~Funky Cold Medina~~ Kid Funk was dancing too... but not making quite as big a spectacle.

Ed lost a bet and had to wear a Duke hat all weekend. Not sure what that was about, but he was a good sport about it.

Proof that we all got soaked running back to the hotel from the Hard Rock. Everyone needed more beer just to overcome it.

There he is, looking all sweet again...

And finally! Paddling all the way down I-70, here is the one and only Daffy. She's just as funny and gorgeous in real life. Oh, and she taught us how to say PENIS in sign language...

Ahhh, it was a great night, tornadoes and all. Can't wait for Round Two!

For more Memoir Monday go see Travis!

Contrary to Popular Belief...

2010-04-27T19:36:00.000-05:00

I have not fallen off the planet. I haven't been in a horrible accident and lost all my limbs. I haven't been abducted by aliens. I haven't been hacked to pieces by Slasher Norm. I did, however, fall down the stairs taking out the recycling and twist my foot. Yes, that purple and yellow swollen thingie is my foot. Or what's left of it. And no, my toes aren't dirty, they are bruised. There is a difference.

However, that isn't why I haven't been blogging or tweeting or picture taking. The reason for that is much more believable. See, I've been on this undiscovered, uninhabited island. You have probably never heard of it. It's called Analog Isle. I went out on this 3 hour boat trip with an old professor of mine known as Doc, a silly little country girl named Ali, a glamorous star named Gretchen, a goofy old couple named Otie and BlueViolet. My sea-worthy captain was none other than CBT, and his helper was Coffeypot. Well the captain and his mate must have been telling silly jokes or something because we got way off course. Next thing I knew we were being tossed all around in a hurricane. We finally came ashore on this island. It took us 26 days to get off the island. Really. That's why my last post was April 1st. I couldn't take any pictures of the beautiful sights because my camera battery died. And of course I couldn't tweet.

Now that I'm finally home I hope to get reacquainted with all of you. Thanks for sticking around. One of the best parts? I actually gained a follower! You all totally rock. I also got a couple more tweeps following me too, so I'll try to say something witty and intelligent.

Cheers!

Happy Hour Friday

2010-04-01T16:54:00.001-05:00

Hi and welcome to Happy Hour Friday. I know, I know, you don't have to tell me... I am a big slacker. It's been an entire week since I've posted. In fact, I'm surprised to see that I've only lost one follower considering the fact that I not only haven't posted, I also haven't read nor commented on any blogs this week.

In my defense, it's been a hectic week. If you read my last post, you know that I took my two chickadees to chicago for a few days. We had a fabulous time.

we saw the city

we saw some wildlife at Shedd Aquarium

we saw some dead stuff at the Field Museum

we walked -- a lot

we looked at feet

we marveled at 'the bean'

we made a new friend irl (Tori)

we did some touristy stuff - the billy goat tavern

we hung out with my cousin joey

(but now that he's an adult he prefers Joe -- too bad, he's still joey to me)

and we shopped a ~~little~~ lot.

can you believe I forgot to take a pic of the Magnificent Mile sign? Grr.

All in all, the girls and I (plus joey and his girlfriend meaghan) had a great weekend. I can't wait to go back and see tori again -- whether she wants me to or not. Chicago is just a very cool place to be.

Anyway, I was back for a day and then hopped a plane to Reno to see my mom

and her kitty, cj

So yes, I have been a very bad blogger buddy. hopefully you can forgive me. I tell ya what, why don't you belly on up to the bar and I'll buy the first round of drinks... happy friday.

Happy Hour Friday

2010-03-25T19:09:00.001-05:00

Can you believe it's already time for a Happy Hour Friday post? This week seems to have flown by. Well, I have several things to be happy about this weekend.

I am taking my 2 girls to chicago for the weekend and I'm pretty happy about that. We don't have any plans, just shopping. We are staying right on the Mile (or is it the loop?), so hopefully I won't have to drive anywhere. Plus my cousin lives there so we might have a little tour guide. Not sure how much he'll want to shop tho... I'll leave him at home for that part of it. He has a new woman in his life so I'm a little anxious about meeting her. Also... guess who else lives in chicago... Tori! I think we are going to try to play, and I'm very excited about that. A little nervous. Trying to decide if I should bring an ax. But I don't want to be walking around on Michigan Ave with an ax, so I probably won't. I just hope she doesn't hack up my kids. Or steal all of our newly purchased goods. Or, more importantly, drink all my wine...

After chicago I'll be home just long enough to change clothes then it's off to Reno to visit my mom and... you guessed it-- Sara! That makes me pretty darn happy too. I already know Sara and she won't hack me up... even tho she does have axes... I've seen them. Zena the non-blogger will be there too which always makes me happy.

I'm happy that husband decided he'd like to have Wang Gang for dinner so that I don't have to cook. Ever since Bee posted about pad thai on domestic sensualist I've been craving it, but I don't think I have the ability to master the dish on my own. I'd rather have it delivered thankyouverymuch even tho I have a le cruset wok (it's yellow).

Husband showed me this last night and I about died. I've been trying to figure out how to get the actual video into this post but I'm not smart enough (obviously). Just click on the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uejv2zz6bU

I've moved to 12th in the pool on Doc's blog, and I'm hoping that Butler can pull it out tonight so that I might have a chance at beating my good buddy Beav (you don't know him... yet) in Memphis. It's half time as I'm writing this and Butler is ahead by 10. Keep it up boys!

Okay well I hope you'll belly on up to the bar and join me for a few drinks. Have a great weekend!

Rants and Raves

2010-03-24T14:37:00.000-05:00

Rant: I am at work and can't get the cool button from Little Ms Blogger to work!!!

Rant: I am at work and people keep interrupting me! How am I supposed to concentrate on my post?

Rant: What is up with Blogger lately? I'll hit 'enter' to go down a couple lines and the little blinky thing will just stare at me like I'm an idiot. Move down blinky thing. Sheesh.

Rant: My kids are pissed at me. Well, one is. The 17yo. We were supposed to go prom dress shopping and...

Rant: I AM AT WORK!

Okay how about some RAVES to spice things up a little?

Rave: Husband likes it when I work. I like it when husband is happy. Maybe I can take advantage of him tonight. Oh yeah. I said it. (woot woot)

Rave: Slasher Norm is almost done with the new floors in the basement. It's taken him a while, but in his defense he can only work on it a couple days a week. Plus I keep giving him other small jobs to do in between. However, I'm ready to have my craft room all finished and purty and the basement all nice and have people over for a fun party.

Rave: Last night I looked out the window and saw this foxy little lady:

Rave: I'm done. I can't concentrate here. Plus I have ce I need to finish so I'm going to go be productive.

Have a great Wednesday, and don't forget to go see Little Ms Blogger and see what has everyone else in a tizzy.

F&@K Me! Did it really take over an hour to do this post?

2010-03-21T20:41:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to the first in a series of Wine Tasting Posts for your complete pleasure and enjoyment... not to mention our complete pleasure and enjoyment... we get to actually drink the wine whilst blogging... now there's a concept.

Let me introduce myself... I am McGillicutty from Inner Ramblings of a Mid Life Mama.....

And I think you know who I am... I'm rxBams from right here.

Though several emails, texts, IMs, etc, McGilli and I realized that there was one recurring theme to our conversations: We Like Wine. There are several of our friends, both cyber and IRL, who tell us they "just don't like wine". Well that, my friends, is like saying you don't like food. There are so many different types of wines out there to please so many palates. If you think you don't like wine, you probably just haven't found the right one for you.

We thought a fun way to enhance your wine drinking experience was for us to drink the wine and tell you our thoughts on it. Are you ready? Here we go!

And it's back to me....remember me.. McGilli...OK Bambs, like your point there.. there's a wine for everyone and everyone for a wine.. tonight I have decided to go with a cheapo wine from Walmart... yes.. can you believe it... it was $4.97 and it's called Lucky Dick... ooops no it's not it's called Lucky Duck!!!! It comes in several different types but tonight I am reviewing the Cabernet Sauvignon. It's usually one of the bolder reds so this should be interesting.. what you sippin' on Bambs????

I chose to go with a mid-priced wine from my local wine store. It's a Hess Chardonnay from the Su'skol Vineyard in Napa. It retails for about $20. My initial impression is that this wouldn't be the wine for beginners. It is fairly light in color, but don't let that fool you, it has a big oaky taste to it. Personally I love the oakiness in my chardonnays, but I have found that many winers, especially the newbies, don't care for the heady oak flavor. Our readers that love chardonnays will love it tho. This wine also has hints of pear and citrus. How is your Cab, McGilli??

Just what you'd expect from a five buck bottle of fruit juice from Wally World!!! next week you can test the cheapo beginners wine....this would be a great wine to serve en mass at a fundraiser or picnic where the emphasis is to cater to every taste and get people shit faced so they'll spend lots of money. I'm on my second rather large glass and I can tell. Over to you Bambs.... tell me what foods you'd pair your delicious Chardonnay with????

That's a great question, McGilli. Tonight we had ribs. I didn't like them though (they were very fatty... but that's another story). Anyway there is a school of thought that you drink red wine with red meat and red pasta sauces and white wine with everything else. Personally I don't subscribe to that theory. Drink what you like and don't worry about what color it is. However, since this is a bolder wine, I'd serve it with something like rosemary chicken and risotto or maybe a pasta... something that will fill your mouth.
My "thing" is that I usually drink a white wine when it's warm out because whites are normally served chilled. Conversely, if it's cold out I'll usually pick a red wine because they are traditionally served at room temp. But again, I don't always stick to that. I drink what I feel like drinking. McGilli...?

Have to agree with you on that one. I'm a big red drinker but when it's warm out there's nothing like a chilled glass of white on the patio.

To sum up... I'm pretty toasted on this red, it's way too easy to drink and although the blackberry fruit certainly shines through very nicely it's not as bold as I like in a Cab.I can't wait, however to try the Hess... you've described it well and seeing as I love Oakiness I think I'll get some tomorrow and try it with some Broccoli Con Pasta or Pasta Con Broccoli or whatever that super recipe you gave me was. I'm off to take two Advil and go to bed!!! This Lucky Ducky has kicked my ass!!! LOL.

I've had the pleasure of sharing my chardonnay with my husband, so I can say it hasn't hit too hard yet. Just to recap:

Lucky Duck Cab: good for beginners, crowds, and cheapos.

Hess Chardonnay: good for chardonnay lovers willing to spend a little cash for a great wine.

We hope you enjoyed our first installment. Let us know what you think as we would like to make this a regular feature.

seeing double

2010-03-20T15:38:00.000-05:00

I honestly never thought it would happen to me. It was always those other people. You know, like my sister. But no. It's official. I am one of them.

here is Jenny...

Here is Juneau.

And here is Juneau again...

No... Wait.

Is it?

Nope. It's not.

World meet Kodiak.

Kodi meet the world.

World, we are that crazy 3 dog family.

With lots of dog hair.

Everywhere.

What have I gotten myself into??

Happy Hour Friday?

2010-03-18T15:42:00.000-05:00

or Where Did My Mojo Go-go?

Well here it is, time for another HHF and I'm just not feeling it yet. Granted, it is only Thursday afternoon, but since it's been 2 weeks since I've posted I figured I better not be late.

Most of the last two weeks I have been on vacation and internet access was a whopping $0.55/minute. Needless to say I didn't spend much time online other than the obligatory emails to kids and a few uploads to flickr. Now that I'm home you'd think I'd need my fill of blogging and flickring and even facebooking, but sadly that's not the case. I actually quite enjoyed my analog time. Sad, but true. My poor google reader has so many unread posts that it doesn't give a number. It just says 1000+. How sad is that? I'm afraid they are all going to be "Marked as Read" and I will start fresh with posts coming tonight or tmro, so if you've written something you really think I'd enjoy or deeply profound then be sure to tell me to read it.

A second area that's suffering is my photo-a-day project, the BC365 in 2010. Of course I took a ton of photos on the trip, but I haven't even looked at my camera since I've been home. Although that could possibly change. I saw something today that begged to be in the PAD:

It'll be uploaded tomorrow. I have no idea why this *may* be responsible for my photo-mojo, I think just because it made me giggle. But after I took this iphone shot I started seeing other things I wanted to snap: my pretty pink tulips, the hawk that hangs out in the subdivision, Jessica's spring plantings, the buds on our flowering trees... etc.

The third area that has no mojo? Cleaning. Granted, this often comes and goes, but I have no desire to dust or vacuum and after 2 weeks it really really needs it. I grudgingly scrubbed the kitchen yesterday tho, but it was a forced clean; I was having a meeting at my house and couldn't let people actually see it that way. Did I ever tell you that I love Tilex? That is some good stuff. But be careful, it's ruined more than one article of clothing. It's worth it tho, I love the smell of bleach in a freshly cleaned house. Now I just need to get upstairs and the basement... but that wont be happening today. Or tomorrow.

You think that's the only mojo I've lost? Nope. Work-out mojo is MIA. I went to the gym the last couple days, but I haven't run in over a week. I'm not even sure I broke a sweat today. I'd really rather just hang out on the couch and nap.

As long as I'm not really making this a happy HHF, let me just say this. What the heck is the deal with my neck?? It looks old. I have Old Lady Neck. I'm very distressed about this. I'm only 39 for pete's sake... isn't that too young for OLN? And back fat. Seriously. Do I need back fat? No, I don't. But there it is anyway, totally ruining the way I look from behind. It's hard to focus on my tush when there's a big ripple of back fat staring at you. If you know how to get rid of OLN or back fat please let me know.

Okay well I think this was just cheery enough. If you have some good stuff to be happy about then link up and tell me all about it so I can get out of this funk!

Oh and ps, my vacay was fantastic. Just getting away made it marvelous, but there was also plenty of sunshine... maybe that's why it was so hard to come back. It's awfully gray here.

Happy Hour - Vacation Style

2010-03-05T11:52:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone and welcome to a special edition of Happy Hour Friday. Why is it so special? Cuz I'm on vacation so it's going to be super short.

Actually, that's all I was going to say, but I have to tell you I'm happy about one other thing:

I have got the BEST SISTER IN THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD. Sorry folks, but she's my sister, not yours. Yesterday Bob and I were at the airport about to take the long and arduous trek through security when I realized I didn't have my awesome Crumpler camera bag.

No big deal, right? Well, had it only been my camera, I would have been bummed but could have gone on without it. BUT since I was using it as my carry-on bag, it also had all my medication AND my jewelry! I was so... so... I don't even know what I was. Amazed that I would have left something like that at home. I called Barb:
Barb: Hello?
me: what are you doing?
barb: I just got home and let the dogs out.
me: I forgot my camera bag... it has all meds in it
barb: well, then I'm going to the airport.

Period. That was it. No hemming and hawing. No "you stupid sister, how could you forget?" She just got in her car and drove to my house, said hi to my dogs and got my bag, then drove the 30 miles to the airport. Just to help out her little ~~dumb-ass~~ sis.

Don't you wish you had a sister like her? Well go see Barb and tell her she's awesome. She really is ya know.

If you want to join just click Mr Linky and meet me at the bar. I'll be here all week!

10 Things That Nurture Me

2010-02-27T14:24:00.000-06:00

Braja, over at Lost and Found in India, did a beautiful post last week about 20 things that nurture her. Although mine won't be nearly as insightful, I'm going to give it a shot.

Working-out - yes, it's true. You might not think it to look at me, I'm not exactly a hard-body and I kinda jiggle in places I wish I didn't, but I am addicted to the endorphins I get from a good work-out. I can honestly say that not only have I gained strength and endurance, I've also gained stability and self-confidence. Yes, I still have that ~~damn~~ muffin top, but if you laugh at it I also have the muscles to punch you out.
Naps - there is something so peaceful about snoozing on the couch in the middle of the day, especially if it's raining. It's even better if the dogs will snuggle with me. Granted I can't do it everyday, but that's what makes it even more special.
Vacations - I blame my father for this one. I get antsy if I stay in one place for too long. I'm not sure why, but I always feel the need to run. I've mentioned before that I used to be a 'leaver' -- whenever things got too difficult for me I'd just give up and leave. Between the ages of 18 and 24 I moved nine times, four of those moves were cross-country. I made my last move seven years ago when I married husband. Other than the house I grew up in, this is the longest I've lived anywhere. Although I can't pull up roots and move the kids again, I can still get away when I need to by taking vacations. I prefer it when husband is with me, but I'm not at all opposed to going alone, with the girls, or with my friends. It's getting out of here that I need, even tho I know I'll be coming back to face any problems I leave. At least I'll be coming back refreshed.
Rituals - I am a creature of habit. Every morning I get up at the same time, I walk the dogs (okay sometimes I don't, but I try to), I eat my breakfast while I have a cup of coffee and have a go at the NYT crossword, I work-out, I go to starbucks, then start whatever else I have to do for the day. The only changes are that on days I work I usually eat breakfast in the car and only do the puzzle if there's time. Granted there are times that my day gets turned inside out, but that's okay. I know tomorrow I'll be able to get back to my routine and life will be normal again.
Candles - I don't always burn candles, but occasionally I'll light a few. Whenever I have guests over I light candles in the bathroom, the entry way, and usually a few others around the house. I think it gives off a nice ambiance, and makes the house feel warm and welcoming.
Snuggling - don't worry, it's not you that I'll demand to snuggle with. It's pretty much my husband, my kids, or my dogs. I'm not really a 'huggy' person, at least not until I get to know you. I used to be, but high school kinda beat it out of me. Now I'll only give hugs if the mood hits... or if you belong to me.
Wine - come on, you knew this was going to be in here somewhere. I just really enjoy my wine. Usually after dinner, husband and I will go down to the basement and watch tv, light a fire, and open a bottle of wine. It's enjoyable. If we are just having wine and nothing to eat, we will usually have either a chardonnay or a pinot noir. Many of the bigger, bolder reds need food to accompany it, so we usually save those for when we are out to dinner.
Shopping - cliche, I know. But sometimes it can be so satisfying to go to a store and find that everything looks good or that the shoes are on sale. It can be a real confidence booster to try on those pants that are one size smaller than you bought last time. Knowing you look good and being comfortable in your skin is definitely uplifting. Shopping for fat clothes -- not so much.
Christmas - also another cliche, but I love the time from October thru the New Year. For one thing, I always identify Autumn with falling in love. Secondly, I love the crisp feeling in the air of the oncoming season, everyone seems happier and ready to help their fellow neighbor. I've always loved the Christmas season, the parties, the fellowship, the parties... wait, did I already say that? You get the point tho.
Volunteering - Three years ago this would not have entered my top 10. It's amazing how much I have learned through volunteering with the Junior Service, Hope Animal Rescues, and of course Habitat for Humanity. First of all, you should already know that I'm not a "bleeding heart liberal," I'm actually on the conservative side of things. However, while I don't believe in giving hand-outs, I do believe in giving a helping hand. Sometimes shit happens, I like being there to help out when it does. Think any of the associations I volunteer for will use that as their motto?

Well, that's about it for me. Tonight I'm off to another Habitat for Humanity function, then tomorrow a Hope Rescues function. If you're interested in learning more about either one of these just shoot me an email. If you want to do your own 10 (or 20) things that nurture you, be sure to go see Braja and link up.

Happy Hour Friday

2010-02-26T15:59:00.000-06:00

Hi all and welcome to a late Happy Hour Friday. I know what excuses are like, but I'm going to give you mine anyway. Last night husband and I were alone for dinner, so naturally I took advantage of that and had him take me out to eat. We had a lovely dinner, but then had another hour to spare before we could pick up youngest daughter. Guess what we did... no, silly. Not that. We met up with some friends at the restaurant and had more wine! It was a real live happy hour and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I brought my laptop to work with me today so that I could do my HHF post early and get it up, but work was too darn busy. I figured it didn't really matter and no one would notice. I was wrong and that makes me happy. I've gotten several emails from people asking me where it is so they can link up. The truth is I am just a slacker.

It really really makes me happy that so many people liked my theme thursday post. I guess all those dumb writing assignments I had in high school weren't so dumb after all. Thanks Ms. Fisk!

Barb found someone who will do some voodoo for me. You know, hexing a certain someone. It's a little blurry, but I think you get the gist of it. I don't think I'll be using her services, but it's nice to know someone has my back in case things get ugly.

I'm very excited about Habitat for Humanity's Casino Night tmro night. It's going to be a blast, I'm sure. $25 gets you in the door and all the free beer and appetizers you want. FREE BEER. hahaha too bad I don't drink much beer. If it were only free wine I'd be set. Well, I'd be on the floor anyway.

Also for Habitat, we are in the middle of family selection right now. I've been giving presentations and I have my last one tmro morning (darn it, can't sleep in). We've gotten several candidates, so I'm looking forward to see who shows up.

Well since they are paying me to work I should probably get back to being productive. Thanks to everyone that emailed asking where HHF is. I am sorry it's late, but I'm happy y'all noticed!

Cheers!

Theme Thursday - Bottle

2010-02-24T13:12:00.001-06:00

I took one last look in the hotel room mirror before grabbing my keys and heading out. At 62, I was not quite the hot young thing he last saw, but I don't think I looked too bad. I work-out daily, eat healthily, use sunscreen and anti-wrinkle creams, but time still continues to take it's toll. I tried not to think about my "bat wings" or the cellulite on my thighs. He is 63 after all, so not exactly a spring chicken either.

I drove the short distance to his office wishing I had chosen a hotel farther away so I'd have time to gather some courage. On second thought, I would also have time to stop this foolishness and just head home. But no. It's my time. It's our time, at long last. I've waited forty years for this meeting, I'm not going abandon my dreams now. I wondered if he recognized my name on his appointment list. I used my married name, not my maiden name, but I thought he'd still know it was me.

I took a deep breath and walked up to the receptionist. "I have an appointment with Dr. Jonas" I said as lightly as I could manage. Just saying his name gave me a tingling feeling in places I'd long forgotten.

"Okay Mrs. Smith, I just have some paper work for you to fill out, and I'll need your insurance card."

"I'm paying c-cash for this appointment," I stammered. I suppressed a giggle thinking about insurance paying for hooking up with a lost love.

"It's policy, Mrs. Smith. We need to have your insurance card on file." I handed the cards over. I figured it was better not to make a scene, and I needed this to go as smoothly as possible. I then sat down in the waiting room, thankful that it wasn't too crowded. I wouldn't need much of his time, but it was better knowing there weren't a ton of people waiting to see him.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only about 10 minutes before a lovely young nurse in pink scrubs called my name. We went through the usual routine of weight and blood pressure, my medical history, etc. "Why are you here to see Dr. Jonas today?" she asked.

"Actually, it's a personal matter. I'd really rather just speak to the doctor," I replied matter-of-factly. She gave me an odd look, but closed my file and smiled.

"Okay then, he should be right in," she said as she left the room. I heard the thunk of my file going into the holder on the door, and her soft footsteps walking away. I sat twitching my fingers for several minutes before there was a slight knock at the door.

"Good morning, Mrs Smi--" he started. "My God, Rebecca! It is you! How are you? I saw the name but figured it was a coincidence." He looked genuinely happy to see me. Maybe this was not a bad decision after all. Just seeing him smiling at me made my stomach flutter. God, it had been way too long.

"I'm not actually sick, Scott," I said. "I came here to see you." I could see a look of confusion in his eyes. Oh God, I hope I didn't just ruin things for us. "I thought I'd surprise you..." I hesitated, "I'd like to take you out to dinner tonight."

"Rebecca..." he started.

"I'm sorry to hear about your wife," I rushed on without stopping to hear what I was saying, "I know how it is to lose someone you love. My husband died five years ago. It was horrible. But life goes on and, well, I kept thinking about you. Then I heard that your wife died last year, I thought we could get to know each other again."

"Rebecca... Becky. That's very kind of you. But I don't think a date is a good idea right now," he said gently.

"Well, why not?" I asked. I tried to make it come out lightly, but I'm sure he could hear the strain in my voice. "I knew driving down here to ask you out would be a risk, but I'd at least like for you to give me a chance. I mean, I know we don't know each other anymore. It's been forty years for goodness sake. The thing is... the thing is is that if you would just give me a chance, you might accidentally like me."

"That's not it..." he began.

"I'm sure your wife wouldn't have wanted you to spend the rest of your life alone. It was hard for me, too. After Dave died I didn't want to go anywhere with anyone for a long time. But you can't live in a cave."

"That's not why I can't have dinner with you, Becky. The thing is, I'm getting married tomorrow." You could have hit me with a hammer. I just sat there on the examining table with my mouth hanging open.

"Married? You're getting MARRIED? When did this happen? And how? And to whom are you getting married?" I tried not to sound disgusted, but I was. I was disgusted with him for getting married a year after his wife died. I was disgusted with myself for waiting a year to come down here and see him. I thought a year of grieving would be appropriate, after all I didn't want to rush him. It looks like someone else took advantage of that time.

"It's Janie, my nurse."

"The cute blond that brought me in here?" I said incredulously? "She's got to be half your age! Less than half! What is she, 25 or so?"

"She's 27 actually. She has been so good to me since Vanessa died. I couldn't have handled things without her. And the kids like her too..." he trailed off. I wasn't sure how old his kids were now, but they were at least teenagers. Of course they'd like a young, hip step-mother.

"Are you in love with her?" I asked desperately.

"Of course I am. I said I was marrying her tomorrow."

"Okay. Well then. I'm really very sorry to hear that Scott. I had always hoped we could reconnect," I said as I slipped off the table. "I guess one shot in a lifetime is all ya get." I tried to smile as I gathered my things and headed out the door. "If you change your mind, I'm staying at the Westin down the road." I walked out of the office with my head held high, but inside I was crushed. Married. Tomorrow. I just couldn't believe it.

That evening I sat in my hotel room, hoping against hope that he would call. I thought about going down to the bar to see if he would come, but I worried that he'd try to call the room. How pathetic, I thought. It's just like it was in college. I was always waiting for his call. I poured myself another glass of wine from the half empty bottle.

"Well what now?" I said out loud to the wine bottle. There was no answer. The bottle just sat there, inviting me in.

Happy Hour Friday

2010-02-18T22:07:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it is friday again? The weeks just seem to fly by these days, don't they?

Have you been watching the Olympics? I know some of you have because I've seen the tweets (umm yeah CBT, Doc, and Jay... I mean you). I've been watching in the evenings and really enjoying it. I guess one reason why I'm so in awe is because I am such a mediocre athlete. I played sports in school; volleyball, basketball, softball... but I was usually on the B team. Even when I got to the varsity team I was still not the best. You also have to take into consideration that I was at an all girl school with a graduating class of 48. I ran cross-country a couple years and did well in that. I wasn't the fastest, but I was in the top 5 or so. I can ice skate, but not well. I can kind of ski -- I like to think of myself as a Bunny Hill Master. I think one of my issues is that I am too laid back, too type B. I don't tend to stress about things in general, much less about being the "best" at something. Hubs is a very competitive athlete, as are his girls. I just don't have that drive, tho I admire people who do and occasionally wish I had a little of that 'oomph' in my step. If you know how to go about getting that be sure to let me know.

Today I was running, well trying to run, and my pants kept falling down. Not literally, but I kept having to hike them up. It was annoying. Finally I just said 'screw it' and went and bought some new work-out clothes. Shopping makes me happy.

Fourteen days until my vacation. Hallelujah. I've been using a tanning lotion on my legs so I hopefully won't blind anyone when I put on my ~~bikini~~ shorts. I just hope our cruise isn't full of young hooligans on spring break wreaking havoc on my vacation. Good GOD, not only am I my mother but I think I've turned into my father as well. Someone go get me a bowl of ice cream and a southern comfort manhattan with a twist and a cherry. Okay, unless you knew my dad you probably didn't get that, but it was funny dammit.

Well, I've been staring at my mac for a while now and I guess this is going to be it for tonight. Have a great happy hour. Don't forget to belly up to the bar and have a round on me.

Cheers y'all (that was for Ali)

Rant and Rave Wednesday

2010-02-17T11:59:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Little Ms Blogger every wednesday we get to get our rants and raves out in the open. Be sure to go see her today

I'm feeling a little ranty this morning but let's see if we kind find some bright spots along the way...

Rant: I didn't sleep well last night, even with my ambien, which is unusual for me. I had too many of those stinking thoughts rattling around.

Rant: One of those thoughts was about my 17yo daughter. Grrr. When will this "phase" be over? She's too smart to do stupid things. Sheesh.

Rant: Why aren't my little voodoo dolls helping?

World, meet The Killer and Red Devil. The Killer gets rid of any bad vibes and negative energy lurking about. Or at least he's supposed to. I'm still feeling bad vibes. Red Devil helps keep my temper in check during those extra trying times. Both are from kamibashi.com but I bought them at a funky little store called Beyond Timbuktu. Red may be helping a little bit... but the Killer is who I really need help from.

Rave: Hey I have one. I had a microderm facial today and it was marvelous.

Rant: they used to do parafin wax wraps on your feet so I didn't wear any socks. Apparently they don't do that any more so my feet were cold the whole time.

Rant and rave: I didn't have time to work out before my facial. I had to make a choice. The dogs had their walk this morning tho, so I guess it's okay.

Rave: I don't have to cook dinner this evening cuz husband will be at a basketball game. Of course I could cook for the girls... but I don't really see the point. We will probably just have some pasta or something. Oh wait. I got it. Italian beef left-overs from last night. Boom. Dinner. Love it.

Rant: I have to go get ready for work. That's probably a rave for you since it means I'm done.

Thanks for stopping by. What are you ranting about today?

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-02-16T12:18:00.000-06:00

Have you been to Un-Mom's yet? She is totally random. Really, really random. I think that may be why I like her.

How come I always remember errands I need to run after I get home from running errands? I find that quite annoying.

How do I get an obsessive thought out of my head? Seriously. I mean, I'm not OCD (spins 3 times before sitting down). But sometimes I get these thoughts in my head and they won't go away (locks and unlocks doors 32 times not 31 or 33). And they are usually not nice. Well, sometimes they aren't nice. Sometimes they are just daydreamish. Like I have nothing better to do:

I still need about 15 hours of CE. Sure I have 6 weeks to do it still, but 2 of those weeks I'll be cruising the high seas ~~and trying not to barf.~~
Mount Washmore - do I really need to add anything to this?
I cleaned the house last week cuz I had Habitat people over... why should I have to clean it again this week? That's annoying.
I need to upload to the bc 365 in 2010
I need to edge around the ceiling in my fabulous new crafty room (that's not done yet so I don't have a picture for you)
I need to mail Ali her birthday card (working on a week late here) plus write and enclose a check for her daughter for Relay for Life. Have you donated yet? It's a real cause. Do it. Here.
I need to shower
I need to figure out what I'm going to say for my Habitat presentation. Well I know what I need to say, I just need to say it without being too goofy.

But anyway, back to these thoughts. There are actually two that I can't get rid of. One is evil things about that one guy that we don't talk about. Every time I have start to have not-so-gracious thoughts I immediately try to think of something else. Seriously, I don't want to waste my energy thinking about it, and the whole hexing thing didn't work out. But sometimes it's hard because I have to drive by his house like 80 times a day (there's no other way out of the neighborhood). But whatever. Good thoughts Good thought Good thoughts....

The other thing that I'm constantly thinking about is something I can't tell you. Nope, not even you. It's secret. And it wont go away. Whenever this thought enters my little pea brain I immediately try to think of Bob and how much my life rocks right now. And it does. I have a great marriage, great kids (most days), great dogs ~~when they don't poop in the house~~, and I want for nothing. So why won't this thought go away? It makes me nuts. Maybe I am nuts. Maybe instead of working at the mental health hospital I should be a patient there. Hmmmm. There's a thought. Not very comforting, but a thought nonetheless.

How come whenever I finish running and put my feet up my shoelaces feel too tight? They don't feel tight when I'm working out.

How come I've been working out religiously for a couple years now, 2.5 actually, and I'm still not a hard-body? I have muscles, they are just hidden under fluffy layers. How come wine doesn't build muscle. Damn it.

We leave in 16 days. That's 2 pounds a day I need to lose. I'm not sure I see it happening. What do you think?

Okay well I guess I'll go be productive, although I'd really rather just sit here. What are you thinking about today?

Memoir Monday and Is this your name?

2010-02-14T17:58:00.002-06:00

Is this cheating? I don't think so. I was going to wait an do an original Memoir Monday post a la Travis at I like to fish but then I was trying to catch up with all the unread posts in my google reader and I came across this one by Joshua the technical parent. It's all about your name and what it means. It totally intrigued me. Then I started thinking back to that one by julochka about coloring your name but I can't find it. Don't stress out, I sent her a note asking for assistance.
*****
update: here's julochka's color thingie.

I digress. Anyway. I don't think this is cheating because I'm using my maiden name (hence the memoir bit).

Is this your name?

My name has 36% vowels, by their standards, I am averagely envoweled.

In ascii binary it looks like this:

01010011 01110101 01110011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01001101 01110101 01110010 01110010 01100001 01111001

I figure if you're geeky enough to either know what this means or spend time figuring it out then go for it. Nerd.

People with my first name are usually female. Imagine that. Then it says that we are constantly overcharged for beauty products. Yep. I'd buy that. No pun intended of course.
The origin of my name is Hebrew and it means Lily
My personal power animal is the White Rhino... I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Moving on....

"Your 'Numerology' number is 8. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are motivated by material success and have an aptitude for business, managerial and financial matters. This comes through your uncommon discipline and persistence."
I like material things... not sure about the aptitude for business or the other stuff. And hubs takes care of the finances (well, I take care of the out-going ones).
And there are 8 people in my family (now) so that kinda fits.
According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.794% of US residents have my first name and 0.0737% have my maiden surname. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 1,756 Americans who go by the same name.

I have to tell you that I put in my married name and got quite different stats.

42% of the letters are vowels meaning that I'm well envoweled (I kinda figured that one)
My animal is the American Harpy Eagle, maybe that has something to do with my always nagging and harping on my hubs... but I don't think so. I think I'm a pretty good wife.
"Your 'Numerology' number is 5. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are adventurous, mercurial, and sensual. You seek growth through adventure and different life experiences. Although you are a critical thinker, you can sometimes over-ponder an issue." This sounds a little bit more like me, but I'm not sure how adventurous I am these days.
Oh and only 5 Americans have my same name. Quite a difference between that and my maiden name.

Ah success, thanks to greenwiggle I have the name of the site that will color your name:
Again I put in my maiden name and here's what I got

And... nothing because I can't copy the dang thing. Oh well. Go there and put your own name in. It's kinda cool.

While I was waiting for the coloring name site to finish I thought I'd check up on white rhinos. Here's what I found out.

according to wikipedia it is one of the few megafaunal species left. That means it's big and fat. nice.
it's got a wide mouth used for grazing... again, thanks so much
it's the most social of all the rhino species - this I can handle
they are pretty rare in the wild population. Yeah, me too since I've gotten old and (ahem) mature, and apparently such a wide ass.
according to urban dictionary white rhino is a very expensive strain of maryjane. Haha. Not me, I enjoy my work and wouldn't screw it up just to get high. That's why I drink.

Speaking of drinking, it's after 5pm and I haven't fixed dinner or drinks so I guess I'll go make good on that whole "good wife" thing and make a special dinner for my main man. No Otie, I mean Bob.

what does your name mean?

*****************************************
UPDATE
mean ol' Travis said I was kinda cheating (okay he said really cheating) so here's a pic of me from the early days. Yes that's me with big hair. Yes that's me wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and pearls. Yes that's me in my pink room with unicorn pictures.

thanks Travis
*****************************************

HAPPY HOUR FRIDAY

2010-02-11T20:21:00.000-06:00

Lookie here at my brand spanking new picture! Thanks so so so much to Jan at Jan's Sushi Bar for making it for me. It is totally awesome and I love it and makes me so stinking HAPPY. After wednesday's rants its probably good to think about some good things.

I'm happy that I've had good work-outs all week long. I've been running (no, really I have) every day and it's getting easier and I feel good both during and after. I know, it's totally crazy. Something about that runner's high and it being better than sex. Well, okay, I'm not sure about the last part.

I also finally got my name on the challenge board at the gym. This makes me totally excited because it's one of my goals:

Hooray for rxBambi! Oh and I guess it's good that Susan didn't pee herself. You know, whoever she is. I guess that doesn't really make sense unless I tell you that it was a jump rope challenge. You know... jumping up and down... on the cement floor... after having squeezed out a couple puppies... if you're a woman then you know exactly what I mean. And yes, in case you were wondering, I added the little thingies over the names cuz they are real people at a real gym and I don't want you stalking them ~~instead of me~~.

Have you been reading any Theme Thursdays? It is a good one this week (mirror). I've only had the chance to read a few of them, but I am very impressed. I'd recommend Otie's and Jamie's at Red Red Whine. There are other really good ones too, but hey, I can't link everyone ~~so please don't be mad if you did a theme thursday and you aren't otie or jamie~~. I'm impressed that there are like 50-something links on there. My little old mr linky gets like 6 (on a good day) hahaha.

I'm happy that I can finally upload to flickr again for the bc 365 in 2010 challenge thanks to julochka. I was having some technical issues and she gave me some greasemonkey links to make it all mo' better.

I'm happy that it's happy hour friday and I'm enjoying a nice glass of Cupcake chardonnay...

What are you happy about? Link up and let me know.

Rants and Rants

2010-02-10T12:31:00.001-06:00

Yes Little Ms Blogger, I know it's supposed to be Rant and Rave Wednesday, but I am full of rants today so that's what you're gonna get. Go see LMB tho, she's got some good one's today.

Rants:

dear mr zit,
I'm 39 years old, wth? Are you sure you're not looking for my teenagers? Seriously, get the eff away from me. And take your little bitch friend with you.

dear headache,
I didn't even have wine last night. Why the hell did you greet me so ignominiously this morning? You suck. Go away.

dear wine,
I'm sorry I couldn't imbibe yesterday. I had work to do. Tonight as well. Also, it's only 22 days until my cruise, and I'm sorry to say this to you, but you are full of empty calories. I know you like to be liked, just like me, but you are making me fat. Why can't you be calorie free like your friend water? then we could spend more time together.

dear armpit hair,
how many freaking times do I have to get you lasered? Take the freaking hint and quit growing! You are so freaking stupid.

dear pee,
I just don't get it. Why do you insist on running down the sides of the potty after my husband voids you? I know it's not his fault. It must be yours. Even tho that doesn't happen when any of the girls pee. Still, it couldn't be his fault... Please make an attempt to stay within the boundaries of the bowl. When I come into the bathroom and step on you at 2am it kinda pisses me off.

dear boobs,
I'm sorry you're feeling poorly lately, but do I have to tuck you into my pants every freaking day? Perk Up!!!

dear dust dinos,
I have people coming over this evening. Please go run and hide.

Whew... I think that's about it. Okay, let me think if I have some raves...

Raves:
dear LMB,
I didn't follow the rules. But now it looks like I am following the rules. You rock.

dear new followers,
Hooray! Thanks a bunches.

dear life,
even tho I bitch, I guess you're okay. Stick around for a while. Maybe we'll have wine later...

What are you ranting and raving about today?

Memoir Monday

2010-02-08T13:49:00.000-06:00

Go see Travis over at I Like to Fish for more memoir monday fun

Okay here are mine...

awww aint it sweet?

(mid 1970's)

Yes, my coozie says "Sue's Fucking Beer"

aint college sweet?

Now if you want to REALLY be sweet, head over to see Ali at Inner Ramblings of a something something something. Her daughter is trying to raise money for Relay for Life. It's worth it. Trust me. Go NOW!!

Six Word Saturday

2010-02-05T21:16:00.006-06:00

Go see Cate at Show My Face for more six word saturday

Flickr Big Huge labs -January PAD

HAPPY HOUR FRIDAY

2010-02-04T22:30:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's already time for another Happy Hour. This week has just flown by, and that makes me happy.

I'm happy that last night's Habitat for Humanity meeting went so well. If you remember a few weeks ago we had an H4H retreat at my house and did some strategic planning. Well last night was the first time we implemented one of the new strategies and it went really well. Of course, my part was just a little silly... mainly because I'm a little silly. I was going to write everything down that I wanted to say, but then decided just to ~~take a nap~~ shoot from the hip. So needless to say, when I got up in front of everyone I really didn't know what I wanted to say and kinda went in circles. But I made a couple good jokes and talked about some serious stuff so I guess it all went okay. No one got mad at me for being too flippant so I guess it's all good.

Then last night after the meeting a few of us went out for a cocktail and it was all paid for by my favorite ninja. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the H4H meeting had to be moved from our usual place to a local country club. It's the "posh" place to be in town ~~or well, it used to be up until about 10 years ago when the whole place kinda went to crap~~. They don't take cash there, and since the ninja is a member she got to pay for everything. Thanks ninja! The problem tho is that the wine I had was kinda crappy. I didn't realize it while I was drinking it. It actually tasted pretty good. I didn't realize that it wasn't good wine until I woke up at 2am with a r-a-g-i-n-g headache. Massive. I mean, I thought my head might just explode. And I only had two glasses. That's right. TWO. I wasn't even tipsy when I left. And yet, I thought I might die this morning. I'm wondering if that's the reason why we let our membership drop a few years back... I'll have to think about this. Either way, those two free drinks didn't feel very free this morning. And they won't be free for the ninja when she gets her bill.

Tonight we are going to the Blues game (actually, I'll be posting this when we get home from the game). Hubs is taking me *somewhere* for dinner first. I'm not sure where, he wouldn't tell me. He said it was a surprise. I bet it'll be Johnny's. It's in kind of a revitalized part of St Louis that's known for Mardi Gras parades and stuff like that. Johnny's is known for it's hottie waitresses. I've never been there, but hubs has... Hmmm...Time to go, I'll update when I get back

source

Wow that was fast, huh? Well I know you're dying to know, so yes, it was Johnny's that we went to. It wasn't as sleazy as I thought it was going to be, but it was just a bar with very skimpily clad waitresses. My cheeseburger was good tho. It was pretty crowded, it's known as kind of a pre-hockey game hang-out. They even have shuttles to and from the game. It was fun. My cosmo was good (both of them).

I'm happy that I'm married. Seriously. We shared a table at the restaurant with a couple on their first date. They were cute and all, but they were young (25ish). Then at the game we were sitting in front of some 40-somethings that were obviously on their first date and it was sooo painful to listen too. It was all about the exes and the kids and the likes and the dislikes. It was just so... sad. But I have to admit, there is no greater feeling than when you're first falling in love with someone. Do you remember that feeling? When the sun is always shining and you're always feeling good and looking good and whenever he looks at you there are butterflies in your tummy? That is an incredible feeling. But I wouldn't give up what I have for it.

Okay, lets recap: community service, wine, sports, ~~slutty~~ waitresses, cosmos, happily married. Yep, sounds like a happy hour to me. Hope you have a great weekend! Link-up!

********************************************
update: while reading some of the comments I think I've given the wrong impression of Johnny's. It is skimpily clad servers... but it's really not too sleazy (not like a hooters rip-off). I'd say its more burlesque, or something you'd find near the Moulin Rouge. I think it's supposed to invoke a New Orleans style to it. And the crowd it draws is mainly the white-collar male (duh) aged 30-50 but also women and people in their 20s. If you're in the area it is an interesting place to go. If you yelp or UrbanSpoon it it gives great reviews.
********************************************

Random Tuesday

2010-02-02T11:42:00.000-06:00

Just a few thoughts to get out of my head so that I can actually get some work done today. Maybe. Be sure to go see Un-Mom because this is all her fault.

Why do I insist upon wearing this blue and white stripped shirt even tho I know it makes me look like a rotund sailor?

How come I haven't put on real shoes in the last 3 days? I've been wearing my slippers. In my defense, you can't tell that they are slippers cuz they look like real shoes. Oh and a caveat, I have been wearing real work-out shoes, but then I take them off and put on my slippers after my shower.

Yesterday I gave blood and now I have a bruise. On the bright side it's just a small bruise, not like last time when my whole upper arm was bruised. On the brighter side than that, they could actually use my blood this time. Last time it clotted too quickly so I had that big-ass bruise for nothing.

It's really hard to get someone's tone thru cyberspace. If you think I'm being mean, chances are it's a miscommunication. I'm actually fairly nice. Well, unless you kick me out of your office... but we don't talk about that. Or if you call me fat, then I might not be nice either. Or if you make fun of my Momma, then I'll have to open up a can of whoop-ass on ya. Hmmm, maybe if you snub me in public, then I'll be mean. Or if you make fun of my kids. Or my fat dog (she's on a diet by the way... and not at all pleased with me). My point is, just talk to me. I joke around a lot and try not to take things too seriously, especially on this blog, but I would never intentionally try to hurt feelings. There's enough evil in the world, I don't think I need to contribute to it.

I have several opportunities on the horizon to meet fellow bloggers and also to see some old friends. This month The Funky Art Queen and her sister are coming to St. Louis and we are going to try to get together. Oh, fyi Barb, you're coming too (I forgot to tell you). Then in march before our cruise we are going to spend a couple days in San Diego so I'll get to see an old friend, Big Red (aka Jim). I'm not sure he really exists tho since he doesn't have a blog, but he does have a fb page. Okay then over spring break, whenever the hell that is, I'm hoping to get up to Chicago to see Tori (and not shop at all... haha). Then hopefully a blogapalooza will be in the mix at Ali's house in April (there's still some space I think so go see her). Then finally in either April or May I'll be heading back to Reno. Look out Sara, I'll be stopping by at some point... I'll let you tell me when tho :) So I'm really excited and keeping my fingers crossed.

I think that's enough rambling for one day. Add that to my nap I took earlier and I haven't gotten anything done today. Hope you have a great tuesday. Don't forget to go see Un-Mom and see who else is playing.

Happy Hour Friday

2010-01-28T20:27:00.000-06:00

It's Happy Hour Friday once again and I'm not even late! Woohoo! That's enough to make you happy, isn't it? But just wait, there's so much more.

I'm happy that good ol' slasher Norm is redoing our basement. We have some seriously ugly old blue berber down there and he is replacing it with other things. The "main" part of the basement, or tv room, (or man-cave, whatever) is mahogany hard wood. There is also kind of a foyer area that is black and white check tile, and then the rest of the basement will be black tile (we were going to do the check throughout, but it was kinda busy). I'd like to have the mahogany throughout, but it's kinda pricey, and it is just a basement afterall. So, right now it's a disaster down there and we can't even go down there to watch tv, but hopefully it'll be done soon.

I'm happy that one of those rooms down there will be my new craft room! Yippee! I am so excited (can you tell? I'm like bursting with energy over here. No, wait. I just have to pee). Okay, yes, I am excited. But I can't figure out what color to paint it. So far the suggested colors have been orange, blue, and turquoise (with hints of purple?). What are your thoughts? What colors are supposed to inspire creativity? It can't be too dark. It's a basement room with not-enough lighting (I'll be buying a couple floor lamps tho I think) and it'll have a dark tile floor. There's a window, but it's northerly facing and has a deck above it and woods behind it, so basically no natural light. I need help!

I'm happy that it's only 35 days until I cruise with husband to the Mexican Riviera. Of course, this is his make-up gift for not letting me go to BC3 in Denmark. It has been suggested that the reason he won't let me go to any BCs is that he's being too parental (not parenteral, that would mean that he's feeding me through other means than the intestines, like a vein or something -- fyi). I would like to believe that he'd just rather spend a week on the ocean alone with me. Unfortunately I think the first supposition is the correct one. He wont let me go overseas to meet my new internet friends because he thinks I'll get axed. That kinda makes me not too happy, but I do get a week's cruise out of it so I guess I'll just hold on to that anger for our next fight. THEN I'll bring it up and he can suffer the consequences... right? On the other hand... we don't fight very much. I might forget about it. Grrr. The perils of a happy marriage. Dang it.

Umm, I'm sure I have more to be happy about, but I actually have a load of work to do. Our Habitat chapter is about to start choosing not one but two new families. As chair of the family selection committee that means that I have a poop-load to do before the families can be chosen. Yikes. So, I need to get busy with time-lines and applications and presentations etc etc blah blah blah.

That's it for me folks! Link up and play HHF with me. And don't forget to go see poor old Otie even tho I don't think he's joining us this week...

All right damn it all to hell. Mr Linky isn't working. If you want to play just leave me a note in your comments and I'll hook you up later.

No. Nonono. Let's soothe that wild hair and try this one from Simply Linked. Let me know what you think...

about last night...

2010-01-24T17:38:00.000-06:00

I think I may have mentioned that last night the junior service club had it's annul mice races and casino night fundraiser. If you've never been to one you should go, it's pretty fun. Here's a link, but this isn't ours, it's just a random one I found on the web. Anyway, that's where I was last night, and because of that I will be hanging my head in shame, avoiding the the knowing looks, trying desperately not to listen to the whispers behind my back.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I was the drunk one and made a fool of myself dancing on the roulette table. You're thinking that all the fine ladies who are members of the club will no longer let me near their husbands. You're thinking that it's 7th grade all over again and no one's parents will let their child come over to my house... (what? You don't remember that post? Well don't bother looking for a link. I've given you enough fodder for a lifetime worth of humiliation, I don't think I need to link it. But I think it's in the archives somewhere if you're that interested).

No, I'm afraid what happened is much worse.

If you've been around for a while you may have gotten the impression that I'm a tad... well, okay a little more than a tad... but I'm very slightly a little bit... vain. Except it's not that I'm conceited or think I'm beautiful or anything, it's more because I'm totally insecure. I really am. I'm always afraid I have food in my teeth or boogers or something. Maybe I sat in something and there's a big brown stain on my butt. Or my muffin top is just a bit too prominent. There is a whole host of potential flaws I obsess about, so I often find a mirror to make sure that those problems are all in my head and haven't manifested themselves irl. Only last night I didn't have a mirror. And I really wish I did.

Here's the set up: as one of the "mice girls" (you know, I'm on the jsc committee for the fundraiser so I had to work part of the evening) my job is the "roaming trivia gal" -- yeah I'm a "gal," it said so in the program. Anyway, my job last night was to roam around the room with a bag of goodies and some trivia questions. It's actually really fun. I get to go from table to table and talk to everyone in the room. I joke around and laugh and have fun and, well, maybe bat my eyes a little... you know, all the normal stuff you do when working a crowd. It's my thing and I love doing it every year. Last night was no exception. I hit the groups of guys, the ladies sitting by themselves looking bored, the mayor, the husbands, the wives, the old people, the hotties, the not-so-hotties... everyone. I don't think there were many people that I didn't chat up.

Several times during the course of the evening I stopped by our table and asked husband if I looked okay:

How are my teeth?

Fine.

How about my nose?

Fine.

Do I look okay?

Yes, dear.

It's important you know. I'm talking to lots of people.

You look fine hon. Could you get me a beer?

I believed him. I remember at one point thinking that maybe I'd scoot off to the ladies room just to check, but then decided I was paranoid. After all, husband really looked, right? He looked like he looked.

So the evening came to a close and we headed home. I was in a pretty good mood because although hubs and I didn't win any of the races -- actually we came home empty handed which was kind of a bummer -- I spent the evening giving away prizes and that's always fun. So we get home and say goodnight to the kiddos and head upstairs. I walked into the bathroom and started to get ready for bed and looked in the mirror.

Then I looked in the mirror again.

Then I looked again and shrieked "what the hell is in my hair!!??"

Hubs is like, "I don't see anything"

"What the HELL do you mean, you don't see anything? Look at those FLAKES!"

OMG. I had flakes. Not just a few flakes, but a lot of big yucky looking flakes in my hair. My dark brown hair.

wth? I don't have dandruff. I don't usually have a problem with a dry scalp. Granted I keep a bottle of head & shoulders around because my scalp can get dried out in the winter, but I haven't needed it. I just had my hair done earlier this week and David didn't mention a thing.And the flakes were all on the left side. Is that totally bizarre or what? I was totally racking my brain trying to think of what was going on. I use hair products, usually bumble and bumble, but I've never had a problem like this with them. I straightened my hair yesterday... maybe I didn't get all the product out?

Of course the next thought was all those people I spent the last three hours chatting up. Oh my god. The men. The women. The mayor and his wife. All my friends husbands. All my friends! OMG. Why didn't someone say something???

Then I started thinking back. What about the woman I sat next to and asked if she wanted to win a prize? She looked at my head. Oh oh, what about those two guys sitting at the middle table near the wall? I got down on one knee when I was talking to them, they were looking right at my head. Oh and the woman that knew husbands ex-wife. I bet she had a freakin field day with my flakes.

Then of course I just got mad. Really stinking burning mad. Why on earth would my friends just let me go on like that looking like I just stepped out of... out of... out of somewhere with dandruff? I would never do that. I'm the one who tells you that you're dragging toilet paper from your shoe. I'm the one who tells you your tag is sticking out. I'm the one who tells you there is lipstick on your teeth. All discreetly of course so you can fix the problem without being embarrassed.

So now, I'll be the pariah. I'll be talked about for years. And then some. Big Flakey Bambi will be my new nickname. I'm crushed. I'm hurt. I'm thinking God has just smote me for being vain.

Dammit. I wish I had just gotten drunk and mooned the mayor...

Happy Hour Friday

2010-01-22T11:42:00.000-06:00

Here we are again at another happy hour. What? You mean this looks different? What the heck? Well, don't fret, you're in the right spot. Our dear Otie has decided to take a break from the Happy Hour Scene, but he'll show up once in a while. So since it's just you and me let's belly on up to the bar and start drinking. The others will be a long shortly.

I am happy that I have a collaboration post with GregoryJ from living my life. If you may recall in this weeks RTT, I mentioned the fact that on days I don't work I never get anything done. Greg commented that he and his colleagues were discussing the very same thing. After a few emails back and forth Greg and I came up with the Would-Be Bambi Laws of Non-Accomplishment. Here they are for your general use:

Time verses Work Accomplished are inversely proportional (T = 1/WA) -- ie the more time you have, the less work gets done
With an over-abundance of Time minimal Work is achieved (T = -W) -- ie on your day off you won't get anything done
An over-abundance of Laborers to perform a task is inversely proportional to the Time it takes said task to be achieved (+L = 1/T) -- ie if you have too many people working on a job, the less work actually gets done
The addition of a Spouse to any Laborer equals less Work Accomplished, unless that Spouse is female, then the addition of a Spouse equals less Work Accomplished Correctly by Laborer and therefore an overall increase in work output (L+S = -WA) or (L+S(f) = -WA(c) = +WA)
The addition of Children to the Work rena equals twice as much Time spent working but only half as much Work Accomplished [Wa+C = 2T(1/2WA)] -- ie if your kids help, plan on doing it twice
An increase in Solar Energy equals a decrease in Work Accomplished (+SE = 1/WA) -- ie if it's a beautiful day no work gets done
A decrease in Solar Energy equals a decrease in Work Accomplished (-SE = -WA) -- ie if it's a crappy day no work gets done
The Number of times the phone rings is inversely proportional to Work Accomplished (Pn = 1/WA)
The Number of breaks taken is inversely proportional to amount of Work Accomplished (Nb = 1/WA)
If Methane gas is expressed, there is no Work Accomplished (CH4 = 0WA) ie if someone farts, work is stopped, room is evacuated

source

Okay well needless to say, these laws make me happy!

I'm happy that although I was at a meeting and got home late last night, husband was happy I woke him up rather than finish my HHF post. Oops, sorry Otin. That's why it's late.

I'm happy that Barb and I (and spouses of course) are going to see Grease at the Fox tonight. We have front row seats (thanks to hubby's colleague) so that makes it extra happy. Plus we are going out to dinner first, then out for drinks after the show with some of our good friends. All in all I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a fun night. The downside is that I have to get up and work saturday morning.

Saturday night we also have plans. It's the Mice Races, one of Junior Services big fundraisers. It's also a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to it.

Well I guess that's it for me. Sorry I'm late posting, but at least I'm not dead... right?

Link up here with Mr Linky and see who else is playing. Cheers!

Panic

2010-01-20T16:43:00.001-06:00

I awoke to another gray morning. The fog hovered at the mid-line of the trees as the mist gathered in droplets on the window pane. It wasn't quite raining yet, however I knew it would be several hours before we saw the sun, if at all. I found it ironic that yesterday I found peace and solitude in the brume, while today it portended evil.
The dogs wriggled with excitement at the mention of a walk through the golf course. There was usually a sighting or two of deer, foxes, or other wildlife unlucky enough to have Juneau pick up it's scent. This morning was no different. A herd of deer were grazing along the edge of the woods that surround the golf course. Juneau took off like a shot, but of course he was no match for the graceful leaps and bounds of the deer, and they were well out of sight within seconds. Not one to be despondent about losing the chase, Juneau returned to the task of ferreting out squirrels and other small animals while still on the look-out for the big prize such as a fox or raccoon. Jenny, true to form, labored along beside me, her extra weight slowing her down.
Our morning stroll came to an end a short time later. I gathered the dogs in, wiped paws and put on collars, and told each of them what well behaved dogs they were. Once inside, I sat down at the kitchen table for my morning ritual of coffee and the New York Times crossword before changing from my walking-the-dog gear to my work-out gear. After a quick energy bar for breakfast, I gave the dogs a treat and told them to watch the house while I went to the gym. I turned on the radio for them and walked out the door.
At the gym I had a pretty good work-out. I ran a couple quick miles, pleased at having beat my previous record time. Then Shaun, my trainer, set about to completely annihilate any thoughts of ever raising my arms above my head again by giving me a strenuous upper-body work-out. Although it felt like torture at the time, I was thankful for the opportunity to train with her.
I was still feeling the after effects in my biceps as I pulled back into the drive-way. I raised the garage door and pulled into my usual spot. As I headed around the rear of the car, I was careful not to step in the wet tire tracks, as I didn't want to have to take my shoes off upon entering the house. I looked down to step over the second track and noticed a wet footprint.
'Well that's odd...' I thought to myself. My inner alarm bells were starting to clang. I knew I purposely stepped over the wet tracks. I went for a closer look at the footprint, and hesitantly placed my sneaker-clad foot into the print. I was much longer and much wider than my shoes, and obviously belonging to a man. I suddenly regretted that I had signed up for a photography class at the YMCA instead of the self-defense class.
I tried to quell my rising panic by thinking rationally. It wasn't Bob, I knew that for a fact as I had just gotten off the phone with him while in the car. It definitely wasn't any of the girls; not only were they at school, but their feet were not that big. I tried to recall anyone else that might have access to our garage door codes. Dave the Orkin man, but he only comes April through October, it couldn't be him. Besides, his truck was not in the driveway. Frank, the dry cleaner delivery man, knows the code, but he only comes on Monday and Thursday. Today is Wednesday, so it couldn't be him...
As I went down my mental list of potential workers who could know the door codes, I suddenly had another realization: The dogs weren't barking. Every time I come home I am greeted by my two barking, wagging, yipping dogs. I can usually hear them as soon as I exit the car. Today, however, there was nothing.
The hair on the back of my neck started to rise and my panic was palpable. Who the heck had been here? Where did he come from and why? Where were the dogs? And then the thought that gave me the chills - was he still in the house?
Flashbacks from '80s slasher movies were zipping past my line of sight. Half bodies stuffed in cabinets, blood dripping from the ceiling, body parts laying forgotten in the wake of mayhem. I could almost see Micheal's mask, Freddy's knives, and Leatherface's chainsaw. I quickly thought of my neighbors who would possibly be home in case I started shouting bloody murder... I couldn't think of any...
I got control of my panic and quietly crept into the kitchen, senses tingling and adrenalin pulsing through my veins.
I saw the dogs on the back porch and relief spread over me like a warm blanket. Someone had put them outside, but they were okay. I let them in, but they gave no hint of who had put them out there. They didn't appear any worse for the wear, and there was no indication that the person was still in the house.
I racked my brain for an explanation. Who would put my dogs outside but not harm them? Then it occurred to me that as I was driving into the subdivision someone honked their horn. I didn't recognize the vehicle so I dismissed the thought all together. Suddenly I put the pieces in place.
The slasher that came into my house

was

none other

than...

NORM!!!

He had to come over this morning to fix youngest daughter's closet shelf. I had forgotten that he just got a new car, that's why I didn't recognize it. I had also forgotten that I asked him to come over.

So, needless to say, I am not dead. Nor am I in pieces. I will tho, in the future, try to remember that when I am drinking wine and making plans for people to stop by, I NEED TO WRITE MYSELF A NOTE SO THAT I DON'T SCARE MYSELF TO DEATH!!!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-01-19T09:25:00.000-06:00

Be sure to go see the Un-Mom for the original Random Tuesday Thoughts. This is her fault you know.

How come on days I don't work I never seem to get anything done? I don't think I sit around eating bon-bons all day. And I can't remember the last time I watched Oprah. What's the deal?

I took about 140 pix at the gym today for the Flickr 365 in 2010 project. Most of them weren't any good, but I think I had a few good ones. Go here to check out my photostream. But if you don't want to (I know, I'm kinda lazy like that too) here is one of the pix I like. I call it 'motion'. What do you think?

How does it make you feel when someone ignores your friend request on facebook? I think I've been ignored. I'm not *sure* -- but I'm pretty sure. It doesn't really matter, I haven't spoken to the woman in 20 years, why the hell should I care? I think it's the only person that's actually ignored me tho. Kinda makes me wonder. It kinda makes me feel inadequate. Didn't I get over that crap years ago? So now, not only does it bother me that I'm being ignored, it bothers me that it bothers me. I think I'll just have another glass of wine. And think about how wonderful I am. Wait, lemme ask Bob.... Okay, he says I'm wonderful. I guess that's enough.

Woke up to a fabulously foggy morning today. I love fog, it always seems to bring a dreamlike quality to my day. Granted, I don't like driving in it when it's thick as pea soup, but I love walking in it. Unfortunately by the time I got back from my morning stroll with the dogs the fog has somewhat lifted, but I think I got some decent pictures in:

Jenny just farted and it really stinks. Why is she so gassy and Juneau isn't? They eat the same food. Phew... I might have to leave the room...

Well I guess that is it for me. Be sure to go see Un-Mom!

Happy Hour Friday

2010-01-14T21:48:00.000-06:00

If you've been hanging around for a while then you know that Otie and I host a Happy Hour every Friday. Otie has the Mr Linky at his site (yeah, I let him have control of it, kinda like the remote, you know the guy has to hold it to feel manly).

I'm happy that my theme thursday post has been so well received. It was a little different for me, but I kinda liked it. Maybe I'll keep going with it. After all, my NoMoSlackMo story was lacking a bit and needed a bit of life (hahahaha) infused into it. Do you know what I'm talking about? If not, go see the post before this one (here).

I'm happy that today Gray's Anatomy was on again. Yippee. I love it. I'm hooked. I actually didn't start watching at the beginning, I started watching second season (with Denny). I think had I started earlier I may not have gotten hooked. But I am. It's my one vice. Well, along with wine. And chocolate. And wine.

Do you flickr? Well, I do. And one of my photo's went Explore! I kinda don't really understand it, but if your photo goes Explore it means that lots of people like it and lots look at it. This is the one that went Explore:

I call it melancholy. I may have posted it before, but there it is anyway. If you're into photography be sure to check out flickr, it's pretty cool. Here's the link to my photostream.

Umm, hmmm. I'm trying to think about what else makes me happy.

Oh sushi! I forgot, Bob emailed me at some point this afternoon and asked me out on a date to Wasabi. They have got the best sushi I've ever had. It was so-o-o-o good. My new favorite is the -- wait for it -- wasabi special. I don't have a clue what it is but it was awesome. And it had some crunchy stuff on top.

I'm happy that my workouts have been going well. I've increased my running distance by a mile so I'm up to... well more than a mile. No, I don't really wanna say what I've been running. Let's just say that I'm about where I was in high school, which makes me happy since now I'm some old broad that I hardly recognize and there's wrinkles and sagging and gray hairs popping up.

Okay, I think I just crossed the line from happy to depressed. Crap.

Well, be sure to go see Otie and find out what he's happy about. Then click on his little Linky and find out what everyone else is happy about too.

Have a great weekend!

Theme Thursday - Surface

2010-01-13T20:58:00.000-06:00

I feel the warmth of the sun gently caressing my skin, a million little butterflies alighting on my arms, my thighs, my belly. The roar of the ocean in my ears echoing the depth of your desire. The course sand rubbing my lower back raw, but I don't care. All that matters is that you are with me, and we are one.

The alarm signals the demise of my dreams. I reflexively hit the snooze as I hover near the surface of wakefulness, unwilling to accept the reality that is my life. I roll over and see the one I am bound to, the one that is not you. I try to go back to the beach, but it's no use, the city breathes of life, of desolation. I wake fully to endure yet another day.

After he leaves I log on. I know I shouldn't, but I can't resist. The light in your eyes leaves me feeling drugged. Your smile leaves me breathless and weak. The only images I can find are the ones that have her though. She feigns innocence, but her eyes mock me. I see her laughing at me. She knows she has the one thing I desire, yet she refuses to let you go. Can't she see what it is between us? Can't she see that she is tearing me apart?

I don't despair for long. I have a plan. I must admit it's a little outrageous. It's not something I would normally do. What is it that they say though? Yes, that's it. All's fair in love and war. I'm not sure which one this is, but I'm willing to risk everything for you.

Throughout the day I go over ever detail of the plan, all the contingencies, everything that could go wrong and how I should react. I plan our dinner, I plan an evening of fun, I plan to show him that I care. Then, and only then, will my ultimate plan come into effect.

As evening drones on towards night I suggest going to bed. I let him do what he wants, it's the least I can give him. He knows he's not the one I desire, but I fake it as well as I can. After what seems like an eon he is finally done. He rolls over, and I wait patiently until he begins to snore. It wont be long.

Finally. Finally I hear the rhythmic breathing next to me signaling his slumber. I know this is it. It's either now or never. I reach under the mattress where I placed the 10 inch blade from the kitchen. I grip the wooden hilt, I say a prayer to St Dwynwen, the patron saint of lost loves, in hopes that he'll help me find mine. I take a deep breath. I see my reflection in the metal as I raise the knife in an arc above my head. This one is for you, lover. Next time, it'll be her. Then we will be together. Forever.

Post it Note Tuesday

2010-01-12T16:35:00.000-06:00

This is my first attempt at Post It Note Tuesday and at the moment I'm not impressed. This sticky thing is a pia. However, I will admit that it could be totally user error since no one else seems to be having trouble. Anyway, for more post it note fun be sure to go see Supah Mommy.

Okay, I think this is enough post-it note fun. It seems to be taking me a really long time. Besides I'm getting ready for a date with the big guy. That'd be bob, fyi.

A Sunday With Me

2010-01-10T18:42:00.000-06:00

Bob and I had a wonderful afternoon together -- with no teenagers ruining the moment -- so I thought I'd share some of the highlights... No Otie, I'm not sharing those highlights, but I'll share these...

majestic bald eagle in Grafton, IL

river sharks?

no, but I was surprised to see that "old man river" will actually ice over

wine tasting on a lazy sunday afternoon

eagle watching on the chain of rocks bridge

interesting reflection

How did you spend your sunday afternoon? Better yet, how will you spend your sunday evening?

Six Word Saturday

2010-01-09T12:26:00.000-06:00

Other Pharmacist Puking,

Bams Must Work

I think that pretty much says it all. I'm working on a Saturday and that kinda stinks. Oh well, it's at least worth a new pair of shoes... Go here to see more SWS!

HAPPY HOUR FRIDAY

2010-01-07T21:15:00.002-06:00

Wow. It's the first Happy Hour of 2010! And yes it is, don't argue with me. I did my last one on Dec 31 so this is MY first Happy Hour of 2010. Do you have anything to be happy about? I'm frustrated at the moment but I'm sure I can think of something. Let's give it a shot.

Right at this moment I hate Shutterfly. I have spent hours doing a project for my wonderful honey and not only is the coupon screwed up, but I can't change from a soft cover to a hard cover without redoing it AND their customer service sucks. If they will fix my issue I will recant, but at the moment I am NOT happy.

I guess that's not really part of HHF is it? Well I feel better for having gotten it off my chest. Maybe the google gods will work as well for me as they do for julochka :) I'm not sure where her post is on changing the minds of google and blogger gods, but she can do it. Please julochka, for me, make shutterfly worth all my freaking time today.

I'm pretty happy about the flickr 365 project. It's going well. Here are some of my photos I've posted:

herding cattle

and we danced (that's Barb)

ritual

melancholy

So I'm pretty happy with these. After all, the whole idea is to learn so I think I am accomplishing that.

I am NOT happy that hubs won't let me go to Denmark for BC3. Actually I think it's pretty dumb that he is refusing. Grr. Men are stinky. Especially mine. And yes, it's the same hubs that I've been doing all that Shutterfly stuff for. Double grrr.

Wait, is this wednesday? It's kinda sounding like a Rant and Rave a la Little Ms Blogger.

Another snow day tomorrow. Actually this isn't happy or unhappy for me because I don't really care either way. I guess it's good cuz youngest has agreed to go workout with me so that'll be fun. But really, since they're teenagers it doesn't really affect me if they go to school or stay home. BUT WAIT. this is HHF so lets try that again:

SNOW DAY AGAIN!! WAHOO!

Was that better? Unfortunately even tho there's snow it's too dang cold and windy to be outside. It's been about 10 F but the wind chill makes it about -10F here. Needless to say, I haven't been walking. Tomorrow am it's gonna be 2F (yep 2F). Sorry dogs. I will be snuggly in bed. And THAT, my friends, makes me HAPPY.

Anyway, this is feeling forced so I'm just gonna say GO SEE OTIN and click his linky to play.

xox

***************************
UPDATE: Shutterfly fixed my issues so I officially recant what I said earlier and they ROCK!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-01-04T21:36:00.002-06:00

Be sure to stop by an see Un-Mom, she's the creator of the original RTT

I finally have my list of 39 things to do before I'm 40 (a la Spud) and I'm very disappointed to realize that I can't think of more things I need to do. As of right now I only have 27 items listed, and the last one doesn't count (the list is on my side bar). I mean, I could say I want to give back to the community, but that's nothing new for me. I'm already ~~in over my head~~ involved with Habitat for Humanity, the Junior Service, and Hope Animal Rescues. I've been with these organizations for a couple years now, and taking on another wouldn't do any of us any good because I barely have time to do what I've already committed.

In that same vein, I'm feeling very overwhelmed. I'm trying to do this NoMoSlackMo (a redo if NaNoWriMo) and I'm just not feeling it so far. I have a couple ideas, but can't get the story moving. It's blah blah blah. I need some action baby. In addition, I'm totally intrigued with art journaling (a la the Fragrant Muse). I even went out and bought a brand new journal, but I haven't had time to either artify the journal or write in it. Speaking of paper, Barb bought me a paper making kit for my birthday. I love it because I've been wanting to make my own notecards, but now I have one more thing I don't have time for. So far I've only made 1 new sheet of paper, and it's still sitting right where I left it to dry. The other thing that isn't new but that I've been trying to be better at is cooking more meals at home. It's just so easy to grab Quizno's or suggest we go out (or my fave, get the kids subs and have hubby take me out somewhere fancy). The other project I'm tackling is the flickr 365 in 2010 challenge Julochka and Spud started. I've gotten four pictures in four days, so I just need to stick with it another 361. In addition to that, my google reader is about to bust. Aggghhhh!

Okay... deep breaths... it'll get done, I just need to prioritize.

This wasn't very random, was it? Okay, well here is some randomness. I had a bad hair day today. It would have sucked, but I turned it into a fabulous hat day. Jaunty, oui?

While I'm sitting here being all jauntified Barb is writing an amazing post. Go see. Go on. I'm done here. GO NOW.

39 Candles and Happy Hour New Year's Eve

2009-12-31T11:43:00.000-06:00

If you've been hanging around for a while then you know that Otie and I host a Happy Hour every Friday. Otie has the Mr Linky at his site (yeah, I let him have control of it, kinda like the remote, you know the guy has to hold it to feel manly).

Don't freak out on me here, it is only Thursday. However since it's a) the last day of the year and b) my birthday and c) my blog, I'm taking the liberty of posting early. Otie will have the linky up eventually, so be patient.

I'm really happy that although I haven't been posting or commenting much the last couple weeks it seems as tho most people have stuck with me. Thanks for that, really. Hopefully once the world gets back to normal I will once again have time to leisurely read all your posts and leave witty comments, as well as write my own intriguing and thought provoking posts. What? I do leave witty comments. I make myself giggle, that's witty, right?

I think I mentioned before that Spud did a post on 39 things to do before she's 40. I think it is a fabulous idea and so I am stealing it. Although I've known for a while that I was going to it, I haven't actually figured out what I want my 39 things to be, so that will have to be another post. Just know that I'm gonna do it damn it. Really.

I'm so happy Julochka started her own 365 in 2010 flickr group. If you want to join contact her and tell her you heard of it thru me. I think it'll be a great way to improve my skills as well as be a motivator for me to actually use my new camera.

It may be hard for you to believe this, but I am one of those people that will just come over unannounced. I know that some people abhor this, but I don't care. I don't care if you're not dressed or if the sink still has breakfast dishes in it. In fact, it's nice to see that people actually *live* in their houses. I know mine usually has dog hair dust dinosaurs in the corners and dirty laundry piles. I figure if you aren't going to like me because I have too much of a life to spend the majority of it cleaning, then that's your problem. However, if I do pop up at your house, I don't expect to be invited inside. Usually I'll only do that if a) I'm stopping by to see if you want to walk the dogs with me or b) dropping off a gifty or c) I am visiting my mother in another city and know where you live but can't remember your phone number and we are on that side of town anyway so we decide to do a drive-by and see if you're home. Luckily Sara is one of those people let will graciously let you in when you arrive...

I got home from my mom's house and found not one but two wonderful gifts waiting for me. Both were actually goodies from winning stuff from other bloggers. Spud sent me a wonderful snowman ornament as well as one of her fabulous post cards, and Iasa sent me this cool little wicker basket with a necklace inside and some chocolate! Thanks so much ladies! I totally heart you both.

I guess that's enough happiness for me today. Plus I have lots of things to do before the big event tonight. Okay, maybe the not-so-big event, but I still have places to go and people to see. Be sure you go by and see Otie and click his linky so that we will all know who is playing.

Oh and by the way, have a wonderful, safe, and Happy New Year!! xoxoxxo

Happy Hour - Christmas Style

2009-12-25T02:37:00.000-06:00

I am so happy that it is perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol after spending the day with your PIA sister... and I don't mean Barb. This is not gonna be a rant, but I'll have plenty to talk about on wednesday!
Bacchus we thank who gave us wine
Which warms the blood within our veins;
That nectar is itself divine.
The man who drinks not, yet attains
By godly grace to human rank
Would be an angel if he drank.
Pierre Motin
French drinking song (source)
I'm happy my mom seems to be handling the chaos of a full house. Usually it's just her and her kitty, but now it's also the three daughters, the SIL, and four of the grandkids. Loud and crazy would be an understatement.
I'm happy Barb is here with me to take some of the slack from the other sister. Seriously. She makes me nuts. But this is not a rant ( I know, I'm repeating myself).
I am so excited about the turkey! I used a Nigella Lawson recipe for brining the turkey and it's soaking right now. I just stepped out to check on it and it smells soooo good. Thank you Julochka to turning me onto her. Doesn't it look amazing:

I was so happy to get to spend the entire day with my friend Schmecky (the pseudoblogger) yesterday. We had such a good time. I was going to add some pictures from our day, but I think that'll be a whole other post. I chronicled the whole day. You will like it, I promise.
Today Barb and I got out of the house and walked down to one of our favorite coffee shops (shhh!! don't tell Starbucks). It's about a mile or so down the mountain and we always walk there at least once to get dough for scones. Yes, I know I could make my own dough, but we love this stuff. Anyway, we had some great photo ops along the way:

A gaggle of geese

One tough guy got scairt...

Barb discovered some really cool 'eye' trees for Julochka...

and we saw a pretty little Mallard and her hubby out for a swim in the stream...

at last we found our way to the promised land...

I'm happy I got to open my present from hubby early. It's a new camera! I was shocked, I wasn't expecting it at all. There's kind of a funny story that goes along with it. The camera I ended up with is not the one I unwrapped. But it's over and I love it. Its a Canon D50 and I'm so so pleased. I still need to read more of my manual (yes Spud, I blame you for this) but so far I'm amazed and in love.
Well I think that's about it for me. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas edition of Happy Hour yourself. Be sure to check in with Otie and play along.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Open Letters

2009-12-19T23:06:00.000-06:00

Dear Time,

I understand that it is your job to march on. I was hoping, however, that you could please stop marching across my face. You are making creases near the corners of my eyes, and one near my lip. This is very distressing to me. Please find somewhere else to make your mark. You are dismissed.

much thanks,
youthful bambi

**********************************************
Dear Cellulite,

I don't understand what your fascination is with my gluteus maximus. I workout several times a week, I run, I walk dogs, I do lunges and bridges and squats and dirty dogs until I can barely walk. I appreciate your loyalty, however I think it is time you find someone else's ass to dent. The hail damaged look just does not do it for me. I think you would be happier on a man's tushie. Really. Please cease and desist.

kisses,
skinny me

**********************************************
Dear Southwest Airlines,

My daughter and I will be traveling soon to spend Christmas with Grandma. It would totally suck if we crashed. Please make sure all planes are in working order, terrorists are held at bay, and pilots are ready for work. I will handle contacting the google weather gods, you take care of everything else.

hugs and peanuts,
bams

********************************************
Dear Google Weather Gods,

My daughter and I will be traveling soon. Please do not cause any of our flights to be canceled due to inclement weather. In addition, I would be much appreciative if the airports are not snowed, iced, or fogged in. Please do not send an ice storm to the area in which we are traveling. If the roads are too bad, I will be forced to stay indoors with my entire family for a full week. I do not think there is enough alcohol in Reno to overcome a situation this dire.

However, in this same vein, we would love some wonderful, powdery snow at the ski resorts near Lake Tahoe.

Amen,
bambalance

********************************************
Dear Wine,

Please be at my mother's house when I get there. I am sure that within minutes of my being near my sister I will need you. A lot of you. I love you so much. Please be there for me. If your friend di saronno amaretto were there as well it would be wonderful. I will sleep with both of you every night.

fermented grapes full of love,
bambina

*********************************************
Dear Dust Bunnies,

I think it is so sweet that you love to congregate under my bed and in the hall closet, as well as in any corner you can find. I understand that there is a great deal of discarded dog hair in your cult. I think it's wonderful that you will take in anything you find worthy... even my own hair. I would greatly appreciate it tho if you would remain out of sight when neighbors come to visit. Although I personally find you adorable, I feel that some of my less-than-neighborly neighbors will only find fault with me and my lack of housecleaning skills and place no blame at all on your pervasiveness. Please feel free to inhabit the basement storage areas as much as you desire, as well as any bedroom belonging to a child.

soft bunny blessings,
bambi (and thumper)

********************************************

Happy Hour Friday

2009-12-17T21:09:00.001-06:00

I am happy that it is only one week til Christmas. This is my favorite week ever. I love the excitement in the air and the good will towards men. People tend to be a little bit nicer. Okay, that's not always true, sometimes they are grumpy and bitchy and whiny and annoying, but FOCUS PEOPLE it's Happy Hour.
Actually I love October, November, and December. Best three months of the year if you ask me.
It is just 2 weeks until my birthday. What are you gonna get me?
At first I was a little annoyed about the plans for my birthday. We share season tickets to the St. Louis Blues with Barb and there is a game on New Year's Eve. Now let me just tell you that I don't ~~entirely~~ feel that the world revolves around me, but I think that since it's my birthday we should do something that I want to do. I like going to Blues games, but seriously. Not on my day, okay? Well, it turns out that we are going to the game. Why is that okay? Because we are going to leave early and head 2 blocks down and see Erin Bode and have dinner. Then we are staying downtown for the night in the Westin which is right next door. If you're not familiar with Erin be sure to check out her website. She has the most amazing voice I've ever heard. In fact I'm listening to her Christmas cd right this very minute.
Only 3 days til I get to see my momma. Yep, that outrageous older woman.
Hopefully I'll be able to check in with some of the fabulous bloggers I met at Blog Camp Reno in September. I just came across this post and it made me giggle again... go check it out. I'm sad that Ali won't be there this time, but Barb will be there to pick up her slack. Plus I'll for sure get to see my friend Schmecky (aka Zena, pseudoblogger), Sara and I are gonna try to make our schedules mesh so we can play, and I have a friend from college that I haven't seen in several years and we are going to try to play also. If you're in the area let me know and we can play too! Unless you are an ax murderer. That would totally suck to have my family hacked to bits at Christmas time.
I haven't worked all week. This is an okay thing, not great as the money would be nice to have, but it's not a horrible thing either because I've been doing stuff this week that I wouldn't have had time to do if I were working. BUT I got TWO calls today for me to work TOMORROW. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to clone myself so I can only work one of the places. Although in all honesty, if I did figure out how to clone myself I wouldn't have all of my selves working. Several of them would be on vacation. All the time. All over the world. It'd be great.
I've gotten several new followers in the last couple weeks. Thank you thank you and welcome to my little corner of cyberspace. I hope I don't bore you to pieces.
December 17th is my daughters 17th birthday. Yep, it's her golden one. The one that is supposed to be the best. I always feel sorry for people who have their 'golden' birthday when they are young. How the hell are you gonna know if it was your best year ever? I can truly say that mine was indeed the best year ever, mainly because I fell in love with hubby (gak I know at least one of you just threw up in your mouth a little bit... but it's true).
Both Jenny and Juneau got to go to the spa today and they look and smell wonderful. Hey, doggies need spa days too. Don't judge.

Okay I think that's plenty of stuff to be happy about.
Oh wait, update: I was, in fact, not the drunk spouse at hubby's work Christmas party. I don't think there was one that really stood out this year. However, people were still talking about the drunk spouse from last year. I felt kinda sorry for her... but she was under tight control this year. And, ps, I looked fabulous. Except my ankles. Really. The dang hose I was wearing kept trying to bunch at the ankles. I had to adjust several times until the room got full enough that people weren't looking at my ankles. It kinda pissed me off, but then I just had another glass of wine so I was okay. Besides, I was one of the younger ones in the room last night so I doubt that anyone noticed my ankles.

That's it for me. Go see Otie and see who is playing along with Happy Hour Friday!

Update: this afternoon while I was counting to 333 I was also thinking about my post and realized I made a grievous mistake. Our Christmas trip to Reno will also be down one fabulous blog camper: Shannon. She lives over the mountain and far away and will probably not venture the pass (Donner's pass, you know the early settlers that resorted to cannabalism while stuck in the mountains). Anyway, Shannon, sorry for my oversight. And if you do venture over the pass please come play with us!

Rant and Rave Wednesday

2009-12-15T21:03:00.001-06:00

Little Ms Blogger is the awesome chick who came up with this baby for getting out your rants and raves. Go see her, she always has some funny stuff.

***************************************************
Rant: I got three (yes 3) certified letters today from that ex chiro that I'm not wasting my energy on

Rant: Step-daughter signed for all 3 certified letters while I was at the spa

Rave: I marched my happy ass up to the post office and told the lady that my child signed for these letters and that I did not want anything to do with them. She had me write "Refused" and my name and date on them and took them back. Today, the USPS is freakin awesome.

Rave: I have no idea what was in those letters, but I don't really care either

Rave: pas de touche sucka!!

****************************************************
Rave: I spent the last two days at the spa

Rave: I got my hair did yesterday and had a mani/pedi today

Rave: I look fabulous! And I feel fabulous as well. And my toes are freakin awesome

***************************************************
Rave: We have hubby's work Christmas party tomorrow

Rave: It's at a fancy schmancy country club, and it's actually a pretty good party

Rave: I've never been the 'drunk spouse'

Rant: I hope I'm not the drunk spouse tomorrow

***************************************************
Rave: Hubby agreed to take me to go see Up In The Air

Rant: It's not freakin playing in my stupid ass town and that freakin pisses me off

Rave: So we thought we'd watch The Hangover on PPV

Rant: It's not freakin showing on PPV and now I'm pissed

***********************************************
Rave: Hubby just told me it's time for bed

Rant: Seriously? Ummm, none :D

So What's the Point?

2009-12-13T13:53:00.005-06:00

The following is a text message between my 17 yr old daughter and me. Or is it myself?

Background: I grew up Catholic and therefore have all the guilt associated with it. I'm not so much Catholic anymore because I have a lot of issues with some of the doctrines. My daughters are both baptized Episcopalian (or Catholic-Lite), but we don't consider ourselves Episcopal either. Basically we are nothing. I believe in God. My 17yo believes in Wicca, or is a Wicca, or whatever is most grammatically correct. I've had a lot of issues with this, but in the last 6 or 7 years have come to accept it.

Here is our text conversation a few days ago regarding that ex chiropractor that I'm not talking about anymore:

me: So... what do u know abt hexing?

her: Uhhhhh why?

me: I think someone needs to b hexed. U know who it is.
me: Hubby gave permission.

her: lmao. that's very blacky black

me: yeah and...

her: yeah and ur on your own with that :) I'm a good witch :D

me: Oh come on Glenda. It's just a little payback

her: Karma karma karma

me: Oh fine. What good is it to be a witch then if you can't give someone some warts or something?

her: If your magick comes from a place of darkness, then your mind is in a place of darkness. You have to be self aware and conscious of your actions for magick to work its best. It's hard to be self aware and not realize that hate is a pointless emotion from where no actualization can come. Also, it'll slap you a good one.

me: Ur no fun chickie

her: Ultimately he is hurting himself. Is spending that much energy really worth the few moments of satisfaction? There are better places to direct your efforts :)

me: Oh ok. I agree.

her: Rnt u glad to know I'm not in league with satan?

me: yes, of course I am. But then what's the point of having a witch for a daughter?

her: I'm still a teenager. I could go teepee his house

photo source

While I have to admit that I'm proud of her responses, I find it a little hard to believe that this is the same teenager that is upstairs right now pissed off that we aren't going out to dinner tonight for her birthday. The same teenager that speaks to me with scorn every time I ask her to unload the dishwasher. The same teen that will fly off the handle if I ask the wrong question. It amazes me that she can be so mature, yet so immature at the same time. While I'm still not completely comfortable with this whole witch thing, at least I don't have to worry about her hexing me.

I do wonder tho, how come she can't cast a spell to make her room clean??

Happy Hour Friday

2009-12-10T20:49:00.000-06:00

I never thought I'd be a three-a-day poster... but here I am. My first post today was the letter to the asswipe ex chiropractor. My second post today was the one where I said that since it was my hubby's birthday I took down the letter to the asswipe ex chiropractor because he was afraid we'd get sued. And now here is post #3 today. Sorry I'm overloading your Google Reader, it's not like me.
It's my hubby's birthday! I let him choose dinner (pasta con broccoli and garlic bread) and I made my extra-super-duper-ultra-fabulous pumpkin cheesecake. It's his favorite dessert. I meant to take pictures while I was baking it but I didn't. Sorry.
He likes the gifts I got him. 2 books: Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and 1000 Places to See Before Before You Die. I also bought him 3 pairs of reader glasses because he always breaks his or puts them in the wash or whatever.
When we were flipping thru the 1000 Places there were several that I had already visited
I bought my neighbors' Christmas gifts today. If you were my neighbor I'd buy you one too. Unless you are that shit ex doc I was talking about. Who, fyi, is also my neighbor. Yeah. 4 houses down. Niiiiiiiice.
I'm done talking about it. Really.
My birthday is 3 weeks from today. Or yesterday. It depends. Thursday. What are you gonna get me? I like diamonds. And sparkly stuff. Well, sparkly diamonds.
Tommy is doing A.W.E.S.O.M.E. Go check him out at Barb's site.
This weekend we are making Christmas cookies. A lot of them. And I plan on eating a lot of them. Actually that's not true. I plan on eating a lot of the dough. Raw. It's what I do.
Okay, I think I'm done here. Besides, Otie hates it when I have too much wine at Happy Hour.
Go see him if you haven't already, and be sure to check out the other bloggers that are playing along.
Cheers!!

For My Husband

2009-12-10T15:17:00.000-06:00

Since today marks the 52nd anniversary of the birth of my favorite person in the whole wide world (present company excluded of course),

I have taken down the post regarding the ASSHOLE THAT USED TO BE MY DOCTOR

because my wonderful hubby is afraid we will get sued.

Although since the ASSHOLE THAT USED TO BE MY DOCTOR also shares a lawyer with me, I'm kinda curious at who would get to have her as our attorney. Any thoughts? Would it be first-come first served? Or who had the better case? I certainly would never want to be on the opposing side. She is one tough lady, and that's why she is my lawyer.

Oh well. Thanks for all the words of encouragement from those that commented.

ps- he really is a douche.

pps - not my regular MD, he's a great guy. Unfortunately he works for a douche, so now I have to get another MD. Which is fine, cuz I called his friends office today and will become one of their patients.

Rant and Rave Wednesday

2009-12-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

Little Ms Blogger started airing her Rants and Raves on Wednesday, be sure to check her out and see who else is getting it all out in the open today.

***********************************************
Because there is nothing better than starting out your post talking about poo...
Rave: Jenny poo'd twice on our walk this morning.

Rant: Then she came home and did the boot-scoot-&-boogie on my rug. It's cream colored. Now it has brown streaks too. I am not pleased.

Rant: It was butt-cold out there. Actually, it wouldn't have been so bad if the wind wasn't howling through my soul.

Rave: We did it anyway and can now sit in the warm kitchen with a cuppa joe.

************************************************
Rave: I am a bingo ROCKSTAR.
Yes, that's right. I had a great time at the ol' nursing home last night. Actually tho, it was the "retirement community" that had the bingo/Christmas party. It's a graduated community and starts with independent living and goes thru assisted, nursing, to alzheimers.
I was the caller and I had a great time with it. I made jokes and did a little "stand-up". I had those old people rolling on the floor. And not just cuz they had those little rollators. Really.

Rant: Whenever I called out I-17 I'd say "I am 17 years old" and those old people all laughed and said 'yeah right' and 'so am I'. No one believed that I am 17. Kinda hurt my feelings. (hahaha)

Rave: I was home by 8:45 feeling good and warm-hearted. Hubby had the fire going and we shared a bottle of wine.

Rant: He thinks I'm a bingo dork. You probably do too. But that's okay, when you are old your kids put you in a home maybe someone will come and make you laugh one day and you'll think of me.

*************************************************
Rave: I am almost done with my Christmas cards.

Rant: I ran out of stamps

Rant: I also ran out of cards

*************************************************
Rave: My scale isn't stuck anymore :)

Rant: Absolutely none. It even went in the right direction. Of course I've been working my patootie off at the gym so it's about time it went down a bit. Still needs to drop some more tho.

***********************************************
Rave: If you're an artist, or want to be an artist, or want to pretend to be an artist, take a look at Mr Toast, he's got a great project going on. I know many of you will be interested, it looks cool.

Rant: I have absolutely no talent, but I am going to give it a shot.

**************************************************
I guess that's it for me. What are you ranting and raving about today?

Random Tuesday

2009-12-08T08:20:00.000-06:00

Don't you hate it when you look all hot and sexy and you've been parading around town feeling confident then that evening your daughter comes up to you and says "Your pants pocket is hanging out"?
McGillicutty made me LOL - literally - with this post. Did you?
My birthday is in 25 days. I'll be 39... at least for the first time. Maybe next year I'll be 39 again. I haven't decided yet.
Spud did a post on 39 things to do before she's 40. I think I should revisit that and perhaps do the same.
Why didn't Jenny poo on our walk today? I hope she doesn't do it in the house.
I couldn't do the December Challenge at the gym today. I'll have to try again tomorrow. But that's okay, failure is good for you -- sometimes. It builds character. Right?
Does anyone use Jane Iredale make-up? I just started a month or so ago. I'm a bit undecided about it. I usually use CHANEL or Lancome.
How come when teens learn to drive the criticize every move you make? "You're speeding" "Uh, blinker, mom!" "Go! The light's green!"
But then the first time you tell them not to run over the pedestrian in the parking lot they get pissy and say they don't want to drive anymore. Sheesh.
I'm having a good hair day. Curly. I should take a picture. If I can get off the couch maybe I will.
Tonight I'm going to a nursing home and having a bingo Christmas party. It's kinda fun, but I wish the kids were coming with me.
"Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases. "Norman Ralph Augustine
The same is true for my kitchen. Seriously. I haven't done anything in here and days, and it's a mess. I think kids add to the increasing entropy of a room.
My favorite equation: delta G = delta H - T delta S. The way to remember it: Goldfish are Hell without Tarter Sauce.
Okay, time to clean my kitchen and finish my Christmas cards.
Go see Un-Mom for more Random Tuesday Thoughts!

Monoword Manic Monday

2009-12-07T13:25:00.002-06:00

Go check out ACE at Dancing with a Full Deck to find out her MMM.

Mine is this:

AGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

A very belated Happy Hour Friday

2009-12-04T20:13:00.000-06:00

Oh my gosh. I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date. I have no excuse for (almost) missing Happy Hour Friday. I'd tell you, but I don't think you care anyway so let's just get to the good stuff.

I'm happy I have friends like Otie that don't get mad even tho I fail to show up to our own blogger party.
I am super happy that although my stinkin' scale is still stuck on the same number, two (yes, 2) people told me today that I looked like I was losing weight. I'm not, but the complements were awesome.
I'm happy that I've made it thru the first 2 challenges at the gym where Barb and I work-out. This month the challenge is the 12 Days of Christmas, so on day 1 we had to do 1 challenge, then day 2 we do the first one plus another, and so on so it builds everyday. Every month they have a new challenge. October was doing the plank for 5 minutes... I didn't even try it. I can do it for about a minute. November's challenge was biking 1.5mi, rowing 1000m, and running 1mi in under 20 min. I only tried it once and got 21:12. Grrrr. 72 seconds between glory and shame. I would have tried it again, but I didn't get around to doing it at all until Thanksgiving, so I didn't have time to try again. Hopefully I'll be able to do all 12 challenges this month and get the glory of seeing my name on "The Board!"
I'm happy I'm writing my Happy Hour with my hubby by my side, a fire in the fireplace, Christmas Vacation on the tube, and a bottle of Estancia Cab.
I'm happy that hubby is happy that I've worked 3 days this week. I'm comfortable with 3 days, that means I'm bringing in some money but still have time to do stuff like laundry, errands like the bank, some light housecleaning, etc.
Well I think that's about it. It's not, but Christmas Vacation is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies (next to Scrooged and It's a Wonderful Life) and I want to watch... and catch up on all of your blogs!
Hope you all had a wonderful Happy Hour Friday! Go see Otin, click his Linky, and check out the other players too!!!!!

The Favorites

2009-12-03T18:27:00.000-06:00

Do you remember in my last post where I said I was a doer but not a creator? Well, that goes for this post as well. I think McGillicutty started it, then Barb and Open Heart followed suit, so I decided I needed to copy them. Plus I have some pretty good favorites. So here are some of my favorite Christmas ornaments.

These are Mr and Mrs Bambi, they were one of the first ornaments hubby and I got as a married couple.

This is another on that we got that first Christmas. It has the names of all the kiddos. I couldn't find an ornament big enough to have all 8 of our names on it.

This snowman is a favorite of mine because my mom made it. I have several others that she made as well; lollipops, presents, Christmas trees, Rudolphs, etc.

This carousel goes in my favorites list because I've had it since I was a wee tot. It has 'Susie' engraved on it. I'm not sure why it doesn't say Bambi.

I love this ornament because it has a picture of my sweet little girlies in it. Who wouldn't love that?

I love my Scottish Santa. He's in a kilt.

Although these last two aren't ornaments, I love having red bows and candy canes on my tree. I love how the colors pop.

How about you? Do you have favorite ornaments?

She is...

2009-11-30T20:05:00.001-06:00

Following in the footsteps of Julochka and Spudballoo, I decided to hop on the "This Girl..." bandwagon. I've gotten a few new followers (thank you thank you!) lately, so I thought this would be a good time.

So if you've ever wanted to know your bloggy buddy Bambi, read on. If not, well, that's okay too...

She is...

...better as 2nd in command

...a doer, but not a creator

...fiction, not so much non-fiction

...ms pac-man

... a mac not a pc...iphone not blackberry

..."lucky in life and in love" thanks fidgeting gidget for the line

...straight hair... or curly hair...dozing under her hair-dryer

...autumn not spring

...vanilla not chocolate

...a starbucks grande skinny caramel latte

...canon not nikon

...satellite, not cable, but waiting for u-verse

...a bit of a flirt

...chardonnay not reisling...cabernet not merlot...red zinfandel never white

...lipgloss

...stacked tennis bracelets

...hubby's t-shirts at bedtime

...jeans and a sweater

...a label whore, but not proud of it

...slipper socks

...sinatra in the kitchen...erin bode by the fire...britney in the gym

...usually laughing

...a salad fork and a dinner fork

...amaretto on the rocks...vodka not gin

...travel

...medicine

...trying to age gracefully while fighting it all the way

...crest toothpaste...secret deodorant... johnson's baby powder...bumble and bumble hair products

...comfortable with who she is

Sunday Thoughts

2009-11-29T10:46:00.000-06:00

I know it's not tuesday, but I'm having random thoughts anyway. Here's what I'm thinking about:

Can dead people read our minds? I know at first your gonna laugh, but think about it. If not, how come we talk to them, go to their wakes and grave sights? I've gone to the place where my Dad is buried, as well as other family members just to say "hi" and pay my respects. But why? Do they know? Do they care?
If they can read our minds, do they come when summoned? This is important to know because, as I'm sure I've told you before, I tend to think quite a bit in the shower. For some reason I haven't figured out yet, I tend to think about dead people while in the shower. It'd be bad enough if my Dad and Grandparents showed up in my bathroom while I'm butt-naked, but how about my 6th grade boyfriend who killed himself after high-school? I'm not sure I want him seeing me naked. Or what about our buddy that just died a couple weeks ago? I think about him sometimes too. He was a really nice guy, but I don't want him in my shower.
Do dead people get mad when I let my dogs run loose in the cemetery? Well, not "loose" per se, I walk/jog along beside them, but I let them off leash to get some exercise. Plus I always always pick up the poo (it's important to be a responsible dog owner). But do they care that the dog may piddle where they are buried?
When I die can I go visit the people that are important to me and say goodbye, kinda like what happened here?
Will my husband ever quit yelling at me to stop blogging so we can go see the Rams lose today??
Grr. More random thoughts on tuesday!!

Happy Hour Friday

2009-11-27T16:51:00.001-06:00

Hooray for Happy Hour Friday! I hope you've already been to Otie's site so you can click his little Linky and be one of the cool kids. If not, go do it. I'll wait.

Okay, well I'm so so sorry this is late. Thanksgiving dinner was fine, we only had 12 people over, so that was very doable. However one child who hadn't been here showed up late, ate someone else's stuff, and unintentionally started a battle. I should have stayed out of it, but I made a comment (bad mommy, bad bad mommy) and the battle escalated to an outright war. Needless to say, I was not in the proper frame of mind for a HHF post.

However, that was last night, the peace treaties have been signed, my blood pressure and heart rate are back to normal, and I'm ready to focus on some happy stuff. Are you ready? Let's hit it, sister.

I'm so happy I got 3 new followers! Thank you thank you and welcome. I hope not to bore you to tears.
I'm happy that peace reigns supreme (at the moment) in my house. Of course there is a little bit of ignoring going on... but I'll take it. It's better than outright hostility.
I ventured out today and I had a great time at the mall. Most of the kids shopping is done, but not all of it, which is fine with me. I like to spread it out a little.
I bought a couple things I needed... okay really I didn't need them, but I wanted them, and that's almost the same thing, right? I'll get photos soon, but not now.
Yes, I'm lazy. Deal with it. I like it this way.
Hubby told the girls what he wanted for Christmas so they are taking care of it. Nice, for them, but now I have to think of a whole other idea. I wonder if he wants to go to Denmark in January...
I was planning on putting up the tree today, but I'm pooped now. It can wait.
I'm so happy that we have enough left-overs for dinner tonight. And possibly tomorrow night. That'll be it tho... I am not going to drag it out til Christmas like my mom used to do.
I just downloaded 3 new tunes to my work-out iPod. This makes me happy. I'd tell you what they are but you'd just laugh at me. But they have good beats and are good to run to.
I am thankful that I had a stay of execution at the DMV today. It's closed. The only problem is that now I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to be there before 8 tomorrow.
In case you have forgotten, yesterday was the baby's birthday... we are going to get her learner's permit.
We saw Blind Side and it was amazing. Go see it. It's worth it. BUT. I hate seeing movies about Memphis. It brings back a flood of memories. And usually it makes me feel like crying. I didn't tho, so I guess that's good.
Okay, I think that's it for me. I know it wasn't very happy sounding BUT remember that my Rant and Rave post on Wednesday was all RAVES! I can't be sunshine and sparkles all the time dang it.
Don't forget to go see Otie! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving... or just a wonderful Thursday night if you're not American.
Cheers!

Rant and Rave Wednesday

2009-11-25T11:10:00.000-06:00

Be sure to stop by and see Little Miss Blogger so you can clink on the Linky and be part of the cool kids. Come on... ya know you want to.

Rave: the older girls are home from college for the rest of the weekend. So far so good. I'm hoping it stays that way.

Rave: youngest daughter "volunteered" to clean the house again. By volunteer I mean that I will pay her. It's still better than doing it myself.

Rave: I'm learning new songs on the piano, even some Christmas ones. Yes, I'm sure everyone in the neighborhood will be sick of Christmas songs flowing tunelessly out of my house, but you know what, I don't care. I want to learn to play them. So far I've (ahem) mastered What Child Is This, Jingle Bells (of course), Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard On High and Old King Wenceslas (which I only know the tune from Scrooged).

Rave: I'm trying really hard to start getting into the Spirit of the holidays. It's so easy to be grumpy -- well for me it is anyway. The weather is unseasonably warm, finances aren't flowing the way they should, my scale is stuck... but that doesn't matter. I'm gonna be happy if it kills me damn it.

Rave: my roses are confused

I have no idea why they think it's time to bloom. I cut them all waaaaay back -- to practically nubs -- early in the fall. I guess they thought spring came early. Sorry for the crappy picture. I didn't feel like hauling out the big-girl camera.

Rave: I haven't worked much at all the last couple weeks. But that's also kind of a rant. The lazing around the house was great last week, this week it's kind of old. Plus I need a reason to need new shoes. Wait, who am I kidding? I don't really need a reason, but it'd be nice to have the extra money.

Rave: I have a new follower!

Rave: Hubby wants to cook two turkeys this year. He's going to bake one and put one on the grill. I said "whatever," it's his side of the family and he can do it any way he wants. He wants the baked one just in case the grilled one doesn't turn out (we've never done it that way before...). I'm in charge of the rest of the meal so I guess it's fair.

Rave: My baby turns 15 tomorrow. Wait, that should be a rant. How on earth can the baby of the family be 15? That must make me old... doesn't it? We are going Friday morning to get her driving permit. Now that is scary. If I never blog again you'll know why.

Rave: I think I'm done. I need to take the dogs for a w-a-l-k. Shhhh, don't say it out loud, they will both start freaking out.

See? they won't even stand still. Now I have to go or they'll start beating down the door.

Have a great day and a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Rest of My Hats

2009-11-23T16:19:00.002-06:00

If you can remember way way back to the beginning of the month, I did a post on My Many Hats, kind of a chronicle of the jobs I've held. In case you're having trouble remembering, it was the post that had those amazing firemen. I think most of you stopped reading there, but that's okay. It was a really good picture.

The other day someone I haven't seen or spoken to in almost 20 years friended me on Facebook (yes, I still have my FB account. Deal with it). Naturally this got me thinking about the past, which led to thinking about how we were friends when I was working at a bar, which in turn reminded me that I haven't shared the rest of my jobs.

When I ended my last post I had moved back home (which wasn't really home anymore because my whole family had moved) and was working for CBT's dad at Ronco. That didn't last too long because I don't think I really wanted a job. All I really wanted to do was go bar hopping. Sure I was only 18, but I had a pretty good fake ID. Besides, the dive bars that we frequented rarely checked IDs.

So anyway, after 6 months or so the semester had ended, the "big breakup" had already occurred (I tried to link a post that talked about it, but I can't find one, and honestly who wants to read about it anyway), I quit working at Ronco and headed back out west to spend the summer with my parents... that's when I met the first of many mistakes (I didn't marry this one tho). He was everything the other boyfriend wasn't -- which was what I thought I needed. He never went to college, he was dark and mysterious, he was a poet and a rebel, he rode a motorcycle (which I bought for him, but that's beside the point). I supported this would-be artist by working as a receptionist for a lawyer. Well, I say working, but again, this didn't last long. I can't remember the guys name, but in the phone book he was listed under AAA Law or something. You know, having the As in front will move you up in the phone book so everyone sees your name first. Needless to say, we had a lot of (ahem) interesting clients. I'll never forget talking to a man on the phone and asking if I could have his number so the lawyer could call him back. He said he was in jail and that he'd need to talk to him now... I was shocked. I really had no idea what to say to this man. "Oh what did you do?" didn't seem quite right. Anyway, I quit working there shortly after. Well, really I got fired. Seriously, the lawyer wanted me there at 8 in the morning! Come on! I was 18 years old and having fun! I didn't want to get up at 8! I usually made it in around 10. Needless to say, I got axed.

Luckily I soon found work as a receptionist at a salon and spa. I loved this job. It was fairly high end, but the people were nice and the owner and I got along well. Neil (the owner) and his wife Cathy kind of took me under their wing and taught me all about fashion and style. I should probably remind you here that I went to private catholic schools when I was growing up (9-12 was all girls). I knew precisely squat about how to dress, how to put on make-up, how badly I needed to wax my eyebrows (and other places). When I started working there I was -- well, not fat per se, but I was kinda chunky, I only wore Express sweaters (that's pretty much all I had at this point), and I had long hair that pretty much had no style. By the time I left I had a short sassy cut, two distinct eyebrows, I was 20lbs lighter, and I was hot. Okay so maybe I'm the only one that thought it, but I thought I was a babe. I'd like to say here that I dumped the parasite and fell in love with a prince, but that didn't happen. I was dumped. Again. Actually repeatedly. He'd call and make up whenever he needed me to buy him something, but other than that, I was dumped. And too stupid to realize it. One day his older brother had pity on me and came over and laid it out straight. He said he loved his brother but couldn't stand to see what he was doing to me.

So what did I do? I quit my job and moved back to the mid-south. So now I have no family and no job (still had a couple friends tho, thank God). And I still had my fake ID. To say I hit the bars would be a bit of an understatement, but we'll go with it for now. There was one little bar by the university that was a popular hangout, and I pretty much moved in. After a few months of drinking there, I realized it would be more cost effective to work there too, so there's my next job. Every once in a while someone would order food, but mainly what I can remember is beer kegs and live music. It was great -- for a while. Then came that damn wild hair of mine, and I ran off with the owner of the bar. Yep. We took off and that was that.

So this is the man that I would eventually marry. I was 20, he was 32. I was young and stupid ~~he was just stupid~~. He tried his hand at a couple jobs but really all he knew was running a bar, so the minute I turned 21 we opened one. Wait, what? Why did he wait? Could it be because he couldn't get a liquor license in his own name? Argh. That's a whole other post. I did say I was stupid, remember. Anyway, we were in a big city in the south, and we opened up a little bar-n-grill. We had fun for several months, the place was always crowded and we had live music (once the Allman Bros), but then I found out I was pregnant. I was too afraid to tell my parents I was pregnant and coming home, so I told them I was pregnant and getting married. They ~~were thrilled~~ coped as best they could. The thing about working in bars, in case you don't know, is that there are so many drugs. I mean, I don't consider myself naive, but you wouldn't believe the stuff I saw, and I'm not just talking about "mary jane." I was shocked, and I knew that there was no way I was raising a child in that environment. So we did what I do best: we left.

After having my daughter I was pretty much home most of the time. I was in and out of school, but it was hard to focus on that with a baby at home. Then I found out I was pregnant with my second child. Ex-husband did not hold on to jobs well and I knew if we were gonna eat it would be up to me, so I got a job at a children's store (employee discount, duh). It was a family owned place and they really took care of me, but once baby #2 came I was done. Besides, I knew I really needed to get back to school.

That's pretty much it. I went back to school full time and got a BS in biochemistry (and a divorce). I worked in several different labs (p chem lab, med school lab) to make some money, but after I graduated I knew I'd need to find something "real" to do. I wrote about it in this post. I got through pharmacy school and now I'm doing a job that I absolutely love.

So, here I am with my current hats:

Mother to teenagers
Wife to Bob
Pack-leader to Juneau and Jenny
Pharmacist Extraordinaire
Habitat for Humanity Board Member
Junior Service Club Member
Hope Rescues volunteer
Piano Student
Field Hockey Mom
Queen of the castle
Maid/cook/housekeeper/dog walker
Blogger

How many hats do you wear?

Six Word Saturday

2009-11-21T13:13:00.002-06:00

For more Six Word Saturday be sure to go to Show My Face . She's got a huge Mr Linky thing going on, so be sure to stop by.

For Happy Hour Friday this week I posted a picture of my new iPhone case, and as usual I had the phone in front of me so you couldn't see my face. Otie, dear boy that he is, commented that he hates it when people do that. Well, since I'm all about keeping my peeps happy, here is my Six Words:

DEAR OTIE, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU

So Otin there ya go. Wrinkles and all. I didn't even brush my hair. Well, I did this morning, but that was like 6 hours ago. Boom. You owe me now.

Happy Hour Friday

2009-11-19T23:12:00.000-06:00

You should know by now this is my favorite post of the week. Yes, sometimes it's my only post of the week, but I'm working on that! Through emails with my good friend Otie we came up with this weekly gem and hope you like it. Go to Otie's site and join the fun!

Here are some things that are making me happy today:

My new iFrogz case came! I think I told you about it at some point. Anyway, isn't it cool? Nope, it's not, it's hot. Hot Pink, that is. (Gotta love teenagers. She wouldn't be in the picture with me, but at least I got her two fingers. )

In case you can't remember, here's my old case:

Ok blogger you suck

Ok is Blogger frustrating you?? I don't like this new picture up-load thingie.
Ummm okay back to Happy Thoughts
Tonight is another Junior Service night. After the meeting, which hopefully wont last too long, we are going to one of my favorite wine bars, Erato. I love it. In case you forgot (how could you??) last weekend we had Girls Night Out. It was okay, but it was at a bar-bar, not a wine bar, and the wine wasn't that good so I didn't stay too long. But here's a pic of a few of the JSC girlies:

Hahaha I just realized I'm the only one without a drink in my hand!!! Trust me, that doesn't happen often.

I'm happy that I have a clean house and haven't had to lift a finger. Okay that's not true, I had to lift a couple fingers to pay my child, but I'd rather pay her than ~~do it myself~~ have a dirty house. She's trying to raise money to go to Mexico with her friend over spring break, so all I have to do is wave cash in front of her and she'll clean.
I'm happy that my other daughter has a job. She works at Dippin Dots and seems really happy with it. That, of course, makes me happy.
I'm happy that I got a fabulous surprise from Ali (from Inner Ramblings of a Mid-Life Mama) in the mail! It's a Union Jack heart shape pin because I love love love the UK. Plus the card was funny which is always a good thing to get.

I'm happy that today while I was taking a long, hot bath (and not cleaning or anything else) I decided what I want for Christmas and my birthday (cuz they're only a week apart). I want airline tickets to Denmark so I can go to Blog Camp 3.0 at Julochka's. Hubby's probably gonna say no. And then I'm gonna ~~wine~~ whine a lot. And then maybe he'll come around, but I kinda doubt it. But since I don't know the answer yet, I am still hopeful and therefore still happy.
I'm happy that I still had some candy corn left. I ate ~~several large handfuls~~ some for lunch. I'd like to blame it on Bee since she sent me an email to thank me for sending her candy corn, but actually I already opened it before I got the email. It must have been her fault tho, normally I wouldn't eat candy corn for lunch. Besides, now I'm hungry!
Oh yeah, speaking of both Julochka and hungry, I bought the new cookbook I wanted. Well, actually it isn't the one I was looking for, but it's by the same author: Nigella Lawson. It's her holiday cookbook and since I'm going to my mom's house it'll be fun to try new stuff on the family. Plus it has lots of drink recipes in there, and if your family is anything like my family, you need lots of drinks to get thru the holidays!
I'm happy that I'm done with this post...and I'm sure you are too. Don't forget to go click on Oties's thingie, and also visit the others that are joining us for Happy Hour Friday!

Rant and Rave Wednesday

2009-11-18T11:18:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I've done a Rant and Rave Wednesday and today seems like a good day to get some stuff off my chest. Be sure to stop by Little Ms Blogger and see what she's Rantin' and Ravin' about today.

Rave: I'm so happy LMB put a Mr Linky on her site so we can all see who's ranting and raving. It's a great way to see new bloggers.

Rant: I joined NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month) and we're supposed to write a book this month. 50,000 words. I have squat and it's past mid-month. I don't wanna be a loser, but I don't see it happening.

Rave: I got an award! Two of them actually, but since it's the same award I'm only gonna count it as one. Both of the fabulous bloggers, Fidgeting Gidget and Esmerelda, have bestowed upon me the I Should Have Been a Stripper Award. However did they know I am ~~used to be~~ ~~once for my husband pretended~~ love this award? Thank you so much ladies!

On a side note, I thought I read somewhere that this is not the proper name for this award and that somehow it got messed up. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, feel free to leave the proper name.

Rant: There are always rules to awards. I'll follow some and some I wont. Here are the rules:

Post it (done)
List 7 personality traits

Bitchy (yep it's true)
Winey (no I didn't mean whiny)
Friendly (most of the time)
Procrastinating (usually)
Hungry (what? I'm ready for lunch)
Witty (at least I think I am)
Lovable (awww, ain't that sweet?)
Sexy (yeah that's 8, but I am. So there. You can add rebellious too.)

Pass it on to 7 other worthy bloggers. No. I ain't gonna. BUT if you have always wanted to be a stripper and think you'd look good as a pink Peep, this award is yours for the taking! Really, just snap it up and post it on your blog. We won't tell. Say it's from me.

Rant: My ~~damn~~ ~~lovable~~ dog keeps scratching at the door. All stinking morning it's let the dog in let the dog out let the dog in let the dog out let the dog in let the dog out.

Rave: KU beat Memphis last night. Okay really I'm not a huge KU fan, or basketball in general, but I bet CBT again and again I WON! I wonder what sort of foolishness he's gonna try this time.

Rant: Or Rave: I haven't decided yet. Tonight we are going to another basketball game. It's SLU Billikins (hubby is an alum). I like basketball ok, but really, a double header last night and another game tonight. That's a little much for me. At least basketball is inside so I don't have to worry about the weather. On the bright side hubby is taking me out for dinner first, so it's like a real date. And I'll get wine. Okay, let's put it under Rave.

Rave: I have nothing to do today. Of course I could be doing laundry or cleaning or any number of domestic things around the house, but instead I'm going to shower, nap, read, and blog. Ha. Plus I've already walked the dogs AND worked-out, so I am all set to veg out for a while.

Go check out Little Ms Blogger!

Oh SNAP! This is my 100th post! Woohooo!

Gimme an F!

2009-11-16T13:44:00.000-06:00

Gimme an R! Gimme an E! Gimme an A! Gimme a K!

Or

HOW TO LOSE A BET WITH STYLE

Okay really I think my good buddy and longtime ~~freak~~ friend Carbuncle Trumpet is just a nut. Well, he's a Cubs fan, so you gotta give him a little bit of credit for sticking with them for, what is it now? 104 years or something? Hell I don't even remember. It's been a long time since the Cubs have seen any post-season action.

Now before you get all up in my grill lemme just say that I am a Cards fan, but really I'm just one who likes to go to games when the weather is nice for the pure enjoyment of getting out and socializing. Do I like when the Cards win? Sure. Do I get all emotional when they lose? No. Do I stay for the whole game if the weather is crappy? Hell no. I don't care enough about it to go freeze my ass off for 9 innings. I am a fair weather fan -- literally. So sue me. And hand me a glass of wine (beer makes me belchy and bloaty).

Anyway, I digress. Waaaaay back at the beginning of baseball season my buddy CBT bet me that the Cubs would beat the Cards. I said You're On! So the deal was every time the Cards/Cubs had a series we'd bet 10 cents a run and $1 a game. At the end the loser would have to pay up. This season, as luck would have it, the Cards triumphed. I started texting good ol CBT to pay up the $4.50 he owed me. I guess maybe we should have set the ground rules so that I didn't get letters like these popping up in my mailbox:

I'm good with the "Honorable Rx Bambi". And my mailman, although I'm sure he doesn't know me as such, might have gotten a kick out of "that crazy lady who has a glass of wine in her hand and the other on her keyboard". Although I have to admit that one came with "The Boss of Susan" and that didn't go over very well.

You may be wondering why there were so many letters mailed out. It was only a measly $4.50. Apparently you and I are not well acquainted with the inner workings of the CBT mind.

On September 24, the first letter arrived with a penny taped to it.

On September 26, a second letter arrived with a Belizean quarter. Apparently the exchange rate is half that of US currency, so it is worth $0.125. Yep. Nice.

On September 27th I hit the big time with a Belizean dollar. $0.50 US. Whoo hoo!

The next payment was in the form of an IOU for one Marlon drink. A Marlon drink is a CBT family member currently working in a bar in San Pedro Town in Belize (see photo). Estimated price $1.25 US. I hope they have wine in Belize.

Finally I hit pay-dirt with a real live check for $3.50 (in actual US dollars this time).

I should have known better than to enter a bet with this man. Just you wait til next season CBT! Oh, no wait, I'm sure the Cards will stomp you again. I'll have to wait to see what you can come up with!

Be sure to check out CBT, maybe he can make your head spin too!

Happy Hour Friday

2009-11-13T11:25:00.000-06:00

My good friend Otie and I decided to get together every friday and have a Happy Hour. Today is gonna be pushing it because I'm sick, I'm cranky, and I'm working. That is kinda the trifecta of misery. Anyway, I certainly don't want to let Otie down, or you down (cuz you are the only good part of my day), so I'm gonna find the silver lining and let you know all the good things that have happened this week.

It is an absolutely beautiful day here. Sunny, a little crisp, good fall weather. Of course I'm stuck inside working, but that sounds negative and we are only positive here at HHF.
My tech just went to The Abbey and got me a white chocolate mocha. It's not Starbucks, but it'll do in a pinch. She even paid. I guess being sick and cranky has it's upside.
I haven't had to cook all week cuz my family doesn't want my germs.
This weekend I'm finally going to go buy that new cookbook I want, and hopefully I'll be cooking next week. Which cookbook, you might ask? I can't remember, but Julochka has talked about it so I'll just go to domestic sensualist and figure it out.
Junior Service is having a Girls Night Out tomorrow. I hope I'm feeling better because I'd like to go. On the other hand it's at a bar that doesn't have a very good wine selection so if I'm not feeling better it's not going to be that big of a deal.
I just ordered a new iFrogz cover for my iPhone. It's hot pink. That makes me happy. But I don't have it yet so that makes me not so happy. Hopefully it'll be in the mail today or tmro.
I got felt up Wednesday. Insurance even paid for it. How good is that? Well, it wasn't that exciting and only lasted a minute, so maybe it wasn't all the great after all.
My dog woke me up at 4am puking. Whats so good about that? She did it on the hardwood and not the rug. See. Silver lining. That's what I'm all about.
Ummm. Huh. Well I guess that's it. What are you happy about today? Go see Otie, clink on his thingie, and let us know.
Have a great weekend!!

Things I've Learned

2009-11-08T08:58:00.000-06:00

Some background:
A few years ago at Christmas the kids were talking about everything they wanted; computers, ipods, phones, clothes, etc. It was out of control. Hubby and I decided that the girls needed a good dose of reality and they needed to see how fortunate they are and hopefully learn to have some compassion for others. Then hubby and I looked at each other and realized we were just as bad as the kids. When we wanted something we went out and bought it, and we were doing nothing to give back to the community.

We talked about different charities we could get involved with but there was really nothing that spoke to both of us. Shortly after that I noticed that our community was starting a new chapter of Habitat for Humanity. That was one that spoke to us both.

This weekend I attended a Habitat for Humanity International conference in Champaign, Illinois. It was so great to see so many people focused on a common goal: helping the deserving poor find adequate housing. It was motivating, energizing, and yes, even fun. I thought I'd share a few things with you that you might not know about HFH.

DID YOU KNOW:

that adequate housing is a basic human right? In 1948 the United Nations defined housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living.
that HFH doesn't "give houses to the homeless?" HFH families pay a mortgage, taxes, insurance, etc.
that having a Habitat house in your neighborhood does NOT decrease the value of your home? In fact studies show it is the opposite.
that there is no county in the US that a person can work 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job and afford even a one-bedroom apartment at the local fair-market rent?
that an average HFH family makes too much money to qualify for government housing, but not enough money to purchase a house on their own?
that joining your local HFH affiliate is a fun way to meet new people while feeling good about giving back to the community?
that not all HFH volunteers have to know how to use power tools? There is about a bazillion things you can do: help with fundraisers, chair committees, pound the pavement, get a group of friends together and have a build day, make lunch for the construction people, etc
that you can get a pink hardhat and a raspberry tool belt?
that you can make life-long friends, have fun, do something worthwhile?
that you can change the lives of others?

Happy Hour Friday

2009-11-05T21:26:00.000-06:00

I have so much to be thankful for and of course since it's Happy Hour Friday I will share! I just want to mention my wonderfully wonderful bloggy boytoy OTIE because he is the super bestest. Be sure to check him out. I always do (hahahaha)

It has been a long week and I haven't even been working -- at least not working for pay. Well that's not true, Tuesday I got paid to work as a real life pharmacist (always a good thing!). The week has been so busy for me because I have spent several hours volunteering for the field hockey booster club. It was kinda fun. We went to the high school and sold frozen yogurt. The teens were all so nice and polite to us old farts. It was kinda cool to spend a couple days back in high school. I got to see the jocks, the geeks, the stoners, the math clubbers, the princesses, and quite a few normal people -- well as normal as teenagers can be anyway. There were a couple that looked like they came right out of 1985. It was great!

source, like totally

it's like my source, gag me with a spoon

Ok but there was this one chick. We only had vanilla ice cream, but we had four choices of toppings (you could have any number of toppings you wanted for no extra charge). Anyway, we had 1 person taking money, one marking down the number of cups sold, and I was scooping out the toppings. Because I was handling food I had to wear gloves (makes sense, right?). Anyway this one girl comes up and asked (politely) for a cup and I asked her what toppings she'd like. She started touching the spoons and stuff that were inside the topping containers and stirring them around. Now, on the one hand this isn't a major issue. However, we were trying to be as careful as possible about having the kids looming over the toppings and I was personally doing the scooping to keep hands out of the bins. One of the other parents politely said not to touch the spoons, took it out of her hand, and replaced it with a new spoon. I then asked her what toppings she wanted. She just turned away from me and pouted and said she didn't care anymore! I just laughed at her and looked at her friend (who was planning on sharing with her) and asked which toppings she'd like. The first girl just continued to pout and sulked away, but the 2nd girl was nice and got the ice cream. After they left the one mom (who is president of the booster club) told me that the pouty girl was a trouble maker and had been kicked off of several soccer teams because of her attitude, and had spent time in "South" ( the alternative school). She said I handled her brilliantly because I didn't let her give me any crap. I did all this without know who this kid was, I just knew she was being a little snot. It kinda made me giggle.
Muppet, our little foster dog, is going to get tutored tomorrow. I had to drop him off today tho because I'm going out of town trmo. He was so sweet. I believe he has a Forever Home to go to after his surgery. It's a retired lady who wants a friend. He was definitely a snuggle buddy so she should be happy with him. I hope so.
I tried to put a picture of him here but blogger is being ~~a shit~~ goofy. You can see him here tho. Okay... no you can't. He's not on the website anymore. It must be because he really does have his forever home. But I decided to leave the link cuz there are lots of other adorably wonderful doggies that need love.
You can also go to Barbs site and here too to read about Tommy. You should do it. It's important that you see what kind of people are in the world. It's sick. But it's part of HHF because Tommy is safe now and going to be loved the rest of his little life. Plus I got to see him today and he's gained 8 pounds!!
I LOST 4 pounds!! Okay yes, it's all water weight but I'd rather it be flowing thru the sewer than sitting on my ass so I'm all for it!
Oh, duh, I'm going out of town tomorrow. My good friend and fellow H4H board member Joy and I are going to Champaign (UofI) for a Habitat for Humanity International Conference. We are gonna learn all kinds of good stuff to make our chapter better. Plus there's gonna be wine (in the evenings, not during the lectures silly!)
I was chatting online with Otie today and we were talking about poo. It was funny and made me laugh out loud. Yes, I am amused by bodily functions. Maybe I was a boy in a former life. Or a future one? Maybe I've just been married too long.
I am super happy that I didn't lose any followers again this week. Sorry I have been MIA but I've been a little busy. No excuse, I understand, but please forgive me! Oh and let's give a warm welcome to Dad, my newest follower, who showed up this week even tho I haven't. You gotta love that.
I am happy, as I'm sure you are too, that I'm done with this post. Now I'm going to go have a glass of wine.

Happy Friday everyone! Go see Otie and click on his Mr Linky (he really likes it when you do that!)

My Many Hats

2009-11-02T20:43:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago my good friend Green-Eyed Momster did a post about the different jobs she's had. Okay well actually I have a confession to make. I'm not 100% sure it was GEM. I looked on her site to find it and I cant. So if I'm wrong please let me know. But I think it was GEM.

Okay so on to my post.

My first job was at the Video Show. NO OTIE!! Not that kind of show. It was a movie rental place, like Blockbuster, but not. It was just a mom-n-pop type video store with one copy of every movie. Well probably not every movie cuz it was pretty small. I worked there with my two best friends. On the one hand that seems like a great idea, but think about it. Every weekend night one of us was working! It sucked! One bonus tho was that the back door looked out onto the yard of a fire station.
Now.
You know how I feel about men in kilts, yes? Well, I feel pretty much the same way about firemen. They are so strong and brave and save kitties from trees. When everyone is running out of a burning building they are rushing in to save grandmas and babies. And I think they are usually paramedics too, so they are good with their mouths.

photo source

See what I mean? Oh my. I think it's gotten a little hot in here.

My second job was at Pizza Hut. It was right next to the Video Show and I got to know the guys there because I ~~am a heifer and~~ always ate pizza. Unfortunately when I started working there they needed someone at a different location, so I didn't get to see my firemen anymore. That was kind of a bummer. The good news is that the store I worked in was a take-out or delivery store (not dine-in). At this time (late 80s) you never saw a female delivery driver. I can't tell you how many times I heard "MOM! The delivery boy is a GIRL!" Needless to say I was tipped very well. I usually made twice as much as the guys. I loved it! There was one problem tho. I loved pizza. I still love pizza. Everyone told me not to worry about it, I'd get sick of pizza, but it never happened. I worked there for probably 6 months and I ate pizza every day. Whenever we "messed" up a pie we got to take it home. One day my mom told me to stop bringing it home cuz the family was sick of it. I wasn't sick of it. I finally had to quit or buy a new wardrobe.

source

My next job was at the Limited Express. I've linked the site, but you have to remember that I was working there in the late 80s, early 90s. It was great. I was a freshman in college (remember I moved 1500 miles away from everyone I knew). I made some great friends and got some great clothes. Oh but I digress. What I remember most is the sweaters. I must have purchased my whole paycheck on sweaters very week. Okay I want you to think back... way way back.. okay are you back in the 80s? I can totally picture my outfits: stirrup pants tucked into suede boots and a big baggy sweater worn over it (off-the-shoulder cut optional). Can you see it? That was me.

My next job was with our wonderful awesome gotta-have-it CBT! Well, not actually with him, but with his dad. It was at a pasta company called Ronco. I think. Hell it was a long time ago. It had something to do with pasta (yummm, love that almost as much as pizza, firemen, and scottish guys in kilts!). Anyway, no free pasta for me tho, it was an office job. Filing things. Papers, actually. I don't think I stayed long. But CBTs dad is a hoot.

Ok, well I think I need more time to get my next few jobs in. They are actually real jobs (owning a bar, etc) and I'm ready to go to bed. So, tomorrow my friends... Well, probably wednesday since I'm working tomorrow!

Good night and happy monday!

Happy Hour Friday

2009-10-29T20:52:00.000-05:00

So once upon a time there was this fabulously hot prince, his name was Otie. He looked something like this:

He was desperately on love with this chick, Bambi, but no one knows what she looked like because she was always the one taking the photos of her prince. Some say she may look something like this (but with bangs):

But no one knows for sure. As usual, since she was the woman, she had to do everything. But I digress.

One day they decided to do a joint blog, and they called it Happy Hour Friday. They had a good friend named Hit40 (truth is stranger than fiction) and she made them a picture.

And they all got along happily ever after.

UNTIL

One day, this absentee prince was way far away from our Bambi. Bambi got lonely and met Bobby. Bobby was a real man. He had a job and everything. We love Bobby.

Bobby swept her off her feet, and took her out for dinner, and to drink wine. Lots of it.

One night they went to a restaurant and had this wine, along with brushetta, scallops, and all kinds of yummy stuff. It was a very romantic evening. Needless to say, when Bambi got home, she wanted to show Bobby how much she appreciated the date. She did not want to spend time blogging. Alas, she decided to put together a quickie to keep Otie happy. Bambi cares.

To see more Happy Hour Fridays, go see Otie and tell him you love him. Then you can click his Mr Linky (trust me, he likes it) and join in the fun.

Happy Friday!!

Theme Thursday

2009-10-28T22:08:00.000-05:00

Of course the week before Halloween today's theme is, you guessed it, Halloween. For more Theme Thursday participants be sure to go here.

Although this isn't particularly about Halloween, it is a little creepy, so I thought I'd share it with you tonight. As I'm sure I mentioned at one time or another, I had a boyfriend that I totally loved. Seriously, I thought we were going to get married. We didn't. But that's another story. My point is that I loved his family. I considered his parents as my own. Not that my parents weren't enough, they definitely were, but I loved his parents as well.

This boy (because surely that's what he was at the time) and I broke up... or rather he dumped me, but I'm sure I was a major part of the problem ( I had issues). But I never stopped loving his parents. A few years went by, I had moved to Reno and had just given birth to my second child. I called this boy (who was by this time a man), because we still talked occasionally. He told me his father just died. In fact I had called on the day of the funeral. I was shocked. I was heart broken. I was 1500 miles away with a new baby, a two year old, a good-for-nothing husband, and I couldn't make it to the funeral. Honestly I was devastated. I always wondered if I had made it to that funeral would things have turned out differently with us. Probably not, but that's where my mind was.

Anyway, over the next few days I was just crushed at not being able to be with this boy, or his mother, in their time of need. My then-husband and I were fighting (as usual) one night, I don't even remember what it was about. I got out of bed and went into my daughters bed to sleep with her. I was curled up on my right side facing the wall, with my back to the bedroom door.

A few minutes later I heard my husband come in the room. He stood over me for a minute or so, then put his hand on my left shoulder and squeezed it lovingly. I figured he was trying to make up since he was such an ass. I took my right hand and placed it on top of his (which was still on my shoulder). I felt the wiry little hairs beneath my palm. I felt the cold hard metal of his ring. I squeezed back in acknowledgment. Only then did I turn to look at the hand I was holding.

It was not my husbands hand.

I could see the Ole Miss class ring clearly, the ruby red gem in the center glinting from the light in the hall. I was holding the hand of my ex-boyfriends dead father.

I sat up with disbelief, but he was gone. He had always said he hoped we would stay together, and I think he knew how desperately I wished I could tell him a proper goodbye. I never saw Mr Jim again after that night, but sometimes I still think about him. I'd want him to know that even tho things didn't turn out as I planned, they turned out the way they were supposed to, and that is always okay.

Happy Halloween

Random Tuesday

2009-10-27T11:48:00.000-05:00

Hooray for Random Tuesday Thoughts brought to us by the fabulous Un-Mom. Be sure to check her out and see what random things are on her mind today.

Last night I made a real dinner from a real cookbook and wore my real apron. Everyone loved it. I am a Super Star Mommy-Chef. Even the big dogs were happy because they got the bones!
I am so glad it's raining AGAIN. What? You don't believe me? Well I am. Cuz this is the perfect day to wear my new rain shoes! I had some others, the kind with the leather ties, and the ties broke. I couldn't find anyone to fix them and honestly, for what I paid for them they should not have broken. That's okay. I sent them back, got my refund, and bought these. They are less expensive so I actually saved my hubby money by purchasing these.

This little guy we are fostering is pretty darn cute, but he's also annoying. He keeps trying to sit on my laptop. This makes it difficult to type. Plus since he's not neutered yet and is a male dog he keeps trying to mark his territory... in my house. That's not making me thrilled. But I'm trying to be a loving and caring foster mommy anyway. He is supposed to be getting 'tutored' this week sometime. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's my previous post.
I told a few of my haiku poems to my ~~slave driver~~ trainer this morning. Her favorite was the Gravity one. I think it's probably my favorite too. We are going to work on pecs more.
I'm thinking you should all go over and visit my wonderful sister Barb. She really does exist. She must; she blogs. Plus she's doing the Five Little Words meme.
Piano is outrageously hard. I love it. Right now I'm trying ~~in vain~~ to learn Fur Elise. I've got the first couple lines down, but my timing is off. That's okay tho because it is way above my level of expertise, it is just something I have always wanted to play. Right now I'm at an 'Oh Susannah' level, which is not bad, but no where near people asking me to play at parties... which they will probably never do anyway... which is okay.
Did I ever tell you I don't use drive-thrus? The reason is because at one of the pharmacies I worked in, everyone that came to the drive-thru was fat. Seriously. I vowed then that if I was too fat and lazy to get out of my car to get my cheeseburger, I probably didn't need it anyway.
I don't really eat much fast food. Usually I'd only encounter a drive-thru at Starbucks or the bank. Although to be honest sometimes we have fast food when I have lunch at the Med Shoppe. It's free, what the hell.
I really should be cleaning my house and not sitting in my blog pod. I just tried to link blog pod to it's original owner, and silly me, I can't remember who it was that first to tell us about her blog pod. I'm guessing it was either VEG or OP. If you know, or if it's you, please let me know. And if you don't have your own, it's very easy to make with items you already have!
I think that's all the random crap in my head right now. If you go to Un-Moms site you can click the Mr Linky and see what other random people are thinking. Have a great tuesday!

Another Day, Another Dog

2009-10-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

Well I did it. Maybe I am the Crazy Dog Lady. I just can't help myself. You probably know that my wonderful sister, Barb, and I volunteer at Hope Rescues. And you probably also know that we have both fostered dogs in the past. Barb fostered Happy Gilmore and more recently Snickers, who both have Forever Homes now. I have been a foster mom for Tumbleweed and for Jenny, but then we adopted Jenny so she's all ours now. It's been a while since I've fostered anyone. I don't know why I felt I needed to do it again. Maybe I got too complacent at not having another challenge. Maybe I thought I needed another 14 pounds of warm body weight added to my lap whenever I sit down. Maybe I was chilly and needed a little bit of fur to warm my toes. Maybe I got tired of not cleaning up pee. Maybe I just couldn't say no to this little guy because his mom died and now he's in a shelter with a bunch of big dogs.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for a sob story and good trick.

Isn't he sweet? I don't think Juneau likes him much, or Jenny for that matter. But the rest of us think he's freakin adorable. Well, okay, hubby isn't thrilled about the idea either, but he'll come around sooner or later...

Happy Hour Friday

2009-10-22T21:47:00.002-05:00

My good friend OTIN and I had this wonderful idea to focus on Happy things on Fridays, and so a few weeks ago Happy Hour Friday was born. Hit 40 made us this awesome picture to go with it. Be sure to stop by their sites and see what they are happy about today.

I am SO happy that today is Friday because I have worked hard all week and I do NOT have to work today.
I'm also SO happy that I didn't lose any followers this week since I've been kinda MIA. It's not on purpose tho, it just working, working, working...
I'm extra happy that I even got a NEW follower. Welcome to my humble little blog. Okay, maybe not so humble... but still welcome.
I am super happy that my BRAND NEW GREEN WASHER AND DRYER are broken. Well, the washer is anyway. AND it's brand stinking new in case you didn't see that. Grrrrrr. The guy was supposed to come out today and fix it, but the part he ordered was not the part that was broken, so now it'll be next TUESDAY before it's fixed. Why does this make me happy? IT DOESN'T! Instead of going out on a real date my hubby and I spent the evening at the laundry mat doing a weeks worth of laundry. WONDERFUL.
It made me laugh when my favorite tech called me Ms Rappy Pants. It's cuz I was singing Baby Got Back in the pharmacy -- no there weren't any patients in there -- and I think I was doing a pretty good job of it. Click here for the lyrics.
Here they are. Those goofy boys. Don't they make you laugh too?

I'm happy that hubby and I went to a new sushi place yesterday. It's called Wasabi and it was freaking awesome. I think I need more.
I'm happy that I'll be spending Saturday with my friend and we are gonna scrapbook all day. No boys allowed.
I'm happy that I'm learning some cool songs on the piano, but it's getting really hard and I don't feel like I'm doing well. But I'm sticking with it and hoping one day it just clicks and I become awesome.
I'm happy that I'm a SUPER STAR cuz I was in the newspaper last week. And in the paper in a town about 30 miles away from us. I think that makes me an intercounty SUPER STAR. Of course people keep asking me why I didn't smile or why I wore what I did and why didn't my hair look better. It was for Junior Service and Habitat for Humanity. And it was a Saturday morning. Sheesh. Being a SUPER STAR is hard work...

Photo source here

Well I guess that's it for me...
What's making you happy today?

Five Little Words - Penultimate Finale

2009-10-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

Little Ms Blogger set me up with Five Little Words some time last week, but I keep spouting from the mouth and making each word much longer than it has to be. Sorry, it's just what I do. If you want to see my take on the first three words you can look here and here. Without further ado, here are my last two words.

CAREER
I took a circuitous route to get to where I am today. When I first started college I was a French major. The thought of doing anything sciency never entered my mind. Then I considered International Business, but I really wasn't excited about it, plus I had transferred schools and wasn't really doing all that great. If my major had been playing hooky I'd have aced it. I spent a few years going back and forth, then I got married and had a couple kids, then before I knew what was happening I was a single mom with 2 little girls. I finally got my act together with the help of a couple close friends (I've mentioned them before) and got a degree in biochem, although there isn't much you can do with a biochem degree except be a peon in a lab or go for a PhD. Throughout my ~~long and illustrious~~ undergraduate years I kept taking career aptitude tests and they kept coming back "pharmacist" or "speech pathologist". I always immediately dismissed pharmacy thinking I didn't want to spend my life in a grocery store. When I graduated with my biochem degree I finally decided "what the hell" and decided to go to pharmacy school. I packed up my girls and moved 1500 miles in order to be near Barb and go to school. Imagine my surprise when I got wait-listed. I was devastated. I thought maybe I was right all along and pharmacy wasn't for me. I thought I'd give the whole speech pathology thing a look and shadowed someone for a day. One day. I hated it. I remember going to Barbs and crying crying crying. She said there was nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mom, but I wasn't married at the time. There wasn't much for an over-educated under-qualified single mom to do.
A few months later I got a phone call from the pharmacy school. I got in. I was so excited! It never occurred to me to be nervous or scared, I just did it. It wasn't easy tho. As I said, I was a single mother and in a school with a reputation of being difficult. I remember my Dad telling me that he hoped I'd stick with it. I entered as a 3rd year student, and it was a 6 year degree. So for 4 years school was pretty much my life. I did, however, find time to fall in love and get married to the man of my dreams, but I'm sure I've already told you about him.
Before I had even graduated I had a full time job at Schnucks. I loved it, and I think Schnucks is a great company to work for, but there was one problem: the hours. Most nights I wouldn't get home until 10pm, plus I had to work every-other weekend. Add to that the fact that I was newly married and had pre-teen age girls. I just needed to be home more.
There is a story about my breaking point, but I'm not going to put it here. Suffice it to say that I decided to venture out on "my own" as a free-lance pharmacist. I LOVE it. I work when I want to, I have contacts all over the area. Some weeks I work every day, sometimes I just work a day or 2 a week. I rarely work saturdays, but I will now and then to fill in for friends. I can honestly say that this is what I was meant to do. I love knowing that I'm actively helping people, and yes even saving lives. You don't think so? I'll tell you more if you want, but this is already longer than I wanted. My point is, I feel good about myself, my choices, my career.
And the best thing about it shows if you look at my profile. First I am a mother to teenage girls, then I am a wife, then I am a pharmacist.
There are some people that wish they had it all. I have it.

Tune in next time for my Ultimate fifth word :)

Haiku Saturday

2009-10-17T10:29:00.000-05:00

I'm not really a poet, and I even know it, but just cuz I want to show it, this morning I wrote these. I came up with these while in the shower and getting ready for work. I thought of writing in Haiku because of the 5-7-5 structure.

AGING

*******************************************

Look at you standing

so proud, so strong and true.

One bastard gray hair.

*****************************************

You used to be there

for eyes, lips, and decolletage.

Collagen, come back!

*****************************************

What once was perky
now has fallen. Hoist 'em up.
Gravity, you suck.

*****************************************

He does not see you
but I come armed with tweezers.
Ear hair, I'll get you.

*****************************************

I wave but one time,
you continue the gesture.
The Bat Wing jiggle.

****************************************

Don't try to steal them, they're mine. Got it?

Do you Haiku? About what?

Happy Hour Friday

2009-10-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh finally Friday once again. My great friend Otin and I came up with this idea a few weeks back and Hit 40 jumped on board and made us this great photo. Be sure to check them out and see what they are happy about today.

I don't know why I'm happy about this Friday because it is the only day this week that I will have worked! That doesn't seem quite right, does it? So okay, I'm happy that I am working Friday and will have spending money to go to the mall on Sunday.
I'm happy I'm having another good hair day. This makes two in a freaking row. I'm worried tho, now maybe the google hair gods will come down and smite me and I'll lose all my hair or maybe have 10,000 years of bad hair days or be plagued by split ends. But we'll worry about that later. Focus people! This is Happy Hour!!!
I am happy that so many of my bloggy friends and followers have linked their email addresses so I can respond to each comment personally. See, if you don't have your email on there, then I can't reply directly to you. Although the banter can sometimes be witty, I prefer the direct method. Besides we all have so many blogs to read, it gets overwhelming to have to go back to see if someone has commented on your comment. Know what I mean?
Speaking of Bloggy Friends, thank you so much to my 100th and 101st follower! I was going to give the 100th follower a gift (yes, I am copying McGillicutty, so sue me) but since I didn't get to notify her in time because she doesn't have her email linked!! I have decided to also give the 101st follower a gift. So, if you are Boylerpf, Gaston Studios or (holy fuckoli Batman I just got another follower) Mountain Woman please email me! I have no idea what I'm going to give you, but it'll be something darn it.
I'm happy I didn't get hauled off to jail yesterday when I went to go pay my speeding ticket. I'm also happy no one was gunned down. The court house can be a pretty scary place, and there must have been something going on cuz there was a line all around the inside of the first floor. There must be something going on at court on Wednesdays at 1pm. Any ideas? And it took forever to go through security. I felt like I was going on an airplane! After I paid my ticket and got out of there I had to go soothe myself with some retail therapy just to get thru the rest of the day. It was harsh I tell ya.
I'm happy Michel is not dead and is back and saving smelly pirate ho's babies.
I giggled over the fact that everyone assumed my Climate Change story was true. Well, it really did happen, but I changed the names to protect the irrational. I figured without the names you would know it was a story. You all just know me so well. I sure hope none of you has an ax. Really. I'm out of Axe Repellent. And I like my limbs and head attached where they are. And those of my family. I'm just saying.

Okay well that's it for me. Do the Mr Linky and join in why dontcha?

Theme Thursday

2009-10-15T10:57:00.001-05:00

Climate Change

Michael woke up that crisp October morning knowing it was going to happen, he just didn't know when. It would be soon though, he could feel it in the air. His wife had mentioned it just a couple days before, but you think he'd be used to it by now. It had been several years after all.

As he went through his work-day, thoughts of impending doom lessened as the anxieties of the financial world consumed his thoughts. The stress of the stock market crash usually over shadowed everything else, including that deep seeded fear of what was to come.

That evening as he walked in the door everything at home seemed normal. The aroma of cooking meat filled the kitchen and made his stomach rumble in anticipation. He didn't see any of his family, but the sound of the baby grand piano filled his ears as his wife toiled away, the odd note occasionally disrupting the tune she was learning. It seemed likely it wouldn't be today after all. As Michael sat down on the sofa with his laptop to check his fantasy football stats, he thought life was good.

As the timer on the oven shrilly announced that dinner was ready, the activity in the kitchen in increased exponentially. His beautiful wife raced in and planted a kiss on top of his head before getting the Le Creuset brazier out of the oven. His youngest daughter, now taller than her elder sisters, strode into the room with the grace of a ballerina. He thought perhaps there was a dark look in her eyes, but she turned away before he could be sure. Maybe he was getting worked up over nothing. His middle child, also a daughter, crashed through the back door with her total lack of grace, papers fluttering in her wake. He looked up and smiled, but she went right passed and up to her room, slamming the door behind her. This was not totally unexpected, of course, they were teenagers. As his eldest daughter came in the room he could feel the increased tension, although no one said a word. Apparently she was upset about something, but not the type to say anything. She went about getting herself a drink without acknowledging the rest of the family.

Finally his wife spoke, "Sweetie, could you please make the salad?" she asked the youngest. Although not happy about it, she nodded her assent. "Oh, and can you heat up the bread as well?" That was it. Those simple words and all hell broke loose.

"Why do I have to do everything?!" she bellowed. "Janie never has to do anything! I have to make the salad and heat the bread, what else do you want me to do, Mother?!"

In an effort to lighten the mood, his wife replied, "Well, you could feed the dogs for me as well." Then she went over to her daughter and poked her in the stomach. She knew she hated it, but it was a little game they all played, just to be annoying. It usually ended with laughter. Tonight, however, was a different story.

"Stop touching me! Why do you always do that? I hate it! I hate you!" She abruptly turned and ran out of the room. He could hear her bedroom door slam a few seconds later.

His wife took a deep breath and went to finish making the salad. No one spoke. His eldest daughter gathered her dinner plate and drink and stomped heavily up the stairs. The slamming of the door rattled the window panes.

Michael looked at his wife with a twinkle in his eye and a twitch at the corners of his mouth that could have been a smile. It happened. He'd been dreading it, but it always happened.
"It's that time of month again, isn't it?"

Ahhhh, the joy of daughters...

Rant and Rave Wednesday

2009-10-14T10:27:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Little Ms Blogger for initiating Rant and Rave Wednesday so that I can get it all out and yet still find some good stuff too. If I want to find good stuff that is.

*****************************************************************
Rave: I had a fabulous time checking everyone out at the Annual Willow Manor Ball. It was marvelously attended and my date, Otin, was quite the catch. Of course I think we all were quite fetching. It was fun and I can't wait until the 3rd annual Ball...

Rant: Stinkin Otin said he'd rather be there with Kate Beckinsale. Sheesh. That's okay tho, I had plenty of other dashing young highlanders lined up on my dance card.

Rave: I also found out that Otin is NOT really James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser (I think he might be Stephen Bonnet!!!). Thank my lucky stars for figuring out that one. Now I can continue my quest for the real Jamie Fraser Not some Irish/Italian thinking he can fool me into believing he's a Scottish Highlander. From the 18th Century, no less!! The nerve!

******************************************************************
Rant: I have these fabulous-looking shoes, they are Borns. I bought them because Borns are known to be comfortable and I have purchased in the past and they are great working on your feet all day.
However, these shoes suck. They are fine for an hour or so, but if I have to walk anywhere I'm screwed. In fact, they are so bad that the balls of my feet hurt long after I take them off. I wore them tonight for the Field Hockey Banquet and I about died. I haven't had them on for a good hour or more and I just went down to the basement to get a bottle of red (Pillar Box) and my feet still hurt!! What's the deal Born???

Rave: These are the only middle-heel black shoes I have that aren't sandals. I guess I need to go shoe shopping. Darn it all...Plus I really need some rain shoes...

**********************************************************************
Rant: It's been raining for days on end...
Rave: I don't get out of bed to walk the dogs when it rains
Rant: Between all the rain and my working last week for my friend the dogs haven't been walked in almost 2 weeks
Rant: today I sucked it up and got out of bed and walked 2.5 miles in the rain
Rave: It only drizzled, so it was okay, and now my doggies love me again...

******************************************************************
Rant: I didn't want to go workout. My trainer is a she-devil.

Rave: I did it anyway. And now I feel good about myself. And she's really not a she-devil. I actually like her a lot -- after my workouts anyway.

Rave: Here's Barb working out with Snickers a couple weeks ago. Aren't they cute??

******************************************************************
Rant: Now I have to go pay my speeding ticket. I actually have to go to the courthouse and pay it. The reason for this is that I am a slacker. I got the ticket 3 weeks ago and didn't pay it. Today is the last day before they put out a warrant for my arrest. I really don't think I'd do well in jail. I like orange and all, but what if they made me wear horizontal stripes?? That just wouldn't do at all. Plus I'm not sure they would let me have my evening glass of wine. I am a much happier person with that.

Rave: Really, is there any thing to rave about paying a speeding ticket? I guess I can be glad that the police in my town have nothing better to do than to wait at the bottom of the hill on the highway to catch speeders leaving town.

*******************************************************************
What are you ranting and raving about today???

*******************************************************************
I just thought of another one:

Rant: I hate it when non-bloggers make fun of me for blogging. They just don't get it.

Rave: I am having a fabulous hair day :)

Willow Ball

2009-10-12T12:49:00.003-05:00

In case you haven't heard, the wonderfully fabulous Willow is hosting a Ball tonight! I am so excited and can't wait to go. Everyone who is anyone will be there! All the top stars will definitely be shining, and I am so honored to be there as well!

I have got a fabulous little number that I'll be wearing. You don't think it makes me look fat, do you?

Nah, I didn't think so. I just hope Willow has her french doors open so that the breeze will come in from the terrace and make my hair look this gorgeous.

Unfortunately my husband is not able to attend. That's okay though, I actually have a date. You may have heard of him, his name is OTIN. Here's a photo of him:

I believe his red hunting plaid goes well with my hot little red dress. God I love a man in a kilt. Oh, and I'm not sure if you knew this or not, but Otin's real name is James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser. I'm sorry, what was that? You don't know who Jamie Fraser is? Oh my. Oh my my. You should probably take a look here and here and here. Well I could just go on an on, but it's really something you need to do for yourself. Besides, all this talk of my date is making me so hot. I know that Otin is really Hit 40s bloggy husband, but I needed him with me tonight. I hope that doesn't upset you too much Hit40... I promise to give him back after ~~I have my way with him~~ the ball...

I have a fabulous little hostess gift for Willow as well. It set me back a little, but I figured she was definitely worth spending the cold hard cash. Isn't this fabulous? It's a diamond encrusted ball, you know, since she is having her Annual Willow Manor Ball. I thought it was a fitting gift. I'm not sure why the sales lady thought she needed to be in my picture, I guess she just wanted some recognition...

I also have some fantastic earrings picked out to wear. They are a little small for my taste, but I didn't want to go over-board. Here is a picture of my good friend Kate Beckinsale wearing them. She could possibly be in attendance tonight, but as of this post she hadn't been invited yet. Ooops, Willow, you may need to double check your guest list...

My date, Otin (aka Jamie Fraser) will be picking me up in his Mercedes. Isn't it just the most fabulous piece of machinery you have ever seen? This car makes me almost as hot as Otin does himself...

Well I guess I should be running along now. Be sure not to wait up for me. Don't forget to check in at Willow's so you can attend the Ball as well. It's still not too late to see everyone. Just click the Mr Linky and you could be enjoying the "cyber event of the year" as well! And if you're wearing a kilt, I'd love to twirl around the dance floor with you as well... Of course you'll have to clear it with Otin first, but I don't think he'd mind...

Kisses XXOO