vacation, part deux

You can't post a blog with the title "part 1" and never do the sequel, so here it is, another installment of vacation photos!!
I realize this first one is on its side and you will have to tilt your head to see it, but I forgot to edit it. Anyway, it's our hotel. The rest are pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy. :)

turkey day, etc etc etc...

I have been a lazy blogger! I guess I've been too busy in the 'real' world or something. I haven't been online much this past week or so. Anyway, if you care (which obviously you do, if you're reading my blog) here's what I've been up to in the past weeks- in no particular order:

~Working like a mad-woman, makig up for vacation week off, and a half week this week!

~Went to Canton to hang out w/ Lisa: we shopped and ate, and shopped and ate, and ate and shopped...oh and she taught me to crochet!

~I've now crocheted (is that a word?) something that resembles a slightly askew potholder. I still need practice.

~Joe and I have been shopping a few times. We bought his-n-her puffy vests! (Mine has a furry hood, Joe's does not.)

~debated buying a puffy vest for Cissi; decided on no, for now, at least until the price comes down a little bit. ($30 for a dog coat is a little much, no?)

~thought about decorating for Christmas. Did other things instead.

~Watched a couple ep's of 90210

~this is for Nancy: GO BLUE!!! (they're still winners in my eyes!)

~I bought skinny jeans. Yes I did.

~Found 2 pair of 'lost' boots in my "attic" (the bedroom upstairs that we use as storage space). Yay for found boots!!!

~Went to lunch w/ my friend Tina and her new baby. Too fun!

~Had a birthday dinner for dad at our house.

~Thought about scrapbooking my vacation photos, thought about all the work that would take, and instead threw all the pics into a mini album.

~Went to the movies with Joe, saw The Departed- very good flick, if you don't mind a little (OK, a lot) killing. But Leonardo DiCaprio makes up for the blood and guts. He's pretty.

~One of my clients brought me shoes at work today!!! I have the best clients EVER.

That's that...and some random stuff thrown in there. Notice, nowhere did I mention cleaning my house, doing laundry, or anything of the sort. :)
We're going to Michigan for turkey day- have a ton of fun everyone! I'll miss the crew in Stow.

gobble gobble.

Roll call...assignments are due!

OK, for those of you who haven't sent me your 8 song choices (you know who you are), go ahead and send them to me already!
I might add....no stress, no one but me is going to see your lists, I'm using it for my own personal use, for song ideas.
If you're too busy, I understand, it's a busy time of year.
But if you've got the time.....

I know I said I wouldn't.

wear leggings, that is.
But I did.
(Under a denim mini skirt)
Complete with flat/ballet style shoes.

Find me a scrunchie, I guess I'm headed back to 1984.

Vacation, part 1

I'm sure this will be too much for one post so I'll split it into 2. St Thomas was wonderful. They call it the American Paradise, and I can see why!!! Our hotel was gorgeous, the staff was great, food was excellent...everything was just great. I'm ready to go back! There's just way too many stories, so I'll just pick and choose some photos and tell it that way:

We watched a fire-eater. She also walked/jumped on a pile of glass. Then we all danced with her!


















Andi, Vana, and I with our favorite waiter Lawson. He was the best- he knew what we wanted before we even asked for it! He got up and danced with us one night- that was the same night/place as the fire-eater.













This is the five of us who went on the trip: Vana, Tracie, Christina, Andi, and me. We took this on our last day there, waiting for our cab to the airport; don't we look well-rested??? (And yes, this is what we wore on the plane. And yes, we were freezing when we arrived in Ohio at 11:15 p.m.!!!)













Tracie and Andi getting off the "cab" we rode into town to shop at the open market.












This is Tracie with one of the jewelry ladies in town. She was great- all the local people were very friendly and funny!














This is the view from the breakfast room

5 Things

As a web challenge, I'm listing 5 random, unknown things about myself:

1. I get sucked into obnoxious late night TV, mainly infomercials and religious programming (Benny Hinn, and PTL, etc.)

2. I could eat Taco Bell for every meal and be happy. I love it!

3. I can't leave my toenails unpolished, even in the winter. I just can't.

4. I can remember random people's names, who I meet on vacation, etc., but I will forget names of people I see all the time (clients, friends' spouses, Joe's coworkers)!

5. I wish I had an accent.


I'm back from St. Thomas- I'll post on that soon, probably tomorrow.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane!

Today was great- Joe and I went to Bob Evans for brunch(where we ran into one of the girls from work- that was fun!), then on to Beavercreek to go shopping. Didn't really buy much; I did find a cute sweater on clearance at the Gap, but that's about it. We killed time there until we were hungry again and then went to Steak & Shake (I think that's my new favorite place to eat!!)
Then we came back home, I went to Kroger to buy my last minute vacation things, along with a new paperback for reading on the plane and I finished packing for St. Thomas. I leave Tuesday, but I'm working all day tomorrow and half day Tues., and leaving from work, so I needed to pretty much be packed tonight. I'll grab the last minute things tomorrow, but I think I'm ready. I've probably got enough for 4 weeks, rather than the 4 days I'll actually be spending there, but that's OK. And I tied a lovely yellow ribbon on my suitcase to make it easier to spot on the luggage carousel. Yup, I'm ready to go!!
Think happy airplane thoughts for me.....

SiLLy GirL

Kara and Rylee came over tonight so Rylee could pick up the new slippers I bought for her today. (She's modeling them in the photo!) She is SO funny!! That kid makes me laugh so much!! I've never met a wittier almost-three-year-old. She's got the quickest come-backs.
Rylee helped me mix cookies, and in true Rylee style, was sneaking cookie bites every chance she could- I'm pretty sure she was on a major sugar high by the end of the evening.
She's just great! Definitely my favorite neice.





(it's not the best photo quality, this picture was taken w/ my phone.)

More Birthday Photos

1. The paparazzi
2. Grandma on the phone with Jill
3. Grandma and me
4. Cake table

Weekend

Our weekend was fun: I spent Saturday night at Lisa's and then Sunday at Grandma's 90th birthday party; Joe went to game 1 of the World Series with his brother. Too bad the Tigers lost, but they made up for it last night, at least.
I don't have photos yet of Joe's weekend, but here's some of mine:
Happy b-day Grandma, Kara, and Payton!

My name was Lola...

Here we are, all dressed up for Halloween!

Go Tigers

So, the Tigers are playing in the World Series. Yes, it's true, I'm not a big sports fan, but I am a big Detroit fan, so GO TIGERS!! We tried to buy tickets this morning...we did get ONE ticket to game 7, if there even is a game 7. If so, we'll probably try to buy another one on e-bay before then or something. Or joe will go alone and I'll save a couple hundred dollars. :)
Anyhoo, I have some Halloween pics, but they're not yet developed. Maybe tomorrow?
We'll see. Happy Monday.

another rainy wednesday

It's raining again, so I'm doing my favorite rainy-day activity- watching it rain, drinking a coffee, light a couple candles, turn on some rainy-day music (Sarah McLachlin, today) and blogging. Joe's at his first guitar lesson ("Guitar for teachers: bring the joy of music into the classroom!" or something like that)
so I'm just hanging around with the dog.
When I'm done with this, I am going to go find some karaoke music on iTunes to download for this weekend's Halloween party.
Of course, Copacabana is right up there in the top 5 to find.

I had an odd dream the other night, for all you dream interpreters out there:
I was dreaming that my friend and I were walking down an old-time movie kind of a street (like our downtown, but back when it was booming) and we walked by the real Xanadu; it was a 2-story club, and my friend wanted to go in, but I said no, because the actual dance part was upstairs, and the first floor was all caved in and it was too dangerous to go over the caved in floor to get to the stairway to the second floor. Plus, I knew that Xanadu was inhabited by ghosts, and not real people.

Huh???

My, How We've Changed

I dug up a photo of my friends and I as seniors in high school to compare to one ten years later. I think this would make a great scrapbook page!

10 years

Here's some pics from last night: I'm glad I went. It was really fun! In fact, we had to leave the restaurant by 10, and we were having such a good time we all left there and went to the Mexican restaurant until around 1:30. Good times. I'd definitely go to another one. Oh, and I won for "most changed since 1996"!

Reunions are....

...so fun! I had a blast! More tomorrow.....

It's awfully quiet in Bloggerville.

I haven't blogged in a while; I've been elsewhere, running around like mad. So rather than go on and on about the mundane craziness (what an excellent oxymoron!) that is my life, instead in the interest of saving time, I'll sum it up in nice, neat haiku:

Busy and hectic;
I hate reunion planning;
New black scrunchy boots.

OK, I will offer one bit of a dilemma: I found a chocolate brown sweater, which I've been looking for to wear on Saturday. (To THE reunion.) However, I also found new black boots.
I feel like the brown is a prettier outfit, good color on me, etc.
But I feel....sassier, for lack of better words, in the black.

SO: what do I wear?!

Halloween

I love Halloween. It's in the top 3 of my favorite holidays, definitely. Maybe even top 2. And every year we go to my friend's costume party. It's such a challenge for me to come up with just the right costume. (I know, trivial, but hey, it's a big deal!) I always end up as fictional characters' that must be my thing. Last year I was Rainbow Brite, the year before, Lucy (from I Love Lucy). I tossed around a couple ideas this year, Pippi Longstocking and Punky Brewster were some of them, but I just didn't get that "A-HA!" moment with any of them until today.

This year I'm going as (who else?) LOLA! From the Copacabana! So I need to find yellow feathers for my hair, and listen to the lyrics more closely than before, to find some more details about her. Our party is early this year, because Halloween weekend collides with St. Thomas packing weekend, so we had to move it up.
I'll be sure to put photos on here after the fact.

And since it's now 12:01 a.m., that makes it Thursday (except in Texas, it's still yesterday) which means it's the 28th! Happy Birthday to Identity Hair Salon!! We're 2!

In response to the response

This is for Nancy: I'm going to the reunion after all. I really thought I wasn't going to go, but I guess the inner-aunt-Nancy beat out the inner-mom/Amy/Kara/dad/Jill and I'm going to go. It's pure curiousity and I can't help it!
Plus, my friends will be there, so at least I know I'll have fun.
And I have a cute outfit, so it's a reason to wear it.

Lola jeans are just a brand, but I love the name so that's why I tried them on and bought them. (They call me Lola at work...you can use your noggin and figure it out.)

I know I put that above info on my last post response, but I wasn't sure if you people read responses to responses.

Brenda: What was the girl's name who cut your hair? I wouldn't be suprised if my coworkers know her. Springfield is like that.

I REALLY shouldn't be allowed to ride in things with wheels. I pulled out of my accountant's office onto Limestone (which is a very busy 4 lane road....well, busy by Springfield standards!) and the car just shut down. This isn't the Solstice, (which we have back and is apparently running fine: I don't know, because I won't touch it.) it's my Saturn. It just stopped, all the dials went down to 0 and it had just shut off. WEIRD. So I turned the key off and restarted it and it was fine and I went to Big Boy and got a salad and went back to work. It's been fine since, but now I'm a little leery that I just break everything I drive in.

Maybe I should just get a chauffer?

my not-so-exciting weekend

I know it seems as though I live the life of a Hollywood starlet,and every day is a party with me, but every now and then I have some down time. :)
This weekend was just that, and it was great. Stayed in Saturday night, went shopping all day Sunday (OK, that was pretty fabulous- I got a new pair of "Lola" jeans: how great is that?!) and went to a 3-hour class today on a bunch of things about haircolor that I already know. All I have to say about that is that it's 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back, and I could have spent them sleeping in.
Oh well. What can you do? At least I was there with friends, so it was fun.
So, all in all, a pretty laid back weekend, not too much to blog about, yet, I still managed to do so.

OH! And as of today, the dead-slug count is up to 3. One by beer, two by salt.

So...I'd say those two were assaulted....

Fame and Fortune telling

I'm a little upset with my "friend" Justin Chambers (a.k.a. Dr. Karev). T here was a little blurb in the Springfield paper today about how Grey's Anatomy returns tonight, and one of the stars is local native Chambers, etc. with a photo of him.
The last line read "Chambers declined requests for an interview".
Hmm....
As Joe says: Be nice to people on your way up; They'll be nice to you on your way down!

Another bit of info that Joe shared w/ me today:
Two peanuts were walking down the street. One was assaulted.

I have definitely been spending way too much time with the gang from 90210. Last night I dreamed I was stuck in an elevator with Kelly, Donna, Val, and Claire!

Time to go- important TV to get to! Yes I"m upset with Justin's snub of his hometown, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to watch his show!!!

Still awake...

It's 11:23, and I'm wide awake. Nowhere NEAR sleepy! It could be because I slept a little (ok, a lot!) later today, but hey, it's my day off and I"ll sleep in if I want to! I probably would have slept even later, had two annoying Jehovah's Witnesses not been banging on my door. And I mean banging! Knock once, OK, But ringing the doorbell repeatedly and banging on the door is not acceptable!
Don't they know people are still asleep at noon on Monday!?
Eh....
OK, most people are halfway through their workday at noon on Monday, but that's beside the point.
I did manage to get quite a lot accomplished today, after my looong sleep: Went to the grocery store, cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom, cleaned out my closet and rearranged it, put away the remainder of my summer clothes and organized my boots. (Yes, I have THAT many boots that I have the need to actually organize them!) Oh, and I did pilates. That took a lot of effort for my lazy self to do, but I did it. My joints creaked the entire way through, but I did it. Yay for me!

The newest annoyance of my house? Slugs.

Twice in the past three days, I have found a slug in the laundry room. I'm telling myself it's the same slug, and he just found his way back in 2 days later, instead of thinking that we are overrun by the slimy creatures. So I spent some time online finding how to get rid of slugs: Apparently they can squeeze through the smallest of openings, and come in where it's damp (that's not good! does that mean there's a leak?!) But if I set out bowls of beer, they'll crawl and in and die. I'm not sure if they die of drowning or of alcohol poisoning, and I don't care, as long as they don't come in. If I wasn't already in my p.j.'s, I'd be headed to Kroger right now to buy some Busch Lite (no need to make them bloated AND dead, right?) but since I'm all ready for bed (well, except for the sleepy part) it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
I considered root beer- I do have that, but I doubt it will work.
So, tomorrow night, I'll set out the beer, and by Wednesday morning, I'll either have dead slugs, or drunken skunks. Either way, it's bound to be a good time!

Other thoughts:
1. Leaning towards going to the reunion, but leaving after the dinner part. Seems like a fair compromise (to myself, that is.)
2. Cissi's all better, doggie diarrhea is GONE. Thank goodness.
3, 4, 5. Sometimes I wonder if I have a minor case of ADD. I can't simply sit here and blog and be happy...no, I'm blogging, watching E!, eating popcorn, and on commercials, flipping through Glamour magazine. And while I"m doing all of this, I'm thinking I could read another chapter of the paperback I'm almost done with...
6. I'm terrified of slugs. I keep checking the laundry room to make sure it hasn't come back.
7. I'm STILL not tired.
8. And Joe's been asleep for hours.
9. So has Cissi.
10. Did you hear that somewhere overseas (I missed where.) banned super-skinny models? They have to have a BMI of at least 18 (whoa!) to be able to model, because apparently the itsy bitsy ones are leading girls towards more eating disorders (no way!)and it's costing their government money. France? Or maybe it was Italy.
Maybe if I were doing less things at one time, I'd be able to get the details better.

I can't stop thinking about...

...skinny jeans!
I feel like I need some.
Please talk me out of it!

"Why dogs bite humans"

I got this forwarded e-mail yesterday titled "Why dogs bite humans". Lots of forwarded messages aren't really read, and a lot of them are just stupid. But this one had me cracking up, so I need to share it. So here you go:

To Go or Not to Go? THAT is the question.

edited, in the name of not making waves.

On to other topics:
I have another great TV show I'm already hooked on, after only 2 episodes: Men in Trees. It's really good! I'm probably partial to it because it's by the creators of Sex and the City, but I do like it. Think Carrie Bradshaw goes to Northern Exposure. It's a cute show, predictable, but fun.

Went to the library and checked out some CDs. I got all 4 volumes of Rod Stewart's "Great American Songbook"- very singable! (I tend to judge my CD's on whether they are good to sing along to in the car.)

I've been to Steak and Shake three times this week. That's more than I usually go in one year! I met a friend there for lunch earlier this week , and then went shopping, then went back later for the shakes we didn't have room for at lunch. And then Joe had me pick up his dinner from there tonight, so I got a shake tonight too. It's yummy (mocha) but I'm about all Steak and Shook up for a while, I think.

No bird love seat yet. I wonder if that was just a myth?

Went to the high school game Friday night. I've never seen so many people get so excited about a high school ripping off a college halftime show! Go script Ohio!! (Really, go Michigan!!!!!)

And since I'm counting, I leave for St. Thomas in 44 days.

I Brake for Jake!

Along the same lines of differing speech in various regions across the US, the status of the homeless man varies as well.
In Toronto hundreds of homeless line up sleeping bags and huddle together over night in the park by the ice rink. In Lapeer, they'd walk up and down the highways picking up pop cans, and turning them in for the ten cent deposits.

In Springfield, there are the few homeless guys, your traditional sleeping on a back stoop in an alley, crawling into an abandoned factory for shelter, holding the "will work for food" sign on a scrap of cardboard (I always wonder where they find the Sharpies to make the sign???). In our town, there's a little homeless villiage in a pallet yard, with little makeshift lean-tos and dining tables made from cable spools.

Inventive? Yes.
Survivalistic? Yes.
Is "survivalistic" a word? Don't know.
But typical? Definitely.

Not so in Ann Arbor. When I worked in Ann Arbor, MI, I'd park my car a million miles away from work, to avoid paying to park. Along the hike up the hill to my job, every once in a while, I'd pass by a homeless man in a doorway, giving me a great big grin.
Smiling, because I saw him first, waved and called out "hi Jake!"

This guy was "Shakey Jake", the best homeless guy ever! Seeing Jake on the way to work made your day that much better. He always had nice things to say to people; definitely the happiest bum I've ever seen. Jake sightings were always shared with friends, telling them where you saw him, what he said to you.

People didn't think twice about sharing spare change with Jake, buying him a coffee or a sandwich, or giving him a lift somewhere. (Which goes to show, being nice can get you everywhere!)

Jake was a local celebrity. He had his guitar with the Mickey Mouse sticker on it, and he'd wander around playing songs, singing shakey jibberish, wearing his big glasses, fur coat and pimp hat. He was cool. He was in parades and at festivals. There were actual products marketed after him!

What I always wondered though: if everyone loves him so much, why's he still homeless? Or is he really not, and has a place somewhere, and being "Shakey Jake" is just his day job, and he's just a little bit crazy?

I have no idea if Jake is still around, but...I do have the t-shirt! (Mine's yellow.)

Joe hates Kelly, but I can't get enough her, and all the rest!

Joe came home for lunch today, and I was doing laundry and watching (what else?) 90210. (Can I help it if Soap Net runs excessive amounts of their reruns??)
And he said he is so tired of my Beverly Hills friends that he wants to "kick in the TV screen".
Well.
He just doesn't understand- those are my FRIENDS! Yes, I know, it's delusional, and they are not real people, but hey, Kelly Taylor and I go way way back. I mean gosh, I saw her through many relationships, mostly with Brandon, a nasty fire, all stages of hair styles, not to mention a quick drug addiction and a stalker! I can't let her go now, just because she's in syndication, can I???
And while we're on the topic, lets talk about another good friend, Carrie Bradshaw. I like her so much, sometimes I think I AM her! Yes, I have the episodes on DVD, and yes, I've seen them all many times, but when they play a rerun on TBS, I can't turn away!
There's other good friends I like to check in with on a regular basis, including Joey Potter, Rachel Green, Dr. Green, Felicity, the entire Party of Five, and even Kelly, Zack, and Slater! We've got history, I can't leave them behind.

And now there's the new friends that I love just as much as the old ones: Lauren (aka "LC"), Meredith Gray, and all the girls on Wisteria Lane! Not to mention the new NBC dramas that look SO good.

And my favorite network friend, Dr. Alex Karev. See? We really are friends. Who's laughing now? :)

Gross.

Today was one of those nice slow-going Sundays; Slept in late, watched an episode of 90210 in my p.j.'s, went to a baby shower and ate lots of good party food, wandered around Target, picked up some salads for dinner and came home to...
a sick dog.
It's pretty safe to say that cleaning up dog poo (I think that's what it was) all over my carpet is definitely in my bottom five of things I like to do. Poor Cissi. I knew she wasn't feeling well last night (already did the poo/puke all over the floor last night!) but I had hoped she got it all out of her system. Usually she's sick once and done.
Not this time.
I think she has puppy-flu. Either that or she's just rotting from the inside out and leaving it all over my carpet.
So, I've put Cissi outside for a while, and last I checked on her she was chowing down on grass, so apparently she's still ill.
I now know where the phrase "sick as a dog" comes from. It's not pretty.
Time to go vacuum up the foaming carpet cleaner!

Ride the Ride

Word on the street is that I shouldn't drive myself around. Obviously, I can't handle a car, but who would have thought I couldn't ride a bike correctly?! (Remember the Friday night bike incident?)

Unfortunately, our town doesn't have public transportation, but there is a man on a lawnmower who drives by our house frequently. (I think he's going to McDonalds!)
Wonder if he'd give me a lift??

Friday Night Sights

First of all, a few thoughts on the family photo posted in the previous post:
1. Yes, I very much think that my dad looks a whole lot like his dad.
2. I also think that he looks like his uncle Roger; there's a picture of the 2 of them and they look very similar...I should find it and post it.
3. I am not sure what Lisa is looking at in photo #2, but I'd also like to know.
4. I especially like how we represent the four seasons: Joe and I are in fall sweaters; Lisa is in a spring-ish polo shirt and jeans; Dad and Rylee are definitely in summer clothes, and John is wearing a winter hat. It's funny how 68 degrees can feel warm to some people, and cool to others...although, to John's credit, he has been in Mississippi for quite a while and it's pretty hot there, so Ohio probably feels cold, relatively.
5. I didn't notice the broom when I was taking the photo. Nice photographer's eye, eh?

On to other thoughts:
I rode my bike to Kara's house tonight to watch the football game from her front porch with her and Rylee. Good times. However, halfway there, my chain fell off my bike, so walked my bike to her house, looking like a big ol' dork.
(Kara and I did some bike repair before I left so I could ride it back home.)
I rode home in the dark, because, well, in Ohio in September, it's already dark at 9:10 p.m. Good to know in case you think you might want to go riding on the poorly lit streets around here.

I'm still enjoying 90210 (it's on the Soap Net 2 times a day, so I DVR it and watch it at night!) Today I watched one in which Keri Strug guest-starred. I never reallized how much she looks/acts like What's-his-name (You know, "Mango" from SNL) until I saw her try to act on 90210. She's, for lack of better term, icky.

Have a busy day at work tomorrow so I have to get up early, beat the bridal party to the salon. Ugh. Waking up early is not my strong point. I don't know how teachers do it! I struggle to make it to work by 10!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Yay for days off!

It's Tuesday night, which means no work tomorrow! If you ever have the chance to have a day off in the middle of the week, take it. Having Wednesdays off completely makes up for working on Saturdays. It's great to have a free day to run around when everyone else is at work.
I always enjoy Tuesday nights, knowing I can stay up late and sleep in even later;(tonight I'll be watching a 90210 marathon).

Here's a few photos from the weekend:

Family Photo













And one of the group, not quite ready
(I especially like Rylee's look!)














Rylee, after dinner. Too cute!

Happy Labor Day.

It's 12:35 a.m., officially Labor Day. Happy day off to everyone! The weekend's been fun; we got a new back door and dining room set. I'll have to post photos, they're so pretty!! Spent the day cleaning, rearranging, vacuuming behind things that haven't seen the vacuum since, well...we won't go there...
Anyway, the house is all sparkles now, and were de-summerizing the place; taking air conditioners and fans out of windows, getting long-sleeve clothes out, swapping closets (er, clothes presses!)
I actually wore a sweater to dinner Saturday night!
Fall is definitely here. I love it. I got out my pumpkin-scented candles, my autumn leaf place mats, and the mugs (for hot cider and tea!) and put away the flip flops and the capris. It's time for jeans.

Cissi is having a hard time adjusting to the cooler weather; she's a real sunbather, and when it gets cold she just sits around and shakes all day. I think we got the fireplace more for her than anyone!

This is so random, I'm so deleriously tired.
Must. Go . To. Sleep.

Dinner w/ Lisa and John tomorrow: yay! I"ll post photos of that too.

Envelope or "Ahnvelope"?

Let's talk some more about these regional differences.
Words, or even actions, differ from place to place. I found a lot of funny little things just between living in Michigan vs. Ohio.

In the south, they say "coke" for a Sprite; in the Midwest it's "pop"; up north it's "soda".

In Ohio we measure distance by the time it takes to travel there (an hour away!)In Michigan, we measured distance by....well, distance! (60 miles away).

Our generation says couch, the previous generation apparantly said davenport.

(And I don't really know WHAT a clothespress is, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's an iron??? Or is it close press>? Hmmm....)

Even from decade to decade, it's different: I was watching 90210 the other day, and they said David "flunked" a test. (Oh no!)
There's a word we don't use anymore. Now,it's "fail". Actually, most kids have a IEP, so they can't even do that anymore....

And how do you pronounce "envelope"?

Any other fun examples of this?

On my davenport, feet on a hassock.

I just want to let Jill (since she asked) and anyone else who cares, that I don't like birds. They freak me out.
I blame my aunt Becky.

I was fine, didn't mind birds in the least, didn't give them a second thought, until one day, we went to Panama City to visit Grandma and Grandpa L., and Aunt Becky was there.
She said "hey, lets go feed these stale donuts to the seagulls; won't that be fun??

I liked animals, it sounded fun.

Yeah, I was wrong. Have you seen the movie "The Birds?"
Imagine that, but on the beach with seagulls, dive-bombing your head for a scrap of a donut!!
Very traumatic.

So, no, I don't like birds.

Unbelieveable, but true!

First things first: The Solstice is back in the driveway. New steering wheel, no explanation of the 'malfunction'. I figure it's some don't ask/don't tell policy of the GM mafia.

All time favorite movie is on TV tonight: Dirty Dancing! Nobody puts Baby in a corner. Man, that Johnny can dance!!! (Funny little piece of info about this movie: I watched it for the first time at my friend Valerie's house- when I wasn't supposed to- when it first came out on video...and I just plain didn't get it. Watched it again in college and thought "ooohhh....that's what they mean by getting Penny in trouble"...I just thought it was a fun dance movie and Penny had the flu!!)

And- saving the best for last-
You'll never guess what we're getting soon.....
*******
(I feel like this is pretty cool so it should have some building up here...)
****
drumroll goes here
*****
dum dum dum.....
*****

A
BIRD
LOVESEAT!

No kidding! Apparently, the previous owner of the bird couch also had a matching love seat, and has since passed away and we are now the rightful owner of another avairy situpon!
(Go Dad! Nice find!)

WOO HOO!!!

(p.s.- situpon is a Davisism, much like mustgo and using Benny)

Who'd-a thunk??

Who would have thought a side ponytail would spur so much conversation??

It's got me thinking more about this 80's flashback style. Leggings, in particular.
I know I recently said I'd never again wear leggings, but then again, about 8 years ago I swore I'd never wear capri pants. (I currently have nearly 12 pair of capris in various colors and styles!) So I guess I ate my words there.



So basically, I can't be held accountable for any future fashion actions. I just may show up to work next week in leg warmers!!

After all, I was the one who laughed at last years trend of tucking jeans into boots and then wore it myself a few weeks later.
Oh well. Guess I'm fashion fickle.

Gloomy Sunday

Where is the sun? It's still August, last I checked. Don't get me wrong, I love fall, and I can't wait for it, but if it's going to be 88 degrees, maybe there should be a little sunshine w/ it so a girl can soak up some end-of-season cancer rays, right?
I've got to keep up what little tan I have until November when I go to St. Thomas!
It's a great day...bagel an coffee with a Lifetime Movie for breakfast. Good stuff.

A few random photos out of my collection:

1.Joe and I in Pittsburgh, in January
2. Joe and Rylee at Easter
3. Deb, scrapbooking at our house (Amy, Kara, and I were there too but most likely we were taking a food break...aren't we messy???)








Oh, and another thing: I should add that I did have my own clothes growing up, it's just that the memories of them are shaded by those of hand-me-downs. :)

Why do the pages of Vogue look vaguely similar to a trashbag full of hand-me-downs from Aunt Jenni?

So, I'm sitting here thinking about Brenda's side ponytail, and contemplating all the 80's fashion don'ts that are now dos;

Side ponytail? OK. Cute.
Headbands? Again, cute.
Denim jackets? We've all got one, so it had better be cute!
Neon colors...eh...haven't decided yet. I think a teen could pull it off.
Denim miniskirts? Love 'em.
Black and white striped off-shoulder v-neck tee? Want one, haven't gotten one yet.
Printed tights? Bought my first pair of the season yesterday. (Brown argyle, in case you're wondering.)
Leggings under skirts? Cute for teens, I'm too old.
Flats/ballet slippers (a.k.a. Sam & Libby's!)? Finding myself wanting them more each day!
Big hair? Check! I dug out my hot rollers the other day; bought a new curling iron day. Haven't used the flat iron in a while.
Big earrings? Got 'em.

But two things I just can NOT bring myself to wear:
1. Skinny Ankle Jeans
2. Leg warmers.

I saw both at Target the other day. I guess you need the skinny jeans so the leg warmers can fit over the ankles?
Ew.

Oh, and speaking of the 80's, let's talk movies.
I still hate the Breakfast Club. But I did watch Pretty in Pink the other night- and I thought "here we go, another Molly Ringwald trainwreck". But, it wasn't too bad. I won't give it a "good" rating, but definitely not horrible.

But can Blane be any uglier?
Why's Molly got to have a sped boyfriend??

Put Your Thinking Caps ON.

Yes, school's back in session. Not that it really makes any difference to me, since I work year round, but to all of you teachers out there, my sympathies are extended. (As long as you're feeling bad for me when I'm waking up to go to work on Saturday mornings and you are all sleeping in and watching cartoons~ oh wait, most of you aren't 8....)

Anyway, I've somehow become a planner of my high school 10-year reunion. I know, I know, but I'm in that position now, and it's too late not to be.
So, the part I need help with is this:
We've got no money. The money we're collecting per person will cover the dinner and the room reservation. Other than that, no planning funds.

What possible entertainment can we offer for these people, that will cost little to no money? Any ideas?? Anything??? I'm out.

I'd rather be Rachel, not Martha.

I just cooked the most amazing dinner. And I cooked it in under 30 minutes, a la Rachel Ray. Yeah, I'm bragging about it, but it's so good! It's just stir fry pork w/ broccoli, and fried rice w/ eggs and onion, but this time I used this Asian stir fry sauce from Rothschilds (remember the sample we had, mom and Jessica?) and cooked the pork and broccoli in that. I'm eating my plate of food while Joe is checking in w/ the moth supervisor; he may have to eat peanut butter and jelly when he gets back at 10 (yes, we eat that late!) because I just might eat it all.

No, stir fry isn't the most exciting thing I did today, just the most recent, so it's fresh on my brain

Other, more exciting, things I've done this weekend:
1. Photographed a wedding.
2. Ate at the Gypsy Cafe
3. Went to Grandma's 85th b-day party.
All very fun!!!

By the way, the Gypsy Cafe has no affiliation w/ the Gypsy Moth.

Want to know what I think?

This is what I think about the whole JonBenet Ramsey case:

I don't think that this guy they're charging with the murders is guilty.
I definitley think he's some kind of stalker/whack-job/freak show, but I don't think he killed her.
I find if every interesting that they had no leads for years and suddenly a month after Patsy Ramsey dies, they find someone to accuse.

It's so obvious that her mother killed her.

It's also obvious that this guy needs to be taken off the streets. And since momma is dead, can't convict her now, might as well let some other psycho go to prison in her place.

It's just too twisted, really....think about it. This guy most likely didn't kill her, (I don't know his name, and I refuse to even look his name up, because that's what he wants from all of this) he just wants to take the "credit" for it. Because he's a freak, that's why. It's his way of being "famous".
And now that the likely killer is dead, he can feel free to take the blame.
And the press is so trigger-happy (heheh no pun intended there) to convict someone, they'll jump at the chance to put a name on this whole weird thing.

That's just my "expert" opinion on the whole thing. (Because, as you know, I have a cosmetology license, and that's almost equal to a psychology degree.)

Solstice Update

No update.
They haven't even looked into it yet.
ARRRRRGHHHHHHHH.

Babwa, Wednesday, and Sam Walton

I really can't stand Barbara Walters. I'm hanging out here, tails on the bird couch (mine and Cissi's!) watching the View, enjoying my day off; just sitting here not liking Barbara.
First of all, I don't even like the View, I'm just too lazy to change the channel today. It's a horrible show, almost as bad as Oprah, and the only good thing about it is Joy. In my opinion it should be the Joy show.
Ever since Star "left", it's really been apparent to me what a big ol' bully Barbara really is and I just want to reach into the tv and snatch that great big flower right off her ill-fitting blazer!

Enough about her though. It's Wednesday, so that means day off for me (one of three, you know...) and so far I'm enjoying it. I did do a little bit of work, wrote some paychecks, did some accounting paperwork, but now I'm done and it's on to more important things: finishing my coffee and seeing if there's any good Lifetime movies on today! Also on the agenda for the day: Give myself a pedicure, blowdry my hair, read some more of my latest James Patterson novel, and later on, ride my bike to the park to check out 4 year old soccer practice. (My friend's daughter is a new soccer player). I love Wednesdays!

OH! And most importantly.....dum dum dum....(there's so much to write about today~) today is the day that THE NEW SUPER WALMART OPENS!!!!!
Oh. My. Gosh.
If you live in U-town, you know what a big deal this is, but for those of you who don't live here, it's pretty much the second coming of Christ. Maybe even bigger. They've got the high school band, the cheerleaders, majorettes, all in full uniform and glory (and probably sweat, today) to welcome in the best of the worst of the Wal Mart shoppers.
It's bigger than the fair!
I, personally, won't be checking out the new digs, I don't much care. Although, I did notice a new SHOE store in the strip mall, and that I'll definitely be checking out, to add to my ever-growing collection of boots...but I think I'll wait for all the hoopla to die down.
Happy b-day Super Wal Mart! Welcome the demise of the downtown businesses....

Eveyone loves a survey!

Cheesey, yes, but admit it, you love to read them! So here's the latest I've seen- "Me from A to Z"

A is for Age: 28

B is for favorite Beverage: Tab energy, diet Citrus Green Tea

C is for Career: hairstylist

D is for Dog: one, Cissi, pug/chihuahua mix, age 13

E is for Essential everyday item: coffee

F is for favorite Food: chocolate or bread

G is for favorite Game: pool

H is for How many of these surveys have you filled out in a lifetime? probably 14973

I is for Ice Cream: Yes, love it, just about any flavor. Right now Ben & Jerry's Neopolitan Dynamite is pretty good.

J is for Juice: on it's own, orange. Mixed together, cranberry & pineapple.

K is for whose butt you'd like to Kick: Either someone at GM, or maybe Chuck Norris, just to say that I did it!!

L is for Last food you ate: a drumstick (the ice cream, not the chicken)

M is for Marriage: yes, almost 5 years. Love it!

N is for Nickname: Lola

O is for favorite Outdoor activity: swimming in the summer, walking in the fall

P is for famous People you've met: Hootie & the Blowfish, Justin Chambers (from Grey's Anatomy)

Q is for Quote: "What is is"

R is for Regrets: I kind of wish I hadn't bought 2 CD's on Monday, because i really only like one of them.

S is for Shopping: Yes, love it! But clearance racks only. Best purchase this week, a new "party dress" for $5.36.

T is for favorite TV show: Grey's Anatomy. And 7th Heaven, haha.

U is for Uptown? or Downtown? Probably uptown. Sounds fancier.

V is for Vision: glasses, contacts, or none? Have 3 pair of glasses, but I wear contacts every day.

W is for Worst movie you've seen: aside from the the Breakfast Club? I'd have to say, this week, Kinsey. It started out OK, and then it just bombed.

X is for X-tra piece of info: I ate a raw salmon sandwich for lunch Monday.

Y is for Your favorite talk show host; Either Tony Danza, Roger Lodge (Blind Date), or the guy from The Soup

Z is for your Zodiac sign: Cancer

W.W.C.N.D.?

I got some great advice from my aunt today- She said I should call Chuck Norris, because he would have had my car fixed yesterday. Good thinking Jenni!!!

the Bird Couch (and Cissi)

Allright, so the birds on the couch are definitely overpowered by the flowers, but "big ugly flower couch" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "bird couch", does it?
No one loves the bird couch more than Cissi, so it's only fair that she's in the photo too. Other than Joe pillow, and a sunbeam on the carpet, the bird couch is one of her top picks of places to hang out.
I know, the couch totally clashes with the wall color; but is there really any wall color (other than burnt sienna or raw umber) that would look good up against that??

True Story

The following story is true. A friend of mine overheard this conversation while waiting in line in the drive thru at White Castle. It took place between the driver of the car in front of him, and the White Castle Employee.

WC Emp: Welcome to White Castle. Can I take your order?

Man: Yes. (proceeds to place order)

WC Emp: Anything else?

Man: Yes, I have a coupon.

WC Emp: And what is the coupon for?

Man: Uh, White Castle! Duh.

(Got to love Springfield!!!)

Airbag story, take two.

Apparently, fixing a mutant airbag is easier said than done. We dropped the car off at the dealership yesterday, and I drove home in my loaner ride (a G6, which is nice, but white, and I hate white cars). They said they'd get it fixed ASAP and call me today w/ an update.
So Anne from the dealership calls me today and said that the engineers told her to stop touching the car, they'd "done too much already" and I need to call this number to speak to the Allegation Department before anyone was allowed to touch my car.

I now refer to GM as General Mafia, because they are acting all secretive like that.

SO- I call this "Valerie" woman who says I have to fill out an Allegation Report, because basically they don't believe my story. They're sure I must have hit something, even though I tell them I didn't, and I have a witness and a police report to prove it. Arrgh.

The point of all this is that I had the most mind-numbing conversation with Valerie today, so that we could recount the details of my "accident". It went something like this:

Valerie: So you're saying you were just driving along, and your airbag deployed.

Me: Yes.

Valerie: Where is the car now?

Me: At the dealership.

Valerie: Do you plan to take it in for service?

Me: hm...yeah. It's already there.

Valerie: Oh, so it's at the dealership already?

Me: Yes.

Valerie: Which dealership?

Me: Isn't that already in your records?

Valerie: Oh yeah. Right.

Me: MmmHmm.

Valerie: So, You were just driiiving along and boom? Airbag?

Me: Yes.

Valerie: How many people were in the car?

Me: Just myself.

Valerie: And where were you sitting?

Me: Um, in the drivers seat.

Valerie: And the car was in motion when this happened?

Me: Yes.

Valerie: How fast were you going?

Me: About 5 m.p.h.

Valerie: And who was driving?

Me: ME!

Valerie: And you were just driiiiiving along and the airbag deployed?

Me: YES!

Valerie: Was anyone hurt?

Me: Yes, I was, on my-

Valerie: I'll get those details later. Was anyone else hurt?

Me: Uh...no.

Valerie: Was there anyone else in the car with you?

Me: (?) NO.

Valerie: And you were driving, correct?

Me: Yes. I was alone. Driving my car. In the driver's seat.

Valerie: Were you wearing your seatbelt?

Me: Yes.

Valerie: How were the road conditions? Was there any ice or snow?

Me: Uh, no, it happened last Friday. August 4. No snow.

Valerie: And where is the car now?

Me: At the dealership!

I think you get the idea. This went on for thirty minutes. So now she sends this report to "them" (the mafia?) and I wait. Until....?????

Witty poncho title goes here.

This is us at Niagara Falls on the 4th of July, on the Maid of the Mist. It was definitely misty, but worth it. It's harder than you might think to get into a hooded trashbag in the wind and mist. Don't we look luuuvly??

Let's Play Pyramid!

Ahh....the game show network. I love it! I'm a big Pyramid fan, myself, so here's a category called "Things I've Broken". I'll be the celebrity, you guess what I'm explaining. Everything in this category falls under the description of things I have broken in the past five days.

1. It's black, fast, it's a means of transportation, it used to have an airbag....?

2. OK, you might use these to take a piece of toast out of the toaster, if you don't want to use your hands, or stick a knife down in the slot. Made of bamboo, from Pampered Chef---?

3. On a laptop computer, you type on the ____. This is the one that you push to make the page scroll down.

4. If you were trying to fix something you broke, you might try to stick it back together permanently with ______. This is the strongest type of it, and can stick your fingers together if you're not careful...or you just might break the whole top of the tube in half, like I did.

5. You wear this around a toe for decoration, and it will definitely break if you drop a cell phone on it.

6. This is what you use to change the channel, and if you (or maybe the dog??) sit on it just right, it's rendered useless. However, if you're lucky and have a husband who can reprogram it, it's no biggie. :)

Of course, there's the usual broken hearts and broken laws I leave in a trail behind me, but that's nothing new.

Yes, there really is a bird couch.

The bird couch is a hand-me-down, obviously. I'd never actually buy a piece of furniture with a bird (or any animal) on it, but it was free, and we needed something to sit on, so here it is. It's uglier than sin, and at first we put a slipcover on it, but that got to be a pain, so now we just embrace the ugliness that is the bird couch. One of these days I'll get a photo of it on here.

Airbags. Hah! Ouch.

I got beat up by an airbag today. I was driving along (in my new Solstice, p.s.) at a speed of about 4 m.p.h. (I was still in 1st gear, if that tells you how "fast" I was going) and the car horn started to honk on its own. Strange, yes? So I started to pull over and check it out, and then out of nowhere, the airbag blew up on me! Luckily my arm was up, because I was turning the wheel, so it hit my arm (rather than my face!).
And then the car horn wouldn't stop honking, and neigbors started coming outside, and airbag "fluff" was smoking out of the steering wheel; someone called the police (I'm not really sure why?) and 2 police cars showed up, started taking photos....it was really a fiasco.
And now my arm hurts. It's my 'round-brushing' arm, too (that's my right arm, for those of you not familiar w/ hair-speak~). I have a feeling it'll be bruised up in the morning.

I'm still pretty baffled by the whole incident.

Photo, shmoto!

So, I tried to upload a couple of photos of our recent trip to Canada. But, no, my feisty, overworked laptop wasn't apparently in the uploading mood tonight, so no photos. BLOGGIT! Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
In the mean time, I'm headed Kroger to stock my pathetically empty fridge with the essentials: milk, bread, pepperjack cheese, and Neopolitan Dynamite Ben&Jerry's ice cream! Oh, and Tab Energy. Good stuff.

I don't get it.

Here's a list of things I just don't understand:

1. Wearing pajama pants and/or slippers to the store.
2. The show "Pants off Dance off"
3. Crocs (the shoes, not the animal)
4. The Breakfast Club (admit it, it's really not that good of a movie!)
5. Why "it's hot outside!" is the top news story. It's summer! Of course it's hot!!
6. Spandex pants
7. Man-capris
8. Hollywood's fascination of combining couples' names (ex: "Bennifer")
9. Reality TV
10. Where is Suri Cruise?? Why haven't we seen her???

...and then I found five dollars!

Just a little trinket of advice: If you're ever telling a story and it's completely bombing, (you'll know it is by the glazed-over eyes of the person pretending to still be listening to you!) wrap it up and add "and then I found five dollars!" to the end. I promise, it will revive any dying story!