Dinner

If it looks like dog food...

and smells like dog food...

it might be dog food...

This is what I had for dinner last night (there was NOTHING in the whole house to eat)...
Hormel Compleats Meals...nasty

You mean I should cut those?

I love this time of year...this is when I can finally start saving money on fresh flowers at the store and begin making my own...from whatever happens to be in bloom in my garden! I cut some flowers tonight before it rained again, just to cheer up the house. My digital camera keeps saying "memory card error" so I had to take these with my Blackberry camera...please excuse the photo quality.

Assorted Tulips with a bit of Lavender for fun!

Don't mix fresh cut daffodills with your fresh cut tulips, though. First put the daffodills in a vase by themselves and change the water every 5 minutes or so until the sap stops running, then you can put them in with the tulips. Daffodills exude sap that is toxic to tulips, and mixing them right away could shorten the life of the tulips! At least, that's what Martha says.

Tulips with Sage!

Tulips origianlly came from the middle east (and not Holland!) and the word comes from the Ottoman Turkish word for turban or muslin. Another thing to keep in mind, tulips grow about another inch after they are cut from the plant.

A few "leftovers" from my trees!

Hope you have been able to enjoy fresh cut flowers from your garden(s) this spring too!

You make me want to...vacuum???

If you have one of these:
Or any of these:Then you need this:

The Dyson Aminal DC17

I am not kidding you...this thing makes me want to vacuum. As a matter of fact, I vacuum in- between the times the cleaning lady is here, sometimes twice. There is nothing to ever change on this thing, no nasty filters, bags or belts. The dog hair flies across the room wanting to be sucked up by the amazing suction.

There is something oddly satisfying about hearing things being sucked off the floor and into the canister, as well as seeing all of the hair and muck that my last vacuum has been leaving in my carpet. And with the pull of your trigger finger, it is all gone...away in the trashcan.

You might need to forgo that pair of Louboutins you have been saving for, but I tell you, this is totally worth it.

You're it!

I was tagged a million years ago by Scented Glossy Magazines (and my dear friend). I hadn't replied and then I saw this one that Gin wrote...and I like it better, so I am going to use it instead.



THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Amanda
2. AJ
3. AJSM

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. ajsm91
2. suckerformarketing
3. amandam

THREE PHYSICAL TRAITS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Curly Hair
2. Long Eyelashes
3. The scar on my left cheek I got when I was one day old (yes, one day) from scratching myself in the hospital.

THREE PHYSICAL TRAITS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. my "hamhock" arms
2. my boring hazel-grey-brownish eye color
3. my giant boobs

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Swedish
2. German
3. Probably French or something

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Losing one of my children
2. money...too much or too little
3. the state of US politics

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. under-eye coverup (I am using Arbonne's right now and it is awesome! Covers those dark circles right up!)
2. Diet Coke
3. My Sonicare toothbrush

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Land's End Jeans
2. Old-Navy Black fleece vest
3. A Bali "minimizer" bra

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. U2
2. VanMorrison
3. Keith Urban

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Someone who makes me laugh
2. Someone who helps run the household
3. Someone who is not co-dependent

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order):
1. I have my Master's Degree in Health Care Administration
2. I cook dinner most nights
3. I have 2 nieces and a nephew

THREE PHYSICAL TRAITS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. A nice ass
2. Glasses
3. Short Hair

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Reading
2. Running
3. Gardening

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. See SGM, and laugh until the tears come
2. Travel to NJ to lay my eyes on my newest niece
3. Go home and read magazines and blogs

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING/YOU'VE CONSIDERED:
1. College Professor
2. Business Owner
3. Stay-at-home mom

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Tuscany
2. Switzerland (again)
3. Napa Valley

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Carson
2. Molly
3. Aerin

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Have grandchildren
2. Travel to Europe with my mom
3. Have a home by the ocean

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
1. I talk a lot
2. I do the laundry
3. I like to get flowers

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. Bugs don't scare me
2. I like beer better than wine
3. I like to do the yard work

So, ok, there are a few blogs that I have stalked and I would like to learn a little more about you: I Suwannee, {frolic}, and Daddy Likey. There you are! I can't wait to learn more about you!

{gd you, blogger...I spent a freakin day getting all of the stuff lined up, and now you mash it all together...arrrrgh!} {OK, I figured out how to fix it! If you have the same problem, go here.}

Sign the Petition!

If you don't read No Impact Man, you should start! He did a really interesting project last year, and now that the official project is over, he is still blogging away...making this place we live a better place, one post at a time. Although some posts are related specifically to New York, he has lots of great ideas for each one of us to make a difference.

Today, he told me about the Take Back the Filter petition, and I went right over and signed it. I am all for recycling, especially when it comes to big companies making it easy to do...like Alltel (cell phone recycling), Konica Minolta (laser toner recycling), and Dell (computer recycling).

Read all about the petition and the inspiring story behind it here at Fake Plasic Fish.

Alex Van Kempen...this is for you!

If you've never read the blog Stuff White People Like, you really should.

Today's post is about a french language preschool opening in NYC...tuition is a mere $13,000 and with that you get "environmentally friendly products and organic food."

Simon, Alex, get on over there right now. Francois has a new school to try out for!

ps, if you have no idea what I am talking about, catch up here with SGM's recaps of The Real Housewives of New York City!

Dear Matthew:

Yes...

Yes...

Yes...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Linen Metal Coat

My mom got this catalog in the mail that I had never seen before...Wrap London.

My mom gets a ton of catalogs that I have never seen before (which makes me cringe thinking of all of those trees being killed to be printed on and delivered to my mom;'s house...but I digress)so I didn't think anything of it, until I opened it up!

I have no idea where Wrap London has been all my life, but I think I am in love! If I needed a "summer time coat" where I live, I would definitely have one (or both) of these. For $298, I'd borrow from my 401(k) to get one!

Headline of the day

Masturbating May Protect Against Prostate Cancer

What the Fuck Wednesday

Only in my homestate of Kansas would someone lock herself in the bathroom of the mobile home she shares with her boyfriend for 2 years!

Wait! It gets better! She apparantly SAT ON THE TOILET FOR 4 MONTHS and her skin grew attached to the toilet seat. What the fuck?

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital." "The hospital removed it."

You can read more about it here, or here, or here. Whatever...

Bad Hair Day?

No matter how much curly pudding I use, when it rains like it is today here in the midwest, my hair looks like this:

By the way, if you want a few laughs, check out TheVoice of Reason, where this photo came from!

Frizzy?

If you have curly hair, this is the product for you. I magically got really curly hair after I had babies (unlike SGM, who has had her curly hair forever!) and I have been on the search for a product that defines the curls, isn't crunchy, and tames the frizz...well, I believe I have found it!

Buy it here!

mmm...Sprite

This is a great commercial and a great song...



ps, there does not seem to be a consensus out there about who actually sings the song...

Just Browsing

Here's some stuff I spotted tonight on ebay:

...vintage metal garden trug

...antique garden tools

...french enamel coffee pot

..."toleish" metal candle holder

Can you tell I have been working in my garden all day?

What the Fuck Wednesday

Thanks to 2spare, a strange and unusual site, here is a photo of the world's tallest man meeting the world's smallest man. The world's tallest man (until August, 2007) pictured here is Bao Xishun, and is a whopping 7'8.95" tall. He Pingping is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World's Records for being the world's smallest man, he is a petite 2'4". Amazingly enough they are both from China...

Lovely Day

...that's what it is here in the midwest today. After 3 days of 50-plus mile per hour wind, it has finally calmed. Actually, according to the weatherpeople, it really is the "calm before the storm." We're all set to have a major storm tonight when the wind switches from the south to the north.

Anyhoo...I was browsing Bricolagelife yesterday, and she shared her Monday Mix tape from Mixwit (which by the way is cool as shit) and she had Lovely Day by Bill Withers on there. It is all I have been humming for the past 24 hours, and here is for you!

Enjoy!

Letter Love

I am having a small love affair with the letter M lately. I suppose it is because our last name starets with M, and I have a small wall in my home office with Ms hanging all over it.

Above is something I bid on tonight on ebay: They are 18" tall and porcelain blue. My husband will be so happy to figure out how to hang it (not)!

I would love it if this was a letter M. My first name starts with A, so maybe I should buy it too!

Any leftover Ms in your house? Send 'em this way!

A Random thought

As I sit in my 4th hotel in the past 7 days, reading blogs, It has just occurred to me why I love reading all of these blogs...they are just like the kind of books I like reading: real life. I am not into mysteries, or suspense. I like reading stories about people who could just be regular people, my neighbors even. All of these blogs I have been introduced to are just that: real life. Thanks for sharing your lives with me. I love it!

Ugh for politicians

Read more about the above clean air in the Puget Sound here.

Politicians irritate me. I can't keep it in any longer. I get a regular email from No Impact Man, which is a topic for a whole different post, and today's post was especially interesting. If you have any concern for climate change, and/or clean air, you should read his post here...

An expensive eye infection

So, I got another eye infection from wearing my contacts too long (no need to lecture me as the stupid optometrist already did.) After purchasing the bottle of medicine for my eyes to resolve the infection, did a little calculating: I have to take 1 drop per eye 4 times per day for 7 days. According to my math, it will cost me a little more that $1.00 PER DROP to clear this infection. Shit! I have thrown out my contacts and am vowing to never have an eye infection again!

Use #671 for hotel towels...

...to clean the toothpaste gunk from my beloved Sonicare toothbrush. The joys of travelling!

That's me with my clean, shiny white teeth! Ha Ha

Ouch!

Today was the first day of the season I wore my flip flops all day. I have a bit of an ouch between my big toe and my next toe. I can't wait for that flip-flop callous to form so it doesn't hurt anymore!

What the Fuck Wednesday

So, the new $5 bill is out and it looks like this...yes, it has a big, purple 5 on the back. What the fuck? Read more about it here.

Hotel Hallway Fashion

So, I was in the hallway of my hotel tonight, wearing these things: Yes, my Victoria's Secret pj's (all buttoned up, however) and my tall cork wedges. I was quite the looker, huh? I just wanted to buy myself a Diet Coke and a Snickers. Of course, some hot guy got off the elevator and checked me out. Sheesh!

True Love

I, like the other million of you, love Anthropologie. I flew into Jacksonville, FL today for work, and made time to go there...here is what I bought:

this and these.

Why, oh why can't I copy pictures from their website?

Jealousy

My boss (who is cool as shit, by the way) just got these shoes in the flat version...I am soooooooo jealous. I can't bring myself to fork over $237 for a pair of shoes. Maybe someday. Of course, they are from here.

Cork Tile

OK, This is the coolest thing ever...cork tile. I must get some from here.

WTF Wednesday

strange toilet sign found in Korea...

(found at beconfused)

What The Fuck Wednesday

Yes...those are square watermelons. Apparantly the Japanese don't like them rolling around, and they put them in a cube while they are growing. Odd.
More info here.