In Costume

• Carson:
• Clone Trooper
• Trooper in general and really easygoing (for the most part)
• Wished the mask we got was a "full one" and that we couldn't see his hair, but oh well
• Looking forward to sack lunch in his classroom today and the Halloween Party

• Molly:
• Cowgirl
• Refused to tuck her shirt in this morning
• NOT happy that mom wanted to take her photo this morning on the way to school
• Didn't want to wear her pink sheriff badge to school due to the "rules about guns and stuff"
• Claims there is no Halloween Party in her classroom today...HA!

Hope your Halloween is spooky (and your kids smile for their photos!)

Leaving on an airplane

I'm off! In about an hour, I leave SE Georgia (and all of the McPalin signs in every yard) and head back home. I do forget how exhausting it is to work out of town for an entire week.

The kids have all of their Halloween paraphernalia, and I am caught up on all of my reading, so the arrival home should be uneventful.

I am hoping to finish The Camel Bookmobile (by Masha Hamilton) and to get a good start on The Sixteen Pleasures (by Robert Hellenga) on the various planes and cars which will take me to my home and family.

Here I go...Happy Thursday!

What the Fuck Wednesday

If you don't already read Tangobaby, you should. She cracks my shit up!

She introduced me to the Election Campaign Button Maker, and I think you should need to know about it too.

I have applied for a position (as Secretary of What the Fuck) in her cabinet for the 2012 election, and I think that each of you should consider it too. We need good people like you to run this country. See her post here for all of the details.

Molly the Photographer

At the school's fun night this year, little Molly won herself a digital camera. She has been begging for one for a while now, and I was too cheap to buy her one for fear she would lose it. How lucky for her that she won one! How lucky for me that if she loses it I won't be out anything.

With her new camera, I have discovered just how good a photographer she really is. She is no Ansel Adams, but she really does a nice job. Here are a few of her photos:

This weekend I...

...went to the high school football game

...went to our last 2 3rd grade flag football games

...hosted a kindergartner and another 3rd grader at our house for the afternoon

...went on a long walk on the dike with the dog off her leash

...bought a new ipod nano (in orange) to replace the one that no longer works

...went to Red Lobster for dinner with T, C, and M to celebrate our 11th anniversary (I know, WHAT a celebration, huh?)

...went to Sunday school and church

...went on another long walk

...went to High School Musical 3 with M. (Watch for a Zac Ephron post later this week!)

Oh Dear God...I forgot Leslie

I am so sorry...your gift was all picked out and wrapped-and got left off the post! Will you ever forgive me?

To: Leslie (for your vote NO on Prop 8)

From: supercuteness

Presents for my friends

To: Julochka

From: mtjoyschool

To: SGM

From: raycoo1927

To: Jessie

From: Elisabethan

To: Courtney

From: John W Golden

To: Elaine

From: abbi11883

The New Webster's

I have been noticing lately that those letters you have to type in on blog comments are looking more and more like they should be words. For a long time they were purely nonsensical letters, with mostly q and y and x, with a number thrown in here and there. Now however, they are looking to me like they have meaning.

Here are a few examples from recent comments that I had my employees come up with definitions for:

S U B S T I C: that lipstick rolling around in the bottom of your purse you save only for use when your regular one has gone missing.

M E T A L L I T: The web-like skin between one's fingers

D E R B A: The part of your vertebrae that controls your ability to stutter.

I N E S S: The point in which a tributary meets a main river channel (this was Todd's)

Z K H U U: when a singer's pose on the stage makes them look like they are constipated

Hope you have enjoyed your lesson today. I'd love to hear your definitions for these or any other "words" you have encountered when you comment!

Fred and Edie

photo from Collections of Light's photo stream

I am listening to a book called Fred and Edie by Jill Dawson. On the road this morning, I had to pull over and write the following passage down:

"How much more interesting life is when one has an occasion to write about it,

or someone to describe it to."

It reminds me of my reason for writing my blog...thanks all for letting me describe my life to you!

What the Fuck Wednesday

I can just hear it:

"Honey. let's have a hunting-themed wedding"

"Yeah, I can wear a camo cummerbund and tie"

"And I can pay someone a lot of money for this cake!"

What the fuck?! It's from here of course!

ps, someone "suggested" I change the title of these posts to WTF Wednesday, but I just can't do it. It would be a compromise, and I do this mostly for me. Besides, I like to see the word fuck in writing. It makes me laugh.

Printer Copier Scanner

I am in the market for a good printer-copier-color scanner-machine-thingy-ma-bobber

I am thinking about the $400 HP Photosmart C8180 All-In-One, Do any of you have opinions?

• I need to be able to print good quality holiday cards in small quantities


• I want to be able to scan in color


• I want it to be wireless


• I would REALLY like to find a good laser one rather than ink jet, but those seem to be out of my price range; any ideas?


• Copier is not necessary, but would be REALLY convenient.

Comment away, please.

Blu Dot

I suppose all of you design types out there already know about Blu Dot, but it is new to me...I am IN LOVE with this chair. It comes shipped flat! It's only $129! Get it here!

What the Fuck Wednesday

I can't believe I am posting this, as it is so politically incorrect, but it really made me laugh.

Who came up with this? WTF?

From here.

On another note, I hope you can read that. I need to know how to do that

"click to see larger image" thing. Any hints?

Please, Please Help

I am begging you, all of you design bloggers (and anyone else who has connections) out there for your help.

Several (by several I mean like 7) years ago I ordered tile from Home Depot Expo in Kansas City. Of course, that store is no longer there, and the people in the St. Louis store can't seem to help me either. Also of course, I want/need more of said tile.

I am looking for tile made by Floor Gres Ceramiche. When googling Floor Gres, I come up with their Italian site, but am not able to come up with any local (read USA) distributors. It is a simple beige 8 X 8 and 4 X 4 ceramic tile. We have used it on our kitchen counter tops as well as in the 1/2 bath. Now I want to use it in the other bathrooms as well.

Do any of you know of a distributor, or of a distributor who might be willing to look into things for me?

I would be eternally grateful. It seems that Todd doesn't understand my need for matching the tile we already own. He can't understand why I can't just find something "similar." I don't want to remind him that it took me 2 years to find THAT tile, and looking for something similar isn't an option!

If I need to, I will call Italy direct and ask them, but I thought maybe all of you pretties might know something.

Like, Oh My Gawd!

TOTALLY LOOK AT THESE!

AREN'T THEY LIKE THE MOST AWESOME THING EVAH?

LIKE DUH! THEY'RE TOTALLY FRANCO SARTO ARTIST COLLECTION!

WHAT-EVER! TAKE IT TO THE MAXX!

SO, LIKE, IF YOU WANT SOME, GO HERE.

Ok, enough valspeak (thanks Wikipedia). Due to the influence of all 8 of you readers out there, I really did buy these today. I love them already and hope it stays cool this weekend so I can wear them to the fall party we're going to!

Oops, never mind, I was just informed that I will be going to the party as a nun. Maybe a nun in boots...?

The Year of the Bean Pod

Remember back here when I was telling how great it was that the apple harvest was so huge and wonderful this year?





Well...one thing I forgot was that if the fruit harvest is great for one variety, it is usually great for others...namely, the Locust tree in our front yard that IS NOT, I repeat, IS NOT beanless.

Look at this beautiful tree:

Now look at my front sidewalk:

To dispose of these beans, in past years, we have tried:

• mowing up the beans (actually, I have tried that as I am the mower in our family)...stuff flies out everywhere at amazing velocity, and it is really dirty.


• sucking up the beans with the leaf blower/sucker...it chews up the blade so quickly that it takes longer to keep replacing the blade and emptying the bag than it would to rake the damn things.


• leaving them where they lay...except for the vinegar-y stink from when the beans get wet (which the inevitably do) and the bulldozer it takes to move them at the end of the season when we need to park in that part of the driveway...this is a pretty good option.

So, our most recent solution is to rake all of the beans to the sidewalk in front of our house and fill the "yard waste" dumpster each week full with beans. This morning the trash men will pick up the third dumpster-full of the season. By the looks of things, they have many, many more weeks to go.

If ANY of you have a better solution, I would kiss your feet, buy you dinner and drinks, and even make your Holiday greeting cards for you!

What the Fuck Wednesday

I was having a facial this morning...

(Oh, shut up, it's the ONLY thing I do for myself on a regular basis.

I don't get manicures,

I don't dye my hair and

I don't really like to shop for clothes.)

...and guess what she found?

A ROGUE chin hair!

WTF?

That's why I keep tweezers in my car.

Pier 1 speaks

While I was running around this afternoon, I ran into Pier 1 to see what new things they had.
Lo and Behold, a beautiful chair spoke to me. It said:
"Take me home with you and place me in your dining room at the end of your table"

My birthday is in 8 months and 8 days if you want to start saving up!

Your Weekend Entertainment

Above image from Perspicuity




Check this out...the human slinky!



http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/2/HalfTime-Basketball-Creighton-University-Omaha-Neb-457715.html

Bob Dylan

This came on the radio yesterday and I just had to remind you about it!

You'll be singing it all afternoon!

A confession or two

So tomorrow, I meet face to face with my new blog best friend, Jessie, of The Lucky Stone.

You see, I discovered that Jessie lives in Kansas City, which is only about 2.5 hours from where I live in the middle of nowhere. One day Jessie and I started chatting on Gmail Chat, and we found out that there are quite a few things we have in common. Several times I have been working just 50 miles from Kansas City, but it has never worked out that we could get together...until now! Jessie invited me to come to Kansas City tomorrow to visit several of her favorite only-open-once-per-month haunts. I can't wait! However, there are a few things I must confess before Jessie actually sees me in person:

First, I look more like this:

Than This:

My Driver's License still has my weight from when I was 16 on it

(and no that's not me)

And, I talk a lot, I mean A LOT...just ask SGM.

image from here.

If all of those things are ok with you, Jessie, I can't wait to meet you!

We'll take lots of photos of all the stuff we do so we can share!

What the Fuck Wednesday

A while back The Consumerist reported:

"Robert Downey Jr. ...gave up drugs after Burger King served him a cheeseburger that was so disgusting that it forced him to reassess his whole life..."

I know BK is nasty, but do you think he was little bit high when he made that assessment?

In unrelated WTF stories: The burger above looks like the one I consumed at Hardee's one late (and drunk) night in college. Of course I got sick, and now even the sight of a sandwich like that makes me nauseous.