Ramblings of a 30something

The new boy band...

2009-02-10T10:08:00.004-06:00

So Alex taught his brother some Nirvana after school yesterday. We went up to Bozley's so Owen could show off his stuff. Thank you Corey and Cousin David for being such good sports and playing this song that you don't even know!! The fake it til you make it credo lives on. Lyrics...we don't need no stinking lyrics.....rock on!

A rhythm section at the Crumerosa

2009-02-09T10:42:00.003-06:00

Yep...that's right. We bought Owen a bass yesterday. YESTERDAY. And that video up there? That's from last night. LAST NIGHT. The boy has no fear. JR taught him a basic 1-4-5 and off he went. Looks like a natural.

Mama's so proud.

And Alex picked up his guitar for the first time in forever....and the two of them were playing music together...seriously, I almost teared up.

In other news...Alex has a driver's license. DRIVER'S LICENSE. Are you hearing this? I'm old enough to have a child who has a driver's license.

Let's all get drunk and make him drive us around. Good times.

Kevin is a ROCKSTAR

2008-12-29T13:18:00.000-06:00

Our family has more talent than anyone knew....

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T08:58:00.001-06:00

Peace and love and lots of food and ... drink....to you all...

Brain teaser

2008-11-19T10:19:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I don't know where, exactly I stumbled onto this today or how. I really don't....but I found it, solved it and decided to post it here. I don't know if it's true that only 2% of the population can solve it, I don't think I'm all THAT bright...but it's a fun brain exercise....

The story behind Einstein's riddle is that Albert Einstein created it in the late 1800s, and claimed that 98% of the world population couldn't solve it. I am not sure of the true origin, but I have seen this one floating around the internet, and it is a good brain exercise. Here it is:

- In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors.

- In each house lives a person of different nationality.

- These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.

Einstein's riddle is: Who owns the fish?

Necessary clues:

1. The British man lives in a red house.
2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water.

NO CHEATING.
Enjoy!

In the cold November rain....er, snow?!

2008-11-18T08:31:00.003-06:00

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I know not all of my 30something readership is in Indiana, or even in the same parts of Indiana...and I personally didn't get any snow....BUT Chesterton got 9 inches today...my parents a little further south got about 5...seriously??? When was the last time we had a huge snowfall in November. My dad swears this happens...I honestly cannot remember anymore than a light dusting or maybe an inch around Thanksgiving.

It was the strangest.thing.ever to see delays and cancellations on the news already! Julie says it's going to get her in the Christmas spirit. I say bah humbug to that - it makes ME realize I need new tires. That and the Kev-head drove my car to St. Louis this past weekend to hang with friends and was complaining about my tires. Oy. I know I need them, I know winter is coming, OBVIOUSLY if it's already snowing...but to spend money on tires right before Christmas. Ew. Kat mat just had to do it and I said ew when she did it. Now here I am, looking up phone numbers for all the local tire places...calling to get estimates. Ew. Ew. Ew. I HATE car repair stuff. Hate it. HATE IT.

Speaking of cars...should we bail out the big 3? Bleeding heart democrat liberal that I am...I gotta tell ya...all these bailouts? Yeah, not so sure about all that. And I know my guy supports it, but where does it end? First AIG, then the banks, now the auto manufacturers. Who's next? And how do we (and by "we" I mean Congress) decide who gets money and who doesn't when they ask? And why?

No...I don't like this one bit. I'm not saying I want to live like my grandma saving every napkin and ziploc bag because of the depression....but I'm sayin' this country could use a good come uppance....

Just a quickie...

2008-11-13T10:35:00.001-06:00

Hey guys...

Just a quick note to give you the link to the abbreviated version of the story on Owen that was in the paper...

Enterprise article

More later...

The "with love" movement...

2008-11-12T11:57:00.002-06:00

I don't know how many of you have ever watched ze frank...have I talked about him here before? I love the guy...

Well, since the ze frank show ended, frank is still blogging and doing his thing...but now he's started a new project...from 52 to 48 with love. I find it terribly interesting and I'm sitting here pondering the ways I'd like to contribute to the project.

I'm amazed at the outpouring, not just from the blue, but from the red as well. I have feared for a long time that this country would never unite after the "hanging chads" and the vote that would be counted and recounted...and then the whole negative rampage with the swift boat deal...ugh. Let's face it, our politics lately have sounded more like elementary school playgrounds than educated adults. But this year? We sunk to new lows. Truly. And I'm frightened and horrified by the continuing outpouring of hatred. Is this really what we've become? Red state, blue state, he said, she said, socialism, anarchism, terrorism..."it's not that I condone fascism, or any ism for that matter. In my opinion, isms are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself."

The response to this project from the right wing (yes, I do read right wing blogs, kiddies...I'm always interested in what they have to say)...is alarming at best. They are basically telling the lefties...no deal. Rather than at least concede that both sides said a lot of things that they shouldn't have, like ADULTS...they would rather tell us to kindly go fuck ourselves and take our blue crayons with us. They refuse to hold themselves accountable for fanning the flames of division for the last 8 years as well, and would rather perpetuate an attitude of hatred and accusation than change the rhetoric, change the tension, and start working together.

There are civil minded conservatives out there who insist that this drama is not what the conservatives are about. They insist that the right wing is supposed to be about state's rights and preservation of civil liberties. But all I can see out there right now are hate mongering, war mongering, Bible thumping, grandstanding right wing nut jobs. And I feel like their numbers have increased since the election.

So I ask you...will we ever recover from this? Does Obama have any idea, ANY idea the job he has before him? Are we just setting him up for failure? He needs an advisory committee including MLK, Ghandi, Churchill, FDR and Lincoln for pete's sake, because right now he has to be all of them in one to look at the huddled masses and say "Shhhhhhhh...enough now" and have them actually listen.

Can we possibly recover from this?

It's been a crazy week...

2008-11-07T13:01:00.003-06:00

What a big week! Election week...AND I guess I kinda sorta went on a "double date" with my son and his 'girlfriend'???? Julie had tickets to the symphony last night at CHS (the NWIN symphony plays there on occasion)....so Julie and I took Alex and Mary. We went to dinner first....hence the "double date" classification in a non-traditional sense of the word.

Really? REALLY? I don't know if I'm ready for this whole girlfriend thing. It kind of sneaks up on you as your kids age.

On a completely different note...the video is posted on youtube from the debate. Not so timely, with the election being over and all, but you if you have an interest in viewing it, you can go here:

Rebecca's YouTube

Not to favor one child over another, you can also see videos of Alex's band from all sorts of gigs on my google video account here:

Rebecca's Google Video

All right - that's all for now.

Remind me to tell you all the "caw"-ing story....it's a doozy. Maybe I'll save that little nugget for Monday when we all need a laugh.

Yes we can! Yes we can!

2008-11-05T11:56:00.002-06:00

I am moved beyond words. I am excited to see where we can go from here. I haven't seen a president elect look more presidential. The speech moved me to tears...and I can't listen to sound clips today without welling up.

Indiana looks DAMN good in blue.

I'm curious, as I usually am, to know who wrote his speech...I'm guessing most if not all of it was written by him, which is also amazing. I know he wrote his DNC speech.

Red States, Blue States, United States...anyone else want to join hands and grab Michael Jackson and Diana Ross and sing "We are the World?" no? that's just me? oh.

My bad.

Didja vote? Didja?

2008-11-04T08:12:00.004-06:00

Get your butt out there and exercise your patriotic duty, people. Men and women have died for this right of ours, and I think some people treat it as a privelege to be wasted. It's not. Go VOTE. This might have been one of the first years I could have voted straight ticket, I never vote straight ticket. But this year I could have, but I didn't, because I really, really wanted to fill in that circle next to Obama's name.

Speaking of voting...I'm posting some pictures of Owen as Barack Obama from the debate on Friday. Remember to click on any image to enlarge it!
The set up at the school (see the laptop and the camera that put us live on the internet??):

The candidates and their running mates (And Mrs. K, who made the whole thing happen):

Barack telling us all about it:

I'd love to post the pictures of he and Senator Biden walking the line and shaking the hands of their constituents...but I know we have at least 12-15 kids at Lincoln who absolutely cannot appear on the internet, but I don't know who they are, so I can't post them here.

She's baaaaaaack....

2008-10-31T12:23:00.002-05:00

Did any of you catch the feed on live.yahoo.com? That's the same link you can use every Sunday to tune into the blues jam, btw...every Sunday after 5:30 you can go to http://live.yahoo.com/thespotstudio and at some point, you just might see me do my thing.

Did you see my "little Obama"?? How cool was that? Sorry about the beginning...The video feed locked and all you had was the principal's behind and the boys' audio. Whoops. We corrected it pretty easily. I hope to have a DVD soon and I'll post what I can out on google video for you all to see.

The funnest part - after the debate ended, the candidates shook hands, they came into the audience and shook hands with the principal and then my little Obama "walked the line" - he walked down the bleachers shaking hands with all of the students...it was so sweet to see...the kids were climbing over each other to shake his hand shouting "Obama! over here! Obama!"

I, of course, had my promo gear out and ready - I had signs from the campaign, buttons - and stickers that I handed out to Owen's classmates.

The vote, however, is skewed at the elementary school level. People who like Owen will be voting for Owen and people who like Noah will be voting for Noah. A Republican friend of mine revealed to me that at their dinner table the other night - she asked her son who he would be voting for...he said "I'm voting for Owen - I don't like Noah." "So you're voting for Obama??" she asked in shock. "Yeah, I'm voting for Obama."

Awesome.

Everyone thought Owen did very well - he knew his answers well, he didn't speed talk, he made eye contact....so very proud. One teacher was talking to my parents afterwards and told them that he believes there isn't anything can't do. Fantastic. Love it.

I think Alex has a girlfriend and I don't know what to think about that. And I think he's getting even taller. I think he'll be pushing 6 ft by his junior year. Oy. More money to spend on pants. He's finally taking his mother's advice and listening to more Rush these days - the brilliance of Neal Peart is something I've been trying to tune him into for years...but now one of his friends said it was cool and YYZ was on Guitar Hero, therefore he downloads Moving Pictures immediately. Asshat.

More to come. I swear.

See Owen live on Friday morning!

2008-10-30T10:25:00.006-05:00

Mock debate at Owen's school...we're airing it live on the internet because that's the way I roll.

9:30am, CST, on Friday 10/31:

http://live.yahoo.com/thespotstudio

If you have a yahoo account you'll be able to post comments and chat while the debate is going on -but keep it clean, folks - it's an elementary school for pete's sake.

Owen has been in debate prep all week. We've camera tested the tie (think The West Wing) and we've alerted both the Obama campaign and the press.

Good times! Game on! Tune in!

A new record!

2008-09-16T13:02:00.004-05:00

At the rate you people have been griping at me...you'd think I hadn't blogged for a month!

Oh wait...almoooooost....

It's not that I haven't had anything interesting to say, we all know I totally have...I just haven't had the time to make any of it truly interesting AND funny. Which I guess implies that I have been either a) interesting or b) funny in the past...and we'll just go with that.

So how 'bout this water? For those of you not living in NWIN, we're doing are own little Katrina impersonation literally riding on the tail of Ike. And we all know Ike was a bastard. 1.63 inches of rain in Houston, 10.5 inches of rain in Lake of the Four Seasons here in NWIN. And we all know what a JOY it's been to drive around here anyway with all of the fucking construction...109th closed, 101st closed, the exit ramps to the toll road closed, exit ramps off of 94 to 65 closed...as if that wasn't all so much fun we needed balloons, now any roadway you actually could access is closed due to flooding.

I've lived here a long time and I've never seen it like this...can anyone remember a time when 94 and 65 were closed this long? And the INDOT doesn't show any indication of re-opening anytime soon...I know, I called.

On Sunday we enjoyed the rain the way I'm sure most of you did...cooking, eating, drinking some beer and watching football. Oh happy day in my house that the Bears lost and the Colts won and of course the black and gold were triumphant as well. I don't really have it out for the Bears...I don't...but it's just fun because my husband likes to pretend he's a Bears fan. He's so not. You know how I know? The only jersey he owns is Grossman. Where's your Grossman now???

Sunday was literally the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in my house...not just because of the football scores...
Owen had some friends over to enjoy the rain and puddles with a little football of their own:

Kev-head was the all-time quarterback and the boys were out there for a good hour or so, sometimes in the pouring rain, taking breaks to jump in the pool fully clothed...why? who knows. boys.

One boy needed a sweatshirt...so I went upstairs to get that and some towels for when they were done and I put my camera down.

I put my camera down.

I put my new, expensive, love it like I would marry it camera down.

On the air hockey table.

And forgot that I didn't put it away.

And when the wet, cold boys came in from their thrills of victory...thus began my agony of defeat. Because they decided to play air hockey.

Did it occur to them to move the camera? No. So my camera, my new, wonderful camera was launched from the air hockey table during play and was sent crashing to the floor. Where the new wonderful quite large lens, was cracked in two.

Did they tell me that this happened? No. Owen was not playing air hockey and did not witness the event. And the boys who were playing either, didn't notice or were too freaked to say anything, because I hear a panicked "Mom, is this your camera? What happened to your camera?" shouted from the basement.

I never buy the extended warranties, the replacement warranties or whatever. But in this instance, this time I did. I actually spent the $149 because I was fearful that I would do something stupid and break my camera on vacation...you know...like hike up Cathedral Rock with it strapped to me. I took it to Best Buy-they've sent it in to be repaired or replaced and now I am camera-less and praying that they just replace it because really...will it ever be the same??

Keep your fingers crossed.

The Dark Knight...

2008-08-21T08:59:00.003-05:00

Have you seen it yet?? Have you? HAVE YOU?

Holy mother - it's fantastic. I mean really, really fantastic. We took the boys last night and I have to say I was a little concerned because I'd heard about all of the darkness of it and the violence and whatnot...but it did land the PG-13 rating and I felt mostly okay about taking Owen. Unlike Wanted, which was a total piece of shit and there's no way I would let Owen see it.

Heath Ledger - wow. just wow. I can see why they are talking Oscar for him. And I'm not just saying that because he's dead.

This past weekend was the Kev-head's birthday. I took him away to the Herrington for some R&R. We celebrated his birthday weekend with massages - oh yeah, me too! Which cracked the Kev-head up. His birthday and I got spa treatments. He said for my birthday he's getting me a purse and a chainsaw or something like that. Good one.

I've picked up a new skill-set since we last chatted. It's almost a superpower. Just all me Water Woman. I am retaining water like it was my job. Seriously. Puncture me and I'm pretty sure I could end a drought or put out a large brush fire. I still have visible DENTS in my ankles from the socks I slept in last night, people. Sock dents from socks that I haven't had on my feet in almost 4 hours. Kill.me.now. A couple of days ago I was so bloated I seriously looked like I could give birth any moment. I LOVE being a woman. LOVE it. LOVE it. LOVE it. And I'm so foul I can't even stand my own self. I just want to climb out of myself and leave my me-skin sitting in a bar somewhere to drink it off. Bitter, bloated party of one, please. I'm trying to listen to the Black Eyed Peas and pull myself out of the dredges of rumpiness into funkiness, but it's just not happening. Note to yourselves...stay the fuck away from me until further notice. I'm not responsible for anything I say or do. Last night I almost backhanded Alex because the sound of his mouth moving as he lip-synced along with his ipod almost made my head explode.

Other than that I'm great. And the movie really was killer. Stop what you're doing and go see it immediately. Heath would want it that way.

Olympic Fever...catch it!

2008-08-14T12:01:00.001-05:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Dilly Bar story

2008-08-06T10:54:00.003-05:00

So last night I worked late because Alex had to work. Just as well, there were phone upgrades to be done. Totally geeky things happening over here, lemme tell ya.

I get over to the DQ about 9:15 and Alex is still working. I have no problem with this as there are the usual 57 voicemail messages on my cell phone to answer and return. Yes, at 9:15 at night. Ridiculous, I know, but true nonetheless. While I'm pacing around outside chatting (a trait I inherited from my dad, who is a hopeless helpless pacer while on the phone...and I'm happy to say that my youngest has the same annoying habit) some kids are also outside happily, or so I thought, munching on their ice cream cones.

Two girls in the car, two boys outside the car. The next thing I know, the tallest boy is saying "back this car out, we're fixin' to go wreck some shit! C'mon...we're goin to wreck some shit..."

Ummmm, what? Is this new lingo I'm unaware of? Does this mean you're leaving to go party? Like you're gonna get wrecked? I'm barely paying attention to them until the car starts backing out and the boys go back into the DQ. In a flash they are running out, the manager is yelling "Don't come back!" and the boys are trying to jump into the car. Well by now my spidey sense is tingling, so I start walking towards the back of the car to get a plate number.

And this is where my age kicks in...not only did I NOT recognize trouble when they were talking about wrecking some shit, I have TERRIBLE night vision that takes my already horrible near-sightedness to a disgustingly bad level. So I can't really focus on the number. Besides which, the blue plates with the white numbers that the state of Indiana has instituted? NOT GOOD FOR NIGHT. With the license plate lights reflecting off the white, I think it was like 43567 or maybe 45637? Yeah, I'm old

So they take off, with the back door still open and one of the boys stranded at the DQ.

I go inside and find out that their apparent high as hell "gangsta" version of wreckin some shit s to open the freezer, take out a box of cherry dilly bars and throw them on the ground.

ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh no you di'int!

Seriously? Really? Assaulting dilly bars? That's what constitutes fun and rebellion on a Tuesday night in the summer? At least we were more creative than that. Clearly walking around and randomly removing Christmas bulbs from someone's porch was WAY cooler. As Alex put it, what's next, going to MickeyD's and spilling pop?!

They take off down Broadway and their abandoned dilly bar assaulter is left on foot hiking down 68th. They circle Broadway for a bit until realizing I'm watching for them, still trying to get the plate number. Yeah...shut it.

Now they ditch the car and the girls are on foot trying to find their friend when the police show up. I talk to the cop, tell her basically nothing, it's a silver toyota camry with a license plate number that might be any combination of those numbers...I'm SO Rebecca Crum, Dilly Bar Detective. Alllllllllllll-righty then...but I did describe the girls and what they were wearing.

They never found the miscreants, but it was a bit of excitement for the DQ at closing time. Alex and I are thinking about going out and starting some trouble tonight...maybe we'll throw some napkins around a Wendy's or take all the straw wrappers off the straws at a Burger King. We're rebels and cannot be contained. Who's driving the getaway car? Anyone? Anyone?

C'mon lemme see ya shake a tailfeather....

2008-07-18T14:57:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday one and all! Well, both my boys are gone, gone, gone. We safely stuffed Owen away at Indiana State Troopers Camp yesterday. I think the boy was honestly nervous. I could have left Alex at the curb of Loyola University with all of his gear and he would have just waved good-bye. Owen needed a little more hand-holding. You'd think, with him being the seemingly more outgoing one, that he would just bolt from the car and be done with us...not so. He's typically a little leary of new situations, wants nothing to do with recognition (he's MORTIFIED that I sent the press release on him winning the essay contest to the paper), and won't actually choose to talk to people he doesn't know. Who's his mother???? Crazy talk.

I had to force him to go over and meet his roommate..."I'll just meet him when we get up to the room, mom" he said through gritted teeth and much eye rolling. He was concerned about wearing a sleeveless shirt to camp because he didn't know what kind of impression that would make. He was worried that he would be hanging out with "all smart people, and I don't know how smart people act!" Ummmm, Owen, the camp isn't ONLY for essay winners...it's just that we didn't have to PAY for camp because you're an essay winner. And if you're definition of smart people is kids who write essays...guess what? YOU'RE in fact a SMART PERSON.

Holy mother.....
So much worry in my little one.

So we went and talked to the roommate anyway, didn't really give him a choice, and I'm glad we did, and I think he was, too. They had quite a bit in common...they both play lots of sports, like watching wrestling on TV, have the same uniform (long basketball style shorts and under armor)...I predict that he's having a good time. He hasn't called for me to come get him yet, which is encouraging...not that I really expected him to. Once he got in the mix, I'm sure he took a firm hold on his heritage of having friends before other people have seats. He'll probably want to have his roommate over to the house (they live in Southern Indiana now, but are moving to LaPorte soon)

The name of Alex's band at camp is Sideshow. He said he's having a good time, learning stuff, playing a ton, and that his guitar players are lazy...well, only two of them. His roommate is like he is...play and play and play. The other two are good for a couple of runs, and then they want to take breaks. Ummmmm....for $1800, you can break when you sleep, baybees...until then, shut up and play.

I pick him up tomorrow and I'm excited to see the concert. There's a concert tonight where the bands will be playing songs they've learned to cover, I guess. I've ordered the DVD of tonight's concert as well as the concert they're giving tomorrow with their original music. Very exciting!

I'm already tired of the heat...even as I sit here in my air conditioned office....

It's been one week since you looked at me

2008-07-11T16:01:00.005-05:00

threw your arms in the air and said you're crazy....

Hello Bloggers...anyone still with me. So many stories to tell, so little time. I'll start with this weekend and hopefully I'll find some breathing room this week to fill you kiddies in on the nuttiness that is my life from the past couple of weeks. It's been a doozy, lemme tell ya. I literally JUST unpacked on SATURDAY from fabulous desert vacay, if that tells you anything, and the only reason I unpacked then was because Alex needed the suitcase to go to Power Chord Academy.

First:
Owen's all star team played in a local Morocco tournament all last week. Our league got tired of participating in the official little league all star tournament and getting spanked. We have great kids, good ball players, but when you play against the bigger towns/cities where their all stars literally play together all year long, we just don't stand a chance. So we played teams that are more in our demographic to give our kids a fighting shot. And fighting shot they had. They swept every game, and it wasn't even close. 18-2 on Monday, 11-1 on Tues, 14-3 on Thurs and the championship game on Friday? A 17-0 blowout in 4 innings. In fact, we didn't have one game in the tourney that went past 4 innings. As you can see, the boys were thrilled with their win:
Nut jobs, all of them, and so much fun. Owen and Coach Kevin are actually undefeated on the year...Owen looked awesome on the mound on Friday night. The Watseka coach told Kevin that his kids were afraid of Owen - he pitches faster than their 11/12 pitchers...he was constantly on his team to "stay in the box! he's not going to hit you!" "Don't worry, just swing the bat! Don't close your eyes!" It was actually kind of comical.

Saturday found me at the market and on the beach with Julie and Hayden. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!! It was her birthday weekend! I got stinky cheese and a slight sunburn in the places where my sunscreen spray didn't quite make. Whoops. Because the air show was going on in Gary, we had a stealth bomber slowly creep right over top of us. And creep it did...it was ooky. Julie said it looked like a giant lego piece flying overhead and she was right. All big and black and quiet and OOKY, I tell ya, OOKY.

Sunday we moved Alex into PCA. It's going to be such an awesome experience for him. There are 6 kids in his band: 3 15 year old guitar players, a 13 year old bass player, and...wait for it...a 16-year-old chick lead singer. Yeah, that's right, my son has a GIRL singer!! ROCK on! I can't wait to see what happens with this...Alex says she's got a Christina Aguilera style voice, but I wonder if she can rock that voice. And I quote him: "I heard a little edge in her voice like you get a couple of times, but not a lot. She might be able to rock like you..." yeah, that's right, not only am I TOTALLY screwing my son for the future with my cooking, and the fact that he'll never understand a woman that actually puts her make-up on IN THE HOUSE instead of IN THE CAR...now, now apparently I've benchmarked what a chick rocker should be. Oy yoy. Heaven help his future wife. Heaven help me this week as I fight the urge to call him 52 times a day to find out what's happening. And I'm also fighting the urge to drive over there an listen outside the door!! AGH!! Can't wait for the concert on Saturday!!! His roommate is one of his guitar players and they are two peas in a pod already. Totally hit it off in the brief time I saw them together. Kevin thinks they had already worked out a secret handshake before we left. oh my.

Stay tuned...I've got a coyote story, the Dan Toler story and much, much more!!

C'mon baby light me on fire....

2008-07-01T10:29:00.003-05:00

Seriously....I need sleep. In a baaaaaaaaaad way. I'm crabby. I have bags under my eyes. My eyelids are feeling very heavy....heavy....heavy....

I feel like I could sleep standing up. I need a vacation from my vacation! We really did pack it in, but hey, it took me 37 years to get that far west of the Mississippi...who knows when it will happen again!!

I must share with you all one of my favorite pictures snapped on the vacay...
These monks were cracking me up that day. Something about a guy sitting on a blanket, eating fruit and dressed like a monk talking on a cell phone while snapping pictures with his digital camera...it was just...funny. But then I caught this as I was taking a pic of the fam and I just cracked up. Too fun, too fun.

Owen's baseball season ended with Coach Kevin and the boys having a 14-0 season. We missed two games due to weather, but we would have beat them, too.

Alex's band had a gig over the weekend at a graduation party. Their first encounter with a) the drunk family member who cannot be controlled (and no, it wasn't me...it was a party-goer) and b) the guy in the audience who is so jealous of what you're doing that he feels the need to draw attention to himself by being the most obnoxious thing walking. It shook their confidence a bit, but they took it all in stride. Alex may be starting another side project, too...and power chord academy is happening soon. Good thing he's working every single day this week. He actually had to put his hair in a pony tail for work today. Oy vay.

Mama..mama I'm coming home......

2008-06-27T11:31:00.005-05:00

So sad, so sad...and a little relieved. I've had more exercise on this vacation than I have in the past 5 years....

And let's put this to rest right now...me...in shorts...
This was taken when we were on the pink jeep tour Sunday morning...bouncing around the red rocks...awesome good fun, awesome good pics....

This is one of my favorite pics...click on it to make it large and check out the hummingbird feeding on this agave plant...I don't know how they do it without getting drunk!! (Agave plants make tequila, babies....)
More pics and details on the way....Petrified Forest, hiking Cathedral Rock, the Grand Canyon...and that's just the last three days...we haven't talked about our Harley rides where we got to see the ghost town taken over by the flower children, and all the swimming in the creek behind the house, and just how completely wonderful this house is. Honestly...I hit it out of the park again on finding a great vacay house.

Overall I would highly, highly recommend coming here on vacation, and I would highly recommend this house...

Leavin' on a jet plane........

I'm standin on a corner in Winslow Arizona....

2008-06-25T23:43:00.003-05:00

it's such a fine sight to see.....

GREETINGS bloggers...still with me? I'm out here in sunny, sunny, sunny Sedona (high temps have ranged from 95-115) with the fam. We've done so many things....

let's see...

Flight on Friday was uneventful. Car rental was smooth, getting out of Phoenix was a breeze. We even took in Montezuma's Castle on the way up...
It didn't get bad until we got to our first house...

A little house in Clarkdale, AZ - the plan was to check out Jerome and generally relax....sounds great yes? NO. We walk into the house and ... covered in powder. A crystally yellow/white powder. On the floor, on the furniture, on the bedding, on every exposed surface. Ummmmmmm....whodawa?? Ummm, yeah...a fire extinguisher had exploded in the place before our arrival. Are you eff-ing kidding me??

So we have to find another place to stay. Now I'm hot, I'm tired, I've been up since 4am and my relaxation mecca is covered in a substance I can hardly breathe...

WHAT?

So we find a hotel in Sedona - basically the only hotel pamphlet I had in my little vacay folder (yes, I'm that gay), and it turned out just fine. Hell, I slept Friday night away. Two beers some pizza and a pillow.

Saturday was 115 degrees, people. Even the lizards are staying under rocks...but us? We hike West Fork. And pick up the Harley...

Now I could recount every nook and cranny of this vacation ... but I refuse to be that relative we all have showing the slides on the living room wall at grandma's....no, that's not me (well, not yet...I'm so subjecting you to all the details....like dinner with Colleen and Michael...hooray!)

But so far, the most important part of this trip...was when we were literally standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona....
The kids didn't find this nearly as entertaining as the kev-head and I did....but I can tell you this... we bought more souvenirs here than any other stop on the trip...and we've hiked and biked and hung out with hippies...we've fished and swam and come home to the electric company on our rental property because beavers took out an oak tree that took out power lines and snapped the electrical pole right outside Alex's bedroom.

Okay...what???

First a fire extinguisher....now beavers???

Who does this happen?? The good news is that we were hangin' at the Petrified Forest when the power was out for hours...the bad news was that we had the electric company outside our windows and in the woods cutting up the beaver disaster for the evening. Whoops...no naked hot tubbing that night.

NOT.

Seriously...we did what we would have done anyway - sat outside, drank wine, ignored the children until they begged for dinner....

More later...Grand Canyon tomorrow....more pics, more info....all to come. We're having a blast...

King's Island trip...

2008-06-12T11:28:00.006-05:00

Because I'm a glutton for punishment and CLEARLY not busy enough, we took off after Owen's game on Tuesday night (they won - we're 11-0) ...and drove to Indy to my sister's house. We were taking off for King's Island bright and early Wednesday morning. Me, the boys, Jen, Charles and Gavin and my parents....

we actually left the house on time, which is a miracle in and of itself. The ride there was fairly quick and uneventful. King's Island has a wonderful feature called preferred parking. It's only $5 more than regular parking, and quite frankly I can't figure out why EVERYONE isn't doing it. We were literally right outside the entrance to the park which was fantastic, because my sister bought enough food for an army and we were able to bounce out of the park for a bit and eat lunch. Considering the bottle of water I bought inside the park was $3.50 - not having to feed my two growing boys at an inflated rate was quite a savings!! (if you click on the pics they'll enlarge for you!)
Fun in the sun was had by all and no sunburns - why? Oh yeah, I bought sunscreen all right - SPF 70. My sister was totally making fun of me, of course, but we are leaving for the desert next Friday, and I don't need me or Alex peeling away or still suffering burns from a one-day trip to King's Island. It was very hot but not unbearable - and it made the water rides and the water park all the more necessary and fun. I managed to hide my feet under the seat so my shoes weren't squishy and stinky all day...you know you're old when THAT's your main concern about the water rides. Kev-head was just disappointed I wasn't braless wearing a white tank top. Good ole' Kev-head....

My parents took off earlier than we did - we of course closed the park down. I got to do one of those lay down roller coasters - I've never done one before. It was pretty cool....I actually liked it better than a lot of the others. Some of those wooden coasters - holy mother. They should be giving you some sort of muscle relaxer before you get on and then whisking you off to a masseuse or chiropractor table when you're done. I was seriously adjusted in ways that I shouldn't be. If I can scan in the pics that they take while you're on the coaster I'll post them hear. The look on my face isn't fear, folks, it's pain. Utter and complete PAIN. Again, you know you're old when.

Another fun part of the day was that the cicada's were out in force. You'd just be standing there minding your own business and one of them would "buzz the tower" and you'd see people everywhere ducking and dodging. People everywhere were invading the personal space of perfect strangers to pluck the orange-eyed suckers off unsuspecting victims who were just standing in line minding their own business. One landed on my leg and got halfway through Delirium with me before bailing. Sissy. That's the only ride I've ever seen with a height MAXIMUM.

Fun day, got back to my sister's late and came to work this morning at a relatively decent hour all things considered.

Highly recommend the park, but anyone under 30 should stay away from the wooden coasters...unless you're really in shape or have a physician or masseuse on hand.

Holy busy schedule batman!

2008-06-10T14:52:00.002-05:00

OMG

Seriously? Seriously....mama has been working her fanny off both at work and at home. I've been getting complaints about my absence, but there's nothing I can do...I've just not had it in me lately folks, and I didn't want to bring too much lameness to the blog. I've been so geeky these days I'm *pretty sure* my cool card (what little coolness I had to begin with) has been revoked. The things that have been fun or cool to me lately - you guys would go cross-eyed over. It's not fun and it's not cool and if I don't snap out of my geek stupor soon, I may never recover. Ever.

But we did upgrade our database this weekend and it totally worked except that I had to hunch over computers for 6.5 hours and manually uninstall and reinstall the old client for the new. THAT is definitely NOT FUN. But it's done and it works and it wasn't seamless...some hiccups here and there but mostly good stuff...cool stuff...geeky cool stuff. And now I'm working on another upgrade that is very uncool but sooooooo cool if you're a geek, involving things like yum and mono and bzipping stuff. Very uncool...do you see what's happening to me?

And next week? Next week I'm going to move the whole network to a gig backbone which is the coolest.thing.ever if you know what a gig backbone is, and I'll be dual teaming my nic's and omg someone please make it stop. I try to listen to cool music while I do my geek stuff but I don't think that's bringing back my coolness anytime soon. I'm in a quicksand pit of geekiness and no one is throwing me a rope, or a stick or a vine or anything so I can pull myself out.

And I was so busy I started this on Tuesday and didn't get to finish!! Oy yoy. Update on King's Island coming...and Carol's in town...hooray!!!

Time makes you bolder, children get older...

2008-05-27T10:53:00.004-05:00

I'm getting older too.....
Oh yes, I'm getting older. I have never been more painfully (and I use that word quite literally) aware of my age than I am today.

Seriously.

The weekend was good....Friday night Sox game - Owen's name in lights. That was fun. I had to talk to the peeps at guest services to find out when his name would be up there so we wouldn't be in the bathroom or buying churros or something. We weren't. Thanks guest service ladies. They not only told me the inning (the 3rd) but the message number he was in the line-up (18). We had fans there cheering for Owen, but unfortunately they were above us and we never heard them. Bummer. Thanks cheering fans!

Saturday found us gardening and doing housework and general stuff...I got to sleep in a little which was nice.

Sunday Kev-head and I took the motorcycle to church. We have a contemporary service and jeans are appropriate attire, so we assumed bike leather was too. It's a fun thing, to walk out to the parking lot after the service and fire up the hog. Good times.

That night was the blues extravaganza at Bozley's. 13 headliners in as many hours. It was crazy insane. All of my favorite people were there! I got to see Jon & Laura, and jam with Killer Ray and Pistol Pete. Love, love, loved jamming that night. Weather was fine - even Owen came out to hang out for awhile. Of course, he was more interested in playing bean bags and eating a sundae...but hey, he was there!

Yesterday...well yesterday is what sunk my battleship. We knocked out some long overdue house chores (I filled 4 garbage bags with old clothes from Owen's dressers) and I called some friends to meet at the ball field for a little parent/child softball game. The kids of course wanted it to be parents vs. kids...oy yoy. I'm no spring chicken, lemme tell ya. And somewhere with my age came this fear - this fear of getting hit in the face with the ball. I was playing 3rd and shortstop at first...and every time I'd try to field a grounder I was *pretty sure* that thing was going to take a bad hop and square me in the face. I'd be a version of Marcia Brady coming to work with my nose all huge...would Davy Jones come and take me to the dance?? I don't think so. I didn't play completely horribly. I had at least one nice hit. But boy am I paying for it all today. My legs are sore. My shoulder is sore. My fingers are swollen like little sausages. It's not pretty. I was never an athlete in my younger days, and I'm sure not one now. But I tried! And we had fun. We're definitely going to have to do that again. A couple more families added and we'll have full teams. I better start practicing. We ended the game in a tie...13-13. The kids wanted extra innings, but we parents? We were licked. We didn't have the extra innings left in us.

So here I sit, very aware of my nearness to 40. Trying to pretend that I don't have to live on anti-inflammatories today.

I think I like it better when I'm just screaming from the stands...

Trying to save you all some feedback...

2008-05-20T15:27:00.003-05:00

So I probably emailed a lot of you the links to my videos out on google video...I'm posting the least offensive of the set here. Unfortunately it's the same song from them that I previously posted. So to offer a little variety, I've also posted a vid that includes a snippet of war pigs....good stuff...seriously....

Liiiiiiiiiive from the Andrean Battle of the Bands...

And War Pigs:

ENJOY!!

And the winner iiiiiiiiiiiissssssssss....

2008-05-19T16:27:00.002-05:00

Circe Media.

Which, for those of you paying attention, does not look anything like That's Right.

It was a good night for the boys. They took a MORE than respectable second place finish. I had kind of suspected as the night progressed that it would go down like that. The t-shirts were a HUGE success and I have more on order. Anyone interested in a That's Right T-shirt, please let me know. They are $20 and all proceeds benefit That's Right.

The boys went on 4th out of 6th - a good place to be. The first 3 bands...well...let's just say they did a fine job for what they were doing and leave it at that.

Our boys? Completely rocked the house. Had the crowd jumping and clapping from note one...I'm not even remotely exaggerating. And then...the gig simulator kicked in. Bobby's microphone stopped working, feedback all over the place, Josway's amp intermittently cutting out. Stuff that was completely out of their control (as there were sound guys, but whatevs)...considering all of the tech difficulties, and there were PLENTY...they still came out fucking fantastic. I was so proud of them. Alex turned in one hell of a personal performance, I might add. His response after the gig? "Ummmm, yeah...girls are talking to me now."

Yes, dear...yes they are. And so continues the circle of musicians getting the babes. It's fun to see the musical baton (and I mean that figuratively folks, don't turn it into something DIRTY) passed from one generation to the next. The band that won was good, I guess, they did all original stuff that was kind of like a cross between Linkin Park and System of a Down - lots of slow build into screamy something-or-other...I dunno, not for me...Alex LOVED them and the mosh pit was a good time. They were the seniors, they were the favorites, and it's better to walk out having everyone tell you that you got robbed than to walk out with everyone telling you that you don't deserve it.

But between you and me? They TOTALLY got robbed and I swear someone was sabotaging their young talented asses...no one else had the tech problems they had, and Circe Media went on RIGHT after them and had not ONE problem....

hmmmmmm...

Saturday Owen had a personal best, too...another inside the park grand slam and an excellent pitching performance. The other team gave him the game ball...pretty good stuff.

I'm now an honorary member of a biker gang, I think. We had a gig for the grand opening of the new 'clubhouse' for the scorpions. If I'da spent 15 more minutes with those guys, I'm pretty sure I would have had a jacket and a new tat. You guys know me - I'll chat it up with anyone, even scary looking guys with names like Redbeard and Cowboy and Killer...they're my new supergay best friends and I'm welcome at the club anytime. Such nice boys. Like Kev-head said....they're just misunderstood.

Don't you know that you are a shooting star....

2008-05-16T09:06:00.003-05:00

So tonight's the night...I'm sitting at my desk typing away wearing my "That's Right" t-shirt...fanastic. Can't wait to see the boys do their thing tonight. The set list is good...they're more than ready.

Owen's baseball team is 4-0 - starting to look like last year. Owen is kicking it hard on the mound. The last two games he's had at least one inning with 3 up, 3 down and something like 11 pitches. He really hasn't pitched more than 2, 2.5 innings per game. Kevin's keeping him under 40 due to some new rules. So far it's working out.

He also got to go on a field trip to Amish Acres with the "high ability" student program. They used to call it gifted and talented, but apparently not anymore. He loved the trip, especially since he got to room with his best friend...but the cutest part? When we were packing, he told me he was not packing anything with buttons, because buttons are a high commodity for the Amish and he didn't want them to think he was bragging by wearing buttons. Are you kidding me? How compassionate is this kid...he's worried about offending the Amish. Adorable.

Kev-head shot some video of me last weekend at a gig. It's not great, because I'm dying from allergies this season. Seriously, I haven't worn make-up at all this week, my nose is stuffy, my eyes are watery and my vocal chords are shot from the drainage? The inflammation? I don't know, but I sound hoarse all the time. I was better for about a day...and now, not so much.

For better for worse, here's a little clip:

Have a great weekend everyone!

That's Right, baby, that's right...

2008-05-12T16:06:00.003-05:00

So the boys had their first official gig on Thursday night...they did so well it literally brought a tear to my eye.

I told them they can't post the vids to their myspace, because I don't want them to shoot their wad too early if you know what I mean. :)

But I can post them here, because I'm *pretty sure* no one at their school is reading my blog...

If you want to see the rest of them, click on the "go to google video" button in the bottom right hand corner, that will take to you to the google video website for the vid and you can click on "more from this user" or something and see them all. Happy viewing....wish the boys luck on Friday....

Hello my (stranger) friend, hello....

2008-05-08T12:35:00.006-05:00

So I got to meet some of my stranger-friends last night live and in person...I mean, we're all friends here, right, but a lot of us have never actually met, so technically we're like strangers, too...but not anymore!!

I had dinner last night with Eileen from Oregon, Colleen from Arizona and Kristen from Canada last night - all of whom regularly read this little blog...and some others who will hopefully START reading this blog: Sue from Houston, Amy from DC and Joanie from Alaska. Smart, beautiful, funny women who are so much fun it hurt to leave them. The night was definitely too short, and we all connected out of the box because, well, they know everything about me, despite the fact that I'm so timid and guarded on this blog, and because we all communicate here and on some other "professional" networking sites. (and I use that term very loosely!)

Upon arriving at Socca - a wonderful restaurant in Wrigleyville, I walk in and see a familiar face. Yeah, that's right, sitting there having a glass of wine is someone I KNOW!! I had the pleasure of meeting Jackie and her husband Kevin the previous week at the Toast of the Town last week and there they were, sipping a nice red in the window. Unbelievable!!

The evening was filled with so much laughter and cross-talk and multiple conversations...it was just fantastic. I introduce you to...the "Women of Like Mind":

Eileen my adorable 'surly' BBFF, Kristen (her hair is even MORE fabulous in person) Katie (yes, my bowling girl) and Colleen (who found me through BUMPTIOUS!!)

Amy and Sue

The peach crostada dance (the mood lighting in the restaurant did not make for good video...)
Eileen actually offered to pay me off for this video and all copies...which just cemented it's addition to the blog....Come on Eileen! What did you expect??)

So much to say, so much to say, so much to say....

2008-05-07T09:38:00.003-05:00

OMG - There's so much to tell since Friday - went out for Tigger's birthday on Friday night - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIGGER!!! A good time was had by all - there are flip videos of the evening that I'm pretty sure people will bribe me not to put here...not that we were doing anything horrible, mind you...just funny...

But prior to that was Thursday...the Wine Entusiast magazine Toast of the Town...or as my children call it..."Christmas for Mom". It was brilliant as always...but this time, for the first time, Kevin and I got a hotel room and stayed downtown. So I *think* we indulged a bit more than we usually would. Oy yoy. I used priceline.com to find the hotel - it was awesome!! I got a 4-star downtown Chicago hotel for $125...with taxes I paid HALF! Hooray me!

Saturday was opening day. I rocked the national anthem Tina Turner style and Owen's team won their game in 4 innings. They won last night, too - in 4 innings. Owen looks GREAT on the mound. So very proud.

Yesterday was Alex's first day on the job at DQ...he seemed to like it and said the people were nice. He learned how to make waffle bowls and arctic rushes and whatnot...good times. He's looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Tonight I'm going to the city to hook up with Eileen, Colleen and Kristen who check in on this blog!! We've never actually met face to face, we've only ever been bbff (blogging best friends forever)...we're going to the house of blues - I can't wait!!!! I should have a lot to report tomorrow, kids....

I can't even talk about election day...how exciting that Indiana actually MATTERED...and I went to the Hillary rally that was behind my building...and interesting experience to say the least. I still don't like her, or trust her...but it was still cool to go....

Did you vote? Didja??

ya-ya's of the world, unite!!

2008-05-02T15:19:00.004-05:00

Okay, okay, okay, Suz - I'm on it...I've been busy, dammit. I clearly have to write this blog or Suzi will drive out here from Wichita and beat my ass. Her words, not mine.

Last weekend Suz came into town from KS...she was supposed to be here on Friday...ummmmmm...notsomuch. Instead she got drunk...and by drunk I mean blotto'd in the Wichita airport and listened to my son's band compose a song for her over the phone. It really sucked, too, because when I found out her flight was delayed, I hatched a fantastic plan where Julie, Sher and I would hop hook up in Mville and jump into one car and drive out to fetch Suz from ORD. Ahhhh, the best laid plans....

shit.

So she ended up getting here Saturday morning and CLEARLY needed a break from her mother by Saturday night, so we arranged to all get together at the Village. Because Alex had a birthday party in Winfield and Kevin was living at the baseball field all weekend, I had to pick him up on my way out there and tuck him away at Jul's while we went out. As long as he has his laptop, he could care less....

Al and I picked up Suzi at her ma's and trucked on over to Julie's house. When we pull up, Julie and Chris are replacing the storm door. The storms last week did major damage to the existing one. The problem was that it had no handle. Apparently that's something you add later, and Chris hadn't gotten to that part yet, so they had to leave the top window down so you could grab the thing and open it. In hindsight it's really not that funny - but in the moment it was hysterical. We started thinking that maybe he shouldn't put the handle on, and that we should devise some sort of remote control....or maybe they could rig it like those commercials..."Door OPEN" and of course it wouldn't and we'd all go crashing into it accordion style. Again, hilarious last weekend...as was the fact that the arm thingy that is supposed to a) keep the door from flying off and b) bring the door back to closed slowly...well, it brought it back slowly all right. So slowly that we were pretty sure if we didn't push it closed that it still would have been sloooooowly closing when we got back from the Village.

While at the Village, something very strange happened. I've seen less than favorable men try to pick up women in bars before, but this guy took the cake. Now keep in mind that Suz was hot-flashing her ass off, so she's sitting in the Village in her tank top, bra straps a flyin. This guy walks by our table and gives Suzi the up and down...visibly, noticeably and then stands not too far away just STARING. It was creepy. Creepier yet was when Suzi got up to go to the bathroom and creepy guy comes back, sits in her seat and says to me...
Drunk Guy: "You're friend here...is she single?"
You gotta give the guy credit for being direct, I guess.
Me: "Um, no"...
DG: "Oh, really"
Me: "Yeah, she's very married"
Julie: "And she's not even from here"
Me: "She's not remotely single and she's not remotely from here"
DG: "Well, I guess that happens."
Me: "I guess it does."
And off he goes.

It was weird, and creepy and ....ew.

We were supposed to leave at a decent time...because Suzi made me promise...and we weren't out too terribly late, but it was late enough, and Suzi was a little intoxicated...which made the car ride with Alex hilarious. Alex LOVES laughing at my friends when they're drunk. And Suzi gave him lots of great material that night - like asking FIFTY-TWO TIMES if we could go to McDonald's to get cheeseburgers, to which I responded yes every.single.time. but it didn't stop the question. And telling me and Alex that she was going to beat some ass...and I can't remember all of the ass-beating reasons, but I do remember this: Suzi was talking about how she's really at the top of her game and says "Right now, I'm the most intelligent I've ever been" and my response? "Really? Right NOW? Maybe right now in general but not...maybe not right NOW" as Alex cackles from the back seat in response and Suzi blames HIM for her drunkenness because if Alex had just come WITH us...he would have stopped her from drinking so many beers. Ummmm, yeah...

There were so many fun things from that night - but I can't type anymore...I have to get some work done...this will have to do for now, Suz - the sunflower story will have to wait....

Memories....like the corners of my mind....

2008-04-25T16:33:00.002-05:00

So the Alex dropping the f-bomb story never stops being funny, and has actually INCREASED our use over the past week or so. Because of course we're torturing Alex's life with this. He never did get called to the office...which is a good thing...but maybe it just hasn't happened yet.

Alex had an interview at DQ the other day - he got the job and that's his ticket into the power chord academy - AWESOME. I had a conversation with my ex about it and said "any words of wisdom for your son before the interview?" his response? tell him not to say fuck.

Awesome...Alex is getting it from all sides.

Julie was laughing about this today and reminded me that I have actually blogged about a) my kids not cussing at inopportune times and b) Alex's comments on my frequent use of the f-bomb.

Hilarious.
Your trip down memory lane:
a) Interesting question - it's all there, in the last paragraph. What a difference a year makes.

b) *#$%&*& - yeah...I knew I was responsible for this...even back then...

Kids...aren't they great? er...great!

2008-04-22T14:53:00.002-05:00

And you need to say that both ways...aren't they great?? with loaded sarcasm and then again aren't they GREAT!!

Alex got in trouble at school. I haven't heard from the school on this issue - he told me. Completely forthcoming, because he knows that if I hear about stuff like this from say...the principal...blindsided, if you will, that I'm going to lose it. But now if the principal calls, I'll at least be prepared. Apparently he was jacking around in the parking lot after school with his band-mates. And for whatever reason was sitting on top of his friend's car. Why? No idea...don't really care. It was time for them to leave so they could meet me here and we could caravan down to my house for band rehearsal bonanza...so he leans over the side, knocks on the window to talk to them. The boys inside would put down the window a crack, but when Al would start to talk, they would put it back up. hahahahahahaha from the inside of the car. rmph from Alex. knock-knock-knock again...window down...alex starts to talk...window up. hahahahahaha. So this continues again, and now Alex is beating on the window shouting "Hey, guys...open the window! It's time to go!" (how he thought they were going to leave with him still ON TOP of the car is beyond me. a sane person would have gotten off the car but whatevs.) Still no open window. So now Alex pounds on the window, completely frustrated and shouts "OPEN THE FUCKING WINDOW!" Ummmmm, yeah, that's right - that's my teenager dropping the f-bomb in the parking lot of his private Catholic high school. Sweet. And of course, because it's my son, the athletic director just so happened to be in the parking lot and heard him. Awesome. He comes over, orders Alex off the car, asks him his name and what the difference between a window and an eff-ing window is. (A friend of mine found this question ridiculous, as it was very clear that a window is open and a fucking window is closed. HA!) Alex, I'm sure, was stammering and red-faced and speaking in octaves only dogs can hear...gave the guy his name and muttered some sort of inaudible response. The guy told them to basically get the heck out of dodge and told Alex he could expect to be called down to the office. Whoops. This happened on Friday, and I never did ask him if the office called him down for a counseling session on swearing...they haven't called me, so it can't be all bad.

My husband did not react as badly to this as I had thought. A part of him was relieved to see our good-natured teenage boy actually get into some kind of trouble, as my husband has his own troubled high school past...I think the asshole-puckering that ensued after the incident was enough to teach him his first lesson on swearing awareness.

On the flip side there's Owen. He wrote an essay a couple of months ago for school "What Being a Good Citizen Means to Me." He told me about it, but I didn't really think much of it - until yesterday. He apparently won the essay contest for our county. I didn't even realize this was a county-wide competition. Oh yes...and it went down to be evaluated for State recognition as well. Whodawa??? He won the county, but didn't place as high in the state. For his county winner status he gets to go to the Indiana State House and visit the governor, get an engraved plaque, a $500 savings bond, a certificate from the governor, other prizes from the Indiana State Trooper's Association including a scholarship to their "Respect the Law" camp over the summer..and then then troopers will come to his school's end of the year awards ceremony and make a presentation there, as well.... WOW. Owen is amazed. Julie emailed him to congratulate him on his honors and his response? "I didn't really think about it, I just wrote." He can't believe he won something just for writing an essay. I haven't even seen it...so no, I don't know what he said. He wrote it in school and the teacher submitted it. He's not even sure what he wrote. He remembers that he was studying the Scout law for his Arrow of Light and wrote some things about being loyal and helpful and friendly, but he really doesn't remember what he wrote or even how long the essay was. Oy vay. Not helpful. Hopefully we'll actually get to see a copy at some point during the process.

So it's been a parenting up and down for us in the past couple of days.

We got to enjoy our outdoor living room set this weekend...love, love, love it. Hopefully it stays warm through the weekend so we can sit out there some more. Must.buy.more.wine.

Last dance...last chance....

2008-04-17T10:39:00.002-05:00

So let's dance, the last dance...toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....

It's the last night of bowling, folks. LAST NIGHT. 33 weeks of trying to knock down those crazy pins...33 weeks of beers and disappointment. I'm always so happy when bowling season starts. And even happier when it ends....it's just such a long.damn.commitment...especially for me when my family is busy and involved. Maybe it will get easier when Alex drives. Maybe I should just throw in the towel. Kev-head and I have talked about finding a couples league - I don't think their season is as long. That would be nice...

That grass that started growing out back? It's really filling in...the other areas are still a week or two behind it, but if it looks anything like that - we should have a nice green yard again by summer.

BATTER UP!!! Baseball season has started my friends...yes it has....so far not tooooooo involved, but the game schedule hasn't come out yet. Opening day May 3rd...very excited. I do love watching Owen play baseball. Of course, the stress of watching him pitch is a stomach turning experience, but every year it gets better.

We took the boys to Wrigley the other night for the Cubs game...I do love Wrigley field...and Wrigleyville - I really do. I've only ever held one sports team close to my heart...the beloved Steelers (moment of silence, please....) and now I really think I am...a CUBS FAN. I hate the Cell, for starters...sorry, Jimmer.

The weekend found us busy as usual...Alex's band came over on Friday night, and Saturday we had our family portraits done by...JULIE BRAVEMAN PHOTOGRAPHY of course!! She sent me a little tidbit of what she shot and it's all great stuff! (like I expected anything different). It's so fun to see all of her new equipment that she's built up over the years...and all of the knowledge...so good, so good. Have you booked your family portrait yet? No???? Well get out to www.juliebraveman.com and a representative will contact you shortly!

And I have to say this out loud...I went shopping for new jeans. I'm a size 8 again. BRILLIANT. I haven't worn a size 8 since before Owen was born. After Alex and before Owen...that was a long time ago. It's fun to be back there again!!

How are you guys?

It's all about the grass, man...the grass...

2008-04-09T12:58:00.002-05:00

I am so tired of having conversations about grass seed and weather I could choke someone. Seriously - I know that my husband really wanted to get the project done. The grass seed project that followed the excavation project that trashed my perfectly healthy, wonderful grassy back yard. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to look out my back door and see nothing but black dirt again? I had flashbacks to filthy kids coming in from playing outside and staining every article of clothing they owned. That dirt never comes out. Bleach it, wash it 52 times, it doesn't matter. Once that dirt gets in, it's not getting out.

This weekend he and the boys busted hump getting all of it planted...at least a couple of acres that had to be turned, leveled, seeded, raked and seeded some more. Oy. I'm tired just thinking about it.

And yesterday, a little teeny tiny morsel of a payoff - some of the grass is already coming up - the stuff they did around Easter and the week following. A light green haze over the muddy muddy exterior. I thought my hubby was going to need a moment, if you know what I mean.

I, on the other hand, am completely thrilled with the handrail, my new living room tables, and my outdoor sitting area. It's awesome. I found an outdoor rug to go with the set, so now I really do feel like I have an outdoor living room. We spent some nice time out there over the weekend sipping wine and waiting for the grass to grow. Grow, grass, GROW! The view from my awesome patio furniture will be much better when it's green instead of brown and mucky. Ew.

Next up, the front porch project. This one I could actually lose sleep over, I think. I just don't know where to start. I think I need a landscape company - anyone know of anyone that could come to my house in the boonies and make some sort of stone walkway to my front porch and stairs to match? Help?

Lovely, lovely bloggers...where is the dear Eileen? CCC is coming, m'dear ... we need to make PLANS!

I'm special (special) so special....

2008-04-02T11:06:00.004-05:00

Did you all get the memo? The one that says how important I am? I have an ASSISTANT. Seriously? How cool is that??

Well, she's not really just MY assistant...she's going to be doing a lot of the stuff I really shouldn't be doing geek-wise (like ordering paper...seriously? no....I'm done tracking paper) and then she's also going to be doing general filing and office stuff for the people who actually ARE important around here. Interviewing this gal was hilarious, she had to think I was a big freak. I haven't interviewed anyone since my Burger King management days, and back then for that job all I cared about was if you showed up and could actually bag fries.

She comes to me with zip, zero, zilch computer experience, but for the types of things I need her for, that's not so troubling. Plus - she's a lefty AND she's a gamer AND her favorite band is "The Cure"... that's all I needed to know. (yes, that was an interview question, along with how many pairs of Chucks do you own - the answer was 2, and she added that they are vintage and beat to hell because she wears them so often) Does all of that mean anything to you? No? Well - it means she's smart, creative, self-learning, and old school...as in she's not a myspace junkie who's going to be texting her friends every minute of the day. Cure fans don't do that. Chuck fans don't do that.

It's so liberating having someone who is going to field supply requests and copier jams and printer malfunctions and hopefully, eventually, some even geekier stuff...HOORAY!

And to add even more good stuff? She's easy to talk to, has picked up on everything very quickly, asks for more to do and doesn't care that I talk like a truckdriver...seriously, that's important. I don't want to be dropping f-bombs in front of the religious chick, or the chick that takes offense - I can hold my tongue. If I have to. But there better be a good fucking reason.

So I'm a very happy geek today....
and I'm trying a new meatloaf recipe tonight, too. It's already in the frig just waiting for Owen to get off the bus and put it in the oven. I've never felt more like the Janet than I did last night when I was leaving a note for Owen with instructions on what to do with the meatloaf when he gets home. I mixed in ranch dressing and ketchup, those fried onions that you put in green bean casserole in place of grated onion and the dry stuffing mix in place of bread crumbs. Mmmmmmm....I'll let you know how it goes....
Happy Wednesday!

well happy birthday to ME

2008-03-31T16:45:00.005-05:00

What a fantabulous birthday month it's been...well, other than the weather.

Friday mama took the day off and slept a little and ate a little and shopped a little. Very happy with my Menard's purchases...some outdoor furniture...yay furniture!

My handrail is done...done...done. Okay, not done...installed. We still have to paint it and stain it but STILL! So excited...check it out:
And while you guys might not be as thrilled as I am - I've been waiting almost 8 YEARS for that puppy...so I'm pretty excited.

Saturday night's gig was a blast, and I actually made money because the Kev-head didn't go...for those of you that don't realize what that means, it means no bar tab, which means I actually PROFIT from one of my gigs. Whoo-dee-whoo, babies.

Sunday's jam, my birthday jam was awesome. The place was packed, my family and friends were there, and I think I rocked it pretty good....pretty well....pretty good...whatever. Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate (and brought gifts...that part was cool, too!)

Peace out - me and my new iPod touch got some bidness to take care of....

yo shawty, it's my birthday!!

2008-03-27T14:34:00.002-05:00

Yay me!

Day of food, dinner at the ranch, bowling with my girls, day off tomorrow. Love it all like I would marry it.

Julie's last day at her job in Chicago...hooray! Gooooooo Julie!

I have a HANDRAIL on my staircase...yay handrail!

3 day weekend, 3 day weekend...

Remember - Sunday blues jam starring me at Bozley's just off of I-65 at exit 230 - 5pm start time
OR you can come to the Hideaway in Blue Island on Saturday
OR you can check out the feed on http://live.yahoo.com/thespotstudio

Happy Thursday!

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...i'm hooked on a feeling...

2008-03-19T10:56:00.005-05:00

Well - there comes a time in every parent's life when you have to do it...you have to give your kid the hook.

I didn't mean to do it...it was completely a reaction. Alex's band was practicing at the house last night - and I was recording it with my flip so they could submit a demo. It was a good practice for them and they came up with a name...

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

THAT'S RIGHT.

**video removed**

OMG - please tell me you're laughing. I almost died. Poor Bobby - I'm forcing that kid to sing as it is, and I just need one decent take...ONE DECENT TAKE...and we were in the middle of a GREAT take, and here comes Owie...so I hooked him. When the guys saw it they cracked up, so that's the video they submitted for their demo, Owie and the hook and all. They figured the teacher who will be reviewing the vids would get a big kick out of it. I hope he has a good sense of humor.

I've got to work on the sound coming out of that old PA. With two mics and a bass hooked it and all of them trying to play over Alex's drumming (didja know drums don't come with a damn VOLUME KNOB?? Sonsabitches)

More fun jam vids to come, I'm sure....
Happy Wednesday...

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody...

2008-03-17T11:42:00.002-05:00

I got some money cuz I just got paid...

Well happy Monday to everyone...how was the weekend? Good, good...
Mine was...well, busy. Friday night found us in Cheesetown for Chris's birthday - Village Burgers...mmmmmmmmmmmmm. It didn't help that I ate my weight in onion rings, either. Whoops. That's seriously a problem. IU lost - and based on that performance on Friday night, lemme tell you all - PICK ARKANSAS. If you don't know what I'm talking about - then you haven't printed your NCAA bracket yet - and that's just wrong. Get it together, people!

Saturday found my head cold descending into my chest and I felt like someone was sitting on me when I woke up. Stop. Rewind. Kev-head, Jimmer - don't go there. I take that statement back. I spent the morning doing laundry and really...REALLY...why do I have SO MANY SOCKS WITHOUT MATCHES???? I know this isn't exactly exciting blog material, but seriously - what is going on? Even when I make sure I put them in the wash IN PAIRS - this is how bad it's gotten. I counted 1, 2, 3,4,5,6,7,8 socks - 4 pairs - in my hand - and put them in the wash. And when I folded that VERY FUCKING LOAD - I only had 7. 7 socks. 3.5 pairs. Can someone please, please explain THAT to me before I launch myself into a pit of angry alligators??

Saturday night Alex's band came over to practice. We set them up in the basement...which was fine, but just plan on doing nothing else for those 3.5 hours...because there's no escaping teenagers with amps. Not even with earplugs, a couple of beers and a box of benadryl, believe me, Kev-head tried. They actually sound really good - but a 20 minute version of "Hey Joe" - that could grate on anyone's nerves, and I like my Hendrix.

Sunday was so busy I thought my head would literally spin off my neck. Sent Kev-head off to the airport at 4 in the morning...got up and went to 8:00 church, then confirmation class, then we had to drive back home so I could drop Owen off with a friend to go to Rensseltucky - he had art on display at the college. Why didn't I go, you ask? Well, because I had to drop him off, head to my nephew's birthday party in Portage and then to Alex's concert in Valpo. aaarrrrrgggh. Before I dropped Owie off I wanted to stop at the pharmacy to get him a disposable camera to take with him - but alas - there was a squad car in the parking lot and a big poorly written sign on the door that said "Close due to Roberry, investigation in progress." ummmmmm, okay, so you can spell investigation but not ROBBERY??? I love my town.

Alex's concert was good - I'm sure my dad thoroughly enjoyed the 3 bands that performed before his, considering their musical repertoire consisted of Ozzy, Metallica, Black Sabbath, more Ozzy, more Sabbath, Pink Floyd...oh and Sabbath. Talk about someone wanting to light themselves on fire...

Something totally cool happened at the blues jam last night - someone brought in a video camera and a laptop and put us live on the internet!! How cool is that?? So here's the deal...I think he's coming back for my birthday bash on March 30th. You have two choices - the first one being the best...
1. BE THERE! It starts at 5pm
2. WATCH FROM HOME!! Bookmark this site: http://live.yahoo.com/thespotstudio

You can comment and he'll tell us about it and it will be *almost* as good as being there!

What a long strange trip it's been

2008-03-14T10:18:00.003-05:00

Happy birthday to Chris! This is exciting for me because it means I'll get to see my Julie tonight...hip hip hooray!!!

BIG NEWS on the Julie front - she's finally unveiled the website! www.juliebraveman.com for the best.portrait.photography.EVAH. Stop what you're doing immediately and call her to schedule your family sitting. DO IT.

The hubby is off to Arizona on Sunday, lucky bastard.

Alex is now not only in a garage band, but he's in a band for his school's battle of the bands. He's totally stoked about it. But even MORE important than that, is that we've discovered the Power Chord Academy. It's not your every day band camp, kiddies - and thanks to Jul, she gave me an idea that helped me sell this plan to both my hubby and the ex. It's not cheap to go and be a rockstar for a week - so we're splitting it 3 ways. Now we have to figure out where and how to get Alex a job. We're going to DQ after work/school to get an app. I know they hire 15-year-olds. or if a friendly benefactor would like to anonymously drop $1800 my way - I certainly wouldn't argue. Neither would Al. :)

Owen finished up baseball camp, thank heavens. And spring break is on the horizon. I need spring break not because we're going anywhere or even that I'm taking time off, I'm not - but I'm guaranteed NOT to have to attend any meetings, run kids anywhere or do ANYTHING EXTRACURRICULAR. Hooray spring break!

What's new with you?

What a long strange trip it's been...

2008-03-07T12:54:00.003-06:00

I have never been so happy to see a Friday in my life. What a week, folks, what a week...emotional ups and downs, arguments, drama...and that was just on Monday and Tuesday dealing with Cub Scouts!! Seriously? Seriously. A mom is very upset about an award her son did not receive at the banquet on Monday night...so she was going to conduct an investigation to see whether or not anyone should have received their awards. INVESTIGATION?? Are you kidding me? I'll make sure that when the cub scout police come to arrest me I'll have internet access in cub scout county jail. I can tell you all about life on the inside. What would that sentence be like? Would they ban me from being a cub scout leader forever?? Really? PLEASE! Would then tie me up with neckerchiefs and stone me with neck slides? Would they make me write the cub scout promise 500 times?

It's cub scouts, people...and bottom line, her son didn't even come close to the requirements. Shut up, angry cub mom.

Then I saw something I've never seen...I was picking Alex up from school on Wednesday and as I'm turning the corner onto Broadway an officer is walking through the Walgreen's parking lot, gun drawn, pointing and yelling at a man in a van. Ummmmm. freaky! I've never seen a cop with his gun drawn other than television. When I passed by that same Walgreen's on the way home, the parking lot was full of cop cars and officers with 3 "perps" (don't I sound cool) face down on the ground. I still haven't found anything in the paper that tells me what in the hell was going on there.

Last night - I bowled a 188 in my second game and won the side pot. HOORAY ME! The other two games weren't bad, and my team won the 3 game series, so that's cool.

Tonight finds me sleeping in the hallway of a middle school - fear not lovely bloggers - I'm not homeless. It's the annual lock-in down in Monticello. The rest of the weekend holds work and housework and church and of course...the blues! Happy Friday!

When did I become a once a week blogger???

2008-03-06T10:37:00.003-06:00

Shame on me. I must improve this. Are you guys still out there? Keep checking daily, I will make this happen.

Quick Idol rant: Carly Smithson - who likes this girl? I mean seriously...can she sing? Yes. Do you care? NO. She's just so...diva-esque and I hate everything that comes out of her mouth. Who is she appealing to? And Amanda Overmyer? There are thousands of women across this country alone who could have and have done that same cover of that same song. Meh. And Randy Jackson? Quit smoking Paula's crackpipe - how you can watch Brooke's BRILLIANT performance and say that she didn't bring anything new or original to it?? WHAT? Yeah, even Pat Benatar has done an acoustic version of that song - it sounded nothing like that. Shut up Randy.

Child update:Owen is actually managing to wear two matching socks everyday, on his feet. Doesn't that sound great. Ummm...yeah...he's now into Jeff Hardy arm socks. ARM SOCKS. Why is it always about socks with him? Don't know what they are? First of all, good for you...I think I'm dumber for knowing. Check them out. His are orange and black but you can get them in all colors...yes he wears them every day. Yes, he wears them to school. Yes, he wears them around the house. Ridiculous. Whatever. Alex wore a cape. Owen has arm socks.

Therapy.

Alex is well, Alex. He lost his coat for the second time this year. Well, not lost...but left behind. I almost killed him the first time. This time he was helping the theatre techs after school and left it in the theatre, which was then LOCKED. With his backpack and coat inside. Nice. He's totally my kid.

Wish me luck for bowling tonight...

First ever live AI blog...

2008-02-27T20:33:00.002-06:00

For those of you who don't watch AI...suck it...as Dr. Phil says...it's not about you...

I refuse to comment on any of their personal background shit. It's worthless.

Carly - sorry...don't believe the hype. I personally hate this chick. First of all - every time she sings, I feel like I'm being sung AT, not sung to...or sung with...or like she even gives a shit that anyone's in the room or watching from home. I'm not saying she doesn't have a good voice, she does, but she's a completely narcissistic performer, and I just can't get on board. I know she's "the golden child" but...whatever. I feel the exact same way about David Archuleta. He's fake, he's elitist, he'll win a Tony someday, but never a grammy, and I just don't connect with him at all whatsoever. I'm sure I offended everyone on that one, but it's true.

Syesha - I love this girl. Was the song choice fantastic? No - but vocally she's amazing and she could connect singing the phone book. A natural. I love her. Plus she looked amazing. Oh shit, I sound like Paula. If I start blogging about the singers having a light around them, please light me on fire.

Brooke - This is my golden child. No matter who the producers are pimping to us. She is brilliant. Brilliant song choice, brilliant delivery...I just wish she could have been playing piano instead of guitar while singing it. I'm agreeing with Simon every step of the way tonight as usual. What does that say about me?

Ramiele - I do like this girl, and vocally - she could be the best. But she's just not confident enough on the stage. You're singing a disco classic and your feet are CEMENTED to that one spot on stage? Honey I can't even sing that song in my CAR and stay in one spot. Own it. Figure it out.

Kristi Lee Cook - looked hot...Kev-head liked her. Vocals, meh. I mean, she sang most of it in key, and she doesn't suck...but...in the end, if she made a record, you wouldn't buy it. You wouldn't even know it existed. I hate all of the blondes who aren't Brooke. She overused that fake chick rocker stance, too.

Amanda Overmyer - Oh honey...I love you...but this sucked. BAD..completely off pitch. Horrible. Cats raping each other in the alley sound better. And while I completely appreciate your authentic chick rockerdom, buy-bye. You have had your 15 minutes...you are the weakest link...good night.

Alaina - you are fucking kidding me right? Hopelessly Devoted???? I have the same complaint as last week. The 60s greatest decade in music evah with the 70s a close second - and you pick THIS??? First of all - you're never going to come close to the original, not vocally, not emotionally, not sentimentally - so if you're not going to change it up, give it up.

*sidenote - Wrestlemania between Kev-head and Owen going on while I type this. Kevin just tapped out because Owen farted on him. Even with chick singers on the TV, I still need more estrogen in this house.

Alexandrea - You are fucking kidding me, right? Have I said this already? I mean not that it's not a great song, I love Chicago as much as the next guy, but seriously? SERIOUSLY???? Buh-bye honey. If I didn't know better, I'd say you wanted to go home, because that was vocal suicide, even with the Anita Baker ending. As Julie would say...redick.

Kady - this sucked ass from note one. Ann Wilson is one of the greatest female vocalists with a fantastic range. If you can't hit the low low to get to the high high - go home. Stick to Britney Spears impersonation...she has no range...do what you know. Kev-head says this is the worst performance of the night. I agree. No stage presence, no vocals...Alaina and Alexandrea should be THRILLED about that...gives them hope. Amanda, I apologize, you are not the weakest link...Kady is.

Asai'h - Love her hair. Bad notes in the slow section. Ouch...low is too low....ummmm, if you can't hit the opening high note? why are you singing this song? OH MY. Pitchy as all get out. That high note was painful. Strong finish, but 3 notes and one run does not a good performance make. What's raging through AI that EVERYONE is sick? Is there any contestant that isn't suffering from some bronchial infection. And P.S....Diva song? DIVA SONG?

Okay, let me lodge my BIGGEST complaint about this show. They never attribute the songs to the original artist. All by myself is NOT a diva song - it was originally performed by a MAN. A MAN. Eric Carmen to be exact, and that's what made it so cool. Just because Celine Dion covered it 30 years later does not make it HER song or a DIVA song. And P.S. the song that Chikezie did last night - it's NOT a Donny Hathaway song. No disrespect to his daughter the backup singer, but that song was originally done and made famous by RAY CHARLES. How about a little shout out for that? They do this all the time. They give the song "Superstar" to Luther Vandross, and I love Luther Vandross, don't get me wrong, but that song was written by Leon Russell (musical, lyrical genius) and made famous by Karen Carpenter....how about some props for the people who are actually responsible for the magic?

And that's not to say that I have a problem with cover tunes, I totally don't. I cover songs, and I cover versions of songs that others have covered...

But a show ABOUT music not properly crediting artists? Peeves me.

It's so hard...to say goodbye...to yesterday...

2008-02-26T09:49:00.003-06:00

OMG - So my dear sweet ya-ya, Suzi came into Indianapolis on Saturday and the Kev-head and I drove down for a night of ... well...ya-ya insanity.

The night started innocently enough, beers in the hotel room. Then we moved on to Nicky Blaine's, a cigar bar right off Monument Circle in Indy. GREAT place! Highly recommend it. Low-lighting, cigars, martinis...brilliant! I got a pack of Indian vanilla flavored cigarettes that basically made me look like I was smoking joints all night long. I kept thinking I was going to get escorted out of our various locations.

After that it was off to the Alcatraz Brewing Company. The beers were fine, and Suz and I had fabulous meals. The boys got burgers and were less than satisfied.

My plan was to go to Howl at the Moon after that, but the line was soooooo long and the boys were too whiny to stand in it. I had wanted to get to this place earlier because I knew there would be a line, but because of some work drama I refuse to talk about, my schedule (that Suzi and Brad made fun of me for) was completely thrown out of whack. We tried sending the boys to a pub next door to kill time, but in the end, we left the line and moved on to the Slippery Noodle. I was purposely avoiding this place because it is a blues joint, and my poor hubby has been inundated with the blues lately and I figured he could use a break. But off we went and the juke joint was definitely jumpin. Reverend Raven was jamming away and it was a great time. If you ever get the chance to see him at a venue near you, you should definitely do it! (Carol - they'll be in Pittsburgh on Owen's birthday!)

We did end up at Howl at the Moon - but by this time the evening is a blur! The most unfortunate part of the night is that I left my camera in the hotel room, so the only pics I have of our wonderful evening out are the drunk pics that Suzi demanded I take for the blog. So here we are at 3:30 in the morning, wasted and completely happy. The picture is less than flattering of both of us, but pretty much tells the story of our throwdown in Indy...the bathtub was Kevin's idea...
It was a wonderful reminiscing filled evening. I hope you all have those girlfriends that when you're with them, no matter where you are, it feels like coming home. We've got almost 27 years of history together...and distance doesn't put a dent in the closeness.

So the beer store called, and said that Suzi and I drank all the beer in Indianapolis, and that's exactly the way I felt when Kev-head woke me up on Sunday. Oy. Sometimes things like that must be done! Suz - I love and miss you! We will make it to the lake house SOON!

Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD...

2008-02-22T09:51:00.003-06:00

Yeah baby! THANK YOU Boyz II Men. The single greatest night of bowling I ever...EVAH had...and I owe it all to you. Jamming along with you guys on Don't Forget the Lyrics last night must have been just the inspiration I needed because I bowled a 220 in my second game.

A 220 people...SCRATCH...which means it counted as a 282 with my handicap!! I finally, finally got my 500 series with a 512 total. BANK! Yes!!!! My other two games weren't bad...149 and a 143. Nothing to sneeze at...but game two...BAM! I hope you'll all be watching me when I'm on ESPN. Of course it will be ESPN the Ocho...HA!

American Idol news ... Indiana's Amy Davis...gone. Of course she is. The 60's is/was the single greatest decade in musical history and you pick "Where the Boys Are???" How big is the crack pipe, exactly, that you're smoking to pick that musical nightmare? I originally thought this tune was a Patsy Cline tune, but it was actually Connie Francis. Out of all the artists from the 60's...seriously...CONNIE FRANCIS??? Oy. Since I bowl in Lowell and Amy was a Lowell HS graduate, a lot of the peeps at the bowling alley know her, know her family. According to one gal...Amy's dad called her husband and told him that they were given a list of 48 songs. From those 48 each singer got to pick 3 and then the producers picked the song they actually sang. I've always wondered about that. But I gotta tell ya, not having seen the list of 48, no way in HELL that song would have made my top 3, that's for sure. No way. NO.WAY.

On a lighter note, it's the weekend and the Kev-head and I are road-tripping to Indy to see one of my ya-ya's...Suzi! Hooray!! I feel like I haven't seen her in forever.

And for those of you that don't know...in addition to my many, many stupid addictions and fascinations, I can also be a real trial junkie. The Mark Jensen trial has been going on for 6 weeks now and yesterday the jury came back...GUILTY! If you don't know what I'm talking about...it's the Wisconsin case where 10 years ago Julie Jensen died from anti-freeze poisoning. She left a note with a neighbor that basically said 'if I die, my husband did it.' The defense was that JJ killed herself and framed MJ. I gotta say, I thought defense did an excellent job trying to create reasonable doubt. But in the end, Albee's closing argument was weak at best. The prosecution brought it and MJ winds up looking like a total sleeze who killed his wife to be with his mistress. The case had me from day one and now it's done. I think I'm in withdrawal.

For now I'm on iTunes downloading Boyz II Men tracks to try and get rid of my post-trial shakes...oh how I've missed them. (BIIM, not the shakes) Motownphilly back again!

It is his love, it is his passion...

2008-02-19T22:34:00.002-06:00

IT IS HER FAULT SHE LIVES IN GOOD OLE' BOY COUNTRY.

For those of you who don't know...I called for the resignation of a school board member. I called for it because he and his wife are divorcing and it is a well known fact that he's living out of our district. He's violating the by-laws and he's breaking the law. And he's a class-A prick to boot.

But...good ole' boy syndrome in effect. The superintendent said today that my point was "moot" because he only rented that apartment "temporarily for work" (ummm...he had to rent an apartment 20 mins from his house for work?) He also said that the move was temporary and that he's back in his house now.

um...kids...who uses their TEMPORARY FUCKING ADDRESS ON THEIR BANKRUPTCY PETITION? How fucking dumb do they think I am?

I'm pissed. I'm super fucking pissed. I haven't been this pissed in a long time. Fuck them. Fuck this school system. I'm done. I'm out. I expected them to find a loop hole...but to outright fucking lie. Where else would this shit happen?

And now they are once again loading the school board ballot with their candidates...awesome. So they will get their $15 million building project approve a new school for 200 kids, one-third of the elementary population, and I can see my property taxes double to pay for it while I have to send my kids to private school because this corporation can't afford to provide a decent education.

And people wonder why the Indiana Commission found that voters feel that they have no power in Indiana.

Can you smeeeeelllllll what the Rock is cookin??

2008-02-19T14:24:00.002-06:00

Okay, outdated I know, but my youngest son...Owen...has been infatuated with wrestling lately. It's all he and his friends talk about. The Swanton Bomb, the Twist of Fate, Whisper in the Wind...great novel titles? No. Wrestling moves. Owen can spend hours on the phone talking to his friends about the latest Smackdown or RAW happenings. So we let him have a little party...we ordered the recent 3 hour "No Way Out" pay per view special. $50. FIFTY FRIGGIN' DOLLARS for this thing. The catch - his friends had to help pay. Each friend had to pay $10 to come and watch the wrestling sensation.

So Sunday night while I was duking it out in the bar, Owen had 4 boys over to watch the big show. And lemme tell ya, he picked the right friends. The set up? First Owen brought down his mattresses from his twin beds upstairs and put them on the floor in the basement in front of the TV. Why? Oh sure...so they can stand ON MY HALF WALL and Swanton Bomb each other on the mattresses. They almost went through the TV countless times. Kev-head rightfully put a stop to that...so they moved the mattresses to the bottom of the stairs so they could execute their moves from there. Holy mother....

Walking into this fiasco at the end was hysterical. Not only was my basement a hot mess of farting, eating, cheering testosterone...there was more cheering and screaming than I've ever heard watching any other sporting event. As the wrestlers would prepare for a certain move the boys would all scream it out in excitement and then when it was delivered they would stand and cheer and high-five...oh.my. It was more hilarious watching them than anything else, and well worth the cost of food, lemme tell ya. (Which they annihilated a 12 pack of root beer, 2 boxes of capri suns, a bag of cheese puffs, cheese popcorn and chips within minutes I say...minutes.)

"Judgment Day" is coming to pay per view just before Owen's birthday...I think I know what the next birthday party will be for him.

Save the drama for your mama...

2008-02-18T10:14:00.003-06:00

Hey there bloggers...how are you?

Well...I've had a lot happen since last we chatted.

Where to begin? Well Thursday night bowling SUCKED. I mean....SUCKED. My first game was all right but after that...oy. nothing good. Kiki made a fantastic showing...but me...notsomuch.

Friday I got all caught up on laundry and such, which was a GREAT thing. So happy about that. I didn't get to have my Friday night phone date with Juls, though...she was already asleep by the time I had a chance to call. It's just as well. My champion wine opener...well...let's just say I got my money's worth out of it. But it had to be put to sleep, poor thing. It had stopped pulling the corks out of the bottles and started pushing them IN. Hmm. No good. Very sad indeed. The spare we have was not working either, so I was forced to drink BEER on Friday night while laundering my clothes. Not good. I will buy a new one today...don't you sweat it kiddies.

Saturday saw me with a makeover. I had a gig on Saturday night and wanted to actually look like a girl. And since I can't make that happen myself, I had to enlist help. From a 12 year old. Maybe 13, I'm not sure. Yes, it's true...because there was going to be a photographer at the gig who wanted me in "picture ready make-up" - yeah, I don't know how to do that without looking like a clown...so I talking to my friend Ang, who said she would hook me up. But who actually did my make-up? Her DAUGHTER. Oy. Of course she did. Why don't they have classes for this in high school? How-to-be-a-girl 101. I would need 101, 102 and the 200-series of classes to help my sorry ass, but whatever.

Then it was off to have my hair done. Wait til you see the pics! I wish I knew how to do this kind of stuff on my own, but I don't. My guitar player didn't even recognize me when I walked in! HA! Ab fab. The gig was fantastic...total blast. Can't wait to go back there.

Sunday I was dead. Just toast. My dear sweet hubby brought me breakfast in bed (he went and picked up biscuits and gravy from the restaurant up the road and a fountain diet coke...BRILLIANT!) And I slept and slept.

The Sunday Jam featured Shirley King (BB's daughter) and it was so fun. Packed house and I brought Alex out to play. What I didn't bank on was some drunk bitch adding a new chapter to my son's book: "The night I got to see my mom throw a drunk bitch out of the bar." Yeah...I apparently have a new title...bouncer. This idiot was causing all kinds of problems for Ms. King's boyfriend...and at one point walked up and smacked him upside the back of his head. Oh no you di'int! Bitch you better step off...so I jumped up and started telling her to leave and then she got in my face talking about how he pushed her. Ummmm, WHAT? This man sat there all night long not hurting anyone and you're going to tell me he pushed you? No. He didn't.

And then she crossed the line. She dropped the N-bomb. Oh hell no. You are not going to come into MY house and talk about anyone like that. So now I'm physically pushing her and dragging her to the door, and some bigger dudes are coming behind to help. We get her out the door and we're holding it closed...and she's screaming all sorts of pleasantries at me through the glass. Someone hands me her purse, which I crack the door open long enough to throw outside. "I need my cigarettes!" she screams....

Bitch, go buy some more is my answer.

Alex didn't have much to say about the whole thing...he said he had to get out of the way fast because the assaulted man got up right after me and was going after her, too. Luckily he was talked back into his seat, because nothing good was coming from that. Alex was surprised I didn't haul off and hit her. I am, too - but she wasn't worth going to jail for...especially not in front of my kid...

Let's talk about sex baby...

2008-02-12T12:47:00.000-06:00

Let's talk about you and me...

Why? Why is my husband a perv? Tonight I'm going to the city to see Wicked with my dear sweet girlfriend Laura. The tickets were our Christmas present to one another. Since there is pending weather, Laura and I packed bags to be on the safe side. It's not worth it to drive home in horrible weather just to sleep at home for 6 hours and get back on the road for work.

When I was saying this to my husband last night - he curled up his face at me. "You might stay in the city?? You just want to have a night in the city with Laura!" and then he paused..."Will you bring your video camera?"

OH PLEASE.

You jackass...just because two women are sleeping in a room together doesn't mean we're doing it for pete's sake. But it's hard to break the years of male love for girl on girl action. It doesn't help that my husband loooooooooves Laura ... in almost an inappropriate way.

Whatever.

We will have fun at the show and we're playing everything else by ear. It will be great. I can't wait.

It's like a heat wave...burnin' in my heart....

2008-02-07T09:51:00.000-06:00

Can't keep from cryin'
It's tearin' me apart....

Oh Owen - the Oven - the man...

So the update is this...
Owen goes to school and finds out that Roger called him to tell him his girlfriend was breaking up with him because another boy told him to. WHAT? Why is Roger listening to anyone? Who knows. But this girl didn't want to break up with Owen, and asked him if he would 'go back out with her.' He told her that he can't...

So then all the kids at school were talking about how long Owen would be grounded...he said he had no idea. They went on a bowling field trip yesterday for Accelerated Reading...the ex-girlfriend was there and as Owen put it "was flirting with him the whole time." Huh. So was another girl, who learned that Owen was a free man, so SHE asked him to be her boyfriend. His response? "Heck no." Which ex-girlfriend heard and smiled really big at Owen. Then says to girl #2 "He told you HECK no!" and girl #2 scowls and responds "I heard him." Then they proceeded to argue over who was going to get to sit with Owen on the bus on the way back to school, and Owen told them neither! Luckily he was saved because they had to sit in the same seats they did on the way to the bowling alley, and he sat with a boy on the way down. Phew! Crisis averted.

We told Owen we're not punishing him for having a girlfriend, we're punishing him for sneakiness and breaking a house rule of no girlfriends. His punishment? No video games for a week, and NO wrestling...no Friday night smackdown...and he can't even record it to watch later. Oooooooh. He deflated instantly.

The funny part is, we only said "no video games for a week and no Friday night smackdown." As we were sitting there eating, he said...so the week starts when? Today? Yesterday? "Tomorrow," Kev-head said. "Oh, so that means all the way until next Thursday...so no Monday night RAW, either." Alex just shakes his head. "You idiot...they didn't say ANYTHING about RAW!" Well, we added that to the mix because of the suggestion. HA! Oh, Owie...you have to learn when to keep your trap shut. So now it's no video game, no Smackdown, no RAW.

I think he'll make it through. Wrestling is more important than girls, after all...he won't risk it again.

I'm all outta love, I'm so lost without you...

2008-02-06T08:08:00.000-06:00

So in a throwback to a long ago time - Kevin and I don't allow our boys to have "girlfriends." Well - that's not true - Alex could have one NOW, but not in GRADE SCHOOL. It's just silly. Silly and unnecessary. There's enough drama involved in being a kid without dragging the whole boy-girl relationship into it. We told him he could have a girlfriend in the sixth grade...because technically that's middle school age...and Owen had been fine with that...

Please note the past tense...

His friends go through so much drama over girls - moping at sock hops, not going to certain parties, having football jerseys not returned - whodawa? What are we, in high school? You're seriously determining your 10 year old weekend plans based on what your GIRLFRIEND says? NO...HELL no. Do what you want, go where you want, don't mope, don't fight, don't pout and the easiest way to avoid the whole fucking mess? Don't have a girlfriend! See? See how easy it is? We laugh when Owen tells us about how one of his friends was so upset at recess he couldn't play kickball. RIDICULOUS...see Owen...do you ever want to be so frazzled that you can't play kickball? No. Good...don't have a girlfriend.

But nooooooooooooo...Kevin and I know nothing, of course. And I found out through the grapevine, after the fact, that Owen did indeed have a girlfriend in the fall. No wonder he wanted to go to that girl's birthday party. Not that he ordinarily wouldn't. Owen gets invited to all of the girl birthday parties, and always wants to go because "they're my friends and it's their birthday." When I ask him what he'll do if he's the only boy he just shrugs "it'll be fine...I'll be fine. It's only 2 hours." Good kid.

But this particular birthday party in the fall was different. He was worried when the weather was bad that it would be canceled, and then angry because I got him there late...whoops. He and this girl broke up shortly thereafter. Fine.

Owen's been sick the past couple of days. Last night we were hanging out in bed watching Wheel of Fortune when the phone rang. It was Roger calling for Owen. And as my poor, pitiful, sick little man lays in my bed with his head on my shoulder I hear Roger say "Cheyenne is going to break up with you."

WHAT? Stop the presses...WHAT? Break up with you? Well Kevin heard it, too and I think Owen just wanted to die. Why on EARTH do you have a girlfriend after we specifically told you that you should stay away from that hot mess?? BUSTED. B.U.S.T.E.D.

His reasoning was quite clear..."I was afraid she wouldn' t be available next year."

So lemme get this straight. You have a girlfriend now, when you're not supposed to, because you're worried that she might have another boyfriend NEXT YEAR when you're allowed to have a girlfriend. Light me on fire, NOW. There are so many things wrong with that statement, I don't even know how to address it. Any ideas? Of course, you guys probably think we're nuts for forbidding the girlfriend in the first place. Lemme assure you - when you're son is wanting to SLOW DANCE at the elementary school sock hop while you watch teenage pregnancy on the upswing...not so nuts. The oversexualization of these kids is astounding, girls wearing pants with words on their asses, and songs that basically tell them not just that they should be screwing each other but HOW TO DO IT.

And people wonder why I drink.

Hooray Giants!!!

2008-02-04T08:36:00.000-06:00

Are you kidding me?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Love it. Love it like I would marry it. Love it like I would marry it, spy on it, catch it cheating on me and forgive it.

LOVE IT.

Archie must be a very, very proud papa right now. Two Manning boys with rings two years in a row. Sweet. What's in their DNA?

And if you would have told me midway through the season that an NFC team would win the superbowl, I would have bet money on it and lost. The NFC? Seriously? Did you see the garbage that came out of the NFC this season??

And just to have the Pats go down - if you could see the shit eating grin on my face right now...HEE!

Big Hannah Montana movie with the nieces on Saturday- theatre packed with 295 screaming girls. Oy yoy. More about that later...

Owen is sick, I'm going back home to see what's what. Drama with the school board tonight - I'll let you all know how it goes...

The cat story

2008-01-30T13:09:00.000-06:00

The writer of "The Duck Story", "The Chicken Story" and "The Rooster Story" are proud to bring you...

The cat story.
It's a little long, but the payoff is worth it...at least I think so.
*Warning: reading this story may cause sudden outbursts of laughter, giggling, snorting and shooting of soda or other beverages through your nose. Ramblings of a 30something is not responsible for any damage to any clothing for any beverage incidences that may occur.

I have a grandma. She is 91 years old. She lives at home with my two uncles, both of whom are mostly worthless as caregivers, causing my one aunt to provide most of the care (making sure meds are taken, changing of sheets, washing of clothes) - this aunt is the famous Carol of this blog. Everyone say HI CAROL and Happy Birthday! (Her birthday was actually on Monday and I've been too busy to blog about it...so Happy BELATED Birthday Carol!!!)

My 91-year-old grandmother has 2 cats...one named Cricket...and the other is named...well...not cricket. I have no idea. Cat #2. Whatevs, unimportant. The focus of this story is Cricket.

So Cricket is not 91, but is an old cat, and in the past couple of weeks has taken to peeing in my grandmother's bed. And not just anytime, usually when she's sleeping WITH my grandmother, meaning whenever the cat pees in the bed, my poor grandmother gets soaked with cat urine. Um, EW. I can hear you ew-ing. So after a few days of this, one of my uncles finally got his wits about him to help out so Carol didn't have to drive over there every day. He was changing the sheets, every day, and washing the mattress pad every day and washing my grandmother's nightgowns and robes and whatnot, every day...yeah, this was getting old quick. So my uncle and Carol decide that maybe it's time the cat was put to sleep...but how to tell grandma?? She didn't do so well when her very elderly dog took ill and had to be put down. It was very upsetting for her.

BUT - I guess Grandma was also getting tired of the cat pee situation and told Carol and Eddie that maybe it was time to put the cat to sleep. Hallelujah! One hurdle down.

But then Gram talks to my other aunt...and this aunt? She's a real piece of work. When she catches wind of the potential euthanasia of Cricket, she calls Carol and lights up on her. Screaming about cruelty to animals and how Gram would be so upset...threatens to CALL THE POLICE. She calls two different vets where she thinks Eddie might take the cat to have it put to sleep to WARN them and to tell them that my Gram, under no circumstances, wants this cat put to sleep.

Whodawa? Your 91-year-old mother is sleeping in cat pee for who knows how long every night, because there's no way of telling when the little bugger is actually committing the peeing fiasco...and you're concerned about THE CAT??? Come and take it back to your house then if you don't mind the pee.

So Eddie takes the cat to the vet to have it put on antibiotics for a potential urinary tract infection/bladder problem, maybe that's causing the problem. The vet was not hopeful. After several more days of cat pee drama, Eddie determines that the elderly, bladder challenged, probably dying cat who is not responding to the antibiotics in the time the vet said she should, should in fact, be put to sleep. The vet agrees, but my aunt does not, and has convinced my grandmother of the same.

My mother, the Janet, catches wind of this the other day and is, rightfully so, furious. The thought of her mother sleeping in cat pee day after day is very upsetting. She tells Carol that if that cat is not dead by the weekend she will fly out there herself to drive it to the vet.

OH MY. She was serious on that one, people...TRUST ME.

Eddie finally takes the cat out of the house while gram is napping, finds a vet my aunt hasn't called, and has the cat put to sleep. Carol is freaking out..."what are we going to tell mom?" They devise a plan where Eddie will tell my Gram that the cat must have wandered off to die, as cats and all animals who are sick, will often do. The plan, the lie, is formed. The Janet is informed. The deed is done.

But somewhere between driving to the vet and having the cat put to sleep, Eddie formulates a new plan, a better plan.

He brings the dead cat BACK TO THE HOUSE, lays it at the foot of my grandmother's bed, wakes my grandmother up declaring "Mom, Cricket's not moving, I think she might have died!"

OH MY GOD.

My grandmother is concerned and then relieved..."poor Cricket, who knows when she could have died...she was laying right there this morning, maybe she died during the night! she must have been really sick"

Yes, Gram - that's right...she died during the night. Yes, Gram, she was really sick. After a proper burial, and my grandmother and aunt properly satiated with the news of Cricket's completely natural death....the cat pee is no more. Cricket is no longer suffering with whatever kidney ailment elderly cats get, and my grandmother is no longer laying in cat pee.

Carol, Eddie, the Janet and I are all waiting for my loony aunt to call for an autopsy. Good luck getting that exhumation order.

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days...

2008-01-26T12:16:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days...
That show was the end all be all for me. It just was. I SOOOOO wanted to be one of those swoony girls in a poodle skirt slow dancing with...The Fonz. Would I come if he snapped? You betcha. So here I am...all these years later and STILL completely startstruck and in love with Henry Winkler...

OH YEAH, babies...that's me and the Fonz on Friday night at the Chicago World of Wheels. And yeah, the Fonz, told me I was really beautiful. Not just beautiful, REALLY beautiful. And then after my husband took the picture, he shook his hand and he told the hubby that he has fantastic taste in women. *blush* Seriously - the FONZ, people. My family sooooooo didn't realize the magnitude of this. For a girl my age, back in the day, this man was (and I guess still is) the shit - so now, I guess, I can officially die happy. The Fonz might actually have had me as one of his girlfriends...how completely affirming. And for those of you who think this little rant is silly? Bite me. You're probably a guy, so you don't get it, because I know all of the girls out there totally do. And Henry - if you have internet spiders out there looking for your name and you stumble onto this, you made my year - and if you can download this pic and sign it "I would have made out with you by the jukebox at Al's", that would be fantastic.

Because you guys -- wait for it -- he hugged me goodbye, and when he did, he kissed my cheek. I totally got a kiss from "the man".

And I'm really beating myself up because I had my flip in my coat pocket and should have had one of the kids filming the whole exchange while my husband was taking the photo and didn't. Bummer.

Anson Williams (Potsie) was also there and I thought he looked fabulous! Erin Moran (Joanie) was there, too...

Oh, yeah, and there were cars and motorcycles...I guess. HA!

Cheer up sleepy teen...

2008-01-24T09:48:00.000-06:00

So...Alex is 15. And every day he falls asleep in the car. EVERY DAY. And I know teens are naturally sleepy, and I know he's not getting nearly enough sleep. Yesterday on the way home he announced that he doesn't have any homework, and wanted to know if he could "take a nap" when he got home. Ummmm, sure.

Yeah, he woke up this morning. 13 hours the child slept. oy! He says he feels fine, no headache, no throat problems, no stomach ache. So we all know what this means, right? Yeah, I'll be buying him new pants. Seriously, if that kids inseam goes up again I'm going to light myself on fire. He's grown 2 inches or more since March. I thought I had him set for jeans and uniform pants, but now I'm worried that he's going to look like Urkel.

AND - I totally busted him this morning committing the sin of all fashion sins. He's got gym this semester. So instead of wearing black socks with his navy pants and his black dress shoes like he's done all year, he's wearing WHITE socks. And not just any white socks, white ANKLE socks. In the freezing damn cold. Oh for the love. Have I taught him nothing?? No. Noooooooooooooooo. He said it's because of gym - so he doesn't have to change his socks before and after gym. But you're changing your shirt and your shorts already, right? And your shoes, right? So you're telling me it's THAT much harder to also change your socks that you are willing to look like a total tool with white shorty socks and black shoes all day?? No. I forbid it. I told him so. NO. I disallow it. NO. NO. I finally, FINALLY got Kevin to stop doing it, and now my 15-year-old starts. NO. He says other kids do it. NO. I cannot budge on this one.

The early morning confusion bandit strikes again...

2008-01-23T14:39:00.001-06:00

This kind of stuff never stops being funny for me. I've personally never done this *knock on wood*, but I totally could, since I HAVE worn my shirt inside out, worn my underwear inside out, worn two different socks and forgotten countless items.

JRo is a lurker on the blog and a co-worker...the peeps here at the office almost didn't notice this:
To her credit - she did snap this handy dandy photo with her camera phone and send it to me. God love 'er. It wasn't even a Monday, but it sure did feel like one.

I fried some chicken last night, and I swear I still smell like the deep fryer. Usually I'll fry the chicken in a pan on the stove, but when I picked up the breading mix from the store, it had instructions for the deep fryer. What the heck - I'll give it a try. I'll mark it up to a success. The kids seemed to like it...I could only do 4 legs at a time, but it was still worth it. mmmmmm, chicken.

I also managed to down an entire bottle of pinot by myself. Ummmm, whoops. I didn't even realize I was doing it until I was pouring the last little bit into my glass and I thought - now where did the rest of it go?? Needless to say I slept well last night! :)

Since the writers continue to strike and there's nothing good on television, the Crums played a game last night: Sequence. We're officially addicted. We've had it here at work for awhile in the lunchroom, and now Alex got it from Grandma for Christmas and we're hooked. I highly recommend it!

And PS - everyone should officially hate Sugar Snap Pea as she sits in JAMAICA right now drinking some fruity drink and getting tan and we freeze our asses off. Damn you, Pea!!

Really? Are they getting paid for this?

2008-01-22T15:31:00.000-06:00

So Alex and I were hanging out in the basement watching anything "not wrestling." Originally we were going to watch "This is Spinal Tap" - but I was too sleepy and wanted to finish watching "Intervention." Yeah, I know...shut up.

After intervention - the show "Paranormal State" came on. Have you seen this hot mess? Seriously. SERIOUSLY. I mean I'm not mocking the paranormal, I'm not (do you hear me ghosts and spirits and demon-like creatures...if you can surf the net, I'm not mocking you) - but this show. For the love. It's so drama-ridden...and there's this big build up...because these spirits are really 'bad' and can HURT YOU. They all end the same way... the homeowners have some sort of 'ceremony' at 'dead time' (3 am, in case you were wondering) and tell the spirit, soul, demon, to "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE" and poof! All is well. Whoever was sick? Feeling better. Whatever noises you heard? All gone. Whatever fears you have? Relieved.

Are they paying this group for this??? Who's worse, the people filming it or me for watching it. It's a toss up.

And after that hour of my life I'm never getting back, they had a special on called "Psychic Children, their Sixth Sense." Psychic stuff, yes - I think people can see things, and hear things and whatever - John Edwards? no. but other people, yes. But this one little girl...her ability? Yeah, she can talk to trees. Whodawa? Now who in the hell is going to dispute that? They showed her walking through a forest and she touches a tree and says "Cows used to graze here, this tree provided shade." Really? The tree told you that? Great. THAT'S your gift? Who can challenge her? Another tree whisperer? Well when that tree talked to ME it said it used to dance the funky chicken back in the day and drop acorns on indians. PROVE ME WRONG!! She also gets very emotional and depressed when things happen in nature, like Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami. Noooooo...really? I bet a lot of people got depressed watching the Katrina coverage. I know I did. I don't think I'm a nature psychic because of it.

I am actually dumber for having watched this stuff. Alex and I got a big kick out of it. I'm now "the couch whisperer"...I told him that the couch told me that it's tired of my boys farting on it all of the time. It's feelings are getting hurt, so please stop...especially when mom's in the room.

I've been busy, have you noticed?

2008-01-21T08:56:00.000-06:00

Seriously, honey, what's all this? What's happening here?

I've had some pretty funny things to say lately...and........now they're all gone from my brain. You'll all be happy to know that the church board I sit on isn't all old men anymore. With this last election, I am now president, my financial director is a very nice woman, the records director is a PASTOR, and the other member is older than me - but I wouldn't call him old. Now this I can work with. We had our first meeting on Saturday morning and I think it will be a good group.

I took Alex to Mville with some friends on Saturday night for his birthday. They did the typical teenager stuff - mall, pizza, movies. We made sure we were elsewhere. Alex seemed to have a good time. Other than the fact that since he goes to a private school the kids are scattered. I had to leave my house 1.5 hours early to pick everyone up. UGH. But, he'll be driving soon, so I'm fine with being the chauffer every now and again so he can have a social life with his friends.

Owen took the plunge, shaved the fro. I didn't know it was going to happen when it did so I don't have good before/after pics. He got paid and under armor was purchased. He's thrilled.

We finally have ICE! At long last this midwest chill has frozen our pond. The kids were out skating for a good 3 hours in the cold on Saturday morning.

Good weekend overall - except Green Bay lost. Boooooooo. The NYG are in the SUPERBOWL?? Further proof that the NFC is worthless.

And, for my far away friends...I love this picture. Jimmer gave me the big whatever on it, but I say whatever to YOU Jimmer!

The writer's strike sucks and other obvious tidbits...

2008-01-14T13:31:00.000-06:00

When I heard the writers were going to strike I thought "This sucks."

And now that there is truly no new/different/funny television out there because of the writers strike I've confirmed that "This sucks." I mean, reality TV was already threatening to take over and now HAS, in fact, taken over as the only "unscripted" (and I use that term VERY loosely) shows on television and therefore not needing any writers. Not to mention most of them are filmed months in advance, and probably were done before the strike.

Anyway, I digress. Reality TV sucks (except for Idol, which starts this week, and I'm so excited I can hardly STAND it).

What I wasn't expecting from the writer's strike? For them to ruin my award show season. MY AWARD SHOW SEASON, PEOPLE! I am a red carpet junkie...remember, I came out of the closet last year?!? I require my red carpet and my overly processed Hollywood types and several phone calls to my mother and my sister-in-law praising or bashing what we see. I require foo-foo cocktails for such viewings and for my family to leave.me.alone.period. The Golden Globes were last night. GOLDEN GLOBES. This is like the mother ship for people like me and they didn't even HAVE a red carpet because NO ONE CAME. No one. Well, unless you count Nancy O'Dell. Not. They called them off, and the awards were handed out by entertainment reporters to NO ONE. Whodowa??? This chips away at the very core of who I am. No best and worst dressed list the next day on E!??? No horrible red carpet banter from the Rivers duo?

WHAT??

Now this shit has gotten to me. It's bad enough that I'm stuck with no Grey's, no Brothers and Sisters, no Chuck, no Life...but, but...I almost can't speak.

Give them what they want already you overpaid buffoons so I can at least have my Oscars and salvage SOMETHING from this award season. It's the 50th anniversary of the Grammy's for fuck's sake. Let's go.

If you're looking for something interesting to read - Eileen posted out on a blog about the writer's blog "Why We Write", where very famous writers and producers share why they started and continue writing the shows you probably love. Some of them are lame and preachy, but some of it is very, very good. Take a peek: Why We Write

Oh, and the Colts suck. Peyton is good, guys, but he still needs an OFFENSIVE LINE and I don't know, maybe a DEFENSE that can stop a SECOND STRING DAMN QUARTERBACK in the fucking PLAYOFFS from marching the ball down the field and scoring a touchdown. Ya think? At least the other Manning had a team that looked like they wanted to win and did. All I have to say to that is Go Green Bay! (And I still hate the Pats, how they play so horribly every 1st half and then win is beyond me. I think they do it on purpose just to screw with me)

And last, my kid rocks. Played the drums with Pistol Pete at the Blues Jam yesterday and I got some great pics from Mary Hampton. When she posts them on her website I'll let you know. But I still can't find anyone to give him a decent haircut. Oy. (*ETA: she posted them, I was just too dumb to find them - click on the "I'll let you know" link...for specific pics of me, go to about page 20 and then again starting on page 26 of the thumbnails.)

Something cool I just found on Picasa: the highlights from last Sunday from Mary:

It takes two to make a thing go right....

2008-01-09T10:40:00.001-06:00

It takes two to make it outta sight...
Hit it...

(If you can finish that song lyric, I love you like I would marry you)

I just read an old blog post on a stranger-friend's blog, and he was venting about how his son doesn't really like to read, and my friend is an avid book junkie.

I have two boys. Two very different, wonderful boys. Both smart, both funny, both considerate, polite, devilishly handsome (biased) young men.

One reads...the other...well, notsomuch. I mean, he can read...he will read...but he doesn't thirst for it. Doesn't hunger for it. Doesn't put a book down and want to talk about it, or read more by that author or laugh out loud while he's reading. That's just my Owen.

Alex on the other hand? Insatiable. My stranger-friend blamed the video-game, movie-driven society in which we live. But Alex grew up in the Playstation era - and still, he reads. And reads. And reads. I gave him "Lord of the Flies" at Owen's age. I couldn't imagine Owen reading that right now. I started Alex on all the classics at Owen's age...he devoured them. Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World, Call of the Wild, Treasure Island, Count of Monte Cristo, Of Mice and Men. Things most kids don't ever read voluntarily and certainly not until high school. But I was running out of "chapter books" and they were clearly beneath him. So onward we went into the novels I loved in my teens.

But what I've come to learn, what I've come to love...are those differences. Owen is my athlete. He loves sports, all sports. Loves watching them, talking about them, projecting them. He loves checking the stats, knowing the stats, comparing the stats. He loves cars. Being able to recognize cars on the road, talking about which year made the best model of a particular car. He's my more outgoing one, my compassionate one. Alex is my reserved one. My reader. My thinker. My quick-wit...he would no sooner watch sports than light himself on fire. He'll finish a book as soon as humanly possible because he craves the ending. He likes knowing technical details about everything. He likes watching the same movie over and over and over to pick up the one-liners and use them in every day life. He's my musician, a lover of all sorts of music.

It's brilliant! Because I love all of these things, too!! I love watching sports! I love talking about sports. If I wasn't half deformed and had any coordination I would love to play sports! I love cars! I used to spend my time with my friend John Steffen talking about cars to an exhausting extent. I love to read! I love talking about books. And I do love watching movies over and over again to pick up the one-liners and use them in every day life. I love music. Love to listen to it, sing it, feel it, play it, see it.

In short I just feel fortunate to have my two very different boys to share so many of my different passions with. And the one they share is the most important of all! They love food!!! I can take them anywhere and they will try anything! They love it when the house smells of vegetable soup stewing away in the crock pot or a good pot of sauce on the stove.

So in the beginning of the new year - I say, celebrate your differences!! Celebrate the differences in the people you love! Every different person you have in your life brings something new to your table...and isn't it wonderful??

Sorry folks..

2008-01-07T13:29:00.000-06:00

That there have been no new updates. My job is kicking my ass.

Quick update:
Yes, the Steelers lost. I was sad. Actually, I'm still not over it. I didn't think they'd win without Willie Parker and a couple of other injured peeps. If only they hadn't rallied...I actually got hopeful. But alas, NE is next up for the Jags, and they will have their asses handed to them appropriately. The only team with a shot of taking out the Pats is Indy, otherwise it's going to be a NE/Green Bay/Dallas superbowl. I'm unwilling to commit to the NFC bid just yet...I'd love it if Green Bay went.

On a more tumultuous note - no good deed goes unpunished. I hate it when the managing partner/owner here at the firm says it - but ultimately he's right. Almost always. Which I also hate. He drags me out of my rose colored glasses world of believing the best out of people. He shares this quality with my husband. They both say mean things about people and I always defend those idiots and tell them that they're being too cynical. And in the end, they both end up being right and I hate it. I refuse to let my faith in the goodness of humanity be thwarted, however...and so I trudge on. I realize you guys have NO idea what I'm talking about. I'm just venting....

Blues jam is back on, kids - Sundays 4-8. Well, let's be realistic...5-9. It's getting better all the time and the food is still AWESOME. Get there.

Julie - I miss you.

My girlfriend Jen is pregnant. YAY Jen! June baby...can't wait. She won't tell me if it's a boy or a girl, though. Grrrrrr.

My to do list is getting longer here at work and I'm exhausted. Oy. I feel like there are things I'm forgetting which is NOT GOOD when you are solely responsible for the updating and security of your network for a firm protecting personal data for too many people to think about.

The tone of this email isn't really uplifting, is it. Sorry guys and dolls -
When all else fails, celebrate!

2008! 2008! 2008!

2008-01-02T10:22:00.000-06:00

Seriously? 2008?? OMG.

Here's what you missed at the end of 2007:

Bowling night Thursday, 12/20: I had the shot at the $187 strike pot. It looked so pretty going down the lane - right in the pocket - a hush LITERALLY fell over the crowd...aaaaaaand...nuthin. 8. I got 8. I wouldn't care so much if a certain c u next tuesday didn't end up winning MY money. There aren't many people in that bowling alley I don't like. She's one of them. Bitch.

Waterpark weekend - a blast. A total blast. But girls, I'm here to tell ya, they didn't make 18 year old boys like that when I was an 18 year old girl. What is going on? Where are they growing these factory made 6-pack stomach, arm&hammer arms...whodawa?? Ummmm, mercy...mercy me. Am I too young to become a dirty old woman?

Christmas - busy - fun - a good time was had by all. LOVE the Wii. If you haven't bowled on the Wii, you must. It's a total blast. Even my dad bowled using his walker. We laughed and laughed. I got a locket with my boys pictures in it. I've never had a locket before. Love it.

Day after Christmas - Chicago - Shedd Aquarium - ice skating in Millenium Park. I love the city.

Thursday, 12/27 - Alex turns 15. I have to work, even though I was 'on vacation' - new copiers delivered - total drama. Late, everything was late...I still made my hair appt. Best hair of my entire life...again...I don't know how she does it. Love Liz. Bowling was...well, bowling. My Roselawn wife Linda? Kicked it in the ass. 212 first game, 222 third game. Brilliant.

Friday night - Howl at the Moon in Chicago with my college roommate & company. Good times - Chicago H@tM not as much fun as Indy H@tM...they did too many slow songs and didn't get the crowd into it as much. Still had fun and got to catch up with my gal pal, her hubby, brother and his wife. Bitch hasn't aged a DAY since our first day of freshman year. I love her - but still secretly hate her as she has always been one of the most beautiful people inside and out that I have ever known. And she teaches high school boys. (and girls) They must LOVE her.

Saturday night - gig at Blues Island. All I have to say is this:

I didn't bring that boa, but I soooooo wanted to steal it when the night was done. Something about singin the blues with feathers on - made me very happy. Game on. Lordy is quick on the draw - official pics at Chicago Blues Beat...

Sunday was football and more football. Monday was party preparation.
NYE found us ringing in the new year with our Roselawn Crew. The kids ruled the roost. One broken pool cue...whoops. Boys played poker in the garage and smoked cigars. Girls played....wait for it....SPOONS in the dining room. What a hoot. My drunk ass hubby on a four wheeler plowing not just our driveway, but the entire street so people could get home. I should have stopped after one glass of champagne - that stuff is not good for your hangover the next day.

Yesterday was a lazy day of leftovers and football and whatever movie we could catch on the movie channels.

And now, here I sit...back to work. That's my vacation in a nutshell kids....what did you do over the holidays? Eat too much? check. Drink too much? check. Stay up too late and sleep in when you could so that your biological clock is all screwed up when you have to go back to work? check.

Resolutions forthcoming - welcome 2008!

Happy Holidays to you and yours...

2007-12-20T09:56:00.000-06:00

Well kids...it's the Thursday before the holidays - are you ready?? Stocking stuffers...last minute gifts??

I'm feeling a bit pressured. I thought I was so on top of things and yet I feel like I have nothing done.

I'm taking the next 12 days off...I'll try to blog from home, keep you posted on the insanity of our holiday season, but if you don't see me updating for a couple of days, it's because I don't like to log in to any computer when I'm at home.

Sooooooo...Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...

Jibjab...

2007-12-17T09:51:00.000-06:00

Hi all - glad to see you're enjoying the flip! I have some great footage of the big concert with Alex, but in the confusion this morning (they ended up canceling school for Owen AGAIN) I left the flip at HOME. grrrr.

So I'll give you this for your viewing pleasure...featuring me, Kev-head and the kids, plus a couple of extras from our blogging family...

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Enjoy

Triple shot!!!

2007-12-14T13:21:00.001-06:00

So I'm so glad Tigger finally has SPEAKERS so she can hear this lovely video I'm about to post.

I think she threatened to kill me if I posted it.

Whoops...it just sort of slipped onto my computer and into my blog.

Fear not BBFF's - there will be more of Tigger to come, I'm sure...
Ladies and gents...
The Tigger...

Apologies all the way around for the shakiness of the vid - I was just laughing too hard...tripod where are you??

Double Post Friday

2007-12-14T11:09:00.000-06:00

Okay - so pay attention here, kiddies...two post Friday. I just posted my short review of the flip...and then I realized Sugar Snap Pea is here...so I figured I would do my first video run of "getting to know our blogging family." Make sure you read the review post AND I changed my first video post from yesterday a little. ENJOY.

Without further ado...
The Pea...

Again - I produced this in Quicktime format as to keep it small, yet viewable. The picture quality isn't perfect, and not nearly as good as what I get in the .avi format...but blogger doesn't like my large and in charge video sizes when I start playing around.

Flippin Out...

2007-12-14T09:07:00.000-06:00

I started responding to our new blogging friend Kristen, when I realized I was typing too much to be a comment. I decided to make it a post.

My short review of the flip...
The flip is great. Took it with me to my son's Christmas concert last night - In the dark theater sitting away from the stage, the video quality is good...probably not as good as a big handheld camera with 10x optical zoom, but for the size and portability - it's GREAT. The sound is very impressive, if you ask me.

Recommendations - get the tripod AND get a short 3' USB extension. I ordered both for myself. I worry that repeated docking of the flip to a computer would eventually wear down that arm - but if I can just set it on the desk and hook it to an extension cable, that would be better. I shake entirely too much to hold ANY video camera.

Get extended life batteries for electronics. The batteries yesterday lasted about as long as they said they would - approx. 2.5 hours of video/playback time. I was playing with it quite a bit yesterday and the batteries died by the end of the night. Cool thing? Because the flip has an adapter that hooks directly to the TV - Alex could watch the video of his show on our DVD player on the way home.

As for ease of use and everything else - it's brilliant...just BRILLIANT. Getting it out of the box and into production...2.2 seconds. It takes you longer to install the batteries than to figure it out.

I love it like I would marry it.

All by myyyyyyyyyysellllllf....

2007-12-13T13:11:00.000-06:00

It's hard to talk to a camera when you're sitting in your office and you're supposed to be working. I make strange facial expressions. I think I do that even when I'm talking to real people, not just a camera.

I got a new toy...get one!
ETA: 12/14...I reproduced the video with some intro slides...but when I created it in .avi format it was WAY too big. So I produced it to use quicktime and it's much smaller, but a little grainier. Bear with me while I figure all of this out.

Mother of the year award...

2007-12-12T09:55:00.000-06:00

OMG. I am perfectly willing to admit that I am not on the ball all of the time. I'm not. I miss things, forget things...my kids don't always inform me of things...

But this takes the cake.

Alex is in concert band at Andrean. It's not a huge program - nothing at Andrean outside of football would be considered a large program. 16 kids, maybe, in band. 30 kids, maybe in choir. So a couple of weeks ago I saw the Christmas Concert on the schedule and that tickets were for sale. Well, with basketball and other things happening, I wasn't sure when we'd be able to go and didn't think it horrible that I didn't buy tickets in advance. I can just pay when I go...right? It's just a little band/choir performance...right?

WRONG.

The thing is sold out. Whodawa? Sold out? Sold out for THREE STRAIGHT NIGHTS. If you don't already have a ticket the best you can hope for is to show up and pray someone else doesn't. It's not just a little band/choir deal. It's band, choir, string ensemble, pep band, pep band with soloists, pep band with full choir, jazz ensembles, the dance team ... HUGE deal with LOTS of kids involved, and lots of parents, students, grandparents and whatnot wanting to attend.

Oh boy.

And me without my tickets. So I guess we'll be going tonight and tomorrow to try and get in. The thing is 2 1/2 hours long with intermission.

What a weekend, boys and girls...

2007-12-10T10:30:00.000-06:00

Well, we finally went and cut down our Christmas tree....the boys always love this event. It was especially fun this year since there was snow on the ground. Needless to say, snowball fights ensued and I brought home 3 cold wet boys and a tree. We got a different style of tree this year, I'm usually a short needle kind of girl, but the boys wanted a tree with long needles...you know the poofy looking kind.

Well what a disaster THAT decision turned out to be.

Ummmm, those branches? Barely hold LIGHTS let alone ornaments...Oh my. And then, last night, for some reason...the thing fell over. Right now my living room is a hot mess of water, pine needles and broken bulbs. Oy.

Friday night I was cooking dinner with the boys and asking them general questions about school and whatnot when Alex pipes up that his friends think he has a girlfriend. Ummmmm, why would they think this? Because a girl has apparently laid claim to my boy informing him that he's taking her to the winter formal.

Ummmm, what?

First of all, who is this girl? And secondly...YOU'RE GOING TO THE WINTER FORMAL? When is it? A: I have no idea. Whodawa? You have no idea? Is it after Christmas? A: Maybe. Well great. A quick hop out to the school website tells me it's on January 26th. Tickets are $50 per couple. Does that include dinner? A: I have no idea. Do you want to take this girl to the dance? A: Sure, I guess, yeah.

OMG.

Is there anyone else you were thinking of taking? A: No, not really. Well, do you like her, like her or is she just a friend? A: I don't know...she's fine, she's cool, whatever. Oh seriously, like pulling teeth, this conversation. So I still have no idea if this is a friend thing, or a girlfriend thing, or what. But I CAN tell you that I will be going into the homework room the next time I pick him up so I can potentially get a visual on this chick. Her mom works in the office so she's always around...that's what his friends told me this weekend. I'll be able to tell everything about what he thinks about her just by seeing how he acts when I'm around.

So my son is going to his first high school dance.

I.am.old.

I miss me some ze frank...

2007-12-07T11:35:00.001-06:00

What? You don't know who ze frank is?? Shame on you. Have I not posted about him before? I think Scottish is the one who originally got me hooked, due to the fact that his wife was infatuated with ze frank. Is that how it went. Anyway, I've been busy and haven't had much time to be funny, but my office actually looks almost presentable. In that "stacks of crap" kind of way I've perfected in my 36 years.

So I'm leaving you with this episode of the show...

Snow Plow? We don' t need no stinking snow plow...

2007-12-06T13:52:00.000-06:00

So Big Poppa is laid up - and definitely not shoveling any snow...and because he didn't plan ahead, and neither did my mom....and neither did I...my MOTHER shoveled the driveway yesterday. My mother who just had knee surgery herself not that long ago and has a horrible back problem (sciatic nerve deal??) is SHOVELING THE DRIVEWAY. Because what? They lost my phone number? They forget that while I can't personally plow the driveway, I am people who knows people, dammit! I've got friends in snow places! I know people with plows, able bodied men who live close-by who could shovel for them. For the love. My mother. Shoveling. "well, I just kind of pushed the snow, Bek, I didn't really lift anything. And I felt fine. And I'm doing my stretches." Seriously - let me say what you're all already thinking. This will totally be me someday. Little fixer that I am. Little "make it happen" girl. I come by it honestly!! See?? It's not my fault. God love her, but I could kill her sometimes.

I've already put the call in to my dad today that if more snow comes tonight and they can't find someone to call me. I'm thinking of firing off warning shots now.

19 days until Christmas.

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got...

2007-12-04T11:30:00.000-06:00

My boys are at such interesting ages...

Alex, at 14, is really becoming more and more independent - I got to meet some of his friends over the weekend (they came to my house for a school project) and they fit him so well...it was fun to see them interact, talk about their school crap, teachers, assignments. The disdain in their voices, the laughter over teachers and what they wear and say, the snide comments about girls...ah yes...teenagerdom. I remember it well. Apparently Alex is quite the ladies man. If you ask his friends, anyway. He gets hugged...a lot...by various chicks. And they like writing on his hand - whatever that means. Did I ever write on a boys hand? Probably. I know I doodled on folders and left notes in lockers. Foolish, foolish girl. NEVER put it in WRITING. Oy.

His big "garage band 101" concert is Sunday, December 16th, 4pm at Front Porch Music for any of you interested in attending.

Owen, at 10, is looking for his place in the universe. "I typed in 'who is Owen Crum' in ask.com," he says to me yesterday. (He LOVES ask.com) Really...what did it say? "Not much." Well, you're still young...you haven't had time to make an impact yet. So we googled his name and didn't come up with much there either. But we did stumble onto a site that listed all known first names with the last name Crum...and how popular it is as a last name. We started clicking on the name combinations, and then we saw the origin and meanings of various first names. Owen found this FASCINATING. He was clicking on all the names of his friends, our names, other family names...he was hooked. Then we went out to other sites to see what they said the names mean. "This is so cool" he kept saying.

He wanted to print stuff so he could take it to school and show his friends. But well, the printer is in the other room and I haven't been a good enough geek to enable the samba print sharing on the mac in there...and we were watching the Pats-Ravens game (don't even talk about it) - and yeah, no printing. (yes I've already found documentation on how to do this and I now realize I was making it too hard)

He was so taken in with the history of names and their meanings...his means "well-bred" or "well born" and "warrior." Well CLEARLY! He was terribly pleased to find this out, once I explained to him what well-bred meant. With those eyelashes and that demeanor - um, yeah, honey...you are definitely well-bred.

21 days til Christmas...

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

2007-11-29T10:52:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't know about that, because it's DAMN cold outside. Bone-chilling cold. Can't shake it cold. I hate cold.

BUT

I did take a "mental health day" off yesterday and go shopping with the girls. We took off to the premium outlets lighthouse edition or whatever they're calling it these days. We started the day off right with mimosa's in my girlfriend's kitchen. Hooray mimosa's! And then off to MC. There were 8 of us altogether, and once we got there it was a frenzy of shopping to be sure. We all had places we wanted to go, so we separated and met up at various places...talked about deals here, deals there - stopped for coffee. We loaded up the cars several times over...I got a lot of people knocked off my list. Hooray shopping!

And because we were in MC, some of the girls wanted to go try their luck on the Blue Chip. Now I am not a gambler, by any stretch of the imagination. If I have money to burn, I'd rather burn it on shoes, or good wine, or a cocktail...not risking it to *maybe* win something. But off to the boat we went. The brilliant part? We signed up for their card and got a free lunch buffet - a $12 value!! Ummm, free food? Yes please. It was good, too.

I had $20 to waste, and I put $10 in video poker...I was up, I was down...and ultimately...I stayed down. Boo poker.

I moved on to slots and put in $5 - I ended up with $16.25, so overall, I was up a whopping $1.25. Hooray winning! But I forgot to get cash before I got there, so I had to pay a $3 fee to their ATM. Boo fees! So I guess I ended up down $1.75. Boooo!

But I got a lot of shopping done!
And free lunch!!
And I think a good time was had by all....

Hitting a little close to home....

2007-11-21T12:43:00.000-06:00

OMG - so the hubby and Julie and Tiffany and Amy and Tony and I all went to a wine tasting on Sunday. It was in Chesterton, so I suspected I might run into a few old classmates. I did.

One of them was a bit freaky.

Do you remember when I mentioned way back when last year that I was raising a drummer? And that I said it must have been karmic payback for breaking up too many times with my high school drummer boyfriend? Bill Trowbridge? Well, Bill was there on Sunday. And he said "I've got a bone to pick with you." Umm, you do? I haven't seen you in like 5 years...and then he says "I googled my name and found myself on your blog."

GULP.

You did. Oh. I must have looked panic-stricken because he quickly said it was nothing bad. I was mortified. Holy crap. Was it bad? I didn't think so. I didn't ever remember typing anything truly bad about anyone (save for Festivus) and certainly not about Bill. But my brain was spinning. Did you guys know that my blog is on the INTERNET and therefore ANYONE can read it? Did you? And I want to all to know that I purposely put his full name in the blog again so that if he ever googles himself and finds this he'll know that he totally freaked me out! (Hi Bill!!)

Julie just laughed at me. "Maybe you should just say Bill T. or Julie B. when you refer to people"

Maybe I should.

I very quickly started thinking about everyone I've ever blogged about and whether or not they could have stumbled onto it and thought I was horrible. I guess if I do blog badly about people I don't really care if they stumble onto it...do I?

OY. It makes my head hurt.

So it's Thanksgiving Eve...biggest party night of the year. I'm gigging with Jon&Laura&Bob&Cousin David and who knows who else...good times. I'll wake up with mimosas and cinnamon rolls...mmmmmm...cinnamon rolls.

Happy Thanksgiving bloggers!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall...

2007-11-20T11:09:00.000-06:00

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...
And all the great surgeons
and all the great nurses
had to put humpty dumpty back together again...

So my dad was cleaning the gutters and fell off the ladder. He probably free fell about 9 feet straight onto the asphalt driveway. He broke his femur. Way up high by where it connects into his pelvis. Two hours of surgery later and he's the bionic man. Well, not bionic...but titanium. I wonder if he'll have to carry one of those cards to get through the airport?

It's going to be a long recovery for the man. That is not a good bone to break, what with it being large and weight-bearing and all.

We're very fortunate that that's all that happened. A man went hunting the other day in Valpo and never came home. They found him at the bottom of a tree. He fell out of his stand and broke his neck. I'm so grateful he was able to somehow, army crawling, get himself into the house to call 911.

I had other things to blog about, I know I did...but for the life of me I can't remember what they were. It'll come to me.

In the meantime, think good thoughts for my pops. He's in the hospital now until at least Thursday.

Supastar!!!

2007-11-19T11:30:00.000-06:00

So, Lordy hasn't posted a review yet...but there are pics out on his Chicagobluesbeat.com website to be seen:

Go check out pics of me and Delores and the boys at Blues Island!

Good times...

2007-11-14T14:46:00.000-06:00

*Guest blog by the Jimmer: Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original author, and do not necessarily represent that of the blog owner. So there. This is a GUEST blog written by the Jimmer. Not Rebecca. The Jimmer. Got it? K.

It’s been so long since I started this that I’m not sure where I left off. So, here I go. I’m heading North on Hwy 49 and it’s about 5:45pm. 1 hour and 45 minutes till womanhood. The entire drive I am breathing like a mother prior to birth. Not to mention that I smoked 4 cigarettes during a 15 minute drive. That would be a cigarette every 3 minutes and 45 seconds. I get to the Church – yes, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church – and pop the trunk. I retrieve my dress and wig and head down to the dressing room. I walk in to the dressing room and there are about 7 of the 15 already there getting ready. However, even stranger, all of their wives were there. Now, I’m thinking, I’ve got to put a dress on in front of these ladies? I don’t want them seeing my little package rolled up into a super ball. But then I saw my savior. Oh yes, a wash of relief rolled across my mind. There, in the corner of the room were 4 coolers. I walked over to them and my expectations were confirmed – The Miller Lite, Coors Light and MGD were all whispering Pick Me Pick Me. Naturally, I chose the Miller Lite. I drank that first beer in 7 minutes. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a mirror brushing my wig and actually worrying about how I looked. After I was satisfied with my hair I began concentrating on my boobs. I blew up two balloons to what I thought was an acceptable size. I would estimate them being somewhere in between Calista Flockhart’s and Rebecca’s. I was not wearing a bra because the dress was so snug so I placed them inside making sure they were not too high up. I then began to glitter my “cleavage.” The glitter got a little out of hand and I think I looked like a disco ball by the time I was done. Mind you, at this point I’ve had 6 or 7 beers and 3 Jager Bombs. Oh, did I mention there was liquor there too? In fact, one of the participants brought his own moonshine, Mason jar and all. I put my pink lipstick on and I was ready to go. However, the event was running way behind because people were running late (attendees) and the ones that were there had congregated around the two bars. So, this meant more time to drink beer. By the time we got ready to go, I asked the Emcee 5 times if my lipstick looked ok. The fifth time he said, “Bitch, your lipstick looks fine!” All in jest of course – I think. Anyhow, the night moved pretty quickly from there. We all walked the runway individually and I really worked it. I was blowing kisses to the crowd and making my “oops did I do that” face. On the walk back to the dressing room tragedy was avoided, barely. I must have started walking a little faster but my heel slipped out of the wedge heels I was wearing and I did that side step thing that people do when they can’t walk in heels. I felt like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. As for the swimsuit competition, I was saved because I was able to borrow a sarong. I wore Nicole’s bikini and stuffed my balloon ta-ta’s back in. I even sprinkled more glitter for good measure. Went to the mirror and fixed my hair and asked one of the other guys if my lipstick was good. We were then lining back up and I decided I needed one more beer in me, which, I grabbed and drank while waiting for my turn. I guess I was a little quick on the stage because I began walking back before they were finished talking about me. Also, there were a few other guys wearing sarongs and they decided to strip them off and prance around in bikini bottoms. Not yours truly. The sarong stayed firmly tied around my waist. You know, didn’t want to show the little Jim and the twins…

I didn’t win anything but overall it was fun. We rose between $20,000 and $25,000 for the YMCA. Again, it was fun, but I’ll never do it again….Well, not in public anyway.

Jim

5 years of wedded bliss?

2007-11-12T10:38:00.000-06:00

Okay, so maybe not every minute of every day is bliss...but we rewarded ourselves anyway.

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary at the Herrington Inn & Spa. And lemme tell ya - this place rocks. I mean ROCKS. The room was gorgeous, the bathtub was huge, the champagne was cold. What else could a girl need? Oh, a spa on the floor below ours? Perfect...I'll take it. It's always fun to go somewhere new and have it actually be better than you imagined. Sometimes you look at something on the web and you think "could it possibly be that awesome?" And in this case the answer is yes. Double yes. Triple yes. I highly recommend this for anyone celebrating an anniversary, birthday, or absolutely nothing...just go...now...GO. But make reservations early. The inn only has 61 rooms. We stayed a river premiere room, so we had a view, and that was great. We also had a fireplace, which was nice, and the king size bed was fantastic.

In-room bath you say? YES! The spa delivered the relaxing bath essentials to our door, and it was a great way to start our weekend getaway. The people in the spa were wonderful - I had a body polish...and I'm pretty sure my skin is better than the day I was born. My massage on Sunday morning was just what the doctor ordered, and considering I literally crawled out of bed, into my robe and slippers and hopped the elevator down for my treatment...brilliant. I was greeted with smiles and herbal tea.

The town of Geneva has great shopping...and a winery outlet for the Galena winery. They actually had some great offerings. (and we purchased some of them to share!) I also picked up one of these, because, well, you know I had to have one!

And then when we went down the street to find some Fat Tire, the Savway was having a special 18-hour sale and wine tasting. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Who has this kind of luck. We tasted only a few as we did have to drive home and pick up the kids, who were eating my parents out of house and home. I called to check in a couple of times, every time I did Alex was sleeping and Owen was eating. Do you all know what this means? Yep, I'll be buying them both new pants and shoes soon. Damn kids will not stop growing no matter what I do!

We had dinner at Foxfire, and not only was the food yummy, but the service was amazing. My husband and I have been in love with St. Charles for a long time, but now that we've found Geneva? I think we may be looking at weekend getaways there.

How was YOUR weekend?Happy couple after a weekend at the Herrington

Getting in touch with my feminine side, part 1

2007-11-06T08:48:00.001-06:00

*ETA: Per Sugar Snap Pea. The following is a guest blog by the Jimmer. I do not possess a "twig and berries", unless you count the set on my husband.

As most of you already know, I did in fact participate in the WomanLESS Beauty Pageant. This was a fundraiser for the Duneland Family YMCA and I’m proud to say that we raised some where between $20,000 and $30,000. I was approached about this approximately 2 months ago because our Father (me, Jbrave, and Eggo) threw me under the bus and nominated me. I didn’t think much of it at the time but Saturday afternoon I was a wreck. There where a couple of times where my girlfriend Nicole that I was going to puke but it was just the nerves. Enough about that stuff though and on to the “meat” of this blog. It was rather interesting preparing to be a woman. I borrowed a cocktail type dress from a woman in our office and it was very tight, black velvet dress; very form fitting if you know what I mean. At 4:30pm, after watching the Irish lose to Navy (oui vey) I jumped into the shower. I then shaved cuz I had day old stubble. I preceded to cut myself a number of times so that wasn’t good. Then, I put on the bikini bottoms. Yes, there was an evening gown portion AND a swimsuit competition. They were so tight on me that there was no room for underwear. (Not that you would wear them with a suit.) I looked at my ass in the mirror and then said to Nicole, “why didn’t you tell me my ass was so big?” She laughed and replied that I was really on my way to being a woman. Then it was time for the panty hose. Yes, I said panty hose. Jet black, Queen Plus. Well, let me tell you that is not an easy thing. It took me every bit of 10 minutes to put those suckers on. Not to mention how tight everything was on my twig and berries…Very tight and very constricting. So, I’ve got these things at my waist and Nicole tells me that they have to go higher. What, what are you talking about? She said that they were control tops. I don’t know even know what that means. Anyhow, I rolled them all the way up and then went up to my nipples. I left them at my waist…Anyhow, it was very difficult turning into a girl. I know have a little taste of what most of you go through on a daily basis.

More to come later about the actual event…
Jim

sniff oh honey, look! Our baby is all grown up and doesn't he look so beautiful in drag??

2007-11-02T07:58:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhhh, yes, bloggers...this weekend is a very special weekend for none other than our very own JIMMER.

Yes...for charity, the Jimmer will be donning a wig, makeup, ball gown and heels and walking the catwalk. That's right...our baby will be in drag. Isn't just the sweetest thing you've ever heard?? The saddest part is that because I didn't mark the charity event on my calendar, I'm not going to be there...I'll be in Chicago dining on some fabulous food here, and then going to see this. I had a friend say she liked Shear Madness...and then someone else told me it was dreadful. Two very different opinions, from two very different people. I hope it's at least entertaining, or my hubby will kill me. The last time we went to the city, the performance was less than satisfying for him. Oy.

So that means I get to drink great wine, have great conversation, hopefully see a fun show, and stay overnight in an overpriced downtown hotel. YIPPEE. But still, Jimmer will be dressed up like a woman, toes painted, makeup on, wig in place...and I won't be there.

I told him yesterday that there should be before/after pics...and pics of him getting ready, like a bride on her wedding day. He didn't seem to think this was necessary. I clearly need to have a conversation with Nicole.

Jimmer -you know I'll need pics for the blog on this one...I'm just sayin. Do you have a name? A chick name picked out for your debut?? What should his girl name be, bloggers?

Just a couple of nitpicky items...

2007-10-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

One...Halloween apparently should be renamed to skankaween. Seriously. Do they even MAKE costumes for little girls anymore? Why in the HELL do they have a French maid costume for 8 year olds? Excuse me? Whodawa? Does it come with fishnets and condoms? I started noticing this last year, when I was looking for a costume for me...that I basically had two choices: sexy_something or medieval looking costume that covered every inch of my body. Nice. Thanks. And now they're doing the same for kids? Bullshit. BULLSHIT.

Two...When the shit is the time change? This weekend coming up or did I miss it. I'd like to think I didn't miss it. But they're really screwing with me here.

Three...Kids clothes. Holy mother. Alex? Alex is easy - he could care less what he wears as long as it fits. Actually...as long as it fits and it's black. Hmmmmm, I wonder where he gets THAT trait? Owen on the other hand is my little clothes hound. Very particular. And right now he needs new jeans. And new shoes. And well, new everything because he won't stop growing no matter what I do. We measure our kids on the laundry room wall. Owen has grown almost 2 inches since March. Oy. I asked him where he wanted to go shopping. The mall. The mall? Yeah...they have cool clothes at the mall. Ummmm, okay. Why in the shit do you know this? The thing about the "cool stores" is that they're really for teens...not for preens or tweens. The one store that did have jeans in his size? Ummmmm, yeah...$60. SIXTY DOLLARS for a pair of jeans he probably won't be wearing in 4 months. I can't do it. I just can't do it. I have no problem spending $60 on a pair of jeans for me. If I wear them like I've worn my other pairs, I'll have them for 5 years easily. That's what, $12 per year? Divided by 365 days in the year...that's....ummm...365 into 12.00...well...pennies a day. PENNIES. But $60 for Owen...can't do it. Same with shoes. He's got high dollar taste when it comes to shoes (hmmm, wonder where he gets THAT?) and I get it. I do. BUT...his feet keep growing, too - and I just can't do it. We solved the jeans problem last night and got him some shirts, and a Colts hoodie which he loves. At least he's reasonable. When I tell him that we just can't afford to buy him things that expensive while he's growing, ultimately he's fine with it. And when we found him some great jeans on sale for $21..."Mom, these are really cool jeans. Why would anyone pay $40 more for jeans?" Yes, dear...that's right. Why?

So today my youngest son left the house in new clothes looking quite spiffy and NOT wearing two different colored socks.

I love the change in the weather.

The kick is up and it's..........NO GOOD!

2007-10-25T08:32:00.002-05:00

It's a sad day for us - Alex did not make the pep band. He's fine with it - what we now know is that there are only 5 kids in it, and that they had a lot of drummers audition, but not a lot of guitar players. WHAT? Since when are there too many drummers?? It's always been my experience that there are never enough drummers. Ever. EVER. Especially at this age when parents usually don't want to buy their kids a drum set - don't have the room for it - don't want to listen to it. Although, I think in retrospect, if you talked to my dad, he might have actually preferred the drums to my early clarinet endeavors. Oh how he hated when I would squeak and sqwak my way through various concertos like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Somewhere over the Rainbow and the theme from M*A*S*H (which Julie and I learned all on our own without ANY sheet music. we were truly gifted.)

So anyway - there are 3 seniors and 2 sophomores in this year's ensemble, and Alex is content with garage band 101 and the blues jam for now. There's always next year.

It's report card time, and both boys are doing very well. Alex took it tough at the beginning of the year, but now he's humming right along. I can see all of his grades online, so I already know what to expect there. Kathy and I had a long talk about looking at grades online. She contends, that now, as a parent, she thinks this is brilliant. But as a student? She would hate every minute of it and feel very violated by her parents looking up her every quiz score. I try to use this information for good and not for evil. I think it's been a catalyst for conversation...but I know he hates it that I know his test scores before he does. HA! Sometimes it's GOOD, though - like after his unit test in Bio - he totally nailed it and when I picked him up after school I told him so. Made his night...

Owen did fine - he actually got a B+, something that hasn't happened in like 7 report cards. He was a little bummed to break his all A streak. But he had perfect attendance, so he bounced back. He loves receiving perfect attendance certificates. Don't ask me why. It's just Owen.

The air is cool and crisp, kiddies...
The Sox put a whoopin' on the Rockies last night. Fenway does have magical powers, I think.

Pray for rain in SoCal...

She ran calling wiiiiiiiiildfire...

2007-10-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

So Southern California is LITERALLY a hot mess. You can hardly look at any news source and not hear something about the devastating fires out there. On a fortunate note, I think only one fatality and some injuries. How odd to be saying that one fatality is actually a fortunate situation. The people are evacuating. They are listening and getting out.

This morning they interviewed a couple who was in Las Vegas when the fires started. The husband's mother was staying in their house watching their dogs. She's 81. Neighbors came pounding on her door and told her to get out - at this point she could actually see the fire. She called her son to ask him what he wanted her to take. Can you imagine? You can see fire and you actually call your son to see if there's something you can grab before you literally run for your life. His response - NOTHING. Get out. Get out now. This couple, sitting in Vegas while everything they own is going up in smoke, what do you do? Put it all on red and pray?

They had moved into this house 4 years ago - because they were living in the mountains, and the wildfires were getting too out of control up there. They decided to move where they felt it was safer, and now, here they are with nothing. Whatever clothes they took to Vegas, and two dogs. That's it.

So on this topic...if you had enough time to respond...a fire is coming and you have to get out. What do you take? What are the things that are irreplaceable to you? Kids, spouses are a given here. If you're about to lose it all, what do you grab on your way out the door? Your wedding album? A sweater your grandmother knit for you?

I know what's in my heart and my soul tells me to sing

2007-10-22T09:41:00.000-05:00

I'm gonna be thankful for this feeling that music brings
Ohhhhh it brings...

WHAT a weekend...what a weekend...I went out to Blues Island with Bob Mandarino and the Undercover Blues Band. What a great place, what a great crowd! Lordy who runs chicagobluesbeat.com was there and took a ton of pictures. Eventually he will also write a review, and I think he'll have good things to say about all of us. He's also going to come out to little Roselawn on Sunday and partake in our Blues Jam, so that will be a blast. IF you live locally, you should all make a point to come down this Sunday, the 28th. Killer Ray will be back, and he puts on one hell of a show! Sunday, 4-8 - be there or be square!

I've had an offer, of sorts...to potentially sing with a new band. A funk, blues, jam type of deal. They think I would be a good fit for them, what we don't know is if they are a good fit for me! They're local, and it could be fun, but who knows. I think I might go and sit it with them for a rehearsal and see what comes up.

So it's very exciting, everything that's happening. I'll keep you all posted!

Still no update

2007-10-17T11:20:00.000-05:00

He talked to some girl, who said it should be posted somewhere. Where? Alex has no idea. When? Alex has no idea. He's not the best on information gathering, that one. BUT...his grades are looking good. He has been working his ass off and it shows. I'm so very very proud of him, for so many reasons...

I got him into a class called Garage Band 101 - you get together once a week for 8 weeks and learn as many songs as you can. He's playing with kids younger than he is - the bass player is 11, a 5th grader named Will. One guitar player is 12, the other is 13, and Alex on drums. After 8 weeks of learning what they can, they give a "concert." Should be fun. Alex liked the first session, the kids seem nice, the instructor seems nice. It's a good activity for him...better, maybe, than playing with the "old farts" on Sundays. :)

I'm eating California Roll and fried rice right now for lunch...mmmmmmm...

How is everyone? Where is everyone?

No, no, no...I don't have an update

2007-10-15T12:56:00.001-05:00

And believe me, it's killing me WAY more than it's killing you. Oy. I can't take the pressure.

FOOTBALL SEASON IS OVER!!! And I know I shouldn't sound this happy about it but I can't help it. I just can't help it. One less thing to do. Hooray. The game yesterday was pitiful...mentally, our boys never showed up. They had themselves licked before they took the field. What can you do with that? Buncha head cases that team. I knew when MC scored the first touchdown that it was over for us. Rallying is not something our boys do. In any sport. ugh. Instead of getting mad, they get defeated.

Alex jammed again last night - and this time I sang with him. Good times. He really likes going up there, now...and there's so much for him to learn! He watched Steve for a bit, and Steve could tell he was paying attention, because when he got up there to play, he started mimicking some of the stuff Steve was doing. It's all improv and great - I'm so impressed by him. I purposely improved the hell out of some of the songs I sang with him so he could play around. Fun fun fun....

Bears, Bears, Bears...tsk, tsk. How did you let that happen? Oh yeah Adrian Peterson. Your nemesis for the day.

I love Devin Hester...love, love, love watching him play...

Rockstar Alex...

2007-10-12T08:41:00.001-05:00

So Alex was practicing for his audition last night...and his laptop has a video camera on it. I tried to catch at least a little bit of him playing. The video isn't great...and he just started playing this song over the weekend...but I think he sounds damn awesome for 5 days of practice on it. (And he's learned 4 songs in that amount of time) Wish him luck...auditions are today from 3-4pm. I've never seen him so excited about something before...

TURN DOWN YOUR SOUND - it's kind of loud.

And now for something completely different...

2007-10-11T11:35:00.000-05:00

I want to talk to you all about something very personal to me. So make sure when you comment, that you're nice.

Lunch.

Yeah, that's right, lunch.

I'm struggling these days with lunch. I lost my work-wife to her babies...so I don't have nearly as much excitement over lunch as I used to. So a lot of times, I'm not even really motivated to eat. I'm trying to get the girls in the cubicles outside my office to get on the eating out every day train, but they're just too damn disciplined in bringing in their lunch. Now some might argue that this is a good thing. BLASPHEMY.

I am a chronic lunch eater outer. I try...I really do...to want to bring in leftovers, or bring in some heat-a-meal-with-no-flavor, or pack a sandwich. But...ew. No. I can't do it. I'm surrounded by so much good food here that it's just impossible. I have no will power.

So my struggle is that I'm typically not leaving to get lunch. At all. So apparently instead of choosing a crappy sandwich from home, I choose nothing. And that's just pitiful. I know this. What are you guys doing for lunch? Today I didn't eat. And that's not good. Because right now I'm cranky and starving and it's just too late to go eat. But I want to.

Maybe I'll go next door real fast and grab something from KFC. Ew.

Guess what city will NOT be getting the Olympic games?

2007-10-09T09:22:00.000-05:00

Three guesses...

If you said Chicago...you'd be right. They made a nice pretty audition tape. They were a big success when the Olympic Committee came...but what they forgot is that the OC is always watching. And this tragic Chicago marathon? Yeah...that's a pretty big test to fail. Especially since the marathon has been going on for 30 years. If they can't successfully hold an event they've been holding for 30 years...how can they possibly handle the international onslaught of the Olympics?

They ran out of water. Emergency medical personnel couldn't keep up. This cannot look good for our fair city to the OC.

So who's fault is it? Kevin says it's the runners fault. They shouldn't have run it. They should have known better.

I disagree. After talking with Jen - she says that she had the run of her life. She was posting great times at the markers and felt the best she's ever felt. She took it easy at the beginning and paced herself nicely, taking necessary breaks, pumping her fluids. HAD THEY NOT RUN OUT OF WATER, she would have had a strong finish, too. Luckily she and her running partner had people to bring them more fluids. Others were not so lucky.

I think these athletes train under these very conditions and know their limitations. I don't think anyone enters a marathon thinking it will be easy, or not taking it seriously. These people train for months...years...and the city of Chicago let them down. I'm not blaming them for everything, they can't control the weather. But they knew it was going to be hot, they should have been more prepared. Handing out ice to runners finishing the race? They did it wrong.

I'm sure Jimmer is going to have something to say about this one - he'll side with my hubby. And that's fine too...what do you all think?

I have so many rockstars in my life!

2007-10-08T11:43:00.000-05:00

Seriously!

First - Alex is sooooooo cool! He got up yesterday at the Sunday Blues Jam and totally played the hell out of that drum set. The first song he seemed scared to death, but by the third song, he had totally and literally found his rhythm. I was so proud. His dad was there, too...so that was fun. Kevin and Ben both sitting in the front row, taking pictures with camera phones...I almost cried. I've been telling Kevin over and over how good Alex is...and now he knows I'm right. I mean, I know I'm his mom, but people, he was really, REALLY good. REALLY good. Can you feel me beaming?

Second - Jen finished the dreaded Chicago Marathon! Total rockstar!!! Even when they were telling them to stop running, and they were...like every 2/10 mile. She and her running partner had family members bring them water and gatorade and she finished. I got the report from her mom, who said Jen was amazing and feeling great. What a great personal victory for her! Everyone should be very proud.

Owen's team lost a tough one to an undefeated team yesterday. I was so proud of all of those boys. The team was bigger, and therefore could switch out full offense and defense. Our kids mostly play both sides of the ball...so our quarterback, runningbacks, and most of the offensive line are also playing defense, they never get a break. We were winning 7-6 until the 3rd quarter and then...well our little engine that could ran out of steam. We were absolutely not out-played...we held them so many times but couldn't get ourselves to the goal line. The other teams always creamed the opponent by 20 or more points...so the fact that we lost by only 2 touchdowns and never let them score an extra point speaks volumes about the heart of our boys.

So I'm a very proud mama and friend today. Happy Monday to all!

Before you bash Dan Rather...

2007-10-05T16:56:00.000-05:00

You may want to get it all straight. Until I read this from the Huffington Post, I hadn't truly digested how BAD our TV and written news really is. There's a reason we're seeing so much Anna Nicole, Brittney, Lindsay, Paris bullshit. The corporate media has done that intentionally. INTENTIONALLY. Have you never wondered why we've never seen this much fluff/pop/hollywood shit in our newscycles before? Because corporate media didn't want to rattle the GOP political machine by reporting actual news...because reporting the actual news meant reporting the war...and reporting the war meant telling the truth that Bush shang-hai'd us into Iraq because there wasn't any reason for us to go there.

I've read a lot of articles, in fact, about how there really IS no investigative journalism anymore. Have you seen any? Aside from the "to catch a pedophile" series, if you can even call that investigative journalism. Have you? And the lead-in bullshit? And the fluff. Ugh.

Even if you don't agree with why the media has changed, you all have to agree that it has, in fact, changed and changed for the worst. And for someone as celebrated and talented as Dan Rather to be the fall guy? Well, that says an awful lot about how bad it truly is. Speak on and speak out, Mr. Rather.

Anyway, the article is very interesting, so I wanted to share.

No need for organized streaking protest...

2007-10-04T11:18:00.001-05:00

And I think the Janet was even going to join in...

The expulsion hearing reinstated our thong boy. Thank heavens. The administration recommended expulsion, but the board decided against it. Smart board.

I have a couple of things to talk about today.

One - Asparagus. No, not the vegetable, the restaurant. It's an upscale thai/vietnamese restaurant in Mville. HOLY CRAP. You must all come. Find a way. Make it happen. Girls - we must plan a girls dinner there. The cocktails are fun. The menu is to die for. Sample:
"asparagus beef lover: beef tenderloin marinated in our exclusive steak sauce, grilled asparagus, premium japanese soy sauce and stir-fried thai basil mixed vegetables along with brown rice."

Ummmm, YUMM-O.

Two - Gamba. Stop everything you're doing and go there immediately. Ever been to Cafe Venezia? Venezia Bar & Grill? Same guy. We ate there last night for the Janet's birthday dinner. It was brilliant...BRILLIANT. Not a cheap date, but the food was well worth it. Everything was yummy, yummy, yummy.

Grab an eating buddy an head out. That's an order.

Honey, Let's Never Pass Out Angry Again

Men vs. Women sterilization...it's a double standard

2007-10-03T12:32:00.000-05:00

So this morning on the Today show, they did a whole segment...two segments actually on young men in their 20's getting vasectomies. Men who have no children, no spouse...who maybe want to get married someday but definitely don't want to have kids.

Did the doctor try to talk him out of it? No. Urologists gave him no resistance. Did family members? Maybe. But my point is this. If a 28 year old woman with no kids, no spouse walked into her OBGYN and told them that she wanted a tubal ligation, the doctor would talk her out of it. Most won't even consider it. I know people who have been turned down even after the woman has had kids. My sister-in-law being one of them. I did a little research on the net and they say that only 1/3 of young women who ask for tubal ligations actually get them. And that's only because they go to several doctors. SEVERAL. The attitude of the medical community is that "they'll regret it" - but do they share that same sentiment with the men?

If a young girl wants a boob job, a tattoo...these are "permanent" procedures that can be reversed, yes? So why all the shit about getting your tubes tied?

Thoughts? Do you know someone who was talked out of their tubal by their doctor? Family? Friends?

Article on women denied TL

Ummmm, overboard anyone??

2007-10-01T07:34:00.000-05:00

What in the FUCK is happening in Chesterton? Have they lost their DAMN minds? Seriously? Expelling a kid because he ran across a football field in a thong?

And just so we understand why I'm so pissed - he could have beat the shit out of someone...which, by the way, is a CRIME called battery, and they would have suspended him for 3 days, but not expelled him.

And the choir members who HAZED other choir members with BODILY FLUIDS - they were suspended, not expelled. The fact that they only use the words bodily fluids when they talk about it tells me it wasn't saliva...they would have said saliva, I think, so I'm speculating it was urine or something worse. And that, too, is a CRIME called battery.

But this boy, who didn't hurt anyone, wasn't naked, committed NO crime, not even indecent exposure because he was covered with a thong, was expelled for the remainder of the school year. It's the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard.

If he had just run across the field, fully clothed, would they have even punished him? Probably not. So the issue isn't the running on the field, it's his state of dress. What if he had worn shorts? What then? It makes me want to organize a team of streakers for the next home game in various states of dress.

Idiots. I'm sorry, but when a kid pulling a stupid prank gets the same treatment as someone caught doing drugs in school? I think the administration needs to re-evaluate their punishment criteria. I'm embarrassed to be a Chesterton alum today.

Pre-expulsion article
Article in the Muncie Star

It was the strangest thing...

2007-09-27T12:34:00.000-05:00

Owen came home from school yesterday complaining that his hands were itching, and itching badly. Not the back, the palms. And the top of his feet...which I blamed on the socks. :)

I got home and gave him some liquid benadryl and the itching stopped...but at 10:30pm it was back with a vengeance. His nose was running uncontrollably, eyes were watering, palms were itching and then his eyes started welting up and he got a rash on his nose. It was so weird....

After another dose of benadryl he was finally able to fall asleep after midnight - getting up this morning was rough to say the very least. We have no idea what caused it. He didn't eat or do anything out of the ordinary. I've been emailing his teacher today and she said he seems fine.

???

So what gives. Kevin thinks it's a spider bite reaction...I'm not so convinced. What do you guys think. He's fine today - got up, took a shower...no itching, no swelling. He did get quite a few mosquito bites the other day at practice???

Teenagers suck

2007-09-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

You know what? Teenagers suck. I thought I had this nice kid, right? Yeah, notsomuch. He's a moody smartass little shit. I can see his grades online. And in a couple of classes, he's not doing so hot. So I'm trying to help him stay on top of things. The result of this not-so-gentle-nudging? Rolling of the eyes, gritting of the teeth, general malcontent. I hate it. He tells me yesterday that he has a timed essay in English today. And that the teacher gave them examples and ideas and all sorts of stuff so that they can basically do a really great job...IF they prepare. IF they apply themselves.

He didn't even bring his literature book home. He didn't plan on preparing anything. I made him sit down last night and roughly outline what he might write today, so he wouldn't walk in completely unprepared. You would have thought I asked him to copy the dictionary. Seriously? It's not hard. BE PREPARED! You were a Scout once...figure it out.

grrrrrr.

Me & Killer Ray...

2007-09-25T09:12:00.000-05:00

I need Julie to come down and start taking decent pictures. It's so hard when the place is kinda dark for my little camera to figure out what to do. Words cannot describe how much fun I was having in this picture.