The Dark Knight...

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!

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The Dilly Bar story

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....

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

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....

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......

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....

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...

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!

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...

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...

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....

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....

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...

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....

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....

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!!

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....

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!

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.