Gavin

Here is a cutie I watch once in awhile.

shopping

When my daughter Amanda shops she turns it into an adventure. She loves to try on funky clothes and will come out of the dressing room posing and prancing around dramatically. It is a hysterical sight to behold.

I on the other hand love shopping but I hate trying on clothes. Hate it. Like the other day. I'm trying on jeans in a claustrophobic changing room.

T.: (calls through the door) Do you like them?

ME: No, they're not working for me, they're too tight.

T.: Get out here, let me see.

ME: No way these jeans make my thighs fatter and I see muffin top.

T.: Just get out here, I'll let you know. Trust me.

ME: Other people will see.

T.: Who cares, no one's out here.

ME: I'm taking them off.

T.: Okay then I'm coming in.

ME: (in a sing song tone) No your not, the door's locked.

T.: (sing song tone) Then I'll crawl under the door.

ME: You do and I swear I'll go Mommie Dearest on you and beat you with this hanger..

Lately I've noticed a trend with department stores. When customers get to the cash register the sales person begins to ask them a series of questions. I just want to pay and go. But they want to know my address, phone number. Especially Fashion Bug. Every time. They even want my e-mail address.

Sometimes I just want to say.."Would you like a blood sample too? I'm A negative."

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Another week has passed me by. Last Saturday we went to a Cheer for a Cure benefit. $10.00 a plate (not bad), they were serving a choice of spaghetti or linguini alfredo. After dinner the girls performed a cute interactive show followed by raffle drawings and a silent auction.

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Now think red and white checkered tables, live music, plastic bibs, corn on the cob, cups of melted butter... and crab. Put these together and you get The Dungeness Crab and Seafood Fest.

I don't like crab. It's smelly, they scream when they're cooked, yeah I know, it's just steam. Cracking their shells open with pliers freak me out. I've tried to like crab, it looks like messy fun. People wearing plastic crab bibs while gorging themselves with gusto. It's a hands on affair and ettiquette flies right out the window. Cortney can eat her weight in crab. She ordered a half crab dinner for $15.00 and Jim ate crab cakes. I was content with my glass of chardonnay. Unfortunately Andrew couldn't join us because he was at his dads for the weekend.

car

Last night while Andrew was at his Homecoming Dance, Jim, Cortney and I went back to the races at Speedway. Thanks to this car here, number 77 and its driver who won one of the races I will not be taking out the trash ALL week. A bet is a bet!

Bday

Thursday was also Cortney's 11th birthday. She had a dinner party at Sergio's. She actually jumped when the staff came out plopped a sombrero on her little head then proceeded to sing Las Mananitas followed by Happy Birthday. At first her face registered surprise and bewilderment but then she put on an ear to ear grin and I could tell she was really enjoying herself. Her main present was a digital camera she had been longing for. She hasn't put the camera down since that night.

yep

I saw Step Brothers in Lakewood Sunday evening after going to the zoo. Step Brothers had its funny moments, I guess it really depends on a persons idea of funny. But first I want to talk about the theater.

The theaters in the town I live in are crap compared to the Regal Cinema in Lakewood. This theater had stadium seating where the seats tier down and had the most comfortable chairs I've sat in while watching a movie on the big screen. The armrest lifts up so you can cuddle, fondle or pickpocket the person next to you, whatever your mood. They also have cup holders so just remember to take your coke out of the armrest before pulling it up (you know who you are). My only gripe is the same complaint I have at every theater. Snack prices.

Amanda brought me back a bottled water from the concession stand, I asked her how much it was and she tells me it was $4.50..... $4.50! I yelped just a little to loudly. That's a gallon of gas!

But back to the movie, it was funny. There were some silly parts that I did not find humorous. Like when some kids make Brennan (Will Ferrel) lick white dog shit. Some of the jokes fell flat. However there were enough good ones to keep Step Brothers entertaining for a movie about two men 39 and 40 who act like 12 year olds. I would say that it was better than Semi Pro, but not nearly as good as Talladega Nights. So my advise would be to wait for it on DVD.*

On Sunday I took off with Andrew heading to Tacoma where we picked up Amanda.

We made as far as Discovery Bay. A rinky dink store and I was feeling tired and bought a Star Buck's Double Espresso mocha in a little can. I know, I don't drink coffee, but I had stayed up the night before watching

Destination... PT. Defiance Zoo.

Afterward we went to Owens Beach, Amanda and Andrew had a fierce water gun fight.

Taking time to smell the Lavender

I had a strange dream last night. I worked retail at Gottschalk's and Joan Rivers was my boss. Go figure.

But anyway, I went to the 12th Annual Lavender Festival on Sunday in Sequim. Pronounced skwim. Over 3 days of festival the farms have about 33,000 visitors come through. I toured 3 farms. Cedar Brook, Purple Haze and then finally Angel Lavender Farm. When getting out of the car the first thing that hits you is the smell, which made walking through the lush purple fields heavenly. With that lavender fragrance filling the air it made me want to bottle it up and take the aroma home. So we did. The picture here to the left is at Angel. Cortney is picking/gathering a bundle to bring back with us. I also bought lavender soap (I can't ever stay away from soap), oil and some raspberry lavender jam. Did you know that one can make lavender ice cream? I drank some ice cold lavender lemonade and found it delicious but my favorite was the white chocolate raspberry lavender cheesecake. I never imagined all these things we can do with lavender. They even had lavender champagne. While heading back to the car Cortney spotted a twenty dollar bill on the grass. When she retrieved it we found it was actually 4o dollars, so we turned it in to the two elderly ladies at admission because that's how we roll and the ladies looked honest enough :-) I'll definitely go back next year.



Right now Amanda and Andrew are at their dads' so its just Cortney here at home.

We switched to fat free milk and Cortney is not buying into it. We're just trying to eat healthier, and I'll use trying loosely after the things we ate during our 4th of July camping trip.

We had tons of fun though. We were rained out right before our last day. As we packed our muddy gear into the Jimmy, I said to the kids, "We'll laugh about this someday".

spring

This morning I woke up and was delighted when I remembered that I had an unopened McDonald's yogurt parfait waiting for me in the fridge. I can't get enough of those. My two favorite things on Mc's menu is the parfait and also the fries. What do most people like best on McDonald's menu? I know Andrew loves the McChicken Nuggets but only with sweet and sour sauce and he enjoys the McSausage Breakfast Sandwich, Cortney likes the Fudge Sundaes without peanuts, Amanda and Jim like it all, it just depends on their mood.

Here it is April 20th and I am still impatiently waiting for spring. It snowed yesterday and the day before. Today we were planning on going up in the mountains to play in it. But at some point we got so caught up in chores, like changing the oil in the car, reorganizing the back room by the time we were finished it was already 5:30pm and time to pick up Andrew from his dads.

I'm about to finish off the season 3 "Arrested Development" DVD set.

Mushroom Ball

Friday night, not much going on around here. It's quiet. I had plans to play poker but Jim has developed a head cold and is extremely tired. We played poker a couple weeks ago, I lost 5 bucks and Jim 17. We're on a losing streak.

Andrew: Mom can I go to Mushroom Ball with ___ and then stay over at his house?

I was like, "What?!"

I'm thinking all sorts of wild things.

"What is Mushroom Ball?", I ask.

"It's dodge ball on steroids", he says.

I don't get it.

"Your going to take steroids and play dodge ball?" and "Why is it called Mushroom Ball?" "What do mushrooms have to do with it?"

He laughs and explains that no they are not taking 'roids', its just extreme dodge ball and he doesn't know why it's called Mushroom Ball.

And it's at the church.

So he's playing mushroom ball.

2007

I think this sums up the way I felt about the 2007 holiday season.

My food coma from yesterday is finally wearing off....

Better than Ansel Adam prints

Yesterday early afternoon the phone rang. It was my ex husband (Amanda's dad) calling from his office. He wanted to know if Jim and me had opened up his Christmas present from him and Amanda yet.

Well I was waiting until Christmas.

"Why don't you go ahead and open it now", he says.

Obviously HE couldn't wait for me to open it. And to be honest I was curious.

So I walk over to the tree and open it up with him still on the phone.

I throw the wrapping on the floor and lift the lid on the rectangular box. It took my breath away. It was a big folio displaying Amanda's senior pictures and they were gorgeous!

Amanda had been dropping hints all week. Saying that my present would be better than Ansel Adam prints. She was right. Way better than Ansel Adam prints.

Clam chowder

Our tree is up and the lights are shining. That's what we did after shopping on Saturday night. Andrew did most of the work. We went with clear lights and a red and gold theme. There was a debate over what would top the tree. The star or the angel? Cortney wanted a star but Andrew insisted on the angel and won. After that we had a spaghetti dinner.

(I took the MySpace Christmas tree off my page because it was taking way to long to load.)

Guess where our Christmas outdoor lights are? Tangled up in a ball and tucked away in a box. They might stay there this year. Or maybe I'll just use one string of lights, hang a Christmas wreath on the door and call it good.

Sunday we lazed around until early afternoon, then went shopping again and made a round trip to Tacoma and back. It snowed near the Hood Canal Bridge but didn't stick.

Today Jim had the day off and we ran some errands and bummed around town. We got back home at lunch time.

I think we're having clam chowder for dinner. New England of course. No one likes Manhattan clam chowder because it's not really a chowder it's a soup. A vegetable soup with clams.

Links:

More Icy weather for Midwest (600K homes and businesses blacked out)

National Geographic

Boing Boing

Slashdot

While I'm typing this Andrew is playing a video game. He has one of those headsets where you talk with other gamers. and I keep thinking he's talking to me because we're the only two in the room. So he's talking to someone else online and I keep answering him like a bonehead.

His headset reminds me of the ones they use at the McDonald's drive-thru.

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It snowed on Saturday. I was excited and bouncing around because this meant we could go sledding at the golf course on Sunday. But on Sunday the rain washed out the snow. Bummer.

So it snowed and it rained. And rained. And more rain. The Northwest is flooding.


Shitty weather usually brings out the shitty drivers. Yesterday, this big Ford F-250 was right on my ass all the way through downtown and across town. I was in the right lane, the truck could of went around using the other unoccupied lane, but instead chose to tailgate me. The truck was so close I swear it was trying to mate with my back bumper. Back the F#@! off already. You know?

Wrapping presents with a cat.

1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.

2. Go to wardrobe and collect bag in which present is contained, and close door.

3. Open door and remove cat from wardrobe.

4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.

5. Go back and remove cat from cupboard.

6. Go to drawer and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors, labels, etc.

7. Lay out present and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.

8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the drawer since last visit, and collect string.

9. Remove present from bag.

10. Remove cat from bag.

11. Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.

12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.

13. Cut the paper to size, trying to keep the cutting line straight.

14. Throw away first sheet because cat tried to chase the scissors and tore the paper.

15. Cut second sheet of paper to size by putting cat in the bag the present came out of.

16. Place present on cut-to-size paper.

17. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present, wonder why edges now don’t reach, and find cat between present and paper. Remove cat and retry.

18. Place object on paper, to hold in place, while cutting transparent sticky tape.

19. Spend next 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from cat with pair of nail scissors.

20. Seal paper down with transparent sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.

21. Look for roll of ribbon; chase cat down hall and retrieve ribbon.

22. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.

23. Re-roll up ribbon and remove paper that is now torn, due to cat’s enthusiasm in chasing ribbon end.

24. Repeat steps 12-22 until down to last sheet of paper.

25. Decide to skip steps 12-16 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that you know is right size for sheet of paper.

26. Put present in box, and tie down with string.

27. Remove string, open box and remove cat.

28. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for lockable room.

29. Once inside room, lock door and start to re-lay out packing materials.

30. Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close door and re-lock.

31. Lay out last sheet of paper. (Admittedly this is difficult in the small area of the toilet, but try your best!)

32. Seal box, wrap with paper and start repairs by very carefully sealing down tears with transparent sticky tape. Now tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst affected areas.

33. Label, then sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulating yourself on making good of a bad job.

34. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make drink and feed cat.

35. Spend next 15 minutes looking for cat, before coming to obvious conclusion.

36. Unwrap present, untie box and remove cat.

37. Retrieve all discarded sheets of wrapping paper, feed cat and retire to lockable room for last attempt, making certain you are alone and the door is locked.

38. At time of handing over present, smile sweetly at receiver’s face, as they try and hide their contempt at being handed such a badly wrapped present.

39. Swear to yourself that next year, you will get the store to wrap the darn thing for you.

I have an idea, how about locking the cat in the bathroom until finished wrapping ;-)

Dear Kevin Spacey

Dear Kevin Spacey,

Or can I just call you Kev? I've seen so many of your movies and I feel comfortable calling you Kev. In fact I feel like I know you. Which is why I am so puzzled to why you agreed to be in 'Fred Claus'.

Why Kev?

Did you even read the script? Because this movie is so below your league. Your better than that. I expect this from Vince Vaughn, especially after seeing him in "Dodge Ball". But not you. Not you.

Something bad must have happened for you to sign on to this movie. Are you out of money? Was your life being threatened if you didn't take this role? Maybe there was alcohol and drugs involved during the contract signing?

I'm just disappointed with you Kev.

But since we are such good friends, I'm going to give you another chance to redeem yourself. Let's see if you can choose a better movie script next time.

And Kev, if your appear in "Fred Claus 2" you will be forever dead to me.

Your best buddy,

Amy

Nipples

Lately whenever I go out of town shopping, I've noticed a new trend among display mannequins. They are sporting nipples now. I'm talking high beams here. Strolling through Norstrom's I almost did a double take when I spotted a mannequin looking like this one.

Is she excited? Because she looks visibly aroused. Maybe it is very cold inside Nordstrom's. I'm just trying to figure out why a mannequin would need nipples.

I guess nipples sell clothes. Kinda strange.

Wow! I never thought I would begin to become so conservative in my 30's ;-)

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Anyway, on the home front, Andrew's baseball season is over and Cortney has 2 games left. One of them is tonight. After that we are going out to dinner and then later I have a report to fill out and send in.


Links:
Having fled Iraq, she died at the hands of her father, because of a kiss

'Sopranos' Creator: 'We Did What We Had to Do'

101 Really Useful Websites

A@W

The oldest fast food joint in the country & still going but not as it once was. This put me in full flashback mode. Remember when you could go to A&W and get a Papa Burger, a Mama Burger and a Baby Burger? In Aberdeen when I was 3 this was the very first restaurant I remember eating at with my mom and dad. We would park the car and they would come up to our window, take our order and return with a big tray of food and hang it off the car window. My mom getting the Mama Burger and of course my dad eating a big juicy Papa Burger.
On friday night we went to an A@W located in Tacoma. It was about 9:30pm when I snapped this picture and we were starving. I was disappointed to see that they only have the Papa Burger left on the menu.


Served with a frosty cold mug, I had forgotten how great these are. Yes they still have the mugs., so great. This is Cortney's root beer, she went back for refills twice. Mainly because I continually asked her for a 'little sip'. I would have bought my own, but you know...calories, ha.

the Zipper

Took the kids to the festival on Saturday. They were excited to go on the Zipper. The picture below turned out alright considering the clouds came rolling in and it was dusk. That's them in the cart on the end. I think being at the end or top of the Zipper is the best part of the ride.....

Look at me talk as if I went on the Zipper. I didn't go on at all. I use to love it. But now the ride looks old and shaky . Like it is put together with sticks and string. And the noises that thing makes. Like it's crying out in pain. I don't even really like the kids going on it, but they begged and pleaded, they made promises about chores and school work. So of I caved in, knowing the promises will last all of 2 days. I'll take what I can get.