Weekend Frenzy

Well, it was really only a frenzy for a person who has recently become something of a homebody. Have not had the desire to leave the house for anything but picking up the kids from school. So going to breakfast, Franklin Covey (got THE cutest calendar pages for my planner!), the costume store to finally get E his costume, and then the shoe store to get some proper shoes for idiotic foot structure.

This you may or may not know...I honestly can't remember ever having a pair of comfortable shoes. Sure, I've had less-painful, tolerable, mediocre shoes. But for my high-arched, anatomically-skewed, wide-as-the-Grand-Canyon excuses for feet, I needed something special. I found that at New Balance. Walking shoes. That hopefully won't have me in tears after walking two miles. They felt like heaven in the store, so keep your fingers crossed that they will live up to their rep. They have amazing arch support and some sort of metal rod in them to improve the step. They look a little strange, but as long as I don't feel like having a foot-ectomy after walking, they could be neon orange and I wouldn't mind.

As for the Halloween costumes...I had hoped my boys wouldn't be enticed into the freaky/gory/scare the sweet bejesus out of children costumes. But that seems to be the case. Last year E had a gladiator costume complete with a mask that had such a disconcertingly blank stare, I refused to let him wear it at home. This year he has some sort of grim reaper which is not much better. At least it isn't that horrifying mask from the movie "Scream", which I saw eons ago and that mask still brings tears of fright to my eyes. I never wished for a girl child so much as this Halloween costume dilemma; I would gladly shell out the ducats for a nice fairy princess costume. Or a hippie.

Word of the day: pu-pu. Pronounced poo-poo. Remember in A Bug's Life, the waitress in the tavern walks around and says "Who ordered the poo-poo platter?" and these flies all land on it and go to town chowing down? Very clever double meaning. It's actually a tray of Hawaiian hors de'ouevres.

So there you go.

Peace out!

Speaking of lists...

So as I lay in bed after a really bad day during which we all seemed to be at each other's throats, I found that thinking of the things that make me laugh til my face hurts chased away the tears. Here are some of those things:
1) Bumper cars
2) Jumping on the trampoline
3) Teeter totters
4) Arcade racecar or motorcycle games
5) Listening to my little sister's stories
6) Looking at pics of my nephew where he's making hilarious faces (which seems to be nearly every photo)

Shows/Movies that make me laugh til my face hurts:
1) Along Came Polly (specifically the bathroom scene and the club scene, both with Ben Stiller)
2) Phoebe and Ms. Pacman
3) Jerry Seinfeld as Raif
4) The Scrubs cast does A Charlie Brown's Christmas
5) The faces of Jim Halpert from The Office
6) The Chinese Backstreet Boys singing "That Way"

Random things that make me giggle:
1) B saying "1.21 gigawatts!" said in the voice of Doc from Back to the Future
2) PJ's goofy dances
3) E's neverending, outrageous stories complete with talking-with-his-hands
4) Little inside jokes between me and my friends and family
5) Chats with Rhian-that girl is so funny!

I may add more. But that's it for now. Click the links. You won't regret it!

Lists, Lists, Lists

My sweet friend Rhi and I had a hilarious chat about to-do lists the other day. Lists make me crazy. They really do. I write down all this stuff I need to do and then I basically don't look at the list again. Or rarely. It's almost like my brain figures that once it's written down, it's done.

The tricky part comes when I realized that I never did the things on the list. Didn't I do that already? No you weirdo, you didn't. I need a hand to come out of the list and slap me if I don't actually do the thing.

Oh, and sometimes, to make myself feel like I did something productive, I add things I've already done to the list, and cross them out. See! I did something! Proof!

Today I did do a few things that were on my list. Held some books at the library (then I will pick them up when they are set aside for me, very handy!), got some stuff to finish a very late birthday gift, and did the dishes <--- one of those things I add later to make it seem like I did more. I also dropped off a utility payment, called and paid a bill over the phone (also very handy), checked out a new quilt shop, called in an rx refill, looked around for a photosafe pencil...all before NOON! See, I did something!

Whatever works, right?

Where DID you get those peepers?

I'm not sure, but they ARE splendid, don't you think?

That's my niece, I got to tend her for the day last Saturday. She's such a hoot! I lost my phone (it fell down in the couch) and I was like "H, where's my phone?" and she goes "Phone, where are you?" lol We were looking out the window at the rain and she was totally bummed that everything was getting wet. She kept saying "oh-oh, wet" and "rain". And while we were looking out the window, we heard a car honk twice, and she goes "beep beep" and then I said it and then she said it and we just laughed and beeped. It was so cute! And then when my sister-in-law got here to pick her up, as they were leaving, she said "see you". See? A hoot, I tell you!

That's one of the things I miss about having small kids. My boys were hilarious and always making me laugh with the things they said, and the way they said it. They still say hilarious things though, so I still get the laughs. But the way small kids say such things, so fun!

Like the other day, we were walking home, and E (out of nowhere) said he likes fog. I was like, why? Then he tells me the fog gives him a "moisturizing sensation". lol I think those were the words he used, I'll double check. But he definitely said 'moisturizing'.

I write down these things they say, I have for years. Anytime I need a laugh, I go read some of them. It's as close as I will get to having them be small again, I guess.

I am so glad I have pictures and the little snippets of the things they said. And now I have the little things she says and does that make me laugh. This little girl cracks me up and makes me smile, and I absolutely adore her for that!

So there you go. Enjoy the little people in your lives. They won't be so little for very long. :D

And your point is???

The weather has been cooler. Sort of. The afternoons are a little warm, but otherwise the days are nice. I adore fall. I wish it could be fall all year. No extreme hot, no extreme cold. I like spring, but not as much as fall because I know the extreme hot is coming. And yes, I know that with fall, the extreme cold is coming, but I much prefer the cold. Heat just makes me feel icky. Bleh.

So the picture up there is an odd tree I found in the parking lot at B's work. It's like half and half. Weird, huh? Click on it to see the full photo.

That would be the first time I've used the camera in a long time, to take pictures of something other than my quilt or one of my self-portraits (and I even missed a week, but I didn't beat myself over it. I missed one in 66 weeks. I deserved the break).

So I've been quilting. Playing Brain Age, CrossworDS, and Solitaire Overload (mostly just for golf and freecell) on my Nintendo DS. Best investment in the world people! If you don't have one, I highly recommend it. I have a lot of puzzle games for mine. Actually, the only non-puzzle game I have is the Sims and that got boring PDQ.

Speaking of Sims, I've been playing the old skool Sim City (from 1001) that we downloaded for our Wii. So fun! Back in high school when I was getting really bad sinus infections, I'd skip my afternoon classes and B and I would go to his house and play Sim City and F-Zero. So naturally, whenever I get a sinus infection (still after this long!) I get the urge to plop and veg and be a captain of industry. It's fun. We have newer versions of the game, but the old one is way easier and we know the cheat code to get $999,999 dollars. Usually you start out with $20,000 and rely on taxes and whatnot to build and stuff. I like to completely cover my land with park though, and that takes a lot of money. And it the little neighborhoods and factories and train tracks (less pollution, see?) have to be in perfect alignment. Except for waterfront properties...I treat my residents right and give them beach and views. Sometimes there's a plane crash. And you get libraries and casinos and amusement parks. Very relaxing.

I've been on antibiotics of the strong variety for about a week. The ones I was on early last month did enough to get me through our trip and some, but my infection came back with a vengeance and I went in and got on the good stuff. It has some odd side effects (I've never farted so much in my life!) but I think it's doing its job. I hope.

I really need to post more often, so the posts are shorter. See, when I go to a blog, and I see big chunks of text in a post, I get overwhelmed. And here I am, doing the very same thing to you. I'm sorry! I will try to post more often!

And thanks to my peeps who still visit and comment. I love you guys! I really do! So I will end this post now and see you in a few days!

Peace out!
--J