The End!

NaBloPoMo for June...is DONE!!!!!!!! Thank the Lord. Thirty Posts in Thirty Days!




I'm pretty sure I'm not trying this again this year. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tin Man

We rented Tin Man from Blockbuster on-line. It's a Sci-Fi Channel original feature. I wanted to watch it when it was on, but...if you know me well, you know I don't really watch tv. With the fact that most networks now immediately release the season that just ended of their shows on dvd, I would rather wait for the seasons to end, and rent them from Blockbuster. I am not patient. I can't wait week to week to see what happens. I watch "Supernatural," "Bones" and "Grey's Anatomy" this way. That's pretty much it. And "Gilmore Girls" but that's no longer on.

So I missed watching this when it was airing and was bummed, until I saw that I could rent it.

This is a total twist on "The Wizard of Oz" we know. I enjoyed the little changes and tweaks. It was fun, fun fun...except one thing.

Great Googly Moogly, Zooey Deschanel CAN. NOT. ACT. If you're a fan, I'm sorry. I am. She's cute. But.....man. When her character is trying to remember something from the past, Zooey would make this face, like screw her eyebrows up and look off into space and kind-of pout and ....uh. Bad. Really, look at her face here. I was reading wikipedia on her and it was saying how she is known for her deadpan acting. Like, it's her "thing?" I mean, if that's her thing, is that how she does every role? I'm out of the loop, I suppose.


I enjoyed the evil witch and her flying monkeys! SHE did a great job as the evil Azkadellia.


David couldn't get past all the changes to Mr. Baum's work. As long as you know it's not his work, I think you'll enjoy it. I did.

Mulligan!

Did you know I also cross stitch? I do.


Back when Isabel was having a relaxing ride in my belly, David and I decided to make her a blanket. (When I told one of my bff's Kelli that David can cross stitch she said "And when did you find out your husband was gay?" *Smack* LOL)


We found a cute afghan and set to work.


Now, I'm dark haired, dark eyed and tan. My son looks exactly like me. There's no WAY this baby girl is coming out anything but a brunette!

So this is what I stitched.




And this is my daughter.....



Are we noticing the error of my ways? *sigh* I actually pulled out all that floss and redid it blonde.

Invisible Monsters

Wow. Yea. Wendy. What the....



Wendy sent me her copy of "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palahnuik. He wrote "Fight Club" (never read anything by him until now.) Some bartender recommended this book to her book club. Your book club met at a bar? Sweeeeet!

Um, so. The book deals with a young, narcissistic fashion model who gets her lower face blown off by a shot gun and how she meets a transvestite/transgender WoMan in the hospital. It details the scams, drugs, crazy past lives of allthe strange characters we meet (a gay brother, a policeman finace' with a Speedo and "dirty male porn" obsession, transvestities and nuns).

The book is crazy fast. It's told in the first person and her memories jump here and there and everywhere, revealing little bits of her story that culminate in surprises as you go.

This book? NOT for the tight-laced, goody-two-shoe section of society. Not even close. If you are prim and proper, and I have NOTHING against prim and proper, I like prim and proper, run away as you will be shocked by the language, the sexual context, the gore, the absolute vanity and vapidity (is that a word) of this character.

The girl and her world are whacked. It wasn't bad. The way all the characters are eventually weaved into the final story is really good. It was just more raw than I am used to.

Yea, Wendy warned me.

Dine & Dash

Can you believe people still do this?

We are at a Chili's last weekend. It's our favorite casual dining restaurant. Our waitress was very cute. Bubbly and sweet. You could tell she was new.

The table right next to us was occupied by a couple, in their early twenties. The girl had the mouth of a sailor. On a bad day. She was bad. The waitress would come by to check on everything, and the minute she would leave, these two would start their "F" Word fest, mocking her and pretty much everything else. It was disconcerting, especially having a 4 year old at my table, but she was coloring so she was oblivious.

Male of the couple goes to pay and his credit card is denied. Twice. So then he tells the girl, "I need to run to the ATM." I'm thinking the female would stay while the male went to get $$. No, they BOTH got up and left. Poor waitress had no idea what hit her. Eventually the manager was called, but these two did not come back in the 25 minutes we remained there.

Losers.

Hide & Seek?

Isabel loves to play hide and seek. I sometimes walk in the front door, exhausted from work and the commute and the first thing I hear is her asking me to play.



The funny thing is the way she asks. This is all said by her without interruption or a pause for your reply: "Wanna play hide & seek Who's gonna hide I Will!" All in a rush. If I try to say that I'll hide, she'll squeal "Noooooo. Meeeeeee, pleeeeease??"

Also....she's not so good with the hiding. We usually play downstairs. I'll start to count in the family room. She'll giggle, RUN and then, *SLAM,* she closes the downstairs bathroom door behind her. *snort*

I pretend to not know she's in there and open the "Harry Potter" closet across from the bathroom. (It's the cupboard under the stairs, get it?). I open the closet and say "I wonder if she's in here!" And from the bathroom I hear a teeny, "No! I'm in here."

Sometimes it's the HP closet, sometimes it's the bathroom, sometimes it's the first pantry, sometimes it's the second pantry. Either way, SLAM! I know where she is. And if I don't....she'll just tell me.

I'm Going To Be Ted Nugent!

Ahhh, Gilmore Girls. Season 2 to be exact. We just finished it.

My recap:

Wahhhh, Max!
Hey, Harvard!
Paris needs a laxative.
Luke is terrific and Lorelai is an idiot for not doing something about it.
Booo, Hiss Jess. (Who knew Peter Petrelli was a jerk before he became a nurse with super powers? ;P)
Aweee Dean, come here and let me hug you!
YAY Lorelai and Chri....wait. Waaaahhhh, Lorelai & Chris.

The end. It was fun, it was zany. In season 2, Gilmore Girl's viewership doubled. It was the fastest growing show on t.v. I WANT TO LIVE IN STARS HOLLOW!!

Emily (at a weekend spa with Lorelai): We intend to leave here completely different people!
Lorelai: Yes, I'm going to be Ted Nugent!

Week 4

Ok, yea. Monday Weigh-in I know you are SO EXCITED!!!

End of week four loss: 1 lb. (*sigh*)
End of 4 weeks: 10.5 lb.

So, ten & 1/2 in one month. Not bad right?


Better than gaining. :)

DON'T LOAN ME THINGS!!

Really. Don't. Especially if you're my boss.

My boss is a generous person. He is always trying to help me out with things and so he loans me stuff.

When my camera died right before a vacation, he loaned me his. When I got it home, I noticed that it still had that protective plastic film thingy over it that comes when you take it out of the box. So, I peel it off. BIG MISTAKE. It was so old, the gum had deteriorated underneath and cause a huge goopy mess underneath. I tried and tried and tried to clean it and had to shamefacedly return it to him that way. He and his wife leave all the plastic thingies on all things like this. Who knew? *sigh* He eventually got the view screen cleaned up.

Next up, he loaned us his GPS for our California vacation. The GPS proceeded to freeze on us right before we left. It was nothing I did! I swear! But David ended up calling my boss at his home to figure out how to fix it. *sigh*

Next up, his pressure washer. When we were getting the little blue house ready to sell, we had a lot of mildew on our driveway. My boss loaned us his awesome pressure washer. No, we did not break it, but David loads it onto my Jeep completely dirty. I was horrified. My boss is meticulously clean. I had him take it right back off and completely cleaned, wiped and shined that puppy right up. I wanted it to look as nice as when we got it.

Most recently, the hand mini-spot cleaner. My Jeep's passenger seat has had a lot of action: tons of soda spilled on it, food, etc. YES, I cleaned it all up but there were still dark stains. It looked like there was fresh soda on it. My boss offers his hand-held spot cleaner, but with no instructions.

I spend a good half hour in the garage trying to figure this thing out. I was frustrated. I even got him on the phone. As I am on the phone with him....I drop it. And break some little tiny plastic catch that holds the clean water tank on to the unit.

*sigh*

I go on-line. I find the manufacturer's web site. I buy the replacement clean water tank and have it shipped to my home. Total cost with shipping? $45.

As I am leaving the website, I decide to look for the actual unit, complete. It's $32. *thunk* I rush and cancel the order. I can buy one entire unit for cheaper than the replacement parts? Hellloo?

I cancelled the order and bought a new entire unit. I figured I can take the water tank from the new one, replace it with his, and keep the broken water tank with my new unit. It still works, you just have to hold on to it.

Phew. New unit ordered.

Forward 4 days and I have not had any shipping confirmation. I e-mail the company....who proceeds to tell me via e-mail that it's back ordered...for 2 weeks.

GAAHHHHHH!

I've already had this thing for a week and a half. BACK on-line I got, to order that danged $45 water tank thingy. It arrives, I fix my boss' cleaner and return it to him.

Two weeks later, and my new unit arrives. The NEWER different-colored model!!!! LOL They ran out of his model and replaced it with the newer one! Had I not gotten the replacement water tank, I would have STILL had to order it, because the one from the new unit would never have fit!!

OMG! I felt like I was in a Shakespeare comedy of errors!

Don't Loan Me Things!!

Tamias-o-phile

Isabel..is obsessed. With Chipmunks. I have no idea why. We don't own any movies (I don't think) and if we do, she's never seen one.

But every single time we go to a Disney park.....she has Chipmunk-Radar. She can find those bad boys a mile away.

She LOVES these guys.

Graduation Party

Congratulations to Justin F., one of Jake's many cousins on his dad's side, on graduating high school. I have not quite forgiven him yet on his choice of schools though.

Go Gators!

I love that each and every one of Jake's cousins still call me Aunt Kaaren. (My ex was not there and was not expected to make it.) Every one of them either said "Hi Aunt Kaaren," or hugged/kissed me while saying it.

My ex sister-in-law even had a gift for Isabel, who is no blood relation to anyone. The whole family is truly a class act.

Disney Pins

Back in 2000 or so, Jacob and I had annual passes to Disney. I was dating David, but basically, it was just Jake and me hanging out.

We started collecting Disney pins.




These pins above are from 2000-2001.

Left side: GM Innoventions 2000 Pin from Epcot, a Disney Ears Holographic one, a character pin with Jacob's name, and a Tower of Terror pin with moving elevator shaft with Mickey and Pluto taking the plunge.

Right Side: A U.S.A. Mickey pin (purchased on 9/15/2001. Four days after 9-11. We had already had hotel reservations and out-of-town guests coming up. We went. Disney was EMPTY and solemn, and was rapidly selling out of thesem so I picked it up to remember. ), a twirly Epcot one (You can see the different flags underneath), a Haunted Mansion one and ..we have no idea what the last one is. I THINK it's from the movie "Atlantis." One of the vehicles they used underground.

The GM one is actually pretty cool. It was given to employees to wear. We had a friend who worked there and she gave it to us.




In keeping with tradition, I wanted to get Isabel her own Lanyard and start collecting pins. This is her first choice:





Baby "Pigwet," as she puts it. I'm going to try to let each of them pick one out every so often. Jake is ahead, but he'll still get to pick one next.

David's Father's Day Stuff

Just to fill you in, here's what David got:

A PS3 Dualshock 3 Remote. Which means "blah blah blahb blah blah." No Clue. He was happy.


Also, the COOLEST T-shirt!


Also, because it was on sale, something for my movie/t.v. themed loft:

Season 8?

This show is called "Robot Chicken," co-created by Seth Green, formerly of 'Buffy.' Sarah Michelle Gellar is a recurring voice actor on the show.

Go to about 5:10 on the counter to see what Season 8 of Buffy COULD have been like.


edit: 07/2010 Video removed. Sorry!

End of Week 3

End of Week loss: 3.5 lb.

Total Weight Loss for 3 weeks: 9.5 lb.

Whoot!

A former employee walked into the office today. He looked at me and said "Hey Girl, look at you! You look great!" I can't see it, but he could. So Yay!!

Happy Father's Day

Especially to my David, who is a great father to both of my kids.

Saturday Post

This posting every day is HARD. people.

So this is my lame weekend post. We're going to be busy today with a graduation party and then, Disney. Wh00t! Pictures tomorrow!

Got to run.

Watch Where You're Squatting!

I was squatting down in the garage to help Isabel with her seat belt on her red wagon. We were going for a walk and she loves putting that seat belt on. As I squatted, my hip/thigh hit one of the big metal clips that holds the canopy over the wagon......

and this happened later! Do you know how hard it is to NOT scream out in cursing agony in front of your kid? HARD!! She kept saying "What happened mommy, what happened?" Through clenched teeth I muttered "I hit myself."

Enjoy. It's actually grosser/more gross? today.

Let's Get Some Shoes

We went and got Jake and I some shoes.

Sorry Chrissy......they're NOT Nike's. I know. Sorry. But they're cute!




Well, at least mine are.

Your Driving 'Cracks' Me Up

Lunch break. I'm driving back to the office with my soup and salad (and a Father's Day gift for David). There are 3 lanes heading west. There's a guy in a really old sedan hauling a U-Haul trailer several car-lengths ahead of me in the right lane.

U-Haul-Trailer guy proceeds to cross the other two lanes to his left, in order to get to a left turn lane, only he doesn't wait for room. He sort-of just goes and makes everyone slam the breaks until he makes it over.

As I drive by him, muttering "Moron," I turn to look at him. His windows are tinted. I see only his silhouette...


....as he lights a crack pipe.

Nice. This explains the driving.

Just One

I forgot to mention my Monday weigh-in.

*sigh* Just one pound. And I worked out harder. It's probably because week 1 (5 lb) was just water weight, huh?

Week 2: one pound
Total 2 week weight loss: Six pounds.

Library Blues & Choking Melville

Our library is....quaint...if quaint means "insert Dueling Banjos here." It's old. They use a green screen system for the card catalog. It's just not pretty. Ironically, this podunk library has one of the best Buffy/Manga/Teen sections and kids area I've seen. My kids enjoy going there.

The library shut down for remodeling. For. A. Year. Guys, send oxygen cause I'm hyperventilating. A year! Sure, we can go to other libraries in our county, none of which are remotely close to us.

The book drop is still open for people like me who checked things out on the last weekend they were open.

The library system has a pretty good video selection. We've had "Charmed" Season 3 on our Blockbuster queue for 2 years. I decided to check the library's green screen catalog and "Boom," "Charmed" Season 3 is at another one of the libraries and they will bring it to my library for my use. Sweet. One disc at a time, and it's only a 2-day check-out, but I can continue to go on-line and renew them, for free. Once I'm done, I order another one from the other library.

I still had disc 5 of 6 when the library closed. I forgot to renew it on-line. I owe $2 for 2 days. I can't pay the fine, because...closed library. I returned the disc in the book drop. I can't get disc 6 because...$2 fine. I can't pay the fine cause....closed library. Are we seeing a vicious cycle here? I can't get disc 6. Prue DIES in disc 6! Hello? I NEED disc 6.

I'm pretty sure I can pay the fine at another library in another city in the county, but I need to research where they are and also see if I need to go to that town for anything else because I am not wasting gas for a $2 fine.

I also had "Moby Dick," which by the way is KILLING ME. DEAR GOD HERMAN! What the Heck? Who put this on the classics list? Cause I got to tell you, hearing about the intricacies of the whaling business is BORING.

So, I can't renew "Moby Dick" because I owe $2. I had to return it, unfinished. Yes, can you tell I'm crushed?

Anyone got $2, and another $60 for a full tank of gas?

We Don't Need No Education.....

Jake's last day of school was Friday! Jump around, Jump around. Jump up, Jump up and get down.......only.....

Crap. I'm the mother of a high school freshman now.


I'm going to go to bed and cry now.

Photo Hog

The past two times I walk into Sam's Club to get my pictures that I uploaded for them to print for me, the girls behind the counter already have my package out and ready for me.

You know you're a photo hog when the people at Sam's know your name.

Rider's Code

I have a 40 minute commute to work, one way. I notice a lot of crazy drivers, like the ones who pull out in front of me on a two-lane highway while I'm doing 60.

What I love to see is how motorcycle riders ride. It's almost like a code of conduct with them. No matter what kind of 'bike they're riding, a Harley, a crotch rocket, a low-rider custom job, whatever, they always acknowledge each other with a hand gesture. They put their left hands down and out, as a way of saying "hi" to each other and recognizing that they are the few. They ride a motorcycle and they love it. They are in their own "club," so to speak.

Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, hippie, red-neck, scary, middle-class, upper-class; it does not matter. You're getting the wave.



I think it is so cool.

Misheard Lyrics

This weekend, when we went hiking at noon (stoooopid, remember?) we were listening to the radio on the way there and a song came on by TLC.

Remember "Waterfalls?" *sing* Don't go chasing waterfalls, Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.....

Jake was only 2 when that song came out, but he's heard it at around age 4 or 5. We'd be in the car and he'd sing: "Go Go Jason Waterfalls!" at the top of his cute little lungs. Go Go Jason? How cute is that?

I retell the story in the car & Jake is cracking up. He's saying, "Really?" and then we all start singing "Go Go Jason Waterfalls."

On the way back, we're listening to some classic radio station (we were in the boonies). The Steve Miller Band song comes on: "Jet Airliner."

"Ohh big ol' jet airliner, don't carry me too far away..."

Only I tell David and Jake how *I* used to sing this....

"Ohhhh Big ole Jed had a Lion...."

We also heard "Margaritaville."

Jimmy's Lyrics: "I blew out my flip flop, Stepped on a pop top, Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home."

My lyrics: "I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a Pop Tart , Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home."

I love misheard lyrics.

One Month of Blah Blah

I was looking at another blog and the blog's owner (Megan) is taking part in "National Blog Posting Month" aka NaBloPoMo.

You pick a month, and blog...every day. Doesn't matter the month. Just pick one.

So I am going to attempt it this month. Yay. I know you are oh so thrilled. :)

Workin' Out, Drinkin' Milk

(Does anyone remember those commercials? I quote this line and people look at me weird. and I can't find the commercials. They're from the early 1990's?)

Anywhoooo, I forgot to post yesterday about this. Last Monday I decided to start a diet and exercise, and so I have. I'm using some old Tae Bo VHS' and a new DVD I bought because I'm afraid the VHS's are going to break, they are so old. I like Tae Bo because 99 percent of it is low impact for my knees. Of all 3 videos, there is only one exercise that I do a modified version of because they jump around and it hurts my knees too much.


How'd I do after Week 1? (I am weighing myself at work on Monday's only on my warehouse's industrial scale, no shoes on every time.)

5 pounds lost in week 1. Whoot!

HOT Day

We went on a hike Sunday...at noon....because we are stooooooopid. Isabel saw and petted horsies, which was a plus.

Oh Mickey You're So Fine.....

Isabel LOVES meeting the characters....and when she meets them, she looks like a deer in headlights. SO cute.