fun stuff

Living It Up In ‘Louie

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Thursday afternoon I came to St. Louis (okay– Fairview Heights — but it’s close to St. Louie) and have been here ever since.  We had a reporter seminar that was a must attend, then there was the visit to my son after that, and then there was (drumroll) (horns) (fanfare) SHOPPING.

So far I have only made it to Kohl’s and the hotel bar (free drink coupon).  The plan was to snag an orthopedist or optomologist or oral surgeon or whatever dentists do because there was, I thought, a dental seminar going on Friday and Saturday.  I did meet a very nice young man who is serving our country in the military who explained all sorts of top secret stuff to me (it sounded top secret).  Plus he said he would never have guessed I was old — well, actually he said he never would have guessed it after I told him how old I was.  So, of course, the little darling will always be close to my heart even though I have no idea what his name is.  But I do know he has some Indian blood in him and he hails from California.  Actually, I know a whole lot more but, as I said, I’m pretty certain it is top secret.

I am totally in love with Kohl’s.  The thought of taking a picture of all my purchases and then meticulously detailing how much I saved ran through my mind, and I would probably have done it if I had brought my camera.  Such a shame.  The sweet little gal at the store, Brittany, let me scratch off two cards, so I got 20% off instead of 15%.  I am giving her a great review on the little survey thingie they want me to fill out.   She and I both love children and oohed and aahed over the shoes I got Ava.  She spent a fortune on her nephew’s sixth birthday!  Such a sweet little thing whom I shall forever hold dear to my bosom.  She was so helpful and kind even though I had brought only one shoe from the shoe department and had taken the tag off of it (well, it was a display model).

Tomorrow before I leave I have to hit Macy’s (coupon from the paper) and Hobby Lobby (coupon on line) and maybe Joann Fabric (half off coupon).  Then it’s hightail it home in time to go to the birthday party for little Charlotte Anne.  I can’t tell you what I got her until after the party!

Oh, yeah, and I won one of the door prizes at the seminar today — oops — yesterday.  I love good days.

Practicing for Puddle Olympics

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Rain Puddle Feet

Her little pants were soaked, as were her pink clog shoes.  She was thrilled to get to go without them.

Freedom for the Feet! Water Here We Come!

Contemplating speed and accuracy for the mighty puddle splash.

It's a Miss!

Aw, man!  She missed!  She has too much of her Gee (g sound as in goober) in her.  My dork gene has been passed down.

Playing in the Rain

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When I was a child, we had a ditch, not deep, in the front of our house that ran down the hill.  If we had a big rain in the summer, we couldn’t wait to get out there in it to play.  Nothing on but panties.  It was the next thing to a swimming hole, however transient it may have been.  No one had pools, at least not my friends, even the small, plastic ones like we have today.  So rainy days were great days!

Then, when it got blistering hot and the blacktopped roads were starting to melt enough to stick to your bare feet — we never even considered wearing shoes, just hopped off onto the side of the road if we couldn’t take the pain any longer — our mom might, just might if we begged hard and long enough, let us get in the water hose and spray each other for a bit.  Our mom never wasted anything, I mean anything, so that was a great sacrifice on her part to let us do that.   I have a picture of all the girl cousins outside on the concrete patio; the basketball goal at one end; the house at the other.  Posting it wouldn’t have been a very good idea because my cousins would string me up if they caught wind of it; some of those cousins should not have been out there playing in the water wearing only panties.

That was back before the days of internet child porn when people could look at half-naked children playing and think good thoughts, children having fun.  Not that those sick-minded people weren’t out there because they were I found out after I was grown, but we were sheltered from all of it.

Just innocent children playing in the water on a hot summer day.

I So Want An Oreo

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Little Kate learning to eat Oreos correctly

Did you know that Oreos are full of fat?  I was totally crushed to find out just how much fat was in a package one Oreo.  I am in love with them.  And tonight I am craving them… with milk, of course.

But, alas, my milk is sour and my fat quotient for the day is already waaaaay past the legal limit.  The tush needs toning, the legs need leaning, and the tummy needs trimming.

it's not fair!!!!

Besides, those dark chocolate (my favorite kind of chocolate) crunchy outsides would probably get soft and mushy fairly quickly… unless I ate them all tonight.  And that delicious, creamy center would give me cavities… unless I brushed and flossed right after eating the whole package cookie.  Also, I don’t have any fresh milk to dip those delicious cookies.  Dolores?  Where are you?

Oreo

Um, I’ve got to go.  To the, um, bathroom.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  The bathroom.  Not the store.  No, to the bedroom… I mean bathroom.  “Where’s my purse?”

Miss Maci Grace

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Maci hitting Mom

Miss Maci Grace wasn’t too happy when all her birthday party guests started singing Happy Birthday.  She just couldn’t get her little mind wrapped around being two, I guess, and finally lashed out at the closest person around:  Mom.   Waking up before seven and being on the go all day may have contributed to the almost-two psyche and ability to be charming as the guest of honor.

Getting ready to be 2

Sometimes life is just hard when you’re only two.   Sort of like it is when you’re 32 or 42 or 52 or 62 or …

The Winner is…

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Jill with Olivia

JILL IS THE WINNER OF THE CONTEST!!!!  You are No. 66 which is the winning number.

Sorry, Jill, this is the only pic I had, but I love this picture.  You so deserve a great prize!  You were a good sport when I blogged about you, and I’m sure you will be a good sport when I do it again.

I will stick it in the mail on Monday (since I’m in Kansas City) and you should receive it soon.  Do you think you could have Olivia put a pic of the laptop on facebook or send it to me in an email so I can put it on the blog?

Thanks for playing along with me everybody.  I had such fun and hope you did too.  So keep reading because there will be another prize and prizewinner again one of these days.

♪♪♪ I’m so excited! I just can’t hide it! ♪♪♪

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Dudes and dudettes!  April the 1st, April Fool’s Day, is one day away.  That’s the day I announce the winner of the Give-Away!  Get your name in there!  Click on the pic!

I’ve been going through my refrigerator and have found several worthy items that could be added to the mix:  half a bottle of wine; a couple of on-the-edge-of-their-due-date Activia (very good for your digestion), a bag of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough already made into individual cookielets for your baking ease; something that looks very similar to jelly (it’s in a jar); and I’ll even throw in one of my prized jars of maraschino cherries!  Everyone that knows me, knows how I love to collect jars of maraschino cherries (although I haven’t bought any in a while).

And as if that isn’t enough to entice you, I will add to the mix some of my lovely artificial flowers for “planting” in your yard.  No watering!  Most of them look very real.  Proof in point:  my daughter who occasionally will razz me about my fake yard flowers was over here one summer day looking at all the plants and flowers in the back yard.  As she wandered around looking, she would bend down to sniff them.  One particularly lovely yellow rose was sniffed several times before she turned around and exclaimed, “That’s fake!”

Then there was my friend, Cheryl, who stopped her car on the road in front of the house one day to admire my beautiful flowers out there in the flower bed.  I said, “Get out and come look at them.” (Laughing my buhiney off the whole time.)  She got out of the car and was oohing and aahing over them until I said, “They’re fake.”  “What?!“ When she came over to water my many plants one summer week while I was gone on vacation, she also watered the fakies.  Even after knowing about the oh-so-real fake ones.  I’m telling you, they look better that fake hoohas.

The family tells me my Great-aunt Gladys used to put fake flowers in her yard all the time.  They also tell me, “You’re just like your Aunt Gladys.”

Aunt Gladys had Alzheimer’s.

Surfing Again

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Too much surfing the net for posting a blog.  I catch all those waves of free stuff being given away, and I just have to click and roll with it.  So now I have landed on the shore of way-past-my-bedtime, and am leaving you all with this tidbit:

There is free stuff all over the place out there in Webville!

Here is a great site: 

A Time for Everything… And It’s Not Now

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The harsh reality is I am a dork.  Wikipedia describes it as “USA pejorative slang for a quirky, silly and/or stupid, socially inept person, or one who is out of touch with contemporary trends. Often confused with nerd and geek, but does not imply the same level of intelligence.”  Although I like the description in Urban Dictionary better: “Someone who has odd interests, and is often silly at times. A dork is also someone who can be themselves and not care what anyone thinks. ”  I have also found out in my dork research that it also means “Vulgar slang for penis.”  I am so excited!  A new word to use that most people won’t know what it means whenever I yell at them, “Hey, you dork!”  teehee teehee

See what I mean?  I am such a dork.  For instance, about a month ago I decided to get all my beautiful plants from last summer (that I store in the garage during the winter months) out for a nice drink of rain since the weather was warm and rain was on the way.  I had Brandon come over and help me move them outside, fully intending to move them back in a week.  “Now, where did that week go?”  So, of course, my plants were left out longer, through a frost, and here they are today.

my poor, poor plant

boo hoo hoo hoo

Why, you ask, would anyone not pay attention to the weather and get on the stick (pun intended) to get this done?  Because that person is a dork.  One who goes through life thinking there is always at least an extra hour in the minute or an extra week in the day.  (One of the reasons I’m always late.)  Then, when the realization hits me that, no, a minute is truly that, a mere minute, I must then rush to make up for the time I don’t have that I thought I did.  Are you getting that?

Here are the beauties in their heyday.

so beautiful

This year I am trying to accomplish goals, work, “things” in a timely manner.  I have failed miserably.  But tomorrow is another day.

Which means I will be back at work.  I can’t wait to ask my guy friends, “So, how’s the dork?” teehee teehee

I just realized… if I were a guy, I would be a double dork.

I think I need Dorks Anonymous.  We’d all tell our names, ages, ranks, addresses, SS numbers…