Winning*

*Mike & Molly might just be the funniest show that no one is watching. And by "no one" I mean me.

*I had a sleepover with my 2 year old niece two weekends ago and will have my one this weekend with my 2 year old granddaughter. I'm calling it GNI = Girls Night In.

The cutest niece. Ever.

*In my absence I've been cooking up a storm. Recipes coming soon. You have been warned.

*Gas prices are pissing me off. Ugh.

*I don't really give a hoot about the royal wedding. Or The Bachelor. But I will be watching Dancing with the Stars because Wendy Williams is part of the new cast. How YOU doin'?

*Crest 3D White Vivid just might be the best toothpaste. Ever.

*Insurance companies suck. I don't want to take a generic version of my meds. Thankyouverymuch.

*The soldier threw live grenades last week. And loved it.

*Despite my title Charlie Sheen is so not winning. Although I think the warlock in his brain may be.

*The big three-five will be here tomorrow...

Have a Craptastic Day!

Yesterday I woke with high hopes even tweeting "Happy hump day!". I was cheerful as I kissed S goodbye and as I sang along with the radio. Positive thoughts equal positive results right?!

Bullshit.

Upon setting foot in the office my day went to crap. It was a steady flow of problems from start to finish. After one fire was put out another exploded and landed in my lap. Eventually everything was resolved (sorta) but my positive thoughts & good mood had already gone away.

Reflecting back I now realize I set myself up for failure. Thinking it would be a GREAT day. That meant anything less than GREAT would be a sad disappointment. Twisting around in my head I've come up with a solution using reverse psychology.

This new thinking will solve my dilemma. My expectations will be so low even the slightest good thing will be an improvement. An "okay" day will turn into an exceptional day.

"Have a CRAPTASTIC day!" I say to one & all!

The bug is back

I haven't been here since my last post. Over 10 days ago.

Wow.

I don't know that I've ever stayed away so long. Even on vacation. And trust me this hiatus has not been a vacation.

There was a computer crash. crash, bam, boom, BROKE...

...senioritis from the teen...

...financial aid craziness...

...concerts...

...grandkids...etc, etc, etc.

In other words - life.

I feel the urge coming back though.

The blogging bug.

Table Topics Tuesday: All Inked Up

if you were to get a tattoo right now, what would it be?

I'm wussing out and saying NONE.

Not because I don't like them. I do. There are 5 tattoos that adorn my body:

1) An ankh on my boob that I got at the tender age of 18
2) My husbands name on my left thigh
3) Our oriental birth sign on my right calf; the hubs & I have the same one in the same place
4) A tribal dragon on the left shoulder
4.5) Then a cover up for the dragon
5) My last one is a death bat with the words "Seize the day" under it.*



BUT I learned my lesson on #4. It was a spur of the moment trip to the tattoo parlor when a ski trip was cancelled where I picked out something without any thought.

I ended up having it inked over because I hated it so much.

Originally it was a crappy tribal dragon. The 2nd tattooist changed it so there are now two dragons and the oriental sign for Luck in between them. I'm into symbolism. It's really hard to see in this picture but the dragon eyes are green. Like mine.



So I will never get another tattoo without putting a lot of thought into it. Right now I have no plans to get another one. Again, it's not because I don't like them. It's just that I need to find something that speaks to me. Something that I want.

Because let's face it - they are permanently skin deep.

Now it's your turn:
if you were to get a tattoo right now, what would it be?

*The "death bat" is the logo for Avenged Sevenfold & "Seize the Day" is one of their best songs.

Just wondering...

*How much of Heidi is real and how much is plastic? Definitely a 20/80 split...and I'll let you decide which is 80%.



*Why it is so hard for people to use their turn signals? It doesn't hurt. I promise.

*Who thought "untrimmed chest" would make good lyrics in Trains "Hey Soul Sister"? Unless the song is about Chewbacca. But I don't think it is...



*Why the city is working on a major landscaping project...when budget woes are forcing them to close schools and raise the meal tax? Besides the fact that they could not afford to maintain parks & other public areas last year, bushes should be the LAST thing they spend money on.

*Signs in the same city say "DUI Illegal - City Wide". Are there cities that allow it some areas but not others? I think I'll skip a visit to those towns.

*Why are the teen & his gf holding a gnome during Prom pictures?**







**Because the photographer made them. And when I say "photographer" I mean ME.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...right?

If that statement is true then ya'll must ADORE me! :D

I won't bore you with all the details (at least not til I've uploaded all my pics!) but we have been highway bound for the last week.

First a trip to Albany NY to visit friends and see some of the great places that upstate New York has to offer. Or should I say what great EATS they have to offer since I sampled my way through the city. From Pasta Fagioli to chocolate cream puffs, to Polish coffee cake (Placek) and the perfect soft serve I had it all.

Let's just say I imagine heaven to be like Bella Napoli's - the Italian bakery we went to. Breads & desserts oh my!

Thursday we had to return home so that we could go to the teen's college on Friday in order to register him for classes. "On the road again..."

Then we returned to his future college on Saturday for a special invite only scholarship reception.

When we got home that night I was b-e-a-t. I mean totally exhausted.

But you know what they say...no rest for the weary...

Guess that's why we had a belated Easter picnic/egg hunt yesterday. Three hours in the park with the little ones would wear anyone out but then like complete fools we worked in the yard after that.

Phew!

Needless to say I've got a lot of catching up to do - with blogs, with work, at home, etc, etc, etc. and no energy at all to do any of it.

Going forward...

would you rather live for a week in the past or in the future?

Initially I thought the past so I could right some wrongs. You see I was a snob and a bully when I was younger. It's not something that I'm proud of but it's the truth.

There are a few people that I would definitely treat differently if I could have a do over.

But then I think maybe that was part of my journey. I have evolved from that person into a much more forgiving, generous person. Yes, I can be snarky, but I try not to be hurtful. I try to encourage rather than discourage people & believe it or not I try NOT to have a negative attitude towards things.*

So my official answer would be the future. I'd love to see how all the kiddos look in a few years. To see how they have grown and if there was anything that I could do to push them in one direction or another.

I can only hope that it would be a good look ahead but if it isn't then getting that peek would give me an opportunity to try and make it better.

Now it's your turn: would you rather live for a week in the past or in the future?

*Notice I said try because let's be honest it is damn hard to remain positive everyday, all day, in all situations. To me that is not realistic. Not for me anyway.

Friday gets all the love

Every week I can count on at least one FB pal saying "TGIF" or something similar letting us know how excited they are for Friday. I'm guilty of it too.

Statements like "I can't wait till Friday!" and "Friday. Finally." have found their way into my status updates too. It's embedded in our brains from grade school to long for Friday and the weekend in general.

Average life expectancy is 78 years. That means that the average person will see 4056 Fridays during their stay on Earth.

You might think that sounds like a lot. Until you really think about those numbers.

If I live to 78, there's only 2288 more Fridays for me. Not nearly enough.

Now add in the 13,728 additional days that aren't Fridays. Yep. That sounds more like it.

So don't be surprised to see "TGIW" as one of my future status updates because I'm going to cherish everyday that I have, not just Fridays.

Having said that...

TGIF! (cause well it IS Friday after all)

*Except for Mondays. Sorry, but I just cannot bring myself to give Monday any love.

Beauty amid the trash.

Sitting on the exit ramp, waiting on the light to change, I glanced to my left.


Immediately I started to rant over how disgusting people are. How smokers who obviously smoke in their cars should keep THEIR cigarettes in THEIR car. I wondered how people could be so callous to just throw trash on the side of the road and expect that someone else would clean it up. Gross.

I was heated.

Then I looked a little bit further out...


Looking past all the discarded cigarettes and trash I saw the first signs of Spring. The best. sight. ever.


As the light changed so did my mood and I couldn't help but smile.



**I'm still thoroughly disgusted by the trash left on the side of the road. For the love of Christ do not throw your cigarette butts or trash on the side of the road. Litter bugs should be squashed.

Groundhog Day?

I'm starting to feel like an extra in 'Groundhog Day'. You know that movie starring Bill Murray where every day he gets up it's the same thing over and over. And over. And over.

You get the idea.

My 'Groundhog Day' consists of snow.



Snow. Snow. Snow. And more snow. As soon as one snow melts more snow appears.

Very 'Groundhog Day'-ish no?

They are calling for 50 degree temps this weekend. Bring on the heat wave & melt all this snow I say!

But I can't help to wonder...

When is the next snow storm?

Let's play 'bad news/good news'

Good news: Waking up to this


Bad news: Realizing it's Monday.

Good news: Getting a new Droid Eris with all the bells & whistles.*


Bad news: Had to get a new phone because my other one went kaput on Friday for no apparent reason

Good news: The teen auditioned for All State this weekend and placed 10th overall.


Bad news: They only take the top 8.

Good news: We sold one of our cars.


Bad news: We bought a used F-350.**

Good news: My birthday is next week.


Bad news: I'll be 34. ***

What was your 'Good news/Bad news' from the past week?


*This is no way implies that I know how to USE all the bells & whistles. Cause I don't.

**Not bad exactly but I'm just wondering how many cars a 3 person family needs.

***THIRTY EFFIN' FOUR.

"AI" don't know about this...

I told myself I wouldn't do any posts about American Idol cause well everyone does.

BUT...

I have a few statements that I cannot hold back any longer and I've found that yelling at the TV doesn't satisfy me as much as I thought it would.

First and foremost most of the contestants SUCK!

It's like the AI producers gave these people some kind of crap-juice before they hit the stage. People who I LOVED during Hollywood week are now barely mediocre.

Which might explain the judges acting like they are part of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

"Not enough change."
"Too much change."
"Be more like yourself."
"Be less like yourself."

I'm hoping that the perfect bowl of porridge is coming soon because I simply cannot take it anymore.

And do not get me started on Ellen. I like Ellen, I really do. But not on American Idol. She hasn't said one thing of substance, she's wishy-washy and she repeats herself. It drives me nuts. Nuttier. Whatev.

I never thought I would say this...bring back Paula!

At least she was funny. Ellen, the "funny lady" is NOT funny on that panel. That is a fact.

Then you have Simon who looks B-O-R-E-D. Beyond bored. Aggravated & bored. Maybe he should have left with Paula.

The one highlight of the last two nights was that I recognized one of the contestants from the movie "Meet the Fockers":



Hey I want to give credit where credit is due and Jose did a FABULOUS job in that movie. Baaaahhhaaaaaa!

Remembering the good parts.

You would think after such a lackluster week of posts I would have something spectacular to write about.

Um, not really.

I can tell you that last week I had some pretty good parts even with all my hormone induced bitching.
***
The teen received his first scholarship. And I say first, because we're hoping for like a million more.
***
We totally dominated during our dart match, smashing the other team with a 10-1 win. That's pretty hard core even if the other team does suck.
***
Lil J came to visit me on Friday and she was relatively well behaved. It wasn't till the end when she got tired that she got whiny.


The 5th frame is downright scary looking huh?! At that point she wanted everything I touched including my camera and that just wasn't going to happen.
***
My coupon class was a complete success. I've actually been invited to speak to two other groups as a compensated speaker. Dolla, dolla, bill ya'll...who couldn't use a few more of those?!
***
And finally my favorite author Denise Grover Swank has sent me Chapter 17 of her soon-to-be-a-smash-hit book Chosen so I'm off to read!

Picture this

I looked like this last week & my family hated the straight hair.


I'm wearing these today:


And drinking hazelnut coffee from this wonderful machine:


I saw this on the road today & thought how cool?!


Mending wounds after getting my butt whooped in darts last night.


While breathing plenty of this because Virginia's anti-smoking law is a joke.


My clothes need to be put away again. Obviously.


But I will have plenty of time since it's going to do this again tomorrow:


I would much rather be wearing these:

Marathons & Me

Now don't get too excited. I'm not talking about a running marathon. Or even a walking marathon. In fact I'm not talking about a marathon that requires me to exert much energy at all.

I'm talking about a TV marathon.

Gawd I love those.

I'm the person that wastes away her entire Sunday re-watching (cause you know I watched them all before) The Real Housewives of 'insert city', Top Chef or Millionaire Matchmaker.

I'm the person in her pajamas all day curled in a blanket with a drink on the table and the remote in my hand.

I'm the person gets upset when they suddenly switch to Law and Order. I mean I love L&O. They have been part of my marathon days many, many times. But seriously don't tease a girl with a whole day of shows and then not play the most recent one.

That's just dirty.

I'm the person that buys the Seasons on DVD just so I can watch them all at once. One of my Christmas presents was Tudors Season 3.



That we watched in it's entirety. In a single weekend.

Then last week S surprised me with The Weeds Season 5 on DVD.



Any guesses as to what we did this weekend?

**I did manage to drag myself out of the house to go grocery shopping at Kroger. All my trips are listed on Craving Savings and I'm also giving away a box of GM cereal so drop by to enter!

Oh to be there...

...would be heaven right now.






~sigh~

Have a great warm weekend ya'll!

**Don't forget about my Keurig giveaway. Go to Craving Savings to enter now!

"You're too pretty for that..."

"You're too pretty for that..." said S to me a couple days ago. "That" being the dozen self-inflicted red marks on my face.

I'm a picker. A face picker. Truthfully I'm an anything picker meaning that I will scratch or squeeze any non-smooth surface. Scabs, pimples, dry skin-whatever.

You name it, I will pick at it.

It's a bad habit. An unconscious one that I typically do while on the phone, driving or watching tv.

I've tried to stop doing it. Obviously it's not very attractive (read: S's comment to me) and it just makes the situation that much worse. A small pimple ends up being a big red, splotchy, sometimes bleeding spot on my face.

Who does that?

Me. I do that. All. The. Time.

The only solution that I can think of is to rid myself of the places that make me pick, ie I need to get a handle on this adult acne. Oh yes, I have adult acne and it's irritating as hell.

My face breaks out now worse than it ever did while I was in high school and it gets worse with each hormone-rampant year. The Yaz helped for a while but now I notice the breakouts coming back. With a vengeance.

A few years ago I went to a dermatologist who tried to put me on Accutane. ACCUTANE people. This stuff is bad news and even before I did the research I knew that any acne medication that required a pregnancy test before it could be filled would do more bad than good for my body.

I've tried all sorts of over the counter meds/creams/cleansers that obviously don't help. I've even tried things like tea tree oil and castor oil based on some "natural remedies" website that I found.

I know that not everything is going to work for everyone but I need some help in narrowing this down and finding something that is truly going to work. I'm at the point where I need to worry not only about pimples, but also wrinkles. Ugh.

So what is your skin care routine? Have you found anything to be effective in treating your breakouts that you would recommend? Should I try Pro-Active? Or should I try another doctor that doesn't have a death wish for me?

I'm willing to try anything to get control of this. Because to put it simply I'm too old (& pretty) for that.

**Don't forget about my Keurig giveaway. Go to Craving Savings to enter now!

As the clock struck midnight...

...I was awake. Barely, but after two naps earlier in the evening I managed to hang on until 2010.

I was lying in the bed listening to the television. There was no champagne. No fireworks. No noisemakers.

I've done that kind of New Year celebration before and imagine I'll do it again. We were invited to New York and to Myrtle Beach so the opportunity was there. Instead it was just S & I.

Together.

The way it was meant to be.

Happy New Year to you & your families!

Sadness, Glee & Fuggs

**Yesterday morning I read that James "The Rev" Sullivan had passed away. He was the drummer of my much beloved band Avenged Sevenfold.



I'm sure most of you don't know who he is and that's okay. Just imagine a member of your favorite band suddenly dying & you'll get it.

The Rev will be greatly missed.

**I'm so ready for TV to come back to life. It seems everything went on hiatus for the holidays and now there is absolutely nothing on. You would think that during this time I could find more productive things to do. If so, then you would think WRONG.

I need TV time to relax and refresh.

**S gave me the Glee Soundtrack Vol 2 for Christmas. I already had Vol 1 and LURVED it. It's one of those albums where I can sing along with every track and I fully expected to be enthralled with this one too.

I'm not. It's good, but not as good as Vol 1. There are a few songs that I belt out to but I don't love the entire cd so I find myself going back to the songs I like over & over.

**Pictures of my gifts as requested:

<--My boots. Or as I call them, my "Fuggs" aka fake Uggs.
<--Cute socks from Sis. There was a black pair too but I wore them. And now they are in the laundry.
<--It looks pink but I swear it's red. S likes to call it "hooker red". Either way I love it.
<-- My new Kathy. ♥

**I also got a cast iron pan so if you have any advice and/or recipes please let me know. I'm a cityfied girl that has never owned a cast iron pan & had to call Lula to find out if "pre-seasoned" really meant it was. Her advice: Don't believe the hype.

White Out

You may have heard about our blizzard here on the East Coast. Let me tell you we are not used to that kind of winter weather here.

Oh yeah, sure we get snow every year but this time we got
S-N-O-W.

As in 14-20" inches of snow. I measured 14" on my deck but it was still snowing so I don't even know what the final tally was at my house.

Nor do I care.

Cause even though it's breathtakingly beautiful, it was also dangerous, expensive & messy. Not to mention extremely inconvenient since it took place the last weekend before Christmas.

It started on Friday around 2 in the afternoon and by 3 it was already covering the ground. It came down fast & sticky.** The snow fell for the rest of the night on Friday and well into Saturday before it stopped.

Because it was SO much (and VDOT was sorely unprepared) we were stuck in the house the whole weekend and Monday. I finally left the house yesterday afternoon but the roads were still not great. Even today with the sun out it will not melt much, and what does melt will become ice as soon as the sun goes down.

Friday night



Saturday morning




The expensive part (this is our dog's kennel where the roof collapsed)


The beautiful part



And Monday morning


Topping off all this, they are now calling for wintry mix/freezing rain on Thursday & Friday. Oh joy.

To all those people who yell "Let it snow!" you can SUCK IT! And I mean that from the bottom of my frozen heart.

**That's what she said.