Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Who Knew?

The wine tasting at the grocery was FABULOUS.

I walked in, and went back to the deli department (adjacent to the produce section). You know, where they slice your cheese and meat—and have rotisserie chickens? And often they have gross, plastic looking pre-made foods on display? “Shepards Pie---by the slice!!’ Ugh.

Anyway, there were tables set up, with tablecloths, flower arrangements, and small paper plates on a doily. They didn’t have any wine disposal buckets on the tables, so they went to the floral department and improvised with the containers you find pre-packaged flowers sitting in the store. It seemed weird at first, but hey---when you need to improvise, go for it. It was all good.

I was meeting a friend, so I was trying to find a good ‘end’ seat so we wouldn’t be crowded in. I found one, and debated with myself on if we should move. Some people came and sat by us (I don’t like people very much, so this was off-putting to me). Pretty soon, a quite hairy dude joined the ladies---he had a very deep voice, and it all seemed a little out of place.

There were LOTS of geriatric patrons, and a few apparent ‘serious’ wine enthusiasts. The store manager was there, wearing a tie with grapes on it (I complimented him on his theme-wear). Our table seemed to be the 30’s (and maybe 40’s---me) table.

I was really sort of worried. I guess I do like people, but am so afraid that they won’t like me that I get really withdrawn in situations like this. I don’t want to look around, or make eye contact, or chat. I worry that I’ll either attract the weirdos or people will think I AM WEIRD and want to avoid me!! It’s just awkward.

Pretty soon, the manager introduced the wine expert---he studied wine for 2 YEARS. TWO. YEARS. Wow. Mash up some grapes, ferment them with some sugar and call it wine…….but apparently there’s WAAAYYYYY more to it than that. It all was stilted and formal (to begin with). I felt awkward and weird. There was quite a menu of finger foods and wines.

Early on we began quizzing the cheese manager about the food (I’m more of a foodie than a wine pro)….we tried to be quiet. A little further into the event a late-comer joined the group that sat by us. My friend began cracking some jokes and the party was ON.

We giggled, and ate, and sampled the wines. The guys pouring seemed to enjoy the frivolity of our group. By the end of the session, the group next to us and us were exchanging numbers and throwing out plans for the weekend. We wandered through the store like a gang of teenagers planning a liquor ‘buy’. We giggled and other store patrons stared. IT WAS AWESOME!

Apparently, according to one of our new friends, one of the patrons at the far end of our table kept ‘shusshing’ her (us) saying he was ‘trying to LISTEN’ to the expert. We at the end of the table missed the action and continued to enjoy the food, wine and company. We had fun conversation (during the wine lecture), and I even was brave enough to ask questions. The expert said my questions were ‘good’. I think he just wanted me to buy some wine.

So, those of you who don’t have wine and liquor in your grocery……..I am so sorry. Because it IS a grocery store, there was a wide variety of food to sample (shrimp, crackers topped with brie/pears/almonds, deli cheeses and meats, pork tenderloin, beef strip steak, cookies and strawberries). They’d carefully planned the wine pairings, and despite my dislike for some of the heavier wines (NORTON), I could honestly see how food makes a difference in how wine tastes. I enjoyed the scary wines much more with the food than I did alone. It was an awesome deal!! And best of all IT WAS FREE.

Kudos to Schnucks for hosting a lovely evening. It obviously was not formal……with us sitting between the deli and the produce and customers wandering through staring at us…..but it was fun, and the food was good and the tasting and education was FUN!!

They’d obviously planned this well—there were various store managers there, and various wine people there----we were poured for and served. It was pleasant, it was fun and was pretty well organized. I’d say there were between 30 and 40 people there. It may not seem like a lot, but in our small community in the middle of the grocery store, it was a good crowd!! I would imagine it cost quite a bit to feed and provide wine for all of us.

I admittedly was leery at the beginning. Seeing some of the ‘older’ crowd was kind of weird. But it turned out to be a really cool Tuesday night event!! We were there for almost 2 hours!!

If any of you want to be on the guest list the NEXT time they have a tasting event, just let me know. I’ll sign you up. I’m telling you, with the right people at your table, it’s quite the PARTY!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Guess who got a job??

MY SON!! YIPPEE!!! The grocery store manager called him on Saturday and asked him to come in (no job offer, just wanted him to come by the store). Son #1 ended up being offered a job stocking the store and maybe learning cashiering as a backup when they are busy....he was given 2 uniform shirts (denim looking shirts with the store name/logo on the breast). He starts TODAY.

On another, more depressing note, We have 8 trees that are dead. The tree guy has come out to give estimates on how much it would be to take them down, and haul off the debris. OMG. I don't have that kind of money.

Where we are at, I realize that prices may differ from other places, but at this point it wouldn't matter if it were $300 or $3400 (which it is), I don't have it.

The neighbors are complaining about the deadness of one tree in particular...worried that it will fall on their house/fence/grandkids. I am sick over the cost.

Now 5 of those dead trees will be taken down and left for Mr. Perfectly, Perfectly's dad, my kids and hopefully Father in law to cut up and haul off. They are smaller and more managable. The three in question are right at a fence line and are HUGE.....HUGE......HUGE. That is the bulk of the cost. The 5 trees they will lay down for us are sort of freebies........as a 'favor'.

The $3400 is stump grinding in the 3 huge trees, and taking them down (safely) and hauling off the wood. They would lay down the 5 other smaller trees and let the guys work on that.

Sigh.

Had a fun weekend. I undertook some major cooking yesterday. I made Guy Fieri's "Good Karma Schawarma". I made the flatbread from scratch AND I made Cat Cora's baklava rollups. It was pretty successful.


On Saturday Teenie and I hit some antique shops, which I've never really been into, but I love glassware, and platters. And the old timey pyrex (like the blue and red). So it was alot of fun looking at that stuff. I have a couple of nice pieces, that I got from my Grandma Winnie when she passed.

Have a great Monday, all.

Friday, March 20, 2009

I opted for being raisin-ish today

So. I was all prepped for a chatty post---one where I could maybe wipe the whiny-ness of my LAST post off and start fresh. It is FRIDAY, after all, and that’s my FAVORITE day!!!

Well, tough….you’re getting the still whiny Perfectly----It’s been a crappy day (so far). I got up this morning, with the allergies feeling like they were going to kick in. Since we all found that the Claritin of Wednesday did NOTHING, I decided to go for the big guns and take some of Mr. P’s prescription allergy medicine (that doesn’t make me drowsy). This stuff really works. It REALLY dries you up. EVERYWHERE. My mouth is dry, my face feels crackly and dry and my hands are all puffy and dry and hot. (I think he’s going to give up on taking this allergy medicine. Despite it’s tremendous powers, we think that’s what makes his diverticulitis act up. It dries up his intestinal tract, which sets off a WHOLE HOST of issues.) I feel like a pale raisin. With puffy hands.

I got out my hot pink shirt that shows a little cleavage, and my JEANS (it’s casual Friday). I shower, do my hair, brush my teeth, put on my PINK DIAMONDS makeup again, hopeful that it didn’t get rubbed off in an allergy fit today. I grab a box of Kleenex, my coffee and HEAD TO WORK. I park, get in, get settled and begin working. I ran to our snack shop to get some little powdered donette thingys to dunk into my coffee.

While happily dunking (and drinking water to try to stave off the dry everything syndrome) my coffee FLUNG from my hand, and down my jeans and all over me and the floor.

I dejectedly tried to sop up what I could from my jeans, and my floor (and the brand new carpet they installed in December). I put a fan on the floor to try to dry my jeans quickly so I didn’t walk around with a huge wet spot on my pants. IT WAS COLD. I finally decided to go home and change.

I lost my good parking spot, and freaked out my dogs by showing up at an unconventional time---and the worst thing about leaving work? Knowing I had to GO BACK. It was sunny and beautiful and to SAVE MY FRIDAY, I really wanted to stay gone.

So here I am. On my favorite day, wearing pair of jeans #2, and wishing I could have just kept driving once I got out of here. Oh, and feeling like a raisin.

It’s a terrible thing to have to decide at 5:45 in the morning if you’d rather be a snot machine or a raisin. Today, raisin won out, but not without a lot of debate.

Y’all have a Happy Friday. I’m working on trying not to pout and be happy for whatever I have to be happy about.

It’s working. Sort of.

Toodles!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

It’s Ghost Hunters Wednesday!!

I am having a miserable day. MISERABLE. miserable.

My allergies are acting up like NOBODY’S BUSINESS. I’ve filled my work trash can halfway already with tissues. I am normally a frequent nose blower, but I am sure today I am grossing out my neighbors.

My contacts are like sandpaper across my eyeballs……and of course, I have no glasses to wear as a backup. Well, I do, but they are 9 years old and 2 prescriptions ago. Pretty useless unless I wear my reader glasses OVER my huge, round, wire rimmed jobbies from a decade ago. That’s attractive, let me tell you. Just about as pretty as my dark undereye circles, my rubbed off eye makeup (in places…I still have patches intact) and my red, scaly nose.

I am quite frustrated with my workplace right now. I cannot explain why. I don’t blog about work, REMEMBER?

Suffice it to say, I’m annoyed, peeved and MISERABLE.

So, anyway, I have GH to look forward to tonight. I think it’s new….it should be…….and of course, it’s on opposite of my High School Reunion, which I DVR. I hope I can wait long enough to SEE GH, since my plan is to go home and take Benedryl.

Benedryl makes me sleep. Deeply sleep. Don’t know what’s going on AROUND ME sleep. I already took Claratin, but that is like putting a band-aid on a gushing cut. It may reduce the flow a TINY bit, or for a short time, but it doesn’t really help.

I hate to whine. (I really don’t. I hope furiously for sympathy…..but I try to pretend I hate to whine so I sound a little more dignified). But this allergy crap is for the birds.

I was thinking of some of you this morning. Coming up the elevator, I was thinking how awesome it would be to go to Manhattan. I’d love to hang out with you guys in real life and see if y’all REALLY like me!!!

Then I see my wad of Kleenex in my hand and sadly realize that NOBODY probably likes me right now. UGH.

Happy GH Wednesday!!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

So, MAYBE, I accosted the grocery store manager.

Our local grocery store, Schnucks, is having a wine tasting on 03/24/09. They had one a while back, and I missed it. So, I made note of the date, and saw a sign that one had to SIGN up for the event. HMMMMMM. Sign up for a grocery store tasting? I wandered back to the customer service desk to sign up, and who would happen to be there? The customer service MANAGER and the store MANAGER!! The customer service manager is the one I would hint aggressively to about son #1 applying for a job there. He got an interview and then PFFFTTTTT. Nothing.

I thought that MAYBE she'd mention my son while I was signing up for the wine tasting and since the STORE manager was there....and he interviewed my son, we could segue right into when he could start!!! You know?

So, the store manager began RAVING about how fun the wine tastings are. They bring in a wine expert from Schnucks, and the featured company wine expert and put tablecloths on their deli booths (sexy, right??). They have different 'courses' and pair wines with the foods. Well, I signed up leisurely---hoping that somehow the conversation would turn from wine to my kid.

It didn't.

I had a lovely conversation about the wine tasting, was acting overly thrilled to have signed up and secretly wishing I could think of a way to bring up my son and his interview on my own!!

The store manager wandered off and the customer service manager and I exchanged final pleasantries, and I ran into the store manager dude again as he was straightening up cereal boxes!! I just jumped right in with "I noticed your name tag earlier when we were talking and I do believe you recently interviewed my son for a job!!!!" *looking earnest* He politely asked his name, etc. He remembered the interview and the fact the kid took some sort of personality test, but apparently the open job was filled by a checkout operator that wanted more hours. **sigh**

He said the application would remain on file, yada yada yada......but apparently things didn't go my way regarding getting the kid a JOB there!!

So, now I have a date to attend a wine tasting, and will still be paying for my kid's gas and entertainment money.

On another note, I got another shipment of mineral makeup today. Can I just say OMG!!!! It's called 'Pink Diamonds' and the Bare Essentuals people put together a beautiful pink package of perky makeup!! I can't wait to try it. I'll get another shipment in June called Canary Diamonds, and a final one in September called 'Black Diamonds' (Let's hope it's not gearing towards the GOTH look). I CAN'T WAIT.

The kitchen is painted and picked up. Let's see if we can KEEP it that way.

Toodles for now my leprechaun buddies!!

p.s I am sorry for being so neglectful of late.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

It’s the return of Drunken Ghost Hunter Wednesdays!!!

Oh goodie. New episodes of Ghost Hunters begin tonight. I also think that the TV Land show “High School Reunion” may be on tonight, too.

I am such a sucker for reality TV. Especially that I can relate to. Like “High School Reunion”. It’s amazing how many issues we carry from our high school years. Like my weight issues. I wasn’t a heavy kid. AT ALL. EVER. I weighed 100 lbs the day I graduated from high school. I was mortified to wear a size 5…. my gluteus maximus was rounder and fuller than some girls, therefore necessitating the size 5….they were way too big on my 23 inch waist. No Joke. I was really that small.

So, needless to say, when I go to my own high school reunion-ish functions, it’s very hard for me. Not because I was ostracized as a ‘fattie’…it’s because I was so very small (5’2”) and tiny then, and not so much now.

I see old classmates….especially old boyfriends and dates and know that SURELY that they are thanking their lucky stars that they didn’t stick with me……..that look what I turned into……yada yada yada. Instead of focusing on the fact I’ve been married long term, have a couple of great kids, and am HAPPY. Duh!! THAT is what should stick out to people (including myself), not the fact that I’m now fat, when I once wasn’t.

So, I empathize with these “High School Reunion” reality tv participants that get holed up in Hawaii with their classamtes from 20 years ago, and be expected to co-exist peacefully. Especially when the producers ‘label’ you from the beginning….the “clown’; the ‘pregnant girl’; the ‘wanna be’; the ‘jock’; the ‘homecoming queen’, the ‘preacher’s daughter’, etc. The automatically fall into these labeled roles and stress ensues. It’s compelling to watch, let me tell you. These nearly 40 year olds acting like 17 year olds. It’s horrifying and totally relate-able all at the same time.

Now, Ghost Hunters. What’s the big draw there? I don’t particularly believe one way or another on the topic of ghosts. I suppose they COULD exist. I suppose they couldn’t as well. What I like about the Ghost Hunters (GH from now on) is that the premise of the show is for their team to go to a purportedly haunted site and try to ‘debunk’ the stories. The sounds, the sights. According to the GH, there is usually about an 80% rate of finding logical reasons for the supposed hauntings. It’s the 20% that keep me hanging!!

I was SHOCKED today to read that there are people that think that the GH actually fake the evidence that they do ‘catch’. This was a big ole’ letdown to me because early articles and info about these guys was adamant that there was no fakery, or tricks. I bought into it hook line and sinker. I still think they are pretty real.

I don’t like the other ‘mainstream’ ghost shows. They are hokey with their psychics, being possessed and séances…….I don’t buy into that fluff---and I suppose there is just enough believer in me to think it ‘could’ be true. GH is kind of interesting in a scientific/paranormal way!!

So, off for a fun night of high school stress and ghosts!!

Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

My New Haircut

Okay--since there has been OVERWHELMING (ahem...two) requests for pictures of my hair, I'll post the video that Mr. P took of it. But no snarky comments about my freakishly odd accent that suddenly appeared, or my weird giggles and facial expressions.

AND, In my opinion, the hair (or HAR) doesn't look as good there as it did at the salon. It looks whispy here.....

But since you asked.......here it is. In it's weirdness.



Tomorrow I'm going curly, since *Brandon* said he cut it so the curls would be awesome!!

Toodles!!

I still *heart* Brandon

It’s been 6 weeks since I got my haircut, so it was time to visit Brandon at “Catherine Crum-The Salon”.

He is the sweetest guy!! I ADORE him. He cut my hair around my bangs….since NOBODY but me (and Brandon) liked the bangs. They have to grow out a bit for anything different to be done with them---SO he cut chunky layers into my hair and straightened it, and it’s SO CUTE!! He assured me that it would curl nicely when I leave it curly, and he’s ready to color it……I’m not so sure…..my box color works fine to cover they gray…..so we’ll have to slowly move up to the coloring.

Oh, I embarrassed myself YET AGAIN! At the salon, there was the CUTEST girl. She was really tall, and beautiful. She had on LEGGINGS AND A BABY-DOLL TOP!!! And y’all know how much I want to sport that look and not look like a circle!! Anyway, as she was approaching with her client, I said to Brandon “I want to wear outfits like that!!”, and she heard me. Whoopsie!! And guess what? It was Catherine herself!!! Double Whoopsie!! At least she smiled and was tolerant of my envy.

I smiled at her client because MY haircut was $18, and hers was going to be $65………hahahaha!!

So, I proceeded to tell Brandon about the horrible Tunic/Shirt/Dress fiasco of last year. He politely chuckled, but I think that maybe it was a TMI moment.

Son #1 has an interview today at the grocery store I frequent the most. Hope for the best, Internet friends…….HE NEEDS A JOB!! It’s close to our house, and I’m HOPE…HOPE…HOPING FOR THE BEST. I love that grocery store.

Well, I wish my funny was working today, but it apparently is in a holding pattern.

I don’t have much today, so I’ll sign off for now!!!!

Happy Thursday!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Kitchen Project

Watch out folks. My video is LOOONNNNGGGG. Apparently I can't video my kitchen without going ON AND ON AND ON like I do on here!!

I did do my dishes as I said I would, but otherwise, I left the kitchen as it was.....all messy and cluttered.......so this is my bitty kitchen in all it's messy glory!!



Crissy? Still up for helping out? I didn't THINK SOOOOO!!! :)

TOODLES!!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Home Improvement

I really wanted the title of my post to be that noise that Tim Allen used to make on the show “Home Improvement”. The confused dog noise he made? Remember? But, I didn’t know how to spell that, so I left it alone hoping you all would get the reference.

We are painting. Wait. Whoopsie. MR. PERFECTLY is painting. Our tiny, tiny kitchen. Our kitchen is the smallest kitchen known to mankind. The fact that I way overbuy at the grocery store, and am a poor housekeeper makes for the nightmare of small kitchen CLUTTER. We have a nice sized countertop in our kitchen. It’s away from the fridge/sink/stove area, but it would make a wonderful work area, or SOMETHING….but it’s always piled to the gills with bread, chips, candy, snacks, my disposable coffee cups, liquor bottles, a basket (which was hoped to contain the clutter), a mandolin, a knife block, and our cutting board collection………(deep breath). And I’m sure many other random, miscellaneous items that actually don’t belong there, but somewhere else, and we are far too lazy to DO SOMETHING with it all.

Anyway, this whole thing was a patchwork of decisions, made without much thought process. It started with our greasy, ugly, old track lighting. It’s pretty gross, and very outdated. Lighting is not terribly expensive (I mean it CAN BE, but you can get pretty cheap fixtures) . Actually…this story started a LONG….LONG time ago. Back in the 90’s. Let’s take a walk down memory lane.

We bought a house built in 1960 or so. It’s décor when we purchased it reflected the 1960’s theme. Only the ugly one, not the cool, retro Modern one. The green carpet…the olive green and turquoise blue carpet in the kitchen AND BATHROOM….

Perfectly’s dad said one year at Christmas that he’d give us $1000 for a decorative re-model, if we kicked in $500----making our renovation budget a whopping $1500. We anxiously awaited for tax refund time, and we went about re-modeling our kitchen and bath. The bath just got paint and flooring---the kitchen got flooring, track lighting, counter tops, paint and a stove. A lot of the work was done by Mr. Pefectly and my dad……..We bought the cheapest stove we could, and I bought—get this---DEEP BURGUNDY countertops. Yep. Burgundy. And we painted the walls the darkest Hunter/forest green imaginable. RULES BE DAMNED!! Who says small spaces can’t have dark colors? We painted our cabinets white, and due to the generosity of my mom, we also got a set of cabinets for a blank wall in our kitchen. Our linoleum is white with burgundy diamonds (original, huh??). I was so happy and proud of our color choices. We AGONIZED over just the right shade of DARK HUNTER GREEN for the walls…….

Who knew that a few years later that the trend of green/burgundy would go away? That jewel tones would give way to neutrals? REMEMBER internet……I was not around when the decorating/creative gene was being handed out. I was down the way trying to snag the lazy, get my way all the time gene…….

So, back to now……last weekend Mr. Perfectly installed a digital—programmable thermometer in the house. This made us look at a new light fixture (since it was in the same aisle as the thermostats)…….which brought to the forefront that our kitchen ceiling was really gross. Grease and steam had taken their toll on our pretty white ceiling. It was now white with brown-ish grease spots all over it. We decided that we’d replace the light fixture, and paint our ceiling. Seems simple enough, right?

Well, then we decided to maybe put an updated color on our walls. All the while, trying to remember that we bought BURGUNDY countertops………so we needed to try to stay with something that would compliment the burgundy….because we certainly can’t afford new countertops. I found a color called ‘Barnwood’. A tan-ish color. I also found a paintchip in the approximate color of our countertops…..when you put them together, they look pretty good. THe links to these colors do not look like the paint chips.....the red is more burnt, and the tan is not as true, BUT it gives a slight idea of what I have in mind. White cabinets, too.

Now, Mr. P is painting our ceiling, replacing the light fixture and is trying to prime the DEEP GREEN hunter walls---that will be a chore…….it’s taking many coats of KILLZ to cover the green-ness of it all.

I will video my horrific kitchen tonight. Warts (filth….clutter) and all. Just in case you think I jest at the smallness, clutterdness of it. Oh, no, Peeps…..not me. I lay it all out there…….you’ll be shocked—I promise. Now, some if it will be re-model clutter….but you can tell the tool bags and paint cans from the other kitchen and non-kitchen clutter. My dishes from last night didn’t get done, so I may cheat and wash those first…….. because who wants to see dirty dishes?

On a more pleasant note….we smoked an obscene amount of meat yesterday. 2 chickens, a half of a pork shoulder, a brisket and some ribs. I made cole slaw and stuffing (yes, like Thanksgiving….it’s my favorite food EVER….EVER….EVER). Then we gorged ourselves, and then put half or more of what was left into our freezer. We are bad with eating leftovers, so one day, in a couple of months when pondering over what to cook, I’ll go to the freezer to happily find smoked meat----we can gorge ourselves again on pulled pork sandwiches, and b-b-q chicken. MMMMMMM.

Tonight, I may have heated (well, fried) stuffing and gravy. That’s all I may eat. Because there is NOTHING better than stuffing all crispy with gravy. NOTHING, I’m telling you.

So, what did you do this weekend? Anything fun or exciting? Son #1 just texted me and said that a local grocery store called him---one that I shop at all the time---one that he recently applied at……..and I’ve sort of hit up everyone I recognize there asking what he can do to get hired on….(so I’m all momsy-womsy----I’m tired of bankrolling him!!!). Keep your fingers crossed that he can get a job there!!!! And that they aren’t just trying to humor ME-----I really am in there a lot. Like several times a week. So, I’ve had the opportunity to hit up at least 3 people I sort of know in a customer sort of way------

Anyway--hopefully regardless of how, he'll get a dang JOB!!