Dueling pedis and manis

Ok--GIRLS NIGHT.......yes, I know, it's been two weeks, but I've just been putting off the blog for some reason.....I get all in a hurry to POST, POST, POST, then lose the mojo or something.....but I'm back, and ready to tell tales.

Actually, girls night was a TON of fun, but it was relatively quiet (for once)..no nudity or unseemly antics--mostly just the 4 of us eating and drinking. Feel free to enlarge any photos to see what I'm talking about......

Here are the players: me (I'm in the hot pink--see the chapped upper lip? See the zit? See the faint redness of the neck?), Teenie, Marie (Teenie's sister) and Patty G
---we all met up around 7 at Teenies house. Teenie's living situation is.....well.....unconventional. She lives with her ex. Now, there are MANY reasons, and none of them are what you'd expect... it's not THAT kind of a living arrangement......she lives in his basement, which is nearly as big, and is nicer than her last house....she's with her kids, and it all works for the best....they maintain a good relationship and for what it matters to the world it works for THEM, so no more mention of it.....

The EX was kind enough to go see a movie and leave us girls to our own devices....we ate artichoke dip, pesto pasta, cheese bread, pizza and salad. Our goal, of course was game night and to drink. Marie wanted Midori sours---so we tried those, and we tried the Chica tea from Food Network. Teenie and Marie are big on 'theme' parties...so, since we were eating pasta and pizza, it was "Italian Night" The food was great.

We talked, and laughed--earlier that day, Teenie and Marie spent quality 'sister' time together. They went and had pedicures. Marie is more of the Conservative type....when they did the toe nail polish, they wanted to paint flowers on their big toes. Teenie was all for it, Marie, not so much. Marie finally agreed to the flower, and the pedicure technician did a FABULOUS job....lots of swirls, and pretty painting...it looked like a real FLOWER. They put a tiny crystal in the center--it looked pretty awesome.....Teenie got a flower too.......mostly comprised of dots and a stem........you could TELL it was a flower, but it wasn't nearly elaborate as Marie's......Teenie said that during the pedicure, that Marie's pedi tech kept yelling at Teenie's tech in another language....Teenie asked what was wrong and the tech said the other lady wasn't satisfied with her rough skin removal.....so between the lax buffing and the poorly designed flower, Teenie decided that Marie must have gotten the experienced technician, whereas Teenie got the apprentice.
We spent alot of time taking pictures of their toes--for comparison purposes, so all you foot fetish people, just go away.

We played "Catch Phrase" music edition.......It was pretty fun, and then we played a game called "Last Word", which despite the alcohol Patty G KICKED ASS at......nobody could get our words in....she ROCKED....we spent alot of time cracking up and I threatened to wake the EX up to get the Internet working so we could watch 'I'm fu&^%$# Matt Damon' and "I'm fu#@!(* Ben Affleck"....but alas, we didn't' bother the poor man for our own entertainment...I also wanted to 'live blog' while I was there, but Teenie didn't want me knocking on EX's door, curious to know why the wireless wasn't working. Sheesh...it was a simple question........(smile).

Here's the funny thing.....Teenie and I went for a manicure on Saturday---she was treating me as a belated birthday present......and we decided to have a flower painted on our fingers.......just one.....and the experienced Tech that did Marie's toe showed us her own toe and asked us if we wanted a flower like hers....which we did...it was lovely and ornate.....so they agreed, and we went for the full mani, paraffin dip and flower....I chose a lovely orange for my nail color.....and damn it, I'd just CUT them because one broke...way down in the quick, and I cut the rest short so my broken one wouldn't look so bad....they sort of looked at me like I was nuts for wanting a manicure....commenting more than once on my short nails, but I threw caution to the wind anyway...went with the orange sparkly color--which went on a very pleasant gold color.....I'm so glad I went with it....it's out of my comfort zone without being NEON......

Here is a photo of my nails..we couldnt' get Teenies. I got wispy weeds, and Teenie got dippin' dots.
The 'experienced' tech went about making my wispy weeds, and ran off to do a pedicure...I suppose on people that had more WORTHY nails of painting.......and sent me off to dry......Teenie in the meantime had quite the earnest technician, promising her lovely flowers. He painstakingly worked and worked....probably nearly 20 minutes longer than my wisps took. I jealously watched him lovingly place gorgeous (so I thought) paintings on her nails........as it turned out, he did dots and dots and dots.......it's pretty, but, I swear, it looks like dippin dots.

The Missouriness of it all

Earlier, in this post, I mentioned how the people of my community amaze me....and not not necessarily in a positive way.

On Monday, a student brought a pellet gun to Son #2's school. Another student told the administration, and 2 boys were subsequently punished (according to rumor). The local newspaper's open forum has citizens speculating, criticizing and berating the entire situation. My BFF Jakki forwarded me a post from an open forum from our local TELEVISION station website...and this, my friends, is why at times I'm embarrassed to explain where I live......Missouri and it's surrounding states, especially get mocked for the 'back woods' and rural attitudes. This comment, MADE IN A PUBLIC forum, though, is WHY these stereotypes exist (this is a quote taken verbatim from the public website):

pellet gun
i think when the kids comes to school they need to be checked at the doors that means bookpacks too and they need more law to help to check the kids out for any kinds of guys and knifes and lighters and smokes and drugs of any kind and if they have anything on them they should go to the police station and their partens need to be called in and get them from jail and they should make the kids go out all day when it is school time for week clean up the city street and if they get caught again make the kids spend time in jail to see how it feels behide the bars because it is not the mom and dads fault way the are now days and the kids do what they want all the time and thats the truth about it and if this stuff keeps i will not send my grandkids to school when they get older i will pay for home school and i know they will be safe at home and i don't let my oldest grandson play with anyone and he is 2 and half and when he gose out side i am with him all the time and i keep my eyes on him and his little brother and i will do the same thing when my granddaughter is born because it is not safe anywhere in this world and you all know thats the truth

Okay--I have several observations and questions. First: how many spelling mistakes to YOU see? Second: How many sentences are in the above comment? Third: Do you see any capital letters or punctuation? Fourth: The poor baby that can't play with other kids. And LASTLY, Who in the hell is going to home school these poor children? I certainly hope not the author of the above paragraph--if one can call it a paragraph. Now, I openly admit to my share of spelling mistakes (why oh why can't we edit our comments on other blogs? It would save me humiliation when I re-read my misspelled words..) and I do not correctly use punctuation. I take creative license here when trying to illustrate points.....but I certainly TRY to at least use rudimentary spelling and grammar. The above example is unbelievable to me.

When I went to the website to copy the above 'comment'....I found the following LOVELY gem:

I care
Yes, we may not be in high school anymore, but my child has a right to a GOOD SAFE ENVIORMENT to learn in. It may be a pellet gun today, but who is to say that tomorrow it might be a real one. I have a problem when my TAX $'s are not being spent the right way. Did you know that the science classes at L&C DO NOT HAVE books for their class! Why is that? We soon will be moving from this area Lord willing because of the school district! I do not want ANY of my 3 kids going to any of the upper schools in this district. The elementary schools are wonderful, but the upper schools are useless. Did you know that there have been large fights everyday this week w/ some of the students being led out in handcuffs! I know not every school district is wonderful, but I will not have my kids going to this district anymore. Heck, on April 25th, I heard the JC High School is supporting a Homosexual awareness day where they are PROMOTING THE HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE. Is that what we send our kids to school for!!!! NO NO NO, not w/ my TAX MONEY!

GASP.....NOT a HOMOSEXUAL awareness day? Heaven forbid that our youth should be taught responsibility, respect and diversity. It mortifies me to think that people in my own community are so closed minded and judgemental. I'm proud that my kids attend a public school. I'm proud that our public schools promote awareness and recognize that not all students come from the same cookie cutter. That they are different, unique and special and should be ACCEPTED regardless of their sexual preference, or other 'different' attributes.

Welcome to Missouri. Please don't think EVERYONE here is so closed minded.

Supernatural

Do you believe in ghosts? I don't. That is until the GHOST HUNTERS, Jason and Grant come on Wednesday nights (on the SciFi) and CONVINCE me that there must be 'something' out there. I routinely freak myself out watching them and the TAPS team hunting the paranormal--the hair on the back of my neck prickle and I get that out of breath feeling. They go to purported 'haunted' locations with the goal of 'debunking' the alleged paranormal activity. They claim that they can explain away 80% of 'hauntings'. They supposedly only find 20% of cases to be true 'hauntings' or paranormal activity.

The TAPS team creeps around with high tech equipment. Electromagnetic Field meters, cameras, night vision cameras, recording devices and of course the ever present camera crew--who ALSO have 'personal experiences'. The camera crew has even been ATTACKED.......

My favorite episode to date is a lighthouse in St. Augustine Florida.....I SAW a black figure peering over the upper railing....it was super creepy.

I've been disappointed of late in recent episodes....there hasn't been ANY action...until LAST NIGHT'S SHOW. They got some good 'evidence', once again making my creepy meter shift towards the believer side.

Ok, I have some questions, though. First, WHY must they ghost hunt in the DARK? Huh? Why don't they look for ghosts and ghostly activity in the daylight where people can SEE IT? And how are disembodied voices captured on tape, but people can't hear them?

Now, I admire the TAPS team for their show premise....to investigate in teams..to try to 'debunk' instead of going in with pre-conceived notions of ghosts. To take pity on families with traumatized children. All quite admirable. However, in between creepy episodes, I revert to the 'NAH' side of the coin.

Now, Mr. Perfectly has had to perform his share of late night house searches....to squelch my unreasonable fears...he searches for mysterious smoke smells and funny noises.......he's quite patient with me, but I suspect that each Wednesday, as I DVR the latest Ghost Hunter episode, he sighs and wonders if he'll get a good nights sleep or not.

So, tell me.....do you have ghost stories? Do you have photographic PROOF? I anxiously await your responses.......tell me ALL about it.......I can't wait to hear about/see your ghosts.

The OCD of it all

Jonniker, yesterday, brought up several topics for discussion. I love her blog since she engages you to converse…to comment….it’s brilliant. Of course, I get all these ideas to type myself, and again get that whole ‘blog fear’ thing of am I stealing? Am I unable to form an idea on my very own? Will the blogger that inspired my topic be offended? It’s all too much to take in…I am a virgin blogger and I don’t know the rules….so hopefully someone will set me straight if I’m committing cardinal sins, or something.

Ok, Jonniker…I don’t wash my undies with my regular clothes. Clothes of like colors are washed together. I will, however, wash similarly colored socks with regular laundry. I wash ‘whites’ in HOT with BLEACH. This includes undies---of all colors and any kitchen towel. I’ve learned to try not to wash my bras in hot w/ bleach, because the purpose of a bra is to carry the weight of the girls in a proper manner, and hot water and bleach tend to reduce the effectiveness of this ability ……but I DON’T LIKE washing bras w/ regular clothes….not one bit. Let’s just say—dark, and MOIST. Shudder.

I’ve discussed my loathing of general household chores here. This leads to FURTHER question of my sanity, ( I am somewhat of a germaphobe) because, I will re-use a towel (my own towel)—they take up SO much room in the laundry, and a couple of uses won’t matter, BUT, I must have a towel with a tag. The tag always stays at the top of the body, so I can tell the ‘top’ of the towel from the bottom. I do not wipe my face or body with the parts of the towel that dry the nether regions…..ewwwww. I’m pretty obsessive about my towels…..don’t let any stray boys wipe their toothpastey mouths on my towel either……garrghhhhhh. I also do not enjoy SHARING a hand towel. I dread the bathroom in other people’s homes because I do not KNOW who has used the hand towel. If people have their ‘nice’ towels displayed for guest use, and all folded pretty..I use the BACK fold of the towel, in hopes that other people don’t suffer the same issues I have, and they used the FRONT. They should make pretty disposable towels for guest use.......

I will, however kiss my dog....but I don't like to share bottles, straws or eating utensils with anyone. So, as you can see, I'm a plethora of contrasts.

What about you? Do you have any 'issues'? Do you have things within you that are stark contrasts? Do tell!!

Let's party like it's 2011

How was your Easter? Mine was lovely. My BFF Teenie's apparently was in the future.

She joined us for Easter Sunday Dinner of Ham, spinach salad, rice casserole, homemade rolls and corn at Perfectly's dad's house. She brought 2 desserts--fabulous. We gorged ourselves on food, and made fun smalltalk over dinner. We drank a nice bottle of Stone Hill winery wine that was quited aged (with sediment)....but further label reading indicated that it was best consumed when 'young'.....oh well...it tasted good anyway....She began telling us of her recent 'ski' trip to a man made mountain in St. Louis.......it was quite the ordeal, where she was heavily bruised and battered.

She confessed to taking old muscle relaxers that she had when she threw out her back "in 2011". I asked her...'in 2011?", and she said YES....remember when I messed my back up when I bent over to get groceries out of the car (making fun of herself for torquing her back while doing a simple task)....I stared at her, amazed...and she was all
'WWHHHHAAAAATT??? YOU'VE taken old medicine before haven't you???" Again, I looked at her amazed and put my hand on her arm and said, "Teenie, we haven't REACHED 2011 yet" She CRACKED up and realized what she'd said....and, backpedaling, said the muscle relaxers were from 2001.........hahahahaha.

Perfectly's dad moved the wine.

Skip to my Lou

I spent Saturday afternoon with my niece, Heather, her 4 yr old daughter, Maddison, and Heather's 4 yr old sister, Mia. I'm not all that great with kids.....the germaphobe in me doesn't really get on well with the toddler set. Maddi and Mia seemed THRILLED, however, that I was along for the afternoon. When we went to Hobby Lobby, BOTH girls were clamoring to go in with PERFECTLY.....to hold my hand (deep breathing, here--hands are the WORST for passing illness). We got through Hobby lobby and all it's glassware with no episodes, except Maddi exclaiming to Heather (and the other shoppers) that she had to POOP, really, REALLY bad.

Heather and I decided to run to the mall to see if the E.A.S.T.E.R. B.U.N.N.Y. was there. We didn't tell the girls where we were going or why. We parked in the lot, and once again, BOTH girls were anxiously awaiting my HANDS to hold. They were talking about running. I don't run. I asked them if they knew how to skip..and Mia proceeded to skip (in a 4 year old way), so Off I went, with a girl in each hand, skipping through the parking lot. I'm certain this was quite the site to behold....the fat a jiggling, the purse heavily falling off the shoulder onto my forearm.

The girls' PEALS of laughter made the spectacle all worthwhile. The 10 skips I skipped, made them LAUGH OUT LOUD, which was worth all the germs their little hands surely were giving me.

Malls no longer have a teenager with an attitude taking Polaroids for a rip-off $5. They now have 'photo packages' available for the parents to shell out big bucks for ($45.99 for the biggest). We just wanted some pics of the girls with the E.A.S.T.E.R. B.U.N.N.Y.

We called Mr. Perfectly, and he came to the rescue. He came with his camera in tow, and saved the day with some snapshots of the girls.



Afterwards, the girls got to choose some coloring books and 'bunny' glasses.


Maddi is on the left, and Mia on the right. I'm so happy I spent the afternoon with them. They were tons of fun and aren't they ADORABLE?

Promises...Promises

I know I've been titillating you with my promises of posting about girls night........well, I don't know how to take pictures from the camera and put them on the computer. Mr. Perfectly TRIED to teach me last week, but it didn't stick.......

I must confess, though, that I didn't get a photo of my chemical burned neck or zit--at least a close up...I did get some pictures of the girls and some feet.....so when I get to it this weekend, I'll post about our really fun night. Quiet, but fun.

Go here to see Mr. Perfectly's photo blog. He's good. Comment if you want...he likes to read comments....if you LIKE it that is!!!!

Today's photo is an awesome one of son #2 and Perfectly's dad. It's an awesome shot and a fabulous sentiment.