Random Things Heard at Bunco Last Night

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Happiness Is . . .

I know I can be annoyingly upbeat. But that's just who I am.

There are a lot of things that make me happy - they would make most people happy.

Like:

• Finding money


• Getting a call from a friend you haven't talked to in awhile


• Sunshine


• A neighbor offering to help with some kind of repair or project


• Hearing that something you did out of pure friendship made another person cry with happiness.


• Hanging out with good friends

Then, there are the oddball things that probably only make me happy.

Such as:

• Having an entire shelf in one kitchen cabinet dedicated solely for the storage of rolls of paper towels.
  
  Yes, I can buy the eight pack of Bounty and not have to stash one or two here, there and everywhere. I have one shelf and that's where all the rolls go. I love it!



• Mechanical pencils.
  
  First of all, they never need to be sharpened. It's just a bummer when the last of the lead falls out and you shake the pencil and hear nothing. I've always got spare lead with me, though.
  
  Second of all, they keep you flexible and neat. No scribble, scrabble here.
  
  Need to change an appointment? No problem, just erase and write it on another date. Honestly, I'm happier changing an appointment if I've written it in pencil because my planner stays neat. I get irritated if I have to make a messy scribble - it looks so unprofessional.



• The days in spring when the temperature is consistently above 65 degrees.
  
  This isn't because I can shed my sweaters and coats. It's not because the trees will bud and flowers will bloom.
  
  No, this is because I can haul out the sandals and ditch the socks until October. Not only do I dislike wearing socks, but it's one less person I have to find socks for in the morning. Yay!



• My bird "cat-calling" me.
  
  It was one of the first "songs" George learned. It's so nice to walk into the room and hear him "Wert Whihrl" at me.
  
  I guess I'm sexy because I talk to him and buy him food. Whatever. I'll take it.



• Shiny pennies.
  
  A shiny penny is like a touch of sunshine in your hand - even on the cloudiest days.



• Watching my children sleep.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I like them when they're awake too (for the most part).
  
  However, they are so angelic with their eyes closed and their lips slightly parted. I love the softness of their breathing and the sense of calm that surrounds them.

I know this is only somewhat random. It's not like it all just spilled out of my head in a rush this morning. But there's really only a very thin thread concerning my weird feeling of happiness so I'm calling it acceptable for Random Tuesday Thoughts.

Many others have random-er, fun thoughts so you should pop in at Keely's place by clicking this magical purple button.

Silver Lining:

1. It's the little things in life that make real and lasting happiness. It's good to remember what they are and thank God for our blessings.


2. I played Bunco last night and didn't write anything on the back of my scorecard. All the girls knew they were "safe" from becoming a blog subject. However, I really feel the need to mention them here (as part of that whole hanging out with friends and happiness thing) and give any of my new readers links to the fun Bunco posts of the past. Click here and enjoy!

PS - Here's another super funny post. It wasn't about Bunco, but it was written based on my "scorecard" notes.

Don't You Hate It When . . .

. . .your day has been filled with "Don't You Hate It When . . ." moments?

. . .you make up a pot of coffee, painstakingly clean a travel mug that you retrieved from the trunk of your car after three weeks, & drain the last drop of milk into the mug (so it's cool enough to guzzle), then, dash out the door only to realize half way to work that you left your coffee on the kitchen counter?

. . .the shirt you really wanted to wear was too wrinkled for Downy Wrinkle Releaser to get the wrinkles out. Heaven forbid, the ironing board get hauled out. Jeez, do you know how many piles of laundry I have to climb in order to do that?!?

. . .the air conditioner is not functioning properly at work and it's 90 degrees outside? Or it is functioning on overdrive when it's only 70 degrees outside?

. . .your child whines about having to brush her hair before her teeth? As long as you don't mix up the brushes, what does it matter?

. . .it's trash day, you're late for work, and you've forgotten to take the trash down to the end of the driveway? And did I mention the trash can is overflowing because the same thing happened last week? Our garage is in the back of the house which we access with an alley. We park in the front of our house because we don't have room in the garage to park the cars. As a result, I don't notice all the other trash cans until I've gone down the street and happen to glance down one of the alleys.

. . .people try to stuff ten pounds of trash into a five pound bag? This is totally a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but I hate it when this happens none the less.

. . .the dishwasher is empty, but there are a TON of dishes in the sink?

. . .the dishwasher light says that it's "clean", but there are hardly any dishes inside? Because the family has been "harvesting" dishes as needed instead of actually emptying the dishwasher.

. . .your back scratcher has gone missing and all you can find to use is a toilet brush? This wasn't actually me, but I saw a guy with crazy hair and missing teeth using a toilet brush as a back scratcher on Tosh.O last week. Why would you do such a thing? And video tape it? And put it out there for others to see? Ewwwwwwwwwwww!

. . .when it looks like there is enough toilet paper on the roll, but there really isn't? And another roll isn't handy because your bathroom is out of toilet paper because everyone uses it, even though there is a bathroom especially decorated all princess-like for the little princesses in your house. Of course that bathroom has a gazillion rolls of toilet paper in it. If only it weren't around two corners & down the hall.

. . .you have to do laundry? Enough said.

. . .you get busted for blogging at work? Hasn't actually happened yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

. . .you just can't ignore that little envelope at the bottom corner of your screen? You know it. It's the one that says, "YOU'VE GOT MAIL! Don't try to ignore me because I'm bright yellow, and I'll just sit here until you check your e-mail. Oh, yeah - I MOCK YOU!"

. . .it's only X:XX time? No matter what, it's ONLY not close enough to the time you want it to be - coffee break time, lunch time, meeting end time, time to go home, kids' bedtime, summer time. I could go on and on and on and on.

. . .you have to come up with something positive about a crummy day?

Silver Lining:

1. That was yesterday and today is a new day. I actually got a good parking space even though I got to work a little on the late side. Whomever had that space and had to leave probably thought, "I hate it when I have a good parking space and then have to give it up early." I say, "Nah-nah, nah-nah, boo, boo."


2. This is all in perfect timing for Random Tuesday Thoughts. Go visit Keely and the gang at www.theunmom.com for more randomness. Or click the pretty purple button up at the top of the page.

Things I Don't Get

• Why do women do the front of their hair and not the back? Like when they pull their hair back in a ponytail or a banana clip, but pull out enough of the sides to still curl and frame their face.



• Banana clips.



• Little girls wearing clothes more appropriate for today's teenagers. Not that teenagers always wear appropriate clothing, but still I should see a seven year old in short, short skirts and shirts that are little too short. And sometimes make up??



• Candles littering the house. Really? I know they smell good, but wouldn't one or two be enough? The collect dust in my house and they're a pain to clean. I've got those fake on my dining room sconces - the ones with a battery to light them up. They have a partially melted look and they flicker - cool, huh?



• Those pop-ups on Foxnews.com or MSN.com. The kind where you barely mouse over a word and they bring up addition information, but usually unrelated to the article. If I want to know more information, I'll click on it! At the very least, it should wait until I've paused on it for a couple of seconds. Geez.



• In Farmville, you can't rotate the buildings.



• In Farmville, you don't get to keep your own mystery eggs or the animals that wander onto your farm. They're your gosh darn chickens, you should be able to keep at least one! And if an animal wanders onto my farm, I think the "Finders, Keepers" rule should apply.



• Mafia Wars.



• Democrats.



• People who feel the need to have the make of their car across the top of their windsheild. Dude, I can see that you drive a Subaru.



• Pink hair. Or purple. Or blaze orange.



• My daughter having a week off of school for quarter break and another week off for Easter break. She's off this week and again the first or second week of April. WTF??? That costs me a lot of money when it comes to daycare.



• Building a new elementary school and only sending K-2 to it and leaving 3-5 in the old school. You'd think they would just divide the school district. I know a lot of parents who are being forced to pick up their kids at two different schools, 12 miles apart, that get out at the same time. All the schools are currently on the same campus surrounded by corn fields. Buying additional land for another school building from the farmer wasn't an option?



• People who don't delete the forwarding e-mail junk before the real message. Especially when it's a joke - I'm bored before I get there and then it isn't as funny.



• Junk e-mail.



• Spam.



• Ballpoint pens that ooze.



• Why people still buy and use regular pencils when mechanical ones are so much more efficient. Who wants to walk all the way to a pencil sharpener? Or hunt around for one? Or empty it when it's full of shavings - those carbon shavings can make a mess similar to when toner gets out of the container on the copier or printer.



• People who don't replenish paper in the copier or printer.



• People who walk away from a jam in the copier or printer.



• People who regularly send 300 page documents to the printer in the middle of the day. Wait until early morning or late afternoon people!



• Bloggers who don't post anything for two weeks. Oops, that's me. Sorry.

Well, I guess this post would be better suited for Random Tuesday Thoughts, but I don't get these things today. Tomorrow it may be all better, and therefore, not as timely. So there you go.

Silver Lining:

1. I'm sure I have readers out there who can explain these things to me so I get them.


2. There are lots of things I do get. Like why my kids are so smart and so stinkin' cute (not that I'm biased or anything), how Mary Kay is the best skin care routine for the best value, cars need gas to run, you have to work instead of blogging in order to keep your job, etc.

This is What Happens When You Drink an Entire Bottle of Wine By Yourself

Random Tuesday Thoughts couldn't come at a better time, because I am less than coherent and totally on a random path.

So let's just go.

Boobs.

I've got big ones. Seriously, I could end up with black eyes if I tried to run a spint. Someday, I'm going to get a boob-ectomy, but for now, I'm stuck with the big ones that take up waaaaaaay too much room in my shirts. It is quite the bummer because I could breast feed using only one position - the football hold. You literally hold your baby like you're tucking a football. The timing of this conversation was totally ironic because we're totally watching da Bears vs the Vikings right now.

I seriously hope the the Vikings lose. Not just because I'm from Green Bay and am totally pissed that Favre left to go the Jets then on to a rival team. But because I just watched the movie Kicking and Screaming with Mike Ditka and I really want him to have a good night with da Bears winning.

Good thing there is spell check. You guys should have seen that previous paragraph prior to spell check. There are words like "totaltally" and "pised" and "MOVIE".

Also, it's a good think I'm wearing waterproof Mary Kay Ultimate Mascara. I keep laughing, and tears are forming in the corners of my eyes. I'd be a raccoon if it wasn't waterproof.

That's really hard for me too, wishing da Bears a victory. Being from Green Bay makes it really hard to root for either da Bears or the Vikings. It's like ripping my heart out. Unless you've been there, you just have no idea.

The Wine Bar has the best Shrimp Parmesan dip. It's wonderful because they serve it with warm French bread. It's super crusty and there is no just taking a bite right off the baguette. You would end up with way too many unladylike crumbs on your boobs. Unless you're flat chested. Being as I have big boobs, I would have the crumb problem. To be ladylike (aside from the snortful, drunken laughter), I broke up the baguette.

The Wine Bar has a huge full length mirror directly across from the toilet in the ladies room. If you're a "wide wiper", you can look at your pretty parts. I'm not sure if it's the same in men's room. I didn't go check it out. Really, what would be pretty about that?

Dang it, a Bear just got hurt. Look out! Mama bear is upset. I can't have them hurt; it might ruin their lead. Mama bear - that hurts too. But it's better than being a Viking.

Seriously, I do not have a single pretty picture of a Viking woman in my head. They'd all be named Helga - Helga Favre. Not a pretty part. A bear is really a much better picture - sad.

Well, that's it for my random thoughts. For the guys, let's end on the same note as we began.

Boobs.

Silver Lining:

1. While the Vikings and da Bears were playing in cold, cold, cold Chicago, no one's armpits were showing signs of emitting steam. That would have been weird and wrong.


2. The Wine Bar is only a quarter mile from home so you can leave during a commercial and still make it home in time to make fun of the Vikings without missing a play.


3. Keely's got lots more people with coherent random thoughts. Perhaps, you should pop over there. Click here, or on the purple button all the way back at the top of the page.

Giving Random Thanks

Thanksgiving is a mere two days away. Am I prepared with a beautifully dressed turkey and a carefully crafted Christmas shopping list?

Nope.

I'm prepared to be totally random in things I'm thankful for.

• I'm thankful this is my blog and I write the way I want to write without regards to all things grammatical. So I don't want to hear anything about the "ending with a preposition" thing I did just prior to starting the list.


• I'm thankful I have a loving family.


• I'm thankful for Swingline staplers. They really are superior. Red is even better, but no one has gotten me one of those for Christmas yet.


• I'm thankful I and Hubby both have jobs this season.


• I'm thankful to have a roof over our heads. Right now, we have the choice of two roofs considering I don't think our renters are going to buy our old house, let alone pay us rent for living there. Not really grateful for that situation, but it's better than having no roof over our heads.


• I'm thankful the early settlers got over that whole "potatoes are poisonous" thing. Kind of ironic how the American over consumption of fried potatoes is now killing us with clogged arteries, but at least they aren't poisonous - that would sure be a downer on the fast food industry.


• I'm thankful the turkey wasn't named the national bird as Benjamin Franklin wanted. We wouldn't be able to eat turkey on Thanksgiving! What would we have instead? Ham, chicken, burgers? Those all just seem so ordinary. Ducks or any other fowl are too small. Turkey is perfect!


• I'm thankful for modern transportation. Did you know the Mayflower was only about 100' X 25'???? That's a smaller footprint than the end zone on a football field! If I want to travel across water, I have my options of a boat the size of three football fields or an airplane that's twice as long as the Mayflower and has these things called wings and engines.


• I'm thankful the moderate temperatures of the summer have not yielded and icy fall. This weekend was gorgeous, no jacket required during the day. May not be quite as nice on Thursday, but at least we aren't looking at three feet of snow.


• I'm thankful most of you don't see my every day dorkdomness. Like when I bite into a hot dog and ketchup squirts all over my shirt or how I sometimes snort when I laugh.


• I'm thankful my kids don't care too terribly much when their jeans get a little hole in the knee. I haven't found any nifty patches, and replacing jeans for every little hole just seems wasteful.


• I'm thankful I live in a country with an "official" start for the Christmas shopping season. Seriously, how does the rest of the world know when to have all their sales and go on major shopping benders for the holidays?


• I'm thankful that there isn't anything I feel the need to buy that would require me to get up at 3AM in order to get in line before the store opens at 5am. Friday is going to be my mental health day - I'm even sending the kids to day care for at least half a day. Hubby, on the other hand, needs to go and get us a new rotating Christmas tree stand.


• I'm thankful for the health I have.


• I'm thankful for all of you readers. You make me feel good when ever you comment. At least I'm not talking to myself out here in blog land.

To visit all the other random thinkers, click on the pretty purple button above to visit them at The Un-Mom.

Silver Lining:

1. Hubby does all the cooking for Thanksgiving so I really do get to relax and just deal with the pretty stuff (setting the table, decorating, etc).


2. As of Friday, it will officially be OK to crank the Christmas music on my radio at work!

Morning Me

You guys are just getting whatever spills out of my brain today. You're going to get a little taste of my day starting with 5am.

I had to restart the alarm. It went off at 5am, I hit snooze. It went off again at 5:09 and I hit the ocean waves button, which is on the left side of the clock. And it resets the snooze. So I turned the alarm off, changed the "wake up time" to 5:11, and turned the alarm back on.

The alarm went off at 5:11, I hit snooze.

The alarm went off at 5:20, I hit snooze.

The alarm went off at 5:29, I hit snooze.

The alarm went off at 5:38, I got up.

Got ya there, didn't I? You thought I was going to hit snooze again.

5:45-ish

Why do women need make-up? Granted, I'm not leaving the house without it, but who started this?

I must say, I really like my new Mary Kay facial highlighting pen. It really does make my eyes look more awake. I'm all about the allusion of looking awake.

6am-ish

Where did hubby go?

Since he's playing on the computer, I will too.

Wow, that sounded childish. Too bad. You all get the benefit.

Random Tuesday Thoughts. I'm not really all that randomly funny this early in the morning, but I haven't posted in a few days so I really must do something. Let's just see what falls out.

I'm hungry.

I'm re-reading what I've written so far and while it may not be funny to you, I'm cracking myself up. Sad, isn't it?

Now, I really need breakfast.

Crap, one of the kids just got up.

7am-ish

I'm hungry. Dang kids! I never got a bowl of cereal.

A turkey sandwich or a peanut butter sandwich? Tough decisions. Geez, I wish I was in Kindergarten.

How do kids have so much energy in the morning? I'm dragging ass & haven't had any coffee yet, but they're running "the racing circle" screaming their heads off.

Who decided an open concept floor plan was a good idea? There is always some kind of wall somewhere that gives the kids the idea that the entire floor is a race track. I can't believe I haven't lost a child to a counter corner head injury or to the beating they would receive upon breaking the doors to the china cabinet.

8am-ish

Library day was yesterday.

Did Cupie return her book? Nope.

Did we even read the book? Nope.

It needed to go back but it was only a few minutes before the bus was going to get to her stop.

Compromise time. Let's read on the porch!

Of course, it was chilly and my jacket was locked in my car. Being the good mommy I am (stop tittering), I didn't want to waste time getting my keys so I could get my jacket; thus, risking the chance that we wouldn't be able to finish the book. It was about chipmunks. How long could that possibly take?

Dear God! It was actually about chipmunks. As in, they live in burrows (which the main entrance is about a yard long) and they have five black stripes on their backs (which you can see even when they are babies and don't have any fur).

I opened the book and it smelled musty. I really should have told Stinkles to back away because the mold spores emanating from the book could have activated her allergies and killed her. Half of it was black & white (I'm sorry, yellow - the pages have yellowed) and half of it looked like it was colored with chalk.

I closed the book just as the bus turned the corner. Cupie skipped off to school and I'm the greatest mommy in the world!

I'm still hungry.

Dude, you all must be bored as hell. I'll spare you the rest of the morning details. The most exciting thing after Cupie got on the bus was that I ate a bowl of oatmeal at 11am.

Woot! Woot! What a fantabulous morning! NOT!

I'm not the only one suffering from this randomness. Visit the "Un Mom" by clicking the pretty purple button for more. Go on, click it!

I SAID CLICK IT!

Sorry, the mom in me feels the need to tell everyone to do something at least three times.

Silver Lining:

1. If you made it this far, you deserve something special for your efforts. Go scrounge around some one's desk for a piece of candy. You know some one's got candy - everyone brings it in right after Halloween so everyone has a chance to watch their butts expand. No sense keeping the candy at home all to yourself so only your own butt expands - that's just selfish.


2. Did I mention I'm the greatest mommy in the world? You're gosh darn right I am - I sat in the chilly morning air reading a book that had to be returned to school because it was already late. I saved my child from feeling completely dejected because she had to return a book that she personally picked out, but never got read. I'm a hero! Do you think a Hershey kiss could be fashioned into a medal? It's the only thing shiny around here (lots of Halloween candy, remember?). Aw, forget it, I'll just eat it.

Quadward - Honestly & Randomly

Count them:





Four awards!

All given to me by Cougs at Couger Tales. She's a fellow Babe and SITSta and definitely a good read.

How wonderful is this?

It's such a fantastic surprise when ever one award comes my way, but four? At the same time?

Well, let's just say, it blew me right out of my chair.

Or was it the Pleasantville wind? We're famous for our wind. Not really, but it's pretty gosh darn windy. I refer to my house as the "Red house on the prairie." Because I don't have any neighbors on either side of me and when the wind kicks up, you might as well be on a prairie because there is no protection.

As I didn't have the windows open this weekend, I'm pretty sure it was the awards.

I'm not know to be short-winded myself so I'm making this part one of four. I'll be passing out three more in the next week or so. But let's get started with this one:


Honest Scrap. What does that mean?

If you say it out loud, it sounds like "Honest Crap." Not to diminish the award in any way, but wouldn't this be a more appropriate award for me? Honestly, the fact that you all like my crap enough to come back time and time again is what should be blowing me out of my chair. What the heck, I say, "Cheers! To a sore arse for hitting the floor every time someone leaves me a comment or becomes a follower." Raise a glass of what ever liquid deliciousness suits your fancy.

In order to fully accept this award, I need to share 10 random things about me.

And, since it's Random Thoughts Tuesday, I'm counting this as my post for that as well :)

So here goes:

1. In the fifth grade, I punched a boy in the jaw.
   
   I could feel his fingers on my back as he was getting ready to snap my bra. I clenched my fist and swung straight back with my arm. Totally caught him off guard - it was awesome!
   
   He never bothered me again.



2. I suck at math. I'm an accountant and without an adding machine or a spreadsheet, I'm lost when it comes to numbers.
   
   Hubby, on the other hand, is a whiz at it and never lets me forget. I've completely given up on this aspect of my life. I don't even try anymore, I just look at him. Or if someone talks number to me and he's not around, I just say, "Hubby's the numbers whiz, I'll have to talk to him about that." Sad, but true.



3. Speaking of spreadsheets, I'm an expert.
   
   I love how all my linked up spreadsheets calculate in seconds when my co-workers are busy entering the same information multiple times in multiple spreadsheets. If they would just listen to me, their lives would be so much easier. Gee, that sounds conceited.
   
   Oh well, sometimes the truth hurts.



4. I make all my own curtains.
   
   I'm too picky to buy anything ready made. They either aren't long enough, full enough, or interesting enough.
   
   Or they are too expensive. I'm cheap that way. I made fully lined curtains for my dining room window for about $15 bucks. Ceiling to floor. Woot! Woot!



5. I don't understand how I can wash all the light one day, and run out of underwear three days later.
   
   Seriously, there is a black hole with all my underwear. Each time I do the laundry, it eats up another pair.
   
   I'm lucky I'm not negative on underwear right now.
   
   One of these days, I'm going to catch that black hole in the act and I'm going to re-claim fifteen years worth of underwear. Well, maybe only six or seven years worth. The ones older than that probably don't fit anymore.



6. I once worked for a company that did not allow paper clips and ALL faxes were printed on green paper.
   
   That's not green as in environmentally friendly. It was actually green colored paper.
   
   They spent a fortune on binder clips. A paper clip box has, like, a hundred paper clips in it. A binder clip box has twelve clips and costs three times as much per box. You do the math. Better yet, let Hubby do it.



7. I have had someone from every state except Alaska visit my blog.
   
   Where are all the Alaskans? Do they not like to laugh? If you know anyone in Alaska, send them a note telling them to read my blog. Really, then I can stop stressing over this point and move on to getting people from the 198 countries of the world to read my blog.
   
   I'm almost national. Now, I want to be global. I want to spread laughter to every corner of the earth. Come on people - help a gal out!



8. I paid for college all by myself.
   
   I spent two years at community college and two years at a university.
   
   No scholarships. No grants. No hand outs from Mom and Dad.
   
   I've since paid off all my student loans too.



9. I bought my first home when I was 23.
   
   Idiots! What business did any bank have giving a 23 year old a mortgage for twice her annual salary? Gee, guess this mentality is what got us into the housing mess we're in now.



10. I'm a Daisy Girl Scout leader.
    
    What was I thinking? It's actually a lot more involved than I thought. I used to teach Sunday School on a weekly basis so I should be able to handle meetings twice a month, right?
    
    Well, not only to I have to actually plan the meetings (they gave me a detailed, step-by-step book for Sunday School), but I have to attend two different leader meetings a month. There are special events for the girls - skating, lock-ins, camps, etc and I have to help with these things too.
    
    Really, though, I'm loving it. I want my daughter to have a better Girl Scout experience than I had growing up. As far as I knew, Girl Scouts was selling cookies, making a craft once a month, and bringing a snack to the meetings once a year. I want Cupie to enjoy being a Girl Scout AND learn what being a Girl Scout is all about.

You all have a little bit of scrappiness in you so I think you all deserve this award. Share your "Honest Scrap" or "Honest Crap" - I look forward to reading it.

Now, head over to Cougs' place to experience her own brand of scrap.

And you need to stop by Keeley's place for all the other randomness floating around in the blogosphere.

And finally . . .

Silver Lining:

1. At that job with the weird paper clip rule, I had the best boss I've ever had. He taught me more about my profession than any classroom ever could, the importance of work/life balance, and that sometimes you have to make your own fun.


2. Proving that those bankers were idiots, I couldn't afford my home and a single gal's lifestyle. I had to get a second job to do so. That's how I ended up being a Domino's Pizza delivery driver - where I met Hubby.


3. That boy in fifth grade didn't turn me in to the teacher. I think he was either too stunned or too embarrassed to get hit by a girl.

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Photography Edition

I’ve totally become consumed by photography. It's something I've enjoyed for a really long time, I just haven't made the time for it.

I borrowed my father-in-law’s nicer camera so I could take pictures at a higher resolution. He’s so cool, I can keep it until he goes on vacation again – he’s just going to use the smaller point-and-shoot.

I took a half day on Friday so I could take pictures of Hot Air Balloons. (Cool stuff coming to Picture This real soon).

I have a light diffusing cube & big ol’ lights on my dining room table.

I opened an ETSY store in an attempt to sell some of my photos. Is that being “full of myself”?

I carry my FIL’s camera, our Fugi Finepix, and a tripod with me everywhere. At the very least they’re in my car.

Hubby had to buy more memory for my laptop because of the amount of pictures I’ve taken recently. I need to seriously get rid of the stuff I wouldn’t sell, put up in my own home, enter in a contest, or use on Picture This. Do you remember the days when you thought about what to take a picture of? Because you had to pay for all the prints. Or carry around a hundred flash cubes.

I never had a camera that needed flash cubes. My first camera was a “Disc” camera. It was pink. Yah, I was cool. *eyes roll*

I feel like a dork putting the Fugi on a tripod in public. It’s a point-and-shoot camera. You’re supposed to point to something and push the button. No set-up required. It takes darn good pictures worthy of using a tripod in low light situations, but I still feel like a dork.

I’ve entered a cutest pet photo contest. Vote for me! All the dogs & cats are getting the votes. I've got a bird and he's really, really cute.

I’m pretty insecure in my photography whenever I’m around other people with nice, expensive cameras. For all I know, their shots are blurry or off in color, but I generally think everyone is better than me.

I hate having to save money to buy a nicer camera of my own. But that’s reality folks. I don’t need it, but the instant gratification in using a credit card is sooooo tempting. No, no, no, no, no! I’ll have to smack my own hand later.

I’m not the only one who is random this Tuesday. If you want to know what other people are babbling about, visit Keely’s place and click on some links there.

Silver lining:

1. I think I take pretty good pictures. The time, effort & expense may pay off someday. Like when I’m dead. That’s when art becomes valuable, right?


2. I live in a pretty picturesque town so, in general, I don’t have to travel to take pretty pictures.


3. I don’t do portraits (even though I know there is more likely to be money in that before I’m dead) so I don’t have to put up with uncooperative, picky people.

Really, Truly Random

No theme today, just truly random thoughts.

My front bottom teeth form a ridge in the center so they are slightly higher than the rest of my bottom teeth. It’s not a reverse buck tooth thing. It’s just right in the middle. The other end of the front two teeth are at the same level as the others. I know this because I was just running my finger over the top of them. Why was I doing this? Beats me, but now I can’t stop doing it.

I wore sandals today, but because it’s so chilly outside, I turned the heat on in the car and had it blasted on my feet. Why didn’t I wear regular shoes? I just can’t bring myself to put on socks or stockings yet. And because I don’t have any that go with these pants. I don’t know what I wore with them last year, but I don’t have anything now. Guess I’ll have to go shopping.

Speaking of the weather getting colder, it’s happening a lot sooner than usual here. I got to thinking about my kids’ Halloween costumes and how I’m going to have to plan for them to be large enough to fit over the winter parka. Usually, Halloween is cool, but a long sleeve shirt or a sweatshirt did the trick. I’m not so sure about this year. We never thought about it when I was growing up. When you live in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, it was a given that it was going to be cold. And rainy. You were definitely buying a costume three sizes larger than your clothing size in order to accommodate the layers of tights, long underwear, jeans, turtleneck, sweater, snow pants & parka.

Last night, I figured out, by accident, how to select a specific piece of an image and was able to cut, layer a nifty graphic, & replace it as a new image in PrintShop. I made a kick@ss logo for my father-in-law’s website. Did a fist pump and everything. Don’t you love it when that happens?

Dang light fixtures and shelves got dusted after last week’s random thoughts, but now the laundry is after me. We have two and a half piles (unfolded) of clean laundry, two piles of dirty laundry and an empty laundry hamper thingy. Guess, I should stop making stuff in PrintShop long enough to get that remedied. That’s poop. I’d rather play.

Cupie can read! She started reading short word books (like three words on a page type) at the end of pre-school and we were really proud of her. However, now she is starting to really sound out words with two letters making one sound (sh, th, oo, etc)! Only two and a half weeks into Kindergarten, three naughty notes home & a trip to the principal’s office (not proud of that) and she can really read!!

Now head over to Keely's to see more randomness (is that a word?)

Silver lining:

1. One of the things on my daughter’s kindergarten homework calendar is some kind of sorting activity. Guess who’s helping with the laundry? Two birds with one stone – that rocks!


2. I have a pair of pants with no cold weather appropriate footwear. [singing] I’m going to have to go shopping! [stop singing] I wonder if I can work that into one of Cupie’s homework assignments for September.

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Housecleaning Edition

I've never been known as an awesome housekeeper.

As such, for this Random Tuesday Thoughts, I'm sharing some of my housekeeping deficiencies. Hopefully, you see a little bit of yourself. If not, at least you know you aren't the worst housekeeper out there. I am.

Onward!

I think I've sunk to a new low. It's bad enough I use an electric sweeper to get the big stuff because it would be waaaaaay too much work to use a broom and then have to bend down to fill the dust pan. But just today there was a piece of popcorn that just wouldn't sweep up so I stepped on it to make it flatter. Sucked it right up! I think my Bad Housekeeping rating for "Biggest Slacker" went up a tick.

I hate it when you refill a plastic soda bottle with water at the refrigerator. I know it's icy cold and all that jazz, but inevitably the bottle moves and a spray of water goes everywhere. I'm usually the one who has to clean it up. And dang it, if there isn't some bending down to get the entire front and the puddle on the floor.

Changing light bulbs bites. Every time I get up there to change one, I'm reminded that I haven't dusted the fixtures in awhile. They mock me. They say, "You're already up here. Come on, just a quick flick of a dust rag?" Don't they know I didn't plan ahead and bring a dust rag with me? I'll be darned if I'm going to climb allllll the way down the three foot step stool, go get a dust rag and then climb allllll the way back up only to have dust filter down into my hair, my eyes, my nose, etc.

Speaking of dusting and mocking, the shelves in the stair way do that to me too. Most shelves I can't really see the tops of, but the ones in the stair way you can't help to see. Occasionally, I'll run my hand along the edges, as I'm going down but inevitably the end of the shelves get too high and I can't reach anymore. At some point, I'm sure the end with the most dust will carry enough weight to tip the shelf and the dust will all slide off. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I'm beating myself up over this.

Seems no one understands that stuff on the stairs means you're supposed to pick it up when you go up. I guess I'm guilty of this too. I can't tell you how often I snag the shoes I want to wear off the stairs. I'll get off my high horse on this one.

Well that's all for now. There's lots of other junk rolling around in my brain, but I'll save it for another time. Now head over to Keely's to see who else has those random, free-wheeling thoughts just pouring out of their heads.

Silver lining:

1. I was totally guilted into dusting the light fixtures & those shelves after writing this.


2. After dusting, I was on a cleaning bender. I went ahead and cleaned out the fridge by finishing off the bottle of wine that was sitting there. Impressive cleaning skills, I know.

Bunco - RTT Edition

Random Thoughts Tuesday. Hmmm, this seems like a good time to get out all the Bunco stories I’ve got rambling around in my brain, but haven’t had a way to bring them together in a coherent story. Thanks Kat (3 Bedroom Bungalow to Let in Crazytown) for turning me on to this.

If anyone else wants to join in, click the button above to get to Keely's blog for all the "rules" and to grab your own button.

In case you don’t know what Bunco is, it’s a dice game requiring twelve players. I belong to two different groups – one with mostly ladies from church and the other with my Pleasantville neighbors. Bunco has been referred to as “Drunco” because, let’s be honest, you get twelve women together without kids & husbands, alcohol will be involved.

Also, don’t think the church group is different from the Pleasantville group. They can get just as loud and raunchy as any other group. For this reason, I don’t feel like I actually have to differenciate between the two for any of these random thoughts – you can make up your own vision.

I have another post about Bunco. To get a little more understanding, you can read it here.

Anywho, here we go.

Misty has these “Native American Story Teller” dolls littering her family room. I didn’t think the one's she had looked as much like Native Americans as I thought they looked like those Russian nesting dolls, but that doesn’t matter. So these dolls sit there with their mouths open holding babies. Apparently, the more babies these dolls are holding, the more valuable they are – what a scam, you could just glue as many babies on as you wanted to make more money. Their mouths are open because they are supposed to be telling a story, but I gotta say, I don’t know if they are telling stories or offering blow jobs – they totally got their “O” face going on. Maybe this is how they get so many babies.

One gal carries a vibrator around in her car, just so she can say that she does. You never know. It may come in handy when there is an extra long light, or an accident that totally shuts down the highway.

There is a lot of counting in Bunko – adding is not allowed. Do you know how hard it is to add 2+5 after two or three hours of drinking margaritas? When we roll the dice (there are three), we count out the points (just go with it & don’t ask questions):

Roll 1: One
Roll 2: Two-tree (two points here – it’s a U.P./Northern WI thing – it’s always “Two-tree”)
Roll 3: That’s it

“That’s it” is a common phrase.

Why we feel the need to announce, “That’s it,” when we don’t score any points is a mystery really. Everyone at the table can see that, duh!

It’s like playing Poker and losing all your money. “Well, guys I’m out of chips, I guess I’m out of the game.” Really? You think the guy next to you with all your money isn’t thinking, “Ha, ha sucker – that’s because it’s all riiiiiight here.”

Also, after a few drinks just reading the dice can be difficult.

One night, Dusty rolled a 4, 5, 6 and the target number was three. When we said, “That’s it,” she got all up in arms. Dusty said, “Well, it was close to a three.” Hmmm, 4-5-6, yah that’s close.

And finally for this Random Tuesday Thoughts Bunco Edition, the bean dip at the last Bunco night was so delicious we gobbled it up with everything. It was like cheese to a Wisconsinite (cheese goes with everything to us). We had the dip on top of nachos, with the tortillas, just chips themselves, strawberry shortcake, Reese’s Peanut Buttercup cookies, margaritas. Nothing was too sacred for the bean dip – it’s the whore of dips.

Silver Lining:

1. I’ve got several more score sheets with notes to fill a book – although some of the notes, I’m not sure I understand anymore. Remember, they were taken under the influence.

2. Bunco isn’t going to end anytime soon. There will be more stories.

PS – If you like me. If you really, really like me, please click on the red button in my side bar. Vote for Life Makes Me Laugh for the top ten Babes in Blogland. You don’t even have to really like me, you can just sorta like me – I’ll take the vote anyway.