It's Time for a List..

Here it is, the long awaited Tuesday List:
1. Here are a few more Vegas pics for mah seestor: In front of the Paris Hotel..
And at Caesar's Palace..

2. I am getting an orange tabby kittie from MJ at work! They are 2 weeks old right now, so he or she won't be coming home for a few weeks. But at least my search for a little orange eraser-toed mini-monster is over.

3. Look for an immediate update on the wedding blog..

4. I am ready for my town (P'ville) to be annexed by G'ville. We really don't figure at all in A-Town politics, and it's much closer for us all to go to G'ville for everything we want to do anyway. Why do we have to be part of A-Town when G'ville is a better place to live and work, and lacks the grandstanding, subterfuge, and general BS that A-Town is famous for? Just my two cents.

5. What do you do when you realize that a long time friend is a) not really your friend and b) is not someone you want influencing your life anymore? I guess there isn't so much to do really.. just processing it, I guess. It sucks.

Today.. I am going to see Trigger after work, then it's off to the hacienda to whip up something for dinner and hopefully go to bed early. I am not sleeping as well as I usually do, without L around.

Well Heeey

Tomorrow it's back to life as usual, folks.

L left this morning for Tally. I just talked to him on the phone, and apparently things are business as usual at the parents' house. He is sitting in the "cave" room (it's so filled with boxes that he can't move around) listening to Barney and Denver howl their frustration at being outside at night...

Monster is overjoyed at being inside all night, and not in the garage in his playpen. I went to see Trigger today. We did lots of groundwork and not much riding, but it was fun anyway. He looks really pretty now that his winter coat has shed out. He was a little attitudinal today, but what can you expect after a week of not being worked? We'll hit the trails later this week.

In other news.. I have cleaned the kitchen and washed the new Rachael Ray pots and pans that L bought me before he left. They're pretty cool. I haven't cooked in them yet, but I can't wait.

So.. now I am going to take a shower and do something with my cracked and crappy looking nails.

Tomorrow: Back to work..

Leaving Las Vegas

I am blogging from the hotel gift shop now, as I get ready to leave Las Vegas. It's been a good trip despite A's not showing up.. So, because I have to get off of here pretty quick, a List:

1. Wow, I am still stunned by the fact that A didn't show and didn't call or anything. After all the things L and I have done for her and A2, and as long as we have been friends, I can't believe she would be SO RUDE. Look for an update soon on the wedding blog to discuss the state of my wedding party now that they will NOT be included.

2. I met some cool girls in the class over the last few days and we went out Wednesday night and had SO much fun! We took the pole dancing class at the Aladdin and then went karaoke singing.. I sang the first song and then the guy running it made me keep singing. We packed the bar and felt like rock stars. :-)

3. I miss L! I am SO glad I will see him tonight!

4. We are getting a new cat when I get home. We have decided that Monster needs a friend to play with, and since we discovered that everyone else in the neighborhood has more than the 3-pet limit, we decided to do it.

SO.. Now I am off to get my luggage and check out of the hotel.
Tomorrow: Back home and back to business...

Lovin Las Vegas

I made it to Vegas last night. L reports that this is what I am missing at home: This little guy has figured out that MonsterHead can't reach him through the window.. so he eats in relative peace, and Monster goes nuts.

Meanwhile, I am in my awesome suite in Vegas.

Last night I ordered room service and then went to sleep. (It's hard to get any pics with people in em when you're by yourself.. but here I am). I finally did hear from A, who has not shown up yet.. I got a cryptic email this morning saying that her phone was broken and that she had missed her flight. I don't think I will be seeing her this week, unfortunately. I hope so, but I totally doubt it. This does not bode well.
Anyway, here are Elvis and Priscilla, the resident swans at my hotel. They're pretty neat. They swim around their little pool with some of the biggest Koi I've ever seen.
I snapped this big girl chewing on a rawhide bone at the MGM Grand. There are three lionesses in this giant glass habitat thing with a waterfall. Way cool.

I think I am going to go to the hotel's free happy hour tonight, then out to dinner somewhere.. free shuttles run until 10:30, so yeah.. fun stuff even if it is, as Celine would say, "All By My Self.."

My Most Boring Update to Date

I have decided that being injured is the pits. I went back to the doc yesterday and he said that I still have space in my left shoulder that shouldn't be there, but there really isn't anything to be done about it at this point. He prescribed exercise and the same drugs the ER gave me, which luckily i already had.

I have been spending far too much money this week.. and I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow for a training class. This is going to be an all credit-card trip unless my travel money from Columbia Wednesday kicks in. L keeps saying that I should try to win some money for the wedding fund.. He doesn't know what an abysmal gambler I am. I am extremely risk averse.

Anyway, I have a ton of stuff to get done today.. mailing my ebay stuff, packing my clothes, going to see Trigger... So I am going to get with it. My next update will be from Las Vegas....

Note to Fran: Thanks for the tip.. I wanted those shoes in white anyway! I'm so excited.. :-D

Ouch, Etc.

Well the good news is that I have no broken bones, and no current dislocations. All my stuff is where it should be, except the muscles in my back and neck and left arm, and my nerves in my left arm.

I go back to the doc on Thursday morning, so we'll see what he says. In the meantime, Flexeril causes weird dreams... but you're so relaxed that you don't care. I do feel a little better today, so hopefully that's a trend that will continue.

I've got a ton of work to do before heading to Columbia this afternoon, so that's all for today. Later: Who knows?

Don't Pull the Trigger...

Well.. Yesterday was an interesting day, to say the least. I took my first launch off of Trigger's back, and he is much farther off the ground than he looks... But he's pretty!

Trigger and I were getting ready to go out on a trail ride when another lady at the barn shows up and wants to go along. Well that's fine with us, cuz we've been riding by ourselves a lot lately. So after an attempt to go to Isaqueena, we ended up in some trailer park, where this person demonstrated some rather interesting judgment in riding her horse through backyards and unknown woods.

I wanted to go back to the trails we knew.. so we did. Once we got there, this lady was all about hauling a$$ down the trail. I said "Hold up!" but I guess she didn't hear.. one of my stirrups had somehow gotten messed up and it was longer than the other. I needed to fix it, but I didn't get the chance because she took off at full tilt, and Trigger, being a horse, wanted to follow.

I thought I could hang with it.. Trigger has a nice canter and I figured it wouldn't be a problem. The problem came when she took it faster and faster and Trigger tried to match. Still, we would have been fine if my foot hadn't slipped out of the stirrup . I overcompensated, and when he hit his stride the next time, I went flying!

He really is a good boy, and it wasn't his fault at all. In fact, when he felt my butt leave the saddle, he put on the brakes. Not only did he stop when I fell, he stood there, sniffing at my head, until I got up.

I thought I was dead for the first few minutes.. I always knew Heaven would smell like a horse!! ... until I opened my eyes and saw Trigger's nose directly above me. The lady came tearing back toward me about the time I was picking up my hat and my saddle bags, and suggested that we trade horses. Shyea, RIGHT. I don't THINK SO.

So we rode back to the barn and I gave Trigger a bath and combed his mane and tail and stuff.. Then I went home, showered, and L and I hosted a cookout. But..

By the end of the night I was feeling rough indeed. Sleeping last night was interesting in itself.. and today we are toying with the idea of going to the hospital to check me out. I think I may have shifted or dislocated something. But I'm not dead, so that's good. I need to call TO and tell him he did a better job with my horse than I thought he did!

Later: A report from the hospital?

Gearing Up..

Good Morning.
I have been out of bed for exactly 7 minutes.. long enough to get some coffee, check my ebay listings, and log in to blogger.

I feel I have been a little remiss in posting here lately. Sure, I've posted, but not at the same level I was before. It's just that I've been really busy and the weather is so nice out that I want to be out with Trigger or something. Anyway, I will try to do better. ;-)

So.. Trigger got a haircut on Wednesday. God bless MM, because that would never have happened without him. We had to use a twitch, which Trigger was not happy about, but he stood still and let us clip him. He looks SO pretty now, except for the rain rot, which is healing slowly. Either this afternoon or tomorrow, he is getting another iodine bath.

This morning, after I eat some breakfast and do some yoga, I am going to check out the roses L planted in the backyard, and then I am going to a new Goodwill Liquidation Center. Actually the LC isn't new. It's been there. But I just found out about it. ;-) I will post later with anything interesting I find.

Underage

"Duuuuude, this is so coooooooooool!"
Here are me and K, sometime around 1979-1980. I'm the one with the pigtails and the drunken-looking grin, of course. Dig my groovy overalls!

In other news, yesterday was extremely stressful. Even after a strong lunchtime run around campus, with iTunes blaring Nickelback and Thorogood, I was still ready to scream at everyone with minimal provocation. I went home, did some yoga, had a martini, and finally got some long-awaited *ahem* ...stress relief. I feel much better today. :-)

Another List for your Reading Pleasure..

1. L is terriffically attractive to cougars. It's like they can sense him from a mile away, and none of them to date have realized that he's with me. LOL Seriously, it's getting ridiculous. I can't take him anywhere!

2. I got around $1000 worth of clothes for around $11 on Friday at the Goodwill store. Just the things I know the prices of... a Casual Corner shirt that would have been at least $30, a Club Monaco 100% cashmere sweater that would have been around $85, an Abercrombie & Fitch sweater $90, an Ann Taylor dress $130, a Shelli Seagal dress $120, a shirt from Express $49, a jacket from Isaac Mizrahi $50, a jacket from Mossimo with the tags still on it $35, a very nice lined windbreaker $50, a wool skirt with tags still on $65, a skirt from Target with the tags still on $30, a jacket by Luella $45, two new camis $20, a Gap sweater $40, a sweater set from the Limited $45.. and a few other things that I have no idea where they came from.. so yeah, around $890 or so? For $11!!! Thrift stores rock.

3. I got my new phone today! It's charging now.. yay!

4. The band played on Saturday.. CJ didn't announce the actual band name though, "in case we sucked." I don't know what he is afraid of. It's not as if we have a reputation to uphold, or as if we want to be famous or something. We're just a jam band. Sheesh. Let's PLAY SOMETHING already. Using our OWN NAME.

Ok, I am still a little frustrated. Can you tell?

5. I hate birth control pills.

6. Time to get back to work. Break time over. Nothing to see here...

Yo Mama

Maw, Maw, Tell us Maw.. Maw Maw, Tell Us Maw.. (Kimmy, remember that song? How absolutely non-politically correct we were? LOL)
... I Loooove this man...

More Than A Penny's Worth.. A List

Last night L and I went down to A-Town for a party at a certain Irish Pub, and to see A&A who we never see anymore. We ate dinner at Sona, a pretentious establishment which will not be seeing us again. I was resoundingly unimpressed-- L and I cook better meals every day. Then we went over to the pub, where I saw the same old crowd that's been there for the past 10 years and realized that many things never change.

One in particular talked to L as if he were J, as if he couldn't tell the f***ing difference, which may have been the alcohol, but whatever. I'm not saying that we had no fun. I'm just saying it was weird enough to give me pause.

This morning I went for a ride with Trigger, which was a little cold, but nice. We had a little issue with one of the water crossings, but only because it combined all of the things that Trigger dislikes.. an 18-inch step down, mud, and a very narrow trail. We made it though, and I had lots of time to think about a lot of things.

So, a list for those of you who have read this far:

1) A-Town is a weird place. A-Town just seems to have a contingent of folks who like to be pretentious. People who look down at anyone not in their little clique as somehow less than they are. People who like to name drop, and women who try to climb your husband's leg while you're standing right there-- or vice versa. And when they realize that you know the names they've dropped as well as (or maybe even a little better than!) they do, they really get pissed. As if to say "Just where does this young person get off, being friends with him (or her, depending)??" As if any of it matters. As if anyone outside of a 5-mile radius of the courthouse gives a flying ****. Just what the hell is wrong with being yourself, regardless of who you know and who you don't?

2) A-Town politics is a 3-ring circus. And I would venture to guess that the entire county government is one enormous love decahedron. Who's sleeping with who? Who gives a crap? L and I were talking about it all on the way home, and we think that from now on, we are making our own plans, going to G-ville to the places where we have fun and if some of our A-Town friends want to come, they are welcome.. but we're not changing our plans or going to A-town to hang out. Which leads us to..

3) I feel really bad that two of my best friends, A&A, are being eaten by A-Town politics. It's almost like not being friends at all. We never see them-- when we invite them somewhere, they say they're coming and then never show up. When they invite us somewhere, we end up hanging out with the county, not with our friends. Or else we end up being volunteered to "work" some event. The only exception to this is if they come to our house.. which rarely happens anymore. It just makes me sad-- first of all that we're considered second-class friends, who don't deserve a frikkin phone call when they can't make it, and second that I miss them. Third is that they're supposed to be in the wedding, and what happens if they're too busy to make that? And of course I don't say anything because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make the situation worse. Still, it bothers me.

4) To change the subject entirely, I can't wait to get some furniture in the dining room so we can invite some friends over for dinner. Cookout weather is on its way though, so we could always use the patio set.. it seats 6.. I just think it would be nice. There are several neighbors here that I'd like to have over sometime. Which leads me to..

5) There are lots of people around who would be great friends. There are lots of people around who would pick up the phone if something came up, or who would invite us somewhere for the pleasure of our company, and vice versa. Why the fixation on the ones who don't, can't, won't, etc?

Later: Pics from Mom's last weekend
My amazing trip to the 99cent Goodwill
Tonight the band is playing... WOOHOO!

Alligator Wrestling

Well, well.
This was the trip to Florida when we visited the alligator farm. I have been terrified of alligators ever since. Like snakes, I don't mind watching them on TV or from a distance, but the thought of having one in close proximity literally makes my skin crawl. Here we are, sitting on a stuffed one.. a few minutes later while walking around the facility, we saw another gator that looked just like this one, and took off running to sit on his back, too.. only he wasn't stuffed! I remember being whisked off my feet by one of the adults so fast that my head spun! I imagine that they have since removed the stuffed alligator from the area. ;-)

I was looking through some of the other "old pictures" blogs and thinking about our regrettable fashion choices through the years... It always seemed that if we ever had a "look" (like Kimmy's preppy purple in yesterday's entry) it was like a costume to us. It was so unusual for us to look good and "put-together" that it was almost uncomfortable.. and we wore the same "outfit" all the time. Never mixed it up at all! Because our "costumey outfits" didn't go with our "playclothes" which consisted of elastic waisted bottoms in hideous colors, double knits, tee shirts, and dirty tennis shoes. And our "dressy clothes" were always hand-me-downs, until K came into the picture.

I chalk that up to our mother (and grandmother's) love for doll dresses and polyester.

The Glasses are Back.

You know, I saw those glasses just the other day. They always swore that they would return one day for revenge, and that's just what has happened. Suddenly they are "IN" again.. big round bubble eyed glasses that dwarf the face are all the rage again. It's frightening. So here are a few more pictures of the first time around: Here we have Miss Kimmy before she developed her deadly allergy to anything furry. I believe this may have been one of the Puffs, but i don't know which one. Note the nifty combination of a peter pan collar and a chicken-neck tied collar on that hideous shirt..

Here she is a little older, holding a squalling baby RA and looking very carefully preppy. She has apparently finally talked the parents into letting her grow her hair out a little, too. She's really very cute.

SO, current events..

I went riding yesterday on my bald horse. It was fun, even though he tried to test me and had to get a few little spankings with the end of the rein. It's the time of year for horses to shed and feel their oats, so it's pretty expected for him to act up a little.

Later: Something more interesting...

I'm Back.. oh, and Hee Haw, of course

Well, we're back from NC.. Mom was on her best behavior because L was there and he hasn't been around her enough for her to feel comfortable being up to her usual tricks in front of him. So it was actually the closest thing to a normal visit and conversation with my mom that I've had in years.

GM took us to the biggest furniture showroom I have ever seen in my life, and we looked at some really nice furniture. We went out to dinner with Dad and P on Saturday night, which was also nice.

When we got home yesterday, we washed our cars (even waxed mine, which I don't think has ever happened!) and cleaned the house and did some laundry. After that we drank some wine, grilled some steaks with bleu cheese, and generally had an excellent evening.

Extremely excellent indeed, if I do say so myself. And I just did. ;-)

Well I know some of you NEED some old pics, so here are a few:

Here we have me and Princess at one of our famous "Hee Haw" shows. This was one of my debut public performances.. I was already pretty comfortable with a mic even back then. And need I point out.. My sister got back, for real. Even as an 8-year-old. ;-)
Here we have a rare snowstorm. We LOVED to go sledding, and if there were no convenient hills, we'd convince one parent or the other to drag us around on the sled. It doesn't snow like this anymore though, does it? At least not around here.

Later: Pics from NC this weekend

Going Visiting

Ah, our parents... shown here in the halcyon days before the Halcyon and Xanax days... Mom would wail loudly about that first line. Anyway, here they are in the 80s, visiting our great-great aunt and uncle.. who my mother adored and my father detested (the respective feelings were mutual). Dad looks pretty good, as always, although I am sure he is wishing he had something stronger in that glass than iced tea... But bless his heart, he didn't know about Uncle C's Wild Turkey stashed under the couch.

Mom.. well what can you say about Mom? The white dress isn't actually bad, if you ignore the Enormous Elizabethan Ruff of Doom that is threatening to strangle her. You also have to ignore the giant dark glasses that are eating her face and the perm. Okay, it's a mess. I give up. At least she always had great skin.

In more current events, I visited Trigger yesterday. I was quite dismayed when I saw him and was about to give him a lecture about fighting with his pasture pals.. but his baldness on one side of his neck and one shoulder appears to be another incarnation of rain rot (Ft Collins, am I allowed to say that? I don't think rain rot is reportable, but if it is, I take it back! ;-) His swollen leg seems to be from a kick or something, and he doesn't appear to be lame, so I just cleaned it and put some medicine on it.

The rain rot, however, resulted in a two-hour scrub session with antibacterial shampoo, followed by a good slathering with iodine, which Trigger did not particularly appreciate. A bucket of feed assuaged all hurt feelings, however, and he should be fine when I go out this afternoon to ride him a little. I can't wait for the weather to get warmer so that the sun kills all the rain rot! I hate seeing my horse go bald before my eyes!

Anyway, I will be incommunicado (at least as far as the blog goes) for the weekend, as L and I are going to visit Mom and the GP's. I'll post a monster update when we get back. :-)

Snaggle Teefs

My Sesame Street shirt ROCKS. It's just like Bert & Ernie's.

Now that the need for old pictures has been satisfied, I must confess the reason for my absence for the last few days. I have been violently ill (a colleague reports today that he can't picture me in connection with any type of violence. I reply that he must not know me well).

I could have stayed in bed all day, too, but the prospect of being two or three days behind at work sent me to the office forthwith. I am on another round of (much stronger) antibiotics, which already has me feeling at least vaguely human again.

Assorted Issues

Ok, y'all. It's official that I have lost my mind. This is Me and L at his birthday party last week. We're silly.. This is me today.
Yes, it is darker than I intended, and yes, L hates it.

Today was a day for messing up, apparently. After I messed up my hair, we met with our wedding photographer, and I wrote him a check for the deposit, only to find that L wanted to discuss it further and then get back to him. He didn't express this to me, either before we got there or when I was writing the check, but I still can see his point.. sort of.

He also seems to think that I give out too much information. Apparently the fact that I have been married and divorced before is somehow taboo. Meanwhile, I have had some stupid idea that I would be misrepresenting myself if I acted like I had never been married before.

Don't ask, I really can't tell you why.

I can tell you, however, that NN (aka J) made more of an impression on me than I care to contemplate. He is the reason that I tiptoe around L when I think he may be upset with me. He is the reason that I make decisions about things without even thinking about asking L.. because asking NN always meant spending more than we had by a few thousand dollars for something I positively detested. Every time. Meanwhile L has better ideas than I do most of the time, and would probably make better, more informed decisions.

I know that everything should be new this time, that I shouldn't let any past experiences cloud the way I see things now, and that they certainly shouldn't have any bearing on the decisions I make... but that's easier said than done. And I know that to L it has to be like nails on a chalkboard every time he is reminded that I used to be married to someone else. It would be to me if the shoe were on the other foot.

But sometimes I feel like everything that came before this (this being my life now) is something to be ashamed of.. my neurotic family, my horrible relationship and career choices, my religious fanatic upbringing, my dismal failure of a marriage. Only I don't like that. In fact, I hate it.

This is not an L issue. It's me thinking how I would feel. It's me thinking about the skin crawling embarrasment of listening to NN hold forth at every event we ever went to about things he had (supposedly) done, and imagining that L feels that way about me.

Though realistically, if that were actually the case, L would not be marrying me. And realistically, I don't talk about a lot of my life to anyone but him. Still, perhaps I should stop.

Perhaps I should stick to funny pictures.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

..I wish I were snoring.

Seriously, I have wanted a nap all day. I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a bad attitude. The attitude was lightened a little bit when I gave TG her book of photos from her wedding, which arrived in the mail yesterday.

She cried a lot and smudged her makeup. It was adorable. She really liked it a lot, so that was good. But the rest of the day has pretty much been a bust.

I ate lobster bisque at Pixie & Bills for lunch, and it has been threatening to revisit me ever since. I usually love it, but today it is not particularly friendly. I would like nothing better right now than to be in bed with the covers over my head.

Instead I am at work, submitting grant proposals...

You Know You Want to See Him

YAWN!! Having my picture taken is BORING. Here's my fluffy horse, showing off his lovely, fluffy tail~!
He definitely stands out in a crowd, doesn't he?

Starvation and Other Irritations

Wow, am I cranky today! Not so much with other people, just in a general, overall way. I have been ravenously hungry all day, no matter how much I eat, for one thing. That always makes me cranky.

I'm going out to see Trigger after work, which should make me feel better. He got new shoes on Saturday and I haven't seen them yet! Plus the weather is awesome, so I may take a short trail ride this evening, if I can get to the barn before it actually starts getting dark...

The Originals

Here we have one of those formal Olan Mills shots taken in the early 80s..
My hair looks good.. Dig the blazer on Kimmy, and the glasses actually don't look too big in this picture. She still has snaggle teeth- Cute!.. Wes is absolutely adorable in this one.
And here's Wesley and I, ready for the meeting, as usual. We were the best of friends!

Classic Kingdom Hell

This is pretty much what our life consisted of in the 70s and 80s: Going to the Meeting. Note the faux wood-sided station wagon.. we had several of those things, bought them back to back. As if a station wagon were the penultimate car and we just had to have another one. We used to love to sit in the rear-facing back seat (the Very Tippy Back, we called it).

I have several nagging questions about this picture:
1) Why, why, WHY did our mother try to dress us like Little House on the Prairie every time we went anywhere??
2) Who is that little boy in the romper? He looks like one of the Children of the Damned (cue screechy music!)
3) Who ever thought that black tights and shoes went with that dress, Kimmy?? Is this a case of.. all of our other multicolored tights had holes in them? LOL

Later: Pictures from L's absolutely fabulous birthday party last night!

Well Drop Dead!

If you looked at a certain cross section of the pictures of me as a child, you could draw the conclusion that I had major anger issues.... ;-)

For example, there is this photo, taken after my mother put those ridiculous azaleas all over my head, had a good gutbusting laugh at me with my older sister (who in those days enjoyed nothing more than making fun of someone), and then made me stand to have my picture taken.

"Smiiiiile!...... You smile right now or you are getting a spankin!!!!!!!!"

This all started with me picking an azalea (because I like them and they are pretty, and they were the only flower I could get away with picking without having my butt handed to me) and putting it behind my ear like someone glamourous and Hawaiian I had seen on TV.. I think it might have been in the Miss America pageant.. this was back in the heyday of Miss America... but anyway, the reaction was amazing.

"Oh, you want to put flowers in your hair? Well then you have to do it like this! AND wear it to the Kingdom Hall." And the next thing I know, I am a laughingstock covered with foliage. I am not kidding, I actually thought that. Those were my actual thoughts. I was such a serious child! I fully expected to be spoken to and treated like an adult, and the more people called me cute or didn't take me seriously, or laughed at anything I said, the angrier I got.

In retrospect, how the heck would you take that child seriously?? I mean, seriously..

Kimmy Takes Over

These are great pictures..

Here we have the Princess at around 8 years of age.. maybe 9 or so. Dig the groovy plaid shirt. The Peter Pan collar has developed ruffles, and begun to follow us even into the wilderness on camping trips. I am lovin the snaggle-teeth. :-)

Once again we see my sister in our train wreck of a kitchen. We had the longest Harvest Gold phone cord in recorded history. It was so long that you could walk by it and get your foot caught.. depending on your body weight it would either jerk you back (me) or yank the phone completely off the wall (Mom).

This is one of Kimmy's frequent forays into the world of cooking. She needed her own cooking show, seriously. This picture is so cute! This was not the time she accidentally baked the dishrag into the cake, thank goodness. She was making something chocolate... Note all of the antiques spread out on that table! Mom still has the funky dish in the center, as well as the rest of that set, and I still have all of those Tupperware measuring cups and spoons!

Me and My Dread Disease

Beware.. this post is ultimately about funny old pictures.. but it does have an additional message. Be forewarned. Forewarned is forearmed, you see.

Now. Here I stand with W's dog, Buppy. Buppy was never my favorite of the pets, but any furry little thing to play with was better than none in my book. I have always loved cute furry things even if they were kinda dirty and smelled funny. ;-) He looks like he is waving at the camera here.
Ok, so here's where the "message" comes in. Does ANYONE look at these pictures and NOT see that I had a major posture problem? My kneecaps face each other. My toes point in. My back is perpetually arched. My shoulders are not even.

Now, I ask you, WHY did not one person ever ask any questions about this until I was a very sensitive pre-teen.. and then they treated scoliosis like it was cancer or spina bifida or something and acted like I was going to be drooling in a wheelchair before the year was out. Never mind that something like 75% of America has it in one form or another and it is easily treated in most cases with physical therapy and/or exercise.. if that doesn't work, there are several surgeries available.

I mean, honestly, people. If you suspect that your child has a physical problem of some sort, ask about it when you first see it, not 15 years later. And don't treat them like they're going to die any minute, and bring their embarrassing x-rays out at dinner to show everyone who ever comes over how critically ill your child is (who is out in the backyard wrestling with the dog and making mud pies in the meantime).

I mean, I know attention is important and stuff, but not at the expense of your child. Just saying. Did this become TMI? A little angst-y maybe? Eh well. The pictures are funny anyway.

My Debut as a Wedding Photographer

It was outdoors, so I had no control over the light.. but they turned out nice anyway.

Dress Up

I guess it is true that all little girls love to play dress up. We sure did.. Here I am as a 4-year-old, in our train wreck of a kitchen, dressed up as a strange bride-like creature. We seemed to have a plethora of old robes and negligees to dress up in, and we always turned them in to something else.

Note that this kitchen makes me nauseous every time I see a picture of it. ;-)

Here we are playing dress up again. We liked to put things on our heads.. bathrobes, sweaters as veils, old hats, weird hairstyles.. I look like I am wearing a red velvet barber sheet.. I imagine that this is the kind of thing Liberace would wear while having his hair cut.

Note that Kimmy has learned to take her glasses off in front of the camera at this point. ;-) I have more great pics where these came from.. I've scanned in a proverbial truckload this morning...

Antibiotics are Great

Yes, I have been under the weather for the past few days. I tried to avoid going to the doctor again, because I feel like I am there every three months, like clockwork, to complain of a sinus infection, an ear infection, etc etc. I finally went to the doctor yesterday morning, because it was getting worse, not better, and I have no time to be sick.

He gave me my amoxicillin, and when I asked how to avoid getting this crud every few months, he said "avoid all human contact." He can be a very funny guy sometimes.

I realize that I growl like a wounded lion when I am sick, especially when I am sick and have to work anyway (like all week this week), so to counteract that, I am going to post a list of things I particularly love today:

1) L, of course. He made me some mac & cheese last night. :-)

2) Trigger, of course. And the Monster. And Denver and Barnie. I love my furry kids this morning.

3) I am wearing some very cute Express jeans today. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but they look nice and that cheers me up, since I don't feel very nice.

And on that note, I am going to post a sign on my office door warning everyone to stay on their side of the doorway, and get to work.

Tomorrow: Pictures and commentary from TM's wedding yesterday. She's TG now.

Some Days It Would Be Really Nice to Be a Horse.

The Best of Intentions

I meant to scan some more old pictures this weekend, for interesting and funny posts here at the Dysfunction Junction.. but it didn't happen. I also intended to clean my house, wash my car, etc etc etc. What happened was that I did a lot of sleeping, went riding on Saturday morning, and made some garlic herb bread for L this evening.

The most successful parts of the weekend were as follows: A truly memorable nap on Saturday afternoon, and dinner tonight. Dinner consisted of pork chops stuffed with bleu cheese, lemon, herbs, and olive oil, and baked in the convection oven, served with mashed potatoes, the garlic herb bread, and salad. Yum.

I am feeling a little sick, to be honest, but I am not saying that out loud.. T is getting married this week, and I am her photographer.. I have a class to teach in the morning and band practice tomorrow evening. Tuesday is already shaping up as awfully busy as well.

So my stuffed up head, sore throat, and achy joints will have to suck it up and deal with it until at least the later part of the week. But then L's parents are visiting, so I had better be better by Friday afternoon.

So, no funny pics to post until later, unless I can find a cache I scanned and forgot about. Oh, and by the way, I guest-posted on the Blue Book yesterday. :-) My first guest-blogging experience ever. Thanks, Joe.

Time for a List..

Haven't posted one of my lists in a while, so here you go: A random List:

1) Went to the basketball game last night. It was fun. L was disappointed that my team beat his team though. Go Tigers!

2) Wedding planning is sort of fun the second time around when you know what not to do.

3) Anna Nicole Smith. Hmm. How much do you want to bet that drugs played a starring role in this "tragedy?"

4) Someone is playing a cruel joke on me at work. The AC is always on in my office and no matter what I do, it is always like a meat locker in there. Seriously, I have icicles hanging off my nose.

5) I think someone is playing a cruel joke on my body, too. I am losing weight (about 10 pounds so far) but have gone up a whole cup size because of my recent return to birth control pills at the insistence of my doctor. (Apologies to my readers who are somewhat prone to the vapors.. Yes, I am discussing breasts on the internet. Get over it.) So what's happening is that my pants are all too big and my shirts are all too small. What is going ON here???

6) I'm going to see Trigger after work! I only got to ride once last week, so we need some playtime! He also needs new shoes...

So this was a pretty long list. Cool. Tomorrow: Look for more old pics, if I can dig them up from the archives.

Better Day

Today I discovered Despair.com

I demotivated a bit and immediately felt better. Try it, you'll like it. Especially if you work in an office. :-)

Digo Nada

I and feeling pretty blah today.
Work was okay, but boring. I have band practice now, which on a normal day would be fun and exciting, but today it's blah because I don't feel good.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday I will go back to see Trigger. He always makes me smile.

Sorry, I have no nifty pictures today. Blah.
I have shopping to do sometime this week, but I am feeling pretty blah about that too because I don't have a clue what to get L for Valentine's Day or his birthday which is rapidly approaching.

Ok, so I will concentrate on something less blah for tomorrow. :(

The Wonderful Thing about Trigger..

I had an awesome day today. I'll start with the end and end with the beginning. We had four cheese ravioli and marinara sauce with balsamic salad and garlic bread for dinner. L looks adorable in carpenter jeans. Before that I went to play with Trigger in the cold. He is such a good boy. We lunged for a few minutes..
And then went on a brisk trail ride. We ran like wild animals up and down the trails, and then came back to the barn for a nice brush and a turnout with all Trigger's friends.
We're best friends, you know.
Before that, I went shopping with A1 and found these absolutely delicious shoes! (Please ignore my extreme lack of tan. L has suggested MysticTan.. let's get spraypainted! Yeah~!) They are Jessica Simpson.. and they were too expensive, but I bought them anyway because they are SO AWESOME. I also looked at the tap shoes at Nine West, and I am strongly considering them for my wedding. At least that's an excellent excuse to buy them.
I mean, look at these shoes!!!! What a great day. :-D

Woah Nellie..

I don't know what to say about this except that it is strange. My sister is obviously playing dress up, which was our favorite game of all time. We also liked to play princess (but I always had to be the prince or the servant). Note that the Decorative Heads have moved from the living room to the bedroom.. Note also the red candle on the dresser.. We had a lot of candles that were never lit because Mom never took the wrappers off. They are probably in her storage shed, still in their wrappers. Note also that all of the pictures on the dresser are of us. Not a one of mom or dad or anyone else.

I'll leave you with this last picture.. Silver was such an awesome stickhorse. I still have him. He was carrying me, Kendra, Michael, and Eric here. And I am once again wearing the velvet shirt, like a little Liberace cowgirl...

The Back Forty

We had a seriously huge backyard. Like, we really could have had the pony I wanted desperately in our backyard. Instead of a nice pony, we had the Blue Goose, a suspiciously hearse-like vehicle. It was kind of a pre-SUV without any seats in it. It did have neat little shelves in the walls on the inside though. I liked to play in there. See my nifty Black Stallion shirt? My daddy defied copyright law to screen print a bunch of those shirts. I wore mine until it was too shredded to be considered a shirt anymore.
Here we are in our ginormous backyard, sitting at our own bright yellow picnic table (even our lawn furniture followed the color scheme!). We ate a lot of watermelon. A lot. My piece is bigger than my head. That's probably why I am wearing my bathing suit, while my sister is in regular clothes.

I suddenly am in the mood for watermelon and 100-degree summer weather... Hmm..

Come Sail Away

First thing today, I must tell you that it snowed last night and it's COLD.
So I am at home, working and drinking coffee with a giant dog sleeping beside me. It's time to post some pictures. Oh yes. Here's Kimmy in those magic growing glasses and one of our famous ribbon bows in her hair. She's really cute. I'm not sure if the sailor tie actually goes with the shirt or not, but there it is. I wonder who the present on the table was for. It certainly wasn't either of us, that's for sure. I'm wondering about that shirt... does it have the sleeves cut off, or is it supposed to look like that? I'm thinking someone got happy with the scissors...
Hm. The Littlest Mule indeed. And another strange velvet shirt...