Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

This one is titled: "Where Is Rizzo?"

Well, by the photo, you can tell that she's at my place of business. Just hanging around watching me work.

She's awesome, isnt' she?





When I opened the box and took her out, of course, I started playing with her.

And I discovered something VERY Rizzo like of her when you pulled her arms straight back.



I swear, she'd be a hit at Mardi Gras.

And yes, that is my daughter forcing her to do that.

I expect my Mother of the Year award in the mail any day now.

If you want to have some more foto fun, head on over to Candid Carrie's.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Friday Foto Fiesta Finish

This is a twofer, y'all. And no, that's not two bags of reefer.

Rhea over at Texas Word Tangle tagged me with like the best meme EVER. It has to do with books and stuff.


OK, here's the rules:


1. Tag 3-5 people, so the fun keeps going!

2. Leave a comment at the original post at A Striped Armchair, so that Eva, the originator, can collect everyone’s answers.

3. If you leave a comment and link back to Eva as the meme’s creator, she will enter you in a book giveaway contest! She has a whole shelf devoted to giveaway books that you’ll be able to choose from, or a BookMooch Point, if you prefer.

4. Remember that this is all about enjoying books as physical objects, so feel free to describe the exact book you’re talking about, down to that warping from being dropped in the bath water…

5. Make the meme more fun with visuals! Covers of the specific edition you’re talking about, photos of your bookshelves, etc.


Without further digression and hesitations and rules and fodder, here we go:


The books that’ve been on your shelves the longest

Instead of multiple books, I'll give you the one that I KNOW I've had on my shelves since at least the 5th grade.

I love this book. As you can tell, it's been read quite often. Inside, you'll find lots of dog eared pages.



A book that reminds you of something specific in your life

This book was a book that I chose randomly to do a report on for 11th grade English. Little did I know that 14 years later, I would have a discussion with the Irish regarding my life mantra and this book was what tipped me to have the beliefs that I do. Due to a small comment left in a post I did, the Irish was able to walk me back to this book as the start of it all. Who knew? Thanks, Irish. You'll forever be in my heart for that awakening.

A book you acquired in some interesting way

(gift, serendipity in a used bookstore, prize, etc.).

Ummmm.....no one call the cops, but I stole this from my 12th grade English teacher. It has her name signed in the front and all. I had this long discussion with her one day on the Arthurian legend and she brought it in for me to borrow.

I never got around to reading it before the end of the year and she never asked for it. It's gone with me through several moves. Just this past year, I was able to actually break down and read it. And I regret not reading it sooner. I fell in love. It's the history of Merlin. It's amazing. Simply amazing.

The most recent addition to your shelves.

Do you see a theme in my reading material of late? I'm addicted to all things King Arthur.

I just bought this not too long ago and am enjoying the hell out of it. It makes me feel for Morgaine. To see the legend from her eyes.

A book that’s been with you to the most places.

I have to say that this book has gone with me to lots of places. Airports, Disney World, work, Colorado, the backyard, etc....

Hands down, my favorite book in the whole entire world. No contest. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my second favorite. I love that Reepicheep.

A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions.

This is the book that took me away from non-stop fiction reading. I love SNL and had to have this book. I devoured it in like 2 days and it started my obsession with non-fiction. I love reading about the genius that is what makes things big or even that makes things fail.

My current non-fiction obsession is all things Disney. Biography, history of, the making of, etc....

Not surprising, I know.

Here's the bookshelf in my living room behind the front door. I don't file my book in any kind of order. Just random. I also like to put things in my shelves. These are all the books that for some reason or another, I saved.

Most fiction books I donate to the library after reading. This shelf holds my Harry Potters, my Lord of the Rings trilogy plus The Hobbit, my Narnia series, my classics, my Jimmy Buffetts, non-fiction, etc....If you're interested, you can click on the pics to make them larger if you want to see what all I have.

This is the shelf in my bedroom, right next to my bed and behind the bathroom door. It holds other non-fiction and mostly reference books. Plus my elementary and middle school yearbooks. As you can see, it's a little messy right now. I need to organize.

And this....this is the pile of books I still need to read. Mostly fiction, but several non-fiction in there as well. My mom gives me all her books when she's done reading them, hence the all the fiction. There's actually more under the table on the floor. Sigh......just not enough hours in the day.

Now I have to tag 3-5 people.

I want to see the list of books from Captain Dumbass, Irish Gumbo and Pseudonymous High School Teacher. And since MAW begged me in her comments....MAW from Unmitigated!

If you wanna play along, head on over to Candid Carrie's for more Foto fun!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Friday Foto Fiesta Finish

Today's pics are New Orleans centered.

My favorite mode of transportation in New Orleans is the streetcar. We had the streetcar line running right behind our house.

I can remember when I first moved there, the sound of the streetcar running at night drove me CRAZY.

Then, I got used to it.

So much so, that when I moved out to the country and tried to sleep in the stillness that you can only get from not being within city limits, I discovered I desperately missed the sound of the streetcar.

Now, of course, I'm used to the stillness and love it.

But what I wouldn't give to hear that streetcar late in the night once more.

Here's a pic of the streetcar stop sign. You find one of these and just stand and wait til the next one comes along.



Here's two of them meeting at Calliope (pronounced Cal-e-o-pee) and St. Charles under I-10.

Here's the beginning of the streetcar line. I took this picture at the cross over on the neutral ground that took me down Sycamore Street. One block from where I used to live. This is where I used to catch the streetcar to take me downtown so I could drink all I want and not drive! It was so worth that $1.25 each way just for that reason alone.

This picture is on the outside wall of the Jewish Community Center on St. Charles. I love these birds. So peaceful.

This is my WTF? picture. This was taken in Metairie, LA which is a neighboring city to New Orleans.

And this is a house not too far from my old house that has been painted since we left.

Where is a homeowners association when you need one, eh?

If you want to join in on more foto fun, head on over to Candid Carrie's!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

This week, LOML's school had their reading fair. It's not mandatory for any of the grades in the elementary school except for 4th grade. However, LOML loves to read and really wanted to participate. She participated last year and won second place for the whole second grade individual division. She was pleased as punch. She got a trophy and a ribbon and couldn't have been happier.



This year, she chose to do her project on The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler. It's a wonderful book (I had to read it so I knew how to help her). She really enjoyed the book and she had so much fun working on her project.

She entered her board in the individual category which means minimal help from anyone. The only help I gave her on this board was the spray painted background, I had to help her cut her mermaid tail cause it was too hard (it was that thick foam poster board) and I had to do all the hot gluing.

Otherwise, it's all hers!

Here she is with her ribbon looking pleased as punch. Oh, and I should mention...she took 2nd place AGAIN! I'm so proud of her. She did a bang up job and she's pleased with herself as well.

Here's the board by itself so you can see it in all it's glory.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures. Not because there's anything great about the shot. You can't really see LOML's face or anything.

However, this is her "boyfriend". You will notice how they're not standing near each other, but they are in each other's periphial. While she was "studiously" looking at the other projects, he would walk up and down the aisle next to hers and look at her out of the corner of his eyes. He'd catch me looking at him every once in a while and would duck his head in shyness. LOML knew of his presence the entire time but acted surprised when she saw him right next to her at one point.

I caught this picture so you could see what I'm talking about. I could never get one where he was watching her. Maybe next time.

Just for the record, these two have been "boyfriend and girlfriend" since almost the beginning of second grade. That's when we moved up here. He laid claim to her almost the minute she walked in the door. She's gotten a watch from him for her birthday last year and this year at Christmas, he gave her a Hannah Montana silver heart necklace. My kid's 8 and she's already gotten more presents from a boyfriend than I ever did! This kid likes her so much. I mean, I've never seen an 8 year old boy like a girl as much as he does her. He talks to her (sometimes) and if we're out in public, he'll actually come up to her and talk to her.

One time, we were in a city that's about an hour away. It was before Christmas and we were in the mall. We had just finished eating lunch and were making our way to Claire's (of course) when we ran into him. I backed off and let them have some privacy but they actually stood there and talked for about 10 minutes. It was the sweetest thing.

Anyway, if you wanna join in on more Foto Fun, click on over to Candid Carrie's.

Later,

Mama Dawg

A Bacon Tale

Did she say bacon?

Hey, let's go find the bacon.

Maybe it's over here........nope.

Hey stupid, the bacon's not up here. Why did you tell me it was?

I's gonna go find de bacon all by mysef since you cain't be nice.

Nope, not de bacon. But she tastes good!

Ewwwww....dat's not bacon.

Holy schmoly, dat's fer sure not bacon!

Gimme de bacon before I turn on you, HUMAN!

Dreamin' of bacon. Mmmmmmmmm........

I hope you have delicious dreams this weekend. Even if it includes bacon!

If you wanna join in, click on over to Carrie's for more fun!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Friday Foto Fiesta Finish

Do you feel a breeze?

I feel a breeze.

For the life of me, I can NOT figure out where it's come from.

It's a real head scratcher.

Oh, well, Happy (real early or real late) Mardi Gras!

Later,

Mama Dawg

If you wanna join in on more foto fun, click on over to Candid Carrie's!

Friday Foto Fiesta Finish

We use the Snoop Dogg brand popcorn in our house.

These are the precise instructions for the microwave we use for our popcorn.

I did not write this.

Someone else did, I swear.

If you wanna play along, head on over to Candid Carrie's for more foto fun!

Later,

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

After a few bottles sips of this:



This is hysterical.



And so is this.



Just a normal Saturday night in the Dawg household.

The Cullens ain't got nuttin' on us.

If you wanna join in on the phestivities, head on over to Candid Carrie's for more foto phun.

Later,

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

(click on the picture to get the full detailed view...it's awesome!)

Here's my entry for this week. This was taken at Disney World in May of 2007. We were at Ariel's Grotto and I just happened to catch this just right.

I love Disney. And I love this picture.

Wanna join in on the fun?

Hop on over to Candid Carrie's. You won't regret it!

Later,

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

Know what makes me happy?

Friends visiting.

I supplied a safe haven recently to some friends from New Orleans when Gustav was threatening to hit the Gulf Coast.



Here's the sign announcing their hotel location. My mom and daughter made these and posted them on either side of our mailbox. Forgive the big black blah in your face. It's covering up our address. (However, Trooper Thorn, you're more than welcome to get my address and come visit me! I'll even have you a warm bed ready *wink, wink*)



Here's a driveway full of cars. This makes my heart happy.



This is my favorite pic of all. A towel rack full of towels. It means lots and lots of people in my house.

I love having my friends visit. I love having a full house (only cause I know at some point, they'll leave!).

I miss you guys! Come back soon!

If you wanna join in more foto festivities, go check out Candid Carrie!

Later,

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

'Snot a troll...

Is too a troll...

No it'snot a troll...

Is too....



'Snot.

Too.

If you wanna play along, click on over to Candid Carrie's for more foto fun!

Later,

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

My homes.

As we were driving to go to New Orleans for a visit with friends, we swung through my old hometown and walked down memory lane.



This is the house I lived in when my mom and dad brought me home from the hospital. I, of course, don't remember it. We moved from here when I was two.




This is the house I lived in from two til eleven. I LOVED this house. I LOVED this neighborhood. I have so many good memories here. I had a wonderful childhood. Not too long after we moved, the city I grew up in started to deteriorate and I was so disappointed to hear about this. However, for some reason, this neighborhood is still hanging in there and doing good. The house looks a little different (when we lived there, there was no pink painted on it, just slate blue). Also, the mailbox was located on the other side of the street. That tree that I planted 22 years ago? Yeah, it was a free one that they gave us at school for Arbor Day. It's MASSIVE now. I wish they still did things like that.


This is our house in Florida. Please excuse the obvious camera in the picture. I was taking a picture of a picture through glass. Anyway, even though it was my teenage years, I still have good memories of this house as well. It's such a typical Florida house. Last time we were in Florida, we drove by it and it's now painted yellow. How that got by the Homeowners Association, I'll never know.



This is our house in New Orleans. Again, excuse the camera in the picture. That's my mom walking back to the house. We were decorating for Mardi Gras and had walked across the street to check on the decorations from the street. This is where Light of my Life came after she was born. She still misses the house and to a degree, so do I. But, I still love where we live now, much better. This was the one that was damaged in Katrina.



This is our current house. Of course, the dumpster is no longer there. That was there to clean out the house before I moved in. The previous tenant left it in a COMPLETE and UTTER MESS. Destroyed furniture and the floors. Thank goodness for elbow grease and a landlord that knows how to fix crap.

The porch needs to be jacked up on the right and it needs to be repainted and the shutters re-done, but that's on the landlords "to-do" list. What you don't see is the tons and tons and tons of land surrounding this house. To date, this is my favorite place to live. Funny, it's the smallest and the one that gives me the most problems, but, there's just something about it. It's......home.

If you wanna join in, please head on over to Candid Carrie's for more photo phun.

Later,