I'm Back

Bet you didn't even know I was gone.

I went to New Orleans for the weekend. My friend's son, C, was graduating from college and her daughter, V, was starring in her high school play of Chicago. She was Roxie Hart.

Guys, I have seen many a high school play in my life and I have to tell you this, this was hands down, the best high school play I've EVER seen.

They did such a phenomenal job. The choreography was spot on, the girls of the "Cell Block Tango" were OUTSTANDING, the performance of Billy Flynn and Roxie for the number of "We Both Reached For the Gun"...I don't even have words. With the exception of Rene Zelleweger and Richard Gere, I haven't ever seen anything like it.

I knew V was talented, but she totally blew me out of the water with her performance. I seriously think she needs to try to do some stage work somewhere. She'll be attending (hopefully) Loyola when she graduates (she has one more year of high school).

It was such a bold move for them to do Chicago but they, without a doubt, pulled it off.

C graduated from Southeastern and I am so proud of him. I've known him since he was 14 and to see how much he's grown and how far he's gone, it's amazing.

We had his graduation/birthday party on Sunday. It was a crawfish boil and we had a blast. It was so nice getting to see everyone again and visiting.

K's sister is the one who recently passed away so it made for a bittersweet party.

I had the day off yesterday and I let light of my life skip school (it's her last week) so we could stay for an extra day. We went shopping yesterday, (oh, Target, how I miss you so) and well, all hell broke loose.

K had to go to the ER due to complications from her diabetes. They ended up admitting her and she's still in the hospital today.

Mom decided to stay behind in New Orleans to take care of her while she recuperates and to help with V since she's still in school and C works a lot.

Light of my life and I came back by ourselves last night. We didn't get back home until well after midnight so I'm exhausted today.

This is a bigger situation than I'm comfortable going into here on The Internets, so that's all I'm gonna say for now.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and good wishes and good vibes or whatever it is you do to send good energy out to the universe. She needs it.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Such A Geek

I'm such a geek.

My neighbors, B & L, are contemplating a trip to my FAVORITE place in the whole wide world......Disney World!!!!!

YAY!!!!

Now, as excited as I am that they are going to (for the first time ever) experience this most magical of places, I'm even more excited because B asked me to help her with figuring out the cost and helping plan and doing all those fun and exciting things.

Seriously, that's fun for me. I'm not being sarcastic (for like the first time EVER). This is really what I love to do.

I love planning our Disney trips. I start planning for our next one right after the one we just went on finishes. We try to go every two years. It takes about that long for me to save up enough money for us to go. Thanks to our government, they make it possible for me to do this (thanks IRS refund and for this year, rebate check!).

Anyway, I'm happier than a pig in....well, you know.

I actually started last night while I was over at their house.

I've had a couple of people tell me that I need to become a travel agent that specializes in Disney Trips. I've thought about it, but if you know me, I need to do a lot of research before I can just jump into something like that.

I'm such a geek. It's the little things that make me happy.

Have a good Monday.

Later,

Mama Dawg

P.S. I'm over the trauma, L!

Just Call Me Rambo

Man, I had a good weekend.

Friday night, we went to the neighbors for some relaxation.

I had to take a test at work earlier for some certification, so I was wiped out by Friday night. Went over and had a nice relaxing evening. Hung out for a bit but then came home and watched some Friday Night Lights.

Slept in until 10:30 on Saturday morning. I haven't done that in FOREVER, so it was nice. Got up and farted around for a while. Did some light cleaning. We had to make the Wal-Mart run so we got dressed and hopped in the car. On the way to Wal-Mart, we had to stop by a neighbors house. Remember that church I told you about that has the rummage sale? Well, I had done some massive cleaning out of light of my life's room and we had a crapload of stuff to donate. The neighbor is someone that my mom went to high school with and she hadn't been to visit with her yet. Well, this neighbor is a talker (in a good way). She invited us in after we unloaded the car and stayed and visited for about an hour. I heard some good stories that I'll share here one day.

Anyway, we finally got to Wal-Mart about an hour and a half later. Keep in mind, this Wal-Mart is about 30 minutes away from the city where we live.

Not even 5 minutes after arriving, we saw our neighbors B, M and C. While I was standing there talking to them, we caught sight of my aunt and she told us we just missed my other aunt and grandmother! It was so funny seeing all these people in Wal-Mart at one time.

After Wal-Mart, we stopped by a near-by BBQ place and picked up a catfish platter and a BBQ sandwich with slaw on it. Man, that stuff is GOOD. That tarter sauce with the catfish platter is to die for.

We went home to unload the groceries and to eat dinner. After we ate, we went over to the neighbors (again!). The girls hung out while B, L and I watched "National Security". It was sorta....blah. Not good but not necessarily bad. I wouldn't recommend it except as a time waster. B and I ended up doing a couple of shots of Jagermeister. It made me pleasantly buzzy. Not that hyper buzzy, but the nice lazy kind.

Got up on Sunday and went to church. Mom had gotten a panini maker for Christmas and wanted to try it out (K, if you're reading this, that was the best gift you've given her....it makes wonderful sandwiches). We used to go to this little cafe back where we used to live and they made these wonderful sandwiches with turkey, swiss cheese, bacon and ranch dressing on rye bread. I had forgotten how much I love rye bread. Anyway, mom re-created this sandwich and used the panini press. They came out delicious.

Went to visit my aunts and grandmother. We had a nice visit with them.

When we returned, I had told B and L I wanted to come over and walk their land. They live on a lot of land that has 2 ponds on it. I wanted to walk it to 1) see the land and 2) take some pictures.

The light wasn't that good due to it being overcast and close to 5 pm. B and I went walking anyway. I saw the little pond (perfect for parties) and the larger one. We walked a bit and when we came back around to the little pond, L met us on the 4-wheeler.

He had his pistol with him and offered to teach me to shoot it. I had been wanting to learn to shoot for a while, so I was all game for it. I got to shoot it in the water (don't worry, no fish were harmed in the telling of this tale). We then found a target for me to shoot at but I couldn't hit it to save my hide! I didn't do too bad though.

We walked back up to the house and when we got there, L told me we'd do some target practice. Apparently, he had enough confidence in my shooting abilities that I was granted another lesson right then and there.

He brought out an empty water bottle and tossed it up in the air. Wherever it landed was where I was to shoot. It landed about 4 feet in front of the water main. I made L move the bottle because as a novice gunslinger, I wasn't about to be responsible for them being without water while repairs were made to the shot-up water main.

Anyway, I got practice shooting some more. After I emptied the first clip (see, I'm already all over the gangsta talk), I went over to check out my progress as I had never hit the bottle (I nicked it a bit, but it just fell over). Turns out, I wasn't hitting that far from the target. One was about a foot and a half beyond it, but most were 6-10 inches all around it. Not too bad for a newbie.

I went back and got a second clip and practiced some more. On this one, I HIT THE TARGET!!!!! It went straight up in the air and landed about 5 feet behind it's original position! This pistol is a Ruger and it had a short barrel on it which makes it harder to hit what you're aiming at. But I HIT THE TARGET!!!!! L then let me open up and wanted me to take consecutive shots. I didn't really open up that much but I discovered that for the most part, I can can keep hold of the gun and not let it kick up.

I had so much fun. I thought I'd like shooting (really, there's not much I don't like) but I didn't know that I'd love it as much as I did. Granted, it was only this one time (so far) but I got such a rush.

I didn't know emotionally how I'd be when shooting a gun. I'm not a NRA member but neither am I a gun-control freak. I didn't know if I'd freak out after shooting or what, but I didn't. It was such a rush.

I can't wait for my next lesson.

Just call me Rambo.

Later,

Mama Dawg

P.S. for those of you who know me personally, light of my life was safely tucked away inside B and L's house watching TV and playing her DS Lite. So don't panic! :)

My Weekend

This weekend was so nice. First of all, the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! Just stunning. I love these kinds of days. It was a bit chilly in the morning but then it heated up enough during the day to get into a short-sleeved t-shirt.

Light of my life wanted M to come spend the night Friday night, so after we visited with B & L for a while, I brought them back to the house. It was close to 11 at this point, so the girls went straight to sleep.

We all woke up around 8 or so. Mom cooked pancakes (she makes the best pancakes, hands down), eggs and sausage. I cleaned a bit. The girls were in the playroom playing with Barbies.

I had to go to the vet to get some flea meds for the boys before they closed at 11. When I got back and took care of the cats, I informed the girls that they needed to get dressed and go outside to play. They wanted to play with the baby doll stuff outside so I dragged out all the baby doll beds (three), the highchair, playpen, swing, light of my life’s princess table and chairs, a quilt for them to use, clothes for the baby dolls, toys for the baby dolls and the kitchen stove. Yes, the kitchen stove. Of course, it’s a plastic Playskool kitchen stove that’s filled with play kitchenwares and plastic food, but you can’t set up house without having a kitchen.

They played this way for at least 2 hours. It was good for them to get outside.

Now, before you ask what I was doing during this time, I’ll go ahead and let you know.

I decided to take this opportunity to drag out my work table (an old dining table top on top of 2 saw horses) and my big masculine power tools. I had a couple of projects to work on that required my circular saw and my jig saw. Since the day was gorgeous, I figured it was as good a time as any to work outside.

I have a shelf that I need to put up in the bathroom to put all the laundry detergent and stuff on. Right now, it all sits on top of the dryer and it takes up so much space (that could be otherwise used for other random miscellaneous crap). So, I had gone to Home Depot earlier in the week and got a white shelf. It was 5 feet long but I only needed 3 ½ feet or so. Instead of getting them to cut it, I decided to do it myself. I’m sure I could find somewhere to hang the other 1 ½ foot of shelf that’s scrap.

I got that cut and then moved on to the Barbie dollhouse.

See, a couple of years ago, I got a bee in my bonnet to build light of my life a Barbie dollhouse. However, I didn’t just imagine a quaint little four room house. Nope, I had grander ideas. Barbie was going to have a mansion. Nothing short of 16 rooms for that b*tch. This required me building 4 separate 4-room houses. I drew out the plans (like they were real hard, it consists of 4 rooms that are 14”h x 16”d x 16”w). I actually managed to get one section built. It’s custom painted (each room), I cut out windows, made curtains, made some furniture, made flooring (out of tea stained balsa wood), placed down carpet (real carpet remnants were used), etc…..My goal was to wait a few weeks and then start on the next section.

Then our world went black. Our life was disrupted for well over a year. Decisions were made and we packed up our worldly belongings and moved. During all this time, I was never able to get back to building the other three sections. I promised myself that I would get it finished before this summer. I went and bought the wood about a month ago and I actually did some work on it Saturday. I got the exterior built of another section. All I need to do now is put in the interior floors/ceiling/walls, paint the rooms and put in flooring.

Then do the same thing for 2 more sections.

Ambitious, I know. But it will be completed…..just in time for light of my life to declare her love for Barbies to be over and done with.

Sigh……

B came over while I was in the middle of all this. We visited for a while. I kept on working on the house while we visited. The girls had gone in by that time and like most kids, could sense that I was enjoying a nice adult conversation and decided to some outside at that point. They wanted to show off their house to B, so she went along and entertained them for a while. She invited light of my life to come over to play, so they left and I finished up what I was doing.

I went over later to visit and to collect light of my life.

As you can tell by previous posts, we are over there all the time!

On Sunday, we got up and light of my life got ready for Sunday school. B normally picks her up and takes her with them since she teaches a Sunday school class. However, I got a phone call from H that morning (H is the landlords daughter, she’s 13 and is friends with B’s girl C). She told me that B wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t going to church. H asked me if I’d take her to Sunday school when I took light of my life. Being the good neighbor that I am (or am trying to be) I said it was fine. And it was. However, unbeknownst to me, B had made arrangements to have her mother come pick up light of my life since she was already having to pick up B’s girls to take them to Sunday school. We got it all straightened out and made it to Sunday school on time.

At church, before the sermon, B’s brother in law talks to all the kids. They leave the pew and go to the front of the church and stand around while he tells them an amusing story that relates to something about God or Jesus or stories in the Bible. This Sunday, he was talking to the kids about Valentine’s day and was trying to tie it in to Jesus loving you forever and all that jazz. Now, M is his niece and she’s up there with light of my life and other kids. M is a sassy little thing (not in a bad way, but in the wholesome, positive, extremely HILARIOUS way) and she doesn’t let adults get by with much. She loves her uncle to pieces. Her aunt (B’s sister) is sitting in the pew this whole time. Her kids are sitting with her as well and her mom and dad are there, too.

The story he was trying to relate to the kids is that when he was younger, he had a crush on a girl named Michelle. He gave her a special Valentine (one of many that this girl received….apparently she was a popular girl) with a big ole’ smiley face on it and asked her to be his. This girl returned the Valentine with a big ole’ frowny face and declined his request.

The point he was trying to get across was that if you gave your heart to Jesus, you can bet he won’t return it and he will keep it and protect it and cherish it forever.

However, I think the kids missed this point. Why? Well….it's all because M loves her aunt and felt the need to defend her honor.

See, uncle, when he started the story, told the kids about loving this little girl. M got indignant on her aunt’s behalf and raked him over the coals for loving someone that is NOT HIS WIFE!!! She had the whole church rolling. The choir was chiming in, the congregation was chiming in, and the other kids were chiming in. It was hysterical.

You gotta be proud of M for standing up for her aunt. It was truly touching. I just wish someone could have taped the whole thing. B could have won some money on America’ Funniest Home Videos or whatever it’s called now.

That girl is a trip.

The rest of Sunday was nice and relaxing. Mom and I went to see my grandmother and we went driving. My aunt thought she knew of a field where some daffodils were growing and wanted to show them to us. I brought my camera along, of course.

We then made the ubiquitous trip to Wal-Mart and came home.

Went to B & L’s for hamburgers and hot dogs. Came home and went to bed.

I love living up here.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Weekend Wrap Up

A winter storm came through on Friday when I was leaving for work. I actually had icicles on my car! The DOT had already been out and about in the county because there was stuff on the bridges to prevent slipping. I got home on Friday only to have to go back out to pick up pizzas. No cooking in our house on Friday. It was so miserable. I had thought about going over to B’s on Friday after we ate our pizza and watched a movie but then light of my life wanted to watch the next movie in the series and I fell asleep during the beginning of it (it was like 9:15!) and light of my life and mom decided to go on to bed. I got my lazy ass up off the couch around 2:30 am and crawled in to my bed. For was cold as it was outside, the inside of the house wasn’t too bad. I don’t have central air and heat and when it’s really cold, I sometimes need to use a space heater in my bedroom. But that night I didn’t need to. B was at her house and they were bored. I should have gone over, but my butt was out like a light waaaaay too early. I would have been no fun to anyone as tired as I was.

The movie, by the way, was Indiana Jones. Light of my life had never seen the movies and I felt so bad not breaking her into to one of the greatest series of all times. She loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and immediately wanted to watch Temple of Doom. We’ll watch The Last Crusade tonight, probably. I’m kinda digging this writer’s strike. It gives me a chance to catch up on movies and light of my life’s movie education. She’s already been introduced to Grease, Grease 2, Dirty Dancing (with the Baby/Johnny love scene fast forwarded and eyes covered), Karate Kid (all 4!), Adventures in Baby-Sitting, Clue, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (her personal fav!), Footloose (another fav!), Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Goonies, Never Ending Story, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (the Kevin Costner version….I don’t care what people say, I love this movie!!!) and Shag. Next up on the list is Uncle Buck and Ghostbusters.

On Saturday morning, we awakened to icicles on the house, our cars, the handrail on the steps, the steps themselves, the trees, bushes, etc….Light of my life was so excited. Poor thing, it was the first time she’s ever seen icicles. We never got cold enough where we used to live for her to ever experience it. Still no snow, but the icicles will hold her over for a while. We have several of them in a bowl in my freezer! Got some cool pics.

Had to make the inevitable Wal-Mart run on Saturday. After all the fun and excitement with the icicles, we hopped in the car and drove 30 miles away to go shopping. I love that I live 30 minutes from a Wal-Mart. No extra stops just to buy more crap that I don’t need.

Anyway, light of my life had gotten a kids cookbook from Santa and she wanted to try out a recipe. We found one that we already had most of the ingredients for. She actually found two recipes and they make up a meal so she got to cook the entire meal by herself on Saturday night.

She made Crispy Mexican Chicken Tenders and French Fries. The only work I had to do was cut the potatoes and put things in and out of the oven. Otherwise, all the measuring and dipping and breading, she did herself. She even cut the chicken pieces into nugget-sized pieces. It was actually really, really good. I just had the leftovers for lunch today. The French Fry recipe even had a sauce to make with it. It was sour cream and barbecue sauce. It called for more sour cream than barbecue sauce but we reversed it and put more barbecue sauce than sour cream! I explained to her that as she got more comfortable with cooking, she could alter recipes to her liking.

She was so proud of herself. I'm real proud of her, too. We had some leftover and went over to B’s house. She had said that she wanted to sample it. We brought over about 6-7 pieces and some fries. Light of my life’s friend, M, had another girl sleeping over that night and they ate the whole plate!!! Luckily, B had managed to get a couple of bites in and declared it delicious. The girls thought it was good, as well. B asked light of my life when she was going to come over and cook for them. Light of my life said, “Anytime”.

We are obtaining a pool/Foosball/air hockey/ping pong table from B. She cleaned out the girls’ room and had to make room for her exercise equipment. In order to do that, she had to get rid of the table. We gladly accepted.

They’re bringing it over tonight.

When we were there on Saturday afternoon, I was teaching light of my life to play pool. I love to play pool and had been playing since high school. I’m such a bad mother. I’ve taught my daughter to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker and now pool! Next thing you know, I’ll have her smoking unfiltered Marlboro’s and drinking her Jack Daniel’s straight!

Anyway, B was on the phone with her husband, L. She mentioned that I was busy playing pool and he said that he “bet I had been in a lot of pool joints”. Of course, I had to correct him. I told B to tell him that I had been in a lot of “beer joints that happened to have pool tables”. That L is such a smarty pants sometimes! Of course, he wasn’t wrong, so I can’t get upset at him. Not that I would anyway. It was funny!

We decided that since the pool table was now going over to our house, if the girls wanted to come over to play, they had to bring a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer. That was the entry fee into the pool tournaments. I was teasing of course, but the rest of the time, we were saying that they always had to bring a carton and a case in order to enter the “pool joint” I was making over at my house. I’m going to make a sign and hang it up on the outside of the house. I bet some of the inhabitants of this county will think twice about stopping by unannounced after they see that. Actually, I’d probably be thrown in the slammer since it’s a dry county and I’d probably be contributing to the delinquency of minors and all that jazz! I kid, I kid. At least about the carton and case. I’m not kidding about having the kids over for tournaments. That will be fun. Their parents, however, will be required to bring over a case (not necessarily a carton)….especially if they intend to stay and visit! LOL!!!!!

Not a terribly exciting weekend but a nice and leisurely one. Just the kind I like. Did some cleaning out of light of my life’s room and playroom. Giving lots of things away. I can’t believe light of my life is willingly giving away 90% of her purses!!!! This is my little purse obsessed girl willingly giving away PURSES! I was so proud of her.

Now I just have to call up that Methodist church and take the stuff we don’t want any more to them. I hope Paris comes to the next sale. She can buy one of light of my life’s old purses! She has a nice silver one with a picture of Troy from HSM on it! I think that would look smashing with her many glorious outfits she’s frequently photographed in while visiting lesbian clubs in California. Yes, you read that right. Just Google that and you’ll see where she’s been partying lately!

Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Later,

Mama Dawg

They Call Him Spooky

I love living in a small town. It's the little things, man.

B was over visiting yesterday. C and M came over with her. Light of my life and M were playing quietly in her room. I hadn't gotten home yet but B was visiting with mom. It was a nice surprise to see them there. I was surprised because I didn't see their car but they had walked over (it was cold yesterday).

Anyway, I was supposed to have gone over to their house last night to help C with her social studies homework. She has to learn the placement of the states on a map as well as their postal abbreviations. Not to brag or anything, but I'm good at that kind of stuff. I always prided myself on knowing where states are on a map and the abbreviations. Of course, during the course of my previous occupation, I needed to know the abbreviations because I had to mail things out to states all over the country. I actually got pretty good at knowing area codes as well. You could give me a telephone number with an out of state area code and about 8 out of 10 times I could tell you the state they were calling from. Yes, I know, I'm a total dork and know a lot of completely useless information. You should see the inside of my head. It's filled with nothing but useless information and trivia. Especially if it has anything to do with movies. Just think, if I could clear my mind of all that information..........well, I would probably just fill it up with other completely useless information!! LOL!!!

Whoa, I got way off track with that.

Anyway, B came over to tell me that the state thingie got postponed until Monday so instead, she invited me to the Methodist church in a nearby city to go shopping.

I guess I should back up and start over.

B's friend P has a son that's a senior at the local high school. Next Thursday, they are having a beauty pageant for boys. It's where the boys get to dress up like women and parade around and have a pageant. I'm not sure what all it entails as I'm new here and have never gone to it before. At my high school, we had one of these as well. It was a trip seeing all these big beefy guys from the football team all dressed up in fishnets, bustiers and heels. Some of them really got in to it, too. Some of them really seemed to like it.....wonder what they're up to these days? Hmmmm....note to self.....Google some guys from high school to see what they're up to.

Anyway, P needed to get a dress and some heels for her son. The pageant is next Thursday. There's a Methodist church in a neighboring city that has a rummage sale every other Saturday. The church is no longer a working church so the items for the sale just stay in there. It's kind of like a permanent rummage store. It's only opened every other Saturday. P knows the woman that runs it and she said that P could come and check out the dresses they had. B has been cleaning out the toy room like crazy for the past few days and had a bunch of stuff to donate to the store. I had a few things as well. B invited me to come with her and P to the store and to drop off my donations as well. I was game. Survivor doesn't start for a little while, so my Thursday night was free. Light of my life was just happy to go over to M's to play.

First of all, shout out to B. She makes the best rice. It was so good. So was the sweet and sour chicken. Thanks again for dinner, B!

After we ate, we watched a couple of videos on ebaum's world (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/). You guys need to check it out. It's like You Tube but B's husband, L, had found all these funny videos. If you go check out the site, look for one called "Atomic Sit-Up". It was hysterical.

P came and picked us up. We went to the church and dropped off the donations and shopped a bit. I got 4 books for myself (one on Catherine the Great and 3 others....I love reading about Catherine the Great, she was a phenomenal woman) and about 5-6 for light of my life as well as a curio shelf and another wooden shelf. B got some pants for C and some books for both girls. P found a black and white dress and some shoes for her son. He's gonna look so hot! LOL!

While we were there, the lady who runs the shop had her mother with her. Her mother is an older lady but very spry. She was wandering around the shop and noticed some pillows. She said, "I like these pillows" and her daughter spoke up and said "You should, they came from our house!". It was so funny. It sounds like something I would say.

I loved being able to shop before the store opened. I feel like a celebrity who gets stores to open up after hours so they can shop in private. I bet Paris Hilton never got a Methodist church rummage store to open up 2 days before the official opening. Eat your heart out Paris. I roll with the crew that has pull in this town, b*tch.

This post has no point whatsoever, other than to tell you what I did with my Thursday night.

Oh, and the title to this post?

When B was over and visiting with mom, mom asked her who lived in a house right down the highway from us.

B, in all seriousness, said, "Well, they call him Spooky". It took me about 5 minutes to stop laughing.

That sums up living in a small town better than anything else out there.

I think I need to rename my blog "They Call Him Spooky".

Have a good weekend all!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Music and Stuff

I’m not a big music person. Wait, let me rephrase that. I’m not a big music aficionado. I can’t tell you the history of each and every album that every artist has ever done. I can’t remember half the time who the artist is when I hear it on the radio. I can’t tell the difference between several country artists and several hip-hop artists and several rock artists. They all sound the same to me. However, I know when I like a song. I don’t like songs based on the “message” the artist is trying to get me to understand. I really don’t care (usually) about the meaning of songs. I just know if I like the beat and the music. Lyrics don’t mean much to me.

I have such eclectic taste in music (how’s that for sounding pretentious?!?!?). That reminds me of something. I was over at B’s house last night to pick up some clothes and I was sitting down talking to them about various things and I threw out the word theology. B’s husband, L, looked at me funny and said “What does that mean?”. He was being silly because he knew what it meant. C, their daughter, told him I’m always using big words and L said that every time I leave, he has to go look up things in the dictionary just to know what I was talking about. I thought that was funny. Sometimes I have no clue that I’m using what I call “big words”. Instead of using the word “theology” to explain to C about the study of religion, I could have just used the word “religion”. I have no clue why I talk like that. But it was funny.

Anyway, back to music. My friend, V, made me several c.d.’s last year of various artists. I had started getting into to some more popular music (I’m so hopelessly behind when it comes to new artist and songs) but didn’t want to get separate c.d.’s for each artist. She made me 3 awesome c.d.’s with artist such as Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Sean Kingston, Nickelback, Christiana Aguilera and several others. I fell in LOVE with Sean Kingston and Nickelback. I’ve since ended up buying several of those “Now That’s What I Call Music” c.d.’s (yes, I still buy c.d.’s, I’m not rich enough to afford an IPOD or even a computer) and love all the various songs.

I like songs that I can dance to. I used to love to go to nightclubs to dance. Of course, this was back when I was 18, 19, etc….I used to love to dance. I still do, but I look like an idiot doing it now!!! LOL!!!!

I have the “Now That’s What I Call Music 26” and I’m so in to it right now. In fact, I’m sitting here at work listening to it right now.

You should see my c.d. collection. I have everything from Garth Brooks to Don McLean (American Pie, anyone?!?!?!?) to Gwen Stefani to soundtracks to holiday to Billy Joel to compilation c.d.’s, etc….Oh crap, I need to skip the song I’m listening to right now. Hold on a sec…..it was that damn Fergie song again. Now I’m on to Pink. I love her, too.

Light of my life has strange taste in music as well. She was not really in to those little kids c.d.s that have songs like “Old MacDonald” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on it. She was and still is, into the Kids Bop c.d.’s. She got the Grease and Grease 2 soundtracks from Santa this Christmas so that’s what’s been blaring in the house lately. I know every word to “Let’s Bowl” and “Reproduction” and “Greased Lightning” and her favorite (and mine, too) “Cool Rider”. I so wanted to be Michelle Pfeifer with that black silky jacket and skintight black pants and black sweater with high heel black boots with flowing blond hair and silver hoop earrings when she was singing that song. She was the epitome of cool to me. Still is, come to think of it. I know, I’m a geek.

She also knows the words to “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” by Offspring and knows the dance and some of the words to “Crank That” by Soulja Boy. Strange, I know, but it’s funny.

I know I was all over the place with that post, so I’ll stop for now.

Later,
Mama Dawg

Balderdash

Last Friday night, I went over to B & L’s house to see what was going on and to see if M and her sister, C, wanted to come over and play. B & L asked me if I wanted to go with them to the hunting club a few miles down the road. I called mom and she said she’d watch all three girls.

We got our drink on and went on over to the club. 2 other couples were there. I made the fifth (or technically, 7th) wheel but it was all good. There were a few kids there as well.

We arrived just in time to start playing Balderdash. Y’all, if you haven’t played this game, you need to. It is hilarious!!!! It’s basically a BS type of game.

You get a topic (such as dates, people, initials, etc….) and you have to make up a description for that topic. Example, if you chose to use the date 7/20/1969, the real answer is the date the first man walked on the moon. However, everyone but the Dasher (the person who chose the topic) has to make up a fake answer (or if you really know it, you can get points if you write down the real answer) and they all pass the answers to the Dasher. The Dasher then mixes them up and includes the real answer in the pile. The Dasher then reads the answers out loud and everyone has to place their guess on the real answer. You then score points based on which has the most popular answer.

Anyway, everyone came up with a few hysterical ones. My favorite one was the word: mystax.

The real answer had something to do with the hair near the mouth on an insect or some crap like that.

However, the best answer, hands down was this:

street slang hookers call their boobs

It took a minute for that to kick in but once it did, it was side splitting hilarious. It was almost worth giving a point to the person who came up with that. (for those of you still scratching their heads, pronounce it….my stacks….get it?)

The other good answer for that one was:

tax season in Russia

Pronounce it with a passable Russian accent and you see how funny it is. Or, I was just tipsy enough that it was hysterical. Who knows? All I know is that I found it funny.

There were two that had unbelievable answers that turned out to be the real answer.

The first one was the initials P.O.O.F.F.

It stands for:

Professional Oglers of Female Figures

Can you believe that? I mean, I can believe that people would want to do that, but to actually organize? Blows my mind. I wonder what the dues are like? Do they keep score of all the female figures they ogled? Are there monthly meetings? How do you prove that you actually ogled a female figure instead of just casually observed one? Seriously….if anyone knows anything about this organization, please let me know. If you’re a member of this organization, please let me know.

The other one was from a prior game that I did not participate in.

It was the person Timothy Hoare.

The real answer was:

Believe it or not, he owned a goose named Pinkey that did card tricks while blindfolded.

What?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I have nothing else for that one. It was just weird.

L was observing the game while B played. B got up from the game for a few minutes so L had to take her place. As his answer, he wrote down: “I got it”. That’s it. Nothing else. It was written in green ink with a flower pen. Well, the flower was on it earlier in the evening but it somehow “mysteriously” fell off the flower when a guy was using it. Go figure. Needless to say, L didn’t score any points for that round. It was actually funnier when you were there. I guess it’s one of those stories. I think I’ll have it framed for him and will give it to him on his birthday.

I love games. Any type. Word games (Scrabble, Taboo, etc…), money games (Monopoly, Life, etc….), trivia (Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, etc…) and card games (Texas Hold ‘Em, rummy, gin, etc…).

I can’t wait for another game night at the hunting club.

Oh, yeah, I ended up winning the game by only like 1 point. However, I’ve jokingly been told that I’m not allowed to come play anymore since I was the newbie who won the game. At least…..I hope they’re joking!!!!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Happy New Year

It's currently 2:46 am and I'm just now going to bed. It was a wonderful New Year's Eve (as usual). We always spend New Year's at my friend K's house. They're practically family and it's been a tradition for about 8 years now. We ate good food, had good conversations and played Taboo, Imaginiff and Words of Wizdumb. If you haven't played Imaginiff yet, go out and buy it. It's a hoot (that's my inner granny coming out).

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good and prosperous New Year and that 2008 is even better than 2007.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Friends

I've never been one of those people who had a lot of friends. Now, before you start to feel sorry for me, it's not a negative thing.

When I was growing up, I had one "best" friend. You know, the one that was labeled your official "best friend". Her name was Amy and we met when I was five and she was four. She was only younger than me by six months but was a grade behind due to that cut off birthday crap with school. Only one house separated us in the neighborhood we grew up in. I grew up in the 80's (a truly safer time, I believe) and people were much nicer and more friendlier about "boundaries" then. Our neighbor didn't believe in fences, so we had free reign to run back and forth from my house to hers and vice versa. We were even allowed to play in the neighbors yard. They had a hammock which was soooooo cool to us. We had a ditch that ran behind our house and separated the neighbors directly behind us. I had such an idyllic childhood. I truly had a happy one but that's for another post.

Amy and I did everything together. Then, I moved. I moved far, far away. So far (at least in my mind though in reality it was only 3 states away) that it appeared that my friendship with Amy was doomed. But, we managed to work it out. We kept in touch by letter and phone and when I would come back to my home state to visit the male parental unit and his cheating partner (again, a story for another day), we would visit. As per the course of nature and time, we did gradually drift apart but re-connected when we were about 15 due to a phone call from her mother. She had called to tell us that Amy had been in the hospital with a brain tumor and was back home after an operation to remove it. She was having some memory problems and really couldn't remember me that much but wanted to hear the sound of my voice and wanted me to talk about our childhood. We talked for about an hour and she could remember bits and pieces of our childhood but didn't seem uncomfortable talking to me. We sort of stayed in touch a bit after that and after I turned 16, they came down to visit me and when they were leaving, I bought a plane ticket and went back to stay with them for a while. We had a blast reconnecting. A couple of years later, they came back to visit again and again, we reconnected. About a year later, we found out she was pregnant. She was 20. She married the dad and had a beautiful little girl. Not long after that, the brain tumor came back and eventually, when she was about 23, she died from complications of the brain tumor. It was never cancerous, just a large growth that wouldn't stop. About two years after she passed on, her mother passed on as well. That just left her brother and father as well as her husband and little girl. I'm not in touch with any of them anymore and am a bit sad about that.

When I moved from my home state to the sunny state, I made friends. I had a couple of girls that I ran around with. One moved away and the other gradually made other friends that she had more in common with. I then found Jenny my freshman year of high school. We stayed real close for a couple of years but eventually grew apart. I really didn't have anyone close again until I started working for a major theme park and met Mimi. We hit it off so well we ended up moving out of our parents homes into an apartment. Issues occurred and that friendship ended as well. We've since reconnected via the internet, so that's cool.

After that, I really didn't have anyone real close. I eventually moved from the sunny state to the watery state and hung out w/co-workers and got pregnant and married and divorced. It wasn't until after a whole lot of water entered our lives that I discovered what a friend I had in my next door neighbor. We had always been friends and neighborly and occasionally done things with our kids. Her son is 2 years older than the love of my life and they get along pretty well. However, since he's a boy and mine's a girl, it wasn't all that conducive to do things with the kids together other than museums and the movies. In 2005, the friendship just exploded and we started hanging out more and started to become real friends. Since I'm an adult, I don't believe in the term "best friends" but she is probably one of my closest ones.

I've since moved again. Oddly enough, back to my old home state. However, not to the old stomping grounds but about 3 hours north. We've stayed in touch and I just saw her yesterday. I never realized the impact we had on them living next door to them. She got emotional yesterday when we were visiting. It touch my heart like nothing else to know that we were loved and cherished as neighbors and friends that much.

When I made the HUGE decision to pull up roots and move elsewhere, I worried about my daughter making friends but that was a silly worry as she made friends quicker than you can say "jack rabbit flash". In fact, we ended up moving right across the highway (yes, highway) from her best friend and her family. They are over at each others houses CONSTANTLY. But to be fair, I'm over there quite a bit myself. I'm surprised at how quickly I've become friends with B and her husband, L. I know myself and I'm slow to make friends so it came as a surprise.

I guess the whole point of this post is just to acknowledge the friends I have in my life and to wonder at the marvel that is friendship. I know I haven't written down specifics to signify just how great the friendships are, but that can come at another time.

Later,

Mama Dawg

P.S. I do have to give a big shout out to my friends on Yahoo!!! This is a big thank you to my Early Bird girls that have gotten me through so much just by being a click away. I've had the honor and privilege to meet a few of the ladies and I'd love the chance to meet more. Maybe one day that will happen. Fingers crossed!