Sleeping Beauty

Daughter came home from school today at 2:40 and went to sleep.  She's still asleep and it's now 7:20pm.  At this point I'm hoping she sleeps all the way through the night rather than waking up for a few hours and getting her sleep schedule all messed up.

My money says she stayed up half the night last night reading.  The Terry Goodkind series she's into right now must be REALLY good.

Either that or she's having another growth spurt.  She's already 5' 9" so growing a bunch more is not necessary.  Oh well, at least I have someone to reach the stuff on the top shelf for me.

A Beer Can Dress!

Did you know that it was possible to crochet a dress out of beer cans?  Me neither.  But Stitchy McYarnpants has done it.  Absolute FASHION GENIUS!  Here's a close up of the skirt.

And here is the back of the exquisite gown being modeled by her hubby.  Look at him posing, QUITE the supermodel thankyouverymuch.  I bet he made her put a bowl of m&m's in his dressing room with all the red ones carefully picked out and the m's turned right side up in neat little rows.  We know how you supermodels are!

This dress was created for "Miss West Virginia", Shelby Free, to wear in a pageant that will raise money for Aid for AIDS.  So go check it out and give some props to Stitchy for her AMAZING artwork and Shelby for wearing it.  In public.  On a stage.  In front of lots of PEOPLE!

Do you think Stitchy can make me a red wine bottle dress?

This Class is Going to Make my Brain Explode

I have to write a biographical essay in which I am "participating in [the] dialectical process of the internalization of reality through primary and secondary socialization".

Somebody shoot me.

Punishment

I think I'm being punished for going on two vacation weekends in three weeks.  Or maybe for getting totally trashed on Saturday night, effectively wasting one whole day to a hangover and increased seasickness.  Or maybe because I say FUCK a lot - sometimes even in front of my kids.

Daughter is puking.

Thing 2 has a fever.

And Thing 1 sounds like a three pack a day for forty years smoker - it's gotta be a case of bronchitis brewing.  Or he's hiding his nicotine habit really well.

Oh yeah, whole lotta fun happening here.

McCain & Palin are Desperate

Did you watch the debate last night?  Did you see McCain nudge his wife to take Obama's extended hand to shake so he wouldn't have to?  Hear McCain call Obama "That One"?  His hatred for Obama was palpable.  He looked like an angry bitter man pissed off that he is losing the election.  Or an angry bitter two year old who is mad because it's his bedtime.

In a New York Times editorial from today, they said McCain and Palin are "running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember...far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent's record - into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia".  Given that these were the tactics used against McCain by the Bush campaign in 2000 - remember the rumors of an out of wedlock black child fathered by McCain that turned out to be his adopted daughter from Bangladesh? - I'm appalled that he would fall to such a low.  

And Palin is ENJOYING her rabble rousing.  She positively delights in comments from the crowd shouting "kill him" and "traitor", referring to Obama, when she is addressing a crowd of her supporters.  This from a woman who has strong ties to a secessionist party (she has addressed their convention MORE THAN ONCE) in her home state of Alaska.  Watch the clip from The Jed Report:

This whole campaign is totally out of control.  I think the way McCain has allowed it to deteriorate, along with his choice of Palin for his Vice-Presidential running mate make a pretty good argument that he is in the grips of early dementia or alzheimer's.

Or he is just totally fucking crazy.  Either way I don't want him anywhere near the Presidency.  I wouldn't even want him teaching my kids high school poli-sci class.

Canadian Cruise (or Why Didn't We Go to Mexico?)

We had such a wonderful time catching up, laughing, drinking, shopping and eating.  Here we are on the teeny tiny balcony of our stateroom.

The emergency drill was the perfect photo-op.  Don't we look lovely in orange?

Spanish teacher had never been to Canada so we disembarked in Victoria, B.C. and shopped til we dropped.  There is an adorable Christmas store there where I picked up a gorgeous hand-painted tree ornament for my collection and we found a great jewelry store where we bought our commemorative jewelry.  Spanish teacher's Mom taught her that when you visit somewhere, you buy a piece of jewelry from a local artist as your souvenir of the trip.  We think that is the best idea ever so we followed suit.  

Of course we found necklaces and one can't buy the necklace without matching earrings so we got two pieces for ourselves.  They are absolutely stunning and I'll post some pics later when I get all dressed up and wear them.

We didn't make it through the museum, but the museum gift shop was almost as good.  And high tea at The Empress Hotel was all sold out (could you hear me crying?) so we had to make due with a pot of tea for me and Diet Coke for Spanish teacher in the Bengal Lounge instead.  There was a terrific wind and rain storm in the afternoon and getting back on the ship was like walking through a wind tunnel.

Because of the combination of hangovers and sea-sickness (I'm pretty sure that puking at 8pm the night AFTER the party night indicates sea-sickness and not a hangover.  No hangover could possibly last that long, right?) we didn't get off the ship in Nanaimo but it looked very pretty from the deck.

I take Spanish teacher to the airport at 2pm today so we are going to fit some more fun into these last few hours and then go back to reality.  It's been so much fun and we've decided that instead of buying each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas, we are going to take a trip like this every couple of years.

But next time we are going somewhere warm!

Generic Rubbers and Girly Vacations

I get to spend all weekend and then some with the friend who gave husband this:

You see, husband has a reputation for being a little bit, um, thrifty. (Actually he *is* a cheap fucker, just ask Stepmonster) We were going to spend a few days in New Orleans with my BFF spanish teacher and her husband computer wiz, celebrating their ten year anniversary. They got there several days before us and found these generic rubbers for cheap fuckers and computer wiz and spanish teacher decided to buy one and wait until husband said something about the high prices of things in N.O.

It happened approximately one hour after we got off the plane, when we were looking at the menu in Pat O'Brien's. Husband made a comment along the lines of "Holy Shit! Look at these PRICES!" and spanish teacher and computer wiz flipped this in front of him.

I have never laughed so hard in my entire life.

So tomorrow spanish teacher arrives in Seattle and Friday we leave for a four-day cruise in Puget Sound. Four days with a friend I haven't spent nearly enough time with since she deserted me to move to Austin, Tx. (And then to Denver, CO - they like to move, it's a hobby)

We are going to drink, shop, drink, eat, drink, laugh and catch up on everything that's going on in our lives. I cannot wait! We met in 2003 and she is the sister I always wanted, an instant friend, and someone who would drop her entire life and get on a plane if I needed her. A friend like her is a rare gift and I thank my lucky stars for her every day. She and her husband and their two beautiful kids are family now.


Here we are on our way to a trip to the Mall of America in 2005. We are the queens of girly trips and need to take more of them. Maybe we'll let husband and computer wiz come along on the next one. If they're good.