Thanksgiving Recap

The kids and I had a great time in Tennessee over the Thanksgiving holiday. The food was great and everybody seemed to be in a good mood and on their best behavior. We played some dominos, did some hiking and went to a double feature at the drive-in in the freezing cold. All of it was fun. My sister is a great cook. I wonder where she got that from. I don't cook. I burn stuff. Maybe I wasn't paying attention way back when. She inspires me to try harder, but whether or not I will remains to be seen.

So here are some pics from the trip because it's not my blog if I can't bore you with the details.

Here are the cousins minus one and plus a boyfriend, zombied out playing video games. This seemed to happen quite a bit. They never even knew I was there.

Here's the domino game after Thanksgiving dinner and before the pies were eaten. I won 2 out of 4 games. I think that makes me the official wiener. That's my brown sleeve at the bottom left. My mama is top left. My brother-in-law's brother is next to her. This guy named Dennis from Jamaica is across from Mom (he's 65...he doesn't look 65 does he?). The others you can't see, but there were 7 of us playing. That's my sister's hand bottom right. She's cute huh?

Here we have the cousins perilously near death at the Fiery Gizzard Trail. What a beautiful place. We hiked about 2 miles or so, but for some reason it seemed to be all uphill.

These are the crazy people that sat in the back of the truck for the drive in movie. It started raining and they were forced to move into a car before the second movie started, but they braved the cold for as long as possible. We saw Bolt, which I thought was just great. The second feature was High School Musical 3 and I have to admit I fell asleep. The kids were in a different car, and they had no desire to see that one so they just tuned the radio station to the movie playing behind them (Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa) and turned around and watched that one.

And finally, me and my sister. This is not CB, this is the other one. CB was in Spain as mentioned in a previous blog entry. She was a lovely hostess. It was good to spend time with her. And yes, I am wearing a Sponge Bob shirt that I stole from Pateriko, which was given to him by Coco, who got it from who knows where.

A good time was had by all.

I missed the gym while I was gone. Isn't that weird? I was antsy, thinking about all the food I was eating and all the exercise I was missing. Tomorrow will be difficult I think, but I'm pumped. Let's see if I can drop a couple of pounds this week. Go Beej!

The day before the day

Good morning allayall. Just wanted to say that Tennessee is a freakin' cold state. I also wanted to share a little pre-Thanksgiving happiness in the form of artwork. The above picture is a Turkey that Litkia had to dress in a disguise for Thanksgiving. Her assignment also included writing a story to go along with it, describing how this disguise saved the Turkey from certain demise at the hands of hungry Thanksgiving revelers. She dressed it as a ballerina and in the story, took it to dance class and hid it amongst the many dancers to save it's turkey life. Please note the tiara.

Happy day before the day. Good luck with all the preps!

What Beej is thinking on Monday morning

Oh man. I just saw a deer cross the road and run into the woods less than a block from my house. I always knew they were there but I've never really seen one so close and at a time that wasn't dawn or dusk. Very nice.

In other news, we're packing up over here in Beej's world. After school tomorrow I'm taking my maternal figure and my two child-types to Tennessee to spend the remainder of this Thanksgiving week with my sister and her family. We are all very excited except for the fact that Dirty Larry is being left behind to fend for himself. Retail employment has been a constant thorn in my side for approximately 18 years. Dirty Larry tends to be left out when it comes to holidays. My friend told me she would bring him a plate on Thanksgiving Day. I am appreciative. I also appreciate the fact that he has a job, even if it sometimes gets in the way of my fun.

I will also say that I am not in any way jealous of my OTHER sister, CB, who is spending Thanksgiving on the island of Mallorca. Who cares about Spain? Not I said the cat. What...ever.

One more thing. I got on the elliptical trainer at the gym this morning for the first time, expecting to last about 2 minutes, but made it 15. I must admit that my legs kinda felt like Jell-O when I was done but I was kinda proud and very surprised. Yay for me!



Time for coffee!

Peaceful, satisfying things

After spending time looking at that original snowflake posted down there on this blog somewhere, something just wasn't sitting right with me about it. Turns out (according to the pattern) that it has one point more than it should have. I've been practicing a little and I think I'm doing better, although I can definitely see places on every snowflake that make me wonder what was going on in my head while I was working on it. Maybe the untrained eye will never know the difference and they will pass Christmas tree inspection. At any rate, my crochet therapy is working wonders and I feel a mystical peace while I'm working....except for those times when I'm scrunching up my nose, cursing and ripping out stitches because I screwed something up.

Also...

There is nothing worse than having a song stuck in your head all day and being unable to remember all the words, or how the tune goes. It's the most peaceful, satisfying feeling evAR when you can finally come to a place where you can find the song and listen to it in its entirety. It's like relief. Niiiiice.

It is also a very peaceful and satisfying moment when you know your Christmas shopping is all done and now you can just sit back and enjoy the holiday, drinking hot cocoa around the fire and listening to the carolers singing pleasant songs at the window. Too bad that peace never shows up over here until about December 24th. I should really start thinking about making a shopping list.

One more thing. Peaceful is the moment when Beej has caught up at work. I really hope to feel THAT peace this evening, but I'm not holding my breath. You see, I seem to be playing wordtwist at facebook and blogging about crocheting instead of working. This is a dilemma and it requires that I muster all my determination to work toward peace instead of entertainment. So far....nope.

Let's put a positive slant on it...

I've been thinking about how to remember my Daddy on this day. I went back and read all my blog entries from that horrible week two years ago when I sounded so hopeful on Tuesday and ended up so devastated on Sunday. That's the kind of action that causes Beej to spiral downward into the funk of all funks. So, I tried thinking of the happiest things about my Daddy. Oddly enough, quite a lot of them involved his relationships with people other than me. He had a way about him that drew people to him like crazy. He was real.

Real crazy.

This isn't the best picture of any of these three people, but since it's nearly Thanksgiving, I'll post it and explain. Every year, my Daddy took my kids out to "shoot" a turkey for Thanksgiving. They would drive to the grocery store where he gave them rubber bands so they could "shoot" turkeys until they got the one they wanted. It was a tradition. A strange tradition, but a tradition nevertheless, and they all took it very seriously. I'm not sure what's up with those hats, but I'm almost 100% positive they were his idea. Daddy desperately wanted to be remembered. He would truly want us to cry and be sad on this day. And before you try to convince me that he'd never want us to be sad, let me just tell you not to waste your breath, because he absolutely did. He went miles and miles out of his way to make memories for all of us and even if we were to TRY to forget him (as if we would) his presence is so strong in everything we do that it would be completely impossible. I can't even turn the steering wheel on the car without being reminded of him. He spent a very large portion of his existence on this earth coming up with ways to exist in all our hearts long after he was no longer on this earth...and I'll say he did a bang up job of that.

Sadly, some people will never know a Daddy like mine. Instead of thinking I've been robbed, today I'll try to remember how blessed and lucky we were to have him as long as we did.

Just some stuff...

• Remember when I told you that I was allergic to my Victoria's Secret Underwear? Turns out I'm not the only one. Read about it here. I'm unsure what to do about it. My guess is that I'll do absolutely nothing besides never buy from them again.
  


• I spent a large portion of my evening burning various fabrics in the backyard. It's science fair project time you know. Sadly, I now smell sort of like burned silk, which by the way is a foul, unhappy smell. Cotton on the other hand...I could do that all night. Did I mention that Beej was a pyro? 'Cause I meant to.

• My throat hurts.

• I have officially lost 21 pounds now. I'd like to thank Abby, Deirdre and Olliedog for the way they inspired me to move. I will only thank Dirty Larry for liking me no matter what I look like as he doesn't seem to care to a bit.

• This is an especially hard week for the Beej. It's a week for reflecting and remembering and wishing. I choose not to be in a funk, but it is a choice that will require some serious personal pushing to accomplish.

• Did I mention my throat hurts?

Everybody's a comedian, even Domino's

The family ordered Domino's pizza last night for dinner. This morning I was disassembling the pizza box and folding it up in an effort to reduce the space it would take up in the garbage can. I turned it over to the bottom and found this...

Maybe I'm easily amused but it made me laugh. I searched the rest of the box and wasn't disappointed to find...

So everybody's a comedian. The bad thing is that some comedians are funnier than others. Some comedians are fresh every time they present their material, but Domino's has already lost their edge. This box is only funny the FIRST time you notice all the fine print. It will never again, catch me off guard and make me smile. If they REALLY want to be funny, they'll have to try a little harder. Maybe the delivery guy should do a little routine at the door while he waits for his tip. Heck, I don't know. I never claimed to be funny...just brilliant.

Blind Beej

Lookie what I made. (I feel the need to insert here that it is a snowflake, just in case you can't figure it out) I know it's a little whopsided, but it's my first attempt. Maybe the next one will be better. Last week, Evie made me want to pick up crocheting again, so I have. My afghan is getting bigger (that's the very BROWN thing under the whopsided snowflake) and I'm trying my hand at some new stuff. I'm just learning as I go. I forget sometimes how VERY therapeutic creating things can be. Bad news is that last night before I went to bed I thought my eyes would never focus again. All that close work is blinding me. I've never had this trouble before and I'm assuming my over 40-ness is now catching up with me. I'm going to the Dollar General and buy some cute $5 granny reading glasses and see if that settles my problem, however, I'm unsure if "cute" and "$5" are actually compatible terms. We shall see. Oh! Haha...we shall SEE...get it?

Yeah, it's been a slow morning and the coffee wasn't all that good because I made it myself. The $4.09 kind at Moka's is much, much better, but I'm feeling awfully indulgent about throwing my hard to come by dollars away on a happiness that only stays with me for about an hour. I go there way too often. It's bad enough that all I have to do is drive up to the window or walk in and if the nice, nice lady sees me ahead of time, she's already fulfilling what she knows will be my order. Yesterday, I drove up to the window and she just handed it out before I could even tell her what I wanted. See now? That is service. BUT...my plan is to figure out the proper coffee making procedure and learn to do it myself. And again, after I get those glasses...we shall see.

Bringing Shame Upon My Family Unit

I'm afraid I'm becoming "one of them". You know them. They are the Moms who roll out of bed looking like whodathunkit, and go out into the world for everyone to see, still looking like that. The worst of them wear their pajamas into Walgreens in the morning and don't even look ashamed. I'm not that bad....yet, but I'm giving myself a good scare. I've always been the type to get completely dressed with makeup and everything before I present myself to the world, and I have been known to point and laugh at those who don't. I'm a redhead. I have no eyelashes to speak of unless I paint them on. I look sickly and faceless without makeup. I never want to scare the general public, but lately (and by lately I mean since the middle of September) I've decided that all I need is a little mascara and a little shine on my lips and I'm outta there! It's the gym's fault. I think it's totally unnecessary to get completely dressed just to sweat it all off and then go home, shower and get dressed all over again. What a waste of time and effort (and water and makeup). In my defense, I go to the gym at 7:30 and there are usually exactly two people in there. One of them is a close friend and the other is a total stranger. I know I look bad because the mirrors on every wall in there tell me so. I just find that I'm having trouble caring anymore. Once in the past 8 weeks I even picked up Pateriko from school in the afternoon in THE SAME CLOTHES I WORKED OUT IN. Don't anybody have an intervention for me. The first step is admitting you have a problem and I'm already there. Give me some time. I'll work it out.

Listy Sunday Morning Listy

In the last 36 hours I have...

• Watched all 15 episodes of 30 Rock, Season 2.
• Cleaned the kitchen 5 times.
• Finished watching the last 2 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 6.
• Reminded myself how to crochet an afghan in "the round" (except it's a rectangle) and added approximately 18, um...rounds. I obviously don't know the terminology.
• Washed, dried and folded 4 loads of laundry.
• Typed 11 patient progress notes for work with the end result being that I can say I'm now completely caught up.
• Laughed about some extremely funny stuff.
• Cried about some extremely not funny stuff.
• Added 5 new people to my facebook friends.
• Successfully, firmly encouraged my children to clean their rooms. (Read: Yelled until they got it done).
• Played dominoes with my kids by candlelight during a power outage.
• Watched "High Fidelity" and wrote down some quotes from it like "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" and "I guess it made more sense (to me) to commit to nothing and keep my options open. And that's suicide by tiny, tiny increments." I'm unsure exactly why I did this except that I remember Coco and I doing it all the time.
• Watched "The Full Monty" and "The Piano", but didn't write a thing down about either of those.

My eyes are kinda hurting now. I don't wonder why. Maybe I should lay off the electronics and crocheting tomorrow. Maybe just a nap? Mmhmm.

Pots, pods, whatever

Saturday afternoon conversation in the kitchen at the house of Beej:

Beej: You guys need to unload this dishwasher.
Pateriko: Okay.
Litkia: Okay.
*work commences, but slowly Pateriko gets off track and starts playing with the water in the sink*
Litikia: *loudly* Mama! Pateriko isn't helping me!
Pateriko: *loudly* YES I am. I'm cleaning this stuff in the sink.
Beej: Pateriko, quit playing in the sink and help your sister.
Litkia: Pateriko, you are so mean.
Pateriko: Well so are you.
Litkia: Nu uh.
Pateriko: Yes huh.
Beej: You guys are two peas in a pod.
Litkia: *Rolls her eyes* Mama, it's two peas in a POT not a POD. *starts laughing*
Pateriko: *Looks at me in disbelief and starts laughing and pointing at his sister*
Beej: Aw man, Litikia. I'm sorry. It's two peas in a POD. Do you know what a pod is?
*Beej explains the expression to her brilliant daughter*
Beej: I guess you guys know I'll be blogging this conversation.
Litkia: Noooooo....
Beej: It's okay, I'll pretend like it was Pateriko who didn't know any better.
Litkia: Oh okay then.
Pateriko: Nooooo!!

Poor kids. They can't say anything that doesn't get broadcast to the entire four people who still read this blog. Bless their little punkin hearts.

3 Wishes

If I could have 3 wishes...

#1 - That people would do what I said to do, when I said to do it and how I said to do it.
#2 -

Wait...is that one or three all mixed together? No matter. #1 seems to cover it.

Go vote today. I'll be casting my vote for McCain for a long list of reasons, some of which seem to be more worthy than others, but we all know I don't talk about that stuff here. Just go vote your convictions as it is your right and your duty.

Happy Tuesday my peeps!

Jack-o-lanterns 2008

Mario of Nintendo fame and The Cheatball from Homestarrunner.com