Pocket Aces

Nine years ago today.

I'd do it all again.

Ok, if I had it all to do over again, I promise I'd try not to have my water break in the car on the way to the hospital BOTH TIMES. Sorry about that.

But everything else, I think I'd keep.

Where I try to prove that I'm down with the cool kids.

My musical fascination of the week, for your enjoyment (or for you to scoff at, if you've been listening to this for, like, WEEKS NOW, GOD, and you're just so over it already. In which case, hopefully someday you will get over your hipster self.) (But feel free to keep on coming around here to scoff at me until you do!)

I love the horns. I'm not usually a horn lover. Go figure.

Doing my part to combat global warming.

Thornton, Colorado. The Blizzard of '82. Though you can't tell in this picture, the snowdrifts were as high as some of our neighbor's houses. I LOVED it. My cousins (visiting from Nebraska) and I and some neighbor kids built a huge snow fort, and we were able to sled right off the top of it. It seemed like the biggest thing in the world, but looking back, it was probably only about 6 feet tall.

Anyhow, the weather is wonderfully cool here in Maryland, but if it happens to be unbearably hot where you are, I hope this helps even just a little.

In other news, I am officially old, as I am going around waving my walking stick and cackling about the good ol' days and the Blizzard of '82. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

Sunday still life.

Scenes from my home this morning, 9:30-ish...

Oh, hello, toes. You're looking awfully white this morning. Bet those baggy old sweats are very comfy!

Let's just all pretend we don't see my dear husband there in his underwear. We'll forgive him for it, because he just worked so hard putting up those pretty shades you see behind his head. Morning shade! Woo hoo! Let's move into the kitchen...

 Check out the apple bits all over the floor there. I'd like to say I am going to go right now and clean those up, but the truth is they will stay there until I step on one. That will probably be during dinner prep this evening. And what is that up on the counter? Is that what I think it is...?

Yes. Yes, it is. That explains the underwear.

Oh, look! Clean laundry on the dining room table waiting to be folded! I don't know HOW that got there. I am going to go fold it RIGHT NOW.

I'm going to take a moment to join you in your laughter. Hahahaha!! Hee hee!! Woooo, that was a good one.

Here is some dirty laundry, eager to join the party on the dining room table. Don't worry, soiled little clothes! You'll get there! And once you're there, you'll probably stay there much longer than you'd like.

 

Oh dear! There appears to have been a horrible accident at the bridge overnight. I wonder how this happened...

Oh, Bertie. Looks like you got in the vodka again, and carreened drunkenly off the track. I'll send Thomas to pick you up shortly. In the meantime, I'm off to put away the Grey Goose. It causes nothing but trouble around here.

Here's the thing.

Sometimes, in my best moments, I think myself clever, maybe a little funny, whatever. It's at these moments I try to come down here and share all that *cough* brilliance *cough* with all you beautiful-on-the-inside-cause-I-can't-see-your-outsides people.

"Down here" is my basement, by the by. We've established that I blog in my basement, right? Next thing you know I'll be playing D&D, and starting my own pirate radio station.

So, yeah, the thing is, in all my other moments, I find myself pretty boring. And those are the moments I don't blog. Because why share the boring? Who wants that? And this is why there are only posts here 3, maybe 4 times a week. It's because, honestly, I only have 3 or 4 moments per week of wit or whathaveyou to share here. Or also sometimes, inspiration will strike in the car, and I'd love to race down here and blog about it the second I get home, but typically the baby must be carried up to bed or water must be fetched the second we walk in the door and the spark is gone. You know how it goes. I should carry a little notebook with me, to record the sparks. We'll see if that actually happens.

Hey! Father's Day was this past weekend, and it hope it was lovely for all. Ours was nice - I told Marc to choose what he'd like for dinner and he waited till about 2:00 Sunday afternoon to decide so it was off to the grocery store I went and let me tell you, there are few worse places to be on a Sunday afternoon. Home Depot being one, perhaps. But I got what I needed and I came home and cooked, and Marc helped, because he know he'd chosen some complicated shit to cook. We made this, and while the spicy tomato sauce was very nice and super simple, the gnocchi was a pain in my ass and it came out TERRIBLE. And I've done gnocchi before, so I choose to accept none of the blame. I also did mussels, and steamed shrimp, and some garlic bread. All that was yummy.

I made Marc a Celebrate Everyday Life book from Shutterfly - he adores it and sleeps with it under his pillow at night. Go check it out. Make your own. It's awesome. You can see mine here.

And with that, I have to go put Mason and myself down for a nap. I don't usually nap, but I am totally wiped today. Too many late nights, lately. Hopefully an Old Photo Tuesday later. I have an idea, and have to find the photo.

I'm a dirty girl.

Or at least I was, until I took a shower just a few minutes ago. But prior to that, I looked like this:

OMG it's monster arm!

Somebody get me a nail file, stat!

 

Again with the monster arm! Ahhhhhhhhh! Run! Run!

I have no pseudo-clever caption for this one. Sorry.

So, yeah. I was gardening. While Marc and the kids were gone - GONE, I SAY! - to a family party and Marc took pity on my soul and let me stay home. And I could have laid on the couch with a magazine - it would have been so, so easy to do! But I didn't. I went outside, like a good girl, and finished all sorts of crap that's been scourging the front of my house for entirely too long now. All planting is done, most mulching is done. Huzzah! It was crazy hot, and then it rained, which made me happy. All the neighbors ran inside and closed their garage doors, and I was practically Gene Kelly on my front lawn. So when I finally came in, all dirty and wet, it required photographic evidence for all you fine people. (I should also tell you that I was really considering including the "wet" part in my title, like, won't that be cute? Get it!? Like she was wet, but only because it rained! Haha! Hee! Ho! Hmmm. And so, I decided not to go there. Except for how, look, I just did. Except maybe this way was less eye-rolly? Or not. Ok, then.)

Oh, and check this out:

I got my cute littleThomas and friends photos all framed and hung. Riley loves them. SCORE!

And now I'm looking forward to doing not much more than wrangling my kids off to bed early tonight and watching a movie or something. And look, here it is 6:00 and I haven't thought of anything for dinner yet. Typical me. But hey, it's not like I was laying around all day reading magazines, or anything.

Oh, and a Happy Father's Day to all y'all. What are YOU doing this weekend?

Welcome to Horrible Makeup-ville!

Reached after a brief stop in the village of "Here Have Some Yellow Clothes and Some Godawful Earrings".

We were on our way to the United States of Hey Do You Wanna See My Jelly Shoes?

(Yes, yes, I know it's not Tuesday. Yes, I know Tuesday was yesterday. Yes, I know you sat there crying all afternoon because I hadn't yet posted this little gem for you to laugh at. I KNOW.)

(Oh, and just to be clear, I'm the hot pre-teen on the left.)

I love living in farm country.

Farmer's market Saturday mornings. Pick your own strawberries. Goooood, good stuff.

Fresh strawberries on my cereal. I picked those little babies right off the... vine? No. Plant, I guess. Yummy.

Salad greens. Roasted green beans. Early tomatoes. Yum, yum, and yum.

I took the bulk of the strawberries I picked here and made some strawberry rhubarb sauce. Meant to be put over ice cream, which we did, but I personally like to eat it right out of the bowl, like strawberry soup. I have still MORE strawberries and rhubarb waiting for me upstairs to be turned into even more sauce. Last batch I made, I thought I made too much and gave some away to a neighbor. I will not be repeating that mistake.

Later this week, when it gets a bit cooler, I'm going back for peas. And probably more strawberries.

Have I mentioned "yum"?

Oh, hi! And then, bye.

What have I been doing, you ask? Melting, that's what. I sit here a melted puddle of goo waiting for this heat wave to break so I can regain human form.

And you?

Actually, I have a few minor, here's-a-little-slice-o-my-life things to blather about, and a couple pictures, and let us not forget OPT, to chat about here. But right now, I have to head out the door to run a few errands while the temperature is still below 90.

Crap, I'm pretty sure it just hit 90. Gotta go. I'll be back to blog later, because the only place I am going to want to be this afternoon will be this cool, dark basement.

He has more interesting things to say than I do right now.

Riley, as we drove into Baltimore (hereby known as "Big City") to see Daddy at work yesterday:

"Yay, big city! Look, it's big city! Oh no! Another red means stop!"

I'm sure most of you get it, but for those of you who don't have three year olds - "red means stop" is referring to a stoplight. That's what he calls them. I find this inordinately cute. Please pretend like you do too.