I'm Hungry

It's Friday! Finally... I sit here at my computer, having a glass of wine - one too sweet for any respectable wine drinker to touch - but that's ok, because I never said I was respectable (well, I've never said that here! I frequently tell my daughters that I am, so that they at least ponder as to the possibility that I might be!) I've caught up on a bit of bloghopping today, and I believe I'm funnier on other people's blogs. You are all funny, you inspire me... I respond. (Then I go do real life stuff and come back with a blank for a brain...

So, here we sit... O.J. is probably going to do more time for stealing his own stuff than for killing his wife... A politician disgraced because he tap dances and sends homosexual code under a bathroom stall... A hooker says, on camera, "I was in the crack house, smoking crack at the time it went down" ...

Yes, this is the defensive strategy of a prostitute. Let's call the customer Georgie. Georgie is a 12 year old boy. Georgie's mommy wants to give Georgie everything his little heart desires... so uses Auntie's money - how she got it is uncertain - and gives it to Prostititue, Linda Van Pool in exchange for a flash of boobies for little Georgie. Auntie gets arrested. Linda Van Pool gets arrested and claims, "I was in the crack house, smoking crack at the time it went down", this is her alibi. Momma doesn't get arrested, though she supposedly gave the money to the prostitute. What the hell is wrong with people?

Allrighty, then - well.. that's about it... I'm off to enjoy my sweetie and celebrate that it's FRIDAY!

Thursday Thirteen

These are a few of Annie's Favorite Things 1. Irish dancing at Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle on Tuesday nights. - This is such great fun - students from University of Pittsburgh learning to dance with people their grandparent’s age. Everyone new going the wrong way and laughing as we run into one another… 3 Rules to Irish dancing - Improvise, Improvise and SMILE! 2. Piano bars - Went to Jake Ivory’s in Boston and had such a great time! 3. The smell of autumn - it’s here in my corner of the U.S. and it makes me think of apples, fallen leaves, cider, building a fire, the snap of twigs under my feet when I go for a walk, and wonderful light jackets which make me feel so cozy. 4. My grandson (pick a grandson, any grandson) falling asleep while I rock him. This doesn’t happen very often, but it is the most special time to see their little lashes on soft little cheeks. It is proof that Drake is NOT the antichrist - hear me Baby Girl? (that’s Drake’s momma at ImBetterOnline.) 5. Being at the seashore all by myself, or with my husband only. The sound of the water, the smell of the salt, the enormity of it amazes me, draws me, and scares the crap out of me. (Speaking of the ocean - don’t you think that if Jack and Rose both got on that door from opposite directions they could have just let their legs hang off, but get their bodies out of that freezing water? Titanic… remember?) 6 & 7. Naps after sex in the middle of the afternoon. 8. Anita Renfroe - comedienne extraordinaire. 9. Waking up to find I lost a pound because I was starving the entire time I was watching television last night. 10. Sled riding - this is a renewed experience for me. About a mile from my house there’s a road with no winter maintenance and a huge hill that’s almost ½ a mile long… People from all over our back roads neighborhood find themselves there on Sunday afternoon - nice campfire built at the bottom of the hilld - cocoa, beer, and occasionally moonshine (yeah, really - I thought that was only in Dukes of Hazzard but incredibly it made an appearance once last year in my neck of the woods), and someone uses their truck to pull the sleds up the hill and we all climb in the back. Too much fun! 11. Making something beautiful for someone as a gift or to decorate my home. 12. My dog, Molly. She’s a German Shepherd, sable in color, European blood lines - so she goes between 78 and 88 pounds depending on the season of the year, and when she looks at me I think she has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen on an animal. We hope to breed her in February - just waiting for her OFA certs to come back, and to find a boyfriend for her that is as trustworthy and good natured as she is.. My grandsons can grab her tail, ears, run into her, accidentally whack her in the head with a stick as they try their best (at 2 & 3 years old) to throw it for her to fetch… and it doesn’t even faze her. 13. A fire in the fireplace, a cup of cocoa with a little Bailey’s Irish cream & Banana Liqueur inside and whipped cream on top, a fantastic book, a snowy afternoon… with no telephone service of any kind - and a clean house so I can enjoy them without guilt! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The Interview Answers

Ever wish you could ask a blogger the specific questions to be answered in a meme? Well, here's your chance... and theirs! I volunteered to be one of Candid Karina's interview subjects. She sent me 5 questions and it took me a bit, but here are my answers. The way this continues is that if you'd like to be interviewed (it really is painless, I promise) simple say so in the comments. When you post the questions and your answers on YOUR blog, others will have the opportunity to ask you to interview them... and on it goes... or it could jump backwards if you request to be intereviewed by one of your interviewees... doesn't that word look funny?

I've been watching It's Me or The Dog and it's filmed in the U.K. so wee is the popular word for dog pee... everytime I see it... I think dog pee... but you will not be dipped in dog pee for participating in this meme... seriously! Ok, here we go.


1. First, let's get the obvious out of the way: Tell us the when, how and why about the birth of your blog.

My daughter is Cheaper Than a Happy Meal. No, not really - but that's her blog. She was actually the one who invited me to start a blog, which I did in June. Originally I intended to stay anonymous to my daughters and the rest of my family, but my daughters now know where to find it and they read on occasion. Our agreement is this: if it upsets you or pisses you off - quit reading - sometimes venting may bruise feelings, but we will just move on and we do not discuss one another’s blogs unless it’s something funny. It’s really quite mature of us, and we’ll see how that holds up as we plan the wedding of my youngest daughter.

The why: When I was in my twenties, I used to write for fun. I finished a novel (not published) and always wanted to get back to writing. It amazed me that I had the imagination to create something on the page that was my own. I’m not saying it was a fantastic piece of literature - but it had a beginning, middle and end and I liked the characters. As life progressed, I found that I didn’t have the patience or emotional energy to write creatively - except letters to the editor of our local newspaper. I’d lost my curiosity and wanted to reconnect with that part of me. So, I thought that blogging would be an outlet to help me become more disciplined in writing something every day (haven’t become that disciplined yet, but I’m heading in that direction). And hopefully I’ll get back to writing fiction. I’m not interested in being published - I’m just interested in the writing.

2. Tell us about your daughters and grandkids. How many do you have, what are their ages, etc. It's time for a little bragging here.

I have 3 daughters. They are all lovely and funny, and I genuinely LIKE them as women. They aren’t catty or superficial, but they are strong, resilient and passionate and constantly impress me. I was too young when I married my ex husband (I came from a broken home, had daddy issues, blah, blah, blah) and so my daughters are 26, 24, and 22. I’m 43, but it doesn’t feel like it inside my head - in here - I’m 34. But, just for a minute imagine what my life was like just 9 years ago with 3 teenaged daughters… and only 1 bathroom! Yeah, that ages a person!

I have 4 grandsons, Isaac 3 years old & Luke 1 to my eldest daughter, Drake 2 years old & Declan 11 months to my youngest daughter. Every last one of them has blue eyes, but every size and shape you can imagine. I have green eyes myself - can’t be giving mom any recognition just for the labor and vascular connections, prenatal vitamins, and not eating that chili.

3. You used to run a dating service? Give us the scoop on some of the strangest characters you met while doing this.

You would be amazed at how much a person will tell a complete stranger over the telephone. It became embarrassing when a daughter of a coworker at my previous job spent over an hour on the phone with me, giving me details of how her present “singleness” was due to the horridness of her mother - a woman I still saw on occasion and really liked before I met her daughter. I shouldn’t have been on the phone with her for an hour, but I just felt too bad for her unhappiness.

Other than that one client, though… I met some very funny and interesting people. As far as I know, just one couple married that met through my service. A couple people had absolutely no personality whatsoever… not a hum on a heart machine going on there… but for the most part - they were just people who didn’t happen to run into datable singles in their daily lives and sought to increase their opportunities. (that sounds like a commercial, huh?) We lived in a small town and I was interviewed on our local television station about our dating service - someone in my family taped a sitcom over my recording of it… that happened a lot. I once volunteered for a televised charity auction in our town, where the Pirate Parrot (the MLB team’s mascot) wrestled with me and tried to eat my head on camera… someone taped over that too. My 15 minutes of fame has been rerecorded over by those who know and love me best… Grrr!

4. How long have you been married, how did you meet your husband and when did you know he was "the one"?

I met my husband in December of 1988. I was going through a divorce with 3 little girls ages 3, 5 and 7. I had to go back to work I received a call from a government employment service in another county - which, incidentally, NEVER called people for jobs… typically you just pick a card off the wall, stand in line with a number, fill out your name and SS# and they would then tell you how to reach the employer. So, weeks later… I get a call about an opening for a secretarial position.

The job was at a small manufacturing company that my sister worked at after school when she was a senior. I went for an interview and of course a typing test… and when I turned around after taking the typing test, my boss-to-be was standing with this guy about my age - with fantastic shoulders and forearms that for some reason had me thinking things that would make you blush - or maybe not - but it will make the aforementioned daughters go, “Ewwww“. ha ha. I gave a big friendly hello. He said hi and then looked at the floor.

I told my sister later that day that he probably had a wife, 2 kids and a dog and when he got home from work every night, he probably kicked them all! The truth was less ugly - turns out he was shy and he felt like my eyes could see right through him… (in a good way, not x-ray vision or anything). He likes my eyes.

I really believe that I met him because… I prayed for him. I prayed for a man who would love me back the way that I loved someone and who didn’t get claustrophobic in an emotional relationship. Funny thing was.. He was praying for the same thing…

He asked me out to dinner, and from that date on, we were pretty much inseparable. He was the first person in my life to really know ME, and in almost 19 years - he has always made me feel that I’m the most beautiful, wonderful, perfect woman in the world for him. So, seeing as he had that kind of brain damage, I married him as quickly as possible!

5. If you could have dinner with any celebrity, living or dead, who would it be, and why?

Gee, this was a hard one for me. My husband picked Audrey Hepburn, but it isn’t his interview!!!

I’m torn between Mel Gibson - and yes, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t mean what he said when he got his D.U.I. He is more than the sum of one evening’s poor behavior and it is in spite of that evening that I would like to know more about him. I have known people who act completely out of character when they drink whiskey and Mel claims that tequila makes him stupid - so maybe it does - I hope so and I hope that he's gotten his drinking back under control. I think he has incredible talent as an actor, and he’s hot. Once he was interviewed and they asked him what advice he’d give other men on being romantic and he said, “Do the dishes with her after dinner. Spend time with her. Help make dinner.” and those are normal people things - not movie star things. I liked that about him..

And the other choice would be someone who is well known in some circles… Beth Moore. She’s a Christian writer, teacher, and public speaker that has the most amazing, loving, intimate relationship with God that I’ve ever witnessed… She’s a real person, who has been through a lot in her life, yet she is graceful and lovely, and funny and honest. She has real humility and that is so beautiful to see in a person today.

So, there are my answers... thought I could be brief, but I guess not. If you would like to be interviewed, let me know in your comments. I'll send you 5 questions, which you will answer and post on your blog and then let me know and we can all come to visit and get to know you a bit better!

Thursday Thirteen Answers

Okay, here are the answers to the hints...

1. Grey's Anatomy (I love this show!)

2. British Men Behaving Badly (so funny! Make you laugh out loud - but not the first 2 seasons - they were awful)

3. Law and Order. "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories." Yes, I have it memorized and I prefer the older ones - I don't like the new detective so much.

4. NCIS

5. Rules of Engagement - a funny new sitcom that aired 6 episodes before summer and will be on this fall.

6. Coupling (British version)

7. House

8. Guiding Light Yes, I watch that.. I didn't watch any soaps for 15 years... then, I'm flipping through the channels one day and Reva was on her death bed... so I thought I'd TIVO it until she either died, came back from the dead, or recovered. Turns out she came back from the dead (just moments after dying - not 6 years later.. though I'm sure she's done that before - it's a soap!). anyways... I still tivo it, only watch the storylines I'm stupid enough to like and that is about 50% of the show... and yes, I'm embarrassed about it.

9. Highlander, the series

10. Beauty and the Geek - saw this on a marathon - liked the first two seasons better than the third.

11. Gene Simmons Family Jewels

12. Steeler Football (I watch every game - and have been watching them since the 70's and I was a little girl... even watched them through the eighties - I'm a die hard fan.)

13. Boston Legal


Thanks for guessing and dropping by!

Interviewed by Candid Karina

If you've not visited Candid Karina, I would encourage you to do so. Hers is one of my favorites. Not long ago, she was interviewed by a fellow blogger - then asked to post her answers on her blog. I enjoyed reading the answers to her interview, you can read them here and when she asked for bloggers that would be interested in being an interviewee (yes, it's a word in my dictionary), I said, "Pick me, oooo, pick me."

Actually, it was more of an apology that my blog wasn't a superhighway of readership traffic, but I thought it sounded like fun. Well, she forwarded me the questions...

Here are the questions:

1. First, let's get the obvious out of the way: Tell us the when, how and why
about the birth of your blog.

2. Tell us about your daughters and grandkids. How many do you have,
what are their ages, etc. It's time for a little bragging here.

3. You used to run a dating service? Give us the scoop on some of the
strangest characters you met while doing this.

4. How long have you been married, how did you meet your husband and when
did you know he was "the one"?

5. If you could have dinner with any celebrity, living or dead, who would
it be, and why?

I'm working on my answers and will post them as soon as they're finished. Right now I'm starving though... so I'm going to make a sandwich and then start working on them!

Take a Hint and Run With It

Here's a new twist - These are what I would choose to watch on television.. BUT it isn't just a list of 13... This is a list of 13 HINTS that my kindred spirits will easily figure out. Warning: Some shows are foreign, some aren’t in current production, but some are downright EASY to guess. See how well you can do.… 1. Seriously. 2. Gary, Dorothy, Deb & Tony. (Additional Hint - Martin Clunes) 3. “…These are their stories.” (An oldie, but a goodie) 4. Rule #22: Never, ever bother Gibbs in interrogation. (yeah, this is very easy) 5. My favorite character on this sitcom has a “Birthday Deal.” 6. Susan: “ Some men are born lucky. Some are born very lucky.” Sally: “What was Patrick born?” Susan: “A tripod” 7. His bedside manner sucks, but if you have a weird disease, you’d love him! 8. I don’t WANT Gus with Natalya. He belongs with Harley! (I can‘t help it - it‘s one of the 13 - and yes, it‘s embarrassing to me) 9. There can be only one. (Additional Hint - lots of lightning in this show, and the main character has a VERY nice naked ass… in fact the nicest ass I‘ve ever seen on a television/movie screen) 10. One is smart, and one is lovely… and not necessarily in that order. 11. “And that is why it’s good to be… me.” Isn’t it cute how he loves his mom and his country -for a rock and roll star. 12. Alan Faneca, Jeff Reed, Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu 13. 2 Men, 2 Cigars, 2 Drinks, One Balcony. 2 Blow-up dolls, 1 little person, a beautiful city, and lots of talk about sex. (I saved the best til last) Guess without doing ANY Googling… I’m curious to see who my kindred tv spirit is out there!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

HELP

I read Lulu's Thursday Thirteen and I'll tell you... I would go to any and all of those places... RIGHT NOW!!!! Seriously, I'm sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot reading my fav. blogs to put off going home.. I just came from Bruester's ice cream where I ate an entire apple dumpling with vanilla ice cream on top. There go those 3 pounds I lost!

See, my in-laws are in town.. got here yesterday.. yep.. got their camper plugged into the garage and my husband and all his siblings can't miss work to visit/entertain/ooo & ahhh over/figure out what the hell to talk about with/plan dinner for/skip important previously planned events in order to sit at the kitchen table with mom & dad. So I went to get groceries & hide in the wally world parking lot..

Oh yeah, we moved the tv to the basement, but hubby hasn't installed hand railing yet, so mom can't go down to even watch a movie or tv.

I love these people.. I do... which makes me feel bad for a minute or two.. until I suggest 4 things we could do... play cards, Irish festival, craft show, movie theater... don't play, too much walking, don't like those, fall asleep during those.. AAAGGGHHH

Someone get over here and stage an intervention before my husband meets with an untimely death when he gets home from work at 11:30 tonight!

Ok... I've been here a long time... Gotta get the groceries.