SCORE !

YAY! I did it! I asked! And, I did receive!

Ain't life grand??

-me

PS - Karin is having a totally great give away over at :
http://athreadofred.blogspot.com/2009/03/hop-into-spring-giveaway.html

Happy Birthday Miss Alyssa!

Alyssa, my oldest granddaughter, turned 18 om Thursday.




18!


She was just 10 - I swear...

Long legs, knobby knees, glasses, braces, her nose always in a book...interested in horses & cats. And books.

Now, she's a beauty. 18.

Graduates in May. Starts college in August. Away from home. Not far away...but far enough...

Long legs, contacts, beautiful straight teeth, her nose always perfectly made-up...interested in running, gymnastics, writing....and boys.


OK, B.O.Y. As in one.




Better be good to her...after all, these are no ordinary Grandparents he's dealing with...



Happy Birthday , Sweet Alyssa!




XXOO
grammie

-me

New people ... new location...same old me..

...and a "Meet-n-Greet" luncheon toady.

It was good, if not a wee bit intimidating.

I mean, I was by F.A.R. the oldest person..and probably the least educated..well..at least in the University sense.

I mean, I was a Grandmother at 36 -no time for collage! Did I tell you my "starter marriage" was in the fourth grade and I had a baby at recess? No??

Just kidding. I was raised Catholic (with the appropriate amount of guilt for even thinking about..S E_..well..you know..ah..babies and where they come from)...so, the only thing to do after graduation, beside the all-night party at Rosie's house was to get married...so I could..well..you know...

Anyway, we all took turns standing up and introducing ourselves, what we do for the company, education (what college, what degree(s) ) hobbies, kids, and the color of your car (?) (that was just a fun-one thrown in..which we all answered)

Now mind you, these are mostly scientists, geneticists, genealogists, CEO's and IT super-minds...speaking like 5 languages each.. Hey, I totally can speak uh..one..

When it was my turn, after an totally impressive litany of degrees, schools, incredible children, world travels, super-sky-diving-snow-boarding recreation, it was my turn...

"Hi, I'm Colleen and I work in Customer Service...I have a...uh......PhD.. in... um...Scrapbooking!..

(here's MY degree..the proof....the text-books, the building supplies..my laboratory..)

Yeah, that's it.. Oh, and a BA in "Rescue Dogs" ..........

Lulu & Braxton

.............(and obviously a BS in..public speaking) and I have a killer-blog!

My car is named the Silver Pearl...and I prefer comfortable shoes.."

Well, after the initial shock, they did laugh......I think I'm going to like it just fine there...now, where's the acid-free tape and the kibble??

-me

Some things are meant to jiggle..

Jello.

Buildings in San Fransisco.

Slime.

Double "D's".



Pudding before it, you know...... pudds..

The handle of a running toilet.

Undercooked eggs at IHOP.

The family budget.

Baby bellies.

Ah ha - that's the one...BABY bellies. Cute. Adorable even.

Not so much when it's my belly.

And, until very recently, I hadn't really noticed my belly jiggling. It was too faaa...uh..too fuuu...too... BIG.

And it was tight. You know, like when you have a full water balloon...that can't jiggle because it's too full.

Firm-in- a-not-good-way firm??

The other day I was wearing my now-too-big-for-me-jeans-but-I'm-too-cheap-to-buy-
in-between-jeans..you know the ones...(I can actually pull them up & down to go potty without un-zipping them..) Hey....Grown-up "pull-ups"! I know...TMI..

OK, so....someone made me laugh in a meeting.

All of a sudden I felt this.......jiggle.

Oh. My. Heck.

What was that??? Embarrassingly, I knew....I KNEW..it was my not-so-tight-belly. 38 lbs. gone and obviously I hadn't found anything funny enough to actually make it...jiggle ...before...

Lordy, Lordy. What now?? Stop laughing?? Surgery?? EXERCISE, for goodness sakes??

Then I remembered something I wore, and that I saw my Mother wear...a girdle!



If I got one tight enough..and if I knew the law of physics..I could aim all that too-big-for-me-skin ...somehow... up..up...up..

And, if I could figure out the mechanics of it all, I could have....boo...ah...hoote..bossoms... again!


Course, then it would be just this one...massive... mammary. A uni-boob..

...finally, a use for all those "tube tops" of the 70's...

Oh joy...

Somehow, I don't see that actually happening.

Ah well...maybe all those stars I have been wishing on were actually airplanes...


Happy Jiggle-free Thursday to you.

Now, do not make me laugh..

-me

Eyebrows...again..but not a re-run..

Can you believe my life's story can contain 2 postings about my...eyebrows??

Me neither....

...huh...

..but here we are.

I mean, ever since I lost them to chemo a l-o-n-g time ago (yay!) I never realized how important they were..you know ...aesthetically and all...

Kinda like a frame on a picture..a piece of art...a frame adds to the beauty of the art.....except....

Oh! Oh! ...have you seen some of the new art, on just the stretched canvases? They look really really cute.....the canvases ...not the eyebrows..WAIT! If my face was like stretched canvas................naw....that'd be too Joan Rivers..

Anyway, when they grew back, they came in very thinly..that sounds funny "very thinly" maybe it should be "very thin.." (..ly..coundn't help myself..)

Hmm..

OK, back to my eyebrows....

I told Mr. B just the other night..."I'm having an eyebrow crisis..."

Mr. B: "what??"

Me: "an EYEBROW crisis!!"

Mr. B: "what's the problem?"

Me: "If I draw them on, I end looking like Groucho Marx...


..if I leave them alone, don't use anything on them, I look like an alien..or like in Gray's Anatomy, when whats-her-face was going to get married to Burke and her Mother shaved off her eyebrows, remember??

"Mama took my eyebrows...and now I'm a Burke."

Mr. B: "They're fine.."

Me: "Which way..........Groucho or Alien....or Christina Yang????"

Mr. B: "Huh..sorry..I wasn't listening..."

Oh brother.

We lived next door to an older woman once - sweetest thing..she was getting a little senile and her eyesight wasn't what it once was..one day when I went to check on her, she answered the door all fixed up and pretty, jewelry on, hair curls and the brightest, reddest lipstick penciled eyebrows you ever saw.

Must have had someone give her a lip liner that she mistook for an eyebrow pencil.

It was a bit shocking..like in Fried Green Tomatoes when Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) dies her hair purple and Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is surprised...

....all I could say is "Wow, Mrs. Hollingsworth, you look...pretty today!"

Didn't have the nerve to tell her - didn't want her to be embarrassed or to hurt her feelings and I knew I would probably be the only visitor..

Ah well...the problems of the world aside, my eyebrows once again garnered a posting in the memories of my time on........... Main Street, USA.

Go figure.

-me

This is a plea for P.U.T.S.....

Otherwise know as................

Please Use Turn Signals
(originally written in November of 2007- but no one was visiting then..so..yes..this is a..re-run..Oh, and by the way..I still feel strongly..and I still don't see people using their signals...do they cost extra on all those big 'ol SUV's??)

As I discovered while researching for this entry, spurned on by my nightly commute and the frustration therein, using turn signals is NOT OPTIONAL...

Exhibit 1:
"The California Legislature has determined that driving is a privilege, not a right. As such, drivers must follow the rules and guidelines that have been enacted into law. One of these rules (since the late 1950s) is the use of turn signals to indicate your intention to make a movement on the road, street or highway. It's only fair to let other drivers know what you would like to do. (The situation is virtually the same in all other states and commonwealths, although the code sections are different, of course.) "

Exhibit 2:As found in a "Good Citizen" handbook, virtually every wheeled vehicle is required to use signals:

And that got me thinking.........

About the only people I see use them are the ones who leave them on indefinitely.

Going on and on for miles, while we're afraid to make a move because we aren't really certain which way they're going, if anywhere at all.

I guess they ARE turning...eventually..

It's not that much to ask, you know.

Like when I'm waiting to make a left, waiting for the lone car down the road to pass me so I can safely turn... He knows I am waiting for him to pass - I have my signal on...

Then about a millimeter before he actually drives by me, he turns right.

I waited for nothing. I can't even make a face at him because he's now driving happily in the other direction.

School buses let you know when and in which direction they are turning or pulling over.

(This one could be fun if you clicked it back and forth really really fast.........)

One thing I've noticed is, if we do use the signals, we clearly show if we're going right. Or left.

But what about U-turns???

I think we need a signal for that. It would make my life my easier I know, by golly.

I would no longer rush to make that left on the green arrow, preceded by what I think is

another left-turner, only to find out they're doing a U-turn and have to slow WAY down to make it tight.

Geesh.

We have cars with heated seats. Video screens. Tables. Taking maps. Temperature readouts.

Hands-free phones. Chilled glove boxes. Lighted make-up mirrors (even over the drivers side, which I find quite odd.....and a wee bit dangerous...)

5-disc players with remote controls. (Seriously, how far would you have to reach to turn it on yourself, buddy...)

But we have NO WAY of knowing if someone is making a U-turn.......

What's up with that??

I want to invent the very first U-turn signal.

It could be this cute arrow-thingy that lights up just above the tail lights. In a ....."U"..!

I think it would work. I think I'll write to some car designers..

Hmmm..

So, phuleeze....... use your signals.

That way, you can read more blogs instead of having to explain to St. Peter you didn't "indicate
your intention"......

g'night.
-me

Socks.

This is a post about finding the silly things that matter {sometimes} the most.

Like socks. I am a sock girl. I wear socks all the time. Can't even remember the last time I wore panty-hose. Ick.




Anyway, it's it just funny that those little balls of rolled up smelly socks that both you and hubby have discarded all week can be transformed into soft, white, great smelling clean fun socks just by going through the washer & dryer??

I could put them on my hands and have sock puppet fun all day..how about you??



Have a fun Monday...wait..is that even a ..possibility??

-me