Tea with Miss T

My new silver tea service, compliments of my brother and his wife, who got it for um, buying a house? Opening a bank account? I don't know, they did something with a bunch of money and they got this thing which is way better than a toaster, but they didn't want it, so they passed it on to my Mom, who passed it on to me in the big purge of last month. She mailed it to me, along with my shoes that I had left down there including the one dirty sock I had left in one of my shoes. She is nothing if not thorough. At any rate, I kinda dig it. The itty vase has flowers from this reeaaaaaly good smelling bush that grows next to my porch, it smells a lot like jasmine. And Annie is totally going to have her friends over for tea and a Doctor Who viewing, so we can get all Anglophile like up in here. Which brings me to one of my fave Britishers, Miss T. We chat usually at least once a week, tell each other our bidness, and generally have a good time. And she is nursing a nasty treadmill injury right now, so I hope the following cheers her up.

There ya go, Miss T. I know this pic looks photo-shopped, but those are the actual things she sent me for my birthday. Ya gotta wonder, who sees fake moustaches! and thinks of me, but heck, we had a lot of fun with them. Al's is creepily the same color as her hair, and she totally looks like a dude. And we were trying to look all serious on purpose. I think Annie looks like Super Mario or something.

Another part of the Miss T presents, the beloved Chunky Kit Kats. Our store recently stopped carrying these (and ours weren't even these bountiful "duo" types) and Terry had a big time sad going on. But now we have actual British ones, and peanut butter even!! That's Al's hand trying to creep in and make off with the goodness. I'm sharing though, even though Miss T said I didn't have to.

My mugwort and liverwort, but the blooms didn't show up so well in this pic. I totally got these plants because I thought they sounded like something Harry and Hermione would have to hunt up for potions. And they grow in the shade, which we happen to have quite a bit of in Michigan.

A random pic of Ghost that I found on the camera. I'm thinking this was camera shenanigans while I was at work, evidently he had wedged himself into the lowest shelf of Annie's bookshelves, and Al and Annie thought it was like the funniest. thing. ever. because they took like eight pictures of the event. He looks like he's saying, "Seriously?"

Baaaah Bye

The former family goats, Doris and Lily. My mom wasn't too hip on learning how to deworm goats and all the other sorts of groovy things involved in having strange pets, so she found them a new home, specifying that there was to be no eating of said goats. They are now the newest denizens of a petting zoo, in visiting distance.

This one is my fave, Doris. She had a brother named Boris, but he died of something or the other a long time ago. There have been many goats over the years. For some reason, my Dad just wanted goats. I guess it was a better mid-life crisis than say, buying a Porsche or something douchey like that. At any rate, Doris is sweet as pie and will no doubt enjoy being petted and fed by the childrens. Lily is a turd though, and will probably soon be holding some hapless elementary school kid down and eating the toggles off her coat (that was for you, Miss T).

Terry and the cutest nephews in the world. He is telling them to look at the camera, but he's also tickling them, so yeah, duh.

I had slightly better luck, plus this pic totally shows their personalities. I however appear to be squat and troll-like. It is a testament of my devotion to the cuteness of the nephews that I still put this picture up. They were a lot of fun, although I'm told their energy level can become trying over time.

While I was down in VA the second week, Annie got to go stay at the farm, because I thought maybe leaving an 11 year old at home unsupervised might not be the best idea. And then she went and got bit by the dog. It was kind of funny because we called the night before we were going to head back home, and my bro-in-law answered, so Terry asked to talk to his sister. "Uh, she's helping Annie." "Helping Annie with what?" "Ummm...there was an incident." At which point Terry could hear his sister in the background asking "Is that Terry? Greaaatttt!" We had managed to call minutes after something happened so now we can make fun of what a horrible babysitter she is. Annie was fine, I think she was crying harder because she was afraid Ike was going to be severely punished. He got her a pretty good one though, these are crappy pics, but her thumb was all swollen up and purple and stuff. She got much street cred out of the story of the suckiest Spring Break EVER when she got back to school.

The teeth marks. I told her she must have smelled like beef jerky or something, Ike is usually a nice amiable sort.

Now if you all will excuse me, I have to go get some chicken marinating in some BBQ sauce. I think Spring is finally entering the frozen North and I gotst to get my grill on tonight and enjoy the nice weather.

Serenity, and Stuff

Lookit, it's Spring all up in this place down here. I guess I get two Springs this year, because it hasn't so much sprung back at home in MI, at least according to the temps I see on my Weather Bug thingy. Took me a few days before I realized that I was still getting the one from home. I'm going to have to drag my butt to the Mart of Wal for some more short sleeved shirts, I only brought two and one is brown and one is black and I'm tired of depressing colors. Not that you will see me in hot pink anytime soon, mind you.

This cool tree thingy is in the woods behind my Nanny's house. I spent a heckuva lot of time tramping around down there back in the day. You know, in the olden times before satellite tv and Playstations and computers and the interwebs. When kids had to entertain themselves. And we liked it!! In the sixth grade, I had to do some thing called a Science Log, my teacher would assign certain things we had to find, or things we had to observe. The kids who lived in town would bitch and moan, but it never took me long to find weird moss, or spores, or a spider in the act of spinning a web.

If I was twenty five years younger and 100 or so pounds lighter, I would have totally tried to walk across this here log.

And I would have racked up mad extra Science Log points for this baby, a deer skeleton. I know Annie is disappointed she didn't get to see this, she is so fond of finding dead things in the spring, morbid little child.

I do think the antlers are cool looking though. The legs weren't with the rest of the skeleton, they were a bit farther down the gorge, but I didn't feel like hunting about for them. I hope everyone is having a nice Easter. I am going to get a visit from the two cutest nephews in the world later, Terry is totally jealous.

Proving there is nothing I won't blog about

Um, the most recent picture of my Dad. As many of you know, he pulled the most heinous in bad taste non April Fool's Day joke, like, ever, and had a stroke. We thought he was going to be okay and were merrily planning a future where we nagged him and made him quit chewing tobacco and handed him Tofutti instead of ice cream, and then he upped the ante and left us for the ice cream bar on the Other Side where he can mainline Butter Pecan Breyer's all day and nobody bugs him about it.

I know I joke, but these last few days have been surreal and painful, full to tears, but also full of laughter. My Mom and Dad were truly soulmates, a truth you guys probably got an itty taste of from the anniversary post. She is in profound pain and my brother and I are doing as much as we can, but unfortunately, the best we can do is help her find her way to the new normal.

I have been awed at the amount of people who have come by the house, visited, called, showed up to the funeral home for the visitation and service, and they all say the same thing, about how much they loved him and will miss him. And I have also been thankful for the amount of support I have gotten from my "invisible friends." Solly really got it when she said she knew I was overwhelmed, because in the South when someone dies you're totally surrounded by folks and food, no matter where you turn.

The Memorial Service was this morning, and it was nice and all, but I kinda wanted them to play my Dad's fave song but they didn't. So here's the lyrics:

Be young, be foolish, but be happy
Be young, be foolish, but be happy

Don't let the rain get you down, it's a waste of time
A waste of time
Have your fun, live everyday in the bright sunshine
The bright sunshine

Well it's the same old story all over the world
Girl meets boy, and boy meets girl

So be young, be foolish, but be happy
Be young, be foolish, but be happy

Don't let love slip away, slip away
Live your life for today, for today

Life is too short to worry about unimportant things
Unimportant things
Reach for the sky, touch your star, and then you find your dream
Find your dream

Cause dreamin' alone, it's a shame indeed
But if you got love that's all you need

So be young, be foolish, girl be happy
Be young, be foolish, girl stay happy(Repeat fade)



Thanks again you guys. My Mom says thanks too, I have read your words of comfort to her and she was as touched as I am. I promise I will write about something cheerier next time.

Bury Me in Black

We have had a devastating loss in the family this week, the victim of senseless dumbassery. And we are the folks who try to make blog entries out of crap like this, so here you go. RIP Simon. Lover of Ben Folds Five, Fall Out Boy and The Used. He also cherished Julie Nunes, although just the one track, he couldn't afford the whole album. He was not so much a fan of riding into the washing machine in the pocket of a Punisher jacket. I suspect he blinked his little screen off and on, yelled WE ARE HERE WE ARE HERE WE ARE HERE like the Whos, maybe tried to use the ear buds for a flotation device for a bit, and then just gave it up like Jack in the Titanic and wished Al well in her future, but he RESENTED her, I'll bet.

The grieving widow. Notice the heart shape of the ear buds, like Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, we try to be topical.

Emo make-up lovingly applied. She says I should be lucky she doesn't leave the house like this everyday. I say it is she who is lucky to dodge the inevitable ass kicking that would come her way if dressed in such shenanigannery.


This is what the kids are doing all up in chemistry class these days, evidently making crack pipes. It was all one piece but she brokeded it, just like SIMON.

Absolutely nothing happened to Annie this week that may have made me feel like an old hag.

Psalty Goodness

First off, you guys need to work a little harder on your intelligent vibe sending. This looks like a perfectly normal intelligent child (okay, teen, whatever), no? The morning of the ACT she transformed into a gibbering Forrest Gump like character, except without the serendipity. First, she dadooted off to the bus stop without her (vital) graphing calculator, so she came running back in all huffing and puffing and frantic, then back out the door, only to return whilst I was in the shower to screech despairingly that she had missed the bus and her life was over. I didn't even have time to dry my hair or spackle on my public face, so sorry to any who glimpsed my true self while I ran her over to the school. I'm not sure when we get the test results. I would say send good luck vibes, but I'm afraid those might be even worse than y'all's intelligent ones, and I don't want to chance my house sliding into a sinkhole or something similar.

Ah, yesterday was the long awaited (which is my way of saying dreaded) Church musical. In case you didn't know, I am sort of highstrung and well, hermit like. Get me in more than a crowd of 10 or so and I start to get the heebie jeebies. Above is a small taste of what 240 people stuffed into a Church basement looks like. I was not happy.

Ta-Dah!! Psalty the singing song book and the minions. Annie is all the way over to the right in the bright pink. They were marching off to something or the other, and singing their hearts out. There were even kazoos involved at one point. Evidently this is the good Psalty, Annie and her friends came up with a whole riff about Psalty's evil alter ego PUHsalty (you know, pronouncing the "P") who instead of teaching you about the wonders of worshipping Jesus and spreading joy, urges you to kick puppies and be mean to strangers and such. Hmm, wonder which one you would find me hanging out with?

These kids look beyond thrilled, not sure how far into it this song was. It was pretty long overall, or maybe it just seemed that way. I mainly put this one up because the boy in the dark shirt over to the left is who Annnieee has a cruuuusssh on. Granted, there are only three boys in her whole class, so crushing options are limited.

The kids made placemats (there was a lunch before the show). We found one of Annie's offerings. The kid to the right is saying "I like Frogs." That would pretty much be my response to the whole musical. No, seriously, the kids worked really hard and put on a good show.

She Blinded Me With Science

Not much happened this past week besides work and more work and boring stuff. We did have the big Science/Art/Forensics/Music Fair thing yesterday though. Thanks to my Aussie friend Ergo, Annie had a pretty cool science project involving using cabbage juice as a pH indicator. One, cabbage juice stinks, in case you didn't know, and I've had a jar of that stuff in my fridge for the past two weeks (just in case they needed some more, they didn't want to have to make it again, a process which REALLY stank up the joint), and two, the stuff actually works, with pretty colors and everything. And the end result was this:

Thanks for the idea, Ergo!

Here Annie is with her display, Terry helped her a lot with pictures and such, which I'm sure he wants CREDIT for. I didn't go back with them to pick her project up (the judges were in there well, judging, when we left the first time) so I didn't get to see any of the other projects. I seriously hope that "Bobbing for bones" one off to the left is a kid from Annie's school, because I gotta see what the heck that is all about. Sounds vaguely disturbing.

Annie and her friend at the Forensics competition. They did "When I was Little" by Jamie Lee Curtis. They did...well, they crashed and burned. One of them forgot the lines, started saying the other one's lines, and then they skipped a big chunk. BUT, they remained enthusiastic and didn't burst into tears or act like drama queens, so they still managed to earn a ribbon. Or, maybe the judges just had a ton of ribbons to give away because not as many kids do the Forensics thing, I don't know. Annie also had a couple of drawings entered, but my photographer neglected to get a picture of those. She got ribbons for those too, a "Fair" (as in, this doesn't suck that bad, but I've seen better) and a "Good," but I totally take credit for that one because I gave her a cool name for it which made the picture make sense.

The next installment of food that looks like something else, it's hard to tell, but this chip kinda looks like a "2." Annie found it.

Since I work now, I don't feel quite as guilty about getting myself a little somethin' somethin' every now and again. I got myself this pretty glass pendant this week, from http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6766160 The artist is a friend of one of my internet friends. I had the pendant on a nice silver chain, but then my chain went and brokeded. :( At any rate, check her stuff out, it's really beautiful and I can vouch for its cheering ablilities.

Alyson has the ACT this Tuesday and she is pooping adobe. I think she will do fine, but everyone send intelligent vibes her direction just to hedge our bets, okay? I want this kid to go to college so I can finally clean out her damn room. I haven't seen the floor in probably four years.