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.

Happy Kinda Anniversary!!

I did not hatch from an egg, yeah, go figure. I have parents, and even stranger, they are still married. And today is as close as I can get to their anniversary. BECAUSE, and this part is funny, they ran away to get married and they didn't know what day it was, and turns out it was February 29, c'mon, everyone say AWWWWWWWW. I *think* they got married in 1964, so this is kinda the 45th. Less if you only count the ACTUAL anniversaries. Oh, and now I'm on the phone with my mom, and she's saying they found out what day it was when they went for their blood test. And there is more stories with palsied preachers and running into a cousin who was also eloping. And OMG, she hadn't even met my Dad's parents at the time.

Awwwwwww, can y'all say awwwwwwww?

My mom always calls this her "little butterball" pic, but I think it's cute, especially the stylin' hat.

Not sure of the year on these, but I think my Dad has his chewing gum tucked up under his lip.

Their honeymoon, which was not the actual day of the big elopement, but later, they had my Dad's mom and his itty sister who is only four years older than me with them.



Happy Anniversary Mama and Daddy!

Again with Randomness

My new boyfriend, as rendered by Annie. I kinda think the advertising dude who works for Denny's? Is married to Samantha from Bewitched. The little gem that is known as Nannerpus, pure genius. I mean, seriously? My kid is begging for a Nannerpus t-shirt, which probably doesn't even exist yet. But will soon be at a Hot Topic near you, cuz Nannerpus is a rebel. But wait, maybe it isn't working that well, because while I go around singing the Nannerpus jingle, I do not especially want to eat at a Denny's. I still kinda think of them as rascist and stuff, that's the last big thing I remember hearing about them.




Annie and her cheer squad rocking it out. I must admit, I did not go to the game. And Terry and Annie actually left at half-time, because evidently it was kind of a massacre (with our team being the victim) so they took their half price popcorn and ran. (So much for school spirit) I think it's funny because you can see Annie counting to herself. Alas, this was the last blast, the cheering season is officially over, and probably Annie's cheerleading career too. It's been at least an itty bit of fun here and there.

Happy Valentine's Day, Blogbelieve!

Red velvet cubcakes with cream cheese icing and sprinkles for all! Let's just hope I don't yak mine up.

Dude, Where's My Yard?

See, I told y'all. Michigan is cruel, cruel I tell you!! We had three days of warm(ish) weather, and now it's back to the icebox. Snow is nice and all, I get you Southerners missing it, but dang, we've had a cumulative total of 65 inches or so of snow this winter, and I for one, am SICK of it. I'm ready for the mud season.

Annie thinks this convo heart looks like it says "Sugar Die." That's what I felt like I was going to do yesterday. The family Valentine's curse visited itself upon me this year, with a vengeance. Someone in our family always gets deathly ill this time each year. I think Al only went to one or two of her Valentine's Day parties in elementary school because she was usually busy hurling. Last year, it was Terry's turn, he called me from work whimpering, and we knew it had come again, this time for the adults. Although yesterday was technically the 13th, so maybe that will break it? All I know is Annie better watch her back next year.