July 11th, 2011
The Quilt!
Check out the quilt that the Bean received from Margaret!
I love it! Sweety loves it! I can’t wait to plop the Bean down on it! When he started building the Bean’s room, he hung the quilt up where he could look at it while he worked so he’d “remember why he was working”.
Royal penguins and castles! I LOVE THEM!
This is something else I think is super cool about the quilt. There are random stars stitched onto it! I didn’t know you could do that kind of thing with a quilt. When I thought about quilts, I always imagined little straight rows of blocks.
You can go here to see the birth of the quilt and snoop around the rest of her site. She has put together some really neat quilts.
March 9th, 2011
I Ate a Dilly Bar
There was a tweetup (where bloggers and people who know each other through Twitter get together) a few weeks ago at the Oceanside Inn at Daytona Beach. Everyone that was coming was asked to bring at least two pairs of gloves as a donation to a local homeless shelter.
Do you know how hard it is to find winter gloves in Florida in February? I went all over the damned place. I finally found a few pairs on sale and snapped them all up but I wanted to donate more. I’d set aside an amount in my head that I was going to spend and since the gloves were on sale I still had more to buy. I’d resigned myself to taking a bunch of socks and the gloves that I’d found but then on my lunch break on the day of the tweetup? I went to a different Tarjay (I’d already been to two in my area.) and found the place where womens knit gloves go to die! I didn’t have a shopping buggy so I decided to get all I could carry.
After I got ready to go to the tweetup that evening, I realized that I didn’t have any gloves for men so I went to WallyWorld and found a couple of pairs of gloves there. And then? I lost my car in the parking lot. My makeup was melting and my hair was becoming stringy as I circled row after row of cars.
I was nervous about going to the thing alone anyway (Sweety was going to go but didn’t due to illness. Surgery soon…more on that later.) and almost decided that it was a sign to not go. Or a sign to go and throw my gloves out of the car window into the yard of the hotel instead of carrying them in like a civilized human being. Then I found my car in one of the parking spots closest to the store and remembered that I’d felt like that was a lucky sign when I parked there.
I didn’t chew a Xanax on my way to Daytona. I wanted to. I reminded myself that I was meeting some people that I knew already in person (Some that I’d met back in January) and other people that I talk to sometimes online and that it would be okay. To calm myself, I envisioned my Worst Case Scenario. It involves people making fun of me openly while pointing and whispering loudly. Then I made my escape plan in case of WCS – running for the door and leaving and never getting on the computer again – and I was okay. Well, kind of sweaty but I did quit grinding my teeth.
When I got there I quickly latched onto the person I know the best and was most comfortable with (That would be Krissy. Thank you, Kristina, for not asking me why the hell I was being your shadow.) and then found a sitting spot. (Free food and booze! Yay for wine! Just one glass. I didn’t want to scare the shit out of everyone by accidentally turning into Tequila Anna and I had to drive AND I had to work the next day.)
I got to meet SisterSadist! She was super nice. Not stuck-up. I’m always afraid I’m going to introduce myself to someone and they’re going to be snooty. I didn’t do a very good job of moving around and introducing myself to people but everyone that I met was really nice. Maybe next time I’ll do a better job of plopping myself down at someone’s table and saying hello.
These little cards? 
I’d ordered them before knowing about the tweetup just because I thought they were cute. And I have a touch of narcissism. My plan was to randomly leave them places when I go on vacation. I felt kind of like a douchepickle handing out cards with my blog on them. But when people gave me their card? I liked that. Made it much easier to scout out new blogs when I got home because I’d never have remembered them all. So, I’m hoping I didn’t look like a weirdo whipping out my tiny cards.
Have you ever heard of a “Dilly Bar”? Sweety had mentioned them to me before when talking about the treats he did NOT get to eat as a child because his parents wouldn’t buy them because they were more expensive than an ice cream cone. A Dilly Bar is a round serving of Dairy Queen ice cream on a stick and it’s covered in chocolate. (Like a little chocolate covered stop sign.) Someone brought some! I was flabbergasted when someone asked me if I wanted a Dilly Bar because I’d always thought that was a word that Sweety made up. After I ate it, I understood why – 30 years later – Sweety still remembers not getting to have one as a treat. They are that good. I even took a photo of my empty wrapper to make Sweety sad that he didn’t fight through the pain and come with me prove to Sweety that I now believed that he wasn’t making up that name like I had accused him of doing.
Whoever brought the most gloves won a two night stay at the hotel. Guess who that was? Mememememe! My sister is coming down for two weeks next month and we were planning on going to the beach anyway but getting to stay at a hotel right on the beach will make it even better! I can’t wait!
Holy hell. 900+ words later, I’m done telling you about this. Next up: My visit Bekah and how I thought she was going to kill me!
February 4th, 2011
A Fairly Perfect Day
Yesterday I woke up with the urge to clean the house. So I did. And it is lovely. It’s not sanitary but it’s cleaner than it has been in awhile (I organized my bookshelf! That was a chore and a half!) and the place smells nice.
This morning I woke up and my first thought upon looking around was, “Holy shit! The house is clean! There’s no laundry either! I can go back to sleep!” So I lit a candle, fed Oliver and tucked Tiny Dog into bed with me. We slept until about noon when Sweety called and woke me.
I got up and wandered naked around the clean house.
I opened the doors and windows to let the cool air in and to give the dogs free reign of the back yard. I heard a noise at the front door and realized I should probably have a robe handy. I darted into the bedroom and put my robe on and saw the mailman coming up the sidewalk. Normally, I’d let him drop the package off at the door while I hid but I’d locked the screen door to the porch and was afraid he’d take the package back instead of leaving it on the sidewalk outside of the screened in porch.
I unlock the porch and he hands me a heavy box. A really heavy box. Big enough to hold with one hand but heavy. About this time Oliver darts out the door and approaches the mailman. Mailman asks if he’s friendly and I laugh awkwardly and say “Sometimes!” while trying to hold the box while trying to prop the screen door open with my foot while trying to grab Oliver before he ran while trying to not let my tits or coochie out from under the robe.
Oh, guess what gave? I dropped the box and flashed the mailman and Oliver gave me the stinkeye when I scooped him up. The little asshole.
Then I got ready to go out with Sweety! Tonight was the concert to see Merle Haggard! We were four rows off of the stage and it was pretty damned cool. I obeyed the signs that forbade bringing in cameras. Next time, I’ll take my camera like everyone else did. This is the best photo I managed to take with my phone.
This was right when he hit the stage and he was singing “Silver Wings”.
Even though I didn’t take any photos, I did manage to sneakily record some songs. They have already been downloaded and dumped into my iTunes library. Of course, they are all songs that I already have but these are MY songs now. To alleviate my guilt over recording songs – I went ahead and purchased his latest album. I hadn’t even listened to it because I was afraid it would suck but he played some of the new songs tonight and I liked them.
He also did my favorite song “Okie From Muskogee”. I was so excited during the show that I couldn’t quit smiling. My face hurts. Sweety noted that I was the most sedate concert-goer he’d ever seen because I was so still. When I’m seeing something like that, I don’t move. I want to be as still as possible so I can suck everything in. I was too excited to talk when it was over. I kept stuttering.
Thursday rocked.
