Basketball Jones

Ella is a lucky little girl. She pretty much gets whatever her little heart desires, thanks to all her grandparents. Really, I cant complain, she is not rotten yet, and is the sweetest thing, of course! So she is always cycling through her "favorite" things. One minute it's a certain doll, the next a beanie baby puppy; There are a few standby items, like Baby Alive, and her iron and ironing board. This is a newer addition though. I went to wake her up yesterday morning, and this is what I saw:

I had to laugh. It made me start singing "Basketball Jones" and that stupid thing is still in my head. Well, I tried to rouse her, and her first move was to frantically look around for the ball and then just to make sure mean old mommy wasn't going to take it, I guess, she pulled it close and drifted back into sleep like this:

I love it. She is just so cute!

And for any of you not familiar with the phenomenon that is Basketball Jones... you should be ashamed! You have got to check THIS out. Well, be warned it is not the most politically correct thing in the world, but if you get too hung up on that this probably isnt the blog for you :)

More Monkey Business

So, after reading my post about the baby monkey for sale, my mom reminded me that she, in fact, once had a wee monkey as a pet! I don't know how I forgot about that story. I didn't really get the details on how this arrangement came to be, or the legality of it and all, but hey, it was the 70's!

It was a Capuchin Monkey. Seemingly very cute little creatures, have a looksie:


Apparently it looked more like this a majority of the time, though.


She has told me some stories about the true nature of having a monkey for a pet. Apparently they stink and screech and scream and throw their dung at you and all over... I have this funny mental image of a huge metal birdcage in the middle of their living room, with a crazed monkey shaking the bars and screeching... I'll draw a picture and post it at some point. Note the splattered poo that monkey has thrown about, and the cool retro 70's lamp is the standout fixture I remember from that house...


Apparently it got out a couple times, and they toyed with the idea of letting it stay gone, but the threat of someone tracing it back to them was too great. Plus I think it only ever went up a tree in the back yard, so it would still have been there, taunting and terrorizing. I am just fascinated by this. How they got a monkey, why they got a monkey, what did they do with it when they DID actually get rid of it (from the tone of the stories, I gather it was a short term arrangement).

Anyhow- just an interesting story...

You Never Know...

... Where your bare @$$ may show up...

I'll just say this is a person I know. Pretty darn well. He is a bit of an eccentric, I think he prefers to be referred to as an "aspiring curmudgeon,*" he's an adventurer, a naturalist; Even still, I was a bit taken at seeing his bare @$$ on the internet. But then I thought about it, and really it's not all that shocking.

From what I understand, this photograph was distributed to a small list of people, emailed to like 12 people, and it soon appeared on a national website, posted by some kid at Penn State (huh?) which I think is beyond funny.

I pulled the picture with the tag from the website, to prove it. The caption posted with the photo was "To the true swimmer, water is water, it doesnt matter what state it's in." It's followed by over a hundred and twenty comments, of varying nature and crudity, and a couple people even claimed to know him (but were way off on the geographical location of the photo-shoot). I will admit that for my blog here I gave him a pair of trunks, because, well, he needed them. It's cold out there...

*-yeah, you'll have to Google that for yourself, it's a post in its own -

Yeah, but can it make coffee?

So, the funniest thing I have seen in a long time definitely merits a post here. I actually didnt see it, my dad did, but when I saw the photo I promptly emailed it to myself from his phone, and now I'll just use it at will... Thanks, dad, by the way...

I know I talked about the infamous Frank's Country Store before. Although I must admit, after all the talking I did about their catfish plates on Fridays, we went to the fish fry at our church last week, and we'll be transferring our weekly reservation there, instead! It was REALLY REALLY good, where Frank's only gets one REALLY. Okay totally beside the point.

So, apparently this gem of a sign showed up on the window at Frank's place, and my dad was smart enough to immortalize it on ?film ?file eh-we'll just say iPhoto:

Can you imagine? I took the liberty of blacking out the phone number there, since I'm not really sure of the legality of selling baby monkeys at convenience stores in small towns across America, I don't know the people that are selling said monkey, and they have since taken the sign down. Maybe it was an issue, or maybe they already sold the little bugger and don't want any more calls. I can imagine they got some interesting "prank" calls on this one.

So anyways, just thought it was too funny not to share. And people, take care in choosing your pets.

Celtic Woman

My dad scored some tickets to a really neat concert, and he took me along for the show! It was Celtic Woman, a group of, well, celtic women, that have angelic voices and one spunky little fiddler. Or violinist, I suppose.

The music was just incredible! It's the kind of show you watch, and then it makes you wish you could sing, too. And then, your three year old tells you to stop, and you get back to normal, only singing in the shower or in the car with the volume up a couple notches too high to drown out the sound of you.

So, back to the Celtic Woman show: They were all these beautiful women in full on bridesmaid dresses, and really it was just neat :) I'm glad he took me along with him, I'd have never known about them otherwise! Plus, I like the spunky one's hair, I think I'm going to try for that "style" next time I get my hair did...

I highly recommend the show, if you ever get a chance to see them! The only drawback was really more to do with the facility; I spent the ENTIRE 20 minute intermission on line for the "ladies room," and, did I mention said line was actually on a stairwell? Yeah, 7 months pregnant on a 6inch step for 20 minutes = not fun... Plus the woman behind me was insufferable. It was one of those times when you accidentally make eye contact, and then they talk and talk and talk. You know? I mean crazy stuff, like guestimating the average time for each woman to pee, taking into account whether they "zip while they're in the stall or wait till they get out of the stall" and then counting the number ahead of us in line and multiplying for the most accurate estimate of how long we'd be there. Oh, it was really something. I don't know about you, but sometimes you just stand and wait your turn, and you're done when you're done. And now I'm done.

The Love Bus - Are you on it?

So, Valentine's Day- not my favorite day of the year. I don't really have any bad experiences per say, I just oppose it on principal. Plus it is really kind of a hassle. Take yesterday evening; I had to make a tray of brownies for the hubby to take to work, a veggie tray for Ella's class party, and make little valentines for each of the 13 kids in her class. Which really, it doesn't sound too bad, I know, but I would much rather have spent the evening normally, since a trip to the grocery, making dinner and getting the house picked up were also on the agenda for the evening. Can you guess which one we skipped?

The brownies came out a little overcooked because we were distracted from pulling them out by our work on Ella's little valentines, which I must say are VERY cute this year... We dubbed it "The Love Bus," and I thought they were kind of appropriate, not gender specific, and school themed, kind of. We put a strand of maroon and white beads (really left over Mardi Gras beads, that's not tacky, right?) in each one, to complete the sugar free, gender neutrality of it all.

Our little fleet:

And a closer shot of a few:

Too cute, huh? I pulled them off of my new favorite website for kid crafts: The Toy Maker

Ella was really excited about taking them to her little buddies, and I hope they have fun playing with them :) She looked extra cute today in her little pink sweetheart tee, courtesy of her BFF's crafty mommy, Aunt G, and the adorable little (well, it's kind of big) Valentine bow she got from her cousin Maddie. Love it!

As for the rest of us, I got a fabulous pair of earrings to match the couple of pearl necklaces I have, so I no longer have to wear the plastic pearls I got at Claire's 5 years ago :) Hubby kind of got the short end of it, he only got a card. And no fancy dinner, he'll be out of town for the evening. Maybe next year I'll get into the spirit. Not likely though.

So, Happy Valentine's Day everybody. I hope the love bus swings by your place...

Pastrami Mommy

So I go to the same place every day. I stay there all day and do my work, and it's really not a bad gig. Granted I pay them for the right to be there, but you know... Nothings perfect.

So, being pregnant and all, I am on a rigorous diet. Meaning I MUST eat and often. It is really a lot of work for me. I end up eating at the little joint that happens to be closest to the building I while away the days in, and well, it's nothing special. I go because it's fast. It's not even cheap. But, I have discovered my new passion there.

It's called the "Pastrami Homily" and it goes a little something like this:

It is a re-DONK-ulous amount of pastrami stuffed onto two slices of mediocre rye bread with a ton of spicy mustard. That's what you get for $6 these days. You want a drink with that? $7.85

I love it.

So, I hope you are having a good day. I'm off to have a sandwich, finish up my work, and then go play with my little ballerina princess frog (at least that's what she wanted me to call her this morning).