My six things.....

Cathy tagged me and asked me to list 6 "wierd" things about myself. This is what I came up with.

1) I eat macaroni and cheese with ketchup. It's the only way I'll eat it. When I make my own macaroni & cheese from scratch (w/velveeta or cheddar cheese) I'll add a little worstchester sauce to the mix.

2) I like wear a corset. I buy them here

3) I ignore the prompts etc. that Netflix sends me letting me know what movies are arriving. I set up my laptop, turn out the lights and put the movie in the DVD player and wont' know what's playing 'till I hit the start button. I like the surprise. And then, I like to pause the movie and google stuff from it.

4) Whenever I eat chinese food and the waitress puts the fortune cookies on the table, I won't let anyone touch them until I have picked mine out. I think that if someone else touches your fortune cookie, it ruins the fortune.

5) I have a weak stomach and if I don't remove something from my refrigerator within the first 2 weeks, it will sit there for months until my friend John comes over and removes it for me. He's very sweet about it. He did ask me once not to wait 6 months to remove something but I get embarrassed by it so I keep putting off asking him to do it.

6) I wait too long to scoop out the litter from my cat box. Both kitties are very patient about this but believe me, when I finally get around to doing it, it's not a pretty site. Each time I tell myself I'll clean it out more frequently. The problem is that I get the best smelling kittie litter I can find AND I feed them Science Diet. Their feces doesn't really smell bad with this cat food so I don't smell it. It's usually the urine smell that hits me and makes me clean it out.

Ok, Ya'll, that's all I could come up with.

Billy-isms

Ok, so my friend Billy takes me to see the Nutcracker Suite last night. I think I've mentioned him before, he's the one with whom I went to see E.O. Wilson's lecture. Billy is my Harvard Grad friend who went on to get his PhD in Biochemistry THEN proceeded to medical school. (I mention his credentials for 'new visitors' to my blog. I just to keep everyone up-to-date.)

We have this thing. Neither one of us like sweet 'n low, so any time we go to a restaurant we measure it's class by the sweetener they offer.

Before the ballet, we went to Birra Poretti's downtown for dinner and saved dessert for after the ballet. Who can resist dessert after watching the sugar plum ferry scene? So, anyway, we go back to BP after Nutcracker and order dessert and coffee. The restaurant was dark and all I could see were sugar and sweet 'n low packets. I noticed that Billy pulled out one of his "Equal" packets; he always carries his own. I tease him about carrying his own stash.

I proceed to drink my coffe and eat my canolli. After a minute or two, he hands me a napkin. It's the chemical formula for Aspartame. It is such a Billy thing to do.

Yeah, he's geeky in that way but he's really cute and sweet. I told him I wanted to keep the napkin. He asked me if he should sign it; he's convinced he'll be famous one day.

By the way, after a second look, we noticed that tucked between the sugar and sweet 'n low were Splenda packets. I just couldn't see them because it was dark. So, BP is back up the class scale.

Ouchie Pooh

I was in a 3-car accident last night. I was the lead car and thankfully didn't hit anyone in front of me. No injuries, just a boo boo on my car.

For once I've been hit by someone with insurance! I've had a few fenderbenders over the last 5 years and no one seems to have insurance but this time, it doesn't have to come out of my pocket.

Well, that's all I have to report for now.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Introducing Musetta - The Umbrella Cockatoo

Hi Everyone, I'm Musetta! But when mommy says it, it's more like "It's Musetta! The greatest bird in the whole wide world". You would think I was in a circus or something.

I'm going to be famous one day and make lots of money doing tricks and stuff. And when I am, I'm going to buy me a peanut farm, 'cause I love peanuts. You know, I'll do just about anything for a peanut. I like men, too.

My favorite toy is the Kong Tuffy I love it so much I try to go to sleep with it but everytime I try, it just slips through my tallons and falls to the bottom of my cage. It wakes me up when that happens. I do arm curls with it, I drink water with it, I like to poke one of my tallons into the center and bounce it off my head and I play with it on top of my cage like I'm a monster. I have lots of things I can do with my Kong Tuffy.

I don't travel much. One time, mommy forgot to lock my cage and I decided to explore. I found all sorts of cool stuff. There was a purse that was hanging from a door knob and I chewed the bottom off. And then I found a pen on the floor and I opened it up and spread ink all over the place. And then I found the phone cord and decided to chew through it. I think I made her mad when I did these things.

A couple of years ago I laid some eggs. Mommy really freaked out and she called my doctor. All I remember her saying was "at least we know she's a girl now". Duh! I could of told you that!

Ok, I gotta go now. I have important things to do, like act like a clown, hang upside down on my toys and annoy mommy with my loud shrieking.

We're taking it slow

This is why I hate Meredith Grey's character so much. So, the episode begins with her and McDreamy in a tub together. He is kissing her on the neck in the tub and she is saying, "hey, we're taking it slow".

She is taking a warm bubble bath surrounded by lighted candles WITH HIM and that is her way of saying "we're taking it slow".

So, what else is he supposed to be doing in the tub with her? Talk about makeup?

Another new toy for Mama!

Yes indeedy! I finally got me a camera. So, I thought I would start with a photo of my quilt. Below you will see the squares I have completed thus far. The hoop is on the square I'm currently working on.


I have a lot of work still left to do. I have many squares that still need quilting work.

Below is a close of up Sun Bonnet Sue. I am quilt stitching butterflies; in this square I have embroidered 2 butterflies. This square is special because the black fabric comes from a quilt my sister Diane is doing. So, I have embroidered her name on this square as well.



Isn't she cute? She is the ONLY square with two embroidered butterflies. All the other little girls have only one. The embroidered butterflies are in different areas of each square.

Each girl has the same blue bonnet.

Here, below is Overall Joe. I am quilt stitching little fish and the embroidered fish are in different phases of jumping out of the water. In some cases you only see splashed water where the fish is supposed to be.

Each Joe has a blue blue shirt that matches Sue's bonnet. Each Sue has a different skirt and there is an overall Joe whose overalls match her.

I can't wait to finish this quilt. It needs to be washed.

Boy did it take a long time to load these photos.

The end isn't right

I watched Desperate Housewives last Sunday and it's on again tonight. There is something about the end that bothers me. This is only going ot make sense if you saw it. If you didn't see it and you plan on seeing it (you can do so at www.abc.go.com) then this will spoil it for you.

They kill the woman at the end of the episode. There isn't any reason to do so; she's unarmed.

She gets hit in the head with a can of food and drops the gun. Then she gets into a struggle with someone. Then a person standing by picks up the gun and shoots her in the head. Why? It wasn't necessary. The woman is about 50 something so it should be pretty easy for one or two people to restrain her.

There was no need to kill her and it bothers me that they did it that way.

Something I've never done before

I'm one of those people that is called "brand loyal". I have only one gas card. I have the same insurance I've had since I started driving. I was raised in a Republican household and I vote Republican. And if I don't vote Republican, then I vote Independent. In the early 90's I couldn't bring myself to vote "the enemy", so I went half-way and voted for Perot.....twice.

This time, I went all out and voted Democrat. I am so angry with the party and I had no other recourse. That was it. That was all I knew to do. And now I discover, I'm not alone. There are other loyal Republicans who feel as I do that the party is letting them down.

My issue is not so much with the war on Iraq as much as it is women's issues and a lack of tolerance overall for people who see things differently. I sincerely think that the Republican party is just a bunch of white, self-righteous, christian men who believe they know what's better for us than we do. I'm sick of it. Really, I am.

I love Mac

For those of you who have never heard of Mac Cosmetics let me be the first to tell you about it. It is a fabulous line of cosmetics. I was referred to them by a colleague last year and I have fallen in love with this product. If you haven't heard of them before it's because they don't really advertise, they've grown by word of mouth.

It isn't just the cosmetic but it's also the people who sell it. They are the best.

Yesterday, I used the very last drop of fluid foundation and I went to the Rice Village to get a replacement. Unfortunately they were out of my color so they called a store in the Galleria. I don't know which one they called but I headed over to Nordstrom's and went to the Mac counter there.

They, too, were out of my color. The rep was so sweet. She created a sample for me to take home and use until their shipment arrived. That's not the first time they've done something like that. Early this year I wanted to switch the type of foundation I was using and wasn't sure which color I wanted. The store in Rice Village gave me at least a week's worth of samples in the two shades I liked to help me decide.

And the girls there aren't snobby at all! They take the time to really help you get the right color and look.

So, if you haven't tried Mac, yet, get ye to a store near you. It is a fabulous cosmetic.

If you're happy and you know it.......

Musetta, my little umbrella cockatoo, loves peanuts. She'll do just about anything for a peanut, even a stale peanut. She doesn't seem to like peanut butter though. I think because it's messy.

One time, way back when, I shared some of my spaghetti with her. In order to do so, I had to sit on the floor and put some in a little bowl for her. She likes to eat what I eat sometimes. Anyway, after eating a couple of sauce covered strands of spaghetti, she walked over to me and wiped off her beak on my blue jeans. So, I'm pretty sure that peanut butter just looks and feels very messy to her.

But when it comes to peanuts, all you have to do is say the word and she stops whatever important thing she is doing and comes to full attention.

I made up this little song that I sing to her sometimes. It goes to the tune of the song "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands."

So my little song goes:

If you say the word peanut, you better mean it.
If you say the word peanut, you better mean it.
If you say the word peanut, by god you better mean it.
If you say the word peanut you better mean it.

Yeah. I definitely need a life.

To Be or Not To Be

My friend, John, and I went to see the opera Don Giavanni. This was written by Mozart and is based on the tale of Don Juan. It was a very long opera but was well done. Mozart has a clever way of telling a story.

The charactor of Don Giavanni is one of those who on the one hand is all charm and on the other a worthless philanderer. You love him and "hate" him at the same time. Mozart doesn't really portray Don's evil side as darkly as he could so hate is too strong a word to represent any ill feelings you may have for the guy. Maybe reproach would be more appropriate a description.

On our way back from the opera we were discussing this delimma, this love 'em hate em' character. He had one named Trent in his musical Deep in the Heart. Trent was an abusive asshole but he was so incredibly sexy and charming that it wasn't difficult to see how a woman could be seduced into his lair. I brought up a movie that came out in 1995 called Richard III and asked John if he had seen this movie. This was a really good example of a guy you liked and loathed at once.

He asked me if this movie had Kenneth Branagh in it. Kenneth had played many Shakespearian roles and John started telling me of the one he played in Hamlet. He went on to tell me that Robin Williams was in this movie, too. So then the conversation goes as follows:

"Really, Robin Williams was in it? Who played Brutus, then?"

"Brutus?"

"Yeah, you know, 'et tu brute?'"

"No, that line was from Julius Caesar"

"Oh. Then who played Hamlet's girlfriend. What was her name, Sophoclese or something?"

"That was Ophelia"

"Ah, yes, Ophelia. I remember. She gets killed because she is standing behind a curtain and Hamlet stabs her"

"No, no, her father was standing behind the curtain and Hamlet, thinking he was someone else, stabs him. As a matter of fact, Ophelia goes crazy from the fact that Hamlet murders her father and she frantically runs into the woods and dies."

"Oh yeah, Hamlet dies, too. He commits suicide, right? Poison I believe."

"Hamlet dies and there is poison involved but he doesn't commit suicide."

"This is the play with the witches, right?"

"Witches? That's MacBeth"

"Doesn't Hamlet start with 'There is something rotten in the state of Denmark?'"

"Yes, but I don't see what that has to do with witches."

Hmmm, I think I need to go back and re-read some Shakespeare.