Can you spell Hammer Costume?

Jboy always waits until the very last minute to come up with a costume and this year was no exception. Two minutes before I'm leaving he says "Mom, I need a costume so I can go trick or treating with the guys."

Now, I bite my tongue about a 17 year old trick or treating because at least he's not getting drunk on Halloween like I was, but really? two minutes?

We walk through the shit hole that is his brother's bedroom and find at least ten costume ideas immediately, none of which Jboy likes. Pirate, Jedi, ski patrol, knight in shining armor, park ranger, Indiana Jones, even a leprechaun for Christ sakes. I tried to talk him into wearing my mom's old prom dress and going in drag. Can't you just picture the pigtails?

So I was almost impressed when he got home tonight, before curfew even. He was a last minute Ninja, complete with black headband (mine), sword (Macaroni's) and a dust mask that he taped up with black electrical tape. It's a ghetto Halloween in our hood.

I still think the leprechaun would have been cooler, but hey, he was happy.

Macaroni's Halloween

Ruby Jean, Sock Hop Queen

Oh my goodness. I just watched this again and noticed the look on Ruby's face in the photo of the two of us. She looks scared, cause hey, walking Halloween mask here...but she was actually mad because I wouldn't let her get any of Macaroni's candy. That face says scared but believe me, she was thinking "Bitch, I saw you hide that Peanut Butter Cup."

My best friend can beat up your best friend

Look what came in the mail today...

Package O'Happy

Shayne is the best best friend ever. I came home from a particularly crappy day at work to a fun Halloweeny box full of sugary goodness. I had just mentioned wanting to get Nikki Sixx's new book, The Heroin Dairies, when poof!, it appears on my doorstep in a box filled with my own personal heroin...Hot Tamales and Tootsie Rolls. Jboy and Macaroni got goodies too, but they had even less self control than me and munched away before I could get a photo.

Reading this book is a trip, so many flash backs to junior high and high school. One of these days I'll have to blog about the whole being a junkie in a previous life thing. I am a lucky, lucky girl.

But now it's time for me to go sleep off this sugar high.

I think I'm glad I couldn't get my scanner to work and ended up with this blurry photo of my photo album instead. Maybe Shayne won't kick my ass for posting it. And seems appropriate since those days are little blurry...

On our way to a Mötley Crüe concert back in the day. Look how much dead cow I was wearing.

And Shayne, look! It's the South Dakota photobooth pix!

Congratulations Bobby and Marie

Wow, it finally happened. My little baby brother proposed to his longtime girlfriend Marie. I know she's been hinting and threatening for a while so he broke down and bought the ring for her birthday, which was the day after his.

I have mixed feelings about marriage but I do love me a wedding. Should be fun.

And now the fun begins

So I closed on the loan today. Both mortgages, the line of credit and all of my credit card debt has been rolled into one mortgage. And I still have close to $100k in equity. I feel so much better.

Although now I have to get started on the remodeling plans. Uggh.

It's almost time to get up

I knew Fate could be a bitch but damn, she so did not want me to get tickets to Othello. First off, I'm a math moron and had my time zones all confused. Woke up at 2:30 AM instead of 3:30 AM, tickets went on sale at 4 AM. Now that might be my Rougeavelt Edumacation showing, or it might be me knowing myself so well and preparing for the ever loving snooze fest. Either way, I got up at 2:30, checked the website and went back to bed.

My alarm went off again at 3:30 AM, not that I'd slept a wink during that hour, and I got back on the computer. Read some email, checked up on Joss, got 2 questions right on this little test. In other words, killed time.

3:58 rolls around and I go back to the Donmar site. Two terribly long minutes and then boom, the whole computer freezes up. And I hadn't even tried to pull up tickets. Not a good sign. When I get back on the site at 4:02 AM it's slow as shit. The painful, I-ate-way-too-much-cheese kind of shit. The oh-holy-crap-I'm-never-going-to-see-Ewan-on-stage-ever-again kind of shit. Yes, I can be very melodramatic in the wee hours.

So, thinking it may be easier to get tickets by phone, I go to find Jboy's international calling card, only to discover why he hasn't talked to Shiomi in so long. There's no freaking money on the card. So I recharge the card, which is a seemingly endless maze of "for English, press one" and "if this is correct, press two", all the while refreshing the website.

After adding $25 to the calling card I had a very nice, very long conversation with Karen, Indian Tellemarketer Extrodinare, about why the credit isn't showing up and how long is it going to take, it's 4:22 AM in MN and I've got a very important call to make. Finally, Karen was nice enough to suggest that I get off the cell phone and call from a landline. And nice enough not to tell me to get a fucking life.

So now I'm refreshing the website, backing out of error pages, swearing like a sailor and redialing the 26 digits over and over like a crazy person. And occassionally forgeting to drop the city code (I think it was the city code) and getting the annoying "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again." Moron!

It only took an hour and I only almost screamed about a hundred times...may have sold my soul to the devil somewhere along the line too...but hey, worth it. After speaking to a delightful British boy...is there any other kind?...we've got tickets for the February 12th and 14th performances. Take that, Fate. Really sweet tickets on the 14th too. That's right kids, Sunshine is going to see Ewan on Valentine's Day! Close enough to see him sweat!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk!

Netflixiness

Figured I'd do some reviews since the most exciting thing in my life is uploading new music and photos to my iP0d. Is it possible to be more boring than me?

Spent way too much of yesterday in a car...went to a "picnic" in Milaca at my Uncle Sonny's house. My dad's side of the family is always interesting and yesterday was not a letdown. I hate cars though and am still recovering.


Jboy had friends over last night. Not too late, but I did sleep until noon today so I obviously didn't get my usual three hours almost uninterrupted of beauty sleep.


Tickets go on sale tomorrow London time, 3 AM here. Wish me luck.




Netflix reviews:


Following Sean Four stars. Very interesting documentary that follows up with this kid 30 years after the first documentary about growing up in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the 60's.


Alone with Her Four stars. This whole movie was made with surveillance cameras, very cool idea. Not the greatest writing/acting ever but definitely a cool premise. Creepiest part, the stalker is played by Tom Hank's kid.


The Darwin Awards Five stars. So cute I can't even begin to describe it. Loved the quirk factor. Love Joseph Fiennes. Had to dig out Heathers after watching Winona Ryder.


MythBusters: Collection 1: Disc 4 Eleventy kabillion stars. Keeps Macaroni happy without annoying video games and that's always good enough for me.


Tristan & Isolde Three and a half stars. I am a sucker for the star crossed lovers thing and how much do I love the costumes? Still, wouldn't need to see it again.


The Descent Four and a half stars. Way better than I expected. Scared the crap out of me in several places, but wasn't just gross blood and guts. So don't like the US theater ending. And oh my goodness, were the special features hilarious.


Miami Ink: Season 1: Disc 2 Three stars. What I wouldn't give for tattoo show that's actually about tattoos. Does feed my Garver crush though, although Ami ocassionally make me vomit in my mouth and turn it off. He's just so gross sometimes.

Finally

We close on the Refinance Loan from Hell™ on Tuesday. Woo hoo!

i LOVE this show

Pushing Daisies

Humiliation

I got ditched at the college fair last night. Jboy ran into a girl who used to go to his school and took off. Asshat.

We decided we were too tired to try to run to the play so we skipped it and went home to veg in front of the tv. And we were both too lazy to get up to put in 300 so we flipped around and watched really bad television. Like a train wreck, it was hard to look away. Why can't Joss get a new show?

Nothing new going on...I think my new favorite show is on tonight. Lee Pace is delicious. Loved him in Wonderfalls. Jboy and I both loved the first episode and is it any wonder why?

From this article: "Rumor has it that "Pushing Daisies" was originally conceived as something of a companion piece to "Dead Like Me". Considering that Bryan Fuller was instrumental in both productions, that's not hard to believe. And this does feel and sound like something that fell out of the same idea machine. It's as if Tim Burton and Joss Whedon had a love child."

Not too lazy to link

Sheesh, I've been a lazy blogger. I'm blaming Shayne's broken laptop, since she's just about the only person who ever looks here. Really though, I'm just lazy. Shush, don't tell anyone.

We got the drywall hung, did the mudding and had the appraiser out again. Hopefully we'll close on this loan soon or I may start shooting herion into my eyeballs. I'm still trying to recover from all the drywall dust that has accumulated in my lungs. Not to mention trying to convince my poor aching muscles that I will never get that much exercise again. Ever.

I had a very busy post-birthday weekend. Thursday night I went to a Chanel makeover with Mary and two of her friends. Yes, I sat in the middle of the stinky makeup department at Macy's and allowed a very sweet but very, very dumb girl to put makeup on my face. I don't think I've worn foundation since high school. It felt like the drywall mud and she practically used a trowel. And, because the fumes must have gotten to me, I went out for drinks afterwards looking like an old, scary drag queen! It was not fun, but the girl time was.

Friday afternoon Macaroni and I went to see Transformers at the Riverview (3rd time for him, 2nd for me. How cute is Shia LaBeouf??? I'm like a dirty old lady watching him) and then at almost midnight Mary and her friend Al took me and Macaroni to see Serenity, also at the Riv. Yes, they showed Serenity again...let's pretend that it's their birthday present to me and not just the anniversary of the original release. They show it every year for Joss's birthday and mine. See, we are like soulmates. Sad, sad birthday party soulmates.

Then Saturday Mary and Kata took me out for dinner. PF Chang's again this year. I made a total pig of myself and made fun of all the drunk teenagers on their way to Homecoming. Here's what I ate: Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, Harvest Spring Rolls, Steamed Vegetable Dumplings, Shanghai Cucumbers and Sichuan-style Asparagus. And a yummy rum-something martini. See? Pig.

I'm in a slight depression over the fact (possibility? rumor?) that Othello is almost sold out...and tickets don't go on sale to the general public until Monday. I might not get to see my imaginary boyfriend this winter. Can you feel the gravity pulling on my lower lip? And I was all excited about my new tattoo in Scotland. Poo. But it also means I might not be spending money on a trip to Europe, so I might go skydiving in Vegas instead, just to cheer myself up a little bit. And hopefully drag baby K and her mama to Disneyworld.

Tonight Jboy and I are going to the National College Fair and then to see The Seagull at the new Guthrie. He didn't sign up soon enough to go to the fair with school so I'm sure he'll be pouting that he's there with his mom. The shame! Hopefully we won't see anyone we know. We seriously need to get him going on the entire "my-life-after-high-school" thing. He waits until the last minute for everything. (Shut up! He could have inherited that from his dad!) I just paid a late fee for him to take the SATs in two weeks. Hopefully we'll get him a nice timeline going after tonight, before it's too late to apply anywhere!

And the play...it's not getting great reviews and Ian McKellan isn't performing tonight (which explains the tickets I scored for $2 a piece)...but I'm looking forward to it. We're in the balcony, my favorite. (Unless I'm seeing Ewan. I enjoyed being within spitting/sweating distance of him.) Would have preferred to see Chiwetel Ejiofor in this performance, but hey, maybe I'll see him in London yet.

Not much else going on. Counting down the days until the cruise (52!) and watching Angel so I can sell my DVDs. Damn, Alexis is hot in Season 4. Watched a bunch of Netflix movies that I should review but, remember, I'm lazy.

Oh, and I got my birthday wish. Safe and sound.

All I want for my birthday...

...is for Ewan to come home safe. He's in Iraq right now visiting the British troops.

Okay, I also want to win the lottery, have a magic elf hang the rest of the drywall at my house, have KK sing Happy Birthday Auntie Sunshine on my voicemail and, um, world peace. Not necessarily in that order. But I'll settle for my boy getting home with all his pretty pieces.

Oooh, I just figured out how to get the videos I tried to load last week to finally show up. Just had to hit "publish" again, go figure. See them below.

Overachiever

I'm going to make an attempt at uploading some videos too.

The quality on almost all of these is Extremely Crappy. Annoying little clicking sounds going on. They're all from the little video deal on my cheap camera, which I usually don't even realize is on. Explains the 14 two-second videos I just erased. These were all too cute or funny or something to delete though. Now if I could only figure out how to rotate them.

I've two others that still haven't worked. One is from Jboy's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", he played Mustard Seed and actually danced! The other is from Christmas Eve about four or five years ago. Macaroni and his cousins Malcolm and Jack did their own little rendition of Lord of the Rings, or Lord of the Dorks more accurately. Wish I could get them to load.

Photos, links & Netflix reviews. Oh My!

Finally got some photos uploaded. Lots of Ruby and some from the first day of school. We've got an awesome spider living in our front yard, but I haven't gotten a very good photo of it yet.

Going for a walk with Auntie Sunshine

"Enough photos, let's go!"

"Move it!"

Happy now.

Macaroni, Grandma & Ruby

I love the drawing in the background, it's Macaroni and Paul Wellstone.

My little chef

The oven is shocked...it's not a frozen pizza!

Macaroni was very proud of his Tofu Fish Sticks from

the Vegan Lunchbox & his cool new lunchbox

4th grade

He's a senior?!?!?

That blob is our spider. We need a name for her.

Not much else going on. Freaking out about the loan because we need to hang a shit load of drywall before we can close, and although I subscribe to This Old House and have a mad crush on Norm Abram, I don't know how to fix anything.

I'm reading The Killer Angels and really loving it. Counting down the days until the cruise and kind of half assed planning the trip to Europe. It doesn't sound like Heather (and maybe her friend Angie) can make it for Hogmanay but maybe we can hit Up Helly Aa instead. Although that's more than twice what I wanted to spend on a tour it sure looks like a blast. It all depends on when we get tickets to Othello. I may end up going all alone.

Netflix reviews:

Origin: Spirits of the Past

It was pretty good, 3 stars. We really like Japanese anime but this one had a sort of dumb ending.

Sudden Manhattan

I loved the late Adrienne Shelly in Waitress so I rented this one, which she also wrote, directed and starred in. Very cute, quirky movie...four and a half stars...and this dude looks a lot like Nathan. Who I really want to see in a beard now.

Mystery Train

Five stars, loved this one. Jboy loved all the Japanese and you can never go wrong with Buscemi. Favorite quote: "You got any more of those Japanese plums? Or other exotic fruits from around the world?"

Hope it sticks!

I quit drinking soda to help my imaginary boyfriend stop smoking, by osmosis or something. Very cute little interview of him here talking about how he quit.

Finished watching Buffy...took 42 days to watch 144 episodes. Actually 146 because I had to watch OMWF and Tabula Rasa twice.

On to Angel now. I have no life.

Happy Birthday Mandy!

Sweet Seventeen this year. Crappy photo from her scavenger hunt party last year.

TIME agrees

100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME

Deja Voodoo

It just hit me that Jboy is a senior at my old high school. I've been well aware of the fact that he's a senior and that I'm freaking old, but I just realized that he's sitting in the same building, eating in the same lunchroom, might even have the same locker. Too. F'ing. Weird.

He was super excited when he got home yesterday. Four AP classes! Physics! Piano! Piano because they cut Japanese, which sucks, but yea!piano!

He also found out that there will be a Quiz Bowl team again this year. Man, things have changed. I'm sure I was not only NOT excited about my classes but I probably spent the evening of my first day as a senior either nursing a hangover or working one up. I love my nerdy kid.



Okay...Macaroni had a good, although much less "woo hoo" first day of school. He's very easy, teachers dream. He was excited to make Tofu Fish Sticks for his lunch when he got home from his dad's house. I took a bunch of photos, will have to post them later.

I also took photos of the spider in our garden. Ha, I called it a garden. Anyway, the spider has been working up a little nest of some sort, basically covered the top of a dead lily with thick, white webbing. He's been there for awhile and you can usually see him sitting in there. Well, his very artistic girlfriend showed up last night and spun a huge, gorgeous Spidey-style web in between two dead lilies, about two feet apart. Insane. She's at least the size of a quarter, maybe bigger. Macaroni is sure she's poisonous because he watches the Discovery Channel and if you watch Mythbusters then obviously you know everything there is to know about spiders. I ran in the house to grab my camera and ended up leaving my keys in the front door. It reminded me of this photo from another blog I read.

I'll be in my bunk

My imaginary boyfriend at the Venice Film Festival. He's so pretty! More here.