achy breaky heart

this girl kills me. tonite, i put the princess to bed. she wanted me to lay down with her while she fell asleep. as i lay there, we conversed a bit. she asked me what she should call HM now. she said uncle handyman was too long and asked if uncle Duane would be okay. i told her it was up to her. other options were uncle guero (pronounced weddo) or tio bolio (pronouced wulleeoh). i think the tio bolio has a nice ring to it.

we also talked about marriage and kids. she asked me why i waited so long to get married. i told her it was because i wanted to make sure i got it right the first time. she totally understood. she also asked what we were going to name our kids. she came up with several options... none of which we'll use. i don't know where the hell she came up with these names.

she also asked why i was marrying someone "so weird". i told her it was because i was so normal and it kinda balanced out. she didn't buy it. she knows i'm damn weird. she loves that i'm weird. that makes me the cool aunt, that i'm weird. she was worried about us having weird kids, tho. she said that would be okay, cuz at least they would be cute. she is SO looking forward to babysitting.

laying down with her, i was imagining laying down with my own kids. one day. i imagine putting them to bed, talking to them, hearing about their day, and listening to their dreams. i never want the princess to grow up. i want her to stay eight years old forever. she's a little mature for her own good but she doesn't always let on that she knows that. i like it when she lets me be the grown up. sweet dreams, princess.

weekend update/recap

friday - we went to look at another house. a three bedroom... cuz let's face it, i ain't poppin' out kids TODAY. we really liked it when we saw it. but after the weekend, we're not so sure. the master bedroom is kinda small and the closets are really small. also, the master bath is the main bath for the house. it did have it's good points, tho. there was a built-on game room type room and there were all these little "rooms" inside the closets (very flowers in the attic). one led to above the garage. the other was at the front of the house. either a little kids play room or HM's getaway. it had potential, tho. there's definitely room for improvement and i have to decide if this is the place i want to be for maybe 5-6 years. possibly 10. i guess that all depends on where we are at that point.

after the house, i had another reception to attend. what is it with the friday nite receptions? my friend D-Money got married earlier this summer. as they were congratulating me on my recent engagement, towlie told me to check out ashley's (the wife's) rock. so i did. she's got this huge frikkin' emerald cut (?...whichever cut is square) and she looks at me and says, "eh, he did okay... he did okay." okay? he did okay?? WTF?!?!? i know D$ and D$ isn't made of $$$. she's been a spoiled little shit from day one, tho. it just killed me. i would NEVER say that about my ring. i LOVE my ring. i love the simplicity of it. i love that it's not some ghastly oversized piece of glass surrounded by a thousand other diamonds. isn't that dated anyways? i don't know. i never even looked at rings before HM asked me about them. i wouldn't trade mine for anything. afterwards, i came home thinking HM is SO lucky to have me. =)

saturday - woke up early. good god, man, what was i thinking? it's saturday and i'm showered and dressed before 11:00...??? i decided to go ahead and make my way to HM. stopped by the store and stole him away for lunch. afterwards, we didn't do much of anything. HM made me shrimp etoufee for dinner and i couldn't even eat it. i was really not feeling well. we even missed the haunted house we were supposed to go to. we didn't do much except play with the boys and watch some movies.

side note: OMG! what the hell was VH1 thinking when they created this new show, "but can they sing?" good lord! i'm watching bai ling make an absolute fool of herself, singing "like a virgin". i gotta give her props for even doing it... knowing damn well she couldn't pull it off with her not speaking english very well and all. what actors will do for exposure.... sad.

sunday - felt much better. just kinda hung out and watched movies. we watched 'the fog'. it was a pretty good flick but HM said it wasn't as suspenseful as the first one. i don't remember seeing it when i was a kid. imagine that.

second side note: kim alexis should have stuck to modeling. i can't even decipher what this song is... she sounds like she's trying to yodel something. please stop it now. thank god they don't get to sing a whole song.

good nite and have a pleasant tomorrow.

p.s. i can't wait to see the kids in their costumes tomorrow!

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

okay, so i'm more of a dog person and raindrops on roses have really been overdone in the photo dept, but here are a few of my favorite things about cool weather:

- i can get away with not shaving (not one word from you, HM)

- turtlenecks (tho i've been told, by one person, that i probably shouldn't wear them)

- sweatshirts! (i could live in sweatshirts, jeans and flops year round)

- sleeping with the windows open

- tons of blankets on top of me when i go to bed (because, duh, the windows are open)

- great hair

- TOE SOCKS!!

disney lockdown

after the past THREE days i've spent looking for songs for the princess, i'm DONE with disney! she is soooo gonna nanny for free! i've decided my kids are not going to be allowed to watch disney. not only because of it's brainwashing effects on pre-teens but also because i don't want to spend time in the car listening to all these sucky songs! good god, man! i listened to them all... waded thru them just to make sure there were no skips and the songs were complete. ugh! did "walking on sunshine" REALLY need to be remade by disney greats aly & aj? i think not. and the remake of "the tide is high" is just blasphemous. you don't remake BLONDIE! there's no lizzie mcguire in BLONDIE! which by the way, is the movie soundtrack i found the song on.

we will have cable lockdown and the disney channel will be blocked. oh, they can watch all the porn they want, but NO DISNEY! *hi mamalane* =)

weekend update/recap

it was a fun weekend. a lazy weekend. and a busy weekend all rolled into one.

friday - sistah sweet cheeks came down. late. she was supposed to call me when she left her place around 3:00. i called her at 4:00 and she was N A P P I N G. not good. the wedding started at 6:00, she got to my place at 6:05 and can you believe, i still didn't have enough time to do my hair like i wanted. even with the cool fronts coming thru there was still ample humidity for my hair to frizz out.

we got to the wedding while the bridesmaids were going down the aisle. we also saw the bride prepping for her walk. yeah, we were late. it was a very nice ceremony. i didn't even know the couple and i cried. well, that's not entirely true. i know the groom but not so much that i would cry at his wedding. we had a good time chatting with everyone and catching up. i made mental notes of what will not be allowed at my wedding. no bryan adams. no screaming kids. no bryan adams. no whole long song father/bride-mother/groom dance. if this happens at all, the songs will fade at an appropriate moment. the couples first dance will be to, "i wanna sex you up". JUST KIDDING MAMALANE. ;o)

afterwards, sweet cheeks and i went to the martini bar. thirty minutes later, HM showed up w/Pooop. i missed him. i love him. we left there and went to whiskey bar. we had a really good time, the three of us. sweet cheeks had such a good time with us, she's coming down for the rally, too. YAY!

saturday - HM got up at 7:45 to help P1 move some stuff. ugh. sweet cheeks and i stayed asleep until he returned at 11:30-ish. with breakfast! he brought us barbacoa and burritos and homemade tortillas. shortly after, we went right back to sleep. we didn't wake up again until HM made us get up at 3:00. which then just moved us to the living room sofas to sleep. we were laazzzzy.

saturday nite we watched the game and went out for a bit. we haven't been out out for a really long time. so it was nice to see everyone this weekend. made the usual rounds and tried out a new place which i will never go back to cuz the owner is a giant "richard". i can't believe he wanted to see my ID. like he doesn't frikkin know me and we haven't had conversations with each other for the last three frikking years!!! ass.

came home and had fajita tacos with the crew.

sunday - lazy. HM had an unusually lazy day. he hurt his back while he was helping P1 move so he was on muscle relaxers. he slept ALOT on sunday. i was totally okay with it. all we did was sleep and eat on sunday. again, totally okay with that.

we met megan and smooth out, later, to watch the game. i don't think we quite made it to the 4th inning. HM was tired and his back hurt. he was a trooper just for going in the first place. we finished watching the game at home. actually, i fell asleep. i knew we weren't going to win. we're waiting for our thunder at home.

good nite and have a pleasant tomorrow.

you're an obsession

why is it that when we are having company, we are so obsessed with our kitchens being cleaned? do we think they're going to walk in and say, "oh my god, she eats"! that's the one thing i don't get. people know i eat. and well, i might add. why wouldn't there be dishes in my sink? i cook. i eat off real plates. i do this on a daily basis. why can't there be dishes in my sink?

it's almost like it's okay for the rest of the house to look like holy hell but THE KITCHEN MUST BE CLEAN! i have to admit, when the kitchen is all messed up, the rest of the apartment pretty much follows suit. i guess it's the clutter that gets me. i don't like clutter (this is the part where you look at my dining room table, roll your eyes and say r i i i i i i i ght).

so all of this obsession started because sistah sweet cheeks is on her way down right now. there's a wedding in town and she's using me for a place to stay. =) it's okay, tho. she invited me to the wedding and there's an open bar. DONE!

for an invite to an open bar, i'll clean the damn kitchen to make it look more presentable.

the nanny

so the princess had a soccer game the other day. her team lost, 6-2. she immediately came up to me after the game to explain to me that she doesn't usually suck. okay, those weren't her words but i knew what she meant. she told me, "i'm usually really good. it was an 'off' nite". the things that come from this girls mouth.... literally... amaze me.

afterwards, we (me, S1, and princess) went to taco cabana for dinner. she then goes on to tell me i needed to have children. she also told me that i didn't need to worry about picking them up from daycare, because at that time she will be at school half day and working half day. she told me she would work for three hours after school... "maybe until 3:30". after that, she would pick the kids up in her convertible, her mustang convertible that her daddy will buy her when she's 16. in her words, "i'll pick your kids up from northside cuz i'm not taking my convertible all the way to webster to get them". apparently, location is crucial, or so i thot. she had a solution. my kids would just live with her during the week. she'd bring them to me on the weekends. DONE! at this point, S1's eyes just about popped out of her head. S1 and i asked who would feed the kids. she said she would. i guess she's planning on making her millions at her 3hr\day job.

power to the princess!

houston, we have a pennant!

we did it! we FINALLY did it!! i can't BEE-lieve we pulled it off! i gotta say, tonite's game wasn't as exciting as monday nite's game. we weren't on the edge of our seats like we were the other nite. and j-smooth sure as hell didn't order any victory shots before the game was over. we all jumped on his ass about that one.

we were pretty excited about the sox last year, too. we have a friend from boston. lovingly known as Boston. he is a MAJOR patriots/sox fan. i liked the patriots before i met him. not so much the sox. but his energy and his intensity while watching the game just made you get into it. my buddy, Megan, is also from boston. we all hung out together and had a blast watching the games... both patriots football and sox baseball. sox went all the way last year and we're carrying Boston's spirit over this year.

good luck to the ASTROS!

weekend update/recap

sooooo...this weekend was a long one. it started on thursday. we went to meet the partners (P1 and P2) and caught our plane to indy. it's a wonder we even made it to the airport with their obvious lack of navigation skills. good god, man!! it was actually pretty funny just listening to them. and it's not like they've never been to the airport before...

so thursday nite HM and i go to this irish pub and have a beer. next, we check out the canterbury hotel. HM remembered DON, the bartender, from his last visit. DON told us there was a film festival going on. the only star sightings so far were Dakota Fanning and Judge Reinhold. not really worth gettin' star-eyed about. none the less, we promised to visit on friday.

friday - i was allowed to sleep late while HM and the P's went to seminars on how to make more money and sell more hardware. i took the shuttle downtown and had lunch at einstein's... started wandering around... took some pictures. i was kinda on a steeple/bell tower kick. i ended up, unknowingly, at the convention center. thereby, missing the shuttle back to the hotel with HM and the P's. apparently, HM saw me while they were driving off. they were nice enough to come back and get me.

back at the hotel, we got dressed to go BACK to the convention center and grab some dinner. there was this sort of early bird blue light special for the members. members being store owners and what-not. before we got in there, they marked off what they wanted in a little circular flyer thingy. P1 and P2 got half. HM got the other half. while "literally" almost running around to place the early bird orders at every essential booth, it was kinda reminiscent of Trading Places. the part where Winthorp and Billy Ray were in the pit of the New York Commodities Exchange where they're reaching over each other, trying to get the tickets from the sellers... or the buyers, whatever. that's exactly what it was like during the blue light special.

afterwards, it was dinner at P.F.Chang's. after dinner, HM and i ditched the P's and went back to see DON as promised. DON informs us that the new star sightings were Patricia Heaton and Bill Paxton. still, kinda nobody star-worthy (actually, seeing Billl Paxton mighta been kinda cool), but OH, it was a fun nite. we met some pretty cool people and had ALOT of drinks. i remember, there was a birthday and some singing and ALOT of drinks. i don't remember much of the rest. when downloading my pictures today, i had more than i expected. turns out, when i'm drunk, i take a whole lotta pictures... and HM becomes my favorite subject. i'm guessing i took all of them on the walk home. neither one of us really remembers the walk home.

saturday - good god, man! what a hangover!!! i was hurting so bad. i had to get up for a luncheon that P1 signed me up for. "how to market to women". good lunch, tho. afterwards, i was trying to get out and get back to the hotel bed. but nooooooo... .HM was not allowing it. he pulled this, "i want you to be near me" and "i thot we could hang out today". he so didn't care. i know he didn't care. he just didn't want me to sleep while he was out placing his orders at the trade show all day. i told him that if he wanted to spend time with me, he had to hold my hand. at first let go, i'm outta there. he never let go. =)

that nite, we went to get some down home fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and corn. again, with the navigators from hell. "what does veer right mean?" "what street is this coming up?" "how far down is it?" just get there already! geesh! not even an hour later, leaving the restaurant, it was "well if we took a right getting here then we have to take a left getting back" and "no, we have to take a right to get back" and "oh, which street did we turn on again?" it was three.frikkin'.turns. people!! AND it was less than an hour ago!

we opted not to go out on saturday. even tho we were invited to a party by the nice people we met at the hotel bar the nite before. i don't think either one of us could handle it.

sunday - back to the trade show. wrapping up odds and ends and buying stuff from the aisles he didn't walk the day before. headed for the airport around 2-ish, i guess..? "which way do we go?" "is this a one way?" "we can't go down this street. it's a on way." "is it left or right?" just look for the damn airport sign already.

at the airport, we watched the astros and the patriots. yeah, i watched the patriots get their butts smashed in. so sad. they're having a pretty rough year. astros won! YAY! we found that out on the plane. back in the big city....aaahhhhhhh. "which road is this?" "is this our turn?" GET.ME.HOME.

home again. don't even get me started about the game last nite. frikkin' astros. we still got a chance. i'm going to watch the game with friends tomorrow. i'll let you know what happens.

good nite and have a pleasant tomorrow.

thank god it's friday!

i'd also like to take a moment to thank god for stretch denim. silence.

thank you.

tonite, while looking for a pair of jeans (that fit) i got a little depressed. i'm pretty damn big right now. not like moo-cow big but big enough not to look really cute in really cute stuff. i moved over to skirts and even those are now starting to show the hips. as previously discussed, i am taking measures to get down to normal weight again. i don't actually think i was ever at a normal weight. at least in my mind. summer of '95 i was 142 and wore a size 9. i thot i was fat. in my mind, i was fat. that's what i get for hangin' out with skinny bitches. of course, they never made me feel that way but they were all able to share clothes and i had to buy all my own stuff. *wink*

i know i didn't put all this weight on overnite and i don't expect it to come off that quickly. i can safely say that i've gained at least 30+lbs in the last year and a half. that's gotta go, plus about 30 more. i'm looking forward to it. i'm excited about getting into shape.
__________________________________

back to today being friday. i'm off for the rest of the week to join HM and his partners at a trade show in indianapolis. i'm not sure whether i'm excited about that or not. it's a trade show. i think they go and look at all the stuff that vendors have to offer. i'm pretty sure this is when they pick up all of their christmas stuff. he says it's pretty boring. i figure, why not. i'll check it out and if i find it boring, i have girl weekend for future trade show outings.

but just in case, i'd like to go to the one in the spring. when indy 500 is going on. i think that would be cool! i went to a race once. nascar. it was pretty neat. i got to listen to the drivers talking to the pit and everything!

anyways... signing off for the week. have a great weekend! see ya on monday.

age of aquarius

5 more things you may or may not know about me...

1. i like walking barefoot but my floors aren't generally clean enough to do this... goes back to that good cleaning thing from my first "5 things"

2. i'm kind of a movie whore. i'll watch anything... chick flicks, action/adventure, dramas, sci-fi (tho they're not my favorite), foreign films (subtitles do not scare me), comedies, romantic comedies, suspense, horror, documentaries and every B-movie you can think of. yet, i do not claim to be a movie aficionado as some people may think

3. i have a VERY LOW pain tolerance

4. according to the FAB FOUR, i missed my calling as a navigator

5. i like to learn but i don't like school, if that makes any sense

weekend update/recap

it was a fun one...

friday - i went to the movies with S1 and S2. we went to see roll bounce. it's one of those movies that you don't really expect much from but then when you see it, it's got some amusing parts and a really great soundtrack... if you grew up in the 70's that is. the only thing bad about that was that S1 and S2 would NOT.SHUT.UP. they sang EVERY SONG in the movie. even ones they didn't know! we had a good time, tho. it was fun to be out with them even if S2 doesn't know the official rules to shotgun. yes... we had the shotgun showdown after the movie. it was really a location thing (you had to be there) but just picture S2 with her head at the feet of the passenger side and her feet locked in to the head of the seat, in a nose dive position. i would have taken a picture but she was blocking my camera with her boobs! my camera was on the floor of the passenger side because, yes, i am the queen of shotgun. she cheated. we laughed so hard and so long i think we all needed to change panties when we got home. eewww. hey, you know i have bladder issues.

saturday - went walking in the morning. yay me! HM and i went to a car show on the pier. it was pretty weak. it was a pontiac sponsored show so we thot it would be mainly pontiac cars. no. it was alot of different everything. there were about a handful of really nice cars there. all tanks! i don't know how people drove those.

afterwards, we went to get HM some new jeans and me some new walking shoes. mine are shot. i got them when i was training for the honolulu marathon back in '99. the heels were starting to give. actually, the heels gave a while back probably... i just wasn't using them to notice.

took a nap then went to LBP and Dawlett's place. it was their one year anniversary. YAY! we hung out and had a few beers with some team peeps. found our way back home and passed out. well... i passed out.

sunday - gorgeous day. we took the motorcycle to look at a couple of houses. one backed up to a swamp. the other was on a golf course. i'm not clear on how the fence rules work when you're backed up to a golf course. it didn't look like you could have a tall one, tho. we also made our way into an open house. great layout inside. even had the laundry room upstairs. pretty big pool. no yard.

rounded out the nite grilling on the rooftop. salmon, chicken, steak and shrimp en brochette. my man can grill! i was inside making sauce, a side and salad. we had a balsamic vinaigrette sauce (for the salmon) and spinach stuffed mushrooms. HM also made a sour cream lemony based sauce but it was too much for me. it was a recipe i found but i couldn't handle all the sour cream. i can only take it in small doses.

today - came home only to find an apartment with NO FRIKKING POWER!! WTF!?!? yes, i know my payment was late because i used that money for the evacuation. i paid it, however, last week. IN FULL! i had my confirmation at work and telling the operator this, she says, "well, a confirmation won't do you any good if we don't have the payment". WTF IS A CONFIRMATION NUMBER FOR, THEN!?!?? HUH?!?!? TELL ME! thank god i have wonderful friends like nara in my building that will allow me to crash at their place until my SECOND FRIKKIN' payment goes thru. i am so pissed off!

so that's it. basically just like every other weekend you've read about, except for the whole power-going-off-thing. good nite and have a pleasant tomorrow.

thank you sir may i have another

-chip (kevin bacon's character), animal house

today we went to look at two more houses in the same family friendly neighborhood. i'm pretty much sold on that neighborhood but i'll be damned if there are NO houses for sale there! HM says it's because people don't regularly move during the school year. MOVE people!

so one was a foreclosure. good god, man! i don't know how those people even lived there. ick! big lot but not exactly the best layout. the second was a mediterranean style home. really nice but no yard. actually, all the yard was in the front. why ya want a big ass front yard and no back yard???

we're gonna do a drive by on another one saturday. just kinda check out the neighborhood. his friend, the realtor, has got the Sweet T\HM eye down, now. she knows exactly what we're looking for. she knows how small is too small and that a yard is very important. so until we find THE ONE, she'll keep sending them our way.

gonna dress you up in my love

ringo dog getting ready for halloween. below is the costume mamalane picked out for him.

she said we didn't have to tell him it was actually a "girls" costume.

baby i'm yours

so i'm at the nail salon, waiting for my pedi. on the coffee table, tons of magazines. cosmo, vogue, people, etc. what do i pick up? parents magazine. parents! WTF?!?!? is my maternal clock clicking? is there such a thing? is it the biological clock or the maternal clock? see! i don't even know! that's how much this subject has just passed my life on by without me ever missing it.

now, it's different. true, i had thot about having children at a very young age. when i was younger, i used to think i wanted a child but no husband. the independent spirit coming out of me already. as i got older, i wanted a husband but no child. even later, i didn't want either. it's not that i didn't want them. i just got used to my life without them.

HM wants kids. he's never made that a secret. up until this point, in my adult life, i've never thot of having them. wait... that's not true. my last serious boyfriend was indecisive about having children, but wanted the option. i thot about it. in the end, i couldn't even give that to him. i don't feel bad about it. it was a different time and i was in a different place. no regrets.

now... i want to give HM the children he so desires. i'm even desiring them myself. i almost can't wait to have kids. i keep imagining them at the park, playing in the swings, playing with the dogs, swimming in the pool. i imagine what they'll look like. i picture two little pudgy redneck boys running around in their overalls, with sweet ass mullets! kidding! boys run in his family, girls in mine. we've got a 50/50 chance. if we have girls, i imagine one would probably look a little bit like princess. strangers think she's my child. they've called her my mini-me. maybe they'll get HM's cute nose. i hope they get his nose. mine's been broken, but even before that, it wasn't anything to be desired.

so here i am. waiting. waiting to get in shape for now. seriously, i don't wanna be a big ass cow when i'm preggers. i've started walking again and i'm making healthier food choices these days. i wanna be able to play with my kids and at the rate i'm going, it won't happen unless i whip my ass into shape. after i feel i'm healthy and of course, after the wedding, we'll start thinking more seriously about kids. until then, i'll just read all about it. this parents magazine thing has happened before.

how weird is it that you would ever hear this coming from me?
tick tock. tick tock. tick tock.

weekend update/recap

friday - pretty exciting. i left work early because we made an appt to see, yet, another house. i met HM and the realtor there. just driving through the neighborhood, i fell in love with the place. so many trees (not good for hurricanes apparently), kids playing outside on every street (that'll get old when i'm running late), a park right across the street and a lake right behind that. it was gorgeous, really. looking in the house... i have to say, it's the best one we've seen yet. it wasn't our DREAM home, but it had pretty much everything we wanted. open kitchen (though not very large), huge yard (room for a pool and garage extension), and NO CLOSETS IN THE BATHROOMS! YAY!! actually, the bathrooms could be bigger. all the bathrooms could be bigger. the closets were a good size, tho. like i said, it wasn't our dream home, but i sure liked it. HM would have liked a game room upstairs with an open staircase, if that makes any sense. all bedrooms were upstairs so game room goes downstairs.

saturday - didn't do much during the day. HM had to work. afterwards, we went to have dinner with the parentals. his parentals. i had to make sure they really don't hate me because of the whole dog fiasco. mamalane asked about the house and wondered about the flood plane. papatom is checking that out for us.
we also got to see HM's nephew. he's walking all on his own now. big strong boy. he's too cute. saturday nite, i think we just watched a few movies.

sunday - brunch with the girls. or as HM put it, my EIGHT HOUR DAY OUT. i really think it was only seven hours. i was having a really good time, tho. seven of us hanging, swapping stories. after brunch, me and LBP went back to sweet cheeks'. then frisky showed up. she's ALWAYS got something to say so then we hung out even longer. talked about relationships, when are we getting married, where are we getting married, having kids, adopting kids, shock of me talking about having kids... you get the gist of it.
i think i got a little ill from brunch, tho. i was getting really hot when nobody else was. i'm way too young to be having hot flashes already. i still didn't feel good monday. stayed home and watched movies. four brothers, bewitched, and lords of war. lords of war, so not what i expected. bewitched, completely lame. four brothers, totally what i expected and really good. i really liked it.

overall, it was a good weekend. we had a really pleasant time. we're enjoying each other's company more and more. the more time i spend with him, the more i can't wait to move in together. but not in his place... way too small for the both of us and all of our stuff. and i don't wanna drive that far to work every morning.

good nite and have a pleasant tomorrow.