Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween! So this is the second year in a row where I will not be decorating my yard and porch. Because we're going to the World Series!
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I've talked about how far away we have to park, so yesterday I took a picture from the parking lot:

And this is when we are almost there!:

The game was great - we won! The weather was great. Everything was GREAT.
Now today we do it all over again, but in Halloween costumes. Pictures from that will be forthcoming. Until then.....

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Wonder Where That Restaurant Was

Just before the doorbell woke me up this morning I dreamed I was in a restaurant and smelled marijuana. I asked my companion, "Do you smell that?" And he said, "It's legal as long as it's on the menu."

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Latest Hapnins

I'm hoping to find out later today something about the wedding photos. I can't wait to see them. That photographer was all over the place. I think I'm looking forward more to the candid shots than the posed ones. For some reason we did that last at the reception and we were all pretty buzzed, so I can't imagine they will look very formal. Hopefully there will be some good ones.
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We are definitely going to the World Series home games! I'm very excited and am contemplating wearing my Wizard of Oz Dorothy costume to Sunday's game. I imagine many people will dress up since it will be Halloween. I won't wear the ruby slippers though because I am not a masochist and there is major walking involved in going to these baseball games.
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That's all that's going on right now and I will post wedding pics as soon as I get them.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Be Careful Where You Stand

Last night I dreamed I worked in a Home Depot in California and according to my dream you do NOT want to be inside a Home Depot during an earthquake.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Halloween Jib Jab

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

That's me showing off my tickets to Saturday's American League Championship Series game: Texas Rangers vs. New York Yankees. The whole metroplex has baseball fever. The Rangers have never in their history made it this far. It has been very exciting. We did have to park 10 billion miles away, but I can always use the exercise.
Above is our view from just behind third base. We had great seats. That's our team's dugout over there and with my binoculars I could see individual faces clearly. Plus the location was great for beer, food, bathrooms, even smoking. Everything was close by and I never even had to wait in line at the bathroom. And that was with a packed stadium.

I loved how everywhere you looked in the stands it was a sea of red, white and blue. It was very pretty, like it had been done on purpose. The guys to our right and in front of us were a group and we thought they were going to be an annoying bunch of drunk frat boy types, but they were just happy fans like us. One of them insisted on high fiving us after every good play and even hugged us after we won. Yes, we won! It was one giant crazy celebration.

In the picture above, the game is over and the two teams are doing the handshake thing. That sign the girl is holding says, "Yankee Go Home!" The guy just behind her caught a foul ball earlier. That was the only thing about our great seats - you really had to pay attention to foul balls possibly raining down on your head. Oh and once when I was smoking I noticed these three guys walk by. They stood out and didn't look like your typical Texas Rangers fans. They were very hip in all black and had a bit of swagger. Just after they passed, I recognized one of them and called out, "Bon Jovi!" and the one that looked like Bon Jovi turned and gave me a nice wave. I hear he's a huge Yankees fan. Well his team lost, but he got to see me.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Wedding: What a Week!!!!

I somehow managed to survive a very long week full of many things. I thought I would be all rested up by now, but I am not.
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Last Wednesday I picked up my best friend and her boyfriend in the big fat minivan that I had rented Tuesday afternoon. We went to lunch at a sports bar not realizing that a Rangers play off game was going on. It was packed but once I found the bartender that knew me we were fine and as a matter of fact we seemed to suddenly go from zero to three waitresses. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting them settled into their hotel and then just hanging out at my house.
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Thursday afternoon, my daughter joined us to pick up Mom and my brother from the airport. We found my brother but Mom had somehow disappeared. She finally turned up and all was well. The eight of us had dinner at my house in a casual manner. It was lasagne and ceasar salad. I didn't even know my daughter and her almost husband were staying for dinner, but we managed and it was fun. It's been a LONG time since there were eight people here at the same time. Oh yeah, Carole and her husband stopped in to give us some of their famous sugared/brandied walnuts, so there were ten people here. (And my brain didn't explode! Yay!)
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Friday morning I rode with my brother to pick up breakfast from Mom and him and then got ready fro Meals on Wheels. Lo's boyfriend brought her over and we made the rounds. I gave her a last minute out because of her neck surgery last month but she really wanted to go. She has gone with me every time she has visited. (She actually took a picture of me at a door with the food but I forgot to download it for this post. I'm sure I'll use it later as I have no photos of myself delivering for MOW.) We had lunch and brought food back for Mom and my brother and then spent the afternoon visiting.
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My Sweetie came home from work early and we headed over to the wedding chapel for the rehearsal. It was weird to see my first husband because I had not seen him since 2002. The rehearsal went very well and it was my first time to meet the minister. He was a cool, fun, large bald man. Very casual and relaxed. I liked him. Aftwards, we headed to the restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. Here's a pic of Kate and me:

On Saturday I woke up very relaxed because it was an open day. My brother, Lo and me went to Lowe's to get glass and things to replace a window pane. My brother does home repair and construction and I wanted him to show me how to do it. One of my cats broke a pane years ago and I never bothered to fix it because it was in an unimportant room. Also I wanted to do it myself but didn't know how. While we were there, I suddenly realized that it was October 9th. That was the day of Dad's retirement party twelve years ago. The retirement party where he died. And the three of us had not only been there but had ridden there together in the same car.
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So there we were standing in an aisle in a home improvement store waiting for a man to cut our glass when I mentioned to them the date and how odd that the three of us were there together. It was a great moment.
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My brother and I replaced the pane and Lo helped from inside the house. Then Lo and I took off for some last minute shopping and to pick up the flowers. When we got back, Lo's boyfriend came over and the six of us piled into the minivan for dinner out at Razzoo's - a cajun place. After that My Sweetie manned the computer to take requests for youtube songs while Lo and I did all the flower stuff in here. That was fun.:

The next day, Sunday the 10th, was wedding day. Lo's boyfriend brought her over and the five of us loaded the van and headed to the country club to decorate for the reception. I had allowed a lot of time and we finished early so we headed to the bar. It was nice to feel relaxed and not rushed. Then we headed to the wedding chapel.
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The bride room getting ready stuff was a trip! The steaming of the dress funked up my hairstyle a bit and the maid of honor was not as knowledgable as Lo on a lot of stuff, so Lo ended up sort of doing most of the work. I felt really bad but thanked her a million times afterwards. She really is the best best friend in the world. Don't get me wrong, I really love my daughter's best friend, but she seemed sort of lost on the whole thing and it shows in this picture:

And here is my bestie:

The wedding went very well. We ran a little late, but I walked in and we started. The cool minister introduced My Sweetie and he did the two short readings and then the cool minister did his thing. And then they were married. People filed out. I thought we were going to do pictures, but my daughter had the guy take maybe two or three pics and then announced: We're doing all the rest of the pictures at the reception!! She was ready to go.
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The reception was fun and it was great to see people I had not seen since the 80's as well as my second husband who I had not seen since around 1997. It was like a surreal reunion of sorts. I can't wait to see the professional pictures. Kate's dad was not happy when she called her two stepdads to be in a picture with her and him. I thought it was hilarious. And I can't wait to see it.
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And here's the pic Lo took of my brother, Mom and me in the country club bar when we had that free time after decorating:
There's more stuff, but I have run out of steam. Everyone stayed until Tuesday. I should be back into my regular routine shortly. I missed you guys!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Running Out of Time

Today is my last day to get stuff done. I still have a lot of housework to do. At 5:00 pm I'm picking up the rental minivan, then hitting all my last minute shopping and pre-making chicken chili for Wednesday night's meal.. I'm guessing I will sleep like a rock after that. Then Wednesday morning all I have to do is get up, get ready and pick up my best friend and her boyfriend from the airport at 12:35. That will be the official start of wedding week party time. I am ready.
Sort of.
I think so.
I hope so.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

The Library Bed

I needed to put a twin bed in our library for my brother to sleep upon, as I am not big on guest rooms because I'm not big on guests and besides my mother will also be here and she will be actually sleeping in the guest room.
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I had all sorts of ideas at first. But I finally decided how to go about it. I had already decided to buy a new twin mattress some time back, even before all this wedding stuff. That made the timing perfect. However, I did not want to buy another box spring. So how to make a real bed with just a mattress?
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I bought a twin frame for 39 bucks and 3 pieces of 2' x 4' fiber board (or some variation of plywood). I then had them cut the 3 pieces to 38 inches the long way making them 24" x 38". I already had risers from back when. So I put the frame on the risers and put the plywood stuff on top:
I think it looks like a plywood frog or salamander without a head. To cover up the big plywood frog, I just happened to have a bed skirt that I was not using:
I then added sheets, a comforter, and pillows. And behold! I now have a bed for my brother to sleep upon in the library:

He will never know he is sleeping on a funky plywood frog. I'm certainly not going to tell him.

Friday, October 01, 2010

A New Day

Today is sunny with an expected high of 83°. Last night right around 8:00 p.m. central time something wonderful happened. All the wedding stress and tension over mini-dramas and what not melted away. It was like my body produced its own Prozac or something.
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As Robert Browning once said, "All's right with the world!"
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I sure hope this lasts!