Game One

Tonight at 6:30 my brother will be pitching in YSU's season opener at the University of New Orleans. This will be the first game of his very last year playing college ball. Exciting stuff!

My parents and sister are down there for the weekend to cheer the Penguins on. Yesterday while the team practiced, my dad shot this photo.

I love the composition and the colors and the lighting and the long shadows. Nice photography daddy-o! This picture makes me wish I could be there.

Good luck today Aaron! Knock 'em dead.

Wacky Wednesday

This week is "Dr. Seuss Week" at La's school. Today is Wacky Wednesday. This is what she is wearing:

Is that wacky enough for ya?

We had to go all out today to make up for the fact that I completely blew it on Monday (Crazy Hat Day) and then blew it again on Tuesday (Crazy Sock Day). I stink. I know.

The skirt is an old t-shirt left over from Meagan's Running of the Brides Extravaganza, and her top is a swimsuit. She has leg-warmers on her arms and legs, and mismatched socks and shoes. The hairdo was inspired by my artistic styling skillz circa 1989. Back in those days, when I was nuts for asymmetry, I would part my she-mullet down the back and scoop one half up in a high pony-tail, and would twist the other half into a low braid.

I really don't know why my mother let me leave the house like that. Or why she gave me a mullet, for that matter.

Just add some overly-zealous bangs to La's forehead and slap some bright blue, over-sized, sponge-painted glasses on her face, and you have an almost exact replica of me in the second grade.

Pretty scary.

Sleepover

Friday night La's best friend, J, came over for a sleepover. This was their third sleepover since they met on the first day of kindergarten. I had oodles of fun hanging out with those two goobers. La is so lucky to have a friend like J.

The highlights from the sleepover are as follows:

1. They got to sleep on a blow-up mattress on the floor of the living room underneath a "fort."

2. I woke up at 7:30 am on Saturday to the sound of La and J singing a version of Feliz Navidad where the words go, "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of MY BUTT" ... followed by unrestrained belly giggles. There's no better sound in the world, I'm convinced.

3. I offered to make J an egg sandwich and she said, "Yes! With syrup please!" ... and I asked, "Syrup? On an egg sandwich? Are you sure?" To which she responded emphatically, "AWWWW YEAH MAMA!"

4. Saturday morning the girls contributed substantially to the decor of my living room. Aunt Kat has been telling me I need a little something more on that wall. I think they came up with the perfect solution.

Dear Tooth Fairy ...

I walked past La's classroom the other day and saw this hanging on the wall outside the door. It says, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I think you use my teeth to MAK HR CASL (make her castle). Love, Ella."

I'm beginning to understand why La is creeped out by the tooth fairy.

Rock Tear

Here's another improvisational song from La. It's called Rock Tear. She made it up on the spur of the moment while Aunt M, Kate and I were having one of our singing contests. I'm just glad no one got video footage of me standing on that chair. It wasn't pretty.

Bedtime Chatter

While I was putting La to bed tonight:

Me: Goodnight, sweetness. I love you.

La: Eiiiiwwww.

Me: What?

La: What do you smell like?

Me: I dunno.

La: It's ICKY.

Me: Well, I had some garlic today. (About seven cloves worth, but who's counting?)

La: Gross. You smell like yucky mexican food.

Me: It's probably just my hands. I had to chop up a bunch of garlic today.

La: No. It is not just your hands. It's your breath too.

Me: Allow me to breathe on you some more.

La: GET. AWAY.

Me: Just go to sleep.

La: I can't. (long pause while she scooches down to the foot of the bed) Because you're stinky.

Me: I love it when you shower me with compliments.

La: You're gross.

Me: Thank you.

Hookie

Today La and I stayed home from school/work. La's school was closed yesterday, is closed today, and will be on Monday as well. I felt guilty about dropping her off at her old pre-school three days in a row, so I took today off work. This is the first time I've taken the day off and not gone out of town ... I'm currently wondering why the heck I've never done this before. It's fantastic!

La woke up at 7:00 this morning and hopped out of bed, proclaiming her excitement for an entire jam-packed day of doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

We did go outside once to go to the grocery store. I have proof.

Aunt M came with us. She's playing hookie too! Aunt M thought La looked like a little Russian girl. I agreed.

Then we came home. And that about sums it up.

Next on the schedule: Laundry.

Freetime

This morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to drive out to Rosemont for my company's Annual Awards Celebration. It was rad. Aside from a slight issue with getting to the convention center on time ... and another altercation with some relentlessly clingy packing peanuts, the show went off without a hitch. We were finished by 12:30 and I think I was out the door by 1 ... and because La had dance class after school today, that meant I could do whatever I darn well pleased from 1:00 to 4:15.

Let's take a minute to reflect on that. Three hours and fifteen minutes of prime afternoon all to myself.

Whoa.

As a working single mother, there are certain things that I just don't ever have the time to do. Like go for manicures, get haircuts, go to the dentist (whoopsies!), work out at the gym (not that I would do that anyway), or go to the grocery store without my child. And here I was with hours upon hours of free time.

Feeling like the world was my oyster, I drove my Honda straight to the Mac Daddy of all grocery chains: Whole Foods. When I entered the store and breathed the smell of sweet freedom, I was overcome with the urge to purchase a glass of Cabernet at the bar and drink it while I shopped. But then I got distracted by something shiny and organic and forgot all about being a lush.

Thank goodness.

I even had time to unpack the groceries, park my car, straighten up my house, and eat lunch before I had to leave to get La from school. I could get used to this! ... If it weren't for that stinking job of mine ...

(Just kidding! I love my job! Please don't fire me!)

And then I got to walk home with this little twerp:

Or is she a squirt?

Or maybe a stinker?

Yes, let's go with stinker.

(I found these pics in my iPhoto tonight ... They're from July. I miss summer.)

On our walk home she begged to go to a restaurant, and I actually had a legitimate excuse this time: I didn't have my wallet with me. I told her we could pretend our house was a restaurant tonight. She retorted, "But our house is not a restaurant! We have no flowers on our table! We have no menus! WE HAVE NO MUSIC."

When we got home I drew up a menu, threw on some iTunes, and proved to La that dining at home can be just as nice as dining out. Then we played Jenga. I won. Twice.

If every day were like today ... well ... that would be just fine with me.

Girls' Weekend

A few months ago someone in my family (Aunt Kathleen?) got the idea to have a Girls' Weekend in Milwaukee. It was understood that the sole purpose of this get-together was to eat, drink, and eat some more. This past weekend was the one that worked for everyone, so my mom rode in on the double-decker Megabus on Thursday afternoon.

We began the weekend Friday night, when we all met for dinner in downtown Milwaukee.

La got to see her two cousins, Lydia and Vada. Don't these three look like trouble?

Just wait till they're teenagers. Have mercy.

The next day, we met at another restaurant for lunch. It's what we do best.

La got to wear lipstick.

After some shopping, we all headed back to Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Joe's humble abode for a sleepover.

We made red wine braised short ribs, potato puree and caramelized brussel sprouts for dinner. It was heavenly. I can't really remember what we did after dinner ... I blame that on the food coma.

In short, it was a very fun, very relaxing weekend.

Thank you Kathleen and Joe for so graciously hosting all of us crazies!

Travlin' Dave

My dad is in Asia right now. He goes there a lot lately for his job. I think it's neat. This time, he's visiting Mumbai, Singapore and Malaysia.

Here are some photos that he has sent us over the past week along with his commentary:


This is near my hotel. It's called Carke Quay -- Somewhat like riverwalk in Sanantonio. About 80F and breezy. Too bad I have to work tomorrow!




Home Sweet Home.



Dinner.



Real Tapioca!

Ms. Stewart Can Pound Salt ... One teaspoon plus one-eighth teaspoon at a time.

Tonight I baked a Martha Stewart recipe. In the intro to the recipe, it claimed to be "easy." I took that to mean "quick." It wasn't. You had to bake and cool the damn thing THREE SEPARATE TIMES. Once for the crust. Once for the crust and filling together. Once for the crust, filling and meringue. Gosh, it was tedious.

That woman's style of cooking just doesn't jive with mine. She includes precise measurements, such as "1 and 3/4 cups PLUS 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour" and "3/4 cup PLUS 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice." I mean, what kind of rigid control freak writes this stuff? Are two or three tablespoons really going to make a lick of a difference in the grand scheme of things? I prefer directions like, "Add one or two glugs of _____ and a squeeze or so of _____ to the pan and let sizzle until it starts smelling delicious."

I really don't like to measure. Or keep track of time. When I cook. Or ever.

Is that so bad?

I also don't like to sweep my floors, but that's another story.

I have a feeling Martha and I wouldn't get along so well, actually. I mean, she probably wouldn't send her kid to school with mismatched gloves. But I sure did.

And I'm darn proud of it.

My Girl

My sweet, sweet, precious little girl has been so ... well ... sweet lately. I just thought I'd tell you about it.

The past month or so, she's been extra attentive, personable, caring, reasonable (A reasonable five year old! That's HUGE.), affable, lovable, kissable, huggable — all those things.

I'm just waiting for the next full moon. She's bound to get a bug in her butt one of these days.

These photos were taken yesterday. It was her first time wearing her new brown hat and purple gloves that grandma Linda picked up at Target.

Yesterday also happened to be the LAST day she would ever wear those new gloves, due to the fact that she lost them. I almost spanked her with a wet noodle for that bonehead move. At least we have a photo to remember them by.

But considering what a model child she's been as of late, I just can't complain. She's a peach. That's all there is to it. A gloveless peach, but a peach nonetheless.

That's my girl.

Mandy + Grant

On Saturday morning I woke up at 4:00 a.m. (That's right. Four-to-the-A-to-the-M.) to drive to Cleveland, Ohio for Mandy and Grant's wedding reception.

At around 4:30 I tried waking La up so we could leave. My attempts were futile. She blatantly ignored me, snoring loudly, rolling over emphatically, and covering her head with her quilt. But then I said, "You know we're going Grandma and Grandpa's house, right?" And that's when she sat bolt-upright in bed and shouted, "I will bake COOKIES!"

As we walked out of the gate around 4:45, La and I ran into a group of boys coming home from the bars. Being the chivalrous men that they were, they discontinued their loud, drunken banter which had consisted of words like "stripper" and "boobs," and held the gate open for us.

How nice.

The drive wasn't bad. In fact, it was great. I think I needed that calming respite ... The chance to concentrate only on driving, without worrying about the millions of things I have to get done. It was also a chance for La and I to partake in one of our guiltiest pleasures: Rocking out to Celine Dion: The Ultimate Essential Collection. That's right. Two discs worth. Awwww Yeah.

La and I threw our heads back and belted out each and every song on both discs. Quite cathartic, actually. A few random drivers made eye contact with me mid-wail. The first time it happened I was a tiny bit embarrassed. But then I rationalized that it wasn't likely that I would ever see that person again. (Until that one guy in the Ford Explorer happened to stop at the same rest stop as us ... and happened to hold the door open for me ... And happened to give me a knowing look that said "I saw you back there at mile marker 81 belting it out like you were Celine or something." ... AWKWARD. At least I wasn't picking my nose. That would have been worse.) So, all the way through Indiana and part of the way through Ohio, La and I shamelessly sang at the top of our lungs, and let me tell you, we sounded DAMN GOOD.

The reception was that evening, and everything about it was wonderful. The food, the atmosphere, the endless amounts of wine ... All divine. The best part, though, was the people.

Just look at these two. They're so sweet it makes my heart hurt.

I wish I could have spent more time with the two of them, but wouldn't you know, they were all POPULAR and stuff, and had to mingle and whatnot. But I did get to spend some good quality time with some amazing people that I had really been missing.

The girl below? That's Kath. We worked together for about three years. She's got it going on.

And this guy below? That's my old boss. He likes to be referred to as "Mr. Big." He's simply fantastic.

And of course, the newlyweds.

Mandy and Grant, your reception was fantastic. I'm so glad I got to be a part of the beginning of your life together. You are both beautiful, extraordinary people. Perfect for each other. I wish you the best of the best for years and years and years to come.

I love you both!