Bless Your Heart

at the grocery store this weekend. Man on cellphone: “DUDE! The karaoke police will come and GET you if you aren’t there by 9:30!”

Today’s the first day of autumn. I love this time of year because it’s leading us into cooler days & crisp nights. Plus all of the family gatherings & holidays and the traditions that go with them.

Saturday my youngest sister Morgan came over for dinner and stayed to watch Trading Spaces with us. I loved the checkerboard pattern Doug did in the bedroom in the first episode. I can’t say I liked the new designer’s room though. I did really like the fabric she used for throw pillows & the backing on the bench she made. But I thought the benches looked uncomfortable for a tv room. And who uses wallpaper borders? If I’ve got a professional designer in my house I don’t want her using something that doesn’t require much creativity & that I could easily do myself after a quick trip to Lowe’s. Crown molding would have looked so much nicer and would have elongated the walls. Just my opinion though. She’s the pro!

While Morgan was there I pulled out my afghan to work on and she became very interested. “You made that? How do you do it? Show me how!” She learned in about 15 minutes and was off and running.

So yesterday we went to the new HUGE super Wal-Mart and picked up a needle and some yarn for her. She’s making an afghan of her own now. I think that’s so cool. I hung out with her at her house for a while last night crocheting and watching the Emmy’s. I thought Conan did a great job of hosting. Stayed up too late though and will probably yawn right through today!

So yesterday afternoon I grab my camera & Husband and I jump in the car to go to the fair. Just as we’re pulling out of the driveway I realize I’d forgotten the directions inside. I run inside and hear Stacey talking on our answering machine. I pick up the phone to hear “…this place is such a joke. I can’t believe I paid $ to get in here. The food sucks, the rides are expensive and rickety and the booths are awful. Maybe if it was night and we were drunk rednecks with nothing else to do, this might be an appealing activity. Save yourselves the hour drive. We’ll get together next weekend.” So no deep fried candy bar report today. Good news is Husband promised to take me to the SC state fair next month.

I just gave Nelson a bath and he’s now tearing through the house like the tazmanian devil. Hardwood floors provide great entertainment when pets spin out trying to take the corners too fast!

Last night we watched all the special features on our Monster’s Inc . dvd. There’s a ton of stuff there. Pixar looks like the most fun place to work ever. They were all scooting around on scooters and decorating their offices like tiki huts & disco lounges.

We were invited tonight to go to the local district fair. Well, not so local for us. It’s about a 45 minute drive. It should be a lot of fun. We’re going with my friend Stacey, her two kids Shayna & CJ and Melissa’s son Davis (Stacey’s nephew). It will be the first time I’ve seen Davis since Melissa’s funeral so I can’t wait. I hear they’re selling grilled corn on the cob on a stick and deep fried candy bars. I seem to remember reading about fried candy bars at LJC. If that’s not instant artery clogger on a stick I don’t know what is!

Due to my new schedule I get off at 4 today and won’t be back here until Monday. Well, officially. I’m working a little overtime on Saturday. Other than that I’ll have a 3 day weekend. Woohoo! We have 37,000 projects at the house to work on. We’ve got to really kick it into gear and get it in shape before a certain person’s visit. =)

Last night I watched some of Cedric the Entertainer Presents. My favorite part was a skit they did of a Spanish soap opera where the entire script was written in 1st year high school Spanish, but none of the script made sense. So the couple would look longingly at each other and say “Me llamo Maria. Que hora es?” “Oh, burrito. Me gusta pollo.” Then Cedric busts in with a gun and yells “Numero Uno! Dos, tres, cuatro.” They’re all full of emotion the whole time, like saying that you like chicken is supposed to mean you love each other. So funny.

– Amy Wynn Pastor is in town at Lowe’s today! I have to work all day til 7 so I can’t go see her. All the guys in my office are drooling. She was interviewed on my morning radio show and she was really fun to listen to. Apparently her dad is a professional trombone player!

– Last night I caught the tail end of one of my favorite campy movies “Empire Records”. It has such great characters: Sexy Rexy (Maxwell Caufield of Grease 2 fame), Warren Beatty (the name this kid shoplifter gives as his own), Mark who wants so desperately to have a band named Mark. Plus Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, Robin Tunney & Anthony LaPaglia. If you haven’t seen it rent it sometime. It may become one of your guilty pleasures too.

The price of movies has increased here. This weekend when we went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding I noticed the change. Regular price is now $8. Matinee is now $6. Children are $5. I couldn’t believe it. I remember going to New York City a few years ago and being amazed that a movie there was $8. Is it normal everywhere to pay this much? At this rate, movies will be a once a month treat soon!

This weekend seemed to fly by without getting much done that I had planned. I had planned to do some serious organizing & cleaning in the house, plus some scrapbooking. Instead… Friday night I went to my mom’s for dinner and a movie with the family.

Saturday morning I put a roast in the crockpot for dinner and went to the salon to get my hair done. Then my sister, Sara, met me to go see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. My 2nd time, her first. It was just as good the 2nd time around. We stopped in to Target afterward for some nail polish and ended up spending way too much time oohing and ahhing over the new Halloween stuff. So cute! This year’s line is a little kooky in it’s style, sort of like The Nightmare Before Christmas. I could have spent a ton of money, well, if I had a ton of money. I restrained myself though and only bought 1 little $5 item. We also stopped by World Market. I picked up a glass oil cruet to store my dish washing soap in. A tip I read in Real Simple . It looks so much nicer than the big, clunky plastic bottle. That night after dinner husband and I watched Trading Spaces. I’m not sure how I feel about the new designer. His hair is just wrong for one thing. But I didn’t think the room he did looked as polished as the other designers’ rooms. It just didn’t look like a professional designer did it. It kind of looked like a hotel room.

Sunday we got up early to go have pancakes. Then we stopped by Sam‘s. In the afternoon we met up with Sara & Marc and two other couples to watch the Bills-Vikings game. That lasted until 8:30 or so. Us girls snuck out to Dairy Queen at half time to get a break from the sports bar’s smokey atmosphere. Which is not a good place for my pregnant sister if you ask me. I said something to her about it and she said she was fine because the smokers were at the other end of the table. Whatever, I didn’t force the issue, but if I were pregnant you wouldn’t find me around that much smoke. Smoking in general is a pet peeve of mine, but especially around children, whether born or not. Husband and I were fuming about it on the way home. Other people had a couple of toddlers in there. One couple had a 2 year old in their booth and they were smoking. It just kills me because it’s not a secret– secondhand smoke will kill you! Hello! Ok, I’m getting off my soapbox now.

Today I’m starting a new schedule at work. It’s a compressed schedule where I’m only working 4 days a week. The days are just longer. For instance, today I’m working 8-7. But I’ll be off Friday- Sunday. And next week I’ll be off Wednesday & Thursday. So I won’t have to take vacation time to go to the dentist anymore. So that’s good. Now, if I can just get caffeine pumped through an IV drip then I’ll be able to make it through this long day!

I am on the diversity council here at work and am in charge of organizing our meetings. They are always, always so much fun and I learn so much from all the different people on the council. So at yesterday’s meeting we got a little off subject and started talking about growing up in the rural south and soul food. A couple of ladies on the council were telling us all about using every bit of the pig “from the rooter to the tooter”. Ew. I just can’t stomach it. I used to work in a grocery store and I’d always wonder what people would do with the tripe, chitlins, pig ears & turkey necks that I’d check out. I was getting all skeeved out with all the descriptions of how to cook chitlins (you apparently have to clean out all the poo which takes a long time, then boil them to death) to how to properly eat a pickled pig’s foot to head cheese. I think that was the grossest part. Head cheese apparently is when you take the pig’s head, eat the brains with your scrambled eggs, then fill the brain cavity with cheese that cures in the head until you scrape it out. Ewwww! And people still do this! I appreciate other cultures and ways of life, and I’ve even tried some pretty adventurous foods, but I just don’t think I could eat this stuff. It was so interesting to hear all about it though. I’ve lived in the south all my life and thought I was pretty well versed in southern cooking but I sure did learn a thing or two!