I've created a MONSTER!"

It's all my fault! Yes I admit it. Dan was driving me crazy yesterday and I desperately needed to find him a distraction. Oh fool that I am I sat him down at the kids computer and pulled up the nickelodian games online! I'm trying to teach him that it has limits, much like TV. No, you can't sit in front of it all the time. Ok, just because your mommy does... Do as I say not as I do!

Look at him. Slack jawed, computer gaming, in the zone.

Celebrity crushes

Ok, so after making my mosaic (see below) I was talking with one of my clients about it. When I came to the question of whose your celebrity crush I sat here trying to think of who is hot. Lets face it, I'm in love with my husband! Well Maria and I sat and talked celebrities last night, and I have to admit, I came up with a few! I'm sure that my girls are going to look at my list and go yuck! After all, they're all OLD! Well lets face it, so am I! All of these celebrities are from my youth. I can remember in which movie it was that I saw them and said "Hubba hubba!"

Judd Nelson, The Breakfast Club.

Nicholas Cage, Valley Girl.

Robert Downey Junior, Weird Science

John Travolta, Welcome Back Cotter and of course Grease!

When I was teenager my room was covered in posters! Who was hanging on my walls you ask? Not a single movie star! Musicians!

Neil Schon from Journey.

Oh and my most favorite! (at that time) Adam Ant!

Couldn't get a good 80's pic of Neil Schon by himself, so here he is with Steve Perry.

My Mosaic

I saw this on my friend Erin's blog, and thought this was too cool not to do myself!

1. susanne forestieri's "film noir", 2. Chipotle's for Lunch, 3. Glendale Cove, Knight Inlet,

4. Periwinkle, 5. Ben Bratt (California-Santa Barbara 1984), 6. coke.jpg, 7. City of lights,

8. candy pop land, 9. Persistence, 10. bless from above, 11. Yellow is tenacious, 12. Queens Garden

To make your own:a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name (or your blog name or handle or whatever)

Now it's your turn!

Random thoughts

I went through a spell for awhile where every time I was on the road someone would pull out in front of me! I know, we live in a big world, lots of drivers on the the roads. But I'm telling you this wasn't just the isolated, random, bad drivers that we all run in to on occasion. We're talking not even being able to get out of my neighborhood without some bozo pulling right out in front of me. I used to get really ticked about this and would voice my opinion about said bozo out loud. I wondered if it was my black mini van that I used to drive. Maybe my van was simply invisible to them? Then one night I took Jim's truck to the store (headlights on!) and some guy pulled right out in front of me! At that moment I had an epiphany! It doesn't matter what I drive! I must be a SUPER HERO! My super power must be that I am invisible! Just like Wonder Woman when she was flying in her plane. Now when someone pulls out in front of me, even though I'm not happy, I try to remind myself of how special I am. I say "See, I'm a super hero! I'm invisible." Last night my mind was wandering...I know shouldn't let it out on it's own, and was thinking about this subject. If you could have any super hero power, what would it be? Myself, I want to be able to fly! Like Superman! Now it's your turn. What power do you secretly wish you possessed?

My latest project

Linda, one of my closest friends, just became a grandma! Yes, she's my age....oh my gosh! Her daughter Brittany delivered a beautiful, baby boy last Tuesday afternoon. They held the baby shower quite some time ago, figuring that she would either end up on bed rest or delivering early. I had the best of intentions (you know what they say about those, path to hell pathed with them) of making her a quilt for the baby. They chose great colors for a nursery, red, white, and black! Slacker that I am I presented Brittany with a box of fabric at her shower, and picture of the quilt pattern that I intended to use. I knew I had plenty of time to come up with a finished quilt! Oh, did I ever tell you about what a great procrastinator I am? I believe this is also one of my many talents that I inherited from my parents. The day after the baby arrived I found myself running to the quilt store (yes there are actually stores just for quilters!) and buying the last of the fabrics I needed. Thankfully the pattern I used is actually very easy. I know it doesn't look like it, but strip quilting is a snap. The pattern comes from Eleanor Burns book, "Quick Trip Quilts". They are quilt in a day quilt tops. Yes you really can make these quilt tops in one day!

I ended up "machine tying" the quilt, and also did a pieced binding.

Here's a nice little close up of the binding!

Whenever I make a quilt I always have some sort of battle with the cat! When I layer the quilt I try to make sure the cat is sleeping. However, it never fails, the moment I lay out the bottom fabric he comes running to "hide" underneath it. I gave him the extra piece of fleece that I used to back the quilt with.

See how he "hides"!

Usually he'll leave me alone after this. Not this time. Indy (short for Indiana...get it Indiana Jones) decided I needed his help sewing as well!

Indy is a Bengal. I rescued him from the pound in January. He is a very solid cat weighing 14lbs! Believe me, it's all muscle!

Despite his help I finally managed to finish and was able to take the quilt and drop it off yesterday. See, procrastination really does pay! While they checked out the quilt, I got a chance to snuggle the new baby! So little and soft, only 6lbs.
If you look closely at this last pic you'll see Indy's paw on the top. When I layed the quilt out one last time to take a photo, there he was again! Still, It turned out quite nice! Don't you think?

No cats!

Dan is a funny little boy. for some strange reason he likes to get Kacie's cat Grizzy whenever he he neeeds to use the bathroom. He will go and find her, pick her up, and take her in to be with him. (He's four....who can possibly understand the things a four year old does?) Last night after coming out of the bathroom he told Kacie that he was going to draw a picture of a cat with a line through it, and that he wanted her to hang it on the bathroom door. It means no cats allowed in the bathroom!

Ice Cream

I am what you may call an ice cream connoisseur. This talent is hereditary and was lovingly passed on to myself and each of my sisters from our father. Now I know what your thinking, most men eat with a corduroy fork. No taste, am I right? Not so my father. He knows which brands of ice cream are the best ones out there. There was none of that crappy store brand ice cream in our house when we were growing up! (In all fairness I must add that today there are actually some store brands that figured out how to finally make "good" ice cream. They just couldn't do it when I was a kid.) Oh, and there was always ice cream in our freezer. My parents would come home from grocery shopping and my sisters and I would all make our way outside to help bring in the grocery bags. (Remember when all your groceries came home in big paper bags?) While making the trek into the house someone would inevitably feel that the bottom of their bag was deliciously cold. mmmm... This is the point where you would excitedly call out "I hit the jackpot!" Thereby informing everyone else that you had found the ice cream. Ah the memories... However, a family favorite was always the trips to Baskin Robbins! We loved (still love?) that place. Dad would come in and tell everyone to go get in the car. When questioned as to why or where we were going, because you know children never do what they are told without a legitimate reason or explanation, he would simply say "I'm taking you on a one way ride." You might assume that a one way ride is a trip out to the desert blindfolded, where you are dropped off and left to find your way home. Assuming this you would then think that my sisters and I were all crazy, because we would, rather enthusiastically, run to get in the car. That's because when Dad said the words "one way ride" it always meant Baskin Robbins. See, we were well trained. It was rather like Pavlov's dog drooling at the sound of a bell!
I suppose you're wondering why I've written this rather long, rambling information about my childhood. It was simply to tell you about last night. Jim (oh that's my cute hubby) and I went with our friends Garrin and Stacy to get an ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Let me tell you, getting ice cream with Garrin is an adventure in itself. It easily took him 10 minutes to figure out what he wanted. He asked all kinds of questions and in the end concocted a shake of his own creation! Over the years (and years, and years) of eating at BR I've learned what I like and have become a creature of habit. Occasionally I'll really splurge and get a sundae, or when it's on sale I like to take home a couple of prepacked quarts. However, 99% of the time I get a two scoop sugar cone, with mint chip on the bottom and pralines and cream on the top. Sadly, last night, I learned that my revered BR has changed. Oh the horror! The disappointment! The ice cream is different! Gone is the rich, creamy ice cream of the past! What I had last night was a more crumbly, ice milk type of ice cream. Those of you who are also ice cream connoisseurs out there (my family) will understand what I'm describing.
Has the economic crisis that has currently besieged the US affected Baskin Robbins? Are they cutting production costs by lowering the quality of their ingredients? Are they simply concerned for the health and weight management of it's customers, and so have switched ingredients to the more healthy, lower fat, milk instead of cream? I implore them, CHANGE IT BACK!

First day of preschool!

Today Daniel started preschool! Just to give you an overview....My children's ages are 19, 17, 14, and 4! An even better perspective of this is, I have a one in college, one is a high school senior, and one is a high school freshman. Our poor little surprise addition is just a bit spoiled, to put it mildly. He got to bed late last night, so was very tired this morning and didn't want to get out of bed. After some theatrics he was finally up and watching Noggin. He carried on for awhile telling me he didn't want to go to preschool. So I did what any good mom would do to get him out the door. I LIED! I told him he was going to play with friends. That seemed like a great idea to him! We got ready, took some cute photos, and out we went. He figured out my ruse rather quickly. He may be small, but he's very smart! I had to actually carry him up the stairs, and left him with the teacher, crying and screaming! Am I a mean mom or what? Dan survived. Not only that but he actually had a great time and says he want to go back on Friday. We'll see....

Origins

I've known the origins of this cliche for years, thanks to my mother presenting me with a framed image to hang in my home. Thought the rest of you might like to know where this saying originated.

Don Markstien's Toonpedia had one of the best overviews.

http://www.toonopedia.com/joneses.htm

The Joneses are perhaps the only characters in the annals of newspaper comics whose name is part of the title of a strip, but who have never actually appeared in a newspaper. The stars of the Jones strip were the McGinises (husband Aloysius, wife Clarice, daughter Julie, housemaid Belladonna). They were the ones trying to keep up.
The McGinis family's struggle was chronicled by cartoonist Arthur R. "Pop" Momand in Joseph Pulitzer's paper, The New York World. Most sources give 1916 as the year it began, but there are strips in collections dated as early as April 1, 1913 (a Tuesday, so that isn't the day it actually began). Its focus wasn't as narrow as the title implied.It's just that their neighbors, the Joneses, were referred to from time to time, usually as objects of envy, and even this became less prevalent in the strip's later days.

I'm a blogger

It's a official! I've finally joined ranks with all you other "bloggers" out there. I'm not sure how exciting my life is compared to some, but I'll try and at least occasionally entertain the masses. With four children, two cats, a husband and my own business, surely there must be some entertainment value in my life. ?