Sunday, November 30, 2008

The boy is a thinker


Spencer asked me, "Mom, will Santa leave me a lump of coal this year? Have I been good or bad?"
I replied with, "Sweetie, I think you have been pretty good. I wouldn't worry about getting coal."
....Spencer thinks about it for a couple of minutes....then says:
"Well just to be sure can you call Santa and tell him that he can't bring me coal because I am pretty sure it would flare up my asthma."

Friday, November 28, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving 2008






Our Thanksgiving was filled with lots of family, friends, food and fun. Bowser enjoyed all the attention. I took a picture of him wearing reindeer antlers...and I emailed it to a few people....that makes me officially weird doesn't it???


Monday, November 24, 2008

Peace on Earth...but not at my house



Check out IV and Spencer's Christmas photo. Don't they look like adorable little angels? Funny how deceiving photos can be-- haha!

Puppy update:

Little Bowser is loving his new home and his very own little boy. He obviously does NOT like my decorating because he has removed every rug and pillow in the entire house. He does not like my shoes--he has hidden all of them. He is a little dog and I have big ol' size 10 Tranny-esque shoes-- no small undertaking for the pup.
He plays really hard for 5 minutes, then sleeps for 20; then plays for 5, then sleeps for 20....Crate-training is NOT going very well. The crate is way too big for him so it is not working for potty training. I had to bathe and blow-dry him at 4:30 this morning because he had a turd party in the crate....YUCK.
Bowser and Spencer have bonded and they light up when they see each other. It is amazing!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Meet Bowser


For an early birthday present, I surprised Spencer with a puppy today. This is the kid equivalent to hitting the lottery. He was shocked, in awe and then totally in love with that little fur baby. It took him about 30 minutes to settle on a name. Kim, Jimmy and I liked the name 'Banjo', IV liked BINGO, Mom liked Butch, but Spencer wanted to name him Bowser. Bowser is one of his favorite players on his Mario Brothers game and is a tough guy.
Originally I was seeking an Australian Shepherd/Blue Heeler mix and I wanted a female, but Kim found this one with a guy that rescues and re-homes dogs near Charlotte and was certain that his personality was the right fit for Spencer and convinced me to meet the puppy. It looks like the puppy is a Rottweiler mix. He is calm, loving, and a total snuggle-puff. Just like Spencer. It was a perfect match! We went to PetSmart this evening and got a leash, food, treats, toys, etc. It was so much fun! By the way, why didn't anyone tell me that PetsMart is THE meet and greet for gay guys? Seriously, the dog food aisle was like a gay singles bar!
A big THANK YOU to John and Melissa for letting us borrow their crate, Kim for the doggie delivery and Jimmy for setting up for the puppy. Spencer is the happiest kid in the world tonight! It makes my heart warm!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

That woman ain't right


Warning. I'm getting ready to have an "over share" moment on my blog. Usually it is about Spencer- but this time it is about my Mom. Most of you know that woman is nuttier than squirrel poop....

Last week on the cruise, while I was playing with the monkey in Costa Maya (that's not a euphemism for anything-- really!) Mom went to the restrooms right at the pier. As she was washing her hands to leave, a poor woman rushed into the restroom and ran into the first stall. She had obviously had some of the Mexican water because what happened next can only be described (by my mother) as the loudest, longest fart she has EVER heard come out of a woman. But could my mother politely leave the restroom and let the poor woman be? Oh no. My mother promptly speaks up and says, "Was that the ship's horn? Am I late???"

Yeah. I'm printing this out and saving it for the commitment hearing.

Speaking of Mom, she scanned in all of our (purchased) cruise pictures:
click on collage to enlarge:



If you notice in the collage, Melissa and I had photos done together. The photog was posing us rather closely...until we busted out laughing and informed him that we weren't a couple!! In my previous post, I mentioned that I won the Grand Prize drawing at the Cruise Ship photo shop. (Yay!) This is the picture we decided to get the photo package of: (check out my ghetto 'ho shoes!) We could barely stop giggling long enough to act half way sensible for the photos. Oh well.. Only 7 more months until our next cruise!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Funship Glory

We are back from our (would be) GLORIOUS cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, but Hurricane Paloma had other plans and we were rerouted to the Western Caribbean. This was disappointing since we had just cruised the Western Caribbean this past January-- but a cruise is a cruise so we had fun!

We went down with a tour group (2 chartered motor coaches) last Friday. We spent Friday night in Jacksonville where we met up with Val for dinner and some laughs. Val and I have a fun history of practical jokes; I brought her a lovely jar of pickled pigs feet and she made us SPAM cupcakes. GAG!!!
I managed to start our vacation off with a bang-- somewhere in Georgia, we stopped at a rest stop and I stepped in a mound of fire ants. I had bites on my left foot that were swollen, painful and irritated. Then when we got to the port we were told that we wouldn't be able to go to the itinerary we paid for because of the weather- such a disappointment. Then somehow during embarkation, I lost my camera bag. Oh and I was using my camera bag as a purse so it had my passport, credit card, money, etc. in it. Luckily, I found it at the purser's desk but not before I broke down and cried like a little bitch. But a few deep breaths and a couple of drinks later, I was fine and ready to start my vacation!

The Glory
Muster Drill went by fast, the sail away party was fun, we got settled in our stateroom about as smoothly as possible.
The food, shows and activities were fantastic! We did wine tastings, afternoon tea, went down the big slide, hit the casino just about every night, went to every evening show, dined in the Golden Dining Room every night, relaxed on lido, tried all kinds of new stuff and had a general good time relaxing and goofing off!
On the way back in, we got the see the Space Shuttle Endeavor launch from Cape Canaveral. The launch was glowing red and the shuttle was a jet streak of fire from the rocket. It was really cool looking but my camera wouldn't capture the propulsion images even though the captain turned off the ship lights so we could see the launch better.

1st port of call: Costa Maya
Costa Maya was removed from our last itinerary because the pier was still damaged from the hurricane. It had just opened back up and our ship was the 4th ship to come back to Costa Maya since the hurricane damage. We met up with our tour guide at the pier and climbed into all-terrain open air trucks. If you didn't have a sore neck and hemorrhoids at the beginning of the tour, you were sure to leave with both. That trek through the Mayan jungle was ROUGH. Like Belize, Costa Maya is a beautiful country made ugly by destruction and poverty. It was unbelievable how most of them live. Because of the hurricane damage leaving most of the country was under sea water for so long, all of their livestock and pets were destroyed and there is no farming. The sea water ruined the land and they lost all of their chickens, pigs, goats, etc. in the storm. Most of the jungle we rode through was still heavily damaged. We would see structures nearly crumbling - not even solid enough to call a house and as soon as you would think, "Surely no one can live there" out would pop a couple of kids hanging out the window waving to the tour trucks. It was incredibly sad. We didn't see any exotic birds. Because the vegetation is still damaged, not many birds have returned. I did see a few lizards, crocodile and a monkey in a tree. Speaking of monkeys, the highlight of the trip was when I got to play with a little spider monkey. He was so soft and actually smelled ok!
After the tour, we went to the downtown area for shopping, the vendors were thirsty for tourist dollars so they were very aggressive. And just a note: the dollar margaritas are watered down.....with Mexican water....you don't want to know how I found out. As part of our tour we stopped at a private beach for a while. It was hot but the Coronas were cold. Just after Melissa took the picture of me with the coconut, I turned it up to pretend to drink the milk and like an idiot, I poured sand all in my mouth. I spit and gagged for about 10 minutes. Served me right for acting stupid, huh? There's no pictures of that last part-- Melissa was too busy laughing...



2nd port of call: Cozumel
The last time we went to Cozumel, we went to Chankunaub Park for the Dolphin Swim so we didn't really get to see much of the country. This time we booked a "highlights" tour. It was great. Our tour guide was a short little Mayan man named Ruben who seemed to know everyone in the entire country. We toured a couple of towns, the oldest church, a small Mayan Ruin, markets and a tequila farm. They grow blue agave there that they use to make tequila. We toured the little museum that shows how the plants are made into liquor and then we got to go to the sampling room. Every type of tequila they made (about 15-20 flavors?) was set out with pump dispensers and we were given medicine cups. You were instructed to "sample" each and every one as much as you wanted. Our guide pretty much insisted that everyone have at least 4 shots so that his group could be happy and worry-free. I thought for sure I would like the cherry flavored tequila, but it tasted like cough syrup. The cream, coffee and amaretto flavored ones were delicious. My mom pretty much set up camp at the Blue Margarita sample bottle and people had to just go around her and sample from the other side. She loved that stuff! The guy there said that it was "female Viagra" and was a hit with women shoppers. I lost count at how much we sampled, but everyone was able to walk back to the tour bus just fine so I guess it wasn't too bad. Maybe a bit giggly but we were fine. One of the tour highlights was stopping on the beach at a fresh coconut vendor. He would smack a hole in the top of the fresh coconut (which are large and green there!) and give you a straw. You suck out the milk then hand it back to him. He takes this big-ass machete and chops open the coconut and they scrape out the meat and put it in a baggie for you. I ate mine the way the locals were eating theirs: with a sprinkle of salt, a few dashes of chili powder and a few squeezes of fresh lime. It was fantastic! Melissa and I hiked over some of the deposits/formations at the waterfront- the view was spectacular! We shopped a bit (Mom bought me an awesome pendant!) and Melissa got caught sneaking pictures of a hot guy showering by the pool at the pier--yikes! Even funnier, he ended up working on our ship and we kept running into him! I think he enjoyed it though. We had lunch in Cozumel, too. Last time we ate at the Park and bragged about that meal the entire time. This time none of us could eat our food. Other than the chips and salsa, nothing was remotely digestible. The waiter joked around with me that I ordered an iguana quesadilla and damn, I think that's what the guy served me. Blah!


3rd port of call: Nassau Bahamas
Well, we were back in Nassau for the third time this year. I looked at the tours and everything was "been there, done that" so we just hung out downtown a bit. We ate at Burger King believe it or not. Melissa was jonesing for the BK Lounge as soon as she saw the sign. We shopped a little and went down to the straw market. The market sucked. Big Time. It was hot as all grades of hell, all of the people working there were pretty much hustlers and EVERY vendor had the same crap--knockoff purses, ugly jewelry, straw bags, T-shirts and tote bags. Mom's knee was killing her so we went back to the ship, then later that evening, Melissa and I went back downtown for drinks at Senor Frogs. The food at Senor Frogs is over priced and not that great. The drinks are overpriced but totally delicious!

Days at Sea
We had 4 days at sea- which were my favorite part of the cruise. Sleeping in, relaxing on the deck or our balcony all day, eating delicious foods, getting dressed up, gambling, meeting new people and joining in the activities when we wanted-- it was perfect!
I won the grand prize drawing at the Photo store--a photo package worth about $50.00- I used it to buy our formal night pictures!
Mom fell in total infatuation with our captain. I have to admit-- he was quite handsome. Every time Mom was missing, it was a running joke that she was in the captain's cabin. Our wait staff and "supercharged" maitre D were fantastic-- they kept us laughing every night at dinner! Some nights we laughed until we cried. Our wait staff were from Bali and although their "engrish" was very good, they cracked us up singing "hoppy birfday" to the other passengers. Luckily, they had seen "A Christmas Story" and knew the scene from the Chinese dinner/Christmas carol, so they enjoyed the "No-sing it like this" joke with us.
The sunsets were breathtaking, the view from our balcony was hypnotizing and we were spoiled with lavish food and drinks all week. The shows were wonderful, the late night comedians were fun, and the casino was a ball. Melissa and I made several friends at the Roulette table again this trip! One of the best parts of the cruise is the people watching. By the middle of the week, we were taking pictures of everything that cracked us up, even a "what not to wear" page. Our 'what not to wear' pictures include a ton of fat, hairy guys in Speedos, fat chicks in bikinis and dresses looking like an exploded can of biscuits, butt-ugly vagitarians in trucker hats, crazy drunk people in bath robes, insane German guys throwing money off the interior balcony, show-off bimbos with brand new boobies, crazy hair-dos, etc. It wasn't all crazy people though- we met a bunch of really nice people. Even Santa was on our cruise resting up for the big season. It was awesome!
We bought several of the professional photos from our trip but I haven't scanned them in yet. I'll update again as soon as I have the rest of the photos!



Wednesday, November 05, 2008

History in the Making


Undoubtedly this was the most passionate election in my lifetime- history was made and hopefully many good changes are coming. Spencer has been learning about government at school and had predicted Obama's win last week (much to my Dad's horror--ha!)
He wanted to stay up late and watch the poll results, but since it was a school night he couldn't. I let him stay up until 9:00-- enough to where the first couple of states were called, just so he could see the reds and blues and electoral votes. I tried to explain the electoral college to him, but it sounded archaic. We should get rid of it and go with popular vote.

Hopefully he will remember this day! I had planned on documenting the vote for him but I wussed out. Think of how cool it would be if my Grandma had pictures of the JFK vote. I asked my mom if there was the fervor then that was happening now with getting someone new, young, and fresh in office to make changes--she didn't remember but then again she was only 11 years old.

It was raining when I went so I didn't take pictures of the outside of the church where I vote. I wanted to take a picture from the car of all the campaign lawn signs in front of the poll place, but the car behind me blew their horn at me and I had to move. I took my camera bag in with me to get a picture of the ballot and stations-- but then a cute fireman said hello to me and made me all self conscious. The stupid voting booth was held up by two toothpicks and fairy dust-- I couldn't even set my camera on there for fear the entire thing would tumble over--- so the story is, I didn't get any pictures that I wanted! Oh well-- this newspaper pose will have to suffice!

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Wager


What do you get when the Panthers beat the Saints?

Well if you are me, and you have a small wager with a die hard Saints fan, you get new mascara! Poor guy had to suffer through the crazy, TammyFaye-esque chicks at the MAC counter; but I have to give him props, he did it without any whining. I wish he would have worn a Jake Delhomme jersey to the mall but I think that would be pushing it.

I rarely win these "smack talk" bets so I'm enjoying this new found winner high! With Hansbrough's injury, I have put my Tar Heel smack talk on hold. I swear I just heard my Dookie friend Laura give an evil laugh as I typed that....