Can't Get You Outa My Head

Okay, that's a song by Kylie Minogue, but the song that's really stuck in my head right now (and will probably be stuck in yours as soon as you read this) is the song "I Love Trash" by Oscar the Grouch. "Oh I LOVE trash... anything dirty or dingy or dusty... anything ragged or rotten or rusty... I love it because it's trash!" I've been dubbing some old VHS tapes onto DVD, and I recorded an old Sesame Street video (their 25th Anniversary--guess when THAT came out!) for Donovan... thus, that song has been in and out of my head for a few days now.

I guess I was thinking of Oscar's song now because I look around the TV room in our basement as I type this, and I see little bits of paper strewn all over the place, magic markers with their lids off, and a few stray pieces of Scotch tape lying about--then I look up on my computer desk and see the stack of printer paper is quickly dwindling... These are all things I've been scolding the girls about lately--when they use their "safety scissors" to cut, they either cut up a million pieces of paper and then leave them, or SOMEbody decides it's time to cut their clothes, their blankets, pillows, etc. Ditto for magic markers. And I've had to replace more rolls of Scotch tape and printer paper in the last year, just because of my little artists. I shouldn't complain, though. I guess, when it's a rainy day and they can't go swimming or to the park or the zoo, I should just be glad they're not beating each other up. (At least, not until about 8:15 tonight--then they finally let loose on that, too!) I came down here at one point today, to download the 12 pictures from our camera that we'd taken yesterday and a few days ago... there were actually 110 pictures on my camera!!! I'd say at least five of them were of the TV (Max and Ruby was on at the time, I believe), a couple were of the insides of the girls' mouths (what is THAT all about), and then we had a few pictures of the afore-mentioned artwork.... Mostly, though, were self-portraits. The girls have learned to take pictures of themselves, in addition to taking them of each other. I hate to discourage this for three reasons: one, it kept them busy; two, with a digital camera, I don't mind them taking all the pictures they want--I keep a few and delete the rest (like those inside-of-the-mouth ones!); and three, a few of them are actually kind of neat, in an abstract/artsy way. Here are a couple I like:

Josie's chin and neck.

Josie's toes.

The Play-Doh tub.

Magic marker tower (with the top of Lindsay's head... for perspective?).

Some of the pictures they have taken in the past are actually quite good, I think, as far as being creative, etc. It's just the weeding out process that's a little tedious.

I can't sign off without adding a few nice ones of my babes, though. (The ones of the girls are self portraits.)

Lindsay's Self Portrait.

Josie's self portrait--there were actually a few that were cooler, but this was the only one of her smiling.

Donovan says, "Mommy, come over here--see, I saved you a seat!"

Playing catch-up!

I am SO far behind on my blogging, it's not even funny. I'm going to make an attempt to get everything into one blog. (Just a few things I've been wanting to put in here, that is.) And then I'll do another one tomorrow or sometime soon with more current stuff.


First is Bunko. (I really prefer to spell it B-U-N-C-O, but everyone else I know writes it B-U-N-K-O, so I'm going for consistency.... not like it matters.) I absolutely LOVE playing Bunko. I may have mentioned that in a previous blog entry--not sure. The time before last (this would have been the April game), our hostess decided to go with a Luau theme. It was such a riot! She was brilliant about it, too, because she even took pictures. I was especially excited, because I got my sister-in-law, Anne, to come join me as a sub, and she even won a little $$$ that night!!! We had such a great time!

Anita after getting BUNKO!

The money coral.

Here I am with my winning BUNKO.

Vicki's hula dance. (Are those coconuts a bra? Or shoulder pads?)

Trish doing the hula. (Notice how well the coconuts fit her!)

The following month, May, I got two BUNKO's in a row, followed immediately by a Baby BUNKO. I was so pumped, I about jumped off my chair! Can't wait to roll 'em again!!!

The other thing I wanted to mention was Lindsay's Brownie Tea Party. Her Brownie Leaders, bless their hearts, came up with the coolest activities for their troop this year. I should know--I was a troop leader last year! It's tough, not just spending an hour and a half with 11 or so screaming, giggling girls, but also coming up with new and exciting ways to entertain them while earning Try-It patches. Anyway, to celebrate their great year and to hold an awards ceremony, Marcy and Karla (the leaders) came up with the idea of an old fashioned Tea Party. Mothers and grandmothers of the Brownies were invited. Both my Mom and Jim's Mom came, which was so nice. A few of us wore hats, and we were all dressed up prettily. I even saw one woman wearing gloves. (Die hard Tea Partier!!!) At the Tea Party, we all got to do a craft, along with chatting it up with our table-mates, taking a few pictures, and watching the awards ceremony. I think both of Lindsay's grandmothers enjoyed themselves--I surely did!

Isn't she lovely?

Donna, Tracy, Lindsay, and Kay.

We had a great Mother-Daughter day! Thanks, Lindsay!

Perfume

I just HAVE to post something about perfumes. My very dear friend, Jodi, makes her own perfumes and has started selling them. Actually, she's been selling them for a while. She made one for me, gosh, almost two years ago now, when she was first starting out. She just gave me one of those little sample tubes (like you can get at Dillards or Younkers, etc.). I used it once in a while, then I forgot about it. I found it again about six months ago, rolling around in the back of my drawer. Jim loved it as much as I did. So I ordered some more from Jodi. She made me a nice sized bottle of it, and I just LOVE it!!! It's not something I wear all the time, as I like to savor and enjoy it. (I'm the kind of person who wears a different perfume every day, depending on my mood--only on Fridays do I wear the same thing for sure--and as you know, that would be Patchouli.) But when I do put on my new fragrance from Jodi, I am always surprised by how delightful it is! I wish you would check out her site (click on the picture), as she's got some interesting scents available. Her prices are fantastic, too!

Concerts

I'm not much into the "self portrait" thing that some folks are doing on their blogs these days. But I did do a little introspection over the past few weeks or so, and I've come up with a list of concerts I've been to over the years. I challenged my brother, Kyle, to tell me which ones he'd been to, and he was disappointed to come up way shorter than I did. (Seems natural to me, considering how many years I've got on him!) He said he figured he was probably forgetting some... well, duh! I wouldn't be surprised if I was forgetting a couple as well. Check out my list, and you'll see why I could forget some. I doubt if my list is the longest ever--there are many people out there who've been to more than me. What I find amusing is the dichotomy there--from Nitzer Ebb (sort of dark, industrial/techno with electric drums) to Carmen (hard-core born-again Christian artist--I was "lucky" enough to witness someone speaking in tongues at that concert, they were so moved by it... Yikes!). Anyway, if anyone out there wants to list theirs, please let me know so I can check it out! (Oh, and by the way, I had originally NOT put numbers by the concerts and I had originally listed each artist/band separately, but my brother didn't think that was fair, as it made it look like more concerts! Tee! hee! I still have about 30 on him!)

These are not necessarily in chronological order... I'm doing my best to list them as I saw them, but it's a little fuzzy anymore! They're listed with the Headliner first, followed by the opening band(s)... if there's no opening band(s) listed, there either weren't any or I can't remember who opened for the Headliner.
1) RATT, Poison- Omaha

2) The Beastie Boys, Fishbone - Lincoln

3) Iron Maiden - Omaha

4) Great White - Omaha

5 & 6) AC/DC (twice) - Omaha

7) Motley Crue - Omaha

8) Bon Jovi - Omaha

9) The Rolling Stones, Living Color - Ames, IA

10 & 11) R.E.M. (twice) - Lincoln, Omaha

12) George Thorogood & the Delaware Destroyers, Brian Setzer - Omaha

13) Dee Lite - Omaha

14) The Smithereens - Omaha

15) Modern English - Omaha

16) Acapella - Omaha

17) Carmen - Omaha

18) Hat Trick, Zwarte - Omaha

19 & 20) Nine Inch Nails (twice) - Omaha

21 & 22) Cheap Trick (twice) - Kearney, NE and Lincoln

23) The B-52's, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers - Kansas City, MO

24 & 25) Indigo Girls (twice) - Valparaiso, IN, and Lincoln

26) David Bowie - Denver

27) Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb - Denver

28) Depeche Mode - Chicago

29) U2 - Ames, IA

30) New Order - Chicago

31) Duran Duran, Terrance Trent D'Arby - Chicago

32) Sting - Denver

33) Prince - Chicago

34) Grateful Dead, Sting (this is hilarious--NOBODY went into the arena until Sting was about 3/4 of the way through his performance!!! What a riot!) - Chicago

35) INXS - Chicago

36) The Millions - Lincoln

37) Melissa Etheridge, Matthew Sweet - Ames, IA

38) Matthew Sweet, The Millions, Lie Awake - Omaha

39) Allman Brothers Band, Rusted Root - Lincoln

40) Pink Floyd - Kansas City, MO

41) The Eagles - Kansas City, MO

42) Huey Lewis and the News - Kansas City, MO

43) Crosby, Stills & Nash - Omaha

44) White Zombie - Omaha

45) Son Seals - Lincoln

46) Steely Dan - Kansas City, MO

47) Violent Femmes, 311 - Omaha

48) KISS - Omaha

49) KC and the Sunshine Band - Lincoln

50) Smoke Ring - Lincoln

51) James Taylor - Lincoln

52) Joan Jett - Lincoln

53) Hall & Oates, Michael McDonald, Average White Band (AWB) - Omaha

54) Pat Benatar - Lincoln

55) Aldo Nova - Lincoln (actually went to this concert way before a bunch of these, but I don't want to mess with bumping all the numbers down!)

55) Smoke Ring - Norfolk, NE

Another bunch of fun mail!

The other day, this batch of movies came. In case you can't read them all, they're "The Warriors", "Jaws", "My Fair Lady", "Caddyshack", "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", "Twister", and "Over the Hedge". All but two of these movies are DVD replacements for movies we had on VHS. "The Warriors" and "Over the Hedge" are new to us. I've been a member of Columbia House for years, and have been such a "great customer" that they let me cancel my old membership and start a new one--the point being, I got six movies for $.49 each, no S&H charge, plus one of the first movies to fulfill my requirement was only $9.99. I'm a total bargain shopper! The whole lot of them ended up costing just over $12!!! That's mail I LOVE getting!!!

Here's a book Bridget had said she'd pass on to me. I know I'll see her Saturday when she's in town for the marathon, but I'm thinking she sent it in the mail simply because she's got a great appreciation for fun mail--and I'm still riding off the high I got from the last fun mail she sent me! **First one who posts a comment or e-mails me that they'd like to read it after me, it's yours!**

The book Bridget sent will fit right in with what I've been reading lately. For Christmas, Jim got me a Chick Lit desk calender--it's got excerpts from all these fun chick lit books (an example is the one sampled for today, "What a Girl Wants"). It's one of the best Christmas gifts I have ever gotten! I've been checking a bunch of these books out from the library, though my library doesn't carry them all. The book Bridget sent me isn't one of the books they profile in this calendar, so it's a bonus--plus, it arrived just as I'm about to finish my current book. Thanks, Bridget!!!