Girls Gathering

Every year, the girls have a holiday get together. This year, my dearest, bestest friend ever, Aklet, was able to join in the festivities:

Anywho, our get together was a great success! Everyone came out (well, at least everyone that counts!) to the new abode to eat, drink and be merry! Kirky volunteered to make a dinner for us all - Cornish game hens with mushroom-artichoke stuffing - DeLiCiOuS!!



















We had some great fun doing our Chinese gift exchange this year. Some of our highlighted/stolen gifts exchanged included: a Barbie doll, a cute purse with some not so cute hemorrhoidal cream (for us aging folks), a robe

There was more exchanging (a.k.a. gift stealing) that in the past! Is it us getting feisty in our old age??

Needless to say, it was a great time, to be with great friends!

Love ya crazy b****es!!

Snow Storm of Dec. 09'

This winter was a harsh one for many in the South - Altanta and even parts of Florida got snow! What a tradegy for the southerns that don't have to deal with snow?!? Us, at the foot of the mountains in Virginia, got about 26 inches. Here are some pictures of the snow accumulating: Like all snow storms, it was pretty when it fell. . . but cleaning it up. .. What a MESS!!

Luckly, I saw a man with a snow plow when I was shoveling the driveway. Too bad he took out all the landscape lighting and flower boxes that were buried in the snow too! OOPS!

10 Reasons To LMAO OR LYAO

I have been having serious trouble sleeping. Nightmares and everything!! GeeGee has been gone, and will be gone until the 19th :( He blames my irritability and nightmares on the fact that he is gone . . .

So, I got home today feeling a little tired and irritable. .to say the least. My phone rang, and I looked at the caller ID. It was this dang survey company calling for the 1k time (last night they called at 9pm after I had finally shut my eyes after several sleepless nights. .). I answered the phone and agreed to take their survey so they would stop calling me. They told me it would only take a couple of minutes. I told them they had TWO. On the third question, I failed the survey and was no longer a candidate. . .HAH! I "was not in my current job for more than 6 months". Take that (1)! I told them to take me off their list (mf's. . .!).


I carried on with my evening by starting to make some potato leek soup (very yummy might I add. . .), when I noticed my stove was no longer lit. It seemed as though my gas was out (2). . and I am not referring to my energy. After a little troubleshooting, I realized my fireplace was out, the burners were not lighting with my handy dandy lighter, and the oven was not preheating for the quiche I was about to prep for. My first thought was, GeeGee "didn't take care of the gas bill!!". . .. I called him up, and he couldn't remember the gas company we have an account with (3)!!! SOOOO - I went outside to read the propane tank in the sleet .. . .YES SLEET(4). . .and fell on my a** when I slipped down the stairs (5)!! I collected myself, and got the name of the company. Of course I have to call them in the morning to get this taken care of, OR they will charge their emergency fee(6). I called my girl, Aklet, to vent so that GeeGee didn't get to have all the fun. She suggested that I take the soup that I started to make, put it in a Tupperware as is, and save it until he gets home and serve it to him for dinner (7). . GREAT idea!! Instead, I cooled off, and decided to bring out the ole fryin' pan. . .It was in this frying pan that I continued to cook my soup (????). I put it in the blender to puree it up. . . Evidently, the soup was too hot and the blender was too full, so it spilled out ALL over the place in the kitchen AND burned my hand(8). . .yup, all over the computer. . .the Christmas cards on the counter, the floor, and ME... . (I know. . LOL. . and LOLA!!).


Anyway, this is what and how I had dinner tonight (9):

And now I am finishing that bottle of w(h)ine (10)!. . . .Now I am LMFAO!

"Messy" Boys

I have found that boys are just messy. GeeGee's mother is coming this weekend, and I have made a list of things that he needs to clean or help clean before their arrival. He seems to think the place is not messy at all. . .WRONG he is! My cat's hair is ALL over the place, dust bunnies can be found behind my nightstand, and the bathrooms need a once over (after this weekend with guests, last week with guests, and general use in the last 2 weeks. . they need it!).

I figure if I make him clean, eventually he will get us a housekeeper. Cross your fingers!!

No Excuses

I thought this was something that you usually only do when you have kids, then I remembered - and YOU should too! As yourself, . . . "self, when you were a kid what did you REALLY get to do when it was time to carve pumpkins?. . . "

I remember having to take out all the gross stuff. . I never got to use the knives, or light the candles, or any of the fun stuff. How about you? What do you remember about carving pumpkins?

Well, we decided to have the full experience, without kids :)

Chef Pumpkin

GeeGee had off a good part of the day, and decided to chef it up in the kitchen. . .with a pumpkin:

First, there were pumpkin seeds - YUMMY

Then there was pie! Two of them. . . .SO GOOD!

Chef Pumpkin then made dinner that night too! We contiplated Pumpkin Chili, and then voted against it!!

A SPOILED Cat. . .

Alley LOVES her new home. GeeGee has decided to spoil her, and feed her wet food. This is something I have NEVER done. Check out what she did to her food:




Now, Alley has ALWAYS had a tenancy to push her food out of her bowl if the pieces are too small. She will MEOW to no ends, if she has JUST crumbs in her bowl (even if it is FULL of crumbs) - note the pieces around her bowl. The most interesting part of this for me, is the fact she did this to her wet food too. . .She ate ALL the wet part of the food, and left most of the chunks, and even pushed some off the plate! I can't even begin to imagine where she learned this habit! Weird cat. . . .

Getting Back in The Groove

As most of you know, GeeGee and I have been on the move. . . I have been a slacker for SOOO many reasons. . . But, now. . now you get what you have all been waiting for --- GeeGee found the camera:
Old Master Bathroom ------New Master Bathroom

Old Master Bedroom ---- New Master Bedroom

Old "GeeGee/Game/Gold" Room --- New. .. .

Old Bar --- New Bar (did I mention "wet"?)

Old Dining Room ---- New!

Old living room. . .New living room
our favorite room!

After the face lift. . . . . .

Pictures not show: 1 1/2 MORE bathrooms, and 2 other bedrooms

The landscaping is AMAZING - GeeGee is going to have to start doing yard work :)

Lost. . .

My camera is lost. . . .I can't even post pictures of our new house :(

Pre-Memorial Day Pary (a.k.a.- Big DECK Party)

Red and I took most of the week preparing for our annual Memorial Day weekend party. As always, we had some surpise guests, as well as some people we thought we would definately see, but didn't (Aklet, I was hoping you would be a surprise guest . . .boo-hoo).

This year we had a plutherer of children (so, we know what our friends have been busy doing)! It was very awesome to see everyone having a great time!!

We had a new guest to our annual party that even brought oysters to grill (and actually grilled them himself). Needless to say, my grill duty was not nearly as long as it usually is!!

As usual, Scar came down with her family for the party (which is always a hit!).

One thing that really stuck out on Monday morning (besides my throbbing head) was the fact that we nearly had ZERO left overs!! Red even texted me in the morning to see if I could cook her a burger (. . . .really). I had to sadly tell her that there was NOTHING left but potato salad and cole slaw. The only thing that WAS left over, was the bar. . . Yes, if you can believe it. . .We actually had a RIDICULOUS amount of beer and liquor left! What is wrong with our friends!! They must be growing up (and having kids!)!

Showing Off My BIG DECK

Hopefully most of you have recieved Red and I's invite to the Big Deck party for Sunday. If not, bring it on! Hit me up for details!! It will be a good one!!

SLACKER

Hey All -
So I have been a complete slacker this month, but A LOT has been going on. I figured I just give you a run down of my events:

1. I went to Atlanta to visit Aklet: We had a lovely but short visit in the ATL

2. My sister came down to RIC for a week days (5), and we enjoyed some quality time

3. I resigned from my job (yes, it is true. I am going to try to find another job for September outside of teaching elementary children. Any suggestions??)

4. I refinanced my house

5. My roommate moved out

6. I went to the Bahamas

ALL of this in ONE MONTH'S time!! Can you blame me for not getting sucked into to the computer??

A Toast!

So, Red and I are celebrating her birthday, as of 4 minutes ago. We were looking at some health tips as we are talking to Jose, since Jim has left the building. . . The tip read:

For automatic portion control, sip wine from a Champagne flute, not an oversize goblet.

The reply from my elder was, " That will just make me make more trips to the fridge". .. .

Note taken.

Karma

I've had my good girl panties on so far this year, meaning I have not been partaking in drinking. GeeGee's friend, Yusif, has been visiting from Northern Virginia (in order to stay away from the inauguration madness).In order to be a good hostess, I decided to do a little drinking on Saturday. . .

We had a grand old time, Yusif and I. . .We bickered until the wee hours of the morning, until we both found our spots sleeping on the couch, not able to make it to bed.

When I woke, at 8 am, I went to my room to find a CATASTROPHE. Water was spewing ALL over my carpet in my bedroom from the bathroom. In my haze, I reached under the sink and cut off the valve that was allowing water to DUMP all over the place.

Later, I got ROBBED by a friend of a friend plumber that came over to "check things out for me", and then tell me that he made an "emergency weekend service call" and it was going to cost me $50. . .

To sum things up, I made a call to my home owner's insurance, making a claim for the damages: carpet - $300, sink console - $400, woodwork - $ 1,000, paint - $200, dresser - $350, wet vac - $50, being too hung over to deal with such a CATASTROPHE - PRICELESS

Moral of this blog: Don't drink after you decide you are going to wear good girl panties

Holiday Lights

So, this weekend, I decided would be a good time to decorate for the holidays (and no, I am not crazy). I actually have NEVER had a tree at my house, and barely decorate. I am usually away for the holidays, and am not around to attend to, or enjoy the decorations. I was feeling inspired to decorate this weekend since my roommate was home, and GeeGee was around. He is leaving town, and I am leaving town, so this was a good time for us to decorate together. . . .You know, the holiday spirit thing. . . .

GeeGee was also feeling inspired. He decided he wanted to decorate the OUTSIDE of the house (something that did not even cross my mind). As he was deciding the layout of the lights, and what we would need to purchase to complete the layout, I reminded him that if he put the lights up, he was going to have to take them down. He tried to convince me that it was okay to keep the lights up, if you could hide the lights well enough so you wouldn't really see them unless they were lit.

Needless to say. . .NO WAY was that an option.

Aklet: You can add this to my pet peeves - Keeping up your holiday decorations PAST celebration time.

On that note, I will say, that although my decorations are up early, they are not allowed to be lit up until after Thanksgiving. . .This was the only time I could get the roomies together for the decorating event before the holidays.

Keeping Up With the Jones'. . . .Again

So, I am housesitting again out in BFE. . .It has been quite a nice break, pretending to live like a millioniare (I could get use to this. . . .). So, I have decided to make a few personal notes of things I would like in my house, once I hit the lottery:

Ice Maker (no, not just the one IN the fridge)

Remote Light System (so when you don't know if you shut the lights off downstairs, you can check your remote. . .If that light is on, the remote will indicate it, and you can shut it off from the remote)

Built in Coffee Maker (That is right! All you have to do is add the ground coffee!)

Outdoor Kitchen (with a built in gas line to the grill)

House Music System (to turn on and control the music/speakers throughout the entire house)

Walk in Shower (with THREE shower heads, and 4 body sprayers. . . or whatever the technical term is for that!)

Built in Appliances (fridge, stove (oven x's 2), etc).

Talking washer/dryer

I think that is all I can make note of now. . . .

DECKED By The Party

So, I FINALLY had a party at my house. . .which is not really new any more (March 07'). We (my roomie and I) decided we had a reason to have a party though. .. MY NEW DECKS (Thanks Pa!)

We tried to have all the bells and whistles: Keg, Tiki Torches, Slip N' Slide, 100 + invitations, TONS of food, and the company of our good friends (well, at least those who couldn't come up with an excuse, that we wouldn't later call them out on). GeeGee didn't think it was enough to make the party FABULOUS, so he needed to up the anti. How about a little Greek Lamb roast??

SOOOO- I went with it. After GeeGee learned that is wasn't going to HANG in my laundry room overnight, he opted to place the dead lamb in my tub on Friday night. He arrived at my house carrying what looked like a small dead child in a trash bag. It stayed there overnight during the majority of the party. Many got to witness its deadness in my tub. The next day, GeeGee got out the lamb and started prepping it:

The lamb ended up on a spit over HOT charcoal for about 3 hours on Saturday. GeeGee spun it almost the ENTIRE time. My neighbor, Steve, and friend, Scott, helped while GeeGee worked on smothering the lamb with butter, lemon, and Greek seasoning.

Anyway - I was VERY pleased with the turnout, and the fact that my house is still all in one piece (NOTHING broke. . .. except me and Sarah of course!). I think I did okay for my age. . .I RAGED Friday AND Saturday AND worked on Sunday. . . .The only sad thing about the BIG bash on Friday, is I did not get any pictures (must have been because I was grilling, tending to trash, saying hello to arrivals, being intoxicated. . . ). The only few I got were of the following (there is proof in my eyes why there was not more. . .Can you say WASTED. . .??):

Jimmy, Chuck, and I . . . . This was early. . . .

Steve K. and I (Thanks for coming Steve!! You were my highlight!!

A BIG thanks to all our friends that came from near and FAR, to celebrate Summer with us!!

Kisses!!

Honeychild

Keeping Up With The Jones'

So, I am house, dog, and kid sitting this weekend out in BFT. I REALLY can't complain about the gig AT ALL! The house is amazing, the dogs are low maintenance, and the kids are really not kids. The boys are 10 and 14, and they are VERY well mannered and self-sufficient.

So, back to the house. . . I have already texted GeeGee to ask if we can live in a house like this when we grow up! Although it is about 30 minutes from the city, it is quite a beautiful area. These people's home over looks a reservoir (the size of a LAKE. . .it fooled me!), with a beautiful outdoor kitchen, fireplace, and hot tub. They have had their kitchen redone since the last time I was here (needless to say, I would have been happy with the old kitchen). I walked in and was awed by the beauty and detail. I felt like had just opened a Better Homes & Garden magazine.

As I was making myself comfortable, I was told that the parents wanted me to stay in the master bedroom. As I found space for all my belongings, I also noted that they had had their master bathroom redone (again, I would have made do with the last one). First of all, their walk in closet is the size of TWO of my bedrooms. Then, I saw the shower. FULLY tiled, double shower heads and EVERYTHING!! They designed the shower so it is basically like a hallway. . . It's not square or rectangular. . . .It is LONG and CURVED. . . .Anyway. . I wonder how big their hot water tank is??

Anyway, if I lived in THIS neighborhood, I would have a hard time keeping up with these Jones'!! Time to sell YACHTS!!

My list. . . .

So, it has one heck of a week already! I worked a crazy weekend at Buddy's, while dad slaved at my house. . .

Seeing that is has rained the past few days, I figured I would allow him to do extras inside. Here was was on the list indoors: garbage disposal

Here are the things he has completed: garbage disposal (with only minimal water on the floor), hitting on all my friends, greased up door (for smoother closing), no ice, easy closing refrigerator (yes, this means no one is going to get knocked out anymore with the door opening), mud on my carpet, a mailbox that will stay fastened to my house, figured out my spotlight problem, a French door off my bedroom with built in blinds (that is right. . .no dusting. . . )!

Next is the deck and patio! I am very excited about getting my backyard together to enjoy my grill more. . .

On that note, I will say that GeeGee stepped it up on the grill tonight! We enjoyed some pork ribs (which I do not normally eat OR enjoy), some rocking potatoes (with all kinds of spices), and corn. He did a fabulous job. . . so, now if I can just make sure he keeps it up on the grill at dinner time, I can enjoy a fabulous martini on my deck at happy hour. . .