A Note From The Peanut Gallery

I am not a parent. Nor do I profess to have any insight into what I think is probably one of the hardest jobs on the planet. Despite this, I found this article in Time to be really interesting. Since, as I stated, I don’t have kids, it was really some of the trends in older “children” that were the most shocking to me. This statement about made me fall out of my chair:

Employers like Ernst & Young were creating "parent packs" for recruits to give Mom and Dad, since they were involved in negotiating salary and benefits.

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Several years ago, I heard some anecdotal evidence from friends who work in admissions offices at universities that parents were taking it to a new level. Phase one seemed to be mom/dad calling the university to check on the status of an application. I remember being in high school and being told by guidance counselors that any contact with the university should be handled by me, or else schools would think I wasn’t a responsible/capable young adult. Sure we consulted with our parents on what to say, questions to ask, advice etc. But that was really the time when you became your own spokesperson. But ok, kids these days…they are busy, you know? Maybe they just couldn’t get around to it. I'll let them have that one. Phase two wasn’t so much an escalation as it was rocket ship to space: parents calling professors directly to ask about projects and grades! Holy Hell! My parents were more likely to call the Pope than they were one of my professors! That blew my mind. But this?! Being involved in salary negotiations? This. … I mean. …. I don’t. … I mean. …

Nope. I’m at a loss for words.

Speaking of Not Timely

As long as I'm playing catch up, we had a fun Halloween season. First off we had the neighborhood parade. We had a pretty cute collection of kiddos. I had to take off early, so I didn't get a picture of everyone, but here are a couple:

We also had a Halloween dinner for some of the people from both of our offices. We all take turns hosting Grub Club, and I snagged a great date and got to use some cute Halloween ideas I shamelessly pilfered from one of my favorite sites.

The always evolving Halloween tablescape. This years addition was the large ostrich feathers in the vase.

This is pretty gruesome but it was too fun to pass up. It's just a simple syrup heated up to the "hard crack" stage, then the glass is dipped in it for the blood effect. We served our Pina Ghoul-adas in these.
Speaking of gross. These "eyeballs" are really lychee fruit stuffed with strawberry jam, and a blueberry. If you can get past the ick-factor, they are a pretty funny/yummy cocktail garnish.

Now that I've totally grossed you out. ..here is something a wee-bit more appetizing but still totally ripped off from someone else. The SIL-E's now famous Chocolate Bread Pudding. Overhead at the party: "I didn't even know i liked bread pudding!"

Clear Blue and 22 (Translation: It's a Beautiful Day)

This post is not in the least bit timely, but if I let that stop me, I would never blog at all!

Several weeks ago, Shannon (a.k.a. the person that’s known me since Christ was a corporal) came to visit.* The main purpose of the trip was a date with Bono. The side purpose was to prove to our husbands that we need to get on a regular schedule of visiting each other. Sadly The Barron of Blog was unable to join us, but I heard he was pretty jealous of all of our shenanigans. Highlights of the trip included but were not limited to:

1. Eating our way through Houston. Seriously people. Like I had to go back on Weight Watchers after she left. I’ve noticed that when I visit other people they plan fun outings at local attractions. My version of “fun outings at local attractions” is solely limited to taking out-of-towners on a tour of all my favorite places to eat in town. I’m not sure what this says about me or Houston, but I do know that it means I love hosting guests!

2. A really fantastic concert. I think anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time knows that I enjoy live music a LOT. I’ve seen all range of acts and feel like I typically get my money’s worth, one way or another. But this concert was really unparalleled. As far as bang for you buck goes, I felt like I wrung every dollars worth of enjoyment out of the price of admission. The staging, the song selection, the…well the everything. I know a lot of people feel like U2 is overhyped, but I really feel like even the most jaded of concert goers would have enjoyed this at some level.

Some of our concert group.

Part of the super cool stage. The lit panels expanded like an accordian.

When the panels were compressed they formed the video screen. Like I said, pretty freakin' cool.

3. Seeing Shannon really cut loose. I would say of the two of us, Shannon would be classified as the more reserved one (maybe?) but no one would have been able to tell it this trip. She really painted the town red, and I loved loved loved getting to witness it. Highlights within this classification include her helping herself to some Red Bull behind the bar, relentlessly hazing Schaife about his “skirt” drink and above all else, introducing her to the Marquis. For non-Houstonians, the Marquis is a bar which I have frequented on and off for the past 13 years (don’t do the math, Mom). I was catching up with someone who has been involved with Marquis for longer than I've been going there, and Shannon asked “Oh, how do you guys know each other?” Uhhhhh…from here, sweetie. I don’t think she was clear on exactly how much time I’ve spent there over the years. By the end of the night they were BFF.

All in all I would rate the trip a total success. I had a blast, and I’m pretty sure Shannon did to.


*my family uses a variety of vaguely military inspired sayings that I never think twice about, until I say them around people who have no idea what I’m talking about. This one is perhaps the strangest. It means a long time ago, in case that’s not obvious. As in, he’s the commander in chief now. As in…ok I’ll stop now. Other great expressions that I thought everyone used until I moved away from my family: Clear, Blue, and 22 (used to describe flying conditions…clear blue and you can see for 22 miles. It means the weather is perfect.) and The AO (area of operation). My dad used to use it like “we need to police the AO” which meant we had to clean up the area or “I’m going to scope out the AO” which meant he was going to go check something out.

Have you ever noticed how something can make perfect sense to you until you try to explain it? Yeah. I’m experiencing that right now.

Happy Owl-oween

It was arts and crafts night at our house last night. I found out the HSH had NEVER carved a pumpkin before, and even though this isn't traditional carving, its better than nothing. They look even cuter lit up, but i can't seem to get a good picture of that. I have lots of other pictures of good times recently had, but they are trapped on my camera. And by trapped I mean I'm too lazy to download them.

So in the mean time......

Rolllllllllllllllllllllll

My laziness has won over lately, and I haven’t written anything worthy of a bathroom wall lately, much less the blog. But after being, not so gently, prodded by KK and Mamma Vaughan here is a tasty little nugget, sure to make you chuckle:

I joined a bowling league.

Wow. There are 5 little words I never thought I’d say.

It all started earlier this summer when I went bowling with a group of friends for a birthday party. While there, someone henceforth known as Schaife, said something to the effect of “hey this is fun, why don’t we sign up to do it every Wednesday for 16 weeks!” And I, as I’m prone to do after several drinks, agreed wholeheartedly. (Side note: if you ever want someone to obligate themselves to do something utterly ridiculous just buy me a few drinks and I’m your huckleberry. Seriously, I was once convinced to walk 60 miles using this method.)

The action started last week, but I was already committed to some musical theater with AA (zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings….) so I missed the first week. Last night was my first night of “league play” and I was really intimidated. Don’t be fooled, the fact that I was invited to join this 4 person team had nothing to do with my skill and everything to do with my ‘what the hell else does she have to do on a Wednesday night’ factor. I might be a terror on the Wii bowling lanes, but I absolutely suck on the real ones. As if I wasn’t already worried about standing out in the league, my team rolled into the bowling alley in matching t-shirts. (See what I did there? Rolled…bowling alley... Seriously people, if I have to keep pointing these things out…) Complete with numbers and goofy nicknames on the back. I assumed everyone wore matching shirts. I was wrong. I knew this when I walked in and the gentlemen working behind the desk looked at me and my teammate and said “Well. That’s cute.” Its never good when you hear a man use the word “cute.”

Our league is a pretty interesting mix of people, and ages. Every team is made up of two guys and two girls, and the skill level was all over the place. You had people that were all about the accessories (I saw a clear ball with something unidentifiable suspended in it. I couldn’t tell what it was, but rest assured I will investigate and report back to you the next time I blog…which on my current schedule should be sometime in 2011). You had people that were all about the camaraderie (cheering for every strike and whatnot). And you certainly had your people that were all about the drinking. The team that we shared our lanes with fell in this last category. Play was frequently held up while they took shots or made a trip to the bar. This didn’t bother us, as we too like to partake in an adult beverage from time to time. Plus it made for some great comments as the night went on. Most notably, after seeing my name on the scoreboard one of my drunker opponents started singing “Signs, Signs everywhere there’s signs” when I bowled. Those that know my name, get it. Later on, I did some research and discovered it’s bad form to heckle while someone is “on approach” but apparently this guy didn’t get the memo. Of course I also learned it’s not kosher to change your shoes in the wood area of the lane, it should be done before you go down the steps. I didn’t get that particular memo. So apparently there is a whole circuit of memos that some of us are not copied on, including Miley Cyrus and a memo about stilettos. (Good luck getting that song out of your head.) Another one of my favorite etiquette rules? “Please don’t put more than two personal balls on the rack at a time.” I swear, sometimes I think I missed my calling as an 11 year old boy. I’m not alone in my immaturity though, because when we inquired about putting nicknames on the scoreboard we were told it was banned because it got out of control last year. Apparently bad puns and innuendo are nothing new in the bowling world.

So, I don’t know if you know this, but in league play you get a little warm up time. First ball I throw. Strike. Whhaaaaaaa? I know. I was shocked too. Of course, it was not at all indicative of the rest of my evening, but it was still pretty thrilling. Armed with that confidence I went on to bowl a 99, a 103 and a 113.

Hey, at least I’m trending in the right direction!

Look! It's Casper the Surfing Ghost!

Oh I know what I forgot...We went to Hawaii! Check that…we didn’t just go to Hawaii…we were Hawaii. For 7 glorious days we were sunshine, and luaus and sand and surf…and…and…are you ready to barf yet? Oh calm down, I haven’t left my usually snarky self behind. We were also hurricanes and cancelled fishing trips and poi. But mainly we were rainbows and butterflies. We had so much fun I cried big fat tears when we left. Shocking, I know. It might have had something to do with leaving these little faces behind:
But let's get on with the recap, shall we? The trip was really fabulous. Sure Hurricane Felicia served notice that apparently no matter where I go I’m under threat of having wonderful plans ruined by a hurricane…even if my destination hasn’t seen one in 17 years. Yes, 17. But luckily we mostly missed it and all that suffered was our planned fishing trip which was cancelled. Apparently Captain Rusty didn’t get the memo that we’re from Houston and we OWN hurricanes. Or we get owned by hurricanes? I can never keep that straight. Anyway, one big plan that did not get cancelled…surfing. The HSH and the HSB were suuuuper excited about this. The SIL-E was smart and came up with an excuse to stay and watch from the beach. Me? I pretended like I was suuuuuper excited, while simultaneously telling anyone who would listen that I would probably break my face. My strategy behind this was that if I didn’t break my face, I would seem like a surfing goddess and if I did…well, I warned you didn’t I?

I was surprised (read: not at all) that the HSH and the HSB took to surfing faster than an FBI agent going undercover to bust a band of surfing bank robbers.


Me? I was pretty close to achieving surfing goddess status, except for one minor detail…uhhhh, I don’t know if anyone knew this but you have to keep paddling out into the surf to catch waves. I had no idea how difficult this would be. I didn’t try to kid myself that I’m sort sort of crazy in shape person who would whiz on out there, but good lord. I thought I was going to die. And that was just on the first time out there, never mind all the subsequent times I had to return to catch another wave. At one point I was being lapped by a 17 year old kid who was also taking a lesson and thought he was being helpful by telling me ‘it helps if you cup your hands m’am’ Was that necessary kid? Sure I’m sucking wind like an 80 year old but did you really have to throw the m’am in there for emphasis?? Thanks jerk. I felt better when he totally wiped out on his next wave. Yeah, I’m that petty (and pale apparently). Anyway, I was proud of myself for sticking with it, despite my arms feeling like jelly after about 20 minutes. Oh who am I kidding? More like 5 minutes. I was also proud that our little group was the furthest out there, and I managed to tough it out and not prevent the boys from catching the ‘big’ waves. I had a great time, but I’m not going to lie…when our instructor, Chelsea, told us it was time to head in…I didn’t exactly start crying. Here is a picture of me cheering on the HSH--really just an excuse to rest my arms.
Afterwards we enjoyed mai tai’s at Duke’s…
Yes I know my visor is cockeyed. I couldn’t lift my arms above my head to fix it.

So Long Summer

Just because I wasn't blogging, doesn't mean I wasn't living! For your enjoyment here is a brief recap of the summer:

I celebrated the 4th of July with some of my littlest friends

We took niece#1 to the circus for the first time...
Where we made some big friends....

And some bendy ones...

"Holy cow Tia...is that natural?"
We celebrated T's bachelorette party...
and wedding...

Old friends came to visit...Wait. I know I'm forgetting something...