Fun Times

What do pedicures, palm readers and high calorie lunches/dinners have in common?

My sister is in town for a visit :)

Today is the pedicure day. My toes have been sadly neglected and so has my sister time. I introduced my sister to pedicures on her last visit. I believe my brother-in-law is now cursing me for the expensive habit I've created he he. I love that we have a new tradition.

Do you have any new/old traditions you do with your sibs when you're together?

Grumpy?

We all know people who are a little grumpy but we love them anyway. Or maybe we just put up with them?

Right now I'm struggling with a character. He's in his seventies and quite a curmudgeon but I don't want him to come off as a stereotypical cantankerous old geezer. I want him to have some redeeming qualities or at least a real good reason for being so bad-tempered. Otherwise why would my heroine hang out with him, right?

So if you know someone who's a miserable old fart, why do you still stay in touch? Or have you cut off communications and given up?

World Water Day

Yesterday was World Water Day. I talked to my kids about what they can do to conserve water. I confess I love a long hot bath or a really hot shower but I read a 5 minute shower with a regular shower head can use 25 gallons of water. We've got a reduced flow shower head so that helps.

When you consider that contaminated water and poor sanitation are a factor in 88% of all diseases in the developing world and that thousands of people die daily because of water-related diseases and parasites, it really makes you think twice about wasting a single drop. Also makes me wonder about the water slide we enjoyed on my birthday. A new level of guilt.

Talking about water I had someone give me one of those really nice desk top waterfalls as a gift a few years back. I really enjoyed it and thought it would be great in my bedroom so that I could feel like I fell asleep next to a babbling brook. As it happened I began waking up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom LOL so I moved it to the kitchen.

What do you do to conserve water? Any water related stories?

It's my party ...

And I'll drink coffee and be lazy if I want to lol!

Yup. It's my birthday. And my birthday falls on the kidlets spring break this year so they're all here to celebrate. Well not HERE exactly because they're all still asleep and I'm at the computer.

This afternoon we're going to stay at a local hotel for one night. It has one of those fabulously scary water slides. Of course I'll be the one sitting poolside with my nose in a book. I hope to not even get wet. It's my birthday and I'll do it my way :)

Truthfully, as long as there is no cooking or cleaning involved in today's activities I'm a happy camper. I try to abandon any housekeeping one day a year. I'd avoid it all year if I could but once is about all I get away with lol.

How about you? What do you abandon when it's your special day?

What was he thinking?

We've all done it; something that seemed like such a good idea at the time and then, in hindsight, was just plain silly. Reading the news yesterday though I've got to wonder if Marcel Fournier of Vermont should get some kind of award for extreme bad ideas. You see Marcel is a hunter but he doesn't believe in playing by the rules. The rules were no killing of anterless deer (does) and no hunting at night. This guy bagged himself a deer (at night) but then went on to use bolts and epoxy to attach a 10-point antler rack to the head of the doe. The game warden figured it out when the antlers felt loose. I guess the bolts and glue weren't as visible as one might think.

This hunter was sentenced to 10 days in jail and won't qualify for a state hunting, fishing or trapping licence for at least three years. I'm thinking they should've gone a step further. Out here there's a restaurant called Montana's Cookhouse . When it's your birthday you get to wear a moose head hat while everyone in the place sings happy birthday. In the name of entertaining your kids on your own special day, I admit to wearing the moose head. I think Marcel Fournier should've been sentenced to wear the moose hat for a year wearing a t-shirt that says "I bolted antlers to the head of a deer".

Speaking of birthdays ... well kind of... how did you celebrate your last special day?

Ghosts Hate Fun

It's been a while since I did a ghost post, mostly because I haven't found one that I thought was fun or interesting. However, doing a little reading this weekend I came upon an article about a couple psychics in my own back yard. I tried linking to the article but for blogger was giving me grief about it so I'll summarize.

A couple of psychics named Christophir and Crystell Regan claim their condo is "incredibly haunted". Now they are psychics who also claim that they always expect to meet spirits in a new place so this isn't surprising. But why their condo? Apparently at this new place ghosts are always pounding on doors, slamming blinds against windows and doing other "nasty unpleasantness".

I was curious why a ghost would haunt a condo. I mean, houses are the usual portal of choice for spirits, right? I can't imagine the Amityville Horror movie taking place in a condo complex rather than that spooky ol' house. However, the Regan's condo complex is located on the site of the former Woodlands School that opened in 1878 to house the mentally ill. Over 3,000 residents died and were buried on the site before it closed its doors in 1996. I'm guessing there's a lot of messed up spirits around that area because of that.

At one point in the article I felt like the Regans were reading my mind ... or atleast my Ghost Dusters books because they claim that their condo gosts don't know they've entered the spirit world. They go on to claim that "many times, people die and do not know they are dead" and "they want to help spirits move on towards the light".

Whoa! I got goose bumps because it sounds just like something Sadie Novak would have said! Except they don't try and talk with the gosts and reason with them about the benefits of moving on to the next dimension. Nope. The Regans say that the best way to keep control of your ghosts is to "turn on all the lights and laugh a lot" because the negative energy hates laughter.

So if you're woken in the middle of the night with ghosts slamming things around in your house or condo, start cracking jokes or turn on an old episode of Seinfeld and that will solve that problem.

That was my interesting read this weekend. How about you? Read anything fascinating lately, or have any temper tantrumming ghosts in your house?

Germs, germs everywhere

We have been struck by a flu bug. Well, probably multiple bugs in various shapes and sizes because not a single person in the family has had the same symptoms.

It all started with a trip to the doctor last week. At that point nobody was sick I just had my 11 year old there to get his regular asthma checkup and renew his meds. The doctor came into the room and asked us if we were there for the flu and I told her no. She was surprised. Apparently everyone she'd seen that day had the flu. Remind me never to go see a doctor and camp out in a waiting room with sickies for half an hour unless I really do have the flu. Ugh!

I was a little slow on the uptake after that visit. I didn't start my campain of vitamin C that I usually force on everyone in the family and I blame my delay on the reason why everyone got sick. Of course had we thought to sterilize our bodies as we left the doc's office, that probably would've helped too. I've had good luck with vitamin c in the past and while I don't believe it'll protect you totally from all those nasty bugs, I do believe it helps shorten your illness if you get sick.

How about you? What are you doing to protect yourself from all the viruses out there? Any echinacea fans?

Weekend Chaos

In my home this weekend will go down in history as the weekend of the hair marathon. It all started when my 15 year old daughter asked me to dye her hair. I'm not a stylist and I don't play one on TV or in real life. I explained this. Repeatedly. A couple months ago she took her previously brown hair over to a hairdresser and had it bleached blonde. Not my choice but, hey, the stylist did a good job and it looked nice.

Now fast forward to this weekend when my darling daughter assumed that for $8 she could get me to reverse the blonde back to her original color. I resisted but it was no use. Have I mentioned my 15 year old wants to be a lawyer? A jury of my peers would not have been able to resist her arguments on the logic of spending a half hour and $8 to get the needed result. Except anyone with as many years on the plant (and hair disasters in her background) as me knows that life isn't as it appears on the Clairol box. You guessed it. Blonde did not go to a nice chestnut brown. Nope. Went to blue/black. It said on the blocks "light ash brown". Within an hour of starting the fiasco my daughter was planning on suing the hair color company.

Fast forward to Sunday night and five, yes, FIVE boxes of color later. Finally. Brown. It's useless to point out that the cost of all the hair dye would've come close to what she would've paid at a stylist. It's useless to point out that I lost an entire weekend, or at least hours and hours and hours pouring goop over her head and scrubbing it out of various surfaces. The end result is what matters in a 15 year old world and the end result was good.

Any chaos in your life this weekend?