Close to Perfect

It was BEAUTIFUL this weekend. The Ladies and I went over to Stone Mountain and rode the tram up to the top. It was BEAUTIFUL - a little hazy, but it could be MUCH worse. They climbed and discovered and had a great time. I, of course, took pictures...

(As usual, Essie wasn't interested in getting her picture taken... but I got a couple)

If.....

I have a pet peeve I need to get off my chest.

Apologies that contain the word "If".

You know the ones. When the super athlete mows over 13 people with his SUV while he's autographing the navel of the lady he just picked up. And so he goes in front of the camera's and is all contrite and says "I'm really sorry if I hurt anybody."

If he hurt somebody.

IF????

IF?????????????

Um... dude. There's NO IF. You DID hurt someone.

Another example. Someone said something inappropriate and you call them on it, telling them you were a offended. And they say "I'm sorry if you were offended"

Well... I just told you I was, so again, there's really no IF.

IF makes your apology sound like the only reason you're saying this is because someone is making a stink, and you want it over. You're not REALLY sorry... more along the lines of sorry you got caught.

So when a customer complains and says "I was mislead by your sign" don't come back with "I'm sorry IF you were mislead" How about "I'm sorry that our sign isn't clear. We will take steps to fix that right away."

IF you're sorry - be FULLY sorry.

IF you're not really sorry - don't pretend to be.

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Happy Birthday Sesame Street!!!!!

Thank you for counting and letters and laughter and tears and happy and grumpy and silly and aggravated (that poor blue bald guy who had to deal with Grover).

Thank you for the best memories of Childhood!

(Seriously... I could have posted about a million of these on here... but I managed to stop myself. There are a small sampling of my FAVORITE Sesame Street Bits)

and

my all time Favorite:

What are YOUR best Sesame Memories????

It Was a Lovely Evening

Happy Halloween!!!!

The Ladies' Granny(my ex MIL) had a mastectomy about 6 weeks ago, so they haven't been up to spend the weekend with their dad in a bout 2 months. I knew that seeing the Ladies in their costumes would really perk her up, but I wasn't really willing to not have Halloween with them, so I did the ultimate sacrifice and am spending the weekend with my ex.

This afternoon we carved pumpkins, and here's how they turned out:

And here they are out on the porch tonight:
As usual, the Ladies' costumes were hand sewn by my step-mom. She does such an amazing job. Thank you Gramma!!! Gert was Cinderella, and Essie was Dorothy. I have to say they were both rockin it BIG TIME!!! We went to a lot of "Trunk or Treats" at some churches, and then around the neighborhood their dad lives in.

Here they are together:



Gert as Cinderella:

And Essie as Dorothy (Gramma even included a basket and a Toto dog with her costume!)

All in all it was a lovely evening. They are both running around in a sugar-induced coma, heaven help me. It seems it would be better to eat the candy first and THEN to Trick or Treating!

I hope you all had a lovely, safe, fun Halloween!!! Don't forget to turn your clocks tonight!!!

MISSING

So last night I was pondering my next blog post. See - I'm trying to get back into the swing of it! I thought about either recapping So You Think You Can Dance or telling you about my new job. But I really wanted to draw pictures for both of those. Cause it's been a LONG time since I sharpied, and I DO love doing it. (Are you new to my blog? If you are and are lost about the sharpies - check this out... and this)

So I set out to find my sharpies.

I went to the marker box in my closet, pulled it down and opened it up. Hmmm... no sharpies.

I checked the unpacked box by the computer. No sharpies.

Kitchen drawer? No.

Ummm... bedroom closet??? No....

Have I mentioned we live in a REALLY small apartment? Well... we do... and the above listed search places pretty much totals a complete home investigation.

I sat down on my couch... thinking thinking thinking....

(crickets chirp)

It would seem that in The Great Move of 09, my sharpies have been.....

Misplaced.

Lost.

Kidnapped.

Okay... I don't have proof of the last one, but it doesn't SEEM that far out of reach.

So now I must replace the sharpies... there are too many exciting things coming up that MUST be captured in sharpie. (Right EE ladies??????)

So the question is... do I buy the pack?

Or... do I go to the alter?

(My heart is starting to flutter just LOOKING at that picture)(Does Office Depot have a wedding registry??? Cause if they do, when the time comes, I'm going for one of everything)

Who Does He Remind You Of?

Yesterday, my dear, sweet friend Angie posted her regular Monday Morning Eye Candy, and one of the gentlemen she featured was Madison from the show Million Dollar Listing. (Are you watching this show? I am... I have to admit. I love houses and in my next life I would LOVE to be a Real Estate Agent) It's about 3 young (and COCKY) real estate agents in LA. Oh my GOSH do they have EGOS!!!! But it's fun to watch them try to navigate the world of real estate, especially in the major downturn of the housing market (like they're having to slum it by listing houses that are "only" one or two million dollars).

Now, probably the most egotistical of the 3 is Chad Rogers. Constantly fixing his hair... they've shown his bathroom at home and he has more beauty products than ANY woman I've ever known. Here's a shot of Chad:

The first time I watched the show I just sat thinking WHERE have I seen him before??? He looks SO familiar.... then it hit me:

He's Albert Ingalls long lost son.

Ladies Day

If any of you follow my Facebook, you know that my beautiful Essie became a WOMAN this week. Her body has been showing signs of it coming for AGES now, so I was prepared. And given Essie's... um... dramatic nature, I was ready for the torrent of anger and emotion that would come with this unwelcome visitor (like as she's developed breasts - she hates them and plans to have them removed when she moves out of the house... wanna take bets on her changing her mind?) SO... as she told me that she'd gotten her period, she was so calm and matter of fact about it! No drama, no nothing. Totally, typical Essie. She's freaks about the stuff I DON'T expect freaking over... and she's totally cool with the stuff I think will bring on the drama.

Mr. B suggested that perhaps Essie and I should have a bit of a "Welcome to Womanhood" day to celebrate. The lovely Kat agreed to watch Gert for a few hours, and Essie and I made plans. I suggested pedicures, or hairdos, (clothes shopping was out - Essie HATES shopping for clothes)... she didn't care for any of those ideas. Then I suggested we go to the top of Stone Mountain -something she's been wanting to do for ages. While not exactly along the vein I had in mind, it was her day, so away we went.

As we were driving towards Stone Mountain, I was watching for the trams, just to point out and say "Look Essie - that's where we'll be a in a little bit"... but I wasn't seeing them. I thought perhaps I was just not looking at the right times. Pulling up to the tram entrance, we see the sign... "The Sky Lift is Closed Today".

Crap.

There were tears. We tried to think of plan B... Big Target... Ikea... Haircuts...... then I hit on it - World of Coca Cola!!!! My trusty cheap, no frills phone managed to give me directions to the place. We found it and headed in.

After checking out these cool bottles, we were let into this REAL cool area with all this neat Coke memorabilia. It was the last place we could take pictures, so I snapped a couple. I DIDN'T get one of the thing I REALLY wanted - a Norman Rockwell original painting!!!! Have I ever expressed my love for Norman?

I LOVED all the retro stuff!!!!

This is where I vent for a moment. They said at least 5 different times that this was the LAST place you can take pictures until the tasting room. And as we're walking through all these exhibits there are people snapping pictures left and right. The same thing happens at The Biltmore. Ok... I understand that it seems silly, and that in general they don't want you to take pictures because of copyrights and wanting to sell you pictures for WAY MORE in the gift shop. Yeah, that sucks. But it still just annoys me that people feel it's okay to just go ahead then and take pictures. Ok... rant off.

So our favorite area by FAR was the tasting room. They have drinks from all over the world. Our favorites were from Asia and Africa - lots of different fun flavored Fantas. Our least favorite was Beverly from Italy. Essie said it tasted like barf.

But by far, our VERY favorite was good old CocaCola from the U S of A. Here's Essie happy to try a sample
And hamming it up for the camera... in Coke Camo.

And a little proof we were there!