Pirate Reunion

 Anticipation is nerve racking and delightful.

Red Boot Pearl is in my city.

Not only is she amazing and lovely, she's one of my best friends.

I met her at church over two years ago.  She looked in my direction and introduced herself.  Since then we had pretty much did not a week go by without hanging out at least once.  We'd call each other and vent our issues. There was the person who vented and then the person who listened.  Sometimes we'd just acknowledge that whatever horrible things happened to happen that day did indeed suck.  We didn't want each other to fix our issues, just agree with one another when things suck. 

Even though we're 1,000 miles away, we still call each other at least once a week to vent.  I moved away from her back in June and it's been 5 months since I've seen her.   I get to have one whole day with her and I think I've got some fun things planned.  Honestly, I think we'd have a great time just hanging out in my living room, eating ice cream and painting our nails. 

I wish Monday was tomorrow.

CAPTCHA! - Just Being Silly

“The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. “Source: www.captcha.net

What if the CAPTCHA words were real and had definitions?  I made a list of the last 20 words I’ve had to type to verify that I’m a human and these are the definitions I came up with.

jocurie - (zho-ker-ee) this is when a lot of joking is going on in France.

bingeste - its the word bing used for the most searched word of the month.

fainm - happy fame

coushl - easy, this is a cousin council. (When my cousins and I were kids we had many a coushl.  We made big plans that we would all live together as adults and do whatever we wanted.  We were 11, 9, and 8).

unterc - it’s when you take the stubborn out of someone (Terco is Spanish for stubborn).

baryopon - its playing ping pong in the barrio.

ratrum - this one is easy, it’s rat flavored rum.

quali - a lot of qualifying tests people need to take to get a job these days.

farcie - a fairy that spreads lies.

killigm - people that kill pilgrims

stshar - the sound you make when pretending that you know karate.

comerb - magical herbs that put themselves in your cooking whether you want them or not.

chedes - its when you have too much cheddar and your stomach gets upset.  You’ve got a case of the chedes my friend.

ovelyi - Another word for average.  Not lovely, not ugly, just ovelyi.

couriont - a fancy courier, you know, for when someone needs to deliver your tea and crumpets.

scearl - it’s a snarl and a squeal or a seal that produces pearls.

ovenwom - another name for a uterus.

forkedu - an educated fork, duh.

lanigan - an extremely large cardigan, or a blanket.

efuura - (shh, its a curse word with a lion roar at the end).

All Souls Procession

Ever since my lovely father in law passed away three years ago, my little Mormon family have attended the All Souls Procession held the weekend after Halloween. He used to travel to Mexico for the big week long celebration every year so we thought we'd honor his memory by taking part in our local parade.

The first year we made a giant altar with his picture and decorated it with flowers and candles and gaudy glitter. I even whipped up a fake plate of enchiladas, his favorite food. The year after, while I was away, the rest of the family went to the parade with the same float from the previous year and some people said, "Pssh, we saw that float last year." Not only did I think that was completely rude, seeing how everyone was there to remember their loved ones, my family was mortified.

So this year I decided to change it up and build a giant guitar. Dad would play in his younger years and my husband also grew to love playing guitar.

I got a large piece of cardboard (courtesy of a chassis) and painted it. I had some scrap pressed fiberboard and made a neck. I had some Styrofoam and made a head. I went to my trusty dollar store and picked up anything skulls for me to repaint and decorate. On the actual guitar we have Dad's picture and I tried to paint/decorate things that related to his life. Dad's from Veracruz, an ocean front state in Mexico so I painted palm leaves and fish skeletons.

At the actual parade we dress in Mexican garb and paint our faces like skeletons. The gals sometimes wear flowers in their hair. The parade route is long and it's a nice community feeling. 

Cool giant neon skull.

The man featured on this altar actually built this himself, he passed after it's completion.

There was a variety of artwork.  We have no idea how many people attended, in the thousands at least.  It was kind of weird having random people come up and want to take your picture.  Do I smile?  Look somber?  Deer in headlights?  Some people didn't ask and took candid shots.  There was music throughout, hooting and hollering but overall a really great time.  It was a nice family affair and though our feet are a little sore, we'll do it again next year.