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.  

Halloween Hop

So my amazing friend put this link up on her blog and being a true lover of Halloween, I had to participate. As a kid, Halloween was a time to dress up and be someone completely different, even if it were just for one day.  We usually stayed up a little later, got our costumes the day of and got a ton of free candy.  We usually drove to a nicer neighborhood, teamed up with our cousins and knocked on every door until our legs gave out.  The downside?  Mom collected our candy that night and put it in a plastic tupperware and we were not to eat the candy unless she handed it to us.  Bummer.  It was for our own good I guess. Last year when my baby was "trick or treating" Mechanic Hubby let her have any candy she could open up on her own.  She learned how to open up candy quite quickly. 

I really do love to be scared, even if it means sleeping with the lights on......for a few days.   During my goth years (yes, I was that kid in high school) I was a lot braver and never turned away from the screen.  Now, I get totally freaked.  I don't get it.  One of my favorite "Halloweeny" type movies isn't scary but after I watched it, I wanted to be Winona Ryder.  Only the cool Winona, not the nerdy one.  Ha.

Beetlejuice

The costume I am most proud of, and was the winner of the company costume contest (tongue twister) is this:

Yup, I was a pregnant skeleton.  I used regular white craft paint for the shirt and I used an old t-shirt for the pants.  I didn't want to ruin my sweats because I pretty much lived in them during my last trimester.  But I won 200 bucks to Circuit City.  Remember Circuit City???

As for my costume for this year?  I've worked hard on it...she's a lovely pink pear shaped television character.  I'm almost done with the entire ensemble.

It'll probably be way to hot out to wear this for very long but my baby will be Brobee so I have to stay dedicated to this bit.  It's only for about an hour so what's the big deal?  It's going to be my interpretation because 1. I have no patience for sewing and 2. I have no patience for sewing. 

Here's my kiddo modeling the Brobee hat I made for her.

Hooray for Halloween!

The Art of Domestics

 ¹do·mes·tic

adj \də-ˈmes-tik\

1 living near or about human habitations b : tame, domesticated the domestic cat

2 of, relating to, or originating within a country and especially one's own country domestic politics, domestic wines

3 of or relating to the household or the family domestic chores, domestic happiness

4  devoted to home duties and pleasures leading a quietly domestic life
  
¹do·mes·ti·cate

verb \də-ˈmes-ti-ˌkāt\  

(one of the definitions)

 : to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in intimate association with and to the advantage of humans

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine expressed some concern because she, who is a fabulous working mom, was able to make a wonderful dinner.  She said she was "becoming domesticated."  

Ugh, "domesticated".  I know she used the term correctly but the first thing I think about when I hear the word "domesticated" are animals.  Cows, dogs, cats, pigs, goats....farm/home animals that have been trained to do laborious things.  Okay, well cats don't do a damn thing but think you their slave and hack up horrid things. I've never liked the term.


My Gramma is extremely into domestics.  She is perfectly old school.  My husband gets annoyed when we go over to her house for dinner.  I am directed to immediately get my husband a drink, and make sure he is comfortable. My Gramma serves the men first and the women are second.  Mechanic Hubby challenges this a little.  He will not start eating until I have my own plate and am sitting next to him.  He'll challenge it further by telling my Gramma, "I can serve myself."  What is he trying to do to her, the woman just had heart surgery!  She cleans everything...I mean everything.  Just the other day she was telling me that she was cleaning the back....the BACK of her headboard.  

I had decided last week that I wanted to learn how to crochet.  Luckily there are a TON of youtube videos to show you how to do it.  I started my first hat yesterday and it's a bit of a rumpled mess but at least I'm doing it.  My mother in law chuckled a bit when I told her of my new little goal.  She said, "Does your family (my side) ever think that you getting way to domesticated?"  HISSSSSSSS!  

The next day I was visiting my Gramma and I told her I wanted to learn how to crochet.  She said, "Let me get my needles."  Of course she knows how to crochet.  She said, "Let me see you make a chain."  As soon as I finished making my slipknot, she took it away and said, "You already screwed it up."  Feeling instantly defeated I let out a sigh and Gramma looks at me and smiles.  


I guess there's nothing wrong with keeping it a little old school after all.

Premios de Escritura

Doesn't that title sound fancy? I'm behind in patting myself on the back for some awards I received from amazing people who I miss dearly.

I got the first two from my friend Red Boot Pearl (Book Savvy). She and I share a great love for books and dark, dark chocolate. We know way too much about each other and we're okay with it.


This award I received from my good friend Alyson Peterson (Dirty Green Jello). We share a great love for books and for dark, dark twisted gore and all things creepy. We have a pg-13 Mormon dark side, it does exist. Ha ha.

So I guess what happens now is that I tell everyone a few things about myself. Boy, I know a lot about me.

1. I love, love, love a good Japanese bento for lunch. For instance, Kabuki does up a nice bento box. While you eat it, nothing else matters. Nothing, not even stopping for air. Just kidding, you want to savor it.

(It might be weird, but I think I love you. And now you'll have to die).

2. I rearrange eggs in the carton so that the weight is equal or close to equal. I HATE when I pick up a carton of eggs and it's heavier on one side. It's one of my biggest pet peeves.

(Yes, this is making me seethe with anger).

3. I have anxiety about driving. I know I need to learn how to drive and it would be convenient but all I can think about is crashing, horrific crashing and my baby is in the car. Morbid and I know I need to "get over it" but it really does scare me.

(I could have used something a little more gruesome but I was too afraid to look that up).

4. If I couldn't cook everyday, I would be depressed. I could go on forever about my love for cooking and serving others great food but I'll just leave it at that.

(I think I make amazing salsa).

5. I'm a movie snob. I don't like movies that are full of explosions and shiny things. I don't like movies that are predictable, fluffy or made for the masses. But I will go watch Hunger Games because Suzanne Collins is amazing. Kids fighting to the death and it's televised, sign me up.

(It's a great series, check it out).

Now that I've talked a lot about myself, the courteous thing to do is to turn around and give the awards away to blogs you enjoy.

I'm giving the stylish award to The Fairy and the Pumpkin. "Titania" is wonderfully talented and the letters from the coop section is hilarious. The photos are striking and I feel lazy after reading all that she does.

The versatile award goes to Up To Speed by Suzanne Barker. She and I are in the same book club and I think she has a degree in just about everything. I love her adventures and pictures of all the crafty things she does.

The one lovely blog award goes to Bandanamom Lezlee Hays. I just met Lezlee a few weeks ago and her blog is funny, has great music and really makes you think. Her latest post about Rats is really thought provoking, it really is.

So there it is folks, check these ladies out and leave a comment or two.

Skull Crazy

I think I've been a fan of Halloween for as long as I can remember. My favorite Halloween decoration are skulls. I just love them, all prettied up.

I found a free online photo editor(love free stuff) and I've been going crazy with making myself along with a few others, look like pretty skulls; just like the decorated ones you'd see for Dia De Los Muertos festivals. The photo editor is pixlr.com. They make it so easy to manipulate pictures! Here's a few I did this morning. One is of my niece Jessyjess and the other one is of my awesome friend Carrie. The last two are of myself...