Beating Imelda

  • Beating Imelda

    • It’s gotta be the shoes

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    This past weekend we decided to do the boy’s school shopping. ?It became apparent that shopping was in order the week that the weather got cool and the child had not pants that went past his ankles. ?Lucky for us the need for clothing coincided with back to school sales.

    I don’t shop for clothes for the boy as often as I used to. ?Partly because every time I turn around a grandparent is buying him something or he just hasn’t outgrown anything. ?He’s also very light on his clothing so things don’t get worn out.

    Last year we spent time and money on buying school clothes only to have the child go through a growth spurt the second month into the school year. ?Everything we bought was two small in a matter of weeks. ?We planned ahead this year. ?All adjustable waist pants and shirts that were a little on the big side. ?We also did the shopping at a few higher end stores rather than Target or the Mega-Lo Mart. ?Not that I shop at the Mega-Lo Mart. ?The clothes were cuter and we had more options besides clothing with Transformers, super heros or Lightening McQueen. ?I’m tired of my child being a walking advertisment for Disney and if he has clothing with characters he won’t wear the really cute stuff.

    We picked up 2 pair of jeans, 2 pair of “work” pants (not jeans), 2 long sleeved button downs, 1 short sleeved button down, a bunch of t-shirts, a coat, a corduroy sport coat and a kick ass hat that he swears he will actually wear. ?The only thing missing is shoes.

    The last time I purchased shoes for my child was sometime in the spring. ?And that was a pair of Crocs that was probably too small when I bought them. ?But they were red and that month his favorite color was red. ?I have a weakness for shoes. ?You should know this by now.

    Again, when the weather turned cooler I told the boy he needed to wear real shoes. ?One day he wanted to go play outside and had put his socks on but brought me his blue Pumas (that his grandparents had purchased for him last August). ?”Mommy, I got my socks on by myself, but I can’t get my shoes on,” he told me.

    “That’s because they are 3 sizes too small.”

    “But I really want to wear them. ?Will you help me?” he insisted.

    “Sure.” ?I squeezed his growing feet into his favorite pair of shoes and sent him off to play. ?That night I stashed the shoes in the closet and vowed that I would get him new shoes. ?That was last week.

    The trusty husband and I have been in every damn store trying to find shoes for this child. ?The criteria are 1) must have velcro or be slip ons (his school would like children to be able to put on their own shoes) 2) no flashy lights (he doesn’t need them) 3) no characters (I’m not allowing character clothing anymore) and 4) they must be reasonably priced (I’m not made of money). ?We have searched and searched with no luck.

    Now before you go and defame me for my child not having shoes let me assure you he does. ?My child is never without a pair of black high-top Chuck Taylor All Stars. ?He’s had them from the day we took him out of the orphanage. ?He’s currently wearing his size 9s (way too small) and I have a pair of size 10s in the closet. ?Trouble is they lace up. ?He wants the “Chucks with the stripes” (velcro). ?The only place we’ve found them is at Zappos and they are way more expensive than if we bought Chucks in a store. ?Why on earth do children’s shoes need to be so damn expensive?

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  • Beating Imelda

    • Now that’s out of the way

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    It is a well know fact that I like shoes. Oh, I hadn’t mentioned that? Let me once again affirm my love for shoes. I luuuurve them. *smoochy smoochy* I feel better now.

    In my on going quest to beat Imelda I have racked up thousands of dollars in shoes. Sadly, many of them have been retired leaving me with a piddly 30 or so in my closet.

    However, there has been one pair of shoes that has been elusive. The brown loafer. Back in the day I had a pair of hand me down penny loafers that (at the time) were the shiz-nit. I wore those bad boys until the heels fell off. Since then I have not owned a pair of brown loafer that are a) remotely cute or b) are the least bit comfortable. I may have low comfort standards when it comes to many pairs of shoes, but loafers must be comfortable. Usually they look like old lady shoes with orthopedic soles or are the most hideous color of baby shit brown. So for years I have hunted for brown loafers.

    I recently purchased a new dress for Easter. And of course I didn’t have shoes to wear with it. Who ever has shoes to match the clothing they purchase? If you do it is a distinct possibility that you have ugly shoes. Put down the Crocs ladies. You don’t need them in 14 colors.

    Now the shoes to wear with the Easter dress must be comfortable. I have to stand for 6-7 hours Sunday morning and cook food. I had on cute shoes last year, but by the end of the breakfast my feet hurt so bad I was relegated to the cold foods at the Sunday brunch because I couldn’t make it up the stairs in the restaurant to get the hot food. Not this year baby, not this year.

    Within 20 minutes of my house is a DSW. Oh yes… you read that right. 20 minutes. In less than 1/2 an hour I can be at shoe heaven. So I hauled the trusty husband and the boy up North to mecca. I had a little bit of shoe overload when walking in the door because the spring! colors! eeeee! and. patent. so much patent. *slobber smoochy smoochy*

    I found 4 pairs of black patent ballet flats that would go well with my dress. I settled on a pair that I could wear on more than one occasion. Once I found what I went for I thought I’d browse the clearance section. I never find shoes in the DSW clearance section. Normally it is all crap people wouldn’t buy anyway. But hidden in the racks I found beautiful brown loafers (and 1/2 that price). Chocolate brown patent Clarks that are not only like putting little pillows on your feet, but they have little flower cutouts that are. just. so. cute. So cute that I nearly left my husband and married them right on the spot.

    At long last my quest for the perfect brown loafer is over. Now if I could just find a cute pair of black sandals.

    20 Comments
  • Beating Imelda

    • Another pair closer to beating Imelda

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    Now I have to write a bunch of posts to move that one from yesterday down so my mom doesn’t see it. Because if searching for houses in Appleton, WI wasn’t crazy enough… today I looked to see if they have an ice rink… and what kind of programs they offer. Cause in the grand scheme of things that is important.

    I would be happy to post what I purchased with my iTunes gift card, however I’ve been too chicken to do so. I’m afraid that I’ll make the wrong choice. Kinda like what happens when you get to the gates of heaven and St. Peter says, “sorry. We only take Baptists here.” Damn. I knew I should have been raising holy hands and saying “ay-men-ah” more. And here I sat quietly in the pew and sung How Great Thou Art while staring straight ahead trying not acknowledge there were other people in the sanctuary.

    In the mean time I’ll just say that I had the opportunity to go dress shopping with the trusty MIL this afternoon (sans food flinging child). Saturday is the annual “Fancy Dress-Up Dinner” for the trusty husband’s company. Every year we attend a semi-formal event, listen to a motivational speaker, and enjoy a bit of the open bar. I want to saw my feet off by the end of the evening because I make poor shoe choices. But they are so. damn. cute.

    This year I scored a $209 dress for $39.99. And let me just say how fricken hard it is to find a semi-formal dress for a woman in her thirties who doesn’t want to look like she’s trying to re-live her prom glory days and has an ass the size of Cleveland. If you are lucky you’ll get a photo. Don’t count on it though. Last time I promised a photo of my “Fancy Dress-Up Dinner” dress I let you down. I really did look like I was trying to relive my prom glory days. It wasn’t pretty.

    I did get a pair of shoes too. So cute. Satin peeps with a 3″ heel. Little bit of bling on the toe. Just enough peeks out from under my dress for people to say… damn she’s got some cute shoes.

    8 Comments
  • Beating Imelda

    • If today gets any worse I might scream

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    I normally love Wednesdays. I get to sleep in, I don’t have any pressing things to do. It’s great. However, my child showed up in our room at 3:30 this morning. Fell asleep in our bed and started to snore. I feel for any woman who marries this child. Then the trusty husband put the child back in his bed and I finished out my night of sleep.

    I started work this morning after breakfast only to find out I can’t send email from my lifeofelle account. That’s great when you use that account for a primary business account and you have to send confirmation emails to customers. I screw around with that for an hour not getting it to work when the trusty husband IMs me and asks if I want to meet him at Costco before lunch. I agree, begrudgingly. I hate Costco. I thought I might get the time to browse around and pick up the garbage bags that we need. We were actually there to get new glasses for the trusty husband and contacts for me. I’ve been wearing my glasses for about a week now because my last pair of contacts ripped.

    Picking out glasses with TH is like picking out tennis shoes with him. I’d rather stab myself in the eye with a pencil. Once he finally found the frames he wanted (and I had told the child, “no don’t open that and no you cannot play with the shredder despite the fact the Costco monkeys put it out at toddler level in the open,” for the billionth time) we took our number and waited. This is like when you have to take a number at the post office during the Christmas rush. I said I was going 2 aisles over to look at their office/ scrapbook stuff and TH thought that since we were only 2 numbers away I should stay there. I also told him repeatedly that I would have to see the eye doc there, despite the fact that I had a brand shiny new prescription in my hand. Contact lens fitting and all.

    20 minutes later our number is finally called and we order the husband’s glasses. The lady gets to the end of the order and gives us our total. Then TH proclaims, we have such and such insurance. You would have thought we just told this woman her dog died. Big sigh and an eye roll. Heaven forbid this woman have to get up out of her chair, find a form, pick up a phone, punch a bunch of numbers and magically we would only have to pay 1/3 our original total. Oh the humanity.

    Transaction #1 complete (because there is no way in hell Costco was going to let us pay once for everything) we tell her I need contacts. “Well… you’ll have to go next door and have a lens fitting for that.” *Evil eye to TH*

    Takes 5 minutes for the lens fitting and back to take another number for me. Another 20 minutes later, more eye rolling, and a whopping $10 out of my pocket I have new contacts for the next 6 months.

    Come home, email still doesn’t work. I reset everything, I talk with the online chat monkey at dot-dumb hosting and still nothing. The help monkey informed me to email online support. That would be great if I could send emails now wouldn’t it? I spent a total of an hour on hold waiting for a live support person. That worked well. I had a flashback of Russia because their hold music was a Bach song that is on Baby Bach.

    Not to mention one of my cats threw up like 6 times all over the house.

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  • Beating Imelda

    • Died and gone to heaven

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    Yesterday the boy and I were at the grocery picking up stuff to make a giant lasagna since my house was going to be filled with teenagers last night. While at the grocery I was smart enough to remember that I was almost out of Pfizer gold and needed the prescription refilled. (aren’t you proud I did it before I ran out) So as I’m having a heart attack when the pharmacist tells me how much I owe the boy watches a girl roll by on a pair of Heelys. “Her’s skating!” he proclaims to me. I informed my small child they didn’t make Heelys in his size (please don’t dispel either of us of that myth) and he would have to wait a few years. “I want to go play hockey*,” he replies. I almost burst into tears in the middle of the pharmacy. Although one could surmise that I was reeling from the amount of cash I have to shell out for that damn allergy medicine.

    Since “the kids” were coming last night we couldn’t take advantage of the Friday night open skate at our local hockey rink. Cause really, when my son says he wants to go play hockey I’m all over that like Adrian Brody. I told him we could go play tomorrow (today). I casually mentioned it while all 3 of us were laying in bed this morning and I think the boy squeed a bit. Wait, maybe that was me. But open skate at the rink we go to isn’t until 1:00. So we have to wait a bit.

    Knowing that open skate didn’t start until 1:00 the trusty husband said that while we are out we should make a stop by DSW. I may or may not have fainted at that point. Honestly it is so he can get a new pair of tennis shoes, which I swore I would never go do with him again, but he promised that he would be buying tennis shoes at DSW from now on. Um hellooooo new pair of boots for Elle.

    Therefore you get a post at 10:00 a.m. instead of 10:00 p.m. because I think I may actually die from a perfect day. Hockey and shoes… it doesn’t get any better than that.

    ———————————————-

    *which isn’t really hockey. it’s more of skating in a circle like lemmings going no where, but shhhh, don’t tell him that.

    7 Comments
  • Beating Imelda

    • Here she goes talking about shoes again

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    Ahh, Winter is coming and there’s nothing better than a great pair of boots. Last year our Mervyn’s was going out of business and I found a pair of butter soft black leather knee high boots for $35 and just couldn’t stand spending that much on shoes. It seemed so frivolous. Oh I can hear the gasps of horror right now. Either you are falling out of your chair because I considered buying shoes in Mervyn’s or that I didn’t snatch up the $35 boots. Trust me, I tried to go back and get them, but they were gone. Sometimes I’m not above buying inexpensive, yet still good looking, shoes. For pete’s sake, one of my favorite pairs of black mules are from Payless. No. I don’t shop at Payless anymore.

    So back to boots. I am now have been on the hunt for a good pair of black boots. I tried DSW last year, but I was too late in the season. But now! NOW! It’s fall and there are hoards of new shiny shoes for me to go and smooch all over. Besides, somehow DSW thinks my birthday is in September and they sent me a $5 coupon. Add that to the $10 rewards certificate I have and that’s a whole $15 off a pair of kissable new boots.

    Trouble is I have to drive my happy ass half way to Seattle to shop for said boots. So I did what any self respecting lazy shoe shopper would do. I browsed the new fall boot collection at Nordstrom.com. See how smart I am. It beats pushing the stroller through the shoe department at our actual Nordstrom. Mostly because our Nordy’s is the size of a toilet.

    The first pair of shoes I spy are these. Ahh look at their beauty. All shiny and only just a little hoochy with the patent. A modest 3″ heel… wait! What the hell! $1000! For boots? Oh Salvatore. I know you are long dead and all, but what’s with the price tag? Can’t a girl get a good pair of boots without having to sell a kidney?

    Then I found these. Still with the modest 3″ heel. Supple leather. Too bad the internet doesn’t have smell-o-net. They really need to have that “leather” smell. You should have seen me shopping for my leather coat. But still nearly $300 would be a truck payment.

    I think Franco might be doing me right (per usual). Little shorter of a heel. A little less Russian hooker. And a much better price. Now the trick is convincing the trusty husband that I neeeed these boots and I won’t end up like Monica in that episode of Friends.

    Cause you know, I had a great outfit on today that, while my new brown pumps looked great, a fabulous pair of black leather boots would have been super hott and matched my black leather jacket.

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  • Beating Imelda

    • On the road to crazy town

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    So I am day #7 without my ass tea. Why? Because I have the attention span of a gnat and keep forgetting to make more. I have the herbs and stuff, but I keep forgetting. You could be sitting there thinking, “um Elle, you are thinking about it right now, why not get up and make some?” Good question. You see… if I get up to make the ass tea now I will forget that I was going to write this post and perhaps I could get distracted on the way to the kitchen by, oh say, grating zucchini and still forget to make the ass tea. I only throw that zucchini part in there because I had the bed 1/2 way un-made to change the sheets this morning and got distracted by the zucchini. After the zucchini I remember that we were out of bread and that I needed to make more, but while making the bread I forgot to soak the bulgar so I had to do that in the middle of lunch and the un-made bread is still sitting on top of the refrigerator. And that is because I don’t like running the mixer while the boy is napping. But I did remember to put the boy down for a nap. That I won’t forget.

    See how important that ass tea really is to my well being. I can’t even make a coherent blog post without it. I’m kinda like a bipolar person off their lithium. I get lots of stuff done, but it is haphazard and I’m a little bitchy.

    Then this morning I read some blogs and got inspired by Michelle’s post on purging her closet of some shoes. I thought that might be a good idea. I am a little more than consumed by clutter in this house. Last spring I started “Get all of this shit out of my house” and then got distracted by something called Summer. So today I remembered that I had started the project and well… it was as good of time as any to start back up.

    I started with my shoes. That didn’t get me nearly enough. I was only able to get rid of 7 pair. That left me with an even 28 pairs. Hey! 28 is a very low number for me. (It includes: 2 mules, 1 Clark’s walking shoes, 1 Doc Martens Sandals, 3 birkenstocks, 1 crocs, 1 running shoes, 1 black loafers, 1 rubber boots, 1 golf shoes, 2 boots, 1 Steve Madden “bowling shoes”, 2 canvas tennis shoes, 1 brown sandals, 5 pair of flip flops, 5 pair of various heels/pumps and one pair of hockey skates) Please note that I do not own a pair of brown loafers and technically rubber boots, golf shoes and flip flops don’t actually count as “shoes.” And please disregard the fact that I admitted to the whole of the internets that I own crocs AND 3 pairs of Birkenstocks. Yes… I wear socks with them.

    As if purging my shoe closet wasn’t enough punishment I opted to move onto clothing. Normally when I get rid of clothing it is more of an “oh, this doesn’t fit anymore or this is badly stained, but by gawd I still wear that Micky Mouse t-shirt I got in the 6th grade when I went to Disneyland with my Dad.” Not today my friends! Not today.

    I rid my closet of nearly 1/2 of what I owned. No joke. I have the photos to prove it. I singlehandedly cleared out 3 sweaters, 1 pair of shortalls (please don’t laugh), 10 pair of capris, 2 pair of jeans, 2 pair running pants (I don’t run), 6 pair of shorts, 3 short sleeve button downs, 6 t-shirts (I did not get rid of the Micky T, it’s vintage now), 17 long sleeve shirts, 5 turtlenecks, 7 flannel/denim shirts, 2 pair of slacks, 3 skirts, 19 stretch t’s, 4 pair PJs, 14 tank tops and 8 sweatshirts. The fact that I got rid of 8 sweatshirts is what should really floor you. Removing any sweatshirts from my closet is just as bad as shoes. I hoard sweatshirts. Please don’t tell Stacy & Clinton.

    I found tank tops that I didn’t even know I had. I was embarrassed for myself when I pulled out the shortalls. They were plaid no less. I cried at giving up a men’s XL Eddie Bauer chamois shirt. It used to be Derek’s. But and XL? Have you seen me? I am 5’4″ and weigh 130 pounds. Honestly.

    This closet clean out was long over due, but I really think I’ve lost it. I don’t want to even know how many trips to the Goodwill it is going to take me to get all of that crap out. Anyone looking for some cute size small Gap t-shirts? They are just to short or not quite big enough around to fit the only part of me that won’t lose weight, my boobs.

    Now I have to find something to replace some of that clothing. I now only own 2 pair of dress pants. And neither of them will go with the shoes I bought in California.

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  • Beating Imelda

    • Tales of shoes and handbags

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    That potty training thing might be fleeting. But we were off to a good start. He went before bath, after bath and first thing this morning. Nothing since. He’s far too busy with his toddler schedule to be interrupted with such trivial matters such as using the toilet. You know, with all the irritating his cousin he has to do and all.

    His father made the mistake of telling him that since he was doing such a good job that we should go to the mall and get him some big boy underpants. Cause it’s not like we don’t have 4 million pair at home from all the other attempts I’ve tried. Gotta say, Sacramento has better malls than our craptastic one in Tacoma. I have to drive to Seattle for shopping such as this. And even then not all of the good shops are located in one convenient location unless you drive over to Bellevue and then I have to wash my car. Hell, I’m surprised they let my Hyundai into Bellevue city limits.

    So we park at Nordstrom (which in Sac Town has a Salon Shoes dept. and just for Kathou I did some petting of the Manolos). Immediately upon entering the store the trusty SIL spots a sign that says, “Women’s Shoe Clearance.” The trusty husband instantly turned white. I haven’t seen him turn that pale since the day he discovered I’d found a DSW within 50 miles of our home.

    Oh the shoes. The beautiful beautiful shoes. Weitzmans, Coach, the love, the joy! It wasn’t one of those suck ass shoe sales where the clean out the 4000 Uggs that no one in their right mind would buy in the first place. This was a high style shoe sale. SIL and I tried on pair after pair. It was like shoe heaven.

    I found a great pair of suede pumps with a kick ass pointy toe. They came in brown and gray. The shoe monkey also brought me patent black and matte black. I am so not a fan of matte black pumps and I already have patent heels. Not that you can’t have enough patent heels. So I tried them on and they were great. Comfy (as comfy as pumps can be) and oh so very cute. And at $32 I was not about to walk out without them. I made that mistake last year with the boots. I settled on brown as I think I have more to wear with them.

    We did a little more shopping and the trusty husband ended up with an awesome “leather” jacket. It was only $29.99! It is actually made of PVC, but even we had to look at the tags to find that out. Otherwise there is no way you could tell. Put it with a pair of worn jeans, a t-shirt and some Chucks and I have one hott husband. Not that he wasn’t hott to begin with.

    The boy was the cheap one, walking out of the store with furry red muppet underpants.

    SIL hit the jackpot with a new handbag. Our exit through Nordys took a detour through the handbag department. There they were having a sale on Dooney & Coach bags. Lee found a Coach bag that was cute, but I wasn’t totally sold on it. I continued to browse when I turned around and there was my SIL buying the Coach bag.

    Elle: Hey Lee, did you see this bag? (pointing to a not on sale Dooney bag)

    Lee: No, Oh man! I like that one better.

    SIL then returns the Coach bag less than 2 minutes after buying it to purchase the more expensive, not on sale Dooney. Good girl. Good Good girl. If I had the cash I would have been right along side her with the same bag in Chocolate. I need a good winter bag. My Coach backpack is looking a little worn. I scoped out some Burberry bags, but they didn’t have any styles I liked. I did find a Kate that was very cute, but honestly, it was something I could make for a fraction of the cost. The disappointment of the trip was getting a glimpse of the new Jimmy Choo bags. Gotta say, not impressed at all. He’s cheaped out and gone crappy bling hobo. But that Dooney. Ohh she was pretty.

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  • Beating Imelda

    • Just a day, just us

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    Days like yesterday make me miss it being just us. As we were driving along and I mentioned this to the trusty husband he responded with, “yeah, but you miss the boy and as soon as we get home you are going to smooch all over him.” He was right. And I did.

    Per usual, the trusty in-laws were late, but not for lack of trying to get her on time. The trusty father in-law forgot his wallet and they had to turn around. For what good would a grandfather be without his wallet.

    We finally left made a pit stop at the bank and the burger joint behind the bank. I can haz cheez burger. Of course we got stuck in Seattle traffic which was oh so fun. We made it to Woodinville HS only to park in the toolies. Hiked our happy asses to the shuttle rickety old school bus and took off on a 15 minute ride further into the toolies thus qualifying it as BFE.

    I had to listen to my cheap Swede husband bitch that it cost $18 per person to get into the Street of Dreams. But it wouldn’t be the trusty husband if he didn’t complain about how much it cost to get into something. It took us exactly one hour to “tour” the homes with 400,000 of our fellow northwesterners. And what did I learn from this experience?

    1. The Street of Dreams is definitely not a kid friendly place. So glad we didn’t take the boy.
    2. $2.9 million only gets you 3 bedrooms and the bedrooms in my 1400 sq. ft. house are larger. And you can still hear your neighbor fart.
    3. Never go into the porta-pooer a very large man with a magazine recently vacated.

    The schedule for the day included a movie at the theater back in Tacoma. Unfortunately, we didn’t anticipate such heavy traffic and a 20 minute bus ride into BFE. So we thought we’d check out what was playing at Redmond Town Center. However, it wouldn’t be an Elle and trusty husband excursion if we didn’t deviate from the original plan. On the way to the theater we passed about 5 wineries. Columbia being one of my favorites. I’d never been to Woodinville wine country so we opted for wine tasting instead of Bourne. Here is what I learned from that experience.

    1. Visiting a winery on a whim is just about the coolest thing anyone can do.
    2. It is also not advisable to bring your 2 year old with you to such event.
    3. Go when it is really really busy, find the most scattered pourer and step on up.
    4. Make sure to find the wines on the tasting list that are the same blend, but from different valleys. I asked for Otis Cab and the scattered guy poured Red Willow Cab. He gave me the taste on the house. I got 6 tastes for $5 instead of 5.
    5. There are a whole lot of super snooty wine people.

    After we drank our way into relaxed happiness we made a stop at Bell Square. I had a need to visit the Crate. I’m in search of a Texas Muffin Tin. Sadly, the Crate let me down. But I still walked out with a little soy pot, a $10 rubber spatula and a chocolate fondue pot. “Because we have chocolate fondue so often,” the trusty husband informed me. That’s because we don’t have a chocolate fondue pot. No trip to Bell Square would be complete without a trip to the Apple store. I was torn and did cry a little because the Apple store is about 100 feet from the Nordstrom shoe department. The trusty husband threw himself between me and the shoes. And, AND! if I’d had just a little more time I think I could have swindled my way into an iMac.

    Dinner reservations were at 7:00 back in Tacoma so we had to fight traffic to come back. We dined at a little place called Over the Moon Cafe. We had dinner there with NEAL and Tacoma Chickadee on Dine out for Life night. I was sick and couldn’t taste the food so I ordered the same thing. On texture it was not as good as I remember. Still a delightful evening. I was stunned at the lack of patronage on a Saturday night. In the Proctor District you would have to make a reservation 3-4 nights in advance for Saturday night. Not at Over the Moon. Sad. This is a great little restaurant and it should be packed. Come on Tacoma! Get it together.

    We arrived home to hear our son wailing that Daddy was the one to give him his bath. My poor frazzled trusty Mother-in-law was trying to comfort him as best she could. Of course today the boy is pissed at us for leaving him most of the day. He’s going to love it when we load him into the car and drive him down to a family reunion where none of these family members have met him yet. Fun times!

    So our anniversary celebration went well. We had a good time, but missed the boy terribly. He spent the time playing with his grandfather’s new car and we were convinced he would have his learners permit by the time we got home. Pretty darn close. They wore him out so bad that he actually fell asleep during dinner. Way to go Grammy, Papa & Auntie G!

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  • Beating Imelda

    • Birthday aftermath

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    Gotta say I was a bit surprised by all the internets love on my birthday. It was a really big pick me up. I spent most of the day being cranky because I was not well Thursday and spent the day at my MIL’s. Why would this make me cranky on my birthday? Because the plan was to clean my house Thursday so I could play on Friday. Not being home puts a damper on that. Then, the trusty husband scheduled his car for service and we had to be up at the ass crack of dawn to take it to the mechanic on the other side of town. Damn German cars. Oh and the trusty husband has been working his ass off the past few weeks and has had no time to go shopping. He shopped in the afternoon, leaving me to clean the house. Needless to say cleaning the house on my birthday was not on my agenda.

    So what did I do? I started drinking at 3:00. Yep. I did.

    Once everyone arrived the cranky melted away. My best friend Heather even showed up with my adorable god-children. That was a wonderful surprise.

    D grilled a whole beef tenderloin on the Grill Bastard 12,000 and I whipped up a batch of Oma’s potatoes. Pie was delicious. And when asked if I wanted ice cream I said, “hell yes.” Screw you lactose intolerance.

    I received some fantastic gifts. The in-laws had previously purchased me a swing for my front patio (but due to a husband who thinks he knows better than the “special tool included” we have to reorder a few parts). They also gave me this awesome book. And a gift certificate to this place. Kathou and Paypay added to the collection they started at Christmas with this. Heather fed my gardening/candle obsession with ceramic garden pot candle holders and tea lights. Derek and the boy furthered the “things I won’t buy for myself” theme from Mother’s day with this book(gawd I’m such a geek) and these shoes(in purple of course). Just don’t tell The Manolo (who’s most recent post is about the ill-advised shoes).

    So all in all it was a great birthday. Now if the sun would only come out.

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