in a shutterbug mood

a different perspective

pale daisy

simplicity

pink and purple fuchsia

pink and white fuchsia flowers

damn men

Hunter: Hey, Dad?

Kenin: Yeah?

Hunter: I have a huge fear of PMSing women.

Betsy: You ought to, 'cause I'm gonna beat your butt.

strange things are afoot in Highlands Ranch

I saw 2 things today that I really didn't expect to see, especially in Highlands Ranch.

As I was leaving my parents' house, I heard a loud noise, looked up and saw a black helicopter that appeared to be about to land on top of a neighbors house. Not something one would expect to see, is it? Nope, didn't think so. Anyway, the helicopter didn't land; it just made a u-turn and headed off in the other direction. And thank goodness, too, because I imagine that homeowner would've been a bit pissed off when the roof had to be replaced. And naturally, the 'copter would've disappeared and then, the insurance company wouldn't want to pay a claim, and well, you know how it goes from there.

And yes, as I was almost home, guess what I saw? Yup, the damn helicopter again. I began to wonder if I'd been caught doing something, but I knew I'd hidden that body really, really well, so I knew it wasn't me they were after.

But then, I had to stop in King Soopers - isn't that a dumb name for a grocery store? or any store, for that matter? - and I thought maybe I'd been put into a trance by the helicopter blades or something because when I was parking the car I didn't expect to see a guy in full cowboy regalia prancing around on his horse in the parking lot. I mean, I'd seen folks riding horses down the main street when we lived in Montana, and while I do live in Colorado, I don't live on a farm, in a small town, or any place where this would be okay to do. Then, eerily enough, the cowboy saw the helicopter and he galloped right out of there and off to who knows where.

Maybe the helicopter guy was chasing the cowboy? Now that's something out of the movies.

a quick complaint

I'm taking college courses online and a fair amount of our coursework involves participating in message board discussions. I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who are unable to compose a sentence. All it takes to make sure you sound like a reasonably intelligent person is a little proofreading. Proofread, people, proofread!

I know the things I write on here are more often than not done correctly, but that's done on purpose (usually - LOL). In writing for school, I'm extremely careful to write so that I don't come across as a complete idiot - I reserve that for you, dear Internet.

water, water, and more water

I went rafting with my brothers, Jim and Tom, and my rugrat, Hunter, on Wednesday. Guess who that is waving to everyone?

more medication, please

Last week my doctor generously gave me a 'script for Xanax (aka Relaxant of the Gods) so that I wouldn't be quite as uptight as normal while I spend the week with family here in beautiful Breckenridge. I know Xanax works, and I know from experience that it works well for me. I also know that one must actually REMEMBER TO TAKE IT in order for it to perform its' intended duty.

Since I've been forgetting to take my meds, I've been medicating with liquid refreshment instead, and so far, it's been going okay. I've not physically assaulted anyone, though I admit to being a wee bit verbally abusive when people piss me off. I've only broken down in tears once and it was short lived because I swear I'm honestly and truly trying to relax.

Many, many kudos to my spouse, who reminds me every time he looks in my eyes just how lucky I am to have him. And to Boogie, too, who's cool as grits.

The Vacation Begins

We made it to Breck yesterday and today the rest of the family will be showing up. We took 2 cars - we had an ass of stuff to bring - and it went okay except that on the way here Kenin's car overheated and I got lost. Oh yeah, and I forgot my underwear!

On the plus side, I could totally live here. Actually, I think that when I win the lottery, I'll just move up here. After all, it couldn't be worse than living in the slums.

Not Even Poultry Is Safe

Thank you, Augusta Chronicle, for making me cock my head to the side and wonder aloud, WTF?

Let me tease you with the the following:

"The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department's bomb squad came and blew up the chicken."

Aren't you just all atwitter with curiosity now? To see the full article, click here.

++++++++++++++++++++++UPDATE++++++++++++++++++++++

The link to the full article disappeared, so basically what happened was that the Hartford, CT, police were called upon the roadside discovery of a chicken [dead, I assume] that had been stuffed with a pipe bomb.

(I swear it's true - I couldn't make this crap up if I tried.)

Connections

I have this great little counter (nope, not gonna tell you where it is) that shows me where people who visit my blog are located. It struck me as I was looking at it, that I, or probably most anyone for that matter, can find a connection, no matter how loose it might be, to places on that list. For example:

I know who's reading me in Montana (Hi Lynn!), and I'd love to believe that Dooce is reading me up in Salt Lake City, though I'm fairly certain she's not. I'm descended from folks in Ireland, which is kind of near Scotland, and hubby's got family in the Lafayette, Louisiana area. Some of my lineage is also English, and Kenin loves to watch The Arthritic Adventures of Bait Boy (aka Deadliest Catch), and I believe some of the boats on the show are out of Washington state. The author of The Butterfly Mind was/is living in france with her husband, and my brother and sister-in-law are working in Iraq, which is near Jordan, in the Middle East. I drove through Tulsa a lot on my from Arkansas to Colorado, and I spent a fair amount of time at the Smithsonian, in Washington DC.

See? If you look hard enough, you can find a connection to just about any thing.

A Wee Bit of Trepidation

Next week ought to be interesting as we're going to be attending the every-6-years-or-so family reunion up in Breckenridge. We're renting 3 condos for a week, although most of the family will be arriving Sunday and leaving Thursday. My branch of the family tree will be heading up on Saturday, so we'll be there the longest, which is good, because the last semblance of vacation we had was 6 years ago, when we did a reunion in Galveston.

I'm truly my father's daughter (control freak), so I expect to be in tears by Tuesday. I've always felt like an outsider in comparison to my brothers; I got married, had a baby and was divorced by the time I was 23 and almost without exception, they were all in their 30's or older before they got married. I'm going to be a grandmother, and they're still working on having kids. I didn't do college right after high school; I'm doing it now. I have tattoos and at the last reunion I was told that my body is a temple and I shouldn't have them. I replied that my temple had pretty pictures on it. Perhaps you can see how there might be some fundamental differences.

I guess I'm just nervous. Scared is probably a better decription though. Whether I want to admit it or not, I guess I still carry along a lot of baggage from my childhood, and it's been really easy to ignore it over the years because my family doesn't get together very often, so I don't have to think about what's stored in my Samsonite. But 5 days? I don't know that I can hold it in that long, when we're going to be together the whole time.

I know that none of us are the same people that existed so many years ago, we've all changed, blah, blah, blah, but I was a screwed up kid, and the only thing that's helped me be an okay adult is having that distance between us. I don't want that distance, but at the same time, I don't know what it would be like to be close. There are things that should be said, but the last thing I want is for this thing to become a 5 day group therapy session. Oh well, that's enough sharing for one day...

Boys Will Be Boys

Yesterday was yet another rugby game for Hunter. We all tagged along - even Ashlyn, who normally doesn't roll over until noon. After a yummy breakfast at the Awful Waffle, we hit the road in pursuit of our goal, Sloan's Lake Park in Denver.

Naturally, we arrived way too early (thanks, Dad, for instilling in me that I have to be at least 30 minutes earlier than everyone else) and decided to take a walk around the lake. Hunter was enthralled by the geese that were there; the rest of us were just trying not to step in their poop. Denver being the disgustingly outdoorsy city that it is, created a walkway around the lake so that the various enthusiasts of the outdoor variety could, walk, bike, run, and step in goose poo.

Unfortunately it also allowed the couple walking past us to shudder with not-so-quiet laughter as Hunter yelled excitedly at the top of his voice, "Hey Mom! Look at this! The ducks had diarrhea!"

I'm glad they thought it was funny, because all I wanted to do was quietly drown.

And the Winner Is...

And the Winner Is...

Nicholas Cage, in Raising Arizona, looked much cuter wearing pantyhose on his head, but apparently a couple of boneheads up in Arvada tried to outdo him.

Let me just tell you right off the bat that they didn't succeed.

They might have gotten away with the robbery of a gas station except that they wore a fairly unusual disguise - THONGS. Now don't confuse these particular thongs with they type of thongs that you might wear at the beach. Kenin likes to call them butt floss, but they're also known as women's underwear.

So this week, the winner of the What The Hell Were They Thinking prize goes to the Thong Bandits.

And the Winner Is..., Part II

Since Blogger won't let me do a video and a picture in the same post, here are the fools caught on tape.

Just One More Example Of Me Being Crazy

Wouldn't you think that now that school's out for the summer that I'd be doing a little more relaxing that when I was working? That's what I'd think. I think that's what most people would think, don't you think? Well, I think that my life isn't quite like that, like that so-called normal life. 'Cause I'm sure as hell not relaxing.

Lynn and family came down the day after school was out, so I/we spent a pretty fair amount of time with them until they left last Wednesday - and had a blast, BTW. Then I did dentist appointments, rugby practice, rugby games, a bunch of cross stitching for one of the 5 babies that are due in the next 7 months, cleaned the house, went grocery shopping twice since the grocery gods didn't think I spent enough money the first time around, and got baked at the pool. Oh yeah, and I threw some exercise and laundry in there, too.

And today I'm steam cleaning my carpet because the management company is coming on Thursday to see if they want to replace the carpet we currently have. Yes, I know that if I want new carpet - which I do, desperately - then shampooing it is probably not the best way to go about it. The goal would be to make it look as nasty as it can, maybe get a truckload of dirt from one of the landscaping companies and see how much we can grind into the padding. But it would absolutely kill me for someone to see my house look that bad. I mean, come on, that's one of the reasons why I don't invite my parents over more for dinner is because my carpet looks like crap. I'm not serving them carpet to eat, or even asking them to eat off the carpet, but it's still not a decent looking floor covering. Hopefully the carpet will be just the right amount of dirty when I get through, not filthy but not clean, either. Just the right amount of yuck.

It's not like the carpet was new when we moved in, either. Realtor Guy said that they were going to put in new carpet, but then decided not to when they discovered we had cats. That may be a form of feline discrimination, but I dealt with it because I liked the house and the neighborhood and the price were right. But it's been 2 years and now I want new carpet!!

So carpet aside, here's a picture of Hunter from his last rugby game. (The green teeth are from his mouth guard, not poor dental hygiene habits, just in case you were wondering.)