Buddy's Birthday

Last night, we went to a popular night spot, Huggos, to celebrate our friend Buddy's 50th birthday. Buddy's had a rough year (his only child died last spring) and it was nice to see him out and enjoying himself. Hubby and I don't usually go out at night and the only time we go to night spots is when we're out with Buddy and his wife, Joyce. Interesting people go out and party at night. One guy we were calling Mr. Happy was having way too much fun dancing with anything that looked vaguely female and when none were available, just dancing by himself. Mr. Happy also had been very thirsty, so was having a difficult time keeping his balance during the more daring of his dance moves. He plopped himself down at our table for a while and I warned Joyce that she was his next target - she laughed, until he started sidling up next to her, than it was me doing the laughing. There was also a woman I referred to as "the Alien". She had overly processed hair that was supposed to be blonde but was white, and spray on tan that was supposed to be bronze but was orange. She looked like she was in her mid-60's, wearing a skin tight, very short dress and she thought she was all that. Hubby and I spent the drive home discussing if her boobs were store-bought or the real thing. I think I'm done doing the nightclub thing for a while now.

Now, for the opposite end of the spectrum, I've got to go get ready for a funeral for our beautiful Auntie Lilly. Auntie is a term of respect and endearment down here, so Auntie Lilly isn't an actual relative of ours or anything. But we used to pick her up at the nursing home and bring her to church with us when she was able. She was about 92 years old, so she lived a long useful life and was ready to go, but we'll miss her.

Happy Anniversary Baby

got you on my mi-ind. Yep, it's that time of year again when hubby and I celebrate our anniversary. Unlike previous years though, this time we're celebrating our 19th anniversary. Yay us! To celebrate, we went to the Toastmaster's holiday get-together. Yeah, not real romantic, but hubby's Toastmasters group is full of fun people and it was a nice time. There are a couple professional musicians in the group, so there was a little impromptu singing going on.

When we got home, we played a game of Pictionary with the 4 results of our 19 years of marriage and with 2 of the ministers from our church who are spending the next couple days with us. I was on the boys team...my drawing skills are on par with my bocce ball skills. We lost

I just took the tags off a 19 year old washcloth. How do I know it's 19 years old? We got it an a matching towel as a wedding gift from someone. They're these fancy kind with lace trim and stuff and I was saving them for a special occasion. Apparently, the special occasion was running out of clean washcloths.

oh, and another thing

apparently, saying "Shannon, I have my Panda Express under your seat" sounds a whole lot like "Shannon, I have my panties pressed under your seat" and causes outrageous giggle fits on a military plane full of Special Olympics athletes. Next time, I'm not telling Shannon where I put my box of leftover Chinese food.

back from the Olympics

Yeah, the title says it all. My partner, Apple, and I didn't do any better at the state games than we did at the area games back in October. We got the bronze medal, 3rd place out of 3 teams Because of a flight snafu, one of the islands teams couldn't make it, hence only 3 teams in our division. Basically, we flew all the way to Oahu so we could play against 2 teams from our island that we play against all the time in practice. There weren't a lot of bocce teams because fall isn't really bocce season - it's bowling. But not all islands have a bowling alley. We've got one on our side, but it's been closed for remodeling, so we couldn't bowl, which is why we did bocce.

We had a really fun time at the games. They were held at Hickum air force base and they flew us there in military transport planes. They're not a comfortable as commercial flights, but it's more fun on them. They even let one of the athletes sit up in the cockpit and he got to turn the engines off when we landed on Oahu. Saturday night, when all the volunteers were exhausted after catching a 6am flight, then spending the day outside with bocce ball or in the gym with the basketball team (West Hawaii got the silver YAY!) all the athletes were shaking their groove thang out on the dance floor. I don't know where they got their energy. The dance was held in a huge hangar and man, was it noisy. They don't build those things with creating good acoustics in mind.

I also got a new nickname over the weekend. I am now known as The Alabaster Princess because of my skin's amazing ability to stay pasty white despite spending 2 days out in the sun with a dab of sunscreen on my nose only. Yep, I don't tan OR burn - at least very easily. I just reflect. I tried to tell them that, but they didn't believe me. But, by this afternoon when I was the only bocce ball participant who wasn't sunburned (besides the Hawaiians, who just get a gorgeous dark tan), they knew I was telling the truth. There were even a few on the basket ball team who had more of a burn than me, and they'd spent most of their weekend inside a gym. I have few talents, unfortunately, one of them is my body's complete inability to tan (and one of them obviously ISN'T bocce ball). Once they post the weekends pictures on the S O website, I'll give you a link so you can see how much fun we had.

Olympic bound

Tomorrow I head out on a military transport plane to Oahu for the state finals of the Special Olympics. Pretty cool, eh? No TSA, no tickets, no lines or baggage claims, no stupid 3oz of liquid in a ziploc bag. Thank goodness the flight is only about 45 minutes though, since I'm guessing the seats aren't too comfortable and there's no inflight movie. Since my partner, Apple and I took last place in the local games, we're in the last division this weekend, which means that we're playing against the worst bocce ball players on the other islands. We rotten athletes have to stick together, you know. But we may have a fighting chance of getting better than last place. I'll let you know on Sunday when I get back.

The other day, the chicken we have that was sitting on 15 eggs hatched them out. Well, 12 of them anyway. She gave up on the other 3 and hubby went to check them out. He broke a little of the shells off them and saw that while 2 were bad, the 3rd had a live baby chick in it yet. So we set up a heating pad on the kitchen counter, put the egg on it and waited to see what happened. About 10 last night, we got a front row seat to watch it hatch out of the egg. Pretty cool. Once it was on its feet and dried off and fluffy, hubby and the boys put it under the mother chicken and now she's got 13 happy healthy children. Yay!

lost in translation

We got a little giggle today at poor hubby's expense. The poor guy mutilates the Hawaiian language (many times on purpose). The word for land in Hawaiian is aina, pronounced eye-nah and one of the companies who bring their machines in where I work is a landscaping company called Aina Scapes, which is cute, imo. But hubby mispronounced Aina, giving the first 'a' a long sounds, A-nah Scapes. Say it out loud. Yeah, it sounds like something you'd wear with a hospital gown so your butt doesn't show.

I'm so flattered that when Jeanne C sees a can of Pringles she thinks of me. Like she said, I guess there are a whole lot worse things that could remind her of me. I have things like that, too. Like, when I smell pigs, I think of my Grandpa. When I was little, he worked with pigs and the smell would cling to him, so to me, a pig smell is a happy smell because I loved my Grandpa to pieces. The smell of coffee perking over a gas stove reminds me of camping up north in our little pop-up camper back before my mom died. Fresh cut alfalfa just takes me to a happy place. I guess I'm an olfactory memory kind of person instead of a visual one.

Oh yes, and I also need to thank Jeanne for that enlightening interpretation of my mongoose dream. Now I'm afraid to go to sleep at night, terrified about what other deep seated secrets my dreams are going to reveal to me.

I got an e-mail from my friend Renee today. She was my Starbucks buddy until she oh so heartlessly moved back to Canada last May. I realized that I haven't been to Starbucks since she moved and I also realized that it's the Christmas season, which means they've got that peppermint mocha stuff again, which is so awesomely good last year. So I convinced my friend Lydia to meet me for coffee tomorrow morning - truth be told, it didn't take much convincing, I think she was jonesing for some Starbucks as well.

back

We got back from Oahu last night. This morning, I did 3 loads of laundry, balanced the checkbook before paying the bills then went to work. Straight from work I went to a Special Olympics meeting then got home around 7. Sometimes it seems like there's twice as much work to recover from a vacation than there is actual vacation.

We went to the mall on Wednesday, slapped some $ into the 3 older kids hands and sent them on their way. Angel #4 couldn't understand why I held her money and made her stick with me during the shopping trip, but after she tried to talk me into buying her 4 in high stilettos and a black lace bustier, I knew I made the right decision. She ended up getting a new pair of shorts and tee shirt as well as a new watch and for a special splurge, a black and purple fedora. She wore the fedora pretty much the entire weekend when she could get away with it, including sleeping with it on. She really likes that hat. While we were sitting in the airport last night waiting for our flight, she discovered that she lost her ticket. After searching for it for about 15 minutes, she came and told me. We got her a new ticket printed up. Once on the plane, she took her hat off and what do you think she found? Yep, she put her ticket inside her hat for safekeeping and forgot about it. sigh

We had a wonderful time at our church convention, seeing many people we only see once a year. It was great to see them all there again. They were good days. But, now it's back to reality.

Saturday night I dreamed that I was walking around Walmart with a mongoose on a leash. A lady bent over and was going to pet the mongoose and I told her not to because it bites. We were shopping for a motor so I could make a little car for the mongoose to drive around in. Any dream interpreters out there that can explain that one?