hands picture, for one – I’ve used the Gorillapod Fred gave me for Christmas.
This year, Fred I swore to each other that we were only buying each other one thing. He wanted a mug from me, and I wanted the Gorillapod from him. And I have to say – the Gorillapod is one of the best Christmas presents I got. The other best present is a tote bag from my sister. It looks like this:
But the really cool thing is that it folds up, like so:
and it fits very nicely in my purse. I carry one in my purse at all times, and I had her buy me another three, which I leave in my car and take into the store with me if I think I’ll need more than one bag. They’re very sturdy, and SO convenient.
(And Debbie’s saying “All the stuff I gave you for Christmas and THAT’s your favorite??” What can I say? The simplest things are the best.)
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This is the name and brand of the color we used in the living room, for those who asked:
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We went out to the house yesterday afternoon and met up with Fred’s father, stepmother, and their friend. The friend has known Fred for years and she’s moved away from Alabama but comes back to visit from time to time. I guess Fred’s parents had told her all about the house, and she wanted to see it.
We spent a long time showing them around the house, talking about what we’d done and what we had left to do. The funny thing is that when I’m in one of the rooms we’ve finished, I look around and see all the small flaws and they bother me – until I look at a picture of what it looked like before, and then I think “This place looks AWESOME.”
Anyway, we got the quote from the blinds guy, talked about it, talked about it, talked about it some more, and then decided we’d try putting up blinds from Lowe’s in one of the upstairs bedrooms and see (1) how it looked and (2) how much of a pain in the ass it was, and decide from there whether to go with the professional or not.
Later in the evening, after we’d gotten home, Fred opened his email to find a quote from the tile guy (for around the showers). It wasn’t bad – ’til we realized the quote was PER SHOWER rather than for the whole job, and Fred decided to give tiling around the shower a try himself. While we watched American Idol last night, he sat and leafed through his tiling book.
I think if the tiling goes well, he should hire himself out on the weekends to make some extra money. Momma needs some bon-bons, don’tchaknow.
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Speaking of American Idol, did y’all see that really tall black woman? Here’s what I don’t get – they ask her how tall she is, she says “I’m 6’7″.”
Simon says “In heels?”
She says “Yes. I’m 6’4″ in flats.”
Well, then. YOU’RE NOT 6’7″, ARE YOU?? NO YOU ARE NOT. IF YOU ARE 6’4″ IN FLATS, THAT IS HOW TALL YOU ARE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD; THOSE THREE INCHES ARE NOT HEIGHT INCHES THAT ARE YOURS, THEY ARE ONLY DUE TO YOUR HEELS AND YOU ARE NOT REALLY THAT HEIGHT.
I turned to Fred and said “Well if we’re counting heel height, I guess I’m 5’7 1/2″. Hey! I should go stand on a ladder! If I use the tall one, I can claim I’m nine feet tall! I think that means I’m a little UNDERWEIGHT now, doesn’t it? Just call me Nicole Richie!”
Good lord.
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Self-portrait #9:
“What you lookin’ at, lady?”
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In this section, pictures of stuff I didn’t buy when we were in Pigeon Forge, doing an amazing amount of shopping. Why didn’t I buy them? Because I have a limited amount of money and space. When I win the lottery and can buy a 30,000 square foot warehouse to put all my crap in, I’ll run right back to Pigeon Forge and snatch all this stuff up.
Money talks, but chocolate sings.
Hike faster! I hear banjo music! (I actually did get this t-shirt for Fred)
Sweet Lincoln’s mullet.
(Debbie bought this at the Smoky Mountain Cat House)
Why suffer in silence when I can moan, whimper, and complain? (My new motto!)
Dull women have immaculate homes.
Raising a teenager is like nailing Jello to a tree.
I love you more today than yesterday. Yesterday you really pissed me off.
I can’t remember if I’m the good sister or the evil one.
Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
The cops just pulled me over for carrying THESE GUNS. (This is very very “The Todd” from Scrubs, isn’t it?)
Paddle faster! I hear banjo music!
The nice part about living in a small town: When you don’t know what you’re doing, someone else always does.
And my absolute favorite:
It’s better to have loved and lost, than to live with a psycho for the rest of your life.
There are even more pictures of stuff I didn’t buy,
here.
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The fosters are continuing to do well. Fantine and her babies have been around long enough to garner nicknames from Fred. He calls Fantine “Momma” (and cats who have ever delivered kittens become “Momma” to him – that’s what he still calls Maxi, even), Eponine is “Scaredy Cat” (for obvious reasons), Cosette is “Litter Maid” because of all the time she spent in the litter box with her UTI, and Javert is “Little Brother.”
We’ve been letting Moonman and Moondance out of their room for several hours a day. Everyone except Mister Boogers is taking it quite well (Miz Poo and Spot are mostly excited when we open the door because that means there’s another bowl of food they can stick their faces in). Tommy is the gentleman of the bunch; he and Moonman have been seen touching noses several times. Moonman is such a sweet, friendly guy and he’s worming his way into Fred’s heart.
(No, we’re not adopting him! But Fred’s going to be sad to see him go.)
Moondance.
The best pictures are the one you get accidentally, I’ve found.
Javert, the squeaky, always-talking little monster.
It’s tiring, being this damn cute.
Fantine falls asleep with her tongue sticking out.
I love the look on her face, like “Do you believe what I’ve got to put up with?”
All of today’s uploaded pictures are
here.
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Previously
2006: I’d be a lobster, ’cause they are yummy, and I would be bringing joy to someone after I die a horrible boiling death.
2005: Saturday I spent at least two hours – conservative estimate – finding and downloading a ringtone that sounds exactly like the “internal call” ring on 24.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: I’m quite the stylin’ bitchypoo, I really am.
2000: It’s the period that never ennnnnnds! Yes, it goes on and on my friends!]]>
I promise – If I can hang blinds – ya’ll can hang blinds! With everything else you and Fred have done -blinds will be a snap…..
I agree with LJ. Blinds are actually pretty easy to install. Don’t bother with hiring anyone. Crown molding is MUCH harder, and you guys have had great success with that. Now that I think of it, you two are pretty handy people, all things told. You should trust your mad remodeling skillz more and the quotes from the experts less. Just get in there and try it. If you find you just can’t make it work, THEN call for quotes. (But I bet you won’t be needing many…)
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought that when the tall lady came on!
On American Idol – that Mother/Daughter pair last night?? OMG!! Were they for real? They took heinous to a new level (heinass???!)!
We have that samed stuffed mousey for our kitties! And Zoe used to fall asleep all the time with her tongue sticking out when she was younger but doesn’t do it so much any more.
I’m a dork and I’ll just copy and paste the comment I left on Fred’s site this morning:
Installing blinds is easy. We just bought a house and there were no blinds in any window. My husband isn’t the handiest guy around (although home ownership is forcing him to improve) and he was able to install all of our blinds with no problems. We did wood blinds in all of the downstairs windows and blackout cellular shades in all of the bedrooms. I highly recommend blindsgalore.com. As long as you can measure accurately to an 1/8 of an inch then it’s the way to go.
Ya know……Moonman could fill the “painfull” void left by Jake…HEE HEE HEE!!!!!
He is such a handsome little guy!!
Those old height/weight tables always used to say “height with 1 inch heel”, and I always thought that was bizarre. Didn’t everyone take off their shoes when getting weighed and measured back then, or is that a technique that was discovered in the 80’s?
The Hotness was my favorite. Nicole looked at me and said, “THAT is ‘The Hotness’??? Then I should be The Most Fucking Gorgeous Woman Everness.” I cracked up.
PS — I can do the tongue to nose trick too so there!
Shelly: Oh, TELL me about it! Fred was the one who pointed out that the daughter wasn’t wearing a bra – and girlfriend DESPERATELY needed a bra.
Jenn: The Hotness’s lips freaked me OUT. Also, speaking of the contestants from last night, there’s more about them here. I think Zitzman’s coworkers encouraged him to try out just to get him the hell out of the office!
I thought the same thing too, about the tall black lady. I don’t understand why she is trying to add inches to her height in the first place. Isn’t she tall enough already?? The bushbaby kid, I have to say, that was CRACKING me up. The kid DID look like a bushbaby. Simon nailed that one.
I agree…as long as you measure correctly, hanging mini blinds is a cinch. Hubby replaced all of our old venetian blinds with minis (from Lowes) and had no trouble at all. We gave them the measurements (for those that needed to be sized…which were a lot cause we have many odd sized windows it seems) and they cut them while we shopped. Of course, the length on some is still long cause I am too lazy to remove the little buttons on the bottoms and remove the extra slats 🙂
Robyn, I declare, you are starting to look like your cats, [just messing with your mind]. I’m loving the picture a day thing, especially the ones with the cats held up close to your face. keep them comming.
I thought the guy Simon dubbed a bush baby looked exactly like Peter Lorre crossed with a lemur. He seemed sweet, though, if a tad delusional about his talent.
It would have been nice having someone do the tiling, especially after all the work you two have put in, but tiling IS awfully expensive. I was shocked when I got some quotes.
Robyn, for some reason that link didn’t work for me. I got an error page. Boo! I wanna share in the fun.
Oh God, the mother and daughter duo were SCAREY!!!!! And no she didn’t have on a bra, I was like sooooo EWWWWW, they were just swayin all over the place….
Great self-portrait today! Black kitty looks like a velvet stuffed cat – so perfect.
I have the “It’s better to have loved and lost…” magnet along with about a million other dark, irreverent ones on my icebox. Saves wall/closet space that way.
Oh my gosh, PLEASE tell me the quote about living in a small town was on a t-shirt and please tell me I can buy said t-shirt online. Pretty pretty please!!!!
Wendie: No, sorry, it was a framed picture. I don’t see it on their web page, but I saw it at Verbenas. You might be able to call them and buy it, or get them to tell you where they got it!
What is cute Tommy wearing in that self-portait?
I so know what you feel. We complete a room in our ‘vinatge’ home and I can see all the flaws and mistakes. UNTIL I think of how it used to look.
Great T’s!
I was almost convinced you had learned how to levitate the camera to take photos of your own two hands…
Thanks for the tip on the Gorrilapod! That’s going on my wish list.
I bought that “guns” shirt for my dad this fall. Hilarious.