2003-10-23

* * * The spud will be attending the Homecoming dance at the high school next week. Apparently she and some of her friends sounded like it would be fun. When I asked the spud what she intended to wear, she said “Some of the girls are going to wear skirts. I have a skirt, I’ll wear that.” Now, let me just say that I pretty much have no clue what the spud has for clothes. If she needs a certain piece of clothing we go out and buy it for her, and then I don’t think about clothes again until I absolutely have to. She does her own laundry, her grandparents buy her (way too many) clothes. I simply have no idea what she has for clothes save what I see her in – and even then I tend not to notice what she’s wearing all that often. If it’s clean and covers her, then she can wear it as far as I’m concerned. A few days after our first discussion about the dance, wherein I pinned down all the particulars – she’s going to meet her friends there, her friend Shawn/ Sean/ Shaun is going to be her “date”, no she doesn’t like Shawn/ Sean/ Shaun “like that” but the rumor mill around school that they’re dating, and she thinks the dance starts around 6 – I asked her to show me the skirt she was planning to wear. It was a knee-length denim skirt. I know nothing about Homecoming, but even I know that a knee-length denim skirt is a tad less formal than what she needed to wear. I did a google search on Homecoming dresses, and guess what? They’re QUITE formal. They’re pretty much like prom dresses. Oh happy, HAPPY day. Now we need to get her a formal dress and all the accoutrements in a little more than a week. And I will be FUCKED before I spend $200 on a dress. I was looking at dresses online and found one I thought might look good on her (why are they all sleeveless or spaghetti-strapped? What the fuck is wrong with SLEEVES?), and then saw the price and gasped. $250. The spud, who was standing behind me said “Why would anyone want to spend that much money on a dress for ONE night?” Clearly, she is her mother’s daughter. We’re going to go look for dresses at Kohl’s this afternoon. Y’all, shut up. I found a perfectly suitable and lovely dress on their website, so perhaps they’ll have something even better in the store. I love shopping, so this will be BIG FUN for me. Except for the “love shopping” and “big fun” part.

* * *
Yesterday after dinner, as I stood up to put my plate in the sink, I heard a whiny little war cry coming from the living room. Stanley-bean was standing in front of Tubby, ready to start some shit. So I grabbed the camcorder and shot a little movie of it, for your viewing pleasure. Before I provide the link, a warning. It’s fucking HUGE. It’s only a 45-second movie, but it’s 7.3 MB. It will probably take forever and a day to load, even if you’ve got a fast connection. Your best bet would be to download it to your own hard drive and watch it from there. It’s an .mpg, so if you can’t view .mpgs, you won’t be able to view this. I did attempt to cut down on the size a little by saving it as a .wmv, but that looked so crappy that you could barely tell what was going on. So an .mpg it is. The movie’s probably not going to be available for more than a few days, since it’s so huge. I’ve put a “movie of the week” link over on the sidebar (it’s the last link in the “About” section), and I’ll probably change the movie out whenever I get around to it. Whether that’ll be once a day, once a week or once a month is anyone’s guess. So go see Stanley-bean in action here (sorry, it’s been removed due to the size). Make sure your volume is turned up so that you can hear his war cry!
* * *
A few months ago while wandering around the internet, I found a cool pattern to make a plastic canvas Cartman. The pattern was for yarn and something called “continental” and “reverse continental” stitches, which is nothing I know anything about, but I decided to give it a try with cross-stitches.
I think it turned out pretty well, though the eyes look a little funny. If I make it again, I’ll probably do his eyes squinched shut, like when he gets mad. Also, next time I’ll only use one thread to do the outline, instead of two (I wasn’t paying attention, apparently). It’s only about an inch and a half tall, so I think I’m going to slap a magnet on the back and stick him to the fridge. The pattern, by the way, is here. She has a bunch of other free patterns here, as well. Yes, this belongs over in the crafty blog. I’m sure I’ll get around to it one of these days… Of course, without the “To Do” blog to keep me on the straight and narrow, it may never happen! Heh.
* * *
Does this look particularly comfortable to you? Doesn’t it look like the whole kit and caboodle is going to topple over at any moment?
Stanley-bean makes a funny face at The Momma.
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51 thoughts on “2003-10-23”

  4. The movie is cute — I knew Tubby was big, but he’s huge! Especially compared to little Stanley.

  6. Thank goodness for T1 connections at the office! It took less than a minute to download the movie, which I have now uploaded to the share drive so my coworkers can enjoy it. That is, until the network nazis make me take it down. 🙂
    I’m just lovin’ that stubby tail.
    Go Stanley, Go Stanley, Go Stanley …

  7. Did anybody else think of sumo wrestling when they watched that movie? Because I sure did! Go Tubby, kick Stanley’s ass!

  8. Before you go and buy a dress, you might want to call the school and ask what people wear. At my high school (10 years ago anyway) the only people that dressed formal were the members of the homecoming court. A denim skirt or something similar would’ve been fine for anybody else. But I might have just gone to a weird school.

  9. We weren’t formal at our school either… Skirts and blouses or skirts and sweaters is what we wore. Of course that was ’83-’87…hard to say how things have changed.

  11. We have catfights like that all the time here—funnier than hell to watch, but one of the cats is a major yeller/screamer, which can get extremely annoying. Stanley’s going to be a badass when he gets older. LMAO!
    I agree about the dress–wish I could remember what we wore, but it was too long ago now. *sob* But I’m right there with ya on the shopping; that’ll be my worst nightmare when my girls get to that point because they’re completely girly-girl & I’m….NOT. EEK.

  12. Oh my god, THANK GOD FOR YOU GUYS. It’s not even close to formal. The guy at the office said the guys would be wearing khakis (is that how you spell it?) and button-down shirts. NOT PROM-LIKE AT ALL.
    I’ll still probably buy her a nicer skirt, though.
    With that load off my mind, I’m going to go eat lunch. 🙂

  13. No offense meant, sweetie, but if that’s not a Mother of the Bride Dress, I don’t know what is.
    And the Bean is pretty feisty for someone who sounds like a squeaky toy. Cute as all get-out, too.

  15. Heh. Clearly I have NO CLUE when it comes to shopping.
    I won’t buy that dress, anyway, since she doesn’t apparently need a formalish dress (see above comment about it not being formal).
    Y’all will be around in a few years when she needs a prom dress, right?

  16. Robyn,
    I have to agree with Nance. That dress is not for the Spud. She will look like one of the teachers in that dress. I’ve had the fashion battles with my own daughters when they were in high school and they are now 23 and 19 years old. It is the MTV generation unfortunately. There are some great age-appropriate dresses for the Spud out there and it may be a challenge but I know you are up to it. I don’t know how the Spud is concerning clothing but with my own girls, we fought tooth and nail over low-cut, no sleeves outfits for years. They just want to look like everyone else in their school and fit in but as parents we do not want them looking like they just stepped out of the latest Britney Spears video. Horrors!!! Maybe you will be lucky now that the designers are bringing more clothing out that looks like things some of us wore in the 70’s with sleeves and tops that do not show cleavage. Good Luck. The Spud will look pretty no matter what you pick but not that dress!!!!!!
    Debbie (who knows how she earned all those strands of grey hair now)

  17. Wouldn’t that be the whole “cat” and kaboodle getting ready to topple over? (Sorry!) And I especially liked the little ass-sniff Stanley-Bean gave Tubby there at the end. Hoo-boy!

  18. Yep, the school I went to in Louisiana was non formal for the dance also. In fact, it was so casual you were too dressed if you wore slacks (girls)/khakis (guys), jeans were it for everyone.
    RE: Bachelor Bob(no spoilers) – have you ever seen the Ellen Degeneres Show? It’s sindicated, so I don’t know what time it would be on in AL but it’s on at 10 in IL. Anyway, it’s her new talk show and she had him on a couple weeks ago. Since then, she calls him every week to discuss the new weeks’ show for a few minutes. The day he was on as a guest she made her prediction and chose Merideth for him. I tape her show and watch it at night, usually a few in row so I’m never sure which day it is that she calls him. I believe it’s on the same day as The Bachelor because usually she’ll end her chat by saying she’ll be “watching tonight.” Thought I’d let ya know about it. Not only for that info but to let the rest of you all know to watch a very funny show in it’s own right.
    Ok, going to watch the Stanley Bean movie now.

  19. Right now, for probably the first time in my life, I am really glad that I have two boys. I thought that dress looked fine, Robyn. Would any of you fashion critics care to post a link to what you think is an appropriate “look” for a 15 year old?

  20. Stanley-Bean has absolutely no concept of his own size whatsoever, does he?
    My entire office is in stitches!!!

  22. I’m not sure she’d go for a sleeveless dress, though I could be wrong, Cheryle. I guess I could actually ask her, couldn’t I? 🙂

  23. Not a fashion critic, but a young girl just might not ever recover socially after wearing a dress like that – lol! I was saying OH YES when I checked out the address above posted by *anonymous* above. Just my 2 cents! Anyways, a moot point now – thank heavens!

  24. Katrina – Thanks for letting me know – I occasionally watch the Ellen Degeneres show when it’s on late at night. I LOVE her, she’s so consistently funny. I think it’s about time to start taping her show. (If I only had a TiVo… 🙂
    I’m glad y’all are enjoying the Stanley movie. He has NO fear of the bigger cats, and he’s so tenacious that they eventually just give up and stomp away. Poor kitties!

  25. Robyn – A lot of the sleeveless dresses come with shawls now. The only problem with that is that you are left carrying it around all night so she might not be interested. Maybe an off the shoulder that has the sleeves resting on the forearms? All I know is…there had better be lots of pictures for this event!! 🙂

  26. Joy stated my thoughts exactly, there are lots of cute “wraps” for those who are shy about showing their arms. Although, I have seen pictures of Spud and don’t think she has anything to be shy about – she is a lovely girl!
    But it sounds like a dress is too formal for this event anyway.

  28. Robyn: I thought it was a beautiful dress and considered ordering it for my office Christmas Party. You’d think the fact that I’m 37 would have made me realize that it probably would not have been appropriate for a 15 year old but oh well!!!

  30. Now Robyn, you know I love you, but that dress is way too “old” for the spud! It would be more appropriate for a chaperone at the dance than a kid at the dance.

  31. My sister has shelled out some cash during my neices’ Jr and High school dances. Seems my neice likes to dress formal *SIGH* Now she has a closet full of dresses too formal for everyday life, but if the occasion ever arises she’ll be set! LOL! I have only a son so dressing him was not a problem.
    Stanley is way too cute and Tubby looked very annoyed at being disturbed! Poor Stanley, he just wants to play…..

  32. i think tubby is pissed because stanley made him move too much. v. v. funny.
    let us know what the fashion verdict is on the dance… inquiring minds..

  34. PLEASE make sure the dance dress code is going to be formal or semi-formal. I went to mine in 1996 and wore jeans and a shirt, and was not underdressed at all. I don’t know if things are like that at her school, but NO ONE got dressed up for anything other than the actual Prom. Have her find out what her friends are wearing, first.

  35. Obviously got over-excited at the thought of commenting, and didn’t bother to actually READ any of the other comments! Whoops!
    GO TUBBY! GO TUBBY!

  36. Stanley is so determined…and Tubby just wasn’t ready to take a fall! Really, the movie was worth it just to see Stanley’s nubbin tail in action 🙂
    (I had a stumpy tailed cat once too, its cute)

  37. Stanley must think he’s bigger than he is, or he’d never take on Tubby. Unless he knoew Tubby couldn’t be bothered with whupping his little ass. I love your pictures of the kitties, though. I never have such luck getting the good ones.

  39. Just popping in to say that I think your crossstitch version turned out considerably better than the needlepoint sample. Good job, Robyn. And why aren’t I surprised that you’re a fan of Cartman? Could it be that you both are prone to excessive use of the F-word.
    lulu

  40. Heh! I was disappointed he got rid of Lee-Ann, even though I despised her. Where is all the drama going to come from now? 🙁
    And I agree with the rest of the commenters, that dress is so very wrong. It’s pretty, but not right for a 15 (..or however old the spud is, haha.) Alloy.com/delias.com/torrid.com have some cute dresses.

  41. Good video! I love his little warble of a war cry. And holy crap, Tubby is … tubby! And squeals like a girl when Stan the Man is after him. More video!! 🙂

  42. oh, and that video rocked. tubby laid the smackdown on stanley hardcore. i watched it 6 times in a row and giggled each time.

  44. I love watching the Bean’s stubby tail thump back and forth. Crazy house o’ cats. And THANK GOD you called the school and didn’t send the Spud to Homecoming in a dress she’d never live down. It’s pretty and all…just a few decades too old for her. And for me, as well, since I’m only 39.

  45. Robyn, you remind me so much of me way back when I used to be happy. I’ve decided to live my life vicariously through you, at least until I am happy again. Wow, I am feeling better already!
    Stanley is my hero. Can’t wait to see the movie.

  46. AHAHA. That was funny as hell. Him waggin’ that little stick-tail… actin’ like he’s gonna take Tubs. Good stuff. =)

  47. The funniest part of the video to me was when Tubby was running away, it sounded like a grown man walking across the room!

  48. OMYGODROBYNAREYOUKIDDINGME?????
    I like to think as one of your younger (no offense ment to anyone) that maybe… just maybe the Spud may want a couple of ideas from the generation who wore clothing like this to a dance… frankly the only time I donned “evening” attire was at my senior prom. go to my FAVORITE store of all time… and think about these:
    1) Skirt : http://www.gap.com/asp/Product.asp?wdid=205010&wpid=213713
    2) Shirt : http://www.gap.com/asp/product.asp?:=l&wdid=205010&wpid=203723
    3) Overtop: http://www.gap.com/asp/product.asp?:=l&wdid=205010&wpid=205978
    I realize this may be a lieelt pricey.. but I have this exact outfit (different colors) and have worn it to:
    3 family functions
    a baby shower
    to the bar
    to watch my guy play some hockey (only with gap jeans)
    and out for coffee with my girls…
    sorry for the long post robyn… hope this helps the Spud out.. and tell her to email me if she wants to talk about clothes!!!
    OIWANTTOGOTOTHEGAPRIGHTNOW!!!!!

  49. I am SOOOO Glad that Lee-Ann got booted..hated that girl, and figured she’d make it to the final two because of that fact…but yeah, BOB saw the Light!! Woo hoo…and so glad he kept Merideth and Kelly Jo…I hope those two are the final ones..both are good matches for him. Estella is way too clingy…or at least thats what I get from her..think Bob wants a more independent woman than that. I love the Bachelor!! ehehehehe Oh yeah…the movie was freaking hilarious…I miss my cats 🙁

  50. Hey Robyn,
    Yes, I love that dress (for myself)does it come in black?. Unfortunately, all the girls now a’ days dress like floozies.They wear dresses that we would have been beaten up , or arrested for wearing.
    I have 3 sons. During ,and after high school , they went to the prom several times .
    That was all I remember being formal.But when it does come time for the spud to get that spiffy, I can show you some prom dresses from the thrift stores around here for as little as 20 bucks. (brand new, never worn)
    Haven’t watched the Stanley video yet.

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