The Big Yellow Joint

Well, since today was Take Your Daughter to Work Day, and since I mostly work at home now, I offered to let my daughter Alex stay home, but I told her she'd have to sit downstairs and watch me work. She actually thought about it and thought she might bring her Nintendo and sit downstairs and play that while I worked. She ended up going to school instead. She bought this pogo moon ball thing that she wanted to take and play on during recess. This is the first thing she's bought with money from her birthday that I think she'll actually play with. She bought herself probably three Bratz dolls, which I've seen her playing with maybe twice. I keep telling her to think about it before she spends her money. She's sort of in that in-between phase where she's kind of outgrown stuff, but hasn't realized it yet. Then she gets so moody when we go to the store and won't buy something she really wants but knows I disapprove of, until finally I end up standing there, in the Bratz aisle, saying things like, "Oh, that one's so cute. Get that one," when I'm really thinking, "I'll be tossing this out in what, six months?

What is it about small towns, in particular, Scobey, Montana circa 1956, and nicknames? We were at lunch today with my two aunts and two uncles and my uncle from Spokane was saying he saw Skag Ryland the other day. My husband could sense the Scobey stories about to flow. I swear, turns out Skag's brother was Slug. Then there was the Hammer family whose kids were known as Ball Pein (although I'm sure no one knew how to spell that; I just looked it up), and Sledge. My mother's family lived across the street from the Gerard family who had nine kids, all with nicknames, it seems. My mother to this day still can list them off, no problem. I know there was a Mouse and a Specie. It's just hysterical. My mother has a friend who was driving around Arizona and came across a car with Montana license plates. She saw the driver and asked him if he was from Montana and he says, Oh a little town called Scobey. Since her friend doesn't know her maiden name, She says to him, Oh, do you know Jeanne Rae? What do you think. Of course he does.

I found this list that my sister and I both started a couple of years ago. The goal was to put down our 100 favorite things. For the most part, not much has changed!

Movies
Magazines
Shell
Seasonal chocolate
catalogs
buying stuff for my bed
my featherbed
my videocamera (not so much anymore)
having more than one VCR (dvd's by now)
reading a good book
talking to my sister on the phone as many times a day as I want
celebrity gossip
Costco
fry sauce
George Winston
Peanuts
a good salad
BBW fall scents
a new candle (the big size)
Gilmore Girls reruns
finding money in my pocket
Rosauer's shortbread cookies
an unexpected day off
going out to dinner and getting an appetizer AND dessert
a gray rainy day after a week of 90 degrees
knowing more about something than other people (movie trivia, BBC America)
a new organizational system
using big words once in a while
finishing a big job
my new cell phone (old, by now)
my new (oldish) computer
fall
apple crisp
TV
SATC
P&P
Colin Firth
strawberry lemonade
cooking
GP cookbooks
my recipe book
British humor
hair-chatting
milepost 44
new make-up
Robin & Maynard (radio personalities, off the air now :(
watching Alex swim/basketball/soccer
losing weight (Huh?)
sleeping in (What?)
s'mores
a good storm
listerine pocket pals
skor bits
diet coke on tap
Creepy Hollow
giving full-sized candy bars on Halloween
BNL
getting something in the mail I ordered
mocha frappacinos
quilting
digital cable
singing in my car
making mixed CD's
voicemail on my cell phone

That's it - must have been about two years ago? Not much has changed... I guess I need to broaden my horizons!

So I get this comment from my sister, "Hilary Duff? Are you kidding me?" Didn't I start my new product alert with a disclaimer? So I'll take it one step further and qualify that I would probably have bought something teen-related for my daughter from the old, cute version of Hilary Duff with a little baby fat and normal teeth. But I do like the gum.

I just bought the Rachael Ray 365 meals, no repeats cookbook, which I think I'm really going to like. I really like to cook, but my kids are in this period of life where they HATE most of what I cook and end up eating cereal or mac and cheese (my little four-year-old vegetarian, mostly). The thing about RR's books is that something either won't appeal to me or it's a meal the doesn't even register in my brain when I read the cookbook, but when I watch her make it, it looks wonderful. We are moving this summer, and I'm planning to get an under-cabinet dvd player like my sister-in-law in Colorado has. Then I may just have to buy some RR dvd's to watch while I cook. Or else get a dvd player that is T.V. ready and just watch the show. It's not that I think she is the best cook or anything, but her stuff is easy without being simplistic (i.e. four-ingredient meals, which I'm certainly not knocking) but it also seems a little healthier than normal stuff I make on the fly, especially boxed stuff from the grocery store. BUT, it also seems like mostly stuff my lovely daughters WOULD NEVER ALLOW TO PASS THEIR LIPS. Something with a tomato chunk? Are you kidding me? I like when we go to Taco Bell (the most recent fave) and my youngest orders a soft taco "without the salad" and I have to order a soft taco with just meat and cheese.

A lot of my sister's blog is about her love of T.V. Well, I love T.V., also, albeit in a less obvious, less conspicuous way. For instance, back in the day when we both loved Blossom, she was pretty proud of it and would gladly tell anyone what she was doing and why not to call. I, on the other hand, would stretch my arms at 7:55 p.m. and say, "Oh, I forgot I have some work to do on my computer" and rush downstairs to watch. Then if I heard my husband on the stairs, I'd quickly turn the channel. I don't mind letting it be known that I like some stuff, for instance, The Gauntlet on MTV of Laguna Beach, but say if I were a fan of Zoey 101, Hello, I'd never let people know that, which I'm NOT, by the way.