Weekend Camping Trip

Jess really wanted to go camping before all the preggers got too big and uncomfy - so a camping we did go.
Just over to Tomoka State Park which was about 15 mins away from where the Mehegans live....so Tom's first camping trip really didn't count. Sarah's did though - since it was over an hour away for them. Friday night half of us got there and set up in the dark. That was fun. It was cold and windy and we went to bed pretty early that night just so we could get warm in our blankets. Sleeping on an air mattress is much better than sleeping on the ground. The next morning the Mehegans woke us up, followed by Lewis and Sarah, and then Shannon completed the group. We had 6 tents on one site and you're really only supposed to have like 2 or 3 on each site. The cars were parked in a tetris on the site next door. A cute park boy told us "for future reference" that there were to be fewer tents to one site next time. We went wandering around lookin' for water and found the river....along with some raccoon poo and a gift shop with ice cream. Casey demonstrated her talents on a bomb pop and gave her self a blue tongue. The walk back was rewarded with grilled meat and chili. Scary stories were read, rum was killed, beer was chugged, jiffy pop popped, smores built, and yes....of course I puked. I am That Girl.
Chili looks exactly the same in a puddle on the ground just outside of the tent as it does in a foam bowl to be eaten with a plastic fork. A shovel and the dogs helped with cleanup. The morning was bright and headachey and our tent city came down within minutes.
Impact nothing.

These are the presents I get from our cats.

Elevator of Evil

So I'm goin' up the stairs after lunch and TR is standing there and I say, "How ya doin'?" and he says, "Pretty fuckin' freaked out...." which is very unlike TR so I say, "Why?", genuinely concerned. He says, "Fuckin' Texas Chainsaw elevator right here.....the doors opened and its all dark with a dirty cone..." so he got on the other elevator that was lit up and I hit the button when his closed and waited for the scary one to come back up. I listened at the elevator door to hear the beeps as it came back up to the 4th floor. The doors opened and a sweaty bald fellow got off saying, "I wouldn't take that one - its all dark." and I laughed and said, "Glad you made it..."

My mind is teaming with all sorts of scary stories ideas.

For my nonfacebookers

Michelle - here's the vid from Friday night.

This is me right friggin' now.

This is me when I was skinny.

For my non-facebookers

Posted these over the weekend and wanted to share with my non facebook havin' friends. I won't name any names (ahem, Anna, Cedric and Michelle):

Poor Jesus

We just watched a couple episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia that we had on the DVR. When those were done - we started flippin' through the HD channels and landed upon Showtime HD showing The Passion of the Christ. Right at the scourging scene. The skin effects make-up is phenomenal. And no wonder the movie is so long - half of it is in slow motion. Matt told me the actor that plays Jesus got struck by lightning during filming, so my curiosity sparked and off to imdb I went and found this:
"James Caviezel spoke about a few of the difficulties he experienced while filming. This included being accidentally whipped twice, which has left a 14 inch scar on his back. Caviezel also admitted he was struck by lightning while filming the Sermon on the Mount and during the crucifixion, experienced hypothermia during the dead of winter in Italy. He also experienced a shoulder separation when the 150lb cross dropped on his shoulder. The scene is still in the movie."
and this:
"Assistant director Jan Michelini was also hit twice by lightning during filming."

So do you think maybe Someone didn't want this movie to be made??

After reading through some of the stuff on the imdb page, I said to Matt, "That's amazing..." and his reply was, "You know what's even more amazing? We flipped over to The Passion of the Christ after watching It's Always Sunny."

God Given Right as an AmeriCAN

So there was the dream I had. And about 10 or 15 mins later we got through the voting line. Once inside and in our section of the alphabet, we got up to the nice lady with her book o'names. She asked for my ID and I handed it over and a flippin' she did go. She found a Barbara Stephenson and a Matthew Stephenson (who happened to be standing next to me) but no Karen Stephenson. HA! Shocker. So, I say, "oh well." and start to step out of the line. She hands me a card with "Name not in precinct book" checked off and tells me that the ladies on the other side of the room can help me out. I wait at that table for about 10 mins and while I'm waiting, I start to think back to 2004 - when I initially registered. I'd registered for the primaries which would've been February. Matt and I moved to our townhouse in July and then married in October. So my dim light went off that I wasn't up to date. 5-10mins later, Matthew was done voting and they'd found my name in the book - still under my maiden name. They tell me I'm ok to vote and let me cut back into the S-Z line and then I was on to do my deed. The language in the amendments is ridiculous. Why they can't cut out the bullshit and double negatives boggles my mind. I had to read each one at least twice just to make sure I comprehended it and didn't accidentally vote the way I didn't mean to. I filled in all the ovals with my black felt tip pen (not a #2 pencil) and then took my new fangled ballot, held it up in the air proudly, slid it into its top secret card stock folder flap, and then handed it to the lady who was feeding them into the machines. TA DA - I DID IT!!! Wow - part of the process. I wish I was in the Electoral College. Then I'd REALLY feel like I was a part of something.

N.K.O.T.B.

I posted a picture of my tickets for the New Kids Reunion Tour at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa when they came in back in July and had not much excitement about going since November 2nd seemed slightly far away at that point.
Back in the day, I was a Danny Wood girl - even though my friends called him "monkey face" - which was actually what appealed to me since I tend to be more attracted to cromagnon features. Licia was a huge Donnie Wahlberg fan. April loved her some Joey McIntyre. I think Licia's obsession with them lasted longer than me and April's did. My BOP and Tiger Beat pinups came down after about 6-8 months. I think April's were down maybe a year after they went up. Licia was still going to shows in 8th grade. She's hardcore.
When we heard about the reunion tour, I went ahead and grabbed tickets thinking it would be reminiscent dorkish fun. It was that but sooooo much more. It was truly an adventure.
A day before I'd printed out directions to the St. Pete Times Forum. Then left them at work. So printed out another set from home. Had those with us and ended up gabbing so much we missed our exit which didn't exist due to construction. After 2 turn arounds - we eyeballed our way to where we figured the Times Forum and got there quicker than if we'd followed the directions. So glad I printed them out.
After parking at an honor box, we wandered to a bar which was close by and FULL OF WOMEN. Total clam fest. There were leg warmers, crimped hair, big buttons, stupid glasses, the whole 9. I thought it was funny cuz weren't the New Kids big in the early 90'S?? Is the 80s style line blurred that much? Apparently. After a basket of fries, some cheese sticks, and 6 vodka & flat tonics - we headed over to the Forum.
We learned that when you laugh at someone's outfit they give you a dirty look. We also learned that if you have a purse with you that the stick lady has to go through, she gives you a dirty look, too. Not quite sure why that is.
We made it up to the turnstiles and they scanned out tickets and told us we had to go to the box office. I started to get a little miffed thinking there was something wrong - but then, while standing in that line, I was thinking, "oooo maybe Danny Wood saw the picture I tagged him in on MySpace and wants to hang out with us!!". It wasn't that, but our tickets got upgraded to a lower level because they'd used our area for a "Party Zone" which we were not invited to.
We grabbed a couple of beers and went to find out seats. The 2nd level bowl in the Forum can not be found on Floor 2. There is no floor 2. You have to go to Floor 4 to find seats in the 200 sections. When we did find out seats, they were the very front row of the upper level. It was a fantastic view!
Natasha Bettingfield (she did that Book song and that I love you I love you I love you I love you song) opened for them. She did ok - for a girl singin' to a bunch of girls. Frumpy dress, but who cares when you're singin' to girls? Every time she said, "New Kids" there were squealing screams. Screaming rules.
When she was done we had to get new beers. The beer on the 4th Floor - level 2 aren't as big as the beers on the lobby level - which was disappointing. Beer tastes better when its big.
The guys came out on stage with big puffs of smoke around them and started singin' all the old stuff. The songs are still really gay - but they nailed all the notes and the moves and they're pushin' 40!! At one point they disappeared from the main stage and reappeared in the back of the crowd on a rotating stage with a piano and a girl with stretchy gold lame pants on. She had a bubble butt and danced on the piano while the guys did their thing. I think it was Jordan playing the piano. Then they ran back to the main stage after a couple of songs and did more stuff up there. They had this thing where the big screens took a still of them posing and Joey was doggin' himself for making his head look like it had disappeared. That was pretty damn funny. For the encore the screen showed a bunch of Boston sports team logos and the intro to "Shippin' up to Boston" by DKM started playing. Jumping ensued. When I told Matt about that he was completely shocked and a friend of his said that "NKOTB is to DKM as Israel is to Palestine". I was like - ya never know, they might be friends. Doesn't everyone from Boston know each other? So the fellas came back out for Hangin' Tough and Danny was break dancin' and Donnie did Cover Girl and Jordan did some high pitched song and then that solo song he did where he was at a carnival in the video (I like that song) and Joey did some other high pitched song and Jonathan sold real estate. They waved goodnight/thank you at everyone and that was pretty much it. GOOD NIGHT TAMPA!!!

I give good Panda Head.