50 Shades of Tonjes

I haven't done YouTubesday in a while, and one of my faves recently put up a couple vids of her reading 50 Shades of Grey and it cracks me up.
Willie (ass) gave me the trilogy for my birthday and I haven't read them yet but was going to do this type of thing for him.  Tonjes has it covered.

The Neverending Birthday Week -or- Karenpalooza 2012 Part III

Saturday Day 6 - DAY OF!! - The morning greeted us with a maid cop knock, Matthew sleepily saying, "come back later" and then me freaking out that my camera bag wasn't in my room.  We went looking back at the band stage and I told Matt that I kinda remember Willie saying that he had my camera bag but I didn't trust my drunken head at that point.  We did the quick stage search (did not see the washtub bass in the bushes) and talked to the towel boy, to end up back in the room with my phone finally plugged in to recharge and a reply from Willie saying, "Yes, I still have your camera bag." with relief washing over.  This made us hungry and we headed over to the restaurant for breakfast buffet where Matthew told me to check my email on my phone.  I looked and smiled seeing the Two Door Cinema Club tickets for the Beacham Theater on June 4th.  YAY!!!
We went and wandered around the vendor room and picked up some prints by this dude, Willie gave us some badass prints from this dude and this set as a bday present that I'm effin' excited about.
This next bit, I feel the need to preface with the following:
About a month ago, I told Front Man John of The Bloody Jug Band that, with my bday coming up, Matt would probably be hitting him up for a merch/souvenir size washboard that the band sells during shows.  I'd made a little noise about how great it would be to have one on our "gallery" wall at home.
And this bit is the actual turn of events:
After running through the vendor room and pickin' up cards and prints and shakin' hands and playin' games, we went back by the Band booth to say "see ya" and Seth, John, & Stormy were there.  We chatted a minute and then John said something about my birthday and picked up the washboard he plays during shows and recent practices and took the straps & eye-hooks off and handed it to me with a "Happy Birthday" or something or other.
I say "something or other" because at some point while he was handing it to me, my brain shut down in disbelief.
I say "disbelief" because 1) that was the one he uses in shows and I knew they had a show the following night and 2) I asked for A washboard, not THE washboard.
There were 2 thimbles included even.

Completely overwhelmed and in a slight state of shock, I said my thank you's and "see ya" laters and we headed out.

Once home, Matthew said, "Close your eyes and put your hands out flat...." which was shortly followed by, "OK, open'em."  This is what I saw in my hands:

I totally know what you're saying....I was saying the same thing.
"HOLY CRAP, HOW COULD ANY ONE DAY GET ANY MORE AWESOME?!?"
I'll tell ya....
A 2.5 hour nap surely helps.
And dinner at Hawkers might've had something to do with it.
And then a trip with crazy friends to Lil 500 to ride go-karts might contribute, too.

The bumpy track was....
There was NO POSSIBLE WAY to NOT laugh or smile while driving.  The boobahs were bouncing, the track was ridiculous, everyone was doing something different and clownin'.
The fast track was....
Fast...and slippery and awesome.
Perma-grins for the night and sore faces later on from smiling/laughing so much.
We also sang "We Are Young" by Fun at the top of our lungs while we were driving.

This bit of awesome was followed by dive bar karaoke at Cheers and singin' "Man In A Box", "Road To Nowhere", "Bobby McGee", "Roadhouse Blues" and trainwreck shots with an improv LMFAO "I'm Sexy & I Know It" group dance.

Seriously, even just thinking about it now is bringing a giant effing smile to my face.

We finished off the night with sign stealing and 7/11 sammiches.

WTH Weds - Key West Faves

Here are some of my favorite pics from Matthew's birthday trip:

WTH Weds: AHS & The Yellow Wallpaper

Matthew's been listening to me for years, talkin' about The Yellow Wallpaper.
A story that stuck with me after a community college literature class I took in '99? I think.
The imagery Charlotte described was fascinating to me....all the "what ifs" you could derive from it.

It made me so insanely happy that it was referenced on this week's American Horror Story.

And I had two "I told you so" moments...

1. When Tate unzipped the rubber suit.

2. When they committed crazy ass Viv.

I feel good about going into a mid-season finale....
wait....
are they doing that like they are with Walking Dead?

They said 'next Wednesday on...." right?
Eh...I still feel good.

On a side note, its a little bit funny that when American Horror Story was done, Matthew flipped it from the dvr to a random skinemax flick called Life On Top.
Then changed it to Time Bandits after shouting, "midgets!" just as Life On Top was getting to the final pocketchange* shot.

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*haha...get it?  pocketchange.  cuz softcore doesn't exactly have money shots.

WTH Weds - Miss Me?

Did you turds notice I was out for the past 6 days?
No?
Good...that means you're out livin' and not completely addicted to the computer.
But if you did...thanks.  That's sweet.  I would give you a hug if I could.

We were out celebrating Matthew's 40th birthday down in Key West for a "6 day weekend" as Matthew was calling it.
I still have a ton of photos and crap to go through and will post something soon.

Also, today has been a day filled with the constant tapping of the "delete" button at the ol'dayjob.
And its comforting to know no one ever actually reads an out of office message.

More later....
I'm feeling like there's a cold coming on and that can not happen because this weekend we're headed up in the opposite direction for the Packers/Bucs game at Lambeau.
SICKNESS IS NOT AN OPTION & I WILL NOT GET DOWN WITH IT



ps.  see, BBI??...stuff happens in November. ;)

WTH Weds - The Belly Cast

This is my friend, Martha, when she was preggers with her 2nd boy.

And this is her boobs/belly cast that she gave me to make pretty.

Grady (the boy that was in there) was born at the end of Aug.
Which means I've had this thing for like 3 months almost and have only sanded and primed it.
Every time I look at it, all I can see is a frog face.
And nipples.
Martha said, "no pressure" when she dropped it off, but I'm feelin' a little bit o'.
We'll see how it goes....

WTH Weds - Bridget Bentley

I've had the same cell phone number for the past 10 yrs.

For the first few years, I'd get calls all the time for people looking for Bridget Bentley.

Creditors, her grandmother once, and they'd all leave me messages for her.  Even though my outgoing message said, "This is Karen".

After a while the frequency trickled off and eventually quit, but recently, the calls have started back up again.

About 5 mins ago, a call came through from a 954 area code.  Not recognizing it & being on a dayjob concall, I let it go to voice mail.

Turns out ol' Bridget Bentley is single and inquiring with Its Just Lunch dating service.

A quick search tells me that Bridget is around 40 and has lived in both Orlando and a few south FL cities in the past.

Between these phone calls and the internet search, I'm curious about this person who's been sharing my phone number.

I wonder if she'll ever see this.

WTH Weds - Dominoes During Storm

I was going to write out an explanation of what you're looking at, but don't feel like it.  You turds can figure it out or make somethin' up.

Sunday Confession on Tuesday - 4th Class Review

I was cranky before arriving at class last week.  Dayjob was annoying me and then I got stuck in traffic after stopping for gas.
I got there about 10mins late and everyone was already set up and working on that October piece.
Sally, the teacher, had the commission she'd mentioned working on, on display.  You can see it down there on the right.  The dogs.  She likes painting people's pets.

We worked on "October" for a bit after going through "toning" a canvas.....which is basically your primer coat that you build from.

Here's what my "October Barf" looks like after the 4th class:

Everyone was so tired of this one and vocally ready to move on.  My little red-roofed house looks like it needs stick figures outside of it.

The more we work on it, the more I kinda like it.  I'm just gonna keep adding to it and will keep you posted & show it again when I think its done.

In maybe a year, at this rate.

While this has helped to give me a new appreciation, landscapes aren't really my thing.  

Luckily, for me....after our toning dried, we got to work on our base lines for this VanGogh:

Yay.  More landscapes.

Pretty sure everyone will get tired of doing this one, too.  Although, we get to play with heavy medium and will be gloppin' that shit up.

We're all such good students.  Look at us, paying attention and crap.

Here's what my garbage looks like so far:

Kinda lookin' forward to layin' it on thick and smearing that shit around.  Stay tuned.

WTH Weds - Boston Highlights Pt. 1

Friday marnin', we hit the skyclub to see what the haps was.  They'd hooked Matt up with at least a day pass and we drank brunch & had snacks.  The rosemary seasalt crackers are pretty badass.

For crackers, I mean.  They were/are the shit.

Matthew's been eating them for days.  Pretty sure he'll come home smellin' like rosemary.

I ain't mad at that.

Anyway, our flight was delayed so we facebooked & crap.

Hopped the flight, grabbed a cab.  He overcharged us to the hotel and we got checked in.

Props to the Marriott Copley.  Great spot.  Nice "sports bar" & breakfast buffet.

Here's what our view looked like from the room:

It was the only photo I took with the canon.

I took the entire camera bag with me, but didn't take the camera out on adventures.  Couldn't be bothered to.  I did get some kickass footage of the Murphys show.

Which was fuckin' AWESOME.

Fenway was cool.  Boston in general is cool.

I told Matthew it was my 2nd favorite city.  He didn't ask me what the 1st was.....he'd assumed it was NYC.

NYC has been bumped to #3, sadly.

Amsterdam being the first.

Boston #2. (haha.....number 2.  that's poo)

Its the combination of smaller town with big city urban feel.

The top 2 feel like big small towns to me.

If that makes sense.

I rarely do.

Anyway, back to the show.

MightyMighty Bosstones were playing when we hopped out the cab from McGreevy's (pregame car bombs).

The stage was set up in centerfield.

It looked like this:

We found an empty row and counted scally caps.

When the Bosstones were done kickin' everyone's ass, we made a pee/beer run.

The bathroom had a long line & smelled like snax while "no smoking" signs were posted about.

My stall didn't have a latch.

Found the friends and grabbed some brews.

Found our empty row again.

There was a bloke who looked slightly like Warren Ellis with a very long ponytail & a hat.

He appeared to not be having a good time.

We included him in on our fun.

Although I don't think he was as amused as we were.

The Murphys came out along the green monster wall with bag pipes playing.

The moon was almost full and a breeze was blowin'.

I gotta admit, I got a little teary eyed.

Shut up, I'm a girl.  I'm allowed to do that.

The stage backdrop was the skeleton pipes player, same as the shoes that Matthew got me.

We jumped & sang along & swayed with beer & threw our fists in the air & yelled....

and it was heavenly.

Afterwards, we walked back to Whiskey's and had some killer $.99 pizza & put a sticker on an armadillo.

The End of Part 1.

YouTubesday on Wednesday - TobyGames

WTH Wednesday. BONUS

Man....all these bonuses. What did you turds do to be so lucky this week?

I must really like you.

Here's what it looks like when your back deck is torn up and being redone due to wood rot.
This is also progress.

WTH Wednesday. Update

This is what progress looks like.

WTH Weds - Still No Air

So I called the a/c folks yesterday morning and they said they had parts on order for us (new compressor) but it would take 3-7 business days for it to come in and they would call and schedule with us as soon as the delivery came through.
There is no ETA.

This company is USHAC.
Do not use them.
You see that bit on the website where it says "24hr Emergency Services"? Yeah, when I asked them about that last week when we were trying like hell to get someone to come help us out before the Bomb.....the chick said, "Oh yeah, we don't have that. Sorry, we're completely booked. You're scheduled for Monday."
Later on that day, we rec'd confirmation that we actually had a Saturday appt scheduled.
One of the lead techs came out Saturday, Steve, and was a very nice fellow and most helpful - stopped to point out things, explained what he did, what needed to be done next, & answered our questions without making us feel like we were keeping him from being some where else.
Everyone else at the company has done nothing but cause frustration.
I've written a bad review for them on yp.com.
It made me feel only a little better.

On the plus side, my skin has never felt better. Cold showers and sweating as much as I have the past week has really done wonders for my skins. Buffalo Bill would be proud.

Also - its nice to know so many of our friends have open doors for us.
We're choosing to tough it out in the evenings so far because it's good training for the zombie apocalypse when there will be no power. So, we'd have to be acclimated to it then anyway. This is just prepping us for that.
We've also had some nice storms roll through that have cooled things off so its been quite pleasant the past couple nights.

WTH Weds - Wig Day

Here's a hint for who I'm gonna be for this year's Superheroes/Villians Bomb.


Guesses will not win you anything, but they will be fun to read.

WTH Weds Catchup

On Sunday, I was going to confess drinking too much Saturday night for Sunday Confession.

Didn't feel like outting myself & was too hungover to type.

We didn't go see any new movies over the weekend for Monday Movie.

BUT I did watch this pretty damn interesting documentary called 'Catfish' about a dude who meets a family via facebook and goes on a journey to meet them. Good flick. If I talk about it too much here, it'll give things away. I'd give it 4 outta 5 facebook friends.

And speaking of facebook, I'm 2 weeks behind on youtubing, so here's one that came out about a month or so ago that gets stuck in my head from time to time:

Also, I'm trying to grow some blackeyed susans and daisies.

In honor of Broken Barn Industries and just because I walked past some flower seeds while at the grocery store the other day, shrugged, & asked myself, "why the fuck not?"

If they grow, I'll take photos & brag & shit, but won't get my hopes up.

Also, I realize this has turned more into a weekly blog instead of the daily it had been. I'm gonna fix that. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about that.

Also, there are no more "also"s. See you turds tomorrow.

WTF Day is it??

Oh yeah, Wednesday.

Whateverthehell.

Sorry, I haven't been on much lately, turds.

A friend of ours recently passed and subsequently, I've been in a slight funk.

Death sucks.

Especially when it happens to good people.

[INSERT TOPIC CHANGE]

Last week, Pannacakes messaged me and was like, "my niece put up a picture on facebook of her planking and I was like 'wtf?' and had to look up planking".

For those of you not familiar with planking.....you're welcome.

I'd told her to not feel bad, that Matt didn't know what planking was either, but when asked, he totally proved me wrong and colored me impressed.

He DID know what planking was.

When had this happened and why had we not been sharing this mutual appreciation??

Ignoring an answer to this question.....we practiced in the living room:

Snoop failed, but gave it great effort.

WTH Weds 9 - Blog War & Bananas

These are my friends in NY.

The Ink part of Broken Barn Industries, Ink - I've known for....what....like 8 yrs now??

The Broken Barn Industries part (aka The Angry Gardener), I've not yet met in person, but she seems pretty groovy over the webbernets. Anyone who can throw some fun & good natured shit at me via blog is OK in my book.*

Its also fun when people play along. Unlike you turds who rarely comment.

Y'damn lurkers.

Broken Barn once said they love comments - and I've comment bombed them quite a bit since.

Shut up - COMMENTS RULE!!

Anyways, this picture is for Broken Barn in (yet another) response to this post:

Suck it.

Yes, we have no bananas.

A couple years ago, we did....and we cut them down and tried to eat one but it was gross so we threw them away.

NOW we know that had we hung them to ripen for a little while, we would've had plenty for peanut butter/banana/honey smoothies.

Sometimes we're dummies....but usually only once with something.

Lesson learned.

Last year, we had a bloom but then there was a freeze and the bloom never blossomed any nanners.

Then the landscape guys came through and cut them all down.

That was earlier this year. Maybe 4 months ago?

That picture up there was taken yesterday.

If we get a bloom later this summer, I'll take pictures of it just for my NY friends...cuz they're fun & play along.

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*if I had one & kept track of shit like that.

WhateverTheHell Wednesday 8 - Twilight & CATDG

I did a poll. Its at the bottom.

If you turds play along, I'll do them monthly.

If you don't, they'll just go away never to be seen again & there will be no fun for you.*

Y'all see the new Breaking Dawn Part 1 trailer??

No? Well, there ya go.

This one made me laugh this morning.

-AND-

For those of you streaming the Casey Anthony trial during work....or watching it on your regular ol' tv - Feel free to leave your own additions/variations:

CASEY ANTHONY TRIAL DRINKING GAME

DRINK:

• When Judge Belvin says, "pacifically" instead of "specifically".
• Every sidebar discussion.
• Every time the camera zooms in on the flagpole eagle.
• Every time you see Casey laugh.
• Every time you see Casey cry.
• When Judge Belvin puts Jose Baez in his place.
• When a witness shakes or nods their head instead of answering "yes" or "no" to a question.
• Every time you hear Judge Belvin breathing heavily into the microphone.

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*at least until the next dumb attempt for something interactive.

WhateverTheHell Wednesday 7 - Mayhem

Most of you guys know that for my birthday last week, Matthew & I did the long weekend thing here.

Cuz horror movies rule.

So do VIP passes.

We got some shots that looked like this:

Cassie Hack's prom photo.

Vlad chillin'.

Alex Winter's Q&A. He was a damn cool guy.

Effin' up that VIP Party's open bar.

Greg Nicotero did his own Q&A and another with the cast of Walking Dead.

Bruce Campbell & Ted Raimi during the Q&A for the 30th Anniversary cast reunion for Evil Dead.

Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flannery, & Rocco from The Boondock Saints.

I'll be posting more pics on the facebooks.

We had a friggin' blast & are ok with admitting we're now full on con-nerds.