Same old new year

Goth girls are terrorizing a pool at a motel somewhere in Rancho Cordova. Ashby and I have ordered a pizza that they wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole and are on our respective electronic devices on opposite ends of the sofa, happily sitting out the hour-long wait for delivery. We're drinking a better-than-decent local wine out of outrageously fabulous glasses. The house is warm, the dog snoring, cats are sleeping on a blanket on a chair. I guess things could be better, but they'd have to really try.

Santa Davey

Santa Davey, originally uploaded by kellye_smith.

Dave at the perfect intersection of homage to Dali and just plain creepy.

Bad idea

So, despairing, as I frequently am, of the girls eating vegetables on any kind of regular basis, I proposed the following change in our family snacking habits.
My suggestion is that anytime we’re mindlessly snacking in front of the tv, it should be on fruits or vegetables. And the chips and cookies and ice cream can still be there, just not as mindlessly inhaled. Just an idea, mind you.

Emily said, “Mom, nothing personal, but I hope your idea drives into a ditch and dies alone.”

Sure, she probably stole it from some dumb tv show, but the delivery? Perfect.

olde english parade

Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. They're doing some sort of tribute to South Pacific and the sailors are "singing" "Nothin' like a dame". Emily asks what they're singing about. Ashby says, "They're singing about girls. Don't you know what a dame is?" She lazily says, "I don't really speak old english."

Fictional characters--Saaaa-LUTE!

Taking the goth girls to see the Warner Bros exhibit and to Twilight today. I can't believe the speed with which they ran through that first 400-page book. The cartoons are more for me, though. Edited to add, we ended up having to skip the cartoons in favor of the movie. Not awful, but there was a lot of parent-snickering followed by pre-teenage girl glares. Makeup was way over the top, with vampire=white pancake + blood red lips. Sales of eyeliner should be skyrocketing this week. At Claire's, anyway...

Papa Bob

Well, Papa Bob just passed away. So sad. He seemed to go so quickly, even though I know he's been sick for months, and in and out of the hospital. He was just so larger than life, in every respect. Physically, vocally, anecdotally. He was a grand storyteller, although by now I'd heard pretty much all of them several times over. I imagine his funeral will be half-grief, half-laughter with bouts of remember the time...interspersed with the moments when words can't express and hopefully all of it well-marinated (overserved!). He would have enjoyed that. The girls are devasted that we can't go, as am I. I have an additional layer of guilt over my inability to manage our finances better, because we should have had the resources available. Money is a goddamn shitty reason not to attend a great man's funeral. Having an awful time, Papa Bob, wish we were there.

why do they call them slumber parties...

when no one ever sleeps?

Emily turned 12 last week and celebrated with a slumber party for 5 of her friends on Friday night. Sophie was the first to fall out at about 11, then Em followed suit at 1ish. The rest of those girls stayed up until god knows when. At 3:30 I packed it in, and told them to go to bed, but I could hear them until 4 or later. Took me every bit of the next day to recover, and then some. Kee-rist.

Mauled

Mauled, originally uploaded by kellye_smith.

Last night, I left the following voicemail for my sister: "So, I'm flipping through vinyl copies of Fugazi and Minor Threat albums at Hot Topic*, while they blast The Go-Gos overhead. I remember most of my work friends are at a Journey/Cheap Trick concert, and I have to ask--what year is this?"

She texted back, I don't think I can help you. I'm on my way to a Neil Diamond concert.

*I was only there with the little girlies, I swear.

happy!

happy! for yellow cake with chocolate frosting and the sweet girls that made it for me...

reek 'n' havoc

two words-
cat box

'nuff said.

housekeeping*

more dusting of the blog, in general. decluttering, if you will, although I'm pretty sure that 7 posts over 4 years is pretty effen decluttered.

I'm feeling very grateful this weekend. Several things in my life are going well, and I'm old enough to know that when that happens, it's best to lift your head out of the rut and look around and say "thanks for all this".

Now, back to the grindstone...

* great movie, great book by the same title

a light dusting

Hey, so I rarely, I mean RARELY write anything in here, right? And I had to delete a few of the very few posts that were here, for some fairly personal reasons. So, if you were here before, and things are different, that's why.

'nuff said.

movie week

So, for our "don't make me call it a Staycation" staying at home vacation this year, we decided to see a movie every day this week.

So far, it's been Mamma Mia, Get Smart, and Space Chimps. Of the three, I have to say Get Smart was the most fun. I was assuming I'd like Mamma Mia the best, but as it turns out, as beautiful as Greece is, and as much as I like both Meryl Streep doing comedy and ABBA, um, yah, no. Not crazy about it, though there were some parts that made me smile. Steve Carrell, on the other hand, just plain seems like the nicest, greatest guy in the world, and I just love every second he's on the screen. Space Chimps? The only thing I can think of to say about that is that Cheryl Hines (much as I love her) has a little too much simian quality about her looks to be doing a chimp voiceover. I'm just sayin'.

I love that I update this thing twice a year, if that. I have to update my age more frequently than I post. Not a good sign. In the meantime, this is pretty much a placeholder...