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Would
you like some candy, leeetle boyz? I weel come to your crib
in the middle of the night to show you my eggs, no? My
favorite neighbors Connor & Caleb look somewhat less than
pleased to meet the Easter Bunny. Actually even I think
that rabbit looks a little freaky and he isn't even ten times my
size. I think those kids are onto something.
My 401K/Soup Tureen/eBay Plan: Remember this
posting and my plans to become a soup tureen mogul on eBay?
The auctions ended today. So how did I do you might ask?
For the soup tureen, platter, and water pitcher for which I paid
$120, I netted $364.01. I am just that good people. I. Am.
Just. That. Good.
What's Going On at that Other
Site: I have a new blog here
and a new website here
that I'm starting to work on more than I do this one. Check
out my blog to see if anything is new.
Click Here to Read About this Tornado
Something Else Entirely: I
sincerely hope none of you guess the right answer to this
question. It isn't a trick question so give your answer
some thought before peeking:
Scenario: A woman, while at
the funeral of her own mother, met a guy whom she did not
know. She thought this guy was amazing. She so believed him to
be her dream guy that she fell in love with him right there,
but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few
days later she killed her sister.
Question: What is her motive for killing her sister?
After you
come up with an answer, go here to see how you did.
a sudden outbreak of global warming
Sat Mar 8
This darn global warming is really putting a kink in my
gardening schedule--guess we'll have to postpone our plans to
put a fresh layer of mulch in the flower beds until after it
stops freakin' snowing. In Atlanta. In March.
Fortunately, things will be back to normal
tomorrow with temperatures in the low 60's, and since we are 'go
with the flow' kind of people, we just moved things around on
the schedule to accommodate the change in the earth's climate.
Morley is going into the office today and maybe we'll get to
tinker in the yard tomorrow after the globe warms up a few
degrees--unless, of course, a glacier starts to form in our
backyard pond in which case we'll have to stay indoors and
ponder the horrific climate changes we have wrought by driving a
big 'ol SUV and using plastic bags to carry our groceries home
from the store. Or maybe we'll just sit around the fireplace and
think of ways to reduce our carbon footprint or watch "An
Inconvenient Truth" or some such pansy thing like that.
On second thought...Nah.
Hey, Look What I Found!
While digging around on an old hard
drive looking for something else entirely, I stumbled across
this vintage photo of Bratley with hair--lots of
hair--and it's permed! Really, really permed. As in, two
bottles' worth of Toni Home Perm permed.And of course nothing is
better than a denim shirt and tinted aviator glasses to complete
that "sensitive smolderin' hunk 'o manhood" look.
Behold: sheer manly perfection, 1970's style.
Who knew I've been sitting on a gem like this one all this time?
Obviously I need to do a little more digging to see what else
might be tucked away in the archives, but first I have a sudden
inexplicable urge to watch reruns of Welcome Back Kotter.
Wonder what's up with that?
Answer to Question
Above:
Answer: She was hoping the guy
would appear at the funeral again. If
you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath. This
was (allegedly--I didn't verify it) a test by an American
Psychologist used to test if someone has the mentality of a
killer. Many arrested serial killers (again, allegedly) took
part in the test and answered the question correctly.
Some people invest in stocks.
Personally I am into soup tureens.
Wednesday,
March 5 Last Saturday Carol
and I spent the morning in our favorite activity of all--"hunting and gathering" also known as going to yard
sales. It was a zen-like experience for us because it has been
so long since we indulged, and my zen-like inner voice told me
to head for a particular neighborhood where the rich folk live.
And there we found a once-in-a-lifetime
yard sale at a million dollar house crammed with ultra high end designer stuff, most of which was outside our
budgets even at yard sale prices.
However, sitting in
the dining room was a magnificent swan soup tureen that both of
us instantly recognized from our buying trips at the Merchandise
Mart (we don't carry this line in our store because it is so
outrageously expensive but we always stop to admire their stuff
anyway). Long story short, I smelled opportunity and bought the soup tureen, a matching platter, and
matching water pitcher for $120. After I got home I
checked eBay and discovered that the three pieces sold last
month for about $350. And now I am really having a zen
moment. Love you long time, swan soup tureen.
I am now in the
process of photographing my investment--which I might point out
you would not do if your portfolio was stocks and bonds--and I'm
getting ready to become an soup tureen mogul on eBay. (I don't
want to keep it because it doesn't match my decor, plus Morley
expressed qualms about his ability to eat soup served out of a
duck's butt). There's a tureen like mine currently being
auctioned so I'll wait five days until that auction ends and
then I'll make my big move. As for Carol, she
didn't score any soup tureens but she did pay $19 for a brand
new, still-in-the-box aromatherapy lamp that sells in the candle
store for $90. We are a couple of investment savvy
chicks.
Anyway, it is getting
suspiciously Spring-like here in Atlanta so come visit
us and we'll do yard sales. You never know what you'll find, and
who knows? You might become an eBay mogul like me.
Update on our
friend Roz: Her heart surgery scheduled in London on Monday had to be rescheduled at the last minute because the
surgeon didn't have a particular type of catheter he needs to
perform the operation. She has been in the hospital since Sunday
waiting for her doctor to get the right equipment, which her husband
tells us they think will happen today. I'm not
going to express any opinions about English health care
but just think of Roz the next time a politician tries
to tell you how wonderful national health care systems are.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Those cheeky
Japanese: I got this amazing video in an email
yesterday. Apparently the Japanese have developed a high speed
camera that takes 2,000 frames per second. Watch this
video where they filmed a water balloon being pierced with a
pin. This must be how atoms see the world (assuming that atoms
have eyes). High Speed
Camera Demo
Get Well Soon, Roz!
Friday
Feb 29, 2008 On our
cruise earlier this month we met our new friends for life Roz
and Les Merry-West who live just outside London. They were our
dinner companions every night on the cruise, attended a
spontaneous "engagement
party" on our deck the afternoon after Morley proposed,
and even stayed an
extra day in San Juan with us after the cruise ended. We've kept
in touch since we all got home and they've even agreed to be
part of our
Blessings Service in England later this year.
Roz has had a heart
problem for several years for which she has to take really
nasty meds that make her swell up and feel lousy, plus she has
to endure occasional episodes when her heart races out of
control and scares the bejeebers out of her and her darling
husband. Every now and again when her heart won't stop
fluttering, the doctors in England stop her heart and then
restart it to make it beat normally (just the thought of it
scares me but she's gotten to be pretty nonchalant about it by
now).
Anyway, England has
a national health care system that moves at a snail's pace and Roz has been waiting her turn for heart surgery for
a long time. Yesterday she got the call letting her know her
turn has finally come, and so on Monday she'll have surgery to
fix her
heart and let her get back to a normal life. We'll be thinking of you on
Monday Roz and will say an extra little prayer--or ten or
twenty--that you sail right through it.
Exotic Weekend Agenda:
Cleaning House
February 25, 2008
Okay, so our bedroom wasn't actually as messy as shown in this
photo I borrowed from a essay about compulsive
hoarding, but it felt
like it, and the mess was really bugging us. Clearly something
needed to be done and so we spent our weekend cleaning. As these
sorts of things tend to do in my case, it spread from being a
simple mission to clean up our room to a much broader mission to
rearrange the entire upstairs. (I remind you of the infamous
episode where Mom and I started out to clean her bathroom floor
and ended up in a major rehab project involving Home Depot,
power tools at midnight, and two very cranky brothers, ie Roger
and Bradley).
Anyway, we took every single thing out of our
bedroom and the guest bedroom, switched the furniture from one
room to the other, washed walls and baseboards, vacuumed drapes
and carpets, applied paste wax to the furniture, threw out huge
trash bags full of junk from the closets and under the bathroom
vanities, and...well, you get the idea. My back is absolutely
killing me from moving furniture from one room to the other
(Loretta, I know what you are thinking!) but our bedroom is now
nice and tidy and the guest room looks great too. We still need
to do a couple of things such as rehang artwork and have the
carpet re-stretched (actually we want to replace it all
together), and Morley has to shorten the ceiling fan in our room
so we can install the canopy on the bed, but we have all the
back-breaking stuff done. Come visit quick while it still looks
like this. Our
Room Your
Room (the Guest Room)
Better Late than Never: I've been
so busy lately that I've been negligent in posting much here,
thus I have collected up a bunch of cool stuff that I've been
intending to post but never got around to it. In the
spirit of continuing the weekend's cleaning frenzy, I give you
these gems:
Very Thought Provoking: This one will
make you think, promise. Did
You Know video
Guess the Spot: Little test to see if
you can figure out what you're looking at in aerial photos. I
scored a miserable 60%. Aerial
Photos
Solve a moving zigsaw puzzle: The
dang thing is moving the whole time you're trying to solve
it. Here's a hint--separate all the pieces first. Moving
Puzzle
Great article about the election:
Finally a journalist says what
I'm really thinking
...and finally: a really great
joke: the Leprechaun and
the Golfer
Save the date: 09/06/08
Thurs, Feb 21
GAME ON!!!!!!! We have set the date for our
nuptials which will be held Saturday, September 6 at the
marina chapel. After the ceremony in which I make an honest man
out of Morley, our guests will be transported by boat to a nearby
island for a very memorable reception on the beach (we have also
rented the marina's pavilion in case it rains). As for the recommended attire for
this auspicious occasion, may
I recommend chic sundresses for ladies
and Hawaiian shirts for gents (socks optional, sunglasses
recommended). It is going to be a fun and joyous and romantic
day. I'll keep you posted
on further details as they develop.
And if getting ready for a wedding wasn't enough,
two weeks before our big day--on Morley's 60th birthday--we're going on another
mission trip to Nicaragua, returning on Sunday before our wedding the following Saturday.
It's crazy I know, but there's a simple explanation for
the lunacy: the dates for our mission trip had previously
been nailed down as a special way to celebrate Morley's 60th
birthday, and Morley's sister Carol is going on the mission trip
with us. She's flying from England
to Atlanta and then on to Nicaragua
with us, and our thought was..."well, heck, why not?
She's already going to be here..." By scheduling the events back-to-back she can
get the most bang out of her British Airways buck and it will be
a 60th birthday party-mission trip-wedding we'll never
forget.
We are excited about our families meeting each
other at the wedding--it looks like
Morley's niece, his nephew, and his nephew's lovely girlfriend
from Holland will be coming. We can't wait to introduce
my very Southern family to Morley's very English family. Who
knew we'd ever get a chance to do that, eh? (His mum won't
be at the wedding because the flight from the UK is too tiring
for her but she'll be a part of our blessing ceremony in England
in October).
There is a lot of planning to be done to get ready for all of
this, but Morley's
sister Carol has offered to help with the final wedding preparations
after we get back from Nicaragua, plus my friend Carol--who is
also going to Nicaragua--has offered to pitch in too. We're three
wild and crazy chicks ready to do a mission trip and a wedding
six days apart. We're just crazy like that. Wish us luck.
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