Big Bugs! New Feature!
Since I am posting a lot of other “big” things, I thought you’d like to see the Big Bugs! at the Morton Arboretum! We went last year with the kids and it was great fun. The place is huge! And the bugs were awesome! They’re gone now, they were only there for a limited time. The artist that created them made them giant and completely out of wood; finished sticks. We like stuff like this. Practically free and inspires creativity! And it’s just flat out cool. I’m going to dole them out one at a time to keep up with the rest of my daily stuff!
Hot Breaking News From the Suburbs!! Rita Wears Her First Summery Outfit In Years!! Ankles EXPOSED!!
We have photo’s of this magnanimous event! I took the pictures! With my camera! She let me!
It’s true. It’s all true. Rita NEVER wears anything that goes above her elbows or the tops of her shoes. EVER. Heck, she never even wears OPEN toe shoes.
But today, for whatever reason, she showed up, at my house, with a light blouse and jeans on, that were rolled to mid-calf! And cute, little Sketcher shoes with multi-colored bands. They had a closed toe, but they were definitely summery! I am so proud of my mom!
If I can be serious for a minute, this is the first time, as an adult, I think I can remember her exposing her ankles in such a fashion. And, I might add, she looks pretty good! (The skin on her ankles is probably all freaked out though wondering what the hell happened and who dares to parade them around in the daylight!?!)
Enough of my talk talk. This is for my mom. Here’s the shots:
Hot Mama! Looking Good!
Come On People! Help me break 3000 Hits! Tonight! July 30, 2009.
Tell your friends, call your family, leave it on at work, link me to something, hook me up, pass me around…I only need 50 plus people to click on my silly stories. You know there’s fifty of you out there who like to laugh! I’m pretty funny!
We have booty pictures, fancy cars, animals, life, death, love, joy, struggles, pain, triumph…it’s all here…for free!
Hang around. Keep coming back! There’s definitely something for everyone! My words are like bacon. Everybody loves bacon!
Sitting on a Bench with some guy…
Today’s bench is brought to you from the front of Bettenhausen Dodge. Home of my auto true love. (Post should be above this one)
My girl got the crazies!
Sad news from our aqua-world.
Something was wrong with Mason’s puffy-eye goldfish for quite some time now, but we didn’t know what. We could tell though, that it didn’t look good. And survival of whatever ailed it was not hopeful. After a hard fought battle, he struggled desperately this week to live, I am sorry to say, that he is gone. As of last night, I found it necessary to put him out of his misery.
And without even one bit of exaggeration or sarcasm, I really felt sorry for that poor fish. And I am not ashamed to say that I cried. In fact, I am crying right now typing about him. Watching him try to eat and breathe and swim was just awful. If you could imagine yourself ever wondering if fish have feelings or if they suffer at all, you would know that it could be true looking at this particular goldfish.
I watched him a few nights ago searching the water for food. I could tell he was having a hard time finding it. He used to have very big bags around his eyes when we first got him, that’s the type he was. Just recently, the puffs were beginning to grow again. Sometimes they do. Unfortunately his life was rough from the start. We didn’t know at the time that those kind of goldfish are susceptible to getting those baggy eyes punctured. Which happened almost immediately. The internet said he may die from it. But he didn’t. In fact, he recovered and looked better than ever.
Then a few of the other goldfish Mason had in his tank started to attack him. They eventually ended up nipping off one of his three, long, tail fins. Then just as abruptly, they stopped. The puffy-eye seemed fine even after that. He swam a little weirdly and not always straight, but he was very tough and endearing and had personality, if a fish can, and we really fell in love with him.
Let me just say here, that we have had A LOT of fish come through this house. I mean, A LOT, a lot. And we have dealt with many dead fish so it’s not like we are over prone to fish affection but, this one really did seem special. It’s weird until you own a really good one and then you see. At any rate these last few weeks we watched him suddenly grow bigger and bigger. His body started to get fatter and fatter as if he was going to burst. We managed to get one picture of him, looking pretty good for all his trouble. You can kind of see where he was becoming so fat. In the last 2 days his scales seemed to be lifting off of him and I knew we were close to the end.
Then last night when I went in to feed him, puffy-eye was laying at the bottom, kind of half-in and half-out of Mason’s decoration Colosseum. He was gasping but not moving. It didn’t look like he would be able to get himself out of there. So, I nudged him free and he floated helplessly to the top, just staring at me, gasping for air (?). I couldn’t stand it. He LOOKED miserable. I don’t care what anyone says, that fish was not without some kind of pain. So I ended it for him. And I cried.
I feel kind of silly for being overly emotional about a fish, but he was part of the Aqua-World that we have been creating all the years of my children’s lives. And I cried, because Mason and Stevie really loved that fish too, and they weren’t here to see him go. They knew when they left that there was a good chance he would be gone by the time they get home next week, but I was kind of hoping that little guy could have made it, or suddenly got better and been perfectly normal again. But it was not to be.
So this is my little eulogy to another fish that has swam in and swam out of our lives yet again. He was a funny, puffy, silly, lopsided little fish that we adored.
Rest in Peace.
And if you would like to read more about the love these little fish seem to invoke, please click here.
Bench of Love. Second Installment.
Or maybe we’ll go with Bench of the Day! Keep a theme going here. Since I have no actual theme. Or is that the theme itself?
If anything the theme is: Shit That I Did 2 Days Ago And Am Telling You About Now or Everything Is Always Two Days Ago
Maybe if I put them in italics??
Shit That I Did 2 Days Ago And Am Telling You About Now
Everything Is Always Two Days Ago
Hmmm…I’ll have to think about it. Here is today’s bench (picture taken four days ago):
Don't they look excited to be helping me with this project?!?
Update. NOW it’s gonna rain…ratsafratsa…And the Final Warrior Dash post until next years event (or at least sign-up)
It’s like thunder, lightning…the way you love me is frightening…that’s from a song, but the storm is moving in. It’s like the weather was waiting for me to finish running today. “OK, Thunderheads, she’s done. She finally got her lazy butt up and around, send in the clouds and let her rip!” Bastard Atmospheric Conditions!
Anymuddyway…These are the final pictures from that damn little mud camera with the amazing ability to take blurry pictures of hot firefighters but somehow focus in with razor sharp acuity on my ginormous ass going over a wall. (If you wanna see the butt pictures–you gonna have to search the website–I put them in a separate post–Ha!)
Here they are. Thanks A & J!
Our kingdom for a wish…
Before the race. Strolling the course. Posing so bravely.
Ooooh! Fire! Hurry!
Scary! And actually it was a little bit...it was hot, high, and 7 in the morning. We have to jump over that???
The mud. Looks nice with no one in it. Kind of like a spa!
The start.
People running with us. I'm kind of hungry...
Imagine that running on the flat ground is the easiest thing you do all day!
The hills! Killer! Seemed easy until about the twentieth one!
The junkyard cars.
Cheesecake!
My favorite part! In the forest! The steep terrain and jagged rocks! I really did like this obstacle!
Climb over a spool. Walk the plank!
From the bottom...
...and from the top!
Look at that man! Just hops right over! Where are the girls?? You gotta go look...'cause they are not in this section!
In the tubes...a mere competitor...
...Out the other side...a WARRIOR!
Swampy. Our first taste of mud and what's to come!
The mud pit. Down and dirty and in it! We are there.
We are so over it!
Firefighters. Big Hoses. Water. Yes, please.
See you all next year!!
Every excuse in the book…
For why it took me a dismal 47 minutes to run around 3.7 miles.
1. The air temperature was 87 degrees at 3 pm.
2. There was no wind.
3. And no shade.
4. The sun was blazing down like hellfire.
5. I had a rock in my shoe.
6. And a cramp in my leg.
7. And a weird pain in my ankle going down to the bottom of my foot.
8. I have my period.
9. I have my period.
10. I just ran 5 miles yesterday.
11. The direction I ran has more of an uphill slope almost the entire way.
12. I still have a scorching sunburn on my chest from the weekend. (Sport bra was rubbing and causing blisters)
13. My earphones kept falling out.
14. Or pulling too tight at the neck. (Tucked in my shirt collar and thru the sleeve to my arm band)
15. Wispy hairs kept sticking to my face.
16. Sweat was dripping in my eyes.
I could probably keep going but it won’t change the fact that today’s run was made on sheer willpower alone. Seriously.
I had zero desire and zero strength to get around. At the one mile to-go mark (going backwards from the norm), I wanted to stop. And I don’t mean just stop running. I wanted to completely stop and lay down on the track. I was actually arguing with myself about NOT stopping. Telling myself, I could not just stop right there and I really couldn’t sit down much less LAY down on the trail. Besides the car was still a mile away, and how did I think I was going to get there?? I’m like, just go. Just keep going. Breathe in, count steps, count breaths, whatever…here comes a tree, here comes another tree, ¾, ½, ¼, here’s that garbage can, here’s that pink kid croc shoe that somebody must have lost yesterday, I can see the car, keep going, don’t throw up, here’s the port-a-potty, the parking lot, the car, you made it!
And now I am home again. Almost forgetting…that’s how it gets you! Exercise is only hard at the time. Otherwise it feels pretty good.
And since I’m feeling successful and numb, here’s those pics I mentioned earlier. See how I buried them way in here! You gotta be a fan to get the good stuff! Thanks Jay for taking such a flattering picture! And thanks Amanda for that concerned face while helping me over, making it look like I weigh 300 pounds! I love you guys! Ann Or Ex E Uh! Next year! (I posted them full-size for that extra added chuckle)
I'm much more flexible, and not THAT heavy, but I still couldn't have made it over myself. Next year. Little jog, little skip, up and over! Take that, horrible waterproof disposable low speed film camera (with unfair sharpness and clarity).
In my defense, my butt is not really THAT huge. It LOOKS huge, that is true. But it's the angle. The shorts. The other shorts. I am MUCH better looking in real life. And thinner. I swear!
One more celebrity bit from the internet and I’m done
Why am I looking at 30 pictures of this vehicle?? All pretty much the same. In various stages of food-order/pick-up. Sitting in a McDonald’s Drive Thru?? Oh yeah, because these are pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie taking their kids to McDonald’s using the drive thru! Just like a billion other people in the world. I feel sad for myself that I wasted 10 minutes looking at every one. Celebrities are just so interesting, even when their not. Nice vehicle though.
The site I got these from is:
Socialite Life if you want to see more celebrity stuff.
Picture credits go to: Flynet
just shy of pretty 