The ESPN look for multi-sports parties.

I read somewhere that you need to group things together for the best statement. The article was referring to collectibles and collections people have of things like salt and pepper shakers, family photos, nicknacks, etc.

So I grouped together some ESPN pictures. Yup....it makes sense to me. All in one place.

Like all the crayons in a box, all the silverware in the drawer. Like all my swings on the back porch. Like all the water in the lake...oh yeah....I'm glad that's all in one place and not divided into puddles. Like all the blankets on the bed. Like all the fingers on your hand. Like all the candy wrappers on the floor of my van. Like all the clothes on the floor. Well...some things are not so attractive all grouped together.

Halloween in the 'Hood

I live in a Lakes Area. We have Big SUPERB GORGEOUS houses and not-so-superb houses all mixed in together. I live in a house about smack in the middle. Not SUPERB GORGEOUS but just fine for me....average. I don't have a washing machine in my front yard.

In fact....I have a problem with people who put stuff in their front lawn that doesn't belong there.

I don't mind decorations but please....please...no junk. No empty flower pots. No gardens. No tomato plants in your front yard. Did you miss the show on TV about Curb Appeal??

We have some of those types dotted around our neighborhood. I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me to see JUNK in the front yard. Here's a slice of some crap in the front yard of a house near me. It makes me cringe to see those pots and junk scattered all over their front lawn.

So...I'm have this baggage. I'll admit to it.

Now I'm driving thru an area about 3 blocks down from me and ...What!...I spot a rusted 'ole pickup truck on someones LAWN! You know it caught my eye.

I start to get that feeling...that groaning feeling. Then I started to laugh. Cool. I liked it. Creative. I admire creativity.

I just had to snap a picture as I continued down the road.

Then I saw the competition.

Oh yeah....just a few doors down they had some competition...some very well done competition.

Although...if this wheel-less vehicle wasn't covered and gracefully draped in cobwebs and it wasn't 

Halloween, my blood pressure would probably have made a hole in the roof of my van.

But I actually admired it. I even got out of my van to snap a picture.

Pretty cool. 

I just hope it isn't there in November...and December....and on and on.

Car Racing in go carts

What guy or gal doesn't want to get into

a vehicle and start driving before they 

reach 16? 

I'll admit to it. 

I let my underage kids.. and now

my grandkids... sit on my lap and 

drive my car down our road.

I manage the gas and breaks.

They handle the steering wheel...

with my hand close by on the bottom

of the steering wheel. (After all,

we don't want to take out any roadside

mailboxes...or parked cars.) It's fun.

They do surprisingly well.

 

So it's no wonder that go-carting and

this place in Michigan called 

Cart to Cart is a fun place for kids to

have that driving experience 

at an early age.

We made these cute and colorful and

personalized centerpieces for a local

Bar Mitzvah.

The Mom took the photos on a day trip to

the venue and sent them over to us via 

email and we made them into centerpieces.

We made the flags from foamcore and

the little "roads/tracks" from foamcore too.

The Tarantula Chronicles: Part 9

Jacob strikes again.

This time he gets a

"Panama Red Rump" from a 

tarantula seller he met on

Arachnoboards and also works at 

our local McDonalds.

 So the whole family took a trip up to

McDonalds one evening at 9 pm to

pick up "Ronald"...the new tarantula.

 Jacob has a new tank already prepared thanks to

Chris...one of the great guys who works with

Drew....who no longer needed it.

Jacob carefully encourages it to get into its new

environment. Sometimes they are very uncomfortable

with the change of scenery and and can act hostile.

But this one seemed to be adapting pretty well even

though the previous owner said this tarantula could

be kinda mean.

Jacob has a leather glove. 

Actually he has a pair that I donated to the tarantula endeavors.

So his Grandma...who is taking these pictures (that's me)

says why aren't you wearing TWO gloves?

Jacob says he's fine....don't worry.  

I worry. That's what I do while I take pictures. 

Watch and Worry...my two middle names.

But, obviously, this tarantula knows 

he has a friend in Jacob. Some sort of

"tarantula 6th sense" I guess.

Drew admires this lovely new female tarantula and says

it reminds him of the one he had in looks and size.

This one is about 4 years old and about 6" or more.

It's a nice big one and apparently happy to be here.

 

This is my all time favorite shot.

It sorta says it all.

(to be continued)

Me and my iPad and Huma Lupa Licious

I needed to share my pure delight with you.

Last night I:

1. Had a cordless phone meeting IN MY BED with a client in another state.

2. I typed up her invoice on my ipad IN MY BED whilst sippin' on a beer called Huma Lupa Licious....an India Pale ale that is described as "A complex malt and hop theme park in your mouth". I'm not sure if this is my all time favorite beer because I like the name....or I like the idea of a theme park in my mouth (that's so weird...sorry). No....I think it is the taste. It rivals Starbucks for taste in the beer department. I love it. At 5 o'clock I start thinking about it. The show "The Doctors" said 2 beers a day are good for your heart. I love to help my heart keep beating. I'm all for that.

3. I emailed her invoice as I sipped on that beer.
I thought .....now if I could only print out a hard copy for my files, life would be just fine.

4. I looked for an app for that. There are ipad apps for that. Amazing.

5. I sent my invoice to my printer wirelessly. Yes I did. ALL FROM MY BED~~ with my beer.

6. And then Stacey gave me a wonderful bed tray because I told her I was using a cardboard box to work on in bed with my ipad. Oh my gosh....I love it~!!  I may never leave my bed.

7. Now who delivers food...I mean right to my bedroom and sets it on my bed tray. Who does that? Is there an app for that? There should be.

Kingthings Flashbang...our new discontinued font.

Stacey and I hung this sign at a pretty Bat Mitzvah party this weekend 

done in purple, silver and black.

I designed the sign and Stacey cut out the cute and crazy letters....

....and cut and cut and cut.

This font for "Tori" is called KIngthings Flashbang. 

Stacey decided we needed to call it our

"discontinued font"....thank you very much. 

A one of a kind....first, last and only.

 All those individual circles were separately cut out and all the 

FLASHBANG stars are cut from foamcore. 

Then painted and glittered with purple glitter. 

 Ahhhh..it was sooo pretty....maybe Stacey will re-consider. 

I'll give her time. 

Maybe a year or so.

Phone from car? Pondering in a boring moment.

What the heck?

The sign says "Phone from car"?

Park sideways and lean out your window and use the payphone on this pole?

Not if someone else is parked there in the way. Obviously you can't park of the other side of this crappy phone pole because there's stones around the ugly old weedy grass.

Looks like too many folks leaned on this pole. Are they waiting for it to fall down before they remove it?

Who uses it anyway? Is there one person in the world who doesn't have a cell phone?  Ok...maybe a homeless person. But I doubt any homeless people are visiting this junky party store...although maybe...you never know. Would they have money for a pay phone?

I pulled into the gas station next door and as I was pumping gas I saw this sign. Since pumping gas is one of life's most boring things to do my mind was wandering and pondering the usefulness of this eyesore. There was nothing better to do as I added my almost $3 a gallon gas into my gas tank.

Oh well. Time to ponder is over. Over and Out.

Huron Valley Sinai...Our Home away from home....No Exit.

Huron Valley Sinai Hospital.

It's a beautiful place.  Lushly landscaped and an impressive hotel-like entrance. It's sparkling clean and good health care is given here. Parking is all low on the ground surrounded by landscaping...no big ugly parking structures here.

My whole family has been there on many occasions. Oh...yes.....many. And more to come.

We've all been patients or visitors on occasions too numerous to list. My appendix was left there about 15 years ago one fast and painful Friday evening that I would like to forget.

I remember an old crabby neighbor lady across the street from me who tried to get me on her side in her opposition to having this hospital built just 5 miles north of our houses. She said all that blood running downhill and down the drain was going to ruin our wells.  Really. I kid you not. She said that. I remember crazy stuff like that. I went "Huh? That happens? I don't think so." She assured me it did and it was going to happen when that hospital was built. Crazy lady.

There's lovely internal gardens all around the place.  This one is just off the cafeteria which serves pretty darn good food I might add. I never mind having to eat there.

There's this sign in the cafeteria looking out into these lovely gardens. It says NO EXIT on the door.

No exit to me means this is not an exit. Maybe an alarm would go off?  How'd those people get out there that I saw eating out there? From another door hidden somewhere?  I ate inside.  Dumb Me.  But I watched that door.

And I saw someone go out there thru it. Ahh...Ha. You open the door and walked thru. Yup....that's all.

My Dad and I enjoyed eating lunch in the lovely "self contained" garden that had NO EXIT to the parking lot. Now I get it.

Why not say "Welcome" or "Enter" or  "Open to the Public" on the door. Underneath that: "No exit to the outside of the hospital thru this garden". It's a big door...plenty of room for all these words and "Smoke Free Environment" too.

So....it's a pretty perfect hospital except for this sign. Just wish I didn't have to go there ever but I'm glad to know it's there and I never....repeat never....have worried about blood in my drains. Crazy lady.

The Tarantula Chronicles: Part 8

Here comes the unwrapping of Eenie, Meanie, Miney and Moe.  Jacob's newest additions to his tarantula collection.  I think "Meanie" is a great name for a spider.

Carefully Jacob opens the bag and removes the cartons.

 Viola! There it is. One slightly traumatized spider.

I'm sure it was thinking...what the hell just happened

to me these last couple of days.  But it didn't

take long for it to recover and start to get spunky.

 Here it is in it's new environment.

Here below is Moe....Cobalt Blue Mo.

I can't believe I'm still saying this....but this isn't the end of The Tarantula Chronicles. 

There's more to come.

The Tarantula Chronicles: Part 7

Ever wonder how a tarantula arrives in the mail? Well, let me tell you.

Since Jacob had previously bought a tarantula at an exotic Pet Store and then at a Reptile Show, now it was time to try buying them thru the mail.

It was a very positive experience with Mike from North Carolina who Jacob met on Arachnoboards.

Jacob purchases some poecilotheria ornatoa's.

They arrived in a US postal truck in this box and sat on my hall bench until Jacob arrived home. We passed that box all day and watched it carefully. I did have a fleeting thought of getting Jacob out of school early but I thought better of that. I'd, of course, have to lie. I couldn't say he needed to come home and unpack his tarantulas. The attendance lady would probably...no, for sure... looked at me very weirdly.

So we waited.

I love the position of Jacob's hand in this picture.

It's like....okaaay.....I'm ready.  I'm watching. 

I'm waiting.....ahhhh...I think I'll remove this bag.....very gently.

 To be continued........

It's my blog

I love my blog.

It's random...although I do tend to post lots of work related party decorating pictures because that's what I do. But I like to throw in the personal ramblings too.

It makes me think in a new light.

It surprises me most of the time. I never felt like I was writer.  But since it's my blog there's nobody to ok it but myself. I give myself the ok to be whatever I am on it and just see what comes up.

It's no pressure....no deadline. It's there whenever I want it be. It just hangs around waiting for me to say whatever I want. I like that.

It's mundane just like so many other ones that I read and wonder why I'm enjoying theirs so much.

Details matter. They are what make up the day. Just ask Ashton Kutcher... or Dooce...or Pioneer Women....My Janee...or my nephew and big wheel web guy MickMel.....all bloggers who I think are fun to follow to hear their "details".

And now I follow Blogher on Facebook. What's more all about those tiny details of life than Facebook....well, unless you follow Michael Moore or the Huffington Post who post about BIG SERIOUS THINGS. I follow those too. But I hate to admit that I head to the crazy family posts first to see who's doing what. I like to hear those family details. You wouldn't necessarily make a phone call to share a random small detail but you'd put it on Facebook. I guess that's the reason we like Facebook and the reason we blog and the reason I can put a crazy video of my daughter and son-in-law on here....just because I can and I want to and it's fun. The End.

No...not Pan-er-ree-ah.

I'm driving. My Mom is in the passenger seat. My Dad is all by his lonesome self in the backseat. Got the picture?

We're headed to a favorite restaurant of my Dad's. Found out it was closed on Labor Day when we got there.

We were hungry. Across the street was a Panera Bread restaurant. I said to Mom, "Let's go there." She said okay. They have good soup. (and other stuff, of course.)

Dad, not hearing well from the backseat, said "whatever".

Until we pulled in the parking and then he yelled out "NOOOO....not PAN-ER-REEEE-AAAH!" (As in rhyming with diarrhea.) 

Does it give you diarrhea Dad?  What??  We love this place.  I love it so much I have a My Panera Card cuz I'm a frequent eater there when I drop packages off to FedEx. There's one right across the street. I love the place.

I guess it's because because they have no steaks.  Dad is big on steaks. He has beer and steaks in his veins. Especially juicy steaks like at Applebee's. Ahhh... That's where we needed to go.

Going to Panera is like asking a "Terminator/Clint Eastwood" guy to watch a chikflix, I guess. (Unless he has a laptop and loves the WiFi. You can't go to Panera without seeing 6,000 laptops everywhere.....but that's so not my guy....my Dad....but I digress.)

Ok...so now every time I see Panera...I think PAN ER REEEE AHHH. Can't get it out of my head.

Just like the time someone I knew said they were really mad and stomped their feet and said they were "F----king Fumigated". I'm SURE they meant F----king Furious but it was hard not to laugh out loud. In fact, I did. I remember that moment fondly.

Some things you just can't get out of your head.

The Tarantula Chronicles: Part 6

Jacob is always very careful and gentle with placing his spiders in their new environment.

He provides water and good warm soil and a hide for them to nestle in. He keeps a thermometer and humidity gauge inside.  His Dad owned a tarantula as a kid and is very comfortable checking out this new one. He knows how to pick them up and treat them kindly.

Jacob was also very comfortable right away this this little guy....or I mean gal. She's sweet natured and not easily offended. She doesn't pose in a threat position. She just kinda walks around and enjoys her world.

There's pretty much no place she minds traveling to or visiting.

Jacob encourages others to share in the enjoyment but watches over her like a mother hen. He's very protective and doesn't take his eyes off her. Have I held her yet? No...not yet. I might. I probably will. But not just yet. I'm not ready. I like to admire their beauty....and they ARE beautiful....from the distance of a camera lens.

Jacob's great grandma was willing to look and sit near it but I think the expression on her face says more than any words I could say. Some folks have that reaction.

Have you seen enough yet?

Well, this isn't the end of the story yet.

There's still more to come.

We're on an adventure.

But there will be a slight pause in the
TARANTULA CHRONICLES
as we discuss the options of adding
3 very colorful...yet more serious...
 baby tarantulas to the collection.

Ahhhhh....not so
sure about this decision yet.

I'm just so not sure this is a good idea.
Jacob is sure though.
We'll see.
Stay tuned.

The Tarantula Chronicles: Part 5

Jacob made his choice. It was a good one. A beautiful one. It's called a pink zebra beauty.

She's a female. She has a unibrow. Jake named her Unice. She is friendly. Honestly. A way different personality than testy Mr. Goliath Birdeater who's never going to be friendly no matter how much you feed him and smile at him thru the glass.

So this is the part you may not approve of. We stopped for lunch. And brought her in with us. We couldn't leave her all alone in the van now could we?  It might get hot.  Someone might take her. She might be sad and lonely....well, maybe not that. 

 We were quiet about it. No big deal. It looks like a carry out container anyway. Fits right in.

Who would mind? She's friendly after all.

More to come...yep....more still.

The Tarantula Chronicles: Part 4

Jake decided he wanted a friendly tarantula. Yes...there are friendly ones. So we went off to the Reptile Show in Taylor. In all my years, I've never been to a Reptile Show. I didn't realize there were so many people that loved reptiles. I also never realized you could buy frozen rodents to feed your snakes either. Wow...such a steep learning curve.

Jacob looked at every booth that had tarantulas.  We also briefly looked at some snakes for the "eck" factor. 

Jake talked to the vendors and got some valuable information. One guy was especially fond of his tarantulas and loved to share his knowledge.

He even lifted one up to double check that this was female since Jake was skeptical because his other one was sold as a female and we're almost positive now that it is a male. 

Now here is a a guy who takes tarantulas seriously. Who would tattoo so many on their arms if they weren't something you really really REALLY liked...or loved even.

NOTE to Jacob: Please don't like them this much. I like your arms just the way they are.

More to come...including the trip home and something you may not approve of but we did.