Goth Girls

Today I took the girls' annual Halloween picture for the cards I usually send out although it's been about three years since the last time I did that. These photos were taken in the Moscow cemetary to get the right feel. The above one I left in color so you could see what the outfits and make-up looked like. Lots of mascara, eyeshadow and eyeliner - pretty much any black make-up in the house was used on the eyes - short of a Sharpie marker.

The girls weren't too thrilled with getting all dolled up so I had to bribe them with a $10 modeling contract each.


Josie's attention span was done after about 10 snaps of the camera so Annabelle appeased me. These were shot by the only mausoleum in the cemetary. I loved the wrought iron fencing.




I took 40 pictures in about a 20 minute span in various places around the cemetary. I am very pleased to report that the only "souls" I captured on film were of my daughters.


This shot was the winner. The hard part will be assembling the cards and getting them mailed out in time.

Something I Like

It's always easier to write about something that perturbs me. I am a happy person, generally so I am going to make it a point to follow up my Pet Peeves posts with something I like.

I love beautiful warm autumn days like today in Moscow. The sky is a vibrant blue, the trees are turning colors and leaves are skittering about the ground. The noises outside are becoming still and the air smells crisp and clean (a nice reprieve from the grocery stores).

Pet Peeve #29

Stinky People.

I've had two encounters with stinky people in the last week and they both happened in grocery stores. Last week I was in the Moscow Food Co-op and mind you, it's a Co-op, where scents of Patchouli, incense and organic foods abound along with the majority of the shoppers being neo-hippies. I get that some of them are saving the aquifer by not bathing everyday but at some point they do bathe. I was in the store getting some tea (and I admit...incense) and while in the tea aisle a co-op volunteer stopped next to me to load up some shelves and the BO was so overpowering I had to grab whatever tea I could get to first and high tail it out of the aisle. Now I understand the conserving water aspect for not bathing regularily but what exactly happens to the air quality around you??? Believe me, taking a shower will not the end of the world be.

Today I was in Winco and I rounded a corner just in time to get a huge whiff of BO, stale cigarettes and alcohol. I looked up to see a 40 something who was shopping with his mother at the end of the aisle. I could tell he hadn't seen the inside of a shower for days by the crumpled clothes and 5 days of growth on his face. This guy still lives with his Mommy and she probably had to force him out of bedroom to help her with bagging the groceries. He probably pissed and moaned because he'd been on a 5 day bender of playing the new Halo game or was surfing the net for porn. He reminded me of an Ignatious Reilly-type from 'Confederacy of Dunces'. I could be completely wrong though as I could only take about 2 seconds of the stench before I had to change my grocery shoppping plan and skip the aisle that they were in and avoid them altogether while I completed the grocery task.

There is no way I could've lived before the invention of scented soaps and deoderant. Being around stinky poeple just makes me want to gag and well, you all know how I feel about that.

A Streaking Party

JOSIE - BEFORE

I've done it. Josie has "officially" taken after her mom and will never be content with her natural haircolor now that I've gone and tampered with it. My mom spent the week with us and we had a salon day in our kitchen. We cut and colored hair and I put highlights in my moms. I didn't attempt my own given the bad luck I had with it a few years back. When Josie came home from school she saw how much fun we were having and asked to have her hair done as well.

At this point I could say "The Captain made me do it!" as mom and I were partaking in some afternoon recreational drinking of Captain Morgan and Diet Coke which is why I probably said "sure" to doing Josie's hair. You can tell I did an expert job of foiling her hair. haha!

After the allotted time was done we de-foiled and checked out Josie's new lightened locks.


JOSIE - AFTER

I have to say I am intrigued by the whole hair cutting, color and styling process. I always have been to a point (which you wouldn't be able to tell by my pathetic thin, short and always unstyled hair). After having done Josie and Mom's do's I am considering going to cosmetology school, or more likely, going the extra cheap route and getting the "Haircutting for Dummies" book.

Our Soccer Star

Annabelle had her first game last week and had a blast. It's so fun to watch the kids run around like crazy and go balls out (pun intended) when they actually get the soccer ball. More often than not the ball is out of bounds and when it is in play it's a mad scramble to get to it. It's also great to see the kids outdoors and getting some excercize while I sit in my lawn chair and snack on treats and soda.

It's Official...I'm a Soccer Mom

Annabelle has been asking to play soccer for two years now so we finally humored her. She had her first practice today and her first game is tomorrow. She only practiced a grand total of 30 minutes today and having never played soccer before in her life she absolutely loved it. I have to say she was doing pretty good. I even gave her a few shout outs ...much to my embarassment as I am not one for hootin', hollerin' and carrying on.

So buying our minivan 8 years ago wasn't in vain after all, but please stop me if/when I prepare to paste one of those "My kid is an honor roll student" bumper stickers on it.

Something I Like

Since I've whined the last two entries I thought I would add something that I like. I really like the sound of the dishwasher running. It means that I accomplished at least one thing today.

Pet Peeve/ Phobia #1

Barf. Chunder. Hurl. Upchuck. Spew. Vomit. Puke.

Nothing churns my stomach more than witnessing the contents of one's churned stomach. We went to the fair this evening and I have never in my life seen so many people get ill as I have this evening. It was awful to catch a glimpse of an ashen gray/ green face only to quick look away about 5 seconds too late. It was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I had to write about it.

I don't know when this phobia kicked in but I think it may have been back when I was in grade school going to Libby's Logger Days when I (once again) looked at precisely the right moment and saw someone lose it on the Round -Up and just when I was feeling brave enough to go on that ride too. Or was it in second grade when a kid spewed in class. Thankfully I didn't see that one happen but I heard the kid next to me yell, "Albert threw up!" but what I heard was, "Albert blew up!" and by god, I wasn't about to look at my now exploded classmate. From then on out I was terrified that I would get seated in front of poor Albert.

So now you know my weakness. You can put me in a pit full of snakes and venemous spiders or even make me bungee jump from the tallest bridge but please.....please.....just don't hurl in front of me.

Pet Peeve #426

I will announce it to the world right now that I am not an English major. In fact our blog is littered with grammar and puncuation errors but this doesn't stop me from pointing out one of my pet peeves: The use of the word HEIGHTH.

I was somehere the other day when I was asked, "What is your heighth?" I wanted to reply "5'4" and would you like my weighth as well?"

Heighth is no longer a word, people!

Super Plumber

Nate did some plumbing work at a friend's home last week. Their son a.k.a. Superman had a good time chatting with Nate and giving him some pointers while he did the plumbing work.

RIP Luciano

I am not an opera buff nor have I seen many Luciano Pavarotti performances. The only two I can think of off hand was hearing one of his arias while the Bellagio fountains were dancing and when Pavarotti sang at the opening ceremony for the last winter Olympics. For some reason, today, I am saddened to hear of his passing. There are few celebrity deaths that cause me to pause throughout the day and think about. John Ritter and Steve Irwin being the only other two.

So Mr. Pavarotti.... RIP. I bet, right now, heaven is ringing with your beautiful voice.