New Adventures

This is a picture deprived posting, but I am sure that once I am in LA you will be overloaded with pictures so don't worry!

It seems as though May brings about changes in my life. Last year on May 31st I spent the night in the air on my way to Amelia, Italy. That was followed by three months of amazing adventures. This year on May 1st I start my trek across the United States. Kelly is going to be going on tour with the Buzzcocks and she needed someone to watch Bella and the apartment, and I figured it may bring about good job luck for me to try some new scenery. So new adventures here I come.

I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions of road trip stops, I think we have a pretty good list started. I am really looking forward to seeing the worlds second largest pecan which is about a block away from the worlds largest mobile pecan. What exactly constitutes a mobile pecan? I am not sure, but rest assured I will let you know when I figure it out.

Now, back to my old random ranting blogs. I went to Publix yesterday to do some grocery shopping and I picked up a bunch of random items including a box of Snyder's sourdough pretzels (yumm yumm). After driving home, putting away the groceries and then reaching for the box to have an afternoon snack I realized something was wrong, the box was way too easy to open. Usually I have to be careful not to give myself a huge paper cut when trying to open the top of the box. Once I looked inside I realized that something was definitely off, the cellophane bag in the box was turned on it's side. I reached inside to find that the bag had not only already been opened, but a pretty good portion of the pretzels had been eaten.

This was all slightly annoying, but it got me thinking... who does that? For those of you that are not fortunate enough to have a Publix near you, they are definitely an upper level grocery store, always clean, always courteous. In fact when I returned later that day to exchange the box of pretzels the manager couldn't stop apologizing. I didn't really mind, it's not that far out of my way to swing back by and they are never rude, but still... who does that? I mentioned that maybe a small child picked up and opened the box and bag (a pretty big task) without the mother/father realizing (pretty impossible I think) and the parents just thought the child had an unopened box in their hands and returned it to the shelf. When I posed this scenario to the manager she disagreed. She said it isn't uncommon for people to eat items while shopping and then place them on the shelf before they leave. Who knows what person put my mystery box back on the shelf, but I think it goes to remind us that it is never ok to eat someone else's food without asking... especially before they've even had a chance to buy it. :-)

Has anyone else bought something at the grocery store only to get home and realize that someone else had enjoyed it previously? If so, please share. I have a feeling this could lead to some pretty entertaining stories.

Smitten Kitten

You can love your pet and then you can looove your pet. There is a line, and I believe the line has been crossed. While prepping for my cross country trip I have been looking for items necessary to bring Cleo along for the car ride. For those of you that have not had the pleasure of meeting her, Cleo is my precious kitten.

I adore her, would do anything for her, but I would not do this (nor would Meatloaf... hee hee)...

Wow! Yep... there was the line, and that lady just jumped right over it. I can sort of understand people wanting to walk their cats in a stroller, I wouldn't do it, but I can see my mom doing it one day. But this? We have reached a new level of "my pet is my baby."

I luckily have some fantastic friends that have created limits so that I won't cross over to crazy pet owner. One example, I am not allowed to get any dogs (like a teacup poodle) that would fit in a normal purse, I have given my word and that is golden. I am also never allowed to have more than one cat while single. This was actually a rule I gave myself, I see the second cat as the gateway into crazy cat lady land.

For your almost Wednesday enjoyment here are a few of my favorite "I can't believe that's intended for animals" products:

It's a girl!

Hmmm... what does this remind me of? Oh right, a crib. :-)

"dvd for cats... While you are gone"

I don't know about your cats, but when I am gone Cleo looks out the window, eats, sleeps, chases a shadow, sleeps... I don't think it would be possible to get her to watch a TV... cause OH RIGHT, she's a CAT! :-)

Until next time, make sure to spay and neuter your pets. ;-)

California or BUST!!

I am super excited to be heading to LA soon to housesit for Kelly while she is on tour May-June, and while this alone is pretty cool I have also decided to drive as opposed to fly, so I get two adventures in one. I was hoping that you guys could help me out with some ideas though. My best friend Danielle has graciously offered to drive with me, and we are planning on leaving May 1st and want to arrive in LA by May 4th. Our tentative route is Tampa to San Antonio, Texas. Then San Antonio to Phoenix to LA.

What do we need help with? Does anyone know of any fun stops to "stretch" at along the way? You know like the worlds largest _____ or whatever? Send me a message if you have any ideas. :-)

Thanks in advance for any help!

I have a new blog in the works, but need a few more photos before I can post, look for it soon!

Hairy Situations

Any of you that have known me for any prolonged period of time understand that hair has always played some kind of role in my life. For those of you that don't know this you are going to get a crash course in the hair cutting stages of Katie. You should definitely be excited. :-)

When I was born I was one of those babies that came out with a full head of hair (as the picture above demonstrates). One of the earliest stories associated with my life is when my mother was being wheeled to the nursery to check on me. As she rounded the corner and got the first glimpse of the wall of windows she was a bit perplexed by the small crowd giggling and pointing at one of the babies. You can only imagine her hormonal response once she realized that everyone was pointing and giggling at me, the "Don King" baby with the hair. My mother quickly made them all feel bad by sobbing and pointing out that I was a beautiful baby, but the relationship between me and hair had begun. :-)

As time went on the gravity defying features of my hair calmed down and my hair grew quite long and lovely. Below you see my hair pretty close to the time of the next story in the hair cutting stages of Katie (I thought the barber chair was a nice touch).

One more shot of the long and lovely locks before...

Before I decided to cut my hair on mother's day. :-) Yes, I really did do that. Yep, on mother's day. Was it a mother's day present? I don't know, but it certainly was a mother's day surprise.

The events were as such: my mother was taking a nap, my dad was supposed to be watching us but instead left me in the care of Kelly (who was probably about 6) while he mowed the lawn (You have to understand that at this point in his life the care of the lawn was sacred, and we were pretty good kids).

Kelly and I were watching something on TV and playing with some craft stuff when I started playing with her Hello Kitty scissors. Now you have to understand that Kelly's scissors were AWESOME because they actually cut things, and at this point in my life I still had the fake scissors unless I was under direct adult supervision (which was apparently a good idea). So, as I was playing with Kelly's super cool scissors I decided to see if they could cut my hair... and guess what? They could! But uh oh, now my hair was uneven... hmm... how to fix that? Oh I know, take a little off the other side. Ooops, now I have two fists full of hair, hmm... I better hide the hair in the couch cushions. Let's take a look at that hair, oh no, not even yet, lets take off a little more. Now we have more hair, I know hide it behind the books in the bookcase.

So it went, for who knows how long, until I got caught. True to my form the picture below was from a planned (pre-haircut) family photo session, my poor parents. What are the repercussions of cutting your hair at that age you may ask? Are there any? Oh yeah, there certainly are:

1. I had to leave preschool for a while, so that I didn't tell the other kids what I did and start a haircutting fiasco.

2. I had to get a haircut to try to repair my piecemeal work.

3. I had to get my ears pierced and wear more dresses so that my mom wouldn't cry when people said, "what a sweet boy you have."

4. My parents kept finding little clumps of hair in random places around the house for months.

I don't regret it though, and I doubt my parents do either. It's a pretty fantastic story. Below you can see a few months after the cutting incident as the hair was growing out. :-)

So began my haircutting adventures. There aren't many adventures in my haircutting life, but the few that exist are fun and entertaining. There was the one incident where a boy in my first grade class refused to take his "rat tail" off of my desk (for those of you not familiar with the term, a rat tail is when a boy basically has a crew cut, except for a very long small portion of hair near the base of his neck) . I asked him once, I asked him twice, and SNIP, I didn't ask again; I simply handed him his rat tail. Unfortunately that turned into a parent teacher conference, but I don't really recall getting into trouble for that. :-)

My next real haircutting adventure did not occur until I was about 25. Pre-chemo my Aunt Laura decided to donate her hair to locks of love, so in her hospital room I cut the ponytail, colored her hair and gave her a bob. I have to say that I think my haircutting skills immensely improved over time (Perhaps it was all of the "practicing" I did on Barbie dolls).

My next haircutting adventure happened yesterday. I had the immense pleasure of spending the day with my Aunt Patty. We watched Price is Right, went to the mall, made a bunny at the Build a Bear Workshops, and Patty got a picture with the Easter Bunny. While walking around and teasing her about getting makeup for her upcoming prom she mentioned it might be fun to color her hair. To be fair we, as a family, had teased her the night before that maybe she should color her hair purple for Easter. Those of you that know Patty know that she would have giggled and dismissed the idea. However, it seems as though she was paying more attention that night than I thought.

So yesterday at dinner we asked what color she wanted, she said blonde or red. After dinner we went and bought some dye, she had decided to go with an ash blonde. Below you will find the picture by picture steps of the events that unfolded.

1. I created my "hair station" in the kitchen.

2. Patty pre-hair adventures.

3. On goes the color. (yeah, I am rocking a candy corn apron and yellow cleaning gloves. I make that look good! ha) On her lap you can see Patty's bunny Hoppy that we made earlier in the day.

More color.

4. Processing time. Patty decided this time was best spent picking out clothes for my mom to buy her.

5. Washed, combed and ready for a cut!

6. We somehow missed getting photos of the actual cutting, but here we are with the styling. (I'm concentrating)

7. A little bit of hairspray... and Patty asking that I make the bangs a bit more short.

The finished product! :-)

So there you have it, the hair cutting adventures of Katie. I have to warn you that for my planned mother's day post we will revisit hair a bit, but it will be worth it. And yes, you heard me right I am actually already planning another post. You should be pleasantly surprised I have a few more in the works, so I hope to improve my posting speeds.

She's done it again.

Who? Martha Stewart, who else? Once again Martha has ruined the Dove chocolate wrappers. What's my fascination with Dove chocolate wrappers? I blame the professor that I was a G.A. for in Grad school. Don't get me wrong, she was one of my favorite people and professors, but she was a horrible influence when it came to chocolate. :-) Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Periodically (who am I kidding? weekly) she would bring in bags of the Dove caramel chocolates and we would line the back of the office door with the wrappers.

So this is why I have a fascination with Dove candy wrappers, and why I take it so personally when the phrases go downhill. Back to Martha. It took me a while to amass some of her "Valentine's Day" collection of phrases, but here is what I have thus far:

1. Use a heart-shaped punch to create Valentine cards.

- Yeah... cause I keep my heart-shaped punch handy just for things like this.

2. Rewrap a store bought chocolate bar with a love note.

- Ok, I'll admit it, this is a good idea, but you know that if Martha was doing it she would have vintage paper with hearts on it that would be "just right" for this kind of a project. Then she'd show off her calligraphy skills, which in turn pisses me off.

3. For a Valentine card photocopy a rose between sheets of acetate.

- I am so glad I have all of those sheets of acetate hanging around, I keep them with my heart punch.

4. Try wrapping a floral bouquet in a classic love poem.

- I don't know about you, but I think Martha is issuing us a challenge here. Just read it again, she is daring us to wrap a floral bouquet in a classic love poem because she knows the following.

a) We don't know what size paper to use, which will take time for us to perfect, because I know that an 8 x 10 sheet of paper will not actually fit around a bouquet. Don't ask me how I know, I just do.

b) What kind of paper should you use? I mean it has to be strong enough to not break apart once damp flowers (we don't want them dead) are placed in it. etc.

5. wait for it... this one is one of my favorites.

Use the cut end of a head of radicchio to form a rose stamp.

- Riiiight. Umm...I can't tell you the last time I saw fresh radicchio in my grocery store. Perhaps it's just not in season? But I bet that the bagged stuff won't make as good of a rose. We can't all grow radicchio on our ridiculous estate like you Martha.

6. Create a heart using two pats of your own ink-stained finger.

- Yep, you all should expect a 2"x2" card in the mail with a heart made out of my finger prints. Oh wait... no you shouldn't, I'm not Martha. :-)

So to all of you who are preparing to enjoy the long Valentine weekend, have fun. To all of you who do not have plans for this weekend...I bet the bars have pretty good two for one deals. :-)

Confessions

I have a confession to make...I fear that all my years in the south may have contributed to me becoming a lover of turkey jerky. Yes, I fear I may be a bit of a redneck.

Now before you ask, I have not mowed the lawn and found a boat (or car) and my porch has never collapsed killing any kind of animal (for you Northerners, these are all "You might be a redneck if" jokes). I do not own any camouflaged items and I do not drive a pick-up truck. I do however LOVE my big redneck wedding whenever I can find it on T.V., but admit that the hunting and capturing of the "wedding feast" makes me change the channel.

So maybe and hopefully I am not actually a redneck. In fact, I bet if I was a redneck they would revoke my redneck card for the fact that I buy "fancy" organic jerky. Whew, that makes me feel better.

I started thinking about all of this since I hope to be relocating at some point in the near future to somewhere outside of the South. Maybe because of this move, I am slowly becoming more conscious of things that I do that are very southern. Luckily it isn't going to be like that Miley Cyrus movie that I never watched but I think was along the typical Disney movie lines of girl goes from big city to a farm, or vice versa, I can't remember. Either way I have always been much more comfortable in the city than in the country, so I am not worried about fitting in where I relocate.

That said, I am sad that there are some southern things that I am not well versed in. I would like to say that I am an avid horseback rider, after all the community horse stable is only 5 houses away, but I am not. I suppose this is due to the fact that I really don't like things where I can't be strapped in which means you won't see me riding a Harley down the road anytime soon either.

Finally, this brings me to my public service announcement of the week. I know that Florida is the southernmost state in the United States (Key West is the southernmost point for all of you that just went to google that), however we aren't exactly "southern." Whaaaa? I bet you are all scratching your heads right now, OF COURSE YOU'RE SOUTHERN! While I will agree that on a purely geographical note we are southern, that cannot be refuted, but when it comes to social graces, we are not southern.

I honestly don't know what "we" are outside of the weird melting pot that is Florida. I have wondered if maybe it has something to do with all the Northern transplants? Maybe Georgia refused to share the pecans earlier in American history? Whatever it is, when people think of the "south" they rarely think of Florida. Why? Who knows? I am not a social expert so I guarantee you that I don't know the answer, but I figured you could all think about it a bit. Maybe the entire United States is just trying to not get too attached to Florida as a southern state since we will break off or be flooded at some point in the future.

Gasparilla Invasion Photos

Come to think of it, I think we are a pirate state, and I mean that as in "Arrrrrggg" pirate. After all, Jose Gaspar is a huge part of Tampa lore, and we have the "pirate invasion" every year (this past weekend, the photo at the top) to honor that. Yep, I think that's it, Floridians are really pirates. That's awesome. :-)

Aren't you glad I remembered to start up my random ramblings again?

The Disney Vault

"Get them now, before they go back in the vault!"

The Disney Vault, it gets me every year. It's so nice that they conveniently advertise right around the holidays, so my mother always gets a frantic call "Mom, please get me Sleeping Beauty! They are going to put it in the vault!! You should get it for Kelly too." Why do I keep falling for it? If you look in my movie drawers you will find all of the past vault movies still in their packaging untouched, so what is it that makes me like a drug addict looking for the next hit?

I think it's a combination of things. This year, as mentioned above, the movie was Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty is hands down my most favorite Disney movie ever! Although I cannot remember the last time I watched it, I know that five year old Katie was pushing for this year's vault choice. I also think that five year old Katie is one of the main reasons why I get suckered into the vault movies every year. She keeps telling me that if I let them go back in the vault who knows when I will have the opportunity to buy them again? Especially when every time I go to Disney they have the walls and walls of movies, who knows if Sleeping Beauty will be there... No really, who knows? Do they REALLY put the movies back in the vault, or do they just scare us (me)?

Another excuse I always offer when it comes to falling for the vault gimmick is that I appreciate good marketing. This is like saying chocolate is a vegetable because it comes from the cacao plant. It's me rationalizing a choice that I was going to make anyways, so I just want to feel better.

Well, I am confident I will fall for it again next year so you can be sure to find whatever the vault choice is added to my movie drawers by next Christmas. (btw... I also got Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which we also assume will be going in the vault soon and as it is my second favorite movie I had to have it!)

I wonder what else they are storing in the Disney vault? ;-)