Straight No Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas

Since I can't seem to find the original from 1996 without doing something akin to work; here's the latest version of Straight No Chaser. From my old stomping grounds in the land of Hoosier-dom.

Big Three

(click image to enlarge)

Find the original at The Beast.

Saturday at the firehouse

I've written about Weird Neighbor Kid before but not his littler brother, Loud Kid Who Likes to Climb Out 2nd Floor Windows To Crawl On The Roof. Hereafter known as Little Rumpelstiltskin cause he's short, wizened, and stomps his foot when yelling. He also gets very worried when our friend in Animal Control stops by the house for a visit during shift, fearful she's trying to take our dog away. In other words, a typical 7 year old.

Today was his birthday party.

At the Hanover County Volunteer Fire Dept.

They know how to put on a show, lemme tell ya. Starting with a video on fire safety (voice of Gilbert Gottfried as Seemore Smoke, smoke detector had all the adults laughing):



Followed by a full dress-out of a fireman for the kids:


The kids got to play at being a fireman (Birthday Boy pictured here, and can't you just see him ready to stomp his foot?):


And they even got to sit in the firetrucks (Weird Neighbor Kid AKA birthday boy's older brother pictured here):


All culminating in watching the ladder go up on the "big truck" that's pulled out behind Sparkly Punk Mama. (Who has certainly been nominated for coolest mom of the year award.)



Had it been warmer, the kids would've been allow to shoot off the fire hose. Alas, it was bit too chilly and it was time for cake anyways. Firehouse birthday fun was had by all. Including these two goofy oddballs:



Happy birthday Little Rumpelstiltskin. And no more climbing out the window giving me a heart attack, okay?

Solais Photo

Since I seriously doubt the jump in the numbers around here are due entirely to people's desire to find out if I really did end up owning a velvet last supper painting or to see the Webkinz recipes I post for my crazy and completely adorable neighbor kid; I'll go ahead and pull a draft of a post I've been holding on to for a couple of months.

I will add these two additional notes:

Karen Simmons has not updated Soliasphoto since she has been outted as the real identity behind the name Kara Hudson.

And I'm truly sorry for the photographer who hired Kara Hudson as a second shooter for a wedding that Kara/Karen did not show up to work. I hope you have an understanding bridal couple as you work this out.

-----------------------------------------------

So, not only is Kara Hudson, photographer, actually Karen Simmons (see post). She also did a bit of back dating on her new website. The WHOIS look up for Solaisphoto.net shows that the domain was registered on April 7, 2008. (Click image to enlarge)


Oddly enough, the first post on that site is dated April 2, 2008. (Click to enlarge)


The second blog post is dated April 6, 2008. (Click)


Small details, I know, to back date posting on a website. It's just another another little lie to add to all the others.

Devil's in the details.

An e-mail making the rounds

Dear Sirs:

In view of what seems to be happening internationally with banks at the moment, I was wondering if you could advise me correctly...

If one of my checks is returned marked 'insufficient funds,' how do I know whether that refers to me, or to you?

Sincerely,

Weird stuff from our back room Part 1

Do you know what this is?


It is the heated up version of this:


I love lava lamps best when they're just warming up. I got this purple monstrosity in my tweens; we were all desperate to put our own twist on the 60's to build up our courage to smoke a little dope and see if we could, indeed, make love and not war. All that fumbling in parked cars and the woods behind our parents houses were a far cry from making love. At least I can say I've screwed in a snowbank, though. And in a tree. A few other odd places I'd rather not think about for fear I'll start getting jealous of my teenage self having had sex in wonderfully awful places that I wouldn't appreciate until I was too old to try again for fear of going to big people's jail. Lewd in public is not a charge I care to carry around at this stage in the game.

I do still make out to the Doors, though.

Decontruction to Reconstruction

Before I start anything I give this disclaimer: I'm lazy and took these photos with my phone so I could just e-mail them around instead of download and then e-mail. See? Saved myself a step. I like saving steps.

Also? Kinda forgot to do a before shot. This once screen in porch, transformed by the previous owner into a fake wood paneled cave with a wood stove, all set on a huge and cold concrete slab was, uh, something we liked to pretend didn't exist. We were able to perform said ignoring by filling it with weird and worthless junk thus completing the hideousness to such a level one's eye refused to rest on any point when traversing through the space.

But I do have pictures of during. Shall we proceed?




That window? That's where the wood stove USED to be. We no longer have cave like surroundings. What we also don't have: fake wood paneling.





Now with WALLS. Also? INSULATION - no more cold. The other thing you can't see but that I'm pleased about: more then 2 outlets to the room. That means we can plug in the laptop AND lamps. Will wonders never cease.





Today, the horrid green cement slab was covered with gorgeous laminate flooring and the window was trimmed out. Still have painting and painting and more painting to do.

But that's in the days to come. Right now? Right now I'm still sorting that weird and wacky stuff we had stored for years. Anyone interested in a velvet last supper painting?