25 posts tagged “&:o)”

hello there!
&:o)

I'm trying to clean out all the misc stuff on my computer and in doing so, found some pics that I wanted to pass along before I deleted them.

Deniro turned 4 on May 5, 2008 (Cinco de Mayo!) We had a birfday party for him at a really cool playground near us (John Story Jenks playground). Deniro & 5 little boys partied hearty at his Rescue Hero and Big Machines birfday party. Sarah had gotten some plastic hard hats from ebay and I made a little sticker for each one that had the little dude's name on it. They all loved their hard hats and wore them for the whole party --- plus, a couple of them were still wearing their's to day care the following week. His cake was decorated to look like a construction site. An excellent time was had by all.
&:o)

Here's a picture of Wembley slepping in our bedroom closet. I love her soooo much.
&:o)

Here's another pic that I took at the farm the other weekend, when I was trying to learn how to use my new camera.

And here's another pic from the farm --- Look! It's Happy Vase!

Here is a pic of Sarah & Deniro & Jim (Sarah's fiance/Deniro's daddy) back in May when we went to a Spring Celebration day in Chestnut Hill:

Here's a pic of Elle, Eric, Amber, Gillian & Hayden also back in May at the same Spring Celebration day:

And here's a close-up of Hayden --- probably the most photogenic baby in the entire universe!! (hee-hee!)

&:o)

I'm really very excited about being able to share my pictures with you guys! I've always enjoyed seeing your pictures and being able to recognize people and places and things.
And remember I said that once I learn how to take & post my own pictures, you're going to be deluged with them?

Here comes the deluge...

&:o)

In honor of George Carlin's passing away Sunday, I took pictures of:

*  My Stuff  *

I know that things aren't what's important in life --- people, are. But alot of my important stuff is important because of the people attached to it.
So here --- come here --- come look around my apartment with me, because I want to show you some of my most favorite stuff.

This first pic is a badly painted piggy bank that I found at a yard sale a couple of years ago. I was driving in my childhood neighborhood and noticed that the house where one of my closest friends, Barb, used to live, was for sale and there was a yard sale there. I stopped and it turns out that both of her parents had died and Barb was there, holding the yard sale so that she could clear her parents' house out and sell it. We stood there and talked for the longest time and laughed, remembering stuff. It was wonderful. So I'm looking through her parents' stuff, and this PIGGY BANK catches my eye. I started busting up laughing, because back in 9th grade (1969) I had MADE the piggy bank for a birfday gift for Barb! I told her that and we were both laughing. I told her I wanted my pig back and she gave it to me --- it was just one of those funny moments that you'd have to be there to appreciate. But anyway, here's the badly painted piggy bank that I made back in 1969 and Barb was trying to get rid of it in a yard sale: (p.s. I used to dot the "i" in my name with a little flower, just like the ones etched into the piggy here!)

This next pic: the large picture on the right was done by my Nannan Z. She did it back before she married my Poppop Z, sometime back before 1900. I think it's pastels. It's still in the original gold frame (chipped) and mat (yellowed.) I love this picture. It feels so dreamy & mesmerizing. You can almost see the moon reflected off of the ocean (just ignore the flash mark in the glass, people...) and hear the waves crashing on the rocks. -------- Then the little pic to the left of it, is a picture that I found at the thrift store, and it totally reminded me of my Nannan's picture.

Ooh ooh oooh! This next pic is a Chinese Checkers board that me & my family used to play Chinese Checkers on back when I was a little curly headed girl!

This spider plant hangs in my bay window in my livingroom. 10 years ago, I always passed a very neat little plant shop on my way down to Philly on the days that I'd drive down to spend the day with my BFF. I bought a spider plant and it was always going CRAZY with babies. This plant is one of the original plant's babies. It has stayed with me for 10 years now and has survived 4 moves, and it also always goes crazy with babies. This plant reminds me of my BFF who's also been with me for 10 years now.

This next picture isn't really attached to anyone special to me, it's just that for some reason, I love clocks. I used to have a beautiful wood chiming clock, and a little cottage cuckoo clock, and I loved hearing them bong-bonging together. I had to sell them during one of my moves which made me kind of sad. So when I found this chiming clock in the thrift store the other year, I was thrilled. Some day when I'm rich & famous, I'd love to have a whole room full of chiming clocks...it'll drive everyone else nutty, but I'll love it! --- On top of the clock, is the beautiful little wooden figurine that my daughter Elle & her family gave me as an apartment warming present --- an angel with a welcoming pineapple. There are a couple of masks there to the left, and then the picture on the right is a heron with a verse that reads: "Time flies - shadows fall - love is forever over all".

hee-hee!! Here's the kittycat pillow that Elle & her family gave me for Christmas the other year. I love eet!

And also from Elle, here's a beautiful little music shadowbox picture that reminded her of me when she saw it at a flea market a couple of weeks ago. She gave it to me for Mother's Day this year. My mother collected Hummels, so Elle was used to seeing those around her Mommom's house when she was little. The whole picture/shadowbox is so gentle looking & pretty and it plays a beautiful little tiny tune when it's wound up. I love that she wanted to get it just for me.  &:o)

Here are 3 wall vases (sconces???) that I love. The one on the left is Roseville. My mother saw it when we were at a yard sale together about 30 years ago, and she bought it for me. I always think of her when I see it. The 2 ones on the right were made by my son Sam when he was a little boy in grade school. They shaped the vases themselves & painted them and then the art teacher fired them. I can still picture Sam giving them to me, just a little boy, so proud of what he'd made and so full of hoping that I'd like them. ( I heart them, Sam... )

Here is a kittycat head planter that my email friend Carrie (in Illinois) sent me, after finding it at a yard sale and thinking of me.  ( How do people KNOW that I like kitties???)

Here's a "lady" who's hanging in the doorway between our livingroom & kitchen. Sarah & me found her in the trash when we were walking through Chestnut Hill once. She was in ok shape, but she was missing her wings & wand and was painted badly, plus she was in pieces. I repainted her & put snazzy sequins on her outfit and hung a rose quartz crystal in her hand. Eventually, I want to make a magic wand for her to be holding (with the crystal on the end of it) and make wings for her. So then she won't be a lady hanging there, she'll be a magical fairy. Til then, she looks cool and happy!

OK --- so now that I've shown you around my livingroom and you've gotten a chance to see some of my *stuff*, I'm going to save this, cross my fingers that the entire thing doesn't crash and I'll have to start alllllll over again...and then the next time you look around with me I'll show you some *stuff* from my kitchen.

Thanks for looking with me, you guys!

&:o)

I saw Cirque Du Soleil down in center city Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. All I can say is --- I have NEVER said
"oh.my.god..."
so many times in 2 hours as I did yesterday.
oh.
my.
god.
It was totally amazing and completely awesome! It was so good that I don't even have the right words to tell anyone how good it was!
I sat there for 2 hours and said "oh.my.god." over and over --- every single thing that happened completely took me by surprise and amazed and shocked and thrilled me. It was great!

It was scorching hot in Philly yesterday --- 98 degrees PLUS the heat index & humidity --- supposedly it was 100+ something. It was hot & humid. It felt like walking through an oven. The tent was air-conditioned, which you could feel as soon as you walked into it. But after sitting there for awhile, it became really hot in there too. I don't mind being hot, but sometimes you could see sprays of sweat shake off the performers, so I had to feel sorry for them.

We parked in a lot directly across the street from the tent. I asked the guy how much it was and he said "20 dollars." I said "20 dollars?" in a surprised voice. He chuckled and said "Yeah --- 20 dollars." So as I was handing him a twenty, I said "I'm not gonna be angry at you when I walk across the street and see that it's only $2.00 an hour to park somewhere else, am I?" and he laughed and said "No --- it's regulated by the city of Philadelphia --- it's that price everywhere around here." So I paid it --- and it was ok.

At the concession stand, we looked at all the souveneir merchandise --- all beautiful & exciting & colorful --- and all really expensive. I bought me and Amber sodas --- $12.00 for 2 thirty-two ounce sodas. But it was ok.

Amber bought herself a neat journal & a bracelet --- I got myself a bracelet too, that says "when I grow up, I will run away and join the circus".  (If I was 30 years younger, I would!)

The show totally thrilled me! It was 2 1/2 hours long (including a 30 minute intermission in the middle) and it was over waaaaay too quickly. The music was beautiful --- the acts were breath-taking --- the clowns were funny --- everything was bright & colorful & fantastic! It was awesome.

We actually DID see some of the acts that I had posted pictures of in my previous post. Both Amber and my FAVORITE act was this:

My next favorite act was the contortionists. The picture below shows 3 women, but there were 2 when we saw them. HOW the hell do people DO this kind of stuff???

And this guy --- up on top of all these individually stacked CHAIRS ---- and the high wire artists ---

 

 

oh.
my.
god.

!!!!!!!!!

&:o)

LOLZ!!

I saw this pic while I was checking out Cuteoverload.com this morning:

and was instantly reminded of this pic:

HA!!!

(is it possibles dat my preshus lil Hayden grandson is related somehows to dis preshus lil puppeh???)

&:o)

For Christmas last year, for a gift for her sister Elle, my daughter Sarah ordered some soaps online from an Etsy site called Distilled Rose. She got a wonderful assortment of handmade natural soaps in different fragrances --- they all smelled absolutely *amazing* ... They smelled so rich & creamy & fragrant that I just wanted to EAT them. I think that one of them was coffee scented. I think I remember mint, too. They were just the best smelling things that I had ever smelled.

Along with the order of gift soaps, Distilled Rose included a little slice of their Distilled Rose Vegan soap as a sample. It smelled so awesome that we kept it in a zip-lock baggy and every so often, for weeks afterwards, both of us would shove our noses in the baggy and just breeeeeeath in the rosey creaminess...it was heavenly.

So for Mother's Day this past weekend, Sarah surprised me with my very own bar of Distilled Rose Vegan soap --- complete with lovely dried red rose petals on one edge of the bar.

I don't normally have extravagances like handmade soaps, so it's a real luxury for me. I love love love the smell of it. And since I've been using it the past couple of days, I'm noticing that my skin already feels more moist & smoother & silkier.

I feel special & pampered! --- yummy me!

So I thought I'd pass this along to you guys, in case you'd like to see the neat stuff there for yourselves. Distilled Rose says their products are all natural, vegan or vegetarian, and have no artificial colorants, etc. There are other products there too: bath salts, toners, aftershaves, etc. ( I noticed a Strawberry Marshmallow Vegan soap! )
Check it out!

&:o)

oh noes!!!

I missed your birfday Carlisa!!! --- I'm sorry ...

I hope it was a happy day for you --- and I hope you have a very happy year, Car!

In honor of your belated birfday,

somewhere, right now, a kitty is getting stoned.

((( Big belated-but-still-loving huggs Car! )))
&:o)

HA!!
A friend sent this to me recently --- I've seen it before, but it's still funny to me. Plus some new stuff has been added since I saw it last.

&:o)

POLITICS FOR DUMMIES

DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
You push for higher taxes so the government can provide cows for everyone.

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk
the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are
surprised when one cow drops dead.
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and
are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give
excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives
to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.

IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.

POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.

BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish.
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.

FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally
vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think
is the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
Most are illegal.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.

I got something to surprise you with today!

On TV, have you ever seen any shows about
Cirque Du Soleil?

If you haven't, it's an AWESOME show!! It's a circus, but there are no animals. All of the acts are people: people in really colorful, really weird, incredibly interesting costumes --- and they do all these TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE stunts --- stuff that you can't imagine a person being able to do --- some of it dangerous, some of it funny, some of it just beautiful to watch, some of it surprising, all of it amazing! The stage is beautiful and there's something to look at everywhere you look -- high in the air and on the ground ---  it's big and beautiful and hard to even imagine.
It totally takes your breath away!

Here's info on Wikipedia about the background.

Sunday, June 8th at 1:00 --- just you and me are going down to center city Philadelphia to see Cirque Du Soleil!!

The show is called:

The HUGE tent we'll be seeing it in will probably look something like this:

And some of the awesome things that we'll be seeing may look something like this:

My full-time job has been soooo effed-up the past couple of weeks. We've been running out of work alot. It happens all year long normally --- the amount of work coming in goes in cycles: it's either Feast or Famine. Lately it has been Famine time --- which in one way is good: they don't give a shit about my "stats" so they're not counting how many calls I'm making. That means that I can Vox more and get away with it! (yay!) But in another way, it sucks: if the work gets scarce enough, they send everybody home without pay. (boo --- hiss)

So while I'm still here today I wanted to share some more of my pictures (from my newly acquired cranky camera!) with you guys.

Here are a couple of pictures from where me and Wembley (and Sarah & Deniro) live!

Welcome!

This first picture is 1/2 of my apartment building. It's the main door, but we live allllll the way in the back, in the middle, around the corner. But here's our building front & entrance:

This is part of the hallway back to our apartment. I like this picture because it reminds me of the hallway in "The Shining"...heh-heh...in real life, my apartment hallway is neither flooded with blood nor haunted in any way.

Once you're down the NOT haunted hallway, go around the corner and voila! Here's my apartment door with the cute little Spring wreath that I got the other month:

Remember me telling you that our horrible old teeny tiny kitchen was completely renovated? Here's a picture of part of our beautiful new kitchen --- which we still love & really really appreciate. (the stars that you see hanging in the foreground are from Ikea --- Elle gave them to me for Christmas one year, and they're hanging in the large doorway opening into the kitchen --- they light up and they're beautiful & sparkley at night.)

Now here's me walking down our front sidewalk. Philadelphia is a beautiful old historical city (in places...) and our street still has some brick sidewalks and large granite stepping blocks where people used to step down from their coaches onto them. The main street is paved but still has cobblestones on each side section.

There's a house next to my apartment building and they have a big front yard full of garden. I liked these next pictures because it was the first Spring flowers making their appearance there a couple of weeks ago. (yay Spring!)

At the corner of my block, there is a beautiful old church. One of the first things that I loved about my apartment when I moved there, was: every Sunday morning at either 10:00 or 11:00 (depending on their worship schedule) the bell tolls out the hour. It's always so beautiful on a warm summer day when my windows are open, to hear their deep rich peals ringing out solemnly. Sometimes, Amber and I or Deniro and I have been able to be on the corner right before they start ringing --- then you can actually watch the large bell swinging back and forth up in the open bell tower.
Here's the church --- and the bell tower --- and the main entrance, plus the beautiful bunch of daffodils that line the walk to the main entrance.

That's all the pics for now --- thanks for stopping by and sharing them with me!

&:o)

Have a great rest of your week, you guys.

Wembley enjoys wearing little kitty t-shirts. She seems to like how they feel on her and maybe they help keep her warm & toasty, too. So far, she only has 2 of them: one is a pink with white trim t-shirt that says "Mrs. Paws" ( I bought it at Christmastime --- and it has a hood but she HATES the hood so I never make her wear it ) and the other is a white with pink trim t-shirt that has a crown on the back with little jewels and it says "Princess", that Sarah bought for her.

She looks so pretty in them and she knows it. (but not in a conceited kind of way --- just in a "life is good and I haz a t-shirt" kind of way.) It's funny to me to see her walk into the room wearing clothing, like it's nothing out of the norm. When I put it on her & take it off of her, she even helps me by putting her little arms in or out of the sleeve holes.

Everybody who knows Wembley loves her. She is such a dear sweet little soul --- she makes me laugh and I adore her.
&:o)

Here are a couple of pics that I took of her recently (with my new cranky camera --- yay!)