A Sunday Outing to the Glass Museum

We have a really fun little glass museum in downtown Tacoma. I took Steph when she was here because students get in for free. And, lucky for us, we'd both kept our student I.D. I know... very devious, yet amazingly frugal and inventive all in one.

The actual displayed art section is quite puny, awesome, but puny. My favorite part of the museum is the hot room, where they actually have artists working whenever the museum is open. I love to see them doing their work, rolling the tubes, blowing the glass, its amazing the process of it all. They have these hot kilns where they stick the glass in to heat it up so its workable. They are called glory holes. Let me just give you a minute to think that over. Yes, I said GLORY HOLE. Again, my 12 year old brain has overtaken my 27 year old brain and is in the gutter. I can't help myself folks, every time the narrator said glory hole, I snickered. Couldn't they have called it the heated kiln? or the re-heating station? or the hot hole? Okay, so hot hole isn't that much better. But GLORY HOLE? Okay, enough, I know, I'm shutting up.



Here are some more pictures from the day, all G-Rated, I swear. A nice little Sunday outing.



Also this weekend:

I made some yummy pasta and banana bread
I painted my kitchen off white
I vacuumed, cleaned both bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen with bleach
Finished a lovely book called Riding With the Queen
Slept In
Ate a Hawaiian blizzard (woops)
Tried a new restaurant called "Jakes" in Steilacoom (good beer)
Watched State of Play with hubs
Did Laundry Galore and Folded Mt. Everest!

Happy Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas and was spoiled rotten by my family and friends. I love every gift I received this year and some of them were so thoughtful I almost cried when opening them. (Okay, so not really, but I was tearing up on the inside, I promise).

I got to meet an aunt of my husbands that I've never met and we've been together for 10 years! That is just crazy. His entire family was at his grandma's house this year so we all crammed in and ate like pigs. I passed out my homemade jam, bread, and cookies and received lots of goodies in return (some of which I may or may not have broken into ...ahem banana bread, ahem...).

We then went to my aunt's house. It was a smashing time. Always good to see the cousins. My grandma and grandpa flew up from Arizona this year too, making it just that much more fun. (A funny aside... and I'm totally going to hell for sharing this... there was a putrid smell in the hall about halfway through the evening. I don't know who caused it... but I do know where it came from. Someone (who is still at large) took a large mud-skipper in the downstairs bathroom, causing quite a mess and stench... much to my Aunt's dismay. Just after she had cleaned it, she discovered this, from the lovely Dan... poor thing probably had to go to bed with a double martini after her house was ravaged by the Thompsons...

my sister speculates my grandmother was the culprit, as she was missing for an amount of time.)

This morning we had a bit of a scare. I won't go into the gory details (I know... not like me). But hubs was up and at it from both ends beginning at 3:30 am... by 9:30 we were at the emergency room. For those of you who know me well, know that I am an EXCRUTIATINGLY WEENERISTIC WEENIE when it comes to hospitals. Merely entering one can make me vomitous and light-headed. I get cold sweats, lose coloring in my face, ringing in the ears...the whole bit really. Sometimes I have to sit down and put my head between my knees and then College Prep Bio class all comes back in a huge rush of deja vu'.

I did okay today... only a few moments qualm. A quick splash of water to the face in the ladies room and I was back to pretending all was well. Until they started talk of pricking fingers... but I quickly distracted myself and was back on track. Hubs is home, has been sleeping all day, they've given him an antibiotic... thinking he has some sort of gastro-intestinal infection. They ruled out food poisoning and ecoli, thank goodness. He's already feeling much better, lots of sleep, water, etc. A bit of "Hangover" and "Inglorious Basterds" and all is much more manageable.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

A December Day in Seattle

Yesterday morning CJ, Jamie, Dustin and I headed off to Seattle for a bit of cheer, some good food and Christmas shopping.

We hit Beth's Cafe first because the guys have never been there. Jamie and I have on a previous visit... so we know of its amazingness firsthand. We ate way too much, rolled ourselves out to the car, and found a place to park at the Market. They had so many wonderful soaps and teas and fruits and veggies and nuts and so on and so forth this year. I think I just about finished up my Christmas shopping. Some of the arrangements were so pretty this year. I especially loved the unique look of these cabbage flowers. I had to take a picture.

We visited the bakery (I can't ever go there and not have a bite of something sweet) and got four different things to try... apple fritter, coconut cream danish, giant jam thumbprint, almond cookie dipped in chocolate. Everything was amazing and washed down with some honey crisp apple cider. We stopped off at Kells Irish Pub where I had a pint of Guinness and everybody else drank something sissy ;)

My camera battery had gone out by that time so all the pictures there forward are on Jamie's cam :(

We stopped off at Red Light Vintage and the Seattle Goodwill, both of which had amazing treasures that I can't wait to post.

We went to dinner at the Pyramid Brewery where we tasted the Apricot Ale, the Snow Cap, the Hef, the Blonde, and the Pear Cider... each of which were quite nice in their own way. And we ate. A lot.

Lovely day, so much fun. How was your weekend?

Time For A New Seat

So the other day I was minding my own business. Not sure what I was doing at the time, probably reading that damn book I'm so addicted to. Anyway. I hear this manly squelching coming from the bathroom. Alarmed, I holler, "what's going on in there?". Thinking perhaps there had been a mishap? And then I was struck with the funniest story I've ever heard in my life. A story that had tears streaming down my face and doubled me over from heaving laughter, guffaws even.

For a long time there had been a hairline crack in our toilet seat. You couldn't even really see it. Well apparently the day before we had friends over helping us install our click-laminate flooring and one of them had sat down just a tad too hard on the toilet seat, causing the hairline crack to break all the way through. This hairline crack had caught ahold of my husband's buttcheek and given it a royal pinch. Hence the squelching.

Yes friends. He had pinched his asscheek in the crack while doing a bit of camping. (Sorry, thats what my uncle calls it and I just think its hilarious, so I've adapted it in use myself).

Moral of the story... see a hairline crack, get a new toilet seat. They're only like 10 bucks.

BOB

That is what my husband calls the sun. "BRIGHT ORANGE BALL". We've been seeing a lot of BOB here in these parts. SO much in fact that every night since Sunday I've been retreating to the parents house, wherein there lies... a pool. Tee hee.

Even with my air conditioning full bore in the car, my back sweats against the hot black seat. I love that moment, all sweaty and gross, when the tip of my toe just touches the water, and glorious relief floods through my body as I'm now ankle deep in cooling, mood altering, goodness. A floaty and a coffee cup full of pink panty droppers ice water and I'm a new woman, every care just floats away.

What I'm trying to say is that I get a bit cranky when hot.

I've taken to carrying my swimsuit around in my car and shaving my bikini line daily...just in case the heat gets so unbearable it is necessary that I dip myself.

Some of you that live in the South think we're wussies up here, but we're used to a "mild" climate... not steaming hot weather like Vegas in the summer! We live here because we don't like our clothes to stick to us an we prefer a cool ocean breeze to stagnant heavy humidity any day. So I really think we are not wussies. We just aren't used to what you consider normal. So stop telling us its not that bad!

The husband turned 30 this weekend. I almost want to stop calling him hubs and start calling him husband now that he's older, wiser, and more mature. My sister and her boyfriend... the jokesters that they are, showered him in lovely gifts of Goodwill purchased "old man clothes". See evidence below.



(Please note that his hat says, "If you find my hair, please call the tips hotline!")

There were some other shenanigans at the party. There may or may not have been jell-o shots consumed by hilarious grandparents. Or...me droppin' like its hot. I tend to think its okay to dance like the world is going to end when I have had a few adult beverages. My friends wouldn't know what a party at my house would be without Aimee drinking slightly over her limit and dancing inappropriately until the last guest leaves. (At which point, she realizes she has hardly eaten a thing and gives up dancing for a new party... a party in her mouth.)

CJ got his own cake that Dayna made special just for him:



and shortly thereafter ripped into it like a one-year-old:

We spent Sunday recouperating from the pink panty droppers and death cake in my parents pool. It was really terrible. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone.

How was your weekend?

A Tuesday Funny

Sunday evening husband was in the shower... (yeah, you can see where this is going, but keep on reading, I assure you it will be worth it). We have this nice minty body wash we bought up at the Pike Place Market... its fabulous and envigorating but its reallly strong and tingles when you use it. Basically, what I'm getting at... it ain't for wussies folks, this is some strong shiz and it will clean you up not unlike Orbit Gum. It isn't something you want to put in how shall we say it, delicate areas...

So like a haphazard man, Hubby squirts it over his little loofah sponge like a pro and starts lathering up all crazy-like... I'm standing at the sink brushing my teeth and paying no mind...lulled by the sound of my Sonicare, when my daydream is interrupted. I hear this hootin' and hollerin' and he's suckin wind like someone's giving him a prostate exam and then he's dancing, like a tippy-toed ballerina, pounding around in the shower like he's been stung by a nest full of hornets--he's a bull in a china shop. And this is the real kicker, he's screaming, "my taint's on fire, my taint's on fire!!!!"

I can't help but laugh. Err... guffaw. It was freaking hilarious.

Moments like these are what make the world go round. Tee Hee.