Thursday, October 27, 2011

Happy GarHalloweenField Thursday

Ok, this isn't the night, but still! Happy almost Halloween!
Hopefully, you've decided on a costume by now. And have a dumb, sweet little dog to help you get twice the candy. But beware: if you meet scary ghost pirates and the dumb, sweet little dog saves your life, you will have to, in the spirit of Halloween generosity, give that little dog his bag of candy. So make sure you gird your loins and don't get scared.
(For the record, I TOTALLY did not pick up on Garfield having a different singing voice some of the time. Why didn't Lou Rawls sing all the songs? I'll grant you that his awesome voice would have been wasted on lyrics like, "I could be an astronaut, a robot, a hobo, a clown. Or an alien creature goin' out on the town." but is "I don't chase mice and all that jazz. I might be sassy, yeah and all of that, but the one thing I'm not is a scaredy cat." any more deserving?

Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Monday beloveds (a day late) Halloween style

1. Young Frankenstein

My family quotes movies a lot and this one more than most. We "Put the candle back" accuse each other of being "abby normal" and sing "Puttin' on the Ritz" like monsters. I couldn't love this movie more if I tried.


2. Carving Pumpkins

Last night, my sisters and assorted boyfriends/husbands/babies gathered to carve pumpkins. Last year, my sister was so pregnant she couldn't get up by herself and it took my other sister and I all of our strength to heave-ho her up. This year, we had a little child wandering around the garage in a walker, banging into things and yelling. She reminded me of an angry roomba, or R2D2 malfunctioning or Captain Pike in his little scooty chair but without the disfiguring scars.

For those of you too cool to know what Captain Pike's scooty chair looks like.

I know this comparison is not a new one, but hanging out with toddlers is so much like hanging out with drunk people. Last night I was sitting on the floor eating chili, when my niece, using the couch to steady herself, staggered over to me smiling, grabbed my boobs, smashed my cornbread muffin into a thousand pieces, tripped over my legs and fell into me giggling. Then she puked on my pants. It's a good thing she's darn cute.

Anyway, we all managed to dodge the mad toddler long enough to carve our pumpkins without anyone getting hurt. It was the most fun you could have while sitting on a cold, cement floor in October.


 3) Moonlighting

So this one doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, but I spent all weekend at the Blue Moon Detective Agency and I am smitten! Smitten with young Bruce Willis, smitten with Cybil Shepherd's entire wardrobe, smitten with Ms. Dipesto, the list goes on and on. I don't care how the two lead actors felt/feel about each other in real life and I don't want to know. I just want to sew shoulder pads into all of my shirts and practice using a banana clip while watching this show. And waiting for this guy to show up.




Thursday, October 20, 2011

Happy Rainy Thursday Love!

You know what I love? A good rainy Thursday in October complete with blustery winds, leaves flyin' all over the place, gray skies, umbrellas, rain coats, and that cozy feeling of being inside on such a day: hopefully under a blanket, with a cup of tea and a cookie and a cat and a book. I am at work right now but I am FULLY PREPPED to get that cozy after work and maybe after a large meal at Los Palominos with no fewer than two big margaritas. I love today! I also love:

1) My Haircut

I did it: I went with this cut. As I suspected, it was basically what I already had with a few layers and some coaching from my hair stylist. Did you know that when you want your hair to do something besides what it naturally does there's this stuff you can put it in? It's called product and there are all different kinds that do different things! You don't have to just use the power of your mind! I now use a little gel and a little hair spray along with a straightening iron (which I already had and used, but now I use it to curl my hair. Which is weird). It's a bit more work than before BUT it's messy so it's not that much more work and it looks pretty even as it starts to relax a little throughout the day. So I'm pleased.


2) Halloween Time

Oooo, Halloween! Spooky, scary (boys becoming men, men becoming wolves)! I love Halloween time! My dad is a huge Halloween dork: my parent's house gets completely decked out each October with a graveyard in the front yard and all kinds of decorations that jump and scream and threaten you as you walk past them. There are boiling eyeballs on the bookcases, at least three Frankenstein monsters, skulls that gnash their teeth, a Medusa head with moving snake hair, and a life-size zombie (or something, he sort of defies categorization) that lifts his head off his shoulders. Part of the Halloween experience, of course, is watching all the movies and books that get saved for this time of year. When my sisters and I were little, we were not allowed to watch Halloween movies at any other time than October. It was a way of keeping those movies festive and celebrating the season and both my sisters and I keep this tradition. I cheat every once in a while (I can't keep zombie movies only to October, I just can't!) but there is something really satisfying about saving seasonal movies for their seasons. For example:


Garfield/It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown



These are forever linked in my mind because my family has an old VHS recording from when they were played one after the other on TV. My dad burned these onto a DVD complete with the old 80's commercial because it just wouldn't be Halloween for my sisters and I if we couldn't sing along with Ronald McDonald and the Chicken McNuggets when they sing "Scared Silly." Just wait until Christmas when I can tell you all about the three part harmony in the McDonalds commercial "Hardnose Mrs. Hatcher."






3) This song:

I am completely obsessed.

4) Fall Love

My friend Annie wrote this about how much she loves fall and what food/activity/media says fall to her. I have to say I am in complete agreement with her. I read Jane Eyre every November, watch Gilmore Girls from about September through December, and watch the temperature drop with glee until I can put on sweaters and tights.

5) Fall cooking and crafting

I have big, big plans for apple butter (thanks to Erica for the recipe and the ridiculously good jar of apple butter that she gave me), ginger snaps, split pea soup, apple/pumpkin risotto, white chicken chili and more more more cooking. I also intend to get my fall crafting under control and get ready for one last craft sale and start the holiday crafting (I've totally already started, for once, I am ahead of the game.) I just love cooking and crafting in the fall. Love it.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Happy Foggy Thursday

Today it is foggy both in the world and in my brain. But it's October, so that's kind of how things should be. I first heard God Help the Girl in the fall, so to me their music is as October as pumpkins, fog,and apple cider.

Oh man I love that song. It's hard to listen to at work because I really, really like to sing along. Same with this one:


This weekend promises to be full of fall festivities with a movie premiere (that is a story for another blog post), a visiting friend, the corn maze with my sisters and brother-in-law and sister's boyfriend and baby niece ( Evelyn's first corn maze!), yoga, crafting, and a date with the cats to pop popcorn and watch The Shining. You know, when I spell out my weekend plans like that, it's easy to appreciate that I have a pretty fantastic life. Kind of clears the brain fog a little.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Hair's my problem

My sister's wedding anniversary was yesterday. Two years of wedded bliss and even a baby for Laura and Aaron! Congratulations!

Two years is also the anniversary of my having long hair. From the time Laura got engaged, I grew my hair out (as bridesmaids seem to do) and shortly after the wedding I chopped it all off. Well, chopped it off to my shoulders. Lately, I've seen a lot of cute hair ideas online for hair longer than mine and it got me to thinking about growing my hair back out again. I've been fantasizing about pig tails, braids, buns, twists, pony tails, and more. My hair is just on the cusp of these possibilities; to really do some fun hair stuff I would need just a little more length. I would need something, maybe, like this:

But then, I watched Bridesmaids and saw Kristen Wiig:

Super cute hair! It's a messy look, which is good because I am not great at hair styling. Also, it's about the length my hair is now, meaning I would just need some layers and a brief tutorial from my hair dresser as opposed to months of hair growing. But there go the fantasies of all that cute hair stuff right onto the salon floor, chopped off before they even got a chance to frustrate me and not work the way I want them to!

I have a hair cut appointment this Friday and I need to decide whether to keep it and add a little Kristen Wiig to what I currently have going on which is this:
I promise to look this sassy no matter what hairstyle I choose.


or cancel it in the name of waiting to go back to something like this:

I'm the girl in the middle. Pay no attention to the beautiful mane of golden locks on Laura's head.


What do I DO?! What DO I do?! Do I:

A. Cancel the appointment and let that hair grow!
B. Keep the appointment learn how to make messy curls look intentional.
C. Shave my head and invest in wigs
D. Hold my sister down, shave her head, and make a wig from her hair

Any thoughts?

Monday, October 3, 2011

The Monday Beloveds!

Welcome to another edition of the Monday Beloveds!

1) Bridesmaids

Oh my, this movie. I don't know what took me so long to see it; I had been meaning to for quite some time. I was not disappointed.

Kristen Wiig is so funny, Jon Hamm plays that jerky guy who gets you to think not committing is your idea so well that I would hate him if he weren't the most handsome man to ever walk the earth and so clearly enjoying hamming (hahahaha) it up. I also really love the repore between Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudoph.
 

2) Chris O'Dowd



I also watched Pirate Radio this weekend. It was a very Chris O'Dowd-y weekend. I loved him in The IT Crowd, and I think I'll commence stalking him by ordering every movie of his I can get my hands on through Interlibrary Loan.

3) Hot Apple Cider



Another Applefest has come and gone and I have another windburn on my face to prove it. We had a good time; the weather was better but still freezing and hot apple cider helped a lot. Thank you, hot apple cider: I owe still having all of my fingers to you.