Reba, the WonderPup!!!

We knew she was a WonderPup...
but we didn't know she could *FLY*!!!!!

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"Reba the WonderPup", originally uploaded by lla.

The Big One-Oh...

It's hard to believe it...
but someone is this many old today:



That's right. This guy:



Hard to remember that there was a time when you were so hairless that you didn't even have eyelashes or eyebrows...



Oh... you've come a long way, baby.
Wait, am I still allowed to call you that now that you've hit double digits???

I love you, kiddo - and after 10 years it never ceases to amaze me that I manage to love you a little bit more every day. You're so smart, and so damn funny that it just knocks me out. You're thoughtful and contemplative and just nice to have around. You are, by far, the best thing that I've ever done in my life, and it is joy and a privilege to be your mom.

I've said it a million times before, and I'm sure this won't be the last: you, sir, are a really good egg.

And I love you.

Happy Birthday.
Happy Birthday, baby....

Passive-Agressiveness as an Art Form...

Although I personally hate it when passive-aggressiveness is directed towards me, I will admit that I do have an appreciation for it in the abstract.

Which is why I was tickled pink to discover this site: PassiveAggressiveNotes.com

Hee!

Passive-aggressive elevated to an art form! And none of it directed towards me, so I can just enjoy it for the petty snark that it is...

I'm particularly fond of the one from the director of a preschool. Sounds like she could have taught the director of my former school a thing or two....

Enjoy!
(or not. I mean, it's your choice. Whatever...)

This is My Blog...

and this is my blog on Wordle:

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Click to see larger version

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Yeah, that seems about right...

Many thanks to Thimbleanna, for introducing me to this cute new toy!

Sweet Cracker Sandwich...

40, originally uploaded by Leo Reynolds.

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How did this happen?
:)

Mother, I've Done Something Awful and Here She Is*...

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Meet Reba.
She's the newest member of the family here at the House That Crazy Built.

She's almost 9 months old and just the sweetest girl you'd ever hope to meet.

Bubba, Schecky and I are all over the moon - that's how smitten we all are...
Can you blame us? Look at those ears! Those chubby little paws! Those short little legs, with which I am sure she will be able to walk all over us! Oh man, we've got it bad, for sure....

More pictures can be seen at Flickr.

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*This is an actual quote that figures greatly in my family's lore.
I'll save *that* story for another day. Today, it's all about the BabyGirl....

Just so you know...

I'm writing blog posts in my head *all* the damn time.

Seriously, it's become like this weird compulsion, or something.

I'm driving Shecky to camp - he's learning video game design this summer(!?!); or I'm folding the never-ending mountain of laundry; or I'm staring into the refrigerator, trying to figure out what I can make with for dinner using some possibly-too-old chicken, some spicy mustard and half a tomato. But all the while, I realize that in the back of my mind, I'm composing a blog post about whatever it is.

It's kind of like having a radio playing at barely discernible volume - you know? You're almost not aware of it, it's not really registering on the radar; but if you're paying attention - well, then - there it is???

It's a mildly entertaining academic exercise of sorts.

Now - it seems that getting these phantom blog posts out of my head and actually ON the blog? Well...that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish right there.

Maybe this lame attempt is a start????

xo
lla

In Which LLA Does A Sally Field Impersonation, and Has A Startling Confession To Make...

You like me!
You really like me!

---

I know, I know... I'm a silly pup.

But that's how I've been feeling all week, just basking in the love.
Seriously, have I ever written *anything* that has received 21 comments?
Much less 21 such nice ones???

I hope it is not too sad a comment on the state of my life that I've been just a little more smiley than usual this week, a state that I attribute largely just to the satisfaction of "being back" and all the niceness that has entailed.

And speaking of "you like me!" - I must like you all an awful lot, too.
Know why I say that???
Because...

I

Got

Caught

Up

On

ALL

My

Bloglines

!!!


Now, that could just be a sign of what a moron I am, or further documentation of my OCD, or proof that I like *you*, too.
The latter is by far the nicest explanation, so I'm choosing to go with that one.

Yup - I had somewhere in the ballpark of 2,800+ unread posts. And in this past week, I've read or scanned each and every one.

Funnily enough, you know what the hardest part was? Keeping comments to a minimum. I figured that you didn't want to be hit with a random comment on how cute something was three weeks ago, so I tried to be quiet (and mostly succeeded) But I was there. I looked over every word*.

And that's a sign of love and devotion, right?

Right?

Good - keep that in mind.

Because I'm done with the "Sally Field" part of this post. And on to the (perhaps) shocking confession part.

Ummmm... while I was gone from the blogiverse, I wasn't exactly gone from 'teh internets.' Not exactly.

And in doing so. I may have, kind of, sort of, ummmm (cheated on you???)

I blame peer pressure.

For months, I had been getting a lot of peer pressure from college friends to "join FaceBook!" "Join FaceBook!" "You got to join FaceBook" etc. etc. etc.

And finally, I caved.
Mainly just to quit getting harassed about not being on FaceBook.
(I guess if enough Sewanee folks bugged me to jump off a cliff, I'd eventually give in and do that, too...)

So I joined.
And, to my surprise, I kind of liked it.
Not nearly so much as I like y'all, it goes without saying.
But I did find some things there that just worked for me.

First off, I have been reading a lot lately. Even more so than usual. And FaceBook has this handy dandy BookShelf thing that I'm really enjoying. It lets me catalog what I've read and what I'm currently reading; it lets me see what my friends are reading; and it makes surprisingly good suggestions about what I should read next.

The other thing that I found that I liked about FaceBook was the ability to post my "status" - just a brief one line statement about what was going on with me.
I found that when I was not able to full-on blog, it was very satisfying to come up with my sentence for the day, and to get caught up with my friends by reading their one sentence.

Some days composing that single sentence was the most creative thing I had time to do! (I had hoped that that exercise might have made me a more thoughtful, more concise writer, but in proofreading this post, I can see that is not the case!)

So. There it was. The Startling Confession of my temporary defection. Hope you can forgive me. Or better yet? Maybe check it out for yourself??? Because I'm telling you, on really busy days??? It's like the CliffNotes version of what is going on with all your friends...

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*I also got caught up on my email, too! But that was a total cheat. I just took everything pre-May and moved it to a folder called "Sort Through Later?" Except I never will... So if you sent me anything that needed a response prior to this month? Resend it??? But I had messages from last August that I kept holding on to in order to respond "someday" - and even I recognize the ridiculousness in that!

In Which LLA Attempts To Dip Her Toes Back Into the Blogisphere....

Mother's Day Pedicure, originally uploaded by lla.

Because that's the way to win your hearts back, right???
With a really bad pun, and a picture of my Fred Flintstone feet???

That's what I thought...
I mean, truly, who could resist *that* combination...

---

Hey Y'all.

It's me.

LLA?
(or Miss Cookie, if you're nasty...)

You might remember me, I used to actually post stuff here, and occasionally you found it funny enough to comment and things?

Yeah. Again, that's what I thought.

It's OK. Neither Flickr nor Blogger recognized me either.
Maybe it's my cool blue toes* that render me incognito????

Anyway - I really am trying to come back. For some reason, I'm just finding it difficult to get the BFC party started...

Where'd I go? Honestly, nowhere really. I just had a six-week period that was insane crazy busy. Nothing bad, but I realized it was potentially overwhelming. And in keeping with my New Year's resolution to "Just Be OK With Things" - I knew that something had to give. And the logical choice was blogging/blog-reading.

Sounds crazy, I know, to give up something that I enjoy. But long-time readers of BFC know that I have "issues." Many, many issues with many, many things. And that my blogging issue is that I get hung up on being the kind of blogger that I want to be. I knew that with everything else going on that I wouldn't be able to write the kinds of posts that I wanted to write, or respond to any comments the way that I wanted to, etc. etc. etc.
Even though I know that no one expects that kind of stuff from me. Except for me.

So - instead of trying to squeeze blogging in, and being unhappy with my efforts, I decided to take a little break. Better to miss it, than to continue and not find the joy in it - or so my thinking went.

In retrospect, it might have been nice to say "Hey - I'm taking a little break here, talk with you later and I'll be back!"

Except, we've all visited blogs where the authors keep making these big huge deals about how they are going to be taking these BIG. DRAMATIC. BREAKS! Only to be posting more frequently than ever a mere 36 hours later**.
What's up with that, btw? How am I supposed to miss you if you won't go away???

So.

Anyway...

The crazy tumultuous stuff is over.

Volunteer obligations are over, Over, OVER AND DONE! (Can you tell I'm excited by this???) And now it's back to the regular old tumultuous stuff that makes up my life. But for some reason, it's been hard to get back into the swing of it here. And I don't know why.

So - here I go, making the plunge (or dipping my toes back in - I guess it remains to be seen which it is...) Because while I feel pretty darn sure that I've not been doing anything particularly interesting, or crafty, or blog-worthy - I have missed it here. So I want to come back.

If you'll have me.
Me, and my Fred Flintstone feet...

---

*I'm sporting my Mother's Day pedicure - wh00t! I'm not 100% sure about the blue toes. Sometimes I look down and I think "oooh! cute!" and other times I look down and think "what was I thinking???" I am certain about one thing, though. I'm pretty sure that I am either too old, or too uncool to be truly rocking the blue toenails. But it's fun for a change....

**It goes without saying, Dear Reader, that of course I don't mean *you*

Aw, hail...

Aw, hail..., originally uploaded by lla.

The fun just keeps coming today...

I've lived here for 18 years now, and I've never seen *anything* like the events of the past 24 hours...

It's Been a Tense Morning Around Here...

Having weathered the storm, and having gotten power back - we decided to venture out in search of breakfast.
(I didn't feel like facing the fridge/freezer to determine if stuff was or was not safe to eat after being without power all night...)

We took a slight detour to check out Cabbagetown, and it was hit much harder than I would have imagined. Downtown is getting virtually all of the media coverage - and to a degree I suspect that is due to a bunch of journalists being down there to cover the SEC March Madness stuff, kind of like the huge LA earthquake that coincided with the World Series many, many years back.

So - it was a little bit shocking to see just how hard Cabbagetown was hit, and it really reinforced just how fickle tornadoes can be. There would be houses that were utterly devastated next to homes that suffered nary a scratch.

We then went and had a leisurely breakfast. Sigh. I might have been a bit cranky due to not much sleep last night, but it seems that wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed by a big cup of grits and a country ham biscuit. (Yup, I'm a Southern pup through and through...)

We returned home to have several worried sounding voice mails - "Where are you? There's supposed to be another tornado between 1 and 1:15! We hope you're somewhere safe. If you get this message, you need to get somewhere safe and soon!"

A quick look at the clock informed us that it was 12:50. We needed to figure out what was going on and where. We spent a tense 45 minutes or so glued to the television, where we found much normal programming set aside in order to cover the storms. To make a long story short, there were some horrible storms, but all north of us. I do hope that everyone out there fared as well as we did last night...

Seems all storms have left the area and/or have dissipated. And I don't know about y'all, but I am wore out.

And I am so, so, so thankful that Bubba and Schecky's camping trip got canceled for this weekend! I can't even imagine how frantic I would be if we hadn't all been together....
(and it goes without saying that I would like to take back any and all crabbing that I may have done when I learned that their trip was canceled! I am no longer mourning the loss of my "all alone" weekend, and it seems petty and small that I felt that way at all!)

And let me reiterate just how grateful I am to all the people who called us, and all who emailed to inquire as to how we were. I'm feeling awful loved today....

---

Some Cabbagetown pictures:

Everyone Here Is OK...

I'm interrupting the oh-so-fascinating
"Yop" series to bring you this breaking news bulletin...

---

Bubba, Schecky, the Things and I are all just fine, as is - quite luckily - our house, cars, etc.

Some of you may know this, some may not, but I'm a little over a mile from the Georgia Dome and closer still to Cabbagetown - both places where a tornado (or tornadoes) touched down and did some serious world-of-hurt last night.

When everything started to hit last night, our power went out - right at 9:40. The boys had been watching Star Wars, and I was actually on the computer, ogling weather.com, watching the big purple splotch that was the impending storm draw closer and closer to our area. There were flood and hail warnings, but nothing about a tornado.

We were starting to wonder what was going on when the power didn't come right back on within minutes. But it wasn't until our old fashioned plug-into-the-wall phone* starting ringing off the hook with friends and family calling to inquire about us did we have any idea of the scope of things...

The power just came back on, after 11 hours, and I saw that I had several emails as well - so thank you for that, that's really, really sweet and I am quite touched by it. We are all just fine, and amazed at the pictures that we're seeing on CNN, etc.

I knew that it must have been something big - I was up for all but about 45 minutes last night. For some reason, I'm one of those stupid people that can't sleep when the power goes out. No matter how I try, I can't get any rest until it's back on. There's no rational explanation for it, it's just how I'm wired...
There were two more big storms during the night, both were short in duration, but intense - and it was really eerie just how many sirens (fire? police? ambulance?) I heard last night. It seemed like I heard them for hours...

This morning, I'm not hearing sirens, but there is a constant drone of helicopters overhead. I'm assuming these are news copters out getting footage...

I've only been looking at footage/video/etc for a few minutes - but here are a few links for those of you curious about what this storm has wrought...

• CNN Coverage of the Downtown Damage
  
  
• Atlanta Braces For Another Storm
  yikes! Hope that our good luck continues...

• Local News Coverage

---

*It's good to have one of these. Just for instances like this...

Yop, Part II

Because Part One was just so interesting...

---

Another thing that I was doing in February instead of blogging??

Kicking the Diet Coke habit.

Which might not sound like such a big deal to the average bear, but trust me - this was a big freaking deal.

Long story short: I'd become a junkie. I was drinking way too much Diet Coke, all day long. I'm not even sure what my daily intake was, but conservatively? 4 or 5 cans a day. Maybe even 6+. And that's got to be a sure sign of addiction right there, doesn't it? Not keeping track???

Anyhow - one morning I woke up, mindlessly went to the fridge for the first Diet Coke of the day. And as I opened the door to reach inside, I thought "No. You don't really want that..." and I shut the door.

Not sure where that voice came from, or what it was all about. But that was all she wrote. I didn't drink that Diet Coke, nor any subsequent Diet Cokes. And that was 3 weeks ago on Monday...

And how do I feel about this decision? Pretty good. I think I just got tired of being a junkie (after all, it's so passe...)

How did my body respond?
Dude - that part sucked big time. I had a few days of just killer headaches - think brain freeze that lasts all day. Plus, had nice bouts of nausea and was insanely cranky. (yes - even more than usual!)

Then I got sick for real a few days later - had a raging fever, was miserable, and had to cancel an exceptionally rare date night with Bubba. We had a baby-sitter and everything. I'm still mourning that loss.

Oh - and let's not talk about my skin... Within a week of that last Diet Coke, my face had broken out like *never* before. We're talking cystic acne, and that is so not pretty. (shudder)

Ironic, isn't it? Seems like eliminating that much artificial crap from my diet would have been a good thing. Instead, it seemed that Diet Coke was the only thing keeping me healthy. And acne free.

Hmph.

I'm still off the stuff, though. I figure in the long run, it's for the greater good. But if my face doesn't clear up soon? I'm drinking a couple of 2-liter bottles worth - just for the good of my complexion!!!

Yop!

Thought I'd take a cue from all those Whos down in Whoville, and let out a small "Yop!" to let y'all know that I'm still here.

And I'm doing just fine. There's not a lot going on around here, but there's certainly nothing bad. Honestly, I think this just needs to get filed under "unexcused absence"...

Not sure how this unintended blogging break started - but I find that as I try to break this non-posting streak, I'm hit by conflicting emotions: "I don't have anything to say" vs. "I've got TOO much to say, where do I start???"

So - I thought I'd start small*.
Maybe breaking up the "WhereI'veBeen/WhatI'veBeenDoing" (or NOT been doing, as the case may be) into smaller bite-sized chunks.

Here, then, is the first chunk...

---

Well, perhaps the single most important thing was that I got through February with all my "X"es intact. (What's this about???)



I'm telling you, this is insanely motivating to me for some reason - I can't figure out for the life of me why making my shiny red X each day is so important to me, but it is.

In February, the goal was to walk 3,000 steps or 1.5 miles over and above my everyday routine. And February was tough - there were several rain days, and even a day (or two!) of walking in the snow. But I got 'er done, and that - in the long run - was more satisfying than the temporary discomfort of walking in the rain. Or snow. Or just with a generally poor attitude...

(It's funny, this walking thing. For some reason, I've been eschewing taking FreshHotSmallSquare with me, and just concentrating on my Really Deep Thoughts.

Which some days are something actually approaching Really Deep Thoughts.

Other days, my RDTs are more along the lines of "How many steps have I taken? 1,349. 1,350. 1,351. Ugh, I hate this. 1,352. 1,353..." I wish I were kidding about that, but sadly, some days are like that. I do find that I notice more, am more observant of the world around me, when I don't have earbuds in. And I like that aspect of it...)

---

Since we're in March, I'll go ahead and share what I'm doing this month: 4,000 steps or 2 miles over and above each day. And so far, it's going well - despite the fact that I was really sick at the beginning of the month - I felt oddly like a martyr hauling myself out there with a fever of 102° . (Did I mention that I'm insanely motivated by the X? I'm entranced by them...) I'm not sure yet what April is going to bring. The obvious answer is to bump it up again to 5,000 steps/2.5 miles - but I feel like maybe I need to shake it up a little??? Must ponder this...

Sadly, the one big thing that I did not do in February? Lose any weight. In fact, I gained .8 of a pound. And honestly, the only surprise about that was that it wasn't more. There was some good eating in February. And, oddly, more drinking than is usual for me. But I'm chalking that up to the fact that February is a bitch, and you do what you need to do to get through it! :)

So - I guess for the year, I'm still down 4.2 pounds from where I started. Which is not particularly impressive, I know. But the goal wasn't to impress. It was to end the year 20 pounds lighter. So - as long as I stop this slight upward trending, I am still on track for meeting the goal. And that's not bad...

Later 'skaters!
(And thanks for bearing with me, even when I drop off the face of the earth for no good reason...)

xoxoxox

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*'cause I sure do love my baby-steps...

Yee-Haw!

I've had the great joy of discovering a new-to-me blog: Homesick Texan.

I say "new-to-me" because judging from my Bloglines, as well as the number of comments that her blog generates - I am one late pixie to *this* party.

But no mind - better late than never...
I'm just glad I found it, because I can tell that it's a keeper.

And even if it weren't, I would still be forever in debt to the Homesick Texan, for it was she who introduced me to the supreme awesomeness that is the Texas Nacho.

---

OK - first of all, you need to tot over to Homesick Texan ASAP, and read her post entitled Nachos 101.

Go ahead - scoot now. I'll wait...
[[[humming quietly to self. waiting for you to come back.]]]

OK, see now why I wanted you to read that for yourself? There's no way that I could do that justice, not even in a summary.

And I don't know about you, but I've got to tell you that I was intrigued. Because my experience with nachos? Totally the big-pile-o'-chips-with-stuff-dumped-on-top one.

Don't get me wrong, I have a great appreciation for the "pile o' stuff" kind. But to learn there was a different kind out there? Very, very intriguing.

Plus, honestly, they didn't sound that difficult. And it's been icky, cold and wet here lately - so a shakeup to the usual routine seemed called for.
(I know that Georgia's in the middle of a scary-serious drought. Therefore, it seems churlish to complain about the rain. But let me just say that the novelty of seeing wet stuff fall from the sky has totally worn off....)

For starters - the Homesick Texan says that you really should make the chips yourself.

What?

You can *do* that?
Really?

Who knew?

OK - so maybe everybody but me knew this. But I honestly had never given this any thought at all. Tortilla chips come in bags in the grocery store, and in a basket at the restaurant. But I'm willing to give this a try...

---

Corn tortillas, cut into sixths, chunked into oil, cooked for a minute or so on each side.
(This is supposed to be 350° oil, but I have no idea if I had that or not. The only cooking thermometer I have is a meat thermometer, and I suspect it's not the same thing at all...)

---

Removed from the oil, drained on paper towels, sprinkled with salt.

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Want a closer look?



At about this point, Schecky comes wandering into the kitchen. He suspects that I am making popcorn, because "it smells like you're making popcorn!"

After the initial "there's no popcorn" disappointment, Schecky asks to try a chip. So he and I sample one each.

Sweet cracker sandwich! These things are GOOD!
I mean really, Really, REALLY good!
They are much thicker and heartier than a regular chip - which I think will be good for holding up to toppings. I am already impressed beyond all belief with this.

---

But I'm not stopping here...
I set up a "Nacho Making" bar. I have visions that everyone can top their own nachos, exactly the way they want.



Except that didn't happen...
The prevailing attitude was "we don't care, just make them how you want them."

Hmph. Ingrates.I'll teach them not to care... mutter, mutter, mutter...

---

So - bean and cheese it is. Everyone will eat that. I'll leave salsa and jalepenos for the table for additional doctoring. Into the oven they go.

---

Five minutes and 350° later, this is what I spy...

---

And dinner is served...



Yes, you're seeing that correctly, I only ate three.
Well, three at a time...

The result?
This one knocked it out of the park, folks. It was unanimous - we all LOVED them...

Schecky declared: "This is my favorite thing that you've ever made, EVER!"
(Then he looked a little guilty and added "that's important, Mom, 'cause you make lots of good stuff." He's a sweet one, that boy of mine.)

Bubba was dumb-founded - he kept asking me "You made these chips? For real? You made them?"

And of course, I was all like "Uh, yeah! I totally made them..."*
(And I would love to say that I will never buy the pre-made kind in bags ever again. But we all know that, sadly, that's not true. Sigh. Sometimes it sucks to be this lazy...)

So - I guess what I am trying to say here is that I highly recommend Texas Nachos.
They's good eating.

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*Sadly, that's pretty much exactly what I said. It's embarrassing, really - somewhere along the line I've turned into a cross between 1982-era Moon Unit Zappa, and Lola.
Except with a kind of Southern accent. I must really work to sound less like a parody or a cartoon character...

(and don't you love the way that I'm not admitting that only a few short hours before that *I* had no idea that you could make chips??? I'm all sly that way....)

Best NPR Interview EVER!

Forgive my lack of a "real" post - there's not a whole lot going on at The House That Crazy Built today.

Well, technically, there's lots going on, but all of it is boring - laundry, vacuuming, pathetically attempting to repair a bad gutter by ourselves. Therefore, I'm not going to ramble on about any of it. Mainly because it's not just boring-boring, it is mega-über-boring...

---

But you want to know what's *NOT* boring?

THIS <---- the best NPR interview. Ever.

Nom! Nom! Nom!

Because Nothing Says "Happy Valentine's Day" Quite Like....

A Very Small Army of Beady-Eyed, Mutant Hearts, originally uploaded by lla.

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Wishing you all a Very Happy Valentine's Day!

Y'all Tired About Reading About Vermin, Yet?

'cause I'm obviously not tired of writing about it...

---

Ah, yes - all is back to what passes for normal here at the House That Crazy Built*.

Another day, another thing in the house that is not supposed to be in the house.

You all remember that first there was the mouse.

Then there was the 'possum baby.

Then there was the bird.

And today, a repeat: another mouse.
(Stupid 100-year old house that obviously has lots of entry points for small beasties...)

The good news?
I seem to be getting braver. I "trapped" this one with a piece of cardboard and a piece of Tupperware - and I managed to get it outside and released in the nearby park without any squealing at all.

It helped that this little guy was the cutest thing ever.





This is him on the cardboard, once I de-Tupperwared him.
Too bad I didn't have the presence of mind to put a quarter or something down beside him to give you a sense of scale. He was wee-bitty. Smaller than my thumb...
(but, in the interest of full disclosure? I've got big ole thumbs...)

The cardboard and the Tupperware were both promptly and sadly relegated to the trash can.
(Mostly because I'm sure that no amount of dishwashing/bleaching/sterilizing is going to get Hanta virus cooties out of plastic...)

It's kind of sad to admit that to my mind this indicates a return to "normalcy"...

Lately things have felt off kilter here - seems like there's been too much going on, and not enough time in the day.
I won't bore you with all the details - it's nothing you all aren't already familiar with (PTA, sick kid, sick self, car trouble, etc.) You've all been there, done that.

Yesterday, I finally got a small break and thought "Yay! I can do some blogging!"
Only to sit in front of the computer for about 5 minutes before realized that I had Jack to say...

So thank you, tiny mouse!
Thank you for being so cute.
Thank you for giving me the impetus to sit back down at the computer and dip my toes back into the blogisphere.

And I thank you in advance for staying down in the field, and NOT coming back to The House That Crazy Built...

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*Although, not wholly normal - I set off on my walk this afternoon, and had only been walking for a few minutes when it started *snowing*! That's NOT normal for Georgia.
It continued to snow for the entire duration of my walk....

What was more typical? About 3 minutes after I got home, it stopped snowing....
So basically, the snow lasted for the length of my daily constitutional, then disappeared. Welcome to my world...

Goody Two Shoes!

What's this peeking out from under the cuffs of my stupidly-too-long* jeans?





Only the CUTEST SHOES EVER!!!

OK - maybe it's been too long since I treated myself to anything new - but there are not words to tell you how giddy I am over these. I'm like a kindergartner with a shiny new backpack filled with brand-spanking new Hello Kitty school supplies on the first morning of school.
That is how twitterpated I am over these shoes.

And can you blame me?
I mean, really... they're baby blue.
With bright red laces.
So cute...

Not convinced?

Did I show you the little birds on the sides?



Still not convinced?
OK - you're forcing me to bring out the heavy artillery here.

Little Red Riding Hood.



'Nuff said?

Thought so.

(And if you can stand it, there's one more neat thing... These shoes are part of the (Product)RED initiative. So I'm feeling cute and like a humanitarian...

Want your own pair of happy-making shoes? Visit here.)

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*I'm going to trip and hurt myself one day because of jeans like this. It's just for so many years I *never* had a pair of jeans that was quite long enough, much less too long. I'm 5'9" - and it seems that most of that is legs.
Now, thanks to how ginormous teenagers get these days, finding long enough jeans isn't a problem anymore. But I still tend to wear them too long, I guess to compensate for all those years of wearing Urkel-pants...

Punxsutawney Who???

I make it a point to pay no attention to the prognostications of Yankee Groundhogs.

I mean, really - who are you going to put your faith in: the groundhog who started off his morning with an order of "scattered, smothered and covered" from the Waffle House, or the one who didn't?

It's a pretty easy choice to make, in my opinion.

Georgia's own Beauregard Lee declared that we'll have an early spring this year!

WooHoo!