Mysteries of Life

Sigh. My last child has lost his first tooth...definitely a rite of passage for both of us! It's funny how it went from just a titch loose to wiggling all over the place, and then the next day, gone! It was really bugging him at that last stage, and I guess he just grabbed it with a paper towel and pulled it right out! Sadly, I was not here to witness it myself.

I was out looking at my Dream Home. We aren't really planning on moving but it was just one of those things...a couple of weeks ago I dropped Vivian off at her friend's house and noticed there was a house for sale on the street. It's an amazing area--still our little town, but in a very secluded wooded part of it. Picking up the available flyer I was surprised to see it less expensive than I thought it would be...of course, still out of our range--but it got the wheels a-spinnin'. Before I knew it our real estate agent was opening the door and I was getting a first-hand view. I could have wept, it was so amazing. The yard was the kicker, a half acre of trees so thick you could barely even see any homes behind it. Of course the gourmet kitchen that has been featured on the cover of a magazine didn't hurt, either. sigh. It's fun to dream, but it can be darn depressing too. I mean, I can dream about a 15 million dollar castle but I don't really pine about it since it's so out of reach. This place is out of reach too, but it could probably be done if we really worked at it. But that means changing a lot around here and sacrificing other things, and who wants to be house-poor?? OK, sometimes I think I do, but I know it's not very smart. Guess I'd better go back to putting my energy into my Special Purpose...of course a new house would be something to take my mind off that now, wouldn't it?? Funny how that works....!!!

And speaking of that, last night I attended a Silpada Jewelry party at my friend Pam's house--that was fun. The jewelry was actually very nice, and of course spending a night with women drinking wine and playing with girlie things is never a bad thing. I often wonder about these home-party business things...of course on the outside they seem like the perfect job for me. Getting paid to party! But of course the nitty-gritty is really investing a bunch of your own money up front to buy all of the stuff to display, and then having to get out there and SELL. I am not a salesperson, I feel way too guilty trying to push anything on anybody. When I sold my own jewelry I just sat behind the table and answered questions, I didn't believe in trying to SELL anything. If a person left without buying a thing, so be it! The last thing I would want is for someone to buy one of my pieces because they felt they had to. And of course at those parties, don't we always feel like we can't leave without purchasing?? Ladies, don't we always feel guilty if we don't??? I can see the men reading this just shaking their heads. Don't even try to understand, my guy friends, you just won't. It's just yet another one of those mysteries of life.

Summer Fun

As KISS would say, Hot Hot, Hotter than Hell. (I know I am dating myself, but anyone who ever keeps up with this blog already knows I'm FORTY.) Did I get that song stuck in your head now?? (that is, if you are KISS fans.) That was my good deed for the day. You're welcome.

Yes, I'm still here, yes, I'm still alive, yes, everything is okay. It's sweet that people worry about me if I don't blog. Always nice to know someone out there would probably send the search party if I didn't post for a month or so. Makes me think when I'm old and alone that I'll keep this blog going, if nothing else for that very reason!!! Lucky you. Then I'll be going on and on about my poop, my bunions, and all of that fun stuff. yahoo!

No, I've just been a busy Metal Mommy taking in the summer. Other than this Hot as Haities weather, it's been lovely. Just waking up late in the morning with--on most days--nothing to rush off to. And if we do have something to rush off to, it's usually something fun. Here is Sullivan hanging at my friend Dawn's pool. Dawn kept telling me to invite myself over, and damn if I didn't put the Nice Girl aside and do it. Inviting myself over to someone's house is something I've never been able to do--even when Coreman wants to just stop by for an un-announced visit with someone at a perfectly reasonable hour I feel uncomfortable. But Dawn has been insisting that I do it, she and Mark want people to come use their pool--and who am I to say no to that?! :-) I suppose it's pretty metal to just announce your impending presence.

Hanging with friends, my old boyfriend Hayden's 40th birthday party, hitting the Rec Center pool with the kids...all good summer fun. The only bad thing is I've hardly seen my dear Golden Girls Kim and Stephanie at all so far! Whassup with that?! Ladies, I miss you. Isn't it bizarre, you'd think summer time would be the time you see your peeps the most. Not when you have a family....you are busy busy busy taking kids here and there and keeping them entertained. Ah well, such is life. Makes the good times when we are together that much sweeter.

So all of you stay cool, safe and enjoy the summer! We will be lamenting it's demise before we know it....

Happy Father's Day!

To all of you Dads out there. Hope you're having a wonderful day! Coreman's began with wonderful homemade goodies from the kids and a nice breakfast of peanut butter toast and strawberries made by Viv. Then at church he got to lector and read aloud the word 'bosom' not once, but twice. Well, I guess two bosoms are better than one. Amen!

It's been a fun-filled weekend. Our neighborhood parade was yesterday, I have a running date with my friend Darcie and family to meet by the corner and celebrate the festivities together. What is it about a parade?? There's always laughs to be had at the 'Daughters of the Westerly Winds', the thought of sinking your teeth into a giant Big Mac or getting attacked by the Vulcans, a group of guys that always seem to mark Darcie and I with their black grease paint 'V's on our cheeks. Ug. At least it's not kissing anymore, they used to come around and plant one on you! Not PC anymore, I'm sure, so no more of that. As much as we groan when we see the dreaded Vulcans come down the road, it dawned on me that the day they pass us right on by without so much as a glance to mark the pretty young thing across the street will be a sad day indeed. Then we'll know we are REALLY old!!! This year even Sullivan got branded.

And who should come marching--or riding!--down the street about halfway through the parade? My daughter herself. She and Coreman marched for the Children First organization. We were all going to do it, but between my aching back (that still hasn't completely recovered from the gourmet dinner night!) and the fact that Sullivan would really much rather watch than participate, he and I sat on the sidelines. I was a little disappointed, I have to admit...I had my pageant wave downpat. Vivian had hers going, though...so much that she complained of a sore wrist afterwards! Hilarious. I don't think she got much sympathy from the sweaty walkers.

After getting myself washed up and dolled up, my friend Donna and I went out for a night on the town. We headed downtown to a restaurant called Brits, and enjoyed a meal up on the roof. It was a busy place, all night we were being approached by men... who wanted to take our extra chairs. It was a little disappointing that that was all they wanted, I have to say. Hey, I'm a happily married woman but it's been a while since I've been picked up on and it would have been fun to say no. We did manage to have some good fun with a couple of guys, tho...near the end we had been sitting and gabbing with our bill on the table. A guy came over to us and asked us if we had paid our bill. I can't remember his exact words, unfortunately, but he was very rude and was basically telling us that he would take our table as soon as we leaved. ! After he sauntered off to stare at us from the bar, Donna looked at me and said, "No Way is that guy getting this table." I approached a couple standing close by and asked them if they wanted it, and we worked it out just right that as the guys were coming in for the kill we quickly swapped places with the couple. ha! No one gets rewarded for rude behavior, and we made sure of it. Go Donna, I love the way your mind works! You're so METAL!

Today, just relaxing around the house and getting ready for the big yard sale next weekend. We are total gluttons for punishment. Every year we haul all of our crap out in the front yard, sit out there in either the sweltering heat or pouring rain all day and haggle with people that offer a quarter for something that is marked 50 cents that we actually paid 50 dollars for. But every year we have to do it. The best part is that I leave my sale and go spend my money we've made on other people's junk. It's all part of the Circle of Yard Sale. Then that junk gets put our in our sale in the next year or so. Enjoy your weekend!

For the Love of a Shallot

Not the painting of the Lady of Shallot, mind you. (although it is quite lovely.) I think shallots are my new favorite cooking ingredient. Not that this is a cooking blog, oh no...I could never compete with my dear friend Stephanie on that one, and wouldn't even try...but I just had to share that for my latest gourmet dinner group recipe it required the use of shallots in not one but two of my recipes, and I am now thinking I need to incorporate them in a lot of my dishes instead of plain ol' bourgeois onions.

Shallots ARE onions, in fact, just a small gourmet version of them. (so it should not surprise you that I like them--me and my expensive taste.) They look a lot like garlic, but are a sweeter version of the onion. They are cute. And they taste good. So what's not to like?? I made a simple recipe of Roasted Potatoes With Herbs that called for them and upon smelling this dish in the oven my husband told me I outdid myself and the kitchen smelled the best it's ever smelled. huh. I'll be putting shallots into everything now! What honey, you don't like shallot in your blueberry kuchen?? But you said they smelled the best ever...

My dinner of said potatoes to compliment the main dish of Mediterranean Chicken for my dinner party turned out wonderful, too bad 3 out of us 4 women felt so crummy. You had to laugh...me after standing and cooking all day was shuffling from point A to point B because of a sore back by night's end...Dawn had pulled something in her butt (!) and poor Rosemarie was weak, tired and dizzy from taking some nasty heavy-duty meds to kill off some lovely parasites that made a run for the border via her intestines from Mexico. What a bunch of old ladies we felt like! Ridic. But we weren't going to let that keep us from eating well and having some good laughs! Oh no. Sadly, because of my gimpy back, I didn't get to taking any photos of my dish--and I was quite proud of it, too. Beat! You'll just have to make it yourself.

Good Times

Good times to be had by all at Bar Billadeau last night. Kim was worried at one point that Pat might cancel because of an impending storm....I guess as a kid at any dark cloud he would sequester himself down in the basement with the essentials...a radio, flashlight, blanket (for falling glass) and a bag of Doritos. I decided to make him feel more at ease I'd let him borrow Sullivan's handy emergency generator-powered wind up radio complete with flashlight and siren, and of course the chips. (forgot the blankie. But I figured Kim would have that.) Here's a photo of Pat looking afraid, but really there was nothing to fear. Just some wind, not even a drop of rain. Poor Pat, I think he really wanted to take home that full bag of Doritos, but alas, big sister Kim ripped into 'em and he was forced to share. I didn't get home until midnight with a sore throat from all my laughing. I was a tired Metal Mommy this morning!

Busy day today. I have a lot of errand running to do during my last few days of freedom before the kids are home from school for the summer. One of my errands was to run to the Mall (gee darn) to get some make up. Stephanie got me hooked on an eye pencil from Bobbi Brown--it was one of her rejects that I stole from Vivian's stash--and as it is getting down to the nubbins I had to go get a replacement. I ended up getting two--one of that color, and one a lighter color that seems more suitable for summer days to me. Then I decided to head over to Lancome and splurge on a mascara. I hate spending money on mascara, it seems so boring and dumb to me. But, I will say, there is a difference between the spendy ones and the drugstore ones. I try to go cheap and I always end up with clumps. There is nothing more frustrating than clumpy mascara. Lancome was having a 'free gift' thing--man, I love those things--but wouldn't you know I was $6 under the minimum purchase to get it?? Good grief. Even though I really wanted it I refused to buy something else that I didn't really need or want purely on the principal of the thing. If a girl spends $23 on a flipping mascara then she should surely get a free gift. As if reading my mind, the sales lady then plopped a clear plastic tote on the counter chock-full of lipsticks and eyeshadow quads, telling me that they made some sort of 'announcement' over the loudspeaker and that I got to pick 2 things out of that bag. Nice! So I did get a free gift after all...maybe not the tote and the flip flops, but who needs flip flops when you've got pearly pink Crocs?? I had to kind of laugh at the announcement thing--don't get me wrong, I'm happy they do it, but what is Macy's now...Kmart? The whole Blue Light Special thing?? Too funny.

This afternoon Sully and I will head over to Vivian's school to hear her and her classmates read reports that they've done. It's a very cute thing that her class seems to do twice a year, they make a party out of it. According to Vivian's disappointment I guess I am not the cool Mom since I am bringing something healthy as a snack--I realize it's not very metal to bring grapes instead of cupcakes to a school function but hey, I'm just bringing was was asked of me. Don't you remember that, tho? How the snack you brought to school totally reflected your coolness-factor? Hey, it could have been the roasted cauliflower I am eating right now as my lunch. (thank you, Stephanie!) For some reason I am the only one who appreciates that in this family....

And tonight a retirement party for one of Vivian's old teachers. I'm very sad to see her go, I was hoping that eventually Sullivan could have her as well. Sigh, the passing of time brings change. Some good, some bad, some bittersweet. I think I'll go back to lunch with my cauliflower and my sweet son who just got home from school and revel in the moment.

On My Patio

Yes, 'tis spring/summer, and I'm having everyone on my patio once again. Why is the 70's Donna Summer hit "On the Radio" in my head right now? You know, instead of singing "On the radio, whoa, on the radio" my version is "On the patio, whoa, on the patio"...see? Now you'll be stuck on that all day. heh heh.


Softball party! We had the first one of the season, it's always good to just get it out there and be done right away. A wipe of the hands, we did our duty. And it was fun. Coreman plays on the Wooddale Bulldogs team and quite frankly I don't know how good they are because I never get to see a game. My little guy is still at the age where sitting in the stands and watching grown men hit balls with bats and run around on a diamond is just not as alluring as the nearby playground equipment. And because he's still little, I can't just let him go play. But the burgers and dogs on the patio was great fun, and the weather was perfect. Lucky, since it's been storming/raining a lot lately.

Last night our friends Pam and Gary joined us a for a nice patio evening as well. We chatted and ate salty chips and sweet yummy cupcakes from Trader Joe's, (thanks and no-thanks P and G!!!) by the lovely lights with our new bug zapper that Coreman got for his birthday letting out the occasional 'zap!' What a satisfying sound that is, I have to say. One less bloodsucker in the world. Or on MY patio.

Tonight, I will be on Kim's patio, with her and her hilarious wish-he-were-my-brother Pat. We are indeed supposed to get storms, but hey, the beer and/or wine will be pouring and we'll be laughing...so who the heck cares?!

Dream a Little Dream

I'm doin' my homework. Homework, you ask? As a (Metal) Mommy, does that mean studying food nutrition? Parenting manuals? The long-term effects of tooth decay if your kids don't floss daily? Nope. None of the above. (although, the last one I may pay more attention to, now that I think about it....!) I am listening to Andrew Zimmern's talk show on the radio.

Remember a while ago how I mentioned that a dream of mine was to be on FM107 talk radio? Well, ladies and germs, I am proof that dreams can come true. I hesitate to even mention this at this premature point since my actual date and time hasn't been confirmed yet--but hey, I've already gone ahead and threw it out to the universe (or to the blog world which I'm thinking is the same thing) that I even WANTED to be on the radio and it looks like it's happening, so what the hey! I'm gonna be a glass-half-full-er and I'm just going to bank on it coming through.

Not only am I getting on the radio, my friends, but I am going to be on the one-and-only Andrew Zimmern show, which started yesterday (Monday, June 4th) and will be on Monday through Friday from 1-3 on said FM107.1. As I said we're still working out the details as to when and where, and even exactly what my role will be, but it looks like my contribution is going to have something to do with--*gasp!*-- being the 'Modern Mom', or maybe dare I say, the Metal Mommy? We shall see. At this point I believe I will be calling in to chat with Andrew for anywhere from 7-10 minutes every couple of weeks, but again, to be determined. As you can imagine, I am very excited. What an honor it will be to be a part of Andrew's daily conversation! Andrew and I have been having our own conversations back and forth about it all and as soon as I know the details you will know the details.

So keep on dreaming everyone! Blog about it! Put it out there with all your heart and soul and you may be surprised. I think it really does help...well, that and having support from friends and family, and of course having connections...;-) When it comes right down to it, it's often who you know. But you aren't getting anywhere if you keep that dream to yourself. A little pep talk from The Suz.

Outta My Head for Jewels

Skulls are still 'in'--thank goodness!--but this one definitely is out...out of somebody's head! It looks like something Captain Jack and his crew would be searching World's End for. This beauty is diamond-encrusted, worth a mere $98 million. That makes my 15 million dollar castle look like steal! And how very metal. The gift for someone who has everything--surely a girl would lose her head over something such as this...ho ho ho!!

As it is, I myself have been bedazzled with a gorgeous bauble compliments of my dear friend Stephanie--an early 41st birthday present!!! Instead of our usual coffee morning at the shop, I recommended that we peruse the Edina Art Fair--a shopper's paradise for all that enjoy the artsy-fartsy. There were many booths with jewelry, but when we passed the one that sported this particular stuff--my, oh my! I would have loved to have a camera, to see all of the women (us included) drooling over these jewels. A person could barely get by the table, the women were coveting everything they thought they *may* want to buy. Stephanie ended up getting herself a gorgeous necklace that was so stunning I had to fight off another woman that was practically ready to rip it off Steph's neck. Whoa! My necklace is to die for itself, a single amazing clear crystal jewel like a magical amulet. Whew. It's enough to make a accessory-lving girl swoon--or lose her head. Thank you thank you, my lovely friend! What a fun morning we had!