Shakin' it Up!

I just had to post about my glorious friend Stephanie, who recently exhibited the most Metal behavior--makes a Metal Mommy friend proud. She was visiting her son's new Catholic school and was chatting with some of the moms. At one point she went to give a 'thumb's up' and absent-mindedly threw the Heavy Metal hand signal instead!!!!!!!!!! She was mortified by her own actions, especially upon seeing another mom's smile falter a bit. Long live Metal, I say, and Long Live being irreverent in these sort of uptight situations. Of course my dear friend never meant to offend, it just came out! Which is what makes it so sweeet of course, and so very Metal. You just can't keep a Metal Diva down, and that friend of mine is always shakin' it up. I love it!!

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum my glorious friend will be dining with Andrew Zimmern tonight, and being filmed whilst doing it! Stephanie, her husband John, and another couple will be on a future episode of Andrew's television show Bizarre Foods eating Lord knows what! Omg, I'd be so nervous about that. Forget about being on camera in front of millions, I'd be more frightened about what I'd have to be putting in my mouth. Considering Andrew travels the world and eats everything from giant grubs to still-beating frog's hearts, I can only imagine. Well, it's only Minnesota mind you...us Northwestern folk don't get too crazy up here. Maybe Stephanie will be eating raw lutefisk?! Perhaps she will be throwing the Metal Hand Signal at the same time! SWEEET!

As for me, I'll be eatin' cake officially one week from today. The countdown has begun! Strange. I'm very excited, although of course a bit melancholy about leaving this great house and neighborhood. We are definitely moving on to bigger and better, but this has been a wonderful place to live. The hardest part of it all will be dealing with the kids and their adversity to change, which of course is to be expected. It seems that there is a lot of change happening for a lot of people lately! A Time of Flux and New Opportunities. That's a good thing, it's always good to shake things up a bit.

Happy Memorial Weekend!

That doesn't sound quite right, does it? Even though we all use this weekend either to get away somewhere or just to relax/party at our own homes, I suppose we should take a moment to think about the reason we even HAVE this holiday.
There. I gave it a moment, and I hope you did too. On to the getaway! We had a nice weekend up north where we not only hung out at 'Grammy's house', but also in Kim and John's brand-spankin' new 32 foot trailer, definitely a home-away-from-home. Parked out on Grammy's beautiful 2-lot lawn, it was a very nice and relaxing place to hang for both the human and canine species. We ate very well and did the shopping-tourist thing. Nice. It was definitely a good thing to get away for a few days.

In the spirit of our friend Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show on the Travel Channel--that both of my kids adore watching, by the way-- Vivian decided she was going to actually try escargots--or snails--and film herself doing it, with the hopes that it will make it on an episode. (Andrew does indeed ask for videos of people eating bizarre foods.) Of course to many people snails are not a very crazy thing to eat, but it sure is to an eleven-year-old. I have to say, I was impressed that she would even try it. She filmed the whole process from how they were prepared to eating it, and she did it--although the jury is still out as to whether she actually swallowed one and not just the french bread that she also had in her mouth at the same time. Showing off, she popped another one in her mouth but once the camera was off she quickly spat it out on the lawn...! (good thing we were eating outside!) Hilarious. I think she gets points either way. Who knows if Andrew spits things out once the cameras stop rolling?? What say ye, Andrew? Inquiring minds want to know...personally, I don't know how the guy can keep things down like a still-beating frog's heart, a shot of sake half filled with fresh turtle's blood or a live 12 inch or so long mangrove worm--but if it inspires my kids to try some new and interesting things--hooray! Better him than me, is all I can say.

Anyhoo, I hope your Memorial Day festivities were memorable as well...