Sorry, not seein' it....

Tony Goldwyn as "Michael Goren".

What do you guys think?

New! From Mattel!

The new Western Washington Barbie Dolls!! OK, I don't expect anyone from outside of Washington to really get these, but they are still funny and you can get the gist, and even adapt the Barbies to your own regions!

1. Mercer Island Barbie. This Princess Barbie is sold only at Bellevue Square. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named "Honey" and a McMansion on Lake Washington. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented Barbie.
2. Sammamish Plateau Barbie. The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately. 3. Tacoma Barbie. This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills)....unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about.
4. Medina Barbie. This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.
5. Kent Barbie. This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans, two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud Light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5' and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pick up truck separately and get a Confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free!!
6. Carnation Barbie. This tobacco-chewing, brassy haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Southside Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid washed jeans, fake fingernails and a see-through halter top. Also available with a mobile home.

7. Fremont Barbie. This doll is made of actual tofu! She has long, straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her "Willow". She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Fremont Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free!
8. SeaTac Barbie. This Barbie now comes with a stroller and infant doll. Optional accessories include a GED and bus pass. Gangsta Ken and his 1979 Caddy were available, but are now difficult to find since the addition of the infant. 9. Capital Hill Barbie/Ken. This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on parts.

Many thanks to my friend Averie (in Kent) for sending this to me today!! And in Averie's defense, I've never seen her dress like "Kent Barbie".

My favorite picture of me

I was just going through some old pictures and found this. It's my fave picture of me when I was little. It was probably taken in the summer of 1967 at Springhill Beach, East Sandwich, Mass. My dad had a beach cottage at Springhill that he rented out. He owned it from 1964-1977, and we never once spent the night there. I love Springhill Beach and I still make sure to visit every time I go back east. I used to love to climb on the jetties, look for treasure (beachglass) and play on the sandbars at low tide.

So this is typical of what my dolls looked like. Clothes long gone, hair missing and/or wadded up, limbs twisted in a heap. And me, for whatever reason, watering it with a really sick smile on my face.

Don't say I haven't been warned....

I was downstairs doing the laundry right now and was reminded of an amusing story.

I hate doing laundry. I hate folding it. I hate putting it away. So I don't pay much attention to what I'm doing when I am folding it. As a result, I often come home from work to find one of my socks, tossed unceremoniously on my bed, obviously by Brian who found it mixed in with his t-shirts. One day I came home to find a pair of panties hanging from one of the bathroom light fixtures. OK, Brian, I get it. I have to pay better attention to what I'm doing.

In fact yesterday, I took my car to Jiffy Lube and when I got back in after they vacuumed it, there was a black sock covered in pine needles placed on my passenger seat. I started laughing, at the thought of the sock being stuck to my pants and falling off in the car, and how long had the sock been stuck to my pants to begin with.

Anyway, one time a few years ago when Brian was working at either Pinnacle or Ward, he was walking through the office when he noticed something down by his feet. There was something dark sticking out of his pants leg. He shook his leg and one of my black socks popped out on the floor. He snatched it up and shoved it in his pocket, looking around to make sure no one had seen. When he got home, he threw the sock at me and said, "Guess what I found coming out of my pants leg today?" I started howling with laughter, and those of you who know me, know how hearty that is. As I doubled over, slapping my knee, he went on, "I do NOT need to pack socks! And I swear, if a pair of panties EVER comes out of my clothes, I WILL hunt you down, and kill you."

Amulet bags

I've been meaning to try scanning some of my crafts directly to the computer instead of shooting pictures and although I wish they were bigger, the scan didn't come out too bad!

These are little amulet bags I make from fancy jacquard ribbon that I get at Pacific Fabrics & Crafts in Puyallup, since they have the best selection and the largest sizes. Back in CA, I bought a kit that showed you how to make them. At the time, the kit was purchased from a place called Bead Boppers in Puyallup. I had no idea where this town was when I got the kit, so imagine my shock when I moved up here and literally drove past Bead Boppers one day while out doing errands. It's a good thing I didn't get into an accident that day as I slammed my brakes on and whipped into the parking lot; Pacific Fabrics is across the street from Bead Boppers' old location, so I figured that's where they got the ribbon to make the kits. Since making the first kit, I have been able to expand and do my own.

You start with a piece of ribbon 6" long. Then I fold the bottom 2" of the ribbon up and stitch the sides with beads, and fold the top third down as the flap, and stitch beads all the way around. Then I add beaded fringe and charms, and then the beaded strap. The amulet bags themselves are probably only about 1" to 2" long when done, and range from 9" - 12" long with the straps and fringe.

The graduated fringe takes the longest time, because you have to make sure to accurately count each row of beads and plan out the "V" pattern. This one I tried doing loop fringe which twists back on itself, instead of straight strands.
This one's my fave bag. I got the last piece of ribbon in this pattern and have never seen it again at the fabric store. I used Swarovski crystal and a dragonfly charm on the fringe, and then just chose miscellaneous beads for the strap, with a metal flower connector charm at the top. I think if you click each individual picture, you will be able to see the details and colours.
I'm kind of addicted to making them and I have 9 of them hanging on the walls in my room.
Because I'm so afraid of rejection, I haven't gone out to peddle my wares to see if anyone wants to buy them or show them on consignment at a store. So my friends usually end up receiving packages of crafts and/or jewelry that I've made simply because I don't have room for all the stuff I create.

Everytime I make something, a scene comes to mind from that Krissmiss special, "Santa Claus is coming to town", when Burgermeister Meisterburger decrees that there'll be no more toys, so Santa's elves keep tossing the toys they make into a big pile outside the Toy Shoppe door.

How did he escape my attention?

As my friends and family can attest to, I was in love with many, many musicians (and actors) over the years. How David Gilmour slipped past my ever alert "dude-radar" is beyond me.

Musical Musings

Man alive! I just had an aural fuck of epic proportions.....

It's been a long week, and with Debby out, I've been extremely busy. So I suggested to Brian that when we got home tonite, why don't we watch the Pink Floyd "Pulse" DVD, from where they start the "Dark Side of the Moon" album all the way through to the encores. I really just wanted to get lost in the haunting music, something I so rarely find time to do these days. So I decided to help the mood along with a Xanax. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, 30 pills lasts me 6 months, so I do only use it when I need to mellow out after a rough week.

My all time fave Floyd tune is "Comfortably Numb". In fact, it's in my top 5 all time fave songs. From the moment I first heard it in 1980 when "The Wall" was released, it struck a chord in me. It can still bring me to tears, with its mournful wailing guitar, especially the live versions we have on DVD or video. Brought me to tears tonite too. Even though I was well into punk rock by the time I was a senior in high school, I still wanted to use this quote in my yearbook:

"When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse,

Out of the corner of my eye,

I turned to look but it was gone,

I cannot put my finger on it now,

The child is grown, the dream is gone."

The only reason I didn't was because they put a limit on how much stuff you could have under your picture and so I had to be content with a much shorter quote so I could have more room to list stuff under "likes and dislikes". So I used "I need to scream every now and again, try to understand it's only me", from a Boomtown Rats song called "Fall Down" and sung by their drummer Simon Crowe.

The Floyd show just finished and I tell ya, they are one amazing band. I grabbed a lighter after the encore and held it up and lit it, so Brian grabbed one and did that too, just like we used to at concerts oh-so long ago. And I don't know how David Gilmour never came to my attention before, because he is one cutie-patootie, even now with his short grey hair. Brian showed me some pictures of David when he was young and I definitely would have been into him big time. So androgynous. He has the cutest dimples when he smiles.... sigh..... oh, ahem...where was I?

I swear if Pink Floyd ever tours again, with or without Roger, I don't care how much it costs, but we are SO flying first class, scalping very expensive tickets for whatever seats are available (I really don't care if it's nosebleed either), and staying in a hotel suite, at whatever city in which they are playing is closest to us. First class all the way, baby.

Anyway, while listening to this amazing DVD, I started thinking about my own transition from the vapid top 40 of the mid-70's (and don't get me wrong, I still love 70's music and I have a collection of 45's to prove it) to FM rock radio in the late 70's/early 80's. Once I outgrew JB-105, I found WCOZ and, on a crystal clear day, WAAF out of Worcestor. They played stuff I'd never heard before because I didn't hang out with kids that listened to it, like Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, etc. I knew kids that listened to that music, but they were all "burnouts" and I didn't hang out with them. In fact, I actually went to pizza-and-soda parties where we danced and ate pizza, maybe played spin the bottle. (Right about here is where I can see Holly and Liz cringing, as I drag up long forgotten, and for good reason, memories of high school). So anyway, I'm kinda liking this "rock and/or roll" that I'm hearing on WCOZ. Derek and the Dominos, the Doors, Procol Harum, Cream, Hendrix, Grateful Dead. Good stuff, that. There was a brief period of time where I could have easily ended up listening to that stuff all the time, instead of what I ended up listening to.

During said brief period of time, I was a voracious record shopper. I grew apart from some of my girlfriends from junior high, because all they talked about were clothes and hair and all that high maintenance crap that I never cared about. And still don't. By this time, I had a show on my high school radio station, WSDH (a big thank you to Holly for forcing me to do it), so I liked to bring my own records in to play, as well as use the station records, which weren't that bad at all. I began to make new friends, who were into music, like me. Liz and I have been friends since 3rd grade, and we got to know Holly by working in the radio station. OK Fine I was an A.V. geek! Holly liked to go record shopping too and neither of us will forget the day that she bought "London Calling" and I bought a Van Halen album, because she will never let me live it down. But the VH album came with a black & white poster of David Lee Roth, on his knees dressed in tight leather pants, with his arms chained above his head, his long main of blonde hair cascading over his shoulders and a saucy pout on his face. I thought Eddie was much cuter, but I knew the poster would bug the absolute shit out of my mother, so I tacked it to my ceiling. My theory was that gravity would pull the middle of the poster down away from the tacks and give his groinal area a more 3-D effect. Another factoid Holly, and Liz, won't let me live down either.

One day though, Holly came over to my house. She was in 10th grade and I was in 11th, and we always brought our records over to each other's houses. When we got upstairs, she said, "Go sit down, I'm going to play you this record and you are going to love it! Trust me!", as she comandeered my stereo, I sat on the floor and became mesmerized by something completely different: Raw, angry, cynical, snarling, and the driest humour I'd ever heard.....Holly brought to my house "Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". And that brief window of my becoming a hardcord Floyd fan slammed shut. I called Liz and played it for her and she loved it too. And so we became the "Three Punk-ateers". Holly was really our groundbreaker when it came to this music. She got us hooked on WBCN, which played a lot of the stuff coming out of England....much later than it was popular in England though, because by the time we discovered the Sex Pistols, Sid had been dead for 2 years and John Lydon was well involved with PiL. Through 'BCN, I was exposed to The Clash, Echo & the Bunneymen, Joy Division, New Order, Squeeze ("Cool for Cats" is just too cool), The Jam, U2 and of course, The Boomtown Rats.

The 3 of us LOVED the Rats. We LOVED Bob Geldof. One cold January day in 1981, my dad took Holly & I shopping in Boston. He rode the bus up with us, and good humouredly let us drag him from record store to record store all over downtown. It was at one store where the clerk mentioned that the Rats were coming to the Orpheum Theatre. We were so excited....my poor dad had to put up with us all day chattering excitedly and how we couldn't wait to get back to the Cape to tell Liz!! Then on the ride home on the bus, Holly pulls out a Gang of Four album she'd bought to discover that the cover was not suitable for display in public.

Liz's dad worked at Tufts University in Boston, which was very close to the Orpheum ticket office so he volunteered to get the tickets for us during his lunch break. Holly's parents decided to make a night of it in Boston and provide our transportation, then go out to eat while we were at the show, and wait for us outside when it was over. We had such a blast at the concert. We went right over to Holly's after school to get ready for the show. We tried to paint our hair with psychedelic poster paint but it all flaked off in the car on the way up. When the Rats hit the stage and the lights came up and the curtain opened to reveal the band, Liz and I literally clutched either and screamed like it was the Beatles or something. Holly was completely mute, jaw dropped, eyes wide. What a show though, they were very entertaining and of course we knew all the words of all the songs by heart.

Right after that we found out that Holly's family was going to move to Oregon. It was devastating for us to be separated like that. The three of us were together all the time, on the phone all the time, we ate lunch together. That was one sad day that summer when she left. She was trapped in Waldport, on the Oregon coast, miles from a decent grocery store, much less a record store! So Liz and I assembled a "punk survival kit" for her of safety pins, records, a silk screened Boomtown Rats "Mondo Bongo" shirt either Liz or I made in Graphics Class and sent it to her. Sometimes our parents would let us call each other, but back then long distance calls cost a bundle to/from the west coast from Cape Cod, so we were limited to like 15 minutes.

So Liz and I carried the punk torch at Sandwich High School, often frightening the underclassmen when we'd wear our button covered army jackets and use that coloured hair spray to do bits of our hair blue. We got to be good friends with the local punk bands, especially the guys in The FreeZe, because the lead singer, Clif worked in Baskervilles, a record store that we visited all the time, mostly to hang out with Clif. The guys in The FreeZe all chose funny names for themselves: Clif Hanger, Rob DeCradle, Ben Dover, Papa Verjen. Then Wave Records opened on Main Street above the army/navy store and Bill sold all the imported punk stuff we were dying to get our hands on: The Damned, Crass, Angelic Upstairs, Iggy Pop, the Dickies, Black Flag & Dead Kennedys out of California, imported 45's, picture discs, etc.

Those were some good times, hanging out with all those punk rock kids from the other high schools. We were members of a very small minority of people who were into that kind of alternative music in the late 70's/early 80's; long before the Clash sold out with "Combat Rock" and bands like the Psychedelic Furs, OMD, U2 and the Human League began to get play on Top 40 radio.

I still love all kinds of music. You are just as likely to find me listening to classical as you will bluegrass, 70's top 40, 60's psychedelia, punk, classical, rock, blues, 80's and some modern stuff too.

Well, guess I'll head on back downstairs and enjoy the rest of my evening!

What planet are you?

Here's the link for the little quiz I took.

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=115

I look forward to reading everyone's results!!!!!

Wow!

I was just browsing one of my fave store's website and came across these photos that were taken earlier this month by the shop owner, Kathy Kleczek, of La Luna Loca, in Cannon Beach, Oregon. That's Haystack Rock. You don't see snow on the coast very often! Another shot of Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock in the snow.
The shop, La Luna Loca, sells fantastic batik clothing, and other items from Asia/India. If you are interested, check out their website: http://www.lalunaloca.com/

But I wanted to be Saturn

No, not the car.

So Brian's downstairs right now, watching "Deadwood" as he does each night. It's not my cuppa tea so I came upstairs to surf around the blogs I visit each day. For some reason, I decided to google "quiz what planet are you" and I got a list of those funny, time wasting quiz things that go around by email from time to time.

There were only six questions and I answered truthfully on all of them. As I was finished, Brian came up to get a beer, and I told him what I was doing. He chuckles and says, "I can tell ya what planet you are, it begins with a U..." and he cracks himself up. I had just clicked on "get results" when he said that and I whipped around to look at him, with a loud, "HEY! Not Uranus!" I turn back to the screen, and there are my results: "Uranus". The big blue planet. I then yelled, "OH NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Brian looks at the screen and doubles over laughing, says, "Put that on your blog!" as I put my head on the desk.

Look, there's a ring around Uranus. tee hee hee I know, that was a really juvenile joke, but someone had to say it. And don't tell me any of you weren't thinking it either!

Magic Kingdom Indeed!

I got this picture emailed to me today and I have to give these people snaps and props for creativity..... I'm fairly certain this was taken in N'awlins.

Sweet Bill, Smouldering Charley

These are two of my top fave characters played by Vincent. How could you not love Bill in "Mystic Pizza"? Actually the question really is, how could JoJo not want to marry sweet Bill? With thanks to Fezzi for the pictures.

Charley from "Crooked Hearts" is the angst ridden, tortured bad boy, which is a major turn-on too. I've always been one to like the bad boys, so I was instantly attracted to Charley. With thanks to Jill & Eliza for the pictures.


Other than Bobby Goren, what are your fave Vincent roles?

Have a safe climb, Julie!

Julie was going on a climb today in Oregon! I hope you made it up and back safely, so that you can set your sites on The Matterhorn this summer! Although I know you'd also like to be climbing him as well.....

Lost in Space?

While checking the traffic cameras along my route home, I notice that the way the snow is stuck on the Tacoma Dome's roof looks like the Jupiter 2 from "Lost in Space"!!!"WARNING! WARNING! Run Will Robinson!"

Brett Sez.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON!!!!


Today's my cousin Sharon's birthday!! I hope you have a great day and that you get everything you want this year, including an end to the madness that has been the past 4 years for our family. I love you lots and lots!!!

Panda-monium!!

I got these adorable pics in an email today from Liz and couldn't stop myself from squealing at all of the adorable passel-o-panda pictures. Look at all the silly little bears!! Now this is a day care I can get behind!!


AWWWWWW!!!!!!


So here we are, Snow Day Part 67. OK, I exaggerate, but once again, we are having snow and freezing rain, so the highways are a mess. My boss told me to stay home for a few hours. It's now nearly 9 a.m. and I can't decide if I should risk it or just stay home, yet again, today. Yawn. This is getting so old!! I don't mind having a day off or two, but I've had so many weather-related days off since November. Well, I guess I'll attempt to make it in to work today. If for no other reason than to get my paycheck!!

For L'Oreal, Part 2

After being stranded at work for 3 days, my new friend was in a terrible car accident, from which she thankfully walked away. Take care of yourself, get some rest and watch some Vincent movies! He's the cure for everything!! Thanks to eBay, Eliza and all others for the pictures.

For L'oreal

How's the weather out there in Kansas? I hope that you are able to go home soon! Good thing you work at a hotel.
Thanks to Eliza for the above....

And to Madi for the collage.....
And thanks to whoever I got the rest of the pictures from!