I have known Dwayne for 14 or 15 years.  Over time, his hair has gotten a little grayer (not as gray as mine), and he annually goes from crew cut to Mohawk to cue ball.  Recently, he’s grown his perpetual goatee (technically, a Van Dyke) into a full beard. 

This morning, he shaved it all off. 

I told him from the start that when he shaved off his beard, he would look years younger. 

When he shaved off his goat, too, I suddenly became a cougar, preying on a man a generation younger than me. Before an hour ago, I had never seen him without his goatee.

Sorry, Taylor Swift, you can’t have him.  He’s still mine.

Deliver her new washer on a Saturday afternoon, tell her it is all set up and ready to go, and then that night, after showers, she starts the backlog of laundry and it doesn’t work.  No water.  I read the manual, I play with faucets, I check the manual again, and then I leave a very detailed message for each department: sales, service, and delivery.  However, they are closed on Sunday and for the holiday Monday.

I am typing this at a Laundromat that has free wi-fi on Sunday morning when the rest of my family is in church. 

Last October, Dwayne & CO completed this wall, Step 1 of my future garden.

 

It looks done, yes? 

Well, if you don’t count needing to build up behind the wall with with 2 yards of  drainage rock and 2 yards of  dirt (has to be done together with boards so that the rock is right up next to the wall—bucket by bucket, foot by foot).  Then another 6 yards of dirt hauled down in 5 gallon buckets to bring up the dirt level to match the walls.  Then haul down about 3 dozen cinder blocks and built a little wall 2’ inside the big wall.  THEN, I get to plant.  That’s why is Memorial Day weekend and I’m just getting my planting done.

But look at it—I planted everything I wanted (and I wanted a lot), and I still have a little area left to plant something new.  

 

Using the cinder blocks gave me a lot of unique planting areas—squash are planted there so they have space to grow on the other side of the block.  The blocks and the wall make the most of what sun we do get through all those trees.  I’ve also planted strawberry plants on some of the cinders to see how they do—I’m keeping my fingers crossed for making strawberry-rhubarb jam with all home-grown fruit!

And check out the stairs that Dwayne started building today!  He had four steps done by dinner.  He rocks.

Yeah!  I am off to grow my first $1000 spinach leaf!

Do you remember the old email joke going around about updating your Girlfriend 1.0 software to the newer Wife 2.0, and all the problems and expenses it costs the user?  This week, Wife (read: me) required

1) a new used phone (remember that I washed my old flip phone last week?)—$30

2)  tires, brakes, oil change, etc on minivan—$1200

3) new washing machine (the old one, which probably is unrelated to #1, was going to cost about $500 to fix)—$800.

4) additional work on the minivan (door motor replacement, timing belts, fix leak in water hose, etc)—$1200.

5) a night out with hubby and friends at my favorite theatre to get over the week.  I love iPic because it combines luxury—waiter service, drinks, reclining leather seats, blankets, pillows—with efficiency—a gourmet meal while watching the new Star Trek. 

The End. 

Kyla, with two school friends, were in the school’s talent show tonight.  I actually don’t want to talk about it at all, but I’d love to show you the pictures!

My mom says you don’t remember all the sick days.  Which, of course, doesn’t explain why I know that I crept into Mom’s bed when I was 18 months old, laid down facing her and then projectile vomited on her.  Believe me, it’s not my own memory! 

 

But the good news of having Wesley in Piper’s preschool class now is balanced by him bringing home a stomach bug that each kid got this week. Wesley came down with it Tuesday night at dinner time.  Kyla and Piper got it in the middle of the night the next day (alternating retching every 30 minutes or s0 until 6am) and then they were all sick until Piper’s last incident this morning. 

Upside:   1. I am so grateful I didn’t get sick (it feels like extraordinary grace).  2.  All major surfaces in house, by necessity, are now sanitized, steamed, scrubbed, and/or shampooed.

Downside:  After one of the times I was vomited on, I threw my clothes in the laundry without checking the pockets, and now I do not have a working cell phone. 

We just need to catch up on some sleep and get me a cell phone of craigslist, and we will call this week…

DONE (and hopefully forgotten).

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=712c3a67-edbe-4031-b4ab-70bc64a7acfc

 

Parents score as Disney pulls sexy new Merida

After getting bombarded with hundreds of thousands of complaints, the media company ditches the thinner-waisted version from its princess site.

By Aimee Picchi

Hundreds of thousands of parents have validated Walt Disney’s saying “All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”

In this case, Disney (DIS -1.77%) has listened to the more than 210,000 petitioners who complained about the sexy makeover given to the fiery-haired Merida, heroine of “Brave.” The media giant on Wednesday restored the original, more realistic version (pictured, left) to its official princess Website, although it hasn’t yet released a statement about whether it will keep the original depiction for the long term.

As reported Friday, parents were up in arms over Merida’s sexy makeover (pictured, right) to get her ready for her coronation into the Disney princess lineup.

The original Merida was hailed as a positive role model for girls because she was independent, active and outdoorsy. She also was an ace with her trusty bow and arrow, which were removed in her princess makeover, much to parents’ dismay.

That caused parents to rally a rescue effort via a Change.org petition, which criticized the new version as “making her skinnier, sexier and more mature in appearance.” The message, the petition said, is “that for girls and women to have value — to be recognized as true princesses — they must conform to a narrow definition of beauty.”

For Disney, Merida’s reception is more than skin deep. The princess line — which includes Snow White, Cinderella and more modern heroines such as Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog” — is a $4 billion franchise, helping to sell movies, books, and paraphernalia such as pajamas and tiaras.

Still, not everyone is convinced that Disney will stay loyal to the original Merida. The character’s creator, Brenda Chapman, told the San Jose Mercury News that she’s waiting for final word from Disney.

“I will stay dubious until they give an official statement about changing the image to match the original version of Merida,” she said. Chapman had earlier given a stinging rebuke about the makeover, calling it a “blatantly sexist marketing move based on money.”

Follow Aimee Picchi on Twitter at @aimeepicchi.

Little Miss Shark Tooth finally lost that baby tooth!  It was very exciting. She came downstairs late at night, blood dripping down her mouth, very excited that she had almost gotten it out.  I asked her if she wanted me to take it out and she was so excited she hopped up and down.  I yanked it out and Kyla couldn’t have been happier…or braver.

My real Mom’s Day was yesterday, when Dwayne took the kids to get some building blocks, and then didn’t come home until 9 hours later.  (He took them on a very spontaneous adventure to Deception Pass for the day.)  I worked outside non-stop for not quite ten hours, wanting to get as much dirt hauled and blocks placed before the kids came home.  I can’t wait to show you pictures, but it’s not quite done, so I will wait to show it picture perfect. 

Here’s my tribe at a Thai dinner:

 

Followed by ice cream:

 

But the best part of Mother’s Day?  Having this guy as the dad…

 

And a quick shout out to my parents—

Happy 40th Anniversary!!

Hey, I have Disney Princess issues and I’m going to make my reader deal with it.  I am not pleased with this makeover. 

Disney gives the heroine of ‘Brave’ a Barbie-style makeover

Young girls looking for a positive role model in Pixar’s animated adventure “Brave” will soon find a much slimmer, prettier version. The film’s star, Merida, will soon be officially dubbed a Disney princess. She has gone under the Disney knife and has been given a skinnier waist, higher cheekbones and a liberal supply of hair conditioner, making her more Barbie than Artemis. No longer the frizzy and fiery protagonist that both girls and boys identified with, the new Merida has come under fire by parents who prefer strong female protagonists with a more earthy look. There’s even an online petition asking Disney to please keep makeup and liposuction away from the feisty Scot.

http://now.msn.com/brave-princess-makeover-has-parents-furious