Tuesday, September 30, 2008

S-I-C-K

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you a word from our sponsor, The Flu.




Blech. I should have known it was more than just "a little cold."

Someone send me some chicken noodle soup, lime popsicles and a hot male nurse. Stat!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Biscuits in the Garden of Good and Evil


To all the people out there who say internet friends aren't the same as "real" friends, I say to you: You're missing out. And you're wrong.

The internet has simply expanded the pool of potential friends from people in your immediate area to people any place in the world with an internet connection.

I spent this past weekend in Savannah, Georgia with 3 women I've been talking to for nearly three years, yet had never met in person.

You see, we're Fish Biscuits. If you watch Lost you'll get it. If not, just go with it.

We met on a message board created for the purpose of talking about the show Lost. Occasionally we do talk about the show, but mostly we talk about everything else. We've been through births and deaths, sickness and health, richer and poorer and better and worse. We've discussed in-laws and outlaws, inmates and playmates. Nothing is off limits. And yet I'd never seen them face to face.

So, this weekend was great. They are just exactly as they are on the message board. Even if I'd never seen pictures I'd have known who each of them was just by talking to them for 5 minutes.

Anyway, below are some pictures and video of our weekend debauchery in Savannah. This will probably be boring for non-Biscuits, so feel free to go read Confessions of a Pioneer Woman or something else more interesting than this right now. The rest of this post is dedicated to my Biscuit Family.

From left: Lady Emm, Onyx, UglyJohn, Jinzleftbuttcheek, Goo Bear



The result of stimulating Biscuit conversation



The ceiling of the great Moroccan place we ate at. It's called Casbah. The food was great, the belly dancing was great. I highly recommend it.



Our belly dancer




Yup. She was that good.


I'm kind of upset right now--I had videos of three Biscuits dancing with the belly dancer, but they're gone! Here are some stills, though.

Onyx







Goo Bear

And UglyJohn
getting their belly dance on


And finally, for our Biscuit brothers and sisters who couldn't make it to Savannah, a random video so you can see and hear us in live action:


Friday, September 26, 2008

Got Gas?

No, really. Do you?

Everywhere around here is out. Totally out.


I'm sort of lazy about checking my gas level. I tend to just drive until I hear the ding! of the gas light coming on, then I panic and get gas immediately.

Yesterday I was headed out to the store, and as I backed down my driveway--ding!

No big deal, I thought. There's a gas station about 500 feet from my house. Hey--there's no price listed! And there're bags over all the pumps. Aw crap, they're out of gas.

Still not panicking too much--there are two more stations less than a mile away. Unfortunately they were both out of gas also.

I don't dare to drive onto post to see if they're out because if they are, I'll surely run out of gas. So, I call and ask if they have any gas, or if they're out too. That gets hysterical laughter from the clerk. She says, "Honey, we be sellin' the gas for $3.27 a gallon. Of course we all out!"

I remember there's a BP down the road a bit, so I head there, praying fervently.

Yes! They have gas! I wait in line behind 20 cars (no lie). Finally it's my turn. It's $4.59 a gallon, but I really have no choice at this point. And then I remember that we're leaving on a road trip today--I need to get a full tank because who knows when we'll be able to fill up again.

For some reason they would only let you get $25 worth at a time, so 3 card swipes and $75 later the tank was full. And then I fainted. And then I woke up and looked at the price and fainted again.

$75!!

Will always teases me and says I need to get one of these:


He may just be onto something.

***UPDATE*** The BP is now out of gas. We are officially gasless.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Now I have self esteem issues

Liam was so excited when I picked him up from school today. They had done art projects, and his project was to make me.

Look. There I am.

So, I asked him what all those...things...are that are on me. He said, "That's your mole. Those are your neck bones. Those are your boops."

(For the record, I don't know who taught him boops).

I'm going to take the liberty of interpreting "neck bones" as my lovely (though non-existent) decolletage.



Yup, it's like looking in a mirror.



And before anyone asks, that's NOT the bad haircut.



I don't believe it!

NO

FRACKIN'

WAY.


Who'd have thought? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!


Hermey knew, didn't you, Hermey?
Wait, what's that you're saying about Ricky Martin?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!


Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I think I might be a Republican. And I think I want another baby.



I've been having a really hard time deciding who I'm voting for in November. In the past I've had a pretty clear decision early on, but not this time.

I'm not going to go too much into my political views here, but I think I'm turning Republican and that frightens me.

I guess you could say I classified myself as Independent, but my leanings were definitely toward the Left. Now I find that my leanings are decidedly split--some are far Left and some are far Right. The older I get, the more Right they become.

I support gay marriage in the legal sense. I am pro choice (although I hate that term. I actually don't believe that a woman has the right to choose, but neither do I believe the government has a right to make it illegal). I don't want organized prayer in school.

On the other hand, I don't think people and businesses that are financially successful should pay a higher percentage of taxes--I'd like to see a flat tax, personally. I don't think we need to spend our tax dollars to accommodate non-English speakers. I have lived in a foreign country where I did not speak the language. Guess what? No one gave me forms in English. No one hired a translator for me. I learned to speak enough to function in society. (And while we're on the subject, I think one should be able to speak English fluently before being hired in any sort of customer service position--even if it's the counter at McDonald's). I may not have agreed with entering Iraq, but I don't think we should leave now that we're there. I think global warming would have happened even if humans had never shown up on the planet. I mean, did the Ice Age happen because those cavemen didn't pollute enough? If they'd have quit carpooling and all bought Hummers would they have avoided global cooling?*

So much for not going too much into my political views...

Anyway, my point is that I'm finding myself further and further on the conservative side and it makes me uneasy. It makes me feel old. It makes me feel uncool. It makes me feel like I might wake up one morning and decide that Lee Greenwood is a lyrical genius.

Oh, and I think I want a baby. Not really. Well, maybe.



I was in the store today and they had a display of all the new baby gear this season. Cute strollers and cute bouncy seats. Cute little footie pajamas and cute diaper bags. I think I ovulated right then and there.

I admit, I miss having a snuggly, squishy little creature that hasn't learned how to talk back yet.

And then I reminded myself that I can see the light at the end of the potty training tunnel. I'm a year away from all three in school all day, every day. I reminded myself that up until last year we were spending $100 a month on diapers and wipes. I reminded my self that every year they become more and more expensive. More food. More clothes. More school supplies.

Oh, and there's that pesky little fact that I had my tubes tied.

But then I see one of the kids do something cute like this and the babylust starts all over:



Maybe...maybe we could adopt an older girl? One who's already potty trained? Maybe?

*To clarify, I was being sarcastic. I actually have real, scientific arguments to support my claim that global warming is not a crisis, and not wholly manmade.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Where in the world is Benjamin Douglass?






I found our stash of old pictures last night while looking for the ones I put in the previous post. Ben was one well traveled little kid!



Making his debut in Logan, Utah, USA




In Augusta, Georgia, just back from Disney World, Florida, USA



His first passport photo, age 1




Mannheim, Germany



Spending his 3rd birthday eating chocolate crepes and hanging at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France



Temper tantrums and gondola rides in Venice, Italy




At a rest stop and at the Wilhelm Tell monument somewhere in Switzerland



Rothenberg, the last remaining walled city in Germany



Worms, Germany, where Martin Luther started the Protestant movement



Checking out giraffes at the zoo in Frankfurt, Germany



Enjoying the Mediterranean sun in Tossa de Mar, Spain



Thanksgiving in Pisa, Italy



Watching the Neckar river roll by in Heidelberg, Germany



Claremont, New Hampshire, USA



Evanston, Wyoming, USA



On an airstrip at a secret airbase where we were NOT supposed to have landed on the California/Nevada, USA border



At the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, Washington, DC, USA



Corolla, North Carolina, USA


Poor Liam and Amelia. About as far as they get to go is the local Wal-Mart.




Sunday, September 21, 2008

Forget the Butterfly Effect...

You've probably all heard of the Butterfly Effect--where something as small as the beating of butterfly wings can set off a series of events that change the course of history.

I think it should be changed to the Lunch Table effect. I realized today that the thing that has played the most pivotal role in the course of my life events has been the table at which I sat for lunch in school.

Let's start with the first day of middle school. The Powers That Be at Fairfield Woods Middle School decided that for the first several weeks of the school year, we would be seated alphabetically at lunch.

My maiden name is Murray. It should come as no surprise, then, that some of my best friends back then were named Moore, Maguire, Mahoney and Molloy. As the year went on, non M names became part of the circle, and an M or two drifted away to more alphabetically diverse lunch tables. But two of my oldest and dearest friends are M's that I was forced to sit with at lunch.

What if my last name had been Smith? I'd have been at a totally different table with totally different kids. I could have ended up a stoner or a metal head or a popular girl. My whole life could have taken a drastically different direction just because of where I sat!

The M's, a C and an S at my wedding reception

Halfway through my junior year, my parents decided to move to Wyoming. I was a chubby, shy kid, and I was going through some serious culture shock, so I sat by myself at lunch writing interminable letters to the M's back in civilization.

After a week or so of this, Celeste, who sat next to me in Algebra, came over and invited me to sit with her and her friends.

Guess what? Those table-mates ended up being my closest companions on the journey from adolescence to adulthood.

J, Me & A

W & R

A & W

I even married one of them...


What if Celeste hadn't invited me to sit with them? I'd probably be a lonely, crazy cat lady or something equally horrible by now. Or maybe I would have stayed at my debutante college in Virginia, married a rich boy from one of the equally pretentious male schools in the area and would now be a kept woman, spending my husband's old money, living in a Southern mansion where I'd lunch with ladies and drink mint juleps and pop valium all day...Darn you, Celeste! Why didn't you mind your own business and leave me to my fate?

I kid, I kid...sort of...

Anyway, this is the real reason I wrote this post. I needed an excuse to post my all time favorite picture ever.


My furure husband and Celeste at the Junior prom.
If she'd have just kept her mouth shut she could have had him all to herself... :)



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