Bits&Pieces

out like a lion

It's the 31st of March and it's snowing buckets.

So I need something to life my spirits. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I pine for hot weather. Anyone who knows me will tell you I simply long for a perfectly controlled 72 degree climate year round. But the following photo is definitely lifting my spirits. Take a peek:

Meet Chester:

Who's a good boy? Who's a gooooood boyyyyyyyy?

No. Not mine. Just another fine specimen in a series of canines leaving their muddy little paw prints on my heart. Awwwwwwwww.

Chester belongs to another neighbor. Word is really getting around. "You know that woman who never leaves her house? Apparently she's like some Dog Whisperer. And SHE'S FREE!"

I will tell you this much, but don't tell my other dogs: I love him. He is the only dog I've watched thus far that actually walks well on a leash. We took a nice walk this morning, just as the few flakes were starting to fall and my arm is still comfortably resting in its socket. Go Chester!

This past weekend was a big one. We had six 12-year-old girls over for Aidan's Big Birthday Sleepover Bash on Friday night. It is a very loud age. Very loud. But still really giggly and cute. So very different from when I was 12 and the girls I knew were keeping busy trying to score their next bong hit. Sad, but oh so true.  (Mom, that's why I had to start hanging out with Molly. MUCH better influence than the girls who stole my lunch every day.)

Bring on the loudness. These are really good kids.

And the other bit of goodness?

I love buying presents for my kids that are really for me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to practicing "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison.

As the girls at the party would say, it's just so tight.

sometimes when I post under 'random blathering' i'm seriously NOT overstating the categorization

• I love how when Cole reads, he uses something to help him follow the lines.

• "WHAT IS THAT? MOOOOM! HELLLLLLLP MEEEEEEEE!"

(Aidan, it's called the SUN and it warms certain parts of our planet… possibly even Minnesota by May.)

• I didn't tell you this story: my new sweet little camera? Aidan broke it. Well, at least she and I have both agreed that it was broken on her watch, though we aren't sure exactly how it happened. I sent it back to Kodak. Kodak fixed it. Now I can take really AWESOME photos of myself again. YES!

•EGGS, Y'ALL!

And one final note:

I was in the basement this morning at 8 a.m., folding laundry while the kids ate breakfast, because I like to multi-task like that, and I was watching VH1, as I will often do while folding laundry in the basement.

I guess I'm always hoping for a glimpse of something good. Or new. You know, like maybe the musical mainstream has decided to pick up on the fresh new sound of Liam Finn who has more indie buzz than anyone out there (and I legitimately LOVE his new album, his musical pedigree aside). But I never see anything good during the 15 minute chunks that I occasionally catch. Just the same old lackluster musical offerings.

Although I did see a new Matchbox 20 video. (WARNING: If you are a Matchbox 20 fan, STOP READING NOW! Because no matter how much I comfort you afterwards, you're still going to think I'm passing judgement on you, and you'll be correct.) And I watched Rob Thomas, sing (and don't get me wrong, he CAN sing) his way through another mindless, pointless over-crafted stupid pop song. And I thought, he could record himself in taking a crap in a bathroom, and VH1 would air it. Seriously.

And I don't get it. I mean, don't I fit firmly into the VH1 demographic? Or not? Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm WAY older than the new VH1 target audience. Whatever the case, I always turn off VH1 with a sigh. Longing for the good old days. Remember shows like MTVs 120 Minutes? You know, where you'd see SOMETHING…anything… that was new or interesting.

Then the video credits come on and I see the name of the new Matchbox 20 album: Exile on Mainstream.

Oh. My. God. Are you kidding me? Liz Phair pulled off that play years ago, when she was still a cool artist and was paying her homage to the Stones. But Matchbox 20? Seriously? Are they kidding?

Why not just called it: Entrenched in Mainstream?

Then I realized my special time is due any minute and I took a deep breath, grabbed my freshly folded laundry, and found a life.

Have a great weekend.

this has been the toughest season EVER in the two seasons of Rock of Love

Yeah, that's right. You totally heard me.

I could stand up and lie to each and every one of you and say something like, "WHAT? Rock of Love? What's THAAAAAT?"

But it is what it is: a freaking train wreck of silicon-laden 'smokin' hot hotties' that you sort of can't look away from. (Well, maybe YOU can... but I'm here today to stand up and admit that I am powerless over MOST of VH1s offerings.)

You can ask Dan... I will sit there providing a one-sided, running commentary during the hour I spend with Bret and the girls, tossing out things like: where do they FIND these people? who would want boobs THAT big? I cannot IMAGINE competing with 11 other women and watching you make out with them every day! WHY WON'T HE TAKE OFF THAT BANDANA?

And yet, I still can't look away.

To be fair, I don't watch it on Sundays, when the new shows air. No… I wait, until at some point during nightly channel flipping, it suddenly appears. And then I have a DYING NEED TO KNOW if Daisy has been able to string together sentences containing both nouns AND properly conjugated verbs.

I'm almost more ashamed to admit all of this than I ever was to admit I was a smoker.

And if you didn't happen to catch this clip, it's so frighteningly real that I almost don't know if I should laugh, or scream: WHY WON'T HE TAKE OFF THAT BANDANA?

I cannot BELIEVE this is happening... AGAIN. Ugh. Seriously. I'm getting too friggin' old for this crap. And now EVERYONE has to hear about it, ad nauseam.

But if you want in on the fun, my favorite band ever in the history of the past couple of years are playing two shows in Chicago, in May. And this time, I WILL make meaningful eye contact with you, Neil Finn. Even if it means security will have words with me.

Chicago…here I come, baby.

Definitely weighs heavily in favor of the notion that years and years of marriage can lead to the melding of two into one

DAN: "You know what would be great? To go camping…with Sherpas. They pack all the stuff, do all the cooking. And you just get to enjoy nature. You know?"

I'm sorry. I'm not sure if I heard you correctly, because I'm so turned on right now. Could you repeat it?

Hey now, hey now, don't dream it's over (also entitled: Stacy Julian, this one is for you)

You can read more about this here.

Love you, Stace.

Remember, YOU called me. And you STILL have my number. ; )

If I am not, in fact, the first person who ever thought to do this…hold your "sorry to inform you, but..." posts for a day or so, just so I can live another 24 hours under the illusion that I invented something spectacularly brilliant

You know how when you open a package of say, stickers, or rub-ons, or whatever… and they come in a plastic sleeve?

Well, if you're like me (and you KNOW you want to be!) you might not use every single item on said sheet of stickers or rub-ons, or whatever. So… what do you have to do?

Put the stickers or rub-ons, or whatever BACK into the packaging.

And what happens? Come on... every single time? What happens?

The product STICKS to the sticky part of the flap on the plastic sleeve.

ARE YOU WITH ME?

Well, I don't want to toot my own horn TOO loudly, but I invented the following cure-all to this very common scrapbooking dilemma.

Watch closely:

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is EXACTLY what I'm thinking every single time I scrapbook.

Happy Easter.

Love,
Cathy

So where was I?

Oh yes… I was making tags.

I got me some new stamps from the creative people at  Cat's Life Press. I love this (Gotta Love the Everyday) and this one (Today I Feel) and this one (Random Memory No.). Good stuff. This company has really made me unafraid of stamp usage. Go Cat's Life Press!

And my little tag book is getting thicker…just like ME!

But it's all good, right? Monday's 2-year Smoke Free celebration culminated in my predictable justification that I deserve to buy things on my anniversary with the money that I would have spent on smokes. What's funny is that I've used this very logic to buy things so many times that I would actually have to START smoking again, and smoke three to four packs a day for at least another 15 years just to have those funds truly available. I'm actually heavily in debt to the Bank of What I Would Have Spent on Cigarettes.

That said, I bought this nice little all-purpose Nikkor 18-55 with Vibration Reduction. Ever since I dropped my camera while mildly buzzed at my Pampered Chef party and busted up my 28-105, I've wished for a different all-around lens, and this new one should fill the bill. Plus, I'll have more wide angle than I've had since going digital. Which I may soon need for decent self-portraits. Besides, the price was nice. Just under $200.

So put that in your Bank of What I Would Have Spent on Cigarettes and smoke it.

Love,
Cathy

for all those times I was totally lying when I said I was taking the trash out for the 7th time in a single day and for so many other times that even I have lost count, I present, gentle blog readers, perhaps my most prized of taggers

Go me.

12/12

Hey Susan… I actually joined in the fun! For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the Twelve-of-Twelve blog. I've only done this once before, and i really think I'm going to change that. My 12th was a pretty average day. Nothing of consequence really happened. But once I saw all the pictures together (half taken with my Nikon D200, half with my Kodak EasyShare) I was reminded why this idea is such a cool one: it's just a slice of life. Wouldn't it be cool if you did this every month for years? And included a lovely self portrait to see how you change?

This design is essentially the same as the last time I did this (you can see that layout by scrolling down a bit here.)

I love having a little photo template in InDesign, that I can just plop images into, and then print them out on my Photosmart 8750, which, with this whole tag book thing, has been seeing a lot of action and performing at fabulous levels. Love that printer.

But I'm guessing a lot of you don't have InDesign, so…I made a simple photo template in Photoshop for this very 8-1/2 x 11 page. Now I know, I know… but what if I don't scrapbook in that size? Well maybe it's time you try it, sisters and brothers! And honestly? You can TOTALLY make a 12 x 12 page with it. You could get all creative with a big, funky mat or something. The other thing you can do? Open the file, and just size it up to 11.5 in width and voila—it should be good to go for your pics.

Also, don't forget when you're printing it from Photoshop to add the Crop Marks option (I find it under the Output drop down menu, which you may have to dig around for. I love crop marks to the point that yes, I would marry them.

Anyhoo…my sweet doggie friend, Kyla, is here for the weekend, keeping me company in the office as I toil away. Enjoy the template. And have a lovely weekend.

Download 12of12template.png

(Mac Users, hold down your control key then choose "Save Link As". PC users, right click and choose "Save Target As".)

[edited to add: if anyone can offer help how to download to a pc? there are a few questions in comments? I have no clue where PCs are concerned! Go ahead and post in comments!]

Layout materials: stickers by Heidi Swapp; blackboard alphas by Cosmo Cricket; stamp by Cat's Life Press