Thursday 13

1.  It's been a stressful few days here.  My Mom had surgery yesterday, and she's doing well now.  She has a lot of health issues, and almost died the last time she had surgery, so we were all very worried this time around.  I'm so relieved and emotionally spent.

2.  I went to pick up lunch for work today at Five Guys.  The dude in front of me was wearing a skirt and carrying a "man bag." Yup.  Actually, it was a black kilt, but he sure didn't sound Scottish.  Now, if men wearing skirts is normal in your area, or if you or a male loved one is a kilt/skirt wearer, then forgive my snark, but male skirt wearing is not typical here in the midwest.  (Unless said skirt wearer is playing bag pipes, then we think it's sort of awesome.)  My Facebook friends think I should have taken a picture, but really? Hairy, middle aged man in a skirt? You don't want to see that.  Trust me, I know what's best for you.

3. Skirt guy had 2 teenage girls with him.  Now, when I was a kid, I thought my parents did embarrassing things.  Can you imagine?! Daa-aaaaaddd! Please don't wear your skirt to Five Guys! I will so die.

4.  The worst part of the Skirt Guy Sighting? I didn't have a friend there to exchange amused looks with.  Some things are just more fun with a friend along.

5.  We  are planning a vacation here soon.  It will require a 13 hour drive, and I'm so not a road trip kind of person.  I'm not even looking forward to going, because of the mind numbing boredom of the drive.

6.  It will be fun once we are there, but I will be dreading the trip back the whole time.  I wish we had a transporter beam.

7.  I introduced my kids to their first Weird Al tune this week.  "Eat It."  They loved it, and my husband thought it was scary awesome that I knew all the words.  Have a banana, have the whole bunch, it doesn't matter what you had for lunch, just eat it, eat it, eat it....

8.  I don't think I'll make it to 13.

9.  If I do, I don't think you'll still be awake.

10.  I was working with a kid at work who was filling out a questionnaire. He asked me how to spell "chihuahua", then needed to know how to spell the dog's name, Poppy.  I didn't know if he meant "Poppy" or "Pappy" or some other variation of Grandpa, so I asked him, "Poppy like the flower?" He looked at me like I was totally nuts, and said "No! Poppy like the dog!"  Oh, of course, THAT Poppy!

11.  Most cats like to sit inside and look out the window.  My cat likes to sit outside and look inside the window.  Does that make him a Peeping Tom?

12.  For more Thursday 13 posts, click here .

13.  This video is fairly awesome-I laughed out loud.  Not the fake, LOL-I'm-laughing-on-the-inside, but for real.  I hope this works....

Thursday Thirteen

I love a good meme when I have a bunch of random thoughts floating around in my head, but no coherent full story ideas.  Today I'm jumping on the Thursday Thirteen bandwagon.  Visit the Thursday-13 site to link up your own Thirteen, or to read more posts.

1.  My daughter recently bought her first Teen Beat magazine.  She's growing up too fast. Oddly enough, there were no Menudo, Scott Baio or Kirk Cameron pictures in there like I remembered. < scratching head in wonder >

2.  I went to my Uncle's funeral today.  There were originally 11 kids in my Dad's family, and only 7 of them remain.  My brother and I were looking around wondering when all of our uncles and aunts and cousins got so old, because, of course, we haven't aged a bit!

3.  I'm on a pot stickers kick lately.  I bought the frozen premade kind at the store last week, and they didn't turn out too well, because they...um...stuck to the pan.  (Thus the name?)

4.  The dead battery is still in my purse.  I did do a little decrapifying cleaning out, though.  I'm thinking of making the battery my purse mascot, or something.

5.  I appreciate the irony of the fact that I was given grief about not attending any family reunions by someone who's technically no longer even related to the family today.  (Married into family, then divorced years later.)  I love her, so that's ok.

6.  Hmmm....I've been stuck on number 6 for a really long time.

7. No one should wear this .  Unless you are a 3 year old girl, and everything else is dirty, and your Mommy just drug this out of the "Stuff That the Well Intentioned Grandma with Questionable Taste" bought at a garage sale for you to wear with your ruffly socks and white patent leather shoes.

8.  I like to make Turkey and Black Bean Sloppy Joes.  Well, technically, I like to eat them, not make them.  They are actually fairly good for you.  I loosely follow this recipe , but I use tomato sauce instead of juice, and add about 1/8 cup of ketchup, and 1 TBS of brown sugar.  I also puree most of the black beans into the tomato paste, and smash the others a bit with a fork so it isn't so "bean-y".  This would be a good chili recipe with a little extra tomato sauce and maybe some corn or something thrown in.  And cheese.  Cheese makes everything better.  (I ought to have that stitched on a pillow.)

9.  Five more, huh? Hmmmm.  For once in my life, I'm having a little trouble coming up with randomness.

10.  I recently found The Mouthy Housewives blog.  It's a hilariously sarcastic, tongue in cheek "advice" column.  It's very snarky, but there is much truth in the snark!

11.  I want this necklace for Mother's Day.  After nearly 13 years of marriage, and nearly 10 years of motherhood, I've learned that in order to get something I actually want for a gift giving holiday, I either have to purchase it myself ("Look what you bought me for Mother's Day, Honey!"), or be very deliberate and specific (there's only a 50/50 chance of this one working, but he prefers "surprising" me).  I've opted to try my luck at the second strategy this time, so I showed him the computer screen and said "Look! I want THIS for Mother's Day!", and emailed him the link.  We'll see what happens.

12.  I'm almost there(!), and there's actually still some of Thursday left!

13.  Tomorrow, I'll be back with the latest installment of "Disturbing Pictures My Son Draws", so check back Friday afternoon or evening!  Also in the works, is an update to my "Library Loser" post (fyi-I'm STILL a Library Loser).  If you haven't read the originals of these, the links are on my sidebar, if you are interested.

Thursday Thirteen (aka: Just More Random Babbling)

1.  Everything is better with cheese.

2.  Had a consultation with the Dentist today about pre-orthodontic treatment for my daughter.  Hello, Aldi's-we'll be seeing a lot of each other for the next few years. Since my son is only 2.5 years younger, that means that they will both likely be in orthodontic treatment at the same time at some point.  Poor family planning on our part.

3.  Frustrated with Cub Scouts.  My son's den leader does the best she can, especially considering she didn't want to be the leader anyhow, so I feel bad for complaining.  But. BUT!  The meetings are so chaotic, the boys (especially hers), are so out of control, and the boys don't seem to be getting anything out of it.  Last night's meeting consisted of the boys chasing each other around her house with play swords, while us parents talked about how the boys can earn beltloops and random stuff.  Yeah. Ugh.  I'd volunteer to lead a meeting, but she wants to do them herself.

4.  My kids came downstairs earlier saying they needed an ice cube for an experiment.  Um...no.  Then they decided a mushroom would do.  NO.  Next, I heard them talking about how they needed some water to pour on their gum.  THROW it away.  They are so strange....

5.  I adore Chipotle's chips.  I think it's the lime salt.  Hmmm.....maybe if I put lime salt on salad, and grilled chicken, and egg whites and all the other "healthy" stuff I ought to be eating, I'd want to eat it! (Do you think skim milk would be more tempting with a hint of lime?)

6.  My daughter is in a 3rd grade/4th grade split class.  They are following the fourth grade curriculm for music, which means that we get to listen to recorder practice for two years in a row! Yea. This is basically what I'm hearing this week: "Hot cross squ-EAK!, hot cross SQUEAK!, 1 a SQEEEEAAAAA, 2 a penny, hot cross SQU-ea-EAKKKKKKK!!" This too, shall pass.

7.  It's going to take me a while to get to 13.

8.  What happened to all of the Thin Mints we brought home last week? *looking around innocently*

9.  I ought to write a post about some of the funny calls we get at work.  A lady a couple of weeks ago was angry because I wouldn't give her the number to the CVS on 38th street.  We are a tutoring company, not a drugstore!  She asked me how she was supposed to find the number, and didn't like it when I politely suggested she dial 411.

10.  I was looking over a teacher's resume at work, and she had spelled "Purdue" wrong repeatedly.  Seriously, you are a teacher, and can't spell the college you supposedly graduated from correctly on a resume? I make typos, and don't always spell correctly, but c'mon.  A resume?! Your college?! That one went in the "NO" pile.

11.  I really don't care about the Olympics.  I've watched a few minutes of the coverage here and there, but I just can't make myself care. I'm sorry, world.

12.  I recently discovered this blog: http://blabbermouse.typepad.com/ I love blogs that make me laugh.

13. Cheese.  I need more cheese!

The idea for "Thursday Thirteen" came from this blog: http://thursday-13.com/  Thanks!