And I'll Never Have That Recipe Again

Here is a picture of a tree on the lake where we stayed in Missouri for Valentine's day weekend. Have I mentioned that I'm a tree hugger?

Tonight you're all just getting a quickie. No foreplay, no sweet talk, no nuthin'.

Stinky helped me bake a yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting. I couldn't find the pumpkin cheesecake bar recipe, so we'll all just have to suffer through with the cake. I think I can handle it.

The girls were off school today because yesterday was the end of the trimester. So, much of the cleaning I did yesterday had to be redone tonight. Stinky spent most of the day at the neighbor's house, but Coadster is grounded for another few days for reasons I won't disclose to you. She has totally accepted responsibility and even laughs when Stinky and I keep making the same joke where we ask her what she's doing tonight and then answer it ourselves with, "oh, nothing."

Okay. Here's where my lameness ends. I just ate some of the cake still warm from the oven. (you know - to make sure it wasn't poisoned or anything) I have to tidy a few things and then I must to bed. I want to be nice and rested for Erik's visit.

So, tomorrow after work looks like this: food, fun, friends, daughters, libations and Erik. What more could a girl ask for?

Doesn't Take Much to Make Me Happy

Well, kids. It's late and I have a lot to say (as usual) but not a lot of time. So, we'll see what I get done tonight. My weird funk fog lifted at some point after work. It was strange, because it was so sudden and dramatic, like I had been hypnotized and someone snapped their fingers and boom, I was back to being my normal optimistically goofy but acerbic self. I made a point to text Erik right away, because I figured he would want to know I lowered the freak flag and I was feeling much better. Of course, he called me immediately and was wonderful and encouraging and supportive and all of those things that I try never, ever to take for granted about him.

Which leads me to my next thing. Today was also our two month anniversary. We don't really count the three weeks of constant texting and calling before that as part of our relationship, because things don't become real until you get all up-close and personal. Don't get me wrong, I loved the prelude, but this is one of those rare times where the actual day-to-day, living stuff has even been better than the promise was. Which isn't to say, that the long distance thing hasn't been tough or that we don't have our own, very unique personality challenges. (Seein's how we both have very unique personalities) But as Erik pointed out tonight, it's been really great so far - both the ups and working through the downs.

Now, all I have to do is get ready for the weekend. Erik and his friend M. are driving up from St Louis on Friday night. It's been almost two weeks since I've seen him, so I'm more than jonesing. Tonight I've been nesting and cleaning and looking at cookbooks. Tomorrow night, I'll go shopping and bake the dessert. On Friday after work, I'll really start cooking. Since Erik and my friend K. have both been sick, I'm making two different kinds of soup (miso and carrot/cashew/ginger). In addition, I'll make a beef and veggie stir fry, rice, salad, and if I can find the recipe, these pumpkin cheese cake bars. Because of all the sick kids, I thought I also might break out the juicer and squeeze out some anti-oxidants.

Okay, I better git. I got my work cut out for me.

I'll Be Dancing With Myself

Hey guys and dolls. I'm happy to report that I remained migraineless all day today. I thought I was all clear sailing, but then this evening I found myself in kind of a mood. I don't know if it's the endless Winter, or that I have a bunch of stuff hanging over my head, or that the girls' dad is in a play at the university and I haven't had a night to myself in about a hundred million years, but I just all the sudden felt kind of irritable and needy. In case you've never seen it, trust me, it's a really unattractive combination.

Yes, I was lucky enough after my run to walk and gab with my friends K. and Bridget at the rec building, and I did appreciate that, but I came home and still felt kind of funky. Erik has been really sick the last couple of days, so I tried to restrain myself from bothering him, because I'm sure the last thing he needs is to appease a needy girlfriend on top of dealing with fever, chills, aches and a possible ear infection. So, I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I'm lame and I'm just going to relate a dorky anecdote from this weekend to you. Sorry, it's all I got.

On Saturday night during our little dance party, I was very safely and platonically (mostly clumsily twirling each other around really) dancing with one of the guys who play pool at the Dublin to Lionel Rithie's Easy Like Sunday Morning. There was another couple of chuckle heads dancing a little more closely, and so the guy I was dancing with pointed to them and said, "If I danced with you like those two are dancing, my girlfriend would get really mad."

"I know," I said. "That's why we're dancing so far apart and barely touching each other's hands. I doubt my boyfriend would like that very much either. And see?" I said pointing to the ceiling and this:*

"That's my boyfriend's picture in that deep sea diving helmet there. The guy looked surprised and weirded out and let go of my hand in mid-twirl. "Uh, I think I better go see if it's my turn to play pool now...." and wandered off.

*photo courtesy of Dexter

I'm All Right Jack Keep Your Hands Off of My Stack

I can totally relate to this dead animal tonight.

Well, kids. Today has been on the rough side. I had a migraine, and while I took my preventative drugs, I'm out of my migraine knock out pills and my HMO won't cover a refill until the 27th. So, I have to suffer through for another day or two. Wah.

The good thing about today, was that the weather was bad so Stinky's band concert got canceled. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear her perform, (for the most part) but the idea of sitting through a junior high band concert and hearing off key medleys from High School Musical with a migraine, makes me want to cry. The bad thing about today is that I had to shovel really heavy snow and there was literally nowhere to put it anymore. The mounds of snow at the end of the driveway are now taller than me and when I put more on there, it just falls right back on the sidewalk. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but you can start calling me Sisyphus if you want to. I would totally answer to it.

Now, I am going to stop whining and take my sorry ass (and head) to bed. I'm going to pray that when I wake up, it's the 27th already so I can take some real drugs. I hope when you all wake up, you are also able to take your drugs of choice and that the snow turns into dollars and we have mounds of that as tall as me at the end of my driveway too. Amen

Nothing to Hide, Believe What I Say

Here's a picture that Erik took of me with open arms, or maybe I'm just trying to steady myself. You decide.

After yesterday's extremely mature butt post, I thought I'd change things up and talk about relationships. Mainly, my relationships. This weekend, someone told me that it made them a little uncomfortable to read about how strongly I felt about Erik on this here blog. They said they thought that by gushing so hard about how happy I was with Erik, I might kind of jinx our relationship. So, I figured I should just explore some of the things that were brought up in that conversation.

If you've read my blog even for a minute, you won't be surprised that I'm a very open person. Which isn't to say, that I talk about everything with you. As Erik pointed out when we addressed the subject this weekend, there are all kinds of things that you, dear readers, will never, ever know about my relationship with Erik. But, I was raised Southside Chicago Irish Catholic, and we generally aren't known for our stoicism. As I've said on previous posts, it's also very important for me to let people I'm close to know exactly how wonderful I think they are. Ask my daughters. They know without a doubt that I think they are the most amazing creatures I've ever met.

So, if I gush about Erik on my blog, it's way less than I do with him in person. If anything happened to me today, he would never have to wonder how I felt about him. Now, if that can somehow jinx my relationship, then it probably wasn't a very strong one to begin with.

That same friend said he was worried that I'd get hurt by being so openly happy with Erik. But I'm 42 not 22. I've been in several relationships before, that obviously all ended at some point, and I lived to tell about them. I guess I try not to look at break-ups as failures so much. Those other relationships weren't wasted time. I learned a lot from the people I've spent time with - both good and bad. In the few short months I've spent with Erik, I've already gained so much. On some levels, we are very different people, but we seem to fill in each others gaps. So, if things go sour between us, I will definitely be very sad. I really love Erik and I would miss a lot by not being with him. I'm also a strong person, and I've been single for many, many years. I do just fine on my own, thank you. And I hope that Erik and I would still be friends on some level no matter what happened between us.

I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that I can't help being who I am and who I am is an open person, and if I didn't tell people how much I cared for Erik, I can't imagine it would make me any less sad if things didn't work out between us. As Erik said when we first got together and were talking about working on having a healthy relationship, "All we can do is try." And, so I'll continue to be openly happy in my relationship and post all of the things I think are great about him on here. Just like I do with my friends and my family and my daughters. I don't know any other way.

My Baby Fits Me Like a Flesh Tuxedo

Sooooo, Erik ended up not going to New Orleans after all . The roads were horrible in St Louis, so he stayed there and is doing his damndest to have as much fun as possible to make up for not going. He's usually pretty good at finding fun.

I figured I'd actually do the Saturday Scavenger hunt thing on Saturday this week. Just don't start expecting it. The word this week is reason. Let's see what kind of crap I can dispense for this one:

So, you know how sometimes when you're a guy and you might be just a tad immature, but also funny so it's okay? And your girlfriend is shooting guns and bending over so she can rest her arms on something to steady her shot? You're standing with your guy friends and laughing at the view, so you decide to take a picture and show your girlfriend and laugh about it later?

Yeah, well. At some point later in the day, you end up bending over to straighten up stuffed animals that have been shot down, and figure out the reason, your girlfriend has been following you around with the camera all day.

I Saw the World Thrashing All Around Your Face

So, I'll try to get that video thingy up on YouTube maybe sometime this weekend when I have more time...If I have more time. This weekend I'll be in town and trying to do a million things. I want to get my taxes done, I have to choose my new vision insurance, and I've planned dates to see girl movie matinees with both of my daughters. Of course, there's also cleaning and recycling and I might even get crazy and try to run outside in all the muck the next two days. As far as I know, I have plans for both nights too. I'm supposed to meet girls for drinks on Friday and Saturday night will be fun girl dance party at the Dublin. I have no idea how I'll fit sleep in there, but I'd like to do some of that as well.

Erik will be in New Orleans with a friend this weekend. Of course, I'll miss him a lot, but he promised to text me videos of all the people and places he experiences. It's kind of how we're able to pull off this long distance thing. Which, I've already mentioned is pretty tough for me.

Erik has been very good at making it work - he's done this many times before, but it's all new to me. I've told him what I need is reassurance and he's been great at giving me that. He's also been wonderful at making me feel like I'm part of his life, no matter how many miles away we are. We watched the lunar eclipse together over our cell phones last night and he called me during every commercial break while the debates were on tonight, so we could compare notes. He's probably more attentive than most guys I've lived with.

We are both very gregarious people, to say the least and obsessive documenters to boot. As Erik likes to say, we can certainly work a room together. So, this weekend, we'll have to work our rooms by ourselves, and then just text each other the videos of it. I can't wait to see the world through him.

I'm So Tired, My Mind is on the Blink

Oh, kids. I've been feeling pretty crappy today. Which is kind of ironic since we had our big health and wellness retreat at work today. Since I was exhausted and stuff, I chose to give myself a psuedo "get out of jail free card" evening. What that meant for me, was that I didn't run, but I did watch America's Next Top Model with my girls. I was so out of it, that even the catty bitchiness and psycho drama were a little too deep for me.

TonightI tried to put a video on my blog, but it took forever to load and I let it go all night, but I woke up to an error message. Wah. So, now? This is all you get. Maybe I'll find someone to help me, because I think you'd really like it.

Open Up Your Mouth and Feed It

I'd like to think of me and Erik as being happy in general. There is one way to make us even happier though, and that is to feed us. We are HUGE food eaters. So, you don't have to even try to convert me, because I've already accepted food as my personal savior.

As you've probably already guessed, I'm milking my weekend trip for another blog post. Hey, cut me some slack. I don't get out much, so you may have to hear even more about it, until I go to the fun girl dance party that was postponed until this Saturday. Sometimes the weather actually works in my favor.

Okay, yeah. Whatever. The guy in the photo is Emilio and he made all of our food - very well. He never stopped smiling. Even on Sunday when the torrential rains washed all the roads out. We asked him if he was able to get his truck through it and he said, "No." But he had a huge grin on his face. How fucking awesome is that?

This photo is kind of hard to see, but Emilio made all the girls heart shaped pancakes for breakfast on Saturday morning. The boys were a little put out about only getting round ones, but we just told them to suck it up and deal with it. The important thing was, that he fried enough bacon for all of us.

Here is a photo of the peppers and onions he cut for fajitas for Saturday lunch. Emilio was so great that he made the fajitas with not only beef AND pork AND chicken...

...But tons of shrimp too. Just in case you were wondering, there were no vegetarian options. I don't suppose many vegetarians hang out at hunting and fishing lodges, do they?

The great thing about food, is that sometimes it is fruit and you can blend it up and mix it with vodka and put whip cream on it. Then after you've had a couple of those drinks, you think it's really funny to pretend to do one of those totally dork-ass "got milk" mustaches. Yeah, I just made you glad you weren't there, didn't I?

Bang Bang, I Shot You Down

So, today I waffled between talking about guns or food. They're both fun topics, but with the cold and the snow and the ice and the fact that Winter isn't even trying to pretend it's over, I decided to talk about guns. No, not my scrawny guns and you can just ignore that scary face I'm making too.

Let's just focus on these kinds of guns. As I mentioned, we shot us some guns this weekend. It's the only really appropriate Valentine's Day activity there is as far as I'm concerned...At least the only one you'd want to see photos of anyway. My friend R. knows his guns and is all about safety. In fact, he had us wait to drink anything fun, until we put our toys away.



R. has this great pheasant dog name Scuba. Scuba was very excited when the guns started going off and wanted to go retrieve our stuffed animal kill again and again and again and again. Erik was really good about playing that game with him.

Just imagine how cold and wet and gross that stuffed animal was after an hour.

As you can see, us ladies (and I do use that term loosely) were super into shooting off guns. We even used the shot gun, and all made hilarious faces after we felt that kick-back against our shoulders.


These were the hideous creatures we shot. Seriously, each and every one of them was scarier than a clown.

I think you'd all agree, they really did deserve to be shot. I finally picked this one off it's branch with one of my last shots. I honestly don't know when I've been prouder of myself.

And this photo really doesn't have anything to do with the post. I just wanted to post another gratuitous pic of Erik in his eighties cowboy outfit - this time holding pistols. I'm going to go ahead and assume you all wanted to see it too. And if not, all y'all can just humor me.

'Cos There's Something in a Sunday, Makes a Body Feel Alone

Oh, kids. My weekend was oh so very awesome. I did have a little bit of that "Sunday morning comin' down" feeling again today, but it still couldn't detract from how fun my Valentine's Day weekend was. I'd love to tell you all about it, but it's late and I'm tired and so I'm doing my Saturday Scavenger hunt photo post instead.

The word this week came from Evil-E's lady and she gave us temptation. What could be more tempting than a room full of guns?... Especially when you've just found a cowboy hat and an acid wash jean jacket just hanging on hooks in the hunting lodge and you could be the most awesome eighties cowboy ever?

Okay, it is pretty tempting to make devil horns out of Bugles and cement them on your head with easy cheese. Don't even try to lie to me and tell me you've never done that either.

Of course, one of the greatest temptations of the weekend was for all the other guests not to try and shoot me in the head. Even before I stuck a bright orange target sticker on my forehead. I was dancing around and dorking out all weekend. Hmmm, weird. Imagine that.

The greatest temptation for all of us that weekend, (not just Scuba our favorite Chocolate lab) was not to eat too much amazing food, but I'll get into that later this week. Trust me, these ribs were some of the best I've had in a long, long time. Mmmmmm.

Dreams of You All Through My Head

This is gonna be a quick post. I'm still not even close to being ready and it's late. I thought I'd just put up a photo of what I'll be missing this weekend. It seems that there will be tons of fun girls down at the Dublin.

But don't cry for me Argentina. What I'll be doing, will be just as much fun, but in a different state. When I get back I'll post photos of all the fun things I did instead of the drunk girl dance party at the Dublin.

A Harbor in the Tempest

Doesn't it kind of look like cotton in those branches? Very cold, cold cotton.

So, by the time most of you read this it will be that day. I thought I'd shake things up and balance out yesterday's dolphins and rainbows post with a little reality. First, I'll link to my Valentines' Day post from last year, here. What a difference a year makes, huh?

Valentine's Day would have been my mom's 76th birthday and this year I will also turn the age my mom was when she died. When I was younger, I couldn't imagine making it to this age. All those years of living like I was going to die young, are mocking me now.

The other weird thing about this time of year, is that Stinky had meningitis on February 12th when she was five and I spent Valentine's Day that year in the hospital wondering what kind of shape she'd be in if she made it through. I was lucky that my friend T. worked in the hospital back then, and even though she didn't know me that well, she kept me company in Stinky's room after she got off work.

So, I can get a little squirrelly for a few days around this time of the year. Of course, because of Erik's efforts, this weekend should be pretty amazing. This week has been crazy hectic what with all my kid taxi cab duties and two choir concerts, two days in a row. Tomorrow night Stinky will have another movie night for her friends and Coadster and I have a stay at home date where we go in my room with tons of blankets and pillows and chocolate and watch a girl movie together. Then on Friday afternoon, I'm off to meet Erik and some friends and start boozin' and gun shootin' and all the other fun stuff one does in a town called Bourbon, Missouri.

So, for any of those of you who couldn't really get with yesterday's love fest, I'm asking you to allow me a bit of mushiness this pseudo holiday season - you know, just to make up for all those other years.

Demonstrating Love and Affection

Here is another snowy pic. On Monday the clocks were digitally reporting the temperature at one degree fahrenheit, but it looked like they were saying 1f, and it made me imagine all the possibilities.

So, today I thought I'd write a post in keeping with the impending holiday on Thursday. It's also kind of like what Gyuss is doing on his blog. He's been writing these amazing posts about different incidents that made him realize how much he loves his wife. You should all run along to his blog right now and read them. They are way more smart and funny than schmaltzy. I'm not sure if mine will compare, but I'll take a stab at it. I will now write about how Erik and I got together:

Okay. I first met Erik about ten years ago when he was dating my friend K. I had seen him around town here and there since then, but we had both kind of ruled each other out for whatever reasons.

Then this Fall Erik joined us at the Vine for football watching and wings and it was deep in the heart of Make-Out Quest and we all had a great time discussing one of our wonderful make-out quest experiences and the fact that I was totally lacking in make-out experiences. Then I wrote this post about that day. I didn't think much about it until one night when I was closing out of my computer, I thought I'd just check out my sitemeter and saw that someone had just googled, "Iowa City Santa Crawl" and then checked out where it got that person and found the comments Erik left on my blog. I was a little embarrassed that he saw me talking about the possibility of me making out with him to complete strangers, but when I called my friend K. with my concerns, she just said, "Are you kidding? It's Erik. He probably loved it." Apparently, she was right. Fringes comment in particular seemed to have planted a seed with him and he keeps saying how much he needs to thank her.

After some consideration and a break-up, Erik started asking my friends' K. and T. about me and they both thought we would be a good match. Much of this went on without my knowledge or at least with a few vague references to the fact that Erik was looking for a girl who was "a little more down to earth" like me.

By the time the Santa Crawl rolled around in December, things got a lot less vague. I told my friend Tara that I heard Erik might be a little interested in me and she said, "Oh, that's perfect. You guys should totally mack." By the time I walked into the Que bar, Erik grabbed me and gave me this kiss:

Apparently, I wasn't all that resistant. Nothing much more happened that night except the promise of him taking me on a "proper date" sometime after Christmas. But the next day, Erik joined us at The Vine for football watching and called me afterward to tell me he had fun hanging out with me.

On Monday morning, he called and left a voicemail message to see if he could take me out for lunch before he left town. I only have a half hour for lunch and plus I looked like total crap that day, so I declined. He called one last time to tell me he was sending some photos from the Santa Crawl and that I should get them the next day in the mail. I texted him to thank him and then he texted back and then we ended up texting all that day until we talked on the phone that night. We texted so much that Erik changed his phone plan to include unlimited texting. We had the strangest, most wonderfully fun and at times frustrating long distance three week courtship, but I wouldn't have changed it because of all the awesome conversations and creative flirting we did. So far, it's been an amazing ride.

So, there you have it. In keeping with Gyuss' formula, feel free to tell your courtship/love stories in the comments or on your blogs. I'm a sucker for romance.

Everybody Here is Out of Sight

I'm sure if you live in the Midwest you have no idea what snow looks like this Winter, so I thought I'd show you. this is exactly what I see on my walk to work every single fucking day. It's kind of pretty, isn't it?

Soooooo, what should we talk about tonight? I had some Valentine's Day posts I was thinking about writing, but one I have to wait to talk to Erik about, so I think I'll just write about the weekend instead.

I already covered Sunday, so I think I'll just go with Friday and Saturday night. On Friday, I found myself in a weird predicament. Both the girls were at the basketball game by six and Stinky was going to sleep over at a friend's house and Coadster was going to "drive around" (that scary thing that high school kids do that encompasses so many frightening scenarios in my head) after the game got out. I had a Friday night all to myself. Since it was unplanned, I figured I'd just go down to the Dublin and see who was there. The answer to that, was all kinds of fun and generous people. I went down with $10 expecting to have a beer or two and head home. I only bought one beer and everything else, including a slice from Pizza on Dubuque, a few more pints and a total girlie shot were bought by all the cool kids down at the bar. If you ever get a chance to come to Iowa City, you should totally go downstairs and have a pint.

Coadster called me around 11'ish to tell me she wasn't going to drive around and was just going to go home instead. About a half hour later, Erik called me from Chicago and after dropping off his friend, "walked me home" on our cell phones.

Saturday was a bit on the hectic side. I had to get up early to take Coadster to show choir. I came back home and went to bed for a little bit until Stinky called me to come get her around 11. I ran a ton of errands. Took Stinky to her friend's house and finally headed to the Quad Cities.

the party itself was just fine. I didn't know anyone there but Erik, but there was a couple from Iowa City who I really liked and we all made fun of the band together. The band played 80's covers so badly, that even I had a hard time making them out. Yeah. Erik and I headed back to Iowa City around 9:30 and had a few drinks at where else? That's right. The Dublin. It was a pretty mellow night there, but the important people, like our friends D. and J. were there. J. was nice enough to give us a ride home, so we didn't even have to take a cab.

This, as you know preceded the wonderful Sunday morning where Erik and I slept in and ate all that food and didn't have anything to do until 12:30 when the girls came back from their dad's house. The end.

I Like The Way Ya Make Me Feel About You Baby

Hey, kids. It's late and it just hit me that I'm a little tired and cranky. So, I'll make this quick. I think I'm just going to do the Saturday Scavenger Hunt photo post tonight, because it will be fast and easy.

The word this week is Inspiration. I figured I'd just tie it in to the photos I've acquired this week. These first few are from Stinky's last basketball game on Thursday. Of course, my girls are my biggest inspiration. I'd put some pics of Coadster up, but she's not big on letting me take them of her. Just know, she's with us in spirit. Coadster and I did go on our girl dinner date tonight and it was very nice.

For whatever reason, these bball pics came out pretty dark. How about we all pretend they're brighter and easier to see, 'kay?

This last photo, Dexter from Degrees of Gray in Iowa City sent to me in an email on Friday. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, Dexter has this uncanny ability to send me the most perfect pics when I'm at work and bored and having a hard time making it through the day. (even if that one time it was a ridiculous one of me 80's dancing at the Picador - yeesh!) Anyway, this pic is of Erik from the caucuses in January. I love it, because you can tell he is so ready to start talking shit and I like to think of him as an inspiration to shit talkers everywhere.

Seriously, though. I had a great Sunday morning with Erik and we had tea and croissants and bacon and smoked provolone and used the award winning mustard he picked up at the mustard museum (yes, there is one) in Wisconsin. Oh, yeah. AND we had ice cream as an appetizer. So, now I finally get why I'm a little cranky - I had such a great weekend, that I now have to step away from the butter and bacon and eat that reality sandwich on Monday all by myself. I have a feeling it won't taste quite so good.

And She'll Have Fun Fun Fun

Here is some snow. I think it's sideways, but there's so much of it, it doesn't really matter. Tilt your head any way and it will all look the same.

So, it's time to play, where the hell is Churlita San Diego this weekend? This Saturday I'll be meeting Erik in the exotic locale of Quad Cities USA. There will be rivers and there will be beer. There may even be rivers of beer. But mostly, there will be Erik and that just means fun. This will be a short meeting, but next weekend we're going to a lodge in Missouri to celebrate the day of hearts of flowers with our friend who owns the Dublin Underground and his fiance and my friend T. and her man, M. I might even get to shoot a gun or two. But I'm getting too far ahead of myself.

This weekend? This weekend I'm planning to go to The Dublin for a bit on Friday night. Then on Saturday night, I'll be meeting Erik in the QCA for his friend's birthday party. I've been kind of fantasizing about BBQ from Jim's Rib Haven, but if it doesn't happen, I'm okay too.

In between all of this will be taking girls from their duties as wrestling managers to basketball games and maybe a sleep over too. Coadster will be gone all Saturday for Show choir. On Sunday evening, Coadster and I will go on a date for a late dinner as she has requested some special alone time with me. I'm always happy to oblige the girls that.

Once again, I'd love to hear your plans. I'm assuming you'll be in more exciting areas than the Quad Cities, but you won't be with Erik, so you might not be having as much fun.

Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me?

Here is Coadster with her cousin this weekend.

And here is Stinky with that same cousin.

So, I was rocked hard by the stomach flu and then there was a crazy blizzard. I guess the universe was trying to tell me something, and just so the universe knows, I got it. I basically slept and was dizzy(er) and got rid of some bad juju for two days straight. I'm here to say, "Uncle". My belly isn't entirely back to normal, but it's close and I think I might even get a little crazy and try to go back to work tomorrow.

This will still be a short post. Don't worry, I hear the internet rejoicing going on. I just wanted to say how awesome my girls were throughout my sickness. Sure, Coadster quarantined me to my room because she certainly didn't want what I had, but I guess that's just her being smart.

The big problem was that we were out of food. So, once the girls were let out early from school, we had to figure out a plan for food foraging. I was super dizzy, but I thought I could at least drive to the store. I couldn't imagine walking around like death warmed over under fluorescent lights looking at food and not puking, however. My girls offered to come with and shop for me.

We had briefly talked about what to have for dinner. There was no way I'd be able to cook, but we might be able to get something delivered. I sat in the car while the girls shopped. They bought plenty of healthy food and even got something they could make for dinner. After we made it home, I went back to my quarantined room. Stinky and Coadster, put all the groceries away, made dinner, brought it to me in my room and then sat quietly and watched American Graffiti in the living room. That's not even mentioning the fact that Coadster folded and put away all the laundry while Stinky shoveled snow and washed dishes on her snow day today.

I may not be the smartest or most talented person who will ever live, and I'll never be a supermodel by any means, but I really think I hit the jackpot when it comes to my daughters.

See That Man All Dressed in Green?

Alright. Now I think I might be getting sick. For the last week or so I've been around a bunch of sick people and I've had a migraine on and off for most of the weekend. I even left work early yesterday because my head was so bad. So, I may not get to write all that I want tonight, so I can get some sleep and try to get better.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I was going to talk a bit about my weekend. It was great fun, and I wouldn't have changed what we did at all, I just didn't get to see a whole lot of St Louis. Maybe next time.

We got there kind of late on Friday night. Erik told me he had tickets to a Mardi Gras Ball somewhere at an old theater, so I had to be efficient with my time and get ready as quickly as possible. We got down to the ball just as they stopped serving alcohol. The band was local and they played a lot of Dr. John, New Orleans style music. Right before they finished their last song, Erik and I took off to meet some of his friends at a bar. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of any of the places. All I know, is that there was astro turf in front of the entrance of the bar and I thought that was pretty cool.

All these St Louis pics seem to make me look like a total spaz, but maybe that's because I am a total spaz.

We ended the evening at Erik's house. a bunch of his friends came over and, like I said, there were a lot of shit talking and high fives.

Okay. I'm serious about not feeling well. This is really all I can do tonight. Now I must sleep.

Naughty Boys Need Love Too

Hey, kids. I'm going to say it loud, I'm back and I'm proud. I drove home in horrible snow and icy conditions with my friend T. and we made it here with all of our limbs in tact and as much sanity as we left with. (yeah, shut-up)

So, here's the deal. I'm beat, so I'm going to make this as short as possible so I can try to get some sleep. Tomorrow I can tell you about the drive and about how kick-ass my sister and bro-in-law were and how much fun my girls had with their cousins in Ottumwa and how much fun I had with Erik in St Louis, but for now, I'm showing you some pictures and following Erik's suggestion for writing about his friend who we shall call El Dozer.

First of all, let me say that El Dozer is one of the few people I've met who talks more shit than I do. I know. I didn't think it was possible either, but I'm hear to tell you that it is.

Secondly, El Dozer has ridiculed me and my blog, by reading the posts about Erik aloud to him in a mocking tone and then telling me that I was a geek and an attention whore by even having a blog. Right. As if, establishing an on-line community of readers with a bunch of people I've never met makes me a geek. And just because I post tons of photos of myself and my friends and then write text about myself and my friends for a bunch of people I've never met, does that make me an attention whore? Okay, you know what, you can shut-up and not answer that one either.

Let's get back to El Dozer. Even though he talks a lot of shit and has high-five tourettes after he's been drinking, it turns out, he can be tamed. All it takes is the right kind of discipline, and El Dozer is as docile as a kitten.

See? He can be taught to be quiet and respectful.

And then he's all about the love.

Okay. So, now that I wrote a post about El Dozer on my blog, does that mean I can call him a geeky attention whore too?