A Dino-Mite Birthday Box

 Tomorrow is the Man-Cub's Golden Birthday. I never had a clue what a golden birthday was until Queen B celebrated hers a few years back, so, please don't feel bad if you are asking yourself what the hell a golden birthday is. For the unaware, it is celebrating the number of years you are on the corresponding day on the calendar. So, the Man-Cub is turning 23 on the 23rd, and, he is going to party like the golden child he is.

This begs the question of how lame the Golden Birthday is for kids born between the 1st and 21st of the month.

Feel free to discuss that paradigm as it relates to your newfound knowledge of the Golden Birthday. In the meantime, here is this year's birthday box post.

The theme for the box is dinosaurs, specifically, the Jurassic Park variety, because, the Man-Cub's main gift is the Kualoa Jurassic Adventure Tour . He doesn't know it yet, but I have been in cahoots with his girlfriend to pull it off as a surprise. The tour confirmation is in the box along with a number of dinosaur related swag. So, what's in the box?

Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal

Dino-Bites Cereal

Nutella

Birthday Cake in a Mug

Birthday Cake Flavored Pop-Tarts

Birthday candles 

Dinosaur masks (definitely not Covid approved, but fun, nonetheless!)

Dinosaur Gummies

Plastic dinosaur

Dinosaur Treasure Egg

Jurassic Park T-Shirt

Card with cash, because he may be the Golden Child but he is dead-ass broke

I hope he has a great Golden Birthday. I also hope he doesn't read this post today and spoil the surprise. This is actually not as great a fear as one might imagine, thankfully.

Best Laid Plans and All That Crap

Sunday morning, I leaped from my bed (leaped being a relative term that in no way describes my current athletic prowess), determined to accomplish a long list of chores, including the annual Halloween decorating of Casa de Chelle.

I had intended to do the decorating on Saturday, but, was experiencing some foot/leg pain that, while  tolerable with a dose of ibuprofen (and some gumption); provided a (lame) excuse to lay around all day, binging on One Tree Hill reruns and pretzel bites.

I'm not entirely sorry.

Hence, Sunday was to be my day. Once I was up, I commandeered Hugh to help with the retrieval of the Halloween boxes from their storage space in the attic above the garage. Since trips up and down the ladder to get the boxes is my absolute least favorite part of the whole process, his help was greatly appreciated.

Boomer dog also helped, lest you think he's a slacker.

Once the boxes, totes, and other storage apparatuses were safely stowed against a wall in the garage, I went to the hardware store to knock out my duties, giving myself the entire afternoon and evening in which to create Halloween nirvana.

Or so I thought.

In actuality, I got an emergency call-out and spent the entire day at Not So New Job. Le sigh.

So, actual commencement of Halloweenapalooza had to wait until last night, when I finally had the time to attack the boxes. Did I get very far in my endeavor? Oh, hell no. Was it a start? Yes. More to come on that in the coming days.

As an aside, while my house is not yet up to my seasonal spooky standards, Hugh and my bedroom certainly is; our nightly peaceful slumber has been shattered by demonic moaning and the very sounds of hell, itself.

From where is this nightly onslaught of horrific noise emanating, you may ask?

Ummm, that would be me.

Apparently, a new side effect of old age, weight gain, etc., is the tendency to snore. I have never been a snorer. Never. And, trust me when I say that I tried to blame it on Hugh, but; he countered my argument with a cellphone recording that makes the charge against me undeniable. 

For the record, it's also really, really alarming; like Beelzebub screaming from the very bowels of hell, alarming. 

Naturally, Hugh's first thought was that I had, indeed, been possessed and, in his defense, I can kinda see it. We do, currently, lack levitation and head spinning, so, we aren't quite there (just yet).

 I honestly can't blame him for being scared.

Am I amused by his terror?

If I say yes, does that make me a terrible person?

Anyhoodle, I am off to Google natural remedies for snoring (and, possibly exorcists available in our area. One can't be too cautious).

 

How to Turn a Teacup into a Saucer

I had my annual mammogram yesterday, and, while the process still requires the sandwiching of each boob between panes of lucite for thirty agonizing seconds, an upgrade in technology has made it unnecessary to hold your breath while said sandwiching occurs. It's amazing how much impact such a small change can have, y'all.

 I kind of enjoy breathing.

Fall Bucket List 2021

It's been a hot minute since I posted a seasonal bucket list; I think the last one was in 2019. The Year That Shall Not Be Named played a huge role in that, if I'm being honest. The pandemic, my new job, and my rapidly depleting hormones combined to form the Trifecta of Suck and I just didn't have it in me to try to set goals, even when the goal was something that would result in enjoyment.

That being said; fall continues to be my favorite time of the year and, now that I am functioning slightly better as a human being (thank you BIHRT!), I think it's time to bring back the list. 

So, here we go!

1. Go on a good, old fashioned picnic. Use the good wicker picnic hamper. Make an Italian stuffed Mufuletta sandwich. Pack a good bottle of wine and a good book. Take my camera. Make a day of it!

2. Go on one last camping trip before it gets too cold to enjoy the forest.

3. Start exercising regularly again.

4. Clean up my diet.

5. Attend at least 3 social events. The Year that Shall Not Be Named made a hermit out of me and it's time to reawaken my inner extrovert.

6. Throw a Halloween-themed Porch Night.

7. Pull off another epic skeleton display for Halloween.

8. Host Friendsgiving, invite people who otherwise have nowhere to celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving. 

9. Schedule self-care appointments: massages, reflexology, facials, pedicures, etc.

10. Cook at least one from-scratch meal a week (low bar here, but a girls' gotta start somewhere).

And, that's it for the Bucket List. One additional goal that I feel the need to set for myself is to write here more often. We'll see how that goes.

The One Without a Title

Happy Labor Day! I think that's especially important to say to all you folks out there who continue to show up at your jobs everyday, despite being understaffed, over-worked, and unappreciated by asshole customers who fail to take any of these things into consideration before complaining about slower than normal service, supply issues that make it virtually impossible to stock certain items/ingredients, and other issues completely out of your control.

Y'all deserve a huge raise and a nice vacation.

I am technically off today, but, have already fielded a call and anticipate several more. I also took a call yesterday, so, my long holiday weekend is pretty much shot. However, on Saturday, Hugh and I did get to celebrate our 28th anniversary, undisturbed. 

How did we celebrate? We took the drive up to the popular ski town just south of us. Hugh had made reservations at the nicest restaurant on the top of the mountain. We rode the gondola up, walked around the ski village for awhile, and then enjoyed a delicious meal, served by one of those hardworking folks that I mentioned earlier in this post.

It was a nice way to spend the day and we have the pictures to prove it.

All dressed up and ready to go..

The view from the gondola...

 Touring the ski village...

The restaurant is located at the top of the mountain, has amazing views, and awesome ambiance...

And the food is amazing! The restaurant features a three-course prix fixe menu which includes dessert. Bread and butter sprinkled with sea salt are served first, and we enjoyed it with both sparkling water and adult beverages...

...followed by an optional appetizer. We chose the marinated olive selection and goat-stuffed peppadew peppers wrapped in prosciutto (heaven in every bite, not even kidding)

My choice of salad was the heirloom tomato and burrata, which was so good; Hugh sent back his Cesar salad and ordered one for himself (he claimed the lettuce in his salad was bitter but we all know he was jealous).

 

My entree was mushroom risotto, which, was not really the best risotto that I have ever eaten. It was a bit gluey and the mushroom flavor did not really shine through. That didn't stop me from eating it, but it was a bit disappointing.

Dessert was New York cheesecake, which made up for the blandness of my entree. Our server added candles to our plates in celebration of our anniversary, which was a thoughtful touch.

After dinner, we rode the gondola back down the mountain and made the drive home. As I said earlier; it was a nice way to celebrate. And, we made certain to tip, really, really well.

Viva Las Vegas!

Hugh and I left for Vegas exactly a week ago, today. We drove out with another couple: Ben and Shelley, who are another wrestling official /wrestling official's widow, so the trip went by quickly and pleasantly enough (only complaint: the backseat of Hugh's truck is a lot less comfortable than it should be considering the ungodly amount of money that we spent on it).

We got into town and checked into our room before grabbing dinner in one of the hotel restaurants. It was a great choice; my dinner started off with a cup of french onion soup, followed by a baked half chicken and a bite of Hugh's dessert, which was the biggest slice of cheesecake I have ever seen served in a restaurant. I also ordered a bottle of Butter Chardonay that was fabulous.

After a truly restful night's sleep, I awoke to a cup of coffee from the lobby Starbucks, delivered to my bedside by my adoring husband. I'm pretty sure he was sucking up for having spent half the night in the casino, an affront I was more than willing to forgive when he flashed several $500 chips in my direction.

Hugh left for the wrestling tournament, which was taking place in the convention center (conveniently attached to the hotel) and I took my coffee down to the pool to spend the day with Shelley, a good book, and unlimited bar access. It was about the most relaxing day that I have had in quite a while.

Later that night, we joined eight other wrestling couples for dinner in another of the hotel's restaurants. The food was just as good as the night before and, despite just having met our dinner companions, I really enjoyed the conversations around the table.

The next day, I was awoken by yet another Starbucks delivery (and several $100 chips!). The tournament had scheduled a shorter day, so Shelley and I did some shopping and then ventured into the convention center to watch the husbands in action for a while just as the tournament was finishing up (excellent timing, if I do say so myself).

The guys got cleaned up and we headed to Freemont Street to make it to our reservation for the Freemont Street Zipline.

The zipline was a lot of fun. The rest of the Freemont Street experience, less so. I don't know if I've been in my line of work for too long or if I'm just becoming an old "you kids get off my lawn" kind of woman, but, the fact that I seriously considered calling child protective services to report children being exposed to drugs and pornography at least three times strongly suggests one or the other.

In my defense, Freakmont Street is not the place for babes in arms, people! The marijuana smoke alone will give you a contact high.

Anyhoodle, the next morning, Shelley and I had to rush to catch our 9:30 flight which was inexplicably cancelled and rebooked as a 6:00 a.m. flight. We weren't notified of the change until getting a text message at 3:30, which meant we had to roll out of bed and race to the airport. We made it, but not without a lot of swearing, which, I did the lion's share of the heavy lifting for because Shelley doesn't cuss.

Good times.

Ms Congeniality Dot Com: Sharing Nonsense on the Internets Since 2006

I hit Publish on the first post of this blog on September 1, 2006, so, I could say that I have been blogging for fifteen years, but, that is not 100% accurate; I actually started a blog several years earlier, on a long-since shuttered blog forum, the name of which I won't divulge (if you know, you know, fellow Old Skool Bloggers).

Blogging has certainly changed in the past decade-and-a-half. It started out with Mommy Blogging, wherein the unspoken requirement was that every character in your blog be known by a twee pseudonym such as Dear Hubby, Sweet Daughter, etc., etc. 

Mommy Blogging eventually evolved into Lifestyle Blogging, which quickly morphed into the world of The Influencer, which, is where it currently stands; with most bloggers linking every small detail of their lives for monetization. 

If that's your jam, good for you; I'm more of a hold-out for the OG.

This blog is a time capsule of our family; every so often, I hit the Random Post button and transport myself back in time. Usually I am reminded of something I had completely forgotten, and, more often than not, it is a pleasant memory. So, I'll keep chugging along on this platform for as long as I can.

Old skool style.