Ever been to a Wii party?

Well, I hadn't either but it is fun! Kim invited a few people over Saturday evening for an evening of friendly competition. You haven't lived until you have 4 grown men playing doubles tennis in your living room. OH...they also boxed but that is another story. We did have a few injuries but nothing too disfiguring, requiring stitches or a cast. Who knew you could work up such a sweat playing a video game. Good friends plus good food equals a great evening.

1 Wedding and 2 Reunions

Tomorrow should be interesting. We start out with a wedding at 2PM, a family reunion at 6PM and another reunion at 7PM. Always makes it interesting when we use both banquet spaces at the same time. Each event lasts a minimum of three hours so there will be a lot of running up and down the stairs plus it doubles the wait staff and puts a real strain on the kitchen but it will be a good weekend for revenue.

Karl, Jennifer, Debi and I had lunch at Amechi's this afternoon...love their stuffed shells. Debi and I stopped at several of the shops on the way back to the aquarium but neither one of us bought anything. That was rare but it's really too early for the good sales and not much was marked down yet. There are a ton of tourists in town this week, almost as crowded as the week of the 4th. Ever hear of a "touron"? It's a cross between a tourist and a moron and they must be having a convention in Myrtle Beach this week. There were four lanes of traffic heading south and I was in the right center lane when a "touron" in the far right lane cut across all four lanes of traffic to turn left and oh yes, he also ran a red light making his turn. Yep, has to be a convention and I almost met their president.

Picking Your Battles

Polly and Eddie were in middle school age and driving me NUTS. Polly had discovered makeup and perfume and applied both with a liberal hand. Our bathroom looked like the Clinique counter at Dillard's. Dave and I would be enjoying a few minutes of peace reading the paper, listening to the news and Polly would breeze through the family room looking like "a working girl" and trailing a heavy scent that hung like a rain cloud long after she had departed the room. We had enough blue eye shadow in our house to make up the entire Rockette dance line for at least a year. Eddie was not into makeup or perfume to that degree (OK, we did go through a raccoon eye phase) but oh my goodness the mouth. Eddie HAD to have the last word or her head would explode. It didn't matter what the word was....it just had to be the last word spoken. Our family have always been readers but it was during this time that they veered away from what I considered apropriate and read nothing but Sweet Valley High books. My mother gave me some very good advise. So what if the books they are reading are "trashy". They are reading and will discover on their own that there are good books out there. The makeup also took care of itself. Thank goodness Polly finally decided she didn't want to look like a "lady of the evening" and now it's a rare morning when she has time to put on moisturizer let alone makeup. As for Eddie always having to have the last word....guess we will have to check with her husband Mike for the answer to that question.

School Clothes

Eddie and I have been chatting about things that happened when all three kids were still at home and this incident happened during Eddie's freshman year in high school. I was Assistant Registrar at the high school and my office was used by my children and their friends for everything from storage to counseling. Each year the kids received a set amount to spend for school clothes at the beginning of the year and they could choose (within reason) what they wanted. The Guess brand was really popular that year and Dillards had a Guess skirt with matching blouse and sweater that Eddie really really really wanted but it would take all of her clothing allowance plus some of her own money. We told her if she wanted it that badly she could use her babysitting money but it was foolish to spend all of her clothing allowance on one outfit. Of course she bought the outfit and wore it on the first day of school. Well, about 9:30 AM Eddie and two of her best friends came flying into my office, slammed the door shut and tears were flying in every direction. TRAGEDY had struck! Someone else had on the same outfit on the same day and she was NEVER EVER wearing it AGAIN! Everybody at school had seen the two of them in the same outfit, her life was RUINED. I tried to reason with Eddie and reminded her that happens all the time, no big deal...you know all the "Momisms". So what if another girl bought the same outfit. It was about that time that one of her friends told me that it wasn't another girl who had on the outfit. It was Brandon.....a senior guy who was also a transvestite. Eddie you are now 36....is this funny yet?

P.S. Eddie and I went shopping that night.

Laundry

I received the email below from my oldest daughter, Polly, and it reminded me of the days of umpteem loads of daily laundry. There are a lot of things I miss about having my children grown and on their own but all the laundry is not one of them! When the kids were in 7th or 8th grade we were doing the regular weekly cleaning and I requested all the dirty clothes be brought to me in the laundry room first so I could get started on the never ending pile. About halfway through the mound I came across clean clothes that were still folded that they had neglected to put away. The real deal breaker was when I found shirts STILL ON THE HANGERS! OK, that's when my voice hit an octave that only dogs can hear and had what my family calls a "blue butt monkey fit". I called a "meeting" and announced that from that day forward everyone was responsible for their own laundry. I quit, I resign, not doing it anymore, here is the Tide, there is the Downy and good luck. The payoff came when Eddie was a freshman at IU. She called home one night and said, "I just wanted to say thank you." I told her that was very sweet but what was she thanking me for. Well, apparently Eddie was one of the few in her dorm who knew how to do laundry and had not ruined her wardrobe the first week away from home. She wanted to say thank you for teaching her to be responsible. Wow, all those good things came from a foot stomping, screaming maniac temper tantrum. Polly's email is below and I hope it makes you chuckle.

Katy and Sarahs job today was to keep laundry moving. Which included rotating loads, folding, and putting away. Well I came home and apparently they didn't care for their job too much. They learned that the bigger the load, the more they had to fold, and the more they had to put away....soooooooo they figured out if they washed 5 pairs of undies and rotated to the dryer and washed 5 pairs of socks and so on, there wouldn't be that much to fold and put away. Mind you we have just come back from a week long trip (a family of 6, with one guest) AND I have a super capacity washer and dryer that holds 12 pairs of jeans at a time. Needless to say I came home to just about the same mountain of laundry as when I left with the exception of the one pair of undies and one pair of socks that were mine. To add to the story Tory was in charge of putting away my clothes,,,,,,well she too did not care for her job and decided to put my undies and socks where ever it was easiest (not necessarily my sock drawer) sooooooooo, the one pair of socks and the one pair of undies that were apparently washed (this derived from the statement of the laundry girls who said we all had at least one pair each washed ,dried, and folded) are no where to be found. I imagine I will go to work tomorrow in inside out undies, sandals, bermuda shorts and my "bloomies" t- shirt. I have reinvented the Corporate World Attire.

I did chuckle though when the laundry girls were questioned as to why they had washed so many "mini" loads, at least they were honest and admitted it was less for them to fold. :)

Guess what job they have again tomorrow.......

love,

P

Looooong Day

If my phone rang once today it rang 75 times and to top it off our receptionist tends "to wander". I heard more than one person mention duct taping her behind to the chair tomorrow and I will be more than happy to supply the tape. The biggest excitement today were the cooler temps and low humidity and on behalf of all the old fat people in Myrtle Beach..thank you very much!

Jodi Picoult scores again.

I finally dug in and finished SALEM FALLLS and it is good, just took longer than usual to get interesting. Whew, I was getting worried Jodi...thought you had lost your touch.
Today has pretty much consisted of Morty sleeping on my chest while I read or watched a movie. Morty has decided that I am his personal possession and hisses at poor Ginglebelle if she even tries to get up on my lap. They finally came to an agreement that Morty can sleep on my shoulder while Ginglebelle lays beside me in the recliner. Kitty sibling rivalry...who knew.
PRARIE HOME COMPANION with Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin is on HBO this month. I had been wanting to see this movie but hadn't taken the time until today. I throughly enjoyed it but if you are looking for an action movie..this ain't it! A lot of my favorite actors are featured. Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, Woody Harrelson just to name a few. Anyway, if you have the opportunity it's certainly worth watching. Love days like today...two naps, a good book AND a good movie.