The End of February--It's Finally Here!

Happy Saturday!  I have several topics to share with you today.

Snowmageddon came this past week. We got 6-7 inches of snow on Thursday. That means I got to work from home 2 days and that means I got a lot done!  It was nice not going anywhere. But we need hamburger buns for tomorrow and I'm out of good ice cream!  Oh, the horror.   (I know my dad understands the tragedy)

Here are some pics from our snow adventures. 

Jessie hamming it up...
She jumped up at me as I was taking the picture
Priceless!

Joey... eating a little dirt with his snow



Keystone after he bathed his face in snow

 

Jessie loves finding sticks and leaves under the snow



Such a good looking boy, my Joey!

 

My boys digging and eating snow

I want to share some wonderfully tasty goodies we've recently found. They aren't healthy, so fair warning.

My very favorite discovery are these babies:

Cheesy Poofs of flavor explosions!

They are extra cheesy with a kick-in-the-pants-bite that bites you back.   I can't believe I like these.  I can't handle spicy.  I take two gaviscon before I eat them, and they are worth any heartburn I have to endure, or tears I have to shed to eat them.  They are that good and ADDICTIVE.  Don't try them if you don't want to love them.  Todd got them at Sam's.

Next up, a lovely local dairy gets all artsy and creative!  Have you ever seen prettier milk?  I think they had to milk a unicorn or something to get this wonderful stuff.

The blue milk is "Cotton Candy" flavored;
and the orange milk is "Orange Dream".

My favorite is the blue cotton candy.   Can't wait to try the root beer flavored milk.   I bet it's like a root beer float, mmmmmm.

Todd went to the store to get buns today so that we can have Sloppy Joe's tomorrow because it's finally time to START YOUR ENGINES!  It's the DAYTONA 500! 

The NASCAR dark period is finally over.  It's been so long since the last season ended last November.  I am so ready for this season to start.  I haven't kept up with who changed teams, or changed sponsors, or any of the usual confusion that happens for me at the beginning of a new season.  I just know I will be rooting for Carl.  And excited for Danica Patrick making the pole position for tomorrow's race.

Carl Edwards #99
This year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion...

I watched the Nationwide race today, and hope and pray the spectators are OK. There was a horrible wreck on the last lap. Such a scary situation. Several spectators are in the hospital, it's so sad. Makes me happy to watch from home. Eating my sloppy, sloppy Joe.

I can't end on that note, so I leave you with this cuteness:

Sleepy Joey

Sleepy Jessie

 

Mice, Start Your Engines, And It's Here!!!

There are several things on my mental list of things to do since being back in the KC area. Last weekend was one of those events.

I should explain that we used to live on the best block. There were several houses of friends who got together socially fairly often. Honestly, it was a little more often than I could handle at times, but we just chose to participate when we could (i.e. not on Friday nights when I needed down time to recover from the week). I still don't know how they didn't go around naked from lack of clean clothes to wear (when did they ever find time to do laundry?). 

Anyway, there are so many people on that street we will stay in contact with... simply forever. There was always someone you could borrow an egg or a cup of sugar (or a fifth of Jack Daniels). When the weather was cruel and limbs were scattered around our yards like jenga sticks, we all went from yard to yard to yard and cleaned up together. It made life easier to deal with the crap mother nature throws at you. Oh yea, or like when it's an unexpected monsoon and you realize the basement sump pump can't keep up and the water is coming in the basement and you're seriously screwed, our friends came over in a pinch and helped (did I mention we just met them?). There is no other hood like it anywhere. Two of our closest friends were right next door (the two who helped during one of our many floods). So glad to be able to see them now.

One event we always used to attend was the yearly MOUSE RACES. Yes, you read that right. Mouse *races*. It is the most unique fund raiser. They sell entry tickets and you get all the beer you can drink. (Oh, did I mention that the folks we know in the old hood were pretty much the drinkers on the street.)  Think of dog races. Only with mice. And instead of a little bunny they try to catch, a hair dryer is used. I know, I know, it sounds mean, but they don't look scared. Just trust me on that so you are not all distraught and lose sleep over it. They are very happy looking mice.  See?

So they have 6 mice that run on their own track, and if your mouse wins, you split the winnings with the others who bet on the same mouse.  Here is a video of an actual Mouse Race:

The mouse winners from each race gets special participation. They get to be the "ball" in mouse-roulette. No, they don't spin the mouse around. That would be mean. They plop the mouse in the middle of a stationary wheel with pins around the edge, and if you chose the number between the pins the mouse crosses, you win big money! I was so hoping Suzie was going to win. She tried *really* hard. At least she won a door prize, and I heard her name. I was so excited they called her name!  The environment was extremely loud, so hearing the person next to you was difficult. 

A pic of Mouse Roulette:

After the races ended, they had a dance. I should have brought some Kinky to drink, but I forgot and the beer wasn't real tasty so I had not had enough to drink in order to dance. Inebriation is required for me to dance, cause frankly, it's not real pretty. Grace and coordination = not my best friends.

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So, the long winter is OVER and it's Daytona time, Baby! And MY BOY is on the pole! Of course I'm taking about NASCAR.  What did you think--pole dancing?  Perv.  I was not ready for the race season to be over last November so it was a long dark season for me. My boy, Carl, has some winning to do.  Get ready to Start Your Engines!!!

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It's here, it's here!  I got my Crappy Day Package today! I am so excited to have these beautiful packages of joy waiting for whenever I need something to improve my day. Aren't they positively wild?!?? I love the paper.

The lovely person who sent me my CDP is SuperJules.  I can't wait to read all about her!  I haven't had a bad day yet, so I'm saving them.  Cause I have a feeling, they are going to be needed.  Thanks, Doing My Best for coordinating!

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Check back later this weekend for pics of my furry kids--their 9th birthday is SATURDAY!  I will be baking a cake soon.

I won, I won!

I'm in a Toastmasters club so that I can master my fear of public speaking.  When I stand up and speak in front of people, I hear my voice shake, feel my palms sweat, and speak at the speed of light without breathing.  I've been able to improve my ability to master my fears.  I have learned to develop a speech with an introduction, body and conclusion.  I still haven't learned to gauge the time so that I know how much I can say in X amount of time, but that comes with practice.

Tonight I spoke about one of my favorite subjects, NASCAR, and I brought home the first place ribbon!!  Yay, go me!  It was one of my favorite speeches that I have delivered, but I relied too much on my notes because of the technical "goals" of the speech (which everyone says the goal of speech #4 sucks).  Whew, glad that one is over!  And it was really fun to deliver.  I found a few other NASCAR fans in the audience!

Go #99!

DRIVERS* Start Your Engines!

Wahoo for the girls!  Way to go, Danica Patrick.  I watched (delayed) her win 4th place in today's Nationwide race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  She set a record for the best ever finish by a female driver.  Keep an eye on her, she's going to keep getting better.  I can't wait to see her in victory circle.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/feed/2011-01/danica-patrick/story/danica-patrick-registers-best-finish-by-female-driver-in-nascar#ixzz1FnM5LSOj

Who gives a damn that it ended up being a fuel mileage race.  Think anybody is going to remember that next year when they say how she came in 4th this year?  Nope. 

She's a badass in my book.



Oh, and congrats to Mark Martin for winning the big enchilada.  I think he's pretty cool and so happy to see him win!!!  Totally deserves it.

I've also got my eye on Jennifer Jo Cobb, hoping she does well this season.  Looks like I'm going to have to start watching the truck series too!
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/02/jennifer_jo_cobbs_finish_made.html

*Since there were two women in the race, they couldn't say "Gentlemen, start your engines", so it's "Drivers, start your engines"--I love it!