Once again I shall need to ask you all to pretend it is Tuesday for a moment as I am late getting this week’s list posted.
I had a birthday this weekend, and in alot of ways I think birthdays are the best time to makes resolutions. More personalized. So I cut up some strips of paper, wrote out some goals, aspirations, and things I’d like to check off the LIFE edition of my to-do list. Then I spread them out on some leftover gift wrap from one of my presents this weekend (more on that awesomeness later, let’s jut say I’m pretty lucky).
The result is this week’s List It Wednesday Tuesday!
See you next week, where I’m pretty sure I will be on time with the list since I am planning to take the tried and traditional route and will be posting a Things I’m Thankful For list in honor of that particular Thursday in November where we stuff a bird, and then stuff ourselves.
1 – It’s my birthday this weekend! I am not ashamed to admit that I LOVE PRESENTS!!! I adore getting gifts. To my credit I also get a kick out of giving gifts as well. One of the neat things this year is all the birthday freebies I’m getting! So far, here is what I get to “cash in on ” during my birthday month:
A free drink from Sbux, a $10 giftcard to WorldMarket (time for me to buy that tea I wanted!), a free ice cream cone from Oberweiss, 20% off my total purchase at Hallmark, $10 off at Rainforest Cafe, and best of all – a free meal at my fav place (Cooper’s Hawk). I also just found out I get free eyebrow shaping at Ulta’s salon – I’ve never done anything to my eyebrows before, so I’m a little trepidatious (which, btw, some people say is a word while others argue it’s not), but hey – it’s free so I’ll give it a whirl.
2 – This past Wednesday, my sand v-ball team, The Java Mamas, played our final tournament game. Yes, you got that right – we live in the mid-west and just played an OUTDOOR SAND VOLLEYBALL game in the middle of freakin’ NOVEMBER. We thanked our lucky stars that we had uncommonly awesome weather this week and enjoyed an unseasonably fair evening temp in the 50’s. However, the sand was still pretty freakin’ cold. Why so late? It was originally slated for the end of October (which is still pretty late, but not horrible) but a freak wind storm caused a cancellation, followed by some schedule issues that led to another cancellation, but finally we played our game and WON! Hurrah, the Java Mamas are the champions!
Here we are posing with the 2nd place team (who are called the Beavers, and yes, their team name leads to all sorts of jokes).
That's me in the Ireland sweatshirt...sorry about the quality, my camera can't handle night shots.
3 – My NaNo word count has been at a stand still the last couple days, mainly because I got hit with a big ol’ sick stick and felt horrible – 0ut and out crawl under the covers and hide horrible. I’m starting to feel a little better today and have high hopes to make up for lost time this weekend. As the recent NaNo pep talk quoted from Robert Frost, “The best way out is always through.” That is really an unconscious motto for my life, whenever things are tough I don’t stall and dwell in misery or back out – I push through. It helps to have a wonderful husband who picks up the slack and a sweet daughter who makes cards like this:
When it first arrived, the husband wanted to know who the heck in the UK was sending me jewelry......as tempting as it was to let him wonder if I had a secret admirer from overseas, I reminded him about the contest I had won. Isn't it pretty!?!
Here is a pic of me sporting the goods:
Can I just say that trying to take a picture of yourself is not very easy?
Yes, I have freckles. Lots and lots and lots of freckles. Part of the red hair and fair skin package I suppose. As is the little bit of sunburn I’m still sporting into November…and speaking of “goods” while I love the sweater I’m wearing (and, as the sweet cashier at Trader Joes noted in a very complimentary way, the color of it matches the necklace perfectly) upon seeing these pictures, I realized it is rather, er, low cut, as you can see in the uncropped version.
5- So, a couple of weeks ago I saw an Article in the New York Times about a dude I went to college with, he was Algernon to my Cecily in one of my favorite plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, we were nominated for the Irene Ryan Award and the scene where Cecily describes how Algernon wooed her heart via all the letters he (that is she pretending to be him) wrote her was selected for some type of award as well, I can’t remember what; it’s been over 10 years! Funny, considering what a big deal it felt like to me at the time. Anyways, I still haven’t seen his t.v. show, but from what I hear, it’s a wee bit popular. Yes, I can admit I’m jealous of his success – not that I have aspirations to write for a t.v. show, but I wouldn’t run away screaming if the job were to be offered.
Hey look at me! It’s Tuesday, and I’m posting on time! Even after not getting to bed until after 2am (it took me awhile to get going on the whole NaNo writing thing last night).
One of the things I like best about theatre is the chance to step into somebody else’s shoes for awhile and play a different role from the one life has scripted for you.
Last night, while soaping up my hair in the shower and reviewing my never ending mental to-do list (something I always seem to do while washing my hair) I realized that the script of my everyday life is pretty darn busy, and I play quite a few roles on a daily basis:
I need to get myself into a show again soon, it would be nice to escape for awhile and just play one role!
I started building this week’s Friday Fast Five on Sunday, adding to it here and there throughout the week, so the post itself won’t seem quite so “fast,” but the act of me putting it up today is very fast indeed, I assure you 🙂
1. Having been a Smart Bitch test driver for a Sony e-reader last summer, I have found I really enjoy Miss Scarlett – my favorite feature, and one that other devices are not able to offer (from what I can tell) is the ability to borrow e-books from my library’s digital “Media Mall.” I have to say though, that the wi-fi only Kindle priced under $150 is very tempting. Kindle offers soooooooo many free e-books, and there are a lot of features the Kindle has that the Sony doesn’t – but I really, REALLY don’t need two e-readers. I wouldn’t mind an ipad though (an item I can never ever see myself buying, I have way too many other things for me to spend $500…or whatever they currently cost, it’s still too much…on). Which is why I’m entering the Family Circle sweepstakes to win a 16GB ipad (they are also giving away a few Wii’s) You can enter here – if you win, I expect a thank you. 😉
2. Vanilla Rooibus tea. I love it. It is dee-licious with not a thing added to it other than piping hot water. Starbucks carries it, and it’s great because I can get a drink that feels almost as indulgent as a cafe mocha but has several hundred less calories and is half the price. It’s even cheaper when I brew it at home; World Market sells Republic of Tea, and yes it’s a little pricey, but I stock up when I have a $10 off purchase coupon (frugalness is a just a part of my blood I think). Next time I go on a tea shopping spree, I think I’ll have to try this one:
3. I want to buy Lil’ G some type of electonic-y device for Christmas…I’m debating between 3, er, 4:
Any advice, comments, reviews, suggestions or general opinions on these products are welcome. I’m leaning towards the Fisher-Price device. TIA
4. Speaking of holiday shopping, Black Friday is 3 weeks from today…do I give in to the insanity and go out shopping at 3am? Is there even anything I want to buy that badly? What do you usually do?
5. If you look in the upper right corner of the sidebar, you’ll see Miss A asking for your vote. Yes, election day was this past Tuesday – but Miss A needs your vote for a chance to go to Disney World! She’s entered the Balloon Time Put a Face on Fun contest. To vote for her, just click on that pic and then click vote! You don’t need to register for anything and can vote up to 5 times a day. If she wins we’ll bring you back something nice from the Magic Kingdom. The contest closes on my birthday…I’m going to take that as a piece of luck.
That was pretty much the first thing Sara said when she came onstage last night. She seemed pretty excited about the fact, and good for her!
Though the drive into Chicago absolutely sucked (on a Wednesday night? really?) we still got there in plenty of time to park, get just a teeny bit lost (we haven’t been to HOB in…12 years maybe? When we went to see Crystal Method), find our way to the House of Blues, pick up my “free” tickets from the will-call booth (yay!), and shuffle around the various levels til we found a semi-decent spot to see the show.
The husband and I had 1 beer each…guess how much two bottles of beer cost? My guesstimate had been a $1 too low.
And, true to our belief that wherever we go we are destined to run into someone one or both of us knows, a gal pal I went to college with was there, she had her first baby 9 months ago so we talked Mama shop for a few minutes and then enjoyed the incredible, genuine voice of Miss Sara B.
She played a fun set and really seemed to be enjoying herself onstage. The only song I was really hoping to hear that she didn’t play wasOne Sweet Love. Of course she performed my new favorite, the very popularKing of Anything, totally rocked Uncharted (which was great to hear live) and of course performed Love Song and Gravity (though the audience sang most of Love Song). When I first heard Hold My Heart on the new album I wasn’t in love with it, but it has really grown on me after hearing Sara perform it. I probably listened to it at least five times while writing last night. I also enjoyed hearing Fairytale live – and who knew, she has a half-sister the same age as Miss A.
I didn’t take any pics or anything (you’re not supposed, not that anyone follows that rule) but I’m hoping to find a few youtube uploads from the concert to link to here so you can enjoy it too! For now, I included some from her recent show at the House of Blues in Orlando – the whole look and feel is pretty much the same to what I saw last night.
She’ll be in Milwaukee tomorrow night, here is her tour schedule if you want to catch her!
So, I’m posting List It Tuesday on Wednesday…again. It’s just how I roll, I suppose. If it bothers you, you can leave now. I’m kidding, stay! You’re already here. Once again, in my defense, this list is from Tuesday, a result of haing to drag Lil’ G along to a meeting for a Daddy/Daughter dance I’m helping organize.
Despite bringing all the above listed, Lil’ G still managed to spill paper clips everywhere and throw a temper tantrum on the way out the door. I love having to make the grand exit with a two year old in full tantrum mode, don’t you?
If you don’t have kids, please have pity on the next mom you see making such an exit.
As I mentioned sometime last week, one of my favorite authors, Karen Marie Moning, is releasing the fifth and final book in her Fever series this January. To celebrate, and to try and lure a few more fans to the “dark” side, she has asked some of her readers to “spread the fever.” That’s how a big ol’ box from Random House landed on my doorstop. Filled to the brim with a special edition free copy of the first book in the series, DarkFever.
My mission: to pass these books out to friends, family, and random strangers who have never read KMM’s work before and to introduce them to the Fever World. I’ll be honest, I much prefer Karen’s other work – her sexy Highlander romance novels; but I respect the chance she took straying away from her “comfort” zone to write what she felt compelled to write, and to not bend or break under criticism or complaint. I followed her on the journey she took her readers on in this series, and look forward to seeing how it ends! If you have yet to enter the Fever world, then lucky you! You can enter to win one of the 5 books I’m giving away here on my site, and by the time you get through books 1-4, book 5 should be ready for release and you won’t have to wait in the same state of suspense the rest of have been in since last year!
TO ENTER: This is the 5th book, so I’m giving away 5 copies, and I’ll give you 5 chances to win. That kind of parallel stuff makes me happy. Here are the 5 ways you can enter. Please make each answer a separate comment so you earn another entry for each answer. Winners chosen at random. (There’s not too much traffic on this site, so I say your odds are pretty good!)
Contest will close at midnight on November 15th.
1: Follow The Original Drama Mama (see left sidebar). Leave a comment to let me know! If you already follow me, leave a comment saying so.
2: Visit Karen’s author site and check her books out. Leave a comment letting me know which one sounds like a book you’d like to read. (or if you have read some of her stuff before, leave a comment letting me know which one(s))
3: Leave a comment telling me about any book series you have ever followed, anxiously awaiting the next in the series to come out.
4: KMM is hosting a book release party in New Orleans…I’m hoping to go, since the husband and I had been considering a return trip there soon anyways to celebrate getting engaged there 10 (well, it will be 11 now) years ago. If you were to host a release party for a book, what city would you choose? Leave your answer in the comments!
5: If you had to choose one city to visit, which would it be: London, England; Dublin, Ireland; or Edinburgh, Scotland? Tell me your choice in the comments!
*I am not being compensated in anyway for hosting this giveaway. As a fan of Karen’s, I offered to pass out books, and all I got out of it was a box of books to pass out to lucky people like you 🙂
It’s noon on Halloween and I’m bichok in my bathrobe. It’s one of my nicer robes actually, and I had a wonderful hot shower this morning while the husband took care of the girls and emptied the dishwasher. (How’s THAT for a Halloween treat!?!?)
The bathrobe thing isn’t a costume, though I suppose frazzled mom who doesn’t have time to get dressed would make a great costume…no, I’m just waiting for my jeans to get out of the dryer. No costume for me this year, I’m gonna wear my Halloween t-shirt I bought on clearance from the circle store last year. It has a skull and bones on it and Lil’ G just loves it. Whenever I wear it she calls me “Pirate Mama.”
Anyways, in the next hour I need to be dressed and out the door with Daphne and Velma for some T-or-T time with the cousins, who live in the town next door where the trick or treating hours are completely different from ours. Then it’s back to the home digs to pass out candy and avoid dreaded tp-ing. The husband and I rotate shifts, so we each get to enjoy a little time with the girls.
But in a little less than twelve hours, after costumes, candy, cousins, friends, more candy, baths, bedtime stories, etc – when the clock strikes midnight tonight my NaNo 2010 journey shall begin.
I love this print of hers – I bought it as a keychain and hooked it to my netbook case. I also recently made it as a screensaver for my netbook for the month of November. I think it’s a nice little reminder.
If you like it, you can buy this as a print, a magnet, or a keychain over at Ms Aimee’s Etsy shop. She is offering free shipping on orders of $50 or more from now until New Year’s Eve.
*I don’t get any kind of kickback or whatever for posting this, I just love Ms Aimee’s stuff and wanted to share!
I’m super busy today – Miss A’s class Halloween party is this afternoon and I’m “in charge.” Of course, my crafty side went a little nuts and I probably took on more than I should have – but I think the results will be very cute. I’ll post them soon, you might find a new idea or two for next year (or even this Sunday if I get it up in time!)
At the moment though, Lil’ G is playing with a buddy so I wanted to take a second and share a few cool things with you. I’m not going to say that the “Friday Fast Five” will be a weekly feature, I’m just not that organized – but I will try to make it a fairly regular one.
This Friday’s Fast Five:
1: Bath & Body Works has a great coupon on-line for a free lip item (web code = FREELIP). I just LOVE their C.O. Bigelow mentha lip tints. They changed the packaging and I freaked, thinking the product was no longer available!
2. Paper Glitter, one of my favorite place for printable pretties, just released their free Fall/Thanksgiving set. It is awesome! AND FREE! Looking through it is sure to give you lots of crafty ideas for decorating fun. Like it? Let her know Drama Mama sent you. 🙂
3. Lil Lollipops Designs, the talented Mama who owns the Etsy shop customizing Lil G’s capelet, is hosting a giveaway for a vintage re-fab purse. Check it out here. I’ll be featuring Lil Lollipops as a Monday Muse here soon, and she has graciously offered to host a giveaway to go along with my post! So keep your eye out for that on a Monday soon.
4. Susanna Ives, author of the recently released Rakes & Radishes, clued me in to a fun website: The Toymaker. You need to check out all the funky FREE Halloween printables they offer! I had Miss A’s class do the Papel Picado flags for the Halloween party, hopefully I’ll get a chance to snap a few pics today and post that as well.
5. NaNoWriMo kicks off at midnight on Halloween night! If you’re thinking of giving it a try, please do! Here’s my NaNo author page, buddy up with me and I’ll race you to the finish line…my goal is 20 chapters, around 4k each…give or take. That’s 5 chapters a week. Nearly 3k words a day. No, I don’t think I’ll manage that daily word count, but I’m hoping to average it, if that makes sense.
Yes, I know it’s Wednesday and not Tuesday – to sorta explain, I really could have made a list: Top 10 Reasons I haven’t blogged since the last List It Tuesday, but nobody needs to hear me whine about being busy – it’s boring. And unattractive. And besides, at least half of the busy was good fun family busy.
So let’s pretend for a minute that it’s still Tuesday and proceed. First, from Miss Aimee, inventor of List It Tuesday we have an adorable blog button!
Now on to the list – a bit of a preface: on September 1st I swore off sugar. At least until my birthday (which is 9 months after Valentine’s Day…yeah it freaked me out the first time I did the math on that too, yikes!). I have been quite surprised and a little impressed by my willpower. Especially now during trick-or-treat season when the candy fairies are hard at work. So I decided to indulge my mental sweet tooth, and made a list of my TOP 10 Favorite Desserts…the funny thing is, it actually took me awhile to think of 10 things – some came right away, like lemon bars and strawberry rhubarb pie. But by dessert number 4 or 5 I was struggling to think of more sweets I REALLY liked. Well, here you go – the top 10 items I would find hard to walk away from at a dessert table. What’s your indulgent favorite?
A friend of mine’s husband is out of town for a couple of days, so after the kiddos went to bed she invited a few mamas over for wine and girl talk. I made this list late last night while sipping rhubarb wine (from Cooper’s Hawk of course) and talking shop (mostly kids, husbands, school) with 2 of my favorite ladies. They couldn’t help but chime in, one noting the old palindrome that Desserts = Stressed (ha-ha), and the other agreeing that chocolate chip cookies are impossible to resist, but only when they are still hot from the oven. After that, they hold zero appeal. And while one friend decided she was sucker for any dessert with nuts – I realized that I hate any kind of nut in a brownie, but prefer Hershey bars with almonds. It’s amazing the little things you discover about yourself when you make a list!
This morning, the friend who hosted the little get together last night sent me an e-mail; and in it she included a list of her own (this list thing is addictive I tell ya!)
top ten list of ways to finish out a day while the husband is OOT and kids are asleep
10. Fold Laundry
9. Clear a Hot Spot
8. Surf the Web or do emails
7. Suduko
6. Read the dark fantasy book from Melonie
5. P90x
4. Work on placemats for A’s Craft Show
3. Finish the Halloween Costumes
2. Talk with my MIL on phone
1. Share some wine with friends
I’ll have to ask her what she means by #9; and as for#6 – come back and visit me again this week, one of my favorite authors is releasing the fifth and final book in her Fever series, and as a way to promote the release, she has given some of her fans (that would be moi) a box of the first book in the series to pass out to whomever our little heart desires. I’ll be giving some copies away right here on my blog sometime soon – so stay tuned!
Melonie Johnson 
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