BAM!

No, not the Emeril sort of Bam. It's a different kind of BAM.




Easy Off BAM toilet bowl cleaner. I know...I HATE cleaning the toilet with a PASSION. This stuff is a God-send. Pour some in, and 10 minutes later you have a clean toilet. No scrubbing! Yay!!!

And that's the end of this commercial interruption. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Half Days!

Things are slow at work, so I offered to go half days. And they accepted! Hey, I've got stuff I could be doing. I'm only going to be working a few more weeks anyway. And getting paid for a half day is better than not getting paid at all!

The boss man said he appreciated my honesty (about it being slow and me having nothing to do). I thought "Well, you see, there are only so many websites I want to browse, and I can do all of that before 8am!"

So, I get to leave work at noon every day...except maybe next week, when people are on vacation. But so far, I LOVE it. Yesterday, I went home and took a 2 hour nap! My house is a disaster, but I slept great!

Well.

Standing in line at Babies R Us on Sunday, purchasing our car seat, stroller and diaper genie, I saw something I've never seen before. And probably never will again.

If you've been in a Babies R Us, you know there's a "mom's room" for women who need to take care of their babies. Feeding and such in a private area.

Apparently this mom missed the sign.

I understand it is legal to breastfeed in public.

But most women don't do it while they're walking through the store.

Without a blanket to cover themselves.

I honestly don't know if I'd even be coordinated enough to WALK while breastfeeding.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I was minding my own business, listening to a little Eric Church on the iPod, when I had to take my headphone out (ear buds...only one works) because I could hear half of a conversation. I work in a call center, and at first I thought the girl was yelling at a customer. Then I thought it was a bill collector, because she said "I should not have to take these calls at work!"

It was her mom. Pestering her about money. "I am writing the check for you right now. I don't have a stamp or an envelope, so I'll have to give it to you when I get home."

And the clincher?

"You know I forget. I have memory problems. All the drugs you had me on for 3 years, this is a result of that."

When she got off the phone, she said "Jesus Effing Mary And Joseph"

I'm in an office with a LOT of people. And you could tell they were all listening. It wasn't just me!

Wait...WHAT?

I saw this story today, and I could NOT believe my eyes.

I shit you not, this EXACT same thing happened last August. You'll find a reference to it here.

It's not weird enough that a truckload of onions spills onto the beltline TWICE in ONE year, but it was ALMOST THE SAME SPOT.

I will not forget the day in August '06, because I was stuck in it, trying to get to work to grab something for my boss before the biggest concert of the year. And I ended up going in a big freakin' circle because of the mess combined with construction.

It's not just me...this is weird, right?

She Could Be A Rock Star

So, Sunday was THE day.

No, not THAT day.

The day my cousin sang the national anthem at the Madison Mallards game.

I was so nervous ahead of time. I was shaking and my heart was beating like crazy. And that was before she even took the mound.

She started...but they didn't have the sound on. So she started again, and she blew me away.

I cried through the whole thing, I was so proud of her. And so happy that I'd been able to give her the opportunity.

I'm going to look into getting video of it, so you can see just what a Rock Star should sound like! :)

Who would YOU go to?

Sometimes using the shuffle feature on your iPod can open your eyes to things you didn't know existed. For example: a song from a CD released in 2001 that I think is the best I've heard in a while! From Gary Allan, I present to you, What Would Willie Do

I was lost in trouble and strife, I heard a voice and it changed my life
And now it's a brand new day, and I ain't afraid to say
You're not alone when you're down and out
And I think you know who I'm talking about
When I don't know how I'll get through
I ask myself what would Willie do
What would Willie do, well he'd travel so far with nothing but a song and his old guitar
And a tour bus and some semi-trucks, thirty crew men and a little bit of luck
Well he loves all the people, the ugly and the randy
If you don't believe me take a look at the family
And they'll tell you that it's true
When skies are gray what would Willie do
Well long ago he came unto us, his words were simple but they went right through us
And the whole world sang along, but then they didn't want to hear his songs
He was gone and we thought we'd lost him
But he grew his hair and he moved to Austin
And all of the people smiled, they came to hear him sing from miles
Like a miracle all those rednecks and hippies
From New York City down to Mississippi
Stood together and raised a brew
When it's all gone wrong what would Willie do
You know sometimes I wonder when I ain't gettin' nowhere
What would old Willie do when it all gets too much to bear
And I can see him on his lonely old tour bus
And he's got his problems just like any of us
Well he'd just take a deep breath and then he'd let it all go
And he'd take another deep breath and let it all go
And he'd take another deep breath...and he'd hold it
Ah and I bet he'd feel hungry in a way that seems strange
Yeah hungry for all the things that he just can't change
Like the time he passed out in is own bedroom
And his wife sewed him up in the sheets and beat him with a broom and he forgave her
And you think that's rough, well then the IRS came and they took away all of his stuff
They took his golf course and his recording studio, and he just went out and did another show
So when it's all coming down on you
You better ask yourself what would Willie do
What would Willie do, well he'd take a little time
And talk to old rooser as he'd drive on down the line
And there's millions down that road, and with a word he's gonna lighten their load
He loves all the people no matter their races
Hell he even had a hit country song with Julio Iglesias
And that ain't easy to do, so when it's all too much, what would Willie
When the game gets tough what would Willie
When they call your bluff what would Willie do

National Lampoon's Minneapolis Vacation

You know the scene in "Vacation" when the Griswold's end up lost in the ghetto?

It happens. One minute, you're in downtown Minneapolis. Then you go around the building, and you know there could be serious trouble. And I'm not just talking about the guy walking down the street that looked like a zombie. I'm talking about groups of people standing around looking scary, and a paddy wagon stopped in front of one of those groups., which happened to be in front of the Salvation Army. Thankfully, it was still light out and we were able to get out fast. We were able to laugh at it.

We laughed a LOT this weekend. We went to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood and it was the FUNNIEST THING EVER. We laughed for 2.5 hours straight, including the intermission. It was worth the 4.5 hour drive...and we're very excited they're going to be in Milwaukee in January. We figure since it's an improv show, seeing them more than once wouldn't be redundant.

Other than that show, dinner at the Loon Cafe, and the hotel we stayed at, Minneapolis was a disaster. The hotel was good because they give turn-down service to "club level" members. We got the club room because it included free room-service breakfast and "high speed" internet. We didn't know about the turn-down serivce though, so when we got back from the show and our bed was made and there were new towels and stuff, it was a bit freaky. My husband went to get ice and when he got to the machine he realized there was ice in the bucket already. We didn't know where it came from.

Anyway, I can not tell you how many times we got lost or turned around in that damn city. On Saturday it was funny. Street names include S 1st St and S 1st Ave. That's not confusing enough. But it was all laughable.

Sunday is a different story. I shit you not, it took us 2 F(*(ING hours to get out of Minneapolis. (I apologize to anyone reading this that enjoys MNPLS...I do NOT. I should have gotten better directions, I suppose). There are a lot of one-way streets in downtown Minneapolis. And when we got lost Saturday, we were seeing a lot of signs for the interstate. We couldn't find them today. We had looked at the map online before we left the hotel, and it looked plain to us. Hwy 55 runs into the interstate. Yes, 94W. We want to go east. And when we FINALLY (after a lot of searching) found an entrance to I94 East, it was under construction. Closed. Ok, there's a detour sign. Never fun, but it's got to take us where we need to be. So we're following this highway, and there's a detour 94E sign pointing up and to the right. So we took the exit. Realizing right away that there must have been another exit right under the bridge that was actually the detour. Shit. We have to get across the highway we were just on, get turned around, and back where we came from. Easy, right? Not so much. I swear to God, the side road ended with no way to get across the highway. We had to take some random way back because part of the side road was one-way, and we finally found our way back onto the highway and to the correct detour. We still have not found 94E, still detouring.

OOH! What's that? A sign for 94E. GET ON! We do that, and are determined to make it out of town without getting off the highway. But we really need gas, and the only places we've seen gas stations were really shady areas. We're trying to find something a little less scary. We see a BP, but we've passed the exit because there wasn't a big blue sign that said "GAS" on it. So we get off at this exit that has "attractions" on the big blue sign. No gas stations. We actually go BACK two exits to the BP. There's a guy washing windshields, and that creeps me out. D can't get the pump to work, so we decide to head across the street to the other gas station. Still not a great area, but dammit, we're down to about 20 miles until we're out of gas, and we haven't even made it to St. Paul yet. We get our gas, get back on 94E and GO GO GO.

Needless to say, it was a LONG day. I cried a little bit, but there was no yelling. I was very glad to know that we could get through that without yelling. A lot of times it would be each person blaming the other, even though it is NO ONE'S fault. We don't do that, and I consider myself very lucky for that.

We finally made it home, and I can tell you I will not be going back to Minneapolis. I'm pretty sure my husband won't be either.

EVER.