30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 5 - My Best Friend

Oh dear...I have to draw my best friend.  Cris, I'm sorry! Hahahahaha!

 Tomorrow I get a day off from drawing...and you get a day off from looking at it!

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 4 - Favorite Place

Well...my favorite place is Miami! And no it's not just because it's relatively easy to draw! It's home :)

Wow, that's bad! Clearly, not so easy to draw after all!

Hahahahahaha...

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 3 - Favorite Food

Food? They want me to draw food?  It's hard enough to figure out what my favorite food is, let alone draw it. Today, I'll say Sushi.

Mmmm...sushi....

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 2 - Favorite Animal

So how did Day 1 work for you? Staggering genius - I know! Well today's is my favorite animal, haha. Any of you who have played Pictionary with me know that in my art work all animals look exactly alike, except for an occasional hump if it's a camel.


Day 2 - "Favorite Animal"

See? Told you!

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 1 - Myself

OK...let's see how this goes...I so can't draw! And I'm doing this using MS Paint. 

Nothing good can come of this...

Day One - "Myself"

Happy Birthday David Cassidy!

image source

Can you believe he's 59 today? That is just so wrong! He still looks great!

But still...Happy Birthday David (sigh)!

The Leader of the Band

As some of you know my husband and I spent a week in the Philadelphia area for my Hubby's baby sister's wedding. As some of you also know, we've had a rough couple of months after my husband's illness and hospitalization - for a while it looked like we might not be able to make it to the wedding!

Because of this, and maybe because I've been more introspective than usual for who knows what reason, several things during the wedding and its preparations caught my attention and I'll probably write about them periodically.

Today I'm writing about the Father-Daughter dance at the wedding. First a little background about my father-in-law. He - like Hubby's entire family - is a musician. He's also a retired music teacher. Throughout his career he taught all ages and directed school bands and chorales, and even today he is the choir director at his church. In short, he's always been, in one way or another, the "Leader of the Band"., which is the song my SIL chose for the father-daughter dance.

Besides being a talented musician and beloved teacher, my FIL is one of the kindest men I know. He welcomed me into his family from day one, and has always made me feel loved and cared for, I am very, very lucky. Yet another reason the song choice was perfect!

As for the dance itself, it was beautiful but I can't fathom how SIL managed to not bawl her eyes out! I am so impressed by people who can do that. I of course was crying like the dork I am along with a bunch of other people, but FIL and SIL kept it together, although I think FIL got a little misty...it was, after all, his little girl, his only daughter.

I don't know how my SIL came to choose this song, as it was popular when she was very young, but it is really apropos for FIL and the family since all of them are musicians and music is such an important part of thier lives.

It is one of my all-time favorite songs by one of my all-time favorite singers, Dan Fogelberg. Because the words are so beautiful, I wanted to share them with you, and wish that you all have at least one "leader of the band" in your life.


Leader of the Band
Dan Fogelberg

An only child
Alone and wild
A cabinet makers son
His hands were meant
For different work
And his heart was known
To none --
He left his home
And went his lone
And solitary way
And he gave to me
A gift I know I never
Can repay

A quiet man of music
Denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once
But his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love
Through discipline
A thundering, velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand.

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through
My instrument
And his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy
To the leader of the band.

My brothers lives were
Different
For they heard another call
One went to Chicago
And the other to St. Paul
And I'm in Colorado
When I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life Ive chose
And come to know so well.

I thank you for the music
And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go --
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And, papa, I don't think I
Said I love you near enough --

The leader of the band is tired
And his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through
My instrument
And his song is in my soul --
My life has been a poor attempt
To imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy
To the leader of the band
I am the living legacy
To the leader of the band.

At my wedding my father-daughter song was "Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong - what was yours?

Election Night

Yesterday I posted my emotions about Obama's election as President of the U.S. Today I'll tell you about how my night went.

First of all I was a wreck! Actually I had been nervous all day at work just itching to get home and start watching the news. I started watching CNN at around 6 p.m. Then, when CNN announced their first results - they had returns from 1% of Kentucky and McCain was winning! WHAT? I freaked! Seriously, my heart started racing and I was hyperventilating a little. I had just finished eating a delicious dinner Hubby made and I almost lost it.

Hubby looked at me and told me to go take a pill. When I told him I didn't have that kind of pill, he told me to find one. Mind you this was before 8:00 p.m. EST. He said there was no way I would make it through the night at the rate.

Then the stomach cramps started - hello IBS.

We watched CNN all night. Did you see all the cool gadgets and gizmos they had? The new and improved magic map, the exit poll virtual drawers, and the hologram thingy, we got to see a hologram of singer will.i.am! Actually, it looked exactly like the scene in "Star Wars" when R2D2 projected Princess Leia's hologram message to Obi Wan Kenobi! CNN also had an election thingy online where you could customize a page to track races in which you were interested, and they had an interactive map thingy where you could follow along as the results came in - fun!

Occasionally, as Obama's victory was becoming more and more of a sure thing, we'd flip over to Fox News to see if they were committing hara kiri or if their heads were exploding, alas - none of that.

We stayed up until around 3 a.m. We were too wired to go to sleep I guess. Or maybe we just didn't want the wonderful night to end...

The Dictionary Game!

Like me, my in-laws love playing games - board games and the like. Among our favorites is a game we call "The Dictionary Game" but which is the same as Fictionary. So we played it the other night and my mother-in-law came up with a doozy of a word! Let's see how you do...

The word is: floccinaucinihilipilification.

I'll give you four definitions - three that we made up along with the actual definition - and you have to tell me which one you think is correct in my comment - DON'T CHEAT! I'll reveal the correct answer on the Friday shuffle.

OK, here are the definitions:

1. The process of getting pox-like lesions on the skin after encountering a fablieaux scent of indescribable hoodoo in the men's room.
2. A process used by hyptonists to help patients suffering from spelling bee nightmares
3. The act of making something appear to be worthless by deprecation
4. That which occurs when flocks of domesticated animals are herded uphill in order to avoid their wool from pilling when they are sheared

Now wasn't that fun? Yep - wild and crazy times at the Mindwobbles' house!

Why I Would Make a Sucky Polygamist Wife (alternate title: Why Not to Eat Leftover Shrimp Pad Thai with Extra Peanut Sauce after Midnight)

[WARNING: This is going to be a "what I dreamt last night" post, so if you don't like those you should probably "walk on by-y-y-y" (shout out to my girl Dionne!). However, before you leave you might want to consider that the post will include, among other things, Jennifer Love Hewitt and jarring fruit (talk about key word search combination!), just so you know.]

[[DISCLAIMER: This is in no way meant to criticize or mock people who choose a polygamous life-style, as long as everyone is consenting I'm cool with that. It's all about me. Really.]]

So I'm sleeping, minding my own business, when my damned brain decides to make up a dream, where Hubby and I, along with a lot of other people have apparently decided to become Polygamists and live in a Compound. Not a scary, creepy compound like the one that has been in the news lately - ours is really nice and modern and I didn't notice any kids, but then again, that happens to me frequently anyway.

We come in mid-story where Hubby has taken on Jennifer Love Hewitt (JLH) as a second wife. See, JLH is one of Hubby's real-life-never gonna-happen lust objects, and frankly why wouldn't she be - she's adorable, right? So we're in our beautiful polygamist compound house and Hubby is "with" JLH while I'm in our state-of-the-art equipped kitchen attempting to jar peaches to store for, I don't know, the Apocalypse? Whatever, the point is, I of course, suck at it because HELLO!, it's *jarring fruit* - that counts as a craft in my book and I'm not frickin' frackin' crafty!

So while I'm wrestling with the jarring machine (there is a machine for that right? Well, in my dreamworld there is, it's big) and getting all sticky, my best friend Purplepassion (did I mention some of you, my Blogging buddies, are in this dream? Well you are.) walks in - ostensibly to make sure I don't kill myself or the peaches, because well, she knows me.

As she's wiping peach goo off of my super beautiful counter top, she tells me that JLH was mentioned in the Polygamist Gazette because she had sold some ridiculous amount of tickets for the Annual Polygamist raffle or carnival or something. To which I replied "Of course she did!" all snarky and bitchy and sarcastic, like you know I can be. She looked up at me and asked if I was OK, and I said no. I'm an only child - I don't *do* sharing all that well.

So we took a break from the peach torturing jarring (is that the term?) to go out and sit on one of the beautiful Polygamist Compound front porches. When we get there we run into newly Polygamisted Poppymom and DixiePeach (I've never physically met them, but we've known each other virtually for years) who are sitting there knitting, and Purplepassion begins to knit too. Meanwhile I sit there, sniffling and looking at my beautiful cuticles (they have a mani-pedi service at the Polygamist Compound) because HELLO!, knitting is a craft and I'm not crafty dammit!

Poppy, who had apparently just arrived, looks at me and asks me if Hubby had taken on a second wife? I said yes, and they all came and comforted me, by giving me ice-cold Coca Cola in a frosted glass. Then Poppy told me that she had read about it, again in the Polygamist Gazette, and that now that he had a second wife Hubby was highly respected in the community. To which I responded in my dream, I swear I'm not making this up, "Well la-di-frickin-da! "

That's the last thing I remember before Hubby woke me up to start our road trip to Naples.

The morals of the story so that this doesn't happen to you:

• Don't eat leftover shrimp pad thai with extra peanut sauce after midnight


• Don't pause your TV during Jennifer Love Hewitt's bra commercial because you have to do something else for a few minutes and you don't want to miss any part of the show that comes back on right after JLH's commercial


• Continue avoiding the polygamist story on the news

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Charlie and Lola

Not too long ago between 10 and 11 a.m. I would DVR The View, now my DVR is recording Charlie and Lola every day at 10:30 a.m. The thing is, "Charlie and Lola" is on the Playhouse Disney channel, whose target audience is pre-schoolers. Despite how the ladies on "The View" behave sometimes, that is quite different than "The View's" demographic. I'll be 45 in July. Do you see the disconnect?

"Charlie and Lola" is adorable. The other day I was watching the show, and Hubby was watching me watch the show, and he told me I was smiling ear to ear! What's up with that? I think it's a the beautiful animation - a combination of cartoons, collage, regular photography, etc., and...the giggling.

Lola is 4 years old, and Charlie is 7 and they and their friends giggle a lot. The program uses real children for the voices - there are few things that make me smile as much as the sound of children giggling, that full-throttle giggle they outgrow all too soon.

I challenge you to go to www.charlieandlola.com watch one of the clips (with the sound turned up) and not smile!

Is it ridiculous that I'm watching this? Probably, but I don't care...I'm just going to go drink my pink milk through my swirly straw and watch my very favoritest show!

Happy Birthday David Cassidy!

OK, fine! He may be turning 58 today - is that possible? - but in my mind's eye he looks like the picture above!

Every year on April 12th, I remember his birthday. That isn't weird is it?

It's Super Tuesday People! Either Way We're In Good Hands

OK, I am in Political-Wonk-Geek heaven. I can't wait to get home and plunk myself in front of the TV to watch tonight's Super Tuesday fabulosity!

My primary source of information will be CNN's "best political team on television" (as Wolf Blitzer repeats ad nauseum). I will be watching my boyfriend Anderson Cooper. My backup will be ABC, with my ex-boyfriend George Stephanopoulos.

I love the picture of Barack and Hillary (above), it shows that despite all the bickering, they like each other. Regardless of who turns out to be the Democratic nominee, which may or may not be determined tonight, I am confident that we're in good hands.

I have my opinion as to who is more electable against the potential Republican candidates, but it varies on who the Republican candidate turns out to be. That's for another post.

Today I revel in wonk wonderland...

WOO HOO! "The Complete Jane Austen" on PBS!

Yes, I am that much of a geek that I'm excited about this! Click on the picture above, or on the picture of Jane Austen on my sidebar for details. Every Sunday beginning this Sunday (January 13th) they will be airing the BBC versions of Austen's major novels.

I've seen, own and am mildly obsessed with the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice . With all due respect to the plethora of other versions of this classic - I think the BBC's is the definitive version. Why? Because, really who is a better Mr. Darcy than Colin Firth ?

OK, I'll say it - I think Firth is a better Mr. Darcy than Laurence Olivier (gasp!).

So watch it - you won't regret it!

Happy Birthday David!

No, not *my* David - my *other* David...David Cassidy!

Can you believe David Cassidy turns 57 today? 57!!!

While I think he still looks great, in my mind (and heart) he'll always look like this:

Come on every body, sing along for David...

"Hello world, here's a song that we're singing...come on get happeeeeeee! A whole lotta of lovin' is what we'll be bringin' to make you happeeeee....!"

(I even wrote this post in purple because that's his favorite color - tee hee!)