For the Ladies.......

OK, since Wyatt is not able to accomodate the ladies properly today, I've taken matters into my own hands. (Wait, that doesn't sound good). Anyhoo, feast your eyes, ladies....

Ventilation X (Warning - Do not try these stunts at home, kiddies)

You have probably not heard about Ventilation X. Ventilation X is a group of young guys, of which Number One Son (first on the left in the Love pic) is a member, who participate in some extreme sports - skateboarding, breakdancing and parkour. The guys were featured on the cover of Philadelphia Weekly in late 2006, and were also shown in the Faces of 2006 edition. Here is a copy of the Article if you want to check it out.

CBS Eyewitness News is doing a piece tonight on the 11:00 PM news about them. If you are watching tonight's Phillies game against Washington, you may have noticed the clips of the boys that the network is running as a promo to tonight's news spot. The network is calling what they do 'Thrill Jumping'. It can be dangerous, and the stunts should not be attempted by anyone who is inexperienced or unfamiliar with the territory in which they are practicing. Under no circumstances should younger children be encouraged to do this.

The boys have been to the Sundance Film Festival, and are submitting their movie, XYZ, for 2008. They have traveled up and down the East coast to film in major cities like Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Miami, and Philly of course. The team is also involved in the Paine’s Park Project.

They are good kids and we are really proud of them.

Friends

We hosted a Get Together last weekend here, and invited all of the people that we've been trying to get together with over the last two years. It's very hard to fit dinner plans, or entertainment, into all of our everyday lives for some reason. Some of the folks invited were a couple of Grimjack's high school friends, our siblings and partners, kids, and the rest were friends from our last place of employment. Oh, and the Deathlok family was here as well. Deathlok is Little Grim's godfather, and Grimjack's cousin.

Grimjack will admit that he is not good at pinning someone down for plans, and if you have a few friends that are similar, forget it - you'll never see them.

We have only one couple that we see regularly, about every two months, for dinner. We see them because Bonnie and I will make the plans, and then tell our husbands when we are getting together. Pretty simple. Then we decide the week before dinner where we will go. We try to go to a different restaurant each time. I've known Bonnie for years, we worked together. Her and her family helped me a great deal during my divorce and the couple of years after. So we've been friends for a long time. They actually did not make it to the party due to other plans, but I know we'll see them soon, so no big deal.

Another couple that we had hoped we would see, did not show up. The Mister called Dave and left him a message to see if they were coming. No callback. So the Mister was a little bummed that we didn't hear from them. It turns out they never got the invitation. Another school friend happened to run into them the day before the party and said, 'See you tomorrow night', and Dave had no idea what they were talking about. So Dave didn't want to show up at the party, thinking they hadn't been invited, and we didn't know why they just didn't show up. They didn't get the voicemail until Monday. So now we know it was just a big misunderstanding, and it will probably take us two more years to see them.

It was great to see everyone and I think a good time was had by all, partly due to Deathlok's Mai Tai's. It's tough to have a good conversation with someone when you are in a large crowd, so we got to talk to everyone, but not as much as I would have liked. Kind of like our wedding.

Grimjack keeps in touch with a group of his high school friends, and we go out for 'Winter Dinner' each year. Someone organizes and coordinates the dinner, and whoever is available meets at a different restaurant each year.

I didn't keep in touch with the friends I had in high school. I don't really know why. I've never been to any of my high school reunions, so I didn't have that opportunity to reconnect. I don't know that I ever had a big desire to reconnect or I guess I would have made some effort to remain in touch. Ironically, Little Grim started her new preschool a few weeks ago, and I discovered at the Open House that her teacher was none other than one of my better friends from high school that I haven't seen probably since 1979. It was strange seeing her. I can't remember when we stopped hanging out together, or why. So now I see her two days a week. Now I wish I had stayed in touch with my best friend Ellen, so I could call her and say "You will never believe who Kara's new teacher is!".

Joke of the Week

DIVORCE VS. MURDER

A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes,and said, 'I would like to buy some cyanide.'

The pharmacist asked, 'Why in the world do you need cyanide?'

The lady replied, 'I need it to poison my husband.

'The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, 'Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!'

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife. The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, 'Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription.'

Pimping

SPOT THE SOLDIER

I picked up this awesome picture from The British Bird. Stop by and give her a look.

Also, thanks to Grimjack, Wyatt, Deathlok, RT, Loving Annie, Jeffro, Scully and USA_Admiral for adding me to your blogrolls. I'm sorry if I missed anyone, I may not have noticed the link yet.

And special thanks to Grimjack for teaching me how to do these links.

Questionable Post, Part 2

RT had a post titled Questionable Post tonight, that made me feel slightly reminiscent of my high school days, mostly because of her song choice (Slow Ride by Foghat). In a roundabout way, it reminded me of an incident that happened with 17-year-old Number One Son this summer.

Grimjack and I go away once a year without kids, for our anniversary weekend in July. This year, we headed to the Poconos. Yes, we did the tacky resort with the red heart-shaped whirlpool tub surrounded by mirrors, which was very fun. The tub at home is too small to adequately soak in, so it was a treat for me. But anyway, during the week before we left, I needed a bag to pack my stuff in, so I grabbed the duffle bag the Number One Son usually uses when he travels. He and his posse travelled a lot this summer making their movie, but that's a story for another post. So I start to pack and noticed that there was something in the smaller front pocket of the bag. I unzipped the pocket, and lo and behold, found a half dozen condoms. So now I had a predicament - how do I handle this knowledge, besides being grossed out that my son might be having sex?

So I checked with his older sisters, who usually know things before I do. They didn't know anything, and were also grossed out. This is their little brother, after all, even though is is about 6' 3" tall now. So I needed a way to let him know I found them, without alienating him. So, what I did was, at the suggestion of one of his sisters, was to get a Sharpie permanent marker, and write "I love my mom" on every condom wrapper, on both sides.

So if or when he does go to use them, he will know I know. And hopefully that will kill the mood. Isn't being a parent fun?

Our trash is someone else's Treasure?

It's time for the annual De-cluttering of the Grim household, better known as Yard Sale weekend. The goal is to drag as much junk as we can to Grimjack's parents' house, in the hopes that we will drag less of it home at the end of the day. Although the parking is less than ideal there, there is a little more traffic going through their street. So this week I will be concentrating on sorting through toys (in Little Grim's absence, of course), baby items, movies, books and household items to sell. I made the mistake of mentioning that I was planning to sell the Winnie the Pooh crib bedding set, and Little Grim started to cry and said that I couldn't sell her blanket. That is why I need to sort through her things when she is not here, otherwise, we will not unload anything.

What I find interesting about yard sales is that no matter what price you have something marked, someone wants to offer you less. I swear I had a couple of little things marked 10 cents one year, and someone asked if I would take a nickel. When I go to yard sales or flea markets, I usually just pay what the item is marked. If it's unreasonable, I just won't buy it. I don't think 10 cents is an unreasonable price for pretty much anything. You can't find things for 10 cents in a store, except for maybe a single Tootsie Roll or piece of gum.

Our new neighbors had a yard sale recently, and we came away with a whole bedding set for Little Grim's new big bed, for $10. Disney Lion King Pillow case, 2 sheets, and comforter. Since she has about a dozen Lion King stuffed animals, it was perfect. That to me is a bargain, since I probably would have paid 4 times that in a store. We also paid 2 dollars for a play Kittie Grooming kit, that had a battery powered 'working' blow dryer and about a dozen other accessories to 'groom' stuffed animals. That purchase has given Little Grim unlimited hours of fun. The neighbor threw in a little Dora clubhouse for free.

We are advertising in the local paper, and putting up signs. If anyone has any tips and ideas to have a more successful sale, please let me know. I'd hate to have to drag 12,000 pounds of stuff back here that night.