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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Gilly Hicks eye candy

The profit margin of the Gilly Hicks at the SouthCenter Mall probably went through the roof today.

Jennifer and I were returning my $14 underwear (they were supposed to be on the $1.90 special) when J looked up and whistled. Aside from the usual cute girl welcoming us to "Gilly Hicks, the cheeky cousin of Hollister" was a ripped 18-year-old man, with tight jeans and no shirt. Six pack abs, the rippling biceps, the works. He welcomed us too.

I started to drool. When I suggested I could take J's pic with him, she looked at me like I'd just suggested she run naked through the mall. Then I suggested she could take my picture with him, and I achieved the same result.

But the girl pack she hangs with had already broadcast the alert. She texted her best friend, Ashley, who had already heard about the eye candy guy from Hailey, who was in the store with her mom. We could never find them, since, if you've been in Gilly's you know it's a maze.

We exchanged the undies, and on the way out, he flashed us a grin and rippled his arms. A couple of girls who had casually looked over did a hard double take. Then they headed into the store. Ka ching.




Saturday, January 30, 2010

Guy friend chases away other hot guys

Jennifer jumped into the car and declared she was brittle (pissed) last week.

Her friend Adam,the one who slept on our couch a few times during x-mas, was grinning like the cat who swallowed the canary outside the Auburn High School gym.

"What's up?"

Apparently during the wrestling tourney that Auburn had against Graham-Kapowsin, a couple of the varsity guys started clustering around Jennifer like bees to honey, to use the trite phrase.

"They were hot, mom, totally hot! And Adam comes over and starts giving them the stink eye and asking what do they think they are doing, like he's my boyfriend." Which he's not.

The guys, quickly noting the alpha-dog syndrome, scatter, which leaves a grinning Adam and as I said, brittle Jennifer.

"Your dad probably has him on the payroll," I said, only half-kidding.





Lost countdown

Only three more days. And we're banning my hubby from the TV room when the new, and last season of Lost comes on. He's not allowed.



Finals over, but now we have a cold

I've taken the virtual finals this week for Chemistry 102, AP Lit, Trig, French 202, and History. And I think I've gotten As all around. My 4.0 is intact.

Oh wait, it was my daughter's finals that I've been stressing about all week. We've been up to midnight studying for these exams, and unfortunately, I know enough about all these subjects to be helpful, while Gary can go to bed with a clear concious. Well, forget about Trig; I've forgotten those formulas long ago, but the rest, yes. Nez pas?


Anyway, we promised ourselves that we'd sleep in until we got up, watch our favorite cooking show and only make a half-hearted attempt to clean house (although Gary's forgetting that promise), but it looks like Jennifer may now make us keep it, as she's sick with a cold- probably from all the stress.

So instead of grilling her on French questions and proofing her essays, now I'm ladeling OJ down her throat.




Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Macaroni, bleh

Jennifer loves cooking shows, Iron Chef esp. And she loves to cook, sometimes. And cleaning up? Never.

But after looking through a cook book, she took a wild hair to eschew Kraft's mac and cheese and make homemade macaroni. My hubby sniffed at the idea: "I like it from the box"

Great, we shot back. While you dine on that orange dye #2 stuff, we'll dine on haute cuisine made with real butter. Just like Julia would make it.

So off we went to the store to buy 3 kinds of cheese and heavy cream (not a Weight Watcher's recipe this one). And we got to work. The kitchen looked like a disaster when we were done. And since you had to make a roux of sorts, the stove was a mess. As we put the last few ingredients in, we stopped.

Nutmeg?

Yes, it called for a dash of nutmeg. So we took a pinch and threw it in, and popped it in the oven. 20 minutes later, the entire house smelled like we were baking eggnog. And it tasted like it too.

Since Gary had refused to eat the stuff on principle, he was in the TV room fixing a broken DirectTV box. So we did the rare thing of sitting at the table and eating a meat we'd cooked ourselves, from scratch. And it still tasted like eggnog. So we both grabbed for the salt and pepper about the same time and laid it on.

The taste was better, but not great. And certainly not worth all the work we put into this. Gary tried to be gracious, and told us, after deigning to eat it, that it wasn't that bad.

We knew he was lying. But we appreciated the effort.


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Boys suck, Part XXI

A tearful call about 4 pm.

"Mom, could you come get me, I've had an awful day."

Turns out, BF Lief dumped her. For about the 3rd time (I've lost count).

At any rate, she was moping, texting and studying in the bathroom (sez that's the place that she can think) for the rest of the evening.

About 10 pm, I was finishing up reading when I heard a small sniffle from the hall. So I decided to do the mom thing and see what was going on, wherein, she started sobbing in the bathroom.

"I just don't know why this always happens to me," she wailed.

Well, it happens to every girl, but when it happens to you, it feels like you're walking around with a big "dumped" sign flashing over your head.

And guys are intimidated by her - her strong personality and good looks make for a fierce combo. So sometimes I just think they dump before she gets tired of them.

But last night, laying on the spare room bed (where I had retreated when Gary snored me out of the bedroom again), with the cat kneeding at her feet, she cried, talked railed against guys and listened. This went on for about an hour, but I figured, how often does she turn to me? All her friends she usually would have cried with were asleep already.

And it didn't help when dad, frustrated his daughter was upsent, threatened to ground her if she texted this idiot again. Um, not the best move right this very minute dad.

Anyway, the day (night?) finally lightened when a former b-friend caught wind through text-ville that Jennifer was available again. He texted this morning. Things are brighter now.





Monday, January 25, 2010

Boys are stupid, Part XX

Jennifer had been fuming around the house of late, and so I took a deep breath and asked her what was bothering her - always an iffy task with a 16 year old.

"Boys...are...just...so....stupid," she fumed as she furiously slammed something into her phone text pad.

"I mean, you tell them you don't want to talk to them, and what do they do, THEY DON'T TALK OR TEXT YOU!" she said, almost shouting by now. Her dad takes a quick peek from the TV room, assesses the situation and then ducks out of sight.

"ANYONE, I MEAN ANYONE WITH BRAINS, would ask you what was wrong and try to fix it," she said, calming down a bit now.

She and her sometimes b-friend Leif had been texting...or not... most of the day. He hadn't texted her for a day, and then texted back, after she asked him where he was all day, that he was too busy to text and not to get her panties in a bunch about it.

Not a very wise move, especially when you've texted said girl's best friend during the same time you were supposedly too busy to text.

Guys never seem to get that girls talk.

"And it just doesn't get me about the texting and talking. They don't show their emotions, they dont' realize that it doesn't take much to patch things up, a word or a flower and they never can admit their wrong."

Well, says I, I'm not sure how much of that is going to get better as they grow older. Some, but not all.

But texting your BF when he doesn't text you, yeah, stupid.



Sunday, January 24, 2010

Food Network

It's always hard to get the remote out of my hubby's hand (no story here), but now, it's getting more difficult to wrest it from my daughter's control, as she's become obsessed with the Food Network. We're watching the Worst Cooks series now (literally, these guys can't boil water).

As an upside of this however, she's gaining more interest in cooking (wants to try a mac and cheese receipe that's not out of the box-my hubby is protesting this) and so maybe, just maybe, if I can't get her to clean the kitchen without nagging, I can get her to cook dinner. I'll gladly clean up.


Saturday, January 23, 2010

Losties unite! And my hubby ain't in the club

Jennifer and I were gleefully reading up on the upcoming , and last season of Lost, when a promo comes on the TV for our said favorite show.

"I don't know," says hubby. "This show has gone off the rails and it's just turned too weird."

"Just turned too weird? Heck inthe first episode they had the others, a smoke monster and a polar bear on a tropical isle. What part has gotten weirder than that? And besides you don't watch it consistently..you can't do that with this show," says I.

"When I do watch I can't understand it," he shoots back, not realizing that Jennifer and I aren't going to let him win this.

"When you watch it," Jennifer jumps in. "You can't do that with this show. You have to watch it get out."



Friday, January 22, 2010

Mom, come to the ball game

I thought about this and at first decided no, and Gary didn't seem to care.

But after a glare from my daughter, I gave up my me time and decided to go along and watch Auburn Boys b-ball beat KEntlake.

During the game, gary kept shouting at the ref. - about his calls, all unfair when against the Trojans. Some I agreed with, but some I just shook my head.

After the game, I told Jennifer she could accompany my loving hubby to the game next time and listen to it.

"Why do you think I want you to come?" says she sweetly.



Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mom, I'm walking to fred meyers

OK, OK, fine, I wasn't in the mood to questions this, since I was about 45 minutes late in getting to her anyway, and she was pissed. So it's about a block walk from her school to Freds, although by this time it was dark.

But when she told me how she'd gotten there, I about had a heart attack. It was literally through the river and the woods. Or more specifically, high school, through a skanky housing development, through a cemetery and then a community garden. In other words, all the must-see places for creeps to hang out.

She's reading The Lovely Bones. I had to ask as we headed to the safety of the cosmetic department "What were you thinking! Why didn't you just stay on the main drag?"

"There are weird people who talk to me on the main drag."

"Well, they won't talk to you on your route, true, they'll just pull you into a secluded lot and rape you."

I suddenly noticed the conversations in our aisle had gone strangely silent. OK, we'll talk about this later.





Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Mommy I don't feel good

Even at 16 that phrase still tugs at my heart.

However, my hubby didn't see it that way. He just dismissed it as her staying up too late one night to watch Gossip Girls.

"She's going to flunk her classes if she keeps this up."

Well, no she's not. She's a straight a student and got much better grades that Gary ever did. And if he wants to do the take-her-to-school duty and look in those eyes after she gets up (he's usually out the door just as she's getting out of the shower) he can. Until then, mom has the last say. And she's tivoing Gossip Girls next time.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mom, I just have to have these boots!

Boots - $40, marked down from $80 she pointed out. Think of all the $$ we're saving!

And that PacSun shirt, marked down to $19.99 from $30, wow, we've saved almost $50 already. Oh and that $7 charm marked down from $30 at Target, how can you say "no" to that.

Well, I did and I am.

Every payday, my family likes to go on splurges, out to dinner, movies and Jennifer likes to buy stuff..as much stuff as she can get away with. Unf. we pay for this by borrowing out of savings when the payday is still a few days away and the bank account is beginning to look awful thin.

I've had these lectures with both the kid and the hubby, since I run the accounts, that we have to monitor ourselves so this doesn't happen all the time. We'll NEVER get a holy shit fund built up, much less a car for Jennifer fund if we're constantly borrowing from it to buy all this shit.

They look appropriately downcast when I give them this 2x a month lecture, but then they always seem to find ways to buy the stuff anyway. So yes we have the $40 boots, the $19.99 top and the $7 charm now. And Gary bought $50 plus worth of orchids (but we'd planned for that) and yes I bought $30 worth of books and stuff for moi. But now the boots don't fit, (so I was dumpster diving for the receipt to take them back) and I think she's already lost the charm. And I'm almost through my book.

And it looks like we'll be having to borrow again this month out of the car account. The 29th seems like an awful long way off on the calendar.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Don't talk to strangers

Or guys that try to lure you into a corn field and show you a bunker they've built.

But Jennifer already knows that. She's reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, and came to me, noting that the girl, who is 14 in 1973 seemed awful naive. Well, I was 13 then, and yes, we were naive and innocent in ways that seem just silly now.

That was the time when my mom would tell me to beat it, with my best friend of course, and go out and play in the woods or the power line trails that criss crossed our land before it became built up with mini-chalets. And so we would, until dark. It never occurred to us that neighbors could be bad, or it would be unwise to go into their homes.

It even didn't occur to me in my early 20s, when I ran out of gas on I-5 coming home from a late-night city council meeting in Everett. Pondering what to do, as we didn't have cell phones then, a man pulls up, nice guy and offers a ride home, which I accepted. Yep, I did. And I made it home safely.

My daughter looks at me as I recount this story, which is now during the Ted Bundy era, as if I were nuts.

"Why would you do that? And why would your mom let you go off into the woods for hours. You won't even let me go around the block hardly."

No, alas, I wouldn't. The monsters were still in existance then, but alas, they hadn't made the headlines yet. We all thought "In Cold Blood" was frankly an embelishment by Truman Capote.

"Well, I would never do any of the stuff this girl did in the book."

Good. For once, no argument from me.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Peace Corps here I come

That was Jennifer's response when I told her her father wasn't thrilled with the idea, esp. after a local women (port orchard gal) was killed at an orphanage when the 7-story building collapsed.

"It's awful when young people go to these countries and that happens to them," he said.

I know. And I can't even imagine the parents' grief over this news.

"But you know, after college, your daughter wants to travel, wants to volunteers, and wants to join the Peace Corps."

"Hell no." he declared before he marched out the door.

Yeah, like that's going to work.

Boobs

Yeah, that's what we talked about on the way to school this am.

106.1 (KISS FM) was talking about boob jobs for some reason, and then they got into one person with diff. boob sizes, boob sweat and boob reductions.

My daughter, who is an "a" cup, couldn't stop laughing, and couldn't believe anyone would want to reduce the size of their breasts. Well, actually her great aunt did after it caused mucho back problems.

"Really, Auntie Joyce?" she said.

Auntie Joyce, as we all call her, just brushes at 5 feet, 1 inch, if that.

And my cousin terri prob. would have a breast reduction if she could afford. Large breasts did not trend on my mom's side of the family however.

As for boob sweat, it rarely gets above 100 degrees in seattle, and we don't have that problem when it does.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

From mom "where are you?" to "can you wait a bit"

She wants to watch a b-ball game and isn't interested in being picked up just now, or even an hour from now.

I guess I'll take this over the usually pissed off "where are you!" comment when I usually leave for work.

I can't wait until she gets a car, and surprise, surprise, she doesn't care if it's a stick anymore.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Still haven't seen avatar yet.

Because Jennifer keeps wanting NOT to see it so she can see it with her boyfriend of the hour.

That happened last night, again, so we ended up with The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

About 5 minutes into the film, she turns to me and hisses "what type of weird-ass film did you bring me to?"

But actually, by the end, she wasn't grumpy anymore. The film, heath ledger's last, worked for me, and Jennifer too. The on the other side of the looking glass scenes were shot by his friends playing heath, including Johnny Depp and Jude Law. Oh, and Colin Farrell.

It works.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Does this shirt look okay?

This question was coming from my hubby this am, as he had a blue shirt with faint tan stripes through it and tan pants.

I said sure.

He kept fussing by the mirror.

"I don't think so."

"It looks fine," says I as I try to get an age spot to vanish on my face.

"Jennifer, what do you think?" he asked.

She pops her head around the corner and declares it a fashion disaster.

So Gary goes off to immediately change. So much for my opinion.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Wash that (*& dish...please

My hubby and i don't agree on chores.

I think regardless of homework, unless it's finals time, she should clean up the dishes, all the dishes, w/o help. And clean up her room and bathroom every week. And pick up her darn clothes every day, instead of leaving them piled in her room, or in the the middle of the bathroom floor.

But I'm really a stickler on the dishes. Probably because I did the dishes when I was a kid and I don't remember my parents ever giving me an excuse to get out of that, unless I was sick and flat on my back. I also mowed the lawn, cleaned out the catbox, cleaned my room and weeded the garden (s) as a matter or course. And also worked at Taco Time after school.

I know Gary did the same drill.

However, with Jennifer, he's a softy, and will often do the dishes for her every night. I'm more stubborn, as 2 pots and pans that are in the sink now attest to.

she says she'll do them, but she never does. Gary says its more important for him to have her get her homework done, or ahead on her homework than get those dishes done. I agree, it is more important, BUT when I know she spent a half hour on her nails last night (she came and showed them to me) and the dishes still didn't get done...well, you see my point.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Mom we need to stop at the store

"We just stopped at the store yesterday, and dropped about $120 in groceries for the week."

"Well, I need some hangers for my new poster, and dad and I just want something like."

"Why couldn't you have decided this yesterday? "

"Jeeze mom, cool out. You don't have to be so grumpy."

"Yes, in fact, I do."

I pointed out that every time we drop by,it's another $50 drain on the checking account. And they whine when I tell them there's no $$ left until payday.

She tossed her head at this and said I was overstating things.

But after the grocery bill came to $45.27, she was quiet.

"I guess you're right."

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Ah quiet

I know Gary and Jennifer don't like it when I do this, but I've successfully kicked both of them out of the house, so I can the x-mas tree in peace. Ahhh, how nice.