This afternoon, my girls and I drove out to Beavercreek for Krystal’s baby shower. Krystal is the daughter of Brenda — my best friend from high school, my roommate at a couple different points in time, and the “auntie” of my daughters. When Krystal & my eldest daughter were very small, Krystal called me “Auntie Mommy” and Angst (Andrea) called Brenda “Auntie Mommy.” Since Krystal let everyone know she’s having a girl, there was a lot of pink at the shower! She’s naming the baby Athena, which is a name I really like but I hope the baby can live up to it.

Lots of pictures were taken…

And now for something completely TMI…

It’s been a while since I posted gobs of piccies. So here we go…

Here’s my girls (a pic from earlier this month that I forgot to upload until today — before they traded hair colors!)…you can see why Angst calls Anxiety her “big little sister”:

And now for something completely TMI…

The World’s Best Ex and I were out smoking on my back patio, doing out best to ignore the screaming and so forth issuing from the sports field next door (my side yard borders the back of a high school). Apparently the teenagers are having a football game. Oh joy, oh rapture.

Then I heard something really atrocious — the wailing of an electric guitar along with the screaming teenagers. For the first several seconds, I thought perhaps a neighbor with a garage band had hooked up an amplifier and was broadcasting their annoyance at the noise coming from the football field. The guitar seemed to be playing something vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“What the hell is that?” I asked Robert, who I noticed looked just as annoyed.

“Sounds like Jimi Hendrix,” he answered. “Probably the most famous guitar version of the National Anthem.”

Horrible. Just horrible. If that slaughter of The Star-Spangled Banner is any example of his guitar-playing, it’s no wonder I can’t stand Hendrix.

(At least there’s some good news: only 8 days left until third season of BSG!)

Sounds like a whole lot of fun is cooking up in England for my beloved’s birthday! A group in London is holding a day of discussions and an evening of dancing that they call Polyday.

Since I can’t just meander on over the pond, I’ll be spending that evening with my beloved, celebrating his birthday with a romantic dinner for two at Kell’s (whose new website is very spiffy).

I guess we’ll have to get to London for Polyday some other year.

Aside from the cats, it’s been pretty peaceful at my place. Sunday afternoon, I had to drive out to the middle of nowhere (Estacada, OR) to deliver my demonspawn to the annual school fall camping festivities. For just shy of 48 hours, Anxiety gets to spend every waking moment with teachers in the great outdoors. What a beautiful thing. *smirk*

Despite the fact that it’s been 3 years since my last SCA event, it was still very strange driving out into the countryside while not wearing a corset, in a car that wasn’t overflowing with camping stuff. The Redheaded Stepchild rode along with us, since her family is temporarily car-less. Lemme tell ya, an hour in the company of two 14-year-olds is about my max tolerance these days (which is why I don’t volunteer for these school things!). But it did remind me of one of the reasons we have children: they laugh themselves silly at your ancient jokes. It was actually a pretty amusing trip.

And now for something completely TMI…

You’ve been awake all night because of out-of-control rabid insomnia. Just when you think you might be drowsy enough to drift off, and seriously contemplate the climb upstairs to nap, you realize…

All 3 of your cats have decided to embark upon a rousing round of “Thundering Wildebeests of the Serengeti” throughout the entire house.

The squirrels in the trees right outside your patio seem to be slam-dancing from branch to branch.

The fuq’ing chickens in the next yard over are attempting to sing Wagner’s The Ring Cycle.

The marching band of the high school that borders your side yard have decided to hold band practice at 8 am — but only the percussion section, so it’s dozens of teenagers playing kettle drums & snare drums & bad rhythms, oh my!

Guess I’ll dink around with the new Vox blog & see what I can make it do…

When I heard about the local guy — identified in court papers only as ”M.H.” — who filed a lawsuit seeking $2 million for misuse of his sperm, I thought it was a joke.

Dude, Brad Pitt’s sperm isn’t worth two freaking million bucks — so yours sure as hell isn’t! (Somebody’s sure got a huge ego…and I think his initials are ”M.H.”)

And now for something completely TMI…

My Number One Internet Fanboy and I firmly believe in the old Dr. Ruth maxim, “It’s terrific to laugh in bed — as long as you don’t point and giggle!” We actually do a lot of laughing in bed, in all the good ways.

(So do Geoffrey and I — laughter has now become one of my high-priority requirements in a romance. If you aren’t regularly laughing with someone, why would you want to stay with them?!)

Tonight, I was giving Karel a bit of a rubdown, trying to help get rid of some of his aches & stress, and he didn’t even mind that I had only “girly-scented” skin cream on hand. As I worked on his hips & tushie, a vaguely-deranged thought popped into my mind. I had to share it, so I told him, “I just had this crazy thought that I should make a t-shirt for you, as a gag gift, that says, ‘Ask me about Lil’s butt-rubs!’”

Bless his twisted sense of humor, his reply was, “Or, ‘I got my ass creamed at Lil’s!’”

Damn near hurt myself laughing!

And now for something completely TMI…

When Shannon commented on a prior blog post of mine, saying I should put an ad in one of the local papers, I just sort of giggled and thought it was a cute idea.

Then tonight, I remembered Craigslist. Mwa ha ha ha! That post is now up on Craigslist, almost word-for-word. (The ad will only be up for a week, so it doesn’t make much sense to link it, but you can find it under “misc romance” in the personals. For the next week, anyway…although I might just post it again sometime.)

And Mari, you & Geoffrey should definitely have a movie night!

It’s cold and rainy. Yup, it’s autumn in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I actually turned on the heat today, for the first time in over 4 months. The autumnal equinox is less than 48 hours away — Sept. 23rd at 4:03 am UTC, which is Sept. 22nd at 8:03 pm my time. (It also happens to be the 6th anniversary of mine & Geoffrey’s handfasting! Yes, we celebrate a lot of anniversaries — we started dating in July 1999, moved in together Yule 1999, got handfasted Mabon 2000, and registered as domestic partners Beltane 2002.)

The cats are somewhat less inclined to dash out the door when they know it’s raining out there. The kitten, however, hasn’t experienced rain up close & personal yet! Our little Michiko is 5 months old now — but still small enough to be comfortably held by a six-year-old (in this case, my goddaughter Rissa):

And now for something completely TMI…