Archive for September, 2009

A Bumpit Poll

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Ok … I’m not really as obsessed with the Bumpit as it would seem. BUT … when I was posted the pic of myself in the last post, I got to thinking …

Bumpit? …

Or no Bumpit? …

The ‘dos are a little different … curly vs. sort of not curly, freshly highlighted vs. kinda due for a visit with Ms. Amy … and I definitely spent a little more time primping for the reunion than I did for work yesterday morning (truth be told … I did my makeup in the office … a little trick I learned from one of my favorite client contacts :) ).

Regardless, what do you think? (And please … if you don’t mind … vote by leaving a reply below, rather than on Facebook … I love your comments there, but for this, I’d like to have them permanently captured here on the blog … thanks!)

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Avoiding a Bad Bumpit

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

D. and the seven other guys I joined for the Mizzou Arch Rivalry game (37-9 Mizzou, thank you!), would have cringed to know I spent a good part of the game preoccupied with the bad Bumpit ‘do in the row right in front of us. I even faked taking pics of a “really important” play to get a shot of the faux pas …

People with thin hair have to be extra careful, but I imagine this could happen to anyone. Extra teasing, careful hair arranging and a slight backbend while checking out your ‘do in the mirror will go along way in avoiding this.

I “backbend-ed” in a few angles this morning to make certain I was good. And then proceeded to ask a few close female coworkers if they could see it (I kind of think pointing out the bad Bumpit should be a civic duty much like coming clean if someone has broccoli in their teeth!)

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What’s Spit Worth These Days?: I Hope Imo’s Is About to Find Out

Monday, September 21st, 2009

On Monday, Shar and I ordered Imo’s Pizza for lunch delivery. The lunch specials come with a drink, but when the delivery guy arrived … no drinks. Mom wanted to at least call the manager and let him know. The delivery guy had been having some issues so the manager sent him back with the drinks.

I had a feeling and peeked in my tea when it arrived. There was still ice and nothing looked terribly amiss. However, when I got back to my office and opened the lid to add Splenda, the ice had melted and it was clear that tea wasn’t the only thing in my cup. I walked up to tell mom, but didn’t made it in time … she had taken a few drinks. And when I looked in her cup … her diet had too been spit in. She’d just drank the spit of the Imo’s employee.

Not only is it horrifically disgusting that she drank someone’s spit, it’s also a little scary. Here’s a list of diseases that can be spread via saliva:
Swine flu (!!!!!!!!!!)
Common cold
Infectious mononucleosis
Tonsillitis
Mumps

I called the manager who was fairly apologetic, but a little doubtful. I suggested he take a look and he sent someone to pick up the drinks. I received a phone call about an hour later. He admitted I was right by saying, “I looked in the drinks and I don’t like what I see.” He said they had a zero tolerance policy and that he was going to call the district manager and get back to me. About an hour after that I received a call from the district manager telling me he agreed the drinks had been tampered with. The driver had been fired and they would send us gift certificates.

At the time, I thought they had done a fair job of handling the situation so I’d only posted a few “eeew” comments on Facebook, but the gift certificates came Friday and I got fired up all over again. The going price for spit in drinks these days is … a measly $10.

One $10 gift card for me and one for Shar, who’d actually drank the disgusting spit. Seriously Imo’s? Your employee spits in our drinks and you can’t do better than to basically give us what we’d paid for lunches to start with? Of course, I wasn’t planning to frequent that particular store again, but now … Imo’s is definitely off my list forever and I hope you might consider a boycott as well.

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Smoking Out the Baby Pumpkin Murderers

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

At 6:15 p.m. Sunday, I should have been having drinks at my neighbors’. They’d called around 6 p.m., but I was on a mission to save the baby pumpkins from a senseless crime. See … a few of them were wounded with holes about the size of pencil erasers. Usually they can be used as decorations through Thanksgiving and I was afraid the ones with the holes would decay quickly.

I armed myself with this great stuff from Stampin’ Up! called Crystal Effects … it creates a water-like look on craft projects, but is also an amazing glue that dries crystal clear. I decided it be perfect to plug up the pumpkin holes and perhaps stop the decay.

Well, the holes were caused by nasty-ass worms … that were still in the pumpkins. They didn’t like the glue so much … probably because they couldn’t breathe and started poking their heads out. I was determined to “smoke out” the murderers and quickly ran for a reinforcement … a old pair of tweezers.

By 6:30 p.m. or so on Sunday I thought I had them all, but the glue wasn’t reacting well to the fresh pumpkin and I decided to let them dry out a bit.

Three of the pumpkins didn’t make it … victims of the terrible crime. But a few seemed to be fairing well. Then tonight when I went to glue them again … two of the little pumpkin murderers had survived. One went down easy, but the other wouldn’t budge. Layer and after layer of glue and it seemed to be able to stay just below the surface and still breathe. Finally, I got it.

Two of the pumpkins are still in critical condition. I’m hoping they will pull through. In the meantime, I am keeping a vigilant eye to make sure more murderers don’t prey on my bigger pumpkins.

Posted in dating, gardening | 2 Comments »

First Fall Harvest

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

As a girl who developed a love of decorating for spring and fall while living in two cities that don’t experience those wonderful seasons, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am about my harvest from the garden today …

Eleven baby pumpkins (and there are three more still “baking” on the vine)!

There’ll be a few more fall harvests because I have some bigger pumpkins still “cooking.”

And because I put my tomatoes in so late and we’ve had such a cool summer, a few are finally starting to mature.

I have a feeling, there’ll be a lot of green ones going into the garden waste and my trooper of a sweet pepper that was completely eaten by something early in the season, came back and is blooming now with no chance of getting fruit on before cooler temps set in here.

But all in all, I’d say the garden was a success and I’ve definitely learned a lot for next year …

At D’s suggestion I’ll plant the tomatoes (earlier!) along the fence for an automatic tomato stake and to avoid the crazy vine creep into my neighbors yard …

I’m thinking I’m going to let the vines (cucumber and pumpkin) take over other parts of my mulched yard and stick with upright plants for the formal garden area.

And because of my joy over the pumpkins, I’m definitely planting more varieties!

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A Sassy Sports T for a Girl with Curves

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Last weekend, D and I went to the Cardinals game. Saturday, I met one of his brothers and a few of his friends for the first time at the Missouri vs. Illinois Arch Rivalry Game (me and eight guys, including two of his nephews). For both occasions I was hoping to find cute team shirts so I could show my spirit and still look stylish … not a crazy request for a date or for meeting the boyfriend’s family and friends.

Yes, I admit it … I need to lose a few pounds (ok maybe more than a few … no doubt thanks in part to the pretzel fairy). And while I’m not exactly overjoyed with my body, I still like to show off my curves. Of course, there are plenty of cute, sassy sports shirts out there, but for heaven’s sake, I’m not sure who they are made for. I swear the extra large in one of the brands made exclusively for women looks like it might be a regular size medium … and cut for someone with absolutely no chest whatsoever.

Being a crafty girl, I took matters into my own hands. I tried two options … first attempting to cut a fun (but shapeless) t-shirt into something more stylish. With direction from the tattooed Kat Von D, I started slicing on an old paint-splattered shirt. With a little more practice, I think the results would have been super cute, but not really appropriate for an afternoon football game (and I wasn’t even going for the crazy backless thing in Kat’s video). I definitely want to try it again though.

Next, I headed to my local craft store for iron-on rhinestone letters (and then … even though I hate to admit it … I headed to Walmart where I found them for half the price). I used a black shirt from last season in case the results weren’t stellar. It’s not too difficult, but a little nerve wracking … so no photos of the process. But I think it turned out well …

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The Pretzel Fairy and Her Sticks of Doughy Goodness

Friday, September 4th, 2009

When I was a kid, my folks would occasionally buy a plain brown lunch sack filled with freshly baked soft pretzel sticks from “vendors” walking car to car at a few busy St. Louis intersections (is this intersection-vendor thing something that happened or happens at other cities?). Back then I had no idea where the rods of doughy goodness came from … the pretzel fairy I guess.

Gone are the days when I’d feel safe buying food from a stranger at an intersection, but luckily two former coworkers clued me into the pretzel fairy’s true identity … Gus of Gus’ Pretzels on Arsenal just a block west of Highway 55. And I not only discovered that Gus existed, but also that he offers a lot more than plain old pretzels. When I worked downtown, we’d head to lunch there every few weeks for unbelievably yummy pretzel hotdogs … a large hotdog wrapped in pretzel dough. There’s also bratwurst and salsiccia, as well as deli sandwiches made on a twisted pretzel.

Anytime I’m near downtown at lunchtime except on Monday (when Gus’ is closed), I stop in for a pretzel hotdog fix, which was the case today. I also get a stick or two … I prefer them over the twists because I find the slightly crunchy ends dee-lightful. And I love that everything is still “served” in brown lunch sacks, although these days they are printed with Gus’ logo.

And I would haven take a picture … but I was so hungry and in such a hurry for my fix that they were gone before it even occurred to me. I guess you’ll just have to visit the pretzel fairly and see for yourself.

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