only with Lee . . .

so miss lee and i went to lunch on friday as usual and we had a really delicious munch at the thai place.  oh my, they have the very best red curry with shrimp.  cross my heart and hope to die.

miss lee has been invited to an ugly christmas sweater party and consequently needs the proper attire.  we decided since we were at the thai place, we would hit the nearby consignment store.  since she had to make a pit stop first, i wandered down the sidewalk with plans to meet her there.

i meandered the aisles, checked the racks.  no ugly christmas sweaters but a very cute gold metallic cap sleeved top, size medium.  score me.

meanwhile, miss lee appears to be MIA.  no problem, she is probable flirting with the manager of the restaurant.  and she was.  you can't leave her alone for a second and bam, she is in trouble.  so i nosed around the store again, holding onto my gold top.

finally, i wandered up front again to see if i could see her.  no lee but a cop who was frantically motioning me to come outside.  so i hung my gold top on the nearest hook and wandered out.  he immediately urged me further down the sidewalk and by then i notice miss lee with another cop.

or lord, what did we do now.  my cop starts shouting 20 questions at me as i look around and notice five cop cars and a motorcycle converging on the site.  i didn't do it, i swear i didn't.

he wants to know if i work for the shop or am a customer.  a customer, i reply, that's why i left the top inside . . .  i didn't want to get arrested.  he didn't care about my top.  "was everything inside ok",  was he asking me for a critique on the store.  this was just getting plain weird.

nope.  seems somehow the silent alarm was tripped in the store.  so i offered to go get him the owner but no, he wouldn't let me back in the store.  he wouldn't let lee come over to me either.  WTH? 

by now i'm getting quite jittery.  i don't have time to sit in the pokey this close to christmas.

finally, they declare an all clear and lee and i can go shopping. 

on a side note:  my top was missing from the hook.  some other thrifty shopper had picked up my $7.50 new top while i was being interrogated.  not fair officer.  the owner was very nice though and rescued it back for me.  too bad it didn't fit. 

i'm not sure it is safe to hang around miss wild child . . .

here gobble, gobble . . .

and so it was that turkey lurkey sat down to dinner with the garlic mashed potatoes, the gravy, the stuffing, ham, brussel sprouts, asparagus, salad, deviled eggs, rolls and butter.

and turkey lurkey asked his friends why they were all gathered together.  the garlic mashed potatoes had no idea, he was too busy snuggling up to the gravy who was flirting with the stuffing.  the brussel sprouts and asparagus had no idea either but were happy to be all slathered in oil and warmed by the heat.  they had visions of being at the beach and were heard to sigh in deep pleasure.  the ham was so pleased to be emoting that he couldn't care less.  the deviled eggs were consorting with the salad and the rolls and butter were too wrapped up in each other to care.

but i know.  i really do.  we gathered together as family.  my kidlet and K2.  K2's parents and her mother's mother.  we ate and laughed and told tales of the 9TS.  we giggled and gaffawed.  we imbibed. and then we scoffed up chocolate silk and pumpkin cheese pies.

but most of all, we rejoiced in being family.  happy thanksgiving one and all. 

then and now or boredom hits the road . . .

monday kidlet and i got bored.  very. very. bored, so we hopped in her fit and headed up the ocean:

and ate at an old favorite dive.  so old in fact that this is what happened on the beach behind it on january 4, 1997.

yup. the 9TS had hair.  i was a few pounds lighter and kidlet was sevenish. very fancy schmancy of us.  after the JP did his thing, we wandered up and pigged out on shrimp, clams, oysters and other succulent goodies.  well the 9TS did.  i stuck with the shrimpies.

and so kidlet and i managed to toss down clams and shrimp in memory there of . . .  and maybe a beer.  oh and some chocolate mousse mystery cake.  and some onion rings and fries.  waddle.  waddle.

and then we hit Ulta and did some Urban Decay damage.  all and all, it was a fun reprieve from boredom.  score us!

and then there was this:

i know i've used this photo before but it's one of my favorites.  almost twenty years between the two photos.

it's gloomy out there today so  kidlet and i are hanging in our pj's.  in lieu of doing a mound of ironing, i played:

what?  the laundry didn't do itself?  gah!

life was boring . . .

so we ran away.  lee, k1, k2 and me. or is that i? or myself. well pick whichever one you like best but we all packed our bags and headed up 95 to st. simon's island.

we hit the lighthouse first because it closed at 4:30 and it was 4:29 and scampered up all 10,000 bazillion steps.  see proof.  four feet. and you know whose were bare, but in my defense, we didn't know the temperature was about to drop down to hell freezing over.

back down on solid ground i got a snap of three of the four musketeers. 

discovered a play ground:

and so we played and yes, i did. i climbed that whale.

wanna' know why the lighting is so weird.  check this out:

monster sunset.  coolio.

we decided we should find some food and ended up at barbara jean's.  really good crab cakes but you have to ask for tyler.  he's a cutie patootie and very fun to play with.  ask lee. or k2. or k1.  but i embarrassed k1 when i asked if we could take him home along with a box of pumpkin bread.  she should have known better.  i've been her momma for a very long time.

and this is what i woke up to the next morning.  she didn't want to wake me up when she got up at the butt crack of dawn:

yes, that is miss lee, hunkered down in the tub reading like it's the most natural thing in the world. 

we ate breakfast and headed to jekyll island to visit the boneyard on Driftwood Beach:

back to barabra jean's for some she crab soup.  oh boy, that's good stuff.  we didn't eat much because we were headed to Bennie's Barn for dinner.  yes, we ate a lot. and drank.  of course we did. silly.

headed home the next morning but here are a few odd shots i couldn't figure out where to stuff.  bambi didn't seem to mind us stopping and taking a few shots of her and her little buddy.

and that is all she wrote.  we had enough fun that we put it back on the list of things to do again.  not ssi but somewhere close.  wanna' come along?

and another . . .

and now, as soon as i process all of the photos, i'll share this weekend with you.

major fist pump . . .

yay, with all of Kidlet's alphabet soup of mental health issues, she has been accepted back at college for the spring semester and God willing, will graduate this coming may!!!!!  she only has to take two classes and they are both available on-line. can we get a hell yes!!!!!!!

and one more:

yes, i am that freak who runs around taking snaps of people's front doors.

istanbul . . .

so what do you do when you have a bunch of odd photos?  stick them up on a bulletin board. ok, so it's not one of my best but  . . .

goodness for the nose . . .

the house smells so good.  well, it does if you like the smell of roasting chicken and apple pie spice.

the chicken is one of my faves, smothered with homemade gravy, nestled around mashed taters and niblets of corn, some cold cranberry sauce and steaming rolls.  ok, so i am ahead of myself.  it really is still roasting away tented in its cocoon pouring forth with the aroma that reminds me of growing up in jersey.  i'm drooling down my front.

the apple pie spice is a mistake. mine.  i thought i had pumpkin pie spice when i went shopping this morning.  nope.  so the apple will have to do.  it's a new dessert recipe for a pie.  the crust is made of crushed ginger snaps, the first layer is a mixture of cream cheese and whipped cream.  the next layer is butterscotch pudding, pumpkin, and other good smelling stuff.  of course, a baker i am not.  as it sits in the fridge overnight . . . yeah like it will last that long . . . i see how different it looks from the nicely lit, exquisitely posed photo in the magazine.  mine will have an additional layer of whipped cream to hide the not so crisp division of layers.  hey, it all tastes the same.  hopefully.

and, a throw back to an 18 month old kidlet:

i see you . . .

i was making a dent in my work area when i decided it had been way too long since i have played.  so i grabbed some stabilo pens and some water color paper.  i might add in my defense that it is hard to do anything with pippin helping.  now i know why they developed cat cages . . . and no i didn't but i wanted to. sort of. anyway, there was a challenge last month to do faces.  i hate challenges because my mind wanders about day six and forgets to come back on task.

i started with blue stabilo but really messed up the eyes until they looked like the walking dead.  problem, naw.  i just cut out another piece of paper and started again. i'm flexible like that.

yeah, no, i pretty much didn't like the blue so i switched to brown, having been unable to find a black stabilo. then when i sent it to myself so i could mess with it in photoshop, i got rid of the blue altogether:

gotta' love photoshop when you don't like the direction something is going in.

and so, this is day 1 and i doubt there will be a day 2 considering the finished product and my attention span. 

we are now fighting over who is driving to micky d's.  it's one of those days.

tea for dragons . . .

so i used to collect teapots.  i don't drink much hot tea but i think the pots are adorable.  the 9TS was always bringing me home stray teapots.  they lived, for the most part, squished together on my garden window over the sink.  however, there might or might not be teapots in my bathrooms.  i'm just saying.

fast forward and when the 9TS had repainted the kitchen for the last time, we went with a red, black and white theme.  red being the accent color.  after a few more years of staring at my hodgepodge collection of pots, i decide they needed to get with the color scheme or move out.  but where to?  three began living on my counter top awaiting their fate.

on to another subject . . . sort of.  k1, k2 and i enjoy our evening meanderings through the surrounding neighborhoods.  quite a while back, i noticed that one house had a little cluster of coquina boulders and plants surrounding a palm and sitting on two of the rocks were teapots.  yes, teapots, how fortuitous is that?  one is black and the other red. fate.

and, since it is the season of booing.  i decided i had found the perfect home for my overflow.  every couple of nights, we would sneak under cover of darkness and deposit an additional teapot in their garden.  the first one included an unsigned note explaining booing in case they were unfamiliar with the concept.

k2 was filled with trepidation . . . her father having raised her to be an upright citizen.  but under my tutelage, her life has broadened.  wink.

while we are not certain they have even been spotted . . .  the note still sticking out of the first pot we gifted.  see, k2, you can't get arrested for gifting.  we are at least enjoying our strolls and my collection is dwindling . . . 

 see . . .

some are forever keepers!

how do you feel about dragons?  found this one in a moat, of course, in Kotor, Montenegro.

dragons like tea.

sorry . . .

but now that i have a guest spot on DesignerDigitals.com for the month, you get inundated with layouts.  on second thought, i am not sorry in the least.  i am happy as a pig in mud.  warm soothing, squishy mud.  deliciously murky and funky mud.  rolling around in and flopping in mud.  got the idea??

here's the newest, done while sitting in front of the fire while kidlet roasted the biggest marshmallows i have ever seen in my life.  i like to char mine and pull off the top layer and then pop it in my mouth, stick the marshmallow back in the fire and repeat.  after pulling off seven layers, i was stuffed and kidlet was impatient for the roasting fork.  i gave her my leftovers.  yum!

talk about a throwback.  this was the year we decided to spend christmas in boston.  so much fun!

saturday night and charred lizard . . .

it's what's for dinner.

the temperature dropped.  no not snow.  but we floridians don't need snow for a fire.  we'll use any excuse what-so-ever.  and 55 degrees works for me.  so i started this:

please ignore the warming tootsies but if you look carefully, you might spy kidlet's 'sunshine' tat.  back on topic . . . after burning for a while, it was obvious we needed another load of wood, which i promptly brought into the house.  but then the fire wobbled and i asked kidlet to add some fat wood. while she was poking around, she noticed a stick stuck on the fire screen and went to pick it off.  it moved.  it was a rather charred but very much alive lizard.  we think he must have come to town among the last pile of wood.  kidlet promptly picked him up and deposited him outside.  her hands were sooty where she touched his little bod.  hopefully he will survive and will live to tell his great grandchildren of his grand trial by fire.

we also won't mention the smoked squirrel.  when i went out for more kindling the first go round, i looked at the chimney and it was sending up great sputterings of smoke of the wild fire variety.  holy smoke signals batman, it was intense.  since all was fine in the house, i think it was the remnants of someone's summer home.  someone who cusses pippin out from the nearest tree.  never fear, all is well.

i'll take things found on the beach for $200 . . .

last night was like christmas in the cave.  i got to download the entire of week of new goodies over at DesignerDigitals for the start of my month as a guest designer.  i tried not to be greedy but it sure was hard not to download it all.  so here we go:

check out the two end photos!!!!   lee took those.  almost every morning my intrepid friend is down on the beach walking with her camera.  she mostly photographs the sunrise but these were so fabulous.  look at the lighting!!!!  thanks for letting me steal them, lee!