sharing the cuteness

i just can't take it. recently i was directed to this webpage that collects cute little pictures of animals in a blog like format. i spent probably 2 hours looking at them one day. now i'm checking it almost dayly for more cute pictures. it's insane. i just can't help it!

so i have to share the cuteness. i direct you now to cute overload. you've been warned.

suri watch - day 100

i've figured it out. i know why we haven't seen suri cruise.

she's quite obviously the reincarnation of l. ron hubbard and must be protected and hidden from sight until after she's produced the next chapter in the scientology doctrine!!!

i think i'm on to something here...

i'd like to edit in a disclaimer here that i'm only being silly and there's no reason for tom cruise or anyone else associated with scientology to sue me. they wouldn't get much. but if they would like to try - my blog is produced by a gal named jane smith....

oh yeah...

i meant to tell you all...

she's parked in front of our house again. i'm counting the days...

UPDATE!

it was a false alarm - she moved it before we got home from work...

holy idol batman! it's kelly clarkson!!

last nite i went to the kelly clarkson concert out at riverport. and it's still riverport. i don't care if the sign does say umb bank pavilion. anywho.

i went to the kelly clarkson concert. it's been about a million years since i went to a concert. i'm getting mighty old for it as i am a zombie today.

i'm happy to say that kelly clarkson is just as good live as she is on the radio or tv. often you go to a concert and they suck live. kelly didn't suck. she sounded good. and she bounces around a lot. i don't know how she does it and doesn't collapse at the end of the night.

we sat in the harrah's star box which was pretty cool. we had vip parking and vip bracelets. and people waiting on us - which would have been super cool if we didn't have to pay for it. but whatever. there were 18 rows between our seats and the stage. i'm far too old to be sitting on the lawn anymore. i like to be able to actually SEE that who they say is on the stage is on the stage.

i've heard some things lately about people saying that kelly is getting chubby - well she looked fine to me. sure. she's got a little belly. and a bootie. but it's healthy curves. she looked healthy.

her hair is brown again. and cut kinda shorter. it looked good. way better than as a blonde.

she didn't sing either of the 2 songs that she had to record as a result of winning on idol. and she didn't mention idol at all either. maybe she is trying to distance herself from the show but i think it's smart. ruben and fantasia pretty much tanked in their career - even if fantasia does have a movie coming out on lifetime on her life. by distancing herself she's trying to stay afloat as a REAL artist and not some girl that won a reality tv contest.

there were so many little girls there! and teeny boppers. my favorite was the group of girls crowding around the kelly clarkson banner tied to the fence. you could practically narrate the conversation from afar. "oohoohooh! let's crowd around the banner and take our picture with kelly! crowd in closer. with kelly in the middle. it will look like we met her. maybe no one will notice that her head is 3 times bigger than ours."

it was cute when the 10 year olds did it. but after a group of 16 year olds did the same thing at the next banner down - it was kinda lame.

kelly sang 2 songs out in the crowd. the last 2. did all of break away from the center of the seats. and then started since you been gone there and went through the aisles as she sang before finishing on the stage. she walked down the steps 2 boxes away - so i was maybe within 30 feet of her. which was still pretty cool.

nina was pretty mad that i didn't take her. but we brought her home a t-shirt which once again secured my status as best mom ever...

a quest for POWER

wednesday evening i began a 72 hour quest.  

a quest....

for POWER.

this quest involved several challenges.

challenge number 1 - keep the cool air INSIDE your house for as long as possible.  we managed about 24 hours in the beginning.  about 24 in the end.  the 24 in the middle were shaky.  
challenge number 2 - make it to work on time with only one battery operated alarm clock in the house.  i was a half hour early on friday - i had nothing better to do.
challenge number 3 - find unspoiled food to treat an episode of low blood sugar.  girl scout cookies never go bad and refreeze well.
challenge number 4 - keep animals from over heating.  i caught sandy hanging out under our bed on the hard wood floor.  rolen's kennel is in the basement.  bailey's not the smartest cat in the world.  i have no clue where she was hanging out.  i usually found her on the chair though...
challenge number 5 - survive a night in the basement on an air mattress in the same room as your dog in his kennel.  i didn't sleep - but i survived.  and i only almost flew off the air mattress when jeff rolled over once.
challenge number 6 - survive eating an icky mr. z's frozen pizza at my mom's house for dinner cause it's free and she has power.  remind me not to order those from the next fund raiser - that was a toughie.
challenge number 7 - survive 3 nights without a baseball game.  not hard for me - but jeff almost needed life support.
challenge number 8 - survive the false hope of seeing the ameren webpage say you have power for 5 minutes before refreshing to say "oops - we were wrong."
challenge number 9 - survive 24 hours of seeing that your neighbors across the street have lights, air conditioning, tv's, and stoves while you still have nothing but the dwindling power of a mini mag light.
challenge number 10 - calling ameren ue and actually getting a person on the telephone to tell them that while the online webpage says we have power - you just left there and everyone has power but your block only to later find out that they thought you had power too and left the area.  i do believe some neighbors owe me some cookies cause otherwise we'd still be sitting in the dark.

after 72 hours of struggling to defeat the evil villain named "ameren" - we were triumphant in our quest.  we had found the power.  it was being hidden by something called "tree contact".  the first thing we did - after turning on several light switches and going to the bathroom with light better than a candle - was flick on the baseball game...

where we were really glad to find that we weren't required to play the games sequel - the quest for cable....

enjoy your lights people!  you don't realize how much you miss it until you hit the same switch about 83 times only to feel like an idiot cause you know full well that it won't work - that's why you have the flashlight in your hands dummy!

ick! paris hilton!!

i refuse to admit that this paris hilton song is any good or that i actually enjoy it a little.  you can't make me admit that...

things that make me go hmmm...

a local woman has filed a lawsuit against coke claiming that their latest "contest" is unsafe. her take on it is that if you drank enough coke (even diet coke) to accumulate the points to win the prizes it advertises - it would kill you because your kidneys can't handle drinking 30 or something cokes a day.

i've met julia once at the hooked on health show - she seemed pretty nice. her before and after pictures are amazing. and she was mrs. missouri.

while i think the whole lawsuit thing might be a bit extreme - she does kinda have a point - doesn't she???

please give me back my morning show...

so as if having steve and dc on for 5 hours every morning wasn't bad enough - 101.1 the river recaps that day's show every evening at about 7 ish. i discovered this one the hard way.

and right now we are in the middle of a 53 hour radiothon for the make a wish foundation. i had to change the station on my desk at work. i couldn't take it.

anyway - i actually listened to a segment the other night. i was trapped in the shower and didn't have much of a choice.

the entire segment was about how steve doesn't know how to play rock, paper, scissors and them explaining the concept and rules to him and then trying to play the game - over the radio. total waste of airspace if you ask me. total waste. another 20 naked minutes of my life i can't get back to add to the ones i spent with someone's sperm donor.

and at the same time i find it hard to believe a guys such as steve is so UNFAMILIAR with games involving his hands....

poor puppy

poor little roley poley has an external ear infection.  we had to take him to the vet yesterday where the mean old doctor held him down and used cotton balls to wipe about 10 pounds worth of icky goo out of his poor little ear.  poor guy whined and cried and stomped his foot begging to be left alone.  then the vet dropped some healthy goo back down in his ear to make it better.  

then rolen went to the car and proceeded to shake his head violently until all of the healthy ear goo was all over the inside of jeff's windows....

tonight - i get to try and repeat the procedure without vet assistance.  fun fun fun.

this week's new feature - karen's confessions...

this week i'm going to start a new feature called "karen's confessions".  this feature is where i will humiliate myself by confessing a deep, dark secret of mine that none of you ever knew - and will probably wish you never did....

last weekend - i wasted 2 hours on a really bad made for tv lifetime type movie that chronicled the life of suzanne sommers and even though i knew it was really bad after about 10 minutes of it - i just couldn't help myself and kept watching until the end...

how true

click here for a glimpse of how jeff behaves at the ball game ;-)

Proud, Proud, Proud, Mama...

A little over a week ago, Nina cut 12 inches off of her hair and donated it to Locks of Love. Here are the pictures!

BEFORE

DURING

12 inches Later!

have a safe and happy holiday!

tomorrow is the 4th of july. a happy little holiday that celebrates the independence of our nation.

as you all know - my family has been professional pyrotechnics for sunset fireworks for as long as i can remember. maybe even longer. i don't remember a single july 4th where i watched fireworks shot by someone who wasn't my father - except maybe for that one year that we got tornadoed out in bellville and the mayor gave us free dairy queen...

and the ONE YEAR we went to lost valley lake instead when nina was 6 months old...

it's impossible for me to watch a finale rack without holding my breath. i don't watch fireworks without worrying. that's my family holding those flares. that's my daddy who walks along side the finale rack and stops to relight it when it stops. i don't think that i enjoy the 4th the way that most normal people do. the "romantic" and "cool explosive" part of fireworks are lost on me.

anyway, this will probably be the 10th or so year that we've done a show for a fancy country club in ladue. i doubt anyone will notice that one of the crew this year is missing because he has been deployed to iraq. isn't that ironic? while these people sip their wine and beer and eat their cheese and celebrating their freedom - one of their usual entertainers is deployed to iraq and they won't even realize it.

i can't help but acknowledge the irony.

anyway - everyone have a safe holiday. leave the fireworks to the professional crazies like my family. don't drink and drive. be responsible.

and be safe bob.

karen