Grand Ole Party

Not an obsessed fan or anything...this girl and her drumming though...super spesh! Took an ounce of my attention away from Karen O.

And here's a picture of the dude that we hung out with - on the left.




Nancy told him she wanted to cut his hair. He told us all kinds of stuff about the music biz and we had lots of questions. Here's what we got out of him:
1. These guys met in college.
2. Kristen is married.
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs pay them $250 per show, basically a tip and the payment is really all the publicity of getting to open for a high profile band.
4. About seven people get a cut of that $250, before the band does.
5. They drive a van to shows, and try to crash at friends' houses, to save money for hotels.
6. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are nice people.
7. He was a philosophy major in college.
8. I think that's it. I did most of the other talking, as usual.

My new sort of famous friend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IyiHjRBsyw

These guys opened for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs last night...they were pretty darn cool. The singer/drummer is a girl, which is awesome. In a strange twist, we hung out with the bass player. His name is Mike.

Country Song Lyric of the Day

"When you see a deer you see bambi, I see antlers up on the wall"

Offensive Spam Email of the Day - Sorry, I just think these are so funny

"Put your sword in her scabbard."

I'm pretty sure I was fought over today

This morning I brought my car in for an oil change and my lovely dealer offers free shuttle services to my office, so I always take them up on it. Normally, Duane, my shuttle driver, brings me back and forth to work, but today, I didn't make it in time**

DIGRESSION:
**Because some big fat stupid jerk decided to sit in the middle of the road between two entrance ramp lights, you know, to make sure that he didn't pick the wrong one...well, then he sat there like a DARN FOOL while two greens happened. I NEVER honk my horn, but today, I honked at him, agressively, twice. One for each green light that he missed. He threw up his hands like, "What? What do you want me to do?" And then finally a car came up behind me and went ahead of both of us. FINALLY he goes, and I could tell he felt like he was running a red light. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHHHHHHH! I feel bad because he probably really didn't know why he was being honked at, the poor stupid idiot man. I didn't make it to the first shuttle. Late. Had nothing to do with me waking up late, taking a slow shower, doing a load of dishes, it was all this DUMMY's fault.

** ANYWAY: So, Duane didn't take me. Some other kid took me. And not in the normal minivan. In a brand new Acura MDX. Nice yummy new car smell. So he drops me off and says he'll call to tell me when he's coming to get me.

THEN Duane calls me at work and says he'll come and get me at 3. I say, "maybe check with that other dude because he said HE would come and get me." and Duane said, "no, I'll come and get you at 3". Then I get another phone call from dude and I say, "Oh. Duane is coming at 3." and HE says, "NO. I'm coming to get you right now. They really want the person who dropped you off to be the person who picks you up."

So dude picked me up. I didn't talk to him, I just texted like mad, because I like Duane to pick me up and plus this kid smelled bad.

The poem we had to recite in front of the class for being late in 10th grade shop

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.



Now, try to say "whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth's sweet flowing breast" in front of the whole class without laughing.

Visitors

Jude visited with his mom Nancy this weekend, and helped out by watering all of the new plants. Then I asked him to plug in my twinkle lights and he goes, "I have done most of the work, maybe you should do it." Little turd! Also, after waking up on Sunday morning, he said that he was in the middle of a dream about mud fighting.



And this is Teri's new Bernese Mountain dog, Bernice! SOOOOOO CUTE! They stopped by too on Saturday:



And here is a little creation of the adorable miss Kerrie Gray, who didn't want to throw away my broken pot:

Theft and Adventurous Gardening

I really think that last fall one of my neighbors told me to "help myself" to the bricks that he has laying between his garage and his next door neighbor's garage. I wasn't 100% sure though, so I knocked on his door and he was NOT HOME. So, Kerrie G. and I jumped his locked fence:



We tried to use this rickety old wheel barrow for the job, but it's tire was completely flat. So I asked another kindly neighbor who was home if he had a wheelbarrow so that I could steal some bricks from ol' Jon the other neighbor. He said no, but agreed to help us move them. Each brick weighs about 6 pounds, so after a couple trips carrying one brick each, Dave decided to pull his car up and we filled his trunk twice with a total of a about 30 bricks. We used them to create a little stepping stone path that is SO CUTE in the new garden from the previous blog. I was pretty nervous though about stealing...fortunately he said it was OK when I caught him home yesterday. He said I could have all of them. And I will. They are great for landscaping and FREE!



Oh, and here is the kindly neighbor Dave, who, after helping us move all the blocks, noticed that I had a shingle missing from my roof. He went home, got a ladder, repaired my roof, and then noticed that my gutters needed cleaning. So he cleaned them. I paid him with a gin and tonic and a vodka orange juice. SUCH A NICE GUY!



And here's Heather, who had the horrible job of digging holes to put the really thick bricks into the ground, and only my fake Crocs protecting her foot from the shovel. I tried it the next day and it was like sticking a spade in the ground with socks on. Poor thing.

This Weekend

I got a lot done over the holiday weekend! Or should I say, my friends and I got a lot done. I sent out a mass text to friends to see if anybody wanted to come over and help me garden/drink vodka lemonades/enjoy a fire. To my surprise I had a lovely turnout. I love my friends.

First, this little project had been driving me CRAZY for three years. My honeysuckle had been growing quite awesomely up the drain spout for a long time and was super gorgeous and lush. But then it got too heavy and slid down and sat there that way for a long time. So, I went to Home Depot on Saturday afternoon and bought some trellis. They had 6 feet ones and 3 feet ones, so I bought two of each. They needed to be modified and secured together. Adam Gray and his screw gun to the rescue! YAY!

BEFORE:



AFTER:



This was the funnest part -- I planted several hostas on the side of my house a few years back and they did so well that they got a little cramped and needed to be split. Plus I HATE mowing that tiny strip of grass. So I called my neighbor and asked her permission to remove all the grass and spread the garden across with a stepping stone path. She agreed to it and look how cute!!! Nancy and Heather and I whipped this one out:

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Country Song Lyric of the Day

"I don’t give a dern what other people think, what do ya think about that?"

That guy obviously never read Gene Autry's cowboy code:

1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

3. He must always tell the truth.

4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.

6. He must help people in distress.

7. He must be a good worker.

8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.

10. The Cowboy is a patriot.

Country Song Lyric of the Day

"God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy"

My new fence

When I was out in San Diego with the girls, I noticed that they (certain people in San Diego) have this great trick of leaning bamboo fencing up against their chain link fences, and using zip ties to secure it in place, in order to beautify the ugly chain link fence. So I googled 'bamboo fencing' on a whim and found:

THIS COOL WEBSITE

And ordered up some bamboo fencing of my own. FREE SHIPPING, they said, and so I ordered up seven 8 foot bundles, 3 feet high. (You should have seen me measuring that fence with my sewing tape. Looked like I was going to make the fence some pants.) I actually measured 50 feet of fencing with a 36" tape. hahahahahahahaha

ANYWAYS: Apparently the free shipping applies to everything but fencing and they called me later to tell me that it would be ONE HUDNRED DOLLARS just for shipping. "NO! WHATEVER!" I said, and cancelled the order. And then I was like, crap, now what, and so I called back sheepishly and said, "never mind on that whatever."

So then I get a call from someone and they confirm that I want it shipped to my business address. (I have all of my online purchase mistakes shipped there because I'm never home to sign for anything.) WELL: they said it was coming on a palette. Yes, a palette of fencing was being delivered to Advisors Mortgage, LLC for one Kady Hexum, Idiot. I'm like, 'How am I going to get this home?' But, it was $60 more to deliver to a residential address. The guy was acting like we had a loading dock. And so for a week I stressed about it and sure enough, when he arrived he came in a full-on semi truck. I told him I would drive up to him. Fortunately the palette was very short and I was able to fit all seven bundles in my car, but I had my friend Alason's Honda CRV on reserve just in case. p.s. that was the day that some loan officers brought a bucket of Long Island Tea mix for lunch and I was super haha silly with the semi-truck driver. ANYWAYS, got the stuff home and it sat there for weeks until I could convince Cory to come and install it for me. I really didn't have to do anything.

Before:


After:



We did have a little disagreement about the spray painting of the chain-link fence, which, when he described over the phone, I thought sounded so ugly, but as you can see from the photos, it looks really good. He actually bought a can of yellow and a can of brown, and artistically sprayed the brown intermittently so that it looks like bamboo on the metal parts. WOW! WHAT A GUY! you might say, yes, that is true. What a guy.

Alason's phone

My friend Alason has the crappiest phone I've ever seen. As always, the photo does not do it justice. She is unable to use the 'send' or 'end' functions without pushing parts of the inside of the phone around so that something clicks and the button pushes. And yet she stubbornly refuses to get a new phone. I took this photo at Big Bowl one night while we were waiting 50 minutes for TAKE OUT, and Nancy had called and she wanted to talk to me, so Alason hands me her phone and I talk to Nancy for a while. Then it's time to hang up and I'm like, "???"
We laughed so hard. And then she got out a hanger, a paper clip and a piece of gum and hung up the call for me.

Country Song Lyric of the Day

"Since you brought it up, why don't you bring it over"




p.s. I google image searched "attractive cowboy" and that came up.

Twins

Do you think if you're a fraternal twin, but you're alone, and you tell people you're a twin, and they ask if you're identical, and then they go, "oh", like in disappointment, that it would get old after a while?



p.s. I think the one on the left is totes cuter.

FUNNY

Click here for a funny story from my mom

Currently I am addicted to:

Open windows
Dairy Queen Buster Bars
"My So-Called Life"
Pretending I'm in a Band
Goldfish (South African DJ dudes)
Dresses
A clean bedroom
facebook
Bamboo fencing
Tandem bike rides with Murphy
Nancy on the weekends
"Happy-Go-Lucky"
Thinking about my patio makeover
Vegetable Gardens
Eating
Zero Balances
Pitchers of fruity alcoholic beverages
PJ Harvey
Dry erase markers
Mini skirts
Pretending I'm going to paint something
Massages
Getting rid of stuff
Buying stuff
Lilacs
Solving problems
Rolled up jeans
Sleep
Pretending I'm going to wake up early and go running
Sunny Saturdays
Hanging clothes on the line
Laying in my backyard
Rose Geranium oil
Composting
(Blogging)

Maple Grove Half Marathon

I didn't run it. But my friends Paul and Tom from ALARC are the organizers/brains behind the operation and so I have volunteered two years in a row now. It is my job to stand just before where the 5k runners go straight and 1/2 marathon runners take a left. I have to scream to the runners which way to go, based on their bibs. (Wonder why I always get picked for this spot in the race?)

This was on Saturday morning. It was 39 degrees and WINDY. Wow, was it cold. I hope you can tell from these pictures how cold it was:

Also, I just happened to look down while I was waiting for the runners to get to my 'station' and I realized that I must have been standing in the common area for teenage girls to throw their underwear out the car window. Gross!

Anna and Christine ran the race as a relay! I was so proud of them, they did the race in 2 hours and 16 minutes total. (Beat my best time by 2 minutes.) Wow, was it cold...

The Funnest Day Ever

I bought a little tandem thing for my bike so that I could go for bike rides with Murphy this summer. I had it hooked up a couple weekends ago by my friend Ben and then it wasn't quite fitting my bike so I went to the bike shop and had it tightened and tweaked and finally now it is ready to go. Miles wanted to come too and assured me that he is riding his bike now without training wheels. So I had Miles and Murphy over today. We set out but first had to stop at the gas station and fill up all the tires. That was kind of an ordeal but whatever and so then we went to the bike trail along Minnehaha Parkway from Cedar going East. Miles was nervous and uncomfortable and struggled, and I'm pretty sure he was totally going to harsh my mellow, but after a lot of helpful encouragement (angry yelling), he finally got it! We rode along the parkway and he was able to go a little further each time and finally went pretty far. And then it was time to take a break. We went out again and we decided to go all the way around Lake Nokomis and we ended up doing about 4 or maybe 5 miles total! Murphy LOVED it. He was laughing and laughing and smiling the whole time (except when I took pictures...?). We had so much fun. It was fun seeing Miles go from nervous and scared to having a blast trying to do tricks and me being nervous and scared.

This one was taken after a particularly ouchie wipe-out and me forcing him to smile:

Photo taken over the shoulder of my little Murphy:

Look at Miles go!

Queen of the self-portrait photo:

The Turd Burglar

Today I was getting Miles and Murphy ready to go home after our SUPER FUN DAY and I went in the bathroom and found there was a huge long turd in the toilet. No pee, just a big ol' turd, and only two squares of toilet paper. I got really scared because the boys and I had just spent a few hours on a bike ride and I had left my door unlocked. I asked Miles if it was him. He said NO, and I knew it couldn't be Murphy because he's just now potty training and didn't say anything to me about having to go to the bathroom, and I knew it wasn't me. (I did have to think about it.) I came to the conclusion that surely somebody came in my house, pooped, and was waiting for me to fall asleep so he/she? could kill me. Maybe the turd was their M.O.? They poop in the victim's toilet as a kind of calling card?

I didn't want to be weird but I brought it up to Kasey. I guess so if I got murdered tonight she would know it was the Turd Burglar. She told me that it was totally Murphy. I couldn't believe it. I have changed this kid's diapers and pull-ups for many years and I have never seen him do anything but smooshy diaper poop or smaller roundy poop balls. This was a huge 8 inch adult log. I was instantly very insanely proud of him. He went number two on the toilet! My little boy is growing up!

(And I will survive another night of living alone.)

I forgot to mention...

...that Lexus parks itself! EJ punched some buttons on this TV screen in the car, and put his hands behind his head. It parallel parked itself! (In case you were wondering why it cost $130k)

Also, he said that in August we should come back because the hotel is buying a $400k Mercedes for its VIP guests. Like me and Teri.

Sunday in Chicago

Well Sunday we pretty much had breakfast, shopped and ate and shopped and ate.

We had dinner at McCormick's and it was yummmmmmmmmmm. I had the crab legs and filet mignon and Teri had just crab legs. Caught on the boat that Deadliest Catch is filmed on!





We didn't have to be to the airport until 9pm so we had a nice full day of shopping. It was great. I ended up buying:
- 8 pairs of underwear. (Supplies are getting low.)
- A ridiculously expensive pair of jeans. Somehow got $50 off at the register, and still they were too much. But I love them. I think I might wear them every day this week.
- A pair of UGG sandals (cute!)
- A ring (from Tiffany's, I LOVE IT, and will never take it off.)

Here's a picture of the ADORABLE shoes Teri bought:

Saturday Night

Mom and Pete and Kelly told us how they saw a homeless guy eating right out of the garbage can. He was leaning on the sides of the can with his elbows and was absolutely going to town on a hamburger and fries and was so happy. He was eating really fast and bits of burger and fries were flying everywhere. What made me laugh the most though was when Pete was telling the story, he described the guy's mood as being like he was "eating caviar. With a golden spoon."

We got to ride in the Lexus a second time on Saturday night! Our driver was in the lobby after we finished dinner and asked if we wanted a City Tour. Of course we said "YES!" and hurried my family out the door.

We got to hang out the windows and wave to my family as they stood on the sidewalk. It was fun. Here are some pics of the car and EJ the driver.

He brought us over to the stadium where the baseball team plays (Cubs? who cares?) Anyways then we parked the car and got out and took photos of the amazing skyline. SO pretty.

More Chicago

After my last post, we walked down to Millenium Park and took lots of photos and enjoyed the weather. It was SO nice out.

Chicago has beautiful amazing flowers planted everywhere in all of their boulevards and pavilions. Millions and millions of flowers.

We called this one, "Tulips on my Face":

They have a magic mirrored bean in Millenium Park. It's hours and hours of fun and we were laughing so hard at how fun it was. Here are some of the pics we took.

Then my brother called and we met up with my family for a bit, which ended up that we just got a ride further down the Miracle Mile for shopping. We had fun shopping for about 3 or 4 hours and then met back up with my family for dinner at our hotel. A lil' tapas place called Mercat.

Chicago Chicago you're a wonderful town

So I'm in Chicago! So far, the two most amazing things happened to me:

There is a TV in the mirror in the bathroom of my hotel room! You can watch the news while you brush your teeth.



Last night Teri and I wanted to walk to the Hancock building and get a martini in the lounge. We asked the hotel how far it was to walk and he arranged for us to take the private hotel car, which happened to be a $130k Lexus. For free! The driver showed us all it's little bells and whistles and we felt very spesh.

BUT here's how dumb I am:
When we got in the car, I didn't know what kind it was, but it looked really nice, and was quite comfortable in the back, so I go to the driver, "This is a nice little car." And he goes, "blah blah blah Hyundai $28000." And then I felt bad for the hotel and the car because it was like it was trying to look like a nice car with a driver but was only a Hyundai. And then Teri told me later he said, "a hundred and twenty eight thousand". And then when we got out I saw that it was a Lexus.

It was pretty cool to have our own private driver bring us to the Hancock Center.

The best view of Chicago happened to be in the women's restroom. We had a couple mojitos (at $14.50 a pop) and some snacks and then we went back to the hotel room.

Today we are going to go shopping. We just got done having a really yummy breakfast at 11 City Grill and it was TO DIE FOR. Teri had French Toast and I had a pesto basil omelette.

Off to Miracle Mile for some shopping and then we're meeting up with my mom and Pete and Kelly for a Greek dinner.

Ciao!