So long, Indy.....

siggghhhhhhhhhh........Friday night, I escaped for an hour to the bookstore because I just had to have one hour of Lulutime. And now that my little guy has gone home, the house is so so so quiet...

When I dropped he and his mom at the airport, he held me tight, kissed me goodbye and said, "I'll miss you, Marian...."

He's a little lovebug.

huh.

Ok, he'll be back in the summer for almost two weeks of summer Camp Papalu. and we'll iChat in the meantime. But it's still quiet.

BTW - Go Duke!!!

Eggzackly, chicklets

Whew....it has been a whirlwind time, my threes and fives....when my flight landed after the trip to Germany (where, btw, I could not get through my company firewalls to use my computer to blog), Mr. Lulu had gone to pick up cutest grandson ever to visit for springbreak Camp Papalu and he is still here!

Loving it, but I forget what it is like to have a little poppet attached to my side 24/7. I have been Marian to his Indiana Jones, the kisses to his bumps, the Mace Windu to his General Grievous, the buyer of toys, the griller of cheese sandwiches, and cuddler supreme and I'm loving it....but Papa just whisked him off to the park for a lulubreak so I thought I would leave a Happy Easter / Happy Spring / Happy NCAA tournament time wish to you all!

Lots of new things to blog about coming up, including information about Misericordia Heart of Mercy in Chicago, which is the new residence of a family member so I'll be contributing funds from my etsy store.....

Yikes - the door just blew open and I heard a call for Lulu....see you soon!

I'm off to Germany to celebrate St. Pat's Day

How's that for a theme party?

Only I'm not going to party but to work, so I'm not even sure that there will be green hats or wigs or leprechauns or shamrocks....but I'm sure there will be beer. Maybe even some green beer. Or red and black beer. And lederhosen. Yah Yah! Prost!

I'm ready, except for the final packing. I have to travel a lot so I'm pretty good at the packing thing by now after almost 2 million flight miles in 15 years, but this trip, I'm really trying to cut back a bit. It's still cold and snowy in Germany so I'm dragging winter clothes but trying to take lots of tanks/tees/layering things that pack easier than heavy sweaters.

Siggghhhhhhh......

300 pins into the Winter voodoo doll!!!

I hope that it's spring by the time I get back - 11 days from now! - and that you're all in your Easter bonnets....

BTW - the dress turned out FABYOUULUSSSSS!! I can only claim a consulting credit as my friend did all the work because I had to travel but hey - I finished the zipper! Photos to follow....just too tired tonight.

And because I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post from across the big pond, you should really follow The MarriedGeeks on their 3-4 month adventure in Beijing - so cool...

Sew sew happy....

that I drank some really nice wine with my good friends last night and apparently, swept the whole girly side of their family away with my enthoooosiasm for creating and sewing. So now, today, on the first gorjuseeee day in a lifetime of winters, I am helping to sew a dress for a young lady to wear to an Oscar-themed party.

And I've never sewed with a pattern before.

Luckily, the party is actually next week.

I'm off to google "Learn to sew in 15 minutes.com"

winter, winter, go away, come again....never

I am over winter. You too?

So maybe the voodoo creature will work.

Perhaps more pins.

You.Are.So BEEYOUUUUteefullll...to..MEEEE

See? Even when the Canadian National Anthem (or 'Theme Song' as I keep calling it - I love a theme as you know) is not in my head, everything I write or hear still comes out of my mouth in the same cadence.

But ANYway....

In my head when I read all your blogs? You're all young and thin and blonde or brunette or redheaded - whatever you want this week - with cute hair and perfect skin. Yeah, even the guys. You look guuuud. With a great pair of jeans.

Truly. With good singing voices too.

Being funny and good writers will do that to you I guess - make your inner glow all flashy and sparkly.

In my head, anyway.

Except for any bloggy Pleasantville housewives - some of their faces are probably all scroonched up about me because I missed another home salesy party bunco bingo bookity clubish thingy.

I can't help it - I've been working from 7 am to 7 pm lately, with lots of time spent in conference calls / meetings / project updates talkity talkity talking TALKINGGGGG. So I don't want to have to make more conversation with anyone, even if there is the draw of a lovely pinkish too-sweet wine and yummy dips and crackers.

Except with you beeyoooties.

So my roots keep showing up....

..well, yeah - the darkish, grayish hairline thing because I haven't gotten into the hair place..(salon? beauty place? shop? What do you call it? Discuss amongst yourselves...) - well, I haven't had my hairs did (as they say around these parts) for a bit and I'm due.

But that's not my point. Which I'll get to now, because again, it makes it so much more interesting for the reader.

My roots as in, my family! Yes, I had more family to visit last week from the snowy midwest, and more friends/family are coming in next weekend, and then super grandson visits in March and some MORE family from Mr. Lulu's side of the tree come in early April.....shwewwwww.....

So we had a great time, ate too much, no addies but lots of adult bevvies, we laughed and watched the Olympics and I put a song earworm on all of them....the Canadian national anthem has been stuck in my head since the opening ceremonies so I thought I'd better share. I'm bilingual after all - hey I speak Canadia, eh? - and we also have Canadian relatives, so I thought it was the right thing to do.

Ohhhh....CAAAANAdaaahhhh....glooooreeUS and FREEEEEEEE.....

Yeah, I won't quit my day job to hit the Idol circuit just yet.

AND I'm loyal to the U.S. still - I just appreciate the Canadians as well. No other two countries in the world have such a long border while also having such a good relationship. Yeah.

....we stand on GUAAARRRDD for THEEEEEEEE!!!

HEY - yes, I'm yelling, too much oatmeal and coffee, more on that later - did you notice that OTT is back? Over there, under OTT Adventures on the side...yeah, scroll down a bit...yeah, right there. I thought I'd lost him! But he turned up and he's all excited about the US. in the Olympics as well and there he is, standing on guard for MEEEEE....

Also, a new MORE magazine Reinvention topic - these are pieces written by real people. Our own Jo from The Fifty Factor had a piece published here not long ago, so please check it out.

Well, you have your homework, now get to it!

Happy Week!

Lulu

A Mormon, Two Catholics and a Jew from Iran Walk into a Mexican bar....

....and that was just the LAST event of my mini vacation getaway to Vegas baby!

Yes, Mr. Lulu and I snuck away to the land of Big Hotels, Bigger Casinos and Biggest Boobs for four days last week. We had a great suite, ate at some wonderful places, saw two good shows and gave our money a ride around the various casinos before we just gave up and handed it to the dealer.

Raymundo the Dealer with the gold cap: "Do you want some chips for this last crumpled dollar? I could break off a piece of this here old Frontier chip from the '50's that got into our stack for ya -"

Lulu: "Naw, I'm sure this casino needs it more than me. Besides, I need to get back to my room to listen to more of the screaming argument that started at 3 am in the room next to us last night. I hope it's still loud, because I have a crease in my ear from pressing it up to the adjoining door so that I could hear the response to slurred statements such as, 'Look, I GAVE you the choice to do the NASTY mambo with your mumbleMUMble! I cain't hep it if you DISScide to jump the mumblemumble and twist the damn MUMBLEejumble with THOSE VERY FINGERSssss!!' "

You canNOT put a value on that kind of entertainment. Priceless.

Oh, and the event? Just simply a wonderful little golden nugget of a lunch with MFT who flew in to see us for lunch and then spend the weekend with her friend.....

We had sangria. Because it's healthy, what with the fruit and all.

Local Area Winter Wonderland Festivities Cancelled....Due to Snowstorm

def. 'Blog Title above' (see 'perfect example of irony')

Yes, here in the lovely Carolinas, we woke up this morning to 4-6 inches of sleet and snow. The meteorologists have been on TV round the clock, giving breathless reports of 1-10 inches of snow across the area! Please stay home! Local malls closed! Milk, bread, eggs and water sold out in local grocery stores! On to our traffic girl Tammi with a look on the traffic cam! Look, there's a car! Driving! Ooooooo....! Now on to local reporter Suzie with a ruler stuck in the snow and it's...omigod Tom, 2.5 inches!!!!

It's positively orgasmic for Tom and Tammi and Suzie at the local networks. And oh yeah - the winter wonderland festivities have been postponed until the spring. When the snow melts.

No Creative Blog Title Today

Do you find yourself going through your day and your week, going about your life, working out, working, houseworking, reality TV-watching, eating, talking, child-caring, driving, texting, crafting, cell-phone talking, charity-giving, Haiti-pictures crying, laundrying, budgeting, bill-paying, arguing, making up, kissing, blogging, internet and youtube cruising, reading, etsying, and thinking - I should blog about this and that and the other and yeah - that.

And then during or after you get through all of that lifeing, you get a chance to sit down to blog, you forget the cool funny deckster stuff you were going to blog about...

Me too.