The Gregarious Homebody: Is Anyone Out There? Wanna Swap?

Y'all go sign up for Jen's swap.

A Freak Like Me

Talking to my friend, Bonjour Madame, just made me realize: I am the Tracy Flick of the holidays. It seems that no one else keeps a spreadsheet of activities and gifts going back 8 years, as well as a database of Christmas card addresses. Any of my homies out there doing the same thing?

pic via

Ninety Years

On Sunday we had a party to celebrate my Grandmother's ninetieth birthday and her new house (an addition to my parents' house). Funny story: Grandmother is a twin, and she spent her actual birthday with her twin sister. Even at their ages, these ladies are CRAZY competitive. [You do NOT want to play a board game against them.] My mom called my great aunt and asked how her party was; when she asked how many people did she have, she told my mom, "About... 51." You know, roughly. So our goal was to beat that number. We had 76. Or so ;-).

Some photos...


This is a bad picture, but we were able to play some of her favorite records on an old Victrola my parents have. She likes Big Band.

From the florist.


I made cheese crackers, pecan tassies, and chicken salad finger sandwiches. We also put out cheese and crackers, fruit skewers, nuts, and of course a cake.

Sherbet punch -- now it's a party!

Winnie will kill me for posting this, but I thought her jacket was so cute.

More cuties


My family really knocked themselves out trying to get the house ready for the party. They are still rebuilding after Hurricane Ike did so much damage last year. This is the new downstairs bathroom, which Annie put together last week. Everyone loves the faucet.


Close-up of the creepy hand soap. Don't you love it? Available here.

What mamacita is...

Watching

Papi and I couldn't get into this show at first, but enough people kept calling it their "favorite show" that we had to give it another try. For whatever reason, now I think it's absolutely hilarious. We've been watching the episodes on Hulu. This season has me in tears with laughter.

This was really and truly coincidental, but today's Amazon Gold Box deal is the box set of Seasons 1-4 at 60% off regular price (in case you're interested). If you order it, make sure to get the Christmas DVD at the same time, because you'll get another $10 off.*

*Disclosure: I bet I get a shiny nickel out of it if you order through that link. Which is obviously the only reason I blog -- for all the phat loot.

Sunday Score

On Sunday I went to the Urban Market, where I found these great carved horn birds at a booth run by the lovely and talented Carolina Saunders. She had so much great stuff; I wish I could have bought it all.

Excitement of the Day

You know that calendar that Martha has in the front pages of her magazine? She has it on her website, too, only it's more detailed. You can display her calendars for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Homekeeping, and Gardening.

And! You can put her calendars on your own Google calendar (or Yahoo!, Outlook, or iCal calendars). Of course, you may not want to display them all at the same time, but they will be there in the sidebar when you're ready for them.

Ooooh, I'm so excited.

I finally figured out how to make the kids' costume pictures work. Updated post here.

Anybody want to trade Christmas cards? Leave a comment here; I'll email you with my address and you can send me yours.

Halloween Costumes

At the kids' school they have a "book character parade" for Halloween. Every kid is supposed to dress up as a character from a book. Emmet and Becca decided that they wanted to be their own characters that they made up. So they each wrote a book with those characters. I decided that would have to count.
Emmet is Emmet from the Emmet-Power Aquarium. His story involves rescuing seven crystals or something. You can't see his costume very well. We wrapped duct tape around an old t-shirt; the blue is a painter's tape bandolier. There are also some plastic "crystals" on there. The bottoms are sweatpants with crystal compass points on the left hip.


Becca is the Beccatron. She's wearing a bike helmet covered in foil and two foil roasting pans attached with duct tape. The buttons on the robot are condiment cups that she colored and I attached with hot glue. [There are also buttons on the top of the helmet.] Her outfit is complete with the famous shiny pants and silver glitter shoes. Oh, and she put crystal jewels on her costume, too, because, well, they were shiny. That's really all that matters.

Halloween Decorations

We had a Halloween party Saturday night. Becca and I worked together on the decorations; I liked the way they turned out.

papel picado banner (it was longer than this, obvs.)

eyeball ornaments

glitter skull arrangement on the windowsill in the bathroom

ghost luminarias

The ghost luminarias are made from milk jugs (I'm sure you totally couldn't tell). I used flameless tealights inside. I thought the tealights worked great, but if you buy them, be advised that there will be a lot of duds in every package. The first package had about 50% duds; subsequent packages had maybe 25% duds.

Who's that Spartan in my Tee-pee? It's ME! It's me!

Who's that Spartan in my Tee-pee? Its ME ITS me!, originally uploaded by houston mamacita.

You wouldn't want to be on the bottom of that pyramid.

Adding insult to the injury of my week: getting diet Coke in the drive-thru instead of the real Coke I requested. Seriously, universe: I AM ARMED. Don't tempt me.

The Eighties Time Capsule Post

What mamacita is...

Watching

When I was in junior high, my church youth group was invited to a lock-in at the Episcopal church in Port Arthur.

The thing I remember most about that night is how strange all the other kids looked. I remember at least one kid had a sidewinder haircut, which I'd never seen before. Other boys had long hair. Some kids had multiple piercings. There was a girl in Goth raiment (though I didn't know what to call it at the time). I remember calling my parents and saying, "There are some weird people here." It's not that I wanted to leave -- I just had to tell somebody about all the fascinating things that were happening.

For comparison's sake: in Bridge City, boys weren't allowed to wear their hair past their collars, and they definitely weren't allowed to have anything pierced. Girls weren't allowed to pierce anything besides their ears, once. [Things have changed now, and as far as I know, all of those rules have been set aside. Never thought I'd see that day!]

That night was the first time I heard R.E.M. It was the first time I ever saw people making out. It was a night out of a John Hughes movie -- all of one's teen experiences coming in the course of two hours.

In one of the rooms that night, they were showing The Hunger. [Who the hell was in charge of all this?] For someone who had never seen a boy with long hair, you can imagine that a vampire flick with David Bowie and a lesbian love triangle was something of a shock. In fact, I don't think I understood what was going on, but when I tried to leave the room I found that I was hemmed in by Jaimie Hancock sucking face with some dude.

So, to be honest with you, I don't remember much about this movie. That's why I'm watching again tonight.

It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.

Last-Minute Costumes, and SHINY

I thought you might like to know that there is a wealth of last-minute Halloween costume inspiration on the American Apparel website.

I know this because I had to buy the kids some clothes recently. The leggings I bought for Becca are off the chain. I really wanted to buy some for myself, except I think that encasing my cottage cheese into these awesome pants is probably illegal. Check it out:


Are those not the best pants EVER?

It's the little things.

It's the little things., originally uploaded by houston mamacita.

I am totally JAZZED about the new buggies at Kroger.

Family Movie Night

It turned out to be scarier than we thought it would be, but the kids still liked it.

two front teeth

two front teeth, originally uploaded by houston mamacita.

Somebody lost her two front teeth last night.

haircut

haircut, originally uploaded by houston mamacita.

I think the little spikes make him look like Tintin.

Let's Talk Halloween

I LOVE Halloween. I've been thinking about our Halloween party since school started. I've been talking about Halloween decorations to everyone I see. Just so you know my feelings on the subject.


Because this right here? It bugs the shit out of me. Every time I drive by this house, I think about this. [DON'T click that link, Letitia.]

Is it just me? Am I being too sensitive?

Dave Grohl is Your New Bicycle

Rainy day, and I'm listening "Everlong" over and over. Fuck yes.

Don't Worry, There's Something in It for You

So I bought this comforter yesterday. Yes, it's a comforter in a bag from Target: sue me. I needed something easy. It's supposed to be chartreuse, but it looks a little more baby-shit brown in my bedroom. The trim is very dark brown.

This is where it gets difficult: I seriously need some curtains. Right now my bedroom windows are covered with wrapping paper, which is pretty ghetto, even for me. So I need your help in finding curtains. I'm also open to whatever other suggestions you have about the room. Currently it is just a white box with berber carpet. The dresser and closets are built-ins (painted white) so I'm not looking for more furniture, although I am looking to make an upholstered headboard. I was also thinking about these Audubon prints (from a book) for the walls, but now I'm not so sure.

And this was the original inspiration, FWIW:

(more here)

And so to solicit as many replies as possible, I'll sweeten the pot. One commenter chosen at random will win ... let's see what I have in my purse ... a pen from my credit union! And ... a ponytail holder! Okay, and a $10 gift card to Starbucks. Because the least I could do is buy you a couple of pumpkin spice lattes.

Do I need to start all over? I'm not married to the comforter; in fact, I'm a notorious catch-and-release shopper.

So give me your best shot. If you only have ideas, that's cool, but if you can link to curtains/ paint colors/ artwork, etc., that's even better. I'll keep this going for a week and then I'll draw a name of the winner. Thanks everybody!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that your answers should not include paisley anything.

Cthulu Was Here

Today I started doing the work of two people, still with my part-time hours and no pay increase, of course. It was coming in from all sides, so right now I'm hiding under my desk. Don't worry, I found some Cheez-Its under here; I should be fine for a while.

The best part of today was the "Wishing to Join" card that some kid left in a collection plate:

Date: 6-6-06
Name: vampire
Home: 1563 Lodge Center
Work: killing demons
Birthdate: 1891, April 1
Have you been baptized: No
Transferring from: waste management

So I'm the only one who didn't like it?

Or does it get better after the pilot?

A Post Just for Ben

A good Christian rock band? Now I really have seen everything. Naturally, they are nuttier than a box of Goo Goo Clusters.



I did wonder if they were a hoax, but the photos on their website suggest otherwise. And this may be their only good song -- those two songs about the heresy of the Trinity aren't very good.

via Flubby

Lady lawyers in Britain are getting some kind of lingerie allowance. I don't fully understand what working late has to do with needing new underwear, but I couldn't pass up the chance to make an "Are You Being Served?" reference.

Favorite Metafilter Threads

These are some of my favorite Ask MetaFilter discussions. [Here is the list of user-voted favorites of all time.]

Upgrade Me

I Love You, Smartwool

Easy Ways to Make Life Easier

Let's Make Life Fun and Easy

Brilliant Recurring Calendar Events

World's Most Useful Dead Tree Catalogs

The Best Bargains at IKEA

Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich

How can I search for cheap last-minute flights out of a particular city but with no particular destination in mind?

The Great Muppet Caper

Family movie for tonight. With Charles Grodin! And I forgot it was set in London -- that's especially exciting.


I tried to explain to Becca that when I was a girl I liked Miss Piggy just as much as she likes Hello Kitty.

Every damn time

Every damn time, originally uploaded by houston mamacita.

I suppose I would lose my purpose in life if anyone else ever replaced it.

A Day in the Life

Mer is my favorite person now because she sent me this. NSFW

DON'T MESS WITH MY PILES!

Someone Needs to Buy This

Weekly Reader tote from BackGarage's etsy shop. It would be the most perfect library tote ever.

I kinda want to get Emmet this poster

The Rugh Family Workshop makes this and other cool Autism-awareness posters.

Shake It

As discussed previously, Choire Sicha is truly one of my favorite homos. But he is so wrong about these new flavors at the Shake Shack! They sound pretty good to me. [With the possible exception of Balsamic Fig, but maybe nobody goes there on Thursdays anyway.]

My Children Are Now Minions of the Red Army

My kids didn't get to watch the Commandant's President's speech this morning, because their teachers felt like they couldn't give up any valuable instruction worksheet-shuffling time. This made Papi pretty hot under the collar, so we sat the kids down this afternoon and made them drink the Kool-Aid watch the speech. It really was an excellent talk -- important socialist ideas communicated to children in an effective way. I think the President should brainwash address schoolchildren at the beginning of every year. Seems like a good way to pass on communist patriotic values.

But in case your children didn't catch it, here is the video of the speech.

What mamacita is ...

Reading

I've nursed a crush on P.J. O'Rourke for almost two decades now.

Watching

The next time I get a movie from Netflix and Letitia says, "Oh, Mike and I loved that movie!" I think I'm going to return it unopened.

He's a lovable slob! Who majored in philosophy! He likes Josie and the Pussycats! He's good with kids! He and his friends dress like 15 year-olds! They make up zen koans about sex!

No one in this movie can act his way out of a paper bag, and the combination of book-jacket philosophy and 1998 fashion is more than my senses can take. Furthermore, I have to disagree with Roger Ebert: every line in this movie was entirely predictable. There has never been a less-sexy movie. It made Flipper look like an erotic thriller. F minus.

Family Movie Night

A few weeks ago, we started having Family Movie Night on Fridays. It was originally supposed to be Family Game Night, but after the fifteenth round of Cranium Cadoo in five minutes, I realized I wasn't cut out for Family Game Night.

So a couple of weeks ago, we watched The Incredibles, which is an awesome movie, I don't care who you are. Then last week we watched Annie Get Your Gun, which was also great.

This week we're watching Flipper (the original 1963 version). Emmet has asked questions about every single thing going on. "Who's that guy? Why did he go in the water? Is that dolphin going to be okay?" Papi has taken to making up answers, all of which Emmet believes: "He's going to eat the dolphin. Yeah, the mom is going to cut up the dolphin and cook it. That dad really hates dolphins." And so on.

The best part is watching the kid do all the chores. That sort of labor is entirely foreign around here. Papi suggested that we might trade our kids in for kids who do chores. Emmet said, "But Daddy, we're the most playful kids! Other kids aren't so interested in playing with you."

FWIW, we were 45 minutes into the movie when Becca asked, "Is that a dolphin or a shark?" Yeah, we're not too sure about her.