Wrinkle Free

The quest for not ugly household items continues....

Vintage $10 ironing board before:Another View (note the cute doggie on the couch):





Vintage $10 Ironing board post attack with a hammer and some yellow strawberry fabric:

A close up of the militant strawberries:


Cool, yes?

-Katie

Down by the Bay....

So the jaunt to Grandma's continues...

Yesterday and today I spent some time with N, my cousin, who is 14. Some background.. yes? She's the youngest cousin and the last possible hope of stealing my position as the shortest family member under age 90. I was really hoping.... it didn't happen. After some careful measurement (the back to back test) she has about a half an inch on me, and I have 8 years on her. Such is life.

N and I caused all sorts of noise on our adventures. We walked all over creation looking for pink ribbon in a small town on a Sunday, ate icecream twice (re: last post about the increased consumption of ice cream in the summer), went canoing, recycled cans, attended violin lessons, and (attempted) to take a nap in the park.

A few higlights:

1. Yesterday, I got icecream all over me, and today N was pretty messy, even getting some in her hair.

2. We had such a BALL canoing. We borrowed a canoe from S (an avid reader of my blog) and his roomate. N and I carry this canoe down to the river not far from Grandma's house. While the owners of the canoe stand, watch and laugh. Thanks, guys. We get down to the water and begin to decide the seating arrangements for this expedition. N explains that the person who sits in the back steer. I don't know how to steer a canoe... seriously.. luckily she had half a clue and, although it was interesting, we managed not to run into everything. Not long after, we decided that canoing was an activity that required singing. The song of choice was "Down by the Bay" by Raffi. This was all fine except for that we didn't know all the words. No such thing would stop us. We just made them up. Basically, amazing. Ask if you'd like to know the "remix"


3. Naping = failure. We go to the park, find the right spot for the blanket, dog poop-free, and start to set it down. As I make a final check for anything offensive here comes this snake slithering his way up to me. I scream, she screams, we go inside. FAILURE.

I don't know if you read my blog, chicky, but I had so much fun with you. Can't wait to see you again!

Airplane Friends

Summer, in my opinion, is amazing. I don't know if you feel this way, but I think summer is a really happy time of the year... people are outside, some of us are out of school, tans deepen and the consumption of ice cream increases.. pretty much my favorite time of year (especially the ice cream part).

Along with the icecream, summer also often sends families and friends on trips. This week is vacation week for my parents and I. We're in the booming metroplex (not) of Potsdam, NY. They may not have things like, oh, Target, but you can't beat the scenery. Basically, it's everything that Texas isn't... hilly, green, zero humidity, you know.

Getting to Grandmas is an all day adventure. I wish it were as easy as "over the river and through the woods..." Anyway, after two flights, and a two hour drive, we made it!

One of my favorite things to do while traveling by air, well anytime really, is make new friends. Usually, the people I sit next to on airplanes are sub-par, but every once and a while you hit the jackpot! I mean, why not be friendly... you're going to be sharing germs for two hours.

This trip I made a good airplane friend. I'm not sure what his name is, but that's alright. On one of our flights I was assigned to an isle seat and a lady (another really lovely airplane friend) occupied the window seat. We wondered who (on our flight that was oversold by 10 people) was going to be sitting between us. Well, he showed up. I tried to find his face, but I had to keep looking up... he was REALLY tall. So this giant sits in the middle seat while my shrimpy self, who could curl up in an airplane seat, was livin' the good life on the isle. I watched him sit down, his knees crammed up against the seat in front of him, and I couldn't help but be sympathetic. I asked him if he wanted to switch. He seemed shocked. Seriously, though, I have a conscience, I'm not going to see that poor kid all sardine-like for hours when I would be just as comfortable in the middle as I would on the isle.

Obviously, he took me up on my offer.

He did, however, try to return the favor. At one point during my airplane nap he offered his shoulder in addition to my really uncomfortable airplane pillow. For some unknown reason, it wasn't creepy at all. I didn't take him up on his offer... i was able to sleep fine without.

Toasty!

I'm settling into my new place nicely. The couch comes from the consignment store tomorrow, and on the agenda for tonight is arranging my awkward make-shift pantry.

Here are some likes and dislikes about the new place:

Likes..
MUCH CHEAPER!
I have my own, formerly junky, revamped furniture (pictures at some point)
I love Alicia Fuhrman
We might get the style network
It's close enough to school that I don't have to buy a parking sticker/can bike to the grocery store
Happy can live with me
No parking permits/limited visitor parking so people can come over and have a place to park
Did I mention I love Alicia?

Dislikes...
I killed a cockroach in my BATHTUB last night
My neighbors fight really loudly (nothing new, however)
Coin laundry
Ugly 70's kitchen cabinets
No pantry

Now to the point... i didn't own a toaster, and i wasn't going to spend money on an ugly toaster. I refuse to buy something ugly that I will have to look at every morning when I eat breakfast. The only halfway decent ones were 10 fillion million dollars, so I decided I would be toasting in my oven until THE toaster was revealed to me. Today, I found it. The coolest toaster on the planet. I found it on clearance at Tuesday Morning. It was 15 buckaroos. Not bad for the coolest toaster in the world. Here is a picture of said toaster. MSRP $95.Isn't she beautiful?

-- KMW

Procrastinating

So, It's been a while... Here's an update:

I finished out the hardest semester of my life with a 3.6. Some of the grades that were posted, I doubt there is mathematical proof for. I'm going to say that my teachers are honest, and gave me the grade I deserve. It's probably true. I tend to underestimate myself sometimes.

I took my last final last Saturday and on Thursday I started 15 days of British Literature torture. College administration cleverly lable such torture as a "minimester". The name is so deceiving. When I think of the prefix "mini" I think of things like ... mini-muffins and travel size bottles of foo foo juice. Most every other "mini" item makes me pretty happy. I'll spend the next 2 weeks of my life reading all the time. I made the executive decision today to read sparknotes whenever possible. It sucks, but only for 15 days.

I spent Friday afternoon with the triplets. They're more amazing by the day. They're starting to say things on their own, instead of parroting everything that you say. For instance... we were sitting outside eating apples and drinking juice after our (yes, i napped too) nap. Their black lab (the coolest dog on the planet), Mizo, was supervising. We were talking about how Mizo doesn't eat apples, because he's a dog. I asked them, "Does ViVi eat apples.. does ZoZo eat apples.. does Sa eat apples... does Mizo eat apples" etc. We had established that the kids eat apples and the dogs don't. Then, Olivia says " TiTi (baby code for Katie) does apples eat?" Apparently we forgot to establish wether or not I eat apples too. My bad. She also told me "TiTi funny!" when I was pretending to be a queen with a bowl on my head. I cannot describe the insurmountable joy that those two words brought me.

Here's us a little while ago ... having some fun (from L: S,Z, & O)In other news. The swing society had elections. I'm the new secretary. Don't know how that happened. As Mark would say, "Katie, Katie, Katie". Yeah. I dunno. It's going to be great though. We have an excellent president. This year will include lots of dances, lessons, workshops, and some charity stuff. So if you're reading this and you're in swing. Watch out for some fun!

Also, I'm moving on the 28th. If anyone would like to lend some muscles. Hit me up.

Happy Blogging
- TackyAnnie

Little Marilyns

I excavated this picture online the other day. Aren't they excellent?







-- Tacky Annie

Shim Sham Shimmy!

To some of the Baylor swing dancers who are utterly uncultured, closed minded, and just plain bad...

Next Friday, when I meet Frankie Manning, I'm going to tell him about the "He-man shim sham haters club" forming in Waco. We'll see what he can do.





-- Tacky Annie

Facelift and Childrearing

How do you like the facelift?

Recently, I've been taking care of some new children. They're not the triplets, but they're growing on me. The younger, a boy, N is 6 and his older sister A is 9. They are a pile of fun. I really enjoy spending time with them. We've shared some pretty priceless moments in the last few weeks, as well as some that were really eye opening for me.

Do you want the funny ones or the touching ones first? I'll write the funny one's first and if you want the insightful/rant ones before, just scroll down.

A typical day with these two goes something like this... I pick them up from school, we get a snack either out or at home, then (except for Fridays) we do homework and fart around until mom and dad get home. One particular day we're sitting at TCBY eating our treats and A turns to me and says, "Miss Katie.. did you know that my mom is seeing .... *pause, I'm flipping out at this moment,as she fumbles over her words, that this girl is going to tell me her mother is having an afair, what was I going to do!?*She continued.." I mean that my mom.... uses other babysitters?" I answered her with a simple yes and after a short pause added, "Did you know... that I babysit other children?" She was in utter shock. By this time N at caught on to the conversation and was equally apalled. I quickly changed the subject before she asked me who was my favorite or confessed to me that I was not her favorite babysitter.

Not long after the incident described above, which was officially the first akward moment we had, A asked me an equally akward question. Before, I'll give some background. Their Mother is an alumna of Baylor and of the sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. I just don't get sororities. Lots of girls make friendships that last a lifetime in them, but they're just not for me. Knowing how I feel about sororities, you can immagine how I felt when A asked me "Miss Katie, are you in Kappa?" I proceeded to throw up a little just thinking that she would put me in such a catagory( kidding), but after I thought about it a little I decided it was a compliment, because she loves her mother, who is a Kappa. I asker her the reason for her inquiry and she simply replied, "All my babysitters are Kappas." Figures.

These kids , although they are wonderful, have made me realize how differently they are growing up than I did. A few instances have made me aware of the differences...

First, I had knowticed that N talks alot about guns, and the game of choice to play with his friends was "war", but one day something he said made me realize how much he knew. One important N fact is that he talks.. all the time. I really enjoy what he has to say. I like to listen to what he thinks. It interests me how his little cabeza is interpreting the world. One day he was talking about his toy guns. They look totally fake, which is good, and he loves them. I thought having a toy rifle and pretending to hunt or play "war" was alright until he told me what he knew about guns. He was able to tell me specific types of guns, not only rifles, but pistols too, and what each one was good for, and how they were unique from eachother. Hearing him say things like, " I use my 20 to shoot the enemy"gave me chills. I wasn't comfortable with a 6 year old knowing this much about weapons. The next time I saw him he asked if I would play war with him. I declined and explained that I dont like to play games like that and I took the opportunity to tell him that talking about guns and violence was something I wasn't comfortable with. He was very gracious and hasn't brought it up since. Two things come to my mind. 1. Where did he learn all of this specific weapon information, and 2. Why does he play games like that. I understand that all families are different, but I'm very blessed to have grown up in one that taught me that guns were for police officers, the army, and other grown ups, they are not toys, and they are not funny.

Another incident that really made me thankful for how I grew up involved food. The kid's grandfather has a business, at which their mother and father work. The grandfather has a vending machine in the office, where the products are sold to the employees at cost. An excellent idea if you ask me. A has this incredible skill for knowing when she is the princess, which is most of the time. She owns it, too. Last week, we were sitting in the office waiting for her mom to get out of a meeting when she asked if she could have something from the vending machine. I told her that I didn't have any change (total lie). She responded promptly with, "I know who has the key", and trotted off. I straggled after her to find she had interrupted an employee from her work and, since she's the bosses grandaughter, the employee got up to open the machine. Okay, nothing wrong with using what power you've got when you're 9, but what happened next totally floored me. Not only did she get a Dr Pepper and pretzles, she also got a Snickers and Starburts. I might also add that I talked her out of several other choices. What a piggy! As I watched in shock at how greedy she was being I asked her if she thought she had enough and reminded her that there would be other opportunities to intercept free treats from the employee who sucks up to the boss's grandaughter and the said vending maching. I talked her into only having the drink and one candybar, and saving the rest for later.
Later, I consulted with my mother about my 9 year old ways, and realized several things: People tell me I'm pretty selfless for an only child, whatever that means. I'm very thankful that somewhere along the way I learned that when someone is being generous, to accept a fair amount to be polite(like a can of soda) and not abuse the privelage (like taking one of everything). More than that I'm glad I rairly ever had a candybar, much less more than one. I think I can attribute that to my higher than average amount of self control when it comes to eating sweets. In the long run, I think it will keep me healthier longer.

The differences between families fascinates me. Little choices our parents made when we were kids really affect us now.

That being said.. I think I'm getting involved in the right profession.

Shots!

I has my last Gardasil shot yesterday. I'm pretty sure it made me sick.

Flu symptoms or HPV? You decide.

The 'Ole College Try

I'm so busy with school right now. Three tests and a project last week, two papers and an interview this week.

This is me... in the li-berry... looking for references.

If only my hair really looked that good!