i have a lot of stuff to

do today and not much to talk about.  So I'm just going to post a couple of random pictures I have on my computer.  The first is pretty obvious.  The second is a back staircase from Graceland.  It's runs alongside a jungle room and a little recording studio where I believe they said Elvis recorded "Moody Blue".  I wish we could have gone up there.

last night we

watched Avatar.

It definitely wasn't one of my favorite movies.

for a while we had

one thing to go along with our hamburgers.  Onion strings.

We like them better than onion rings.  They're so thin and crispy and good.  Since we've been eating better we haven't had any onion strings, until Sunday.  I miss onion strings.

Now I have to sign off.  I have a ton of things to do today.  I need to walk, edge the yard, clean up a mirror I'm about to paint for Lauren, finish a painting I'm working on for Lauren, paint frames for the painting I'm working on for Lauren and bake a cake for bingo...along with the usual stuff.  I have decided on one thing though.  I need a shed.  I don't mean a shed shed, I mean a workshop shed.  A shed with light, air, a sink a restroom and heck, I guess a refrigerator and couch too.  I need a place to do my stuff.  A place to make artsy stuff and just be creative.  I need a studio.

this morning i grabbed

a couple of sausages out of a container of leftovers.  I almost stuck this one in my mouth but then I looked a little closer.

For about two seconds I considered not eating it or any other processed meat ever again.  And then it was gone.

it's a little late but

I originally wanted to post this picture for Easter.  I love it.

If ever a picture were to be titled "WTF?!?", this would be it.  Eric was about three months old.

happy earth

day.  All morning I've had Earth, Wind and Fire in my head, even though I'm not a fan.  BUT... I am a fan of these people who redo music their own way.  Here's their take on Earth, Wind and Fire.  I like it almost as much as I like their take on Beyonce but I really like this one.

While on the topic of Earth and Earth day, I'd like to point out this logo.

In this day and age with everybody trying to save the planet, is this really the best they could come up with?

happy birthday to

Lauren.  I sent her a text this morning telling her I hadn't gotten around to the post yet.  The pictures I have aren't the best quality but I'm posting them anyway.

Here I am holding Lauren.  The look on my face is a little creepy but Lauren just seems to be going along with it.  She's just chilling out.

Ever wonder what to give Lauren for her birthday?  (Or Christmas or Easter or any day at that)  Money.  It seems to get her excited.  Nothing like a little money to make you want to gasp and... er... grab your feet?  Uh... okay.

What doesn't seem to do the trick is hanging out with family, even if it is Jake and Brittany.  The walkman is doing no good.  Somebody should have dangled money in front of her.

Aww, a cute, chubby baby seems to mellow her out a little.

Or maybe just a hat.  (This was the Christmas Lauren and I decided we would be different and wear hats for the occasion.)

Oh well, I'm sure she's going out and having a good time tonight even if she doesn't have a hat, a cute little baby... or money!

unlike his rebel

friends,

 this one was a law abiding duck.

 

This was out at the San Jacinto carnival this weekend.

i've noticed lately i usually

have something posted before 7:00 each morning.  I don't really have anything to post today so I decided I post pictures to show why.

Today's garbage day.  I need to get two pounds of shrimp cleaned before the garbage gets picked up.

I want to bake a chocolate sheet cake.  Even though it's way too big for just us, Eric's having friends over tomorrow to help him with the wiring on the MG.  I figure that big of a cake might be perfect.

I need to make another pitcher of tea.  By the way, I only had one soft drink yesterday and it was a diet Dr. Pepper.  I didn't have any Coke.  It's looking like today might not go the same.

If I get around to it I might make rolls.  Let me rephrase that.  IF I get around to it I MIGHT make rolls.  While all of that is going on I'm doing laundry.

Once again, while there is a lot going on... there's not much going on.  Okay so maybe pictures of these things weren't necessary but didn't it make the post easier to read and maybe a little more filling?

i've cut back and

I think I'm doing okay.  It started with every time I had a soft drink, I had to have a bottle of water next.  I'm not following that exactly but I am also not drinking as many soft drinks.  We'll see how long it lasts.

i was out doing some

work in the yard yesterday.  Looking ahead as I mowed, I saw a bright pink flower standing by itself.  Before I mowed it down I ran to get the camera.  There was a little lavender flower beside it too.  Still thinking of Dad's print that I posted yesterday, I immediately thought of Lauren's new apartment.  You can see the two flowers here.

In case the blog looks a little off today, I might be in the process of making adjustments.  That's a big might.

now that it was

ordered, delivered and opened, I can share the canvas Dad received last week.

I made this last summer at the driving range.  I hope it turned out okay.  I've never ordered the gallery wraps but I've always been happy with this particular company's prints.

the cats were due for

a trip to the vet.  For some reason I thought it would be easier to take them at once.  The last time I used the cage there was plenty of room for two cats.  I scheduled their appointment and got the cage down and dusted off.  Note to self: cats get bigger.  It was a tight fit.

I wanted a picture so I kept calling for Lucille to look up at the camera.  She just kept her head hung like she was so sad to be in there.  This was unusual because Lucille's the one that loves being in tight spaces.

I got down to see why she would look up at me.  Oh, I see.

Her face was smashed against the door.  A few minutes later she realized she could make adjustments and get a little comfortable.  By that time, I believe Strat was getting fed up so he started to plan an escape... which he has done in the past.

He couldn't reach the latch on the bottom.  So he started to investigate a latch on the top.

I don't know if he pressed his face against the door to make me feel sorry for him and let him out or if he was trying to figure out how exactly to get to the bottom latch.  (I understand it could very possibly be neither of those reasons but that's how I'm piecing it together.)

Which ever he was thinking, he eventually gave up and decided to just go with it.  The office visit was another story.  It took me and the help of two others to get Lucille out to be weighed.  It's no wonder I figured they would both fit in the cage.  The last time Lucille was in it she was 5 pounds and Strat was 7.  This time they were 11.9 and 18.3.

I did like the convenience of taking them at once so sometime in the next year it'd probably be in my best interest, and the cats' too, to invest in a bigger cage.

**this post has been

edited to protect the "innocent".  through emails, my friend Jamie and I touched on the topic of OCD and the necessity of having everything just right.  She was referring to a birthday party she's planning but I agreed with her and realized how many things that applies to with me.  Okay, perhaps it's not OCD but I know I'm a control freak, especially when it comes to creative control.  A lot of the times I realize that if it's not done exactly how I think it should be done, I lose interest and want no part of it.  This not only applies to birthday parties or similar events but school projects too.  Sometimes I get carried away with school projects. 
Monday morning Eric told me he had a project due on Wednesday.  I thanked him for not telling me Friday and at least giving us the weekend to work on it.  He explained what had to be done... a family tree.  Ohhh, my mind began to explore all the different things we could do.  What fun.  I started rambling off ideas, all the different techniques or mediums we could use.  Eric stopped me.  "This is for Medical Terminology... it's not Art."  Fine.  Whatever.  He obviously wouldn't need my help.  Fast forward to 6:30 Tuesday evening.  Eric walks in the kitchen and tells me he needs help drawing a tree.  Even though I'm so excited to try a different idea I had earlier in the day, I didn't let it show.  "Fine.  Bring me your project board."  A few minutes later we had a black and white tree.  Sharpie on white.  (boring.)  I explained to him how there are places in the branches for the names to be written.  Done.

I really don't know why I get like this over school projects.  Maybe if I had done my own instead of pushing them off as another one does, I would have gotten it out of my system... or not.

this picture is about

to drive me nuts.  I found it over at Twomama's.  From back to front on the couch it is Kim, Mom, me and Cindy.  I just want to know where it was taken and who is the baby.  As much as the baby looks like Lauren, it's not.  I was eleven when Lauren was born and considering I'm about five in the picture, do the math.

I do have to add this fact.  I always loved the skirt Mom is wearing in the picture.  It reminded of Cha Cha from Grease.  Even though she was mean and stole Sandy's place in the dance contest, I still liked her dress and wanted to dance like they did.

i didn't do a very

good job with Easter this year.  I had a postcard to scan and post to wish everyone a Happy Easter.  I didn't get around to it.  I didn't even get around to buying cards and candy.  Eric woke up Sunday morning and wanted to know what was going on.  He woke up excited and came into the living room to find nothing.  I told him I was sorry.  I made up for it yesterday.  I had to run to the store and passed the Easter candy aisle.  Then I realized that all the Easter candy was half off so I loaded up on Eric's favorites.

I left them in the bag and when he got home I told him Happy Easter.  While filling my basket with the peanut butter eggs, I also saw some cute little fruity, gummie candy I just had to have.  They're so cute I'll show you the three that were left in the pink package after eating the bunny and chick.  An owl,

a squirrel

and a porcupine.

The pinks were so cute I had to get blue too.

when we left

Graceland, we went for lunch.  We were planning on this place but they didn't open for another two hours.  (I will try again when we go back to Memphis for Bluesapallooza - our road trip we planned a year or two ago to drive up the Mississippi Blues Trail to Memphis.)  Anyway, the next thing we thought of was a restaurant of Gina and Pat Neely from Food Network.  So that's where we stopped for lunch, Neely's BBQ.  It was pretty good.  Mom only had a drink, Eric just had chicken tenders and fries but I had a wet-glazed pork rib platter while Cosme had either the chopped or pulled pork plate.  It was good.  After Neely's we went back to the hotel but made a stop at Sun Studio for t-shirts (tour to be made on Bluesapallooza...along with a few others).  Mom had lunch and we packed our stuff up, checked out and hit the road for Shreveport.  Somewhere around Texarkana it started snowing.  What?  Yes, that's right.  We just left the east coast, it's the last day of spring break and it starts snowing when we get back to Texas.  It didn't last long, luckily.  We met up with Dad in Shreveport, did some gambling at Horseshoe and got to the hotel at 3:30 for some much needed sleep.  We woke up at 8:00 the next morning to find it snowing in Shreveport.  OMG.  Mom said it was snowing when they got to the hotel around 6:00.  Too much cold weather for me.  We headed south for home.  A few hours later we were back.

I think Strat was either trying to tell us we were not to leave again or if we were leaving again, don't forget to take him.

And that concludes our run down of Spring Break 2010.

i'm sorry but today's

post is going to be weak, really weak.  (Unfortunately, that's not an April Fools gag.)  Not only am I tired and have a lot of things to get done today but I have three pictures of the Elvis Car Museum...three... and they're not great.  Here they are.

See?  It's reasons like this I didn't get many photos.  I had the same lens on as in the house.  There were people and ropes always managing to get in the way.  I'm sure I was probably getting in someone's way too.  Whatever.

Eric got a few pictures on his phone but he still hasn't emailed them to me as requested.  Elvis had a 1960 red MGA.  It's cute.  Now Eric wants white wall tires on the MG.  (I think they're called white walls, anyway.)