Happy Saturday! We put some lights up yesterday outside, which my 12 year old has been wanting for years but we’ve never done. They look nice.
How are things with you?
Saturday Open Thread
57 thoughts on “Saturday Open Thread”
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Maclauren, I keep thinking about those great photos of yours. I love the richness of the color in them. I don’t seem to get the same quality from my Nikon D3100. Do you have any tips? I don’t know if it is my camera, or if you have done any editing, or if I am doing something wrong. Thanks!
Thanks for putting up the open thread, PoB! We got home late last night (attended a cousin’s wedding, I was a bridesmaid and DH was a groomsman). It was a long, exhausting day, plus I drank for the first time in what has to be several years. So it slipped my mind to schedule the thread, LOL.
It was a lovely wedding, very traditional. Full Catholic mass, with a live mariachi playing the music. DH and I placed the ceremonial lasso on their shoulders during the ceremony (for more on the symbolism, look up “lazo” and “arras” at this website: http://www.2.a-weddingday.com/weddings/latinweddings.html
After the ceremony, the mariachi played on the front steps of the church while everyone mingled and took pictures. During cocktail hour at the wedding venue, an all-female mariachi played, and they were badass. Food was great, bride and groom were radiant. Everyone seemed to have a great time, which is all you can ask for. A live Mexican banda played during the reception. There was a photo booth and a chocolate covered strawberry bar, where they would inject the strawberry with your liqueur of choice (mine was Grand Marnier. YUM). Plus DH looked like James Bond in his tux, which is always a bonus
It was also a kid-free wedding, which is very definitely NOT traditional among Mexicans. This caused lots of grumbling among some family members, but I think ultimately everyone had a great time without worrying about kids running underfoot. I know we did!
Best part: because the wedding was on a Friday, we still have the whole weekend ahead of us! Today we are taking the kids to a matinee of Yo Gabba Gabba Live!
Wow, the chocolate covered strawberry bar sounds amazing!
It was! There was white chocolate and dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Some had nuts. Plus whipped cream to add on. Pretty genius.
my brother and my SIl had the ceremonial lasso at their wedding.. it was beautiful… I was only 16 and thought their traditional mexican wedding was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
Sounds like a really fun wedding!
We road tripped to Kittery and Ogunquit today to do Christmas shopping for our friends and have a fireside lunch at a cozy Ogunquit spot. Kelly got liza a present at the Kittery outlets that will make her completely lose her marbles.. what a great step mom she is!
Can’t wait to hear what it is!
I’ve bought one present. Should really get on that. We went to the mall yesterday, but instead of presents got a dress for the college girl’s semi formal next month. As the sales guy embarassed her by saying, the ginger is going to rock the black dress.
Sounds like a lovely road-trip! Cozy lunch by the fire sounds wonderful.
Peck, peck, pecking away at the big report for work. I think I will actually get it done on time. This next week’s not going to be pretty and I predict we’ll eat a lot of frozen food and/or take out over the next seven days … but this WILL get done and be decent.
Also took time to hit the farmer’s market today and do a little local shopping — and hit Amazon and Walgreens Photo as well. Pretty much all extended family gifts have been taken care of.
Now, have a big pot of sausage and olive pasta sauce simmering on the stove and am back to peck, peck, pecking at the report…
Glad your report is slowly getting done – good for you for keeping at it and for likely hitting the deadline!
Other parts of the weekend sound great, too – shopping, farmer’s market, pasta sauce – all YAY in my book!
Thanks! I’m needing all the encouragement I can get right now:-)
And, I’ve to say that I am sooooo grateful for the Cloud. I’m backing this report up several times a day on Google Drive and Amazon Cloud just in case something goes kerfloo with my computer.
You can do it!
Clara and I got to meet Cynmill today, woot woot! She’s as smart and fun in person as she is online, I can report. AND she bought me a latte, which I proceded to completely spill on myself. I’m on a roll lately with meeting only curly haired MTers. Who’s next?
me? I have curly hair!
Not me. My hair is straight as a stick
Actually …. it’s straighter than a stick … most naturally-occuring sticks have at least a little bend somewhere ….
I’m a curly head too!
Maybe someone will need to take an east-west road trip on I80 and have a pit stop in Omaha. Or come to the College World Series this summer? A girl can dream, right?
My 12 yo would love to go to the CWS.
Somehow I’m not sure that is what I want to spend our summer vacation time and money on though…
I get that. Though a massive cocktail MT meetup while DHes and kids go to ballgames sounds heavenly
DH and I have had two kid-free days. DS was away for three weeks this summer, so we’ve had kid-free before, but something about this being a four day weekend has mad it really relaxing.
Yesterday I did some work in the morning, then went into Manhattan to browse the holiday shops in Bryant Park. This is one of those things that I cannot do with anyone else – I’m too worried that the other person is bored/cold/annoyed. By myself, I meandered happily for over an hour, then called DH, who was able to get out of work early and meet me for dinner. ((I also bought him an awesome Hannukah gift at the shops))
Today we had a slow morning – I woke up at 8, we didn’t eat breakfast until after 9:30, – but then we drove out to The Hamptons (which I capitalize because that’s how people speak about it) – the South Fork of Long Island. In the summer, this area is insufferable – too many rich people and movie stars, and the people who fawn over them – and very crowded. But this time of year it calms down – and we had a vineyard we’ve been wanting to visit – so off we went. Had some lovely wine (and bought some to take home), then drove into town to eat a little and get fresh air, and then went to a second vineyard. Not as impressed with their wine, but still nice and we bought two more bottles. Home in time for leftovers for dinner and a relaxing evening. The next six weeks are crazy-busy (even as someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas), so a calm weekend is very much needed.
Sounds like a perfectly lovely couple of days!
How nice!! Glad you got some r and r
Last day in Hawaii. Sigh. I wouldn’t normally spend it online, but after I removed my snorkel flippers this afternoon I still had one last bit of lava to cross, and I carved a chunk out of the bottom of my left foot. Good thing there were no sharks nearby. So I’m back at the condo, supervising DS11 from a poolside lounge chair. Hawaii turned out to not be easy on him, which we kind of expected – its too warm and humid, and his sensitive feet struggled with footwear options and sand. But we’re glad we came; we accommodated his issues as much as possible and he had a great time.
You know what rocks? The trip from “our in-town dance supply place doesn’t have a nude leotard and won’t have one before the Nutcracker!” to “Danskin has one- plus the dance sweater she needs- and I have a 30% off plus discount shipping coupon code.”
The only shopping bummer today was that all of the McKenna stuff Molly wanted from the American Girl store is sold out. It’s okay though- we got her the thing she really wants. It just means my mom, sister, and Grandma are bumming.
I think life is charmed when I’m with Kelly — we each ordered a glass of wine and the waitress brought these HUGE glasses and Kelly said “wow.. that’s a healthy pour” and she said “It’s not supposed to be but the kitchen’s closing in 20 minutes so i figured what the hell.. I like you guys”
YEAHHHH this was supposed to go under Sue’s comment… Sorry L… !
but it occurs to me that Liza probably has outgrown dance stuff M. could use… let me look and next tiem I see you I can pass some along
The first vineyard we went to today had very healthy “tasting” samples……after the first taste, we ordered food o go along!
Sounds like that was some mighty fine wine. Someday I’ll meet Kelly and we’ll drink too much wine together. We’ll take any dance stuff you (or Liza) have to spare.
cool.. I have to replace her white leotard that she’s outgrown, so I’ll put the old one aside and I just replaced her nude leotard and have that aside as well, although I suspect that it woudl be too big for M. anyway.. does she do lyrical? we have 9million pairs of old foot pads… sigh…
Nope, just ballet. I can’t figure out how folks do more than one class- the cost and the schedule is just nuts. Maybe if she quit gymnastics, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. (I don’t think MoCo even has lyrical now that I think of it…) I’m sure it’s too small right now (she’s just barely in an Intermediate), but she’ll grow.
Thanks much!
our perclass fee goes down the more she takes… she takes five per week now and if she goes on pointe soon it will be six…so about um.. $170 a month… two ballets, lyrical, jazz, and modern. You have to take two ballets per week to get on pointe so that started a few years ago.. they add them on as you go — she started ballet at 4, jazz at 6, lyrical at 9, and modern last year.. so it sort of just creeps up on you LOL
oh and they’re good about ‘clumping’ her classes.. schedule wise.. they tend to move kids in blocks.. she has 3 of her classes on thursday and if she goes on pointe that will be thursday also, then one on monday and one on wednesday.. it’s not so so bad..
Perhaps someone from her studio could advise the guy who runs M’s. Oh wait- he knows everything and can’t POSSIBLY be bothered with trying to make things simpler on the families. One must suffer for dance, after all.
I so wish she could dance at NHSB wit the girl.. she’d have a ball.
She would. Unfortunately, I can’t make that kind of schlepp happen.
I have some black leotards if you need those.
Always! What sizes?
Probably 10s
Hmmm…probably better give them to someone else then. It’ll be years until she’s in that size and who knows if she’ll be dancing then.
Kicking back, relaxing, doing not much in particular. Still in the post-turkey bliss. We’ve all been nibbling here and there, and I suppose I’ll do a massive pot of turkey and rice soup for dinner tomorrow.
It’s feeling very early summer here in Melbourne – warm and balmy. So we’re doing a few things around the house, because it feels like this is the last weekend of calm before the Christmas season is upon us. I’ll pull out my Christmas present and card lists today or tomorrow and start prepping. Thank goodness, my SIL is doing Christmas this year so I’m not responsible!
How do you like having Xmas in the summer?
It’s actually really nice! Nothing nicer than to be able to open presents and then go swimming!
Last year M’s class did this “holidays around the world” unit where they had to dress up like the country they were representing, bring in a food from that country, and do a little oral report. The kid who got Australia came in his swimsuit, a hoody and flip flops. His mom and dad totally won the school lotto on that one.
Is the symbolism of it summery there, or do you still have Santa in his big red coat in a sleigh landing on a snowy roof or whatever?
Wouldn’t it be similarly non-wintery where you live?
It’s winter in late Dec here, just not snowing. It is generally in the 40s-50s, foggy and rainy. But the Christmas ‘tone’ for the country is set by places where it snows in December, kwim?
oh, Santa is totally in winter outfits. Which is just terrible for the Santa impersonators. And you still get people who want to have a “traditional English Christmas dinner” – the roasts with all the trimmings. In a summer kitchen. (Not us, though – we BBQ).
I get the winter dress Santa in all climates, as that is always how he’s depicted in pop culture, but it always cracked me up in Alabama that people put inflatable snowmen on their lawns and used other kinds of snowy decor. Why?
you would bust a gut here, then. We get people that spray on that artificial snow in their windows.
Really? Santa here is in boardies and sunglasses! And his elf…don’t get me started on 20 year old blonde elves in bikinis.
I’m with you on the roast dinner though. Just ridiculous. We’re doing seafood.
we have standards in Melbourne. We may kill a few Santas each year through heat stroke, but by gosh, we have standards.
And bikini-clad elves sounds hidious.
unless the elves look really different than the typical short portly dudes I’m picturing
Yeah…definitely different. I think the elf with the basket of candy is really for the dads.
The whole family just joined a gym… this will either be awesome or terrible… working out with the girl… what a concept
It will be hysterical. If you thought Weight Watchers had potential, I can only imagine the comedy gold to be found in Zumba.