Dear Wrigley's,

I am a big gum chewer. Like, a pack a day wouldn't be uncommon for me. and I love Extra, its my favorite. But I don't understand why you had to go and switch the packaging. Extra used to come in regular gum packs - small and rectangular, with one row of gum sticks. Now its in this awkward, large rectangular pack with three rows of gum sticks that usually end up all over my purse because they aren't as tightly packed as the old way. Its dumb. If the new, un-user friendly packaging wasn't bad enough, you've also taken to putting really lame, not at all clever sayings on the inside. So instead of just being able to look forward to my delicious gum, now I cringe at what will inevitably be a stupid pun on the inside of the package.
a)it's not even funny and b) really? before I put something in my mouth you want me to think about butts?
I would switch gum if anyone else made something even half as good.
boo.
Love,
Shan

Obervations from the other side of the table

We (meaning Pasty Cline and I) set up our Strippy Longstocking pasty booth at Last Thursday last night. We had a great crowd and sent quite a few people home with pasties! It's always interesting to watch the passers by and those who stop to look. Most people are absolutely delightful and I love to see those that look over their shoulder and raise thier eyebrows or wink at me. Its so cute when couples go through the selection together. I have couples stop all the time and the guy dares the girl to wear them and they giggle. The smartest guys say "I'll buy them if you wear them." Since I've heard these phrases so often, I even have them written on notecards on the table mixed in with the descriptive notecards of the pasty categories. However, not all my observations are positive. I had three couples come up last night where the girl was TOTALLY into them and wanted a pair. One girl had held up three pairs and the guy with her wouldn't even acknowledge what she was doing. She pointed to the "Dare your girlfriend to wear them.." and he just looked at her and looked away. Another couple did almost the same thing and she pointed to the "you buy them and she wears them.. deal?" sign and was ignored. One guy actually looked at each pair his girl held up and she asked him to pick his favorite and she'd get them and wear them that night. He just shrugged and walked away. That poor girl wanted to get them so bad and just needed a nudge of encouragement from him. As she left, she looked over her shoulder at me, wishing I could give her the push that she needed, but she needed it from him. None of these girls was going to wear them to a party or anything, they wanted to wear them for the guys they were with and they got shot down. (PS they're $15, so it wasn't like they were super expensive or anything..) GUYS!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!?! This is your mate making the initiative to do something sexy FOR YOU! something adorable and sexy and fun and unless your crazy Aunt Sally used to wear pasties around the house and you are scarred for life, for goodness sake, encourage it! and I hope that you never ask that girl to hang from her knees on a chandelier or anything to please you, because if she says no, you'll totally deserve it.

On a totally different note, but from the same observation booth, a lot of people think they are pretty clever when they come up to the booth and ask if I'll model the pasties. really? that's the best you can do? I had a guy come up to me last night and tell me I was gorgeous and that I probably had a husband or mate or something but he'd like to just look at me all day. Then he took two steps back and yelled "WHOO." about 5 second later, another guy came up to my table, looked me in the eyes, smiled nicely, handed me a handful of lavender, smiled again and continued walking. I hope guy number one was taking notes.

I can't wait to see what happens next month.

Wordless Wednesday

It's going to be like I'm in The Jetsons.

I have always taken tons of pictures. I've carried a camera everywhere since junior high. I was super scared to switch to digital and waited a long time before I did it. I also take great care in putting together my photo albums and keeping track of every picture I've taken. In the basement, I have a shoebox of negatives arranged by month and year and a quick description of what's in each file. When I finally upgraded to digital, I implemented procedures for myself to keep the pictures organized and still upkeep my lovely albums. My albums are amazing. They are well put together and show our whole life. I love them. But I don't go through them very often. But its important to me to keep up with it because taking pictures is a constant reminder to me about how special and fun my little life is. A few years ago, all three of us kids got together and bought my mom a digital frame (Rob's idea) and I gave her a hand-me-down digital camera. The cool thing was that I could send her a card with a ton of pictures that I had for her to play and it was cheap and easy. Since then, she has upgraded the frame and I bought her a new camera (just like mine, for easy tech support :)) and still loves it. I just got my friend Kimberly a digital frame and made her two cards of pics because she is packing up her Portland life and moving to Hawaii. and now, I'm going to do it too. big sigh for life change. I'm going to stop making printed albums. Lately, I have had a hard time finding the photo sheets that I like (everything is scrapbooking, which i am NOT into) and I have so many that I want to print that I have about 4 albums to fill per year. and frankly, I'm running out of room to keep them within easy access (for viewing and emergency fire escaping). So, I'm switching to digital. Next time I run into a little patch of money I'm going to get a nice, big frame (like this or this) and find the perfect house spot for it. Then, joy of joys, I am going to go through every digital photo I have (from May 05) and all of John's (I think he started in 03), and make some cards of our lives to have on constant rotation. I might even scan in some favorites from the age of film to add to the collection. Its a big project, I've learned though doing the others, as I want them to have a nice crop, and to be horizontal so they display correctly, and then resize them all so you can maximize the card space. I'm pretty excited about it :)

Mr. and Mrs. Yannariello

Well, we did it. On Saturday, we married our best friends to each other. It was such a special day. I figured I'd probably cry, but I didn't expect to be a flood of tears before it even started. but i was. I think I actually had tears in my eyes for most of the night. It was a perfect wedding and John and I were so happy to be such an important part of the day. Both of us were pleased with the speaking we did and I will forever be happy that I got to share the story of these two people as seen from the teary eyes of John and me.We're the best of friends, us 4. and as happy as I am for them that they are using their brand new marriage to make a big life change, I'm sad for myself to say that they're moving. Moving. The Move has always been something that was coming up, we knew it, but not til after the wedding.
and in 9 days, my best girlfriend ever is going to get on a plane and fly away.
I guess I'm not going to be done with the crying quite yet.

BFF Wedding

This is Nic and Kim.
Kim is my best friend.
Nic is John's best friend.
Awesomely enough, our best friends fell in love. Together, the 4 of us have the most fabulous, best times ever. Everybody loves everybody (no, we aren't swingers) and we have been friends through all sorts of things for many years. I know that a friendship like this is super rare. We can hang out and do nothing, we can go out and party, we can talk about important things, we can travel together, it doesn't matter who sits by who, we take turns being the butt of the jokes, everybody hates everybody else's ipod... we're a little family.


oh, and we make wiener jokes...


We love these guys.

and on Saturday, John is going to marry them (to each other, not him getting married both of them). I'm going tell how they met. It's going to be a very special day.
congratulations, you two :)

New Tease and Tone routine!!!

Classy.

These are some of my favorite people. If you are having a sophisticated, fancy party, you might not want to invite us.

And their pasties were green with envy...

Dear Fellow Burlesquers,

Back in the olden times, like, the 30s, my Grandpas had a schwanky nightclub. Some of the stuff from that nightclub ended up in my uncle's basement and sadly, some got ruined. Some is still there though. When we were back home, I asked my uncle if there was anything pin-up girly that I could have. He came back with a frame with broken glass and a dusty poster inside and said that it was from San Francisco in the 20s. He said that she'd been hanging in his room for years and if I took her, I'd have to give her a name. May I present: Foxy Roxy.
PS: that blanket she's sitting on? oh yeah, its made of glitter and is still sparkly.

Wordless Wednesday

Aunt Shannon babysits...

I'm going to have this song in my head all day. You should too.

Happy Birthday John!

*We took this pic of the sidewalk in Pendleton. If we would have written it, we would have spelled "awesome" correctly.

Wordless Wednesday

Bud.

I love this 3 eared horse.

Aquatic Renovation

Warning: This is a fish post. You might think its boring.

After Super Sad Fish Death '09, I cleaned both tanks, turned off the lights, and went on vacation. When we got home, the tanks were disheveled and dirty and full of algae. Since I knew a couple months ago that I was going to have a major change upcoming, I had taken out the plants that had come apart from the rocks and just let the tanks be in disarray. I'm embarrassed to post these, my tanks NEVER look this bad. 125 before:
70 before:
The number refers to gallons. The 125 is 125 gallons. Its 6 feet long. the 70 gallon is 4 feet long.
One of the things that I had been concerned about was getting all new plants. I knew I needed to. Mine were OLD. Probably lots them in the 5 year range. They get worn out and covered in algae (and cleaned, and covered again, etc.) and eventually, they just have to go. But I didn't really want to spend the $60 that I was looking at in my cart at Dr's Foster and Smith (although I do love those guys...) Then I remembered that a few years ago as I was deconstructing a plant, it occurred to me that they are really very close to fake house plants. Here's the thing: My tanks are big and to buy big plants, well, lets just say that my car isn't worth what it would take to purchase all the plants in the size I want for my tanks. So I make them. I take pre-bought plants and match them with rocks from my tub of Rocks that Would make good Fish Rocks and tie them together with thin elastic string. It means that I can create caves for my giant fishes and plants that reach the top of my tanks. Anyway, I digress. I withheld my online purchase and went to the dollar store and Wal-mart looking for sprigs of home decor plants that most matched what I saw (and liked) in aquarium plants. and I spent $7. Yesterday, I brought up a bunch of my favorite rocks and a couple giant pieces of cave pieces, as well as my tote of plants I already have, and made aquarium decor. It turned out gorgeous. I couldn't wait, last night I replaced the decor on the filter tubes (which shows in the pics above) Today was the day to majorly clean both tanks, switch the inhabitants (Eely is too big for the 70 and its only right that she moves into the 125 now that Zu is gone and Nessie, who lived with Zu, would go into the 70. They can't live together because they are both large bottom dwellers. That scenario ends poorly) So I got everything set up and went to work. Oh, and I had a helper:
Step 1: Clean the 125. Step 2: Catch Nessie and the gouramis she's living with (they are the test to see if she's going to eat whatever I put in there. She is a predator and Zu did not fit in her mouth and so sometimes small fish are just too snackalicious to ignore) and put them in storage tote with water (don't forget the lid. she'll jump out) Step 3: decorate 125 for Eely and her tankmates. Set up 2 caves, one on each side and surrounding plants. Replace 1 bad airstone. Fill back up with fresh water. Step 4: Clean the 70 so that the water is low enough to make catching the fishes easier. Step 5: The Switch! First, catch small fish with net and carry across room to new tank. I've done this for years and if catching fish in an aquarium was an Olympic sport, I could totally win. I caught everyone except the loaches (do you know what loaches are, those buggers have to be last) and Eely. Now for Eely. I removed her security cave and came in with the Big Net. (The Big Net is a net I made myself because they don't make aquarium nets big enough to catch my large fishes. It's the frame of a smallish lake fishing net with the net cut out and replaced with a pillowcase. Works like a charm.) I caught and transported Eely to the 125 and then went back for the 3 loaches. bam. bam. bam. high-five self. dude, I'm awesome. Step 6: Fill up and decorate the 70. One cave for Nessie and lots of cover for her tankmates as she is not completely aware that they are not snacks if its too easy to catch them. Step 7: Move Nessie and tankmates into 70. Nessie has been jumping in that tote and hitting the lid of the tote all afternoon (thank goodness I remembered to get it, catching squirmy fish on the floor before they make it to the heater ducts is stressful). I open the lid and catch her with Big Net, and luckily she made a wrong turn and swam right into it, saving me some time and stress. Then I caught her tankmates and put them in as well. Step 8: Look around, Is everything really where its supposed to be? yep. Step 9: Wipe off top of tanks and put lids back on. Step 10: Put away the giant mess of crap the you have strewn about the living room. Step 11: Windex the outside of the tanks. Step 12: Dude, you ran before you did this and now you smell like sweat and fishwater. Take a shower. Step 13: Holy crap, I have to go teach! Step 14: Get home from dance and check out the new environments: 125 after:
70 after:
Step 15: Blog it. Oh yeah, I had help with that too.