Is Blogging like High School?

The other day I read one of my favorite BBFF blogs. My BBFF (Best Blog Friend Forever)stated how she knew she would be blasted for what she was going to write, and how she knew she would be judged, and so on. Then the same thing on another BBFF blog! These are both wonderful, intelligent, super cool women. I sat, scrolling through the comments, and thought: "Geez, this is like High School!".

There are the POPULAR GIRLS, the ones who's blogs are so fabulous, and that have an entourage that follows them no matter what. They are constantly under scrutiny of:

The HATERS, the ones who like to comment on your blog and blast you with their opinions and judgment, and get off on making you look bad.

There are the ANONYMOUS commentators, the ones who like to blast you with their opinions and judgment, and get off on making you look bad, but don't have the CAJONES to put their name where their words are. (They are the same ones who put your phone number on the boys bathroom wall with "SLUT" above it, so puberty stricken boys could call your house in the middle of the night.)

The NERDS (like me?) who use their blogs as a form of expression and sanity saving. It is like talking to yourself, except you type. Every once in a while, someone answers :). You then find your cyber BBFF's....

There are the BBFF's, the ones who love you for who you are, always give you feedback, always leave a small token of their visit.....

If one BBFF is in need, the others are right there, and they spread the word, do some cyber fundraising and cyber hugging.

See, and if you piss off one BBFF, you better hold on to your ass, because the other BBFF's are right there as back up.

Save me, I am melting!

OH MY GODDESS!

103 degrees yesterday, 100 today.

What the hell??

I am wilting away very quickly..will have to go dip in the river tomorrow for that shot of cool water mojo.

Every summer, I swear I am going to leave this place and go live somewhere cool. Yes, we have the great fruit and tomatoes, but that is because we live by the gates of literal Hell. And normally, I don't have to start whining until the end of June.

I will let you in on a few of my survival tips, had to go back to my German, "no air-conditioners" roots:

1. Make sure your beer is super cold. Nothing like ICE COLD (read this, you restaurant moron who serves me WARM beer!) beer on a hot evening.

2. Early in the morning, cook pasta and tortellini. You can always make something with pasta and tortellini.

3. Mr. Heike finally paid attention to a story about mad cow disease, and suggested we no longer eat meat. That puts a dent in my "cold cut" dinners, but thank the Goddess for cheese, cucumbers, salmon, and Swedish fish paste (can be purchased at IKEA..and such).

4. Hang vinyl blinds OUTSIDE of your big windows. Sure, we now look like white trash, especially with the Big Blue Van sitting next to the driveway on the lawn. But HEY, at the end of this hot summer, we will actually be able to afford some gas for it!

5. Anything you have to cook must taste good BBQ'd, because there is no way I am feeding Hell by cooking anything on the stove or in the oven after 10 am.

6. Don't go outside after 11 am unless you have to, or you are going to the river!

My poor veggies are used to not getting watered, but they are suffering. I basically had to sing to my tomatoes this morning to keep them from just giving up.

Even Rex is too hot go outside, he told me to "walk myself"!

Another man left me...

If you have been with me for a few years, you know I am a "hair girl". My hair goes from short to long, long to short, red, brown, black, streaked, back to brown....all in a matter of a few weeks.

My hair is straight as a stick, and be jealous all you curly haired maidens that I always envied!! Now is my time to shine!!! :) Really, my hair loves me, otherwise it would have left me for bald after everything I put it through.

Lately, my hair has been pretty short. I have it cut every 3 or 4 (crazy!!) weeks, so I go to MasterCuts, where I pay $15.95. Yep, $20 with tip. That is because it does not matter if I pay $20 or $200 (yes, I have, really) to get my hair cut. I never like it anyways, and I ALWAYS go home and "fix" it since these young'uns don't seem to know what a 20's style bob looks like.... Being the comfort animal that I am, I found a guy at MC who cut my hair just like I wanted it, he understood. I only had to speak a few words of stupid polite conversation, and it was ok to watch in silence as he fixed my hair and my overall mood. Then I would go home and dye it whatever color grabbed me and covered the gray.

I "thought" we had an understanding that he would call me and let me know where he was working when he quit (sounds like a fling gone bad??), but I called to get a cut and HE IS GONE!! No notice to ME????

That sucks.
Just so you know MC Man, I am over you.
The other guy cut my hair, and it is JUST FINE!

P.S. Image is of the book: "Art Deco Hair: Hairstyles of the 1920s and 1930s by Daniela Turudich

Me! Me! Me??? Waving hands, jumping up and down...

Blogher, the fabulous network of bloggers I belong to, is hosting a contest to attend BlogHer08 in San Fransisco.

I WANT TO GO :)...

Has my blogging somehow made you think, or changed your life? Do I make you laugh, or cry?? Then please grab a glass or wine, or a cup of coffee, and let BlogHer know. I could win a free trip to BlogHer '08, and more! I will be a much better blogger after that, promise :).

http://www.blogher.com/whos-your-blogher-hero

Man, they are good!

Today I made it a point to watch Oprah. Tina and Cher were on with her.

I LOVE Tina Turner! One of the last concerts I went to was Tina's "Private Dancer" concert in Frankfurt! Yes, I am quite old.....

At 61 and 68, Tina and Cher are still powerhouses. They both spoke about how hard it was for them to leave their respective asswipes...uh, husbands...and how they had to pay them off. Good riddance.

There was a huge lesson to be learned, and I am glad my 10 yr old daughter was watching this. These 3 (I am including Oprah) rose of out nothing, but their hard work, strength, and perseverance paid off.

And Tina is touring again!! Those tickets went right on my birthday wishlist....

Mystery Food

Every once in a while we get a craving for shrimp...just a big pile of shrimp, eaten right off the table!

When we get this craving, we go to a part of town way south of our border, to an Asian fish market.

The kids and I love to explore, but we rarely venture past our comfort zone of what we can at least identify. This time, we saw "UBE" on everything. I asked one of the ladies at the bakery what "UBE" is. She says: "It is just like ????. You know?".

No, I don't know :)...so we decided to buy:




Not a good choice :(...not even the dog wanted to eat it. It does have "UBE" in it, which we now, thanks to Google, know is a purple sweet potatoe.




But our



were delicious!

Touch my wine and DIE!

My kids know how important my glass of w(h)ine is at the end of MY day. At Trader Joe's, they march to the Two Buck Chuck shelf and grab a few bottles without me even asking as I am waiting to check out. My son always announces why he is getting the wine he walks back to me, you know, just in case the other patrons don't realize is mother is a w(h)ino? "Here mama, one for today, one for tomorrow, and a bottle for daddy."

:)

Here is a short version of my day, without the extras (such as green food coloring experiments):

1. Get up, throw on sweats and a hat to hide bed-head, strap up the dog, and walk for an hour.
2. Come home, make coffee, first round of waking Mr. Heike and kids.
3. Second round of waking. Get first cup of coffee and read email in peace.
4. GET UP!!! IT IS LATE!!!
5. Set the breakfast table, get more coffee, run in the bathroom and get ready before everyone really gets up. Use last chence to do MY hair before we hit the street.
6. GET UP DAMn IT!!
7. You have 15 minutes to get dressed and eat before I leave!!
8. Last resort, let the dog in from outside. HE wakes up the family with big paws and doggy butt licks. :)
9. One more cup of coffee, idle conversation with sleepy family. Run down of responsibilities and happenings with Mr. Heike, since we only see each other for short spurts until Sunday.
10. Drive forever, go rollerskating. Kids skate 2 hours while I catch up (bitch) with friends :), hawking my water and health bars I smuggled in from "outside".
11. Race back to our side of town for swim lessons.
12. Go home, eat lunch, do schoolwork, play with dog, more schoolwork, schedule more lessons....
12. Prepare mystery cassarole I found in an old cookbook at the library, keep kids and dog from eating my mystery ingredients! Make dog slop because he has not been eating well since virgin grooming experience. I wonder if the hairlessness is making him LOOK skinny or I traumatized him for life??
13. GET DRESSED!!!
14. Take kids to Capoeira. Thank goddess for coffee.
15. Go home, eat dinner, start folding 10 billion tons of laundry.
16. Keep bag to the side and throw in whatever I don't want to fold.
17. Clean out closet as I go, since I don't have any friggin' room to put my folded clothes.
18. Discover a whole bin of clothes in the closet, basically a second set to the clothes Heike Jr. has. You know, the one who has nothing to wear?? Sweet pea has inherited my genes.
19. This is why I should NEVER be allowed a credit card: ebay. List the clothes with TAGS on them that we found in the bag, and add some to it, because we have enough for another family.
20. Label the 5 bags of Laundry, er...clothes to donate.
21. OMG!!! Empty laundry baskets!!! Congratulaltions, Heike, have a glass of wine!
22. Vacuum up 3 tons of dog hair. Seems like he is shedding twice as much since we had him groomed...grrr...My piece of shit vacuum will be replaced immediately. List on Freecycle, with dog hair.
23. Do dishes, since we DO NOT HAVE A DISHWASHER!! What did I have children for???
24. Let dog out.
25. Pour w(h)ine.
11.15 PM....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
26. Pour more w(h)ine.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
27. Call mom. W(h)ine, w(h)ine, w(h)ine.

Throw away bottle, go to bed.