Fabulous Dog and Roommate's Dog started their day with this:They seemed rather happy about their pre-breakfast treat....it's rather hot this morning! My crazy ass neighbor put my new a/c unit together and expressed several times (and I quote):"How do you fucking sleep in this fucking oven?"

Could be because his apartment resembles a FREEZER. He said his electricity bill was $200 this month.

Mine was $120 and all we did was run 3 fans.....$40 more than normal. I am afraid about what the a/c will do, but I don't intend to run it constantly. Only on these rather hot nights. I think last year I rant he a/c maybe 15 days total during the entire summer.....specifically on days, where the outside feels like this:

I am all about summer. But can we cut the humidity crap?

Strap on your goggles! Here is a photo show! More photos on my FLICKR stream:


So, these photos are not in any particular order, because I don't have time to shift them around in the blogger template.

Below is my fabulous and beautiful friend Aurora and yours truly on the coast of Oregon on a beautiful , sunny day. Oh, wait, it wasn't sunny, but it was still beautiful, as you can see. In case you are guessing that we ditched her gorgeous little kids for this little trip to the coast, you would be guessing RIGHT!

So beautiful!
I have never met a martini I don't like. Happy to report that Portland has some great Martinis as well!Here is my darling friend with her Vesper Martini.
And me slurping my, uhm, DELICIOUS martini.
Because we are all supreme dorks, we totally followed a 4 year-olds instruction when she demanded that we make "BIG EYES".
Here we all decided to make silly faces (also on command, not unlike "big eyes")

There were some majorly scary toys.....
Equally scary toddlers....
My gorgeous friend and her oldest daughter........(hellz yes, see below when oldest one was born and yours truly was there ;)

....oh yeah! THIS below is the same child as above. When she was born, someone, SOMEONE thought it would be smart if among all people, I scrub the blood of her little body and slap her first diaper on. Trust me, it was a traumatic experience for me and her....I digress.

There was Strawberry/Blueberry/Peach shortcake. Delicious!
There were fireworks and pyrotechnics for kids:


There was ballet for little ones.....here she is making a "heart" for us.
There were pirates.....some terrifying...
....some suspicious....
...and some totally evil.
...there were also brunette princesses....
...in Cinderella slippers....(please note the ballerina pose and also the plastic shoes that she wore proudly in Target ;)

So, all in all, a great trip to visit one of my best friend's and I already miss her very much. It's always nice when you visit people who remind you of many things and who understand you better than most.

Let's all go have martinis with girlfriends now!

We missed you, Embla! :)

Ah! Possums! I am back!

Oh yes, Fabulous is back.

I had a marvelous time.

Unfortunately, there are a few things on my mind this morning and I can't really focus on sharing my fabulous weekend and my 400 photos with you.

But here are a few tidbits:

1. I got to eat my jogurt with a Cinderella spoon and eat off an Ariel, the Mermaid plate.

2. I watched a little girl at ballet class.

3. I got many peanut buttery fingerprints on one of my dresses.

4. When kids are almost 2 years older than the last time you saw them, those little things start TALKING.

5. I got be with one of my bestest friend.

You get the idea. Now I need to get some clarity on some other stuff.

More tomorrow.

OH! First a question though.....

Creepy or funny?

Sat next to a very large man on my flight from Portland to Minneapolis. Dude pulls out his portable DVD player and I am all like "Wohooo, what are we watching?" (silently cheering, of course. I am subtle like that).

"Dirty Dancing" was the DVD of choice. Not one I would have thought of, looking at the dude, but hey.

HOWEVER, for 3 hours and 20 minutes ALL he did was watch every dance and skimpy scene there was.

Fast forward to all the stuff with Baby and mom and dad.

STOP "Baby in Bra"

STOP "Baby making out with Patrick Sawyze"

STOP "Wet t-shirt in lake lifting scene"

STOP "Dirty dancing scene"

3 hours and 20 minutes.

Creepy or funny? Me thinks a bit creepy.

Your thoughts?

Air travel suggestions

1. Toddlers and anyone under 3 feet who can't shut it on command should receive Valium. I love kids, but don't screw with me at 6 am

2. Just because you keep repeating "our plane leaves in 15 minutes" is not going to do anything to the speed of deboarding. Shut it again and run.

3. "Oh- huh". Is NOT something I want to hear as my airport train moves toward another one. Again, you think we will die? Shut it.

I am tired, possums. Need to do some airport retail therapy now:-)

Go.

See.

Wall-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

This was too freaking adorable. Such a good movie, so much to sigh and laugh about and, I have to admit, for men and women. The audience was all adult, no kids and Great Guy and I totally loved it.
At this point I should probably mention how, during previous previews, he would get a little grin on his face when I sat next to him clapping my hands and jumping up and down in my seat at the possibility of watching Wall-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. He didn't seem inclined.

Then, last Friday, I sent a link to a review and he didn't even finish reading the review, but joined my enthusiasm (minus the clapping and jumping). Of course, that was the plan for last Friday night. A late show of Wall-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Unfortunately, it was sold out. How dare they!
So we watched "Wanted", which, uhm, was great entertainment, but one has to understand that my blonde brain was mentally prepared for Wall-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE so, uhm, while I appreciate Angelina Jolie and all, I wasn't quite prepared for the level of blood in that movie. Still, great entertainment.

Yesterday, I didn't take a chance! I bought the tickets online and Great Guy and I were ready to Rock'n Roll.

Have I mentioned that he's a Great Guy? He really is. And funny. And cute. And smart. And such.

Le sigh.

I had an interesting discussion with a female friend this weekend over dinner.

We talked about the "ideal" way we should have learned about things. About all kinds of things.....about how women should be treated by a man, about love, about sex, about friendship, about depth, about meaning of things and meaning of non-things, about our bodies and about our minds.

In her perfect universe, it would have been a group of women, call them "elders" or "not so elders" who would teach the young women about all of these things. Who would take them under their wings and allow them to learn and flourish from the wisdom of someone who has been there.

This made me think. I don't think my upbringing was like that at all.

My father wasn't also a good role model for a loving husband and how he should treat his loving wife. None of this is news to my mother (who reads this blog). I learned in therapy, during my battle with eating disorders, that I didn't have a strong female role model and after all, it was one of my best childhood friend, who said to me during my 3rd year of marriage and an extraordinary mean phone call from my wasband "Do you want to have a marriage like your mother?"
While I tried to forget what she said, I never quite did. And she was right.
So, there wasn't a lot of guidance. No one modeled for me how to put your foot down with a man, how to set up boundaries, how you should be treated and there were many other things that I didn't learn.

However, I realize that I re-created that later in life.
I feel exceptionally lucky that I have been surrounded by very strong and kick-ass women at different times in my life. I can see now, looking back, how I always had my council of wise women around me. Different women at different time. For the past 10 years, most of those women have been rather steady, there have been additions, thank God though, to add their views and wisdom.

During my divorce, there was my boss, who was in her late 40s, there was my married friend in her 30s, there were my single girls and there were a few people who had fiercely solid and happy marriages and who reminded me of how things can be and how things should be.

The power of female friendship is tremendous, I find. As we continue to grown and learn about each other, our thoughts, our dreams. Among female friends, there is no fear to udder something silly.
I realized that last week, when I decided to buy my ticket to Oregon.

Aurora and I were talking and for the first time in a long time I said to someone in tears, what I was afraid of. It wasn't that I didn't know. It wasn't that I hadn't talked about this rationally before, but it was that strong female friendship that actually allowed the emotions to emerge that had been kept in check.
"I am terrified," I said in tears. And then I started laughing, because that's a rather strong word, don't ya think?

But that's the thing. In that circle of friends and female friendship, it's understood. Strong words are understood. Strong emotions are understood.

Sometimes, you can find calmness in admitting what you are really scared off. When you have these moments when you feel desperate, although you might not be, and you talk with someone who knows you well and who knows your past well. People who know how far you have traveled to get here and who take you for who you are. Who know how strong and smart you are and who also know that you have got the crazy on every know and then.
And they don't judge, when the tears come and then you go to sleep and you wake up feeling a lot lighter.

For all you know, your fears haven't really changed at all, but suddenly it's not so scary anymore.

And then I bought a ticket to Oregon. Because, that's what friends are for.

Tripping!

So, in March I wrote about some of the trips I want to take this year. And I wrote the following (excluding the big ones to Europe):

1. Montreal

2. Vermont and the B&J Ice Cream Factory

3. Dallas, Tx

4. Oregon

5. Washington, DC

6. Maribeth to see little Dackel babies.

I am happy to report that I am going to OREGON on Thursday in the a.m. to visit my fabulous friend Aurora. WOOOHOOOOO! I am way excited. I haven't seen her since she moved from CT to Portland almost 2 years ago.....and she's one of my bestest friends on this planet.
The strength I get from the female friendships in my life is remarkable and I think I really needed some family time and Aurora is part of my family, so, life is good. I shall expand on this soon, but that will actually take some real thinking and writing ;)

Next? Maybe Vermont! I had kind of forgotten about that one on the list!!! Instead I hadded NYC.

I had a great weekend, possums. Great Guy and I had like one of the funnest date on Friday/Saturday. It was great fun and, well, just awesome.......and then Sunday I got a ton of people together and forced them to watch the Eurocup finals with me, which was great fun, except for the fact that Germany lost. I might have also heard one of my friends whisper to Great Guy "Viva Espana"...so I am not sure the loyalties were DISTRIBUTED CORRECTLY. ;) Great Guy might possibly have a piece of his heart somewhere in Spain......personally, I have a piece of my heart in Spain too, but I still cheer for Germany. I tried several times to paint a German Flag on his face, but he didn't have enough Weissbier to not notice my face paint crayon approaching like a low-flying rocket.

Too bad.
Better luck next time. ;)
Spain was definitely the better team.