Saturday, March 28, 2009

Reaping the rewards...

Volunteering has its rewards...
...if you know when to volunteer and for what..

Last summer I believe I wrote about how volunteering to work Bingo got me a great parking space at the high school home football games...Just the other day, someone mentioned that they had not seen me at Bingo for awhile. Hey, I got what I needed from bingo - time to move on...(just kidding, BoosterMan, if perchance you are reading - I need that space for one more year).

I helped at the Prom fashion Show one night last week- telling the guys how good they looked and yes their tie was straight - and you can be as funny and flirtatious as you want as long as you are not obscene....

And while I am backstage, the event coordinator is announcing the winners of the various vendor raffles. I had had a plan...and it worked!

You see, my son will be a senior in the fall; that means pictures and parties and...


So I put my raffle tickets on the photographer and catering items (and a lil jewelry cuz a Mom has to look good next to her ham of a son).


And it was my lucky night...

I spent $25:


  • $5 to get in and get chance at door prizes (nada)
  • $5 on 50/50 raffle which was worth $170 but I did not win that either
  • $10 on vendor raffle tickets
  • $5 on bottles of water (donation) - of which I drank three (hey, someone told me it was spiked, but I am pretty sure they knew nothing)

It was a profitable night because I won!!!

  • A Lia Sophia bracelet valued at - I couldn't tell ya because, silly me, I thought I only had to check what was in the bag at the drive-thru lane of fast food joints...yeah, there was an empty box in there...but I have connections and I will get my just desserts.

  • A $100 gift certificate for a catered dinner:)

  • A $75 certificate for a photographer. now, I hate to be an ungracious winner, but I will not be using that certificate; the vendor rep was definitely a salesman - maybe even a perv; he had to give me a sales pitch before he would give me the gift certificate. What do ya think that $75 dollars would cost me?

  • The best for last...A gift certificate for a free sitting, one 8 x 10 and two 5 x 7 prints from another photographer - whose parents I know and who needs help with her website; I figure I may get senior photos taken care of - between the certificate and a little bartering of my hidden talents:)

All and all it was a good night. And I was still up way past midnight because I was so excited (or maybe that was the jet-fuel supplement G-Man has talked me into trying for a few weeks...).

Next I am working on college scholarships...

Good News for the Guys...

While stumbling, I came upon this useful (for my male reader, anyway) piece of information....
Ok, ladies...time for our own study; any volunteers?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Peyton PHlace Antics....

So we have a geese problem at Peyton PHlace - or we did have...

As you know it is illegal to mess with the geese - no matter how many times they chase you across the parking lot nipping at your legs or other more private parts...

I arrived at work a few mornings ago, half asleep as usual, and noticed what appeared to be a rabid coyote on the lawn next to the building.

Oh great...as if the geese weren't bad enough...

I slowly, and as quietly as possible, opened my car door, ready to make a run for it...

That coyote was deaf...and blind...and lazy...and stiff...

I still have not discovered who was behind that piece of genius, but my hat off to him (or her)...
the geese were around...with a circumference of about a quarter of a mile...

What ya know...even big bad geese are afraid of rabid coyotes....

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The writer in me can relate...


As you may know, my day job is coordinating localization of Peyton PHlaCe products (or some of them, anyway).

Before that, I wrote user manuals - yes, for Peyton PHlaCe and quite a few other electronics companies before that...

Sooo...

...what part of quiet do you not understand?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Spanking is not the right way...

I used to get a lot of flack for my parenting techniques. I was told over and over that it is not right to spank my kids, so I tried other methods to control them when they had one of 'those moments.'


The method that I found most effective (next to spanking) was for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, iPod, etc.



Either way, my kids usually calmed down and stopped misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helped a lot too.



I've included a photo below of one of these carrides, in case you are thinking of trying this technique.


BTW, I have heard from others that it works well with grandkids, too. I do not have any of those yet...and for some strange reason my kids are talking of moving out of state when they have kids...so I may never get the opportunity to try it with them...


Good luck...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Meebo sets me straight...

According to Meebo, Melba toast is named after Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba.

And here I called it that because I first heard about it from my ex's Grandma Melba who shared with me her family recipe for this really awesome toasted bread...

Monday, March 23, 2009

The kids do listen...

A man kills a deer and takes it home to cook for dinner.

Both he and his wife decide that they won't tell the kids what kind of meat it is, but will give them a clue and let them guess.

The kids were eager to know what the meat was on their plates, so they begged their dad for the clue.

'Well', he said, 'It's what mommy calls me sometimes'.

The little girl screams to her brother: 'Don't eat it, it's an asshole.'