Leave it to the Pros

I was preparing for our trip this morning, a beach vacation. I woke up early (5am!!), mind abuzz with all those little things that still need to be done. I decided, since I didn't have time to visit the salon, I would take care of some personal business with an an at-home "professional" kit.

Ok, 5am is so obviously not rational decision-making time.

In the interests of all, I will go no further. There will NOT be a photo to accompany this post!

Just please take my advice - it's worth far more than $25 to have someone else inflict a far smaller amount of pain and suffering for a much better result!

Active Weekend

Bad mom strikes again - no camera was taken on with me on any of the fun activities of the past weekend... undoubtedly I'll pay for this when Ava's a teenager and can use lack of such evidence to claim that we never did anything fun with her....

Friday night I lured Deanna away from more practical duties to see Batman movie. I'm a huge fan, and got the extra bonus of seeing trailers for both Tropic Thunder, which sounds hilarious (any movie that gets the protesters out is generally a "go" in my book) and Watchmen, which I'm interested in, having "read" the graphic novel, which was very cool. Batman movie was very good, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been so hyped. I'm much happier going in with low expectations and being surprised. Heath Ledger was very good, but I'm not sure I'm down with all the Oscar buzz. I like Christian Bale as Batman, with the exception of imperfect teeth (those of you who know me well understand my teeth hangup/fetish) and the fact that after a while his harsh-batman-voice kind of got on my nerves. Must give him lots of honey lemon lozenges after a couple of scenes, I'd imagine. Finally, while I like Maggie Gylanhall as a character actress, I just don't think she's summer blockbuster pretty. Too quirky looking, and while I can believe in Bruce Wayne liking her, based on long childhood knowledge, I can't see how she'd bag a babe like Aaron Eckhart. Generally I don't have a lot of faith in men seeing the "inner beauty" of women - even those white knight types just keep looking until they find a good looking gal who also happens to have inner beauty. They don't tend to settle.

On Saturday, Deanna and her family took Casey, Ava and I to Greenfield Village with her family. Maybe I haven't been in years, but they had a ton of stuff going on that I don't remember from when I was a kid, like Model-T rides, horse-drawn omnibus rides, period-appropriate games in the green, etc. We rode the omnibus, took a train ride, rode the carosel, and looked in a couple of places before the weather started getting dicey, and the girls started pooping out over walking. I wound up carrying princess Ava on my shoulders the last 1/4 mile. Next time, we'll bring a wagon and a picnic lunch on a nice fall day when they do the harvest type activities.

Sunday, we headed out to the golf course, so that we could play a few holes, Casey could practice his lessons-learned swing, and I could model new golf attire. We made it about 12 holes before the weather drove us in to the clubhouse for dinner. We all returned home tired and ready to sleep!

Busy Week

I think I'm finally back to normal after last week's frantic activity....

On Tuesday, I took off for meetings in Japan. For those of you who have never been, it's a 12 hour flight from Detroit (if you get non-stop), plus a 13 hour time difference, so you land about the same time as you took off, but the next day. I was actually very lucky on the way over...my strategy of getting tickets as far back in the plane as possible landed me a whole row to myself, and my two-scotches-and-a-benadryl kept the ears clear, and me asleep for almost the entire trip. Meetings went well (I won't bore you that much), and back to Detroit on Saturday. (the reverse trip means that you actually land before you took off!)

Then, (those of you who know me well know I could never think about passing this up) it was off to Jen's house for TOGA!! I was happy to be able to spend a few hours with my daughter at my mom's house, then she helped truss me up (and added fabulous, appropriate accessories, natch) and off we went.

The Party marked the first time IN FIVE YEARS that Jen and Mark have had a night without their twin boys. Yeah, I know. I would have lost my mind somewhere past the 1 year mark, and I only have the one angelic little girl, not two boys whom Jen once referred to as "the Sh*tflingers." (for actual monkey-like behavior)

I wrapped Casey up as best I could (he didn't want to drive around in his skull toga) when we got to Jen's. Jen, unlike the infamous housewarming party, was perfectly sober, and of course, being Jen, had a fabulous spread of delectables for all of us. Much fun was had by all - and apparently, we got lucky in that the "Baccus" award winner restricted himself to removing only his toga, and leaving on his underwear. Apparently the attendees of the New Year's Party were privy to the removal of his diaper costume (baby new year) at that event. Perhaps that happened because he didn't have anything else to remove at the time. I know not. In any case, the strip show didn't suprise anyone who knew him. This is obviously a rocking neighborhood.

Jen made up for lost time, and was her normal, cutest-drunk-in-the-world self, and eventually decided that a drunken trampoline nap was in order. Casey kept her company out there while Mark and I picked up a bit. Finally, I rallied Casey, and Mark escorted Jen upstairs.

Jen does blow my mind, though, as she was up the next morning, reasonably mobile, and had a fantastic breakfast cassarole ready to go. Plus, she made chocolate-chip scones. Very very yummy. After we'd soaked up all the hospitality that was reasonable, (and probably some extra) we headed out to pick up our girl and see the homestead. All in all, a very successful week!