Prime Time Entertainment

Do you like playing games? I do, and this weekend at our Halloween party I learned a new one. Well, maybe it's not a game exactly, but it's something fun to do with a group of people to pass the time. It's simple and hilarious, and what more can you really ask for in a sort-of-game? My friend Andrew introduced us to it, and here's how it goes.


It works best with a bigger group, I'd say at least 6 or 8. Everybody gets a sheet of paper and a pen. At the top of your sheet of paper, you write a sentence. Any sentence at all. The boy likes pie. Two monkeys and a clam are speaking Spanish. Just whatever you can think up. Then you passes your paper to the person next to you, and they have to draw a picture to represent the sentence you wrote. After you've drawn your picture for the sentence the person beside you wrote, and this is crucial for the game to work properly, you FOLD OVER the top part of the paper with the sentence written on it, so that when you pass it to the person beside you, all they see is the picture you drew (and they can't read the original sentence.) Then they write a sentence to describe the picture, fold over the picture and pass it on for the next person to write a sentence describing THAT picture, and so forth and so on until you wind up with your original sentence again. The best way to know when you have your original paper back is to write your name on the bottom of the paper when you begin, so thanks again to Mike for writing everyone's names on their papers because we were all too caught up in the frivolity to bother with logistics. But you just wouldn't believe the hysterics this game can render. We were laughing so hard we were crying, reading through all the sheets to see how everyone interpreted what they were given and how different the last sentence was from the original one. Seriously, you will not be sorry about how you spent your time if you do this. My personal favorite started out as "My bird is too big for its cage." and ended as "Rocket lizards conquer Everest." There's no knowing just what kind of winners you'll get. And the best part is that this game works for all ages (so long as the kids can write) and artistic abilities, and at the end you have some wonderful artwork to frame.

What games do you like to play?

It's tricky getting the candles to stay upright in the meatballs though

Today is my Daddy's birthday.

He loves spaghetti, peanut butter milkshakes, ice cream, spaghetti, cheese, haystacks, and spaghetti. He really, really loves spaghetti. He also loves taking pictures. Emily and I have hundreds of pictures for each year of our childhood, and that's no small feat considering he had to go out and buy the film and take it to a drugstore to have all those photos developed. He captured so much of our childhoods on film, which is awesome because my memory is pretty much blank before about age 8. He also loves music. He always played music in the house when we were growing up and he turns up the radio in his truck a couple notches every time a good song comes on. His favorites are 60s and 70s rock, bluegrass, accoustic guitar, folk, blues, southern rock and country (not the junk from the 90s and 2000s, but real music like The Allman Brothers Band and ALABAMA.) He used to play this song a lot, and if you don't have the GLAD acapella Christmas album, your holiday season is seriously lacking.

When he wasn't playing music, he was watching surgery shows, cop shows, crime shows, NASCAR races, baseball and football. My daddy flips channels like no one else I've ever known. Just when you finally start to get interested in that gruesome murder case, he'll switch to a guy with a gunshot wound, and when you beg him to go to ANYTHING else, he'll change to a NASCAR race. Then he falls asleep holding the remote and snores so loud that you can't hear anything anyway.

His favorite place to be is the beach. Well, the Carrabbas at the beach. We go to Myrtle Beach every year and Daddy always sleeps with the sliding doors open to hear the ocean, even when it's 40 degrees out. He is so, so smart and extremely hilarious, which are probably the two best things to be in the world. Everybody comments on his deep, distinctive voice and he always sings or whistles along to every song he recognizes, plus some he doesn't. He has some hilarious live-action dreams and occasionally talks, laughs, and (most often) fights in his sleep. He's been a fire equipment salesman, a 911 dispatcher, a fireman, a paramedic, a saftey coordinator for a chemical company, a fire academy instructor and now he's back to 911 dispatch. He takes great care of all of us and would do anything in the whole world to make us happy. He still takes out my splinters and bandages up my cuts and he teaches me things every day and I love him slap to pieces. Even if I told him so every minute of every day, it wouldn't be enough.

Dads are the best, right?

I'll do some real blogging soon so don't be mad okay

Five YouTube videos I will never ever tire of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtUI5MC9tVM Electric Feel, a MGMT song. Look at the colors! The clothes. The Country Bears. I freaking love this jungle dance world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_4abCWw-w Jose Gonzales covering a song called Heartbeats. So, so beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HksFcm9wi0 So You Think You Can Dance routine with Kayla and Kupono from Season 5. I'm not sure about much but I can be sure of this: if it doesn't give you goosebumps you're dead inside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTF8x-2XbWc&feature=channel Louis Armstrong cover. This girl is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wC_kZNYMWg Bon Iver and Sarah Siskind singing a song called Lovin's for Fools. This song is so incredible. Here's a cover of the song done by a different girl with an amazing voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJKhR9WiuZg

So what gives you that feeling in your chest like your heart has filled up so full there's not even any more room for love in it?

I'm just gonna write "healed; made mess"

Hello. My husband gets sick every time anyone coughs, and then he brings home his illness to me, so that is where I have been. I left work on Thursday afternoon and haven't been back until this morning. Very bad news for the calendar in which I write what I did every day. I've got 6 blank days staring me in the face and I'll be darned if I can remember anything I did.

Well I do remember how Mike and I drowned our germs in diet CranGrape and Sprite and the most delicious granola bars I have ever tasted. For Jo-Lynne they are healthier and less process-y than storebought, but I haven't been able to find Sucanat or soft wheat pastry flour anywhere in my 4-grocery-store search, so for us they're more like sugary dessert bars. From heaven. But hey! there are oats in them, and that surely makes for a balanced nutritional breakfast bar. Plus I feel it's safe to say they help you to get better faster. Especially if you bake in a few Mucinex D tablets. That Mary Poppins may have had an ugly bag and witchy shoes, but she had a keen understanding of incentives when it came to taking medicine. A cupful of sugar really helped the off-brand cold pills go down. So now I'm feeling much better. Poor Mike can't seem to shake the cold he picked up, which I believe is a sweet little testament to his commitment and loyalty. Aww. I'm like the cold that he'll never develop the antibodies to neutralize.

And I guess I can fill in yesterday. My sister Emily and I ate some cupcakes and bought some meat. Then last night I drove my mama and my granny to pick up some dinner, and my precious granny told me I can never have kids because I don't have any room for them, what with the mess in my car. ::sigh:: It really isn't that bad. An old pair of sneakers, a couple of tank tops, a flashlight, a tool box, some receipts, a few catalogs and scraps of mail, and a floorboard full of fertilized dirt and dead leaf bits from when a plant (a plant SHE gave me) fell over in my backseat. I don't do plants, but Granny doesn't get that, and she wanted my front stoop to look nicer, so she bought us a plant, which I promptly forgot was in my backseat until I took a tight turn in the garage at work. And now I can't have kids.

So what have we learned today? Eat sugar and don't make a mess. Sage advice from pretty much all magic nannies and all regular grandmas.

Mine's Rebecca

Look what Erin gave me!
She thinks this place is fabulous! Thanks lady.

Now I'm supposed to list 5 current obsessions, so:

1) Cooking. When the weather gets like this, I just want to eat and eat. Last week I made pita chips (Mike helped a lot. Hot oil = scary!), chili, and some apple things that only required one stick of butter per apple. This week my mom and I made eggrolls. They were pretty easy and downright delicious, if a bit too salty. And we had strawberry shortcake, which wasn't so much made as assembled, but still. I am liking being in the kitchen and trying new recipes these days. Is Pioneer Woman an appropriate answer to the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

2) Arrested Development. I think it's hysterical. Have you seen it? Why did it end so soon? It can be a little raunchy, but it's so funny. My favorite part is when George Michael has a girlfriend named Ann(e?) who's so boring and plain that nobody can remember her or get her name right. The first 2 seasons are available on Hulu, and all 3 are available through Netflix, if you're interested. And evidently there's going to be a movie! I am excited.

3) This time of year. How can you love any three months more than October, November, and December? It's like walking around in a hug. That smells like cinnamon.

4) My hair. Sad but true. I'm no counting expert, but I'd estimate I lose anywhere from 900 to 4 million hairs every day. Is this normal? It can't be. New ones can't be growing in at the rate all my old ones are falling out. If this continues, I'm going to have five curls left on my head by the time I'm 25. (My friend Johnny is probably laughing at that image.) Do I change my hair routine? Use fewer products? Better ones? Stop pulling it up so much? Eat more Jell-O? What's the answer?! I do not wish to go bald.

5) Baby names. I've been keeping a list since I started working here last February, and it's up to about 100 names now. That means there are 90ish names on the list that I'll never get to use. Unless you want me to name your kids for you. How many middle names is too many? I went to daycare with a girl named Marley Anne Coutsous Rose, spell check on the Coutsous, and I thought her names were awesome. What's your middle name?

That wrinkly shirt smells an awful lot like Pert Plus

Today I'm up in Clemson with Mike. I have Fridays off through September and he teaches on Friday mornings, so I've been riding up with him to 'keep him company on the drive', which we both accept as code for 'to get a kink in my neck from flopping over sideways in an attempt to sleep the whole time, while he listens to Bill Simmons podcasts. Because it isn't enough just to watch all the sports.

Later today we'll be going to Mike's parents' house and eventually to my cousin Hunter's football game, and tomorrow night we're seeing a play with Mike's parents. So last night before The Office, we packed up all our stuff so we wouldn't have to do anything but load up the car this morning. And that meant loading up all our bathroom things last night, which for me is always the most troubling aspect of packing. Along with wrinkles, but that's a discussion for another day. But packing up all those liquids is a real drag. And how are you supposed to pack a razor? I put it in carefully, and I don't just shove my hand in and blindly fish it out, but when I go to unpack my bathroom things from the skinny zipper pocket, my fingers almost always manage to meet the business end of those blades with horribly painful results.

Well. Last night, in a moment of clarity I feel sure was brought on by the cheese dip I ate at dinner, I developed a solution. It only works for razors with a detachable, replaceable blade, so if you use disposables you're on your own. But it's so simple! I just popped off the blade and put it in one of those tiny zip-loc bags that hold the extra buttons and thread when you buy a new sweater! Zip that heifer up and you've saved yourself hundreds of cents in Neosporin and band-aid expenses! How about ME, huh? I might wind up wearing a dress that's covered in shampoo, but I am done unpacking with a stinging, bandaged, unbendable, worthless index finger. And that's a win in my book.

He said Fatty Redface will you marry me?

Two years ago today, Mike and I got engaged. It was definitely one of my favorite days ever. This is a picture from that day. I hate it, and I sincerely hope I don't really ever look like that, because oh dear. But in case I really do look the way I seem to in most every picture ever taken of me, I'm working on coming to grips with the fact that I just don't look quite as nice as I sometimes imagine myself. Note there had been crying and my face is not always so full-and-red-looking (I hope). It was a great day despite how it might look on film. And that's one of Mike's mom's dogs in the background, begging to be let out so she can run away from the monster in the pink dress.

We went to my house later that night and my sister and my parents and my friend Laura and my cousins and aunt and uncle and granny were all there and we ate cake and drank champagne and it was so much better than I'm making it sound. Emily and Laura and my cousin Jessie and my mom all had on t-shirts that I'm realizing I'll need a new sentence to explain. In 2003, my friend Meredith and my sister planned Erin Day for me, for no real reason other than that they are magnificent friends and they love me. And they had Erin Day 2003 t-shirts made. So for engagment day, all the gals donned their Erin Day 2003 shirts and taped some masking tape on to add "and Mike" and change the 3 to a 7, resulting in Erin and Mike Day 2007 shirts, and it was so freaking sweet I cried again. I have the best friends and family of all. Mike is so lucky to have married into all this love.

Really though, I'm the lucky one, because he is a very awesome husband and I would for sure be lost without him. He hugs me like a madman, and he makes me laugh, and he kills all the spiders in our house, and he pays the bills for me and orders all my favorite movies on Netflix, and he packs my lunch, and he lets me have the last bite even when he really wants it. And if that's not love I just don't know what is.