Jami Disagrees

Anyone else see a problem with this?

Now, if the person who made it lives at Giant Eagle, I guess that's true. This allows you to truthfully purchase this, take it to a gathering and say that it's a homemade pumpkin roll.

Jami Needs Your Help

I know there's a great caption for this photo, I just can't get it . . .

Jami Just Wanted to Share This With You

because it made me laugh out loud. From a site with some bizarre album covers:

Jami is Easily Amused

This is from the bed in the hospital. Is it me, or does the "nurse" in the picture look really surprised? I don't think I'd want to call this particular nurse.

Jami Back from Vacation

So I'll post more later, but I just wanted to share this photo: If you can't read the sign, it says "Pepper Spray, Stunguns [sic] Sugar Free Fudge"

Jami Avoids Samonella

For those who missed my FB posts, here's the chicken that the Husband and I cooked this afternoon: On the grill:

Finished Product: The Husband put it on the grill and went to take a shower, telling me to check on it in "a little bit", not sure, maybe 7-8 minutes later, I smell campfire, go out back to find - 1. Chicken on fire 2. Neighbor in backyard calling 911 I assured her that there was no need for the fire department (especially since we're related to one of the firemen). She seemed more worried that I was laughing at the chicken than about the fire itself, asking me three times "Are you SURE you're okay?" me: "He he he he- I'm fine - the chicken, well. It's probably done." We had leftover pizza. The good news is that once the chicken cools, the meat may be salvageable. The skin was on fire, but most of the meat under it looks okay.

Jami Spots Another Silly Sign

Giant Eagle grocery stores join the abstinence movement:

Jami, the Mother of an Inventor

Eddie's new "thing" is inventing. He has always been a fan of attaching things to other things, but now each group of random objects is an invention, and they have been growing larger and more intricate. Currently, our entire front porch is consumed with his "best invention" (pictures below) which according to him makes honey and traps deer. Yes, both. This invention includes 6 full sized umbrellas, two chairs, a charcoal grill, a backpack, a yo-yo, a golf club, two supports from his toy box, a large tree branch (with withering leaves), several seemingly random toys, a kitchen set, a work bench, 2 baby blankets, a monkey, several flowers, a tricycle and a stroller. And more I can't remember. Then under the heading of "seemed harmless at the time", the Husband bought Eddie a roll of twine, which he's been asking for. The string started out as part of the invention, and then wandered into our house. By dinner time last night, our entire downstairs looked as though we had been attacked by a giant, drunken spider. We had to do that spy-getting-through-the-lasers maneuver to get to the kitchen. I didn't get a picture of that because my phone was upstairs and I wasn't going back through the maze to get it. I'm a big fan of creativity, so I'm trying not to complain about my front porch being useless (as in, there's no where for me to sit anymore) because I enjoy the fact that he's creating and pretending. So far, I have not seen any actual honey being produced nor deer trapped. I keep hoping though, because if I have a 3-year-old who does figure out how to manufacture "cruelty free" honey and/or trap those pesky deer, we're set for life. We'll let you know. Working on adding the golf club: The end that the honey (supposedly) comes out: The middle, still in progress: The second chair/"Secret Entrances" - you have to lift an umbrella to enter.

Jami's Library Time Warp

This concerned me a little: My library is generally more up-to-date than this. I realize that "new" is a subjective term, but I'd have a hard time being convinced to consider this "new". The reason I'm holding it up is only so you can read the title - it was directly under the "new fiction" label. You can see the slot I slid it out of under my knuckle.

Jami Salutes A Soldier with Courage

Check out this picture/article of a young American soldier fighting in his pink boxers. Now that takes courage my friends. On a more serious note, over this long weekend, take time to remember that we aren't just having an extra day off, we have that time to remember the sacrifice so many men and women have made to protect and serve our country, and even to protect people in other countries. You may not be happy with everything that goes on in this country, but we are all better off for the freedoms they fought and died for.

Jami Has a New Favorite Sign

Now that's just always good advice.

Jami Likes Meat, but . . .

Saw this in a specialty store near our house. I know they carry a lot of hard-to-find meats, but really: Of course, you see if you look down a little that it is indeed a cheese. Now, I'm not sure if it's made from the milk of chihuahuas, like goat cheese is made from goats' milk, but I will definitely keep it in mind the next time I'm looking for white natural melting cheese, authentic mexican style.

Jami,Fashion Victim

Now that Eddie's in preschool at our local high school, I often make use of the track while he's in class. It's so much easier than trying to find a reasonably flat route around my house and I love the springy-ness of the track. Anyway, because of that, when I dropped Eddie off the other day, I wore a jogging suit and a ponytail, no make-up. I pondered as I crossed the school campus how horrified I'd have been, looking 20 years into the future from the time I was starting 9th grade at that same school. I clearly remember the day I could not get over the fact that my mother planned to spend the whole day (in our own home) in a jogging suit. What if a BOY stopped by? What would he think when he saw her? (no, I never considered why a boy would be stopping by my very out of the way house on a Saturday morning, unannounced.) I remember moaning into the phone to a friend that even when I was old I wasn't going to dress like that. But there I strolled, dressed just like that. Of course, these days, even the cool kids dress like that. I'd've died a thousand deaths before leaving the house in my PJs, but now girls go to the store in the them, sometimes slippers, too. Track suits were for old people and the occasional mafia dude, now they are hip. Where's the effort? Sure, it's more comfortable and you can make a case that we looked a little ridiculous in the 80s, but we put work, thought, planning into looking that ridiculous. You didn't just throw your hair in a ponytail! You moussed it and teased it for 30 minutes, then coated it with a 1/4 inch shell of hairspray. You had to peg-roll your jeans, layer your socks and be sure all your collars were popped. You had to put on enough make-up to actually make your head heavier. You had to find earrings large enough for birds to perch on. It took time! It took effort! We looked totally awesome, and it showed. This goes double for rock stars. Take a look at Kanye West, Coldplay, the Jonas Brothers. These could be totally normal people you see walking down the street. Now, compare that to Poison, Motley Crue, and the Bangles. See the difference? There is no question these people are special. You can't always tell which are the men and which are the women,except when the men wear vests with no shirts underneath. And we're not even going to talk about Boy George or Flock of Seagulls. Conclusion? Fashion is silly, no matter what. But at least in the 80s, we worked at it.

Jami Wants to Meet the Person Who Buys These

I drop Eddie off at his new "big boy" sports class, where Mommy gets to leave and wander off through the Galleria (expensive, upscale mall). I have an hour to kill and I spot that sign that no woman can walk past - "Shoe Sale". Yay!

However, at the Galleria, "sale" doesn't always mean affordable. I get to the first table and see shoes starting at $59. Hmm, not really "sale" to me. The next has a mix, some are as low as $39. Better, but still not what I look for. Then I see a table covered with the style of shoes in the following picture:

So you have here, your basic plastic sandals with big fake rhinestones. Bedazzled Jellies. Gotta guess? Are you thinking $19.99? You would be wrong. $79. On clearance. Seventy-nine dollars! The FIRST sale tag,above the clearance tag said $99. If you bought these shoes on "clearance" for $79, you should be slapped for being stupid. I don't care how rich you are. If you bought them on "sale" for $99, you should slap your own self and send me the video. If you bought these for whatever the heck full price was, more than $100, obviously, you should drive to my house wearing these shoes so I can slap you out of them, video it and post it to YouTube.

And I love shoes. I do, but come on. These aren't even a brand name (or at least one I'd ever heard of). Just saying.

Jami, Two Weddings, One Medical Emergency

It was quite the busy weekend. M got married. My friend Giovannna got married. And my parents broke my baby. Both weddings were lovely and totally, completely different. Beautiful ceremonies, gorgeous brides, fun receptions and of course, great food.

Then, at the second one, my parents call. Hi, having fun? Oh - Eddie's bleeding profusely from the head. Maybe a stitch or two.

Inside my head: AHHHHH!!! MY BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Out loud: Oh, okay, uh, what happened?

A little accident on the playground. They were thinking of taking him somewhere, you know, just to check. We got it sorted out. The Husband solicitously asked if I wanted to leave - before the prime rib was even served. But the boy was repaired with a minimum of trauma - no stitches, just glue. Yeah, they superglued my child's head back together. Here's the after photo:



Fortunately, there was plenty of vodka at the reception to keep me from worrying about my poor injured baby, who had already forgotten where his boo-boo is and was mostly annoyed that people kept asking him if he wanted to talk to mommy when he just wanted to go back to playground.

Jami's Got a Lot of Reasons to Smile

Great Family:

Newlywed Best Friend:

Good silly friends:

Another Newly Married Friend:


It was a pretty good weekend. I'll tell you about it later!

Jami Goes to a Lot of Trouble to Post These Pics for EDW's Enjoyment

The dress for Saturday night:



Friday Night, it's a darker blue that I couldn't get to come out right in these pics.


Close up of the detail:


And of course, the shoes. Ignore the red-white-blue toe sparklies, they are coming off tonight:

Jami's Holy Backyard

After a storm, I go out into the backyard, and see:

Yup, the Virgin Mary, with some sort of scary clown face on her robes.

My first thought was how one earth someone's Mary statue ended up in my backyard and my second thought was a fear that it had blown into our yard from the cemetery up the hill and how I'd figure out whose dead relative it belonged to.

Turns out it's just a plastic shopping bag. I thought about calling the media and offering to allow people to ask it stuff for a very small fee. Or selling it to the casino that bought the holy grilled cheese. But, in the end, I just gently removed it from the weeds and respectfully added her to my recycle pile.

Jami Presents Eddie and His Youngest Cousin

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Grammy!

Jami's Son's New Haircut

So sad, cutting his beautiful hair, but he was starting to look like Prince Valiant gone wrong, so it had to be done.

Of course he still looks good. You can't make a kid this cute look bad. Thanks to Grammy for the picture.