Home Alone ... can I get an Amen!?

Yes-huh. This is how we do it. Facebook, Amazon Kindle, Diet Coke, Gigantic Salad and Chocolate Layered Cake with Strawberries. Served in Bed.

Jealous?

TGIF

Is it true? Can it be real? Is this hellacious week actually, finally and truly over?

Halle-friggin-luiah.

Does anyone have any fabulous weekend plans that I can live vicariously through?

Friday Highlights

A brief review of my night away, before I head out for a dinner at our church. The Sweetheart's Dinner. For adults, without their kids. Do you see a theme this weekend? We were actually supposed to still be away on our casino adventure, but came home this afternoon, so we'll sneak into the Sweetheart's dinner without RSVP'ing and hope no one will care since it is, well, church and all.

Styx was actually a lot of fun. But Tommy Shaw is the only original member, which led me to call them Styk all night, which cracked me up, because I amuse myself that way.

These two photos are from the Styx web site, but these are the guys that we saw, and this appears to be a current pic of Tommy Shaw because this is exactly how he looked last night. And no, HB, he does not appear to have had any work done. He looked good, looked his age of 46 years in a good way. And is still quite petite.

After the concert we played video poker and slots again. I kicked ass at video poker and walked away with $40 after starting with $5. Overall, I left the casino with $0 after starting with $40. Yes, I am totally high stakes like that. I will say that I did have $40 worth of fun gambling, so it's not a loss but an investment, right? And we started the whole deal out with a $100 voucher for the casino, never did add any of our own money. So it was all free! And, Lee, we kept it cheap because we did NOT buy Tim a shirt at the gift shop. He had to wear his sweatshirt and keep his holey tee shirt under wraps. Natural consequences.

He did, however, get a toothbrush from the front desk after being informed that, no, he couldn't just use mine.

Romantic highlight of the night away: have you ever been making out with someone, and your stomach makes some really loud and obnoxious sounds, so loud that the someone says, "What in the hell is that?" and you're all, like, it's just my stomach. And then you kind of pass out? Yeah, romance at its finest.

But there's a reason that my stomach was out of sorts. And that reason? We had $100 voucher to spend at the casino restaurant. And casino food? Is cheap. And no cash back. So we ate. A lot. And as I have mentioned, oh, I don't know, about 100,000,000,000 times, I lost 45 lbs last year. And the way I did that, besides running? Is I don't eat. Seriously. I pick. I nibble. I consume food and live a happy life. But I don't EAT the way we ATE Friday night. I'm talking crab stuffed mushrooms, crab and spinach dip, shrimp cocktail, a salad, a freaking lobster tail and then creme broule for dessert at the restaurant. And a lava cake to go, for later. Seriously. Is it any wonder my stomach had something to say about it later that night?

So my mission for the next week is to get back on a clean eating regiment and be able to button my jeans for my trip to New Orleans on 2/18. I also want to complete a nine mile run before I leave town on 2/18. Hey, shut up. I can dream.

Leaving now to eat more food! It is possible that this lifestyle is why the rest of the world hates America. Just saying.

Auction Night: A Restrospective

First of all, before my recap, I have to say: I step away from the Internet for one weekend and all hell breaks loose? WTF? Michael Phelps taking bong hits? Also, apparently there was some kind of football thing today with Jennifer Hudson on it. Cool!

Also, saw Slumdog Millionaire today. And? OMG. There are not words. If you haven't seen it. Go. Now.

Now on to my Saturday auction event recap. To say it was a long day would be an understatement. We started schlepping the auction items from the school to the Hilton at 8 a.m. Because my husband is a SLOW MO FO, we got to the school a little late, more like 8:30, and all of the baskets had been packed up to transport, so I didn't get a picture of that, which I wanted to do. I did, however, get a couple of pictures of the finished bar project. Here's the tiled top.

And here's the bar with stools from the front. The back has a tricked out hanging glass rack that one of the class dad's customized for us. Way cool. I was very disappointed that this only brought in $450. Fucking recession.
Here's a crappy shot of some of the basket items. This is about 2/3 of the basket items in the silent auction. I couldn't get a decent shot of this whole side of the room, and didn't get one at all of the other side of the room. This is before the par-tay and the lighting and lack of decorations do not do justice to how beautiful everything looked for the event. But I wanted to give you an idea of the magnitude of the basket making project. Because when I said it was A LOT? So not overstating.
So, schlepped items to the Hilton and started setting up. And the setting up? It was, like, never-ending. At 3:00 p.m. I left the ballroom and went up to the suite to get my hair did. More on that in the next post down, so keep on reading. I also got "glamour length" eyelashes and a whore's worth of makeup. Which I then removed 70% of. And still? Over madeup. Oh well.
After hair and make up, I put my dress on, and didn't get a picture taken. This is a picture after we got home, at midnight, after shaking our groove thangs and working up a sweat and kind of wilting my dress and the belt being all floppy and shit. Oh well. And for future reference? Shiny dresses do not photograph well. Because? Reflection. Yes, it was that shiny, shiny enough to reflect a flash.
So the day started with leaving the house at 8 a.m. and getting back to the house after midnight. LONG ASS DAY. But an awesome party that raised over $125,000 for Carlie's school. I think final ticket number was 370, which is a great turnout. And item count was something like 260 "packages" (which can be multiple items in a basket) in the silent auction, 70 higher end packages in the "super silent" and about 60 top shelf items in the live auction.

Following dinner, there was a DJ and dancing and a photo booth. Uh-huh. Someone was showing herself a little too much live in the photo booth. Keep on reading, it's in the next post. That, and a picture of my hair and my first give-away! And it's hair related! But includes chocolate and booze! You know you don't want to miss that.

Auction Night: A Give Away!

Here's the deal: Guess how many bobbypins it took to hold this up do in place and win a prize! Closest guess without going over gets a grown-up goody bag : ) Post your guess in the comments, winner picked Tuesday at noon! My first contest and it even has a prize, and the prize is yummy.

Here's Tim and I, doing the Photo Booth thing. It was just like going to prom, only you got to go home and sleep in your own bed afterwards. And no sex in the backseat. At least for most people.
And more photo booth. Because? Who loves her self? Yes-huh. Not quite sure what I was doing here. Sadly, there are quite a few photo booth photos of me, and this would be considered one of the "good" ones. Scared? You should be.
Enter the give away! Go! Comment! Now!

Heading for the Hilton

It's 7:51 a.m. and time to go start the set up process for tonight's auction. I hope I remember to bring my camera.

See you Sunday!

the day that wouldn't end

Is yesterday over? Yay!

Just so you know, happy hour was a smashing success, even though our bartender was a raging asshole. But it's not like we're going to let a little something like that rain on our parade. Thanks, ladies, for an awesome evening!

Of course, little did I know that my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day wasn't quite over. On the way home from happy hour, complete with lots of talking and laughing on the drive with Miss Burrows, my phone rang. And it was my husband. And I answered it anyway. And he was FLIPPING INSANE WITH RAGE at 11:45 p.m., having just gotten home from taking Erinna to a movie and walking in on "something shady" going on with Taylor and "some shifty looking kid." I still haven't managed to get all of the details but an empty whiskey bottle in the boy's bedroom was involved.

While I'm trying to figure out what Tim is yelling into the phone about, my call waiting beeps, and it is, OF COURSE, Taylor, wanting to get to me first with his side of the story.

I'll spare you the details. But that, my friends, is what is known as a major buzz kill after a great night.

Hopefully, everyone in my household has had a chance to CHILL THE HELL OUT after sleeping on it last night.

Now on to the mystery for the day. Someone was POUNDING my door down at 8:40 this morning (we have no doorbell). No one got up and answered it. I was awake but still in bed, and my rationale was by the time I throw on sweats and get down to the door, they'll be gone. But now the curiosity is killing me. Who in the world was POUNDING on my door that early on a Sunday morning? My only guess so far is my neighbor whose car got dinged last night. Because I really want to be in the middle of that.

New Years Eve... The count down

Divine dinner at a divine restaurant with divine friends. Who could ask for anything more?

Buzzed? Who's buzzed?