CHA Giveaway

Well, my crafting buddy Simone has truly out did herself. Simone went to CHA last week with her good friend Carol on a look see / shopping spree. Simone took a gazillion pictures which she shared with all of her blogging friends. Take the time to go and visit her blog. Once you start reading you will not be able to stop. So, if you are crafty and want to see what was at CHA, or need some crafty inspiration (Simone has the best original ideas) or you just want another insight on life go see Simone's "A Daily Dose of Spazz" at http://spazzgirldaily.blogspot.com/

Living Room Update

Here are the pics of the new couch. It hasn't stayed this way for very long. As you can see I have my chair covered, so is the case with the new couch. It is covered 99% of the time.

New swag that I made for over the archway that goes upstairs.

Parrot-heads

I enjoy Jimmy Buffet music.

I like an outdoor concert.

I had a hard time enjoying this past weekend's Jimmy Buffet concert out in Tinley Park.

The venue clearly sold WAY TOO MANY lawn seats.

Once the concert started you pretty much were forced to stand because the throng of people made it impossible to sit back down on your blanket. In fact I ended up leaving the blanket that I brought because it was so disgusting and trampled.

However, the clincher was this scene.
A couple (late 30's early 40's)who came and stood in front of us right as the concert began, blocking the jumbo-tron and forcing us to stand in order to see anything, did something that grossed us out and was for sure the clincher for us to leave early.

The man stood behind his wife, and while she was holding his shirt, he pissed into his empty beer cup. When he was done, he set the cup down on the ground and let it tip over letting his urine leak onto the ground.

GROSS!!!!!

How hard would it have been to go done to the washroom?

I had a jumbo margarita and had to go to the bathroom, and like what I believe to be the normal action, I walked down to the bathroom and came back up to the lawn. Not so convenient but kinder to my fellow lawn-mates.

Card Party Cont'd Part II

Decisions, Decisions....
Do you bet the house or not?

Ricky on the new couch

Cousin Fran on the new couch

Clearly Miss Harley and Gidget are not impressed with "the big game"

Getting ready to start the "big game"

Ricky, Sue and Caryn

That's me in my Mickey Mouse themed kitchen.

Card Party Pictures Cont'd

The dining room was too tight so we moved the table into the living room. Look how it looks as if I have my hand inside my cousin Fran's brain.

My sister Caryn and cousin Sue eating dinner before the "big game"

Card Party Pics

This is my backyard. Starting at the left is my cousin Fran (green shirt), my sister Caryn, my cousin Sue, my brother-in-law Bruce and Sue's husband Ricky.

Card Party

I hosted poker night at my house for the first time. My house is very small so that is why I usually do not host it at my place. Since I just painted, got new carpet and a new couch I decided it was time for me to host. Here are some of the pictures from that night taken by Steve, my cousin Fran's husband. I will post more photos later.

I Figured Out How To Post Pictures

Here are my girls. As you can see they have a very rough life. The black lab is Miss Harley and the chihuahua is Gidget. This is NOT a posed picture. Gidget sleeps on top of Harley all the time.

The Aftermath

This is a picture of the area where all of the 4th of July festivities were taking place across the street. The "For Sale" sign is on the front lawn of the people who were having the party with the loud music and fireworks. See the posts below for the view of the alley and the damage to my garage. These people at least had the decency to clean up all of this mess from the sidewalk, the lawn and the street by the time I got home from work yesterday. The mess in the alley (see post below) has not been cleaned up yet.

Damage to my property

Let me first say that the garage door needs to be painted. The peeling and crackled paint is not a result from the 4th of July. The holes however are from my lovely back neighbor and his 4th of July frivolity. As you can see from the shots of the door that were taken on the inside the fireworks went through my wooden garage door. Luckily they are all in the bottom panel. A police damage report has been made and Rick says that he can fix the holes and seal them up before winter so that at this time I won't have to buy a new garage door. All I can say is that no one was hurt (that I know of) and that I am a believer in Karma. So, sometime in this guys future someone will damage something of his and the Karma train will have made it's trip around the track.

Accessment of the damage after the 4th

Here is the alley on the 5th of July. Notice all of the debris from the fireworks that were set off. The yellow garage is where the people were that set off all of the fireworks. My garage is directly across from the yellow garage.

Those Damn Kids

I must be getting old or perhaps I'm just normal.

To celebrate the birthday of our great nation my neighbors had a 1/4 stick of TNT off.

Yep, the group across the street in the front would set off a 1/4 stick and then the group across the alley would respond in kind.

It was our own little glimpse into the Iraq war.

The across the street crowd was much more annoying because along with their giant booms was the excessively LOUD music. That lovely group wanted to share their musical tastes with the whole block and put their stereo speaker in the window to help us all hear the songs. My house was completely closed with the air on and the music was so loud you would have thought that I had the radio on in my room. Most of this wonderful TNT off was after 10pm. The cops had been there and for about 15 minutes things were quieter but then it just started all over again. Along with the music was the great ability for us to hear our neighbor too. He had a Mr. Microphone type set up and would talk to his friends (standing maybe 10 feet from him) through his cool Mr. Microphone set up. At one time, about 12:15am he proceeded to ask his friends "Hey Mother F--kers, how many more fireworks do we have?"

My poor girl Gidget was just freaked out beyond words. She spent the entire night huddled in her little house trembling. Miss Harley fared better, but even she was getting agitated after 4 hours of 1/4 stick fun.

What is the appeal to just a loud BOOM?

I understand the bottle rockets, firecrackers, the sparklers and other display fireworks, but the BIG BOOM thing is beyond my comprehension.

I must be getting old!