Monday, May 29, 2006

Big Ass Weekend!!!!

So it's been a great Memorial Day weekend. It started off on Friday when we came home, had dinner and I filled Avon orders. I got my new Avon pin for selling over 500 dollars worth of Avon in just two campaigns. It's so fun. I can't tell you how strange it is to be an Avon lady when I can remember wanting to be one when I was a little kid and the happy recipient of those little lipstick samples my mom would get with her orders back then. In those days they were in little white tubes and you could clearly read their names on the bottom There were also fragrance samples, but what I remember most are the lipsticks. Anway, the merit pin was fun. Thank the Goddess that my husband discouraged me from wearing it to the movie we went to later! Ha ha ha! I was excited to get it and had a moment of duffessness when I thought it would look cool to wear it to the movies! WTF? A big-ass Avon pin in gold....just as an ornament! Not at a convention! Or even to deliver orders, but to a movie! Now you gotta be a dyed-in-the wool convert for something like that. Anyway, I saw the light very quickly and avoided that bit of embarrassment - and saved him as well. So we then went to see X-Men III - I have to say that I was kind of disappointed. It really wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. But I refused to read a review on it before it came out. X-Men is something I hae to judge for myself. Anyway, it was great to go to it on its opening night, even if our tickets were for the 11:30 show! We didn't even get home 'til almost 2:00

Then Saturday we got up at a decent hour and my husband went to his favoritie Toy store, the Harbor Freight Tools in Everett. I hung out with Andrea the daughter - then we did the grocery shopping - big job....and we got a movie (that sucked), but it was still a pretty good day. The husband was working on his truck most of the evening, and then my son and his wife came over for a while.

The next morning my hubby got up and went off to the autocross practice in Bremerton. Shortly after that, I took Andrea to the last session of her driving school with what must be the most dufus ass instructor I've ever encountered.....but at least she has her permit and has passed her written driving test. So .... then she came home and was sitting there all bored and stuff....and her sister-in-law came over. :) I made us some vodka crans (not the 16 year old, but me and the 25 year old) and we all three sat around and talked and had a great afternoon. We played with Avon a little....looked through the catalogs and I did my daughter-in-law's makeup. Here are some before and after pics.




Polly Before


I gave her a choice between "going out at night" make-up a and a day look. Polly chose the day look and here's what we came up with. Not that we didn't have absolutely lovely material to work with already, but she did look absolutely beautiful with some under eye concealer, some pressed powder, a light bronzer on her cheeks and some neutral colored eyeshadow with a touch of Heaven Blue on the sides. She also had berry lipliner and a color shine mauve on her lips. She looked just beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. Not to mention the fact that we had to wait until my camera batteries charged so I could take the "after" picture.




Shortly after that, my husband returned from his auto-cross practice, and I made chicken curry for everyong. My son came over to pick up the Polly, as she had had a bit to drink, but by the time they left, everything was just fine and she drove on her own.

So today I got up and went to the AutoCross (not practice) with my husband. To my great surprise, my son, Tim Allen, turned up to go with us! I couldn't have been more surprised or grateful. Surprised because he never comes to anything it seems, and grateful because he kept me excellent company while my husband was going about his autocross business. It was a wonderful day, albeit very long. From the time we left the driveway until we got home it was nine and a half hours! When we got home, my son took my husband 4-bying. They aren't home yet and it's 10:00 p.m. Great way to spend a weekend. I sure loved talking to my son for as long as I did. It was wonderful. I really have no idea when the last time was we even sat down and had a conversation that lasted ten minutes. much less roughly 7 hours. He's come out to be a great guy. I also enjoyed hanging out with Polly and Andrea. It's been a great weekend of reconnecting with my kids and I've loved it. As I type these words. Polly is sitting over in the big chair and Andrea is sitting next to me on the couch as the X Men II movie plays on the DVD player.

Well....happy Memorial Day weekend to all who read this. This one has definitely been one that I've been remembering the things that are important. Those who are here with me and living and lovin today. I know that my ancestors are important and this is a day to honor them....but what better way to honor your ancestors than to honor their progeny?

Let's see what next week brings.

Bright Blessings to all who read this.

Asradel

Friday, May 26, 2006

X-MEN III IS OUT TODAY!!!!!!

Wooo Hooo! I can't wait. I'm going to a late show this evening. I do not think I can possibly wait until tomorrow. I love the X-Men movies and this one promises to be the ever-lovin' shiz-nitz baby! Too bad I don't have some Wolverine attire to wear. It's like I told the husband, though...I'd probably just wind up lookin' like Freddy Krueger with a fucked-up hair cut. Oh well. I guess I'll leave the Wolverine'in to Hugh Jackman, that sexy hunka stuff there....and well, there are going to be many many moments of "oooooooo" and "ahhhhhh" during this movie, I just KNOW IT! I wasn't this exited about any release of any of the three LOTR movies. I just think I like the characters better, ya know? They are all fucked up in addition to being super-mutants. We got the oober-Christer dude who can teleport his ass all over the place, but has blue skin and sharp teeth....alrighty then....and we've got the chick who can kill people just by touching them, but how much would THAT suck. Geezuz! Talk about no way to please yourself but BY yourself...that's pretty sad. And then, of course, there's the dude who can armor himself like a pill-bug and walk through walls.

And of course.....well....we know that Jean Gray will be back with this 3d iteration and oooooo-la-la.....

Oh! Oh! and then there's that crazy self-absorbed teenager who can turn the Earth into a blazing inferno....and then there's the ultimate bad guy....Magneto....now THAT sum-bitch is a cool dude. I hear that in X-III, he moves the Golden Gate bridge and wraps it around something or throws it at something....Wow! I can't wait to get out of here and get into a movie line!

That's pretty much the focus of my day....waiting for the ability to go see X-III. I don't even know what else we have planned for the weekend. Not that it much matters....I DO know that I am going to go and watch my huzband drive his car around a lot of cones on Monday....but Saturday and Sunday can be spent in a lazy haze....

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to Everyone out there!

Hope it's a good one for you and whatever you want you get lots of!

Az

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Big Day

Husband had his wisdom teeth removed this morning- I took him there and stayed with him - he had the easiest extraction of anyone I've ever known or heard of. He was in and out and had four of them extracted in 40 minutes. Gotta be some kinda record. Well, after that we went and got his Percocet and antibiotics prescriptions filled and then we came home. We both slept for a while then I left at 3:00 to meet my witch sister and friend, Iris at Travelers in Seattle. I had a really lovely time. She is such a wonderful person and I really miss seeing her since circmstances changed and seeing her is such a rare event. Anyway we had a wonderful time of sharing. She bought me dinner at an Indian restaurant a few blocks from Travelers and and just had the best time talking. I had to leave all too soon though so I could come home and take Kristopher to the Thesis exhibition of our friend Jaime Forero who was graduating this art photography class that has taken him six years to get done with. Then we went over to a great little bar in Ballard that we've been to several times before. I'll get some pictures of that place up here soon. My friend JenBaby takes pics all the time at places like the Last Supper Club and the other clubs she goes to. I don't see why I couldn't take a few of this place. Anyway...I'll pile the camera in the car the next time we go there.

I'm going to bed pretty soon, but I wanted to check in and officially thank the God and Goddess for such a wonderful day. I think blogging is a good way to do it too. If the Lady or Lord wants to use you as an example for someone, well, they dan do so with a website. ;)

Bright blessings, and good night,

Asradel

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

What's Happenin? A Revelation of Sorts....

So it's officially the middle of May and the sun is out and it's damn hard to come in to work every day. However, I am reminded of the fact that I have a cushy job where I can keep long, manicured fingernails and where I get to hang out with people who bathe regularly, etc... That is a good thing, in my estimation. Also, I am much less in debt these days thanks to a refinancing of our house - a very good move indeed.

However, last night as I was standing at the gas pump filling my 1994 Saturn's 12 gallon tank and watching the meter tick over to 33.33 (a most auspicious number in and of itself - witchy friends who are reading this should ponder that a moment), I had a sort of revelation if you will. The crux of that moment of clarity and long vision showed me that economically things in this country are going to get much much worse before they get better. It was a crazy moment of being able to see where prices were going and why. I tell you now....we are in for a helluva ride. We have only begun to see the edges of how high prices are going to get. The fuel prices are going to be echoed in every corner of the market very soon, and it's scary. The great depression of the 1930s caught people by surprise, and, though the Federal Reserve has made provisions so that there will not be a run on banks like there was during that time, they have not been able to compensate for everything. I for one am going to react to my vision in the following ways:

1) Not going to make any major purchases that obligate me for long-term payments unless it is real estate or unimproved land for at least the next 2 years.

2) Going to cut the extra spending in half and increase the amount of money that I keep in my 401K plan. While there is some risk associated with the 401K, it will have my money growing rather than sitting still, and I can take the tax break on that money.

3) Going to listen to my husband and stock up on dry goods as emergency rations for food, etc.....

Lately my husband has gotten on a jag abou emergency preparedness - now while I do not subscribe to the theory of complete governmental or political breakdown, my vision at the gas pump has me thinking that there is going to be some form of societal storm to ride out. So, I'm gonna play along with him and that way I know that if the bottom drops out, we will at least have beans and rice to live on if we need to.

For those of you who are reading this, I'm not trying to scare anyone. I fact, I only shared the vision I had with my daughter, and that only because she was in the car when I had it. It was only a moment and it wasn't concrete enough for me to describe in terms like the Book of Revelation or anything - only a tremendous feeling of certainty and brief moment of clarity. If you are reading this blog, maybe it was because you were meant to as well. So that you could prepare yourself by stopping extraneous spending and tryign to get yourself into a state of preparedness. That never hurts anyway. Did you know that I heard that the Mormons believe that if the man of the household has not provided for back-up emergency food for his family for at least one year, he is being remiss in his duty to his family and to the church? Yep. One more thing the Mormon's threw in that actually has value.

Okay then....I don't have any pictures to go with this post. I don't know what I would put up anyway unless it was a gas pump with a big Jesus streak behind it.

Bright Blessings to all who read this,
Asradel

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Banks are the Axis of Pure Evil and TGIF


Okay... I'm a fairly reasonable person and normally am pretty fair-minded about businesses making their money - but right now my ass is chapped to an exponential degree because my ass-clown bank decided to rear-rape me for $280 in insufficient funds charges. Was my account deficient the money? No. Not if you count the check that I deposited that day. Not at all. Well, did they credit my account with the deposit? Hell no. They credited my account with $100 of the deposit and held the rest for 2 days while they watched 8 separate instruments come in while they were holding an artificial balance on my account that reflected only $100 of my larger deposit.

Now get this: the check that I deposited that they were holding was a check from an escrow account that was backed with US Bank funds from the refinance of my house! My head's gonna explode! WTF? I've worked in the legal support field for a very long time. Too long for me to actually wanna recall here - but I know, as do most people in the legal and financial world, that an ESCROW check is as good as cash. But not to them! No! Anyway, after going and fighting with the customer service manager and the bank branch manager, I was able to get back $210 of my dollars, but not the total amount. I will be writing a letter to the bank today in an effort to get back the additional $70, which I will promptly turn around and spend on a witch doll that I don't need but want very much.

So, I hope you all have a great weekend planned. Asradel here is going to help the husband get the truck loaded to take to the dump. Believe me...I'm totally STOKED about this. :) Not really. My life hasn't spiralled quite THAT low yet.

Oh! And by the way! I am going to start selling Avon products as of today. The district rep is coming downtown to meet me and give me my "getting started" kit. So, if any of you out there who lurke on my blog want a catalog, lemme know.

Bright blessings!