Crazybananas

Looking for a good gift for your Valentine? Haven’t thought about it yet? Oh, don’t worry. It’s only…..gah! In two weeks! Crap!

Well, I found the perfect gift for my bearded wonder right here. Mighty Goods always has the best gift guides.

If not, chocolates always work. Or flowers. But they have to be nice flowers, not crap. (Husband, hint, hint…someone forward this to the husband) Or cheesecake. Cheesecake works too.

UPDATE: This would be the best gift. Seriously, if there is a geek in your life, you really need this.

First, we shall get low…

Then do the Soulja Boy dance…

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” - Herm Albright

“I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I’d think, no, actually I’m a giraffe.” - Richard Gere

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.” - Mae West

“There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.” - Salvador Dali

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough” - Mario Andretti

“The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any.” - Katharine Whitehorn

“It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.” - George Burns

OK, after much procrastination and all-around laziness, here are the highlights (and lowlights) of the 2007 holiday tour.

First, we had a quick family holiday in Kansas City. And just in case Mother Nature was worried we may be too excited for the Florida sun, she hit us with a huge ice storm. Gee, thanks. I was starting to defrost a little, but you just took care of that, didn’t you.

Although the ice just pissed me off, Lu seemed to like it. And she’s become obessed with eating snow. Did I mention she falls down a lot? I think it may have had an affect…

So at our little KC Christmas with Trent’s mom and step-dad, once again I was totally outdone by Trent’s mom. I got Lucy an Ugly Doll and coloring book for Christmas…she got her a tricycle, duplos and a bubble machine.

In case you were wondering, this is the face one makes when first confronted with the joy of the bubble machine. Let’s just say the coloring book was less impressive after this.

Then we headed out to Tennessee to visit Trent’s dad and step-mom. They live in the middle of nowhere, on Poor House Road. Seriously, it’s called Poor House Road. We stole a street sign and hung it up in our house. Just seems more fitting.

I spent much of our time in Tennessee sneaking off to take pictures. Trent has started to get a little ansy with me taking pictures of all sorts of stuff and then running out of memory before we get to the important events. Like, say, Christmas. So I threw him a bone and we took this family shot.

You gotta love Lucy’s big “CHEEEESSSEEE!”

Then I ran off and took some more pictures of horses.

But Trent got to drive his dad’s Porche, so that got him off my back. At least for a while.

So I continued taking random pictures. Hey, everyone loves a festive wreath, right?

The highlight of the trip to Tennessee had to be the Christmas Eve Day party at the farm center. Very “Little House on the Prairie.”

After a quick stop back in KC, we headed back to the airport on our way to Florida to visit my parents. We knew it would be warm there, but 80 degrees?!?!?! Do you remember what we were leaving?

So the 80 degree weather was quite the treat, and we took advantage by heading to the beach. Lucy was a little afraid at first…

But after some encouragement, she was loving it! That is, until the salt water got in her eyes. Then the sand seemed much more inviting.

In Florida, we realized that Lucy and my dad have the exact same haircut. Or lack thereof.

This has to be my favorite picture from the whole trip. This is exactly how I used to look on the beach with my family as a kid. Wind blowing in my face. The smell of salt and the sea. Sand caked in every nook of my body. It’s so incredible seeing Lucy with those same expressions. It makes all of those plane trips worth it….maybe?

You all know I don’t like writing about social or political issues on this site. Mostly because there are only about three of you reading regularly, and at least one is on the exact opposite of the spectrum from myself, and when I hear this person talking about a certain news channel named after a sneaky, dog-like animal similar to Swiper on Dora the Explorer (God, I’m talking politics and Dora, kill me now) I usually want to shove pencils in my eyes. So I usually stay away from all of that hoopla. Because I like my friends. And my readers.

Hi, readers!

But sometimes while watching the news, I’m very saddened by what I see. And I won’t go into hot topics like the war or the state of the country or our healthcare system or poverty or all of the things that actually mean something. Instead, lets talk about the really important stuff.

Hollywood.

Why are all of my childhood crushes dying of drug overdoses? First, Brad Renfro, who I adored in Tom & Huck. I think I plain wore that video out as a kid (there’s no accounting for taste, and besides, I was 9). To watch someone who was my age be so successful and then just crash so hard…it’s extremely sad to me. The same with Heath Ledger, with whom my crush developed when I was a teenager. And he, unlike Renfro, seemed to have an OK life. A balance. He didn’t seem to caught up in all of the craziness. He made movies that changed how I thought about the world. Films that made me cry and laugh and think. I mean, really, really think. You expect the news that someone like Britney Spears, who’s problems have been splashed all over the media, has died, but not someone like Heath Ledger.

It all makes me sad, but also shows me that everyone is human. Even when they have all the money and success in the world, even when they are fathers or mothers or sisters or brothers or friends. They can still lose sight of all of that. It makes me feel both proud and lucky that I’ve been able to wipe the fog off of my glasses and view my life in the beauty and glory that it really is.

This is one of my favorite tributes to Heath Ledger. I think it’s best to remember people in their finest moments, instead of a barrage of photos over some sad music. Hopefully someday, when she’s much older, his poor daughter can watch this and see her dad as he was, instead of how the media saw him.

(Click on screen below to watch video)