My sister the marathoner

As I sit typing this, my sister is 16 minutes into her very first marathon. Yes, my sister, Anita, is one of the runners today in the Marine Corps Marathon. She will be running 26.2 miles through Virginia and DC in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She started training for this marathon 5 months ago. When she started she could barely run a little more than a mile. However, her last email update regarding her progress about a week ago reported that she had successfully reached a 20 mile high, and she was confident that she was prepared to complete the marathon today.

I'm so proud of her efforts and dedication and am confident that she will complete her 5 month goal of completing her first marathon.

If you would like to support Anita in her efforts and at the same time support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, please visit her webpage: www.active.com/donate/tntga/tntgaARollins.

Well, gotta go now! Have to get downtown so I can stand on the sidelines and cheer my sister on!

Is it ever too early to break out the boots?!

I recently bought three pair of boots (yes, three!) and I can't wait to start wearing them. I've noticed that the Hollywood celebrities wear boots pretty much anytime of year (Britney Spears is rarely seen without her brown ugly stinky looking boots), but I think most normal folks break them out in the fall. So, is it officially ok to start wearing mine now? Do I have to wait for a consistent run of 60 degree weather before I can show them off?

A few years ago, I worked with a crew of ladies who had a strict rule against wearing boots too early in the season. Kind of like a no-white-after-Labor-Day rule. I mean they actually believed that if you wore boots one day when the weather was cold and sandals the next day when the weather got warmer, you had somehow violated a major fashion rule. I honestly had a boot wearing complex for a while. Hmmm...it appears I still do. So help me out, people. Is it time?

There was a chill in the air today... I'm just saying... Rules are made to be broken right? I mean the boots are FIERCE!

Who pays for YOUR beauty maintenance? Him or you?

I've been an independent woman all of my adult life. When I need to get my hair done, nails manicured and pedicured, back massaged, etc., etc., etc., I've always managed to take care of these things myself. I've never had a sugar daddy (nor have I ever needed or wanted one) and never have I felt like I needed to rely on a man to take care of my personal maintenance, but that's just me. However, recently, I had a discussion with one of my coworkers, and learned that it was not only expected but a requirement in her relationship that her man (her fiance) pay for her weekly hair and beauty maintenance. Hmmm...

I thought this was an urban legend, because I have heard of women like this, but I've never really met one who practices this with her man on a regular. I'm confused. This woman goes up to her man every week with her hand out looking for money, when she takes her grown behind to work every day to earn a dollar just like he does. Now, yes, he earns more money than her, but a baller, he's not. She insists that he pay for her upkeep because she's looking good for him. But I must ask, can't she pay for these things herself and still look good for him? I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to me.

I could see this as a nice treat every now and then, but an every week requirement! Shiiiiit, first of all I can't see sitting in anyone's salon for hours on end, let alone for hours on end every week. And I'm damn sure not going to be in the position of getting bent out of shape when my man tells me that he doesn't feel like paying for MY HAIR this week... that was how the convo with my coworker got started. I'm just saying.... that's just me. Shiiiit, I'll pay for my own damn hair. Hell, it's mine!

Anyway, what say you? Do you pay, or does he? Do you agree with me, or do I need to start hitting up my man for hair money??? (Ha... yeah, right.)

P.S. For real tho, if my man was caked up like the dude in this picture, I might be persuaded to change my argument.

P.S.S. Hmm... nevermind. Upon further inspection, I see he's holding a big stack of ones. He's gonna have to do better than that... ;-)

Something squirrely's going on

Over the past few months, squirrels have managed to burrow their way through a hole in one of the shingles on my roof and have made themselves a little home. At first I thought the scratching noise I've been hearing above my bedroom window was birds, but no... they're squirrels. This was confirmed when I called my friendly neighborhood Critter Control. They pointed out a rather large squirrels nest in the tree next to my home. In fact, the branches are so close to the house that the squirrels have been able to easily go from the nest to the hole in the roof.

Well over the past week and a half, Critter Control has come by to set traps and so far have caught two squirrels. Since the last squirrel was caught and Derrick sawed off the branch with the squirrels nest, we haven't heard any more scratching (YAY!). Although I love, love, love this, I don't love what it's done to my pocketbook:

$250 for the trapping
$310 for repairing the damage the "critters" left behind, and
$50 for each squirrel caught (so far $100)
= TOO DAMN MUCH!

This week the Critter Control guy will be stomping around in my attic to make sure no squirrels have managed to get in there. The idea of this is BEYOND GROSS!! I once witnessed birds in an attic, when I was house hunting and it was the nastiest thing I'd ever seen. I can just imagine what kind of nastiest squirrels can leave behind.

Oh yeah, the Critter Control guy also mentioned that this is the time of year for squirrel babies. Babies, ya'll! Baby squirrels in my attic! I need some smelling salts, because the thought of this is just making me want to faint. UGH!

Pray for me and my pocketbook, ya'll...sigh.

Boondocks: It's not for kids

You would think most people know that Boondocks is not for kids, but I learned recently that is not the case. Yes, the Boondocks used to be in your family newspaper, but even if you read it there, you would know that it wasn't really for kids. It's adult. Boondocks is on a TV program called, Adult Swim. Uh... did you read that? ADULT!

So imagine my surprise when during a recent family reunion a cousin of mine who is older than me (and should have known better) decides to put on the Boondocks during a chartered bus trip to a nearby harbor with 5 to 6 kids younger than 10 on board. Sigh...

We were about 5 minutes into our trip when the movie came on. When Boondocks came up on the screen, I braced myself immediately for a show down. I don't really like confrontations, especially with family, but Derrick was with me and his son who's 9 was on board. I knew Jamal and the Boondocks wasn't going to mix. This was quickly confirmed when a string of motherf*ckers, sh*ts, godd*mns, etc. etc. etc. began to echo through the bus.

And you know what? No one said anything (!!!) ... except Derrick... to me... in my ear. He wasn't happy, ya'll. We don't listen to stuff like this in our house, let alone allow Jamal to, and here we were stuck on a 1-1/2 hour bus ride with one of the most inappropriate choice of movie imaginable for a FAMILY reunion bus trip.

Before this ridiculousness got too out of hand, I got up (at Derrick's urging) to confront my dear, but misguided cousin. I let him know that the content of the movie was too adult for the kids on the bus and that he needed to cut it off. His response? "Really? We can't really hear it that well up here."

HUH?!!! That was NOT the response I was expecting.

Anyway, I told him that whether or not HE could hear it, everyone else on the bus could hear it loud and clear and it needed to be turned off.

Needless to say, it was turned off, but it took him a few minutes to do so...sigh. He made an announcement that because of a complaint (MINE) he would have to turn off the movie. There were a couple of boos from some of the teenage cousins in the back of the bus (whateva, young'uns), but there were also several applauds, particularly from the mothers on the bus. I even received some personal thank yous from some of these mothers later. (Nice, but where were you when I was making my complaints...humph!)

Anyway... we listened to music for the rest of the trip to the harbor, had a great time partying on the boat cruise, and watched a KID FRIENDLY movie on the way back home: Are We There Yet? ... That's what I was thinking while watching this stupid movie. Are we there yet? BUT, it was much better for the kids, so I guess I did my charitable deed for the day.

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I'm back, people. ;-)