Snowy Snow Day

Oh what a pretty sight when I looked out of my window this morning. The kitties were very intrigued by the falling flakes, but not enough to want to get their paws out there.

The roads in my hood were rather clear, and I zipped through the school zone since school is out.

Man to be a kid in the south. Granted, the country ice-covered roads are a good reason to close the schools in wintry weather, but the kids in my hood have it made. For serious they could go to the movies if they have transportation and the inclination. They are not homebound.

Aaaahhhh I remember the snow days of my youth. I grew up in East Meadow, New York, which is extremely similar to the post-WWII suburbia, Levittown. All of the houses were uniform in design (although the siding on each house was different) and were situated on less than a quarter acre. I had tons of neighborhood friends. If we were not tooling around on the sidewalks like a big wheel posse, we were running from lawn to lawn through sprinklers.

And that brings me to winter fun. For school to be called out on account of snow, there needed to be six inches of the white stuff already on the ground. That made for some serious winter fun. Mom would bundle us up in our snow coats and pants, and we would be turned loose on the pristine snow. We made forts, had snowball fights, and made snow angles until we could not feel our extremities.

My dog Sandy also pitched in. He was magic, because he could make white snow turn yellow. Awesome.

If it was a snowy Saturday or Sunday, Dad might be at Eisenhower Park playing football with the other Dads. He always brought a caraffe of hot chocolate with him, but when he returned we were not allowed to partake of the leftovers. Dad sometimes (as in always) fortified his hot chocolate with a spirited beverage. Mom would make us some fresh hot chocolate when were sufficiently frozen from play, and would float some marshmallows on top for good measure.

Aaaaah to be a kid on a truly snowy snow day.

Yay Marion!

Awwww yeah Marion Cotillard won an Oscar for Best Actress in La Vie En Rose. What a truly awesome movie it was. First of all, Edith Piaf was a kickass singer, and if you aren't touched by her music in some way I must deduce that you do not have a soul. La Vie En Rose also won the Oscar for Makeup. Extremely deserved y'all.




This is what Marion Cotillard looks like in real glamazon life:








Aaaaaand this is what she looked like in La Vie En Rose:

Jinkies y'all - methinks they used something a bit stronger than the Maybelline line.

The end of the movie killed - seriously. Edith/Marion performed "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien," and it haunts me to this day. It was so extremely powerful. The song is, naturally, in French, but even if you don't understand the words you can still understand what she is saying from the emotion conveyed. That is the genius of Edith Piaf my friends.

Listen to the song on You Tube, this particular link is actually from the movie. Here is a translation of the lyrics in English:

No, nothing at all,
I regret nothing at all
Not the good, nor the bad.
It is all the same.
No, nothing at all, I have no regrets about anything.
It is paid, wiped away, forgotten.
I am not concerned with the past, with my memories.
I set fire to my pains and pleasures,I don’t need them anymore.
I have wiped away my loves, and my troubles.
Swept them all away.
I am starting again from zero.

No, nothing at all, I have no regrets
Because from today, my life, my happiness, everything,
Starts with you!

Awesome. Edith Piaf was so badass.

Two Weeks

It has been two weeks since I've started taking medicine for hypothyroidism, and I must say that I'm feeling pretty darn good. My energy level has improved, my overall mood seems to be much more even, and Mr. Scale says that I have lost 4 pounds. My clothes have told me this too, because they feel ever so slightly looser.

yayayayyayayyayayya. It's not gonna be long before I can wear my pretty pretty suits again.

I go back to the doctor in early March, at which time he will probably up the dosage. If the tech takes my blood, I'm gonna make her use one of my new cool bandaids for sho.

Y'all - I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for going to the doctor. It was silly that I waited so long, because I did not realize how awful I felt until I finally didn't feel awful. If you feel out of sorts, lethargic, can't lose weight for anything, tell your doctor and get your blood tested. Life is too short not to feel good.

Undie Wishes and Tortellini Dreams

I love love love the intertubes - because of the beauty known as the Google search, I found two things that I have wanted for a long long time.


Behold:



Ever since I was a kid, I have wanted days-the-week undies. I just thought they were super fun, and I still do. I have been searching for them for years, and was even thinking of designing my own line, but alas I found these.



They even have a bow affixed to each pair that matches the color of the word. RAWK!



Here's my other find:

Happy happy happy. It is IMPOSSIBLE to find good meat tortellini here in Tennessee. I have tried many brands and have been seriously disappointed. I used to buy this brand when I lived in New York, and I just found out that Costco sells them if you order them online, and get them shipped to your business. The only problem is that Dear Husband works out of our home, so they cannot deliver there, and we cannot pick it up at the store. We have a friend that is a chef in his family restaurant, and Dear Husband thinks he can get it delivered there. I would make tortellini, but I seriously don't have the time. 10 pounds will last me forever. There is nothing better on a cold day than a steaming bowl of cappiletti (tortellini in broth) with a little parmesan sprinkled on top. NOM NOM NOM.


The intertubes are rad.

Coco's Cuisine

Coco can throw down in the kitchen y'all. I enjoy entertaining and cooking a lot, but because of my busy schedule and my level of tiredness when I get home, the cuisine that comes out of my cucina has become more simple, and I do take shortcuts.



I am not suggesting that you watch Sandra Lee. She is a minion of Satan's cook. I cannot believe that they gave that fool a show. Let us never forget the dessert debacle she called the Kwanzaa cake:





Is that not the foulest thing you have ever seen? Just don't watch that show. It is pure evil.



One of my favorite time saving meals comes from the Bertoli line of skillet dinners.






My favorite is the chicken alla vodka & farfalle, and my husband loves the chicken florentine & farfalle. These are so extremely easy to make. You open the bag, throw the contents in a skillet or the microwave, and voila you have dinner. I also like that there is a goodly amount of veggies. This is a good, quick, balanced meal for a tired Coco to prepare. The vodka pasta has asparagus (yum) and the florentine one has spinach. My husband actually licks the plate (thankfully I only serve this when we are NOT having company). Of course with any creamy pasta dish, there are calories, but a cal-fest every now and then is okay, as long as you have a healthy diet in general.

Heh I sound like I am a shill for Bertoli, but trust me I am not. They have not given me any money, but I have sure given them a lot of my grocery dollars.

Coco's Quest for Things

Good news on the band-aid front. During my lunch break today, I strolled over to the drug store and, after carefully looking over the band-aid selection, decided on a box of crayon band-aids.

The store had Dora the Explorer, Spiderman and other characters placed at child's eye-level so that they could cry and stomp until their parents bought them, but I could really give a honk about having them adhered to my body. Crayons are awesome, and I shall keep a couple in my purse when I have the need, and you'd better believe when I next go to the doctor, I shall demand that they use one of these Coco-sanctioned bandages if they take my blood.

This weekend went extremely well. Dear Husband shot a figure skating competition, and I manned the sales/computer downloading/customer service end of our operation. We were at the skating rink at 6 o-frigging clock in the morning on Saturday, and our day ended at 7 p.m. Although it was a long day, it went extremely fast because our table was hopping. We've done this gig for a few years now, and I was so happy that all the feedback we received about our service was goodness. Everyone loved the quality of Dear Husband's pictures, and our turnaround time on delivery is usually a week. All in all the weekend was a great success.

Our next skating gig is in early March in Chicago. We did this competition last year, and we did great so I'm sure this will be even better since the competiton has been extended from two to three days.

Dear Husband always wears his Zamboni hockey sweater to the competitions, because let's face it everyone thinks the Zamboni is rad, and everyone would like to drive one (myself included). So, since Dear Husband has awesome ice-themed attire, I decided that Coco deserved something fabulous. I performed all sorts of google searches for cool girl hockey jerseys, and what I turned up was disappointing to the max.

I mean c'mon. Why must women be banished to a land of pink and white? I cannot tell you how much this bores me. Coco does not approve. Therefore, I have decided that Dear Husband and I will do something I thought I would never do.

We will be matchy-matchy. It makes business sense, because since he is out on the ice, and I am behind the booth, the customers will realize that we are together, and plus I really dig the colors, and dammit girls can want to drive a Zamboni too. I bet it will look really boss with my tiara.

Happy Monday

Yep people don't usually put those two words together, but it is indeed a happy Monday for Coco.



The nice people that clean my house did their thing this morning, so I will come home to carpet vacuum marks, toilet paper ends folded into upside-down triangles, and clean bathrooms. Joyous!


Dear Husband just called to say he booked a wedding in Chicago for September (field trip!) so yay I am looking forward to that. We do weddings all over the place, but we absolutely love Chicago, and try to go there at least once a year. We didn't do so good with Windy City trips in 2007, but this year is looking to be faboo.

Here's a picture he took of one of our bridal couples at "da Bean."





I am also celebrating because I feel good. I got a call from the doctor I saw not too long ago at 8:00 p.m. last Thursday (for serious how is THAT for service). He said my tests came back, and everything looked fine except for one thing that is extremely treatable. He said that I have no function in my thyroid, so I am now rawking the medicine. It should take a couple of weeks for it to fully kick in, but I am looking forward to feeling OUTSTANDING. No more lethargy for me, and my metabolism will be much improved, so there will be less Coco according to the scale and the fit of my clothing. I am so extremely glad that I went to the doctor. Words cannot express my feelings well enough.



This week/weekend are going to be busy busy busy! Dear Husband also shoots sports photography, and we are shooting a figure skating competition here in Nashville. Dear Husband shoots every single skater, and then we download his pictures to viewing stations for customers to buy. We've done this for a few years with great success, and we should bring in some nice cheddar this weekend. I run the computers and take care of customers since I am so awesome with the people. I think I might wear my tiara, because let's face it tiaras are just too wonderful to keep in one's closet.



Here's an example of his skating photography. She is a strong skater, and was skating extremely fast. Isn't it great?

So that should catch you up. I haven't been doing much in the creativity department. I've been more on a "getting-my-shit-together" kick recently. Once I get this domestic thing out of my system I will get back on track.

I can't think of a title

I feel like writing, so here I am. This will probably be extremely random, but so is my life, so here goes.

I went to a general practitioner this week and got a physical. I was rather nervous at first, but the doctor was extremely wonderful. It was great to hear that my general health was good - they also took 4 vials of blood (um don't I need some?) and I got to pee in a cup, and I'll get those results shortly.

Y'all they took my blood and in return I got a cotton swab affixed with the tape that also removes skin. You know how that upsets me. Is it too much to ask for a friggin cool band aid? I am seriously going to have to buy some awesome ones, and keep them for such occasions.

Boo boo kisses - seriously how awesome are these. WANT!!!

I slept so extremely well that night, probably because I knew that I had done something excellent for my well being. I am proud of myself. I talk a good talk, but I am sorta bad about taking time for myself, and self care in general. But that will change.

Last night I went to a surprise birthday party for a dear friend. It was a small affair, but fun. I personally have never had a surprise birthday party, and don't really know how I would react. I am so used to doing things for others and not expecting much in return (I am a giver by nature) that I would probably cry (happy tears) but she took it in stride and had a pretty time.

Tonight Dear Husband have a night at home, but it will be a busy one. We are doing a rather exclusive bridal show at The Hermitage Hotel, so we will be preparing for that. Saturday morning and afternoon we will be at the show, that evening we have another party to attend, Sunday is church and Sunday afternoon will be spent with my family eating bratwurst cooked in beer with other acoutrements, as every patriot should do on Super Bowl Sunday.

Yep, random as promised.