This week, Jenn forwarded an email from her mom, and trust me, there’s more where this came from.
To: Jenn (a.k.a. “Butter”…because, well, Jenn won’t tell me why)
From: Jenn’s Mom (a.k.a. “Moth”)
Butter: I understand you sent a reply to my last email, but someone (I won’t say who) Managed to delete it—-I’m sorry, could you please forward it again–thanks!!!Not only does someone (I won’t say who) read my emails, but deletes them (unintentionally), I’ m sure!!!!”Retirement in winter “—–leaves a lot of time on someone’s hands, while your mother is at your grandmother’s cleaning her apartment…..Hope you’re having a good day Butter !!!!I pray to the dear Lord for winter strength-(-till someone has more to do )…….THANKS—–Hugs
And a few minutes later:
No need to send it again sweetheart, just found it in “trash” …..
Thanks, Moth
Got any emails from your old lady you’d like to share? Jenn and I think there could be a new blog feature here. Send them to: Julie.Davidoski@yahoo.com!
Yes.
***BONUS BACON-FILLED POST: Rachel’s Table is showcasing my spicy turkey meatloaf recipe today!I know. All this [facial hair] and I can cook. I figured I needed a fall-back plan in case my Glee audition doesn’t pan out. Oh, also? If you’re not subscribing to Rachel’s Table, you just made a baby chipmunk cry.***
Wow, I just really, really can’t imagine a world without avocados. I mean… why bother? With even one more day?
No, no. I’m not giving away Rache. Nice try. She’s mine.
I saw her on Monday (we have totally taken our friendship to the next level), and you canshould must check out the rest of our adventure on her fabulous blog.
She gave me a fantastic Christmas present (see? Next. Level). “The kind of gift,” I told her, “that makes every day better!”
Booya.
Those are custom ‘stache glasses tile coasters! Yes! Handmade just for Go Jules Go! For when I put down my vodka / champagne / beer! Well, ha ha, I’m sure I can find another use for them!
I “mustache” you to admire these coasters.
Rachel explained that she worked with Julie Maida, a talented artist out of Fredericksburg, VA, to make these coasters. Julie owns the best first name evermaidasomeart, and specializes in wedding gifts and nursery art. She describes her work as “affordable, (mostly) utilitarian art.”
Julie’s been featured in Stitch magazine and locals can find her at Ponshop Studio in Fredericksburg. She also blogs at juliemaida.com.
Rache and Julie in front of Ponshop. Don’t forget my stein, ladies.
Just a few of Julie’s treasures:
I took one look (okay, lots of looks) at my new coasters and thought, “Wouldn’t it be amazeballs to give away something like this on my blog?” I contacted Julie and here we are!
The Prize
Custom artwork from Julie Maida (value: up to $40 US incl. S/H). That’s right! Work with Julie to design something that’s allll you, baby. Coasters, wine charms, jewelry, wall art, bowls, sculpture, trivets, etc. Once you decide what you want, Julie will work her magic and then ship your prize to you!
How to Win
Tell me, in the comments section below (or email me), a favorite “drunk person” story – you don’t have to be the drunkard. If you are, it’s okay, because you have a chance to class it up with some custom art.
Mine involves a couple of unruly chipmunks who stole the key to the liquor cabinet. Obviously.
Deadline
12 NOON EST, Wednesday, January 30th.
I’ll announce the winner on Friday, February 1st, 6am EST.
Thanks, Julie and Rache!!!! (I’m sorry. That fourth exclamation point was uncalled for.)
A little trip to Maryland for a family retirement party. Pretend it’s this past Saturday and your friend Jules is looking very cute overdressed in her lacy black dress…
Peppermeister (Husband Number Uno) and I headed down to Maryland in the morning and made great time – under 4 hours from western New Jersey.
We were staying overnight, but didn’t have time to check into the hotel first. No matter, because once at the party, I got to do one of my favorite things:
Drink Color.
I had to keep a safe distance from my other adorable nephew, who brought just one toy. Yes. A scorpion. The only thing I fear more than a world without cheese.
Everyone’s a comedian.
After the party, Peppermeister and I headed a little over 20 miles north to Baltimore to check into our hotel. We paid to park, and dragged our luggage (complete with cooler full of beer, natch) a long distance through the parking deck. We anticipated issues at the front desk, because Peppermeister and his dad have the same name.
Sure enough, they didn’t have us on record. Peppermeister called his parents, who had somehow gotten to the hotel before us, despite having left the party after us.
It all soon made sense, though.
Because we were at the wrong hotel.
We’d driven 20+ miles away from the party and the correct hotel because, like Peppermeister and his dad, both hotels had the same name.
We hauled everything all the way back to the parking deck, where this happened:
Thirty minutes later, when we walked into the RIGHT hotel lobby, Peppermeister’s family members greeted us with snickers.
“How was Baltimore?” they all chortled, one by one, as we passed. (“A gauntlet of chop-busting,” Peppermeister would later call it.) I shook my head warningly in Peppermeister’s general direction, and wondered how Second Husband would have handled this situation. Probably with a sense of humor. And a song and dance routine.
I made a mental note to recommit to finding Second Husband’s cell phone number.
We got to our room and changed into casual clothes. Where were we headed for dinner?
Baltimore! A few blocks from the “wrong” hotel!
Yes, I was still laughing. And no, Peppermeister was still not. Okay. Maybe a little.
In the end, we both had a lovely time, but I called it a night after dinner and drinks.
Peppermeister and I were sound asleep by 12:30.
Annnnd…
That’s when the fire alarm went off in our room and throughout the hotel.
We stumbled to get dressed and evacuate, but found out it was a false alarm (literally). Sound asleep once more, the alarm went off again, accompanied by a seizure-inducing strobe light.
By now it was clear the alarm system had gone Charlie Sheen. If we weren’t totally sure, we would be by 5:30am. Because the alarm would go on and off for the next five hours.
“This never would have happened if we’d stayed at the wrong hotel,” I said for the hundredth time, still finding it funny.
‘Member Rache’s hub in a slap bracelet? And my subsequent lobster roll obsession?
Though Peppermeister and I were living dead by lunchtime on Sunday (don’t worry, I’ll explain everything in the prequel), meeting Rache and her hub at a Cheesecake Factory in Delaware was a calorie-laden thrill.
“Peppermeister has officially asked me five times if I remembered the peppers,” I texted Rache as we pulled up. “P.S. – I never said that.”
I recognized the dazzling, scarlet vision as soon as we walked up to the restaurant. Rache and I hugged and immediately ordered drinks. Then it was on to handmade cards and peppers and ‘stache glasses.
I know! I forgot my f&#$* ‘stache glasses! But I didn’t need them to see that this was the best card ever made.Boy, being allergic to avocados would really suck.
Rache is a locavore (i.e., eats only locally grown/produced food), but doesn’t deny herself the occasional avocado egg roll and Snickers cheesecake. In fact, it was one of my greatest ‘enabler’ moments of all time.
And that’s saying something. I used to call this blog GoGuiltyPleasures.
Nearly three hours flew by. Rache has a great sense of humor, and so does her hub. It was one of those rare occasions when I knew we’d click, and then we DID click, exactly the way I expected.
Rache, you’re tops.
Who wouldn’t click with THIS?
I’m pretty sure this was Rache’s first bloggy meet-up. I think we were gentle.
Or at least she and her hub managed to disguise their deer-in-headlights look once they realized we didn’t want to collect their toenails.
I mentioned recently that I was so inundated with your awesomeness that I was planning to install a weekly feature for the rest of the summer.
Much like when I mentioned bringing back slap bracelets in my very first video blog, I am following through on my word. This time, I expect it’ll be cheapereasier just as great.
Because you’ve done all the heavy lifting. So enough of me. Onto you.
In our inaugural issue, we’re going to once again prove that sexy sells. It’s all about the ladies today!
Editor’s Note: Your favorite blogger (ahem) did an ongoing slap bracelet giveaway this year, but the bracelets feature my old blog name, “GoGuiltyPleasures!”. For a full listing of all Slap Bracelet pictures and posts, please see my Slap Bracelets page.
If you thought I was lying when I said this series was “hot,” consider this picture my blowing a raspberry at you.
Rache is totally smart, talented, stunning, and funny, and could have any blogger she wants as a friend. Yet one of the highlights of my bloggy life was finding out Rache had mentioned me on another blog as a blogger she would really like to be friends with. I told her this made up for all the years of sitting at The Geek Table at lunch. Now I’m at RACHEL’S TABLE, ya’ll!
Rache’s blog focuses on natural, locally grown food, which is a plus on its own, but her unpretentious and humorous attitude make reading her blog heaven on earth. You’ll get a lot more out of it than [delicious!] recipes, I promise.
As if that wasn’t enough? This summer, she took her slap bracelets on vacation, and, well, you just need to see this for yourself. Rache’s slap bracelets crashed a wedding! Even I couldn’t pull that off!
That’s Rache. On the right. Wait’ll you see what she accomplished at that wedding.
Things started off harmlessly enough on Rache’s vacation, in Plymouth, Massachusetts…
Then it was onto the beaches of Cape Cod…
Bookmarks! Gah! The cross-promotional possibilities! If I had but known…I am in love with this picture.
And while seeing the sights is all well and good, I started to wonder if Rache really knew me. But then…
Rache’s hub enjoying a lobster roll. A lobster roll that I should be enjoying. A lobster roll that I’ve been obsessing over ever since I saw this picture.Rache knew a drive-in movie theater viewing of “Brave” needed enhancement. As I told her, I have this exact ‘single serving wine juice box’ in my refrigerator at all times (duh).That’a girl.
And now, onto the wedding extraordinaire…
I can honestly say this makes me all farklempt.
Rache told me the groom looked like Run-DMC’s son, Diggy (she was worried I wouldn’t ‘get’ that, hahaha…Please), which is why she took this picture:
And then the kicker, Rache actually accosted the bride and groom (he’s totally Diggy, right?!) to take this next picture! Yes. Yes, you should be giving her a standing ovation right now.
In today’s featured article, I’d like to point you towards another gorgeous, slap braceleted lady, Angie Z., who didn’t get nearly the attention she deserved in her original unveiling (I’m thinking a Ladies in Slap Bracelets 2013 calendar might be in order this holiday season, no?).
If people don’t understand why I love Angie and her blog so much, all they need do is read this slap bracelet letter and see the accompanying photos, which take us back to a simpler time, when slap bracelets weren’t yet shanks.
Dear Jules,
I received my snap bracelets in the mail and couldn’t be happier. They are everything I ever wanted in vinyl wrist accessories.
In fact, what I would’ve given to have them years ago. (I could’ve been the coolest girl in high school.) What I would’ve given to have them in the summer of ’93, just in time for my senior year photo shoot.
Can you believe we’re seniors? It’s gone so fast!
After giving it some thought, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands — quite literally. Because who says you can’t reinvent the past?
That’s right — with my very own snap bracelets, I decided to recreate my senior pictures. I happen to have some of my old clothes even — the early ’90s certainly paved the way in high fashion. I think you’ll agree that we gave up the hair bump far too soon.
I’ll always remember the homecoming party at T-Bone’s house when we karaoked to Ace of Base. I’ll always remember how you proposed marriage to Mark Calderon from Color Me Badd. I’ll always remember how we ruled the school in our band uniforms. My memory is a little fuzzy on that last one.
Stay cool, never change, and never stop wearing your velvet choker,
Angie
P.S. Why does my old letter jacket stink like Cool Ranch Doritos?
Angie, I still dream about you.
That Fun and Quirky Last Page of Every Magazine – Lady-Blogger Contest Shenanigans
Peg would do anything for me, I mean, you, and you won’t even enter her contest? I guess I was wrong about you.
Win some bloggy loving over on Peg’s blog by coming up with a sales pitch for a fascinating, glowing piece of hardware. (You have to see it to believe it.) DEADLINE: 1PM EST, FRIDAY, JULY 27th.
Katy’s [slap-braceleted] pooch, Shelby, wants you to enter, too. Don’t make Shelby cry.Katy runs an ongoing “7 Deadly Sins” writing contest, which supports charity and writing and you and other awesome things. I am entering the current round (“Lust”), though I should have stopped while I was ahead…at “Gluttony.” The Deadline for “Lust” entries is MIDNIGHT (12am EST), SATURDAY, JULY 28th.
Darla (my favorite Maine-iac) does me soooo proud.
To celebrate two years of blogging, Darla’s offering some FABULOUS Maine-themed goodies. All you have to do is sell your soul tell your most embarrassing childhood stories! I’m sure you don’t have any of those! Yeah! Me either! DEADLINE: NOON (12pm EST), MONDAY, JULY 30th.
Back Cover
Stay tuned for Summer is Hot and So Are You Issue #2 hitting newsstandsWordPress Readers (ha ha, no.) inboxes next week! I don’t know exactly what that means yet, but not because you’re not HOT, but because there’s SO MUCH OF YOUR HOTNESS to pick from! Wooo!
Please shower these lovely ladies with attention and compliments in the comments section below, and/or let us all know what else we should be checking out in the blogosphere! I know you will, because you’re amazing like that.
Go Jules Go 