girl in a hat

We’re at her house, oh, about 10 seconds when I whip out the camera phone because I’m now obsessed with it. She is now obsessed with Curious George, hence the hat. Cool! “Smile for Tee Tee!”

Click.

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“Tee Tee, lemme get some paper so we can draw with my new paint pens!”
Great!

Click.

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Tee Tee wearing out her welcome with her wretched camera phone. Girl in hat is doing silly faces. “Okay. Just look up at me for a sec.”

Click.

Really, she smiled two seconds later. Sometimes I truly believe that that lazy sun just borrows its light from our little glowing girl. Well, maybe it wavered a split second here, but that was all Tee Tee’s fault.

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And several hours later, as we’re leaving, she clings to both of us, continually kissing us and whispering, “I don’t want you to go. I don’t want you to go.” With permission from dad, she walks us out to our car, holding our hands. “I wish you could stay. I don’t want you to go.” Little love explosions firing along my nerves the entire time. We wave goodbye. She waves goodbye wildly, calling, “I love you! I love you!” watching as we pull away, our hearts blazing from the sheer joy of her.

new things

MB has finally broken the shackles of Liar Cheater Pig. The business is now ….. his. He’s been making payments to Liar Cheater Pig over the last few years in order to buy the business and LCP kept going back on his word, demanding more and more. Forget it, dude. It basically came down earlier this week.

MB told him over the phone:

“You can write me a check for what the business owes me and I will go on my merry way OR you can give me the rest of the equipment, I will consider the debt settled, and the business will be mine.”

(Uhm, as it was supposed to be two years ago.)

Silence on the other end of the line. What MB didn’t say was: “OR we could sue you.”

Finally, in typical greedy fashion, LCP blurted, “So I just get NOTHING???”

(Well, dude, you get the over $200,000 paid to you over the last three years. Also, you get: NOT BEING SUED for a lot more money than the original debt. You know, if that’s worth anything to you.)

MB just evaded, saying, “Well, I’ve consulted several people about this business transfer and I think this will work best.”

Silence.

Silence.

Then ….. all of a sudden …. LCP …. agreed. He agreed. One of the greediest, most despicable men we’ve ever known actually agreed.

But then, just seconds later, he whined, “Well, that money you fronted the business, you just took it right out again.”

(We did not. And we have proof.)

MB just said, chuckling, like speaking to a child: “Oh, LCP. I guess we could have this conversation til the end of time.”

Silence again. No comeback to that.

I am so proud of him. He didn’t take any of LCP’s bait. He didn’t go into any extraneous conversation with him. He just stayed steady and mostly silent and deftly sidestepped the landmines.

And he won. It actually happened. After all this time.

all right. stop it.

To all Beanhouse kooks and beyond …..

— First, on word usage: The word is “evidently” not “evitably.”

— It’s really not necessary to compliment your Certified Barista on using a “25-cent” word like “empirically.” She actually appraises it at much less. Frankly, she appraises you at much less, too, Captain Condescendo.

— It’s also not necessary to compliment your Certified Barista by telling her that she looks like Paul McCartney or Bonnie Raitt or tired. Really.

— For the love of GOD, do NOT get all snippy with her after she’s refilled your two iced coffees — touched your precious plastic cups — by saying, “Well, which cup is WHICH? My friend out there has a herpes sore on his lip and I need to know which is WHICH!!” Do not expect an answer in the face of such unspeakable horror. Do not even bring your horrible little Herpes Cup anywhere near her. She will sob and have night terrors. Your herpes is your problem. You are god-awful gross and horrid.

— Giant red rouge circles? If you’re a clown, yes. If you’re a human, no. Please do not stand anywhere near your Certified Barista sporting this look. She will sob and have night terrors.

— Also, don’t flounce up to your Certified Barista after she’s made you the perfect cappuccino with the most gorgeous foam rolling your eyes and demanding, “Uhm, so do I get a LID??” when they are FIVE feet behind you on the condiment stand if you’d bother to look around. Please go to hell — no, better yet, Starbucks. That’s worse.

— Additionally, please don’t purchase your $1.50 cup of coffee with a $100 bill and then insist you’ve been short-changed and then insist it be counted — three times — until you finally see that, yes, that’s 98.50 in your crisp little pile. And by all means, please DON’T leave any teensy bit of that wad of cash as a tip for anyone. I mean, don’t put yourself out or anything. Evitably, you have more important things to do.

— And to Cross-Dressing Christine: Hon, you have some serious cankles. Those dresses just aren’t working for you. How ’bout some nice long slacks and a pretty pair of pumps?

— And just generally, world, the phrase is “thank you,” not “unhhuhnnnh.”

Unhhhuhhhnnhh for listening.

she is a sensitive child

Piper (obsessed with her new pink suitcase): Mama, how did Santa know I didn’t have a suitcase?

Her mom: Oh, well, he’s just smart that way.

Piper: That is just so SWEET of him!

*****

Piper: Mama, does God have a missus?

*****

Piper (standing on a chair, holding her dad’s face in her hands as he’s leaving for work): Remember, Daddy. Change da world.

I love how she thinks about others, this kid. How many kids think of Santa as sweet? How many kids wonder if God’s alone or not? How many kids think about changing the world??

Okay. I’m totally biased, but she’s always blowing me away.

this is horrible

This is all over the news in my neck of the woods.

Literally, a few miles from where I live and work. It’s freaking me out. Pure, random evil.

more beanhouse papers

I wonder if people ever see me sneaking papers like this into my pockets like some weird pack rat. Oh, well.

Uhm, I really don’t know here …. it’s like some kind of “Grid of Sorrows” or something. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the “Almost No Life” Zone. Although, really, the fact that someone actually drew this out is just killing me, on many levels. The “wow” looks like someone else’s writing to me. Like the person charted out their no-life zone and their companion commented “wow,” maybe? Which isn’t exactly a soothing balm for the hurting soul. I mean, your friend draws all this out for you and you can only scrawl back a flimsy “wow”?

Wow.

Still, I’m almost inspired to chart my own “Grid of Sorrows” for 2006 …. uh, I said “almost.”

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it’s a new year

And I have finally joined the 21st century: I have a cell phone!!

And it takes pictures, see? Notice how my fingers look like Play-Doh Fun Factory sausages. Or as if they’re made of almost lifelike rubber. Creepy. Also, as you can see, I’m not very good at figuring out how to crop these things. Still, Missy tagged me a while back for a self-portrait — and I virtually never follow-through on “tags” — but, ta-da, here’s the best I could do. Maybe next I’ll get an actual camera. That’d be so 20th century of me.

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