Happy Birthday Max, part II

As promised, here are updated pictures! Max's birthday party was Saturday, and good times were had by all! The first picture is the now 1 year old Max and his happy self before the party started.

The second picture is self explanatory - ahh, the bliss of chocolate!

Happy Birthday, Max!

Today is my nephew's 1st birthday! Technically he is my great-nephew, but that makes me sound too old. Hard to believe it has already been a year since he came into our world. This picture is from his true "birth" day - exactly one year ago today. Those are Grandma's and Grandpa's hands holding him. He has his birthday party this Saturday - I'll try to get a good picture of him from that and post - he has grown so much! So here's to you, Maxwell Nolan - I hope you had a wonderful, happy, green-pea-free day!

Tag, you're it!

Holy cow, it has been almost a month since I posted. How did that happen?

I was just thinking tonight that I needed to post, but didn't really have anything to talk about. Then I checked out my nephew's family blog, and found out I had been "tagged". So - here goes!

Four places I've lived:
1. Jackson, Mississippi
2. Prentiss, Mississippi
3. Hattiesburg, Mississippi
4. Memphis, Tennessee

Four jobs I've had:
1. Commercial Pricing Manager
2. Pricing Analyst
3. Mortgage Processor/Underwriter
4. Library Assistant - ask me about the "clunker room" sometime, lol

Four things I'd like to do before I die:
1. Write a young adult novel
2. Tour Great Britain/Europe
3. Be a wife/mother
4. Own a Bernese Mountain Dog (so cute, I had to add a picture)


Four favorite desserts:
1. Cake made from box mix with canned chocolate icing (sorry, Susie)
2. WW Lemon snack cakes
3. Brownies
4. OoeyGooey hot from the oven Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies

Four interesting facts about me:
1. I have issues with fluids - food fluids, bodily fluids, fluid fluids. divided plates and dishwashers are my best friends
2. I have a cat that snores and chases her tail, albeit not at the same time (she is curled up next to me now, snoring away)
3. I once ran over corn (I say it was only one stalk, family lore states otherwise) with a '79 Lincoln Town Car- ask my nieces/nephews, they can sing the song written in tribute
4. I COULD have been killed/maimed/knocked down at the age of 8 by a really mean, ugly cow, but I somehow managed to outrun her

Four favorite movies:
1. Harry Potter 3 and 5 (Yes, I do realize this is two, but I didn't want to take up my whole list with HP movies)
2. North & South (God bless the BBC, that's all I have to say!)
3. Mansfield Park
4. A Christmas Story (with Ralphie)

Four people I'm tagging: (You can copy and paste this to your blog and post your answers.)
Ok, I'm a loser, and don't know four people with blogs - so I'm going to tag non bloggers as well (Alli and Ben have myspace pages - they can answer there)
1. Courtney Santo
2. Leslie Mikell
3. Alli Mikell
4. Ben Mikell

Cubs are the Cubs are the Cubs...

Swept by the Diamondbacks. Hitting into four double plays, once with the bases loaded. Such is Cubs baseball. I pretty much knew it was over after the first game Wednesday, when the manager pulled the starting pitcher in a 1-1 tie, to save him for the 4th game??? Whatever. How about winning the FIRST game first???

Oh well, it sucks, but I am actually amazingly calm about it. Maybe I'm just used to it. In any case, it's been fun, and there is always next year.

And for this year, there's still college football.

Cubs clinch the NL CENTRAL

Holy crap,to borrow the favorite phrase of my nephew Chris. The Cubbies just clinched the National League Central. What does this mean??

1) The Cubs are going to the playoffs, baby! For only the 5th time since 1945, might I add.
2) The town of Chicago is going a little crazy at the moment, especially in Wrigleyville.
2a) The apartment of Amy is going crazy as well. Not quite the same, but whatever.
3) There are tears being shed in Milwaukee. I do have a smidgen of sympathy, but really, it has been the Cubs fans crying for too many years, so I know they will survive. Adversity is good for everyone!
4) My friend Kevin's parents are ecstatic, I'm sure. (They have season tickets, and will have 7 sets of playoff tickets. Mrs. Estes - I hope you get your new dining room set!!!)
5) Someone, please get me some valium, some nerve pills, some something. I'm going to need it!!

GO CUBS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cubs fans continue to sing GO CUBS GO

I was looking for the song "Go Cubs, Go" that they play at Wrigley Field after every Cubs win, and I found this video. Oh my gosh, I so want to be in Chicago right now!!! But, since I'm not, this will have to do!! Enjoy. Go Cubbies!

Sunday nights...

Sunday night again. Where did the weekend go?? Sunday is not my favorite day of the week for several reasons, but Sunday nights are the worst. Nothing fun to look forward to. Another long Monday in store uniform (a lovely side benefit of working at AutoZone), then a crazy busy week. Sigh...this is why I LOVE three day weekends - just for the relief on Sunday nights knowing I still have one more day of freedom!! Oh well. It could always be worse, so I should stop complaining. At least I get weekends off.



This past work week was a little on the hectic side, but it was fun. It was AutoZone's National Sales Meeting, which means we had about 800 AutoZoners in from across the country. I had several volunteer opportunites, which included checking people in at hotels, welcoming them to Mud Island for games night, and making sure people knew where to go for lunch and so forth.



Saturday, I did something totally unique - I went to Clanjamfry, at Evergreen Presbyterian Church in midtown. This was a great cultural event, with Scottish dancing and Scottish food and bagpipes and men in kilts and - well, you get the picture. Leslie (my niece, for any non-family readers) and I had such fun time. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera! I resisted buying the expensive wool knit hat from the vendors that had their sheep with them (talk about your authenticity!) although I really wanted it at the time!!! It would have been tres chic, if I actually ever wore hats in the winter. We sampled Scottish Meat Pie (a small pastry with hamburger meat inside) and Scottish Shortbread. Both were good. I absolutely drew the line at trying the haggis, though. Even though I can't remember now exactly what haggis is, I have heard enough before to know it is something that will never cross my lips! I think I put it automatically on the "never eat" list, and then forced myself to forget the details. (Some other foods on this list include tongue, tripe, and beef liver. I have at least tried the liver before, so my distaste for it legitimate. The others just sound too gross to even contemplate!)



Anyway, that was really all I accomplished Saturday. I sat on the couch and simultaneously read a book and watched college football. So productive. Today I went to Church and then went over to family dinner. The airshow was in Millington this weekend, so I was awakened from my nap first by Chris wanting to know if I wanted to go with them to watch the Blue Angels, and then by the Blue Angels themselves as they buzzed over the house. Let me tell you, those puppies are LOUD! There is no mistaking that sound. It is really cool, because Susie and Randy's house is right in the flight path for a lot of the planes' maneuvers. There is something literally breathtaking about seeing a F/A-18 appear out of nowhere right over your head. We all sit out in the front yard and enjoy the excitement. Its the cheap way of taking in the air show!

By the way, in case you were wondering, the Cubbies are still in first, now with a 3.5 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers. Woot woot!!! I'm breathing a little easier, as the season is coming to an end. The magic number is 4 for us to clinch the division title. For those of you that do not speak baseball, the magic number is the number of wins/losses necessary for us to win the NL Central title. This means that any combination of four Cub wins/Brewer losses will clinch this for us. Tomorrow the Cubs don't play, but the Brewers do. If they lose, our magic number shrinks to three! So, go Cubbies! Down with the Brewers!!

Randomness is GRAND

Just some random comments/thoughts/observations for the day...

• The Lion King (Broadway musical) is excellent. I had the opportunity to see it tonight at the Orpheum, and I loved every minute of it. The first 10 minutes gave me the same feeling I got the first time I went to the circus - chillbumps, and a strange inclination to tears, probably because of the sheer pagentry of it all.
• Cubbies are in first, woot woot!! One whole game up on the Brewers. What a great time to be a Cubs fan! As well as an ulcer-inducing one, but I'll save that blog for the playoffs, lol.
• Did you realize that jello could be considered the ultimate in versatility? Think about it. It's not a solid, it's not a liquid. It's part food, it's part drink. So, can't decide if you are hungry or thirsty? Consume some jello! Satisfaction guaranteed!! Who knew??(This public service announcement has been brought to you courtesy of a late night phone call with Kevin Estes.)
• Finally, finally, FINALLY - I can sense that fall is just around the corner. It is actually cool outside.
• My college football picks were horrible this week. So bad, in fact, that the only reason I will NOT be in last place Monday is because one guy never turned his sheet in. Oh well, that is the joy of college football. Anything can happen. And, even though we are only three weeks into the season, almost everything has!

Why CubbiePotter??

Why CubbiePotter?


Hello, people.
Welcome, welcome. Some of you may be wondering, a) what on earth is a CubbiePotter, and b) why would anyone use that as a name for a blog, so I thought I would offer some enlightenment. In this world of usernames and passwords, and passwords for the usernames and passwords you already have, I often find myself running out of ideas. And, since I think there is a worm in my brain, eating away at my memory center (although most likely it is just advancing age), I decided I'd best find something that was unusual enough for me to remember, and unique enough to always be just mine. So - I combined some of my favorite things....and CubbiePotter was born - er - created.

If you are going to have addictions in this life, they might as well be fun ones! Thus the name CubbiePotter. Cubbie is a two-fer, actually, as it refers to two of my favorite things - Chicago Cubs baseball, and my cat Cubbie - named after the aforementioned Cubs, of course (her full name is Cubbie Blue). Here she is:

Now, some people may question the wisdom of naming a black cat after your favorite baseball team, and believe me, I have questioned that more than once myself. Although I don't consider myself to be overly superstitious, I will admit that this may not have been the best idea. After all, the Cubs were cursed by a man and his goat; they already have that history. Maybe I was hoping the black cat mojo would cancel out the goat mojo, but....not yet, alas. As of today the Cubs fell back a game in the NL Central division, darn it (after being in first for about a month). Maybe after 18 years of being a fan, I should be used to the heartbreak. Apparently, not yet.

Now for the second part - Potter - that should be relatively obvious. This would be Potter of the Harry Potter fame. I love, love, LOVE this series of books. J.K. Rowling is pure genius, in my humble opinion. Anyone that can create a world like Harry's (affectionately called "Potterverse" by us nerds) is brilliant. Oh, to be able to write characters that are so loved. In any case, I am a self professed Potter nerd, and proud of it! To illustrate the level of nerdiness I have ascended to, my sisters just gave me a Harry Potter wand for my birthday. I LOVE it Who cares if I am 37? This is fun stuff!!!

Go Cubbies!!