Elmwood Cemetery

Had gorgeous weather over the weekend and decided to take a stroll through Elmwood Cemetery. This famous cemetery, dating back to the 1850s is the final resting place for many Civil War soldiers, Yellow Fever victims, state dignitaries and VIPs and just regular folk. I personally am not squeamish about cemeteries. I find them peaceful and historically rich. I like to calculate ages of people and match birthdays of the deceased with people I know. I especially like the old cemeteries of Victorian era (like this one) where the tombs are adorned with angels and flowers and other ornate statues. Enjoy these photos. This is a fabulous (and free) way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I believe this cemetery is on the on the National Historic Register. Pop this "big" to read the sign if you wish.


One of my favorites. This couple owned a stained glass company and this monument was made in stained glass to resemble a chapel. It was stunning.

This may be common, but I had never seen it before. Numerous gravesites had these round cement "rings" set on the ground. And of course, the little tiny ones were for babies that died. Saw way too many tiny ones.

Many an angel adorned the place...

Another one of my favorites. Wish this one, well minus the contents perhaps, was in my backyard.

Look at those blue skies! Seems like forever since we've had a day like this weather wise.

I found humor in this tombstone with the last name of "Coffin" engraved on it, I'm sure I'm not the only one.

And in closing, yet another beauty.

Look Out Project Runway!

So the Little Man it going to be a knight for Halloween. He really doesn't have an affinity for knights just yet, but Halloween is one of those muy importante holidays in my book and we get this Halloween portrait taken to mail to friends and family. And he can't just be any old thing or God forbid a Thomas train, he has to look dashing. Last year, he was an astronaut. I don't think I'll ever be able to top that one. Besides, I thought he'd dig the helmet and sword and so far, so good!

The costume itself was $55 plus shipping (and keep in mind, this is a likely a wear once kind of thing) and the cape that came with was an extra $40. I can sew a cape. So I did. Voila! I did a great job I think. Now I'm going to make a fru-fru one for my friend's little girl for dress up play. I wonder if there is a business need for a cape designer. Talk about a niche business.

Here's the costume I bought, this is the model from the catalog.

Here's my cape...I used a sparkle fabric to look like armour. he put it on and said, "look mommy's clothes." I guess because it's black and sparkly.

The real model, my son. So cute!

The Memory of an Elephant

When it comes to sweets, my kid is so cute. To me anyway!

Take for instance these Dinstuhl’s “pogo sticks” which are chocolate-caramel covered pretzel rods. The Little Man tried to sneak one the other day after he’d already had a treat, so I put them up in the cabinet where he couldn’t reach. Besides, these are mommy's every blue moon if I ever get to go to the movies again in my life treats. Of course a melt down ensued.

The next day, when it was time for his daily treat (usually the reward for taking a nap), he went straight to the cabinet and pointed to where I hid the pogo stick the day previous. Maybe it’s not all that remarkable that a two-year old remembered I put it there, but to me it was.

Love the shirt. It says “I blame my parents” with a picture of Pigpen on it. So fitting in more ways than one.

Another Missed Boat

I am always dreaming of the next big idea so I can be a lady who lunches and globe trots. I have ideas all the time and the Husband and I have this little conversation constantly..."today I thought of XYZ...what do you think about that?" But what really causes me aggravation is when I have a great idea and some entity comes around and launches it without me. It peeves me because it's validation that yeah, the idea was good, but hey lazy girl--you did nada about it. Here's to another year of working for the man.

Take for instance my invention about two years ago. The bra pocket. I was on a photo shoot and could not figure out how to get my cell phone to go past two rings and was constantly missing calls. So I tucked it in the cleavage part of my sports bra. Voila. No missed calls as it was always, well, right there. Half the group found this laughable, the other half genius. I really thought I was onto something--the Bra-cket (get it? Like pocket?) Anyway...the Husband liked this idea too and said I should take it to the next level.

So I contacted a patent lawyer--he didn't see the vision. And then I talked up an entrepreneur I met at a dinner party and asked what he thought as I fished around for potential investment dollars. He thought I was alienating half the population because it didn't appeal to men. (which upon reflection is a preposterous statement as mascara doesn't appeal to men and doesn't stop Maybelline from cranking out a formula every week. ) But I digress.

So this week I'm thumbing through that piece of journalistic excellence, Us Magazine, and behold what do I see? The rack trap. A bra pocket. $7.95. With it's big old TM symbol. Take that disbelieving patent lawyer. And their tag line rocks "If you wear a bra, or know someone who does, you need the Racktrap." Take that entrepreneur as I don't know any men who wear bras. P.S. I ordered four of these. Will let you know my thoughts. www.theracktrap.com

40 Days and 40 Nights

We have been bombarded with rain in Memphis town for the past six days--and more on the way. Aye, aye, aye. Today, it came a flood. And something interesting happened in my front yard--mushrooms. That were not there a mere 24 hours previous. Boy is this some sort of aggressive plant to shoot up so much and so quickly literally within hours. I did a stroll of the neighborhood and I didn't see any one else with this phenomena. Just waiting on the gnomes now.

Dallas Eateries - Pappasitos and Meringue Bakery

Was in Dallas last week and when I go to Dallas there is one restaurant always on the roster. Pappasito's. It is my favorite tex mex place in all the land. No one does fajitas better than them. There is something addictive in their beef marinade that is not only flavorful on the meat but fork tender (that's hard for skirt steak). And the homemade tortillas are good enough to just eat by themselves.
Also found a great little cupcake place...Meringue Bakery. It's really a place that does wedding cakes & special order birthday cakes but on any given day they have about 6 varieties of cupcakes. I tried two, a butter cupcake with chocolate icing and a coconut cupcake. Both were hands down, probably the best cupcakes I've ever had in my life and I'm a subject matter expert here. And they put them in this adorable hot pink box. Sometimes the packaging is just part of the experience. This is why we need healthcare in this country.

Germantown Festival

In just another example of how the city of Germantown just does "things better" as a community, I attended the G'town Arts and Crafts fair. I go every year and this will sound real corny--but there is the Flag Lady there. She makes the cutest yard flags with any theme you can imagine. I treat myself to one each year and have grown a collection. I bought a BBQ themed one this time. But enough about boring old flags as I'm sounding like a giant dork; I took my Little Man for the first time and we did the kiddie rides! I feel like this is a development milestone...his first spin on rides. Being the amusement park kind of girl that I am, it's important that the son likes these kinds of things as I foresee many trips to Disney World in our future. Of course, the rides there were on the old side. Safety didn't cross my mind for a nano second, but as we were leaving, the husband says "those rides were so old, they didn't look that safe." Yeah, we just extracted our two year old from rickety old rides. Thanks. You could have pointed this out to me sooner. But alas, he survived!

Here he is with a scantily clad girl with glitter makeup and a blue lamay swimsuit! Oh the clientele! Kidding, she was a little gymnast. It was cute--sort of a date.

We're so great, we're so fine, we're the class of 89

Many of you know that I've been planning my 20-year high school reunion and it was FINALLY this past weekend. What a party! I was surprised on how little we seemingly changed appearance wise. People had told me to prepare to be shocked. Not true! Sure, most have put on a few lbs. but in general, we were a good looking bunch. The biggest surprise? When it was all over I got a little sad. It reminded me of my wedding (ha-ha) in that there is all this build-build-build of excitement, planning and momentum, but when it's finally time to take the dress off (or in the case of the reunion clean up) there is a sense of "this event I've wanted so bad" is now over. Sniff, sniff. The photo is of my bestest peeps from high school.

The Devil Went Down to Summer Avenue

And continuing on my series on Adventures on Summer Avenue...I thought of another one today. For those of you not from Memphis, Summer Ave. is a working class street that runs the length of the city…midtown to the suburbs. I personally see wacky stuff every time I drive that patch of road.

True story. One day a band of demons (AKA teenagers) were driving recklessly weaving in and out of traffic. I don’t think they were drunk, just obnoxious drivers trying to be cool and showing off a la NASCAR. They cut off a Toyota. One of those old 70’s shoebox kind of Toyotas, a beat up, primer paint sort. Upon coming to a red light, Toyota driver, got out of the car.

Now, “got out of the car” is not really what happened. It was more like, took the car off as if he were removing a button-down shirt. He was all of 6’ 4”, over 300 lbs. and covered with tattoos and piercings. You know how Charlie Daniels is sort of scary looking? Picture that but younger and with tattoos. But I digress…I’m gridlocked between vehicles. I’m bracing for gunfire. Before my very eyes Toyota man did all he could to assault their car with his bare hands. It was a Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno flashback. Light turns green nobody moves in the intersection, mouths agape. After he’d terrorized their vehicle (and at one point, I think he even lifted the car up and I’m sure he dented the hood with his fists) he calmly goes back to the Toyota turns around to the rest of us and shrugs his shoulders like, that’s all done, sorry I inconvenienced ya’ll! And that was that.

Food Styling - Second Career Perhaps?

Work today called for a food shoot on the super cheap for some random digital and print ads...so my colleague and I set out to do it ourselves. We're so resourceful. She has the mack-daddy expensive camera and my contribution? Food stylist extraordinaire.

Here is our signature waffle adorned with a delicate smattering of powdered sugar and cream...

And the parfait I created with something other than yogurt for body. Can you guess with what?

And then, the egg-white omelet. I might be skinny if food like this really appealed to me.

Loved doing the shoot. Maybe it will be my fall-back career since I still don't have a movie deal over this blog. Whatever readers.

Overcoming Addiction

My mother tells me that she's concerned about my two-year olds' addiction to chocolate. Here's a recap of the conversation:

Mom: "I'm concerned that Little Man eats way too much chocolate. He wants nothing else."
Me: "I know, right?!"
Mom: "So I bought him Twinkies to get him off the chocolate."

True story.