January 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hopefully by now, you’re fully recovered from your New Year’s partying. I spent the evening (as usual) in Mt. Holly with Kate G, Phyllis & the men. Marge partied with Jacob. Peg had dinner with her neighbor. Debi spent her evening knitting a scarf (more about that later). Missy drank away 2007 (can’t say I blame her), then banged pots & pans with the kids at midnight.

This month our party was held @ Kate’s house. Everything looked very festive. As usual, there was a lot of good food to eat. We had meatballs/sausages, mozzarella chunks, 4 different kinds of quesadillas, munchkins, veggies, chocolate fondue w/ fruit & other fun dippers. We also had champagne & hot spiced cider to drink. There was also a good disco/dance mix CD on. The music was so good in fact that we couldn’t stop chair dancing. At one point, Peg was dancing/singing & got so distracted that she missed 2 cards. Speaking of distracted, Missy cleared her card when Kate hit for Postage. She said, “I’m too busy eating!” Kate finally won Postage (for real) after miscalling it & getting fined twice!

We used our “Cucumbers are better than men” cards tonight. Some were so funny that they were distracting the callers. Peg used her “Mystic Seahorse” to cut the cards. During the first 2 rounds, we had 5 people win Pokeno at the same time. Hooray!!! I can really use the 15 cents!

Before the party even started, there was some drama. Patt went into the guest room to drop off her coat. She stepped over the doggie gate on her way in, but on the way out, she forgot it was there & proceeded to smash her shins and fall over forward. While she was trying not to fall, she wrenched her back & neck. This sounds like a job for “Super Masseuse” (that’s Peg). So, while she’s all busted up trying to evaluate her injuries, Debi is hysterically laughing at her! We hooked Patt up with the “boo-boo piggy” (see photo) to ice her injury. Good thing we were minus one girl so she could use that stool to prop up her leg during the evening. Things just went downhill from there. To start off our evening, we all had noise makers. Patt had one of those twirly ones. While she was twirling, she threw out her wrist. Later on, she started hacking. Debi started laughing at her again & asked if we should call 911. But, I do have to say that Patt was a real trooper! She managed to stay & play until the end of the night. Note to Peg – be sure to remove any hazards from your house before we play next month.

Debi was responsible for Mystery Box this month. Marge won this time. Inside the box was big mug with spiced rum drink mix, party poppers, windshield deicer, a photo snow globe & the scarf she was knitting on New Year’s Eve. Some of the gifts in the box were wrapped so tightly that it took Marge a few minutes to open everything. The scarf was a big hit. The ladies were jealous. In fact, Missy was so jealous that she kept trying to figure out ways to steal the scarf all night. After that didn’t work, Missy started begging Debi to make scarves for the rest of us. So, if Debi does 1 scarf every New Year, we’ll all have our scarves by 2015! Also, in a follow up from last month’s mystery, Debi said that her wreath from Peg is still holding up nicely. So nicely in fact, that’s she’s going to take off the stockings & put hearts all over it for Valentine’s Day! Wow, it’s a gift that just keeps on giving 

Phyllis was sending out good thoughts to the seahorse earlier in the day. She said, “Oh mystic seahorse, please give me all their money!” She even held onto the seahorse for a little bit. She did manage to hit one big pot late in the evening, but I don’t really think that “praying” to the seahorse works. Also in Phyllis news, it was noted that for the first time ever, she was actually calling too fast. We had to tell her to slow down! Can you believe it? Even Roger was surprised.

Speaking of Roger…. He took the kids to the Fun Plex so we could fully enjoy our ladies’ night. But, then he came home. He put Isaac to bed and came downstairs to say hello. He went behind the bar to get a drink. When he bent over to get extra shot glasses, he knocked the light up fish off the wall, onto the floor, smashing it into about 5 pieces. It was so smashed that he immediately brought a shot glass over to Kate & told her she would need a shot before she was allowed to see the remnants of the fish. Roger did attempt to fix it, but by the end of the night, the poor fish was still in pieces all over the couch (see photo).

FEBRUARY POKENO

Our super lovey-dovey Pokeno Valentine’s Party will be held at Peg’s house, Saturday 2/16 @ 6:00. Phyllis says, “I don’t care when the party is….but I gotta be there!” So nice to see some enthusiasm! We’re decided to do the Pizza Party thing again. Peg will provide the dough/oven/pizza cooker rock thingy. You ladies are responsible for bringing the toppings. Bring whatever your favorite topping is…even if your fave topping is fungus…yuck!

HOW ABOUT A RELAXING BIRTHDAY?

I’d like to send a big shout out to PJ who had a birthday last week. Of course, she was forced to wear the official birthday girl crown. Yes, even the senior citizens of the bunch will have to wear it… Anyway, I decided to share this story with the rest of you who didn’t already hear it (Peg & Marge…you can skip onto the next topic if you’d like).

I sent an e-card to Patt on her b-day wishing her a day full of relaxation & chilling out (you’ll see the irony in a minute). Then, I get an e-mail note from her. She proceeds to tell me how on b-day eve, she & the hubby were chilling out by the fireplace. As they’re admiring the crackling glow, they realize there is a fire brewing in the chimney part. They run to get the fire extinguisher and manage to douse the flames. This is too much excitement in one evening for the elderly, so they decided to go to bed.

Next morning, Patt woke up ready for her day of relaxation. Hubby was going to work & (bonus) taking the kid! As she came downstairs, she noticed that the entire first floor of the house is filled with smoke. After further investigation, it turned out that after they put out the fire the night before, all the residual junk backed up & turned their house into something similar to an open-pit BBQ. Some more extinguishing & a chimney sweep later…the fire place is under control. Now there’s the little matter of cleaning up the family room that is now completely covered in a nice, thick layer of black soot (so much for relaxing).

After hubby & son left, Patt threw open all the windows, cranked up the new Alicia Keys album (which she says is good cleaning music) and proceeded to scrub like she’s never scrubbed before. Even with all this insanity, she says she had a nice birthday. Here’s hoping next year will be better 

REMINDERS & AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Reminder #1: A flush is 5 of the same suit, not 4! Kate G. has been thinking she had a flush on 4 all this time!!! If it wasn’t for Peg paying extra-close attention, Kate would’ve probably continued to call flush on 4. So, we made Kate pay a hefty fine. Hopefully she has learned from this mistake. If not, she’ll be forced to stand in the corner & write a 500 word essay.

Reminder #2: If you’re going to make homemade mozzarella sticks, be sure to cut them into squares (or smaller), not rectangles! The squares will cook faster & be meltier!

Announcement: In case you didn’t know, Missy & family finally found a house! They moved a few days before Christmas into a nice little duplex. Everyone is still getting settled. Joe is excited to have his very own “big boy” room away from his annoying little brothers.

ATTENTION CAT LOVERS!

To you cat-loving ladies out there, I thought I should pass along some interesting info. For Christmas, Russell got their cats some of that Chia Cat Grass stuff. It grew in about 2 weeks. Then he clipped some off to give to the cats. One didn’t like it at all, but the other one absolutely loved it! I guess it all depends on your particular cat. But, those of you who are cat owners have at least 2, so I say fork out the $17 (unless you’re broke like me) and give it a try. Meow! (That was your cat saying, “thank you” for being such an awesome human)

DID YOU KNOW?

Here are a few morsels of knowledge just in case you ever wind up on Jeopardy…

January is “National Hot Tea Month”. All tea (except for herbal & flavored varieties) comes from the leaves of a warm-weather evergreen. According to the Tea Association of the USA (who knew such a place existed?), tea is a $2.10 billion industry in the US, as well as the second most popular beverage worldwide…after water.

January is also “Chicken Noodle Soup Month”. More than 350 million cans of chicken noodle soup are sold each year, with January being the top selling month. I guess this explains why they jack up the prices so much right now! I guess everyone is supposed to be sick this month…eating soup & drinking tea.

The first college bowl game took place on New Year’s Day 1902. The president of the Tournament of Roses Festival suggested a post-season football game to boost attendance at the parade. And thus, keeping most men recliner-bound every New Year’s since.