C Tann-Starr's Outside Blog

My friend Don was kind enough to make this available for a re-blog. Enjoy. :-)

Life With Wee People: The Road To Hell... Paved With Good Intentions?

Carolyn Tann-Starr     Michelle Viggianno     Laraine Shape

Outside Blog Minion Report    ClubChaosAgents.com

CyberMinions.net   TannStarr.com

Life With Wee People... It can be Heaven. It can be Hell. We are tasked as parents to teach our children right from wrong so they can know the difference and weigh the ramifications of their short and long term actions. Our children are not always our own bloodline. Sometimes, they are cyber in nature, living in our computers and playing in the World Wide Web...

When you are dealing in digital DNA, the bits and bytes of your virtual genome has a synergy that affects the dynamics of the other people at play in the electronic sandbox. When we play nice, there is balance and healthy debate. When we play naughty, the spectrum of reactions can range from mild to the sublime and on rare occasions erupt in violence.

Do you believe you will be absolved because the free speech road to hell you are traveling upon was paved with good intentions? Did you write to expose? Did you write to shock? Did you write with the thought that one day your grandchildren may be reading your posts? Are you writing because you have something to say or are you saying something so you can meet a deadline and get paid? What and who do you look to incite with your careless words? Who are you looking to trigger a response from? What type of comments are you inviting? Where do you think those comments will come from?

When you clicked on the submit button, what did you teach me today?

Did I learn a new trick? Did I learn a new fact? DID YOU REALLY EDUCATE ME? Did you teach me to love? Did you teach me to hate? Did we share a laugh? Empathy? Sympathy? Or contempt? I have to ask because some teach better than others. Some learn better than others...

Then there are those who neither teach or learn anything. You may think this an impossibility, but I assure you it is not. 'Tis highly probable and quite provable with a few key words and a search engine. I find most offenders who travel in cyberspace along the moron trajectory present with brief displays of antisocial cyber-behavior that peaks with a diatribe so outrageous their sphere of digital influence diminishes. It is fascinating to watch the pretenders crash and burn. They do it with such flair as they attack what they do not know or fully understand with a false bravado (or simply ignorance).

IRONY AND PARODY IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR RANK STUPIDITY: MOST READERS ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK...

Viggiano whispered a missive: Now come here, closer, hurry up, come down the perimeter road with us, it’s safe more or less, we have something very important to tell you...

I shall pick up where she left off... I have something to tell you: The Highway of Self Indulgent Musing can lead many astray while you preen and beam during your arrogant attack of members struggling to survive. Those of us who work hard will never forget you as we un-subscribe from your diatribe.

Enjoy your stroll towards cyberhell.

Granny Carol says hello. I suspect a few others may have a greeting for you as well...

My blog post mini-rant therapy is done.

I think Izzy's Dad is awesome too. Can ya' help a bay-bay out? (LOL) ;-)

Life With Wee People: Mother's Day Musings (Every Day Is Mother's Day)

I have been writing this post since May. I keep deleting it. There are so many things that I can say about living and caring for learning disabled children. They are brilliant in some regards and clueless in another. They present with the quirkiest personalities I have ever seen. You never know a person until you live with them. I find myself wondering what my kids think about living with me (LOL).

I have CyberBabies. They have digital expectations. They expect to see themselves roaming across the Internet on Facebook, YouTube and their Mama's blog posts. They actually turn on the computer to look for themselves (LOL). It's really neat. Noah sits in front and Stephen climbs up on the chair so he can lean across his back, put his arms around his neck and watch what ever Noah decides they should be looking at in YouTube over his shoulder. It makes me very happy to see Noah so proud to be the older brother in control of their snacks and entertainment. He takes his job very seriously. Snack-age is serious business in my house  (LOL).

When they play nice I find myself thinking that every day is mother's day. Children are a blessing. They are a gift from God. You have to enjoy them when you can because you have no idea how much time you, or anyone else, has. I was thinking I would like to do something special for the pookies. The little minions have been such a joy to tease this week. We have tickets to the Museum we have yet to use. I think it's time to use 'em.

Lately, Noah's complaint has been the fact that we haven't been exploring enough houses. My boy has actually been telling me he wants to see a house. Hmm... that's what I get for convincing them they are mini-Realtors-in-training (LOL). Guess it's time for me to do another turtle run. Except I am not going to show him a regular house. I am going to show him buildings that he previously found very interesting that people do not live in. We're going to do landmarks and Museums. Technically they are houses... They are home to knowledge.

My pookies could use a culture break. How about you? Wanna do Manhattan with the wee people? I do... Was there yesterday and had a great time. Here's a little eye candy from my run with my blogging buddies in the rain (LOL). Shall be talking more about this later. ;-)

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/07/21/how-to-decide-how-much-to-tell-about-yourself-on-your-blog/

Penelope Trunk is a Blogger that you have got to read. She's amazingly open and heartbreakingly honest. Don't believe me? Click the above link and find out just how far she is willing to go to help people while she shares.

I cried when I read this and found myself growing addicted to her blog in just one morning. She is amazing. You have to read this and leave her a kind comment. I insist. The simple honesty about her life will make you wonder why you don't unburden yourself of useless secrets, stress and just let crap go. I share a lot, but have never shared on this level. Go read her blog posts. They are amazing...

I hope chicka is on Facebook. I am soooo going to friend her if she is. Can you say new Penelope Trunk fan? Seriously... :-)

Life With Wee People: Minion Painting 101

You may not think you can paint because you have it in your head that it has to look like something, some place or someone. That's not true. You can express yourself just by your use of color. How you scrape it, blend it, contrast and highlight says a lot about you.

Painting is a very personal thing. When you create paintings for your blog they don't have to be a 20 x 20 canvass like we are using. Get yourself 8 x 10 panels and do what ever you want, then scan those puppies in. You can uses bits and pieces of them to create very interesting backgrounds for your text art to float above.

Step one to being original and pimping your blog (LOL).

Minion Painting is all about expressing yourself with color. You can use one or you can use every tube in the store. Just do it and see what you get... Think happy thoughts. Play some music. Have fun being creative. Stop comparing yourself to other people! Start your first drawing and see where it goes. You may end up with some very interesting spot art for your blog posts (LOL). Just sayin... :-)

Watch the Minion Painting 101 movie and see if you can identify the section of the painting I used to create this background. I started with the background at 100%, then made the first overlay photograph I took of trees on Fifth Ave in Manhattan a transparency at 45%, the CC Ambassadors at 50%, the little minions at 85% and the text art at 100% with a drop shadow of 8.

Playing in layers can be a beautiful thing... Painting your own layers and taking your own photographs to merge together? Priceless... :-)

Stay tuned for Minion Painting 102 (LOL). If you do not have Photoshop you may want to think about it. If you don't have an Outside Blog, e-mail me.

Wordy C Club Chaos Bootcamp requires a team effort. Google domination is serious business. We're going to have lots of fun with the love links... There will be homework assigned (LMAO). Seriously! Gotta get you to page one of Google. Can't do that if you don't do your homework. The grade is your page ranking bay-bay. There will be Skype par-tays involved for the members of the fan pages, so stay tuned for the CyberMinsion.net schedule of events and keep your eyes peeled for the Facebook comment links of your Ambassadors.  ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/user/CTannStarr

Update: Edit 7/22/2009 on video regarding website URL for CyberMinions.net

TLW is about to lead a group of talented, social media divas on a wild ride, or is it the newbies who are gonna be freaked out? I'm riding shotgun on the project. Jo Soss and Lizette Fitzpatrick have got our backs. We're gonna Rock the Rain (LMAO). 

Can you say Club Chaos SEO Bootcamp?

How about Google Domination?

We're gonna show you how to pimp your outside blog, so don't think this is just another cold call to catch a client. Creativity is an experience. You are either gonna take advantage of the platform, or you're not. That's up to you.

Curious? Good. You need an outside blog to come out and play with us.

Don't have one? You need to get one bay-bay. ;-)

Feel free to shoot me an e-mail for more information.

We're creating a whole series of new graphics and videos for your learning entertainment...Be afraid... Be very afraid (LMAO). ;-)

ActiveRain Group Club Chaos Icon

I had fun creating this bit of art. I've been working on it all morning. Seems a couple of the bay-bays wanted note cards and mugs (LOL). I hear a tee shirt may be in order. I second the motion. Hmm... Whaddaya' know... Change is good (LOL). ;-)

I love the ActiveRain Group Club Chaos because that's where my virtual family resides. It's my favorite place to be when I want to visit the people living in my computer. Yesterday, I took my wee people on an eye candy hunt to the Prospect Park Zoo just so I could photograph the Monarch butterflies. I actually shot several species (and a few animals) since I hate wasting a chance to collect some eye candy. They have a neat little collection on location in orientation and discovery for the kids to see and learn about. Every so often the butterfly collection changes (I suspect when wee people accidentally drop the glass frames - LOL).

My wee people are very entertaining little men to take on a joy ride. We enjoyed a group play-date in Brooklyn and roamed the park and zoo on a fun photo-shoot so I could populate the Life With Wee People series. The shorties are being featured on the Outside Blog Minion Report, ActiveRain Cartoon Network, Club Chaos Agents.com and CyberMinions.net. They are two of my favorite subjects to use when it comes to creating and illustrating graphic art blurbs. My boys supply me with a lot of material to work with (LOL).

The fun thing is, being wee people, they don't realize they're working. I pay them in M&Ms with peanuts, of course (LMAO).

Stay tuned for a peek of the Prospect Park Zoo in the next Life With Wee People Localism blog post entitled Zoo Minions. :-)

Life With Wee People: Halo

CyberMinions.net The Illustrated Dictionary of Chaos Page 1 & Page 2

Carolyn Tann-Starr     Laraine Shape     Michelle Viggiano

I love to watch my son dance, especially to the song Halo. Stephen the Minion Blur loves Beyonce and a host of really cool artists like Amy Grant, Darlene Zschech, Ella Fitzgerald and Lady Ga Ga. Dude jumps in the bed to the Black Eyed Peas and will float around the house if I put on Yo Yo Ma.

From classical to head banging, my guy pie boogies to them all. Right now "Pump It" is playing and the Blur Minion is getting his bounce on with the Black Eyed Peas. He's not the only one. So am I (LOL).

We love music and routinely cook up a batch of our own brand of noise. Right now, I'm editing some film for a CyberMinions.net presentation. I wonder what type of music I'm going to arrange for tonight's little search engine optimization project.

Hmm... this could get very interesting... the wee people are "helping" me minion style (LOL). ;-)

Outside Blog Minion Report   ClubChaosAgents.com   CyberMinions.net   TannStarr.com

Outside Blog Minion Report: An Interview With George Hartman

Carolyn Tann-Starr

My interview with George Hartman regarding Desktop Publishing was not only educational, it was a tremendous bit of mad fun. He shared a wealth of useful information and was kind enough to bring one of his portfolios for me to peek at. Turns out it was full of the original art for one of his comic book publications and also contained material yet to be published. 

I was inspired, so I created two Outside Blog Minion Report covers. I couldn't figure out which one to use so I decided to use them both (LOL). I knew I had to, just for the chance to showcase a few of the artists he is working with. My fave illustration is the cheeky nurse on the left. Did you know the artist who created that tasty little treat is from Brazil?

Here's the line up of talent he tapped for the project: George Hartman, Jeff Sorrell, Greg Anderson, C. William Cooke, Elisa Feliz, Kotsu, Empro Maciek, Martin Malin, Chris Moshier, Richard Pech and Carolina Pontes. Turns out all you need to do is match the right writers with the right artists and send your scanned files off to a digital press. Am I over simplifying the process? Yes I am, but you have to start somewhere and I believe if I make it too complicated in this blog post you wont even try.

Feel free to e-mail George about his comic at George9448@aol.com and friend him on Facebook. If you are an artist who has never been published you may want to contact him about possible freelance work. I hear he has another project coming up. :-)

Turns out George is a social media maverick who uses his networking connections to work with artist all over the globe. It's a treat to watch him planning to put his publications together. Nothing like investing in yourself with a little help from a few  international friends to create something interesting to share with others. I figure if they can do RX Tales and have fun putting it together then I should do my version of Real Estate ones.

Can you imagine my version of a Real Estate comic book? How about one with a pull out section with listings advertised smack dab in the middle of it? Comics do take advertising from sponsors, you know (LOL). I wonder who my first victims sponsors will be...Maybe we should make House Hag the editor in chief with Ralph the Real Estate Dog in charge of sales and distribution (LOL). ;-)

We will be continuing this conversation... Seriously. ;-)

CyberMinions.net The Illustrated Dictionary of Chaos

Laraine Shape     Michelle Viggiano     Carolyn Tann-Starr

Club Chaos Agents.com    Outside Blog Minion Report

Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek Χάος, Chaos) may be described as "a state lacking order or predictability." Wikipedia

First "Chaos Theory" Quote of the Day: "In mathematics, Chaos Theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems...  systems whose states evolve with time, that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply CHAOS..." You can read the full Wikipedia article here.

Second "Chaos Theory" Quote of the Day: "Shit Happens..." Maggie the Dung Fly, Queen of Dipstick (LOL). The fun in creating an illustrated dictionary based on Chaos is you can actually teach something useful while fooling around with your very talented friends. My kids are very self-directed, self-determined little buggers who thrive in their chaotic environment so I love talking about them. I don't know if I believe the entire premise that "every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences," but I am certainly interested in finding out.

Did you read the definition of Determinism? Hmm... Very interesting... I may be able to spoof on that one for a long time - starting with Flystein (LOL). How many times have we each done some casual stuff to put us in smack dab in the middle of some serious shit as if we didn't see it coming, eh? I'm starting to really wonder about that bad little habit... Especially regarding the housing market. Remember the, "bubble? there is/ isn't a housing bubble," debate? ;-)

CyberMinions.net The Illustrated Dictionary of Chaos (Page 1)

TannStarr.com   Briarwood, New York

CyberMinions.net The Illustrated Dictionary of Chaos

Laraine Shape   Michelle Viggiano   Carolyn Tann-Starr

Club Chaos Agents.com   Outside Blog Minion Report

So here I am seated at my drafting table watching my seven year old typing frantically into Google. Every so often he would stop, look over his shoulder at me with an evil look, then furtively start typing again, alternating looking at the keyboard and screen. Now, you gotta admit that alone is enough to make this cheeky Mama want to go over there and check my shortie out but he's seven, speech delayed and obsessed with computers so I try not to interrupt his allotted time. The kid is a stickler about his routines. I do not want to ruin any fun for my son because discovering search engines gave him the incentive to memorize sight words, but that was an evil look. Hmm... wonder what he was thinking... I am very happy that the Internet is teaching my Autistic son how to type while he learns how to read but you have to watch your kids like a hawk when they are transversing the world wide web. Even the three year old gets jiggy with his cybertude sometimes.

Microsoft Office 2003 is one of Noah's favorite programs. He calls it "counting" because he first learned how to count by playing with me on the keyboards. I would pop huge numbers up and off the screen by typing in MS Word. Pretty soon he was kicking me to the curb and typing the numbers in himself.

Ever wonder how you sound to someone else?  My son is a mimic who alternates between conducting class, then attending the class he is conducting (LOL). Sometimes his three year old brother is high-jacked as the student. Echolalic speech can be a hoot when your kid does both sides of the conversation at the same time. If you are bossy, your inflections and attitude will be mocked and emulated. You can learn a lot about your bad mouth habits when the wee ones start quoting you (LOL).

Since Stephen loves Noah, he tries to do what ever his big brother says. Sometimes with unexpected results... Yesterday we had to reset the modem. Our mistake? Doing it in front of the wee people. What was I thinking? Seriously? Every time I turn around I either lose power or lose the connection. Dude even started jacking around with the wide area network router because he suddenly realized those blinky, flickering lights were "pretty." The three year old is speech delayed as well (which may shock you with all the background noise he is able to generate while I'm on the phone), so you get a lot of really short sentences of four words or less. The few words he does knows, he knows them very well and wields them with great volume and spunky attitude.

Today was mad fun because I'm working from home. So far my morning consisted of enjoying watching Stephen wreck the place while giggling and yelling "mine," when he wasn't chasing me all about the apartment to inventory and count hot wheel cars. At some point he decided playing with my hair was going to be his fave exercise in self stimulation (LOL). When he realized I was working more than playing, that soon morphed into feeding the DVD peanut butter and jelly.

Had to time the shorty out. He starts acting cute and giggling all over the place, making eyes and planting kisses, really making nice, so I let him off the hook. I'm thinking baby is making nice and I'm busy so let him frolic because a happy toddler means I can play in the Rain. Big mistake. Dude is loading his food into my toilet. Now I'm doing the stern Mama routine and march hm off to the crib for another time out, shutting down the electronics while fussing, "No choo choo for you. Thomas the Train is all done. Don't feed food to the electronics and stay out of my toilet bowl."

He cries. We make up. He plays in my hair. He chases me around the apartment showing me his prized possessions while giggling and telling me quite proudly that everything is mine. All is right with the world because my sweetie is in Daffy Duck mode and that usually goes on for hours. Distracted, I give him some orange juice because he's my guy pie and that's what he wants... Hmm... What the hell was I thinking? Never give a marginally supervised three year old liquid if he's obsessing over sharing a meal with his favorite electronics. Seriously.

Remember that PB&J moment? I thought we were done with that... I guess I was wrong because while I was on a conference call Stephen the Minion Blur realized I was a wee bit distracted from watching a very cool presentation, so he got it into his tiny little mind to make a "ritual sacrifice" to my computer. What's a little orange juice between electronic friends when you're having fun, eh?

Oh my word... Dude almost disconnected my blogger's butt for the rest of the evening. However, I caught the  little gigglemeister seconds before any major damage could be done to anything besides the rug. He looked so disappointed I almost choked trying to play it down and not howl with laughter. Friggin' kid broke the mute button weeks ago (LMAO). 

Did I mention my kids are crazy? Life with wee people can be very interesting...

TannStarr.com   Briarwood, New York

ActiveRain Cartoon Network  Life With Wee People

CyberMinions.net The Illustrated Dictionary of Chaos Page 2

The Mind Of Minion needs a virtual home to park some visual art. Here it is, our new Team Blog: CyberMinions.net. This venture in comic relief is brought to you by the ActiveRain Groups Club Chaos and the AR Cartoon Network. Mind you now, it wont be up and running for at least 24 hours because I have to finish the basic premise and populate that puppy with some original content. There are two posts over there, this being the third. By the time the Ladies of the Rain log in, who knows how many posts will be over there by the week end. :-)

Laraine and Michelle are the editors. You may want to let them know since I haven't told them yet (LMAO). Poor babies. They had no idea what they were getting into when I started playing in my sketchbook with Ms. Viggiano. You are really going to have to read the comment sections because the conversation is a hoot and the pages of my sketchbook are being embed there one response at a time. It's time to release another page (LOL). I've been delaying because I realized all that work is going to need a virtual home. We are going to be playing artistic games for a while so it's only fair to warn you we have plans for you... so consider yourself warned... ;-)

BTW, I do recall threatening to videoblog. I guess this puts me one step closer to that particular bit of mischief... Hmm... I may have to start filming those Skype par-tays you guys have been hearing about. Little Minion TV may also be moving in as well (LOL). Can't leave the PDD-NOS Autism shorties out. Step by Step and Global Play may be unofficially joining the group. I love intellectually drop dead gorgeous minds and would be remiss in my minion duties if I didn't high-jack Stella Yukhan and Susana Isakharova for interviews. Smart and funny gets me going every single time. Mangigly the I-talian once stated that people count on my misbehaving. Hmm... now there's a thought that needs to be explored in more depth (LMAO). We may have to do another sleep over at Susan Mangigian's house. She's a wonderful hostess and threw the best Skype par-tay I have ever attended with Sheldon Neal and Melody Botting. If I were to ever film one of those I would want Mangiggly live and hosting that puppy. Seriouly!!! (LOL)

Needless to say we have some very interesting playtime plans for the Summer regarding several anticipated events. I have a tremendous amount of digital film that needs editing and lots of new ideas brewing. The OBMR is turning into a quarterly magazine. Dung Fly Pie is about to become part of a real estate comic book created by the communal writing efforts of Laraine Shape, Michelle Viggiano, Toni Rae and Carolyn Tann-Starr. Contact Laraine directly if you want one of her limited edition Dung Fly Pie calendars. How cool are they? Very! I am watching my mailbox for one right now. I may have to frame it (LOL). I love their stuff...

I may be tapping other talent as we roll along. So many blogs, so much material ripe for illustration... I'm betting that as you have fun with us you'll come up with your own original content to spice up your outside blogs. There's more to real estate than writing market reports, people. We aim to prove even a market report can be full if illustrated improperly (that was not a typo - LMAO). ;-)

We may be expanding into other areas with a little help from our friends. Did I mention I like to draw? It's part of my eye candy addiction. You never know what you're going to get with me until I decide to do it. Sometimes, I even do what other people want. That's what makes being an artist who happens to sell real estate so much fun.

The Lovely Wife will have a very interesting collection along with Broker Bryant. First I have to finish the Jeanette Neerpat and Michelle Viggiano collections. Every writer gets their own theme... I am simply responding to a little blog banter. They certainly know how to keep me interested with the things they say. I bet the TLW/BB fans are dying to know what we're doing. You'll find out once we decide to show you and we will. Anticipation is a beautiful thing so there is a whole bunch that is going on that I simply am going to fail to mention at this time (LOL). :-)

I do have reasonable cause to believe that Toni and I will have a lot to illustrate over the coming months... I may also be begging Paul Slaybaugh and Andrew J Lenza to jump into the writing fray. When it comes to cartoons, I prefer drawing because its so much fun. Can I write? Sure, but do you really want me to? Think about it... I've been known for saying all kinds of stuff, am a bit quirky and soooooo easily amused (LOL).

It makes more sense for others to write. How could I not pick the brains of some of my fave writers? How can I not poke fun at life and real estate? It is almost time for me to go so I will do the Wordy C disclaimer on a follow-up post. For now, just remember we Ladies of the Rain are capable of producing just about anything we can imagine... BTW, we have very vivid imaginations... so be careful what you ask for because my counterparts and I may give it to you in spades.

Laraine gave me permission to start the Dung Fly Friday ball rolling with "Flyroid." Enjoy, but don't touch. Snagging pictures is a copyright violation and will trigger a serious Lenn Harley style response. We consider our work our virtual babies and will hunt down anyone who kidnaps or tries to exploit our virtual children. This is their home. They live here. Only we get to take them out to play in the merchandising and licensing arenas of our choice.

Everyone retains and reserves their own copyrights so if you need to contact the individual writers and artists regarding a work, please feel free to do so. :-)

Michelle Viggiano   Laraine Shape   Carolyn Tann-Starr

ClubChaosAgents.com   Outside Blog Minion Report

OBMR Facebook Fan Page

So, what do you get when you add 1 House Hag, a Real Estate Dog and a Dung Fly? The ActiveRain Cartoon Network's favorite cartoon artist and writing team of Laraine Shape and Toni Rae.

What do you get when you add the incomparable Toni Rae to 3 Rainmakers who love 1 House Hag, a Real Estate Dog and a Dung Fly? A brand new real estate comic book with a quirky, wickedly delicious sense of humor. Laraine and Michelle are stellar writers. Toni Rae and C Tann love to draw... Mix in a little George Hartman and you have a book waiting to be born.

Can you really imagine what would happen if Michelle Viggiano and C Tann-Starr hooked up with Laraine Shape and Toni Rae? Flyroid is pretty mild compared to what's coming next (LOL). Stay tuned for the George Hartman, House Hag, Ralph the Dog and Maggie interviews on the subject.

The Outside Minion Blog Report may never be the same again. It has a new home: CyberMinions.net (coming to a Team Blog near you in 48 hours...) ;-)

http://agentgenius.com/real-estate-technology-new-media/real-estate-search-google-to-punk-your-local-mls-is-it-possible/

"Hello Realtor.com! Can you say “first comprehensive national MLS”? Google can." With a quote like that how can you not read AgentGenius.com? (LOL) I love AgentGenius.com. I've said it before and I will say it again: must read, must read, must read (LMAO).

It really is a great article. Seriously... ;-)

Life With Wee People: First Day of Summer School for the Little Minions was Mad Fun

Spent $190 in the Toys R Us back to school sale. Stephen was a pip to shop with. Dude was claiming backpacks, lunchboxes, movies (LOL). "I want that one," could be heard from one end of the warehouse to the other. Of course when I pulled out the Nikon dude clammed up like he was hiding state secrets. Contrary little bugger. Minions. Gotta love 'em. ;-)

The Mommy Conference is always my favorite part (LOL). That's the part of the show when we get back together in the afternoon wondering where the hell our children are between spoofing on how our day is going. My day went well (except for the friggin' bee sting on the right side of my face because Mr. Bumble decided he wanted to live in my hair - WTF?)

Wonder what tomorrow will bring... Stay tuned for the continuing saga of life with wee people (LOL). It's Summer time. We go out every day when the weather is nice. BTW, got a birthday party coming up. I hope my face stops burning soon so I can attend this family event. People keep offering to pee on me. Does that work or are they trying to tell me something? Maybe I should go now because the cartoons in my head are starting to have a field day with this (ROTFL).

OMG - it still hurts when I laugh. That is sooo not right. Got a remedy? Share please... Seriously. ;-)

My friend Lenn was kind enough to make this post available for a re-blog. :-)