Sleeping With the Enemy?

Remember when the internet first became a household word and people started meeting each other on it?  It was all so dark and mysterious and risque.  You'd hear about people finding someone online and cringe when they said they wanted to meet them in person because all you could imagine was the death and carnage that would result.

I had a friend in college who found a boy on the internet.  A total stranger.  At first, it was just email.  Then it was chatting, back before IM was a standard thing.  Then they were going to actually meet in person. 

I was really concerned for her.  He claimed he was a college boy but he could have been an axe murderer.  I forget now who flew where, but one of them flew to meet the other and their first sighting was at the airport.  She assured me that if he wasn't what he had promised, she would pretend she wasn't there for him.

I was sure that was the last I'd hear from her.

He turned out to be a normal college boy and they did this for a while and then it sort of melted away.

Years later, we now have a million dating websites and finding strangers to date on the internet is considered ok, if you use one of these "trusted" sites.  I'm not sure I could ever feel comfortable meeting someone this way, but if it works for you, have at it.

Today, we have something called Blogher.  It's a fantastic website for women bloggers and if you don't know about it, go check it out and come back.  Some people have really become household names because of it.  I'm sort of an armchair Blogher participant.

Every year, Blogher has a conference.  All of my favorite bloggers go to it and then write about who they saw and what they did.

And it makes me think of how differently I look at meeting a bunch of women strangers from how I would look at meeting a man online.

Under the auspices of going to a conference,women who have only ever chatted online will not only go to the conference, but stay blindly in a hotel room with some of these strangers, take car rides with them and maybe even get tattoos with them.  I don't remember reading any posts about women getting tattoos at Blogher, but it could happen.

My point is that I would be fine with going to Blogher and meeting the women whose blogs I read daily.  I feel like I know them so well.  They seem like so much fun. 

And they're women.

And there lies the double standard.  Because they are women, I assume they are safe and would not ransack my belongings or stab me in my sleep.

If someone said they were going to a conference to meet the man of their dreams, stay in a hotel with him, ride around with him, we'd say NO EFFIN WAY.  Even if they assured us that they had chatted online, skyped with each other, sent pictures and read each others' blogs every day.  But it's a conference meant for this, they'd say and we'd say NO EFFIN WAY.  WAY TOOOOOO DANGEROUS!

But, send that same friend off to a Blogher conference and we'd say OOOOOHHHHH I wish I could go too!  PLEASE?????  Because it's sanctioned by Blogher and it seems harmless, right?

I really have no idea where this was going when I started.  Hmmm.  I wonder what my point was.  Maybe that I have a double standard? 

I totally love the idea of Blogher and the conference and some day, I plan to go to it.  I probably wouldn't stay in a hotel room with a stranger though.  I might ride in a car with one.   No tattoos though.

But How Would I Get Room Service?

In this morning's newspaper, I came upon the craziest story.  Yes, I actually get a newspaper delivered to my house.  And I read it.  And I'm not 75 years old.  Go figure.

I just can't jump on the reading the newspaper on the ipad thing.  I like an actual newspaper to lay out on the table in front of me.

So, after reading about the local things like the oyster farms that are being raided (people are actually stealing THOUSANDS of dollars worth of farm raised oysters this week and it's really a serious issue, not the joke that is sounds like), the train service to Boston on weekends that is putting the people in small towns along the way in a tizzy, and where I should go to get the best ice cream around, I came upon this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/31/pop-up-hotel-rehearsal-_n_3680575.html

It's a hotel room.  On a scissor lift.  In Denver.  For $50,000 per night.

They call it The Hotel Rehearsal.

A hotel room.  On a scissor lift.  That means a box waaaaaay up high in the air, supported only by the springy like thing that makes the lift go up and down.

A hotel room.  On a scissor lift.

A rehearsal?  It sounds more like an amusement park ride to me.

When I was younger, we had a motorhome that had a bed up front that pulled down on something similar to the scissor lift springy things.  That thing wiggled every time I moved, which was apparently a lot, so I was not allowed sleep up there anymore.

I can only imagine the wiggling that would go on in this contraption.  The wind, passing helicopters, the trembling of my body from the nerves of having to sleep in it.

It says it comes with a toilet, running water for a shower, a bed and everything else you would want.

For $50,000 per night.

In a 5 foot by 7 foot space.

On a scissor lift.

A FIVE by SEVEN foot space??????

I suppose there's no balcony?

No maid service?

No room service?

Air conditioning?

Access to the pool?

I'm pretty much left speechless now.

Excuse Me, Is That A Cucumber in Your Pocket?

I am trying a different type of cucumber this year and totally loving the results!  These are a Japanese kind and they grow reallllllllly long!  At first, I was picking them when they were about 6 inches long and really skinny.

Then I went away for a few days and when I got back, I had these bad boys!

They are great tasting and thin skinned.  Sometimes, when things grow big and heavy like this, they are full of seeds and tasteless but not these!

They look like English cucumbers but they have seeds, so they are not quite the same thing.  They have grown so easily for me and without any fuss.  Cucumbers usually take a long time around here to get going but these got right down to business!

I want to pickle them but I am really afraid to can pickles.  I've been giving them away to everyone I can.  Last year, I made some awesome refrigerator pickles and I plan to do that with the next bunch that come through.

Linking here:
http://www.cherishedhandmadetreasures.com
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/07/clever-chicks-blog-hop-45-with-three.html
http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2013/07/29/made-by-you-monday-163/
http://www.2justbyou.com/?utm_source=Meet 
http://mommifried.com/ladies-only-blog-share/

Auntiesparkling Goes Visiting

I went to my sister a-ster's house for a few days last week.  I like to go and do nothing, as I might have mentioned before.  It's the laziest 4-5 days I can ever come up with and I revel in it.

Usually, we do some errands on a day or two and the only major thing we do is a trip to the National Zoo.  We all like it and now that l-ster is big enough to walk around, she can really enjoy it.  We went in April and actually saw the pandas eating and never was a child as fascinated as l-ster.  She has more than a little passion for pandas.

Thanks to the scorching weather we're stuck in for the rest of our lives here on the east coast, the zoo was the last place I wanted to be last week.  95 degrees and hot animals just don't appeal to me.  Add in walking around, lots of other hot screaming people, the smells of zoo food, the drive into the city.  UGH.  Anyone else think that sounds like pure hell?

So, other than the library and grocery stores, we didn't do much.  My sister did a lot of catching up on her sewing while I watched l-ster and we tried to play outside with the kiddie pool one afternoon but the mosquitoes put a rapid end to that.  

The one big thing we did was a couple of hours at a park that had a carousel and train.  The train was fun and much more of a train than I expected.  It went for about 15-20 minutes and you actually felt like you were on a small train.  It was on tracks and there was train bridge and a tunnel.  My niece thought she had died and gone to heaven and if her panda had been allowed on the train?  Well, I can't even imagine the joy.

Not having concrete plans and the weather being rather unpleasant for outside play, we spent a lot of time playing in the house.  At one point, l-ster got out some exercise bands that she likes to play with and started making a hat for me and a hat for her.

One thing lead to another.

I wish she looked as happy here as she was.  This is what she does when you tell her to smile. She was laughing, cackling and played with them for a while.  She thought these "hats" were the best thing since sliced bread and when she suggested we put one on panda and I actually did, well.  That was pure bliss.

Is anyone else hearing "Kung Foo Fighting" playing in their heads right now?

I Was Featured Somewhere

I wrote this post about Guacamole burgers that I whipped up the other night.  I linked around the interwebs and Debi over at Adorned From Above liked the idea and featured it this week!  I've never been featured anywhere, so this is a very big deal to me.  Go see and be sure to read some of the others who linked up as well!

Not Such A Jackass

A few months ago, I told you about how I had strayed from Tucker and found a new man. 

Well, it turns out Danny is an ass and I haven't ridden him much since then.  He's pulled a few nutties when people have actually asked things of him.  Not with me, but I'm sure if had he more chances he would.   He's great when a kid is on him and you're just leading them around, but get an experienced rider on him and he's like "hmmm, what can I do to avoid doing what she's asking".

I don't have time for that kind of nonsense.

So, since school got out, I've been riding Jackson.

I used to be afraid of Jackson.  For years, he would give me the evil eye and if I had to bring him in, he was always edgy and on high alert.  At barn #1, he hated to actually go in the barn and I had to resort to bribery with grain.  He was disgusted that he had to give in and come in for the grain and I was annoyed that I couldn't convince him that there were no ghosts at the door.

Over time, I saw a few people ride him and realized maybe he's not so evil.  I have no legitimate reason why I thought he was evil.

A long time ago, r-ster suggested maybe I should ride him, but she was sick and I was sure she was hallucinating.  Since she never suggested it again, I let it go and thought he might be a little more than I could handle.

When Tucker became in super high demand last month, she said I might need to think about riding Jackson.  After one hell of a wild canter around the ring the first time, where nothing I could do was going to stop him, we've had a great time. 

He is not evil. 

He actually seems to like what I do with him and he doesn't do much resisting. 

He hasn't done that maniac racing like he did the first time.  I would love to have seen that on video.  I didn't fall or jump off because I knew we were going too fast and he's too tall for me to safely get off.  I just kept racing around saying "I don't know what to do, he won't stop!" 

I had visions of him being so high that he'd just start jumping all the jumps and going bananas.  I have no idea why he finally stopped but he did and we started over and he's been fine.  I must have been doing something that said "yeeeee haaaw".

He is pretty nervous and so am I but we must cancel each other out because r-ster keeps telling me how much I relax him and how great he responds to me.  He's a horse who doesn't want to do something wrong, so if he does, he doesn't repeat his mistake.  This also means he tries to anticipate what I'm going to ask him, so he gets a little upset sometimes.  Somehow, I am able to calm him down and we do well together.

He really likes having a specific plan.  When we're warming up and it seems vague, he is on alert.  Once we start doing a pattern or something specific, he relaxes into it and is like "oh, I know how to do this".

I jumped him a few times the other day and it wasn't as crazy as I thought it was going to be.  They are going to have little jumping shows at the barn on Wednesdays this summer, so I wanted to see if Jackson would jump with me.  He will, but I chickened out for this past Wednesday because we had only done it once.   I didn't know what I was getting into and needed to be an observer once to see what it's like.

Before the summer is over, I am quite sure I will do one of the jumping shows.  Since it's at my "home barn" I can't turn down the opportunity!  I'd never trailer him and go somewhere because that would ratchet us both up to such a point we wouldn't be able to function, but if it's just something we can do right here, I think I'll do it!

Or maybe not. I'm kind of a chicken.

Linking here :
Www.mommifried.com
http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/

How Do You Fondue?

I went to a French teacher's conference in Providence last weekend.  The hotel was good, a name brand that really tries.  It's a conference type hotel and they had lots of things going on.  The on site restaurant is pretty big and then they have a bar and restaurant service out at the pool area.

I spent both evenings out at the pool area because it was a decent temperature and the furniture was pretty nice.  I took some pictures but that's another post for another day.

The first evening, I was crazy enough to want dessert.  I asked the girl for the dessert menu and she said they only have two, so there was no menu.  I guess the pool service is different from the restaurant service because I had seen other stuff on a different menu.

Whatever.   I wanted a chocolate dessert.

My choices were something to do with caramel, which I don't love, and a chocolate fondue.  As she described the fondue, I was trying to imagine just what they would do.  She said there was fruit and marshmallows.  I imagined them mixing it all together in a warm melange which would have been gross, but I wanted chocolate, so I said "fondue, s'il vous plait".

I didn't really say that because she is American and most likely doesn't speak French.  Although it is New England and we do still teach French here, so that's a terrible assumption to make.

Shame on me.

She came right back with this.

Do you think that's fondue?  Because it's not.  It's Hershey's syrup.  COLD Hershey's syrup.  I kid you not.  Well, it might have been a generic chocolate syrup which would have made it even more deplorable.

Yes, that's one banana cut into large chunks, marshmallows, strawberries with their tops still on and yep, graham crackers.  Because graham crackers and marshmallows are soooooooo French.  Everyone puts them in fondue, right?

Oh, no, I guess they put them in Hershey's syrup.

It was pretty gross, actually.  And it was humid, so the graham crackers were limp.

You know when you lick Hershey's syrup off of something (like your finger) and it kind of catches in your throat because it's not really chocolate and it's just sugar syrup?  That's what it was, with banana, strawberry and marshmallow mixed in.  Very high class.

It was truly the saddest, most bargain basement version of fondue I have ever seen.

And served where there was a conference of FRENCH teachers, no less! 

FONDUE.

HAH!!!

Linking here:

http://thegrantlife.com/link-party-financial-friday-718/