i thought this was funny

we are in the middle of a change up in the house. i wanted a bigger dining room to hold a bigger dining table, so the original dining room became the study and the family room will become the dining room, and the living room will become the family room (as in the room with the tv in it).

to convince husband scott that this was a great idea, i told him that when the dining room wasn't in use, he could use it as a ping pong table room...or table tennis (sniff) room.

the ploy worked.

so...i am looking at different online sites for a ping pong table top that one puts on a table. most of them are used on top of a pool table, but ours will go on a dining room table.

so it is just a top.

no legs.

here is the description...

Tired of billiards? Try table tennis! The Ping Pong® Duo table tennis conversion top is designed to fit 7' and 8' billiard tables. Side stripes ensure proper alignment, while the sponge rubber strips protect rails and hold the top firmly in place.

and, i came across this customer review...

By Neo
from Westwood MA
Comments about Ping Pong® Stiga Duo Table Tennis Conversion Top:
I cannot believe this table doesn't come with legs, how are we suppose to use???? Put down on the floor and get on our knees??? IT DOESN'T NOT COME WITH LEGS, DO NOT GET FOOLED. Shipping: That is another great story, it took them 5 weeks to deliver it, it was suppose to be a Christmas gift but didn't make it until 2 days ago. Homedirect shipping company, I think you should be using better company like ups or fedex, I wonder why I never heard of HD (what a joke).

duh!

overpack all the wrong stuff?

cuz that's what i like to do.

and, yes, i do need that many blue and white shirts...and electric curlers (am i the only one that still uses them?)

soooooo...what have i been doing up to now?

besides remodeling, overeating & binge tv-ing?

i am pretty consistent with instagram. it's easy.

i'm anabananaski.

anamanzana was taken as well as anabanana and annsky which my brother used to call me, so i combined them.

catch up time, since november 2012...

december = los angeles

business trip for husband scott

playtime for me.

december = christmas (duh)

and the chihuly exhibit.

amazing.

january = israel

first time ever.

want to go back.

february = reno

niece's wedding.

skiing in tahoe.

visit with family...husband's side.

march = easter

april = wedding

daughter michelle came home (yea!)

to photograph an engagement and a wedding.

may = arkansas

to see nephew graduate from high school

to celebrate nephew's brother's engagement (the older nephew)

and to take photos of a cute little niece

june = new jersey

to see niece graduate from high school

who started the week with:

monday - prom
tuesday - we flew in
wednesday - graduation
wednesday night - all night graduation party
thursday - prep for...
friday - another graduation party
saturday - train into ny
sunday - back home for 18th birthday party

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

july = arkansas

drove with mom, niece & nephew to arkansas

ropes course

kayaking

boating

digging for diamonds (none to be found)







and, now i am caught up.

looking back, i realize i have had some fun this year.

too hot to think of a good title

april august is the cruelest month.

how did i let myself get in this predicament?

again.

august here is tortuous. and, i always think if i didn't carry around extra poundage (like 40 - 50 extra pounds), i could tolerate the weather in august.

but i wouldn't know. CUZ I AM ALWAYS CARRYING AROUND THAT MUCH EXTRA WEIGHT in august.

why?

and just before going to washington dc whose weather is described as 'soup' by the natives.

trying to keep positive.

trying to keep positive.

it'll be fun.

so much fun.














i'll let you know how fun it is...

wow...what happened?

i haven't posted anything since november of last year! and this year is more than half way through.

what have i been doing? admittedly, i have been basically lazy. i got netflix and have been tv series binging. seriously, this is bad. when i read a good book, nothing gets done until i am finished with it, and this is what i am doing now with tv shows...TV SHOWS!

that's embarrassing. i am ashamed, yet, i cannot stop. i've watched 'orange is the new black'. soooooo very good. and 'the killing' and, linden is like an itty bitty jessica chaistain (okay, not so itty bitty...just looked up her height...she's 2 inches taller than linden). and now, i'm watching 'house of cards'.

dang it! this is addicting.

imdb is my bff.

it's sad.

at least with reading a book, i felt all literarily and intellectually stimulated. now?

not so much.

i need to straighten out. i have given myself the month of august to get some stuff done.

really.

plus, i feel out of sorts with no google reader. i've got to figure out this 'feedly' app.

more, later...promise.

just as soon as i find out what francis has up his sleeve.

i know what a general has up his sleevies...his armies.

oh boy!

just got back from arkansas and i have to say that i had so much fun. i didn't sight see, i didn't explore the beautiful nature trails...i painted walls and spring cleaned.

i know.

i'm weird. i get a great kick out of cleaning out my children's places and painting walls. i know where i get it.

my mother.

when i told her i was going to arkansas to help daughter michelle paint walls, she said, "can i come?" so, i got the great idea of roping my mom to help paint and my dad to install shelves. 

it was a working vacation.

daughter michelle and son-in-law dru moved to a beautiful part of northern arkansas. since they are employed by the state park, their living quarters are provided. right now, it is a trailer home. since there is a chance that in 2 - 4 years, they could be living in a house, one doesn't want to spend too much in fixing up the home, but as my mom says, "make your home a home, even if it is just temporary". 

i was going to post a lot of before and afters, but when i uploaded the photos from my camera and phone, they were mostly this:

and this:

ooooops!

there is a leetle bit of paint on the cutest muzzle ever.

so here are is a before and after.

i love before and afters. i wish i had more.

here is a before:

here is an after:

nothing is hung up, yet. daughter michelle is thinking about her possibilities. i think the painting should go back up, but at a lower level. she is thinking about some shelves. mom is still in her painting/cleaning gear and you can see on daughter michelle's lap the reason for the great big kennel. the granddog is just a pup, not nearly full grown.

here is another before:

this is the inside one of the kitchen cabinets. all 7 (yep, just 7) cabinets had no shelves. so, it is pretty frustrating to use.

not to mention all that wasted space.

or the fact that it is painful to pull anything out of the cabinet.

my dad installed just one shelf in 5 of the cabinets and it doubled the storage space. DOUBLED!

one of the cabinets, we put in a lazy susan for her spices and another lazy susan for oil, vinegar and bigger bottles of stuff. it was so much easier to find stuff.

of course i didn't take an after photo and i should have because the shelves, dad put in were exceptional. they fit perfectly and were super smooth.

i have the best parents in the world! who else would drive 8 hours to their grandaughter's home and clean, paint and build. 

AND come back saying they had the best time...ever? 

not many. 

not many at all.

an almost perfect day

tomorrow is the official first day of fall. lots of bloggers look to labor day as the first day, but i think that is because summer is over with school starting up and up north (definitely NOT in texas), it starts to feel fall-ish.

since i'm a blogger (in the loosest terms of 'why yes, i have a blog, and no, no one reads it), i am declaring that today is the first day of fall. 

i LOVE fall. or as betty grable says in 'how to marry a millionaire' - "simply, adore them".......okay, that doesn't really make sense. i just got through watching that movie this week and i keep thinking about it.

so, although the weather is still climbing in the very low 90's each day, it's starting in the 60's and the air has that tinge of coolness to it. it doesn't have that smoky smell, yet or that yellow leaves smell, either, but i can tell it's coming.

so, that's reason number one why this is an almost perfect day.

the second reason is this...when the elevator opened on my work floor, there was the branch manager, waiting for it and with a "good morning!" and a "i'm going to get some breakfast tacos, do you want one?", as he steps inside. oliver's, which is right across the street, has fantastic breakfast tacos for only a dollar! i opened mine up to add some salsa and there was a whole strip of bacon nestled inside it...for a dollar!

to wash down the taco, i went to my friendly starbucks and i was given a coffee 'on the house'. 

just like that! 

after work, since i hadn't had enough tacos, yet. i went to fuzzy's to get a fish taco and it was delicious. that's reason number 4? 

then i went to physical therapy.

i love my therapist.

so nice.

like really really nice.

really.

but, she almost makes me cry.

why is it that one has to go through much much much more pain to get rid of pain?

so, then i go home, trying to keep a brave face, when inside, i am so very much in a deep funk.

then...

i got the mail, and there was this...

what does it say inside?

thanks to my sister for instantly lifting me out of my funk.

btw, it's not my birthday.

so, this is my almost perfect day.

it would be perfect if p t made me feel instantly better, instead of waaaaaaaaaaay later better (honestly, why the face?).

2 weeks later...

i went to my niece melissa's wedding two weeks ago. daughter michelle, was the photographer. she, michelle, sent out a small slide show of the wedding to the newlyweds and now i have watched it over and over, again.

http://michelle-edmonds.com/slideshows/melissajob/

i am so proud of my daughter.

coming soon to fort worth...

we are getting are own urban outfitters. 

sometimes, i like their design. 

how can i do this with cinder blocks around my house?

packing...

i'm getting ready to pack up for a trip to new york/new jersey. our niece is getting married in new york. i am so excited about that. i love weddings even though i never know what to wear for a wedding. i always want to wear something floaty and romantic, but i am not the floaty, romantic type when it comes to clothes. my uniform is a hane's undershirt and a pair of shorts or if i'm dressing up: a hane's undershirt with a skirt. summer in texas is not conducive to wearing things that need to be dry cleaned nor wearing expensive items because i will have to throw them away after the season. the sweat stained armpits are permanent.

but this is not what i'm writing about today.

the subject, today, is that the hardest thing to do is to pack for a trip. i overpack especially if it's a company trip and i have to look decent, or, i underpack since i think i can wear the same thing twice which is sure way of making sure that i spill something on what i was planning to wear more than once. it's like the time we went to italy and i wore my one pair of jeans on the plane and son jason spilled my coke all over them. i didn't blame son jason...after all, he was 2 or 3 years old at the time. i, actually, felt like it was my fault because i should have known better than to have just one pair of jeans for a 3 week trip...my jeans could stand on their own after the trip (stiff from stains).

goop just did a post on packing. she (gwyneth) wrote a very informative article on what to pick for a work trip, city break and the beach holiday trip. of course, i cannot afford buy a victoria beckman duffel bag to use as a carry on or a lanvin suitcase as my check in bag, or the lanvin shoes or the stella mccartney jeans (although if i were to wear the jeans on the plane and they were my only pair...), but, she does give better ideas than packing a cashmere pashmina thing to keep you warm on the plane. also, the clothes she suggests would look better on someone shaped more like gyneth paltrow.

then, there was an article in the wsj on saturday about packing light and trying to pare it down to the fab five. i liked this article because she, too, either overpacks or brings all the wrong stuff. AND, like me, she doesn't really like to wear, again, what she wears on the plane, not because she has spilled stuff on them, but because the clothes "smell like fuel and they don't feel clean". i know exactly what she is talking about! my clothes after an airplane trip just feel grimy... kinda' like you have been traveling in the 1800's and the city soot has settled all over them. i'm always surprised that my hane's undershirt is still white when i take it off after being on the airplane...and not grey.

her fab five start with a pair of cropped dries van noten pants...okay, again, i do not own any dries van noten.

sigh.

yesterday, i also got in the mail a clothes catalog from some company that specializes in travel clothing.

the photo on the left is one of the many examples of clothes i could buy from this company for travel.

and...they are perfect for mixing and matching!






seriously?!!
i'm old, yes, but really?!!






luckily, j crew mailed their new fall catalog, too.


so, if you were wondering about the photo way at the top?

i'm packing: 1. a pair of cropped pants from banana republic several seasons ago (does that make them vintage?), 2. a new pair of j crew shorts and a pair of j crew shorts from way way back (again, vintage), 3. a silk skirt from j crew i bought on sale last year, 4. a casual dress from anthropologie that i had the hem lowered since it was a leetle bit too short when i sat down, and 5. a navy and white striped dress from banana republic to wear at the wedding. i also branched out and am packing two non-white tops: an old sleeveless top from anthropologie and a new anthropologie owl shirt, which i have already worn once and love. i will pack a few cardigans because sleeveless is not always a good look for me and a few white shirts, too.

and of course 3 or 4 hane's undershirts.

when i get back, i will post photos of the trip.