Reminder.

I haven't been annoying enough. And let's be honest, annoying I can do!

But it seems that the monkeys have fixed the GAP site and it is now fully functional for voting and other shenanigans. Let the games begin.

VOTE FOR ALEX!!

Hump Day!

Weeeeeeee! It's the middle of the week!

I don't know that I've fully expressed my excitement on the blog that I get to see my sister this weekend. Insert screams of delight here.

Mom, Alex and I are cartin' it to Connecticut to attend Kelli and David's bridal shower out there. Yes, we are driving. Yes, it makes me want to kill myself. No, I'm not sure I'll survive.

We're actually taking the shortcut through Canada. I know, crazy...who travels somewhere via car when the shortcut is through Canada? It's also a perk because I don't have to drive through Pennsylvania, which I'm quite sure is the worst state in the galaxy. It. Never. Ends.

We're leaving at the ass crack of dawn on Friday so that Alex can be sleeping in the carseat as long as possible. He gets sweaty in that thing, you know.

Should Monday roll around and I'm not back in action, wait until at least Thursday to contact the authorities. Tell them to look for me somewhere north of Narnia.

Eegads!

Confession: I am a TOTAL office supply whore. I heart the back to school season because all of my favorite stores greet me as I enter with lavish displays of pens, notebooks, folders and other paperish items.

Back to School 2009: Enter the Sharpie retractable pen.

I have been searching like a fiend for this hot little item since I first drooled over the swirling coffee cup in the lame introductory commercial campaign. MUST. HAVE. IT. NOW.

Alas, no brick and mortar stores in the Greater Metro Detroit area could keep them in stock long enough for me to get my hands on one. And, quite frankly, I draw the line at $3.99 shipping from Amazon.com.

So imagine my sheer delight when I found them on Sunday at my neighborhood unfriendly Wally World. YIPPIE!

And in case you were wondering, they are awesome.

Weirdness & The Weekend.

There's a lot of weirdness going on in the office right now, and once the dust settles I'll bring y'all up to speed. But to get our minds off it in the meantime, let's review the weekend, shall we?

The Talicska men were up at "God's Country," aka my Uncle's property up north, so Mom and Jill came to spend the weekend with me and Alex. Why was Alex not with the men, you ask? The rules of Talicska Man Weekend are simple and finite: you must be at least 16 years of age, have a penis, and be spawn of or married to a Talicska to gain admittance. Alex received his certificate of entry from my Uncle Dave back in June, and he must present it to the Elders (My Dad, Uncle Perry, Uncle Dave) in September 2025 to be allowed in. Until then, he's stuck shopping with the girls. :)

Jill, Mom, Sarah and I spent most of the weekend preparing top secret things for Kelli and David's shower in addition to spending an inordinate amount of time in various stores around town. Also, copius amounts of wine may or may not have been consumed. Glorious.

When Joey got home on Sunday we did some more work in the basement - hanging pictures, decorating, etc. and prepped the yard for fall. This weekend I will plan mums! I'm quite sure there was once a day that had you told me I would be excited about planting mums I would have punched myself in the ovaries. Who am I?

Ok. Back to work for me...time for a coffee refill.

Cha-Ching!

Click here for a great list of coupons being offered from none other than the queen of EVOO herself, Rachael Ray.

You're welcome.

In return for sharing the wealth, please vote for Alex!

Friday!

First, let it be known that there is not enough Starbuckies in the universe to make it through today. As such, I will once again put into practice what you've all come to know and love as my one of my "lazy list posts." Deal.

- The season premiere of Grey's Anatomy was a little slow and rather predictable, but I sat in awe as we watched it on our brand new BATV! 52" of pure, LCD HD entertainment. That's what she said.

- Yesterday marked the 44th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 11246 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which officially prohibits sex discrimination in employment. *Snaps* for LBJ. I can't help but giggle a little bit when I type his initials.

- Tragic: we lost our Baby Bjorn. We'd only used it a handful of times, and I was really looking forward to using it on the Apple Orchard trip...but it's gone! Last time we used it was at Arts, Beats & Eats in Pontiac and we're pretty sure it fell out of the bottom of the stroller when we were loading the car back up in the dark. Boo.

- To my above point, I was bidding on a NEW Jeep baby carrier thingy on ebay yesterday. I was the only bidder with 30 seconds left ($2.00, thankyouverymuch) and some douchebag outbid me by $0.50. It honestly took me until last night at about 9 p.m. to officially get over it. Actually, I'm still pissed about it. Stupid whoeveryouare.

- Thanks to those who have voted for Alex in the GAP contest. Apparently the voting system and web structure for the site was designed by dyslexic monkeys because it only works for like every third person. Que sera, sera. Please keep trying....daily.

- And finally, for your reading enjoyment, you KNOW it's newsworthy when the WSJ covers it.

Happy almost weekend!

Winner, Winner. Chicken Dinner.

I got an interesting 'lil email in my inbox yesterday. Behold:



Umm...the interpretation of it basically reads, "Hey, Kristi...you need to urgently enter Alex because he's the freaking cutest kid on earth." And so, I did.

Please click here to cast a vote for my little man. Just search for his contestant number, 809679244. You have to create a membership and login to vote, but it's free!

The People's Choice winner (a.k.a. highest vote getter) wins a family vacation. The babies chosen for the photo shoot and gift card are chosen directly by GAP and not influenced by voting. So technically, he could win BOTH!

You can vote once a day now through Nov. 17, so rest assured that every.single.post between now and then will contain some sort of reminder to vote. And I'll probably add a reminder button somewhere along the right column. It will get annoying. Consider yourself warned.

And let me know if you enter your kid(s)...I'll vote for them, too!