The Adventures of Katie Bonk!

We’re off again! Tomorrow through Wednesday, we’ll be at the beach for Round 2 of the 2005 family vacation! I just realized last night, that I left all 6 of my bathing suits at the beach house last week during Round 1, SO I will be going on a frantic shopping spree to find at least 2 new bathing suits this afternoon. Ugh. I will be going to Kohl’s where they monitor all dressing rooms with cameras “operated by female employees”. Yeah, right. No need to worry about the creepy manager freak boy who went to Appalachian with me and chased me down in the tunnel one day. Maybe I will just buy a bunch of suits and try them on at home…
Anywho, thanks to Allison and Andrea for taking care of the kitties again!

Labels: beach, Jack Johnson, vacation

I’ve been tagged by Singing Pigs to carry on this meme, but it was fun to reminisce, so here it goes…

1. Playing in the ocean before I learned about all of the creepy things that are on the ocean floor. The waves seemed so much bigger back then too. My sister and I used to play all day without getting tired, and we’d only come in to eat lunch and put on an old t-shirt to protect us from the raft-rub that would inevitably be on our armpits and legs. Then, when I went to bed at night, I would dream of riding the waves on my raft.

2. Playing outside in the summer everyday until it got dark. We would have stick races in the curb gutter after it rained. This consisted of getting a good flat piece of wood from the mulch, and racing them down the street. If you had a good stick, you’d have to be quick and grab it before it went down the drain so you could use it for the next race. We also played 4-square in the driveway and drew all over the sidewalks with chalk (and made up games along the way- there was one with a snail, but that's all I remember of it…). My dad made my sister and me each our own set of stilts, so we were avid stilt-walkers. Our neighbors had a pool that we could play in, but if they weren’t around, we would go to Highlands pool which had 4 different pools and fabulous sno-cones. My friends and I used to blast Madonna or New Kids on the Block on my purple boom box and dance in the front yard. We thought we were so cool. Oh- and we had some great kickball matches in the backyard where we kept score by carving it into the fence.

3. Having lemonade stands and junk sales. I miss the feeling of earning $1.00, and thinking that it was SO MUCH money! I was quite the businesswoman back then- I would collect all kinds of junk that I didn’t want anymore and sell it to the younger neighborhood kids.

4. Organized sports. Even though I think my favorite part of the soccer games was when we got snacks and juice boxes, and sometimes my coach would take us to Dairy Queen after a big win; but I liked the whole playing soccer part too. Gymnastics was fun until one of my coaches forced me to stay on the balance beam until I could do a cartwheel. I was never good at the balance beam, and I was terrified I would turn my ankle doing a cartwheel on that evil piece of gym equipment. Volleyball was the best by far- I played Junior Olympic, and we traveled every other weekend for all-day tournaments. I could never sleep the night before a tournament due to the anticipation. I had such a good time playing volleyball that I was kicked off one team for laughing too much. Oh well!

5. My big-wheel, scooter, and bike. I tore up my big-wheel to the point where there were holes in the tires, and then I put rocks in them to make it rattle. My scooter was my favorite. It was turquoise and white, and had white wheels and hand brakes. I went everywhere on that thing, and I could pop a wheelie like nobody’s business. And no kid is complete without a bike! Luckily, our parents weren’t a bunch of pansies back then, so we didn’t have to wear a helmet.

Your turn now- I tag allygirl, unbarbie girl, Slight Clutter, Jacobz, and dasro kast.

Labels: childhood, meme

We're back from our beach trip '05 Round 1! Isle of Palms was lovely, as usual. I will try to get my pictures on Flickr tonight. It was strangely COLD all week. (By "cold", I mean 80 degrees which is chilly for SC at the end of June!) I never broke a sweat the entire time we were there, and I even had goosebumps laying out on the beach!!! It was very nice though, and I am excited about going to Holden Beach with my family this Saturday. The two family vacations couldn't be more different- Daniel's family beach vacation consists of about 17 people in a house at once, give or take a few from one day to the next. There's never a dull moment! Then there's my family, which consists of Daniel and I, my sister and her hubby, and my mom and dad. That's it- just the 6 of us. It's a much calmer week, and it is spent mainly on the beach. Daniel's family likes to go to Charleston to shop or do the tourist things, but mine is all about the beach. Now if only I can convince my family to let me sleep in until 10am.... They are hardcore about getting out on the beach for their daily dose of skin cancer at 9am- they don't understand that I didn't inherit the dark olive skin, and that the sun is my enemy!!!

Labels: beach, family, vacation

Daniel and I are BEACH BOUND tomorrow morning!!! We are headed to Isle of Palms for his family beach trip. The house they rented was torn down, so we've been upgraded to an oceanfront house with more rooms and more bathrooms! Yay!
The kitties will be taken care of by Allison and Andrea, so we are happy to know that they will be in good hands. (Thanks ya'll!)
(And thanks singingpig for letting me use this picture!)

Labels: beach, Jimmy Buffet, vacation

Thirsty Thursday at the Crawdad's game is tonight!!! Look what I get to watch paaa-lay ball:



A girl's gotta have something to look at!

Labels: baseball, Hickory Crawdads, Todd Snider

The drinking water in my county is obtained from a lake in the area. Every spring, the water starts to taste a little different, and not in a good way. What does it taste like, you ask? That would be dirt. Yep, we have dirt-water flowing from our faucets. We are used to it happening, and simply drink bottled water for a couple of weeks until it clears up and tastes normal again. This year, however, it seems to be worse than any year we can remember. (The cats, on the other hand, seem to LOVE the new flavored dirt-water.) It's been almost a month now that we are not able to drink out of the fountains and not even my Brita pitcher can get the dirt taste out. Oh, and when we go out to eat- no water or tea for us! The local newspapers have reported that there is an algae weed in the lake which is causing the water to taste different, but don't worry- they say it's safe to drink! (That is, as long as you can stand the taste!)
Needless to say, we will continue with our bottled water consumption until further notice.

Labels: water, yuck

My freshman year at Appalachian State University was a very memorable one. I was assigned to live in a dorm room with some chick named Adrienne (AKA UnBarbie Girl). Adrienne was a great roommate, and we are still good friends today, which is why she wants me to talk about her on my blog. So, this is my list of what I know about Adrienne. (Just to warn you, most of this will be uniquely funny to just Adrienne and me.)

Adrienne...

• ...told me that she was "old and black" during our first phone conversation before we met.
• ...made me touch everything in our dorm room that might have germs on it. (For example, if someone sat on her bed- I had to touch all over the comforter when they left to remove any germs.)
• ...washed her hair in the sink:

• ...attempted to sing along with my Deanna Carter cd- redneck country accent and all.
• ...called my friend Adelie, "Lemonade".
• ...tried to get one of my boyfriends strip for her during a party we threw for her birthday:

• ...used the bathroom in the music building on weekends because our dorm bathroom was only cleaned on weekdays.
• ...read the bible to a creepy crank caller who constantly called our room.
• ...cooked nasty smelling "fake meat" and stunk up the room:

• ...got a lot of phone calls from her friend Margie.
• ...made me stay in the room with her when she invited a boy to come visit her one day in the middle of the afternoon.
• ...had a poster that she really liked a lot:

• ...was friends with Tina who liked me until I asked to borrow her slippers for a class project.
• ...wouldn’t let me have male friends spend the night on the floor for fear of them hurting her in the middle of the night.
• ...likes Christmas cookies a lot.
• ...was scared to sleep on the bed under me because she thought my bed would fall on her in the middle of the night. (We were warned that this might happened…)

• ...introduced me to two of my very good friends, her sisters. (Even though one of them doesn’t like me anymore because I am an unsuitable friend for her now that she is married to a man who apparently wouldn’t like me.)
• ...drank apple juice and…

Labels: Adrienne, friends, James Taylor

Today at work, a man come in the tax office wanting to know where his property line was because his "neighbor done pulled up the pins hisself, put 'em into the trees, and put himself up a chain-link fence ‘cross my land!" He was here to get his facts straight before he goes and talks to his neighbor, and he believes there's gonna be a slobberknocker taking place tonight. (“And if you city folk ain’t never seen some country boys have a th’ow down, well then you just don’t know.” I suppose he’s right about that.) A co-worker and I suggested that he talk to an attorney about his property line problem (preferably before said slobberknocker takes place). His reply was that it was time for him to call Phillip.

(Uncomfortable silence and blank stares from my co-worker and me.)

“Ya’ll know who Phillip is! All I gotta say is one more word: Lake.”

(Still… nothing...)

“Phillip Lake up in Lenoir!” Apparently, he's the attorney who represented Dan Jackson (former County IT employee) 10 years ago. Seems that Mr. Jackson was arrested for "accidentally" murdering a woman during a romantic tryst, but Mr. Lake got him off on a plea bargain because they searched the woman's hard drive and found that she wanted to be killed this way.... (I am happy to say that Dan died in jail 2 years ago.) As I was backing away from the slobberknockering taxpayer, he launched into another story about a sheriff down in Rutherfordton (pronounced “Rufutun”) who was busted for drugs out the wazoo, but that he would still win for sheriff if he ran again. Umkay, I gotta go now…

Labels: tax office, work

One of my Flickr friends, Jacobz, said something that I really liked the other day for this photo on his Flickrstream. My favorite part of it was, "Don't fear what you don't know, just smile!" Very well said I think, and if more people could think this way, we might live in a happier world!

Labels: flickr, happy, Jump Little Children

I used to HATE going to the dentist. I know that no one really enjoys going to the dentist, but I truly hated and feared going until I was in my early 20s. I remember there was an entry in my diary when I was little where I said, "Today was a good day...(yadda yadda good stuff that happened to me that day...) and I went to the dentist and they hardly did any scraping!". For me to note that in my diary- that's a big deal, and that made it a "good" day for me! I was probably dreading going for the entire week, so I was relieved when they took it easy on me!
I went to the dentist this morning, and I was not dreading it at all. If anything, I was looking forward to it, because I got to sleep in a little, and I didn't have to get to work until 9:30 this morning! I no longer shudder at the thought of going to the dentist because a few years ago, it was strongly suggested to me that I get a Sonicare toothbrush:



Ever since purchasing this fabulous toothbrush, I get rave reviews from the dentist and the hygienists about how well I am taking care of my teeth and gums! (I also floss every night without fail, which also helps to reduce the scraping. I learned to commit to this discipline in high school.) The biggest benefit of using the Sonicare toothbrush, is that the dentist's toothbrush no longer tickles or annoys me like it used to. That giant metal buzzing thing used to feel like nails on a chalkboard on my teeth- eeeek! But not anymore! I strongly suggest that everyone buy this toothbrush. It's a bit high in price, but it is TOTALLY worth it!

~End of geek post.~

Labels: dentist, geek, Jack Johnson, toothbrush

As predicted, the Cowboy Mouth show was AWESOME! (duh.)
After work on Friday, Allison, Daniel, and I drove down to Charlotte to Dixie’s Tavern for the fantabulous show. Allison and I went into the bar looking for an ATM, and we ran into Anthony, Deanna, and Michelle A; outside, Daniel talked with Amy (and her gang of boys); Michelle M. and Heath showed up later, and our party was complete. Budweiser was co-sponsoring the concert with Southern Comfort, and they were giving away FREE BEER!!! At first, the cute Bud Boys (one of whom was the spitting image of Matt Bivins from Jump Little Children…):



were all giving away the new “Bud-E”:



We don't really know what the "official name" of the new beer is, but Allison came up with "Bud-E", and we liked that name- it sounds so friendly! Unfortunately, I can only speak for my friends and myself when I say that this “beer” was not so good:





The Bud-E is chock-full of ginseng and all this other energy stuff, and I heard someone say that it is basically a Red Bull Beer. It’s really fruity, malt liquory, and yucky. But then the cute Bud boys started passing out Buds and Bud Lights FOR FREE. Budweiser rocks.

The show finally started around 10:30, and it was SOOOOOO good! I got a lot of really good pictures, all of which you can see here.
And for the record, the giant inflated SoCo bottle was out again this year:



I was really nervous about it too considering it whapped me in the eye last year, but I was not attacked this time around!

We all had so much fun, and it’s nice to have that “reunion” once a year! Cowboy Mouth is playing at Ziggy’s in Winston in a couple of weeks (on a Wednesday), we’ll have to see if we can make it to that show too….

Labels: concert, Cowboy Mouth, friends, live music

Don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

Labels: silly

Cowboy Mouth show in Charlotte tomorrow night!!! If you have never listened to a Cowboy Mouth cd or been to a live show, you have not been fulfilled as a person. I recommend the cd All You Need is Live to all new CM listeners. It is a compilation of live versions of some of their greatest hits up through 2000, and it. is. FABULOUS. Fred, the drummer and the lead singer, frequently asks his audience, "ISN'T IT GREAT TO BE ALIVE TONIGHT?!" And oh yes, it is indeed great to be alive and experiencing musical grandeur live and at it's best.

Here are a few things for people attending their first Cowboy Mouth show to remember:

• Be aware that there will be objects thrown. There will be red spoons thrown during "Everybody Loves Jill", and there will be Tootsie Rolls thrown during "Hurricane Party". Stay alert if you see a giant inflatable Southern Comfort bottle being surfed above the crowd- it is heavy, and it does hurt if you are not paying attention.
• DO WHATEVER FRED TELLS YOU TO DO. (Don't worry- he's not going to ask you to do anything crazy like show him your boobs.) But he will tell you to get down on the ground until he says you can stand up, and when you stand up- you better EXPLODE off the ground!!!! He will also ask you to sing along during some songs- no big deal. Fred knows when audiences are not playing along, and he will quit the show halfway through. (This happened at a show recently in Tallahassee.)
• They will play "Jenny Says". Do not be That Guy who shouts out "JENNY SAYS! JENNY SAYS!" between every song. You will look stupid, and Fred doesn't like it. I will tell you now so that you will be informed: "Jenny Says" will be the last song of the night.
• Most importantly, just have fun! A Cowboy Mouth show is the greatest stress-relieving activity ever if you just let loose! Don't worry about looking stupid dancing, or getting mud on your shoes or beer spilled on you- just have fun!

I'll let you know how the show goes tomorrow night. I hope that I will be able to get some good pictures at the show tomorrow night, and hopefully it won't rain on us!

Labels: concert, Cowboy Mouth, live music