For the love of God, where is the Webkinz Snake?

Those of you with girls in grade school will understand the allure of Webkinz. My Girlie's Christmas list is miles long with Webkinz items. She even put little trademark symbols by them. No cheap imitations for my Girlie. The problem is, my Girlie loves snakes. We just got back from a trip to Oregon where she acquired not one but two more toy snakes of the stuffed variety. At night she goes to sleep with five stuffed snakes and a stuffed horse named Clementine. Can I just tell you, the horse was mine as a little girl. I found it in a bag of ancient stuffed animals that I've forced my parents to store in their attic for a hundred years. On this trip to Oregon for Thanksgiving, I cleaned out several boxes of old stuff. I found a bag of notes I'd passes with a girl code-named "Terrific". I have no idea who it was! I also found all the programs from plays I was in and the Varsity letters from sports in which I participated. So well-rounded. As you might expect, I was also a writer. I have several copies of my high school newspaper in which I wrote a column called, "Same to you..." I guess I haven't changed much. Reluctantly, I allowed the disposal of maybe 30 stuffed animals that are too old, dusty and probably lead-ridden to donate to charity. Sigh. It's so hard to get rid of animals that you have imbibed with human characteristics as a child. I let Girlie claim Clementine and she carried her home in her arms on the plane. It's very sweet but I'm not kidding myself. She'd trade Clementine in a Webkinz minute for a snake with a code and an exclusive item on the Webkinz site. But I'm guilty too. I found an old illustrated Stephen King book in a box that I have found sells for at least $200 on ebay. Ciao, Stephen King book. It won't be the first I've sold on ebay either. I got $600 for one a few months ago. I was a big fan in the 80's and I worked at a bookstore. Yeah me. So, as I started out in this post, when will they make a Webkinz snake? Girlie has needs.

Three Comments That Prove That Girlie is not Actually Eight

"I jumped on Daddy and he looked up in astonishment." (why say "surprise" when you can say "astonishment"?) "By the time we get home, by my estimation, I will have a message waiting for me on Webkinz." (who says, "by my estimation"?) And finally, I took her to see a performance of Faure's Requiem (Daddy sings in the chorale). On the way, we explained what a requiem is and that many requiems are performed just for the beauty of the music (i.e., we weren't attending a funeral). At the concert she read the notes about the composer and during the piece, she read the translation to English. Then, she burst into tears in the middle of the performance. I thought a bug had bitten her or something but she was just moved to tears by the words in the requiem. "It's sooooooo sad!" I love my micro-adult eight year old Girlie.

Luxury, thy name is Girlie

So my buddy H. had extra tickets to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play against Arizona yesterday. Since my hubby was headed out of town, I took Girlie and we had a blast. Was it because Girlie is a Bucs fan? No. She doesn't know the first thing about football. Was it because she got to eat hot dogs, drink beer, and shout profanities? No. She's eight. It was because the tickets were to a luxury box and we got picked up in a limo. She loved the limo ride, needless to say, although she was concerned about the lack of seatbelts. And she is old enough and girl enough to love the fact that we had a private bathroom in the suite. She watched about ten seconds of the game and spent the rest of the time curled up in a comfy chair reading a book called, Who Were The Beatles? (Paul is her favorite.) The helmet full of ice cream was a hit too. I got to watch the whole game and we even won. The weather was glorious, I might add. We're into our best time of year in Florida. The only downside to the whole day is the fact that the bar has now been set impossibly high for Girlie when it comes to sporting events. I feel sorry for her future boyfriends. I hope she dates a poet.

Happy Halloween

For me it's really, Happy Almost Christmas. I don't care much about Halloween although I did dress up this year for a party. I went as Bitter, Disappointed Dorothy attending her Class of '37 Reunion. I had a grey wig braided like Dorothy's hair, the appropriate blue checked dress and some matronly shoes with support hose. Jim Beam and a stuffed rat instead of Toto in my basket. You had to be there, it was pretty funny. Girlie is going as a dragonfly tonight.

So I Guess I'm Blogging Again

I'm a sneak. I used to be over here but I quit blogging for awhile. When I started back up, I had to switch back to Blogger (where I gave birth to my blog a long while ago) because the quality of my little cartoons is so much better on this program. So here I am again, completely without fanfare and looking like I'll post two or three times a week. Or more. We'll see. Here's a recap: I'm an artist and an author of two novels. But my most important gig is mom to my 8 year old named (for blogging purposes), Girlie. If you remember her from before, the answer is yes, she still takes her stuffed snake, Sara, everywhere with her. She has added Gabriel, Sasha, Rainbows, Kelly, Zoe and many others to the mix but Sara is the boss snake. Of course that is subject to change if they release a Webkinz snake character. Virtual pets seem to rule around here lately. Her virtual dog gets as much or more attention than her real dog, Marty, at least measured in minutes spent. So anyway, glad to be back. We'll chat soon.

Global warming

Art by moi

Red Dot 12x12"

The President Addresses a Graduating Class

Webkinz Terrorists

Lame Duck

Bush Hires a New Advisor