The Barack-O-Mercial

If you didn't see it, you missed a bit of glossy and expensive propaganda. Obama looked young and handsome, intellectual, enlightened, and dare I say it-messianic.

You may not know it, but he will rescue you from the job that doesn't pay enough, the medication that is ineffective and unaffordable, and those pesky terrorists (not William Ayers though, he's ok). He promotes a culture of prosperity (but don't you make over 250K...er, 150K cause that's enough) and wants to bring CHANGE to our lives.

One thing is absolutely certain...a candidate who believes that bigger government and more services are the vehicle to bring about peace and wealth will never make the lives of the American citizens less burdensome and more productive.

Undecided

Many thanks to Mama2hre for her comment on yesterday's post. She is the most coveted of all voters right now...Undecided in Pennsylvania.

I can see how it would be easy to be undecided in a battleground state. So much of the candidates time, energy, and dollars are devoted to those states rich in electoral votes. Citizens are bombarded with political rhetoric day and night. As a resident of a solidly red state, I admit I'm a little jealous at missing out on the political intensity of living in a battleground state.

Here is Mama2hre's comment:
"Living in PA and STILL undecided! I need a post on "Why I Should Vote For McCain" :)

And here is my response...
Even though I love that John McCain is a war hero, an unconventional politician, a powerhouse of foreign policy knowledge, I am voting for John McCain because of his belief that government policy should not be intrusive on the lives of its citizens.

The notion that the government needs to regulate the minute details of a society in order for that society to be effective, productive, and fair is comically demeaning.

The notion that "the wealthy" should be penalized with an ever-increasing tax burden to offer services to the remainder of citizens is absurd to me. The government is not a guardian angel or a rich uncle.

To mandate by law that resources be taken from those who have more and distributed to those who have less is merely a way to insure the destruction of a free society. It only encourages the citizens to depend on the government while discouraging the level of initiative and hard work that is required to attain success.

In the most general terms, I believe that political liberalism is condescending and harmful to the citizens, profoundly inefficient, and a breeding ground for corruption. The FannieMae and FreddieMac fiasco is a perfect example.

I think John McCain agrees and that is why today I was proud to cast my ballot in support of him.

Quid Pro Quo

Whew, I am so tired. I know, who isn't tired on Monday nights, but I tell you what...I am extra super tired.

This is the sort of tired that *may* cause me to go to bed early, which normally would make me grouchy. Except that I am tired. Did I mention that? Oh, sorry.

Monday Night Fatigue is particularly frustrating because I have lots of fun weekend things about which I am dying to blog. It's like having a big giant gift card to your favorite store and then not finding anything you want to buy.

There is one bit of news though that just can't wait. It involves secret negotiations, under the table bargaining, and perhaps a wee bit of manipulation. Nevertheless a settlement was reached, favors have been granted, and consent has been given...in other words, I GOT MY YARD SIGN!!!

 

ETA: Oh y'all. Remember the Rolls Royce from a few posts ago? We saw it on Saturday evening and would you believe it belongs to one of our neighbors?! (Disclaimer: This makes me sound way fancier than I actually am, and as always, I am OK with that).

Is the Hood Dangerous?

Thank y'all for your well wishes for my JBB! He is feeling better now, and although he wouldn't eat supper and begged to go to bed early, he is thankfully not throwing up anymore. That is a present for everyone.

After work I made a quick trip to Target to get Pretty Girl some warm clothes to wear around the house. I am so cold natured and Mr. Lipstick doesn't even like to wear a coat in the winter. The thermostat wars have begun.

I think our house is freezing, and Mr. Lipstick gags and moans if it's hot comfortable. Of course, I worry about JBB and Pretty Girl being cold. Never mind that JBB won't wear anything resembling a sweater and neither will keep socks on their little feet-I reason that I am freezing so they must be too.

Anyway, back to Target. I saw this sweet little sweater for Pretty Girl. The only thing...it has a hood, and while it is super cute, it seems a little dangerous. I mean, what if she got that sweater-hood caught on something? Am I being paranoid or does this seem like a poor design for a toddler?

And finally, here is a picture that made me cackle out loud and nearly spew Diet Dr. Pepper through my nose:
ETA: We don't actually live here....but we have been there. We opted not to get the Grillz though.

JBB is pid-i-full

Oh, y'all. The magical fantastical grandparent weekend party has had to be postponed indefinitely. My precious and sweet firstborn is now stricken with a terrible stomach virus. Boo hoo.

When I went into school, he and his teacher were coming down the hall toward Pretty Girl's playground to see if I had arrived yet. His face was red and puffy, yet pale and ashen at the same time. She told me JBB sat down on a picnic bench, started crying and saying, "I want my Mommy" and then right away he got sick. Three times. Oh, how this breaks my heart, but thank you Sweet Teacher for taking such wonderful care of him.

We have experienced emesis all night long, and he is finally asleep underneath a Spiderman blanket. This is on the menu for tomorrowand the matinee feature is Bee Movie (thank you DVR).

The hard part is that I will have to hug and kiss and hug JBB some more, and then I will have to leave him in the (actually very capable) hands of Mr. Lipstick. Of course, I will call about a million times from work to check on him and hear his sweet voice, all the while anxiously awaiting that wondrous moment that this mean ole virus relinquishes its stronghold, and JBB wants to run through the house like a man on fire.



Here he is on a field trip (to a pumpkin patch, where else) earlier this week.Apparently his little girlfried is helping him navigate the buried tires. I hope he feels like making mayhem soon...

Swiffer, Polish, Spit, and Shine

We have extremely important guests arriving on Friday. These three dear ones are coming for the expressed purpose of spoiling my children. You guessed it...grandparents!

Nonna and Mother and Daddy Lipstick are coming on Friday. Just between us, I have so much cleaning to do. And laundry. There are so many piles of laundry in my closet that it looks like an obstacle course. Worst of all, there is no time for a visit from the Cleaning Lady. This means I have to tackle it myself. Poor me.

I am not great at forcing myself to do chores when I am tired from work, and it is extra hard to do housework with a computer in your lap. Here's is what I am up against:Notice the glittery perfection of the background. This picture is from Mother and Daddy Lipstick's dining room. See that table with all that stuff on it...it is never, ever dusty. My Mother is such a detailed decorator and an impeccable homekeeper that I honestly thought everyone's house was like that. I believed that until I went to college and my dorm room, although beautifully decorated by Mother Lipstick, was never as clean and neat as home.

As a great philosopher once said: the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Don't you just know...that Dr. Phil is right! I always had to work to keep my dorm room from staying in a constant state of chaos, and now that I have Lipstick-Manor and two little Lipsticks running around, things are always upside down. Dusty too.

So wish me luck and hurl insults at me if I blog tomorrow night instead of cleaning. Whew, this is hard. Maybe Cleaning Lady takes bribes to rearrange her schedule...

MAC Attack and Sheer Bliss

Well, y'all it turned out to be a very busy weekend. Get this...I actually managed to go grocery shopping, buy the MAC lip liner (totally worth it), and attend the Halloween party. And before you just fawn over my uber-productivity, I have to confess that I only bought enough groceries for one week and I could not fit into that antebellum dress for the costume party.

Oh yes, I know it may be shocking, but as it turns out, I am not the same size that I was in high school. I was really excited about wearing that sea foam green dress with the giant frilly skirt. Sure, it probably began life as a bridesmaid dress, but it is still flouncy and fun. I was really hopeful when I zipped it up and the waist fit, but then the torso part...too tight. Mother Lipstick said it is because my boobies are bigger, and I am ok with passing that off as the reason, but honestly it was the ribcage part. My feet got bigger after I had my babies, but my ribs? That's weird.

So I wore another dress from high school. In true 1991 style the sequins are sewn on top of stretchy material which means it is very forgiving. I mis-matched the whole ensemble with a Guess jean jacket and lots of lipstick (more than usual). Mr. Lipstick was a construction worker. Here we are:And yes, we are tinted orange. Happy Halloween!

And speaking of Halloween...I am curious about every one's front door decorations. Here's the front of Lipstick Manor (and I use the term 'manor' very loosely):

And now for the sheer bliss part...
I have received this little bit of beautifulnessfrom Back to Barnwell and Kim and The Preppy Princess. Awwww y'all....that makes me so happy! If you don't know Barnwell, let me introduce him by saying he is funny and adorable and you will find yourself leaving comments for him that include ROFL and LMAO. Kim is thankfully back from a blogging break (so I am becoming re-addicted), and The Preppy Princess embodies fashion, frivolity, and classiness. You will automatically become a more informed, more stylish, and all around better person for reading her.

And part of this award is the acceptance speech...er, tag. Here are six things I really like:

1. The Dukes of Hazzard. I have a Dukes lunch box, I wanted to be Daisy, and of course, I loved Bo. If I could get my hands on a 1969 Dodge Charger, don't you know that I would drive it to work every day.

2. I am currently suffering from Election-Addiction-Induced-Anxiety. I know this is no shock to all you regulars (AKA The Most Wonderful People in the World), but I can NOT stopping watching the news. Some bonus info: I love political yard signs and would like to have one. Mr. Lipstick thinks they are tacky, and I just can't talk him into it.

3. I only eat Redneck Salads-specifically the center section of iceberg lettuce. I really cannot stand baby spinach, arugula, dandelion, sunflower, or whatever else goes in "Spring Mix." It makes my skin crawl. I confess this has produced social anxiety and fretting on multiple occasions. Why is it that every nice place or pretty party only has the Fancy Greens? Once I even asked for an iceberg salad and the too-fancy waiter looked at me as if I had just asked for some A.1.

4. Mother Lipstick is 4'10" which means that even though Daddy Lipstick is 6 feet tall, I should just take my 5'1" and be happy. It is probably my vertical disadvantage that fuels my fascination for tall people. When I was younger, I used to stand on a step stool and pretend that I was really that tall. I may or may not still do that.

5. I love Mexican food. A lot.

6. The last few weeks we have been playing outside on Sunday afternoons. This makes me so happy, content, carefree, grateful...sheer bliss.

Alone...and in the Dark

It is 6:17 am and I have managed the impossible. I am alone. The three loves of my life are asleep upstairs. The house is quiet and thanks to Daylight Savings Time, it is really dark outside. I am a little giddy about this...I kind of like my day off starting this early.

I mean, what should I do first...
I've got to do BIG grocery shopping because it is hard to make supper out of jell-o and ketchup, and
I've got to make sure I can fit in the antebellum dress I plan to wear to a party tonight, and
of course, there's the laundry.

It's going to be 65 and sunny today so I must get some outside time and I really need to run over to the mall for some of that MAC lip liner and gloss that MWP uses. My Estee Lauder pencil is now a tiny little nub I can barely hold anymore. Oh yeah, and then there are the giant totes full of memory stuff (yearbooks and old clothes) that I need to move out of the garage per Mr. Lipstick's ultimatum. They have been there for three months, but he's the only one who is really counting.

Uh oh. Pretty Girl is crying. Time for Mommy's day to begin. That's ok...I was getting lonesome anyway. It was too quiet.

I Am So Over It

That's it. I'm done. McDreamy's hair just isn't fabulous enough to sustain me through Meredith's whining, Izzie and Karev's enemy-romance, and the Chief's ranting. I don't like the whole new thing with Torres and Haan...weird and boring. I don't like Bailey's oscillation between skiddish insecurity and raging over-assertiveness. Lexy is campy, over-acted, and useless (not unlike Meredith's brooding and pseudo-cerebral monologues).

But...I still like George. I think T.R. Knight is the type of actor who is talented enough to transform some of the most ridiculous plot twists in recent memory into the nuances that make a character endearing and relevant. There is also some pretty cool music too.

Please tell me I am not the only one who is this grouchy, exhausted, and in desperate need of a better soap opera.

Don't You Just Love a Man in Uniform?

ETA: Ashley.Unscripted made me LOL with her comment about G Dub bein' a hottie back in da day. Here he is...

The Itchy and Scratchy Show

I've written before about my fabulous hair stylist. He is just a dream come true with his spiky red hair, snarky sense of humor, and air kiss greetings. Oh yes, and then there is the matter of his amazing talent.

Well, the last time I was there I spotted this little treasure.

 

It is called a color tube key and it can be yours for the low low fantastic price of $1.79 at Sally Beauty Supply.

Stylists use it for, well, those fancy tubes of color. It piqued my interest though because JBB has eczema and it is nearly impossible to get all the medication out of the tube without making a mess. Since I am prone to making a mess in the most orderly of situations, this little color key is a life-saver. Here it is in action...

 

It is especially handy for those super-expensive tubes of Elidel!



And with no segue other than this sentence fragment....take a look at this.And because one picture of Paul Newman is never enough, here's another:Mommy and Daddy Lipstick saw "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" in the movie theater the day they got engaged. It was 1969. They are together today, having celebrated 37 years of marriage in June. I really, really want to be like that.

The ACORN Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

Another good one from the op-ed page of WSJ

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal about the latest way to "spread the wealth around."

I See Burl

Today I went to my favorite consignment shop and unbeknownst to me, while I was stocking up on some essentials for fall, a vintage Rolls Royce Silver Shadow parked next to the Lipstick-mobile.

I just giggled when I saw it and promptly did what any good redneck blogger would do...I took a picture with my phone.

In the Bed with a Rag on my Head

I'm a Couch Potato

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

Nonna and DeeDea have a jukebox just like this in their basement.I think it is a 1963 Seeburg model. It plays 45s and it is the soundtrack of my childhood. It contains everything from Ronnie Millsaps' "It Was Almost Like a Song" to Merle Haggard's "Ramblin' Fever" to Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry." Nonna and DeeDa would host fabulous parties down there when I was little and I remember them dancing and laughing wearing gaudy and glittery bell bottoms and polyester. There is even a bar and a pool table. It defines the word cool.

But anyway, back to the songs...I would like to belt out, "I'm sorry, so sorry, please accept myyyyy a-pol-o-gee" to my favorite bloggers. I hardly think I have commented at all. It's just been one of those tiring weeks.

Today, however, is a different story. Do you ever have those days where you have about a million things to do and you start off really fabulous and then end up taking a nap or watching tv (or heaven forbid, blogging)? Well, today is one of those days and this present indiscretion aside, I am going to make it. The laundry, the cleaning...I will conquer.

You see, I kind of have to because we are hosting our church group on Sunday and all of their homes are sparkly. I do not want to be Those People. The Ones with Dust. I also want to run to my fave consignment shop because I semi-desperately need some fall pieces. I also need to be prepared to admit that once I do the mound(s) of laundry that I may be a little more well furnished for fall than I thought.

And finally....the debate. You know how Joe Biden smiled a lot at Sarah Palin? I think sometimes he was doing that frustrated politician debate smile and then...sometimes I think he found her charming. I also think that she was a little star-struck by him. It was after all their first meeting and I think this made for an interesting exchange.

Her shoes were fabulous and so was her suit. I will not have patience with anyone who detours from the subject of my post and says this does not qualify her to be VP. I am doing housework, y'all and I don't have time for this nonsense. I also get grouchy when people pontificate at length about feminism/sexism/racism....but please tell me that I am not the only one who notices that when Hillary wore pantsuits and sensible shoes people made fun of her and when Sarah Palin wears cute suits and high heels people photoshop her body onto bikinis. Why is that?

MidWeek Happiness

Mr. Lipstick and I have a deal. Since I take the kiddies to school in the morning, he gets them dressed. The three of them are quite efficient with this process which usually leaves time for a Mr. Lipstick concert. He sits at the top of the stairs with his guitar, JBB chases Pretty Girl around, and Pretty Girl claps and giggles. This little bit of chaos is utter bliss for me. It is the perfect background for my last minute wardrobe adjustments and jewelry selections.

This morning Mr. Lipstick was singing one of the songs he has written for the kids. When he got to the part about them growing up and moving away, his voice froze. Utter silence. JBB, of course, immediately started asking questions and saying, "but Daddy, I won't ever move away." I knew why his voice was frozen...the same reason that my contacts were starting to get all fuzzy from the tears in my eyes. It was a clear violation of the weekday morning ban on emotionally wrenching songs, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

In other (birthday) news...today was the day for my At Work Birthday Cake. The At Work tradition is that everyone gets a cake on their birthday, and I was more than happy to postpone my Cake-Day for everyone's convenience. Far be it from me to attempt to extend my birthday; I mean, I've got to be professional.

My At Work Friend selected it at the nearby bakery that we all love. At Work Friend is another super-cool pharm-mommy friend of mine. She is very detailed and precise, has excellent taste in restaurants, and has really beautiful teeth. She is a new visitor to Lipstick-land (cyber-wave), and y'all...guess what? She picked out my cake to match my blog!!I told ya she's cool.

And one final thought...I need, NEED some comfy shoes that I can wear with dressy/work pants. I was thinking of these. What do you think? Are they too ugly-ish? I am in a fashion conundrum. My gorgeous shoes are making my legs and back hurt. Since I have not perfected the sexy yet chic limp, I have been wearing comf-ugly shoes. What do y'all wear?