Hey Baby, What's Your Handle?

As I approach the beginning of my new career in radio broadcasting, I need to adopt a handle in which I will be referred to in the biz. Give me your suggestions!

So far St. Pauly Boy has come up with "Cxgyae" (sounds like "E", all of the other letters are silent). Understandably, I have turned this one down.

Let me hear you, Internets!

I Love Zach Braff Too, Bud

Similar, Even In Death

Our next door neighbor passed away last Thursday. St. Pauly Boy and I were sitting on the patio just after noon when her son came to the fence to tell us the news. She had just died an hour prior, right there in the house. She had been battling cancer for a couple of years now but I hadn't heard any reports since the Fall so I assumed she was recovering. She had been doing so well the last time I talked to her. Once the doctor told her she was terminal, she slipped very rapidly. The good news is, she went very peacefully in her own bedroom surrounded by all 5 of her grown children and their families.

Sound familiar?

Every time I talked to Mary Ann I found more similarities between she and my grandma. They were both widows who raised their large families in St. Paul, all on their own. They were both devout Catholics. They both worked downtown, my grandma at the Police department and Mary Ann at the Public Defenders office. Then they were both going through chemo at the same time. I just never expected their deaths to be exact replicas of each other. And back to back, nonetheless.

Her funeral was yesterday. I offered to sit at the house during the service, the family was uneasy about leaving the house unattended during a publicly announced ceremony. I cannot imagine what someone could possibly steal from this house that was of any worth, but I house sat anyway. As I sat on the couch watching daytime talk shows on the 13 inch television in the living room I noticed that I was surrounded by more Jesus and Virgin Mary paraphernalia than I'd ever seen, even at the convent at St. Ben's. It was overwhelming. Yeah my grandma had a picture of the Virgin in her house too, but not a 18 x 24 framed picture of Pope John Paul hanging in her dining room. I admit, I was a little afraid, but then I remembered who's house I was in. Mary Ann was literally the nicest person I've ever met. She was so fun to talk to. So cheerful, so obviously caring even if she'd only known you for 10 minutes. And she was a total blast to hang out with. We used to sit on her patio, drink beers and chain smoke. God she was fun.

It was oddly comforting being in the same room in which she died. It was like being there for Grandma. Mary Ann and Grandma would have been the best pals. I can't believe I'm going to go the whole summer without talking to Mary Ann over the back yard fence. Just like I can't believe my grandma won't be starting any political debates at our next family gathering.

God I'm gonna miss those girls.

Congratulations to the South St. Pauly Family!

SSP Girl and husband LPO welcome daughter Taylor McKenna to the world today. She was born at 6am and weighs in at 8lbs 4oz. I spent lots of time talking to Taylor, in utero, and am so excited to finally meet her in person. She may not recognize my voice unless I'm slurring as many of our meetings occurred while consuming alcoholic beverages, but I'm confident it'll ring a bell at some point.

Taylor, can't wait till you're up and blogging!!!

Otter Love

Lord have mercy this is adorable. Especially the end.

Our Boys From The Pond

It's the NHL Playoffs, folks. For Hockey Rubes like myself, this is the shit. I can't wait for our first home game, Sunday 4/15, because even if our Wild are down 0-2 in the series by that game, the energy in the X is impossible to top. You cannot be inside that rink and leave unaffected.

But until then, we have 2 away games in Anaheim, tonight being Game 1. And guess who's there, chillin' at the Honda Center waiting to cheer on our MN Wild?

My husband.

He just called saying they had just arrived at the arena and he was able to purchase*, literally, the LAST Wild jersey that exists in in the rink, and probably in all of So. Cal. But he's there, representin' like the good boy that he is. It's just hilarious to me that as he attends our first game in the freaking playoffs, my family and I are stuck here, holding our season tickets, watching the April Snow fall all over our shit, while HE is at the game. The man only likes hockey because of US! And we're here in the Central Daylight Time, staying up till 9:30pm on a school night to watch the game.

I couldn't be more proud of him**.

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*He shouldn't have had to even buy one since we already own 2 but since he didn't expect that he'd be able to score seats, he didn't think to bring one. Ehhh, you can't have too many NHL jerseys as far as I'm concerned.

**And myself, since I'm the whole reason he even enjoys the sport now. God I'm good.

That's IT.

I'm moving to Mexico. It doesn't snow there, half way through April. Or ever, for that matter. I'll have to learn Spanish, I can deal with that. I'll also have to take baths in 60 SPF sunscreen three times a day but that's ok, I can deal with that too. I'm outta here, people.

Good Friday For A Protest

We live right around the corner from a Planned Parenthood. Every year on Good Friday (for all of you heathens who don't know when Good Friday is, it's today) a massive protest is held by the Anti-Choice, oh, I mean Pro-Life organization. In the past couple of years, Planned Parenthood supporters have also gathered to rival the protesters. So, as you can imagine, our neighborhood is like a carnival right now. The streets are packed with cars, there are people roaming everywhere, some with signs, some with gigantic rosaries, women gathering on our front lawn to take group photos, cops on horseback, you know, stuff like that.

Pete isn't very fond of Good Friday. He's very agitated by the addition to our neighborhood population, especially for anyone who walks through our yard. Our location is such that most people do walk past our house on their way to the main event, so poor Stinky doesn't get much rest as he guards us from the evil protesters*.

So far my favorite Good Friday moment came just a moment ago. Pete was propped up in the dining room window watching all the action (and growling under his breath). A cop and his horse had just rode past our dining room window. St. Pauly Boy made some snarky comment about kicking someone's ass if the horse poo'd in our yard. Not 2 minutes later I hear some women screech, "Oh my god, what the hell do you feed your dog?!?!". Upon further investigation I found out that no, the horse did not poop on the sidewalk and that woman did not think that our little Stinky Pete could have possibly made such a mess, but that someone's actual dog had taken a dump on the sidewalk and she must have been screeching at them, not us. Whoever it was that shat on my sidewalk did not clean up after itself thus poo is smeared all over the sidewalk where all of the protesters must pass. Something about this amused me a great deal.

Happy Protest Day, everyone.


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*His words, not mine.

Happy Birthday To Me

I'm 30. As of, like, right now. It's shaping up to be a fairly shitty entrance to my 30's, too. First my grandma dies, then it snows, and now I'm up today at 7am with a horrible head cold. Fucking super.

Can't wait to see what happens next.

UPDATE: I just got a delivery of 30 long stem fuschia roses from my in-laws. I think I'm done wallowing now.

UPDATE Part Duex: 30 more long stem roses in all sorts of gorgeous colors and a new MacBook Pro. I'd say this is definitely a good birthday!

Margaret Joyce Flaherty

A.K.A. My Grandma, passed away this morning at 7:15am. She went very peacefully in her home surrounded by her family. She was my last surviving grandparent and I'm going to miss her. In her memory, I will carry on her despise of George W. Bush.

I love you, G-ma.

Calling A Time Out

Posting will be slim to none as we are dealing with a rather hectic schedule this week. We have 3 Wild games and my 30th birthday which have been officially planed on the low priority as my grandma is currently navigating the last days of life. She has been battling breast cancer for almost 5 years and just last week was pronounced terminal due to a large tumor in her liver. She is resting comfortably at home surrounded by all 9 of her childen (who haven't been in the same room all together for going on 20 years) and extended family, which is what she really wanted. It's bittersweet as we're so thankful she won't be in any more pain but it's still hard to let her go. She is my last surviving grandparent so this is a little harder than I was thinking it would be for me.

I'll give an update later this week or next. Till then...