I wonder...

if Blogger has hurt feelings that Facebook has made it obsolete? I imagine that I am not the only one who hasn't posted on her blog in months. And truly, when I went to type in a clever title here as I am so apt to do, I typed in the words automatically assuming that everyone would know the words "Brandy Cumby is" are meant to precede whatever it was I was to insert next. As the theme song to Cheers testifies, I want to go where everybody knows my name. And they're always glad I came. Unfortch, no one on the planet Blogger knows me or is waiting for me, but on Facebook everyone is waiting to hear about what I had for breakfast or what my witty thought for the day is. Or so I would like to believe.

All this to say, hello Bloggers, if you are still out there. Just checking in. Enjoy a picture from last week...it is old news in the FB world...

Officially in my 30s...

And how do you celebrate your 30th? By pretending you're a kid and heading to Disneyworld!! We went up the day before my birthday and were there a total of 5 nights. Five days at the parks was both a blast and exhausting. I loved seeing Dylan see all this stuff for the first time and Jason was totally a sport, even though it was a million degrees. My favorite times were at Magic Kingdom, where there were hardly any waits and I could just walk on to all the rides on a whim and ride them over and over. Can't beat that!











Yup, I'm now in my thirties. I don't know what to think about this new milestone, even though I've spent a good portion in one way or another obsessed by it for a good portion of my 29th year. I did not want to be that person who obsesses, but nevertheless I was. It's not that I'm just a drama queen, it's just that my own mortality has come into focus and all the violence and sadness around me and in the world suddenly at once felt like it all could, and would, happen to me at some point. I've always been under the belief that bad things happen to other people, and I realize death and illness happen to everyone, and suddenly the tick tocck timer was running out. I'm working on not obsessing on that, but the fact of the matter is that one day that pain in my arm will be my heart stopping or that car running the red light might run into me and one day I will be walking towards the proverbial light. So what to do in the meantime?

I assume more Disney once we've recovered from this, some more travels, more milestones and some good times in between. Definitely need to start working towards some new goals so I can grow as a person and bask in the glory of being me =)

Anything to avoid work...

Yes, I should be working right now. However, I am very busy trying to think of anything in the world other than that to do. I've uploaded pics, trolled Facebook, watched the rain and laid with Dylan to smell his Skittle breath and watch WordGirl. Now I'm here!!

I've been out and about lately, had to hit up Annapolis for a work meeting and then Anne and I took a train from Baltimore to NYC. I want to ride a train again, there is no better way to travel. I mean, it's fast, easy and there are power outlets at each seat. Heaven to a girl who never puts down her laptop! I also managed to pick up Anne's cold, which weeks later is still holding on. Fantastic. Highlights of Annapolis:

Anne and I at an Irish pub:


Crab Omelette (that's heaven!)


And a boat ride in the Bay


NYC was fun, though short and made terribly short by how sick I was on Saturday. Basically I had to hide out at the movie theatre and sleep because I was throwing up everything I'd had all week and with check-out at noon and our flight leaving at 8...well, you get it. So I missed Central Park, but got to play downtown, see 9 to 5 with Allison Janney on Broadway and catch a comedy show at like midnight on the upper west side.

Anne and I in Times Square (yes, the mullet is slowly growing)


As close as we got to the Statue of Liberty on 4th of July weekend


Headed to the show


And the after-show at the comedy club


And guess what, Mom?! I was on the subway at 3 am and totally was not raped or killed. Whoo hoo!! Unfortunately, being sick on Saturday meant Anne and I were not able to fulfill our dream of laying as though dead in Central Park and taking a picture, as if Agent Stabler and the SVU crew were on their way to pick us up. A real tragedy there.

Had a quick lunch with Andi, Chad, Mom and Jim on Sunday


And then Tues, Dylan and I headed to Galveston for our annual beach trip with Heather and hers and Rita and hers. Turns out Dylan despises the beach, as he has deemed it "dirty." He's right, so I didn't fight it. I was happy to work in the condo and he played video games and then we spent some time in the pool too. I'm very excited about the addition of the game Blokus to my game vocab and
can thank Heather for that one. Good thing I took beach pics as quickly as I did or it would be as if he were never there. At least he got a Nintendo DS out of it, since he fell in love with it as everyone else already has one.





Galveston is still recovering from Ike last September, you see fields and wonder if it was always a field or it is just one now. Many things under construction, lots of new piers and stairs to the beach. I have to believe this will be a calm hurricane season because none of us have fully recovered from Ike. At least I've learned to put plants under the places where my sun room still leaks from the tree that fell on it. Thanks to Jason for that stroke of genius! Later, tators...

I know, I know...

If I don't just sit down and post something, I think I never will. Basically, I fell off the end of the world, but I am back. And before I forget, I was trying to edit the names on the links on the side and some actually got deleted. It's not worth cutting yourself over, I promise. Just let me know and I'll add you back, I'm not sure what all I screwed up on there and who I am missing. Sorry 'bout that.

Stuff...

The kiddo graduated his first year of Preschool; there was a wonderful little graduation ceremony where Dylan refused to sing along and instead stared at the ceiling out of sheer boredom. He's a cutie, this one:



Then came Dylan's fabulous 4th birthday party. The invites were seriously the cutest, though I did rip them off from some eBay people. The party went well but there were WAY too many people in this house. The highlight was the mostly finished garage playroom where we set up a projector and actually got to rock out to Guitar Hero. That really served as the afterparty, but for the peeps who didn't want to walk away from free beer and Capri Sun, it was pretty fun.





It was great to have everyone over, to show off our pretty much done house and stunning yard and all that but SHEESH too many people. Always a bummer because you never get to spend anytime with anyone, you just run around like a chicken with its head off.

Dylan and I got a Wii Fit for Jason for Father's Day. I was going to post the video of Dylan doing yoga and then giving himself a thumbs up when the instructor tells him "good job," but Flickr and Blogger aren't wanting to cooperate. Sigh. Let me try this:



Hey, I think that worked. Other than that, just been working hard and looking forward to celebrating my 30th with Dylan, Jason and Disney! About to update my scrap stuff too, if anyone is still interested in anything like that. You can find it here

Happy Mother Loving Day!!

Dylan's school did an adorable little song and dance for Mother's Day on Friday... kids did a song of "I'm a little teacup" and "You are my sunshine." Let's just say that my Guitar-Loving punk of a kid was dancing to the beat of his own drum. The other kids were so stoic and standing up straight while my kid was flailing arms and booty dances. Classic Rockstar Dylan. Afterwards, the kiddos served the parents drinks and snacks and we got these cuties:





And because you know I could never resist, some Mother Loving from Justin and Andy... Happy Mother's Day, everyone!!

Heard...

...in my living room tonight:

The three of us are in the living room and we're playing Guitar Hero, per Dylan's pre-bedtime ritual. Basically he makes us play guitar and he sings and dances the songs he chooses for us before we read books.

Dylan: "Mama, don't get booed off"
Mama: "I'm trying"
Dylan: "You're trying to get booed off."

Insert laughter here =)

Not as funny as this:

Spring Break, fin

**but first of all, eek! Justin Timberlake as comic character Cathy's husband on SNL last week was so cute, but then his skank nasty fish lipped girlfriend came on too. Boo!! Still worth it, love me some Timberlake!!**

It's almost over. My car hasn't left its spot in days and Jason actually confronted me on it. Whatev.

I managed to deal with having my kid home all week, rain and muddy weather for the first half, and being sick several of the days and still ending up super productive in many ways. I got more than my fair share of reports in for work. I managed to finally get someone in to come grind all our stumps (you can actually run in my backyard without tripping now unless you're just clumsy). I planted a ton of junk and got my order of Galveston Euculyptus in (click on it, they are cool). These boogers grow 6 to 10 feet per year so soon I don't have to acknowledge anyone is around my house. I want to be an island...or at least a house that doesn't border the least nice part of the Mexican border. I mean, I am almost sure that someone escaped from there through our back yard last night. There were flashing lights (will the trees block those? we'll see...) and I swear I hear noises, but my current insomnia has me imagining everything. The lights really were there, along with loud yelling in espanol. It's like a telenovela back there, all night long. Anyways, trying to pull the proverbial curtains on that whole thing.

Nothing else much going on. We watched "Zach and Miri Make a Porno" last night Sidenote - if I didn't put the quotes on that it would look like Jason and I witnessed our acquaintances do this. Which would have been fun as well, I think being a fly on the wall at a porn set could make for delightfully hilarious conversation. Others may disagree. But what we can all agree on is that Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are both adorable. Loving them both. And being a fly on the wall in any room that guy is talking would also be hilarious.

Finally, if anyone (like Heather) cares, I finally updated my scrap blog. There's a link on the side over there ========================>
Did you know I even put all my stuff there? Well, it's most of it and oddly it goes back to 2006, if you can believe that. Anyways, still not buying stuff but I can occasionally be convinced to make a card with some stash. At some point it started to feel like the corniest, most superficial hobby in the world. That said, I like making people stuff and I need to do something with all the pics. And it turns out poetry wasn't any less corny. You'd be shocked at how similar the worlds are, in fact. I don't know what awesome, cool thing it is I think I should be doing with my time. Maybe it's part of the thrisis, who knows. I'll just keep buying my Stampin Up stuff and hoping the urge comes...

Congrats! You have earned a post!

There seems like very little to talk about, but Heather said to and so I shall.

First of all, I learned the term for what I'm going through/emerging from while I was watching "ER" yesterday while scrapping. It's called a thrisis, or like the third of life crisis I have alluded to in the past. I am also going to mass diagnose and say that a lot of my friends and their loved ones are emerging from thrises (?) and I'm glad we all survived. It's not my place to share other people's business and I certainly don't feel like highlighting all my lunacy, but basically many people I've known have spent, ah, let's say September through February in a funk. I'm not pulling out the nose ring today, but I may grow my hair back some and I am trying to be a little less self destructive. May or may not get the back's worth of tattoos I have sketched out. Less time focused on the things I perceive are missing in my life (which are mostly BS and come from watching too much TV instead of reading books) and more time being hella (yeah, I'm bringing it back) grateful that my life is good as it is. And believe it or not, my brief foray into meds and my decision to stop them has been incredibly productive as to bringing me back to a little place I like to call Earth. Another post will have to be dedicated to my Lexapro withdrawal, I had no idea that stopping would imitate heroin withdrawals, but my brother (the actual street drug addict) has verified that it is. The stuff is toxic, stay away.

Speaking of ER, I went to one last week. I had a migraine and decided to shower. I slipped a la a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. Hit two places on my head and my elbow and wouldn't have thought much of it had my elbow not enlarged immediately to the size of a baseball. It was Go Texan Day (non-Texans, it means the rodeo's coming so dress your kids like little cowboys and cowgirls, lame) and I was bummed because instead of watching the stick horse parade, I was going to the ER. Boo. Here's Dylan and his #1 Cowgirl, Angelina before we left:



So we settled on Memorial Hermann over at Memorial City which was terribly nice, believe it or not. Got an x-ray and catscan, but really the bonuses were the IV meds including morphine for my arm (which I stopped feeling 2 minutes after I got it) and the anti-inflammatories. Between the meds, my migraine was taken care of and I left with only a golfball sized lump on my elbow. I felt ridiculous for going to the ER since I had never been in my life, but the way my elbow hurt all week and looked gross, it was the right thing to do. Still, I felt like a drama queen until I finally got some gnarly bruises to show for it, which ended up stretching all the way around my arm. Never could get a photo that accurately represented the huge nastiness it was though, sad. So now you will all think I was faking it too.





Other than that, not much going on. Guitar Hero continues to run Jason and Dylan's life to the point where they broke the drums twice and we had to bring the whole thing into Target for a new set. Go Target for kindly exchanging it with no questions. I am a big believer in, if this isn't quality merchandise and it breaks and I spent a lot I want a new one, but not all the merchants agree and I didn't expect Target to be one that did. But they were, as was Fossil who replaced my brand new sunglasses that spontaneously fell apart in my bag after I wore them twice. I already hated myself for spending that much on stupid sunglasses, so that wasn't going to work. Brought it in and they gave me new ones. Whoo hoo.



Where the post gets uninteresting for most... me talking current events. The economy has me bummed a lot because I see my loved ones suffering for it (parents and brother unemployed, others dropping like flies). It's really frustrating because I feel this had to happen. They talk about housing bubbles and tech bubbles, but Americans have lived in one big bubble, period. I feel like this is an opportunity to ground ourselves and figure out where we really stand instead of looking for the next big bubble to jump on. I always have hated people who think they can get something for nothing, via gambling or stocks, and I expect my fair share and not much else. I know I won't strike it rich, no lotto for me. If I have extra money, I expect extra bills will materialize and they do. So, as Notorious BIG said, mo' money, mo' problems. I also hate when people feel they are entitled to "the good life" and I resent those people plus all the people who thought they could achieve "growth" in their respective industries by supplying those people with that life via big screen TVs and new houses and were shocked when they couldn't pay. People need to determine their means and live within them. Period. Industries need to accept honest growth instead of inflated forced numbers. The American economy going forward isn't going to work if both don't happen. Just my opinion, self righteous as ever.

Me? I heard the FDIC had to ask for a loan. They are the guys who, ahem, insure our bank deposits. I've got as much in savings as I intend to have for right now. I am investing my money in the things around me - my home, my car, etc. It's good for the economy that the money is still being spent and frankly if it is lost this way, I won't feel so bad as I will if the banks go bust. So I've dumped tons into paying off the Prius a year early and I will be saving the rest for the biggest down payment I can on the one we need to buy in the fall to replace mine since it is getting old. And no GM for me, I'd like someone to be around to enforce the warranty in a couple years. Sticking with Toyota and hopefully another hybrid. No more gas dependence on foreign oil and I'd be happy to spend more money on a vehicle that can make that happen. Whatever I spend now won't be as much as we got taken for on the Prius, ouch! But that's a good investment, in energy and conservation and we don't mind being the ones to take the step and hopefully start a trend. Still working on house renovations. I figure if no one gets jobs, we can have everyone live here, right? So we'll continue the renovations on the back buildings which could work out to be someone's home at some point. Armageddon ready, that's all I'm saying =)

Three things

In order of importance...

1. Happy Birthday, Andi.
I'm glad you didn't answer your cell phone because the message we left was priceless (all of us singing, with Dylan ending with "I love you, Andi"). Also, minutes are a precious commodity these days and it wasn't quite 9:00. But for you, these two videos. The first is Dylan singing Happy Birthday again for you:



The second is him singing "Living on a Prayer" and playing the drums as homage to you and your probably spending your birthday check from your dad on Wii Guitar Hero World Tour. Remember that this boy is a tough competitor and will kick your booty.



2. Hey people, stop telling me how to take a photo like yours until you stop photoshopping beyond recognition.
Just a thought I had while flipping through Memory Makers magazine (how would I make memories without these people telling me how to?!) and being pleased that the economy will probably make bring these magazines and that hobby to its knees. No real offense to the actual photographer (I guess), but on p.52 there's an article about camera tricks complete with metadata (Nikon D70, Focal Length:70 mm, Exposure:who cares when you have Elements Curves, blah blah). Tricks include angles (get on your knees, beyotch), lighting, and aiming above the sun or something silly. Get frickin real. It is a very nice shot, no doubt, but to believe for one second that setting your camera, no matter how fancy, to those four settings will unlock all the glory of photography is effen stupid. Photoshop, photoshop, photoshop. Overexpose, mess with the color curves, add a catchlight or whatever. Also, on p.26 there is a borderline sinister shot of a little girl where Mommy allegedly only turned off her flash. I guess without the flash, the Children of the Corn spirit is unleased. If I am really to believe that children's eyes glow like that if you just turn off the flash, I will have to start sleeping with one eye open because the kids are not, in fact, alright. They are filled with the spirit of the Devil and it is most visible in flashless photography.

This issue was really my only complaint about the Karen Russell photography class (and I really do think she uses photo editing fairly sparingly, so this only partially applies to her). You see, I sat in the class for 8-10 hours thinking if I took it all in, I could make pics like her. Well, I knew I'd need the fancier lenses too. But then in the last possible second she mentioned cleaning the final product up in photoshop (which makes me discount half the original process of taking quality prints if you don't show it to me pre-Photoshop) and I got sad a little. So in conclusion, if you think you can come up with perfection on your own, I will quote my friend T.I. (and we are good friends, and hopefully one day maybe a baby daddy), in his song "Ready for Whatever" -- "Shorty, I got some mother (**loving**) oceanfront property in Idaho for sale, homie/If you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn I wanna sell you, partner." Enough said.

3. Eff you, FEMA
This one shot ahead of even Continental in being on top of my shizz list. We bought this house in June and got the voluntary flood policy since we are not in a flood zone, but live in Houston. In Oct, FEMA sent us a bill for $700 saying there was a loss history and we owed that immediately and we could not drop the policy. Since there was no disclosure at time of sale, we assumed we'd be heading to litigation and ordered a copy of the property loss history and it had a total of $10,868.99 paid out in 10/17/1994 and $79,402.10 paid out in 06/09/2001. We were all set to start talking with lawyers and then we got a letter from NFIP/FEMA on 11/4/2008 that stated that "preliminary research indicates losses reported for another similar location may have been linked to your location in error. Additional evaluation will be required." and goes on to say that they will be contacting participating entities, blah blah blah.

They've never done a thing. I call every two weeks, they say they are doing stuff and I wait another two weeks and never get a thing and do it all over again. FEMA sucks. Today I simply wouldn't let them off the phone and got them to admit that the Property Loss History is clear, but that they can't guarantee that they can send me a clear copy because you only get a property loss history once a year and I've gotten mine. (You know - the wrong one. Insert shaking of head here). I got some supervisor to say that she would send in a request for it, but that they couldn't make any guarantees that I would get it. I told her I'd give her a week and then I would simply call every single day until I got it. And I will. I am angry enough with NFIP/ FEMA to do exactly that.

In conclusion, same old routine over here. Working, playing and getting pissed at the little things. I'll let you in on one more thing. My poetry class has lost whatever glow it had. I've decided poetry is in fact super douchey and it makes me sad that I have to bring one in so it can be picked apart for cliches and tested for proper levels of cleverness. I am thinking I will write one titled "Cliche" just to get it out on the table to begin with. It's too bad though, I've enjoyed some of the people and some of the poems either brought in my the teacher guy or the students. But geez, the pretentiousness of it all really sucks. I think I'd be better suited to write a monologue for "Chelsea Lately," if only I knew more Jewish lingo. When I get to LA, it's me, Chelsea and Sarah Silverman for Girls' night...

Wait, one other thing. Brandy's Book Club. If you are slightly depressed at your current state of married life, do not read "Revolutionary Road." If you ever intend to marry, do not read "Revolutionary Road." Basically, I read that one and found it a million times more depressing that even "Beautiful Boy" by David Sheff which was a father's account of his meth addicited son. Since we, uh, roll like that some in my family I thought it would be a good read and it was actually beyond amazing. Even with my extensive background in 12-step cults and Al-Anon and tough lovin, it turned all I thought I knew on my head and let me take what I knew and multiply it by a million. And "RR" was good, don't get me wrong. Sometimes things are too good and then you feel like slitting your wrist.

It's been awhile...

Yeah, I know. I have myself spread a little thin these days and it is a sad, sad thing.

First of all, that arty thing on my fireplace was a sale item at Pier One. Who knew? Our minds have moved past the house and into the yard. We've been watching shows like "Yard Crashers" and some other similar show where the yards all are disastrous like ours and then magic happens. I am paying a lot of attention to crushed gravel, limestone patios and tall trees so that I can cover our lack of grass and block out the barrio. As soon as we do taxes, we'll go ahead and set a new budget for Phase 2 projects and get moving. Also, heavy trash for real trash is this month so we are going to gut our converted garage and starting on that renovation. Add to that the outside building need for some new wood and paint and we will be busy. I have the end date of Dylan's birthday for the yard and outside of building to be completed because that's where I want his party.



Stuff that makes me mad: Ticketmaster. I hate them. Hate. Flight of the Conchords tickets went on sale here in Houston this morning at 10 am. 10:02 am and none were available. Go eff yourself, Ticketmaster. The more I dig, I keep seeing all this presale stuff and basically I never had a chance. I mean, you don't try to checkout much earlier than 10:02 am. Hate.



Stuff that is mildly amusing: Dylan is in love with drumming on Guitar Hero World Tour. He talks about it constantly and when he hear "Livin on a Prayer" on the radio, he realized that he could be surronded by its wonderfulness constantly. Didn't take him long to get better than me, all I hear is "Red, Yellow, Red, Yellow!!"

Off to Chicago tomorrow through Thursday...one day I'll settle down and get caught up on things. Until then...

Countdown to no Bush...

is on the horizon. Woot woot!! In case you live under a rock and have been waiting on an engraved invitation to come out, here are the deets on Obama taking over:

It will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 beginning at 11:30 a.m. EST and 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

The Oath of Office is at noon, immediately followed by the Inaugural Address.

The Vice President is sworn in ten minutes earlier.

Be there, or be square.

Believe it or not, I went to a Catholic mass this past weekend (gasp, I know!) I was in Louisiana for the weekend to see my family and my aunt and her soon-to-be husband are the main singing peeps of the church (and they are good). I thought I'd make my Paw Paw the happiest Paw Paw on earth and volunteered to join them all for a 9 am mass.

First of all, and I know this will be shocking too, but I love me a Catholic mass. I dig the smell when you come in (sidenote, the University of Houston library always had that smell too). I like the rituals because it's seriously been like 10 years since I went to real mass but you always know the deal. You know the words, they never change. Hard pews, kneeling, and ab-tastic Jesus on the cross.

But the reason I bring it up is because the churches have been getting bad press about being all anti-Obama post election and withholding communion and whatever and I just wanted to shout out for this place because at this one they actually prayed for him as he started as President this week. Aw, how sweet. I could almost drop their name and say they rocked it, but the creepy anti-abortion cemetary in the front of the church didn't rock my block. All I could think is that I hope they take that down before my aunt's wedding in the spring, but I think it's a permanent deal of hundreds of tiny, white crosses of creepiness.

Did I mention I love our house? I have no idea what to do to decorate a fireplace, but I worked at it and came up with this much. And you can't tell in the pic, but that big arty thing looks quite nice with the slate in the kitchen. I took pics of the house finished for my family to see, and of course we couldn't access them at the house. Boo. I even cleaned the house to take the pics. Truly devestating.

And finally because they are taking forever to load, here are a couple random shots from Max's little birthday party. I was photo fatigued from Christmas so I didn't go overboard, but I have a couple cute ones...

and BTW, don't you know I just booked another Continental flight...ah, pass the lube...

The holiday season is over, life can continue

Thank goodness for that.

First, a couple random tidbits. I am trying to program Desperate Housewives on the TiVo and it came up with Desperate Blackwives 2 and 4 (that's clever), Desperate Housetramps: Real girls of OC (sounds better than the real one) and Desperate MILF's. Somewhere in there was what I wanted.

Also, I saw Pimp and Hooker fighting MADLY the other day. Really, Hooker was just screaming at him and he was staring straight ahead, but nonetheless it was a furiously angry scene. I mean, she was pissed, her face was quite animated and he must have really screwed up. They really are the best part of living in the hood, and I mean that seriously. Their presence in this neighborhood cheers me up everyday, though I prefer him dancing and her collecting money than fighting. They deserve to be happy.

And this commercial that is so hilarious...I am a big reader of small print and this one is wonderful. It says "Cartoons lose weight easily. Real people require regular exercise and blah blah blah." That pretty much cracked me up



Other than all that, just the holidays and ensuing bleh that goes with that. I don't even feel like rehashing that, so I will leave you with these funny pics



What do you think Spiderman is so pleased by?



And I found this in Heather's photostream, I suspect my husband and Jeff had something to do with it...