Ok - so no end of the year lists from me today - just a plain ol' slurpee. Rebecca rec'd one for Christmas and we made them last night. It took me at least 30 minutes to make 1 cup of Slurpee - but it was delicious!! You can make up your own funky flavors - but diet pop doesn't work (bummer). Wanna take the Slurpee quiz??? go to http://slurpee.com/slurpeeIQ.html

Happy New Year xoxo A.Joy

I had the weirdest dream (thank you loud mouth neighbor for waking me up!!). I was being escorted into a music convention by Madonna and she was being really nice to me. What's up with that? Yeah, in my dreams - actually I am not even a fan of hers.

xoxo A.Joy

RIP - So sad to say this legend has died.

A.Joy

Last night was the first in a series of Christmas parties. I love the holiday season! We went to our neighbor Mike and Cindy's wine party. Yummy food, great friends and lots and lots of awesome wine. Tonite is a party at our house for the wild rock-n-roll crowd and tomorrow we are off to a morning mamosa party. I think I will take it easy on the actual day of Christmas!! Have a great holiday to anyone reading this - and may all of your wildest dreams come true!!!

xoxo A.Joy

I have been watching the reality show "Everest" and am totally fascinated by it. The difficulty of climbing this mountain are amazing. There is actually over 120 dead bodies up there of climbers that didn't make it (in full view of present climbers). Anyways, I was looking for this picture on-line and came across this interview with someone that did make it to the top (and back down - alive!!)

Climbing MOUNT EVEREST
Roderick Mackenzie made the image at the top of Mount Everest May 24 1989. Below is in his own words his feelings of the event.
Why did I climb Everest?I have a theory that people climb for the smell of it. Air at very high altitude smells completely different to lower altitudes. People become addicted to this smell and need more and more to get less and less of it. This is what makes them get higher.What did I think of on the summit?When I reached the south summit I was suffering from a lack of Spanish Olives. I was most preoccupied with thoughts of the tin of olives sitting in my tent at base camp. The preoccupation was the result of a very intense dream about olives which was interrupted by the alarm summoning me to our summit attempt. When I reached the south summit the view to the main summit interested me from a mountaineering point of view and all dreamings of olives were banished from my head.On the summit I felt a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. Our only comments to each other after initial congratulations were about the fact that the summit is precisely half way. It seemed to me that the curvature of the earth was apparent, and I spent some time trying to think of a means to test if this was a real observation or an illusion. In the end I decided it was an illusion, but it was a strong illusion. Overall my main feeling was of surprise. I am often surprised by the situations that I find myself in.My work in India has been eased slightly by my ascent of Everest. Many people on the subcontinent believe that an ascent of Everest conveys to the climber some manner of greater wisdom in manifold subjects. This I can not agree with, but I never dispute it.

xoxo A.Joy

Today is the day unlike any other day... I ate alot of cake and it's my birthday! It's true, and yes that's the intro to our new Candy Band version of the birthday song. Actually, my husband and kids sang that version to me instead of the traditional song. I had a great day with lots of warm wishes from family and friends. I even got some cool sparkly red drum sticks from my husband and kids. Skittles gave me a book called "Rockstars do the Dumbest Things" with a note saying... "what not to do". I love birthdays!

I have to re-cap my crazy cookie exchange party from last night because it was so much fun.
We sang lots of Christmas carols - the ones that were supposed to be slow - of course we sang them real super fast. The white elephant gifts were a hoot. Highlights included a book on how to raise bad kids (from the 50's and a copper globe giant wall hanging - where am I gonna put that). The kids even exchanged unwanted toys - imagine the look on Elizabeth's face when she opened a Barney Christmas video!!! I put out my homemade olive/cheese ball and some other olive dip thing that I had in the fridge and my friend Kassi brought a "dirty martini" dip with lots of olives in it. We drank a case of champagne with raspberry sherbet floating in it (by the end, I just poured the champagne in the sherbet container!!). In the hustle and bustle of things, I actually forgot to put out a sample of my own cookies (chocolate crinkles) - I realized this when I woke up this morning. Everyone else put out samples (bad hostess!! bad hostess!!). All in all - it was a super fun blast with lots of cookies, olives and champagne!!! Off to the YWCA aerobic class for me today!!!
xoxo A.Joy

Today is my 2nd annual cookie exchange. I have 12 people coming over with a dozen cookies for each guest. I made chocolate crinkles (not pictured at left). We are serving champagne punch and are having a white elephant gift exchange. This is the start of a great tradition that I plan on continuing for years and years to come!!!!

xoxo A.Joy

One more episode of Survivor to go!! I totally want Ozzy to win - isn't he cute? This is one of my fave shows and I am bummed that on the season finale - I am having my cookie exchange at that very same time - oh well, I can tape it and watch on Monday. I hate going to bed not knowing who won - my kids are huge fans too so I have to wait for them to watch on Monday night.

xoxo A.Joy

I went into the recording studio last night and recorded the final song for our new record. It is called "Glitter" and if you are a mom - I bet you don't let your kids play with the stuff. It gets all over the place worse than playdough and it NEVER goes away. I think it would survive a nuclear meltdown. Mariah Carrey obviously plays with the stuff. Next album I will be touching on FLOAM!!

xoxo A.Joy

What a squirrel kind of day. #1 - I was walking this morning and I saw one eating candy corn (that will make it hyper!). #2 - I always throw out stale bread for the birds and squirrels and in the mix were some old rice cakes. The squirrel took the rice cake and "buried" it in my window pane. I am sure it will be forgotten (they have done this before). #3 - While I was looking for the cute picture at left - I came across this band from Findland: http://www.scarysquirrel.org/special/movies/pikku/

xoxo A.Joy

I ran across this photo (sent by my Sister-in-law Debbie). How tacky is this? Selling a coffin at a garage sale. I know these are very expensive, I wonder how much they were charging. I bet someone bought it as a halloween prop? It would also be cool as a plush toybox! Any comments on this??

xoxo A.Joy

Wow, I just found my favorite kids band - check them out at
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=114402736

xoxo A.Joy

The holiday rush is upon me. Not enough hours in a day to get everything done. I want to try and squeeze a haircut in too - maybe I will just get one like this guy!!! I bet it will look really cool in about a week - probably more like monkey than man.

xoxo A.Joy

We always have a great time at our YWCA Mother Daughter Christmas Tea. Here are some of the Candy Kids warming up the mics for their moms. Thanks to all who attended...

Here I go again - with some cool games. Personally, I love doing puzzles -my mother forwarded me this one - try it!!

http://www.brl.ntt.co.jp/people/hara/fly.swf>