Penises, Birds And Adopted Family Shopping...

Well what a weekend! It never ceases to amaze me how much entertainment one can cram in a two day period on the 'Chi. This weekend was crammed in to 24hrs. I literally finally crashed last evening and barely stirred 'til this am. I think my body was trying to tell me something. I'm gonna need those two weeks in Tennessee just to recupe from the month of december, particularly with how busy it has been at work. One more week to go!

After a long day of work on saturday I had 1.5hrs. to come home, eat, wrap, get ready then off to pick up Kelly to head up to Darla's engagement/bachelorette party. Hey, she's trying to do this in 3wks. so we have to combine events by this point. Shopping for this event was very interesting as I was on a mission and I'll tell you, shopping on this river really leaves something to be desired. Who would have thought that finding a wedding guest book would be so challenging. I did manage to find one however so that was the engagement thing. But there had to be naughty as well as nice, right? Being that we have so much lingerie selection on the river, (insert sarcasm here) believe it or not, I found a lovely little teddy number for her at Zellers. It gets really tough shopping around here as I try to keep it on the river. Now if we could only do something about the selection maybe everyone wouldn't leave to shop in Moncton!

Kelly and I knew the street we had to go to (by Newcastle Tim Horton's) but not the specific address as the houses weren't marked. We just figured we'd look for the cars, forgetting that there was a Timberwolves game on the same night! We ditched the car in the vicinity of and started walking. We eventually found it (thanks to a cat and an obliging neighbour), found Sonia and Brenda along the way and we were off. It was a fabulous time as it was a collection of old and new Glamour Girls and I'll tell ya, we always knew how to have a good time. I got to meet the new blood there and even got to see Sonia and Brenda whom I haven't seen in years. Everyone was worried we'd be late (it was at 7pm. and was now pushing 8pm.) but they seemed to forget that this was a party for Darla... she showed up at 8:30pm. :D Also, the Glamour Girls were infamous for being late. The party never started 'til we got there.

I just went through all my pictures of the evening and it's going to be hard to decide which ones to put in as they're all hilarious, even if you don't know these people. Dawn has to be the best bachelorette party thrower I've ever seen and I don't think I've ever seen a future bride get picked on as bad as Darla did but she hadled it like the trooper she is. I couldln't help but laugh when she made the comment, "I always used to hate these things and never wanted one done for me!" She had a great time. I think the Fireball really helped ease the pain though.

Darla came in dressed to kill which surprised me, did she really think she wouldn't get a new wardrobe? She's even re-arranging her new penis like most men do on a regular basis.

Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, Darla's not a Ho but the girls found this cute Bachelorette poem and re-arranged it accordingly...

A picture with her penis cake...

The arrival of her, "Penisata," the look on her face (not to mention Libby's) says it all. What a great idea for anyone looking for a different idea for a bachelorette party. Dawn made it with papier mache. That's Dawn with her creation. She hung it off her ceiling fan. Don't worry, no ceiling fans were harmed in the smashing of the penisata...

The, "Penisata," in all it's glory...

Another couple of pictures that totally sum up the moment. "I need another drink," "Penis bashing," and, "The Fallout." Who said penis envy's lost...

The evening also progressed in another very surprising way. It seems that Dawn and I may have been separated at birth. Darla has talked about her lots, mentioning she's, "One of us." It's rare that you can find female friends in today's world. They're a catty lot and would claw your eyes out as quick as they look at you for the most part and if they're not able to look at you, they're stabbing you in the back. I feel very lucky to have some normal, not overly estrogeny females as friends. Dawn being the latest addition.

I'd heard that she was in to birds (primarily parrots) but had forgotten all about it. I was sitting there yik yakking when all of a sudden this loud screech pierces the air. Needless to say, I then remembered. It was really cool as she's not one of those people that sticks them in cages and shoves them in a corner. When her daughter moved out, she converted a whole room for them. It was really hard to get a picture of said room as the lighting wasn't the best for my camera but it was filled with big rope nets, lotsa hangy play toys and three parrots. One of which was a beautiful Macaw named Sydney, you'll see her in later pictures. She also had a parrot named Casper who loves to have his picture taken and as soon as he saw my flash, was instantly in my face. He also got a hold of my lens and smeared it so excuse the bluriness of the following pictures. The downfalls of macro, heehee.

The bird room, that's Sydney in the back...

Up close and personal with Casper...

Here's Sydney in all her glory. It's truly amazing how gentle she can be with her beak around your face, considering she could break a finger with it. She's like me, distracted by shiny and pretty and loved my nose ring while perched on my shoulder...

Dawn now has 7 parrots in total. As of about a month ago, she rescued a breeding pair of macaws (a different kind than Sydney and even bigger again) that were badly neglected. They arrived with all their feathers pulled out. It's pretty sad to think that someone could let an animal get to that state, thinking it's ok. This was not an overnight occurence. They both arrived in a single rubbermaid container with airholes punched in the top. The human race absolutely sickens me by times. She didn't think they'd live through the first night. One month later, they're starting to regrow their feathers, produced two eggs and are still going strong. I would have gotten pictures of them but they're still very reclusive to everyone else but Dawn. She's quite exceptional with them.

It was funny 'cause it's another case of not being able to go anywhere for any length of time without a responsible sitter. Being Kelly's official barn sitter, she mentioned to Dawn that I could do the chore. I suppose if I can handle 7 - 1000lb.+ horses, I could manage 7 parrots, right? They asked me what I'd do with them all? I laughed because I can see it now. There's three of them now that already get along really well in the bird room. I'd be camped out on the couch with one on my head, one on my toe and another one at some point in between. Now wouldln't that be a picture?

Apparently mornings are quite the event in her house. One wakes up singing opera while another likes to make the sound of her doorbell. That's just a few of the many sounds, as you can imagine. Top that off with a cat that screams like a kid and you got a regular zoo. Yeah right, screams like a kid you say. If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I wouldn't have believed it either. It was that cat that helped Kelly and I find the place as he was climbing up on his neighbours step when I heard him. I was looking for a kid too... very strange indeed!

It was also a great weekend in the sense that I got to get the shopping done for our adopted family. Surprise, surprise... have I not learned to stop organising things? Apparently not, as it started out as being three shoppers but after new boyfriends intervening and the other losing one, I was on my own. I tossed around the idea of still going to Moncton as one of the girls was going anyways and thought that it'd make for a fun adventure but since I was now on my own and like to keep my shopping local, that got nixxed.

As I was pulling up to Tim Horton's (yeah yeah, can't shop without it) I pulled up behind Ashley at the lights. Her plans had changed as well so we teamed up and hit Wal-Mart. They didn't seem too obliging to give us a discount as I'd heard they would be but I'm going back today to speak with the manager. Hey, we dropped dang near $250 dollars there and it's for a good cause.

There were a lot of things the family needed (17yr. old girl w/ 1mth. old baby) and it sounds like the girl's trying to move out on her own. She's from a very rough family and it's remarkable she turned out as well as she did. I got to get a little more details on her as her Interventionist was in for a hair-do on saturday and of course, you go through the, "Where do you work," thing and it turns out she deals with our family. I wish I had the chance to do her but I was booked but Ashley did and she was beside me so I still got to pick her brain a bit.

So needless to say, a 17yr. old girl trying to get her own place... she needed everything. We got her pots and pans, dish set, utensil set, glasses, etc. It's very tough buying for a 1 mth. old baby as there's really nothing you can get them for toys so we got necessities like formula, diapers, pj's, socks and the one thing she asked for which was $60 alone was an activity play center, jumper kind of thing. It was worth it though 'cause I know if I was a baby, that's exactly where I'd want to be! So all that stuff plus things like boots and a winter coat for the Mom, our money didn't get to go as far as I'd hoped. I'd still like to get baby bottle stuff, bedding and towels... I'm going to have to do more fund raising. It gets extremely hard when you have to budget and pick what's needed most for a family who needs absolutely everything. Good thing they weren't looking for, "Any Pacific Brand," - Darcy. As for the wrapping, the girls will soon find themselves wrapping at our Christmas party next weekend even though most don't know it yet. I literally shopped 'til I dropped. Any wonder I slept for as long as I did.

Here's a picture of Ashley with all the goodies. Man, we make a good team. I can't believe we managed to get all that we did get! We had two carts full and that was at Wal-mart alone. My trunk and backseat were full! :D

Looks like I'm still going to have to clean my lens too as that one even still looks a little blurry. I guess I can be thankful that I still have my lens, considering the beaks on those birds.

Hope everyone had a fabulous week. Make sure you check out this entry's comments as there's going to be a new game to play in there as well.

'Til next time...