Customers who bought this item also bought...

Last night I was perusing Amazon, looking for a Christmas gift for my eight year old nephew. Under one of the games I was looking at was the section "Customers who bought this item also bought..." So I thought I'd check it out.

Surprisingly, one of the first things on the list was a ouija board. Of course I was not going to buy my nephew a ouija board. I am totally anti-ouija boards. Not just because of the demons but also because of the impossible spelling. But I was curious about the reviews so I read some. I was not disappointed. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Here are some of the best. (It was hard to choose.)

Very helpful review:

Love/hate relationship:

Captain Howdy does not find these reviews helpful:

Make that 0 out of 3 found this review helpful:

This is no joke:

Doesn't want to die: 

Stick with Monopoly:

So far, so good: 

Working on it as we speak: 

Batteries not required:

In a speak to the dead sort of way:

Easily impressed:

If you're looking for a way to entertain your kids with a BRAND NEW "toy," and you're not afraid of demons, this might be for you. Just watch out for Zozo.

As for me, I'll stick with Monopoly.

Cookie Murder

Last night while scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I saw a post from the Ann Arbor News that made me raise my eyebrows:

Murder? Cookies? Unfortunately, The Ann Arbor News realized their mistake about a half hour later and took the post down. But in the meantime, some funny comments showed up. Here are some of my favorites.

For the record, this is the story the cookie picture was supposed to be attached to:

(Here's a link to the article with the recipe)

Gosh those cookies look good.... Unfortunately, I now associate cookies with murder so I'm feeling very confused this morning. Which one is associated with Christmas? I'm hosting a Christmas cookie exchange next week so I should probably double check.

Wednesday Thoughts

Today is the perfect day to stay in bed. My bed was at optimum cosiness this morning. My pillow was the right height, my blankets were perfectly situated, and my mattress was holding me in a firm embrace. (Not in a creepy way.)

Now that it's cold outside, I've had to figure out the perfect blanket situation for the new season. I got new mattresses last month too and that's a change I had to factor in. This is something you have to take very seriously in order to get the best sleep in winter. After messing around with the dynamics for awhile, I think I've figured out the perfect arrangement of blankets and quilts on my bed.

Blanket #1 - sheet - closest to head so neck doesn't overheat
Blanket #2 - thin quilt and thin blanket for upper body
Blanket #3 - medium weight blanket that covers up to waist for butt warmth
Blanket #4 - thick blanket that keeps feet warm
Blanket #5 - Extra thick quilt for moving feet to if they get cold - this stays folded up unless it needs to be used. It's dangerous to unfold it though as it is very warm and could overheat body quickly. Caution should be used.

Obviously what you really want to avoid is getting overheated to the point where you have to stick your foot out of the covers because that's when this happens:

A foot gets touched by a ghost. Avoid this at all costs.

It will surely get colder this winter, so I may need to make some adjustments, but I think I'm pretty much set. Winter is the best season for sleeping.

I tend to run warm. Even in the winter I often crack my bedroom window at night. I hate when the heat is really pumping. Other people complain about how cold it is, and I cringe in fear that they'll turn the heat up. I'm sure that winter is the worst season for fights over the thermostat.

I was visiting with a coworker in his office this morning and the temperature dynamics in that room were all over the place. An old wall heater was letting off some nice warmth, but the vent on the ceiling was sending out cold air. And on top of that, my friend had his window cracked open. I wouldn't be at all surprised if I walked down there and saw a tornado. Warm fronts were crashing into cold fronts right and left.

Anyway, I hope you are adjusting to winter and finding your perfect warm cosiness. If you need a cosiness consultant, I'm here for you. My rates are very reasonable.

Happy Wednesday.

Wednesday Thoughts

Happy Thanksgiving week! I love Thanksgiving - I love the food, the days off of work, my family's traditional candy house competition, seeing family, sleeping in, the Thanksgiving parade, the smell of turkey cooking, mashed potatoes, Oreo Delight, watching movies, Christmas shopping, Christmas music, snowflakes, sweaters, and so on. It's a magical time of year!

I haven't really updated much lately so I thought I'd give you a brief update on some stuff I've been doing lately!

Craft show!
Last weekend my sisters and I participated in a craft show. We made a little money, had a little fun, and ate peanut butter fudge. My nieces came and "helped." My older niece sold some loom bracelets she made too.

Crafting
(Duh.) I craft as much as I eat. And both are necessary to nourish me.

pinwheels and a chicken

paper marbling with Brady!

Baking
I've been making lots of marshmallows lately, and this dessert which calls for homemade marshmallows is perfect. Butterscotch, butter, and peanut butter (am I missing any kind of butter?) mixed with marshmallows. My dad took one bite and said they'd put him in an early grave.

Watching Agatha Christie's Poirot on Netflix
I love Agatha Christie, and though I'm partial to Miss Marple over Poirot, the Poirot episodes are very good. I'm constantly obsessed with Poirot's assistant's hair. Check this out:

Always with those circles at the top of her forehead! Is it me or is it awesome? Also, HOW does she do it?

I was also awed by these mens bathing suits in one episode:

Well, those are some things I've been up to lately. I guess we're mostly up to speed now. Or at least, according to the pictures on my cell phone that I used to remind me what I've been up to lately. I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving!

Happy Wednesday!

Weird Christmas

This weekend I went to Bronners, the largest Christmas store in the world. If you've never been there, you should know that it is quite an experience. It's hard to explain what this place is like. I'm trying to think of some adjectives and here's what comes to mind:

weird, magical, tacky, beautiful, expensive, extensive, breakable, fun, so weird, cool

Sexy Santa sums it all up:

Basically any ornament you could ask for, you'll find there. They have all the states, most countries, almost all the food groups, all the US sports teams, all the hobbies you could dream of, and so on.

And they engrave ornaments too, which is nice. In my family growing up, we all had our own engraved ornaments from Bronners. It's a nice tradition. There are a lot of classy, pretty ornaments at Bronners. However, there are also a LOT of weird ones too. Here are some of the weirder things I saw at Bronners:

No.

No.

Uncomfortable.

TMI.

 No.

Why.

Blech.

Am I being too old fashioned? Or are these awful?  Which is your least favorite?

Wednesday Thoughts

I woke up in an oddly good mood today. I felt free and happy. Maybe it had something to do with election day - who knows. I'm going to make today's Wednesday Thoughts about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ready?

The Good:

• Daylight savings started - my friends with kids are suffering because of this, so I feel bad for them. But I love the brighter, lighter mornings. Plus that extra hour of sleep on Sunday was sa-weet.
• Like many of you, I voted yesterday. I love voting - it makes me feel all excited and alive. Do you know what I mean? Here's a picture of me with my sticker from snapchat. I look like a friggin idiot because it's a selfie and selfie's are so embarrassing. I'll make it real small so you can scroll by it fast.

• Two of the proposals we Michiganders voted on were about wolves. Pretty cool. I would love to know some unique things other states voted on!
• I carved a pumpkin on Halloween using a star cookie cutter (an idea I no doubt got from Pinterest) and it worked! The cookie cutter did not survive though. All the hammering rendered it bent beyond recognition.

The Bad:

• It snowed on Halloween. Such a bummer for the kids! And for me. I had to open the door to hand out candy. The struggle was real.
• It's cold and flu season. I heard a coworker sneeze this morning and I almost lost it.

• I took a picture of the building where I work and sent it to a friend. His response was, "it looks like an insane asylum." What do you think?

The Ugly:

• Winter is coming. A house down the block always puts up an ice skating rink every winter and when I walked by this morning, they'd cleared the space for it. For ice. FOR WINTER! But here's the thing: I am determined to enjoy winter this year. We'll see if I can do it. I have a plan. More to come.

Happy Wednesday! 

Election Day

Election day is finally here which makes me sad. As much as I do love voting, I am truly going to miss the attack ads. They are so, so funny. They always freeze frame on the worst facial expression possible, then make it dark and moody and scary. The message being that while you thought the candidate was a nice person who cared about your state, they were actually a demon from Hell.

They quickly go from this:

To this:

And from this:

To this:

I believe none of them. Not the ones that support the person I want to vote for, or the ones that support the other guy. They all take things out of context to make the person sound as awful as possible. It's bad but it's also so funny. I will miss it.

VOTE!

PS, I'm almost positive that Governor Snyder got a voice coach. I heard him speak in a commercial recently and he sounded decidedly less like Kermit the Frog than usual.

Best of Halloween

Let me be your guide to Halloween spirit today. Maybe you're at work or school, feeling like Halloween is for kids. WRONG! I hope you know how wrong you are. Halloween is fun and spooky and definitely for all ages. Especially your age.

If you're having a hard time getting in the Halloween spirit, I'm here for you. If you're like me and have NO problem getting in the Halloween spirit, this post is for you too! Here are some of my favorite Halloween songs/videos/etc to get you or keep you in the Halloween spirit!

I know that sometimes the idea of watching a four minute youtube video is completely overwhelming and almost seems insurmountable, but trust me, these are worth it and the time will fly by. I would not lead you astray.



Another favorite video of mine from SNL can be found here ("The Mirror" with Andy Samberg and Ellen Page- a classic).

Halloween Music!







And of course.....




Happy Halloween!!! 

What are some of your favorite Halloween videos and songs?

PS - if you want to read some haunted tails from my hometown, click here!

Scary movies BASED ON TRUE EVENTS

If I were going to make a scary movie that I truly wanted to terrify today's audiences, I wouldn't make it about dolls that come to life, or "true" hauntings. I'd make it about the things we find really, really scary in 2014. Here are some of the ideas I've come up with so far. Which would scare you the most?

 

 

Those are some of the scariest things I can think of... How about you?