late addition

Well THAT will certainly make the 6th, 7th and 8th graders feel welcome.

ya gotta have friends

Adventuring is much more fun when shared with loyal friends.

Whether climbing to the top

or sliding to the bottom,
you want your best buddy close at hand.

Sometimes you might need to split up briefly to aid in the exploration,
(hoods are good for that)
but everything's okay as long as you know where to find them.

robot dog lunchboxes?

I'm not sure what they are, besides hilarious.
The things you find backstage are amazing.
BTW, would you call a robot in the shape of a dog a dog robot or a robot dog?

charity: water

Sooooooooo, there is only a week left in April so i figured i'd better find a charity for this month.
Through various social media I became aware that fans of 30 Seconds to Mars are donating to charity: water to dig a well in the band's name.
How crazy is that?
One thing that i love, love about living right now is that there are opportunities for global community that simply didn't exist before.
Trust me, if i could have done some cool charity thing in the 80's in the name of Duran Duran, my little 14 year old self would have been all over it.
It just seems cool to me that people that don't know each other and will never meet can bond over what kind of music they enjoy and then do something with that community that isn't even music related.
After checking to make sure that this is indeed a real and reputable charity, i've decided to make charity: water the Nikiverse Charity of the Month for April. And what the heck, i'll even go through the 30 Seconds to Mars campaign cause it makes me smile.

did i mention the Vikings?

March was a doozy of a month around here and April frankly hasn't been much easier.
TGVIM! (Thank God Vacation's Inna Month)
Anyhoo, going through pictures in a vain, nearly ludicous attempt to be completely caught up on the blog by my birthday (19 more shopping days, people) i realized that i never posted about the Vikings in Florida.
For shame, Niki, for shame.
You might recall that last year i visited my dad when there was a parade in the park by happenstance; this year i did it on purpose.
The weekend's theme was the Funny Papers.
There were games and hot dogs and a dance and, of course, a parade:

color guard

drum line

clowns

I really do love a good parade and enjoy how different clubs interpret the theme.

But, of course, nobody does it better than the Mid-Atlantic Club.
Yes, i acknowledge my prejudice cause i live in the Mid-Atlantic and my dad is the current president of that club, but people, just look at their cool take on Hagar the Horrible.

 Why yes,
that is a Viking dragon longboat built on top of a golfcart, complete with a fully rigged sail.
Thanks for noticing.















Kvack and Snert are ready to ride in the parade.

Now that's a bang of rowdies if i've ever seen one

dad's dragon boat

Shirley as Honi and Dad as a warrior

This incredible take on Lucky Eddie (complete with nose prosthetic) won Individual First Place.

 The amazing detail and effort the club put into their entry earned them First Place.
I think i might have to try to visit Dad on Resident's Appreciation Weekend every year.

gonna soak up the sun

You know that spring has sprung and summer is on the way when DJs start pulling out the summer songs. You know, the up-tempo, toe-tappin' hits that feel like they are full sunshine and warm breezes. Songs that are almost always in major keys and feature fun back-up singers.
I am generally not a big Sheryl Crow fan, but on the way to work today i heard Soak Up the Sun for the first time this season and it made me smile. It is a fun sing-a-long summer song, but there is substance there as well: find your own happiness, it might even be as free as sunshine.
This week's quote (do you enjoy that i maintain the facade of changing the quote every week?) is the Crow-Trott penned chorus:

I'm gonna soak up the sun
Gonna tell everyone
To lighten up (I'm gonna tell 'em that)
I've got no one to blame
For every time I feel lame
I'm looking up
I'm gonna soak up the sun

Go outside, people.
Soak up some sun.
Make some yummy vitamin D.
Enjoy life.

flat out alarming

Picking around random antique stores and junk shops leads one to encounter all manner of wackiness.
Generally, i am in favor of wackiness and the unexpected, but there should be a limit of how many flat out alarming things can be in a given area.
How else will we hold on to our sanity?
Case in point:
I am walking along, minding my own business when suddenly i am confronted by a clown - and not just any clown, mind you:

A creepy clown doll that looks like it was kidnapped from the normal dolls in the middle of the night, dressed in rags, painted with blood and forced to play cursed bongos to lead all of the other toys to their certain, inevitable doom.
Someone made that for children.
Someone bought that for children.
Do they hate children?
All one can do is screech, do a quick that-thing-is-freaking-me-out dance, poke at it a little, take a picture and move on.
phew...
No problemo.
Until...
... not even four feet away I was suddenly faced with this:

What the heck IS this?
It looks like Santa Claus.
But what is going on with his MOUTH?
Is it even legal for this to be in a public place?
Ohhhh... it is supposed to be a birdhouse.
A birdhouse?
Like some bird is gonna be like Hey, living inside that fat, old elf's head seems like a great idea. I'm pretty sure that generally birds avoid flying into predator's mouths.
Then again, it is ceramic so mayhaps it isn't meant to be used practically.
Which can only mean that someone thought a disturbing Santa's head birdhouse was decorative.
Right.
Either object would have been horrific alone, but confronted by both in a span of 3 minutes nearly set me off of my feed. Really, i can't even tell which is worse.

There should be a law, is all i'm saying.

whadya do today?

Truly my favorite thing about my job is the variety of my days.
In preparation for the summer at work, i've spent the afternoon researching thermite, guillotines, black powder, strandbeests, zeusophones, induction heaters, microwaving various objects and a cardboard arcade.
Just try to imagine what that list of things have in common.

we don't need no stinkin' baskets

I spent the long holiday weekend at my mom's in Ohio.
It was long periods of doing nothing interspersed with hours of reading followed by stretches of sudoku; so basically, heaven.
I watched TV, caught up on my sleep and vegetated.
It was lovely.
There was a potluck dinner in my mom's building on Thursday with a fashion show afterwards; the first half was straight up fashion and the second half was comedy.

Of course, my mom was a model.

It was nice to meet some of her new friends and the fashion show was hilarious, but the best part was spending time with Mom and my sister, Kris:

One afternoon was dedicated to hanging out with my BFF; we did some shopping, looked at all of the baby animals on the farm and she made her famous Rickki Chimis for lunch.

It is the first time i've had her version of her favorite food- chicken chimichangas - and they were delish.

She crockpotted the chicken for dinner the day before, shredded the leftovers to mix with chilies and spices for the filling and then baked them with some chicken broth and cooking spray so that they crisped up like they'd been fried.





Saturday, Mom and I dyed eggs {she said, we're going to boil two dozen because i always want to decorate more then we have} and then on Sunday we set up our Easter bowls.

No baskets made the move and i suggested that instead of buying baskets, we'd just use matching glass bowls. With some easter grass, they were perfect.
As in years past, the goal was to only spend $10.
You can see that we both rose to the challenge - Mom's bowl for me is on the left and hers from me is on the right - managing to stuff as much as possible in and around the bowls.

It was a super fun, relaxing weekend.
And in case you ever wonder how well my mom and I know each other,
this year we managed to buy each other matching chocolate bunnies.

feeling punk

No, i don't mean that you have spiky green hair and safety pins through your ears. Feeling punk is how i refer to those days when you just feel off: you're some combination of achy, cranky, tired, confused, stuffy, hungry, whiny, lost and/or sniffly.
I am definately feeling punk today.
It must really show cause a coworker sent me a link to 13 Simple Step To Get Through a Rough Day.
He made me feel better so i wanted to share it with you. Be warned, Step 13 almost killed me with the cute.
I'm going home and taking a nap.
Tomorrow will be better cause i am going to see my BFF and my mommy.