My Lost Party - Let Me Show You It

As soon as the date was announced for the premiere episode for Lost Season 5 I began planning my Lost Party. My original plan was to have people over for the actual airing, but my wise friend Gerry suggested we should watch that in our own homes, undistracted and uninterrupted. Then we could get together to rewatch it after having time to stew on all the theories that arose. It was a great idea! The conversation, debates and laughs were in abundance and we all had a great time. What follows are pictures of what I did. Any of these pictures can be enlarged if you click on it, if you'd like to see more detail.

The Party Decorations:

Of course, the obligatory palm trees...

But this one has a little Hurley hanging out underneath, as drawn by my 5 yr old son.

I put a generic tropical themed tablecloth on the table and thought it would be cute to add a little extra Lost touch...

...that led to an idea to add Lost quotes all over the plain white area in the middle of the tablecloth. I wish I had thought of this earlier; then it would have been completely filled. More on the jars you see there in the food section.

The Party Food:

This is the sign I made to hang over the "Hurley Buffet." The drawing of Hurley in the van was drawn by James Boudreaux II and I found it at his site, The Lost Boys Project, where he has lots of great comics based on the Lost characters.

Hurley's Island Buffet:
"Where if you eat more comfort food,
You won't go around shooting people!"

Here's a closer look at the jars from earlier. For some unknown reason I did not get a shot of the jar of Dharma Ranch Dip and the veggie platter. Rest assured, it looked awesome.

The table had two platters on it. The top has mangoes and papayas, for obvious reasons and the bottom has pepperoni and cheese in homage to Cheech's sandwich in "The Lie". Too bad my budget didn't allow for caviar or we so would have had those sandwiches, even if I had to guilt my guests into trying a bite.

Tower of Goodies!

What's on it?

Ho-Ho's (watch out for dead rock stars!), Dharmalars,
Chocolate Cream Cookies

Next to the Tower of Goodies was a crock pot full of Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack Breaded Baked Chicken Wings with homemade blue cheese dressing. They were awesome, dude.

The Frozen Donkey Wheel:

A lime margarita-style blender drink. The lime is cut to look like it has spokes coming out of it. And it was all kinds of yummy. Notice the Connect 4 pieces surrounding the drink. Somehow I also forgot to get a picture of the game as well.

Party Favors:

I made Dharma Fish Biscuits... really just sugar cookies with cookie icing.

After I wrote "DHARMA" on them and put them in bags they looked like this. I also gave lil' Dharma polar bears. How cute are they?

I had a lot of fun doing this and hope to do it again after the season finale. Off to find a recipe idea for a Flaming Frogurt...

Feel Good Post of the Week

I don't mean to brag or anything but I have an average of three visitors a day to this blog, and I've decided it's time to wield this awesome and amazing influence in the name of goodness.

I have a very good friend who is walking in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer here in Boston next month. She is one of that fantastic breed of persons that act positively and pro-actively in the face of grief and sadness. She ran a marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society after the loss of someone very close to her. This wasn't easy for her, as she suffers from some really debilitating migraines quite often. I am very proud of her. Now she has set her sights on breast cancer. Both of us have lost dear friends and family to this disease, so I am especially rooting for her in this grueling endeavor. She will walk 20 miles a day for three days straight, camping out along the way.

Her name is Donna Foley and she has a page that tells more about the walk, her story and how to donate here. The walk is next month so if you can help out, please act fast!

So That's What The Name Means

Saturday we went to our friend's annual block party. I am pleased to announce that there were NO Kia's parked this year. We are so proud. This year my son discovered a tree across the street from where we were sitting had edible sour cherries. He decided he wanted to make a cherry pie.

The hunt for ingredients:

The bounty gathered:


He actually tastes the cherries:

I apologize for the awkward watermarks. I'm sure there is a more professional and/or subtle looking way to do it but I am still new to all of this.

Oh, Hey, I Almost Forgot...

Today is now this blogs birthday!!


more cat pictures

Coincidentally enough, tomorrow is also the birthday of two of my friends, Donna and Amy. Everybody say, "Happy Birthday, Donna and Amy!!"

I wonder how they feel about sharing their special day with a site like this...

Maybe I shouldn't tell them about it...

Beware the Naked Man-child

Some of you have read this many times before, but it just needs to be included here. The whole ordeal occurred in the summer of '07.

So I kind of accidentally started potty training my son when he got yet another horrible diaper rash because he was withholding poops. I told him "Thats it, no diapers tomorrow (Friday) they are giving you these rashes" (They weren't, it was his own fault, but it was another desperate attempt on my part, and I was surprised when it worked) and after one early accident he did great all day Friday peeing, but never pooped. There was an ill timed block party we were invited to on Saturday, and we went, armed with his only 3 pairs of underwear and about 5 pairs of shorts. So, he of course peed on the sidewalk at one point because he never has these kinds of distractions anyway, much less when he's supposed to be remembering to use the potty. So that took out one pair of underwear. He then soiled the last two pairs trying to hold in a poop, which had been occurring a lot because of the aforementioned diaper rash. So, I was left with no choice but to send him out to the party in shorts "commando style" while we tried to get his underwear washed and dried. About a half an hour later we are sitting there and I see him go across the street and start his "holding-it-in" dance. I figure he's yet again sure to win this battle so I don't think much of it at first, but all of a sudden, he uncrosses his legs, does a little shimmy move and out of the leg of his shorts drops the biggest freakin' turd right out into the street. I don't know whether to laugh or scream, so i try to do both (doesn't work) and I tell(screech at) my husband to get a bag or something. There was no hope of keeping it a secret, either. If he had been the slightest bit freaked out by this I wouldn't be sharing it, but I guess he was just happy to be rid of it (remember, it had been since, I think Tuesday or Wednesday since he had gone!) and wasn't phased at all. Which is weird seeing as how 45 minutes earlier the idea of pooping at all, anywhere, was freaking him out.

Anyway, I expect a day to come, perhaps his college graduation party or his wedding, where at least one guest will turn to me and say, "Hey, remember the time he crapped in the street?"

In the weeks since The Incident... [side note: I have come to find out that the hosts of the party now use the phrase "parked the Kia" to describe Cameron's unfortunate on-street deposit. I find this a little offensive. This thing was at least a Camry!] Cameron has had his fair share of forgetfulness, some wet beds and a slew of almost-made-its, but I am happy to report that he is completely potty trained and has not had a single diaper rash since he decorated Ardale St.

Personally, I'm pretty happy we let him take his time. We had considered quite a few methods when he was younger. There was one that was pretty much like housebreaking a puppy: confine him to the bathroom, pump him full of water and keep up a routine of taking him for a walk, er, um, putting him on the toilet at regular intervals, complete with praises and treats and belly rubs when he had success. I decided against that method because what the hell do you do between pee breaks? Scrabble? The redecoration that would have been necessary from him bouncing off the walls was a little out of our price range. The method of putting a sticker on a reward chart was an appealing one... for about a week. Complete a row and get a new toy! Who knew the bladder had magical powers? All the logic, threats and pleading to get a kid to give up a toy at the store, but face a kid with the question "don't you want to pee on the potty so you can get a new train?" and he suddenly becomes completely uninterested in the acquisition of material things. Like he turned into a monk overnight.

We went with the "wait until he's ready" method. That way they practically train themselves. See, the amazing thing about a 3.75 year old boy is that he has finally discovered his peeper. The appeal of the potty comes best when they realize how much more handy it is to have that thing, well, at hand. No diapers covering it up, just letting it all hang out, balls in the wind freedom for the little buddy. That's when you can say "No more diapers" to them, and they will say "Thanks, Mom! Oh, and by the way, have you seen what I can do with it?"