He Went To Jared’s!

Everybody knows LeRoy’s is the leader in mall jewelry!

Happy belated Valentine’s Day from everyone at Skipah’s Realm.  Hopefully nobody over indulged on chocolate or Boone’s Farm wine, as for me I got to spend it with my two favorite girls in the world.  It’s been two weeks since Sloane was in my care, so that can only mean one thing!  My custodial weekend, pipe down custodians of America I didn’t create the term “custodial” its legalese speak for you get to be the parent !  My advice is take it up the bar association in your local state, I’m sure some lawyer will see to your cause.  Lawyers are like Levon after all.

The power packed weekend with Sloane was going to consist of fun, excitement, intrigue and learning how to jaywalk and get away with it.  However, the super duper women who run her former Girl Scout troop inquired with me if Sloane was available Saturday morning.  Evidently I’m not the only one who misses Sloane on a daily basis, and Saturday was the World Thinking Day Girl Scout event.  Technically she is a part of the GSA troop until the end of the school year (paid for by me and only me, still waiting on that other $15.00 USD) so she is still eligible to participate in all things Girl Scout.  The little adolescent cookie hawkers were hoping Sloane could attend their showcase Saturday morning and I didn’t want to let them down.  Special thank you to her rock star troop leaders that inquired, Sloane getting to see all her girl “peeps” that she has known for the last four years definitely was the highlight of her weekend, of course other than seeing me!

Another badge earned courtesy of dad!

Call me dad, super parent, or whatever!  I get Sloane four days a month right now during school and I’m giving up my time so she can still be active with her friends.  She sure in the hell doesn’t get that on her non dad weekends.  It was only two hours and set me back two bucks and a roll of nickels.  It’s called parenting, it’s called in the best interest of the child (custodial union that is legalese for…..bullshit), but what it really is making sure I can keep Sloane connected to her pals so she can feel normal and not isolated in her current “hilly billy” land.  Those are her words not mine, I use much more “proper” French terms when describing her situation to anybody that will listen.

To quote the Terminator “I’ll be back!”

Rant over, that’s a post for another day. While Sloane was off learning new cultures I had to secure the perfect Valentine’s Day present for Miss Madison!  Since I was back in vacation destination New Albany, Indiana for the day I visited some of my old stomping grounds trying to come up with the perfect gift!  With a two hour window and a wad of cash that would be equivalent to 25 pesos in Mexico I set out to patronize the area shopping meccas in search of romantic gold for Miss Madison.  Miss Madison is a lover of all things frugal and rare so naturally my first stop was the flea market!  I didn’t find any Victorian era artwork on the cheap but I did find these beauties for next to nothing.

 

Remind me to tell you the “back” story on these!

My old Circle K has become a gun range evidently!

After scoring some new artwork for the office and humming Alanis Morrisette in my head the next stop was at the local Rainbow Blossom.  This store has been here for years and until I met Miss Madison I just thought it was some kind of clandestine cult haven for potpourri lovers.  As usual I was wrong, and picked up Miss Madison’s favorite frozen hash browns when her personal chef isn’t around to make her the real thing.

Cool store, but the potpourri aroma literally had my eyes burning!

This should get me out of cleaning the gutters for another week!

Next stop was to the area mall and now I’m up against the clock before I go retrieve my mini me.  Walking at a pace that had the mall walkers telling me to slow the hell down I hit all the hot spots and still came up empty.  Slight panic was about to ensue because I didn’t want to go shopping with Sloane as “secrecy” sometimes isn’t her best attribute.  It was at this moment I hit the crossroads of life (or I was sitting at a stoplight and looked up) and saw a 50% advertisement whipping in the wind like a runaway kite.  We don’t have a Sax’s Fifth Avenue in southern Indiana, but we have the Hobby Lobby.  Against my better judgment (again I was wrong…this is getting to be a theme) I decided to go rub elbows with the mysterious scrapbooking sect.  Score, and if you are looking for fine wall art (the affordable kind) I highly recommend the Hobby Lobby.  They have something for any genre.  I ended up with a framed Declaration of Independence (Hammy is working on getting me the original) and scored a few more boyfriend points in the process.  For a history teacher this is akin to a new set of diamond earrings.

Worse case I can get a rubber stamping kit cheap!

Passed on this, didn’t look forward to sleeping in the garage.

Miss Madison approved!

After picking up Sloane it was a quick visit to see grandma, then it was off to home to start preparing the main attraction for our Valentine’s Day feast on Sunday.  Again I was calling on the culinary genius known as Sammy to deliver me a couple of smoked chickens.  Mission accomplished and we all had a glorious time at dinner in between watching the snow fly.  In an unrelated note my back is now requiring surgery from sweeping off the driveway.

Sammy’s own Valentine’s Day “hard body karate” produced two beautiful birds!

Sammy has informed me he is craving brisket.

I didn’t sign up for this!  Credit Miss Madison for the ninja photography that I had no idea about.

Daddy I’ll camoflauge myself as snow, then nobody will find me and I don’t have to go back to Kentucky!

Don’t get snow on the drive!  I just shoveled it and my back is killing me!

Saturday night fun at the want to be Gatti Land in Madison.

Side note, AVOID this place at all costs!  Miss Madison learned first hand yesterday, as her Valentine’s Day was spent in parts of the house that are exclusive to indoor plumbing.  Plus the freaking skee-ball was broke, no skee ball and crappy food….NO THANK YOU!

That Miss Madison and her witty jokes!

Sloane and Miss Madison scouring the web for Virginia area landmarks.

About it for now, I’m getting sized up for traction and as much as I bitch about snow I’m loving this little snow event because it means one more day with Sloane since all the parties involved thought the trek home might be a little dangerous.  I’ll have to check the archives but this might be the most pictures I’ve every posted, if it is too many I welcome the feed back.  I am in complete blog envy of photo bloggers….seriously how in the hell do you have that much time to edit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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27 Comments

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  2. Pingback: Rolling Along

  3. Apparently not she was invited back

  4. Are there not laws against that?

  5. Glad you had a great weekend. Unfortunatly everytime I see girl guides I am reminded of the girls who sell boxes of it outside a pot despensary

  6. It’s O.K. Joey I’ll forgive you this time! Completely understand the spam thing I’ve done it once or a 100 times myself.

  7. I loved all the photos 🙂
    Beautiful birds, indeed. I could go for some brisket as well.

    I must apologize, but I haven’t meant to not read you. I’m ashamed to say I found you in my spam folder 🙁
    I don’t know if I accidentally clicked something, or one of my kids mucked it up, or what, but a whole pile of people were in my spam this morning.
    Anyway, this was a great post!

  8. Yeah what is going on with this whole Sweve/BlogLovin/Activate crap! Good luck with the single mom business, I grew up with a single mom most of my life so I know how challenging it can be.

  9. Hello Gary! Thx for the follow on bloglovin, sverve, activate, or whatever it is now lol. I am trying to figure out how to follow back, but no luck so far. No follow button in sight. But I’m glad u followed me as your blog is very interesting and I’m a newly single Mom. I will be back for more 🙂

  10. It certainly seems to be. 🙂

  11. The force is strong in that one!

  12. She’s a girl of hidden talents, or should that be hiding talents?

  13. She loved it :), I’ll get her back eventually she’s getting more and more adamant about it.

  14. Wish I could help you get your daughter back, so she could be with her Girl Scout friends again! I am not one for posting pictures, but yours all looked like a proud parent delighting in their child’s growth. You had the right idea for the Valentine’s gift for a school teacher!

  15. Great time for us, everything concerning Sloane is drama unfortunately :(.

  16. Just got back from FedEx, sent it to your executive suite at Jerry’s world in Arlington!

  17. She’s got a ton of ninja skills she’s about to show off! She’s mad as hell she isn’t living with me.

  18. I know! It looked like either a BB or Pellet Gun but it was fired for INSIDE the store!

  19. Fun pics! I like photos in blog posts so you get a thumbs up from me.

    Nice job on the gift front. 🙂

    Glad you had Sloane and that she continues to enjoy herself with you and Miss M & crew.

    Ps - bullet holes?! You leave and the place goes to shit! Lmao!

  20. I see Sloane’s ninja training paid off with her blending into the snow like that.

  21. Nice work on the gift for Miss Madison! Oh, and have one of those birds “fly” down to Texas!

  22. I enjoyed your Valentine’s Day. Ours lacked your drama, but we had a good time.

Tell Skipah all about it!