Hey, Happy Fathers Day!
Welcome to One and Done Sunday. One picture, and five links that are worth your time.
First, your picture, from the what-the-hell-happened-to-me category:
How many things can you find wrong here?
1) mini van
2) with paving stones
3) and flowers; flowers that are still alive in spite of me owning them for an entire hour already.
The only two things in this picture I ever could have predicted are the zombie stickers in the window and the packing blanket underneath everything.
You know, minivans get a bad rap. Lots of people are all like, “Oh, I’ll never own a minivan. NEVER!” Whatever. I get it, stigma schmigma, your life is over when you get a minivan, you get stupider when you buy one, they’re so unsexy for God’s sake.
You know what else they are? They’re really goddamn convenient. We whipped that puppy from an 8-passengers-can-sit-comfortably-and-smack-each-other-while-listening-to-their-iPods vehicle to one ready to receive stone, cement and dirt in like 45 seconds. Bam, bam, bam.
But I don’t have a whole lot of my identity wrapped up in the car I drive every day like it seems most of America does.
Because no matter who curses my minivan for either going the speed limit in my neighborhood or cutting them off on the Turnpike, or what names they think as they judge me with a van full of kids making the school rounds, or if people automatically (and hilariously, knowing both my kids’ soccer skills and my own cupcake making track record) categorize me as a cupcake-making-soccer-mom, there are two things they can’t change:
– I dig the minivan
-I also have a ’66 Mustang convertible.
Here are your links.
A hilarious article from down under about mums: Mother Bashing- It’s All the Rage! (thanks Team Oyenyi for the link!)
You can’t hate a baby elephant playing in the ocean. I dare you to look at these pictures and try not to smile. Karyn at Kloppenmum Because Play is the Work of Childhood.
One very specific use for a dead cat.
I don’t drink, so this guy could actually be full of crap, but he has been great to me and writes this wine blog and he sounds like he knows what he’s talking about. Since there are a lot of moms here, and since a lot of moms drink wine, you should check out JVB Uncorked. If you’re a mom who prefers to drink bourbon, you should crack open another bottle of Baker’s and click his link.
Elizabeth Reep is a kickass stepmom who created Camp C.O.P.E. for children of deployed, injured, or fallen US service members. I started reading this article in my doctor’s office and had to stop and get tissues because I was openly weeping, and I had to finish reading it at home. I wish I was half the stepmom she is.
Oh, and one extra, because this is really frickin’ cool. 32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found In Siberian Ice.
Happy Sunday, and do something awesome for your dad today.
JM Randolph, accidentalstepmom 
Hey, I’m there. Thanks, and hope the roof is going on quickly. (At least it’s summer!)
The roof, she is completed! Now just need the painters and the gutter guys to come.
Tis the weekend for beautification. I love how you embraced the minivan. Definitely easier knowing you have a ’66 convertible. It’s like having a Super Power! Happy Fathers Day to you, too — momma! 🙂
It’s totally like having a super power! I never thought of it that way, but you’re so right.
Thanks for the shout out to http://jvbuncorked.wordpress.com ! Most of my subscribers are actually moms 🙂 And the fact that you drive a minivan and a Mustang ’66 convertible? Totally smokin’. That Mustang is tasty like a bacon biscuit from Donna Bell’s on 49th, just sayin’. 🙂
Donna Bell’s is going to be the death of me. Oh man. You know, I’m surprised more moms aren’t starting wine clubs instead of book clubs. It makes a lot more sense. You sure as hell don’t have time to read when you have little kids.
In all honesty, I think it’s pretty popular for moms to get the kids to bed and have a glass of wine while catching up on laundry, news, bills, etc. I’m one of the group in the neighborhood, and sometimes the moms come hang on the stoop for an evening glass of wine, so we can all discuss kids, life, the block, etc. If I were starting a club, it’d be a Book AND Wine club!
If they can revive a plant from a 32,000 year-old seed, I am certain you can grow those flowers planted in the back of your mini-van.
A word of advice: maybe transplant the flowers to your garden bed. And water. Frequently. And fence against roaming deer. Your chances for success will greatly improve then. Also, a mini van with a trellis covered in flowers would be ultra-cool, and noone would dare cut you off in traffic!
Well, it does have a sun roof. And so far, none of the deer have gotten inside the mini van. I don’t know; I have more faith in science reviving a 32,000 year old plant from Siberia than I do of me not killing these flowers. I hear deer hate marigolds though. I just hope someone told them that.
Great links!
OMG, JM — we are so separated at birth! I LOVED my minivan (since I had 3 stepchildren and one of my own, after a few months of figuring out who we were going to let fly through the windshield, I put my foot down and we bought a minivan so everybody could have a seatbelt) … but then, I fell madly in love with it because YEAH it has room for everything, AND it’s comfy to drive AND you can put about 15 huge plants in it, no problem, AND a few mattresses AND you can take it to the drive-in and everybody can lie down and watch the movie out the back AND who the hell cares if you look cool, you’ve got a passel of kids which as we know is the ultimate sex-kitten-buzz-kill (but who cares about that when you’ve got a great husband) — AND you’ve got a mustang and I’ve got a 67 Buick Skylark convertible when I want to feel frisky. It was a really sad day when the van dropped a rod and we had to call it quits. boo, hooo….. Always love your links & thanks for sharing your wonderful finds… good luck with the planting!!!
I’m feeling a road trip in the future; one where there’s a picture of a certain pair of classic cars side by side.
Aaaaand I’m turning the elephant pics into ecards. Are you kidding me? Where was this, the Jersey Shore? (Could you imagine? Wildwood ain’t called Wildwood for nothin’!)
As for minivans, well… when you have five kids, you have no choice. I mock my sister because she’s 2.5 years younger than me, but the fact that she has two kids and a minivan by default makes her older. Her response: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have a minivan. I have a Jetta. My husband has a minivan.” Also, I learned how to drive in a minivan. Now THAT’s hot.
Happy Father’s Day to CC!
Ha! I totally used to say that. Then we bought the “new” mini van and somehow it got registered to me. Bah.
Wildwood needs more baby elephants. Stat.
You seriously find the coolest shiz. And also, it’s a real woman who can admit she loves her mini van. (Personally, I’d never mess with a mini van driver who can endure Bikram.)
You should come to a class with me! Come on, it’ll be fun!
Loved the link about the cat. One of my favorite expressions of ubiquity is “You can’t swing a dead cat over your head without hitting a (noun of your choice)”. This flying cat brings it to another (higher) level.
The only question left is, where can we get a dead cat?