Once again, I’m on tour so and today I’m in North Carolina.  Please come see me?  Pretty please?

And while I’m gone I am completely phoning it in by reliving some of my favorite old posts.  In other words…reruns.  But good reruns.  So for today a little something from 5 years ago:

Phone conversation with my husband while he was out of town:

Victor: Hello?

Me: The snow cone machine is broken.

Victor: How the hell did you break the snow cone machine?  I just left this morning.

Me: I didn’t break it.  It just stopped working.  I’m getting on twitter and calling for a boycott on snow cone machines.

Victor: How is that going to help? Most people don’t even have snow cone machines.

Me: I’m just so pissed off right now.  There should be a diagnostic thing on the snow cone machine like Onstar, so it can tell me when it’s about to break.

Victor: That’s not how Onstar works.

Me: It’d be all “I’m your snow cone machine.  I’m gonna break tomorrow because I suck.  Don’t get your mouth all ready for a snow cone or anything because I’m unreliable.

Victor: Please stop breaking things in our house.

Me: DIDN’T BREAK IT.  I’ve spent the last hour trying to fix it.  I thought maybe an ice cube was stuck in it so I stuck a knife in the gears to feel around and then the knife got stuck and then I was afraid the knife would break off in there and then when it finally turned on a knife-blade would shoot out and kill one of us but then I got the knife to come out eventually so no worries on that.  Problem solved. Except that the snow cone machine still won’t work and now two of our knives are bent.

Victor: Why are two knives bent?

Me: I had to use one as a lever to pull out the other one.  I’m like McGuyver, with knives.

Victor: Are you doing this to me on purpose so I don’t leave you alone anymore?

Me: Don’t be ridiculous.  If I was doing this on purpose I’d break something I don’t actually need.  Like the oven.

4 hours later:

Victor: Hello?

Me: Good news! The snow cone machine works.

Victor: Oh yeah?

Me: Yeah.  Turns out all the outlets in the kitchen stopped working.

Victor: Huh.  That’s…not really good news.

Me: I know, right?  I have to take the snow cone machine into the bedroom to make snow cones.  It’s like we’re living in the fucking wilderness.

Victor: No, dumb-ass.  I mean, it’s not good news that none of the outlets in the kitchen work.  Is the refrigerator running?

Me: I’m not falling for that.

Victor: It’s not a fucking joke. The fridge is in the kitchen with the outlets that don’t work, right?  Is it still working?

Me: Oh.  Yeah.  That’s where I’m getting the ice for the snow cones.  But none of the other plugs work.   But you know,actually? It’s kind of nice having a snow cone machine in the bedroom.  We should probably get two.  One for the kitchen and one for the bedroom.  We’ll be like rap stars.  Except instead of stripper poles we have snow cone machines.

Victor: Don’t call me anymore.

Epilogue: Turns out the GFCI outlets were overloaded and Victor had to reset them when he got home and he acted like he was all amazing for being able to fix them but turns out all you had to do was just push a button. could have pushed a button if you’d just told me to push a button but no, I had to live with a snow cone machine and a blender in the bedroom for three days because Victor wanted to be a hero.  Whatever. The point is that we have a snow cone machine.  In the bedroom.  That’s how you know we’re successful.

Disclaimer: To be completely honest, the only reason we even have a snow cone machine is because I wanted one of those refrigerators that has an ice-maker in the door but we couldn’t afford it and so Victor bought a snow cone machine to distract me.  It’s totally kick-ass.  And it comes with its own foot-pedal in case you get tired of pushing a button for your snow cones.  Because it’s exhausting making snow cones, apparently.  So yeah.  I can make snow cones just by leaning.  I’m kind of a bad-ass.

Comment of the day: I had this Snoopy snow cone machine as a kid…you stuck ice cubes in the roof and then pushed on Snoopy’s ass to hold the ice cubes in while turning this hand crank on the side of the dog house to shred the ice cube.  It took fifty ice cubes to get like, one cup of “flakes” and by the time you even GOT to that point, the first ice cube flakes melted. So you just kept cranking the damn handle until you had blisters and a cup of water. I think my mom bought it to make me crazy. I hated that stupid Snoopy snow cone maker. More like a glorified water fountain. ~ Jessica

 

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Once again, I’m on tour so and today I’m in Atlanta.  Please come see me?  Pretty please?

And while I’m gone I am completely phoning it in by reliving some of my favorite old posts.  In other words…reruns.  But good reruns.  So for today a little something from 5 years ago:

You know what I did last night when I couldn’t sleep?  I came up with 28 ideas for sequels to The Little Engine that Could and this morning I’m looking at them thinking, “How high was I?” and the answer is “Pretty high” because I don’t even remember writing some of these.  I should probably delete them all but I’m going to leave them as an example of why I shouldn’t really be allowed to speak to anyone, ever.

Alternate versions of The Little Engine that Could:

The little engine that should have.

The little engine that couldn’t care less.

The little engine that did and then found out it was overrated and then got disillusioned with life and stopped showering.

The little engine that did it with a prostitute and got syphilis.

The little engine that tried to do it but couldn’t and then later he found out that when he was born they weren’t sure if he was a train or a tractor so the doctor just made him into a train because that was easier but turns out?  Totally a tractor.

The little engine that needs to stop being such a douche canoe.

The little engine that tried but failed because sometimes life isn’t fair.

The little engine that died from overexertion and later his parents were all “WHY? Why didn’t he just wait for a bigger train?”  And no one had an answer.

The little engine that resented being called that because he thought it was racially insensitive and he started a big protest group then someone explained to that it was “engine” and not “Injun” and then he was all “Oh. I’ve wasted my life“.

The little engine that refused to unload his cargo because he was a hoarder.

The little engine that we all made fun of in school and later he got cancer and now we all feel bad.

The little engine that could do better.

The little engine that isn’t even applying herself.

The little engine that is just asking for a smack in the mouth if engines had mouths.

The little engine that refused to let men into his caboose because his father made him homophobic.

The little engine that could if he wanted to but he “just doesn’t feel like it right now”.

The little engine that accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior but then found out that engines don’t have souls and he hoped there was at least an engine purgatory, but no.  There wasn’t.

The little engine that would have if he knew it was even an option.

The little engine that didn’t care for Asians.

The little engine that pretended he did it so much that he actually started to believe he actually had done it even though he never had.

The little engine that bullied you in third grade.

The little engine that’s way too concerned about Obama’s birth certificate.

The little engine that doesn’t have time to talk to you right now.

The little engine that can’t take a hint.

The little engine named Luka that lived on the second floor.

The little engine that was offended that he kept being referred to as “that” and would prefer “The little engine *who*would appreciate it if you’d use less hurtful words”

The little engine that could, but didn’t.  So maybe he couldn’t.  I mean, we don’t really know if he could unless he tried and succeeded.  Never mind.  The little engine who might’ve if he wasn’t such a damn baby.

The little mermaid who wanted to be an engine because she got sick of being a human but didn’t want to crawl home to her father after her divorce because he’d be all “I told you so“.

The little engine and the half-blood prince.

The little engine that ate my sandwich.  You. mother. fucker.

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When I’m dead

May 14, 2012

in Random crap

me:  When I die I want you to put me in a Wonder Woman outfit and toss me out of a moving plane.  That way when I hit the ground people will assume that Wonder Woman’s invisible plane crashed.  And that Wonder Woman really let herself go.

Victor: But where would her plane be?

me:  Duh.  Her invisible plane was invisible.

Victor: Invisible.  Not non-existent.

me:  Yes, well then whenever people tripped over nothing they could blame it on debris from my plane crash.  And there’s my little slice of immortality.

Victor: I don’t even know where to begin.

me:  Begin by finding a Wonder Woman outfit in a size 14.

Victor:  I’m not going to do that.

me:  I can fit into a 12 if necessary.  I’ll be dead so you can shave off part of my butt if you need to.

Victor:  It’s not a size issue.  I’m just not going to do that.

me:  Fine.  Then I’m not going to bury you.  I’ll just leave you out in the lawn in a Batman costume.  You’ll just look like Batman had a heart attack while picking weeds out of the flowerbed.  Way to ruin Batman, asshole.

Victor:  I don’t even feel safe in this house anymore.

me:  The death of Batman will do that to you.

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Victor: Why didn’t Ash come to our house when she was in town?

me:  Your guess is as good as mine.

Victor:  Because she hates you?

me:  Why are your guesses always so insulting?

Victor:  You said my guess was as good as yours.

me:  Well, I was wrong.

Victor: Maybe she was on her way over when she ran over a bunch of violent dwarves and had to find some hungry bears to help her dispose of the bodies.

me:  Okay…that guess was a little better than mine.

************

And now, time for the weekly wrap-up…

What you missed in my shop (tentatively called “Eight pounds of uncut cocaine” so that your credit card bill will be more interesting.):

What you missed on the internets:

This week on shit-I-didn’t-come-up-with-but-wish-I-did-because-it’s-kind-of-awesome:

This week’s wrap-up sponsored by The Hairbow Company, who makes kick-ass bows, headbands and flower clips for girls of all ages.  Plus, use ”bloggess10″ as a coupon code for hair bows and you’ll get 10% off.  Hairbows for everyone!

 

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This isn’t a real post.  It’s a thank you.

Thank you because for the third week in a row Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is on the NYT list.  Thank you because today is the premiere of my book in the UK.  Thank you for making the tour so successful that they’ve added another leg (or two) of the tour.  I still don’t know how this happened, but I do know who to thank.

Thank you.

Leg two of the Let's Pretend This Never Happened Tour

Click on the links for all the gory details:

May 16th ~ 7pm : Atlanta, Georgia

May 17th ~ 7pm : Concord, North Carolina

May 19th ~ 4:40pm : Gaithersburg Book Festival

May 20th ~ 2pm : Annapolis, Maryland

Will you come?  Pretty please?

PS.  This is where I’d put something funny and clever but I’m not funny because I have tonsillitis, sinusitis, bronchitis and Ancient-King-Midas.

PPS.  That’s sick humor.  It doesn’t translate well.  I apologize.

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