I was over at my buddy Mayberry’s place this morning, reading about his oldest son who is in Kindergarten and is learning his ABC’s.  He was talking about how the particular school his son goes to is teaching the kids the D’Nealian alphabet, in lieu of the regular old alphabet that we grew up learning.  I thought back to when I was learning my alphabet (yes, I can clearly remember it).  We learned with the Alphabet People.  I loved them!  Especially Mr. T Tall Teeth.  I have no idea why I liked him so much, but I did.

There were cards all over the classroom with the pictures of each of the Letter People.  We got to watch videos, play with puppets and each letter had a little song.  Mr. T’s song went like this:

Tall, my teeth are so tall
Terrifically tall,
The tallest of all,
The tallest you see;
I’m called Mister T.

Tall teeth.  Mister T, that’s me.
Why, my teeth are so tall
It takes my toothbrush two hundred and twenty two turns
To take a trip from the top of the tip
To the tip of the top of each tooth.
And that’s the tall truth, too.

And talk about toothpaste.
From Tuesday to Tuesday
I’ll use two thousand, two hundred and twenty two tubes
Of tasty toothpaste for each tremendous tooth.
And that’s the tall truth, too.

Tall, my teeth are so tall
Terrifically tall,
The tallest of all,
The tallest you see;
I’m called Mister T.

Tall teeth, Mr. T
Tall teeth, Mr. T
Tall teeth.

I enjoyed learning with those so much and can remember each one.  I remember we had a letter people day and I came dressed as Mr. B Buttons.  It’s funny how easy it was to learn them, because we had so much fun doing it.  Did anyone else learn the alphabet with the Letter People?  Here is a listing of all of them. 

Miss A A-Choo
Mr. B Beautiful Buttons
Mr. C Cotton Candy
Mr. D Delicious Doughnuts
Miss E Exercise
Mr. F Funny Feet
Mr. G Gooey Gum
Mr. H Horrible Hair
Miss I Itchy Itches
Mr. J Jumbled Junk
Mr. K Kaboom Kick
Mr. L Lemon Lollypops
Mr. M Munching Mouth
Mr. N Noisy Nose
Miss O Obstinate
Mr. P Pointy Patches
Mr. Q Quiet
Mr. R Ripping Rubberbands
Mr. S Super Socks
Mr. T Tall Teeth
Miss U Upsy-Daisy Umbrella
Mr. V Velvet Vest
Mr. W Wonderful Wink
Mr. X Mixed Up
Mr. Y Yawning
Mr. Z Zipping Zippers

I went to the NASCAR race in Richmond, VA this past weekend and I thought I would post about it today.  I am not really a huge NASCAR fan.  My husband however, is.  I used to complain when he would watch it on T.V.  I am not a fan of any sports on T.V. – I would much rather be at the sporting event having a cocktail and eating hot dogs and peanuts!

Anyways, my husband made me pick a driver.  He said that once you pick a driver, it’s easier to like the sport.  So I did.  I picked Tony Stewart because I loved his attitude and how he did something every week that made you say “what the hell was he thinking?”  I don’t spend every weekend watching it, I just kind of poke my head in and yell “how’s Tony doing?”  My husband roots for Bobby Labonte, which is also fun because I get to joke him every week when Bobby wrecks, which he always does!

I have gone to several races now and I have to say, that they are pretty fun – loud, but fun.  My favorite part of the event is definitely the people watching.  I am not your typical NASCAR type, but man do they come out to party in the parking lots before the race.  Nadine and I had a really great time sitting in our lawn chairs, sipping cocktails and watching them this weekend, while trying to snap photos without them knowing.  Above are a couple pics from the race.  My husband and Nadine, a shot of the parking lot before the race and some of my fine, fine mullet men!!!

With all that is going on in New Orleans, I though that this may be a good time to tell my New Orleans story. 

In February of 2002, Todd and I went on a Carnival Cruise out of New Orleans.  We booked this particular cruise so that 1) we could spend a couple days in New Orleans before the cruise soaking up the history, 2) we could say we experienced Mardi Gras, 3) we could take a wonderful 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean and 4) so we could say we finally had a honeymoon!  If only I knew what I was in for…

On the second night we were there, we ate dinner up on the balcony at a place called Johnny White’s (best Chicken Alfredo in the world!).  If you ate dinner there, you were allowed to stay up on the balcony for the Mardi Gras festivities.  After dinner, Todd and I both ordered a Hurricane (because you cannot leave Mardi Gras without drinking some Hurricanes).  There were a bunch of guys up on the balcony with us and several of them were blatantly hitting on me, not even caring that I was up there with my husband.  They kept bugging me to lift my top and I kept saying, “I don’t even like beads – so forget it!”  Well it was about that time that my husband started acting funny and by funny I mean wasted!  It could not have been the drinks, because we had eaten a huge meal and we were only on our second drink (which wasn’t even very strong), not to mention, my husband is a 215 pound, experienced drinker - it takes a little more that two Hurricanes to whoop his ass.

Well when my husband started acting weird, getting irate and mean, the rude guys mysteriously disappeared.  I put two and two together and realized that something had been slipped into Todd’s drink.  Both of our drinks were on the table behind us and those guys slipped some kind of date rape drug or something into one of our glasses, probably meaning for it to be mine, but got Todd’s instead. 

Todd was completely unmanageable!  He could barely stand and was trying to fight everyone.  Here I was, stuck on Bourban Street with my drugged husband.  I had to drag his ass through the streets trying to get a cab in the middle of Mardi Gras, so that I could get him to the hotel, with him trying to physically fight me the whole time – TOTALLY NOT MY HUSBAND!!!  I was seriously considering paying some big dude to knock his ass out.  I finally got a cab and stuffed him into it.  He insulted the cab driver the entire way to the hotel, leaving me to explain his behavior, hoping we did not get dropped off in some back alley to get shot and robbed.

When we got back to the hotel, he refused to come up to the room; he could barely even speak English at this point.  I had had it!  I did not care anymore so I went upstairs to bed.  In the morning, I found him passed out in the bathroom in a pile of hotel bar popcorn – sick as a dog.  He did not remember anything, and felt horrible for what happened.  We had to hurry up and pack our stuff to get to the cruise ship.  On our way downstairs to check out, there was a trail of popcorn all the way back down to the lobby into the hotel bar.  What a night!!!

I feel obligated to post about Hurricane Katrina tonight.  I have been glued to the television since I got home from work.  At one point I just sat there and cried.  Because I live at the beach on the east coast, I am no stranger to Hurricanes.  We had quite a bit of damage in 2003, when Isabel hit us.  But Isabel was nothing compared to the images I have seen today.  I understand the hard decision people are faced with when a hurricane comes.  Do you stay or go?  If you stay, then maybe, you can alleviate some of the damage as it is happening, but you could also be stuck in a bad situation.  It’s a tough decision.

As far as the looting that is going on, it makes me sick to my stomach.  In a time when people need to be helping one another, there are those that are so selfish, that looting would be at the top of their priorities. 

It seems that the hurricanes are coming stronger and more often now.  My grandparents were in Pensacola when Ivan hit last year.  My grandfather did not make it through it.  It was a horrible situation.  Nadine’s husband, god bless him, works for the local power company and every time one of these hurricanes hit, he is called to duty and has to travel for weeks at a time to help people restore power.

My heart hurts for all the people that were in Katrina’s path.  I hope that this nightmare is over soon.  It leaves me wondering, when will it be our turn?

STICKY POST - SCROLL DOWN FOR NEW STUFF!

My new skin has been installed thanks to Cherry at Web Divas.  I designed this one and Web Divas implemented it for me.  I don’t think it’s set as the default yet, so go over to the side bar and click “bling bling” to see it.

IF YOU CANNOT GET THE NEW SKIN TO WORK-TRY CLEARING YOUR TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES!

Thanks Cherry!

P.S. I also uploaded a few new songs in the sidebar!