Adventures with Chayse...

Man... Shame on me... almost forgot to do a post on a Friday.

The HORROR!

Gotta do a post on Friday! That's the best day of the week! Because it means the weekend is NEAR! I can almost touched-ed it!

*cartwheels*

It is ARSE HAWT in the ATL.

That is all. No need to elaborate or anything. Just ARSE HAWT.

I thought I would share some pictures with you!

A couple of Saturdays ago, I had a special guest over in the morning! Her Mama had to work, so she hung out with me!

My favorite LadyLee Mascot Chayse!



You know Chayse if you have read here over the years. If not, she's the one holding up the cat in the margin of this blog.

Uh yeah... She is good for blog fodder.

She looks happy enough, taking that I don't have children and that I ain't the most entertaining Oldgirl in the world. We sat and watched a few cartoons. (Cartoons have changed drastically! I was a bit horrified at what I was watching on Nickelodeon. Give me the smurfs!)

She got a little bored, so I let her go outside and sweep the porch and the sidewalk.

(Should've uh... encouraged her to sweep out my driveway).

She seemed happy enough. And since she was so happy, I let her sweep the porch off too.



She even helped me put together the trimmer.

(Well as much as we could put it together. I needed an allen wrench. Picked that up later!)

If she was there much longer, I was going to put her to work staining the front porch!

But she was only with me for a couple hours.

I had to work on staining it myself.

I don't like it, so I am still working on it. Sigh. I need a bucket of shellack or something!

Yes if your child comes to MY house, he or she will be doing some handyman type chores!

Chayse has worked in the garden, washed collard greens, made cornbread and everything else, honey!!!

Ain't nothing like a hard working child!

And with that, you all have a great weekend! I'll be cutting grass and trimming hedges and painting my porch rails! OH JOY!!

(Where is Chayse when I need her!)

Good Kitty, Bad Kitty.

Oscar-Tyrone is a good kitty. He likes to lay in the middle of the floor and go to sleep.

I don't have a problem with this, as I can easily step over him.

I mean, I can leave yarn on the floor, and dude won't give it a second look.



On the other hand, there's Kramer William. He got isshas.

Sleeping in the dirty laundry.

And I caught him sleeping on top of the dryer the other day.



As you can see, he's looking at me like this shouldn't be an issue.



I didn't knock him down. Afterall, those are my sister Kentucky's towels, not mine.

LOL...

As Kramer is a temporary house guest, there's always a chance of him going home to his mama, Chayse.

Seems as if Chayse is ready for her son to come on home...



That's gonna be interesting.

I wonder what stories are gonna come out of that? Especially when Chayse's Mama has to clean up after him.

LOL.

We'll see.

You all have a very nice weekend!

First Day of School!

School has finally started in the ATL.

And the House of LadyLee Mascots took some pictures.

My coworker Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia took a picture of Chayse on her first day...

"What's up with that pose?" I asked.

"I don't know," Cynt said. "I just asked her to go stand by the fireplace and take a picture."



*Lee laughing hard at the puff ball on top of Chayse's head*

"That look like 'I ain't got time to do your hair', and you just snatched it up into an afro puff!"

Cynthia went through some whole explanation about the child's hair.

LOL... Whatever.

From these pictures, I can tell Chayse was happy to go to school!

And her cousins were happy too!

Man, I don't remember being THAT happy about the first day of school!

And afro puffs are all the rage now, aren't they?

House of LadyLee Mascots! Do well in school this year, you hear me!?

And be sure to send more pictures my way!

Holler at Me, Little Girl!

So...

My coworker Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia is walking around with MORE pics of Chayse.

She's a lil' ballerina now!

Get down girl!!

Look here... I surely would love to come to one of your recitals!

Really I would.

I'll skip all that for now.

Check it out: Holla at me in a bout 20 years, when you get down with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company!

Yeah, and hook up them free tickets!

And I ain't coming unless you are in the "Wade in the Water" segment!

And you better be the Dancer holding the umbrella, uh I mean... parasol!



Yeah, that's what's hot!!!

Keep dancing, Chayse. Keep on dancing.

Have a good weekend, ya'll... on purpose!

(Don't worry... I'm still posting this weekend...The 30 day quest continues! lol)

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: "Congratulations"

*Congratulations Chayse*

Graduating from Pre-K!

You's a big girl now!

Let's celebrate, little girl!

You can come on back over to my house and pick some more collard greens!

While you're at it, whip up a pan of cornbread!

Just playing!

You have time off (for now).

Congratulations!

And have a great summer!

Happy Good Friday and Happy Easter!

Hmmm...

You thought I wasn't gonna post today, did you?

Hmm...

Well I am!

I have satisfied my quota for post all week!

GLORY...

It is "Good Friday", and I am at WORK.

LadyTee called me early this morning while I was getting ready for work, hollering "Girl, I know you glad you're off from work today!!"

**crickets**

"Uh, no girl, I ain't off. I am on my way out the door right now."

Gub'ment employees don't get Good Friday off. HUMPH.

Sigh. Yep, have to work. And this is a good day to work because NO ONE is here.

Well, Hen-Dog, my workgroup superhero, was here. And I was joking with him because he didn't get a special Easter haircut like he did a couple of years ago...

That haircut, a pearl white 3-piece suit, and some white 'gators would sho nuff be HOT for Easter.

But alas the Superhero even left early today.

I am here until 6:30 p.m.

I am quite the worker bee, baby!

I want to leave you with a story I posted a couple of years ago about my favorite House of LadyLee mascot, Chayse. She was barely able to talk well way back then, at only 2 years old, but Easter with her (and her crazy Mama Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia and Daddy Hen-Dog) was fun, fun fun...

I enjoyed reading this story about her. It is an interesting tale of where she came from. She is a "workplace baby." This is funny to me, but over the years, it has been nice when the lil' girl has birthdays and what-not. We at work always do much for her...

And that was the case during Easter 2006...

Enjoy!!!

AN EASTER STORY.

So, last year, April 2006 (was Easter in April?), I didn't have any plans. I usually don't go to church on Holidays, because er'body and there mamas are up in that place. So I celebrate at home.

But last Easter I didn't have plans either, until Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia, my coworker and bootleg "Work-for-Free" manuscript editor, quietly eased up behind me in my cubicle and threw an Ebony Magazine on my desk. The magazine was open to a recipe for Sweet Potato Cheesecake.

"Lee... make this," she ordered, pointing to the recipe.

*LadyLee has COMPLETE conniption fit*

"Dang, Man! Dang Man! Back up off me! Back up off me!! I ain't makin' jack! Leave me alone!!!!"

She rolled her eyes in the usual manner and glided away.

Negroes LOVE to run up on me about a recipe. They know that I'm going to GO OFF... but I will probably end up doing it, especially if it is interesting.

Anyway, after I finished tripping out, and Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia had long gone, I picked up the magazine and perused the recipe. It looked easy enough. So I yelled over the cubicles for her to "Come here!". I told her that I would make the sweet potato cheesecake, but the only stipulation was that I wanted a piece of it. She was cool with that. She was going to come over for Easter and get it. I decided that I might as well make a day out of it and throw some meat on the grill, etc.

We had a plan...

However...

As she was walking away from my cubicle area, she yelled over her shoulder...

"And make my baby some Easter Eggs!"

This caused another small temper tantrum. I think I may have even swiped a few papers from my desk and turned a quite a few things over. Yep, pissed me off. (I have anger management isshas, you see.)

But I agreed to do it, even though I hadn't dipped hard-boiled eggs into colored water since my brother was a child.

This whole thing about the baby...

Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia has been on me to do a post on her baby Chayse. Chayse is 3 years old now, and was 2 at the time of the events in this post...

But what is a trip is that my coworker and personal chauffeurThe Infamous Hen-Dog is Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia's "baby Daddy".


I remember when Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia, who I didn't know very well, and who is also an UNUSUALLY quiet AND mean person (way moreso than myself), said she was pregnant. She got bigger and bigger and bigger.

I never wondered who the baby's father was. I don't get caught up in work politics. They better get my paycheck together and keep it moving. That's really all I care about, you see.

One of my coworkers and Hen-Dog made me sit down in a chair one sunny day, and they told me that... Hen-Dog was Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia baby's daddy. Of course, I thought it was a joke. It took me a few hours to believe them. I believed it more when I saw Hen running around to doctors appointments, etc...

They were creeping around. And what's funny, I ran into them at a Sprint store one day, and didn't even put 2 and 2 together. Just talked to them for a minute, and kept it moving. (Yes, I am dense).

All I know... Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia, I salute you, gal! You are one stealth undercover broad!!! That's all I gots to say about THAT!! LOL!!

Anyway, you have the history of the baby...

And for that Easter, I was to make some Easter Eggs for the baby. That was cool.

Easter 2006 arrives. I'd barbecued it up, man! We had chicken wings and steak!

And I'd made that doggone Sweet Potato Cheesecake.

It looks good, don't it? And it WAS good! Check out the side view:

I was like... you know, this recipe wasn't all that bad. (I had to do the bootleg, and throw some chopped pecans on top of it. Recipe didn't call for that!) Took me about an hour to prep everything. I was thinking... "I can make this for family get-togethers, book club functions..."

(Sidenote: Haven't made that cheesecake since then. Don't even know where the recipe is. I still have my springform pan, though!)

Moving right along.

I made the easter eggs. That was weird, because like I said, I haven't made them in awhile. I managed to crank out a dozen colorful eggs... I even wrote Chayse's name on them with that funky wax crayon that's included in the Paas kit.

Well, Hen-Dog, Ol Mean Ass Cynthia, and Chayse came over. We had dinner -chicken, steak, string beans, salad, baked potatoes, and sweet tea- and then decided to do an Easter egg hunt for Chayse out in my front yard.

"Hen-Dog, go hide the eggs," I said.

"I'm not hiding eggs. Chayse don't care. She don't know what to do. She's too young to remember something like that."

Now, both me and Cynthia looked at Hen like he'd been smoking crack or something. We argued back and forth about this. Hen was determined not to hide eggs. He was being a busta.

So I decided to hide the eggs myself.

"Cynthia... where is Chayse's Easter basket?"

Cynthia gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look. "Uh, I didn't bring it."

Meanwhile, Chayse is looking at all of us. She is eager to get things started.

"Cynthia, how you not gonna have a doggone Easter basket for her? What is wrong with you?"

Cynthia shrugged. "She has some baskets at home. I just forgot to bring one!"

Man, I wanted to pimp slap the both of them. They better be GLAD I didn't call DFACS.

I looked around my kitchen for something that Chayse could use to hold the eggs that she would find on her easter egg hunt. All I could came up with was an aluminum pan. Chayse didn't care. She grabbed it out of my hand, and was ready to go.

Meanwhile, Hen was still whining. "I don't know why ya'll wanna hide eggs for her. She too young to remember anything."

"Shut up, Hen!"

I went outside and hid the eggs. I didn't hide them, but laid them out in plain view around the porch and in potted plant that was next to the front door.

Hen-Dog was still whining.

We ignored him. Chayse went outside and started looking around.

Poor thing... she didn't have a colorful easter basket. Only a lone aluminum pan.

But she didn't seem to care. She was working it out!

She was VERY excited about her eggs!!! Very excited!

"Miss LadyLee!! Miss LadyLee!!"

I have eggs!!Look at my eggs! I HAVE EGGS!!" she screeched with waaaay too much glee.

Of course this all shocked the Infamous Hen-Dog. He stood in my doorway, and watched the 5 minute easter egg hunt. He stopped his whining. He didn't realize that Chayse would be so excited.
Gee, I'm sure that he felt pretty stupid right about then. Really though.

Dude even had the nerve to say... "Hey LadyLee, let me hold some of them eggs so I can hide some for her tomorrow."

I went off. "I ain't giving you NOTHING, man. You shoulda got out here and hid that baby's eggs!!!"

We eventually went back into the house. Chayse was still excited. She walked around my kitchen holding that pan of eggs like it was a pot of gold, still screaming "I have eggs!"

She even counted them for her Daddy.


"1, 2, 3, 4, 18, 13".

(Yeah, she still had to work on her counting. It's been a year, and she is much better now.)

Well we had cheesecake, and they all headed back down the street to Hen's house.

Not bad for an Easter, hunh!! (Except for the aluminum pan.)

So that is my Easter Story... A bit away from the norm, but hope you enjoyed it...

And I hope you had a HAPPY EASTER:) !!!

Basketball. Henry County. Baby Bandit #42.

Well, well, well...

The College basketball season is finally over.

Go Tarheels! Go UConn Ladies!!

Whooo-hooo!

I am REALLY looking forward to the NBA playoffs. (Go ATL Hawks!)

Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to attend any Atlanta Hawks games.

But I did attend some little league basketball games:

Down in Henry County, a county about 25 minutes south of downtown Atlanta.

First things first:

I don't like Henry County. AT ALL.

My Internist relocated down there a few years ago. I raised an eyebrow when she told me of it during an examination. She was trying to guage how her patients felt about the drive.

I only shrugged. But I know she could see in my eyes that I just don't like Henry County.

Why?

Because of this:

You can't make that out?

Look a little closer.



The Confederate Flag.

Yeah, let's just say the rednecks white people down there tend to be proud of there "good southern heritage".

And they even have fake deer in the yard in the picture above. They must like to hunt or something. It says to me "I will shoot you, you nigra, if you come in my yard! Oh I wish I was in Dixxxxiiiiieee!!"

Let's just say, I refuse to make doctor's appointments on Mondays because that's when those proud people ALL decide to leave their trailer parks and get together and go to the doctor. (You will not BELIEVE some of the stuff I've seen and heard in the doctor's office from a people so proud of their heritage. UGH).

But, I have braved the Henry county madness because of my good friend, the Green-Eyed Bandit, who lives there. I attend my Financial Freedom Fighters (Triple F Possee) meetings at her house every month.

And I attended her son "Baby Bandit" Ced's basketball games at the local rec center.

I don't care to attend children's games. Let's just say, I've had my fill of hauling my brother around to little league games. (Our Ma didn't care to deal with this craziness). I have shivered in the cold on many a park bleacher.

But I attended Ced's games. He looks at me with the puppy dog eyes ("You have to come, Miss LadyLee!"), and well, I can't help make the 45 minute drive DEEP into Henry county to attend his games whenever time permitted.

I was way deeper into Henry County than I cared to be. Those flag pictures above? That house is right across the street from the rec center.

But anyway, Ced's team didn't make it to the state playoffs. His team came in second place.

Baby Bandit was MAD. The boy was HOT behind that.

He wouldn't even take a picture for me.

Baby Bandit: "Turn around so Lee can take your picture".
Lee: "Uh n'awl... Leave the boy alone. He mad."

He was HOT. I got a picture of him when he turned around a little, to listen to the "woo, woo, woos" of his Mama.



I would've been pissed off too. They wouldn't throw the boy the ball when he was open. He was playing some SERIOUS defense, and was at the free throw line a lot.



And he got a second place trophy. I told Green Eyed Bandit to hold it up to his back so I can get a picture of it.



I was very proud of him. He did a good job, hustled hard. Even though it was second place, that was a good thing. He should be proud of his accomplishment.

I thought he would be sad FOREVER, but he wasn't. I saw him a couple of weekends ago, standing in his kitchen washing dishes, laughing and joking as usual...

Back to normal.

You'll have more successes, #42!!

You surely will!

And I will be there to support you, any which way I can! I like to see young peoples doing positive thangs!

(And I will be snapping plenty more pictures. Uh, I can sell those when you make it into the NBA!)

LOL!!

Happy Birthday Chayse!

I would like to wish a Happy belated Birthday to my favorite House of LadyLee Mascot...

**Happy Birthday Chayse**

Chayse turned 5 last Saturday.

(Man, I can't even remember turning 5 years old. I am getting old)

She is a great kid, and a most excellent mother to her son Kramer William!!

Uh, yeah... Kramer is still on some weird extended "permanent vacation" at my house. She comes over to visit her child periodically. (I'ma call DFACS on her lil' behind).

I sent her a birthday card in the mail.


She is a Dora the Explorer FANATIC. I bought the sticker set some 4 months ago, and I had to tare up my bedroom looking for them. There was NO way I was going to keep the stickers around (Besides, that wide-eyed monkey creature creeps me out a bit. He looks high or something.)

I also bought her 4 books. I don't have any wrapping paper, so I used scrapbooking paper. It seems to have worked just fine.

I even put her name on them.
I had to buy her some books that had BIG words and paragraphs and stuff. We've read together a few times, and she likes that type of stuff ("Don't help me with the words, Miss LadyLee, I can sound them out myself!!!"). So, uh, with her high reading level, I had to get some stuff for an 8 year old - Snow White, A princess book, a fairy book, and a Little Red Riding hood book.

I showed the books to her Daddy, our workgroup Super Hero Hen-Dog, and asked if I had to read them to see if there was anything inappropriate in them. He said "No, if there is, she will tell us."

LOL!!

Alrighty then!

He said she started reading her books right then at her birthday party.

Now that's a chick with a future. Put the toys down and read books!

So Chayse, Happy Birthday Chile. You alright with me.

I hope, no, I KNOW, that year #5 will bring great things!!

Hoop Dreams

My coworker, Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia is REALLY mean.

Her cubicle is on the opposite side of mine, but every morning, she likes to walk around to my side, and say "Good Morning".

This scares the heck out of me most of the time because she is TERRIBLY quiet when she moves. She doesn't walk, but she glides. It is VERY vampire or ghostlike, the way she moves around. She seems to get a sick kick out of walking up and scaring me.

That is so mean.

Well, we had an interesting convo before Christmas. We were discussing some paperwork, I believe, when she busts out with...

"Give me them earrings out of your ear. My baby needs some earrings."

*crickets*

It took a minute for all of that to register. Her baby is one of my House of LadyLee mascots, Chayse, who has been the subject of many a post over in these parts.

"No," I yelled.

What seemed like a slight argument started up. And I have to be careful about Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia. She's the type of broad who would knock me down and snatch the earrings out of my ears.

And I wanted NO parts of that.

"She can't have my earrings. I need to buy some more, so I will just buy Chayse a pair."

She gave me the blank stare. This meant that she was satisfied with that answer.

Now, I wear simple small gold hoop earrings. I will slit my throat if I have to match earrings with outfits. I wear sweats to work everyday- no need for anything fancy.

I'm a tomboy, and simple gold hoops gives me just a touch of feminity.

Chayse is a girly-girl, and wears big earrings. But her Grandma Christine said "She looks like a gypsy."

LOL!!

Poor child needed some earrings.

So I headed to the bootleg Discou.nt Mall on Old National Highway to pick up some earrings.

One thing I hate is dealing with surly Asian folk who sell jewelry. Yeah, we know you've been looking at negroes ALL day, and you don't like us. But doggonit, that's no reason to try to dupe me.

So they tried to sell me hoops that were not the same size. They tried to sell me hoops that had differing designs on them. Just weird stuff.

I FINALLY negotiated with one chick for some decent hoops that would fit Chayse's ears.

They had the NERVE to try and charge me 30 bucks for these, but I negotiated down to 18 bucks (which was still too much, but I got tired of arguing). I wanted a bigger set of hoops for myself, but they were REALLY tripping.So I will get those some other time.

So, I gave Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia the hoops. She actually said "thank you". Hmm... the woman has a somewhat nice side.

I got a call last night. "My baby wants to talk to you."

Chayse got on the phone. "Thank you, Miss LadyLee."

"You're welcome, baby," I said.

She then went on to talk and talk about some other stuff. (I have no idea what she was talking about. You know how kids can be.)

She even took a photo.

Those look good, Chayse.

Now, you don't look like a gypsy.

I told her she could just leave them in.

I told her to be sure not to lose them.

And Ol' Mean Ass Cynthia... don't run back up on me demanding my earrings if she does lose them.