It is factbook time again.
While researching, I came across Alabama’s 2004 At a Glance PDF.
In 2004, the day with the least amount of births was my birthday. The day that the most divorces were finalized on was my wedding anniversary.
Other fun facts you need to know:
• The oldest dude to father a child in the Heart of Dixie was gettin’ busy at 76.
• The oldest groom to walk down the aisle* was 100.
• The greatest number of previous marriages for a female divorcee? Eighteen. Cause, y’know, if at first you don’t succeed…
• In the top ten names for newborn girls, two names were palindromes: Hannah and Anna.
• In the top ten names for boys, only two names weren’t Biblical: William and Christopher**
*At presstime, we could not confirm that the gentleman actually walked down the aisle.
**I mean, those aren’t in the Bible, are they?
322 Locust Street
Downtown Gadsden
(256) 547-1799
Grand opening… sometime in March.
mox·ie
mäk-sE, noun
1 Energy, pep
2 Courage, determination
3 Know-how, expertise
(So says Webster)
Kris booked his first client for Gadsden today. Yay! The appointment will be March 10. Time to get a second appointment book.
The good thing about having to get two of everything is that Kris can open a new account for the Gadsden salon and get all sorts of deals and freebies. The bad thing is that with some of the stuff, you gotta pay cash upfront.
This weekend, we go pick out paint to give the place a funky new feel. Next week, the hunt is on for equipment.
He got a phone number for the place this morning, but as there is no phone yet, I’ll let him unveil that. (As well as the name when he chooses.)
There has been much grace so far. Emosewa!
Wow, Debbie let me know in the comments that Chad and Robin are also in the baby-having set this year.
And then Dee and Tony went and already had theirs. Yay, Kayleigh! Any chance you’re named after the character on Serenity?
But then, man, oh then. Kris calls and I’m gonna be an aunt! Mike and Raygen are expecting.
Babies, babies, everywhere babies!
I guess there’s this place on the mountain where people dump their old tires. (Cause it costs real human money to dispose of them properly.) Not only is this littering, it’s a danger cause if those tires catch fire, oh will they burn. Tires burn anaerobically, so once it starts, it is on.
Les, ever the artist, chose to do something about it:
Naturally, her efforts weren’t appreciated:
(See more of the sequence on Les’s Flickr page.)
Hey, so I said that 2006 will be the Year of the Baby? Found out yesterday that a pal is preggers. But I’ll refrain from saying who until I know if it’s okay to tell the internet. That brings the Expected Babies of 2006 total to five so far.
Due in February: Dee & Tony
Due in March: Rebecca Clark
Due in April: Patti & Danny
Due in May: Nate & Lori
Not sure when *****’s will be due.
And on a completely unrelated note, I love my cats. Sure, Satine is in my lap, making my leg go to sleep and Frodo is walking all over the desk, sure to come and chase the mouse in a moment… but when I am in a foul mood, either because I am mean or someone was mean to me, these little felines don’t judge me. They just let me be, and sometimes letting them sit on my lap or them letting me stroke their fur is just the relaxation I need.
Sure, I could pray. Sometimes that’s what I do. But sometimes the funk hits so hard that I can’t muster a prayer. Maybe it’s during those times that the very nature of God is exhibited in the nature He created. A little box of fur that just wants to sit with me, whether I deserve it or not.
It has arrived, The Gadsden Times comics survey. Please go take it. You have until Feb. 6 to put in your two cents. Personally, there are some funnies that I hope get booted and some that I’d like to see get a chance. But I’m thinking most of the readers who will answer the survey are the kind to root for the ones I want to boot.
Kris has been trying for a few weeks now to find a place to work in Gadsden. He can’t make the switch whole-hog (now there’s a phrase that shows I grew up rural) cause we have bills that depend on steady income, but we think it’s time to start the transition.
There have been ups and downs to the quest. The downs include people with cool salons not calling back, everywhere being commission instead of booth rental and a lack of space. Ups have included people being really excited about the idea, whether they be clients, potential clients, fellow stylists, salon owners, landlords, etc.
So, being the crazyinsane people that we Catoes are, we started thinking “what if instead of finding a place to work, we went ahead and started a salon?”
It’s not a done deal yet, but we did find a space. Kris came up with a name. I made a logo. He procured a business license. Next week we’ll start looking for used salon chairs, dryer chairs, etc.
It could really happen.
When I signed up with Blogger and had to fill out fields like “blog name” and “blog summary” and make my first attempt at posting, I just let whatever song popped in my head end up onscreen.
Which is why this blog is called “Stuck in the Middle, with You.” (The comma being my statement artistique.) It’s also why the subhead used to be “if you don’t know me by now, you will never ever know me.” My first official post was “I’m just a girl,” but I deleted it to practice deleting posts.
Anyway, what I’m saying here is that there’s no big reason for the title. I feel a little roped into keeping it, though, cause it’s been picked up and used on AL.com’s Bama Bloggers page as well as on something called Cap City Free Press with a list of “some of Alabama’s most prolific bloggers.”
So all of you who keep finding the site cause you’re looking for the song? Sorry.
P.S. No illo today because the theme is one that I would like to take more time with.
If you go to Fredo’s, I recommend that you do not order the spinach lasagna (Jaimie, yours is sooooo much better and you haven’t even made it since 2001). However, I do recommend that you get the bread pudding, because it is the awesome.
I would also like to recommend a book Liz gave me for Christmas: gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson. The picture does not link to Amazon, because if you read the book, I think you should read it the way I did. Just sit down, open it up and go. Don’t read a synopsis. Let it unfold as a surpise.
At the beginning of chapter one, I did have a sort of “oh, no, it’s one of those.” A mild nose upturning because I’m tired of southern books that have characters with names like Rose Mae or Billy Bob. And then she ventured into Christian couple make-out territory and I thought “oh, no, it’s one of those?”
[Digression: the only book that I have ever quit reading just because it sucked so bad was a "Christian romance" that I bought without knowing that's what it was. There may be wonderfully well-written Christian romance literature out there, but as I have not seen it, when I think of "Christian romance" I get the same sort of distaste that I do when a recipe calls something pizza that is obviously in no way pizza-like. I mean, you have one English muffin-cold marinara-unmelted mozzarella experience and you're leery, y'know?]
Yet by the end of chapter one, I was totally intrigued. I stayed up until midnight just to keep reading. There were some satisfying mystery elements (Did she? Or didn’t she? Will she? Or won’t she?), some twists and turns and some kudzu. But I think what I liked best was that the flashbacks were told working their way back while the present tense action moved forward.
Anyway, good read.
For two days at work, I have been up to my eyeballs in the funnies. We’re preparing a “Comics Survey” to run in the paper this Sunday. (It will also be available online.) Basically, this is a chance to bump some of the insanely unfunny funnies (I’m looking at you, Snuffy Smith) for some marginally funnier ones.
For the love of all that is holy, please take the survey, my friends! I will pester you again when it’s time.
During my comic toils, I came across this panel in an Arlo & Janis strip:
True dat.
Kris and I are trying out Fredo’s tonight with my Dad and Patsy. Dad ordered our Christmas presents online and they didn’t make it here by the 25th. January Christmas at Fredo’s!
