Yesterday at the grocery store - the conversation I overheard while waiting in line to buy my groceries:

Very Young Male Cashier: So. Uh. Your accent. Are you from Europe? Or…the other one?
Australian Customer: I’m Australian.
Cashier: Yeah. I knew it was one of those two.
Customer: Mmmm.
Cashier: Some people try to say you can’t tell the difference but I always say you can!
Customer: Yes. You’re right. You can.

SERIOUSLY. This happened. I SWEAR.

In the cashier’s defense, he was very young. Possibly 16 even. And when I was 16 I might have used the words “England” and “Europe” interchangeably. I’d like to think I didn’t, but I don’t know. Maybe I did. Geography wasn’t a strong point of mine.

But how hard do you think it had to be for that woman not to set him straight? Or at least be really sarcastic. I mean…I would have probably answered, “The other one.” Just to screw with him. Or I would have said something like, “The other what? The other continent? There are six others…which one are you referring to?” But she was waaay nicer than I would have been and just interpreted the small talk he was trying to start up and responded in the simplest way possible so he would not feel like a dumbass.

Pretty nice for a lady from That Place Other Than Europe.

Mondays can often suck. And for me? This is going to be a really sucky Monday for a long list of reasons I’ll refrain from boring you with. However, uploading my pictures this morning and seeing this gem? Made the day sunny for me. I mean - COME ON. What is up with that smile? I told her I was going to take a picture of Pooh in the carseat and she said, “And me!” Then she gave me this hysterical smile. I had forgotten about that picture until I saw it on the computer this morning. Brilliant.

Take that, Monday. Let’s see you screw with me now.

We all know I’m a total Flickr whore, right? I love Flickr with all of my heart and dream of a day when I have enough photos listed on the explore page that I can do one of those cool posters everyone else does.

Of course, it would be the one photo with the crappy lighting and ugly shadows that makes it. AND in the one room of my house we haven’t fixed up yet - showing the hideous wallpaper trim. AND the one time my daughter is running around in her diaper: white-trash style. It couldn’t have been any of my gorgeous Easter photos or great flower shots. Nope. Has to be the crappy picture with my husband looking like a crazed maniac.

Awesome.

Our house in the morning is a very weird place. MrZ and I both wake up feeling mildly goofy which lends itself to some entertaining moments. If, by “entertaining” you mean, “stupid and childish.” Here are several scenes from this morning that you would have enjoyed had you been a fly on the wall. These moments remind me how totally awesome my life is.

• MrZ’s re-enactment of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle performance (from the second movie) where they’re all “Go Turtles, Go Turtles, Go!” He even added the dance moves for good measure. His skills are nothing if not relevant to today’s trends. (Edited to Add: MrZ actually said “Ninjas” instead of “Turtles”. I got it wrong when I typed it because I was watching high caliber movies like “Ghostbusters” instead.)
• NikkiZ held up her hand in a “Stop!” gesture to which I responded, “Stop. Collaborate and listen.” At this point MrZ joined me in performing as much of “Ice, Ice, Baby” as we could recall. It was actually quite a bit. I’m sure there are spaces in our brains giving up remembering historical dates or medical knowledge so that those lyrics can be saved for moments just like those.
• There was quite a goofy exchange we made following the statement from MrZ, “We don’t really have half a bag of the fake ground beef. It’s more like a quarter-bag.” To which I giggle (of course) and continued to make drug-related ambiguous statements about that particular quarter-bag of fake meat.

LilZ has an upcoming choir performance they’ve been practicing for at school. (A school choir - of course - we’re heathens who hate God and are allergic to church. Although they’re performing in a church, hopefully we won’t catch religion by being there for a few hours.) He’s been getting excited the closer it gets and comes home every day singing the carols from that night.

(He also sings them in his older, much higher voice. His voice is changing but he doesn’t quite know how to convert that in singing. And since I sound like a dying cat in heat when I sing, I have no idea how to coach him on that.)

This is what he was telling us about last night:

Him: We had to practice on the risers today. It was kinda scary being high up with nothing to hold on to but people. Who don’t really want you holding on to them.
MrZ: (using his Wrestling Announcer Guy voice) And Tonight! Live from This Huntsville Baptist Church! We have EXTREME CHOIR PERFORMANCES!

And then I died because I started laughing and choking on whatever I was eating.

The end.