The people I know are funny.

Okay, Internet. It's time to talk about things that have made me laugh lately.

In no particular order:

1. Carrie had been unemployed for a long while and ended up moving in with her parents (NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT). Her unemployment lasted long enough that she started telling prospective employers that she'd taken some time off work to "care for her aging parents." This cracked me up because her parents are a KICK IN THE PANTS and surely did not need anyone to "care" for them, but whatever works, right?

So one awesome day when Carrie got a new job I sent her a card congratulating her and telling her that I thought it was really kind of her to take the time to care for her aging parents and what a good person that made her.

Except that because Carrie and I have had the not-so-good fortune of not both being employed at the same time for like two and a half years, the same week she started her new job, I lost mine.

And then a few days later this card came in the mail:



And then I lolled.

Smart ass.

Unfortunately for MY aging parents, I found a job pretty quickly (THIS time!) and was not able to give them all the care they may have needed.

2. Carrie's new job involves working for a pretty conservative bank and suddenly one of the most fashion forward people I know has to wear blazers and simple accessories. Since she just HAPPENS to have her own personal Stella & Dot stylist (AHEM!) I got her a deal on some of the less BLINGIN' S&D bling and when she mailed me a check, it came in another funny-bone-hitting card:





3. Here's another one for you Carrie fans out there:



So what?

A beach chair and umbrella on the beach? Not so funny, even if it does look like a valentine with all that pink and red.

But look closer:



That's a rain umbrella zip-tied to her beach chair.

But sheesh Carrie, that's an ugly ass umbrella. Since when are you buying romantical looking pink umbrellas?

Turns out, it was A FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE umbrella, which somehow makes it extra funny to me.

I don't know why she didn't have a regular beach umbrella (because I know she has one), but I do know that she's her father's daughter and there's nothing those two can't fix with a zip-tie.

A+ for resourcefulness Carrie!

4. This one features -- gasp -- SOMEONE OTHER THAN CARRIE!

So Walkera and I are going to Joanie's wedding on Saturday. It's in Oregon. I bought our plane tickets and she was going to pay me back.

I got an email from Walkera a week or so later asking me how much she owed me for her "airline ticket."

I replied and asked if we were going to Oregon or to the 1960's.

She laughed and said she must have been channeling her inner Mad Men.

And then she sent me this check:



5. And then speaking of smart aleky smart asses in my life, my SIL-Who-Does-Not-Wear-John-Deere-Pajamas gave me these for my birthday:



So now *I* have suddenly become *her* SIL-Who-DOES-Wear-John-Deere-Pajamas!!!

For those of you considering a John Deere pajama purchase, let me warn you that they make these with a very low rise. I think they're supposed to be sexy in that flannel farmer kind of way.

6. And finally, my mom is another one to crack me up lately. She has just returned from a 9 day road trip with my dad. They flew to Chicago so she could attend a conference and then drove to San Antonio where my dad will stay for another week or so while he attends a couple of Marine reunions.

Each day she was gone, she'd send KOOKY tales-from-the-road emails. This one is my favorite:

Something awful happened to me during my sleep -- I was bitten by a bug, or struck by lightening -- both possible, and I jumped up out of bed this morning and IRONED DAD'S SHIRT!!!!!! My children, forgive me if the mother you knew does not return- tell Sarah it will be me who gets off the plane in blue denim coveralls. Of course, we haven't hit Memphis yet, so I might bejewel the coveralls before I actually get home.

I did shop at Nordstrom in Chicago, but I was feeling the Mid West feeling there because I shopped at Walgreens too- and then stuffed my Nordstrom bag into the Walgreens one. Elizabeth, where has my sense of style gone? I am afraid by the time we hit Tennessee later today I will have a piece of straw in my teeth.

Time for breakfast at Denny's- not quite the same as breakfast at Tiffany's, but do not judge me.

There's another one where she detailed the decline in public restroom cleanliness as they went further south in Mississippi and about how she does not advise eating at a particular Subway outside of New Orleans because if the employees were using that filthy bathroom then there's no hope of getting a clean sandwich.

And one about their visit to Graceland and how Priscilla Presley's wedding dress should be a lesson in picking something too trendy because you never know when your wedding dress will be made into a tourist attraction so it really ought to stand the test of time.

And another one where she and my dad agreed that if he is ever shot and killed, she wouldn't have been the one pulling the trigger because the steps involved: #1, finding a gun, #2 finding the ammunition and #3 hiring someone to shoot him because she wouldn't like the loud bang and besides, because of her arthritis she can't even use a can opener or open a bottle of water by herself so she wouldn't be able to even pull the trigger.

And then sometimes the occasional pictures:







I'm sure she'd like to blame my own flavor of crazy on my dad but I'm not so sure that's accurate.