Don't bug me, Mo is now two two and Orchestra Seats at a Bris?

Where in the world did someone come up with the phrase "as cute as a bug's ear"? There is nothing adorable about bugs or their ears (do bugs even have ears?). Let's begin by telling you about how I feel about bugs, insects or any live creepy crawlers. I don't like them. Whether they are inside or outside....I still don't like them. For this reason I am not into Camping. The only thing close to "camping" I will do is have a chocolate covered marshmallow at a Hyatt Hotel. Okay, so I am not an outdoorsey type but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy going on adventures.....as long as there are no bugs I'm fine. Steve on the other hand has no problem with bugs. He has been known to play, eat, decapitate, squish, flush, cook and capture bugs. Every late summer we get "flying ants" that invade our front porch area. YO and Steve eagerly anticipate the arrival of these pests ......here's the usual conversation between these two Nars on FLYING ANT DAY.

YO - "Steve! The ants are here! The ants are here!....when are you coming home"?
STEVE - "I will be there as soon as I can"
YO - "Bring your blowtorch"

STEVE - "Got it....see ya soon"

Now, if you have never witnessed this you must come by next time this yearly event occurs. Steve and YO are on the front porch with a million flying ants. Steve has the blowtorch at full tilt and YO is the only one in the audience. Steve aims the torch at all the ants and annihilates them by frying them to a crisp. YO is mesmerized by this and the two of them are having the time of their lives. Does this sound like fun to you? Try living with these two guys. I am getting to my point...hang on....

Thursday night we settled in to watch Greys Anatomy in our room. I was snuggled under my covers and from the corner of my eye I looked up to see a silverfish on the ceiling near Steve's side of the bed. Ever since I was a little girl I have had a pretty good knack of spotting unwanted creatures in the house. Now that I am a bit older I have to put on my glasses to determine whether or not the said CREATURE is in fact an insect or a piece of sock lint.

"Steve!!!! I see a bug"! I scream. "So?", Steve replies. "So? So, please come here and retrieve it", I ask. Steve walks into the room....analyzes the insect and goes back downstairs to refill his teacup. "AHHHHHH! Where are you going! Aren't you going to kill the bug"?, I screech. "Ya, I'll be right back", he says nonchalantly. "Oh my G-d", I scream...."I can't believe you are leaving me here with that THING on the ceiling", I say.

At this point the bug is motionless. Just sitting quietly on the ceiling near the electrical cord of the hanging lamp. I don't see Steve returning rapidly enough so I call MO to my rescue. MO enters the room and walks over to look at the culprit on the ceiling. He then proceeds to talk to the bug AND it started running.  I have no idea what MO said to agitate the insect but I believe he told it to head for the hills. As soon as it began moving I jumped up, stood on the bed and started screaming for a tissue.....as if the bug knew that it was about to be squished it disappeared into a small hole in the ceiling. Out of sight but not out of  MY mind. Here comes my husband back into the room with his replenished cup of tea. "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!" I cried. "Now the stupid bug is gone and I don't know where it is!" I said. He put down his teacup and stood up on the bed looking for the bug. What was the point now? The bug was most likely peering at Steve through the hole it was hiding in and thinking...."ya sucker, I'm in here but you can't get me now because you had to go and get yourself another tea....Ha Ha". There are two of us standing on the bed now looking at the ceiling. "hmmm....I don't seem to see it anymore", he says. NO DUH.  The bug was not lame. It knew that the only person who could murder it quickly was making a TEA so it took the GO-TRAIN to the next station. Steve sat back down on the bed and I looked at him and said.... "Well, what are we going to do now"? "What do you mean, what are we going to do now"? he replied. "We are going to watch Greys and go to sleep, that's what we are going to to do now", explained Tilly the Tea Drinker. "GO TO SLEEP"? "WITH A BUG IN THE CEILING", I said incredulously. This is when Steve enlightened me with the fact that this bug was not the only bug in the house. According to him there are hundreds of hidden insects living in the house but they don't always come out at the same time. HUNDREDS? How do you expect me to relax knowing that the house is infested with hundreds of small insects. Is this a piece of information you tell someone who has enough trouble falling asleep just before bedtime? Now I am imagining what CAN transpire during the night and I am trying to figure out how I can secure all my orfaces.

The only thing I manage to do is put in earplugs so that the "Monsieur Bug" doesn't jump down on my head and crawl into my brain via my ear (with his other hundred friends) while I am sleeping. We start watching Greys and I transform into Marty Feldman (one eye on the TV and the other on the Ceiling).

Last week as you know MO was fitted for a brand new suit. One of his gifts purchased for his twenty second birthday. He could hardly contain his excitement until it was finally ready last week for pick up. His older brother FO (first one) was kind enough to get it for him as he was going to be at the mall with his girlfriend CHLO. As soon as the suit arrived home, MO proceeded to try it on. I made him pose for me for a pic even though MO is photo shy. I title this shot - MO IN HIS BIRTHDAY SUIT. He is so cute, he wants to wear it everywhere...even to the dentist.

We couldn't decide where to go to celebrate his birthday so there were a couple of suggestions made. One was Baton Rouge, a restaurant with a varied menu. Steak, ribs, chicken, burgers, salads ....you name it they have it. I called to make a reservation and the hostess said "we can only let you have the table from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., then we need it back". What? We need it back? MO wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of "giving back the table" so he came up with another idea. Let's go for ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI instead! I gave birth to three sons whose motto has been and will always be "YA CAN'T BEAT ALL YA CAN EAT". And so, we cancelled our reservation to the "NEED THE TABLE BACK AT 8:30" and made a reservation at "LET'S SEE HOW MUCH WE CAN EAT BY 8:30". When we arrived at the sushi joint the owner looked at YO and recognized him. He is on the world's most wanted "all ya can eat" list. The menu is printed on the front side of your placemat. YO can't read his  after he starts eating because he "splashes it".

I reached into my purse and pulled out my hot pink highlighter then proceeded to select from an array of sushi, noodles, tempura and Japanese delicacies.When all was said and done we had consumed over 120 sushi rolls and the owner was really happy to see us leave.

It was a full and busy week......I even  had time to fit in a BRIS on Friday. Steve's bro and his wife had a baby boy who needed some trimming and so the ritual was performed even though the baby was unaware that he had to become a FULL JEW.  If you have never attended this traditional type of religious ceremony let me explain what happens in laymen terms.

1. The parents produce a boy
2. The parents are Jewish
3. The baby is semi-Jewish until after the bris
4. There are relatives and friends present
5. There are bagels and cream cheese present (sometimes egg and tuna are present)
6. There is a Mohel present (pronounced MOY EL) - he is the snipper
7. There is a unsuspecting baby present - he is the snippee
8. There are people crying and laughing present
9. There are presents
10. There are sharp instruments present
11. There is wine present
12. There is a penis present
13. There is skin present
14. There is no skin present anymore

end of bris.

A bris is an event where you never want to sit in the front row....except if you are my husband. You see, Steve is always willing to learn new things and thinks that he can master any task if he just watches ONCE. Attention all JEWS - Hide your newborn sons.

Jewish Joke:

Q. Why do Jewish women always go for men who are circumcised?


A: Because they find it hard to refuse anything with 10% off.

Boxers & Briefs are Better than nothing, Grey is Suitable for Mo and In Sickness there is Wealth

5 a.m. - what are you usually doing at 5 a.m.? I know what I'm doing....sleeping ....but last Tuesday was a different story. The perks of being married to someone who is in the Security Business is .....a free alarm system. Fully installed and monitored by the man who owns the company. Lucky me! At 5 a.m. last Tuesday...with all in the house tucked under the covers asleep nice and cozy toasty....the alarm started blaring throughout the deep darkness.  Enter Steve - A.K.A. - The Alarm Guy.... and exit to almost 11 years ago. When I first met Steve I wondered if he was a boxer or brief guy. Wouldn't you have wondered the same? Normally this would not be something of importance to those who were dating but if you followed my dating experiences - they were far from normal. So I wondered......boxers or briefs......and to be honest if it was brief so was the relationship. Could I judge a man by his choice of underwear? Yes. Why? Because boxers are sexy and briefs....well..... briefs are not. Case closed in my mind. It's no wonder I had 52 blind dates. Somewhere down the line the mystery of what Steve was wearing under his trousers was revealed. He was not a brief man.....nor was he a boxer man......he was enrolled in the armed forces......A commando type. Ugghh. Just as I was starting to like him I discovered that nothing came between him and his Calvins. Not only did he save on laundry without having to worry about underwear I also noticed that he preferred to sleep without the addition of clothing as well. I can't relate to this type of barbaric birthday suit behaviour. In the Summer I have to have on my little shorty shorts and a tankie and in the Winter I have to wear the little tankie with long pj's. Steve's sleepwear has no seasonal value......he wears the same suit every night.....weather is not a factor. I have offered to buy him several pairs of proper nightwear but he refuses to put them on. I believe he feels like he is back in the womb while he sleeps. He's in the womb while I'm in the room. Give me strength.  Here's my point.....we are sleeping at 5:00 a.m. last Tuesday and off goes the ALARM SIRENS. I bury my head deeper under my covers hoping that whoever or whatever set the siren off will go away quickly....but it is still ringing......I suddenly feel alone in bed...for good reason......my husband is running around in the buff downstairs trying to "fix" the problem. It wasn't a simple remedy but Repairman Steve figured it out. Diagnosis? Loose contact on the sliding door. When I saw Steve in the morning I asked him if we were robbed. Notice how the boys never left their safe rooms to find out if we were being ransacked? Huge chickens. So Steve assured me that we would always be safe with him around. I have to think about that for a minute. We are all secure with someone who can't conceal a weapon because of his desire to live in nudist colony? I don't think so. It's time to buy my own gun.

The last suit I bought my middle one (MO) was over nine years ago for his Bar Mitzvah. With two other brothers having new threads it was at his request that he get new attire for some upcoming family events. Off we went to Vaughan Mills to do some shopping. Just in case you didn't know, please realize that my children don't "shop" well. They are typical men with no patience for malls and stores. When MO said he wanted to go to find himself a new suit I was surprised. Let's see how this pans out once we get there. I don my FUGGS for comfort - it was dry outside so there was no chance of a slip and fall. Once we entered the mall parking lot the fun began. Finding a spot was easy as it was not peak hours for suit shopping. I had a strategic plan set forth for the specialty men's stores. We start at one end of the mall and with any luck we get a suit at the first store we visit. Understand this...Vaughan Mills is not really a mall ...it is a small city with Zones similar to suburbs. We entered in Zone 1 - Store #1.  Store # 1 used to have "specials". Buy a suit - get a free tie, shirt, socks and belt. I am looking for the Buy One get lots of free shit sign and it's nowhere to be found. Hmmm....I haven't been in this store for three years. Thinking back I realized that we shopped at this store pre-recession. Now they don't have to give anything away for free anymore because if you need suit you are going to buy one regardless if there is any incentives. As we walk into the store we notice that it is empty with the exception of two sales people - a guy who thinks he is G-d's gift to the world and a well endowed girl in flip flops. Uh...isn't it still Winter? Who wears flip flops at the beginning of March? It's not pedicure season yet! So we both approach the desk where these two "sales people" are poised. "Is there anyone here who can help us find a suit", I ask politely? The G-d's gifter isn't interested....the Boob Babe grudgingly comes out from behind the counter. MO asks for a grey suit. Simple grey suit. Nothing fancy. Miss Boob goes for the most expensive suit in the joint. "What happened to your buy one get four free things sale", I inquire? Miss Booblee just stares at me and says "Wow, that sale must have been going on before I started here a few years ago". Now MO is in the changeroom with the pricey suit and I tell her to find a few other choices. Miss B. now goes to try to find more suits. She returns to let us know that there is nothing in MO's size. Enter G-d. He brings a couple of choices for MO that Miss Boobers obviously missed because she had trouble seeing the racks because of her rack. MO continues trying on jackets that fit and pants that don't. You see...men's suits come in Jacket size with pants that match in a size that whoever makes these two piecers think YOU SHOULD BE. So for example, a size 40 Jacket has a size 34 Pant. A size 42 Jacket has a size 36 pant. There is where the problem arises......MO is a 40 Jacket and a possible 35 pant. This is the part where I ask Miss Top Heavy Rack if there are mix and match suits to which she replies "no, we have none left". Enter G-d's most wonderful creation in his own mind again.....holding a two piece suit that is mix and match but is BLACK. What part of Black is Grey? Mr. G-d I'm fabulous wasn't too smart. Once MO exhausted the entire grey collection I decided to step in and suggest to BOOBHEAD the old "can you please hold this one for an hour and we'll be back routine". I have many "get out of store lines quickly" up my sleeve:

1. I'll be right back ....just have to grab my wallet from the car....(exit...never come back)
2. I have to show these to my husband and he's waiting in the mall...(exit...never come back)
3. Can you hold these? ( exit....never come back)
4. Is there a bathroom in the mall? ( exit....never come back)
5. What time does the mall close because I need to get to an appointment? (exit...never come back)
6. I need to take a walk to think about this purchase (exit.....never come back)
7. Got to grab a drink  in the foodcourt to take my prescription pill with.... (exit...never come back)

So I grab MO and tell MISS BOOBER that we need to go for a walk...please hold the suit....(we never came back). MO then informs me that if he was there by himself he would have bought anything from her because of her large chest.....why are men so dumb? The good news is....MO and I went through Zones 1 through 6 and ended up back at Zone 1 across from the first store. We walked in and spot a salesman who is wearing a measuring tape around his neck because he's a professional and confident that we will not leave the store without a purchase no matter what excuse I come up with. "Can I help you", he asks? "Yes, please", I say. "My son needs a grey suit from the back of the store, not the front, not the middle, keep walking towards the back", I motion. The reason why is this. The front of the store houses the Banker/Wall Street Suits - Is MO a banker or a stock broker? NO. The middle of the stores houses the EMPLOYED FULL TIME suits - Is MO employed full time? NO. He is a student. The back of the store houses the suits that are for those who wear a suit twice a year. Perfect for MO. He slips on the jacket and pants in his size and emerges from the changeroom......runway model material. Out comes the measuring tape and my credit card - mission accomplished in over 6 zones.

Friday night - We are all gathered around the table for dinner to celebrate the purchase of MO's suit. Just as we are digging in Steve suddenly stops eating, clutches his stomach and puts down his fork. "I don't feel so good", he says. I immediately start diagnosing the symptoms.

1. COLD FEET
2. UPPER STOMACH PAIN
3. SUDDEN ONSET OF FEVER

Sounds like a heart attack to me....It's a good thing I'm not a doctor eh?
I instruct Steve not to die because I have no patience to date again. As well, I double check that the life insurance policy has been kept up do to date.

Having had three boys I can predict an oncoming stomach bug-look but not this time. This time it presented more like the after effects of a bad corned beef sandwich rather than the flu. You see, Thursday night we had take-out from the Pickle Barrel. I have the same SAFE thing everytime I go there. Honey Mustard Chicken Wrap, side salad and a kabob of fruit. Steve on the otherhand orders a SEMI-POISONOUS deli plate with corned beef, rye bread and mashed potatoes. When he orders this meal I can't help but think of my dearly departed Uncle Zelig. Uncle Zelig was a jolly man. He was also quite jiggly. I attribute the jiggliness to an over indulgence of processed deli meats..... and then he died.....from eating tons of corned beef...I swear...that's why. According to the American Journal of Medicine Corned Beef is one of the top ten foods that causes IBS otherwise known as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. My fear is that if Steve keeps up the habit of Corned Beef platters he will end up with UZD (Uncle Zelig Disease).

Steve refuses to believe that his STOMACH ailment could come from anything but a flu-like bug. Pretty interesting that he is the only one in the family who had both the Seasonal Flu Shot and the H1N1 vaccine and still ends up with this so-called FLU. When you suffer from UZD the onset of symptoms can appear quite rapidly and mimic the flu. I have monitored his progress over the past two days and this is what I have observed.

• He has joined a native Indian Tribe
• His new name is Chief Sitting Shiva (mostly because of the growth on his face and the sullen look in his eyes)
• He has been reciting some sort of  tribal chant (Ow oh oh Ow oh oh Ow oh oh)
• He has been secretly playing in the NHL for the OTTAWA SENATORS (because according to Steve, his teamates have the same flu bug)
• He is working for Israeli Intelligence (due to the explosive nature he is capable of displaying during the night - he has become a Human Scud Missile)
• His appetite hasn't really subsided as he has put away three large size TWISTER BAGELS in the course of 24 hrs
• His whining has given me a new outlook on life (I actually love going to the gym now ....for extended periods of time)

In conclusion we are all waiting with baited breath to see if this in fact is a contagious form of the Norwalk virus or a simple case of UZD in which case we are all safe...except for Steve.