DIY Gift Baskets for the Bride
I know more brides-to-be than I care to admit. Actually, I like to admit it, but only when The Beard is in earshot and I can gush on and on about how wonderful their beaus must be. Even though I’m green with envy, these ladies are still my friends. Being that the holidays are just around the corner and that I hate pre-fab gift baskets, I devised a quirky DIY gift basket of my own making. Here’s my recipe:
Even though they say the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach, I still think it may actually be through the pants. Bellydance With �zel T�rkbas: How To Make Your Husband A Sultan will make my friends’ future husbands stand at the ready.
In case my friends are still unsure as to what makes a good husbands, An Ideal Husband will put them right. Well, not really, but hey! Romantic comedies are fun!
Popcorn to go with the movie, of course:
And, finally, How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt : The Perfect Husband Handbook Featuring Over 50 Foolproof Ways to Win, Woo & Wow Your Wife, a little something to leave around for the man in her life to find.
This bellydance album, it is a CD? Or a DVD? Because unless one can see Ms Turkbas performing her shimmies and head-slides, it will difficult to know what, exactly, one is expected to do in time to the music. The Annalucia is herself a student of the bellydance (though of the Egyptian, not the Turkish, variety) and you may believe her when she says that a mere description of the movements will not be enough.
She may also order The Perfect Husband Handbook (just for fun) though when she read the table of contents she was once again moved to wonder: what is it about toilet seats, and why do so many women fuss about “up” and “down”? When the Annalucia finds the seat up, she puts it down. When the Tedesco finds it down, he puts it up. Neither of them has ever thought to critique the toilet-seat habits of the other. It is all very mysterious.
I myself have always wanted to try real bellydancing, Annalucia! But I think the ladies who will receive this CD are more about the silly shimmy than the professional technique
Or perhaps a bellydance-esque strip tease, if their future husbands are lucky!
I’m not sure where the myth of the anger over the toilet seat stems from. I’ve always thought it was one of those stereotypes that has almost no basis in reality. Sort of like, “all women love Dr. Phil” (I don’t!) and “all men know how to fix a sink” (The Beard is not that much of a handy man!).
I get a little riled about the toilet seat, but mostly because our bad cat likes to get *in* the toilet if the seat’s left up. I kind of hate chasing a toilet-water-covered cat around the house so that I can put her in the sink and wash her off.
I took a belly dance class a while back and enjoyed it very much, but even though I was watching the instructor, I don’t think I got all the moves right.
I’ve had male roommates, and while that’s a far cry from being married, I attribute our domestic harmony to my not caring about the toilet seat, their doing their own laundry, and neither of us nitpicking or putting a lot of demands on the other.
That’s funny, Bria! One of my cats no longer drinks out of his bowl. Instead, he drinks out of the leaky faucet in our bathtub! Once or twice, I’ve turned the shower on only to see him shoot out from behind the shower curtain like lightning!
There are many, many bellydance videos out there; there may even be the instructive DVD or two; I have to look. Most of the dancers produce the instructional tapes themselves, and there can be some good techniques on some technically-challenged tapes. (And hola to the Annalucia! Yet another interest we have in common, and there’s a lot of dancing going on in the Philadelphia area, if it’s convenient to you.)
There are two good reasons why the Toilet Lid Should Always Be Left Down:
Toddlers and pets. Both have been known to fall into the open bowls and drown. For me, it’s a good enough reason for it to be one of La BellaDonna’s few immutable House Laws, and absolutely barring dispute.
Hola to LaBellaDonna from the Annalucia, who lives in Chicago and cannot really get to Philadelphia with ease. Fortunately Chicago is blessed with many dancers and teachers in all sorts of styles which the Annalucia never knew existed ( “Raks Sharqi”, “Tribal,” “Fusion,” to name but three) and she finds it most enlightening to watch the performances of other styles. Her reactions tend to be of three varieties:
1. I can do that.
2. Didn’t we do that in class?
3. OH MY GOD HOW DID SHE DO THAT?
And she will also concede the point about toilet seats when one is dealing with short creatures who know no better than to drink from the bowl or attempt to climb inside.
The toilet seat argument stems from the earlier days when Men were “Gentlemen” and they put the seat down as a courtesy to Ladies. In the pro-women, feminist age where women can do everything for themselves its become this weird issue where Men are now-Why can’t they do it themselves? The Annalucia is correct-Men always have to raise it so why is it an issue when women have to put it down?
But the answer is that it is meant to be a courtesy to women.