if you buy two more of these, you can get one free, would you like to go grab some? that I decided it wasn’t worth the bother. Personally, I prefer my salesclerks to be available, but if I need or want help, I’ll let them know. I was sitting in front of the television last night making snarky comments to myself about the Cindy Crawford Pepsi commercial ("That’s right, Cindy, leave the kids ALONE in a steaming-hot truck so you can get a nice cool Pepsi and cavort around in your short-shorts in front of a bunch of little boys!"), when I remembered something that happened when the spud was about 6 months old. I had dropped her off at my parents’ house, because they were going to watch her while I worked for four or five hours. On my way from their house to work, I stopped at a convenience store to get a bottle of Coke, and when I came out of the store and went to get in the car, I caught sight of the base of the spud’s car seat, and for a brief, sickening moment I FORGOT that I had dropped her off at my parents’ house and was absolutely convinced for some reason that I had left her in her car seat on the back of the car while I was putting something in the front seat, and forgot that she was there, then drove off with her on the back of the car, and she was smushed and dead somewhere on the road. I don’t know WHY I was so convinced that I’d done such a thing, because I never put her car seat on the back of the car that I can remember, and I was always very conscientious about putting her in the car first thing before worrying about arranging anything else.
I guess I was a doofus even way back then.
I was relieved to see that my current favorite girl on The Bachelor, Amanda, is still in the running. I don’t think she’s going to make it past next week though, because I don’t think she’s enough of a challenge for Alex the Serial Smoocher, and he made it clear last night after Shannon‘s hissy fit that he likes a difficult woman.
I hope I’m wrong, though.
Miz Poo’s favorite place to hang out in the back yard is amongst my dead daffodils (click on the picture to see the full-sized version):
Fred had his staples removed yesterday along with two of the four drains, and though I accompanied him to his appointment, the entire time the doctor was removing the staples and drains, I sat in a corner of the room (in a chair), in a practically fetal position, with my toes curled so tight that my calves ached when I woke up this morning. I think it’s safe to say that I’m a bit squeamish. I’ll LOOK at the scars and the drains and all that stuff, but I don’t really want to TOUCH the scars, lest I cause pain, or something goopy get on me.
Actually, I don’t mind goopy things getting on me (get your minds out of the gutters, pervs), because I had to actually touch a boogery, bloody looking thing to remove it from the hole of Fred’s drain over the weekend and wasn’t icked out at all, but the idea of touching Fred’s less-than-a-week-old scars just gives me the shivers.
And not in a good way.
And Fred took this great picture of Tubby last night (no, I haven’t thrown over my love for Miz Poo in favor of Tubby. You’re seeing all these Tubby pictures lately because 
Okay, here we go – sights from my walk. I did my best to remove any identifying marks so as to not encourage stalkers, but if you see anything I missed, I’d appreciate a heads up. Thanks!
This is me, in my jaunty yellow cap, grinning like a fool. You’ve gotta love the self-timer function on the camera. I think I should have used the flash for this picture, don’t you?
This is from our driveway looking up the street. We live at the end of a circle, and from our house to the end of the street always seems to be the longest part of the walk, both coming and going.
Fred and I both call this cat "our buddy." He’s one of the few outdoor cats we see on our walks that will come over to be petted. In fact, as soon as he sees me, he comes running over, meowing his cute little head off. If he thinks I haven’t petted him enough when I try to leave, he’ll try to "herd" me to the side of the sidewalk, in hopes (I guess) of getting me to stop and pet some more.
Not far from where our buddy lives, there’s a house where two scottish terriers (I think) live. A lot of the houses in our area have electric fences in the front yard, and these two dogs will bark their fool heads off, but can’t get close enough to tear off one of my legs. You can imagine my terror at the idea of them getting that close.
Next door to the barking dogs, someone lost their mind and planted fake daffodils in their flower beds. It absolutely cracks me up.
Another yard with an electric fence and two barky dogs. These guys bark in a more friendly manner, though, and I’ve stopped a few times to pet them.
I love the way trees blossom in the spring. Have I mentioned?
Believe it or not, there’s a house back there. You can’t see it, even if you stand at the end of the driveway and peer up at it, because the people who live there have grown a veritable forest in their front yard. No doubt they’re pissed because a yuppie-filled subdivision popped up across the street from them.
It kills me, because I’m the nosiest person in the world, and I’d like to see what the house looks like. Not enough to trespass, ’cause I’m afraid there’s a scary old man with a gun up the driveway a ways.
This is the yard where I saw a beaver a few weeks ago. I love this yard, because of the little waterfall. It took the people who own this house a couple of months to get the waterfall running right.
When we were looking for a house last fall, this little church was up for sale. I tried to convince Fred that it’d be cool to buy and renovate a church to live in, but he wouldn’t go for it. He has no sense of fun, that man.
These flowers are growing alongside a fence. They look like morning glories, a little, but I don’t think they are. I could be wrong, though.
Another thing that fascinates me, this trailer in the middle of yuppieville. See, up until maybe 10 years ago, there wasn’t much to Madison, but in the past 10 years, they’ve built it into a total yuppie community. I’m guessing that this trailer was here long before they started with all the subdivisions, and the guy who lives there ain’t going anywhere. I never see the guy who lives there, but I’ve seen a taxi leaving several times, and I think he drives a taxi. You can’t see in the windows at all, even at night, and being the curious sort, I’d like to see what it’s like in there.
They finally finished widening this road and paving the sidewalk – which they were doing when I was doing all my 3Day training last year, and had to tromp through the mud and the muck every thrilling day – and it’s turned into a pretty good road to walk down.
They also finally finished this big-ass church, and it looks pretty cool.
I don’t know what kind of tree that purple one is (note: it’s apparently an 
There’s this big old farm house I walk past most days, and I’d love to see the inside of it. They have electric candles in all the windows, and they keep them on all the time. I wonder what that’s about?
The farm house from the front. I’d love to own a big, rambling farm house.
And part of the land the house is sitting on. It’s pretty close to the road, but has a lot of land behind and to the side.
This walkway is pretty much the scariest part of my walk, because it’s pretty secluded, and if some psycho jumps out at me, well, I’m probably done for unless I can beat the shit out of him with my walkman. Needless to say, I’m pretty aware of my surroundings during this part of my walk.
And I pretty much run through this part. Having a fence on each side of the sidewalk creeps me out for some reason.
Someone got tp’d! As long as it’s not in my yard, I think tp’d trees look pretty cool.
Remember last Fall when we were looking for a house, and we made an offer on house number three, and said to each other that if they accepted the offer as written, we’d take the house, and then we found that the realtor had lied about the sellers accepting the offer as it was? Well, this is the house. And it’s still for sale. Thank god it didn’t work out with this house, because the one we ended up in is way better.
Around the corner from the above house – and coincidentally, across the street from the second house we made an offer on (which we withdrew because of the rotting windows) is a river. They’ve spent several weeks clearing the land beside it, and now they’re not doing anything. I thought they might put a walkway along it, but who knows? Nice port-a-potty, eh?
My favorite yard of all the yards I pass, because it’s so bright and well-kept.
I don’t really care for tulips, but I like the colors in this one.
Fred told me he thought this ground cover stuff is called phlox. I tried to convince him to put some in the flower bed with the roses and holly bushes, but he’s declared that he’s done messing with it all.
From the end of our street, looking down toward the end of the circle. The street veers to the right, so you can’t see our house from here.
And we’re home again, home again, jiggity jig. I’m always more than happy to be home at the end of the walk.
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Doctor office pens, which the wonderful (and funny!) Mary Ellen bullied her mom (who works in a doctor’s office) into bringing home for me. And they’re REALLY NICE pens, too! Boy, I’m going to be a writing fool, yes I am. Thank you, Mary Ellen!
Okay, I spent half the weekend taking pictures and resizing them for y’all. Enjoy!
By far, the most popular request was to see the inside of the fridge. So I took pictures of the fridge, inside the vegetable and fruit drawers, the freezer, and the other freezer (which is way too big and never full, but I wasn’t the one who bought it).
A lot of people wanted to see the inside of our cupboards, by which I assumed they meant they wanted to see where the food is kept. As you can see, we don’t have a lot of canned and bottled stuff – I even waited until after Fred got groceries on Saturday to take these pictures.
Inside our medicine cabinet, y’all wanted to see. When I think medicine cabinet, I think in the bathroom over the sink, and we don’t have one of those. We keep the majority of our medicine on a shelf in the kitchen, in baskets so that we can remove them and rummage through them. There are bottle of tylenol, aspirin, synthroid, and birth control in the drawer by my sink in the bathroom, but you didn’t really want to see those, did you?
My crappy purse. It was $7 from Wal-Mart, and I’ve had it for years. I try out other purses from time to time, but this one works best for me, because it’s got two outside pockets, one that I keep a book in, and one that I put the cellphone and a tube of Blistex in. I keep my checkbook, wallet, sunglasses, keys, pens, and various other things in the middle compartment.
Von wanted to see my toes, not because she has a foot fetish (suuuuure you don’t, Von!), but because she wanted to request something a little different. The white part on my right foot, on the toes and just under them, is from when Himself cruelly threw hot grease onto my foot. It looks a lot better now than it did three years ago, believe me.
Reader Stacee requested a picture of my shoes. She said it didn’t need to be a special pair – whatever I was wearing at the moment would do. I was wearing my ugly slippers from Land’s End, so I took a picture of those, but I thought I’d share the other ones I wear on a regular basis as well.
These are the Nike Air Presto Fazes I wear to walk in. They’re awesome – cushiony, but supportive at the same time. Just like a good man.
I wear these Keds when I’m going shopping, out to eat, out to run errands – most of the time, in other words.
These sandals are what I’m wearing if I just need to run to the store or somewhere where I won’t be doing a lot of walking. I have more shoes than these, but these are the ones I wear most of the time.
The inside of my Jeep. Hanging from the rearview mirror is my tag from the 3Day, and (though you can’t see it) a wooden smiley-face bead necklace. It’s a bit messy, but compared to the mess I used to have in the car I drove in high school, it’s a model of pristinity (?).
You can see the dust on the dashboard. Could be worse, definitely could be better. I force myself to clean and dust the Jeep once a year whether it needs it or not.
The bin thingy between the seats which is supposed to hold cds is filled with trash. Those are peanut m&m wrappers, and considering I haven’t had peanut m&ms in almost a month, you can imagine how long that trash has been building up.
The inside of Fred’s Jeep. His has less mess than mine, but you can’t see the annoying pile of cds on the passenger side floor that always manage to be where my feet want to be.
A shot of his dusty dashboard.
The flowerbed directly in front of the computer room – there’s not much there, but everything will grow. The small green plants are petunias (some of them are flowering) and the spiky things are rose bushes. You can see Miz Poo’s face in the corner of the window on the right.
The other front flower bed. That’s a row of holly bushes in the front, and rose bushes in the back. We thought we’d plant the rest of the petunias we bought in that flower bed, but we ran out of steam and decided it looks fine as it is.
Fancypants, looking evil as usual. No doubt he’s trying to decide whether he’ll poo on the floor outside the laundry room, or skip it this time.
Miz Poo again, wishing I’d settle my ass down in front of the computer so that she can smother me with love.
That’s it for today. 
two of ’em! Not a great picture, but you get the idea of what they look like. Now I need to decide where I want to hang ’em. Thank you so much, Terry!
I’m still taking requests for stuff of which you wish to see pictures – I’ll probably do and post the entry for that on Monday.
1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day? I lay in bed for ten minutes or so, petting Miz Poo and arguing with myself whether I’m ready to get up, or if I need to just go back to sleep. When I finally roll out of bed, I pop my contacts in, take my Synthroid, clean out the litter box, get dressed, and go downstairs. Once downstairs, I check my email, drink water, and argue with myself whether I want to skip exercising completely (for the record, I almost never decide to skip exercising, but the devil on my shoulder gives it her best try every morning). Sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 (sometimes later on the weekend), I force myself to go lift weights or go for my walk, depending on what day it is.
2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed? To me, bedtime starts at 9:00. I brush my teeth, take my birth control pill, and change into my nightgown. Fred and I lay in bed, cuddle, and talk for half an hour to 45 minutes, and then he wanders off to bed. I get up and either watch TV if I’ve got something on tape to watch, or read until 11:30 or 12:00. Then I pop my contacts out, pee one last time (though I get up one to three times to pee during the night), and settle in with Miz Poo next to me.
3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day? Honestly, I don’t think anything at all has changed in recent memory.
4. What routine do you wish you get rid of? I’d be more than happy to turn over cleaning out the litter box to someone else, but I had to agree to clean it out myself every day before Fred would let me get Miz Poo, so I can’t really complain. I also wouldn’t mind having someone else do the laundry, but I’m the one who’s neither working nor going to school, plus I know which shirts can’t go into the dryer, so I’m not complaining about that, either.
5. What’s the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don’t do it some point within your day? There are two things, really. If I don’t take a shower, I feel wrong all day long. Also, if I don’t exercise, I spend the rest of the day in a bit of a haze.
a cat pin, from the folks responsible for 
from reader Debra. Thanks Debra, though I’m sure I’ll be cursing you when Fred’s playing the cd for the 53rd time in a row!
From, as the return address said, a fan of my web site, I received The Quarterly Purge:
which looks really good, especially Is Fat a Feminist Issue? – I can’t wait to read it. Thanks, fan in Vegas! (I’m assuming it came from the editor, Marinn, because the signature in the letter from the editor looked a lot like the writing on the return address, but perhaps I’m assuming too much. 🙂
Next, reader Angie in WI (who works in IL), sent me a sheet of smiley-face stickers, a highlighter, and a pen:
What cracked me up is that it came in an envelope from her work, addressed to "Robyn Anderson, OFB LTD", and I figured I’d sent away for a free something-or-other, and I’d claimed I was the owner of OFB LTD so that I could get it. Hee! That’s totally something I’d do, too. Thanks, Angie!
Lastly, but certainly not least(ly?), I received from reader Lorraine (in CA) a daffodil poster:
I love it! In fact, I was recently thinking that not much of the stuff we have hung on the walls around here really reflects my taste (of course, we only have three or four pictures hung up in the entire house, so that’s not saying much), so I’m going to have the poster framed and try to figure out where I want to hang it. Thank you, Lorraine!
Have I mentioned that I love getting real mail?
It’s funny that all those things arrived in the mailbox at once, because the last few times I’ve looked, there’s been nothing in it at all – this was definitely a nice surprise, considering I had to get up an hour (okay, an hour and a HALF) earlier than usual, to go have my blood drawn for another thyroid test. Thanks y’all for making my day!]]>
