* * *
Questions answered, comments responded to:
Do you think we’d take better care of ourselves if we didn’t have medical insurance and everything had to be paid out of pocket?
That’s a nice thought, but I have a feeling that rather than taking better care of ourselves, we’d be a nation of “Well, I’m going to die SOMEDAY, I might as well have fun until I do!” Or maybe that’s just me!
* * *
Will your cats be free-range on the farm, or will you still have the collars and electric fence?
We’ll still have the fenced-in yard and the electric fence and collars. I worry too damn much about the cats to let them out to wander around, especially on the back forty where god knows what kind of vile creatures lurk.
* * *
When a frog has toes like that, doesn’t that mean it is a tree frog? Looked like you have great trees out there so maybe there is whole tribe of them just waiting to greet you when you move in. From the toilet, how charming is that!
and
That’s a tree frog and each evening we have 1-10 on our windows. We have great big tree frogs and little bitty tree frogs; I think they are awesome. We also have a regular ol’ frog that lives beside the pond. He’s neat to watch.
Those are regarding this picture:
And the first thing I said when I saw him was “Isn’t that a tree frog?”, but Fred never answered me, so I thought I might be wrong. I’m glad to know I wasn’t – and I kind of hope to see a few sticking to the window when we move into the new house!
How the heck could a frog get in the pipes? Do you have town water in Smallville?
We have county water, but I’m thinking the frog might have come up through the septic system rather than through the water pipes.
* * *
Your fostering days are over, I can’t see you giving this baby away. Oh and do you ever get any updates on the kittens you have fostered in the past? I’d love to hear/see how they’re doing.
Oh, you unbelievers. I swear I’ll be able to give her up – but I promise it won’t be easy! Occasionally the shelter will get an update on cats that have been adopted, and the shelter manager forwards them, but so far I haven’t seen any on any of my foster babies. I’d love to know how they’re all doing and that they’re happy and healthy.
* * *
The tractors made me start thinking of that show, Green Acres. Are you going to give your new home (ranch) a name like that.
It’s funny that you should ask – years and years ago (in my mid-20s, I think), I swore that if I won the MegaBucks lottery, I would build a huge house at the end of a tree-lined driveway, and I would name it Horseshit Alley, and I’d even have a sign up at the end of the driveway announcing the name of my house. When Fred and I knew that we were going to end up buying the Smallville house, we actually talked about naming the house Horseshit Alley, but we decided that probably we don’t want to offend our neighbors and since we’re next door to a church (and yet somehow we visit the house without our flesh boiling right off our bones. The Baby Jesus clearly approves!), it would be wiser not to. Don’t be surprised if I refer to it as Horseshit Alley in the future, though.
And why “Horseshit Alley?” I don’t know. It just came to me.
* * *
You know that when you have adorable baby kitten pictures/stories that the rest of what you write ends up being just like the grown up voices in Charlie Brown? We hear “whaah whaah whaaaaaaaH” until you either post pictures or give us kitten details. She is to-die-for cute!!!
I understand completely. You all have my full permission to skip the boring stuff to get to the cute kitten stuff.
* * *
I got gas Sunday for $2.01 at the very same kind of pump. Sam’s right?
Actually no, I usually get my gas at a gas station called Kangaroo’s. It’s pretty much the cheapest gas in Huntsville, though the last few times I’ve been there, there’s been a note by the pump that you have to go inside to pay, or that their system is down and they aren’t taking debit cards, so I’ve roared out of the lot in disgust and gone elsewhere.
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Mr. Boogers is such a bad ass! Oh yeah! Does he still growl in (terror) fierceness in the doorway where Maddy is?
Enough time has passed that he’s not completely terrified of her anymore. In fact, he’s been known to chase her down and lick her on top of her little head. I wouldn’t say he LIKES her, but he’s not scared of her (much) anymore.
* * *
Are her (Maddy’s) eyes o.k.? In the carrier picture, she seems a little wall-eyed. I had a kitty with a lazy eye; he had a few issues with walking into walls for a while.
She seems to be a little bit wall-eyed (not as bad as she was when we first got her), but she hasn’t had a problem walking into walls yet.
* * *
What does Maddy think of the big cats? Is she scared of them?
She’s scared of Miz Poo – I think she’s been smacked upside the head by Miz Poo a few too many times – but she likes to sniff at and play with Sugarbutt and Tommy and isn’t scared of either of them at all. Mister Boogers will play with her (he likes to get a little rough, though), so she’s not scared of him, and Spot and Spanky avoid her at all costs so they aren’t an issue. Although last night, Spot was laying on the back of the couch and Maddy climbed up and sniffed at him, so he hissed at her. She didn’t seem too perturbed, but she did leave him alone after that.
* * *
You “fed Maddy and put her up”? Put her up where?
Put her upstairs in the kitten room. I’ll let her run around when I’m keeping an eye on her, but if we aren’t here, I leave her in the kitten room so I don’t come home to find little kitten pieces all over the house.
* * *
Can you tell us where we can watch missed shows online? I know you mentioned it before and I had book marked it but then the hard drive failed.
and
Question: BitTorrent. You mentioned in one post that you finally figured out how to use it. Care to share the knowledge? I tried finding some tv shows, not whacky esoteric 40 yr old shows either, and couldn’t get a single results. I also couldn’t find any tutorials either.
The three places I download shows from are
Mininova,
Meganova, and
Fulldls. You need to download a BitTorrent client to help you download the shows (I’m not sure, to be honest, what a BitTorrent does, exactly) – I use
Azureus and it works really well for me.
* * *
You look great in the picture with the two man-blurs, but why are flames shooting out of your head?
So I totally get the blurred guys, but you have a lightning bolt or something on your head!
That’s regarding this picture:
And the flames/ lightning bolt are due to Fred’s shaky hand taking the picture. Apparently there were lights back there, and his hand shook a little when he hit the button to take the picture, thus making the lights blur. OR I’m a secret superhero. One or the other.
* * *
That narcissist article was really, really depressing. Although I was glad that she could pick out problem boyfirends before she got involved, I really wanted there to be a positive resolution between her and her mother, not just “and that’s the way it is.” I guess I should go read a Red Dress Press book to make up for it, huh?
Yeah, I was hoping for a happy ending, too. Like “So I said ‘Mom, you’re a narcissist!’ and she said ‘Crap! You’re right! I’ll stop, right now!’, and we lived happily ever with a warm, close mother-daughter relationship that every woman dreams of.” instead of “So I learned to keep my distance and not get caught up in the bullshit, and now she’s dead.”
Red Dress Ink books are always good for cheering you up!
* * *
When are you planning to go to the Opry? Chris Young who won Nashville Star this year is there Oct 7th. He is so good.
Not ’til later this month. I always look at the Opry page and think “I need to start going to the Opry more often!” I’d love to see Dierks Bentley at the Opry – and I see he’s going to be there on the 7th as well. Think I could convince Fred to blow off the house and go to Nashville? Yeah.. probably not!
* * *
I’m glad to hear that you FINALLY have a diagnosis of what’s going on with your liver. Take care of yourself and make Fred do all the housework. Use “my liver hurts” as your excuse!
I TOTALLY say “Stop it. You’re making my liver hurt.” when he’s doing something annoying. I’ve also said “Can you grab me a bottle of water out of the fridge? I’d get it myself, but my liver hurts.” and “Can you clean out the litter box? Ow, my liver.” I try to use it sparingly, though, or else he might think I’m faking it. Which I would never ever do. Even to get out of cleaning the litter box. Really!
* * *
There are a lot of us walking around with medical degrees from google. I googled and found this blog.
I TOTALLY need to make up a “I earned my medical degree from Google” t-shirt!
* * *
I think I told you before but in case I didn’t a co-worker who is also a very close friend just had a liver transplant this past Spring. She had non-alcoholic cirrhosis. Her Dr. told her that the biggest bug-a-boo was Tylenol! She used to take it by the handfuls when she had boss from hell.
The first thing they told me way back when they thought I had hepatitis was to stop taking Tylenol. I’ve taken it maybe twice since then, for headaches, but I do my best to stay the hell away from it, because I sure don’t want to stress my liver!
* * *
Hey is Big B0b Gibson’s the restaurant I have heard about on the food network that serves white barbeque sauce? I actually made the sauce for a cook out over the summer and it was good. Also I was reading a Southern Living Magazine this morning on the way into work and thought of you! I know you are acquiring new things for your country abode and there was something I thought you might be interested in. Go here.
Yep, Big B0b Gibson’s has the white sauce – but I think most barbeque places down here have it now; most of the ones I’ve been to do, anyway. It’s hard to describe to someone who’s never had it, but it’s really good! As for the Highway 411 yard sale, I think we’re going to have to miss it this year, but I’m sure I’ll be dragging Fred to it next year. I love me a good yard sale!
* * *
When you said pretty pretty Wentworth Miller, it made me think of the way T-Bag always calls him pretty. With that disturbingly slimy southern drawl, “well hello there Pretty” (while he looks him up and down and licks his lips). I love that show!
I actually have been known to call Maddy “Pretty”, and EVERY TIME I do it, I think of T-Bag. Who gives me the creeps, but the actor does such a good job of making the character loathesome that he’s almost likeable.
Does anyone else think that Wentworth Miller’s eyes are so huge in his face that he looks like
anime?
* * *
What is up with the eyes on those goats??? Do goats always have eyes like that? Not that I have a lot of goats in my life, but I’ve been to petting zoos and all…I don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes like that before. Do they look like that live, or only in the pictures? That freaked me out a little, not that they’re not cute…they are. But kind of creepy too.
I think that goats always have eyes like that – help me out here, y’all, do goats always have the creepy eyes? They’re cute, but the pupils are freaky as hell.
* * *
And, Robyn, I have to admit I am totally impressed with your ability to use the word “bush hog” in a sentence. Are you expanding your vocabulary as the closing of the country house gets nearer?
Don’t be too impressed – I picked it up from Fred, who was using it in every single sentence for a while. It would have been impossible NOT to pick it up, actually.
* * *
Regarding this picture:
Am I the only one who doesn’t know why it’s called a harbl?
I didn’t really know, which is why I didn’t respond, then someone said:
For the girl above who didn’t know what the hairbl was it’s like his hairy balls…. right???? Or am I just some perv?
That’s kind of what I was thinking, but then Ginny was smart enough to check out
Urban Dictionary, and found this:
Harbl – It is used mainly to refer to the male reproductive organ, although it can sometimes refer to the female reproductive organ. It is usually used in the cliché 4chan sentence structure of “I’m in ur ______, ______in ur _______” I’m on ur radiator, heatin’ my harbl. I’m in ur washmashchine soakin’ my harbl. (Thanks, Ginny!)
* * *
Question for ya: What cleaner/cleanser did you use for the wooden kitchen cupboards?
Just warm water and a bit of PineSol. I would have used a bit of ammonia instead, but Wal-Mart was out when I was shopping for cleaning supplies that day!
* * *
In the picture of Maddy telling the stick joke, does she have brown spots on her knee and tummy?
Yeah, she has spots on her belly and parts of her legs. It’s one of my favorite things about her!
* * *
Are you sure it’s not the flashy camera wielding person the Boogs isn’t hatin’ on?
The Boogs LOVES HIS MOMMA.
* * *
Just one thing about leaving out cat food…. wildlife will also eat that food, even if it makes them sick or even kills them. Skunks for example, love cat food, but it causes their kidneys to fail and they then live very short lives. I know most people would be happier without skunks, but I love them!
I had no idea! I’m no fan of skunks, but I sure wouldn’t want to hurt them. I think I’ll just wait ’til the cat shows up before I feed her, rather than leaving food out all the time.
* * *
Ok, I gotta know – what’s with those round and rectangular clean areas on the bottom shelf? It looks like they had the same things sitting on the shelf for 50 years, and the dirt just accumulated around them. Do you have any idea what caused that?
and
I’d say the shelves have not been cleaned since the house was built. It looks like there was hatboxes and other boxes on the shelves and they were moved and the grime stayed behind.
I think the idea of hatboxes is probably right – when I first saw the clean areas, I said to Fred “What, did they have doilies here or something??”, but I bet they were hatboxes. That room was most likely the master bedroom when the house was built, so yeah – hatboxes, probably.
* * *
Is it possible that these people had just piled magazines and newspapers on the shelves and they just kind of stuck to them when they tried to move the piles? That would seem to make more sense.
That’s entirely possible, too! I just wish there’d been a date on the newspaper/ magazine page I cleaned off the shelf the other night – I’d be interested to see how old it was.
* * *
If it were me, I might just tear out those suckers (shelves) and go buy new shelves and stick ’em in there.
The shelves are original to the house, and we’re trying to keep as much original stuff as possible. Fred is actually going to paint the shelves when he paints the closet, and probably I didn’t need to scrub quite so hard, but the idea of all that dirt under nice clean paint kind of ooked me out.
* * *
Will you come scrub my house next???
Oh silly, silly, SILLY readers. You all want me to come clean your houses, but how freaked out will you be when I actually show up on your doorstep with my bucket o’ ammonia? SO FREAKED OUT.
Cleaning houses would be a good job for me, really, because I like to look around peoples’ houses and see how they have them set up. I just wouldn’t want to clean the same houses over and over – which is why our current home is such a mess!
* * *
Oh, and are you cleaning instead of exercising lately?
Unfortunately, yes – I haven’t exercised regularly in quite some time, and I keep saying I’m going to get back to it, but my days feel so rushed since we closed on the house that I just.. haven’t. No excuses, just sheer laziness!
* * *
May I just say that you are way less lazy than I am? The scrubbing, the taping, the painting, the going to Lowe’s, AAAARGH! Where’s the sitting around time?
My sitting around time has severely decreased and it’s made me cranky! I did get a little veg-on-the-couch time yesterday afternoon (caught up on Desperate Housewives and deleted all those episodes of Dr. Phil and Oprah I’m not that interested in), but as with all good things, the more you get, the more you want, and I’m not getting enough ass-sitting time!
* * *
About your Dyson. I am seriously looking into buying one (the same one you’ve got, Dyson Animal DC07), and I would like to know how long you’ve had yours, does it still work as well as it did when it was new, if you’re still loving it, does it really pick up cat hair (especially those fine little downy white belly hairs?) and anything else you could think of about it.
I ADORE my Dyson. I’ve had it for about two and a half years now, and it’s still going strong. It really does an awesome job of picking up cat hair (except in the corners, where I’m too lazy to pull out the awesome attachments and suck up the cat hair – which is hardly the fault of the Dyson. I’m sure it would be thrilled to get up that cat hair if I gave it a chance!). My only real gripe about the Dyson is that it’s shaped in such a way that it won’t get underneath the kitchen cabinets – you know the part near the floor, where there’s a bit of an overhang? Well, the Dyson won’t fit under there. It’s not a huge problem, I just vacuum the middle of the floor, then use an attachment to get under the cabinets, but it is something I’d like to see changed.
Anyone else who has a Dyson and has anything to add, feel free to leave a comment!
* * *
By the way, Fred could build a nice little brick barbecue grill on that concrete slab in the back yard.
He actually keeps mentioning that very idea, but I don’t know that we grill outside often enough to make it worth it!
* * *
Miss Maddy is doing well. I’m letting her run around the house as much as I can today, since we’re going to take her to the new house with us tonight, so she’ll spend most of the evening locked up in a room with nothing but herself, her litter box, and six thousand toys for company. I just walked into the living room to check on her, and she was using the litter box (I keep a little litter box downstairs for her, because I think it’s beyond her to understand the idea of going upstairs and using her usual litter box if she has to go) and all the big cats were gathered around, watching in fascination. Then she hopped out of the litter box and started attacking my slippers.
She kills me, that little ball of fluff.
Last night she climbed up into Fred’s lap and fell asleep like this.
More pictures
hither.
* * *
Mister Boogers hates you…
…but in honor of the holiday weekend (he’s a Christopher Columbus fan), he only hates you a little.
* * *
Previously
2005: I forsee a lot of spud-teasing this evening.
2004: Phil Hellmuth is a whiny little bitch.
2003: “And then he told me he likes to have sex with you in the break room every day at 11!” he lied.
2002: No entry.
2001: Recovery.
2000: No one ever said I had a long attention span!]]>