8-15-08

We’re in the process of moving all our sites over to a new server. If things look wonky around here this weekend, that’s why. Fred’s going to move my site over Friday evening or Saturday morning, so things should be all set by Monday. ***Note, Sunday: I don’t know what’s going on with the site … Continue reading “8-15-08”

We’re in the process of moving all our sites over to a new server. If things look wonky around here this weekend, that’s why. Fred’s going to move my site over Friday evening or Saturday morning, so things should be all set by Monday.

***Note, Sunday: I don’t know what’s going on with the site or why y’all are getting errors. Hopefully it’ll be fixed at some point today!!!***

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Last night Fred was harassing me about something, and I showed this picture to him and said “This is how I feel right now.”

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When you brush Tommy (if you brush him), does his hair come off black, or a lighter color? My black-on-black tabby, Mr.T, sheds WHITE when I brush him. The hair that comes off of him is lighter than that which comes off of the light grey tabby. It’s weird. I wonder if it’s a black cat thing that I’m not aware of, or if my cat is a mutant.

On the rare occasion that I brush Tommy, the fur comes out kind of grayish – I figured that was because he’s got quite a sprinkling of white fur, but who knows?

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I think you should have a poll about who thinks Kara and her kittens are at your house to stay!

Your wish, my command.

Kara and her kittens

Will Kara and her babies end up permanent Crooked Acres residents?

Yes. (You are WRONG.)
No. (This is the correct answer.)
I have no opinion, I just want to take the poll!


Current Results

But you should probably know that someone is coming in a few hours to meet Inara and River and see if she wants to adopt them. 🙂

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You did know that Netflix now sells a little black box called Roku for $99.00 that attaches to your TV. Streams all the instant view stuff you want to your TV – no extra charge (except for that $99.00 for the box)!!!

GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN!

(Now pardon me while I go convince Fred that we NEED one of these!)

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Ok – I may die now. I’ve seen everything. http://kittywigs.com/

Hmm… those wigs look a lot like the ones Dooce is using on Chuck and Coco recently, don’t they?

I think Mister Boogers would make a smashing blonde.

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I didn’t answer about my favorite kitchen implement earlier, but a great way to chop herbs is to put them in a drinking cup, and then use kitchen scissors to chop them up in the cup.

I wish I’d remembered this last night while I was chopping up basil. I’ll remember it next time, believe you me!

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Is Newt as soft as he looks?

He actually isn’t that soft – his fur is kind of coarse and wiry, but on the up side he doesn’t shed a lot!

He is just as sweet as he looks, though.

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Home made laundry detergent – you’re talking my language 🙂 I’m trying to get a good balance for my HE washer, but I’m looking more into powder. I used to use the liquid/goop kind, though and wouldn’t shy away from it forever. But I’m on a powder roll. How are you liking yours?

I’m liking it – it works really well, and between that and using white vinegar for fabric softener, my laundry’s coming out nice and clean and soft! It’s kind of a pain to measure it out, though. I keep my laundry detergent in old gallon-sized vinegar bottles, and it’s hard to get it to come out sometime. I’m considering trying a powder when I’m out of the liquid I have. Anyone out there make their own powdered laundry detergent, and how’s it working for you?

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The one time I went to one of those parks, an extremely large yak shoved his extremely large head inside my window, ate as much corn as he could possibly snarf from my bucket, then wiped his extremely large and extremely wet nose on my arm. The yaks. I do not love them.

We got zebra slobber all over the outside of the windows. Damn animals and their slobber!

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You guys could buy more land and open your own animal sanctuary!!!!!! I mean, with bigger “exotic” animals in addition to the crew you already have. More zebras! (Do zebras feel like horses?)

I have to admit that I’m a little amazed that we don’t already have tigers or lions (but no bears, please.) running around in the back forty already.

Zebras do indeed feel like horses, though they might be a wee bit softer. Or at least this one seemed to be.

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It would be more interesting at that place if the ‘gators were allowed to run loose, don’t you think? lol

No kidding – when we were driving through, I said to Fred “It’s too bad they don’t have tigers – oh, right.” Duh.

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Aw, how can you not love the Llama? Maybe you could get some Alpacas for Crooked Acres and then sell the wool or even get really ambitious and knit some stuff and sell it. I have attached one of my all time favorite video clips. I dare you not to get this song in your head!

I refer you to this comment from Mia:

Llamas spit. When I was in school to be a veterinary tech we had to work w/llamas at the UofM teaching hospital. Llamas were just getting to be the big thing so they were trying to establish normals for lab values. This meant that we spent a lot of time drawing blood from many llamas. This also meant we spent a lot of time dodging llama spit. It’s not just spit, it’s vomit. They also kick w/their front feet. Fun times. Oh yeah.

also:

More useless llama info. Berserk Male Syndrome. Like Niki P said. Very violent. The males hit sexual maturity and if they’ve been too closely bonded to their human, well, it’s all over. They (the llama) think the human is a llama and that this is a love match. We had one of these at the U. He pretty much scared the shit out of everyone. Good times. Oh yeah.

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Who or what is Bill Phillips??? Is he famous??? Is he a relative??? Does he have a web site??? The picture looks like a narcissistic bobble head.

Bill Phillips is the guy behind Body for Life, the lifting and eating program Fred and I have both tried in the past. I don’t know how active he is in the Body for Life arena anymore (I don’t spend any time on the Lean and Strong forums anymore). We’ve both always thought that he bears a striking resemblance to emus, though, and have referred to emus as “Bill Phillips” for as long as I can remember.

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what is harbl airing? LOL

Urban Dictionary says: [Harbl] 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

The idea of kittens spending all their time airin’ their harbls just cracks me up to no end.

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Do the kittens actually get any milk? I’m surprised that Kara would still be producing milk. Still cute as hell, but just wondering…

If I can go by the way they lick their lips after nursing, I’m going to assume they’re getting something, though I doubt it’s enough to live off of.

I agree with those of you who commented about how patient Kara is – she’s SO patient with those kittens. I mean, she smacks ’em around sometimes (in play) and occasionally she can get a little rough with them, but for the most part she is such a sweet, caring Momma.

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Just wondering why you don’t keep the door closed to the guest bedroom and not allow the kids in there. Also, that would cut down on some of the house work, Heaven knows you have enough work to do around there. After all, they have the rest of the house and back yard to roam around in.

Mostly because Kara and the kittens have the run of the upstairs (our cats tend not to go upstairs at all for fear of a smackdown from Kara), but also partly because Miss Stinky REALLY likes to hang out in there (so does Spanky, for that matter) and I don’t think it’s fair to keep her out of her favorite place just ’cause one of the other cats is an asshat.

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What would have been even funnier is if Fred had casually walked into the guest room, turned his back to the camera, and “mimed” peeing on the bed… which is what I thought you were going to say!

He never did that, but he certainly mooned the camera often enough. Don’t get excited, I deleted those clips.

(Or maybe I held onto them in case I need them for blackmail purposes in the future. Mwahaha!)

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I meant to mention this before but forgot until you mentioned the peeing again. After you wrote about it earlier I read about the problem in a vet’s column in our local paper. The vet said that cat’s with urinary infections or other urinary problems for some reason often pee in sinks or other drains. I forgot to mention it because I knew you guys are at the vet’s all the time.

Yeah, the first thing we did when we realized Mister Boogers was peeing in the sink (which Fred documented in this entry) was take him to the vet for tests in case he’d developed a UTI. Turns out, he’s just a douchebag.

I blame Newt, because I believe Mister Boogers saw Newt pee in the sink, and a lightbulb went on over his pointy little head and if he’s peed in the damn litter box since, I’d be very surprised.

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I haven’t seen my real hair in years, but from the little bit that I get a peek of when my roots start to show I think I might be really, really super gray. I’m 50, but I definitely feel too young to have gray hair so I intend to keep on dying it. I wonder when one stops dying one’s hair? Any ideas?

I think the rule of thumb is pretty much when you’re too senile to make the appointment, it’s time to go natural. Hee.

I actually used to say, when I was in my mid-20s, that when I was 30 I’d stop coloring my hair, because it was ridiculous to keep up the charade when you’re so old. (!) Then when I hit 30, I thought “Ehhh, maybe I’ll keep going ’til I’m 45.” Now I’m thinking (once I go and have my hair re-colored, that is) I’ll probably wait ’til I’m 65 or so.

If I could go gray and look half as fabulous as Emmylou Harris, I’d totally go for it. But I don’t see that happening.

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I’ve been looking at tastespotting.com lately and yesterday, there was a picture of chicken feet. After gagging a little, I thought “Hmm, maybe Robyn isn’t afraid of chicken feet”, so I thought I’d send the link to the article!

When chicken feet are attached to live chickens, I think they’re kind of neat. When they’re separated from their owners and being WAVED IN MY FACE, I am not so much a fan.

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I noticed you were reading (or read) “The Girls” and was wondering what you thought about it. I loved it BTW, and had to keep reminding myself it was a novel!

I liked it a LOT. Any book that can make me burst into tears with one sentence gets an automatic four stars from me!

(The sentence: How cruel it must be for a man to live past his soul.)

I liked that the book was written from two perspectives, and that the two sisters didn’t read what the other had written, so the matter-of-fact “I suppose Rosie already told you” and “I’m sure Ruby’s gone on and about it.” made me smile when it wasn’t making me say “Wait – what?!”

It was a very engaging book and I definitely recommend it!

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What will you do with the pig enclosure after the pigs go to piggie heaven? That wallow looks like it would be hard change.

and

Will you guys get pigs again one day?

Yeah, we’re planning to get pigs again in the future, so we’re going to leave the pig yard the way it is. We’re talking about making a temporary “corridor” from the chicken yard to the pig yard, because there are apparently a LOT of ticks out there (Fred had to spray the pigs regularly for ticks) and chickens love to eat ticks.

Fred was recently told that you want to always have at least two pigs, because one won’t grow as quickly as two will – there’s apparently some competitive eating going on when there are two or more pigs, so they get big faster when they have someone to compete with. Fred actually called the man we bought these two pigs from to get more in a few weeks, but I kind of liked having the pigs when they were itty bitty (can you believe these things EVER fit in cat carriers?!), so we’re going to wait a few months ’til we can get some little ones.

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I love the shiny bubble by the first pig…it lends a Disney-esque vibe to the picture.

It also echoes his shape, because Little(r) Pig is shaped like a big round bubble. That bubble, though? It’s pure stink. Those damn pigs actually pee in that wallow – ON PURPOSE – and then they hang out in it all day long, and so you can bet that my nightmare the other night about falling face-first into the wallow was not a pleasant dream.

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Love the pigs! Do they get buttermilk baths?

I don’t know that we can afford that much buttermilk. Plus, they’d probably just PEE in it. Bastards.

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15DSC03741
“FOOD!!!”

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“COOKIE!”

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The pigs were supposed to go to the slaughter house last night. Read Fred’s entry for what’s up with that. (NO, we’re not keeping them.)

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Whenever I hear you call the rooster Michele- I always say it in my head (Mee-shell) like that big guy in the movie “Dodgeball”- Ben Stiller’s “fitness consigliarie” as he called him.

That’s how I pronounce it, too! Great minds think alike.

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i had a weird dream last night.

you and nance were at a grocery store that was closing and i recognized both of you. nance told me your were in labor but needed some kitty litter. you were holding up the checkout line because you were trying to talk fred into allowing you to accept some free flowering vine seeds the checker was trying to give you. then nance told you to stop twittering around and get to the hospital. i asked if it was a boy or girl, and nance said “a little bit of both.” i noticed that you didn’t look pregnant.

when i arrived home, you and fred were seated on my couch and you were suddenly VERY pregnant. fred was rubbing your belly. i asked if you had gone to the hospital.

fred said, “it was premature labor. oh, and she’s having KITTENS!”

then i noticed your stomach was squirming around in a weird way.

my husband asked me “where did you meet these people?”

i told him that you were friends from the internet.

he asked if you were characters from my sims game.

i thought a second and said, “YES!”

then i woke up.

so much for friends from the internet!

and (from last month):

This has nothing to do with your entry, but I know you love to hear about people dreaming about you and Fred. I had a very drawn out dream last night about how my daughter and I went to visit you, but then I couldn’t get onto your computer to buy a plane ticket home and I had to explain to my husband that I was stuck in Alabama. Then we were outside, and you had a gigantic paved driveway with a basketball hoop and a ton of cars (I think you had a lot of visitors). I guess I must have left eventually because then I ended up in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, complete with my own odd little updates.

and in an email last week:

It’s funny, I had a dream about you and Fred one night. In it I found out that you two really aren’t married, don’t live at Crooked Acres, and are actually running the site as a sociology research project. I think you were really based in New York or some other big East Coast City. In my dream you had finished the blog phase of the research and were shutting down the site and letting us all know what had really been going on. Yesterday I flashed back on that dream and for a minute thought, well I was right after all. Now they are studying our reaction to the removal of our “friends” from our lives. Pretty clever of you two.

I adore it when y’all have dreams about us, because they always crack me up.

And in the first dream? Nance would TOTALLY say something like “A little bit of both”, and I would TOTALLY be freaking out about not having enough kitty litter in the house if I were going into labor. Also, we are TOTALLY Sim’s characters!

Hee.

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I just wondering if you’re having the same problem as I with the new Paw Points (Fresh Step) bags. Now that the code is on the outside, I can never find the number or it goes through a white part of the bag and I can’t read it.

I’m not having any issues, but only because I buy my Fresh Step in the 40-pound buckets, so the Paw Points code is on a card inside the bucket. Have you emailed customer service with a complaint? I’d totally do that, if only because if they get enough complaints, maybe they’ll change the way they do it.

Speaking of, have you seen all the new cool stuff you can earn with your Paw Points?!

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Cumming is a real fragrance. You can buy it a Sephora for (wait for it)… $69.

I have to say, I watched the clip of Alan Cumming on Graham Norton Shelly linked to yesterday:

And I find myself warming toward Alan Cumming. He certainly has a sweet smile, doesn’t he? Man, the price of his fragrance is high. I’d kind of like to check it out, but given that I never wear perfume, it’d be a waste to buy it!

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Alan Cumming has freaked me out ever since I saw him “Circle of Friends”. He’s a creepy little man and I agree with you, Robyn, on the whole ‘bodies in the yard’ thing. Wouldn’t surprise me this much (holding thumb and index finger jammed tightly together). And the Cumming cologne for $69 that’s funny shit.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about that very thing in the shower this morning (what? What deep thoughts do Y’ALL have in the shower?) and decided that it was his role in Circle of Friends that has cast a pall over him for me, ever since.

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A kitten movie I forgot to upload. It’s from a few weeks ago, shortly after I brought home the new laser toy. They found it fascinating for at least a minute and a half!


YouTube link


Stinkerbelle is making some progress with the kittens. They still hiss and growl, but they clearly like being around her, because they follow her around (and then hiss and growl at her).

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Maxi in the sun.

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Previously
2007: “Mister Seller tells me y’all are good Christian people,” she said.
2006: It’s been a year since we found Crooked Acres. Hard to believe.
2005: They are NAS-TAY, and trust me when I say that you’d be better off never bothering to try the nasty things.
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: Looking at this hormone-laden piece of meat makes me… well, it makes me kinda drool, actually.
2001: I just smiled and nodded and kept walkin’.
2000: Mustard algae. Why must he doubt me?