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!!!”

15DSC03753
“COOKIE!”

15DSC03743 15DSC03745 15DSC03747 15DSC03754

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?

8/14/08

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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Newt’s out in the side yard right now eating … Continue reading “8/14/08”

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.

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Newt’s out in the side yard right now eating a bird he caught. I didn’t realize he had it until it was dead or I would have rescued it from him.

What amazes me is that when he’s done eating, there will be NOTHING left of that bird. No beak. No legs. Is a cat’s digestive system really set up to digest beaks and legs?

I find that simultaneously gross and cool.

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I read Gwen’s latest entry this morning and it compels me to confess that I had to do a GOOGLE SEARCH to be reminded what the hell “long division” is. If you’re sitting there thinking “Is long division the division where you write the one number down and then draw a two-sided doohickey around it and then put the number you’re dividing by on the outside of the two-sided doohickey and then you do the division and write the results on top of the two-sided doohickey?”, then the answer is yes. That IS long division. Thank you for answering that for me, mathisfun.com.

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I’m about halfway through Season 3 of The L Word, and I have to say this: I really REALLY want to like Alan Cumming, but my god in heaven he gives me the screaming jeebies. If it were to suddenly come out that he’s been burying bodies in his back yard for years, I would not be so terribly surprised.

Also, regarding The L Word, it seems that some of you mistook my appreciation for the adorableness of Jenny as my enjoyment of her character. NOT SO. I haven’t liked Jenny since about the middle of Season 1, I find her unbearably annoying. Oooh, Jenny’s so DARK! Oooh, Jenny’s so DAMAGED! Oooh, let’s watch as Jenny’s crappy prose comes to life! BO. RING.

But Mia Kirshner is just button-cute.

So, for that matter, is Sarah Shahi (Carmen).

But my heart still belongs to Shane. ::sigh::

(Upon looking at Alan Cumming’s Internet Movie Database profile, I read this interesting fact: Has his own cologne called “Cumming.” and snickered like a 12 year-old boy.)

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(Stolen from Shelly)

Inquiring minds want to know, every day do you…

1. Shower? Morning or night?
I shower every single morning unless I’m recovering from surgery – in which case I sponge-bathe. I roll out of bed, go straight to the bathroom and shower. It really gets me going in the morning; I don’t know how people who don’t shower every day can stand it.

2. Wash your hair?
Every morning in the shower. A few years ago I was only shampooing every other day to save the wear and tear on my hair, but I went back to daily shampooing because it’s a lifelong habit I’ve gotten into.

3. Shave?
Generally once or twice a week. I’m lucky that the hair on my legs is pretty light.

4. Wear make-up? (If yes, what does that include?)
I wear makeup maybe twice a year (usually Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve) and it includes powder base, powder blush, eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow. I might wear lipstick, but it’s unusual – I bite and lick my lips far too often to wear lipstick.

5. Spend a lot of time doing your hair?
Five minutes at the most – I only blow-dry the top of my hair and let the rest air dry. Sometimes I don’t even bother with blow-drying the top. It depends on my mood.

6. Do you wear perfume? If so, what kind?
Very rarely. My favorite perfume is Sand & Sable, but I can’t remember the last time I put it on.

7. Other than wedding/engagement rings, what jewelry do you wear?
I actually don’t wear my wedding & engagement rings (I still need to have them sized down), and in fact don’t wear any jewelry at all on a regular basis. Sometimes I’ll go through an earring phase for a few days or a week, but for the most part I’m jewelry-free.

I guess you could say I’m low-maintenance.

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I tried to make my Manga Avatar like all the cool kids, but it came out looking more like Gina Gershon than me.

Robyn Avatar

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As of yesterday, I’ve lived in Alabama for 12 years. 12 years!

In my entry for a year ago yesterday I said that I still thought of Maine as home. And in the comments to my entry last Friday, Elayne asked Do you still long for the cottage, or do you see yourself settled in for the duration at Crooked Acres?

In the last year, my view of home has changed. That is, I don’t consider Maine home anymore. While I still wish we were closer to the ocean, Crooked Acres feels more like home to me than anywhere I’ve ever lived. There’s a certain comfort for me; for the first time in my life I feel at ease in my skin. I don’t know if it’s because the house is old and has character, or if it’s because I know every inch of this house, or if it’s because with the land we have I feel like we can breathe, but I feel at home here in a way I never have before.

The first two houses we lived in were big and new and while they were lovely houses, I never felt settled there. I never felt like I could, say, paint the bathroom walls purple if I wanted because it seemed that we always had an eye toward what it would do to the resale value. I don’t care about the resale value of this house because if I lived here for the rest of my life, I’m perfectly okay with that. I’m home.

Don’t get me wrong – we went from a house on half an acre to a house on four and a half acres, but we’d still like to have a lot more land. Fred has jokingly suggested that we buy twenty acres in Tennessee and start building a house by hand to live in for our retirement. While we won’t do that – if we spend the next twenty years spending our weekends building a home in Tennessee, who’d be home to mow the back forty every single week? – I can guarantee you that if we found an old house like this one on a lot more land, an old house that maybe needed some renovation, we’d seriously consider buying it.

It’s not so much the location, I guess, as the feel. I like living in the country, I like watching our animals out the window, I like the small-town feel of where we are. I don’t want to live in the suburbs again (though being so close to everything is something I miss just a tad!), I don’t want to live in the city (when I was a kid, I fully intended to live in the city one day).

It’s funny how things can change in just a few months. A year ago I still considered Maine to be home.

Now, while I’ll always have a place in my heart for Maine, Crooked Acres is absolutely my home.

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Kara lets her southern roots shine through.


Zoe with attitude.


Something about the way Inara is sitting here, with one paw on my knee and one paw on the toy is just cracking me up.

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Check out the dust on Tommy’s face. He sure does like to roll around in the dirt in the back yard. Maybe he thinks he’s a chicken and needs to take regular dust baths?

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Previously
2007: I said “I’d find their plight more interesting if they weren’t quite so ugly.”
2006: DON’T YOU HATE IT WHEN A JOURNALER SAYS THAT?
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: “Motherfucker!” was Fred’s response.
2002: Why yes, it IS a rough life, thanks for asking.
2001: No entry.
2000: Because I was so overworked over the summer, you know.

8/13/08

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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   In lieu of a real entry today, sights and … Continue reading “8/13/08”

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.

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In lieu of a real entry today, sights and scenes from around Crooked Acres.


“Hey! Can someone come babysit? I need a minute to myself…”


Momma and baby. It’s kind of freaky how pale her comb got while she was sitting on her eggs.


She’s a rock star. Actually, since someone commented that they always think of showgirls when they see the featherheads, I’ve been thinking of them as “Lola.” I think this black-crested golden polish is so pretty – I love her colors.


“Momma? MOMMA?”


I think Lola’s got a crush on Michele. She’s always hanging around him.


“I don’t know. I can’t see a darn thing. I think I need to speak to my girl; she’s not cutting my hair short enough.”


“MOMMA!”
“::sigh:: You again?”


Juvenile assassin bug, eating a fly.


I actually had a dream the other night that I fell into the wallow. It was not a happy dream because that wallow is NASTAY.


It’s a rough life.

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I made a second movie the day before yesterday (right after I made the gigantic-kittens-nursing video). I call this one “It’s good to be king.”


YouTube link


::thlurrrp::


Snoozin’ Zoe.


Kara likes to hang out atop the bookcase in the front room. I told Fred that since she’s staked out a place of her own, we have to keep her. He did not agree.


Inara gets in this box and hisses at anyone who comes near. She cracks me up, because our cats look at her like “Yeah? Your point?”

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I have no idea why Newt likes to hang out atop the truck tire, but he does it a lot, no matter the weather.

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Previously
2007: “It’s not a tumah,” he said, as is standard.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Give me time, I’ll have fifteen different versions of “Xanadu” in my music folder.
2003: MY ARM HURTS.
2002: I think no one ever told Billy Bob that if you ANNOUNCE you’re taking the high road, then you aren’t taking it.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

8/12/08

You guys are cracking me UP with the goofy jokes! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   So, a few weeks ago when someone peed on the guest bedroom bed twice over the course of two days (both times on the waterproof mattress cover, under which lies a vinyl mattress cover. I am devoted to making sure no cat pee … Continue reading “8/12/08”

You guys are cracking me UP with the goofy jokes!

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So, a few weeks ago when someone peed on the guest bedroom bed twice over the course of two days (both times on the waterproof mattress cover, under which lies a vinyl mattress cover. I am devoted to making sure no cat pee ever actually touches the guest bed mattress.), I insisted that it was time for Fred to find and purchase a decent webcam “wireless IP camera” that we could set up in a corner of the bedroom, pointed at the guest bed, so that we could figure out who the fuck was peeing on the bed.

(“What are we going to do when we find out?” Fred asked. I still don’t know the answer to that. I just want to KNOW.)

We got the camera and set it up and then I installed the software on my computer and set it to record when it detected motion. At first I watched every clip the camera made, which I quickly tired of because no matter how I fiddled with the settings on the camera, if a shadow moved in the room it triggered the motion detector and I got a ten-second clip of nothing. (Except, of course, for the clip where Fred crawled into the room and around to the camera and then waved his hand quickly in front of the camera because he wanted me to think there was a ghost. Except he didn’t get low enough when he first crawled through the door and I could see the top of his head. Freak.) After I waded through all those clips the first few hours, I started just going in and checking the bed to be sure it hadn’t been peed on before I deleted everything that had been recorded without looking at it.

And then the software started being a pain in the ass, shutting itself down at random times for no apparent reason. And we couldn’t find an upgrade for the software, and as Fred pointed out “If we’re going to spend that goddamn much money on a camera, it needs to come with software that WORKS.”

So we sent it back.

Which leads me to ask:

Got a webcam “wireless IP camera” with really good software? Tell me about it!

I snagged some screenshots when I was watching the movie clips and made a quick little movie to share so y’all can see the excitement that goes on in the guest bedroom.

Miss Stinky hangs out in there a LOT. Who knew?

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So, did I mention that I originally had a hair appointment scheduled for the day I went in for my lower body lift? I called and canceled it with the intention of rescheduling it once I had recovered from surgery, but then I put it off, and then I was like “Well, I was thinking about growing it out anyway!”, and then I bought some temporary color and colored my hair to cover the grays, and then that washed out.

And I am SO gray. I would guess that I’m 50% gray if not more.

I think I’m still going to wait a while to call and make an appointment for a cut and color. The gray doesn’t bother me much, and I never look forward to sitting and having my hair done (it’s borrrrrrrrring, even though I very much like the woman who does my hair), so maybe I’ll go in September.

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This picture doesn’t even come close to showing how damn gray I’ve gotten.

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Friday when Fred got home from work, he decided it was time to mow the lawn. So I went ahead and mowed the side lawn on the riding lawnmower while he ate dinner, and then I ate dinner while he went out and started mowing the rest of the lawn. I debated sitting on my ass in front of the computer, but decided I was tired of doing that (I’d been doing it all day, after all) and so I went out and got out the push lawnmower and mowed the side and front lawns up by the road (which is too hilly for the riding lawnmower) and then I mowed the entire fenced in portion of the back yard and some of the chicken yard. When all was said and done, between the two of us we got the yard mowed in about two hours (not including the pig yard and the back forty, which Fred did yesterday).

One day I’ll surprise the hell out of him by mowing the lawn myself before he gets home from work.

(Except that I strongly suspect he’d be annoyed if I did that, since he is not much for surprises and I think he kinda LIKES mowing the lawn himself, the big freak.)

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These kittens are KILLING ME. They’re 16 weeks old and they are STILL occasionally nursing. Poor little bitty Kara, she’s such a small Momma cat, the little brats are just sucking the life out of her!

I’d shoo them away from her when they start in, but – well – it’s not MY job! Besides, they’re so happy and cute I can’t help just sitting there and watching them.

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Stinkerbelle in her favorite spot, on the guest bed. In the background, Spanky in HIS favorite spot on the trunk under the window.

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Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Right now, Fred’s upstairs trying to snooze while Mister Boogers comforts him.
2004: Does she think she’s Paris Hilton?
2003: Me, earlier today: “I swear to god, I’m going to go on a shooting spree!”
2002: ME LOVE LOBSTER, have I mentioned?
2001: No entry.
2000: It sure is good to be home!

8/11/08

Reading Mac’s entry the other day about interviewing candidates for an administrative assistant position in her office, specifically the part where she asked the candidates to tell her a joke, made me stop and think. And there’s only one joke I know off the top of my head. The joke: What’s brown and sticky? Answer: … Continue reading “8/11/08”

Reading Mac’s entry the other day about interviewing candidates for an administrative assistant position in her office, specifically the part where she asked the candidates to tell her a joke, made me stop and think. And there’s only one joke I know off the top of my head.

The joke:

What’s brown and sticky?

Answer: A stick!

I would never get hired if I told that joke because I’d tell it and then I’d guffaw like a goon for about five minutes afterward.

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Saturday dawned cool and sunny, and I puttered around the house for a few hours while Fred puttered around outside. I went to fill the bird feeders and realized that they were NASTY and desperately needed to be cleaned out. I honestly don’t remember the last time I cleaned any of the bird feeders, but I need to get on it and start doing it regularly, because that kind of nastiness shall not be tolerated in MY bird feeders.

Not tolerated, I say!

So I spent half an hour soaking and then scrubbing out the bird feeders, and ugh the SMELL from those damn things. I put them out back to dry and refilled and rehung them Sunday morning, and the birds seem pretty happy about the clean-and-filled bird feeders.

Fred finished what he was doing pretty early and then he surfed around looking for something we could spend the rest of the day doing. We talked about going to the movies, but didn’t want to waste the nice weather sitting in a movie theater. We ended up going for a drive to locate the place where the pigs are going to be processed in a few days.

(Yes. I do feel sorry for them. No. We’re not changing our minds, but I will miss being entertained by their antics, even if their antics are hanging out in their wallow 23 hours a day and eating the other hour a day. Well. Probably it’s more of a 20 hour/ 4 hour split, but I haven’t really timed it or anything.)

Then we hopped onto the highway and drove to South Huntsville, where we visited a nature preserve. It’s, basically, a drive-through animal park with free-roaming “exotic” animals. We visited there several years ago with the spud and enjoyed it, so we decided to check it out again.

We enjoyed the drive, and I have got to say – there’s just nothing as entertaining as emus. We always call them Bill Phillips, due to the striking resemblance, and we spent much of the trip yelling “Here comes Bill Phillips, roll up your window!” and “Bill Phillips is angry today.” and “Go away Bill Phillips, I have nothing for you!”

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For the record Bill Phillips emus are very violent when you offer them a cup of corn. They like the hell out of their corn and they would like you to give them ALL the corn, please. Now. Or else. Bill Phillips will get angry if you don’t hand over that damn corn. You wouldn’t like an angry Bill Phillips.

There was a zebra in residence, and I practically had to physically restrain Fred from opening the car door and getting out to hug the zebra. He kept petting it, saying “It’s so soft! Isn’t it soft? I think we need a zebra!”

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(I would not, for the record, be opposed to having a zebra frolicking about in the back forty.)

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Fred was also impressed with the softness of the camel, and at one point I was staring off in another direction, trying to get a picture of one of the Bill Phillipses and suddenly there was an entire camel’s head in the car, headed for the cup of corn I had in my lap.

I don’t know that camels are all that violent or anything, but I was TERRIFIED. I was all “DO NOT WANT!” and held out my cup of corn to the camel and then did my best to push his head out of the car so he would go away and all the time Fred was laughing his ass off and I was all “WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING I ALMOST DIED!”

Goddamn pushy animals.

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There were, um… those animals. That I don’t like. Llamas! I have a hard time remembering what llamas are called, for some reason. I seem to remember hearing that llamas like to spit at girls (is this true? I don’t know. Did I make it up? Maybe.) and their teeth scare me a little, so instead of holding my cup of corn out the window for them to partake, I just tossed some corn on the ground.

There were a buttload of deer there – the lady running the front gate told us that ten babies had been born this year, and the deer were running rampant and giving us the eye and crowding around the car until we gave them food.

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We saw alligators too (they’re kept in an enclosed area) and ducks and turkeys. We would have stopped at the reptile building on the way out, but it seemed rather crowded and we’re not crazy about crowds, so we just headed home.

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It was neat, but it’s really got me wanting to take a trip to Tigers For Tomorrow, which we’re planning to do this Fall once it cools down a little more.

We realized in retrospect that the perfect thing to do Saturday morning would have been to take the kayaks out for a few hours. It would have been lovely on the water and early in the day there wouldn’t have been many people around. We’ll have to keep that in mind for the next cool, sunny Saturday morning.

Fred’s been trying to convince me for the past few years that we need a couple of Sea-Doos. The man has no idea how close I am to caving.

See tons more pictures of the animals we saw, here.

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12:23 pm: Harbl airing commences.

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From outside the chicken yard, Maxi keeps a close eye on the baby chickens. She thinks they might be tasty, but she’ll behave if she knows what’s good for her.

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Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: “You pipple giffs me zee headache.”
2005: God, I love the internet.
2004: Three days into the school year, and I’m sick to death of bus issues.
2003: My weekend can be summed up thusly: long periods of mind-numbing tedium broken with a stretch of horrified disgust, with a soupcon of panic tossed in for good measure.
2002: Maine recap.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

8/8/08

If I’m allowed to have a favorite entry that I wrote – and I think I am – this entry I wrote eight years ago is still far and away my favorite. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   The giveaway page is up and running again, if you’re interested. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Laundry detergent. I’ve gotten several emails from y’all … Continue reading “8/8/08”

If I’m allowed to have a favorite entry that I wrote – and I think I am – this entry I wrote eight years ago is still far and away my favorite.

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The giveaway page is up and running again, if you’re interested.

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Laundry detergent.

I’ve gotten several emails from y’all about the make-your-own laundry detergent. Namely, is it supposed to be that thick? The answer is that yes, it certainly is. As it cools it turns into something that looks a lot like vanilla pudding, maybe a little bit thicker. You’ll want to wait ’til it cools completely so that you can break it up into smaller chunks (a big spoon swirled through it works just fine for me) and then put it into bottles. I use two old gallon-sized white vinegar bottles to keep my detergent in, and occasionally I have to jiggle the bottle to get the detergent to come out into the measuring cup, but it’s no big problem.

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Why, how much do you usually pay for a gallon of milk?

I… don’t know! For some reason I got it into my head that milk was up around $5 a gallon, but now I’m wondering where I got that from. I tend not to look too closely at the staples I buy (milk, flour, eggs. Oh wait, I don’t buy eggs ha! ha!), so I can’t honestly say how much milk’s been costing in recent months.

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we just got a new cat and while Oreo seems to get along with her MOSTLY okay, she’s suddenly taken to peeing in the bathtub, the sink, the entrance to the litterbox (we have one of those litterboxes that has “stairs” into it), and sometimes my shoes (GRRRR). So, any advice? I’m so fed up with cleaning up cat piss.

My only advice is making sure she doesn’t have a urinary tract infection, making sure she has access to the litter box – ie, that Oreo isn’t blocking her from the litter box when she heads in that direction – and maybe giving the Feliway plug-ins a try. Obviously I have no hard-and-fast advice or we wouldn’t have just bought a webcam to set up so we can identify who’s peeing on the guest bed (yes, we totally did – and no, we haven’t caught the culprit yet. More about the whole thing in Monday’s entry, if I remember).

Readers, any additional advice?

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Isn’t it funny how a cat can understand “who’s ready for the snackin’? ” Or “who wants some whipped cream?” But when they are tormenting the small cat, you scream “NO! over and over and suddenly they are retarded and understand no English? WTH? Selective hearing.

Oh, you KNOW it’s just your tone – they don’t want to hear you scream “NO!”, so they ignore it. I guarantee you, if you started saying “No” in your “Snackin! Time!” voice, they’d be all bright-eyed and running to see what you were giving them. Brats.

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I just came back from vacation and am catching up on your past week (daily reader in ordinary times, but very infrequent commenter)… I just had to laugh when I saw this comic on the plane coming home – sooooo Crooked Acres! http://www.creators.com/comics/the-other-coast/21684.html

So NOW I know why the chickens have been sneaking across the street and down the road to the dollar store!

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I just told my husband tonight that the best thing we have bought in a long time is our George Foreman Grill- the one with the digital settings and removal plates. I use it at least 4 times a week. During the summer even more, because it doesn’t heat up the kitchen so badly that we can’t sit in there to eat. It’s greatness!!

We have a George Foreman grill, but it doesn’t have the digital settings. It does, however, have removal plates, and I agree – those things are the BOMB. I always hated having to clean the plates in the old George Foreman, because I felt like I never got them clean.

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OK, I have a question about tomato sauce. The kind I like at the grocery store is chunky–diced tomatoes in sauce. I like the texture in spaghetti, and chicken parmesan, and anything else. So last weekend, a friend brought me about a dozen tomatoes from her garden, and I thought, Hey! Robyn makes tomato sauce, why don’t I? I started to boil some water to drop the tomatoes into so I could peel ’em, then de-seed them and chunk them and so forth, and then I remembered Tyler Florence puts his tomatoes in the oven to roast. And my favorite canned tomatoes are fire-roasted! So I just chunked the tomatoes, put them on a baking sheet with garlic and fresh basil and oregano and salt and pepper and olive oil, and slid them into the oven. 30 minutes later, I slid the whole mass into my mesh colander over a bowl and pressed away until I had–umm, liquid tomato juice. No pulp. (Embarrassed to say that this caught me by surprise.) So I sauteed some onions and garlic, added a couple cans of my favorite tomatoes (Glen Muir, if you’re wondering) into the saute pan, dumped in my juicy tomato sauce, added a little sugar and some more herbs and seasonings, and it was just wonderful, though a bit more work than if I’d just started with the cans. So my question is: how do you get CHUNKY tomato sauce???? What’s the process, you gardeners/ home-canners and cooks?

I don’t like chunky tomato sauce, so I’m just guessing here, but I would say that probably what you need to do next time is press half the batch through the colander, then peel, de-seed and oven roast the other half and then chop them and add them to the stuff you pressed through the colander. Maybe?

Readers? Halp?

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Naming a male with a female name is very “French”. Maybe he should have a full name of “Jean – Michelle”! Oh la la! :o)

Fred said we should name the rooster Michel, which if I recall my high school French classes correctly, is the French version of Michael!

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Did you buy the plastic strainer or the heavy stainless steel one? I am wondering how sturdy the platic one is. I am going to be processing bushels soon!

I bought the heavy plastic strainer. Once I’d ordered it, I was concerned that maybe I should have gone for the stainless steel one, but after using the strainer once, I would say that it’s definitely very solid and should stand up to lots of use. I might have a different song to sing once I’ve done a babillion pounds of tomatoes, but I’ll try to remember to report back after tomato season is over.

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My favorite kitchen tool is a large pair of stainless steel scissors. Yes, scissors. Perfect for cutting pizza into slices that are actually cut ALL THE WAY THROUGH, and for cutting up barbecue pork, and nearly anything else. They’re also there to grab when I need to cut open plastic packaging.

I actually have scissors in the kitchen – in almost every room, really – but I need to stop buying the shitty cheap scissors, suck it up, and buy the decent ones that won’t fall apart randomly! I bought Fred a pair of Joan Chen (I think?) kitchen scissors to use in the garden and I do believe they’re holding up nicely.

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At first I thought Mister Boogers was picking on Joe Bob because JB has gotten his pic on your site for the past few days. I guess that’s not the reason since he has his own site! I’m kind of afraid to leave a comment on his – is he sarcastic? Or would he just sigh and glare?

The only thing that makes Mister Boogers sigh and glare when it comes to his comments is when there aren’t enough of them. He forces me to read them to him over and over again and then he counts his (imaginary, internet) fortune and talks about what he’s going to do with it. (If you must know, he plans to buy all the catnip in the world and make a big nest out of it, not let any of the other cats have any of it at all, and hire someone to come beat up his brothers and sisters twice a day.)

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I can’t BELIEVE your cat has a web page. I don’t even have a web page!

Fred and I currently possess… counting… six? Six domains? No, wait… seven. Seven? Yeah, I think that’s right. No, wait. I asked Fred and we actually have TEN. TEN domains (a few more of them will be going live in the next month or so), which is kind of scary. Are there really people out there without web pages? I don’t understand. What do you do when you need a question answered and Google is no help? You mean you don’t have a bunch of smartypants readers who help you out?

You poor people.

Seriously, you people with no web presence at all freak me out. How are people supposed to properly stalk you?!

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Robyn, I’m sorry, I thought I had bookmarked the entry about the big buckets at Lowe’s that you use for litter boxes (the dimensions and how you cut them), but I can’t find it. Can you link to it in the Friday questions, please? I’ve recently seen my big boy miss the box by having his front feet on the floor instead of on the rim of the box (which points his butt almost straight down) and I think a bucket would solve the problem if all the cats would use them. Thanks.

It’s here. A lot of people have been searching for that lately, so I added a link to it over there on the right under the search box. Also, there’s a link to the recipe to make your own detergent. I’ll probably add stuff if I notice a lot of searches for particular pages in the future.

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Completely random, but thought this was so cute..heh. “Ham and eggs…A day’s work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.”

Ain’t that the truth!

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Big Pig, laying down and eating. The height, as Fred’s father would say, of laziness.

The pigs are going for processing on August 14th. We are spoiling them absolutely rotten as the time draws closer.

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I don’t know if anyone has asked you this yet, but have you seen or are you watching Real Housewives of Atlanta??? I love those shows, but I don’t know if I can watch the Atlanta one. I saw one episode and I wanted to jump through the TV and kick them all in the back of the throat. Oy!

I actually didn’t even know it was on yet! I did a search on the DVR and located a 30-minute special, so I’ve set up to tape that. Hopefully there’ll be people who are as hateable as some of the OC and NYC housewives!

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Also, please tell Mister Boogers that I added him to my feed reader. He will probably het that, too, but whatever.

Mister Boogers believes that he should be in EVERY feed reader across the country and does not understand why he is not.

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If you MUST have a mezzaluna, get a single-bladed one. The double bladed ones are a bitch to clean in between the blades. In my opinion, you can do just as good a job with herbs using a good quality, sharp chef’s knife. The mezz’s are cute, but they’ll end up being just another thing in the kitchen that you don’t really use very often.

Y’all realize that the only reason I thought I might need a double-bladed mezzaluna is because the guy who subbed for Pioneer Woman last week showed off his mezzaluna, right? And I saw how easily he chopped those herbs and I was all “Oooh, pretty! I need one of those!”, but y’all set me straight. Besides, how often do I chop up herbs? Uh… never? That’ll probably change when I have a little herb garden next year, but I still don’t really anticipate a special tool just for that.

Thanks again, you guys, for setting me straight! God knows I don’t have THAT much room in the kitchen to be cluttering it up with tools I don’t need.

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I also find myself saying “my friend, Robyn” in a non-creepy way.

Isn’t it the MOST difficult thing to explain how you know someone you’ve never met in person? You can say “Someone I know on the internet”, but you often get a weird look from people for that. Or you can say “Someone I know.. kinda…”, but people wonder why you’re being evasive. Earlier this week I had to say “Well, I know her on the internet and I believe she’s a really good person, but I’ve never actually met her in person!”

I generally say “My friend (whoever)” when I mention someone whose blog I read or with whom I’ve traded emails just ’cause it’s easier. And faster. And TRUE. You can be friend with someone you’ve never met. You can!

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So sorry to hear about Frick and the chick… did the other chickens seem to notice or care at all that she was dead behind the coop steps?

If the other chickens even noticed that Frick was dead, they sure didn’t act like it. Maybe they did their grieving in some special chickeny way, but I suspect that their grieving process doesn’t exist and the fact that Frick is no longer around doesn’t even occur to them.

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New kitten movie! This is from a couple of weeks ago. Remember when I said that Kara lays down and flashes her nipples at the kittens and they get all excited because they think it’s time to nurse, then she grooms them and then walks off and leaves them still hungry? Here’s proof.

See it here in MPG format.

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::slurrrrrrrrrp::

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Newtles say, “Is it time for the snackin’ yet, lady?”

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Previously
2007: And the code phrase for “Give me more money, bitch”, can you guess it? “Red velvet. Red velvet!”, of course.
2006: Ooooh, my blood pressure is rising just thinking about it.
2005: the line “I ate 212 almonds last night really fast and then puked them back so they were still kinda whole. I just washed them off and ate ‘em again. I’ve seen dogs do it.” made Fred shoot applesauce out his nose.
2004: No entry.
2003: “Hey, little kitty!” I said excitedly, as I am prone to dorkdom.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: I will.

8/7/08

Man, I haven’t had a cavity filled in quite a few years (I don’t know how many years, exactly, but I know it was before I moved to Alabama, and may have been around the time Debbie and the kids and I lived in Lisbon Falls, so… 15 years? Maybe?) so I completely forgot that … Continue reading “8/7/08”

Man, I haven’t had a cavity filled in quite a few years (I don’t know how many years, exactly, but I know it was before I moved to Alabama, and may have been around the time Debbie and the kids and I lived in Lisbon Falls, so… 15 years? Maybe?) so I completely forgot that the filling of the cavity (or, in this case, the removal of the old filling and the re-filling) isn’t the worst part. The worst part is having numb lips afterward. I couldn’t move the right side of my mouth the right way for most of the afternoon, and swallowing was a bitch.

On the up side, the filling they removed was silver and they replaced it with tooth-colored stuff.

It took less than 45 minutes from the time I was called back to the exam room to the time I was out of there, and it only cost me $45.

Thank god for dental insurance.

Once I left the dentist’s office, I ran by Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up a new bath mat for the upstairs bathroom, ran over to the pet store for canned cat food, and then went to Sam’s.

Because my list consisted of stuff that was big and bulky I thought ahead and picked up one of those flatbed things on wheels instead of a regular shopping cart. Good thing, too, ’cause that was what I needed, but it was hard to steer and I’m lucky I didn’t take anyone out with that thing, especially the old man who seemed to be going out of his way to stop directly in front of me multiple times.

I ended up buying six forty-pound containers of Fresh Step kitty litter, a 25-pound bag of flour, a 400-packet box of Splenda, two big packs of paper towels and a big pack of toilet paper. Oh, and a gallon of milk (less than $4!) and a couple of bags of frozen strawberries for Fred to make more strawberry-habanero jam. I loaded everything in the back of the car and felt like I was driving home with my front tires off the ground.

So I managed to get home a little after 2:00 and had to unload the car, then it was practically time for Fred to get home, and I swear I feel like I hardly got anything accomplished at all yesterday.

I did vacuum the entire house and even moved the cat tree in the kitten room so I could vacuum behind it, so there’s that.

I tend to only vacuum the upstairs once a week, but apparently I need to start doing it a little more often. Once I’d vacuumed the upstairs, I actually had to empty the Dyson canister (which was empty when I started vacuuming) so I could finish the downstairs. I guess the fact that five cats spend 75% of their time up there means a lot of shed fur gets left behind. Imagine that.

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Our cats haven’t been allowed to go out into the back yard for the last two days because in a storm last week something screwed up the electric fence transmitter and it wasn’t working right, so we unplugged it. The cats behaved all weekend long, but when Fred got home from work on Monday we realized that Tommy was missing – he figured out that the fence wasn’t working and hopped it. Fred spent a lot of time walking around the property calling for Tom despite my assurances that Tommy would be home at Snackin! Time!

Sure enough, a few minutes after I bellowed “WHO READY FOR THE SNACKIN?!” out the back door, Tommy came climbing over the fence.

Tuesday morning I thought I’d let them outside for part of the morning, then close them in for the afternoon because I’d somehow gotten it into my head that Tommy only likes to hop the fence in the afternoon (which is an idiotic idea, I don’t know where the hell I came up with such dumbassery), but ten minutes after I’d let them out, I glanced out the window to see Mister Boogers looking with great interest through the fence toward the side yard, and I went out to see Tommy hanging out by the well house. So I went out and got him and shooed everyone inside, and inside they’ll stay ’til the new transmitter gets here and is hooked up.

Ungrateful fuckers.

(Oddly enough, nothing at all has been peed upon despite the fact that they’re not allowed to go outside. Of course, now that I said that, someone will go on a peeing spree.)

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Previously
2007: Just because we CAN grow something doesn’t mean we SHOULD.
2006: Maine recap.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Well, except that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird and all that.
2002: No entry.
2001: I bet the cats are counting the minutes (if cats could count) until we have the yard fenced in and they can go out there.
2000: No entry.

8/6/08

I completely forgot to answer the question a bunch of you asked the other day – just what IS the average life expectancy of a chicken? I thought for sure I had heard somewhere that chickens can easily live to be twenty years old (!), but a Google search led me to this page which … Continue reading “8/6/08”

I completely forgot to answer the question a bunch of you asked the other day – just what IS the average life expectancy of a chicken? I thought for sure I had heard somewhere that chickens can easily live to be twenty years old (!), but a Google search led me to this page which says that average life expectancy is eight years and extreme life expectancy is fifteen years.

Also, a couple asked about eggbound..ness (?). I think of it as being kinda like constipation, only instead of being unable to have a bowel movement, the chicken is unable to pass the egg. There are things you can do to try to help the chicken – putting it in warm water to relax the muscles is one thing, and there’s something else that involves lubricant and a latex glove, and I’ll just let you figure that one out on your own.

(Or read this and laugh your ass off.)

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It appears that y’all think the double-bladed mezzaluna (or even the single-bladed) is not worth the space it takes up in the kitchen. See? I’m glad I asked instead of just ordering it and letting it sit in the drawer for a few years before I tossed it out (or put it on the giveaway page)!

Speaking of kitchen appliances, remember last week when I was all “Wah, tomatoes, I hate you! :whinewhinewhine: ?” and reader Michele emailed me and said “Buy this right now, whiny! It will change your life!” and because I am very obedient I was all “Okay, ordered!”

Well, it came Monday. Monday evening before bed I took my two and a half gallon ziplock bag full of ripe tomatoes out of the freezer and left it on the counter to thaw. Mid-morning yesterday I set that tomato strainer up and got started.

Twenty minutes later I had nine cups of tomato puree. Now, let’s compare that with the weekend before last when it took me TWO AND A HALF HOURS of peeling and chopping and foodmilling to come up with 5 1/2 cups of tomato puree.

I am totally a convert. That tomato strainer is MAGIC and Michele is the reader of the week, and since I promised to name a chicken after her if the tomato strainer was as awesome as she claimed….

Meet Michele the chicken!

06DSC03120

06DSC03147 06DSC03167 06DSC03168 06DSC03169

Okay, Michele the chicken is actually a rooster (and I expect he will father many many pretty babies in his lifetime), but since Charlie and George are girls, I figured it would go along with the naming scheme if we gave the rooster a girl’s name, right?

I could have named one of the newborn chickens Michele, I suppose, but they kind of all look alike at that age, so at least this way I know which chicken we’ve named after her. We’ve been calling him “The tri-color rooster” and “The ‘hey guys’ rooster” (because he’s so curious and friendly), so it’ll be good to have a definite name to call him by.

So, to sum up: Reader Michele = Awesome. Tomato strainer = Awesome. Tri-color Rooster = Michele.

Now, y’all tell me – what is your number one, go-to, absolute favorite kitchen tool?

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Fred suggested last week that I try making something with chicken and eggplant, and after MUCH discussion we decided I’d made this eggplant/ chicken parmesan dish consisting of a layer of baked eggplant slices on the bottom of a baking dish, topped with shredded chicken, a good amount of Ragu, another layer of baked eggplant, then shredded mozzarella on top.

So I measured out how much eggplant I’d need, and I baked it, and do you know what happens when you bake eggplant slices? Are you ready for this? It shrinks.

I KNOW. Imagine my shock.

So I didn’t have enough eggplant, and after thinking about it for a minute, I was all “Hey! I’ve got these slices of eggplant in the dehydrator, and they’re not dehydrated all that much! I’ll just use those as is!”

Fred tried to be the voice of reason, all “Shouldn’t you rehydrate them and maybe bake them a little?” and I was all “PSHAW, no! They’ll be fine!”

They were not fine. They tasted like I’d put slices of rubber in there. Also, apparently I don’t like the taste of shredded chicken and Ragu together, because I took one bite and was like “Um, no! I’ll be eating cherry tomatoes and mozzarella for dinner tonight instead!”

So I would call that there experiment a resounding flop.

I’m not cooking dinner tonight, because I have a dental appointment at noon (I’m having a filling removed and re-filled) and then I’m going to Sam’s and then I’m NOT going to come home and cook dinner, so I told Fred he’s on his own. I’ll probably pick up a salad somewhere – unless I still can’t feel my lip from the Novocaine, in which case I don’t suppose I’ll be eating anything for dinner.

Tomorrow night I believe I’m going to make chicken salad. Upon cleaning out the freezer in the kitchen over the weekend, I realized I had several packs of boneless skinless chicken breast halves left over from when I bought them in bulk from Sam’s some time ago, so I want to get them used up. Fred’s been wanting chicken salad (made with the sweet pickle relish I canned last year), so that’s what we’ll be having at least tomorrow night, if not for several nights.

And now I’ve gotta go vacuum the house. I want to get that done before I have to leave for my dental appointment and the Dyson don’t run itself!

(Yet.)

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Living dangerously.


Kara is wily. She lays down so the kittens get excited about nursing, then she grooms them, and then she walks off and the kittens sit there like “Wait. I thought it was time to eat! Now I’m all hungry and CLEAN!”


There’s always someone around to jump into the picture and swish their tail by your face at any given moment.


Pretty Kaylee.


Pretty River.

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Joe Bob made himself a nest, and Inara came along to see what he was doing, and hissed at him. He was like “And your point is?”

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Previously
2007: (Miz Poo, upon seeing me pick up a fly swatter and walk toward her, whines and runs away. Like I beat her spoiled ass on a regular basis! I don’t, but I oughta. She deserves it.)
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: The morning I wake up and find a cricket in bed with me is the day I start closing the cat door at night, believe you me.
2003: I HAVE THINGS TO DO THAT CANNOT BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH A PORTLY POO IN THE WAY.
2002: No entry.
2001: Yeah, like YOU don’t have a voice in your head that reads things to you…
2000: No entry.

8/5/08

Holy cow! Thanks, you guys, for all your comments and emails. You are, as usual, The Awesome. My ego is now so swollen my neck can barely support it! A lot of lurkers came out to comment, and I love it when that happens. Rest assured that I am going nowhere and passwording nothin’. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ … Continue reading “8/5/08”

Holy cow! Thanks, you guys, for all your comments and emails. You are, as usual, The Awesome. My ego is now so swollen my neck can barely support it! A lot of lurkers came out to comment, and I love it when that happens.

Rest assured that I am going nowhere and passwording nothin’.

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You remember Dramatic Groundhog, right?

Now check out Dramatic Kitty!

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You tell me: double-bladed mezzaluna knife. Worth it, or no? And if yes, tell me about your mezzaluna knife, where you got it, and how much you love it.

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You ever get the feeling that someone’s been going through your stuff or sitting at your desk? Lately, I’ve been coming downstairs in the morning and my keyboard is just… I don’t know. Not where it’s supposed to be. And my mouse is much closer to the edge of the desk. It’s very odd.

I can’t imagine what would explain such a thing.

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I think y’all should know that we have owned MisterBoogers.com for TWO AND A HALF YEARS and it took me about an hour altogether to get it up and running.

I know, ridiculous.

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Y’all, I seriously DO NOT KNOW what the hell it is, but Sugarbutt and Mister Boogers have got a serious hate-on for Joe Bob. He’ll be sitting on the floor minding his own business and just SOMETHING about his very existence sets Sugarbutt (who has always been a lover, not a fighter) or Mister Boogers (who’s always been a hetter) off. Last night Fred went out to close up the chicken coops and I was loading the dishwasher before I joined him, and all of a damn sudden, there were cats screaming and I whipped around to see Joe Bob and Sugarbutt with a death grip on each other, both of them yowling at the top of their lungs. I yelled so loud that Fred heard me and came back inside just as I got them separated.

At least there was more Sugarbutt hair floating around in the aftermath than Joe Bob hair.

Fred helped Joe Bob get to his “safe place” – atop the bookcase in the kitchen – and he stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Yesterday I was on the phone and heard a hellacious scream. I recognized it as Stinkerbelle’s voice, and followed the sound to the laundry room to find that Joe Bob had cornered Stinkerbelle behind the washing machine and it was PISSING HER OFF. He doesn’t have to touch her to piss her off (I don’t think he’d actually instigate a fight), all he has to do is block her from getting past him.

I don’t know what the issue is, but it’s pissing me off. I hate to see Sugarbutt and Boogie pick on Joe, and I hate to see Joe pick on Stank. I suppose it’s the principal of shit rolling downhill, but I think the Stank would disagree with the idea that she’s downhill from Joe when it comes to the pecking order in the house.

They just better stop with the middle of the night fighting, because I will TOTALLY toss all of the troublemakers out back and make them fend for themselves.

Yeah, I don’t believe me either.

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YOU MAKE KITTY SCARED.


Kaylee never quite dares to come all the way downstairs. She prefers to sit on the stairs and observe.

———————–


Miz Poo gets cranky without her full 23.75 hours of beauty sleep.

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Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: The man KNOWS romantic conversation, doesn’t he?
2005: That Jane, she’s a smart and wily one.
2004: No, there are no current plans for Fredbyn offspring.
2003: I think we’re going to change Miz Poo’s name to Miz Money Pit.
2002: No entry.
2001: Picture entry.
2000: The word of the day is shopping.

8/4/08

What I’ve always loved about writing here, about my site not being passworded, is that anyone can read. I get people who wander across my site during a fit of boredom, read several (or several hundred) entries, then wander off again. The problem, of course, is that anyone can read and unless I want to … Continue reading “8/4/08”

What I’ve always loved about writing here, about my site not being passworded, is that anyone can read. I get people who wander across my site during a fit of boredom, read several (or several hundred) entries, then wander off again.

The problem, of course, is that anyone can read and unless I want to ban IP addresses, I can’t control who’s reading here.

It’s wearing when you know that someone is reading what you’ve written and then turning around to sneer behind your back about it. Someone who digs frantically through your archives looking for a reason to be offended and chooses the most innocuous stuff to be offended by.

It’s wearing, and on Friday in a fit of overwhelmed stress, I made the decision to take down my site completely and start over in a new, private, passworded location. Fred and my sister eventually convinced me not to, and in the end I had to agree that I would miss writing here too much, and I’d miss having almost nine years of history behind what I write.

This is my site. And I will write what I want to write. If you don’t like something I’ve written, rather than rail on and on and ON about the utter nerve of me writing what I want how I want, I would recommend that you get over yourself.

This is MY SITE. Mine. I will write what I want to write. How I want to write it.

And if you don’t like that, then I suggest you remember that no one invited you to the party, and close your browser and go away.

Maybe you could start your own site. Clearly you have too much time on your hands.

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It occurred me when writing the above that the two women who asked last week that I not refer to our dinners by the names of the chicken who comprise it might think it was referring to them.

Rest assured, it’s absolutely not.

I don’t think it’s going to be terribly hard to avoid calling our meals by the name of the chicken who died to make it possible in the future, given that we only have two chickens left who are named, and they won’t be going anywhere for a good long while.

But I still think that Summer Vegetable McLovin Pie is FUNNY.

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So, we haven’t gotten a blue egg in a long, long time. I think it’s been a month since Fred last brought one in and showed it to me, and before that they seemed to be kind of misshapen and thin-shelled.

Last week, we noticed that Frick looked raggedy, feathers falling out, like she was molting. Chickens usually molt when the weather gets colder, so to have her molting in the middle of the summer seemed a bit odd, but we didn’t think a lot about it. Then she started acting unlike herself – she stayed off, alone, and stopped running over to us when we walked into the chicken yard. She’s always run over to us in hopes that we had food – I’ve called her my puppychicken for as long as I can remember – but she wasn’t doing that anymore and I don’t know how long it was going on before we noticed. If we put food right in front of her she’d eat it, but she wasn’t seeking it out.

Last week suggested that Frick was going to be the next chicken to “go”, and I said “NO FRICK WON’T GO!” and talked about how she’s the only chicken I considered a pet?

The irony is that she was probably already dead when I typed that.

Friday night we went out to shut up the chicken coops, and I looked specifically for Frick to see how she was doing. She’s always on the roost near the door, that’s her spot, but this time I didn’t see her. I asked Fred if he saw her, and he walked into the coop to look and saw her nowhere. He looked under the small coop (she’d been spending time under there – the chickens like to go under the coops during the day when it’s hot out, and it’s been particularly hot lately) and didn’t see her, and then he looked under the big coop and said “She’s behind the steps!”

He got the handle to a broom and pushed at her with it. And then he said that he thought she was dead.

She was, and she’d been dead a long time.

After doing some research online and talking about it, we’re convinced that she was egg bound. It bothers us both that we put off her behavior to molting, when if we’d realized that she was egg bound we could have tried to help her. I hate the thought of her going under the coop and dying behind those stairs. I hate the thought of her being in pain.

It’s probably weird to y’all that I can happily talk about eating a chicken one minute and then terribly miss Frick the next. All I can say is that I always considered her a pet and I already miss seeing her goofy little face.

Good ol’ Frick.

(I know what you’re thinking, and no. We didn’t. And neither did the pigs. We don’t eat our pets.)

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It was actually not a good weekend to be a Crooked Acres chicken. Late last week a Jersey Giant (black) mother chicken hatched three eggs. On Saturday Fred went into the coop to check on them, and one of the three newborn chicks was laying off by herself. He put her under a heat lamp in the garage and dipped her beak in water several times. But she wouldn’t open her eyes, she felt cool, and her breathing was labored. Within a few hours, she was dead.

The surviving newborns are just fine, and none of the other chickens are acting in any way sick. But you can bet we’ll keep a close eye on them from here on out.

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River likes to climb up my shirt and hang out there. So does Zoe. Sometimes they both get in there and start fighting. It’s quite fun, as you can imagine.


I love my little peanut Zoe.


Wary Kaylee.


Kara considers putting the smack down.


Kara’s feelin’ feisty.

__________________


Joe Bob, atop the bookcase in the kitchen – his favorite place to hang out when he’s not outside.

Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: I reflected for a moment that I wasn’t hovering over him in the dead of night, so I didn’t know how I could have possibly scared him.
2005: See that? I made a thinly veiled joke about his age! I am SO FUNNY!
2004: As for where the odd socks go – the bad ones go to hell, don’t they?
2003: Oui, I am back! Let the rejoicing begin!
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: So we were at the beach this morning by 10.