I think I forgot to mention that the night Debbie and I took our big-time trip to check the PO Box in Madison because we didn’t want to sit around the house, after we visited Old Time Pottery (I always want to type in “Olde Tyme Pottery”), we drove by our old house. (The house … Continue reading “1/7/09”
I think I forgot to mention that the night Debbie and I took our big-time trip to check the PO Box in Madison because we didn’t want to sit around the house, after we visited Old Time Pottery (I always want to type in “Olde Tyme Pottery”), we drove by our old house.
(The house Fred and I lived in when we bought this house, I mean.)
Right after we sold our house in Madison, the people who lived right next door to us put their house up for sale.
(These are the people we’ve mentioned in the past, the woman who spent an entire summer stalking up and down the property line, scowling, before she asked Fred not to mow over the property line because the lawn treatment people wouldn’t treat their entire lawn and “It looks funny.” And the man who shook his fist at Fred, who was driving down the street going under the speed limit, because instead of taking his child on a walk on the sidewalk, he felt it necessary to parade her down the middle of the street. Yeah, them. Luckily, the neighbors on the other side of us were very cool and had the most adorable boys, which made up for the – shall we say – douchebaggery on the other side of us.)
When Debbie and I drove by the old house very slowly, first I noticed that the people who bought our house had two Christmas trees up, one in the upstairs study, which meant that they clearly DO NOT HAVE TEN CATS. And then I noticed that the house that had gone up for sale right after we sold ours was still for sale. A year and a half after we sold ours.
Yikes. Fred wasn’t kidding when he said that we put our house up for sale at exactly the right time!
(Also, our old house doesn’t appear to miss us at all. I DON’T MISS YOU EITHER, STUPID HOUSE. Hmph. You could PRETEND, at least!)
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If you depend on my links list for your daily journal/ blog reading, you might want to go through and bookmark the links that are important to you. I’m going to redo my links list this week (it may take a while) and some of the links are going to disappear.
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I realized yesterday that I didn’t hear Do They Know It’s Christmas? even once over the holiday season, so I had to go to YouTube and listen to it. That song, more than any other song, makes it feel like Christmas to me.
My favorite part of the song is when Bono bellows “WELL TONIGHT THANK GOD IT’S THEM INSTEAD OF YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!”
My favorite part of the video is when Sting and Bono and some other guy are standing in front of the microphone and Sting looks super-uncomfortable standing there next to Bono like he’s thinking “Oi! Who the hell is this wanker and why’s he all up in my shit? Pip pip!” (That’s my British accent. In case you were wondering.) My second favorite part of the video is when those skinny girls with the horrible hair that I do not know (maybe they’re from Bananarama? I know not.) are standing in the front of the group, clearly not knowing what the words to the chorus are (how hard is it to memorize the words “Feed the world/ LET THEM KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!”?), swaying back and forth.
So yeah, almost two weeks after Christmas, I’m finally in the Christmas spirit.
I wonder – if they were going to make the song these days, would they call it “Do they know it’s Christmas?”, or (more likely) would they call it “Do they know it’s the holiday season (please don’t be offended if you don’t observe a holiday this time of year)?”
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My desk is a popular destination for most of the cats of Crooked Acres, including even Miss Stinky, if I’m not around. It’s a nice, big desk, but I’m selfish and like to actually use it myself and thus need space for my monitor and keyboard and the mass of paperwork that always piles up, therefore there’s only room for two beds. And always, ALWAYS someone’s having a fit because both beds are occupied, whether it’s Miz Poo who’s all ::sniff::sniff::HISS!::HISS!:: when she sees that there’s no room in the inn, or Mister Boogers, who will just climb into a bed even if it’s occupied because he always assumes there’s room for one more.
So over the weekend, I started brainstorming about how I could provide more desk space for the spoiled rotten brats, and what I did was move the filing cabinet from the right side of my desk to the left side, so it’d be under the window. And I put a couple of small cat beds atop the filing cabinet, thereby doubling the cat bed space.
It went over pretty well – most of the time one or the other of the two beds will have a cat in it, and once I saw Tommy in one of the beds and Sugarbutt in the other.
Then yesterday, I noticed that only one of the beds was occupied and when I walked into the dining room, Mister Boogers had pushed his way into the cat bed on the dining room table with Newt.
I think that secretly (or maybe NOT so secretly), Mister Boogers is a snuggle slut.
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I admired this sign at Cracker Barrel the first time my sister and Brian and I went there, but decided against buying it. Then the second time we went to Cracker Barrel (on the way home from Nashville), I admired it again and decided against buying it, because I knew we’d likely make at least one more trip to Cracker Barrel, and I could buy it then, and maybe it’d be on sale.
After we ate our meal, we were headed out, and the sales clerk pointed to a wrapped package on the counter and told Debbie that it was the item she’d bought. It was pretty obvious right away what was in the package, but Debbie tried to convince me that she’d just bought a lot of candy, no really, IT’S A BIG BOX OF CANDY! The next day, she let me open it.
I don’t know why I love it so much, but I DO. I plan to hang it over the doorway between the kitchen and living room. Isn’t it adorable?
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I have to admit something. In the very bottom of my heart, I keep hoping that one day, Miz Poo will turn into Charlene Butterbean, at least attitude-wise. That she’ll start liking the kittens, that she’ll snuggle with them and groom them and treat them, if not in a motherly fashion, then at least in a tolerant big-sister fashion.
These days, instead of immediately smacking any kitten who comes too close to her, Miz Poo will sniff them, regard them and THEN smack them.
Previously
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry. 2004: What I hate most about flying is how incredibly fucking boring it is. 2003: Damn 8 Mile. 2002: I think we can agree that I’m all about the politeness 2001: The story of how Fred & I met. 2000: Fred: Well, what’s 8 times 1? Spud: 10?
New month, new logo! Thank you to Aly, who whipped up a banner for me in no time flat! Thanks, Aly. You rock! & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & We left out of here mid-morning yesterday because … Continue reading “1/2/09”
New month, new logo! Thank you to Aly, who whipped up a banner for me in no time flat!
Thanks, Aly. You rock!
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We left out of here mid-morning yesterday because Fred had no pressing projects to do, so we decided to head up to Amish country (Lawrenceburg, TN) for a few hours.
To our surprise, none of our usual stops were open. New Year’s Day is a holiday and lots of places close on that day! Huh. Who the hell knew?
Since the little general store in Bodenham wasn’t open (we’d been hoping to buy a breakfast sandwich there, since we were both starving), we ended up stopping at a gas station to pee, and then bought a “Hunk A Pizza” to split.
We’ve been mocking the Hunt Brothers and their “Hunk A Pizza” for years now, but as it turns out, it’s pretty damn good pizza. Especially when you’re very hungry!
We drove around the Amish houses in Ethridge, but we didn’t dare to approach any houses, because we didn’t know whether they were sleeping off their wild New Years celebrations, so after an hour or so of driving around, we headed for home.
There were a LOT of hawks out and about. Well – I don’t know that they were hawks, they apparently could have been turkey buzzards according to Fred. Whatever they were, there were a lot of them!
I’d much rather see them in Tennessee than hovering over our chickens, that’s for sure.
We stopped and ate lunch at Chaparral’s Steak House (steak salads for both of us), then headed home.
It was a pretty pointless trip, but it was a lovely day and we got out of the house for a few hours, so I’m calling it good enough!
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Speaking of dreams, I had a horrible dream last night that I came home from work to find a bunch of stray cats on my porch. We already have 5 cats (all were strays we SWORE we were not going to keep, ahem) and I was crying trying to figure out how I was going to find homes for them all. Then I realized one of them was Delmar and I was so upset thinking that you must be going nuts looking for him and wondering how I was going to get him back to you!
Hmm… or more likely I knew there’s a sucker at your house who provides homes for stray cats, and I left him there! 🙂
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I have an old floor-to-ceiling cat tree that is structurally sound, but desperately needs to be recarpeted — at least the shredded legs if I’m willing to live with the faded blue of the horizontal pieces (which, being very lazy, I probably am). Have you or any of your readers ever carpeted a cat tree? Do you glue the carpet down, and if so, what kind of glue? Or do you use those huge staples that shoot out of a gun? Any recommendations on what kind of carpet is best (other than cheap remnants)?
I’ve never recarpeted a cat tree, but if anyone out there has experience, I’d love to hear about it!
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I googled build cat tree and found a lot of sites that will sell you a plan, but also this site, which has a section entitled “Do you feel up to building a cat tree?” I thought that was a great question.
One of the links is to Ron Hazelton’s Housecalls, and he has a video about how to build a cat tree. I don’t have time to watch the video right now, but I’ve bookmarked his site. I can drool over ALL the do-it-yourself projects I’m too lazy to ever actually do. Although I might actually carpet an existing cat tree because I think I’m more cheap than I am lazy.
Very interesting – thanks for the links!
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How did Mr. Boogers lose his tail?
We don’t know for sure, but we suspect he was born with just a stump of a tail. He was that way when we adopted him at about 6 months of age, so either he was born that way, or something happened shortly after birth. Either way, I cannot even begin to imagine him with a full-length tail, he wouldn’t look right!
For the record, my sister says that Mister Boogers’ tail looks longer in pictures. It’s about four inches long, if you’re curious.
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I have a feeling that when it’s time for the fosters to go to the store for adoption, they’re all going to rebel and refuse to go. Sounds like they’ve gotten a little too comfy at Crooked Acres!
Think so? I don’t know, they look pretty miserable to me…!
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This made me think of your posts talking about Tim Tams! I am going to have to watch for them!
Mmmm… Tim Tams!
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Oh Robyn, didn’t you know YouTube was around all the way back in 1985?
Thanks for sharing the old video. I love Tubby, he always reminds me of Cartman when I see him. And my own slightly tubby cat, of course!
Oddly enough, I said that exact thing to Fred after I watched the video. He’s especially Cartman-like when he’s rolling around on his back looking bitchy.
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We just adopted a 3 year old cat out of foster care and we’ve found that he only drinks water out of the running faucet! He’s a sweet boy but he will howl and howl until we turn on the water. I cannot afford to have my water running all the time. Do you have any tips to break him from this habit and to just drink from his water bowl?
You absolutely need a Drinkwell fountain (look on eBay, you can probably find it much cheaper). The water imitates the water from a faucet, it runs all the time, it keeps the water clean, it’s pretty easy to clean (I clean mine about every ten days), and most of our cats love it to death. We also have a Petmate fountain upstairs, and the cats like that one, too. The Drinkwell most closely imitates the action of a faucet, in my opinion, so I’d suggest you start there.
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NINETY?! I told someone the other day that you had 45 chickens. Are you sure they’re not rabbits that just LOOK like chickens?
We haven’t actually let the chickens hatch that many of them. For a while there, it seemed like every time we went somewhere, we were picking up eggs to hatch in the incubator. Even now, when it’s really too cold to hatch eggs, Fred is agitating to hatch some featherhead eggs, ’cause he wants to know what a white-crested black polish crossed with one of McLovin’s sons would turn out to look like.
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I still haven’t tried or seen Tim Tams. I looked them up on google and it said that they include malted biscuits. Does that mean malted like “Whoppers” candies are malted? Just curious!
and then someone else said:
Hi Elissa,
Not sure about the malted biscuit part but if you like a crunchy chocolate cookie, chocolate soft frosting and chocolate coating on your tongue, then these cookies or biscuits (if you are British or Australian) are worth a try. Of course, I would check on the availability of rehab before you try them. There is no going back.
I’ll agree with that!
I don’t find any part of the Tim Tams comparable to Whoppers, really, but perhaps I need to buy a package later today (since I’m going to be RIGHT there by Target!) and double-check!
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I live about 20 minutes from Dulles! Not that you care or anything.
If I’d known that Christmas Eve, I might have called you up and asked you to run over to the Hyatt with some food for my sister and nephew! 🙂
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What can I do to keep my 8 mo old kitten, “Snickers” (He sent you his Christmas photo) from chewing up paper. He is also into destroying book corners. Last week it was the spine of a library book. We had to shut him away from the Christmas tree as he was ripping off the wrappings on the gifts. Help! I need advice.
and someone said:
Catsy,
My cats are 12 and still like chewing up paper, destroying books, and unwrapping presents. The best advice is to keep the stuff you want to keep away from the cat. I don’t think you can “train” them not to do it.
For the most part, you can train your cats not to chew paper or whatever while you’re around with the help of a can of compressed air or a spray bottle of water, but once you leave the room, all bets are off. You really do have to train yourself not to leave anything you don’t want destroyed or chewed upon out for the cat to get hold of. Maybe when he gets older he’ll calm down a little, but you can’t count on it.
(Loved the picture of Snickers, by the way! What a cutie.)
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I was reading your egg salad recipe, and I noticed that the yolk part of your eggs is very yellow. I seem to remember you guys (maybe Fred?) commenting that the yolks of your fresh eggs were a much darker color? The reason I’m asking is because we get fresh eggs here in England from the dairy down the road, and the yolks are SO dark they’re more of a burnt orange color than yellow. Even when boiled. I’ll have to take a pic for you.
and someone else said:
Egg yolks will be more or less yellow depending on what the hen ate. Lots of corn (high in carotenoids) in chicken feed will result in yellower egg yolks. If memory serves, flaxseed also has a lot of carotenoids and will darken egg yolks.
Where I live in Canada, the preference is strongly towards really pale yolks. The regional preference for egg yolk colour fascinates me. Visitors to my part of the world are often disturbed by how light our eggs are. (As I would be by a burnt orange coloured yolk).
Our yolks do tend to be a much darker orange than the eggs we (used to) get at the store. Our chickens eat layer rations from the co-op, the occasional handful of cracked corn, and lots and lots of bugs and grass and weeds. I also think our eggs taste a lot better than the ones from the store, but I might be the teeniest bit prejudiced.
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Wow, Brian turned into a handsome young man, didn’t he! Is he tall too?
He’s just a smidge under six feet tall. He’s awfully skinny, too, which makes him look even taller than he is. He’s a string bean!
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By the way- you guys look like Robodorks hugging on that chicken.
Well, that’s because we ARE robodorks, and proud of it!
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I LOVE the chicken. I need to know where he is so we can go visit him someday.
He’s at Exit 6 off highway 65 in Elkton, TN. Go visit him, he needs the company!
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It looks like the chicken just birthed you in the first pic.
Good, ’cause that’s what I was going for! Heh.
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It’s Robyn! In jeans! Which brand did you finally decide on?
I ended up finding the Fashion Bug LA Blues Wilshires the most comfortable. They suggested the size 11 petites for me, so I ordered them, got them, and found them too big. I ordered 9 petites instead, and they fit just right. I need to order a few more pair, though – I currently only have two pair, and need a couple more to get me through the week between laundry days!
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A tip if you ever do go back to Red Robin, any of the burgers with beef patties you can ask to have petite size and it’s a smaller patty & bun, and it’s a buck less.
I’ll definitely do that next time!
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No trip to Trader Joe’s when you went to Nashville?! I was sure you’d hit it up.
No trip to Trader Joe’s this time, because we weren’t going home ’til late at night, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll want to buy stuff that needs to be refrigerated. A trip to Trader Joe’s is definitely in my future, though!
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I miss Opryland, the amusement park they tore down to build Opry Mills. But their IMAX theater is very cool. Red Robin is wonderful! Did anyone get the burger with the egg on it? I tried one of those the first time I went and it was so GOOD.
Fred always talks glowingly about Opryland and wishes it was still around, too!
None of us tried the burger with the egg on it, but I have my eye on it for the next time I visit!
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I just noticed your new(ish?) profile pic in the upper right hand corner of the page. When did Bitchypoo bring the sex-ay? It must have been before the SCOOP HANDS! Or do SCOOP HANDS! make you sexy? Seriously, you look mysterious, and can I say, beautiful in that pic. I highly approve!
::Blush:: Awww, go on, you! To be fair I had the camera set on some super-flattering setting, apparently, one I haven’t been able to duplicate since. Also, I was laying down, which helped reduce my wattle, and I was apparently having a good hair day.
(Also, SCOOP HANDS can never hurt!)
I think this is a fairer representation of what I look like on a day-to-day basis:
(In the gas station bathroom at Lawrenceburg, TN where we bought our “Hunk A Pizza.” I am clearly exhausted from the 9 hours of sleep I had the night before.)
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I’m still snorting about you all deciding to go out instead of just ‘sitting around’ and then going to Madison to check your PO Box! Whoop-ta-ha!
Didn’t I mention that we live large ’round these parts? We totally do!
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Tell me, how do you pronounce pecan? Is it pee-can or p-caun with the emphasis on the caun?
I usually pronounce it pee-can, though I occasionally go the p-caun route for no particular reason. Fred always pronounces it p-caun and mocks me for using pee-can.
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You MUST make sugared pecans! Must, must, must.
Anything that starts with ‘sugared’ HAS to be good!
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How did you like Cherryholmes? I love them!
I LOVED them! I love their sound, and they did a song that resulted in a standing ovation. And for that matter, thanks for the reminder – I wanted to download some of their songs on iTunes!
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So…Furminator. I’m about to buy one. A link you have shows a large one. Is this the size you have? Are the brushes the same for cats and dogs, except different widths?
The brush we have is this one, not the large one. I think when I bought the Furminator we have, they either didn’t have the ones specifically for cats, or I just didn’t realize they existed. I expect they’re probably the same – I use the one meant for dogs on the cats, and it works really, really well. I highly recommend the Furminator!
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Doesn’t Miz Poo just look terribly miserable? Poor neglected baby!
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Previously 2007: I LURVE THE LOBSTER. 2007: I’m surprised the damn government didn’t declare a “National Day of Celebration” for Wednesday to commemorate Saddam Hussein’s death, just so they could stop the mail delivery for a third day in a row.
2006: No entry.
2004: No entry. 2003: Note to self 2002: (“Damn, Robyn sure is impressed with herself, isn’t she?”) 2001: Robyn’s Resolutions for 2001. 2000: Exciting, no?
Upon beginning this entry, I realize that I’m in need of a banner for January. Anyone feeling creative? & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & Happy New Year, one and all! I hope you didn’t party too much … Continue reading “01-01-2009”
Upon beginning this entry, I realize that I’m in need of a banner for January. Anyone feeling creative?
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Happy New Year, one and all!
I hope you didn’t party too much last night. We made a run to Wal-Mart after Fred got home from work to get some something-or-other that makes it so we get local channels in high definition (I cannot tell you how much the very thought thrills me. Mostly I cannot tell you that because it’d be a lie. I don’t give that much of a shit about high definition TV really. Shh, don’t tell Fred!). He hooked it up, I did Snackin’! Time!, we ate leftovers (chicken and rice casserole, sweet potato casserole, hash brown casserole. Are we sensing a casserole theme here?), I puttered around the house and then online, we watched TV, I picked pecans out of the shell, we went to bed. Well, he went to bed, I stayed up a little while to read, then it was lights out by 10:15.
We live the high life, indeed.
So, the pecans. Fred’s been picking up pecans for the last few months. We didn’t really get many pecans last year, but this year it’s been a pecan-bonanza, and after checking things out, Fred decided that the pecans the tree in the old chicken yard are putting out are the really good ones, so he’s only picking up those pecans. After he’d gotten two and a half buckets of pecans, we took them to the co-op to have them cracked, and last weekend we picked them up. Now, since Fred picked them up off the ground, it’s my job to shell them.
I can’t describe to you the sheer and utter thrill of shelling pecans. Because it would be a lie, and it’s messy and it’s dirty, but I have to say – those are some fine fucking pecans. We have one more bucket to pick up this weekend, and the pecans are pretty much off the trees, so once I get these three and a half buckets done, I’ll be done for a while.
And no, I’m not selling them. I’m sticking them in the freezer for future use. Next year’s sweet potato casserole will be particularly fine with our own pecans sprinkled across the top!
Yesterday I left the house mid-morning to take the recyclables to the recycling center, get groceries, stop by L0we’s to use a couple of coupons my sister’d given me, go to the bank, and then swing by the post office.
You ever feel like when all you want to do is get your shit done and get home ’cause you’ve got things to do (laundry, vacuuming, spending time with the kittens, cleaning the kitchen), everyone’s conspiring against you? The lady ahead of me at the grocery store had to write a check AND OF COURSE YOU CANNOT BEGIN WRITING THE CHECK UNTIL YOU KNOW THE TOTAL, I BELIEVE WE’VE DISCUSSED MY FEELINGS ON THIS MATTER, and then she had to conversate with the cashier about clementines and how her granddaughter loves them so and I swear to god when I am in the watchtower shooting down random strangers, I will be screaming “SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!!!!!!”
This might sound like a lie, but I swear to god that I don’t usually have a problem with slow people, or people being chatty, but I didn’t particularly want to be out running errands, I just wanted to get the fuck home, and thus I approached stroke-having territory at the utter glacial movements of the cashier once his BFF the clementine lady was on her way.
Then one of the managers came to bag my groceries (let me take a moment to thank god that Publix had many lanes open instead of the one lane Porkkly Dorkkly regularly had open, even on the days when they were super busy) because they were short on baggers, and he and the cashier had to yukk it up that a manager was bagging.
At least he didn’t give me a hard time about letting me carry my own bags out to my car. Why, some of these young whippersnappers are downright INSISTENT on helping me out to the car when I have, like, two bags. I AM NOT AS FRAIL AND DODDERING AS I LOOK, PEOPLE.
Then I headed to Lowe’s to use the coupons Debbie had given me, since they expired yesterday. Both were for $10 off a $25 (or more) purchase. On my first trip in, I bought a new weather station, since the one I bought at LL Bean’s a few years ago has died and I can’t seem to resuscitate it. I took that out to the car, then went back inside and bought some storage containers – one to use as a litter box in the foster kitten room, since all the cats in the house seem to use the damn thing and Spanky (and, I suspect, other cats) are what I term “high pee-ers” and require a high litter box.
When I was walking around Lowe’s, I looked in my purse to look for the note I’d written regarding what size storage container I thought I needed (specifically, how tall), and realized I had forgotten to stop at the bank on my way by.
So after I left Lowe’s, I went to the bank, and as I pulled up to the drive-thru, I was pleased to see that for once it wasn’t packed – just one car in each lane – so I pulled up into the closest lane, and I sat there for several minutes and THEN the douchebag in front of me finished filling out his goddamn deposit slip or whatever the fuck he was doing and put the container in the thingy to send his paperwork into the bank and I rolled my eyes and groaned and moaned, and turned and looked to see if I could back out and pull into one of the other now-empty lanes, but someone was behind me, so I was stuck.
Which is when I wished I carry golf clubs around with me so I could go Nicholson on his ass. But I didn’t – the most lethal item in my car was the package of frozen spinach – so I decided to just relax, since this was the (almost) last item on my list of errands.
Note to myself: trips to the bank would probably go a lot faster if I just parked and walked my ass inside. It certainly can’t go any SLOWER.
I managed to forget to stop at the post office, but it was no big deal – just a Netflix movie I wanted to send back – and then I got home and spent the rest of the day puttering around the house.
Today, I think I’ll get my Christmas decorations taken down and put away. This will take very little time, because I didn’t do much decorating this year. Mostly I just put out a few Santa figurines, hung some ornaments through the house, and put some fake poinsettias on the front porch and a wreath on the door. Maybe next year I’ll figure out a way to hang some Christmas lights inside – the lights have always been my favorite part of Christmas.
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Tomorrow, Delmar and Lem are going to the pet store. (Marion and Claudette are staying here a while longer for some extra attention.) Hopefully they’ll be snatched up right away and be in their new homes tomorrow night. I’m not counting on it, but a girl can be helpful, right?
I was pretty surprised that they reacted to my sister and nephew’s visit by hiding from them – in fact, Delmar and Claudette spent most of their time for the first few days hiding under the covers on my bed. After a few days, they started coming out – Lem, especially – so hopefully they’ll adjust quickly to being in a cage at the pet store.
They’re both such good kitties – I can’t decide whether it’s Delmar who’s my favorite, or Lem – that they’ll make really good cats. Y’all keep your fingers crossed that they get adopted quickly, won’t you?
This is going to be hard – it always is – but I have to trust that they’ll end up in fantastic homes with people who spoil them as rotten as we do.
She loves her Tommy. No – she LOVES her Tommy. And you better not come too close, because he is HER Tommy. Not yours. HERS.
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Previously 2008: It’s amazing how well I sleep without cats around to wake me up. 2007: Happy New Year!
2006: No entry. 2005: Happy New Year! 2004: Happy New Year! 2003: Happy New Year! 2002: Happy New Year!
2001: No entry. 2000: Happy New Year.
Get yer calendars!!! & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & You know you’ve been in a wardrobe rut when you go to have your hair cut and colored by the same woman who’s been cutting and coloring it … Continue reading “12-19-08”
Get yer calendars!!!
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You know you’ve been in a wardrobe rut when you go to have your hair cut and colored by the same woman who’s been cutting and coloring it for years and you walk in, and she exclaims “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in jeans before!”
I’m sure she hasn’t – I’ve been wearing gray cotton pants for as long as I can remember. I’m sure the world shifted on its axis a bit when I left the house in jeans instead!
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Chickens have knees? Is that where the nuggets come from?
Of course not. The nuggets come from the tenderest part of the chicken buttocks. The meat on their knees would be far too tough for dipping in tasty, tasty sweet and sour sauce!
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Beware the road trip to Trader Joe’s! You’ll take home your loot, taste some of it and spend your life plotting a way to get back there again! Seriously though, we bought one of their brined turkeys for Thanksgiving and it was hands down the best turkey we’ve ever had. Their orange-cranberry tea scones rock the house too! Beware…. BEWARE!
All you’re doing is making me want to go THAT MUCH MORE, you realize? I’m calling for a road trip, soon, and if Fred won’t go with me, I’ll go by myself!
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Not a fitness magazine, but I work for Eating Well magazine and it’s a food magazine with a focus on nutrition. It’s great if you love food that is healthy for you, but not just tofu and mung beans. I hope you all go out and get a subscription or 6 for the holidays!
I love the flooded pic of the back 40, that is so neat looking! I also like the leaves and how they match the chickens. You arranged that didn’t you? Come on, you can tell us!
Not only did I not arrange the leaves to match the chickens, I didn’t even notice ’til I read your comment that they matched!
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Has the back forty always flooded like that? Or is it because the ground is froze and not letting the water drain properly?
It floods like that when we get a lot of rain in a short amount of time, usually in the spring. We got something like ten inches of rain in less than twenty-four hours. Fred was starting to worry that the water was going to come up to the house and flood us out. The water’s gone down a lot, but we still have more standing water than I’d like to see.
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Robyn, are you closer to Nashville than you are to Atlanta? Because we have Trader Joe’s here too. Just sayin. In a total non-stalkery way of course. Ahem.
Yeah, we’re quite a bit closer to Nashville than Atlanta. It takes about two hours to get to Nashville, and twice that to get to Atlanta. If I really like my trip to the Nashville Trader Joe’s, I might have to institute a country-wide tour of all the Trader Joes’!
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Not sure if you know this but they sell static electricity sprays that you just spray a little on and you wont get shocked anymore. I think there’s a cheaper version as well.. you just mix some fabric softener in water and spray a little on you.
Not only do I know about that spray, but I have some of it. I haven’t had much of a static problem this year, which is why I haven’t been using it. But it was like once I got the super zap in Publix, it opened the floodgates for me for the rest of the day. I hate that!
It was serious, actually. Fred was more into the idea than I was back in ’99, but I was certainly willing to have another kid. But then time went by and after a few years we decided that we really didn’t want to have a kid, which is why he eventually had a vasectomy.
When I re-read that 1999 entry the other night, I said to Fred, “Imagine if I’d gone off the pill and we had a kid! We could have a 7 or 8 year-old running around right now!” It’s kind of weird to think about, actually. I asked him if he had any regrets that we hadn’t had a kid, and he reported that he didn’t have the tiniest iota of a regret, so that makes two of us.
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How do you know which eggs have been fertilized and are going to hatch and which eggs you can eat?
You can’t tell if an egg is fertile unless you stick it in an incubator, wait 7 – 10 days, and then candle it to see if anything’s growing in there. You can eat fertile eggs – there’s no taste difference between a fertile egg and a non-fertile egg at all. When we decide to incubate and hatch eggs, we gather a bunch of them to account for the non-fertile eggs, and after Fred candles them he discards the non-fertile ones.
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Beautiful picture of you, Robyn! It reminds me of this one, except your pic is not tragic.
I am compelled to tell y’all that in that picture, I was laying down (which made it so that my chin flab kind of disappeared) and the lighting was particularly flattering. I think this picture is a truer representation of what I really look like (though you’ll note I didn’t capture my chin flab in the picture!)
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One hardly dares to wonder how the cashier knows what kind of underwear her (presumably adult) neighbor’s son wears.
It never even occurred to me to ask! Maybe she’s a freaky stalker type who sneaks over and goes through her neighbor’s son’s drawers!
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Why do the kittens look So. Pissed. Off. in that picture??? Were you teasing them about their belly fat? Did you bruise their wee kitty egos? Or did you tell them that the dream I had last night was NOT, in fact, a dream, and that all of them are coming to live with me in Houston? (My first Robyn dream! I feel like I’m part of an elite club now!!!)
I think they look so annoyed because I ran upstairs and woke them up, and they weren’t fully awake yet. I do not tease them about their belly fat, I only play with their belly fat when it’s within reach. I can’t help myself!
I always love hearing about it when y’all dream about me. Is that weird?
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“Women after my own heart” So glad you added that. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m not a mom and even I know that!
Oh, I did my share of bribing the spud with Happy Meals when she was little. I just thought it was funny that all those mothers, in a row, were bribing their kids with McDonald’s. No one was offering KFC or Taco Bell. I guess every kid really does love Mickey D’s!
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Heck, we humans are all sensitive about our belly fat…..why should a cat be any different?
Too true. If someone reached out and played with my belly fat, they’d be drawing back a nub!
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I always look at the snippets of “On this day in year X” things at the bottom of your posts. I almost never click, though. However, I could not resist “Fred leaned down and SNIFFED MEESTER BOOGERS’ ASS AGAIN.” I laughed so hard I was sitting here with TEARS streaming down my face.
I have to admit, I went and re-read that entry, and laughed my ASS off. Fred mocks me when I laugh at something I’ve written, but damn – I can’t help it. I’m a funny motherfucker sometimes!
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I don’t think the making of the cat tree is the hard part – it’s the sticking on of the freakin’ carpet that sucks.
Amen to that. I’ve told him I’m willing to take care of the carpet-sticking and the sisal rope-wrapping, if he’ll just build the damn thing for me. I need a second cat tree for the foster kitty room!
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Call me antique-identification challenged, but what is that curli-cue thing on the floor in the background of the photo of Tommy?
That’s not an antique, it’s a scratcher. I got it at the pet store. The cats mostly ignore it, although every now and then a kitten will sit on it and sharpen their claws. (Which do NOT need sharpening, believe you me!)
Also – Robyn …. Wally Lamb’s latest book is out as of last month. It’s called *The Hour I First Believed* and I got it yesterday – can hardly put it down. So far, I highly recommend it.
I just added it to my wish list, I’m sure I’ll pick it up at Target soon. So far, I’ve liked everything I’ve read by Wally Lamb, I’m looking forward to reading it.
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You have to check out these last minute xmas gifts on Gattina’s blog. They are hilarious.. especially the Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure. Funny how things can make you think of someone you have never even met.. 😛
She doesn’t come with enough cats! Is there a pack of additional cats you can buy, I wonder?
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License plate guesses:
Dixon something, I didn’t even think about that. But I see a lot of vanity plates where it looks like their initials…maybe it’s like DX and (‘n) BX. Although I don’t know anyone whose last name starts with X, so who knows.
I think it’s boring old initials. Dan Xbing N Beth Xbing. Maybe their last name doesn’t really start w. X.
I think the plate’s owner is a hunter – So my guess would be… ducks and bucks.
It is “Docs in box”.
I think it is Dixon and Blixen – the Southern reindeer. or maybe Detox and Botox.
I bet they are dog-lovers, and it stands for dachshund … something… dachshund boxer?
I like dicks in a box. That’s what she said. (HA!)
It must be dick in a box. I just know it. Have you seen the follow-up jizzed in my pants?
I hadn’t ’til now – that is just WRONG. Hee.
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Those kittens are killing me with the cute. Delmar and Lem are coming downstairs more and more during the day. Every once in a while, I’ll hear Delmar in the next room, meowing sadly like he’s suddenly realized that he is in need of love and doesn’t know where the love supply is kept. When I call him, he runs to me and I pick him up and kiss him and pet him and snuggle him, and he purrs and purrs and purrs.
I go upstairs at least a couple of times during the day, and all four kittens always join me and snuggle up to me and purr and purr and purr.
The girls are still more skittish than the boys, but compared to how they were when we first got them, it’s like night and day. I thought for a long time that Claudette would never ask to be petted, and now she demands love from me regularly.
Joe Bob has found himself a box. And he is studiously ignoring Mister Boogers, who’s sniffing around and ready to make trouble.
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Previously 2007: I believe the phrase “JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” were bellowed in my car about sixteen different times. 2006: I think my favorite part of the video is at the end when the boys are eating and Miz Poo is so intent on getting a snootful of Booger ass that she is uninterested in Snack Time. 2005: I’m sure that if Rachel McAdams knew that pictures of her nipples were going to be splashed all over the internet she would have yanked out the hairs just to spare the Dork Brigade the sheer horror of having to be aware of the fact that she’s a living, breathing human and exists for purposes beyond serving as an image for them to jerk off to. 2004: I’d swear to never use Amazon again, but it’s so FREAKING convenient I just can’t help myself. 2003: Clearly we were in the presence of REALLY important people. 2002: Because I’m just that good. 2001: That’s right, damnit, I’m a chick magnet! 2000: We’re standing strong in the face of those two snowflakes. 1999: Though I guess “substance” would be a matter of opinion.
I am really good and goddamn tired of the goddamn motherfucking rain. I’d like to have ONE sunny day please, is that fucking POSSIBLE? (Could be worse, could be sleet. BUT THE RAIN IS PISSING ME OFF.) & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & … Continue reading “12-17-08”
I am really good and goddamn tired of the goddamn motherfucking rain. I’d like to have ONE sunny day please, is that fucking POSSIBLE?
(Could be worse, could be sleet. BUT THE RAIN IS PISSING ME OFF.)
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So, my shopping trip yesterday was eternal but productive, so I’m not complaining. I stopped by the post office first and got a great big batch of Holiday cards from y’all – I’ll be posting all the pictures when I post this year’s holiday cards stats.
After the post office, I went to the mall, mostly because I wanted to check out Steve & Barry’s. They’re going out of business, as one of you informed me a few weeks ago, so I wanted to see what their sale was. Everything in the store was 40 or 50% off the lowest marked prices, which meant that there were a lot of t-shirts for $3.50 or less, lots of jackets, lots of sweatshirts, but the more I looked, the more I decided that the one thing I don’t need any more of in my wardrobe is anything that Steve & Barry’s carries. I’ve got more t-shirts than I know what to do with, sweatshirts too, and I’m all set on the jacket front.
I stopped by the book store and browsed for a good long time, swung by Hallmark (and left without buying anything for once in my life!), and then stopped by Bath and Body Works before leaving the mall. When I got to the mall, it was just before 9:00, and there were few people there. I guess not everyone checked the web page and saw that the mall stores are opening at 8 am all this week and early next week. When I left the mall after 10:30, it was PACKED.
From the mall I went over to Linens ‘n Things, which is in the process of going out of business. I’d thought about checking out their sales before, but never got around to it until yesterday. Everything left in the store was 50 to 70% off, but there was really nothing left that I was interested in buying, so I looked around and left pretty quickly.
I stopped by a shoe store to check their boots, didn’t find anything I liked, so went to Goody’s. I got a pet bed there for $7.99 last week and it’s a big hit with the cats, so I thought I’d buy a couple extra.
Yes, we only currently have about three beds for each cat. What’s your point?
Unfortunately, not only were the pet beds no longer on sale – they’d gone back up to their regular price of $12.99 – they only had a few left, and I didn’t care for the color. Ah well – one day I’ll get my sewing machine up and running, and I’ll MAKE cat beds instead of buying them!
After Goody’s, I went to the pet store, where I checked to see how many cages had cats in them (answer: only one empty cage), and then I bought a few things and left.
I stopped at Kohl’s, which was PACKED. Go figure, right? A week before Christmas? Packed? Who’d ever guess? I picked up a few pairs of jeans, a fleece shirt, some underwear for Fred, then looked at the shoes and the kitchen items before standing in life for-fucking-ever to get the fuck out of there.
Here’s the thing – I don’t mind it when a cashier is friendly. I don’t mind it when a cashier is chatty. But if you cannot talk AND do your goddamn job at the same time? THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP. I don’t need to be your best friend, I don’t need to hear about your neighbor’s son wearing the same kind of underwear as the kind I’m buying for my husband (SERIOUSLY), I just need you to ring my shit up and let me get the fuck out of there.
CHRIST.
On my way out of Kohl’s, I passed three different women with small children, and I shit you not – every one of them was bribing their child with a trip to McDonald’s.
Women after my own heart.
I finally got out of Kohl’s, stopped by Publix for milk and contact solution (I STILL LURVES YOU, PUBLIX!), and then finally got home around 1:30.
Now I’m pretty much all set for Christmas, though I have one or two very quick errands to run. Other than that, though, I’m good to go, and Christmas is still a week and a day away!
I suppose I ought to think about putting up some decorations, ya think?
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This picture doesn’t really show just how much bigger than his sisters Delmar has gotten. I swear that when we got the kittens, they were all about the same size. Delmar has gotten HUGE in the time we’ve had him – he’s quite a bit bigger than the other three. Well, Lem’s gotten pretty big, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Delmar. I’m seriously starting to wonder if Delmar’s got some Maine Coon in him. He has huge paws.
He’s also a serious love bug. Last night he flopped down in my lap while we were watching TV, and he just laid there and let me pet him. Then, of course, he got overwhelmed and bit me when I kept messing with his belly fat.
I guess he’s sensitive about his belly fat.
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In the evening and at night, the cat bed atop the bookcase in the kitchen belongs to Joe Bob. While he’s off gallivanting during the day, however, Kara claims the cat bed as her own.
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Previously 2007: He really is a pretty chicken, and I look forward to seeing what his babies look like.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry. 2004: Fred leaned down and SNIFFED MEESTER BOOGERS’ ASS AGAIN. 2003: And then we got to stand around while the woman, clearly not the sort who can walk and chew gum at the same time, fumbled with her credit card, NEVER ONCE PAUSING IN HER INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT CONVERSATION. 2002: Tell me, for I am clueless when it comes to these things. 2001: Like I said, if you’re going to mix lights, go all the way, people.
2000: No entry.
I went to Publix yesterday to get groceries and when I touched the metal shelf the sour cream was sitting on, someone must have yelled “CLEAR!” because I got the worst zap of my entire life. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. THAT SHIT HURTS. It’s not been a good … Continue reading “12-15-08”
I went to Publix yesterday to get groceries and when I touched the metal shelf the sour cream was sitting on, someone must have yelled “CLEAR!” because I got the worst zap of my entire life. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain.
THAT SHIT HURTS.
It’s not been a good time to be a finger on the hand of Robyn And3rson lately. The other night I was talking on the phone and was putting dishes in the dishwasher away. When the dishes were all put away, I went to close the dishwasher door, and I slammed it right on my thumb. I did the silent, open-mouthed Dance of Pain where I ran in place for several steps. Fred, who was standing behind me managed to pantomime “Are you okay?” before he collapsed in gales of silent laughter.
He said later that I looked like Turk high-stepping it onto the dance floor in this clip from Scrubs.
I slammed my hand in the screen door at some point on Saturday, Saturday night Delmar gave me a damn puncture wound to the bone with his sharp little bastard teeth (okay, maybe it’s more my fault than his – but when he lays on my lap and shows his little belly to me, I cannot resist squeezing his belly fat), and then yesterday was the aforementioned Zap of Doom.
And of course once I got zapped in the dairy aisle, every goddamn thing I touched until I left the store zapped the shit out of me.
I love you, Publix, but HOW ABOUT SOME HUMIDIFIERS?
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So, I know I’ve mentioned recently that we were talking about putting the door back in the doorway between the kitchen and the laundry room because leaving the back door open so the cats could go in and out through the cat door in the screen door was making the back part of the house really freakin’ cold.
But we talked about the door and we looked at the doorway, and putting the door back just wasn’t going to work, because the laundry room is big, but there are so many food bowls and litter boxes and storage shelves back there, that there’s no way it would be feasible to have a door in the way, because we’ve have to move, at minimum, the food dishes to another location, and the storage shelves would need to be moved, too.
Then we talked about getting some heavy curtains and just hanging them across the doorway. The cats could push through the doorway easily, and it would at least keep some of the cold air out of the kitchen and the rest of the house.
But I didn’t like the idea of how that would look, and I actually spend more time than you’d think standing in the kitchen and looking through the laundry room and out the back door to see what the chickens are doing.
So we were at an impasse, and I was toying with the idea of having a cutoff – like, if it’s under 50 degrees, the cats can just keep their asses inside, but on the days I don’t let the cats out (like with the super-rainy days we had last week), the cats tend to be a pain in the ass. They don’t necessarily want to be outside, but they DO want the option. Sometimes they express their displeasure by peeing on something.
(If I ever commit a heinous crime, I will be brought before the judge and my lawyer will simply say “Cat urine.” and the judge will proclaim “CASE DISMISSED!”)
Friday night we were watching TV and I was reading blogs on my laptop, and I was reading [noise], specifically this post, and I lifted my head and looked at Fred, and I said “We are goddamn idiots.”
Because we HAVE a screen door with a cat door in the bottom of it. What else do they make? STORM DOORS with pet doors in the bottom. You know, STORM DOORS, which might not hold back ALL the cold, but for sure it’s got to be better than having a fucking screen door, which holds back NONE of the cold.
“Does L0we’s carry them?” Fred asked, and I went to their web page to look, and lo and behold. They DO.
So Saturday morning I went on the web page and I placed the order for the storm door, to be picked up at the store, and not three minutes after I hit “submit” on the order, Fred’s cell phone rang and it was L0we’s, telling us to come get our storm door!
We did, and Fred was going to install the storm door yesterday, but found that it’s a little beyond his skill set, so we’ve got someone coming later this week to do so.
Like I said, I don’t think it’ll completely hold back the cold, but it’ll certainly HELP the situation.
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The moon was very big Friday night (which I only noticed because Fred pointed it out to me).
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I don’t know what setting I was using on the camera when I took these pictures, but it was a flattering one. The lighting on the first one almost makes it look like a painting.
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I bought an electric throw at Walmart to keep in the living room and to use in the evenings when we’re watching TV. It works really well, and one day one of the cats accidentally (or WAS IT an accident?!) stepped on the control and turned it on, and Spanky wandered across it and found that it was warm, and he declared that it was good, and so every day Spanky sleeps on this blanket on the couch, even though it hasn’t been accidentally turned on since.
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We stopped by the feed store where we visited a few weeks ago – remember the place with the newborn pot-bellied pigs? – to pick up some more cat food. We got to see the baby pot-bellied pigs again, and they are ADORABLE, but alas, Crooked Acres only grows pigs to eat, not to be pets, so no pot-bellied pigs for us.
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Head rooster Michelle gets prettier by the day, I swear.
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Saturday morning, very very early, I heard the banging sound of kittens wanting OUT of their room, OUT OUT OUT NOW PLEASE. I rolled over and looked at the clock and it wasn’t even 4:00. I tried ignoring them, but when they (Lem, I suspect) get to banging at the door, they are persistent and loud.
I went and blew a blast of compressed air under the door, which startled them into being quiet for a little while, but fifteen minutes later the banging started again. I blew another blast of air under the door and again there was quiet for a little while and then the banging began again.
I threw up my hands and gave up, opening the door so that the kittens could come out. They did what they always do when I let them out, which is that they climb up onto the bed and purr at me, get petted, and then wander off to make trouble elsewhere.
I complained about being woken up early to Fred, and he suggested that we try just leaving the kittens out instead of locking them up overnight. I decided to give it a try – why not, right? – so Saturday night we just left the door open.
Fred went to bed, and I stayed up to read, and by 10:15 it became pretty clear that leaving the kittens out wasn’t going to work. Marion, Claudette, and Lem were racing around the house like their tails were on fire, and Delmar was under the covers with me, and every time I moved my legs, he pounced on me and kicked and bit at me.
I got up and herded them all into the foster room and shut the door.
I suppose I can live with being woken up at 4 in the morning, stumbling to the door, and opening it to let them out into the house. It’s not like I can’t go back to sleep, and not like I have to get up and be at work or anything, right?
I’ll take “Things I never expected to see in this lifetime without a lot of hissing and growling on Miz Poo’s part” for a thousand, Alex.
Seriously. Tommy needed a place to sleep, he saw a bit of room in Miz Poo’s bed, and he climbed right in. She moved over a little and completely ignored him. No hissing, no growling, no hysterical swatting. It’s a Christmas miracle!
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Previously 2007: When one has to peck the ground for bugs and worms, one gets mud on one’s beak. 2006: So that’s the story of my search for the perfect bra, and how I found it. 2005: I probably have a brain tumor. 2004: I swear, my Grinchly heart grew three sizes right then and there. 2003: A tree with glass ornaments? In a house with five cats?
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry. 2000: I told Fred we should hire her out to the local police agencies and she could tell them when someone looks like a “drug person.” 1999: Fred and I came to an agreement last night. The end of March, I’m going off the birth control, and we’re going to start trying to get pregnant. (HahahahahahaHAHA! My, how times have changed!)
I live in Los Angeles and have recently been fostering dogs through a rescue called Paw’d Squad. They rescue cats and dogs. Here in L.A. there are many abused/mishandled Rottweilers and Pit Bulls. I am currently fostering my third Rottweiler. His name is Jeffrey. He was rescued when he was just about dead from starvation … Continue reading “12-12-08”
I live in Los Angeles and have recently been fostering dogs through a rescue called Paw’d Squad. They rescue cats and dogs. Here in L.A. there
are many abused/mishandled Rottweilers and Pit Bulls. I am currently fostering my third Rottweiler. His name is Jeffrey. He was rescued when he was just about dead from starvation and mange. Please check him out on the Paw’d Squad website. Also please read this and check out his pictures.
(Jeffrey, before.)
The reason I am asking you to take a look is because I have noticed you putting good charitable causes up on your journal so that your readers can donate if they want to. I am sure people would be
interested in Jeffrey’s plight. I would certainly appreciate it, as would Jeffrey and his non-profit rescue. Please tell people who donate to reference Vituperation /Bitchypoo so we can log how much gets donated.
By the way, Jeffrey has been with me for three weeks now. He is getting better and better every day. He has food, cozy beds, a roof over his head, toys, medicine and most importantly…love. None of which he has had before. He is kind and gentle, even with my nineteen year old cat Casper.
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Hey, Huntsville/ Madison area residents – buy a toy, get a free haircut!
We’re running a Christmas toy drive! If you bring in a new unwrapped toy in it’s original box for Toys forTots on Monday, December 15th from 9 to 5, you get a free haircut! Stop on by for a great new look for Christmas and a chance to brighten someone else’s life. Appointments recommended, but we will serve on a first come-first serve basis. Merry Christmas!!
A Cut in Time is located on Wall-Triana Highway in Madison. Want to drop off a toy or two and not get a cut? You can do that, too!
(Thanks to Katherine for the heads-up!)
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If you go to this web site, you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can’t pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services with your name and town.
It has been raining like a motherfucker here, and yesterday afternoon about half the back forty was under a few inches of water. The chickens were thrilled.
The area right around the coop wasn’t under water, but they didn’t have to venture far to stomp through puddles, and I was actually surprised at how many of them were standing around knee-deep in the water. I was under the impression that chickens don’t like to be wet at all, but they seemed to be handling it pretty well.
I had to go across the ditch late in the afternoon to check on them, and though I was wearing boots that come to right under my knees, I was afraid they weren’t going to be tall enough. They were – just – so I didn’t end up with boots full of water. Thank god, ’cause that was some cold-ass water.
The parka that was handed down to me when my nephew outgrew it, a Columbia parka (which I’m wearing in this picture here), came in mighty handy when it came to keeping the rain off of me yesterday.
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I actually didn’t get home yesterday until around noon. I did my morning stint at the pet store, trained a new volunteer who’s taking over Thursday mornings, went to Amazon and killed some time, went back to the pet store to buy some food (which was dumb, because they’re on holiday hours ’til the 23rd and the store was actually open when I left), went to Michael’s to buy some fake poinsettias for the front porch (among other things), went over to Goody’s to browse, went by the post office (99% of the Christmas cards are mailed!), then came home and unloaded the car.
Naturally, the minute I pulled into the driveway, it went from a desultory drizzle to a fucking Noah-and-the-ark downpour, and OF FUCKING COURSE when the weather is like this you cannot just put your goddamn key in the lock and open it, you have to turn the key with one hand and pull on the door with the other so the goddamn lock will turn and so by the time I got the goddamn door open I’d dropped half of what I was carrying, so I flung the door open, bellowed “JESUS GODDAMN FUCKING CHRIST ALMIGHTY”, and kicked all my packages across the room.
Cats scattered in every direction.
With the car unloaded and most of the stuff I’d bought piled on the table (thank god we never use that table, I don’t know where I’d put all my crap otherwise), I headed back out to visit my beloved Publix.
And it was every bit the glorious experience I’d imagined. I managed to refrain – barely – from kissing all the Publix employees square on the mouth, but believe you me I WANTED to. Despite the fact that the store was packed with other area residents who LOVE PUBLIX BECAUSE IT ROCKS, I was out of there in no time flat.
I do believe I would marry that store, if it’d have me.
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Spoilers for the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County. Skip this section if you haven’t seen it yet (or aren’t interested)!
Six minutes into this episode, I had a heart attack when it was revealed that Jeanna paid EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS for her bedroom linen. There’s not even any FURNITURE involved in that sum! You can get a good used CAR for that kind of money. THAT IS MADNESS.
When Jeanna said that about Matt having the perfect body and being great in bed IN FRONT OF KARA, I howled. I think Kara wanted to run screaming from the table. I can’t stand hearing about how Matt is mean to Jeanna. I don’t think she should let him stay with her when he’s up to visit the kids – she needs space, and he’s SUCH an asshole. Jeanna’s got such pretty eyes, I wish I had silvery blue eyes like that.
Vicki and the “Woo hooooooooooo!”s are going to be the death of me.
Lauri and George have 7 kids between them? How did I not realize there were so many?? Josh is struggling with a heroin addiction – that is some scary stuff, I really feel bad for Lauri. It’s got to be heartbreaking to watch your child go through that. I’m not surprised that Lauri opted to leave the show – I think she made it clear last week that she’s kind of over the cattiness and drama and I don’t think that the publicity the show brings to Josh’s life does him any good.
Wine-tasting looks borrrrrring (it probably doesn’t help that I don’t like wine!), but the grape-stomping looked kind of fun. It was nice to see Vicki and Don actually relax a little bit together. I did NOT need to see Tamra cavorting around in lingerie and I SO did not need to hear her talking about how she and Simon ‘sealed the deal’ before they met Vicki and Don for dinner. EW EW EW. (On the other hand, if I had a body like Tamra’s, I’d probably cavort in lingerie 24 hours a day!) That restaurant was weird and confusing, and I’ll stick with Applebee’s THANKS. I’m clearly not meant for high-end restaurants!
And then the part where Vicki and Tamra were picking on Don and then Vicki started crying – boy, they know how to have a good time, huh? Unnnnncomfortable!
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Now that the supercoop is finished, how about another project for Fred:
I think it would be SO COOL to have something like that in the foster room!
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I know you get asked this all the dang time, but Dave would like to know what camera you use. He loves your pictures.
I actually use two cameras – our big camera with the huge zoom lens is a Sony DSLR-A100. I use that one to take pictures of the chickens or the cats outdoors usually, but it’s such a heavy camera that I don’t take it on road trips or carry it around in my purse.
The one I carry around in my purse is a Sony DSC-W300. I take the majority of my pictures with that one, especially the ones on road trips, or upstairs with the kittens. It’s quicker to use, and I like the pictures I get with it.
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OMG!!!! I got my Daisy (her name was Sylvia) from Paw’d Squad! I adopted her back in March of 2006! She is the love of my life! She has her own blog, and everything. She also has a face book account and we have been posting on Jefferys page!
I’m surprised Joe Bob’s not a toy thief. That boy smiles too damn much to NOT be a criminal.
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I swear I heard the angels sing the first time I walked through the doors of my new Super Target. I adore that place. We have Trader Joes, Marsh (locally owned and very nice thank you)and Kroger as our big grocery stores. I need Hannafords apparently. And what is Peapod?
I am VERY jealous of the fact that you’re close to Trader Joe’s. I’ve never been there, but I wanna visit! The closest one’s in Nashville. I smell a road trip in my future.
Peapod‘s the online grocery shopping site. It doesn’t deliver in our area, unfortunately, or I’m sure I’d be all over that!
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That ho shops at Safeway in Edmonton Alberta too. In the express lane, with a cheque and yapping with her friend and rearranging the items in and out of her little old lady cart.
Bitch please.
I suspect that woman has doppelgangers all OVER the world, existing solely to cause aneurysms and spread hate and anger wherever she wanders.
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I agree with Christina N, above – “While you’re waiting for radio-fetcher/battery-decision-maker to get back, let’s go ahead and ring my purchase up instead of wasting everyone’s time. It’s only a few items, so even if Other Customer does come back before we’re done, she won’t have to wait too long.” Not a question, a statement.
You know, I would have considered saying something like that, but I honestly never expected that the checkout process would last so freakin’ long – I kept thinking it was allllllllmost over, and yet it dragged on and on and on.
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What’s wrong with Porkkly Dorkkly? I mean, I know your last visit was painful but it can’t always be bad like that, can it? Or is it that Publix is just wonderful in comparison? I haven’t been to a Porkkly Dorkkly in decades and I’ve never been to a Publix, so I was just wondering.
It’s partly that the store sucks (last time I was in Porkkly Dorkkly, they were out of onions. ONIONS. Who the hell runs out of onions?) and partly that Publix is so awesome that Porkkly Dorkkly suffers by comparison.
(I do have to admit that if Porkkly Dorkkly has a really good sale, I’ll likely force myself to stop by and stock up!)
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Question for Friday – what is your favorite fitness magazine? I am looking for a xmas present for my sister.
I think the only fitness magazine I subscribe to these days is Self, and I really, really like it. I used to read Women’s Health, but if I recall correctly it tends to be so full of ads that there was no real content to the magazine.
Anyone else have a fitness magazine suggestion?
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Oh, I have a horror story. I sold real estate for a few years. Agents would sometimes send me e-mails with info for my clients — and sometimes there would be catty, nasty comments made by the realtor about my clients or theirs. (Real estate can be very high pressure and people can go a little insane when selling or buying a house. I think agents sometimes vented by being bitchy — I never did!!! I appreciated my clients!) So I would edit out the nastiness about the client and forward the e-mail on with only the pertinent info that the client needed to know, (dates, money amounts, etc.)
Little did I know that when I made the edits and forwarded the e-mail, the ORIGINAL E-MAIL SENT TO ME WAS ATTACHED. So the clients could read my edited e-mail and then the nasty e-mail sent to me by the other agent. We had an archaic e-mail system at the time that didn’t save a copy of the e-mail being sent, so it took a fairly long time for me to figure out what was happening. If I recall right, one day I cc’d myself on something I sent a client and I figured it out. I felt really sorry for the clients who read mean things about themselves. No one ever said anything, though.
and
That reminds of a time when I sent a very smartass remark regarding a coworker to THAT ACTUAL COWORKER! I’d absentmindedly put her name in the address book instead of the intended recipient. OMG, I had to pretend like it was a joke. Luckily, she seemed to buy it. I still cringe when I think about it though.
Ohhhh, these stories just make me cringe! But at the same time it’s kind of reassuring to know that I’m not alone!
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Relevant to absolutely nothing (but cats), this is too funny; my kids and I quote the end every day!
Too funny!
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Have you thought about guineas? I know those little mothers are LOUD. They squawk when someone drives up and they squawk when something (dog, etc) gets close. As for protecting, I don’t know, just know that they’re some kind of “watch dog”.
and
I think someone mentioned guinea hens (I probably spelled that wrong). My uncle had quite a few on his ranch and as I remember they were quite dumb and continually got run over because they would run toward cars. Possibly trying to be protective but it just didn’t work out. You had to drive in quite a long way on a dirt road to get to the ranch house and those birds would literally lunge toward any cars. They would see their bird friends get run over and then they would do it too. Just a vicious cycle of poor dumb guinea hens – possibly they really aren’t all that dumb, maybe he had a bad batch!
Kamikaze guinea hens!
My concern with guinea hens is that they’d be so obnoxiously loud that it would disturb our next door neighbor, and she’s such a good neighbor that I don’t want to annoy her.
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I see you have a control knob on your cute little piggie [humidifier] – does it make a big difference between the different settings mist production wise? I want to get one for when the kids rooms for when they are sick, but their rooms are so small that using a regular vaporizer with their doors closed makes horrible condensation (read: indoor rain) on the ceiling and walls. (We 2 have naughty cats that drive the kids nuts at night, so we keep their doors closed.)
Yep, the control knob makes a big difference – when it’s turned all the way up, the steam shoots out the pig’s ears. When it’s turned all the way down, steam barely comes out the pig’s ears.
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do you ever get lonely since the spud left?
Actually, not really. I miss the spud, but even when she lived here, she was gone a lot. We text and talk frequently, so I get to know what she’s up to.
I’m really looking forward to her visiting next month, though!
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We had a serious discussion about the Christmas budget. The adults agreed to scale back and we (with my son’s approval) decided to take 10% of the budget to buy food for the animal shelter. He helped buy and deliver it this past weekend. We are certainly doing other things as well, but the shelters here are really in need of donations – more than we are in need of more stuff.
This is SUCH a good idea!
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Hey Robyn. Just a word of caution-anyone who has cats should definitely steer clear of liquid potpourri. It is sweet like anti-freeze and once ingested is deadly. My orange tabby who looks just like Suggie got into this a few years back and ended up with a fever of 105 and a hole burned through his tongue. I threw that shit out faster than you can say HUGE VET BILL!!!!
That’s some scary stuff, thanks for the warning!
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It appears that Tommy isn’t particular about which orange cat he snuggles with. The other night Lem climbed into the cat bed with Tommy, and Tommy was all “Okay, I guess you need a bath!”, and he licked and licked and licked Lem.
And then Lem apparently got too big for his britches and required a smackdown, and Tommy was only too happy to comply.
Then Lem stomped off, and Tommy stretched out alone in his bed for a few minutes of uninterrupted slumber.
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Previously 2007: I’m telling you, the book-buying thing. It’s an illness! 2006: I did a lot of nothing yesterday 2005: (If you must know, it’s the “Tinferl” that really hit my funny bone. I don’t know. Don’t look at me like that. Shaddup.) 2004: Those two just make me shudder. And not in a good way. 2003: “Hey!” he thought to himself. “I think that might be the same bird and the same feeder!” 2002: “That’s okay, Bessie. I hate you sometimes, too,” he said.
2001: No entry. 2000: A blue spark leapt from my tender, sensitive pinky finger to the door of the Jeep in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and I all but screamed. 1999: But if I end up MIA, y’all know where to tell the cops to look…
I’m not sure that I’m actually the fire-making prodigy I’d like to think I am. I’ve set the smoke detector off twice in the past week and I’m still not sure why the house got so smoky. The good part is that the smoke detector is tied into our security system so rather than having … Continue reading “12-10-08”
I’m not sure that I’m actually the fire-making prodigy I’d like to think I am. I’ve set the smoke detector off twice in the past week and I’m still not sure why the house got so smoky.
The good part is that the smoke detector is tied into our security system so rather than having to get up on a chair and unhook the smoke detector and yank the batteries out to turn it off, I can just input the code into the security box (whatever the fuck it’s called) and turn it off that way.
The bad part is that I didn’t know that the first time the smoke detector went off, so I got up on a chair, unhooked the smoke detector, yanked the batteries out to turn it off, and still had to turn off the alarm on the security system.
I didn’t make a fire yesterday because it was in the 60s. Last night it was supposed to get down into the 40s, but it’s in the mid-50s right now, so I don’t think today will be a fire day either.
It rained like hell last night and a third of the back forty is under a few inches of water. The chickens aren’t complaining, though – they’re walking around drinking out of the puddles and splashing through puddles and kicking at the ground to get at the bugs the rain brought out.
Winter in the south. Ugh.
The good part is that it’s practically over; come February it’ll start warming up again while y’all in the colder parts of the country are still all bundled up.
The bad part is that I’m still so far from the ocean.
I think we oughta move to Florida, personally.
Except that moving all those animals would be the motherfucking death of me.
(Besides, I kinda like it here. Except when it gets cold. Of course, “cold” is subjective. I don’t know how on earth I ever made it through the cold-ass Maine winters, I’m such a delicate flower.)
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I’m beside myself with excitement.
Wait.
Let me try that again.
I AM BESIDE MYSELF WITH EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As of this morning, I never ever ever have to shop at the local grocery store chain – let’s call it Porkkly Dorkkly – ever ever again. They’re opening a Publix in Nearville, and I’ve been eyeballing it eagerly these past few months, afraid that it would just never ever open, but the day has come! My beloved Publix has come to a location only five minutes from me, and I will shop there all the days of my life.
Yesterday morning I actually had to venture into town to go to Porkkly Dorkkly because Fred was completely out of cottage cheese, which he eats every morning as part of his lunch, and I couldn’t put it off ’til this morning.
It’s like the universe wanted to make sure I knew how very much I was going to love shopping at Publix and how very grateful I should be that I wouldn’t have to shop at Porkkly Dorkkly again. I went through the store quickly, picked up cottage cheese, oatmeal, and two loaves of bread. And then I went to the one lane that was open. There was only one woman in the process of being checked out, she didn’t have many items, so I figured I’d be out of there pretty quickly.
Not so much.
First, she had to write a check, and did you know that you can’t start writing at check at ALL until you know what the total is? Nope, you certainly can’t write in the payee’s name or the date or sign the check. You must know exactly what the total is, and THEN the check-writing process can begin.
Also, you must not have your license out and ready to be presented. Instead, once the check is written you must have to dig around in your purse for your license, to be held out to the cashier, who must punch the number into the cash register, AND SO ON.
But I’ve had to suffer through that sort of thing before, no big deal, even though I wanted OUT of there, so I amused myself by reading the front of the magazines.
So, items rung up, check slowly written out, license presented to cashier, all that accomplished – which must mean it’s my turn, right?
NOT SO FAST, SPARKY.
Instead, a conversation about weather radios commenced, and did you know that they sell weather radios at Porkkly Dorkkly? Indeed they do. They keep them behind the customer service desk, and so when customers decide they want a weather radio and it’s too early in the morning for someone to be at Customer Service permanently, someone must be paged because it appears that the cashier cannot leave her cash register to walk the fifteen feet to the weather radios, grab one, and bring it back.
So someone was paged, and she showed up and grabbed the weather radio and walked it over to the cash register, and the radio-fetcher went off to finish unloading the delivery truck or whatever she’d been doing, and guess what?
The customer wanted TWO radios. Didn’t she mention that? HA HA HA I’m so scattered this morning! LOL! ROFL! Time to page the radio-fetcher again!
Radio-fetcher looked less than pleased to be called again, and she stomped behind the customer service desk and stomped over to the cash register and plunked down the weather radio and asked “Anything else?”, and the customer and the cashier allowed that they thought that’d about do it.
And the second radio was rung up and the total was given, and the laborious check-writing process was underway and I could just about taste my freedom.
But wait! WAIT!
Did you know that these weather radios take batteries? They take batteries, and they don’t COME with batteries, that is such a gyp, I know. But the batteries are right there – see that sign three aisles away – and you might want to grab some batteries for your radios, they’d certainly be no good without batteries, right?
LOL! ROFL!
Guess what? Cashier can’t see anywhere on the box where it says what kind of batteries the radios take! So customer is three aisles away yelling “What kind do I need? How many?” and cashier is yelling “Hold on…!”
Time to page radio-fetcher! Radio-fetcher is pleased to be called away from what she was doing yet again, let me tell you. Radio-fetcher growls that the radios take three triple-A batteries each. Cashier yells this information to customer. Customer takes a LONG FUCKING TIME to decide that the big pack of batteries is the financially responsible choice. Customer wanders back to cash register.
The check-writing process begins yet again.
Customer and cashier chat it up. LOL! ROFL! O happy day, when I get to spend fifteen minutes waiting to buy two loaves of bread, cottage cheese, and oatmeal in the store that I am loathing more as every minute passes.
Customer finally finishes paying and wanders off. I answer the cashier’s “Good morning, how are you?” with NOT my usual perky “Great! How are you?”, but rather with a tight-lipped smile.
I don’t need to write a check, buy a weather radio, or wander around looking at batteries, so my checking-out process takes about a minute and a half.
On my way out the door, I silently wish Porkkly Dorkkly a nice life. You know, for the two days it takes for area residents to realize that Publix KICKS ASS and Porkkly Dorkkly quietly folds and goes out of business.
I’m going to Publix later today, and I don’t even need anything. I just want to bask in the glorious glow that is Publix and be happy in the knowledge that I will never have to visit Porkkly Dorkkly again.
(Which is not to say that I won’t if they have some good sales – just that I don’t HAVE to if I don’t want to.)
And when I am dancing through the aisles of Publix, I will probably stop and hug every Publix employee who greets me. I might even kiss ’em square on the lips.
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“I just wanted to walk across that lady’s desk and give her a head-butt, but that mean old gray cat with the stumpy tail growled and growled at me and I was SKEERED!”
Previously 2007: It’s a pisser that the things that are the least fun – cleaning, laundry – are a neverending cycle.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry. 2004: I want to marry you, Consumer Reports. 2003: The Bean’s nickname for today is “Stanley Rotten.” 2002: Xmas meme. 2001: And then Miz Poo SMACKS him again.
2000: No entry. 1999: I’m just saying.
If you don’t usually follow the links at the bottom of the entry to previous years’ entries, you should totally make an exception and go back and read last year’s entry. I just read it and it cracked me UP. & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & … Continue reading “12/9/08”
If you don’t usually follow the links at the bottom of the entry to previous years’ entries, you should totally make an exception and go back and read last year’s entry. I just read it and it cracked me UP.
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So yesterday morning I decided that I would get my ass in gear, and I would cut and paste all the names and addresses of people who’d requested Crooked Acres holiday cards from us into Open Office, so I could print out the labels. I’d already done about the first 60 cards Sunday night, and I wanted to get the rest of them done so that for the next couple of weeks (uh… 11 days! Request ’em now, guys!) I can just sign and address them as each request comes in.
Open Office, by the way, is annoying the hell out of me. I never had a problem with Word in the past, labels always printed out as they were supposed to, but the Open Office version of Word won’t let me format all the labels at the same time, I have to do them one by one AND THAT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS, and then I have to make sure that I put a blank line at the top of each address label, or the address gets cut off at the top. I have ordered the newest version of Word in an attempt to save myself the stress-induced aneurysm.
So I spent a couple of hours cutting and pasting, and the end was in sight when I came across several emails in a row that were from people who frequent the same message board where Fred likes to hang out.
Someone named Wayne included his address and added that he always enjoys Fred’s levity and point of view on the message board. A lot of people on that board (though certainly not all of them) don’t like Fred because some of them are, shall we say, quick to jump on the “OMG!” wagon, jump to conclusions, and if Fred should point out, in a level-headed way, that what they believe to be the truth might not be the complete and utter truth and back up what he’s saying with evidence, they accuse him of being a liberal terrorist devil-worshiping baby-eating serial killer. Since Wayne is apparently someone who enjoys Fred’s point of view (and levity), I wanted to forward the email to him so he’d know that someone on that message board appreciates him.
(I suspect that plenty of people like Fred, they just tend not to be as vocal as the ones who loathe him.)
So I hit “forward” and I typed “Wade lurves you! :)”, and then I hit “send.”
And then I realized that I hadn’t hit “forward.” I’d hit “reply.” And the man who was nice enough to let Fred know that he enjoyed Fred’s levity (and point of view) was going to get the email I’d intended for Fred’s eyes, and he probably was going to think I was mocking him.
I reeled around the room, clutching my head and moaning aloud at my idiocy and calling myself every name in the book, then quickly typed another email to Wayne, letting him know that I’d meant that email for Fred, because I’d wanted to tease him.
And then I called Fred and told him what an idiot I am and suggested that maybe he should email Wayne as well and apologize for marrying such a dumbass. Fred laughed and laughed and laaaaaaaaughed, because it’s always funny when someone else is the idiot, isn’t it?
A minute later, I got an email back from Wayne who said “Well, that’s OK. Just let him know that I do lurve him. Have a great day!”
WHEW! So Wayne didn’t take offense and all is well.
I suppose it could have been a lot worse!
Moral of the story: pay attention to what you’re doing, dumbass!
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I made haluski last night as a side dish to go with our pork chops. It wasn’t as good as Shirley’s was, but it was pretty good nonetheless. I basically used this recipe, though I did NOT use a cup and a half of butter; I used about a quarter cup of butter, and I think next time I’ll go with half butter and half Brummel and Brown.
Fred liked it too, though he immediately started suggesting ways to improve the recipe because he is Fred. He suggested less noodles and more cabbage next time, which I’m down with. And then he suggested adding carrots. And brussels sprouts.
Given that brussels sprouts taste like mini heads of cabbage to me, I think adding them to haluski would be kind of redundant.
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Something has amused Miss Marion.
More kitten pictures – and a short entry about how Miz Poo is mellowing in her old age – over at Love & Hisses.
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Smilin’ Joe has him a box.
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Previously 2007: Miss Stinky Seethes.
2006: No entry. 2005: It’s the little things that amuse us, obviously. 2004: Mister Boogers does his Donald Trump impression 2003: FUCKING spam. 2002: Are you an innie or an outie?
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry. 1999: God, the smell.
Man, this weekend went by in a flash, and I didn’t get hardly anything done that I’d intended. I’m twitchy and feel unsettled and like there’s something I’m forgetting to do, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what it is. I got 9/10ths of my Christmas shopping done over the weekend, just … Continue reading “12/8/08”
Man, this weekend went by in a flash, and I didn’t get hardly anything done that I’d intended. I’m twitchy and feel unsettled and like there’s something I’m forgetting to do, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what it is.
I got 9/10ths of my Christmas shopping done over the weekend, just need to get a few more things, and I’m all set. My parents told us not to get them anything this year, and that had a snowball effect wherein I said to Fred “Why don’t you tell your parents not to get us anything this year, too, we’ll just get stuff for the kids?”, because it’s kind of ridiculous – we give them gift cards, they give us gift cards, what’s the point? As adults, if there’s something we want or need, we usually go and get it, and I know pretty much everyone else is the same.
We’re getting presents for the kids (this includes Fred’s niece and nephew and their significant others, even though they’re not really “kids”, they’ll probably be “kids” ’til they’re 40 or so!) and calling it good enough. It takes the pressure off the Christmas season, for sure. Fred and I aren’t giving each other gifts either – some years we do, more often we don’t. We’re old and boring and get each other gifts through the year, so why add to the pressure at Christmas?
I don’t even have to get a lot of stuff for the Spud – she wants a new phone, so when she comes to visit in January we’re going to the T-M0bile store and getting her a new one. I did want her to have a few small things to open from us at Christmas, though, and when she asked if I had the other Twilight books, I told her I’d get them for her for Christmas.
(Yes, the child is into the Twilight thing. ::DESPAIR:: )
So anyway, I’ve made a lot of headway as far as Christmas goes, but I still feel unsettled and twitchy like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I have to admit, I think it might be the fact that I went back on the birth control pill. I started it the Sunday after my last period started, and I’ve had two weeks of straight breakthrough bleeding. It’s more annoying than troublesome, but man. It’s REALLY annoying. If it doesn’t stop within the week, I’ll probably go off the pill. The only reason I went back on it was because I was tired of having my period every month like clockwork, not ’cause I wanted to bleed MORE, for the love of god.
Anyway.
So the weekend consisted mostly of doing laundry, running errands with Fred, going to Lacon Trade Days on Saturday (basically a flea market with animals on the side) to look at geese and turkeys, both of which are known to protect chickens. I’m not anti-turkeys, but I’d rather bring them up from babies rather than try to introduce adults to the flock. I am, however, anti-geese.
I loathe geese.
LOATHE THEM. With the hissing and the attitude, I cannot stand goddamn geese. It doesn’t help that a few years ago we were feeding ducks and geese at the University of Alabama and I wasn’t fast enough with the crackers for one asshole of a goose so s/he BIT MY ASS.
We didn’t end up buying any turkeys or geese, to my relief, though we did buy a hooded sweatshirt for me (I was FUCKING FREEZING) and some socks for him, and a bag of nice-looking onions. I would have been willing to hang out and look at more stuff, but did I mention that I was fucking freezing? Because I was. And I DO NOT LIKE TO BE COLD, thank you.
We stopped at the movie store on the way home and rented several movies (and the last couple of discs of last season’s Dexter), and then puttered around the house for the rest of Saturday.
Sunday we had to go out early in the morning to buy some fencing stuff, and then Fred spent part of the day working on the fence around the back forty. At one point I looked out and he was squatted down by one part of the fence, and there were about forty chickens gathered around him inspecting his work.
They crack me up.
I went out and held t-posts while Fred pounded them into the ground, and then in the afternoon we ran to Nearville to the pet store and made a few more stops. After dinner, we went back out so Fred could get more fencing stuff and I could look around, then we went to L0we’s.
Why, you are asking me, did we go to L0we’s?
Well, let me tell you. This year, I decided that it was ridiculous to have a fireplace and a shed full of seasoned firewood and not use it. So I declared that this was the year that I’d make fires in the fireplace on cold days and keep them going, and so every day for the past four or five days I’ve been making fires.
And kicking ass at it, if I may say so myself.
But the screen in front of the fireplace is a freestanding screen, not one of those ones attached to the fireplace, and it’s a screen the people who sold us this house left behind. And as is usual, it was a piece of shit. Every time I picked it up to move it out of the way, something fell off of it. Yesterday morning, it fell into two pieces.
Clearly, we needed a new screen.
So we stood in L0we’s, and I dithered about which screen I wanted, and finally I chose the mid-range one, and I’ll tell you this – I didn’t fully appreciate how much of a cheap and flimsy piece of shit the old screen was until I took the new one out of the box.
With all this errand-running and working outside, I think Fred was ready for bed by about 7:00. We watched the last two episodes of Dexter, and then we watched The Amazing Race, and then we watched My Name is Earl, and then we went to bed.
So, yeah. Exciting weekend.
(I’m not complaining!)
I was going to go to the mall today, but I need a day where I can just putter around the house, so I’m going to do that today.
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I love my Crane humidifier (thank you, Sara, for the suggestion!). Not only is it adorable, it’s very quiet. And the fact that the steam comes out of the pig’s ears is a bonus.
In these videos, Rick was in charge of running the camera, and he thought to himself “What angle would be the least flattering for these two women?”, and then he ran with it.
DAMN YOU RICK!
There’s a point in one of the videos (the second one, I think) where Nance mentions that I mocked a blogger’s child. I didn’t say anything NASTY about the child, it was just mildly rude (and it wasn’t about their appearance, it was a personality thing), and no I won’t tell you who it was, but I’ll tell you that I guarantee you they don’t read me, and I don’t think they read Nance either.
SO IT WASN’T YOUR CHILD.
Okay?
Okay.
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Sheriff Mama keeps an eye on the back yard. She sees what’s going on and she disapproves.
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Previously 2007: Stinkerbelle: “I have put my stamp of love upon him, and now I shall lay here and seethe with hatred for those hussies who think they can have him. THEY CANNOT.” 2006: Newton (full name: Newton “Newtie” McNewterton, the salty country kitty) is pretty, yet aloof. It drives the wimmins CRAYZEE. 2005: “Us”? Who’s this “us” kemosabe? 2004: I suppose I need to actually start buying lottery tickets to make these dreams come true. 2003: And also because you Canadians are so cool that I want to canoodle with each and every one of you.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry. 2000: God bless the internet and online merchants, god bless their little black hearts. 1999: More Christmas talk.
