Saturday, October 31, 2009

HAPPY   HALLOWEEN!!!!!


Friday, October 30, 2009

Boo! Blast from the past Cat Blogging




Suck it up.

The wasps are still here. They were supposed to be gone by now, frozen to death in their little waspy hideout. Instead they are wearing tiny little windbreakers and playing chase with Tiny. I am not loving this.

I come home everyday and great the little animals and then go scan the windows  and ceilings for wasps. If they have reached the ceiling they have all ready lived too long and they know about the vacuum and how to avoid it. Once they have reached the bumping against the ceiling stage they avoid flat surfaces and stillness. I hate the ceiling stage.

Because once they have reached the ceiling they can go anywhere. They can go upstairs they can explore the dining room and kitchen and they can start looking for vacation timeshares in the bathroom. A wasp that has lived long enough to have figured out the ceiling has the keys to the kingdom.

Gawd! And the weather is not co-operating. Its going to be warm for at the least the foreseeable future  and prolonged exposure to warm weather does not spell death for my little home invaders, it gives them the chance breed smarter, faster, more  potentially vacuum outsmarting generations. I need frost and possibly prolonged below freezing temperatures to fully eradicate the threat. And more cats. Tiny is a good at wasp perdition. I will need a squadron of feisty super hunters with mouth guards and paw protectors . I however do not  see ,Operation Cat Treat evolving past R&D  phase. Pity. Other arrangements will have to be made.

To that end, it will be November soon and November is traditionally a cold month. The temperature should drop like a rock within days and this endless, treasonous Indian Summer will be forced back along with ragged remains of last summers flip flops and  high concept comic book adaptations.  I am pinning my hopes to one thing : I go to the Christmas parade in the middle of November every year and end up with frost bite. So I am hopeful that this rein of terror will come to close soon.  I would gladly lose a finger tip to the cause! if  it meant that those little bastards died with it. In droves.

 I do not want to share quarters with the wasps until the middle of  November or perhaps even Gawd Forbid, beyond. The only  wasps I want  in my house would be the variety that  wear festive Christmas sweaters and come bearing hostest gifts and fruit cake.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Walk on by

It was such a nice day. When you got passed the weird sauna effect we had going on. I looked out the window in the morning and it looked like we had zero visibility and then I opened the doors and got blown back by the heat.

The rest of the day was nice though, the sun came out. I had to pull out my sunglasses and everything, I had just about put them away for the season. Surprise. Dogger even agreed to go for a longer walk this morning than she has since it had gotten cooler. I can see our morning walks becoming a bit of a trial as it gets cooler but with the time changing the mornings might be her longest walk of the day. She's going to have to tough it out, and she doesn't seem sore in the morning so its not because the cold is hurting her, she's just really interested in her breakfast all of a sudden for some reason and does not want to go for a longer walk. I would walk her after breakfast but then I would have to get up even earlier and I don't want to. I get up really early as it is now and I'm pretty much at my limit for early rising.

Maybe I'll look for a doggy treadmill for Miss Dogger before the winter sets in. I'll have my exerbike and she'll have her treadmill. We can not exercise together.

Speaking of daily walks, on our afternoon walk, I saw five other people walking their dogs. I always get a warm feeling when see other people out with their dogs. Including the guy whose two little yellow dogs normally follow him like ducklings, I guess he decided that cute isn't safe. They were cute as hell though, following him down the sidewalk. I see so many dogs stuck in backyards or on chains that it really makes me happy to see a happy dog out on a walk. I also like not being the only person walking their dog. It can be lonely. I feel like a freak sometimes.

Freak no more now. I have found my people.

On our walk Tuesday, I saw the girl with the bloodhound from down the block and now she has two of the dogs. I told her she clearly didn't want anyone coming near her house. Those dogs are big and loud and they will run someone to ground, I wouldn't mess with them. She has two girls and neither of them have jobs. I've known three over the years and none of them are professional bloodhounds. I know they aren't all hardcore but jeez, couldn't they have hobbies or something? What do you do to keep those dogs busy? Shouldn't they be out searching or being scent hounds? Dogger barely seems to remember what Tiny smells like from day to day and walking her can be a trial because she must sniff everything she sees. I would imagine that walking a bloodhound would be an all day affair even if it had a head cold and a hangover. Dogger likes to sniff everything and she doesn't even know what it is she's smelling, a bloodhound would be able to give you the family tree and the genus of whatever species of squirrel it was tracking and where it slept last night and what it ate a week ago and who its hanging out with.

And this girl has two of them. I did notice that she was walking them down the middle of the street and avoiding the odor laden grass in the park. I guess she wanted to get to bed before midnight. I don't blame her.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Aunt Cookie Rides Again

Yea! I actually started on my Christmas dog cookies and its not even the December! If I'm good and moderately disciplined I can do one or two batches a week for the next two or three weeks and get all of them made and then be able to take it easy for the holidays, although I do see at least one batch of turkey shaped cookies for Thanksgiving looming in my future but I think I'll be able to handle it.

So far its just the one batch and its not even one of the "good" kind, its filler. 200 + tiny pink stars, to be paired with 200+ tiny green stars. I know I was going to go with larger bones for my red and green but I decided the stars would be better for the small dogs on my list and I have a slightly larger number of number of smaller dogs on the list this time around and I don't want to be disrpective of my small dogs. My big dogs can handle it. The regular bones are a leetle small for the big dogs and a leetle large for the small dogs but they are the perfect size for the cookie sheets so the cookie sheets win the toss.

I still need this week to make the green cookies and then I'm going to move onto the peanut butter and then the pumpkin/molasses and then cheese and then bacon and then I get to start on Christmas cards!  and I haven't even thought about the decorations and the lights and my growing Santa issue... I'm all ready tried and its not even Halloween yet. Remind me I have to ask off for New Years!

But back in the now. Guess what? My Raspberries produced!




Can you believe it? In October! I feel bad now, I have totally ignored the plant for months because it hasn't done anything since early in the summer and now it comes across with berries in October! It's a Halloween Miracle. Mayne I need to go visit the vegitables more often than I have been, maybe the tomatoes have decided to come ripe. it could happen, if I can get raspberries in October there is no reason I can't get tomatoes as well.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tuesday

I'm not loving the cold and wet we're having but on the upside it's seems to have lulled the wasps back to sleep.

My plan for this evening was to start on the Great Dog Christmas Cookie Project 2009. Last year I did not have a good time and the spirit of being annoyed annoyed is not the best spirit to be in when you are trying to be festive. , I don't want that for this year. This year I have the Kitchen Aid and I will have a good time damn it. I'm going to put a Santa hat on the mixer.

Speaking of cookies, I was going to start, tonight, something light, no complicated add ins or worries about dough texture or consistency - Milk cookies, the tried and true standby by. These are going to be colored red and green and I'm pretty sure they are going to be larger than the other cookies, because I just decided that they would be larger  cookies than the others and that dogs totally care about what color and size their dog treats are. I thought it would be a good idea to start banking cookies as early as possible so I can over think the details at my leisure. I've  always got a lot of dog cookie over thinking to do this time of year and I don't want to be pressured.

Anyway. You can't make milk dog cookies if you don't have milk or as it is in Aunt Cookies Kitchen, powered milk. Kroger doesn't sell powered milk and if they do they hide it quite proficiently. I had to go to another grocery. Food Lion came through. I could have bought it at Sam's but there is only so much of it I could possibly use ever and since a bad experience with old powered milk years ago taught me, even powered milk can go bad.

I went and got my milk and came home and had every intention of rolling up my sleeves and powering up the mixer and getting the cookie project started. And I had no flour. The good news is that Kroger does sell flour. I know what my errand du jour will be over lunch.

Something I did manage to get accomplished this weekend was cleaning another grotty closet.


before


after


Ta Da!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Monday Photoblogging
(or Diana went back to the fair and got a series of pictures she thought would be better than they turned out to be so she tarted them up.)














Sunday, October 25, 2009

HAPPY    SUNDAY    !!!!!!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

HAPPY   SATURDAY   !!!!!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Friday!

I came home from work and killed two wasps in my living-room. And how was your day? I really don't think this is the right time of year for wasps and I don't think there is any right time for there to be wasps in your living-room .

Tiny, however is just about beside himself with joy! He suddenly has these fabulous new toys that move all by themselves and make noise and they do all these neat things! He's been literally bouncing off the furniture since last night. I didn't however know why,  I had thought he was freaking out because  I had tracked in some meth from the fairgrounds last weekend, it was unavoidable,  but as it turns out, it was wasps, real wasps not  hallucinations that he was chasing.  I was getting worried because I thought I saw the beginnings of a kitty mullet and that 86' camaro I saw in front of the house must belong to someone else.

I bet people think I keep my vacuum out because I want it out to clean up messes quickly but in real life I keep it out because it is an effective means of pest control. Roaches, wasps, crickets, none of them can survive being sucked to death in a vacuum and thanks to the hose attachment, I can have a satisfactory bug killing experience without having to risk having the bug get anywhere near me.

Due to this method of pest control, I probably am the only person who is actively afraid to change their vacuum bag because of fears of retaliation,  but I'm working on that. If the sucking doesn't kill them I can arrange to have them suffocated and ultimately, crushed by tons of dog hair and dust. I make those vacuum bags work.

Okay. About ten minutes ago every cop in Southeast Raleigh went roaring past my house with sirens blaring and there will not be a single word about it in the paper tomorrow. I want to know what algorithm they use at the paper to determine newsworthiness. I swear to Gawd, the law enforcement equivalent of the 82nd Airborne went past my house going a houndred miles an hour and I will neverwhy.



Friday Kitten Blogging



Thursday, October 22, 2009

Randomness

I didn't get any good catalogues in the mail today. I feel unloved. Christmas is coming and I should be getting stacks and stacks and I'm not and this is wrong. I used to get catalogues because I think I noticed it was almost Christmas and I wasn't getting any so I went to a site and signed up for many, many, many catlouges and they started to arrive and I felt very loved but as soon as they figured out that I was not going to buy anything ever they broke up with me and I don't hear from them any more. I decided it was time to go back into the market and find new catalogues to tease.

And I did. I am now on the mailing lists for The Museum of Modern Art, something called Gaelsong for when somethings got my Irish up, The Vermont Country Store because who doesn't love their catalogue, something called "Whatever Works", the Signals catalog and Coldwater Creek.

I thought about getting Wireless but they have the same things as Signals and why double dip? I think I put myself on more lists the last time I did this but I started out a better Free Catalogues site, so there you go. I put some thought into all the paper and energy that this magazines represent but then I decided that you know what? I actually want these catalogues so it's not completely wasteful. If I had ordered catalogues aimed at long haul truckers or circus performers or antique radio refurbishers, which I could have but didn't, it would have been a waste and wrong and I would need to send Al Gore $25 or something but I didn't. So there.

I also see it as a Win because it will force my mailman to come to my door more frequently thus bringing home the message that he should come to my door everyday regardless and now he will. I just remembered Lillian Vernon at the last minute but the site wouldn't come up. Sorry Lil.

Prior to the Big Catalogue Sign Up, I was watching  A Bit of Fry and Laurie, so funny! OMG!  Did you know that before Hugh Laurie was the saddest man on TV he used to be funny? Totally! He's a comedian. The man who they won't give a Dramatic Emmy (tm) to is really , really funny. Maybe the Emmy voters watched too much Black Adder and now can't buy him in a serious part? He's only been doing it for the last five or six years you would think they could move on but I guess not. I bet if he did a guest shot on 30 Rock he's win one and he would have to limp or use a stunt accent.

I have to admit, I didn't Netflix ABoFaL because I wanted to see Hugh Laurie speak in his natural accent, I got it because I follow Stephen Fry on Twitter and he manages to be interesting and funny in 140 word increments. You know Fry from a bunch of British films and he plays Booths shrink on Bones. When he's not slumming on FAUX,  he does a lot of documentaries and commercials and speaking engagements and he blogs and he writes articles. He appears to be interested in absolutely everything and really loves getting the chance to learn about new things. If you're on Twitter, you should follow him, if you're not on Twitter you Luddite, join up to follow him. He posts a lot. A lot. I mean, really, just about all the time. All day, about every fifteen minutes. He posts all day about everything and he still manages to be funny.  Netflix A Bit of Fry and Laurie and then look the man up on Twitter.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

And away we go

Christmas is officially on the way. I got my Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue!   I'm so excited! It's full of things I have no desire for whatsoever, but gosh, just the idea of a stainless steel wallet or my own R2D2 or a twelve shopping bag caddie! All these things that I could buy for Christmas!

Yeah. But who do I know who really wants a stainless steel wallet or a twelve shopping bag caddie?  but at the same time, I mean who doesn't want an R2D2? You could by everyone you know an R2D2 and you would win Christmas in a  shot. But how many years in a row can you give  everyone an R2D2?  On the upside, after a few years of R2D2s they might change their stances on stainless steel wallets.

Anyway. I tried to start on the closet, first I moved the dogs bed then I shifted the exercise bike and then I approached it, and then  I backed away slowly. It's a much bigger job than I thought it was. Much, much more involved than the entry way closet. I was a little taken aback, its gonna be a weekend job, not an evening job and now I  know why I've kept it blocked all this time. And because the door won't stay closed on its own. I need something heavy in front of it. I am Fibber McGee.

I didn't clean the closet and I didn't make dog cookies. I just did too much over the weekend and Monday night and now I'm tired. Gawd I'm old. Dogger was feeling a little bushed as well, we only walked to the field and back and then we came back and I fed her and then fell asleep in front HGTV. Dogger fell asleep on the futon early.

I slept too but not for long though, I had to eat dinner and try to decide what to wear to work tomorrow and turn on the porch light and I hadn't even looked at the closet yet. And I have more closets! And they all need to be looked at! My house was built in 1950 and there are closets everywhere! Every room in my house has five doors in it, I have zero wall space.  I can't complain about this, you can't have too many closets, but once you close the closet door everything in there stretches out or gets swollen and you try to put more things in there and you look inside and everything is all of a sudden so much bigger than it was and its a little startling and  it scares you a little and then pretty soon you are too scared to open the closet any more and you start to fill another closet and soon it scares you and then it doesn't take too much longer and you have no more closets you aren't scared of and then you have to move.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Life's Little Mysteries

How many cockroaches do you have to run across before you stop screaming like a girl? I mean they aren't armed, no cockroach has ever stolen the silver and  than pistol whipped the homeowner. They are dirty, ugly, disease spreading uck but they aren't going to hurt me. I of course shriek and hop around whenever I see one. I am also always without anything to kill them with.

I have to scream and hop and then run from the room to search for an appropriate  weapon - this time it was the dogs' kong toy - usually I am looking for a good sized shoe or other crushing instrument and I can never find one. Ever. Not one time. I am forced to use rolled up magazines, rolled up towels, books, canned food, dog toys - Anything to make it die now , while I am screaming and hopping.

I am hopeing that some day I might be able to dispatch them without the hopping. I feel good about the screaming.

Today, before the screaming and hopping, I did something I had been wanting to do since, at least late last week: I cleaned out my entryway closet!  I put things in there  to get them out of the way the day I moved in and then I stopped thinking about them. I originally planned to go spelunking over the weekend but I got too busy with the fair going and cookie making.

I started thinking about it getting cold and having to go into the closet to fetch coats and gloves and scarves and all that and how going into that closet is not my most favorite thing. I was also afraid that Tiny would accidentally get into that closet and never come out. I felt stupid about having fear issues about a closet that did not include monsters but  that there was something worse than a kitten eating monster, my fear was that there was a kitten eating cockroach hiding in the nest of extension cords, off season wreaths, baseball hats and six year old yellow pages that lived there.


before

I pulled out all the stuff on the floor and on the shelf. I decided to leave the hanging coats where they were because that isn't much I can do to make that better. I could I suppose, dust the shoulders or something but I don't care that much. I wanted to get it cleaned out not sterilized.

During the cleaning I found all kinds of things : Doggers very first baby puppy leash (snapped and knotted back together), a can light, two wreaths, a box of exterior extension cords,  four pairs of mismatched shoes, two American flags, three baseball hats, a box of clothes set to  have been given away in fall of 2002, three detached hoods and  a torn rain coat. And about fifteen pairs of gloves.

And no cockroaches! Kitten eating or otherwise.

 I am happy to report that all my coat pockets are now loaded  with gloves. I went through all those pockets and didn't find any money, I did however find a few plastic dog walking bags so it came out was kind of even in my mind. Those bags are like gold to me.



after

Next on my agenda? The closet in the office. It's been trying to pretend its not there but I see it there, all stuffed full of  stupid, space wasting crap that needs to be thrown or given away. I'm coming for you office closet. Me and You closet. Two hits, I hit you and you hit the ground, and that weired pointing at my eyes and at your eyes hand gesture thing.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Monday Photo Blogging!

NC State Fair 2009  I also made three batches of cookies for my friend's pet charity and did my laundry and slept very late Saturday and Sunday. It was a very full weekend.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

HAPPY   SUNDAY   !!!!!!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

HAPPY   SATURDAY   !!!!!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Friday Kitten Blogging



Are you watching Community? You should be!

Do you know why I love my Kitchen Aid stand mixer? I just made peanut butter dog cookies and I didn't have a tantrum! or burst into tears or anything! It's a first! I didn't have to wash my hands sixteen times,  my table top didn't getting greasy and I didn't end up throwing half the dough away because it had become a sticky mess and I was mad at it!  The Kitchen Aid is the best tool ever. The quality of the dough was flawless, it was just silky and smooth and it rolled out really well and the peanut butter was distributed equally and it smelled heavenly. All I had to do was roll out this lovely dough and cut out my cookies. Awwww. It was so nice.

I would probably make a cheese batch Friday night, because that's the way I roll -  but the state fair starts this week and I am going Friday to go see what there is to see. My hope is that they have new and interesting things on the midway for me to take pictures of.  Because that is the only reason that we even have fairs, is to give me an opportunity to take pictures. Duh. Other people however go there to have their wallets lightened and to eat much fried crap and look at goats. We all see different things in the same thing.

I have another Junior College memory, probably my last because I was only there for a year and frankly, on a daily bases Junior College wasn't very memorable. For instance? I can't remember what courses I took and I'm pretty sure I was taking a full load. I do remember I had to walk to class because I didn't have a car and because I am at heart an opportunist, I took a class with a friend because she did have car, but she was sick all the time and I still had to walked to class and then sat in class alone and hated her because I thought she was a big faker. I gave her shit when it was time for the final because she never came to class and thus did badly on it and I did well because I was there every week , even though I didn't even want to take the class which I just took because she did and I thought it would be nice to see her. And she had a car and could drive me to class - which she hardly ever did and the one time she did give me a ride I slammed my thumb in her car door.

Not long after that she had a heart transplant because she was not a big faker.

Ah! Ah! They use the same phone on The Office as I use at work!  Oh my Gosh! I noticed it last week on Ace of Cakes too!

Wow. Okay, that was geeky. I got my geek on. I geeked out. Moving on.

ANYWAY. Junior College.

There was this really cool guy. He wore  biker jackets  with rivets and chains and he dyed his hair black and  I don't think he washed it very often but he was the coolest guy hanging out between the cafeteria and the  lobby of the theater/art  department hallway.  He was awesome. He was also in one of the regrettably forgettable classes I took and I was so stoked. It was 1988 at Brookhaven Junior College, we got still got stoked. I was stoked because he was Rad.

He sat across from me, which probably was a contributing factor to why I don't remember what class it was, and so I spent a lot of time watching him. A lot.  I probably couldn't have picked the instructor out of a line up, and one day while we were supposed to be taking notes, I watched him clip coupons. It was so disappointing! He had been so hot and there he was clipping coupons and getting stoked about discounted  toilet paper.

Later on he had a party and invited everyone in class but he failed to tell us where he lived.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

CNN and the Slowest News Day Evah

A 6-year-old climbed into a balloon-like experimental aircraft built by his parents and floated into the Colorado sky.



A balloon-like experimental aircraft thought be carrying a 6-year-old Colorado boy has landed.


KMGH: Police say no one was found inside a balloon that was thought to be carrying a 6-year-old Colorado boy.

I see a ABC Family Movie of the Week...
\
-- County sheriff in Colorado says "balloon boy" incident was a "hoax" and a "publicity stunt."
Damp

With highs only in the fifties and rain in the forecast it looks like the end of air drying in the Dianaverse. Sigh.  The end of lawn baths for Dogger... Helllloo hairdryer.

If the house was as cool as it is now a few weeks ago, it would have been a Gawd send. I would have been thrilled, but now its not refreshing, its cold. I hate being cold. This new coolness coincides with the vets orders to walk Dogger more and for longer periods. I all ready walk Dogger all the time for  miles on end  and I log most of these miles in the dark. If you are given a choice to walk in the dark in the warm, do so, its nice, its like a dip in a warm pool, only dryer. Walking in the cold dark is like taking a cold shower only less refreshing. And colder.

And its raining too. So that's nice. If I was a better dog mommy I would have walked Dogger twice after work  per the vets orders but I decided to be a bad dog mommy and go to Wally World to buy my boss an ass kissing Bosses Day card instead. I am so ashamed. On the bright side I did buy a very cheap ass kissing Bosses Day card so I didn't lose all self respect.

Someone  at work asked me what our group is doing for our boss for Bosses Day and I just kind of laughed and hemmed and hawed because we aren't doing anything!, nada! We don't like her that much. We like her like her, but we aren't going to buy her lunch or anything.  She is however earning herself points by taking off Friday and Monday, so we like her a lot this week. She made a point of announcing that she would be taking time off at the weekly meeting, but we all ready knew because stalk her Outlook calender and we knew days ago.

We did do something a couple of years ago for Bosses Day but we had a woman in our group then who was the past president of  her sorority and she could throw a party at the drop of a hat. She was good, every time we had any kind of food event she was all over it. She was hell at arranging crackers and carrot sticks and she always brought pretty napkins and matching plates and made even spur of the moment things look festive. She transferred out, and now our parties are kind of  free range and we use paper towels from the bathroom for everything. None of us keep table clothes in out desk drawers or have the desire to artfully arrange carrots. All of a sudden being GDI seems to have a dark side.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Where can I get holiday themed,candy coated Prozac?

Big question of the day :  cellophane  treat bags decorated with stars or cellophane treat bags decorated with candy canes?

Its time for the early qualifying heats  in the dog cookie Olympics!  I said "yes" to making cookies to help my friend at work  raise funds for her dog and cat rescue again this year,. The bad news is that the Dog Cookie Olympics start verysoon and I don't want to burn out, the good news is that I got out of having to individually bag them which saves me a lot of  precious and exhausting over-thinking time and it also saves the state a dozen or so labels and a couple of sheets of paper and some printer toner.

(Do you realize that if I need to order a $16 fax toner I have to offically request this in writing and get the okay from three seperate parties? For  a single cartridge?!.  HATE.)

I did this very cleverly, I spoke with her very early in the morning about the cookies and I gave her  choices. My friend makes bad choices first thing ayam and I seriously need to file that away for later. I told her I would either bag them up in the larger numbers so she would have less to sell but could sell them for more... OR I could bag them up in smaller numbers so she would have more but could sell for less... OR I could just present her with big bags of cookies and she can separate them as she sees fit.. You can guess which one is easier for me.

Last year I did all the work and bought cute plastic boxes for the cookies to go in. She sold them for peanuts,  and not even whole peanuts, crushed peanuts and it made me a little peeved so this year I'm not doing jack packaging-wise. I'm making  the cookies and moving on. This also saves me money for the real games,  the yearly Christmas  Dog Cookie Season Olympics! 15 dogs, four or five varieties of cookies  and a little over five weeks to do them and get them shipped. I don't need more dog cookie related stress when I'm in training.

Stars or Candy Canes?

I like the stars, I've used them in the past and they are a year round design I can use if I have a dog cookie gift giving opportunity present itself in say April,  which could certainly happen. But, these are for Christmas! they are gifts they are seasonal and jolly and fun - Which really puts me big time into Camp Candy Cane and how often do I  really get off-season cookie orders anyway? By April they can get by with a  resealable freezer bag and I'm okay with that.

And yes I could go look at Party City and check out their selection but they are still all about Halloween and haven't even pulled out their Christmas stuff yet and I don't have time for Halloween themed cellophane bags.  I'm all ready heavily into my Christmas cards,  and have crueley signed up the-way-too-busy-for-silly-things-like-this Alphagal to individually trim said Christmas cards because I could find the perfect  photo card with correctly sized  picture opening because I seriously need to be medicated and I am done with Halloween.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Hmmmmmm.

I just want the weather Gawds to know that as much as we all appreciate the lovely rain and cooler temperatures that they have graced us with - Totally, Thank You Weather Gawds - But and there is always a but, I still have tomatoes trying to get ripe and they need it to be warmer and brighter to do that, so thanks for the autumnal weather but can you just reschedule it? Thanks.

Also? I don't have enough sheets to cover all my plants if it was to say if it were not possible to reschedule winter or if it just gets much cooler... true, I do have a lot of sheets, I have a sheet set problem, but... I'm not sure what would be worse from my plants, to get cold and freeze to death or to be crushed to death by flannel sheets. Poor plants.

Weather Gawds, I just need two, three weeks of eighty degree weather and fourteen hours of direct sun a day - I don't think this is too much to ask in October is it?  They are not calling for frost  here yet so I feel that we still have a fighting chance, right? I mean, right?  It can't be too late!  there are still have little yellow tomato flowers out there and cute little green tomatoes! Lots of them! Many different kinds! The world roots for baby things! Right? Everyone wants them to reach their potential, right?

Sigh.

There are very few little baby peppers out there. The  peppers for their part seem to have thrown in the towl, they got s really good second wind the last few weeks and though and produced their little hearts out for that time. I don't see many waiting in the wings anymore either, a couple maybe and they don't seem to be getting larger but maybe...  I mean they could really pull out a big win here.

The baby brocs are all ready getting chewed on.

Moving on.

I've been using these tooth whiting things I got cheap at Poverty Barn for two days, can anyone tell? Can you tell from there that I have cleaner, whiter looking teeth? Apparently this new design stays on your teeth better, I'm glad they improved because even now its a battle the whole five minutes to prepair a cleaner, whiter tongue. The strip for your top teeth works really well but the one for your bottom teeth kind of induces drooling and I don't think they talk about that in fine print.  I don't like my bottom row of teeth anyway, maybe if they stay tea stained and dark, they'll just fade into the background?  The packaging says you can tell the strips are working if your teeth feel "dentist smooth" after use. I guess I've never felt my teeth post-dentist visit because "smooth" doesn't feel familiar to me. They felt "smooth" after I had my braces off but since then I don't think I've noticed and for that matter, just how strong are these things if they are some how sanding the surface of my teeth down? I wanted whiter teeth not smoother teeth. I'm a little concern now.

I looked at the packaging and it says something about removing tarter as well. Do you know what your dentist uses to remove tarter? A sharp thing! A hard, sharp pointy thing that the hygienist goes to school to learn how to use! What is in these things that they come equipped with tiny little hygienists? I'm not just concerned, now I'm a little worried. Just who is paying these tiny hygienists? Am I going to get a bill? Will these tiny, unpaid hygienists prevent me from attaining a sexier government job?

I took the strip off. Are my teeth whiter and smoother from there? Should I be able to see my uvula through my teeth?

Monday, October 12, 2009

Food for thought

About an hour ago I sat down and said Okay. Lets do this! Woo-Hoo! Entryrama! and then after the initial euphoria wore off I started to think Hmm. I'm not hungry right now but you know? I bet I will be later. I really needed to do something about this!  what if I got hungry in a couple of hours and there was nothing to snack on?! This could be traumatic. I don't want to be traumatized.

I thought Hm. I'll just go to the donut place. but then I started to remember that I'm pretty sure I told myself once upon a time that if I wanted a donut that I would have to ride my bike to the donut place and looking at the clock, I saw that while I would get there in the light I would be riding home in the dark and I am not that dedicated. I see a guy leaving on his bike every morning when I walk Dogger and I always think Wow. Its O'Gawd thirty in the morning and he's going somewhere in the dark. He's going to get hit by a truck. Every morning, so far he hasn't but,  this area is rife with garbage trucks and they don't care. You can tell. Not an emphatic screw in their chassis. Not friendly.

Anyway.

I'm still thinking about getting hungry. I say Okay. I'm not riding to the donut place, how about walking to the gas station? and then I remember the gas station is an asshole and I'm boycotting them because the worker guy was rude to me and they over charge for gas.

Not walking. Where can I drive? I start thinking about the grocery stores in the area. I feel like I was just at Kroger so I don't want to go there, I've been to the Food Lion less recently but the parking situation can be annoying under the best of circumstances so I don't want to go there and the other Food Lion is too far away  if I'm not going to either of those it means that I would have to go on a field trip to a Grocery Store That I have Never Been To and while there is a virgin grocery store nearish to me it is further away than the Food Lion I rejected because it was too far away and if I am field tripping to a grocery store I like to have more time to explore. I am so old my idea of an adventure is making a trip to grocery store I haven't been to before.

Before I go to Kroger I remember I actually need something at the store so I feel better about going out for no reason, I also think for about two seconds about going through the coupons I got today but then I didn't - so now I can't look at the coupons for a couple of days because I know they are full of discounts on things I bought full price. I know this, it is inevitable.

I went to the Kroger and rushed home, because you know I'm going to get hungry any minute now and  I wanted to get to preparing my snack. I'm still not hungry, but I'm totally willing to fake it in front of the food.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

HAPPY   SUNDAY   !!!!!!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

HAPPY    SATURDAY    !!!!!!

Friday, October 9, 2009

Friday Kitten Blogging



TGIF


This is the Best Friday Evar. Do you know why? Because today marks the End of Customer Appreciation Week!!!!!. We have "celebrated" this by spending the last half hour of each day watching a video that assumes that we are rude, stupid and unprofessional. Every day. For a week.

It's been a real moral builder for one and all and we're also playing a "game" modeled on a reality show and every morning we gets "hints" in the form of riddles that have almost nothing to do with the answer. My team is losing. There really isn't anything I like more than spending my time losing competitions and watching videos about improving my customer service skills. I have really no direct contact with the public at all and what little contact I do have is over the telephone and I can tell you that no one gives better phone than me. I am the nicest person ever, ask anyone who has ever called me. I care.

It would be one thing if there was say a problem with our customer service but there isn't and there hasn't been. The whole obnoxious thing is the fault of our new secretary. The new guy they brought in because they keep killing people in the mental hopsitals and the whole very expensive mental health reform project failed so spectacularly... so here we are, not even in a position to kill people and we get a whole week of custumer service videos. He's going to stop the killing by making customer service a priority for the division. They kill people at the mental hospitals and we get hectored about our customer service skills.

I don't think they make videos about not killing patients. I'm going with that they don't make those videos because its too niche-y. And nasty. No one wants to have on their resume a script that instructed mental health technicians to disregard the overwhelming desire to kill the patients, even though it must be paralyzing. I bet they would sell a lot of them though. You do have to have an in service every-time it happens and the same dry lecture from a cop gets easy to ignore. I mean once they have read you your rights the first time, are you really listening the next time?

My customer service skills would improve if just once some one in authority would say Yes. The callers are rude and in many cases crazy and in all cases, entitled oh, and most of them are nothing more than poor white trash who just want to sue the facility because Grandma didn't leave them any money. The End. But. It's our job to listen to them and let them vent and let them get their story out. Be nice. That would be just about all we would need. But no. We suck. All week we've been told we suck - It is not making me more polite.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Celebrity Jeopardy

People I never need to see naked

Who is the The Douchiest Douche bag ever .

For reals y'all. His baby mama only saw him naked because she didn't know any better and I bet she's not looking at him naked any more. Truly, there isn't enough eye bleach in the world.

Onto other subjects. The Drug Dealers Crazy Sister is still here. I am going with that the calender in her world is different than the calender we use. because when she  told me that they would be out of there by "tomorrow afternoon", I thought she meant this  tomorrow afternoon but clearly she meant like next tomorrow afternoon or some tomorrow that will happen in a  month, or I'm going to wake up tomorrow and she and her truck will be gone. No champagne yet. Damn it. Oh yeah, your values are going to go through the roof! Up, up, up! I'm going to vacate this house and be gone! Here I go... Almost... Oops! I'm still here! Okay, here I go, here I go,  I am out of here... Surprise! Still here! Who would have thought she was a property value tease?

What I am happy to still have around are my peppers. I don't have champagne but I do have is stuffed bell peppers!





The last few Baby bells from my garden stuffed with other peppers and tomatoes from my garden. I also raised the cow and grew the rice and made the plate. No I didn't, but the vegetables I did raise myself.  I made a total of five stuffed peppers and I had two for tonight's dinner. I used the rest of the harvest to make a very well received chicken pot pie for a pot luck at work. I was thrilled as usually no one eats my food at these things, I was so sure that no one would eat what I brought this time, that I had planned for it to be my dinner that night. They ate all of it.

I fear that posting pictures of my dinner are a cliche example of blogger narcissism but I would be willing to bet a blog called "Pictures of what I ate for Dinner" would get 50,000 hits a day and I would have a book deal in a year.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

It's October 7th!

Really.
Guess who is not coming to dinner?  or  What is the sound of property values rising?

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!
Which old Witch?
The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dog the Wicked Witch is Dead!! 
Down with the ice snow
Below!
Below!
Below!

Or on a kinder note
  
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby
There ain’t nothin wrong with that.

Moving On up, to a delux apartment in the skyyyy
Moving On Up 

I need to find out what the new people sacrificed and what gawds they sacrificed  to, because months after they move in, the Drug Dealers Sister is moving out.

She's been sitting over there like a psychotic bump on a log for years and now she's leaving, just picking up and taking off. I'm thrilled on one hand but on the other hand I feel really bad for her little boy because he's been the only little boy on the street for his entire life and now there is another little boy across the street and I see them playing  every day. The little guy even started playing on a pee wee football team and was finally getting ahead at school after repeating the first grade twice. Poor kid, life is finally getting good for the first time in ever and his insane mother is pulling up stakes and taking him away from it. Good going Drug Dealers Crazy Sister, way to be a "24 hour Mama" and kuddos to putting your childs' needs first.

And then there is the third hand, the woo-that-crazed-beyotch-is-leaving-its-my-birthday-its-my-birthday-lets-hear-it-for-the-property-values-on-the-block!!! She did not add, let me tell you.  And the whole devil you know thing? As long as the new devil is not an unstable, shrieking harpy,  I'm not afraid - as long as I feel comfortable calling the cops on you, I'm good. Bring it. 

Now maybe the hipsters won't be afraid to come out of their house .If the Drug dealers crazy sister lived next door to you, you wouldn't go outside much either. I feel them on that. They almost never come into the front yard and on this street that makes them an anomaly. True, I don't spend a lot of time on my porch but I'm out with the dog and watering plants and whatnot, so I'm not entirely invisible. This is a front porch kind of place and people visit back and forth, the hipsters need to join in and be neighborly. I hope they aren't waiting for people to come to them because its not going to happen.

I will however, go over there after I'm sure the DDS is well and truly gone, I'll get a bottle of champagne and drop by.  Oh, I am not kidding.  Am I rude? tacky? crass? The drug dealers crazy sister is moving away!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Election Day

Hello Children! Rise and Shine! It's time to go vote!

Okay, not all of you, not even me. But  some of you have elections to go vote in. Lucky kids! Oh the joy have having control over something, anything! These elections will have a turn out only slightly higher than the number who showed up on your wedding night.

That is the problem. This year the rethuglicans and their brown-shirted minions are going to be out in force. The tea partiers, the "we're not racists we just hate Black people", the stupid, the frightened the Glenn Beck followers. The base of the Republican Party. They want to be heard and they want to be respected and they want the rest of us to fear them. Elections like this make them wet.

Because they can win them. They can get their minions on school boards and city councils and any other below the radar seat then can find - because these are where the power is. They can turn the clock back, they can create sleeper cells of hard right terrorists and no one will notice because these are unsexy elections and no one cares and they aren't really publicized. You would only really ,know if you were running yourself. They are all local and low end. Perfect.

In Raleigh these under the radar seats will decide if Raleigh stays in the Now or goes back to 1957. Segregation, separate but equal , Jim Crow in our schools. The right-wing likes to call them "Neighborhood Schools", what they really mean is Get Those Black Kids Out Of My Kids School. Period. It will end busing, it will end integration and it will end futures. Raleigh will become Selma. That is what it is about. Its gross but its true.

I don't want to live in Mississippi. The Good Guys , you can print this out and take it with you to the polls.  Don't let a brownshirt take it away from you.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Weekend

Well, I didn't really start off with any plans for the weekend, just some thoughts of Well, maybe if I remember I want to..., ya'll don't know how much stuff I've missed out on because I forgot I wanted to go and do it.  I totally need an appointment secretary.Anyway. I did end remembering that I wanted to get to the Farmers Market to pick up pumpkins and generally soak up some Autumnal spirit. It's hard to embrace the whole fall gestalt when you're still wearing shorts. I decided to remedy that.

My visit to the  Farmers Market. I had a really good time and kept my yearly perfect pumpkin angst to a minimum. It helped that this year I decided that I was going to go to one outlet get a pumpkin or pumpkins and not run all over town stressing about it and letting my neurosis control me. No, no, no. One stop. Get in, get out.

And I did. I did touch  every pumpkin at the market, but I got my pumpkins. One white, one orange and one green. I want a multiculti display. Did you know they may beige pumpkins? I could have done a Halloween themedBennington ad. But I didn't. I was self - control girl. Also? Any pumpkin that is not an orange  pumpkin is not a cheap pumpkin. Lesson learned. I didn't take anything away form this lesson because I still bought un-ornage pumpkins but maybe you can learn from it.

But before I went pumpkin-ing, I went  downtown and visited Moore Square to check out  a dog fair. It was very fun and I scored a neat water bottle. I kind of wanted to take Dogger but there were dogs everywhere and Dogger is a bad dog magnet. They all seemed to be very mellow, very sweet dogs but that was because they didn't have a chance to dog-pile Dogger. I had a swell time .

Still later on, I went to the  24th International Festival of Raleigh, it was fun and filling. I would have taken more pictures but my camera battery, since replaced was dieing and it wasn't letting me do my thing. I'm still pretty happy with what I got.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

HAPPY      SUNDAY      !!!!!!!!!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

HAPPY     SATURDAY   !!!!!!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Friday Kitten Blogging





I watch TV

FAUX needs to step away from the Amish and stick to the things they do know, Evangelicals and right wing politics. That's their knowledge base, when they go afield from that they just look like they didn't do their research or are  borderline bigots, since its FAUX I think we know which one is the real story.  I hate FAUX.

And Amish families often have just the one kid. Gawd. FAUX is so wrong, it's really embarrassing. If they wanted to do a story about religious people who don't do music I can think of a lot of  easier  groups to do than the Amish and with a lot fewer things to mess up and they would look a lot less stupid.

Dogger had a really good walk today but she insisted on going too far and now she's wiped out. I tried to make her turn back at a more therapeutic distance but she wasn't having any of it.  She had been a kind of a pain in the ass about going for a walk at 5:00pm - in that she didn't want to go for a walk she wanted her dinner and to play with her Kong toy. I don't see the rehab potential of lolling around on the carpet playing with a Kong toy-  and so by the time we went out later she really needed a walk and then we went too far. She isn't ready for the longer walks. I think she gets bored on our short walks and she just wants to have a little adventure. She loves going to the park and sniffing every where and peeing on everything, and when we were going on long walks every .day we visited there about three times a week.

Poor Dogger. I would have been happy just to go around the block but she wasn't having it. She doesn't care that the shorter walk is better for her right now and  we need to work on re-building her endurance and strength  and as much as she wants to go back to her old  longer routes, that she really can't right now, but she will be able to, soon. Do they sell canine muscle building power?  That would be great, because at this point we're never going to be able to walk further than across my yard and  its' going to take us approximately three houndred years to rebuild her lost muscle mass.

Oh, Community is back on. When I was in junior college there was a girl who sat next to me in one of my classes and the only questions she got right all semester where the rhetorical questions  the professor peppered her lectures  with and that the girl thought she needed to answer every one of those questions  OUT LOUD.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Insert Title Here

Oh, look Thursday! who would have thunk it?

I like Thursday because there is actually something on TV that I want to watch. I should amended that, there is something on network TV that I want to watch.

Did you know that next week is Customer Service Week? I bet you didn't. I bet you didn't care either. I did not care when I learned yesterday and I can assure you that next week while we "celebrate" CSW, I will care even less. I plan spending the weekend learning self hypnosis so I can get through our daily customer service video presentation without it turning into a blood bath - I have a co-worker who is too chicken to actually killer self so she is goading the rest of us into doing it for her. If I was a nicer I would help her out. Lovely woman. We are also spending the week "playing" a "game" based on a reality show. I'm so happy I could almost cough blood.

Last year we spent a week with Lilly Tomlin's operator character.  I hate that character now. A lot. These things don't make me want to serve our customers, by video five they made me want to kill our customers. CSW kills by desire to help in half hour increments, by the end of the week I'm growling at people.  I don't think that that is what Customer Service Week is about.

I also don't think that it is the most politic move when you are dealing with people who aren't going to get a raise for at least the next two years. They did this to us at the employee recognition lunch too. They served us cold sandwiches and told us that the customer was always right, and by that same theme, we are  always wrong. And rude. It did not add to the recognition-y atmosphere and we did not feel appreciated. I felt much more appreciated in years past when they served us lukewarm pizza and kept their mouths shut about what rude bastards we are.

The customer is always rude. And crazy. And in most cases, lying, if you aren't going to give me a raise, why don't you empathize with me? Admit that we  deal with irrational, demanding, entitled whack jobs!Throw me a bone about how difficult our "customers" are. Normal people don't deal with the state,  smart people don't know our number, sane people don't have us on speed dial .