I have a question...

WHY in the age of TiVo and reality television - do shows insist on including the name of the person who got the boot in last night's/week's episode on the commercials for next week's episode??!!

it's gotten to where you can't watch tv AT ALL until you've watched the most recent episode of ANY reality series... once upon a time you NEVER saw advertisements for a particular station's programming on ANY other channel - now you just never know where/when ads for your favorite reality shows are going to pop up... and they ALWAYS contain revealing information - even if they don't actually show the last elimination (which they often DO) they show the remaining contestants... too much information any way you look at it!!

early this morning I was watching something on HGTV and they showed an ad for The Next Iron Chef that basically recapped last night's elimination!! WTF??!!

based on the occasional host swapping I'm guessing these networks are owned by the same company or something - but STILL!!

I understand showing them on their individual networks but couldn't they at least give us ONE day before they start plastering these things EVERYWHERE??

as long as I'm bitching - WHY with shows like this where they tend to re-run the latest episode several times the night it airs in case anyone missed the first airing, do they insist on running these revealing ads for next week's episode DURING that night's subsequent airings???!!

even WITH the ability to record two things at once I often end up having to record a later episode of something because of some scheduling conflict... and then if I'm not careful flipping through the commercials I'll wind up seeing stuff I didn't want to see YET!!

what about those of you who do not have TiVo or DVR service?? you can't even fast forward through these commercials... you're just stuck with them!!

it's STUPID!!

and ANOTHER thing... WHY do they have to have so much CRAP popping up and dancing across the bottom of the screen all the time??? it's distracting and irritating... and AGAIN with reality shows it's a pain in the ass... so often with these types of shows the mics don't quite pic up what the contestants are saying... either they're whispering or mumbling or just plain aren't used to being on tv - so they have to put up subtitles in order for us to know what's going on... but with all these fancy pop-up ads, half the time you can't SEE the freakin' subtitles!!

again... WTF!?!?!

anyway - I know this is all such ridiculous nonsense to be complaining about and I should just shut up and count my blessings... but it gets on my nerves!!

I mean pretty soon there probably won't even be a week between episodes... they'll just start doing a picture in picture thing with next week's episode running in the top right-hand corner of the screen... then between that and the pop-ups dancing across the bottom half of the screen we'll only get to see the top left quarter of people's heads and maybe some tree tops or window valances on the current show we're actually meaning to watch...

that is unless we get some breaking news, a special weather statement or some election results... in which case I guess we'll just be left with the muffled sounds of the contestant's microphones and our imaginations...

blogworthy...

it's not too often we have, well, ANYTHING happen around here but yesterday was a pretty interesting day for kittyville residents...

early in the morning I started noticing police cars whizzing past our house with sirens going - this is not too uncommon as we live a few miles down the road from a police station

however normally (for an accident, fire, whatever) you see maybe 3 or 4 cars go by and that's the end of it... but yesterday I was seeing/hearing car after car after car... troopers, sheriffs, unmarked vehicles all with lights and sirens going

after about 30 minutes of this I was thinking this is NO normal accident/fire/whatever - so I decided to check the local newspaper's web site to see if they had any idea what the heck was going on

at the top of the page it said 'KITTYVILLE HIGH SCHOOL ON L*CKD*WN'
so of course I clicked on the article... and of course being the useless piece of crap that it is... they had no useful information

so of course I did the next logical thing... went to facebook!! haaa
where better to get news than from the people living it?

I (and 99% of my facebook friends) went to school there and several of them have kids that go there now... half of them are on the rescue squad or have a relative who is - which means information was immediately pouring into facebook from people listening to scanners...

without using too many keywords (so's to avoid local people looking for info on the situation stumbling on my little blogeroo) a g*y with a g*n went into the sch**l and took the pr*nc*p*l h*st*g* !!!

to make things even MORE interesting... rumors immediately started flying about WHO the g*y with the g*n was... once I showed up on facebook I instantly started getting hit with IM's from people saying they were hearing who it was... and who it was is someone that we ALL know

a local guy... someone I've known all my life... who dated my sister off and on for YEARS and she is still friendly with

so when SHE got onto facebook and got word of this... and the fact that he was still in the building which at this point was surrounded by police, SWAT, and helicopters she was obviously concerned

of course for the kids and staff... but also for HIM

at this point his name had not been officially released so there was hope it was NOT actually him... but sadly nobody seemed too overly surprised when his name came up over the scanners and through the grapevine

being 2000 miles away and having to go to work where she couldn't be on facebook she kept calling me asking for updates...

throughout the morning my phone was ringing off the freakin' hook - ohio friend saw it on the news there and was in complete shock... things like this just do NOT happen here

we're talking about a school that ranges in age from 12-18 - basically grades 6-12 and STILL only has probably less than 1000 students!! it's a tiny, rural school that unlike so many places nowadays doesn't even have metal detectors - in a community where most people don't even lock their doors - EVERYONE knows EVERYONE and when something bad happens to one person pretty much everyone feels it!!

so obviously when this started it was literally only minutes before the tom-toms were beating

people living near the school who weren't even home were offering their homes to parents waiting for word that their kids were safe and could be picked up... local businesses offered space for the hoards of people to sit and wait

all you city mice who wonder how us country mice can stand living so far off the beaten path... THIS is how!! that sense of community is priceless

anyway... as time went on we learned that it definitely WAS the person it was rumored to be - but thankfully all went well, he eventually surrendered and everyone was safe!!

everyone was watching the news and it was SO weird to see our little school on tv... and friends being interviewed and all that stuff - SO WEIRD!!

but weirdest of all I think was in the evening as I was cooking dinner I heard a knock at the door... people don't usually knock on our door and when they do somehow their individual knocks are distinctive but this was a knock I didn't recognize

I opened the door and standing there was a strange man in a suit - he introduced himself as being with a news organization who's name I won't mention but I will say it rhymes with LOX - behind him was another man with a camera!!

they said they had been given this as an address for Chr*s (the g*nm*n) HA!
I was like... ummm he does NOT live here!! they asked if I knew what they were talking about (asking about him) and I said yes... they asked if I was surprised by what happened and I was like HELL yes - who the hell ever thinks something like THAT is going to happen???

they started asking what I knew about him, what I thought of him etc. and I was just like ya know what...I don't really want to discuss it... I don't particularly care to be on the news

eventually they gave up and went away... but I HOPE no more news people show up here!!

anyway... that's probably the most blogworthy thing to happen around here in a long time - the last time something 'major' happened in this town was like 25 years ago - I hope it's another 25 before another major event... of this type anyway!!

bleeding like a stuck pig...

for the most part I can't complain too much about the fact that I only seem to get my period every few months for the last year or two now - in general it's a great money saver for one... in fact before my sister moved (almost 3 years ago now) she gave me all her leftover pads from after she had her baby and it has taken me until NOW to finally go through them

I know I know PADS? ick! yuck! gross! blech! - but I've never been able to use tampons - not sure if my body is deformed or it's just a mental thing going back to a story I read in the readers digest one time (probably before I was even old enough to get my period) about some woman who got toxic shock syndrome and ended up losing her hands or her feet or some awful thing... that seriously freaked me out!!

anyway... it's been really nice saving all that money... like I said, what I already had combined with what my sister gave me - and the fact that I only get my period like every 3 months or so, I haven't had to buy any of that stuff in like 3 years!! unfortunately one thing that kinda sucks about that is the fact that buying such things hasn't been on my mind... so when I discovered I was getting my period yesterday I looked and saw I only had TWO pads left!!

I was fine last night but by the time I woke up this morning I was, as the title says, bleeding like a stuck pig!!!

now I have ONE pad to get me through the whole entire day - until Sam gets home with more...

I think it's gonna be a long, bloody, disgusting day!!

hmmm...

I seem to have seriously lost my groove... I feel like I have NOTHING to say - and when I do I just don't seem to be taking the time to say it

part of it is that somewhere along the way I became more interested in facebook than blogging - part of it is the fact that nobody else seems to have much to say so I guess 'outta sight outta mind' if I'm not spending much time in blogville (reading) I seem to be less inspired to spend much time here writing...
part of it is the fact that I just really don't want to be rotting my ass in front of this idiot box so much

there have been a few things I have meant to blog about over the last several months... for example our new kitchen cabinets, our roommate situation - and just different little things that have popped up along the way... but when I sit down to write I either get distracted by a ringing phone or a shiny object... whatever - ya know?

I think part of it also is that my schedule seems to have changed... I used to do a lot of my blog writing really early in the morning... I'd always wake up way before Sam and get on here and just type away before the little interruptions of the day started creeping in - but for some reason I seem to sleep better (or at least longer) now and rather than hop on and blog as soon as Sam leaves I guess I go ahead and do the facebook thing first... which often leads to games of farkle or just mindless jabber on there... until the daily interruptions start hehehe

I have a REALLY hard time focusing - once the tv comes on or someone speaks to me that's usually it... I move into a different mode and whatever I had been thinking about writing goes away for another day - until eventually I just don't care enough to write about that anymore...

now of course since I'm actually making an effort to say something today - I don't really seem to have much at all to say...

let's see... I've been having a VERY hard time breathing lately - I seem to have this problem a lot this time of year... I mean I always have some issues but not like THIS!! I remember when my breathing problems started (a few years ago) it was late summer early fall - and ever since then it seems like every fall I just have a really hard time

I've always had fall allergy issues (mainly headaches) so maybe this is an allergy thing - who knows - all I know is that most of the day (and night) I'm really struggling to get good breaths and then here and there I get breaks where allofasudden I can breathe clearly for a little while...

and I keep hearing that people with asthma should be getting this stupid swine flu vaccine... I HATE the idea of getting a vaccine like that... especially a 'new' one - I'm not comfortable with anything new like that - it seems like so many times with new drugs/vaccines etc. that months later they discover all these horrific complications from them

I don't really want to be one of those people who dies from some ridiculous thing like complications from a new drug or vaccine... on the other hand I don't really want to suffocate to death from complications of the freakin' SWINE FLU!!

I just thought how kinda funny that would be... FAT girl dies of SWINE flu!! OINK OINK
of course the pig jokes are not WHY I don't want to die of swine flu... I just don't want to die!! hehehe

anyone who has been here a while probably knows I have anxiety issues... I do NOT need the added anxiety of worrying about crap like THIS!!

nobody needs to tell me I could wind up with a deadly disease or virus or whatever... I get a bruise in a weird place and I'm convinced it's some weird blood cancer - the LAST thing I need is the media filling me with crap that supports my crazy, anxious, hypochondriac-y thoughts!! haaaa

and now for something else that's brown and lumpy...

Brian is on my case to post something... anything to push down the image of bear poop from the last post - since it's his birthday I suppose I should oblige...

we recently purchased our very first brand new piece of furniture - all of our current hand-me-downs are totally falling apart and my recliner outright BROKE... when it was in the reclined position it didn't want to let me un-recline it - so I had to do this weird limbo-like move to get out of it and hopefully not completely collapse it in the process

my original plan was to just find something used off of craigslist BUT our truck isn't exactly roadworthy at the moment so that wasn't an option and the seating situation was kind of urgent - sooooooooooooo a couple weeks ago we spent an entire weekend sofa shopping

we all know I HATE shopping - BUT I hafta say... furniture shopping is a different story - I mean what's not to love about lounging out in super comfy furniture all day?? well alright some of it wasn't super comfy - but for the most part... ALL of it was better than anything we had!!

we started out HERE and (comfort-wise) both fell in love with THIS - I used to have a kick-ass leather recliner that I LOVED... I still miss that thing!! and of course when you walk in, the first thing the sales people direct you toward is the leather... I LOVE love LOVE leather!! ohh yeah!!

Sam practically had to drag me out of that thing to keep looking - and even then I kept wandering back to admire it

a few sofas down the line the sales droid assigned to us (who obviously knew how to read his customers) pointed us in the direction of something he described as 'the ultimate in lazy' - at first I thought he was talking about ME... but that didn't seem right hehehe

what he WAS referring to was certainly NOT the nicest looking sofa I had ever seen... in fact it looked like what would happen if Jabba the Hutt and a sumo wrestler got together and ummm... pooped out a couch

BUT it had something none of the other couches had... these neat little reading lights in the center part of the head rest - also each end reclined - AND the center foot rest area pulled out for storage.. and even had these nifty ice packs you can use to keep drinks cold INSIDE the sofa!!

did I mention it also had HEAT & MASSAGE??!!

so we had to stop and think... what is more important? style or comfort?? neither of us was particularly thrilled with the look of this thing... but it was hard to focus on THAT when we were being heated and massaged to sleep right there in the store!!

we were pretty sure we had settled on it... even though it was (altogether) going to be a few hundred bucks over what we had been planning to spend - but we went home and slept on it - because large purchases aren't something either of us is particularly comfortable with - and the next day decided to look around elsewhere - just to make sure we were making the right choice

so we went to the only other two furniture stores around and relaxed in every single sofa, loveseat and recliner available - we found some pieces in the same price range that we could have certainly lived with... and we went back and forth over the idea of the leather sofa we looked at first - but in the end... none of them had HEAT & MASSAGE!!

so we went BACK to the first store... relaxed in the thing some more (just to be sure) took a quick break and discussed it over some of the FREE Haagen Dazs they offer in the cafe!! seriously this place has a FREEEEEEEEEEE CAFE at the back of the store!!

a chick back there will scoop you out your choice of like 4 or 5 flavors (I had strawberry) - they also have coffee, tea, lemonade, water, cookies and bins of penny candy... all for FREE!!

after eating their free ice cream I suppose we HAD to buy our couch there.... soooooo

without further ado...

OUR (NOT VERY ATTRACTIVE - BUT OH SO COMFY) NEW SOFA

which I call THE VIBRATRON hehehe

my sister calls it a porno couch...

now in the evenings Sam and I can relax together on the same piece of furniture and hold hands - or I can lay down with my head in his lap... or he can lay down with his feet in mine (for foot rubbins) or we can both kick back and buzz away in vibrating massage heaven...

YAY!!

update...

so earlier I decided to take a stroll around the edge of the yard hoping to find my missing thistle feeder... and guess what - I DID!!

about half way down our yard we've stopped mowing so that eventually it will be wooded again - but we cut a path through so that we can get to the stream (not that anyone ever goes down there)

anyway... I got a few feet from the edge of the unmowed portion of the yard and saw it laying in the middle of the path... but not before I saw THIS in the grass at my feet:



it's hard to make out the size of this from the picture but it was freakin' HUGE

I took another pic next to my size 10 croc to give you a better idea of just HOW huge it is:



now I'm sure it was a bear that mangled my feeders -- and one of my facebook friends (where I also posted this) says it's bear poo... which I knew cause nothing else is gonna poop like THAT!! (yes, Whirl - 'cept maybe sasquatch)

anyway... I was maybe 10 feet from the feeder but once I saw that massive pile of poo I kinda froze - I felt like once I enter the unmowed area I don't know what might be hiding in the grass - but if something that poops like that is in there I have no business being in there!!

so I left the feeder laying there...

Sam says I just need to make noise... that a bear won't mess with you if it sees you coming

but I figure I'm going in there to essentially steal it's lunch box so I'm kinda thinking it might be a little less than friendly toward me

besides if HE'S so fucking brave let him go get the feeder... HE can bring a gun!!

I'm thinking a warm, fluffy bear skin rug would look nice in front of our super new couch (which I haven't posted about yet) - stay tuned!! =)

bird feeder massacre

I knew something was wrong when on my way to the kitchen to get Sam's lunch together this morning, I noticed I had an unobstructed view of the yard through the window (where I USUALLY see bird feeders hanging)

this is what I saw when I got a closer look...



my thistle feeder is GONE and the suet feeder is clear across the yard!! and the metal can I keep all the seed in was knocked over, the lid yanked off and as you can see an entire bag of black oil sunflower seed was dragged several feet and dumped



you can kinda see my favorite wind chimes were torn apart - part is still hanging from the pole... the chimes are laying in the dirt =(



the heavy duty pole that my brand new platform feeder was on is BENT!!



I don't know what the heck happened... normally since we've had problems with raccoons before (though NOTHING like THIS!!) I would assume it was raccoons - but the way that one pole is bent I have a hard time believing a raccoon could have done that - the feeder was too high for them to reach and pull down without climbing and the pole is WAY too thick for it to bend just from them hanging off the feeder if they did manage to get up there

I've been trying to get Sam to buy a trail cam for a while (cause I'm always hearing creepy weird animals sounds out there) but I don't see that happening any time soon so for now I'm gonna put some sand on the ground - chances are whatever it was will come back and leave tracks in the sand so I can know for sure...

keep your fingers crossed that all I find are cute little raccoon tracks!!