you be the judge….

now that I have this nifty camera I thought I’d introduce you to a friend of mine.... his name is Chonga (well his original name was Eggbert but.... well no friend of mine was gonna go around with a name like Eggbert!!)



ok ready? here he is!!




WAIT!!! I just want you to know (incase you have kids in the room) the following images contain nudity!!




alright.... here ya goooooo.....





you’ll have to excuse him, he’s a little nervous – it’s his first time modeling and he’s a little scared of the flash!!

lets try that again.....



ahhh that's better!! - doncha just love that big round belly and that goofy grin?

after that shot he said it wasn’t so bad…. and he started to loosen up a bit

here he is having a picnic with some of his little friends



aren't they cute?

ahhhh here’s one of him playing dress up!! can you guess who he’s supposed to be?

psst.... you probably can't see them but that bowl is full of curds & whey



ohhh it's been a LONG day for Chonga.... I guess it's time for him to take a nap =(



nighty night Chonga!!

ok now that he's fast asleep I can talk to you about this little problem.... ya see me and Chonga have been pals since I was about 8 years old!! and since that time there has been a big debate in my family over whether he is a bear or some kind of ape…. so I thought I’d ask you guys…. now that you've gotten a good look at him and his personality, whaddaya think? bear or ape?

to tell or not to tell… that was the question….

argh!!! I’m such a fucking idiot sometimes!! I was just chopping onions and without washing my hands I rubbed my eye… with oniony fingers!!! now my eye feels like it’s gonna burn outta my skull!!

anyway that’s not what this post is about hehehe

I mentioned yesterday that we bought a digital camera (if I say ‘we’ it takes a bit of the sting out of it… I have a little problem making decisions and owning them) we had been at best buy and they were practically wiped out of cameras so we decided to wait and come back another day but then we just happened to be at staples getting ink so I took a look at the cameras and they had a deal on the very same one I had gotten a ‘vibe’ off of at best buy….

hmm ok when I say vibe I mean something telling me ‘this is it!’ – a lot of times I’ll do something I never would have expected because I got a good vibe off of it. I know I’m a weirdo!!

Anyway that is also not the point of this story hehehe

The camera was $179 at both best buy and staples…. but at staples it came with a FREE 256 MB memory card thingy!! Which normally costs like $30 or something…. and since the camera only has 16 MB internal memory I WANTED that card!!

after checking out a couple other cameras we settled on this one and went up to the counter to pay for it (along with our ink and battery charger for the batteries I suspected this thing is gonna eat like popcorn!!) because efficiency isn’t a high priority to them, they have to ring up the memory card and then take it off again in order for you to get it for free.

We pay and head out to the car…. all the while Sam is scouring the receipt, he thought they overcharged him (he had forgotten about the $35 ink cartridge…. HOLY SHIT… but that’s a whole other post in itself!! hehehe)

Anyway…. it turned out they didn’t overcharge us…. They UNDERcharged us!!
They had deducted the memory card without charging us for it…. for a moment Sam was all happy with his victory over the big corporate chain, he said ‘fuck it I’m sure they’ve screwed me in the past’ I just looked at him disapprovingly…. (I haven't always been so honest.... well wait yes I have.... I just haven't always acted on it if that makes any sense hehehe anyway I'm trying to be a better person haaaa )

he continued trying to justify not going back in and telling them – I just said ‘well that’s not what I would do but hey whatever you wanna do’

He stopped in at home depot and when he came back out he said he wanted to go back into staples and do the right thing. I was glad!! But it was gonna have to wait until later because we had company we were about to be late getting home to.

Later turned out to be last night…. Sam had some errands to run, among them was making things right with staples. So he walks in and goes to the counter and tells them his story…. of course they look at him like he’s crazy… someone said something about that being strangely honest or something

They gave him a receipt saying he actually bought the thing incase there’s a problem with it but didn’t charge him the $30!!

see it DOES pay to be honest!! now he has a clear conscience AND a smokin’ deal on my new camera and memory card!!

this has got to be by far one of THE worst piece of crap posts I have EVER written!!!

so here’s a picture of my cat taking a nap....

is it over yet?

I’ve been very… I dunno…. out of sorts lately. part of me wants to write about it… and part of me wants to just not think about it at all!! unfortunately today I feel too crappy to decide (I think I might have caught my nieces stomach bug) but I felt like if I didn’t come here and say something I might never have come here again. be prepared I have about zero pep today….

I guess I’ll just write about how christmas went….

as usual it was hectic!!!

THE END!

hehehe no seriously…. It was pretty good I guess – we did a lot of running around as usual…. between Christmas eve and Christmas day we have to be at 4 different houses – so I spend most of the day before Christmas eve baking.

Christmas eve afternoon I spend with my family because it’s the only chance I have to see my grandfather for the holiday since he lives 2 hours away…. Sam is usually at work and then when he gets off he picks me up there and we head over to his aunt and uncle’s house so we can see HIS grandfather. Even though they live pretty close by we really only see them a couple times a year.

It turned out pretty well…. we were actually home from all that by about 10pm. We both fell asleep in our big comfy chairs watching A Christmas Story hehehe

Christmas morning we had to get up bright and early to head over to Sam’s sister’s house for breakfast. Which was nice… it was our one chance to eat meat for the day!! we filled up on sausage gravy and biscuits and got a kick out of watching the nephew open his presents… he has enough stuff to open his own toy store now!!

We spent the afternoon at my sister’s house where my niece absolutely refused to open any presents all day long!! hehehe what a weird kid!! of course she is only just barely 2 years old…. She had been sick with some pukey thing a couple days earlier so I think she just wasn’t feeling quite right yet =(

As far as gifts go we made out pretty well…. someone must have heard me complaining last year about all the useless crap we get because even the person who always gets me clothes I have to return got me something cute that actually fits!!

Sam’s mom, who usually gets us huge.... and I mean HUGE piles of things like scented candles, hairspray and litter box liners, baked!! She gave us a loaf of cinnamon bread and some kind of homemade mints… I’m sure Sam will enjoy them both so YAY!!

I know it sounds totally ungrateful and all that… and I really don’t mean it that way!! but for some reason it just bugs me to sit here looking at a bunch of stuff I have to try to find new homes for because we can’t use it ya know?

So I was glad we didn’t have to deal with that this year =)

We ended up with quite a wad of cash sooooo against my usual ways I went out the very next day and spent it all!! (well MY share anyway) usually I have a very hard time spending money!! I don’t like to shop and for some reason spending large amounts of money upsets me. even when we were teenagers and we certainly weren’t hurtin’ for money!! our parents would send us all off to the mall with wads of cash… my sister and friends would buy make up, clothes, music etc. I’d get a couple slices of pizza and a new led zeppelin t-shirt hehehe I’d go home with most of my money and I’d spend it in dribs and drabs on silly things like that because I could never seem to commit to buying anything.

Some people just weren’t meant to shop I guess

Don’t get me wrong I don’t seem to have any problem spending money… it’s just making a commitment to one large purchase that I can’t seem to do.

of course I have no problem spending over $120 every month for my phone/internet/cable deal

but buying one tv for $100 makes me all nervous…. hmph…. go figure

When I was about 18 or so and I graduated from about the only thing I ever had any hope of graduating from (technical school) my grandmother gave me a big wad of cash… I think it was something like $1000…. Instead of going out and getting myself something nice I spent the next month buying pizzas and $20 bags of pot haaaa could I make the commitment to get a good deal on a huge bag? noooo I’d rather get ripped off for a bunch of smaller ones because at the moment it stings a little less hehehe

anyway here is a picture of my new bedroom tv



taken with my new digital camera!!

in one day I spent over $300 and it made me want to puke!! hehehe

of course later that day we were at radio shack and I found an electronic handheld FROGGER (I kinda have a thing for handheld electronic games) and I was kicking myself in the ass for being all out of money!! but maybe I'll get lucky and the birthday fairy will bring it to me =)

oh well this place looks like a tornado blew through here and I'd like it if Sam could come home to a nice calm, clean house and a hot meal again.... so I guess I'll shut up for now

HO HO HO

Sam has requested a naked, perky, horny wife when he gets home.... well I'm sure he'd like that every day but he sure picked a heck of a day to actually request it!! hehehe

my prediction is that he'll get a very tired, achy, flour covered wife instead - but I'm TRYING to grant his wish hehehe

I have a million and one things to do today and I'm not making great progress - it's 1pm and so far I got a pot of chili simmering away, did the dishes, I made a double batch of fudge, got a load of laundry done, answered about half a dozen phone calls.... I still have 3 kinds of cookies to make, and I have to dip the buckeyes in chocolate - I have to start on whatever magical hors d'œuvres I'm supposed to bring to 2 of the 4 christmas get togethers we're going to. I still have a couple small gifts to wrap, I have to pack up all this junk I'm making eventually and I need to get in the shower at some point or we can definitely scrap whatever Sam's big plans are hehehe

I think this sudden strange funk I seem to be in isn't helping much.... even slightly sappy things are making me all teary - I really wish Sam could have stayed home with me today... normally I'm perfectly fine being alone all day but for some reason the last couple days I just wish he was here with me.

even though I need to get the bulk of this work done before he gets home I still find myself looking at the clock counting the hours until he'll be home....

and he has to work tomorrow too!! =(

he usually has to work on christmas eve actually - I can only think of a couple years that he didn't, so I'm used to it... but for some reason this year it just seems different to me - I know I'm whining.... I just don't feel like being all by myself!!!

I just hope he won't end up having to work late.... if he does I hope they make it worth it to him!!! hehehe

anyway I'm gonna shut up and stop feeling sorry for myself =)

I'll probably be off for the next couple days but if anyone pops in here I suggest you take a few minutes to zap some cute little elves hehehe

go on... it's FUN!!

and if elves ain't your thing enjoy this lovely festive snow globe instead =)

I hope you all have a really GREAT holiday/weekend/whatever

a christmas miracle!! ....and a small plea for help

well I was all set to write about how I STILL have no water and tell you all about the wonderful cookies and candies that I won’t be able to make and how unpopular that was going to make me this christmas but guess what? I HAVE WATER!!!

HAPPY WATER DANCE
What could (should) have been a huge disaster that would have probably been the final straw that would destroy my mother’s house, turned out to be as minor as it could have possibly been, considering.

Her entire heating/water system was frozen solid!! She could have blown her well pump and oil burner and had busted pipes all over her house. They estimated that it could easily cost $15,000 to repair all the damage. Considering my mother probably doesn’t have $15 in the bank that would have been the end of her house!!

When the plumber showed up yesterday he snapped his fingers and WHAMO water was flowing from my faucet like a tiny river of gold…. well ok maybe it was more like rust…. but still!! It was a start… and an unexpectedly early one at that!!

The plumber was shocked!! As he proceeded to do all of his preliminary stuff the shocked look grew…. He had NEVER seen a situation as bad as this work out so smoothly!! The pump was fine…. water was flowing, the oil burner fired right up…. all he had to do was install a new circulator of some kind on the system which altogether took all of about two hours!! For some reason he took pity on her and ONLY charged her for the labor!!! He completely GAVE her a brand new 400-something dollar circulator for FREE!! So what could have been a huge horrible disaster turned out as painless as possible and instead of it costing thousands and thousands of dollars, it ended up being less than $500!!!

There has only been one small glitch in the joy…. We’re hoping it’s a small glitch anyway hehehe her well has a REALLY SLOW recovery rate – for example a friend of mine was here last spring working a yard sale with me and my mother let her do some laundry. She did 3 or 4 loads in a row and next thing we knew we had no water!! It took the rest of the day to get it back.

Installing the new circulator ran A LOT of water according to the plumber, my mother of course managed to get her dishes done and tried to do a load of laundry and we were back to sporadic bursts of water and then nothing =(

She shut off the pump and let the whole thing rest for the night and so far it looks pretty good this morning!! I can wash my hands, flush my toilet, and with any luck I’ll be able to do my dishes, take a shower and get to work on my christmas cookie marathon!!

I was starting to feel really bad because it was really looking like we’d be completely empty handed everywhere we go…. but I’m optimistic – so if there’s anyone left reading this…. please keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, light a candle – whatever works for you, that our problems are over and we can once again function like modern civilized people hehehe

Since I don’t seem to have much else to say I thought I’d post my cookie list…. well what I hope will be my cookie list anyway!! hehehe

buckeyes - chocolate chip cookies - peppermint patties - russian tea cakes - chocolate crinkle cookies - fudge - candied nuts - kettle corn

if all goes well I’ll have made at least one batch (hopefully two) of all of these and have them all dipped and wrapped by Saturday morning!! haaaa wish me luck!! =)

I mostly just use the nuts and popcorn as pretty little yummy tasting filler – so if I don’t get to them it’s no big deal

Anyway in effort to cut down on the number of cookies, I was HOPING to make cd’s for the freaks in my family who can’t seem to eat anything normal anyway – I have an aunt who can’t have wheat or sugar – my sister and her kid don’t eat dairy and try not to eat sugar – my grandfather has such bad acid reflux he can hardly eat at all – my uncle is about one piece of fudge away from a heart attack – my cousin is ‘away’ and can’t have anything homemade or potentially damaging to his recovery sooooo I thought I’d make them all mixed cd’s with christmas songs

but I’m having a little trouble coming up with song ideas…. so far I have:

Welcome Christmas - Villagers in Whoville
Christmas Time Is Here - Peanuts Cast
Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie
Grandma got run over by a reindeer – because I think every cd should have one song that everyone hates!! hehehe

sooooooooo since I know a couple of you are music collectors - if anyone has any more song ideas (and a way for me to access them for free) and you want to help a poor girl out at the very last minute…. that would be super cool!! =)

ok I guess that’s it for now…. I’ll probably be back tomorrow for a while during my brief ‘fuck it I’ll never get these cookies done in time’ meltdown hehehe

happy birthday to you....

you belong in a zoo
you look like a monkey
and you SMELL like one too!! HaHaHaaa

Today is Sam's birthday!! He's 31…. I think hehehe

yeah yeah 31!!! I’m so bad about ages… half the time I forget mine and I have to ask someone else…. 'uh how old am I?' haaaa

anyway since it's Sam's birthday I have a few things to say to my super spectacular spouse….

first of all can you believe we've been together more than HALF your life???

Maybe I shouldn't say that… it might make you start getting all reflective and realize it’s time for a change hehehe

I just want you to know that I'm so grateful to have you in my life…. I couldn't ask for a better husband.... or best friend!!! every day I wake up next to you I feel like the luckiest person in the world!!! I don't know what I did to deserve the happiness you've brought to my life and I don’t even want to think about the kind of person I might be if the stars hadn't lined up exactly how they did the night we met.

I hope all your wishes come true!!! have an awesome birthday.... if I have anything to say about it I'll be right by your side for 70 more!!!

whether you like it or not!! hehehe

I LOVE YOU!!

calgon take me away....

oh wait - what good is sitting in bubble bath with no water?

I have a lot of crap on my mind today and I feel VERY overwhelmed but I want to leave for the weekend on a happy note… hmmm

last weekend I found Sam goofing off with THIS so of course I couldn’t resist!! much like way back when Amber posted the candybar doll maker where I spent an entire weekend making kitty dolls....

those are just a few examples.... the problem with the candybar doll maker is that those dolls haven't eaten enough candybars!! while those dolls actually look quite a bit like me (especially the one with the glasses) they're just way too skinny to REALLY look like me hehehe they definitely need a little more meat on their bones... and MUCH bigger boobs!!

last weekend I spent too much time with this.... while I was playing I came up with something that really seemed to suit me... I looked at this picture and said 'THIS is ME!!'



I showed Sam and said 'look look doesn't she look JUST like me?!?!?' he said 'uh... well her hair isn't up and she's not wearing glasses!!' haaaa ok!!

it turns out the first picture is the me I see in my minds eye... but in reality I'm much more frumpy looking hehehe

so this is what I came up with.... apparently it's a little more accurate hehehe he says I'm always puckering up to kiss him so I had to use puckery lips... don't I look like a mean librarian?



so to put the mystery to rest.... THIS is what I look like - but the other one is how I FEEL

either way I'm totally fucking adorable!!

thank god for liquid hand sanitizer!!!

I had intended on a nice light post all about christmas cookies and yummy goodness today but I guess that’ll have to wait until tomorrow because right now I’m not a very happy camper (although I'm living much like one!!)

Yesterday I mentioned that we had frozen pipes, but as the day wore on it became apparent that the problem is a little deeper than that. Usually an hour or two with a space heater blowing on our poorly insulated pipes does the trick. But I heated them nearly to the point of melting yesterday, and still nothing!

Our house is on the same property as my mother’s, and we share a well. Since neither of us has water I’m guessing it’s either something frozen way down deep, or something wrong with her pump or something, I’m certainly no plumber! But I tell you what; if I don’t have running water in the next day or so I’m gonna flip out!!

Days before I have a mountain of baking and candy making to do is no time to be without water!! Especially around here, knowing my mother she’d be perfectly content to live without water until spring… and by perfectly content I mean she’ll just down another quart of vodka to help her forget we’re living like cousin Eddie

She's the kind of person who’s ass you have to ride in order to get anything done, but since yesterday was her birthday I decided to take it easy on her and not make a big deal out of it.

Last night she said to me ‘oh it’s been worse, once when you were a kid we were out of water for FIVE weeks’ (we needed to have a new well dug or something)

I said… ‘when I was a kid I wasn’t paying rent’

anyway as it stands right now I can’t flush my toilet, wash my hands or take a shower…. of course I can't do dishes either but that is kind of ok hehehe at least until we run out of dishes.

now I'm trying to figure out what the hell we're gonna eat until this is all fixed.... it's lookin' like cheese sammiches and toast woo hoo!!

I wonder how the other half lives....

the call home....

first of all....

HOLY FROSTBITE BATMAN!!

according to weather.com it is currently -7º in kittyville!!! That’s N-E-G-A-T-I-V-E SEVEN!! both my kitchen AND bathroom pipes are frozen, which means I have NO water!! I stepped outside for one minute to feed the birds and my face froze INSTANTLY!!!

so to recap…. So far we’ve had at least 2 different snowfalls, one of which dumped a whole FOOT on us!!! and it’s so cold the pipes are frozen…. and it’s NOT even winter yet!!!!

don’t worry, I’m sure it’s not government weather!!
.
.
.
.
tinfoil hat?


-------------------------------------------------

So yesterday I mentioned that Sam called to tell me he was gonna be late coming home from his last day of hunting. When he left he figured on being home somewhere around 3 in the afternoon but when all was said and done he didn’t get home until closer to 8 o’clock.

No problem… I had been hoping to have him pick up a pizza or something on his way home but I managed to put a quick dinner together at the last minute. One of my favorites actually and something I ONLY make when he’s not gonna be around to eat because he does NOT like it at all!! hehehe

Anyway that was NOT the point of this post…. What was the point? The way that men react when one of them dares to have the courtesy to call his wife while he’s out with the boys.

I know that when men get together and do manly things, such as stalking prey and slaying beasts to feed their families that it’s a time for grunting and scratching and basically acting like big hairy children. YAY for them for taking the time to act like children once in a while, it’s what helps keep us young!! But that does NOT mean that they have to put aside consideration for others!

I don’t know what these other guys home lives are like so I can’t say for sure…. although in the past Sam has been out with some people I DO know and in their cases I CAN say…. that perhaps if they gave the women in their lives even a fraction of the consideration that Sam shows me, MAYBE they wouldn’t all be so damn miserable!!

It seems to me that most of these men look for any excuse to be out of their houses, usually with a beer in their hand and never seem to have much interest in getting home.

Here is the situation as it was described to me by Sam when he finally got home on Sunday night…. keep in mind I’m not a great story teller (as if that wasn’t painfully obvious to you already!) hehehe

Him and a group of other guys (most of which he didn’t know but are friends of a good friend of his) had been out hunting, doing drives, which is when a group of people get together in the woods and try to flush out the deer.

Sam had left his car at a nearby store and gone with his friend to the woods…. All was fine, Sam got a decent buck… along the way he fell so when they decided to go on a second drive he decided to sit it out…. he went back to one of the other guys houses with some of the others to wait for his friend so he could at the very least hang his deer and get a ride back to his car.

While he was there waiting he called me to say he wouldn’t be home for dinner etc. and that he’d call to give me a more precise idea as to when he’d finally be home.

When he hung up the phone the other guys asked if he had been calling his friend to see how the second drive was going – when he said no, that he called his wife, they all laughed and did the typical whipped husband crap. He bit his tongue and blew them off. The rest of the guys resumed drinking their beers, they asked if he wanted one – he said he was driving… (he was probably just trying to not insult their crappy taste in beer hehehe) but at least they didn’t give him shit for not wanting to drink and drive!!

When his friend got back HE started drinking and they were all telling the tales of their grand adventures in the woods…. The clock was ticking and Sam was getting annoyed – with each passing beer he saw his chances of getting a safe ride back to his car and ultimately home (to me) any time soon, slipping away.

You may recall that last time he was in this situation he didn’t end up getting home until 2 in the morning!! (which is fine with me.... once in a while hehehe)

anyway nobody there seemed to understand at all what his hurry was to get home or why on earth he would bother to call me and let me know when I might expect him.

apparently they think he should lie, make up stories or just blow me off altogether!! I guess he was trying to explain to these people that he actually enjoys being home and spending time with his wife… it was a fun day and all but enough was enough…. he just wanted to get home and relax – he had already been out 5 hours longer than he had anticipated!!

but they didn't quite seem to get what he was saying.... as if the concept of happiness at home was foreign to them!!

This saddens me!! are these people’s home lives so miserable that they don’t have the slightest interest in being there, or at the very least having some consideration for their wives/girlfriends?

Why do they feel the need to ridicule someone for showing his wife some consideration? or for wanting to spend some time with her?

I think this whole attitude explains a lot about why their relationships seem to be failing!!

Fortunately the guy who’s house they were at wanted to see the survivor finale so he was pushing everyone out the door or I don't know what he would have had to do! hehehe

I’m proud of my husband for not giving in to what seems to be the typical male bullshit (around here anyway) of disrespecting their women when they’re out with the boys!! but shouldn’t it just BE that men show their women consideration and respect??!! Does it make them less of a man to behave that way in the presense of other men?

I don’t understand this mentality!!

It makes me sad because as a result of this, Sam has VERY few guy friends – he doesn’t want to hang out with people who act this way – YAY for him but it kinda sucks in a way…. I KNOW there must be other men out there who don’t have a problem showing their women some respect in front of other men – who don’t make whip cracking sounds or obnoxious remarks when one of them mentions his wife!

but where??

weekend update #427

another tainted holiday memory….

Saturday I went out with J (my sister) and Emmy Loo (my 22 month old niece) this group of kids, I guess ages around 6-11 were putting on a christmas play.

as we entered the building we were laughing about something having a good ol’ time. there was a man being dragging along by an adorable little girl just inside – we were already laughing so we smiled at him and he smiled at us and it took us all a minute to put two and two together and realize who we all were….

Since you’ll never guess in a million years who it was I’ll tell you….

It was the PEDOPHILE!! (my mother’s ex) as soon as me and my sister got to the ticket counter our jaws dropped… we couldn’t believe he was there!! J said ‘this is the last place I would have expected to run into him’ then she looked around at all the kids and joked ‘haaa maybe it’s not so odd after all’

and of course we could see him from where our seats were…. it didn’t interfere with us having a good time but it WAS a little weird. I mean that is the longest I’ve been in the same room with him since I was 14 or so!!

I kept thinking as I saw him sitting there smiling through the performance ‘is he smiling because he’s having a good time at a play with his family, or because he’s in a room full of small children?’

When I got home and told Sam, he said ‘HA! a place like that is probably like a titty bar to him!!’ – which is exactly what I was thinking while we were there!! haaaa – disturbing an idea as that is, it’s probably true!!

Anyway enough about that crap – it’s a downer on what was otherwise a perfectly nice day!! I just felt like talking about it for a minute.

The play was cute, they kept forgetting their lines but it was still adorable!! they had the cutest costumes and there was one girl there that I predict will one day be a huge star!! hehehe too bad I don’t know her name!!

all in all in spite of running into the ghost of christmas past, it was a really nice day!!

thank God it’s over!! for another year anyway....

Sunday morning Sam went hunting one last time for the season, he said he’d be home by 3 but didn’t end up getting home until closer to 7 or 8!! He DID call to tell me that he’d be late though so I didn’t worry. (the story of that is another whole post in itself which I'll save for tomorrow) but once I know he’s out of the woods it’s like I can FINALLY relax ya know?

When he got home he told me a story about a kid a couple towns over who was shot and killed the day before in a hunting accident…. We were both glad I hadn’t heard about that sooner!!!!

I HATE hunting season!!! I wanted to avoid getting on my soap box about hunting and how I wish people would learn to be more self sufficient and live off the land more. That is truly how I feel!! but on the other hand if I had my way, as much as I like venison AND not getting my meat at the supermarket I’d much rather he didn’t hunt!! For purely selfish reasons…. The thought of him risking his life so that we can have meat in the freezer causes me a LOT of anxiety!!

But I know he loves it so I just have to learn to deal with it hehehe

His argument? He has a better chance of being killed in a car accident on the way to the supermarket than he does hunting. Statistically I’m sure that’s true…. but it’s like the plane vs. car argument

Yes you have a better chance of getting in a car crash than a plane crash – but people survive car crashes every day – how many people survive when a plane crashes?

People are NOT driving around in their cars all pumped up intending to kill something!!!

Every person in the woods during hunting season has a gun in their hand and the intent to kill – of course they don’t intend to kill another person… but when people are pointing loaded guns, shit happens!! If people intended for accidents to happen, they wouldn’t be accidents!!

From what I understand, this kid who was killed the other day was in a situation like this….

hunter#1……..deer…….hunter#2

hunter #1 shoots at deer – deer takes off – bullet misses deer and hits hunter #2 – whom #1 couldn’t see because the deer was obstructing his view.

This scenario is EXACTLY what I bring up to Sam every year!!! of course you’re all as safe as can be (‘as can be’ being the key part!) but no amount of orange clothing makes you visible through a solid object such as a deer!!

To me… the risk WAY outweighs the reward!!! I would personally rather join the masses and buy my meat from ‘the devil’ than have my husband risk his life to fill our freezer.

I’m grateful that he has this skill and interest in the event that we’re ever in a survival situation… but until then I’d rather take my chances with the factory cows and growth hormones!! call me evil – I don’t care!! this is MY blog and I’ll say what I want hehehe

Sam is free to post his rebuttal either here or on his own blog
Ok enough about THAT – I did NOT intend to ramble on about hunting!!

HO HO HO

everyone keeps saying what a bleak Christmas it’s gonna be this year. my mother had been out of work for over a year. She finally has a job now but it doesn’t pay very well, she’s lucky if it covers her bills at the end of the month. so she’s down because she can’t get anyone anything for Christmas.

My sister had some money saved up to get Emmy Loo stuff from Santa and then her car died so she ended up having to use that money to get another car. She asked me if she could put about $130 worth of stuff on our credit card but if she doesn’t have the cash to cover it I can’t do that!! I wish I could but we're just not in that kind of position finacially.

I had planned to make stuff for the two kids in the family…. for Emmy I planned to make a doll with a blanket and pillow with A B C’s and numbers, Velcro, buttons, laces etc. to help her learn those things.

And for DJ (Sam’s sisters 2 year old) I planned to make a wooden wagon type thing with his name on it and fill it with a bunch of toy cars and trucks and stuff.

But of course time got away from me so those things were out!

Instead we went shopping yesterday and got each of the kids some duplo blocks, crayons, play doh, stuff like that. we spent about $40 per kid which is really probably more than we could afford. But Sam had been saving up some money for something he’s been wanting for a while – he’ll just have to wait a little while longer (or hope for some really great tips within the next week or so) hehehe

but could he BE more of a sweetheart? putting his stuff aside so that the kids have something to open on Christmas morning? (I mean I don’t really worry so much about DJ, he has a HUGE family on his father’s side! but Emmy is stuck with my pathetic family hehehe) anyway I have to make sure I do something extra nice for Sam :)

anyway I know it's not about the presents but still - I can't stand the thought of a kid with nothing under the tree!! so now at least there'll be a little something for her to open.... and I get to wrap a whole bunch of stuff and keep it under my tree until christmas woo hoo!!

let see.... have I rambled on enough yet?

I can hear the crickets as the place empties out.... but if anyone managed to stick around till the end of this super long post here is your reward

a small slice of actual entertainment!! I know some of you will get a particular kick out of THIS although I'm sure you've seen it before (make sure you have your sound on)

tweet tweet....

Well guess what? I don’t feel so hot!! I have swollen glands and I just feel generally worn out and a little sinusy.... last night I slept for close to 12 hours so I must be fighting something.... keep your fingers crossed that I don't get something really yucky ok?

That’s it, aside from grocery shopping today or tomorrow I’m NOT leaving my house again until christmas unless it’s absolutely necessary!! hehehe - I have to kick this bug in the ass before it kicks me!! and I refuse to miss seeing our families for the holiday!!

Anyway I feel like I need to cram 4 days worth of posts into one because we’re taking our computer in to have some work done tomorrow and I have NO idea when we’ll get it back – hopefully it will be a same day procedure but if not I may not be able to get back here again until next Monday!! but I'll try to resist rambling on.... I have a story to tell about yesterday but I'm not in the mood right now so....

I mentioned the other day that if I was able to borrow the camera that I’d try to get a picture of the bird feeder I made last weekend so here it is:



I couldn't take bird feeder pictures without taking pictures of my cute little birdy friends too could I?

so here are a few fuzzy pictures of them.... it's not easy getting good pictures of birds, they move around A LOT!!







for some reason they're taking forever to load on my end which is REALLY odd for me since everything usually moves at lightening fast speed here - so if they don't load for you say so and I'll try to figure out why

anyway.... I seem to mention my birdies a lot so I thought I'd show you a few of them.... the feeders are right outside my kitchen window so the birds entertain me while I'm standing there doing dishes, making dinner and all that kind of stuff.

it's nice... they make me smile anyway hehehe
life is GOOD!!!!

munch munch munch....

every week or so my sister drops her memory do-dad off here so I can wipe the pictures off of it – she says it’s so that she’ll have back ups of all her pictures but I think it’s because she thinks (knows) if I have all the pictures of my niece that I’ll wind up making her a scrap book again like I did for her birthday last year.

it FINALLY occurred to me that if she’s dropping the memory thingy off she might as well leave the camera with it…. so today that’s exactly what she did!!

can you guess what I’ve been doing for the last hour? hehehe

I know it’s Saturday and nobody is around but I just had to pop in here and post at least ONE of the pictures

so here what’s left of the CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I made yesterday….



mmm mmmm yummy!! and I’ve been real good too…. I only ate a really little bit of the cookie dough and I’ve only had a few of the cookies!! But I figured it wouldn’t be fair to tell you guys I was baking cookies and not at least share some of them with you hehehe

don’t eat them all at once!!

winter wonderland....

Now I REALLY wish I had a digital camera – it is SO beautiful outside this morning!! we’ll have to dig into the photo albums and settle for a picture from my grandparents back yard when I was a kid....

when I woke up at 6 (thank you mexican chick!! grrrr) there was about 5 inches of fluffy snow and it was still coming down HARD!!

weather.com says we’ll end up with 4-7 inches but it looks like we have about 10 now and it’s still coming down pretty good…. it’s about 2 inches from the point where we won’t be able to see the picnic table benches anymore!! I half wished Sam would have gotten a snow day from work so that we could have made a snowman!! But it’s not really good snowman type snow anyway :(

I was on the phone with Natalie and Spaz (her 5 year old son) is so excited he can hardly stand it!! he’s running around looking for his hat and his mittens, ready to run out in his pajamas with his sled!! hehehe

Remember when snow was that exciting? Remember when you had the energy to run out and play in it for hours… even though your hands and feet were numb!! You’d make snow balls and snow men and snow forts and have snow wars and then you’d go sledding and you’d ZOOM down the biggest hill you could find and have no problem running back up to the top to do it again… and again…. and again!! and when you needed a break you’d flop down and make snow angels…. we'd get up extra early and listen to the snow closings and delays waiting and hoping to hear our school!! a friend would call and say they heard it on X station but you were listening to Y - there was always confusion - is there school or isn't there - of course there almost always was!!

We lived (still do actually) in a really small town and the only people who ever drove on the road we grew up on were the people that lived there. when we were kids schools did not close as often as they seem to now and I remember one particularly snowy day my sister and a girl down the road built a HUGE snow bank in the middle of the road – they had it all planned out…. the bus could surely never get through it and there was just NO way it could possibly turn around – therefore we wouldn’t have to go to school!!

great plan right?

didn’t work… those busses would plow through Hands Across America in order to get us kids to school… they were worse than the postal service!! rain, sleet, cow in the street – they didn’t care!! PLOW on they’d say – we need our state aid!!

and so there we’d be bundled like that kid in A Christmas Story… unable to move our arms…. by the time we all managed to get out of our mittens, boots, plastic baggies to extra protect our feet, scarf, coat, snow suit, sweaters, extra pair of pants etc. it was time to put it all back on and go home again!! hehehe

but we didn't care... it was SNOWY and to us that meant FUN!!

now we look out the window and say WOW it sure is beautiful!! I can't believe I have to shovel this shit!! we still get up extra early but it's not in the hopes of getting the day off... it's so that we can clean the car off and shovel the driveway and hope by some freak chance to get to work on time!! and without skidding off into a ditch hehehe we bundle up in scarves and gloves but not to keep from getting wet or freezing to death.... NO we do it because if we don't our necks will get stiff and our fingers won't work!! and if we drop to the ground it's not to make a snow angel.... it's probably because we slipped on the ice and can't find our keys... either that or we're having a heart attack from all that shoveling!!

but I don't care I still LOVE snow!! as long as Sam gets to and from work in one piece I'm fine with it - let it snow... let it snow.... let it snow :)

it's noon now (I've been coming back to writing this off & on all morning) looks like the snow has stopped - my trusty ruler tells me that we got about 11 - 12 inches altogether - although I'm sure the weather man will say it was far less - they did after all say we'd only get 4-7 after we already had at least 8 or 9!! so what does he know? hehehe

I think I'm gonna go make a batch of chocolate chip cookies to surprise Sam with tonight (they're his favorite!!) - I dunno.... it just seems like a good day to bake!! :)

if I don't get back in the next day or two (hopefully it won't be because I've fallen in the snow and can't get up) hehehe - have a GREAT weekend!!

No Habla Español….

Dear Mexican(?) chick who called our house at 6am,

Here’s a little tip: if you’re going to be calling people before the sun comes up – make sure you have the RIGHT fucking NUMBER!!!!!

Sincerely, Sleepless in Kittyville

greedy kitty....

it’s very hard to concentrate on trying to write the worlds most boring blog when you’re almost pissing yourself!! so I was sitting here minding my own business chatting with Brian and trying to pound out this post. I was telling him about one of my favorite books EVER…. James Lilek’s Gallery of Regrettable Foods and how every year I ask for it for christmas and every year I never get it!! :(

when he sends me this link and I couldn’t stop laughing!!
I have a thing for those disgusting looking little recipe booklets from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s – I have a whole bunch of them in piles falling off my kitchen shelves and the captions these people put to them just make life worth living!!

anyway enough of that… on with coma inducing post number 146

I may have given the wrong impression with my big spiel about christmas and giving and all that (what christmas means to me parts one, two & three) – I stand by what I said but don’t get me wrong… I wasn’t saying that people shouldn’t give eachother things (especially if I’M the one on the receiving end!) I just think they should put more THOUGHT into the things that they give!!

Think about me… errr the person you’re shopping for, their situation, what they like, who they are! don’t just buy them a chia pet or a santa shaped cookie jar just for the sake of giving them SOMETHING!

I know ‘it’s the thought that counts’ but think about that – what does it mean?

Because I’m sorry but if it’s the thought that counts what does it mean when it’s obvious that NO thought went into it at all?

I know people are still going to buy eachother gifts and as long as that’s true the other side of me wants IN!! you already read about the giving kitty, the one who wants to make sure poor little boys and girls who live in shelters or tarpaper shacks have a merry christmas but now it’s time to meet greedy kitty, the one who wants STUFF!!

I was thinking… so there’s no confusion or hurt feelings and most of all to stop the senseless purchasing of another Chia head, clapper or Presto Pizza Pizzazz

because I know you are all very eager to buy me things, RIGHT?!?! and so that none of you get me cheap cans of hairspray from the dollar store or a lime green sweater that’s 3 sizes too small and makes my boobs look like they're being taped flat – I thought I’d post a list of all the things I WANT for Christmas… or Chanukah? Kwanza? national give kitty STUFF day? - whatever lights your fire.... so here goes:

a digital camera - how else will I be able to add boring visuals to my boring posts?

a tv for the bedroom – because I need to absorb random sitcom trivia in my sleep!!

a new pair of acorn slippers – because my old ones are dangerously close to becoming fluffy flip-flops!

the star wars trilogy – because the spacey sounds help me sleep hehehe

beatles ~ abbey road – because our old copy vanished and every year I ask for it and every year I NEVER get it!!

a night with Dave Grohl – well damn look at him!!



need I say more?

the gallery of regrettable foods – because it’s the FUNNIEST coffee table book ever written!! (until I finally get around to writing MINE anyway)

the PostSecret book – because every week they post MY secrets and I’ve never even sent one in!!

HappyDays the complete first season - because they haven’t put out the rest of the seasons yet!

All in the Family seasons 1-5 ~ because I’m on a quest to have all my favorite tv shows at my fingertips

kitchen aid grater/slicer do-dad - because I HATE grating cheese!! that’s all I want it for – a fancy dancey $50 cheese grater!! hehehe

new CARPET for cryin' out loud - it looks like a million tiny animals had a virus and then exploded all over our floor!!

a new bathroom floor - because colonies of grimy creatures are forming under the tile and I'm afraid they're going to take over and kick us out!!

(this is one of those instances where you should all consider yourselves lucky I don’t have a digital camera - YET! because trust me you do NOT want to see the sad condition the previous tenants left our floors in!!)

CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gooey yummy melty delicious CHOCOLATE!!!!

mmmm ok that’s pretty much it…. I think!!

ok everyone... in the immortal words of Wilma & Betty....

CHARRRRRRRRRRGE IT!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

*wringing hands*

ahh now all I have to do is keep an eye on my mailbox and wait for all my gifts to come pouring in ~ mwahahahahaaaa

weekend update #372

so I haven’t been around much for a few days – I’ve actually been participating in life outside of here…. such as it is hehehe

I spent most of the day Saturday putting up my Charlie Brown christmas tree…. ok so maybe that’s a little harsh. The one that we had before this one was seriously Charlie Brownish!! It just looks puny because we have such HIGH ceilings!!

I almost had Sam ready to get me a REAL tree this year then somehow I screwed it all up : (

Anyway here’s a picture from last year….

There are lots of OLD glass balls that used to be my grandmas - my mother said they hung them on their trees when she was a kid, and there are a bunch from when I was a kid.... if you look closely you can see cookie monster and oscar the grouch - ernie & bert are on there somewhere too!!

We have a weird thing about the tree - we don't buy anything new for it (after christmas last year we bought new lights) but otherwise we try to keep it all old stuff or handmade or ornaments we get as gifts - last year we got a cute little angel from Sam's grandma!! I did buy the star though... at a yard sale for a buck!! hehehe

sitting on the floor there is my JINGLE PIG - once upon a time I collected pigs - if you've ever collected anything like that you know how people from all over get you EVERY related item!! one year for christmas Sam's father got me that pig - when you squeeze his hoof he OINKS jingle bells!! it is by far my very favorite piggy and one of the very few that I still have!!

every year I stick him under the tree so we always have a little piece of Sam's father with us for christmas!!

anyway the tree looks pretty much the same this year only it has an extra string of lights and we haven’t gotten around to making our cranberry and popcorn strings yet – and last year I never got to gather pine cones for it – I like to go out when all the pine cones are falling and gather them up. I hang some smaller ones on the tree and use some bigger ones to make peanut butter bird feeder thingies.

I know I’m a dork!!

Anyway I have a little tree trimming ritual…. first I light a cone of paine’s balsam fir incense - me and my sister each have a little pewter box full of them that belonged to our grandmother. It has sentimental value for us, that smell just brings us back to christmas when we were little kids. It’s true (for me anyway) certain smells are powerful at inducing memories!!

Then I pop in the muppet christmas carol (because it’s really the only christmas movie I own) – I need to get into full christmas mode hehehe

By the time the movie is over I usually have the tree all situated and the lights on – hey I work S L O W hehehe I’m like pooh bear…. I usually have to take a break in the middle for a snack ya know!! decorating is hungry work!!

When Sam got home he was happy I had done it…. I guess he was feeling christmasy after driving home and seeing all the people’s lights and stuff.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow so we got lazy and decided to stay in for the day and enjoy the peace and quiet. I finished making a bird feeder I started months ago… I’m silly like that – I start a project and am all gung ho and then BOOM I just drop it and go back to it sometime in the future.

It came out nice… if my sister stops by today like she said, I’ll see if I can use her camera to get a picture of it. I painted it this pale greenish color with little whiteish pink flowers and vines

I know you’re gonna start thinking I’m the crazy bird lady so I’ll shut up about feeding the birds

Later on we watched Christmas Vacation - now Sam has decided that he wants to have a Griswold light show and do our whole house with 25,000 twinkle lights or something!!!

Later we played monopoly… I can NEVER get him to play that with me which is why I have my own electronic monopoly game…. so I can play with myself haaaa

I sometimes have a hard time playing with him because I feel guilty buying something I know he wants… crazy right? I apologize for doing something that will screw him over. This time I actually said I was having a hard time because I KNOW I could so easily kick his ass!!

He told me to play to win because if I’m not he’d rather not play

Welllllll OK!!

So what happens?

He completely wiped the floor with me!!!! at one point all I had was singles and he leaned over to get his $200 for passing go and said ‘there are no more hundreds in the bank’

haaaa well that’s nice because I have NONE!!!!! That means you have them ALL!!

BASTARD!!! hehehe

Now I wanna play again!! hehehe anyway it was fun!! and it was nice to just stay home and veg

Yesterday we went out and did our TOYS FOR TOTS shopping…. if you didn’t read my last post, what are you waiting for? do it now!! hehehe

We spent $25 and got 4 games

an electronic handheld Yahtzee (one of MY favorite toys which I play ALL the time!!) – UNO – and a couple similar games which I can’t think of the names of right now – nothing fancy but it’s the thought that counts right?

I like to try to get things for the older kids that are good for a boy or a girl, and stuff that they can easily carry around because a lot of those kids are in kind of nomadic situations. It’s hard when you don’t know WHO you’re buying for, but I feel good about our choices.

anyway it was a pretty nice weekend, quiet and productive

I hope yours was as good!!

what christmas means to me.... part three (the final chapter)

A couple years ago I was watching the King of Queens the two main characters, Doug and Carrie were sitting on the couch opening up all their loot only stopping to look at the expensive stuff. They got to one gift, took off the lid and in unison grumbled ‘homemade cookies’ …. ‘cheapos’ or something like that.

I thought, is this how people REALLY feel?? If you don’t give them something expensive they don’t give a shit? Not only do they not care but they think you’re a cheapo?

This was disturbing to me… and not because I primarily give everyone I know homemade cookies every year hehehe I seriously feel like if that’s how you feel about the cookies I made you then I wish you’d tell me because I put A LOT of work and thought into what to make and for who and if you are that kind of person I’d like to know because I’d rather not waste my time!!

Fortunately the people in my life aren’t like Doug and Carrie – I think they’d like to draw blood if I showed up without their cookies – for as much as I complain about the people in our family I’m grateful for them being… I dunno…. simple folk? that sounds terrible but I guess that’s what it comes down to.

I say to myself that was a TV show – that people aren’t ALL concerned about MORE MORE MORE but then you hear stories like the cabbage patch massacre and you go out and see the way people are this time of year – or even talk to people I know are more ‘simple folk’ who KNOW that this is NOT what it’s supposed to be all about yet they get all tweaked over not having enough money or time to get MORE MORE MORE!!

And I’m MORE and MORE grateful for a simple little tradition that we started that makes us float through this time of year without so many of those concerns.

We used to go nuts trying to figure out what to get everyone, how, when – etc.
Standing on lines, waiting in traffic…. Wondering if they already have that or if they have a use for it. the answer was almost always NO they don’t need ANY more crap!! So we made a change….

before our sisters were kind enough to add the joy of CHILDREN back into our holidays – we were bummed that there was nobody to get fun stuff like toys for…. then one day we saw a sign for Toys for Tots!! and a light bulb went on that changed the way we do things!!

Now every year instead of getting all the people on our lists MORE crap that they don’t need we make them things, cookies usually and they each get a card saying that a donation was made to either toys for tots or the local food banks with the money we would have used to get them more crap that they don’t need

This takes care of our desire to give them SOMETHING but also takes care of someone who otherwise might not have had ANYTHING at all.

We also get to take care of that tiny little Christmas shopping bug…. We pick out a few good toys (usually for the older kids who we always hear are overlooked)

And then when we’re out doing our weekly grocery shopping we pick out a bunch of good stuff to donate to the food banks

It just seems silly to us to spend time and money adding to the junk people are gonna stuff in their closets when there are so many people out there who have NOTHING – and I mean N O T H I N G!!

Through some people close to me this year I’ve gotten a chance to see what the food banks are handing out and it just makes me wish we could do more.

A couple times in the past we were hooked up with local families to sponsor and managed to get a bunch of people involved, making sure the kids had some toys and that they had good food for dinner. That was cool because we knew we were getting what that particular family needed and could use!

Anyway I know this isn’t for everyone but it makes us feel a little better about things in our little corner of the world…. It helps bring back a little bit of what christmas used to feel like ya know? the warmth and the smiles…. and just the good feelings I guess

So now instead of christmas being about hunting down bargains, standing in line, eating fast food because we’re too busy to cook, hearing car horns and being stuck in traffic and spending days wrapping presents for people who couldn’t care less….

christmas in kittyville is about baking cookies, watching A Christmas Story and drinking cocoa while we string popcorn and cranberries for our tree, it’s about being together and helping people who are less fortunate than us!!

As far as for eachother, we each have a stocking and a small allowance, and we get eachother stuff we wouldn’t normally buy for ourselves… which is easy because I almost never buy myself anything!! and really neither does Sam.

I usually get him cd’s and he usually gets me dvd’s – and if possible we try to get them used off of ebay or at flea markets or yard sales.

I know this probably sounds crazy to some people but it works for us….

and I'm happy to say, I no longer have bad feelings about Christmas, I don’t get depressed – and when I start hearing christmas music I smile and get excited just like when I was a kid!!

it's really really nice!!

now playing on the videotron: David Bowie & Bing Crosby ~ Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy