halloween meme...

I don't have much to say this week - I have a bit of the blogging blahs - besides you know I can't resist a meme!! so here ya go...

1. What's the scariest movie you've ever seen?
I’m pretty well desensitized to ‘scary’ movies – although I was reminded recently that I’m STILL freaked out by JAWS… seriously ANY time I go swimming (even in a pool) if I think about it I’ll be sure a shark is after me!!

2. What was your favorite halloween costume from childhood? when I was a kid I always wanted to be something that had to be created… and my mother was NOT very good with a needle and thread!! most of my costumes fell apart before I even got out the door – so I’ll have to go with the KOOKY SPOOK

3. what was your least favorite halloween costume? anything that required a headband!! (like to create cat ears or horns) I CAN’T STAND wearing headbands!!

4. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your fantasy halloween costume be? actually there is one thing I’ve been dying to do for years but money isn’t the object so much as I’m just not right for the part – I’ve always wanted to dress up as Lil from twin peaks FWWM

but I’m a bit too round =(

5. When was the last time you went trick or treating? way too long ago… people don’t give candy to creepy 30-somethings knocking on their door

6. What's your favorite halloween candy? the one thing I almost never eat any other time of year is almond joy… second is probably butterfinger

7. what is your least favorite halloween candy? totally a tie between dum dum pops, sugar daddy’s and bit o’ honey – GAG!!

8. have you ever gone out egging, TPing or other halloween mischief? of course!!

9. how do you feel about graveyards? LOVE them – particularly really old ones where nobody really goes anymore… if I lived within walking distance of one I’d probably spend a lot of time there!! they’re great places to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet!!

10. Tell us about a scary nightmare you had. I don’t really remember my dreams – I used to have a recurring dream that I wasn’t able to stay on the ground… I just started kinda floating away and I would keep grabbing onto anything I could find to keep me from floating away… chair legs, tables, columns – but I’d always keep finding myself detached and floating again afraid I’d drift away and never be able to get down again

I also have bouts of sleep paralysis (or at least I hope that’s what it is) where I’m unable to move or speak and usually hallucinating… but I’m terrified and trying desperately get Sam’s attention – that is always pretty damn scary!!

11. What is your supernatural fear? not sure I really have one… although I am a little creeped out by the idea of spirits being all around us

12. What is your creepy-crawly fear?
SPIDERS baby… it’s gotta be spiders!! they’re silent, lightening fast and out for blood!!

13. Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go bump in the night. I hear things all the time - hopefully just the house settling (whatever that means) I don’t see things but I do smell them… every now and then I get a whiff of my grandmother’s aloe vera face cream or my great grandmother’s ‘old lady smell’ out of nowhere and for no reason – I keep my house virtually free of fragrances because they bother my migraines so I KNOW there is no reason to be smelling these things… especially since they just come in light whiffs

I also feel things touching me – on my arm or back when I KNOW there’s nothing (that I can see) that could have touched me

14. Would you ever stay in a real haunted house overnight? sure… but not by myself – I would definitely need friends with me!! not the useless, slutty, vindictive, stupid horror movie twits who are going to get us killed though… REAL friends!! hehehe

15. Are you a traditionalist (just a face) Jack-O-Lantern carver, or do you get really creative with your pumpkins? I haven’t carved a pumpkin in a few years – but I’m definitely a traditionalist!! I’m not a big fan of these cookie cutter pumpkin pattern things that have become so popular where you tape a pattern onto the pumpkin and poke holes in it as a guide to cut it in the shape of the headless horseman or whatever – nope I like the old style kind

although I DO appreciate the actual artistic pumpkin carvers out there who do crazy faces without the store bought patterns

16. How much do you decorate your home for Halloween? this is the first year I didn’t get around to decorating in like 10 years… usually I spend way more time and effort decorating or Halloween than I do for Christmas!! not so much the inside of my house as the outside… I put quite a bit of time into it when I can

17. werewolves, witches or vampires? VAMPIRES without a doubt!! – I can’t say I wouldn’t seriously consider being ‘turned’ if given the choice… but only if Sam turned with me hehehe

18. Freddy or Jason? JASON! half my life I waited for a Freddy vs. Jason showdown – and when it FINALLY came it was sooooooooooo LAME!! I would really like to see Jason kick Freddy’s ass and then go up against Michael Myers!!

19. what is your favorite work of horror fiction? well we all know I don’t really read much these days… I think I’d have to say my favorite is still a book I read when I was 11, called ‘the other side’ by Diana Henstell – about a woman who loses two of her children in a fire and afterward, has to try to save her 3^rd child from being lured to ‘the other side’

but it’s probably just my favorite because aside from ghost stories written more for children, it was the first ‘horror’ book I ever read

20. are you afraid of the dark? sometimes I am… usually I’m ok but every now and then I get this weird vibe like someone is behind me and I can’t get back into the light quick enough

21. What do you want on your Tombstone? ummm... pepperoni?

ok now feel free to tag yourselves...

stuff...

well it’s Friday and I’m feeling a bit better… quite a bit actually!! it’s the cold eeze I’m sure – I’d like to hug whoever suggested that to me a while back (I think it was whirly) that stuff is like a miracle or something – it really REALLY does help shorten the duration and lessen the severity of a cold!!

AND I think they’ve done something to make it dissolve quicker than it used to which is nice because it used to really take a LONG time to dissolve… and make your tongue feel funny

this time it didn’t really bother my tongue or make my food taste off

anyway YAY for cold eeze!! I suggest you all get a box (or some other zinc product) to have on hand for the cold season

I’m still a little congested and getting tired easily but I can live with that

AND I haven’t taken so much as ONE cold medication – I did take some tylenol for the achiness I had the first day or so but other than that, NOTHING!!

just a little alkalol spritz and steam to help clear my sinuses

I even managed to make my pesto out of what basil was left after the surprise frost

here’s what I managed to salvage

I combined that with some fresh spinach, garlic, toasted walnuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil and wound up with a pretty good size bowl of delicious nutritious pesto!!

which I packaged all up in neat little baggies for the freezer

only I didn't have my regular bags so I think I have a little more per bag than I'd like - oh well... too much pesto never killed anyone hehehe

now next time I get sick or over the winter on nights when I can't be bothered cooking I can just pull a package out, sauté up some chicken and onions and toss it all together with some pasta and POW dinner is served!! hehehe

how's that for convenience food you don't have to feel guilty about?

let's see - what else is there to say?

I've been loading up on horror movies since I've been sick and trying to rest a bit - with the DVR I've been able to catch so many that I would have otherwise missed... I haven't even had to tap into my own collection so far this month - last night I recorded Halloween 4 & 5 - I also recorded both versions of Psycho AND Psycho IV

tonight I'm scheduled to record the original Carrie (by the way the remake was RIDICULOUS!!)

AMC has been running Hitchcock movies for weeks now - so I also got the Birds and Rear Window

I do like Hitchcock... when I was about 14 one of my best friends bought me a ceramic spider (the cute kind not the scary kind!) with a fluffy kinda puff ball back... when you push on the puff ball it plays the Alfred Hitchcock theme song



cool huh?

well the phone keeps ringing and I can't get anything done so I guess that'll count as a TOTALLY AWESOME VIDEO hehehe

YOU'RE ALL INVITED!!

what: my pity party

where & when: here - now

why: I have a cold... AND my period!!

note: everyone bring your favorite chocolate... or chicken soup

~ had to come back to tell you I was just looking out the kitchen window and saw the SWEETEST thing EVER!! two young deer (probably twins) nuzzling and licking eachother's faces!!

I wish I had a video camera!!

it's like I always say...

the more you have, the more you want! seriously - no sooner did I got my DVR than I discover something else that I MUST have!!

go on CLICK IT I dare ya!!

it's all monster movies ALL the time!! it's got to be the best channel EVER!! I mean what could be better than that??

even though HD service comes free with my cable company... according to the chick I spoke to, I can't get it without an HD tv - I can see not being able to see the picture all fancy and HD-like but I should still be able to access the channels as long as I have an HD box...

I'm still working on figuring out a way to test this theory... but for now I guess I just have to settle for the halloweeny movies I catch on tv and the 50 or so I've recorded on the DVR (have I mentioned how much I LOVE OCTOBER?!)

we've recorded a bunch of old vampire movies, zombie movies, ghost stories and slasher flicks... and I FINALLY recorded the remake of Carrie which I've been wanting to see for a few years now

but today's lineup is: creepshow, children of the corn, and psycho... so far hehehe

I've been seriously slacking around here lately because I just haven't felt right in the head... but this morning has been pretty productive so far so I kinda want to keep rolling with it... I just wanted to pop in here and say SOMETHING

so there ya have it... hey it's better than NOTHING, right? hehehe

ya try to do the right thing and what does it get ya?

ok so I know I’ve mentioned how we’ve been clearing the house of clutter – and how since my yard sale buddy (ohio friend) moved far far away – I have nobody to sit with for 2-3 days in order to sell our stuff so we’ve been putting all our unwanted ‘clutter’ out on a table in our driveway for people to take... I mentioned this a while back, right?

one person’s trash being another person’s treasure, if someone has a use for it I’d rather see them get it than have it wind up as more landfill – basically the same philosophy as freecycle – only there’s A LOT of traffic going by our house (probably more than would ever see an add in our local freecycle community) – plus it’s just less work than fielding emails and making appointments for people to come pick stuff up sooooo

don’t get me wrong – if we didn’t have so much traffic going by I would absolutely post our stuff on freecycle – we just don’t happen to need to where we live

anyway… as I said we put the stuff on a table rather than the usual ‘free pile’ out by the mailbox or end of the driveway because well… we don’t have an end of the driveway – our parking area is more of a small ‘lot’ parallel to the road – plus people are always pulling off the road out here and I wouldn’t want the stuff getting run over

plus this way we can easily protect it from the weather

the table we use is an old picnic table… not in great shape but good enough to use – I’ve eaten at it many times and also use it when I’m sorting socks and whatnot for the clothes line

when we use this table for our free stuff we ALWAYS staple gun a sign to the table that says


it’s always VERY clear and VERY visible even when you’re driving past it at 60 MPH

yet still some fuck wad somehow got it in their head that it was OK to take off with our table this weekend!!

and the best part is… I was home!! somehow some asshole (more likely TWO assholes actually) pulled into our driveway put our picnic table in the back of a truck (I assume... I can't imagine they took the time to strap it to a car without me noticing) and drove off… talk about BALLS!!

at first I thought ok we had just had rain for about a week – MAYBE the sign came loose and fell off (even though I KNOW it was attached the evening before but still… it was a small possibility)

if the sign was not on the table then I could ALMOST see someone remembering the FREE part of the sign and thinking the table was also free… or something like that… MAYBE

but the sign is nowhere to be found either so since I know it was attached 12 hours earlier and there had been no rain or wind – I assume it was still attached

so then I thought MAYBE someone couldn’t read and assumed ‘ah it’s out here somewhat near the road… it must be free’

but if that was the case… wouldn’t you knock on the door and try to ask someone... just to be sure??

I was also thinking it might have been one of the many Spanish speaking people around here… maybe they don’t know how to read English so maybe the part in parentheses was lost on them – but everyone understand the word FREE, right? so maybe they thought it was free

but even still wouldn’t you try to get someone to translate before you just take off with something?? or at least knock on the door and try to ask?

Sam and my mother both think I should make a sign to hang outside asking whoever took it to return it

but I think if they took it because they couldn’t read, then they won’t be able to read this sign either… and if they took it regardless of what the sign said… then they don’t care anyway so they’re not going to return it – so I don’t really see the point

what do you think?

p.s. we got two very unexpected frosts this weekend that wiped out the majority of my basil… so I think we can forget about any great big pesto chicken dinner parties =(

on the plus side, Sam and I had a very nice relaxing weekend together - just the two us!! we went for a short walk (short because I hurt my ankle and couldn't handle the hills) - we watched movies and caught up on some recorded shows that have been backing up on the DVR (boy it sure doesn't take long for the shows to pile up huh?) hehehe

we basically did absolutely NOTHING but hang out and enjoy eachother's company - it was GREAT!!

I've fallen and I can't get up!

I know I’ve mentioned Ohio friend before - we’ve been friends since kindergarten and aside from a few periods where we were either too busy or just drifted apart for a bit (you know how teenage girls can be) we’ve talked pretty much every day since we were like 12 years old

I guess to make up for times when we weren’t in touch there are days where we might talk 3 or 4 or even 5 times – and not quick conversations either… we usually talk for at least an hour every day – sometimes more

I was worried that would change when she moved to Ohio last year but thankfully it doesn’t seem to matter… in fact we might even talk MORE now because we see eachother less

once upon a time a conversation between us would consist of gossip about who made out with who (eventually who slept with who) or what fun things we’d be doing that night or weekend

at some point the conversations started being about who’s getting married or who’s having a baby

and eventually who’s getting divorced…

most of our daily conversations take place in the morning – we do chores while we chat – I call her my dish buddy because I do the dishes every morning while I talk to her… it helps pass the time and make that chore (the one chore I truly dislike) a little more bearable hehehe

these days we mostly just talk about daily life – great deals we got at discount stores and yard sales - she has a huge Halloween party every year and before she moved I helped her a lot with the food and stuff… now that she moved away and Halloween is coming she's been calling me a lot for ideas, advice and opinions about some kooky shit she's discovered about other parents (another post in itself)

I also hear a lot about what her kids are up to, what’s going on in her extended family, we complain to eachother about how our husbands STILL can’t seem to find the hamper, I bitch about living so close to my mother… she bitches about living WITH her mother in law - you get the picture

our conversations usually end somewhere along the lines of us telling eachother what we plan to do with the rest of the day – usually laundry, shopping and other assorted household chores and errands – fun right? we’re very exciting girls!!

so as I sit here writing this, listening to the squawking ladies of The View on the tv behind me (again, a whole ‘nother post in itself!!) should I be surprised that when we asked eachother this morning about our plans for the rest of the day – she told me she has her Thursday night quilting class and I reported my weekly trip to the chiropractor??

guess it won't be long now before our phone calls consist of all the latest gossip about who won what at BINGO and which one of us got the best price on their life alert badge

if things don't change I'll have to be a hula girl for halloween...

anyone who says there’s no such thing as global warming must not live in or around kittyville!! I don’t know WHAT has been going on here but if I thought September was freakishly warm… October is even more so!!

today is October 9th and so far I don’t think there has been one day where it was cooler than 85º!! if there was it was raining and that is the only thing that was keeping the temp down… not only has it been VERY warm but it’s also been suffocatingly humid

by now we all know that October is my very favorite month of the year… and it’s been very hard for me to get into the whole spirit of it when it’s THIS warm…

but I’m trying not to complain

everyone is sure we’re going to pay for the warmth and that any day now it’s going to drop down into the 30’s or something haaaa – I don’t want THAT either hehehe yes I AM a picky little bitch!! but with the cost of propane I’m happy to not need heat just yet!!

although right now it would be nice to be able to go outside and stay there long enough to put out my Halloween decorations (which have been sitting in the middle of my living room for over a week now) but it’s just too warm!!

I wonder how people in warm climates deal with this stuff… I just CAN’T get into the whole fall thing when I’m wearing sandals and sweating

a couple days ago… Saturday I think it was, we were out and about…

[we went to Barnes & Noble to read for a bit (one of our favorite lazy day activities) and to this little geeky game/comic book store that sells used dvds – we FINALLY completed our lord of the rings trilogy with Return of the King – we also got Revenge of the Sith, the Salton Sea, the Cell, Fists of Fury and the Chinese Connection – all for something like $24 woo hoo!!]

on the way home there were a bunch of kids in bathing suits splashing around on a slip n’ slide!!

in OCTOBER!!

I’m tellin’ ya… it's NOT normal!! and I DON’T like it!!

I'm also getting bored of summer food!! I want to put the grill away and roast a chicken or make some stew - I miss my cold weather comfort food... biscuits - gravy - stuffing - acorn squash - chicken soup - bracciole - shepherds pie - pot roast - spaghetti & meatballs

you get the picture...

one can only eat so many grilled chicken salads... ya know?

it looks like things might be changing though - yesterday morning we started getting thunderstorms… also NOT normal for October – but I’m not complaining about that hehehe I DO love thunderstorms AND it does kinda help with getting into the whole halloweeny mood – it also seems to have helped cool things off a bit – in fact we went from a record high yesterday of 88º to I believe the forecast says it’s supposed to be 67º today… so that is more normal at least – I think I’ll spend the day watching horror movies and waiting for the rain to stop so that I can get out there and do my decorating

keep your fingers crossed hehehe

~ don't I sound like a whiny brat? I'm tired of summer food I want winter food!! - I'm tired of AC and sandals - bring on the boots and sweaters

my gratitude for the day: that THESE are my biggest complaints

a peck of pickled peppers… or something like that

so we have a vegetable garden… when I say we I mean Sam because if it was up to me I’m sure I wouldn’t bother. I have a black thumb and as far as I know there is no cure for that… which is strange considering I took two years worth of horticulture classes instead of graduating high school like a normal kid

anyway… assuming I would have a garden (because we do) if it was up to me all it would really consist of is tomatoes and herbs because over the years I’ve discovered that out of everything we plant, tomatoes and herbs are what I use the most of – I make a lot of stuff with fresh tomatoes over the summer (tomato paninis, tomato tarts, fresh tomato and roasted veggie sauces for pasta etc.)

every year when it’s getting to be time to figure out what we should plant Sam always asks me and I always say ‘if it was up to me all we’d plant is tomatoes and herbs’

yet every year we end up with 7 different things… including peppers and squash… half of which never grow because Betty Black Thumb (that’s me) is left in charge of taking care of it – and in a land where zucchini outnumber people 100 to 1, I can’t grow a squash to save my life!! or an eggplant… or a carrot… or a beet for that matter

one thing he wants to plant every year is hot peppers… spicy food gives me migraines so I don’t cook much with hot peppers of any kind – but he insists on planting them anyway… and wouldn’t ya know they are the one thing (besides basil) that I don’t seem to kill

they’re never very productive… just productive enough for me to wonder what the hell I’m going to do with the damn things (since I have no intention of cooking with them) usually I pick them just before they would have gotten hit by frost and they sit on the kitchen counter drying out… I shuffle them back and forth out of my way for a few weeks until eventually I get sick of looking at them and one by one they end up in the garbage – shhh don’t tell Sam!! hehehe
this year he decided to plant cayenne peppers… I cook a decent amount of indian food which usually calls for cayenne of some sort so I agreed cayennes MIGHT be useful but instead of planting seeds or getting a 4 pack of plants… maybe we could just get ONE plant – because cayenne peppers aren’t tiny like habaneros or thai peppers (which is what I think we grew last year) really how many cayenne peppers will we use in one year?

so one plant it was… and boy was one plant enough!! It turns out that cayenne peppers are harder to kill than a cactus or philodendron – I pretty much ignored this thing all summer long and at one point one of the branches got so heavy with peppers that it snapped off!!

Sam brought the broken branch inside and we pulled at least 8 HUGE peppers off of it – which we let dry… and I SWEAR I didn’t throw them out this time but they do seem to have disappeared

which is just as well actually because there were more were they came from… A LOT more!!

ass crack (who happens to be a chef) was here a few weeks ago and I was rolling my eyes telling him the story of how Sam insists on growing peppers every year and every year they never get used because I have no idea what to do with them… he suggested I roast them – I can’t believe I never thought of that because I’m the roasted vegetable queen… I roast EVERYTHING!! if it stands still long enough I’ll roast it!!

so the weather has been screwy here for the last month or so and I never know from one day to the next whether it will be 95º or we’re in danger of a frost – and I was inspired by the guy who’s cookout we went to last week (remember I told you we went to a cookout?) anyway… this guy (aside from his lack of sanitary skills) is like Heloise or something… he grows his own vegetables, makes his own pickles, kills his own meat and makes his own jerky and so on… all the kind of stuff I want to do but can’t seem to be bothered… AND he’s in a WHEEL CHAIR!! if he can get off his ass (so to speak) and do all that stuff SO CAN I!!

but I have to start small you know… I’m not canning preserves or anything (not this week anyway) so the other day I decided it was now or never – I went outside and gathered up all the peppers that were ready to be picked… I started to anyway but then I had to go inside to get a huge bowl to carry them in!!

in the end there were 36 HUGE peppers…



you can’t really tell how big they are from the picture… but most of those peppers are about as big around as my thumb and as long if not longer than my forearm!!

so anyway I removed the seeds which were burning my skin even though I was wearing gloves!! and I roasted them up… and pulverized them with my stick blender… they smelled sooooo yummy!!

and after all that… out of all those HUGE peppers all I would up with was one small sandwich bag full of roasted peppers



can you believe such a thing? hehehe

anyway… up next PESTO!!



and from the looks of it I’ll have enough to feed a family of 40 for at least 2 years!!

another comment turned post...

because I have a hard time keeping things brief I found myself rambling on and on in Amber’s comments about something that she had mentioned in her most recent post… so I decided to post my thoughts here instead… I mean rather than overload her comments with my rambling thoughts… which do ramble on quite rambly

anyway Amber wrote about her son’s wedding and her experience with a table full of people talking about how glad they were that the word ‘obey’ is no longer typically used in wedding vows… and how she felt like she could never get these people to understand her point of view when it comes to obeying your man

and it made me think about how I can’t help but wonder WHY of all the crap spewed over the last 50+ years, this anti 'traditional' male/female thing seems to have stuck so hard

there seriously must have been some powerful shit going around in the 60’s to so quickly and completely reverse the way people thought and did things for centuries!!

history generally shows us that people tend to go along with whatever makes life easier – the wheel, indoor plumbing, electricity, tv dinners, microwaves, take out, cell phones, online shopping

so WHY did women embrace this whole I don’t need no stinkin’ man philosophy? it’s certainly not easier… it’s not natural for most women (I don’t think) it seems like most women want a man they can lean on and rely on to take care of things (if only we would let them)

yet it sure didn’t take long to not only reverse thousands of years of traditional roles... but turn women into insufferable nags and men into cowering wimps with their dicks tucked between their legs… and for people to think something as simple as loving, honoring and obeying a man is a ridiculous and laughable concept… to the point where it seems impossible to get ‘them’ to understand

of course we (women) don’t NEED men… we (people) don’t NEED anyone… we should be able to handle any and all NORMAL situations on our own… we should be able to support ourselves financially, manage our finances and take care of ourselves on a basic level if need be

but having someone there to lean on and to share it all with sure makes life easier and more pleasant

perhaps this is why these women who refuse to give up a single iota of control all seem so fucking miserable!!

if there is one thing that I would kick myself about regarding my own wedding it would be the fact that I specifically requested that the word obey NOT be used in our vows – I don’t even know WHY I requested that…I suppose it was just years of being conditioned that I should not defer to a man – it seems like most of the women I grew up around are convinced that men are incompetent fools who would be lost without women to guide them

as a result I’ve spent a lot of years spinning my wheels and being a miserable shrew and I reckon it’ll take a lot more years to continue to deprogram myself completely and repair the damage that’s been done to my particular relationship because of this way of thinking (mainly assuring him that he IS capable and that I am working at not undermining him… and that I won’t yell at him for stupid shit he’s come to be convinced I’ll give him crap over)

I always knew I was uncomfortable with it – I’ve always hated the general man bashing… and the undermining and nagging and on the occasions where I’ve actually done these things (which is more often than I care to think about) I’ve been ashamed of myself… it made me feel awful inside – the whole ‘men are morons’ mentality made me miserable and was obviously negatively affecting my relationship…

I don’t know when it happened or what caused it but I’m grateful for the fact that I opened my eyes and somehow came to the realization that this way of thinking is wrong (for me at least)

and that I’ve been given a chance to make things right by my self and hopefully my husband too - and to follow what feels right in my heart, rather than to follow some crap I’m bombarded with by society – crap that makes me feel so much LESS in control than actually ‘letting’ my husband ‘wear the pants’ could EVER make me feel!!

weekend update #9307

so Sam helped ass crack move on Saturday – I stayed home and did woman’s work haaaa

we had plans to go to a cookout at the house of a friend of Mr. Disorganized on Sunday and I’m incapable of showing up empty handed so I baked a cake and some cookies to bring

and made pot roast and smashed potatoes for my honey because I knew he’d be hungry after ANOTHER long day of MOVING

and it was a LONG day!!

while they were moving I guess ass crack realized he had a spare cell phone and a family plan so he gave Sam his second phone

now I guess I can’t call him ass crack anymore… or can I?

you know I hate cell phones hehehe

but I was just saying the other day how I want Sam to get one because I don’t like him being on the road all the time with no way for me to contact him directly – I guess I have to get with the times

so for now Sam blasts off into the 20th century with his nifty new phone… which is also a camera and who knows what else

and I have my DVR

we’re like a real live modern couple over here now

I don’t know whether to puke or rejoice – but I will be glad to be able to contact him if I need to

the cookout went alright…

before we went there we stopped by Mr & Mrs D’s house for a bit – they were going to the cookout to so we thought we’d all go together – which is a good thing because I guarantee if we didn’t do that we would have blown the whole cookout off altogether!!

Sam and Mr. D did something out back with their bows for a while and I hung out with Mrs. D – who was just about as thrilled to go to this thing as we were

put it this way – this shindig was taking place at the home of two fat, slovenly (however nice, friendly, seemingly good hearted) single (divorced) men (one of which is in a wheel chair) who share a house and live with their 3 or 4 unruly pre-teen children – so you can imagine how... unsanitary the conditions there might be… take that picture in your head and multiply it by at least 10 and add some fly tape over the sink full of dirty dishes

I would NOT consider myself a snob in any way but some situations are just… not up to my standards, ya know? and normally that attitude would bug me whether it was me thinking it or someone else saying it – but in this situation I was glad to have someone thinking what I was thinking – she was just as concerned about eating there as I was

our only consolation was that it was a cook OUT… over an open flame and hopefully served on disposable plates!! we knew for the most part they were serving food that was alive until it hit the water so as long as it was cooked fully we’d be ok

Sam wasn’t particularly into going either - I remember a time when he actually liked going out and socializing… but I guess that was when we were teenagers and life was one big party… before the majority of his days were taken up by WORK and his free time became a precious thing he feels like he has to make the most of (totally understandable)

anyway any other day our attitudes about this get together might have been different but it seems like we haven’t had one day to really just kinda do nothing together (and I don’t think he’s had 5 minutes to himself to do whatever the hell he wants) in weeks – so all we really wanted to do on Sunday was stay home and relax

and Sam was in a really crabby mood all day!! his back hurt and he had a headache – so we were actually seriously considering just dropping off the cake and cookies and leaving… but we didn’t

once we got there and he had a beer or two he lightened up a bit… as for me? I’m always light haaa – seriously… I’m good as long as he’s good – I was just along for the ride either way… I would have been happy to use one of our headaches as an excuse and leave right away but I was also content to stay for hours if that’s where the night took us

anyway like I said – the food was mostly living up until the guests arrived - they had lobster and TONS of it!! I’ve never seen so much lobster in my life… and I love me some lobster but for some reason it was turning me off… maybe it was the conversation about unsanitary conditions I had with Mrs. D an hour earlier or maybe my tastes have changed and I just don’t love lobster anymore – stranger things have happened… I used to HATE brussels sprouts and now I LOVE them!! so who knows

as I was trying to crack open a claw it attacked me!! giving me a lovely lobster laceration on the end of my thumb!! which meant I was then trying to crack the fucker open with one hand… I managed to eat about half of one but it just wasn’t doing anything for me so I gave up

they also had bundles of clams, mussels, potatoes and corn on the cob – I’m not really a fan of bivalves – although I do like fried clams – these obviously weren’t fried… so I avoided the clams and mussels but ate a couple chunks of potato and a burger which wasn’t very good – it was one of those frozen hamburger patties… I REALLY don’t like frozen hamburger patties!! something happens to the texture of the meat to make it tough and weird and it grosses me out

there was also chicken and venison.... somewhere

it was a rather large group and all the food was served ‘family style’ in large covered foil trays – so it was hard to tell what was where and if you wanted something at the other end of the table you had to ask someone to find it or attempt to get up from the bench (when unless you were on the end you were pretty well crammed in) and walk down to where you thought it was and either tap someone on the shoulder and HOPE they didn’t pick it up for you with their bare hands or you had to lean over them to get it

for the most part they were all family or close enough and were comfortable with eachother touching what they ate – me… not so much - I mean if it was OUR family maybe I wouldn't mind so much... but I don't really know these people

so I stayed put and ate what was near where I sat – which wasn’t much

when I got home I had some leftover pot roast hehehe

anyway… that was our weekend

this morning Sam was grumbling that we should have stayed home yesterday…
I told him that yesterday is over so there’s no point in wishing it had been something different… but in the future we should never leave the house again

he seemed to think that was a good idea