Multi-Tasking

I finally got off my lazy behind and took a shower this morning. And cleaned the shower at the same time.

Shower cleaning is one of my least favorite of my least favorite household chores and I usually put it off as long as possible or make Keith clean it. But, then I feel guilty at making Keith clean it, since after all, he's the only one with a real job around here and he works really hard all day, so the least I could do is clean the shower once in a while. So, I brought the Scrub Free and a sponge in with me and in between shampooing my hair and shaving my legs (that doesn't happen that often, either) I scrub freed that shower.

Lucy had to come and inspect to make sure I did a good job.



I don't think she's all that impressed with my housekeeping skills, and she's wondering why I haven't cleaned her cat box yet this morning instead of wasting my time washing myself with water. What's wrong with using your tongue like we do?



I guess I really should follow up the shower cleaning with a good toilet scrubbing now.

And speaking of showers, can cheap shower gel from China give you a yeast infection? I bought one of those bath gift sets from walmart that was on sale after Christmas (I'm a sucker for those gift sets, even though the stuff inside is crap and you probably should refrain from using bath products from China because God knows what they put in them, and, after all, remember the puppies and kittens they poisoned with contaminated pet food) and was using the shower gel, and son of a gun if I didn't get a yeast infection. I haven't had that itching and burning down there sensation in about ten years, so I'm really wondering what set that off. So, the cheap shower gel got tossed in the trash can since I really don't want to experiment any more to see if that is indeed what gave me the infection.

(It's better now, thanks to whatever that stuff is called that you inject up in there to clear things up)

There's a Recession Going On?

You sure couldn't tell by all the people waiting for a table at Spencer's Restaurant tonight!

We have a weekly date with Spencer's on Thursday nights, because it's TORTILLA SOUP NIGHT! When the day comes that we can't go to Spencer's once a week for dinner, we will know that we have truly been defeated by this economy. This is the one thing that I refuse to give up, and I will go to Spencer's on TORTILLA SOUP NIGHT no matter what!

Maybe everyone else who went to Spencer's tonight feels the same way. If you can't go out to Spencer's for TORTILLA SOUP NIGHT then you might as well just pull the plug right now!

I actually feel good about spending $30.00 once a week on dinner at Spencer's. That $30.00 is helping a locally owned business stay in business and is helping all the hard working waitresses feed their families. If we all stopped going to Spencer's, there would be that many more people in line at the unemployment office.

So, by hook or by crook, even if it means bean burritos or scrambled eggs for dinner the rest of the week, TORTILLA SOUP NIGHT will never die!!

Cutting Back?

Every day more and more people are losing their jobs. Companies that seemed to be strong are laying off thousands. People are even cutting out that morning cup of starbucks coffee so now they are laying off baristas and closing shops. Is anyone safe?

Or is everyone who still has a job afraid to spend any money on anything but the essentials 'just in case'?

We're feeling the effects of this failing economy with my sales on etsy having dropped dramatically these past few months. This January my shop is doing about 1/3 of the normal January business of the past two years. What to do? I'm used to listing a lot of new things each day in an effort to stay ahead of the game here, but I'm starting to feel like it's a losing battle. My fees add up but the sales aren't coming in at the normal speed, so listing seems like a waste of money. But, if I don't list new things, my shop will quickly slide into oblivion and be lost amongst the thousands of other etsy sellers trying to make a buck there. I'm listing more on shophandmade-no fees for listing, but also no buyers buying. I've got my artfire shop up for a flat fee of 7.00 a month, but also, no buyers buying. Sigh...

Do I go get a part time job (within walking distance since we only have one car now?) or do I just ride it out and hope things turn around within the next few months. Are there any part time jobs to be had? Don't think so, but maybe McDonalds is hiring? Ick.

I guess we'll just ride it out and pinch those pennies even tighter. There are no bills that we can cut back on, we don't have cable that we could cancel, or cell phones that we could turn off. I kind of need the internet connection to try and run my business, so that can't be turned off. We are trying to buy smarter at the grocery store, but you know what? No matter how cheap Hamburger Helper gets, it still tastes like crap.

It's the 'always something we need to buy each week' that really cuts into the old budget. Toilet paper (an absolute necessity, no Cheryl Crowing using only one sheet for me!) A cheaper brand of toilet paper? No, sorry, my tender bottom needs its Charmin, thank you very much. Cheaper cat food? Already been there. Make the cats go outside to go poop instead of buying cat litter? No, if they go outside, they get fleas, which gives them worms, which means bigger vet bills in the long run. Have Keith take lunch to work instead of eating out? Already there, he's always brought his own lunch, and we even pack the sandwich in tupperware instead of a plastic bag.

So, we'll just have to hang in there for now, doing our best to not get too discouraged. Keith's job seems pretty recession proof and the company appears to be strong, so we're not too worried about that. We've got a few dollars set aside for emergencies, so it's not like we'll be standing in a soup line anytime soon, and we're not living in a cardboard box yet, so we'll just ride it out and see what happens.

So Long, Farewell, Good-bye

When we traded Keith's truck in on the new car, he was feeling a little nostalgic about his faithful old truck but I really didn't 'get' what he was feeling all that much. After all, it was just an old beat up paint peeling off truck. I just didn't see why he was feeling a little sad at seeing it go.

Until.



Until my car got loaded onto the Pick Your Part tow truck to be taken away forever.

It's very strange seeing your faithful little car going away, never to be seen again.

Yes, but can you PEE in it?

I was just reading in this weeks Time magazine about the snuggie blanket that we've all seen the ads on TV for, and what a cultural phenomenon it's become. Pet Rock, anybody?

The concept is actually a good one, and since over 3 million of these blankies with sleeves have been sold already, a good lucrative concept indeed.

I know I like my blankie when I'm watching TV on a chilly winter evening (too cheap to turn on the heater) and one with sleeves so you can still drink your hot tea and eat your popcorn while keeping your arms warm is a pretty clever idea indeed.



Okay, so you look like a total dork while you're wearing this, but as long as nobody knocks on your front door and you answer in your snuggie, who the heck really cares? My normal TV watching attire is nothing to be proud of as it is, so why not be warm and dorky? Plus, if you buy one YOU GET ONE FREE!! It's a total win win!

But! Can you go to the bathroom while wearing your snuggie or will parts of your snuggie end up dragging in the toilet? That is the true test of worthiness as far as I'm concerned. Those bathrooms get pretty chilly at night what with the tile floors and hard porcelain surfaces and if you have to remove your snuggie to answer nature's call, then what's the point? I'm not going to be the toilet tester here, but I think they'd get even more sales if they added the convenience of toilet going to all the other things that you can do while wearing your snuggie.

Special Gifts for that Special Someone

Stumped as to what to get your honey for Valentine's Day? Don't want to do the traditional but boring cards, candy, flowers? Well, do your shopping online and you can give that special person a gift they will always remember.

Make this the best Valentine's Day ever with fake dog poop hearts!



Or, if one fake dog poop heart just isn't quite special enough, you can say 'I Love You' in fake dog poop!



Brought to you by etsy, of course!

In The News

Last night's news had a story about a study done that shows that the effort to clean up the air in certain cities is paying off in longer life expectancies.

Really? No kidding? Cleaner air means healthier people? How about that!?!

To me, the conclusions of this study is one of those 'duh' moments. OF COURSE cleaner air means healthier longer living people, you don't need to spend millions on a study to figure THAT one out!

Okay, and in other, more heartwarming news last night was the story of Mikey's Hot Dogs. This story is from the KGET channel 17 news site:

*A Bakersfield man is launching his own business, but this entrepreneur isn't your typical CEO.

On Thursday, 43 year old Mikey Gauthier will celebrate the grand opening of his business, Mikey's Hot Dog Stand. Mikey (the name he prefers) has a developmental disability, but that hasn't stopped him from pursuing his dream.

He arrived at the Kern Regional Center two years ago and with very few skills. But after saving his own money, and taking a few courses, he's ready to launch his very own business.

"When I was a little kid I used to watch these guys walk around with hot dog carts," said Mikey. "That inspired me, when I got a little older, got a little bigger to say, well maybe I'll go into business myself.'"

The all star café serves as a training ground for Mikey and many like him. It teaches them how to work in the real world and if they desire, how to start their own business. Everything from counting money to marketing and advertising, was all learned at the center.

Those who work with Mikey say they couldn't be happier to see his dreams finally come true. "He is just an awesome guy and we are so fortunate to see him moving on to his own business," said Tracey Mensch, manager at the cafe.

A partnership through Goodwill helped Mikey get his business started from the ground up. Business coach Michael Gresham helped him with permits and licensing process to get his New York City cart to pass local regulations.

"There are always challenges, but we took it one step at a time," said Gresham. "and did everything we had to do with regulations and Kern environmental to make sure he's doing everything by the book."

"I feel great. I feel real, real good about this. I won't be able to sleep tonight," said Mikey.

In addition to Mikey's training he also received financial assistance from Kern Schools Federal Credit Union and other private donors.*

It was fun watching this story and how excited Mikey was, he has one of those little hot dog carts like you see on street corners in big cities. I don't like hot dogs but the story made me want to go find Mikey's cart and get a hot dog! They invited the public to his ribbon cutting ceremony today over at the Goodwill regional center. See, folks, your donations to Goodwill really do help people!

Twitter?

So, I'm reading in the etsy forums about how twitter helps get you exposure and sales for your etsy shop, but what exactly is the point of twitter?

Apparently you are supposed to tell people what you are doing all the time, like anyone would really even care. You are supposed to tweet by texting things like 'just went to the movies' or 'having lunch now' or whatever. Come on now, does anyone else really need to know what you are doing 24/7 and is anyone's life really all that interesting? I joined twitter for about 5 minutes and then canceled it because I couldn't think of anything to say. Plus, I don't have a cell phone, so I have to be at the computer to tweet.

Here's what my daily tweets would look like:

I'm having my coffee.

I'm cleaning the cat boxes.

Just put a load of laundry in the washer.

Just put a load of laundry in the dryer.

I'm sitting at the computer reading blogs.

Now I'm blogging.

Lunch time! Peanut butter or tuna?

I'm thinking about cleaning the bathroom.

Nah, I'm not going to clean the bathroom today.

I'm vacuuming up cat hair.

Now it's time to clean the cat boxes again.

Dinner time! Peanut butter or tuna?

Wow, TV is so exciting tonight! Biggest Loser or Howie Mandel?!?

See what I mean? I'm sure I'd have plenty of twitterers hanging on my every tweet with that stuff!

Oh, and I sold a necklace to a...well, I guess you could call her a celebrity or famous person (maybe infamous). Without naming names (shhh...) there is a blonde woman singer/actress who's first name begins with C and last name begins with L and who was married to a grunge band singer who shot his head off some years ago, and she has a child that they keep taking away from her because she is a big druggie, and she likes to shop on etsy. Did you guess yet?

Anyway, this is what she bought but I haven't shipped it yet since she paid by echeck and I'm waiting to make sure it clears first.

http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=13191208

We Did It

And I'm really not that excited about it. More like a little anxious about it. But we really had to do it sooner or later. So we did it.

We bought a car. Well, no, not a car, but an SUV. A new used SUV, an '07 Jeep Liberty. We compromised between a car or truck, so now we have what could be called a trar or maybe a cruck, a somewhere in between vehicle. A not too big but not too small vehicle so that Keith can drive the 22 or so miles to work and not be afraid that parts will fall off of his truck on the way there, leaving him stranded alongside the almond groves at 5:30 in the morning. A trar that hopefully will last us for the next ten years or so, considering it's going to take six of those years to pay for it. A cruck that is not bad looking, sporty but not too yuppie-ish, rugged but not too redneck-ish. A vehicle.



We traded in old Big Blue and are donating Little Green to the Goodwill, so we will be a one car family for a while, but we really don't need two cars since I don't really have to go anywhere (like to work) and only having one car is a really good excuse not to go back to work any time soon.

What's really disturbing me about making car payments for the next six years is the fact that I will be 59 by the time this thing is paid for.



Oh, and now I have to go tease Keith about leaving dirty fingerprints on our new cruck.

Etsy and Google Analytics

Etsy finally incorporated google analytics to where you can see what kind of traffic you are getting in your shop and where it's coming from. Unfortunately it doesn't really work right, but it is interesting to see what sort of google searches are bringing people to etsy.

For instance, these three searches: breast carressing(sp), caress her breast, and caress her bosom. Obviously someone looking for porn, or maybe instructions, who knows?

And this one: caterpillar thought life was over.

This has me intrigued. Does someone have a depressed caterpillar who is just ready to give up on life and is searching for stories of other caterpillars who have managed to find hope and have overcome their depression and lack of will to live?

Huh.

What's That Smell

I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day, a mom who has six kids ranging in age from 2 to 14, and she was blogging about the boys' room and how messy it was and about finding orange peels and half eaten granola bars hidden away in the toy bins, complete with pictures of the mess, and it took me back to the good old days when I had a young boy who lived in a messy boy's room too.

I was pretty used to not being able to see the floor in Joe's room (Jennifer's also) and didn't really make a big deal out of trying to get either kid to keep their rooms clean, but one week when Joe was maybe 12 or 13 we noticed a nasty smell coming from his room. Nasty as in not the usual stinky dirty clothes and whatever else lurks in a boy's room smell. Nasty as in something dead and rotting nasty.

So, we began cleaning his room, starting at one corner and going around the perimeters of the room, scrubbing, tossing, sorting, in an effort to uncover the source of the smell. This process took days since we had work and school and only had a few hours each night to clean. The smell just kept getting worse, so bad that I even looked under the house to make sure an animal (an elephant or something just as huge) hadn't crawled under there and died. The smell was so bad that Joe had to sleep on the couch and we kept cans of air freshener guarding the closed door to his room.

After days of cleaning and scrubbing, and finally seeing the carpet, the room was as clean as it was ever going to get but we still hadn't found the source of the smell. That is, until I saw Joe's tackle box sitting innocently on his bed (where we must have put in while cleaning, either that or he had been sleeping with it) and remembered that he had gone fishing recently. And when you go fishing you buy bait, as in small fish. As in dead fish. As in dead fish that he had forgotten to take out of the tackle box when he got home from fishing with those dead fish.

The smell of dead bait fish that have been closed up in a plastic tackle box for a week is not pleasant. From what I remember, we just threw that whole tackle box into the trash, neither of us wanting to open it and see what week old dead fish looks like.

So, moms, the moral of this story is that if your boys like to go fishing, make sure you check that tackle box for dead fish when they get home, it will keep your house smelling fresh and clean instead of dead and rotting.

See That Button Over There? ------------>

I don't like blogs that have an overabundance of links, ads, and other crap on the sides, but am going to add this one since it's to a favorite blog of mine. Later in the week it'll move lower on the page because, well, you know, MY links to MY SHOPS are way more important and must always ALWAYS come first.

So, anyway, about this link. If you click on it you'll wind up at the blog of Courtney Jane, a Utah Mormon housewife who has been blogging about her daily life in the Land of Mormons for oh, I don't know how long, a few years? Last summer her sister and brother-in-law were in a small plane crash in Arizona that killed the pilot and left the sister and brother-in-law with severe burns and other injuries. I think the sister, Stephanie, whose blog is called nienie, was/is an etsy seller or knows etsy sellers or buys from etsy or something to do with etsy and that's where I heard about the plane crash and started reading nienie's blog which in turn led me to c jane's blog.

So, check it out, she doesn't talk that much religion and I don't think they'll find out who you are and send over some church boys in their white shirts, ties, and bicycle helmets to try and convert you or anything. Or at least they haven't been by my house yet, but you never know.

Speaking of Mormons, I just finished watching season one of Big Love and am anxiously waiting until I can justify spending the money on season two so I can find out what happens. Talk about a cliffhanger ending! (which I won't give away here)

If you haven't heard of Big Love, it's all about a polygamist (Bill) who has 3 wives and a whole bunch of kids and owns a home improvement store and has to hide his polygamist lifestyle so he won't get run out of town. The show is fascinating, the characters are great (I especially like Mary Kay Place as one of Bill's mother in laws) and like any good drama, there's always some strange plot twist. And, it's from HBO, so you get to see Bill Paxton's naked bottom every now and then.

See You at the Racetrack

Interesting. There is a greyhound out there named Gee Lizzie so I get google alerts for online betting sites. Maybe someone googling Gee Lizzie will come to my etsy site and buy something instead of wasting their money betting on the greyhound races? Ya think?

The other night I was sitting on the new sofa watching TV and I had my glass of water on the floor by the sofa. (We have no end tables yet because our house is so small and we haven't found end tables that aren't too big and are affordable so we have to either hold our drinks or set them on the floor.) I have to keep an eye on the cats when there are water glasses on the floor because Lucy in particular likes to come over and stick her face in your glass to drink the water. So, when Buddy was hanging around by my water glass and seemed extraordinarily interested in it, I figured I'd better investigate. And this is what I found.



This is one of Buddy's favorite toys, little balls with jingle bells inside. Not only do they make lots of jingly noise, but they have holes in the ball so that he can pick it up and carry it around in his mouth. Who knows why he thought my water glass would be a good place to store his ball, though.

Last night at 3am he was jingling around on our bed with one of his balls. Needless to say, I tossed both him and his ball out of the bedroom.

Budget Woes

Besides all of our personal budget woes in this ever deepening recession, the State of California is rapidly going broke. There was an article in the Sunday paper about how Governor Arnold (gotta call him by his first name because nobody can spell his last name) is asking that two of the state paid holidays be eliminated in an effort to save money. State workers currently get fourteen (14) yes, FOURTEEN paid holidays per year. I didn't even know that there WERE fourteen holidays per year, let alone that state employees got what amounts to two weeks paid days off per year on top of whatever regular vacation days they get. In addition to the usual holidays that most companies give their employees, state workers also get Columbus Day, Lincoln's Birthday (which everyone else rolled into President's Day) Cesar Chavez Day, and Martin Luther King Day. Come on, now, Columbus Day? Seriously? Not even the schools close for Columbus Day anymore.

But, the state workers unions are fighting this proposal tooth and nail. What, give up a paid day off (paid for with all of California's taxpayers money, by the way) to help our state save money? Hell, no (we won't go)!

Come on, state folks, would you rather lose two totally unnecessary paid holidays or lose your job when the state runs out of money and has to start laying people off? Or, keep those paid holidays and get paid for them with an IOU?

WAKE UP!!

Grrr...rant over.

I actually got a lot done yesterday, including vacuuming, doing ALL the laundry (okay, one load is still in the dryer) and even trying out a new recipe for dinner. The recipe didn't turn out all that great, but at least I tried something new and we didn't throw in the towel and just go out to eat.

Grocery Shopping

Yep, that's what we did today, one of many of my least favorite chores. I am so uninspired when it comes to trying to plan a menu and hate the whole shopping, paying, bringing all the stuff home and putting away only to find that there's still nothing to eat thing.

Keith had to go with me since I don't drive his huge truck and that's all we have right now, and him going to the store with me means we spend way longer in the store and way more money. It's like each extra five minutes is another $10.00 or so in groceries. He's a browser and it takes at least 10 minutes to get down one aisle and he always finds something we really don't need but must have in those 10 minutes spent in each aisle. I did make a list and did stick mainly to the list, but we still ended up with two bags of fritos and some soup that looked good to him and three boxes of granola bars.

So, that's what we did today.

Don't we lead such a glamorous jet setting kind of life?

Oh, and my new frying pan is waaaayyy cool! Why didn't I replace the old crappy ones sooner?

Yesterday

I did clean the living room and even dusted all the knick knack/glassware/dishware stuff on the cupboard in the dining area. I can't call it the dining room since it's just a corner of the living room, since the people who built this house apparently thought that just one not so big room would be just fine for both living and dining.

We went to Spencers for our weekly tortilla soup night dinner last night, our little way of helping the local economy, or at least that's our justification for spending $30.00 on a dinner out. It was really drizzly last night, heavy fog or whatever, and the windshield wipers in the truck haven't been working right for a long time, so it was kind of interesting driving over there. When we got home Keith tore the wiper motor apart and kind of duct tape fixed it so it works now. We were picturing him driving to work this morning with his head hanging out the window madly squeegy-ing off the windshield with one hand while the other hand is trying to steer.

We stopped in at Target to pick up a few things and an end cap of frying pans attacked me and made me buy one. We've been using one of those '3 pans for 5.00' type sets that are thin and warped and have no non stick left on them for quite a few years now, so I got one good frying pan to try out and if I like it I'll go back and get a few more. The label on the pan has a caution that has me a little perplexed, though. 'For safety, please keep pet birds out of the kitchen. Birds' respiratory systems are sensitive to many kinds of household fumes, including the fumes from extremely overheated non-stick pans.'

Huh. Apparently there are a lot of bird owners that let their birds fly around the kitchen while they are cooking and somebody's bird got killed by frying pan fumes so they have to put this warning on the pan label.

Cleaning House

Okay, well one resolution is already shot to hell, blogging every day. There's just not that much to blog about unless you want to hear about how many hours I spent on the internet or what stupid TV show we watched last night, so, okay, we're done with that one.

And the apple a day, I just didn't feel like eating one today.

And the walk every day. I didn't want to do that today either.

What I wanted to do was do some house cleaning, but not much of that got done, either. I don't really get why it's so hard to keep such a tiny house (999 square feet) with only two people (and six cats) living in it clean, but it is. It's not so much the dirt that bothers me, I'm the type that if it's swept under the rug (so to speak) it's out of sight, out of mind. It's more the dirty dishes in the sink that are there because the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, or the jackets and shoes left in the living room, or the magazines and papers and mail that we need but don't feel like filing away or even reading at the moment, it's the daily clutter that bothers me the most. I like a tidy house, but the effort to get it to stay tidy is just too much these days. If I had a big enough junk drawer, I could just stuff everything in there. Out of sight, out of mind.

I did empty the dishwasher and put the new dirty dishes in and wiped off the counters and stacked all the odds and ends of mail and magazines in one pile, so it looks a little better, now. The living room doesn't get that bad if you overlook the myriad of cat toys strewn about. Six cats is very similar to six toddlers with short attention spans. Play with a toy for a few minutes, carry it around for a little while, and then just drop it and let it lay wherever it falls. Or, bat them under the stove or sofa never to be seen again, or hide them in one of the many pairs of shoes by the front door where we take them off in an effort to keep the carpet somewhat clean. Or, do like Mimi, and just drop them in your food bowl to save for later.

But, I did get a lot of soldering, necklace putting together, and picture taking done today so I can work on my shops some more. So, it wasn't a total loss.

Oh Yeah

I almost forgot.

I said I was going to blog every day, or at least try.

But I did next to nothing today and really have nothing to blog about.

Well, not nothing all day, I did work on my shops, taking new pictures, removing old stuff and putting said old stuff into other shops, and in general I have been on the computer almost all day.

Oh, and I cleaned the cat boxes.

That's all.

Today

We decided to go out for breakfast and go to the antique show at the fairgrounds despite the fact that we are trying not to spend any extra money so that we can save up for a new car or truck or whatever we decide to get.

So, we thought we'd try a restaurant downtown instead of one of our usual spots for breakfast. I like to go to locally owned places when we can, so when we passed a bright yellow what must have originally been a House of Pies building now called Clay's Restaurant, we knew we had to stop and try it out.

What an odd building, it looked really big from the outside, but inside it was long and narrow with the kitchen right smack in the middle. On one side of the kitchen there were two rows of booths with one row of tables in the middle and on the other side of the kitchen were four booths with just an aisle in between that lead to the restrooms. At the entrance there were at least four signs advising us that the restrooms were for paying customers only. We're in homeless people's country here, folks! Yes, Bakersfield has a huge homeless issue like most larger cities do.

As we were seated we noticed that each table had a coffee carafe on it. Now we're talking! Fill up that carafe so we never have to pause in our coffee drinking while waiting for a refill! Ten points earned here!

The food was good, I had a cheese omelette that was made with cheddar, swiss, and parmesan. A little too strong with the swiss, but the combination made for a little more interesting of an omelette than just cheddar. You don't get potatoes with your omelette at Clay's Restaurant, but you do get a choice of toast or pancakes. Good pancakes!

I don't think I'd go out of my way to go eat at Clay's again, but when you go to Clay's Restaurant and Clay is actually there seating you and working the register, that's kind of cool!

The antique show was not worth the five bucks each it cost to get in, unless you are looking for incredibly overpriced dishes and glassware. The lighting in the building is bad, so each booth had really bright lights shining on their tables which made me feel really strange and kind of headachy, like just too much brightness and sensory overload or something. We didn't see much that we would have paid the incredibly high prices for, but I did find two books to cut up for pendants. So, not a total waste of time.

So what did I accomplish today? Not a whole lot, but I did get a lot of pictures taken so I can work on my etsy, shophandmade, and artfire shops. New year, new look, so I'm retaking all my pictures on some different backgrounds and doing some rearranging between shops. Keith accomplished a nap all afternoon.

The Birds

This was the scene outside our front door this morning.





They are just waiting, waiting, for the right moment to swoop down AND PECK YOUR EYES OUT!! Either that or just poop on your car.

I just realized that if I blog in the morning there are no accomplishments yet to list, unless you count getting out of bed and making the bed, drinking some coffee and cleaning out cat boxes, also cleaning up some cat vomit, so...I'll have to list the previous days accomplishments, which I already did last night, so...

Today I am planning on doing some picture taking for my etsy shop, that is if the sun comes out at all, which it doesn't look like it's going to. I'll also probably work on some pendants and maybe vacuum the living room. We'll see how it goes.

One More Resolution

I'm going to try and blog about something every day. But I'm sure it will be boring. And I'm going to list what I get done each day, too. Which will also be boring.

First off, I can't wait until Brian Williams comes back to the Nightly News next week. How dare he take a two week vacation!!

And, speaking of the nightly news, they had a story tonight about Pilots n Paws, an organization that matches up private pilots and rescue or shelter dogs that need transportation to other states, whether to go to an interim shelter while waiting to be adopted or to new forever homes. I love stories like that, they kind of counteract the news of war and economic woes.

Oh, and Merle Haggard got his very own star on the Walk of Fame. No, not the one in Hollywood, but the one right here in Bakersfield in front of the historic Fox Theatre. What, you didn't know that Bakersfield has a Walk of Fame? Neither did Merle, and when he asked who else had a star, they told him that he was the first one! I'm sure Buck Owens will get a posthumous one here soon. And maybe even Dwight Yoakum, who played the New Year's Eve show at Buck Owens Crystal Palace. Someday we're going to go eat at the Crystal Palace, I can't believe we've been here five years and haven't done that yet.

So, what did I get done today?

I washed the sheets and EVEN PUT THEM BACK ON THE BED!
I vacuumed the bedroom and EVEN CLEANED THE TOILET!
I made dinner.
I took my walk.
I ate my apple.

That's all. Don't know what I did the rest of the day.
What did I do the rest of the day?

I Guess You Had to Be There

So, we watched the Dick Clark's Rock in the New Year or whatever the heck it was called last night. During commercials we switched over to the Carson Daly or however you spell his name and who the heck is he anyway's show. The Dick show was sort of annoying with that blonde idol singer what's her name interviewing people on the street and Ryan Seacrest doing whatever it is he was doing. I really dislike loud announcers, but at least they were a little more animated that the Carson guy. He has absolutely no facial expressions and speaks in a monotone.

I did like the boy band The Jonas Brothers, I'd never heard them sing before and they do have talent. No wonder all the 12 year old girls are gaga over them. Just like the teen idols of my day, they are baby faced and unthreatening and even their Dads would be impressed with these clean cut young men.

The dropping of the ball was very anticlimactic as far as I'm concerned, which is why I guess you'd have to actually be there. It just doesn't translate that well on TV.

We also saw a couple of motorcycle guys jump over things in Las Vegas.

That was our exciting New Year's Eve.

We caught the tail end of the Rose Parade today, I kind of wished I'd remembered that it was on and watched it, what we saw of it was pretty impressive. We liked the Jack in the Box disco float the best. I'd never noticed before how they have the people on the float tethered to poles, guess they don't want anybody falling off in mid ride, but that would kind of make the whole thing more of a spectator sport as far as I'm concerned. They could take bets on how many float riders would splat on the pavement each year.

The ice hockey game from whatever baseball field in Chicago is also on today. Keith says that so far it's a good game, they've already had three fights. Kind of like auto racing, you really watch it in hopes of seeing a big wreck on the track.