Squirrel!

Busy four day weekend for me, not so much for Keith.

We rented a few movies to watch, Up, The Reader, and Angels and Demons. Up was totally cute even though Keith fell asleep part way through. Squirrel! We laugh about how easily distracted he can be sometimes, just like the dogs in the movie. Squirrel!

The Reader was excellent, but I couldn't help thinking about the whole seducing a teenager thing and how this movie was okay because it was a woman doing the seducing, if it had been a man (Roman Polanski, anyone?) as the main character, there would have been a huge outcry and certainly no Oscars for anyone. I do like Kate Winslet in just about anything, she is a very versatile actress and the boys (Keith) like her because she goes around naked in most of her movies. If you haven't seen her in Little Children, that's an excellent movie also, and yes, naked Kate in that one , too. I also like that she looks like a normal woman, no boob jobs, no skeleton skinny there. She might even have (gasp) a little cellulite here and there.

Angels and Demons was good, but just kind of so-so. Enjoyable but not something that really sticks with you as great cinema or anything.

At least we didn't rent any stinkers this time like the last few times we've gotten movies.

I spent a lot of time this weekend working on learning how to do resin on my wood pendants. Messy and time consuming, but I think I've got it down, now. I have to be patient and stir and pour slowly and carefully. Here are some that came out pretty good, I think.


Keith got nothing much done, certainly no kitchen floor yet...maybe someday.

And we finally heard back from Kelly. We'll be sending her money to her this week, we had emailed her saying that we really had no other option, spending money on a plane ticket seemed to be a waste, better spent on renting a place for them to live where they already are. After all the cloak and dagger and secrecy about this whole running off to England and getting married we finally got a few answers and she says that the marriage is fine. Or whatever, who knows what really goes on in that fantasy world of hers. Supposedly her husband is going to try for a soccer coaching job in the states next year, so they may end up back in these parts anyway. But not in our spare room or garage!

In The Ghetto

Sing it with me, Elvis!

Today we are not doing the traditional Thanksgiving thing. We really had no plans at all, but were both hungry this morning and since we don't have much other than cereal for breakfast in the house decided to go over to IHOP and see if they were open for breakfast. And, yes, they were, and as a matter of fact, our IHOP is now open 24/7 and we are going to go there on Christmas for breakfast, too!
So, breakfast at IHOP complete with pancakes. Pancakes come with everything at IHOP because, after all, it is the International House of PANCAKES! I chose the festive gingerbread pancakes instead of just plain old buttermilk to go with my omelette. They were pretty good, but I shouldn't eat pancakes because then a few hours later my blood sugar plummets and I end up not feeling very well at all. So, on Christmas when we have our breakfast there I will not get the pancakes. Even though there isn't much point in going to a pancake house if you're not going to eat the pancakes.

Then, we went over to the ghetto side of town and went shopping at K-Mart. Last weekend we had noticed that they had long sleeved henley tees for men advertised for 7.98 and Keith had been wanting some long sleeved tees for the winter, but we forgot all about driving all the way over to K-Mart earlier this week and remembered about the sale today. We knew they were open since they were the ones who pioneered the whole let's be open on Thanksgiving trend a few years ago, so off to the ghetto we went. And, what do you know, but the Big!Lots store next door was open, too. And both stores were very busy.

So, we shopped around the men's section at K-Mart where lots of the clothes were 50% off today only and ended up getting 3 tees, 2 flannel shirts, and 1 denim shirt for $53.00. Not a bad deal, and I share the flannels and denim shirts with Keith because I like nice warm flannels in the winter and the women's clothes are quite frankly ugly, so our bargain shirts do double duty. I checked over in the women's department and didn't see a single thing that wasn't ugly.

Oh, and we could have gotten our hair done today, the beauty shop/99c store in the same strip mall as K-Mart was open today, too.

And now we are being lazy and Keith is on his way to the store to get beer, another Thanksgiving necessity as far as he is concerned.

Gobble Gobble

Or ho ho ho, or something like that.

Not that we are going to be doing much gobbling tomorrow. We have pretty much decided to ignore the holidays this year. I don't want to cook and we don't really want to spend the money to go out-Denny's anyone?, so we're just going to act like it's any other day of the week tomorrow, albeit a day that Keith doesn't have to go to work on. I am hoping that with a 4 day weekend he will GET SOMETHING DONE AROUND THIS HOUSE! Like FINISH SOME OF HIS NEVER-ENDING PROJECTS! Like the kitchen that is still not finished EVEN THOUGH IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE HE STARTED!

Although, we do have lots of things to be thankful for this year. After a year of the Great Recession, we are still standing. He still has a job. We still have a house. We can still pay our bills. That's something these days!
And we do have a kitchen with a new refrigerator even if there is still no kitchen floor!

We are thankful for our six healthy cats who help lower our blood pressure. True fact, that, they say petting an animal is very therapeutic and calming. Except when they want to be petted while you are trying to sleep or going to the bathroom.

And, it's been getting downright cold at night lately, so I'm definitely thankful for our well insulated house and nice cozy bed! And, nice hot coffee in the morning when I wake up.

And, how about these crazy Black Friday sales this year? It seems as if each store is trying to out-do the others by opening up earlier and earlier each year. Kohl's is opening at 4 am? Well, damn you Kohl's, we here at Old Navy are going to open up at 3am! Take that! And if you are really adventurous, you can go up to Tulare's Outlet Center because they are opening at midnight! Well, screw all of you, we're going to be open at Walmart ON THANKSGIVING! All day and all night! Michaels is going to be open on Thanksgiving, too, which has me scratching my head, but they've got a great coupon, so I'll be there!

Anyway, hope everyone enjoys the holiday and the turkey and cranberry and pies and football and shopping and whatever else you are going to be doing! Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Quiet Weekend

Not much went on around here this weekend, did some cleaning and a little crafting. Keith worked in the back yard shed trying to get all that organized and cleaned up some. Then he drank some beers. We walked over to walmart looking for a hoodie sweatshirt for him to wear at work now that it's getting chilly in these parts. We found exactly what he wanted, an orange one so that he will be easier to see and won't get run over by a train while he's working. I also got a couple of Hanes sweatshirts for women-only $6.00 each! So, ladies, if you need some cozy sweatshirts, get yourself over to walmart. I washed one of them to make sure they don't shrink too much and it came out of the wash just fine.

We were kind of on pins and needles all weekend waiting to hear something from Kelly about what the heck is going on with her and why the sudden need to get back to the US. We had emailed her on Friday telling her that money was on the way but we need to know if that will fix her problem and how to get it to her and to please call or email on Saturday. We finally got an email back this morning and I don't think she's too happy with us for not jumping at the chance to buy her a plane ticket and feed her and house her for six months. And then have to do it again in a year or so after she goes back to her husband and they still can't find jobs and still can't support themselves and will need to continent hop again. She says that sending her money still won't do any good because Sean (her husband or whatever) can't afford to house and feed her and she'll be homeless even with the money. And how obviously we don't want her, sob sob.

I have this sinking feeling that she's going to end up here eventually anyway. Hope she likes sleeping in the garage! And we can't exactly afford to house and feed you either!

Ugh.

Dinners and No News

We've heard nothing back from Kelly on the email that we sent. She called yesterday afternoon before Keith got home wanting to give us her passport number to buy the plane ticket and I told her we weren't buying a plane ticket and to read her email as to what we are doing instead, then never called back and hasn't responded to the email yet. Keith wants to talk to her and tell her that if she still needs a plane ticket she will buy it out of her inheritance money and then do whatever when she gets back to the US, as long as it's not staying here. Grandma is sending us the money and we've decided to dole it out in smaller portions so she doesn't spend it all at once. He also has some other questions because we don't think that we are being told the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

And, I've actually made home-cooked meals (that even tasted good!) all this week! What the heck is up with that? We had beef stroganoff on Sunday, sweet and sour chicken on Monday, indoor grilled pork chops, rice, and baked acorn squash (so yummy, and I'm going to fix acorn squash more often) on Tuesday, and then whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce last night. Whew! I'm exhausted now!

When we were shopping last weekend, we actually got a lot of real food for under $150.00, our cupboards and refrigerator were bare, so we stocked up on chicken, hamburger, and pork chops with sides to go with. A while back at Winco we had found Farmer John boneless thick cut pork chops in the big pack for about $7.00 and tried them out. Best pork chops we've ever had, lean and juicy and tender, so we buy a pack every time we shop and it's enough for 3 or 4 dinners. We got a variety of the marinade packets (that cost $1.69 at Vons and something like 49c at Winco) and just marinade them and then cook them on our George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine, which was a purchase well worth the money.

I've even searched online for some soup recipes, vegetable and chicken tortilla and am going to get soup ingredients next time we shop. Hopefully these recipes will come out better than our ill fated pea soup. What's wrong with me, I hate to cook!

It Was All Just a Scam

Kind of sad when your own daughter/step-daughter tries to scam you and put you into debt by not quite telling you the whole story, isn't it?

Here's what happened last night.

Kelly calls and Keith talks to her, the whole time thinking that her boyfriend has broken up with her and she is stranded in a foreign country and short of trying to get herself deported has no option other than to ask us to buy her a plane ticket home. As Keith is trying to get the particulars of airports and travel plans, she says that he needs to buy the round trip ticket because it is cheaper than one way. What? Round trip ticket? Buy a round trip just because it's cheaper than one way? What? Hold on just a minute, here.
Did you and your boyfriend break up or what's going on? Oh, we actually did get married but we are sleeping on couches and I need to come home for a while until the economy gets better here and I can come back and get a job. What? Either that or Sean (the unknown husband) will be coming to the US next summer to work here. What? You want us to buy you a round trip ticket to the tune of about $1200.00 and put it on our credit card so that we are further into debt when we haven't had a real vacation since we've been married and no way could we afford to even buy a round trip BUS TICKET right now?!?!? Oh, but you say you'll get a job while you are here and pay us back? Like you paid us back for the $500.00 cell phone bill that you ran up the last time you stayed here?

After he hangs up the phone I look at Keith and say 'No, we are not buying her a round trip ticket so that she can come here and live on our couch and eat our food and run up our bills for 6 months and then use her round trip plane ticket THAT WE ARE PAYING FOR to go back to her husband. Her husband, who should be the one taking care of her, not us. No, she is not getting a round trip ticket from us and we are not going into debt to buy it for her. Absolutely not.

Well, we found a solution, since the whole problem seems to be a matter of her needing money rather than needing to come home. Keith had been talking to his mother the night before (when she said that she absolutely would not let Kelly stay there ever again) and she had mentioned that she had put aside some money for each grandchild as an inheritance, and Kelly had asked for that money before she left for England, but Grandma told her no she had to wait until she died to get that money. Looking back at how that conversation must have gone I'm kind of surprised that Kelly didn't put a little arsenic Grandma's coffee or push her down some stairs or something to hasten the inevitable along.

Anyway, a little light goes on in Keith's head about this money that is set aside for Kelly, so he calls his mom again and asks her if she wouldn't reconsider just giving Kelly the money now so that she could stay far far away from all of us and nobody has to have her come live with them.
Grandma says, you mean that if I give her the inheritance now (about $5000.00) then she can stay in Europe and I'll never have to see her again? You've got it! I'll call tomorrow about getting the money for her, it will take a few days and there will be some fees or penalties, but it will be well worth it if SHE CAN STAY THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY FROM ME!

How sad is that? Kelly was so mean to her grandmother that she is going to be paid to stay away.

Anyway, as I told Keith, we are not now and not ever buying her any plane tickets or sending her any money ever again. If she ever needs to come back to the US (and she can stay with her mom in the crack motel, not here) she will need to set aside some of Grandma's money for a plane ticket BECAUSE WE ARE NOT GOING INTO DEBT FOR HER!!!

I feel so much better, now, yesterday I felt kind of sick and stressed out all day worrying about the whole thing and having to have this extremely unpleasant, lying, manipulating, conniving creature in my house.

We did send off an email to Kelly and told her what is going on and that since she is old enough to get married she and her husband need to step up and be responsible adults. We are not now and not ever going to buy her a plane ticket, especially not a round trip so that she can travel around while we are paying her bills. No!

This Is Not Going To Be Good

The other day I was having some weird something is going to happen that won't be good kind of feelings and have been just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak.

This hasn't been a real good year for us, what with cars and refrigerators breaking and overtime cut off at Keith's work, and my business not even turning a profit this year, and not being able to find even a crappy job at walmart, and insurance that only pays 80% and a big doctor bill for what they didn't pay on Keith's follow up cancer colonoscopy and his daughter Katie not paying her dental bill that he co-signed on and is now showing up on his credit report, thereby screwing up his credit rating. It just seems like it's been one thing after another and not enough money to pay for it all.

So, here's the back story on the latest drama that I'm going to tell you about.

Keith's other daughter Kelly went off to England this summer to marry some boy that none of us had ever heard of before, don't know exactly how she met, and don't know why some boy would want to marry her all of a sudden, anyway. She had been living in Las Vegas with her Grandmother for a while, much to Grandma's consternation, because Kelly is not the most pleasant person in the world and was not a good houseguest to put it mildly. She eventually got herself an apartment and was working and paying her bills and things seemed to be going along just fine. Grandma was happy not to have to deal with her anymore and we were happy that we didn't have to deal with her either. So, she goes off to England to supposedly get married and of course can't find a job there because England is in a recession, too, and any jobs are going to go to real English citizens, not some American twit who moved there basically because she reads too many romance novels and thought that an English man would have a castle or be a lord or something and would sweep her off her feet and she'd live happily ever after or whatever.

A few months went by with Kelly not calling or writing anyone and us all wondering if the whole thing was one of those white slavery rings and she'd be sold off to the highest bidder somewhere, who would then want his money back after living with her for a few days. Again, she is not a very pleasant person, at least around her family. She cut off her brother and sister from her Facebook friends, apparently not wanting to have anything to do with them, because she's got this whole new Fairy Tale life in England with someone who really loves her or whatever.

Then, we get a very short email from her that she and her boyfriend are going to Cyprus so he can work on some newspaper that his sister owns and stay in a house that his sister owns because neither of them can find work in England. And then last night we get a phone call from her brother who got a very short email from her telling him to call Keith and tell him to read his email. Keith only checks his email every few weeks or whenever he even remembers that he even has email. So, Keith gets on the computer and reads this big sob story about how it's not working out in Cyprus and her boyfriend's sister says they have to be out of her house by Dec 31, and she can't find work and the boyfriend can stay with a cousin or friend or something but there is not enough room for her so can we please buy her a plane ticket to get back home and can she please stay with us or Grandma or her Mom until she can find a job. And she's so sorry she knows that money is tight with us but she wants to come home.

Ugh.

Well.

We had her living with us for a few months when she was 17 and it almost ruined our marriage.

She is now 21, but something tells me she hasn't matured all that much after all and there are no jobs here, so I have visions of her laying on the couch all day watching TV. Not to mention that our second bedroom is now my workroom and if someone is living in it that could be an issue right there, and then there is the only one bathroom issue, and the only 999 square feet of living space issue, and the extra grocery bill issue, and the added stress on the utility bills issue, and the six cats that get freaked out if someone even knocks on the door let alone comes into the house issue.

Grandma absolutely emphatically does not want her back in her house, ever ever again, and her mother is currently living in a crack whore fleabag motel because she and her husband gambled away their house, so options are few and it looks like she'll be living here again.

Ugh.

We emailed her back and said that we really can't afford to buy her a plane ticket, we don't have that kind of cash laying around and will have to use a credit card and pay it off later, and we are not doing anything until she calls us, and to call us collect tonight when Keith gets home from work.

So, this morning the phone rings at 6:30 am and it's her making sure her phone card works, and she will call back later when Keith is home. I guess that's one way to get your kid to call you, refuse to do anything over email alone. She must have thought we'd just jump at the chance to buy her a ticket from the links she sent us to a ticket buying place and not even question any of it.

So, we'll see what happens after the phone conversations tonight, hopefully Keith will be able to keep it together and not totally go off on her. He told her when she left the US to make sure she had a return ticket 'just in case', which was stupid advice and Keith just doesn't trust her judgement and blah blah blah.

This whole thing has got us both extremely stressed out and will probably only get worse.

Ugh.

Buddy and Harri?!?

I was so surprised when I saw Harri allowing Buddy to sit next to her in the window yesterday. And even more surprised to see Buddy behaving his little self and not torturing Harri. He delights in chasing her around the house and she lives in constant fear of being chased around the house. So, to see them so contentedly looking out the window together was something, indeed.



Oh, and see all of those ragged holes in the blinds next to Buddy? Those are Buddy teeth marks from when he was a kitten and even more ornery than he is now.

New Stuff

I keep trying to come across that one thing that will be my next big best seller-ha ha.

So, this week I've been working on decoupaged wood pendants, easy to make although lots of steps what with painting the wood, cutting out the paper, decoupaging it onto the wood (have to watch the paint dry first), then sealing the wood and paper with mod podge.

I had made a few with just jump rings to hang them with then searched Michaels for something that looks a little classier and came across these pinch bail things that do look much better than a cheap old jumpring. At least I hope they look better.

It has been fun making them so even if they don't sell like hotcakes, at least it's given me something other than cleaning up cat boxes and vacuuming up cat hair to do. Plus I didn't have to go out and spend a bunch of money on supplies, I already had some of the wood, the papers, the mod podge, the paint, and the ball chains.

So, here's what they look like and we'll see if they go over or not. They are budget priced, so maybe that will help if someone is looking for little gifts or stocking stuffers that don't break the bank!

Tropical Ferns


Tiny Kokeshi Doll-this one looks big but is actually small at only about 1" across.


Butterfly-this one's cut from a vintage kids book.


I found the most gorgeous collage sheets on etsy the other day, the ferns and this one came from the sheets that I got.


And this one is a little bit naughty of a mermaid.

Yawn

I haven't posted yet this week because I can't think of anything much to post about.

We are boring.

Keith finished his big bottle of pills and had his follow up with the doctor at urgent care and everything is all well now with his eyeball. Except that some of his eyebrow hair fell out so now he looks a little odd with only half an eyebrow. One thing I like about the urgent care is that they didn't charge for the follow up visits. The regular doctor charges for follow up visits, so maybe we should just go to urgent care from now on.

Keith has also been a little stressed about the possibility of lay-offs at his work. Things are really getting slow there, this week he's not even doing his regular job because they have no work lined up. He's working in the coal silos helping to clean things up after a major coal spill. Apparently the conveyor belts that move the coal from the train cars into the silos broke but nobody noticed until the coal just kept falling off the conveyor belts instead of going into the silo where it belongs. He'd been doing shoveling and general cleaning up this week and kind of likes it for a change, the work is a lot more laid back that he's used to, and he was even able to sit in the control room and take a little nap yesterday.

We're still just trying to hang on here, hoping that next year things will start to look up, and let me tell you we are getting really really tired of penny pinching all the time! Frugality is good and all and it's almost fun to look for ways to save money, but after a year of doing this it's getting really old. I'd like to be able to go shopping again.

Speaking of shopping, the last time we were at Winco we checked out the area where they sell all kinds of basics in bulk, like flour, cereal, trail mix, etc. that are all in big bin things where you just put what you want in plastic bags. We're a little leery of buying things that who knows how many hands have been digging down into and exactly how sanitary is having big bins of food around anyway, but we did try some of the trail mix and I found a whole section of sugar free candies. I tried some malt balls and chocolate coconut stacks and they were really tasty, but I totally forgot that sugar free chocolate gives you incredibly, and I mean INCREDIBLY, bad gas. Bad.

Oh, and we finally have fall weather here, but no rain in the forecast. Now I can start complaining about being cold instead of my constant whining about how hot it is.

Sunday Morning with the Stray Cat Family

Mom, Dad, and the kids just out enjoying the sun on a lazy Sunday.



There's a third little white kitten that must have been hiding.

Awww...

Bear and Mimi in a sunny spot this morning.



I love the way Bear hugs Mimi.


If I can't see you then you can't see me, right?


Sometimes we just call her Butterball. Look at the magnificent rotundness of that belly!

Temptingness in Advertising

Advertising really does work, at least for certain products. Before Halloween we were inundated with the Dunkin Donuts ad where the people were going on a hayride to the Dunkin Donuts drive thru and every time they showed it I wanted a Dunkin Donut so very much. The coffee looked pretty good, too.

Fortunately we don't have a Dunkin Donuts here in Bakersfield or I would have gone on my own personal hayride to get me one of those donuts. Preferably one with sprinkles.

You can get their coffee in the grocery store, though (and also online) and it is pretty darn good coffee. But it would be even better with a sprinkled donut.

Oh, I Am So Mean!

I was just over on etsy listing some stuff and messing around in the forums and came across a thread asking for advice on naming a new painting. I took a look at the painting and my first thought was:

'how about UGLY?'

How mean is that and no, I didn't say it out loud, just to myself.

Speaking of ugly things, I've been trying out some more new ideas for my shop.

Victorian Bee Pendant


Glittered Bow Pendant


Painted and glittered soaring bird pendant.


This was something that I've been wanting to try for a while, putting papers or pictures behind metal frames for pendants. I found these frame charm things over at Michaels and really like the way these are coming out. This one actually already sold today!


I put some vintage sheet music on chipboard and sealed it with glaze, then added a little jewel and bead dangle to the bottom.

It's kind of nice to get inspired again, and even nicer to get a sale!

The New Walmart is Here!!

But it's not that exciting.

When we first moved up here they were building a super walmart right off the freeway as you get into town. And then the building stopped and the empty walmart sat there. Big, ugly, empty. The construction was stopped by lawsuits and coalitions and whatever else, but finally enough bribes were paid or politicians wined and dined or with the failing economy the city wised up and realized that lots of jobs, even if they are underpaid ones, would be created if they finally let walmart finish the store and open it up. So they did. And it opened to crowds of walmart devotees waiting outside. Whoohoo!!

Seeing as how the new super duper walmart is clear on the other side of town from us I can't see us doing much shopping there, but we were curious and bored and had nothing, absolutely nothing better to do last weekend but to drive over and check it all out.

It was not worth the drive.

It pretty much looks like the walmart here, only newer, a little cleaner, with more checkouts, a bank, a nail salon, a hair salon, and the grocery store inside the walmart. We walked around the huge store which was incredibly crowded, it being a Saturday and the busiest day of the week for walmart shopping, and took a look around the grocery store part of it. We don't think we will be buying any food there after seeing packages of hamburger meat that was not the nice bright red color that fresh hamburger meat is supposed to be, but rather a pale pinkish gray with what looked like gray mold in spots on it. Seeing that could put you off eating hamburger meat forever. It was really really nasty. I'm sure it wasn't mold but probably pieces of cow vein and gristle, but whatever it was turned our stomachs, which just being in a walmart can do anyway.
I don't care how low the prices are, I'm not buying meat that has gray spots on it.

I'm a little afraid to buy perishables from walmart anyway, what with working there and seeing how things are stocked. Most employees are under so much pressure to get the job done and get those shelves stocked that taking the time to remove old moldy merchandise is not a priority. Did I ever tell you about the time I was stocking over in the snack aisle where the beef jerky and popcorn are? You know those big huge sausage stick things that are shrink wrapped and are about a foot long and I guess you open it up and slice off pieces to eat? Well, I found one that had been hidden at the back of the shelf so long that it had putrefied and swelled up with so much gas or whatever happens to putrefied sausages that the shrink wrap it was in had blown up like a balloon. Always check the dates on the food at walmart, folks, we didn't stock from the back there, just crammed the new stuff in front of the old!

Anyway, that was the highlight of another rather dull weekend here, Keith is still not feeling all that well, he's always tired and the meds he's taking give him a headache. He's got another week of pill popping to go and hopefully he will feel better by then.