Showing posts with label random thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random thoughts. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Random Thoughts and Stuff
Last night I had a weird dream and while I was dreaming it I was telling myself to remember the dream so I could tell Keith about it but of course I forgot the dream as soon as I woke up, except for the part about telling Keith. But there is nothing to tell now since the dream is totally forgotten.
Yesterday I was riding the bike and saw a dog being walked and the dog was SO excited and I got to thinking that maybe humans would be happier if only we lived like dogs. Where a walk is something to run and jump about, and laying in the sun is the best thing all day, and your tail is always wagging because life is so much fun! Except I don't think most people's bosses would appreciate them laying in the sun while they are supposed to be working, and then there is that whole sniffing each others butts thing.
I was looking on the internet last night to see what was on TV, and there is some new show called American Ninja Fighters or something like that. Needless to say I did not watch it. Soon the only thing on TV will be reality shows and stupid stunt and game shows. Although I did get sucked into watching one of those real housewives shows that was playing reruns on one of the weird local channels. The one with the husband whose wife doesn't realize that he is gay and that Bethenny person who is so annoying but oddly fascinating to watch. Kind of like a trainwreck, you don't want to look but you just can't resist. The only game type show that we like to watch is Jeopardy, and we really like it when they have the elementary school kids on there because then we actually know some of the answers.
This afternoon we have our annual physicals scheduled. Fun! We can find out (once again) how fat and unhealthy we are. Keith has not been feeling well with stomach troubles, which is worrisome because of that whole cancer survivor thing, so it's good that we are going so they can figure out what's wrong with him. Plus if we don't go, our new insurance will cost us more. We have that Health Savings Account type insurance again where they don't pay for much and you have to save your own money in a special account for the big expenses. It's supposed to cover the annual though, so we'll see. Hopefully that means covering the blood work, too.
And that is about all I have today.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A Little More Money
Last week Keith had kind of a bad work week, with getting in trouble for filling out a form wrong and just general New Year's Blues. Most work weeks are bad anyway, having to go to work every day being bad just because you have to get up in the dark and go to work. He got called into the office on Friday afternoon and thought okay, here it goes, I'm getting fired. He even told his boss, if you're firing me, get it over with and I'll get on out of here.
No, he didn't get fired and his boss looked at him like he was crazy for thinking he was getting fired. Instead, after 3 years of working there, he finally got a raise. Well!
Not a huge raise, only $1.25 an hour, but enough to where it will help pay for the gas to get to work each day what with gas prices continuing to go up and a 30 mile drive to get there each day. So, a little breathing room there.
He had been planning on going in to ask for a raise and was sure they would turn him down, and when he got yelled at for filling in the form wrong he even said 'well, I guess this isn't the time to ask for a raise', so actually getting one was a huge surprise. After he got home on Monday I asked him if making a little more money each hour helped to make work a little more bearable, but no, not really it doesn't. We are still glad he still has a job, though, and the company he works for seems to be solid and steady and won't be laying people off any time soon, so, all is well in that regard.
And, in other financial news, I did my books for the year and once again will be taking a loss on my business. Not a huge loss, like $100.00, so for tax purposes, good, for business purposes, not so much. My goal this year is to not lose money. The biggest way to not lose money is to not spend money on supplies trying out new things that don't sell. I'm going to stick with soldered pendants and the hand painted brass and see how that goes this year. Supplies sell well on Etsy, you've got a captive audience so to speak, other sellers buying supplies to make things that may or may not sell. Might as well be on the selling side instead of buying side when it comes to supplies.
We have both decided that we'd rather be hot than cold, so this summer I'll try not to complain too much about how hot it is. I am tired of not wanting to go outside because it's cold, I'd rather not want to go outside because it's too hot.
No, he didn't get fired and his boss looked at him like he was crazy for thinking he was getting fired. Instead, after 3 years of working there, he finally got a raise. Well!
Not a huge raise, only $1.25 an hour, but enough to where it will help pay for the gas to get to work each day what with gas prices continuing to go up and a 30 mile drive to get there each day. So, a little breathing room there.
He had been planning on going in to ask for a raise and was sure they would turn him down, and when he got yelled at for filling in the form wrong he even said 'well, I guess this isn't the time to ask for a raise', so actually getting one was a huge surprise. After he got home on Monday I asked him if making a little more money each hour helped to make work a little more bearable, but no, not really it doesn't. We are still glad he still has a job, though, and the company he works for seems to be solid and steady and won't be laying people off any time soon, so, all is well in that regard.
And, in other financial news, I did my books for the year and once again will be taking a loss on my business. Not a huge loss, like $100.00, so for tax purposes, good, for business purposes, not so much. My goal this year is to not lose money. The biggest way to not lose money is to not spend money on supplies trying out new things that don't sell. I'm going to stick with soldered pendants and the hand painted brass and see how that goes this year. Supplies sell well on Etsy, you've got a captive audience so to speak, other sellers buying supplies to make things that may or may not sell. Might as well be on the selling side instead of buying side when it comes to supplies.
We have both decided that we'd rather be hot than cold, so this summer I'll try not to complain too much about how hot it is. I am tired of not wanting to go outside because it's cold, I'd rather not want to go outside because it's too hot.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Standing Around Naked Eating Popcorn
That's what Keith was doing the other night after his shower. Wouldn't Standing Around Naked Eating Popcorn make a great name for a band?
This morning there was a toy mouse in the toilet. Now, we subscribe to the 'if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down' school of thinking when it comes to toilets, so at first I think that Keith has forgotten to flush the brown down and I'm all set to flush when I realize it's not brown but a gray toy mouse. That I had to fish out of the mellowing toilet. GAG. But at least I didn't flush the mouse down which probably would have resulted in a backed up toilet, and when you only have one toilet in your house you don't want that to happen.
Like our neighbor who flushed down his brown and then went away for the weekend, only to come home and find his bathroom and bedroom completely flooded with nasty water because the toilet had been overflowing for two days. They had to replace all the tile and all the carpet. Ugh.
So tonight is New Year's Eve in case you didn't remember. New Year's Eve has never been a big deal for me, who wants to start out your new year with a killer hangover anyway? We'll probably be snoozing by about 11 pm, so for those of you who aren't old and can stay up that late, Happy New Year.
I've noticed that a lot of the more popular bloggers do a year in review kind of thing this time of year and I'm sorry, but BORING! My year in review? Um, cleaning cat boxes?
I'm not making any resolutions this year other than continuing to eat boring boring boring low carb food. I almost couldn't finish my breakfast today, cottage cheese, a turkey burger patty, and a low carb yogurt. It was kind of gag inducing.
Maybe I will stand around naked eating popcorn more often, though.
This morning there was a toy mouse in the toilet. Now, we subscribe to the 'if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down' school of thinking when it comes to toilets, so at first I think that Keith has forgotten to flush the brown down and I'm all set to flush when I realize it's not brown but a gray toy mouse. That I had to fish out of the mellowing toilet. GAG. But at least I didn't flush the mouse down which probably would have resulted in a backed up toilet, and when you only have one toilet in your house you don't want that to happen.
Like our neighbor who flushed down his brown and then went away for the weekend, only to come home and find his bathroom and bedroom completely flooded with nasty water because the toilet had been overflowing for two days. They had to replace all the tile and all the carpet. Ugh.
So tonight is New Year's Eve in case you didn't remember. New Year's Eve has never been a big deal for me, who wants to start out your new year with a killer hangover anyway? We'll probably be snoozing by about 11 pm, so for those of you who aren't old and can stay up that late, Happy New Year.
I've noticed that a lot of the more popular bloggers do a year in review kind of thing this time of year and I'm sorry, but BORING! My year in review? Um, cleaning cat boxes?
I'm not making any resolutions this year other than continuing to eat boring boring boring low carb food. I almost couldn't finish my breakfast today, cottage cheese, a turkey burger patty, and a low carb yogurt. It was kind of gag inducing.
Maybe I will stand around naked eating popcorn more often, though.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Random Thoughts and a Ho Ho Ho
Who you callin' a Ho?
Why in the world did I wake up this morning with a huge pimple on my face? I am 55 years old and don't you think I should have outgrown getting huge pimples on my face by now? And isn't the word pimple absolutely disgusting all by itself? Not to mention the word zit. We need to find a better word for pimples and zits. How about angel kisses or big red roses? I woke up to a huge angel kiss on my face sounds much much better.
Anyway.
More wormage to report. Yesterday Buddy was sitting oh so casually in the middle of the living room with another big wriggly worm in front of him. Who me? I don't see any worm in the middle of your carpet. Disregard, please, and keep moving along.
I just heard on the radio that the governor has declared a state of emergency because of all the flooding and all. The road to Lake Isabella will be closed for like 10 days because of huge, and I mean HUGE LIKE THE SIZE OF A WINNEBAGO boulder that fell on the road. Not that it's much of a road anyway, the part that follows the river through the narrowest part of the canyon is really scary and only two very very narrow lanes and having big boulders (the size of winnebagos) perched on the mountainsides just waiting to fall on you doesn't make you feel any safer when driving on that road.
It never rains in California, but when it does, better watch out! The neighborhood where kids were kayaking in the street is still flooded. It's kind of weird, it's a really upscale gated neighborhood where you'd think they would have planned the expensive streets a little better for drainage. Apparently some of the streets have like 5 feet of water in them.
We were talking about trying to make some sort of holiday tradition for the two of us other than sitting around on Christmas being bored. It's just not so much fun when you don't have kids to get all excited about opening presents and you don't have the money to do something like go to Hawaii for Christmas. I think we are going to go to IHOP (open all day and all night on Christmas and every other day) for Christmas breakfast even though I can't have any pancakes.
I was suggesting that we start doing stockings for each other with little practical gifts like underwear or socks in the stockings, something a little more festive than not doing gifts at all. Because we usually can't afford to do gifts for each other. So, maybe next year we will start a stocking tradition.
I would do some holiday baking or candy making but we can't eat sweets or carbs, so...no gingerbread men for us!
Why in the world did I wake up this morning with a huge pimple on my face? I am 55 years old and don't you think I should have outgrown getting huge pimples on my face by now? And isn't the word pimple absolutely disgusting all by itself? Not to mention the word zit. We need to find a better word for pimples and zits. How about angel kisses or big red roses? I woke up to a huge angel kiss on my face sounds much much better.
Anyway.
More wormage to report. Yesterday Buddy was sitting oh so casually in the middle of the living room with another big wriggly worm in front of him. Who me? I don't see any worm in the middle of your carpet. Disregard, please, and keep moving along.
I just heard on the radio that the governor has declared a state of emergency because of all the flooding and all. The road to Lake Isabella will be closed for like 10 days because of huge, and I mean HUGE LIKE THE SIZE OF A WINNEBAGO boulder that fell on the road. Not that it's much of a road anyway, the part that follows the river through the narrowest part of the canyon is really scary and only two very very narrow lanes and having big boulders (the size of winnebagos) perched on the mountainsides just waiting to fall on you doesn't make you feel any safer when driving on that road.
It never rains in California, but when it does, better watch out! The neighborhood where kids were kayaking in the street is still flooded. It's kind of weird, it's a really upscale gated neighborhood where you'd think they would have planned the expensive streets a little better for drainage. Apparently some of the streets have like 5 feet of water in them.
We were talking about trying to make some sort of holiday tradition for the two of us other than sitting around on Christmas being bored. It's just not so much fun when you don't have kids to get all excited about opening presents and you don't have the money to do something like go to Hawaii for Christmas. I think we are going to go to IHOP (open all day and all night on Christmas and every other day) for Christmas breakfast even though I can't have any pancakes.
I was suggesting that we start doing stockings for each other with little practical gifts like underwear or socks in the stockings, something a little more festive than not doing gifts at all. Because we usually can't afford to do gifts for each other. So, maybe next year we will start a stocking tradition.
I would do some holiday baking or candy making but we can't eat sweets or carbs, so...no gingerbread men for us!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Rain and Some More Rain
Okay, I know people that live in Minnesota or wherever think we Californians are a bunch of whiny babies when it comes to rain, but when you live in a desert, rain is front page news and all of the TV news stations are on STORM WATCH!!! We don't get that much rain here and this weekend we broke records for rainfall that had been standing since the 1930's here in Kern County. It rained a lot and is still raining.
So, we basically stayed inside all weekend, opening a window so we could actually hear the rain. The system is coming in from Hawaii so the temps are not so cold as with most rainstorms. Our local news showed kids kayaking in their flooded street yesterday.
We aren't having any problems yet in our neighborhood, but in mountain areas of California there is always threats of mudslides and flash floods and rivers overflowing, and this storm is supposed to last well into the week and then another one comes in next weekend.
After nobody really knowing what was going on and getting conflicting stories from people who should know what's going on, Keith found out that his work will indeed pay them for Christmas Eve as a holiday since normally they would get paid for Christmas if it fell on a weekday, so pretty much everyone is taking the Eve off and then they get another three day weekend for New Year's so that works out well. For his Christmas present I will let him relax and do whatever he wants instead of nagging him to get something done around here. I let him vegetate on the couch all day yesterday watching football.
I've been getting my holiday rush in my shops, so nice to actually wake up to some orders and have packages to take to the post office. This is what online selling is supposed to be about, not waking up to an empty inbox and no sales.
I woke up really really early this morning, at 4:30, and was so hungry that I couldn't get back to sleep, so just went ahead and got up and fed the cats and made the coffee. I'll probably crash and burn around 2pm, though.
So, we basically stayed inside all weekend, opening a window so we could actually hear the rain. The system is coming in from Hawaii so the temps are not so cold as with most rainstorms. Our local news showed kids kayaking in their flooded street yesterday.
We aren't having any problems yet in our neighborhood, but in mountain areas of California there is always threats of mudslides and flash floods and rivers overflowing, and this storm is supposed to last well into the week and then another one comes in next weekend.
After nobody really knowing what was going on and getting conflicting stories from people who should know what's going on, Keith found out that his work will indeed pay them for Christmas Eve as a holiday since normally they would get paid for Christmas if it fell on a weekday, so pretty much everyone is taking the Eve off and then they get another three day weekend for New Year's so that works out well. For his Christmas present I will let him relax and do whatever he wants instead of nagging him to get something done around here. I let him vegetate on the couch all day yesterday watching football.
I've been getting my holiday rush in my shops, so nice to actually wake up to some orders and have packages to take to the post office. This is what online selling is supposed to be about, not waking up to an empty inbox and no sales.
I woke up really really early this morning, at 4:30, and was so hungry that I couldn't get back to sleep, so just went ahead and got up and fed the cats and made the coffee. I'll probably crash and burn around 2pm, though.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
What's Up This Week
Um, not a whole lot yet. It is supposed to get up to 107 degrees today. I set my alarm for 6:30 today in the hopes of getting out for a bike ride before it's 107 since I haven't been out yet this week. We went for our annuals at the doctors on Monday morning and then yesterday morning were at the blood lab at 8 am for our blood work. We didn't get out of there until almost 9. I hadn't been to the doctor in almost 2 years, last year being the year of Putting Everything Off because we were (and still are) extremely poor. After Keith getting his colonoscopy and lots of blood work last year that ended up costing us about $800.00 in co-pays I decided that nobody else was running up any medical bills last year.
We'll see what the insurance will or won't pay on this year. I hate insurance companies.
We rented a few movies this weekend, going to the rental box in Vons which had turned into a Blockbuster rental box (if you can't beat em, join em) which was only $1.00 per movie and didn't even charge sales tax like the Red Box does, but Blockbusters rental boxes take FOREVER to get the movie out and when you return it it takes FOREVER and you are standing there wondering if it is going to credit you with returning the movie or if you'll be paying $1.00 a day for it for the rest of your life.
Anyway, we watched Hot Tub Time Machine, silly silly movie but funny, funny at the same time. No Oscar winner there, but fun and silly to watch. Then we watched The Road, which was so totally opposite of Hot Tub Time Machine, very dark and depressing, but excellently acted. Depressing, though. If we have a nuclear war any time soon I don't think I'd want to survive and have to eat the cats first, children next.
After we took those two movies back we got Ghost Writer and Gamers, again totally opposite types of movies. Ghost Writer was really good and reminded me of Hitchcock movies from the sixties, the dark style of filming and the dramatic music and intrigue. Gamers was a little boring at parts, lots of blood and guts, but the premise of the whole thing of mind control and video games interesting.
What else? Oh, we had a good dinner last night, when I was trying to come up with the week's menu Keith suggested cheese ravioli, which I never think to make and I don't know why, because how easy is cooking up ravioli and warming up some spaghetti sauce anyway? I steamed a cauliflower to go with it, and how easy is that when you use the plastic steaming bags that you can buy in a box right next to the tin foils and plastic wraps. Put your vegetables in the steaming bag and into the microwave for a few minutes and they come out perfect and no pots and pans to clean up. So ravioli will definitely go into our dinner menu rotation from now on.
Did anyone else watch America's Got Talent last night? It's the semi-finals now, exciting stuff! I'm still kind of embarrassed that I got hooked on this show but it's the ONLY reality type show that I am hooked on, so...
That Prince Poppycock is one good looking man in real life. If he doesn't get a gig being Prince Poppycock on a stage somewhere he will get one as an underwear model or posing for the covers of romance novels, that's for sure. I'm also partial to the one singer who did the Joe Cocker song last night, he's pretty good. And the ballroom dancer kids, they're fun to watch. I was really disappointed in the goth magician's act last night, the first time I saw him I thought he'd be going somewhere but after last night the only place he'll be going is back home. And that poor girl singer from YouTube, sorry, you just don't have a good enough voice.
Can't wait for next week's show!
We'll see what the insurance will or won't pay on this year. I hate insurance companies.
We rented a few movies this weekend, going to the rental box in Vons which had turned into a Blockbuster rental box (if you can't beat em, join em) which was only $1.00 per movie and didn't even charge sales tax like the Red Box does, but Blockbusters rental boxes take FOREVER to get the movie out and when you return it it takes FOREVER and you are standing there wondering if it is going to credit you with returning the movie or if you'll be paying $1.00 a day for it for the rest of your life.
Anyway, we watched Hot Tub Time Machine, silly silly movie but funny, funny at the same time. No Oscar winner there, but fun and silly to watch. Then we watched The Road, which was so totally opposite of Hot Tub Time Machine, very dark and depressing, but excellently acted. Depressing, though. If we have a nuclear war any time soon I don't think I'd want to survive and have to eat the cats first, children next.
After we took those two movies back we got Ghost Writer and Gamers, again totally opposite types of movies. Ghost Writer was really good and reminded me of Hitchcock movies from the sixties, the dark style of filming and the dramatic music and intrigue. Gamers was a little boring at parts, lots of blood and guts, but the premise of the whole thing of mind control and video games interesting.
What else? Oh, we had a good dinner last night, when I was trying to come up with the week's menu Keith suggested cheese ravioli, which I never think to make and I don't know why, because how easy is cooking up ravioli and warming up some spaghetti sauce anyway? I steamed a cauliflower to go with it, and how easy is that when you use the plastic steaming bags that you can buy in a box right next to the tin foils and plastic wraps. Put your vegetables in the steaming bag and into the microwave for a few minutes and they come out perfect and no pots and pans to clean up. So ravioli will definitely go into our dinner menu rotation from now on.
Did anyone else watch America's Got Talent last night? It's the semi-finals now, exciting stuff! I'm still kind of embarrassed that I got hooked on this show but it's the ONLY reality type show that I am hooked on, so...
That Prince Poppycock is one good looking man in real life. If he doesn't get a gig being Prince Poppycock on a stage somewhere he will get one as an underwear model or posing for the covers of romance novels, that's for sure. I'm also partial to the one singer who did the Joe Cocker song last night, he's pretty good. And the ballroom dancer kids, they're fun to watch. I was really disappointed in the goth magician's act last night, the first time I saw him I thought he'd be going somewhere but after last night the only place he'll be going is back home. And that poor girl singer from YouTube, sorry, you just don't have a good enough voice.
Can't wait for next week's show!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Nothing Much Just Random Stuff
It's been an odd week weather wise, with it being cool enough in the mornings to actually open up the windows and turn the a/c off. The cats are loving being able to sit at the back door and hear all the sounds and smell all the smells.
Best thing we ever did was move this kitty condo over by the door, it usually has at least one cat on or in it and the scratching posts have almost been destroyed, much better than the couch being destroyed.
We do have some fires in the local mountains that have burned quite a few houses, one near Lake Isabella along the Kern River where there are little mountain towns and houses, and one near Tehachapi in an area that I didn't even know had a little community in it. The news had a story about one of the river rafting companies ferrying firefighters across the river in rafts, the fire burning in a really rugged area where going across the river is the only way to get in.
A few weeks ago I had pulled the green waste trash can out front so that I could put some green waste in it, and then left it by the garage door since it was going to be put on the curb that night for trash day, and of course our spy from the homeowners association came by and took a picture of it. Which they sent to us yesterday with their little 'courtesy notice' about how we aren't supposed to leave the trash cans out. So, I moved my rude little gnome to where any pictures taken of the house will have him front and center. Or should I say rear and center. Because homeowners association, you can just kiss this!
Best thing we ever did was move this kitty condo over by the door, it usually has at least one cat on or in it and the scratching posts have almost been destroyed, much better than the couch being destroyed.
We do have some fires in the local mountains that have burned quite a few houses, one near Lake Isabella along the Kern River where there are little mountain towns and houses, and one near Tehachapi in an area that I didn't even know had a little community in it. The news had a story about one of the river rafting companies ferrying firefighters across the river in rafts, the fire burning in a really rugged area where going across the river is the only way to get in.
A few weeks ago I had pulled the green waste trash can out front so that I could put some green waste in it, and then left it by the garage door since it was going to be put on the curb that night for trash day, and of course our spy from the homeowners association came by and took a picture of it. Which they sent to us yesterday with their little 'courtesy notice' about how we aren't supposed to leave the trash cans out. So, I moved my rude little gnome to where any pictures taken of the house will have him front and center. Or should I say rear and center. Because homeowners association, you can just kiss this!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
More Randomness
Or, nothing of importance going on around here. As usual.
I am a good citizen. I filled out our census form and am returning it in today's mail. Keith wanted to fill it out with us having about 20 people living here with made up names but I didn't think that the government would find that quite as amusing as he seems to think it would be.
Did you hear about the poor guy who was just jogging on the beach and got hit by a plane? He's probably thinking that the beach is about the safest place in the world to go jogging since there are no cars to worry about, and he gets killed by a crash landing airplane. Jeez.
We got a nasty gram from our homeowners association in the mail yesterday because our grass was too long. Sigh. Keith had put some fertilizer and stuff on the yard so it wouldn't be all brown and dead looking and we wouldn't get a letter saying our yard was too brown and dead looking and the fertilizer made the grass go crazy and grew inches practically overnight and now it's too long and shaggy looking and I swear you just can't win. If we ever move from this house we will never ever buy a house that is part of a homeowners association again.
And, finally, here is something to make you smile if not LOL.
I am a good citizen. I filled out our census form and am returning it in today's mail. Keith wanted to fill it out with us having about 20 people living here with made up names but I didn't think that the government would find that quite as amusing as he seems to think it would be.
Did you hear about the poor guy who was just jogging on the beach and got hit by a plane? He's probably thinking that the beach is about the safest place in the world to go jogging since there are no cars to worry about, and he gets killed by a crash landing airplane. Jeez.
We got a nasty gram from our homeowners association in the mail yesterday because our grass was too long. Sigh. Keith had put some fertilizer and stuff on the yard so it wouldn't be all brown and dead looking and we wouldn't get a letter saying our yard was too brown and dead looking and the fertilizer made the grass go crazy and grew inches practically overnight and now it's too long and shaggy looking and I swear you just can't win. If we ever move from this house we will never ever buy a house that is part of a homeowners association again.
And, finally, here is something to make you smile if not LOL.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Random Thoughts
We were watching TV the other night and Jamie Lee Curtis was talking about irregularity again, and Keith and I got to thinking that you never see any men on these types of commercials, just women, so is irregularity something that men either don't have problems with or wouldn't eat the yogurt anyway or what. Keith said it's because the guys just drink a lot of beer and that keeps them going just fine. Now if they made beer flavored Activia they might have something there.
I was very proud of Keith over the weekend, he actually got something accomplished and the wood that was on the living room floor is gone. It's not quite all on the walls yet, but close. He was replacing the trim around the doors in the kitchen with trim that he cut himself and will match all the other wood work that he's done in the living room and kitchen, and there are only 2 pieces to go. He is a perfectionist when it comes to woodworking so everything takes a long long long time...someday, though, someday, we may have a finished kitchen. Complete with a floor!
Keith got a new debit card in the mail yesterday. I just assumed the old one had expired but there was a letter about how his debit card number had been flagged for possibly being compromised so they were sending him a new card with a new number. Keith called the bank to see what the heck was up but all they could tell him was that they got an alert with a whole string of credit and debit card numbers that were found in a database somewhere and had apparently been stolen. We did have a couple of criminals here in town that were putting little capture machines into gas pumps and stealing debit card and pin numbers from gas pumps so we're thinking that might be what happened. About the only place he uses his debit card is to buy gas or lunch. It does make you a little leery of using your debit card all over the place like we do, though.
And, speaking of calling the bank, our phone has been acting up for quite a while, where it wasn't keeping a charge and you'd be trying to talk on the phone and it would start beeping that the battery was low. Not that we even use the phone that much, days will go by without the phone ringing and when it does ring it's just somebody trying to get us to send them money for tickets to the Police Association Rodeo or something. Anyway, he's been getting more and more frustrated with the phone and last night he was trying to call the bank and both phones were beeping that the batteries were low even though they sit in the chargers unused for days on end and he got so mad that he threw the phones into the trash. I said can't we just get new battery packs for the phone, but it's an old phone and we've never really liked it anyway, so we went and got a new phone at Target. And, dang, but do they have some fancy phones these days.
Now we have to relearn how to use a phone. I'd really like to just get one that just plugs in and sits on its cradle, doesn't have a battery or an answering machine or speaker phone or phone book inside it or buttons and beepers and all that, but I guess they don't make those kinds of phones any more.
I was very proud of Keith over the weekend, he actually got something accomplished and the wood that was on the living room floor is gone. It's not quite all on the walls yet, but close. He was replacing the trim around the doors in the kitchen with trim that he cut himself and will match all the other wood work that he's done in the living room and kitchen, and there are only 2 pieces to go. He is a perfectionist when it comes to woodworking so everything takes a long long long time...someday, though, someday, we may have a finished kitchen. Complete with a floor!
Keith got a new debit card in the mail yesterday. I just assumed the old one had expired but there was a letter about how his debit card number had been flagged for possibly being compromised so they were sending him a new card with a new number. Keith called the bank to see what the heck was up but all they could tell him was that they got an alert with a whole string of credit and debit card numbers that were found in a database somewhere and had apparently been stolen. We did have a couple of criminals here in town that were putting little capture machines into gas pumps and stealing debit card and pin numbers from gas pumps so we're thinking that might be what happened. About the only place he uses his debit card is to buy gas or lunch. It does make you a little leery of using your debit card all over the place like we do, though.
And, speaking of calling the bank, our phone has been acting up for quite a while, where it wasn't keeping a charge and you'd be trying to talk on the phone and it would start beeping that the battery was low. Not that we even use the phone that much, days will go by without the phone ringing and when it does ring it's just somebody trying to get us to send them money for tickets to the Police Association Rodeo or something. Anyway, he's been getting more and more frustrated with the phone and last night he was trying to call the bank and both phones were beeping that the batteries were low even though they sit in the chargers unused for days on end and he got so mad that he threw the phones into the trash. I said can't we just get new battery packs for the phone, but it's an old phone and we've never really liked it anyway, so we went and got a new phone at Target. And, dang, but do they have some fancy phones these days.
Now we have to relearn how to use a phone. I'd really like to just get one that just plugs in and sits on its cradle, doesn't have a battery or an answering machine or speaker phone or phone book inside it or buttons and beepers and all that, but I guess they don't make those kinds of phones any more.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Just Whatever
I have no real topic today, but I did wake up this morning mad at Keith because of a dream that I had last night where he rented us an apartment ( I have no idea why he rented us an apartment when we already have a house, but anyway) an apartment that cost $2000.00 a month. In the dream the apartment was really nice with big windows, wood floors, two bedrooms, a huge laundry room, and back steps that led to a little yard. You could see the ocean from all of the big windows and in the dream I was really excited to see the ocean but then he wouldn't tell me how much the rent was until the landlord came to get the rent and then he said it was $2000.00! Actually that's probably cheap for anywhere you get a view of the ocean, but there was no way we could afford the rent in the dream. Or in real life.
We heard on the news the other night that Sam's Club is going to be laying off the employees that give out the samples and hiring outside workers to do the sample giving instead. That stinks! The poor people that give out the samples probably make minimum wage at best and are just trying to earn a few bucks there, but if Walmart doesn't have these people on their payroll then they don't have to pay any benefits to them and the bottom line looks better to the stockholders. If I shopped at Sam's Club I'd boycott them, but since I don't shop there in the first place and don't belong to their Club, my continuing to not shop there won't make much of a difference. I'm surprised they don't just do away with the sample giving altogether but then they'd really see a boycott because I think most of the people who shop there just go for the free lunch they can make out of all the samples. The news story said it would only affect about 20 people here in Bakersfield, but when you multiply that 20 people by the sheer number of Sam's Clubs around the country, that's a lot of people out of work. Even if it was a crappy underpaid job.
I think my 15 minutes of Etsy Finds fame is over, but it was a good run while it lasted. I had a good couple of days of sales there. I did sell some of the new ceramic tile coasters that I was working on. Like these here.
I like how they've been coming out and the cost is minimal, but I think I'm going to use wood for future ones, no worries about breakage with wood and it's much lighter so much cheaper to ship. The company that I get wholesale wood pieces from has 4" squares for about 50c each, the ceramic tiles are 16c each, so just a little more in cost for the wood.
We were in the grocery store the other day and I found a package of plastic ocean toys and since the plastic horse pendants have been selling (thanks, Etsy Finds) I got them to do pendants.
I've never seen a purple whale before.
I'm kind of partial to the hermit crab, I think he's pretty cute!
We heard on the news the other night that Sam's Club is going to be laying off the employees that give out the samples and hiring outside workers to do the sample giving instead. That stinks! The poor people that give out the samples probably make minimum wage at best and are just trying to earn a few bucks there, but if Walmart doesn't have these people on their payroll then they don't have to pay any benefits to them and the bottom line looks better to the stockholders. If I shopped at Sam's Club I'd boycott them, but since I don't shop there in the first place and don't belong to their Club, my continuing to not shop there won't make much of a difference. I'm surprised they don't just do away with the sample giving altogether but then they'd really see a boycott because I think most of the people who shop there just go for the free lunch they can make out of all the samples. The news story said it would only affect about 20 people here in Bakersfield, but when you multiply that 20 people by the sheer number of Sam's Clubs around the country, that's a lot of people out of work. Even if it was a crappy underpaid job.
I think my 15 minutes of Etsy Finds fame is over, but it was a good run while it lasted. I had a good couple of days of sales there. I did sell some of the new ceramic tile coasters that I was working on. Like these here.
I like how they've been coming out and the cost is minimal, but I think I'm going to use wood for future ones, no worries about breakage with wood and it's much lighter so much cheaper to ship. The company that I get wholesale wood pieces from has 4" squares for about 50c each, the ceramic tiles are 16c each, so just a little more in cost for the wood.
We were in the grocery store the other day and I found a package of plastic ocean toys and since the plastic horse pendants have been selling (thanks, Etsy Finds) I got them to do pendants.
I've never seen a purple whale before.
I'm kind of partial to the hermit crab, I think he's pretty cute!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Random Thoughts
So, the phone rings this morning and I answer it thinking that it's Keith calling on his break because usually he's the only person that calls here, and it's not Keith but someone asking for him by his full name, so I'm all excited thinking that it's the HR person from the cement plant so I put on my most professional voice and say 'he's at work, can I take a message' but no, it's a guy from Mitsubishi because Keith looked at cars there LAST JANUARY and did we need any help with anything. Like maybe we are still looking for a car A YEAR LATER? I told him, no we bought a car LAST JANUARY, and are not in the market for another one. Especially since we can barely, just barely afford the car that we bought LAST JANUARY. You, know, the one where we missed out on all the cash for clunkers and the practically giving cars away for free thing.
Buddy is being a little pest today, meowing around the house, biting my leg, rubbing against every surface possible, getting under foot, and did I mention biting my leg? I finally got out the catnip thinking that would keep him occupied for a few minutes and of course every other cat in the house smelled the catnip so they had a little catnip frenzy there, and Buddy has to go around to everyone else's catnip because the grass is always greener don't you know.
Let's talk about the weather now, because that's always scintillating conversation, isn't it? It's gray, it's chilly, and it's fog season. No rain here, but we get the killer fog that always ends up causing multi car pileups on the interstate. Where 30 cars or so end up all smashed together.
There was a rather gruesome crash on the 99 the other day. A truck full of live turkeys, like 1200 of them, overturned and caught on fire. The poor turkeys were stuck in their cages on fire, roasting alive. Ugh. The news showed pictures of the caltrans workers shoveling up roasted turkeys off the road. Ugh. It kind of spoils the idea of having roasted turkey for Christmas dinner, seeing that, and I'm sure the caltrans guys will be having ham instead after that experience.
Not much else going on, I need to walk over to the post office but I am procrastinating because, like I said, it's a little chilly outside. I will force myself to go, though, because if I don't get there before 3, the mail will be picked up and I'll have to drive over to the real post office which is about 7 miles away through heavy traffic. That sounds even worse than walking through heavy traffic right now.
Buddy is being a little pest today, meowing around the house, biting my leg, rubbing against every surface possible, getting under foot, and did I mention biting my leg? I finally got out the catnip thinking that would keep him occupied for a few minutes and of course every other cat in the house smelled the catnip so they had a little catnip frenzy there, and Buddy has to go around to everyone else's catnip because the grass is always greener don't you know.
Let's talk about the weather now, because that's always scintillating conversation, isn't it? It's gray, it's chilly, and it's fog season. No rain here, but we get the killer fog that always ends up causing multi car pileups on the interstate. Where 30 cars or so end up all smashed together.
There was a rather gruesome crash on the 99 the other day. A truck full of live turkeys, like 1200 of them, overturned and caught on fire. The poor turkeys were stuck in their cages on fire, roasting alive. Ugh. The news showed pictures of the caltrans workers shoveling up roasted turkeys off the road. Ugh. It kind of spoils the idea of having roasted turkey for Christmas dinner, seeing that, and I'm sure the caltrans guys will be having ham instead after that experience.
Not much else going on, I need to walk over to the post office but I am procrastinating because, like I said, it's a little chilly outside. I will force myself to go, though, because if I don't get there before 3, the mail will be picked up and I'll have to drive over to the real post office which is about 7 miles away through heavy traffic. That sounds even worse than walking through heavy traffic right now.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Random Thoughts
I wish Starbucks was closer to the post office that I walk to because I really want a Starbucks. But I am too lazy to walk to the post office and then all the way over to the Starbucks. Which is a long way across many many parking lots. And I am too lazy. But at least I will save $4.00 because of my laziness.
Why do the cats always want to be petted when I am sitting on the toilet? Because I look like I am not busy and am a captive audience?
We have decided that we prefer summer in Bakersfield instead of winter. At least we will prefer it until next summer rolls around and it's once again a few hundred degrees out.
I am procrastinating because I need to walk over to the post office but it's cold outside.
We actually had some of the promised rain last night. At least I guess it rained, the streets were wet this morning. Must be time for STORM WATCH!
I went to the Goodwill bookstore this weekend and scored! I got two bags of books for $8.25, one bag full of vintage kids books and a dictionary for cutting up for pendants, and one bag full of some novels to read. I had bought two paperbacks at walmart because I was desperate for something to read but both books SUCKED BIG TIME so I wasted $12.00 on them. Next time I am tempted to buy a book from walmart I will remember to wait until I can get to the Goodwill where if I buy a book that SUCKS BIG TIME at least I only wasted 85c on it.
We have been watching the first season of The Big Bang Theory, it was on sale at Target for less than the cost of the sucky books from walmart, and we have really enjoyed watching it. We have followed the current season and this show really grows on you. I don't usually laugh out loud at TV shows, but this one has me snickering. Mostly because of Sheldon. And the Indian guy. And it's fun to watch a TV show with no commercials. Now I'll have to wait for season two to go on sale so I can catch up.
And that is all. I'm not having that many random thoughts today.
Why do the cats always want to be petted when I am sitting on the toilet? Because I look like I am not busy and am a captive audience?
We have decided that we prefer summer in Bakersfield instead of winter. At least we will prefer it until next summer rolls around and it's once again a few hundred degrees out.
I am procrastinating because I need to walk over to the post office but it's cold outside.
We actually had some of the promised rain last night. At least I guess it rained, the streets were wet this morning. Must be time for STORM WATCH!
I went to the Goodwill bookstore this weekend and scored! I got two bags of books for $8.25, one bag full of vintage kids books and a dictionary for cutting up for pendants, and one bag full of some novels to read. I had bought two paperbacks at walmart because I was desperate for something to read but both books SUCKED BIG TIME so I wasted $12.00 on them. Next time I am tempted to buy a book from walmart I will remember to wait until I can get to the Goodwill where if I buy a book that SUCKS BIG TIME at least I only wasted 85c on it.
We have been watching the first season of The Big Bang Theory, it was on sale at Target for less than the cost of the sucky books from walmart, and we have really enjoyed watching it. We have followed the current season and this show really grows on you. I don't usually laugh out loud at TV shows, but this one has me snickering. Mostly because of Sheldon. And the Indian guy. And it's fun to watch a TV show with no commercials. Now I'll have to wait for season two to go on sale so I can catch up.
And that is all. I'm not having that many random thoughts today.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Random Thoughts
Columbus Day? Does anyone other than federal or state employees even get this day off any more? I noticed our bank has a sign saying that they will be open today, so maybe even banks are giving up on this holiday.
Keith didn't shut his alarm off all the way this morning so at 4:30 am I woke up to his alarm beeping away. I don't know how to shut his off, so I had to get up and go find him to turn it off. He was in the garage. I don't know why he was in the garage at 4:30 am. Looking for something he needed to take to work today? I don't know and didn't ask. I just wanted the alarm shut off so I could go back to bed.
We went to the annual Peddler's Fair at the Kern County Museum on Saturday. We really couldn't afford to go but we haven't done anything fun in so long that we scrounged up the admission price and wandered around for a few hours. I saw a few things that I might have bought back in our more prosperous days but most of what was there didn't appeal to me much. It seemed that there were a lot fewer vendors there, maybe they couldn't afford the $125.00 booth fees this year. The food vendors were fewer, too, and I was really disappointed that they didn't have the coffee people this time, I was looking forward to a frothy coffee drink but nobody was selling anything hot, just water and lemonade and soda.
Other than that, it was another rather dull weekend.
I was listening to Bob and Tom this morning and they were talking about school lunches back in the day, how you got hot lunch and what they were serving that day was what you got. No choices, just what the lunch lady gave you. We always got hot lunch and it was like a mini dinner, meat, potatoes, vegetables. Peas, usually canned peas. You would try to get away with stuffing your vegetables into your empty milk carton but the lunch ladies would come around and check to make sure you ate your vegetables and would rattle your milk carton to make sure you drank your milk.
I'm trying to decide what to do today. I don't have any supplies to make anything but soldered glass pendants and don't really feel like making any since they are not exactly flying off the shelves these days. I do have some housework I could do even though I just vacuumed yesterday. I was using the wand thing on the vacuum yesterday to clean the edges around the kitchen and sucked up a toy mouse with it. Oops. It went all the way into the vacuum, so now there is a toy mouse in with all the dirt and cat hair. We have one of those bagless vacuums so you can see what all the vacuum is sucking up and it's amazing how much cat hair gets on the floor even with vacuuming every few days. Big wads of cat hair.
And that is all I can think of to talk about.
Keith didn't shut his alarm off all the way this morning so at 4:30 am I woke up to his alarm beeping away. I don't know how to shut his off, so I had to get up and go find him to turn it off. He was in the garage. I don't know why he was in the garage at 4:30 am. Looking for something he needed to take to work today? I don't know and didn't ask. I just wanted the alarm shut off so I could go back to bed.
We went to the annual Peddler's Fair at the Kern County Museum on Saturday. We really couldn't afford to go but we haven't done anything fun in so long that we scrounged up the admission price and wandered around for a few hours. I saw a few things that I might have bought back in our more prosperous days but most of what was there didn't appeal to me much. It seemed that there were a lot fewer vendors there, maybe they couldn't afford the $125.00 booth fees this year. The food vendors were fewer, too, and I was really disappointed that they didn't have the coffee people this time, I was looking forward to a frothy coffee drink but nobody was selling anything hot, just water and lemonade and soda.
Other than that, it was another rather dull weekend.
I was listening to Bob and Tom this morning and they were talking about school lunches back in the day, how you got hot lunch and what they were serving that day was what you got. No choices, just what the lunch lady gave you. We always got hot lunch and it was like a mini dinner, meat, potatoes, vegetables. Peas, usually canned peas. You would try to get away with stuffing your vegetables into your empty milk carton but the lunch ladies would come around and check to make sure you ate your vegetables and would rattle your milk carton to make sure you drank your milk.
I'm trying to decide what to do today. I don't have any supplies to make anything but soldered glass pendants and don't really feel like making any since they are not exactly flying off the shelves these days. I do have some housework I could do even though I just vacuumed yesterday. I was using the wand thing on the vacuum yesterday to clean the edges around the kitchen and sucked up a toy mouse with it. Oops. It went all the way into the vacuum, so now there is a toy mouse in with all the dirt and cat hair. We have one of those bagless vacuums so you can see what all the vacuum is sucking up and it's amazing how much cat hair gets on the floor even with vacuuming every few days. Big wads of cat hair.
And that is all I can think of to talk about.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Don't Go Outside!
We're having an air quality alert today. Unhealthy for everyone, so don't go outside! Last night we were sitting at the dinner table asking each other what our reason for moving to Bakersfield was in the first place. It's hot and the air is unbreathable, but the houses are cheap! Ugh. I really miss the nice ocean air in Ventura, but the possibility of moving back there is like slim and none. The place Keith worked before we moved here is laying people off right and left, and the ones that are still there are on a 4 day work week, soon to go down to 3, so it's not like he could get his job back or anything.
And we're a little ticked about this cash for clunkers deal that's going on right now. It's really annoying that we bought a car in January and missed out on this deal, but our clunker wouldn't have lasted this long and we really needed a car so Keith could get to work. I was wondering why they have to destroy the clunkers, why they couldn't have refurbished them (creating some refurbishing jobs along the way) and given these cars to low income people who don't have a car or something. Also, think about it, the government money for the clunkers is not free money, it's our money that we paid in taxes. Nothing from the government is free, somebody (us) has already paid for it.
I had the most bizarre dream about going back to work at walmart last night. Not that they've called me to come back to work, which also ticks me off. I've noticed that the applications these days all ask if you or your family has received any welfare or other government (again, our tax dollars) money, and I'm thinking that businesses are being pressured to hire these people first, so if you haven't been on welfare, you're not going to get hired. Anyway, the dream was that I was going to my first day at work but didn't have any pants on and had to buy some walmart khaki pants and was running around the store trying to buy some pants, then was like an hour late for work trying to find pants, then went into the bathroom at walmart (I always have weird bathroom dreams when in reality I really do need to get up and pee) and there were big fat rats in the bathroom and cats trying to catch the big fat rats that were eating people's plates of food that they had left in the bathroom. There were also big piles of cats in the garden section of walmart and they were sorted by orange cats on this side and silver tabbies on the other side. In part of the dream I was also like miles away from walmart and trying to walk as fast as I could to get to work on time. I think I still didn't have pants on at that point.
I do have some odd dreams sometimes and while they make perfect sense when I'm dreaming them, I always wake up and kind of go 'huh?'. I don't always remember much of them, but this one I did because I did indeed wake up and go to the bathroom.
And we're a little ticked about this cash for clunkers deal that's going on right now. It's really annoying that we bought a car in January and missed out on this deal, but our clunker wouldn't have lasted this long and we really needed a car so Keith could get to work. I was wondering why they have to destroy the clunkers, why they couldn't have refurbished them (creating some refurbishing jobs along the way) and given these cars to low income people who don't have a car or something. Also, think about it, the government money for the clunkers is not free money, it's our money that we paid in taxes. Nothing from the government is free, somebody (us) has already paid for it.
I had the most bizarre dream about going back to work at walmart last night. Not that they've called me to come back to work, which also ticks me off. I've noticed that the applications these days all ask if you or your family has received any welfare or other government (again, our tax dollars) money, and I'm thinking that businesses are being pressured to hire these people first, so if you haven't been on welfare, you're not going to get hired. Anyway, the dream was that I was going to my first day at work but didn't have any pants on and had to buy some walmart khaki pants and was running around the store trying to buy some pants, then was like an hour late for work trying to find pants, then went into the bathroom at walmart (I always have weird bathroom dreams when in reality I really do need to get up and pee) and there were big fat rats in the bathroom and cats trying to catch the big fat rats that were eating people's plates of food that they had left in the bathroom. There were also big piles of cats in the garden section of walmart and they were sorted by orange cats on this side and silver tabbies on the other side. In part of the dream I was also like miles away from walmart and trying to walk as fast as I could to get to work on time. I think I still didn't have pants on at that point.
I do have some odd dreams sometimes and while they make perfect sense when I'm dreaming them, I always wake up and kind of go 'huh?'. I don't always remember much of them, but this one I did because I did indeed wake up and go to the bathroom.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Just Stuff
I haven't blogged yet this week, not because I'm just so very busy, but because there really wasn't anything to blog about. It has not been a real productive week so far, but today I did start cleaning and doing laundry early and have actually gotten quite a bit done.
As I was cleaning, I was thinking about how when you live with someone else, it's not the big things that annoy you, it's the little tiny things, like a t-shirt left laying on the couch, or the cereal box left on the counter, or the hairbrush on the sink instead of in the drawer. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about here. We all have our little things that we do that are guaranteed to annoy someone else. Not me, of course, I never annoy, ha ha.
What else? Oh, yes, Buddy got himself stuck in the washer/dryer closet in the kitchen. He had jumped onto the dryer, saw a toy mouse between the dryer and the wall, then jumped down in between the dryer and the wall to get his mouse, and then couldn't get his big head out from between the dryer and the folding closet door.
Please excuse our nasty kitchen floor in these photos, we still don't have a floor down and I'm beginning to wonder if we ever will. Not to mention the hole in our bathroom wall from the plumbing repairs that will probably not be covered up for months and months and months.
Here's Buddy stuck behind the door. After moving the door around, he finally figured out how to get out.
You can see the tailless toy mouse in the photo that caused all this, that little blue thing on the floor. We had rescued about twenty of these from under the stove last weekend. Buddy was in mouse heaven when he saw them all and couldn't decide which one to play with first.
And, Harri has this phobia about the kitty door into the garage. She absolutely will NOT go through the door by herself but will sit there and look at the door, look at you, look back at the door, look at you, hoping that you will open the door for her so she can go hide in a dark spot in the garage. Then she will repeat the process when she wants back in the house. You'll be walking into the kitchen and see Harri on the other side of the door looking in, patiently waiting until you come open the door for her. We've tried pushing her through so she gets the idea, but to no avail.
Open, open, open.
As I was cleaning, I was thinking about how when you live with someone else, it's not the big things that annoy you, it's the little tiny things, like a t-shirt left laying on the couch, or the cereal box left on the counter, or the hairbrush on the sink instead of in the drawer. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about here. We all have our little things that we do that are guaranteed to annoy someone else. Not me, of course, I never annoy, ha ha.
What else? Oh, yes, Buddy got himself stuck in the washer/dryer closet in the kitchen. He had jumped onto the dryer, saw a toy mouse between the dryer and the wall, then jumped down in between the dryer and the wall to get his mouse, and then couldn't get his big head out from between the dryer and the folding closet door.
Please excuse our nasty kitchen floor in these photos, we still don't have a floor down and I'm beginning to wonder if we ever will. Not to mention the hole in our bathroom wall from the plumbing repairs that will probably not be covered up for months and months and months.
Here's Buddy stuck behind the door. After moving the door around, he finally figured out how to get out.
You can see the tailless toy mouse in the photo that caused all this, that little blue thing on the floor. We had rescued about twenty of these from under the stove last weekend. Buddy was in mouse heaven when he saw them all and couldn't decide which one to play with first.And, Harri has this phobia about the kitty door into the garage. She absolutely will NOT go through the door by herself but will sit there and look at the door, look at you, look back at the door, look at you, hoping that you will open the door for her so she can go hide in a dark spot in the garage. Then she will repeat the process when she wants back in the house. You'll be walking into the kitchen and see Harri on the other side of the door looking in, patiently waiting until you come open the door for her. We've tried pushing her through so she gets the idea, but to no avail.
Open, open, open.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
We Have Shower Capabilities and Other Randomness
After two days and countless trips to Home Depot, buying parts, returning parts, buying parts, returning parts, we have the ability to once again take a shower. You don't know how much you depend on something until it's broken, let me tell you. And, it's a good thing that Keith knows plumbing, or we would have spent THOUSANDS instead of 'only' next week's grocery budget on this little repair. Being without a shower was almost like the day we spent without a toilet, but not quite as bad. The day without a toilet is a whole other story, though.
Here is our $85.00 faucet, which was one of the cheap ones, believe it or not.
It is all wet because I just finished taking my first shower in a day or two.
This is the other side of the wall, where it was necessary to cut a hole in order to get to the pipes and all so that the guts of the faucet could be replaced.
Keith installed shut off valves so that next time the faucet needs replacing he won't have to shut off water to the whole house. This hole will eventually be covered up with a removable panel so that next time he won't have to cut another hole in the wall.
This repair took a long long time, with parts having to be cut, soldered, gooped, tightened, the piece of wood added to screw the whole mess to so that it wouldn't just be flopping around inside the wall. A long time, like two evenings worth, and Keith didn't get to take his shower until around midnight last night. And, as he was taking his shower, I noticed water spraying out from the hole in the wall because he forgot to tighten one nut.
Then, after working on the shower until midnight, he had to get up at 4 am this morning to go to work. I was trying to convince him to call in exhausted and not go to work today, but they don't have sick pay and he already used up his vacation days and we really can't afford for him to miss a day's pay. So, off he went in the dark this morning. But, at least he was clean.
My new bra is very uncomfortable. I got one that is cotton but it has the underwires and side support and all and it feels almost as if it is made of iron rather than cotton. So, that was a waste of $15.00 there.
Poor Harri the cat is so stressed out from Buddy and Lucy tormenting her by chasing her around the house that she has started to vomit whenever she sees them even thinking about stalking her. I've been trying to keep the squirt bottle handy so that I can spray them when I see that 'let's get Harri' look in their eyes.
They did a study that shows that texting while driving is dangerous. Duh. Why they have to pay someone to do a study of the obvious is beyond me. Do you think that this study will convince people to stop texting while driving? Maybe I should convince them to pay me to do a study on whether or not people give a crap that they are endangering other people's lives by texting while driving.
I need to go clean house, now. Not that I have any ambition to do much of anything these days, but at least I can take a shower after I get all sweaty from cleaning the house.
Here is our $85.00 faucet, which was one of the cheap ones, believe it or not.
It is all wet because I just finished taking my first shower in a day or two.
This is the other side of the wall, where it was necessary to cut a hole in order to get to the pipes and all so that the guts of the faucet could be replaced.
Keith installed shut off valves so that next time the faucet needs replacing he won't have to shut off water to the whole house. This hole will eventually be covered up with a removable panel so that next time he won't have to cut another hole in the wall.This repair took a long long time, with parts having to be cut, soldered, gooped, tightened, the piece of wood added to screw the whole mess to so that it wouldn't just be flopping around inside the wall. A long time, like two evenings worth, and Keith didn't get to take his shower until around midnight last night. And, as he was taking his shower, I noticed water spraying out from the hole in the wall because he forgot to tighten one nut.
Then, after working on the shower until midnight, he had to get up at 4 am this morning to go to work. I was trying to convince him to call in exhausted and not go to work today, but they don't have sick pay and he already used up his vacation days and we really can't afford for him to miss a day's pay. So, off he went in the dark this morning. But, at least he was clean.
My new bra is very uncomfortable. I got one that is cotton but it has the underwires and side support and all and it feels almost as if it is made of iron rather than cotton. So, that was a waste of $15.00 there.
Poor Harri the cat is so stressed out from Buddy and Lucy tormenting her by chasing her around the house that she has started to vomit whenever she sees them even thinking about stalking her. I've been trying to keep the squirt bottle handy so that I can spray them when I see that 'let's get Harri' look in their eyes.
They did a study that shows that texting while driving is dangerous. Duh. Why they have to pay someone to do a study of the obvious is beyond me. Do you think that this study will convince people to stop texting while driving? Maybe I should convince them to pay me to do a study on whether or not people give a crap that they are endangering other people's lives by texting while driving.
I need to go clean house, now. Not that I have any ambition to do much of anything these days, but at least I can take a shower after I get all sweaty from cleaning the house.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Randomness
I just saw a cat chasing a little dog down the street. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.
We are going to start keeping our money under our mattress. We had some money invested in mutual funds-on the advice of our broker-and lost over $2000.00 this past month. Poof. Then after looking at things a little closer we realized that we had lost a total of over $5000.00 this year. Poof again. Now, all the financial experts will tell you to just ride it out and things will turn around, but if I ride it out much longer, our small investment account will just completely disappear. So, I'm closing that account and putting all the money into The Mattress Savings and Loan. (not really-it will get put into the bank.) The silver lining is that we'll get to take a big write off on our taxes, but I'd really just rather have that $5000.00 back.
We got invited to go to Keith's brothers for Thanksgiving! Yay! That means I don't have to cook! Yay! Not that I was planning on cooking anyway! And I asked if we could bring anything and they said no! So I don't even have to bring a dish! Yay!
Oh, and speaking of Thanksgiving, we were shopping at Wal-mart the other night (cat food and toilet paper, the usual staples) and noticed a huge banner on the front of the store. OPEN THANKSGIVING. What the ? I'm sure the Wal-mart employees are just thrilled that they get the opportunity to work on Thanksgiving. And I'm sure that since they are open they have eliminated the paid holiday for Thanksgiving, one of the very few holidays that Wal-mart employees get paid for. Oh, how I miss working there-insert extreme sarcasm here.
The bell ringers are out already, too, I guess they're starting early since they will probably feel the economic pinch just like everyone else. I put a dollar in the bucket at Vons yesterday and you would have thought it was $20.00 from the effusive thanks for being so generous that I got from the bell ringer. She was in such a good mood and so pleasant and happy that I wish it had been $20.00 that I put in there.
And if you are planning on buying gifts from the malls and big stores for the holidays, the news guy says to go ahead and buy now. The stores are already running huge sales because they know it's going to be a bad one this year, so prices are as low as they're going to get! The news guy also said that we'll probably see a bunch more retailers going bankrupt after the holidays. Which in turn will cause more job losses.
Keith went down to Oxnard yesterday to visit with his daughter, so I got the bed all to myself last night. Well, almost all to myself. I left the door to the bedroom open so the cats could come in, but was woken up at 3 am (again) by Buddy chewing on my toes. Okay, Buddy, I know you're somewhat nocturnal, but I'M NOT so quit chewing on my toes! I know you want to play, but I DON'T! GO AWAY!
We are going to start keeping our money under our mattress. We had some money invested in mutual funds-on the advice of our broker-and lost over $2000.00 this past month. Poof. Then after looking at things a little closer we realized that we had lost a total of over $5000.00 this year. Poof again. Now, all the financial experts will tell you to just ride it out and things will turn around, but if I ride it out much longer, our small investment account will just completely disappear. So, I'm closing that account and putting all the money into The Mattress Savings and Loan. (not really-it will get put into the bank.) The silver lining is that we'll get to take a big write off on our taxes, but I'd really just rather have that $5000.00 back.
We got invited to go to Keith's brothers for Thanksgiving! Yay! That means I don't have to cook! Yay! Not that I was planning on cooking anyway! And I asked if we could bring anything and they said no! So I don't even have to bring a dish! Yay!
Oh, and speaking of Thanksgiving, we were shopping at Wal-mart the other night (cat food and toilet paper, the usual staples) and noticed a huge banner on the front of the store. OPEN THANKSGIVING. What the ? I'm sure the Wal-mart employees are just thrilled that they get the opportunity to work on Thanksgiving. And I'm sure that since they are open they have eliminated the paid holiday for Thanksgiving, one of the very few holidays that Wal-mart employees get paid for. Oh, how I miss working there-insert extreme sarcasm here.
The bell ringers are out already, too, I guess they're starting early since they will probably feel the economic pinch just like everyone else. I put a dollar in the bucket at Vons yesterday and you would have thought it was $20.00 from the effusive thanks for being so generous that I got from the bell ringer. She was in such a good mood and so pleasant and happy that I wish it had been $20.00 that I put in there.
And if you are planning on buying gifts from the malls and big stores for the holidays, the news guy says to go ahead and buy now. The stores are already running huge sales because they know it's going to be a bad one this year, so prices are as low as they're going to get! The news guy also said that we'll probably see a bunch more retailers going bankrupt after the holidays. Which in turn will cause more job losses.
Keith went down to Oxnard yesterday to visit with his daughter, so I got the bed all to myself last night. Well, almost all to myself. I left the door to the bedroom open so the cats could come in, but was woken up at 3 am (again) by Buddy chewing on my toes. Okay, Buddy, I know you're somewhat nocturnal, but I'M NOT so quit chewing on my toes! I know you want to play, but I DON'T! GO AWAY!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Randomness
The weather has finally broken here. I woke up yesterday morning and went outside to an actual coolness in the air. The weatherman said we could finally open our windows at night instead of having the air conditioner on, but it was still kind of hot in here, and this morning the dog behind us is barking away so I don't know about having the window open after all. That dog hasn't been doing too much barking lately because it was just too hot, but apparently he is enjoying the cooler morning too.
We've been watching the Olympics here and there, not that we are really into sports that much, but since it only happens once every four years, you kind of feel like you should pay attention. We were watching the womens marathon and wondering why people would even want to run for over two hours in the first place. At least with the 100 meter runs or whatever lengths they are, it's over with in just a few seconds, not two and a half hours. The marathon runners did NOT look like they were having fun, and then the woman who won still had to run around the stadium. I'm sure she got an extra burst of adrenaline at winning, but good lord, you'd think all she'd want to do is sit down, not run around the stadium some more.
Since about all they've shown on the Olympics in the evenings has been swimming, running, and gymnastics, that's what I've watched. The poor girl last night who was a sure thing to win the hurdles and then tripped over one and there went her gold. When they showed it in slow motion, it was pretty easy to read her lips: OH F**K!!!.
Then there was the little Chinese gymnast who messed up on whatever it was she was doing and was just crying her little eyes out...awwww.
We were watching one of our local TV channels the other day, the one that plays all the commercials for local businesses, most of which are really low budget and show it, when a commercial came on for Liberty Bail Bonds. They even have a PLAY AREA FOR THE KIDS at Liberty Bail Bonds! How handy!!
We went down to BJ's last night for dinner since neither one of us felt like cooking (what else is new?) and there were some young couples and a baby having dinner. Apparently it was the baby's first birthday since he was wearing a first birthday crown. He was tired of being there and was getting cranky and didn't want to eat his pizzookie. And then when the baby's parents were trying to pay for dinner, not one, but two of their credit cards were declined. Then all of them had to start digging in their wallets for some real money. How embarrassing! Not a memory I'd want to have of baby's first birthday-sorry, honey, we're way over extended and can't even cover dinner with our credit cards!
For those 'not in the know' a pizzookie is a wonderful concoction of a warm cookie-your choice of flavors-with ice cream and chocolate syrup on top. A pizza cookie-how clever and delicious!
Oh, and Keith did get all of the gravel to the back yard last weekend. He made like a little gravel corral out there and rounded it all up.
This is what he's doing with all of the gravel. He's been building planter boxes and then putting these pavers in between. The little square is for a future plant. And the black thing behind the broken fence post is:
Our friend, the barking dog Cujo. I don't know what his real name is but we call him Cujo. This poor dog is stuck in the back yard all day with a very uninvolved owner. He gets really bored and barks. A lot.
We've been watching the Olympics here and there, not that we are really into sports that much, but since it only happens once every four years, you kind of feel like you should pay attention. We were watching the womens marathon and wondering why people would even want to run for over two hours in the first place. At least with the 100 meter runs or whatever lengths they are, it's over with in just a few seconds, not two and a half hours. The marathon runners did NOT look like they were having fun, and then the woman who won still had to run around the stadium. I'm sure she got an extra burst of adrenaline at winning, but good lord, you'd think all she'd want to do is sit down, not run around the stadium some more.
Since about all they've shown on the Olympics in the evenings has been swimming, running, and gymnastics, that's what I've watched. The poor girl last night who was a sure thing to win the hurdles and then tripped over one and there went her gold. When they showed it in slow motion, it was pretty easy to read her lips: OH F**K!!!.
Then there was the little Chinese gymnast who messed up on whatever it was she was doing and was just crying her little eyes out...awwww.
We were watching one of our local TV channels the other day, the one that plays all the commercials for local businesses, most of which are really low budget and show it, when a commercial came on for Liberty Bail Bonds. They even have a PLAY AREA FOR THE KIDS at Liberty Bail Bonds! How handy!!
We went down to BJ's last night for dinner since neither one of us felt like cooking (what else is new?) and there were some young couples and a baby having dinner. Apparently it was the baby's first birthday since he was wearing a first birthday crown. He was tired of being there and was getting cranky and didn't want to eat his pizzookie. And then when the baby's parents were trying to pay for dinner, not one, but two of their credit cards were declined. Then all of them had to start digging in their wallets for some real money. How embarrassing! Not a memory I'd want to have of baby's first birthday-sorry, honey, we're way over extended and can't even cover dinner with our credit cards!
For those 'not in the know' a pizzookie is a wonderful concoction of a warm cookie-your choice of flavors-with ice cream and chocolate syrup on top. A pizza cookie-how clever and delicious!
Oh, and Keith did get all of the gravel to the back yard last weekend. He made like a little gravel corral out there and rounded it all up.
This is what he's doing with all of the gravel. He's been building planter boxes and then putting these pavers in between. The little square is for a future plant. And the black thing behind the broken fence post is:
Our friend, the barking dog Cujo. I don't know what his real name is but we call him Cujo. This poor dog is stuck in the back yard all day with a very uninvolved owner. He gets really bored and barks. A lot.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
More Random Junk
I'm actually going to clean the house this morning so that when Keith gets home tonight it doesn't look like I didn't do much of anything while he was gone-which I didn't.
We have one of those bagless vacuums where you can see all the stuff that gets sucked up off the floor. Ours is always full with a huge clump of grey kitty hair. Like a HUGE clump. Grey. We have 2 cats who are grey, Bear and Pepper, and right now Bear is leaving little wads of shedded hair everywhere she goes and if you just barely touch Pepper hair flies all over the place, accelerated by the ceiling and floor fans that are helping to keep our house cool and helping to get that hair on as many surfaces as possible.
I got some movies to watch while Keith was gone, ones that I know he would never be interested in. Juno-pretty good, Waitress-pretty good, Dreamgirls-got bored after a while, and Enchanted, which I haven't watched yet.
We had real live clouds in the sky yesterday-real clouds, not smog! But no rain of course.
I know it's weird to get excited by clouds in the sky, but summers here are really boring weather-wise. Hot, sunny, hot, sunny, hot, sunny, hot, sunny. With maybe a hot, sunny, smoggy thrown in there too.
We have one of those bagless vacuums where you can see all the stuff that gets sucked up off the floor. Ours is always full with a huge clump of grey kitty hair. Like a HUGE clump. Grey. We have 2 cats who are grey, Bear and Pepper, and right now Bear is leaving little wads of shedded hair everywhere she goes and if you just barely touch Pepper hair flies all over the place, accelerated by the ceiling and floor fans that are helping to keep our house cool and helping to get that hair on as many surfaces as possible.
I got some movies to watch while Keith was gone, ones that I know he would never be interested in. Juno-pretty good, Waitress-pretty good, Dreamgirls-got bored after a while, and Enchanted, which I haven't watched yet.
We had real live clouds in the sky yesterday-real clouds, not smog! But no rain of course.
I know it's weird to get excited by clouds in the sky, but summers here are really boring weather-wise. Hot, sunny, hot, sunny, hot, sunny, hot, sunny. With maybe a hot, sunny, smoggy thrown in there too.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Random Stuff
I finally arranged for my gum surgery which I was supposed to have early this year, but with Keith changing jobs last December we had no dental insurance for a while and then it took months to get our new cards. I had my every 3 month periodontal cleaning yesterday morning and they said 'yes, we still recommend the surgery', so I stopped by the surgery dentist (which I had of course been putting off and putting off) and gave them my new card and made the appointment. They said they would call me later and let me know what the insurance would cover.
Well, the insurance will cover $1500.00 out of almost $8000.00 worth of surgery, so we found out that I qualify for the 'platinum' payment plan, with a credit line of $10,500 and either 12 payments at no interest of $326.00 or 24 payments at 12% interest of $186.00. The $186.00 sounds a little more affordable and I don't really care about whether or not I pay interest, so for the next 2 years I will be paying $186.00 a month for the privilege of having my gums opened up by laser, cleaned out and some fake bone put in, and then sewn back up again. Can't wait.
On the medical form that the dentist gives you to fill out is one question that got me wondering.
Do you have to urinate (pass water) more than six (6) times a day?
First, do some people really not know what 'urinate' means and second do some people really urinate (pass water) LESS than six (6) times a day? I urinate (pass water) at LEAST six (6) times a day-usually before it's even lunch time!
I got a new bike seat the other day. It looks almost like a tractor seat-no thing that sticks out in the middle, whatever that part of a bike seat is called, but a lot smaller and is supposed to be more comfortable. Well, it's going right back to Target, I tried it out last night and every time you pedal it feels like you are sliding closer and closer to the front edge of the seat where eventually you will slide off and really hurt your crotch on the crossbar of the bike. Sorry, don't think I can enjoy my bike ride if I am worrying about sliding off and hurting my very private very tender area.
Why do I wake up at 6:30 am every single day despite the fact that I go to bed at 11 pm and it takes me at least 30 minutes to an hour to get to sleep, so I'm really going to bed around midnight? Is it just an sign that I am old and am going to be one of those people that are up with the chickens every day and then maybe have to start taking an afternoon nap because I'm not getting enough sleep at night because I wake up at 6:30 every day? Or do I just need less sleep because I am old?
Well, the insurance will cover $1500.00 out of almost $8000.00 worth of surgery, so we found out that I qualify for the 'platinum' payment plan, with a credit line of $10,500 and either 12 payments at no interest of $326.00 or 24 payments at 12% interest of $186.00. The $186.00 sounds a little more affordable and I don't really care about whether or not I pay interest, so for the next 2 years I will be paying $186.00 a month for the privilege of having my gums opened up by laser, cleaned out and some fake bone put in, and then sewn back up again. Can't wait.
On the medical form that the dentist gives you to fill out is one question that got me wondering.
Do you have to urinate (pass water) more than six (6) times a day?
First, do some people really not know what 'urinate' means and second do some people really urinate (pass water) LESS than six (6) times a day? I urinate (pass water) at LEAST six (6) times a day-usually before it's even lunch time!
I got a new bike seat the other day. It looks almost like a tractor seat-no thing that sticks out in the middle, whatever that part of a bike seat is called, but a lot smaller and is supposed to be more comfortable. Well, it's going right back to Target, I tried it out last night and every time you pedal it feels like you are sliding closer and closer to the front edge of the seat where eventually you will slide off and really hurt your crotch on the crossbar of the bike. Sorry, don't think I can enjoy my bike ride if I am worrying about sliding off and hurting my very private very tender area.
Why do I wake up at 6:30 am every single day despite the fact that I go to bed at 11 pm and it takes me at least 30 minutes to an hour to get to sleep, so I'm really going to bed around midnight? Is it just an sign that I am old and am going to be one of those people that are up with the chickens every day and then maybe have to start taking an afternoon nap because I'm not getting enough sleep at night because I wake up at 6:30 every day? Or do I just need less sleep because I am old?
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