~“The Blog That Watches Back”~

Sunday, October 25

AmEx can bite my ass!

Well, we made it over the hump for this year, Steves' inventory is complete. It was more than difficult than usual for him this year, because he is running two different parts departments.....Toyota and Kia...at two different physical locations. Friday, from 7am to 9:30 pm was spent running back and forth between Toyota and Kia. I felt so bad for him. It's an extremely difficult time, and for about a month before the festivities, Steve can be a butt head.

[see how nice I am? Did I say he was an asshole? A Pecker? A Dick? A triple-damn fuckhead? A forgetful schmekel? An impatient peckerwood? A Friggin Freak? A Fucktard weiner dick? A short tempered Shithead? A Boney canneloni? A bullheaded bastard? NO! Because I am a loyal wife and I love him with my whole heart. I would never even THINK those things. Kinda. Most of the time. If I don't have cramps. And my checkbook is balanced.]



I understand. He knows I do, but I get Major wife points [and I can sure USE them, unlike AmEx points]. This year, I got flowers and a card that made me cry [Yeah, no big surprize] Here are the lovlies:



[also...the filler is variegated ficus, so I'm rooting some of it. It's being rooted in a sweet and sour sauce container from chinese food, I also recycle! The gift that keeps giving, hehehe]



It is Sunday, and the most gorgeous day at the Shack. The men are out buying rakes, they destroyed all the ones we had. [Don't ask, but I think it has something to do with not using them as golf clubs or baseballs bats.]And Steve gets to play with his new toy,......a leaf blower. We always thought they were stupid, until we saw the sheer depth of the leaves on our lawn. Hey, they aint so stupid anymore! I'm here cooking for a few days, because the beginning of the work week always sucks for me, my longest days are usually early in the week. The whole house smells loverly, and I am :::::: Drum roll please::::: CAUGHT UP on the housework and laundry. I know this may be hard to believe, but I VACUUMED today! Yup, go buy a lottery ticket!


We've all heard the horror stories about credit card issuers all-of-a-sudden becoming [but not really, they always were] jerks. I have watched interest rates creep up, but I don't carry a balance, so I didn't care. Until American Express entered the Asshat arena. They told me Gail, we LOVE you, no Annual fee!! No, not for you! So I let them love me. Until I got my statement showing the 95 DOLLAR "membership" fee!! I paid for love! Oh NO!!! So, I called and reamed them out, and I said, I am HOLDING the paperwork you sent me, telling me I was a valued FREE member. You know what? She says OK, I'll refund the fee, but I'll have to close your account. WTF????? Oh, you'll have to speak with card services to open a new account if you wish to remain free. WTF??? [the upshot being, EVERY year you have to go thru this shit, or pay the fee.] I don't carry balances on our other c.c's, and they don't make me pay 95$ a year for the privilege. So I cancelled AmEx. You shoulda HEARD that wench, it sounded like I shit on her sacred cow. Oh well, she shit on mine first, neener-neener-neener:

AmEx: Are you SURE you wish to cancel, you would miss so many member benefits, and give up all your member points.Yessssssss, you would MISS us! You do not want to leeeeeeeave!


Me: What member benefits have I ever USED, and how many points do I have right now?


AmEx: Oh, you know, all those nice member benefits, there are too many to go into! You must have used some,correct? Why YES that must be correct!

Me: Try. Name three.

AmEx:um..... we have pretty cards! Oh yessssss,very pretty cards. And that 95$ fee helps us make heart warming commercials! Um,.....plus... um, you can charge party balloons! Oh, Yesssssss,have a party with your AmEx! Par-tee on dude!

Me. Oh. Boy. How many points do I have left?

AmEx: 36!!

Me: and what can I get with 36 points?

AmEx: um.....nothing.Yet! Yesssssss, they will add up fast.Why, you can get a free party balloon for only 10,000 points!

Me: [hey! I posted a "click" here, but evidently Blogger took that as html tags! Can't wait to publish and find out what shows up.]

Oh, and I posted this to facebook, but wanted it in my bloggie too, OMG this is funny:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLFd9-FPBek


October:
25th: Sourest Day


26th: Worldwide Howl At The Moon Night





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Sunday, October 18

Be Not Afraid, Gail.

Hehehe, I loved this:

http://failblog.org/

I could see me doing that, I read things backwards all the time, and have a tendency to reverse numbers, as can be witnessed by my checkbook. And the calculator that is now a part of my checkbook.

This is rich! You know, Steve is allergic to animals, so we have none......yet. We know he will not react to a Bichon, so that is what we are looking to adopt. Cats,......well, cats are OK, but we never considered getting one. How sweet the delicious irony then, that my yard here at the Love Shack has become a cat haven! Even as I type, I have a striped tabby in the front yard, a grey cat curled up under my truck, a black and white stalking a squirrel, a fluffy black cat looking regal on the patio, and an orange and white cat perched on the rock wall at the edge of the property, Glaring at the black cat, you can SEE it thinking "HEY! You want a piece of THIS???" There is STILL the possibility that I can become a crazy cat lady :o)

The job. OK. I'm in love. If we could move this job closer to the Shack, I'd be there til I retire. We're all broken in together, and the "promotion" I got......well, it's a crossword puzzle, anagram, bitch, and ballbuster all at the same time. How could you not love that? Plus, I MISS the gym.........since we bought the Shack, I don't feel comfortable spending money on that. I am in constant motion on the job. You know you're in the groove when you arrive at 7:30, and the next time you look at the clock it's 10:15. You know, I'm the kinda gal, if Mr. Thick-Cut-Crispy Bacon knocks on my door, why, I'll invite him in for a Johnny Walker Black and a chat! :o) Cheese? Honey, that's a food group! I know I could do better in the bacon to veggie ratio. Well, actually I couldn't, I never met a veggie I didn't like. I CAN tell you, I have my mothers metabolism, so I can work twice as hard as some one else for half the results. This job... none of my pants fit any more, they are all too big !!!! and I have 2 people at work who have offered to PAY me to make "my" lunches for them :O) ALL they are, is a sandwich...on a REALLY good home made bread or bakery hard roll or cibatta, a coldcut...I prefer turkey,but have been known to bust a move with the bologna, liverwurst or ham, with TONS of shredded lettuce or greens, and 2 lil bins of assorted fresh veggies, like peppers and cukes, radishes [I LOVE radishes]....that's IT. At least I have a job direction if I get laid off ....lunch lady. ANY of you, who have long commutes and drive them, please hit me with suggestions on how to come to terms with it. I STILL HATE the commute. And that hurts Steve, and that's the LAST thing I want to do. But the job....now, that's pretty damn cool.

Today is Sunday. And I just had a REAL eye opener, an epiphany.
Sunday morning is" the local paper and the NYT, in bed, with a huge mug of coffee" time for me.
Today, I am reading the magazine insert for the local paper, you may have seen it, "Parade". And there is an article titled "What should you worry about ?"

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/10/18-what-should-you-worry-about.html

One of the large print inserts to the article says "We're bad at assessing risk - we panic about the wrong things"

I don't have a panic tendency, but *I* am a world class worrier. I can and do anticipate everything. Makes me well prepared for anything, and it makes me anxious. And I realized, as I read the article, that I wasn't assessing risk correctly. And I do react out of emotion.
For example. Maybe 15 years ago. Steve was working late, and coming home in the dark one night. And in a 55 mph zone, hit a deer. The car was totaled, he was Fine. He and the cop were more upset by what "that damned deer did to his Mustang" than anything else. He called me, told me what happened. OK. But NOTHING prepared me for the site of the Stang. It looked like NO ONE could possibly have walked away from that, let alone drive it home. It was the only time in my life I felt like I might faint. And I NEVER forgot that.
But..now, with my commute. I approach the truck every morning, and my palms are sweaty and my heart is racing, ......which is TOTALLY out of character for me, I have a "Take life by the balls" attitude toward my life........ Because the longest part of my commute is along a road recognized by my state as having a high deer accident ratio. And a few weeks ago I DID have a close call. I saw deer one and deer 2, deer 3 was a pretty big surprize. But all ended well.
And it occurred to me....that when Steve has to commute a long way in foul weather or thru deer central, I have the same physical reaction to it.
Now I'm trying to figure out, why the fear, loathing and anxiety every dingdong morning? Is it based on facts, or "what ifs", of which I am the Queen? Or the sight of a wrecked car 15 years ago? Or a few deer tryin' to get jiggy?
My goal for this week is to approach the commute with an open mind and heart. I will NOT allow anxiety to rear it's head, and I will NOT be afraid of deer, or What-ifs. I don't know what I thought, or if I even ever Gave it a thought. I just assumed that at age 48, I would know these things about myself, I would know who I am. This comes as quite the surprize. And I don't like that type of surprize. "Be Not Afraid"...I'll just keep repeating that to myself.

And this? Because ITA, it's a pet peeve of mine, and it's funny. I think I got this from Dawn but can't find my attribute.So thank you Dawn or whomever:

October:

18th: No Beard Day
19th: Evaluate Your Life Day [looks like I was a day ahead of myself there ]

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Sunday, October 11

----->Deipnosophist<-----

Another M-T-W-R-F-S bloggie. I miss blogging!

I think a lot of things are worthy of a chuckle or two, and I am no exception.
I try to keep a library of home made frozen dinners in the freezer, for nights when I come home and just don't have it in me to march my ass from the truck to the kitchen, yanno? I went on a lasagne-making spree a few weeks ago, and THOUGHT I put 2 in the freezer. Tonight, [friday] I will have a few people over, and decided on the lasagne. I go for it at 3pm.........and it ain't there. Oh SHIT. I whip out all the frozen ingredients [I precook the noodles, lay em flat and freeze em, all the ingredients except the sauce] run to the kitchen, and wind up making two huge trays. YAY Gail, right back on track. I wrap the second tray for the freezer, sashay my superior ass down the stairs, open the freezer.....and see 2 lasagnes. I got smart with myself last time I did this. Lined baking dishes with parchment and foil,constructed and froze the lasagnes, and then took them OUT of the dishes and wrapped them for the freezer. *I* was looking for a half steam table insert size lasagne, or a 13x9, not two 8x8's. ALL that for friggin nothing :o) Yay Gail, I think :X Gee, I can outsmart myself!

Speaking of food, a friend posted this to one of my cooking groups today.....a problem with Pyrex, and it's ability to explode:

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/pyrex.html

This happened to me once,I was baking a ham in a 13x9 pyrex dish, and we all heard a huge explosion. We couldn't locate the cause of the noise, until we smelt pan juices burning on the oven floor. I have NEVER seen anything like that before. And I don't think I ever got all the glass out of that oven,either.


I feel like I've been running on ice this week. I got a [sort of] promotion at work,....the position I'd worked in last week was given to me. It's gonna take a lot to settle down into the job. And I'm just the woman to do it. But there are miles of walking and some heavy lifting, both of which I am capable of. You know how, if you go over the top with the yardwork, the next day some muscles will sing Ave Maria? Well, that's the way it is every DAY right now. Here's to hoping I get over THAT quickly :)


I gotta tell you....I've decided that MAYBE, just maybe, itouch is not from de' debbil after all, I can download TV shows to it to watch them at work! The History Channel, Discover Channel, PBS, most of the networks, they are all available! WOW!!! One thing...if anyone knows how to remove an app once you get it on there, please lmk. I don't have clue one.


And these pics Thrilled me. The angle of the sun changes every DAY in this house, this time of year.These 2 pics were taken in the living room, late afternoon.They are shadows, on the wall, of plants on the opposite windowsill, it's like a work of living art :o)



October:
11th: It's My Party Day
12th:International Moment of Frustration Scream Day
14th: National Dessert Day

Deipnosophist
A good conversationalist at meals.
-Anu Garg, "The Dorg, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two"


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Sunday, October 4

------>With a lil help from my Friends<------

Ain't it great? The re-release of remastered Beatles music? You know, a LOT of their stuff is not only in my vocal range, but it lends itself beautifully to the cello also, so the Beatles have a place in my musical heart. I couldn't afford the whole stereo box set, so I went to Amazon, and with Steve and Tone helping, we picked out the albums we HAD to have. That's a LOT of music, to upload to itunes, and find homes for on my musical appliances [will it make you move your feet, does it have a beat? Green shuffle. Will I play Ruby with it? Pink Shuffle. Will it make me feel better on Monday and tuesday? Work shuffle. I ...and it only took me one hour and some extreme cursing.....'cause I found out something about my itouch. It came with 2 cords, and I never gave that a second thought. I could NOT NOT get that friggin thing to sync. Tried a different usb port, rebooted, burned chicken feathers and called upon the powers of the Turkey Whisperer to help. Nada. THEN....I look at the cord. And damned if there is a small tag on it they says, in English no less, "Charging cord only." WTF? Since when did these things comes with a cord like that? When thru my bag o' electrical goodies, and found a cord that allows me to Sync! YAY! So there's my PSA for the day, if you have an itouch and it won't sync, try a different cord.

[an edit.Something else I discovered. If you play an instrument sitting down, and practice with your nano, you can get the mens size wrist band holder for your nano, and it will fit around your leg, so no more sliding off and slamming the floor, making you wince.It looks like this:


[yet another edit. My niece T is an artist. I just saw this on her facebook and have her permission to reproduce it here. I can't top staring at it!


By Mz T:





I'm stuck nose deep in two books right now, I highly recommend them both. The first: "The Dord, the Diglot, and and Avocado or Two", by Anu Garg, he the creator of "A.Word.A.Day" web site. This is definitely something you'll be reading about here. The etymology of words aside, I love a good backstory, as well as the feel of the words. I included an entry at the end of this bloggie for you.
The other book is "The Elements of Cooking" by Michael Ruhlman. He reminds me a lot of Alton Brown, and his approach to the science behind the cooking. I'm getting some flack about this..I always seem to have a cookbook close to hand. Most people who cook with a passion do! This book, and Michaels' book "Ratio" wow, they will blow your mind . If you are a good home cook, you'll be nodding thruout both books, yup, you know that but never thought about it like that before.
I've missed my bloggie, life really has been face paced, but I try to find time to do the things that matter to me. Since we received all the Beatles music this week [and are due to get two more albums on mon.] my cello has been taking precidence over everything else, hehehe. And tomorrow, of course, is back to work. I'm still looking for work closer to home,but I am such a damn creature of habit, big change is very hard for me....not the "new" or "unexpected", but when I have to change a whole part of my life, well, frankly, I find that *that* bites.
And here, my favorite pic of the week. I put this one on facebok, too. Boo spent the night thurs., and wholeheartedly approves of coffee beans going IN their bin, and not all over the Love Shacks' floor, hehehe.... A Big thumbs up from Boo:
October
5th: National Storytelling Festival
6th: German-American Day, Come Take It Day
7th: National Frappe Day

Window
Now here's an etymology that speaks of the poetry of words. A window is, literally, the "wind's eye" Look at how a window opens to let the wind in, and it'll be clear why it was so named in Old Norse, from which it moved into English.

-from "The Dord, the Diglot and an Avocado or Two" by Anu Garg


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