Thief!!

When I got home from riding lessons last night, I took off my riding boots and tossed them into the garage, peeled off my socks and dropped them in front of the washing machine as I was going to throw a load of laundry in as soon as I got out of the shower.

Half hour later, I gathered up the other dark clothes and put them in the wash, then plopped my weary bones down in the recliner to watch the season finale of Biggest Loser (btw, Michael, the guy that won... smokin' HOT!!!).

During a commercial break, I got up to go to the kitchen. Upon my return, I found this...

... lying in the floor in between the two recliners. Olivia was passed out in the other chair.

Now to anyone that doesn't know me better, you'd think I just have a bad habit of leaving my laundry lying about wherever I take it off. Not so! But, how had it gotten there? I suspected my white child was the guilty sock thief. It wouldn't be the first time.

**sigh** okay, so I figured when the load of laundry that was currently being washed was dried, I'd have a stray sock in that load. I made a mental note of this.

I picked up the wayward sock and added it to the next load I washed, which was my husband's uniforms. (In case you're wondering, I was a bit behind on getting my laundry done this weekend).

So imagine my surprise when I exited the bedroom this morning and found this lying in the dog crate...

(it's hard to see, but it's in the center of the picture)... the other gray sock.

Arghhh! Now I definitely knew my white child was to blame. She's the only one that hides her little treasures in the dog crate.

So I still only have 1 clean sock and this last stray will have to wait 'til this weekend to get washed. The little thief!!!

It's over!

All good things must come to an end.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
It was good while it lasted.
Never look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Pick your cliche'. Any and all of them apply to what I'm about to say.
Some of you may recall a couple of months ago when I blogged about covering-my-ass over our ever decreasing utility bill. If you didn't read it, or need a reminder, click here.
Well, I guess I made the mistake of looking that gift-horse in the mouth, and it finally bit me.
Our electric/gas bill has been so low over the past several months, that I called the utility company back in March just to make sure it wasn't a mistake. The man I spoke with assurred me it was correct and that my bill wasn't estimated, but actual. Just enjoy my low utilities.
Sweet!!
So needless to say, when I opened the bill that came in the mail yesterday, and saw it was almost triple what it had been, I nearly dropped a load of "brown" in the kitchen floor. WTF???
I mean, I know it's been an unseasonably hot May, but we didn't run the a/c every day, and certainly running the furnace every day in winter didn't cost us this much!!
There were all these lines of payments received, previous balance, credits, adjustments, and a bunch of other confusing numbers that were making my head swim as I tried to figure it out. Then I noticed my bill seemed thicker than it's usual 1 page. Sure enough, there were 3 pages. The last was a letter they had enclosed informing us why our bill had suddenly trippled.
Apparently there was something wrong with our meter that it wasn't reading correctly. They've now installed a new meter which should provide accurate readings in the future.
Of course this was all due to no fault on my part, however, they felt they had to go back to at least last September and make adjustments for each month they felt they short-charged me.
Sunzuvbeeches!!!!!!
I've been saying it quite a bit lately in light of all the unexpected things we've had to shell out funds for: 2 steps forward, 3 steps back.
That pretty well sums up my life right now. :(

TV-talk

Last nights episode of The Biggest Loser was a real disappointment for me for several reasons.
1) Because of Daris' weight gain while home for 30 days. When he fell below the yellow line with Koli and had to plead his case to America, and I'm sure he was feeling some shame for what had happened, but he didn't seem to care what happened now. What happened to that go-go attitude he had earlier in the show? And where was his family? Why weren't they providing him more support and encouragement to stay away from bad eating habits and not staying out partying? Seriously, I was disappointed.
2) While I was glad to see Koli drop below the yellow line, because of what happened to Daris, Koli will now probably get America's vote. I've been so aggrevated with him these past few weeks because he simply seems to be about winning the money and being #1. Sure, I realize it's a great prize and they all want that, but that seems to be all he talks about.
3) When they had former contestants join the final four on the marathon run, I was distressed to see that of the four past contestants, only Alli(sp?) has managed to keep her weight off. The other three had put back on rather significant amount. Couldn't they find any other past contestants that have managed to keep in shape that they could bring out to inspire us?

Don't get me wrong, "I've been there, done that", meaning I've lost a lot of weight once upon a time and then gained it all back. As I live and breathe!! But at least when I see those that have managed to keep it off, it gives me hope that someday I'll be able to get my arse in gear and do it too (I can dream, can't I???). But when I see how so many of them are packing it back on, it depresses me and just seems to reinforce in my mind that once a fatty, always a fatty. Sure, maybe you can shed it temporarily, but in the long run, you'll end up right back where you started. This depressed me the most. :(

Well, I had been hoping Daris would win, but now I'm hoping that Michael wins the whole thing next week.
Go Michael!!!!!!
And, I can't wait to see how last seasons contestant, Shay, has done on her follow-up. If you'll recall, she was given an opportunity to continue losing weight and they were going to bring her back next week to see how she's fared. Go Shay!!!!

Dear Sprint

Dear Srint,
Just who do you think you are?
Your latest commercial...






...touts that for $69.99, the basic plan that AT&T and Verizon charge, all you get is "a phone". Meaning, all you can use your wireless device for is to make a phone call. No texting, no sending/receiving pictures, no internet service, no music or videos listening/watching. And according to you, nobody uses their cell phones to just make phone calls.
Hey, dirt bags, listen up!! Believe it or not, there are some people in this world that only want their phones to be used as PHONES!!! Simply to make and receive phone calls.
I know my husband and I are not the only ones in this categoy. I can't begin to tell you how many people I come across that say the same thing, or else they express frustration at how difficult it is to get phone service without having all that other crap shoved down our throats.
My cell phone serves two purposes: one) to make/receive phone calls and two) as an alarm clock. That's it. Period.
I've got the texting feature blocked on our phones, and I don't feel in the least like we're missing out on anything by not having it. In fact, until I did block it, I was rather annoyed at the messages I'd receive that were like trying to read secret military coded documents. If a person could/would actually spell out the words they were trying to text, it would be one thing, but they don't and I've got better things to do than to try and decipher a bunch of poorly written text messages.
As for sending pictures, I've got a regular camera, I get by just fine using it and downloading photos from that.
As for the rest, don't want it, don't need it.
Yes, there are some people that are quite content to have "just a phone" for $69.99.
So Sprint, maybe you shouldn't be trying to lure in customers by making fun of those of us that are not in to carrying around high-tech gadgets everywhere we go.

Sign me,
Content with simplicity

Dear AT&T

Dear AT&T,
You suck!
First of all, it irks me to no end that you bought out Cingular. One of the reasons I got away from having a land-line was because of the ridiculous charges you imposed on my home phone for the lack of long distance calls I made. I mean, how stupid! I was either being forced to make long distance calls, which I'd have to pay you for, or else not make them and still pay you. Seems like a bit of a monopoly on my rights.
So I get rid of my home phone and go completely wireless. Things were going fine 'til you then bought out my cellular services provider. And once again, you suck!
Of course now the problem is your audacity to blatantly lie to the consumers.
You claim to have the greatest coverage area, but I would seriously argue against that.
In your latest commercial...



you claim to cover 97% of America? Well, I'm guessing that the 3% you don't cover must all be right here within 100 miles of my home in Kentucky. Because I can't begin to tell you how many areas where I get zero service, or very poor reception... the Stony Brook area, parts of Lyndon, several areas along the I-71 corridor, much of Henry and Marion counties, the Bernheim area... the list goes on! So perhaps you should re-work that map where you show coverage to only have the non-covered areas be in Kentucky. I'm just saying, would it kill you to show some truth in advertising?

Sign me,
Fed up with false advertisement!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

This weekend was a mixed bag of ups and downs.

Our refrigerator has been acting a bit squirrely for about the past month. We were jokingly blaming it on my recently deceased s-i-l, as well as a couple of other odd things that had happened around the house right after her passing. You might remember a couple of weeks ago I had to get our oven fixed, spent almost as much as a new stove on that repair. While the repairman was there, my husband went to fill a glass with water from the dispenser on the front of the freezer door. It had been working fine, but suddenly... nothing. It had just stopped working. The repairman made no offer to take a look at it, and as we were already spending a small fortune that day, I didn't ask him to. I told the husband it wasn't an essential repair and he'd just have to drink water from the tap.
Two days later, out of the blue, it started working again. It was another one of those things we blamed on his sister's ghost.
Saturday morning (2:30) when I got up to pack the hubby's lunch, I went to get his water bottle from the freezer that he uses to help keep his lunch cold. I opened the freezer door and noticed the bottle hadn't frozen, despite having had 12 hours to do so. I picked up a can of frozen juice concentrate, it had turned to liquid. Crap! The freezer was going out. I started scrambling to remove the contents and haul them to the garage where we have a chest-freezer. There was just barely enough room to hold the contents I dumped in there and still be able to shut the lid.
As for the items in the refrigerator side, I'd have to wait 'til later in the morning and beg use of the neighbor's spare fridge. Once I called for service, they of course couldn't work me in 'til Sunday when they'd have to charge me a service-fee. Naturally! The repairman would be there between 12 and 3pm. Well of course, since I already had plans for that time slot, I'd now have to cancel them. GRRRR!! My Saturday morning was shaping up to be fairly crappy.
After carrying coolers full of food to the neighbor's house, and throwing a few items out that were overdue to be tossed out, and packing the items I would need to fix the husband's lunch into a cooler full of ice (didn't think the neighbors would want me traipsing through their house in the wee hours of the morning to fetch my food), I was starting to get frazzled. I was running out of time as I needed to run a couple of errands and get to the farm for a class I'd signed up to help with.
I was down on my hands and knees, straightening the blankets in the dog's crate, on the verge of tears because it seemed like life just kept squashing us down whenever things started to look good, when Olivia brushed past me, entered her crate, turned to face me and then licked my face. Suddenly my tears were banished and she made my world seem right again.
I headed to the farm and got half way there when I remembered I'd forgotten to bring the buckets. My husband wanted me to get buckets of alpaca poop to fertilize our garden with, but in my frazzled state, I'd completely forgotten them. I was once again feeling bummed out.
I listened to the weather report, and while Saturday was going to be beautiful, Sunday they were calling for rain. Grrr! I had plans to go on the Heritage Walk that afternoon, but if it was going to rain, it would be cancelled. Of course, since I now had to sit home and wait for a repairman, I had to cancel my plans anyway. My mood was turning dark once again.
When I arrived at the farm, one of the volunteers informed that one of the horses was gone. This startled me at first as I thought she meant it had died since I was last there a week ago. She quickly clarified that the horse's previous owner decided to take it back (indian giver!!). Then I learned that the indian giver and another volunteer had done a very stupid thing that morning and turned two of the horses out into a field with two other horses that they should never have been mixed with. Things turned ugly when the two horses already living in that field started chasing one of the new-comers, which happened to be my favorite horse on the whole farm. The other horse turned out with him was trying to get in between it all and assert his dominance. Fortunately, two of the male volunteers were present and able to get in there and rescue the two horses. Drama!!
When the instructors were assigning us which student we would be working with, I was delighted to learn I was paired with "Eva". She's an 8 year old with Down's Syndrome, and cute as a button! My spirits started to improve somewhat. It had been a while since I'd worked with this child, but she was still as sprite and precocious as I remembered. I was assigned to her "on-side", which meant I'd be walking to her left while mounted and I was responsible for helping her mount/dismount, holding her hand to keep her from running amok, and to generally keep an eye on her when she wasn't on horseback. For part of the lesson, the students were asked to sit on their horses sideways, then turn around and ride backwards. The other student wanted no part of it, but Eva I think would've ridden the whole class backwards. Her giggles of delight were infectious, and it was impossible to stay in a bad mood around her. I was having such a good time in class, I hated for the hour to end. When it was over, she gave each of us a big hug, which had the same effect as that lick on the face that Olivia had given me.
Regardless of how bad my morning had started off, it was turning out to be a great day.

It's as addictive as the real thing

Sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and it just won't go away.
After watching DWTS this past Monday, a song got into my head and for the life of me I couldn't remember the name of it, so of course I had to go surfing 'til I found it.


I warn you, if you listen, this song is as addictive as the food item it's named after:



In case you've never seen Garry & Rita Gekhman dance before, check out this video, they are quite amazing!



I could watch them all night long!

Bite me!

Don't you just hate it when you're minding your own business, eating a meal, and then just randomly out of the blue, you bite the inside of your cheek or the in side of your lip? I hate that!
It's painful.
And if you bite it hard enough, it will bleed. The taste of your own blood mixed with your food isn't really appetizing.
I did this a couple of days ago, biting just inside my lower lip. The spot swelled, annoying me to no end. I can't quite running my tongue over it like an offending piece of popcorn stuck between my teeth.
Now, to make matters worse, I've bitten it again no less than 5 times since this morning. Each bite more painful than the last, and the bite wound getting bigger and bigger with each subsequent bite.
Perhaps that's life's way of telling me I don't need to be eating.
Know what I say to life?
Bite me!!

An evening to myself

It's been a busy week, something going on every evening. I can't remember the last time I actually cooked a normal meal for the husband (something other than grilled cheese or frozen pizza). Of late, it's been convenience foods or lazy-cooking because we've been so busy and pressed for time or else only one of us being home. Last night was no exception.
The yearly end-of-season bowling banquet was held, once again at the Kosair Shrine Temple. It's been held there for as long as I can remember. I've gone every year w/my husband accept for last year. It pretty much bores me to tears. Last nights dinner was no exception, and it's 3 hours of my life I'll never get back. The food is blah, the arguments to change league rules is mind-numbing, the cigarette smoke is overwhelming, and the hot temperatures are suffocating. Seriously, I need to mark it on my calendar now for next year to "NOT GO!!". Save my money and have an evening to myself!

Now tonight, my husband has a county-wide firefighter meeting. What does that mean for me? Another evening of no-cooking and better still, an evening to myself. I've got a coupon for a free Chick-fil-a sandwich, I'll probably use that and return some clothes to the store I bought the other night. That's my fun-filled Friday evening. Please, don't envy me!

SHhhh!

This is my "SHhhh" blog. Touching on several different things, all with the "SHhhh" sound in the sub-titles.



"Shhhiver me timbers but it's cold out here!!"

Saturday, Olivia and I joined our friends "Millie and Mimi" for the March of Dimes Walk. The temperature was slow to rise into the promised 60's and the high winds blowing from the west were almost frigid at times, as we walked across the 2nd Street Bridge.


At first, Olivia and Mimi both were playing coy, not seeming to want their picture taken together, each looking in opposite directions...


Then Olivia finally looked my way. Mimi has her head turned, but if you look close, you can see her eyes are turned towards Olivia. She's thinking about it...


Nope, Mimi's still playing coy. Livvie is now interested in what Mimi has in her sippy-cup.


In hindsight, I should've worn warmer pants.


Two of my teams members just ahead of me (three if you count Mimi, hidden in the stroller).


"Millie & Mimi"


Oh sure, as we're getting ready to leave, now she smiles for the camera. Little stinker!



"A SHocking experience!"

I ran the vacuum the other evening (that alone is a shocking thing to most people), and when I went to empty the canister, I was scooping out the gobs of pet hair to put in a collection bag (for Matters of Trust). As I scooped out the first handful, I heard little pops of static electricity. The second scoop, more popping. The third time I reached my hand into the canister and swiped around the walls of the canister to dislodge the fur stuck to it, the popping intensified and I saw a huge blue spark and heard a loud POP! and felt a hard jolt all at the same time.
That was the worst static shock I've ever received in my life and it was a full two days before the pain in the tip of my index finger subsided.
Has anyone ever been seriously injured from static electricity before?
I can totally understand now how such a tiny little spark can cause big problems in electronic appliances, while pumping gas, in rooms where oxygen tanks are in use, etc. It's vicious!!




"Kiss my asssh!"
Okay, I know that title was a stretch, but seriously, meet the new ass at the farm...



This is Grady, a 7 month old Sicilian miniature donkey. He was donated by another farm to be put in the silent auction. He is positively the cutest thing ever! My dogs are bigger than he is. Other than to get wider in this belly, he really won't get much bigger.



He's being taken on several walks a day around the farm, learning to walk on a lead and getting used to different sites, sounds, smells, and surfaces beneath his feet. His hooves are so tiny, I think if it were even possible to shod him, the shoes wouldn't be any bigger than a 1/2-dollar piece.



"I have an obsesshun" (yes, I know that isn't how it's properly spelled)

Most people could care less about their clothes hangers. I on the other hand, have an obsession.
For the those that have ever been in my house, you can testify to it's clutter and disarray. However, there is one area of my life that I am so obessive and organized about, I nearly come unhinged if they aren't put away properly.


I dare say, most people let there hangers get all mixed and jumbled, as above. I know my husband does, and it drives me batty. It's taken me 22 years to get him to even try and work with me...


When not in use, they need to be hung up in order, by color. Is that too much to ask?
When hanging clothes up on a hanger, make every effort to color co-ordinate the hanger to the main color in the shirt. Is that too much to ask?
Anal obsessive, I know. But that's just the way I am.




"Crazy art shirt"

I thought I was finished with my latest painting project with Crazy the horse. After the paint had dried and I removed the shirt from the cardboard frame, I now am not so sure.


Apparently, I had the shirt on the frame at somewhat of an angle. Of course it is Crazy-art, so perhaps I'll just leave it as is. I can't expect perfection.
When he had finished painting, I took a fine brush and used some remaining paint to put his name on the pocket of the shirt. The horse just watched me as I did this, and I couldn't help but think that he was probably thinking to himself, "I could do a better job than that". If I thought he could spell, then I have no doubt he could write his name better.


"Sh*t for brains!"



Monday evening, it was "dog day at the ball park". You were allowed to bring your k-9 companion and watch the Bat's baseball game. I wanted to do this last year, but was unable, so I made sure to sign up early this year. As John and I were getting out of the car, I told him I was just in the mood to go-off on some people if they didn't control their pets properly or act responsibly or let their retractible leashes interfere with others. Less than 2 minutes later, I got my first opportunity.
As we were crossing the street approaching the stadim, a rather rotund woman had her even more rotund dog on an retractible leash. She had zero control over her dog and even worse, was paying zero attention to it. She kept getting tangled up in the leash, even dropping it at one point. Fortunately, the dog was too obese and old to have gotten away from even her. She retreived the handle, but still paid zero attention to things going on around her. She had her back to us as we approached and her dog took off at a waddle out into traffic to greet us.
This pissed me off royally 1) because had a car been coming, the dog could've easily gotten hit and 2) because not everbody in the vicinity was there with a dog and therefore might not have wanted a dog approaching them and 3)not knowing this dog, we had no way of knowing if it was friendly or vicious and whether or not trouble was going to ensue between it and Olivia.
I started calling tot the woman to pull her dog back, which she promptly ignored. My calling turned into yelling, which was still ignored (perhaps she was deaf, I don't know), and finally my yelling turned into flat-out screams from me, John, and other people on the sidewalk. When she finally turned around and saw what was happening, she jerked on the leash, literally causing her dog to fall to the pavement. It's old age and obesity were wreaking havoc on the poor dog and it's legs collapsed underneath of it.
Seriouly woman, that dog should not have been out at an event like that. Better still, you probably shouldn't have been out at an event like that.
As we walked around inside the stadium, there was the ever present sh*t-for-brains dog owners that feel picking up after their pet(s) is beneath them. One such sh*t head was dressed in dress-slacks and loafers, as if he'd come straight from the office. He was walking along, his little foo-foo dog trailing behind him trying to take a dump as it was drug along. I called out to him to stop as his dog was trying to take a sh*t. He turned and looked at me, looked at his dog, and proceeded to continue dragging it along, while the dog continued to crap all over the place. I continued to point out to the man that he needed to stop walking for his dog's sake, and... and I got great satisfaction out of this... the dumb idiot stepped backwards, right into some of the sh*t his dog had left. I noticed the cuff of the mans slacks were dragging the ground and the crap got on his pants as well. Ha!! Served him right!!!!
Some people shouldn't be allowed to own a dog, much less raise a human child.


We finally took Olivia up into the bleacher section, as there were fewer dogs/people up there. John had misgivings about taking her up there, as he didn't think she'd be able to come back down the steps. His last experience with Olivia and steps was on vacation two or three years ago, and steps freaked her out. She'd go up them, but refused to go down them. I assured him I've been working with her quite a bit on going up/down stairs whenever I got a chance and I thought she could handle it. She proved me right and went down them beautifully, making her daddy very proud of her accomplishment. He even told Livvie and I how proud he was of all our hard work together. I almost cried hearing him say it.



We only stayed 'til the 6th inning. It was getting rather chilly out and starting to get late.



I took a couple of shots of the city's skyline. I decided it's a rather unique, if not odd looking skyline.
There's the funky triangle roof on the left, the penis shaped Providian building (or whatever it's called nowadays), and you can't really see it in the above photo, but to the far right, next to the bridge...



you can just make out the edge of the new downtown arena that is almost finished being constructed. There are no right-angles on the building and it looks ridiculous. I've not heard any positive comments from anyone yet on the design of this place. But I pointed out to the husband that the end you could see from the ballpark looked like the ass-end of an old fashioned r.v. (he said a Winnebago).

All in all, not a bad evening.

Romans 12:2

I don't pretend to know a whole lot of bible verses, but I do know a few. Certainly I'm not one to remember (or to be able to recite) chapter, paragraph and verse anything in the bible.
But a part of one has been repeatedly coming to mind of late. I really couldn't remember the whole thing, just the first few words, and it's been driving me nuts, so I finally had to google it this morning.
I typed in the part of the phrase that kept coming to mind: "... do not be conformed..."
After googling it, I found it was Romans 12:2. Depending on which version of the bible you read, there are many interpretations and variations on how it's recited. I read through all the versions and decided to take bits and pieces of different ones and put my own spin on it.

Here is Pita's version of Romans 12:2...
"Do not be conformed to this world, but continually be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may learn by experience what is good, well-pleasing and beautiful."

In other words: Dare to be different! Follow your heart and create a new path for others to follow. Do your part to make the world a better place for others.

So what's this all about? you may be asking. Well, I'm not one to conform to others ideas, current fashions, trends, etc. I've never been one to buy an outfit because it is "what's in fashion", or to decorate my house with what is trendy, or to get on board with what everyone else is going ga-ga over, simply because it's the "IN" thing to do.

Hardly a week goes by that somebody doesn't ask me "are you on Facebook?". Um, no. I was ever so briefly, a few years ago when it first came out, but deleted my account almost as soon as I created it. I just don't have any interest in it. Not at this point in my life.

I still record tv shows on my VCR and that works fine for me. I'm sure tivo or whatever is a great thing, but if the old equipment is still working, why throw it out just to get something more modern and trendy?

I march to the beat of a different drum. I am who I am. Yes, I initially shaved my hair for St. Baldrick's, but I've been keeping it shaved here lately, about every 10 days. I'm kind of liking it. Wrap a scarf around my head and go on with it. Makes getting ready to go out or to work much easier, and I'm acquiring a lot of super cute scarves/bandannas. My husband said a lot of people are probably mistaking me for a lesbian because of my haircut. I'm not sure if he was being serious or poking fun at me, but I don't care. I know I'm not and so does he, that's all that matters. If people want to judge someone simply based on a hairstyle, then they've got bigger problems in their narrow little minds.

So by creating your own path in life instead of following along the path that others have created, you'll take a different journey than others, see things in a different light from a different point of view, with a different perspective. Creating your own path isn't necessarily going to be the easy way, but anything worth having and doing is worth putting forth an effort to accomplish and achieve. And if you can make the world a better place, all the better. If your efforts helps somebody else, even a perfect stranger, even someone you may never meet, all the better.

I know, I'm rambling now. Have a good rest of the week!

Matter of Trust

I've been completely swamped at work today! Haven't had time to read blogs, and don't have time for a full on here, but just wanted to share this with everyone.
By now I'm sure everyone has heard of the on-going problem of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
One of the many solutions for cleaning up the oil slick is hair clippings and nylons (pantyhose).

If you go to this website: www.MatterOfTrust.org
you can get more info on the project and how you can help.
Human hair, pet fur, old pantyhose... I think more than a few of us have plenty of these things we could get rid of. If you'd like to help, visit the website and sign-up.

Weekend preview

After finally experiencing some dry weather for the past few days, we're once again expecting some rain, correction, severe storms, later tonight. But they should move out quickly, leaving cooler weather in it's wake. Tomorrow's high is only s'posed to be in the upper 60's. This will make for some fabulous walking weather, just in time for the March of Dimes walk.
Livvie and I are signed up to walk on a team with my friend "Millie" and her daughter and another friend.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be at the farm, and am hoping to get another art project finished that I started with Crazy the horse a few weeks ago. We haven't been able to work on it the past couple of weeks, so I'm anxious to get it finished. This time we're working on wearable-art...

Mother's Day is Sunday, I'm spending it with my mother and sister. If the husband gets off work in time, he'll join us. We're going to a baseball game. Yeah, I know, doesn't seem like a girly-thing to do, but we're not into pampering and tea-parties.

I didn't ask the husband to join us (even though I have an extra ticket), as I was leaving it up to him how he wanted to spend the day, whether with me or his mother or whatever. I never said a word about it, but he brought it up on his own the other night and stated flat-out that he was NOT going down there. (down there meaning to visit his mother)

I said that was fine, it was his decision, but regardless of what his reasoning was, I would be blamed for his failure to appear. He started explaining why he didn't want to go, I held up my hand to stop him. I know why. I understand why. I even agree. But it doesn't matter. I will ultimately be blamed for him not visiting her on Mother's Day.

And so it goes.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

TV-talk

Okay, now that I've caught up on my DWTS and Biggest Loser shows...

Fortunately I had the recorder going while both were on this week, else I'd have missed most of them. My phone kept ringing during DWTS on Monday, vexing me. And I got home late and was quite grubby after riding lessons last night, plus I shaved my head again, so it ran into my BL-watching time.

As for DWTS...

I think next week, instead of voting off one of the dancing couples, they need to vote off Brooke Burke. I haven't cared much for her all season. I thought she was awkward from the get-go, but I thought, "she's just nervous, she'll get better as the season goes on"... NOT! I think she's gotten worse.
I wish they could get Samantha Harris back.
Or else maybe bring in Melissa Rycroft, I think she'd be great at it.

And as for Biggest Loser.
I love make-over week. It's nice to see the contestants in something other than work-out clothes and to get hair-cuts and get rid of the grizzled beards.
Sam has looked good for quite a while, so there was no big surprises there.
Daris and Michael were the two biggest surprises I think. I wish Daris had had a little more taken off the top/front, but he still looks great, and Michael, WOw!! He's turned out to be a very handsome man.
I think Sam was the right choice to send home. I nearly fell over to find out he and Stephanie had hooked up. Holy crap!!
Looking forward to next week!!

Crazy's finished artwork

I thought I'd post the finished art project that Crazy (the horse) did. I placed a copyright text over the photo, obviously it won't show on the actual painting.
In hind sight, I guess I should've propped the frame against a light colored background so you could see the frame better, but oh well!







What do you think, worth a million bucks? Probably not, and I don't guess it will ever be hanging in The Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it's priceless to me.

Giving good pet owners a bad name

Saturday morning, I drove through the pouring rain to the mechanics to have the oil changed in my car. Had it not been raining, I considered taking Olivia with me and going walk-about with her 'til my car was ready, but since it was pouring, I left her home. I sat down in the lounge with 3 or 4 men, and we were shortly joined by another man and his dog, a cocker spaniel. The store manager did poke his head in beforehand and asked if any of us were afraid of dogs before allowing the man/dog in. Now that I know they allow pets in there, I'll be sure to start taking Olivia with me.
I really didn't mind the dog being in there, it wasn't aggressive or pushy, it was simply being a dog and one can't blame a dog for being a dog. But I wish the owner would've acted a bit more responsibly. At one point, he laid the leash down when he went to fix a cup of coffee and let the dog wander all around. I had a soda and a bag of food from Burger King (that I needed to take back as they'd screwed up the order) sitting on the floor by my chair, and twice I had to shoo the dog away. As soon as the man sat down, the dog jumped up and sat on an empty chair, which I thought was a bit rude, I felt he should have made the dog sit/lay at this feet, or else sat it on his lap. The rain let up temporarily and the man took the dog outside for a potty-break, where it got very wet. Spaniels have those feathery fringes on their legs and this dog's got soaked. When they came back in, right back up on the furniture it went. It's owner's like that that give the rest of us a bad name!
So while I'm waiting for my car, the shop manager came in and was petting the spaniel. Judging by the conversations in the room, each of us was a dog-lover. The manager proceeded to tell us about his 2 yellow labs and how he acquired them. Apparently someone he used to work with had a couple of black labs and bred them. The litter consisted of 2 yellow and 7 black pups. The man had recently lost his dog, so he got the female yellow puppy for his daughter. They took it to the vet for it's initial exam and discovered it was full of hook-worms. The vet treated the puppy and it was fine. He told the breeder of the problem and that he should get the other pups checked/treated. The breeder did nothing. A few days later, the co-worker/breeder was telling him how of the 8 remaining pups, all but 2 or 3 had died.
A day later, he came in and told the mgr. that the male yellow pup had gotten sick from the worms as well. Manager asked what he had done with the pup and the man replied that he had laid it outside the kennel.
Just laid it there. Wouldn't take it to the vet for treatment, didn't do anything to put it out of it's misery, just left it lying there to die. Can you imagine????!!!! The manager left the shop, drove to the man's house, retrieved the puppy and took it to his vet. The vet treated the dog and saved it, and the mgr. still has both dogs.
While I was glad he had saved those two pups, it angered me what that breeder had done. People like that shouldn't even own a dog, much less be breeding them. Grrrr!!!