06.27.08
Brain Is Melting
It’s hot. Stepping outside was like being slapped in the face with a soggy wool blanket, disgusting and hot. In spite of that we did go outside to dig around in the sandbox until I just couldn’t stand it anymore. Of course you can guess what happened when I made this decision by myself without the input of MC…oh yes total and complete meltdown. He sat on the floor all forlorn with snot running down his sandy chin at the injustice of it all. He went to the only place he could find comfort…under the kitchen table. Poor, poor baby.
Lunch was delayed as he was far too busy protesting his lack of input.
I patiently *cough cough* waited for the protest to end. While waiting Merlin stole MC’s sandwich off of the table. Murphy’s Law would indicate that this would be the time that MC would cease all protesting because he was hungry.
Lunch delayed to repeat the sandwich making process.
Second meltdown achieved for not getting lunch RIGHT NOW.
More waiting.
Lunch eaten, happy MC makes his return.
TGIF
06.26.08
Oh Baby!
I hate reality shows. I always have and up until last night I thought I wouldn’t be caught dead watching one.
NBC’s The Baby Borrowerswas alternately entertaining and horrifying. The “teen” parents were thrust into a family situation complete with sympathy pregnancy bellies. Complaining and whining abounded after only having to wear the strap on bellies for a very short period of time. I can’t imagine these girls coping with a real pregnancy with vomiting, joint pain, random leaks, having head shoved in your pelvis with feet driving into your ribs…fun times that can’t be replicated with a faux pregnancy belly.
I did feel badly watching those poor babies crying as the “parents” struggled with attempting to soothe them. How the real parents sat by I don’t know, I could never do it. I think I would’ve been intervening for every tear. I’m going to take a guess that they haven’t ever helped with a real baby in their lives, ever. Babysitting might be a nice start for them…but not my kid.
The only teen who really got under my skin was Alicea. Her complete lack of immaturity was shown so beautifully it was shocking. After being spoken to by her baby’s mother about giving up on the poor kid eating (I believe her comment was “Fine, don’t eat then”…not really an option in real life) she opted to leave the baby in the sole responsibility to her boyfriend. She was upset that the mother spoke to her “like that” and she didn’t want anything to do with “it” (the baby) anymore.
The other thing that bothered me throughout the show was the continuous referral to those babies as “its”. It can just cry. It isn’t happy. It doesn’t want…blah blah blah. They aren’t ITS…they are little people who are loved and cherished and who were entrusted to those teens. They all have names, try those and if you are incapable of remembering the name try he or she.
I am looking forward to the next episode. It’s like a train wreck, you just can’t look away.
06.23.08
Dig It?
Well, there it is. Pardon the long grass, we’ve been enduring several days of steady rain accompanied by some wonderful thunderstorms. While the grass is enjoying it, we can’t get out there to chop it down to a manageable height!
Easy construction, having a compound sliding saw makes doing this job a lot faster and really simple. I followed these plans and we’re quite pleased with it. We made it higher so that we could make sure the dogs didn’t “water” our little garden since we wanted to plant some edibles in there.
Here’s one of our little basil plants. Initially I thought that one of our storms had caused some damage but closer inspection has revealed that we’ve got a little aphid infestation. The little hosers have eaten chunks out of the basil, sage and parsley. Apparently some kind of soap and water concoction will make them go away.
So, I’m annoyed and slightly dejected that within one short week we’ve already had a problem. I’m one to think positive so I have managed to convince myself that because we’ve had to deal with one issue that we’re set for the summer.
Oh the joys of being a novice gardener with very high hopes.
06.19.08
Dust Bunnies Beware…This Is War!
Well, it was time. Long overdue in fact. It was time to face the horrors beneath the couch.
I pulled out my trusty Dyson Animal (love) and began manhandling the love seat out of the way before realizing that first I would have to put the dogs away before Flash took offense to the presence of said vacuum. I’m not quite sure why he thinks the vacuum cleaner needs to be taken down but he does. Growling, pouncing and snapping at it with fury! So off they go.
And can I just say ew. Ew. Apparently there was some pop spilled under the couch, by me no doubt…well wait. Flash has a habit of tipping cans over while trying to get to my tea or coffee mug…so maybe he did it. Yes, let’s blame the dog.
So high five to me. Vacuumed and mopped under both sofas.
This has nothing to do with the fact we’re having company on Saturday…pinky swear. It may have something to do with the dusting and wiping and general running around I’ve been doing.
I’ve learned that there’s nothing to kick your ass into gear like inviting people to your home, especially when that company includes a baby…a crawling baby. These little visitor seem to have a knack for finding every stray ball of fur in my house every. single. time.
So my little dust bunnies, my vacuum, my dusters and my pink micro-fibre cloth mock you. Yes, I said MOCK.
And for your amusement, I’ve apparently spelt vacuum wrong for this whole post. I hate that word. Vacume, vacuume…all wrong.
06.18.08
Someone’s In The Kitchen…
That would be me in the kitchen. After organizing that shelf yesterday I realized that the spices weren’t in the right spot for us. We have an area where we do our prep work and it would make sense to have the oils, spices and vinegars above that area. Easy peasy.
So…I had to move the dishes to the pet cupboard, MC’s stuff to the old spice cupboard, and the pet stuff to MC’s old cupboard. So I’m done, and it looks pretty good but we’ll have to see how it is to live with. I also organized our tea and snack cupboard…mostly just tossing and moving around. The only cupboard I’m not entirely happy with is the pet cupboard.
Now you’re probably wondering what the heck we could possibly have for our pets that would take up an entire cupboard. So in there are dog biscuits, peanut butter, canned cat food of two varieties (regular and vet prescribed), medications for Maca, the dogs monthly flea and heart worm medications, a couple of pillers, and a few lotions and potions for owies and stinky dogs.
All of this has been stuffed into the most useless cupboard I have ever come across in my life. It’s a top blind corner cupboard. In order to get to the stuff in the blind area you have to remove all of the stuff from the open area. Drives me insane.
I’ll have to brainstorm something better for that spot, I’m just at a loss to what.
Next I’m going to have a go at the lower cabinets, which are pretty good because MC is very helpful in emptying them.
06.17.08
Clean and Easy Does It
Today I finally got around to reorganizing the spice cupboard. Well, it’s not a whole cupboard just one shelf of it. Also on that shelf we keep our salt and pepper, vinegars and oils. I had to toss a lot of old spices that have been sitting in that cupboard for years.
Instead of buying the jarred spices we’ve been trying to buy them loose or the little bags full. While this is cheaper it makes storage a nightmare. So we bought some 150ml canning jars as we had seen our favourite tv chef store his spices like this.
Then I used my handy dandy labeler to label the spices. Highly recommend a labeler for home use, they are fabulous.
See how nice they look with a clean and simple label. One of the other benefits of using a wide mouth mason jar is that you can actually put your measuring spoon in there.
And finally the finished project. I wish I’d have thought to take a before picture, but just take my word for it, it was bad.
One down…I’m not counting how many more to go.
06.16.08
KABOOM!
A few things to touch on today. First, I got to see my sister on Sunday…she looked really good. I know she’s got some bumps and bruises but really, she looked good…in spite of her new hardware. Hopefully she will be up for us to visit again. We went for Sunday dinner in the hospital cafeteria and had Swiss Chalet, I’ve never seen a Swiss Chalet in a hospital before. She did really well sitting until her meds ran out, I just hope she didn’t over do it.
We also finished our planter box on Saturday and we planted our new herb garden. I re homed the potted rosemary tree into the box as well as two of each of the smaller potted herbs we bought. So we now have fresh thyme, basil, sage, flat leaf parsley and oregano at our fingertips. We still have loads of room which I plan on filling with some tomatoes.
And finally the reason there are no pictures of our new box is because we’ve been having some pretty severe weather. We’ve had thunderstorms for the past three days, a few torrential downpours mixed in. I was worried about the herbs but apparently they’re quite a bit sturdier than I thought. We’re still expecting more thunderstorms over the next few days so I’ll do my best to get pictures when the sun is shining again.
06.11.08
It Can Only Get Better, Right?
Monday I had a migraine so I couldn’t function. They usually lay me out for the first 10-12 hours and Advil Migraine Capsules usually allow me to be able to semi function after that. We didn’t have any. No functioning.
Tuesday morning I got that phone call. You know that one, the one that leaves you with your stomach in knots and a huge lump in your throat that makes it impossible to speak coherently? My sister and her husband were in a car accident. All my dad could tell me was that Ed would be okay, a few broken ribs but Julie was badly injured. Scott called and found out that she had a fractured skull, broken pelvis, a few broken ribs as well as the usual minor injuries associated with an accident.
Currently she’s in ICU after spending yesterday being fitted with a halo. I haven’t seen her yet, perhaps when I do I’ll be able sleep better.
I felt so badly for Ed, he has none of his immediate family here…but I know most of our family has gone into see him and he was released today. The poor guy had no idea what was going on, and I can only imagine how awful that would be. Never mind that he had no privacy since he was kept in the emergency room as there were no rooms available.
I’m not sure when she’ll be up to a visit from me, so I’ll just wait.
06.06.08
Too Hot to Write…
Marilyn Monroe sings Heat Wave (There’s No Business, Like Show Business)
How about a song from one of my favourite actresses?
06.05.08
Can You Boil Water?
If you can you can make a super easy homemade playdough. I found a great recipe here. Kind of an odd page that appears to consist of two recipes and a lot of ads. Here’s the recipe to save your eyeballs from the countless ads.
Play Dough Recipe with Kool-Aid:
2 cups of flour
1 cup salt
2 packages dry unsweetened Kool-Aid
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Mix all the dry ingredients together and all the liquid ingredients together. Then pour the liquids over the dry. Stir the mixture until it forms a ball. As it cools it will become less sticky. After it has cooled knead it until it is smooth.
I only did half the recipe which left me with a very healthy lump of playdough. Don’t forget to store it in an air tight container, rumour has it that it will last 3-6 weeks.
Making it was easy and smelled oh some yummy. I pulled it out so MC could have a go, I mushed it around and squished and gave him a piece. After some examination he popped it into his mouth and chewed on it before making a fantastic face to demonstrate his displeasure to the salty taste. After spitting it out he gave it back to me and that was the end of play dough exploration day 1.
For my fellow dog and cat owners…maybe mine are just weird but I’ve had 3 dogs and at least 2 of the cats stalking the playdough in it’s Ziploc bag.
