Something not as depressing

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?
I bought a house. That's a big one.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Don't make resolutions.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My second cousin Andie. We're sorta close. Been a while since I've seen her but we email.
4. Did anyone close to you die? My great uncle Louis. He's family close and it's causing lots of drama. (See previous posts.)
5. What countries did you visit? None.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? Hmmm. Not sure. We're ok with most of it.
7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? December 25- not only Christmas but 6 year anniversary with boy. Sept 15-18- ACL.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Buying a house and a new truck.
9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting off my ass and getting a new job.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Other than my constant shin splint issue, not really.
11. What was the best thing you bought? The house.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration. The boy. He did so well with my parental visit.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? My uncle, now disowned.
14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage, bills, good food. Vegas.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Moving into my house. (See a running theme here?)
16. What song will always remind you of 2006? Fast Cars and Freedom by Rascal Flats is all I can think of right now.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer? Happier, a bit thinner, and well, somewhat poorer monetarily but generally better off.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Travel out of the US, or maybe just travel in general. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Dealing with the crappy effects of the boy's job.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Spent with boy's parents and bro and then drove to Houston to visit a friend.
.21. Did you fall in love in 2006? Yep- with my kitty Gabby.
22. How many one-night stands?None in my whole life.
23. What was your favorite TV program? Grey's Anatomy.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don't really hate anyone. I dislike quite a few more people.
25. What was the best book you read? Still trying to find that one....
26. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Flaming Lips. I got so freakin tired of them as the boy played them over and over again for months but then I saw them live and I was converted.
27. What did you want and get? A house and a new vehicle.
28. What did you want and not get? A certain ring.
29. What was your favorite film of this year?Film? In the theaters? Still haven't got there.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 29 and I was at Austin City Limits music festival, saw a bunch of bands, most notably Van Morrison. I got rather drunk but it was much fun.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A better job.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Um, well, better fitting clothes I guess. I just buy what I like, as long as it's on sale or clearance.
33. What kept you sane? The boy and the kitties. My house was a mix.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Heath Ledger as always.
35. What political issue stirred you the most? Still abortion rights and the crazy religious crap.
36. Who did you miss? Family and friends, the ones that live across the country.
37. Who was the best new person you met? MK and Michelle.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006. Always, always get an inspection before you buy a house and make them fix everything. Also, if you have to get the foundation repaired, make sure you get them to fix any issues that happen afterwards.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year."It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right." Yeah, I'll keep that.

What an asshole

Guess who showed up to Christmas dinner at the parents' house?? Yep, he did. After trying to communicate with him all week and getting nothing, he dared to show up looking for dinner. I would say that I can't believe it but sadly, I can. I thought that somehting like this would happen. It's just sad and sick. How dare he show up?? How dare he!
My dad went out and told him he was not wanted. That was it. Then he left, or tried to. His car stalled. The car is an old rust bucket so it's not a shock. But still. Dad did a nice thing and called AAA for a jump. He wasn't going to do it. Didn't want to deal with him anymore.
We'll see what happens after this.
Louis is still in the morgue as far as I know. Joe has power of attorney. He should be dealing with it.
Note: Ah how I love public records. Did a search on land records and such and found all sorts of liens and things, including the forced sale of the house. The shit still got $175K for the sale, much of which had to go for payments and things but I don't think it was all that... From what I know, he was still able to live in the house until the new owner kicked him out, which was before October 2004, when it was sold to the current owner. It had to be- that place needed extensive repairs to be inhabitable. I need to look for more stuff later.

Nothing New

Louis died Monday. It's Saturday. No one has heard anything. Not a thing. Joe has disappeared. It's sad but it's best that we do nothing. Louis' sister has said to do nothing and nothing has been done. Joe has to deal with this. He took on the responsibilty, he must see it through. We'll see. It sucks though.
Fuck Joe.

I've Lost Two Uncles and One Isn't Physically Dead

I no longer have an uncle but he’s not dead yet

He may as well be though. He’s a first class asswipe, and that’s being kind. There are no words that would accurately describe him or his behavior. His actions have shown us that he wants no part of our family, and so be it. It sucks that this is all coming to pass around the holidays but what are you going to do?
I don’t even know where to start. He’s my dad’s older brother, the oldest of 3 boys. Dad is the middle one and there’s a younger brother who’s an alcoholic. By some miracle, my dad is the only nice one. The one with a heart but also one who will beat your ass if needed. He’s a good guy, but he can be an asshole too.
Anyway, Uncle Joe was the golden child. According to Nana, he could do no wrong, even if he did. Every little thing was covered up or never talked about. Joe could do no wrong. (I’m using his real name because I don’t care if he reads this or not. It doesn’t matter anymore.) He was an altar boy and there was an incident. (Not with the priest but with other, younger boys.) That was all hush-hush and has never been talked about until recently.
When my grandmother died, being the eldest, he got the estate, as Nana didn’t have a will. My grandfather had died years earlier, before I was born. Dad didn’t want to create problems and decided not to fight for his share. He should have because things might be so very different today. Joe was selfish and didn’t even offer anything. Gerard wasn’t going to do anything because he was barely functioning through the alcohol. So Joe got a house, a car, the contents of the house, and a decent amount of money. The house was paid for too. At the time, Joe had a pretty decent job and was making lots of money. He traveled a lot, mostly to Amsterdam, and was actually fairly generous to us kids. But there was always tension between him and my dad.
He never married, and we’re pretty sure we know why, but he’s never stepped out of the closet to us. All the signs are there, mostly male friends, never a girlfriend to speak of, lots of AIDS memorials, stuff like that. We never really cared either way and let him know that, but he never said anything. Maybe it’s because he sensed we never really liked him as a person and thought oh they hate gays or something. Whatever it was, we know, and I think he knows we know, but nothing has ever been said.
He’s always had an assholish personality. I don’t know how to describe it, but he’s arrogant and snobbish. He’s the kind of guy who would do just about anything to benefit himself, no matter who or what it hurt.
Things took a turn for the worse somewhere in the late 90s for him. We don’t know what really happened, but he did work for a bank that went under. He got another job after that but lost it around ’98 or so, and took to fraud. It was obvious he wasn’t doing as well, because he still had the same car that he had 20 years ago. The gifts to us kids had definitely diminished, and his clothes had gotten much shabbier. (Went from all sorts of gourmet stuff, really cool clothes, to maybe a card.) He had always been a sharp dresser, immaculate, lots of cologne, designer clothes. He started wearing lots of tracksuits and cheaper clothes. He never offered any information and never answered if we asked. He didn’t seem to care.
So that happened. Then my great uncle, Louis, had a stroke. Joe ended up taking care of him and taking over his things. This was the good side to him, as Louis always liked Joe, but there was another motive. Louis was loaded. He had had a good job, with a great pension, and lived like a miser. I’m talking re-using the coffee grounds 4-5 times at least. He was fond of dumpster diving. Yet he was always generous. Us kids called him Uncle Moneybags, because he would always leave us with a $10 or $20 after each visit. Before his stroke, he gave my parents $20,000 for our education. He was that kind of guy. He cared about his family and wanted to make sure we did ok. He was never the same after his stroke.
Joe got power of attorney when Louis started really losing his facilities. That meant he had control over his pension and everything else that came with it. That becomes importat. We wanted to do more, but at the time my family was dealing with the death of my mom’s mother and the subsequent move of my Aunt to live with us. So it fell to Joe to do this, and he did. Louis had 2 sisters, but they were elderly and couldn’t do as much. They tried though.
Joe somehow managed to go through most of Louis’ money quite quickly, well before he was put in the expensive Assisted living place that Louis HATED. It wasn’t his style. But Joe insisted because he wanted to show how much he cared, even though Louis really wasn’t thrilled.
Thanksgiving 2003 was the turning point. Joe hadn’t been in a whole lot of contact with anyone, except to drop a bomb saying that he was selling the house, the house my dad grew up in, the house that still contained all of my grandparents’ things. He said he had to sell the house. Words were said, and we weren’t sure if he was going to show up for Thanksgiving dinner, but he did. Never could pass up a free meal. Things were still tense and Dad really wanted to hurt uncle Joe, but for the sake of peace, nothing was done. The boy and I were actually there for once. We had managed to scrape together money for plane tickets, so the boy got the introduction to Joe.
During dinner, Joe casually mentioned the fact that he was going to be moving soon. The house had sold, and if we wanted anything from it, we needed to do it soon, as he didn’t know how long he would be there. (The new owners were letting him stay indefinitely or something.) We were shocked to say the least, and scrambled to figure out how we were going to do this. The boy and I scrapped our plans to do Boston the day after Thanksgiving to help deal with all of this.
So we went over to the house to see what we could save. Oh I could have cried. The house that my Nana had kept so pretty, so clean, was in disrepair. Nana must have turned so many times in her grave that she must have been dizzy. Oh it was bad. The lawn was overgrown, the paint was chipped and faded, the roof needed repair, and oh the backyard. That was just the outside. The inside was dark and dank and musty. It was disgusting. Things were everywhere. Nothing was organized. It was all just there.
We dug in and cleaned and sorted and just went through everything. We managed to save Nana’s hope chest with her wedding dress and other things. We packed up dozens of glasses and antiques. We threw out even more. It took all day Friday and we came back Saturday for more. We were glad that my dad had to work those days because it would have killed him to see the house that way. We had free reign of the house so I did some digging around in some paperwork that I found. Turned out Joe had re-mortgaged the house and had not made payments in a long time. The house had been foreclosed upon. (I later looked it up on a deed site and it was indeed true.) That hurt more than anything. He could have asked. My parents would have helped. Other relatives would have helped, and what had happened with Louis’ money? We all could have saved the house. It was a nice house, a good neighborhood. It didn’t have to end up this way.
While Googling for the information, I also found that Joe had been convicted of credit card and insurance fraud some years before. That wasn’t exactly a shock and it would explain a lot of things.
We didn’t really have much contact with him for a while. He came to KidBro’s college graduation but that was it. He attended holiday dinners and the like but not much else. Relations were strained to say the least.
Then Louis got worse a few weeks ago. He had another massive stroke and got sicker. He had internal bleeding and brain damage. It was bad. Joe kept him alive as long as he could, doing all sorts of things, even when the doctors were saying it wasn’t really worth it. Louis wouldn’t have wanted it, he would have been the first person to tell you to shoot him. But Joe kept him alive, more we think for the checks than anything, and some to just show the world that he pretended to care when if he really did, he would have let him go.
Louis died on Monday. Joe called my dad to tell him the news, and then asked my dad to pay for the funeral. You see, Joe had no money for it. He never saved any of Louis’ money to pay for it and there was nothing. We’re not sure about Life Insurance but we think he may have scammed his way into something there, cashed it, and run through the money. Mom and Dad are NOT happy about this.
Two days pass and they have heard nothing further on the matter. Nothing about a funeral or even anything. No one can get a hold of Joe. Dad calls Aunt Lucy, Louis’ sister, to see if she knows anything. Turns out she didn’t even know that Louis had died. Dad ended up breaking the news. Apparently Joe felt that my parents should be doing it all, even though he had been Louis’ primary caretaker and next of kin for year now. Lucy was upset and furious but also not shocked. Joe’s behavior is no family secret. Dad made a few calls and it turns out that Louis’ body still has not been claimed from the hospital. It’s been 2 days mind you, and there’s only been a phone call from Joe asking my parents to pay for the funeral and they didn’t say yes.
Lucy, Louis’ sister, whom Joe had driven to the hospital only days before mind you, is saying let it be. Let Joe deal with the consequences on this one. Louis doesn’t really deserve this but Joe does. My parents are furious. Dad is ready to find Joe and pummel him. This is the last straw. But wait, there’s more. Oh is there ever more.
It turns out that Joe did move soon after the house clean out. He just never told anyone but Lucy. We didn’t know. Mom has been sending cards and things to the old address for 3 years now. He moved 3 YEARS AGO and didn’t tell us. He still visited and had dinners and things with the family, attended my brother’s graduation, did all sorts of things, but never mentioned a change of address. He did take the phone number with him, a phone number that is still in his father’s name, the father who died 32 years ago. That makes me think that he may still be using his fathers SS# and other things to obtain other stuff.
KidBro Googled Joe again and came up with some new information on him. Turns out that Joe is currently on probation for insurance fraud and kiting checks, plus he has been charged with doing it again. He apparently wrote checks for his car insurance in 2004 from a bank that has been closed since 1992. What a good person he is. Dad is thinking about talking to buddies of his that still work at the prison (Dad is a retired corrections officer) and having them run Joe’s name in the system. If he is on probation, the probation officer will be alerted to the fact that someone ran his name. That’s enough to raise red flags and get him in a bit of hot water. Plus it would make his PO contact him, and since no one can seem to contact him right now… hmmm.
I spent an hour talking this over with my dad last night. He needed to blow off some steam and since I understand him, we cursed Joe over the phone last night. He regrets not doing things differently, not demanding his respect. We always let things be, in order to keep the peace. We shouldn’t have. Like everyone else in the family, I warned my dad not to do anything stupid since he was so pissed off. Dad can get hotheaded and all, and knows people and ways to um, do things. You don’t piss Dad off. We have all put a familial restraining order on Dad to not be alone with Joe for a while, but Dad has realized that he’s just not worth it anymore.
We’ll see how things develop. I’m sure I’ll have updates soon. Joe just sucks, but he isn’t going to be a part of this family anymore. He no longer has the right.

Holiday Madness

The mess hath begun. Twas the week before Christmas and the stores were getting packed. It wasn’t bad this weekend- didn’t seem as if anyone was out shopping really. Traffic was fine and people weren’t bad. My only issue is that the grocery stores kept running out of butter. Damn you people! Stock more unsalted butter!
One of my co-workers went out shopping last night. She said it was crazy out there. Target was packed and it was impossible to get someone to help you. She was also looking for a Nintendo DS for her kids. Everyone is sold out of them at the moment. That’s always fun. She went to 5 stores and nada. Gotta love that. The boy was at Toys R US and he said it was wiped out. He still found something decent but still.
I’m glad I finished all of my shopping last weekend. I know I should start earlier, but no one gives me any idea of what they want until a month or so before, and we’re the kind of people that if we see it and want it, we buy it. Planning ahead of time for this stuff just doesn’t work.
I’ve finished most of my baking. Last weekend was cookie weekend. I made 5 different kinds of cookies and am making 2 more. I distributed a sampler to my co-workers but we have tons more at home. The boy wanted cookies and now he has them. Of course now he says that there are too many and he wants something else other than cookies. I can’t win. We’re going to a dinner party tonight so I’m bringing some of them with me.
The boy’s restaurant Holiday party was Sunday. That was fun. Good food and lots of wine and beer. Plus we got a bottle of pink champagne and a French press. Yay! Of course it meant a late night for me on a work night but oh well. My work party is this Friday and well, it won’t be as good. It’s during work hours for one and it’s a freakin’ potluck. They say they’ll supply the drinks but what will they be? Ugh. Whatever.

There’s lots of stuff happening at the boy’s restaurant, not a lot that’s good. It’s going to be interesting as to how it all plays out. All I know is that the boy really needs to get another job, because this one is really hurting him. It’s stressing him out to the max. It’s time to leave and he knows it. He just can’t because it would leave a friend hanging, but it’s the friend who has messed everything up. He can’t manage. It’s such a mess and people are going to end up hurt, have already ended up hurt. Boss crossed personal with business and it’s all coming back to haunt him. There’s nothing we can do except to let it blow up and hope the boy doesn’t get completely caught in the crosshairs.

Of Mice and Men

Eeeeew. We have rats and mice. Not at home but at work. They came in looking for warmth and water and stayed for the food. We started noticing things weren’t right months ago, but they’re only now doing something. The first hint was a chewed up phone cord. It was split in two. Then we noticed that one of the mini-pumpkins on a desk had bite marks taken out of it. We all had one, but that one was the only pumpkin to be affected. Then a coworker’s phone display stopped working. We eventually found out it was because her phone cord had been partially chewed up. Rats.
There are now traps everywhere, and not just the glue boards. They don’t want to use the glue boards as they don’t want the rodents to chew off legs and stuff. So they’re using the traditional traps with peanut butter as bait. It’s been working but I don’t think that will solve the problem. We need outside traps to prevent them from coming in.
There’s also a lovely new rule that prevents us from eating at our desk. No more working through lunch to leave early, no more snacking at your desk even. All food consumption must be done in the one break room. That’s it. That decree has not been met with good cheer. In fact people have grumbled mightily, including me.
It’s thrown my whole eating pattern off. I need to eat on a schedule, due to the whole low blood sugar thing. I now eat breakfast an hour earlier due to the fact that I can’t eat it at my desk. Therefore, I get hungry for lunch way earlier than I should and I need to snack but I have to get up and go somewhere else to do it. We scarf down our lunches quickly so we can come back to our desks to do other stuff at lunch, as we can’t surf the net during the day. And then we snack again in the afternoon. We used to bring in all sorts of things for each other and have potluck breakfasts or lunches all the time. No more. Which stinks. All because of the rodents, and most of us don’t even think this will really solve the problem. The big problem is the holes in the building, of which there are many. When it rains, it pours inside in places.
Oh well. This whole thing sucks but there’s nothing we can do right now, except sneak in bites when we need to, and right now, I need something.

Merry Christmas from the Family

It was an eventful yet uneventful weekend. Friday night we went out for Mexican. We intended to go to our usual place, Matt’s for margaritas and enchiladas but it was packed and there was no getting to the bar, where we’ve eaten many times before. We didn’t want to wait an hour for dinner, so we decided to try one of the many Taquerias by our house. Taquerias don’t sell alcohol, it’s usually BYOB. But that was ok, we were really just hungry. It was good and really cheap, the way it should be. If only they were open past nine pm. There’s one open until 1am on the weekends that is down the street from us, but it’s not nearly as good. Still, when it’s late, you’re half drunk, and hungry, it does the trick. Nothing like a combo of breakfast and regular tacos in the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday I ran some errands and went Christmas looking. I didn’t buy anything because it was crazy and I couldn’t find anything I wanted. People suck extra during Christmas shopping season. The crazies were out driving, if you could call it driving, and people were just rude in the stores. (The salespeople weren’t but everyone else was. The salespeople were amazingly in good moods. For now.)
Then, when the boy got home, we got on the road to his parents house. We had stuff to get out of storage and we were going to go to a concert. It was Robert Earl Keen’s Christmas Show at Flores Country Store. It’s an annual thing and it always sells out. Lots of beer, fun, and rednecks. A helluva good time. We saw him twice before this year, and I have to say that Saturday’s show was so much better than the other two. He was in a way better mood and he played a better set list. Everybody was singing along and having fun. The coozies were out in full force (everyone seems to have one on hand at all times for a beer emergency I guess.). We had a great time.
We stopped at a diner on the way home for breakfast, it being 1am and all. Drunken eggs and potatoes, yum. We had intended to leave early-ish on Sunday, as we had to get home to give a neighbor’s cat his medicine, but we didn’t. We left around 1:30 or so. It was rainy and cold, so we didn’t get to take everything from storage that we wanted to. But the cat was just fine and was more pissed off that we disturbed his nap than anything. (He has a thing where his jaw swells and hurts but he was just fine and was meowing like crazy.)
We just sat around and watched football for the rest of the day. I made some chili for dinner and that was about it. A pretty good weekend in all.

Tis the season for spending $$$

Yep, tis the season for that. I’ve done about half of mine so far. The big Christmas present for me and the boy is the truck. It was going to be a present anyway, it was just going to occur closer to Christmas but oh well. I still got him something else. He’s so hard to shop for as his hobbies are so specialized, you sort of have to know stuff about it to buy stuff. Plants and records. I can’t just get any plants and any record. If I come across certain ones, sure, I know about those, but other stuff? No clue. And when I ask him, he says, oh you just know. Like that helps. So I hit upon something that hopefully will work, a car converter for his Ipod. This will make things easier, as instead of carrying the cd case around, he can just use all the songs he has loaded onto his Ipod. It is a 30G one, so it holds a hell of a lot.
I also just discovered a game store in North Austin that sells older video games. We have an original Nintendo set and the boy loves to play games all the time. I think I may just go and get a few games for him. (He doesn’t read this so I know I’m ok blogging her about it.)
I bought stuff for my mom during the Day after Turkey Day crazy sales. She’s easy. My aunt will be getting kitchen towels and such as she may be finally moving into her own little spot. (As long as all that fun goes ok. Aunt is mentally handicapped and has always lived with my grandmother and now my parents. This will be a change.) Bro is the standard gift card, as that’s all he wants, and then there’s Dad. Mom doesn’t even know what to get dad usually. So we talk for weeks and then she tells me what to get him. It works pretty well.
This year Dad is getting a wooden banana holder. Yeah. That’s all my mom could come up with. He has no hobbies really and he’s retired. So urgh. I’m getting him some good Texas jerky so that will be something different too but still. Dad does have a weird thing for banana holders.
I should get something for the boy’s parents too, and the boy’s brother, but I leave that to the Boy, as he does better with that most times. Then again, he has no clue about his parents either. Also, boy’s brother likes a lot of the same stuff as the boy so… I have enlisted his help tons of times for stuff. Maybe I’ll ask him again this year.
We realized last night that we have a few more people to buy for. There’s our friends P&C and their son. Sigh. And the boy’s grandmother. And his great-uncle’s widow. Oi. So many people and not nearly enough $$ for this. What to buy them? We have no idea.
And then there’s Christmas cards. I really should send them out this year. Really. I say that every year but I never get around to it. I need to though.
So all you who made it through this post and all that, email me your address so I can send a card out. It might make it by whatever holiday you celebrate and if not, just think of it as an all-encompassing Holiday card. Yeah, that’s it.

100 Things Part Deux

51. I apparently look like I’m 5-6 years younger than I actually am. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them my real age. I get carded everywhere. Funnily enough, the Boy doesn’t and he’s 2 years younger.

52. I have short, blond hair and blue eyes. My hair used to be a bit longer but I HATE it long. Short is so much easier and manageable. I hated spending half an hour in the morning just dealing with my hair. Now it’s less than 5 minutes.

53. I have 2 cats who love to double-team me in the morning, begging for their morning food. They’re crazy kittens and I love them to death.

54. I am so not a morning person. I’m not an evening person either as I tend to fall asleep too early. I like mid-afternoon best, but only if I’ve gotten enough sleep.

55. I never thought that I’d be living in Texas when I was younger. If you would have told me this in high school, I would have laughed. I didn’t understand the allure then but I sure do now.

56. I did think that I wouldn’t be living in Massachusetts anymore because I wanted out. I hadn’t lived anywhere else other than my parents house and I wanted a change. Boy did I get it.

57. I have lived in 3 different states and 2 countries so far. I don’t see us moving from Texas any time soon so I don’t think that will change.

58. I don’t know how I ever lived without easily accessible Mexican food. Or Pho.

59. I didn’t even try most ethnic foods I love until college because they weren’t really available in my hometown. There was Chinese and Italian and that’s about it.

60. I grew up surrounded by Italians. My hometown is or rather was very Italian while I was growing up. There used to be a red, white, and green line running through one of the main throroughfares instead of the yellow double line. We had a huge church-run Italian festival every year that the whole town went to.

61. My brother and I look nothing alike. He got the Italian, olive skinned looks while I got the pale, French looks.

62. I, apparently, look just like my dad’s cousin Annette whom I’ve never met. We found this out when she was on Donahue one day for living in a common-law marriage arrangement.

63. That’s pretty interesting since I find myself in a similar arrangement now, except that we haven’t filed the paperwork for the common-law thing, though most people consider us married by now.

64. We’ll have been together 6 years in December.

65. I want kids but sometimes I’m not so sure I actually do. I’m terrified of pregnancy and childbirth.

66. I do know that the boy and I are on the same page when it comes to raising kids and all but it’s still scary. I don’t know how we’ll do it.

67. I don’t make friends easily. I never have. I had close friends in high school and we still keep in touch mostly, but it was hard finding them. Same with college. Now that I’m out in the “real world”, I still don’t have many friends.

68. Most of my friends live across the country now. My best friend lives in PA, my high school friends live mostly in MA, college friends in VA. I have some friends here but a lot of them are the boy’s friends/coworkers.

69. Then there are the internet friends with whom I could not do without. It seems so much easier to communicate this way.

70. I love make-up but usually can’t be bothered to actually spend time on it. My current favorite stuff is ELF products. Cheap and good stuff.

71. I have sensitive skin so everything makes me break out. I still haven’t found anything to work for me, but I also hate to spend a lot of money on it. I guess I’m going to have to soon.

72. I love to shop. LOVE it. But I’m the consummate bargain hunter. I rarely, if ever, pay full price. I shop sales and clearance only.

73. My favorite stores to shop are Target, Old Navy, New York and Company, Kohl’s, JC Penney and TJ Maxx. I’d shop Marshall’s if there was one closer. I used to shop Filenes/Foley’s/Hecht’s before they got bought out by Macy’s. If there was an H&M here, I’d rejoice.

74. I am an earlybird, not in the sense of early to rise, but I’m always early to things like work and meeting up with people. I’m very punctual. I HATE being late. The boy on the other hand, doesn’t care so much about time. That bugs me.

75. My eyesight is terrible. I wear contacts at –10 in my right eye and –9.5 in my left. That’s bad. I have to wear reading glasses over my contacts to read and use the computer or things go fuzzy and I get headaches. I’ve been like this since I was 9.

76. My eyesight changed so quickly when I was little, I thought I was going blind. I went from wearing no glasses, to wearing them for distance, to all the time, to bifocals in 2 years. It sucked.

77. I got contacts in 9th grade and have never looked back. I love them so much more than my glasses, even though my new ones are sort of sexy. I like seeing in the shower.

78. I first smoked a cigarette when I was in France. I was very drunk but I had been around so much smoke I had sort of started to crave them. It was ok. It didn’t make me like them but every now and then I want one when I’m drunk.

79. The boy rolls his own cigarettes and they are so much better than the others. He even puts filters in them.

80. My first smoking experience was in 2002 with the Boy. It wasn’t very good.

81. I’m not a huge fan of and don’t do it very often. It makes me sleepy.

82. I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve become a fan of country music. Hard to believe, but it’s true. I’m going to Robert Earl Keen’s Christmas show next weekend and I can’t wait.

83. I don’t like talking on the phone. I don’t know why, as I’m perfectly find talking through email, but I hate talking on the phone.

84. I love to talk though.

85. Yes, I do talk to myself at times, and in different languages. Sometimes it’s the only way to practice my French.

86. Trashy romance novels that have been translated into French are some of my favorite vocabulary builders. No joke. It’s conversational, which isn’t what they always teach you in school.

87. I wish they had taught us more practical things in French classes like how to get a haircut and how to deal with banks and things like that. It would have made things a bit easier. I know how to do that now, but it would have been nice to know.

88. My ideal job would be running a study abroad company or working for a French speaking person. Anything to really use my degree.

89. I double majored in French and International Affairs, both subjects I liked, not necessarily ones that will make me money.

90. I went to a small college, where class sizes maybe reached 30. Maybe. We had 2 French majors graduate my year.

91. I hate French literature. HATE it. If I had wanted to read lots of literature I would have majored in English. I just wish our major had included more linguistics and language skills.
92. I love beer. The wine expert in the house is the boy. I’m the beer girl, which seems strange to people as I was the one who lived in France, but the area I lived in was big on beer. Mmm Belgian beer.

93. I would love to be able to travel out of the country more, but life keeps getting in the way. I wish I had done more before setting down but loans and bills kept getting in the way.

94. We do manage to travel a little bit, with my family being in MA, but it’s hard. Most of our traveling now is done visiting family.

95. I love to research. Research papers were actually fun for me to do. I know that’s weird but true.

96. I can find most anything if asked. If it’s on the web, I’ll find it. If not, I know where to go to get the information. I’m really good at just knowing where to look.

97. I have an innate sense of direction. I rarely get lost. I can usually figure my way out of things. I have problems reading a map though.

98. I give directions and remember things by landmarks. Most of the time I couldn’t tell you the street name, but I can tell you what’s on the corner.

99. I kissed a girl once. It didn’t do anything for me. We were both really drunk. The boy is really mad he missed that.

100. I can sing. I can carry a tune and it sounds rather good but it’s not pop star quality. It’s more choir-like. I just don’t feel like joining a choir though. I’d rather sing in the shower and freak out the cats.

100 Things Part I (as per pantalones)

1. I am a sucker for sweet and sour chicken.
2. Those crab puffs too, even though they're really mostly just cream cheese stuffed fried wontons.
3. But I'd love to eat actual Chinese food one day. In China. I like trying authentic foods.
4. I still can't believe I'm a homeowner. Still seems like a weird dream.
5. One of my hard and fast deal-breakers for the house was thatit had to have a gas stove. That and no HOA. I was flexible on most everything else.
6. My favorite color is blue. I abhor pink and try to keep it out of my wardrobe as much as possible, which isn't easy as manufacturers seem to think that all girls love pink. I never have.
7. I was a tomboy as a little girl. I was the girl who was always playing with the boys. I played kickball and soccer with the best of them.
8. In dresses. I loved wearing skirts and dresses and still do. They're way cooler than pants in the summer, a fact I discovered while working in an un-air-conditioned warehouse one summer.
9. I have a whipped cream problem. I'll fill a bowl with the stuff from the can and eat it straight. Sometimes I put hot fudge or chocolate shavings on it, but mostly I like it plain. And it has to be the canned stuff too. I love fresh whipped cream but the canned stuff is just,mmmm.
10. I don't eat as many veggies and fruits as I should. I just don't really like them all that much. I love apples, broccoli, spinach, and strawberries. The others are all just meh.
11. I really hate peas. Really really. I also hate bananas.
12. I have a texture thing with food. If I don't like the texture of something, I can't eat it. This is why I can't eat shrimp. I don't mind the taste but the texture is all weird to me. I would actually eat tripe if it didn't have that weird texture.
13. I am a highly visual learner. I have to write it down or read it to really understand it.
14. If you tell me your name, and I don't write it down, I won't remember it. Even if you just told me a minute ago.
15. Same goes for errands and tasks. I have to write it down. Remind me to write it down if you have to. Just asking won't make a difference. If it's not on my grocery list, I will forget it, even if it's an important ingredient.
16. The boy and I met in Barcelona. In a youth hostel. On Christmas.
17. He was actually intended to be the one and only one night-stand I could ever bring myself to have. That obviously didn't happen.
18. We bonded over mutual love for the New England Patriots, which is a rare thing for a Texas boy. Well, that and great sex.
19. I'm a planner. I like to plan things. I have schedules and routines all planned and mapped out. I already have my weekend errand trip planned out that way.
20. I even organize my grocery list by aisle of the store. I can be in and out of the store in under half an hour.
21. But my actual house and things are a complete mess. I'm so disorganized that way. I'm a clutter bug.
22. I HATE when other people try to organize my stuff for me. I can never find what I'm looking for as I have my own system, which doesn't work for anyone else. I know it's weird, it's just the way I am.
23. I'm a Francophile, but not as obsessed as you'd think I'd be. I tend to defend the French for their thinking because they always get blamed for things, even though they just have a weirdly different mindset.
24. I speak fluent French, some Spanish, and a bit of Italian. My Spanish is improving and my Italian still sounds a lot like Spanish.
25. Living in France for a year was one of the best experiences of my life. I'd move back in a second if I could, though not to Paris. I want to live in a smaller town. Valenciennes, the town I lived in, was ideal. It was big but not big enough so that you couldn't walk everywhere,yet it also had a great bus system. Plus it was close to major cities.
26. I had a pretty normal childhood. No dysfunctional family at all really.
27. My uncle is gay but he's still closeted. We all know but he will never admit it. We're not exactly sure why. He's not a very good person though.
28. My other uncle is an alcoholic. Last we heard, which was years and years ago, he was living in a bar somewhere and had lost an eye. We think he's still alive, as my dad is listed as next of kin and we haven'tbeen notified of a death. This uncle is actually a good guy with serious problems.
29. On my mom's side of the family, I have a mentally disabled aunt. The doctor was blind drunk at her birth and she didn't get enough oxygen and was brain damaged. Thus she will be forever 5ish.
30. My aunt and I used to fight over Barbies. It was weird fighting with a 30something over Barbies, now that I think about it, but back then I just wanted to play.
31. My grandma was a really cool person. I get my independent, wanderlust streak from her. She moved away from home, at a time when it was considered horrific for unmarried girls to do so. She didn't care.
32. I never really got to know my paternal grandparents. Mygrandfather died before I was born and my grandmother died when I was 5. All I remember is visiting her in the hospital and having Eggos and Danishes atthe gathering after the funeral.
33. Nana was very Italian though and I'm told I get my cooking streak from her. She never really liked my mom as no one was ever good enough for her boys.
34. Funnily enough, out of those 3 boys, my dad turned out the best. (Not just saying this because he's my dad either.) He's the only one to have his life together.
35. My dad is retired at age 54. He was a Corrections Officer. He never went to college.
36. The year after he retired, my brother became a Corrections Officer. He graduated college in May 2005. He really wants to be a police officer.
37. I am a nerd and a voracious bookworm.
38. I love Monty Python and The Search for the Holy Grail is my all-time favorite movie.
39. It was my British neighbor who introduced me to British comedy. I used to baby-sit his kids every other Saturday night. Easiest job there was, except for the nights when Mary learned to take her diaper off. (Duct tape is an effective solution for that.) He also introduced me to Douglas Adams and Harry Potter.
40. I got extremely good grades all my life, so much that I graduated 5th in my high school class. In elementary school, the only thing that kept me from straight A's all the time was penmanship. My handwritingis still comparable to chicken scratch.
41. I was a goody-two shoes in high school, and my rebellious streak consisted of sneaking off with my boyfriend to fool around. We spenta lot of time at the "coffee shop".
42. I never got detention but the principal knew me well. Of course it was for good things. I was pretty well known by all the teachers and administrators.
43. Somehow we managed to convince the administration to let us use our National Honor Society cards as Hall Passes. We roamed freely around the school and could go where we pleased during study hall, though not off campus. We were a closed campus. But I still went wherever I wanted in the school. No one really asked me for the pass though. They always figured I had a reason to be out and about.
44. I never really drank in high school. Never really had the opportunity either though. My friends were also goody two shoes types. I could have drank when I went on an exchange in 10th grade but no, I didn't want to. The one time I did was when we were on a school trip to Quebec and I was 18 already so I could legally buy booze there. I bought for our little group and we drank wine coolers. I didn't get drunk though.
45. We always had a sort of parent chaperone when at each others' houses, especially when both boys and girls were present, even in senior year. Our parents wouldn't have let us go otherwise. Didn't matter what kind of gathering it was, a parent had to be home if a boy was going to be there. Of course that didn't stop the sex from happening, but they tried.
46. My parents were extremely overprotective, which is a good and a bad thing.
47. Good thing meant that they knew what I was doing most of the time and thus protected me from doing stupid things.
48. Bad thing was that I didn't do a lot of stupid things then and did them as I got older, which wasn't always the best time for it all.
49. I need 8 hours of sleep function properly. I've always been that way, and was probably one of the few high schoolers who didn't mind going to bed by 10pm.
50. I never really got into late night TV as I was never awake. I still don't watch it as I'm still in bed by 10 pm.

Just A Blip

I'd love to post more but it's hard to eat and type. So much to do lately and not enough time in the day. Pilates class tonight so I have to eat and then run. Title and registration did not come today so I get to go to the dealer tomorrow and get a sticker that lets me drive legally until the new one comes. Sigh. I should have just gotten one when we bought it but we all figured it would be here by now. Oh well. At least my new AAA stuff came. Yay for Plus!

Books Books Books!

I am a bookworm. I’ve always been a voracious reader, ever since I figured out that hey, these words on the page actually mean something. Once I started, I was hooked and I’ve never looked back.
I like to read by myself. I hate being read to- no one ever goes fast enough for me. I like to devour my books and being read to just doesn’t work for me. (I’m a visual learner so I’m sure that has a whole lot to do with it also.) This fact greatly disappointed my mom when I was younger, as it was the end of reading bedtime stories to me. Once I could read on my own, it was all I wanted to do.
I have my phases and obsessions with books and authors. I was, and still am, a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. Those books brought the past alive for me and I was obsessed with the time period for a long time, to the point that I even dressed like the women for a while. I credit those books for creating in me my absolute love of history and the past. LM Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables is my absolute favorite author. Her books are also set in a different time period, in the late 1890s, early 1900s. I really and truly enjoy reading and learning about that time period, and it’s all thanks to my precious books.
Bookstores are my favorite stores. I love to shop and I love to shop for books even more. I have a hard time passing a bookstore without going in, especially if it’s a used/discount store. Libraries are basically like second homes to me. I spent so much time in my local one growing up. I always amazed the librarians with the amount of books I took out each time, and they would be all read before or by the time they were due back.
I am also the nerd who carries a book or magazine wherever I go. Just in case I am stuck somewhere, I have a book. I read when I am bored. I read when I’m not bored. If I could read all the time I probably would. I have no problem walking into a restaurant by myself and reading while eating my meal. In fact, that’s rather normal for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love going out with other people, but I’m also comfortable being alone too. It’s ended up being a sort of Saturday lunch thing for me. I usually end up at the boy’s restaurant and sit at the counter reading while munching on a yummy pizza. I don’t even have to order anymore, the Boy puts it in as soon as I walk in. On weekends when the Boy is in the country, I go for Pho. (Though it is difficult to read and eat Pho at the same time, it can be done. Magazines are best for this but I’ve done it with books too.)
Now I can’t wait to get home and read some more.
Current book: The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart
Just read: Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichel

Damn, bad things really do come in threes. In my office, I have 3 coworkers who have sick moms. One mom is getting her hip replaced after the pin she got pin in last year started causing her pain. Another mom has cancer and is in the hospital. She hasn’t really done much for treatment but she’s been doing ok. And the third mom was just told yesterday that her cancer is terminal and there’s nothing more for them to really do. It just sucks all around.
That just makes me thankful that my family is in relatively good health. For now anyway.
This whole mom with cancer thing is nuts. That makes 3 coworkers that have moms with cancer and 1 coworker whose husband is in remission. Yeah. What are the odds for that?
In other family news, my aunt may be finally moving out into a group home arrangement. She’ll have her own apartment and all that but will do meals in a communal setting. My aunt is 63 and has lived with either my grandmother or my mom all her life. This will be a change. She’ll fight it for a bit but she’ll be ok. She can handle most stuff on her own, with lots of direction. She’s like a 4-5 year old that will never grow up.
I hate to blame my grandparents for her attitude, but it’s all in the way she was raised. Grandma raised her with the idea that there were lots of things that she couldn’t and shouldn’t do. She did have her small tasks around the house but she wasn’t self-sufficient at all. It was a huge struggle when she moved in as she felt that she couldn’t and shouldn’t do anything, but my parents felt otherwise. Plus she could do it, she just didn’t want to.
Understandably, this has cause a whole lot of friction in my family, especially when she first moved in after grandma died. Anthony had just left for college and my parents had just gotten the whole empty nest thing. And then came the perma-child who worships the ground my mom walks on but doesn’t give a damn about anyone else really. It was an upheaval. They had to fight to get any sort of help to deal with this. It was over a year before they could get her put into a day program so she wouldn’t be home alone and watching tv all day while my parents worked. Another year later, they managed to get a helper in to teach her skills that they couldn’t. Plus there was counseling for everyone to deal with it. Needless to say, it put a strain on my parents marriage. But they managed to weather through it and deal with everything.
Hopefully this will go through this time. She was supposed to be in this summer but the people handling her case screwed up big time. She was initially rejected because the dumbasses didn’t do their job. They didn’t read her doctor’s notes, her files, or anything really. They hadn’t even met her and talked to her, and they just rejected her, which is not the proper process. Mom was stunned to find out about the rejection, and when she had a meeting about the appeal, she was told that they messed up and they messed up bad. In fact, the people in charge told her that she had a lawsuit if she wanted to sue. (When people are telling you that you should sue them because you have a really good case, there’s a problem, doncha think?) So much fun.
So Aunt is on a waiting list right now, which is strange as there are open spots so there really isn’t a waiting list so we’re not sure what’s up. But hopefully she’ll be in soon. If she’s not, I’m not sure what will happen.

After the long weekend

Coming back to work after a long weekend is so hard. I just didn’t want to get up this morning, even though I knew that I had to. My alarm startled me, which in turn scared the heck out of Gabby, who fell off the bed. (That is the chance she takes for sleeping at the edge but hee…) Punk was in the window, as usual. This morning, they were even more vocal than usual about the food thing. They were both meowing from the moment I sat up. Pumpkin was even meowing at me while I was in the shower. Normally she waits patiently on the toilet but I guess she really wanted her tuna this morning. (Normally the boy feeds them first but it’s his day off and he wasn’t getting up just to feed the girls.) It was just a fun morning I tell ya.
This weekend was also a test for the kittens. As Thanksgiving was such a beautiful day, we had the doors open to the back yard. This also meant that the girls could wander in and out as they pleased. This was Gabby’s first time outside (not counting her escapes, which are now so common that we have to close the door within seconds or she’ll be out.) and it was Punk’s first time out at the new house. It took them a few minutes for them to realize that yes, they could go out and no, no one was running after them to shove them back inside.
Things went well. Gabby stayed near the doors for the most part and hid under plants, while Punk did a little more exploring, but still stayed in the yard. She ended up sleeping under a favorite plant for a while, and then being chased by Gabby. Then the dogs next door came out and it was over for Punk.. She tried being all brave by walking halfway to the fence, but ran as soon as the dog noticed her. She hid in the house for the rest of the day and wasn’t too keen on going back out. Gabby however, got up the nerve to do a lot more exploring. The dog had no effect on her. She chased loads of butterflies and birds and had a few adventures. One of these included climbing the fence and trying to escape. As Gabby still needs her rabies shots (getting this week as she needed to be 4 months before they would do it) that was not good. We had to grab her off the top of the fence 3 times before making the ultimate wise decision to shut her inside. It was starting to get dark anyway, so we moved inside.That Gabby, she is going to be trouble. Punk wasn’t even considering climbing the fence at that age. This worries as I think Gabby might actually do the tree climbing that I thought Punk would do. The boy thinks that Punk will follow Gabby most everywhere, and while that is true, if there’s a dog, Punk will run. Gabby does not have that fear yet. So we’ll see. I guess I have to go get a kitty door this weekend. Le sigh. I just worry about the little one. But she’ll be back for food at least.

Sunday Blah

Today we were supposed to arrange and clean stuff. We got some cleaning done but took a look at the room we need to tackle and said no way. The converted garage is the space where we just dumped everythng that doesn't fit anywhere just yet. It's also the spot where all of our plants go at night when it freezes. Suffice to say: it's a mess.
So we're just leaving it for now.
I wanted to cook somethng today but we still have so much freakin' leftover food that it's sort of dumb to. We're going to be eating leftovers for a while. Not that they don't taste bad at all, but it gets old after a while. I do plan to make fried mashed potato balls with maybe some mozzarella inside and all, but I'm stuck on what to do with the stuffing. I might do something with the pies, not sure what but it'll involve cream and a blender. Or some rebaking. Who knows.
Right now, I'm just reading all the books I scored for $1 apiece yesterday. Yay for thriftstores.

Shopping Madness

Like an idiot, I went out shopping yesterday. I left later than I intended to because first I had to hook up a newish printer to my computer and it decided not to cooperate. (I needed a coupon to NY and Company- my fave store.) After an hour of issues, I managed to print it out and rush out. First stop was Kohl's. I think I lasted 10 minutes there. I found a watch I needed and some stuff for my mom but the lines were like 2 hours long. So I just left. It was easier that way. My next stop was the mall. Ah the mall. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going ot be. First stop was JC Penney where I scored stuff for my mom, a great shirt, and fuck me boots for me. I've been looking for great boots that will fit my calves and voila, I did. And for $30 to boot. Yay for good deals!
Then it was off to NY and Co. Way too much money later, I had got some great stuff. And then it was off to the bookstore for some fun and to the restaurant to eat. Then home.
All in all an interesting day.

Happy Turkey Day!

Ah the calm before the storm. I'm just finishing up breakfast and have to go shower and start the rest of the cooking. I've started the bread and just have to mix up the green bean casserole and make the stuffing. Then when the turkey goes in I'll start the mashed potatoes and the savory sweet potatoes. While that's cooking I'll do the salad. Everything else is done and easy and whew. This hosting Turkey day is insane!
Ok, I need to go do stuff so later!

The calm before the storm

Right now I'm just relaxing for a little while before I start the flurry of fun. I have 3 pies to bake, a casserole to prep, veggies to slice and dice, dips to create, and other things that I'm sure I'm forgetting.
I really would rather nap and all but that's not going to happen. Well, maybe for an hour or so. Ok, naptime it is.
I'm so easy.

No time to post

I'm just sitting down for a quick dinner in the midst of cleaning. Thanksgiving has ballooned to at least 8 so far and maybe more. Some arrive tomorrow so I must finish cleaning. So much to do. Plus there's the prep work. Oh my. I'm cooking so much food.
Anyway, love my new truck.
More when I have time.
Ciao!

We're in more debt now

But it's all for a good cause. I have a truck now. We bought a white, '01 Chevy Silverado. We had to finance part of it but whatever. We needed a vehicle and needed a truck, so we bought one. Oh my god. It's crazy.
I love driving it though. It's so different being up so high but I love it. And it's so nice having an automobile that you aren't wondering if it will break down, but when. Wheeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More later as I have to go clean now. People coming!

Oh this is so much fun

Yay. Went to the famer's market this morning. Got some lovely stuff to use for Turkey day. Apparently, it's not going to be just me, the boy, and his bro, it's going to be a party! We're deep frying a turkey and our chef friend is cooking a goose. So yeah. I'm planning a salad, mashed taters, green bean casserole (don't judge, it's the only time I ever eat green beans), homemade stuffing, 3 pies, bread, and whatever else. Oh yeah, apps. I need apps. I think we'll go low-key with chips and dips, hummus, cheeses, and crackers.

As for the truck search, I went to a dealership this morning. It's a small, used dealership, that has tons of trucks in our budget range. We're going to have a huge down payment with some financing. The sales are no pressure and the guy took a lot of time with me, showing me the trucks. I've got about 3 choices, all reasonable and really nice trucks. I even test drove and have decided that the truck will be mine for a while as I loved driving it. I have driven my parents 7 passenger van before and used to be a driver in college for the 15 passenger vans, so I can drive big trucks. I loved being up so high. And thank goodness my parents taught me how to mirror drive. So we'll see. The dealership is not open Sundays, which sucks, as the boy is at work still. So we're going to go over there tomorrow anyway, just to look, and then the boy will go in on Monday and talk to the salesman and we'll make a decision. Hopefully it will be good.

Still Nothing

Car searching sucks. We've seen 2 trucks and they were not great. THere's not much in our budget range for trucks. We're starting to look at dealers and maybe finance a bit. We can do that. But urgh. This sucks so much. We have a huge down payment.

I just want a vehicle. Right now, I'm not caring whether it's a car or truck. Of course that's not how the boy feels. But he's not the one without a vehicle.

Bye by Bonnie

So the car is dead. Long live whatever vehicle we get next, that is whenever we get it.
My car died Wednesday and we made the decision not to revive it for the simple fact that we wanted to blow it up for New Year’s. The inspection ran out in December and as it just wasn’t going to pass again, no matter whom we bribed or whom the boy knew, it was time to lay it to rest. Except that it beat us to the punch.
The car had been leaking all sorts of fluids, brake and transmission, there hadn’t been washer fluid for years, there was an awful clanking sound, a huge crack in the windshield, and so forth. Apparently there was also a power steering leak, which must have been a new one because it wasn’t an issue before. A bearing froze up, which meant that no belts were running, no power getting to the battery, no cooling system working. I also lost power steering which meant no actual driving. And all this happened while I was sitting at a stop light. Thankfully, I was near a gas station and could pull in.
We called AAA and arranged for a tow. We looked at the car, realized that it wasn’t a fix we could do ourselves, and decided that the car wasn’t worth the little fix. So we’re junking it. And I need a new car. Now.
But my version of now is yesterday and it seems the boy’s version is sometime. Which is fine for him, as he’s driving the car I OWN but the car I can’t drive because it’s stick. We’ve owned it for 3 years now and he still hasn’t taught me how to drive it. 3 years of me begging once a month, but it was never a good time. Well, it’s not a good time now either but it HAS to be done. Personally, I think he didn’t want me to learn because he didn’t want me driving it. Well too bad now.
The second we got home from the gas station on Wednesday, I was on the computer looking at want ads. The boy, he decided to take his time finding the perfect music channel to listen to and just sat on the couch listening to music. The problem with this is that the plan is to buy a truck FOR HIM to use and I’ll take over the Civic. So the vehicle is going to be his. Yet he hasn’t done anything to look for one. Nothing. I looked all Wed night. I spent what little lunch break I had yesterday looking. I looked when I got home. I made tons of printouts and notes. Did he do anything? Nope. He fell asleep. I could understand it and all if he had gotten up earlier and had done other stuff but no, I got up at the same time, managed to rent a car (which was actually a pretty impressive feat when there were maybe 20 cars available in all of Austin yesterday.), and still did some cleaning and research for a vehicle. I can’t exactly go to the dealerships as arriving in a cab or by bus is an automatic target. So I’m stuck. If he doesn’t make a move to even talk about stuff, which we were supposed to do last night, except that he kept getting annoyed and saying I don’t care every time I mentioned something. Next time he says I don’t care it’s not going to go well. I know of 2 cars, in good shape, for less than $3000. It’s not the truck he wants, but it’s something. One is a Ford Ranger, which he doesn’t want but hell, I’ll take it.
I’m the one depending on the kindness of a co-worker to take me to work. I’m the one who can’t get stuff done, like the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. He was talking about going out somewhere this weekend to look at some guy’s plants. If he wants a Thanksgiving, that’s not going to happen. Hell, if he wants a truck that’s not going to happen. I have our Sunday planned. It includes shopping for necessities and stick shift driving lessons. Saturday is out as he works from 11-6, which makes it really sucky because dealers aren’t open on Sunday. We better do something tonight or I’m going to be even unhappier than I am now.
I need help on this car thing but I’m not getting it from the person who is actually involved in the decision making. If he doesn’t start helping soon, he’s not going to be involved.

My car she is dead

Car stopped driving last night. Got a tow from a cool AAA dude, thank god for that. Now we must search for a new car. Yay. More details later. But oh the joy.

Cock a strangle doo

Holy hell, one of my neighbors has a rooster. If I chance to hear it crowing on the weekends, there will be hell to pay. I don’t know who it is yet, but I plan to find out. It’s not right to have a rooster in the fricken’ city! Not when you’re close to your neighbors like this, and not when your neighbors might not want to be woken up at 5 am by the crowing of a loud rooster.
Yeah, 5am. That’s when it starts. I heard it this morning. (First hearing was yesterday.) And it was still crowing about every 10-15 minutes when I left around 7am this morning. Not fun. It’s the alarm clock that you can’t shut off.
If we go out on the weekends, chances are we don’t get home until 2ish and don’t go to bed until 3ish or later. I don’t sleep well as it is and I don’t need a cock-a-doodle-doo waking me out of whatever little sleep I got at 6am. I don’t go back to sleep once I wake up like that.
There has got to be some sort of city ordinance for this. I’m not one to make trouble and all usually but if it’s something that disturbs my precious sleep, I will raise hell. It’s not right. Plus I’m sure the other neighbors aren’t exactly too thrilled about this either.
I could understand if we were out in the country because that happens there. More land, more space, way more animals. But we’re inside city limits. Way inside. Downtown is 3.5 miles north. Roosters do not belong here. Not when there’s an excellent chance that you have neighbors who are still sleeping when the rooster goes off. What about those who work nights and don’t get home until midnight, 2am? They don’t usually go to bed until 3 or 4. I mean seriously. (That was the boy until recently.) Grrr.
I’ve thought about setting the kitties on it but I don’t think they’d know what to do. I can see them thinking, ooh a moving toy! They’re pretty nonplussed by the noise- just another normal noise to them.
In other notes, I’m now receiving religious emails of sorts from credentialing contacts that I work with. Not exactly appropriate to be sending to strangers and stuff from your workplace but whatever. There’s always the delete button.
Current song on Mp3 player: Whistling in the Dark by TMBG.

Mah babies

I don’t actually have kids yet but there are days when I sure feel that I do. My kittens can act like kids on their worst days. They are such handfuls. Gabby is a ball of energy, as only a 3 month old kitten can be. Punk follows Gabby and does the Mama Bear/Sister thing, depending on what’s needed. Together they’re just trouble. (But so freakin’ cute when they’re asleep, no?) When they’re cooperating and playing together, it’s insane. We’ve gotten used to hearing random noises and crashes. Someday those noises might be something else but we’ll just probably chalk it up to kitty play. Our blinds will never be the same. We also have random bags and boxes littered around the kitchen that get used as cat toys. The Calaphon outlet bags are the best. They’re made of a stiff material that the cats can’t scratch up. They spend hours playing in them and trying to mutilate them. Yay for cheap cat toys!
They’re now double teaming the morning wake up. It used to be just Gabby who jumped on me. Now the Punk is in on it too. I try to ignore it for the most part, but it’s hard, especially when there’s 2 cats fighting/playing on top of you. I’ve taken to sleeping with the water bottle right next to me for maximum protection but even then it’s not a sure thing. Gabby still comes right back. Punk runs, she hates the water, though she does sit on the side of the tub, in between the curtains, while I’m showering. Her tail gets rather wet. Gabby is still meh about it, though she has just discovered the wonders of the toilet bowl.
Last night Gabby discovered the joys of burrowing under the covers. She’s so different than Punk that way. Punk HATES feeling trapped and does not like being under the covers. (Can’t see a way out.) I think she may have been trapped once as a wee kitten and that traumatized her. She even tried to break out of the car. (A hyperventilating cat pacing around the car and throwing herself at the windows while driving home is well, interesting. That was the Boy’s marvelous idea.) Gabby on the other had doesn’t care. She’s fine with being under the covers and in her carrier and all that. Plus she can attack feet much easier under the covers.
I talk about my kitties all the time. They’re always up to something and/or always getting into something. There’s always a story.

My first spam

I got my first spam. Aww how sweet. That means at least someone can find this blog.
Argh, I forgot to post yesterday. Oh well. It was a lazy day too. I got up, did some cleaning, and then got out of the house. The library around the corner closed just as we moved in so I've been mourning the loss of my library but I did some research and found a library that's not to far away. Happy me! I love free books, the only part I don't like is giving them back. Ah well.
Then I went up to the restaurant and got a pizza- margharita, garlic, extra tomatoes. Yum. I love pizza and I really do love the pizza at Cipollina. Then came back home and did some more cleaning and stuff. Took a bit of a nap and then made dinner. God, I was lazy. But that's ok with me. I need that every once in a while.
Today is another slightly lazy day. I'm baking a cake because well, I feel like it, and catching up on all my DVRd shows like Gilmore Girls and Ugly Betty. It's 2 and the boy is still asleep. Late night- a friend came over after work (midnight) so they were up for a while. Me, I conked out. Weekends are sleep time for me.
Anyway, happy lazy day!

TGIF and all that!

Yay for Friday! Weekend! It’s Veterans Day and of course I’m at work. I need to work for the government man. Oh well. We’re having an ice cream party this afternoon. That will just have to do.
No real plans for the weekend. We’re pretty much broke so anything we do will have to be on the cheap. I have stuff I need to do at home but I’ll probably end up reading or something. It’s so easy to just put it off.
I do need to start prepping for Thanksgiving. The boy’s parents won’t be here so it’ll probably be at my house this year. Last year we went to chef friend’s house but since his wife and kid will be gone… I don’t know. I’m not going all out, just simple stuff really. I just want to enjoy the time off and then go shopping on Friday. Oh yeah the shopping, but that also depends on what the sales are going to be like. We’ll see.

Sleep, I need sleep

I need to sleep. I don’t know why, but I just can’t sleep through the damn night. No matter what I do, I wake up around 3ish or so. I pass out by 9-9:30pm and going to bed earlier won’t work, as that doesn’t leave me enough time to do anything. I fall asleep easily as I’m exhausted because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before. It’s a vicious circle.
I don’t eat after 7 or 8 pm depending on the night. No drinking of any kind either, lest I have to get up to pee in the middle of the night. I only really sleep in my bed with maybe a little reading and TV watching, which usually puts me to sleep. I sleep with a mask and earplugs. My bed is comfy and warm. I exercise daily. I eat a relatively balanced diet. I’m not sure what else I should be doing. Oh and warm milk is just out as that will just make my stomach do more flip-flops. Lactose intolerance and all.
I really don’t want to take meds for this as I took them before and I hated it. Plus it didn’t stop the waking up in the middle of the night completely. I still got up and peed when I had to, and let me tell you, that was not a fun thing. Body feels like lead when you do that. I’m just frustrated. By 3:30 pm I’m crashing hard. I come home and want to nap. I struggle to stay awake past 8 sometimes but if I want even a semblance of a life with the Boy I need to. This is so frustrating. It got better for a bit but now I’m back to the fun of 3am waking.
Someday I’ll get the sleep I need. It’s not doing me any good not to though. I’d love to be even able to nap but 1) there’s this work thing that prevents me from doing so and 2) I can’t sleep during the day for some reason. Even when I’m sick I have issues with it. Weird I know.
Damn Gabby didn’t help with the sleep last night. The bedroom smelled stale as we have no screens on our windows yet so we don’t open them. I sprayed some Febreeze to make it a bit better. Well it smelled ok but it must have triggered something in Gabby, because no sooner had I gotten into bed than, boom, kitten pee in between my legs. (Seriously, that’s her spot to snuggle anyway.) Urgh. I did spray around the litterbox so it had to have something to do with that. Plus I used it the times she peed before. She avoided me and the bed for the rest of the night. Thank goodness for Nature’s Miracle. That stuff does work. But sigh. The sheets needed to be washed anyway but I wasn’t planning on doing them at night.

Bit of a Rant

This morning: woken up by boy’s alarm even though he and it were downstairs. I know he came to bed at some point but I didn’t hear the first alarm go off while in the room. I only heard it from the living room. Go figure. About 2 seconds after my alarm went off, the wake up crew bounded upstairs to make sure that I was getting up soon. They were both meowing, which is unusual. Gabby was in my face and Punk was at the side of the bed, on the floor, and both were meowing. What a way to wake up.

Cooking has been sort of boring lately. Monday was veal (yeah I know but it’s good) with pasta and a wine sauce of sorts. Not bad but I can do better. Yesterday was chicken quesadillas made with the leftover chicken from the roast I made last week. Tonight is Brats and potatoes. Tomorrow I think tacos or something easy. I’m just not in the mood to cook and take out is on hold this week until we figure out the budget thing. This whole mortgage thing has blown our budgeting and we’re still working everything out. If we didn’t have to have a month’s payment ahead of time, we’d be signed up for biweekly.

As soon as we figure out the car thing, that’s next. The Boy wants a project truck. I just want a truck that we don’t have to throw money at all the time. (We’re getting a truck because we need one to haul all of the plants) Boy wants something to work on. I want something that runs and won’t need all sorts of expensive parts to fix. Boy doesn’t seem to care. He’s drooling. I think a hit over the head with the reality frying pan is in order. I found a really good used truck for sale yesterday, in excellent condition, with lots of new parts and for a very reasonable price. But it’s not a project truck so the boy was like meh. I know it’s going to be his truck to drive and all but still. We can’t be just hemorrhaging money to keep fixing the thing. We do that already for the damn car I drive. I want that to change. I’d like to save money for once, instead of having to wipe out whatever we saved to fix something again. But of course that hasn’t gotten through to him as all he can see is the fun of fixing up a vehicle. It’s the driveway syndrome. We have a driveway so he must do car stuff in it.

Why do all the good sales have to happen when I’m broke?? Arghhh.

Weirdness

Oh this was a weird day. My boss is leaving. I’ve been here about a year and a half and this will make boss #4 now. Yeah. I wish I were surprised at this but I’m not. Head of Marketing is a really good stepping stone to other positions. (Ok, so one got promoted, one got fired, and this one got a new job.) At least his replacement is someone I actually respect, so I’m happy about that. Poor new girl though. She just started yesterday and her boss is being promoted. Eeeks. But the new boss deserves this job. She should have gotten it before almost former boss. (Ok does that make sense??) I’m actually looking forward to seeing what she does with this job. She knows her stuff and is a much better leader.
I am looking for a new job anyway, just haven’t found one I like yet. I’m allowed to be picky now. I don’t have to take the first few offered to me because I’m unemployed and need a job. My resume is out there and I’m getting some calls, mostly from recruiters. I really need to call some of them back. I just don’t like the jobs they’re offering, but they are contacts and all. I just hate meeting with the staffing agencies and doing all the testing and stuff. Oh well. I really need to get my ass out there and apply for things. At least I can ask almost old boss for a reference now and not feel weird about it.
I just hate staying at a company that’s having a hard time staying afloat. It was even mentioned in a meeting today that we were able to get cash for 5-6 months and all but who knows after that. I didn’t know the extent of the money loss before, but damn, it was big. Basically we lost some big state contracts through crappy politics and Haliburton-esque stuff. (Thanks Gov. Perry.) Although big boss did make a mention of long overdue raises, I just don’t see that happening for a while. Urgh. It is nice to know that he realizes that we do deserve them. Our department is what keeps the company running- we are the ones who create the network.
In other happy fun news, I got my Mp3 player fixed last night so that’s happiness. It took some finagling and fun downloads but everything is cool now with that. Note to self: keep connected while updating firmware. Damn cats. I stepped on Gabby this morning too. She was sleeping at my feet, as she loves to do, and I didn’t realize she was there so, oops. She’s still small enough to curl into this itty bitty ball. She really has this thing about sleeping at feet or in the space behind the knees. Other cats sleep at the head, Gabby sleeps in the middle. She’s really a strange little one with attitude.
Shit is about to go down at the boy’s restaurant. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. Let’s just say that hiring your wife to be a manager is NOT a good idea, especially when she’s a harried new mom and is just not a restaurant person to begin with. (The owners have gotten so many complaints that they’ve sent in people to spy on her service. And the reports aren’t good.) We’re giving it 2 weeks until she leaves to visit family for Turkey Day and is gone for 10 days. They’re betting on a huge difference in how things run. The scary thing is that I haven’t heard this just
This is something that’s hard to deal with as she’s the mom friend I posted about previously and is a friend and hubby is a friend and also boy’s boss. It’s going to get bad and we don’t know what to do. We can’t do anything really. All we can do is just let it develop. I mean, how do you tell someone, especially your freakin’ boss, that he has to fire his wife, especially when it’s the wife who runs the show in their relationship?
Seriously, the one good thing about this is that it’s made the Boy and I talk about things more and realize that we really believe in the same things and we agree on the important relationship stuff- like it’s ok to say NO to your SO. All we can think is we’re glad we’re not them. We’re not perfect in any way but from this it seems as if we have a much more solid grip on reality than they do.

Monday, Monday

Blah, I hate Mondays. Especially overcast ones. I just never want to get out of bed. Of course there’s the alarm clock, and I could hit snooze, I just never do. Plus there’s my other 2 alarm clocks, and there’s no snooze for them. They sometimes quit after 2 hours but it’s not as easy as just hitting a button. (Weekend mornings they will quit eventually once they see that we’re not moving anytime soon.) Plus Punk has started to meow just as often as Gabby now. It’s just crazy in the morning. They both weave in and out of my legs and watch me shower. Then they get on the sink and try to interrupt me from doing my stuff. Gabby especially- she tries to rub against me in hopes that it will make me go downstairs faster. Punk just sits at the top of the stairs and meows.
As soon as I get downstairs, all hell breaks loose and both start meowing like crazy until they get their food, even if the Boy has given them their treats before he left. Oh no, they still need more. I just give them regular stuff. Gabby gets hers first, as she’s the loudest and most annoying. Plus she’ll try to eat the stuff out of Punk’s bowl if I do that first. Punk seems to understand, as I think she realizes that she’ll actually get to eat her food if I feed Gabby first. Of course, if Punk takes her time eating, Gabby will come over and try to eat that too. Oh well. Crazy kitties.I’m tired this morning. Don’t know why. Can’t seem to wake up. Have too much to do. But just want to go to bed. The weekends should be longer somehow. Still didn’t get everything done that I wanted to do. Of course the flat tire didn’t help. Oh well.

Go Pats!

Indy vs New England tonight. I'm a Pats girl. I mean I grew up a couple towns away from the Stadium and a bunch of players lived in my hometown. (They gave the BEST candy on Halloween.) So GO PATS!
Car is fixed. The boy went out and got a new tire. We had to move the car out into the street in order to change it. That was fun. Our driveway is on an incline so the car kept moving forward. So we gently and slowly moved the car to the street- not fun when you are basically driving on the rim and the tire isn't doing much. But it's done and driveable. For now.
Mp3 player will be fixed soon. I found the CD after much digging. I really need to organize everything now. Things are just everywhere. We'll get around to that. We are such procrastinators- the both of us.
Oh gotta go, Gabby is attacking my kitty necklace.
I'll leave you guys with a cute kitty pic of Gabby in a bowl.

Arghh

That describes my day yesterday and why I forgot to post. The tire on my car is flat- so flat that it's off the rim. Have no idea why. It wasn't low or anything before. Sigh. Couldn't do anything because boy was at work and he said he'd fix it. So everything I had to do yesterday was put on hold. I did get some stuff done but ugh.
Then I decided to put new music on my Mp3 player. That did not go well. I need to reinstall the drivers on the player but I can't find the CD it came with. It's here but I don't know where and we don't have lightbulbs in the rooms that I need to search in. (Also the boy's fault as he took the bulbs out for something else a month ago and has yet to replace them. It's his thing and I'm not doing his work for him. ) So fun fun fun.
And then I passed out around 8 because we had gone to bed at 5am and the cats did their wake up call around 8 or so. They waited a bit longer than usual. Sigh.

Cold hands and Cold Feet

Daylight savings has ended and I'm still adjusting to it. I'm still having issues staying asleep so this sun coming up at an earlier time thing is not helping me. Making the room darker won't really work, as the cats have ways of letting in the light with their affection for sitting on the windowsill. Plus they, well Gabby mostly, start whining once they determine it's time to be fed. I've just given up. With the light change also comes cooler weather. Of course this hasn't affected the temperature inside the house as the Boy likes it on COLD. Me, I hate it. We have thermostat wars all winter long. He says I can put clothes on. I agree but I say that I shouldn't be freezing inside my own home. I also state that I shouldn't have to wear freaking gloves in my own house. I have this same problem at work too. Can't win either way. You see, I have Reynaud's phenomenon. It's a circulatory disease that basically means that when it's cold outside (and in), the arteries and veins in my hands and feet constrict making it difficult for blood to flow to my digits. This results in pain and numbness in my hands and feet. They turn a blueish tinge first and then turn white, which is almost frostbite. This happens at 65 degrees. Easily. I can't even hold a cold drink in my hands without it hurting after about 15-20 seconds. I always keep a coozie with me now for this purpose or I use a napkin, wrapped around the drink. Rummaging around the fridge and freezer is hard. I usually have something like a towel for grabbing things. I mean, it hurts. I remember one time, when I first started issues with my hands, I had to drive my boyfriend home. It was about 40 outside and my hands just went nuts. I had gloves on but it didn't matter. My hands hurt so bad I could barely move them. All I could do was clutch the wheel. I was crying because it hurt so bad. Warming up was even worse. It took me a while for me to be able to move my hands. When the blood starts flowing it starts to hurt too. So for me COLD=PAIN. It really stinks. There's no cure. It's a tissue thing, which means I should see a rheumatologist eventually. It's also potentially linked to Lupus as about 25% of those with Reynaud's get Lupus, for which there is also no cure. But I also think it's hereditary, as my mom has it. I know of 3 other people who have this problem. And we all have different symptoms. One of them, S, her hands just turn purple. They've never really been a normal color. She isn't as sensitive to cold but her hands are just funky. She has the link to Lupus as it runs in her family. Another girl just has cold hands. Another one actually has Lupus. Me, I lose feeling. My hands and feet also go numb when I cross my legs for too long, sit cross-legged, sit with my head on my hands, lean on my arm, stuff like that. I mean my arm goes completely numb, to sleep as most people would say. It really stinks but you get used to it. It really sucks that there's not much you can do about it. There's little medication out there and it helps about 3% of the people who have it. (I'm not one of them.) Exercise helps but trust me, it doesn't do as much as I'd like. The best solution is to keep your hands and feet warm. The feet are easy. It's the hands I have issues with. I have really good gloves, but I can't wear them all the time and they don't always work as well when it's colder. Mittens are the best but have you ever driven or tried doing lots of stuff with mittens? Not much mobility in the hands. I'd wear gloves to work, but even the thin ones inhibit typing and stuff. People have suggested I wear the ones with no fingertips, but that just means that my fingertips go white and numb. It's a no win situation. I've learned to sit on my hands when I need to and even stick my hands under my armpits to warm them up. I know it's weird and all Mary Katherine Superstah and all but it's one of the warmest places on your body and it works. I'm also rather good at one-handed typing now. My gloves are already out for the season. It's hard. I feel so weird wearing just a long sleeve shirt and gloves but I have to. I carry them everywhere now. That's about the only thing I can do to make my hands and feet feel better: keep them warm.

Halloween

So Halloween is over and the Christmas things are out. Then again, the Christmas stuff has been out since sometime in September, and in some stores I think August. That’s just scary. (I was wandering around Target looking for simple Halloween decorations that don’t seem to exist anymore and boom! It was Christmas all of a sudden. Ugh.)
We didn’t decorate for Halloween this year but we plan to go all out next year. We want to be one of “those” houses, ones that people want to come to. We love Trick-or-Treaters. We couldn’t wait for them to come around this year. And they didn’t disappoint. I even had to send the boys (Boy’s brother was here) on an emergency run as we started to run low an hour into it. It was great. The kids (and parents) just showed up in mobs and most were polite and did the trick or treat thing. Lots of cute little ones and some creative costumes. We ran out of candy at about 8pm. I hated having to turn off the porch light but we weren’t the only ones. The other houses on the street were slowly going dark one by one.
I can’t wait for next year. Kids! And Candy! It’s seriously one of our favorite holidays. Next time we’ll be prepared with twice as much candy and if there’s any left over? Darn, guess we’ll have to eat it. Terrible.
I do have more pictures of the kitties. Some are already uploaded to my yahoo photos site. I’m switching to flickr eventually, but like most things, I just haven’t gotten to it yet. Gabby is a little diva/attention whore so it’s hard to capture her when she’s sleeping. She wakes up so quickly. Punk is much lazier and is now a total lounger.

Not a very interesting post today. Too much to do, not enough time. Halloween was fun. Lots of trick or treaters- so many that we had to make an emergency run for more candy and we STILL ran out. Not bad that.
Kitties are still crazy- the spent the night on the stairs, freaked out. All the kids saw them and kept commenting but the girls wouldn't go anywhere near all the strangers. Rather funny.
Anyway, more later.

Watching my friends parent

Watching my friends deal with their toddler has helped the boy and I realize that we are so on the same page when it comes to how we are going to raise our kids, if we ever have any. I can’t judge my friends for what they are doing, as they are doing what they feel is best for them, but it’s not the way I would want to do it. After a visit with them, or a day after work as the boy works with both parents, we both end up talking about what we would do different.
I love my friends and I love their kid, I just don’t agree with what they are doing. A lot of times it seems that they are just creating more problems and stress on themselves, which they end up taking out on other things. Of course we could never tell them that they are wrong, or rather that we feel they are wrong, because unless they are physically hurting or emotionally abusing the kid, you just can’t. Everyone parents differently. Plus he’s a happy, highly energetic little boy. Their style just isn’t ours. And that’s ok. It’s been good for us because we can talk about what we would do differently and it’s helped us see that we’re completely on the same page.
Their parenting style is attachment parenting. This means that the kid sleeps in their bed, is pretty much in mom’s arms (or dad when he’s home), breast fed for a while (which I agree with), and picked up whenever he cries, no matter the reason. They don’t want him to feel alone or unloved. And there lies our problem because they pick him up and cuddle and kiss no matter why he’s crying. He can be upset because he fell or upset because he didn’t get his way and he’ll get coddled. I just don’t see how that’s good for a kid. I was there the other day, doing my laundry as our washer was having drain issues. I was playing with the kid like I normally do- basically watching him run around and stuff. At one point in time, he was going after something he wasn’t supposed to. We all said no, you can’t have that. He got upset, started to pout and cry, and mom picked him up and soothed him, thus teaching that whenever he doesn’t get his way, he can just cry and all will be fine. That just doesn’t work for me. At all. (He’s 18 months old and understands no and all that perfectly. Plus he knows what he’s doing.) They just can’t stand to see him cry. They feel that if they let him cry, he’ll feel unloved. From a different point of view that just seems to be spoiling the kid and starting to turn him into a brat who will always get his way.
It’s frustrating to see that and knowing that you can’t say or do anything about that. Mom already gets crap from other people for the way she does things. We can’t add on to the pile, even though we agree with the others. It wouldn’t be right. So we don’t say anything to them and just talk about it afterwards.
And then there’s the abandonment issue. Mom’s sister lives with them for now, and she’s used as a babysitter for short periods of time as she lives with them. They won’t let anyone else watch the kid though, as they don’t want anyone else to have to deal with him. (Their words.) They also feel that if he’s asleep or whatever and wakes up and realizes that mom and dad aren’t there, he’ll feel abandoned and be traumatized forever and feel unloved. (Also their words. We asked about that one night when offering to baby-sit.They don’t trust anyone but themselves.) Doesn’t matter if they come back. To me, that just doesn’t seem right. It’s a little extreme, in my opinion. We’ve offered to baby-sit tons of times. He knows us well and loves playing with us. We end up watching him half the time at the restaurant or at their house but they won’t leave him and go out because they don’t want us to deal with his tantrums. It’s frustrating to see that, because they need breaks but they won’t give it to themselves because they don’t want to burden anyone else. They’re afraid to let go, even for just a little bit.
I hate feeling like I’m attacking someone for doing things differently than I would. It’s just that their style is nowhere near what ours would be. And it’s hard to deal with sometimes, especially when they complain about things that could be dealt with so differently, but they won’t because they’re afraid of messing up their kid. I know it’s hard being a parent, harder than I know at the moment. But it’s hard being a friend too and watching them.

Queens of the Castle and other things

The kitties have taken over. They really do own us, and not the other way around. Gabby is the ultimate beggar, who just does not want to eat dry food. We’re trying, but she won’t eat it. We even took to putting some water/chicken broth in her dry food, microwaving it for a minute, and then refrigerating it, trying to make it like wet food. She likes that, and will eat it, but that’s as far as it goes. The kibble in her bowl stays, unless the Punk eats it. I’ve tried mixing it all up, but she eats around it. It’s not like her teeth can’t handle it- she just doesn’t want it. She likes to beg and have it spooned out as mush. (Tried spooning out the kibble- no go.) We figure one weekend we’ll just give her nothing but kibble and she’ll be so hungry she’ll have to eat. But she’ll meow us to death in the process. (I never thought it was possible until I heard this one. Sheesh. I swear she has some Siamese in her.) Plus she also runs right under our feet while we’re in the kitchen. If we’re in bed and she’s hungry, she just sticks her nose in our faces and purrs. Then whines. Then jumps and flips and tries to get us up. Punk will eventually join in a few hours later, until one of us finally gets up and gives them what they want.

Punk is the normal one, sort of, and just watches Gabby and makes sure she’s ok. She is also a beggar, but not nearly as bad as Gabby. Though when she doesn’t get her tuna, oy. We ran out this weekend and I had to go to the store yesterday for some. I was hit up as soon as I walked in the door. She just knew I had some tuna. That cat and her tuna. She’ll never leave us, unless she finds some other shmuck to feed her that. All I have to do is rattle food in her bowl and she comes running. She will stop whatever she is doing and run for the food. It’s so funny.

Gabby has started exploring more. She’s getting over her fear of heights and climbed the clothes in the closet the other day. Her only problem was figuring out how to get back down. That took a good 20 minutes and a lot of me just watching and laughing. She eventually crawled halfway down the clothes and fell. Not too graceful but it works.
She is also the lump on my side of the bed. The boy gets Pumpkin on his side, all sprawled out, taking up the bottom corner so the boy has to sleep diagonal. I get Gabby, curled up right next to me, in between my legs, or in a recent development, on top of my legs. That makes for an interesting night. She just moves with me.

Gabby hasn’t peed in the bed since I put the litter box upstairs. The boy is still against it, but it gets used, and that’s all I need. I’ve moved it to the corner now, where it’s less conspicuous.

Double vet visit this Friday for the kitties. Gabby needs her rabies, boosters, and roundworm. Punk needs the rabies. Oh it’s going to be fun with the both of them. I think I’m making the boy come with me. He’s going to be on poo duty anyway- the attempt to bring a fecal sample. Punk hates the car, Gabby falls asleep. It will be interesting. Thankfully it’s 5 minutes away. Still enough for Punk to flip the hell out.

In non-kitty news, our washer drain is clogged up. (That was a fun discovery. Nothing like wet clothes with soapy residue and water gushing everywhere.) There’s some lovely looking sludge in the pipe. No draino can be used. We called a plumber, as stoppage is covered by the blessed home warranty and he tried a bit but couldn’t unclog it. It seems that the clean out valve for the pipes in our house is in the front and our washer is in the back. So we need one of those valves installed in the back so he can go up the other way in the pipe in order to clear it all out. Makes sense but sounds like a pain and $$. But we need to do it. Urgh. We’re trying a low-tech solution tonight that he said might work, called a blow out bag, It shoots a stream of high pressure water through the pipe, so we’ll see. Might just be another mess. Who knows. I’m willing to try anything right now to do laundry. (Spent Saturday at a friend’s house doing laundry and while I know they don’t mind, I don’t want to have to do it all the time. Plus being able to do laundry when I just need to is better.) What is it with us and washer/dryer issues? I mean come on!
As to why it clogged, it seems that the connections weren’t used for a while, as we had to buy new faucets for the water hookups. So dust and dirt got into the pipe and after enough uses, everything got wet and just congealed and stuff. Ick.

The Texas book festival is this weekend. I’m still debating on whether I’m going to make it up early enough to see Barack Obama speak. He’s there at 10am but you need to go get wristbands at 8am and Friday night is the official CD release party for Cienfuegos, the awesome Cuban jazz band that plays at Cipollina every Friday. That means a late night of drinking and stuff. But I also plan to go see Amy Sedaris speak about her new book and that’s not until 2. Sadly, she’s scheduled against Frank McCourt, the only other major author I wanted to see. Oh well.