It’s officially finished and successfully completed it’s maiden voyage last weekend with Bryon, Matt and Steve taking turns at the oars. Not only did it float successfully but it also survived the misguided oaring of three novices.
They even caught some fish.
Grace and I are waiting for our turn now.
Row, row, row your boat.
Well the good news is no mange. The bad news is she does have a spectacular case of ear mites and tape worms. Luckily they can both be treated but she won’t be getting many snuggles and NO kisses for the next three weeks until the medicine has time to work its magic.
The vet thought she was probably a year to a year and a half old, had surprisingly good teeth for her condition and needed to put on some weight. She weighed in a at a paltry six pounds. She weighs less than either of our cats.
On second thought, maybe I do need to give her some kisses. Perhaps I could benefit from a tape worm. Nothing else is working.
I bought her a cute little pink collar with a bell on it. I had to get a cat collar because her neck is so dang skinny. It’s cute listening to her prance around in it.
So far, so good.
We’ve had spring around the Big Cedars for more than a month now. Way earlier than usual, so of course we got premature gardening fever. Bryon planted potatoes, radishes, onions, lettuce, cabbage and broccoli around the first of March and yesterday we enjoyed the first fruits, er, vegetables of that labor.
It was delicious! I finally stopped buying balsamic vinaigrette from the grocery story and just mixing up my own. I figured out the trick is LOTS of honey and half balsamic vinegar and half extra virgin olive oil.
I found a recipe for radish relish I’m going to try, maybe tonight. I’ve made zucchini relish several times and it’s soooo good on hamburgers and hotdogs. I never know what to actually DO with all those radishes but the are just so lovely their too good to waste. I’ll report back on how it turns out.
Today we bought tomatoes and pepper plants. Sure it’s probably way to early, but hey, if we get tomatoes a month sooner, WooHoo!
We’ve had some progress on the pool building as well. We have a spot almost leveled out and we’ll be putting it up very, very soon. YOU may be on the list of potential pool builders so prepare your strong ropy muscles in advance! It will be all hands on deck for pool raising day! We pay in beer and Aleve. The beer comes AFTER the work is done. That was a lesson learned long ago. Yeah, I’m talking about you brother Mike 
Friday night we got another little farm surprise.
She was up by the road in the ditch along our driveway. Bryon found her when he went in the Rhino to pickup Grace off the bus. She followed them home. Grace fed her. Case closed.
She is COVERED in ticks and fleas and has hardly any hair on her belly. Her nipples look like she’s had a litter of pups in the recent past. She’s thin and pitiful. We are hoping she doesn’t have mange. We gave her a flea/tick bath yesterday and Frontlined her. She’s very friendly and can’t keep her tail still when you peek your head out at her or talk to her. Of course she’s a little skittish but she’s warming up.
You can feel every bone along her back and her sternum protrudes. We’ve all been washing our hands incessantly after handling her but you just can’t resist giving her a pet or a scratch or picking yet another tick off of her. Bryon is taking her to the vet tomorrow and Grace can barely wait for a report of no mange so she can cuddle with her.
Grace had a complete meltdown Friday night as we discussed what to do with her. We thought maybe someone in Bryon’s dad’s apartment complex would enjoy a tiny dog like her. Grace lost it and proclaimed her undying love for her. Bryon told Grace we can’t keep every pet that shows up at our house. Grace responded (correctly) that this was the first one in her WHOLE LIFE and that she wanted a dog that was little she could hold that wouldn’t ever grow up.
Geez, how can you argue with that?
Besides, how much could it possibly eat? It’s tiny.
I’m pretty sure she has worms too. Double fun. Bryon will probably stroke when he has to pay the vet bill tomorrow but she’s too cute to turn out. I’m surprised she hadn’t already been eaten by a coyote up there by the road and the field.
She’s stayed right on the back step on that little bed the past few nights. I’m sure as time goes on she’ll get more adventurous but for now, she’s pretty damn happy to stay right there safe, sound and fed.
Stay tuned for the vet report. I’ll try to let you know before ten days passes again 
Damn bloggers.
Hi, my name is Lisa and it’s been 17 days since I posted the first TTAM post. I’m not sure that bodes well for my patience. Obviously, this proves I am too easily annoyed. I blame it on pre-pre-menopause.
So here’s the list:
Ten Things That Annoy Me since March 8 in no particular order of annoyance:
1. Trains. This train above in particular. On the one hand it’s all cool and nostalgic to see and hear a train running through your very own tiny rural town. On the other hand, it’s a pain in the keister when you are in a hurry. Those trains are long. And slow. And annoying.
2. Smoking. By anyone, anywhere, ever. Yeah, yeah it’s your right to kill yourself slowly and painfully but don’t take me with you. Also, it gives me a banging headache.
3. Returns. I hate having to return anything to any store. Even when I have the receipt and I know some uppity store clerk is not going to hassle me. I especially hate returning things that didn’t work directly out of the package. Like the digital thermometer I bought at Wally World that has ONE button on it to push to turn the thing on. Did it work? No. It did not. Back to Customer Service I had to go.
4. Rude Car Drivers. Especially those who do not acknowledge my supremely magnanimous generosity when I let them into traffic in front of me even though they’ve been a douche and have not been paying attention to the obvious signs and traffic directions.
5. Companies I Have To Deal With. Mostly those who will not let ME access our accounts because the don’t have BOTH of our names on them. Whatever. If they want my money, they’d best let me take care of things because Bryon has no idea what the passwords are or where to even find the websites. If I fall off the planet tomorrow, they are so screwed.
6. One Square. That Seinfeld episode was so great. The one where Elaine asked the lady in the stall beside her if she could spare a square when she realized her toilet paper dispenser was out of paper. Honestly, one square is not nearly enough, but when there are no squares…one is wonderful. If you use the last square, tell someone who can take care of it. Because if I don’t have a square, someone will receive my wrath.
7. Pay At The Pump Receipts That Don’t Print. Frankly, if I do not want to schlep the fifteen steps into your store for a receipt. Refill the dang printer paper on the pump. Don’t ask if I want a freakin’ receipt if you aren’t prepared to deliver it.
8. The Chairs At Barnes & Noble. I have a love/hate relationship with Barnes & Noble as it is. I feel like they basically crushed my true love, Borders, and ran them to bankruptcy. B&N is the only substantial bookstore/coffee shop in town so if I want to peruse new books with a cafe mocha in my hand, that’s the place I have to go. They are not loiter friendly. The chairs are purposefully uncomfortable and few. If you aren’t lucky enough to sit with the A Listers in the cafe, you’re relegated to sitting with your back to the Glenstone Street window and facing a row of puzzle boxes. There isn’t even anything to put your feet up on. AND they took the only two soft chairs out and replaced them with Sunday church pew-hard arm chairs.
I suppose we should be happy they have arms to balance our cafe mochas on. Honestly those soft chairs weren’t the prize I thought they’d be anyway. One day I finally scored one. I immediately sank to the bottom of it and landed on a hard board and the chair smelled funky. NOT a good funky. A few times I’ve had to cruise the cafe and the row of Glenstone misfits like a vulture until someone finally bugs out. Friday I finally scored a Glenstone chair only to notice the not so subtle hint of dead mouse wafting from the wall behind me. Foiled again.
9. My Dog. Almost constantly.
10. Unreliable Bloggers. Especially those who wait 10 days between posts. Who can trust them?
I give.
I am not Superwoman.
I’ve really struggled posting every day, and I’ve decided to quit. I’m not going to quit blogging, but I am going to stop posting everyday. It’s just too hard to keep up with it and do anything else. Maybe I’ll still get in 365 posts before the year is up. Maybe not. But I am relieved to let the burden of it go.
Don’t worry, you’ll still get the good stuff. Probably better stuff actually.
I’ve made it through the first hundred pages of edits on my book, so I’m a third of the way. I’ve also rewritten the first two chapters now for the third time. It may get still another makeover (probably several more). Hopefully, I’m making it better and not just replowing the same earth.
Monday night is the first of four writing workshops, and I’m excited to attend. They cover point of view and dialogue, characterization and conflict, plotting and show don’t tell. I suspect I’ll learn more in those four sessions than I did in four years of college. Of course, I’m differently motivated now. That helps.
So there you are. Don’t be bummed. I won’t forget about you. Be sure and signup for post emails at the top right of the page if you want to get them in your inbox instead of just guessing when I might post next. You have to respond to the first email you’ll get after you sign up to confirm your address and begin receiving the posts.
Let me know if you have trouble, and I’ll try to help you out.
Thanks for your support so far.
Here is your video entertainment for the day. Grace busted out the bubbles last night, and Belle joined in. That’s some good clean entertainment right there.
Bryon and Gary were playing trackball in the yard off screen, and the chickens were in the peanut gallery.
First shorts and flip flops of spring.
Every once in a while you come across an album (can we still say album?) that is just right for the place and time you are occupying. It’s like a cosmic gift. It punches all the right buttons and speaks the words you need to hear.
In the mid 80′s there were three for me: Van Halen’s Diver Down, Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits and AC/DC’s Back In Black. I have two of those albums on my most frequent playlist still. They were resurrected thanks to seven seasons of Supernatural. (Best show EVER by the way, seriously you should watch it if you dig monsters and apocalyptic terror. And really, who doesn’t?)
The classic rock bug bit me hard again. I have seven AC/DC albums on my phone right now ready to rock at a moment’s notice. Listening to those songs is like chatting with a long lost friend. They still get me even though I’m thirtyish years older. As soon as those church bells start bonging in Hell’s Bells or those drum beats start banging in Back In Black, I’m sixteen again and cruising the strip in Bolivar wondering where exactly Bryon is. But that’s a different post. Maybe I’ll tell you that story one day if you don’t already know it.
Bryon has always been a much bigger music buff than I have. And our friend Damon trumps us both. They can remember stats, musical histories, which band member was in which band and where they went or when they flamed out and died. I just remember emotions linked to songs and albums. I can’t be bothered with the details.
I can barely stand to listen to a Journey album without tearing up with seventh grade angst. I went to every dance in the United Methodist Church basement. Junior high dances are painful, gut wrenching affairs. I had a big crush on one boy in particular who regularly attended those dances with his herd of friends. I asked him to dance every time to Open Arms, probably the drippiest most obvious song a goofy self-conscious thirteen year old girl could pick. He always danced with me (probably reluctantly) but I reveled in it and I can still conjure his clean, Zest soap smell.
He turned out to be a great guy but not THE GUY. Bryon was THE GUY and our HS song was Ratt’s Round And Round. We danced many a foot loose night before that movie every became famous.
When I went to college, Pink Floyd’s The Wall became one of my obsessions. I wrote a paper on it. Twelve pages if I remember correctly. It was the longest paper I’d ever written. It may have been the longest I had to write for my entire degree come to think of it. Wow, does twelve pages seem paltry now. I could write twelve pages in my sleep.
I’ll have to admit to an elementary crush on Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka and Shaun Cassidy. Shaun was the Justin Bieber of my time.
There were lots of others, too many to list. Just a couple of weeks ago, I found a new favorite: Dr. Dog Be The Void. There was a great review of them on NPR, and I finally downloaded their album to check them out after I heard them one day at my favorite coffee house.
I usually have to listen through an album several times before it takes root and grows or dies on the vine. I don’t like story songs anymore. I’ve been wearing this album out while I burn down the highways.
I like Dr. Dog because it has a Kings of Leon/Mighty Mighty Bosstones meets the Bottle Rockets feel to me. Not every song makes a lot of sense but there are snippets of lyrics that hit spot on for me. I especially like That Old Black Hole. I wish I could give you a listen here, but you can check them out and the NPR interview if you would like.
It may not be your thing. You might not dig it. Music, like books, finds us when and where we are and gives us what we need if we are willing to accept it. Sometimes it gives us a shoulder to cry on, a driving beat and a boost of confidence to muddle through. And sometimes it’s like an encrypted message from God with an answer you’ve been needing. Or a command to just wake up and smell the damn roses in a few lines of lyrics that won’t mean crap to anyone else.
Because it’s your music. And it’s your time for it.
I have been on a quest for the perfect purse for many years now. Searching for the perfect purse is much like the search for your soul mate. You have to try out several before you know for sure that you have finally found the right one.
Often, you think you have found the right one. He seems interesting. He is attractive to you in all the right ways. He surprises you with all of his useful qualities and handy pockets. (Uh, okay maybe not the pocket thing.) Then just when you have bought into his appeal and colorful exterior you realize that you really aren’t a good fit after all.
He’s dragging you down because he has too much baggage. In fact, he is the baggage. So you toss him away or in the case of the purse, relegate it to the back of the closet. Mr. Right wasn’t Mr. Right at all. He was just Mr. Right-Now.
So like Don Quiote you once again tilt at windmills in search of the prize: the perfect purse.
I have quite a collection of almost purse soul mates. For a while, they were lovely. Then sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, I fell out of love with them. It wasn’t them, it was me. My needs changed.
In the 80′s I carried tiny purses. I didn’t need to carry a lot of stuff around. Keys, driver’s license, some cash were all I really needed. In the 90′s, I carried medium sized purses until I realized the larger the purse I carried the more crap I had to haul around. My shoulders began to hurt.
I switched to backpack style purses. Those worked great for a while, but soon enough newer models caught my eye. I returned to the small minimalistic purses with long straps I could loop over my head and across my back and chest. Carried the bare essentials. I was hands free before it was cool.
Then I had a baby. I needed a wagon, not a purse to convey all the extraneous gear babies bring to the game. Now that baby is seven and she can carry her own things.
It turns out, it still takes a lot of stuff to be me. It wasn’t all baby weight after all.
My carefully cultivated preparedness mentality demands I carry a lot of just-in-case items. The sort of things you don’t use very often but as sure as you remove it from your bag you need it and have to buy another one. Immediately.
Things like: a pocket knife, a bottle of Tylenol and antacids, my netbook, reusable shopping bags, gloves, hand lotion, weird loyalty cards and Silver Dollar City passes, extra gel pens, three chapsticks, hand sanitizer, hair barrettes, beads and buttons, a notebook, compact, wallet, phone, a book, a flashlight, a tire gauge.
You can’t carry all of that in a tiny purse.
I can’t even carry it in the large purse I have now. The quest continues.
Long live the hero.
Okay, this is a quickie. You like quickies right?
My friend Cara turned me on to this 365 day photo challenge. I have an iPhone so that makes it pretty easy. There’s an app. My phone is also a camera. And this site Fatmumslim gives you photo topics everyday. The My365 app lets you post your pics to a calendar.
So far, here is what I have uploaded so far:
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| Something I wore |
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| Window |
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| Red |
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| Loud |
Here are the topics for March.
If you have an iPhone … join in and follow me on My365. It’s a neat way to be creative and take some cool pics as you go about your day.
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