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      Tuesday, June 01, 2010


otherstuff
12:16 PM - 06/01/2010

The topic: When it rains it pours
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Remember I rolled my car and killed it?  (By the way, the other guy’s adjuster says I’m fifty percent at fault because I overreacted.  If I’d taken the hit I’m told it would have been equivalent to about eight miles an hour and not have caused the damage it did. Like everybody knows that.  And I’m lucky they’re giving us anything, they only are because we have the same insurance as the at fault driver.  Well, when we finally get it settled, I may be done with THEM, but I won’t be done with THIS, because it’s just wrong.  If the other driver had not been making an unsafe lane change, I’d have not rolled my car.  And that’s the bottom line. I’ll start filing complaints when the insurance settles with this.  It probably won’t help me, but it might help someone else.)

And then the tranny went out on the Mustang when we went to the lawyer’s office? (And AAA would only tow us seven miles for free?)

Well, this past weekend Brian washed the trucks and came in shaking his head.  He said the rotors on the brakes on the Ranger were bad.  I told him “well, it was slow to stop” and he said he didn’t realize it (don’t know how one could not have realized it, the brakes have been so sluggish, but then I wasn’t driving it all the time like he was).  Then I said “so, it’s not safe to drive?”  And he said it was safe to drive.

There was a moment of silence as I thought this over.

Then I said “but it’s not safe to stop.”

He laughed.  But we haven’t driven it since he found the problem. We took his truck shopping.


otherstuff
02:54 PM - 06/01/2010

The topic: They lie…
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You know how Jack in the Box has new fries, how they’re supposed to be soooo much better than their other ones?

Last week we drove through a JIB and got small cheeseburgers, Jack tacos and fries.  Those fries were nasty.  I only had a few. 

We got home and I shared them with the cats. Cats turned up their noses at them, even Sammy, who just loves French fries.

So, I threw them outside in the grass.  Those fries are so bad, even the bugs won’t eat them.  A week later, there are still Jack in the Box French fries intact.

      Wednesday, June 02, 2010


catstuff
04:09 PM - 06/02/2010

The topic: I love you, too, but…
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Okay, we’ve had a gopher in the backyard for most of this year. Done some major lawn damage, no dirt piles, but lots of tunneling and it’s just an amazing feeling when you’re walking along and find yourself starting to sink.

The cats have spent lots of hours just waiting by the holes.  And sometimes they do more than wait, they’ll actually start to dig to get to this damned gopher.

Well, earlier today, Skippy caught it.  I saw he had something in his mouth and went out to make sure it wasn’t a bird. I’d save a bird.  I wouldn’t save a gopher. 

And even though it was obviously alive, I did not save this gopher.  A while later he was sitting by it, he’d killed it. 

A while after that, I saw Peter had found a fine fresh nom.

Then I was sitting here trying to figure out where that set of demo plugins came from on Paint Shop Pro, I’ve had them for years and they’ve never worked and I kind of liked the idea of getting rid of it.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a couple of cats by my chair, didn’t think much of it, kept working.

Then I looked down.

Oh, lord, it was the gopher.  It was very, very nasty. It was two pieces held together by entrails.  And Spot was just sitting there, looking at me, just as pleased as he could be.  “Look what I brought you to nom!” 

I got up, stepped over it, got about three paper towels, folded them over on themselves, picked the carcass up and took it out to the dumpster.

I hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.

      Saturday, June 12, 2010


entertainmentstuff
08:55 AM - 06/12/2010

The topic: For review:  Avatar
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We watched this a couple of weeks ago and we really liked it.

It was a story retold, reminded me greatly of “Dances With Wolves” and it sucks that the bad guys are always Americans.  A greedy lot of bastards, we are….and we always go for the jugular, the part of heritage that will hurt the most.   I’d heard a lot from others who had seen the movie before I had the chance, they all gave it rave reviews.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but from the beginning, when Jake went into dreamstate to become a Pandoran, and met Neytiri, I had a pretty good idea of how it would end. I’ve watched many Disney films and the beginnings and the ends are pretty standardized, but the route that you’re taken to get there is what makes it entertaining.  And I really appreciated the weaving of the mystical into the storyline.  We’d all like to believe in life after death, that we’ve got guardians or angels watching over us. 

The visual effects were nothing short of awesome.  Even Katie sat on the floor watching the television.  If there were a place like that within a two hour drive, I’d go there on a regular basis.  I’d ride one of those bird/bugs. I’d sleep under that tree.   *lol*

It was a wonderful fantasy, great entertainment. It might be a little over the heads of young children, but not overly scary and I’m sure they’ll be entranced by all the vibrant colors.  I know I was.

Two thumbs up.


otherstuff
08:41 PM - 06/12/2010

The topic: Got a car
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We got it last Wednesday.  It’s a 2008 Escape, fully loaded.  Not four wheel drive, but that’s okay. It’s not that important right now, but it will be when we move up to Ranchita.  Anyway, we got it from a private owner.  It’s in pretty good shape.  The windshield has been replaced and the front chrome is very pitted, something happened there, Brian might check into replacing the front chrome piece, but we got it with enough left over to pay the sales tax on it.  Yay!  Here are some pictures of it. 

Yes, it’s on a trailer, it was in a town about sixty miles away and I had no intention of driving a new car that far.  I’m not that over it.


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      Sunday, June 13, 2010


catstuff
11:21 AM - 06/13/2010

The topic: If you watch the cameras with any regularity
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You may have seen me yesterday or today, cleaning the living room on the occasional cam.  We’re having a State Compensation audit tomorrow and they come to the house. Obviously, because of the cats I have to take special effort to do a more thorough cleaning that most people would. 

And I’ve come to the conclusion that inappropriate urination is the cats’ way of playing whack-a-mole.  I find one place they pee all the time and stay on top of it. 

Then, when I least expect it, I find a new place that they pee that I need to stay on top of.

It’s so much fun. I just love my little pranksters.

banghead

      Wednesday, June 23, 2010


otherstuff
03:04 PM - 06/23/2010

The topic: No motivation….
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Brian went to a doctor for the first time Monday.  Well, not a chiropractor doctor but the kind that can prescribe pills.  When asked why he was there, Brian told him “I’m fifty-three years old and I’ve never been to a doctor.  I figured it was time.”  Brian’s blood pressure was high and he’s supposed to monitor it and take the results in in a couple of weeks.  I’m supposed to be doing that, too. 

And the doctor wanted Brian to have blood taken.  The doctor wanted me to do that, too, but it’s hard to fast with Brian around.  But we didn’t need an appointment and we fasted last night and went in this morning.  Did you know that gum is considered a food?  Ruh row.  We each had a piece on our walk this morning, since my mouth gets super dry, I just can’t walk without it.  I also found out you’re not supposed to exercise. But they went ahead and took our blood (with notations that we didn’t fast; who’d have thought sugar free gum would count as food?), results will be in tomorrow.

Anyway, we had breakfast at IHOP afterwards, then came home. And have done pretty much close to squat since.  Brian painted the door trim on his shop.  I put dishes in the drainer away.  Haven’t even made the bed.  I’ve been farting around on the internet, looking at plugins for my video software, wishing we were rich.  *lol*  I did get a 40% discount on one site, after posting on their FaceBook wall that the savings Corel users were supposed to get for a set of plugins was the same that everybody paid, nothing special.  That was pretty cool, one of the plugins pixelates part of the image, so if I ever have video that I don’t want things shown I can pixelate them like on tv!  *lol*

I started a trial of NetFlix last week, only 8.99 a month, add $2.00 for Blu-ray (I did).  I’m going to cancel HBO since there’s really not much there that we watch.  We watched “Sherlock Holmes” Saturday night and I got it in the mail Monday. We got our second movie (Knowing) today.  Really quick turnaround.

The State Comp audit went smoothly and quickly. The auditor was late, a young thing.  Didn’t like animals, though. Before she stepped foot in the house, she asked if we had any dogs, she was afraid of dogs.  I told her, no just cats.  Then when she came in, she did the girly thing hands in the air when the cats came to meet her.  I’d cleaned before she got here and had taken the chair pads off since I didn’t have enough time to wash them.  Didn’t want whoever showed up to get a furry butt.   After she left, I kind of wished I’d left them on.  She deserved Potter fur on her black pants for being such a sissy about the cats.

There are so many things I need to do.  I was able to get a new heat press with some of the car money (yay!) and I haven’t even plugged it in.  I’ve got all this cool new media to work with and I just can’t get my butt in gear to do it.  I’ve got some glass jars in the cupboard that I need to etch labels into.  I can make stencils with the Quick Kutz Silhouette machine I got last year and use etching acid to etch the glass.  Probably would take me less than an hour to make the stencils, but here I sit.  Doing nothing. 

Brian’s next to me reading his tractor forums. He’s got a lot of work to do this next month and a half, he’s moving out of the shop that he’s renting and moving his stuff to his shop here at home.  It’s going to be a major thing.  He has to make another set of gates at the side of the house, with the same fencing at the top as the current gate, as well as run more fencing up the bank, since he can’t leave his work truck out front and it would be a nightmare to get the cats in the house everytime he needed to open it to bring his truck in.  He needs to clean out his shop here at home to make room for all of the equipment that’s at his current shop.  He needs to clean out his stacking files here in the home office of all the catalogs and manuals he’s collected since work slowed down so much that he hasn’t kept his paperwork here and hasn’t needed to use them.  Like I said, he’s got a LOT of work to do.

And here we both sit. Staring at our respective monitors. 

What a sad lot we are.  

smilie_lol

      Thursday, June 24, 2010


otherstuff
02:45 PM - 06/24/2010

The topic: Bloodwork results are in
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And I have very, very high LDL levels.  So high, in fact, that instead of trying to get them under control with diet and exercise, we’re going straight to medication.  Oh, joy.

Still waiting on Brian’s results. 

Good bye, ice cream.  So long massive piles of grated and shredded cheese. I’ll miss you, butter.  And sour cream?  bigcry

*sigh*

      Monday, June 28, 2010


otherstuff
09:21 AM - 06/28/2010

The topic: Well, today is the day
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That Brian is going to start emptying out his shop.  He’s had an offsite workshop forever and now, due to the poor economy, he’s moving it home.

His brother is going to help him.  I wonder what it will be like, him working here.  When he does jobs, they leave, but the prep will be done here in his shop in the backyard.

Gee, you might even be able to watch via the backyard cam.

I wonder how the cats will handle it. The comings and goings during the day. Having part of their yard blocked off (for Brian’s work truck). It has to be in the backyard to keep it safe from thieves.  His toolbox is on it and it’s hell to replace all the tools when one goes missing (that’s happened at least twice, once when it was out front overnight, another time at a Home Depot in Arizona).


otherstuff
02:09 PM - 06/28/2010

The topic: I feel like I’m in an episode of Hoarders…
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As I’ve mentioned before, Brian has to move out of his workshop since the economy tanked and work is slow to pick up and that’s money better spent.

So, he’s moving into the shop we had built years ago here at home.  His brother is helping him clean it out. His brother is very practical, has no emotional bond with some of the stuff that’s getting tossed or going to recycle or going to Goodwill. 

Brian looked like he was going to cry when he pulled out the wood patterns he used for making the cathouses way back when and Mark said “what do you need those for?” When Brian said “to make cathouses” Marked scoffed and replied “you’ll make all new ones, you won’t be using that stuff.”

I can’t believe how sad Brian looked. Probably the same way I looked when I said “okay” about sending all of my old speakers, in the shop since we redid part of the house, to Goodwill.  Mark asked what I needed them for.  “For my media room in the new house.”  He said “when that happens, you’ll get all new ones, probably built into the walls.

bigcry

 

      Wednesday, June 30, 2010


otherstuff
08:15 AM - 06/30/2010

The topic: Did you know…
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That products labeled with zero transfat, might have some?  If the amount falls under a certain percentage, it can be labeled as “0 Transfat”. But guess what? 

Doesn’t mean there isn’t any.  Check the ingredients.  If there’s any sort of “hydrogenated oil”, it’s got transfat.  And the “advised limit” from the gummint is only two grams a day.  About twenty calories from transfat.  Not a big percentage of the 2000 calorie suggested daily allowance. 

Peanut butter has transfat.  Say that the amount of transfat is .49% per serving.  A serving is two tablespoons (not really that much, go look at a tablespoon).  So, you put four tablespoons on a piece of toast. There’s almost half of your daily allowance of transfat.

Same with margarine. From Shedd’s Country Crock website:

     Does Shedd’s Spread Country Crock® contain trans fats?

      The amount of trans fat contained in Shedd’s Spread Country Crock® Regular, Light and Calcium is less than 0.5 g per serving. Country Crock soft spreads are labeled as 0 g trans fat           because they contain an insignificant level of trans fat.

I checked the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” website and they don’t have the ingredients listed. Oh, yeah, they’ve got the percentage label, the part with the “0gm transfat” but no ingredients.  So, I did a little Google search and came up with this flikr page, where someone actually posted a picture of the label.

The labeling really should say < 1grm transfat.  Less than one gram. Because that 0 is misleading.  Four servings of a zero transfat product that’s made from any form of hydrogenated oil, will put you at your daily limit.  And if you’re watching your diet (like I’m starting to, not because I want to, believe me), it can make a difference to your health.

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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

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