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      Thursday, April 02, 2015


foodstuff
09:08 AM - 04/02/2015

The topic: Quick single serving cakes
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I saw the recipe on FB a while ago and just last week decided to try it. It's super easy, called "3,2,1 cake".

Get a box of Angel food cake mix, a box of any other flavor and mix them up well. I just poured both of them in a big ziplock bag.

Then you take three tablespoons of mix, two tablespoons of water and put it in the microwave for one minute. 3,2,1.

It's spongy, but it has a good flavor, I made an orange flavored mix and a devil's food mix.

I'm going to give some to my mother-in-law, I bet she'd like it.

      Monday, April 06, 2015


otherstuff
09:35 AM - 04/06/2015

The topic: On this morning’s walk
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We walked by a house that a couple of months ago had different shades of yellow painted on the front. Just swatches. Well, it got painted and it's a bright yellow. I like it. Brian wasn't so sure about the color. He said "tell me the truth, how would you feel about seeing that color of house next to you every day?"

I said "I'd like it!" He didn't believe me until I clarified. "It would mean we had different neighbors! And with that color, they'd probably be fun people!"

He gave me this one.

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      Saturday, April 11, 2015


otherstuff
07:02 AM - 04/11/2015

The topic: A busy month
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Which is why I haven't been here much. Well, busy, plus my stupid intestinal thing. I'd love to see the doctor about it, but I'm still paying off the labs for my colonoscopy last October, and the removal and testing of a tiny mole on my back. Since I had my gallbladder out, the reflux can be so bad that it burns my esophogas. I should know better and take a Pepcid before I have a meal I know will upset me, but last Sunday I forgot and I made spaghetti. I had half as much as I normally do and I had two small pieces of garlic toast, but around ten o'clock, i was in misery. I'm finally feeling better. As much as I hate doing it, I've been taking naproxin to help with the inflammation of my esophogas. You know you have a problem when you feel hot or cold liquids going down. So, I hope one of these days I take the pill before I know I need it. Tomato sauce is pretty acidic.

So, Boyd is still here, trying to get him to eat on his own. I got some Lafeber's Avi-cakes for him and he seemed to like it, he was even pecking at the seeds a little. I'm no longer syringe feeding him and he has to eat for himself off of the spoon. He's not eating nearly as much as he was when I was feeding him, but he flies off when he's had enough.

Adding to the stress of the trees and Boyd, came the taxes. It was tough this past year, money was actually made so that we owed a ton to the IRS. Well, the majority of that was the self employment tax (social security for the self employed). And the property taxes were do on the tenth. Brian and I kind of got into it Thursday morning because he went into this "we have to do something" speech and because I was still reeling from the amount we owe the IRS from the night before, I told him "what do you expect me to say? What do you want me to do? I can't find the money when we don't have any. I sold all of my jewelry, I have nothing left. I hate when you put this off on me, when there's nothing I can do."  Probably added to my intestinal problems. He doesn't want me to leave the house to work because he needs me here when he needs something researched or shipping labels or a check.

And then he tells me he needs to buy more cylinders, he doesn't have enough stock to fill the orders he has. What am I supposed to do? Find money? I sold stock to pay for the trees, I really don't want to sell anymore. I really don't, that's all we have for retirement. 

Gah.

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Anyway, he had to go get his mom's new glasses and he was gone for quite a while. When he came home, he had a check. He didn't ask for money, he just told her what kind of pressure we're under and she gave him a check for what we need. We don't have to pay this back, it will come out of his share of the inheritance. So, we'll be paying it back later, I guess. But that was a big problem taken care of. And this year I'm going to do everything I can to pay the estimateds each quarter.

And I've been working on the vase with flowers I'm making for Mother's Day. Yesterday, I cut out the greenery and a bunch of paper for pansies. Then the computer and Silhouette quit talking to one another, so I quit for the night. Today I'll finish cutting the paper for the pansies and go on to different flowers. I'd like to have everything cut out, then start the assembly. I did some begonias last week and they turned out nicely. Here's what I've done so far:

 

This is the vase. I've got a ball of styrofoam in the top and I'll be putting flowers in that. The vase is from SVGCuts Mom's Garden Gifts kit  and the flowers are from their Enchanted Sparrow Paperscape kit. I added a little of my DNA to the flowers when I poked my thumb with a wire end, but unless you're looking for it, you'd never know.

And the begonias from the 3D Flowers Kit .  I like how these are looking so far. They've got a lot of 3D flowers in four kits, so I have a lot of great choices. I got some green wire over on Amazon and I think it should work pretty well.

I discovered that SVGCuts is having a spring design contest, with some nice prizes, so I have to get this thing done by the end of the month. I'll enter this, then give it to my mother-in-law. 

Katie is eating less dry food, but that's alright. She gets A/D and chicken baby food, with water added to make it really lappy and it gets warmed up. Of course this is a much wanted meal, so one of us needs to stand with her as she eats and keep the other cats from bothering her until she has her fill. And if you move suddenly, she'll run off. But she's grooming and seems to be as happy as she can be, under the circumstances.

Charlie is still an asshole.


crankypants
11:04 AM - 04/11/2015

The topic: Brian does this thing
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Where he's obviously been talking to himself in his head. Then he continues this conversation out loud, expecting me to know what he's talking about. And I'm clueless.

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I just told him that it irritates me enough that I want to punch him in the ear. I said "I can't hear what you're thinking, so the next time you've got something going on in your head..." and he finished the thought "keep it in my head".

Damn straight.

schlagen

 

      Monday, April 13, 2015


otherstuff
09:13 AM - 04/13/2015

The topic: Fly-by posting
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I'm still working on cutting out flower patterns. So far, I've done nine with four more to go. I have four different sets of  "leaves"...just evergreens, but modified for the project. You know how vases have some greenery in them, too.  I'd like to get those four done today so I don't have to set up my little workshop (Silhouette cart, two folding tables, laptop computer). Once the paper is all cut out, I can work from the table in the family room. Yesterday day went pretty smoothly until I actually DID need to replace a blade. That was an hour wasted (the same blade that I thought was bad from the night before, but worked fine once I changed the settings). Luckily I didn't waste much paper.

Both of the avocado trees flowered nicely this year and unlike the past two years, it actually looks like the fruit on the far tree might grow to maturity. Usually, the little fruits fall off. The other tree had four the first year and five last year (until Brian pruned a low hanging branch...). That tree has quite a few at this point, too. More than ever. So, fingers crossed. These avocados are delicious, much better than store bought.

I'm thinking once the weather warms up so that it's not so cool in the night, I'll be saying sayonara to Boyd. He's not eating a lot of seed yet, but he's working on it. And this morning when I walked in the room, he almost flew out the door. Not healthy for him. Hopefully, he'll be released by the end of this week. (Fingers crossed.) I think it will take a couple of years to find all of the bird crap in the extra room.

Well, gonna go cut some paper.

      Tuesday, April 14, 2015


catstuff
01:45 PM - 04/14/2015

The topic: Happy Gotcha Day!
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Guess who's been here a year today? Rocky! AKA Sparkle Butt!

About a year ago an old neighbor friend was looking for a home for this guy. I posted on the walls of two different people I know in rescue over on Facebook, but both posts were removed without comment. I did eventually find out that one had been removed because I didn't mention Rocky's sexual status (neutered) and I've often wondered why someone didn't take the few minutes it would have taken to let me know. ne_nau The other posting, well, some opinions are better left as unvoiced opinions. One of those egocentric types, full on drama queen, best left in the dust as I haul ass down the road, yanno?

(Well, damn, I guess I voiced it after all.....  That bridge wasn't just burned, it was torpedoed and the surrounding areas bombed so badly it will NEVER be reconstructed. 141031082)

Anyway, it all worked out for the best, we kept him. If his previous owner had wanted him back at any point, we'd have given him back, but I think that ship has sailed. He's where he belongs at this point.

He's doing well, he likes it here, he owns the backyard. It didn't take him long of being inside at night to pull gates away, open locked cat doors and do what he needed to do to get outside. And he's never seemed interested at all in what's on the other side of the fences and gates. He's just happy to be outside. 

Look regal, Rocky! (Clicking on the picture will take you to a bigger photo in my family album; clicking on that picture will open a larger photo.)

 

      Thursday, April 16, 2015


otherstuff
10:25 AM - 04/16/2015

The topic: This and that
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I released Boyd yesterday. After hearing all of these stories about birds returning to the human who kinda sorta rescued and raised them, I was disappointed that he just flew off without a chirp of goodbye. Or she. I think Boyd was a female robin, since she looked exactly like the other robins around here and there was no red plumage. I keep going outside and calling her, but she doesn't acknowledge my pain. Just kidding, I know she's way better off outside with her bird friends. In a human house is not the place for a wild bird, but I'm glad she'll have a chance at life.

I'd been cutting back on the water soaked dry kitten food I'd been feeding her last week and when I saw she was eating the birdseed, I knew it was time to let her go. I held her in my hands and Brian and I walked out into the front yard, I opened my hands and she flew up into one of the trees, then into a tree in the backyard. And I haven't seen her since. Maybe I've heard her, but I'll never know for sure.

Have a wonderful life, Boyd.

And with that chapter ended, the taxes printed out and in the mail, it's time to get back to working on the vase for Mother's Day. Once that's done, I really need to deep clean this house, it's awful. I haven't done any deep cleaning since before our last Disney meet trip, back in 2013. Yeah, it's been a while. I've been going through some mental crap, I guess. But it's time to pull out of the funk and get on with life.

And finish the vase. I need to finish the vase.

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      Tuesday, April 28, 2015


otherstuff
06:45 AM - 04/28/2015

The topic: A quick update
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So, I'm feeling more relaxed right now. Why? The floral arrangement for Mother's Day is finished. And the reason it's finished so soon is I entered it into a contest. Lots of time and effort and taking pictures that I was pleased with wasn't that easy. None of them seemed good enough. Anyway, I'll be posting a longer entry later today or this week about the progress of the arrangement, from start to finish and list out what I used from which kit. This is the graphic I used for my entry:

 

You can vote for my entry here. It's funny, but I really do feel like a huge load is off of my shoulders now. Everything that had been pressing is finished.

Katie is still with us, she has a good appetite still, but she doesn't eat a lot at a time. I'll feed her, she'll eat a small amount (A/D with baby food and water added to make it easy to lap up) and then she'll walk away. But within ten minutes she wants more to eat. It can take a half hour to forty-five minutes before she's had her fill. The thing is I can't walk away and do something else, I have to keep her in my line of sight to keep the other cats from helping her eat. They really don't help at all, she walks away. She needs to eat.

Brian started talking to NotPancho last night, telling him he's welcome to come live with us. We really think he may be Pancho's brother, they look so much alike. One of NP's ears is all messed up, looks like he had a worse hematoma than DaNiece did. After Brian talking Little Bit into the trap back in 2004, I've come to see Brian as a sort of cat whisperer. Maybe he'll get NP back in the yard to live here forever and ever.

Well, Brian's hopping in the shower, the guy who set up the tree trimming last month is supposed to be here this morning with a helper to pull the weeds around the pool. Business has picked up a little and it's nice to be able to get this stuff done.

And my little Ranger should be going to the shop soon. There's something going on with it that Brian can't fix, it's been having problems for a couple of years now and we haven't been able to afford to take it in. This sucks because it means we have one reliable mode of transportation, that's my Escape. And when he's taking his mom to her appointments (a couple of times a month) or when he has to go up to the Los Angeles area to pick up supplies, I'm here without a vehicle. Not that I plan on going anywhere, but if something happens to one of the cats, I need a way to get to the vet. Luckily, our vet isn't even a mile from here, so breaking down in the truck wouldn't be that big of a thing, but I hate not feeling safe in it.

Other than that, things are rolling along. And I should be back on a more consistent basis now that all the things that have deadlines are done.

And paperwork has piled up again. One of these days I'll keep on top of it....yeah, that's it....

I'm delusional.

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      Wednesday, April 29, 2015


crankypants
01:49 PM - 04/29/2015

The topic: Commercials I really hate
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Any Progressive Insurance commercial. When she first came out, I liked Flo, but I'm sick of her now. And their talking box isn't much better.

      Thursday, April 30, 2015


crankypants
11:41 AM - 04/30/2015

The topic: Commercial that has me scratching my head
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The commercial for a Craftsman riding mower. 

The music: I Feel Like Making Love by Bad Company.

Sample lyrics:

I feel like makin'
Feel like makin' love
Feel like makin' love
Feel like makin' love
Feel like makin' love to you

For a riding lawn mower? Really? Someone okayed this and paid money for it? Seriously?

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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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