Seven.Caged.Tigers

Sometimes I wonder–about a lot of things, actually. My husband in all his infinite wisdom wanted my help in mowing my his parents yard yesterday. It’s quite a chore because they have a couple acres and to do so requires a tractor or riding mower. So, I rode the old mower. All would have been fine had my husband explained to me the rules of the crappy old piece o’ poo. It is NOT in good shape and I didn’t even know how to shift it or lower the blades (I grew up in town where we pushed our mowers).

Anyway, I did manage to try to blow it up (again, just a function of my relative ignorance abou the equipment) but once I got settled in all went well. Unfortunately, my tractor went all of about 5 MPH at the fastest. JT, on the other hand, was on the big orange Kubota. It went like 20 MPH and he has actual pedals to operate it. I was jealous (needless to say).

Anyway, I did survive pretty much intact. We didn’t get the entire job done but we did mow about 2/3 of it including what you can see from the road and what is immediately behind their house. Boy am I happy to have a smaller yard (though mine is still pretty big)…

So I’m back to the daily grind after a week of vacation–counting weekends I had nine days off. It was glorious, but much too short for my own liking. I could have handled another week without any trouble at all.

I picked JT up at the airport around 4:30pm on Friday and we headed north to my annual family reunion. It’s always pretty hectic on this weeked–we have to set up a tent in the front yard among other things. Anyhow, we ended up doing a few cool things including going canoing. We had a good time though I didn’t to much work. Jeremy sat in the back & I was supposed to paddle in the front but my cousin’s little guy (he is 5) wanted to help Jeremy so I (being the good cousin) let him. Jeremy on the other hand, felt it necessary to tip the canoe. It wasn’t on purpose, but his flying leap into the boat pretty much sealed the deal.

On Sunday, we had the unfortunate pleasure of playing kickball. Let me just say my body doesn’t like me. I did fine enough–caught balls, ran around like a kid, etc–but I haven’t played since the approximate age of 12. In that time since then, it seems that my immunity to pain as related to the game has gone away. My back, belly, thighs, feet, and neck all ache. I suppose it’s my fault, but how can I not complain? Geesh.

We got home Sunday evening. It was the first time JT had been home in a week and it was nice to just have him around. The chores (which he has neglected completely for two months) begin tonight. Mwahahahahahaha….

You are Freeze. Michael’s partner in crime. You
helped him kill his drug dealer and helped him
get away with it (for a while). You were kinda
the “normal” one in the group. You
never really went along with all of the drastic
make-up and costumes. You did maybe once in a
while, but not on a regular basis.

Which one of Michael Alig’s Club Kids are you?
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These first two days of my week off have been a much needed bout of relaxation. Yesterday, it didn’t start out that way. By about 10am I’d already had blood drawn and mowed the entire yard. What fun. I know.

Anyway, my mom arrived around noon and then we promptly went shopping. I got REALLY discouraged after finding nothing. And I mean NOTHING I liked as far as dresses go. Until of course I got to Gap and found two (yes TWO) dresses:

The former was just $28 and the latter was more but actually red and not surplus green.

Today, my mom and I headed to Cedar Point and rode a crap load of rides. We had a great time and ended up a bit sunburned but in the longrun had a great time.

JT is just finishing up his obnoxiously busy semester. He has his last class last night and on Saturday he’s presenting his final project for his Master’s program. I’ll be happy for the project to be out of the way. He’s worked INCREDIBLY hard this semester and during the past few weeks I haven’t even gotten to see him much.

Unfortunately, his project is on Saturday and he leaves Sunday for Louisville, Kentucky and training. Therefore, I’m not even going to get to see him really until a week from today when I pick him up from the airport. Then, gawd, we have to head up north to my family reunion. It’s fun, but still–I really would like a bit of alone time with my husband before his next semester is here. Two more classes and he is done. Forever. I can’t wait. I’m really proud of him.

Uh. Yeah. That’s about it for now. Consider me bored to tears and READY as all hell for this coming week of vacation.

First off…a hilarious picture of the strange aformentioned mulch-eating doxie dog. This is her in the doggy hospital (or jail depending on your perspective). She looks none too happy as she complains at my mother.

Secondly, I’m repeatedly entertained by the strange searches people make to get to me. Of course, I’ve written thousands of different words in my years at this blog so I suppose that might just have something to do with it…but STILL! Ha! Here are a few of my favorite examples from this month alone:

my husband s castration
yummy justin guarini
my bset friends hot mom
creamation supplies michigan
iranian underground rap
relaxation gadgets this morning
i love jt wife beater tank tops
m&m boxers
animals quizno s
celebrity with moles in stephen king film
bushie the jerk
funny dancing animals
you suck and that s sad
comcast e-mail hack into account
horny chick in impala
1980 s kids roller boots
yiffing machine
yellow snout pig

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! As far as I know, I’ve never used any of the words in these searches together. I’m certain I’ve used them all in some context–talking about politics, media, movies, television, family, etc… but definitely not in the order here. Anyway. It’s great looking at these searches.

First off, Annie is just fine. She’s apparently still rooting around in the back yard looking for cocoa bean mulch. Fortunately for us, and unfortuantely for her, she won’t find any. My parents got rid of it all and what individual hunks they didn’t get rid of were covered with the much more doggy friendly cypress mulch. Stupid, stupid animal.

Speaking of stupid things, let us talk about for a moment the danger of playing with gas grills. Before I go too far, let me just say I’m NEVER allowed to touch one again for good reason. On Sunday, JT was at a group meeting and I decided I wanted grilled hotdogs for lunch. No biggie, right? Well…WRONG. Our igniter on the grill doesn’t work. I knew that. So I also knew I had to manually light it via a hole in the bottom. So I turned the gas on, turned around, and lit a piece of paper. I ducked down and lit the grill. As I stood back up the damn thing burst out in flames.

Like I said, stupid me. I lost some of my hair (only a bit–but enough to make me have to give myself a bit of a trim), a bit of eyebrow (not totally, just a trim), and a bit of eyelash (I have–errr had–plenty to spare). Needless to say, I found out the hard way what not to do with a gas grill and how bad burning hair smells. I don’t look like a freak, but I feel like one.

On Saturday night, JT had his 10 year class reunion. Fortunately, we (including me) knew somebody there. Otherwise, it was a bit of a surreal experience for him. Interesting, yes, especially considering there was a picture of JT on one of the boards from Cross Country. He denied it at first, but then I pointed to the fact that his name was the only one in the caption. Ha!

Um. Yeah. Uh.

Oh! And I had one of my lovely ever-so-bothersome moles yanked from my neck. It was the first time I had it done. It didn’t hurt and came of cleanly. Now, it’s just covered by an ever-so-bothersome bandaid. Eh. Oh well.

My poor puppy. Actually, my parents’ poor puppy to be precise. Annie has always been a tad high maintenance. We had lots of dogs growing up, but Annie was the only puppy I ever had–and that took until my Junior year of high school. Anyway, she’s been known to eat some strange things over the years. This time, it has made her very, very sick.

Annie

My parents have a gorgeous fenced in yards. The dogs (Annie and Annabelle) run loose back there wreaking havoc however they see fit. Annie apparently grew rather fond of the cocoa bean mulch. She ate some of it. Scratch that–she ate a lot of it. Between the fact that mulch of any kind just isn’t good for dogs and the fact it is “cocoa bean” she ended up with vicious vomiting and poo-ing. So bad that she went into shock and ended up at the doggie emergency. Well, she came home but then still wasn’t feeling well. Turns out that she’s got an enflamed pancreas on top of it all.

I hope she’s fine. She is almost eleven (if my math is good) but still very young at heart. Plus, Annabelle (or Annasmell as some people call her) would be completely lonely without her…

Why do dogs have to eat the dumbest things? Especially 9lb epileptic mini red smooth doxies? The world may never know…

We almost had storm this afternoon. I say “almost” because the skies got dark and we had a tornado warning, but there was little of note. There was a bit of rain and a bit of wind and nothing else. Boo-hoo. But we did get to make a brief trip into the basement of my building if for nothing else than to ease the too-tense nerves of a few folks (me not included–I’d just prefer to watch a storm).

This morning, there was a cat at our back doorwall. Likely one of Dewey’s many girlfriends. In any case, Max was making this crazy demented cow noise at it. I wish I could put it into words but it was obnoxious and weird. Not that he’s a usual cat or anything. All three were making various noises, but Max’s was just bizarre.

Uh. Yeah. Demented cow. I said it.

Let me just preface this little story by saying that it is going to start out sounding incredibly tacky. Before I go anywhere with it let me say “He is fine, healthy, alive, and safe.”

Now, with that said. My father in law is co-owner and manages a local pizza business. He regularly walks across the street (crossing at the stoplights like a good boy) to the bank to make deposits. So he did that; waited for the light to turn red so he could cross. There is no turn on red in any direction right now either, so that makes things much easier. Well, he got out into the road and a car hit him–that’s right, ran the red and hit a pedestrian. It knocked my FiL about 10-15 feet. He got up and ran over to the car and had (and I quote) “some choice words for the driver.” But he got his wits about him and returned to the curb.

Well…the car took off. Fortunately the car immediately behind got the license plate number and it seems that everybody (except my FiL) called 911. Instead of waiting around he continued his brief trek to the bank to make his deposit. He didn’t want to make a report, much less file charges. I would just to scare the living hell out of the kid (he said the guy looked to be about 20 or so). Anyway, when he got out of TCF there were cops everywhere and an ambulance. The cop was questioning witnesses and he immediately saw the witness point to him and say “that’s him!” Of course the cop MADE him file a report and by the time he spoke to the cops they already knew the car was registered to somebody in a neighboring community (which made sense considering the direction the vehicle was headed). He refused medical treatment also (my husband’s family is NOT keen on doctors).

Anyway, he’s fine. He landed on his back and butt, but is a pretty rough and tumble sort of guy. Apparently he’s pretty stiff and scraped up a bit, but fine. I haven’t heard if they got the kid who hit him yet, but I hope the police scare the living crap out of him. Seriously. You don’t just hit somebody and run off. That’s not the way things work.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!

How grammatically sound are you?
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I had to take an unexpected half day vacation yesterday. When I got into work in the morning, I for no particular reason was digging through my purse (which is in HORRIBLE disarray). Anyway, I realized I didn’t have my driver’s license. Come to think of it, I didn’t know where I’d last used it over the weekend so it was–gasp–lost!

So I had to take a half day off to dig up my birth certificate, marriage license, social security card, and other documents to prove who I am. I got it all taken care of for just $9 and waiting just 20 minutes at the Secretary of State. It really could have been worse.

Because of the short trip, I also ended up getting an oil change (and a cabin air filter change–there were spiders living in it, ewww!) in addition to a hair cut, checking mail, and for that matter cleaning house some more. And yeah, a hair cut. I went to a new place. They are cheap, but did a nice job and the girl took her timem. I had two or three inches hacked off the bottom. Sometimes I’m too impulsive when it comes to my hair. But is does look good even if I was impulsive.

I don’t follow sports. Actually, let me clarify that. I enjoy some sports, but since they are only readily available every four years in the form of the Summer Olympics I don’t exactly have the opportunity to follow them.

Even though I don’t “do” team sports, I can’t help but be impressed and amazed and feel some happiness for the Detroit Pistons. That’s right, Detroit is headed to the NBA finals. Shock of all shocks, I know. They were good this year–fought hard (and yes, I saw a few games) but I wouldn’t have expected this outcome. At this point in time, I don’t think the winning of the next series is what’s important. Detroit is ALWAYS in need of some cheering up and a feeling of community. I think maybe the Pistons can help with that…

Go Pistons! Woo-hoo!

Could a three day weekend move any faster? I think not. Actually the reason it sped by is probably two fold. First, I cleaned pretty much the whole time (when I wasn’t shopping…errr…). I managed to cleant the front porch, kitchen, dining room, family room, library, guest bedroom, and bathroom. I also mowed the yard and emptied the cat litter. Needless to say, JT was rather surprised when he got home. Secondly, I think the reason things went so quickly was because I was alone for the whole time.

Besides all the boring and monotonous household stuff, I did see the new baby (Preston) again. He’s still a doll. I also managed to see my mom and when I suggested we go to Cedar Point during my week off in late June she was REALLY excited. I can’t wait. I suppose I was just there last year, but still…a trip to Da Point is always a welcome release. She hasn’t been there since the early 90’s and much has changed. She’ll be shocked.

I also stumbled upon a fantastic used book store in Waterford (about 20 miles away from where I live). I spent like $48 there, but with that said I managed to dig up a whole bunch of books that I’ve been unable to find anywhere else. It really was incredible. But that just means with my many book purchases in the last year or two that I really must re-alphabetize my library. Right now most everything is on the shelves but it is in no order…must…have…order…

The weather this weekend was rather, well, unpredictible. It would be cold one second, hot and sunny the next, and thunderstorming the next. This year has been really bad for the storms. This nasty weather led to some issues with the annual Memorial Day parade. Of course, I didn’t mind because that meant that random folks weren’t camped out on my front lawn tossing garbage everywhere. By the way, the parade goes directly by my home. Instead, the parade was delayed by over an hour…too bad. Not that I watched. I would have felt like a big doofus as an adult watching the parade by myself.

Anyway, yeah. Weekend’s over.