Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Oh Man. Oh Geez.

I'm in a slight panic right now. I thought I had a grip on my business final exam until I read online today questions from fellow students and the responses (or non-responses depending on how you look at it) that they got. My instructor is an idiot. Pure and simple. This is a direct quote from a response my instructor made to another student. I changed the names of the students she referenced, other than that, I copied and pasted:

I gave you a model and you are to work with that using web
sites and the text if possible.
I also gave you topics to study for the non essay part.
Ask one of the students if you need more help, many seem not
to have a problem with the exam.
Ask Ms. Student or someone from your group.
Also Ms. Student knows too how to study for my exams.
Try asking them your questions.
I have done my best to give you directions.

She has NOT given directions, at least clearly stated directions. In the study guide info she handed out, she says the essay will be about "change AND leadership". In the final exam information part of the syllabus she says "change OR leadership". Which is it you crazy bat? And then she says she will provide us with a model and in another section says we have to make our own. We have to use direct citations from four different websites in addition to citations from our text. How in the hell are you supposed to remember all that???? It's closed book/closed notes!!! I absolutely do NOT have a photographic memory. I'm not going to be able to remember that many direct citations in addition to the information needed just to answer the essay question which is supposed to be SIX pages long in addition to the non-essay section. Holy cow! We only have three hours.

This woman has been like this all semester too. When anyone starts asking too many questions about something, she refers them to their fellow students for answers. Hello!! Aren't you getting PAID for this, you lunatic? I'm so glad I gave her a bad evaluation. She deserved every word. Her grammar and typing are so bad that I sometimes have a hard time even understanding what she's trying to say.

Oh well. 8 days until the semester is completely over.

Hey! I just realized that this post totally qualifies for Whine-Fest Wednesday. I wasn't even trying, lol. Maybe I should change the title.

Challenge

Jennifer challenged me to do this. She knows I have a hard time resisting these things and thinks I'm crazy for doing them. But see? This gives me an easy out for posting today. I have to write my last major paper of the semester and finish two weeks worth of Spanish today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of the spring semester and finals are next week. Here we go.

JUST TWO THINGS

Two Names You Go By:
1. Trisha
2. Trish

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. Gray sweat pants
2. Hard Rock t-shirt

Two Things You Would Want in a relationship:
1. Trust
2. Respect

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1. Finals to be over with.
2. Sleep

Two people who will fill this out:
1. Maybe Pam?
2. I dunno.

Two things you did last night:
1. Played more Mario Kart on the Wii. (I unlocked a new cup, heheh)
2. Made chicken and dumplings from scratch for dinner.

Two things you ate yesterday:
1. Leftover Chinese
2. Lays Kettle Chips in the jalapeno flavor.

Two people you last talked to:
1. The oldest child
2. The youngest child

Two Things you’re doing tomorrow:
1. Finishing up homework
2. Buying books and gift cards for my book discussion group contest winners.

Two longest car rides:
1. California to Vermont
2. Vermont to North Carolina

Favorite Holidays or Vacations:
1. Vacation to San Francisco
2. Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages:
1. Pepsi
2. Green tea

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Here's Some Stuff for Ya

I did end up getting another rat. I got him locally here at a smallish pet store rather than PetSmart (no offense to PetSmart, but the last four rats I've gotten from there have died). His name is Buddy and he is doing really well. I didn't want to post about it until I was sure he was going to be okay. I even waited a few days before naming him. He's very funny though and the whole family likes him.

Next on my list is that the Mister's anniversary present arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm so VERY excited about it because I know that I did really good this year. I wish I could tell you all what I got, but he reads my blog. It's killing me keeping it a secret though, heheh.

And lastly, I think I've mentioned being a Bzz Agent before. I have to say, if you don't Bzz, you're really missing out. For those of you who haven't heard of it, what it is, is a word of mouth campaign where you get to test out products and then tell people what you think about them. Bzz sends you the products for free (sometimes they are downloads which is how I discovered Brother Odd), you test them out, tell your friends about the stuff and hand out coupons, fill out a survey, and then, YOU GET TO KEEP WHAT THEY SEND YOU. And it's not crappy stuff either. I've been a member since around September of 2006 and I've gotten a Sonicare toothbrush and a Sonicare UV Sanitizer, various stuff from Ziplock, Pledge, Windex, and Scrubbing Bubbles, and some other odds and ends. What is my next product??? A Logitech Harmony One universal remote control. The cost of this remote at Best Buy??? $249.99 and I'm getting it for free. I'm totally excited. The Mister and I have been wanting one of these gadgets for a long time. In fact, we tried one out 4 or 5 years ago but it sucked and we returned it to the store. My remote should be here any day now and I will be sure to post pictures and opinions when it arrives. Check out Bzz Agent and see what you think. It's free to sign up and I'd appreciate a referral if you do. ;)

Monday, April 28, 2008

The Haze of Today

I have this total feeling of otherworldliness today. The kids had the day off of school for some obscure teacher work day thing and we spent the whole day in a haze-brain induced day of video game playing. Did that sentence even make sense? All I can see is Yoshi racing around all the historic Nintendo tracks from SNES to the new tracks of Wii. Occasionally, the Trisha and Mister that I created in the world of the Sims 2 will break in to mix things up a bit but it's mostly Mario Kart. And you know what? I don't even feel bad about it. Usually I limit our game playing so as not to fry precious brain cells and so that the Mister and I don't get any fatter and the kids don't get fat, but it RAINED all day today. Rain, rain, rain, rain. But I'm not complaining. It's hard to notice when you're going 100 mph around the Mario Circuit. Yeah, I took time out to clean the kitchen and to order the kids to pick up the hallway and the family room. Oh. And the Mister and I picked up some take out Chinese for dinner, heheh. We even corrupted one of the neighborhood kids who spent the entire day at our house going from the oldest child's room to play The Sims and then out to the family room to race on Mario Kart. Turns out we're the first ones on our street to get Mario Kart for the Wii. Heheh, suckers. I even squeezed some time in on my current read. It's been a big ol' day of NOTHING! Be jealous. How often can anyone say that?

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Warm Fuzzies


Sometimes staying up until midnight and checking my Google Reader pays off. I found this on my most dearest of friends' blog. Isn't she wonderful? It's nice to know that my blog and I are appreciated. Thanks for handing out warm fuzzies.


Saturday, April 26, 2008

Hmm

blog readability test

How should I feel about this?

Social Networking

Do you have any idea how many different social networking websites are out there? They have them for realtors (I was especially surprised at this one), people who travel for business, people who read, gamers, and then they have the ones like Myspace and Facebook. I had no idea there were that many of them out there until I joined MyBlogLog.

When I started my book discussion group, I looked around the net for ways to get the word out and to get more members. Social networking was what I found. Most of them are free (I have no idea why you'd pay for it), and they are EVERYwhere. All kinds, shapes, sizes, and colors. I was amazed and a bit overwhelmed. I joined so many in such a short amount of time that I had to start writing down the sites, my ID and all the passwords I was using. Yeah, I know. You're not supposed to write down your passwords but I don't have a photographic memory and can't memorize dozens of different passwords. Anyway, on MyBlogLog, they have a thing where you can add all the services (or networking sites) that you belong to so that anyone who views your profile on MyBlogLog can also find you on any of those other sites. I did find one that was particularly useful aside from just pimping yourself out on the net. It's called Yelp and it's where you can go and write a review for various services like grocery stores, hotels, restaurants, and all kinds of other stuff. You all know how I am about customer service so this was right up my alley.

Okay. So, on MyBlogLog they call people's websites or blogs "communities" and you can join as many communities as you like. I've conducted quite a few searches for "books" and "reading" and surprisingly, I couldn't find much worthwhile. They were either for eBooks or for psychic readings, lol. And if they were about actual books and reading, they hadn't been updated in a while. My point? You should join if you haven't already. They have a lot of useful tools (such as traffic tracking), widgets, and it's a good way to get more traffic to your blog and to make new blog friends. If you're interested or curious, I've linked it in my post and you can also find my MyBlogLog widget in the right hand column.

That's my public service announcement for Saturday. I've had a busy day so far (I can't believe it's already 3:30) so I'm gonna go rest my butt somewhere other than in front of my computer.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Us

I found this meme while I was surfing blogs yesterday. Since my anniversary is coming up, I thought I’d fill it out.

1. How long have you been together?

We started dating in April of 1995 and got married in May of 1996. So, we’ve been together for 13 years and married for almost 12.

2. Who pursued whom?

We were set up so I really don’t think either of us did any pursuing. However, he knew about me before I knew about him and I found out years later that he cruised the mall where I was working to see what I looked like before we met, lol.

3. Do you wear any type of wedding/commitment ring?

I have a wedding ring and engagement ring that I wore prior to moving to N.C. but with the heat and humidity down here, my hands swell and then my rings don’t fit. I haven’t decided if I want to size them or not yet. The Mister doesn’t wear his ring because 1.)He’s not allowed to at work and 2.)Because he wore it to work, got his hand caught in a tow bar, nearly lost his finger, and smashed his ring. We took it to a jeweler to be reshaped, but it was never the same. They had to pry the ring off his finger with pliers.

4. What was the hardest thing about learning to live together?

We sort of fell into living together and I don’t remember much of an adjustment period. We were practically inseparable before we moved in together anyway.

5. Who takes longer to get ready in the morning?

It’s usually a tossup. Being a Marine, you would think he would take fast showers, but he doesn’t. I can do my hair, makeup, get dressed, and be out the door in 20 minutes. Sometimes, he takes a 20 minute shower, lol.

6. Do you usually eat breakfast together?

Nope. He gets up for work at 5:15 am and is out the door by 6. I get up at 6:40 with the kids. Also, both of us usually skip breakfast anyway.

7. Do you ever share clothes?

Yeah, t-shirts. We used to fight over my LL Bean t-shirt, heheh.

8. Who does most of the cooking?

Me. He pitches in sometimes, but I do majority of the cooking. He grills because I refuse to though.

9. Who usually takes out the trash?

The oldest child. It’s one of her weekly chores.

10. If you have pets who usually does litter box or poop patrol?

The lawnmower usually does the yard poop patrol. The oldest child cleans out the guinea pig cage because he’s her pet. I will clean out the rat cage when the time comes because it’s my pet.

11. Which one of you is more likely to answer the phone when it rings?

We only have cell phones. He answers his phone and I answer my phone. However, he sometimes gets calls on my phone from his Marines because my number is listed at work but I usually just pass along messages.

12. Who's in charge of the remote if you're watching TV together?

He denies this, but he is. Usually if I’m watching something he doesn’t like, he’ll go watch TV in our bedroom or go on his computer. I, on the other hand, will suffer through the non-stop sports that he watches so that we can have some couch time together.

13. Who usually drives when you go out together?

He does because he constantly criticizes my driving and that drives me nuts. I have never had a speeding ticket or caused a car accident whereas he’s had about 5 speeding tickets (that’s not even counting the countless warnings he got while we lived in VT) and caused three car accidents that I can think of. Who do you think is the worse driver? Honestly though, I think it's a control thing. Even when we take long car trips like from N.C. to Ohio or VT to Ohio I drive the first leg and when we stop for gas, he drives the entire rest of the way. Then, when we get where we're going, he tells everyone I made him drive the whole way, lol.

14. Which one of you takes care of spiders and bugs that get into the house?

Whoever is there at the time.

15. Facing the bed, who sleeps on which side?

I sleep on the right side. We switch occasionally though. When we moved into this house, I started out on the left side.

16. Who usually checks the (postal) mailbox?

Usually me because I’m home but he’ll check occasionally.

17. If something breaks or goes wrong in the house, which one of you is more likely to either fix it or call someone to fix it?

Me. I call the repair guy. The Mister probably has no idea who our repair dude even is.

18. Who is generally the neater of you?

We could both use more practice at the housekeeping thing, but I’m neater than he is. You’re unlikely to find my dirty clothes in the living room but him….

19. Who handles the checkbook/pays the bills?

That would definitely be me. The week I spent in California was a nightmare bill-wise. Jennifer will attest to that. And, one of my credit cards didn’t get paid at all because I thought he had paid it but he didn’t. If I ever take a trip by myself again, I’m going to have to figure out how to get the bills paid long distance. If I ever die, he’s going to be in a world of hurt.

20. What was your last fight/disagreement about?

Who should have bought the milk, lmao. Wednesday, I went to the base to meet the Mister for lunch. While I was there, he mentioned that we needed milk. I was like, “Can’t you just pick it up at the commissary on your way home from work?” He was like, “Or you can pick it up while you’re here.” I laughed and said nah and thought that he would get it. He gets home, asks me if I bought milk, I say no, and he had a hissy. I honestly thought that he was going to pick it up and he thought that I was. So, I grabbed the Scion keys, my iPod, jacked up the stereo, and went to the store my damn self and paid more for milk out in town when it would have been cheaper at the commissary. But, oh well. We rarely fight about anything that’s actually important.

21. When you slow dance together, who leads?

Ha! We don’t dance let alone slow dance.

22. What do you love the most about your other half?

He may annoy me at times, but he’s the most decent person that I know. He does favors for people who don’t deserve it. He also supports me being a sahm and going to school to get my degree. Actually, if he hadn’t filled out my application without telling me he was doing it, I probably wouldn’t even be going right now because I was too afraid to start.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Thursday Meme

From Booking Through Thursday:

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books?
Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter?
Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack? Or do you
pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of
the year?



I don't think I've ever read a gardening book in my life let alone just because it was spring time. My reading habits don't change at all throughout the year. Well, last year, I read a Christmas book in December but I don't normally do that. Oh. And I read themed books for a challenge back in October I think it was. Generally though, I'm very much a mood reader. I read what I feel like reading when I feel like reading it. Seasonal weather doesn't affect my choices at all, at least not that I'm aware of. I suppose I could subconsciously choose books based on the season but I don't set out to do so.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Whine-fest Wednesday

I'm making up my own meme and declaring Wednesdays as whine days because you know what? I'm sick to f'in death of this RAIN!!!! It has rained here for at least five days straight and it's seriously starting to depress me. I tried really hard not to complain because we needed the rain but dayum. Enough is enough already. I just got back from lunch with the Mister and it was nice and sunny in Havelock, which is where his base is, and it's only 30 minutes from my house where it is currently RAINING!!! It's also only 69 degrees here where it was 74 there.

And you know what else? I was going about 65 in a 55 mph zone and still getting passed like it was cool. I don't understand that since the Mister has gotten three speeding tickets in a matter of months on the same road and that's about how fast he was going when he got pulled over. How do these people get away with it but he doesn't? Before we moved here, he hadn't had a speeding ticket since 1996 or'97.

And you know what else? Nah. That's all I've got but I feel much better now. It's raining and the sun is shining all at the same time now. That's not so bad. I gotta get off of here and get ready for my Spanish oral quiz. I hate those things. They make me so nervous but I always get A's so that's not so bad either.

Laters. Oh. And feel free to join in on Whine-fest Wednesday if you need to vent.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

What Did I Say

Does knocking on wood ever actually work? I just got a call and Miss Frizzy died last night. I'm sad but I only had her for two days so I'm not devastated. I'm not sure if I'm going to replace her or not. I have a brand new cage, food, bedding, etc., so it seems silly not to but I don't know yet.

That's that I guess.

Tuesday Meme?

Nah. I considered it. I thought a Tuesday and Thursday meme would go nicely together. I did a search and I found a few memes for Tuesday but none that really jumped out at me. I considered TMI Tuesday but after scrolling down through that past few weeks, I saw that there were some questions on there that really were tmi and I decided against it. I figure that it's none of your business if I'm a screamer and that you probably really don't want to know anyway. And if you do want to know, that kinda creeps me out and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop reading my blog.

You know what though? Sometimes it's nice not to have to figure out what to say for myself and I've really been stumped for topics lately. I can remember a time when I had so much floating around in my head that I wanted to blog about that I'd forget some of it. That was back in Vermont though. I think it's easier to blog about things that piss you off rather than things that are mundane. I spent much of the three years I was in Vermont pissed off which gave me a lot of blogging topics. I would say that it's because N.C. is too quiet but if Vermont had gotten much more quiet it would have sunk into the earth (which I wouldn't consider to be a bad thing). I guess it's just me. I'm definitely a different person now. I'm more at peace which leaves me little to bitch about. Well, the Cindy Sommer lady getting off really makes me mad. You'll never convince me that she's innocent. And plastic bottles being harmful to kids is something to worry about. #7 plastics are bad. School stresses me out but I'm pretty used to that at this point. But all in all, I'm pretty calm these days. Watch. Now that I said that, the crud is going to hit the fan. I knocked on wood just in case, lol.

Wth. I'm off. I think I'm going to hit the Starbucks for a caramel frap. I love those things. Nah. It's raining outside. I don't want to get wet. I'll have an apple PopTart instead.

Monday, April 21, 2008

The Price You Pay

We had a great Saturday but we had a sucky Sunday. The Mister had to go into work for most of the day on Sunday which really blew but that wasn't even the worst part. Miss Frizzy has a virus and I had to take her in to get checked out. She's currently being treated with antibiotics and she should be home in a few days. Hopefully. It's hard to tell with small animals and she's just a baby so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We're also down to the last couple weeks of class so I'm swamped with homework. I spent so much time at my computer yesterday that my butt hurt. I was doing homework until 10:30 last night. Ugh!! That's my plan for today too. Homework.

I still haven't picked out a new book to read yet. I have four books that I'm trying to decide between. I want to read them all, but I kinda have lukewarm feelings about them all too. Hmm. I haven't put forth any effort towards any of my book challenges either. The last few books that I've read weren't on either list, heheh.

Well, I'm off for lunch.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Who's That?

Well, let me tell you. The newest member of our family is Miss Frizzy, a blue rat. Her name was inspired by the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. Miss Frizzy for short, heheh. I will post a picture later (which reminds me, I never posted pictures of my flowers. I'm evil.) but she's sleeping right now. She's a sweet little thing and I'm very excited to have her. Now we have a two Boxers, a guinea pig, a beta fish, and a rat. Our family is very full.

Other things we did today...

I re-screened two screens so that we can now open all of the windows in my house. Hannah tried escaping out of the house through one and the other hasn't had a screen in it since we moved into this house. We get a very nice breeze through the house now. It's weird how much of a difference two windows makes.

I bought myself a cute pair of sandals and then some new fingernail polish so that my feet look cute in my cute sandals.

We went to the IHOP for brunch which was pretty good. Our waitress was very new so she went on her break while we were eating and then we had to ask someone else for our check. Not very professional but the food was still good. I'm assuming she'll learn that that's not how you earn a good tip.

I think that's about it for our Saturday. It was pretty busy for us. I'm hoping Miss Frizzy wakes up soon so that I can play with her, heheh.

Finally, here's the picture of my flower pots. The green one in the back has perennials in it, the next one has herbs, and the bottom one has annuals. There's columbine, dahlias, daisies, cilantro, rosemary, thyme, and some other stuff that I'm forgetting right now.



Friday, April 18, 2008

!%#$@$#

This is way lower than my real life self actually cusses. In truth, I'm a potty mouth.

The Blog-O-Cuss Meter - Do you cuss a lot in your blog or website?
Created by OnePlusYou

TGIF. Really!!

I'm so glad the weekend is here. I'm tired! I've been tired all week. I hate feeling like that.

Some moron, inconsiderate, sub-human put a dent in our new car on Wednesday. The Mister had duty and the car was on base all day and some idiot, butt munch opened their car door into our car door. The dent is small but it also scratched the paint. Is it really any wonder why I figure most people suck?

Today, actually right now, I'm supposed to be at a friend's house digging in her yard. I'm procrastinating because I really don't want to go and I have tons of things that I need to do around my own house. We'll see if I actually make it out there or not. We're also going to her house to bbq burgers for dinner. I'm actually looking forward to that part of my day.

Ok. If you can't tell, I have nothing to say today so I'm getting off of here.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday Meme

From Booking Through Thursday:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?



This is going to sound really nerdy, but when I run across a word that I don't know, I look at the context clues around the word to figure out the meaning which works about 95% of the time. If it doesn't work, I immediately look it up in my dictionary. I don't wait to find out the meaning because I might be missing out on something important in the story by not understanding the meaning of a word. I certainly wouldn't just forget about it.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My Library

We recently read The Appeal by John Grisham for my book discussion group. Someone in our group was unable to pick the book up for themselves and Jennifer S. generously offered to send them her copy. I thought that was awfully nice of her. I, on the other hand, guard my books like a mother bear with her cubs. I can think of four different times that I have ever loaned out my books.

The first time was in high school when I loaned a girl my entire collection of Christopher Pike books. When did I get them back? Hmmm. I think it was about two or three years after graduation and I had to harass her a bit to get them back and then they weren't all there. By this time, I didn't even care to read them anymore but it was the principle of the thing. I don't even have any idea what I did with them when I got them back, lmao.

The next loan was a series of sci-fi fantasy books that I loaned to a certain family member. Never did see those books again.

Then, I loaned some of my Nora Roberts hard covers to another family member. Those books are lost to me forever too I suppose.

The last time, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, one of my all time favorite books, was "loaned" to a friend without my permission. She lost it, I had a cow, she found it, and I was pretty mad.

See? I hold onto my books. I consider them a collection and I feel protective of them. If they were a collection of (geez, what do people collect these days?) coins! a coin collection, would you expect people to casually loan them out? Anyway, I think if we ever had a house fire and I lost my books, I'd probably have to be committed and medicated. The only books that I don't feel an attachment to are my romances. I used to read romances like it was going out of style. Most of those books, with the exception of the ones that were sentimental for me, I traded for other novels. I sort of feel like I outgrew romances, no offense to anyone. And I also resell most of my text books. I keep the ones that were from Lit classes and writing classes that I'll use again as references.

Maybe I'm a bit obsessive. Umm. Notice the title of this blog, heheh. I LOVE books. The more I have the better. More book shelves would be nice too since some of my books are in boxes in my bedroom closet and I like to have them out and about. Certainly I can't be the only one that feels this way at least to some extent. I'd seriously loan my books to friends if I ever thought I'd get them back but history shows that people aren't too committed to returning books to me. This is another reason why I don't like to borrow books for myself. I like to HAVE them. I'm the same way about movies. I like to own the DVD's which is why I never got on the DVD ripping and burning bandwagon. But that's a whole other obsession.

So, how does everyone else feel about their libraries? Am I the only stingy reader out there?

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

My Tuesday has been much better than my Monday.

I got what I consider to be a very cool package in the mail yesterday. I got a new external hard drive and a new USB hub. Yay! The hard drive is so huge that I could back up my entire c drive onto it and maybe the Mister's too. I'm not sure how many gb his c drive is. And, now I don't have to keep switching out stuff that plugs into the USB ports on my comp. I have eight (two don't work so I really only have six) ports right now plus the hub has seven more. Yippee!

So, anyway, I didn't go to the ultrasound appointment today. It was of the variety that I didn't want to be in the room for it. However, my friend came over when she was done so I got to see the shots that were printed off by the doc and they are very cool. I've seen so many ultrasound pictures but I think they are neat every time I see new ones. After we oohed and awed over the pics, we went out for lunch. I drove us in the Scion cuz she wanted to check it out. I think I scared her cuz I tend to drive fast in it because it handles so much better than the Rav 4 does, heheh. After all that, we ran a few errands and I came home.

All in all, a busy day for Trisha. Now, I'm getting ready to cook an early dinner because we have to go to the girls' school for an ice cream social tonight. It's to raise money for the art department. I'm tired already and I'm probably not going to get to relax for another three or four hours. Aghh!

Oh. And I still haven't decided what to read next. Does anyone else ever have this problem?

Monday, April 14, 2008

P.S.

I uploaded the rest of my California pictures to Flickr. You can click on the thingy in the right hand column to check them out if you wish.

It's Monday. Again

I really hate Mondays. (I have the song in my head again, btw.) Why do they have to suck so bad? And it's COLD again. 51 degrees and my heat is running right now. What is up with that? It's so much harder to face a Monday when you know it's cold outside. It also doesn't help when you start your day with your kids sniping at each other the whole morning while they are getting ready for school. You know nothing good comes from grounding your first child at 7:00 in the morning. I also got to start my Monday out by being confused. I thought I was supposed to go with my preggo friend for her first ultrasound today but it's not until tomorrow. Oh well. I have a hard enough time keeping my own appointments straight let alone someone else's.

Is anyone else watching The Tudors? This season so far, is awesome. I still think it's funny that Henry looks so young when at this point in show, he would have been about 42 years old. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 30 years old and looks 30 years old.

Reading. Have I mentioned any books lately on my blog? For a while, that's all I talked about then I veered off course I think. Anyway, I've been a reading fool. Last week I finished Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son and Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods which was for my book group. I had mixed feelings about Koontz's book. I hesitate to say anything bad about his writing but I thought his saying that Shelley's Frankenstein was actually a work of nonfiction was too easy. He could have come up with a better, more original way of bringing his monster to life. As for Bryson's book, if you want to know my thoughts, check them out at the group. I had a lot to say. ;) My next read is as yet undetermined. I have several books in my TBR pile but I don't know what I want to attack next. Pretty unusual for me. The Mister is reading the second Frankenstein book so I'll read that after he's done and I'm reading the first Spiderwick with the oldest child but I'm reading it at her pace. I'm just not sure what I'm in the mood to read right now. When I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Wonderful Saturday

We have had a great day so far today. It's 85 out and sunny with some clouds. It's a pretty perfect day weather-wise.

We took a drive out to Morehead City. They have some new stores that have opened up since the last time we were there and we decided to check them out. Also, the Mister wanted to show us the route he ran there when he ran in the half marathon. That was a ridiculous amount of road to run on when a car would work perfectly well. I told him that he would never convince me that running that far while you're bleeding is fun. Not in a million years.

Then, we drove on down the road to Ft. Macon cuz we hadn't been there since last winter or spring, I'm not sure which. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect because we got there right before they fired off a Civil War cannon which was pretty awesome. I actually sat right outside where they were firing the cannon cause the youngest child isn't overly fond of loud noises. We watched as a group of unknowing people walk into the fort right as they fired the cannon. Those people jumped so high I'm surprised they didn't pee their pants. I could have warned them but that wouldn't have been fun for me at all, heheh. We also walked along the beach for a bit while we were there. The wind is blowing pretty hard today and blowing sand is painful so we didn't stay long.

When we got home, we decided to give the dogs a bath since it's so warm outside. Hannah likes to attack the water as it's coming out of the hose but Bailey hates the whole process. But now they don't stink like dogs so it's all good.

Now, we're up to pretty much nothing. Oh!

And last night I made a ham dinner for dinner. The Mister and I had a craving for ham so we made one. We figured why do you have to have ham only on major holidays, right? Well, I discovered the reason. You only have ham or turkey dinners, meals that take 4+ hours to cook, in the colder months because it's too hot any other time of the year to have your oven on for that long. Regardless, the ham was scrumptious and the ham gravy was to die for so it was worth sweating for in the end.

And I'm off.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Trends

Surprisingly, it warmed up quite nicely yesterday. Today, it was in the 80's before noon. What's to come? Highs in the 50's on Monday. In April. In North Carolina. I think it's more trendy to tout the dangers of global warming than there is actual fact to back it up. That's not to say that I don't believe that we should all be conserving energy, recycling, blah, blah, blah. We religiously recycle, the appliances that we've bought with our own money are energy efficient, and we no longer drive huge gas hogs. I think cutting down 1000 year old trees should be a capital offense. Most importantly, I believe that the warming trends that those in the know are reporting are part of the natural cycle of our planet. Are humans not indigenous to this planet?

It also seems to be trendy to start your criminal career at 9 years of age or younger. What is with all the news stories reporting crimes involving CHILDREN?? There was the one with the third graders plotting the death of their teacher. Another one about a thirteen year old girl running a prostitution ring (I think that one was here in N.C.). There were two on the news last night; one about girls luring another girl to a party so they could take turns beating the crap out of her and another about a teen beating the crap out of her art teacher while the other kids looked on and cheered and recorded it on their cell phone. Then there was one about a fifth grader who was caught with so much pot at school that he was charged with possession and intent to distribute (I think that one was here in N.C. too). In addition to the kids being punished, the parents should be put in stocks in the middle of town for the other parents to leer at. These delinquents are our future leaders. Even if you don't have kids, this trend should concern you.

Bad tv being inundated with bad reality programming is another trend but I've posted about that one before. I've also posted before about my thoughts on global warming and how parents need to be beat with a stick these days. Guess I'm trendy too.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Funny!

Ok. I wasn't going to post any of these videos, but they are freaking hilarious. And I figure that maybe I wasn't the only one that could use some cheering up today.

This first one has minor nudity at the end, but the rest of it so funny that it's worth it. It's called Wireless Headset.


This next one I've posted before but it's funny and bears repeating. It's called Office Swear Jar and while it doesn't have actual bad language in it, it's implied.

This next one is called Your Big Deck and it's from the Blue Collar Comedy guys. Again, it's not explicit but it's implied.

This next one is called My New Philosophy and it has very naughty language in it. It's very funny though.

That Wasn't All

I was irritated enough to leave posting today with two sentences, but I thought, what the hell and here I am again. I should have recognized my posting problem for what it was: a bad omen. I'm not having such a great morning. The Mister has been sending me funny video e-mail forwards to cheer me up. I'd post them, but they are...inappropriate, heheh. They're forwards from Marines. What do you expect? I'm also nursing my morning with a caramel frap from Starbucks. Too bad it's not Irish.

I posted a while back about getting what you pay for. I searched for the post so that I could reference it but couldn't find it. Anyway, we bought a set of salt and pepper grinders that were really nifty looking. We actually spent an embarrassing amount of money on them and you know what...they SUCK. This is an item that I guess you don't get what you pay for. We went out and bought the McCormick disposable salt and pepper grinders and they work great and just for a few bucks a piece. No, they're not the nice stainless steel set but they freaking work and that's what matters. I still believe that the saying applies to more things than it doesn't though.

I have a new favorite song of the moment. It's by Cory Lee and it's called The Naughty Song. It's such a fun song. I'm also still listening to Kate Nash quite a bit. I like Foundations, Mouthwash, Pumpkin Soup, Skeleton Song, Nicest Thing, and Merry Happy off of her Foundations CD. That's not a bad amount of songs to like off of one CD. Not including the remixes, that's half the songs. Normally, I only like one or two off of a whole CD.

You know that James Lipton questionnaire thing? One of the questions is what is a sound or noise that you hate. I have the perfect answer: The sound of a dog licking its butt. Holy cow! That's annoying.

I have no plan for the rest of the day. Homework, of course. I'd like to get some things done outside but it's chilly and overcast. Supposedly it's going to get into the 70's and clear up, but we haven't seen the sun in so long that I'll believe it when I see it. I think I'm done rambling about nothing now. Hopefully BTT next week will be something that doesn't annoy me and you'll be spared my rambling for at least one day. ;)

Thursday Meme

I over-analyzed, made myself mad, and deleted this post. No Thursday meme this week.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Growing Up

This musing wasn't inspired by The L Word, lol. Nope. It was inspired by an episode of The Riches. (I know. Is that all I do as a sahdb??More on that in a post to come.) In the episode, the guy's son gets into trouble at school with some other boys. All the boys' fathers decide to get together to figure out a way to get them out of trouble because, gosh, you can't get into Princeton with a criminal record. Where do they have this meeting of the minds? At a strip club. Hmm. This scene brought some things to mind.

If you found at as an adult that your mom, dad, or both had done...weird things while you were in high school, would you be mad about it now? For instance, say you found out that one or both of your parents were growing weed out in the back shed. Or one or both of your parents lounged in strip clubs while you were at school. Or, one or both of your parents cheated. Things of that nature. As an adult, 10, 15, or even 20 years later you find out. Are you upset?

Within the last five years, I found out that one of my parents had done something similar to one of the things that I listed above while I was in high school, about 15 or so years ago (I'll leave it to your imaginations to guess which one, lol). My initial reaction was to be pretty peeved. My reasoning was that this person was my parent, they should have been acting as such and not like some dumb teenager and/or criminal depending on the situation. Then I was thinking that while they were up to their doings, I was out being a typical teenager, breaking the rules and/or the law, heheh, why should I care? Now, I wonder how they'd feel if their grandchildren ever found out.

Don't we have higher expectations of the people raising us than for them to act like the nefarious characters we see in tv and in movies? Is that wrong? Should it even be an issue?

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Therapy

I've been watching a LOT of The L Word on Netflix's watch it now service (I'm up to the third season now). What can I say? I like the characters and the story lines. Sometimes the sex scenes are too much but I just slide the slider forward through it, lol. I think the same thing of Californication and Sex in the City too before I get accused of being a homophobe. Do we really need five or more sex scenes in a 55-58 minute time span? I don't think so. Maybe that just makes me a prude. Whatever. Anyway, that show really makes you think and not just about the various names you can call your vajayjay. It makes you think about politics, religion, prejudices, stereotypes, relationships, what is art and what is pornography, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. So, therapy.

On tv and in the movies, people who seek therapy are a lot of the times depicted as being resentful at being there and opposed to listening to the advice being given. I've never been to therapy, I know that's hard to believe, and I've always wondered if the same is true in real life for real people. If so, why bother? Therapists charge $100-$200 an hour so why go and pay all that money if you're not open to being there in the first place? I can think of other things that I could waste that kind of money on without having someone sit there and stare at me for an hour. That's also a lot of pages that could be read in an hour that would be wasted in therapy as well. ;)

Monday, April 07, 2008

It Wasn't Just Me

I found this article this morning about airline complaints. I thought the timing uncanny seeing as how I had the worst experience flying on my recent trip to California. Check this out:

Airline Passenger Complaint Soaring

I find it odd that airlines are complaining about not making enough money and fuel prices being high while at the same time lowering their quality of customer service and care. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep customers happy in able to ensure that they'll keep flying and thus, keep money coming into the companies? I'm not saying that they should offer first class services to coach class passengers but they shouldn't leave people behind in the terminals, arrive to the gate half an hour late or more, and take off an hour late or more (personal experience from my trip). Because of one bad experience, I will never fly with U.S. Airways again. I really wish this article had come out before I bought my tickets because I may have made the decision to fly with another airline since U.S. Air has so many customer complaints, "The biggest change was in the rate of consumer complaints, up 60 percent overall. The rate more than doubled at US Airways...". Tickets aren't cheap and I expect more for my money.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

And Thennnn...

We made it home from Greenville. We didn't look at flowers while we were there but ended up at the mall to buy the girls some clothes. The oldest copped an attitude the whole time. I totally don't get that. Why would you be a brat and risk getting grounded and worse, not getting any new clothes??? The Mister and I were so exhausted from all the drama that we just decided to go home. Easier said than done. We ended up stuck on the bridge back into New Bern for an hour while a traffic accident was being cleaned up. There were so many emergency vehicles, traffic was backed up for miles in all directions, and we sat there for so long that we figured it was a multi-car accident with either major injuries or a fatality. Turns out, there was one truck involved, the driver had minor injuries, and the traffic was due to the bridge being closed while they were cleaning up spilled diesel fuel. Wow. It was good to know that nobody was seriously hurt. Just bad driving in bad weather. Here's the story in case you're interested in the deets. Traffic Accident Story

When we finally made it back to town, the Mister and I went to a couple different places and looked for flower ideas and pots. We got an AWESOME deal on some pots that we found at New River Pottery. The terracotta pots were 60% off and the glazed were 25% off. I got three good sized pots for $28. I was doing a happy dance, lol. We might even go back tomorrow to get more. We didn't buy any flowers yet but I have a pretty good idea about what I want. I'll post pictures (yeah, you've heard that one before) when I get them done. ;)

It's midnight-thirty so I'm off to bed. Sweet dreams.

Next Subject

Aside from my bad news last night, the rest of the night was interesting. The oldest child had planned all week to have a friend sleep over which was fine. Then at the last minute, she asked to have another friend sleep over as well. As both of these girls are pretty well behaved, the Mister and I said yes. Talk about loud. Four girls are so loud with all their giggling and playing. I have to wonder if boys are the same.

We ordered Chinese for dinner and they forgot one of our orders which sucked.

Then the Mister and I spent the rest of the night on our computers while the girls played Wii, watched a movie, and played whatever they were playing that was so loud. It was really muggy yesterday and I had all the windows in the house open, so I'm sure that my neighbors appreciated the girls and their noise, heheh.

Speaking of muggy, it has been so rainy here lately. We really need the rain badly so it's a good thing but I'm getting tired of the gloominess. This is like living in Vermont again. But at least the rain washed the pollen off of our cars, heheh. The rain and warmer temps have also been great for the spring flowers. My neighborhood is absolutely gorgeous with all the blooming shrubbery. We have azalea bushes in our yard in three different colors and they are spectacular right now. Our dogwoods are blooming too and they are pretty and smell really good. Wisteria is also in bloom and it's EVERYwhere down here. The color is pretty but it's so viney that it looks like kudzu everywhere and like it's choking the trees. I don't know if it is, but that's how it looks. I don't think I like it.

As for today, we're going to go to Greenville and pick up some flowers, soil, and pots so that I can put some flowers on my front porch. I'm not the best at container gardening so hopefully I can keep them alive, lol. We'll see how it goes. Oh. And we're going to get bird seed for my feeder. I love watching the birds on our deck. I especially like the Carolina Wren. I had never seen one before we moved here and they are a neat looking bird. We also have tons of Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Robins, Nuthatches, and other birds that frequent our bird feeder.

That's Friday and Saturday in a nutshell. I'm off.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Craptastic

I just found out that I have no financial aid left for this school year. As a result, I have to take the summer off. I'm extremely unhappy about this. I've never run out of financial aid before. It's one of the perks of being poor, lol. The only reason I ran out is because Vermont sucks. I didn't cry although I still feel like I want to but what can ya do. I can't afford to pay out of pocket. To take the load I had planned on taking would cost about $3000 with books. The funny thing is, is that for the 2008-2009 school year I'll probably qualify for grants in addition to loans. Sheesh.

The bright side is that I'll have no kids and no school work over the summer. Yeah. This means I'm going to be bored out of my brain. Sorry, I'm not in a place to see the positive yet. This also means that I'll have no excuse not to take a trip to upstate New York that I was planning on trying to get out of. New York is too close to Vermont for my comfort levels. Now I need to come up with a different excuse.

CRAP!!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Thursday Meme

After a kinda long absence, our Thursday meme is back. In case you forgot, it's courtesy of Booking Through Thursday.


When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of?
(Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)Do you read “literature” (however you define
it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?



I don't like labeling the books that I read, which could be why I don't care about the difference in tagging among the online library things. Speaking of tagging, I always have the hardest time categorizing a book when I add it to my online libraries. Anyway, I think that my taste in reading material is almost as varied as my taste in music. I don't really care for self help or religious books, but I read most everything else. I think that the only definitions that I've applied to what I read are school books and non school books. Saying that a book is literature and another isn't is like saying that one book is more important (read that to say "pretentious) than another. I think it's more important to read a book because it's enjoyable and you like it. I dislike feeling inadequate because I haven't read all the "classics" which is what most people define as being literature. I read for pleasure, no matter what the book is, or because it's assigned reading for a class. End of subject.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Vacation Pictures

I uploaded my California pictures to Flickr. I have a badge thing down on the bottom right hand column that will be there for later viewing. Does anyone else think that Blogger and images aren't that user friendly? I uploaded straight to my blog earlier today and it was a mess. This seemed to be the easiest way to share. I hope.

WHATEVER!!! This wasn't easy after all. For some reason the code that flickr gave me was wrong and I'm about to pull my hair out. If you want to see the pictures, click on the badge. I think that works for pete's sake.

SHEESH!!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

What's in a Name

I totally can't believe I forgot to make this announcement as excited as I was to hear it myself. My sister is pregnant!! This is such a huge deal because she has medical issues that made getting pregnant difficult to the point where they thought that it might be impossible. We are so thrilled. This is her second baby in case you all lost count. I should have known she was going to call me with the news, however, because one of my friends is pregnant right now and the last time my sister was pregnant another one of my friends was at the same time. It's weird. And they're due within weeks of each other. My friend is due 11/15 and my sister is due 11/26. That's as of right now. If you've had any experience with baby's and due dates, you know this will probably change a few times as their pregnancies progress.

Anyway, on Easter, we had a bbq at the friends' house that are having the baby and they asked us what we thought of some of the names that they had already picked out. At first, I thought they were joking and I almost laughed. After finding out that they were serious, I was happy that I hadn't lol. C had a similar reaction. They already know that I intended to post about this, so it's totally not behind their backs. Some of their names:

Eleanor
Jethro
Ferrari
Harrison Walker

I can't remember some of the others. I should have taken them up on their offer of giving me the list, lol. I, for one, think that prospective parents should take into account whether or not a child's name is going to get them beaten up on the playground. You can take the high road and say that kids are mean, your child will have more spine, blah, blah, blah, all you want and I will disagree all I want as well. Funky names are all good and well. I like originality too. But Jethro? Come on. The kids are going to ask this kid if he had indoor plumbing growing up and if he owned shoes before starting school. I also get that liking or disliking a name is all in personal taste but some are a no-brainer. Jethro for example. I just think a good dose of realism should be taken with your unique, modern child-naming ability.

I also had to steer my sister clear of a name as well. I'm not trying to tell them what to do but I also can only be honest in my opinions if they are going to ask me. They will choose for themselves whether or not to listen to me in the end.

Thoughts?

Also, if you could keep my friend in your thoughts during her pregnancy, it would be much appreciated. Her husband is going to be deployed to unpleasantness the entire time and may even miss the birth. This being their first child, she's going to have a lot to deal with on her own the next 8 months.

April Fools

The hubby just played a joke on me, the fool. I have this obsession with making sure pork and chicken are cooked thoroughly. Last night I made stuffed pork chops for dinner and because of the stuffing, they took a little longer than I had anticipated to cook. The hubby just e-mailed me and told me he broke out in hives and the doctor said it was a common reaction to under cooked pork, lmao. He really does have hives but not because of the meat.

It's raining like crazy here today. The rain is good because we need it but the youngest child was supposed to have her field day at school today which surely got cancelled. She was really looking forward to it. And Bailey refuses to go outside in the rain so she's probably uncomfortable with a full bladder, lol.

Now the kids are home from school and tranquility is a thing of the past. I sometimes find it amazing the amount of energy those two girls bring home with them every day.