From Kim:
In September 2008 my son was life flighted to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He/we took that flight so that he could be evaluated for a liver transplant. My son, Greyson was 7 ½ months old.
I traveled in our car. A car filled with everything I could fit of his and a suitcase for myself. I was told to pack for at least 6 months, but to be prepared for a year. I went with great medical coverage, but no job (our home was 5 hours away, I met parents from all over the WORLD). Greyson was checked into CHP and I soon checked into the Ronald McDonald House.
Ronald McDonald House (RMH) became my calm. I could meet with other parent who, if they were not going through my exact situation, they were going through something similar. We were living on a hope, we were living on small stipends from insurance (if so fortunate,), with a household of bills for our “real” home still coming in. RMH gave us food, they gave us shelter… for a measly $11 a night and in some cases that too was waived. But, that is not all that they provided. They provided parents and children (who were able) with tickets to local “sights” they provided us with donated clothes for our children. Yes, children in the hospital are allowed to wear clothes, it is encouraged. It is a sense of normalcy, even for the babes. No one wants to walk around with their arse hanging out of a johnnie gown, not even a toddler.
During our 3 month stay I was amazed when others would drop off clothes for RMH “guests” and I was extremely grateful. I didn’t have to worry about what my son was outgrowing. That worry was alleviated.
My son died December 8, 2008 while waiting for his liver transplant. Last year for his first “anniversary” I decided to give back. I collected clothes for children of all ages from friends and family and sent a care package to RMH. I would love to do the same this year. I would like your help. I will accept gently used or new clothing for kids of all ages, books, toys. Gift cards. Anything! They will be sent to RMH Pittsburgh. I thank you in advance and on behalf of the families you will be helping. THANK YOU! (Please do not send stuffed animals. they cannot be 100% washed free of germs.)
If you’d like to donate in remembrance of Greyson donations can be made directly to Ronald McDonald House Pittsburgh, here:
Ronald McDonald House
Attn: Leslie Montgomery
In remembrance of Greyson Menefee
451 44th Street – Penthouse Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
Attention, those of you in the North Alabama/ Tennessee area: the North Alabama Spay Neuter Clinic is having a fundraiser this weekend in the form of a Plea Market (they had one last year, you might recall.) They’re looking for donations (which are tax deductible!) – you can go here to read more about what they’re looking for, when and where you can drop off your donations, and when the Plea Market will be open to the public.
This event is sponsored by 13 animal welfare groups in the area. The money raised will be used to buy a transport vehicle to assist people in rural areas to get their animals spayed/neutered. Volunteers will be needed on Thursday & Friday (12/18-19) to help set up and also on Saturday, the day of the sale. Donations of saleable items will be accepted both days at the Jaycees Building on Airport Road.
The North Alabama Spay Neuter Clinic charges $35 for feline neuters, $45 for feline spays, $55 for canine neuters, and $65 for canine spays. The only cost above the basic charge is $10 for the rabies vaccination if you cannot provide proof that your animal has been vaccinated in the past 12 months.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ANYONE CAN USE THE SPAY AND NEUTER CLINIC. You do NOT have to qualify! There is no extra charge for weight or if the cat/ dog is in heat.
Thank you so much for your donations to Heaven’s cat, Dirty Feet – and if you haven’t donated and would like to, you can click on the widget below, or visit the ChipIn page here.
Food I made this weekend that I highly, highly recommend (I was in a cooking/ baking mood on Friday, apparently!)
Hot Cocoa Bread. It’s a wonderfully dense, chocolaty bread. It’s not super-sweet, but very very good. I think next time I make it, I’ll double the marshmallows just because I like marshmallows a lot. You could also add chocolate chips and chopped nuts and call it Rocky Road bread!
Chunky Guacamole. SO SO SO good. The only thing I’d do differently next time is, I’d actually add the entire half a red onion, as the recipe calls for. I got nervous when I was chopping the onion because it seemed like an awful lot of onion, so I only used about 1/3 of the onion, which I don’t think was enough. Also, note to myself: make sure there actually ARE baked Tostitos in the pantry before you make it next time. We ended up eating the guacamole on Ritz crackers. Which was still really good!
Individual Cream Cheese danish. Once again, I was blown away by just how good – and easy! – these things are. I told Fred I thought it was time for us to try plural marriage, because I’m bringing on Chunky Guacamole and Individual Cheese Danish as his Brother Husbands.
Have you been sitting there just WAITING for the Cranberry-Habanero jam?
If so, it’s your lucky day!
Cranberry Cruelty Habanero Jam is now available!
(I’ve got plenty of the other flavors still in stock, and considering how many habaneros we grew this year, I don’t expect to run out anytime soon!)
I had a hair appointment last Wednesday morning, and looking at myself in the mirror while she cut my hair, I came to the realization that I’m apparently growing out the grays. I haven’t colored my hair since just before I went to Maine in July, and I’d say my roots are about 1/3 the length of my hair.
I’m actually surprised to find that though I have plenty of gray hair, it’s not quite as gray as I’d expected. For now, I’m planning to keep on growing it out (this would be far more fascinating if I had a picture to show you, I’m aware), but it’s entirely possible that I’ll get tired of seeing all that gray, and go back to making Fred helping me color it a boring medium brown.
After my hair appointment, I stopped at the grocery store on the way home. It wasn’t ’til I was in the cereal aisle penned in by two gray-haired grannies (my people!) that I remembered Wednesdays are not only the day the new sales flyer comes out, but also senior discount day. I don’t know what the discount is for seniors, but it must be something pretty damn good, because the seniors come out in DROVES from about 7:30 on, and the place probably stays packed ’til closing (I wouldn’t know, though, ’cause I’m probably sound asleep by the time Publix closes).
There was one line with just one woman in line, and she was standing there looking at a newspaper when I walked up behind her. I put all my stuff on the conveyor belt and waited. And waited. And waited. Ever so slowly, she turned the pages of her newspaper, and keep in mind it was 9:45 and I hadn’t had anything to eat that morning, so how I did not fly at her with claws extended to yank every last hair out of her head, I do not know.
Finally, all huffy like, I said “Oooooookay”, picked up all my shit, and moved two cash registers down. I don’t know what the fuck was going on with that lady, but she was still there casually perusing the newspaper when I left.
I did not smack her.
Note to self: stay the fuck away from Publix on Wednesdays for the next 20 or so years. When the hell do you start getting a senior discount, anyway? 62?
Which reminds me – I got a GODDAMN AARP MEMBERSHIP FORM in the mail a few weeks ago. What the fuck? I’ve got a good 6 years and 2 months before I qualify, fuckers!
This blue basket lives in a corner of the kitchen, and it’s no surprise that I got these pictures of Hutch going “Oooh, there are toys in here! I like toys! Look at the cool toys!” and Starsky’s trying to figure out how to get a good bite on the basket handle.
::thlurrrrp::
Sweet Rhyme. I determined over the weekend that Rhyme’s personality is a lot like that of his half-brother Mike (of the Wonkas). Is he a happy boy? He is SUCH a happy boy. At night he gets up on the bed and flops right down between Fred and I and purrs and purrs and purrrrrrrs.
Bath time for Reacher.
I’ve perhaps mentioned that when I go outside, the cats – especially the Bookworms – like to gather around me. Here are three of the four – and you can see, since Reacher and Corbett are next to each other, just how thin Corbett is. He’s perfectly healthy, and he eats just fine, he’s just a skinny cat. Reacher is the biggest of the Bookworms.
Spanky claims the basket as his own.
Previously
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Happy vacuuming!
2006: When I thought of how crappy the doors would look, he gave me a long-suffering look and said in his “Look how patient and long-suffering I am” voice, “I’ll paint them.”
2005: “Fascinating.”
2004: All your frog are belong to us.
2003: No entry.
2002: I am freezing to death.
2001: I think I need to get a life…
2000: In other words, Robyn is a total spaz about her eyes, comprende?
1999: On the way into work, and the whole time I worked today, I reconsidered that reconsideration.
At our local bigtime grocery store, the age is 55 for the senior citizen discount. I know this because the goofy cashier asked me if I qualified. I’m forty-fucking-one, thankyouverymuch. If that wasn’t bad enough, the guy behind me was greatly amused and kept going on and on and ON about it while the cashier messed around with my coupons. Then the cashier asked AGAIN if I was over 55. I wanted to kill them both, but with all the senior citizens in the parking lot I figured I’d never get away before the police came.
Ha! I grew out my grey at 35 and while it was a miserable ordeal which took about 5 months (with me cutting it regularly to get rid of the tired browwn on the ends)I never looked back!
I had never gotten so many compliments on my hair when it was coloured. People stop me and tell me how much they like my hair, and when I went to hairstyling school, one of the girls in the class ahead of me asked me what I used to colour it. “Who colours their hair grey”??? was my reply.
AND I consider it a bonus when someone wants to give me a ‘seniors discount’ at a store-I’m only 40 and if they think my hair colour qualifies me for a 15% discount-have at ‘er!
You guys are just jealous cause you don’t qualify for the discount!!
AND it might be good to know that when you reach old age, (if indeed you don’t suffer a stroke from being all stressed out by Senior Citizens) you will find that most people are nicer to us than you are!!!MOM (aged 67 and proud I’ve lived this long!!!considering all the drama in my young childrens lives!!!)
Ahhh the grocery store that torture chamber. The only thing worse here is Walmart. I used to actually LIKE grocery shopping-not anymore. People used to keep it moving at the checkouts but now atleast half the time there seems to be some idiot holding up the process. A foreign couple in Walmart recently were blocking two check out lines by placing their cart sideways while they unloaded it. I wanted to beat him with his manpurse. My last trip to the supermarket involved a dip shit mother with that huge cart with a park bench on it for a child plenty old enough to walk. She was blocking the entire milk display playing with her iphone until my death stare “encouraged” her to move. Later the bitch ran in to me with it in another asile. She couldn’t control the damn thing. I’ve been hit with them before the stores should remove the damn unweildy things! She was passing me when I was packing my groceries and gave me a wide bearth. If she hit me again and it would have been a fist fight and I swear she could see it on my grouchy menopausal face.
I know you don’t usually shop at Kroger but I wanted to let you know that the 40lb. boxes of cat litter, Petpride, are on sale for $7.09 or 7.89… something like that, in case you want to stock up. And for the record that litter is much better then the the 28lb. green box that Wal-Mart sells, I think it’s Special Kitty, it really does suck compared to the Kroger one in the blue box. Not that you’ve ever mentioned using it just wanted to let you know in case you ever did.
Okay, so I got ALL excited about cranberry jam, and went to your jam page, and you have every sort of jam I could ever imagine listed — except for cranberry. Tease.
Oops! It’s there now, Paula, I swear it! You’d think I’d double-check that stuff, wouldn’t you?
I live in a town where most of the residents are elderly. So, grocery shopping is, AT BEST, nerve wracking.
I can handle that old people are slow. God knows I’m slowing down. What I can’t handle is the absolute inability to recognize that other people exist and have lives to live (blocking aisles and displays for no good reason). Stores really need to stop accepting checks – old people take FOREVER to write checks. Why is anyone writing checks at the market anymore, anyway? Use a debit or credit card – my grocery store takes them all.
Robyn, it sounds like the line you were in wasn’t open? Where was the cashier? You’d still have been right to smack the newspaper lady, though. You know, just on general principle.
I speak for the whole state of Texas when I say EEEWWWWWWW GROOOOSSSSSSS to Ritz Crackers with Guacamole. I love ya Robyn, but that give us the heebie jeebies!
Devil, I can’t for the life of me remember what the cashier was doing – I know she was there (and the light was on indicating that the line was open). She was maybe ringing up some stuff?
Oh, wait – I think what annoyed me so is that the woman looking at the newspaper had a basket full of stuff, had only put two items on the belt, and was standing there looking at the newspaper while the cashier rang up the few items she’d put on the belt!
Laura, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Ha! I was embracing my gray hair. Enjoying the fact I no longer was a slave to coloring my hair. Two things happened. 1. I was being hit on by a 36 yo geezer ( This is not ageism he was married!}2. My darling 11 yo daughter found a pic of me from 1993. Her comment? “Mom, What happened between then and now? Did you have a nervous breakdown?” I was at the salon within 3 days. Wicked wicked child of mine.
I used to have dark brown hair, and started going gray in high school. A few years ago I stopped coloring, and let it go natural, which is almost all gray with a few dark brown streaks. Not long ago, I was surprised by one of the younger girls at my work, when she said “where do you get your hair colored?” Like what happened with Leanne, she thought I was getting it colored to look this way! I thought it was funny, and in a way a compliment, that she thought I looked too young for it to be natural. At least that is what I told myself
Sue! LOL! Children are evil, aren’t they?
Maureen (and Leanne): Sometimes I have a hard time telling between blond hair and gray hair – maybe they think you’ve got blond streaks and it looks so good they want ’em too!
Testing nested comments.
Annnnd testing nested comments one more time.
I am 57 and I have trouble finding places that give the senior discount at 55! IHOP does and the movie theater I like does which is fantastic because it means I can go for matinee price anytime
I color my hair myself and to keep it from being boring I went two shades lighter. It looks like it could be sunbleached though my hair never sunbleached ever! Believe it or not people who don’t know me that well have no idea I color my hair so I must do a good job.
I get the occasional AARP membership form in the mail, and I’m only 29! It’s not fair.
Also I am adding that hot cocoa bread to my MUST-MAKE list!
I qualify for the senior discount and I always have to show my ID to prove my age because I have the freaky red hair that apparently is taking it’s own sweet time heading for grey. And people always ask where I have it colored. That would be DNA! But when it does I want to be one of Robin’s peeps!
That would by Robyn’s peeps because apparently my brain cells are aging and can’t spell!
Peapod has saved me from many homicides!
Did I miss something along the way? I didn’t see you being p’od at seniors, I saw you p’od at the lady standing in line reading a newspaper. Which would have made most of the general population mad:)
You can’t trust AARP. I got a membership card from them at age 25.
Also, if you go to any McDonalds you should be able to donate right about now. We’re doing the “Hands.” Every dollar you donate, you write your name on a “hand” and they donate the money to the Ronald McDonald House.
I saw a lady at the Renaissance Fair here a few weeks ago who had snow-white hair all the way down to her bum. She looked to be about 45 or 50. I was headed towards her to ask if it was natural or treated, and if treated, how she got it done and by whom, because I would TOTALLY go get mine done. But then someone approached her area with a video camera from a local news station so I un-assed the AO right quick, and never did spot her again. Rats.
I do most of my grocery shopping in the 2-4 A.M. window, at the all-night grocery store. I have to deal with stockers and floor polishers, and the occasional drunk, but better them than the screaming kids, long lines, and comparison shoppers. I have nothing against people who want to take advantage of the “we’ll match any competitor’s price” offer – they’re saving money and good for them – but GOD I wish there was a separate line for them! If I see anything even remotely resembling paper in a shopper’s cart I’ll get in another line, because it never fails but that I’m stuck behind someone who doesn’t understand that “Other Store Generic,” which is on sale for 15 cents, does not equal “This Store Name-Brand,” or that red potatoes are not the same as russet potatoes, or that whole wheat bread is not the same as white bread.
I think that, just as we have “express lanes,” there should also be “slowpoke lanes.” If you’re paying with a check, if you have more than three coupons, if you’re going to use the price-matching offer, if you’re cashing a check or using your WIC benefits*, if you’re buying a money order – basically, if you’re doing anything other than paying for the stuff in your cart with cash or a credit/debit card, you have to be in the slowpoke lane. If you’re in the regular lane and you whip out your checkbook, you have to wash and wax the cars of everyone in line behind you.
*WIC benefits used to be a horrible process here. You could only get certain brands and certain sizes of certain products – like, you could get Price’s brand whole milk or 2% milk, but not any other brand, and not 1% milk. Or you could get a 1-pound block of cheese, but not the 1/2-pound block, or cheddar but not mozzarella. And it wasn’t automated and they changed the rules frequently, so everything had to be cross-checked to a little notebook, and checked off on the person’s paper. I used to HATE being behind WIC customers, because it was so slow and more often than not, they’d have gotten something wrong – with all the changes and rules and restrictions, who wouldn’t? – and their embarrassment was usually palpable and contagious. A lot of people feel embarrassed to be on public assistance, or when they make a mistake, or when they’re the ones holding up the line – all THREE? Oh man, you could power a small engine with the force of the embarrassment sometimes. But I don’t see that happening much any more, so either they’ve automated it or eased up on the restrictions, or I’ve just been getting really lucky.