The Crooked Acres jam (and hot sauce) shop is now open!
Go buy jam and hot sauces here.
(And there’s a permanent link in the left sidebar, for future reference.)
New month, new banner!
Christine hits another one out of the park- Joe Bob in the alien mask is KILLING ME.
Thanks, Christine! You rock!
I am envious of everyone with the techie husband/boyfriends. We know almost nothing and get a friend to help us!
Much like the cobbler’s children who go without shoes, we significant others of those who deal with computers have to beg and plead and limp along on crappy computers before the computer geniuses in our lives fix whatever is ailing our stupid computer. I have had to whine and plead a MILLION times to get Fred to fix shit on my computer. Is that fair, I ask you? I THINK NOT.
I was going to recommend that instead of using olive oil PAM, you might want to check out the pump-type oil sprayers they have on Amazon (since you’re already shopping for a blender) or the one I picked up at Williams-Sonoma years ago for about $10 and still use all the time. You just add your favorite oil, pump, and spray—and without any added chemicals/preservatives, etc.
Have a great weekend!!!!
Oh, I have a pump sprayer, and I love it! I especially love to use it when my recipe calls for tossing something in olive oil before baking it. Instead of tossing whatever it is with oil, I spray a light coating of oil on the food, and it’s a lot less messy. I got mine at TJ Maxx for only a few bucks, and it was so worth it!
I was just thinking about this when I woke up this morning, how we really need to get some kind of external storage dealie. Do you or your readers have any recommendations for that?
I couldn’t tell you what kind of USB external drive we have, but I can tell you that it’s always hooked up to my computer, and that’s where I save all my pictures. It was on sale when we got it and it’s super easy to use.
(Okay, how lazy AM I? I went and looked. It’s a Seagate FreeAgent external drive. I don’t know how much storage it has on it, but it easily holds my 40 GB of pictures and movies (is that a lot?), and some of Fred’s crap, too.)
Someone did have a suggestion, though:
Western Digital My Passport USB powered HD’s are awesome. I have 4 of them. They’re around $100, depends on the size of them really. I think you can get a 2Tb one for about 130-ish and a 500Gig for about 75 or so.
Readers? Any other suggestions?
Switch to Windows 7. It’s not bloated, just big boned.
This made me laugh out loud. I have the Windows 7 disc sitting on my desk, and will be upgrading this weekend. (Thanks again, Susan!)
I can only assume that one day this lady’s cats will stage some sort of coup.
That is IT. I have GOT to learn to crochet!
My Grandfather had this poem/limerick? he used to say, “Mr. Nickels made some pickels on a rainy day. Mr Martin came a fartin’ and blew them all away.” It keeps popping back in to my head when I see Martin pictures. Is Martin a gassy cat by any chance?
Martin’s a bit of a gas bag, but not any gassier than the other cats. I particularly appreciate his gassiness when he’s curled up around my head in the middle of the night, as you can imagine.
Have you ever thought of doing Xmas postcards? Less postage to send. And I’m glad you’re doing a card this year, I always request one for my mom and it always freaks her out (who sent this to us, how do we know Robyn and Fred, whose cat is this? – oh, it’s at least an hour of fun).
You know, I feel like an idiot. It NEVER occurred to me to do Xmas postcards – but that’s what I’m doing this year! I ordered 500 (!) postcards from VistaPrint for less than the two packs of 50 blank cards I got at Michael’s (and then I returned the blank cards to Michael’s!). How awesome is that? THANK YOU!
Totally off subject, but it is September and once again I’m here asking for your cats family calendars. It makes the perfect Christmas gift to myself. Please make it include a donation to Challengers House. Thankyouverymuch.
I promise you that before Halloween rolls around, those calendars will be available! I’d like to say they’ll be ready by the 15th, but I have a lot of pictures to slog through, so I’m giving myself a little extra time.
“While we waited for Fred to back up the trailer, Egg told me that he was still “down” in his back and that the doctors were going to put a needle in his back and inject Super Glue. At least, that’s what he thought they said, but now that he thought about it, they probably meant silicone.”
No, it’s a bone cement, and the procedure he’s probably talking about a kyphoplasty. They inject bone cement into a fractured vertebra to stabilize it.
“Poor ol’ Egg – not only does he have a bad back, he also has an aneurysm (he pointed vaguely to his lower abdomen, so I’m not sure where the aneurysm was located) and a kidney stone.”
Probably an abdominal aortic aneurysm, Triple-A. The aorta extends vertically down the length of the torso, before splitting off to supply the femoral arteries. It can bulge, but typically a pulmonary surgeon tracks the size of the bulge until it reaches a certain diameter, then they go in and repair the site. Of course, if it goes, it is unlikely the patient will survive unless they immediately get to a hospital. Dad’s was monitored twice a year for many years, and never reached the threshold where repair was considered.
The older I get, the more this medical stuff amazes me. When I was a kid, I thought that if they found a tumor, they’d rush you right to the emergency room and remove it before you could think twice. But nooooo, apparently they’ll wait weeks and WEEKS like it’s NO BIG DEAL. And now I find out that there are people walking around with aneurysms that are never repaired? MY MIND IS BLOWN! When I think of an aneurysm, I think of life and death, for god’s sake!
I would like to apply to work on “I Will Throw All Your Shit Away.” When my g-ma died last year at her assisted living home, we needed to get her stuff out fast, as we didn’t want to pay for an empty room. I instructed my mom to bring trash bags, & if I do say so myself, I did a great job. My mom kept wanting to keep stuff, like broken pencils & almost-empty aspirin bottle, but I kept her on task, & we left with a minimum of things. Thank you for your consideration.
and
Robyn, I would really like to be part of “I Will Throw All Your Shit Away.” I had some kind of hoarding tendencies when I was younger and scared the hell out of myself. Now I’m a merciless junk-tosser. (That sounds like some kind of euphemism.) And while I don’t necessarily condone mocking the mentally ill in a public forum like reality TV, the psychotic meltdowns these people would have as we threw their shit away would be the real draw. I think this show would be a huge hit. It’d also be completely cruel. I look forward to viewing and hope I can guest-star one day! 😀
I look forward to pitching this idea to TLC. Or Bravo. Maybe A&E?
The companion show to I Will Throw All Your Shit Away will be called Pick Up This Fucking Garbage, You Nasty Asshole. The hoarding is one thing – the fucking GARBAGE is what gets me every time. People SHITTING IN BAGS and tossing it in the corner! Did y’all see the woman who had THIRTEEN dead cats in her house? And when Matt showed her, she blamed her BROTHER because he put the TV in that corner or some shit. AGH.
Tell me the truth, you guys. When you watch Hoarders, do you ever find yourself holding your breath so that the stank from the hoarder’s house doesn’t come through the TV and make you gag? Or is it just me?
BTW, the kitty room looks so CLEAN. It always does, but I especially noticed now since we’ve been discussing the Hoarders and their filth around here lately. You run a tight ship, obviously.
I find that there’s very little in the way of possessions that I’m not willing to toss. I mean, there are certain things I like, but it would take very little for me to get rid of just about anything sitting around. I rarely keep any of the books I read, I don’t have a lot of tchotchkes. Really, the only things that clutter up the house are cat toys (it’s my intention, one of these days, to make a couple of wooden boxes to toss the cat toys into) and the fucking dining room table, which attracts every last piece of “I’ll deal with this later” in the house. I mean, seriously, look at this shit:
Laundry that needs to be folded and put away, a coffee maker that died (that Fred intends to attempt to fix), Fred’s clothes fucking hanging on the fucking chairs (he doesn’t like to go into the guest bedroom because that’s where the kittens are in their cage, and he doesn’t want to set them off because their shrieky little meows make his ears bleed), empty boxes that THE CATS MIGHT LIKE TO PLAY IN. Just, ugh.
(In my defense, after I snapped the picture, I folded the laundry and put it away…. and there’s already another fucking pile of laundry that needs to be folded and put away. I need to just stop doing the goddamn laundry, is what it is.)
I just watched the Hoarders show this week where the water wasn’t working in the house and the people had started pooping in bags and throwing them in the corner. In my mind I’m sort of chanting to myself, *shit in a bag, shit in a bag, eeeewww.* The idea was just so nasty! Then the guy Matt (with the truck) said he couldn’t shovel it out because the bags would break so he had to pick it all up by hand! DO NOT try to eat lunch while watching this show. . .
I have no idea what Matt makes, but there’s no way it’s enough. NO WAY. Is there enough money on earth to convince me to spend HOURS picking up bags of shit, one by one? There is not. No fucking way. Can you imagine the nightmares that man has?
If Newt and Maxie like the side porch, why not move the house there?
Mostly because there isn’t enough room there. We’ve been brainstorming a way where Fred could put an addition to the side stoop that would hold a shelter for the cats – and maybe make it not really attached to the side stoop, far enough away that they’d have to jump a little bit to get to it. We’ve got possums and other wild animals around, and I’d hate to have a possum or raccoon go into the cat shelter and corner a cat.
To be honest, though, that’s not a priority. My priority this winter is getting a covered porch on the back of the house, and the blue coop converted into a cat coop. (That might not be Fred’s priority, but it’s certainly mine!)
What on earth is that green tube thingie by the front door?! I’m guessing a cat toy of some kind.
That is, in fact, a toy.
It’s a Bergan Turbo Track cat toy – we bought several of them, tossed the elevated sections (the balls kept getting stuck in the elevated sections) and joined them all together. The cats love them – my only gripe is that the sections come apart a little too easily, and every once in a while, I’ll hear the track ball go rolling across the floor because the cats have disconnected the track and stolen the ball!
Was that a Feliway dispenser I saw plugged in near the cat tree? If it was, do you think they work?
It is a Feliway dispenser, but I have to admit that it’s empty. I’m terrible about replacing it when it’s empty. I used it for a couple of months and while I might have noticed a slight difference in their behavior, said slight difference could also have been due to a troublesome foster cat leaving the house. So… maybe it works, and maybe it doesn’t. 🙂
It amazes me that someone could throw a kitten out of a car…. I’d like to throw their ass out of a moving vehicle and leave them on the side of the road to die!!!
It is absolutely infuriating and I don’t understand how anyone could do it and live with themselves.
I showed the man one of your pix & asked him what kind of wood your cabinets are made of. After making a lewd comment (I expect nothing less), he said “I don’t know, why don’t you ask her!” They’re really pretty, what is it?
I’m assuming you mean the cabinets in the kitchen? I had to ask Fred, who said he thinks they’re probably walnut. It’s funny, I LOATHED those cabinets when we first moved in, but as soon as I changed the cabinet pulls from the horrendous white ceramic pulls the previous owners had to something darker, I liked them one hell of a lot better.
(I’d still like to gut the kitchen and start from scratch. Maybe after we win the lottery!)
I don’t know if you read xkcd on a regular basis, but I saw today’s comic and thought of you 🙂
LOVE xkcd!!!
Do you plant your vegetables from seed or from little plants (baby plants?) from the nursery? I am finally getting a little vegetable garden plot and I want to plant a few items, like okra, zucchini, tomatoes and maybe an eggplant and corn? As you can tell, I’ve never planted before so I thought I’d ask since you’ve seemed to have great success with your garden. Thanks!
It mostly depends on the vegetable – we buy tomato plants from the local high school most years and also start our own from seed (in small pots, then transplant to the garden when they’re big enough), but everything else, we sow directly into the ground. (When I say “we”, I mean “Fred,” of course.) Ashleas had some good advice, too:
I’m no expert so please take this little bit of advice with a grain of salt. I’ve just read our Gardening 1-2-3 book like 3 times through while working the Outside Garden register this summer.
Depending on where you live, you may want to start from seeds or baby plants inside and then transplant them outside. If you’re north or have a late last-frost date, you can do this so the plants have a head start and you can get the most out of a growing season. Also starting inside allows you to start from seed if you wish, which can be cheaper than the baby plants.
Robyn’s so far south that either method, either transplanting or starting from seed outside probably works for her.
What say you, Robyn?
I agree! 🙂
Okay, I have a million pictures of MMM&D, and Reacher and Corbett. I’ll share some of them today, and then maybe the rest over the weekend.
Reacher and Jake.
Pretty pretty Corbett.
In this picture, I can absolutely see what Martin will look like when he’s grown up.
“What, lady? What you want?”
Moxie, Melodie, and Martin, hanging out in the guest bedroom.
Adopted before the weekend is out. GUARANTEED! (I hope.)
Reacher ADORES snoozing in the reusable grocery bag.
Kittens love an empty box. Shocking, right?
One couch, six cats.
Jake sure does like to tease Martin with his tail.
Okay, I’m going to leave with Martin, Melodie, Moxie, Dodger, Reacher, and Corbett in a few minutes. I refuse to be sad, because this is the next step toward their forever home, and I have a good feeling about this weekend. Hopefully at least a couple of them will be adopted this weekend (please please PLEASE) and go to loving homes.
So send good thoughts this way, would you?
(I sure am going to miss these guys!)
Starsky and Hutch, hanging out on the heating pad.
Houston, we has a complainer.
Starsky and Hutch are doing well. Yesterday, they both lapped formula off a shallow plate without crawling through it, and I didn’t have to supplement with a bottle or syringe at all. It was amazingly easy – Monday, they wouldn’t even look at the plate with the formula on it. Yesterday, they both bellied up to the plate. Today, I begin the messy job of offering them canned food mixed with formula. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a problem – I think I mentioned that I put a bowl of Babycat kibble in their cage, and several times when I went into the room, Starsky was bellied up to the bowl. I don’t know how much he actually ate, but there’s definitely some interest there.
My plan is to put Bolitar and Rhyme in the foster room upstairs when I get home from Petsmart and then slowly reintroduce them to the rest of the house. Once they’re acclimated to being out and about, I’ll move Starsky and Hutch upstairs.
Coltrane, chilling in the back yard.
Previously
2009: Life is good.
2008: How about that, genius?
2007: Except that seeing me so enraged the praying mantis that it took flight and flew at my head.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: I could have done a faster job with a measuring spoon and my ass.
2003: She was stymied by her big butt, which wouldn’t fit under the shed.
2002: Here’s my question: It’s open 24-hours, so why the FUCKITY FUCK FUCK can’t they stock in the wee hours of the morning when NO ONE IS THERE?
2001: It’s funny how two people can look at the same thing and see it differently, isn’t it?
2000: No entry.