Go here to download it!
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I just spent six hours – SIX HOURS, PEOPLE! – taking down and washing every fucking light cover in the Madison house, and then getting on my hands and knees and scrubbing all the hardwood floors in the house and THEN getting on my hands and knees and scrubbing every inch of the kitchen and dining room with those damn Magic Sponges.
I ain’t cleaning the fucking floors in this house ever again, goddamnit.
Anyway, that’s why the entry is going up so late. Sorry ’bout that.
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Sunday afternoon I am amazed that the goddamn lights we took down at the Smallville house – the ones we hate and at least five of you have offered to buy from us, which is why they’re sitting in the garage at the Madison house waiting to be boxed up and put on eBay – didn’t explode from the amount of hate I was shooting at them. Sunday was a weird day, starting with the cats letting me sleep in, and not in a “Let’s let Mom sleep in while we barf from one end of the house to the other and then kill each other!” way, in a “sincerely quiet so Mom could sleep” way. Very odd, and so I woke up a bit on edge. I puttered around the house, doing my morning chores – opening all the blinds, scooping out the litter box, giving the cats fresh water, checking on the chicks and giving them food and water – then took a shower and did some more stuff around the house before heading to Madison around noon.
Once in Madison, I’d almost finished cleaning the windows in the downstairs (did I mention that I spent all day Friday cleaning? It took me the entire day to get the upstairs cleaned and straightened around, but when I was done, it looked AWESOME) when Fred, who’d been eyeing a dog who appeared to be wandering around the neighborhood, decided the dog was lost, so we gave him water, and I went to pick up dog food (because god forbid any animal ever feel the slightest twinge of hunger when we’re around). The dog – who appeared to be some kind of Greyhound, and after Googling around, I determined that he was probably an Italian Greyhound, and a pretty old one, at that – ate some food and drank some water, and started following me around.
He was a cute little dog, and I entertained fantasies of being unable to find his owner and bringing him out to Smallville, where he’d follow me around some more and maybe chase a squirrel or something. Whatever dogs do.
But because I had to at least make an attempt to find his owner, I made up a flyer with his picture on it and started driving around the neighborhood hanging them on Yield and Stop signs. I’d gotten six or seven of them hung up when Fred called to let me know that he (and his father, who had come over to help do some handyman stuff) had seen someone driving slowly through the cul-de-sac and they waved him down to ask if he was looking for a dog, and he was.
Hmph. I’d already named him “Sammy” in my head.
Dogs don’t like the flash, for some reason.
He had a bit of an underbite. Too cute.
(Yeah, shaddup. I don’t want a damn dog, but it’s a different story when they show up on your doorstep. And he was cute, though Fred discovered that he was 16 years old and I do believe that’s damn old for a dawg. No doubt if we’d ended up keeping him, it would have only been to shepherd him through his dyin’ years.)
So after that, I separated out the lights from the Smallville house, measured the biggest ones, and headed over to Staples to find boxes to put them in. My intention was to clean them up a little (a VERY little), take pictures, box them up, and let Fred list them individually on eBay. Except that Staples didn’t have any boxes that were big enough, so I went to Lowe’s and found that they didn’t have any big-enough boxes either, and I was filled with a black hatred for the goddamn lights and my goddamn husband and every goddamn thing that ever was.
I said to myself “Fuck it” and I said to myself “Fuck them” and I said to myself “Fuck him”, and I decided that I was goddamn good and done with the goddamned lights, and I was thisclose to loading the goddamn lights up in my car and taking them to Goodwill or possibly even the goddamn dump, and the only thing that stopped me was that deep down I knew I needed to take a deep breath and calm the fuck down and probably I’d end up with my ass divorced if I dumped the goddamn lights off at the goddamn dump and I flat-out don’t have the time or patience for a long, drawn-out custody battle for Tommy and Sugarbutt (who love me best, clearly).
Thus I said to myself “I am going to play me some Snood and surf me some web, and I’ll think about the fucking lights tomorrow.”
I sure am coming to hate that goddamn Madison house, is all I have left to say about that.
* * *
Friday night, after spending all day cleaning That Goddamn House and the evening watching TV with Fred, I got home to Smallville and I did my evening chores (which very much resemble my morning chores, only I close the blinds instead of opening them, and I do Snackin’ Time for the inside and outside kitties) and I settled on the couch and I listened to
Delilah (DON’T JUDGE ME) and played 185 games of Snood, and then around 11:00 I got really, really lonely. I am not the sort of person who gets lonely, I hasten to tell you, I’ve never been a lonely kind of gal my entire life.
I like being by myself and I am well able to entertain myself and the last time I remember being desperately lonely was on New Year’s Eve 1994, when the spud and I lived in Lisbon Falls with Debbie and Brian, and Debbie went out for the evening, and the kids were sound asleep long before midnight, and I watched
Sleepless in Seattle, which ended right around midnight, and I was walking through the house turning off lights in preparation for bedtime, and I thought to myself, “I’m never going to be in love like that*”, was overwhelmed with a wave of melancholy, and collapsed against the hallway wall and sobbed until my face was swollen and red.
I think strong waves of lonely melancholy arriving every twelve years or so is a pretty good track record, really.
So I got really, really lonely and sad because I was in my dream house alone with six annoying cats and I wanted to NOT be alone, even if it was just having someone sleeping upstairs or hanging out in her room texting her boyfriend like mad. The only reason I didn’t get up, get into my car, and drive to Madison is because (1) I don’t have a key to the Madison house, I handed it over to the realtor and to get into the house I would have had to go through the garage, and I didn’t want the garage door opening to wake Fred up and (2) They were coming to deliver wood early Saturday morning and I needed to be there to pay them.
I got over my sad wave of Woe-Is-Me in about an hour and a half, and then I slept like a baby.
That Goddamn House cannot sell fast enough for me.
*To which current-day Robyn says “In love like
what? Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks’ characters didn’t even know each other, it was no great love story”, and then-Robyn replies “Shut up. In love like the love story that was getting ready to happen, you hateful bitch.”
* * *
Why does your realtor need your utility bills?
Because when prospective buyers are considering a house, they like to see what the utility bills run through the different seasons of the year. That, or my realtor is just a nosy bastard.
Will you talk more about the chicks? I think they are cute. I want to know what they are like. I want some, but am not sure about keeping them outside in Michigan. Plus silly husband says 8 animals is enough. 🙂
So far, they’re funny as hell, especially when they go running across the pool at top speed, flapping their wings, or when they start scratching at the pine shavings on the floor of the pool, looking for food. That’s all I can tell you so far, though – they’re fun to watch, very entertaining, and so cute I’m afraid I might squoosh them to death if I pick them up. They’re skittish and don’t much like being picked up, and I look forward to seeing them grow.
Also, what do you think about all the goings-on on Grey’s Anatomy lately?
GREY’S ANATOMY SPOILER ALERT.
I’m disappointed that the writers made it happen. I don’t think George and Izzy should have ended up sleeping together, but I suspected, as soon as STUPID GEORGE basically said “Izzy? She’s way too hot. She’d never want me!” to HIS FUCKING WIFE, that that’s what was going to happen. It makes a little sense, Izzy’s hostility toward Callie, and Izzy is all OVER my fucking nerves. I don’t like her anymore, I’ve had it with her bitchy attitude toward Callie and her stupid “I get to say whatever I want and you have to love me anyway. I’m Izzy! I get to be like that!”
I don’t think Izzy is hot at all – I guess I can see why people might think she’s pretty, but she’s boringly, blandly pretty in a bland, completely uninteresting way, and if white bread boring turns you on, go for it.
This is how I suspect the rest of the season will go: longing looks between George and Izzy, culminating in Callie catching them making out in a fucking closet. Snoresville.
Also, I think Meredith does not pull off dark or disturbed in any kind of interesting way.
And yet I cannot take my stupid eyes off this show. I fucking love it. I hated Alex the first season, but he’s gotten interesting (another one everyone thinks is so hot, but I totally don’t see it) and I’m kind of liking him. Christina and Bailey remain my favorites, and I’ll be interested to see the new spinoff with Addison Montgomery and whether they’ll be able to pull it off.
My question: Do the chickens smell up the house?
Strangely enough, not at all. That was my major concern, that the house would stink like chicken poop, but even when I’m in the room with them, I don’t smell anything. Y’all might be saying “You’re just used to the smell!”, but nay. I’m very sensitive to the smells of my house, and if the chickens were stinking, I’d know it. I imagine as they get bigger they might start to stink, but they’ll be out of the house by then, so I’m not going to sweat it.
Have you seen this site? It’s pretty out there cat furniture. Think you’d ever get some for your kitties?
I think the day I spend hundreds of dollars on cat furniture (no matter how cool – and that stuff is really cool, I’ll admit) is the day I deservedly get my ass divorced.
Sorry that I don’t know a thing about chickens – how long does it take before they’re big enough to go outside and live on their own?
I didn’t know the answer to that, so I asked Fred and he unhelpfully said “When they’re done feathering out.” Turns out, when they’re five or six weeks old, but we’ll be moving them (pool and all) to the garage in the next little while.
Have you named all the chooks yet?
I’ve only named two of them so far – the suspected rooster, which I’ve named Fricasee, and the americauna that looks very much like him, whom I’ve named Flappy McGee. I probably won’t be naming the rest because the gold ones all look too much alike, and the black ones look too much like each other, as well.
oh….is poor Spot settling in? I worry about him the most..your ‘sensitive’ guy.
Spot is settling in surprisingly fine. He’s gotten into the routine of following me around the kitchen, squeaking for food – just like he did in Madison – and he knows that every night when I walk through the door it’s Snackin’ Time, and he squawks for food accordingly. He’s staked out his favorite daytime spot – the recliner in the computer room – and at night he sleeps in a cat bed at the foot of my bed. He’s doing just fine – the older he gets, the faster he acclimates to new situations.
* * *
Brudderly bookends.
Sleepin’ Sugs.
* * *
Previously
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Another reason I love the man: he makes me laugh every day.
2003: I’ll tell you what, he’s lucky I didn’t go get the cleaver and chop that fucking finger right the fuck off.
2002: My mind is blank…
2001: It’s just the little things that get to me, y’know?
2000: Married people! Having sex in the middle of the day! What IS this world coming to?]]>
You know, I bet you and/or Fred could build some of that cat furniture. Structurally, it doesn’t look all that different from the stuff you’d get at Petco.
Whether you’d want to is another matter, of course.
So I’m listening to the podcast RIGHT NOW and I finally figured out that you sound a little bit like Jeanne Tripplehorn.
Delilah is completely to blame for your loneliness. 100%. She does that to everybody.
You have a nice radio voice, Robyn. I hate hearing the sound of my voice. What do you think when you hear the sound of your voice?
I love my cat, but damnit if Sugarbutt isn’t the cutest damn cat on the planet.
Hi Robyn,
I don’t know if you read my guestbook entry from a couple of days ago, because I was a day late in reading you. Just in case, I wanted to repeat my plea to you to please turn your shredder off of “automatic” because of a scarry story I read about cats and dogs being maimed or killed by getting caught in them. I double checked it on Snopes, and it is true.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/shredder.asp
I’d hate for any Ander3on kittys to be injured.
-Nancy
Isn’t Izzy played by Katherine what’s-her-name? That is so funny because I have had a few people say that I look like her! I guess I’m bland! Boo!
*grins*
I want to squeeze Sugs – what a cutie!!
Awwwww, I’m sorry you were lonely the other night, and I’m glad that the sads only come once every dozen years or so!
This is going to sound all weird and stalkerly, but way back in 2001/2002, I was reading the story of how you and Fred met, and some of the exact same kinds of sad, “I’m never going to be in LUUUUURVE!!!” thoughts went through my head as you just described in your entry. Your “how-you-met” story is just THAT awesome 🙂
P.S. I haven’t felt quite that lonely since then, either. Here’s hoping I don’t again anytime soon!
Oh my Gawd. Nance sounds exactly like every girl I went to high school with in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. You, on the other hand, have no accent at all. But I’m sorry darling, when you two started talking about Tori Spelling I had to stop listening. Enjoyed it…
Robin,
Your story about the lost dog made me cry. This past Thursday my 15 1/2 year old beagle got out of our fence and wandered off. He has gotten out MANY, MANY times over the years and I have spent countless hours driving thru neighborhoods asking people if they have seen him.(Yes, he always had a collar with his tags on it) This time, no luck. We have looked and looked, called the local vet to see if anyone had brought him in and even checked with animal control. No luck in finding him. He is deaf, losing his eyesight, and has a real hard time standing up long enough to eat. Even though we knew his time was near, it makes it worse not knowing where he is. The 2nd part to this awful event is that we had to put our 15 year old cat down only 5 weeks ago. After never being sick a day in her life, she had kidney failure and there was nothing the vet could do for her. I just hope and pray that someone like you was nice enough to take good care of my baby since I wasn’t able to. Thank you for all you do to help ALL animals.
Nancy: I don’t usually leave it on “automatic” all the time, just when I’m in the process of shredding stuff. Also, the cats prefer to give the shredder a wide berth whether it’s in use or not – I think it scares them a little.
Kara: You’re obviously much cuter and much less boring than she is. 😉
Quirkybook: It’s like the circle of life! 😉
Amanda: Awww, I’m sorry about your cat and your missing dog. Hopefully someone did find him and is caring for him!
LOVE the Sugs multi-colored nails!!!
You guys are so “normal” – it was just like listening to me and my friends hang out! I bet you wished you were neighbors!
Robyn and I could never be neighbors, Becky! Every time I saw something cool and or neat that she got, I would have to have it and vice versa – our husband’s would leave us for sure. Hee!
And I resent the remark about sounding like a Pittsburgh girl – the ‘burgh accent is totally different than mine – those bitches be rough! Snort.
Robyn does sound good, huh? Must be from listening to all that Delilah bullshit.
Oops, my bad. I read that wrong, Kathy. I didn’t see the “suburbs of Pittsburgh” comment. You’re right. Unfortunately.
I can’t stand Izzy anymore. My prediction is that Izzy turns up pregnant by George in the season finale.
I wonder if your cats are thinking that you and Fred are divorcing. The trauma they must be going through, the scarring of their little kitty minds! Oh, the horror! (Just kidding)
Decorating with cats. Ooookay Robyn, stop it already! 😉
I am thinking a dog IS in your future. Just not a BIG monster dog but perhaps a rescued small one. My mini poodle/shihtzu is the best guard dog ever. (Yeah, a yappy little thing.) Makes me feel safe those nights when hubby is away at the firehall. And yes I DO believe she could rip the nuts off anyone who dared to enter uninvited 🙂
I have made it 15 minutes and counting! LOL
I love listening to you guys, it is so cool to hear your voices and it is just like sitting around with old friends!
I love when Nance says “Guh- ahead” and Robyn, you just have the sweetest voice too!
Awww Sammy was cute too.
You have a cute voice Robyn. You should record LOTS more.
To Amanda (if she reads the comments): that is so sad. I hope you find your dog. He knows you love him, no matter what happens.
To Robyn: if you do decide to get a dog, you might look into greyhounds. There are lots of rescue groups around. Greyhounds are a lot like cats. My husband is a cat person, but he really likes our greyhound. She sleeps and snuggles a lot, then runs like a maniac for about 10 minutes twice a day. And my cats love her. They’re always trying to sneak in her crate for snuggles.
About boxes – do you have a U-Haul place or something similar nearby? They usually sell good-sized boxes.
I’m currently listening to your podcast. I like when Miz Poo talked in the microphone. Heh! 😛
Have you tried to hypnotise the chicks yet?
It really does work – it’s just, well..bizarre
For some reason, Robyn, I never even pictured that New England tinge to your voice! Duh, me.
Your stray pooch looks like a whippet. They are gorgeous dogs (but then I’m biased, I have one myself) I always say if you’re a cat person who is thinking about getting a dog, get a whippet! Chelsea loves being on our laps and sleeping under the covers. She doesn’t shed a lot of hair and best of all, no doggy smell (a big bonus in my books) She’s fine with our cat too. In fact we go to work and leave them to sleep together on our bed all day. Plus, they are excellent watch dogs.
I finally listened to the entire thing! (I’ve been listening in spurts as I have time). Now I feel like I know you gals, this sort of… brought you down to my level. Heh
awww… thanks Robyn! 🙂