6-20-08

Last night for dinner we had green tomato chili, which I made last July and then froze; I thawed it out and cooked it in the crock pot all day yesterday and it was DAMN good, although I forgot to put the cornstarch in three hours before it was finished, so according to Fred it was “kind of watery.” We also had green beans using Pioneer Woman’s Fresh Green Beans One Way, and they were FABULOUS, although we didn’t have a red pepper (and anyways, I don’t like bell peppers) and for some reason the broth didn’t boil away, so there was no caramelization. I don’t know why the broth didn’t boil away, I followed the directions to the letter, but like I said, the beans were really, really good anyway. And we ALSO had yellow squash. Smocha posted in my comments: Slice up the squash …sprinkle your baking sheet with olive oil. Lay all the squash flat, in one layer. Sprinkle the squash with shredded Parmesan cheese and bake for about 20 minutes . That’s what I did, and OH MY GOD SO GOOD. Cooking it so simply really brought out the flavor of the squash. I also sliced up some eggplant, but I sliced them too thinly and they burned. Next time I’ll use the nonstick baking pans ’cause the squash stuck to the pan, but it was fabulous anyway. SO GOOD. Though I used grated parmesan because that’s all we had on hand. Maybe I’ll pick up some shredded this weekend and try again.

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Yesterday marked four weeks since my surgery, so I decided it was time to go back to cleaning out the litter boxes. Fred didn’t argue with me at all, since he HATES cleaning the litter boxes. Not only did I clean the litter boxes, I did laundry, I filled bird feeders, I watered the plants on my front porch. I half expected to be achy at bed time, but I was fine, and I slept like a rock, and this morning I continue to be fine. Guess I didn’t overdo it!

I’m still not lifting heavy things, which means that when I wanted to hang Fred’s laundry out on the line, I had to put the wet laundry in a basket, then drag it down the stairs and across the lawn. When it was dry, I took down and put away his laundry in stages so I didn’t have to lift all that laundry at once OR drag the basket through the house.

This weekend I’ll probably give vacuuming a try and give the Roomba a break. I’m on a roll!

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My ‘thing’ would be that stuff needs to be put back where it belongs. I HATE looking for something that has been misplaced. In my perfect world, I could lay hands on anything in the house in pitch dark conditions…. but since I live with 3 other people, ain’t gonna happen anytime soon

In theory, my “thing” would be having stuff put back where it belongs, but in reality after I, say, use a pair of scissors I just lay them down wherever I happen to be, and wander off. And then the next day when I’m looking for the scissors that BELONG in my desk drawer, I have a screaming hissy fit because SOMEONE took my scissors and OMG why does NO ONE ever put ANYTHING back where it BELONGS, goddamnit!

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Oh And.. I have to speak up for Antibacterial hand sanitizer users. My family uses it a LOT but that’s because my dad is fighting cancer and is on chemotherapy. Hence his immune system is not what it used to be. So.. we’re cautious around him but when I’m at school? LET THE GERMS COMMENCE.

I suppose that’s understandable, though perhaps your father should just man up and kick some germ ass!

I kid.

“Let the germs commence” should totally be my new tagline, dontchathink?

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I have to sing the praises of the “Green Bags”. https://www.greenbags.com/ They have really helped my spoiled fruits and vegetables problem. I had a head of iceburg lettuce, which normally gets all “rusty” in about 3 seconds flat, in a green bag for A MONTH and it was still fresh, crisp and not rusty at all. I LOVE ME SOME GREEN BAGS. I haven’t tried them with blueberries, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they helped.

With all the fresh produce you guys have coming from the garden shortly, I bet they’d be a good investment. They can be reused several times by just rinsing them out and letting them dry.

But then…

This is a belated comment about the Green Bags that somebody mentioned a few days ago. I was psyched, so went to the website to order some–ordered 5 sets of 20, at 9.95 a set, plus Shipping and Handling. Which the website said would be 9.95 for an order between $25.01 and $50.00. Had I really been paying attention, I’d have ordered 6 sets, because the website offered free shipping for orders over $50.00. Anyway, I got a confirmation email showing my order, which totaled 49.70, plus P&H of–get this–$34.95!!!! So I called to either get the postage corrected or cancel the order, and the customer service rep said she couldn’t do anything b/c the order wouldn’t be posted for 24 hours, so I’d have to call back. That was Friday. Called back today (weekend phone call said closed until Monday) and found–oh yeah–the order had “already shipped”. Asked to talk to supervisor–who kept me on hold for over 30 minutes while she “checked”. She said the website said it would be $7.75 or some such PER $9.95 order. Turns out the website I used–www.greenbagsstore.com–was not the website her company intended me to use, and they wanted to know where I got the web address. I said it came from a link to a link on a blog, and didn’t give further info. They finally agreed to refund me the difference between the $34 charge and the $9.95 charge I had agreed to, but they weren’t at all contrite. SO I’m posting this here, as an alert to Robyn’s readers, that this company uses deceptive practices and will overcharge like crazy if you order from them. I myself won’t order from them again. Grrrr. Makes me so mad when people take advantage of consumers! Readers–Any ideas about consumer websites I can post this to, to warn other would-be customers?

Also:

For Alice: http://sutori.com/

Alice, out of curiosity, how’d you get from greenbags.com to greenbagsstore.com? Did you just remember the name of the product and Google it, or did you click on a link somewhere on greenbags.com that brought you to the other?

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Hayden Christensen was also pretty good in “Shattered Glass” if you’re interested.

We actually saw that, and I agree. Fred’s a Hayden hatah, though, and will not be convinced that he might have some acting talent.

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Miz Poo is a tortie? Is that tortoise shell? What’s the diff between that and calico???

Elayne beat me to the answer:

Nicole: Calicos have fairly solid, distinct patches of the three colors (“red,” black/brown, and white), while on tortoiseshells the colors are blended, frequently giving a “mottled” appearance, and there is less (or no) white. Most tortoiseshell cats I’ve seen tend to have black, “red,” and a creamy yellow-orange color, rather than any white.

Wiki has a page about the differences.

Like Elayne said, when the colors are “mixed” they’re considered torties; when the colors are mostly distinct from one another, they’re calicos. Miz Poo is, I think, considered a tortie and white. It’s all really kind of confusing!

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You can actually make sport of killing the flies …

Despite the fact that the web page claims that it poses no risk to pets or humans, does anyone not immediately imagine me zapping myself with that thing? Zapping myself repeatedly, even?

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I have a question for your readers…. I have worn out my fave shorts (cotton/lycra blend) that used to be sold at Avenue, and cannot find any plus size cotton/lycra blend shorts anywhere… help! They are the only type that fits nicely and looks halfway decent.

Readers, suggestions?

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I also wanted to mention that we have a cat with FIV that can’t be around our other cats, so we have separated our house into two areas. My husband built a sliding gate for our house out of white plastic lattice purchased from Lowes. It works great, looks cute, it is taller than a regular baby gate and it slides open and closed very easily so you can go from one room to the next with out having to take the gates down and put them back up again. And it is not solid like a regular door so the two parts of the house are not sealed from each other.

and

Something a friend of mine did for her child, which I thought was awesome, was to put a pretty antique style wooden-framed screen door with a latch on an interior door frame. It is brilliant – the room is closed off, but you can still see inside, and air can get through, and it is really easy to get through instead of taking baby gates down.

I originally kind of imagined Fred building something along the lines of a screen door, only instead of permanently mounting it, he could put two hooks on each side of the door so that if I wanted to go upstairs, I could lift it out, step through, then put it back. I like the antique style screen door idea! I don’t know if Fred would go along with that, though, I’ll have to work on him a little.

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Hi Robyn, curious minds want to know, why didn’t you return the pillow cases while you were still in the parking lot?

‘Cause I didn’t want to be late for the movie! As it turned out, I had plenty of time and could have returned them, but I always prefer to be early rather than late.

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What I don’t understand is white or cream colored pants, especially traveling. I’m always afraid I’m going to sit in something while visiting a tourist attraction or theme park.

I don’t wear white or cream colored ANYTHING, because I am such a slob that the pants or shirt would be stained in ten minutes flat. I’m a dribbler.

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I wonder why Shawn felt the need to introduce himself. And man, I hate it when I tell someone “You have the wrong number” and they respond with “Who is this?” HAAAAAAATE. “Who this is” is NOYGDMFB, all YOU need to know is that it is not the person you wanted it to be.

I know I’ve bitched about this before, but I absolutely LOATHE it when someone calls for Fred and I say “He’s not here, may I take a message?”, and then they pause and say “Who’s this?” I always want to yell “It’s the person who answered the phone, what the fuck do you WANT?” I mean, what the fuck? Who do they need to know who it is before they leave a message? GAH.

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I have a serious question because I am at my wit’s end with my roommates cat. This cat will not use a litter box, the box is spotlessly clean. However this cat will urinate and defecate on the floor, right in front of you, all the time as IF you’re not even there. My roommates have put her outside on several occasions, the problem and i am not lying…she’s so fat she can’t clean herself. It’s Georgia, it’s hot, she stinks, flies….maggots…it’s GROSS, then they have to clean her.

Her favorite places to go are in the dining room and the kitchen. She use to use the carpet in my room, until I banned her from that area, ripped up and replaced the carpet.

Any ideas? Truth be told, they don’t take very good care of her and I don’t think she’s been to a vet but once in her lifetime.

For her, a trip to the vet, immediately, or (preferably) another home. If she’s never been to the vet and their solution is to put her outside so they don’t have to deal with her, that’s just… ugh. It would be kinder to take her to a shelter than to leave her in that kind of situation.

For you, I say time to move or get new roommates!

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I didn’t realize how big the kittens had gotten until I saw that picture of Zoe nursing. OMG they are so big! tell them to stop growing!

I wish they would! They’re HUGE now, especially River, who’s well over 3 pounds. If I could keep them this size and this age forever, you bet I would.

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You have a Sony camera. Don’t you love Sony! I just got a new one and man I bet I have taken 5000 pictures.

We’ve always had Sony digital cameras and absolutely love them. We each have a Sony Cybershot DSCP200 (I carry mine around in my purse most of the time), and we share a Sony Alpha A100. Sometimes I prefer the smaller camera because it’s easier to carry around. The big camera takes some awesome pictures, though.

I think it’s about time to upgrade the smaller camera. Just because!

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Gael over at Pop Culture junk mail did a blurb about the terrified pickles last week. I’m sure thats what your searcher was looking for.

and

Huh; until the links to the site with the actual terrified pickles, I would have thought it was a link to this lady who has a fear of pickles.

First of all, I am disappointed to find out that Terrified Pickles is not, in fact, the name of a band. Secondly, that girl in the video? Bless her heart, but man. What a freak! I cannot believe the Maury Povich show is still on. I loved Maury back when he hosted A Current Affair, he was delightfully snarky, but that show of his – man, what a cut-rate piece of shit he’s got going on there.

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it’s those pickles you talked about that were the greatest ever. I think I may have seen them in the grocery store soon after that, but they have a sweetness to them and I cannot DO sweet pickles at all. So it’s a name brand, but it’s an odd-flavored pickle. Or something.

Wickles! Those things rock, but when I was visiting Nance, she had a particularly spicy jar of them, and I swear my tongue about burst into flames. Someone sent me a canning recipe that’s supposed to be just like Wickles – I can’t wait to try it out.

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I too don’t always wash my hands after using the toilet at home if I haven’t gotten anything on them BUT I will wash my hands every time if I am using a public toilet because who knows what the person before me had on their hands and then flushed the toilet.

and

#1 is public bathrooms. After I wash my hands there I must open the door with my paper towel.

I don’t use a paper towel to open the door to a public bathroom (my sister does and I always mock her), but I DO wash my hands after using the facilities. And then I’m sure I germ myself back up when I open the door. And then probably I chew on my nails or touch my face and then I am COVERED IN GERMS.

How many of you shuddered and ran for your hand sanitizer after reading that?

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any hair anywhere in my hotel room grosses me out

Hair does not gross me out. Is hair particularly germy? I mean, I wouldn’t particularly want to see pubic hairs laying all over the place or anything, but hair from someone’s head doesn’t worry me. Is hair phobia a widespread thing?

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I think my only other *thing* is keeping the kitchen clean. I cannot go to bed with dirty dishes piled up.

In the last several months, it’s gotten so that I’m the same way. The last thing I do before bed is make sure the dishwasher is loaded, set to wash in the middle of the night, and the counters are wiped down. I think it’s nice to be able to walk into a clean kitchen the next morning instead of having to immediately start cleaning it.

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OK, I guess you’re not as bad as this lady. 😛

I had NO IDEA hedgehogs could swim. That is about the cutest thing on earth.

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Why do you have millions of tomatoes? I have 6 tomato plants and maybe a total of 7 tomatoes. WTF??

You’d have to ask Fred, but it probably has something to do with the fact that he’s out there every single day weeding, watering, and sweet-talking every plant in the garden. As far as the assmaters, I bet the fact that they started life in a little plug of chicken poo (ie, fertilizer!) gave them a strong start.

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Oh, also …I’m dying to see your new stomach!

If you can handle the still-scabby scar, the stretch marks and the CLEARLY man-made belly button, you’re free to check it out here and here. Oh, and my skin’s so red because I had just taken the binder off. Those are my fancy size 8/10 shorts from Wal-Mart I’m wearing in those pictures, by the way.

(Those two links will pop up windows. If they don’t work for you, you can see the belleh pics here and here.)

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The final kitten movie from when they were 6 weeks old! Warning: May cause cavities due to the sheer utter adorable cuteness.

See it here in MPG format.

I love the look on Kaylee’s face like “Oh, UGH. Smells like HUMAN! How can they stand that smell?”

Closeup of nursing NINE WEEK OLD kittens. Momma didn’t put up with it for long.

All four kittens are present and accounted for – if you look behind River (the gray tabby in the middle), you’ll see Kaylee’s legs kicked out. She’s actually underneath him. I have no idea how that can be comfortable, but that’s always been her nursing position.

Oh, and for comparison purposes, here they are at five days old:

Lots more kitten pics over at Flickr. There are several that show off Zoe’s gorgeous stripes especially well.

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Miss Momma takes a cue from the chickens and tries out a dust bath for herself. She kinda likes it.

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Previously
2007: And since it’s still muddy in the garden, no weeding for me again today. Darn!
2006: “Save your breath,” I said, gasping for air. “I don’t believe a word you say, you lying liar.”
2005: “Spot caught a copperhead!”
2004: No entry.
2003: Poor Gram.
2002: Oh, quit with the gasps of horror.
2001: Lynn is very very nice, but as I’ve mentioned, she doesn’t appreciate the beauty of silence.
2000: I was giving out dirty looks left and right, let me tell you.